Addison's first 3.5 weeks (Easter, Adam Birthday, Addy in the hospital)

And I continue to be tested……

So every time I go to finish my blog, something seems to come up delaying me from getting this posted. (This blog update is pieced together from a lot of different entries).

Here’s the update before Addy was in the hospital.

Finally a little time to sit and catch up on what life has been like the past couple 3 weeks. The past weeks have been simply amazing! I know it sounds crazy when you think of having a newborn, a toddler, a husband who technically doesn’t have a job, and having something planned almost every week, but seriously I couldn’t feel more blessed every morning I wake up and look at my life. It is simply amazing and a true blessing!

So lately rather than taking the time to write about life, I’ve been busy cuddling with my kids, enjoying watching the Tike oooowww and aaawww over his sister, helping Adam with is workouts, weekly trips to the library and store, enjoying my growing family, snapping pictures like crazy and occasionally taking a much needed nap while the kids nap!

I still can’t believe Addison is home with us after only 4 days in the NICU and I truly can’t stop thanking God for our answered prayers! Her heart is truly special and she holds a very, very special place in many people’s hearts’.

Our life in a nutshell since our little sweetie came home.

On Thursday April 21^st, we got to bring our sweet baby girl home! April 21^st also marked Jacob turning 21 months! Overall just an amazing, truly blessed day for the whole Carriker family! Addison passed her hearing test and car seat test early Thursday morning and once Adam arrived, we loaded up everything and said “Good Bye” to NICU! It was an amazing feeling walking through the NICU hallway to the elevators with our healthy baby girl in hand! On our way home from the hospital we stopped at Babies R Us to buy a couple “Pink” things! The rest of the day was full of cuddles and enjoying our daughter “line” free!

Friday we took Addison to dr just for a check up since the doctors at the hospital thought it would be a good idea. She weighed 5lb 6 oz! Addison is going about 3.5 hours at night and 3 hours during the day. Big brother came back from being at Grandma & Papa McBrides.

We celebrated Easter weekend with the McBrides. Addison got to meet Jenna, Olivia, Jeff, Angie, and Phil. It was a fun filled weekend with lots of laughter and of course eggs! Jr and Jenna did a couple Easter egg hunts. Jr had a blast finding the eggs and putting them into his bucket. The very first hunt he went to it was snowing! By the second one though the sun was shining! The kids got their picture with the bunny. Jr isn’t quite sure what to think of the bunny and opted for Daddy to hold him while we snapped a couple pics! Addison did great all weekend long and really adjust well to whatever environment she is in. Jenna loved holding Addison and playing with Jr the whole weekend.

I have to say the best part of the whole weekend was that I knew Addison’s first church service ever was going to be Easter service! How perfect! Easter morning came and went with the blink of an eye. Some how we managed to make it to church by 8:45 with two kiddos (our first morning on our own with both kiddos)! Adam helped me get to church and then headed to the dr, since he was still feeling sick. Jr had a blast in childcare and Addison did great with me during the whole service. Adam later found out that he had the rota stomach virus. It royally took him 5 days before he started to feel a slightly better. Gina and Mark invited us over for Easter supper with some of Mark’s family. Aleah was excited to meet Addison or as she called her “Madison.” Aleah was probably most excited when she got to hold Addison. Gina and Mark then announced to everybody that they’re expecting in December! Gina had told us when she came to visit Addison in the hospital, but wanted us to keep quiet because they thought it would be neat to tell their parents on Easter. We’re so excited for them and can’t wait to have 4 kids within 3 years of each other running around in a couple years. Easter was a true blessing of the miracle of life in our house this year and it felt wonderful to take our Easter family picture in our home!

Since Easter we’ve been busy almost every day, but we’re truly enjoying every moment of our new family!

Addison is growing by the minute and well so is the Tike.

Addison just over 3 weeks……

-has the wildest hair! Daddy calls her “Crazy Top!” Mommy attempts to comb it down, but the instant it dries it becomes a fro!

-loves to cuddle!

-Spoiled Mommy on Mother’s Day!

-Takes about 3-4 oz of milk at each feeding.

-eats every 3 hours during the day and 4.5 to 5 at night.

-loves to have her hair washed. I definitely see some spa days in the future.

-moved her head from side to side when she was 10 days old.

-got her picture taken by Kathy when she was 12 days old.

-is absolutely loved by her brother and of course everybody that meets her.

-Jr insist on giving her lots of hugs, kisses, knuckles, and five all the time. Jr will run over and say, “Kiss, kiss.” This is followed by a big kiss on her head and then off he goes. Five minutes later, he is back and ready to do knuckles and five. He doesn’t get why she always keeps her hand in a fist, so he after he does knuckles with her, he’ll try to pull her hand apart so they can do 5! It’s hilarious to watch! Jr also loves to sit and hold his sister. He’ll climb up on the couch and put the boppy around him and say, “Hold.” He likes to hold her for about 30 seconds and then he’s done. Jr likes to act like a big kid and doesn’t like to have anyone touching her when he’s holding her.

-naps in her pack ‘n play at least once a day.

-has been in her room since day 3 of being home (would have been day 1, but we had company staying in her room).

-goes and does about anything and everything.

-almost every morning is on the go. Whether it’s helping Daddy workout, going to the library for story time, going to big brother’s gymnastic class, with Mommy to the store, she’s learned to take excellent naps in her car seat.

-went on her first trip when she was 18 days old.

-celebrated Daddy’s birthday up in Estes Park with Mommy. Daddy and Addison’s birthdays are exactly 18 days apart. She did great the whole trip.

