Happy Fall

 The three most beautiful boys ever!

 Biggest and Littlest

 Grady and his beebee yeeyum

 Such a beautiful, perfect baby. 

Liam's very first pumpkin picture.

And the pumpkins are almost bigger than he is!

Happy Fall Everyone!

One Month Old

 Guess who's ONE month old??
He looks thrilled, doesn't he?

 Liam finally settles on just giving me the stink eye. This photoshoot wasn't his favorite.

 What a month it has been! We defiantly didn't have the start everyone imagined, with our weeklong NICU stay. But the past 3 weeks have been wonderful. 

 Liam is a very happy, easy going baby. He is a joy to have around.

 His silly expressions keeps everyone giggling. Here he shows off his best Zoolander impression.

 And he's starting to smile in response to people and things. 

 Grady just loves being a big brother! He hasn't shown any signs of jealousy and always asks if "Liam is awake?" so he can give him kisses and "pets".

Aiden has been a huge, huge help. He loves feeding Liam when my hands are full making dinner or taking care of Grady.

I am so blessed to have three wonderful boys. Liam has filled a hole in our family that none of us knew we really had.

Around here....

Around here....we're sleeping a little better since I bought a co-sleeper. Liam just doesn't like being alone.  He sleeps great in the co-sleeper and only wakes up at bottle time. It's okay-I like having him close by. He still breathes rapidly and I take comfort in being close and being able to hear and feel him breathing.

Around here....we're super proud of Aiden for bringing home a mid-term with straight A's.  He is really doing wonderful in 3rd grade. I don't think he has brought home a test with less than a B on it!

Around here....we're also super proud of Grady who has been wearing underwear for over a week with NO accidents. While I was in the NICU with Liam, Grady decided it was time to potty train. So my Grandma got to do all the hard work; which apparently wasn't much because Grady was ready. He now wears underwear all day and uses his potty by himself! He's still wearing a diaper to bed because he does wake up wet most morning but I am so proud of the progress he's made!

Around here....Liam put back on the weight he lost in the NICU. As of October 6th, he was 8 lbs 10oz. He's still eating really well; 3 oz every 3 hours and he makes a huge dribbly mess when he eats. He's awake more during the day but still up every 3 hours at night to eat. Liam is starting to coo more instead of grunting but he is very good at growling. And he is smiling more and more everyday and it's beautiful!



And

Around here...I'm staying super busy taking care of my 3 guys and the household. Somedays I feel like I'm running around like mad or I'm so tired I might fall over; or both. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love being a Mommy of 3 beautiful, wonderful, amazing boys.

Sleep

Who would have thought this sweet, mellow guy would hate sleeping at night??

Let me rephrase that; he enjoys sleeping at night (and all day!). He just HATES sleeping in his crib at night! It never fails. He will sleep well during the day; even spending some of his sleep time in his crib. But once night time rolls around (specifically when I want to go to bed....) it turns into a scream-fest.

I bought him a "womb bear" because I thought maybe it was too quiet; a lot of NICU babies have a hard time adjusting to the quiet of home after a noisy NICU.  And that does help a little, he calms down a bit when it's on, just not enough to sleep well.

I've tried swaddling him. I've swaddled him tight. I've swaddled him loose. I've swaddled with his hands in and with his hands out.

I've tried putting him down with a pacifier and without. This is difficult though. He still breaths fast and will get into periods where he "huffs" pretty hard. When he does this, his mouth is open (almost like a dog panting) and out pops the paci no matter what. And that usually makes him mad too.

I have two plug in lights in the room; so it isn't too dark. But it isn't super bright either.

But it never fails. Within 10 minutes of me putting him in his crib, he starts grunting. And then he whimpers. And then he screams! We do this over and over; after every bottle feed (so every 3 hours!). And I'll usually be back and forth to his room; adjusting him, popping the paci back in, rocking, smoothing his hair. When I'm in the room, he settles down. As soon as I lay back in bed, he starts all over. We go around and around for a while until exhaustion wins and I pick him up, bring him to my room and we fall asleep together.  Of course, he sleep WONDERFUL with me.  I even have to wake him when it's bottle time!

