Warning: Cuteness Overload

I know these are just gas smiles but I like to pretend that they are real. He is sure is going to have cute smile when he does start to smile though.

Everett is kicking it old school in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles towel. Right on Everett.

One Proud Mom

I meant to post about this last month but was kind of busy with other things. Then today I was at Rawley's school assembly and when they handed out the June awards I remembered I never posted Rawley's May award. Rawley got the Student of the Month Award in May in honour and Recognition for being a Scientific Expert.
I also got Rawley's report card today for grade 2 and am so impressed with him. Because he is a primary student in an elementary school he does not get letters grades. He gets number marks on 44 different skills in all the different subjects. The numbers work as follows:
4= Exceeding Expectations
3= Meeting Expectations
2= Approaching Expectations
1= Not Yet Meeting Expectations.

Rawley received
10 fours
29 threes
and 5 twos (all of which were behaviours related not academic)

This is exceptional for him... last report card he only had 2 fours and at least 10 twos. I am so so happy. I am very appreciative for all the help that he has received in the last 2 months. Rawley has had great success with reading and social studies in the grade 3 class. I am so glad that my voice was finally heard and Rawley received some different care than before. It made me the last part of his year more enjoyable for everyone involved.

We Have Somewhere To Live.

Finding a place to live in Brandon has been a major stresses for us. There are not a lot of options out there. Maple Leaf has a huge plant there and they rent out most available places for the workers that come into town to work for them. We have been looking in the papers for a while to see what kind of options we had and it did not look good. Specially because I really want a 3 bedroom so that the boys do not have to share a room. Everything I found online was either out of town or way over our budget.

Last Thursday I emailed Ryan's mom, Pat, to ask her if she could look into some places for us to live when we get there.
Later that day she called the manager of some townhouses right near them and got an application for us to fill out. We really want to live near them on the east end of town.
She brought the application out with her on Saturday and we filled it out over the weekend. This morning Ryan faxed it to the office. A few hours later they called to say they have a 3 bedroom available for us to go look at. Ryan's dad went on his lunch to look at it, he gave them the deposit and the townhouse is ours. Not only is the townhouse ours but it is on the right end of town, it is near mom & dad's house, Rawley will go to the same school Ryan did, we have a little fenced yard, and the complex is full of families with kids so Rawley should have friends to play with. Oh and the 3 bedroom there is cheaper than what we pay for our 2 bedroom here.

Done! I am so so happy. One major stress is taken care of....Now if Ryan can just find a job so we have some income once we move.. I guess that is what we will work on this week.

I have no pictures to show but will see what I can find online to post.

How Are We Doing?

We are surviving. Everett still has very bad gas and we use a combination of gripe water, Ovol, and Pro biotic drops to manage it. Some days are better than others.

I decided that me not eating dairy was not making a difference so I had a huge milkshake the other night.... Needless to say I think I was wrong because Everett was up most the night and half the next day screaming with gas pains. I felt awful. I am staying away from Dairy now!

Rawley is doing really well. He is still very much in love with his little brother. He only has two days left of school and the last month has gone well. He has been spending time in the grade 3 class learning about Canada and reading chapter books. He has had less detentions and he got the Expert Scientist Student of the Month Award. Yay Rawley.

We have come to the conclusion that we are definitely moving on August 1st to Manitoba. We booked our truck and have started packing. The packing is unfortunately going very slow as I have little spare time.

The biggest and best news is that Ryan's mom arrived today. I am so happy to have her company and her help. It is very nice to have someone to pass Everett off to after feeding so I can get up and do something. It is also nice to have someone else try to rock and pat the gas out of him. I am so so grateful she is here. Dad shows up on the 1st and then we will have a full house.

Here are some recent photos of my cute little man.

Weekend of BBQs

Yesterday was Everett's first BBQ and he was a huge hit. A friend from Ryan's work had us out at his place in Yarrow for a BBQ. Everett got some new cuddles and slept very well out in the fresh air. He was such a good boy.

The cup holders in Everett's stroller sure came in handy for us.

Once we left that BBQ we headed over to my dad's friend's pig roast. There were 4 babies under 3 months old and a 20 month old toddler there. It was fun to see all the babies together and exchange stories with the other new parents. I even got to hold a sweet little 2 month old baby girl.

Today after church we headed out to another BBQ at my cousin Kory & Tina's house in Surrey. It was their daughter's third birthday. We got to visit with lots of family and Everett got to meet cousins and second cousins and see great grandma & grandpa again. This time they each got to hold him instead of just looking at him in his incubator. It was very sweet.

Everett seems to really enjoy being outside. The fresh air agrees with him.
Being in the house tonight......not agreeing with him at all. I can safely say he has found his big boy voice to cry with. wow! He has Finally fallen asleep while I bounce him in his vibrating chair....but his next feed is only 20 minutes away so I better end this quickly so I can go finish the boys lunches for tomorrow. Daddy should be home from hockey tonight just in time to shower and feed Everett at 12:30.... Yay for tag teaming.

