A year long update....

Well, I can't believe that it's been an entire year since I've blogged about our family, but life has been CRAZY!! There have been lots of ups and downs this past year that's for sure, but every experience has made us a stronger family.

 On June 18th marks the one year anniversary that our baby girl was diagnosed with Williams Syndrome. For those of you who may not know what Williams Syndrome is, the easiest way to explain it is by saying she has a deletion on the number 7 chromosome. We are very lucky because Kendal is just mainly delayed right now. We are all working very hard to get her caught up, but it's going to take some time. Every person with WS is different, no one is the same. Kendal does not have the major health issues that can go along with this rare syndrome. We are VERY lucky!! She is thriving more and more each day. She is just going to be very little, she weighs a whopping 21.2lbs, and she is 2.5. She is our lil peanut!!!!

Mr. Aidan  has been busy as well this past year. He started preschool last August, and boy has that been an adjustment. We are still having issues, with hitting, spitting, throwing shoes, etc. Josh and I have discussed it, and even though he is suppose to start kindergarten this fall, we are going to do another year of preschool. He is so smart, but he just isn't there when it comes to his behavior. We have spoken to one of Kendal's therapists just for an opinion, and she suggested that we have him tested for sensory issues, and his preschool teacher agrees.. We want to wait until school is over just in case we need to add some therapy to his routine. We have a pretty steady routine now, so I don't want to add more to it. Our weeks are crazy busy with 5 days of preschool, and three therapy sessions for Kendal. I don't know if I could add much more right now. I'm doing my best to stay positive, but it's just one of those things that we will deal with no matter the outcome.

Josh and I are doing very well, he's been busy with work and I've been busy keeping house and trying to be a good wife and mother. I have to have some help, and I'm not afraid to admit it. It's been a lot to take on this year, and without the medication I don't know how I would have gotten through it all. I'm lucky that I have a loving husband who loves me no matter what kind of mood I'm in. He likes it better now that I'm on my happy pills. I'm also doing acupuncture and going to the chiropractor on a regular basis right now. I was having major headaches and there was nothing else my doctor could do for me, so I went with alternative medicine. I think the insomnia has been the worst part of all of this. It started right after we got Kendal's diagnosis. I'm still dealing on a day to day basis.

The good news is that we moved into a new house!!! It's the first place that has REALLY felt like home. We've painted and just made it ours. The kids love their individual rooms, and Josh and I finally feel like we can be a family here. The kids have this huge backyard to play in, so it's going to keep them very busy this summer. I hope....Well that's the scoop with the Heyde's. Look for Aidan's 5 year pics soon, and other updates on the house.

P.S. My mom and I are doing the Walk for Williams on May 14th in Plainfield, IN. I have set up a campaign page for donations towards the WSA. I will attach the link at the bottom. If you are interested in donating at all, please go to the page and click donate now. Any amount is help towards putting WS on the map!!! Thank you so much, we've had great success so far, and I hope we can continue to do so.

 Kendal's Campaign

Easter 2010

Once again we went to Bremen for Easter, it's always great to see the family. Aidan had his first Easter egg hunt with all his cousins. He had a ball, and it was so fun to see his face as he found a new egg to put in his bag. :)

We decided to go up a day early and visit with Josh's parents. Plus my wonderful mother-in-law offered to help me make my apple slices for our Easter dinner at Josh's grandma's. We ended up making a double batch so we could test them out. :) It's always a joy to cook work together in the kitchen with ones we love. I can't wait to share some of those special moments with Kendal. We ended up making a cheese ball, and deviled eggs too. I was pretty exhausted by the time it was all over with. To make matters worse Lil Miss was just being clingy and whiny all weekend. She was a handful. She kept fighting her sleep etc. It was just not a good weekend with her. We finally got the kids to sleep and then the "bunny duties" had to be finished. :) That's always the fun part!! I know that isn't the reason we celebrate Easter, but seeing the kids faces is very rewarding. :)

As usual the kids got more then enough candy, so I've had to hide it in various places in the kitchen. I always say every year that I'm not going to buy any, but every year I do. The problem is that we as parents aren't the only ones that get them the candy. The grandma's and great grandma's do too. It's a losing battle. LOL :) I say that with a smile, because it's never going to change. It's what grandparents, and great grandparents are suppose to do, it's what they look forward to.

