Weekend Home

Well I am actually home this weekend. Can I just tell all of you how good it is to come home after two months. When I turned off the exit in Rexburg I cried. I was so excited. When I walked in my house it all looked so different. It had just been way to long. It was kind of hard leaving Aiden, Brock and Collin but they are in good hands at the hospital. I am hoping that this weekend home will get me rejuvenated.

The boys are doing pretty good. Aiden had to go back on the canule. He just needs a little bit of help and the reminder to keep breathing. Thursday night his weight was 3 lbs. 5 oz. On Friday he got to start bottle feeds. The first time he took 12 mL of his 28 mL feed amount. Then the second bottle he took 20 mL. Yeah!!!! Friday night his weight was 3 lbs. 6 1/2 oz. He is doing super. If he can just keep doing good on the bottles, it makes it that much quicker to get him home.

Brock is doing better today. The last several days he has been really puffy from water retention. Yesterday they did an xray and say that he did have fluid in his lungs, so they gave him a diaretic. It helped and today his xray was so much better. Today he also got his PIC line out. He is all through with the antibiotics and is up to 22 mL on his feeds. He is doing alot better. Thursday he weighed 3 lbs. 2 1/2 oz. and Friday he weighed 3 lbs. 2 3/4 oz.

Collin is also doing really good. Nothing major has changed for him. His feeds went up to 30 mL yesterday which is 1 oz. He also started bottle feeds. His first bottle he took 10 mL of his feed. Then his second bottle he took 10 mL also. Today they took his feeds back down to 29 mL. He is doing pretty good though. Thursday night he weighed 3 lbs. 6 1/2 oz. and Friday night he weighed pretty much the same.

4 weeks

Well tomorrow we hit the 4 week mark. I can't believe it has been that long. Time goes pretty fast when you look at what has happened. It's what you're waiting for that doesn't go as fast. The boys were good today. Aiden and Collin had no changes. The only change with Brock is that his feeds were going up to 14 mL today. He is also a little puffy. He is retaining a little water and is a little red. They think it is from all of the fluids they have been pumping into the little guy. He is just having a hard time getting on top and ahead of everything. Hopefully in the next couple of days he can get balanced out and have no new changes.

Well I am heading home tomorrow afternoon minus my 3 newest additions. Paige, Kayla and I are going home for the weekend. I am so incredibly homesick I can't stand it any longer. I just need to go home and be home for a few days, get a few things done and I think I will be able to make it the next 6-8 weeks, however long it will be until we can go home for good. Also, Matt needs a ride down, because he misses his boys, so we will go pick him up. So we will all come down Monday morning and spend the week with the boys. Then the next weekend Matt and the girls and possibly me again will head back up to get Paige into school. I want to go and send her off on her first day of 1st grade, but I just don't know if that will work or not. We will just have to see.

The girls had a sleepover last night at Angela's house with Kobi and Ava. Tonight they are all sleeping at Grandma and Grandpa's because Angela had her baby today. Congrats Angela, David and family.

Aquarium

This morning I took the girls to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. We went with Grandma Nielson, cousins Kobi, Ava, Josh and Aunt Angela. It was really fun and the girls had a fun time. Then we did lunch, McDonald's of course and then Angela took them to her house for a sleep over tonight. They were so excited for that. The one advantage to being in Utah is that the girls are getting to spend alot more time with their cousins than they normally do. They are going to miss that when we go home.

The girls in front of one of the big fish tanks and petting a star fish.

The boys are doing wonderful today. No problems or changes. Everything is pretty much the same today. Brock's feed increased to 10 mL and that is about all. Their weights from last night are: Aiden 3 lbs. 4 oz., Brock 2 lbs. 16 oz., and Collin was about 3 lbs. 3 oz. If they can just continue on the up and up, we will maybe make it home sooner than we expected.




Aiden waving "hi" to his Daddy. The boys and we miss you. See you soon!

Doing Good

This afternoon when I went to see the boys, I peeked in at all of them in their little isolettes and I thought to myself how good they all look. They are all really starting to fill out. They aren't little birdie babies anymore. I thought they have looked that way for awhile, but today they just look really good.

Aiden has no new changes. He is doing pretty good. After he gets his feeds, he has several drops in his oxygen, but they aren't that bad. He is still in the lead of being our biggest. Matt nicknamed him "Tank." He weighed 3 lbs. 3 3/4 oz. last night.

Brock is looking so much better today after his blood transfussion. I think his color is alot better and he just looks healthier. They checked his levels last night after the transfussion and they were back to normal. His feeds were increased to 7 mL today and they should continue to go up. The seven day round of antibiotics ends tomorrow and then he should be able to get his PIC line out a couple of days after that. Today they started giving him Zantac because they got a little bit of dried blood out of his tummy when they checked his residual. They think it is just from the Anderson tube that he had down his mouth last week. So they are giving him Zantac for a few days to help his tummy. He is starting to gain on Aiden and Collin in weight. He weighed 2 lbs. 14 oz. last night.

Collin is still the same. The only change for the little guy is the amount of his feeds. They increased to 26 mL. Last night he weighed in at 3 lbs. 1 oz. I am counting my blessings for how good they are doing. We are coming up on 4 weeks and things are looking pretty good. At this point we can just hope that we don't have any major setbacks and that they keep steadily progressing. They are the cutest little angels. It is starting to hit me that I really have 5 kids. This week with having the girls here and spending time with them in the morning and the boys in the afternoon, it is starting to really get tiresome. It is hard to juggle my time between all of them. I hope it will be a little easier when we are all living under one roof. Right now our family is spread out under three different roofs and it is hard. We will make it though.

