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Everything is going much better today. Ethan came out of the NICU at 6pm yesterday. His breathing treatment went great but now we have just been trying to bring up his blood sugar levels. He came out of the NICU because his levels were above 40. In order to keep it above that level we have had to give him some formula because Beka isn’t quite ready for him yet. Beka has been doing great today. Been moving around a lot more and is ready to go home. She keeps saying that she is tired of being in bed. Her Dr. said we could go home anytime but the Pediatrician said we needed to say over night again so they could make sure Ethan could maintain an over 40 blood sugar. He is a much better eater than Tyler ever was, so we are very hopeful for future feedings. Tyler is chillin at home with Grandma Gibbons today. They came up earlier this morning and Tyler sang his little brother a few songs. He sang “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and “ABC’s”. It was very cute. We got it on video so I will have to post it later. He is excited to be a big brother. Thanks to everyone that has visited, texted, and called.

Baby Ethan has arrived. He came into the world a little after 1pm. We actually aren’t sure the exact time yet, but it was around 1pm. Beka did great this time. She was able to push him out all by herself. Tyler was salad tonged out. They had to cut just a tiny bit right at the end for him to get his head out. He was 7lbs 5oz, and 19.5 inches long. While he was coming out he swallowed some blood and so he was having a little bit of trouble breathing without a rasp. So they sent him to the NICU to put him on a breathing tube to force air down his throat. They had him on that for an hour and then they were going to monitor him for another hour. I was able to see him get all hooked up and then I came down to be with Beka. We are waiting to see him again. Last we heard he is doing fine, so there isn’t anything to worry about at this moment. We will keep you posted.

We went to Lagoon a few weeks ago for our yearly visit. Honestly wouldn’t go unless we got discount tickets. It’s fun, but it’s Lagoon, it’s no Six Flags. Anyway we went with, Grandma Gibbons, Aunt Trisha, Tabitha, Zoe, and Mykl. Mykl and I ran off and did all the big boy rides while Beka, Grandma, and Aunt Trisha took around the kids on the kiddie rides. Mykl and I decided to take a ride on the wild side and went on the Sky Coaster. I had been on it one other time back in High School, and Mykl had never been. It was a blast! Tyler enjoyed riding all the rides, but his favorite was the bumper cars. I’m not sure he understood that it was called bumper cars because he just drove around avoiding everyone. Then would give a dirty look to anyone that bumped him. It was great. But he loved that ride the most.

We enjoyed the Kaysville parade so much last year, we decided to give it another go. Tyler loved running out in the street and getting candy, but for some reason the 14-16 year olds think the candy is for them. He was getting pretty upset at all the big kids taking his candy, but if I know my Tyler, he will be that bully some day. The day before we had a little neighborhood BBQ in our backyard and lit off some fireworks. Tyler wasn’t to hip up on the loud ones, but seemed to have a good time. Wonder how he will like the sound of a crying baby?

So our 10th wedding anniversary is coming up in December and we talked about going on a longer cruise. We went on a 3 day 2 night cruise about 4 years ago and have wanted to go again ever since. But since we found out that the baby would be born around August we figured that we wouldn’t be going anywhere with a newborn. So in comes the Hot Tub. Now this is something that we have talked about even longer than the cruise. We always said we would get one in our last house, and never did. When we built our new house we added extra cement, wired for it, and had it all prepped. Well we finally made the plunge, literally. We got it from Clear Springs Spas in Orem. We have had it just over 3 weeks now and I think that I have only not been in it 3 nights. I love it! We keep it at about 96-97 degrees so that Beka was still able to get in and enjoy it as well. With the summer nights being fairly warm it has been really nice. Just warm enough, but not too hot for Beka.

This was at the neighbors birthday party. They had a sweet clown that dressed Tyler up for a magic trick. He loved it. And the neighbors keep telling us that Tyler is going to be a Ninja when he grows up, I guess this picture tells his future.

CAUTION – There are some pictures of my surgery at the end of this post. View them at your own risk.

