We are still alive, I promise.

I have been a horrible blogger! :(

Just a little update....

Chaz been has home with mom, dad and Turbo for almost 3 weeks now! He is doing awesome!
He is eating like a champ and as of Tuesday he weighs 5lbs. Yay for our little chubber. I know I know, you are probably saying "5lbs? That isn't a chubber at all" but to us it is! haha

I think I have passed sleep deprived and am now onto zombie. He really isn't a horrible sleeper and usually only wakes up twice a night but it is the fact that I have a hard time going back to sleep once I lay him down again.

Turbo loooves his little brother. I do think that he is feeling a little neglected because he isn't getting our attention 24/7 anymore but he is adjusting well. He is so protective of him. The second that Chaz wakes up and cries Turbo runs to him, sits down and looks at me like "help him, now". It is sooo cute and I am glad he is doing so good with him. I will say that I was a bit worried at first because Turbo is such a big boy for just being a puppy but I am so proud of him. He is a great big brother!

All in all we are loving our little guy and can't get enough of him! Him and mom have a blast all day :) I really need to get better and snapping pictures of him because he is growing so fast and he always has picture perfect moments.

Prayers and positive thoughts for Chaz!

We found out earlier today that 3 of the babies in the NICU have come down with NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis). It is an infection of the intestines. One has been sent to primary childrens to have surgery it was so severe. The two others have been put on antibiotics and they seem to have caught it early.

The worst part is that the 3 that have it were in the same nursing unit as Chaz. Chaz is the only one that was in that unit that does not have it. All of the other babies (the ones that were not in that unit) have been moved to a whole different section of the NICU. Chaz has to stay in the area with the two that do have it just in case. They have ran tests and so far have found no evidence that links the 3 cases to each other which means it was most likely not something transfered from one baby to another, just a coincedence (sp?) that those 3 got it at the same time. But they are keeping Chaz in that area just incase they find something that does link the 3 cases because they don't want to expose the other "healthy" babies.

The part that upsets me the most is that they knew about this last night when we went to his evening feeding and they didn't tell us. We knew something was up because they were moving all of the babies and cleaning the whole area from top to bottom. We asked but we were told the babies were being moved due to staffing issues. The regular pedi (the one that has been there since Chaz was born was the on call pedi not the regular pedi) was there this morning and explained everything to us. I feel a bit better because he seems very sincere in keeping us updated and answering any questions we have, where as the other pedi was trying to hide things from us.

We had some tests ran on Chaz and so far everything seems fine. He has no signs of the infection and all his tests and x-rays came back clean. Please say a little prayer or keep him in your thoughts that he stay infection free and he can get the hell out of that joint soon. :) I have been an absolute mess today. Not only do I want my baby home where he belongs but I can't eat or sleep knowing that my babe could get this infection.

In other news he is eating WONDERFULLY! :) At his last 4 feedings he has eaten 35 to 40 (they upped his minimum to 35) all on his own and hasnt needed to be fed through the tube. I hope he keeps it up and is released soon.

Our little man is here! Surprise!

Chaz Christopher was born February 7, 2009 at 10:01AM, 5 weeks and 2 days early!

He is just a little guy at 4lbs 9oz and 17inches long.

Our little champ is still in the NICU but we are hoping not for much longer. He is maintaining his temp. perfectly and breathing on his own. The pedi would like to see him eat 30 cc's every 3 hours. He can usually take about 20 on his own and then tires out. Whatever is left of the 30 is then tube fed to him. As soon has he is able to take the full 30 on his own he should be good to come home.

Keep our little guy in your thoughts and prayers. We can't wait till he gets to come home with his mommy and daddy!

He truly is perfect in every way! Brett and I are both so in love it is unbelievable.

I will try to post a birth story soon and update with more info and pictures. Thanks for every ones support!

Take time to hug the ones you love.

I want to share a little story but I must warn that I may ramble a bit. :)

Saturday was just a regular day. I worked in the salon and went to hang out with my mom for a bit until Brett got off work. Brett had been in a bit of an "off" mood that day. I tried to just brush it off and not take it personal, everyone has their down days.

Well getting to the point... Brett and I ended up fighting over something stupid while I was still at my moms and he was on his way home. I didn't feel like going home and dealing with it right then, I figured I would stay a bit longer at my moms and give us both time to cool down. Brett gets home to find that he has no way in the house, he had forgot his garage door opener. He calls and asks me to come let him in. At this point neither one of us had done any sort of cooling off yet, haha. As I am driving home I get a text from Brett saying "Never mind I am just going to stay at my moms." This of course hits a nerve and I am sure I replied with something a bit snarky.

