Pictures of Our Newest Grandbaby

Kristen was able to send us some new pictures of Samuel Diligence today. We are always happy to receive pictures of our grandchildren.

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

We now have a new grandson! Samuel Diligence was born on Monday, June 14 at 12:07 AM (PST). He was 8lbs. 9oz. and 21 1/2 inches long. Mommy and baby are doing well and baby is nursing well which is such a blessing. Kristen's last three babies were premiees and so nursing was a struggle. Kristen was able to have a home birth like she wanted and although it was very hard to do it all drug free, she did it!  I guess it's time to step up the production of that baby blanket. Thank you for all the prayers.

The Baby's Coming.....

Update!!!! Kristen's water broke!!!! The baby will be here soon! We will update you as we know things.

Still Waiting...

Well, our daughter, as of today, June 10, is 37 weeks 6 days pregnant.  She is only one day away from beign 38 weeks which is full term.  Our last grandbaby was born 7 weeks early, the one before that about 6 weeks early and the one before that about 5 weeks early.  God is good.  Kristen is feeling very big as any woman in her ninth month of prenancy can imagine, but she is so thankful that she is still pregnant.  Please pray with us for a healthy delivery and grandma can handle being so far away.

Pictures of Victory with His Brothers and Sister

Preston with Victory

Cowboy Dylan with Victory

Brooklyn loves her new brother.

Victory - 1 Week Old

Taylor with Victory
I think this hat is a little big but it's warm.

He is so cute!

Victory is doing well. He is keeping his temperature and gaining weight. On Sunday he was 4 pounds 11 ounces and he is now 4 pounds 13 ounces. That is great news. He is taking the bottle more and no longer needs the cover on his bed to keep the warmth in. In order for him to go home he needs to be able to take enough nourishment from a bottle and keep his body temperature up while still gaining weight. The feeding tube allows him to get the extra calories without burning them doing these two things. Please pray that this will happen soon so that Taylor and Kristen can take this precious blessing home with them. Kristen is still pretty sore but she is coming along. She had her staples removed today so that is a step in the right direction. Please keep her in prayer for a quick recovery.

The blanket Victory has on in the pictures was Kristen's first time crocheting something. She did a great job! Her mama's proud of her!

Kristen and family

I talked to Kristen today. She said that Victory did take some of his feeding yesterday with a bottle which was good. She is very tired and is still recovering from the c-section. She goes tomorrow to have the staples taken out. Hopefully it will feel better after that. I have never had surgery with staples so I have no idea what that's like. I have been fighting laryngitis or a cold. I am not sure which but in case it is a cold, I am not going to see the baby again until my voice is back so that I know that I am over it. I am sad I am not able to go up to see him but he'll be around for a long time. As long as I am getting better tomorrow, which every day it is getting better, I will watch Dylan, Brooklyn and Preston while Taylor takes Kristen to the doctor to get the staples removed. I will try to remember to send my camera with her so she can take pictures for me and then I can post them here for everyone. Thanks again for all the prayers.

Update on Victory

I just talked to Kristen and she has been discharged and is home for the night. Victory is still in the NICU and having a hard time eating. Right now, he is totally feeding with a feeding tube. Although Kristen has gotten him to nurse, he is not getting the nourishment from that. They also are having a hard time getting him to eat from a bottle. Today they tried to work on his sucking by giving him a pacifier. Hopefully this will help to strengthen his suck. He is also borderline on being able to keep his temperature up where it needs to be so they have put a type of blanket over his bed that helps to keep in the heat. They should see more improvement once he gets through what would have been his 34th week if he had not been born early. He was born at 33 weeks. Keep praying for his improvement.

Kristen is needing to get more rest in order to build up her milk supply so she and Taylor have decided to have her come home at night and go up to the hospital during the day. She is still pretty sore from the c-section and needs to get more rest to heal from that also. The kids were very happy to have her home tonight. Kristen said that Preston (14 months) laid his head on her chest and then would look up at her and smile as if to say, "You really are here aren't you?" Then he would put his head on her chest again and then look up at her again.

Please continue to keep them in your prayers. I will keep you updated when I can.

Our Precious New Grandson

I know you have all been anxiously awaiting pictures of our new grandson and here they are. I was able to see him today and that was a wonderful thing. He is so cute! Of course I am not bias in any way, right?




Brooklyn was the most interested in seeing her new baby brother.

Baby Victory and His Mama

This is Kristen, I told Mom I would put an update in her blog since she is gone till Saturday. I am doing pretty well, begining to heal. A C-Section is much more painful than a natural birth but I am so thankful God was protecting our little Victory and he came before he showed any signs of distress from the big knot in his cord.
Victory is doing amazing. The NICU nurses say he's doing about as well as a 37/38 weeker but he's only a 33 weeker! He has not needed a feeding tube, breathing help, IV or any thing. He is bottle feeding well and today latched on when we tried nursing well with the help of a nipple shield, though he still mainly took his bottle of my pumped milk and some formula b/c it's still a little easier for him at this point. He did not loose any weight since yesterday which is good. He is absolutly beautiful, and oh so tiny. His weight / length is good for his gestational age, but, he is sooo very tiny. The Lord has blessed us once again with our early but healthy babies. Thank the Lord for his provisions. I would post pictures of him, but our camera card does not fit in this computer. If Taylor can find the cord and bring it up I will update with pictures soon!

