Elden is off the bili-lite for a second day in a row! WOW! He received a head ultrasound this morning and he brain bleed is going down. He still weighs 2 pounds 11 ounces. I got to feed him a bottle again. I will do this once a day. Today he drank about 4 ounces.

Another update! Elden is off the bili-lite (today anyway and I won't be surprised if he is on it tomorrow again) and is at 23 milliliters of milk. The nurses are also adding some "booster" to it. It's some sort of powder they put in my milk to fortify it or something. Today the nurse and I got to bottle feed Elden. He drank almost 3 milliliters. It was his first day with a bottle and the doctor and nurse told me not to expect much. (Which didn't surprise me because he is only "31" weeks today and usually babies don't develop the suck-breathe-swallow thing till 34 weeks.)

It has been nice having my parents and Cal here with me. I don't know if I am the best hostess, but it has been fun having family around. My parents and Cal came to church with me. I wasn't going to have Cal go to Primary unless he wanted to, and he didn't want to. But my mom offered to go with Cal to Primary and he wanted to go! When they separated into classes, Cal said goodbye to my mom and went off with his class. I was happy about that.

Our 3rd hour meeting at church was good. They talked about church welfare, budgeting, and self reliance. I made a comment about Lee and I getting out of debt and how fun it is working towards this goal. It is so fun for us that it is extremely easy to say "no" to our kids when they ask us to buy stuff and it is easier for us to delay our own personal spending desires too. I thought it was great that when people do need assistance from the church, that one of the first things that is done is really looking at if the people are in need financially and then education begins right away on budgeting and managing their finances. (Sorry for the long sentence.) I think that is a HUGE problem with many people-- they are financially illiterate/uneducated, whatever you want to call it. Wonder why there are so many people in foreclosures? They believed the bankers that they could "afford" the maximum approved loan. I know that isn't the only reason for foreclosures, but it is one of the reasons I think.

I hope all of you have a great week!

Another update:

They have been increasing Elden's feeds everyday. Yesterday he was up to 18 milliliters and then last night they upped him to 21 and now he is on 23 milliliters. He is off of his lipids and "baby gatorade" (aka TPN). He was receiving those two fluids through an IV. They are taking the IV out today, so that will be nice. The nurse is putting some sort of "booster" into my milk to fortify it more or something. He is on the bili-lite again.

When we go home I bet I'll have extra milk to bring home. I have quite a bit at the hospital that all the milk I pump at the House I just leave at the house. They have a freezer in the basement and a deep freezer on the 2nd floor. And if I have some milk in the freezer I can give Lee several opportunities to bond with his 5 children!

I have been feeling well. This has been my easiest recovery out of all of my pregnancies. One reason I think it's been easier is because I haven't had to take care of any kids, just myself. By the time I get home I'll be ready to take care of five kids.

I took these pictures of Elden today. They were taken on my webcam so the quality isn't that great. He is doing well today. Though he was put back under the bili-lite. They increased his feedings yet again from 12 milliliters to 15 milliliters. He is doing well with the increased milk so that is great!

Elden had a really good day yesterday. He was off of the bili-lite and they had increased his feedings to 9 milliliters. He received another head ultrasound recently and his brain bleed looked the same. He will receive another ultrasound in two weeks. He also had a messy diaper yesterday all on his own which was great! (Without any laxative! He's been having troubles in that area lately.)

Today he is doing great too. His feedings are up to 12 milliliters now and he is still off the bili-lite. He gained some weight yesterday--he weighed in at 2 pounds 7 ounces. And today he weighs 2 pounds 9 ounces! Plus he had two more messy diapers all on his own! I am thankful that he is progressing! He did get kicked out of his "private" room. Oh well.

Sally, one of the nurses there, signed up to be one of Elden's primary nurses. The other primary nurse works nights, so I haven't met her yet. I really like Sally though so I was really happy when she told me that she was also signing up to care for him.

