Brothers

Jackson and Mylie

We had a family dinner the other night, where Jackson and Mylie first met...

Baby Jackson is Home.

Yup we were able to bring the little guy home today. He is doin great. Thank you to all who helped us through this rough time. We really appreciate all you guys do for us and I know we will come through this stronger.

Here's Jacksons little redwagon he rode out of the nicu to the car in.
Here he is in his car seat. It pretty near swallows him whole.

Payton and Logan both did very well with him. They petted his head and gave him a kiss.

My Grandma

Here's the motion Glider my great family all chipped in to get for me.

Baby Jackson

Jackson is doing very well! He is completely off oxygen and they are hoping to take his IV out tomorrow morning. He was on Bili lights for jaundice for a day, but his bilirubin levels went down so he is done tanning :0). He needs to be able to take all his feedings orally and gain weight before he can come home. Right now, he gets too tired to finish feeding and has to get the rest through the tube in his nose. Here are some recent pics...(if you are wondering what's on his head, that is his IV. He pulled out the one in his hand and it is actually pretty common to place IV's in baby's heads. It just looks scary!)
This is the most recent picture from this afternoon

He's got a little smile! And since they moved the IV, he can wear clothes now!

This picture was before he pulled out the IV from his hand.

He looks so long! Here are his little black feet after doing his footprints.

You asked for it and here it is. The Birth Tape

Hope you enjoy, I kept it nongrafic so don't worry.

Here's the picture. Kristy, me, her Mom, Dad, Sister and my mom are all sitting around talking joking and grading papers. She had been checked 3 times in the last 4 hours and gone from 2 centimeters to 4 and we kept telling the nurse "once she hits 5 centimeters she will go quick." So she came in and told Kristy once she has a contraction with pressure to let her know. Well about 5 minutes after the 4 centimeter check the nurse reached in and felt the head right there. RIGHT THERE. I stood up and walked to get the camera ready as the nurse ran out and came back in with about 5 nurses and some guy we assume was a doctor but for all we knew he was just some dude walkin by with a name tag for the hospital who may have been delivering food or emptying trash cans. At that point I started filming and the following 2 minutes and 17 seconds ensued. No foot holders no push, push, push, not even a drop in the end of the bed. He just slid a towel under her and caught a baby (and will probably charge us $2,400 dollars for his 3 minutes of work.) I really like the part where the doc is fumbling with all the tools and umbilical cord then drops the scissors on my freakin kid.

2/19/09 I am blue da da de da da da da da de da da da

Kristy is doin great we are packin up to go home at 11:30. It will be hard to leave Jackson here but we will all come see him a lot. He is doin much better, he is off his cpap and now is just getting an oxygen flow and is breathin much better. He is 4 pounds 13 oz and jaundice so weve got another blue baby under the billy lights. I will get to hold him for the first time today and i am real excited. I will post more tonight. Again thank you all for your love, prayers, and visits.
~ moose

2-18-09 Another fun day

Jackson is doin good. He had a rough night so they have had his oxygen upped pretty much all day. He is startin to cry more which means his lungs are gettin stronger. Kristy is resting comfortably also she is a boobie pumpin machine. Kristy should be released tomorrow but Jackson will have to stay here for a while. No real time frame but a nurse said if he progresses without setbacks we are looking at around 5 more days. here are the latest pics with captions

Here's Jackson and his grandmas.

Here he is getting fed through his stomach tube.

The kids came to see Kristy today for the first time. He collapsed in her arms. real cute

A Daddy's Prayer Goodnight my sweet little family

God you are in control and there will always be a part of me that will try to hang on to the notion that i have a small bit of it. But seeing my wife go through the last 4 days and now watching my little boy fighting to breathe i now have a deeper appreciation o your control and works. Take care of them and one day i pray you would allow me to be as strong and courageous as they are. Ease their minds and fill their dreams and please let my little family have a peaceful night. Thank you for all the people you have brought in our lives that help us in so many ways. Thank you for this mysterious, wonderful, painful, and beautiful place you have brought us. Amen

wooooooooo what a day 2/17 9:45

Its been so long we almost forget that we have only gotten about 4 hours of sleep for the last 3 nights. oooohhh well its good practice for the next 3 months. Jackson is resting right now and around 11 we will head to the nicu to try our first feeding. We appreciate all your thoughts and prayers and comments today. We cant do any of this without our family especially both of our parents, grandparents and Mike and Leah who have all really helped out. Praise Jesus that we are so blessed, some of these babies around us are under 2 pounds and will be here for months. We are blessed. Thanks, again and we love you all.
moose, kristy, and the fam.
ps: aparently petocin wont have anything to contract in a male except maybe the anus. i thank i need to do some more research. peace out.

