Pictures of Creed...

I have been working on increasing my photography skills and knowledge with the help of my friend Shelly She is amazingly talented and I am lucky enough that she will share some of her knowledge with me. Here are a couple of pictures I took of Creed.

Creed is 3 Months Old...

Picture Taken by Shelly Brown

-Creed is super smiley...he breaks out in a cheesy grin anytime someone takes a moment to talk to him

-is starting to coo and baby talk more and more each day

-just started sleeping through the night this week when we realized he liked sleeping in his car seat a whole lot more than his bed...he is now sleeping 9 p.m.- 5 a.m.

-loves sitting in his bouncy chair as long as someone is in his range of vision that he can keep his eye on

-loves his "breast friend" AKA Mommy, but will take a bottle

-still loves to be held and might never learn to roll over because he doesn't like to lay on any flat surfaces

-has the most amazing eyelashes

-is one spoiled baby as we are just trying to enjoy each and every moment with our little guy

Harlem Globetrotters...

We gave the boys tickets to the Harlem Globetrotters for Christmas because they loved watching Big Easy and Flight Time on the Amazing Race this past season. We were all so excited to go and looking forward to the show. Unfortunately since Creed got sick only Greg and the boys were able to go down to the show. They had a great time and were so excited because they had great seats and were able to see Flight Time and Big Easy. After the show, they were able to stand really close to their favorite guys and get pictures of them. For days after the show, Cannon would carry around the book he bought and showed me all the pages and told me everything about the show. He also had to get on ichat and tell his Grandpa and Grandma all about the Harlem Globetrotters. The boys loved it and I am so glad they were able to enjoy one of their Christmas gifts so much.

Check it Out...

My blog has an amazing new look...thanks to Carly...Check her out HERE and HERE! She is very talented :)

Creed Update...

I am just smitten with this boy! I spend the majority of each and every day holding him because he loves to be held. I am trying to savor every minute of it because I know this stage won't last forever.

We found out that Creed has an extra vein in his heart that causes his heart rate to beat to fast (SVT) when he is under any type of stress. He will be on a beta blocker medicine 3 times a day for 9 months to a year and then we will try to ween him off his medicine and see if he has outgrown the condition. If he doesn't, then the doctor will go in and do surgery when he is 35-40 lbs. and cauterize the vein so that blood won't flow through that area of his heart.

We feel so incredibly blessed because this condition is so controllable now that we have him on medication. We love Creed so much and feel incredibly blessed to have him and 3 other amazing boys in our lives.

New Food Blog...

You are going to want to check this blog out...it is a recipe blog that a few friends are contributing to. Enjoy!

Creed's visit to the hospital...

Our poor baby Creed was hospitalized for RSV on Tuesday, February 2nd. Creed had been struggling with a bad cold and cough for a few days and had already had 2 visits to the doctors office. On Tuesday when Greg got home from work, I told him that I felt like Creed was worse and that he needed to be taken to the doctor to have his oxygen checked. Greg took him over to the doctor's office and his oxygen level was 80%. The doctor sent him directly to the hospital to have his oxygen checked again because he thought maybe his machine was not reading the levels correctly. Sure enough his oxygen level ranged from about 75-80%. They told us we couldn't take him home and that he would have to be admitted to the hospital. They got him on oxygen and settled in and did an RSV wash and he seemed to be doing better. Around 2:45 a.m. Wednesday morning Creed took a turn for the worse. Creed's heart rate skyrocketed and ranged from 275-300 bpm...his room was suddenly full of multiple nurses who were working on him and trying to bring his heart rate down. They had to put a bag of ice on his face and wait until he would have a certain cry that would shock his system back to a normal heart rate. I lost count of how many times we had to do this, but if I had to guess, I would say it happened around 50 times. One of the nurses called his doctor and another pediatrician in the area and they arrived at the hospital very quickly. His heart rate did this for 4 hours. It was the most scary experience of my life. I felt like my baby could die at any second. I knew it was serious when at one point I walked out of the room to catch my breath and saw the crash cart right next to his door. The doctor's had to make a call to Primary Children's Hospital and what treatment would be the best to help Creed. They decided to put him on a beta blocker (heart medicine) to see if this would keep his heart in a stable range. The medicine kicked into his system around 7:15 a.m. Wednesday morning and his heart has done great ever since.

Call it mother's intuition or the promptings of the spirit, but I am just so grateful we took him to the hospital when we did. If we hadn't, our little Creed probably would have died at home from cardiac arrest that night. Creed stayed in the hospital for 5 days and was able to come home on oxygen and a heart monitor. We now have to see a pediatric cardiologist from Primary Childrens and have an echo cardiogram done to see what is going on with his heart. We are hoping it might just be some strange side effect of the RSV, but it could be a condition he was born with and the RSV just made it known to us. Creed will stay on the beta blocker (heart medicine) until all his testing is done and they figure out what made his heart react the way it did.

