Our family's journey through life

Great God,Giver of this gift of life
that forms in love between a man and a women
You who knit together cell
into an intricate design,
unique in the universe, Seth Van dyke
You breathe of life, Grace itself and Mercy, too.
Turn now your parent-heart to Seth.
Upon him, flow healing.
Upon him, flow mercy.
Upon, his parents, flow strength and courage.
Upon his family, flow hope.
Upon his nurses, doctors flow loving excellence.
You turn now Your face to us and bless us.
Amen
-Penny Ammon, Chaplain

Baby Seth was born June 25,2008 and within hours of birth he had his first surgery and was put on ECMO (lung,heart bypass machine). He is stable as of right now but still very critical. Please pray for baby Seth and his family while Seth battles CDH. Please send his family positive vibes.

Seth we believe in you. You can beat CDH!

Lungs Grow! Grow Lungs!

Check out baby Seth's blog.

A couple of weeks ago we introduced Owain to rice cereal. At first he didn't know exactly what he was suppose to do with this weird texture. He would take a couple of bites play around with it in his mouth, stick his fingers in his mouth (when aren't they in his mouth theses days?). The other day after he stuck his fingers in his mouth after taking a bite of cereal he then stuck his finger up his nose and had cereal all up in his nose! I thought that was pretty funny! It was fun to clean up too.

A couple of days ago I think he is starting to figure out this weird texture stuff is and that it tastes yummy and feels up his tummy. When I was feeding him he would make grunting noises because I wasn't feeding him fast enough and that was the first time he ate all of his cereal! Yeah Owain!

Now whenever I sign eat he gets real excited the same excitement he gets when I sign milk. He is really starting to catch on to sign language.

Here are some pictures of him eating his rice cereal today. As you can see it can be real messy.



He loves it when I give him his own spoon like a big boy! He starts grunting if he doesn't get a spoon to and he try to grab my spoon each time I offer him a bite of yummy rice cereal!

My little warrior is five months old today! The last five months has flewn by. I can't believe how fast he has grown and how much he has accomplished. I am so proud of Owain. When he came into the world fighting Owain proved himself to be a strong warrior and he beat CDH! I am so proud of my little man. Looking at him today you would never know he had such a rocky beginning. He is like any other baby, with the exception of his cool warrior scar. I feel so blessed to have Owain in my life.

We celebrated Owain turning five months by going to the park with his big cousin Isaiah. Owain loves to watch Isaiah he is so fascinated by him. Here are some pictures from our day.

I love you! Hugs and Kisses, Owain

Saturday it was such a beautiful day we decided to walk to the park and daddy could not wait to take Owain on his first slide ride as you can see by the pictures Owain didn't really know what to think of the slide? Maybe in a few months he will be more into it.

A couple of weeks ago the library sent Owain his first board book (not really is first he has a ton of books but his first gift from the library.) I thought that was really neat that the library sent Owain a book. My only question was how did they know I had a baby?

Anyways back to the book it's called This Little Chick by John Lawrence. It's a really cute book about a little chick that meets a pig,duck,cow and a lamb and after the chick meets each barn animal he imitate them

Owain loves this book whenever I start to read it to him you can see the excitement in his eyes and he starts to make cute little cooing sounds.

His favorite part is when the chick meets the lamb.

This little chick from over the way went to skip with the lambs one day.

And what do you think they heard him say?

Baa Baa Baa

After reading this book several times Owian started to say baa! whenever we got to this page. It is so cute! I have learned that he won't do it on the spot. I tried to get him do say baa when ever we have company and he won't say it. He doesn't like to show off his talent. My modest boy.

Our little warrior is a genius! He can say Baa !

Hanging out with PAPA
Playing with mommy!
Look at me I'm Super O!

Over all Owain is a pretty good sleeper. When we first brought him home from the hospital he slept probably a total of twenty hours in a day. Which was great we were able to take naps with him or get caught up on housework,which is never ending.

After a couple of months Owain started sleeping longer at night time. Which was fantastic! He would sleep for five hours wake up for a diaper change and bottle and usually goes right back to sleep.

Then a couple of weeks ago Owain surprised us by having a few nights in the week where he would sleep ten hours straight! this was exciting. Finally mom and dad were gonna be able to get some real sleep. If you can call it that even though Owain slept through the night I would wake up to check on him or he would be stirring in his sleep and kick the side of his crib. He is quite the wiggle worm when he is sleeping(daddy says he sleeps like mommy).

Last night and early this morning Owain decided that he was a big four and half month old and he does not need to sleep because he is a big boy now! I wasn't to thrilled with his new plan.

The night started out as usual Owain was a sleep by 7:30. Which was great. Then he woke up around a 11:30. No problem I will change him,feed him and he will go right back to sleep.

So I thought, that little stinker decided he wanted to play until 2 a.m! Keep in mind I haven't been to bed yet. Finally after having a second bottle he went to sleep. I thought to myself yes he should sleep until 6 or 7 a.m.

Boy was I wrong Owain was a wake again at 4 and back to sleep by 5. O.k this time I really thought he would sleep for awhile. Well an hour and fifteen minutes later guess who was up playing in his crib.If you guess little stinker Owain you guessed right (after this long night I decided that was his new nick name.)

Owain was having a great morning he was laughing and playing and in between laughing at his tired mommy he would be really fussy because he was so tired but he would not admit it and go to sleep.

Finally 12:30 rolls around and he finally passes out. Thank god! I took advantage of this and passed out as well. He slept until 3:45! Which was great we both needed it and now it's 7 and he is sleeping like a sweet little angel in his crib. Hopefully tonight will be better night for us all.

Don't they look cute with their matching caps!

I am asking everyone who prayed for Owain please pray for baby Sklya and Kinley. Skyla was born eight months ago with CDH. She still is in the hospital fighting CDH. If you would like to read more about Skyla check out her blog under CDH blogs.

Baby Kinley is only a few weeks old and she is currently on ECMO. Please pray that she can get off of ECMO so she can have her repair surgery and began to recover. Not only pray for these two beautiful girls but for their parents.

I honestly believe when Owain was really sick what helped him and us was everyones positive energy and prayers.

Thank you

O now has his name on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.. This will be great for his scrapbook! Neet-0!

Hanging out with my PAPA
Taking a nap at PAPA'S
I love my swing!