We finally got a family picture right before we headed back home. It was long over due!! We hope you all had a wonderful Easter and made lots of great memories with your families.

It's been awhile......

Well I guess you could say that I'm LONG over due for a blog. I guess with my surgery and the holiday's I just didn't have a whole lot of time to blog. It's my excuse anyway. :) I'll do my best to try and remember everything that has happened.

I had surgery about 3 months ago, and the recovery process was good, but very long. I still have good days and bad days, but overall I'm doing great. I kind of feel like the PT was a BIG waste of my time, and it's doubtful that I'll use it in the future. It's a personal choice.

We can not wait for spring time, and warmer weather. It's been so nice being able to send Aidan outside for an hour or so. It's hard with Kendal though, she wants to go out side so bad. However she isn't walking, and it's so wet out. What am I suppose to do?? She really likes to watch her big brother blow bubbles, it's really cute. It's about the only time Aidan isn't tormenting her. Ugh, he is such a booger. He can be just down right mean to her!! I'm so ready for him to start pre-school this fall. I think it will be a big help. He is the type of kid that you have to entertain ALL the time, and it's really hard to juggle between him and Kendal. Most days I feel like I'm going to pull my hair out. I do love being a mom, don't get me wrong. I just hope that Kendal catches up soon so we can do more family things. It's just not possible right now. She has come a long way, but she still has a LONG way to go. Vicki, her therapists, says that when we get her walking it won't take long for her to catch up. I really hope she's right, because I'm really starting to get worried. I feel like we get caught up a little, and then she has several set backs. She was very sick this past
February, and she ended up losing half a pound. She will be 18 months old on the 27th of this month, and she doesn't even weigh 17lbs. She is just now wearing 9 month clothing. It's CRAZY!!! She is just a little peanut, and I guess she always will be. :) I would love to have another baby in another year or so, but right now I'm just not sure. I would almost feel like I'm cheating her. I guess we will just have to wait and see. It's a waiting game at this point. Oh the joy's of parenting!!

I mentioned that Aidan will start pre-school this fall at Harrison. They have a Kindergarten readiness program that I'm super excited about, and it will be good for both he and mommy. :) I'm excited to have a daily routine that involves leaving the house everyday. It will be crazy at times, but it will be an exciting time too. :) I can't believe that he will be four in May..it's crazy!

Josh and I are both doing well, he's been great with the whole surgery and recovery process. It was very stressful on our marriage at times, but we survived. We even got to reward ourselves the weekend after Valentines Day. My in laws took the kids for the weekend, so we could spend some quality time together. It was much needed!!

As most of you know my brother is in the Air Force, and he is in the Philippines right now, but he will be home hopefully sometime in May. I can't wait to see him!! I miss him so much, and I can't wait for him to spend time with the kids. :) I hope he can be here for Aidan's fourth birthday, that would be so amazing!!!

Well that's about all that's new in Heyde house. I'll upload some new pictures soon. Happy St. Patricks Day. I did dress the kids up today, but I forgot to get a picture. :( They looked so cute in all their GREEN :)

