Check it out!

Oh man has it been a while since I've posted on here.

I think like my last three posts say that. 

Well, Samuel is six months now! 

I can't believe it. 

Life has been crazy to say the least. I've been doing other writing ventures that I have felt called to but lately I have felt a strong calling from God to start another blog. 

This blog is geared towards heart parents, but focuses more on how God got us through our journey and I'm hoping to help others on their journey as well lean into Christ and hopefully not push Him away like I did.

I started this blog about a month ago with those intentions but lately I've been feeling the urge to make it more into a women's ministry type blog.

I don't know. I'm just writing from what's on my heart at that moment. 

After all, I can't be the only one with these feelings and if I can help even just one person on their walk, then how cool is that!?

Any who, you can find more information there and watch more of Colston and our family as it grows on that site. 

www.theheartmom.com

XO, Kayla

Once again, I cannot believe how long it has been since I posted! 

Are you all still with me?

Baby Samuel is still measuring behind but is as healthy as can be and will be here Monday November 14!!

We are so excited to meet him. 

In the mean time, Colston decided to throw us a curve ball and need emergency surgery a week before his brother gets here. 

 He hadn't eaten since Saturday night and had just been super fussy. I thought he was just teething but wanted to take him to the pediatrician to be sure since heart babies can dehydrate faster. 

His pediatrician didn't like how he winced when she touched his belly so she sent us to the hospital to be checked out. They took a chest x ray and low and behold....Colston had what is called a Diaphragmatic Hernia. There was a hole in his diaphragm (which he was likely born with, and it just went unnoticed) and they said his intestines were being pushed through it into his chest every time he breathed.

Surgery yesterday morning went great. The surgeon wanted to go in laparoscopically first before making an incision just to be 100% sure that's what it was. Sure enough, his colon had made it's way through that hole that they measured to be the size of a dime. So they brought the colon back through and patched up the hole.

When they brought him back to his room, they did a chest x-ray and it showed air in his chest cavity which was causing his left lung to collapse. So they put in a chest tube to drain the air and luckily there should be no long term side effects from that.

It has been a crazy couple days and they expect us to be here at least until the weekend. They are hoping to take him off the ventilator in the next few hours and then after that we just need to get him to eat and have his first bowel movement so they can see how his colon reacts. 

Until then, we are just doing our usual hospital waiting. 

It's sad that the doctors and nurses have to ask us if we are *sure* that we are doing okay because we seem perfectly fine. We have to explain that while we know this was a serious thing, this isn't our first rodeo. We are no strangers to the process of weaning off ventilators and pain meds. I know most of the medical lingo they are speaking and what each beep on the machine means. 

It's just our life :)

Being Worry Free was Short Lived

I'm going to start this post out with some positives.

Baby Samuel has a perfectly healthy heart.

He has ten fingers and ten toes, two arms and two legs

and he is already loved more than he will ever know.

He is just measuring very small and getting smaller. 

At my first appointment, he was only measuring 2 days behind, then it went to 5 days, then a week, and now he is measuring two weeks behind. We got the diagnosis of IUGR which is Intrauterine Growth Restriction. 

My placenta is measuring small so they suspect Samuel isn't getting the proper blood and nutrients that he should be. 

I had yet another oh so fun amniocentesis done today so in a few weeks we will know if he has any chromosomal issues.

The doctor said, and I quote, "It could be a number of issues or it could just be that you make small babies." 

Of course we are sad at the news and were hoping for a "normal" pregnancy, but we are hopeful at the possibility that it's just something as simple as us making small babies. 

Colston was small, and still is, but he never measured this far behind. He only measured a week behind. 

So for the next few weeks we ask, for what feels like the millionth time, for many prayers for our unborn baby. 

Thank you everyone. We love you. 

<3

Baby Number Two

It is a GREAT day here at the Krische House today. 

We had our 19 week appointment with the perinatologist to take a look at baby. From what he can see so far....

BABY NUMBER TWO IS PERFECTLY HEALTHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are over the moon ecstatic at this terrific news. 

We do have another appointment in 3 weeks specifically for a fetal echo but the doctor took a quick look at the heart today while he was doing the anatomy scan and said that he can say without a doubt that all four chambers look perfect. 

Speaking of anatomy scan.....

BABY NUMBER TWO IS ALSO A BOY!!!!!!

Woohoo!!!

