baby boy update.

We are continually thankful every day that Jack looks good! He is a happy boy, and he is a hungry boy! He has been eating well the past couple of days, and we are thankful for that! He has 2 more doses of antibiotics left--- we are counting down the hours! His lungs sound good. His heart sounds good. He is looking good. He is a strong boy. The plan has been for a Wednesday discharge after his last dose of antibiotics. We have one more hurdle to climb before that can happen though. Last night Jack had 2 episodes where he had desat {oxygen desaturation} alarms go off. He dropped to 72 and 78 at two different times while he was sleeping. This hasn't happened since he first got down to the NICU, so we are hopeful that it was just a freak thing and maybe just him trying to kick off his pulse-ox. We are waiting to hear from the nurse practitioner and neonatologist to see if they are still comfortable with sending him home tomorrow.


So please pray for Jack's oxygen levels to stay high. We need them to stay high today and through the night or else Jack will likely have to stay in the NICU longer for more monitoring.

Jack's first bed in the NICU. He has upgraded to a crib.

baby Jack!

Friday was a pretty good day for Jack in the NICU but still full of several challenges. He was spitting up/throwing up a lot, so his feeding wasn't going very well. He was getting 10 ml of milk every 3 hours and then spit a lot of it back up. His white blood cell count was the same as the day before, but the antibiotics had reached therapeutic levels in his blood and he seemed to be responding well to them. I was discharged so Tommy and I headed home without our little guy. It seemed so wrong to be leaving the hospital without him, but at the same time we know that he is exactly where he needs to be in that NICU.


Today (Saturday):
We are getting into the routine of being NICU parents. We are making trips to see him twice a day. We go in the morning and again in the evening and love every minute that we get to spend with him. It is wonderful to just get to sit and hold him and feed him and change his diaper. He is doing much better with feeding today! He is still spitting up some but it's so much better than yesterday! He seems to be much more willing to eat today and did great with feeds this morning. He is a really sweet and peaceful baby.

We are so so thankful for his recovery. They said that he has turned the corner today and is in the recovery phase of his infection! So thankful for that! Every time we talk with a nurse practitioner or the neonatologist they remind us of how very sick he was. We keep hearing that "he had no lungs" on the day of his birthday because they were completely taken over by pneumonia. On his latest xray they said "he has lungs now!".

We are so thankful for all of you and your prayers. Thank you for thinking of us and praying for Jack and us. We feel so lifted up in prayer and are so thankful for everyone bowing down before the Lord and asking for Jack's healing. It's amazing to see how God has worked. We learned yesterday that after Jack's first xray on Wednesday the neonatology team was expecting him to need a lot of intervention and were preparing for him to go in a bad direction. We cannot thank God enough that Jack turned the other way and is healing!

We think he is the most beautiful guy in the world and cannot get enough of him! Hope you enjoy these pictures, too!


1st family photo!

thanks, praise, & an amazing birthday.

Awesome awesome day today for little guy Jack, and we know that it is completely God's loving hands healing our boy. First, he is beautiful! And I can say that now as I've been staring at his face tonight with no oxygen hood or nasal cannula covering him. He is maintaining great oxygen saturation without the assistance of any oxygen and has been doing so for several hours. We are praising God for this! Secondly, his breathing has slowed down a good bit. It still peaks at high rates but he has been breathing much slower and appears so much more comfortable breathing! He is improving by the hour, and it is amazing to watch! Each time Tommy would go down to see him today he would come back up with a smile talking about Jack's latest improvement. The biggest surprise of the day came when they said I could feed him. He is hungry, and we are so thankful for that! I have fed him twice now and both times his monitor stayed silent (no alarms going off) which was wonderful.

The neonatologist and nurse practitioner caring for Jack today spent a good bit of time talking with us, and they, too, are blown away by his progress. The neonatologist said Jack is tremendously better than he was last night and that he has made a "miraculous recovery"! She said his xray from yesterday was very scary, and he came to them as one very sick baby. She could not believe that this guy today was the same sick little guy from yesterday. After another xray and blood work, they ruled out Jack having Respiratory Distress Syndrome and have decided that he has pneumonia. He will need a 7 day course of antibiotics, so he will be in the NICU for 7 days. His xray today was improved from yesterday but not clear. We are praying for the infection to go away and his little lungs to continue healing.

