Blair Moseley

A prayer request

2007-03-16T18:08:00.000-07:00

I do not post reguarly, and I do not know who checks anymore, but if you are out there, please pray for our friend Caroline Busby. She is a sweet little girl that turned 1 last month. She was born with the congenital heart defects that we thought that Blair was going to have. She underwent open heart surgery when she was only 1 week old in February of last year. She did great and has done so well until today. All that I know, at this point, is that she had a seizure earlier today and was flown to Egelston. She is apparently in heart failure and is in critical condition. Please, please pray for her and her family. Thank you.

Just another quick update

2007-01-31T07:19:00.000-08:00

Blair continues to do so well. He is almost 17 lbs. He is still such a happy little guy. He loves to giggle and loves it when others laugh with him.
He already looks so big to me. He is finding a little independence, and he makes it known when he needs his space. Even though I would like to keep him a baby forever, I can already see that he is not going to go for that! He can wiggle with the best of them when he is done being held. He is sitting by himself, and he loves to reach for anything so I think that crawling will be soon.

We have been back to some of his specialists and things continue to improve. We saw his pulmonologist, and he was very positive about Blair's progress. AND, he has told us that soon we need to start getting out more. We have been waiting for this time since he was born, and we are so grateful that it is finally here. We have started to do a few things. He has been to his first birthday party. His cousin turned 3, and we went to his party. Blair was amazed at all of the stuff, the lights, the noise and all of the other little people. He loved it. He has also been to his first play date, and again, he loved the newness of it and loved being around other babies.

As I said before, we (especially me) have been looking forward to the time when we could get out of this house and do more for so long, and I am so excited, but the crazy thing is that I am also scared. Fear is terrible. It can and usually does paralyze me. It keeps me from doing and being all that I should do or be. I have realized how fearful I can be since Blair was born, and I am working on it. I do not want to be afraid that Blair will get sick and end up in the hospital. I do not want to be afraid of the procedures that he will have to undergo in the future. I do not want to be afraid that his progress will slow down or stop, BUT I do fear those things and more. I try to keep it in perspective and to push those fears out when they creep into my head. As usual, I am learning so much from other people- Friends who have been there before me and are going through it now. I hope that I will follow their leads. I hope that I will always be grateful for the day that I am living and that I will always celebrate every single day of Blair's life without getting bogged down in the fear.

We head back to the cardiologist in February, and I will update after that appointment.

The babysitter called......

2007-01-06T19:25:00.000-08:00

This is the first time that we left Blair and his babysitter called to tell us to come home. Ok- we don't leave him much at all, and she has actually called once before, but we were already on the way home. This is the first time that I actually heard the phone ring, picked it up and then heard the loud screaming on the other end. Yikes! Scary for a minute, but then I quickly realized, IT IS HIS TEETH! Those sharp little guys hurt.

By the time we made it home, his little face was red and splotchy from all of the crying, and it took some time for us to get him settled down. Our sweet babysitter, Audrey, who sees Blair every week because she helps me 2 days a week said "I think that he actually knew that y'all were not here tonight." Oh no!! That breaks my heart. Only yesterday when I left the house after Audrey got here I saw those sweet big brown eyes of Blair look at me like "hey where are you going." I love that he knows me AND misses me, but it also makes me feel so sad to think about him missing me and/or his daddy, and I am only talking about a couple of hours at the most. Boy, do I have a long way to go........

Happy New Year!

2007-01-03T18:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas was wonderful! We had such a great time with our family. Blair loved getting to be with his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins! We live in such an isolated state right now that having people- other than his mama and daddy- around him was awesome. It was funny to watch him watch everyone else.

We had great plans to do a lot of things over the Christmas holiday that did not happen. We thought that we would finally get out to some friends houses for parties, go see santa and most importantly get back to St. Peter's for Christmas Eve service. We realized that while we are definitely ready to get out and do more it is not time yet. We have made it this far without any unnecessary colds, viruses or flus so why start now.... So we regretted to all of the parties and decided to stay home again from church, but we still had a great Christmas. We are lucky to have a great priest and friend who remembered us and brought church to us. We certainly miss St. Peters!

