Bitter Sweet

So it seems I have let my blogging get behind so I will attempt to catch you up with this one. This has been a very up and down month already! Up in the fact that Brady is doing better. No spasms, had a much improved EEG taken on May 13, only 3 weeks left on this medicine. Down in the fact that also on May 13 we lost Chris' dad, my father-in-law, and Brady's pawpaw to cancer. He had been battling and I do mean battling this cancer since the week of our wedding a year and a half ago. Mr David gave it all he had. He did what the Dr.s said, he did every kind of chemo they had to offer, but after all that chemo he still lost a very long, hard, courageous battle. We are so happy with the memories that we have with him. (Chris' 29 years, my 8 years, and Brady's 7 months of memories) We are also so very glad that we have great pictures of him with Brady. Mr. David will never be forgotten. Brady will know all the great things he did, and how much he loved him.

This is Mr. David with Brady and Wyatt (Brady's cousin) the day after Brady was bornMr. David, with Chris and Brady Thanksgiving 2008Brady with PawPaw in February 2008The last pictures taken with them together 18 days before Mr. David passed away.

These are great memories for Brady and for our family. Mr. David truely loved Brady and we are truly appreciative of the time we each got to spend with him. He will be missed greatly.

In another note, Brady is doing extremely well with his treatment. Like I said before, no spasms! His EEG was not 100% but it was much improved. They are still seeing some spikes in different areas of his brain but his neuroligist says that is to be expected. We have taken his dose down yet again to .12 (from .37 to .30 to .24) and next will we will drop it to .6!! which is just a drop! He is truely a miracle baby. The Doctor's had told us at the beginning of this journey that we could expect some REgressing in his development, loss of muscle tone, and just an overall not developing on tract with others his age. Well, I am here to tell you that Brady has started Rolling over!, he is trying so so very hard to crawl and sit up! He is doing everything that he should be doing and we couldn't be happier! God is in controll of my son, not the medicine! Continue to Pray because HE is hearing your prayers, and HE is faithful to answer them. Here is a little more about what all has gone on this month.. in pictures...

Brady getting pushed around (already) by his cousin Arrington

Brady's first 4-wheeler ride with Poppy! He is out like a light!

Brady's first time in the pool and he LOVED it!

Brady with his GeeGee and Aunt Didda

Brady with "Cole" and Katherine

Brady in his Daddy's old high chair at his GeeGee's house

Chris, Brady and me Mother's Day 2009 at his Baby Dedication service

Happy Mother's Day in deed!

Brady with Nanna and Poppy at lunch after church on Mother's Day

All the children (except Josh) Mother's Day 2009 with Mom and Memaw

Brady with his Best Friend Forever Sawyer!

Brady and me making Chris a meatloaf .. I hate meatloaf and I have never tried to cook a meatloaf, but we wanted to make daddy a special supper and I think we succedded!

Brady had a hand in preparing the meal too!

And here is the end result! Love my bowls?!?!? Me too! thanks GeeGee!

Chris and Brady in a stare-off! Wonder who will win?

As you can tell, it has been a crazy few weeks. We will go back to the Doctor the first week of June, but I will try to keep you updated on what goes on till then!

Take Care till then

Jenny

Need a good Laugh?

OH he is just going to hate me one day!! But Chris saw this at Northpark last night and had to buy it!! I bet you cant look at this and not smile :) Just a smiling like his momma! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

March of Dimes 5k

Ok.. so for those of you guys who know me, you know walking isn't my thing... sweating in any form or fashion isn't my thing. I am all for inside and air conditioning! But when asked by my sister to do a 5k walk for the March of Dimes, for some strange reason, I agreed. March of Dimes is for all of those sweet preemies that spend the first part of their tiny lives in the NICU without any control over what happens to them. Now my Brady was not born early, but for complications that were out of our control, he did have to spend time in the NICU. We were not in then NICU very long, but nevertheless, we were still in there and I know the heartache of a parent who has to do the "3 minute" scrub down just to go see their precious baby. So I decided to do the walk. To help raise money and awareness for the March of Dimes organization. Brady and myself went to Ridgeland with my sister Allie, Sister in Law Brittany, and her two children Riley and Halea. After meeting up at the Baptist Hospital tent and doing a quick warm up (not really) we started walking from The Renaissance on Highland Colony Rd and walked 1.5 miles up Highland Colony Road and then 1.5 miles back!!!!!!!!!!! While pushing Brady! Allie Draging Riley, and Brittany hitching a ride with Halea because she got a Blister on her foot!! Haha! I just kept repeating under my breath, "this is for the babies... all those sick babies" WOW! I am telling you! If I am going to continue with with whole walking thing (and that's a big HUGE if) then i am going to need some new shoes! I even had a Blister at the end of the day! But God is good, it was overcast and Breezy that morning.. oh did i mention that I had to be there at 8:30! I wouldn't even recognize me if I didn't know it was me :) I am glad I did it though. And I know Brady is glad we did it too!

