4 months old!

Well, the babies are 4 months old now and doing great! Jaxon was able to come totally off of oxygen and has been taking only a bottle for his feedings so that means he is ready to come home! They are probably going to make him stay until his next eye appt next week to make sure the surgery was a success. But the boys both had their eyes examined this week and the doctor said that both the boys eyes were improving!!! So next weeks appt is just a "double check" pretty much.

Gavin is taking baby steps with his bottle feeds. But I guess it's better than no steps at all. He gets 1-2 bottles a shift (12 hrs) and is taking about 1/2 the amount that he is suppose to at each feeding. Which is better than he was taking, but he really needs to get the hang of it. And he also has had a hernia for a while now that he does need surgery for. They want to wait until he is closer to going home to have the surgery for that, then they just take him over to Primary Childrens for the surgery and then maybe could possibly go home from there after the surgery. But we'll see. Different doctors have different ideas about when.

I'm already starting with my mixed emotions again. I'm so excited about bringing Jaxon home, but I'm dreading leaving Gavin by himself. At least when we took Jacee home, the boys had each other, but now Gavin will be the only one. Good thing he has lots of girlfriends at the hospital. He's a favorite with a couple of the nurses. =)

So weights as of last night are:

Jaxon: 7 lbs 8 oz

Gavin: 8 lbs 3 oz (I'm sure he's the biggest baby in the NICU!!!)

Jacee: 7 lbs 6 oz (She had her weight check appt with her doc today)

They are doing so good. It's hard to believe how small they were now that they are so big. I know I say it all the time, but WOW, little miracles. And after seeing what we see other babies in the NICU going through, we are so blessed...

Jaxon...LOOK no oxygen tubes!!! =)

Gavin...doing the usual "big eyes" with his bunny on Easter

Jacee posing with her bunny on Easter...

Dax loving what the Easter bunny brought him...

Oh and I just had to add this picture. When we left the hospital with Jacee they gave us all her bows that she had been wearing and today she wore the SAME exact one she had on the day she was born. What a difference.

And Dax took this picture of me and Jacee. It's pretty darn good if I do say so myself.

All is Well!

Alright, Jaxon's surgery is over and the surgeon said it went well. We won't know for about 2 weeks that it "took". But so far so good. It was very hard to see him back on the vent. We worked way to hard to get him off that thing! And Jaxon agreed. The surgery got done about 9:40 PM on Friday, and by 3 in the moring he was already off of it. Good boy Jaxon!!! His oxygen requirements have been really low, even off sometimes, so he is recovering great. I'm going to try and give him a bottle today and hopefully he still does good with that! He's been pretty tired since then and his eyes are pretty puffy, but other than that he is doing awesome!

Gavin is still having a hard time with his bottles. He does great sometimes, and not so great other (most) times. They say that it's pretty typical for a 24 weeker to act like that. He has not had many postive experiences with things going in his mouth since he was on the vent the longest, and the paralized vocal cord doesn't help because he is afraid of things going in his mouth and then he's afraid to swallow. So hopefully one of these days he will just wake up and be okay with all of this so he can come home. Jacee is getting too spoiled!!! =)

Well I hope everyone has a Happy Easter and thanks for the prayers! Keep em coming!!!

The latest pics:

Jaxon just beofre surgery, on the vent =(

Jaxon after surgery, swollen eyes...

Gavin...aka..."Cheeks"

Gavin is so animated with his eyes. You know exactly how he's feelin by looking at his eyes...

Me and Jacee had a little photo session....

Prayers please!

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update. The babies all had their eyes checked again this week and Jacee's were better, Gavin's a little worse, but Jaxon's got bad enough that he does need the surgery. He will have it tonight around 6 pm. The eye surgeon guy (don't remember the technical name) will come over from Primary's or Moran and just do it right where Jaxon is which is nice, and the surgery is done all with a laser, so no incisions and should take about an hour. They do have to put him back on the vent for the surgery and then they just wean him off hopefully within a few hours. We worked so hard to get him off the vent, I hate that he has to go back on! Even if it's just for a little while. So everyones prayers for this to go well and for him to recover soon and well would be much appreciated!!!!!!!! I will try to update this tomorrow and let everyone know how it went. Thanks!!!
Oh and their weights are:
Jaxon: 7 lbs 8 oz
Gavin: 7 lbs 10 oz (WOW)
Jacee: 7 lbs 3 oz (I took her to the pediatrician this morning, she's doing great)

Home Sweet Home

We are loving having Jacee home. It feels so good to get to hold her "unplugged". She was able to come home without any monitors or oxygen, so she's not hooked up to anything. We can actually walk around with her, soooo nice. She's been very nice to us. She just eats and sleeps. And spitups. Dax was the spitup King, but I think Jacee is going to be spitup Queen. So far she's not as bad as Dax was (knock on wood) but we both go through a couple outfits a day. =) Aaron's worried that she is going to get spoiled before the boys get home, and we won't be able to hold her as much so he always lays her in her crib when she's asleep, but I usually just sneek in there and get her out. I've waited way too long to hold her! I am doing better though. =) But I have caught Aaron holding her after I put her down too! ;) Dax is way cute with her. He wants to hold her all the time, and he always checks on her when she's sleeping. He'll either go check on her in her room, or come ask me how she's doing, it's cute! She had her first check up yesterday, and the doctor said she was PERFECT! He said he wasn't expecting such a perfect baby. That made my day! He said that when he was in school that all of their gestational ages and birth weights wouldn't have qualified for resusitation (spelling!!!!), they wouldn't have even tried. I'm so glad times have changed. Our little miracles.

