On the mend!

I'm so happy to finally be able to post happy news! On Saturday afternoon Fletcher was transferred from the ICU to a regular unit! He's still on oxygen and is being tube fed, but he is much more comfortable and is sounding much better. Over the next couple days they expect his breathing to improve even more and then he'll be able to try bottle feeding and nursing again. We get to pick him up for cuddles whenever we want now and that has been SOOO nice!
Natalie came up for a visit on Saturday and ended up spending the night because the roads were so bad. It sure was nice to have her here (plus she brought us some clean clothes!) and she was so happy to hold Fletcher and know that he was ok.
Mom and dad took care of the other kids this weekend and I hear that my dad actually got up in the night with the girls so I'm pretty impressed!
Troy is planning on heading home tomorrow so that he can get some work done... I sure hope I'm not too far behind him or it'll get pretty lonely (and a little boring with no vehicle) here!
Thanks again to everyone who has kept Fletcher in their thoughts and prayers... It seems to be working! And a huge thank you to my family, troy's family, and our friends who have all helped keep things running smoothly back at home!

Fletcher Update

I waited a couple days to post an update cause I was really hoping to be able to say that Fletcher had recovered and was out of the ICU, etc, etc. The truth is we don't seem to be out of the woods yet. He did have his breathing tube removed yesterday but now they are wondering if they took it out before he was ready because he's been working very hard ever since to do it on his own. This morning they put him on CPAP which forces more O2 into his lungs to hopefully help him rest a bit more. It hasn't been all that helpful but we're still hopeful he won't have to be reintubated. In some ways it was easier having him intubated and sedated because right now he is awake a lot and he looks at me with these tired little eyes and there's nothing I can do to help him. I just hope he starts coming around soon.. My poor baby. Thankfully our other kids are being very well taken care of and we can focus on Fletcher for now. Please keep him in your thoughts.. I'm sure my next post will be a happier one :)

RSV

Well we had a rough weekend and I wanted to do a quick post so that everyone would know that everything is ok and will hopefully put us in your thoughts and prayers!
We took Fletcher into the ER on Sunday afternoon because of his "nasty cold" and the lack of colour in his skin. It was a good thing cause he was confirmed to have RSV (respiratory virus prominent in preemies). He was so tired from breathing with congested lungs that he was low on oxygen and was having some apnea. They took him up to peds and quickly decided he needed more help (and a rest) so intubated him and phoned the childrens hospital in Calgary to see if they had a bed for him. It was the worst experience of my life so far and so scary! To make things worse, he managed to spit the tube out so they had to attempt to reinsert it a few more times... Poor little guy will have a very sore throat after this! Eventually the Calgary team showed up and airlifted him to Calgary. Troy and I had to drive up after. We arrived at around 3:30am and right now are waiting to get a "parent room" outside the ICU so that we can have a nap. Thank goodness they made room for us here cause otherwise we were heading to Saskatoon, Edmonton, or even Montana. The staff here have been wonderful and we feel like he is being very well taken care of. He's been stable throughout and will likely remain intubated for a few days until the worst of the virus is behind him. My mom and dad stayed home with gibsyn, sunny, and griff last night and were pretty lucky to only have to get up once in the night with the girls! I cannot even explain how grateful I am to have their help! And Natalie is taking some days off work to help out too... And Kylie and tara say they'll be helping too... It's overwhelming to me sometimes to think about how lucky we are to have so much love and support in our lives! If anyone else has time to spare this week, it would be wonderful if you could give our house a call and see if my mom needs a hand... Or if griffin needs an outing! We'll do our best to update the blog as we know more about fletcher's condition.

Busy, Busy!

I know it's been a while since my last post but it's been busy around here!  (go figure, hey?!)  The days go by so fast when you're feeding three babies every three hours and entertaining a three-year-old at the same time... wow, that's a lot of "threes"!  Speaking of three... our little boy turned three on February 15th!!  Here are some shots of his party... which was much simpler this year... he still seemed to have a great time though!

