We're HOME!!!

{doin' my happy dance!!}

Just as hoped and planned, Preston was FINALLY released from the hospital this morning!!! It's good to be together with my whole family again. I swear, it seems like Blake grew six inches in the last week! Brooklyn lost ANOTHER tooth and Gavin pooped in the potty for the first time while I was gone. I missed too much of the day to day happenings and I can't wait to be back to real life.

As soon as I stepped in the door, I went crazy; put the few dishes from the sink into the dishwasher, did 5 loads of laundry, I just couldn't sit down!!! I can't wait to pack the kids' lunches tomorrow morning (did I just say that??!?), sit on the floor and play with Gavin, clean the bathrooms (I must be delirious!!) and SLEEP IN MY OWN BED!!!

My oh-so-cozy sleeping spot for the past 6 nights -->

Preston's watchdog
This cute little pooch was waiting in his crib when we arrived at the hospital :)

Love this little outfit my mom brought for the P-meister (the other foot says I ♥ Daddy)

I've got no strings, to hold me down, to make me fret, to make me frown!

Preston update ~ Sunday

This'll be short, I'm typing one handed because the other arm is full of Preston. :) I've spoiled him rotten all day by rock-a-byeing him to sleep, something I normally wouldn't do but what the heck. He won't get this much undivided attention once we're home, so I'm soaking it up.

No happy dance yet, we're still at the hospital. Good news is, though, that Preston has been off the oxygen since 2am!! That is 19 consecutive hours on room air only! We just have to make it thru tonight and we'll get the all clear to go home tomorrow! *knock on wood* BTW, Preston was a good boy last night and let me get some well deserved sleep. :)

On a fun note, Matt and I got a mini-date tonight. His parents took the kids and Matt came to the hospital, we watched Mamma Mia and dined on hospital food (roast turkey, steamed asparagus and rice pilaf) with ice cream in a cup and a chocolate chip cookie for dessert. LOL! Sad but true, that's the most time we've spent together since P & I have been here. It was lovely, dear! Lets do it again soon, just not at this location. ;)

No pics today, but there will be more tomorrow, I promise!

Set your DVRs, Matt's making his television debut!!

Channel 3, Your Life A to Z segment, Monday 1/26 @ 9:00am

The company Matt works for buys air-time and he was chosen to represent them and educate the general public (in 5 minutes) on his specialty, assisting those with low vision. He went to the recording studio on Friday to tape the segment and I can't wait to see how he did! Matt will also be doing another appearance on channel 5 next month. Wow, my hubby is practically famous! :)

Sorry, this only applies to our Arizona friends and fam! But don't worry, I'll post a video of it afterwards so everyone can see.

Preston update ~ Saturday

Preston is FOUR WEEKS OLD today!!! What a way to spend the day! But seriously, I can't believe four weeks ago I was giving birth in this very same facility. Time is zooming by already and I know little Preston won't be so little for very long!

Daddy with his baby boy

Our wish to come home today did not happen. :( Preston is still on oxygen, albeit only .1L now. They are trying to wean him off slowly. The nurse tried to turn it off again today while he was napping but his levels fell and set off the alarms so she put it back on. The plan is to try him off the O2 again around 4am and see if he can hold his own for 8-12 hours. So now we're looking at Monday, almost one full week since Preston was hospitalized. I'm getting a little stir crazy since I haven't left at all. Kinda hard to do when you're the source of nutrition! ;)

Nights have been rough with a capital R in the sleep department!! I'll get up to feed Preston and he'll only eat for 10 minutes before falling back asleep. When I try to lay him back down, he wakes up and roots around like he's still starving. So I put him back on and he does the same thing. It takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R to get him to fall back to sleep and in the wee hours of the morning, I'm practically asleep standing up next to his crib, holding the binky in his mouth, pleading with him to just close his eyes. I actually cried last night!! Between nurses and the respiratory therapist coming in several times during the night, I'm not getting much quality sleep, but I have been able to squeeze in a nap in the afternoon, which helps immensely.

