Baby Cold

As noted on Ten on Tuesday Zane has been pretty crabby on and off since Sunday. He had some other symptoms as well such as an occasional low grade fever, being congested at night, having a little pathetic cough, chewing on his hands, drooling ect... After Ten on Tuesday my sister in law, a mother of four healthy kids, mentioned the possibility of all this being caused by and ear infection. While I am a nurse and could easily tell you if your kid is seizing or having a shunt malfunction, I don't really know much about "normal" baby illnesses. So not wanting to chance Zane having any kind of infection this close to surgery and after a night with a crabby boy, I took Zane to the doctor.

Good news, his ears look great!!! He probably just has a baby cold and she suggested putting a humidifier in his room, which we had planned on previously but never got around to. I was also surprised to hear that our cardiologist hadn't told my primary pediatrician that Zane's surgery had been scheduled. I felt kind of bad about it, but I just assumed someone had let her know. We rescheduled his 4 month appointment, which was originally scheduled for 6 days before his surgery, to three weeks after surgery. They don't want him getting any immunizations that close to surgery and didn't want to risk him catching something in the doctor's office either. So that will put him a month or so behind on all his shots but I'm sure he will be fine. As we were walking  out of the office I was talking to Zane telling him how excited I was that he didn't have ear infections and I just busted out laughing at the strange reality that is my life. I am super excited about my babies healthy ears but then remember oh yeah he still has a congenital heart defect. What a crazy life!!!!!!

Ten on Tuesday

1. This is how I start off my Tuesdays now; "Oh it's been __ weeks since Dad died," "Oh no it's only __ weeks until Zane's surgery," and finally " I need to write ten on Tuesday." To fill in those blanks 3 weeks and 4 weeks respectively.

2. We got Zane's three month picture proofs back today and they are amazing. He is freaking cute and I can kind of see a little bit of me in him which is exciting, but still mainly Zach. He does look really bald in the pictures since they were taken outside but he is still super adorable. I will put them up in my Picasa album as soon as she sends me the CD.

3. Still having horrible left lower back pain. Feels like I am being stabbed in the back when I walk. I had planned on going to the doctor yesterday but Zane had other plans, see number 4.

4. Zane was super crabby on and off all day yesterday. He would be big chilling then go to ultimate freak out. He also was chewing on his hand to the point that he would gag himself ( see photo below) and proceed to throw up. He was making raspberry noises all day, drooling/spitting like a maniac, and had a low grade fever. After a day of this at around 5 I started to think the teething process might be starting. Not fun for anybody. Needless to say I didn't get done all that I had planned for yesterday and ended the day feeling like I might be ready to go to work today but then remembered that my job consists of dealing with screaming babies and handing out Tylenol so really no break from it.

5. I did finally get all my fall decorations put up yesterday while Zane was sleeping. It gets me in the mood for Halloween and then I remember I will be at the hospital on Halloween. It also makes me want to have a fire in our fire place and curl up with some warm tea, I bet I can make that happen. The cool weather is lovely and also helping put me in the fall mood.

6. All the Sooners shirts except Adeline's came yesterday. Adeline's was on back order so we have to get her one to complete the set. I must say I love all the Sooner support.

7. Speaking of supporting the Sooners, this weekend is the OU vs. Texas game and I have to work :( This is probably just as well since OU vs. Texas generally stresses me out. Texas did lose to UCLA last week which was awesome, so maybe we can pull out the W this year. GO SOONERS!!!!!!!

8. I am finally getting my hair cut Friday. I haven't been since the week before Zane was born. My friend Amy from work, who has been dying to play with Zane, is going to baby sit, thanks Amy! Man a lot has happened since I got my hair cut last.

9. Zane's banana costume came in the mail today and it is the cutest thing ever. There is a little soft hat that looks like the top of a banana and it says "top banana" on it. Zane will be rocking that well past Halloween. The costume itself could also double as a sleep sack if I really wanted to use it as that, which honestly would brighten my day so I might just do it.

10. My friend Michelle went with me to look at the ICU parents lounge today. I had previously gone down and looked at the surgery waiting room. It helps me to be able to picture where I will actually be because if I hadn't gone to look at these places in advance I would still be picturing them as the most depressing dark rooms ever, which of course is not the case at Children's where everything is clean and bright. It also makes things more real, which is bad but on the same hand helps me to prepare. So thanks Michelle for the moral support!