My sister sent me this link for free stuff for your birthday. Check it out!

http://www.freebirthdaytreats.com/

Also, I must give more details on Clark and Cal's trip. Yes, my sister Lena is amazing! Well, all of my sisters and sisters-in-law are. So I am assuming all of you saw the picture with Clark and the leprechaun trap. I also wrote about the surprises they found on the morning of Saint Patrick's Day. Well, also that week, they went to some parks, one of them was a gun boat park. They went to someone's house who keeps bees and got to see and learn about that. They camped outside three nights in a row. A friend of Mike's came to their house one night with a really nice telescope and they saw some constellations and Saturn. The kids also had a swamp party--which I am not sure what that is. Plus the kids went fishing twice and of course it was great because Grandpa was with them! Lena had a fun-filled week for all of the kids. She and my mom also did some fun shopping together. The boys seemed to have a great time and I am sure that Shanna and Haley enjoyed seeing their brothers and grandma and grandpa.

I am going to hold Elden now! Enjoy your Wednesday evening!

Last week all of my kids, (except Elden) were at Lena's. Lena, as always, went all out and had great activities for all the kids everyday. They seemed to all have a great time. Cal was excited to see his "babies"--Shanna and Haley.

Lee and I had a nice weekend together. I am sad that he can't stay with me, but I know the boys will be happy to have him around.

Elden is doing about the same, which is good. They did increase his feedings up to 6 milliliters of my milk. He is still under the bili-lite. This morning he received another head ultrasound so hopefully I will find out the results tomorrow about his brain bleed.

I just met my "neighbor" from antepartum. She had twins and one had basically stopped growing, so she had a c-section at 27 weeks. She delivered her boy/girl twins the same day as Elden's delivery, just a few hours earlier. Last night I met a lady that is here with her baby from Saint Robert.

Enjoy the pictures!

Clark and a leprechaun trap


The morning of Saint Patrick's Day they found that the leprechauns didn't get trapped, but instead turned their milk green and left other goodies!


Here is a group picture of the cousins together. I wonder if Lena's house feels "empty" now?






For FHE March 9 the lesson was on gardening and why we should plant gardens. For the treat Lena made pudding topped with crushed oreos and worms. The worms look so real! She used fondant to make the worms.



Even though Shanna's face is messy, and she has end-of-the-day hair, I thought this was such a CUTE picture of her! It's a very Dr. Suess-ish picture.


One day Kirsten opened up a tattoo parlor, as Lena put it, and colored on my girls. It made me laugh when I saw these pictures.









I think these two pictures of Haley are darling! Shanna really likes to dress up, but Haley doesn't. One day though Haley wanted a bandanna on her head. SOO CUTE! And that is typical of my girls, Haley dressing up like a farm girl and Shanna dressing up like a princess!

On Thursday Elden was kicked out of his private room and put in the "hallway". Today after lunch Lee and were in the NICU by the reception desk and Elden was there in his isollete by the desk. I thought something was wrong! Apparently some babies went home so they moved Elden into another private room. Yeah! I don't mind if he is in the "hallway", but it is nice to be in a separate area.

I forgot to mention a couple of things in my last post. Tuesday night when Lee went back home he dropped me off at the church first and I went to Home, Family and Personal Enrichment. They did their Relief Society Birthday celebration that night. It was really nice. The evening consisted of presentations representing all facets of Relief Society. Someone did a presentation on emergency preparedness, someone else on Belle Spafford, another on the Prophets through the ages and their feelings about Relief Society, etc. It was a nice evening.

On Thursday I saw one of my antepartum nurses and that was fun. She went on a little trip to see her daughter and when she came back to work she was asking why I wasn't in my room.

The rash on my belly is gone I think. After I had this c-section and the one with my twins, I got a nasty rash on my belly. Something that was put on my belly to prep me for surgery gives me a nasty rash. I need to find out what it is that was put on me.





I hadn't unpacked my room yet