Update with Pictures and Video

I finally got some good pictures and even some video of Kaitlyn today.

She is doing very well. We were hoping to bring her home today, but the Neonatalogist wanted to keep her one more day to monitor her eating. She is doing fantastic now, so I am very hopeful she will be discharged tomorrow.

Enjoy the pictures and video. If you have a hard time viewing the video, maybe hit refresh and try again. She is so adorable!!!!

And this is what happens to Daddy after an exhausting week. He has been super-dad this week doing it all. He fell asleep during the BYU/UTAH game this afternoon. Does that tell you how exhausted the poor guy is?? We love him!

Update and Pictures of Kaitlyn

I am finally home from the hospital so here are the long awaited pictures!

First, an update on our sweet baby.

She is still doing well. Her Bili levels came up, so she is now being treated for jaundice under the lights. I think she is already looking better after several hours today. So that is very hopeful. We still aren't sure of the cause of her spitting/vomiting. She is now on another new formula called Similac Sensitive RS... meaning it has rice starch added to slightly thicken in. This is the 4th formula now. Crazy. She is still nippling about 21-24cc of her 35 cc minimum per feeding. It's good that she is still trying and still eating mostly by mouth. And her Oxygen levels are still great with no big de-satting during feeds. I am very happy with her progress and I hope she continues to improve each day.

Here are the pictures from her birth on that we have taken. I took a majority of them over the last day and a half. Scott was stuck home with a sick Trevor, so it has taken until now to get them home and downloaded. Hope you enjoy them!!

This one looks creepy of her under the lights. It looks like she is glowing or somthing.

Isn't she so sweet??????

Baby Kaitlyn is here!!!!

I am so happy that Kaitlyn is here!

And for those of you wondering how it all happened. It's been a whirlwind, that's for sure!!

Saturday around 2pm, I started having some painful contractions. I have been having contractions for so long that I knew these were different. I had just been in to see my OB the day before and she told me that if I got painful ones that lasted for more than 2 hours to head into the hospital. Of course I don't want to go if I don't have to, so I waited and waited. Around 7pm I had enough pain going on and some other weird feelings that I figured I should just go in and get the shot to stop it all. So, I get in the car and drive over. (sorry for those of you I just realized don't know I live across the street from the hospital). I get there, checked in and put on the monitor. My contractions are actually every 1-2 minutes. They decide to give me a double dose of the meds I have already been taking for contractions. An hour later it was no better. So my nurse checked me and I was dialated to a 1+ and 30% effaced. So they then give me some Morphine to help with the pain and relax me. Then they bring in what they called was the Big Guns.... aka Terbutaline. It is now 10pm and I call my mom to come to the hospital because I no longer can drive myself home and I was sure I was still going to be able to go home. Then they check me again. I am now a 2+ and 70% effaced. Crap.... that was not going well. So they give me more meds, start an IV for fluids to see if that will help and we waited to see. The contractions never stopped, or even slowed down with multiple doses of meds. Around 2am they start referring to a c-section and I realize this really might be it and she is coming now. I took some Ambien to make me relax and they kept pumping me full of stuff. By 5am I am at a 3+ and 90% effaced. My nurse calls the NICU to give them a heads up since I am 34 weeks. It was really sinking in then that this was it. Around 8am they gave me one more big dose of the Terbutaline and said if things didn't improve in 45 min they were doing my C-Section at 10am.

So we welcomed Kaitlyn Margie Christensen at 10:19am. She was 6lb even and 19 inches long. I saw her from across the room, but never close up. We heard her cry and knew she was doing fairly well before they wisked her off to the NICU. My surgery was finished and I went to my room. We saw Dr. Berger, the Neonatologist about 11am. He came to let us know how she was doing and what the plan was. Since she was a preemie, she had typical preemie stuff. Her lungs weren't developed and they were doing a Surfactant Treatment to get her going. He told us they would do one treatment, draw labs to see how it worked, then would do as many treatments as needed. Josh needed 3 when he was born. She only ended up needing the one. I saw pictures of her from what Scott could take, but I was not able to get up and moving enough from the surgery to see her until 9pm that night. But I did get to hold her at that point and it made it all worth it!!!