So on Tuesday I had my 8th surgery. My gallbladder was getting increasingly sick and needed to be removed. I have had two ear surgeries when I was in elementary school. The first one was to repair my ear drum that had ruptured; the second was to fix what the first Doctor messed up. My 3rd and 4th surgeries were on my nose. The first was to reduce the size of my turbinate’s. The second was to fix my deviated septum. My 5th surgery was to fix an umbilical hernia in my stomach. The 6th surgery was to fix my ulnar nerve in my elbow. I had lost all feeling in my left side of my left hand. The 7th surgery was to add more support to my ruptured umbilical hernia.

This brings us to number 8. I started having these massive pains in my back and right side. On the 4th of July last year it hurt so bad, I went to the ER. After an ultra sound they found that I had gallstones. They told me I should get my gallbladder taken out. At that time I didn’t want any more surgeries, so I decided to wait it out. Over the last few months it had been getting worse and worse, until one night I decided it was time to schedule the surgery.

I was scheduled to be there at 11:30am. We got there, checked in, gave some blood, and they took us right back. I got in my sweet hospital dress and then the same guy that shaved my chest my last surgery came strolling in. Of course we recognized him, but he was a little embarrassed that we recognized him. They shaved my chest and then they came in to put in my IV. We waited for about an hour or so and then they came to get me. They took me into the Pre-Op room where the Dr. came in to see me and look at my belly. The anesthesiologist came in and had me sign some paper and asked me some questions. He gave me some medicine that made me feel really good. They wheeled me into the operating room and that is about all I remember.

Next thing I knew I was waking up in the post op room. My next challenge was to wake up and go pee. But of course if any of you have had surgery, they might as well ask you for your first born. Those drugs last forever and they want you to get up and walk around and pee before they will let you go home. To make a really long story short, I finally faked going pee after about 3 or 4 walks around the building and drinking a ton. The nurse was starting to get on my nerves saying “Wake up, or you can’t go home!” and “You have to keep your oxygen level up so this machine doesn’t beep for 20 minutes or you can’t go home!”. So for 20 minutes I took super deep breaths, almost hyperventilating mind you. On drugs, I get very short and angry. So I’m sure Beka just loved listening to me rant about this nurse. But then again this isn’t Beka’s first experience with me in surgery.

I finally got home and just slept off the rest of the surgery. The next day I woke up and my throat was super sore from having the breathing tube down my throat during surgery. But it was exceptionally sore and something felt swollen. I went to the mirror and low and behold my uvula was swollen and bruised badly. We called the surgeon just to have him tell us to call my family doctor because it was unrelated to the surgery. We then called the hospital outpatient station and they told us to just suck on ice and it will be fine. By 5pm the swelling hadn’t gotten any better, we called the surgeon and he finally talked to us, telling us that he isn’t an ear/nose/throat doctor so there was nothing he could do about it. Beka got increasingly frustrated at them and so she broke down. So then I laid into the Doctor. Just to basically get the same response that Beka had just gotten. We ended up going to the InstaCare because it was now after 5pm and my family doctor was closed. The Doctor looked at it and said that they had done a number on my uvula. She gave me an antibiotic and a mouth gargle to numb my mouth.

Over the past few days I have started to feel much better. My 4 incisions are not hurting much anymore, but the throat is still hurting quite a bit. I can at least tell it is healing though so that is a good thing. All in all this was a much easier recovery than my 2 hernia surgeries. I am a bland, soft, low-fat diet for at least 2 weeks. Then I need to slowly work fat back into my diet and see how my body reacts. We shall see.

Prep work on the Gallbladder.

Cutting one side.

Cutting the other side.

Gallbladder with it’s many Gallstones. Yes those are all Gallstones.

Uvula Day 1

Uvula Day 2

Uvula Day 3

We went to Vegas at the end of April with my parents. We just went down to relax and mess around. We were able to drive out to Henderson to see my grandparents grave. We also took Tyler to the M&M factory and huge arcade.

Well we are almost there. Today they got the rest of the backyard leveled out and then they got the curbing installed. The fence is all done and we are ready to drop some sod on Saturday. They are going to install all the sprinkler heads tomorrow. All we can hope for at this point is that the rain holds off for us.