Ready for the Holidays!

IHey everyone! 

Nolan is doing so well these days. He is so BUSY it's hard to keep up. He is able to walk! He still chooses to scoot because it's much faster for him. He loves cabinets and drawers and anything he can get his hands on. He has been enjoying birthday parties and Halloween festivities! He loves to give people his big eyes. He is such a little clown! We are really enjoying this time with him and the "normalcy" of life with a one year old! 

We had a cardiology appointment this morning. Nolan never ceases to amaze me. He had no problem lying on his back for his echo for fifteen minutes or more. What? I can't even get him to stay on his back for a fifteen second diaper change! That was definitely God helping us out. His heart looked great and his doctor was very pleased. We will not see them again until mid February. Nolan really gave the big eyes over that! I wish I knew how to post videos here so I could share the big eyes with you. It's pretty funny. 

In other family news, Hudson is playing basketball and he is very talented! He scored 8 points his first game. We are super proud of him. 

Thanks for keeping Nolan in your prayers. It means so much to us. He is such a blessing in our lives.  One of my best friends will be having a baby tomorrow and a close cousin is having a baby Monday! Precious gifts from above. I can't wait to meet them! Please keep them in your prayers. 

JOSHUA 1:9

He gives some of the best sugar! 

Ringing his cowbell! His favorite phrase Is "Go Dawgs!!!" He says it when he is fighting sleep because he knows we like it and will laugh! 

Loves to eat ranch dressing. 

Halloween costume number one! He left it on long enough to snap this one picture. 

Costume number 2! Charlie Brown went better with the bald look. 

Still loves to suck 2 fingers! 

Rode his first horse at the church carnival! He also rode a train and enjoyed the petting zoo! 

One year post op!

Hey everyone! 

I cannot believe it has been a year since Nolan's first surgery. He has come so far since that day. I remember every detail. I prayed so hard for him to not be upset and starving the morning of the surgery. God answered my prayers and let Nolan sleep all the way to the operating room. The only one crying was me! That was one of the first of many many miracles and answered prayers! 

This was him sleeping through pre-op he was 7 weeks old. 

Nolan's nurse was Rebecca that first day and whitney the next. They couldn't of been better! He stayed 5 days total for that surgery. Tough little guy. 

Nolan is doing great. He is eating lots of Mac and cheese and LOVES dove meat and anything we are eating.  He is finally cutting a tooth on the top. He is not walking yet, but he is close. He can take a few steps on his own. He is a climber and is in to everything! 

Eating Mac and cheese! 

Today is also 4 years since Brent asked me to marry him :) 

Thank you all for praying for us along this journey. I hope you all have a great weekend! 

Joshua 1:9 

    Nolan and his best bud, Collin 

Happy 13 months Nolan!

Hey everyone! 

Nolan has had a wonderful month being a one year old! He really enjoyed his Mickey Mouse birthday party last month! It turned our perfectly. It did happen to be very very hot that morning, but we had fun anyway. 

After the party, Nolan had a little fever the next week and ended up a little dehydrated. We spent a weekend at Batson getting fluids. He has fully recovered and is eating much better! Praise god! 

                His Mohawk 

Loves pickles! 

And Mac and cheese!

Can't wait to drive that tractor!

And last, but not least! He has taken a few steps on his own! We are so proud of this growing boy! Please keep us in your prayers this week. We go back to the cardiologist Wednesday for a check up! I expect everything to be just fine. Thanks! I'll update soon 

Joshua 1:9 

Absolutely adores big brother! 

Happy Birthday Baby Nolan!

Hey everyone! 

Yesterday was one month since Nolan's surgery, the Glenn. He is doing great! Praise The Lord. He has been trying to walk since the day we got home from the hospital and he is very close to accomplishing that task! He is so amazing! He has been on his first vacation. We took him to Oklahoma to visit Uncle Bill. That was very fun and relaxing. I returned to work and things are getting back to normal. 

