Hip Hip Hooray!!

The wash machine is going, Kai is content, and I have brushed my teeth. I consider this morning a success. :) Thought I would take a moment to update my blog since I haven't done so in a while!
Yesterday I had to take Kai to Iowa City for another checkup. I had to go by myself which I wasn't crazy about, but it turned out ok. Fellow mom's understand how nice it was to listen to NOT kid CDs or just have silence if I so desired...ahhh sweet silence...I miss you! :) I left a little early and hit up the Coralville Mall and actually found stuff for myself-that NEVER happens so I consider it a sucess! I even bought a few birthday/Christmas gifts-go me! :)
We have been tapering off on Kai's dilations and I was really hoping that they would tell me we could stop. My wishes were granted-Dr. Pitcher said that everything looked GREAT and he was extremely pleased. I pointed out some more "cosmetic" issues that I wanted to make sure weren't going to lead to other issues (I tend to be a slight bit paranoid, but I think that's acceptable) and Dr. Pitcher smiled and said something to the effect of "I do the best I can, but I am a man. I can't make it like the Creator would." :) I knew I liked this guy! :) He said that's Kai's little bum looks almost better than normal and we can completely stop the dilations!!! YAY!!! We have to go back the end of October for Kai's MRI and we'll see Dr. Pitcher again and he will evaluate Kai to make sure he hasn't regressed at all, but he didn't seem to think that would be a problem. He said he may have some problems with constipation in a month or so, but was very thorough in explaining how to spot it since it's a little different than normal constipation and I feel confident that I could do so. He commented on how happy Kai was and was rewarded with a "full face" smile! :)
On a completely different note: my Ellie girl has her first cheer clinic this afternoon-she is VERY excited and I have to admit that I'm pretty excited too. :) I have to admit, I kind of wish I could get out there and cheer with her! HAHA wouldn't that be a sight! She gets to cheer before the football game on Friday so my little performer is VERY much looking forward to that! :)
Claire just informed me that my name is now "kid" and she is "Mom" and do I want some butter on my toast? Yes please. "Ok kid-it's time to eat your breakfast and then I have to go to the store". Guess I better get going to get something accomplished today! Wish me luck!! :)

On this day in 2010...

My Happy Little Man :)

This morning when I opened my Facebook page, a little message on the side told me what I had posted on this day in 2010. It was as follows:

Tiffani Harbaugh Brandt is SUPER excited to make the big announcement!! Another little Brandt will be joining our family next April! We are all very excited and I have answered about 6 million little questions in the last few days! :) Ellie cried she was so excited, and Darren is convinced the baby is warm and cozy with his blanky in there! :)

Part of me can't believe that was only 1 year ago and part of me feels like "holy smokes! It's been a year already!" From thinking we were going to lose him to a miscarriage to his issues after he was born, it's been a wild ride but I am thankful every day for my squishy smiley little boy. He brings so much joy to our family. He adores his big brother and sisters, even when they are rocking his swing like maniacs and in his face kissing him constantly. He just goes with the flow and is happy as long as he has a clean diaper, a full tummy and Mommy in his sight! :) He even tolerates his mommy kissing on his squishy cheeks all the time.

I remember being giddy with excitement when I pushed "post" on that message. I think it was because I knew that he was going to be my last baby so I was determined to enjoy every second of it! I'm still trying too and it just seems to be going so fast! My heart still gets a little sad when I tuck him into his crib in Darren's room-now "The Boys" room- instead of his little cradle in my room, and I admit, I cry a little when I have to put bigger clothes in his closet, but at the same time, he is growing and laughing and talking and is so much fun to be with. AND sleeping consistently thru the night is WONDERFUL! :)

So Kai Geordon Brandt, my Little Man, I am so glad I was able to post that update on this date in 2010. You make our family complete and I can't imagine my life without you in it! I love you Buddy!

New Header!!!

I was just so excited with my new blog header that I just had to share! Thanks SO much to my awesomely talented sis-in-law Heather Brandt for designing it for me! :) AND on a side note...seriously-look at those kids-how CUTE are they!! :)

Missing Darren...or Not!