I now have an eensy weensy glimpse at how rough it must be for parents of children with cancer or other terminal illnesses that require lengthy hospital stays. I can't imagine having to be in the hospital for months and months! My heart goes out to them.

I miss my three other kiddos immensely!! I've never been away from them for this long! I've talked to Brooklyn, Blake and Gavin on the phone at night and my heart breaks that I can't be there to hold them and ask them how their day went. Gavin doesn't quite understand why I'm not home yet, but I love hearing his sweet voice on the phone. :)

Also, I have to give HUGE props to Matt for pulling the load as a single dad these past several days. Getting all three kids up and out the door in the morning is no easy feat! He's doing a great job!! And thank you, THANK YOU to those that have helped watch the kids and brought meals and come to keep me company for a bit. You don't know how much it is appreciated!

My mom came to visit us today, bringing new clean outfits for Preston and treats for mommy! :)
Till tomorrow......

Spoke too soon

Preston is back on the oxygen. :( He was holding his breath while he was sleeping, causing his sats to drop to 85. We made it 9 hours, but I guess he's not ready to be off of it for good. I don't think they'll try again tonight, so I guess we start over again tomorrow. *sigh* No more happy dancing until we're in the car on our way home.

Preston update ~ Friday

Notice anything different about this picture????????????????????

Aside from the fact that he's cute, of course. ; )

Preston is off the O2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

{doing the happy dance. oh yah}

Our favorite nurse, Malana, was back again this morning and, being so very proactive like she is, suggested that we try him without the oxygen again this morning. So about 9:30am, she turned it off. It's now 4:38pm and he's maintained his sats while awake, eating and sleeping! The monitor has gone off a few times when his levels dip for a sec but they always rebound really quickly. After monitoring him off the oxygen, Malana removed the canula from his face and I am happy to be able to see Prestons precious cheekers again! One less tube/wire to worry about!

So he still has to do well overnight to prove that he's ready to go home. When the pediatrician checked Preston out today, he was pleased with how much clearer his chest sounded and how much he'd progressed in just one day. They haven't had to do any deep suctioning (down his nose, into this throat) today and he's continuing to be more alert and awake. Keep your fingers crossed that we'll be heading home tomorrow!!!!!

Preston update ~ Thursday

Swab results came back yesterday, positive for RSV. :( The only thing that changes is that all nurses, doctors and techs that come in wear a paper gown, a mask a gloves so they don't spread the virus to other patients. The nurses said just about every child on the pediatric floor is here because of RSV. It's sad to hear other babies crying and coughing the same as Preston. Tis the season, I guess!

Preston is progressing nicely but is still not well enough to go home. He is nursing much better/longer, he is more alert and has more stamina, the mucous they are retrieving is thinner and not as substantial, he's staying well hydrated, which are all good things. The nurse tried turning off his oxygen during a feeding and he did fine for a while, but it was obvious his little body got tired of working so hard and his sats fell below 88 so the O2 went back on. We'll try again this evening to see how he tolerates it.

With RSV, it's all just a wait-and-see game. Preston has to be completely off O2 overnight, keep his sats above 90 while awake and above 88 while sleeping and not need deep suctioning to clear his lungs. He gets breathing treatments every four hours and we'll continue that at home after discharge. So chances are, we might not be home until Saturday. That's ok with me. I know this is the best place for him to be.

You KNOW I had Matt retrieve the camera for me so I have pictures to share! :)

Chillin' in the crib

Binkies the size of his head! Matt loves these kind and apparently so does Preston. I, however, do not.Doing what babies do best!! Snoozin'!

Awake and alert

Preston's Rudolph toe, as Matt dubbed it. ;) This is his pulse-ox that tells us his levels.
So precious! Puffing his "clouds"Getting beaten on the back, gently. ;) This nifty thingamajig is called a percussor. It helps loosen up all the junk inside.

