40 days and 40 nights

Mason's Room for 1/2 of his stay.

All the monitors and cords came off! (The leg thing is the security tag)

In the carseat, just needs tightening and we can go!

The kids couldn't go in, so they waited in the entry of the NICU.

The first pic of the 7 of us! Not a great one, but it will do!

The girls just couldn't believe he was ours for the taking!

+++

It took 40 days and 40 nights for our family to finally become complete.

Totally worth the wait.

Mason is our last baby to come home from the hospital.

So far he fits right in. 

Every single challenge, requirement, and milestone,he had to hit - he did before expected.

 It was like he was listening and knew he had to out perform the standard.

My favorite quote from this experience was "There is no way he will come home before he is 36 weeks."

Oh yea, Nurse Kelly? Boo-ya! He isn't even 36 weeks yet and he is in the van on the way home!

Sorry, I am just a tad proud of this little man.

 Taking vitamins. Stinky, stinky, vitamins.

 Juliet was cracking up. She couldn't decide if she liked this "new thing."

 After about 15 minutes of us taking her off him, she lost interest. Haha

 This kid was so happy. He held Mason for an hour. Singing to him, talking to him, telling him about his new environment. "This is your new house, I am your new brother, the biggest brother in this house. We are going to share a room, but not our legos." It was so sweet and special.

 This girl, who I thought would be all over him, was perfect. I forgot, she is now four and MUCH better when it comes to being intense. She was sweet and loving and extremely maternal.

 Mason was alert and awake for dinner, so he joined us.
He was disgusted in Juliet's eating habits. This is what he was looking at....

 Hahaha.

Mason smiles a lot in his sleep, but probably won't smile for real till mid February (that whole adjusted age thing) Most of the time when he is awake he looks like this...

I'll take it! :)

We love you, Mason!

And as a wild Ty Pennington would say,

"Welcome home Mason, Welcome home!"

NICU week 6

Day 35 - 6lbs even, 35 weeks gestation (roughly) and had 4 FULL bottles in the day! Thanks to Jen, the NICU nurse who listened to me. :)

Day 36 - We got a babysitter, came down to do bath and bottle and cares. Mason was awake and ready to get with the program!

 Can you tell he has put on some weight?

 Taking his temperature.

 Believe it or not, this is how you bathe a preemie!

 So alert and awake!

So amazing!

Day 37 - 6lbs1oz, taking every bottle they are giving him minus the one after his bath the night before, which was to be expected. Crossing fingers this is not a fluke and he takes EVERY bottle for them.

Day 38 - What a WHIRLWIND of a day!  I usually make Nathan call the NICU because it is really hard for me to call. The nurses, make me feel guilty for not driving an hour each way to see the baby everyday.
(this is in my head) Back to the day: I "had a feeling to call" and she said they started hock feeding Mason. or doing a more adlib schedule since he is now TAKING A BOTTLE at EVERY feeding! This is the first step to coming home. The second step also happened today...he was on the room air challenge, and passed with flying colors! The third step is the A/B tests which he cleared! And, finally, the fourth test he must pass is the car seat challenge. Which, they called and asked us to come in TOMORROW for this test.
This is a sign that he will come home soon, very soon, like before the week's end!!!!!!
Oh, and he weighs 6lbs4oz!


Day 39 - Nathan's mom came to watch the girls, Becky picked up Lucas, and we were at the hospital ALL morning! They did every test, checked things twice, and we crossed all our t's and dotted all our i's and then we left.  We came home to tell the kids something very exciting!

***
squeeeeeeeee!

NICU week 5

Day 28 - 4lbs15oz Everything regulated itself out, so Mason is back to every other feeding with a bottle. Barely on oxygen - so .2L or 20cc of oxygen. His swallowing looks FANTASTIC and they are going to continue pressing on with the bottle of BM for most of the feedings. Ouch. But worth it. :)

Day 30 - 5lbs 4oz!!! Now does 2 bottles on, 1 off. Getting closer to getting off the monitors.

Day 31 - ONE MONTH OLD
Nathan got to take the temp, change the diaper, and snuggle for awhile. I took the kids on a much needed walk and then we switched. I talked to the nurses about what he has left and he passed the allergy test, the swallow test, and hasn't had any apneas or brady's so we are just waiting for him to bottle feed full 50cc at every feeding. 

Day 32 - 5lbs 5oz Took every feeding by bottle, but they were only half feeds. He just gets too tired.
His brain scans looked great and was approved for in home PT, which is typical for preemies 30-34 weeks at birth. He is chunking up and has dimples! Well, one, on his left cheek. :)

Day 33 - 5lbs 12oz, took a bath and his hair was poofy! He is still on half bottles but making more progress.
SCARY 11pm phone call that they moved him because they had several multiples coming and needed to put Mason in a room with a mate. He is with another little boy who is similar in age, but not doing as well as Mason. :(

Day 34 -5lbs 14oz!!!!! He isn't eating well during the day, but at night, he eats like a champ. For me, he ate 55cc's!   He was awake and making noises.

 Love this baby's CRAZY hair!

Can you tell he is getting bigger?

Special thanks to my friend Becky, who takes me to the hospital and takes pictures of these special tender moments for me. She held him too! :)

AND - a video.

He is doing great, looks good, just a mini baby.

Mason the Mini Witte! :)

66 degrees in JANUARY!