While we did not do a lot of the things that we thought that we would do, we did alter our strict little schedule! Blair slept at his grandmother's and his aunt's house. He did great, and now we are feeling like we can do more and more....

For the last week, Blair has been SITTING UP to eat in his booster seat. He looks SO BIG in that chair. AND, I was right, he now has a tooth. He cut his first tooth yesterday and the 2nd one will be here very soon. It is crazy how wonderful and sad that can feel all at the same time. When Stephen got home last night, I told him that I had some news..... I told him that Blair definitely had a tooth. Even though, we both knew that it was coming, Stephen's mouth dropped. Then, I showed him the new sharp little guy, and Stephen looked at me with those sweet little eyes and said "this is so exciting but I am a little sad too." We only want Blair to grow and be stronger every day, but we are enjoying him so much that we just wish that we could stop the time. I know that every parent feels these amazing feelings of love for their children, but it is something that no one can accurately describe until until you are experiencing it for yourself!

How grateful we are for our sweet little Blair!

Just a quick update.....

2006-12-21T16:17:00.000-08:00

Blair is doing great. He is almost 15 lbs now! It is hard to believe how big he is getting. Everyday is such an amazing gift! At our last round of doctor's visits, he was doing incredible. So much so that we do not have to see any of the specialists until the end of January. His reflux is much better. He still takes medicine, but his bed is now not inclined anymore!! His heart and pulmonary artery look good, but we head back to Egelstson in the beginning of 2007 for an MRI and another Cath. Until then, we will just keep praying that everything continues to get better and better. His breathing is much better most of the time. Recently, he has sounded a bit wheezy again, but again, until something else goes on, we will just hope and pray that his breathing will get better.

It is amazing to watch him grow and learn and become more of a little person. He is almost sitting up by himself. He loves the jump-a-roo. He bounces and bounces and giggles at himself! He is grabbing everything and putting everything in his mouth. No teeth yet, but I feel like they are coming soon. He loves to eat! Especially those sweet potatoes, carrots, plums, apples, pears and bananas. He still loves to smile and laugh. He screams in delight when he sees his daddy. He loves his grandmother's visits! Tonight, his uncle Ryan came home for the next 10 days, and he loved seeing him- especially when Ryan agreed to try to put him to bed ON HIS CHANGING TABLE! Uncle Ryan has a lot to learn, but the great thing is that he loves Blair so much, and he will learn everything very fast!

Blair is going to have the greatest time getting to see his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins over the holidays. We are so excited for his first Christmas! I always love Christmas but this year more than ever. I have had so much fun thinking and preparing for it. I am so excited that we are starting so many traditions this year that will last for the rest of Blair's life, and I am so happy to be sharing all of our old family traditions with him as well.

The last 7 months have been amazing. We could not have special ordered anything as special as Blair. We are constantly reminded that we have truly been blessed with a wonderful gift from God. We have really treasured every minute with him, and as much as we look forward to all that will come in the future, we sooooo don't want the time to go by as quickly as we know that it will. The beautiful thing about being quarantined during these first few months is that we have been able to savor every second with Blair! There were (are) times when I feel like this small house is getting smaller by the second and like I will never know "normal" life again. As many of my sweet friends know, there are times when I have been lonely and anxious, but then I realize how incredibly lucky I am that I even have a child- much less one as extraordinary as Blair- and how incredibly grateful I am that Blair is doing as well as he is doing, and all of (well most of) my crazy emotions start to disapear.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

p.s. I cannot wait to update y'all after Blair's first Christmas.

How life has changed!!

2006-10-09T11:30:00.000-07:00

I still cannot believe that I am stepping over a bouncy seat in my kitchen and a swing in my den, picking up stuffed animals,washing teeny tiny precious little outfits, and my favorite-- unloading a stroller out of MY car! Exactly 1 year ago, we did not have very high hopes of ever doing these wonderful things, and now we have a hard time remembering life a year ago. I will never stop being amazed at how quickly life can change. Sometimes it happens gradually and other times it happens without notice, but either way, time really does fly.

