Brunton comes home!!!

Brunton came home from the hospital on Saturday August 21! We are so glad that he is finally home. I know that 5 days in the NICU is not very long, (trust me the nurse let me know that, and that I am not the only parent who wants to take their baby home. She was not my favorite.) Luckily the doctors sided with me and agreed to let me take him home with the feeding tube! I can not even tell you what a relief it is to bring him home. The NICU is a nice place but they have their own idea of how things should work and you have to follow their rules. I am so glad that he is home and guess what we never had to feed him with that stupid tube and I pulled it out the very next day! Here he is in his carseat on the ride home. I think he was glad to leave also.

Brunton Update

Yesterday was a busy day so I did not have time to update. I was discharged from the hospital by 9 am which was nice because we were able to drop our stuff off at home before heading back to the hospital for Brunton's care time at 10. The doctors had just finished rounding so we were able to talk to them about the plan. (I know I am obsessed with planning!!) They decided to let him eat as much as he wanted by mouth and then if he didn't get enough they would put a feeding tube in him. We were excited to see that he was no longer on oxygen, and the lovely bili lights were gone. No more tanning for Brunton. I know that this picture isn't the greatest but I just thought he looked so cute and peaceful sleeping.

Well Brunton did good through all day yesterday and through the night. He took up to 35ml on his feeds which was amazing since yesterday in the morning he was only drinking maybe 10ml.
And then when I went in today he took 45mls which is what the nure practioners said his goal is. So we are praying that he will continue to eat this much so they will take him off the TPN and Lipids and remove that stupid umbilical IV line. They discussed placing a feeding tube also but hopefully he will be able to just eat all that he needs to. They did another ECHO this morning but the cardiologist had not read it yet. The NP said that he does not have an AV canal, but he does have the ASD and VSD. She does not feel like they will have to do surgery on him, at least not yet because it is not really effecting him. So basically we are just praying that he doesn't poop out but keeps eating all of his food so that he can come home!!! Here are some pictures I took this morning. He was awake but he very rarely opens his eyes!



Isn't he just so fat! I love his chubby cheeks.

Oh and remember this cute little boy! I can not even begin to say how much I have missed him these past few days. Yesterday he just wanted to "Snuggie" with his mom and dad and believe me we took advantage of that. Very rarely does he sit still for very long! I am not sure how he feels about his little brother. I am sure they will be close, but at this point he tells us that he wants us to put "Brunti" back in his bed!! He hates when we hold him and I think it will be a shock when we bring Brunton home.

Brunton- Nicu day 2

The past couple days have been hard on us, we have had a roller coaster ride of emotions. When Brunton was born we knew that there was something wrong with him and that was soon confirmed by the Doctor. Brunton has Down Syndrome. They haven't got the official genetic test results back yet but he has all the classic symptoms. I have been through every emotions in the last 2 days. From being mad at the world for not giving me a "normal" baby to scared that I am not going to be able to give him what he needs. We are slowly getting over the shock and are gratful to get the opportunity to raise such a special baby. He is such a good baby and I know that we are going to learn so much from him. I do have some lingering fears though. I don't want him to ever feel like he is stupid, or that he doesn't belong. Even though the idiot doctor said that he would have a low IQ, I want him to be treated like any other child. I also don't want him to be known as the downs baby. He is Brunton James Doxey, and he will have his own personality,and special talents! Any way here are some pictures of our cute new addition...

2 days old. His poor face is all scratched up from his killer fingernails. I can't wait to take him home and cut those things!!

Here is Brunton tanning in his incubator. Isn't he a stud in these sunglasses!

Grandma Hansen holding him for the first time.

And last but not least Coleman "Tickling" his brother. I am sure that they are going to grow up and be best friends!!

* Here is an update on Brunton's status: He is in the NICU due to oxygen needs and so that he will not get dehydrated. He is on a half liter of oxygen to keep his sats in the mid 90's. He has at least 2 heart defects ( ASD and VSD) which may be the reason he has the need for the oxygen. We will know more about the defects when they do another echo on Thursday. He is finally taking a little from a bottle. He gets 5 ml every 3 hours. He is doing great with this, he sucks it down in no time at all. They plan on slowly increasing the amount as he tolerates it. They are also giving him nutrition through an umbilical IV line. All in all he looks pretty good and hopefully he will be able to take him home in 3 weeks!!

