Eating Camp Day 1

I have a few pictures from before we left that I'll share first:

He continues to find great joy and satisfaction in making the great escape out of his diaper!

Kanyon has had some good spike days lately. I think it is something he is doing in his sleep. This is him as soon as he woke up. What a sweet face to wake up to.

I just thought his face was funny in this one. And you can see that the spike is rooster-like.
I think he is inspecting my floor to make sure I swept good.
In the last few days, we've been reminded YET AGAIN that we have THE BEST friends in the whole world. Several people have gone above and beyond for us as we prepared to leave for Dallas. One of those people is Ricky. In his thoughtfulness and creativity, he came up with an "Eating Camp Wardrobe" for Kanyon. Several of our friends "sponsored" a shirt (thanks to y'all Colliers, Rangels, Thomastons). Here is the line up. I'm not sure if they'll show up good so I'll tell you the funny phrases on each one. Eating Camp is Cool; CHOW (and keep it) DOWN; Oples and Bononos; CDR will have to wait (CDR is the camp I went to all my life);Ricky didn't eat his veggies either; Eat or Bust; Pig in Training; Get in my belly. So fun and thoughtful!!
How's this picture for the cutest couch potato in the world

Here is Gram and Kory saying bye to Kanyon before we headed out of town Sunday afternoon. We have had the BEST time with her (more about that later).

We stayed with our great friends Paul and Katie who went above and beyond to get us everything we needed last night and directions to help me know what I was doing today, great hospitality, and some sweet lovin' on my little Kanyon. Kanyon loved Katie's hair, here he is attacking it. She was so sweet to let him do that over and over.
Paul and Kanyon watching the Mavs game. Kanyon is sporting his Mavs gear that Paul and Katie gave him when he was born.
Here he is on Day 1 of Feeding Camp:

For the first few days we are only going to be there til noon. I think they are trying to figure out exactly what route to take with this little guy. It went OK today. It is going to be a lot for him to take in and do all day everyday, but I know he can do it. We are just so happy to be here and praying for success. Thank you to all of you who have and are praying that with us. I will keep you posted. I am here at my friend Kasey's place in Dallas. It is such a great place. I feel very hip and cool...not sure how I'll do here in the center of the city life...I'm like a fish out of water. We will enjoy it and enjoy getting to see friends that live around here. My little pig in training is waking up, I better go!

Oh Happy Day!

Today was a monumental day in my life. I returned my rented pump to the hospital. I got some last minute advice from my wonderful lactation nurse and signed it back in to its next victim...I mean mom. This has been the ultimate love-hate relationship, my biggest "frienemy", and my Siamese twin for the last 13 months. The swishing will not be heard in our house anymore, no more pumping in the car while Kory (or whoever) drives, therefore, no passing drivers wondering what in the WORLD is going on, and I will not be hauling all of that stuff everywhere I go!! I am so glad I had it because it was very important to me that Kanyon have my milk. When he was born it was the one thing I could do for him. I am thankful that I had no problems and it was easy for me. With all that said...GOOD RIDDANCE Medela Lactina Electric Plus. I want Kanyon to have my milk until his adjusted age 1 year and I think I have enough stored up. When I started pumping, they warned me that sometimes the stress of NICU life makes it hard to maintain your milk supply. Well, apparently it did the exact opposite of that to me. I was UNREAL...I'm talking 9-11 ounces every 3 hours. When he came home, I leveled out, but needless to say I more than kept up with his eating. I have donated at least 5 ice chests full of the frozen stuff to a milk bank because it was going to get old before Kanyon could eat it. If you have extra milk DON'T THROW IT AWAY...contact Mother's Milk Bank of North Texas and they will give you everything you need to donate it. Ok..I'm off that soap box.


Here is my gear..good ol' Clinique bag with all my gear was the perfect companion to my pump.
THIS is where all the stored milk is..this thing is FULL of it!!! It should last us through July.
And here is the gear tucked away up in the top of a cabinet waiting for the next time...but never again to be used to the extent that it was this time.

I never planned on pumping for this long. I thought I would just long enough for him to learn to nurse...never happened so here I am.

Here is a little Milk Math for you:

I pumped for 392 days

On average every 4 hours (more at the beginning, less at the end)

I've pumped roughly 2,352 times

On average 10 minutes (longer at the beginning, less at the end) each time

23,520 minutes I've spent pumping

392 hours

16.3 days straight of pumping...I should go on a 16 day vacation.

