Merry Christmas --Year in Review

Merry Christmas 2016 from the Nabrotzky’s

2016 has been a year we will never forget. Our Christmas card last year mentioned that child #6 was due to join our family in late January of 2016. He decided to come on December 29th, and his birth and first year has changed our family in a tremendous way.

Around noon on the 29th of December 2015 Sharalee called me to say she was not feeling well and was going to attempt to take a nap. Her due date was weeks away, and we were still focused on enjoying our Christmas holiday break. The idea of the baby coming this early wasn’t even on our radar. About an hour later she was feeling awful, so I rushed home to check on her. It was very clear the moment I walked in the door that she didn’t have much time before the baby arrived, and so we rushed to the hospital.

We live only 15 minutes from the hospital, and we were close to delivering the baby in the car with about two miles to go. Luckily we hit very few red lights, and I swung open the emergency room door and called for help. They were quick to rush her into a room. By the time I parked the car she was hooked up to the heart rate monitors, and they were not finding a heartbeat for the baby. Sharalee was calm; I was nervous. I could tell from the look on the nurses’ faces that they were worried. After one hard push out came Koby. But…there was no crying. No noise. No movement. No action. Just silence. They whisked him away and began CPR. I stared at a group of about 8 nurses and doctors, trying to get him to breathe. But there was nothing. He came out so fast that we didn’t even have time to check if this was a boy or girl yet.

I stared at the clock and watched minute by minute pass, knowing that each second meant his chances of survival were decreasing. Finally, after at least six minutes of not finding a heartbeat before the birth, and another six minutes of CPR, they said they barely had a faint pulse. He was then brought into another room so they could have space to try and save him, and the delivery room fell silent again. This was too surreal. What just happened? Our son was born and yet he wasn’t really here yet. After twenty minutes the doctors came back in the room and told us they needed to rush him to another hospital, and that things weren’t looking good.

Over the next few days Koby was struggling tremendously. He stopped breathing many times. Within 3 hours of his birth he was placed on a total body cooling blanket which cooled his body down to 92 degrees for three days. We weren’t allowed to touch him, as the machine was cooling down his body temperature in order to keep his brain from overworking and swelling. All of his bodily functions were brought to a minimum to allow the body to focus on healing. He appeared to be in a coma-like state during that time. We didn’t know if he would survive, but there was an overwhelming peace felt in our home and in the hospital. We put our trust in God and prayed to accept any outcome. When someone goes without oxygen for an extended period of time it affects the brain rather quickly. Sharalee held him for the first time after three days, and he stopped breathing in her arms. It was scary seeing him turn blue and hearing the monitors beeping for the doctor and nurses to come and help. We’ve learned to count every little sign of progress as a blessing.

Through many miracles, Koby started to very slowly improve. Koby made his first ambulance ride at 2 hours old, first faint cry at 3 weeks, first surgery at 4 weeks, first time meeting his brothers and sisters at 5 weeks, first smile at 7 weeks, first time hearing with the use of his hearing aids at 4 months, first time tracking with his eyes at 5 months, first airplane ride at 5 ½ months, first giggle at 6 months, rolled over for the first time at 8 months, slept through the night for the first time at 9 months (hallelujah for that!), began grabbing for objects at 10 months, and continues to make strides every day. His timeline for crawling, eating, talking, walking, singing, and doing other things will be based on his own unique schedule. Although he did cut teeth and get stranger anxiety right on time! We are just so happy that he is here to bless our lives with such wonderful joy and excitement and to teach us how we learn to love one another so much more through service to each other.

We realized very early on that we were going to need a lot of help learning how to manage our new life with Koby. And the first place we turned to was with our own children, asking them to step up and learn to help.

Kinzy (14) is our Feeding Helper. She has mastered how to feed Koby through his feeding tube directly in his stomach, which is the way he continues to get his nourishment because he never learned to suck. She can help with family dinner and gives Sharalee and I a chance to have a regular date night, all while balancing a busy social schedule as an 8th grader at Brentwood Middle. She has become an amazing pianist and loves to come home from school and practice.

