Shame on me.....

One of these days I will actually start updating the website/blog more but I can't seem to find the extra time to actually do it right now! So much has happened with the boys, baby girl and our ceiling falling in last month in the living room. Man what a mess! Thankfully, we were all in bed and no one was hurt.
Zachary turned 7 recently and its insane that he is so grown up! Where did the time go? He's such a big boy now and is doing very well. We are about to head to Nashville for his checkups so that we can get everything out of the way and ready to hibernate for the winter. Y'all know how much I like germs and I am really hoping that we can avoid pretty much all of them this winter. That's my goal anyway and if you come to my house with a bug, I am not responsible for my actions, you have been warned. LOL
Christian turns 3 at the end of next week. I can't believe this one either. He is so flipping smart and has really gotten into a very sassy stage. Sometimes all you can do it turn your back so you can laugh! I would have some very funny videos if there were a camera on him 24/7. He is a huge fan of anything boy and his favorite wardrobe item would be his frog rain boots which he must wear everywhere! I recently buzzed his hair off because he insisted that he have his hair cut like daddy and Zachary. The first thing he said when he saw himself in the mirror was "I look like daddy!".
Baby Isabella is growing as she should and will make her arrival in the next 5-7 weeks. I am 31 weeks now and today's u/s she was measuring 3 lbs 10 oz. She had a little hair and some big Angelina size lips! She must get those from daddy. I ended up with gestation diabetes this time so thats been different but overall, its really not too bad. Looking forward to my baby shower and getting everything ready for her arrival. Hoping daddy can make it home in time too!
I am going to make it my goal to get some new pics on the blog this week so check back soon. www.thebeachleyfamily.blogspot.com If anyone is on Facebook and hasn't friended me, do it. I'm way more active there than I am anywhere else!

Family update.....

Yes I am horrible. I could not believe when I looked at the blog that I had not updated in so long. Its shameful. lol Alot going on here and I keep meaning to do it and just never get around to it! Lots to share though!

First, Zachary is doing pretty well. His kidney function is pretty much status quo and as much as I would like to have improvement in that area I am glad that things are not any worse. He is growing so much too. I just can't believe he will be 7 years old soon. My little boy isn't so little anymore! School is almost over for him for the year. Which I'm really looking forward to it being over. His teacher has been switched so much and one was horrible and never called or came out for her visits. Excuse after excuse so she will be getting the boot for next year. I'm really wondering if I even have to have him enrolled in school and need to check into that. I'm not sure how all that works when the child is mentally disabled.

Now Christian is also growing up too quickly. Just this week he finally let go of his paci or his bappy as he called it. Surprisingly, it went alot better than I expected and I am glad that I waited until he was ready. Didn't have to deal with all the screaming and sleepless nights! On Sunday night when I put him to bed he did not ask for it, so I sure didn't give it to him! I just knew he would wake me up for it sooner or later than night and when he didn't, I knew it was time. He didn't mention it at all until naptime on Monday and by that time I had decided we were done and I told him bappy was gone. I told him that Santa came and picked them up because there were little babies who didn't have any and he was going to give bappy to the babies. AND HE TOTALLY BELIEVED ME!!! I told him that Santa said he was a very big boy now and that because he was so good he was going to leave him a present. Anyone who knows Christian knows that he is a huge fan of Santa. He told me to tell Santa to leave his present on his bed! So he went to nap and when he fell asleep I wrote him a note from Santa and left him an 8 pack of hot wheels and another little car on his bed with the note. He woke up excited about the gifts and called everyone to tell them what Santa did for him.  And he has not looked back since! He did ask me for it yesterday when he tell and got hurt and I just had to tell him that Santa took them, remember? Its all so bittersweet. He's growing up! I am hoping to work on the potty this summer when Daddy is here to help. He is not interested yet and when I talk about it he just says No, not right now!

