Living Every Moment With A Smile

Busy, Busy, Busy

2011-09-20T11:52:00.002-05:00

Well summer has come and gone. Keegan is officially in school all day and he loves it! He got a new communitcation device and is still learning everyday how to use it! He has also started to roll back and forth and army crawl! Very, very proud of him. Karson has continued to get big on us! He is into everything and you can't help but just smile at him when he gives you one of his amazing smiles! I have been working at our local golf course and Kevin is back to work at the school so it seems like we always have something going on!!!

School's Out for Summer!!!!!

2011-06-01T08:59:00.003-05:00

Well I have done a horrible job of posting on here, but in all fairness the boys keep my fairly busy!!! Karson, whose asleep at the moment, is at that stage where he is getting into everything, but it's fun to watch him explore new things!! Keegan's last day of Pre-k is today! It's bittersweet. He loves school and had a great year, but next year he will be going to Kindergarten all day!!! Yay, so proud of him. I know it's been 6 months since I have updated, but I don't think anything major has happened! We're still trying to get Keegan to gain some weight but nothing seems to be working. So we may have some extra studies in our future! His hips are also not sitting correctly in his hip sockets so we go back to the Cerebral Palsy Center in a couple weeks to get some more xrays and talk with an orthopedic (bone doctor). They have talked about maybe starting botox injections because that will help relax his muscles that are pulling the hip bones out!! I think that's about it!! We're hoping to be out everyday possible with the boys, just outside playing and letting them enjoy being kids!!! The above picture is Keegan ready for his last day of Pre-K!!!

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-13T13:12:00.003-06:00

Well winter is finally here!! We got our first snow this weekend!! Not excited about taking Keegan to school in freezing cold weather though!! Thankfully it's not too far for us! We have been sick off and on here!! We all got hit with the stomach flu and then Keegan has been dealing also with Strep Throat and on top of that a flare up of his Hirschsprung's Disease; so it feels like he has been on antibiotics almost for a month!! But thankfully he is starting to do much better!!! Nothing too exciting to report on here!! The boys are definitely keeping me busy!!!

November

2010-11-02T11:49:00.002-05:00

Hi Everyone!!! Keegan has been making leaps and bounds at school!!! He can now roll over from his back to his belly anytime he wants and on command!!! He also will let you know if he wants to play pattycake with you by clapping his two hands together. The best part is though he can keep his left hand completely open!!! Yay!!!! He also puts his hand over his heart like they do for the Pledge of Allegiance! We're so proud of him and I can't wait to see what the next few months bring for him!!! Don't forget November is Premature Awareness month!!

Hello October!!

2010-10-06T09:45:00.002-05:00

Well Keegan did great during his eye surgery. This one has seemed to bother him more than the others though. He got sick twice after waking up from surgery and his eye has stayed bloodshot longer than his other two surgeries, so he's kinda been my grump bear this week, but that's ok!! We're heading to Indiana to see our family this weekend, very excited about that!!! Our extended family will be meeting Karson for the first time!! We've had a few viruses around the house the past couple of weeks but I'm sure it's just from Keegan being exposed to new germs at Pre-school!! I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Hey everyone

2010-09-28T09:37:00.002-05:00

Fall has arrived!! I have to say I love this time of year!!! Well Keegan is keeping me super busy during the week!! In the mornings he has Pre-K till about 11am. Then on Tuesday we drive about 30 minutes for Physical Therapy and Speech Therapy. On Wednesday we drive again 30 minutes for Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy. Then on Thursday we drive the same drive for Pool therapy!!! But I have to say it is all worth it especially since it is definitely helping Keegan get stronger!! He is tolerating about 1 hour a day in his walker. He isn't really taking steps forward by himself but if you push him by the handle slowly he will walk, so this is a huge accomplishment!!!! I would love to get him tolerating it at least 3-4 hours that way he can go to pre-k in his walker. Keegan absolutely LOVES school!!! He gets excited every time we mention it!! This week we are heading down to St. Louis Children's Hospital for his next eye surgery. Thankfully it's just a same day procedure and we will be home that night!! He also has tolerated his past eye surgeries so I'm hoping it will handle this one pretty well too!!! Karson is getting big on us! At his two month appointment he weighed 14 pounds 2 oz and is 24 inches long!! He is in the 90th percentile for everything!! Well I hope everyone has a great week!!!

Happy Summer!!