I figure that I will still just go home and go to bed early and hopefully everything will be better in the morning. As I am passing Bretts mothers house (it is on the way) I realized that his truck wasn't in the drive way at the same time that I noticed hundreds (or so it seemed) flashing lights at the busy intersection a few blocks down. I look at the time of the last text message I received and Brett should have been to his moms by now, with lots of time to spare and would have been coming through that very intersection. Of course I panic! As I approach the accident I can see that 2 cars are completely flipped over and another is up on the curb, the police have the entire intersection blocked off and I can't clearly make out what kind of cars they are, but one of the ones flipped over is def. blue..... our truck is BLUE!

I immediately dial Bretts number only for it to ring and ring and finally go to his voicemail. At this point I am a blubbering mess. I could not get home fast enough, as I am driving I am looking at every single car I pass hoping to God that I see Brett. No Brett and no call back!

Finally as I am turning up our street my phone rings and I have never been more excited to see "My Hero" (yes, that is his name in my phone haha) show up on that screen. I answer with a screaming, crying "where are you?!" As I pulled into our drive way I noticed that he was just pulling on to our street, he had gone to the store down the road. I jumped out of my car at the same time he jumped out of his truck, he knew something was wrong at this point but wasn't sure what. Can I just say that I have NEVER hugged Brett so tight in my life!!!

You may be asking "Rachel, what was the point of this story other than you and Brett fight like little children?" Well to this I say.... Don't take anything for granted! Fighting with the ones you love, especially over something stupid is a complete waste of time. You should be making the most of every second you have with that person because you never know when that person will be taken from you! I cannot imagine living with myself knowing that the last conversation I had with Brett didn't even end with an "I love you!"

Well that's it, story time is over. :) I told you I was going to ramble on haha.

PS. We have an appointment to see the babe tomorrow. Yay! I will be sure to update with pictures if we get any good ones. Also I have my GD test, blah. Wish me luck.

Stubborn little guy... just like his daddy!

We had our target u/s today and we were expecting to get a good look at our little buddy but he was not having it. From what we could see everything looks great. According to the Dr. Chaz is measuring a bit big and she wouldn't be surprised if I went a bit earlier than March 16th. She was very surprised at how low he was hanging out but isn't concerned because my cervix seems to be long and closed up. We were able to get an ok face shot with the 3D but not what I was expecting. He was doing everything in his power to prevent us from getting a good look at his cute face.

^If you look closely you can somewhat make out his little face. I think is going to have my little nose but for sure Bretts lips and cheeks. Too cute!

We didn't get a picture but it was so cute in the middle of the u/s he flexed his arm and gave us a great look at his BIG MUSCLES!

Belly pictures!

^ 22 weeks

^24 weeks

Late update. (Baby and Pumpkin carving)

I really am I horrible blogger. ::shrugs:: hey, at least I can admit that I have a problem.

When I left you last I had an appointment the following day. Well, that was well over a week ago haha but here is the update.

Everything looks GREAT. We got some more definate "boy" shots. Yay for our little man. Too bad that and his tush is the only thing he felt like showing off. We didn't get any good shots of him, just his junk... what a little perv. :P

He has been a bouncing bean ever since. Before I would think I felt him move every once in a while but wasn't sure. He has since made it very well known that he is in there and doesn't plan on going anywhere any time soon.

Brett has been getting a bit jealous at the fact that I can feel Chaz kick and he can't, but then again who wouldn't.... I giggle and grin every time I feel him. Brett just never seems to be around when Chaz wants to play "kick mommy".

Well that all changed last night! I had been home sick all day and Chaz refused to let me rest, he wanted to play ALL DAY! I knew that Bretts chance had come so as soon as we got snuggled into bed I told him "Just put your hand on my belly you HAVE to feel something." After about ten times of me going "did you feel that?" with no success Chaz gave us both a big wack! Brett looked at me with HUGE eyes and asked "was that it?" Just so that there was no confusion Chaz gave us one more thump! Brett was over the moon. He kept poking my belly trying to get Chaz to do it again, but it was a lost cause. He was done for the night!

-----------

Here are some late pictures of Brett and I carving pumpkins for Halloween. Brett had to work late on Halloween so my mom came over and we passed out candy. I was a bit disappointed since we didn't get too many trick-or-treaters, the ones we did get were mostly obnoxious teenagers. :( All in all it was a pretty lame Halloween but thats ok next year should be a blast with Chaz!

Here is our attempt at a family picture! Turbo isn't too cooperative when it comes to taking photos but he was loving the fact that he got to be up on the counter. Aren't the pumpkins I painted for the babes soo cute!?

Belly picture time!

Here are some belly pics. I have gone from taking them every 4 weeks to every 2 because this boy is growing like crazy! I love it.

^ 18 weeks. Don't mind the creepy look on my face. I was mid-sentence when my mom snapped the picture.

Here I am at 20 weeks. You may not be able to tell but there is a big difference. If I get brave I may do a bare belly shot soon. Then you can REALLY tell the difference.

Tomorrow is our next appointment. I can't wait to see our little guy! :) Wish us luck.