Happy 6th Birthday Blaine!!!!

Blaine is our second oldest nephew. He was born while Zach and I were dating. When he was born he had a rare blood disorder which caused him to be unable to make new red blood cells. He was hospitalized for this for a while and had to have multiple blood transfusions during the first three months of his life. When he was three months old he started to make his own red blood cells and has been going 100 mph ever since. He will tell you that he was a miracle baby and boy is he right. I had never prayed for any child as much as I prayed for Blaine until Zane was born with his very own medical problem.

Today Blaine is one of the most tender hearted little boys I have ever met. He frequently does or says things that bring tears to my eyes they are so sweet and loving. For example, my first Christmas that I was away from my family I was getting sad during Christmas Eve mass and about the time I thought I was going to cry Blaine came over and gave me a hug and sat on my lap. Or when we brought Zane down to meet everyone Blaine came over and was looking at him in his bouncy seat. He asked me if he was still sick and told me he wished that he could be fixed now so he wouldn't have to be sick any more, melted my heart.

 Blaine looks like his mother, loves chocolate, is a dare devil, and a huge blessing in the lives of his Aunt and Uncle. We love you Blaine, Happy 6th Birthday!!!!!!!!!!

Korenak Weekend

Zach and I decided that we were going to head down to S.E. MO over the weekend to watch our nephew Clay play for the miniature Sooners and to take part in the birthday celebration for our other nephew Blaine. The trip started off a little rocky. I didn't get home from work Friday until 8:15 so we didn't get out the door until 9 (keep in mind it is a 2.5 hour drive when there is now traffic problems). On Friday there was  a lot of traffic "problems" mainly construction which made HW 55 go down to one lane which meant driving at about 10 miles an hour for way too long.

We finally made it to Zach's parent's house at midnight. Zane woke up when we took him out of his car seat so I said " Zach go get Zane's bag out of  the car so we can feed him and get him ready for bed." One minor problems, we forgot to put that bag in the car... AWESOME! So we had two servings of formula, about 5 diapers, two outfits ( both shorts and it was chilly outside), and two bottles in the diaper bag to get us through the night. Zane was up pretty much the rest of the night. I would say total Zach and I got about 3 hours of sleep.

At 6am when Zane was ready to play I headed off to the super Walmart in Dexter MO. For a Walmart in a town where everyone has tons of kids I was amazed at how little baby stuff this Walmart had. It was a struggle to find what I needed to get through the next two days. But I paid my $93 of tuition to society and left with formula, diapers, onsies, pants, socks, bottles ect. for the weekend. I was home by 7:30am with plenty of time to get ready for Clay's 9am Little Sooners football game.

On Wed. of last week Zach had decided, in an effort to cheer me up and to have a fun family day at the football game, to buy OU shirts for his parents and his sister's entire family. This was a decently expensive endeavor because he bought the 2-3 day shipping ( 3 business days being Monday, not Friday, but surely they would get here before we left). No not so much, only Levi's (our 1 year old nephew) shirt arrived in time. Of course I had a Sooners shirt and Levi looked great in his first OU shirt, which was quickly covered in drool. But we had a great time at the game non the less. I sang all the OU football songs and Adeline joined in with me while I was singing Boomer Sooner. For those of you who don't know Boomer Sooner consists of saying Boomer Sooner over and over until the very end so it was easy for a three year old to get the hang of it. I gave the family a little history lesson on the difference between Boomers and Sooners. Boomers were anyone who ran in the Oklahoma land run and the Sooners were people who went and found where they wanted to stake their claim before the land run, this technically was cheating, but I just see it as good planning, hence my Great Grandfather was able to stake his claim by a creek, intelligent. Of course the Sooners beat the Gators and Clay did great! I left thinking that that was probably the closest I was going to get to a Sooners game for a long time.

Saturday afternoon Zach and I pushed through our utter exhaustion to help decorate for Blaine's 6th b-day party. The theme for the party was racing complete with a bicycle obstacle course set up for the kids. Trina made an awesome dirt bike mountain cake that we thought might fall of the stand as it started to lean farther and father back throughout the day, but we gathered everyone up for cake and ice cream just in time and it was very tasty. The party went off without a hitch. We were so happy to be able to share in the birthday celebration. After the guests left we had a lovely family dinner, watched the big Sooners play on TV, and helped Trina organize her kitchen cabinets ( I love a good organizational challenge).

