Family Update

I just realized the other day that it's been quite a long time since I've posted any updates on what "The Brothers" have been up to.  So tonight I've posted some pictures and will try to briefly give updates on what's happening around our house.  :)  I had planned to proceed in a nice oldest-to-youngest fashion, but Blogger had other ideas when it uploaded pictures.  It is highly frustrating at best (and impossible at worst!) to rearrange pictures in Blogger, so we're going in semi-alphabetical order....

Aaron just celebrated his sixth birthday in January and last week joined the ranks of the toothless!  He proudly lost his first baby tooth on Wednesday last week, and he was very brave about it!  If you look closely at the first picture, he is admiring the tooth.  The Tooth Fairy almost got caught delivering his dollar because Aaron slept with his legs under his pillow and I , I mean The Tooth Fairy, almost couldn't get the tooth out without waking him up.  All turned out well, though, and Aaron was excited to earn a dollar.  :)

 It really came out!!!

Aaron is more than halfway through kindergarten, and is doing really well!  He is especially strong in math, and that is easily his favorite subject.  He also enjoys social studies and science.  Reading is coming a little harder for him, but he is making good progress.

 Beaming!!

Aaron is doing all other little-boy things and keeps plenty busy.  His favorites are Legos, Playmobil, any kind of building blocks, and all kinds of imaginative role-playing.  His goal for the summer is to ride his bike without training wheels.  I'm sure he'll be racing around with no training wheels before I know it!

 Sweet boy

Caleb is eagerly looking forward to his birthday in April, when he will be four!!  He asks me at least every other day how much longer till his birthday.  :)  Recently we noticed Caleb's eyes were crossing when he was working on puzzles or playing with small toys.  I asked Rebekah's ophthalmologist about it, and he wanted to take a look at Caleb to see what was going on.

 Caleb's favorite is the zebra striped patch.

He thinks it's pretty cool that he looks like

Patch the Pirate!

As it turns out, Caleb has a couple of issues with his eyes that went undetected until just recently.  He has never complained of not being able to see, but our sweet boy is very, very farsighted!  He struggles to see anything from what is called "mid-range" to close.  I am so very thankful that we caught this now, before he starts reading.

Caleb's eyes are also not focusing together.  This actually allowed him to get by with his poor vision for longer that would otherwise have been possible.  Each eye focuses individually on what is in front of him, instead of focusing together.  The result is that his eyes began crossing as it became more of a struggle for him to see clearly.

So Caleb has a very handsome new pair of glasses that help him to see so much better!  He also wears a pirate patch for a minimum of 30 minutes each day in order to strengthen his weaker eye.  This will help to teach his eyes to work together, as well.

 I love Caleb's glasses!  He is so handsome!

In other Caleb news, he is doing a great job learning right along with Aaron.  Caleb can count to 20 and do very simple word problems in his head.  He knows all of his alphabet letters and almost all of their sounds.  He has also started writing his name, and I must say it is very well done for a three year old!

My sweet Caleb

I had to post this silly picture of all the kiddos.  They have so much fun together, and we are so blessed that our children are so close.  I certainly won't say that they don't have their moments (because they do!!), but in general they are so sweet with each other.  What can I say?  We love our sweet boys and girl!

Silly siblings!

 Pucker up!  Justin was having second thoughts

about kissing that spaghetti-covered face!  :)

So what's new with Miss Rebekah?  Well, I have to report that she is doing much, much better this week!  Thank you all for praying for her!  With the help of our wonderful pediatrician making sure we had the antibiotics that Rebekah needed, we were able to start them just a couple of hours after Rebekah began running a fever.  I fully attribute her quick recovery to your prayers and the effectiveness of the antibiotics!  I was very concerned that this illness would earn Rebekah a hospital visit, but she handled it like a champ.  We did, however, have to reschedule her MUSC trip for March 9, but the doctor was very understanding.

 Yep, I can be just as silly as the brothers!

Just as a side note, Rebekah has started referring to her brothers collectively.  It is not unusual to hear her running through the house calling, "Brothers! Brothers!" when she needs or wants something.  It is also very cute!  :)

Rebekah is continuing to do well in therapy, but it's about to get kicked up a notch.  Rebekah's PT has noted that Rebekah just does not have the core body strength (think trunk muscles) that she had before surgery.  So she suggested this week that we go back to aquatic therapy every other week.  If you have read the blog for more than a year, you might remember that Rebekah had aquatic therapy before her second surgery, and she did very well with it.  As a matter of fact, the pool was the first place that she stood on her own!  Rebekah's PT thinks that being in the water will help Rebekah with her balance, core strength and endurance.  So next week Thursday will be Rebekah's first day in the pool.  I think she's going to love it!

