Dear Jimmie- Happy 10 Month Birthday

Dear Jimmie,

Happy 10 month birthday!

This is you right after you were born.

This is you at 1 month.

This is you at 2 months.

This is you at 3 months.

This is you at 4 months.

This is you at 5 months.

This is you at 6 months.


This is you at 7 months.


This is you at 8 months.


This you at 9 months.


And this is you today!


Look at how you have grown next to your Rottweiler Puppy!























Look how you've grown in your father's hands!




















This month:

You have gained 14 ounces. You are 13lbs 1oz!

You have gained 1 inch in length! You are 27 inches long!

Your head circumference has increased by 3/4 of an inch. It is 17 inches around.

Your mommy is still following the "less aggressive tube weaning plan". You are doing so good eating solids, but you still do not drink well. The St. Luke's OT thinks you should get a g-tube and Dr. H. agrees. We are sad it has to come to that, but also hopeful that getting the NG out of your nose and throat will help you with your drinking. Your first appointment with the surgeon about the g-tube is coming up soon, Dec. 15th.

Your mommy is still on a VERY restricted diet right now to help with your food allergies and a probable over growth of yeast. She has stuck to it. She has amazing will power- your momma! I am in awe of her dedication to do everything to help you.

Physically you are doing great, above and beyond your developmental age of a little over 6 months. You started sitting unsupported last month. You are now pushing up on your hands and knees and rocking back and forth!

Your mommy put you in a laundry basket a couple of days ago to try to contain you for a few seconds and you pulled up using the side of the basket to standing!!! That's crazy- your mommy was shocked and delighted.

You have 107 followers on your blog! (1 more than last time).

Your Faithfulness Video Montage has been viewed 6026 times. That's 629 views this month!

Your "Jimmie's Wonderful World" montage has been viewed 676 times! That's 25 times this month.

Your blog has been viewed 6,336 times this month for a total of 64,269 hits! You have a lot of very cool people who love to check on your progress Jimmie.

This month you celebrated your first Thanksgiving.

Grandma Kathy suggested you chew on a turkey leg just like you daddy did on his first thanksgiving. Then we posted your daddy's pictures after yours!











It's so crazy cool to see how much you look like your daddy did!

After Thanksgiving you and your mommy and daddy moved back home. It has been good! Your mommy even put your NG tube back in all by herself the other day. Your mommy and daddy are working to be more independent and get by taking care of you more on their own.

You have had a harder time this month with your puking. For a few weeks it was pretty bad. Right now you are doing pretty good. Maybe 1 or 2 big gushers a day . . . sometimes you'll go a few days with hardly any gushers. We are praying really hard for you to not puke gushers at ALL!

You got your first Christmas tree this month Jimmie!



All you were interested in was the tractor.


Like father like son . . .


Words cannot express how precious and cute you are!




This month we have all experienced some mixed emotions Jimmie. Each of us coming to terms with the likelihood of you having the g-tube procedure. Your mommy has fought so hard to avoid that for you. But it is becoming clear that it is what you need. You have tried so hard Jimmie you really have. This has just overwhelmed you psychologically. You have been through a lot and you have associated a lot of pain with drinking liquid. It's almost as if everything you have been through since you were born has found an object/action in your psyche to blame and that would be drinking . . . We are hopeful that this g-tube will be your friend. That it will clear the way for some healing physically as well as psychologically.

To look at you now and remember you the night you were born makes me weep. You were so small I could not even see you in the doctors hands as he handed you to the NICU team. The doctor was holding some sort of towel and you were laying on that in his hands. I could not see you Jimmie, but I could hear you. I will never forget the little sounds you were making then. You were not expected to to make a noise, you were not expected to breathe on your own, but you did. You were born fighting! You are a champion Jimmie. You are blessed with such a strong fighting will. I am so proud of you Jimmie and I'm always touched by your bright and shining spirit when I'm with you.