She is doing amazing. There is no other way to describe it. Yesterday at 2pm she came off her oxygen already and hasn't needed any since. She also started feedings finally and has done very well with that. She is not perfect, but for being 6 weeks early she is doing well. She is sucking and swallowing and very interested in eating. She is still learning how to eat and coordinate everything, but I could not be happier at her progress.

Now, her biggest hurdle is going to be jaundice. I have not found out what her level is this morning, so I don't know if we are going to need to start light therapy or not. Jaundice is hard because it makes the babies too sleepy to eat and the only way to get rid of the bilirubin in their system is to eat and poop it out. So, we really hope we can avoid the vicious cycle of shutting down and having to do tube feedings. So far she is doing great, but preemies like to change in an instant on you. So we will be watching those blood levels very closely.

Dr. Berger told us when he came to see us right after delivery that we should expect a 10-14 day NICU stay. But we are hoping she will break the mold and come home sooner than that because she is doing so amazing.

Please keep her in your prayers that her little body can keep up and she can continue to do awesome. We really want her to come home soon.

Also I will post pictures on here tomorrow when I get home from the hospital. If anyone has Facebook, we do have pictures on there. She is so adorable and tiny. We are going to need preemie clothes and diapers.... something we didn't ever think we would need. I am just happy that all is well considering I could not make it to my 36 week mark.

Thanks for all the love and concern!!!! I will post again soon.

The never ending surprises

I think our house is full of never-ending surprises. Most of them lately have not been exactly fun surprises though.

Josh has been full of unpredictability lately. He has had days where he eats nothing at all, and then he had two days in the last two weeks where he ate so much, we only did one feeding in the morning. I wish I could figure out what was behind it and jump on that wagon. But so far, I am not sure what triggered his healthy appetite, but Scott suggested it may be a growth spurt. Who knows!

And the little bugger pulled out his G-tube again tonight. At least he told us he had done it. Although he told Scott by pointing to his tummy and saying ow, and he ignored him. I got home about 5 min later and he did the same thing. I always look at his stomach, always, when he complains it hurts because things can go bad really fast. Sure enough... it was gone. Scott kinda freaked out, but I have to say for once I was really calm finally about it, and it didn't scare me like it has in the past. I am not sure if that is a good milestone or bad one for me to hit. LOL! But we grabbed his Emergency Kit, got a smaller catheter in first, then got his button back in. He whimpered a little, but didn't cry. So all is well. I just wish he would leave the thing alone!

Now for an update on baby news. Kaitlyn is still doing well. I have been doing Non-Stress Tests (NST) twice a week now to monitor her specifically. I always get hung up at the clinic because of contractions, but so far things are OK.

I did have another hospital visit this last saturday night. I caught my kids' cold last friday and started coughing really bad that night. By saturday morning all I did was cough...almost constantly. Then I coughed so hard I started to throw up. It just went downhill from there. Finally around 7pm after not keeping anything down for hours and throwing up my meds to keep my contractions under control, I realized I was going to have to go to the hospital. It was not a bad visit, only about 3 1/2 hours. I had IV fluids since I was really dehydrated, some injections for the contractions, some Zofran to settle my stomach, and some good cough meds with codeine to stop the cough. Once I was hydrated again, I felt alot better and the meds all helped as well. But even though that is under control, my cold has gotten worse. I just hope I can start on the upswing in the couple days. This cold is kicking my butt! I only need to make it 2 more weeks to the 'safe' point and it seems like I am barely eeking along. Sigh... what else is new?

So, that is how we are surviving. I am getting excited for Kaitlyn's arrival and I am finally completely ready. I am ready to be done with the pregnancy as well. Although I am getting more nervous about the C-section/tubal I am having and the recovery part. But I know it will all be OK.

I will keep everyone updated on how things are going. Thanks for all the help and prayers!

For those of you who may not believe me...

Josh is not a good sleeper. Never has been. Which is why he has undergone sleep studies, numerous EEG's and ect. None of his doctors have been able to get a good idea of what is going on. He does see a Sleep Doctor that has prescribed him some Trazadone that he takes nightly to get us some hours of sleep.

So last night I was having a hard time sleeping and he was awake so I thought.... why don't I video the baby moniter to give you an idea of what goes on in our house every. single. night.

