Brennan's (hopefully) last surgeries!

So last Wednesday Brennan had his hopefully last surgeries! He had tubes in his ears, circumcision and orchiopexy. (Check out the link for what orchiopexy means...so not used to having boys!!) He was first case so we had to be there at 6:30am to register for a 7:30am surgeries. So thankful for Kellie for coming over at 5am so we could leave and got Hailey on the bus and Brooklyn to daycare! :) All went well - tubes were first because they took about 5minutes. There was fluid behind his eardrum so the tubes will help drain the fluid and prevent future ear infections - the boy has had them once a month since at least November! Next was Urology's turn and they were doing exploratory surgery to find his other bean (knew he had one, but was on a search for the other). They didn't find it, just the blood vessels that should be attached to it so removed them (leaving them in could put him at a high risk of cancer when he's older). This was actually the best case scenario (not for him!) since if they did find it they'd have to remove it and move it to where it's supposed to be. They also found plastic (?!?). Yep, that's what the surgeon said! We have no idea how it would've gotten there and even if we really really heard him right. They were sending the piece to pathology to learn more, but weird! We should know more in a week. Brennan was such a trooper! He was really sore and so confused about what had just happened when he woke up that we spent a little extra time in the recovery room. In about 45min he was back to himself, riding in the stroller with Landon and eating everything in sight! No easing back into his appetite! The only bad news...he can't jump for 3 weeks! Brennan lives to jump! He can't be in a saucer, jumper or any wrestling with Landon! :) He's doing LOTS of tummy time and working on standing/sitting - lots of therapy homework that doesn't involve jumping!

Brooke & Landon are recovering well from their pneumonia and should be on the surgery docket for early-mid May, since they have to wait 6 weeks from diagnosis. After having Brennan go through each of these procedures, I think God knew what he was doing rescheduling them so we wouldn't have such sore babies! :) So thankful for all your prayers for all of them! I can't wait for them to be healthy and we can just play and enjoy them! We're so comfortable with UM and hospital settings, but ready for a break!

Katelyn's Sunset Picture

Taking a bit of a break from all the sickness in our family, I have been waiting very impatiently for Katelyn's name to written in the sand at Christian's Beach in Australia and it was done and posted on Sunday! Please click here to see our angel's name.

Carly lost her son Christian in 2008, born stillborn and she has created such a ministry in his name. She write angel's names in the sun and photographs it with the beautiful Australian sunset. The website only has open waiting list at certain days and I've been waiting for almost 16 months to catch the site open and last Saturday it was! I was so excited that I quickly registered Katelyn's name then when I checked her place on the waiting list it hit me. My daughter died and her name is on a list of all other angel babies. It really caught me off guard and it was so hard to see her name in print and know that it'll never be on a report card, wedding invitation, her name is stuck back on September 27, 2009 5am. I talked with the grief group that Hailey and I go to and ironically many others had also dealt with seeing their loved ones names on a list. There was just something about the finality of her death, even though I know it happened, that was a clear reminder. It is comforting knowing this photo isn't just photo-shopped...Carly took time to remember my daughter's brief stay on this earth. She celebrated Katelyn's life with us, if even for a second.

Carly does such beautiful work, seeing this picture just brings a sense of peace. How beautiful is her view of the sunsets! How awesome just hanging out in the glory of the Lord! Her photos bring a glimpse of that beauty and awe, and it's an incredible reminder to me where Katelyn is. I'm sure she is basking in the warmth and beauty of His love and that's what I think of every time I see the sunsets. Their website has a quote "At the end of the day, all the children of heaven come together to paint the colors of the sunset." Thank you God for giving us a glimpse of Your beauty with my angel's name on it!

