For Our Little One

My Goodness, August was our last post?

2009-12-23T18:14:00.000-08:00

We have been awful at updating you all on this blog. We have been all over the place and have just not made time to update everyone on how we have been doing...We Are Good! God is Good! We have been busy as the rest of you, and like I said, we just haven't made time to update you all. Here it is:

Colton:
This kid is amazing. Do you want to know something about the Colorado Rockies or about baseball in general? Call Colton. Baseball is life to him right now. When he wakes up in the morning he is asking questions about baseball and when he goes to sleep he does the same. 3rd Grade is already half over and he is showing up every expectation. His class has formed a little competition in reading minutes and he does not back down. He always wants to be the best and most of all do the best at everything he does. Again, this translates back to baseball where he wants to be the best. Today's high was in the 20's and Colton was still outside playing baseball. It is so exciting to see him develop into a boy who loves everyone and just about everything. He does not like bean or potatoes, but that is about the list of things he cannot tolerate. He is the best big brother Abby could have. The amount of help he provides is unsung and the love he shows her is pure. Being the 19 month old she is, she will slap Colton around, but he will come back with a hug of love. Nothing explains how he loves her, other than the pure love he shows everyone. This boys heart is larger than life.

Abigail:
Do I start at the terrible 2's? She isn't 2 yet, so it is hard to start there. She is definitely coming into her own. She is finding her own way and please do not get in her way. If you do, she will let you know. Like many others, the grocery check out lane is a classic as well as the refrigerator when she does not get the juice she desires. I have started off on a bad note, but Abigail's personality is not that at all. It is easy to point out her low points because they are much fewer than her high points. The morning or after nap hug she provides is enough to was wash away the fits she may produce at other times. She takes after her brother when it comes to providing this world with love. Her dance moves are original and shower us with joy and smiles everyday. Whether it be in the grocery store (before the check out line) or in our own house, her hips and shoulders are always jammin to the music her ears choose to listen to. She has learned her love of music from her brother, but has added her own flavor of dance to mix. We went to a speech and motor skill specialist the other day which was promising and a testament to Abigail's relentless attitude. She scored at, or above, her age for speech and motor skills. These scores come after she scored blazing numbers on her hearing and growth at her cleft clinic appointment. This girl is going to move more than just her body, nothing is going to stop her.

Heather:
Beautiful Wife, Loving Mother. There is really nothing else to say. She continues to work at Denver Health and keep our house grounded. Heather's love is also one of pure love and always looking out for what is best for everyone in our family. Her beauty is easy to see at face value, but she really backs it up when she wears her heart out on her sleeve. I couldn't ask for a better wife and a better mother for my children. This woman is is wife and mother of the year (with a possible bias to this one man judge).

Me:
Almost done! That is, I am almost done with my Masters degree. I cannot wait. No more, "I can't play right now because I have to write a paper." I will be done in March! Heather has told me that I have to walk with my class which will take place in May. I am happy that I have powered through this and not taken any breaks. Beyond this nothing is different other than trying every day to be a better dad and husband to the people I love the most. I cannot say enough about the family I am a part of. The growth of my kids and the wife I come home to is the highlight of my life and will be the continued story for a long while. With that I will leave you with some of the recent pictures we have taken.
WE LOVE YOU ALL! Have a very Merry CHRISTmas and a kick in the pants start of a new year.

Abby's form of a scrunchy (I used to do something like this when I was a toddler)

She definitely takes after her brother

Riding the shoulders of her tank of a cousin, Nash

She obviously has better things to do than talk to the paparazzi

Colton's latest play in fall fall ball. Kid pitch is next year!

Heather and her nieces at Grandpa's house

Colton's grand plan worked out on Thanksgiving. I don't get even, I get ahead...

I don't let things go unpunished

Colton at Denver's Zoo Lights

Finally, a family picture. I only had 2 seconds to get into the picture so this is the reason for my WIDE eyes.

Summer Review

2009-08-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

Sauce face, yes, it is in her hair..

Happy Abby!

Already a daredevil.

Chocolate face this time.

On the way home from South Dakota, we heard the kids laughing and turned around to see Abby sticking pretzel sticks up her nose!

Mount Rushmore.

Flower girl.

Colton, Molly and Emily on ATV at Taylor Reservoir.

This is what hail and wind does to your house and trees in Colorado.

Hi Everyone! Summer has flown by so fast but we had so much fun. Sorry it has been so long since our last post, it has just been crazy busy. Peter is still working on his master's degree and really busy at work. With Colton back at school, I've taken this opportunity to catch everyone up. Colton started the summer off by going to Disneyland, he had a great time. We all went to South Dakota for a Jenson family reunion. We had so much fun there seeing Mount Rushmore, swimming at water parks and just hanging out with family. Abby has been growing leaps and bounds. She runs, not walks, or dances :) everywhere she goes. We were so excited the other day when she drank out of a straw, after struggling with sucking for such a long time, this was great to see! She is starting to say some words; Momma, hot, dad, moo(for milk), and today I swore she said bubbles in the tub. She is just as crazy as she's always been and a joy to watch grow. In the middle of the summer, we had a really bad hail storm. Pete actually called me at work that night because he thought a tornado had gone over the house, pretty terrifying. We also had a great 4th of July celebration and went to Elitch's and Waterworld last week just for that last bit of summer fun. To add to the fun, we welcomed a new cousin/nephew to our family, WELCOME Daniel! Well, I think that about sums it up. Thanks for checking in on Abby and our family!
Love Heather

We're Home!!!

2009-05-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

Abigail is truly AMAZING! Everyone's prayers worked and God made His presence known. Abigail woke up this morning not even thinking she had surgery yesterday. She is completely back to herself and you would not even know her mouth is lined with stitches. Abigail is doing great and she thanks everyone for their prayers and every single thought you had about her.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but we had her surgeon pierce her ears while she was under. The pictures below is of her already playing with her car and of her on our couch at home with her new earings. We again want everyone to know that we appreciate every thought and prayer you sent our way. We have felt the warmth from everyone. We love you and will try our best to keep you up to date on anything that is happening.

Rest At Ease

2009-05-19T19:24:00.000-07:00

Everyone can rest at ease. Our little Abby is back in good spirits. She is obviously still sore, but she is smiling and goofing around like she usually does. Colton brought her a balloon with a stuffed dog attached to it which she loves playing with. We cannot be happier right now knowing that she is doing better. We owe it to your prayers and a God that shines through once again. He is truly amazing and we thank Him for everything He has done for us today. We also thank all of you for what you have for us today. Even one thought was heard and appreciated. Below might not be the best picture because Abigail's mouth is still a little bloody but it is when she was playing with her balloon. She is now more cleaned up and resting in Mom's arms. Thanks again to everyone.

Post Op Scare...To a Good End

2009-05-19T15:59:00.000-07:00

What a day! First off I have to give it to Children's Hospital of Denver for taking care of everything in a way which makes us feel like we are the only ones here. Also, our surgeon, Dr. Allen is a complete God send. He is one of those Doctors who doesn't really know he is a doctor. Everyone can see is love for these kids by just looking at how he treats them.

Dr. Allen told us the surgery went really well. Everything went as planned including the ear piercing we asked him to do. Yeah, that's right, we asked him to pierce Abigail's ears when she was under. They look beautiful. It will be hard to mistake her for a boy now.

Now for the scare of a lifetime...She came out of her sleep ok, but she was showing that she was in pain so they began by giving her a little morphine. This is very common, and was done in the PACU where they can monitor her very closely. She was still showing she was in pain so they continued with more morphine. Again, they were monitoring her closely and she was not reacting in any bad ways. I don't know how many doses they gave her but through her continuing to show pain they completely exhausted the morphine treatment. She then calmed down enough for them to release her from the PACU and send her upstairs to the post-op floor. She continued to do a little better. She faded in and out of being asleep and awake. During one of her awake moments Heather tried to give her some apple juice. When Heather did this it made Abby upset which ended up sending her into a respiratory arrest; she couldn't breath or essentially she stopped breathing. I have been through a lot of difficult times in my life, but there is nothing that compares to the feeling I had during this time. Abby turned completely blue. Heather and our Awesome nurse, Ellen, reacted quickly and put Abby on her bed. Abigail continued not to breath. By this time Ellen had yelled for help and ripped the "bag mask" off the wall and put it to Abby's face. A bag mask is what you see on TV where they are squeezing the bag in order to breath for people who cannot do it on their own. My heart really began to pop out of my chest when they told someone to call the core team. A core team is a team that is specialized in rehabilitating people. Nurses and doctors began pooring into our room. Everyone was asking what happened, doctors were giving orders and everyone was trying to help. It was very chaotic to me, but they had everything down like clockwork and were on top of everything. With my heart all buy stopped, Abby began to come back after about 30 seconds. This seems like a short amount of time, but by now she had not taken a breath in over a minute and a half by herself. This also seems like a short amount of time, but while this was happening my concept of time had come to a screeching halt. It felt like hours had gone by. To give a happy ending to all of this, she came "back to" with a loud cry. The ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat) team, who had also been called was now in the room and began to take care of everything. Dr. Allen suctioned out her mouth and Abby began to fall back asleep. This is, by far, the worst feeling I have ever had, but I thank God for watching over our Abigail and providing her with an extra Angel to be there to help out. She has spent the rest of the day being fairly restless, but finally she was able to fall asleep for about 30 minutes. When she woke up, big brother Colton came to visit and was able to make her smile and laugh. Finally my heart came out of my stomach as I saw this. The bond those two kids have is also something from God. As soon as she saw him, it was like she felt no pain. He is the greatest big brother Abigail could ever ask for. We are truly blessed.

