Thursday Thirteen - Counting my Blessings

It has been awhile since I posted something like this...don't know if they are still doing this around bloggy world or not but thought I should remind myself of my blessings...

Thirteen things I am thankful for right now...

1. I have a wonderful husband who loves me and whom I love.

2. I have four beautiful, healthy children.

3. All my children are finally home and we are able to be together.

4. Still waiting on my husband to get home but at least he is out working and we are able to pay our bills.

5. I have a great house that we own - no payments.

6. I have a wonderful family who has helped take care of me these last few weeks and who have proven to me that I can count on them when help is needed.

7. I have wonderful friends who I know that I can count on as well.

8. Even though it is freezing outside it is toasty warm inside.

9. My blood pressure is back under control and my incision is healing just fine.

10. My daughter is gaining weight and is healthy.

11. I am extremely thankful for all of the doctors and nurses that have taken care of my daughter in the NICU...many of them were the same ones that my sons had when they were there.

12. God has provided for all our needs and continues to do so...

13. My God answers prayers above and beyond what we ask and He has shown His faithfulness and that He cares for us.

Baby T on her way HOME!

Updates from this weekend....

Jan 23rd: I got great news when I came in today...The doctor ordered them not to gavauge (again - don't know the spelling) T and see if she could tolerate all her feedings by mouth for 24 hours. If she could then she could go home. WOOHOO! I didn't tell because I wanted to surprise the kiddos. So, she was doing all 8 feedings by mouth and she had gained 46 grams (2 ounces).

Jan 24th: She gained a whopping 96 grams (over 3 ounces) last night at weigh-in. She is taking all her feedings by mouth and she is ready to go home.... The doctor knew I was anxious to get going so he did her discharge exam before rounds and we where on our way!!! She weighed 4 pounds 8 ounces when she was born dropped down to 4 lbs 3 ozs and now leaving the hospital weighed 4 pounds just over 15 ounces.

I went to Mom and Dad's to pick up the kids (they were there for the weekend)...Mom opened the door for me but went back in to finish up some stuff in the kitchen. I walked in with baby T and said I had a surprise. Everyone ran to see - they were very surprised because last I had mentioned she wouldn't be home until tuesday which is what I was originally expecting.

The other kiddos were so excited to see her...they only saw her in pictures and for two minutes through the window of the NICU. Here are some precious pics....
D was all smiles when he saw her...so gentle and wanting to be so helpful. He is definitely a proud big brother. He kept saying that he loves his little sister....

C was so excited too....he kept saying, "She's so cute!" Which is what he said about K and he is very careful to take care of her. Hopefully that will carry over to his new little sis. I think from the picture you can see that it will.
K seems to love her little sister now...we shall see how long that will last :) She keeps pointing to T and giggling. So cute! She loves to point out her eyes, ears, mouth and nose but has to be watched very closely. She is Grandpa's girl but didn't get jealous when he held T...she just went off to play with other things and when Grandpa's lap was empty she went to sit. She loves T's passy and tries to steal it...I will have to watch this one carefully - not that she would mean harm but it might just find her.

Here are all the kiddos...what a good looking family if I have to say so myself :) It will be interesting to see what kind of personality Ms T will have...the others have such different personalities. Only time will tell.

Oh, well...I am just glad that we are all home here together again. That was getting a little wearing on all of us. I appreciate all the help from my family and friends during this time when T was in the hospital. I never could have done it without all of you - I knew that my older three were being well taken care of and I didn't have to worry about them...I could concentrate on T and getting her home. Now we are just waiting for Daddy to get home and we will all be together again....One Big Happy Family!

New Baby T Update...

Here are some more updates on Baby T...

Jan 19th: She was up to 4 feedings by mouth per day....the rest was gavauge (not sure of spelling). She was up 80 grams or just over two ounces last night when weighed.

Jan 20th: Still only on 4 mouth feedings per day - she still gets very tired and gets worn out very easily. Though she is eating more than what is "allotted" for her. She is supposed to be eating 43 grams but she has been eating 60 grams. She gained 10 grams last night.

