Reflections of 2008

So yeah I'm alittle late on this considering 2009 has already been in swing for a few weeks now but I sat in bed last night thinking about everything that had happened during 2008 and how I hope 2009 is much better for our family. 2008 started out like any other year did. Jonathan and I went to the annual New Years Eve Party at a good friend of ours house but unfortunately this year I only got to stay till 12 because I had to be at work at 7am the next morning. A few days later on the 4th came my 23rd birthday and we spent it here in Pulaski with my family. The next day when we had just went to bed, we received a phone call from Jonathan's parents informing us that Tammy our really close friend had just passed away so we quickly rush to get our things together and make the trip to Manchester. That trip to this day is still a blur to me. Over the next few days we are at the funeral home with family for this difficult time. The rest of January is spent trying to take in the fact that Tammy is really gone. February starts out good, Jonathan receives his settlement from his wreck and we are able to pay some much needed bills. We also decide that we are going to move back to Pulaski and start looking for a place to call home. We move February 15th and after a long long night we get a call in the am that Laura is at the hospital with what they think might be HELLP again. So here we go again! Laura is then transferred to Centennial for the remainder of the pregnancy(which we aren't sure how long that will be) and I become the official surrogate mother for Tatum. Laura is stable this time and the HELLP is not as severe as it was in 2005 with Tatum. She delivers a beautiful little boy on February 23rd at 3:32pm. Joel David weighed 1lbs 12oz. Fast forward to Feb 26th, Jonathan and I go to Nashville Fertility to start the process of InvitroFertilization and while there we found out that we are pregnant and will be having a family of our own soon. The excited is overwhelming for the fears of Laura's history haunt me. Pregnancy is going smooth except for my worrisome self. We found out we are having a boy and decide that his name will be Landon Bryce. Everything is going smoothly up to my 25wk apt and this is when my world crashes around me. I am starting to dilate and sent straight to the hospital to be monitored and giving steroids to help with Landon's lung development. After two days of hospitalization I am sent home on strict bedrest. After two weeks of bed rest and another 2day stay in the hospital my water breaks and we know that Landons coming whether we like it or not. Thankfully they are able to hold me off for about a week before have to start me on pitocin and on August 8th, 2008 Landon Bryce Huls entered the world at 12:10am weighing in at 3lbs 0.6oz and was 16in long. After a 8 week smooth sailing stay in the NICU we bring Landon home at 5lbs 14oz. Everything is going well for about a month and then Landon develops this cough. Being a preemie mom you worry about everything. Because what could be normal for us could be deadly to them. We take him to Hillside, they send us home. He is still no better than Saturday and so we take him back. His O2 is in the high 70's low 80's and they proceed to life-flight him to Vandy where we are diagnosed with double pneumonia and stay about a week and come home. Everything seems to be going well till I notice that these coughing spells are getting much worse and he seems to quit breathing when having them. I call my sister who is working and inform her that I am bringing Landon in and that something is just not right. I get there and she then see what I mean and rushes him back to the doctor. They really dont even do anything for us there, but call an ambulance. We are on our way back to Vandy! We get to Vandy, Laura is with me the whole time and they inform us they are going to do a pertussis test because it seems that he may have this. What? Are you kidding me? While still down in the ER Landon decides to have one of his coughing spells only this time it is much worse, they proceed to jerk him from my arms and throw him in the bed. Thankfully not other interventions had to be made at that time because he came out of it, but this would be the start of horrible things to come. We stay on the regular hospital floor for about 24hrs before they decide that Landon needs to be someone where he can be monitored more closely and they were changing him from just regular O2 to a nasal cp. They did inform me that if he continued to have this spells that they would have to intubate. I knew that this would happen because Landon was wearing himself out and getting weaker and weaker with each spell. After about 12hour on CP they are then forced to intubate and my little Landon is now on a vent. The next few days are a blur to me, because Landon was just getting worse and worse and every Dr who talked with us had that look of fear in their eyes. No mother ever wants to see that look. After a two week stay on the vent, they feel Landon can come off and they move him back to nasal canula. This last for about 12hours and then he is moved back to nasal CP and we are told they may have to intubate again. AHHHH! Thankfully they are very aggressive with treatment over the next few days and are able to get that right lung back up and we go back to nasal cannula. We are then moved out of the PICU and onto the floor. We are then referred to the Pulmonology Group and have test run to determine why Landons lung doesn't want to stay up. They come to the conclusion that Landon has Trachamalcia(Floppy Airways) and that he will grow out of this. They did inform us at this time that if Landon continues to require hospitalization and ends up in the PICU then we may consider placing a trach. A mothers nightmare. We are released the next day Dec 17th. Landon went home on oxygen and butt load of medicines but He came home. We got to spend out first Christmas at Home and couldn't have been happier. We did nothing for New Years and were asleep pretty much as soon as the ball dropped. Although 2008 brought our family so many trials and test of strength I can't help but be blessed that I have the family I have.