Life is Fragile...

 

We all know that life is fragile and every day is a gift, but sometimes it doesn't really sink in until something makes it hit home in a very real way.

 

That was two weeks ago for us.

 

In one day we found out that both our niece Norah and my bother Jeremy were both in the hospital.  Norah had an awful virus that made her terribly sick.  She was in the hospital for a day and still had severe symptoms of the virus within the week.  She has now thankfully come out of that virus and with some pretty significant weight loss, yet she is back to eating, drinking and being her happy self!!  We are so thankful for that!!

 

 

Jeremy, on the other hand, did not end up with a virus.  He was dismissed from the hospital about three weeks back with a "virus."  They tested him for the flu, but that came back negative and he was sent home to recover from whatever this was.  Within the five days that followed his symptoms went from bad to worse.  He was admitted to the hospital on a Tuesday and within hours he was in emergency, life saving surgery.  Two days later, another surgery.  In the end he had an extremely bad, life threatening infection that affected tissues in his body and the only way the doctors could combat this infection was to remove the affected tissues and start him on heavy antibiotics right away.  Our family has been through their fair share of surgeries, but what struck hard was when the surgeon said he had a 50/50 chance of coming out of this alive before his first surgery. 

 

A 50/50 chance?!  This just couldn't be real!  A young, 27-year-old, healthy, 6 foot-5inch guy couldn't just get something that bad to be life threatening!  When that reality hit, it hit me hard and it took me a day to realize the severity of the situation and to wrap my head around what had happened.  Underlying every emotion, I was so incredibly thankful to God for sparing my brother's life!!  Something in him told him it was time to go to the hospital and the timing of that was key in saving him.  I was grateful for modern medicine and the wonderful team of doctors who were caring for Jeremy.  I was grateful for Jeremy.

 

 

Now it will be almost three weeks that Jeremy is in the hospital.  He has been through three surgeries now.  The distance between all of us siblings has been hard, but the distance seemed even further and more difficult now.  I just wanted to see him and know that he was ok.  I got the opportunity to go down on Friday and be with him through his most recent surgery and sit, watch movies and talk with my brother without any other distractions.  This was the first time in a LONG time that I actually had some one-on-one time with him.  Life has gotten quite busy in the last six years!  It was a relief to see him, but at the same time hard as I know the road ahead of him will not be easy.  He will need a lot of support when he is discharged from the hospital and I guess only time will tell within the week what the best option might be for him, but for now he is healing and in good care.

 

 

It is really difficult for me to articulate into words exactly how we're all feeling as a family right now, but as time goes on I know we will process everything.  For now, we are trying to be as supportive of Jeremy as we can. 

 

As I flew home on Tuesday this week and came back to my life as a wife and mom I felt a little out of place.  It seems like life should stop when something like this occurs in your family.  It's surreal and it was hard for me to get into the swing of things this week.  I know that I hugged my girls and husband a little tighter when I got home that night. 

 

 

 

Moving forward I know Jeremy has a rough road ahead but we are praying for strength, complete healing, and a peace.  He is one strong man, inside and out, and I couldn't be more thankful for him in my life than I am right now.  Love you Jeremy so very much!!

 

 

 

 

 



Aubrey Meets Lucy

Today was the special day that the sisters got to meet eachother.  A couple of weeks ago Aubrey picked out a present for her baby sister and wrapped it up.  She was staying with the grandparents when Lucy was born so they all came to visit the next day.

 

When Aubrey walked into the hospital room with her little backpack on carrying her present for her sister, she couldn't have had a bigger smile on her face.  She was so excited to meet her sister and to see mommy and daddy.

 

 

We opened up the present she got for her sister together.

And Aubrey got to give her sister a huge "big sister" hug...

 

 

and give her a huge Aubrey sized kiss :).

Then Aubrey got to hold Lucy for the first time.

She's going to be a great big sister!

 

Then Aubrey got to open some "big sister" presents that some friends gave to her.  Curious George was one of them.

A doll was another.

And a new book.

 

Brandon and I also got her some small presents like her favorite, chapstick :).

 

She also got some clothes, another new book, and some fun puzzles a couple of days after.

 

 

After we had some family time this little one got to meet her both sets of grandparents.

 

This all made for one busy afternoon at the hospital, but all so special :).

 

 

 

Just Hanging Out

Lucy Grace Arrives!

This little girl has had a special story since day one.  With all the things she went through and survived in utero, she is one strong fighter...and our miracle baby.