Allie, Me, Brittany, Riley, Brady, and Halea Before the walkThis is Brady's special friend Brandy. She was his nurse when he was in the NICU. It was great seeing her again and I know she was glad to see Brady. She is pregnant with her second child so Congratulations Brandy!! (from Brady and me!)

Riley and Halea with Brittany in the Ambulance. It was there incase people like myself didnt make it! haha.. Kidding! (or am I?)

Mr. Brady after the 3 mile walk.. Dosen't even look out of breath does he? He is acutally just waking up!! Lucky boy!

Till next time

Jenny

"Eye" can see!!

As promised... We went yesterday to the eye dr. We have really been looking forward to this because since birth, we have been concerned about his vision. The blood clot had damaged a part in his brain that dealt with visual interpertation and we didnt know if that was going to affect his ability to see or not. The first couple of months of life it was pretty obvious that he couldnt see well. He would not follow anything or focus on anything. He wasnt reaching for any toys or trying to roll over. We were obviously pretty concerned. The past couple of weeks have been a complete difference!! He can find you from across the room and will focus on you and follow you wherever you go. He will find you up close, which was another problem, and just smile at you. He is reaching for toys and for faces. Just a completely different baby. The Doctor we saw was dr Mungan @ UMC. He was great. His staff was wonderful and I even met another mom of a 7 month old in the waiting room and we talk and compared babies the whole time. He gave us a great report!! After Dilating Brady's eyes :) hehehe, he was able to look at his eyes and tell that he would not need glasses. He was impressed with his fixing and following. He didnt follow so well on the right side (his blood clot was on the left side and the brain is opposite) so that makes sence. He thinks that will correct itself in time. The baby's brain is an ever evolving organ that will change so much so I really feel strongly that when we go back in 6 months we will see that corrected!! He did, however, get "Memaw" sunglasses as I like to call them. They remind me of my Memaw. Every time you get in her car she has a couple of pairs in her cup holders. When we were kids we would all wear them when we rode with her. So I couldnt wait to get Brady in his new pair! And I made him wear him as we walked out of the hospital!! He got a lot of looks and laughs. He will hunt me down one day, but I dont care. You can't tell me that's not the funniest thing you've ever seen!!!

Praise God AGAIN!! Another Miracle for my baby!

Jenny

What a BUSY month!

I know its been a while but I am going to try my hardest to update you about the month of April without leaving anything out! We have been to the Dr. twice since our last post and both times we have been given GREAT reports! We have dropped the ACTH dose twice now from .37 to .3 now to .24!! Brady is responding beautifully to it too! We are getting to take him more places now because his immune system is growing stronger, but now thanks to the swine flu we might cut that back... Brady has had a few visitors this month. He finally got to see Aunt Trisha! Its has been a while but she came over and gave him a bottle. We are glad we got to spend time with her this month! He also got a visit from Aunt Brandi! After several attempts at a picture we finally got a "decent" one... even though he sorda has a crazy look on his face :)And of course we got to go visit Nana and Poppy at work! He always loves doing that and I am pretty sure they dont mind either...

Good picture Nana! But Brady has on his mad face.. you cant see his smile because of those cheeks! haha

And we cant forget about Brady's first visit from the Easter Bunny! We didnt get to go to church Easter Sunday but Jesus understands.. We will be there next year though... Here is Brady very excited about Easter... you can just see his excitement .. haha

But here is all his Easter Baskets from Nana, Aunt Sissy and Aunt Brandi! (dont tell Brady that his momma didnt get him one, I thought he had enough)

Last week we had two very special visitors! Gee Gee and Pawpaw!! Since Pawpaw has been sick it has been pretty hard to get these two guys together but we managed to do it saturday. Chris finally got to BBQ some chicken and PawPaw and Brady got to hang out a little bit...

