All in a weeks time

A week ago today I took the scariest ride of my life. I hope I am
never in that ambulance seat again. They made me sit in the front seat
because there was a chance they would have to put a needle in directly
down to his bone and they did not want me to see that. (that was the
only option they had since they were unable to start an IV after many
attempts at the clinic, luckily that measure did not have to be taken)

A lot has happened in this week but I feel like I see more change in
the boys at home than I do with Evan and he is the one I want to
change so quickly. Payton and Riley are becoming more alert and are
taking turns being the "good baby." Payton is suprising us all by
eating like a champ lately, much better than Rileypants (not sure how
we started calling him that)! They will both visit Easy at
doernbechers so they can have their follow up swallow studies done to
see if they can come off of the sludge in their milk. That would make
one less step in our bottle making process and save us $75 a week,
fingers crossed! We moved their peds appt back by a week for many
reasons so a nurse is going to come to our house this afternoon to
weigh them and make sure they are thriving. I think they look too
small but that's after I come home from visiting Evan who currently
looks like a linebacker. (I am hoping linebackers are the big guys, I
really have no idea;) )

When I came last night with Gma S I was surprised to see how much more
swollen Evan was, like now he's really, REALLY big. They assure me we
are still going in the right direction though. My "sense" from rounds
this morning is that they want to start seeing some more improvements
now. He is off the dopamine completely which is great, meaning that he
can keep his blood pressure stable without medicine. They also haven't
had to mess with his vent settings but know that they can't ween off
until he loses some fluid. Since they started the diarrhetic yesterday
his creatnine labs have went up so they are holding the next dose of
lasix, grrr. The surgery fellow also commented on the ng tube still
draining green bile meaning that nothing is moving much past the 1st
portion of his bowel, they want the ng to show clearish gastric
secretions. I mentioned this to the intensivist attending while they
did their rounds and he was going to check with surg to see if they
want to give him some contrast and check with an xray for any
strictures. The PICU is (unfortunately) hopping this morning so rounds
were quick with the promise to come back. They did close with saying
they are still unsure as to why this happened to Evan as they never
found infection or malrotation to be the cause. Hrmmmph.

I did get a laugh after the surgery fellow left, her parting words to
me were "Get some rest mom, you look tired. Let us do the hard work."
Easy for her to say! I am excited to get a report from Ben though, it
was our first time having a night nanny last night! We are going to
try it a couple times a week. Also, some of the fabulous MOMs from our
multiples group (full house moms, FHM) have donated doula hours to
help us out and keep the care of the littles at home consistent and
ABC Doula agreed to match those hours- now that's generous!!

We have also been blessed by being very well fed! Seriously. The FHMs
and my work have been saints. We have enjoyed BBQ chix sandwhiches,
chinese food, corned beef/cabbage/potatos, pizza, chicken and veggies,
and soup and bread! Wow. The amounts are so large that I have been
able to freeze some for future need. I know that there are still many
unanswered calls and emails offering help that are so much
appreciated! I hope to get them answered someday...

No harp for me today :( so I will sign off for now.

Xo, B

Sent from my iPhone