Nehemiah's Surgery

Nehemiah Bill Dunham just after he was born.

On March 31st, our sweet little Nehemiah was born. He weighed 6lbs 8oz and was 20in long. It is hard to believe he is already 4 months old, and it has been quite a roller coaster. Of all our kids this has been our hardest transition in welcoming a new baby. Everyone, myself included, has always said the more kids you have the easier it is to bring a new baby into the family. Well, Nehemiah is destined to prove us wrong. He is different in every way, and his journey is already much different from the rest of our kids.

Dave reading a blessing to Nehemiah at his dedication to God. (1 month old)

Family picture on Mother's day. (1 month old)

 By the time Nehemiah was 2 months old we started having some concerns for him. Our precious niece, Heidi. was born 6 days before Nehemiah. We know every child is different, but seeing the two of them together we were noticing some milestones Nehemiah wasn't hitting. He was still going cross-eyed the majority of the time and when he wasn't cross-eyed the two eyes didn't seem to align just right. He also wouldn't make eye contact, and would avert his eyes from us when we would try to get in his line of sight. His left eye seemed to be slightly smaller than his right, he wasn't smiling or cooing yet, and he didn't like being put down or snuggling.

 At Nehemiah's 2 month check-up I expressed my concerns with our pediatrician. She referred us to a UC Davis ophthalmologist to get a closer examination. She suspected that he had a weak left eye and would need some patch therapy to strengthen it. She emphasized we needed to see them ASAP because if he was getting 2 different images from his eyes his brain might shut off vision to the weak eye. As for the social delays she guessed it was because of his issues with his eyes that was delaying the milestones. We had a 3 month check up before we saw the ophthalmologist and by then Nehemiah was smiling and even starting to coo. He still wouldn't hold eye contact, but was starting to look at us for a brief second. The pediatrician said he was doing great and is just a little slower than the average child.

 When we finally saw the ophthalmologist and later had an ultrasound. We found out that Nehemiah's left eye has cataracts and a stalk attaching the back of the eye to the lens. We have learned that a normal eye while in-utero has a blood vessel that attaches the back of eye to the lens. Once the eye develops the blood vessel detaches and goes away. The stalk the doctor found is that blood vessel, and since Nehemiah's eye stopped developing in-utero it didn't detach. This caused the cataracts and the left eye to be smaller than his right eye. Both the cataracts and the stalk were blocking light  from getting to the back of the eye. The best chance for him to be able to have sight in the left eye was to remove the lens with cataracts, snip the stalk and remove it or at least hope it would fall to the side of the eye allowing light in. Surgery wouldn't give perfect sight, but was his best chance at getting vision to his left eye. The doctor related it to having a working spare tire. Nehemiah's left eye wont ever work perfectly, but will hopefully be a good help to his right eye. 

On Nehemiah's left eye can you see the white spot that is on the right side of his pupil? That white spot is the stalk.