We are so thankful for the awesome NICU staff; they are good at what they do and have been so good to us and Jack. We are beyond thankful for each and every step of improvement Jack has made and are really blown away by our little guy today- it's like he is a completely new baby! The baby we knew yesterday is gone, and it turns out our little Jack is not so grumpy but just couldn't breathe. Our guy is peaceful today and that blesses our hearts so much. Also, we are so thankful for you! We cannot even begin to tell you what your prayers, support, calls, messages, and love mean to us! We appreciate every single bit of love and encouragement we have gotten and could never thank you all enough. We have read every comment, text, email, & listened to every message and appreciate every single one of them. We want to thank every person for their kindness, so please know that we are so thankful and appreciate every thought! It truly is the work of God that Jack is so much better today, and we thank Him for you who have bowed before Him on our behalf. God is good and has blessed us so much today with the pure joy of watching Jack heal before our eyes. Thank you for loving us and loving Jack and lifting us up during this time.


We have loud prayers of thanks and praise to God tonight! And we are also specifically praying for:

- the antibiotics to work well against the pneumonia to fully heal Jack
- Jack's respiratory rate to continue to improve and stay in the right range
- successful feeding


thank you for praying with us and for us!


love,

lauren & tommy

please pray for little boy Jack Morgan.

Today has been a whirlwind of a day. We knew things weren't quite right with Jack since he was born, but it wasn't until 6-7 hours later that it was discovered that he might have a serious problem. Jack was taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where he will be staying for the next 7 days. Jack likely has an infection in his lungs that is causing him to have a lot of trouble breathing. Jack's breathing is very rapid! He is currently taking 90-120 breaths per minute when he should be between 30 and 50. He was started on antibiotics today and will likely be on a 7 day course, which means he will be in the NICU for 7 days. Because he is working so hard to breathe it makes his heart rate a little higher, too.

Tommy and I were able to go down and see Jack this evening, and it was heartbreaking. He has wires coming out of him all over his tiny little body. He has an oxygen hood over his head that is providing him with the oxygen he needs, and his arms and legs are restrained. It is crushing to watch him work so hard just to breathe. His tiny little body is fighting so hard with every single breath he takes, and we hate to watch it and not be able to do anything to help. The staff here is wonderful! The neonatologist spent a lot of time with us explaining what was going on with him. She showed us his chest x-rays which she says look very bad. His lungs, which should be completely clear, are filled with either the presence of fluid or an infection. The good news is that she says he is looking 1000% better than he did when they took him to the NICU. We're so happy about that!

So as we go into Jack's first night and he is not with us, we ask that you please pray with us. There is nothing we can do, and we know that. We are seeing that the plans and ideas we had mean nothing, and all we know how to do is bow before the Lord in prayer.

We are specifically praying for:

- Jack's breathing to SLOW down. He's at 90-120 breaths per minute now when he should be around 30-50 breaths per minute.

- Jack cannot eat until his breathing slows down, which is obviously a big deal.

- They will do another chest xray in the morning. We are praying for HUGE improvements on his xray as right now his lungs appear to be totally filled with fluid/infection.

We cannot thank you enough for praying with us! We are desperate to see this boy breathe with ease and not be in so much pain. We are desperate for him to get better. We love you all and appreciate your kind words and loving support.

a gardening project.

First off, there's a new look here at The BPS. I like the simplicity of it, and we'll see how it goes. What are your thoughts?


Next...

Today was finally Morgan Gardening Day. And by Morgan Gardening Day what I really mean is we got our garden {very small this year} planted. And by we what I really mean is Tommy did the work while I sat in our adirondack chairs "supervising". I did a pretty good job of supervising, if you ask me - I kept the dogs company, I kept Tommy company, I took pictures, and I pointed out where things should go.


So this year because we have many changes in our lives and our family {that would be our little Jack guy} and because we need to make adjustments from last years garden, we have made some changes in our gardening.

