Lilly & Luke Halloween 2008

Lilly got to help daddy get the pumpkins ready for Halloween this year. She had fun digging out the pumpkin seeds and helping carve the faces. She loved seeing them all lit up on our front sidewalk.

Lilly and Luke did dress up for Halloween this year. Lilly originally wanted to be a football player. We had seen an infant football costume in one of the newspaper ads and decided that Luke would be a football for Halloween, so then Lilly pointed to the football player and said that she wanted to be that. But then once we got to the store and she saw all of the pretty costumes, she decided against the football player and wanted to be a cheerleader instead.

Our Squadron here at Luke AFB had a Halloween party for the kids, Lilly had fun playing games, getting candy and other yummy treats, and playing with the other kids. We did take Lilly and Luke out for a little while on Halloween night too. Even though Lilly doesn't totally get it yet, she thought it was fun to walk around to the houses in our neighborhood and get candy. She even mastered the "trick or treat" part and then saying thank you once she got the treat. She also had fun watching all of the other kids in their costumes and wanted to help hand-out candy at our house. We had a fun Halloween!!

Lilly the biggest Big Sister

Lilly is doing great, she seems to love her little brother very much. We haven't had too many issues with jealously, but I guess that could still come. We have had some very minor issues of her wanting to be a baby again; but we were told that this was to be expected. She has done very well with the whole situation, especially considering that she was drug back and forth to the hospital to go visit Luke. Then she was expected to be quiet and sit still. Yeah right! Is that even possible for a 2 year old.

<Lovies for Baby Brother Luke



> Getting to hold Luke
for the first time with the

help of daddy

But now that Luke has been home for awhile, she is very used to him and wants to know where he is at all times. She is very helpful too; she gets diapers and throws them away, she gives Luke his pacifier when he drops it, and she even tries to calm him down when he is crying by shushing him and saying "Bubby Wuke (aka Bubby Luke) it's okay". She also is constantly wanting to help feed and burp him, and anything else that we let her help with. Sometimes she is a little too helpful, but we are glad that she is taking such an interest in him.

Our helpful Big Sister

Lilly amazes us almost on a daily basis, with everything that she is learning and
all of the things that she comes up with. Her personality has really evolved and she makes us laugh all of the time. She can not only count to ten, but she also recognizes and can name all of the numbers 1-10 when written for her. She also has mastered naming all of the ABC's; this is one of her favorite things to do - we write random letters and she tells us what they are. She is having a little difficulty saying her ABC's in order, but with a little help she does quite well. She also sings and does the dances to many songs and mimics reading several of her favorite books. She is very polite little girl and says "please", "thank you" and "you're welcome", with only minimal reminders. Don't get us wrong, she is a true 2-year- old, and has her moments where she throws temper tantrums and tells us "no". But those seem to be getting less and less. She definitely keeps us busy and on our toes, but we are cherishing this age and all of the things that come with it.

Even with all that was going on with Luke, Lilly did get to do some fun things. She spent some time with our friends, the Hedges'. Thankfully they were able to keep Lilly for the first several days after this whole ordeal started and we did not have to worry about her; since we knew that she was being well taken care of by the entire Hedges' family. Lilly loved being with the Hedges' (her temporary family), I think she liked having 4 older "sisters". They took such good care of her and she had so much fun that we were afraid that she wouldn't want to come home. We were so grateful that Lilly was able to stay with the Hedges' until Aunt Brittany got into town.


< Lilly & Ellie Hedges

> Lilly & Ellie playing at Chuck E
Cheese's for Ellie's 3rd B-day party


Lilly with Nicole, Natalie & Ellie Hedges
at their farewell dinner before they head to Italy.

Lilly also got to go to a St. Louis Cardinals & Arizona Diamondbacks' game with daddy

Luke is 6 weeks old

Our little Luke is growing like a weed; after starting out so small-- 4lbs. 7.6oz,

and now after only 6 weeks he is pushing the 8 pound mark.

Luke is doing great!! He is such a sweet baby boy, he is a cuddler and loves to curl up almost in a ball and lay on our chests. When you hold him he'll look up and just smile (it's probably gas most of the time, but we'll say that he is smiling at us). The only times that he really cries is when he is hungry or needs a diaper change; he seems to be a pretty content little guy. But don't get me wrong, when he is mad, he has a high-pitched cry that can pierce an eardrum. But we think we will keep him!! Luke got circumcized on Monday, he had been a little fussier than normal, but is doing much better now.