Brunton James Doxey

I thought that I would write down the events of Brunton's birth while it is still fresh in my mind. On Sunday night my contractions started to increase in intensity and frequency, so at midnight we called my mom to come over and watch Cole. When we arrived at the hospital they checked me and said that I was still only a 3 and 75% effaced. (I think that it is a good thing that you forget how painful labor is because if not I would have never done it again.) Because I was not progressing they decided to send me home. So the nurse gave me some morphine and luckily the she checked me one more time before sending me on my way. I was 100% effaced and dialated to a 4. I was so glad because this ment that they would keep me!! They got me moved into a birthing room and gave me my new best friend.. THE EPIDURAL!! Can I tell you how much I love that thing. About an hour after moving me the nurse checked me again and I was dialated to a 10 and he was ready. At this point his heart rate plumited to the 50's and the nurses start to panic. They placed a scalp lead on him so they could see if the heart rate reading was accurate. That is when the Dr came in and they decided they needed to deliver him right then. It all went pretty quick I only pushed 5 times and there he was my perfect little boy. They rushed him to the incubator to suck the mucous out and ensure that he was okay. Brunton weighs 7 pounds even and is 19 1/2 inches long. I just remember looking at those chubby cheeks and thinking that he was so cute.

A Plan, Why bother!!

Well today I have decided to use my blog to vent, so if you don't want to hear my rantings and ravings I recommend you leave now! Here it goes.. I have always been a planner, I plan everything writing list after list of what needs to be done and then checking it off as I go. After I got married I even planned what I wanted for the rest of my life.. Buy a house, get a dog, have a baby, quit my job and raise a family,ect. Well the first of my plan worked wonderfully we bought our house just months after we were married and got a puppy a few months after that. Thats pretty much where the plan went downhill. It took us over a year and a half to get pregnant with Coleman and then he tested us by coming 6 weeks early. I remember how excited I was to be a mom and I again planned everything, I remember being so excited to welcome him to the world, and show him off to our family and friends, to have him handed to me right after delivery and have that amazing bonding moment. Unfortunatley he needed extra medical attention and was rushed out of the delivery room before I even saw him. I remember laying in my hospital room listening to the new babies cry, the families chatting, and all the joy that comes from a new life and thinking to myself how empty I felt. (I was not allowed to hold Cole until he was 3 days old, and even touching him was frowned upon). I remember being so heartbroken after I was discharged and I had to leave him behind. This was not at all what I had planned! Well Cole cme home 16 days after he was born and it was the happiest day of my life (it was actually 2years ago today 7/11/2008). So why am I rehashing all of this you ask. Well because yet again we are facing a trip to the NICU! This pregnancy I have tried to be better thinking that I went into preterm labor because I was doing too much, but it did not help. I am now 32 weeks pregnant and have been instructed to be on bed rest!! When I went into the Dr. on Wed, he said that I had 2 cm left on my cervix (from what I have gathered I think I am 50% effaced?). As soon as he saw this he sent me straight to Mckay Dee to get a steroid shot to develop the baby's lungs. At the hospital they hooked me up to a monitor and found that my contractions were every 1-2 min. So they ended up giving me another shot to stop the contractions. (I have been a pin cushion this pregnancy, with the pregesterone shots that I have given myself once a week for the past 14 weeks, the rhogam shot and now the steroid and the shot for the contractions!!!) The shot stopped the contractions and I was sent home on bed rest (bed rest with a 2 year old--are you kidding me). So that is where we sit, not knowing what the future holds for our new little man. Will he fair as well as Coleman and spend a very short time in the NICU or will he come with complications? Working where I work does not give me comfort, instead it causes me to think of all the things that can go wrong. And I worry a lot these days because I am not a fan of the unknown I like to have a PLAN!! But I guess if you look at it the plan is that I lay here for the next 4 weeks and hope that the baby stays put!!

UPDATE

So what have we been up to for the last 7 months? Well we have been really busy with work and other boring stuff, but don't worry we found some time to do some fun things.

