End of the year baseball party

This Saturday was the end of the year party for Landon's baseball team.  They had it at one of the boy's house that had a pool.  It was really nice and the boys had a lot of fun.  We sat in the shade and for once it actually wasn't too hot outside...it was in the high 90s, how ridiculous is it that that actually felt pretty nice! Tired of this crazy hot weather!  But Preston seemed to enjoy getting the fresh air too.  The boys had so much fun swimming!!

We have seriously got to teach them how to swim.  Landon and Casen were the only ones that old that didn't know how to swim.  We just don't swim often and man swim lessons are insanely expensive!!!  Mark is going to try and teach them, and Nikki says she's going to too so hopefully by end of summer they know how!  

But they had a great time yesterday, despite not knowing how to swim.  

Landon with most of his baseball team

So this swimsuit is supposed to fit from 34-55lbs....he is 31lbs lol, no way that thing would fit a 55lb kid!

He really liked the swim suit though, I think he might be the easiest to teach to swim.  

Preston is 2mo old!!

As of 1hr and 40min ago Preston is officially 2mo old!!!  I can't believe it, time is going way too fast, he just needs to slow down!!!  He is now 11lbs 2oz (37th%), that's according to our scale.  He has his 2mo check up on Wed so I will update again after that and also with his length now :)  

The past two days for him though have been bad :(  He isn't feeling well at all.  It started yesterday, he was a little fussy all day but in the evening it got really bad.  For 2hrs straight he just cried, nothing we did seemed to help, he'd calm down for a minute then start screaming again.  Mark and I were back in our room trying to calm him down away from the noise of the boys and Mark looked over at him in my arms and noticed his feet were blue.  I'm not talking purplish, like you get when you are really cold but a VERY bright blue, like he was at birth.  It was very scary.  I put him down and started checking him over and rubbing him all over and after a minute his feet went back to normal, just a little purplish, no where else on his body turned blue that we noticed at least.  He was very veiny like i have talked about before, like you get when you are cold, though he seems to get much worse when he cries, they veiny stuff was VERY purple and has been there since yesterday, usually it comes and goes.  I hope he's ok and it's not anything with his lungs.  

He slept decently last night but started up again this morning as soon as it was light outside.  He was on and off sleeping and fussing all morning.  We ended up losing track of time while dealing with him and missed church which upset me, but I guess a fussy baby in church isn't the best idea anyway.  He's been grumpy all day but again late this afternoon he got really bad.  Crying on and off for hours and he seemed to be in pain.  I noticed when I was putting a diaper on him earlier, I was pulling it around him to fasten in the front (cloth diaper) and when I pulled the tab part he started screaming bad like I had hurt him and I did nothing that SHOULD have hurt him.  I started thinking about it and realized where that put pressure is by your kidneys.  So after that and then noticing how he would get more upset when we'd pick him up by his sides I"m pretty sure it's his kidneys bothering him.  I showed Mark a different way to pick him up that doesn't seem to hurt him and said "instead of touching right here" and set my hands on his sides, not pushing at all and he started screaming again :(  My poor little man, I hate that there is nothing we can do for him and we just have to wait until the 22nd.  3wks from tomorrow, I really hope we get some kind of answers and something that will help him.  

He slept for 4hrs earlier then woke up and I bathed him, which he screamed through, normally he likes his bath :(  He's back asleep now, I hope he sleeps ok tonight and feels better tomorrow.  I'm going to call his pediatrician tomorrow and maybe the urologist that we are waiting to see too and see what they think is going on and if he needs to be seen before Wed.  

I had hoped to get some good 2mo pics today but with him so miserable I didn't, but I did get these when holding him earlier

My poor miserable baby

Sleeping in his woombie

Yesterday

His little baby feet <3

Preston's birth slide show

I've been wanting to make this for awhile but wasn't ready to look back at his NICU pics yet, but today I wanted to do it.  I really love how it turned out

Frozen bananas = huge hit!

Well we can mark one thing off our "Before School Starts Bucket List"....we made the frozen bananas!!  And the boys absolutely loved them, I had one too and I have to say they are really yummy, plus really easy!

All you do is cut 2 bananas in half with the skin still on, slide a popsicle stick in then peel and put in the freezer for about an hour.  Then you melt 1/2c chocolate chips with 1.5tsp of veg oil, 10sec at a time in the microwave, stirring after each 10sec.  Then pick some toppings to use on top of that, we used apple cinnamon granola, cinnamon cheerios and sprinkles...nuts would be good too.  

The boys had a blast making them and loved eating them.

Casen dipping his banana in chocolate

Hayden working on his

Casen chose granola for his topping

Mmmm Landon chose cinnamon cheerios, which is what I chose and they were delicious all together!