• We cut the size of our garden in half.
• We bought well-established tomato plants {because we started planting late and because I demand good tomatoes and last year we didn't get many big boys to grow from our smaller plants}.
• We are sticking with tomatoes and peppers this year- a concentrated effort.
• We changed the location of our garden to be closer to the house and in a spot that will definitely get more sun!
• Tommy used our raised garden beds from last year but did some reconstruction to make it a higher bed.

the new location

moving dirt from the old to the new

preparing the new location

Tommy's special helper for the day

building the newer version of the raised beds

just putting the screws in...

still working on the screws because the drill died. yes, he is screwing them in with a plain old manual screw driver

moving the bed over to the new spot. and this was my view throughout this endeavor. i didn't even get up to take the picture but in my defense i am 4 days away from my due date.

filled it with good, rich soil

again with our special helper. she's so handy to have around.

what's going in...

and in the ground!

we also filled 2 planters with veggies - one with peppers and the other with a Better Boy plant!

ps- I told you I took pictures :)

chicken ceasar salad.

Do you ever have those meals that you could eat over and over again? This is one of mine! I made this the other day and it was so good! It just hit the spot and was so quick and easy to make! While the dressing is certainly not healthy the rest of the salad was full of good stuff, so we count this as a good meal.

Steps for chicken ceasar salad:
- Wash and tear lettuce then rinse and use the salad spinner
- Wash grape tomatoes
- Ask wonderful hubby to put chicken on the grill
{I got these thinned chicken breast strips. They were perfect for the salad and cooked in
less than 5 minutes on the grill}
- Combine lettuce, tomatoes, dressing, and parmesan cheese and toss until everything is covered with dressing
- Slice chicken strips & top salad with them


Enjoy!

my list.

I would say I'm in full-on nesting mode. Full on. Tommy would say whatever you can say that sounds more intense than "full-on" is what I am. He's been amazing and so supportive, but I think I've driven him just about to the end of his rope with my honey-do list. He's ready for me to not be pregnant anymore. I am too.


Here's my list of things to get done before Jack's arrival/this summer {some:

üCdone	Bench in dining room
	Call pest service for our ever increasing stink bug issues
donedone	Clean bathrooms
done	Clean guest bedroom
üdone	Clean kitchen
üdone	Clean living room
üdone	Clean master bedroom
üdone	Clean, organize office
üdone	Finish Jack’s room
üdone	Get together stuff to donate
üdone	Iron
	Mirror above fireplace
ü	Pack away maternity clothes
üdone	Pack away winter clothes
üdone	Photo gallery in living room
	Plant herbs
üdone	Plant spring flowers
	Redo decorations in office
	Re-hang marriage license in bedroom
üdone	Reorganize kitchen
ü	Returns to Target
	Weed flower beds
	Window boxes for side windows
	Work on decorations in guest room
	Work on decorations in hallway downstairs

I've been moving along at a pretty good pace. Some items I haven't checked off my list because they're not completely done but I have tackled and failed. Like the herbs--- I've bought and planted twice and had some failures. Hoping for success this go around. Some things I've been putting off, too. We'll see how much more I get done before Jack arrives.

workin around the house.

We've been working like crazy around here. It's great! Staying busy and making this place nice and homey for our little Jack guy when he arrives. I have lots to share. We have been very busy and productive; however, I most of the time forgot to take before pictures so the posts won't be that exciting. Just wanted to share that excitement is abounding over here!

via

ten for thursday.

1. I might make cookies today... just to keep you posted :)

2. I love getting to spend extra time with my dogs! I've been home a lot more these last few weeks and have had some extra time to just hang out with them. They're so fun. And sweet and great dogs. I'm obviously biased and sound probably weird going on about my dogs, but it's truth.

3. Our neighbor has a foster dog who she is trying to find a home for. He is so cute and tugs at my heart a little. Don't worry, I didn't lose my mind. Although I did bring him over to play with our 2 pups. It's a pretty good match all around. Just sayin...

4. I think 2 dogs is legit- I mean they need a playmate, right? And it's a perfect situation for our family. I think once we cross the line to 3 dogs, our house officially becomes a zoo.

The 3 getting to know each other monitored by Tommy. I was banished to the other side of the fence after we learned the new guy has no way to stop himself when he gets running full speed.