Kaylie (10) is our Multi-Tasking Helper. She loves to hold Koby while doing her homework, eating a snack, and watching her favorite TV show, all at the same time. Kaylie is motived to get herself ready quickly in the morning so she can get Koby out of bed to help get him started on his morning routine. Kaylie will gladly do anything for Koby. She also helps by giving him small bites of baby food each day as we try to teach him to eat. Koby has an uncoordinated swallow and doesn’t have control of his neck muscles, which makes feeding him tricky because he often gags, but he is trying hard and exceeding expectations. Her encouragement inspires him to keep trying. She helps organize Koby’s feeding equipment, changes diapers and chooses his daily wardrobe.

Kyle (8) is our Inspiration Helper. His love of sports has intensified this year as he took a break from soccer to play basketball and football. Seeing him score the winning touchdown of his first tournament game was a sports highlight for the year. Kyle loves to play on our new basketball hoop in the driveway. The kids have cemented Koby’s name into the court by permanently etching “Koby’s Court” into the concrete in the driveway when we installed it this Spring. Knowing that Koby has been diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, we have to wait and see how well he will be able to move around as he gets older. Kyle says he plans to one day teach Koby to play basketball and naming the court after him reminds each of us how we are here to cheer Koby on to greatness.

Kamden (5) is our Goal Oriented Helper. He finds creative ways to get Koby to smile when he returns home from Kindergarten each day. Kamden reminds us that it will be his job to teach Koby to walk and go potty (mom is happy to pass that responsibility on, funny that he’s excited about that?). Kam has enjoyed reading books, and he loved his first season on a soccer team and riding the school bus. He especially loved our family trip to Chicago in September to see the Cubs play at Wrigley Field before they won the World Series. And our annual trip to watch a BYU football game (to Cincinnati in November) was fun as he met the football players after the game. We went right on the field, and he pretended be a BYU football player for 45 minutes with Kyle. He ran from end zone to end zone with the ball, diving into the end zone every time as if the crowd was cheering him on.

Krew (3) is our Loud Energetic Helper. We had no idea that Koby had moderately-severe hearing loss because he would flinch when Krew screamed LOUDLY into his ears throughout the day. Koby needs hearing aids to be able to hear well enough to understand a normal conversation, but Krew is so loud that we can take the hearing aids out when Krew’s around. There is such an overwhelming bond between the two of them. To Krew, there is nothing wrong with his 11 month old brother. He instills in all of us so much confidence that Koby will be more capable than all of us put together. We find Krew by his side constantly throughout each day, usually holding his hand and telling him “you can do it Koby”!

Koby (11 months) is the best blessing we could have ever asked for in 2016. He radiates love and happiness, even at such a young age. He has helped us forge a much tighter family bond, and we all love and adore him just the way he is. He has great things ahead of him. As you can tell from this update he has been the focus of our family’s lives this year.

After 16+ years of marriage we are realizing that our challenges and trials in life make for the greatest opportunities for growth. Trials can be such a blessing if they are faced with optimism. We’d also like to acknowledge that we couldn’t have made it through this year without all the tremendous support and love shown to us this year from our family and friends. So many showed up from near and far to help in some way. For many months we were in “survival mode” and we couldn’t organize our thoughts enough to tell others what help we needed. How grateful and blessed we felt when friends showed up and just started helping us, or brought us a meal, or picked up our kids, or sent a message of encouragement. We can’t do it on our own and we’ve been so thankful to those that for us have been God’s hands here on earth helping us care for our family. We have really felt the love of the Lord through your outpouring of service and love to our family. Thank you, thank you.

We documented Koby’s miraculous life thus far at NabFam.Blogspot.com You can keep up with updates as he continues to learn and grow.
Love,
Steve, Sharalee, Kinzy, Kaylie, Kyle, Kamden, Krew, and Koby Nabrotzky