Forget Spring, Summer has Sprung!

April brought snow to Denver every week, typically on a Monday. Somehow Colorado decided that we didn’t need a spring this year so we skipped 65 and sunny and went from 8 inches of snow to 85 degrees. So now that’s its warm we have been taking advantage of it!

We started off the month of May with the Walk-N-Roll that we have talked about many times before. We blew our goal of $1000 out of the water and raised an incredible $1495 for the Spina Bifida Association of Colorado! Pretty amazing so thank you so much to all of you for your generous donations. We had Kathy and Ashley with us on the walk plus several friends from Denver joined us for the stroll around Wash Park. The event allowed us to connect with some other families affected by the disease and Stephanie made a few more mom connections in Colorado.

Grammy Buck, Aunt Ashley, and the family at Walk-N-Roll 

The Whole Walk-N-Roll Crew. Thanks!

May 12 marked 5 months for Rowan blessing us with his presence. He dressed up in a bow tie for the event. (Thanks Leslie for the sewing)  Nana and Papaw Thomas spent 4 days with us in May and provided a lot of grandparenting help. We were able to plant our spring flowers, prepare the herb garden, and host a baby shower. We have had quite the stream of visitors with the Bucks, Thomas’ and most recently Kevin and Sheri Carlstrom spending time with us. We love having visitors and we don’t have any reservations at the Thomas Chalet until August so come on out!

5 months, as studly as ever, and a healthy 17 lbs!

Nana & Papaw Thomas enjoyed every minute with Rowan

Happy Mother's Day to our wonderful Mom

We are planning to drive to Indiana May 28th, still not sure exactly how this will work out. I think it's likely we'll turn around at the Nebraska border and drive to DIA and purchase plane tickets. Stephanie and Rowan will spend nearly two weeks in Indiana. We will celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary in two weeks and are hoping one of Rowan's favorite aunts will volunteer to babysit so we can have a date night.

Rowan continues to be a very happy boy and he's sleeping better. He is very healthy and is now going to Physical Therapy every two weeks and showing great progress. We continue to feel very blessed to have him in our lives and thank all of you for your prayers and support.

Kyle & Stephanie

Final Fundraising Push

The Walk-N-Roll is quickly approaching 1 week from today and thanks to your giving we have nearly reached our fundraising goal. We hoped to raise $1000 and we currently have $950! Who wants to help make the final push to our goal? I actually think we should far surpass our goal over the next week so help make it happen!

https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/StephanieThomas/2013

Last week Rowan had his 4 month checkup and the pediatrician thinks he's doing fantastic. Our chubby little man grew a little bit taller in the past 6 weeks now registering 15th percentile for height improving from 2%. He took the immunization shots like a champ. This past Friday we had our first physical therapy appointment. We met with a pediatric physical therapist who gave us a list of exercises and activities to perform with Rowan daily. We have a blackboard in his room with his daily workout of baby calisthenics,  sit-ups  and standing exercises. He's already taking after dad trying to get in his workout every day. Our biggest challenge currently is sleep, or lack-of I should say. Rowan has decided he doesn't care too much for sleeping at night. He has been waking up every 2-3 hrs for the past 4 or 5 nights which is making the whole house quite tired. Steph is becoming quite tyrannical at  keeping him to a nap schedule during the day hoping to get him back on track.

We continue to feel incredibly blessed to have Rowan in our lives. Thank you for your prayer and support for our whole family. Look for our next update after the Walk-N-Roll to have our final fundraising total and pictures from the event.

Ready for Workout!

Spina Bifida Clinic Update

Rowan met with all of his specialists Thursday and received a great report.  The neurosurgeon was very happy with his progress and measured his head to exactly 50% which is great. At 6 months he will have an MRI of his head and back to help us get a better look at these structures. The worst part will be going under general anesthesia. The urologist didn't see any need to catheterize Rowan at this time which is a relief to us. Both orthopedics and rehab were very happy to see him kicking his legs.  His hips appeared very stable and he had full range of motion in his legs. They took a pretty close look at all the muscle movements and were extremely pleased.  The rehab doctor said "His movement is as good as I've seen in any child with this condition" which of course we were incredibly happy to hear. So overall a great appointment, we'll see them all again in June.