In this last year, we learned that we were pregnant after being told that it would proabably never happen! I saw my body gradually grow and felt our lives quickly change in preparation for a new person in our house! We learned that our baby may have some heart complications and began a life of trips to Atlanta for doctors appointments and ultra sounds. We grieved for our sweet little unborn child, but then we were told that his heart was healthy. We could return to our normal life and deliver our baby in Rome. We were discharged from Atlanta on May 4th and then 2 weeks later at only 34 weeks, Blair came into this world 6 weeks earlier than expected. As you know, he was born with a pulmonary artery sling that had to be repaired so then our life at Egelston Childrens Hospital began. 4 weeks later, he was discharged home, and our life with a new baby in our own home began. Now only 4 1/2 months later, the doctors visits and hospitalizations have slowed down, and life really does seem so complete. What did we do before??

I am truly so thankful for my life! I am so thankful that God chose Blair for us and us for Blair. I am enjoying this time in my life so very much, and every day that Blair gets bigger and stronger is a blessing!

I love it when Stephen and I get to wake Blair up and watch him stretch and rub his eyes and then realize that his mama and daddy are there for him! His sweet gummy grin makes our morning! I love breakfast with my boys!! I love our morning walks and seeing the world the way it seems that Blair sees it-- everything so new and exciting. I love our routine, and I can hardly remember my routine only 1 year ago. I hope that I continue to enjoy everything as much as I do now. I hope that I always remember how precious life is and how quickly it can change.

September 3, 2006

2006-08-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since we have posted anything on this blog, and I have received several phone calls from people wanting to know how Blair is doing so I thought that I would update the Blog. I read other Blogs daily and have logged on to post something here several times, but for some reason I never actually write anything. Tasha and Sarah started this Blog, and Stephen is the one who has done most of the posts. Now, I will give it a shot.

Let me start by saying how incredibly blessed we are to have Blair in our lives. He is so much more than I could have ever imagined. Of course, I am his mother and a new mother so I am saying what every other mother has said at some point!

It has been a crazy 14 weeks since Blair decided to introduce himself to us 6 weeks early, but finally things are settling down, and I am beginning to feel like we have fallen into some kind of routine around here.

Blair finally came home from the hospital on June 19th, 1 month after he was born. As things go in the NICU, we were cautiously optimistic that he would come home that day, but we knew that things could change very quickly. We had been told that he would come home earlier, but issues kept cropping up and his discharge date kept changing. So, on that Monday morning, Stephen dressed for work. He decided that if he dressed as if Blair would be coming home, there was no way that he would. Once they make the decision to let you go though, things move very quickly in the NICU. We were done with all of the paperwork and ready to go home by mid morning- which was great because we thought that we could stay on the great NICU schedule, and we did for a while. Now, I am laughing at how quickly our "schedules" and "routines" were thrown out the window!!

We were so excited that he was coming home, but he was still such a tiny little baby that we were almost frightened. Once we got home, we really did not know what to do with ourselves. We came home with no medications, no heart monitor and only follow up visits with his pediatrician, Dr. Rogers, and Cardiologist, Dr. Donner. It was too good to be true. The first couple of weeks we tried to stay on schedule (smile), and we were just trying to figure Blair out, and he was trying to figure us out. Now, that seems so long ago, and we cannot imagine not knowing Blair. While we have a lot more to figure out, we definitely feel like we know him and know him well!

Not long after we got home from the hospital, we noticed that Blair seemed to be having some acid reflux. Wow! I had no appreciation for that prior to Blair. The reflux has turned out to be our biggest struggle. I have had so many friends struggle with this with their children, but really, I had no idea how hard it could be. We have done all of the typical tricks for reflux- elevated him and his crib, tried lots of medications and thickened his food. While we were going from doctor to doctor and trying new remedies every day, Blair gave us one scare that sent us to the ER on a Sunday night, and we now know that was all reflux related. It was very tough for a while because Blair was in such terrible pain, and while he still has flare ups, we finally feel like we may have it under control. The incredible thing about sweet Blair is that even when he is in terrific pain, he is still such a sweet and happy baby!

We also noticed very early on that Blair's breathing is a little noisy. At first it was scary, but in July, Blair underwent another Bronchoscopy, and Dr. Teague, his pulmonologist, determined that Blair has mild trachea malasia and a narrowing of the area between his trachea and right lung- both probably from where the pulmonary sling was before it was repaired. We are very hopeful that his breathing will get better and better as he grows.