2010-07-29T11:27:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone, wow has it been a long time!!! Keegan is doing pretty good!! He will be turning 4 at the end of August (which is so hard to believe!!) He did a month of summer Pre-k and loved it!! Knowing that he really enjoys it makes it easier for me to send him to Pre-k full time come this fall!! We also have a walker ordered for him and we are now just waiting for it to come in!! We're really hoping that the walker will help him take off with his walking; which he has improved on greatly!! Keegan is also officially a big brother! We welcomed Karson Xavier into the world on July 15th at 11:20AM and he weighed 7lbs 14.5oz and is 21 inches long!! Keegan loves giving him hugs and kisses so it's pretty cute!! I hope everyone is having a great summer and I'll try and update more often, things tend to get pretty chaotic around here!!

Keegan is getting so big!!

2010-03-23T17:26:00.004-05:00

I can not believe I have not posted since October!! I apologize for that, things have been pretty hectic around here!! Keegan is doing wonderful! He is 25 pounds now and still 36 inches long. He has 6 different therapies through the week but I have to say pool therapy is his favorite!! We also have a lot of new equipment to help him get stronger at home. He has leg braces and a stander that he works in everyday. I can't wait for the first day for him to take his first steps all by himself! Things have been hectic for me, we're expecting another little boy in July so between taking care of Keegan, being a high risk pregnancy this time around, and helping coach softball; I'm pretty pooped!!! I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying this nice weather we've been having!! I know we are, Keegan loves his walks!!

Another month

2009-10-08T08:55:00.001-05:00

Well September flew by!!! Keegan is still doing great, he's been cranky these past couple weeks but medically he is doing great!!! He got his leg braces last week and hasn't really seemed to mind them! He also got fitted for his stander earlier this week so hopefully we can get that in the next couple of months!! Other than that he's just been keeping me super busy by driving him to all his therapies and working with him at home!!! Hope everyone is having a great week!

Can't believe he's 3!!!

2009-09-07T13:29:00.002-05:00

It seems like yesterday but in all reality Keegan turned 3 a week ago!! I just can't believe it!!!! He has really started to show improvements this summer and I'm very anxious to see what next year brings!!! He got fitted for leg braces and once those come in, he'll get fitted for a stander to help him learn to stand!! We're also still waiting for the paperwork to get done to order him a kidcart, which is a wheelchair/stroller in one! Which will be very helpful for him in school next year!!! Keegan always seems to amaze me everyday!!

2009-08-19T23:54:00.003-05:00

Wow I can not believe that summer has come and gone already!!! Seems like it just started!!! Keegan is doing amazing with his glasses and since his last eye surgery. He turns 3 on the 30th of this month and I can't believe how fast it's gone by!!! We're transitioning him into school programs. He won't be going to pre-k yet but he will be getting therapies through the school this year plus he will be keeping his Physical, occupational, and water therapy that he gets in Quincy 3xs a week so come September I will be Keegan's own personal driver everywhere!! Haha I hope everyone is having a great summer!!! The picture is Keegan during some developmental therapy and he was exhausted at this point!!! Keegan also got fitted for leg braces a couple of weeks ago and once those get in, he will get fitted for a stander!!! Hopefully all his new equipment can help him get stronger this next year!

Sorry!

2009-06-13T11:24:00.002-05:00

Sorry that it has been so long since I posted an update!! Keegan is doing great! We went and saw a vision specialist and they did over three hours of testing! Keegan will be having eye surgery again on July 28th to help strengthen his eye muscles! He is also getting glasses to help with his vision yay!! We're already calling him the little professor! He will also be going back to have some more vision testing done to see how he does with tracking!!! We are going to the Cerebral Palsay Center on Monday for testing there, then off to the eye center again to get his eye measurements for surgery, and then up to same day surgery to get him checked out and then depending on how tired Keegan is or how good of a mood he is we may be going to the St. Louis Zoo!!! As soon as we get his glasses in I will promise to get some new pictures up!!!

Some Great News!!!

2009-04-22T09:42:00.002-05:00

I can't believe another month has flown by. We had our March of Dimes walk this past Saturday and our family raised $530!!! It turned out to be a pretty good day, it sprinkled on us a bit but at least it was warm out this year!! Keegan is doing wonderful! He is starting to say Mama, Dada, and Ba Ba a whole lot more!!! He has also hit a huge milestone because his current weight is 21 POUNDS 12 OUNCES!!!! Yay!!! And he's also 32 inches long!!! So excited that he finally weighs over 20 pounds! His has been constantly improving on his therapis also! We also found out today that Keegan got accepted by a program called Littlest Heroes Project! What they do is take kids with special needs or with health problems and take pictures of him and the family for free, so it's a wonderful program and if you get a chance go check out thier site it's www.littlestheroesproject.org

I think that's about it for now!!!

