G-A-R-R-E-T-T

hey mom, i can spell my own name.
T-O-Y...that spells Garrett!!

what exactly are you learning in preschool, my little man?
and how much does it cost us each month?

my personal shopper

olivia loves commercials. her favorite are "parent stuff" that she thinks would really help me out. here are a few of her favorites.

note: if you really want these, just click on the pictures and go right to the site to order them :)

pancake puffs

buxton organizer bag

the other day olivia told me she really needed hannah montana clothes. and just in case i didn't know where to find them, she told me "they have a whole selection at walmart, mom."

so if you ever need a shopping buddy or even suggestions, just all olivia.

big legs, charlie weis and a 60th bday

this week my mom turned 60. to celebrate my sister & sisters-inlaw took her out for a surprise spa morning then to a surprise lunch with her girl friends...and then finally to a surprise dinner at home with her brother, the guys & the grandkids. here's a few highlights of our day.

no my legs are not this big!

this is what happens when 2 sisters wear
the same pair of pants and sit together on a couch

can you believe one of his students gave him this t-shirt?

why are vintage little people so much more fun than new ones?

josie update:
poor josie - just gets tagged on at the end of the pictures! well, we didn't make it to see josie today due to all the birthday celebrations. yesterday i spent the afternoon with her and then my parents hung out with her in the evening.

all the blood work & x-rays came back showing NO infection in her digestive tract. they kept her off food for at least 24 hours. she started back up on milk yesterday afternoon and is doing fine. they are slowing increasing the amount back up to what she was at prior to her tummy getting all crazy.

the nurse said that the past 2 days she's showed a little bit of personality. she has a little blanket that's silky on one side and soft on the other. when the silky side is touching her body, she is happy as a lark. when the soft side is touching her body, she kicks the blanket off every time. a picky little girl? yup, she's definitely related to olivia :)

tomorrow (sunday) my parents are taking the kids for most of the day, so we are going to head to the hospital and have some quality time with josie. it's hard to believe she's 3 wks old. the days have gone really fast, but at the same time the whirlwind of her delivery seems forever ago. we feel so blessed that she's doing so well. all the scary "what ifs" that could have developed with her have never materialized, and for that we are so happy. the threat of setbacks is still real, but here's hoping for more calm weeks ahead :)

i'll try and post some more pictures of her soon. our camera is going in for repairs on monday (gotta love the timing!) so once i get my hands on a temporary camera i'll snap some picture some picture of her.

circus kids

gotta love tall ceilings!!
a must when you are training for the circus.

tummy trouble (updated!)

please say a little prayer for josie... i just got a call from her doctor that her stomach is noticeably larger than it was yesterday. this could mean 1 of 2 things...

1. she isn't tolerating her feedings. the simple remedy is to back off the feedings.

OR

2. she has an infection (NEC) in her stomach/digestive tract. this would require antibiotics and could turn serious if not corrected in time.

i should know more in a few hours as they are running tests right now.

i'd love to run to the hospital right now to be with josie. but with our 2nd car still in the shop and olivia home with the flu, i can't go in until this afternoon when tim gets home. that pretty much sucks. at least we know she's in great hands with the doctors & nurses :)

i'll update more when i hear back from her doctor.

update - 1:45pm

thank you to everyone for praying & thinking of josie!!

at this point it looks like everything is fine...her little tummy just needs a break from food. her x-ray showed lots of gas, but no perforations (that was the biggest concern). her blood work came back clean (no infection). they'll retest her blood late tonight.

the nurse said she's been pretty crabby and doesn't want them to touch her at all. they gave her a little sugar water & a pacifier and she's been napping peacefully for an hour.

so it looks like josie is in the clear at this point. they will watch her stomach and hopefully restart her feedings in 24 hours.

once again, thank you to everyone who is praying for our little sweetheart :)

josie's weekend

so tiny!

catching up with her sister & brothers

olivia & garrett do great in the nursery.
they just want to stand and look at josie.
ryan is a different story ...so many tubes, wires, buttons!!
what's a 1 yr old to do??

she went back on the cpap saturday afternoon.
it helped lower her respiratory rate (good thing).

she is up to 3lbs 3oz.
they are increasing her feeding amount every day.
she's currently taking 12ml every 3 hours.
(last week she was around 3ml every 3 hours.)

thanks barnetts for visiting all the way from mn :)
it was fun to share our little sweetheart with you!

all in all, a really good weekend for josie & her family!!

my first valentine's day

josie's update:

we had a meeting with josie's primary doctor on monday. it was very informative and very positive. the doctor said she was doing GREAT. her biggest challenge will be to avoid infection.

she is back on milk, every 3 hours. her breathing is fine and she is still getting assistance with the nasal cannula. she loves laying on her stomach and the feel of her blanket. (i'm not sure how they know she likes the blanket - but that's what a few nurses have said. so cool!)

josie's first valentine's day was lots of fun for us. we got to help out with her care (even changing a dirty diaper!) and the best part was we finally got to hold her again :) plus we were able to add a little color to her isolette. now she can grow in style :)

my dream dates

finally, a decent picture!