His craft that day was to decorate his birthday crown:

King for the Day!

He loves the musical cards... makes opening the cards almost as fun as the presents!  This giant card from Auntie Natalie sings the chicken dance

I try to make his birthday cakes every year and I didn't want to make an exception this year... however after spending hours decorating this spiderman cake (which Griffin didn't even want a bite of!) I have a more open mind towards  purchasing a cake from a bakery ;)

Blowing out the candles...

Here he is modelling his new Bench jacket from Auntie Nat... lookin pretty stylin'!



My sweet little man spent a few days this week being "not so sweet" and I was getting kind of worried that age 3 was going to be challenging since it seemed as though he already decided mommy was not all that cool and kind of a nag.  However, his sweet self seems to have returned and I'm thinking those couple days of grumpiness were him adjusting to life with 3 new babies.  The other morning I saw him on the video monitor in the babies' room saying "good morning baby... you awake now? you gonna open your eyes?" to each one in the cutest little voice... he really loves these babies and I am so proud of how gentle and kind he is to them! 

The babies have had a rough go with a nasty cold... Fletcher just got hit with it yesterday and he is one sad little man.  I hope they are all better soon!  This past Wednesday Tara and Dara invited me to the movies... the theatre here has what they call "stars and strollers"... they offer two matinee movies for mommies with babies... so everyone in the theatre has a baby with them and if they're noisy, everyone understands!  Tara tried to convince me that we'd be just fine if I brought my three... hahaha... but my mom offered to stay home with the girls so that I could go with just one baby and pretend I was just like everyone else.  It was soooo nice... and Fletcher slept through the whole movie.  Maybe next time I'll try bringing two!  Since the theatre is in the mall, I stopped at the Bay before heading home and found these little sleepers for the babies... if you bought 3, you got 30% off so I couldn't resist! 



Looks like Fletcher just smacked both the girls in this shot:

Then they made up...

Last week my friend Dara (who happens to be a talented, self-taught photographer) snapped some photos of the babies for me... we made a huge mess of Tara's living room and spent hours trying to catch them all either awake or sleeping.  It was very tough but Dara managed to get some great shots!  I don't want to share too many yet, cause I want the announcement cards to be a surprise!  Here's some nice individual pics of each one. Thank you soooo much Dara for all your hard work... and Tara for letting us mess up your house and helping with poses, etc, etc!! 

Sunny Lou

Gibsyn Joy

Fletcher Troy



Latest happenings...

Well this last week has been full of adventures... hahaha... actually, if we were to have our own reality TV show, I'm afraid it would be terribly boring! 

Here are some pics to update you on what we've been up to!

Gibsyn, Sunny, and Fletcher all ready for bed

We had some visitors the other day... there were a whole lot of carseats in my living room that day!  Now that I see the pictures, I realize my babies could've used some more head support!  Oops!

Left to Right - Avary (4 months), Sunny, Gibsyn, Fletcher, Bentley (7 months), and Conner (1.5 months)

Gibsyn and Fletcher were all cuddled up in the swing but we wanted a picture of the three of them in their cute little outfits from my Auntie Linda, so my mom added Sunny in there... Fletcher looks a tad annoyed!

My mom and Griffin made an armless snowman the other day... he has formula lids for eyes :)

Griffin would be a very bored little boy if it weren't for gramma visiting almost every day!

It was a very different kind of superbowl party this past Sunday at Tara and Zeke's house!  Fletcher is very out-numbered... here's a pic of Spencer, Fletcher, Sunny, Gibsyn, and Avary.

The guys  "enjoying" the game... hahaha!

Today was a very sad day for poor little Fletcher... and I think you'll appreciate if I don't have a picture to share... he had his circumcision today and although he pretty much slept through the procedure, he was a very sad little man when we got home.  He's sleeping peacefully now though so hopefully the worst is behind us.  Other than that our days have been filled with feedings, diaper changes, and some naps. Dishes, laundry, meals, and entertainment for Griff are mostly provided by my mom (and I'll say this over and over - thank goodness for my MOM!).