Jan 21st: She is up to 5 feedings (when she is up to all 8 by mouth for 24 hours she can go home). She gained another 10 grams - not much gained but at least she is not loosing! They were going to try to the carseat test today but the seat that we used for K did not work for T because she is so much smaller. The shoulder straps did not fit right so it was postponed until I could get a different seat...

Jan 22nd: She is on 6 feedings by mouth...getting closer! She was down 53 grams...her first loss since she started gaining weight. Doctors said that was more typical though because she is working harder eating than she would just being fed by tube. AND, she passed her carseat test today!! Hurray! Another step closer to going home...now we just have to be eating all feedings by mouth and gaining weight.....SOON.....Here she is during her carseat test. She had to be able to sit there for at least a half hour without any "spells." She didn't have any problems but I didn't think she would because she hasn't had any problems normally...

Another Update on Baby T

Here is Baby T all comfy, cozy in her isolette. As of Friday the 15th the top is off and she is regulating her own body temperature at room temp. She is still hooked up to the monitors but really has no need for them - that is just protocol.

On Saturday the 16th, she is up to her full feeding level of 42 ml per feeding and they are now starting to fortify it so that she is getting extra help to grow. She gained a half an ounce and so her weight is 4 pounds 5.2 ounces.

The nurses do weights at midnight each night. On Sunday the 17th at midnight, she gained 3 ounces!!! That is huge. The doctors said not to get our hopes up too high that she will continue to gain like that though - more than likely they said she may lose some of that again. She had a big day today...Daddy fed her her first bottle - she took some swallows but then got startled and would not take any more - total of 4 ml by bottle today. She had her first professional pictures taken - the NICU has professional photographers come in and volunteer their time to take pics of all of the babies and their families (unfortunately with RSV and flu season they do not allow siblings under 17 into the NICU). Later on this week we will receive a disk with all of the pictures on that they took. I will definitely be posting those when I get them. She also passed her hearing test as well and did two BF's. Whew! That is a lot for such a little girl.

Monday the 18th does not slow her down...she must know how much Mommy wants her to be home so that we can all be a family... Today, she gained a little over half an ounce so she is back up to her birth weight. She was also measured during the night, her head has gained a cm and she is now up to 17.52 inches - up from 17.25. Mom went to one of the workshops that they provide for NICU parents and she made a bracelet with T's name on it...I might have to take that up - it was kinda fun, besides now I need one for each of the other kiddos. She took her first full bottle this morning at the 3:30 feeding and also did 2 BF's. Hopefully she was awake enough at 9:30 for the nurse to try another bottle. (I picked up the other kiddos and brought them to my sisters not being able to make it back in time to BF).
Isn't she beautiful! It is so nice to be able to count on my family to help me with the other kiddos because I don't know what else I would do with them. I think that the kiddos are getting kind of tired of not being home though. I think this is taking it's toll and hopefully if T keeps up in gaining and feeding we will be home very shortly. I can't wait to have all of us just be home. Of course that will have to wait to be completely true until Dan gets back from this job in Canada. It was either go on this job or not have ANYTHING for awhile (who knows how long!) so in order to pay the bills he had to go! I am sure it is harder on him being gone but we will survive until he gets home.....

Update on Baby T

The kiddos are not allowed in NICU so they have only seen her through the window for about three minutes. D made her a picture of "Our Family" so she would know who they all are. We hung it on her little crib for her. Can you tell who is K by the whale spout on her head? :)Baby T is doing great - she had maintained her body temp enough to be put at room temperature today. Which means they will pop the top on her crib. She had a hard time maintaining her temp after her first bath but did great after her second bath. She is up to 42 ml per feeding which is her "goal" feeding and so this morning they started adding fortifier to it to help give her more calories and grow more. Last night she gained a whole ounce back and so she is back up to 4 pounds 4.5 ounces and hopefully tonight will gain some more (they weigh them at midnight).

Once she has gained some more weight and strength we will have her start eating from bottles. Then once she tolerates all her feedings either nursing or bottles and she is gaining weight she can come HOME!!!! I was hoping this would happen before Dan left for Canada but I don't foresee that happening. Shouldn't be too long though. I am excited to have her home!