josie's big night

last night was a pretty fun night for us at the hospital. we got to give josie a bath (well, just a little sponge bath...no girly bubbles just yet), change her diaper, take her out of the isolette for a weight check (back up to her birth weight of 2lbs 14oz, woo hoo!) and lastly change the bedding in her isolette.

i called the hospital to check in on her around 6am this morning (might as well do something when i'm up pumping since nothing is on tv!). the nurse said she did awesome that night and it was all thanks to her bath. ha ha :) but seriously, what girl doesn't love a good bath?

cashed out after her bath :)

also, yesterday afternoon josie got her pic line, which i guess is some sort of "permanent" iv line. the pic line is in her left arm (bent one). you can just barely see it in this picture. her right arm has another iv line which is working great at this point. once it goes bad it will removed and they'll use the pic line exclusively. check out what's left of her itty bitty umbilical cord. the little bit of blood down by her heal is just from a heel prick for blood. note the lovely hopsital bedding...hopefully josie will have something a little bit snazzier soon. (check back later this week for pictures from her 1st valentine's day.)

brothers

what do you think they are looking at?

my new favorite shoes

too bad there's like a foot of snow outside :)

josie's hospital is near a mall...
i could post more of my new "favorite" items,
but then you might think i have a shopping problem

a shopping problem, who me???

watch me grow... and other stuff

josie at 1 week

the zoey doll is a little bit bigger than a beanie baby
in theory, i'll remember to take a similar picture each week :)

so josie's most recent details...
a few days ago she had her first blood transfusion, which kind of freaked me out, but they assured us it was fairly routine. she's been off & on the cpap and the nasal cannula (as seen in this picture). they take her off o2 completely for short periods of time so she can build her breathing endurance.

yesterday was her first milk feeding in a while. afterwards they decided that they were going to wait longer until her o2 stats (or is it sats? not sure) was consistent & stable. if they force her to digest food without proper o2 in the blood, digestion could take longer and could lead to an infection.

this wednesday is our first real meeting with her primary doctor (and a social worker). i think we'll have these meetings every few weeks - or more frequently depending on her status. hopefully we'll get a better idea of where they see josie heading in the days & weeks to come.

lastly, here's a picture of what our evenings often look like as we head home from the hospital. clearly, you can tell which kid takes an afternoon nap and which do not.

logic

in january garrett started swimming lessons for the first time. every week he would cry and scream and use every excuse in the book to get out of the pool. last week was the first week he didn't cry. (we were so proud of him...and totally shocked!) his teachers are great. he clings to their neck the entire class, but as long as he's in the water i don't care. tonight is swimming lessons...

so at breakfast today...

me: garrett, you have to eat all your yogurt.
garrett: why mom?
me: cuz that's how you'll get big and strong.
garrett: but mom... if i eat all my food i will get TOO big and strong. then i will be TOO heavy for my teachers to hold me in the pool.

we want their little brains to start working...but when they do that creates a whole other set of issues :)

staying busy

is it any wonder my kids came home from grandma & grandpa's house exhausted?
homemade playdough & peanut butter cookies... all in one afternoon!

and yes, those are original teenage mutant ninja turtles :)

(my favorite pictures are ryan and his pack & play...the fact that they posed him for those pictures is too funny...and so like something i'd do!)

just so you know...

my parents have been taking the kids the past few days from about 9am-4pm. that has given me lots of LOVELY free time. free time to sleep, watch tv and well, blog lots.

monday i am hoping to resume my normal life with the kiddos. so i'm guessing you won't see as many posts each day :)

but thanks to all my free time, i've FINALLY put some new pictures up on shutterfly.
click here to check them out.

abc

the grandparents bought the kids a big bag of that pink bubble gum. the kind that you only get on halloween and it's super hard to chew. not to mention the taste lasts all of 5 minutes.

olivia wanted a piece after school today. she also asked if i'd start chewing it for her.
thanks, but no thanks!

don't shoot the messenger

so after the call from the hospital the other day i'm a bit anxious every time the phone rings. yesterday i was taking a nap and the phone rang. caller id said "spectrum" which is josie's hospital. i was pretty freaked out and thought "not again!!!"

caller: hi, this is so & so from spectrum nicu
me: oh, hi (with a very shaky voice)
caller: don't worry, it's not an emergency! i'm just calling to set up your appointment with josie's doctor...

that poor secretary...i bet she has to say "don't worry, it's not an emergency" with every phone call she makes!!

1 week old

wow, it's hard to believe this little girl turned our world upside down just 1 week ago.

we love you, josie!!