And our boys are doing awesome. Slowly getting better with their bottlefeedings, oxygen requirements and reflux. Moving forward everday. And what chunkers they are. Gavin has boobies!!! =) After holding Jacee all the time and then holding Gavin, WOW! I love it.

Aaron and I just take turns going down to the hospital. I go see the babies and Aaron stays home with Jacee and Dax, and then Aaron goes to the hospital and I stay home. Do what ya gotta do. When I got to the hospital last night, they had put the boys in the same crib, which they usually don't do, but the boys we're lovin it. Their oxygen requirements were down to the lowest they've ever been, and they weren't fussy. It was so cute. I hope they do it again. They don't usually do it because of infection control, but the OT's thought the benefit would outweigh the risk. And I do too. I think they know Jacee is gone because the all of the sudden have been fussy and awake a lot, and this made them do a lot better.

Okay weights as of last night are:

Jaxon- 7 lbs 4 oz- 19 in long

Gavin- 7 lbs 6 oz- 18 3/4 in

Jacee- 6 lbs 11 oz- 18 3/4 in (they say it's normal for them to lose a little when they go home, because of stress adjusting to a new place)

OUR BOYS!!!

OUR PRINCESS!!!

(proof that I do put her in her crib! =))

1 down...2 to go

Sorry for being a bit of a slacker lately. I've been busy trying to get ready for Miss Jacee to come home. And finally after being in the NICU for 108 days, she was able to come home yesterday!!!! We "roomed in" at the hospital on Thursday night. They put her in a room with us so we can listen to all the noises she makes in the night and if we have any questions we can ask the nurses. Then we were able to bring her home Friday morning. I've never had such mixed emotions. Getting to bring her home is awesome, but walking out of the NICU with her and leaving the boys was soooo hard. It's like we're breaking up the trio for the first time. I'm glad they have each other though. And hopefully they will be able to come off their oxygen and start eating better soon so they can come home. My actual due date is(was) tomorrow March 16th. The nurses and doctors say that for a 24 weeker to come home at their due date is unsual and awesome! So good job Jacee!!! That's ONE of the hard parts with mulitples...always comparing one to another one. So the boys ARE doing great, we just have miss overachiever to compare them to.

Dax was very excited to meet his sister for the first time. He keeps rubbing her head and saying how cute she is. He's going to be a great big brother! And Jacee is doing great at home. So far she just eats and sleeps. Good girl!

Alright, the boys weights as of last night are:

Jaxon: 7 lbs 1 oz

Gavin: 7 lbs 2 oz (he has the biggest cheeks ever!) =)

And Jacee's weight as of Thursday night was 6 lb 13 oz.

Chunkers huh!

Jacee getting ready to leave the hospital...

Proud brother...

Jaxon just hangin out...

Our chunky monkey Gavin...

Since our house is sooo huge, these guys get to share a room and they each get a wall so Kalee and I (mainly Kalee) painted each of their walls and Aaron's brother Austin made their names with vinyl letters ...

Baby Bunnies!!!

Well, we've had another great week! Jacee is doing great with bottle feeding. She is now just getting a bottle when she wants one, which is about every 4 hours, and she is taking about 2 ounces everytime. But it sounds like she might be what the nurses call an "eye hostage". It means she is ready to come home, but her eyes aren't quite where the doctors want them to be. The vessels aren't grown out to where they need to be, but she doesn't really need the surgery. So she has to wait until either one happens! So hopefully it won't be too long. Her next eye appointment is on Wed. so we'll see what they say. And Gavin is taking bottles once a shift now. He doesn't down them like his piggy sister, but he does alright. He's just taking his time. And little Jaxon is still having major reflux issues. It's really preventing him from moving forward, because he doesn't want to learn to swallow. They figure his throat is so irritated that is just hurts to swallow. But the doctors keep trying new tricks, so hopefully one will work soon.

So one of the nurses, Peggy, loves to take cute little pictures of the babies, so she made some cute little bunny hats and takes the babies pictures if you sign up. So of course we did, and they turned out so cute!!! This was the first time all three got to be with each other again. And little Jacee got annoyed that they put her brothers by her, so she had her eyes closed in the trio pictures, but she wasn't sleeping. Just being a little pill is all!!! And Jaxon just looks plain grumpy, but I guess I wouldn't blame him. He doesn't feel good. But these might be the cutest pictures you've ever seen, so beware!!!! =)

And current weights and lengths are:

Jaxon: 6 lbs 4 oz- 17 3/4 in

Gavin: 6 lbs 3 oz- 17 3/4 in

Jacee: 6 lbs 1 oz- 18 in

All over 6 pounds! YAY!!!

So cute!!!

Love it!!!

Jaxon is either saying "Peace" or flashin some sort of baby gang sign! =)

My very first time holding all three at once! WOW!!!