In sleep study news, Rebekah's next sleep study will be Monday night.  I'm anticipating an even longer night than the last one.  This time Rebekah will have her CPAP mask on (we call it her elephant), and they will be trying to adjust the settings to find a good place for Rebekah.  If they can get her to a place where she is not having any apnea "events" then the doctor will send the results and settings to our home health company and they will bring a machine to Rebekah and get her started on using it.  The whole process could take up to two weeks.  If the doctor determines that a CPAP does not meet Rebekah's needs, he will schedule us for yet another sleep study to try the BiPAP machine and see where we go from there.  I would definitely ask that you pray for sleep for both Rebekah and I that night!

 What is it with this girl and messy kisses?!

Next up is Justin, aka Goose.  Looking at these pictures, you would think that Justin is a complete ham, but in reality, he is the most quiet, shy one of our group.  He's either going to ignore the fact that I posted these pictures, or I'm going to be in serious trouble!  :)

Justin is nine years old, hard-working, responsible, and usually the first one to volunteer to help if someone has a problem.  He is an incredibly sweet boy, and he is a complete prankster if he thinks no one is watching.  At least once a week (and usually more!) he pops out from behind a door or around a corner and gives me a heart attack!

 It's fun to see what pictures end up on the camera 

when you give it to the kids for the afternoon.  :)

This year Justin had the opportunity to play soccer for the first time.  He has never played any organized sport, and has never really been that interested in sports.  But he was anxious to try, and he is really enjoying it.  One of our friends is the coach, and Justin's friend is also on the team.  They played against a much more experienced team their first game and lost, but they won last week.  I'm glad Justin has the opportunity to learn a new sport!

 Justin enjoys playing mid-field the best.

We also learned this week that Justin made it into the gifted and talented program!  We homeschool our boys through an online charter school, so they are offered the same benefits and programs as our local public schools offer.  We are thrilled that Justin has done so well!  Next year in third grade he will begin taking a more advanced math, as well as an advanced literature class.  He took a sign language course this year and loved it.

 Sweet and silly Goose!

Now for our biggest boy, Zachary!  Zac is excited about his upcoming double-digit birthday in March.  He is rapidly growing into a young gentleman.  Zac is the first one to offer to open a door or help carry heavy things.  He truly is my right-hand man around home.  He (usually) doesn't complain about being asked to help with his younger siblings, and has learned almost all of Rebekah's care.  He even changes diapers and dresses his sister!  Yes, you can all be jealous!  :)

Thumbs up for Zac's brownies!

Recently Zachary has shown a real interest in cooking and baking.  Many nights he is my shadow in the kitchen helping me cook dinner.  On Sunday afternoons he enjoys baking.  We enjoy it, too!  His most recent accomplishments are brownies and coffee cake - from scratch!  

Zachary is also doing very, very well in school.  He is in the gifted and talented program in fourth grade, so he is technically taking fifth grade math, advanced science and an additional literature course.  He especially enjoys social studies, and is currently studying the Civil War era.  We have made several trips to the library for additional books about the Civil War, and Zac reads them voraciously!  Zachary is also enjoying his first year of Spanish.  He is currently working on his first long-term science project.  Zachary chose to test potatoes to see where they will sprout the fastest.  If you come visit, don't be alarmed if you find potatoes in strange locations! :)

Yummy brownies, Chef Zac!

And last, but certainly not least, let me introduce you to Baby Ellis!  Baby (affectionately nicknamed Thing Six and shortened to T6) is due September 5.  Zachary is hoping T6 is a boy; Justin is hoping he/she is left-handed; Aaron is hoping for a girl, and Caleb wanted twins!!  Thankfully, Caleb's wish was not granted.  :)  Rebekah doesn't really have a clue, although we are teaching her to say "I'm a big sister!"