On Monday, July 27th, Nehemiah had surgery. It was a hard, horrible day and still we could see God's hand in it all. Nehemiah had to stop eating at 4:00am, 4 hrs before we were to arrive at the hospital. Nehemiah doesn't enjoy drives and then being hungry as well should have resulted in crying for the whole hour and a half drive. By God's grace Nehemiah fell right to sleep in the truck and slept the whole way to the hospital. Once there they took us back fairly quickly to pre-op, but we had to wait 2 more hours before surgery. At this point Nehemiah was getting really hungry and fussy. We tried his pacifier and praise God he actually took it. Nehemiah has always refused his pacifier before this and still hasn't taken it again since surgery. When it was time for Nehemiah to go back to surgery I was able to walk him half way. Then I had to hand him over to the anesthesiologist. It was extremely hard to hand him over then walk away. Again, by God's grace, my fussy little boy who cries when most people hold him was happy and content in the anesthesiologist's hands. This gave me a little comfort, but was still extremely heart wrenching to walk away. The nurse advised we go get food as she has had nursing moms not eat and then pass out when they go back to nurse their child post-op. We ate and waited about 2 hours before our doctor came to us to share how surgery went. She said Nehemiah did well, was coming out of anesthesia now, and was hungry. She went on to explain she was able to remove the lens on the left eye. She couldn't remove the stalk as it was strongly attached. She felt messing with it too much could cause more harm than help. She removed part of it and what is left isn't in his primary vision. She also found that Nehemiah's optic nerve where it attaches to the retina isn't fully developed. Because the optic nerve is damaged we aren't sure how much his brain will be able to understand of what he sees. This is something we wont know until he is older, monitored more, and able to express what he sees. Since the doctor started this whole conversation telling me Nehemiah was hungry, I only heard and understood a portion of all this. When she finally took us back to Nehemiah we could hear him screaming as we walked through the doors. He was swaddled with wires and tubes coming out of him in all directions. He had an eye patch and shield taped to his left eye. I held Nehemiah, sat down, and tried nursing, but he refused. He never opened his eyes, and continued to cry and fuss. We could get him calmed down for a few seconds, but he would just start crying again. He seemed to be swallowing hard and I wonder if his throat was sore from the breathing tube he had in. I continued to try and get him to nurse. I knew he had to be starving. I craved the closeness of nursing and comforting my boy, to feel like everything would be alright. I also knew we had to get him to eat and see if he kept the milk down before we could leave. After about an hour of this crying, getting him calmed down, trying to nurse, and then crying some more the nurse gave him some morphine. Once he was calmed down again he nursed lazily as he slept. About another hour later Nehemiah was starting to act more like himself and we were finally able to leave. 

In pre-op Nehemiah was such a trooper. Here he is getting his blood pressure taken.

Nehemiah actually took his pacifier. Praise God!

After surgery calming Nehemiah down. Praying he is alright and that he will nurse soon.

Finally able to leave the hospital. Nehemiah had the patch on till the next day. 

 Now we are focused on his recovery. It will take around 3 weeks for his eye to heal from surgery. He has antibiotic drops as well as dilating drops. Once his eye has healed he will get a contact lens that we will be putting in every morning and taking out every night. He will also have patch therapy to force him to use his left eye and strengthen it. Once he is walking he will then be getting glasses as well. This is just the start of the journey that will be on going for the rest of his life. I praise God for the care and wisdom of our doctor, that surgery is over, and Nehemiah is recovering well. We don't know, and only in time will we find out, how much he can even see from the left eye, but we do pray for God to heal and restore sight to this eye.  

Pics Of Our New House

  Thanks to the nudging of my dear friend Renee I have finally taken pictures of our new house. I have been wanting to for awhile now, but always want to do it when the house is clean. Then I never seem to remember when it is clean. So, I decided to take pictures as is. As much as I would like to have my house clean all the time, I try to remind myself that I am fully pregnant, with 5 kiddos running around, and a kitchen remodel underway.As humbling as it is, this is where we are at right now. So, I hope you enjoy the pics and can see past our clutter :).

Starting on one end of the house to the other this is our dining room.

Kitchen

Living Room

Living Room

Our extremely long hallway. 

Boys Room - Boaz gets the big bed on bottom and Davey gets the top.

Girls Room 

Hall Bathroom with its lovely wallpaper and matching dark yellow sink, toilet, and tub!

Our bedroom and Dave's office. Once the kitchen is back inside the house Dave will move his office to the garage until we have the opportunity to build him an office.

Master Bathroom with its matching blue sink and toilet.

Our makeshift kitchen in the garage fully equipped with oven, dishwasher, sink and fridge.

Backyard deck overlooking the property.

Through the trees you can see our barn. Right now it houses our motorcycles, but we are looking forward to getting chickens soon!

More of our backyard. The first part of the backyard is fenced in with fruit trees, garden beds, and lots of bamboo. Then out past the fence is the barn and forest area.

I am sorry I didn't take pictures of the front of the house. I am a little leery of posting them on the internet for all to see. With posting pictures of the kids and details of our family I don't like to post specific details of where we are not knowing who might stumble across this. So you all will just have to come visit and see us in person!

