She's Baaaaaack!

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!

Today Griffin Henry Joins our Family!

Today is the first post from Dad. Yes I do exist for all you blog readers who have not seen any posts from me. Well it has been a long day, but I found time in a dark and quite house to upload the pictures. All the kids are sleeping and Mom is recovering in the hospital. She did so Well!!!

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.

Happy New Year

Alex is my musician.

Austin thinks he's the dancer...not so much!

Max is my silly boy!

Emerson is my nurturer.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all. On reflecting on the last year, I realize that, it has been a series of ups and downs. But mostly ups! We have come so far that it hardly seems like a whole year has passed. The boys have grown so much. They walk, they talk(in their own way) and they play like real kids. Now here we are ready to have another baby. It's almost too much to deal with sometimes. Although I wouldn't change it for anything. Austin is a great big brother. He has adapted to brotherhood so well. I know he has had his behavioral issues this year but he really is a good boy.

So today is the last day I will officially be the mother of 4. Tomorrow at 10am baby Griffin will be born. I feel anxious and just so ready to meet this little guy. I have no idea how the boys are going to do without me for 3 or 4 days. I hope they'll be fine. I've only left them one other time before(my Dad's wedding in Las Vegas) and that was the hardest thing I ever had to do. Austin will be fine, he's an old pro at this!

As soon as we have all the official information on Griffin we will make a post. I personally want to thank all the well wishers out their your thoughts and prayers mean so much to us!

Merry Christmas

"We're not up to anything, MOM!"

"Let's open this before she finds out."

Max pushed Emerson around the living room.

David and Max watching Wall-E

Alex chilling out watching the movie.

Emerson's Favorite Christmas Gift.

Alex finally got into opening

Emerson had it down pat!

Star Wars Lego Game for WII!

Alex was so excited abbout these cars.

Christmas morning!

Grandma got them these noisey toys!

Emerson was smothered by my sisters and he "hated" it!

I made a little bit of food for Christmas Eve!

Emerson ripped the hat off Max.

Alex was mid "HO HO HO" When Max ripped the hat off him!

Emerson tried to take ALL the decrations.

Our 1/2 decorated tree.

Emerson loved the Santa Hat!

Merry Christmas

Thank God it's over! This Christmas was a trying one. We hosted Christmas eve instead of Christmas day this year. It was a lot harder than I thought since Maxim decided to wake up at 4 am that morning with an awful stuffy nose and not go back to sleep until 7am when it was time for me to get up. I than had to prepare breakfast for Grandma Linda who had to work and wouldn't be able to join our party that evening. So needless to say I had zero time to rest at any point in the day. I was so exhausted I thought I would pass out. Than finally at 12:30am I get into bed and within 15 minutes, Maxim is up again and refuses to go back to sleep until almost 3am. At that point I was literally the walking dead. I passed out in my bed only to wake up at 5am with a stuffy nose and a headache. I laid in bed until 7am, got up, prepared the cameras, checked that Santa arranged everything all right and by 7:30am I woke up the kids. PHEW!!!!

The good thing was that I made it very clear to everyone that Christmas day was strictly for the kids. We just wanted to hang out with them, play with the new toys and eat left overs. I'm happy to say that's exactly what we did. They loved all their new toys. They spent the whole day watching their new movies...Bugs Life and Wall-E, and arranging and rearranging their new toys. At one point Austin disappeared into the basement with his new video game system and wasn't seen again for hours.I looked around the living and could barely see the floor. It was great!

Friday was a little stressful for me. I wanted to get the tree down because I was fearful the kids would somehow knock it down and get hurt. On top of that I wasn't feeling that great. I still had a bad cold...4 weeks later, and I started having contractions. Well, by 5pm I had contractions 20 minutes apart for almost two hours. In the middle of that some friends called and said our mutual friend was in town and wanted to come over on Saturday and see us. My contractions finally stopped and we made plans for Saturday. It was wonderful to see our friends Kyle and Gaby, who we only get to see once or twice a year since they live in Brooklyn. Also Mike and Kelly and our friends Lisa, Rich and their kids where here. This party was perfect though, we ordered pizza and hung out!