Baby Ellis

Of course, one of the first things that we were concerned about is whether or not this baby could have a heart defect.  It is possible.  The risks are greater because of Rebekah.  But we are choosing to trust that God has the perfect baby for our family. Not necessarily "perfect" according to the world's standards, but a baby who will fit perfectly into His plan for our lives.  As far as the doctors have been able to determine at this point, everything looks good.  We won't be able to learn anything about this baby's heart until our first fetal echo in April.  We're also hoping that T6 will cooperate and let us know if he/she is a he or a she.  :)

Thank you all for praying for Rebekah and our family.  We appreciate each and every one of you!

Nancy

Postponed

Unfortunately our trip to Charleston to have Rebekah's vocal cord scoped has been postponed due to one little girl being sick.  :(  Rebekah had a bit of a clear runny nose yesterday that quickly grew into a nasty runny nose and fever by last night.  She woke up with a fever this morning and a bad cough, so we thought it best to reschedule the Charleston plans.  Our new appointment is March 9, and we hope everyone is well by then!

Please pray for Rebekah.  This appears to be the same bug that two of her older brothers had over the last few weeks.  She is happy and playing now, but has periods of horrible coughing where she finds it hard to catch her breath.  We are watching her oxygen sats carefully and will be calling the doctor if they start trending downward and not coming back up.  For now, we are resting at home and starting the antibiotics that were effective in helping her brothers get over their bronchitis and pneumonia.  We're praying that it doesn't get that far with Rebekah!

Nancy

Sleep Study Results Part 2

Now where did I leave off?  :)  There were just a few other things from Rebekah's sleep study results that I wanted to share (mostly just so I can look back and reference the information one day if I need to).

One good observation that Dr. G made is that Rebekah's carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are on the low side of normal.  Actually, in some cases, they were below normal.  Part of the sleep study is measuring the amount of CO2 that the body expels each time we breathe out.  For a lot of kids (maybe adults too?) with central apnea, they retain too much CO2, so their levels are quite high.  This can lead to more "events."  Honestly, Dr. G told me at our initial consultation that he anticipated finding Rebekah's CO2 levels to be high, and he gave me a couple of treatment options for that.  He was quite surprised at how low the levels were, and showed me that the lower the CO2 levels were, the more events Rebekah had.  So, one of the goals Dr. G has is to actually increase the amount of CO2 that Rebekah retains, in the hope that it will decrease the number of events that she is having.  One of the ways Dr. G wants to increase the CO2 is by increasing the amount of oxygen Rebekah is on overnight.  Rebekah has been on 0.5 liters of oxygen for a long time now - well over a year, and that is a good therapeutic level for her pulmonary hypertension.  However, Dr. G wants to "pin her to the ceiling" (his words, not mine) with oxygen in the hopes that the more oxygen going in, the more her CO2 levels will rise and hopefully the less apnea we will see.  It sure is worth a try!  So during Rebekah's next sleep study they will be trying her out on 1.5 or 2.0 liters of oxygen to see if that makes any measurable difference in the number of apnea events that we see.

Baby in a Box!  :)

Even though it appears that the central apnea is entirely, or at least in part, related to the CO2 levels in Rebekah's body, Dr. G is still recommending an MRI to rule out the possibility of any possible cranial or spinal malformations.  One in particular is Chiari (pronounced key-ARE-ee) Malformation, in which a piece of the skull is abnormally shaped and presses into the base of the brain or the brain stem.  Among other things, this could cause the type of central sleep apnea that we see in Rebekah.  Dr. G really doesn't think that we are going to find anything abnormal in the MRI, but with Rebekah's complicated medical history, he doesn't want to assume that the apnea is related to something else, without ruling out some brain and/or spine abnormalities.

Rebekah was given a small 

Hello Kitty suitcase on Sunday.

She is in love!

It will likely be late spring or early summer before the MRI is scheduled.  Dr. G wants Rebekah to be comfortable with her CPAP machine for a while, so that she can use it when she comes out of the sedation.  Yes, this MRI will involve sedation and intubation.  We would love to be able to schedule it when she is in Charleston for a heart cath or vocal cord scope.  We'll just have to see how the next couple of months play out and which doctors want to see her when.  We were told June or July for her next cath date, so we could potentially make it work if everyone can coordinate together.  What a blessing it would be to only have Rebekah intubated once and do both the cath and MRI at the same time!

