The Wilmsen Family Blog

Shayla dancing

2011-03-26T10:23:00.000-07:00

Jumping in the pool

2010-06-13T08:04:00.000-07:00

Well, summer came to our backyard last week and we were finally able to spend more than 10 minutes in our pool. The water has been too cold but we finally got some 100+ days down here that kicked the water temp up a bit. Now everyone is junping in! Shayla has been going to swimming lessons the past couple of week and and she gets to practice at home. After just three weeks they are already working! Take a look.

Easter Morning

2010-04-04T08:35:00.000-07:00

Shayla on easter morning. Does she seem happy to get an easter basket or what?

As long as there is a wall to hang on to, I'm walking!

2009-07-19T13:23:00.000-07:00

Crawling is so yesterday

2009-07-19T10:47:00.000-07:00

Its hard to crawl in a dress!

2009-07-18T19:41:00.000-07:00

Hospital...

2009-01-26T19:10:00.000-08:00

As all of you know by now, Shayla is awaiting her heart surgery at Texas Children's Hospital. She had a bit of a blue spell the on Friday and her pediatrician told Lori to take Shayla to the emergency room downtown. After a 5 hour wait in the ER, Shayla was finally able to see a cardiologist. While the cardiologist was examining Shayla, her O2 levels dropped to around 60%. At that point she was admitted to the hospital and Lori got on the phone to tell me. I was in New Orleans on a business trip and caught the next flight to Houston. Lucky for us it is only a 45 min flight.

We have spent the last 4 nights in the hospital with Shayla sleeping in a metal crib next to Lori and I. The days are not very entertaining as we really aren't allowed to leave the 15th floor. We have a great view of Mid-Town Houston from our room and Shayla likes watching the cars and people from way up high.

Today (Monday) a whole team of cardiologists came in to talk with us. They said that Shayla will most likely have surgery to repair her two congenital heart defects this week. We are unsure of an exact date, but when we hear more we will keep you all updated.

Photos from the hospital...

2009-01-25T15:44:00.000-08:00

Shay Shay is soooooo cool!

2009-01-02T20:17:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from Shayla

2008-12-25T19:47:00.000-08:00

Shayla's first Christmas!

2008-12-25T19:44:00.000-08:00

Look what Santa left under the tree!

Shayla loves her new Pink Leopard!

2008-12-25T19:42:00.000-08:00

2008-12-25T19:39:00.000-08:00

When You're Smiling...

2008-11-28T20:21:00.000-08:00

It has been seven days now that I have been on a no dairy, no wheat(gluten), no soy, no egg, and no peanut diet- NO FUN! This is per the instructions of the pediatric GI specialist that we saw last week. She suspects that Shayla has a protein allergy to one of the five most common allergens and when I eat this food it gets to her in my breast milk. So I have to cut everything out of my diet(and believe me it feels like everything... I especially miss bread and chocolate!). After a couple of weeks I will add them back in one at a time. We are feeling optimistic that it has finally started to make her feel better- and we are seeing more smiles!! YAY! That makes it all worthwhile!!

We finally got our baby girl to smile for the camera a few times. She smiles for us, but when we get the camera out she gets distracted by it. Here is what we've captured so far.

Grandma Lois & Papa Mike

2008-11-23T11:44:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of the month we were so happy to have Matt's parents visit. They flew down from St. George and stayed with us for about a week. It was a good excuse for Matt to play some golf for the first time in Shayla's life. He enjoyed a few games with his dad. Other than that, we didn't do much but just hang around the house as Grandma and Grandpa got to know Shayla. They were so good to us. They took care of Shayla and allowed us to actually get to go to the mall TOGETHER- its been a while. We don't get out much :) They made us spaghetti and Mike's famous chili with lots of yummy leftovers! Shayla really seemed to like them. She finally got to meet her Papa Mike, who's voice on the speakerphone has been fascinating her for weeks now. She smiled and talked to Grandma Lois one day for longer than we have every seen her do it with us. We really had a nice time.

Shayla's "Day" Updated

2008-11-20T18:30:00.000-08:00

Thank you everyone for your love and encouragement. We survived one more obstacle in this journey so far. The results of the MRI came back and we found out that Shayla has another heart defect called Partial Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return (PAPVR). It's fortunate that they were able to find and diagnose this and the chances are good that it can also be corrected with surgery. The next step is to meet with the surgeons- armed with lots of questions- and hope to set a date for the surgery. We will keep you all posted.

Shayla and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

2008-11-07T11:54:00.000-08:00

We spent yesterday morning at Texas Children's Hospital getting an MRI of Shayla's heart. Normally an MRI is not that big of a deal, but when you are 2 months old and need to be sedated it is not very fun. We were not allowed to feed Shayla after 2am and so when we arrived at the hospital at 6am she was already unhappy. After an hour wait it was time to get an IV.