We want to thank everyone for their prayers and thoughts. Yes, this was very scary, but we are past it and have moved on to recovery. Our God is so great and we love Him for what He has provided us. I am even more thankful for God giving me such a strong and caring wife, a beautiful and resilient daughter, and a son who has a heart of gold. Furthermore, God has provided us with a hospital staff who reacted in such a way that saved our little one. How can one not praise a God who has given us so much. We are just so thankful. We love you all and again, thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Abigail Turns 1!!!!!

2009-05-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

Abigail's party was a blast. We had such a good time and want to thank everyone for coming. Enjoy a picture story of her party!
Abigail was helping us get ready for her party by playing in the balloons

She loved the static balloons

Abby had plenty of help opening her presents. Thank you to everyone who brought presents. Abigail is one who loves to play with everything and she already has. Her mother is also good at putting all of her clothes to good use. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

For Abigail's party we wanted to cut down on the amount of toys Abigail would never play with so we gave people the option to bring presents or to help with a donation to Operation Smile. We are so thankful for what people gave. We feel so blessed to have good insurance and to live in a country where we have doctors and surgeons to help fix Abby's cleft. The following picture represents part of what everyone gave. During Abigail's party we were able to raise enough money for one and a half surgeries. That is one full surgery for a child who could not afford it themselves, and half the money for another. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!

Yes our daughter is crazy

Abby's new favorite doll. She is trying to kiss it through the packaging

Abigail and her cousin Molly

Abby's lady bug cake

Am I really allowed to be doing this?

Here Mom, we can share

Licking it is so much easier

Mmmmm....Cake

This was not at her party but a picture that captures her fun loving spirit. She is crazy!

This past weekend we went to my sister-in-law's sister's wedding reception. We had a great time and so did the kids.
This is (from right to left) the Sister-in-law, Dana and her little one, Emily. The Mother-in-law, my mom, Mima, and Heather and Abby.

Our little beauty show off her pretty dress to everyone

Our little one getting down to the music. We are going to have our hands full as she gets older

Again, we want to thank everyone who donated money toward surgeries for other children who are in need. It really means a lot to Heather and I to help bless other people for we are blessed beyond what we could have ever imagined. We feel this way going into Abigail's second surgery and pray everything goes as well as the first one. Thank You everyone for your thoughts and prayers. I will keep you updated on Tuesday as to how everything went. Abby also sends her love to ALL of You!!!

Tuesday, May 19th at 8AM

2009-05-16T07:59:00.000-07:00

We got a phone call from Abigail's scheduler and she told us that Abby is first to go on the 19th. Her surgery will begin at 8Am and will last about three hours. Again the feelings of a bitter sweet feeling have come. Abby has really taken to eating solid foods and now we have to have to go back to a liquid diet for two weeks. Overall, we are more excited than anything. After this surgery we will be done for a few years. Furthermore, we should be done with inpatient surgeries. Everything after Tuesday will be touch-ups and a couple of reconstructions, which are not as major.
We feel so blessed. The support we have from everyone and the God we trust in to watch over us is more than we could ever ask for. Abby is such a great baby and a great joy to be around. We really thank God for everything he has given us.
Abby did turn 1 year old on Saturday, May 9th? I am sorry we do not have the pictures off of our camera yet, but I plan on doing that this weekend. I will have them posted shortly. We are also sorry for not posting in the last few months. I have been out of the country and Heather has been trying to keep the house on the ground. We really appreciate every ones help while I was gone. Aunt Sue and Papa really saved our behinds with watching the kids, so thank you for that.
More will come this weekend, and I will leave you with a message from Abigail,
njjnmnb nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn bbbbb bnnnnn

May 19th

2009-03-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

So we are now on the schedule for May 19th. Our doctor has told us that they give her cold a full 4 weeks to clear up. They do not want anything extra to deal with when doing this surgery. Abigail has also been put on the cancellation list, which means, anytime after April 28th, she can fill in a spot where someone else has had to cancel. We are little concerned that her speech will be more affected now that her surgery is after she turns one, so if there are any words of experience from other cleft families that would be great. It is only 10 days after her first birthday, but still, who doesn't want to hit that optimum time for their kids? We can only do our best to lean on God and know that He has Abigail in His hands. We don't know why things happen when and how they do, but we have faith that this is all in His plan. Maybe May 19th is the optimal day for Abigail's surgery. Thank You to everyone for your prayers and thoughts. We have such a great support group and would not know what do with out any of you. Thank you so much.

The Mostly Ups and This is a Down

2009-03-17T07:27:00.000-07:00

Abigail's surgery had to be cancelled today:( We woke her up early this morning to feed her for the last time before her surgery and she had a stuffy nose and a little cough. When they do these surgeries they don't want our little troopers to be sick at all. When they are sick it can really affect how well they heal. If there is any chance they won't heal the way they are suppose to they won't do the surgery. We have to give her four weeks to fully get over this and we will try again. This is hard to take because of everything that is put into planning for this: emotionally, schedule, and just preparing. We thank everyone for their prayers.

Abby Update

2009-03-16T09:59:00.000-07:00

Where has time gone? It wouldn't be a normal post if I didn't mention how busy our life is. I can only imagine that sometime life will slow down, but as many of you know, it doesn't. I have been out of the country for three weeks and only to return for three weeks to turn around and be gone for another three. Heather, of course, is holding down the fort and taking care of everything on the home front. This is all being done while still working. We have to thank everyone that has helped out so far and everyone that is has signed up to help when I leave again: Aurora Jenson's, Mima, Papa, Sue, and "The Girls" (All of Heather's friends). Colton and Abby have been wonderful with the adversity of me being gone and others taking care of them. It is too bad that I came home with a cold and have recently shared it with Colton; who is home from school today with it.
Abby has seemed to miss catching it, which is a blessing, since her palate surgery is on Tuesday (tomorrow). She is one of the most energetic babies I have seen. Of course, I don't see very many other babies within their home, but even when we are out and about, she looking around, looking for friends, flirting with other boys (which I do not approve of), and just being a fun baby. Yesterday, I took her to church and let her spend the service with the childcare and they said she just played the entire time. I was a little nervous during the service, but they said she did great. We thank God for such a great baby, and furthermore, such a great family.
Like I said before, her palate surgery is tomorrow, Tuesday, March 17, St. Patrick's Day, at 11:30. We have faith that she will do just as good as she did with her lip surgery. God has blessed us with a great surgeon and we pray that God will have His hand over everything tomorrow. We thank everyone ahead of time for your thoughts, prayers, and their help with everything you provide. Below are some pictures to catch you all up and a little video of Abby learning some of Beyonce's moves.
Once again, we keep everyone updated as soon as we can on Tuesday. As soon as we have moved to our hospital room, I will post an update. The surgery is about 3 hours so I suspect I will get an update on here around 4:00 Mountain Time. Love you all and talk to you soon.
Abigail loves her blankets

Like my new do?

How about now?