I think that's everything I can remember from the sleep study.  I hope it's everything that we covered!  Rebekah has her first speech therapy on Thursday, so we would appreciate prayers that it goes well.  She should have had her first session last week, but we had to cancel due to sick brothers.  Hopefully everyone stays well between now and Thursday!

Please continue to pray for our little buddies at MUSC.  As far as I have heard, there have not been any significant changes today.  Especially remember their parents and families in prayer.  The days are agonizingly long when you are waiting, hoping for some sign of improvement.

Nancy

Sleep Study Results

So, we were up bright and early this morning for Rebekah's appointment with Dr. G this morning.  If you haven't personally experienced Dr. G, he is a super energetic morning person with severe ADHD!!  I'm just kidding - I really have no idea if he has ADHD, or even if he is a morning person, but I can tell you that he has so much energy that he practically bounces from room to room.  He also changes topics with the speed of a ping pong ball.  :)  It was great, but my foggy sleep-deprived brain actually had to work to keep up with him! All kidding aside, he is very, very knowledgeable in his field, and super nice.  We really like him.

Now for the results.  Dr. G walked in with at least a 1" thick stack of papers from Rebekah's sleep study, sat down and said, "Wow, where do I even begin?"  Hmmmm.  Not the words we really wanted to hear to start off the appointment!  I'll start with the easy stuff first and then some of the more complicated.

First Rebekah has both obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea.  The "events" (lingo for apnea episodes) average about 8 times an hour (for obstructive) and about 9 times an our (for central).  So, as you can see, she does not have one predominate type of apnea.  She's an equal opportunity kind of girl!  :)  If she only had one or the other of the types of apnea at the frequency above, she would fall somewhere in the "moderate" apnea range.  However, looking at the big picture, she has an average of 17 events per hour, which puts her into the "severe" apnea category.  And if that wasn't enough, she also has something called periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD), which basically means that she involuntarily moves her legs (and arms) all night.  Yes, I know; I've slept with her before.  Trust me, she thrashes!  :)

What is the next step, you ask?  The first thing we had done today was to have bloodwork done to test Rebekah's iron levels.  Apparently there are some links between low iron and PLMD in people who have heart problems.  Given Rebekah's heart history, we felt that was a good place to start.  If Rebekah's iron is low, she will begin taking iron supplements.  If not, there are some medications that can help control the thrashing so that she can rest more at night.

As far as the apnea goes, the name of the game is slow and steady.  We aren't going to pinpoint, diagnose and treat every issue in the next two weeks.  In fact, I'll be happy if six months from now we are on top of Rebekah's sleep issues!  For now we are beginning with another sleep study (oh, goody!) two weeks from tonight.  Rebekah will be evaluated using a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine which will forcefully blow air into Rebekah's nose to keep her airways open.  It will still be up to Rebekah's body to "breathe" the air in, but the machine will not allow her airways to collapse.  Big prayer request over the next two weeks is that Rebekah gets used to the mask before we use it.  It is a small, triangular shaped mask that fits perfectly over her little nose.  There are velcro straps that attach it to a small mesh cap that fits around the back of her head.  The cap and velcro help hold the mask in place.  During the sleep study, the technicians will be making many adjustments to the CPAP machine to try to get the optimal settings for Rebekah.  If the CPAP works well, great!  If not, we will be rescheduled for a trial on the BiPap (Bi-level positive airway pressure).  The BiPap would actually measure Rebekah's breathing and if she went for so many seconds without a breath, it would force a breath into her.  We will just need to see where Rebekah's needs fall and what type of treatment works best for her.

One of the pieces of good news we learned today is that Rebekah's EEG (measures brain activity) that was done during her initial sleep study did not have any red flags on it.  We haven't gotten the official neurologist's report yet, but Dr. G said if there was a huge "red flag" that he would be able to see it on the report.  We are very thankful for that good news!!

There is a little more information from the sleep study, but I am honestly exhausted and ready for bed.  I'm losing focus of what I'm typing!  :)  I will try to finish the rest of the update tomorrow, but in the meantime I will leave you with the first good video we have gotten of Rebekah since her vocal cord paralysis.  Since some of her words are difficult to hear and understand, I will post a translation below the video.  Enjoy!!

Jesus loves me ...I know

For the Bible tells me

Taggie!

Hey, shoes!

Hey, necklace!

No

Mommy, can you help me?

I need a (something that I don't understand)

Bye!