And yes, I even took a picture of our clock so you could see that this starts everynight between 1:30 and 2 am and goes on for a couple hours. Also this is why he will never be able to share a room with anyone.

The video isn't much to really 'look' at, since it's the sound of the video I want you to hear. I decided to focus on the baby moniter so you can see the pretty lights I see every night.

If you listen closely to this video you can hear thumping. That would be his head hitting the wall over and over. Awesome.

The only things that have come back with all his testing is 'inconclusive' on his EEG's and a 'wild and violent rocking sleeper". Nice huh? I wish there was an answer, or something else we could do, but for now this is just how life goes. The end.

~~~~Check out the next three new posts I did. 4 posts in one day! I should get a gold star!~~~~

Do you want to have a Heart Attack???

Well watch this video then.

And yes, Scott was taking the video and encouraging this. Enough said.

Halloween

I was not the fun mom this year for Halloween so I didn't get much pictures, nor did we do all that much celebrating. Kinda hard at 8 month prego to do all that.

I only got these 4 pictures. Sad, huh?

This is my neice, Aliyah as Dorothy and my nephew Jarron as Darth Vader.
Trevor was supposed to be a Roman Soldier, but refused to put his costume on after all, so now he was claiming to be a baseball player since he was wearing his jersey from baseball already. Clever huh? Jordan was a Duck Hunter to be just like Dad (I know, big surprise!) Josh is having some major sensory issues right now, so we skipped the costume all together and just got him a Halloween shirt. Worked for me!

These are my two newest twin neices and brother in law Jeremy. Cambrie and Andie were dressed as M&M's. So cute!!!

Andie was the blue M&M and Cambrie was the green one.

Next year I will be so much more on the ball!

What's in my camera??

I decided to empty out my camera and post a couple pictures.

Trevor is the photographer of all of these pictures. He has suddenly become the family historian I think, and takes pictures more than me. I guess it's good though!!

Here is what he made at Cub Scout's last week. It's called a Graveyard. He was very proud of it and requested I post pictures on the blog.


And in case you wonder what happens when we try to feed Josh, here is what he does.

Puts things on his head (heaven forbid his mouth).

Or dumps it out on the tray and floor and wears his bowls on his head. Mmmm... probably not the progress his doctors want to see.

Enjoy!

I am still here!!!

It seems like everytime I sit down and even think about doing a blog post.... something happens and I get distracted. Plus, since my iTouch has Wi-Fi on it, I do most internet things, checking blogs, ect. while resting on my couch or laying down. Since I have not figured out how to post from it yet... I keep getting behind.

So, just in case you are wondering about how we are surviving........

Me. I am stable. That is the best way to describe it. The contractions are staying under control as long as I don't lapse in my meds or do too much activity. It is so hard to believe I have been on meds for 11 weeks now. That seems like so long to me! I really can't wait to be done with the ProCardia. It causes migraines and nausea, and occasionally dizziness. I am taking another med now to counter-act the headaches and ect so I can function. But that medicine makes me really out of it. But my head doesn't hurt and I can eat. So it's like a double edge sword with meds right now. I just am so glad this is all pregnancy related and I get to stop taking everything once Kaitlyn in born. But on the other hand, my sugars are still doing well and I have not had to increase any insulin in over 4 weeks. So that is great news! I am also trying to get over a bad sinus infection I got with the cold I caught 3 weeks ago. I lost my hearing a couple nights ago and got vertigo (where you are so dizzy you vomit constantly). It was not fun. I went to the doctor the next morning and I have a sinus infection, one ear slightly infected and my other eardrum had ruptured. So it may take a couple more days to get my hearing back to normal. But I am already feeling a bit better today, so I think the antibiotics will work. I just hate getting sick while pregnant. You never know what is something that needs to be treated, or just let run it's course.

And Kaitlyn is doing great. So far every ultrasound (I have one every appt) has been amazing and she is developing well. She was about 3 1/2 pounds last week. Her head is measuring just about average, which was one of my biggest concerns because of Josh. She is most definitely a girl, Dr. Julia told me she rarely gets that good of a look so she can say with 100% confidence. Which is good because my house is getting more and more pink in it. And my sister is throwing me a GIRL baby shower next week (something I never thought I would get!!!!). It's going to be so much fun. The boys don't really have a clue what is going to happen, but they tell me daily they just want her out. I don't think it is because they are that excited to meet her, but they are tired of all the restrictions and stuff on me that has effected them. But they are all troopers and are dealing with it pretty good.