His left pulmonary artery is still smaller than we would like, but we are very hopeful that it will not require any additional surgery. Yesterday, Blair was in the cardiac cath lab at Egelston, and Dr. Kim was able to dilate the left pulmonary artery with a balloon. He did not have to place a stent in the artery which was great news. Blair may have to have the area dilated again from time to time, but we will take that over another surgery any day!

All in all, Blair is doing very well. He is growing every day. He is now 11 lbs 7 oz. He loves to smile big gummy grins! He is already a flirt- even if it is just with his mama and grandmothers! He would like to talk right now. He coos a lot! He loves to kick in his bouncy seat or swing. He loves his morning walks, and we think that he is ready to get out and meet the world. There are so many special friends that he has heard about, and we are so excited for him to meet you all. We are slowly doing things, but we still have to be very careful that he does not get sick after everything that he has been through and because of his ongoing issues. Thank you all for your patience, and please know how much we really want to get out!!

I want to thank all of you who have helped us during this time. The doctors have been wonderful from Asa to Dr. Rogers, Dr.Donner, Dr. Kirshbaum, Dr. Long, Dr. Teague, Dr. Blumenthal and Dr. Kim. All of the nurses at both FMC and Egelston have been incredible- from Rita, Troyce, Tracy, Sherry, Kristin, Vickie, Lou, Carolyn, Reesa, Becky, and I know that I have left someone or some people out- please know that it is not intentional. Also, thank you everyone who brought us yummy food. We enjoyed all of it and so appreciated it!! Lastly but most importantly, thank you all for your prayers. We are overwhelmed by the prayer and so, so grateful for every prayer said on Blair's behalf. We know that God has heard a lot of prayer for Blair and answered a lot too. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts! We love you all!! Kimberly

Dinner Update

2006-06-23T04:30:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to everyone who has generously offered to take dinner to Kimberly and Stephen. They are so grateful for all the delicious meals they have received. If you would like to take dinner and have not signed up, please contact Sarah King at booneking@comcast.net, sarahking@harbinclinic.com or (706) 378-7175.

Sarah is experiencing technical difficulties with her comcast email account and apologizes if you have emailed and not received a response. Please call her at (706) 378-7175. Sorry for the inconvenience.

at 10:00 p.m.

2006-06-13T18:53:00.000-07:00

Blair continues to do well. He pulled his feeding tube out on Saturday night and has been nursing well and eating some by bottle. He was taken off any nasal cannula oxygen early afternoon today. He is continuing to gain weight and hopefully will be able to come home soon.

Thanks and praise be to God for watching over and healing our sweet baby boy Blair.

Thank you to everyone who continues to pray for Blair. We love you all.

Mom & Dad

at 10:05 p.m.

2006-06-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

Blair is settled in to the FMC intermediate nursery. We are very thankful he is back in Rome and so close to home. He is being followed by his pediatric cardiologist (Dr. Donner), pediatrician (Dr. Rogers), neonatalogists (Dr. Cohen and Dr. Al-Sayed), and his OB and good friend (Dr. Peek). His feeding continues to improve. We can hardly wait for you all to meet him.

Thanks and praise be to God for His healing hands on our sweet baby boy.

Mom & Dad

Dinners

2006-06-09T04:53:00.000-07:00

Now that sweet Blair is back in Rome, Kimberly and Stephen will be able to enjoy some yummy home cooked meals in the comfort of their own home! We will be coordinating the delivery of meals on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings. Several friends have generously signed up for next week so if you would like to provide dinner for the Moseleys starting the week of June 19, please email Sarah King at booneking@comcast.net. We will email you to confirm a date and any details. Thank you!

at 10:50 p.m.

2006-06-08T19:50:00.000-07:00

Thanks be to God -- Blair is back in Rome. He was transported back to Floyd Medical Center from Egleston during the early afternoon. He has had a good couple of days. His feeding continues to improve, and he is more and more alert everyday.

Thanks and praise be to God for continuing to watch over, protect, and heal our sweet baby boy.

Mom & Dad

at 7:25 p.m.

