Brendan with his newest son.
Wright was happy to see Mommy again.
Both of our boys have had to be under the Bilirubin lights. Here are their side by side pics. Wright looks SO much bigger...guess 1.5 pounds makes a big difference at this age.
Spencer.
Wright.
Wright is talking so much these days, it is insane! He says literally everything. When we were in the hospital for 3 days, I swear he learned 100 new words. One big thing he started doing is using pronouns and complete sentences consistently. "Mommy your breakfast.", "That's my choo choo train.", "Um, I like waffles! I like cookies!" etc, etc.
Yesterday we were driving down the road and he saw a huge Longhorn sticker on a truck passing us and he said "Look Mommy, look! Hook 'em horns!" Hysterical!
He also likes to narrate every car ride with everything he sees. The funny thing is that most of it is stuff he has learned from Dora. It's like he thinks the whole world is one big Dora episode. Yesterday it was all about "I see volcano, its a triangle." A few days ago, it was sand castles everywhere he saw piles of dirt at construction sites. Just so funny how his little mind works.
People keep asking what he thinks about his baby brother. Obviously, he is a little confused because Spencer is not home with us yet. But if you ask him where Spencer is, he will say "Baby Spinster at da hotpitle with Dahkter Dreiling." LOL! He thinks every doctor is his pediatrician Dr. Dreiling. He also is very interested in everything that has to do with the baby (pumping, bottles, stuff in the nursery). When he sees me get bottles out, he goes and grabs his baby bottle and doll or stuffed animals and feeds them. I really think he is going to be a super sweet big brother.
One more thing I just thought of...whenever we ask him, "Wright, what is this?" or "Who is this?", he never just gives you the answer. Instead he says "Look like puzzle." or "Look like my daddy." Not sure where that came from, but it makes us laugh every time :)
Spencer has made great progress over the last few days. As of last night, he is completely off the breathing tubes and breathing regular room air on his own and at a normal rate. They are also increasing his milk every 6 hours by 5 ml and as of today, he is up to a little over an ounce. This sounds like nothing but is a HUGE improvement from the app. 1 tsp he started with.
Yesterday he tried his first bottle. After about 5 ml (app. 1 TB), he was so tired, he could not finish. During those five minutes of eating, he also choked a few times and could not seem to master suck, swallow, breathe without getting very stressed and irritated. It was very discouraging and felt like we had forever in front of us before he would take 8 - 2oz bottles (which is required before we can take him home).
But today, I went back for his bottle feed and he did amazingly well! He took 29ml out of 35ml total and he sucked it right down with few breaks. It is crazy how he much better he got in one day. Tomorrow he will try a bottle at two of his eight feedings. He will also be off the IV fluids sometime in the next 24 hours which means we can move him to the Special Care Nursery. This is going to be much better because we will have our own room and a lot more time to spend holding him.
Thank you to everyone for your continued prayers and support. Keep them coming! As I have been reminded continually, God is the greatest healer of all.
Much to our surprise, our second son was born about 5 weeks before his due date on New Years Eve. I went in to my 35 week OB appt concerned that my blood pressure was up (as it had been with Wright). It was indeed way up and the dr sent me down to triage for some tests. As soon as I was down there and laying on my side, my bp went way down and I was hopeful that I would go home and be put on bed rest for a few weeks. But then my blood work came back and yet again my liver numbers were really high (higher even than when they induced me with Wright), so my dr broke the news that I would be induced the next day or maybe even have a cesarean that night. I ended up being induced Thursday morning and Spencer was born at 5pm on the dot that evening.
Sadly, because Spencer was so early, he had to go the NICU. He is still there and improving every day. To dumb it down the main issue is his breathing. His lungs are not developed so they had to intibate him and put medicine direclty into his lungs to help them mature. In the meantime, he is on a machine that gives him extra oxygen at a higher flow than mature lungs need. They are trying to slowly ween him off of that every day. To feed him, they have a tube in his mouth that goes directly into his stomach. I pump and bring the milk up there and they give him about 1 TB every three hours. It is crazy how little he eats! The occupational therapist is coming to see him tomorrow to try a bottle and determine a feeding plan moving forward. Once he is off the oxygen and breathing on his own, we will work on getting him to take all 8 feedings by bottle daily. At that point, he can come home. The drs expect it will be a few more weeks. In the meantime, his Bilirubin levels are also up so they have put him under the lights to treat that. The hardest part of all is that we cannot hold him and also seeing this poor little 5lb 15 oz baby with a tube or needle coming out of every possible place on his body.
About 30 seconds after his birth.