Saturday night Zach and I hit the hay early and Zane was an amazing little baby who slept from 9:30 until 6am with only a couple times where he needed his binki back. Thank you Zane, Mom and Dad really needed that. Also, thanks to Grammi and Papa who graciously played with Zane Sunday morning so we could get another couple hours of much needed sleep. We could hear them laughing and talking upstairs so I'm sure everyone had a great time. Sunday after church we had a big lunch and then just hung out around the house while the kids enjoyed a lovely fall day. We ended the day with "arts and crafts which Amy felt she needed to plan since we often have arts and crafts day in OK. We made hobo scarves, which consist of long pieces of yarn tied into knots, with only a little bit of a struggle when all our yarn got tangled up, but they turned out lovely.

It was a busy weekend but we had tons of fun!

Doctor's visit without Mom

I had to miss Zane's cardiologist appointment today which was very hard. It had been originally scheduled for September 10th but we were in OK so the only time they could reschedule it was for today and of course I was scheduled to work. I did go down and see him while they were waiting in heart station but couldn't stay for his echo/ekg.

It was so wrong to be at work and see him at my job as a patient. It brke my heart for him all over again. Zach said he did great in his echo/ekg until the very end when he got a little mad. He said he just turned his little head and watched the screen, probably use to it all at this point, which is sad.

Results of everything were basically the same. The cardiologist said that he thinks most of the pulmonary narrowing is still mostly around the valve so we holding out hope that they can just open that valve and not have to do the patch on his pulmonary artery. Strangely they didn't get his oxygen saturation ( if RN Mom was there she would have made them) but I guess they weren't concerned about it so that is good.

He weighs 14 lbs. 12oz. and I guess his rate of weight gain has steadily decreased. He was gaining weight very quickly when he was first born and now he is down to around average. Not really concerning since we are scheduled for surgery next month but still not great to hear.

Zach said we don't have to go back until our pre-op day which is good, but at the same time is a reminder of how terrifyingly (is that a word) close we are to his surgery. I am ready for it to be over but not ready to go through everything.

We are headed down to SEMO for the weekend for Blaine's Bday party and to watch the miniature Sooners play. My niece and nephews should be great happy thoughts for me, can't wait to see them. Have a great weekend.

Picture day

We had Zane's pictures made this afternoon at Tower Grove Park. Zane had taken a long nap right before we left so I had high hopes for him being awake and giggly for the photo shoot. In general if Zane is awake he is giggly. However, it was unnecessarily hot outside today for the end of September. The first spot we went had some rustic bench where we were able to sit Zane up by putting him in the corner of the bench. He was wearing his tie onsie he had on at his baptism, which actually is the right size now, and he was very giggly, at first. Then we put him in a basket with a blanket where he proceeded to get warm and cozy and fall asleep. So we decided to move on to the next place, but the short car ride there just put him further to sleep.

At the second location I changed him into his pearl snap romper, in hopes of waking him up. Not so much, but since he was so out of it we did get some really cute sleeping shots. This was slightly annoying to me because about 75% of the time when we lay him down in his comfy bed at night he wakes right up, but he could sleep right throw being put into a basket with his little head peaking over the edge, really Zane, come on. I woke him up a little in hopes of getting a pearl snap shot in honor of his Grandpa Blakley, but he just couldn't commit to waking up or sleeping so I'm afraid he is going to look weird in those pictures since his eyes were just barely open. I am also concerned that she secretly took pictures of me when I specifically said there should be no pictures of me taken under any condition at this point in my life. I in no way got cute for the photo shoot so I did not want to be part of it.

Hopefully she got some good pictures when he was smiling and I loved all the scenery and backgrounds of all the shots so we should have something good. I mean really any picture of Zane is going to be adorable, I just wish he would have had his eyes open for more of it. The photographer didn't charge me as much this time since it didn't take as long so it really was a great deal.

Paypal

Abbey added a paypal link for donations to Dad's scholarship fund on the side of my blog. That probably is easier to use than sending a check. Just wanted to give you the heads up. Thanks!

