That explains it!!

We have our 1st 2 year molar!!
Who else, but Hayden Thomas!

Their sleep has been off (mostly due to Hayden's sleep being off & him crawling into everyone else's bed!)
He has a very, "owie butt."  One of the worst we've ever had, for no apparent reason!  Lotramin is doing it some good, so it must have been yeast.  And it must have been caused by teething!

Stuck my fingers back in all their mouths today just to check, given the sleep habits they have been keeping.  And on the top right way, way back there... there is a new tooth through.  Actually its quite a ways in already.  Poor baby, I didn't even know it was coming.

Nothing for Log & Liv yet, though Hayden is always a ways ahead in the teeth category.

Follow up

Took Livi in to follow up with the pediatrician today.  He says her lungs still sound a little wheezy down in the lower lobes, so we're going to give her some Albuterol 2x a day in addition to her steroids for a week or 2.  Just to make sure she keeps them open & clear & we don't back track.  But she is breathing easy.  Still snotty & has a cough.  He peeked in her ears too, & they look fine.

They weighed her today too.  With her clothes on she weighed 26lbs 15.5oz.  Exactly a pound bigger than she was at her 2 year visit just 3 weeks ago!  While its a little skewed for clothes & diaper (no shoes), thats a big 'ole weight gain girlfriend!  Despite being sick, pretty impressive!

They ate like PIGS today.  I mean they ate so much for breakfast, it took us over an hour!  Eggs, waffles, toast, raisins & "alort" {yogurt}, their new favorite.  They ate 2 entire boxes of Mac & Cheese for lunch, plus some chicken nuggets & fruit.  They ate 1/2 a box of crackers snacking throughout the afternoon.  And polished off 1/2 of a large Pizza Hut pizza & some breadsticks for supper.  {Great snow storm food!}  They have been waking up early.  And cutting naps short.  And today they completly refused, I mean REFUSED to nap!  UGH.  I'm hoping we are just going through some big growth or developmental spurt that is just rocking our sleep schedule.  They are learning so, so, so much.  I can imagine their little brains are working so hard they can't shut down to sleep!  Hopefully we fall back into my coveted routine again soon. 

Since we've been home from the hospital...

I've taken what feels like a bazillion days off of work making sure Livi s healthy enough for daycare before I go back.  So what have we been doing?  Enjoying our much needed time together.  And getting a jump start on my New Year's Resolution.  Here it is in pictures, in no particular order...

Hayden being a cheese-ball.  He has the best cheezy grin!  And he's looking so grown up!  Oh I make cute kids!!!  I can't look at this & not smile.

 Being "poppy" {pretty}!!  She loves pretties.  Hair bows, neclaces, bracelets.
{She still looks pretty exhausted doesn't she?  Poor baby.}

 Pretending to change her babies "butt."  She didn't need a diaper, just "wies."  She even had to find this one toy she likes to pretend is lotion, so she could put "low-lun" on her "baby butt owies."

 Meanwhile, Hayden, our future CEO...

That picture surprised me.  I didn't think we changed out of jammies all week!!!  Guess we must have one day?  Ha!

 We opened a few b-day toys that were still in the boxes.  Wasn't sure if they would be able to do this, but he was a pro!  Livi did it too.  Logan didn't care much.  Guess its time to start working on threading macaroni noodle necklaces. 

Where was Logan all this time?  Either playing cars quietly by himself.... Or watching it snow. 

Livi has been asking all week if we can "pay outside" or "pay no" {play in the snow} but we resisted since we have enough sickness for the moment.  Though I am dying to get them out there & see what they think of it!!!

Livi is breathing great.  Poor girl had circles on her sensitive, skin cheeks from the oxygen stickers for days!

And on top of all this playing, I did some creating.  Lots of it Pinterest inspired of course.  Pinterest, oh how I love thee. 

Little Tikes Table we got for cheap off Craigslist a long while back with the missing decorative sticker..

Enter- Crazy Duct Tape

Wish I would have put it on a little higher, but its an improvement either way.

Gift bag I've saved since the kids' baptism.  Love this print...

Perfect toy room art!!

And another piece of gift bag artwork...

Speaking of toy room.... we moved it back upstairs.  Office/storage is now downstairs.  We have debated this on & off for a while.  The kids didn't play well down there, so it made us feel like the office/storage space upstairs was wasted space since we spend all our time on the main floor & very little time in the office.  We thought about moving Livi to her own room.  But for now we're giving this a go.  This time we took out the TV & chair leaving more room just for toys & play.  Got some more storage bins, so hopefully it works!  So for now we're leaving the kids' beds all in the same room.

