9 Months And Growing

Tonight Sharalee and I were able to get away from our normal responsibilities and catch dinner and a movie. Before Koby was born this was a weekly occurrence, but life has changed the past 9 months. Just having a moment to breathe and enjoy each other reminded us that we wanted to catch up our blog on how things are going.

We've focused our blog posts so much on Koby that we haven't always mentioned how everyone else is doing. The kids have all adjusted quite well to our new situation. We've tried to give them each attention, and we were able to do that a few weeks ago by taking a weekend trip to Chicago. It was great to spoil our 5 oldest, as we went to museums, enjoyed a Cubs game, and also visited with some of my close Polish friends I knew when I was a missionary in Chicago almost twenty years ago. Sharalee's sister Emily came out to stay with Koby while we went on the trip. He's still struggling with traveling, and it also allowed us to give all of our attention to Kinzy, Kaylie, Kyle, Kamden, and Krew.

Fun day watching the Cubs win.






Visiting my branch President Mikolaj Skinder in the hospital. We also spent the day with the Januszewski family. They remain the heart and soul of every polish speaking missionary to serve in Chicago. We ate dinner at their house every Friday for two years. I've made it a point to return and visit them every couple of years. They are the most amazing family and I just love them all so much. So it was so fun for our kids to meet them.













The day we returned Sharalee's family flew in from all over to spend a weekend here in Tennessee. Kyle was baptized as of member of our church, and Sharalee's dad was here to celebrate his sixtieth birthday. It was a lot of fun. We had a total of 27 people sleeping at our house on Saturday. It was quite a full house! They flew in from Utah, California, and Canada. So much fun.






Kyle's baptism day.







Family dinner at the Wildhorse.

















KOBY

Koby is getting stronger and stronger. He is rolling around constantly on the floor and while he sleeps. He is still a bit weak when trying to hold his head up, but we are still amazed on how far he has come. There was a NICU reunion a few Saturday's back, and we were able to visit with some of our nurses and doctors. They were all amazed to see the progress of Koby and how far he has come. After visiting with some of our nurses we went back upstairs to the seventh floor of the hospital, right where we spent every day from the end of December to February. It brought back such a huge range of emotions for us, and it was great to have Koby in our arms and be able to leave the hospital with us this time. Here's a picture from when he was in the NICU, and here are a few pictures from this past week. What a difference:)










He's gaining weight, and we can FINALLY skip his midnight feed. The sleepless nights have continued every single night for nine straight months, but he's finally gained enough weight that we can get a little more rest. We had to get each feed up to 117 ml, and he had to consistently hold the food down without throwing up. We've only been able to increase his food by one ml every couple of days. He weighs close to 15 pounds.

He's still eating through a G Tube. He goes to feeding therapy to try and teach him to eat with his mouth. We expect the g Tube to remain for now. The balloon that holds his Tube in his stomach pops occasionally but putting in a new one isn't too difficult. It used to gross me out completely but it doesn't seem weird at all to feed him through a machine now. Oh and his diapers still look and smell like mustard. Sweet Sharalee is still pumping every day. It was hard when she realized she wouldn't ever actually nurse him. You just kind of assume he would catch on to the whole sucking and swallowing. But he's still got his own time frame.

Koby is such a happy baby. We are seeing moments where we see the "light" turn on in different parts of his brain. Yesterday I woke up at 6am to feed him. Sharalee was already at the gym, and he will sometimes sleep through his first feed of the previous day was exhausting. Well, I picked him up and when I got him ready for his medicine he opened his eyes at me and gave me the biggest smile I've ever seen. I felt like he was saying "hi dad! I know you! I recognize you now!" And he started to giggle. I have seen him smile a lot lately but he will often smile for strangers, so I wasn't taking any credit. But yesterday I felt he was ready to send me a message. It meant a lot to me.

Here is Koby with one of his awesome therapists. Krew is encouraging him constantly. Krew smothers Koby. And we are ok with that.







He's getting used to this little bouncy toy thingee. He struggles to hold his neck up. This morning Krew felt that Koby was getting tired so he crawled underneath him to make it easier for Him to reach the floor. It was all Krew's idea.





He did this on his own.