Ten on Tuesday

Ok so I have missed a few Tuesdays and frankly Tuesday is not my favorite day anymore. However, I'm back with Ten on Tuesday.

1. We are planning on getting Zane's three month pictures taken Thursday in the park. I'm not sure what you do with a three month old in a park but I think the outdoor lighting will be great. I went to try to find a new cute outfit today and found a little pearl snap romper, adorable!


2. Yesterday was my first day by myself with Zane since Dad died. It was really difficult to stay in the light. I found that occasionally out of no where I felt like I had been punched in the stomach, I was bent over with the wind knocked out of me, and I would burst into tears. Sometimes about Dad, sometimes about Zane, sometimes out of no where.


3. I have ordered Zane's Halloween costume. He is going to be a banana/heart patient. He will still be in the hospital, but should be out of the ICU and come hell or high water he will put on his little banana outfit at some point.


4. I miss the country. It feels wrong that I'm in St. Louis right now. In a perfect world I would sit on my parent's front porch for next six months. I miss the stars, the silence, and the peace I get from being able to look up and see a sky full of stars or sit on the front porch and see for miles.


5. My high school is having a blood drive in Dad/Zane's honor. For those of you in OK it is going to be at Pi-hi on October 20th. They will be putting and advertisement in the paper there, so keep your eyes peeled. I think it will be a great way for people to do something for Zane and Dad. I know that probably none of that blood will actually be used in Zane's surgery but it will go to save a lot of other people's lives which is amazing.


6. I am putting up my fall decorations even though it is still 90 degrees outside. I figure I usually do it the last week of September but since we will be missing the last week of October, in the hospital, I might as well put them up early. Also, I need to keep busy.


7. My fish Marty died over the weekend. We have had a ton of fish, we name them in alphebatical order and we had an oscar. So that tells you how many fish we have been through in the past four years. However, seriously I don't need anything even remotely depressing in my life currently. If Beverely ( the big orange fish we have had since we got married) dies it may push me over the edge.



8. I have managed to hurt my left lower back somehow. It hurt really bad last night and the 12 hour day of work didn't go over so well. Working tomorrow should be a blast.

9. We have tried feeding Zane some rice in his formula before he goes to bed. A friend told me this helps her baby sleep through the night. Lets just say he is still not sleeping through the night even with the rice. Sunday night he woke up more than he has in weeks.


10. I just have to say I absolutely hate that Dad died on Zach's birthday. Just wanted to get that off my chest.



BONUS HAPPY THOUGHT:

Thank You!

I wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who has donated to Dad's scholarship fund. We had talked about starting this scholarship fund a couple years ago with the original plan being that each of us kids and our parents would donate a certain amount of money each year which would be awarded to student at Pioneer High School.

Dad was a huge advocate for higher education at Pioneer High School. He would encourage his students daily to seek out a higher education and to go see the world outside of Pioneer/Enid. He had a great passion for learning new things and did so daily up until he left us.

Your generous donations to Dad's scholarship fund will keep his passion for education working in children's lives for years to come.

Donations can still be made to the Danny Blakley Scholarship Fund through the First Bank and Trust in Covington, OK. You can call the bank or send a check to:

First Bank and Trust
4th St
Covington, OK 73730
(580) 864-7421

Again, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! It means so so much to our entire family.

My People

I do not have a ton of close friends like my brother and sister do. Part of this is because I'm lazy and loose touch with people easily, I will admit it. Part of it is to do with the fact that I spent all of college either in the library or in Missouri visiting my boyfriend. But the few close friends I have are amazing and I wanted to send a shout out and a big thank you to "my people": Anna and Jess.

After I found out about my father passing away I called both of them as soon as I pulled myself together. They both were shocked, as we all were, but they put aside their sadness of losing a father figure and the sadness for my loss, and became my strength. Dad died on a Tuesday and both of them informed me they had taken off the rest of the week within an hour of hearing the news. They were ready to do whatever they needed to do to keep me standing.