Abby being happy as usual

Colton after eating some pizza

Colton and Papa playing dart tag

Learning Beyonce Moves:

A long time coming Update

2009-02-01T21:02:00.001-08:00

I cannot believe we are already in February. We are really sorry that we have not kept up on blogging and keeping people up to date. Work is going to be sending me over seas for 20 days coming up here in the middle of February and then again in April, so I have been over my head in work. On top of that, I have been trying to keep up with school. Having to write a paper a week has kept me more than busy. I pretty much get home from work around 6 or 7, eat, and either write some of my paper or crash on the couch. Heather has been picking up for my slack around the house. The amount of time Heather puts into our family and works on top of that and keeps our house in order on top of that, she really is amazing.
Abby is doing great. She is such an Awesome Baby. Her lip is healing really well and she finally has A tooth. Yes that is an 'A' as in one tooth. We think she might be getting some more because she has been a little cranky lately, but she has also had a little bit of a cold. Besides all of this, she is cruising around the house like she has places to go and people to meet. As you will see in the pictures below, she loves our kitchen chairs. She has also learned how to wave "Hi" and "Bye" (that video is below). Abby's next surgery is also coming up here in March. We are excited for it, but yet again a little nervous. She will again stay the night for at least one night in the hospital. She will be on a liquid diet for two weeks. Our surgeon has told us that it is still ok to use the Haberman bottle for her feedings. This is good because she has not had anything else. She is not big advocate of baby food. In fact, she doesn't really eat it at all. She will eat maybe two bites and then fight the rest of the time. We still try, but we have yet to really get anywhere. Abby will eat a hole box of Cheerios if she had the time.
Colton is also doing really well. He is now a Yellow Belt in Tae Kwon Do. He loves Tae Kwon Do and it has really been good for him. He is such a big kid that it has realy helped with his balance. The last check up we had for him, the doctor said that if he stays on the track he is on, he will be 6' 2" 215 pounds. I have already began to work out again so I can try and hang with him when he is that big. He is so in love with his sister and his sister is so in love with him. Even if she is screaming her lungs out, he can make her smile. That 215 pounds will come in handy when Abigail gets her first boyfriend (at the age of 21)!!!
We have also found a new Church that we are really liking; Foothills Community Church. God has really helped us through so much in this past year and He has really helped us find this new church. The credit really goes to my Mom for visiting Foothills and then recommending it to us. Colton is also really loving it and today he asked me if he could have a Bible. This was great. I love watching him grow into his own relationship with Jesus. This is really all I have time for right now but here are a bunch of pictures to make you all smile:
Getting Bundled For a Cold Day (Like the Christmas Story)

One of Abigail's favorites is to jump in her Jumpy

It makes me tired just watching her jump

She does love french fries

But does not like baby food

And does not mind food coming out of her nose

This is how we found Abby one night when she was suppose to be sleeping. Yeah the crib got lowered that night

Abigail loved Molly's birthday party

Abby and her Cousin, Molly

Abigail's new favorite game Peak-a-Boo. She does it to us now

Abby's favorite place in our house; under the kitchen chairs

She is already a crazy woman behind the wheel

This pictures even shows you how crazy she intends to be

This sweet little girl can't ever be crazy?!?! Just look at her smile

And the cutest thing ever for last. Abigail Saying Hi and Bye to all of her friends. We love you all and thank you all for all of your comments, support, thoughts, help, etc. We really can't express our appreciation enough. A special thanks to Mima for helping out on the days we needed.

I would also like to send out a prayer request for my cousin, Eric, who is being deployed to Iraq. Him and the men and women who do this for our country truly deserve some special praise. I admire them all for what they do. Eric, our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Abby's First Christmas

2008-12-26T09:47:00.001-08:00

We had a great Christmas. Abigail was overwhelmed on more than one occasion. She did not know what to think with all the paper laying around (paper is one of her favorite things). We are so thankful for this past year. There is too much that has happened to even try and think of it all. Abigail has taken us on journey that no one could have ever dreamed up. Colton has made us so proud with his continued hard work in school and in being a great big brother. Thanks to everyone for a great year and we can't wait to see what 2009 brings. Here are some of our holiday pictures:

The Candy Cane Festival was a bust, but at least we met some cool elves

We saw Santa at the Texas Road House! Abby was amazed.

Abby and Nash got their first cars

All we hear in the morning now is Indiana Jones

Abigail in her Christmas dress (Thanks Mima)

The best looking kids around and they are pretty good too (so Santa says)

One of, if not Abby's first ornament. I think she likes it

The Happiest boy in the world

The happiest girl in the world

Now it's time to play with all the new toys

(See the Chia Pet in the last picture? We have given this exact one to Colton for three years running. I can't wait to share this joke when he is older.)

PS - Sorry it has been a while since our last update, but just you all know, Abigail's palate surgery is on March 17th (Happy St Patrick's day)

New Pictures

2008-12-04T20:32:00.000-08:00

I thought we needed a little change in the look of Abby's blog so here it is. I picked the picture at the top because I think it shows exactly who Abigail is. She has always been so curious and so alert to her surroundings. She loves getting up on the shelf of our coffee table as you can also see in previous pictures. Colton and Abby continue to make us so proud every day. We have begun to update our other blog as well. That blog will be mostly just pictures and captions and will probably be mostly about Colton. Here are some pictures of Abby without any arm restraints or anything.
"You want some of this?"

Close up. Dr. Allen did such a good job. Thank God for the good people we are surrounded with!

Is something funny?

Abby's first touch of snow! She pretty much loved it.

"I think I was the one talking here."

The Past 6 Months

2008-11-20T05:59:00.000-08:00

Here, Heather and I have created a slide show of Abigail and her journey over the past 6 months:

This girl is impossible not to love.

NO MORE TAPE!!!!!!

2008-11-19T14:11:00.000-08:00

Abby's tape fell off today. Yay!!! The nurses and doctors said it would fall off between 7 and 10 days. Today is day 8. We love it. We can finally kiss our little girl without anything in our way.

We want to thank everyone again for everything everyone has done. Prayer is the best thing everyone did for us and I will tell, God answered those prayers. Thanks you all so much. God is truly the one to thank for everything. There is no doubt He has been with us every step of this journey.

We are Home!

2008-11-13T19:50:00.000-08:00

Thank you to everyone for your prayers, thoughts, and comments. Abigail is doing great. Tonight it doesn't even seem like she has skipped a beat. She is already Miss Houdini and can get out of her arm restraints. She is not eating as much as the doctors want her to but she isn't doing too bad. Her pain seems to be under control as she has rarely been crabby. Thanks again to everyone for everything you all have done. We really appreciate every bit of it.

This video is of Abby in the hospital. Heather was scaring her by popping up from her crib.

Here we are at home swinging. You can see how she is pulling her arm restraint off.

MORE PICTURES!

2008-11-11T19:29:00.001-08:00

Colton didn't want to feel left out, so he gave himself a new smile today by loosing one if his front teeth.

Colton is absolutely the best big brother to Abigail.

Here Colton was making Abigail smile and laugh for the first time after surgery.

There are no words that describe how Heather did through all of this. She was Abigail's strong hold through everything. I have my hands full with two of the strongest women. I couldn't be more proud of either one of them.

Abigail is already taking to the haberman bottle again. It has been slow going at the beginning here, but she is picking it up like a champ. Again, I can't thank God enough for such a strong, smart, and beautiful girl. She has yet to cease to amaze me. THANK YOU GOD!

Thanks again to everyone for your kind and loving words of encouragement and support. We love you all!

Praise God!!! Abigail is doing Awesome!

2008-11-11T10:23:00.001-08:00

We just got up to our room. The Dr. Allen said everything went awesome. He said everything fit together just perfectly. We feel so blessed. Thank everyone for your prayers and thoughts. We are so happy.
Here we all are right before surgery.

Here is her new and improved lip.

The Last Post Before Surgery!

2008-11-09T15:15:00.001-08:00

At this time in our lives we are getting the true meaning of bitter sweet. I don't even think bitter sweet does justice as to how we feel. We are excited, but scared. We are ready, but nervous. We can't wait, but we don't want to go. Our little Abigail is the sweetest thing ever. I can not find words to describe the emotions that are running through our bodies right now. I know God created Abigail to be tough and to be able to handle everything she has to go through, so we are doing our best to trust Him and allow Him to guide us through this. We are so blesses and honored to have such an amazing God who gave us such an amazing daughter. We really want to thank our families for their continued prayers, support and help. We haven't even needed to ask for help this next week because everyone has just offered it up. Beyond our greatest blood related family we have our family of friends that we could not say enough about. We thank you also for all your prayers and support. And I could never leave out our online cleft buddies who has helped guide us up to this point. We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts. Although this is not the end of our journey, it is the next step of it. Thanks to everyone.
"I wonder what is over the front of my boat?"

The cutest smile ever

BUSTED! Abby's favorite place is on the shelf of our coffee table.

"I would rather eat my bib than that bland cereal."

Mom and Abigail's version of tug-of-war.

"Thanks for my cute hat Mima!"

Abby trying to scare the pumpkin

Colton feeding birds at the zoo and Abigail wondering, "what the heck is that?"

Colton feeding giraffes at the zoo and Abby wondering again, "What the heck is that?"

I couldn't resist but show this. She could have just told us she was tired.

I believe our hospital room will have internet so I will be posting pictures as soon as I can on Tuesday. If there is not a post on Tuesday that means they don't have internet. Thanks again to everyone and Abigail sends out her love to all of you.

