{cheers to a beautiful, fallish friday}

my mommas heart is glad again.
i'm well enough to see my little boy again.
we listened to coldplay together all morning & had a wonderful time.

did i say thank you already to everyone that took the time to leave us comments for isaac's project? we were SO overwhelmed by how many of you posted & have encouraged us. we have our map {it is a world map too! a few of you had asked…} & pins are  bought {we opted for a pretty made one instead of cork cut outs this time} & our list is just about complete. can't wait to share with you all what it looks like when its done.

i'm just about positive its going to make me cry…

Source: printable.tipjunkie.com via A Spoonful on Pinterest

p.s. working on another isaac update. i know it was awful to allude to news & not post about it. its just taking some time to get it all sorted out in our minds before we share.

{family update}

today has been hard on my mommy heart.
on my way home from the hospital yesterday i started feeling really dizzy & toasty. then a sweet friend brought us dinner last night &  diagnosed me {100% correctly} with mastitis {she also totally papered me & got me set up on the couch & cleaned our house. SUCH a blessing} its actually not as scary as it sounds & i'm on antibiotics now, so hopefully with some more rest I'll be good to go tomorrow.

it was incredibly hard being away from my little man all day today. i don't think i could go another whole day without him…

luckily grandmoms have been able to fill in for me in the meantime, & daniel is with him tonite.

we also got {hopefully} the very last bit of news about isaac - some tests came back late last week.
it seems like its just been one thing after another with our brave little boy & every time we finally can wrap our minds around one thing we are surprised with something new & thats definitely discouraging. as much as we are trying to trust God with this -we have our moments of weakness & we've shed a good bit of tears. but as difficult as things can seem right now, isaac has made our family richer. god picked the perfect little boy for us.

we have lots to think about now - but they're mostly future things. i'm not quite ready for that post yet, though. {sorry! not trying to leave you all hanging} but for now our little man is doing well & we're still working on his eating to get him home. maybe just maybe by my birthday ;)

"You can be in no circumstances in which the Lord can not help you, in which he will not help you, if you look simply to him, rest on him, and wait for him. For every condition in which you may be placed, there is a promise; by that promise the Lord stands pledged to appear for you and help you; he is ever ready to deliverer you; only he will have you believe his word, exercise confidence in him, plead the promise at his throne, and wait for its fulfillment. Wait, then, on the Lord at all times. Times will change, creatures will vary, but the Lord remains always the same. In youth and health, in manhood and prosperity, in old age and its infirmities, we should wait on the Lord. He will adapt his mercies to us, make all his goodness pass before us, and cause all things to work together for our good. He will never leave us, change his views of us, or withhold his tender mercies from us. He is faithful to his word, true to his character, and full of love to his people.

Whatever change there may be in creatures, there is no change in him. Health may give way to sickness, plenty to poverty, strength to weakness, and life to death, but he is the same. With him there is no variableness, neither shadow of a turn. Therefore, "wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord."

{happy birthday, husband}

daniel turned 24 yesterday.

we celebrated by getting away early in the morning to watch the sun rise over the lake + family waffle breakfast time + afternoon snuggles with isaac & an early bedtime.

we are going to be a bundle of birthdays & holidays between the three of us.

hope to be taking him home in the next week or two :)

{happy 17 days}

little man is getting so big & so much more aware of whats going on, it seems.

one bit of very good news is that monday morning when i came in, they surprised us {or me. daniel is back at work during the daytimes now} by saying that they were moving isaac to progressive care. thats just one step away from home, so we couldn't have been more excited.

a perk of being in this nursery, too {isaac i'm sure, couldn't care less, but mom & dad are liking it} is that it's in the new part of the hospital & he has his own little room now & even a window that looks outside so he can start soaking up a few sun rays.

right now they're just monitoring his shunt & also trying to get him to gain a bit of weight & start bottle feeding. he can take about 2 bottles a day & the rest is going thru the little tube you see in his nose - he's making a lot of progress, though! someone came by to check him out today & agreed with daniel & i that he is doing super duper :)

they're still trying to get a few things worked out still, but overall he's really doing great & we couldn't be more proud of him.

if there could be only one thing we would ask continued prayer for, it would be that his shunt would continue to drain the fluid out of his brain like its supposed to & will heal & repair itself. he had an ultrasound done on it to check & see what kind of progress was being made while i was there today, but we still don't have any kind of results back yet. we'll keep you all posted :)

much love,

the colemans

{mindy, daniel & isaac}

{12 blessed days}

i miss this funny little face tonite.
he is the most expressive little baby i've ever seen. he makes us laugh so much already.
i can't wait to hold him without a plastic yellow gown on all the time.

