Run/Walk with Owen (Britton) - ACTIVE.com

Run/Walk with Owen (Britton) - ACTIVE.com



Here is the link to the fundraising page. At first I wasn't going to fundraise as I don't like asking people for money. Then I decided to, and set a goal of $200... Which was met within hours! The proceeds go to the non-profit Mended Hearts. They support families and communities of children and adults with heart disease. We are somewhat involved with Mended Little Hearts in Sacramento. "Somewhat" because we don't do a lot of social events, especially in the Winter time. I have participated in many parent matching groups where Mended Little Hearts links up parents with children with the same heart defects. It is heart warming (pun intended) to converse with someone who has the same ailment.



So... YAY for fundraising for a good cause, YAY for almost February, and YAY (ish) for Owen's cath coming up... Then hopefully getting surgery on the books and over with!

The Trio Nap Challenge

Can Owen, Ara, and myself all take a nap at the same time?? This miracle occurs roughly every 7-9 days... Outlook is decent for today. Fingers crossed!!

Enjoying the warm January

I've decided to not feel guilty anymore about enjoying the weather. I can't make it rain... So we have been outside enjoying the days. 

I've been preparing for the virtual half marathon coming up... I had another day almost 7 miles wahoo!

Owen had a blast playing in the hole Chris dig for our future driveway gate. He would exclaim "I have made it!" When he crawled out each time. 

Papa stopped by for a visit and I tried on his onesie from 60 years ago on Ara. Pretty fun to capture.

Headed up to grandmas and walked around her property. O found a ton of red ants but was able to keep a safe distance. 

At the actual time of this writing... It's raining!!!!!!! 

GI, ECHO, & EKG

We had a busy and tiring day yesterday. 

Ya never know how vitals are going to go. Owen stepped on the scale, beep beep beeped backed up straight against the wall, and sat pretty still for his blood pressure. All was within range for his age. Then the sat check... You would think a sticker with a light on it would be thrilling to a 3.5 year old but it was not inviting. He finally calmed down and his O2 sats were 83% at the highest :(.

All went well with replacing Owen's g-tube. Chris switched it out for a new one with the instruction from our GI doc. It will come out after potential surgery per cardiology. We still haven't used it in a year and a half!!

Then we waited and waited... The echo tech was running late... Owen went on rides on the hydraulic exam table... Up and down. He watched pictures and videos of himself on Chris's phone. We had snacks. We played with toys.. We waited. We did get to see my old co-worker Tracy and catch up for a bit during this time. 

Then Owen laid down on the table, and we put in monster trucks for him to watch and hopefully stay still. He did great and it was quicker than usual, about 40 minutes. 

Then he was still for his EKG and picked out a few stickers for the road. We went back down the hall to the exam room and waited for the Riv to come chat. 

Here's what's happening: heart stable but right ventricle still small and not doing much work. During the cath next month they are going to place a balloon in his atrial septum to see how his heart functions with it closed (it was re- opened during his second surgery at 8 months old). If it functions better and sats come up they with close it up during the cath. If it didn't make a difference then it's off to get the Fontan surgery. Choose your own adventure!

We learned more about the Fontan... We were in the mindset that recovery would be faster, but the Riv said it's usually a harder and longer recovery as his complete pumping/circulatory system is being re-routed. This has many physiological implications and can have complications like ascites (fluid accumulation in the abdominal area), pneumonia, or just positive fluid in general. Ugh. The end result should be worth it though, with higher sats and a longer lasting shunt (decades!!! Sounds sweet to me!)

 

After our long day we got some chipotle, let the kids nap in the car, then went to explore the sad puddle that is Folsom lake. It was a good family day but a hard day with many questions still unanswered.

Family of Four

Boo technology.

Just wrote a nice blog (I thought!)

Left the page to get a link.

Poof. Draft saved but no content.

Grumpy mommy. It was a sweet blog on our family of four, the joys of the last 3 months, and what is ahead for Owen. GI and cardiology appts next week. I'll just have to add pictures instead. 

Here is the link:

Virtual Fun Run
http://www.active.com/dallas-tx/running/races/roar-n-run-13-1-2014 

I'm doing a virtual half marathon. You get a week to log 13.1 miles of running or walking. In honor of congenital heart defects awareness week and of course Owen:). 

Caught these two snuggling. 

The double jogger is a new addition to the routine!

This here is a happy, chubby 3 month old!