Cheap foam Target tree decorations

Not completely done with this wall.  There will be some of the kids' art work hanging under the word ART eventually.  And not sure what to all do with what's on the shelf?  For now its just some random clutter.

To display their artwork!

New bookshelf in their room.  Diaper boxes now holding puzzles & other misc. items.... will eventually become cuter storage.....

The only problem is by the time I get to their room in the morning....

As Hayden would say, "Itsa mess!"

So cute diaper box storage you say?  Been pinning the heck out of it on Pinterest.  Here was my first go at it.  I've seen it done with fabric too.  And I will try that as well.  But for this one I used contact paper.  Got a big ole' roll from Walmart for just a few bucks.

Cut off flaps.  Duct tape rough edges.  I duct taped the opening to use as a handle, but ended up covering it up.

From the flaps I cut off, I created an extra bottom piece for extra strength & to make it easier to make the bottom look pretty.

Duct tape & self adhesive contact paper

I did that bottom piece first, before I dove into the whole thing & noticed that the contact paper was just see-through enough that I could still see the Huggies Wipes labels.  So I put on a quick coat of primer before doing the box.  Next time I do it, I'll actually read one of the how-to's on Pinterest.  I totally just winged it

& I think my technique of cutting of the paper to wrap the box made it harder than it should have been. 

Not too bad though?!  Added some ribbon I already had with a glue gun.  A flower & "pull" both cut off of a gift bag I had stored away long ago.  And ta-da....

Basement bath! 
{This bathroom floor is SOOO on my to do list too by the way!}

And after all the toy room-office moving, we ended up with a cleaned out-ish corner in the kids' room, so we have an "extra" spot for more toys.  I'm thinking baby doll or other girly stuff??!!  We need some girly space.  So bring it on Christmas!!

And I cleaned out a drawer in preparation for what this next year will hopefully bring....

All that we have left of onesies.  Growing up too fast.

Another little project.  The kids have this clock in their room with spots to put pictures.  In 2 years, I've never done anything with it.  There it hung on their bedroom wall with the factory stock pictures.  The circles are pretty little, so I always wondered how well you could really fit a face in there.  Instead, I found this piece of scrapbook paper when I cleaned the new office space....

Cut some circles.... and Ta-da!

The boys "working" in the basement office/craft room while I cleaned & started organizing.

Logan watching "Rawr Choo-Choo!"  {Dinosaur Train}

Another Pinterest inspired craft...  Cereal box, duct tape, scrapbook paper & Mod Podge.....

Add a few magnetic clips......
...and viola!  Fridge storage bin for This & That!  I have plans for another smaller one. {One piece of advice: Pick patterns that are easier to match up than stripes & hide flaws a little easier.}  Its far from perfect, but it holds everything that was cluttering up the side of my fridge in a little prettier of a fashion.

Livi sat for a LONG time, like 45 minutes or more with my scraps from the cut up gift bags & did her "working."  She is such a little girl & I love, love, love it!!  We are going to shop & craft our little hearts out very soon Livi.  Just get a little older.

Can't wait til they are old enough for glue sticks & scissors.

We are perfecting the art of a HUG!  Mostly enforced after a time out that were the result of a hitting or pushing someone incident.  Something that is happening way too much for my liking.

Basement.  Office/family/craft room.  The kids have a table down there & some storage bins for future craft/coloring items.  Just a few colors & coloring books down there right now.  We'll have to wait & see what Santa fills their stockings with....

This is where I stopped.  I have some work to do here.  Or maybe just stick it in storage & forget about it for a while?  But I do have 3 empty storage totes that I think will end up in the toy room after Christmas.  {And just for something fun to think about... those 3 storage totes with the white tops, were the kids' bath tubs in the NICU & when they first came home!}

I've seen some things on Pinterest that I hope to do with those clear plactic bins on top of the computer armoire (as seen top right of picture) to make them just a tad less ugly.  Did I mention that I love Pinterest?



So what does all of this have to do with my New Years Resolution?? 