I love you more than words could ever say- my sweet Jimmie Jim Jim,
Your Auntie Amber

Vancouver

I leave for Vancouver in the morning. Rachael leaves Friday. Pray for safe travels for us and that God would be with our babies and husbands at home.

Justin is going to be staying with his parents so Jimmie will be well taken care of. He'll be triple teamed. (-: Rachael will be home Sunday and I will be home Monday. I won't be able to post an update until Tuesday. I have, however already written Jimmie's 10 month birthday post and scheduled it to post Friday morning! I've never done that before so hopefully it works. Obviously his stats and pictures will be a few days early instead of the actual day of like we always do. It's better than nothing though! (-;

We are nervous about leaving our babies, but so super excited for Amy! It is so special for us to get to go and be in her wedding. We are so blessed and grateful!

Thank you for your prayers.

Love,
Amber

P.S. Jimmie had no gushers for the last 2 days, but then had 2 today. Keep praying about that!

Jimmie And His Christmas Tree

Rachael says, "The tree is totally straight, it looks crooked in this picture, but- oh well. " (-:

Jimmie loves the tree!











He is so crazy cute I can't stand it!!!

Jimmie pulled his tube out today and Rachael was able to put it back in all by herself! That's huge people! In her words, "I had a breakthrough- I have a new independence!" (-:

Good because now that they are living all the way out in Odessa, it's been a problem if Rachael is at the house by herself and Jimmie pukes up or pulls out his tube.

Go Rachael go! (-:

Thank you for your prayers!

Love,
Amber

My First Christmas Tree- By Jimmie Gravitt

Hi all you cool people! I thought I'd tell you about my first ever trip to get my first ever Christmas tree. I'm including lots of pictures because I know ya'll love seeing little ole me.

My family on my mom's side has a tradition to go and cut down a real live Christmas tree every year. I was hanging at my Auntie Amber's house when mom bundled me all up and said it was time to go. I was excited!



My daddy drove his cool truck so he could haul all of our trees back.

When we got there they had this awesome John Deere tractor that they hooked up to a special trailer with seats for us to sit in. The tractor roared up and started pulling us out into the fields full of trees.

I was sitting in between my two cousins Cole and McKenna . . .




But all I really wanted was to watch that tractor!




My cousin Cole is great and all, but his head was big and in my way. It was blocking my view of the tractor!




So mommy let me stand up to see it better.



My dad has a tractor. He thinks they are real neat and so do I.



I was so into looking at that tractor . . .



I lost my balance and dove forward . . .



Don't worry, I have my mom trained well- she caught me and pulled me right up.




Dad showed me that tractor real close and that was the best part of the day right there . . .



See dad loves it too, he's just a big kid when it comes to tractors . . .



We walked around a lot looking for just the perfect tree.



Daddy kept trying to shield my face from the cold winds . . .



But I really want to see EVERYTHING that's happening.



Okay dad, you are nice and all, but . . .



I really just want to see.


We finally found our tree.



It's huge! We are a cute little family if I do say so myself.



Daddy took a hand saw and just cut that tree right down.



He is dad- hear him roooooar!



This is the whole crazy bunch of us. Auntie says I should introduce everyone- it's polite.

Auntie Amber is on the left holding McKenna, then Uncle David holding Cole, then Uncle's Evan and Nate, then that scary lookin guy is Pa, then Ma, and last but certainly not least me and dad.

Mommy was taking the picture . . so you can't see her.




Here she is. Isn't she the prettiest mommy? I think so . . .


On the way back to the big ole barn with the hot stove and all the hot chocolate . . I sat with dad and decided to blow raspberries for the camera . .

ttthhhbbbt . . .









Yeah, I think I just tickled myself . .


I hope you all enjoyed this little ole blog by meeeeeee!



Oh wait . . . mom says to tell you that my puking is still much better. Yeah- I know, thank God because I sure hate pukin. It scares me and it hurts. She stopped given me that nasty Zantac cause she was thinkin maybe that was suppressing my digestion a bit. I need acid in my tummy to digest my food ya know. She also stopped eating oatmeal- cause that was something new she ate when things got real bad. So between that and all of your prayers somethin is workin.

