Cousin Isabelle

We are excited to have another cousin! Isabelle Anne Harker decided she wanted to come two weeks early. We had Abigail come for a sleep over while her mom and dad were in the hospital with Isabelle.

Easter 2017

Why do we celebrate Easter?.... Easter is a holiday where we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. After Christ died on the cross,  Jesus Christ was resurrected and lives today with a glorified and perfected body of flesh and bone. Easter is a celebration not only of the Resurrection of Christ but also of the universal resurrection. Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all people will be resurrected. Easter is a celebration of the promise of eternal life through Christ.

I love the tradition of dying Easter eggs! We dyed eggs two different ways this year. The first way is we Tie-Dying. This was the first time we have tried this way and it was a lot of fun.

Traditional way of dying eggs. Oliver enjoys being included with Lincoln and Lacey. It's was a fun activity to do together.

Surgery #3 Ear Tubes

Oliver has had a fluid build-up in his ears that wouldn't not go away. This made Oliver very sensitive to any sound. Anything from a cough, sneeze, or another child crying. When I say sensitive I mean he would cry. The Doctors also didn't want this fluid to affect hearing problems or speech delays. Oliver got ear tube put in to help allow the eardrum to equalize the pressure. Oliver was able to have the surgery in Lethbridge, this surgery seemed so easy compared to the other surgery Oliver has had. The surgery was a total of 10 mins and I was able to see Oliver in recovery after 30 mins. Once Oliver woke up from anesthetic, he was not a happy camper. He would just cry, didn't matter if I walked with him, rocked him, etc. The nurses had to monitor his vitals for the next 30 mins. Once that time was up and he was doing well, minus crying. They said we could go home if I were comfortable with it. I was so glad we had a short 7 min drive home. It was nice to be in our home where I could cuddle my baby and start the road to recovery. For the next few days Oliver was on Advil to help with a ear ache type of pain.

Spring Concert- Grade One

Lakeview Elementary school's 2017 spring concert, The Canada That We Love.

It's so fun as a parent seeing your child take part in this. Lincoln had fun taking part in his school concert with his Grade 1 class.

Lincoln's Basket Ball

Lincoln absolutely loved basketball this winter. I loved seeing how he would look forward to Saturday mornings and how excited he would get. Lincoln took the practises and games very seriously, he listen well to his coaches and always put 100% in.  I loved watching him each Saturday! He put a lot of hard work into each practise each week and it sure paid off. I loved seeing how much he learned about basketball and the improvements he made through out the season.

The Unknown- Bowel Management

When it comes to having a child with Spina Bifida there are a lot of unknowns. A couple of months ago Oliver started  having rough nights, that consisted of scream for 6 plus hours in the night. It didn't matter what Josh or I did to try to calm him down, he would just keep on screaming. It wasn't just a cry, he screamed at the top of his lungs. Like his was in discomfort or pain. I felt so bad for him and so helpless as a mom. I was willing to hold him all night if that was what would help him calm down so he could sleep. At first we thought it was teething but I just felt that it was more then that. He popped two teeth before Christmas and he was a bit restless in the night but it was nothing compared this. When ever Oliver is a bit off you always wonder if it's a shunt malfunction. But he wasn't having any of the shunt malfunction symptoms other then irritable/ screaming. He also was only like this at night, as he was pretty much him self in the day, other then he was tired from our rough nights.  I felt like a walking zombie in the days with getting no sleep. We took one day at a time.  When I would talk to other moms about our situation they would say 'teething is rough'. I would think to myself this is way worse then teething. I'd take a teething baby any day over this. I always had a feeling it was bowel related. Oliver has been taking a stool soften since 9 months and we have slowly had to up his dose with the more solids he was eating. We were told that he needs to be having a bowel movement every day. Which he still was but there was the odd time that he wouldn't (once in two weeks).  We have him a suppository the one night when he didn't have a bowel movement. As soon as the suppository worked, he slept the whole night. Right then I knew for sure it was bowel related. I then started talking to other SB parents about bowel management. I was told it's a lot of trial and error to see what works for your child. So we upped Oliver dose of stool softened. This seems to be doing the  trick. He is sleeping through the night again. I wish we thought about trying this sooner. I feel at times that I know so little but we are trying to learn new things to help Oliver.

Family Day 2017

We had a great family day as a family. We attending the university family day activities, which were a lot of fun. We went for a cool walk/bike ride while looking for a geocache. We were glad to have an extra day to spend as a family.