Hayden still working on getting chocolate on his, he insisted on doing it all on his own

He chose apple cinnamon granola for his, too

Mmmm yummy!

Warning the chocolate becomes cold on the banana, of course, so it can all slide off in one piece as you can see here lol

Very easy snack though!!  Not too bad for them either, yeah there is some chocolate but if you choose healthy toppings plus the banana it isn't that bad, it's a fun treat that they can make themselves

Preston is ticklish

Ok I looked back and I forgot to post about this!  

On Tuesday Preston was 8wks!!  That evening Mark was holding him and started tickling his sides, just rubbing his sides softly with his finger tips and Preston started squirming then he started smiling a little!!!  It was so cute, he was very obviously ticklish <3  He still won't smile as a response to us talking to him or him looking at us and smiling but he did react to Mark tickling him.  Then this morning I woke up to him talking to my pillow and smiling at it!!!!  It was so adorable, what a way to wake up <3  

So now he rolls from tummy to back and is smiling some in response to certain things, he's progressing.  I hope he start smiling when he sees us or hears us talking to him soon.  

I got these pics the other day of Mark tickling him

Looking up at Daddy

Casen is so sweet with him BUT he makes us absolutely crazy because he can't just leave him alone.  He is always in his face kissing him and hugging him.  Which is sweet, yes, but wouldn't it be annoying to you to always have someone in your face?  He annoys Preston sometimes because he does it ALL.THE.TIME.  He tells us "I can't help it", "he's so cute I just have to kiss him", "I can't stop".  Again cute/sweet but man kid give him a break lol.  But here again he was in his face then posed for this pic and this is what I got, Preston's little lip all pouty haha

Little smile

Another little smile

And crazy Daddy with baby Preston

These are also from Tuesday...Happy 8wks little man!!!

This is him in that same outfit at exactly 6wks

And same outfit at 3.5wks

He is getting so big, it's going way too fast!  He is now exactly 11lbs as of today!  He will be 2mo in just a couple of days, I really can't believe it.  

He can roll!!!

Preston can now roll from his belly to his back!!!!  8wks 2days old and he did it seven times!  

He was having some tummy time and I was taking pics of him in his JuneBug onesie (it finally fits!) and he flipped himself over!  I couldnt' believe it, I flipped him back and he did it a few more times so I grabbed my phone and got a video of him doing it twice :)  

Here are some pics of him from today

PBJ <3

Love bug

Our little JuneBug

Tummy time

Goofy face and he had just spit up but holding himself up so well!

When he first flipped over!!  I was so excited I got it on camera

2nd time!

And videos :)

This is him just having some tummy time, he doesn't actually roll in this one

Then him rolling in this one

And rolling again!

So proud of him!!!  He is definitely getting the physical thing down but we are still waiting on a real smile.  We did get him smiling at Mark because he was tickling him...I think I posted about that?  I'll look back at my posts and check and if not I'll do another one with those pics...it was so sweet!

Menu 7/25-7/30

Well I'm behind this week, we were pretty busy this weekend so I didn't have time to go grocery shopping but I'm going to go after I put the boys in bed tonight.  Here is our menu for this week :)

Breakfast:

Cereal

Oatmeal in crock pot

Lunch:

Sassy Tailgate Sandwiches 

Regular sandwiches

Mini tacos

chicken nuggets

Snacks:

Frozen bananas

Peach Fruit Leather

Chocolate Pudding Pops

Bananas Foster Crunch Mix

Summer Fruit Gazpacho

crackers and cheese

fresh fruit

Dinners:

Chicken corden bleu with mashed potatoes and veggies

Cheesy ham and hashbrown casserole (tonight's dinner!)

Pepperoni Pizza Casserole with salad

Parmesan-Ranch Chicken (again!) with pan seared corn on the cob and garlic mashed potato cakes

Nacho Cheese Beef Bake with carrots

Saturday we are going to do a frozen pizza :)

A lot of the recipes for this week came from my Taste of Home magazine so if you want one that isn't posted just leave me a message and I'll send it to you :)

Just need to get it all out

A bit of a downer post but just need to get it out somewhere.  Mark doesn't read my blog and I don't want to really let on to him how concerned I am because I know he is VERY concerned and he trusts my judgment, intuition and all that when it comes to the kids so if he knew just how worried I was too it would make him even more upset about it.

