Saturday April 9, 2011

It has been almost two months since our last posting. With a new job for Kevin, and the babies becoming more active, it's been very difficult to keep up with the updates. We had a really bad month of March, but everything is better now. To catch you up, Andrew aspirated on March 9th while he was sleeping during a feed. Tara and Kevin had just laid down to go to bed when we heard Andrew's alarms going off. When we went into check, our night nurse and the orientee nurse were over Andrew pumping oxygen into him. He had sat up, burped, and inhaled at the same time. He turned blue and was unresponsive. We called 911, and the nurses worked on Andrew for several minutes. We changed out is trach and by the time the first responders arrived, Andrew's color had returned. We took him to Children's Medical Center, and he spent two days there for observation. He had fluid in his upper right lobe. The antibiotic that they put him on gave him a full body rash after the dose was done. What a surprise. Andrew followed that with a double ear infection. On top of that, all three babies contracted RSV. Luckily, they had been taking shots to lessen the effects of RSV, so none of the babies required a hospital stay. They sounded and looked awful for several days. Also in March, we found a home for our dog, Belle. She now lives in Albuquerque with a 69 year old widower and a chihuahua named Poo-poo. We've heard some wonderful stories about her new life, and we're thankful she's in such a good situation. We are all heartbroken that she's no longer our dog. Adelaide is starting to take her first steps without assistance. She stands for several minutes by herself as well. We have found Adelaide several times sitting in a rocking chair or living room chair unassisted. She had a great checkup at her 15 month appointment. She's very good at repeating words. Her vocabulary is expanding. In addition, Adelaide has choreographed several new dance moves. Mattie has been crawling on hands and knees for several weeks now. She walks along our sofa or uses several rolling toys as support to walk around. Mattie said, "mama, up, up!" the other day. She has the most teeth of any of the babies and has perfected the slap. She's very feisty and gets into slap fights with Adelaide over toys. Andrew is doing very well on his bottle feeds. Finally! He had been struggling since the doctor changed his formula. As we now look back, we believe Andrew's ear infection and RSV really affected his eating. There were times when he would only take 5-10ml of formula and fight us the entire time. Andrew walks assisted and really flies around with the rolling toys. Andrew is up to 17lbs. and will hopefully have a three day stay in the hospital to wean him off his vent at the end of the month. Andrew has excelled at chasing things on the floor. He will chase you around the furniture with a banshee yell. Praise Kevin started a new job in February with ADT Security. We're very thankful that he found a job with good benefits. All the babies made it through RSV. God's protection over Andrew during his aspiration. Andrew's improved feeding. Mobile babies. A wonderful new home for Belle. Fantastic nurses. Prayer Andrew's feeding continues to improve. Andrew's weight gain. Vent clinic visit would lead to a weaning of the vent. Continued protection of the babies. Wisdom in the purchase of a car that will fit our whole family. God's provision through Kevin's job.