Happy Halloween!

Well, we didn't actually go trick or treating this year...but I don't think Zay missed out on the fun of dressing up for Halloween. He was a UNI Football Player!!

The pictures below are at my company's 'Pumpkin Party' where Zay got to where his football jersey and he also wore it for the halloween party at his daycare on Friday!

Happy Halloween!!

What we do at 5am on a Saturday morning....

Take all the shoes off the shoe rack, of course! Who doesn't do that at 5am?

Zay has been in a pretty good sleeping routine lately. Bedtime is between 7-7:30, sometimes even earlier like last night when it was 6:45! This works alright for us...but it means that we are EARLY RISERS! Usually we are out of bed by 5...and he doesn't discriminate - we watch the sun rise on Saturdays too!

Pictures!

Once again our friend Bailey took some pictures of our little guy and I'm soooo excited to share them! Matt and Bailey do such an amazing job - we are so blessed they do this for us!!!

Warning...there are a lot of them!! Enjoy!!

10 Months Old!

Broken record…?

Oh my………..once again we spent the weekend at the doctor’s office…blood work, chest xrays, rsv testing. And once again my heart is broken for my little boy. :(

Early last week we took Zay to get tested for allergies. Because of his age we were only able to get tested for indoor allergies. Results – he’s really not allergic to anything. He had a minor reaction to dust mites, which convinced the allergist that he should be put on Zyrtec to help control any that would be in his environment. Right or wrong…I put my foot down and said no. I just didn’t feel right putting Zay on ANOTHER medicine for something that he had a ‘minor’ reaction to. We will be taking the preventative measure around home to try to ease his exposure to dust mites, but I’m just not convinced that Zyrtec is the answer. We did run this past our doctor, and he advised we could hold off on this as well.

After further discussion, we decided that it was time to once again see if we could cut out the albuterol breathing treatment. (We did try to eliminate the albuterol when Zay was 6 months...we wound up in the ER with low oxygen levels, labored breathing, etc.) We’ve been doing albuterol and another daily breathing treatment every morning for months now. This is quite time consuming and challenging with an almost 10 month old! Our doctor advised that cutting out the albuterol would be fine, as it should really be given only as needed anyway.

This happened Thursday…we were in the doctor’s clinic by Saturday morning. Not everything Zay was dealing with was because we cut out the albuterol, however the main concern was chest retractions, his oxygen level and how hard he was working to breathe. This was only added to by the 103 degree temp and what we think is another start to a double ear infection. My little guy wouldn’t even raise his head off my chest while I was holding him.

So…we once again got the works done. The worst part……..my poor baby in one of these “torture devices”. I know that they have to do something to make him stay in one place, but this is Zay’s 3rd chest xray since he’s been born and every time they squeeze him into one of these things I’m as traumatized as he is! And Shane is just plain furious with the fact that our little boy has to go through all these procedures.

(this isn’t Zay…just a picture I found off the internet. I was much too emotional to get a picture of our little guy!)

So…results. Nothing new. The doctor we saw thinks he probably does in fact have asthma and/or restrictive airway disease. Which he may or may not grow out of.

Zay was put on oral steroids again along with another antibiotic for his ears. This will be his 3rd time with steroids to try to relieve some of the inflammation in his lungs. We will go see our regular doctor later this week and hopefully the ear infection will be cleared up and we will discuss what, if anything can be done for Zay's breathing.

Ugh…that’s how I feel right now. Shane continually reminds me that God has a plan…even through all of this. We will be stronger parents and Zay will be a stronger little boy. I sure hope so.

I’ll leave you with a Bible verse that I think I was meant to ready last week. Saw it on two different friend’s blogs…thanks Erin and Julie! :)

As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him." John 9:1-3