March for Babies 2012!

Today was March for Babies.  It was actually quite an emotional day, thinking how things could've been - should've been with the statistics...we are so blessed with these babies and the path God has brought us!  We want to bring awareness to premature birth.  The obvious effects on the babies, and the challenges they will have as they grow that they shouldn't have to carry.  The burden of guilt mom's carry, that no matter how much people say that they didn't do anything wrong.  Only God's peace can ease that weight.  The effect the frailty has on families, any minute the premature baby can have a complication.  The effect this stress has on siblings, they can't always play with their brother/sister how their friends do.  The research this organization does hopes that one day all babies will be born healthy.

Can you imagine how awesome it would be to have 4 healthy toddlers running around, taking in their environment with all their senses!?  Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade our kids for anything - I just wish they didn't have to deal with so much!  I wouldn't wish these challenges on any family and want to do whatever I can do make sure other families have healthy, long pregnancies with healthy, strong babies!

Today we celebrated the research that has been done and Brennan, Landon and Brooklyn's lives, yet achingly remembered Katelyn and the work that still needs to be done... 
 

 

We were so honored to be recognized with a plaque for being the 2011 Ambassador Family.  It's incredible how far the babies (and all of us!) have come since last year!

 

 Landon did so great! 

 

 Proud big sister! :)

They were running all over!  So amazing to see!  

Brooke and Brennan had so much fun together!

Thank you March of Dimes!!!!  We are so incredibly thankful for the research and awareness March of Dimes has done that has helped our family!

Ballet on a Rainy Day!

How do you keep 2 busy girls entertained on a cold rainy Saturday?  Break out Bella Ballerina and tutu's!  We found the whole Bella Ballerina kit at Goodwill complete with the teaching mat, bar and DVD!  We've watch this about 4 times today and the kids are having so much fun!  Brennan's even getting in on the action!

 

 Hailey was really into it, but Brooke looks like she's playing twister!

 

 She's getting so big! She's a little taller than Brennan :)

I'm so glad they're having fun together!  

Ok, so that's 1/2 the day....thankfully they're napping!  Now to figure out what to do the next 1/2 of the day! 

Landon's hitting milestones!

Since the hospital stays, this last week Landon has made some serious milestone progress!!  We're thrilled!  Usually hospital stays put him farther behind and he progresses slower but this has been quite the exception!  He's been in a great mood most of the day which is a big change for him too.  They did increase his Keppra (seizure med) dose so that may play into it.  He's been playing on the ground, in his wheelchair, practicing in the highchair, tolerating his hearing aids and AFO's with no problem! He used to only do one of these things for maybe 20 minutes at a time.  Well, without further adieu....  

Easter Sunday Landon sat up by himself for the first time!!  It lasted about 20-30 seconds but ever since, he's been wanting to sit up more and more and he's getting better at it!  He used to cry and get really mad whenever we tried working with him but now he's doing great!  I guess we just needed to wait until he was ready! 

His next big milestone happened today!  He's actually HOLDING onto the vibrating toothbrush, TRANSFERRING it to the other hand and bringing it to his mouth!!!!  He hadn't done any of those skills before which is HUGE!  This puts him on a range of 7-9 months developmentally - progress!  So many times, I get discouraged because he'll be at a standstill for awhile but it seems like when I give it up and stop worrying, he makes strides!  This boy is so resilient and determined!  Always surprising us!

We're praising God for everything Landon does!  He's come so far - especially since they told us he'd probably be a vegetable :)  Nothing is impossible with God!  I know He's got something special planned for Landon!

Hallelujah, We're Home!!

Haven't blogged in awhile because we've been pretty much living in the hospital for the last 6 weeks!  You think I'm kidding?  I know a lot of you follow me on facebook, but here's a quick recap...

Feb 14-Feb 20
Landon had the Human Metapneumonia Virus and during his coughing spells would throw up.  He aspirated one time actually on our way to the pediatrician's office and also had 3 seizures back to back (totaling over 45min) at the office.  We ended up transporting him by ambulance from the pediatrician's office to UM and he was treated for aspiration pneumonia and complex febrile seizures.  Here's the blog post from the last time he had that virus.  It's incredible to think even though it put him in the hospital, he's so much stronger now!

Feb 22-Feb 27
Brennan had scheduled Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy and ended up needing o2 that first night and wouldn't eat.  He needed oxygen for most of the stay and came home on an NG tube for tube feeding.

Feb 28
Brennan made a trip to the ER to have his NG tube bridled (tied to the bone in the back of his nose).  I thought it was going to be a quick trip but ended up being there with Hailey & Landon until 12:30am!

March 5-6
Hailey fell on the 5th and hit her her head smack on the parking lot and got a huge goose-egg!  She fell asleep on the way home from school and had a headache so I took her in to the ER.  They didn't do anything for her and sent her home but Tuesday school called and she was complaining of a headache, dizzyness and couldn't walk straight so we were back for a CT scan.  Thankfully it showed nothing, but she had a headache for a few days and got 2 black eyes!

March 7-10
Landon had a 25 min febrile seizure and had a lot of trouble breathing in the evening so Nich called the ambulance to bring him in since Hailey & I weren't home and he couldn't leave the other kids.  He stopped at the local hospital to be stabilized then survival flighted to UM and admitted to the PICU.  Ended up running lots of tests but nothing came back positive other than the aspiration pneumonia from 3 weeks ago.  They increased his anti-seizure medication dose and gave us a rescue anti-seizure med to use at home to stop the seizure from becoming so intense.

March 12-16
Brooklyn needed o2 when I brought her home from daycare and was working hard to breathe so I took her to our local hospital and she received o2 and breathing treatments before being transferred to UM (the local hospital doctors feared she may need ICU care).  She caught RSV.  She just needed up to 3 liters o2 and ended up coming home on a little bit.  She has a mild case of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD) and colds hit her harder (harder than Brennan but not as bad as Landon).  

March 20-31
Landon was acting sick at home but we were doing ok managing his o2, breathing treatments and suction but the 20th he was really lethargic so I took him to the pediatrician's office.  He wasn't working harder to breathe so the pediatrician just thought he was still hanging on from the pneumonia.  He ordered a chest xray and by the time I got him home from that he was needing a lot more o2 (more than our concentrator could go to so I had him on tanks) so called a friend to watch the other 3 so I could take him in.  We were going to be admitted but there was no beds so hung out in the ER until about 8am he started working really hard and needed more o2.  He deteriorated really quickly and had 3 teams of doctors in his little ER room.  They needed to admit him to the ICU team but since they didn't have any beds either, we moved to the RECUS bay to have a little more room.  Tried Bi-Pap to help decrease his work of breathing but that only irritated him more and wore him out so he was barely breathing and they needed to intubate.  Thankfully a bed opened and he was in ICU for 10 days, 9 on a ventilator then moved to general care.  He had RSV, another pneumonia and Pseudomonas. 

Crazy!!  Here's Brooke singing what we all were feeling!!  This video is so perfect!  Brooke is addicted to Praise Baby and her favorite song is Your Love is Amazing (aka Hallelujah song!) :)  We were all just overwhelmed with joy and so happy to be home!  Nich and I make a good tag team - I'm the hospital parent and he takes care of the other kids at home.  We've been in the house together 10 out of the last 47 days.

Our family, church family, hospital family and online family have really helped support us and help make it through these last few weeks.  God is our rock and won't give us more than we can handle.  When I felt like a breaking point - and had them with all three kids! - He provided just the right support and peace.  I hope we'll be home for awhile now!!