Canceling for now

We are turning off our internet for now, and I'm writing this post even though I will still be updating my blog, just not as often.  We were going to get this awesome deal for our tv, internet and phone that was seriously amazing. So I turned off our internet and phone through the provider we had, and set up the hook up through the new company, but as it turns out, our area will not support the new internet...darn those big trees!  So now we are stuck in a satellite contract and until I can shop around a little we will no longer have internet. So, goodbye for now, but I promise to update as often as I can.

Holy Crap, is that really how huge I was???

Just for laughs...I have to post this sad comparison.  This was me on delivery day at the hospital.  I never thought I would get as big as this poor woman below, but sadly I think I was definitely there!  (This was just for you, Liz and Laura...I'm glad you can get a good laugh at my expense!!!)

Finally some pictures

Tuesday started off with a call from Jack's nurse saying he could come home today.  It was kind of a shock because they'd been telling us to expect Wednesday, so I was not at all prepared.  The kids and I needed to be bathed, the house picked up and breakfast made, plus I had to find someone to watch all the kiddos since they can't be in the NICU at all.  Luckily Laura offered to let me drop them all off at her work. 

When I got there, Jack looked so good.  All of the swelling had gone down, and the nurse and I excitedly removed the 4 monitoring tabby things that were left on him.  He was snug as a bug in his car seat, just chillin while I signed all the discharge papers.

 The nurse had to carry him down to my car, so I thought it'd be fun to get a goodbye shot of the NICU.  Hopefully that will be the last time we ever have to be in that great place.

 The first time they were together since they were in my tummy...11 days without each other.  (Josh is on the left and Jack is in the hat.)

 They seemed to snuggle up pretty fast.  It's funny, I think I kind of expected a big reunion between the two, but they have just been quietly together.

 Maggie and Sam have been a little sick, so they are limited to kissing the top of their heads and their feet.  If either one has a hat on, it only stays on for a few minutes before Maggie has to give them kisses.  She has been so sweet with them...in her own demanding little way...and I'm so glad she hasn't reacted in a mean way to them.  Both her and Sam love them so much. 



Announcement

HE'S HOME, HE'S HOME, HE'S HOME, HE'S HOME, HE'S HOME!!!

More to come.

Adjusting

We started off Tuesday morning with a spit bath for Josh.  Sam couldn't get over how funny this phrase was.  He had to confirm several times that we wouldn't "actually" be spitting on his brother.  Maggie loved helping to wipe him off with her allotted wash clothe, but Josh definitely wasn't too fond of the bath.

 Until we got to the lotion.  He loved being rubbed down.

And come on...who wouldn't love having three different sets of hands rubbing them down with lotion???  (He definitely must have a little Thomson blood in him!)

 He's definitely followed after Sam and Maggie with having blonde hair. 

And I just can't get over those eyes staring up at me...plus did you happen to notice his adorable dimple in his chin???

 This was our first attempt at some pictures together.  It's a little squinty in this spot, but I love the look on Maggie's face.  She's got 'tude and she's not afraid to show it!  (Actually she was being very sweet during these pictures, her expression was just pretty typical.)  A side note about Miss Maggie...drum roll please...she is officially potty trained, and she did it 100% on her own.  Seriously, I'm not even exaggerating.  She still wears a pull up at night just in case, but she goes through naps without any accidents and hasn't had an accident during the day for a while.  I'm so proud of her, and I love how proud of herself she is.  She's definitely my independant girl, that's for sure!

 More of his cute blonde hair.

 Maggie is so in love with these babies.  She always wants to see him and kisses the top of his head probably 50 times a day...seriously.  I can't wait to see how much she is going to love having two little snuggle bugs to love on.

A Jack update:  He has done so awesome.  This kid is a little trooper!  He is off of all the medicines other than his last dose of antibiotics, which he will receive tomorrow.  The IV that was in the artery in his arm is now out, and the IV in his head is gone too, but they put a new one in his foot.  He is off of the forced air oxygen and now has a small tube that puffs air into his nose.  I as able to nurse him today and he did awesome.  He latched right on and nursed like he was an old pro.  Kendall and I got to spend all afternoon with him and it was so fun to be able to snuggle him and sing him songs. 