What Can You Get For....

$150.00?

A baby swing
A crib
2 tanks of gas for a moving truck
11 packs of diapers @ $12.99
6 months worth of wipes
4 dinners our with the family
Groceries for a week
New shoes for all of us
Clothes that fit me...........

OR

My car back.

My car got towed again last night and I am so mad at myself I want to scream and cry. We are only allowed to park one car outside after midnight and Ryan's car has the decal. I park out there during the day because it is faster, more convenient and the parking garage is too dark to see what I am doing. So yesterday I parked out there because we were going to go eat out last night. Our dishwasher was being replaced and the kitchen is not big enough to have us cooking or cleaning in there while he works. We hoped to let him in first before we left or find out he was coming later and be back before he got here. Problem was we didn't hear from him and we got hungry so we ordered food in instead.....then I forgot my car was still parked outside.

I hate the rules here. I figure if we live here and there is a spot available we should be allowed to park anywhere. Or at least get a warning or a discounted tow rate. I mean they have all our vehicle information....They can see that I am a resident.....

I am not sure if I am more mad at the stupid rules that I forgot to follow or at myself for forgetting my car was outside.

Gas Gas Go Away

Everett has been having a lot of tummy troubles. He has the worst gas ever. After every feeding he experiences bad gas and then at about 4pm and 4am he has little episodes that last for a couple hours. The 4pm one is easier to handle as everyone is up and Ryan is home so we can hand Everett off. The 4am one is exhausting for me because I am up alone with him wishing for some sleep. Poor little baby. So far he is on a pro biotic drop that the doctor said we should try and gripe water. We have not really noticed if either of them are helping at all.

Everett does not really have a full blown cry yet. I am not sure if that is related to being premature or not. He grunts, groans, whines, whimpers.....but we have not got a full cry out of him yet. I am not complaining either. It is a lot easier for Ryan and Rawley to sleep through whimpers than it would be to sleep through crying.

Other than dealing with the gassy baby we have not been up to too much. Everett attended his first event on Saturday. We walked down the block so Rawley could watch the dog show for a bit. Yesterday we took Everett to church with us to show him off to everyone that had been praying for his safe delivery and health. Other than that it has been fairly low key around here. Auntie Merry, Melissa and Owyn visited on Friday night. Then last night my friend Tommy and his girlfriend Jeannine came and visited.

This is the first outfit that Everett has grown out of. I am realizing that although he is only 5 pounds he is very very long. The preemie clothes are all getting a little short when he stretched out. Long fingers, long toes and a long body.... I wonder if he will be tall?
I am posting this one just because is melts my heart.
This is his cousin Owyn who has met him only this once and is in love already. Owyn has a fascination with babies and he is so gentle and kind. He rubbed Everett's head and kissed him a bunch of times. Then he just stood there saying "baby" over and over with a huge smile on his face. Owyn you are so cute.

Everett chilling in his stroller on the way to the dog show. It was quite hot here on Saturday and he seemed pretty relaxed just lazing in the stroller.

Daddy took these pictures for the guys he plays hockey with. They wanted to know how small Everett was in comparison to something they know.

Everett had another bath last night. He does actually enjoy his bathes but this picture does not show it well. We have nothing better to bath him in right now because he is too small to put in the sink and we don't have a bucket big enough.

Jeannine was open t holding Everett right away........

Tom took some convincing. He was so scared to hold Everett, but once I swaddled him really well and we all encouraged him to do it he finally caved. Then he got all teared up. Tom is such a sweat heart. I really love this photo of him and Everett.

Must Get More Sleep

This is going to be short and sweet because I need to go to bed.

"Sleep while baby sleeps" has never meant more to me. Do I need a shower? yes. Do the dishes need to be out away? yes. Does Ryan's lunch need to be made? yes. Does the living room need to be cleaned? yes. I am going to do any of it? NO!

Everett finally came home yesterday and I could not be happier. It feels so right to have him here and we are way ahead of what doctors had told us we would be. Everett was supposed to be in the NICU until June 13th -20th. To bring him home on the 6th was a shock.

We had to run out to the stores and buy things like bottles, clothes, a mirror for the car, breast milk storage bags, vitamin d, iron.....We dropped about $150 in less than 24 hours.

Yesterday went great. We played it pretty low key. Last night was a whole other story. I am not sure if Everett was just not eating enough, if he was eating too much, not burping enough....but he did not sleep much between midnight and 8am. He grunted and groaned, curled into a ball and stretched, farted and pooped.....all night long. He seemed very uncomfortable with an upset tummy. The only thing we are doing different here than at the hospital is using Vitamin d and Iron of a different brand. I slept for maybe 2 or 3 hours but it was in 5-10 minutes doses before he would wake me up. I ended up laying beside his bassinet on the floor in the living room. By 5:30 when Ryan got up for work I was in tears and feeling hopeless.