To all of you that we didn't get a chance to see this Holiday season, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We miss you all and love you more than you know! Especially my Shelley and Carter who live in Virginia! I miss you guys so much! I can't wait to see you in April! I guess that's why the holidays bum some people out. It is hard to be away from those you love during this time of year.

Only 5 more days until baby Griffin is born. Everything is on track for Monday. So this may be my last post for a while. Like I said before, I'm hoping once we get home I will be able to post, but that's really up to my kids. I'm sure they are going to miss me and not give me 5 minutes!

This is as close to perfection as they get! Merry Christmas!This was so funny, it's like they are saying..."Don't eat that MAX!"

This was another out-take but I loved it!

To Immunize or Not to Immunize, that is the question!

The boys had a good week. Aside from still getting over their first winter cold they have been fairly happy. I took them to the pediatricians office for their 16 month check up. They had their flu shot and seemed to react well. I did however refuse the MMR Titer that is now a requirement at 12 months. I know this is a real big controversial issue. But after doing the research and having a severely Autistic brother both David and myself felt it was in our children's best interest to refuse the immunization until the boys reach school age. Before I get angry emails about how not immunizing my children will lead to an out break of measles, mumps or rubella I just want to say that we did not enter into this decision lightly. Those of you that have met my brother will understand why we decided against the immunization and do to the new statistics that variations of Autism affects 1 out of every 5 boys, I just ask that even skeptics respect our right to do what we feel is best for our children. I watched my brother Christian, who was a normal, active, amazing little baby disappear at 18 months after receiving the MMR vaccination. I have heard this story from so many people. The doctors will not substantiate these claims that it is the vaccinations or rather the preservative in the vaccinations that trigger Autistic qualities in children. but their are no reasons to think they don't. I for one am not willing to take that chance with my sons.

Austin is having some behavioral issues. I'm not sure if it's excitement about Christmas or the fact that the new baby is coming soon. I wish I could crawl inside him and see exactly what's going on. It would be OK if it was just at home but now it seems to also be effecting him at school. I don't want to have to punish him for having a hard time but I'm not sure what else I can do to resolve these issues. I have tried everything. How do you make a 5 year old listen? Is there some miracle cure all or do I just let these issues resolve themselves? I wish I knew.

I took the kids to get their Christmas pictures done this week. What the hell was I thinking? DRAMA! First of all the kids are still fighting their first winter colds and they had these awful runny noses. Than the girl we had...our regular girl was sick...sucked. She was maybe 18 years old with zero experience taking pictures of kids. She didn't even center the pictures. We got a few good ones but in general they where terrible. The good thing was I had called my sister Adrianne to help me and Nanny Deb was with us so the kids where able to run free and be watched at the same time. Never again though! I have started looking into buying a good zoom lens for my good camera and possible a back drop so from now on I will be handling the pictures myself! I have a photography degree, why not use it!

Whah!!!!

Uncle Mike and Max had a tickle war.

We had an impromptu wrestling match with Austin, Ethan and Rich in the living room.

Max was teething so bad!

Aunt Kelly and Alex played giddy up !

Hey Santa, Tyler loved the Zebra ride!

We're not sure why Austin was dressed like superman.

Their where kids and toys everywhere!

Emerson taking a quiet moment of reflection.

The boys reading quietly before the company arrives.

Whah!!!!

So I'm sitting here watching one of those Baby Stories on The Learning Chanel. For some reason I only watch them when I'm pregnant. So anyway, in this episode a husband and wife have a 19 month old son and they have another baby. Well, they whine through the whole episode. Whah!!! "The baby is crying and the toddler wants attention" Whah!!! "I want to sleep and the baby keeps crying" Whah!!! "The toddler spilled his drink and it's all over the carpet". WHAH!!! All this while having the mothers parents and the fathers parents there helping out with the toddler and waiting on this Chicks every whiny request. Man that is annoying. I can only hope they look back on their one chance at fame and realize that they whined for the sake of whining. When the triplets finally came home from the hospital it was craziness. Getting into a routine, was essential. It all came in time. I don't see how whining about makes it any better. I'm sure it will be a challenge when the baby is born especially with the triplets and jealousy. But I can't change it so why not make the best of it. I look forward to the challenge! I thrive on drama!!!That being said my c-section has been scheduled and Griffin will be born on January 5th.

