Jonathan Kirk Juchau, Our Little Miracle Baby

On October 29, 2014, Mindy was concerned because she hadn't felt much movement in the baby.  She left Justin with Ethan loaded up Brinlee to go with her and went to the hospital in Yuba City to have the baby stress test done.  Baby's score was 2 out of 10 with 0 being dead.  They began to prepare her for an emergency C-section as soon as the doctor arrived.  

6 weeks early, the boys home alone, Brinlee at the hospital with her, and Ryan 8 hours a way in Maine, Oregon doing pharmacist training for his job in Klamath Falls Mom in Utah.  Does that spell recipe for freakout?

Relief Society sisters and others in the ward to the rescue.  Mindy received a priesthood blessing, two of the sisters were able to go with her into delivery.  They called me and Ryan to keep us posted.  Jonathan was delivered and was given much emergency care.  They messaged us photos of his actual, cesarian birth.

Ryan arrived in the middle of the night.  It was traumatic for all of them.

They made arrangements for the baby to be transported to the NICU at Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento where they could have all the pediatric specialists available.  It was pretty intense -- he was having respiratory problems, heart irregularities, and only about half the blood in his system he should have had.

Mindy was released on Octoober 31, and she and Ryan directly went to see the baby.  It was pretty hard on a 2-day old C-section -- a 1 hour drive, walking into the hospital and eventually riding home. Next day, they took all the kids to see the new baby -- the only hospital in the state that allows the siblings to visit their new babies.

Grandpa Juchau and Great Grandma Juchau both flew stay for a new days while Ryan went back to work in Oregon so that Mindy could get to the hospital each day.

Kirk had some vacation time scheduled, so we head down when baby was about 2 weeks old.  We were lucky to be able to help Mindy bring Jonathan home from the hospital and hold him and help.  A couple of days after we got home, he had to go back to the NICU with problems again.  

In the meantime, Ryan was commuting every few days from Oregon, looking for a place for them to live, even though they didn't know when they would be able to bring baby home and move.  Eventually it all worked out, and the ward packed them, cleaned their house, and they were off to a new adventure.  Baby has two heart defects, and possibly some seizure problems.

When they went to their first appointment with the cardiologist that was present at the birth,  he told them he gave Jonathan very little chance of surviving, and was surprised to see them.  Priesthood blessings and many prayers.

Welcome to the Third Musketeer (3rd great-grandson) aka Timothy Michael Tracy

Timothy Tracy was born in Phoenix, Arizona where Daddy Brian is in the doctorate program at Arizona State, doing research and teaching in physics.  Luckily, he has a good fellowship.  Mom Natasha, my first granddaughter is going to school in the program of music therapy, was working at Walgreen's and so very, very busy.

He came into the world as a healthy little boy.  Brian's mother was there for a little while to help them at first.

It was hard for first-time, Grandma Elise, to have to wait to meet the little guy.  She also was attending college and working plus raising the 3 youngest Harwards.

We anxiously waited for them to fly here for their Christmas holiday.  Happy times and what devoted parents.  He definitely has a very ardent fan club.

Daddy with his curly hair.

Uncle Austin with HIS curly hair.

Great Grandpa with his formerly curly hair that has calmed down over the years.  And this little boy has his own curly hair that I don't have a good photo of yet.  And it might be a bit red.  Can't wait to see how it turns out.  He is so inquisitive and follows any activity going on with his eyes, fascinated by his surroundings.  Maybe a scientist in the budding.

One Strange Christmas Party

Our party fell on Kris's 9th birthday which was fun for us, but hopefully this year's Kirk Hunsaker party (for the family living in the state) won't set a precedent for future parties.  The food was prepared.  Everyone was on time.  Even Alec joined the party.  Emily and Xadrian and I had a good time preparing Grinch-kabobs.

