Updated Family Photos

Alright, I think that it's about time for some updated family photos, what about you!?
.
.
.
.
.
.
Hmm...not so much, eh?

Whatever. Here's a family photo.

And, whether you want to or not, here are some more photos of our family opening gifts on the morning of Christmas eve.

2011 Family Christmas

And...here are some photos that were taken Christmas morning over at Grandma and Grandpa's house just prior to heading off to church.

Christmas 2011

Second Love Letter/Note

I decided to go the simple route this time, as opposed to something more elaborate. As for my inspiration, Samantha had gotten a Toy Story toy where you can color on this transparent board with some kind of children's dry-erase crayon. It's actually a neat toy, as you can stick that transparent board into the toy and then turn on lights that cause the drawing to glow in an almost 3D fashion.

Anyways, as I said, I decided to go the simple route and Sam's toy afforded me just that!

After creating my masterpiece, I set it out on the tv stand, in hopes that the flashing lights would get her attention when she got up to deal with one of the kids. As luck would have it, Sam got to it before Jess' did and she turned off the lights - not once, but twice!

That being said, while it didn't go off without a hitch like the first round, it was still neat observing her reaction.

The Challenge

First of all, for all male readers who are interested in manning up, may I suggest a blog for your reading pleasure: TheArtofManliness.com The Art of Manliness has been a personal favorite of mine for quite some time now and when I came across this particular post, I had the sudden urge to take on the challenge.

So last night, while all was quiet in the house, I set about putting my plan into action. Let it be known that I did this on a whim, so it could have been better; even so, under such short notice, I think that it worked out pretty good - if I do say so myself.

In taking on this challenge, I purposed that I was not going to settle for the ordinary; I decided that I was going to get my love across to her using unconventional methods.

Here is my first attempt at telling her that I love her.

If you can't tell, that's an egg carton, and the phrase, "I Love You," is spelled out on the eggs using a dry erase marker. After creating this masterpiece, I placed the closed carton back in the refrigerator, where it would sit till later this morning.

While I was mocking this up, the thought occurred to me that I shouldn't stop there; but, rather, I should press on and throw a love letter into the mix. I immediately liked the idea, so I rushed back upstairs and hurriedly printed off a sheet of romantic stationary.

Knowing that she would eventually get up in the middle of the night to fill CJ's bottle, I set the letter out on the kitchen table in such a way that she would have no way but to see it... Check it out for yourself.

As I figured, she had no problem whatsoever in locating the first note; and due to an oh-so-subtle hint within the note, she was able to find the second note as well.

Not bad for one night's work, eh?!

CJ's Homecoming!

Not too long ago, I mentioned that you should stay tuned for an update to little baby CJ - aka Chad Junior.

For those of you who are just joining us, CJ is the latest addition to our family. He was born on October 28th at 11:05 AM Due to complications in the pregnancy, he was born prematurely.

As was mentioned, CJ was born prematurely and as such he had to stay in the NICU at Marquette General Hospital. Here you can see that he was on a ventilator.

After many long weeks in the NICU, CJ was finally cleared to go home.

While the whole ordeal was torturous for all involved, it was perhaps the worst for Sam and Cynthia. If being separated from mommy and daddy for days on end wasn't enough, the simple fact that they couldn't see their baby brother should have been enough. The latter point bothered Sam more than it bothered Cynthia; in fact, shortly after CJ was born grandma went back to see him and Sam was devastated when she learned that she wasn't allowed back in the NICU. It took a lot to console.

All in all, though, both Sam and Cynthia were real troopers and as you can see in this video, mom, dad, grandmas and grandpas weren't the only ones that were uber excited to have little baby CJ home for Thanksgiving!

Thanks Giving in Deed!

Time to Shake Things up a Bit

Well, I have decided to change things up a bit...

If you can't tell, I have moved our wordpress blog to Google's Blogger platform. I'm hoping that this will prove to be more seamless as far as pictures are concerned, since I host 99% of my pictures on Google's Picasa.

