Isabella Comes Home: We Are A Family Of Nine!

The day has finally come. We are a family of nine and we are all under one roof! I knew there was a possibility that Isabella would come home today because her feeding tube has been out for a couple of days and today was day seven on her brady (heart rate drop) count but when I called to check on her last night she had lost weight (7gms) for the second night in a row and she was very sleepy during feeds. I told Paul I didn't think Isabella would be coming home because of these two things. I called around ten Friday morning and was so excited when the Dr told me to "come get your child". He later called me and told me he was comfortable sending her home because there was nothing they were doing for her in the nicu that I couldn't do at home. I am already supplementing with two feedings a day of higher calorie formula with the other kiddos so he said with those extra calories she should do just fine. Her last two days have been strictly breast milk so these two feedings should have her gaining appropriate weight.

Isabella...time to go home little love.

I meet Paul and the older kids at the hospital after they got back into town from a birthday party. I cried the entire way to the hospital because I couldn't believe the day had finally come...all four of my babies were coming home. I felt I could breath. We were done with the pregnancy, they arrived safely, and the nicu journey was now complete. It was now time to just be a family. You should have seen the looks of amazement I got pushing two double snap n' go's into the hospital. I even had the secretary from labor and delivery follow me because she wanted to see all four babies. Since this was now our fourth discharge from the same unit it did not take long which was a good thing because we had a schedule to keep!

I love it and they are all mine!!

Time to get our new van

Paul had an errand to make on the way home so I arrived first and had all four kids in the house, out of car seats, and their milk warming when Paul got home. It was now time to feed four kiddos and we had all four feed and burped in 25 minutes. It was awesome. And little Isabella had no problem finishing 45ml's which was more than she had been taking all day. She just needed to be with her sister and brothers. We got in a nice family dinner before it was bath time for all. We have now finished the 8:00 feeding, older kids are asleep in their beds., babies are asleep in their cribs/rockers and Paul and I are relaxing with our iPads. Life is good!! Now to go get laundry folded and switched from washer to dryer before the next feed at 10:30 and then  it's bed time for mommy and daddy.

All bathed and ready to eat

We want to thank everyone for being on this journey with us. We couldn't have done it without all the prayers and support we got from everyone. I will continue to update the blog as often as I can but don't be surprised if there is a week without a post for a little while. We are a little bit busy around our home. I will try to post pictures every couple of days just to keep everyone satisfied.

The Lesnau's

Good night Natalie, Aubrey, Drew, Kenzie, Isabella, Tate, & Rylan and don't let the bug bed bites. We love you all with a cherry on top.

Rylan Joins His Brother & Sister

Earlier this week I knew that Rylan was getting close to coming home. He was just working on feeds. I was expecting Friday but on Thursday I got the call...we could come get Rylan! But first we had a field trip to Fairtytale Town to go to with Natalie and Aubrey. We took Tate and Kenzie but they just didn't think the slides were that exciting! Maybe next year...

We then dropped the older kids off at our friends and it was time to visit Isabella and break Rylan out of the nicu. Such a wonderful day and now we had three home and only one to go. We are so close.

Daddy and Isabella

The last two nicu babies

We got home and it was of course time to feed the babies. It amazes me how fast three hours can go. We now are able to tandem bottle feed two kids at a time using a pillow across our lap. We thank Amber, a fellow quad mom, for showing us how to do this. It is so great to have someone three weeks ahead of us in this journey. So Paul feed Tate and Kenzie while I feed Rylan and pumped. We had dinner ourselves and Paul notified me that he had a work meeting that night. I could have put up a big stink but in a way I wanted to see if I could do it. I had six kids bathed, older kids down for the night, and three babies feed and to bed in 1.5 hours. Not to bad if I say so myself. I did quickly learn not to tandem Rylan and Tate together though because when it is time to burp neither can lay flat because they will spit up everything they just ate. So those two went through jammies rather quickly during that feed.

Ready to go

Love me some baby feet

Rylan has done great being home. He takes 50-55ml per feed but does take a little longer than the other two. He also has some reflex so is sleeping in a rocker just like his brother. The only hard part is Rylan is very much still on the nicu schedule and wakes every three hours on the dot during the night. It is amazing how much that extra thirty minutes that Tate and Kenzie were giving us meant. We are hoping they fill in Rylan quickly that they like to sleep at night and hopefully he will try it out. Once it has been three hours and the first one is a wake...as in loud crying and is not soothing themselves, we wake the others up to feed. Paul gets the bottles measured out and warmed while I change all of them. We are usually up and back go bed in about forty minutes but that only gives us about two hours of sleep before the next round. Exhaustion is starting to set in. We are pretty much doing it all by ourselves except for the occasional visit from my mom, sister or our friend Mary. My mom did come over this morning at 4 to allow Paul to sleep through the 5 o'clock feed. He greatly appreciated this and told her she is welcome to do this every morning!

