Who's Who!

Okay, so we were finally able to get all the kiddos together on Tuesday! Can you tell who is who?

Okay, I'll help you out!
In the picture above and below from left to right we have Hannah, Jonathan, and Hayden.

It looks like Hannah and Hayden are already telling secrets!

So after seeing them all together we decided that Jonathan looks nothing like the girls, and that Hannah will probably look a lot like her sister Hayden once she catches up to her in weight.

Week 2!

It's hard to believe that the babies are already two weeks old, and that I have been pretty much away from home that whole time. After having the babies and staying in the Mother Baby Unit for four days I was released from the hospitals care. We then decided that it would probably be best if I moved into the Ronald McDonald House just three blocks away from the hospital. That way I could be close to the babies and wouldn't have to worry about how I was going to get to Iowa City every day to see them. But then this Monday an opening came available at the Helen K. Rossi Guest House right here in the hospital. So now I am staying here for the time being.

I've had a lot of mommy guilt the last month. First it was because I hated being home and not being able to take care of Liv. Now, it's because I feel torn between being here with the babies and being at home with Olivia. I know that being down here is what is best for our family, and that even if I was home I still couldn't care for Olivia like I would want to. I also wouldn't be able to see the babies as much as I would feel that I needed to because I still can't drive and I would have to depend on someone else bringing me here everyday. Adam has to remind me from time to time that I am doing the right thing. I just wish I could do it all.

Speaking of Adam, he has been wonderful this whole time. He has come down after work all but one day to see us. Sometimes even bringing Liv too. I honestly don't think that he has been home for more then 24 hours in the last two weeks. (Not including sleeping time and weekends of course.) We decided that during the babies stay in the NICU he should still go to work, because it is when the babies come home that I am going to need him the most. At least until we all get settled in...I wonder if John would give him a paid leave of absence for the first year?!

Liv has been down a few times to see the babies. She already knows the routine when you have to go in the NICU...wash your hands, check in at the desk. She even remembers what room they are in! But once she has checked on each of them she is pretty much done and wants to run the halls and make all sorts of loud noises. Not exactly what you want your child to do in a place that it suppose to be a quiet, healing place for premature or sick babies! Today, the babies had a present for her when she got there so that entertained her for a few minutes and then we decided we would go see mommy's new room. I still haven't determined whether or not she has figured out what is going on, but she doesn't seem to mind my absence and is having a lot of fun playing with her cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas. I think once we all get home she will be a bit jealous at first but then try to be mommy's little helper, or at least that is what I am hoping for. Either way, it should be interesting to say the least!

Now, on to the babies! I know that is what you have all been waiting for!

Hannah in the last week has gone from 3lbs 2.7oz to 3lbs 7.1oz. So she has been slowly gaining some weight. They also increased her feeds from 16cc's every four hours to 36cc's every four. So far she has tolerated that very well. Other big things that happened this last week was her umbilical cord fell, she went back under the lights for some photo therapy, and she got rid of her PICC line. So now besides being hooked up to monitors that watch her heart rate, respiratory rate, and oxygen levels all she has in is a feeding tube that runs down her nose. Another BIG thing that Hannah has caught on to is nursing! I was so proud of her. They say it can take a long time for preemies to catch on but she figured it out the very first time, which was on Sunday.

Hayden. She has gone from 3lbs 2oz to 3lbs 9.9oz, so she too has gained some weight this last week. They also increased her feeds from 9cc's every three hours to 36cc's every four and seems to be doing well with those. Some big things that happened this last week in her life was that she too had to go back under the lights and they took out her PICC line as well! Hayden has also been working on nursing and is just now starting to catch on, nursing for a few minutes at a time. She is really starting to do so well. She hasn't had any spells since the 14th and has caught up to her sister again with the amount of her feeds.

Jonathan has made a BIG jump this last week. He went from his isolette to a bassinet. He will get put into a crib as soon as one is available, and if he can keep control of his temperature. They still have his isolette in the room just in case he needs it. Weight wise, he is now 4lbs 13.5oz! He also went from getting fed 24cc's every three hours to now getting 44cc's every three hours. Jonathan, like his sisters got his PICC line taken out as well. And like Hannah, his umbilical cord has fallen off too. When it comes to nursing though he hasn't shown too much interest yet. He will latch on, but he hasn't quite got the rest of it figured out.