Paw Paw even let Brady wear his hat! Which looked Great on him by the way!!

Since then, Brady's PawPaw (Chris' dad) got put back in the hospital. He got some pretty bad news this month that his cancer was no longer responding to the chemo that they are giving him. There is a different type of Chemo that they can try that will be a trial and if that dosent work they may look into going to Texas to a hospital that specializes in Cancer. Please continue to pray for him .. he is a David Wooten, just like our little David Brady Wooten and these guys have been battling illnesses for way too long now. Pray we get a miracle or at least some relief. God hears your prayers and he is faithful to answer them. Please Pray for these two guys!

You can tell summer is coming in Mississippi! It is already in the 80's and feeling every bit of it. Brady got some pool time at Nana and Poppy's house last weekend and I can not quite laughing every time i see this picture.. all he is missing is an umbrella for his drink and a lady fanning him off! what a riot!!

We have also had some major milestones this month! He had begun playing with toys! He loves this toy .. he just spins it and spins it while he is waiting on his waitress..errr.. mommy to make his meals. He is also rolling over now. I know its a little later that usual but he is 23 pounds and every bit of it! It has to be hard to get all that moving... haha! He has also learned to squeel this month and boy does he love to do that! He hits notes that I have never heard in my life! He laughs, he simile, he sings, he rolls, he plays, he sleeps great... all that is proof that HE LIVES! Praise God every day for what Brady is accomplishing. He is surpassing his Dr.s expectations. They are truely amazed at his progress. I know he will be fine.

Ok! You are now updated on our lives! HaHa!! We did go to the Eye dr today but I have got to get that picture from my phone to my computer so I can tell that miracle story to you! Watch out for that blog next!

Praise God,

Jenny

Just another exciting day...

Well we went to the Dr today and it looks like the spasms he is having have decreased a lot! They finally read the EEG and said it looks good. He is starting to have a little more seizure activity out of his temperal lobe so we are going to start him on yet another seizure medicine... But the good news is we should start taking him off the other 2 seizure meds he is currently on pretty soon. This is great news to me!! The spasms (which are the big deal) are going away and the injections are working!!! So we are going to keep on keeping on. We are starting week 4 of the shots .. only 8 more to go after that. I know this will work!

In other news today is mine and Chris' 8 year dating anniversary!!! yes...8 years! So Happy Anniversary babe! and here is to at least 8 more :) This was us on my 18th birthday 6 1/2 years ago...When we got home we ate a late lunch and Brady thought he could feed himself so I let him try.. Then he wouldn't give me the spoon back so I could finish feeding him..

Thank God for good news!! and thank you for your prayers!

Jenny & Brady

The Power of Prayer

Look at that Happy Boy! Now you might not think this is a big deal, but since Brady has been on all this medicine and since he has been having all of these seizures, it is VERY VERY VERY rare that we get a smile out of him. And usually he has a blank stare on his face and he smiles quickly then its over. I have seen him smile two or three times in the last couple of weeks even the past month. But when I woke him up from his morning nap and put him on his changing table.. like i used to do... he gave me the biggest grin!! So I ran and got my camera and he did it again for me. That is proof that under this fussy, miserable, medicated baby my Brady is still there! I prayed so hard last night and obviously so did a lot of people. I take this as a good sign.. Just wanted to share!

P.S. - Incase I didnt explain it very well, this medicine that he is on is going to make him gain quite a bit of weight (obviously) But as soon as we stop the medicines it should go back to normal. That is why he looks soo round faced.. I didn't even notice it bad until I saw this picture :)

My new Guilty Pleasure...

I watched Oprah today (it was yesterday's show) and I can not wait to get this book! I was laughing out loud while I was watching it! The writers are too funny. The stories are spot on about the whole motherhood thing. This is actually the newest in a series of books by the same authors. (I was a really good mom before I had kids... Dirty Little secrets from otherwise perfect moms)I am not a reader by anymeans but this is something I think I can relate to. But since I am budgeting right now I might just go to the bookstore and read a chaper every time I get the chance.. haha.

First trip to the E.R.