So we're going to try and find a bassinet to put in my room. Maybe that will help. Hopefully it'll help, at least until he is bigger.  Maybe the size of the crib is overwhelming for him. He did spend his first week tucked inside a little box.


Maybe he's just lonely and loves to be cuddled.

And I love you Liam and I love cuddling with you.....but this Mommy needs some sleep!

Liam's photoshoot

Who needs to go to a portrait studio when you have a sister who does beautiful photography?!?

Liam Lowell

Liam Lowell arrived on September 23rd, 2011 at 7:58 am

He weighed 8 lbs 2 oz and 20 1/2 inches.

The birth was super, super easy. I had an amazing epidural and I didn't feel a thing. A little too good cause I didn't even feel pushing or him coming out! Apparently, Liam decided to come out sideways.  Glad I couldn't feel that one!!

And then the trouble started......

Liam was taken over to the warmer and they tried to get him to cry but he would only give little cries. He was also breathing too fast. Even my OB went over and rubbed on him a bit to try and get him angry.  They decided to take him to the nursery right away and give him a bath in hopes of getting him angry.  I didn't even get to hold him.

A bit later they came back saying he did cry good during his bath but then reverted back to fast breathing and was now grunting with every breath.  They had him in an incubator and on oxygen to try and help. They hoped with a little help and time, he would settle down.

As soon as I was able, I got into a wheelchair and went to see my baby. It was very hard to see him like that. He was grunting/crying with every single breath. His pedi called it "singing".  He told us he'd give him about another half hour and if he kept going, then he was going to be sent to the NICU in Toledo, about 2 hours away.


Of course, Liam made no changes and by 2:00 was being transferred to Toledo in an ambulance.  Seeing him in the little box on the huge stretched was so very hard. Watching them roll him down the hall alone was harder.

Thank God for my wonderful OB. He discharged me from the hospital only 8 hours after giving birth so I could go to Toledo and be with Liam.  Mom and I made the drive out together while Brett went home to help my grandma with Aiden and Grady.

The NICU was exhausting. When we got there, we had both been awake for almost 48 hours.  See Liam in the incubator with all the tubes attached was emotionally draining. We stayed across the street at the Ronald Mcdonald House to be near Liam.  Thank goodness that was available. We were able to get up early, spend all day sitting with Liam (14 hours or so) and then go back to get some sleep and start again the next day.

Liam was diagnosed with TTN, or wet lung disease. Usually, it's something that premature babies get but 1% of full term babies get it. Of course, I'd have the 1%. He also showed fluid in his lungs, most likely inhaled during birth.  Over the course of a few days, the doctors expected Liam to make a quick turn around. And once again, he had to stump them all. They said his lungs were behaving more like a premature baby than a full term one. His grunting lasted almost 3 days and his rapid breathing (his respiration would go over 100 at times) was exhausting!  He was on oxygen assistance and a feeding tube (his breathing was too fast for him to suck on anything)
 







And then to top it all off.....he got jaundice as well.  In an attempt to try not to make him angry (and irritate him breathing more) he was put on a bili blanket instead of an overhead light.






The boys first meeting wasn't how I imagined it for the past 9 months....but they still fell in LOVE instantly!

Grady kept wanting to "pet" his bebe yeeyum. He kept saying "Aww...he's so cute!"

My three, goofy boys!

At day 4, Liam finally started turning a corner. He was able to keep his oxygen levels above 90 and they lowered his oxygen assistance slowly. I was FINALLY able to feed Liam a bottle!


On day 5, they removed the oxygen and Liam did GREAT!


And after a week in the NICU, Liam was finally stable enough to go HOME!!!



It was defiantly not what any of us expected. I didn't imagine ever spending a week in the NICU. Liam is such a wonderful baby, he is laid back and easy going. He quickly went on a 3 hour feeding schedual and sticks to it. When he's awake, he's already trying to hold his head up and ever so often, we get a glimpse of a smile!

Welcome home little Liam!!!