I could've driven to Montana and back 8 times or watched 784 episodes of a fav TV show, played over 261 complete games of basketball, almost 10 weeks of work, 522 of Kanyon's therapy sessions, and over 1.4 million seconds of whatever you can think of. Haha.

Ok, this is too long of a post to be about breast milk and pumping. Sorry if it was a little too much for some of you.

Pics of the Week

Kanyon still thinks grinding his teeth is the greatest thing in the world. I love the face he makes. Here he is helping Kory on the computer and grinding his teeth....

check out that face

When I was trying to get a picture of him grinding his teeth, he kept laughing at the beep my camera makes before it takes a picture. I love that grinning profile.

Feeding is a pretty exhausting task around here....for all of us.
I'm sure Kanyon will travel many miles in this spot.

Monkey Man

Kanyon went to his friend Blake's birthday party out at the Porter's land.
Pretty cute in that hat....Jill, this is the one you gave us when I was pregnant.


News to catch you up on:

• Kanyon finally weighs 15 pounds, but we're still wearing 3-6 mo. clothes, plain 6 month fits perfect...we're getting closer to 6-9 though.
• He has done really really really good in his therapy the last 2 weeks. We are getting closer and closer to sitting up. If he could just figure out that his hands can help him balance, we'd be good to go. He doesn't get as angry and upset during therapy either. He's tolerating things great that used to send him through the roof. I'm very proud of him.
• The feeding situation is beyond bad. We are scheduled to start "feeding camp" Monday the 28th. Feeding camp isn't the official name.....the name is Our Children's House at Baylor (Dallas). I am very very very excited, anxious, and nervous. I am praying they can help us! I know it isn't going to be easy, but I am optimistic. So, prayers for Kanyon could be directed toward the success of the feeding therapy. It will be intensive therapy Monday trough Friday 8am-5pm for aprox. a month. We are what they call day patients (or what I call day campers). Hopefully that will do the trick. If not, we will have to go inpatient where we spend the night there 24hrs a day. If that doesn't help, things will get tricky. I am not looking forward to being away from home for that long, but at this point, I just want some relief and help. Before Kanyon can be expected to develop and get stronger, we've gotta get some food in him!! We are praying this place is the answer to our prayers and will be able to get us going. And help me (and Kory) regain some sanity.
• Kanyon's spike has reached a new level. It is so long that it isn't even a spike. It is too long to stick up. It lays over like a curl. I've got to figure out what to do with it. Cutting it is not an option (though his dad mentioned that...what was he thinking?)
• Gram is coming TONIGHT from Montana!!!!!!!!! We can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
  

Monster Blog

This will be a monster blog because I am posting way too many pictures. I had a lot of catching up to do. I wanted to give everyone a chance to see my last blog (if you haven't read it, go check it out). It has been so fun to read all of the comments and it will be BEYOND wonderful to read all of them to Kanyon. I am blown away...I thought we might get 50 comments and that was a stretch. Anyways, thanks so much for commenting. We are wowed and humbled and touched.

Ricky and Cooper came by to bring us something a while back. These 4 have some fun times ahead of them.
After Kanyon's party, we headed to Paris. We were able to spend the day there and be "with Jayde" There are a couple of neat things that I thought I'd tell about. First of all, her headstone. We wanted her to have something from Kory's home since she is buried at my home. His parents have had this rock on their front porch for years that they found and saved because it is shaped like the state of Montana (Kory's home). Anyways, they had her name, etc. carved on the stone and that is her headstone. I really love that it is so special. In the background of this picture you can see a little purpleish tree. When my grandma Nanny Betty was sick she wanted a Japanese Maple for her yard. Her daughters bought her one for Mother's Day that year, but she never got to see it and enjoy it. My parents planted it out by Jayde. I really love that. Speaking of, my parents have done so much to keep her place looking nice and pretty. They planted some flowers out there and it just looked so good. I find peace in things like that. Here is as close as we can feel to our complete family.

My little twins


We'll move on now....to lighter things:

Kanyon made his first trip to Chili's. Thanks to Uncle Pee Wee and Aunt Gwenie for the giftcard. We went to church last Sunday and decided to go in and eat....A Phillips Phamily first. We are starting to enjoy getting out more. After browsing the menu with Dad, Kanyon went with the Chicken Crispers.