Olivia Goes to Aunt Crystal's

My sister Crystal generously offered to have Olivia come and stay with them this week. It was very hard for me to let her go, but since I need help caring for her anyways right now, and I knew that she would probably have lots of fun, I thought I would take her up on her offer.

As you can see she seems to be having a great time playing with her cousins!

Olivia and Jaxen (or as Liv says, "Jaxy") holding Ella (or as Jaxen says, "Eller")

Stacking blocks TOGETHER!

Jaxen giving Liv a little ride on his bike.

Ahhh....Hugs!

So it looks like and sounds like they are all having a great time and playing very good together.

Olivia is 19 months old
Jaxen is 2 years 4 months old
Ella is 5 months on the 13th

A Look Back At Their First Week!

Wow, what a week! I guess I should start by thanking everyone who thought about us and prayed for us over the last 7 months, because God couldn't have blessed us with anything better then He did. First we were blessed with Olivia, and now He has blessed us again times three! We are so thankful but continue to pray for them because we know that this is only the beginning. They are all doing so well right now, but we know that it is still early and they have a long ways to go.

The babies are still in Iowa City and will remain there until they are doing well enough that they can go home. The good news is that they have all graduated into NICU Bay 3 and share one big long room. The originally started of in NICU Bay 1 and each had their own separate rooms. That made for a lot of running back and forth.

I have posted a blog about each one's first week of life below. Sorry it has taken so long but I swear I have been working on it the last three days!

We are learning a lot of new terminology so if you have any questions just post a comment and I will try to answer it.

Thanks again for all of your love and support!

Hannah Alexis Sadler

Where do I even start with Hannah! All throughout the pregnancy Hannah has always been the one we worried about. She was the little one. And now she is doing about the best out of all of them!

In Hannah's first week of life she has gone from 3lbs 2.2oz down to 2lbs 15oz, and then back up to 3lbs 2.7oz! She started her feedings of breast milk at 4cc's every 6 hours and by the end of her first week she was getting 16cc's (that is about a half an ounce) every 4 hours. When it comes to breathing Hannah has gone from having a tube run down her nose, to having a nasal cannula, to finally being able to breath good old room air. She has also been on and off photo therapy twice for jaundice. But overall Hannah is doing remarkably well.

I know that in the pictures they look so big, but when you compare the size of Hannah's foot to my thumb you can see how really small they are. (And I have long fingers!)

Here is Hannah just about 1 day old.
She always looks so relaxed.

Hannah, 5 days old.

In this picture she has her little eye mask on to keep the bright light out from the lamps that they use to help with the jaundice. (One of the nurses drew some cute eyelashes on them.)

Hannah, 1 week old.

They took the lamps off her today!

Now we can see her sweet little face. She loves to sleep with her arms up by her head.

Hayden Sophia Sadler

Hayden. Sweet little Hayden.

In Hayden's first week of life she went from 3lbs 6.5oz down to 3lbs 1.4oz, and then back up to 3lbs 2oz. They started her feedings at 4cc's every 6 hours and then by then of her first week she was up to 9cc's every 3 hours. Hayden was having some problems digesting her food so it has taken her a little longer to move up on the amounts. When it comes to breathing Hayden also had a breathing tube at first then moved to a nasal cannula, and then now is on room air. Like her sister she has been on photo therapy a few times now too. Overall, Hayden is very strong and I'm sure it won't take long for her to catch up to her brother and sister.

Hayden almost 1 day old.

Hayden, 2 days old.
Basking under the lights for some photo therapy to help with the jaundice.

Hayden, 5 days old.
Just got off the photo therapy. It is a little bright out after having that eye mask on for so long.

Hayden, 1 week old. Snug as a bug! Isn't she so cute!

Jonathan Austin Sadler

Jonathan. While being prego with Jonathan we never had to worry about him. He didn't have to share any of his food, he always measured bigger then the girls, and he always passed his tests first.

