March

This was a busy month as the kids adjusted to having a new little person in the house. Jeffrey was underway with his ship for a couple of weeks and I was blessed to have a few visitors during this time. First was Jeffrey's mom, followed by a visit from my sister, Rebecca, and her daughter Maci. The kids had so much fun with our visitors and I loved the help!

We began having concerns about Carson this month. About a week after he arrived home from the NICU we began to notice that his breathing was really loud, especially while he was nursing. All of our babies were loud eaters at first so we didn't think much of it. Then he began coughing and coughing and coughing.... Not just a little cough but a really deep, wet sounding cough. He was also having a hard time regaining his birth weight. At the end of the month, Carson's pediatrician decided to send him in for a few tests. One was an upper GI test using a barium labeled milk. This showed that he had significant amounts of reflux, a surprise to us since he NEVER spit up. We were told that he had "silent" reflux where it would come up as high as his nasal cavity and then go back down, which could be causing much of his coughing. He also had an airway fluoroscopy test which showed that his airway was partially collapsing in on itself during breathing, which caused stridor, or loud breathing. He was put on Zantac to help with the reflux, started having regular breathing treatments to help with the irritation in his throat, and was referred to a pulmonologist for further testing. Carson was an angel this month and is such a sweet, calm little guy.

We're Back!

Yep, we're still here and ready to enter the blogging world once again. Things have been very busy since my last post....be prepared for a long update coming soon!

So Fitting

"Just give me snacks and nobody gets hurt!"
My sister Melanie and her family got this shirt for Ethan....so perfect for our little snack lover!

Happy 4th Birthday Ethan

Our dear Ethan turned four earlier this month, the day after his baby brother came home from the hospital.  We had planned a little Star Wars party for him and he had a big grin on his face the entire time.  At the party we made "space bottles" (water bottle with blue water, glitter, stars), had an asteroid hunt (foil covered candy hidden around the house), ate lunch, and finished the afternoon with an R2-D2 pinata.  Although Jeffrey and I got about two hours of sleep the night before (thanks to Luke and Carson!), it was totally worth all the work to see how happy our sweet Ethan was.

Luke's Surgery

Luke's surgeries happened to fall on the day that Carson came home so it was a bit of a crazy day for us.  He had tubes put in his ears, a cyst removed from his forehead, and a small cyst removed from under his tongue.  He was such an angel the day of his surgery but had a pretty rough night and few days after.  Poor little guy, his forehead was pretty swollen and seemed to really bother him the most.  Things seem to be healing up pretty good now and it's a relief to know that he won't even remember it!

Proud Big Brothers

Carson sure is a lucky boy to have three older brothers who absolutely adore him!  Tyler loves to hold him, Ethan loves to look at all his tiny fingers and toes, Luke loves to bring things to him....toys, diapers, blankets....and all three boys love to give Carson kisses!  It is so much fun to see how proud my big boys are of their baby brother.

Sweet Baby Carson is here!

It has now been three weeks since we welcomed our precious little Carson Eyre into the family. Jeffrey and I arrived at the hospital at 7:30 am on February 25th for a scheduled induction. I had a wonderful, quick labor and delivery....gotta love those epidurals!....and Carson arrived at 2:02 pm. He weighed 8 lbs. 12 ozs. and was 20 inches long....our smallest baby so far. I was really nervous during the whole delivery, partly because of his arrhythmia and partly because of what happened with Luke. I couldn't believe how beautiful he was when I saw him for the first time and I couldn't help but notice all that hair! Just after he was born the pediatricians quickly noticed that he was having a hard time breathing. They said he was grunting and seemed to be breathing like a preemie. These were two things they said about Luke so I was terrified. They quickly took him up to the special care nursery to see what was going on. I will be forever grateful to have my mom there by my side as I waited for the news from Jeffrey. An x-ray showed that a small portion of his right lung had collapsed (pneumothorax) and he continued showing signs of respiratory distress. The doctors decided to transfer him the the Children's Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit right away. It was definitely a hard night, trying to sleep in a different hospital than my new little boy. Jeffrey was able to go and be with him while my mom stayed with the boys and I was able to get discharged the next day. Over the next few days Carson improved quickly. He was placed in an oxygen hood and then eventually given oxygen through a nasal canula. They did an echocardiogram and EKG to see how his heart was doing and noticed a small amount of blood being shunted between the R and L atrium. This is something we'll have to follow up on, but it will most likely resolve on it's own. He still has a small arrhythmia but it's not causing any problems, and chest x-rays showed that his pneumothorax had completely healed. After five long days in the NICU we were able to bring our sweet little guy home. His big brothers were so excited to finally meet him and have been eager to help out in any way. These past couple of weeks have been a bit crazy around our home, but thanks to my wonderful mom and Jeffrey's wonderful mom we've been able to manage our house full of boys! Our little Carson is so incredibly sweet!!!

