New years resolution

My new years resloution is to blog more about our life. More for myself and my family than anything else. To go with that, I have decided to keep our family blog as well as starting an Autism blog. Autism has been a huge part of our lives this past year, and there have been good times and there have been lots of bad times. I want to do this for Cayden, and for other people who may be experiencing a similar situation. I hope you decide to read both blogs. We love Cayden, and we hope we can help others.

autismandcayden.blogspot.com

Autism walk- Team Cayden

Yesterday we had the opportunity to participate in the 2011 Walk Now for Autism Speaks fundraiser and walk. It was at Rio Tinto Stadium. The morning started out super chilly, but just as it was about to start, the sun peaked out and it was pretty nice.

We were lucky enough to have a friend help us with t-shirts. They had an adorable picture of Cayden on the front, and it said Team Cayden-Autism Awareness. This has been a new journey for us. We started noticing Cayden was not progressing in some areas about 18 months. He had spoken 3 words around a year old, and then stopped talking. He made this low toned "eeehhhh" noise a lot, and he would not for the life of me, respond to his name. After some speech therapy, we decided to have him tested for autism. I will never forget the feeling I had when I heard the words, "your child has autism." I knew it. I had known it for a while, and I was ok with it. But to hear someone tell you what your hoped you were imagining was heart-breaking. Mama bear came out in me, and my first instinct was to get defensive. But in my heart, I knew. And I knew Cayden was sent to Chris and I for a reason, and we wouldn't change anything about him for the world. Autism is what makes Cayden, well, Cayden.

It was stunning to see all the support we had from family and friends. We were able to raise $765.00 for autism research. 1 in 110 kids is diagnosed with autism each year, and majority of those are boys. The numbers are increasing every year, and we have to find out why.

This is just a glimpse of the support system we have in place. Cayden is a loved little boy, and we are so lucky to have his sweet spirit in our home.

Thank you again to everyone who was there with us. In person or in spirit! We love you. Cayden loves you. And we couldn't take this journey in our lives without you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy birthday to our amazing mom and my beautiful wife!
We love you and hope you have a great day!

Love,
Chris, Madison, Cayden and Jaken

Autism

Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior.

This is the face of autism



What can you do to help? Right now, just love him!

Finally!!!

Finally!!! I have been trying to update my blog for 6 weeks now, and for some reason I couldn't upload any pictures. So i tried to do it on my parents computer and somehow lost my memory card before I could try. We found it today! I was so relieved! So without further ado:

Announcing

Jaken Allen Barfuss

April 28, 2011

7lb. 7 oz.

20. in

*Warning one of the following pictures is not for the faint of heart, or stomach.....

Jakens birth story is an interesting one. I always measure a little bigger than I should be, but my last 2 pregnancies it has been because I have had extra fluid. So this time when my doctor said I was measuring bigger I was not surprised. But he then told me I was measuring 41 weeks when I was only 37 weeks! That was huge! No wonder why I was so uncomfortable. My doctor said he wanted to do an ultrasound to check the size of the baby and fluid levels. I scheduled it for the next day, and left their office. The next day, Thursday, I went to my ultrasound and the tech told us that the baby was measuring 9lb. 1 oz! I about died!! Chris and I went straight to my Doctor and he said he was shocked I wasn't in labor yet if the baby was so big. He said if I had any regular contractions to come in and we would do the c-section. As of that day it was scheduled for May 13th. We went home and I told Chris with everything we had going on that weekend and the next week I was going to go get a pedicure then just in case. On my way to the pedicure I noticed I was contracting so I thought I would start timing them. They were 5 minutes apart. On the way home they were 4 minutes apart. I told Chris we should just go in and see what they said. After 2 hours of observation and 2 bags on IVs, we decided that they baby would come that night. There were 14 other women in labor that night, so because I was having a c-section I was the one who got put on hold... Finally at 10:10 p.m. our sweet baby Jaken arrived. 7lb. 7oz. not 9!

This is Chris and I in the operating room right before the surgery. My face looks so puffy from all the fluid in the IV.

Our awesome nurse, Kathy, took this picture as they were pulling Jaken out. Its a gruesome picture, but so cool to see what a c-section looks like. Sorry if it is too much.
After Jaken came out, they had to give him a puff of oxygen in his lungs to get him to breathe really well. They took him away, cleaned him up, and he was perfect! The next day we held him, had visitors, and hung out. Our kids met him for the first time and we just loved him!