Our New House and Blessings

Well, I originally wanted to write an update as our Christmas Letter to everyone and Christmas came and went. Then I had hopes of writing quickly after the new year, no later than the end of January. That also came and went. I am sorry it has been so long in between posts. It has been a busy roller coaster these past few months. Let me fill you all in. It is a long post and taking pictures hasn't been a top priority lately, but I hope you enjoy reading what has been going on with us. (I put all the pictures at the end)
 In October we were in the process of buying a house, and we closed on Oct. 31st. After we closed I went up to the house to get the keys and went in with such excitement at finally owning a home again. Not just any home, but a beautiful (slightly outdated with one yellow and one blue toilet and sink:)) 3 bed/2 bath on 2 acres of property, high in elevation to get snow, if it ever decides to snow. Once I got the keys and let myself in (Dave was actually in Austin for work) I heard running water. It turns out a line in the kitchen had been running steadily for about 2 weeks flooding out kitchen. Ever since that day we have been dealing with cleaning up the damage, dealing with insurances refusing to pay, moving out of our rental and into our new home, and living with a makeshift kitchen in the garage thanks to Dave's uncle Paul. Needless to say it has been emotional, stressful, and not ideal, especially being fully pregnant with 5 monkeys running around. In spite of it all we are continually thankful for the blessings God has given us in this. We have had all our needs met, we are all healthy, we get to live in a beautiful setting close to family, we have a wonderful church family that has supported and loved on us through it all, and we look forward to this sweet baby boy to be born sometime end of March or beginning of April.
 Our prayer and hope has been to get the kitchen and floors in before this little boy is born. Up to January I honestly struggled a lot feeling hopeless that we could get a kitchen in, but through lots of prayer and support from friends and family we were able to buy all our base cabinets, counters, and a sink last weekend! We are having work days the rest of the Saturdays in February and it is looking really good that we will have a kitchen in before baby. Praise God! Once it is all done I will be sure to take pictures and post for you all to see.
 We are also getting excited about a father-son mission trip coming up in March. Dave and Davey are going down to Mexico with a handful of other dads and sons from our church. They are going to be bringing and putting in a play-set for the church down there. Missions have always been a huge part of Dave's and my life and we have prayed and desired to have it be a huge part of our family and kids lives as well. This trip is an answer to those prayers and Davey is supper excited about it! They will be leaving March 12th and coming back March 17th. We would really appreciate your prayer support before and during the trip.
 This time of year is also exciting for all the birthdays in our family coming up. Sweet Abigail is turning 5 this Tuesday the 17th. She is so excited to finally be 5 and get to go to school in the fall. Although I haven't fully accepted her going to kindergarten yet :). Cassia is turning 7 March 8th. She is turning into such a beautiful caring girl. Just last week she got the Student of the Month award for being a caring friend to her peers, and as she walked down the aisle to receive it she was hunched over giving every kid she could see high fives on the way down. Dave and his dad celebrate their birthday on March 17th. Even though Dave will be driving home from Mexico that day there is a good possibility that he and his dad will get to celebrate together for the first time in many years.
 And finally we look forward to the birth of this little boy. His due date is April 5th, Easter Sunday, but I think and hope he will be a little early. He is very active kicking and squirming through out the day. All the kids love putting their hands on my belly to feel him. Little Boaz gets such a kick out of it and always giggles "my baby brother just kicked me!" We haven't come up with a name yet, but I am looking forward to the day I finally get to hold him in my arms.
 We loved getting all the Christmas cards from you all and seeing the pictures of you and your families. Thank you so much for sending them. I am sorry we weren't able to send some this year, but know we miss those that are far away and love you all so much.

In October we went to our 10 year reunion at Westmont. It was lots of fun to see friends and be back on the campus. Here is Dave with his suite mates and good friends Jon and Kevin.

Boaz at the pumpkin patch looking for the biggest pumpkin.

Enjoying the pumpkin patch with the family.

For Boaz's 3rd birthday in October we celebrated by going to the zoo.

Christmas Eve with Nana and Grandma Kathy.

Kids on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately we couldn't get Elah to sit for the pictures.

Christmas morning with the Dunham clan on our deck.

Cassia decided she was ready to cut her hair and donate it in honor of her kindergarten teacher Ms. Hewitt to help make wigs for other people.

Cuties saying hi to daddy after he got off work. Yes, we had a pajama day!