Today went a bit better. I managed to get an hour and half sleep this morning and about 1 hour this afternoon. I have been topping him up with a bottle after breastfeeding and being very sure to get a burp out of him. He is still quite loud but seems to be sleeping a little more. I hope that carries on through the night. I don't mind getting up with him every 3 hours if i get to sleep in between.

Tomorrow I am taking him to the doctors just to have them listen to his stomach and see if they think anything is wrong.

Off to bed I go.

Bigs Days

It seems that almost everyday there is something new that Everett is doing or a new milestone he is hitting. It is so wonderful to see him growing and getting stronger everyday.

Rawley really wanted to hold Everett today while he was waking up so this is their special time together.
Rawley is such a proud big brother and super helpful too. He brings us things when we are busy, he helps get everything ready for feeding, he even knows how to assemble the breast pump and is more than willing to do it. He toddles off to the pump room to get the kits and bottles then assembles it all for me. Such a big helper.

Everett passed his car seat test today. We started the test after his 8 am feeding. There were 2 problems though after already eating his total mls needed he was still hungry and a bit angry. Problem number two was that the car seat was not really ideal for a preemie. It did not have an adjustment on the front of the car seat to tighten the straps therefore you almost had to tip the car seat over to tighten or loosen them. It is kind of a two person job. The nurse suggested that we may want to return it and get a different one before we became very frustrated.

We did just that. With his new car seat he sat with his monitors on for 45 minutes and his breathing was stable and his oxygen levels were great. That means we get to take him home tomorrow. Yay!

Everett really seemed tiny in his car seat. I don't know if we had just gotten used to his size or if everything in the NICU is just sized for the little ones, but once we got him in his seat he looked tiny.
Everett also had a both tonight where he proceeded to poor and pee in the water. So gross. Then he had a second bath to clean off from his first bath.
Everett has been breastfeeding really well. Today he took all his feedings fully without topping off with a bottle. I am so proud of him.

For Real?

This is Everett in his cot when they first moved him over. They have the cot tilted up like that so that the babies do not choke on their food, specially when they are being fed through a NG tube. When I asked the nurse she told me they keep them like that until the babies are ready to go home. Then they lay the cots flat to ensure that the babies is doing well and holding down all the food. They make sure of this before they send them home because babies will be sleeping flat at home and not inverted.

This was Everett's cot this morning..

Do you see where I am going with this? His cot is flat....They are testing him to make sure he can come home.

Yesterday when I arrived at 8am. The nurse told me that he took all his bottles through the night and they did not have to use the NG tube at all. So throughout the day I breast fed what he would take then bottle feed him the rest. He did very well and finished off all his food by mouth. At 2pm the NG tube had to be removed because Everett had pulled it so far out that it could not be used anyway. So they just left it out to see what would happen.

Well last night he also took all his bottles with out a tube. He is also gaining weight. Not as much as the nutritionist would like, but obviously enough for the pediatrician to like.

Our Nurse this morning told me that he should be coming home Sunday.

SUNDAY? now don't joke with me. I am an extremely emotionally fragile, mentally fatigued and physically exhausted women. Teasing me would not be nice.

She said that as long as all goes well over the next 2 days he is cleared to come home. OH MY GOD!

Now I just have to start my list of questions for the nurses.

Where do I get bottle small enough for him?

How do I know how much he took by breast? I don't have a scale at home.

What kind of wipes should I use?

What do I do if....?

How do I know if...?

What if I am scared....?

How can I tell...?

Do I still wake him up 3 times a night or feed him on his cue?

Which one of you nurses is coming home with me?

How wonderful and terrifying all at the same time.

Graduation

Everett has graduated to a big boy bed now. It is so nice not to have him in the incubator. Now when we want to hold him we just pick him up. He is still attached to the monitors so they can keep an eye on him. His main job now is to take all his feeds orally and get rid of that feeding tube. Once he does that and gains weigh consecutively then he can come home. Doctor says that medically he is not concerned about Everett anymore. We just have to get him to gain weight. I asked about a possible date for coming home and he said due date minus a week or two. So we should have him home between June 13th and June 20th.

Also, Everett's first day wearing clothes. The preemie diaper shirts seem to almost fit, but the sleepers are still a little big. He is not a huge fan of being dressed though. It takes a lot of time to get all those tiny parts in a sleeper and then also run all his leads (for the monitors) through them with out pulling off any.

The incubator was heated but now that he is out in the big world he has to be swaddled to help him stay warm. He also might lose a little weigh initially because it takes a lot of energy to keep himself warm. If it happens to much he might need to eat more at every feeding to up his calories.
I look pretty rough in this picture but I still love it.