School Vacation Week

Last week Vince was out of school... time for some fun!  We had big plans on Monday when Mike was home as well, but pretty much the entire household quickly deteriorated that morning and we were all laying around sick the whole day.  So much for day 1.  On to the rest of the week, much improved with fun activities involving building sand castles, destroying sand castles, and terrifying Zoë at the zoo.  Yes, she was freaked out at literally every animal we saw, except the ducks. Oh, and the fish, she liked the fish.  

Wednesday was promising to be warm and sunny, and Vince had been asking to build sand castles all morning.  So we gathered our sand toys, grabbed our ever valuable neighbor/friend, (and practically 4th child) Mary, and headed for Nantasket Beach.  We immediately found an existing sand castle fortress so we parked ourselves next to it and had fun building our own. 

 Busy at the Beach

We got video of Vince stomping out a sand castle:

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Our Zoo day ended up fun, despite Zoë being afraid of every animal.  Oh yeah, and then there was trying to explain to Vince why the gorrilla was putting poop in his mouth and smearing it on the window!  I know, try getting that picture out of your head now, sorry.  Vince got to learn the ways of the democratic system as the zoo held a voting day for kids to vote for what animal they want to be the President of the Zoo!  Vince voted for Christopher the Lion-naturally.   

I kept testing Zoë's fear of animals, that was mean.  Here she is getting appropriately scared of the ferocious looking Mandrill that was only inches away from her (thankful for the glass enclosure!)

 hanging out under the ostrich... totally normal spot, right? 

 exploring the old truck

cute baby gorilla!

checking out the anteater

 

Happy Due Date Day to Luca!

Here's a riddle for you:  What is colorful and yummy, but the person who made it won't have any of it, and the person it's for CAN'T have any of it?  Answer: it's Luca's happy due-date cake!

I just felt the need to celebrate his day today by making something, while also giving Luca's nurses a sweet treat.  They take such good care of him and we are so grateful. We had a little celebration in the special care nursery, and Luca partied like a rock star!

Here he is with his nurse and Nurse Practitioner, in his new big boy crib! He was so alert, looking at who ever was talking

We got him all squeaky clean before the festivities (as you can see, he loved his bath)

They said it might calm him down to turn him on his belly in the tub, it worked.  "Ok mommy, I'm getting hungry for that cake so I'm going to chew on your arm!"

 

Luca had so much fun celebrating his due date day, he got a little out of control and needed to be subdued in this infant version of a straight jacket ;)... haha at least he likes being bundled up.  He was tuckered out, sleep well little guy!

 Meanwhile, back at the home front... well when Vince saw that Luca was getting his own cake, that was the end of that!!  He of course wanted his own cake too, so we put together a blue one to celebrate Vince's potty training... go Vince!  Luckily Zoë was asleep during all of this or we'd have a third cake on our hands!

You gotta love the blue pencil thin handle bar mustache and flavor savor (or soul patch-take your pick on names)! 

Weekends of Birthdays and Hospital Visits

We pretty much have our weekend routine down to a T.  Get up (way too early), run around the kitchen like a short order cook for an hour, try and get yourself some coffee and food while your at it, get the kids ready for their next birthday party, and prepare for the morning hospital visit to feed Luca.  Last weekend was no different.  We had fun celebrating our friends Ramona and Lucy's birthdays at a place filled with jumpy castles.  This is our second jumpy castle birthday in the last couple weeks.  The best part about these places is that the jumpy castles are sturdy enough to have the parents join in as well.  Now, this is as much of a good thing as it is bad. 
There's nothing quite like holding your kid's hand while you enjoy an obstacle course of jumping, climbing, sliding, and pushing yourself through the inflatable squeezie machine (no pictures please).  The fun ends however, when it's your 15th time doing the EXACT SAME JUMPY ATTRACTION, and your kid insists that you keep going or he's going to have a melt down.  Hence the fun quickly morphs into a mild form of jumpy castle torture.  That being said, lets look at some of our birthday highlights for the last few weekends:

Mike in mid slide

 taking a break in the inflatable nook

Zoë didn't like it so much

She opted to help patrol the party for public safety

the one time Vince went alone

quick picture with the kids

and time to refuel with pizza

On to Luca:

He's doing so great!  After that horrible morning last week on Monday, he's really taken a turn for the better.  He had pulled out his feeding tube (again!), but this time he has proved that he doesn't need it anymore!  He's taking his bottles like a champ, and he's even doing better with remembering to breathe in between sucks of milk.  We are so hopeful and happy to see him improving.  He is still having a few heart rate dips, but he has usually self resolved them.  He has to be spell free for five days before coming home.  Yesterday he only had 3 spells, and this morning he's had a few short ones already.... but it's a lot better than last week where he'd have 7-8 per day.  The poor kid got circumcised last week but that's healing well.  He's up to 7lbs 8oz. now, and the nursery said they are going to move him to a real crib... and that we could bring a mobile for him as he is starting to look around for things to track. He even had a go at his first swing last week!

Entrance to our little boy's abode

Luca's little corner of the nursery, complete with decorative art and pictures from brother and sister

oh.... hello there!!

 

I know my mommy!