(grandma & grandpa's hands)

breakfast

it's 8am and i just gave my 2 little boys fruit snacks.

i figure that since i have 2 week restriction of picking kids up & driving, i should have a 2 week grace period of feeding them whatever makes them happy, right?

i like big little butts

josie vs. ryan

pictures

josie with the cpap

one proud sister!

blowing kisses

we just met josie :)

update

around 3:30pm i got a call from josie's neonatal doctor. she had had a few alarms this afternoon and her color was off. they had several concerns:

• the meds to close her heart murmur (pda) might not be working
• she might have a small aorta
• possible infection
• her breathing & blood gases were off

by the time we got to the hospital they had stabilized her and she was back on the cpap (which helps her breathe) and her blood gas was looking better. in addition the heart x-ray (not quite sure what that's called) had shown that her aorta was just fine and her pda was almost closed up :) EXCELLENT news!!

the infection is still a possibility but they won't know for a few more days. but she's on new antibiotics to fight off any potentially new infections.

as of tonight, the docor said that aside from the cpap she's pretty much back to the same good/stable condition she was when we left her yesterday. so with that good news we are heading home in a little bit.

it was pretty scary getting that kind of call at home, but i'm sure it won't be the last. just pray for us as we deal with the ups & downs emotionally of having our little girl away from us.

(small bit of humor today... her neonatal doctor is Dr. Doctor)

josie's story

right after thanksgiving we had the 20wk ultrasound for our baby. we left thinking everything was fine. the next week my doctor called saying they had found a few "issues" with the ultrasound and we needed to see a specialist. basically, they found cysts in her brain and there was a gap between her first 2 toes. seeing these two items together raised a red flag for trisomy 18 & downs syndrome. needless to say, it was a pretty scary time for us as we didn't know what the future held for our baby.

on december 12th, we saw the specialist who preformed a second ultrasound. he confirmed the cysts & toes and scheduled us for an amnio. our risk of trisomy 18 or downs syndrome was around 1%. a week or so later we had our amnio results back - everything looked fine! praise god!

fast forward to last thursday (january 31st). the specialist wanted to do one last ultrasound to make sure the brain cysts had cleared up. basically it was just a routine follow-up. while driving to the appointment i caught a patch of ice and spun my car out into a large curb. no one hit me and it was a pretty low impact crash. i was fine. the accident happened right in front of amway world headquarters. before i knew it, security was there calling me a tow truck and directing me to the nearest lobby for coffee and donuts.

that afternoon i headed back to the doctor so they could just do a quick check to make sure everything was fine. well, i should say i assumed it was going to be a "quick check" as i brought garrett & ryan with me. nope - a 1 hour non-stress test. fun stuff with 2 little boys!!! by the end of the hour, toys had been put in the toliet, pee cups had been pulled out of the garbage and the iud display had been used as a cell phone.

the testing showed that the baby's heartbeat dipping so i was sent to the hospital for the night. i was just supposed to get some fluids and be discharged in the morning. the next morning i was told that the heartrate was still dipping and they couldn't figure out why. the doctors decided to do a c-section.

i was not at all prepared to have my baby born yet. but it was totally god's timing. once they delivered her via c-section they found out that her placenta was very small and the umbilical cord was both skinny & short (only 22 cm...32 cm is considered short). both of these conditions would most likely have prevented her from surviving full term. most likely she would have stopped moving one day and then it would be too late. neither one of these conditions would have been picked up in a routine office visit. thank god for the car accident and the monitoring i received that afternoon!

talk about god's amazing & awesome timing!!

we are still trying to process everything that's happened over the past few days. but one thing we know for sure is that god is so much bigger than we can even imagine. his plan for everything is perfect. we are just along for the ride. we look forward to seeing how he works in our family's life in the weeks, months & years to come :)

update

hi everyone-
thanks so much for all your prayers & thoughts over the past few days. it has truly been a whirlwind and we are still doing our best to process it all. soon i'll do my best to explain all that happened last friday and how josie came into our life a tad earlier than expected :)

but for now, i just want to give you a few updates and prayer requests...

• last night i was officially discharged and it was hard to say good bye to josie, but she's in awesome hands at the nicu!
• so far all her tests have come back great (no infection, good blood counts, etc.)
• she is off all breathing support and is even taking milk (through a feeding tube) every 3 hours
• as of 6am when i called this morning, she had gained an ounce...ok, that's not much but considering where she started from it's awesome!

a few prayer requests...

• she has a heart murmur, which they said is very common in preemies. she is going on meds and if that doesn't clear it up in a week or so she'll need surgery
• logistics - we are slowly figuring our way through this maze of how we'll keep life normal for the other kids while at the same time see her as much as possible
• fast healing - up until last thursday, ryan was attached to my hip...he misses that spot so fast healing for me would be ideal :)
• time - olivia & garrett just want our time & attention...pray that we can give them just want they need to make this a smooth few months

ok that's about it for now. i hear the kids waking up...so wish olivia luck as she tries to get ryan out of his crib for me :)

i introduce to you ....

Josephine (Josie) Elizabeth

2 lbs 14 oz.

15 inches

After a few unexpected events on Thursday, the doctors decided that it was best to do a C-section and bring Josie into the world on Friday at 1:03PM.

Both Elizabeth and Josie are doing well. Josie is getting a little bit of help from a machine that pumps air into her to remind her to breathe. Her test results are all getting more positive each time they take them.

Elizabeth will be discharged in the next few days and Josie will remain in the hospital for 6-8 weeks while she continues to grow and develop.

I'm sure Elizabeth will get online soon - so I'll let her share "the rest of the story".

Until then ... Congratulations Tim and Elizabeth! And, welcome little Josie.

posted by sarah