Here she is being so good while we dress her in a tiny circus print hospital gown. She didn't know what was coming. The nurses stuck her four times and still couldn't get the IV(you know how that goes they tie your arm off with the rubber band- which she hated- and dig around with the needle yuck!).

Its so hard when your baby looks at you as if to say "please help me, save me, feed me... do something" and you cant do anything for her. You wonder if she will ever forgive you.

After about half an hour of torture they decided they would have to put her under with gas to get the IV (so they could put her under...) Here is our tough little one fighting the gas.

Before you think we are crazy for taking pictures at a time like this imagine how interested she will be to see them when she grows up. The MRI took over an hour and they got all the images they needed. We took a sad little girl home to sleep off the drugs. The nurse said she would have a hangover for about a day and we could tell she was not feeling well. Notice her poor little bruised hands.

We have an appointment with our doctor next week to go over the MRI results.

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-04T08:43:00.001-08:00

Halloween came to Texas and we noticed there was another Tigger in the house. Can you guess which one is the real Tigger?

We spotted the imposter hiding inside a jack-o-lantern. Clever disguise....

Later, we followed a trail of wrappers and found that the imposter had gotten into the Halloween candy and had gorged herself...

Once captured, the Tigger imposter attempted to frighten us with her ferocious ROAR!

We were finally able to subdue her and she was so cute we dicided to keep her.

6 weeks old!!!

2008-10-13T12:37:00.000-07:00

Well, this week our Shay-Monster turned 6 weeks old. She got a new stuffed Panda Bear from Papa Mike and Grandma Lois, lounged by the pool like a celebrity, took an adventure to Old Town Spring, and graced us with her first smile! While we didn't exactly capture the smile on camera, we got pretty close. Take a look at the picture of her in the green onesie.

Stay tuned next week for another update. Enjoy the pictures!!!

The Shayla Dance

2008-09-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

Finally, an update!

2008-09-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it into our new place. After a week of no power thanks to Hurricane Ike, the movers showed up to take our furniture over to our new apartment. It's been a crazy due to the move. On top of all the packing/unpacking, on Wednesday, I have to return to work. I'm not really looking forward to that at all.

Shayla had another cardiology appointment the other day. There was no EKG this time, but Dr. Wolfe did update us a little bit more on her condition. It's almost like he tells us more information every time we talk to him. Like he thinks we can handle a little bit more as time goes on. He told us that we are in whats called the "Honeymoon" phase. Things are good right now but they will get worse soon as she continues to grow. Shayla is very suseptable to infections. Not that she can get sick easier than any other kid, just that due to her heart condition, it makes it harder for her to fight off sickness like a common cold. She is going to have to get several shots to protect her from RSV come winter time. He also mentioned that by late winter he should have a better idea on where we are headed as far as getting her tetrology surgery.

In the meantime, Lori and I have been experiencing how difficult and all consuming it is to have a newborn. It's near impossible to get anything done. If we are able to unload a box we consider ourselves lucky.

On the bright side, Shayla has started to become a little more alert. She is able to look at contrasting colors with interest and hold her head up on her own. There are brief positive signs in between the crying. We think she may have colic because she has been very fussy as of late. At the very least, we think she gets a tummy ache that causes her problems. The pediatician says she may have slight reflux and may have a little colic as well. Here are some pictures that we have taken over the past few weeks. I have also updated the Hurricane Ike post with some photos from our neighborhood.

Enjoy and we will update again soon.

Hurricane Ike is coming

2008-09-12T19:33:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Ike will be making landfall here in Houston soon. Not to worry, though. We are a good 75 miles inland and are safe from the 20ft storm surge that everyone is predicting. We are going to get a lot of rain and some strong wind, but we should be just fine. The worst that could happen is that we lose power and if that happens, we'll be on the road to Austin or San Antonio on Saturday to stay cool.

Updated from my blackberry.

Okay, friday night this monster storm hit us hard! We thought for sure our windows would blow out. Who knew they would actually be able to withstand 110mph winds. Holy cow, what a scary night. We lost power at 2am Sat and have not had it since. There Is lots of destruction around us. Huge trees that have been snapped in half, flooding, all types of debris. Crazy stuff. We are okay, just waiting on the power to come back on. We have fresh water and several MRE's that I saved from my Army days for just such an occasion. We'll update you all as soon as we can.

Proof that Shayla has frog legs!

2008-09-06T18:01:00.000-07:00

We found this stuffed frog and it looks very familiar...can anyone see the resemblance?

Shayla gets some gifts

2008-09-06T17:53:00.000-07:00

Papa Mike and Grandma Lois sent Shayla some nice new baby gifts today. They got Shayla some new outfits and socks as well as her very first doll! Shayla loves her new clothes! Shayla also inhereted her dad's very first book and his fist baby blanket. What thoughtful Grandparents!

Grandma and Grandpa Hall

2008-09-06T17:47:00.001-07:00

Well, here are a couple of photos of Shayla with her Grandma and Grandpa. Lori's parents have been fantastic and have taken a giant weight off our shoulders. We actually feel like we have been able to get Shayla on some sort of schedule, so it's been good.