My resolution- GET ORGANIZED! 
{& find some places to save on our budget}

Some might feel that I AM organized.  In some fashions, yes.  Organized about the kids' stuff, keeping it all clean & straight.  But in terms of our actual house way, way, way less than I'd like to be.  A house just clutters up over time. PLUS I feel like over the past 2 years kids have taken over everything.  Which they have, & thats perfect.  I wouldn't change it for the world.  But we have packed up 1/2 of the things in our house as they took over more & more space in a gradual fashion.  And things just got shoved here & there to make room.  And I need to take it ALL out & put it ALL back in, but in a more organized fashion.  Life is crazy enough, I want to at least go home & feel like things have a place.  I'm hoping organizing my kitchen helps my grocery budget a little bit too.  {An always on-going goal in my life!}

I have plans for the kitchen & main bathroom mainly.  Those are the worst spaces.  But I'm hoping to do a little bit everywhere.  I think the kids' room & now the toy room are the only ones that I'm fairly content with.  I have seen something on Pinterest for the laundry room that I would LOVE LOVE for someone to built for me! 

I'm also hoping to dabble in making my own laundry soap & dishwasher detergent as I dig into each of these rooms.  I know some people who have done it & it seems to work great for them.  So I've been pinning a variety of "recipes" on Pinterest for that as well.  This should feed in well to my save some money resolution.  I spend a small fortune on laundry & dishes.  Honestly!

Thats what we've been doing....
Who else is thinking about New Year's Resolutions?  Whats yours?

The first 48....

They are all in.

I am WAY behind in posting... but Logan's last eye tooth is in.  Actually noticed it over Thanksgiving.  So.... all 48 of the first teeth are in. 

Bring on those 2 year molars!

They said it!

I think we are getting healthy around here.  We, as in the kids.  I've got a crappy cold now.

After never running a temp in the hospital, Livi spiked a fever Saturday morning & I thought we were in for it.  I talked to the clinic, gave her some tylenol, called in sick for a 4th shift & waited it out.  But it never got too high & its gone today, so I think we're in the clear.  Phew!  She's still got a cough on & off (so does Hayden, his is worse than hers) & runny noses all around, but otherwise doing great.

The kids are spouting out all sorts of new words surrounding this illness.  They all say "medicine."  Livi even says "breathing medicine."  I shit you not!!  It kills me to hear her say it.  Thats what we call her steroid inhaler.  They all want to have medicine for their "owies", so we have to pretend to give the boys puffs off the inhaler too.  And we filled up the her oral steroid syringe with water a bazillion times so the boys could have their "medicine" too.  Sillies.  They now like to "ear beep beep" {ear thermometer} & Livi is now ok if we "listen arm" {armpit thermometer} because "listen no owies."  (In the hospital we they listened to her with a stethoscope A LOT & we always said just listening, no owies.) 

We are in this phase where they repeat EVERYTHING.  I mean like sentences everything.  And the new words are just flying out.  I LOVE LOVE this stage.  The things they pick up on amazes me.  Like in the mornings, "Daddy bye-bye working" or at bedtime Livi asking "tuck in" or when squeezing the water out of a rubber ducky "duck peeing."  Ha!  Another fun thing is that they are finally starting to actually say the animal or other object names instead of just calling them by their sounds.  Like actually saying "cow" instead of just "moo."  And saying "train" or "choo-choo train" instead of just "choo-choo."  However one of the boys' new favorite shows is "Rawr Choo-Choo."  (If you don't know kids TV, there is this awesome show the Dinasour Train.) 

And for the season....so far they all say Christmas tree, snow, snowman, and Santa. We got Logan to say "HoHoHo" one night, but it hasn't stuck yet. We keep asking them if they want to go see Santa, & they answer "No way!" So our trip to the mall to sit on Santa's lap (which we will do at some point), I can't imagine it will go well ;)



Speaking of speaking.  I talked to the people with the preemie developmental follow-up program, TIPS.  Since the kids have been doing so well & we have no developmental concerns, we're just going to send in a questionaire rather than going in for a visit.  We talked a little about speech on the phone, discussed articulation.  Thats my only concern.  The fact that things like bubble & waffle are the same word for Logan.  And Daddy, Addie & cracker all sound exactly the same.  She said they don't worry about articulation at age 2.  As long as he is using the "word" consistently its fine.  She said if they are all putting 2 words together they are just where they should be.


And do you know what 2 little words they have finally started putting together this week???  Do ya, do ya?  Only the thing I have been waiting & waiting to hear....

"LOVE YOU!" 

The past few nights we get a "love you" back as we tuck them in.  Logan was following me around the house today saying something as I was cleaning.  When I finally stopped to listen, he was saying "love you, love you, love you...." trying to get my attention.  I melted!! 

I love you, love you, love you too & I've been having such a great few days catching up on our time together & making sure Livi is healthy enough for daycare before I go back to work. 

P.S.  In our at home time, I did a little cleaning & I've also got some projects going on.  I can't wait to share pictures.  And I'm getting a jump start on my "New Year's Resolution"..... more to follow!