We recently registered for the Spina Bifida Walk-N-Roll fundraiser walk in Denver May 5. Grammy Buck and Aunt Ashley will be visiting that weekend so we will all be walking in Wash Park that morning. We welcome donations to the event through Stephanie's fundraising page. Our goal is to raise $1000! We know there are many of you who read this blog and ask that if you are able to donate $25 or $50 we would really appreciate it. While we are incredibly thankful for Rowan and think he is amazing we certainly don't wish this disease on any child and hope to be a part of the solution to reducing the incidence of the disease and improving the function of children with the disease.

https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/StephanieThomas/2013

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. Each day is a blessing with Rowan and we feel proud to be his parents. 

Blessings,

Kyle & Stephanie

Hello Friend! Would you please donate to the Walk - N - Roll?

Daddy Reading Time

What a desirable pair!

Rowan's Dedication

Time is flying by and little Rowan isn't so little anymore.  He is now over three months old and is a bit chunky at 15 lbs.  I measured him last night and he has grown 5 inches since birth and weeks ago doubled his birth weight.  We visit the Spina Bifida clinic next week and Rowan will have a renal ultrasound to look at his kidney function.  There isn't really anything to update concerning his health. He continues to do very well and is an extremely happy boy.  He has settled into a fairly predictable routine and is sleeping well.  The most fun time of the day is morning when he is especially happy and smiles a bunch.

Two weeks ago we traveled to Indiana to visit family and have Rowan dedicated at Sonrise.

"For this boy I prayed, and the LORD has given me my petition which I asked of Him. "So I have also dedicated him to the LORD; as long as he lives he is dedicated to the LORD." And he worshiped the LORD there. 1 Samuel 1:27-28

We felt it would be very meaningful to have Rowan dedicated at the church Grandpa Buck pastored for 25 years.  It was a great celebration and time with family.  We had Casa's for lunch because we just can't find an equivalent in Colorado. 

The Milk Monster is 3 Months Old!

Dedication with Scott

Second Cousins or something?

Buck Family

Fosnough Family

Thomas Family

On our way to Indiana

We all three are sitting in the Denver airport waiting to board a flight to Indy. It's our first experience flying so we're hoping for the best. I always get really frustrated when there's a baby next to me on a flight. I guess perspectives change with time. Now we'll be the ones making rows 12-16 really excited for their flight.

We will be spending some time in Indy with the Thomas family and attending a funeral for Kyle's Grandpa Thomas Saturday before heading to Fort Wayne.

We know many friends and family from Fort Wayne and Sonrise have prayed for us and followed our story. Rowan will be dedicated at the 11 am service at Sonrise Sunday so we would love for you to meet him Sunday morning. Prayers for health for Rowan and some sleep for us all with the disrupted schedule.

Rowan the TV Star

The past few weeks have been quite eventful for Rowan.  Steph has arranged a social outing essentially every day.  I think Rowan has already done more laps around Wash Park than I have.  He enjoys riding in the stroller and being outside and told me that he is really excited to meet all the cute baby girls he sees riding with their moms. He also enjoys eating and is having no issue gaining weight. In two weeks he'll have his next checkup with the pediatrician to see how his growth and any other baby things are coming along.

This past Thursday was the first spina bifida clinic for Rowan.  He saw the neurosurgeon, urologist, and rehab doctor.  All were very pleased with his progress.  Stephanie really wanted a list of activities, stretches, exercises, etc. that she could work on with Rowan but the advice of the whole team was to work with him just like any other baby, nothing extra to do at this point.  His stitches have dissolved from his head and he continues to be a very happy boy.  We will visit the clinic again at the end of March.

About a month ago we met with the PR director of the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children and she wanted to share our story with the public.  She made contacts with a few news media outlets and this past Friday Rowan was featured on the Fox nightly news. It was a pleasure to share our story and we hope that other families facing the journey we have been on will see the story and be encouraged.  The link is included below.

http://kdvr.com/2013/01/25/denver-surgeons-make-breakthrough-in-treating-newborns-with-spina-bifida/

That's a cute duo!

January 12th marked 1 month old

Story Time! 

Discharged and heading home

After a night of little sleep for us all we are very much ready to head home. Pretty amazing how 24 hrs ago Steph and Rowan were walking into the pediatrician and now we're heading home after surgery. Rowan started eating early this morning and seems to be returning to his normal self. We will try to return to our normal routine today and get this kid sleeping and eating on a schedule. Thanks for all your kind words and prayers.