Wolverine baby continues to astound us

So Ivy's home health nurse, Nancy, came to our house yesterday to weigh her and check on things. Ivy weighs 8 lbs 9.5 oz now, which means she gained 6.5 ounces in one week, that is excellent weight gain! The most amazing thing is that she hasn't used her NG tube (feeding tube in her nose) for about a week, she hasn't needed it. She now takes all her feeds by bottle, even at night. So Nancy and I came to the conclusion that she doesn't need her NG tube anymore, except for taking her meds. It is pretty sad to leave an annoying tube in someones nose just for the convenience of giving them medication twice a day, so Nancy showed me a trick on giving them to her orally, told me to try it Monday night and Tuesday morning, and if she didn't spit up, the tube could come out!! Well it's Tuesday morning, and guess what, no spit up!! The tube is out and I am so happy!! We can see her beautiful face again!! She is doing so much better than anyone expected, and we are so pleased with her progress. She seems just like a normal baby now, not like she spent 7 weeks in the hospital and had 3 surgeries. You certainly can't tell from looking at her (with clothes on). We are so proud of you Ivy, keep up the good work.

Growing fat, growing up, and growing gray

This friday will be 4 weeks since Ivy was released from the hospital, and she is doing very well. Last week the doc increased her feed amount to help her gain more weight, and it is working out, on Monday she weighed in at 8 lbs 3 oz. We have a Home Health nurse, Nancy, coming over once a week to weigh her and check in on anything we need or are concerned about. We also have a Home Health physical therapist, Libby, who comes to make sure everything is developing as it should. They both said on their first visits that she looks better in person than she does on paper, which makes me feel good about her progress. Her scars are all healing up nicely, we no longer have to change the dressing on her belly scar, since the wound is closed and healed and there isn't a dressing anymore, and her chest scar looks excellent (for a scar spanning the entire length of her chest). We are currently applying for several government assistence programs to help pay for all the medical costs, (her hospital stay alone was over $300,000 not including any doctors, surgeons or anyone else, just the stay!). Of course, we have insurance but even with that we are still responsible for a significant stack of cash!! Here are some nice pics of Ivy getting big and fat, and looking adorable as usual.

Our sweet boys are growing up! We had a haircutting party a little while ago, and they didn't even cry!! They both look so much older with less hair, especially Dex, he looks like a little boy, not a baby anymore. They are both so helpful with everything (most of the time). They still fight over things a lot, but it is getting better. Dex is saying more words everyday, his favorites include: Mine, No, Mama, and remote. He still can't say Corbin or Ivy, so he calls corbin "in" and Ivy "I", so cute. Corbin got a cute little apron from Stacy for Christmas this year and he loves to wear it while we make lunch or other things, he looks so cute in it. Funny story, Scott loves jello so he bought some the other day and told Corbin that the two of them would make it, but then he forgot. So the next day Corbin brings me the jello and says, "Lets make jello." I said, "But that is a daddy project, I'm Mommy." So he says, "No, Mom's can make jello, Dad's mom made jello in Salt Lake!!" He's so funny.

a> Corbin is definately my child, eh!
And now for growing gray, that's right, I have some gray hair coming in! Thanks Ivy! I will come right out and say, it is from stress!! With no time to myself, the constant need to feed, bath, or comfort someone, and trying to keep my breastmilk from drying up its a wonder it didn't come in white! And after all that my breastmilk dried up anyway (imagine powdy lip, and chin quiver here). It's just not the same as breastfeeding, and it makes me sick to think how much money we will have to spend on formula........but what can you do.

My new best friend

Don't feel intimidated Maxine, it's not a person, your still my best friend. And for those of you that didn't know Maxine was my best friend, are you really shocked? Anyway, beside the point.
I just wanted to post an ode to my newest favorite thing. And before I say what it is, I want to tell all those people who gave us gifts for our new baby, I really loved them all, but this one is the most helpful. My baby Sling!! I freakin' love this thing! Lisa Bollwinkel made it for us, and it is so awesome! I wear it so much that when I am not wearing it I feel like I have a ghost sling on, because I still feel like it is there. I never could have guessed what a life saver it would turn out to be. I just put Ivy in it (she instantly falls asleep) and I can get most of the things I need to do, done, exept sweeping the kitchen floor, or working out, but pretty much everything else. We would drown in a sea of laundry or suffocate on a mountain of dirty diapers if we didn't have it.
The best thing though, is that when we have to go to one of the many (and there are many) doctor appointments for Ivy, I can put her in the sling, and hold the boys' hands so they don't run off while we are walking into the building. And once we are inside, people don't assume they can touch her or even look at her (It must make people uncomfortable since she is basically sitting on my chest/stomach area, and they couldn't see her face anyway). I am able to avoid the inevitable, "Whats that tube in her nose for? Whats wrong with her?" questions. So I just wanted to thank Lisa again for the world's most helpful gift ever, thanks Lisa!

Notice how you can't even see her....I love that!

she loves it in there!

Corbin and Dex like to put thier "babies" in it too. They are so funny.

Nine years ago.......

Scott and I went to Hillcrest High School’s Morp, and later that night had our first kiss…..magical!