7:30 AM, November 11th

2008-11-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

We got our phone call today about Abigail's surgery. She is going into surgery at 7:30 AM, November 11th. I can't believe it is already here. We are less than a week away. Abigail is doing awesome right now. She is just the happiest, goofiest, most mobile baby ever. We already can not leave her alone or she will army crawl into something she is not supposed to be in. Thanks to everyone for your love and prayers. Thanks to my mom for watching Abby on days we needed. Thanks for all the comments everyone has left. We are so appreciative of all of the support people have given us. Having to take care of a baby with a cleft is not always the easiest thing to do, but you all have made it possible, along with Abigail's sweet, sweet spirit. This little girl is on the move so don't blink, or you might miss where she is going. Abby sends he love out to all of her cleft buddies, her family, and her friends. Thanks again for everyone's support.

Cutest Thing Ever

2008-10-13T08:57:00.001-07:00

Abby continues to bring us more and more smiles everyday. She is the funniest little baby I have ever seen. She likes to do this wrestling thing with me which just hilarious. Hopefully we will be able to catch it on some video soon. She likes to be a lion. She makes this deep "roar" sound. She is already being very mobile. She is able to army crawl all around our living room. She is going to be a handful, I can already see it. Here are some pictures and a couple of cute videos (Colton and Ace are by far her favorites):

The videos are shot with our digital camera so the quality is not good at all in low light, but they will still make you smile.

NOVEMBER 11TH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-09-18T20:45:00.000-07:00

Oh goodness! I (we) have been sooo bad at keeping this up lately. Where has our time gone? We have been busy with everything. The time I used to take to write these blogs are now taken up with school:( School is going ok, but it is more busy work than anything. At this point, I wish I would have kept some of my high school work to turn in for my master's (kind of pathetic). Heather told everyone I was going back to school but she didn't tell you what for. I am going back for Masters of Science in Organization Leadership. Hopefully it will help me get into management (and get me one step closer to people calling me Doctor)! Who knows if I will go that far.
Anyway, Colton has started the 2nd grade and is doing awesome! He is such a great kid and an even better big brother. Sometimes he even drives me crazy with how much he wants to love on little miss Abigail. He is so good to her and loves her so much. Abby is doing awesome as well. She has plumped up to be a little chunk. She has some good thunder thighs going as well. Heather is the best mom and the best wife hands down (Sorry to all you other moms and wives). She has been back to work for little while now and has already gotten back into a good rhythm. She has only gone back part time so she works Sunday and Monday nights. My company has been gracious enough to allow me to work from home on Monday's and Tuesday's.
So you are probably wondering why this post is titled November 11th? SURGERY DAY!!! Oh, how we can't wait. I (we) are a little scared, but I am getting to the point of being done with her NAM. I just want to be able to kiss her without having this protruding "thing" in my way. I just want to be able to hold her tight without having to be extra careful of her nasal stints. I just can't wait. I would not change any of this for anything. I truly know and feel that we have a special bond with our little one that most people will never have. She is such a tough little girl and we are so proud of everything she has put up with so far. The two pictures below are a comparison to when she was born to where she is at now. Thank GOD for such wonderful and talented people as our dentist team. The third picture is of Abby and one of her dentists, Dr. Jen, who is continuing on her own journey and moving to San Francisco. We will truly miss her, but I know she will make a lot of people happy in the bay area.
Sorry again for not being up to date. I know everyone understand being busy, but over a month is a little too long. I will try my hardest to be better. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers and we will keep you updated as we closer to Abigail's lip repair.

Day 1:

Month 4:

Dr. Jen and Abby. We will miss you Dr. Jen!

Be aware of the Drooling Baby Gorilla.

We love being up-side-down!

Which one is Better?

Be quiet Dad, I just want to suck on my feet!

Hi!

Is she not the cutest thing ever?!?!

More cuteness!

Lastly is this video of her laugh.

2008-08-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. It's Heather, Pete has been pretty busy lately with school and work and everything so I wanted to take a quick moment to update you on our precious little lady. After a not so good week with Abby and her nose splints, and 4 appointments to adjust her NAM to were she could tolerate it, she is now doing wonderful. I think we have all come to the conclusion that it was her actual new appliance, the part that looks like a retainer, that was causing her all the trouble. Now, she has the nose piece in and is doing so well, she is a real trooper. Our summer is sadly coming to an abrupt end, Colton started school on the 12th and I will be returning to work this Sunday. Three months sure flew by. Well that's all for now, just a quick update for everyone. I also just want to send out a big thanks to everyone who visits this site to check on our angel here on Earth. I am so grateful for every one's love, support and prayers, we are incredibly blessed and it simply leaves me speechless. I also want to thank Peter for being such a wonderful husband. He is truly the absolute best, and sorry ladies, he's all mine :) At the end of this post, the video is of Abby jabbering away, her new favorite activity.

This is my new favorite pic of Abby

Abby sandwich

The family

Abby in another color besides pink, this is purely for daddy, you know mommy loves her girl in pink!

This is Abby's new appliance before the nasal stents

Abby's new NAM w/ Nasal Stints

2008-08-01T07:35:00.000-07:00

What a ride! As you all know Abby got a new NAM with Nasal stints in order to help lengthen her columella. The columella is the soft skin that separates the nostrils, and is between the tip of the nose and the lip. Well...she didn't like it. I don't really believe that it was the nasal stints as much as the new NAM. She had really gotten used to her original NAM and now getting a new one is just different for her. Also, the nasal stints were not staying in her nose. When she was sleeping they would come out. To make a long story short, we contacted our doctor and she told us to use her old one until we came in again. Heather took her in yesterday and Dr. Harris made her new NAM more comfortable for Abigail. She told us to leave the nasal stints out yesterday so she could get used to the new NAM by itself. Heather is going to take Abby back today to get the nasal stints put back into position. Please keep Abby in your prayers as she goes through this transition. She is such a sweetheart and such a great baby. God has really blessed us.

Mentioning how God has blessed us almost always makes me think of my wife. This is selfish, but I really think God has made me the most lucky Man alive, EVER. I could go on and on about how he blessed me with two beautiful and healthy kids, but for right now I really want the world to know is how wonderful Heather is. The way she makes this world a better place is beyond me. The care she gives her patients at work. The care she give her patients at home (Colton, Abby, and I). The way she mother's her children. Then on top of all of this, she has time to make me feel like I am on top of the world. I LOVE HER with everything I have. I can truly say this world would not be such a great place with out Heather. She is truly AMAZING! I am telling everyone this, not because I am in trouble, but because this is another way for me to shout on top of a mountain about how wonderful my wife is. I am so grateful for Heather and everything she does for our family. Heather, I LOVE YOU!!!

We are learning new tricks

2008-07-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

Here is Abby showing off her new trick:

Wait for it...It will come.

Abigail at Farin's Wedding

Abigail being good on her first airplane ride

Abby enjoying her first bubble bath with her Big Brother, Colton

Being cute after her bath

Abby taking in the world over our shoulder

She is the cutest girl ever, hands down!!!

Introduction to Bugs

2008-07-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

One of my co-workers and his family (the Barrios') got Abigail these cute little bugs. Here she is when we were playing with them:

Sweetest Thing

2008-06-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

Abigail makes the sweetest little noises. She is absolutely the cutest little girl ever. Here she sleeping making one of her sweet noises (you may need to turn the volume up).

Happy Baby

2008-06-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

Sorry again for taking so long to update everyone. Life is nothing but busy, and I start my master's degree in one week, so it is not going to slow down.

It is easy to say that we have one happy baby. She is starting to smile and she loves to do it. A couple of weeks ago she had me a little worried that she was going to be fussy a lot but we have gotten over that. She is doing awesome. She is continuing to go to Dr. Harris, DDS, every Tuesday. They are so good there. I don't have a lot of time again so here are a bunch of pictures:

Colton being his Crazy Self

Abby and Nash looking to hitch a ride

Abigail being cute. Who's got who wrapped around their finger? (We all know the truth)

Again, the two most beautiful women I know!

Colton and his stuffed animals. One seemed to be real.

Happy Abby

Dancing Queen

I seriously Thank God for such a sweet baby. God has blessed us to no end with a happy healthy baby. She is soo sweet.

Pictures, Pics, and more Pictures

2008-06-02T16:44:00.001-07:00

Sorry, I have been slacking. Most of you should know that I am not getting as much sleep as I used to, so I am going to blame it on that. Abby is doing awesome. She is the sweetest little girl. She is so attentive. Rather than me blabber on about what a great daughter she already is I will do the talking with pictures. The first two is a comparison from birth to now. What a change already!!!

With Mom at the hospital.

Just after a tub. Can you see the change. Her NAM is really working!

She is just showing off her lungs and her voice here.

Abigail with her NAM in. It is the cutest when she sucks on it like a binky.

Colton and Abby sharing the tub. Colton is just awesome with her.

Abby snuggling with daddy. Look at how she puts her hands!

Here's a closer look at Abigail threading her fingers. How cute is that.

I thank God every day for what beautiful and perfect women He has put in my life. These two girls could not make me more happy.

Being cute in her chair (even though this was a rough day, she knows when the camera is on)

Abby hanging out with Nana. Thanks for a good week Nana!