Mary and Rylan at bath time

Rylan we are so happy you are home. You have come a very long way since you were born and we didn't know if this day would ever be a reality six weeks ago. Happy six weeks Rylan James and welcome home!

Only 24 hours in a day...are you sure??

I have decided that 24 hours in a day is just not enough time to get everything done. I think if I could add on about four to five more hours of daylight it would be perfect and I say daylight because once the sun goes down this momma struggles to do much more than sit on the couch and do laundry. Thus the reason that it has taken me a week to post again because updating falls as one of the daylight activities.

When I brought Tate home this is what Paul gave me. We already had the mom & dad and two babies from when the girls were born but Paul added the twin girls, the boy, and two more babies. Our completed family! Thank you Honey...I love it.

We are loving having Tate and Kenzie home. The girls still insist that it's Isabella that is home and for some reason can't get it straight so often they just say "the girl". I guess adding four babies at once may be a bit confusing to a four year old! For the most part we have as much of a routine we can have with five kids at home, two in the hospital, a dad that's working, two kids that eat every three hours and need diaper changes with each feed, another three kids that seem to want to eat as often and also yell out for their bottoms to be wiped throughout the day, and a mom and dad that try and get some sleep from time to time. Thankfully one of the perks of the nicu is having kids that come home on a schedule. Kenzie and Tate for the most part sleep 3.5 hour stretches at night. We did have a couple rough nights with Tate and we finally figured out he was miserable from reflux. This came after an incident on Wednesday night. We took the babies out to celebrate my sisters birthday and as we were leaving the restaurant I covered the car seats and we walked to the car. I put Tate in the car and lifted up his cover and right away I knew something wasn't right. His eyes were rolled back and I could tell he was not breathing. I quickly got him out of his car seat while calmly asking Paul to get the bulb syringe out of the diaper bag. I then  got his mouth cleaned out with my finger and started getting him stimulated to breath but he would not stop holding his breath and milk just kept coming out of his mouth. Paul was so panicked he could not even find the syringe so I grabbed it and started suctioning his mouth and nose. He finally started breathing but after a breath would go back to holding it because he was refluxing so bad. He finally started breathing normal but the poor kiddo was so worked up. Daddy was ready to call an ambulance and take him back to the hospital. Talk about getting your heart rate going. That night Paul went out and bought a rock in play sleeper that keeps him slightly elevated when sleeping and it has helped Tate so much. He sleeps soundly in it and we wake him at night to feed him. A scary episode has lead to a much happier Tate. We are not going to start him on meds yet for relux if we can control it with good burping, keeping him upright after eating and his inclined rocker. Hoping he grows out of it quickly. He takes about 2 ounces at each feed and he now weighs 6lbs9oz. He is such a chunky monkey!

Tate

Kenzie

Kenzie is still so small!

Floor time for all.

Don't think they are enjoying floor time that much.

Kenzie has done wonderfully since coming home. She doesn't always enjoy starting her feeds since she tends to bite on her tongue while we try and get the bottle in but once she decides that she wants to join the eating party she takes over and wins the race. She takes 45ml consistently except for her two bottles a day of formula. She despises those two feeds and will often leave some for her little brother Tate to finish! The kids get all breastmilk except for two feeds in which they get a formula called Neosure which has extra calories and also extra minerals and vitamins that they need since they were born early.  Kenzie has been pretty laid back since coming home. It is hilarious though when she teams up with her brother. Tate will be screaming, usually to eat, and he decides he needs a break so Kenzie takes over and then as soon as Tate starts up again she quiets down. Such awesome partners in crime! When Kenzie was being discharged we found out that Kenzie had developed a Grade II head bleed sometime between week one and week four of her hospital stay. Thankfully  Grade I and II head bleeds should not cause any lasting developmental delays. We do not know when Kenzie's bleed occurred but we knew this was a risk we took when we choose to have four babies at one time and knowing they would be preemies. The blood vessels in preemies are very fragile and these babies are at increased risk for brain bleeds. We praise God that none of the other kiddos developed any bleeds and Kenzie's was only a Grade II.

Love seeing them snuggled up together

Tummy Time

Rylan and Isabella are continuing to do well and are making big steps in the right direction to come home. Rylan's follow up head ultrasound came back totally normal. We were so happy after we had gotten some concerning news after his one week ultrasound. For having four babies born at 31 weeks we can not believe how well they have all done. It is amazing what prayers can do! We thank God everyday for choosing us to be the parents to these amazing little babies. Paul and I look at these four and wonder which two were non viable per the fertility clinic? 

I'm just as bored with this place as you are Rylan

Isabella

 We want to thank the wonderful families that have brought us meals. It has been so fabulous being able sit down as a family and have a yummy dinner in the evenings. We appreciate these meals so very much. And a very special thank you to Mary who has become the kids new "grandma". We thank you for everything you have done for our family and thank you for loving our kids and Paul & I too! 

Our Peanut is home!!