You can't really see much of Lady and the new guy here but they're having a blast, and so is Eli with his red ball!

5. Me and sleep have not been best buddies lately. So tired...

6. We have an amazing group of youth at church and feel so blessed to get to know them and hang out with them. Had a blast at last night's youth group!

7. Tommy and I like going to Home Depot. I prefer to get out quickly while he could stay for... let's just say awhile, but we actually enjoy going there together. Are we weird?

8. I'm on pace with my pregnancy weight gain-- ya!

9. I found some gift cards hanging out in our house that we had forgotten about. Extra ya!

10. The weather this week has been so beautiful! I have loved spending time sitting outside in it!

the food gets better.

Around this time of year the food just gets better. Why? The fresh food is back! It's so exciting to have local produce around, see people growing their gardens, and have a surplus of fresh foods at the grocery store again! Probably not all people find this as exciting as I do, but boy does it put a little extra jump in my step. {Side note: there's a new Whole Foods near Tommy's work that is out of this world! It blows all of Whole Foods out of the water and walking in between the fresh flowers and the abundance of fresh produce makes me cry a little inside in the very best of ways!}


I love that for lunch I can heat up a leftover chicken breast, piece of cheese, and throw tomato slices on top for a quick, easy, fresh, and wonderfully delicious meal!

Tommy left this for me for lunch today-- knowing my love of good food & that I slept for 2 hours last night. He's such a good man!

This is how we're spending our days. Just chillin...

ten for thursday. {on a friday}

1. I forgot to do this until midnight last night, so I'm pretending it counts today. :)

2. I have been on a cleaning frenzy! I love getting things organized!

3. My nursery is looking awesome. Posts to come.

4. Progress on the house posts to come, too.

5. My guilty pleasure is a really expensive haircut. I quickly learned when we moved here how hard it was to find somewhere to get my hair cut. When I found this place and a stylist who makes my hair look shiny and smooth and awesome, I couldn't pass it up. Even though I pay A LOT. Guilty pleasure.

6. Between the 2 of us, we got 5 parking/camera speeding tickets at the same time! We never get tickets, so this was ridiculously weird. And so annoying! By the way, if you run a red light in DC where they have the cameras the ticket is $150. Seriously! I also maintain that I did not run that red light.

7. I had the most beautiful baby shower on Sunday. I'm so thankful for sweet friends who love us so much and all of the work they do!

8. I'm going to go have a piece of cake from said amazing baby shower, right. now.

9. I like the Office. It cracks me up. Watching last night's episode right now.

10. May is a great month! We have birthdays, graduations, oh and of course not to be forgotten-- Baby Jack's arrival!

cupcakes for sweet girls.

While I was in Tennessee I had the opportunity to make some cupcakes for a bake sale. My sister is a Young Life Capernaum leader, so she does the typical Young Life leader stuff with teens with physical and mental disabilities. She loves it and is very good at it! It's definitely her place in life.

This is my sister, Lindsay.

This is one of her Capernaum girls. They're so sweet, and even though this was the first time I had met this girl she was so loving and cared so much for me, my husband, and our baby.

So the Knoxville Young Life had a rummage sale to raise money and my sister and her girls worked the bake sale. The money they made from the bake sale goes directly to the girls to send them to camp. So I made some cupcakes for the bake sale. I tried my hand at making them pretty, and it so did not work. So this post is more of a "they turned out but sure aren't pretty" kind of post.


I went with chocolate cupcakes and white frosting. The classic combination was so good! And really cupcakes aren't hard to make, but I always forget how long it takes to frost them all.

To me, this is the prettiest picture. I LOVE chocolate!

Here's a plate of somewhat pretty cupcakes.

And here's what I meant by the ugly thing. Don't worry, I didn't take the ones that look like poop on the left side of the picture. Those were the rejects that just had to be eaten by... well, me :)

happy birthday tommy!!!

My husband is amazing, and yesterday was his birthday! I meant to do a post yesterday but got caught up in making a really bad cake and didn't get around to it.


So happy birthday to my sweet, loving, hard-working, talented, kind-hearted, completely unselfish, and incredibly good looking husband! Tommy, I love you so much and cannot wait to become a parent with you. Happy happy birthday!!!