That is all for now. Sorry it took me so long. I do want to send a special thanks to Susan Skinner for the blanket and the nice notes you write about us. I really wish I thank every one of you personally for your thoughts and your prayers. We have gotten an overwhelming response from everyone and it just shows what awesome people we know. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH.

Update

2008-05-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

I just waned to give a quick update. Abigail is doing awesome. Our dentist, Dr. Meredith Harris is doing a great job. She is getting so much movement out of Abigail. We were looking at pictures last night and there is already a huge change. Sorry I don't have the pictures with me right now to post, but as soon as I get them off our camera, I will post them. Abigail is eating well and, for the most part, has her days and night correct. Abigail has been doing so well with her NAM that Dr. Harris wants to see us every Tuesday and Friday for adjustments. Thank you all for your continued support.

Today, one our good Cleft Buddies is going in for his lip repair. His name is Reid. You can see his blog by clicking on "Reid the Robust" on the right hand side of this blog. Please keep him in your prayers.

To our Cleft Buddies

2008-05-21T10:43:00.001-07:00

I am sorry, but I have mixed up names and people. In order to be sure who I am talking to, can all of our cleft buddies (families who check our blog with cleft babies/kids) send me an email with your name, kids name and email. I try and send out individual emails with questions and thanks, but lately I have been sending them to the wrong people. So you don't have to leave a comment displaying your email to the world, please send your emails to pjenson05@hotmail.com. Thank you in advance for helping me iron out my mix up. This also gives the people who check our blog that is not on our email list an opportunity to get on it.

NAM, Clinic, Etc.

2008-05-20T13:34:00.001-07:00

When we found out that our precious little one was going to have a cleft lip at our 20 week ultrasound, we were blown away. I just remember getting back to our car and breaking down. How could this happen to us? And more importantly, how could this happen to our little one? The how's turned into why's and anger and frustration. God how is this your plan? Why is this your plan? Well, I now know part of the answer. Not necessarily why little Abigail has cleft, but at least why God let us know so soon.

We met Abigail's Cleft team yesterday. It was ok. This is just such an emotional roller coaster that hearing the same thing over and over gets to us. The team is VERY NICE and VERY COMMITTED to us and Abigail's needs. We believe we have selected a surgeon, but are not completely sure. Keep this decision of ours in your prayers so we will make the right choice.

Abigail is doing Awesome with her NAM. We would not be so far along or so far ahead of the game if it wasn't for God letting us know and preparing us for what is ahead. Today we went in for our first adjustment and already the results are amazing. Because Abby is so young (11 days) our dentist is able to make more movement, more quickly. Not only that but we will probably have another appointment on Friday for her next adjustment! Because we knew ahead of time we were able to be on top of our game. Below are some pictures of Abigail. Below the picture I have some captions so you know what you are looking at:

This is Abby's NAM. I have labeled what they call the buttons. These are what stick out of her mouth and rubber bands attach to them to keep the NAM in place.

This is just a top view of her NAM.

This is after our adjustment. You can see the adjustment molding right next to her premaxilla (her lip and gums). They will continue to add this molding until her premaxilla is all the way centered.

This is just a better daddy-daughter picture than I had up before. You can also see that Abigail's gaurd dog is still earning his stay!

Meeting our Team Tomorrow

2008-05-18T19:49:00.000-07:00

Like I said before, I know I am going to be busy so check when you can and I will update you when I can. Sorry it has been a few days since I have been able to get an update to you all. Life really doesn't slow down when you have more kids, it just crams more fun into your already fun cramped life. Anyway...

Abigail did her NAM last Thursday. Thursday was a hard day for Heather and I because it is hard to see your little one in discomfort. We got through it and we have been adjusting well. Abigail has also been adjusting well. Today is the first day that she is back up to eating around 2 ounces. When she first got her NAM it was like she had to re-learn how to eat, but she is doing well.

The prayer we need right now is the guidance to pick the right people for our Cleft Team at Children's. Tomorrow, Monday, we meet them all including the surgeons, social workers, etc. I am pretty excited to meet them all and hear what they have to say. We have already heard just about everything, so we are trying to set any expectations, but hoping they bring good news. Thanks to all that check up on us and I will post some pictures of Abby's NAM and of Abby as soon as I get an extra second.

First of Many

2008-05-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

We went to our first two doctor appointments today. I will talk about the second first because it was actually only a nurse's appointment where they check her weight. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 3 oz. which is only 2 ounces under her birth weight! She is doing good with her eating.

The first appointment we had today was with one of her dentists. The appointment when well. We are going to use the Nasal Alveolar Molding (NAM). This is not the prettiest devise but it will really help Abigail in the long run. Click here to view some other examples of kids that have used a NAM. Today at the dentist they took an impression of Abigail's mouth to fit her with a NAM. Abigail is already setting the bar high. The dentist today told us that she has never had a baby do so well with the impressions. If any of you have ever had braces you know what impressions are. Well, just to let you know, Abigail did so well, she fell asleep while they were taking her impression. She begins wearing the NAM on Thursday and begins to adjust it every Tuesday beginning on the 20th. This is a 20 week process. It will take a lot of time and commitment, but God could not have given Abigail to two parents with more commitment to their children. And plus, with God there to help us, what really do we have to worry about? Not very many people around the United States have access to this kind of treatment so we feel blessed for where we live. We also live close to Children's Hospital which has one of the top two cleft lip and palate teams in the US.

Thanks again for all the thoughts and prayers. I will keep the updates coming. Here is a picture of Abigail praying and either thanking God for the family she was put into or asking God why she was put with a bunch of crazy people:

This next picture is of the guard dog we have hired; he literally watches her every move:

Baby's Daddy

2008-05-13T07:43:00.000-07:00

I am sorry there are not very many pictures of Baby and Baby's daddy. Heather couldn't find the camera yesterday and said she missed some good ones. Here is one my sister took of us in the hospital:

ABIGAIL IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-05-12T06:54:00.000-07:00

I will let her big brother introduce her before anything else:

(That is Colton and Abby's cousin, Emily, helping with the introduction!)

Abigail was 8 pounds 5 ounces. Heather, the amazing, did an awesome job. Here's the whole scoop:

On Thursday night Heather continued her regular "get-ups" to go to the bathroom. She said that every time she got up, she would have a contraction. About 2:00 am she was awakened by a contraction that was pretty intense. She was able to fall back asleep until 3:00 am when it happened again. From 3:00 to 4:00 she timed them to be 6 minutes apart. She woke me up a 4:00 and said, "Pete, honey, I think it is actually happening." I'll tell you what, there is no hitting the snooze button on that wake up call. We made our plan and started to get ready. After failing to get a hold of Heather's dad, we call my mom (who lives pretty much up the street). We got a hold of her and she was able to come over and watch Colton until he went to school - Thanks mom! Heather was able to eat some breakfast and take a shower, and then we were on our way. We got to the hospital about 6:00. They checked her out and said that she was 3 cm. They told us to go walk for 2 hours and come back, so we did. When we came back, they checked her again and told us that they are going to call it 4 cm so they can send us upstairs to Labor and Delivery.

To make this really long story a little shorter, we requested a mid-wife, who was really good. Her name was Susan. Even better yet was our nurse, Jane. Jane was just awesome! We walked the halls and rested and walked the halls some more. Jane then introduced us to the birthing ball (just one of those big exercise balls). Heather started doing that around 3:00 pm and about 10-20 minutes into that her water broke! Again, Heather was so good at this. She put up with so much, but continued her self control through the entire thing. At 5 cm she requested the epidural. Shift change for the doctors and nurses is at 7:00. At about 6:45 Heather told me I needed to find them because she was having a lot of pressure. They finally came in a little after 7:00 (Jane and Susan stayed late! We couldn't be more thankful). Susan checked Heather again and said, "Whoa, you are done. Let's try to start pushing." Heather did an awesome job pushing for about an hour and had OUR LITTLE ONE, Abigail Ann Jenson at 8:15 pm. She was 8 pounds 5 ounces and 20 inches long; she was/is a chunk! She is so cute. She does have a bi-lateral cleft lip and palate. Her palate is complete on her left side and incomplete on her right. We feel so blessed to have such a healthy baby girl. The doctors that checked her out told me, "she is an extremely healthy baby." Below are what you all want!

1500 HITS!!!

2008-05-06T09:12:00.001-07:00

So I haven't even had the hit counter on our blog for the entire duration of having this blog and we already have 1500 Hits!!! I did some calculations because that is what enginerds do:

Our first post was on December 23rd, 2007.
It has been 136 days since December 23rd, 2007.
We have over 1500 hits.

That is over 11 People a day looking at our blog!

I would say Abigail is already a princess with all the looks she is already getting.