Home.

I am still kind of surprised that they let us go home today, but I am glad!  So nice to have all 3 kiddos fast asleep under the same roof!  I'm ready to get to work catching up on multiple days of housework, bill paying, & life.  And maybe sleep too?

At 4am this morning, I was pretty sure we were in for a 4th night as Livi, deep asleep, Livi ended back up on just a tiny bit of oxygen.  1/2 L.  She was only on it for 2 hours.  And with her vitals at 8am she was satting 96% on room air.  Her lungs sound much better.  Her retractions are intermittent & minimal.  And her respiratory rate had been within normal range for more than 24 hours.  My body actually gave out & slept last night from around 1-8, on & off, on the awful couch/bed.  It was the first time Livi had slept in the crib for longer than 45 mins-1 hour the whole stay.  We had both slept in the most awful recliner I have ever known to exist the remainder of our sleeping hours.  Seriously awful recliner!  So that stretch of sleep was the first stretch of time that I wasn't completely involved in her cares, and the first time I had to actually ask how she had been & what they had done, etc.  Felt really strange not to just 'know.'  But it sounds like at 4am when she went back on the O2, her oxygen sats were hanging around 88-89 (she is supposed to stay above 90), but Dr. Harrison said in a deep sleep, he is not concerned about sats of 89 when clinically she appears so much better.  Better to get us home & back to a more normal healing environment. 

After breakfast, rounds & an assessment, Livi & I crashed on the recliner & napped from 9-12!  (after getting up at 8!)  Then after lunch, we did our education with the nurses & respiratory therapist, and headed home.  She is on oral steroids 2x a day for another 4 days.  Inhaled steroids 2x a day for at least the duration of the winter.  And we have albuterol to treat her as needed for wheezing or other signs of returned respiratory distress.  We will see Dr. Harrison to follow up next week.  And the pulmonologist mid-January, or earlier if she doesn't stay healthy between now & then.  They didn't "diagnose" her as having asthma, but we have an "asthma action plan" sheet we are supposed to share with her daycare & we now own 3 inhaler spacers!

Livi's room & the recliner where we slept for days...

 Coloring books.  And a magna-doodle were my saving grace!

Look how full that little belly is above!  I was pushing fluids to avoid an IV, but all she wanted to drink was milk.  Too much milk =  a constipated Livi.  She got a suppository that evening which freed up so much more room for her lungs to expand when that belly shrunk back down!  I'll take a suppository over an IV any day!

I didn't have my camera until the last night we were there.  So I really don't have pictures of our stay.  Just one from my cell phone from those first few hours.  Makes my heart hurt just to look at it.

She was such a sweet girl there.  Almost never cried.  Always wanted to hold my hand during assessments & treatments.  Something I think of a big kid doing!  She talk up a storm to me, but be silent as could be when anyone else was in the room.  She would wait until the doctor, nurse, etc. walked out the door then whisper "bye-bye".  She learned a bunch of new words & shapes while we were there.  She liked wearing her hospital gown, AKA "pish shirt" {there are fish on the gowns!}  She left the oxgyen on always!  She never ceases to amaze me. 

Livi & I had a few hours to get settled in at home before the boys came home from Lincoln.  They were at GGs, Jeff was in class.  We were curious how their reunion would go?  The boys both woke up "on the wrong side of the carseat" however, so it wasn't all as cheerful as we hoped.  Logan & Livi were pretty sweet once he woke up & calmed down.  Hayden was just in a bad mood alltogether this evening though.  I think this week has been really hard on the boys too.  They only saw me for about 1.5 hours in 72 hours.  Thats a big change.  Went to daycare without Livi.  Lots of babysitters coming & going.  Sleeping without Livi, waking without her.  We all just need a few days to hang at home & recover physically & mentally.  The boys have coughs too.  And Livi definately still does.  So I think they all have something viral, it just hit her really, really hard.  Hopefully they are all 100% soon. 

Logan was glad to see us once he woke up!

 Livi wanted to hug him.

 Then she chased him around saying "Go-gun kiss" (didn't know she could say kiss... she always just says "mwah")

 Her & her best furry friend missed eachother too!

We are so thankful for all your thoughts & prayers.  And for the babysitting, carepackages, gifts, meals, etc.  I can never say enough how truly blessed we are.  Blessed with amazing friends & family. 

We are home...

I will post more later.  Just wanted to say, me & Livi are officially home.  Waiting for daddy & the boys to get home from Lincoln.....