The irony in this is that Dad had made Anna promise him, when we were in college, that she would be there for our family in "a time of need" (specifically when he died). This had been a running joke between all of us since then, because of course my father wasn't going to be dying for years ( his mother lived to be 94 for Pete's sake). As I called her to tell her the news that conversation with Dad years ago popped back into my mind, as if he knew all along this was going to happen at some point, sooner rather than later. Looking back there were a lot of conversations that make me think this.

Anna kept her promise and of course was joined by my long time best friend Jess. I don't know why initially I was so surprised at their willingness to drop everything for me and my family, those are the kind of people I surround myself with and really don't have the time or energy for the others. So they both showed up at the farm on Wed. At first I wasn't sure how much they would need to do. I knew they could watch the kids while we went to the funeral home, but past that I wasn't sure. They both decided they would stay all week and boy were they a blessing.

They watched all three kids while we went to plan the funeral, Friday night during the visitation, and all the time in between when the rest of us where struggling with a much slower reaction time. Truth be told they probably saved Maggie's life at some time during the week. We would see her eating something or trying to go outside and say no, but just couldn't muster the strength to run over and stop her. They also delivered happy thoughts (children) to whoever needed them at the time.

They cleaned our house (toilets included), kept the laundry going, got up early, stayed up late, slept on air mattresses, and had a constant eye on me making sure they were at the ready to over see any breakdowns that may be coming. They rubbed my feet and shoulders, gave me hugs at just the right time, and let us be alone with our thoughts when we needed it. They helped me get through the worst week of my life with grace.

My friend, Emily, who I have known since 5th grade, also was a great source of strength and support. However, Emily was one of the few people who when I saw I immediately burst into tears. This was because I know how much Dad loved her and thought of her as his own daughter. He had loved her since we were in 5th grade. Through all the bad friends I had in high school and junior high Emily remained the one person that Dad would always say he loved and would constantly be thanking her for being my friend. She came out to the farm to visit and our babies, who were born just two days apart, got to have a little play date which was a bright spot in the sadness. On the day of the funeral I could feel her love and prayers surrounding me even though it took me about half of the service to find her in the crowd. Her hugs made me burst into tears but also gave me so much strength. (She also gave me sunglasses for the cemetery which was key, thanks Em!)

As the week drew on every one's "people" showed up to help and provide comfort. Abbey had two people there for her doing all the same things, Mom's "person" flew in from Arizona, Able's "people" were present and comforting to him. My Aunt Ann's "person" from OKC even came up for her though I'm not sure she had even ever met dad. They were all great blessings and a great comfort to us all. So I just want to say a big thank you and I love you to "my people." I could literally not have made it through the week without you.

Three month update

I ended Zane's two month update by saying " The next month is going to be one of the hardest months of our lives. I can't even imagine what the third month update will entail." I can't believe how true that turned out to be but not in the way we had expected.

Zane did not end up having his surgery in September, as was briefly discussed, but now is scheduled for surgery October 26th. So we have one more month with our happy baby before all the craziness of his surgery begins. I am more confident in his surgery going smoothly now that I know he has his Grandpa Blakley as his personal guardian angel. It always helps to have an angel that has met you and who adored you. The last time I talked to Dad he was telling me his plans to buy a one way ticket here and he was going to stay until "everything was ok." I feel him here and know he will be here "until everything is ok." I just am struggling to think of going through all of this without any comforting hugs from my dad. Sigh

Anyway, back to Zane. The third month was difficult but Zane has been doing great. We actually haven't been to the doctor in a while since we missed his appointment last week while we were in OK. We are going Friday though so we shall see how he is doing heart wise then. We weighed him at home a couple days ago and he is right around 15 and a half pounds. I hadn't taken many pictures of him over the past week so yesterday when I took his pictures in his game day apparel he looked a lot different to me. Mainly I think he is chubbier and longer which is good. This is Zane in the first of four OU game day outfits yesterday. He kept vomitting on them and I just kept putting him in different OU clothes.

In exciting news we have confirmed that Zane will have triple dimples just like cousin Maggie. Apparently we could have confirmed this a long time ago if Zach and I ever spoke to each other. I had seen the left dimple and Zach had seen the right dimple but we hadn't discussed this. Zach saw a big smile on Thursday which confirmed all his dimples. This is easily the highlight of the past week for me. Zane has been very smiley and giggly through all the difficult times and was every one's happy thought. If anyone got teary or really down we would just hand them Zane and they would pull up quickly. What a blessing to have a sweet baby boy to brighten the lives of the heart broken. (This picture is Zane bringing smiles in some vintage shorts we found in a random drawer at the lake cabin.)