Thomas Victory Jackson Bradley has arrived!

Thomas Victory Jackson Bradley arrived today at 7:05 PM by c-section. He weighed 5 pounds 1 ounce and was 17-1/2 inches long. Kristen said he came out screaming! Everyone is doing well at this point. He did have one knot in the cord so it is very good that things went as they did. If they hadn't taken him in a planned c-section, it could have ended up as an emergency. Praise God! Please continue to pray that his lungs will continue to do well. I will update again tomorrow.

As for me, Ashley and I made it to San Diego and we are ready to get some rest so we can start the family day at the Marine Recruit base tomorrow. So until tomorrow...

C-Section Today

Today, between 3:00 and 4:00 PM, Kristen will be having C-section. As I have posted before, he water broke last Friday and they were watching things and letting her go into labor on her own unless something happened that was not good for her or the baby. Yesterday, she had very few contractions but every time the baby moved it hurt a lot more than before. Today, they said she had lost too much water and the baby has turned around which means he is breech now. This isn't good with a full term baby but with a preemie it presents more problems. Because he is so much smaller, there is a greater chance of the cord being compressed. So, it means a C-section.

Please keep Kristen, Taylor and baby Victory in your prayers. Please pray his lungs will do well and that there will be no complications. Please pray for a quick recovery for Kristen and a minimal stay in the NICU for Victory. Please pray for Dylan, Brooklyn and Preston that they will stay healthy. Thank you for all your prayers.

Another Day

I talked to Kristen a short time ago and she said that she has had hardly any contractions today. She is 33 weeks today so she has made it to another week in her pregnancy.

We had the kids last night and we have discovered that Dylan is most likely allergic to cats. He was wheezing and coughing and he kept complaining that there was something in his eyes. They were all bloodshot and watery. Poor little thing. I remembered back to when Erin had croup once and we were told that bringing them into cool moist air helps open the airways. Our weather is perfect today for that. It has been raining and has been in the 40s. So, Jim took him outside to sit on the porch with a blanket wrapped around him. Within an hour he was doing so much better and his eyes were no longer blood shot and itchy. He had also stopped coughing. Now the question is, what do we do with the cats? We need to give them away before we move to Mexico so should we do it early? Erin would be devastated but I really want Taylor, Kristen and the kids to be able to come over also. They are more important than the cats. Decisions, decisions.

I leave tomorrow at 5:30 PM to go to San Diego for Jermaine's graduation from Marine boot camp. Thursday is family day and Friday is the graduation. I am looking forward to going but it is a very hard time to leave Kristen, not knowing if she will have the baby while I am gone or not. God is in control though and Victory will be born when he is supposed to be no matter what we do. I will be traveling down with Jermaine's fiance, Ashley. Come to find out, she is not driving down but flying instead. She is on the same flight as I am so that will be good. She also didn't have her friends staying in a hotel with her so we decided to room together and save both of us money. I like that since that means that neither of us have to figure out where to go in San Diego on our own.

Well, that is all for today. I will not have my laptop while I am in San Diego so I will not be able to update until I return home unless there is a computer in the hotel that I can use. Kristen is borrowing our laptop to try to combat the boring days with no one at the hospital. We are glad we had one for her to use.

Update on Nothing New

After talking to Kristen this afternoon, she did tell me that her doctor changed how much she has to be on the monitors. She now only has to be on twice a day for 20 minutes each time, once before bed and once when she wakes up. (At least I think that is how long she said.) That is also as long as she is not having a lot of contractions. So, that is great and makes sleeping a lot better.

Nothing New

Last night I came home and Taylor stayed at the hospital with Kristen. We took care of the grandkids. Kristen thought they might be having a baby today because she was having contractions that were closer together for five hours but then they stopped. From what I hear, all of these contractions help with the baby's lung development so there is good in it. And since the baby is 33 weeks gestation tomorrow, it really isn't time yet. Please pray for Kristen to be comfortable. It is hard when she is hooked up to the monitors all the time. Taylor has to work tonight so this will be her first night alone at the hospital. Please keep her in pray for that too.

Update on Kristen and baby Victory

Well, baby Victory is still tuck safely away inside mommy where he should be at this time. He is doing great! His heart beat has stayed wonderful and there is no sign of distress so all is well there. Kristen had been having contraction pretty good yesterday but they mainly went away with an occasional one coming here and there by night time. We all got a little sleep last night which was good. The doctor came in this morning and said that he was surprised she hadn't gone into full labor but that was good. Women who do not go into full labor within the first 24 hours of their water breaking have a better chance of hanging on longer before the baby is born. It is possible that she could go another week to two weeks before delivering but it could be sooner, we just don't know. With Victory doing so well, she is restricted to her bed except for bathroom breaks and a shower as to try to keep him inside longer. She is supposed to get lots of calories and not burn many so that Victory will fatten up and grow more. Every day gives him a better chance of doing well once he enters the world. Thank you for your prayer and we will update as we know things.

Too Early for Labor

Today, our daughter's water broke. Kristen is 32 weeks pregnant and is now having contractions. I am leaving for the hospital but wanted to ask for prayer for her and this precious little one who shouldn't be born for another 7-8 weeks. God is in control and He knows the whole situation so we can rest in Him and not worry, although that is our natural reaction. Please pray for a peaceful, healthy, safe delivery. Thanks so much!