1st trip to the Children's Museum

This month has been filled with exciting outings. With the weather starting to feel nice, and mommy still on maternity leave....we have had lots of fun. Even Mimi got to experience some of them when she was on Fall Break. Unfortunately, our cameras were not fully charged when we got to the museum, so we only got a few token shots.

We can't say Nate really got into all the museum had to offer, but he sure liked spending time with his mommy...watching his big sister get into things. Tessa couldn't get enough! There are three stories to the museum, and she kept wanting to go up and down. One of the things the museum helped Tessa consider was possible future career paths.

Maybe she will be an artist??

A rock climber?

Or a race car driver?
An accountant? :-)
A chef?
Tree house builder?

Even the bathroom is interesting at the museum! They had this wonderful exhibit called a "lowered sink" that Tessa thought was wonderful!

All in all we had a great time! More adventures to come!

Nate's Third Month

I am three months old now! We have had a busy month at my house. I learned this month that I don't speak spanish...but I am starting to talk and giggle. My mommy loves it when I talk to her. She will be going back to work soon. I will miss her, but I know she will hurry home to hug and kiss on me after work. I am lucky, cause I get to hang out with my Grammy and Papa when she works.

I got to hang out with my Mimi one day when Mommy and Tessa went to the pumpkin patch. I would have liked to go, but it was still a little warm for me to be outside. Plus, I can't keep up with my big sister yet. Next year, I will chase after her in those corn fields! I also got to meet some new cousins this month, the Smiths! My cousin Tess was very cuddly.

My big sister Tessa loves me a lot. I am getting a little tougher, so her roughness doesn't bother me as much. I love it when she sits and talks to me. She even tries to pick me up and burp me...she tries anyway. She is just so interested in everything that I do, which isn't much yet. I can't wait till we can play together, and even wrestle!

I LOVE NAKEDNESS! Now that I have gotten a little more meat on my bones, I really enjoy laying around in my diaper. I am sure once it gets colder, I won't be doing much of that anymore.

Here is my three month shot with my bear. Don't I look like such a gentleman? Daddy loves this onesie!

Here we go, onto month 4! Stay tuned for more adventures from Nate the Great!

Baby Nate Update

We met with Nate's Kidney Doctor today. Nate had blood work taken last week and we were anxiously awaiting his new numbers. His previous creatinine number was .9. The doctor at that time set a new number where he believed he would max out at, that was at a .8. Well, obviously God has a sense of humor, because his number today was .79, so we are very pleased with that number. Each time we get his blood taken, it seems one of his kidney functions is off in some way. In the past it has showed varying levels of his salt and acid, and today it was his potassium, so not all good news. We will need to continue to give him medicine to help him with all those areas. The doctor wants to start him on an additional medication to help his kidney functions; however, one of the side effects of this medicine is an increase in potassium. So, we will have to wait to start him on this medication once we can get his potassium levels under control.

The goal for Nate's kidneys are for them to last as long as possible. The doctor went into great detail about what causes them to not last as long. There is a part of his kidneys that do the "filtering". Average humans have about a million of these filters. The doctor is estimating that he has about 1/3 of that. Because of this, his kidneys are working three times harder then most kidneys. This works perfectly fine for awhile; however, the problem becomes that they are getting scarred from the overworking. Once they start getting scarred their ability to function becomes compromised, and thus the need for dialysis. We are hoping and praying that his little kidneys keep pumping and filtering for as long as possible. Had his numbers been better, we were going to be able to jump to appointments and blood work every two months. However, because of his potassium, we will have to be back next month. Oh well, we are thankful for the tremendous progress he has made and will continue to pray and focus on doing what we can to improve his numbers.

Two Month Old Nate and his Silly Big Sister Tessa

This last month has really flown by. The Turley Home is still getting adjusted to having two little ones, but we are finally getting the swing of things. Only one more month before Mommy has to go back to work :-(

Here is a comparison of our little guy. It is amazing what a month, and 2 pounds can do to a baby.




Our Little Nate has been growing like crazy. We are now a whole 10.1 lbs, and 21 inches. We are meeting with his Nephrologist (kidney doc) next week, so we should get our most current blood results back then. We have had to start Nate on some reflux medicine, and it seems to be helping. He is holding his head up really well, he loves to be cuddled and likes to almost crawl up the chest of the person holding him. Overall, our little one is eating and sleeping so well. This is very helpful to Mommy and Daddy who are still working with his big sister on doing the same.

Speaking of Tessa, she too is starting to just blossom in so many ways. Her words are becoming so much more understandable and she is putting words together to form phrases and even simple sentences. She is doing really well at home helping mommy clean up her messy toys and is starting to love to do "educational" type activities. She is already able to identify a good portion of her abc's and is able to associate them with people and things she knows. P is for Papa, B is for Baby, M is for Mia Mia....and so on. Her potty training has begun and she is so far doing well with it. She will independently use the potty before her evening bath every night. Mommy and Daddy can't seem to get her to use it any other time of the day though. We will have to keep trying. She has fallen in love with various characters, her favorites still being Elmo and other Sesame Street Friends. She has even stolen her Daddy's Buzz Lightyear. When you ask her what Buzz says, she points to the sky and says "To infinity and beyond", in her own words of course. She is still a little aggressive with her brother, but that is just because she loves him SO MUCH! But then again, she is like that with everyone :-)

On the video you will see a couple of things Tessa had found amusing this past month. One night we caught her emptying my drawers and putting on many of my undergarments. She then took them and attempted to jump on our bed. That was a little difficult with so many layers. She also found Mommy's swim cap and googles. She thought that was pretty funny too. She definitely knows how to be cheesy for the camera! Happy Fall Everyone!

Nate 2 months from rebturley on Vimeo.

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.