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14 agosto So much fun, so little timeIt is already time to start thinking about back to school..... The boys have really enjoyed the nice warm weather we had over the few weeks prior to this rainy one.
Trevor is off at church camp this week. They travel east of the mountains to medical lake for a weeks worth of fun in the sun. Ryan & Andrew will go to camp this next week in Yelm. All of the boys look forward to this time of year so much.
When I help them pack up the bug spray and sunscreen it reminds me of my summer camp days and I always wish I could go and be a kid again for the week...
Ah, to be a kid again. We are in such a hurry to be adults, and then we spend adulthood remembering all of the fun time we had being kids.
Pretty soon summer will be over and all of the summer fun will end. It seems like there has been so much to keep the boys busy this summer.
I put up a pretty big album with photos of Andrew's birthday, 4th of July, Cinema under the stars, and swimming at the park.
And there are a few pics from the small shower my coworkers threw for Owen.
The cake was so adorable with tiny onsies all around it. It was a very lovely get together. I am so grateful to work with such an awesome group of people!!!!
Oh, and pics of the newly remodeled park down the street which has become a favorite place for the boys to run around.
More later......... 15 julio Summer adventures and family timeHere we are approaching mid July already!! The past 9 weeks of being a whole family together has flown by.
Owen is doing ok and did his job of reminding us of what life is like with a baby in the house!!
After the first weeks of being home, Owen decided that his happy place was in the arms of either mom or dad... If he was not being held, he was crying. This made the days long and the nights even longer!!!
Until one day, Finding Nemo was on for the other boys, Owen was put in his bouncy seat for a moment, after arriving back into the living room we found Owen smiling and gazing at the TV. Now normally we are not a fans of the TV being a place for the baby, but he LOVES this movie. Do not know why, but he does. However, over the past few weeks Owen has become very animated. Smiling, cooing, and less crying.
He is growing so fast and gaining weight like he should. He still has a few preemie issues that we are helping him through, but he has learned to roll over from tummy to back, although has not quite figured how to flip himself over onto his tummy again. We are sure this will be next!
As for the other boys, they all wrapped up school three weeks ago and have been working on finding fun things to do for the summer.
They are in the summer reading program at the library which they love, and are reading all summer long to earn a free Aquasox baseball game ticket, plus a meet and greet with the mayor.
There is a fort out back which they have camped in almost every night, and they've been helping work on their new BIG bedroom that they hope to have done by the end of summer.
They have been attending martial arts at the church, going to youth activities, and plan to go to church camp in August. Which they are very exited about.
The lake and parks along with bike rides and fun outside with their friends have kept the days passing by quickly. Before they know it, the first day of school will be here and the boys will be another grade older...
All of the pics in the slide show above were selected by the boys as a part of "my fun summer" project that we have been working on, so enjoy!
Hopefully the blog entries will not be so far apart as this one and the last one were!!!
BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 11 mayo Owen is 12 weeks old and HOME!!!!!!!Owen turned 12 weeks old on Tuesday May 5th.
A little over two weeks ago, we went to go visit Owen, we learned he was now ready to move down to the second floor to the infant special care unit. We were so excited as this meant we were closer to bringing Owen home!!
During our stay in this unit, Owen would have to learn to eat all of his feeds from a bottle, wake up and demand his food on his own (instead of being tube fed), and hopefully be weaned off oxygen.
What we have already known about this little guy is that he has a mind of his own and really was not interested in doing things according to the doctors or nurses.
Owen would not wake up for any of his feeds and when we would offer him a bottle, he would simply fall asleep! As soon as the nurses would pour the formula into the syringe to start the tube feeding, he would wake up looking around everywhere for food! We also noticed that Owen really did not show a strong liking to the formula when we would offer it to him.
This was not getting us too far and we were begining to think Owen wanted to live at Swedish FOREVER!!!!!
It was time for us as parents to do some advocating. We sat down with the entire team that has been caring for Owen and expressed our concerns and wishes for Owen. We truly believed that there was a bit too much medical intervention and felt like it was time for Owen to show all of us what he was capable of doing on his own.
The Doctors agreed to give it a trial of 24 hours for Owen to have demand feeds instead of being fed every three hours on their schedule along with a switch in formulas to see if that may be the issue, and a break off oxygen.
We were very nervous the first night as Owen slept quite a bit and had to be woke up every 2 hours and be fed, which was exhausting.
I surely thought the doctor was going to come in the next morning and say we had to go back to their schedule, but she said to give it another day since Owen actually ate and did well off the oxygen. AND yes! it was that formula switch that he needed!