As we were sitting there, one of the life flight nurses came to get an update on him to send back to our delivering hospital.  She was amazed to see how well he was doing...that he was off the ventilator and the nitrus.  Then, she said,  "Do you even realize how unusual that is.  He was life flighted 4 days ago, on a ventilator 2 days ago, and on nitrus yesterday, and now he is initially med free and oxygen free."  It put into perspective for sure!!!  We are so blessed and we know Jack is being watched over.  I can't believe that this has all happened within the last 6 days.  It feels like we have been in the middle of it all for weeks.   

And so it began...

February 4 started out at 4:00 in the morning.  I woke up so excited to see our babies that I couldn't go back to sleep so I started getting ready.  We got to the hospital at around 6:10 am and started the process of getting hooked up to the machines and monitored.  I was ecstatic to discover that I was already dilated to a 2 1/2 and 80% effaced.  Plus, we could see from the machines that I was in active labor.  I was starting to feel them when they hooked the pitocin up at 7:30.  This was the first time that I have ever started into labor on my own...it was pretty exciting! 

My epidural was put in around 9:00 and I was doing good.  Liz came down to take our minds off of the whole laboring day...(with Maggie we were actually bored because it was a long boring day.)   We played mormon bridge and Kendall kicked our butts.  About halfway through the game I was starting to feel the contractions.  My feet hadn't ever gone numb, just a little tingly.  Then I could feel everything.  Our awesome anesthesiologist came and tried adjusting the epidural several times, but with no luck.  They ended up having to put in a new one...which ended up working fabulously.  I could feel my legs completely and my belly and back were completely numb.  Somewhere in the middle of this my doctor came and broke my water.  so after all of this was done I started progressing pretty quickly.  At about 3:45 the nurse checked me and said I was complete and not to move.  They wheeled me into the OR (just in case anything dangerous happened) and the process began. 

 This is Kendall and my doctor right

before the action started!

At exactly 4:30 pm little Jack Wayne made his entrance, kicking and screaming. He was a healthy 6.3 oz and 17 1/2 inches long.  He was pretty gurgly, but he was quickly handed off to a nurse to get him cleaned off.

Next came Joshua Gilbert.  This little stinker had been breech my whole pregnancy, so he decided why not join the world that way!  Just as my doctor broke his water he came feet first, so fast, there wasn't anything else to do.  (The plan was to flip him around once Baby A had come out.)  We were so blessed that our doctor was so skillful in twisting him around so he could come safely.  Josh weighed 6.8 lbs and was 18 inches long.  He actually didn't start crying for what seemed like forever, but after our doctor gave him a rubdown he quickly followed after his brothers screaming.  It was one of the best sounds I've ever heard.  Two healthy screams!!!  (Both babies are named after their grandpas.  Jack Wayne (Wayne is Kendall's dad's middle name, and Joshua Gilbert (Gilbert is my dad's middle name.)

After the delivery everything went so fast.  They wheeled me into a recovery room and shortly after that brought me Josh.  They told me that Kendall went with Jack to the NICU to help with his breathing.  I didn't think much of it until later that evening the NICU specialist Dr. came and gave us some of the scariest news I've ever receiced in my life.  She went over a big long list of terms and essentially told us that Jacks lungs were underdeveloped.  They gave him a dose of surfactin and hoped for him to make a quick recovery.  Kendall and Dad Johnson were able to give Jack a blessing and it was such a comfort.  After that I new without a doubt that he would be okay.  It was still hard to see him hooked up to all the machines and hear the bad news, but I had a peaceful feeling through this whole process that I new he'd be okay.

Kendall also gave me a blessing that I would be able to heal quickly and be able to meet the demands that I would be faced with, and I can't even describe how thankful I am for my amazing husband.  He is such a strength to me and I am so blessed to be married to someone that I love more now than I could ever have imagined.  This blessing has seriously been a reality.  I feel so good, and my pain level has been so managable and relatively easy.  I know we are being blessed without measure!

Mr. Josh getting his scrubdown.  He is the pinkist baby.  I love his healthy glow!

Snug after his long day.

While in our delivering hospital it seemed like the majority of the news we got was scary and negative.  Jack was put on blood pressure medicine, steroids, surfactin, antibiotics and several other medicines to try to stabalize him, but nothing seemed to solve the problem. 