PS - Update: She is still taking the free ride from her beautiful Mom. "Minor contractions, but nothing to get to excited about," Says Abigail's gorgeous Mom.

Today is the Due Date

2008-05-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

Today is the day but still no Baby...YET!!!

Still No Baby

2008-04-29T14:27:00.000-07:00

I know some of you get a little worried when I don't post, so I wanted to give a short and sweet update:

Still No Baby.

We are all really excited for Abigail to join us, but she hasn't decided to come yet. We went to the doctor this morning and she said Heather's body has started to get ready for it all to happen. In other words: ANYTIME NOW!!!

I will try to keep you all more updated so you're not in limbo.

Oh, I just thought about this. We did tell Colton the other night and it went "ok." I don't think he quite gets it yet, but at least we were able to break the ice with him. He told us, after looking at some of the pictures, that it "kind of scared him." We asked why and he said, "it scares me because it looks like it will hurt her." We then explained to thim that it doesn't hurt her. I think he is just worried about her because of his HUGE heart.

The Time is Near and We Need Some Advice

2008-04-18T10:21:00.000-07:00

To all the mom's and dad's that have kids with a cleft we need some of your advise. Even people without kids with a cleft or without kids at all, feel free to leave some advise.

We have yet to tell our 6 year old son, Colton, about Abigail's cleft. We have chosen to shelter him from this news because we did not want him to worry or get freaked out about it. But, since the time for Abigail to join us is getting really close, we are wondering what other parents have done to tell their other children? Did you wait until the baby was here? Did you tell them before hand? What did you tell them?

Our current thoughts are to tell him in the next few weeks before Abigail is actually here so he doesn't get a big surprise when she doesn't have a complete lip. We thought we would just explain it as an "ouey" on her lip that will need to be fixed in the months to come. We would like to know what you did and how your other children took it?

Thanks to you all, you are Awesome!

Response to Jeanne

2008-04-15T17:34:00.000-07:00

YOU ARE RIGHT. I could have eaten my own words with my last post. Jeanne wrote:

"But, also -- don't let yourself think "20 weeks" or "5 months." You can only take one day at a time."

To live like you were dying doesn't mean worry or even think about 20 weeks ahead, or even 1 minute ahead. As gloomy as it might sound, who really knows how many more years, months, days, hours, minutes, down to even seconds we have left? Thank you Jeanne for your comment.

"Living Like You were Dying"

2008-04-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

I don't know where this blog is going to go but I just wanted to vent, encourage, throw up some words, etc. At church we have started a series called, "Living Like You were Dying." It is inspired by the Tim McGraw song, "Live Like You Were Dying." If you haven't heard it, Click Here and you can read the lyrics. Yesterday in the sermon I couldn't help but continue to think about Abigail and all of her Cleft buddies that we have met through these blogs. Today I have also been thinking about them all day. As I sat here and read some of the blogs it seems as though there have been a lot of struggles lately, us included. As the time gets closer to Abigail joining us on the outside of Heather's beautifully made pregnant body, we continue to get more anxious. I couple of weeks ago we went to see a child dentist to discuss what Abigail "could" go through, and what procedures, retainers, nam's, Abby "could" have. I came out of that more worried than I have ever been during this entire process. Even though I didn't have time to think about it because my sisiter-in-law was going to the hospital to have her baby, it sat in the back of my mind and simmered.
5 month's with a nam? How are we going to afford this? Are we going to have to sell our house? One of our cars? My quad? What is going to happen? What are we going to do?
All of these questions screamed through my head. Heather and I talked about the different possibilities, and then we talked about, "Why are we worrying about this?" We don't know exactly what is going on. We don't know anything. This goes right along with Matthew 6:25-34:

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Again I want to repeat verse 27: "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"
This really makes worrying seem so worthless when Jesus calls us out like that, but again we are humans and we do worry about each other. And back to living like I was dying; would I want my last words to be something of worry? If I were really going to die tomorrow, would I be able to die happy? This question frequently runs through my head and reminds me to be thankful for what I have and reminds me to tell my family how much I love them and how proud I am of them. This is a little glummy becasuse I am talking about dying, but I am just being honest. It's not that I am planning on dying tomorrow, but who of us know when God is going to call us Home?

Verse 34 says, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." We don't know what is going to happen tomorrow, so why are we worried about it? Let's deal with today and when tomorrow comes, we will deal with it then. Third Day has a song on their Come Together album called "It's Alright." In this song it talks about "It" being alright; not worrying about tomorrow. Click Here to read the lyrics.

Thanks for listening to this ramble and hopefully it can encourage others. I know everyone is going to worry about one thing or another, but try and remember this question when you find yourself dwelling over it:

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

Nash Jacob Adams IS HERE!!!!!!

2008-04-04T10:08:00.000-07:00

Whoa, where did he come from. Abigail's cousin is here in full fashion. Nash Jacob Adams came to us April 3rd, 2008 at 7:09 PM. He was 6lbs. 4oz. and 19 inches long. YAY!!! Everyone is healthy and happy so praise the Lord for another miracle. Once I get a postable picture I will share with you all.

What a Weekend!?!

2008-03-31T08:58:00.001-07:00

I will just tell the story, starting from last Wednesday. Actually, before Wednesday even occurred, about two months ago, Heather and I went into the hospital because she was having back pain so bad that it was bringing her to tears. So, we went to the OB screening room, they monitored the baby and Heather for about an hour and a half, told us everything looked perfect and sent us on our way. Well, this past Wednesday the pain started to come back. It was tolerable even to the point that Heather went with Colton and I to Winter Park on Thursday. Of course she didn't ski, but she was able to sit in the lodge and work on her own stuff while Colton and I skied. Thursday went by and Heather said it was just really uncomfortable, but the pain was tolerable. She was able to fall asleep on me Thursday night, but come early Friday morning she was awakened by the pain at about 4 AM. At this time she just moved down to the couch to prop herself up to try and alieve this pain. Colton and I woke up at about 7:30. Heather told me that the pain was only getting worse. We called the doctors office at 8:00, talked to the nurse, she referred us the OB nurse, the OB nurse referred us to the overall hospital nurse, and she told us to try to relax and alternate cold with heat (which we had been doing). Later that day, Heather thought that getting out and moving might get the blood moving and make it better so we went and ran a couple of errands. She dropped me off to get one our cars an oil change. As soon as I got back she came walking outside in excruciating pain saying, we need to go in. So we packed up and headed to the hospital. The thing that really started to worry us was her shortness of breath. Thankfully, our Awesome Aunt Sue was able to meet us at the hospital and take care of Colton for the night, Thanks Sue! We again went to the OB screening room where they started to monitor Abigail and Heather. Abigail's heart rate was in the 180's to 190's, which is fairly high. The nurse practitioner in the OB clinic told that she is going to send us to the ER because if something is wrong they will have the tools there to take care of it. So they got her a room in the ER and wheeled her down there. A little side note, if you ever think your life sucks, go and hang out in Denver Health's ER for a Friday night and you quickly realize that it could be worse. So, we waited in the room for about 5 minutes before being bombarded with 10 people and a thousand questions. Heather at this point was still in, if not worse than before, excruciating pain. So the doctor immediately ordered 4 mg of morphine, which immediately freaked me out. Was this safe for Abigail? Is this going to have any side effects? Well, all the answers were no. Abigail being 34 weeks along helped her out, because she is pretty much fully formed with all of her organs. At this point they said all she needs to do is fatten up for the outside world. They said the morphine will affect Abigail just as it will Heather; it will make her sleepy. So they gave her the pain medication and just continued to monitor her. About an hour later Heather was still in extreme pain, so they ordered another 4 mg of morphine. The same questions came fumbling out my mouth, but again they assured me that it was safe for both Abigail and Heather. Then came what they needed to do in order to find out what was going on; a CAT scan. Heather obviously knows more than me, but being raised by a nurse and then marrying one, I know my fair share and right away we starting worrying, not only about the radiation, but the dye they inject into you. Just the word "risks" and "side-effects" don't sit well when there is a baby on board. They needed to do this because they were afraid of Heather having a pulmonary embolism which is a clot in the, or leading to, the lungs. Women are at a higher risk of these during pregnancy due to the increase of blood in their bodies. Ever had to sign a specific release form for your unborn child because there are "risks" and unknowns to your baby; NOT FUN. The radiologist "assured" us that he didn't "think" our baby was going to be affected; again NOT FUN. The doctors and company felt very strongly that the risks of Heather having a PE outweighed the risks of the radiation and the dye. We had an OB nurse at bedside that also told us that they saw and took care of lots of women that had to get a CAT scan and nothing went wrong. About an hour after the scan the ER doctor came in and told they were able to rule out All of the major stuff. No collapsed lung, no clot, no ... Now we were thinking great we have done all of this and found nothing? We still didn't know what was causing this pain? Now don't get me wrong, THANK GOD nothing major was happening, but it was frustrating still not knowing. So, finally the ER told us that we needed to move up to the OB floor because they needed to fill the ER bed with another drunk; and that night there were plenty of drunks in that ER. Before we moved to the OB floor the OB doctor came and checked out Heather. She was able to rule out the pre-term labor and tell that she felt everything was OK with Abigail and Heather, but to make sure they aren't missing anything, they wanted to monitor her for a while. From the ER to our own private OB suite was literally night and day. The OB nursing and doctor staff at Denver Health was great. They gave us the option to be discharged around midnight or stay the night, and since we had already paid for our stay, we stayed the night. At least we were able to have a more in depth "dry run." Ha-ha, not really funny because of what we had to go through. So the conclusion to all of this:
The only thing they were able to make sense of was a muscular pull or strain. Now, how could that happen. Well, at work Heather has to push and pull these carts around that they say weigh 195 pounds. Are you kidding me? I don't even know if I could that all night, and I'm not even pregnant. The doctors have now wrote her a note saying she cannot push or pull those. Beyond that, Heather's manager, who's NOT a fan of those carts, told her to take the week off. Yay! but Boo because this week is going to cut into her PTO for after Abigail comes. Last night Heather was able to get a descent nights sleep, but the pain came back a little this morning (Mon, March 31). This afternoon we are going to go back to the hospital to file a claim for workman's comp. I talked with one of the charge nurse's on Heather unit and he told me Heather is not the first one to be injured by one of these carts. Me being the enginerd is going to do some calculations for the amount of force it takes to start and stop those carts. I will let you all know the outcome.
As for right now, we are doing alright and we appreciate the thoughts and prayers that have come our way. Hopefully this will pass this week and we can get back to the anticipation of Abby!