Sure enough, after that the little guy started acting like a little feeding monster. He woke up for food, did not need help breathing, and was gaining weight. The doctors were WRONG!!!!!! Owen did it! All on his own. And we are so proud of him and how far he has come. Also glad that we advocated for him in a positive way so we could get him home.
Exactly twelve very long weeks later, we are proud to announce that Owen has come home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The doctor came in on Tuesday May 5th, very happy with Owen's progress, and sent us on our way.
The first day home was awesome. The other boys were at school when we arrived home with Owen, so it was a huge surprise for them when they got off the bus. They came running in and cheering for his arrival.
Owen seems to like being at home. He is so relaxed and spends his quiet alert states taking in all of his brothers. It is very cute. He will have some catching up to do in terms of growth and development, but all preemies play catchup and the doctors say that by the time he is 2, you will hardly tell he was ever born a preemie.
We are so lucky and thankful to have Owen as a part of this family!!!
Stay tuned as we continue this blog with all of the other adventures this family has in store..... 13 abril 8 weeks and growingWe are just wrapping up week 8 with Owen and he has had a few setbacks.
On April 4th the we went in to see Owen and he had been taken off the oxygen!!!! We were so excited that he finally hit a point of lung maturity!!
He was doing well on room air until the following Wednesday when for some reason (the doctors assure us all preemies go thru this at some point) he stopped breathing for a few periods during the morning which the nurses helped him recover from, but those moments prompted them to immediately put him back on the oxygen.
We were also getting ready to have Owen moved down to the special care unit, which is a lower level of care and one step closer to going home. This is not an option right now since the breathing problems arose.
He is growing and gaining weight quite well and looks and acts like a little newborn. He just has internal maturing to do.
All of his brothers have had a chance to hold him and visit him several times a week. He is so responsive when they talk to him. It is very cute.
Owen is also working on learning to eat from a bottle. This is a lot of work for him as it takes a lot of energy on his part, and as a preemie he uses his energy to grow. He is working on learning to breathe and swallowing the milk at the same time. It has been diffucult for him since he started having problems breathing again.
He is getting there. Slowly but surely. He is so calm and relaxed all of the time. We love going to visit him and he loves to see us.
We cannot wait to hear the doctors say that we can bring him home. The doctors told us that it could be another month or so before Owen comes home. He has a lot of lung maturing to do.
More updates later!!!!!!
 28 marzo Owen at six weeksWe are at six weeks with Owen and happy with the past week or so of major changes and spending time with him as he transforms from the preemie stage into newborn stage.
Owen was able to have his first bath on Wed. the 18th and loved it. He just layed in the water not one cry from him, and towards the end he was falling asleep!!! The nurse helped and was very impressed that there was no screaming at bathtime. He smelled so clean slept really well that night.
He was moved this past Saturday from an incubator to a little crib!! He loves it a lot. They have also changed him from vapotherm to just straight oxygen on Sunday the 22nd which he adjusted quite well to. The lungs are getting stronger.
On Wednesday he had an eye exam with the right eye showing that is mature (no problems) and the left eye with some minor damage. The eye doctor says there is still a chance the eye will mature and resolve on its own, so another checkup in two weeks.
The past two days Owen has been more fatigued and labs on Thursday show low iron levels again which means another blood transfusion for him. This will help bring his energy level back to where it was earlier in the week when he would spend time in a quiet alert state watching us and looking for his brothers when he heard them talk to him.
We are still working on feeding issues with him. He has a sensitive tummy and the dietician is helping us work out the kinks. Hopefully by sometime next week he will be trying to use a bottle and learning the newborn way to eat.
We are getting there! Owen is
27 marzo Ryan's acting debutRyan had his acting debut this past weekend!!!
The Misoula Children's Theater comes through town once a year to selected schools and picks 60 kids to perform in a cute performance. This year it was Little Red Riding Hood.
Ryan was selected to be part of the "wolfgang" a bunch of wolves scheming up ways to steal grandma's basket from little red riding hood.
The kids were selected on Monday, rehersals started Tuesday, and by Saturday afternoon all of the kids were up on stage belting out the performance of their lives.
It was quite impressive and proves that if a child is encouraged and supported, they are capable of anything!!!
Trevor turns 12Over the past week we celebrated Trevor's 12th birthday. March 18th was the official day and he is almost a teenager!!!!! It feels like he was just born. The time has gone by fast but has been very pleasant Trevor is an awesome kid with so much knowledge, copassion for others. We love him very much!
