Wolverine baby continues to astound us

So Ivy's home health nurse, Nancy, came to our house yesterday to weigh her and check on things. Ivy weighs 8 lbs 9.5 oz now, which means she gained 6.5 ounces in one week, that is excellent weight gain! The most amazing thing is that she hasn't used her NG tube (feeding tube in her nose) for about a week, she hasn't needed it. She now takes all her feeds by bottle, even at night. So Nancy and I came to the conclusion that she doesn't need her NG tube anymore, except for taking her meds. It is pretty sad to leave an annoying tube in someones nose just for the convenience of giving them medication twice a day, so Nancy showed me a trick on giving them to her orally, told me to try it Monday night and Tuesday morning, and if she didn't spit up, the tube could come out!! Well it's Tuesday morning, and guess what, no spit up!! The tube is out and I am so happy!! We can see her beautiful face again!! She is doing so much better than anyone expected, and we are so pleased with her progress. She seems just like a normal baby now, not like she spent 7 weeks in the hospital and had 3 surgeries. You certainly can't tell from looking at her (with clothes on). We are so proud of you Ivy, keep up the good work.

Growing fat, growing up, and growing gray

This friday will be 4 weeks since Ivy was released from the hospital, and she is doing very well. Last week the doc increased her feed amount to help her gain more weight, and it is working out, on Monday she weighed in at 8 lbs 3 oz. We have a Home Health nurse, Nancy, coming over once a week to weigh her and check in on anything we need or are concerned about. We also have a Home Health physical therapist, Libby, who comes to make sure everything is developing as it should. They both said on their first visits that she looks better in person than she does on paper, which makes me feel good about her progress. Her scars are all healing up nicely, we no longer have to change the dressing on her belly scar, since the wound is closed and healed and there isn't a dressing anymore, and her chest scar looks excellent (for a scar spanning the entire length of her chest). We are currently applying for several government assistence programs to help pay for all the medical costs, (her hospital stay alone was over $300,000 not including any doctors, surgeons or anyone else, just the stay!). Of course, we have insurance but even with that we are still responsible for a significant stack of cash!! Here are some nice pics of Ivy getting big and fat, and looking adorable as usual.

Our sweet boys are growing up! We had a haircutting party a little while ago, and they didn't even cry!! They both look so much older with less hair, especially Dex, he looks like a little boy, not a baby anymore. They are both so helpful with everything (most of the time). They still fight over things a lot, but it is getting better. Dex is saying more words everyday, his favorites include: Mine, No, Mama, and remote. He still can't say Corbin or Ivy, so he calls corbin "in" and Ivy "I", so cute. Corbin got a cute little apron from Stacy for Christmas this year and he loves to wear it while we make lunch or other things, he looks so cute in it. Funny story, Scott loves jello so he bought some the other day and told Corbin that the two of them would make it, but then he forgot. So the next day Corbin brings me the jello and says, "Lets make jello." I said, "But that is a daddy project, I'm Mommy." So he says, "No, Mom's can make jello, Dad's mom made jello in Salt Lake!!" He's so funny.

a>Corbin is definately my child, eh!
And now for growing gray, that's right, I have some gray hair coming in! Thanks Ivy! I will come right out and say, it is from stress!! With no time to myself, the constant need to feed, bath, or comfort someone, and trying to keep my breastmilk from drying up its a wonder it didn't come in white! And after all that my breastmilk dried up anyway (imagine powdy lip, and chin quiver here). It's just not the same as breastfeeding, and it makes me sick to think how much money we will have to spend on formula........but what can you do.

Feeling the Pressure

Well, it's been a week since Ivy was released from the hospital, and we are loving having her with us 24/7. Everyone tells you that having 3 kids is a lot different than just having 2, and man are they right!! For the most part things are going well. The boys are happy to be home, and sleeping on schedule once again (hooray!), and Ivy basically sleeps through the night. During the day things aren't quite as smooth. My days feel consumed by Ivy's eating needs. It takes so much more time to bottle feed than breast feed. I don't know why people who choose to bottle feed decide to do that. Maybe I am just lazy! She has a pretty strict eating schedule consisting of 57 mL (just under 2 oz) of breastmilk mixed with pregestimil every three hours. I first feed her with a bottle and on average she will drink anywhere from 20-40 mL at a time, the rest goes into the feeding tube that goes into her nose and down to her stomach. I am also still pumping, which feels like the most unrewarding job ever! My milk supply is rapidly dropping as it becomes harder and harder to find time to pump with three needy kids following me around all day. I am down to once at night and once in the morning, very sad! I am trying to work in one more in the middle of the day to build it up a little more, but it is so hard while Scott is at work. Anyway, other than that things are going well, and we are loving having all our kids together. The boys just love their new sister, they are constantly bugging her by kissing her, rubbing her head, endlessly trying to stuff her paci in her mouth, even if she is sleeping or doesn't want it. They are really cute and sweet. Life is good.