Happy Halloween!

For some reason blogger is uploading my pictures backwards. This is Kyle in his current home. Today he moved into the Pediatric Rehab Unit. It is a step in the right direction. He has his own room and we can visit him whenever we want. The girls even get to go see him. It is a little tough adjusting to a new place when we have gotten really comfortable with the NICU in the last 8 weeks but I know that it means we are that much closer to getting him home. This is Kyle sleeping soundly. He is such a good little sleeper. Hopefully that will continue when he comes home.

He really is a mellow baby but he DOES NOT like to have his clothes off and this was taken right after I undressed him. He calmed right down when I wrapped him up.

Not so sure about this outfit. His face reminds me of an Abby expression.

This is the cute Halloween outfit Aunt Karina sent. It is suppose to glow in the dark but I was there in the middle of the day so I will have to ask the nurses if he was glowing.

Here are the girls after trick or treating. They got quite a haul. They take their candy serious here on the east coast. We were not out for long and the buckets were full of the good stuff!
Some people were even passing out large candy bars.

Here is what the girls were doing before they filled up their buckets with candy...silly Abby!

Emma looks pretty cute with the bucket on her head.

My beautiful butterflies.

Just Checking Things Out

Kyle has started to have some quiet alert time. He really seems to just be taking everything in.

Just a Little Update

Sorry that I have not been very good with the pictures lately, but like they say "No news is good news!" Kyle is doing great. Once he found out how good food tasted in his mouth instead of going directly to his stomach in a tube he was hooked. He had been taking all of his feedings by mouth for almost a week now. I even get to nurse him when I am there and he is content to do both which I think is great after having Abby who would have nothing to do with a bottle. He continues to have some reflux but he really is doing well. As you can tell from the picture below he does NOT like having his clothes of but I could not resist the full body shot.

He really is a content little guy now that he is getting to eat. He had a grouchy couple of days when they were still trying to figure out of he could tolerate all of his feedings but that resolved as soon as he got to eat when he wanted.

I have a picture of me that looks a lot like this one. The poor kid lives in a very loud and bright room so I guess he was just trying to escape. Don't worry he is hooked up to all kinds of monitors that would tell us if he was having trouble under there.

He really is a sweet boy! He saw the opthamologist yesterday and his eyes are healing well. All we need now is for him to decrease the amount of oxygen he needs to have and we can take him home. Hopefully in the next week or two. We can hardly wait.

Chow Time!

This is Kyle eating his very first bottle. He amazed everyone and finished the whole thing! I should not have been surprised since he does come from a family of eaters!

Eye Surgery

Last weekend Kyle had laser eye surgery to correct some blood vessels in his eyes. The surgery itself went very well but Kyle spent the weekend re-intubated and pretty much sedated. His eyes looked pretty swollen and red so I am glad that he was able to rest comfortably but it was hard to see him that way again. It felt a little like we were going backward. We won't know for at least another week if the surgery was successful but the surgeon was optimistic. Kyle has recovered beautifully for his traumatic weekend. Trevor and I have joked that he just needed to take the weekend off and let the machines do all the work, because this week he has looked better than we have ever seen him. He continues to amaze everyone and do things at his own pace. His is still working on weaning his oxygen and learning how to eat. He did get to try a bottle this week and he has LOVED it. We are so grateful for his progress and can't wait to have him home.

She's at it again.

If you know my kids you know that they LOVE candy. Abby especially has a sweet tooth and she is always asking me for candy. Well today when we were outside playing all the sudden I could not find Abby. I finally went back into the house and this is what I found. At least I can say that she is creative. I am amazed that she was able to climb up on the trash can without it tipping over. For those of you who are thinking that this looks like something you have heard about before you are right. Abby is famous for sneaking candy this is just the first time I caught it with a picture.
Yes those are Halloween buckets. The good thing is that the candy inside is not left over from last Halloween we just kept replenishing our stash.
I guess little vampires just really like candy!!!

Hello World!

Kyle had a really alert day so I got out the camera and I think that he is just so cute!

Cute Bows

My friend Kim makes the cutest hair bows for little girls. I am hair challenged but my girls always seem to look so cute if I just stick one of Kim's bows in their hair, plus they love to wear them. You can check out her site here: http://www.kimsprojectsandideas.blogspot.com/ or her etsy shop here http://www.wishhappy.etsy.com/ Hope you like them as much as we do!