While I don't necessarily need a reason to switch, I made the decision to switch because I felt it was time to make a "look and feel" change to our blog and I just couldn't find what I was looking for with Wordpress. Don't get me wrong, WP is a fantastic platform for blogging, and just about anything else, I just felt that it was time for a change of scenery.

Up next: a post about CJ's Homecoming.

And it's off!

If you have been following the video updates on FB or G+, then you already know that CJ has been taken off the nasal canula.



While this is a significant step toward his going home, there is still quite a bit of improvement that is needed before he can come home. The biggest hurdle that needs to be cleared is his feedings.

Currently, he is only being allowed to nipple - feed from a bottle - once a day. Every nurse, so far, has said that he is ready for that frequency to increase; however, those orders haven't changed in several days.

That being said, Jess has had a couple of fruitful conversations with some nurses. One of the nurses even told her that because she is the mom, she has a certain level of authority when it comes to CJ and CJ's orders. Having had to exercise this authority already, we already knew this; but it was reassuring to Jess to hear this from a nurse that we both trust and respect.

Somewhat emboldened, Jess has since broached the topic of his feedings with CJ's nurse and the suggestion has been received favorably. His nurse tonight said that if the Dr calls in tonight, she will ask him whether those orders can be changed. If he doesn't call in before she leaves, she will leave a note with the next nurse letting her know that CJ is ready to nipple more than once a day and to let the Dr know. Since we know that the Dr is heavily influenced by the input from the nurses, this is definitely a good sign that his orders will soon change. In the even the nurses fail to speak with the Dr, we fully intend to bring our concerns up to him the moment we see him tomorrow.

Now that you know where he stands, here are some photos and a couple of videos.



Here is the first video of CJ. He is wearing a dinosaur sleeper that kinda' looks like it is camouflage.

From Cj's Videos

This next video is a video of when Franky and Sissy were able to see him. While this wasn't the first time that they had seen him, they were tickled nonetheless to see "their" baby CJ...

From Cj's Videos

Twelve Days and Counting...

Well, it's been twelve days since Baby CJ was born and lots of things have happened in the interim.

Since my last post, Baby CJ has improved by leaps and bounds. It was only a few days ago that they first start feeding him breast milk, and today he is already being fed 50MLs at each feeding!

Not only has he started to feed really well, the only kind of respiratory assistance he has is the nasal canula. When he came off the vent, he went straight to the C Pap, and from there he was placed on the nasal canula. At some point after he had been put on the nasal canula a nurse made the call to put him back on the C Pap; but after further review, it was determined that the difficulty in breathing had stemmed from a rather stuffy nose. So, so long as he keeps his nose clean - pun intended - we will not be seeing him on the C Pap again any time soon.

Another good improvement that our little guy has seen is that he is no longer on the Billy light. They have been checking his Billy levels every time they run his labs and while it did go back up a little yesterday, the levels had not risen sufficiently enough to warrant being placed back under the light.

While the pictures and video in this post don't reflect it, CJ no longer has all his IVs! In the event he did not hit 50Mls for his feedings, they were going to be putting in a PIC line; however, since he hit that threshold this afternoon, he is no longer in need of the PIC line. Praise the LORD! :)

As for the rest of the family, we are all doing well. While we know how things run around here, things are a bit different this time around. This time around I have had to work throughout the week, only being able to spend time here on my days off, while Jess' and the girls have been staying here in Marquette in the Beacon House. Speaking of which, I'd like to take this time publicly thank my father in law for making it possible for Jess' mom and sister to be up here. It has been a tremendous blessing and a great help. If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be able to go in and see Baby CJ together. I'd also like to thank my parents as they, too, have been a great help! If it weren't for them, who knows what I would have done with the girls while I Was at work...

That being said, I know that you all did not come here to be bored to death, so without any further adieu, here are some pictures and a video! :)

From Cj's Videos