It was October 27, 1999 when my friends, Pam and Amy came up to me after school to ask if I knew someone named Scott Brunson. I told them no and they proceeded to tell me that he was in my seminary class, and that he told them I was “gorgeous”. All I could think was how grungy and not gorgeous I looked that day. I was wearing no make up, my hair was crazy, and I was wearing the world’s ugliest gray shirt. I immediately went home and picked out something cute to wear the next day, and planned on going to seminary (which I had actually been ditching out on for quite some time). The next day I went to seminary and Scott chickened out on talking to me until class was over and I was walking out the door. He finally said, “Aren’t you glad you came to seminary today?” I said “sure” and kept walking. I’ll spare you the boring details, so to make a long story short, we started talking everyday, walking to classes together and eventually having lunch. He didn’t ask me out until Christmas day, when he put a note in my Christmas present asking me to Morp. We went out on a “group date” beforehand with several people I didn’t know at the time, but came to know later and became good friends with. He later joked that this was just a half-hearted attempt at a first date so he could kiss me after Morp because he figured I wasn’t the type of girl that would kiss on a first date. He must have been right since I had never kissed anyone before.
Anyway, finally Morp came on January 8, 2000 (hence the whole nine years thing), and we had a really good time. We went to McDonalds where he played the guitar and sang to me, then off to the dance where…..well……we danced, we then headed to Randy Curtis’ house to watch “She’s All That” and I fell asleep. He took me home after that (around 2 or 3 in the morning), and kissed me on my porch. Good times!
Thanks Scott, for finally getting enough guts to talk to me and eventually ask me out. I’ve never regretted a moment of these 9 years. Love you!!

Feeling the pressure

Well, it's been a week since Ivy was released from the hospital, and we are loving having her with us 24/7. Everyone tells you that having 3 kids is a lot different than just having 2, and man are they right!! For the most part things are going well. The boys are happy to be home, and sleeping on schedule once again (hooray!), and Ivy basically sleeps through the night. During the day things aren't quite as smooth. My days feel consumed by Ivy's eating needs. It takes so much more time to bottle feed than breast feed. I don't know why people who choose to bottle feed decide to do that. Maybe I am just lazy! She has a pretty strict eating schedule consisting of 57 mL (just under 2 oz) of breastmilk mixed with pregestimil every three hours. I first feed her with a bottle and on average she will drink anywhere from 20-40 mL at a time, the rest goes into the feeding tube that goes into her nose and down to her stomach. I am also still pumping, which feels like the most unrewarding job ever! My milk supply is rapidly dropping as it becomes harder and harder to find time to pump with three needy kids following me around all day. I am down to once at night and once in the morning, very sad! I am trying to work in one more in the middle of the day to build it up a little more, but it is so hard while Scott is at work. Anyway, other than that things are going well, and we are loving having all our kids together. The boys just love their new sister, they are constantly bugging her by kissing her, rubbing her head, endlessly trying to stuff her paci in her mouth, even if she is sleeping or doesn't want it. They are really cute and sweet. Life is good.

Back in Boise

Hooray, we're home! Our house wasn't burned down, vandalised or robbed while we were away! We left Ross and Marde's house yesterday around 2:00, and both Corbin and Ivy did very well all the way home. Dexter stayed with grandma for an extra day and will be flying up with her tonight. We got home just after 8:00 and Corbin didn't stop talking about how all our stuff was still there and working, until we put him in bed around 10:30. He was so cute with Ivy, telling her where her room was, and where the bathroom was, even though, he said, "she is a baby and goes poop in her diaper still." He kept comparing things to his grandma's house too, like how daylight savings happened while we were gone, so our clocks all said 9 instead of 8, he's like, "at grandma's house the clocks say 8:00, but at our house they say 9:00. Grandma's clocks are loud, but our clocks are quiet." Etc. etc......he just went on like that. It was cute, and fun, and we are very happy to be home. We really appreciate Ross and Marde for letting us stay with them for exactly 2 months (Oct. 28-Dec. 28), and not getting frustrated because the house was always messy, and there was constant noise. They always watched our kids, fed them meals, gave them baths, and much much more, they really went beyond the call of duty. We know there are not enough thank you's for all they did for us, and we can never really pay them back, but hopefully they know how much we appreciate and love them for it. Thanks guys, we love you!!

Finally home.....sorta

Today was the BIG DAY, we finally talked the doctors into letting us take sweet little Ivy home with us after 7 long weeks in the hospital. We are staying with Scott's mom for a few more days, and will drive home to Boise on Sunday, as long as the road has opened up again. We are so thankful that she is finally healthy enough for us to take her home. We were blessed with wonderful doctors who were very careful, and at times, I thought, a little too cautious. They wanted to make sure everything was perfect. She still has a feeding tube in her nose, but she is drinking from a bottle for about 40% of regular feeds, the rest goes in the tube. They were also a little concerned about her incision from her latest surgery being a little infected, but it is under control, I just have to change the dressing twice a day, no big deal. It's a little strange having her with us, and we have to be very careful to avoid sick people or places with big crowds because she is so susceptible to RSV. We are going to be stuck home for quite some time without even being able to go to church! But we are looking forward to at least being home after being away for so long. I can't believe it is finally happening!! Thanks to everyone who helped us out during these long weeks, especially both our moms for all the babysitting, and to Russell for being patient and allowing Scott to focus more on our family issues than work! We love you all............Hooray, home!