This last weekend I took the girls to the park.

Another Manic Monday

Today was kind of a crazy day. After a morning of dealing with my whining girls, I went in to spend some time with the "3 Muskateers." Here is the daily update.

Aiden had no big changes today. They have increased his feeds to 27 mL. So hopefully he will keep chunking up. He is liking sucking on his binkie, but not as much as Collin. Last night they do the weekly measurements. He weighed 3 lbs. 2 oz. and was 16 1/4" long.

Brock was pretty good today. I guess last night his oxygen kept dropping and then they checked his hematacrit (sorry for the spelling) level and it was really low. (that is his blood level) So last night they did a blood transfusion of 12 mL and another one this afternoon of 12 mL. Hopefully that will help him start to get on top of things. They decreased his feeds to 3 mL, hardly anything, but hopefully it will increase tomorrow. He is just starting to get the hang of the binkie thing. He did pretty good with it today though. His weekly weigh in was good though. He is gaining weight, that is the best part. He weighed 2 lbs. 12 oz. and was 14 1/2" long.

Collin continues to good also. He had no major changes. They increased his feeds to 25 mL. He is gaining on Aiden in the weight category. He weighed in last night at 3 lbs. even and was 15" long. He really likes to suck on his binkie, so hopefully he will do good when they start trying bottle feeds in the next couple of weeks.

This was my favorite picture of the day. Brock with his binkie.

Another Sunday

We have made it through another Sunday. That means I can check another week off of the calendar. After church today I went in to see the boys. I spent most of the afternoon and then Max and Christine brought the girls out to see the boys. They are doing good today.

Aiden is about the same. Today they stopped giving him his caffeine. He is breathing really good on his own and is not needing the caffeine any more. They think he might have a little reflux, so they have put his feeds on the pump over 45 minutes instead of 30 minutes. Here are his weights for last week.

Monday - 2 lbs. 9 oz.

Wednesday - 2 lbs. 15 oz.

Thursday - 3 lbs.

Friday - 3 lbs. 1/2 oz.

Saturday - 3 lbs. 1 1/2 oz.

Brock is doing pretty good today. This morning they put a PIC line back in Brock because he still has 4 more days of his antibiotics. His IV's aren't staying in good, so instead of putting a new one in each day, they put the PIC line back in. He also had to go back under the lights today, because he was looking a little yellow. The best part was that they started his feeds again today. He has to start low, at 5 mL and he will gradually work up. So he is slowly getting back on track.

Monday - 2 lbs. 3 oz.

Wednesday - 2 lbs. 7 oz.

Thursday - 2 lbs. 6 oz.

Friday - 2 lbs. 8 oz.

Saturday - 2 lbs. 10 oz.

Collin is also doing good today. Today they turned the humidity off in his bed. He is able to maintain his body temperature by himself. Other than that he has nothing new happening.

Monday - 2 lbs. 7 oz.

Wednesday - 2 lbs. 11 1/2 oz.

Thursday - 2 lbs. 11 oz.

Friday - 2 lbs. 12 oz.

Saturday - 2 lbs. 14 oz.

As Kayla would say, "Look at my cutie little Aiden."

Our Happy Family

It is official. We finally got our first photo with our newest additions. I know it isn't the greatest, but we will take anything we can get. Aiden and Collin are right next to each other, (Collin in the red blanket) and Brock is all by himself because he has been on antibiotics for a tummy infection. We didn't want him any closer to the other two, because we don't need any more infections. Matt and the girls came down with my mom and dad yesterday. It was so good to see all of them. After seeing the boys, Matt and the girls went camping down to Nephi to a family reunion. They really enjoyed themselves. Today Matt went back home and left the girls with me for the week. It is really good to have them down here. I missed them. Although when Matt left, Paige was crying really hard. She wanted her daddy, but she didn't want to go home with him. She just wanted him to stay with us. It is getting harder on the girls. They are starting to really feel the effects of our crazy summer. This will soon all be over and we be able to stay at home as a family. We can all hardly wait. It has been a couple of days since my last post, so I will give you the update on the boys.

Aiden is doing fabulous. Last night he broke 3 lbs. He weighed in at exactly 3 lbs. 1/2 oz. Yeah Aiden. He is still breathing on his own and doing great. He also lost his umbillical chord yesterday. Today he graduated to preemie size diapers.

Brock is doing better. Yesterday they took the big tube (Anderson tube) out of his mouth that was suctioning the gross stuff out. He continues to only get what fluids he needs through the IV. They took another Xray of his tummy today and it was pretty much back to normal, so they will start his feeds again tomorrow. We are all very glad. We need to get him chunked up. Last night he weighed 2 lbs. 8 oz. and he also graduated to preemie diapers today. They are more like a shirt on him though. Today he also had to get his sodium level tested. He is peeing all of his sodium out of his system, so they are going to give him additional sodium.

Collin is doing pretty good too. Like Brock he also has low sodium, but not as low as Brock's. He is getting additional sodium in his feeds. He also moved up a diaper size to preemie. Last night he weighed 2 lbs. 12 oz. so he is gaining on Aiden. He is still on the canule, but has been pretty low on it.

Aiden is in the white blanket and Collin is in the red blanket.