We are hoping that Creed continues to get better quickly and that we can get him off the oxygen soon. We love you Creed and are so thankful for your life here on earth.

Creed is 2 Months...

Head 15.5 in. (32%)

Weight 11.31 lbs. (42.62%)

Height 23 in. (51.42%)

Our little Creed is 2 months old. We spent the week of his 2 month birthday in the hospital. We are so thankful that Creed was able to pull through his sickness and that we can look forward to many more milestones with him.

At 2 months old, Creed is smiling, starting to coo, and still loves to be held. That cute little boy could be held 24 hours a day and he would be in heaven. Before he got sick with RSV he was sleeping about 8 hours every night and nursing like a champ.

I now feel like I have a brand new baby again. Creed is learning to nurse all over again because he had so many bottles while he was sick. He is getting up every 3 hours to eat at night and doing the same during the day.

We love you Creed!

Wolf...

Oh WOW...Scouts is a whole new world for me. When I went to my first pack meeting for scouts, I thought I had just arrived into a different world. The strange little chants that the boys do (and love) just threw me for a loop. Since I only had one brother, I didn't know anything about scouts. The only thing I remember from growing up is my brother working on his Eagle Scout project. But, I am learning to embrace scouts...I have to with 4 boys.

Colton was so excited to begin scouts, especially because most of his friends had already been going to scouts for 6-9 months. Colton was very motivated to earn his wolf badge. He worked really hard and earned his wolf badge in 6 months. Way to go Colton!

  

Bye Bye Binki...

We finally decided to bite the bullet and get rid of Crew's binki. Crew was addicted to his binki. He loved it and he would have it everyday all day. We tried to limit it to sleeping, but he would always seem to find one and suck on it all day. We decided the best thing to break him from his binki was to just take it away. I stressed so much about taking it away and wondered how he would do. To our surprise, he did fabulous. He would ask for his binki a lot the first few days, but after that he did great. He was 2 years and 2 months old when we took it away. Binki=Check...Now on to potty training...UGG!

Throwing Binki in the garbage and saying bye bye

Our binki free 2 year old!

Creed is 1 Month Old...

-has the longest, prettiest eyelashes...they touch his eyebrows

-loves to be held-loves to be wrapped in a blanket

-likes his binkie

-is waking up 2 times each night to eat

-likes his swing

-smiled for the first time today

Creed's Blessing Day...

We were able to bless Creed on December 29, 2009 at my parent's house while we were in Utah. We decided that since most of our siblings were going to be in town over the Christmas holiday we would do it then. I didn't know how it would feel doing the blessing at home instead of church, but I have to say it was great. It was nice to have it so small and intimate and the spirit was very strong during the blessing. Creed was given an amazing blessing by his dad. We just love this little baby so much! He is such a blessing and little miracle to our family.

Christmas...

The boys were very excited for Christmas this year. The morning was fun, but started way to early. Colton and Cannon were up and ready to open presents at 5:45. They woke up Crew and he had a rough morning from being tired. Creed slept through the whole thing and just hung out in his bouncy seat. After opening presents we headed to Utah, traveling with 4 kids for the first time and a packed car. Once in Utah, it was party after party and trying to keep to a tight schedule in order to see everybody.

Merry Christmas...

We wish you a Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

Creed is 2 weeks old...

Weight - 8 lbs. - 30%

Height - 21.5 inches - 80.91%

Head - 13.5 inches - 8.74%

We are loving every single second of our little man. He is a really good baby. He has his fussy moments, but is content for the most part. He has brought so much joy to our family already!

Creed Is One Week Old...

What an amazing week it has been. There is nothing like a brand new baby...his smell, cuddling and holding him, his little feet and hands, and his sweet little spirit. We are excited to be home from the hospital and to have our little Creed boy home with us. We love you Creed!

Brothers...

The boys were only able to come to the hospital one time for 15 minutes to meet their new little brother Creed. The hospital has an 18 and older visitor policy right now because of the flu season being so bad this year. Colton and Cannon loved seeing Creed for the first time and holding him. Since we have been home they have taken such good care of him. They are so gentle with him and love to hold him. Crew is having a rough adjustment, but each day is getting a little better. I think these 4 boys are so lucky to have each other and I know they will always have a special brotherly bond.

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Pregnancy, Stress, Delivery, and More...