I met up with another PB friend. She has 2 beautiful daughters named Eva and Sophie.

Bridget is always up for meeting new people, and we had planned to meet at the rec center, but once we got out of the car, the park seemed like a better idea. 

 Bridget and Eva had a great time. Lots of silly 4 year old giggles!

 Sophie (5 months) and Juliet (10.5 months) just kinda chilled.

It was fun to meet another PB mom! Dawn just moved to Colorado and only lives 15-20 minutes from me!

I hope we can do it again soon, weather pending.

On the way home the kids talked about how fun it is to play outside in the winter.

I told them that since they were so good at the park, we would skip naps for the day, but that only lasted 30 minutes when I found all of them in weird places asleep. Lucas passed out under his Lego table, Bridget was under her bed and Scarlett was...

...snoring away. Hahaha.

Umm Okay?

Not a lot you can say when this happens...

Incidentally, this is also when she decided to start walking.

Juliet, slow down!

Last Day

No pictures today.

Today is the last day before our world starts again.

I loved the break. 

I loved having my kids home. 

I loved not "having" to go anywhere.

I loved having YW at home so I could go to the NICU w/o the other monsters.

I loved hanging in our pj's and house clothes.

I especially loved the extra time we got with Nathan.

We finished up all of Lucas's homework.

We reorganized the pantry.

We moved some furniture.

We baked some cookies.

We played lots of games on our break. 

We watched several 3D movies on the 3DTV.

We played the Wii - a lot.

We ate in the family room for dinner!

Mostly, we enjoyed each other.

I really loved this extra time, even though Mason wasn't with us...for all of it.

Tomorrow begins a new day, back into the swing of things, back to the schedule.

This part I like. I like being scheduled and all that jazz, but it is nice to have the break.

*sigh*

My kids requested Sloppy Joe's for dinner. It is their current favorite dinner. 

They have only had it like 5 times in their life, but when its specifically asked for, how can I say no?

Exactly.

I love our little life.


*My friend Emily asked what the pot thing was about*
A long time ago, Nathan and I read a book where an old lady on the street, banged her pots to get rid of the kids who would hang out on her stoop/porch. It was at that moment, Nathan, (and me with a weird face) decided to bang the pots on New Years Day to bang out the bad times/memories of the previous year, to make room for the good times/memories.  *insert eye roll here* Yea, we are weird, but my kids LOVE doing it, and the neighbors on the street usually shrug their shoulders and chalk it up to Witte Weirdness. 

Ringing in the New Year 2012!

Last year: HERE

We did our traditional Waffles and Martenelli's while watching Dick Clark's Rockin New Year's on DVR.

 Lucas insisted on the orange table cloth - didn't care to fight it. 

 Cheers to health, wealth, and happiness!

 Nathan made chocolate chocolate chip waffles! Thanks Liz!

Hey look! I was there too!

Then we got dressed for church and did our pots and pans thing outside!

Then, I took the opportunity to take pictures of the kids, in their church clothes because their dresses were made by my mother in law...and they looked so cute!

 I need to add it was 33 degrees outside. Juliet was FREEZING!

 She smocked them. I am a sucker for smocking! 

Anything smocked!

Then we came in, warmed up, and talked about how we did on last year's goals.

Mostly, we did a pretty good job.

Here are last years goals:
V - Successful VBAC in Feb err - not so much, (Didn't get one in Dec either LOL) Sell $500 worth of Handmade items CHECK $630 total!!!!, Master Weekly Menu Notebook for the year including weekly prices and recipes. TRIPLE CHECK


N - Daddy Date Nights with school this didn't happen :(, Finish AAS MAY will be CHECKED, Backyard and Front Yards Haha, havinga hellacious pregnancy over the summer/fall this DID NOT happen!


L - Not get so worked up over little things, Keep up with his Reading - CHECK :)


B - Listen and Obey the first time, Learning to write the entire Alphabet - Almost a FULL CHECK


S - Potty Train, Learn to do her chores. CHECK


MCJE - to be born healthy, happy, and Bridget's color. Hahaha
^^^^ Well, JE was born a blondie so that was half right and MC ended up being MP and fulfilled the Bridget coloring...we got a two-fer last year!!

On the way to church (11am - our 1st time in 6 years being at 11am!!!) we talked about this year's goals.

Less Waste, Recycle More (as a family), 


V - Start Specials at Home, relinquish control when it comes to family things, haha.
N - Complete AAS, Backyard and Front Yards. Start Specials at Home
L - Complete Kindergarten and finish the ENTIRE Ready Freddy series.
B - Finish 3K move on to 4K and continue being a GOOD 4 year old.
S - Not be a terrible 3 year old, work on volume control.
J - Keep smiling, and to keep the blue eyes, and move to a toddler bed.
M - Come home from NICU and stay home. Grow, Feed and pack on the pounds. Also to stay healthy.

I have a few things I am going to do for myself when I turn 30, more on that later! Hehehe.

Then the kids went to their classes:

Lucas - CTR 5 with Brother Jacobs

Bridget - CTR 4 with Sister Breeden

To which Lucas shouted out "No fair!" (she was his teacher last year)

Scarlett - Sister Taylor and Nora and Nora's mom. Haha.

We had an interesting, super FAST, 2011.  Can't wait to see what 2012 brings!