Grandparents

Right after Halloween we went home and drove to Aiken for the day to take Cort to my grandparents house. I have such fond memories of growing up and playing at their house and it was lots of fun to have Chris and Cort their too. Cort loved all the land and woods around their house.




Daddy showing Cort a Cactus






Cort wanted to walk all the way down their long dirt road - they went about half way and Daddy made him turn around.

Halloween

I'm long overdue in getting these halloween related pics up of Cort. I have a lot more catching up to do. I'll hopefully get to it soon.

Pumpkin Patch
After many attempts that were put off by rain or schedule issues we finally made it to the pumpkin patch the Saturday before Halloween. Cort loved running around in the pumpkin field and really enjoyed feeding the goats. Getting a great picture was difficult as Cort was never still!! He just kept trying to pick up all of the pumpkins!!














Pumpkin Carving

Cort enjoyed pumpkin carving this year. He didn't really like it so much last year. He still wasn't that sure about getting too messy....




My favorite part about doing it with him was his sound effects. He would mimic the sound of Chris scraping out the pumpkin goo and mimic the sound of the squishy goo!!


Trunk or Treat
We had our annual trunk or treat at our church. Cort discovered candy and there was no turning back. He really enjoyed playing all of the games.







Halloween

We only intended to go to a few houses but Cort loved trick or treating so we ended up going all over the neighborhood. Our neighborhood apparently gets really into Halloween - one house even does a hotdog buffet. He had a blast.


Cort was a train engineer for Halloween. He didn't care about his costume but he loved his prop!!! Chris and I had a lot of fun making his train and Cort Loved riding in it.




We appreciate all of your continued prayers for Cohen and our family. I promise I will share more later. For now, we are taking it day by day and finding joy in the time we have him and feeling thankful for Cort.

Cohen Christopher McGowan

That is our 2nd son's name. We would love it if you could all begin to pray for him by name.

We are struggling through each day but God has been faithful and is carrying us through to each next one. I have so much to write about - so many thoughts - that I am not sure where to begin or that I feel like it right now. We will be meeting with our "support counselor" from the hospital tomorrow and then with my OB and the specialist again on Friday.

I am struggling with the best way to keep everyone updated. I have so much to share about Cort and Cohen but it seems weird to get started and almost stranger to write about one and not the other. Might do a separate blog for Cohen. Haven't decided yet.

Chris and I want to thank everyone for the unbelievable love, words, and care that has been extended to us. We have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and rallying of our friends and family. Your prayers, tears, hugs, silence, and words mean more to us then you could ever know. Thank you for loving us and for already loving Cohen.

I'll write more later.

Dependence

We had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday. It's a boy!! It was a long day.

Our baby has been diagnosed with probable Thanatophoric Dysplasia. This is a skeletal disorder marked by short arms and legs as well as small ribs and chest. Unfortunately, the small ribs and chest create an issue for proper lung development. As long as our little guy is inside my body he is fine. However, when he is born he will not be able to breath on his own. Survival is very rare and comes with very severe medical issues. There should be no pregnancy issues so I should carry him full term. They cannot confirm the diagnosis without more testing. We are unsure of our plan of action right now.

We are at a loss of words and even unsure of our thoughts at the moment. I will write more later about details and our thoughts. I guess right now we just ask that you pray for us, Cort, and our son. Specifically, you can pray for the following:

1) That God would preform a miracle and heal our son. This is our heart's desire.

2) If God chooses not to heal him, pray that I will get to hold him alive when he is born. I know it will be hard but I want to hold him breathing. I feel him move in me now and know he is alive and I want to see him and remember him that way.

3) Pray for us as we figure out how to respond and handle these next 4.5 months. We know that all things are for God's glory and long to see that in this. Pray that our hearts can follow what our head knows. We want to respond over these next months truthfully but in a way that glorifies our God. We do not know what this will look like.

4) Pray for continued dependence on God. We have no strength on our own to deal with this. Pray that we would cling to Him in this time.

5) Praise God for Cort and the current life of our new son. We want to rejoice in God's blessings. Pray that we can maintain some normalcy for Cort and enjoy this special time in his life right now. Praise God for everyday that our new son lives.

18 weeks

Pregnancy update for those who are interested.......

I'm 18 weeks today. ( 16 weeks in the picture)I think that I am finally out of all the sickness. I haven't gotten sick in about a week and a half. Yea!!!! This pregnancy has been so different. I started feeling queasy at 6 weeks, getting sick at 7 weeks and didn't stop until about 17 weeks. With Cort I started feeling queasy at about 8 or 9 weeks and felt better by 11. I only got sick one time. I didn't start wearing maternity clothes with Cort until I was 22 weeks. I am already wearing them now though I am still kinda in the in between stage for some of it. I have gained less so far( 5 lbs at 16 weeks) but started out a little above my prepregnancy weight with Cort so we'll see if it balances out.
I had my 16 week appt. two weeks ago. Everything was fine though the appt. was a little scary. The nurses couldn't find the heartbeat so they wanted the doctor to see if he could. What seemed like 20 min. was probably 2 - 3 minutes but the doctor found it right away. Yea!! My Blood pressure wasn't high but a little high for me so we'll see what it is next time I go. I don't think I was swelling at this point with Cort but I already am a little in my hands and feet. Yuck- this was my least favorite part of pregnancy with Cort. We go Nov. 7 for my ultrasound - and we will be finding out the gender - Can't wait!!!

Little Mulcher

Cort has a new hobby - crumbling leaves!! He thinks it is so funny for some reason. We figure we have a free human mulcher!!!

Drums

Cort loves playing on Chris' drums. The other night they were stacked up in our foyer and Cort starting playing the bass drum. Then, he called for Daddy and place him at another drum and called for me and placed me at the other drum. We had a little partridge family thing going. If we tried to stop he'd say, " Do, Do"

DaDa's

Cort is really into labeling things based on who they belong to. We often hear either "Mama's shoe" or "DaDa's shoe" and then see this...



He actually gets around quite well in them!!!

This is what I came home to...

A few weeks ago, I came home from running errands. The house was nice and quiet.Everything was clean and put away. Chris had Cort down for his nap. I walked down the hallway and this is what I saw in our bedroom - it made me laugh.




Reading Bedtime stories in the fort later that night...

Sophie and Cort

Just 2 days before Sophie got a new baby brother - she and her mom, Kelley, hung out with us for the day. The kiddos had a great time. Tommy and Chris joined us after work and we all enjoyed dinner together. A dinner of 6 would soon be 7!!!

Playgroup

We have play group every other Friday. Cort really enjoys it. It's about to double in size since almost everyone in it just had or is about to have a baby!!! We've attempted a few times to get a group picture - it never really turns out that great - here's our latest attempt...

Molly, Cort, Lydia, Sophie, Zach, Haley ( not pictured - baby Reese)