Joseph Mueller Joseph Lyle Mueller

Joseph was diagnosed with an incurable disease.  Are hearts are heavy & sad to say the least, we are devastated! It seems like a bad dream, but we know that at any point we will loose our baby boy.  With our faith in God and the support of family and friends, we will get through this.

Matt, Candice, Jacob(2) & Joseph(7mo.)
(please read Joseph's background story too)

Joseph Lyle Mueller, was born October 22, 2008 at 7 lbs 9 oz.
Mommy's water broke early that morning and went into the hospital after she dropped Jacob off at daycare.  I was born by c-section, just like my brother with no complications.  My brother was 10 lbs 7 oz when he was born.   I fit into the newborn diapers better than he did, and I will catch up to him. 

The 1st two months of my life were great!  I stayed home with Mommy and bonded with her.  We would always go for a drive and pick up my brother after his nap.  Mommy always said that I would love going to daycare with my brother, when she had to go back to work.

After my 2 month appointment things went down hill.  We started having to go to the Dr a lot.  I was diagnosed with thrush, and then I got double ear infections continuously one after the other.  I was having problems gaining weight, which made my Mom and Dad really worried.  I was hospitalized in March of 2009 with failure to thrive.  After many tests (EEG, MRI, Ultra Sound, many blood test, urine, etc) and a week in the hospital I was diagnosed with acid reflux and was sent home with a perscription.  I had a weight check every week and sometimes twice a week, to see if I was making good progress.  Mommy told the Dr that she was gonna feed me ice cream and make me malts so I would gain some weight, cuz it always seemed to work for her.  We just kept trying cereal to see if that would help.  Daddy would reassure us that maybe I had a high metabolism like him.  Now why can't we all have that problem?

I started going to an ENT Dr to find out I was a good candidate for tubes in my ears.  Before we could get that done I was hospitalized again, with my weight issues and my cough.  I was in the hospital for 9 days, had repeated tests and additional ones and 9 days straight of drawing max amount of blood for other tests.  During my stay they decided to give me an nj tube for feeding.  While I was in the hospital I got tubes put in both my ears :)  The Dr said it was a good thing, because my ears were very yucky.  It was the best thing though, I could finally hear Mommy, Daddy & Jacob and my family & friends that came to see me.  There were some noises that scared me a little, but I got used to it in no time.   Since all my tests were coming back ok and there were just a few pending results.  They sent me home, YAY!!!

On May 7th, my tube looped out of my nose during the night.  I layed there with a smile on my face, just cuz it was morning and I always had a smile for Mommy & Daddy.  Mommy & I headed to the hospital to get a new one put back in.  What a day it was!!!  It took forever to get some milk put back in my tummy,  I was getting hungry.  I was such a good boy and slept through most of it and smiled the rest of the time.  Mommy got some very bad news that day and was told that I was a very sick little baby boy and she cried a lot!!!!!!!  After leaving the hospital we went to find Daddy and he cried with her.