Nolan is ONE today!!!! I am having the normal emotions of "I can't believe my baby is one," but more than anything I am so happy and thankful he is here! I have been praising God all morning for all the answered and unanswered prayers along the way. Things changed a lot and we changed our prayer requests a lot, but The Lord never left us. My devotion this morning was about thankfulness. It's always so spot on! I'll have to share it. We are so blessed to have Nolan in our lives. He is such a happy baby. Despite everything he has been through, he is always smiling and making us laugh. In this one year with him I have never laughed, cried, worried, prayed, or loved more! He has taken mine and Brent's faith in The Lord to another level. For that, I am eternally grateful. 

I also want to thank our Batson family for helping us get through this year. They have saved Nolan's life numerous times. They spent long nights at his bedside and days too. They never gave up on him. Thank you! They loved him and prayed for him with us. Special thanks to our cardiologist, Dr. Shores, she is amazing. We met her on day one of this journey. Alice Chaney and all the girls who took care of us before he was born, we love you! PICU nurses, doctors, and respiratory therapists y'all are my favorite people in this world, hands down. Bri and all the girls that do his echos and ekgs y'all are our best friends. 5c nurses, thank you for taking care of the whole family. Our surgery nurses, thank you for kissin his bald head when I couldn't and holding the key. Dr. Sheth and Dr. Maposa, thank you for keeping him alive during those long long surgeries. Dr. Salazar, thank you for being you and for developing this program in Mississippi. Oh and thanks James, Alison, And Kelli for taking care of him before and after surgery. You know we love you! Without all of you at Batson, we would not be throwing a big Mickey Mouse party Saturday morning. I would love to thank you each and everyone. 

Happy Birthday Nono! 

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged for The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9 

Jesus calling this morning 

Nolan has been enjoying the pool! 

Family fun in Oklahoma! 

Cowboy Nolan

Hanging out with uncle Eric! 

Birthday boy! Can't wait to celebrate with Mickey! 

Trucking right along

Hey everyone! 

Nolan has had two really good nights. Besides being sore, I think he feels pretty good. He enjoyed his wagon ride Wednesday! We are so proud of him. He was able to have his chest tubes removed this morning. That always makes him feel a lot better. Thank you for keeping him in your prayers! 

I wanted to mention that we have set up an endowment fund in Nolan's honor here at Batson! We are soooo excited about it. It was actually my uncle Mike's idea and he and my aunt went to the business office to get us started! We have met with the development office and gotten things rolling! The fund is named "Nolan's Neighbors" it will benefit children from our area (Bolivar and Sunflower county) who need help while here at Batsons Children's Heart Center. There have been two babies from Bolivar county besides Nolan to have heart surgery this month, which proves the need for this. We are beyond thrilled over the thought of helping others the way so many of you have helped us along this journey. Nolan will surely be proud of this in the future. With that being said, we will be taking donations in honor of Nolan's first birthday on July 24th! If it is something you are interested in you can contact me or brent on Facebook or you can email me ashleypentecost2@gmail.com. Or if you would like to contact the development officer Kitty Cook Ramsey @ 601-984-1492 or email kramsey@umc.edu. Thanks! 

Today, we need prayers that Nolan can be weaned off of his oxygen soon. We prefer to not go home on it. He is too busy to stay connected to a machine at home. He is doing great with the weaning so far. We should go home soon! 

Joshua 1:9

Laid back riding the wagon! 

Wednesdays ride/ first ride in September! He's a pro! 

Helping with his echo. He loves Mrs. Bri! 

Little burst of energy last night! 

Beside ourselves!

Hey everyone! 

I am so happy to tell you this morning that Nolan is doing great! We are just beside ourselves with excitement. He is smooth sailing through his recovery this time. We have never experienced it this way. Thank you for praying for his headache to go away. He was able to have a comfortable "boring" night last night. We are so thankful for the amazing people here at Batson that take such great care of him and love him like we do! They make this experience so much easier on all of us. Nolan was a little drowsy yesterday. He had us laughing a little. He would pick up his left foot and look at it then wave to it. It was so sweet. I guess he was glad to still have his little foot. This morning he is more himself. He was sitting up in bed looking around and reached for me to get him as soon as he saw me. I have been rocking him all morning. The big news for today is that he gets to go on the wagon ride later! So we will be in on our own room tonight! We are praising The Lord and praying his healing continues. Thank you for praying with us. Once again, he has heard our prayers. 

