Our 4 kids together

I posted alot of photos on Facebook in a folder titled, "Luke's Homecoming".  Here are some more of all the kids together on Saturday, and today.  Also, some capturing their willingness to help and take care of "Lukester", as he has been nicknamed by Eli. :)  Enjoy!

LUKE IS HOME!!!

Luke came home yesterday evening (11/9/12)!!!  Andy, Jordan, Drew and I went to a Veteran's Day program at Eli's school in the afternoon.  It was very nice.  The kindergartners recited the Preamble to the Constitution!  Also, the kids sang the military branches' songs and God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood.  So cute.  Eli really does go to a great school.  We are going to miss it when we move.

Afterwards, we dropped the kids off at a friends (Nicole-you rock; as do you, Chantelle)!  Andy and I thought it best for us to go get Luke and have the little kids get to meet him at our house.  We got to the hospital and fed him his bottle, and after a short while, we were on our way home!  He came home on a portable monitor that lets us know if he has any bradycardia or apnea episodes.  He had been having a "brady" once a day, or every other day, so they wanted to be safe.  The monitor has indicated a low heart rate (brady) a few times now, but some of those times, it also indicated a loose lead, so I think that maybe one of them was real, and the others were false alarms.  We prepared the children by telling them how loud it was, and to get Mommy or Daddy if for some reason we weren't in the room when it went off.  Eli knows about CPR, so he told us he would do it if needed; thus, we made sure he knew NOT to attempt that.  Mommy and Daddy are trained for babies, so only we will do it, IF we need to.  When the alarm went off the first time, Eli panicked, and was pacing, saying "I hope Luke doesn't die." :(  I know, but we are honest with him and he is a sharp kid, so it doesn't surprise me.  We assure him that Luke isn't going to die, but it is just to be safe, but he definitely worries when it goes off.  I have no doubt that Brady's death has affected his view of babies dying (we have talked about it often, of course).  He knows that it isn't the norm, but he also has lived through it, so it's a very real fear to him.

Luke has adjusted to being home great!  He was eating so much that they moved him to a 4 hour schedule instead of eating everry 3 hours.  We have had some trouble getting him to burp since he's been home, which is funny because the nurses all laughed at how loud (and easily) he burped when in the hospital.  I guess Andy and I are out of practice.  Hee hee.  He tolerates the other kids' noise well, and really is happy when he is alert, and sleeps most of the time between feedings.  He takes awhile to eat sometimes, so it is time-consuming, but everyone is patient with us.  Andy asked last night how we did it with two, and I told him I never slept!!  The kids ran in and were in awe of Luke.  They want to help out more than we are ready for them to just yet.  Jordan keeps saying that we named him Luke because we didn't have that name yet in our family, and that she suggested Luke as a name!  Drew has some congestion, so we won't let him kiss him yet, but he is always touching his hands and forehead (yes, they all know they have to have clean hands first).

I HAVE LOVED TODAY! We just stayed in our pj's, did whatever we wanted, including Andy taking the kids to the Braum's drive thru for ice cream to bring home. :)  The kids have played wonderfully together, and I have gotten 4 loads of laundry done, along with dishes and general pick-up; and it was all without guilt about not being with Luke.  We peek at him often, and are actually comforted by the monitor (how were we not paranoid with the other two?!).  Life is good, and we are eternally grateful to everyone for their thoughts, prayers, love and support.  Most of all, we praise God, who knew that our family wasn't complete yet, and who gave us so much peace, patience, and strength to take this journey with HIM as our guide.  We have already had so many "just stare at our miracle" moments.... Thanks be to God!!!!

Today In Photos

Hope to all be together Friday!

Luke got his feeding tube out in the night last night!  He looks so big sometimes, yet so little others.  He now weighs 4 lbs, 6 oz!  He is doing great, and we were able to talk with the doctor and nurse practictioner today about our discharge plan.  They tested his hematocrit, and it was on the low side, so they were planning to do a blood transfusion before discharge.  However, after some discussion with Andy and I (okay, I talked and Andy nodded his head a few times), we are holding off on that for now.  He will get his hematocrit level checked in a week by our pediatrician and if it has gone down more, we will go ahead and take him in to get the transfusion.  I truly want what is best for Luke, and there were a few factors that led me to feel like he didn't need one just yet.  He made it this entire hospitalization without one, and his level was just borderline low.

Because of the couple bradycardia episodes and hematocrit level, they have decided that he should come home on monitors.  Jordan and Drew did not come home with any, so this will be new to us.  However, our twin nephews had them when they were babies, so we are familiar with the logistics of moving him around with them, etc.  They said in a week or two, if he doesn't have any apnea or bradycardia episodes, he can get off of them.  Also, he is getting his carseat test tonight sometime, so hopefully, he will pass that because the plan is to bring him HOME ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON!!!  Eli has a school Veteran's Day program that we would like to go to, so we will go get Luke after that is over.  Eli is SO excited about singing his "America" songs for this program.  He tried telling us that it was weeks ago!  He got confused since he has been practicing them in music for awhile.  This morning at breakfast he sang me Lee Greenwood's song, "Proud to be an American".  I may cry during it on Friday! :)  I taught patients at Shriner's Hospital for Children that song, along with others, right after 9/11 and we performed them for the staff and community leaders.  (sniff, sniff)

The kids are BEYOND excited to get Luke home.  Tonight, we put together his swing and bouncy seat, and the kids sorted through the huge box of baby toys I have gotten from Brandy and Stephanie and picked out some of their favorites for us to wash up and share with Luke.  All others, including all pink, is coming your way, Abby and Chris!!  I figure that Luke will be more entertained by his siblings and their toys than he will a small rattle.... Tomorrow night, we make signs and blow up some balloons.  We will do our best to capture the family "reunion" on Friday and share it with you all.  Until then....