2006-06-04T16:20:00.000-07:00

Blair had a really good day today. They increased his feeding schedule, and he has tolerated it well so far. He was also able to try nursing for the first time, and his nurse gave him an A+. He is still on a little oxygen by nasal cannula. The crud in his chest is much improved, and his breathing sounds much better. It is hard for us to believe he is only 9 days out from major open-chest surgery. We can hardly wait for everyone to meet him.

Thanks and praise be to God for watching over, protecting, and healing our sweet baby boy Blair.

Mom & Dad

at 5:20 p.m.

2006-06-03T16:13:00.000-07:00

Blair has had a good day. He has moved from continuous feeding (through a tube) to a feeding schedule where he receives 42 mL every 2 hours (through a tube) and then has a 1 hour break before the next 2-hour feeding. This is the first step toward a regular "every 3 hour" feeding schedule. He is still receiving a small amount of oxygen by nasal cannula. His overall breathing is continuing to improve. He looks good and is more alert each day.

Thanks and praise be to God for continuing to protect and heal our sweet baby Blair.

We are convinced the strength and peace we have had over the past 2 weeks is in part due to your continued prayers and thoughts for Blair and for us. Thank you very much.

Mom & Dad

at 10:35 p.m.

2006-06-01T19:36:00.000-07:00

Blair is continuing to improve. He was moved this morning from the cardiac ICU (where he has been since his surgery last Friday) back to the neonatal ICU. He is now in a crib-type bed, and we can hold him just about whenever we want. This is awesome! He still has a feeding tube in place, but he will continue working tomorrow on feeding from a bottle. We are very thankful for the progress Blair has made since his birth on May 19 and especially since his surgery last Friday.

Thanks and praise be to God for watching over and healing our sweet baby boy Blair.

Mom & Dad

at 8:10 p.m.

2006-05-31T17:08:00.000-07:00

Blair has had a good day. While he does have a feeding tube, he ate 5 cc's from a bottle this morning and then about 4 cc's from a bottle this afternoon. The feeding tube is providing him with about 10 cc's each hour continuously. We were able to give him the afternoon bottle and change one diaper each.

Thanks and praise be to God for protecting and healing our sweet baby boy Blair.

Mom & Dad

at 10:55 p.m.

2006-05-30T19:45:00.000-07:00

Thanks be to God--the breathing tube is out. It was removed about 1:30 p.m., and Blair has done well with his breathing and oxygen levels since then. He seems much more comfortable which is such a relief to see. He is still getting a little oxygen through nasal cannula. Our next goal is feeding. We hope that he can start eating tomorrow. The nurses tell us he is hungry so we cannot wait for him to get some real food!!! We hope he will be able to take a bottle right away, but he may need a feeding tube for a while. We hope they will try a bottle for the first time tomorrow.

Continued thanks to all who are praying and thinking about Blair.

Thanks and praise be to God for bringing Blair into our lives and for continuing to protect and heal him.

Mom & Dad

at 4:55 p.m.

2006-05-29T13:45:00.000-07:00

Blair is still in very stable condition, but he is also still on the ventilator. The doctors are continuing to move very slowly with him, but he continues to show his fighting spirit. He continues to have bouts of anger with the breathing tube. Although it is tough for us to watch sometimes, this is a good sign according to his cardiologist.

Please continue to pray for our sweet little boy. Thanks and praise be to God for all He is doing to protect and heal sweet Blair.

at 9:35 p.m.

2006-05-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

Blair is doing much better tonight. His blood pressure medicine was stopped about 4:45 p.m. today, and he responded well. His ventilator settings have been reduced significantly throughout the day, and he handled that well too. The plan is still to try to remove his breathing tube sometime tomorrow. We are very hopeful.

We are seeing more and more of his personality every minute. He continues to fight hard. We cannot express how grateful we are for him and for all of your prayers and support. Thanks and praise be to God.

Mom & Dad

at 3:55 p.m.

2006-05-28T12:50:00.000-07:00

Blair is continuing to improve every hour. His chest tube was taken out early this morning. His blood pressure is getting better and better. He will remain on the ventilator today, but the hope is they can start weaning him from it tomorrow. He is a lot less puffy looking today, and he is acting spunkier. He is now just over 48 hours out from surgery.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and thoughts for Blair.

Thanks and praise be to God for watching over our sweet baby boy Blair.