Now the kids. All 3 are doing good right now (knock on wood). School is going well for all 3 of them and we seem to have a nice routine now that runs smoothly. Makes the world of difference when things aren't so hectic.

I will hopefully get to post some Halloween pictures in a couple days. My kids are very low key this year due to Trevor and Josh not liking to dress up and me having a hard time shopping anyway. But it's all good and they are happy.

How fast things change

~~Before you read this, scroll to the bottom and turn off the music~~

So updating my blog has taken a backseat... I'm sorry!!! But given the pregnancy issues going on, I am sure everyone will understand!

Just to start this update off..... and for those of you who don't know..... I did indeed get to have my first trip to the hospital for contractions last saturday night. I have been having them for weeks now, but they were every 3 min or so and after a day of meds, hadn't slowed down. I was also not feeling well which I knew could be possible pregnancy complications. I went in, they monitored me for a bit, gave me a shot, took labs and since I have an AWESOME doctor, I was able to come home after 4 hours. I just have to take the meds every 4 hours round the clock now for the rest of the pregnancy and be even more careful (is that possible???). So all in all.... it wasn't too bad I just needed an extra boost to get things back under control. I really hope this isn't a forewarning of what is to come... but who knows. Other than that things are stable for me.

OK... now THAT is all over with.... here is a big update on our little guy. It's been a busy week for him with big appointments. But first.... pictures!!!!

These pictures are funny. Believe me. If you know Josh, you know he HATES blankets of any kind. He has not had a blanket in his crib or his bed now since he learned how to throw them out. He doesn't sit under them or even care to have them around. But Trevor on the other hand likes nothing more than to tightly wrap his entire body in a blanket. He has been doing his daily reading alot while under his blanket on our couch. A couple weeks ago, out of the blue Josh just started dragging this blanket out and using it while he reads books. It is so funny to see him copying his brothers. Makes me smile!!!

I really hope this video works (since I can't tell until I publish the post). It was the other night when Scott was getting his nightly G-tube stuff/meds/jammies done. All Scott was doing was sitting there looking at Josh. He wasn't making faces... just starting at him. It is rare we hear Josh laugh like this. I grabbed the camera because it was so cute. Enjoy!

Now for the appointments. Yesterday Josh had a routine appt with Dr. O'Gorman, his GI doc down at Primary Children's. There have been many appointments we go into knowing that there is multiple things to talk about. This was actually a quick appt for Josh and I loved that. He is doing very well from a Health standpoint. His height and weight are right at target now, he is on the charts and looks awesome. I already knew that, but it's still nice to hear. For once this was not our biggest concern area. Should mark the calendar on that one. LOL! But..... as usual there is always something that has to be figured out. This time it's his worsening (to put it mildly) constipation issues we have going on. He holds his stomach alot and says 'owie' and cries. He doesn't poop for days, when he does it is completely awful. So I didn't know what the answer was going to be... but something has to change. Dr. Molly (that's what she has the kids call her) had a resident and another dr in training all come in the room to get opinions. (love having THAT kid). She doesn't want to increase any meds (he is on 5 for constipation), but she is pretty concerned. She has been his doctor for 2 years now. She flat out told me she was really thinking by this time we would be weaning meds, not upping doses. So after a lengthy and in-depth conversation about the foods he IS willing to eat by mouth, she has a hunch. He eats a lot of carbs. Since he has been eating more by mouth over the last 2-3 months and that is when things got worse... she is concerned his body can't process carbs. I guess there is a couple disorders for that, but they are hard to diagnose. So since she doesn't want to totally rock the boat right now, we decided on a plan to see what we can do about it. Every 3-4 days we are going to have him go NPO (no food or drink by mouth) and do only G-tube feeds with his special formula and see if we notice any improvement. If we do.... we add more NPO days to see what happens. She does not want to make him NPO all the time, but at the same time is also worried about long lasting damage/results of this constipation. I have to agree.. he IS only 3!!! So that is our new plan. We did double one med dose, but that was it for now. She just doesn't want to increase any more meds since he is on 13 meds a day for all his problems. I will have to see how this is all going to play out.