Things have been going pretty good with the pregnancy. We found out at 16 weeks that its a baby GIRL! Miss Isabella Grace will be joining our family in no time. We will call her Izzy or as Christian says sissy. SO flipping excited that I've already had to buy some things pink! I am 18 weeks now and it seems crazy that its already half way over. I have been concerned about not feeling her move and had an u/s this week. My placenta is belly side so thats why I'm not feeling her yet. I'm bummed that I won't feel her as much as I would with a posterior placenta because that is the best part of being pregnant and this being our last, I was really looking forward to it. She was stretching and wiggling and even yawned during the u/s. It is so amazing to see such life going on in there when just a few short months ago she was conceived.

Daddy is due home next month. He's been gone for 95 days straight so far and still has 40 days until he gets to come home. Its been one of the longest runs we've ever done I think and it sucks. I am glad that he gets some time at home this summer, and the boys sure are too, but am not looking forward to the fall leg of the tour. He has to leave right at the 36 week mark and yall know my babies like to come at 36 weeks so its going to be rough for me to manage a newborn and the boys after having a csection without him here. I might lose my mind for sure.

Well thats it for now. Hopefully I can get some pictures up soon. We are taking a trip to the beach in a couple weeks and Christian is so excited. He was 8 months old the last time we went so he doesn't remember and is really looking forward to it. This will be adventure for sure!

Zachy's Check-up

On Thursday I took Zachary to the ped for a checkup. We like to do his every 6 months rather than yearly. With Zachary, alot can change quickly! He weighed in at 55 lbs 12 oz. HOLY COW. We didn't get a length on him but I know he's still around 38 inches or so. He seems to have grown a little but not much. All systems checked out perfectly, with the exception of his kidney function which is still struggling. He's still running about 50% function right now. The only other negative thing is his puberty is also progressing more. We haven't been able to start his Lupron shots yet due to his illnesses and the kidney problems but now we are sort of in a position that we either have to do it now or not at all. I asked his endocrinologist about whether or not it was known to cause issues with the kidneys and he said he didn't know of any documented in children but he did with adults. One adult ended up with kidney failure after treatment with Lupron. We plan to discuss it more with him at our checkup at Vandy in April and decide from there. If there is even a chance that it will worsen or cause his kidneys to fail then we are going to go forward with puberty progression rather than the shots because its just not worth the risk. I hope the endo can give me more insight at our visit next month.

While I was there I decided to ask her about Christian too. The child never eats and if he does, he eats like a bird. I don't know how he continues to grow like he does. He lives on yogurt, nutrigrain bars, chicken nuggets, mac n cheese, yams, turkey, pb & j and fruit. He will not eat anything that resembles a vegetable at all. Most of the time when you try to get him to eat he'll say "no, not right now!" or "not soon!". Thankfully, the ped said thats totally normal for his age. And that he's eating alot more than some other kids she knows, some who will only eat cheese! He complains sometimes that his tummy hurts but I really think that is just a way to get medicine. The child LOVES medicine and will take anything you give him! His new thing at bedtime is my tummy hurts, I have a temperature, I need medicine. And yeah, nothing is wrong with him! He just loves medicine! Wierd kid.

I will leave you with a Christian funny. Yesterday he came to me with a booger on his finger. Yes a BOOGER! I told him to go to the bathroom and get a tissue to put it on. He went off toward the bathroom and came back within seconds bawling his eyes out saying "I can't get a tissue anymore". I say, why not Christian? "I can't get my booger back!". What happened to your booger Christian? "Its in my mouth!". He was crying his eyes out because he couldn't get his booger back out of his mouth to put on the tissue. I bust out laughing and he's looking at me like dude, its not funny! Little boys! 

The kidney saga continues

I took Zachary to the kidney specialist a little over a week ago. He basically said there wasn't anything we could do but wait and see. Right now Zachary's kidney function is around 50%. He said that won't kill him but if it gets worse, we may be facing some tough decisions regarding dialysis and life expectancy. Please pray for healing for Zachary's kidneys. We won't be checking weekly labs now but monthly. I pray that we start to see some improvements soon. He worries me so much.