This week was crazy. First we had Davids company Christmas party. It was nice. It was at a local restaurant, nothing extravagant. I enjoyed the evening out. But I wasn't feeling well. Than within 24 hours I was full blown sick. I mean high fever, shakes, muscle aches...pure misery! Luckily I had a scheduled appointment with my doctor that day and got antibiotics right away. By the weekend I was feeling better, just in time to have a small Christmas party with some of my friends. It was a nice evening. Their where kids everywhere and that was great. The kids enjoyed running around with other kids their age. Austin played with Ethan and the boys with Tyler. I really don't think the triplets noticed that there was another baby there. I hope this is a sign of good things to come. Maybe they won't even notice when the baby comes home, yeah right, wishful thinking.

As the week went on all the boys have gotten a touch of the cold. I was the only one that ended up with a terrible fever. This thrills me. To most people getting a cold, sinus infection or the flu isn't a big deal but to my boys it could be horrible. They could end up in the hospital. Even though they have reached every milestone and are completely age appropriate their immune systems could still be compromised from being born 8 weeks early. Them only getting a mild form of the cold is just a huge milestone. That their immune system may also be age appropriate. That's exciting to me. One of the benefit's to being a stay at home mom is that I work with my kids on a daily basis. I get to play peek-a-boo and teach them their ABC's and 1-2-3's. Every time their is a small milestone it's actually a huge achievement in my eyes. For example...Alex can identify his own eyes, nose, mouth and head. He can also identify them all on me. But for the very first time Max identified his own eyes yesterday. It was huge! I swung him up in the air and was so excited. I know he was excited too! What an amazing feeling! I have been working with Emerson and I know he's right around the corner! I can't wait. I remember going through the same feelings with Austin, for different reasons, When he would speak in English and understand a command for the first time. Now that was an amazing feeling too. I love motherhood.

Now on to the holidays. I am starting to make Christmas cookies this week and I may even put up the tree, if I feel adventurous. I still have a few gift certificates to pick up and than I'm done shopping. Than comes baby! Whoo Hoo! Viva 2009!

Where has this year gone?

Daddy and his little boys watching Toy Story 2.

They wresteled...guess who won?

Daddy and Emerson doing a flip!

Max's newest trick!

Alex is Mommy's little drummer boy!

Austin and his funky dance moves!

Emerson is Mr. Smiley. Alex's blue eyes melt me.

So do Max's

Where has this year gone?

Here we are the beginning of December. The year will be over in less than a month and our new baby will be joining us probably sooner than later. I'm not sure exactly when the year past me by but I think it was somewhere around May. It seemed like the year had just begun, we found out we where pregnant and we had begun making plans for the boys first birthday bash. Now here we are, the year almost done, the boys walking and talking the birthday bash long from our minds, Austin looks sounds more like a young man everyday and our new baby about to arrive. I'M FREAKING OUT! I just had this unbelievable image of a teenage Austin coming in and asking for the car keys to go on a date. It's seems like that is where life is heading. I'm not exactly sure what next year holds, but I am so looking forward to it. So I pose this question to you...Where has the year gone and what will the next year have in store?

Thanksgiving was great. We hosted both my family and David's. Talk about two families that are at complete ends of the life spectrum. But that's OK. We all seemed to get along well. There where a few incidents of passionate discussions...that's when people raise their voices. But in general the day was wonderful. By the time the day was over and I finished the dishes, I was exhausted and so where the kids. We all just crashed. I've never slept better. Now for Christmas. I am hosting Christmas eve this year (as long as Griffin doesn't decide differently). I made the decision that Christmas eve will be the day we invite family or friends to visit and Christmas day will be the day we spend in our jammies enjoying our kids! It's really not fair to give them all new stuff and then say..."you can't play until all our company leaves later!" So Christmas day will be all about playing! I can't wait!