Family of Five

Today when we went to visit Kyle we got a nice surprise. The nurse taking care of Kyle decided to bend the rules and let Abby come in to see Kyle. Abby has not been able to see him yet and she has been a great sport. She has never complained so it was such a nice treat for her to be able to finally see Kyle. Our first family picture. Pretty cute if I do say so myself.
Emma got to hold him. It was actually her second time holding him but this is her first picture with him. She was great at holding him and he really liked the songs that she sang to him.
Abby was really excited to finally be able to come in and see Kyles "nursery room". After looking at him for a little while she said "Mom I like him."
Kyle is doing well. He had some little bumps this week but he is no worse for the wear. They are slowing working on weaning his oxygen and hopefully he will be able to try drinking from a bottle sometime soon. He continues to amaze everyone. His lab tests had been way out of wack showing a large infection. The doctors wanted to put in a central line to be able to give him antibiotics longer since his IV's kept going bad. With all the prayers on his behalf the day they were going to put in the central line his lab results were all back to normal. They decided to finish the course of antibiotics with oral meds instead of putting the line in which I am grateful for. The miracles continue and we are so blessed to know from experience that God answers prayers.

The Third Times a Charm!

On Thursday we went to the pumpkin patch with Abby's preschool class. We have gone the last two years and been both freezing cold and soaking wet. This time the weather was beautiful and we had a great time. We got to take a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch. As soon as we sat down the jackets I had made the girls wear came off and we enjoyed the warm sunshine.
Emma found her pumpkin pretty much right away. She found one she liked and it went straight into her bag.
Abby on the other hand picked up about ten pumpkins before she found one that she thought was good enough.
After picking pumpkins we went through the corn maze which ended at a giant slide. We had a fun time and we were so hot at the end that our ice cream cones tasted extra sweet.

Look How Cute I Am!

Kyle has had a good past couple of days. He has been more awake and alert. He also spit up on me for the first time. He is over a month old so I guess it is time I got a little throw up on me. He is struggling a little with some reflux but it seems to be getting better every day. He is almost done with his course of antibiotics and his infected shoulder looks so much better. He has grown so much. He is starting to fill out and not look so scrawny. I think that he may have brown eyes. It is still hard to tell but they look darker then I remember the girls eyes being. Some of the things that I love about Kyle already are...1. His gassy smiles. I have yet to catch one with my camera but trust me they are cute. 2. His fussy hair. It is so soft and it sticks straight up. 3. His long fingers and toes. He is going to be one TALL kid. 4. His smell. Even in the hospital his sweet smell is stronger than the smell of the tape and tubes. 5. His beet red face when his poops. I know that might be gross to some people but it is so cute. 6. He sucks on a pacifier, I could never get the girls to take a pacifier so I am excited to have a baby who will take one. 7. Cute little boy clothes...I am learning that they really can be cute, especially on such a darling little boy.
Notice the large wet spot down the front of my shirt. I did not smell very sweet!

I Feel Better!

Today when we went to visit Kyle he looked so much better. His right chest and shoulder area is still very tender, red and swollen from the infection but he is much more alert. It is amazing what some antibiotics can do. He woke up while I was changing his diaper and stayed awake for almost 10 minutes. I know that may not seem like a lot but trust me it is an eternity for our little guy. It was the first time that I have been able to dress him. His IV is in his head now which I know looks bad but it is a good place in an infant. The sleeper is a newborn size and it actually fits pretty well. It is a little big but not too bad. He looked so cute and cozy.
It was so fun to see so much of his eyes. He even gave me some sleepy smiles. He is getting better at sucking on his pacifier but he still tires easily.
This picture is from Thursday but I just thought that it was cute. Kyle is up to his full feedings. He gets them all through the tube in his nose for now but hopefully soon he will get to try a bottle again. We are so excited to get to know him and have him on our home.

I don't feel so well!

Today when I went to see Kyle and he just did not seem to look quite right. He seemed pretty pale to me and he did not even wake up when I took his temperature and changed his diaper. He also seemed to be breathing faster than normal for him. I mentioned this to his doctor and his nurse and they did not seem to be too concerned but I just could not shake the feeling that he just did not feel well. I held him for almost two hours and when I put him back in his bed he opened up his eyes for just a second and that is when I got to take the above picture. I told myself that he was fine. He was up to 32cc on his feedings and tolerating them well. As I left the NICU I was fighting the tears of worry but I told myself to stop being so emotional. (I had just taken my mom to the airport and I was pretty sad about that!)
When I got home I got the dreaded call from the NICU. When the number showed up on the caller ID I did not want to answer it but of course I did. It was one of the doctors and she told me that it looked like Kyle's PICC line was infected (a PICC is a kind of IV) They had taken out the PICC line and they were going to do a blood culture and restart him on antibiotics. She said that his right side of his chest where the PICC line ends was pretty red and swollen and tender to the touch. She also told me that the opthomologist had evaluated Kyle's eyes that morning and there was a question about ROP a disease that some premies have in their eyes. She said that it was nothing serious it was just something that needed watching. My poor little guy. I am just glad that they caught everything and hopefully it was early enough that the infection can be caught before it progresses too far.
I don't mean to be depressing. Things really are going well, but I told myself at the beginning that I would document both the good and the bad. We still continue to be amazed at the progress that he has made under such horrible odds. Thank you all again for your continuing prayers and support.