Doctor's Day

We are getting ready for Owen's appointments today. The GI appointment is a 6 month check in where they replace his mic-key feeding tube. (STILL not using but STILL in place...) Leaving it in until after this next surgery in case we need to use it. 

Then an ECHO and EKG and Cardiology appt with the Riv. Hopefully nothing has changed and the cath will go through 2/14 as planned!

Preparing a 3.5 year old for a day at the doctors has been okay. I will blog later and see if our preparations have been enough! 

An oldie but a goodie. He was a year old here.

It's a take care of your ticker kinda day:).

The 12 Pictures of Christmas

Computer is back up and running and I have been dying to see the Christmas pictures on the big screen. Here are a few of my favorites.

Auntie Shari and Ara had a lot of quality time. We are so happy to have our baby around the Brittons since they all lived in Arizona when Owen was little.

The dance game made a come back. Chris put Ava up to a challenge, and he did as he proposed... He beat her by a lot! Owen was bouncing back and forth in between the two.

Family Photo...Not too many of these believe it or not!

 Nana always has the grandkids come over to decorate cookies, Ara was not exempt from this activity.

 Cousin Mat interested in Ara for the first time. Once he realized he could make her smile he was more than happy to be around her!

 Britton group shot

 Owen fell asleep facedown on the ground..Too much fun and too many days of boycotting naps! (First time he's done that!)

 Generation photo! My grandma will be 3 months-84 years.

 Sweet boy, I'm still taking lots of pictures of him too!

Love this family! We had a great time at Grandma's house even if Christmas was in January!

Christmas in January

We had a wonderful Xmas up at moms on the 10th. That was the only day from dec 1- on that we all could make! Sad but glad we were all able to be together. 

I'll let the pictures do the talkin:)

2001 & 2014 we re created the pic as best as we could!

I really wanted to make snowglobe a with the girls! It was a bit crazy but we did it and they turned out great!

with Xmas in January marsh didn't get out the Xmas decorations or stockings. Raleys bags worked:) 

Here is one of the videos I put together. So much fun!!

http://www.magisto.com/video/MUUBZQATSztrWQJpYw

Computer fail

Our home computer has crashed. Hard drive failure. You know it ain't good when the tech support guy keeps responding "That's weird."

Bad news: new hard drive- 265$ plus tax

Good news: I have recently backed up the external hard drive and even better news recently invested in a cloud backup. Like 2 weeks before we couldn't access our computer and it's 30,000 photos...

So I'm just aching to upload my recent pics, edit them, and share them, but that's just not going to happen until the computer is back from the store.

In the meantime we are doing well. I pretty much have ADD these days. I was Trying to describe this wonderful life with 2 kids to a friend the other day, saying I'm basically moving all day but in an odd day it's relaxing. We stay home a lot, the kids don't get lugged around from place to place, and if I have a moment or two I can read an article or a few pages here or there. I really enjoy staying home most of the time, working at most 15 hours per week.

Kid updates: 

Ara is almost 3 months old, and 13.5 pounds. She just rolled over yesterday and her first big belly laughs were over Owen's sneeze.

Owen is such a loving brother. He is really into mighty machines on netflix. He recently showed me he has a book practically memorized that I haven't read to him too many times (still have to check with Chris) but it has really hard words in it! He heads for his heart cath soon. 

Christmas Week

We have a few celebrations around here, with so much awesome family. 

She is too big to actually fit inside her stocking but it looks close?

Snuggling with nana on our Britton Christmas. 

Owen is posing with the second load of donations for Ucsf. Aunt Court delivered them as her new place is pretty closeby. 

Christmas morning... Santa came!

Could not get a smiling photo of both kids, but there they are!

I made some decadent almond cinnamon rolls. They needed to raise 3 seperate times... I shortened each time and they turned out soo yummy. The glaze was put in the bottom with the nuts, then when it was done, flipped over onto the cookie sheet. (That's why they are so smushed and square.)

Ara and Great Grammy spent a lot of time together on Christmas. She shared stories of when she was a little girl, on their 80 acre farm. 

We had such a wonderful time, such a special time of year with a new babe! We have another celebration on the 10th with  my Mom. So many RN's in the family that was the only night that worked for all of our schedules. 

On another note, I'm unable to blog from the desktop as it has crashed... So, no great photos from the "big camera" yet. Hopefully it will restore and be in decent shape soon. 

May the new year bring health & peace to you! It's a big year for us, as we have enjoyed 2 years without surgeries. Hopefully the surgery will improve his quality of life and longevity and we won't even look back!