Happy 5th NICU Anniversary!

January 19, 2015



5 years ago.

It's been 5 years already, but if I close my eyes, only for a minute I can put myself right back in the NICU next to a tiny baby. It's something that I will never forget.

The day Harrison was born was the scariest day in my life. I knew nothing about prematurity and I knew nothing about having a baby. Basically it was NICU boot camp the minute this guy was born.

I know God had a plan for me, Harrison and our family... Life works crazy that way.

I learned more about life in those 52 days he spent in the NICU than I learned in my first 25 years of life. I could speak medical fluently, I lived by my NICU bible and I opened up my heart to God wider than I ever thought possible.

The day Harrison came home from the NICU is day very much like the day he was born. It was scary, really freaking scary... but at the same time this became happiest day in my life.

As always we celebrated with his NICU VET  anniversary with cake and this year for fun... Trick candles (should have videoed this).

 

5 year NICU VET

 

5 Year Well Check

Well here it is... the last "baby" milestone checkup. So hard to believe this guy is going to kindergarten this fall. I'm not ready and he's told me he isn't ready, so we both need to get on same boat by September. Oh yeah and pick a school.

We had kindergarten required immunizations done. Ugh. I was dreading these, wishing we would have done them last year. I really didn't know how to break the news that he needed to get a shot (well actually 2---OOPS my bad) at the appointment. I fought with even telling him at all...Telling him when we got there or telling him the night before. Seriously all these choices all had their perks, but when it came down to it I told him the night before. I am too honest of a person and if I knew I was going to get poked and it would probably hurt I would want to know a head of time.

After the 20 minutes of crying and pleading with me not to get a shot I found a you tube video of Sid (the science kid) needed to get a shot. After this he seemed pretty cool with "everything" until we got there of coarse. He even did just fine talking to the nurse and getting weighed and height measured (btw he's the highest in the percentiles as he has ever been 36% for height and 39% for weight), but after we actually got in the room cooperation pretty much stopped. He did tell me before we left the house he wanted to get his shot done for so it would be done. I guess he is my kind of guy, just get done with hard stuff first. Though I should have known this because he always does the "hard" part of his school work books before he does the easy side!

Overall the doctor's appointment could have gone better, it could have gone worse. Once his doctor came in, he was a little more Harrison and when I say a little, I mean a teeny weeny little bit.

We found out he still has a tube left in his left ear... which is awesome because usually the most mileage you get out of tubes is maybe 12-18 months and we are going on over 2 years and his left is his bad ear! The right is out and just hanging in the ear canal. They will both eventually work their way out at some point.

We discuss his eyes/glasses a bit and obviously he pediatrician isn't and eye doctor so he didn't have any more information about his exact eye condition that I STILL don't understand. It's call midline crossing. I explained to him I am thinking of seeking a second opinion, not because I don't think his eye doctor is qualified, that's not at all, but to be frank...Her bed side manner sucks. She especially sucks with kids. How she ended up in peds I don't know. Our doctor said he's actually heard a bit of the same from other clients and gave us a recommendation to another eye doctor in peds that is awesome and he has 3 kids of his own, so lots of own personal experience with kids.

His heart, lungs, belly are all normal. We also got good news that he is getting arches in his feet. This is actually not good, but awesome news! He was really flat footed last appointment and his doctor is very please with the progress he has made on his own getting these arches and building muscle tone. When you are born premature, you pretty much spend the first 5-6 years of your life trying to build up muscle tone that is comparable to an non premature child. Way to go buddy, just another thing you are awesome at! I can hardly believe that on Monday marks 5 years since we brought him home from the hospital.

The shots sucked. I think he would have done better if they could have been done a little more on his terms. He was fine with getting the shots done in his legs, but they wanted him to lay down and me hold him down. Obviously Harrison was fine with hugging me, but he didn't want anything to do with lying down. I even said to the nurses, "I think he would do better just sitting upright and I will hold on to him."  Their response was, "he will be more relaxed lying down for the shots." Relaxed? I am freaking holding down this kid and your telling me his muscles are more relaxed because I holding him down on the table? He was more upset about lying down than getting the shots for goodness sake. I honestly don't know if he really even felt the shots because he was too angry he had to lie down. It all worked out... The shots are over and the next time he gets another one won't be any time soon! We do the flu mist here and we are sticking with that.

If you ask Harrison the best part of the appointment it was getting the prizes. He did get a really cool color changing pencil---so the shots just might have been worth it.

After the appointment we headed to Hobby Lobby to pick up white boards for the kids and then stopped at the mall for blizzards are DQ and stopped at the play place. Seriously Miles scores big when Harrison has appointments. Even today he scored a bouncy ball and a sucker without even having to get his hair cut. Being second born obviously has it's advantages.


 

Toddler art rocks.

I admit I am not the best at imaginative play... No matter how hard to try to Wonder Woman, a transformer, or a Ninja Turtle--it's just not my favorite and I'm no good at it. I'm surprised they keep even asking me to play (I'm really that bad)! Obviously it's not a strength I carry in parenting, but thank goodness Doug is much better in this department. I am better at the artsy, pinterest, and baking thing.

Both boys like structure. On the days Harrison is home it's always, "What are we going to do next?" He thrives when I have our days planned out. Some days I am way more organized than others. I try to pick one activity in the morning and one in the afternoon or right after dinner. The other time is filled hopefully with a nap, free play and Harrison works on 2-3 pages of his Kindergarten work book. We don't venture out of the house too much unless it's nice enough for a walk, one of the kids has an appointment or we desperately need something. This obviously saves us money and my sanity! Public places are just not for 2 year olds. :)

So.... this brings us back to our home. This is where we spend our time and doing one of favorite things. Painting.

P.S.: It's just something about the paint on his feet.
P.P.S.: Your only a toddler once, go BIG.

 

 

 

 

Water Painting

The weather here in Minnesota has been horrible. Snow, cold, wind---basically blizzard conditions for the last week. The kids are dying to get outside and we finally made it outside to shovel for a half hour yesterday and then the boys took turns pulling each other in the sled. Today it's back -7.

I've been doing my best to plan our days and evenings at home. This works better with Harrison since he is older and his attention span is longer but with Miles this can a little more challenging in my planning process.

Today it's Friday... I didn't plan anything. Feeling a little neglectful because we do need to have some structure in our day and there isn't the option of going outside and it's just too big of risk to plan a shopping trip with a two year in tow---it's just not worth it!

Miles show more interest than Harrison did at his age for art/crafts etc. While digging through the art bin this morning I stumbled across a paint with water book that I probably bought for Harrison a few years ago.

I got Miles all set-up and he LOVED this. SERIOUSLY....Longest attention span to anything, EVER. After he finished one picture he immediately asked do another. I already added another paint with water book to the Target list.

 

 

Big Trucks

There is no secret that this kid LOVES big trucks....

Morning Art.

Winter seems to last forever even though it's really just begun. You know it's bad when your 5 year old starts saying he wants it to be summer and last week when he asked you to wear shorts AGAIN, you let him.

This week is record cold temperature here, But compared to the high of -18 last year I would definitely say this year is a heat wave.

What did we seriously ever do before Pinterest? It's the biggest bank full of any and every idea when it comes to crafting and what's even better is that a 5 year old can have his very own board to pick and choose what he wants to do.

Yesterday we were Pinterest overachievers and completed 4 different crafts. And Harrison did two more on his own before bed.