Lindsey is one of the strongest Mama's I know! Her little guy Kaleb (pictured above) has endured a lot of struggles so far. Here's a little about his story....
Baby Kaleb was born on August 1, 2010. 16 hours after he was born a nurse tested the oxygen level on his hands and feet and found only his body was getting oxygen . They quickly realized he was in heart failure and near death. He had Congenital Heart Disease- Critical Aortic Stenosis and Endofibroelastosis.
His aortic valve had only one leaf instead of three and it was closed. The right side of his heart had inflated to compensate. Less than 10% of his heart was working. He was sent by ambulance to RVMC where they readied him for a flight to Portland, he was not expected to live through the flight. Doctor's performed a life saving surgery called an angioplasy, to open his deformed valve. The surgery was successful but caused severe leaking around the valve. They found Kaleb's heart muscle had stretched and scarred on the outside of his heart and has a rare condition called Endofibroelastosis.
In October 2010, he had a second surgery which was unseccessful to fix the valve and caused more leaking. Later, Kaleb was admitted to the hospital to be put on an experimental heart medicine. Now Kaleb is in isolation at home and takes four heart medications twice a day. He is regularly being monitored by his doctors and is blowing them away by doing things they said he couldn't do. After his second surgery he was given 6-8 months to live and they said he wouldn't grow and his heart would give out. Today he looks like any other baby and is nearing his 2nd birthday!!
He will need a lifetime of surgeries but for now, we are letting him get bigger and stronger until they say he can't wait anymore.
Lindsey is working hard to raise awareness for Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) and pulse ox testing. Pulse oximetry is a non-invasive method allowing the monitoring of the oxygenation of a patient's hemoglobin. Without this it leaves our babies suceptible to preventable disability and even death. Pulse Ox Oregon (Kalebs Law) would help make pulse ox testing, a regular part of newborn health screening. 1 in every 100 babies born are born with CHD and is the number one birth defect.
To learn more about Pulse Ox Oregon (Kalebs Law), please visit HERE.
Ok, now for one of Lindsey's fantastic recipes! And a word from her!
Hi!!! I have this amazing peanut butter oatmeal recipe I got out of a Redbook magazine years ago that I want to share with you!
I love this because it's such a versatile recipe that always comes out great. I've tried several variations, and they are all fantastic! The other day I made a double batch and was short on flour so I added more oatmeal. I've ran out of brown sugar so I add extra white sugar and a little more vanilla extract. I've made it with raisins, chocolate chips but my favorite things to add are either 1/4 cup of cream cheese (for a richer taste) and with a different extract like almond or cherry OR packets of flavored instant oat meal like maple and brown sugar or apples and cinnamon.
Sometimes I'll make really big cookies and add ice cream (they freeze great) or jelly to the middle and make them into pb&j cookies (for the kids). If I do that one I'll use less sugar and substitute the white flour for whole wheat with a sugar free jam or homemade jelly. You can also add less butter and a few dollops of yogurt so it's healthier but still stays moist. One of the newest things I tried and LOVED was making a "whoopie pie" filling with cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar ,vanilla and maybe even cocoa, it tasted decedent.
So here's the recipe:
Peanut Butter Perfection
1 cup all-purpose flower
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter (either chunky or creamy)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup quick cooking oats
Heat oven to 350*F
Whisk flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder in a separate bowl.
In an electric mixer on medium speed beat butter and peanut butter until smooth. Beat in sugars until well blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla. With mixer on low speed, beat in flour mixure until just blended then stir in oats.
Spoon level tablespoonfuls of dough into balls and place 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.
Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned at edges.
A tip that I've learned in baking cookies is to never overcook them. They may look under-cooked when you take them out, but they keep cooking on the hot baking sheet so trust me, they'll be perfect. Most recipes recommend removing the cookies soon after they come out but if you have chocolate chips in them its always best to let them fully cool before removing them. That way the chips will stay with the cookie and not with the pan :)
**** Thanks Lindsey for sharing this great recipe! I'll be trying it soon at my house! ****
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