Wow it's been awhile!

2009-03-29T18:02:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone, sorry it's been so long since I have posted. Keegan has continued to do great. Battling the sniffles off and on but nothing too serious!!! This month he got a new therapist for his vision and she is awesome. We also are going to be seeing a vision specialist in St. Louis in June to find out more about Keegan's vision and how well he can actually see, so we are very excited about that!!!

Superman

2009-02-05T15:23:00.003-06:00

Well Keegan has become a new little boy. We have had two amazing weeks of wonderful therapy sessions. He's rolling from side to side and holding his head up better and just overall getting stonger!! We use to be lucky to get one good therapy session a week but it seems like Keegan has decided it wants to do well every therapy session!! We couldn't be prouder of him!! Hope everyone is having a great week!!

Hello everyone

2009-01-26T11:29:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone things are going pretty well here!! We made a quick trip to St. Louis last week to see our surgeon bc Keegan was having green diarrhea for two weeks and all of his labs were normal and they went ahead and put him on an antibiotic to help what ever bug he has and he has definitely been feeling better!! We are still working on all of his therapies trying to help Keegan get stronger!!! I'll try and get back on later and post some new pics!

Wow

2009-01-16T16:07:00.000-06:00

So I apologize that it has been well over a month since I have posted! Christmas has come and gone and well Keegan got spoiled haha. He got alot of new toys to help him in therapy and of course new clothes! He has been doing really well! Battling little illness here and there but nothing too serious!! I promise to start posting more instead of so far in between!! I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Grandparents!!

2008-12-10T21:32:00.000-06:00

Well Keegan had a lazy day today!! We drove over and hung out at my parent's house!! And even though he wouldn't let grandma or grandpa hold him very long, it still got to visit with them!! And not to mention Aunt Lexie and Aunt Rachel!! This weekend he gets to see the rest of his family!! Can we say spoiled haha!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

2008-12-09T21:31:00.002-06:00

Well it's very hard to believe that Christmas is right around the corner! We have definitely been busy here! Keegan got to help decorate the Christmas tree and was amazed by the lights. He has gotten a little vacation from his therapies these past couple of weeks due to sickness. In fact this past Thursday Keegan was diagnosed with his first ear infection. So I'm hoping it is not the start of lots more to come!! Keegan will now play with his hair when asked "where's your hair" and also find is nose when asked!! He's waving bye bye and actually say "Buh" and he loves blowing kisses!!! I hope everyone is having a great week!!

Battle of the Colds

2008-11-24T18:06:00.001-06:00

Well it was only a matter of time before Keegan got sick and well since I've been sick the past couple weeks looks like he picked it up from me. We talked to our pediatrician's nurse today and there is nothing they can give him over the counter to take but if he gets worse they will definitely see him. I'm hoping that over the next couple days though he will start to feel better!!

Sorry it's been so long!!

2008-11-19T17:06:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't updated for awhile! Keegan is doing great! He's getting more and more teeth, which I have to be honest I can't wait until we're all done with that!! He has a dr appt next wed with his surgeon, it's just a check up so nothing important should really happen! Other than that I've been sick and just trying to get back to my normal self!! Hope everyone is having a great week!!

Happy Halloween!!!

2008-11-03T17:06:00.003-06:00

Well we hope everyone enjoyed their weekend and trick or treating of course!! Keegan didn't go out since he can't eat candy but he answered the door for all of the trick or treaters! He was dressed like a monkey and really seemed to enjoy all the kids coming and going!! He only tried to eat his tail once, so overall I think he really enjoyed himself!!

Whew what a week!

2008-10-28T10:54:00.002-05:00

Oh where to begin! Well Keegan got out of his therapy this past week. He got sick on us Wed. morning and he ended up vomitting three times. We were worried we were going to have to take him to the hospital because along with the puking he was not passing gas or pooping so we were worried that he had an obstruction starting. So we put Keegan on clear liquids and also irrigated him out really well and after about two days started to act like he felt better. He actually goes to see his surgeon tomorrow in St. Louis so I'll make sure and tell him about that and see what he thinks! It's hard to believe that Halloween is this weekend! Keegan is going to dress up like a monkey and help pass out candy so that should be cute! Well I hope everyone is having a great week!!!

Eye appointment!