Baby Boo

So I've decided to call the baby "boo". Don't ask me why, maybe I've been watching too much Monsters Inc with Christian. Thats his favorite movie of all time. Anyway, had a dr appt today and they did an u/s since we hadn't done one for 3 weeks since the miscarriage. The twins sack is still there so that must be why I still have some spotting. But baby boo was dancing and squirming and wiggling around. Its so amazing that at almost 11 weeks, there is such life in there. Everything looks good for now! Here is boo at 10w5d and my belly at 10w2d.

Happy 7th Anniversary!

7 years ago today, Cam and I were married in Nashville. The weather that day was absolutely gorgeous and in the 70's. Today's weather was exactly the same. Happy Anniversary honey!!

Oh baby!

There is soon to be a new addition to the Beachley household and thats another baby due in October. We found out we were expecting on January 31st but I decided to keep it quiet until I saw the heartbeat. We found out a couple of weeks later that there were twins, however, sadly I lost one of the twins about a week ago. On March 1st, I saw our baby's heartbeat and everything was measuring right on schedule. I will be 9 weeks on Wednesday and the sickness started a few days ago. I am nauseas about all day long! Here is the u/s of our wee one taken at 7w5d. His/her heartrate was 154. Almost identical to both brothers at that stage.

Picture of the Day.....

My little Christian is a riot. He is also getting into things and making messes like you wouldn't believe. Today he brought me into my bathroom and with great joy and glee said "Look Mommy! Stickers!". He was SO proud of himself for this art work!

Sweet Zachary....

I tell you, sweet little Zachary can never catch a break. If its not one thing, its about 10 others with him. His cardiologist called about his lab work. His triglycerides came back at 684!!!! Obviously, the increased dose of fish oil  hasn't helped at all so we are doubling it again to 4,000 mg a day. We will do labs again in 2-3 months to see where we are. If things don't improve, he wants to add in a medication. He also said that Zachary's particle size was about twice what it should be. Normal for his age is around 75, his was 138. Now if we could just get his lipids and his kidneys in check we might be on a roll.

The kidney saga......

Zachary and his kidneys just can't seem to get on the same page. Its been almost 3 months and he still isn't within normal range. This past week's blood draw his BUN was 39 and creatinine 1.4.  Granted, thats better than the 50 and 1.7 he had a month ago. Its just a slow process and I really want everything to get back to normal for the sweet boy! I am wondering if the lasix is adding to the trouble but afraid to stop it because he will get fluid on his lungs and need to go back into the picu. Hopefully, we keep seeing small baby steps of improvement. His follow up with the kidney doctor is coming up so maybe he has some tricks up his sleeve. When the pediatrician talked with him a few weeks ago, he wanted us to hold course as we were for a while longer. Is this not the sweetest face on the planet?!?! He loves to snuggle with mommy in his new bed!

Christian, bless his heart, is king of writing on the walls. I have confiscated every single marker, pen, chalk, crayon, pencil in this house and he STILL finds one somewhere to write on something! Red sharpie on white trim doesn't  look real good! He has wrote all over furniture and Zachary's equipment with black sharpie. I'm telling you, you gotta stay on him ALL the time. Just yesterday he decided to add some Mr. Bubbles to his fish tank. Needless to say, Elmo the fish did not survive that one. Seriously, I only went to the bathroom for a couple mins! He also has a sweet side though. He LOVES to have his back rubbed. He is definitely a mothers child. I used to lay on my mamaws lap for hours getting rubbed when I was little and I know he will soon follow in mamaw's lap for rubs! He is quick to apologize too. He almost always says please and thank you and he loves his big brother with all his heart. 

As you can see, Elmo got a major bubble bath!

And I'll close with a picture of my sweet boys snuggling in Zachary's bed. PRECIOUS! 

Zachary's new bed and lift

After much fight with the insurance company and a long wait, Zachary's new bed arrived and it is awesome!!! Its so nice to be able to elevate his head without him having to sleep on a wedge. Its also very nice to be able to change the height of the mattress for whatever I am doing for  him. His lift works out pretty nice too. He's so flipping heavy and this is really going to help me alot. The worst part of using the lift is trying to keep Christian from killing himself trying to help!


As you can tell, Christian is a total remote junkie. I had to velcro it out of his reach!