A week of young and old

This last week we had the privilege of welcoming a new addition to our extended family. Madison Ann was born to Jake's brother and his wife and she came sooner than we all expected. Tommie, Ben's wife, went in for her checkup and was showing signs of preclampsyia so they monitored her overnight and decided to induce her 4 weeks early. Ben and his wife Tommie were so nervous but after a long hard labor and finally an unexpected C-section, Tommie delivered a beautiful baby girl. She was tiny weighing in at only 4 lbs, 1. oz, and 19 inches long. Her lungs are doing well, she is eating relatively OK, but they haven't been able to bring her home from the hospital quite yet which has been really hard for them. They can't bring her home until she gains more weight and can maintain her body temperature. We haven't been able to see her and hold her, so hopefully we will get to soon and I will post the pictures of Abby's newest cousin!

On a sadder note, when Ben called his Grandpa to let him know about the news of the baby, Grandpa wasn't making a lot of sense while he was speaking to Ben on the phone. Ben thought he might have woken him up from a nap, but realized as he continued speaking with him that something wasn't right. He called Scott, Jake's Dad to go over to check on him because he was at home alone. Apparently Grandpa Speed had suffered a stroke, and they immediately took him to the ER. His motor skills were relatively still intact, but his memory and recollection wasn't good and his heart was irregular which was worrisome because he has had multiple heart surgeries and currently has a defibrillator. We were up at the hospital to see Ben and Tommie and had just come home when Jake's Dad called and told him what happened and asked him to come back to the hospital to give Grandpa Speed a blessing. When Jake came home he was very concerned because he has never seen his Grandpa like that. Well a few days have past now, and he is doing a little better. The doctors were trying to figure out what happened to have caused the stroke and determined that it was a blood clot from his heart that went to his brain. He came home on Saturday, but unfortunately is back in the hospital again because his heart rate became rapid and they weren't sure what was going on. Grandpa Speed is 85 years old and is the heart of Jake's family. Jake and his brothers have such fond memories of fishing with him, working on cars with him, and just spending time with him. Jake even had the opportunity to live with him before his mission and was able to have lots of good talks with him before he left.



It's hard for Jake and his family to see his Grandpa this way. We are praying that things start getting better for him, but also know how frustrated Grandpa Speed is that he is having so many health problems and can't do the things he used to do. It's ironic because if Madison wouldn't have been born that day, Ben wouldn't have called his Grandpa to give him the news and discovered what had happened to him, so for that we are grateful, we just hope that Grandpa Speed is around for a lot longer to enjoy more times with his family and news of more grandchildren!!