2008-10-22T10:10:00.004-05:00

Well Keegan had an eye appointment yesterday and his doctor doesn't think that Keegan needs glasses yet anyway. He said Keegan's problem isn't with his vision it's with the brain sending neurons to the eye and vice versa. Since Keegan had a brain bleed, has a shunt, and CP he doesn't know how well the brain and the eye are working together. So we will just have to see as he gets older how he does, but he doesn't have to see him for six months. In the mean time though Keegan is suppose to have an evaluation by a developmental therapist that specializes in vision only, so I think I may wait and see what she says and then maybe see if we need to get referred to someone else or if we can just take him somewhere to get glasses, so once again it's a waiting game! Today though he gets to have speech and developmental therapy together!! Yay!

(The picture above is Keegan concentrating with one of his therapist!!)

So far this week!

2008-10-15T11:34:00.003-05:00

Well Keegan had a nice relaxing weekend at Mamaw and Papaw's house! He pretty much got to be spoiled all weekend and saw all of his cousins!! He had Speech therapy yesterday and actually did very well!! He's starting to babble alot more so now we're working on trying to get him to make the correct sounds to make words!!!

Oh what a night...

2008-10-09T17:48:00.002-05:00

So I jinxed us when I said Keegan hadn't been to the hospital in 4 months! Keegan hasn't been acting like his usually happy self for about a week, but alot of kids at Kevin's school had been sick so we just figured that Kevin had brought something home. Well Tuesday and Wed. Keegan was sleeping alot more and not eating and then Wed. his eyes were rolling down alot, which sometimes can mean extra fluid in the brain. So our pediatrician sent us down to St. Louis Children's Hospital to see our Neurosurgeon. While they were examining him Keegan started staring into space almost and they thought he was having silent seizures, but the Neurosurgeon disagreed! So all of Keegan's xray's and ct scans came back normal but they admitted us for observation. They also told us that since Keegan gets so much gas on his belly that the gas build up could slow down the draining fluid and that can make him present with shunt malfunction symptoms but Keegan did a 360 during the night and was back to acting like his normal self so they let us come home this morning!! Yay, so now he's back in his own bed and acting silly as usual!

Oh what a weekend

2008-10-07T11:01:00.004-05:00

Well Keegan had his first taste of the Barry Apple Festival this weekend! He had to miss out on the Parade though b/c he decided it was nap time, but later on he got to sample his first Apple Dumpling and didn't seem to mind it at all!!! He had a pretty quiet weekend and got a rest from his therapies for a few days! He'll start back up tomorrow and Thursday, so we'll see how he does! Hope everyone had a great weekend!!!

PT & OT

2008-10-03T10:16:00.001-05:00

Well yesterday's therapy didn't go as well as we wanted. Keegan seems to still have stranger anxiety with his two therapist but he did really well for the first ten minutes and then they took a toy away from him to switch it to his left hand and he threw a temper tantrum the rest of the time, so next week we're going to have me stay outside the room and see if he'll do better with them because when he gets upset he instantly looks for me to come and pick him up, so we shall see. He is still doing more and more things than before so we'll still take that!!!

Developmental Therapy

2008-10-01T19:35:00.001-05:00

It's so hard to believe it's already October 1st!! Time is just flying by for us!! Keegan did absolutely wonderful in therapy today!! Just these past two weeks he has really really improved. Today he was able to hold a toy in his left hand for 5 minutes and he did this twice. Usually when we put a toy in his left hand he automatically drops it but today he was actually shaking and banging the toy! He also sat up very well today and had more control with his head!! So slowly but surely our little guy is getting there. Now I just hope physical therapy and occupational therapy go just as well tomorrow!!

Tomorrow

2008-09-30T20:23:00.003-05:00

Well Keegan shouldn't have too rough of a day tomorrow! He has developmental therapy at 1pm and he has really started to warm up to his new therapist. Last week was probably the best I had ever seen him do for therapy so we're hoping this week it will continue on!! Keegan is constantly babbling and drooling!!! He really likes saying his Ba sounds and also some Ga's in there!!! We'll let you know how everything goes tomorrow!!

Patience

2008-09-30T15:35:00.001-05:00

Ok so blogging is completely new for us and I am asking all of you to hang in there till we get all the kinks figured out! I thought I could start blogging about Keegan instead of using his Caringbridge site since he has seemed to move past (hopefully for good) most of his medical problems and we can now focus on keeping him healthy and giving 100% for all of his ongoing therapies. More to come in the future!!!