Our new normal

        I am absolutely loving getting to spend every day with our beautiful babies. Our days consists of legos and books, parks and cartoons, and naps. It is something I wouldn't trade for anything.
        Even though we tried our best to finish school out as "normal" as possible,  I still feel like I've missed so much with big borther over the last few months.  I'm thankful for getting this time to make it up. I love my days with these two

 Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero.  ~Marc Brown

Last Friday we had our first appointment post hospital and this sweet girl is weighing 6lbs 2oz.

Baseball Season....

is over. It has been a whirlwind of a season. Nothing at all as expected. I can honestly say that we (well at least I) learned more from these boys than they learned from any adult. We learned what teamwork is, we learned what it means to actually be a TEAM (not only the boys, but the parents), and we learned how to REALLY have fun playing a sport that began and nothing more than that, FUN.

3 Months

 

 This pretty girl is three months old now. It's crazy to think about where we've been. She looks so big in these pictures, but they don't do her size justice. I'm in awe. She has outgrown her preemies (in length) but newborns are still too big. Big brother, well, he never wore newborn clothes or diapers. We fall in love more each day.

Father's Day

Day 88 = Day 1

Miss Priss did pretty good (or should I say we did pretty good) through the night. She was really fussy, but there was a combination of many things to take in count. After all, there were these "strangers" taking care of her, without any monitors or alarms, in a completely different room.

The nurses came and got her for an eye exam. After having her in our reach all night, taking K was so hard and it wasn't a quick eye exam. Those hours were some of the longest hours of this adventure. We finally got the word, the eye exam was done and still premature but normal. We were just a few signatures away from leaving that hospital.

Signed some papers, drs discharge speech, hugs and love from nurses, and we were on our way down the elevator. My heart was racing, my cheeks were hurting, the time was now. This chapter was finally coming to a close. This chapter that completely changed the story, completely changed the characters in the story, and completely changed some readers too.

Our lives are forever different, in so many ways. This time has grown us as a family. It has taught us what true faith is. It has showed us the difference between friends and FRIENDS. We have a testimony that will only continue to evolve. We have seen first hand modern day miracles. We've seen God's hand.

day 87 - Room In

The day finally came, the words we had patiently been waiting for, "She will go home on Friday" We got our stuff together, tied up loose ends (you would think after this many days we would've had every minor detail planned), took big brother to grandmother's, and headed to the city. We were so excited, nervous, relieved, scarred, and overflowing with joy. Every single emotion felt, every prayer answered, and in less than 24 hours we would be heading home with our princess.

LOVE

I absolutely love how God's plan falls into place, even when my plans are so completely different. Letting go isn't easy, and most days, I have to let go over and over. We have a faithful God who loves us and has every detail worked out. I just tend to stress over those details. BUT here I lay (finally) and I've done everything that I could possibly do (with the help of some friends) tonight. No, my list isn't completely done and my house isn't perfect and we don't have everything that we "need" but it is what it is. I laugh because with our sweet boy we had 4 diaper bags and here we are fixing to bring our princess home without one. If nothing else, I think I've learned to distinguish between important and not so important. Of course, a diaper bag is important, but I can think of a few lot more important things.

Today the dr called and told us that everything was ready and we would room in tomorrow night and bring K home on Friday. WOW! So many days, months, hours, tears, miles, smiles, and prayers and here we are, coming home in less than 48 hours. After I got off the phone with the dr, this is the song that was on Pandora. It's not our story completely, but it's everything that I've felt.

For five months and eight days my wife and I had waited
Gettin' ready for our baby girl
But when he called the doctor said I need to see you
And could you come in soon
Then something died inside of me to sit with him and hear
The tests that said our baby may not live to be a year
Then turnin' to my wife and he said "whata you wanna do?"
And she said...