My dinner last night - roast turkey, steamed broccoli, roasted red potatoes and vanilla pudding for dessert! I know hospital food gets a bad rap, but I love it!!! I mean, it's nothing gourmet, but I don't have to cook it and they bring it right to my room! What's not to love about that?!??! Pretty roses my mom brought to cheer up our room

Thanks for all your concern and prayers on our behalf! We really appreciate it. Keep 'em coming and I'll update when I can.

Preston is in the hospital

I took Preston into the pediatricians office today because he has a cold and wasn't sounding very good. Since he's so little still and it's RSV season, we wanted to be cautious. The doctor listened to his chest and they put a pulse-ox on his toe. His oxygen saturation level was at 92 so they gave him a breathing treatment. They checked his levels again and they dipped down to 87. Not good for a baby his age. All of a sudden they are talking about admitting him to the hospital and I'm starting to freak out! They called an ambulance to transport him to the hospital since he needed to be on oxygen so he didn't stop breathing completely.

He's on constant oxygen right now with his levels being monitored. The nurses have suctioned tons and tons of mucus from his nose and throat. Nothing like standing back and watching your baby scream while they try to help him breathe better! It's heartbreaking! The earliest he'll be released from the hospital is Thursday, it might be longer. He has to keep his levels up and be completely off the oxygen overnight. His diagnosis at the moment is bronchiolitis. We're waiting for the lab results to come back to determine whether or not he officially has RSV or not. Either way that doesn't changed the treatment he receives.

So if you could spare a prayer or two for our sweetie, it would be much appreciated!

Happy Birthday, Gavin!!

I can't believe my "baby" boy is 3 years old today!! Let's take a walk down memory lane....

6 days old

1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

This birthday seems so surreal to me! Gavin seems HUGE all of a sudden! Maybe it's because I just gave birth to a new baby 17 days ago. And three years ago I was holding a different newborn baby.

A few things about Gavin:

~ He's still sucking his thumb like there's no tomorrow!!

~ Loves to be doing whatever his big brother and sister are doing, yet loves his time alone while they are at school.

~ This kids LOVES his sleep!!! He regularly asks to go to bed at night, especially if we are out and about anywhere close to bedtime. He still takes good 2-3 hour naps EVERY day. He may complain when we first mention that it's naptime, but he never resists being put into bed!

~ Gavin is still in a crib with a crib tent. He can unzip the tent by himself but won't climb out of the crib. The whole reason we got the tent in the first place!! He's perfectly content to stay in his crib and won't let us take the tent off. We'll move him to a big boy bed after we get settled into a routine with the baby. Can't go ruining my good sleeper now! ;)

~ Not potty trained, yet. We'll be attempting this one for real very soon.

~ His vocab skills still shock strangers; he's a talker!

I feel like such a bad mother but I didn't plan anything spectacular for Gavin's birthday. We didn't go to any cool places today (although I thought about it - Bounce U, the zoo, the Phoenix Children's Museum..., if that counts for something) because frankly, I felt like I just couldn't manage with the baby and still recovering from a c-section. We did get our traditional birthday balloons, 9 to be exact. :) That was the extent of the excitement for the day. Gavin received plenty of calls from family wishing him a Happy Birthday and gifts will be doled out over the next few days.

The celebration tonight consisted of our little family, 5 gifts to open and a birthday cake made by Mommy.
Funny story about his cake - Every time we go to the grocery store (specifically Fry's Marketplace), we stop by the bakery to get a free cookie. There is a refrigerated case in front of the bakery where various cakes are displayed. Gavin always points out the carrot cakes with the little frosted carrot decorations on top. Imagine my surprise when I asked Gavin what kind of cake he wanted and he replied "a white cake with carrots on it." LOL! I wasn't about to buy a carrot cake from the store, so I made a banana cake with white frosting and made my own little carrots on top! :) Gavin was calling it his monkey carrot cake!! He was SO thrilled when I showed him the finished product!! Love that boy!

Happy Birthday to our sweet Bean!!

We love you and are so glad you are a part of our family forever!!!