He is so swollen in this picture taken at about 5:03pm.
Here he is not too long after the tube was taken out of his lungs. He is starting to look yellow.
Wright got a train table from Santa and LOVES it!
Megan came to visit and so did Gigi and Papoo.
We went to the Big 12 Championship game last night with the Woodards. It was freezing outside and it took a long time to get into the stadium between walking from the car and waiting in lines to be frisked. But it was really fun to get to see the new Cowboys' stadium and very nice that it was indoors in this weather. Despite an overall unexciting game and Texas playing poorly, we were happy with the outcome. Dramatic to say the least! Now we look forward to the National Title Game!
Brendan had to borrow my scarf while we waited in line cause his ears were so cold.
Liz and me all bundled up.
We are getting ready for Christmas and Wright is learning all about this favorite kids' holiday. We have been teaching him the story of the baby Jesus which sort of confuses him because he keeps thinking it is someone's birthday party. But he loves playing with his Little People nativity and calling it Old McDonald's. We put up our tree and decorated our house right after Thankgsiving and it took almost 2 full days! If we did not have visitors coming to our house for Christmas, I would have given up after a few hours I am sure! He has also learned how to sing Jingle Bells (Jingy Bells) and shake his bells that Mimi bought him. Today we went over to Aunt Sarah's house and decorated gingerbread houses with the cousins. Wright of course ate 90% of the candy while I decorated. But it was very fun!
Wright got to help hang candy canes on the tree.
Wright eating all the candy instead of making his house.
We had a great Thanksgiving this year! Kim, Newt and the kids came in town from Atlanta and all 7 male cousins loved playing with each other every day. We celebrated Kim and Melanie's birthdays at the beginning of the week with a girls' night at Hibiscus. On Thanksgiving day, we all went to Melanie's house and each brought a few dishes. We had tons of awesome food and the day went so smoothly because we had a bounce house that kept the kids outside most of the time. Friday, we got to go out without kids to Victor Tango's and a bar (first time I have been in one of those in forever!). And every day was filled with lots of activities and family fun. 
Newt in the giant chair at Victor Tango's.
This was the point of the day where all the boys decided they needed to have their shirts off.
We had a wonderful Halloween this year. Melanie had us over and went all out with the Halloween theme including monster finger sandwiches, spider cupcakes and stuffed bat pastries. She also had a pinata and a mummy contest for the kids. We hung out there for a while and then went to trick or treat. Wright picked up on how that worked very quickly and was great at saying "trick or treat" and "thank you" to every person. We finished off the night at the neighborhood carnival and played games for more candy.
Trick or treating was a great time.
Daddy and Wright.
Wright is sick with a virus and the poor thing has been coughing non stop for 2 days. Yesterday he coughed so much that he made himself throw up. He just stayed in his bed talking to himself and when I came in, he said "Mama spit" and he was sitting in a pile of puke! Then I told him, "Oh baby, that is throw up." So all night he kept saying "No Mama, no ketchup!" He obviously thinks throw up and ketchup are the same word. I fear the day that someone offers him ketchup on his hamburger!
We had our play group Halloween party at the Grissen's house today. Amy went all out and had tons of food, games and prizes for the kids. Wright won the pin the tail on the cat game and Molly won best costume. It was a great party and the kids all looked adorable.
Molly was the cutest pink piglet.
Lanie and Wright posed because we bribed them with M&Ms and juice. Still no smile from Wright though.
The best pic we could get of all of them - this was shortly before the tears began.
Our family.
Our little scarecrow in the ball pit.
Cute bunny Eleanor.
Wright pushing Lanie for a change. The Dora car was a HUGE hit with all the kids!
Sweet scarecrow.
Wright is officially sleeping in his big boy bed! On Tuesday, I put him in there for his nap. At first he was super quiet and I thought, Oh Wow, that was easy! Then I checked on him and he was reading books on the floor. After about 3 more times of this, my telling him not to get out of bed again and eventually a spanking, he fell asleep for 2 hours. The next day was a little better. He only got out of bed twice before he stayed in his bed. Then when he woke up, he talked to himself and stayed in his bed until I came to get him. Last night, we read books in the bed and he said "Go ni ni now." We asked, "Do you want to go ni ni in your crib or big boy bed?" and he said big boy bed. So, even though our plan was to wait until the weekend, we of course let him. He went straight to sleep for the entire night! This morning he stayed in there until I came to get him. And for his nap today, he never got out even when he had a dirty diaper. He just called for me. We are so happy this transition is over and that it went so smoothly. Proud parents for sure!