Baby Jackson Update

Jackson is doin well. He is havin problems breathing so they have an oxygen providing football helmet of some sort that is up his nose. he also has a tube that he is burping out of. Kristy is doin well she is about to watch the birth for the first time, all 3 minutes of it. more later.



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Update

Jackson is doin great. He is in the nicu and he is gettin blood drawn. Kristy is unreal, she is half way through a burger right now and i am completly flustered. here are some pictures.

11:34 Baby Birthin

Jackson Levi is here! 19 inches long and 5 pounds .08 ounces. she went from close to done in about 3 minutes. she didnt even have to push. he just kinda slid out. and i am still not sure what happens if i get petocin. i will

11:24 Its go time

She is right there all of a sudden. The doctor is being called. She's at 8 centimeters and the nurse is preparing, she is also checking to see what would happen if they gave me petocin. We are wondering what exactly would contract in me. She said she would give it to to me if but then they would have to check me. ooohhh its time to push

Dead legs

Intresting facts about epiderals. They really react with gravity. So if you are laying flat they pretty much numb your entire lower body but if you lay on either side all he numbness goes to one side depending on which side you lay on. I wonder what would happen if you tipped her upside down and it al rushed to her head and arms. Boy that would liven things up. More moosings to come as i get sleepier and more exhausted

8:42 am

She is now 3 centimeters and 90% efaced. Mama and Papa Longfield are here, well they aparently left the house at when kristy got her epideral and slept in the truck so if they got the call to come they would be 3 minutes away instead of an hour. Her sister will be here soon also. My mom slept here cause she missed Logans birth when she left for 20 minutes, yup thats how fast she goes once she gets goin.

7:32 am Not much change

She is doin ok so is the baby. They have no time frame of when he may come they will just keep uping the petocin till its go time. She's at 2 cent. and 50% effaced (for all you medical people who know what the heck all that means). We will keep you updated.

2:10 am Kristy's epideral

It's 2:10 am and she just got her epideral. She is getting her catheter in right now. She is real excited about no more potty trips every thirty minutes. Thanks doc.


epideral doc with our new nurse. theres chicks on both sides of us doing natural births so theres a lot of screamin and we even heard a "get her out all ready" and thats the cleaned up version

9:37 Day 3 still pregnant

We have switched rooms we are now in 2431 they woul not give 2434 cause 34 is my number. Zach and Chrystal came by to see us, thanks guys. I got pretty bored and starting playing with the tools again. Kristy has these calf squeezers that inflate every few minutes to circulate her blood and i brought them over to the new room and figured out i can inflate them by blowing in them so i made inflatable boobies. Anyways Kristy just got her Petocin so the end is in site. Kristy is real excited.

Baby here probably tomorrow

After talking with my doctor and the neonatologist, everyone is in agreement that it is best for me and the baby to start inducing. The neonatologist said the difference between a 34 week old and 35 week old baby is maybe a few extra days in the hospital. Either way the baby will be in the NICU with possible breathing problems and feeding problems, but if we wait, we will be risking infection. An infection would make my delivery an emergency and possibly leave the baby with long term developmental problems. So, they are going to let me eat dinner and start my pitocin within two hours or so. They have no idea how long my induction will take, but we may know more once my doctor checks to see if I've dialated any. They didn't want to introduce an infection, so I have not been checked yet. Good news is that the steroids have had enough time to have had effect, so his breathing problems should be minimal. At worst, they would need to put a tube down his nose but he may just need oxygen. I am bummed that he will have to stay in the NICU and won't be able to breastfeed in the beginning, but as soon as I have my milk in, I can breastfeed. Babies this young need as much nurishment as they can get in the beginning so they stay hydrated and gain weight. Well, we will let you all know as soon as we've made some progress...

2:00 day 3 still in hospital

Yup its 2 and we are still here, no real changes. We think it will all go down in the next 2 days here based on what the doctors say. We are trying to keep ourselves occupied. Our friends from church group Tom and Tiffany came by to see us as did kristys sister kelly.
I got bored and decided to freak out the nurses by using the baby heart monitor to read my heart beat which is about half of the babies. they werent to worried but she did threaten to scold me.
meanwhile at the house payton is having fun with the toilet paper.
more later.

