December was a great month. Nicholas helped decorate the Christmas Tree, met with Santa, celebrated Christmas with his loved ones. I am not lying when I say, I had 4 loads of laundry just from the clothes this little guy received on Xmas. He is one loved & blessed little boy. For Christmas, my son bought me a star in his name, Always Mommy's Monkey. If you can only imagine the kleenex that was used when opening this gift up. He is such an amazingly beautiful little boy. The baby is also making different noises now & can definitely show you when he's not happy ); Nicholas has also been doing very well in his PT. He is holding his head up for periods of time, responding well & building up good muscle tone. The other day, he actually rolled over on his own. We were beyond ecstatic at this accomplishment he made. We know our son is a fighter & it's evident in his every day life.
November was spent enjoying Thanksgiving with the entire family & to make it even better, my sister & her family came up from NC. We also were able to carry on the tradition of cutting our xmas tree down. Afterwards, we stopped at our stomping grounds for a bite to eat & a cup of soup to warm ourselves up. We continued to see growth & strength in Nicholas. We also started working with an Alternative Health Care Doctor who is helping our son with his diet & nutritional needs. Right now, Nicholas is on natural supplements for his liver, heart, kidneys, digestive system, cells & brain. We are seeing good improvements here & are hopeful that this is just another piece to our puzzle in healing our son. Our family hosted another fundraiser at Barrister House & we had another amazing turnout with over 400 people stopping by.
In October, we made the decision to have a stem cell treatment for the baby. The majority of our family traveled down with us for the 2 day stay. We all prayed that our son would see some improvement in his life from this treatment. We spent several months researching this alternative treatment & made the decision in late September to head down. We also had a lot of fun stopping by a few neighbor's houses on Halloween. I must admit, our son looked like the cutest Monkey I had ever seen. We also hosted our first fundraiser at Ikes where over 300 people came by to support our son. We are truly blessed to be surrounded by so many people who love us. Our family & friends helped put the fundraiser together & raised monies to help with our Hyberbaric Oxygen treatments & medical bills. In addition to all of this, we were also interviewed by our local news station. Rhonda Walker, an anchor on Channel 4, came over to interview our family. We thank her for providing our family with a forum to reach out to so many people who are not aware of Mitochondrial Disorders & more specifically to our son's condition, Leigh's Disease.
August was a very scary time for us. We had to rush our son to the hospital where he stayed for 13 days. He underwent several tests & procedures but stayed strong & fought throughout it all. After we brought him home, we spent a few more trips to the ER when the baby was seizing & was having troubles breathing. We made the decision to pursue Pallative Care through St John's Hospital. We have an amazing team of nurses, doctors & therapists. These people love our son & have built a life within our crazy world.
We spent the summer months celebrating birthdays of many loved ones, Fourth of July bbq's & celebrated Mothers & Fathers Day. We had good times throughout the summer watching our son grow & develop (: We also had fun in the late winter/spring celebrating my nephew & dad's birthdays. Monkey attended his first St Patty's Day party at his cousin Rachel's house. We had so much fun with the babies & family we were surrounded by. My sister came up with my nephew in March & we had a great time together.
February, is by far, the best month I've ever had. Though I was off of work & bed ridden for a few weeks leading up to Nick's birth, we were eager to meet this little man whose life was growing inside of me. On Saturday, February21st, the most amazing beautiful angel was born, Nicholas James. From the moment I laid my eyes on him, I fell in love so deeply. A love that I honestly cannot put into words. I have never felt a love this way before.
We have had our ups & downs in 2009. But what I'm grateful for is too long to list. But just to name a few, I'm grateful for my son, my marriage, my family, my friends, my health, my home, my job, my animals, peace in my heart & a stronger appreciation for man above. Because without him, my son would not be here. I choose to focus on the blessings I have in my life. Our lives are completely changed but the one thing that has stood the test of time, is the love of our amazing family. Without their support, we would be lost. Though 2009 is coming to an end, I am hopeful that 2010 will bring us forward progress, health & prosperity. I want to thank all of our loved ones for an amazing year, for the support given, for the sacrifices you've made to help us continue this fight for our beautiful son. God Bless all of you & here's to a Happy New Year!!