we are getting closer to him coming home for a little bit.
we'll be making some back & forth trips for awhile to be sure, but those will just be for a week or so at a time. the neurosurgeon came by again today to check on how things were going with his little head.
his shunt is draining just a bit quickly, so we have to hold him horizontally for the next few days, but they are pleased with how he is doing. so if they are pleased, we are perfectly happy.

he'll be moving over to progressive care just as soon as he can start bottle feeding + keep a bit more food down. they're mostly feeding him thru the tube in his nose right now, but we try to use a bottle with him 2x a day. it just tuckers him out to try to eat, it seems like. we can't get him to stay awake for anything.

progressive care means almost home for us, so we are thrilled & also a bit nervous at the thought of finally caring for him at home without a monitor hooked up to make sure he's breathing all the time.

but God has sustained our little boy thru so much so far & we trust he will do the same when we finally get him here with us.

his nurses are all telling us he is going to be positively rotten with all of the hugs & snuggles & kisses he's getting from us & grandparents & friends. but i think thats a good thing :)

p.s. we were totally BLOWN AWAY by all of the people that responded to our last post!!!!!
we're definitely doing some kind of world map & will post a photo when its all done. we can't wait to share it with him, thank you all so much for helping us out & thank you for all of the prayers for our little man.

{we need your help for a special project}

isaac's surgery seemed to go really well this morning! {& we went in really early this morning to get some holding time with him beforehand}

it was a 2 hour procedure. but they kept us updated all the while. we got to walk him up to the OR & met all of the surgeons. they were all so sweet to us & we got to kiss on him before he left.

the anesthesia he was under today was a lot less than last week, so he started waking up around 3 this afternoon. he's looking a little roughed up. they shaved another little section on his head, so i think we may just grow a little mullet this winter & wear lots of cozy hats. & he has glue & tape all over him, but he still looks pretty handsome for just coming out of surgery, i think :)

our hearts are much more peaceful now & our boy is just a little bit closer to coming home for awhile.


& on an unrelated note:

we are working on a special project for isaac. we have been so incredibly touched by all of the prayers from people for him - our friends & family & from people we don't know in other states & overseas…

we thought it would be really special to make a map in his room with pins from all of the places people have prayed for him from so we can not only tell him as he grows up but show him, too, how God has protected him & how people have cared for our family.

so thats where we need you all to help us out. we've gone back thru a lot of previous posts - even from way back when we first found out about isaac & its been so great to re-read those comments & start tracking places, but we don't have locations for a lot of them, too. so if you have prayed for our little boy, please leave a comment letting us know & also where you're from so we can get pinning!

it's going to be our night-time project & hopefully we'll have it all done for when he gets home :)

Source: designsponge.com via Mindy on Pinterest

{more big things in store for mr. isaac}

hi friends,

just wanted to give you all a quick update on our little man :)

today we got to spend a nice long morning with him snuggling & then with the afternoon came sweet friend visitors & also a feeding time & colostomy bag that needed to be changed & the neurosurgeon all at the same time. {i'm so sorry charlotte & anne!} so with the neurosurgeon brought news that isaac was having his next surgery tomorrow morning. a shunt. {a little tube that is going to drain the fluid in his brain}

we knew this day would come - but we had been thinking it wouldn't be for another month or so, so it took us off guard quite a bit & any surgery is scary, & isaac still looks so tiny, we were just feeling really anxious about this happening. we talked & prayed a lot for isaac & feel quite a bit better now about this happening. it really needs to happen whether we feel good about it or not, though.

putting in a shunt is a fairly common & 'safe' procedure, but anything happening around his little brain is just scary for us. the success rate for them is only about 70%. so it could potentially become infected or have to be rewired at some point in the next year, & that wouldn't be the end of the world, but we're still praying against those things - isaac will have surgeries enough without another one to add to the list.
& just with the suddenness {at least to us} of this procedure, we're also praying that if this surgery tomorrow isn't supposed to happen just yet, that the doctors schedule won't allow time to do it after all.  he's scheduled for 8:30 in the morning, but depending on how some other things go earlier in the morning that his doctor has scheduled - it could potentially be postponed.

but with this surgery isaac is also one step closer to coming home with us. & that will be a wonderful day we can't wait for.

