Sunday, January 25, 2009
My Loves
Sunday, January 18, 2009
He's Home!
Griffin on his way home from the hospital!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
He's a Fighter!
I'm not sure what he was thinking but I'm sure it involved either eating or pooping!
He's a Fighter!
My amazing little boy is such a fighter. He came through every little difficulty like it was nothing. Every day we have gone to the hospital he has overcome another obstacle. What an amazing baby! I know, I'm completely biased! I don't know if we shared the severity of Griffin's issues with people but, his ailments where life threatening. He could have died. He would have most certainly have had the amazing Dr's and nurses not detected his collapsed lung in time. It could have caused a chain reaction and caused more life threatening issues. But with a lot of prayers and Griffin's will to overcome, he is now doing so much better. In fact today he was circumcised! This is exciting to us! This means he was healthy enough to do that procedure and it is one of the final things they do before sending a baby home. Now, we are not rushing him home. But we are excited to get him home and get our life rolling! We have faith he'll be home this weekend but are prepared for any delays! God knows we had plenty with the triplets before they finally got home!
The little boys are doing so well. Max is teething so bad! He has had a fever for three days. He wakes up almost every night and is just cranky and miserable. Emerson and Alex have 99% of their teeth so they don't have these issues. Just poor Max. He still has 6 or so left to come in. My poor boy. Alex is cracking me up. His vocabulary is developing more and more everyday. He now is starting to sing. Talk about funny. He sings "in ME"...aka "You've got a friend in me" from Toy Story. He rocks back and forth and screams out..."IN ME". It's hysterical. Emerson is loving his new CD, Britney Spears. He loves the song "Womanizer". He dances and shakes his shoulders so sweetly. He bounces with such rhythm. I've never seen such a little kid with such good rhythmic timing. I think he'll be a musician. Austin in doing much better in school. We have had no reports of bad behavior or "class clown" issues. I'm hoping it stays like this. I know sometimes he gets bored and that's why he acts out. He's such a smart boy. Sometimes his brain goes faster than his actions and he gets himself over stimulated! He's doing much better.
I again want to Thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers. I do however wish that people had been a little more supportive while I was in the hospital. Most where great but I didn't hear from a lot of friends and family that where front and center for the triplets birth. They seemed to have disappeared when Griffin was born. I have still not heard from certain people(they know who they are) and that is so disappointing since I have gone out of my way more than once to take care of them when they where sick or in need of companionship. It almost seems phony for those who where so attentive to the triplets. I think maybe because they where unique and people like to brag about knowing them or being related to them in some way. I just want to say to those people that my children are ALL unique. They are ALL amazing and they should ALL be loved for who they are not what they are. I hope certain family and friends get the point that I now know how people truly feel. Next time I may not be so willing to do all I do for people.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Week 1
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
She's Baaaaaack!
I'm back! Well, not really. I am still in the hospital. I will probably be here a while. My c-section was quite complicated and am recovering nicely on the maternity floor. It's a little bitter sweet since I am without my new baby boy. As David let you all know, when Griffin was born he was having some respiratory distress or difficult breathing. At first they thought it was just do to underdeveloped lungs but after an Xray they discovered that my beautiful baby boy has a Pnuemothorax. In layman's terms he had a collapsed lung. It was discovered that he also had a small hole that was not allowing the lung tissue to inflate properly. The incredible Neonatologists reacted quickly and placed a breathing tube in Griffins lungs and put a chest tube, through his tiny chest wall into the hole in his lung to relieve the pressure and to start the reinflation process. I am very happy to say that early this afternoon we where told that Griffin's lung was reinflating and that the Pnuemothorax was resolved! AMEN!
As a mother the hardest thing to do is sit back and watch your baby suffer. You keep them inside of you for 9 months praying that you deliver them healthy. When you don't, you feel like you should have done something different. I know that I did nothing to cause Griffin's illness. It's just something that happens. I mean come on...he weighed 8lbs 5.2 ounces! There is no reason for under developed lungs! Now Griffin is on the road to recovery and we are just so grateful to everyone for their thoughts and prayers. I draw my strength to get through these tough times through all of you!
On a personal note I just want to make a statement about my wonderful husband! David has been so supportive during these last few days. He is here with me in the afternoon, talking to Dr's, supporting me while my hormones are raging and I am an emotional wreck all while running his business and taking care of our 4 big boys at home! He is the strongest man I have ever met. He just amazes me. David, thank you for being my rock! I would have curled under the bed and just died had I to do this alone! I love you! I also want to thank our incredible Nanny...Deb, my hero! My sisters, mom, mother-in-law and Aunt Debbie all for helping while I am recovering! Now that I feel like I just won an award, I guess I'll go see my beautiful baby boy! (who by the way does look so much like his Daddy, it's like I had no part of it at all!) Go figure!
Monday, January 5, 2009
Today Griffin Henry Joins our Family!
Our house and other 4 kids are all in order, as she did preparation and pre-planning for this day.
Griffin Henry Michael! 8lbs 5.2oz!
Today I became the Proud Father of my fifth son! For all of you asking, we are not going to try for a daughter. God gave us 5 sons and we are blessed to have each one of them. We know how to handle boys and we like having all boys, and we have completed our family at 7. The next baby in our family witll be a grandchild, but no ealier than 18 years from now. :)
We went in to the hospital at 8AM, by 10AM Mom was preped and ready for the C-Section. At 10:15 was all suited up in my protective garments and was able to join her in the Operating Room. I was able to witness the whole procedure. It was an awesome miracle of mordern medicine to see what is possible, and now I know why it will hurt so much during her recovery. I won't give any details here, except to say OUCH. Then... out came our fifth son! The first thing I noticed was how big his feet and long his toes were. This is probably because Mom told me repeatedly that it was my job to count all his fingers and toes as soon as he came out. (He has all of them Mom.)
As soon as the nurse cleaned him up and weighted him we realized he was a big baby at 8 lbs 5.2oz, a pound more then the weight of Alex and Emerson at birth combined. He is beautiful, and he looks just like me. You can be the judge, but I added picture of me at birth for you to compare.


Griffin comapared to David(when he was a few weeks old)
Griffin is now in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) as he had some trouble breathing, with fluid in his lungs and not getting the CO2. He was breathing under stress for the first few hours, so the excellent Neonatal team took him for monitoring. His PulseOx was in the 70s so they were a bit concerned, as this should be in the 90s, but after a small amount of O2 it was in the 90s. PulseOx is a measurement (ercentage) of the oxygenation (saturation of O2) of his hemoglobin (blood). When the CO2 does not get exhaled, the level is too low. When he went to the NICU they first put a oxygen dome over his head on an open infant warming table in the, but untimately they had to intubate him, and he is now on a respirator for a few hours. Don't worry was he was given some pulmonary surfactant which greatly reduces surface tension, allowing his lungs to inflate much more easily and therefore eliminating the work of breathing. When I went to see him in the afternoon he had clamed down and was breathing without the stress he had at birth and his color was much better. He may or may not need more surfactant and he could be down with Mom in as little as a day if he does well. Keep him in your prayers.
We are not nervous, as we have already had 3 kids in the NICU in the past, and Griffin is much stonger and larger than the triplets were at 31 weeks. Well, I will give all you readers another update tomorrow. Good Night! Pease give us your comments or just tell us you are reading the blog, we want to hear from all our readers around the World.