Back to the hospital with Luke

Sorry it has been so long since the last update, but life got very crazy AGAIN. One week after Luke was released to come home - he had to go back to the ER. On the 30th of August, we noticed him acting different, he seemed to be more tired and not really wanting to eat very much. I started to get concerned, but then we remembered what the nurses told us; sometimes preemie babies get very sleepy and we would have to "convince" him to eat. So after a little while of trying to get him to eat and not having any luck, we put him in his bouncy chair and we were going to try again in a little while. At this point my "mother's instinct" was telling me to make a phone call to an on-call NICU nurse - something wasn't right, he wasn't acting right. So as I was looking up the phone #, Matt yelled and said he thought Luke was turning blue. Matt put him on the floor to do CPR, but then Luke started breathing on his own. Since he was breathing on his own we were going to drive him ourselves to the ER at the hospital that is a few miles away. But on our way Matt called 911 to have them notify the hospital, but the operator told us to pull over & let the ambulance come to us; there was a fire station 1-2 blocks away - so we told the operator we were going there. About 6-7 fireman came running out of the firehouse and began to check Luke out and asked us exactly what happened. Luke was having some difficulty breathing by this time, so they gave an oxygen mask to help him out a little. Then an ambulance came & took us to the hospital.

We spent a couple hours at this ER as they tried to figure what was going on with him. They began running lots and lots of tests, hoping to narrow down what was causing him to be so sick. A nurse practitioner and several nurses were brought down from the NICU; this was because these particular doctors and nurses didn't have tons of experience when dealing with newborns (especially preemies). By this point it was decided that since Luke was so little and still so young, that he would be airlifted to a hospital that was better suited to take care of him. So they told us that he would be taken downtown to the Phoenix Children's Hospital (this hospital is located just down the road from St. Joseph's - where he was born). There wasn't room for either one of us to ride in the helicopter, so we had to make the long 45 minute drive to downtown Phoenix.

At this time, my sister Brittany was picking up my mom from the airport. My mom was coming out to help us with Lilly and Luke for a little while. So they met us at the hospital. Then after a few more hours in this ER of running tests. At this point, we were told that he had an infection and the doctors were pretty sure that it was a Urinary Tract Infection; but they were also testing for Pneumonia and Meningitis. We were very scared at this point since all three of those are so dangerous for a baby that is his age and size. After they intubated him and stabilized him, Luke was moved to the Pediatric ICU (the PICU). He was watched very closely; then it was determined that he had a UTI that went to the bloodstream (Urosepsis).

After a few days, Luke was doing so well that they decided to take the breathing tube out and then after another day or so he was moved to a regular room. He stayed there for about a week to finish out his 10 day antibiotic cycle. He got a little spoiled when we weren't able to be at the hospital; we were told that the nurses passed him around and fought over who was giving him his next feeding. The Phoenix Children's Hospital was wonderful, we were so grateful that he got some wonderful nurses and doctors. They took wonderful care of him (& of us) and treated him as if he was their own child. This is such a wonderful blessing when we were so worried for his health and when we were not able to be up at the hospital 24 hours a day. He came home on the 10th of September and has been doing great. He is eating well and growing like crazy!!

** I know this is a lot of info, but the next several updates will have lots of pics included.**

Excitement in the Brown House

We are sure that most of you have heard by now that we have had some major excitement in our household -- no not the move to Phoenix, or the fact that the movers still have some of our stuff (now over 3 weeks late). No I am not talking about either one of those things, but the most exciting of all (but also was the scariest of all). Baby Brown was forced to come early via emergency c-section @ 32 weeks. Our precious little baby boy - Luke Matthew Brown was born on August 8, 2008 (do you think that 8 might be his lucky #) at 9:06PM; weighing in at a whopping 4lbs. 7.6oz. and measuring 16 inches long.

Here are some of the first pics of Luke & daddy, while mommy was being moved to recovery

Luke getting his first set of

measurements taken.

Luke & daddy's first photo together.

Luke already getting cozy with daddy. He was doing very well, considering everything he had just been through.

WHAT HAPPENED?

