Long Weekend!

Over the holiday weekend we had the opportunity to go camping in Panguitch. My little sister had rodeos up there and since my mom and dad own property up there as well, we thought it would be fun to take our trailer and go for a couple of days. It was so nice to escape from the heat and support my little sister at the same time. We had a really good time and Dally did awesome. She won second place in the breakaway roping and won a nice buckle. The kids had fun too. Ashten and Treyson loved picking flowers in the field where we stayed. Jared was actually a little worried with how much Treyson enjoyed picking flowers. Traxton just hung out and liked not sweating to death everytime we went outside. I wish I had a home in Panguitch but only for the summer. I couldn't handle the snow.

Our little "Chunk"

I am so excited to post that Traxton has gained weight in the past week. I took him back into the doctor's office the other day to weigh him again and now he weighs 8lb 2 oz. I was so excited that I couldn't stop smiling. I also felt so relieved to know that there wasn't something wrong with him which was inhibiting him from gaining weight. I think a big part of his weight gain has been because I started pumping and feeding him from a bottle so that we could keep track of how much he eats. It totally sucks to have to pump so much, but I like knowing how much he is eating.

I have a lot of people ask me about his ears and if I think that he is hearing anything yet. I cannot tell you how grateful I am for every one's concern. I'm still not exactly sure if I think he can hear yet. Some days he will totally respond to my voice and even open his eyes when I start talking to him, but other times when there is a loud noise he won't do anything. I do feel like he is responding better than he did at first so maybe it is the fluid that has caused the problem and it is slowly draining out. The doctors just keep telling me that we won't know anything for sure until more time has gone by. It is frustrating to hear that, but at least lately I feel like it is getting better. We will just keep praying that it will correct itself on its own.

Two weeks old!

We went to get Traxton's 2 wk pictures taken at Kiddie Kandids yesterday and I was pretty happy with the results. He actually wasn't very happy with the photographer when she tried to "pose" him. I didn't think we were going to get anything good but the girl did really well and got some without him crying. We also went to the doctor the other day for his two week visit. Our little man isn't cooperating very well. He actually weighs less now than he did when he was born. 7 lb 11 oz. I have to take him back in next week to see if he has grown any. If he hasn't gained any weight I will have to start supplementing. This kid is causing me more stress than my other two combined. It's a good thing I already love him.

Family Reunion Fun

Every 4th of July weekend we head out to the Arizona Strip for the Bundy Reunion. This year was especially a lot of fun. The kids are getting to an age where they can really play and enjoy themselves. Between all of the cousins to play with and the activities going on, there was always something to keep them busy. Ashten loved playing with her little cousins and Treyson spent a lot of time playing trucks in the rock pile with the boys. I'm not even sure that Traxton even knew that we left home. He did a lot of sleeping. I was really worried about how he would do during the night. I didn't want him to wake up the entire camp, but he even did really well during the nights. It is a lot different going to the Bundy reunion as a mom than it was while I was growing up. I guess the days of running carefree and rolling in the dirt will now be passed on to my kids. Even as a mom with three kids I enjoyed myself. It was nice to put the kids to bed and stay up with family talking, laughing, and eating peach cobbler. I just wish it was as relaxing to come home and clean up the mess.

A whirlwind of Emotions!

What a week this has been. Both one of the best and worst weeks of my life. I have experienced so many emotions that I am truly exhausted. I'm not even sure where to begin. As most of you know, the hospital has your new baby's ears checked before discharge. Well Traxton failed this test with both ears. They told me not to be alarmed but he needed to be rechecked in a couple of days. Sometimes it just takes a few days for fluid in front of the ear drum to drain out. Well, of course you can't tell a hormonal new mom not to be alarmed when their child doesn't pass something. I tried not to worry too much about this, but as the days wore on, I started to freak out. I knew that my baby couldn't hear me. He didn't startle when I would talk to him like I can remember my other kids doing. We had to take him back in on Friday to be re-tested and he failed on both sides again. I was a mess. All I could do was cry. It broke my heart to think that this perfect little baby couldn't hear my voice or the voices of his older brother and sister. When Ashten would start to sing to him, I would lose it. I couldn't imagine what it would be like for my little boy to grow up not being able to hear. At one point I couldn't even look at him because it would just make me cry. Because he failed the test twice they scheduled him for a more intense test where they would place monitors around on his head and measure the brain response when sound at different wavelengths entered his ears. It would be able to tell if it was nerve damage or just fluid in the middle ear that would be corrected with tubes. He had to be asleep for test which would last about an hour so we had to make sure he was "sleep deprived". Because we were scheduled at 7:00 am, we woke him up at 5:30 and kept him awake until we arrived at the audiologists office. They were able to change different variables and determine at what decimal he was able to hear and what he couldn't. He did so good and slept through the whole test. When we left the office we still didn't know exactly what we were dealing with. They said that it looked like it could just be the fluid but we would have to go see an ENT to find out for sure. Well today we went to the ear nose and throat Dr and found out that it is just fluid. They said that it may even drain out on its own in time, but if it doesn't by the time we go back in six weeks they may consider putting tubes in his ears. I can not even explain how big of a relief this is. I know that we have been blessed because of all of the fasting and prayers gone out in our behalf. I have pleaded with my heavenly father more this week than I have in a very long time. I am so thankful for the support given by our family and friends and especially for Jared. I would not have made it through this week without him. He was my constant rock and shoulder to cry on when I couldn't face the fear of the unknown. He also gave me hope and encouragement with the reminder that it didn't matter if our little boy could hear or not. We would still love him and we would just learn how to do sign language. I know this has been a long post, but all week I have been looking forward to the time where I could say that my baby can hear!