Deep and wide

Notice that Rebekah has her priorities - accessories, shoes and jewelry!  :)  I love that it so perfectly shows Rebekah's personality, even if it is hard to hear her voice.  If you really want to hear the difference, go back to this video where Rebekah sings part of Jesus Loves Me.  The difference is really amazing.  We have really gotten used to Rebekah's "new" normal voice, and every time I listen to the older video, I am just amazed at what her voice used to be.  Wow.

Please continue to pray for all of our little friends at MUSC.  There have been no significant changes today, and I know their families appreciate the prayer!

Nancy

Prayer

I know I should be in bed, but I really wanted to post a quick update to ask for prayer for three special babies at MUSC who are fighting hard tonight.

Bobby had a band placed on one of his pulmonary arteries last week Monday (this is the first surgery that Rebekah had done when she was a week old).  He had a great week, but has been struggling this weekend.  Today the doctors think that he has pneumonia and that his lungs are collapsing.  The situation is not good, and he is in critical condition.  Family is headed down to MUSC to be with Bobby and his parents.  I know they would desperately covet your prayers.

Jackson is the little boy whose parents we met the night Rebekah was supposed to be transferred to the step-down floor, but they didn't have a bed for her.  He was doing so well right after we left the PCICU, but took a bad turn shortly after that.  Just last week he had his FOURTH open heart surgery (since the week before Christmas).  Please pray for Jackson and his family.  They are weary and fearful for their son.

Martin is a beautiful baby born less than two weeks ago with HLHS.  He had his first stage surgery on Tuesday last week, and has been struggling to keep his oxygen levels in a good range.  His heart defect is vastly different from Rebekah's, but like Rebekah was before her second surgery, there is a "target" range for acceptable oxygen levels.  Too low and things are bad; too high and it causes other problems.  I know his parents would appreciate prayers for Martin, that the doctors could find a reason for his low oxygen and be able to get him to a safer level.

On a happy note, (not-so-little-anymore!!) baby Jude is doing very well!  He was upgraded to a bed by the window so he can start to get a feel for days and nights.  He has some pulmonary hypertension issues (like Rebekah), and the doctors are working with some medications to try to get that under control.  He was on pain medications for quite a while longer than Rebekah ever was, and he is struggling to wean off those meds. They tried a new medication this week to help "bridge" the gap off his old meds this week, and it seems to be working better.  His parents have also requested that we pray for him to regain his sucking reflex; right now he doesn't want anything to do with something in or near his mouth (not that I blame him, but it is kind of important that he get the hang of sucking a pacifier and/or bottle).

All four of these little guys (And, yes, they are all boys! Rebekah is outnumbered!!) are from the Greenville area, and we have connections to each of the families.  Some we are very close friends of the family; others are a friend-of-a-friend situation.  Regardless of how we came to know about each of these families, they are each close to our hearts, and tonight our hearts are heavy for our friends and the struggles they are facing with their little ones.  Please join us in prayer for each of these families.  Oh, and Rebekah has an early appointment with the sleep doctor for the results of her sleep study.  Please pray for wisdom and that we will know where to proceed with the results.

As always, we thank you for praying!

Nancy

Much needed update!

Wow! I can't believe it has been three weeks since my last post!  I would ask where time has gone, but unfortunately, I know exactly where it has gone!  :)  We've had some rounds of colds and illness (including pneumonia) for the last few weeks, and I have had very little time to do anything besides cover the basics!

Okay, so where to begin....let's start with the swallow study.  As we all suspected, Rebekah failed her swallow study last week.  She aspirated thin liquids, so she is restricted to nectar-consistency or thicker beverages.  She did well on thickened liquids and solids.  Just as part of our trial-and-error trying to figure out how to best help Rebekah drink, we have discovered a few interesting facts.  First, Rebekah does much better with room temperature or warm liquids than she does with cold.  For example, she does great with tap water, but tends to aspirate more with ice water.  So we make it a point to try to give as many room temp drinks as we can.

Rebekah loves to do "school" with her brothers! :) 

The other thing we found is that Rebekah does much, much better drinking from an open cup (with no lid) or a straw, versus a sippy cup.  The motion of tipping her head back to drink from a sippy leaves her airways wide open and unprotected, which leads to more frequent aspiration.  Using an open cup, or straw cup keeps Rebekah's head more level (or even tilted down slightly), which helps her to naturally protect her airways when she drinks.  We haven't found anything that is 100% foolproof as far as eliminating aspiration (other than restricting drinks altogether), but we have been able to greatly reduce the number of incidents that she has had.

