Ammon

Ammon. When we were thinking of names for a baby while I was pregnant with our second child the name Ammon came up. He was a favorite missionary from the Book of Mormon for both of us, he is a favorite for a lot of people because, well, he's awesome! We had never intended to name one of our children something unusual  but Ammon just felt right. I was induced at 40 weeks and had what appeared to be a normal delivery. Ammon was a big baby, everything about him was big, hands, ears, head circumference. He slept through the night from day one and only woke up to nurse once every three hours during the day. I thought he was too tired though, I knew enough about babies to know that he was too sleepy.

When Ammon was about 3 months old he started to be more alert and was happy. It was easy to get a grin from him. He was fun. He was a floppy baby, carrying him was exhausting! It was even more exhausting as he didn't walk until he was 2. We also had trouble understanding anything he was saying. About this time we moved and we found a new pediatrician who began to suspect something was wrong. By this point I had a complex about Mothering! We moved again and joined the Air Force and met a nurse practitioner who referred us to a neurologist who informed us Ammon had suffered a stroke inutero or at birth, an MRI confirmed her diagnoses. I will always remember the moment the Doctor said stroke, I was shocked, can that happen to a baby? I was also relieved to know what was wrong, it was a like there was a weight lifted for a moment but then came the crashing reality that it was brain damage, it was permanent but fortunately it was mild . He began more occupational and physical therapy, he was already in speech and language therapy.

Ammon had the dearest most wonderful pre-school special education teacher in the world, Miss Patty, she was such a blessing. Miss Collette was his speech teacher, she taught Ricky as well, she was gifted. I think we moved to North Dakota for the boys, they needed Dakota Elementary on Minot Air Force base. Minot-now that's a whole other story!!

Ammon is 14 now, he is in 8th grade in middle school. He is the sweetest 14 year old I know. He is blessed with the very best of natures, he is handsome with dark brown eyes, he is a big guy! He is a little bit stubborn but has a great sense of humor, he is fun! He doesn't like school but he goes and the teachers like him. He would rather be home looking at his Pokemon collection and eating sandwiches and hanging out with his best friend, his brother Ricky. Ammon has taught us many things about patience, like, we need more of it. He detests contention of any kind and has a hard time when there is a trouble maker about. He also likes to point out the obvious. I remember sitting in a waiting room when Ammon started talking to a young man next us "Why is your nose so big?" says Ammon "I don't know" says the nice young man. I guess most kids do this but when your kid is not 4 anymore you are hoping and praying for the patience of the person on the spot. We learned recently from a respected pediatric neurologist that even if Ammon had not had a stroke he still would have had learning disabilities. We have decided Ricky and Ammon had come to this life the way they were supposed to, we are grateful for all they have taught us!

The photo below was taken at the Lincoln Museum, you should go, it was amazing. This photo of Ammon is a typical moment for him, with Ricky enjoying the joke!

Ricky

My new blogging resolve is to post something everyday. It's something I have wanted to do regularly, especially since our extended family is so spread out and are always so happy when we actually post something and also to inspire me to keep a more complete history of our family. My journal writing has suffered the past couple of years so to think that a few people might be counting on me to write something everyday will be a motivator to keep going. I am going to write about each of our children this week.

 Ricky. He was born in Payson Utah a couple of weeks early, he was not breathing too well at first, he had to stay in hospital for a couple of weeks with chemical pneumonia and group B strep infection. He was healthy otherwise and so cute, I remember one of the pediatricians (who I called the "Baywatch doctor" because he was handsome and confident) said that Ricky was handsome, he said he doesn't say that to all the Mothers and then he pointed out another baby that was not so handsome. I was flattered, my baby is gorgeous, I knew it! Of course I was absolutely heartbroken each day when I had to leave him there.

 One day I came in and he looked like a four ended cotton bud, his hands and feet were wrapped in white warm towels and they had been taped on. The nurse explained they were having trouble getting a good vein for an IV so they were trying to bring the veins to the surface. I was sent out of the room not long after and cried like a little girl into Rick's shoulder because I could not be there to comfort my baby. I remember looking down at Ricky in that little bed and thinking, he doesn't understand, is this what he thinks life is like? I couldn't wait to take him home and wrap him in soft blankets and hold him and nurse him and help him forget this place.

 Ricky was about one when we began to notice he was different, but he was also just like other kids, it's impossible to explain! Others tried to comfort us and told me not to worry, but a Mother knows, I doubted myself those first years, there were many dark moments, what am I doing wrong etc. He was tested for all kinds of things over the next five years. We heard about Aspergers, it was a brand new syndrome, not every doctor knew about it then. He was labelled with many things, somantic pragmatic disorder. pervasive developmental disorder. short term memory loss. Perhaps the lack of oxygen to brain at birth had caused damage, most babies die or suffer severe brain damage from a group B strep infection but since he was treated immediately with antibiotics he escaped the worst- we heard all kinds of theories from specialists. Eventually came the diagnoses of Aspergers and learning disabilities, we were told we would never know why. Why, it is pointless to ask it but we still do.

 So our dear Ricky is now 16, he is a sophomore in high school. He has struggled and floundered but also grown and become a wonderful young man, and he is still handsome, the Baywatch doctor was right! He is shorter than most guys his age but he has a strong build. He is unsure of many things but is absolutely sure of others. Morally he is a rock, you better not swear in his presence! He loves reading the Percy Jackson series, we eventually bought it for him. He likes the fact that Percy has what everyone in the world thinks is ADD but is actually part of his god like abilities, super powers. Ricky has an elaborate imaginary world he has created where he has numerous powers, it's been going on for about 10 years now. We don't know what the future holds for Ricky, we are trying to help him plan for the future but it's tricky. This is a whole other subject! So here is my favorite video from 2011, and now that you know a little about Ricky you will know why I cried when I saw it.

Well it's been over a year since I last posted. Why? Well for the very few that check here every now and again I have no explanation. I have been going through some tough spots in my life, a lot happened in 2011. Perhaps I didn't want to post about the not so fantastic things but I may in the future. We had a family photo taken in the fall. I figured this was a good place to start my return. I should say here that I love my husband Rick, he is a spectacular man and I know I am very fortunate to have him in my life. I have 5 wonderful beautiful children, I forget how blessed I am to have them even though I find them exhausting at times! 2012 is going to be great!