For those who are wondering what happened, or for those of you who only got part of the story - let me clarify exactly why they had to deliver Luke at 32 weeks. (I'll try to do as short of a version as possible) On Friday the 8th, I had my first doc's appt. with my new OB. Everything was going fine; my blood pressure was a little elevated, but Dr. Fadool thought it could be stress related - due to moving, and not having all of our household things yet, and also due to the heat. But after taking my pregnancy history, she decided to send me to the hospital to get some lab work done. Matt & I headed to the hospital and the nurses started the tests. We started to get a little concerned when my BP was not coming down, then I was informed that my urine sample contained tons of protein, and that I had severely elevated liver enzymes (these are a few of the first signs of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia; HELLP Syndrome; these were some of the same symptoms I had with Ally). The only way to relieve these symptoms is to deliver the baby. Luke was being monitored the entire time and seemed to be handling everything very well; he was not appearing to be stressed. At this point we were basically informed that I would not be leaving the hospital. They were trying to hold off delivering him as long as possible, because my blood thinner shot had not been out of my system for 24 hours yet. Which could put at risk for a bleed-out during delivery (they usually like it to be out of your system for about 48 hours). Kind of in disbelief, Matt starting making phone calls; to our friends the Hedges - to make sure that Lilly could stay with them and to our parents to let them know what was going on. The tests continued and nothing was getting better, if anything they were getting worse. A sonogram technician then arrived to do an ultrasound on Luke and he was doing great. It was then decided that I would be transferred to St. Joseph's Hospital in downtown Phoenix; it has a level III NICU nursery and Del E. Webb (the hospital I was at) only had a level II nursery. So the docs decided to go ahead and airlift us downtown, instead of waiting until after delivery and then taking Luke by himself (which I was grateful about, then we were at least in the same hospital). So I got to see downtown Phoenix from a helicopter; not exactly under the best circumstances, but it was a pretty cool view. While I was in the air, Matt headed home to get some things for both of us and to see Lilly & take some things to her. So we get to the hospital and everyone is running around like crazy, trying to get me checked-in and trying to get updated lab work (I am a horrible stick - so that is a major issue - the few good veins that I have are had to find & had already been stuck several times at the other hospital). At this point they decided it was necessary to take me right then and it had to be an emergency c-section. Then I was told that I would have to be put completely under and that Matt could not go in with me. This had to be done because since the blood thinner had not been out of my system for 24 hours, they couldn't risk just numbing me from the waist down and then me start to bleed-out (they had to be prepared to do a blood transfusion if necessary). Yeah, very scary - I became very anxious, but with the help of the very nice anaesthesiologist (an older man), who continued to inform me that I had some of the best docs in the country and that he would be by my side the entire time, I was able to relax a little as they wheeled me back. In just the nick of time Matt came running into the room, so that helped to calm me down a little too and I told him to go with the baby to the NICU & make sure that everything was okay. Then he said he would be there when I woke up in ICU. Luke Matthew was then born at 9:06PM. First night in ICU was a major blur, but the next day I was awake & alert and other than the tube in my throat, and the IV in my neck I wasn't feeling too bad. Matt informed me that we had a little boy and that he was doing great & didn't have to be put on oxygen - that he was just on a feeding tube & some IV's. Within the next day or so, the ventilator was removed from me & I got to go see Luke for the first time. Then I was moved to the labor & delivery floor and everything kept progressing from there. All of the docs & nurses that had heard about me as I was being airlifted in, couldn't believe how well I was doing after about the first 24 hours. Some of the Residents & Interns that were checking in on me with my doctor, would walk in and say "how's superwoman today?" So I was definitely more sick than Matt or I realized. By this point, other than the docs & nurses trying to get my BP down to normal with the correct combination of BP medicine, I was just resting and checking in on Luke to make sure that he was progressing as well.

Welcome to our family Webpage

We have decided to create this web-page to keep everyone updated on our lives and all of the new changes going on with our family. It is becoming more and more difficult to email or call everyone individually, so we figured this would be the best solution and then you can check out our page on your own time. We have a lot going on with Lilly now being a busy 2 year old, our move to Phoenix in late July, and then the baby coming in mid-September. Yes, we have a lot on our plate and are just a little overwhelmed; but very excited and anxious as well. My plans are to try to put new updates along with pictures as often as I can, so maybe try to check it once a week or every other week to keep updated about our family. For those of you that have never used this website before, it does not automatically send you an email if there is a new post. But if something major happens, I'll try to send out an email reminding you to check out the web-page. You can also leave comments after each post, we would love to hear from you. Please, give our family web address to anyone whose email address we might not have (we are in the process of trying to get everyone's email addresses updated). We love and miss all of you!!