Landon's trip to the hospital

Thanks all for your prayers for Landon! Also, sorry I didn't get the word out better, my cell phone died and I didn't have a charger! Thursday morning Landon was sleeping as his gtube feed was going in and coughed then started gagging a bit and threw up mucus. It still seemed like he was still gaggy so we got him out and patted him on his side for him to get the rest of it out and suddenly he stopped breathing. His eyes kinda went in the back of his head and it looked like he was sleeping but chest wasn't rising. We patted his back trying to stimulate him to breathe (he needed this last time he was having trouble) and he'd gasp for a breath every once in awhile. Brought him out to the family room, gave him a couple puffs of Albuterol inhaler, opened his airway, kept patting and hooked up the oxygen monitor since he was starting to turn colors and he was sating 64%. Nich cranked up his o2 from 1/4 liters to 2 liters and he was still sating low 90s. It took about 5 minutes but he started breathing consistently again. I went up to take a shower in case we needed to take him in and just when I got in Nich called up that he did it again and was going to call the ambulance. Of course by the time they got to our house he started opening his eyes and was sating better, but this had went on for about 20 minutes. They listened to him and said he was moving air well but advised us to follow up with our pedi. He was busy, so we went to the ER. There Landon was sating well so they just observed and just after we talked about getting ready to go he dropped out of the blue to 59%. ER doc decided to do a chest and abdominal xray and came back that he had severe bilateral pneumonia (he had a small pocket of pneumonia diagnosed 2/23 but we thought he was getting a lot better). They quickly decided to transfer us to UM since they couldn't handle him. So, after 5 hours in their ER, we went for an ambulance ride to UM and sat in their ER for 6 hours. Long story short....Landon has baseline bad lungs. No new pneumonia, just that hospital didn't have an idea of what Landon's BPD lungs look like. Here's a picture to compare...big picture is BPD lungs, not Landon's just from Google Image Search :) Top left is healthy baby lungs, bottom left is bilateral pneumonia lungs. That was an easy mistake to make. Good news - no pneumonia! Bad news - he has really sick lungs all the time. We didn't realize how fortunate he/we've been to stay out of the hospital so much! Kids with BPD generally have a lot of respiratory issues that require hospitalization, no wonder when you see how sick their lungs are! So what happened?? We think he may have somehow aspirated some of his tube feeding (a bit got into his lungs probably when coughed/threw up), which probably sent him a bit into a respiratory distress bout. So thankful it wasn't anything worse! He's at home, on 1/4 liter o2 and doing great!

Jumping in Muddles!

Oh to be a kid again! Hailey took advantage of the flood advisory :) After breakfast she found her new raincoat (thanks Nana!), Barbie rain boots and headed out to jump in the muddles (mud-puddles). I just love that she calls them muddles!



I caught her in action!! I was inside feeding the babies but could hear her belting out her song and quickly grabbed the camera! I LOVE this girl!!

Brennan's Surgery Update

So WAY behind blogging! I actually uploaded my pictures from my camera tonight and had ones on there from January 27! WOW! Now that they're on my computer, hopefully that'll motivate me a little more to get them out to you!

So Brennan had his eye surgery to fix the Strabismus on Monday. Landon was supposed to have the same surgery right after Brennan but a few days before we found out he had pneumonia...never goes according to plan! Here's before and after pictures! His eyes constantly raced but now looking at these pictures, I realized how bad his eyes were.
The after picture isn't very good but I really wanted to get a picture of him tonight! He did so good! The nurses said he didn't cry at all and willingly went with anesthesia! That made it much easier on us! :) It was a 45 minute outpatient procedure and we met him back in the recovery room right after he had woken up. His eyes were actually bleeding and it made it really hard for me to look at him and feed him (I had to feed him a bottle to show he could keep food down) because I was looking at his bloody face. He is so strong! We was a little whiny the ride home and that evening, but he was playing when he got home like nothing was wrong! The surgeon said it'll probably be 8-12 weeks until we know the final result of how his eyes took to the surgery, but he looks great so far! He opened his eyes at least midway and can focus on things! It was so cool to watch him really see things! This was the best surgery ever, no complications and we saw immediate results! God is so good! Our next round of surgeries are March 23 - Brennan & Brooke will get tubes, Brennan will be circumcised and have his other boy surgery. Landon has to wait 6 weeks from his pneumonia diagnosis so probably not until early-mid April. Keep us in your prayers!

The Heart of a Micro Preemie

A little different of a Valentine's Day post, but reading this today just really inspired me! Borrowing this text from an email I received today from the Graham's Foundation (a support organization for parents of micro-preemies)...

