Eckelkamp Family

September 2007

Grandma Seeley went to school with Jaden for Grandparent's Day!

Joel won't sit in his swing or bouncy seat, but he loves to lay flat and look at his toys, mobile, or the fan!

*Elephant Rock*

We went to Elephant Rock for the afternoon with Grandma and Pa-pa Eckelkamp and Aunt Trish, Drew, Adi, and Isaac.

Drew, Ty, Jaden, and Adi

Jaden, Tyler, Adison, and Andrew with Grandma and Pa-pa.

Daddy had as much fun as the kids- maybe more!

Our first family picture.
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Derek was the Best Man in Tim and Lisa's wedding September 22nd.

Ty and Daddy golfing at Pa-pa's

4 Generations: Ryan with Isaac, Denny, Great-Grandma Eckelkamp, Derek with Joel

Joel with cousin Isaac. They are 1 week apart. (9 and 10 weeks in this picture)

Labor Day with the Seeley's

I think his toes did atually touch the water a few times.

I think this was the first time we were all in the pool at the same time! Derek and Tyler in the middle, then clockwise: Grandma Seeley with Joel, Nathan, Lucas, Carrie and Evelyn, Jeff with Jaden, and Jennifer and Allison. (Jamyn's taking the picture, but we were all in at one point- for quite a while too!)

Swimming is very tiring...

The 6 Seeley grandkids: Tyler(2) with Joel(6 weeks), cousin Evelyn(4 months), Jaden(4), cousins Allison(11 months), and Lucas(2).

August - Our first month at home together!

Sweet dreams of how much he loves his mommy :)

3 weeks old

Never mind the jammies and wild hair- they love their new brother!

4 weeks old

Jaden's 1st day of Preschool! She's going to St. Gertrude's on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30-3! We're all loving it!

Tyler and Jaden swimming in the pool. (It's a sleeping bag.)

Snuggling with Daddy... he doesn't like Derek's prickles though!

Daddy burping Joel.

Joel smiled for the first time at 6 weeks old!!! A big grin for a little boy!

Trying out his new stroller from Grandma Seeley.

Joel is Home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Going home at last! 1 day shy of 3 weeks old.

Jaden and Tyler had a Welcome Home Party for Joel, they were so excited to have him home!

Happy Family!

Daddy at peace

Big Sister Jaden

Big Brother Ty

Cozy.

Joel Update

Joel doing great, but the poor little guy is so hungry! He's getting all his nourishment through his IVs, but his belly is still empty and he's not very happy about it. At least being a newborn he sleeps a lot, which passes the time for him.

He's really alert (when he decides to wake up.)

So relaxed- Joel really likes to be held when Mom and Dad are around.

No more repogle (suction tube)! They removed the tube to see how he did for 24 hours before they could let him try milk.

Joel's first feeding!!! 7/31 (12 days after surgery)

Content.

Happy Joel (and Momma) with a full belly... well maybe not full, it was only 1/2 of an ounce, but it must have felt better!

Really ready to take our baby home.

This was the day we got the pathology report back from the mass blocking his intestine and Joel was diagnosed with Infantile Myofibromatosis. The mass was a benign fibrous tumor. Myofibromatosis is extremely rare, so there's not a whole lot of information about the disease, but there are 2 types. He could have the solitary form, which would mean he only had the one tumor, they found and removed it, he won't have any more problems... or he could have the multicentric/generalized form where more tumors could show up at any time in any part of his body. There's no way to know unless he develops another tumor, so we'll always have to be on the lookout for any indication that a tumor is growing. After reading all the information we could find on the disease, it seems that if he were to have the multicentric form, he would've had more tumors at birth or soon after, so the older he gets, the less likely it will be for him to get any more tumors. His doctors are pretty optimistic, we are too, but of course it's hard not to worry about every little thing. We're just praying his is solitary, but if he ever did get another tumor, that we would find it fast and it would be able to be removed before it caused any major problems. We are so thankful to have found this at birth and for the excellent care he got in the NICU and that he's healthy and home with us now!

Joel's first week

We had a wonderful surprise Wednesday night when little Joel John was born! He is 2 weeks earlier than we expected- (I was more than ready though!) He was born at 10:33 pm, weighed 7 lbs. 6 oz. (same as Jaden), and was 20.25 in. long. He looks quite a bit like big brother Ty.

The not so good surprise came Thursday morning when we found out he had not been holding anything down all night in the nursery he had spit up what he had nursed along with some bile, so they knew that somewhere past his stomach there was something holding up his digestion. They air-lifted him from Washington to Big John's late in the morning, where after some x-rays and tests they decided to do surgery to find and fix the blockage.

After a quick 1 hour surgery in the afternoon, they were able to permanently fix the problem! (As far as they can tell at this point at least.) There was a small mass of tissue blocking the flow in his small intestine. They removed the small section of intestine and sewed the two ends together, taped his belly shut, and were done!

He's VERY healthy otherwise, so he was already off the ventilator by Friday morning when we saw him and doing pretty good. We finally got to hold him again that day, and the kids were able to meet Joel in the afternoon!

Joel has an upper GI test scheduled for Monday the 30th to make sure he is ready to try some food, and hopefully he'll do really well once he starts food. It will still be at least a few days as he works up to taking about 2 ounces, but then he can come home! Please keep little Joel in your prayers- that he'll heal quickly and not suffer much more pain or long-term effects. And for the rest of us to not have Joel home and balancing some quality time as a family with running back and forth. Pray also for all the other little babies here in the NICU who do not have the strength and good prognosis that Joel has.

One more picture before sending him off.

Boarding the helicopter. The ride up to Big St. John's took about 10 minutes.

Back from surgery - about 18 hours old.

7/20

The day after surgery.

Jaden and Tyler met Joel for the first time.

7/21 Joel pulled his drainage tube out, so we jumped at the opportunity for some pictures with no tubes attached!