He is our first baby to have dark hair.  Josh has blonde hair like Sam and Maggie.

His little toes and fingers got to be pretty swolen.  He also got cradle crown...that's where they get a little crown of swelling around their head.

Jack developed what it called pulmonary hypertension and the medicine he needed (Nitrus Oxide) wasn't available at our hospital so he needed to be moved to a bigger hospital. 

He was life flighted on Sunday around 2:30.  This was another of the scariest moments of my life.  It was amazing to watch these amazing women tranfser him with supposed ease and care.  Who new that this terrifying afternoon would make a huge impact on our lives. 

We waved goodbye and took off to follow him up there.  After picking mom up and filling my prescriptions we finally arrived and were able to see him.  Immediatly when we talked to his nurse both Kendall and I started sobbing.  We were blessed with the most amazing peace and comfort.  We both new he was going to be okay and that he was where he could get the best help.  On the flight over to the hospital he had already made improvement.  After putting him on the Nitrus they were able to lower his oxygen level down within 15 minutes.  It was amazing.  Our experience here has been amazing.  He has only been improving and every day he has met huge milestones.  We were told that he definitely did not have underdeveloped lungs, but that he had swallowed too much fluid after his delivery.  Part of his lung ended up collapsing and he developed pneumonia.  Within 2 days being at the big hospital his high blood pressure was gone and he was being taken off of several medicines.  We have been so blessed and we really appreciate all of your prayers and thoughts for us!!!  Jack is no longer on a respirator, or the nitrus, and he is eating breast milk.  They told me today that I can come up and nurse him.  I was able to finally hold him yesterday and Kendall got to hold him on Tuesday.  If he continues to progress as well as he has he should be able to come home next week.  Hooray!!!

Nesting much?

I don't know why, but I kept on putting off sewing blankets and car seat covers for the babies.  I just didn't want to do it.  But, this last week I buckled down and got them all sewn.  I swear I have seen these super cute car seat covers everywhere lately, and I love them.  I don't really like the ones that cover just the seat part because I think they are almost too snuggly for babies, so I really wanted to make some of these that are a little looser.  Plus, I'm thinking they might prevent people from touching them in stores while they are sleeping...who knows.

 These are the undersides of the covers.

 These are the flannel receiving blankets I made.  If any of you don't know how to make these, they are super easy!!!  I buy 45 inches of fabric so they are square.  Then you just sew right sides together, leaving a 5 inch opening, so you can pull the printed part through.  Then just stitch up the opening and iron.  Seriously it's that easy!  (That's the same thing I did for the car seat covers, but I only used a yard of those fabrics, then I just made some velcro straps and sewed them on in the middle.  It took about 2 hours to sew the 3 blankets and the 2 car seat covers.

 I decided to only sew one cute quilt because I had a really cute quilt that my sister Jeanette made for Sam that we will also use.  I found this material at The Material Girls quilt shop.  It was on clearance so I think that for the whole top of the quilt it cost about $12.00.  For this quilt I just cut my fabric into different sized strips and sewed them together.  Then I ironed all the edges down flat.  Then I sewed the rick rack on.  I used the warm and comfy (or whatever the thin cotton batting is) for the batting.  I don't like the thick batting when I use minky fabric for the back because it makes it so warm.  I got the minky fabric from Joann's with a %50 off coupon so it made that $6.50 a yard and I had to get 60 inches of that.  So it made that fabric about $11.50.  And I got the batting with a %50 coupon so it made that $5.00.  So total for my quilt was $28.50.  Which may seem like a lot to some of you, but if you have ever made a quilt you know that that is a great price!    I was pretty proud of myself.  This quilt (for some reason I never took a good picture of this blanket, but you can see part of it in the second picture on this post) I made for Maggie was over $50.00 because the material for the top wasn't on sale at all.

 To finish the edges of this quilt I cut strips of the leftover minky fabric and used those for the binding. 

So now we are officially ready for these babies to come.  I even got our bag and the kids' bags all packed.  Now if we can just keep our house clean we will be set. 

At my dr. appointment on Thursday the babies were measuring 6.7 lbs and 6.8 lbs (ultrasounds have +/- 16 ounces) so they are looking good and healthy.  The best news though, was that I will be induced on Friday morning if I haven't had them by then...hooray!!!