Preston has us so worried that something is wrong with him, mentally.  The day we checked out of the NICU the dr doing his discharge paperwork and going over everything with me she told me he needed to see a developmental pediatrician "because you know he was deprived of oxygen".  Well no, we didn't realize that, it had never been put like that to us.  But apparently that 1.5hrs that he was with us after birth before the breathing problems were caught deprived him of oxygen.  I guess had I really thought about it I would have realized that but 1.5hrs of his brain not getting the oxygen it needed.  Yeah, I'm going to bitch here, but dammit had our wishes been respected this could have been caught sooner.  First, it's not all on us, he came out blue and not breathing right he got a 5 apgar at 1min then they claim he was a 9 at 10min.  That is bull because I have pics from that entire time before he was put in my arms and he was blue the whole time, he did pink up a tiny bit but his hands and mouth were always blue, it should have been caught then.  Not him given to us and everyone walk out to leave us to it.  Second, I got to hold my baby all of 5min before the boys came in to meet him, which was the plan, they all held him a minute.  Then he was passed all around for the next hour without me getting him back.  There were only supposed to be certain people there and that wasn't respected.  THIS was our fear, this is why we asked for that to happen.  Once I got my baby back I saw how blue he was and everyone left at that same time and the nurse walked in right behind them and she noticed and he was taken to the NICU and from there y'all know the story.  

Both Mark and I have incredible guilt at the stress we put him through.  There are a thousand what ifs, what if we said something as soon as the nurse handed him to us, we should have known, he was our 4th.  What if we had noticed earlier.  But now here we are in a wait and see game to see what kind of damage (if any) our baby has from this.  

It's not all from that first 1.5hrs though.  His sats were very low for days.  Even once on the vent his oxygen saturation was much lower than it should have been.  His lungs weren't functioning correctly, it wasn't able to keep enough oxygen going.  It wasn't until about the 4th-5th day when the nitric oxide started working that his sats stayed stable.  During that time more damage may have been done.  

So now here we are, almost 8wks out, still waiting on first smiles, still waiting on signs to show us he's developing normally.  At this point they aren't there.  He rarely looks AT us, he almost always looks past us, he looks right through us.  We know he can see, lights will catch his eye, the tv will catch his eye, there are times he looks at us.  But he avoids eye contact most of the time.  He shows no emotion.  There are times he seems to be seeing us but his eyes aren't looking right at us, they are usually looking up but it seems like he sees our face, it doesn't make sense.  He crosses his eyes ALL the time, which I know it's normal for newborns to do...but he does it way more than any other baby I've ever seen.  His eyes will go in 2 different directions, they don't always move together.  He also doesn't have nearly the head control the boys did at this stage.  

I've had people tell me we should adjust his age back at least 1-2wks because he was in the hospital and sedated the first week so really he'd be like an almost 6wk old baby.  Some say we should adjust back 3wks since he was born at 37wks and obviously was not ready AT ALL to be born...so almost 5wk old baby.  I don't know which if either we should do.  But even by 5wks all 3 other boys were smiling socially all the time.  

Mark is so worried that something is wrong.  I have a horrible feeling that there is something wrong.  I know babies, I know what is normal development and he doesn't seem to be developing normally.  I've never dealt with preemie babies though so I'm praying that it's just that he's preemie and everything is fine.  

Please Preston, show us something, let us know you're ok.


P.S. I don't know how long I'll keep this blog post up.

Our food this week was delicious!

Again, not everything was made...get used to that haha.  We had planned to go to Sprouts after my dr appt on Monday so I hadn't bought the meat for a couple things because I prefer to buy from them...well Mark ended up having a meeting he had to make it back for so we couldn't go to Sprouts so that messed up a few recipes.

On Sunday though we had Dessa and Chris over for dinner.  It was a really good night, love spending time with them.  I made Parmesan-Ranch Chicken, Au Gratin Potatoes and Cream corn with Banana Pudding for dessert....everything was amazing!!!!  The chicken was especially amazing, everyone loved it!!!  I will be making that all the time now, it was so easy and so much flavor.  The potatoes were very good too, I usually take onions out of things because Mark HATES them but I felt like these were really going to need them so I left them sliced in rings so they could easily be pulled out.  I didn't tell Mark they were there and he loved the potatoes, I told him after he had tried them and he said he could taste the onion flavor but he thought it was onion powder...which is huge because this man can feel/taste real onion and makes him not want to eat it, it's ridiculous really lol.  But he really liked these.  The onions were so soft, I have never cooked anything with onions that they got as soft as they did in this.  Will definitely make it again too.  The cream corn was very good too, Mark who doesn't like corn either even liked it.  And banana pudding was a a hit too!!  Which was a big compliment from Chris because he absolutely loves his mom's and he said this was very good too :)  I'd say that dinner was a huge success

I made tater tot casserole for dinner on Monday, which of course was yummy!  Tuesday we had orange chicken, again yummy.  Hayden loves that meal, it has red bell peppers and snow peas in it and those are his favorite parts!  He is the only one of the boys that likes peppers but he stole them from everyone's plates and ate them all plus had 3rds of the snow peas lol.  Wed I was out until late, we had Souper Salad for dinner with Aunt Dessa.  Thursday I made hamburger stronganoff, it was good, not GREAT.  I will probably make it again but won't be something we'll be craving all the time like that awesome parm-ranch chicken.  