I wanna give her the world
I wanna hold her hand
I wanna be her mom for as long as I can
And I wanna live every moment until that day comes
I wanna show her what it means to be loved

So we spent each day, watchin' every minute
And prayin' for our baby girl
And I will not forget the way I felt that moment
When she came into this world
But they took her from the room just as soon as she was born
And watchin' through a window I could see her holdin' on
When a voice inside me said...

I wanna give her the world
I wanna be her dad
I wanna hold her close for as long as I can
And I wanna live every moment until that day comes
I wanna show her what it means to be loved

I said everyday
We've got to bring her home
She's been out to prove the doctors wrong
Oh and you should see her now
She's as pretty as her mom
And theres a boy at the front door waiting just to take her to her high school prom...

And he wants to give her the world
Wants to hold her hand
And someday she may get a wedding band
But she's gunna live every moment until that day comes
And we're gunna show her what it means to be loved

Oh yeah (what it means to be loved)

Show her what it means to be loved
What it means to be loved

We love because HE first loved us. THIS is the single most important thing that we will ever teach our rockstar and princess.

Day 85

Closer and closer it is getting. Slowly we are getting things in order to bring our sweet K home.

As I type, the nurse should be doing the car seat test. She had her hearing test today...perfect. She is taking all bottles, vitamins once a day, breathing treatment twice a day. She is 5 lbs and 7.5 ounces. Dr will evaluate her weight gain in the morning and let us know when we will be heading home. She did have a drop in her heart rate, but that isn't normal for her. Usually when this happens they monitor for 5-7 days. This means it could be anywhere from Thursday to Sunday, just depending on what the dr thinks. We will have to room in one night and then she will be ours for the taking.
It seems crazy that this chapter is almost done. Only a few more pages, but stay tune, I'm sure the following chapters will be just as entertaining as we adjust to having kidS and being a "real" family of four.

12 weeks

Wow, the light that was peaking is now a real, bright light. K's feeding tube was removed and today she was taken completely off the nasal cannula. She is now taking about 60 cc every 4 hours. They are letting her wake herself and feed. My sweet little girl wakes up every four hours on her own....

yay for a schedule already.

Probably one of the scariest moments of my life will happen this week. I'm so excited and so scared at the same time. It's going to be a whirlwind of a week, but we are so ready for our princess to be home. I'm not going to lie, I will probably cry everyday this week. I'm beyond overwhelmed, BUT I just continue to breathe and thank God that 84 days later we are finally talking about bringing this tiny miracle home.

Our world will never be the same, and I'm thankful.

Day 82

The light at the end of the tunnel is peaking. Our beauty has progressed so much this week. As of right now (this changes regularly) she is of the nasal cannula for most of the day. She gets put back on it to eat. She also doing really good on her bottle feeds. At the beginning of the week she was only taking a few cc's every other bottle or so. Now, she is taking all of her 45cc (30cc = 1 ounce) at almost every feed. She is still doing her breathing treatments. Big brother actually got to give it to her Thursday night. Her preemie clothes are almost too small. It's amazing to look back and know where we've been.

11 weeks and growing

Looking back it seems like the weeks have flown by, but in the here and now the minutes drag on.... and on. The last days, weeks, months have brought so much change to all of us. I've learned so much about myself, which isn't always good. I've learned about how to treat people when they are in the middle of a "crisis". I've gained some confidence in my independency (those that know me well, know how much I hate being by myself). I've learned the important (and unimportant) things in our life. I've learned to let go (although I'm not very good at it) and I've realized how much of a control freak I am. I know that this is just a chapter of our life, but I pray that these lessons are foundation, the backstory, of this book that we are writing.

The last week has brought lots of changes for Miss K. She was taken off all meds and just taking vitamins now. She feeds every three hours and is now taking 45 cc by bottle. Well, she tries to take 45cc. Some feedings are completely successful and others aren't so much. There are other times where she just sleeps through the feeding and they will use the feeding tube. Everyday she is getting stronger and bigger.  She now weighs FIVE pounds and TWO ounces.