Jake's 2nd appointment

Trying to keep up with blogging has been quite difficult with everything going on around here! This post is a couple of weeks over due, but at least I am finally getting to it! I love this picture of Josh and Jake. Josh just loves his little boy and it is so cute to see them together.

Jake had his second appointment with the specialist on March 5th. It was a fantastic appointment! HIS NEUTROPHIL NUMBERS WERE UP! We were shocked that they had gone up so high too! It was such a blessing to have them go from zero to over 1,000!! The doctor was very pleased as well and only expects them to continue to increase; it was just a great day for us. Most newborns have their numbers higher than where Jake's were, but these results put him out of the range of being neutropenic. His neutrophil count should be 40% and Jake's was still only 14%, but progress was made! His lymphocytes and monocytes were both elevated when they should not be, so the doctor said that we'll just check and see how things go with all of the numbers at our next visit. With this news she said that we could basically start treating our little Jacob like a regular newborn! Of course we talked about normal precautions to take (which still included him staying out of major public areas with little kiddos for a while), but all in all we were just thrilled.

Josh was so excited about the fact that now we could (after Jake gets a little older and I started to feel a little better) actually go on dates! We love to go out together and since Jake is pretty attached to my hip with me nursing him and all, we didn't think we'd be able to go out for a while since Jake needed to stay at home. It was just so great to not only hear that Jake was improving so well, but also that we were on our way to being able to participate on a more "normal" level in life. Being at home on bed rest and then trying to recover after Jake's birth and of course protecting Jake with his health concerns has made it so I have been pretty much home for over 4 months! Josh and I were both hoping and praying that Jake's numbers would increase, but neither of us expected his numbers to be so high! We know that our Father in Heaven is watching out for this special little boy and that He loves all of us so much! Jake's name has been in so many Temples and there have been so many prayers said for him as well as for our whole family during this time. It has been a humbling experience to feel of the Lord's love for our family through His spirit and through others acting for Him. There are so many wonderful people who have cared so much. I know that it is through their faithful prayers that Jake was able to go from no neutrophils to so many in such a short amount of time. I wish that Josh and I could personally thank everyone, but I guess the best that we can do is to ask the Lord to bless everyone and their families for being so wonderful to us.