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Chicken Farmers

2009-07-15T19:54:00.000-07:00

Jonathan got 3 chicks for his birthday in May which he was NOT thrilled about- but he warmed to the idea, (after all, eggs are his favorite food,) bought 2 more chicks and built the most fabulous chicken coop! Complete with roosting bar, nesting boxes, doors, windows, - I am so impressed, our chickens are living in style. I knew Jonathan was handy but this was way better than I could have asked for. The kids have loved the chickens, they let them out everyday and play with them, who would have thought? They can tell them apart with out giving it even a thought- let's see there is "Champ, Jed, Roxy, Midnight and Carmel." (hmm, maybe its not such a good idea to name the livestock....) Its great responsibility for them and we are looking forward to free range eggs in October!

Happy Birthday to me

2009-07-15T19:22:00.001-07:00

Ty turned 1 on the 13th and we seriously cannot believe it! This last year has flown. I remember the little newborn he was so vividly and now he is the biggest fat lump of sweet love. (Ok, he is still below 10th percentile but to us he is SO big now.) His little pleased smile just melts us- he works so hard with a serious face to put the lids on things and when he gets it, he immediately grins this contented, pleased smile that just melts us. We did not have cake, we chose instead to have snowcones and ice-cream since Ty can have some of those!

The last few times we tried the "passez muir" valve over his trach (it allows him to breathe in through the trach, but not out, he has to breathe out of his mouth and this allows vocalization) it did not go well- it was really hard for him and he would cough so hard it would just pop off. So it has been a long time since I have tried it. I decided to try it for his birthday (a present for ME really) and we were shocked- he did SO well! We could not believe it, you can tell it takes a little getting used to still- he kind of holds his breath sometimes before forcing it out- but he has been wearing it all day today which is huge. Usually kids with trachs have to build up to that over a period of weeks. (!!!!!!! good boy Ty!)

We are discovering he may be a bit of a whiner or maybe he just likes to hear his voice- he sounds like a whale- I will try to put a short video on . It is so cute. Lots and lots of little voice now and we love it. First time we have ever heard him laugh and hearing him cry... i love it! (does that make me a mean mom?) Losing his voice was the saddest thing to me almost about a trach- so happy he has found it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYBO!

Favorite Toy

2009-07-05T16:39:00.000-07:00

Ty loves his feeding tubes and is almost always holding one. This is the pose we see him in the most- he will be happily playing on the floor but the second he sees one of us...... PLEASE pick me up!

CUPCAKES!

2009-07-01T17:10:00.000-07:00

This year we have had fun with cupcakes, for birthdays and baby showers- we think they are the most fun, and I have really enjoyed the creative side of it, from figuring out how to make light sabers not flop to how to make Elmo's head a little wider- HOURS of fun ;)
Can you guess which ones were for which child?
Wait till you see the ones Scott picked for his birthday...... coming in September!

Guitar Heroes

2008-12-21T09:19:00.000-08:00

My parents and two of my brothers came of to Folsom for Ty's blessing. We had gotten Guitar Hero World Tour recently so my brothers and I played into the night. We even got my Dad on drums for a couple of songs.

Great Day

2008-12-17T19:31:00.001-08:00

Four of the boys in my troop had their Eagle Court of Honor last Sunday. I was really proud of them. They all did a great job and I was glad I could be a part of it.

Traditional Marriage

2008-10-12T23:18:00.000-07:00

I thought this was important enough that I should put this on my blog. I think we are gaining support. One thing I think is very important is that a child deserves the right to be raised by both a mother and a father.

Go here for more

New Camera

2008-10-05T18:34:00.001-07:00

I broke my camera last week, so I redeemed some gift certificates I got at work for Best Buy and got a new one. At least I got this great picture of Jack while I was there.

Surgery

2008-10-03T18:15:00.000-07:00

Well, after extensive testing and thoughtful prayer, we decided that Ty needed surgery. He has severe reflux which contributes to him stopping breathing. His esophagus doesn't move the food done his throat very well either. The best course of action is to give him a trach and a GJ tube. The trach will protect his airway from collapse and should prevent him from stopping breathing. The GJ tube will allow us to feed him directly from the tube, but it will bypass the stomach and go right into the intestines. Bypassing the stomach will keep down the reflux since there will be nothing in the stomach to spit up. The surgeon who did the trach and the other surgeon who did the G-tube for Ben did the trach an GJ tube for Ty. Ty had surgery on October 2, and is recovering very well. Here is the pre and post op pictures.

