Update 5/31/08

Sorry that I have been such a blogging slacker. This has been a much better week here in the Scadlock household. Beck seems to be feeling so much better and is showing it by getting into everything. Beckham has always been more calm then Gwen and we figured that he would remain that way....WRONG!! He is just as active as her! I can't believe how fast he is learning and growing. Last night he was watching Gwen climb on the coffee table and in no time he had figured out how to climb on the coffee table as well. His new favorite thing is to climb up the stairs in our house. I just hope that he does not follow in Gwen's footsteps and walk at 10 months...but I would not be surprised if it happened. No one would be able to guess that this little guy had a heart transplant only 9 months ago. What a baby!

The only real sad thing that happened to Beck lately is that he fell and tore his Frenula (a membrane connecting the inside of each lip to the corresponding gum). The interesting thing is that the week before he tore it, we took the kids to the dentist. The dentist checked out Beckham's gums to make sure that he did not sustain any permanent damage while he was intubated in the hospital. Beck's gums looked great, but the dentist noticed that Beck had a very large Frenula and he told me that he would most likely tare it by injury. Sure enough, a week later Beckham tore it. It bled quite a bit and was pretty painful for him. On the bright side, at least they will not have to clip it when he gets older.

I thought that this might be fun. Here is a couple of fun reasons why Gwen & Beckham are truly our children:

1. Beck recently had his nine month check-up and here are his stats - 90% for height, 10% for weight and 75% for head. Just like his daddy (tall, skinny, and with a big head - well the big head was when he was a baby)!

2. For those that read this blog and don't know me that well probably don't know that I have a little obsession with Michael Jackson. Don't get me wrong, I think that he is pretty weird dude, but man do I love his music and dance moves. The other day Gwen was being picky about which DVD she wanted to to watch. I decided to try something new and put on my Michael Jackson DVD. Below is a picture of the way Gwen remained during the entire DVD. Yeah...definitely my child!


3. Nate is a huge soccer fan (if you could not already tell by our son Beckham's name) and he has recently been teaching Gwen how to kick a ball. Gwen was practicing kicking with my large yoga ball last week and she walked up to Beckham and kicked the ball as hard as she could, exclaiming "catch" as she did so. The ball hit Beck right in the face and re-injured his torn frenula, resulting in another bloody lip. Gwen is taking right after her daddy and is a kicker!

4. I was feeding Beckham breakfast the other day and all of the sudden I noticed that he was falling asleep while eating. I quickly grabbed my camera and recorded it. So cute! He is just like me...I can fall asleep anywhere and I sleep like a rock.

That's it for an update from our house...wait...speaking of house, we are soon going to be putting our townhouse on the market. If anyone (those that live in Iowa that is) know of anyone who is interested in a cute little place PLEASE let me know. The best part about our home is that it has a two car garage. Yeah!! Trust me, you want a garage when you live in Iowa and the temp gets to -30.

Our cute little home! We are going to be so sad to leave it.

Have a great week!

Kim, Nate, Gwen & Beck

Update 5/18/08

We made a trip to the ER today for our little Beckham. He spiked a high fever yesterday and it continued through the night and into today. The funny thing is that we had a great "first" half of the day yesterday. We all woke up early and went to the Farmers Market (for those that live here in Iowa that have not been to the Farmers Market all I can say is that you need to go. It was super fun with lots of great food and much more). After the Farmers Market we went to a graduation party and then came home and played around. It was after all of that when I noticed that Beck was acting a little lethargic. I picked him up and that's when I noticed that he was smoking hot. I took his temp and it was around 103 degrees. He was also grabbing his ear (crap..not again!) and it was also oozing some. What the heck (I know the "heck" term makes me really sound like I am from Utah!), why can't I keep Beck's ears healthy? He was also refusing to eat or drink anything all day. I called his transplant coordinator and we both agreed that it would be best to just bring him into the ER because Beck always seems to catch the weirdest viruses/infections. So we skipped church (we felt like this was a good reason), dropped Gwen off at our friends house (thank you sooooo much Bret & Erica!) and headed to the hospital. To make a long story short, they concluded that our little man has another outer ear infection and a fever. He was given two shots of Rocephin, a prescription for another antibiotic, and sent home. It is strange to me that all of Beckham's ear infections only effect his outer ear and not his ear drum. I guess that is our Beckham!

Other than that we have all had a great week. The C.A.R.E. race last week turned out great. It poured rain, but that was not a problem. Nate ran with both of the kids in the jogger stroller and finished in around 30 minutes. Nice job! I volunteered for the race and stood on the corner directing traffic and telling the runners which way to go. The problem was that I forgot to ask which way the runners were supposed to turn and when it came the time to direct them I just had to guess. Luckily I guessed correctly.

Nate running with the kids

Beckham is growing so much. He now crawls like a normal baby and pulls himself up to a standing position against furniture. I can't believe that my baby is already 9 months. We will leave you with a fun video of our little guy. The video shows Beck's new trick.

Love,
Kim, Nate, Gwen & Beckham

Beckham on the News

Here is a link for the story they did on the little guy in anticipation of tomorrow's Donor Awareness 5k.

Organ Donation Gives Infant Normal Life

(Nate made us a logo for the race)

Update 5/7/08 & info

Last week we had the opportunity to participate in 2 Iowa Donor conventions. The first was held in Iowa City and the second in Des Moines. Our part of the convention was to tell Beckham's story and do a sort of "show and tell" with our little guy. The convention in Des Moines was such a neat experience because the lady who picked up Beckham's heart from the location of the donor, was able to meet Beckham for the first time. Nate already knew her from work but this was my first time meeting her as well. She walked up to Beckham and held him and cried (I cried as well, but there is no surprise there!). She never gets to see the donor recipients after their transplants and it was so touching to her (and us) to be able to see what miracles come through her job. We are so grateful to be able to participate in donor awareness programs. It is our way of trying to say "thank you" and to let others know how amazing the gift of organ donation truly is.

A great update is that Beckham has not thrown up in a whole week! Yeah! I think the reasons for this is because we have switched his Prilocec to Prevacid (which we can mix with food), he is finally over all of his ear infections and his tooth that has been bugging him has finally popped through his gums. Lets hope this continues. Beck has also gained back all of the weight that he has lost. Way to go little buddy! Upping his calories has really helped...in most ways. The only bad problem it has added is that Beck now has quite the gassy instrument on his back side and it is deadly!! I did not know that a 9 month old could make that kind of noise and smell that bad.

Some bits of info is that our cute little guy is going to be featured on the news tomorrow night. Sorry that this is such late notice but we just found out about it. Dan Winters from WHO-TV 13 (NBC) is coming by tomorrow to tape a segment that should be featured on the 6:00 PM news. The segment is pertaining to the C.A.R.E. organ donation awareness run on Saturday. We will put the segment on the blog after is airs.

Speaking of the C.A.R.E. run, let us know if you are planning on running with us. You will want to sign up as an individual because we are not signed up as a team but we have cute little "Team Beckham" stickers for everyone to wear (if you want to). Thanks in advance for everyone who is participating. Let us know if you need further information about the run.

One more bit of info is that we have met a great family who is expecting their third child, a girl who they are naming Mia. Mia has been diagnosed with Critical Aortic Stenosis (the same diagnosis as baby Noah) and will require a heart transplant upon birth. Our hearts a prayers go out to this sweet family and I look forward to getting to know them better. One neat thing is that they can list this little baby when her mother is 36 weeks along. Please pray for them all.

Much love always,
-Kim, Nate, Gwen & Beckham