This elephant has been hanging on his carrier since we brought him home, but this is the first time he's ever seen it! Thank GOD for our improving eyes!!
These 2 boys were beat after our big trip to Church and Chili's...I went to check on them and this is what I found:
That same day we packed up and headed over to the Pruitts to enjoy the beautiful day with them. Kanyon got these cool shades for his birthday.

"PEEEEEE U! What's that smell??...COOPER!!!!"

Actually he hated the glasses and did his best to figure out where they were and took them off ASAP. Bummer

Me and Cindi with Cooper and Kanyon ready for our walk. Aubrey and LoLo were too fast for the camera.

Kanyon chillin' with Ricky....boy, Ricky and Cooper are all over this blog! Kory carried him on the walk back and he fell asleep just like this!
Ok, lots of people have mentioned how Kanyon is always happy. I will agree. He is a very peaceful and happy baby. Not a big crier. BUT when the boy decides to cry, he can play it up. We were over at my Aunt and Uncle's house and he was sitting in the chair with his Great Aunt Mary Lynn. He really REALLY wanted to eat the tree by the chair. When we took it out of his hand he was a little bit unhappy.
What's a good cry without that bottom lip? And the red eyebrows are a crying Kanyon trademark.
Since Kanyon has 6 teeth, I thought I'd give him a biter biscuit thingy. I wasn't sure what he'd do with it. I think he pretty much just thought it was a toy. He put it in his mouth, but didn't really seem to treat it any different than putting a toy in his mouth. Didn't get a good taste of it I don't think.

He did put it a little too far in his mouth and our first biter biscuit experience ended with the Bumbo tray covered in throw up. Better luck next time.

I saw him in the chair and went to go get his bottle. I found him like this. He was hiding..I told you he hates to eat. (the towels, by the way, protect the new recliner when the milk comes back up)

Thursday Me and Kanyon and Mindi and Addison took a little trip to see Mary and her new baby boy Weston. Here are Kanyon and Addison ready for the ride. They were GREAT in the car.
I'm pretty sure Kanyon is playing tough guy and talking smack to Weston in this one.

Addison and Kanyon torturing Weston...he's saying "STOP!!"
Kanyon just wanted to make sure Weston didn't have a fever.
Kanyon-BORED

Here are the mommies and their babies. I'm sure lots of moms read this so I'll ask for some advice...Kanyon out grew the headrest things in his car seat, but as you can see, he needs something to keep him from flopping all over the seat. Any ideas???

And the greatest new thing in the world is my new NIECE!!!!!

Landry Lucille Spencer was born early early Friday morning. I really love her SOO much. It is crazy how I much I love my nieces and my children-- it seems like I'd run out of room, but the second Landry came I found a way to love her just as much. What a great thing. Maurine was a crazy good mommy delivering this beauty and Landry was so good she didn't even need a Dr. there. The Dr. got there to see her weighed and that was it. We think she kind of looks like big sister Avery only with dark hair. Maybe that dark hair came from her Aunt P.

Clay and I traded kids for a second.

How great is this little baby girl. Sorry I look so nappy..I jumped in the car and headed to Paris as fast as I could. No time for a shower when there's a new baby to kiss.



By the time you finish this, Landry will probably be in Kindergarten. Sorry.

Message to Kanyon

I meant to do this before Kanyon's birthday and never got around to doing it. I'm going to give this a shot. I'm mentally (notice I said mentally, not physically) putting Kanyon's 1st year baby book together. As cheesy as this sounds, this blog has played a pretty huge role for our family this past year. Particularly those first few days in the hospital and then keeping everyone updated through our hospital stay, homecoming, surgeries, and the fun things too. SOOOO...I had this idea. I have promised to tell Kanyon the story of GOD's love through the countless people who supported him and prayed for him. I realize not as many people are reading the blog now as they used to, but I want to give it a shot. I have NO CLUE who all reads this so I'm asking you to leave a comment. Leave it for Kanyon. Say whatever you want to say to him. Even if we don't know you, you have helped us and I want to tell him the story with you in it. So, leave a comment on this post and I will use these in his baby book. Thanks for participating! It will be so fun to read these to him for years and years and years.

Posting without pictures would be a crime...this picture was taken a year ago yesterday. I was so so so so nervous and scared, but at the same time, so happy to feel my baby on my chest. I remember sneaking a kiss on his tiny head while the nurse wasn't looking (I didn't know if that was "against the rules" or not). It was an indescribable feeling holding a baby so tiny. He was less than a hand full and felt about like holding a kitten. Unforgettable.