{meeting isaac for the very first time}

{happy one week birthday, little man}

wow. what an incredible week for us.
its been so much harder than we even could have imagined - being in the hospital & all of the tests & the news from doctors - both good & bad.

but also so much sweeter when we get to snuggle with our little man.
i didn't think it was possible to love him so much as we do. it hurts our hearts to be away from him, but the past two nights back home have been good for us, too. we're getting some much needed sleep finally & catching up on laundry & little life things.

we had a quieter weekend with him, followed by a busy monday today with lots of visits from doctors.
they did an ultrasound on his brain this morning to see how the fluid is going down and/or moving/collecting & we don't have an official report back yet. the left side of his brain was about 4x bigger than his right, but it's looking like thats starting to shift & the two sides are more proportional from the looks of things -- off the record. still, we were really glad to hear the news.

sunday was a weepy day for us when little man had his eyes examined & they think he has optic nerve hypoplasia, which just means that the nerves in his eyes don't look like they're quite developed. that could mean lots & lots of things that we wont know for awhile. on the vision scale it could range from almost normal to legally blind, but we've researched it some & feel better about things.

we also really feel like he can see us. he looks straight at us & seems to know who we are.

it doesn't seem fair for him all the time to have all of this going on, but we don't know the big picture. we don't know what plans God has for him, but we do know he is here for a purpose & he is something really special.

we are praying nonstop for our little man. for healing. for peace. that he would know that his parents love him & that Jesus loves him most of all.

thank you all SO much for praying for isaac. its been so encouraging at the end of a really hard day to see so many other people have been praying for him, too. it makes our hearts glad.

{day four with our little man}

Isaac had his very best day yet, today. We are so thrilled.

The morning started off a bit rough - we weren't able to see him until early afternoon because of some business in the nursery, but he was doing well all the while & we made up for it in the afternoon.

You can see in his little picture his shaved head & the VAD there on top where they're draining some of the fluid. We watched them do that today. I thought I wouldn't be able to watch, but it was actually really interesting. Everything has been so far. I'm surprised at all of the things I've been able to stomach. Maybe I could have been a nurse after all...

Then we got to help his nurse clean up some of the glue on his head & face & everything from the respirator & band-aids & things.

The little splints on his arms look a lot worse than they are. They're just stretching the muscles in his hands. It was actually really cool. We watched the occupational therapist make them for him so they fit his little hands perfectly. They are SO adorable on him. They look like little wings when he raises his arms. He's not a big fan of them yet. There was actually a tiny bit of velcro on one of them that wasn't covered & he got them stuck together when he was wiggling around. He's already making us laugh lots - very fitting of his name :)

He's off of all breathing tubes & monitors. He just has an IV in his leg for antibiotics, & a more permanent IV in his other leg for everything else. & he's pooping. I never thought that would be such a big deal or make us so happy. But that is really good news, because it means his surgery was successful & his tummy is working well, so the doctor gave him the a-ok to start feeding him this afternoon. He guzzled it down SO fast & seems to be digesting everything really well so far.

We got a bit of an idea of what will need to happen before he comes home, too. It could be Thanksgiving time, possibly. But mostly because theres another surgery that will need to happen with his intestines that will happen in 6 to 8 weeks & depending on how well he eats & how his tummy heals, we may be able to bring him home for a bit in between time. But that also will depend on if the fluid in his brain keeps on accumulating or if it just drains and is okay, which is what we are praying for. So we will try to be patient & we really do want him healthy & strong before he comes home, so we'll just have to get used to this type of 'normal' for at least a little while.

Thank you thank you for continued prayers for us & our little boy! We can't wait for you all to meet him & we can't wait for him to meet all of the people who have been praying for him all this time!

{day three + sweet man's little face}

Just a quick picture of our sweet boy after surgery - actually its a still from a video we we were taking of him.

He's a bit taped & wired up & they shaved off some of his pretty hair - but he is beautiful still.
Sorry we haven't really been keeping everyone in the loop. We've been totally without techie tools the past few days. No fancy phones or cameras or laptops until super recently. I don't think we totally totally thought thru the fact that we wouldn't be home for quite awhile. So thank you dad for letting us steal your laptop :)

Okay, so here is whats going on with our little son.

All in all, we are really encouraged today. Its nice to have yesterday behind us & to be over a little hurdle. It seems as though everything that they've found with Isaac - both things that we were expecting & things we weren't, are so far on the better side of what they could be. The one major thing we still don't know much about - & probably won't really realistically for awhile is how the fluid in his brain is going to affect him as he gets older - we'll just have to be patient while he heals & grows.