What a beautiful boy Its Hard to believe that with all of Brady's medical history we have never been to and E. R. Not to worry! Brady is fine... for the moment anyways. Mom and Dad kept him last night because Sunday night he woke up at 11:00pm and didnt go back to sleep until after breakfast!!! The whole time he was doing this horrible whiney cry thing...THE WHOLE TIME! His head arches back soo far it looks like it is going to pop off his body! Needless to say it dosent look very comfortable. He chokes on his saliva while he is arching back too.. not a fun time all around! Anyway, he started doing the same thing today and since our regular Neuroligist is out of town (not sure why) we called the Neuroligist on call and he wanted to see him just to check him out. We still havent got the results from the video eeg they did the other night. The dr's are confused on it. Brady seems to be confusing a lot of Dr.'s. They can't tell if all the tensing up is a type of seizure, or if its gastric pains and he is just tensing up his muscles to relieve it. Either way the EEG shows a cluster of brain waves when he is doing it and they cant tell which one it is. They are having some specialist look at it today. Hopefuly we will have some results come Wednesday. Since Dr. Parker is out of town, we will be seeing Dr. Vada. We ended up cutting back on some of his medicines today (which is rare) and cutting his shot back to every other day instead of every day. It is alway good to cut medicines back instead of adding to his already long list of them. So we should see some results in the next couple of days! I pray its Gas!!! If it is the spasms still (which none of the Dr.s think it is) then that means the ACTH is not working and we will probally stop the injections. That is not a good thing.. Because that is the only medicine in the USA approved to stop the spasms. God Please Please Please dont let the spasms be coming back!!! I know the power of my God. I know he will not give me or Brady anything that we can not handle. And I know he will be right here with us while we are going through it all. I also know he is the God of miracles and I pray for one everyday. We have see him work in Brady's life since day one of Brady's life and I know he is not about to stop now! Please pray for such a miracle.. Pray that he preforms such an awsome miracle that there is no denying the work of God! I pray he stops the Dr.s and Nurses in their tracks.. I pray he leaves them scratching their head saying "what just happened here" I dont just pray that he will be ok.. I pray that he will be Great! Perfect! ExtraOrdinary! A living Proof of God's work and of God's love! I hope you pray for the same. This week (yesterday) 2000 years ago Jesus was getting beaten over and over. His flesh was being ripped off his body. He was being laughed at, taunted, murdered all so we can live and have an everlasting life with his daddy. Isaiah 53:5 says " He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisment of our peace was upon him; and by his stripes we are healed" I claim that everyday for Brady! That by the striped of Jesus Christ, he will be healed. Thank you Jesus for doing what you did so I can be here today with this peace I have about my baby, your child. And thank you for choosing him to witness to so many. I know your work has just begun in his little life and we will see great things from him, thanks to you! Well, I will let you know what we find out Wednesday. Hopefully Great news. How great would it be to hear it's just gas or an upset stomach... so simple... Pray Pray Pray Until Wednesday, Jenny P.S. off the topic.. did anyone catch House tonight! I am still so upset. How shocking!!!

Yet another hospital stay... BOO!

Not Again!

That's right, we stayed overnight last night at the UMC and we are just gettin home. This past week, Brady has been having a different type of seizure activity, or what we thought was seizure activity, but it was confirmed today. The past week or so he has been throwing his head back and screaming and everyday it has gotten more frequent. So when we went for our weekly check up our Neuroligist, Dr. Parker, just wanted to be safe and watch him overnight. So they put us in the video telemitry (???) room at the hospital and hooked him up to and EEG machine. This way they could watch the video of him and if he did anything they thought was weird (like the kicking his head back thing) they could look at the eeg read and see if he was having abnormal brain activity at the same time. According to the on-call Neuroligist, Dr. Vada, there was still some seizure/ spasm brain activity but they were going to get a epilepsy specialist to review it over the weekend and then we will see what we are dealing with. We will go back to the dr monday for the results. Pray Pray Pray that these spasms will stop for good!! We have a 70% chance that this medicine will work. But there is that 30% chance that it won't and with him still having spasms on week 3 of the medicine, its a little nerve racking!! We are still going to stick with once a day shots until we see Dr. Parker Monday, then she might want to change things up... depending on the results of this EEG. I took a few pictures of him last night and this morning...

Getting the EEG machine hooked upDaddy watching closelyKatie and Nanna holding him down :) or just destracting him...He is not too happy about this!Ok, all doneHey dad!There's my momma!!me and my daddy...WHAT?!?! now it's gotta come off!!

Now thats more like it!

Well naturally we couldn't wait to get home and he is sleeping so good! I need to be doing the same thing!! I will let you know how Monday goes...

Till then,

Jenny