Discharge Preparations...

For those who haven't heard, we found out on Monday that Luke should come home on or before Friday of this week!!  On Thursday, he will be 6 weeks old.  Jordan and Drew were born at 30 weeks gestation also and came home at 7 weeks of age, and weighed 5 lbs.  Luke was 4 lbs, 4 oz as of yesterday.  They are probably weighing him as I type, so I bet he is up an ounce or two. 

Last week, I talked with the doctor about Andy leaving for training the week after Thanksgiving.  I truly want what is best for Luke, but prayed that we had some overlap time when Luke was home and so was Andy!  They increased his bottle feedings per day, and it's like a ligh bulb clicked after a couple of days.  He started taking his required amount of 36 ml, plus whatever extra the nurses had put in (usually 40 ml total)!!  He took every bottle offered, so one of the nurses we have had before told me on Sunday night that she was going to offer the bottle if he was awake at his 12:30am feeding, which was supposed to be tube fed.  He was awake; she offered; and he downed it!!  Since then, he has taken every feeding from a bottle.  I was sick on Monday, and I had to stay home.  It's the first day that I haven't seen Luke, and it about broke my heart.  I am so grateful to be living in the same place as his hospital, and for all the amazing friends who keep my children for extended and repeated playdates so that I can have that time with Luke each day.  I called often to check-in, and each time, the news got better and better.  "He's getting his immunizations today, and will be circumcised today or tomorrow, bring your carseat tomorrow so we can do his carseat test, sign up for the parent discharge class on Wednesday (not Friday).  He is doing so well, he could go home before then!!!"  Talk about making me feel better!!  I managed to rest in the morning, but kicked that virus to the curb and started preparing the house even more for his homecoming.  There were some things that I just wanted to wait on so that it didn't seem like he was there for so long... 

Today, I spent all day up there with Luke (major thanks to my friend, Hilary)!!  He got circumcised, and wasn't a fan, as you can imagine, so I stayed and rocked him most of the afternoon.  He has had a couple of bradycardia episodes the past 2 days, so they are doing some labwork tonight, and now, if he does come home this week, he will most likely be on monitors.  He hadn't had any episodes in weeks, so they want to make sure his bloodwork all looks good.  He is still little, and young, and we are absolutely okay with waiting to bring him home when HE is ready.  They talked today that it was going to be tomorrow after class until he started having these episodes, so I am thankful that they are checking into them and being cautious.  I still anticipate that he will come home on Friday, but we just have to wait and see.  God calls us often to do that...wait and see.  So, we will, and we will do so patiently.  We are so, so thankful to God for answering the thousands of prayers said on his behalf these past few months.  We praise Him always, in these times of joy, and in our times of sorrow.  Andy and I just can't wait to bring Luke home and stare at the miraculous gift God has once again given us.  We did it with all of our other children, and I know we will do it again.  Just hold him and stare, and praise God.  Newborns are so much more fun to watch than any t.v. show!!  Okay, I digress.  I will do my best to keep everyone posted, and post some great photos soon.  You know I take some everyday! :)  Happy Election Day...and, no, I didn't vote.  I didn't feel like I knew enough facts about each candidate.  My husband did though, so good job Andy!

5 weeks old and 4 pounds!

Today Luke is 5 weeks old, or 35 weeks gestation if he was still in utero. Tonight, he weighed 4 lbs, 1 oz and they finally moved him into a big boy open air crib. He has been holding his own temperature since they lifted the lid on his isolette awhile ago, but no one ever switched his bed until tonight. The scale on the isolette has been acting up, so we had him out on the regular scale, so another nurse we t and found him a crib. Here are some photos of him from today. He is now on a eat from a bottle two times in a row, then get fed via his tube the third feeding. So, he is eating more often from a bottle, but still doesn't finish every bottle every time. He really is a content baby and I rarely hear him cry. I hope that continues once he is home! :) We still do not know when he will come home, but are so proud of how he is progressing.

Halloween Fun!

All the kids had a great Halloween season! I say season because we have been celebrating for months now. Eli has inherited his love of this holiday from his Daddy, and asked to get out our Halloween stuff in August! Even though Luke wasn't able to join us for Trick-or-Treating, he still got to dress up for some photos. I took more photos on my other camera, but couldn't get them to upload again.

Real fast update: Luke is finally 4 lbs!! They are also trying more bottles and letting him nurse once a day (which he does great at). Thanks for the continued prayers.