So {somewhat} quickly & simply, so far this is what is going on:

-the hydrocephalus {fluid in brain} is slowly being drained now. One of the surgeries yesterday - the latter one, was putting a VAD just under the skin on top of his head. {from what we can understand} its about the size of a large coat buton & they are going to manually drain the fluid from there for now. That was kind of different from what we originally had talked about. Originally they were going to insert a shunt, which is a tube that connects from his head down to his stomach & his body would absorb the fluid that way. The reason this didn't happen was because...

-Isaac was actually born with an imperforate anus, which just means that his little bottom hole isn't there. So that was kinda shocking, but actually made sense with some of the ultrasounds that we had seen problems with his bowels in. That was surgery number one, & it went really well, but because all of his tummy area is kind of tender right now so they're not wanting to route any tubes down there just yet - hence the VAD. So back to the bowel stuff - right now they have just re-routed everything temporarily to a little sack on the outside of his tummy, but in the next few months they'll do another surgery & then another or two over time & can get everything all fixed up for him & working. It apparently isn't a super uncommon thing...& surgery went really well it seems like. We're still waiting to make sure everything healed up & is working as it should - but it sounds like it all went really well!There could have been a lot more complications with his kidneys, bowels & intestines, but all of those are looking okay :)

a few other more minor things that we'll just have to watch are:

-his missing radius bones {one of the two bones in the lower arm, that connect from the elbow to wrist} he is actually missing both of his thumbs too. it's actually really really cute looking having his hands curled up. & we kind of didn't notice the thumbs until a nurse told us. we talked with an orthopedic surgeon & the only action we're taking right now is getting him little stretchers for his arms/hands & in a year or two they can do a surgery that takes one of his fingers & makes it an opposable thumb, so he really should be able to do just about everything with them that anyone else would.

-his kidneys are fused together. & both on the left side. super bizarre, but they're functioning just fine! so we'll have to have them checked out every once in awhile just to make sure things are working right, but they're great so far.

he has a touch of jaundice, so we've been saying he's in his tanning bed all day today. they have a little pair of goggles for him, too.

& he's got scoliosis in his upper spine...like his daddy :)

he's been pretty sedated for a lot of the day today still - recoving from his big day yesterday.
but even so it was our best day with him yet, even though we didn't get to hold him. he is so strong & so many people have been holding him up in prayer, its no wonder he's been such a little trooper - & he's getting some good books read to him in the meantime :)

i know everything is crazy/technical but we know that hardly anyone really knows what's going on yet. so that is basically it!

we're still believing that God gave us this little man to take care of & love & He can still perfectly heal his little body. but no matter what, he is perfect to us.

Love,
the Colemans

{baby isaac is here!}

just a super quick little post to let you all know that our sweet little boy is HERE!
born october 3rd at 12:30 in the morning.
he beat his induction date by a few days. he just wanted to be here a bit sooner :)

we could not be more in love with him. he is perfect to us in every way. we both cry every time we see him just thinking that he's ours & he's the little kicker that we have been praying for that was in my tummy for the past nine months.

he has the sweetest little face i've ever seen. & he's been such a little warrior with all of the poking, x-rays, iv's & the surgeries he had today. he was still under anesthesia from them when we went in to visit this evening, but all of his vitals are good. one hurdle is jumped, so tomorrow will be sweet to know that we can just be with him more.

thank you all SO much for praying for us & for the sweet emails & everything.
i know this isn't much of an update. we're just still super overwhelmed with everything going on.
i think we had prepared for this as much as possible, but its still just so emotional on top of all of the mommy hormones that are going crazy & the lack of sleep. so just know we are so blown away by everyones kindness - i wish we could hug & thank each one of you personally & hopefully we will with a lot of you, but until then know that we are grateful!

love,
the colemans

{maybe my last post for awhile}

tonite i think is just going to be a sleepless night.
i've fought quite a few of them lately, but this one is a little too achey to fall back asleep, i'm pretty sure.

so after a doctors appt. on friday, my induced-by date is still the same, but apparently there's a pretty good chance i could go into labor on my own early. like, any time.

dudes, you don't have to read this stuff. i will try not to be graphic.
but as of friday morning, i was over 3cm dilated + my cervix was at about 85%, & i've had more contractions since, but always somewhat inconsistently, so this little guy could just decide he wants to be here before then pretty easily, i think.

so just in case i'm mia for awhile, i'll have a few guest posts here & there. & i've also dug up a few favorite past post to keep you company:

our favorite pita chips

easy christmas gifts

a great makeup brush cleaner

the best cheese fondue

a different kind of facial cleanser/makeup remover