The other 4

2008-09-24T20:00:00.000-07:00

While Beth and I trade off who is at the hospital, the other four kids are doing great. They don't seem to mind having to go to a friend's house everyday after school, or having to eat other people's cooking. I am sure they miss having both of us around at the same time, but they have great attitudes. Here is a couple shots of them.

Oh Ty...

2008-09-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

After having to be revived twice at our house, and spending another 7 days at the hospital, Ty was once again all set to come home. I left the hospital at about 7 am to go to some soccer games for the other kids. The plan was to bring him home later that afternoon. At about 10 am we got a call from the hospital and Ty had stopped breathing again. We hurried back and over the next 24 hours he stopped another 6 times. Obviously, Ty has some underlying problem that needs to be taken care of before it is safe to bring him home. Looks like more tests and more nights at the hospital.

Scary days!

2008-09-10T17:29:00.000-07:00

Well, as you saw from our last post, we had all 5 kids home. This was to be only for a short time. Three days after Ty got home, he stopped breathing and went unconscious. We called 911 and Beth and I gave him CPR. We revived him after a couple of minutes. He spent another 5 days in the hospital and then came home again. After another 5 days, he stopped breathing again and Beth had to give him CPR. He went back to the hospital, where he still remains. Needless to say, it was pretty scary.....

All together

2008-08-21T21:30:00.000-07:00

Ty finally came home today. It's been about 5 1/2 weeks since he was born. He didn't have G-Tube surgery after all. He has been eating pretty well from a bottle and seems to be doing great. Here is our first family picture.

First Day of School

2008-08-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

Scotty and Natalie started school today. We are all pretty excited. Scotty is in 3rd grade and Natalie is in 1st grade.

Trach FREE

2008-07-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

Ben went in yesterday for his surgery and they removed all the rest of the scar tissue caused by his trach and then early this morning at the hospital Jonathan (under supervision) took his trach out and Ben has been doing great. The hole left by the trach has already begun to close up. They just cover it with gauze and tape and let it heal on its own. We are still in a little bit of shock that this actually happened this time! Life without a trach will be very different! Ben has to work harder to breath and I am sure he is sore but he is just doing so well. He doesn't know how to settle himself down to sleep- he keeps talking to himself (where before we would remove his Talking Valve at nap/bed time and he would just relax and roll over.) Obviously this is very exciting for us. The plan is to bring him home tomorrow morning if all goes well tonight. We will post some pictures soon.

Ty is continuing to do well and we have been slowly upping his feedings. So slow and steady but good. He looks great, a little stronger everyday. His cry is even getting louder and he is alert and very interested in looking around more often. We already love him so much. We cant wait to get him HOME!!!!!!!

Some Good News

2008-07-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

Today Jeanette Harrison (the Clinical Specialist who worked with Ben at UCD) did a feeding evaluation on Ty and confirmed that he can swallow- but it is weak. His suck is stronger, telling us his desire to eat is stronger than his ability to do so. But the fact that he can swallow is great.

Last night he had two apneic episodes (he stopped breathing and they had to use the bag to give him oxygen) due to the fact he was refluxing some of his feeding and got overwhelmed. That is not so great. We have scheduled an "upper GI study" where they will put the dye in and watch how it goes down his esophagus etc. This will help us understand what kind of feeding tube will be best for him. There are several options we are considering- NG (in his nose) G-tube (like Ben has) GJ tube(one that allows the feedings to go in his stomach or lower in his stomach/intestines.) A lot of unknowns still. But overall he is doing well and the Doctors feel he has really improved a great deal over the week.

My Two Cents

2008-07-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

Jonathan did a great job of describing Ty's first day. I just want to add that during this first week of Ty's life I have noticed a few things that could be very significant. While he does have symptoms like Ben, he also seems way ahead of where Ben was at this time. When Ben was born, he required constant suctioning of his mouth to clear his secretions. Ty does not need this, in fact, while we do need to suction his nose for him, he seems to really be able to handle the secretions in his mouth. This does seem to indicate that he can swallow- though it may be very weak. Yesterday, I was with him for 5 hours and did not have to suction him once. He also can cough (protect his airway) and suck on a pacifier , Ben could do neither of those things. These are hopeful signs.

Ty seems to have woken up a little bit - the past two days when I have been with him he has been more alert and has started to have an opinion. He doesn't cry like the other babies in the NICU - his cry is soft and he kind of sounds like a little puppy. He is so sweet. Hopefully we will find out more this week.