Little did we know ( and I say this with love)  that the Grinch himself would be at the party.  The door opened, and in came the Hunsakers minus Jarrett.  He needed carried in from the car because he had just sprained his ankle.  Kirk and Alec were asleep, Christian was holding a sleeping Kendrix, Austin had his own sprained ankle, David's back is hurt, so pregnant Judy carried him in.  As she plopped him on the couch some of us gathered 'round.  He was about as ornery as I've seen a kid.  I know he was in pain -- his ankle looked terrible.  He pulled a blanket over his face after kind of yelling at anyone who tried to offer consolation.  Elise came over to him and said "It looks like you swallowed a tennis ball and it sunk to your ankle."  He was so angry with her.  "That's the rudest thing anyone's ever said to me", and he ducked back under the blanket.

Kris had a new remote control helicopter that he tried to fly in the party room.  His parents made him move to the living room which was good for our hair -- that thing was wild!  I don't know if or how many times it flew into the Christmas tree, (maybe none) but I saw it clip the top of Tina's tree and knock off the angel.

Braxton didn't join us until later and had a headache.  Raymond, Emily, and Xadrian had a great time.  Ray-Ray and Xade randomly gave each other hugs throughout the evening.
Everyone seemed to like dinner.  Luke especially liked the White Christmas Slush -- he just kind of hung out by the punch bowl.

Debbie was able to get off work early enough to be with us for the party which was great.   After dinner Sharon and Felix

dropped by with a gift and came in and talked for awhile.  We took advantage of Nurse Sharon and had her look at Jarrett's ankle.  She had such a sweet bedside manner even though he was still awfully pouty.  She said even if it was only a sprain it probably needed an xray and splint that night.  Our instacare closed at 2:00, so David and Judy wanted to get on the way to go to the one in Lehi.

We quickly moved into the "program".  Kris played jingle bells for us on the piano.  In the middle of the song (we were in the family room since living room too full with tree), we heard Xadrian start belting out Jingle bells, Jingle all the way.  We all started to laugh.
Next we read Davie's first Christmas which was a little hard with my bifocals.  David and Christian entertained themselves.  Austin and his friend Robbie had retired to the basement.

Next it was time for the nativity.  Jarrett didn't want to participate so we had Kris be Joseph, Emily - Mary, Raymond a wise man, Xadrian wore a lion hat Elise had left over from Halloween long ago.  We told him he was a cow, and he mooed quite a bit for us.  Kendrix made a great baby Jesus.  He laid in the "manger" all during the story and also let us take pictures for quite while.  We sang Silent Night.  Then I made one of my blunders -- began to close the program wanting to get the Hunsaker's on their way to the instacare without letting Debbie and Elise do their program part.

Elise was accompanying her singing Breath of Heaven.  It was pretty even though Debbie had a cold.  We all stayed in the family room.  After a couple of minutes, Jarrett got up for the first time with one crutch and hopped painfully to reach the other one.  Then he went in the living room.  Many were talking as our family seems to do even during entertainment (and the little ones playing).  Anyway, they stopped their song.  I figured either Debbie's voice wore out or they lost their place or something.  They didn't come back in our room.  After a couple of minutes, I walked in.  They said, "Jarrett came in and told us that Grandma told us to stop.  They need to go home." They just sat there dumbfounded, kind of angry, with hurt feelings.

Anyway, we got ready to say a family prayer, but were having a hard time getting Kris to come in from playing with his helicopter in the living room.  At the same time, Austin's friend Robby was coming upstairs to get mountain dews for him and Austin as David loudly announced, " The last one in the room has to say the family prayer.  Dad was standing up ready to prayer, but Robby rounded the corner, folded his arms, and started to pray.  We thanked him and all just sat there.  It was great.

We love our kids and grandkids!  What fun memories we will have of this crazy party.

Introducing Kendrix Kirk Winterton

Kendrix actually made his appearance almost a week late.  Debbie was in labor for several hours, and eventually had a C-section due to fetal distress.  He was good-sized -- over 8 pounds.  Kendrix had a collapsed lung and other lung issues and was in the NICU at St. Marks Hospital in Salt Lake for about ten days.  Once he got stabilized and well it was all great for this little guy.  He is one of the best-natured babies we have seen-- and very healthy.

 His baby blessing was a happy day with many sets of grandparents there to celebrate.

They made an adorable trick or treating family with Peter Pan and his shadow, Captain hook and a baby dinosaur.