He was able to get a monster R/C truck as a gift this year. This year for the birthday dinner, he chose a chicken dish and boston cream cake. LOTS of candles on the cake too....
Very active in the church programs and doing well at school we are proud to have such an awesome son! Always think of others is something we have always talked about and that is definitely something that he lives by.
Happy 12th Birthday Trevor!!!!
17 marzo Owen is 5 weeksWe are at week 5 with Owen and he is doing good. His weight is up to 4lb 5oz!!! And he can finally wear clothes. I know these things seem so ordinary, but for a preemie, they are huge milestones. He is still working on a lot of lung issues which the doctors assure us he will outgrow.
He also had an eye exam to check on the retina (which can tear in preemies) and the opthamoligist says she sees no damage. He is checked every 2 weeks until he hits his due date.
Babies eyes do the final development in the last 3 weeks before birth and with all of the oxygen needs it disrupts that development resulting in different levels of blindness. Owen has shown no signs of this yet. So we will keep our fingers crossed.
He has also become more alert when we are there and spends a lot of time looking at us and trying to figure out all of our faces. It is very cute.
I spend every evening with Owen doing kangaroo care (laying with the baby against my skin) with him which he loves. The nurses noticed how his heartrate goes down along with his resp. rate. He loves his mama!!!
We have tried to transition him into another way of feeding him to help wean him off the feeding tube, however he has not tolerated it at all. We will try again next week.
Last Friday he had his first professional photos taken by a lady that goes around the nicu and offers her sevice to the parents. It is nice that we were able to have this done and cannot wait to get the pictures back.
So, that is all for now. He will be in the hospital for at least the 6-7 weeks.
The slide show above is from the past 2 weeks. I keep forgetting to say some of the pictures are not so clear since we take alot of them without the flash and from outside the incubator that he lays in.
Thanks to all of the prayers,love, and support from everyone. It means alot to our family.... 12 marzo More snow??!!!!!Well, just when a sunny day comes around and you think spring is one day closer, mother nature fools you and dumps inches of snow into the neighborhood in just a few hours.
Monday we were blessed with a wild day of snow. Enough for building a snow fort, a 2 hour delay for school, and lots of reasons to keep the hot chocolate coming.
The boys had a blast in what we hope to be one of the lasts snow storms of the season. All of the kids from the neighborhood plus ours spent Monday and Tuesday building a small snow fort and proceeded to have the biggest snowball fight.
There was a lot of laughter and pink noses by the time it was all over.
It will definitely be nice to have warmer weather here soon.
09 marzo Brotherly LoveJust wanted to put up some pics of Owen and his brothers. We were finally allowed to start holding him a week ago. It is so nice. And Owen likes it too.
Owen has gained a few ounces and has had a blood transfusion due to prematurity, he is not able to make enough red blood cells on his own for at least a few more weeks. He was moved from vapotherm to a cpap machine because his lungs are still giving him trouble.
Other than that, he is working on gaining weight by being fed via feeding tube, learning to maintain his body temp. , and just strengthening those lungs! 24 febrero Off the ventilatorJust a quick update on Owen, he had a really rough weekend with lots of crying and discomfort despite all of the nurses efforts.
The doctors decided to take him off of the ventilator and move him to a nasal cannula and oxygen stuff called vapotherm. He seemed to feel a tiny bit better with that, but was still showing signs of discomfort. Then the nurses discovered that he loved to be wrapped up in a longsleeve shirt (he cannot be dressed or swaddled yet because of the lungs collapsing, they need instant access). He became alot happier after he was wrapped up tight. Then this Monday morning they felt confident that the right lung has healed and they removed his right chest tube!!!!!! He is so much happier, and has stopped crying. There is calmness about him that we have been waiting for.
It feels good to see him out of pain and discomfort.  18 febrero Our newest addition!!
Meet our newest addition!!! Owen Christopher was welcomed into the world a little early. Arriving at 28 weeks gestation. Born February 10 weighing 3lb and 15 inches long he has done ok for his first week. After his first 24 hours in the nicu he had both lungs collapse requiring chest tubes. Over the weekend he received phototherapy and was better by Monday the 16th. Tuesday afternoon the Dr. felt the left lung was well enough to remove the chest tube!!!! So far he is getting better from all of that. He has so much growing to do and will be at the hospital for at least the next 2 months. Our family is excited that we have Owen and continue to visit him daily so he will know how much he is loved by all of us. More updates later.... Talking about Talking about trevor's knighting 003
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