In week one Jonathan has gone from 4lbs 9.5oz down to 4lbs 2.6oz, and then back up to 4lbs 5.7oz. The started his feedings at 5cc's of breast milk every 6 hours and at the end of the week he was at 24cc's every 3 hours. When it comes to breathing Jonathan has also gone from having a tube down his nose, to having a nasal cannula, to breathing room air. But then because he was having some "spells" they put him back on the nasal cannula, but by the end of the week they decided he was doing well enough to discontinue that and go back to just breathing normal room air. Sometimes Jonathan decides not to breath and when he does that they call it a spell. Most of the time he comes out of it on his own but every once in a while they have to give him a little tap to remind him. I have to say that his "spells" are pretty scary and it is very hard to watch and wait to see if he comes out of it on his own. Even though Jonathan is the biggest he has really given us the most scares. He is having fewer and fewer each day though, so that is good.

Jonathan, almost 1 day old.
I already think that he looks just like his dad.

Jonathan, 3 days old. All snuggled up.

Jonathan, 5 days old. He looks pretty comfortable.

Jonathan, 1 week old. Loving Life.

Details on the BIG DAY!

Tuesday evening I wasn't feeling quite right and seemed to be having a few more contractions then normal. Adam was suppose to play basketball that night but I told him that maybe he might want to stay home, just in case. Well, I changed my mind and told him to go ahead and go and I would just take it easy. After he left I called my sister, Paula, who is a nurse for an OB/GYN to get her opinion. She asked me all the normal questions, "how far apart are your contractions, how many have you had in an hour?" But of course I didn't know any of the answers to those questions because I was in the wonderful river of denial! Thinking that if I didn't keep track then I wasn't really probably having that many contractions. She thought that I should go in to be on the safe side and so I made a deal with her. I would keep track of how many and how far apart my contractions were while Adam was gone if and depending on how that went I would go in. Needless to say by the time Adam got home it had been about an hour and I had had 11 contractions ranging anywhere between 8 minutes and 4 minutes apart. So I kept my end of the deal and called in to the hospital and they had told me what Paula said, "Come in!"

By the time Adam's mom got to our house to stay with Olivia it was already a little after 11:00pm. When we finally got to the hospital around 11:45pm and checked into Labor & Delivery I was still contracting and my cervix had dilated to 5 cm! So they moved some people around and by 12:45 they were wheeling me back to Operating Room 2 and prepping me for surgery! Adam and I were shocked! We couldn't believe that this was it, this was really happening, and it was happening NOW! We were both thinking that we would come in and maybe after a few hours they would bring us back, but that was obviously not the case!

(Here we are about to go back to the operating room!)

Once they got me back to the OR they immediately started the spinal block, so that I wouldn't feel anything during the surgery. But as soon as that started to kick in I started not to feel so well. My blood pressure really dropped and I thought I was going to die! They gave me something else to help but in the meantime they hadn't brought Adam in yet and Hannah's heart rate dropped into the 70's. It wasn't probably a minute later when my BP was back up and they started the c-section. When they announced that they were cutting into my uterus I was asking were Adam was. They said he was on his way, and right as the nurse was bringing him in they were pulling out Hannah! He just about didn't get there in time. I think things were progressing faster then we all had anticipated due to the sudden drop in my BP, leading to Hannah's drop in her heart rate. But all was well and on March 4th at 1:06am Hannah was poked from her waters! Then very soon after Hayden was born at 1:07am, and not even a minute later Jonathan was born! I couldn't see them but I could hear them crying. And what a wonderful feeling that was to hear their tiny little voices! Then as they they stitching me up they wheeled them over one at a time so that I could see them before they took them back to the NICU. They were so beautiful and I wanted to hold them so bad! It felt like I was dreaming! The doctors all commented on how well they looked and how healthy they seemed. Here are some pictures of them while they are still in the operating room getting all cleaned up and checked out!

(One of our little girls!)

(Jonathan)

(Another girl!)

Adam got to go back to the NICU with them while they finished their work on me. It was a little after 2:00am once they finished their work on me and I was back in the recovery room. Then at about 4:30am my legs were just awake enough for them to let me see the babies before they would wheel me to the Mother Baby Unit.

So that was our early morning on March 4th. What a blessed day!