Update on our Family

We decided it might be a good idea to send all of you an update on our family. I realized that we were only updating when we needed prayer and not when we were doing well.





Ethan is now 6 months old and a very happy baby. His smile is infectious. As of 2 weeks ago he weighed 17 lbs 7 oz and was 26 inches long. His weight gain is great for a baby that doesn't have CF, but for a baby with it it's amazing! The pulmonologist has been very happy with his weight gain. He is not a failure to thrive kid like many of CF babies can be. It's all thanks to his awesome doctors, the therapies, and God's grace. The Creon, or enzymes, that we give him at every meal have helped his digestive system because he is pancreatic insufficient. He will always need Creon.




We were pleased to hear after getting blood work back that Ethan had fought off a cold on his own. The test came back showing that Ethan's white blood cell count was slightly elevated which meant he had fought something off in the last month. We couldn't believe we'd missed it. He just had a cough and we didn't think it was a cold.




Recently, I have struggled with the "burden" that the therapies can be. I will always do whatever Ethan needs to keep him healthy, but sometimes I feel very overwhelmed. He has chest therapy, his VEST, 2x a day for 15 minutes, as of four days ago it was 20 minutes 2x a day. Currently, thankfully, he's not on nebulizers which are even more time consuming. I probably sound like a big complainer, but I'm trying to be honest about how CF effects us on a daily basis. For the most part, I forget he even has CF most days. Even with the therapies and keeping track of what he eats and how much, I still forget.




Ethan is such a great baby. He puts himself to sleep, takes long naps, sits up (this is new!), loves to sleep on his side, smiles at almost everyone he meets, loves playing with his family and absolutely loves to make screeching noises. Ken likes to make screeching noises right back at him and make a contest of it. Our poor neighbors can probably hear it all. We love being his parents and are thankful for everyday that he is here. That being said, I want everyone to know that I realize that CF is unpredictable and he may be one of those people who eventually needs a lung transplant, but most likely he won't. With the preventative care and hope for a cure in the near future, we believe that he will grow up to go to college, get married and even have kids if he chooses to. We're excited, but also know that we don't know for sure what the future holds.

Thank you all for praying for our family when things are bad, but also thank you for continuing to pray when it's good too. We are doing very well.



Erin, Ken & Ethan

6 month photos

For Ethan's 6 month photos we decided to take my friend, Pam's son with is for photos. Pam & I didn't want to be in the photos. Evidently, Sean, Pam's 1 year old, didn't want to be in the photos either.








At 6 months, Ethan can roll very well from tummy to back, switch toys from one hand to the other, move around his bed (always found in a new spot with toys in his hands or his blankie over his head), sleeps 730pm-630am with no feedings, and eats a jar of baby food and cereal at dinnertime. He is on his way to sitting up on his own. I think within the next couple weeks he will be doing it on his own. We don't know how much he weighs, but I will update this post with a weight on Thursday when we go in for his shots and checkup. He should be about 17 1/2 lbs.

Birthday Parties

August has been full of birthday parties and family get-togethers. We celebrated my sister, Kristin's birthday a couple weekends ago and celebrated a friend's little boy's 1st birthday last weekend. It was really fun to be invited to a kid's birthday party and actually have a kid to bring. Ethan had a great time.
I'll post the pictures from our birthday party celebration with my family. As usual, there are tons of pictures to choose from, so it's hard not to use a lot of Ella & Ethan. They are too cute not to photograph every second, but I know I'm biased.
We still have a few more parties this month to go to!


Ella & Ethan

Ethan's First Video Game

Weight Update

We went to clinic yesterday and found out that Ethan weighs 17 lbs 4 oz and is 25 inches long. He is in the 58th percentile for weight and the 91 percentile for weight to height. A couple months ago the dietician had us start concentrating Ethan's formula. We started using less water and more formula in hopes that he would gain weight and be able to sustain his current weight. Here we are two months later and he's huge! In fact, he is so big that they may have to stop concentrating his formula to be sure that he doesn't gain too much, too fast.
We also found out that his lungs are clear, which we figured since he hasn't been sick lately. We are so thankful that he is continuing to stay healthy. Hopefully this winter will be smooth sailing and he will stay out of the hospital.