Monday morning...

Well, nothing too exciting last night. I did start to have not painful contractions around 3am that were becoming consistant, so they gave me a shot of trebuteline which is supposed to stop contractions but makes you feel like you've had 20 Red Bulls. Your heart feels like it is going to pop out of your chest and you get the shakes. The medicine did what it is supposed to do and stopped the contractions.

The doctor came this morning and wants to go ahead and induce me today or tomorrow. She was going to talk with the neonatologist to get his/her opinion but she doesn't want me to just sit around and wait for fear of infection. Since the baby will have the full effects of the steroid shots, she thinks it would be better not to chance an emergency induction. The neonatologist will have the final say as to when, so when I hear, I will update you all. It will either be after 4pm today or sometime tomorrow.

Thanks for all your continued prayers...

Kristy/Jackson Update

Hello all! Mike and Leah were kind enough to lend me their laptop so I can blog while in the hospital. As the last post stated, this all started on Saturday morning about 3am when I woke up to use the restroom. I had wet pants (keeping details to a minimum!) and thought maybe my bladder was too full and the baby had kicked me and caused incontinence. Even though I had never had incontinence problems before, I've heard it is very common especially late in pregnancy. So I changed clothes and went back to bed. At 4:30am, I woke up wet again. Knowing I had broken my water, I changed clothes again, called the hospital and woke up Moose. Leah stayed with the kids as Moose and I headed to the hospital. They confirmed my water had broken and started me on IV antibiotics to prevent infection. Since my due date has never really been clear, I am between 34 - 36 weeks, which is a big difference in baby world. At 34 weeks they are concerned the baby's lungs and no mature enough for the baby to breathe on his own, but they are less concerned at 36 weeks. So they sent me to ultrasound to get a better idea of the baby's size. They measured this thigh bone (which measured at 32 weeks), his abdomen (which measured 34 weeks), and his head (which measured at 35 weeks). So averaged out, they put me at 33 weeks 6 days. Although, based upon his abdomen measurement, they guessed his weight at 5 lbs 4 oz, which is huge for a 34 weeker. Anyways, the neonatal pediatrician wanted to play it safe and do the steroids to help the baby's lungs mature. There are really no side effects, except I get 2 shots in the rear (lots of burning. Ouch!). So here sit, just waiting for the steroids to work their magic. As of now, they want me to make it to Tuesday so the steroids have fully taken effect. If I start to have painful contractions before then, they will try to stop labor. After Tuesday, they will not induce but won't stop labor either. They are waiting for nature to take its course and if by some miracle, I do not go into labor by myself, they will induce me at 36 weeks. So, we will definitely have a February baby, but it could be Tuesday or in two weeks. We, of course want what is best for Jackson, but the thought of being in a hospital bed for 2 weeks is unfathomable to me. But the longer he cooks, the less chance that he we need assistance breathing and eating. We were told that is the hardest skill for newborns to master, is eating and breathing simultaneously. And he won't be able to go home until he can. So we will keep everyone updated as we know something new.

What a Week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! please read

Ok here we go, Saturday was the great babyshower, thanks again to you all. Monday Payton had is evaluation with the school and he quallified for early special education preschool. That should really help him with his speech therapy which he will get everyday. We got home from that around noon and took Logan to the hospital at 1. He has Bronchitis, croupe and a doulble ear infection which made the rest of the week a swell time :). Thursday my dad made his trip to the hospital with a bad case of pneumonia he got out friday. Then at 3 am saturday early mornin kristy woke me up, not to wish me happy valentines day, but to inform me her water broke. After a few tests the babys lungs are underdeveloped so they are giving kristy steroids to help the baby (please keep all alex rodriguez jokes until the end of class). Basically she cant leave the hospital until the babys born because of risk of infection so it could be hours it could be days or it could be weeks. As we know more we will let you all know. Please pray that God guide us through this uncertain time. We love you all.
Moose and Kristy

Baby Shower

The baby shower last saturday was so great! It was amazing to have so many of the people we love all together in one room. Thank you Leah for putting it together for us. And to Diane, Jen and Tiffany for the gorgeous cake. Trish and Terry, thank you for letting us use your beautiful home. Thank you Dad for praying over our family. And thank you, everyone, for your gifts. Your generosity will allow me to stay home with my boys longer after Jackson arrives. Love you all...

Maternity Photos!!

Since this very well might be my last pregnancy, I decided I wanted to get some professional photos done. Here are the results! Hope you all enjoy!