Big Update

2008-03-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

Since the last update was just a little one, I will make this a big one. There actually has been a lot going on and a lot to come. I will start by just saying congratulations to my Cousins in Minnesota for having their second little girl just yesterday (March 12th). Many of you that read this blog probably don't know that Heather's sister is also pregnant and she is due about 2 weeks before our little Abigail. She is having a boy and they are naming him Nash. This past weekend there was a baby shower for little 'ol Nash. Below is a picture of Nash and Abigail having a little chit-chat (or maybe it was more of a boxing match)

Abigail and Heather's baby shower is this weekend where Nash and Abby can go for round 2! I am already in the process of getting used the pink, but all I have heard about this weekend is how much pink there will be, so thank goodness the boys are doing something else. There are actually a couple of Easter egg hunts that I am going to take Colton to. The house is "almost" there. Of course, there will always be something, but we really are close to being done with the big projects. As I promised before, here is where Abigail will lie her sweet little head:

I think my kids have really made out on their rooms. I know there won't be a lack of space in Abby's room. Heather is so good at decorating that she has really made our entire house so wonderful to live in. I am not one to care initially about the decor, but she has done such a good job with it, that it really just makes everything feel like home. For more pictures of the house (actually only the basement) go to heatpete.blogspot.com.

I saved the most important news for last. We had our final ultrasound this morning. I say this is the most important, but I don't have a whole lot to say, which is good. Of course, Abigail had her hands up in her face and in her mouth, so we were unable to get a good look at her cleft. It is what is, so all we can do at this point is pray that God makes it as easy on everyone, especially Abigail, as He can. With that said, everything else was great. They said she weighed 4 pounds 2 ounces. How they know how much she weighs is beyond me, but they said she looked like a very healthy and happy baby. Nothing makes me more happy and proud than to here that my little one looks happy.

I also promised before some pictures of Abigail's current home. I have to warn you all that the second picture below is not for everyone. The least I can say is that Heather now has a bigger belly than me, even when I am trying to be big. Obviously there is a reason for her big belly, so I hope I don't in too much trouble for saying so. But to help alleviate some of slapping when I get home, I do have to say that she is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. I could not imagine God picking out a better fit for me. I will let you see for yourself:

Is she not the most beautiful woman ever? She really make me happy.

Warning again for the below picture (it's not that bad). She WINS!!! I am at the disadvantage; 2 vs.1...

I will keep you all posted for anything else to come, but as far as I can see right now, we are only into the count down. Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts, it really means a lot to us.

Little Update

2008-03-07T09:26:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a while, which actually means things have been going good. The house is really coming along and so is Abigail. Abigail likes having her space. When anyone touches Heather's belly with any pressure at all, you will recieve (without a doubt) a "give me my space" kick. We have another ultrasound coming up on the 13th so keep us in your prayers. Our first ultrasound showed no sign of the palate being involved but our second one did, so we are still a little uncertain. We are prepared for the worse, but praying for the best. I am sorry I have been lazy with blogging and also with taking pictures. Earlier this week I put together Abby's crib and dresser. They really look nice in her room. We finally got carpet downstairs, so we were able to move all of the computer stuff down there. I still have some finishing touches to do, but my list has really deminished:

Buy Wife Flowers (DONE, but she needs new ones so we will keep it at #1)
Finish cleaning the downstairs ceiling and walls from the concrete dust (DONE)
Touch up downstairs paint (DONE, but I have new nick's to touch up)
Paint downstairs doors (DONE)
Hang downstairs doors (DONE)
Seal concrete bar-top (On Hold)
Install bar sink (On Hold)
Install downstairs lights (DONE)
Have carpet installed downstairs (DONE)
Move HUGE desk out of Abby's room and downstairs (DONE)
Move all Computer equipment out of Abby's room and downstairs (DONE)

The list has really come down to just a few things. With Abigail's baby shower on the 15th of March, we will be more than ready, I hope, I think, I pray, I..I...I have no idea what I am in for!

I know I am extremely excited and blessed with such a great family and such great friends. I promise I will quit being lazy and post up some pictures of Abigail's room and of Abagail's current place of residence. This weekend I will also post to our other blog for updates on Colton and the house.

To the Anonymous Comment

2008-02-25T16:54:00.001-08:00

We got an anonymous comment today from someone who just found out (via ultrasound) that their child will have a cleft lip and palate. We know this time is hard, but know that God has us in his hands and He will take care of us as long as we let Him. If this family returns to read our blog, please email us at pjenson05@hotmail.com if you need anything. At least email us so we can keep in contact. For the time being we will be praying for you!

God is Working!

2008-02-21T13:31:00.001-08:00

In one of my, if not the first, blogs I wrote about wanting to reach out and connect with other people. When I would talk to God, I would ask Him to use Abigail's cleft as a positive in our lives. I find it easy to focus on the negatives of everything that has already happened and is going to happen. So, trying to focus my energy and prayer on positive things has already started to work. I have asked God to use us as comfort for other's that would be touched by birth defects. I think God heard that and said, "Wait a second, I understand that you want to comfort others, but let's stand back and let me have others comfort you first." So, not only has God answered the prayers of connecting with other people, but He has thrown my own prayer right back on us and allowed us to be comforted by other families that are going through, or have already gone through, the process of raising a child with a cleft. This is just one simple example of how God works. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, and mostly Heather and I thank God for answering those prayers. I am just so excited.

She's Gonna Blow!!!

2008-02-19T11:05:00.000-08:00

Is it time to freak out yet? Every day gets a little more exciting. Heather told me this morning that, as of next week, we are within the time frame of Abigail coming at any time. Of course, if whe were to come right now, that wouldn't be the best thing, but she is developed enough that she would be ok. Big Sigh, heart pounding, what am I going to do? I can't wait. She is going to be such a blessing to us. She has already touch our lives so much, I can not even imagine what she is going to do when she is actually outside the oven. The only stressing part about her right now is getting her room ready. The to do list:

Buy Wife Flowers
Finish cleaning the downstairs ceiling and walls from the concrete dust
Touch up downstairs paint
Paint downstairs doors
Hang downstairs doors
Seal concrete bar-top
Install bar sink
Install downstairs lights
Have carpet installed downstairs
Move HUGE desk out of Abby's room and downstairs.
Move all Computer equipment out of Abby's room and downstairs
This list has gotten too long, I think I will just stick to #1

Oh my goodness. There is a lot to do. For whatever reason, I don't think Abigail is going to wait around for me, so I had better get on with it. As far as right now, Abby is enjoying herself, practicing her jumping jacks and taking after Colton with practing karate!

The Blogs to the Right

2008-02-12T08:47:00.001-08:00

I have started to put links of other families that we are meeting through the experience of Abigail's cleft. Like I said from the beginning, I want to use this as a possitive, and so far, meeting all of these families from across the US is a blessing. With out this experience, I would have never reached out to meet these people. I am amazed at the information, the comfort, the prayers, and just their ears that these total strangers are willing to give. I have tried to pick out words that describe each of these little ones. I have tried to pick out words from either their own website or from how they describe them. For the parents of the little ones that I am describing: if you don't like the word or want a different one please let me know! Please take the time to read these others and give a special little prayer for each of them. They are truly special people.