Tonight's bedtime routine was a little less hectic than normal due to the fact that we are down a kid! Darren and Owen are having a special "Boys Weekend" with the very brave (and I am quite certain by now TIRED) Grandma and Papa! Darren was very excited to spend some quality time with his BFF Owen and I'm sure they are having a blast.
Anyway, tonight while we were eating, Sam was teasing the girls and said something to the effect of "You know what? We don't need Darrey. Let's just leave him at Grandma and Papa's." Claire got this look on her face and I honestly thought she was going to cry! I wish you could have heard her-she almost sounded hysterical! "NO DADDY!!! NO! DON'T LEAVE HIM AT GRANDMA AND PAPA'S HOUSE!!!! NO Daddy! Darrey needs to come HOME!!!" Awww...isn't that sweet, I said to myself. Claire is missing her brother! So I asked her why she didn't want Darren to stay at Grandma and Papa's, all the while imagining her response of something along the lines of "I miss him!" or "I wuv him"...you know something sweet and sappy. *SIGH* I should have known better! :) Her actual response made her baby brother jump as both Sam and I just BUSTED out laughing. "Mommy, Darrey HAS to come home" "Why??" "Because if he doesn't come home then I can't go to Grandma and Papa's!" HAHAHAHA! She wasn't worried or missing her big brother at all! She just wanted him to get home so she could have her special time with Grandma and Papa!!! That girl...LOVE HER TO DEATH! :)

"Nope, They're All Mine!"

It's been a while! Big kids are outside playing and little kid is asleep, so while I haven't showered or brushed my teeth yet today :) I decided to share a few little "funnies" as my kids call them with you. :)
So last Monday we got all new windows installed in our house-YAY! :) They look fabulous and I love them, but anyhoo. We had been at Garnavillo Conference for the weekend and while everything was unpacked, there were some clothes in laundry baskets, etc that needed to be put away. My thought was that since the living room was ready to go, they could start there and I could just stay one step ahead of them in the bedrooms, etc. Well, that's not how it works. These guys were FAST! They had all the old windows out and the new ones installed in less than 2 hours. They had outside work to do after that, but holy shamoley they were all over the place in here! Of course the 3 older kids had formed the welcoming committee and were making every attempt possible to engage the workers in conversation so they could show off, but Kai was sleeping so he hadn't made his appearance yet. The foreman of the crew walked into our room where Kai was sleeping in his cradle and said "Holy Smokes! There's ANOTHER baby in here! Are you running a daycare????" AND HE WAS COMPLETELY SERIOUS!!!! HAHAHA! I just looked at him and said, "Nope! They're all mine!" and just about died laughing. He felt so bad I think he apologized to me about 100 times, but I wasn't offended and I think I will remember it as long as I live. :)
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Sunday we went out for Chinese for lunch. My children absolutely LOVE chinese food. We had finished lunch and were passing out fortune cookies. The kids would open them and pass them to Sam to read. Little Miss Independent Claire decided to read her own and said "Mommy! Guess what my fortune says?" I played along and said "what?". Her answer melted my heart. She was dead serious as she commented with a big smile on her cute little face "It says 'I Love Mommy!!'". Awwwww!
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Quick update on Kai:
He is doing great. He's almost 10 weeks already!!! He's kind of a little chunky monkey and I would guess he weighs about 13 or 14 lbs by now! That is unusual for my kids-I think Ellie was about 13 lbs last week! :) Seriously tho-my kids have always been scrawny babies, so I love his chubby cheeks and legs! :) He has started to smile and "talk" quite a bit and LOVES his Mommy! :) There are times I wish he wasn't SO much, but I guess if that's the worst of it, I can handle a baby who just wants to snuggle with Mommy! :)
We head back to Iowa City next week to meet with the surgeon. Hopefully he will tell us that we can taper off and then stop the dilations here soon. We cut back to once a day tomorrow so I think we're headed in that direction. He has to have an ultrasound of his kidneys when we are there since they were a little enlarged when we were in Iowa City after his surgery but the neonatologist wasn't too concerned. This is basically a check to make sure everything is ok, but they are assuming it will be fine. Thanks again for all the prayers on our behalf!
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Ok, the 3 big hooligans are hungry and I think the little one might be too, so I better log off for now! Have a wonderful day!! :)

It's times few and far between when I have a chance to be online these days! But, my little people are all sleeping and I keep thinking Kai is going to wake up and want to eat, so I don't want to lay down because he has a wonderful knack for knowing the exact second that I get warm and start to feel drowsy and that's when he wakes up! :)

Just thought I would update everyone on his progress and what's going on. Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers. They mean so much to Sam and I.