I didn't have time to make our breakfast casserole before church last Sunday so I'm going to either make it tomorrow morning or Sunday, can't wait to try it it looks so good.  I think that's all the new recipes for this week :)

He's gone to camp!!

Well Landon is gone to camp!!!  

I took him up to the church at 11:30am and we finished up the registration, them making sure we had given them everything then hung out in the atrium until it was time to load up.  All of the kids and parents gathered and we had a quick meeting and prayer and then took them to the bus.  Landon was so excited but got a little nervous when it was time to go.  I think he'll do great though.  I took him outside and he said bye to his brothers and then got on the bus at about 12:15.  I figured we'd wait and watch the bus drive away in a few minutes....a lot of other parents were doing the same.  WELL bus didn't actually leave until 12:45 and by that time me and the boys and then 2 other moms were the only ones left lol.  It was HOT outside, don't know what took them so long.  But I think he was happy we waited and was waving as they drove off.  I really hope he has a great time and doesn't get sad at night.  He has never been away from us more than 24hrs, usually when he stays the night somewhere (which rarely ever happens anyway) it's usually only like 12hrs.  So now he's been gone since 12:45 and won't be home until about noon on Monday.  :(  

Landon hugging Hayden

3 of my boys

Quick meeting

Saying bye to Mommy

One last hug for Casen

And one more for Hayden

Getting on the bus

Bye Landon!!

I really wonder how him and Casen are going to do because since the day Casen has been born they have never spent a night apart.  If they spent the night with Grandma or Aunt Dessa they were always together.  The only time they are every apart are the few hours they are at school

More dr appts

Back to the dr again today!  I can't remember if I updated on here that we got the results back from the cultures taken for Preston's eye at the ER.  They called me this weekend to let me know it was staph so that after he finished the antibiotics we needed to have him rechecked to be sure that it was really gone.  So today I took him back to his pediatrician to have that done.  She said since he wasn't having any drainage she couldn't even do the cultures but if he's not having drainage we can safely assume that it's gone.  BUT she did say if he starts having it again to not treat it just as normal blocked tear duct to have him seen right away so we can be sure staph isn't back again.  

While we were there I had Casen seen, too.  He has this stuff behind his ear, there are a few dry patches but then at the crease where the back of his ear meets his head it's VERY dry and cracks open then he has it inside his ear too.  He also has patches on his butt, one on his back and 2 on the back of one of his legs.  Then this weekend we found out it's on his head too and it's been itching and he picks at it and caused it to bleed.  She re-diagnosed him with eczema...which he had as a baby but it went away, he has dry skin, very sensitive skin and the stuff on his head is like cradle cap.  She said she sees the patches on the butt fairly often in kids with skin like his in the summer because they are sweating, their undies rub and the detergent residue can do that.  So she suggested moving him back to Dreft for his clothes, move him to Dove soap with Cetaphil cream daily, hydrocortisone cream on every spot 1-2x a day and then medicated shampoo for his head.  Hopefully that all helps.  We have to watch and be sure he isn't picking at his head anymore, though I never saw him do it in the first place, I think he does it as he's falling asleep....but we don't want it getting infected.  Casen knows what infected means because he saw Preston's eye of course and we told him how it was infected and explained all that to him so now when she said that about his skin getting infected from him picking at it or scratching I think that will stick and he won't do it lol.  But he's fine, it's nothing serious so that's good.

Preston waiting on the dr

Casen waiting

Landon

Hayden loving on Preston

After that we went and picked up Dessa and had lunch then visited with Aunt Gigi for a few hours.  Another really nice day out of the house, sooooo glad I'm getting out of the house more.  The boys fell asleep on the ride home and as soon as we got home they walked straight to their beds and went right back to sleep...was pretty nice.  Tomorrow Landon's friend, Kolten, from baseball is coming over with Kadrie, his little sister who casen and Hayden play with all the time at baseball.  The boys are really excited to have friends come over but refused to clean their rooms and I just didn't have time to fight with them and get it done.  Ok they didn't "refuse" they just played instead of actually cleaning.  So I told them since they didn't get it done then their friends are going to see it like that and probably think they are super messy kids to live like that.  Maybe the embarrassment will make them want to keep it clean after that....probably not.

But Friday Landon leaves for camp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!