"The human heart is such an amazing thing. Over a lifetime, one heart will beat 2.5 billion times and move the equivalent of 250,000 gallons of blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels. The heart does the most physical work of any muscle.

Even more amazing is the heart of a micro-preemie...a heart not much bigger than a cashew. Very early preterm infants are more likely than full-term infants or even later-term preemies to be diagnosed with patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) and cardiovascular malformations. And yet those tiny hearts beat with amazing strength, having had plenty of practice even though a micro-preemie's time in the womb is far shorter than it ought to be. "

-- Doesn't this just get you energized!! Our babies are just AMAZING! Having the heart of a cashew! They each went through the PDA ligation and their little titanium clips they used to close the PDA were only millimeters long. Brooklyn was the smallest baby they had ever done a PDA ligation on! Isn't it just incredible that something so small can sustain life and do the job it was intended to do! Reading this, I just stood in awe of God's workmanship. We are truly his creation - is there any other explanation that a heart the size of a cashew could keep my babies alive!? These tiny hearts overflowed with God's goodness and every beat was for His Glory! This Valentine's Day, though remembering a little bit differently, reminds of us of His love and our love as parents. We also remembered Katelyn, though her heart not beating as strong, was perfect for what God needed her to be. As tiny and young as she was, filled our hearts with such indescribable love.

We did the typical Valentine's Day too - Nich bought Hailey & I flowers (actually Hailey's was from her "secret admirer"), Hailey wrote out about 30 Valentines to school and day care friends, but tonight we picked out the perfect Valentine's for two super special people. Hailey's class made Valentine's for veterans that are in the VA Hospital and she wanted to send one to Uncle Joe because he was her soldier. Even though Katelyn couldn't read hers, we didn't want her to feel left out :) Such a thoughtful sister!

Brooke helped Hailey pick out Katelyn's, a pretty purple flower.

Hailey picked out Uncle Joe's (a smelly Shrek one!) and wrote out Uncle Joe & Katelyn's names on their Valentines and we sent them off! They actually didn't get stuck in a tree this time!!! First time ever! :) Happy Valentine's Day! Wishing you all the love!

Next surgery round - a whopper!

We've known since they were born that when the boys turned 1 year adjusted they'd need to be circumcised (they were much too fragile to do it while they were still admitted). Nich took them to their January Urology appointment and we were planning to get a date scheduled...turns out the boys need more boy surgery, both different. Brennan's missing a nut...they need to do exploratory surgery to find it since it may even be in his abdomen! Landon has had a hydrocele for awhile and they feel it's not resolving itself and may cause other issues so are planning to take care of it.

8 days later they all went to their Opthamology appointment and left with the boys needing eye surgery...total surprise! Brooke's eyes are right on track but the boys are starting to go cross-eyed (called Strabismus). She has a degree of this but not warranting surgery. Read the link if you have a chance - it's really interesting what happens and the eye muscle surgery they can do. It may not work 100% but will help the eyes look in the same direction and hopefully not confuse the brain. :)

8 days later they all went to their Audiology & ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat) appointment and they all need tubes in their ears! We were kinda expecting that for Brooklyn, hoping for Landon (this means part of his hearing loss is conductive/fixable!!!), but were surprised for Brennan! Since Nov, she's had 4 ear infections and Brennan has had 3. Thankfully they're such tough kids we didn't even know and were taking them in for something else!

So all in all, walking away with 9 surgeries/procedures scheduled that we learned about within 3 weeks! Brennan & Landon - 4 each and Brooke scoots out with just 1. We're hoping to do this all the same day, sometime in February. I know you're thinking we're probably crazy and torturing ourselves/the babies, but 1 round of anesthesia, 1 surgery day and 1 recovery round! They'll book 3 OR's and go right down the line! We're really praying the babies go through this well. We're praying Landon's lungs will be strong enough to get right back off the vent! This time around feels so different, even though we've already been through 19 surgeries between the three babies, this time they've been home for so long and they're older! Every time we go back, memories fill with what it was like 16 months ago. Turning them over to the doctors and surgeons is so hard but God's going before us, which is our strength!