-met Great Uncle Bill & Aunt Nancy. Addison loved snuggling with Aunt Nancy.

-took a bottle for the first time at 2.5 weeks.

The Tike @ 21 months:

-became a big brother!

-spent some time with Grandma & Grandpa Carriker when they came to visit.

-enjoyed talking and kiss the baby when she was in Mommy’s belly.

-loves playing and acting wild with his cousin Aleah.

-pulled toilet paper out from the bathroom into the living room. Mommy, Daddy, and of course Jr couldn’t stop laughing!

-loves to play on his riding toy cars.

-is becoming an excellent counter. Can count 1-10 really well and has started working on 11-20.

-loves to sing the ABC’s. Is especially good at saying O, R, S, T, W, X, Y, and Z.

-knows most of his words in his Baby Can Read!

-wears mostly 3T clothes.

-still loves to play with balls, trucks, and wheels!

-loves going on our daily family walks.

-got to spend some time at the farm playing with Jenna, while Mommy and Addison were in the hospital.

-loves to play with “Papa” (Grandpa McBride)!

-Jr loves playing with his singing ballons.

-is total boy and loves playing with his tool set.

Addison in the hospital….

I would never have guessed that I’d be back sitting in a hospital room updating my blog, but here I am typing away. I was in the process of updating the blog about our life over the past 3 weeks this past week, when we took an unexpected trip to the peds office, quickly followed by a trip to the ER and so began another stay at the hospital for little Ms. Addison.

So Wednesday was like any typical day for us, Adam was gone all morning and the kiddos seemed to be doing good at home (finally a lazy morning around the house). When I put Addison down for her nap in the morning, she would be okay for about 30 min and then start to whimper a little. Jr and I would go check on her; I’d cuddle with her a little and within seconds she would be sound asleep. This went on all throughout her first nap. This is way out of character of her norm. Her feeding at 11 equaled disaster all around. The poor girl couldn’t breathe, which made it almost impossible to nurse or take a bottle. She somehow managed to take enough to satisfy her needs. The same thing that happened during her first nap happened at her afternoon nap. Adam and I took turns snuggling with her and somehow got her to sleep 30 min or so by herself. She got up early from her nap and clearly just didn’t feel well. We decided to call the dr to get both kids in and make sure everything was okay. In a matter of hours poor Addison went from okay, a little worse, bad, to scary bad. At the peds office Addy looked terrible; she was a grey color and honestly looked like a dead person in a casket. After a quick weigh and temp of both kids, they took her oxygen level and when I saw the number bouncing around in the 80s, I knew we were in trouble. The dr walked in right away and told us we needed to head to the ER right away and he would call them to say we were on our way. Out the door we went and across the street to the hospital. Adam dropped Addy and I off at the ER, while he went home with Jr. until our friend came over to watch him so Adam could come back to the hospital. After a quick check-in we were taken back to a room and the poking, prodding, and pricking began on our sweet baby girl. All I could do at this time was pray for God to give me the strength to endure this and to have his hand over my precious baby girl. The chaos began when the nurses poked her 3 times before finding a vein for her IV, the chest X-Rays were taken, she was catherized so they could test her urine, and drew a lot blood to run numerous test. My heart ached so much as Addy occasionally cried and whimpered. She actually handled everything like a little champ! I was so proud of her when I sat and held her hand when she was being stuck numerous times and barely made a sound. I can’t fathom how bad that would hurt, but she did amazing. Exhausted from the afternoon’s happenings, Addy was able to snuggle up and nurse (which she hasn’t done well in a couple days) and like that she was out. Adam arrived at the hospital in great time, and we were once again brought to a situation where we really needed be there for each other. We waited patiently as they ran a lot of different test and tried to figure out what was wrong with our baby girl. Finally her dr came in and told us they have diagnosed her with having bronchiolitis and possibly a UTI too. He said she’d need to be in the hospital a couple days to make sure she was getting enough oxygen and fluids, since this is the only way you can beat this viral infection. They got us situated up in a room and the next day and a half went something like this in nutshell. My parents were able to come up and help us, since someone always had to be in the room with Addy. Since I was ahead of the pumping game, my mom was able to stay with her through the night and let me go home to get a good night’s rest. My mom’s birthday was the 12^th, so we made sure to spoil her a little since she has helped us out so much. Addy had to be in the hospital from Wednesday afternoon to Friday morning. The dr sent her home on a ¼ L of oxygen and said she would probably be on it for 10 days. He wanted to send her home on some O2 just to help her breathe and get her levels up. The O2 really does help her not to have to work so hard to breathe. I was so thankful as my mom and I drove away from the hospital with Addy in the back, despite her still being on O2, it was just going to be nice to have her at home. Friday afternoon my parents insisted that A and I go out on a date, since they were there and willing to watch the kiddos. It was nice to have some alone time with my husband after the whirlwind days we just went through.

Addy is doing pretty good since she’s been home. We go back to the dr on Monday and I’m really praying that we can be O2 free when we leave. Let’s hope Addy takes the advice of my friend Abby, “In the happiness of getting you home, I might have neglected to share one critical piece of post-NICU advice—NO RETURN TOURS!” I really hope we stay clear of the hospital for quite sometime.

A big highlight during Addison’s stay at the hospital was the precious little smiles she started to flash!

When Addison went into the hospital she weighed 6 lb 13 oz and was 7 lb 2 oz when she left. Our precious sweetie is truly a miracle and fighter through all she has been through.

I never knew watching my kids play would make my day complete. I see the love Jr has for his sister and it truly melts my heart. I love watching him with her and I really can’t wait to watch them grow up.

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” –Psalm 129: 13-14