Colston is going to have a baby brother and we cannot be more thrilled at the thought of two boys. 

Mama is going to be in big trouble when they are older!

Big Brother

Colston is 11 months old today!

One more month and I will no longer have a baby, I will have a toddler. 

This absolutely blows my mind. 

I was thinking back to what I was doing this time last year. This time last year I was packing to live in Las Vegas for an unforeseeable amount of time. I had doctors appointments sometimes two times a week down there with a doctor I had never met before in a city that I had never been to before. It was so scary. 

Then I look at my life now. I wouldn't change a darn thing. Colston is the funniest, sweetest little boy. He started crawling about two weeks ago and just the other night took a few steps with his walker! To say we are proud is an understatement. 

Planning his first birthday party has been such a fun experience so far. We are doing a construction theme which is perfect because we are still in the middle of remodeling our house so our whole house is a construction zone! 

It's hard to not get caught up in wanting it to be absolutely perfect. I know he wont remember it, but we will. There have been so many time where Justin and I thought we would never even see this day. So for it to finally be here, we want to celebrate it big. 

In other big news, Colston is going to be a big brother!! 

We have known since March but wanted to see if this baby had heart problems too before telling anyone. We still don't know yet because I am only seventeen weeks. We ended up having to tell people because well, I can't hide it anymore! Lol. Mama has a big belly!

We are due November 26 but I need to have a repeat c-section so it will be the week prior (if I make it that far and don't go into labor before hand).

It is extremely nerve wrecking not knowing whether or not this baby has any heart issues with everything we've gone through with Colston. We are just praying for a healthy baby even though our chances are high at 4%. (That's 4 out of 100 babies.) 

We have also decided that even though we wanted a big family, we are going to stop at 2 and count our blessings. Trying one more time for a healthy baby is one thing, but I couldn't live with myself if we tried for 4 kids like we wanted and ended up having more heart problems. I feel like I am gambling with our child's life and that's not fair to them. 

So if you all could send some well wishes and prayers our way for a healthy baby we would greatly appreciate it. We find out in about 2 weeks so I will keep you all updated. 

:)

What happened?

Where the heck did March and April go?

I absolutely cannot believe we are already halfway through May. I am already planning Colston's first birthday party! 

Just this time last year we were getting back from our experimental surgery at UCSF. 

There really hasn't been too much to update which is nice. We have been loving being a "normal" family. 

On April 15 Colston had a lung profusion scan done to check the blood going to each lung. Our cardiologist said that in a perfectly normal heart, 45% of blood flow goes to the left and 55% goes to the right. Colston, even being a single ventricle heart has 42% going to the left and 58% going to the right! He said that is absolutely amazing for a heart baby and he could not be happier.

We of course were so relieved because 1, he was doing great and 2, that meant we didn't have to go back to Las Vegas to have a stent placed in his left pulmonary artery. 

So now we just have check ups every 6 weeks and hopefully nothing else is needed until the Fontan in the summer of 2017. 

We used to see the cardiologist once a week, now we go 6 weeks in between appointments! I am so thankful Colston is healthy enough to be able to do that but it is the in between time that scares me. As we all know with heart babies, anything can happen in an instant. 

I think my updates will be a little spaced out from here on out. We are so thankful that people want to check on Colston and see how he is doing but sometimes there is just nothing to update and honestly, it's nice. I don't want to have to update bad things that happen so let's just hope that we only have good things to update from here on out. 

<3

Doing great

All is going great over here at the Krische house!

Colston had his second check up at the cardiologist since being home and the doctor is very impressed. Colston's oxygen sats are in the high 90's which is phenomenal and his heart function looks great. 

We are not doing another heart cath in a couple weeks because Colston is looking so good. Instead, we will see the cardiologist every few weeks to check on things and sometime around May we will do another lung profusion scan to check how much blood is being pumped into each lung. Luckily, this can be done in Reno and we don't have to make an 8 hour trip to Las Vegas for a 20 minute scan. 

Colston has started solid foods. So far, he likes sweet potatoes the best and green beans the least. 

His bottom front two teeth are poking through which is making for a fun teething period. Colston doesn't sleep through the night like he used to and he now bed shares with us because he eats like every 2 hours in the middle of the night. 

It's okay though, it's worth it. 

I will say this though, I don't know how something so small can take up so much room in a bed. 

:)