Shayla's first week at home

2008-09-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

Shayla has been at home for 4 days now and she is starting to adjust to life outside the hospital. One thing Lori and I keep saying is why didn't the nurses at the hospital give us an instruction manual? The first two nights were pretty tough. She likes to sleep all day and then stay up all night. Sleep was very hard to get...

On Monday night, we had to rush Shayla to the Emergency room because her temperature was low and she was having Tetrology spells. She was having labored breathing, turning blue around the mouth, and was sweating on the brow. The on-call pediatrician told us to go to the hospital and have a doctor take a look at her. After several hours of observation and consultation phone calls with the cardiologists at Texas Childrens Hospital, it was determined that she could go home. They explained that Shayla was experiencing Tetrology spells and we did the right thing bringing her to the hospital. We see the cardiologist tomorrow so hopefully we can get more info on what to look for and maybe we can find out when we can get the surgery. We'll update you all when we get more info.

Here are some pictures of Shayla's fist bath. Everyone told us that she would get really upset durring this process, but she handled it like a pro. Lori's parents also came into town on Tuesday. What a relief that was! We were finnaly able to get a little sleep. Yesterday we slept for 6 hours! We felt so refreshed. We'll get photos posted with Shayla and Grandma and Grandpa soon.

Check back soon for more photos and info...

More about our little Shayla

2008-08-31T15:45:00.000-07:00

Shayla Raine came into this world at 10:57pm August 27th, 2008. She weighed in at 7.5lbs and was 20 inches. SHe has the funniest little legs. It looks like she was almost born a breech baby with her little froggy legs, as we call them. You can see it in a couple of the pictures, how her little legs stick out at silly angles. We now know why Lori always had two little bumps sticking out in her pregnant belly. One look at her legs and it all makes perfect sense. She also loves to give her mom and dad a patented grumpy face. She furrows up her brow, closes her eyes, and starts pouting with her lower lip. It is the most adorable thing to see. This may change though as in the six hours since she has left the hospital, we have seen less of "grumpy face". We love her so much and have got to know her much more in the three and a half days she has been part of our lives.

Yesterday the doctors at the hospital said that she looked clear of infection but they wanted to keep her one more night. They moved us all into a post partum room and we got to spend our first night with our daughter. It was absolutely amazing! Yeah, we got very little sleep, but it felt incredible. Being able to learn how she acts when she needs to feed, how she sleeps, and everything else that goes along with our baby girl was something we had been missing while she was in the ICU for those first couple of days.

Morning came and it was time to be discharged from the hospital. Lori and I were both very excited about this as it meant we were finally going to be able to bring our baby girl home. We finished up her final feeding in the hospital (which totally knocked her out cold...), put her in her little car seat, and brought her down and into the sunshine of the world for the first time in her life.

We got her home and into the house without any problems. She was still passed out so we placed her in her pack and play to sleep. This was the first time she had not been swaddled and I think we found out why she was always so fussy in the hospital. She wanted to be all stretched out!

After another feeding later in the afternoon, she went to sleep in her bouncer. I had to take a picture of her just a minute ago because she looks so adorable!

I know a lot of you have heard about Shayla's heart condition. For those of you who don't know, Shayla has a condition called Tetrology of Fallot, which basically means she has a hole in her heart and a small problem with her artery. She is going to need heart surgery at some point in the future. At the time being, she is perfectly fine. While it was a shock to hear this news from the cardiologist the other night, they have reassured us that she is fine. We just need to be aware of the condition and monitor it over time with regular EKG's.

Thats all for now. It's about feeding time again and we really just feeling like loving up our daughter. More to come!

Meet Shayla Raine Wilmsen

2008-08-30T18:38:00.000-07:00

Lori and I rushed to the hospital at 3:45am Wednesday morning after her water broke while we were sleeping. Her contractions took a long time to get started so it was decided to use medication to induce labor.

After the medication, Lori's contractions came on strong. They soon became quite painful, so we decided to get an epidural. At 10pm, Lori was dialated at 10cm and it was time to start pushing. 57min later, Shayla Raine Wilmsen was brought into the world.

When she came out we were expecting to have Lori breastfeed, however little Shayla had to be rushed to the intensive care nursery to get some help. It turns out she had a possible infection due to the length of the labor and needed to be observed for 48 hours. This meant that little Shayla could not room with us like we were planning on. Instead, we made the treck down to the NICU to feed our brand new daughter every couple of hours. Sleep? Hahaha! We now know what it means to have a newborn baby.

More to come once I get an hour of sleep...if thats possible. Take a look at the pictures.

The Day Before!

2008-08-27T09:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of Lori a day before she went into labor. Little did we know that a mere 12 hours later her water would brake and we would be off to the hospital in the middle of the night. Ignorance is bliss!

38 Weeks! Almost there!

2008-08-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

Here is picture of Lori at 38 weeks, just one week ago.