It's A ...

2008-02-01T12:05:00.000-08:00

Well I am not going to reveal right now what we know. I think I would rather more of you wonder exactly what we are having. All I will say right now is that we will call our new precious baby, Abigail Ann Jenson. So, to all of you that thought we were having a boy, "HA." When you will you all learn that I am always right**. We are extremely excited and I am prepairing myself for the Pink. Heather is one of the best at decorating so I am not worried about how Abby's room will look. I AM SO EXCITED!!! I REALLY CAN NOT WAIT.

**Only when Heather is not around.

First the Not So good.

2008-02-01T11:54:00.000-08:00

Alright well, there is good and their is bad and I would rather walk out of any room on a high note so the bad first. We found out that the palate "may" be involved in the cleft. The sonographer said she was 85% sure. All we can do right now is pray. Our little one is going to fine and I feel blessed to be near such an awesome hospital for repairing clefts. I will keep you all updated as we know more, but at this point, there really isn't more to find out about the cleft part, so now read above.

Oh Yeah, Names!

2008-01-15T11:36:00.000-08:00

Girl = Abigail Ann (Goes by Abigail or Abby)
Boy = Nathan Lee (Goes by Nate)
These are subject to change without notice.

"If I had to guess..."

2008-01-15T09:12:00.001-08:00

Alright, so the details of our trip to the Cardiologist! It was fairly nerve-racking waiting there for our pager to go off (that's Children's version of calling your name at the doctors office) as we did not know what to expect. The echo-cardiogram is pretty much an ultra-sound that focuses on the babies heart. The whole process is amazing. At the end the doctor told us that the baby's heart is about the size of the tip of his thumb. With that being said, the heart is fully developed. It has all four chambers, all the arteries, all the everything a normal heart has. That just blows my mind. Anyway, the sonographer first asked us whether we knew if it was a boy or a girl? Before I was even able to take a breath Heather spills out, "No, but if you are able to tell us will you." The guy said, "Well, I am a heart guy but we will see what we can." So the first thing he does is looks for any indication of what sex the baby may be. He looks around for a while and says, "Well....if I had to guess, I would guess it is a GIRL." All I could think about was all those "Boy Voters" eating their vote. And then the guy adds, "Wait...it could be a boy. I can't really get a good view and the baby's legs are crossed, so let's leave that up to the experts." So we still don't know what the sex of our little one is, and God willing, the baby will continue to cross his/her legs so it will be a surprise. Once we were done looking for the sex of the baby, he went right into looking at the heart. He was able to bring up some of the coolest pictures I will probably ever see. He was able to put color to the direction of the blood flow; so the blood was either blue or orange depending on whether the blood was flowing toward or away from the transducer. This was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I could see the blood flowing into and out of the heart; going through the different arteries and chambers. The sonographer took his time getting different pictures and listening to different areas of the heart. He looked one more time to see if he could see the sex, but our little still had his/her legs crossed. After he was done taking all of his pictures he sent them off for the doctor to look at. As he left he gave us some comfort by telling us that he did not see anything to be alarmed of. We sat there for about five minutes and then the doctor came in. His first words were, "Well this is going to be short and sweet because there is nothing but good news. Your baby's heart is perfect. If you were to look at any healthy fetus heart, this is what it would look like." Heather and I were all smiles ear to ear as we gave each other a high five. Even though there is a little bump in the road to come, Heather and I are so thankful that God has given us a healthy baby in which He has created in His mirror image. Thank you all that have prayed and continue to pray for our little one.
A little quick side story: the other day in Church, other people were dedicating there babies. After they introduced all of the new ones, they prayed over all of them. As we were praying I rested my hand on Heather belly, and as I did, I received a high five from our little one.
Stay tuned for more updates. Our next Ultra-sound is on the 31st!

The Heart is Perfect

2008-01-11T18:16:00.000-08:00

I couldn't wait to blog about this because we got good news that our baby's heart looks perfect. The doctor told us that it looks like a normal baby's heart. Early next week, I will post again to give you all more details, but right now rest easy knowing that the heart is good. Thank you God!

Boy or Girl

2008-01-09T08:31:00.000-08:00

Alright so we have gone back and forth as to whether we are going to find out or not. Heather wants to find out and I do not. Heather thinks it is a Boy and I think it is Girl. Is that not the fun part about it? No one really knows! I have posted two polls to the right. Do you think we should find out? And also, Do you think it is a boy or a girl?

Our Meeting with Children's

2008-01-04T12:00:00.000-08:00

So we were referred to Children's Hospital to take care of our little baby's Cleft. We met with the director of the Cleft lip and palate division on Thursday. The meeting went really well and we came out of feeling even better. We really do have a very special baby, and not because s/he has a cleft lip, but really because it is our baby. We are happy that we do live near Children's because they are listed in top two for helping children with Cleft Lip and Palate.
Heather also had her glucose screening on Thursday, which tests if she has diabetes or not. We are still waiting for the results, but we are pretty sure it will come back negative.
The baby is really doing well and running all over Mom's belly. When were sitting in Children's waiting, we were sitting there watching the baby punch and kick trying get out of Heather's belly. We have settled on names for both a boy and a girl but I am not going to disclose them until I have permission from my boss.
Next Friday (Jan 11) we do go back to Children's for them to take a look at our baby's heart. This is just precautionary to make sure the baby's heart is ok and is developing correctly. We will not got back to Children's for the baby's cleft until after the baby is born.
We are so excited for May to come.

What defines our Baby

2007-12-26T20:16:00.000-08:00

What defines our baby is nothing else that anyone else has. It is the same thing that defines me or Heather or any one of us. What defines each one of us is what we believe in, how we act, what we say; all of which comes from the inside. Just because our baby may look different for a little while does not mean that is what we need to look at. By letting people in our family know about our baby's cleft does not mean we are looking for sympathy or anything of that sort. We are going to love our baby no matter what, and we just ask that anyone else does the same. Why us humans like to dwell on the negatives, no one knows, but for our baby we ask that you look at what really defines him/her; the inside. We don't mind talking about the bad, but I do like talking about the good.
Maybe my first two blogs were kind of dark, and so was the beginning of this one. But, from here on out, the focus will be upon the greatest little thing that ever happened to me. Of course I will not leave out anything and some blogs you will probably realize that I needed to vent, but it will still be a good road map of Our Little One.

Trying to Answer Questions

2007-12-24T08:54:00.000-08:00

I don't know what questions people may have about this, but maybe one of the biggest questions is: Can we do anything about it? The answer is yes. They can do surgery to fix both cleft lip and palate. Although we do not believe our baby has cleft palate at this time, we can only prepare for the worsed and pray for the best. Most of the time babies born with cleft lip and palate live to be normal, if not ahead of the game because they have some special that most people do not. Through this blog I encourage people to ask questions and also to pass this along. There is already a strong community amoung families with cleft, but I am out to make it even stronger.
I already want to send out thanks to our family. It is really in time of crisis that you see your families true colors, and I can't say enough about the Frost's, Jenson's, Adam's, Begley's, Haefele's, Holme, and the list continues as we get this awesome support. We love you guys so much and appreciate everything you have already done.
One more question we have already got is: What can I do to help? Right now everything people have been doing is what we need; Thoughts and Prayers! We love and appreciate all of them. Like I said before, God has this under control and will provide us with the path we need to take in order to make things great.
Again, I encourage questions and/or comments, and I also encourage this blog to be past along.

The First

2007-12-23T22:07:00.001-08:00

So on December 21, 2007 my beautiful wife and I walk into Denver Health to get our first Ultra-sound. We had high hopes to go through without any problems, and since we have been living right and doing everything we were supposed to, we didn't have anything to worry about. The first part of our ultra-sound was great. We did not want to find out the sex, and since that was one of the first questions from our sonogrammer, she didn't even look in the general area. We saw the feet, the arms, and heard the heart beat again; it was awesome. The second part of our ultra-sound did not come to be all that fun. The wonderful lady doing our ultra-sound told us that she was trying to look at something towards the nose and mouth. In both me and Heather's mind, we already knew what she was trying to look at. She said she was not sure if she was seeing anything so she was going to go and get the attending doctor. By the end of it they had three different opions about our baby having Cleft Lip. They took a look at the palate and did not see anything of concern at this point. The doctor automatically refered us to Children's Hospital of Denver. I am very thankful that we live in this region because of Children's Hospital. This blog will be about our journey as we go through the ups and the downs of our beautiful little baby having cleft lip.

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not unto thine own understanding but in all thy ways acknowledge Him and he will direct your path." (Proverbs 3:5-6)

We have no idea why this is happening with us, but at least we can have confidence that our God is in control of everything. And since any reason He might be able to give us would probably not be good enough, all we can do is Trust in Him.