We went back to Iowa City on Tuesday for a follow-up with Dr. Pitcher, the pediatric surgeon who did Kai's surgery. He was VERY pleased with Kai's progress and said everything looks great. The stiches all fell out like they were supposed to, so I was glad they didn't actually have to remove them. He said the placement is perfect and the healing looks great, so that was wonderful to hear. HOWEVER, now we had to start dilation of poor little Kai's bum. SOOO not a fun thing! Basically I have to put a little metal thing into his bum morning and night. I almost cried the first time I had to do it, and Kai was not pleased either to say the least. Dr. Pitcher made me do it with him watching the first time. I started and then stopped and told him I just couldn't do that to poor Kai. He just smiled and told me it was either that or another surgery down the road. I did it. Every time I do it, it's a little less traumatic and Kai is tolerating it better too. Dr. Pitcher said before too long it won't even really bother him much at all. I think I've said it before, but we are really pleased with Dr. Pitcher. He is very easy to talk to and is a very "real" person. It makes this whole process a lot easier when you completely trust the person running the show! And not just Dr. Pitcher either-I need to keep telling myself that-"This whole proces is much easier when you have faith and just put your trust in the ONE who is running the show!" I have to admit, it's not always easy, especially when I see my sweet baby in pain, but I'm trying.

We head down to Iowa City again in 2 weeks and every 2 weeks after. Each time they will increase the size of the dilation tool until it's where Dr. Pitcher thinks it should be. I was worried it would be a long process-like several YEARS of dilating, but he said probably just 3-6 months, so I can handle that. Plus, when you go to a clinic like that and see how much worse things could be, it really makes you count your blessings and realize this is VERY do-able

Other than that, Kai is a model baby. He is just about the cutest thing I have ever seen and one of these days I will get some pics of him up here and on Facebook. He hasn't got the memo about sleeping good at night yet, but he's getting there. He tolerates the "love" he is constantly surrounded with VERY well. Claire is CONVINCED that he needs his pluggy at all times, so we are working on that he actually does NOT need it ALL the time and when he does we do not just SHOVE it in his mouth. Poor kid! :) He gets about 400 million kisses a day and the SECOND he makes a peep from his bed, I hear about it and 3 little people are there INSTANTLY to see if he's awake! :) To say they are in love is an understatement, but I wouldn't want it any other way. It gets a bit challenging at times, but overall, it's nice they love him so much. He's very calm and has proved he can sleep thru the chaos that is our house, so we are pretty sure we'll keep him. :)

I hear the tell-tale little squeaks and grunts :) that there's a little man starting to wake up, so will wrap up for now. Thanks again for all the thoughts and prayers.