Joshua 1:9

Rocking yesterday afternoon 

Getting some good rest last night

Nolan has some sweet little buddies at home,Chapman and Collin! 

Successful surgery

Hey everyone! 

First and foremost I want to thank The Lord for a successful surgery! Nolan came out of the OR around 1pm. He looked the best he has ever looked coming out of surgery. The doctors were very pleased and so were we! We are just so thankful to have that part behind us now. He is already off of the ventilator! He is just really showing out this time. His vitals and pressures and everything we want to be just right have been. The only thing is that he has an excruciating headache. This is normal after the procedure that he had. It's just that he doesn't understand that. They have told me it's a lot like having a migraine. So, he felt pretty bad last night. He did start to get some relief and rest around midnight. Please pray for the pain to go so he can get back to his busy happy self! Thank you for praying for his surgery and our comfort as well. It truly helps.

Joshua 1:9

Nolan is eleven months old today! We took his pictures Sunday morning! Of course, he was too busy for that! 

Little super Nolan! 

Loving on daddy in the waiting room. 

Surgery Monday

Hey Everyone! 

We had Nolan's pre-op appointment this morning. Everything was good. He seems to be ready to have his Glenn procedure now. I'm not ready, but I'm never ready. Just to explain a little, this is the procedure that he had in December that ended up not working out and we reversed it 5 weeks later. So, this is the Glenn round 2! This is what we have been building up to with the heart Caths the past couple of months. Nolan is ready this time. He is so BUSY!!! All he wants to do is walk and be constantly on the move. He is not lacking in the energy department at all! He is also a lot bigger and stronger than he was in December. He weighed 19.6 this morning! I have faith that he is going to do great this time! We have faith in The Lord and trust in our hospital. We couldn't ask for more than that. It's just hard because we love him so so so much and hate to see our "healthy and happy" baby go through this. I keep reminding myself that Jesus loves our children more than we do even though we can't imagine more love than we feel for them ourselves. Nolan is ready and he Is in good hands all around. Please keep him in your prayers through the weekend and especially Monday morning. Thank you all so much! 

Joshua 1:9

Be joyful always. Never stop praying. 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-17

He is in love with paddle wheels on his pops farm. 

He never ever wants to sit down! 

He is just so happy and sweet! 

He rolls through the hospital like a boss ha ha 

Memorial Day Weekend

Hey Everyone! 

I would like to apologize for not updating after Nolan's last heart cath. He did great! He went to recovery upstairs and we went straight to a room on the floor for the night! We were confused at first, but this was because he did so well that there was no need for him to go to the PICU! Praise The Lord! They were able to balloon his SVC and everyone feels pretty good about it. 

Nolan is doing so great! He is trying to crawl. He rolls where he wants to go or scoots. He can pull up on things and he really prefers to stand ha ha. He practices walking while holding our hands. He turned ten months this past Saturday! He actually cut his first tooth today! He is just so happy and so so busy! 

He had a big Memorial Day weekend! The Delta Classic Auto Club hosted their annual car show. Each year, they select local children to donate their proceeds and raise money for. This year they picked Nolan and his friend, Maggie Mae. We are so grateful for all of their hard work. They have the biggest hearts. Huge thanks to them and everyone that came out to see the cars and support Nolan and Maggie Mae! We had a blast. After the car show, we had Brent's family reunion at our house. It was so nice to see everyone and especially to honor Nolan's great grandmother Emma Catherine, better known as Granny. It was a wonderful fun weekend. Thanks to our troups and verterans for the freedom to do that! 

With all of that being said, it saddens me to tell you that Nolan will be having open heart surgery again June 23rd. He will have the Glenn. It is the surgery he had December 9th that we ended up reversing January 13th. We are praying hard for smooth sailing this time. No complications! Please join us in these prayers for Nolan. He is strong and he is happy! It's going to be so hard to see him go through this. It brings me to tears just typing this. We are praying for strength so that he won't see our fears. Thank you everyone for the support and prayers you have given us this far! I know you will remain with us in the coming months and it means so much. 

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; Do not be discouraged, for The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9 

All smiles after his cath 

He was a little tired when we got home 

He loves a steering wheel! 

Car show fun! 

The lovely crew we celebrated memorial weekend with! 

First time in the pool! He loves it!