Austin is getting excited for the holidays. He talks about Santa constantly. He wants everything he sees but than retracts when he notices it says 3 and up. He'll say..."Well how about that for my brothers, since I'm 5 and way to old for that toy". He thinks he's grown and quite frankly I think he is an old soul in that five year old body. My son is wise beyond his years!

The boys are great. They have begun to venture out of "the worlds largest playpen" or my living room as we like to call it, and explore the world around them. They get in all my cupboards, they put all their greasy, slimy little fingers all over my spotless furniture. But I love that they enjoy exploring so I don't mind much. It is hard to watch them when they are going in three different directions. But that's half the fun. They are loving playing with their daddy and Austin. They grow so fast. They amaze me every day with the things they do. I feel like I'm looking at life for the first time in their eyes. I really do have 4 of the most amazing kids in the world...soon to be 5!

Two Posts in One

I found Max in the toy box...I'm not sure if he jumped in or was pushed...but he wouldn't get out!

Alex is having teething issues....Ahhhhhhh!

Austin was making his Christmas list with the Toys r'us ad!

I tried to get them to all sit together! Didn't happen! Max and Emerson are fascinated with my pregnant belly!

Emerson tried to bite the baby!

Maxim and his blankie!

Max is turning into a big ham. He smiles so big when the camera is around.

Emerson was watching the first snowfall and showing off his black eye.

Alex is "Mr. Serious" lately!

Two Posts in One!

Sorry this post is so late. As I'm sure you all know I am now over 8 months pregnant. This is proven to be a little more difficult than I had originally thought. In the beginning I had no issues. Aside from debilitating morning sickness! I believed what everyone had said...I am SUPERWOMAN! I can do it all. Take care of a demanding 5 year old...check! Join the PTA...check! Take care of three 1 year olds...check, check and check! Clean the house, do the laundry, make the beds, cook the meals, entertain and now host Thanksgiving and Christmas all while shopping for gifts ahead of time just in case I go into labor early...check, check, check, check, check, check, check and check! All while keeping up with the blog. Oh well, something had to give!

The boys are doing great. They have been discharged completely from physical therapy. It was so sad to see Carol go but I know she did her job and made my boys who they are today, completely age appropriate toddlers. I am so grateful to her for being so patient and kind with the boys. She will always be a special person in our lives! The weather has turned cold here in Buffalo. Big surprise right? Actually it held out a while and just two weeks ago we had a couple of 60-70 degree days. I love the dressing up in warm clothes, the hot chocolate, comfort meals and spending time as a family all nestled in the warm living room. I can't wait for Griffin to be born so he can be a part of those long winter evenings with us and his brothers.

We all have been spending allot of time in doors, getting ready for the holidays and baby boy#5! So much so I think Austin is getting a little stir crazy! I mean he gets out when he goes to school but every time a snowflake falls he asks to go outside and make a snowman. He insisted the other day that their was enough snow for him and his dad to have a snowball fight. Needless to say their wasn't and he was really angry!

I want to say a very special "Happy Birthday" to Judy "Sissy" Bryant. Sissy turned 70 years old this weekend and we took part in her big birthday surprise bash. We are so thrilled that the Saletta, Brent, Bryant families think of us as their family. We love them so much! We wish our Sissy many, many, many more!

Well, this week is thanksgiving. I am having 20 plus people at my house for the holiday! I know, I'm crazy but the thought of bringing my 4 young boys to someone elses house that isn't baby proofed just gives me way too much stress. I would never get to sit down, I would never get to eat and I would make myself, my husband and my host so stressed it wouldn't be worth it! I much prefer to cook the meal at my house where the kids are in their own environment and they can keep up on their sleep schedule! I really don't mind the cooking, in fact I enjoy it! I even delegated some of the food duties this year(I usually do it all myself!). I decided I could no longer take on the WHOLE meal. Everyone said they where happy to help! I know all will turn out well!