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Thanks Sharon. This new picture program is awesome! I played around with it for a whilw as you can see.... cool!

 

 

 

Introductions

My brother Todd and his wife April brought Ava to visit this weekend. We had a house full of babies!! It's amazing how much time taking care of them involves. We pretty much sat and held babies all weekend. Sorry Todd and April, we used to be much more fun!! Ava is only about 2 months older than Sidney, but she is already laughing and "talking". Too cute.


This picture pretty much sums up our lives right now. We love it, but the shirt says it all!

Isn't she precious!

Playtime

Sidney had some play time yesterday. She was wide awake for a few hours at a time. Up until then, she pretty much slept all day, so it was fun to see her look around for a while.


Notice all the toys behind her. Linlee and Conner brought these for her to play with. They were having so much fun and really thought they were helping. They don't realize she is too little...cute!



My 2 precious older children. I have missed playing and reading to them like I used to. We are still working on finding balance, but I treasure these few moments that we do find.

A Day in the Life

It's amazing how little time I have to do things now! Sorry for the lack of updates. Sidney had her 2 week check and is back up to 5 lb 12 oz. She is doing great! Sleeping much better! Linlee and Conner are a great help (well at least one of them is and the other tries to be....) Here are just a few pics. I will try to get more as I can.

No more pictures, please...

This was right before I decided to try to cut her fingernails. I clipped the end of her thumb and we both cried. As if she hasn't been through enough right?

Linlee has a cold, so she is wearing a mask around Sidney right now. Here is Nana with 3 of 4 grandchildren...

Welcome Home Sidney :)

We are home and very happy! She broke us in right from the start by staying up from 3:00-6:00 last night. I wonder if the NICU would take them back occasionally so the parents can sleep? I mean, the nurses have to be there anyway right??? :) I wouldn't dare!!!

Here are some pictures from yesterday's events.


"Wait, is there 24 hour nursing service where we are going? I may want to rethink this going home thing."


"I think this place agrees with me."


Linlee and Conner have been great so far. They just love their sister.

This is how she slept in the hospital. Oh Well...

Finally!

Well Sidney is HOME!!!! I will post pics later but she came home with us around 1:00. We are more than thrilled. Thanks for all the prayers!

New update

Well not much has changed in the last few days. Sidney is still doing great. Dad go to hold her Thursday night and loved every minute. She was a lttle lazy at feeding for a while but has now worked up to 65cc (or at least she did that for me last night)!!! she had lost down to 5lb 6oz and the nurse said that she couldn't go home until she was on the gaining weight program. We still have a little work to do it seems based on that. No one has given me a go home day, but I am guessing it won't be this weekend unless she gains some weight. We can wait (but not too long...)

Get ready for the pictures!!!

We had an awesome visit at lunch today! They took out the IV line from her belly button while we were there and.......I got to HOLD AND FEED HER IN A CHAIR!!!! She also got to put on clothes for the 1st time! this is the best day ever!! She is moving to an open crib this afternoon and if she gets up to 60 cc (she is at 40cc) tonight and eats it for 24 hours, we could be looking at bringing her home Sat or Sun!!! God is GOOD!! Ben let Nana go with me for this visit since she was leaving today so he missed all the excitement, but was happy to hear that he can bite some toes tonight.:) Enjoy the pics!

Bedtime update

Sidney was ready for us when we got there tonight. She ate 30cc from the bottle with no problem. Everything is going as hoped. Maybe 3-4 more days!!!

Linlee, Conner and Nana baked me a delicious cake for my birthday which we enjoyed when we got back from visiting Sidney. Ben treated me to Bonefish Grill (yum). It has been a wonderful birthday!!!!

Noon Update

We had a GREAT visit today! I fed her again and she took 20cc in 5 minutes!! Ate like a champ. The IV was out of her head (thank goodness!) and she is getting her IV food through her belly-button line. As long as this is in, I can't really pick her up, but hopefully if she continues to eat well, the line will be gone soon. The nurse has permission from the Dr to increase her amount of feedings as she sees fit. This means we could progress quickly from here. One of the best things from the visit is that Linlee and Conner got to see her through the window!!! I asked the nurse since they moved Sidney near a window, if the kids could stand in the hall. They were thrilled since they had only seen pictures until now. SO GREAT!

Latest news

So I got to "hold" and feed her tonight, sort of. The line was still in her belly-button so I couldn't pick her up but I got the prop her up in the bed and feed her a little bit. She is eating again!!! 3 bottles/tube feeds so far. If she continues to eat good they will gradually increase the amount. She is at 10cc right now and needs to get up to 60cc from a bottle before going home. She has her daddy wrapped around her finger as you can see in the last 2 pics. He was totally taken by her tonight. So sweet. I will keep updates coming as I can.

Sidney Update

Just a quick update. Sidney is off oxygen (yeah!!!). She is still not eating yet because she wasn't digesting her food well yesterday. She was not happy about it today either. She was crying and giving her pacifier a workout today. Pitiful! I wanted to feed her so bad. maybe tonight.... they are taking the antibiotic line out of her belly-button today and so we will possibly be able to hold her at tonight's visit!!!! I can't wait!

What A Whirlwind!!

I just lost my whole story that I just spent 10 minutes typing. I will do it again later. for now, I will just post a few pics. Thanks for the prayers!!!

What A Whirlwind!!

Ok so we have been a little busy the past few weeks!!! All of us but Ben had the stomach virus 2 weeks ago so lots of fun there. Ben was the best! He took care of all of us and thank goodness, he did not get sick too!

So I went in for my weekly ultrasound on Thurs the 31st expecting the same old song and dance. Well, to my suprise, my amniotic fluid had dropped dramatically from 7 to 2.6! My Dr said at this level, the baby is at risk because there is no cushion and the cord could get pinched very easily. She said go directly to the hospital and we are delivering in the morning!! WHAT!!! I was supposed to go pick up Ben from the airport in a few hours and Angie (bless her heart) was stuck with all 5 kids. I was not allowed to go home. Anyway, long story short, Ben made it to the hospital and we had a very restful night (HA). The next morning, they induced at 6:00. After 2 epidurals (yes 2 because the 1st one didn't work so well), baby Berteau was born at 12:33. She was beautiful! I got to hold her for about 1 minute and then they took her to the NICU because they wanted to evaluate her breathing. Here is my brief picture with her before all the stuff happened.


Well, our no name baby's lungs were not as developed as they had hoped and she went on a CPAP nasal thing and was put under oxygen. She looked pretty pitiful. This broke our hearts because we were expecting to get her back in our room soon and now they tell us she would be in the NICU for 5-10 days at least. This means we go home without her. :(

She has progressed very well. Sidney (I finally decided) came off the CPAP the next day and was off oxygen and even took 2 bottles. This sort of tuckered her out though and so she has been under very little oxygen since then. I will keep this updated as much as I can as I know new info. Please pray that we can make this transition as easy as possible since none of us were expceting it. And pray that Sindey will get everything that she needs to get home to her new family soon!