He's Home!!!

After 12 LONG days in the NICU Brock is finally home!

I feel like the Lord really took care of our family while he was in the hospital.  We had wonderful family and friends who were more than willing to help take care of other kids and bring in meals and offer prayers in our behalf.  To all of you, our family says THANK YOU!  We couldn't have done it without your help!

As soon as Brock came home yesterday, the kids have been loving him to pieces.  They just can't seem to get enough of the little guy.  I don't even know how many times the kids have asked me to hold him, especially Karli and Maya.

Jarren's nickname for his brother is "BrockStar".

 

Sweet little boy! We're so glad to finally have you home! 

Brock Update

Brock is continuing to improve.  He finished his antibiotic treatment for pneumonia yesterday, so the nurses were able to take out his IV.  He let them  know how bad it hurts to pull tape out of hair.  He also got rid of his feeding tube.  He eats pretty good, but the nurses make him eat more than he seems to really want to eat.  Now we are just waiting for him to get rid of his oxygen.  They keep trying to turn it down, but Brock just isn't ready yet.  Hopefully, that will change soon.

Halle's Birthday

Halle turned 3 on Friday.  Since I had just been discharged from the hospital, she had to wait awhile to open her presents, but she was a good sport.  The day was somewhat chaotic, but it was fun!

Presents are always fun!

Happy Birthday Halle!  We love you and are so glad you are part of our family!

They Got to SeeTheir Brother

After waiting for a week the kids finally got to see Brock in person.  It was through the glass doors of the NICU, but for them it was better than only seeing him in pictures.  It brought tears to my eyes to see them finally get to see their brother.  They have been more than patient waiting for him, and it makes me so proud of them.  Brock was awake and ready to see them.  And the kids absolutely loved every second of the 3 minutes they got to see him. 

Baby Brock

 Welcome Brock Jason!

We are excited to say that our little baby was born on August 15.  He entered this life a little earlier than we had planned.  I was only 35 weeks, so we expected him to stay put inside of me for at least another 1-3 weeks; he had other plans.  He weighed 5 lbs. 10 oz. and was 17 1/2 inches.

Since he was so early, he has had a little bit of a rough start. 

Day 1- After about 15 hours of labor (very atypical for me, since my longest labor was 3 hours), Brock was born, but was really struggling to breathe.  The doctors tried to just give him oxygen, but his little body was so tired, so they finally had to put him on a ventilator.  Then because they needed to draw some of his blood to check for infection, but couldn't get enough blood anywhere, they finally ended up putting an IV straight into his bellybutton.  Because of the ventilator and IV we weren't able to hold him. :(

He's a little fighter, he was constantly pulling at the tubes in his mouth and the patches on his chest.

Day 2- Brock was able to be weaned off of the ventilator and put on just the oxygen in his nose. The IV in his bellybutton was also taken out.  That meant that last night at about 7:00 we were finally able to hold him.  It was a very fun time being able to hold our baby!

Day 3- I forgot to take the camera into the NICU with us. :(  Today has been a day full of mixed emotions.  I was discharged from the hospital, but my baby had to stay.  I've never had to do that before.  It's Halle's birthday, and I feel torn between spending time with her and the other kids at home and being with Brock at the hospital.  A bright spot though, right before we left the hospital this afternoon Brock was finally able to drink milk out of a bottle, we were so proud of him.  Hopefully, this will continue... it's one more step towards coming home.  Keep up the good work baby boy!

Time in the Mountains

Our family loves to go the mountains and cook hot dogs and s'mores.  We've only made it out once so far this year, but hopefully we'll be able to do it again soon.  The day we went it had been a bit rainy, but the weather cooperated for us.  We had a hard time getting our fire to stay lit, I guess we need some new wood.  We'll work on that for next time.

The girls had fun finding walking sticks and using those as they walked around.

The girls had fun walking around, while Jason and Jarren did the cooking.  The men did great; our food turned out DELICIOUS!

4th of July

We started the 4th of July at the zoo.  The girls were all about having their picture taken.  It took several tries to get Jarren to get in.

We have a season pass to the zoo, so we've already gone a few times this year, but we always like to ride the train while we're there.  Now there is a brand new exhibit with a polar bear, otters, sea lions and stuff like that.  Today was our first day to see it and it was awesome!

After the zoo we went to the new City Creek Mall.  We had been there once before and it's pretty amazing! While we were at City Creek we lost Halle and it was a pretty scary 10 minutes before we finally found her.

Jason's brother, Jeremy, and his family were in town for the 4th, so here are all of the cousins on Jason's side of the family.

Jason's other brother, Laren, was all about putting on a firework display.  I think he ended up with about 33 aerial fireworks.  He put on quite the firework show.  The cops came once, to check out the show and make sure his fireworks were all legal (they were), and there were even 2 upset neighbors after the 3rd firework went off.  I guess that makes it even better.

Here is Halle at the end of the evening.  I love how she has her ears covered!