Our BIG baby boy!


First night in the NICU

                                              First Feeding

                                      Visit from Grandma Baker





                                              Coming Home!!!

Ready for Baby!!!!!

I don't think that I've posted any pregnancy pictures so I guess it's about time since tomorrow is the big day!!! We'll be heading the the hospital at 7:30 am for a scheduled induction. I'd have to say that I'm a little nervous but I'm so excited to meet this precious little baby. He's got three big brothers that are ready for him to "come out and play"! We got out the cradle a few nights ago and Luke spent the entire evening rocking, singing to, and taking care of his little baby. He is going to have so much fun being a big brother. My mom is flying in tonight so that she can be at the hospital and help out with the kids and I am soooo excited! We'll try and post pictures soon!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Fun with the Bakers

A couple weekends ago we had a wonderful visit with my brother Richard and his adorable little family.  We hadn't seen them for over a year so it was sooo good to see them again and meet the new addition to their family, little Maya.  The boys had so much fun "attacking" their Uncle Richard and Luke absolutely adored his cousins Aidan (who is only a few months younger than Luke) and Maya.  He immediately became attached to Maya and loved giving things to her...blanket, pacifier, bottles....  Seeing how sweet and gentle he was with baby Maya got me so excited, he is going to be such a good big brother!  I can't even express how great it was to see family after so long, thanks for the visit Richard and Jessica!  Can't wait to see you all again!

Rockwood Update

This past month has been a bit crazy, here's a recap....On Dec. 29th I tripped over Luke's new Christmas slide...oops...and ended up spending a week in the hospital.  Everything was okay from the fall but my doctor decided to admit me after seeing that the baby had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck three times and also had a heart arrhythmia.  They gave me steroid shots to help the baby's lungs develop and told me to plan on staying in the hospital until I reached 34 weeks, at which time they would deliver the baby.  After a few days in the hospital, the baby unwrapped himself from the cord so my doctor changed his plans...what a relief!  The perinatologist did a fetal echocardiogram and said that the arrhythmia is due to premature atrial contractions and that these types of arrhythmias usually resolve on their own once the baby is born.  This little guy sure has given us a lot of scares!  I'm now having weekly ultrasounds and just had my 24th last week.  The subchorionic hemorrhage is stable and the baby is growing good.  At my 34 week ultrasound he was measuring 6 lbs. 7 ozs. so it looks like I'm going to have another big baby!  I am so eager to meet this sweet little boy!!!

Jeffrey has been so wonderful throughout this pregnancy.  He had a fun week with the boys while I was in the hospital and gained a new appreciation for all that Mothers do!  A few weeks ago he had a couple of interviews in Missouri and decided to accept a great job offer with a Community Health Center in Springfield.  He will be be finishing his time in the Navy at the end of June and then we'll be heading to Missouri.  I am feeling a little sad that our time here in Virginia Beach is coming to an end, but I'm excited to be moving close to my family.  The kids can't stop talking about all the fun things they're going to do with their cousins.  After a couple weeks of getting things ready, our house is now officially for sell.  It's definitely not a good time to sell a house, so we're hoping all goes well.  I'm a little nervous about trying to keep it clean and presentable all the time!

The boys are all doing great and keeping me very busy.  Tyler and Ethan watched all the old Star Wars movies with Jeffrey last week and have become a bit obsessed with Star Wars.  They both love school, playing with their friends, reading books, and wrestling with their daddy every night.  Luke is into EVERYTHING and loves to be in the middle of all the action.  He is constantly dragging our chairs into the kitchen so that he can get things off the counters (something he learned from Ethan!).  He is such a little sweetie and has a belly laugh that never fails to make me smile.  I love my boys!

Fun with the boys on New Year's Eve!

Little Darth Vader

Our Quiet Christmas

This Christmas was our first one to spend with just our little family. We're usually with the Bakers in Missouri or the Rockwoods in Oregon. It was definitely different, but we had so much fun starting our own little traditions. We had a nice turkey dinner on Christmas Eve, had our own little Nativity as we read the Christmas Story to the kids, and then decorated cookies for Santa. As we were decorating cookies we looked out the window and saw Santa himself walking down the street (one of the neighbors does this every year). The kids excitedly ran outside to tell him that they were making him cookies and going to bed. Then they finished up quickly and headed to bed without us even asking. This was definitely a magical year for the kids. Tyler and Ethan woke up at about 6:00 am, eager to see what Santa had brought. Ethan asked for a toy Batman and a robot hand and Tyler asked for a Playmobil airplane. Santa brought little Luke a slide to keep indoors (with hopes that he'll now stop climbing on everything else that he's not supposed to!). We also decided that since we're going to have four boys, we needed a train table, so that was a group gift. It was so fun to see the kids' excitement as they opened their gifts.