What a crazy last five months our family has had. As some of you know, when we went in for our routine 20 week ultrasound, we found out that our baby had a two vessel umbilical cord. The ultrasound tech didn't act like it was a big deal and Greg and I had never heard of this so we didn't think much about it either. When we got home from the ultrasound we got on the internet and started researching a 2 vessel cord and became very nervous. We made a phone call to our OB's office to talk to our doctor about what we found out in our ultrasound. He referred us to a Perinatologist, however we couldn't get an appointment for 3 weeks. As this point in the pregnancy, we really didn't care if we had a boy or a girl, we were just hoping for a healthy baby. As we met with the Perinatologist 3 weeks later, we found out that our baby had 2 CPC on his brain. The Perinatologist could only give us about a 90% chance of having a healthy baby. Most likely if something was wrong with the baby it would be a down syndrome baby. We also had to have very close monitoring the last trimester of the pregnancy because the chance of still born goes up and the growth of the baby can slow down. Some weeks we would have 3 doctors appointments. We always felt like we were getting great medical treatment and are thankful for the doctors that kept such a close eye on us during this pregnancy. The next 5 months we experienced many ups and downs and stressful times as a family. Greg and I always held close to the peaceful feeling we had. We learned a lot about faith, prayers, family, and friends.   

We had decided to do a amnio around 34 weeks of the pregnancy, so we would know for sure if the baby was going to be heathy before he came. But as the time came, we changed our minds because we would only get the results back a few days before the baby was to be born.
On Monday November 30, I experienced many contractions but they were not consistent. I went to bed for the night, but didn't sleep great. I woke up the next morning around 6 a.m. and my stomach was very tight and sore and I didn't feel good at all. I went to the bathroom and found that I was lightly spotting and called the doctor right away. He was just starting a c-section and told us to get to the hospital right away and he would do our c-section next. We left for the hospital with only the clothes we were wearing, not feeling prepared at all to have the baby this day. We were scheduled for December 3rd to have the baby. When we got to the hospital, I was feeling very nervous because I hadn't felt the baby move that morning. Greg happened to see the doctor in the hall and told him of my feelings. He came right into my room and hooked me up to monitor to look at the baby's heart rate. He also asked us if he could say a prayer with us. What an amazing experience to have a doctor say a sincere, meaningful prayer on our behalf. We felt so lucky to be in such good care. As Greg and I talked in the room waiting for the c-section to begin, we talked about looking at the baby's face as soon as he was born to see if he looked healthy. Greg and I always had a peaceful feeling about this pregnancy, but the unknown was always scary. As the c-section began, they had a hard time getting the baby out of my stomach. He was stuck and they had to use the vacuum to get him out. Greg said he came out face down and it seemed like an eternity for them to turn him around so Greg could look at his face. As soon as Greg saw his face, he thought to himself that he looked like the other boys and he looked healthy. He looked at the doctor and asked him if he looked healthy. The doctor said yes, and as the nurses checked him out they also kept saying how healthy he looked. We felt so blessed.
Our little boy weighed 7lbs. 10 oz. was 21.5 inches long and was the most beautiful baby. He didn't even have to be in the NICU coming 18 days early. He was perfect! We have learned many things during the past 5 months. We learned that Heavenly Father loves us and listens to our prayers. He sends us individual experiences for us to learn and grow.   We would just like to personally thank our friends and family for the love and support they have shown us the last 5 months. We know that many prayers, fasting, phone calls, and love have been given on our behalf.
We are thankful to have our baby boy Creed home with our family. We love you Creed.

Introducing...

Creed Jackson

Born at 8:57 a.m.

7 lbs. 10 oz.

21 1/2 inches long

Creed is 1...

What a precious bundle of joy you are

Cute from head to toe

You melt my heart with your sweetness

Everywhere you go

You're a very special gift

Descended from heaven above

The most perfect little angel

Sent for your Dad, Mom, and brothers to love.

With all my love and best wishes

for your very 1st birthday

2 weeks old

One Month Old

2 months old

2 1/2 months old

3 months old

4 months

5 months old

6 months old

8 months old

10 months old

1 Year Old

I didn't think I was sad that my baby was turning one until I uploaded Creed's newborn picture. There is nothing like a newborn baby straight from heaven and I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for sending Creed to our family. He is a sweet, determined, energetic, playful, little boy. He is easy going if his brothers aren't bugging him and he is already learning to fight back. He eats and sleeps like a champ. He knows how to walk but still picks crawling over walking. He is getting so many new teeth in all at once and that is making him a little miserable. He has stranger danger and will pick his Mommy over his Daddy. His little noises melt my heart. Happy 1st Birthday to my little Miracle Baby. We love you with all our heart.