Mom & Dad

at 9:25 p.m.

2006-05-27T18:01:00.000-07:00

We spent all day with Blair. He is doing better, but his nurses and doctors are still watching him very carefully during this post-operative period. His blood pressure is much better than it was this morning. He is still on the ventilator, but we are hoping he might try to get off of it tomorrow. That will, of course, depend on how he does tonight. We also hope that they will take his chest tube out tomorrow.

He opened his eyes a few times today and held his mommy and daddy's hands (or fingers) all day. We got to tell him (and his wonderful nurse, Lou) lots of stories about everything from how we met and got engaged to funny stories about all of his relatives. We are also telling him about all of the wonderful family and friends who are praying for him and already love him.

While he had a rough start to his day, he is still fighting so hard, and we both really feel like he was doing so much better by the end of the day. We cannot wait for him to meet everyone. Again, thank all of you for your continued prayers. Thanks and praise be to God for continuing to watch over and protect our sweet baby boy Blair.

Mom & Dad

Saturday, May 27, 2006 at 10:35 a.m.

2006-05-27T07:32:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for your continued prayers and thoughts for Blair. Blair did well most of the night, but then had a little scare with his blood pressure early this morning. Please keep praying that Blair's blood pressure will regulate soon, and the doctors can fully stabilize him so they can try to take him off of the ventilator today. Thanks and praise be to God for watching over and protecting our sweet baby boy Blair.

Mom & Dad

Friday, May 26, 2006

2006-05-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

Blair is out of surgery and doing well. We have talked with the surgeon who performed the repair, and he said everything went well. Blair was stable throughout the surgery. The surgery took a little longer than expected only because the left PA branched out from the right PA a little further down the right PA (closer to the lung) than they thought going into the surgery.

Blair will be zonked out for most of the rest of the day due to the effects of the anesthesia. We hope he may be back off of the ventilator by sometime tomorrow.

Thanks and praise be to God for taking care of Blair. Thank you all for your continued prayers for Blair.

2006-05-23T18:18:00.000-07:00

Stephen Blair Moseley, Jr. was born Friday, May 19, 2006 at 8:48 p.m. He was 4 pounds, 15.75 ounces and 17 inches long. He was born at 33 weeks and 6 days. He spent his first two days in the NICU at Floyd Medical Center in Rome. On Monday, May 22, Blair was transported to Egleston Childrens Hospital in Atlanta after the pediatric cardiologist in Rome found what he believed to be a pulmonary artery defect.

Blair does not have any of the heart defects which we believed he had earlier in the pregnancy. The defect he has is called a pulmonary artery (PA) sling. This means his left pulmonary artery branches out from his right pulmonary artery rather than from his main pulmonary artery. This condition will require surgery to repair it.

Although this condition is more rare than the earlier heart defects we believed Blair had, it is supposed to be easier to fix. One of the doctors told us the surgery to repair the earlier defects rates a 6 out of 6 on a scale of difficulty/complexity. The surgery Blair needs is more like a 2 out of 6. Part of the problem with the PA sling is that the left PA is putting pressure on Blair's trachea.

On Thursday (May 25, 2006), the doctors performed a test (bronchoscopy) to look down his trachea to see how much pressure is being placed on it and to see what (if any) abnormalities exist in the trachea. The results of the bronchoscopy were needed to help determine the extent of the problems associated with the PA sling. Thanks be to God, the bronchoscopy showed very little compression on the trachea by the PA and no abnormalities of any significance. We are so thankful for this awesome test result.

With the good bronchoscopy test result, the cardio-thoracic surgeon can proceed with the surgery to repair Blair's PA sling. The surgey will occur on Friday (May 26, 2006) mid-morning.

Blair was taken back to surgery at 10:00 a.m. this morning. The surgery is expected to last about 2 to 3 hours.

For those who can visit us, we are at Egleston Childrens Hospital on the Emory campus (located on Clifton Road). Once inside the hospital, take the Main Elevator to the 2nd floor and the NICU waiting area.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for our sweet baby boy. We can hardly wait for you all to meet him. Please continue to keep Blair and his Mom and Dad in your prayers and thoughts.

Praise be to God for all He has done for Blair up to now and continues to do for him this morning.