Back Surgery

Okay, so I went to see Dr. Brkaric at the Indiana Spine Center today. I found out that I'm in a little worse shape then what I was originally told. I have to have a complete artificial disc put in place of the disc that is pretty much gone. Its almost bone on bone, so that explains the pain. They don't know why this happens, it just does? The procedure itself is called an Anterior Lumbar Fusion. You can visit the Indiana Spine Center website to get more info if you are interested. I will be in the hospital for 2-3 days, and then home to recover, and the pretty much immediately start physical therapy. It's gonna be a long road, but we will somehow get through it all. I had a few other options, and I was very confused about what I was going to do. I had and appointment with Dr. Haville, my chiro. He has just be awesome through this whole process. He really explained that this pretty much is the best option at this point or I could really do some serious damage to my back. Josh and I feel confident about our decision, so as of now the surgery is scheduled for December 15th. I am waiting this long because I have my kids to think about. I have to line up family and friends to take care of them when I can't be here to do so. Plus with Christmas so close, I don't want the kids to suffer. All in all, I'm feeling a little better as the days go by. I am still very sore and tired by the end of the day, but I am just popping the pills to get by. I wanted to wait because the procedure is going to take a lot longer to recover then originally expected. I could be off work anywhere from 6 weeks, to 3 months. The good thing is that I'm young, so I should recover quickly. I HOPE :) For now, that is all :) Love you all, and thank you for all of your support and understanding. Most of you have been keeping good tabs on me and that means the world to myself and Josh. Good friends are hard to find, so I'm glad I have all of you. Feel free to call me if you want to talk or have more questions.

If you are serious about helping out, we are taking volunteers. We need all hands on deck :) Any help is apprecated, as most of you know. I just want to make sure that my kids are taken care of and that my husband isn't feeding them chix fingers, pizza pockets, and fish sticks for days on end. You moms understand!! LOL I do feel very blessed that so many of you have come forward already and offered to helpout. WE are SOOOO greatful!!! Love to all of you, and your families.

This and That

Well sorry for the long over due updates. As most of you know our beautiful baby girl turned ONE on September 27th. Where did the year go?? She had her one year check up last week, she's a whopping 16.5 lbs, and she's 27.5 inches long. She is still a little peanut, but she's our little peanut. Her pediatrician was concerned about her murmur, so we had to see the pediatric cardiologist yesterday. I was very relieved to find out that she has what they like to call and "innocent murmur" and nothing more. He said that we should not have to see him again, unless the pediatrician has cause for concern when she is 4 or 5 years old. I'm going for never again!! :)

When Kendal was born the nurse thought she detected a heart murmur, but the pediatrician that examined her said he didn't hear anything. However she was screaming her head off the whole time he was examining her, so how could he hear anything. The next day, our pediatrician came in to examine her as well. She said she detected a murmur, so she wanted her to have an EKG. I asked if I should be concerned, and she said she just wanted to make sure she was okay. Well the EKG and ultrasound indicated that she had 2 valves that were open. We had to go to the doctor every two weeks just to make sure she was gaining weight etc. They kept a very close eye on her for about 6 weeks or so. Well....to make a long story short. I was very pleased to find out yesterday that those valves had completely closed on their own. WHAT A RELIEF!!! Our little girl is going to live a long healthy life!!! I hope. :) She is doing so great with her therapy, I couldn't be happier. She just gets stronger each week, and her therapist is really impressed with how well she is doing. She is into everything, it's so funny. It's so weird seeing her mobile. LOL :)

Mr. Aidan has had some big accomplishments lately too. He's finally decided that it's okay to go poopy in the potty. He started this about 2 weeks ago, and he's had a few accidents here and there, but he's doing better. Up until this week that is...he's gotten his stubborn streak back, and has been pooping in his pants again. I don't know what is up with this kid. We praised him, and rewarded him with a fun trip to Monkey Joe's. We made such a big deal about him being a big boy. So sick of cleaning out poopy underwear. YUCK!!!!!

I've taken on the task of watching a friend/co-workers little boy. He's almost 17 months old so he's right in between Aidan and Kendal. He's such a cutie!! He's been coming for about month, and it's going pretty well. I think it's been good for both kids honestly. Aidan has had a few issues sharing, but overall it's been great.

My back is still giving me fits. The pain meds and the patches aren't working at all anymore. I'm only taking them as needed, but lately the pain is coming on full force. I'M SO SICK OF IT!! I've been going to physical therapy for over a month, but it's not working. I don't know what to do anymore. Plus I don't even know if the insurance is going to cover it, I'm still fighting with them. I have therapy tomorrow, and I think that I'm going to talk to her about the chiropractor. I just can't take the pain anymore, it's really limiting me. Plus I'm chasing after 3 now, not 2. :) I just want my body back. I'll keep you all posted.