Our Insurance Company must hate us.

2008-07-18T20:21:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, as we speculated, Ty suffers from the same condition our third son Ben has, namely Hypotonia. Hypotonia is low muscle tone and it particularly affects their ability to swallow. Beth was diagnosed with extra amniotic fluid about 2 weeks before he was born and we knew this was a sign that Ty might also have the same problems as Ben. We quickly switched doctors and hospitals so that Beth would deliver at UC Davis just in case there were any issues. Ben was transported to UC Davis a few days after he was born and spent 6 weeks there. UC Davis has an excellent Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and we were already familiar with it.

After an hour of Beth pushing, it was discovered that Ty was posterior (face up) and was not advancing down the birth canal. Beth opted to have him by C-section. Once they pulled Ty from Beth’s stomach, they took him just outside the operating room where the nurses began to clean him up. I waited to hear the loud cry which I would take as a signal that everything was okay. It never came. About an hour later, Ty was in the NICU and the doctor gave me the bad news - Ty couldn’t swallow.

Ty has been in the NICU for 5 days now and things are going pretty well. Given that two brothers have the exact same problem, they suspect that the cause is genetic. Ty is doing well, but requires frequent nasal suctioning to maintain his oxygen saturation. He has a bit of Jaundice too.

He seems quite a bit better off than Ben was and the doctors are taking it slow. They will start the genetic testing and hopefully a long overdue muscle biopsy next week from Ben will provide some new answers. For now, we just have to wait and see how he progresses.

Ty Walburger

2008-07-13T23:20:00.000-07:00

Well, #5 has arrived. It took a bit to get him here but it was all worth it. Ty Andrew Walburger was born at 11:20 pm on July 13th. He came in to this world weighing 9lbs 4 oz. He was 21 inches long and has brown hair. His eye color seems to be a grey color, but that could change. Here are some great pictures of him.

Not just for recycling

2008-07-02T10:33:00.000-07:00

I was cleaning "art supplies" off the table today, about to throw a pile into the recycling and realized that in my hand was a stack almost an inch think of drawings- beautiful ladies in all different scenarios- some with long hair and bangs that covered one eye- some with beautiful landscapes in the background- some that had mermaid bodies- some that had very fancy shoes or outfits.... I also found some with interesting creatures that had legs and arms hanging out of their mouths- some that had dragons with big spikes running down the back-I found colorful snakes and scary sea creatures- I found stories written and scenes from a Wii game drawn out. And I thought about Scott and Natalie giggling together last night as they sat together at the table showing eachother each page and quickly moving to draw another. I thought of the pictures they must have in their minds that they were trying to get on paper and how their imaginations run. I love hearing them talk their play out loud ("Natalie this is a guy who is going to come eat your mermaid" " No Scott! The mermaid is going to swim over to this ocean where these sea creatures will protect her....") I am so glad two of my very favorite people are such good friends....

End of an Era

2008-06-28T20:59:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally got rid of the Camry today. It's been with us since it was brand new in 1992. It's covered 225,425 miles and has been a great car. I "retired" the car at the Bureau of Automotive Repair. They gave me $1000 to retire it because it didn't pass the smog test. A few days ago as I put the last bit of gas it would ever need into it, a gas station employee came up to me to tell me about a promotion on a car wax and window cleaner product. I looked at the Camry and then looked at him and said "Does this car look like it needs wax?".
Anyways, I am sure my neighbors are glad I finally got rid of it. Let's hope my other cars are as reliable.

Sleepy Jack

2008-06-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

I caught Jack asleep at the computer yesterday. He stayed like this for quite awhile. I like how his hand stayed on the mouse the whole time.

New Ride

2008-05-26T21:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally got my truck. I have been talking about getting a Ford for about a year now, and an opportunity presented itself. I got it from a guy at work and brought it home today. It's a 2001 F150 Lariat 4x4. It's got leather, a sun roof, a bed liner, bed cover and a bed extender. It's pretty sweet. It only had 50K miles on it. Now, Beth and I won't have to switch cars when I take out the scouts or the boat. I will be getting rid of the Camry. It's got 225,000 miles and has served us well.

Quote of the Day

2008-05-14T11:34:00.001-07:00

Natalie- (flushed with excitement after helping by "babysitting" Ben) "Mom- after the next new baby, we're going for ten!!!"

Sweet music

2008-05-12T22:47:00.000-07:00

Ben was so tired he could hardly hold his eyes open, but he is always up for a good laugh......