One week

Well, we all survived our first week as a family of 5! The girls are adjusting well to having max home and have already figured out to wait until I start feeding Max to get into stuff or fight! 

Max is doing great! He had his 1 week NICU follow up in Dickinson this morning.  He was 21" long and weighs 9 lb 9 oz. I asked the nurse to re weigh him because he weighed 8 lb 1 oz when he left the NICU 9 days ago, that's gaining over 2.5 oz a day!! 

That brings me to my next topic. Max has been nursing great! He is eating every 3 hours without taking a bottle most of the week, which tells me by how much weight he gained that he is eating enough! 

Dr O said his lungs and heart sound perfect and that he is gaining enough weight that she isn't concerned about him puking as much as he is. I just have kids that puke. 

She also said that she doesn't want to see him again until his regular 2 month checkup. She said it isn't worth exposing him to all the germs at the clinic unless there is something concerning we think he should be seen for. She also wants his hearing checked again at his 2 month checkup because the gentamicin he was on in the NICU can cause deafness or hearing problems. He passed his first hearing test and he hears things because he startles at noises but it's better safe than sorry! 

I wasn't brave enough yet to take all the kids by myself to Max's appointment by myself so Kynlie got to go to work with Aunt Connie this morning. She had a blast working, thanks Aunt Connie!

2 year check

Locklyn had her 2 year check up this morning in Dickinson. Her pediatrician said she is perfect! She weighs 31 lbs and is almost 36 inches tall, which is close to the 90th percentile for both.

That was our first outing as a family of 5  and it felt good to finally be doing things as a whole family!

I had taken Locklyn to the doctor in Baker the beginning of December because she had been having a lot of bruising on her shins and back. We have had quite a few kids in my family with leukemia and I was just sick to my stomach waiting for the results of the blood work to come back. They came back that she was quite anemic. Everything else looked great, I did have them send her results and clinic notes to Dr O so they had record of it there and to see if she wanted to see Locklyn any sooner than her appointment we already had scheduled. Baker did labs again on her a week later and everything came back fine so Dr O said we could just review everything when we came for the scheduled appointment. She said today that there is nothing that concerns her and she thinks it is just normal two year old bruising. She said she actually thinks that the anemia was a false read and that if they would have re ran the blood it wild have came back normal because it was quite low and a week later was normal and she said it will not resolve that much in that short of time. It was reassuring having her not be concerned at all because Locklyn still bruises quite a lot.

HOME

Max and I are home and working in getting settled in. The girls are in Heaven having mom and baby brother home! 

Max got discharged about 11:30 cst yesterday, one day short of his 3 week birthday! I stopped at Mcdonalds drive through for lunch and we were headed west. He was a perfect traveling partner. He slept until we got to the 4 way stop in Baker!

I am mostly unpacked, got all the laundry done and am starting to feel like I can relax and enjoy being home.

Max slept great last night, sleeping for 5 hours, then again for 4. I can't complain about that!! 

Tomorrow we head to Dickinson for Locklyn's two year appointment so we don't get to enjoy being home too much! 

Max has to have a follow up appointment in Dickinson in one week and in Bismarck in two weeks, I have my 4 week follow up for my cesarean the same week he has to go to Bismarck so I'm hoping we can get them to work together to save a trip. 

We will be breaking Max in hard and fast for how much we travel, with his appointments, we have tickets for Disney Live in Billings the end of January and tickets to go to Hawaii to see my sister and her family the beginning of February!! I asked Dr F if Max would be healthy enough to go that soon and he said the sea level fresh air and sunshine would be good for him. He thought maybe it sounded good for himself too! 

Busy

The NICU has been crazy busy the last couple of days so they have had more nurses up there than usual and I'm not sure if yesterday's nurse was a normal NICU nurse or not but I hadn't seen her up there before. She's the one that told me that Max wasn't getting anymore nebulizer treatments yesterday morning, but he still is getting them. They had just done it before she had got there and would do the other one after she left so nothing was said to her about it, so anyways, he is still getting two Pulmicort treatments a day. 

Max had a huge day today, Dr F came over this morning and asked if I was ready to take that boy home yet, of course, I told him yes!! He then asked if I wanted him circumcised, which I also said yes to. He said he could do it today and if Max continues to breathe as good as he has been, we get to come home tomorrow! I didn't want to post anything because I don't want to jinx myself again but it is too exciting not to share! 

Max got snipped at 11:30 and he was not a happy camper after. But after I finally got him calmed down, we got some great snuggles in. 

I came back to pack and clean
up the room at the Ronald McDonald house  and get ready to put this chapter of our lives behind us! 

Please pray that Max continues to breathe like he should and that we get to hit the road in the morning and go home, to start our lives as a family of 5!! I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself!!

Better

Max is breathing much better today. His respirations slowed down after his nebulizer treatment last night, so he hasn't had to get another one this morning.

His night nurses have said Max is quite the party animal at night too. That's when he wants to be wide awake and snack all night long. He is content as can be, they just feel bad he is wide awake laying in his crib looking at nothing, so they cuddle him and rock him and give him all the attention he could possibly want! I thought one benefit of having a baby in the NICU is that they are on a great schedule when they come home, not Max! He sets his own schedule! 

Dr F said this morning if Max continues to breathe slower we could possibly be out of here this weekend. Please pray for Max to continue to take slow deep breaths and continue to get better. It's funny because every time Dr F talks to me about Max, he will tell me what's going on, followed by "We have to remember he was a very very sick boy." In his strong Spanish accent. It cracks me up every time he says it. I can't remember if I ever did say what Max's official diagnosis was, he had bilateral pneumonia, pulmonary hypotension and sepsis. He was a very very sick boy, I was actually more worried about him than I ever was with Kynlie. Kynlie never was horribly sick, she was very small and very fragile but luckily she was as healthy as you can be at 1 lb 4.5 oz! It was definitely scary when she was born, and for the few weeks after, but for some reason I just knew she was going to be fine. Max was so sick and I was very afraid he might not make it. 

Once again, the power of prayer worked wonders and Max is mostly mended up and hopefully will soon be on he road to Montana. 

Official results

We got the official results of the MRI this afternoon and everything looks perfectly normal. Dr F said they did an in depth MRI that looks at all the white matter in the brain and everything is perfect.

Max had one dose of his nebulizer this morning and was getting his second one tonight when I left tonight but so far his respirations hadn't slowed down from the one dose this afternoon. Praying that the second dose will help him slow down. He is not struggling to breathe at all, just takes shallow fast breaths.

Another day

Max will be spending yet another day in the NICU. He has been breathing fast and shallow the last 24 hours. Dr F gave him an oral dose of Lasix to help get rid of any excess fluid, if he has any. He also is having Max get a nebulizer treatment of Pulmicort twice a day to reduce any inflammation that he may have lingering in his lungs from the pneumonia to see if it will help slow his breathing down. 

Max had his MRI this morning and Dr F hadn't got the official results when I left the NICU but he said from what he can see, everything looks normal.

He also had his hearing test last night which he passed on the first try. 

Max has been eating great, he is still taking about half by breast and half by bottle but he gained an ounce and a half so whatever we are doing is working!

It breaks my heart every time I talk to Kynlie because she keeps asking when I'm coming home. I miss her, Neil and Locklyn and I know they are having fun at their friends house and dad is way more fun than mom is, but it is way too quiet here for me! I hate to say it but I even miss Kynlies pathetic whine!