Update 10/16/09

Well I finally went to the chiropractor. I'm pretty messed up :) I got adjusted today, and now I'm just extremely sore!! I go back on Monday morning to get adjusted again. I've got a rough road ahead, but I will at least have relief at the end of the road. I HOPE!! I don't know what I'm going to do if this doesn't work, I'm out of options at this point.

P.S. Here are a few new photo's from Kendal's 1st Birthday :) 

Stay tuned for pictures from Halloween....It's our favorite time of year!!!

She's on the move!!!

Well if you can't tell from the title, little Miss Kendal is crawling!!! Yay!! Josh and I are so excited, it's only taken over 11 months to get her to this point. She doesn't move fast...but hey we'll take it! She is also pulling herself up, she'd rather do that then crawl. I think once she gets this coordination thing down its only a matter of time before she starts walking. Her therapist (Vicki) is so pleased with her progress. She's improving every week, it's really neat to watch and be a part of something so wonderful. I'm lucky that I'm able to be here to witness it all, it's very rewarding. My baby girl is growing up so fast. :( I can't believe she is going to be a year old this month. I don't know...it amazes me the bond that I have with her. Now don't get me wrong, I love my little man to pieces, but it's different when you have a girl. At least I think so. Aidan is my little man, he can always melt my heart. He can be such a loving little boy. I hope he stays that way. :) (Wishful thinking, I know!)

He is a short video of Miss Kendal crawling!! :)

My back has been acting up again, so I called the doctor. I had to get two shots in my back today and I HAVE to go to physical therapy. I don't know if the shots are going to work or not, it takes 12 hours to really take affect. She said even if I'm in pain when I'm supposed to go to therapy, to go ahead and go. She said they would be able to pin point where the problem is, and they have so many techniques these days. I guess I'll give it a shot. If not..I guess I'll try the chiropractor, but at least my insurance pays for the therapy, so that's the main reason I'm taking that route first.

That's about all that's new with the Heyde family. Stay tuned for Kendal's first birthday party blog...the BIG party is next Sunday at Bri and Andrew's. CAN'T WAIT!! It should be an amazing time with family and friends. Grandma if you're reading this, I sure hope you can make it!!! We miss you!

I also want to give a shout out to Kahler Maust who is turning 1 year old tomorrow!!! Happy Birthday buddy. :) I hope you have a great day!

Here are a few recent photo's of the kids.

Miss Kendal playing with daddy's spare keyboard..she's gonna be into everything!

I totally forgot to blog about my visit with Ara!! Geesh, some friend I am. Ara is my best friend from high school. She came to visit last week while she was on break from school. Ara is in Chiropractic school in St. Louis, so I don't get to see her much anymore. It was an awesome time, plus she got to witness Kendal crawling during her therapy. She was impressed!! Love you girl!!!

Where do I even begin.......

Wow!! It's been almost two months since I've blogged. A LOT has happened in the last month or so that is hopefully going to have a positive impact on the Heyde household. :) First off, Miss Kendal is almost 11 months old....where did the time go? I've said for months now, that in a way, I think I've been spoiled with her. She is still so tiny and is still such a BABY in my eyes. She is improving everyday though, and those BABY moments are just extra special. She is still about 3 months behind where she needs to be, but that is all about to change. I hope!!! First Steps is actually coming out tomorrow to start her therapy. I can not think of a better birthday present, so I'm hoping it goes well. Yes tomorrow is my 28th birthday, and considering that I'm pretty much bed ridden for the next week or so, well I guess I'll just have to make the best of it. My mom is coming over to help out with Miss Kendal, and my little man is going to daycare.