Saturday afternoon Chris got Madison ready and took her to her dance competition. I was so bummed I missed it! I stayed with Jaken, and when my nurse came to take him for a blood pressure check, I asked if I could go too. She let me, and boy was I glad I went. While we were in the nursery, one of the nurses noticed he was breathing really fast. I had noticed it, but didn't think it was too concerning. They like babies to breathe between 30-60 breaths per minute. Jaken was breathing between 75-82. They called the doctor on call, and wouldn't let me take him. He had a chest x-ray, and had to have an IV. In his little hand it looked huge! The chest x-ray showed some fluid in his lungs, so they wanted to monitor him for 24 hours. We were supposed to go home in the morning(Sunday) but they wanted to watch him for 24 hours. I said if he was staying an extra day, then so was I. he had to stay in the nursery hooked up to monitors, so I had to go to him when it was time to feed him. It was hard in the middle of the night! He did ok, so they told us he could go home on Monday. He is still breathing rally fast, but since he is keeping his oxygen stats up we are just watching him for now. Hopefully he will grow into it. It sure has made for some sleepless night though. I would just sit and watch him breathe.

His poor little hand with his IV.
We are all adjusting pretty well. Madison and Cayden love him. Cayden has climbed into the bassinet a few times to "love" the baby. I have to keep my eye out for that one. He also looks more like me than the other two. All I cared about was that he had dark hair! I was thrilled to see his hair. He is a Mower baby for sure! Chubby cheeks and all! We are so happy Jaken is here safe and doing well. He is chunking up and we love it!

**As a side note. People have asked how we came up with his name, so here is the scoop. We were debating names with my mom and she said what about Jake. I said I liked it, but was leaning toward something that ended with a "N" so it went along with my other 2 kids. So Chris said what about Jaken and laughed. I actually liked it, so when we saw him we loved the name.

Blogging.... What's that?

The past 3 months have flown by! I would like to try to be better at blogging, but we got rid of our home internet just after Christmas, and its hard to find the time to update like I want to.

Here is a glimpse of what we have been up to:

In January, we spent a lot of time inside. It was so cold! We also spent the month preparing for my brothers wedding. Brandon and Taylor got married on Feb. 2nd. Its was freezing, but so beautiful! They looked so happy despite the frigid temps. I slacked a little and didn't get any pictures that day, but everything looked amazing!

February also started the never ending sickness at our house. On Feb. 8th, I found Cayden on the couch like this:

So not Cayden. He had taken his blanket and his favorite puppy and laid on the couch himself. That is not like him at all! Turns out he had strep and an ear infection. Then Madison got pink eye. Cayden still would not get any better, so after 3 rounds of antibiotics, and a round of steroids, we met with an ENT and he is getting tubes put in his ears and his adenoids taken out on April 5th. Thanks goodness! Lets hope this helps the poor kid!

And this week we celebrated Cayden's 2nd birthday! I can't believe my baby boy is 2! He has such the personality. He is very strong willed and though he doesn't talk, he sure lets you know what he wants!

He loved opening his presents!

He wasn't to sure about us singing Happy Birthday to him though.... Every time we would start singing he would cover his eyes! It was hilarious! I think he was a little embarrassed by all the attention.

Madison and Cayden have also figured out that mom and dads phones are pretty cool. Lots of games to keep them entertained. Cayden loves to watch Madison play Angry Birds. I often find the two of them like this:

So ADORABLE!!

We are now on the down hill slope of this pregnancy. 6 weeks left!! We can't wait to meet our new baby boy!

Hopefully I will find the time to update again before that.... :)

Ultrasound!!!

So last Friday we had our ultrasound. We had originally decided not to find out what the baby was, and Chris was less than thrilled about it! We told the tech we didn't want to know, so when she was ready to look at the gender, she told us to look away. We did, and when she finished she told us it was safe to look. We continued on the measure the spine and legs and I knew what it was.

ITS A BOY!!

That little stinker kept flashing us his boy parts! There was no denying he is a BOY! Even the tech kept saying, "Ok buddy, we have seen it enough. Let's look at something else!"

We laughed so hard! Chris is thrilled! Maddie was super bummed because she wanted a little sister, and I am feeling a little overwhelmed. During the ultrasound he was so busy, and I feel him move a ton! I am afraid him and Cayden might gang up on me and be partners in crime! It will be really good for Cayden to have a brother though. He needs someone to rough and tumble with. Everything else looked good so far, and we are most grateful for that!

Here are some pics of our next little guy!

His profile. We had a hard time getting him to hold still for this one. Everytime the tech would almost have it, he would turn and look directly at us. It was too funny!

It's a BOY!

I love this one because he had his hands up by his face all the time. Whats weird is that my other two kids did too in their ultrasounds. Must be a comfy position!

And this one is of both of his legs outstretched and you can see his feet. Its amazing to me how a baby can grow like that inside of you!

We are super excited and can't wait to meet him!