We are hopeful that he'll be able to come home in the next couple of weeks... although I feel like I've been saying that for the last month or so!  And I know I've said this before, and I'll say it again... that this little baby has been a blessing and a reminder of how lucky we are, and how much we have to be grateful for. 

Ode to Norah

A few weeks ago, Vince came home from school with a giddy little smile on his face.  He described his day as "I love all my friends" "especially Norah Downey"..... all the while grinning from ear to ear.  He proceeded to talk about his friend Norah and the toys he wants to share with her (this is a miracle), and expressed his concern for me to respond (right now!) to his urgent request of setting up a playdate for them. Vince is surely smitten with this little girl, and Mike and I are enjoying what appears to be Vince's first little crush, so adorable! 

So I arranged to have us meet Norah and her mom at the playground after school.  Vince was so excited to hear that we were meeting them at the playground, the whole drive over there he barked orders at my mom and I that we are not to eat any of our lunch until Norah gets there.  No one was to start eating until everyone got to the playground!  When they found each other near the slides it was as if they hadn't seen each other in years, not that they just said good bye 5 minutes ago in their class rooms!
Vince ran around with Norah escorting her to each play item.... "Norah, should we go on the swings now"?  "Norah let's go on the teeter totter together".  He was utterly dedicated to making sure Norah was having fun, and got his feathers in a ruffle when anyone else tried to spend time with her as well.  Whoa little man!  I actually thought for a minute about explaining to Vince that he was laying it on a little too thick... but then remembered he's 3 1/2.  Yeah, that wouldn't work.
So instead, I arranged for another meet up at our house.  Why fight it?.....well, these two need more supervision!
Within the first 3 minutes of their visit, I found Vince and Norah in the bathroom... Vince's suspenders down around his ankles.. and Norah helping him get on the potty (she's about 1/2 foot taller than Vince, lol!).  It was a picture I'll never forget.  Here's to many more supervised play dates!

Here they are eating their pizza bagels together

Stamp Out Reflux!

Luca has had a rough few weeks.  He hasn't progressed very much with taking his milk only by bottle, he still gets tired and doesn't finish it completely so they have to give the rest in his feeding tube.  He is also still having spells where his heart rate dips dangerously low because he stops breathing.  This usually happens during his feeds, or shortly after wards.  The doctors think it may be a reaction to reflux, so they started him on prilosec.  Being a preemie baby, the sphincter muscle in his stomach isn't strong enough to keep closed so the milk can back up into his mouth again very easily.  The feeding tube going from his nose down to his stomach keeps that muscle from staying completely closed as well.  I can't wait until they take that tube out!  The prilosec will not help the muscle to stay closed and keep the milk down after feedings (that just comes with maturity), but if he does have reflux it will stop the pain of the stomach acids irritating his esophagus and nose.

The worst reflux episode happened early Monday morning around 2:30am.  The nurse noticed his heart rate on the monitor was very low, so she went over to check him and he was very pale and not breathing.  She had to give him rescue breaths and oxygen before he was revived, and she said they basically suctioned out his entire feed because he had milk all in his nose and mouth.  My heart sinks just thinking about it.  I am just so thankful to God that he was still in the hospital with 24 hour care and NOT AT HOME when this happened.  All we can do is wait until his little body matures a bit more so that he can tolerate his feedings and recover on his own from an episode of reflux.  I've learned so much about preemie babies vs. babies born at term.  Apparently the ability to close the airway and protect it is easier to master for preemies than it is to remember to open the airway again and start breathing (this makes sense considering he's not even supposed to be breathing on his own yet!).  So poor Luca was just protecting his airway from the milk that was coming back up, but then he couldn't remember to breathe again.  He will do this also when feeding from a bottle, but we have learned to count each suck and swallow while he is taking from the bottle.  If he keeps sucking and swallowing after 5-10 counts, then we need to pull the nipple out so he remembers to breathe in between.  I am so grateful for that Nurse that helped save him, I'll never forget her. 

Mike and I are just taking one day at a time, and looking forward to the day we can have all our family together in one room, without a glass window in between us.  Luca is looking more and more like a "normal" baby, which makes me just want to steal him and bring him home.  If it wasn't for that darn forgetting to breathe thing.  He weighs about 6 pounds 13 ounces now, and he's becoming more alert and looking around to see who ever is talking.  He even made us a Valentine and taped it on the wall by his crib!

Our little Valentine

Updates

Tomorrow Luca will be 4 weeks old, and he will have been in the hospital for his life span of 28 days.  It's been a hard past couple of days, as last week he pulled out his feeding tube from his nose!  They decided to leave it out, thinking that he might do well enough with only bottles that he wouldn't need the feeding tube anymore, it was so exciting.  Unfortunately they had to put it back in yesterday because he wasn't taking as much milk in his bottle as he was supposed to.  The little guy gets too tired and poops out to quick.  The doctors and nurses keep telling me all of this is normal, and that he's doing really well for his age.  So I have to just keep patient and let him progress at his own pace.  He is also still having dips in his heart rate at times, which is scary.

Every time I drive away from the hospital after visiting him, a piece of my heart is left behind.  I just CAN'T WAIT until all of this is behind us and we can have him home with us

 Some pictures of my sweet little boy without his feeding tube