Originally I was supposed to go to lunch with my mom, and then to a movie...well that isn't going to happen since I can barely walk. Oh well, it's just another day anyhow, right? Anyhow, back to the kiddo's. Aidan is becoming such a big boy, he is finally getting the potty training down. I would say that we are pretty much "potty trained" not so much "poopy trained" LOL :) We are working on him though, and it's at least an improvement. I'd say he's rarely having any accidents, so that is a major plus!!! He can still be a little monster at times, but he can be sooo funny too. He just cracks me up sometimes!! He is going through this repeat phase, where he repeats everything you say, or at least the last sentence. It's annoying, but very cute at times too. Daddy said a bad word tonight, and Aidan told him he was a "Bad Daddy" LOL to cute!! He is such a loving little boy, he's always giving hugs and kisses. I feel so bad that we are sort of in a financial strain right now, and can't afford to do the fun things that we would love to do with him. Its funny as a parents, you always want more for you children, and I'm pretty much guessing that the feeling never goes away even as they get older.

Miss Kendal is getting smarter everyday, she wants to crawl so bad. :( She is pulling herself up and holding on to things. Josh got a SUPER cute picture of her holding on to the bathtub. OMG it's so adorable, she is naked and it shows her little baby butt. I'll have to upload it when I get a chance. It's been a long process getting her ready for First Steps, but I'm feeling very confident that we have decided to go with the program, and that we didn't wait any longer to do so. I will keep everyone updated as much as possible. She is such a special little girl, she has been through so much. I know that there are other kids out there that have had it much worse, and we will continue to pray for them, it's always different when it's your own child though. I know that its made my relationship with my husband 10 times stronger. We don't have a lot of family to lean on for support, so we've learned to lean on each other. We know that our families care for us, but a lot of them are very busy, or they live out of state. It's hard sometimes, but we manage.

Kendal holding herself up like a big girl!!

As for my injury...well some of you may know I've been having back issues for months now. I had them all throughout my pregnancy with Kendal, and they have just progressively gotten worse. So I finally broke down and called a chiro, well they couldn't get me it for a week. I called on a Monday, and by Friday I couldn't take the pain anymore, plus I could barely walk. NO JOKE! Well my doctor took x-rays to determine if it was a stress fracture, or a broken tail bone. In the mean time she perscribed a mild pain pill, and a muscle relaxer. I waited all weekend until Monday to find out that nothing was broken. I was glad to hear that, but still frustrated because I felt like she wouldn't listen to me. She just wanted me to keep taking the anti-inflammatory and come back and see her in two weeks. UM hello....that doesn't work in this house with two kids. THANK GOODNESS for my gma, without her over the last 10 days, I'd be a mess. She has been coming over and helping with the kids, cooking meals etc. She is an amazing woman.

Well I took matters into my own hands and went and got a second opinion, and I'm so glad I did. I have a new primary doc, and I love her!! She listens to me, and wanted to know what she could do for me. She determined that I have a lumbar sprain, witch is basically just a back sprain. She could feel 3 different muscle spasms on my left side. It hurt!! She has me on a high dose of steroids for the inflammation, muscle relaxers, pain meds and a Lidoderm patch. I go back in a week to see if how things are going, and if physical therapy is going to be needed. In the mean time I went ahead and rescheduled my chiro appointment just in case she gives me the okay to go. She said that more then likely my hips are out of wack anyhow, so we'll see what she says. In the mean time, I'm off work until at least next Tuesday.

Josh has been wonderful, he's been super dad lately. I was totally out of it most of the weekend due to the muscle relaxers, so I'm grateful that he was here to help me. I was very sad to see him go to work on Monday. We have had some great people helping us out over the last week, an old family friend who I haven't even seen since I had Kendal, called me up and offered to take Aidan for the day. Amy you rock!!!! Amy is an old babysitter of mine, she actually stayed at my house with me when my mom had my brother. I love her, and she will always have a special place in my heart!!! She not only kept Aidan once, she then offered to take him last Saturday too!!! He had a blast, he got to swim and play all day. I was ever so grateful, plus Josh definitely deserved the break. Wow this is turning into my life story!! For now, that's what up with the Heyde's. I will keep everyone updated on all the progress. For now just keep us in your prayers, we don't need anything else bad to happen. Love to all!!