It's Not A Doll!

It's a magical, musical seahorse...and it's blue.

A Very Merry Christmas

Christmas 2008 was one for the books - all 3 babies were home and we had a ton of snow! Isaac was released from the hospital the day after his surgery. He impressed all of the doctors and nurses with his speedy recovery and the fact that he didn't forget how to eat. Little did they know that he had been practicing vigorously on a binky for the previous 3 weeks:) A swallow study (cartoon-like x-ray) showed that the little man would benefit from thickened formula though - a little concoction Casey and I like to refer to as "Tiger Milk", other than that we are trying to get back into the smooth, systematic routine we had before Isaac went to the hospital...ha ha....ok, A routine:)

Christmas was a lot of fun even if the little guys didn't know what was going on. They were so good and just sat there soaking in all of the festivities. Until later that evening I had never believed in over-stimulation:) Although I swore the boys were only getting diapers and wipes for Christmas, a last minute trip to the store by daddy, a visit from Santa, Grandmas & Grandpas, and Aunties & Uncles resulted in some serious spoiling! I'm not sure why Santa spent so much time wrapping the gifts just for Casey and I to open;)

Recovering

Isaac finally had his surgery this morning! He was transported to Children's Saturday afternoon (in hopes of beating the snow storm) and has been patiently waiting for surgery. After a long night of little sleep with mom and dad taking shifts to jump up and put his binky back in his mouth, Isaac had finally drifted off into a deep sleep when we got the news that they could get him in this morning instead of later this evening. The little man did great! The surgery was an "open" surgery instead of laproscopic and he may have a cool scar like Uncle Jeff. He was only in the recovery room for about an hour and is now back in his regular room snoozing away. The surgeon told us that Isaac's pylorus muscle was one of the biggest he had ever seen in a preemie! How did 4 doctors miss this diagnosis then, you might be wondering...don't get me started!

In a couple of hours we will get to try to feed him some pedialyte and graduate up to regular formula if he tolerates it well. Casey and I are confident he will do well because he is one scrappy little fighter. Isaac has not eaten from a bottle or had food in his belly for 3 weeks now and is pretty mad about it! The surgeon warned us not to let him make up for lost time and gulped down an entire bottle:)

Next step - getting out of here with a small child post-surgery in the worst snow storm in a decade. If Casey thought I was a nervous passenger before wait until we get Isaac in the car!!

Before surgery

Isaac and daddy

After surgery sleeping away with his faithful companion Wizard the dog.

Baby Updates

Evan and Drew recently had their 2 month vaccinations and check-up. They are big boys now weighing in at over 9 1/2 lbs each! They did not like getting the shots in their legs. Evan cried hard enough to almost make me start crying and Drew screamed like mommy - mouth wide open with nothing coming out...until he caught his breath and then really let it go!





Isaac is still at the NICU in Everett and being transferred to Children's today if all goes as planned for surgery on Monday. Since he is older now he requires a lot more stimulation so the nurses have had their hands full trying to keep him entertained. He gets to swing, listen to music, have a mobile on his bed, and sit in the vibrating chair in his doorway to watch the nurses work (and hopefully get tired). Hopefully he will recover quickly from his surgery and get to come home on Christmas. If not, Santa will have to make another trip out to the Lake.



Brewster is surprisingly a good big brother. He is only jealous of the babies pacifiers and will take off with any left sitting around. He likes to kiss the babies on their heads and often has to be told to stop as he tries to give them a bath. He does not like the unpredictable arm flailing and is confused as to whether or not they are trying to play with him. I do think that Brewster tries to establish his dominance by eating his treats in front of them though. He has no idea how bad things will get for him once these little guys are mobile:)

Some things that I have learned recently as a new parent...

Finger nails are good for getting baby boogies
Finger nails are bad when changing dirty diapers
Baby farts are funny
It is not funny when a baby can't fart
I should always have my hair pulled back when burping a baby over my shoulder
Babies can burp like grown men
I should never wear anything nice
It is so sweet when babies start to grab and hang on to you
It is not sweet when babies pull your hair
Babies know exactly when you get comfortable in bed
Babies hide cheese in their fat rolls
Babies like to pee when changing their diapers with no lights on
and many other things I can't think of due to lack of sleep...

Comeback Kid!

We are thrilled to report that little Isaac is doing much better. He is still recovering at the NICU from his aspirated pneumonia all the while winning the hearts of the nurses. The cause for Isaac's pneumonia has been determined the result of pyloric stenosis (enlarged muscle between his stomach and intestine) and is currently waiting for surgery to be scheduled at Children's Hospital in Seattle hopefully by the end of this week. He is still fragile with a recovering immune system but is 100% better than he was last Saturday!!

Although 3 babies are a handful we can't wait for Isaac to get home and get back into our chaotic routine. I think Evan especially misses his identical twin and talking to him in their secret language (which sounds like dolphins). Things just aren't the same without Isaac at home where everything comes in 3's.

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers. Isaac sure is a lucky guy to have so many people thinking about him!!

Thoughts and Prayers Please

We are hoping that everyone can keep Little Isaac in their thoughts and prayers as he is very sick. We had to take him to the emergency room Saturday morning and he has been admitted back into the ICU. Isaac either aspirated a lot of fluid into his lungs or has pneumonia. In any case he is on a ventilator and receiving antibiotics, all of which are helping keep his little body going. It is slow going to clear fluid out of the lungs but our little Mighty Mouse has made progress every day and I'm sure will continue to do so.