Now for his appointment today. He had an appt with Dr. Winters who is a Developmental Pediatrician with 'Children with Special Health Care Needs' (CSHCN). She is an awesome doctor and it was a GREAT appointment. We only saw her once before, last september so I wasn't sure how today would go. This was supposedly going to be yearly appts. Not so anymore. We discussed everything under the sun about Josh...from health concerns, developmental concerns to ways to keep him healthy. The only bad thing today at all was the fact that we go mis-info on a previous diagnosis for Josh. We were told Josh's Angelman Syndrome test came back positive, and today found out it was negative. She even called down to Salt Lake and talked to Josh's Genetics Dr. to confirm it was negative. Some nurse screwed up royally (but we don't get into it). I went into the appt with an actual list of things that I am concerned about behavior wise with Josh. Since he is complex with multiple things going on, I wondered if the struggles we have are just part of what he already has, or have we missed something. Josh has steadily gotten very, um.... how do I put this nicely?? ..........WILD and crazy. He is very all over the place, never focusing, always moving, climbing things unsafely, making messes, unwilling to sit with people, yada yada yada. I know most parents always think there child is the worst one out there at times, but I really wondered how several months ago (and granted he was sick and not full of energy) he was a mellow, easy going kid who was semi-calm..... to this WILD and out of control boy who I literally can't keep up with anymore. Where did my Josh go? He is head banging, hitting himself, throwing things, into everything under the sun, climbing on everything he can and usually falling because he is not coordinated enough, hyper-active (putting it mildly), won't sit at all, ect. I know 3 year olds are active. But this?? I really was thinking something was going on, but had to idea if it was sensory or not. After a long talk (like an hour and half!!) with Dr. Winters, and her asking all sorts of odd questions she finally sat back and told me I was not crazy, he is a handful and a half, and probably too much for me to be handling right now. I thought I was just being a wimp! She then told me what has completely surprised me in a way, but also made me so excited that my mommy instinct was once again right. Josh has ADHD. He is at high risk for it with his neurological problems anyway, but she told me she is 100% confident we will get this diagnosis at some point soon. Most doctors are very hesitant to even consider ADHD in a 3 year old, but she told me there couldn't be a more textbook case than Josh. He has all the risks factors for it, and all the signs for diagnosis. It totally made sense to me though. I have blamed some of his hyperness and behavior issues on his being developmentally delayed. But lately..... I am just in over my head. I can't even look away from him and he is into, onto, or under something so fast I can't even waddle over fast enough to stop him. I haven't been very vocal about how hard things have gotten with him, but it has. And now I know why. Now I know I am not crazy and wimpy, that even Dr. Winters told me she can't imagine how my family is holding up with him right now, and that there is something else going on, without a doubt. But...... what do you do with a 3 year old who has ADHD? Our plan for now is to go back to see her the end of january and if things have not improved with his hyperness and lack of attention, we are going to look at some meds for him. She thinks he might be able to pick up on speech and develop the language skills a bit faster if he could focus. I guess it really could be impeding his learning. Sad that I didn't realize this. But once again... the sooner we get treatment, the better off he will be. We learned that with Trevor and autism, and I will do what it takes for Josh now too. He is going to start back up with Occupational Therapy and Speech through the Primary Children's rehab, since he is not doing therapy (oops!) right now other than what they do at school. I dropped the ball on that one and after being told by two doctors in two days that I should not have let him have the summer off (and part of fall now too..) I am feeling that big mommy guilt. I just was enjoying not running to therapy for him too. I already am doing in weekly for Trevor... I just was not up to doing it yet. But I realize it is important and I need to get him back in as soon as possible. And we'll get there.

So.... now that this update is really long.... I am done. Josh just keeps me on my toes constantly. Literally actually. It's kind of hard to be on 'bed rest' or 'scheduled resting' and keep up with him. There is no sitting around when he is awake. I am just glad there isn't a lot of times I am alone with him because of school and naps. I just need to make it about 8 more weeks and then heal up from the C-section and I will be good to chase him all day long. Hopefully. LOL!