Tessa Lorraine John

I haven't blogged for awhile - been in the hospital for a week. My blood pressure had spiked when I went in for my doctor's appointment on the 6th. They shipped me over to a bigger hospital close by. The doctors said that the baby was great and everything else was fine except my blood pressure - which they were managing. They were going to try to keep me in the hospital until I reached 36 weeks (I was at 34 weeks 3 days) unless some other complications developed or the baby was being harmed. I did not look forward to laying in the hospital for that long when I had other kiddos at home to watch. Actually, my sisters took care of where the others were so I did not have to worry about them - other then them not being with me.

On friday, a different doctor came in and said that there was a little higher than normal protein levels. He said he would like to do the c-section that day when both baby and I were "close" to healthy rather than wait to have more complications for both of us. I agreed because I was already going stir crazy! This was at about 8 am. I called Dan and asked if he would like to have a baby today - it was deja vu of when we had D. He hurried in...

I knew we were having a little girl but Dan didn't want to find out. I was so careful to make sure that he didn't find out - not even telling some very close friends for fear they would slip - making them not so happy with me:). We did good up until about 45 minutes before she was born - the doctor is the one who slipped up though - not realizing that he did. He was just reassuring Dan that girls are more developed at this gestational age then boys are and so we should not have anything to worry about.

At 10:42 our littlest baby girl was born. She came out crying! A relief for mommy when she is so small. She was four pounds eight ounces, 17.25 inches long and lots of blondish hair. She was the smallest of all my children... I sent Daddy with her to NICU while the doc finished up and anxiously awaited to hear his report. She was doing great - no problems with her breathing or heart at all. She was hooked up to monitors but that was just because it was NICU protocol not really because she needed to be monitored. She lost a little weight - which all babies do and is considered to be a "Feed and Grow" by the nurses, because that is all they need to do - feed her until she grows a little stronger and bigger.

Below is a picture of her with my Mom - whom she is named after. Too bad she wasn't actually born on the 11th because that is my Mom's birthday too. I don't think that I could have laid in that hospital bed that long just waiting for her to be born though.

My blood pressure stabilized and I left the hospital on the 13th anticipating the day when the whole family would be together...

Snow pictures

I finally got a bunch of my pictures downloaded so I could post them. This is one of the first big snowfalls we had. K loves it outside and gets very upset if we have our coat on and she can't come with. She got new boots and the first couple times she wore them she kept tripping and falling because she was watching her boots and not where she was going...

I love the contrast of the pink against the snow...

Group Shots....Daddy was trying to help...

I love the contrast of D's jacket and the white of the snow...

C was all tuckered out afterwards but very deep in thought yet.

Pictures from the Water Park

Here are a few pictures from the Water park on C's birthday. As you can see the lazy river was a big hit for the little two. D spent as much time as he could in the Cub Tub - little kids hot tub - he likes floating on his back in there.


Sorry, the pictures are not very clear because they were taken with my phone...the camera was forgotten at home and the hotel didn't have any disposable cameras. They did have fun though...

Pictures of the Sleigh Ride

Here are we all are - ready for the sleigh ride - covered in blankets to stay nice and cozy. The weather wasn't actually too bad. The big wet snowflakes were kind of fun although C didn't really think so. K loved the horses but couldn't see them from where we were sitting so she had a few fussy spells but overall did great. D was worried about the wolves coming out of the woods to get him.Here we go...it was about a half hour ride. The horses really did work hard pulling us through the fresh snow. They deserved extra hay that night....

Well, I guess I survived another one...

Not that I know where my blood pressure is but I survived another Christmas season. It was way too hectic and things will be done differently next year but I guess you are always learning. New Year's Eve was fun - I hosted a Murder Mystery Party called "The Good, The Bad and The Guilty." It was lots of fun - especially because everyone got into dressing up to their part even though I didn't get their information to them way late. Here is a group "shot" of the motley but interesting crew....

Yesterday was the boys' birthday party along with my nephew's. It was a great time - they had lots of fun playing with their cousins...Here are a couple of pictures of their day...

K loved the cake too - at least the frosting...

I just downloaded pics of Christmas so I will have to post some of them later. I forgot the camera on Christmas Day and at the hotel for C's actual birthday...but I guess that keeps it even for forgetting the camera on D's birthday. I do have a few pics on my phone of water park so I will have to get them too. And, hopefully Uncle Bob with email me some from the sleigh ride....More postings to come...