Tessa and Mr. Potato Head

For Tessa's birthday, she received a "Mr. Potato Head" collection from her cousin Mia and family. Since then, she has had so much fun playing with it. There are times mommy and daddy put it away for a day or two, just to get a rest from lots of pieces all over the floor. But somehow, she always finds where we hide it. I guess hiding Christmas presents will take some serious thought this year.

She even thinks that some of the pieces are for her! Silly Tessa!

Hopefully Mrs. Potato Head doesn't mind the new woman in his life :-)

Wonderful Nate Update!

On Tuesday. we met with Nate's kidney doctor. We had gotten blood work done last week and were patiently waiting for the results. When the doctor walked into the room, he was just shaking his head and smiling. At that point, he said "I'm amazed" and shared the new numbers for Nate's little kidney functions. 0.9!

Here is a litte background. Babies should have a creatinine level of 0.4-0.5 for their kidneys to be functioning properly. Once you double that number, the kidneys now are only functioning at around 50%. In the hospital, Nate's numbers got as high as 2.7....meaning his kidneys were not functioning hardly at all. This is when he was almost placed on dialysis right then. But they decided to wait a little longer and see if they would start going down, which they did, thankfully. We were told that we would get an accurate read somewhere between his 1st and 2nd month as to where his creatinine levels would stop dropping. From the hospital, it has gone from a 2.7, to a 2.4, to 2.1, 1.6 and now finally a 0.9. This was very unexpected. At our last appointment, the doctor made an estimate of it stopping at 1.4....but somehow, Nate keeps surprising everyone.

A 0.9 is an amazing number, but this does not mean our little guy is out of the woods. Due to the size of his kidneys, he will still need a transplant at one point. The good news with this new number is that it won't be needed any time soon. His little kidneys keep pumping away, surprising everyone. That's our little boy! We are so thankful for all the prayers and support, Nate has quite the prayer chain following, so I am told. Thank you everyone....keep up those prayers!

We will have another read in a month. If those numbers look good, then we will then go to two month reads! Yay, less blood work for our little man! We will keep you posted!

Tessa's 2nd Year!

This weekend we celbrated Tessa's 2nd birthday. We enjoyed a small party with close family and friends. Tessa was just so excited to have everyone at our house. This second year of her life has been pretty crazy, but she remains our sweet and energetic little girl. We are so blessed with her in our lives. Hope you enjoy her year at a glance.

PS: Tessa really enjoyed having everyone sing happy birthday to her. Even after the candles were taken away, she was still asking for "more" singing.

Tessa Two Years from rebturley on Vimeo.

Nate's First Month!

Our sweet baby boy is one month old. This has been a crazy month of lots of doctors appointments. But we have had lots of good news. Recently we were called and told that the DNA results had come back. Nate had been flagged as possibly having a genetic mutation that would cause his body to not break down specific proteins properly. While waiting for the results, we had to treat him like he had it. This called for us to give him some specific formula. The formula wasn't appealing to both Nate or us. Well, we got the call on Friday saying that the results had been received early. (It typically takes 2-3 months, we got the results in less then 2 weeks.) Nate does not have this genetic mutation! We are so thankful. This is one less worry for us. Now we can focus on the other things that are more pressing to Nate's health. Nate's weight and kidney levels are also looking very nice. The doctor has decided to give him a two week break before the next blood test. We are hoping and praying for even more good news!

We love you sweet miracle baby!

Nate's first month from rebturley on Vimeo.

Graduation....a few months late!

In April 2010, my husband and I decided to have me begin my masters degree. We knew that it was going to be a hard and long journey, but we decided that it was worth it in the end. Tessa was only about 8 months old when I started which was very difficult; however, the program that I began was a fast paced program that was going to be done in a year. So I just had to buckle down and "do it". On May 5th, 2011...it was all worth it. Here are some pics from the graduation. I know I am posting this a few months late, but I figured it was an important event in my life that I should not push aside. I ended up earning my Masters in Curriculum and Instruction in Reading.





I want to give a special thanks to all the people who helped me accomplish this goal. Thanks, Mom, Amy and Adam. You all helped me so much with Tessa, I could not have done it without you. Hooray! I have a Masters!

PS: My family thought it was pretty funny that the announcer at the graduation announced me as Reagan Turkey...not Turley. Hopefully one day I will be able to laugh at that myself :-)

Nate Update

Yesterday marked three weeks for our little guy. We are so happy to have him here. The last week has been rough. We have had to start him on this formula in connection with this possible genetic issue he might have. He hasn't liked the formula and has made it very difficult to get a measly 3 ounces down him everyday. Because of this, we were worried. Due to his kidneys, it is important that Nate gain weight. So I took him to his pediatric doctor yesterday just to check his weight. After all that, he still gained two ounces, which is better then we had hoped. Up until now, he had not gained any weight since the hospital. We are going to be starting a different brand of formula tomorrow with the hopes that he will tolerate it a little better. Also, another bit of great news...we got a call from his kidney doctor's office sharing his most recent bloodwork results. HIs creatinine level is down to 1.6. We are very pleased with that number. He was at a 2.1 last week, and the doctor would have been happy if he would have gotten it just under 2. So no more bloodwork this week. Next week should be when we know more about what Nate has in store for the long haul. Thanks again for all your prayers and support.

Love,
The Turleys

Our Precious Gift from God!

It has been pretty crazy around the Turley house lately. Lots of commotion due to our recent new addition to our family. Nathaniel Noah Turley, "Baby Nate" entered into our lives 2 weeks ago, on July 20th at 9:22 PM, weighing 7.8 lbs and measuring 19 1/4 inches. It was a very stressful pregnancy, but we are so thankful that he had a safe delivery. He was brought into the world via c-section a little early, but we are so blessed to get to hug and kiss on him 11 days prior to his scheduled delivery date. Big sister Tessa has been doing great with her new little brother, and loves to kiss and squeeze on him...sometimes a little to much. :-)

Following his delivery, our wonderful pediatrician made sure that Nate had all the needed testing completed at the hospital. Ultrasounds and blood work did show what we had feared...Nate's kidney's are smaller then they should be and his kidney functions were not showing good levels. While in the hospital, these levels got dangerously high, and he was almost taken to Phoenix Children's Hospital to be placed on dialysis; however, our little Nate didn't seem to want to be separated from his family. His little body kicked into gear and started doing exactly what the doctors wanted him to do. His levels began decreasing, along with him maintaining his weight and soaking many diapers! (All our family members think it is hilarious that we are so happy about a wet diaper!) Happily, we were able to go home as a family on July 25th!

Now we are working with a pediatric nephrologist (kidney specialist) at Phoenix's Children's Hospital. Nate is getting weekly blood draws, which isn't too easy for a little baby. Weight gain is the most important thing at this point. Once he gets to be about a month old, we will have more definitive details as to what we are looking at for the long term. Nate was also flagged in one of his newborn screens, which may mean he has a genetic order effecting his ability to break down proteins. Right now we are waiting for DNA testing to know for sure. Until then, Nate has to be on a special diet, just in case. We know that Nate has a long road ahead of him, and we are so thankful to have so much support and prayers coming from our family and friends. We continue to ask for prayer for our little one as well as our family. These past two weeks have been an emotional rollar coaster, but we are trusting God to get us through it. Plus, we have an amazing team of doctors working for our little boy, so we know he is in good hands.

Here are clips from Nate's birth along with his first two weeks of life. We will continue to keep you updated on Nate's progress through the blog. Thanks again to everyone for your love and support through this hard time.

Love,
Adam, Reagan, Tessa and Baby Nate

Welcome Nathaniel from rebturley on Vimeo.