In Febuary we took our anual trip with the Hansen family to Bear lake. We had a great time playing in the condo, swimming, sledding and snowmobiling. Coleman was not so fond of the tubing but he did sit still long enough to take this picture with Grandma H.

He did however enjoy sitting on the snowmobile with his cousin Nixon.

We also took the opportunity while the whole family was together to announce that we are expecting another little boy. We are really excited about this new addition and think that 2 boys will be a lot of fun. Coleman is also excited and enjoys going to the ultrasounds and seeing his brother, although I am not sure that he knows exactly what is coming!!

Easter was a lot of fun this year. We took Cole to the Pleasant View Park easter egg hunt and by the end he caught on to the concept of getting the candy. He also enjoyed the goodies he found in his easter basket.

In April we went to Idaho Falls for the fly tying convention. While "T" spent the day at the convention we went to the Zoo. I think that this zoo is so much better than the Hogle Zoo and Coleman had a great time. He loves to look at the different animals and he got really excited to see them.

He also had a lot of fun because he got to play with his cousins!! Our hotel had a great view of the Temple and there was a walkway that you can go and watch the ducks and the geese. This was also one of the highlights of the trip for Coleman!! He kept chatting about all of the fun animals he got to see!

And then in May we went to Island Park. We got to stay at the Doxey cabin. "T" had fun fishing and Coleman and I enjoyed relaxing at the cabin. Unfortunatley the weather was not very cooperative. It rained everyday except for the day that we went into Yellowstone. Coleman was in heaven because while "T" was looking for animals in his spotting scope we let him pretend to drive the car. (Don't worry we didn't leave him unattended this time, we learned our lesson after paying 100.00 to get him out last trip!)

Coleman had a good time fishing with his dad. He would get really excited when he caught a fish

But the real highlight of the trip was that he could collect rocks! I find more rocks around my house then I can even count. I guess at least its not bugs!

All in all we have had a lot of fun the past few months and we look forward to the new adventures that are to come! I can not believe how fast my little guy is growing up. He is such a joy in my life everyday I look forward to spending time with him. He comes up with the funniest things and he is always keeping me on my toes! I think that being a mom is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I look forward to watching my next little guy develope a personality and learn and grow. I am sure that Coleman and him will be the best of friends.

Adventures

Well now that December is almost over I guess I will update on what we have been busy doing this month. After Thanksgiving we were lucky enough to get a few days off and we went to Island park. This is always an adventure with Coleman because about the last hour of the drive he screams!! Well that wasn't the only adventure that we had this time though, we were able to go sledding, play in the snow, and we even picked out a christmas tree.

This picture was taken just before our biggest and most expensive adventure of the trip! Doesn't he just look so cute and innocent. Well he is not!

While we were getting ready to go pick out a tree "T" put Coleman inside the truck to pretend to drive ( This is absolutely Coleman's favorite thing to do.) Well while we were all distracted the truck door got shut and Coleman used the key alarm to lock the door!! At first he thought that it was fun all of us knocking on the window trying to get him to unlock the door, but then he got tired of all his snow gear and started to fuss.

We ended up having to call a locksmith to come and get him out. That was not cheap by the way, the guy was there for less than 5 minutes and charged us 100.00! Oh well I guess Cole is worth the money. So in the end Coleman was locked in the truck for about 45 minutes, and when we got him out we wasn;t even phased by the whole event!



On December 16th (this date is significant for T and I because 5 years ago on December 16 we went to temple square on our very first date!!). We decided to go on an adventure to celebrate and we rode frontrunner to Salt Lake to see the lights at Temple Square. Well it turned out to be quite the adventure since it takes almost 2 hours one way and Coleman was done with the train 5 minutes after we left.

We had a great time lookin at the lights, and "T" even took me to Denny's for dinner after. (That is where we ate 5 years ago.) Unfortunatley the night had to end and we had to get back on frontrunner to get home. Coleman screamed the entire way!! This is him not even 5 minutes after we got in the truck! At least the people on the train were nice. One of the workers on the train tried to play with him and even gave him a granola bar to calm him down. If you look close you can see the granola bar still in his hand. He was one tired boy!