Update on Baby Kai

What a whirlwind few days of life my little man has had! For those who don't have Facebook :) Kai Geordon Brandt was born on April 7th at 4:33 PM. He was 7 lbs 7.9 oz and 20.5 inches long. Seriously, he is the cutest baby ever. To quote a very special Granny "It's not biased, it's just the truth!" :) Shortly after Kai was born, they found he had low blood sugar. He wasn't really wanting to eat and was very sleepy. Nothing could really get him to eat, so we, per a dr order, had to give him some formula. It broke my heart, because I so badly wanted to nurse him, and in my brain, even one formula feeding would screw all that up. Thankfully, it didn't but he still just wouldn't eat very good. I was a little concerned, but figured that he was just sleepy from being born and would come around eventually. We were laying in bed the next night and I remember laughing as I was changing Kai's diaper. I told Sam that he sure had a funny little butt. When he would poop, it wasn't the big yucky meconium poop that my other kids had. It was just little tiny spots in the diaper. I mentioned something to the nurse and she said that's just how some babies are and that was that. Saturday rolled around and preparations were being made for us to head home with our precious little man. The doctor came in to give us info about Kai's circumcision, which was the only thing stopping us from going home. He said I probably won't see you again unless I have a problem and headed out. Sam went in to shower and I was talking to my mom on the phone when the dr came back in. My heart sank and I told Mom that I would have to call her back. The doctors words were something to the effect of "I did not do the circumcision and plans are in the works for you to head immediately to Iowa City. I have talked to the doctor there and they are expecting you." Turns out his funny little butt wasn't very funny at all. Basically, Kai was born without an anus. Seriously??? I didn't even know that could happen, but apparently it can! The little hole that he did have was something else I guess. We had to come to Iowa City because they don't have the capabilities at Covenant that they do here. So, here we are-on our way to Iowa City with my brand new sweetie, not a clue in the world what was wrong with him. I'm tired from being up at night trying to get him to eat and those lovely post pregnancy hormones are flowing like crazy and my mood swings are just as crazy. I tore a little during Kai's birth so that discomfort is there as well. LOVELY!! When we got here, on the of first things they did was of course, put in an IV. I absolutely HATE IV's in me. They hurt me like crazy and I was seriously just about hysterical as they were attempting to put his in. They wouldn't let me feed him once they knew we were headed to Iowa City, so of course he was a little dehydrated which makes it hard to start and IV. They had to work FOREVER to get it in and I will never in my life forget standing there with my head buried in Sam's side sobbing and listening to my baby whimper. It was all I could do to now grab him and run, even though I knew that wasn't an option. It was horrible. The pediatric surgeon, Dr Pitcher, came to talk to us later and upon examination, decided to go ahead and do surgery immediately to basically make him an anus. Things kind of went into high speed from there and before we knew it we were walking with him in a little oven looking thing heading to the OR. Again tears were shed as I had to turn and walk the opposite direction, but I was very comfortable knowing he was in good hands. Dr. Pitcher is really wonderful and we like him a lot. The staff here is all fabulous and we can't say enough about the care that Kai has received here. Kai's surgery went really well. Dr. Pitcher reassured us that everything went perfectly. From the way I understand it, the insides were pretty much intact, and they just had to cut a little hole and do a few things at the very end of the inside if that makes sense. Dr. Pitcher said they have a special tool that they use to find the perfect spot in the muscles, etc, so his little bum hole is now right where it should be! Kai hasn't seemed like he is in much, if any pain. They keep on top it with tylonel, and he seems to be doing great. The kid is a pooping machine now! All that meconium must have been backed up but it's all coming out now! I know your opinion of poop changes once you have kids, but I am seriously THRILLED everytime I smell that stinky smell! :) We have to stay at the hospital a few days for several reasons. Kai is on antibiotics to ward off infection from surgery, and that is via IV, so we have to stay here for that. The neonatologist, Dr. Morriss, said this morning that he wanted a CBC to see if Kai needs 3 or 5 days of antibiotics. 3 days would mean that we get to go home tomorrow, so please pray that he only needs 3. Kai is also having a whole bunch of tests done today as well. Basically, Dr. Morriss said that when there is any abnormality of this type, they do a whole bunch of other tests to make sure it's not part of something bigger. So far today, Kai has had a chest x-ray and a echocardiogram and we're waiting on an ultrasound of his renals and his spine. They are also hoping to get him off his IV fluids today, so they have been checking his glucose levels as well. That poor childs heels look like pin cushions but he seems to be tolerating it well. He is nursing very well which I am more than thrilled about. Sam and I spent the night last night at the Ronald McDonald House here in Iowa City. I desperately needed to soak in a bath tub and my poor ankles are no longer. I have never swelled this bad in my entire life. My feet and legs are huge. My mom and the wonderful nurses here convinced me to spend the night there last night to take care of myself too. It was absolutely awful to leave him, but I feel MUCH better today and he did wonderful during the night. The RMH is such an awesome place. I'll have to take some pics and blog about that in a post all it's own. Volunteers bring in food and such, so it's been wonderful to not have to eat at the cafeteria. The food there is mostly fried and honestly not very good. It's can get kind of pricey too, so this has been such an answer to prayer. This morning we had Panera bagels (donated by Panera) for breakfast and I packed up sandwiches, fresh veggies and cookies for lunch. Sam and I would like to thank you all for your prayers during all of this. We have to have our cell phones off, so if you have called or text us, we do get it and we appreciate it. Keep praying and we'll try to update when we can.