*Maggie and Brendan were wonderful happy thoughts for everyone as well they just aren't as easy to hold these days.

Zane is eating better and I think the pepcid has really helped his belly. He still has his stubborn moments where he is hungry but too mad to eat, silly boy. In the airport, on the way home from OK, he was obviously hungry but wasn't eating so I stood him on my lap. He opened his mouth like a little bird so we tried feeding him standing up, he drank the full 6 oz in no time. I could feel people thinking I was crazy, but you can't argue with results. It was also highly entertaining. On that note he did fly for the first time this month. We hadn't planned on being able to fly or go back to OK until probably early next year because we didn't want to get him sick on a plane or be to far away from his doctors. But plans changed and Zane was a champion flier. He would have had no problems at all but while waiting to board our flight home another little boy was crying so he joined in. He slept through both flights and overall was a real trooper.


I think after our trip to OK Zane has officially met pretty much everyone who loves him and tons of people who are praying for him. Every person at the funeral or visitation knew about his condition and assured us they had and would be praying for him. I can't believe how many people are storming the heavens for our little man. I was glad everyone got to meet him, especially my Grandpa, Aunts, and Uncles.

He has done very well the few times he has been to day care and hasn't caught any colds from the other kids yet ( knock on wood). I do think he has had a little cold this week after returning from OK which was expected what with tons of kisses and two plane rides. He had a low grade fever Wed. and Thurs. night and a stuffy nose but it seems to have pasted. Luckily he wasn't bothered by it at all.


All and all Zane is a very happy baby. He still loves to stand and sit up. He definitely doesn't like being held like a baby anymore. Recently we also learned that he loves watching our big screen TV which I feel bad about but is hysterical. We learned this on his first game day two weeks ago ( post to come shortly). I told him he can watch all the TV he wants if he will look left to watch it. He still fights looking left, but we are working on it. No real milestones this month, just getting better at controlling his little head, finding his hands, and making all kinds of adorable sounds/giggles. Yesterday he did manage to turn himself 90 degrees in his gym, that was new and not quite sure how he managed it. The picture to the right is Zane relaxing on the couch watching football.

Here is hoping for a very uneventful fourth month!

Still standing

Wow, so if you thought my blog was depressing before, get ready it has gotten a whole lot sadder, sorry!

So I don't really know what to say but I wanted to let everyone know that I am still standing, thanks to the prayers and support of my wonderful friends and amazing family. Zach, Zane and I were in Oklahoma until Wed. and then we all returned to work Thursday. Able is in OK with Mom for the next month and they seem to be doing as well as can be expected. I want to tell all of you who never got the chance to meet my dad what an amazing man he was, but there is so much to say and I can't decide where to start. I will probably just share a little at a time as I am able to put my love for him and the heartbreak I am feeling currently into words.

From the Korenak branch of the Blakley family I want to extend my deepest gratitude for the prayers, food, flowers, kind words, emails, text messages, love and support that you have all sent our way. I find it hard to believe that I am still able to function and I know it is purely because I'm being held up on all sides by those who love me. Thanks!

A day with the Grandmothers

I was just sitting down to put the finishing touches on this post when Able called me last Tuesday with the earth shattering news about my father. Today was the first day I could face even thinking about blogging and I saw that this post was already written. This trip to the botanical gardens, which really was only two weeks ago, feels like an eternity ago. As my Grandpa has told me numerous times this past week "It is a whole different world now." How quickly life changes.

After our depressing Thursday at the hospital Zane and I need to go on an adventure outside of the house. Since it was absolutely gorgeous outside we headed to the Botanical Gardens with all of Zane's Grandmother's. Zach's mom happened to be in town visiting her mother so it worked out perfectly. We couldn't have asked for a nicer day. It was about 70 degrees with a little breeze, perfect for taking a leisurely stroll through the gardens.

The Japanese Festival started on Saturday so we were there during all the final preparations. We did see some fun fish flags/kites but other than that we just saw the set up, not really the event. I was very happy to see the floating glass balls were back in the big Lilly pad pond. They were there when I first went to the garden with Zach a few years ago, but had been MIA the past couple times we had gone. They add such a beautiful punch of color, they were definitely my favorite part.