 

So as stated in a previous post we were scheduled for for a c-section on Friday, March 8.  Thursday March 7th I was supposed to relax, take it easy, and we had planned a family night out before everything would change once again.  Come Thursday I started having some light contractions around 5:00am.  I went to MOPS (and we had a spa day that day so I got to visit and be encouraged by a lot of moms that morning) and when I left I was definitely in some pain.  I called Brandon around 1:00pm and told him that I thought I was having contractions and they were about 45-30 minutes apart.  He came home from work and I tried to relax while Aubrey went down for a nap.  By the time he got home around 2:00 the contractions were getting a little closer.  By about 3:00pm we had my mom pick up Aubrey because we thought we were going to be headed to the hospital at some point. 

 

As the afternoon went on the contractions were really getting strong.  I called my doctor's office to see what I should do.  At this point I thought that they would stop my labor if I went in, but they wanted me to wait it out.  At around 6:00pm my doctor called to check in to see if I had any questions or concerns about the surgery the next day.  I told him that I was having some strong contractions.  He told me to try and rest and lay down.  About half an hour later it became apparent that we needed to go in.  We packed the rest of our bag and were off.

 

When I got checked at around 7:00 I was already dialated to 6cm.  Of course we had waited, wanted and anticipated my doctor being the one to deliver our baby, but there was another doctor on call that evening.  This doctor was really pushing for a natural delivery.  He said my body was progressing nicely and my veins were looking ok.  At that point I got pretty emotional when he left the room.  I didn't know what way would be best.  He said that I should be as relaxed as possible to put even less pressure on my veins so they wheeled me into another room and started the epidural.  They wanted to start me on everything just in case a c-section was still in the books.  The only real hiccup was that the nurses blew out two of my veins when they were starting the IV and this made for a frantic room when I the epidural started and I was about to pass out. 

 

After the epidural had taken (and by the way, this epidural was wonderful!!  I was in a minimal amount of pain!!  Very different than with Aubrey's delivery :) ) The doctors and nurses had me laying down to minimize any pressure on my legs and veins.  At this point around 9:00pm I was still set on doing the c-section because of the risks that my doctor had talked about with us.  After I had the time to relax and rest some, I was checked again and at that point baby's head had moved down a lot and I was ready to push.  The doctor didn't want me pushing for more than 10-15 minutes and things were looking ok for that to occur.  I felt ok at that point to try this out and the doctor assured me that if anything was going wrong that the OR was right across the way.

 

I pushed about 3 times and this girl made her entrance into the world.  Who was to know but there was absolutely no damage to my veins...a HUGE praise!! 

 

 

So this little one made her entrance 8 hours before her scheduled c-section all on her own. She was a tiny 6lbs, 14oz and 19.5 inches long. She was perfect and healthy and we couldn't have been more excited or feel more blessed. I had been blessed to carry her for these 9 months and now we were blessed to become her parents.  What a story this little has even from the very beginning of her life.  We can't wait for what God has in store for her as an individual and with us as now we have become a family of four!!  We love you Lucy Grace!  We just can't believe you are finally here and we finally get to hold you :).

Norah Hope is Here!!!

We officially welcomed Norah Hope Fox into our family at 1:30am on August 21, 2012 to proud parents, Jon and Krystal.  Weighing in at 8 lbs, 1 oz and 19.5 inches long, this little lady has her mom's long fingers and toes and her daddy's eyes.

The morning started out with Brandon getting ready to leave Utah and Krystal and Jon getting ready to go to the hospital for Krystal to be induced.  Kind of a stressful and emotional morning.

Krystal's bag was broken late morning and the waiting began.  I was able to be in the delivery room for a part of the day while her labor pains increased.  We watched The Proposal and some other cooking shows.  Poor Krystal couldn't eat anything so who knows why we were watching cooking shows to make her even more hungry...even her doctor commented on that sometime during the day :).  When the labor pains started getting more intense I let the two future parents be and I waited with Jon's parents, Bud and Lois, and his brother Joe in the waiting room.  Aubrey was being well taken care of the whole day by Jackie and Nate and loved on once again by all of the Fox kids.  She did awesome at their house and I was so grateful to get to spend as much time as I did with my sister during this time.  It meant so much to me that Jackie was so willing to take on our little girl for the day!  Thank you Jackie!!

As we waited in the waiting room we again, even though we were hungry, we watched Diner, Drive-ins, and Dives, and really that should never be watched at midnight.  You just get too hungry!  The evening was filled with great conversation to calm our anxiousness in anticipation for this little lady's arrival.

At about 1:30 she arrived and we got to meet this little girl about an hour later :)

We are so excited that little Norah is finally here!  We are so proud of my sister during this delivery and  Jon for being such a good coach. We can't wait to see Jon and Krystal raise this little miracle and to share this road of parenthood together.  We can't wait for the memories, to watch Norah grow and change, and for Aubrey to have a cousin to share their own memories with.  We are so thankful for God's little blessings :)