So on Wednesday Tate went back to the nicu and told Kenzie how cool it was at home and she decided she was a big girl and was ready to leave the hospital. So that afternoon we brought home our Baby A. Kenzie weighed in that day at 3lbs14oz. I had to laugh as I was carrying her out because I never thought I would be bringing home a baby that wasn't even four pounds. She is almost hard to cuddle with because she is so tiny. But boy do her mom and dad love her. It has been so fun having two at home but it does scare Paul and I just a tad to think we still have two more to bring home!! It will be at least another week though before this happens because both Rylan and Isabella had heart rate drops yesterday. They must go a full seven days without an episode before they can come home. We have had some one on one discussions with them lately though because I am about done with these

Tate telling Kenzie all about the outside world

Who's bigger...the paci or Kenzie??

Paul and I both picked up Kenzie and I had total mommy's guilt because I did not even hold Rylan or Isabella while I was there. I felt awful but I know they will not remember that one day when mom did not hold them. Since we haven't gotten a new van yet we have to now officially drive two cars every where if we want to go as a family. So I brought the babies and Drew home and Paul went and picked up the girls from school. I tucked the babies into their crib when we got home and I absolutely love seeing babies snuggled together in bed. I then took Drew and we went and sat in the hot tub. Can you tell I am so not a first time mom...I had a monitor so I knew they would be just fine!! After dinner auntie and Jess came over along with grandpa and grandma and we had some very over tired older kids so it was bath time for the olders and then bed. Kenzie and Tate then got their baths and it was a wonderful first night with two kiddos home. They slept well and Paul and I conquered the feeds without a problem. Daddy did say he was completely exhausted and I reminded him that I had mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I could wake him up every three hours when I was pumping to prepare him for the kids arrival but he didn't take me up on that offer!

Grandma & Auntie

Mommy's favorite-bath time!

The hood was half as big as her body

"Auntie enough with the pictures already"

I think he is a tad stressed being home!

He loves his bath but hates getting out.

Daddy with Tate & Kenzie

Today I took Kenzie and Tate back to the nicu to visit their brother and sister. Natalie and Aubrey wanted to make sure I was bringing them back home and not leaving them. It is a little different being totally  in charge of two of the babies while the nurses still help with the other two. But I was proud of myself because I pumped and feed four kids in less than 90 minutes. I even came home and allowed Paul to nap with Drew during a round because I was feeling nice! The babies are now tucked in their swing for an afternoon siesta and Paul and I are going to go spend a little time with the kids outside. Life is getting busy; school, Paul working, two babies at home, two babies still in the hospital and just the day to day task of life. Don't think I can fit too much more in but I do have to say I am loving life right now!

Two big sisters watching over their babies

One Little Man Home!!

Our Baby C, Tate Richard, was the first little one we welcomed home on Tuesday. It felt so good to be bringing one home but yet we were torn because we were leaving three others at the hospital. I know we have to start somewhere to get them all home so today was that starting point. We have started the final journey with the quads...bringing them home to be part of our family.

I spent the morning with the kids with about 7 other moms from our local mothers of multiples group. It was a beautiful morning and I know I will not be able to get out with these ladies for a while once we get this kiddos home. Paul and I then dropped off Natalie and Aubrey at school and they were so excited because they knew that their baby brother was going to pick them up from school. Natalie is still crying with drop off put she told us she wasn't going to do it anymore...there is hope! Then it was time to go love on our munchkins in the nicu. We got some quality time with Isabella and Rylan. Kenzie was busy completing her car seat challenge. It was then time to pack Tate up and go get the girls from school. They were ecstatic when they saw Baby Tate. They couldn't go wash their hands fast enough because they wanted to touch him.

Mommy, Drew and Rylan

Daddy & Isabella

Not the baby anymore!

Tate

My boys minus one

Getting home with him was a tad anxiety producing, only because I had three kids that literally wanted to be on top of him. Daddy came to the rescue and took all the older kids out to the spa so I could pump and relax with Tate for a little while. The older kids were big helpers when it came time for bath and I think they feel as though it is a task they can do all by themselves. It will be nice when some of the newness wears off! The best part of having Tate home is seeing Paul really loving and cuddeling with his son. It just melts my heart. Paul did quickly get out of feedings for the night though because he had to get up for work at 4:30 this morning. He was so sweet though and did rent me a movie to watch during feeding/pumping sessions. And the movie was so fitting, "What to expect when you are expecting". I do have to say I found it to be a pretty good movie at 2:30 in the morning! 

At Home!!

Aubrey loves being a big sister

First bath. Great startle reflex!

Mommas helpers. (Natalie looks like she is in one of those mirrors at the fair that distorts you!)

There is nothing better than the smell of a baby just out of the bath

He looks so small in his crib. He needs some siblings to cuddle with.

A cat nap before the 11pm feed

Tate Richard we are so glad you are home. We can not wait to see you blossom!!