 Sweet Caleb

Cute little story here - Caleb fell asleep on the couch one day last week.  He was so cute that apparently Rebekah felt the need to give him kisses.  Maybe it's the only time he is still long enough for her to kiss!  :)  If you think of it, please pray for Caleb.  He has been running a fairly high fever since Saturday and started coughing yesterday.  This is exactly the same way Aaron started out with what was eventually pneumonia.  We are heading to the pediatrician in the morning to hopefully get some antibiotics before Caleb gets to pneumonia.  Also, please pray that Rebekah doesn't come down with this particularly nasty bug.  Aaron was sick for almost three weeks, and he doesn't have any of the extra medical challenges that Rebekah has.

 Gotcha!

Some friends of ours took a trip to Disney in December and brought Rebekah her very own authentic Mickey Mouse!  Can we say that she is in love??!  She was absolutely thrilled with her Mickey, and it has a permanent position in her bed now.  :)  Each of the boys also received a special gift from Disney, and they were all very excited.  Thank you so much for the gifts!!

 Rebekah loves her Mickey!

So, the other big test Rebekah had since the last time I posted was a sleep study.  Boy, was that crazy!  Those of you who have lived through a sleep study know what I'm talking about.  :)  Those of you who haven't - be very, very grateful!! :)  Let's just say that it should be called a non-sleep study.  Rebekah did actually sleep for most of it, albeit extremely restlessly.  I, on the other hand, heard every moan, cry, whimper, beep and buzz along with every time the technician came in the room with a flashlight to readjust something.

 Yep, I'm cute!

To start with, there was an hour-long process of getting Rebekah all hooked up to the monitors.  She had 20-something leads on her head (read: in her hair!), another half dozen or more on her face, five on her chest, some on her arms, two on each leg, and a band around her chest and another around her stomach.  And she was supposed to sleep with all of that on!!

The leads on Rebekah's head were first coated with a rubber cement-ish type of vaseline substance.  I'm not really sure how else to describe it.  It was kind of pasty like vaseline, but was gloppy and sticky like rubber cement.  Except it wasn't permanently sticky.  Yeah, bath time that morning was loads of fun.  Her hair was so sticky and frizzed out that I could barely stuff it all into the hood of her jacket to take her to the car to go home.  I have to say, though, that the advice from the technician was great.  We wet Rebekah's hair in the bathtub, slathered on loads of conditioner, let it sit for five minutes or so, then rinsed it all out.  Then we shampooed, rinsed and conditioned again.  It really did work to get almost all of the goo out of her hair.

So what did we find out from the sleep study?  We don't find out until next Monday.  :(  The technician did tell me before we left, though, that they were able to get some good information, so that was encouraging.  We do know from our initial consultation with the sleep doctor that he felt like THE INCIDENT sounded more like central apnea than obstructive apnea.  If that is the case, then Rebekah will have a referral made to a neurologist for a consult and probably an MRI.  He also said that it is rare, but possible, for a child to have both central apnea and obstructive apnea.  We will find out for sure on Monday.

Rebekah was also evaluated by her speech therapist two weeks ago.  She usually checks in with us every six months to see how Rebekah is progressing, and we had decided to wait until after Rebekah's most recent surgery to begin therapy for Rebekah's nasal speech (a result of her high palate/larynx abnormalities caused by DiGeorge Syndrome, NOT because of the paralyzed vocal cord).  Anyway, Rebekah's vocabulary is far above average for her age, as is her receptive language.  Rebekah will begin speech therapy next week for 30 minutes/week to work on her articulation.  Just to give you an idea - her therapist was able to pinpoint some of the nasal sounds that Rebekah makes.  Rebekah's t's and d's sound more like n's.  Her b's and p's sound more like m's.  One of the words that we really pick up on this is today.  It sounds very much like noo-nay.

Ahhh...the hair is much better!  :)

That's about all for now, I guess.  We are waiting to see what the sleep doctor has to say on Monday.  We're also praying that Caleb doesn't develop pneumonia, and that Rebekah doesn't catch this illness.  Thank you for praying for us!

Nancy