What All 3 Girls Getting Shots Looks Like...

So this morning I got up and took Cailin back to the hospital to get suctioned out. This normally takes maybe a half hour, but today took just shy of 2 hours. This delay forced me to rush home to pick up the other two girls so Cory could head off to work and we could get to Cailin's 2 week appointment (pushed back a week and a half since we were in the hospital when it normally would've been). While there, we discussed needed shots and pokes for all three girls (Breanne and Janey finishing up the swine flu shots, plus a regular flu shot for Breanne, Cailin a PKU poke). We got them taken care of, but afterwards there was excessive crying and sadness, which resulted in shakes with lunch, and movie watching post-lunch, which thankfully led to naps. For everyone. It was wonderfully quiet, something I haven't had since before we went to the hospital, I'm sure. Even the cat got in on the action.


So, instead of doing the dishes and picking up the house like I'd planned, I took a nap too.

And for the record, I hope I never have to get shots for all three kids at once again. I do not recommend it.

And the Doctor Said...

You can

go back

HOME!

So we did. And we are so happy to be back here, even though things seem more crazy this time than they did the first time we came home from the hospital... I think it's because the girls have been away for so long, and shifted around so many times... it's taking a little time to get back into the swing of things, but I'm glad we're at this point. :)

Where I've Been

In case you haven't heard already, Cailin's been in the hospital with RSV for the last week. All things considered, she's doing pretty well, we're just waiting for her to get off the last little bit of oxygen (they call it a "trace"), and to stop requiring her airways to be suctioned out, at least so often. Of course, we've been waiting for this for the last 4 days now, but every day things look a little better. We'll see when it actually happens, though. Maybe Weds?

Being at the hospital this long is a completely new experience for me--I've never had a chance to interact with other patients before during any of my stays. This time around, because I'm pumping every 3 hours in the "pump room" I've had a chance to talk with some of the moms of other patients, and hear their stories. I've also had the same nurses and respiratory therapists a couple of times in a row, so I've gotten to hear their stories, too. I've come to realize that this place (the pediatric floor), while definitely a wonderful place with many happy endings, is also a place of much heartbreak and difficulty. There's the girl whose baby is 3 days younger than Cailin, who's already been released once, and is back in the hospital. There's the baby who had RSV to start, then somehow ended up with a blood infection. There's the baby they think has meningitis. But then there were the 3 other patients my nurse had yesterday, who were all released with (all things considered) healthy babies. There's my nurse herself, who had a baby at 19, then found out a year later that she had endometriosis, and had a hysterectomy at the ripe old age of 24. She refused to work pediatrics for a long time, and finally just recently has found the strength to be here, and has really grown to love helping others babies, and is considering doing that full time instead of rotating. There's the respiratory therapist we saw on the first night, who has a 15 year old daughter, and just found out a few weeks ago that she is finally expecting a second child, after years of trying, which ended with going to the doctor to tell them she wanted a permanent solution, only to find out she was pregnant.

When I asked one of the nightly respiratory therapists why they chose to suck out baby snot for a living, he just told me that even though it didn't seem like a very ideal job (can you imagine choosing a job that makes babies scream and cry all night?), it was a way to make an immediate positive impact in a child's life, and that made it all worth it. All I know is that I am SO grateful that despite whatever reservations our nurses and techs and therapists and doctors may have had about their jobs, they chose to do it anyway. My baby is here and thriving this week because they've chosen to do a job that while not ideal, and often so difficult, can make a big difference. I am forever thankful.

Now if we could just get out of this place... we're tired of being here.


and we really miss these three:

Before and After

Remember this?:


Well, now it looks more like this:


I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we are blessed to be able to have children, but very grateful to be on to the next step. :)

New Sisters

"I want to hold her, I want to hold her!"

"Ooh, she's so cute!"

"Ok, dad, I'm done."

"What is this?"

The girls have actually been really great with their new sister--Breanne tells people how cute she is all the time, which cracks me up. She's also pretty willing to help me by getting diapers, wipes, or burp cloths, and she doesn't complain too much about Cailin's crying. Janey, on the other hand, wants to be the super-helper--she is constantly bringing me blankets, outfits, and pacifiers, insisting that we use them immediately, and she's convinced that the burp cloths are blankets, which she likes to (sometimes rather forcefully) pat down on and around the baby. She genuinely means well, but she just doesn't quite know how to be soft with the baby. We're working on it, though. I'm just glad the girls both love their sister, even if they don't quite know how to show it yet.

Meet Cailin

Sorry this is so late, but I've been a little... busy? tired? overwhelmed? distracted? Perhaps all of the above? Regardless, I am very excited to introduce you to our sweet little baby, Cailin Danielle. She was born last Sunday, January 31st, at 2:37 am. She has been a wonderful baby, sleeping a lot (though not as much at night, unfortunately... :)), and rarely getting very upset. She's also been a pretty great eater, which is nice. Since she came 2 1/2 weeks early, she's been fighting off some jaundice, but her bili levels are finally dropping enough that we don't have to go back for any more level tests, which is wonderful. All in all, we just love our sweet baby Cailin.






And if you're wondering, her hair is debatably red--somewhere in-between Breanne's color and Janey's, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it lighten up to be more like Breanne's (hence the super light eyebrows). We'll see.


On her name--we were fairly certain when we went into the hospital that we'd name the baby Natalie Paige, but then when we met her, and I started trying to call her that, it just didn't fit her. We'd talked about the name Cailin for each of our other girls, but it never was at the top of our list for either of them. When this baby started crying, though, it was all I could do to stop myself from calling her Cailin. After discussing it for two days, about 1/2 hour before we left the hospital, we decided to make it official, and turned in her birth certificate paperwork with Cailin Danielle on it. And no regrets there--it fits her perfectly. If you're wondering about where we got the name--the first time I'd ever heard it was from this song, though Cory knew a few Cailins growing up. I'm not usually a proponent of naming a child after a song, but in this case, I'm ok with it.