Don't stop prayin, k?

I'll tell mom to post a picture of our Christmas tree once it's all up and decorated. I'm excited to see it myself!

Love,
Jimmie Jim Jim

Puking A Bit Better

Your prayers are working! Keep them coming. Jimmie has had two significantly better days. He only puked once yesterday and as far as I know, only once today as well.

Jimmie had an appointment with that awesome OT from St. Lukes today. She continues to be encouraging about how Jimmie is doing, but also very confident in her assessment that it will be a couple years before Jimmie can take in enough without the help of a tube.

Jimmie is now pushing up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth! It's just a matter of time before he starts crawling and I'm telling you Rachael and Justin are "in for it". That kid is so full of spunk and energy.

I was on the phone with Rach earlier this evening and Jimmie was playing with his toy caterpillar and something about it was frustrating him and the tantrum he was throwing was hilarious. Well, to me it was . . . He was screaming and yelling at it. I could hardly hear Rachael and she wasn't even in the same room with him. We ended up hanging up so she could go tend to him. She says he does that all the time. He gets really mad at his toys when he can't manipulate them or get them to do whatever it is his little baby brain wants them to do. She says he'll just work himself into the biggest fit and the only thing she can do to fix it is just take the offending toy away and out of his sight. LOL! That boy sure can scream.

Rachael is working so hard to prepare everything for her quick trip to Canada next week. She has the exact number of hours she'll be gone along with how many feedings that is and how many ounces of fresh recent breast milk she needs to have pumped all running through her head. She was up most of the other night worrying about getting enough milk. She figured up she needed about 84 ounces. She's been pumping extra for a few weeks now for this very reason. She took inventory today and was thrilled to find she already has 90 ounces!! WOW go Rachael go!

Please keep praying that Jimmie does not have a lot of puking. We are cautiously encouraged about the last 2 days.

Go Jimmie go!

Love,
Amber

Home Again And Lots Of Puking

Rachael, Justin and Jimmie moved back home again over the weekend. They had been gone since August 17th! Over 3 months . . . They left August 17th when Jimmie was admitted to Children's Mercy for dehydration and severe reflux. After they were released from the hospital with the NG tube they moved into Justin's parent's (Rod and Kathy) house. At the time they were thinking that the feeding situation and all of Jimmie's doctor's appointments and therapy appointments were going to be a short term thing. They were overwhelmed and completely exhausted. Living in town helped all of us help them. Kathy did their laundry, Rod did at least 1 night time feeding for Jimmie, the church has been bringing meals, mom has helped 2 or 3 times a week and been able to do TKM therapy on Jimmie.

But now that this is obviously going to be a long term issue and a g-tube surgery seems to be upcoming they need to be able to live life so to speak. Rachael has expressed that she needs to be able to go home and learn to cope. In other words, nothing is going to change for the next couple of years so she and Justin want to learn to cope and live as their own little family with their son in their own home. Understandable, pray that they can do this and find peace, joy and strength in this journey.

Of course Rod and Kathy are sad to see them go. It's hard when they are used to seeing and taking care of Jimmie every day to only see him a few times a week. But we all know it's good and a needed next step for Rachael and Justin to be back in their home.

Please say a lot of extra prayers for Jimmie. His puking has slowly started escalating again over the last few weeks. Yesterday and today have been really bad with HUGE gushers after almost every feed. Rachael is very very VERY discouraged about this. Jimmie is still on Zantac, perhaps they need to "up" his dose . . .? Rachael will probably be calling the doctor about this... She mentioned she does not want to do a g-tube surgery only to later be told he also needs a fundo when normally you do those at the same time. We really DO NOT want Jimmie to have a fundo so just pray hard that his puking subsides.

Thank you so much for continuing to fight for our sweet Jimmie Jim Jim!

Love,
Amber

P.S. I updated McKenna's blog with the results of her evaluation at Children's Mercy today.