Zane slept for most of the adventure but did wake up for a little bit so he could look around and enjoy the outside. He hasn't really been outside much since he was born, but the past week we have started to spend more time outside since the weather is cooling off (knock on wood). Saturday after walking around the garden he did start to sneeze, have some watery eyes, and a runny nose though so he may have little baby allergies ( if that is even possible). It is super adorable/pathetic when he rubs his little nose and eyes. Here he is holding our map for us.

After the gardens we went to eat on The Hill and picked up some fresh desserts from The Missouri Bakery. Then we headed home to prepare for Zach's b-day dinner. We grilled hamburgers and brauts, per Zach's request. Of course we had to have a chocolate heart shaped cake, which in ironic news didn't come out of the pan right and ended up being a chocolate broken heart cake ( sad face).

course the Grandmother's loved getting to see Zane and take their turns at holding him. He was very adorable, obviously, and loved getting to see all of his Grandmother's at once. We even guilt tripped his Grandpa Korenak to drive up Saturday morning to join in the Saturday "Game Day" fun.

Devastated 2.0 PS Zane is fine.

My dad died unexpectedly Monday night. He was the greatest man I have ever known. There is a lot I would like to say about him but do not have the words right now. Please send prayers our way. For those wanting to send something the funeral home is Henninger - Hinson in Enid, OK. Visitation will be held friday night at 7 o'clock at the funeral home . Funeral will be held at Saint Joseph's Catholic church Bison, Oklahoma Saturday morning (9/11/10) 10:00am. Monetary donations may be sent to "The Danny Blakely Pioneer Scholarship Fund" First Bank and Trust Covington Oklahoma.

Meeting the Surgeon/highlight of the day

Today was the big day when we finally met with Zane's Cardiac surgeon. As I suspected this was a very anticlimactic day. Nothing of excitement happened at all. We arrived at Dr. Huddleston's office at 10:15, 15 minutes before our schedule "appointment" time of 10:30. We have come to realize that "appointment" really means the time you should show up to start waiting to see you doctor. Today we waited an hour and a half in the tiniest waiting room ever. I got pretty claustrophobic when we went in because it was completely full ( four families). Zane did pretty good waiting but really would have liked to be playing in his gym or chair and not being held.

The long wait was followed by our "big" meeting with the surgeon. By big I mean maybe 10 minutes max. He didn't go through the details of everything again since his nurse practitioner had done that last week. He gave us what sounded like a speel he has given hundreds of times ( took this as a good sign ) to many families in our same situation. He went over what could possibly go wrong/the risks of surgery. Not something I want to think about but I know that he had to tell us. He sounded very confident in the surgery going well and Zane recovering fine. His ego and confidence were palpable in the room, which is definitely what I want from my babies heart surgeon.

There was really nothing new to take away from the situation. He thought Zane was big enough now but still wanted to let his immune system get a little better, so the plan is to schedule his surgery for some time after his four month bday (Oct. 19th) and before Halloween. Which really could have been phrased the last two weeks of October, but whatever. The NP checked Zane's O2 sats after the meeting and they were fine, sitting at 97% which is great.

We got home from our 10:30 appointment at around 2pm with really nothing to report to our families who were nervously waiting. The day as a whole was utterly depressing and very strange. You never picture having to meet the man who will literally have your baby's life in his hands. I hope no one reading this will ever have to experience it, it is the worst feeling ever.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY:

So today was difficult but there was one big shinning moment. My oldest nephew Clay, who is 7, has started playing flag football and found out today that his team will be THE SOONERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How exciting is that? Apparently the team was originally going to be the longhorns ( BOOOOO) but the uniforms were on back order so they decided to be the Sooners. So obviously the coach doesn't know about the Texas vs. OK situation, but whatever, I'm excited to cheer on my little Sooner nephew!!! Clay even called me this evening to tell me himself that he is going to be a Sooner. He was very excited to hear that his uniforms were going to be red and when I asked him what number he wanted to be he informed me that his favorite numbers were, and I quote "basically 10, 12, 16." Have I mentioned how much I love being an Aunt. GO SOONERS!