Brian Lindsey Braden Emmitt
Happy Father's Day Brian!! We love you so much! I am grateful to the wonderful father you are to our boys. Braden loves you and already tries to do everything just like you, I am sure Emmitt will be the same. I appreciate how much time you spend playing with the boys and being a part of every aspect of their lives. I know our children will have great memories of time spent with their daddy. So glad we get to be parents together, I certainly could not do it without you!
For Father's Day we spent it with just our little family of four and grilled filet migons and corn on the cob on the BBQ. We then enjoyed one of our favorite desserts fresh starwberries over pound cake with whipping cream, of course the real stuff NOT cool whip...which Braden helped me whip 
We got daddy a few fun little things for his special day: two blue-ray DVDs (brian loves getting new blue-rays), a new outfit (he is wearing below), and a massage gift card...since he massages he never gets one himself...weird how that works out.
Happy Father's Day...glad I made it home before this special day...Emmitt.
In this weeks library books Braden picked out one about a mouse making cookies, so he wanted to make some too. So we went to the kitchen and got started baking. Braden always likes to help put each ingredient in the mixer. He is usually really careful and does a great job. I always turn the mixer on and I do a great job too. HA. Well Braden though he would help turn the mixer on after we put in the flour and well he turned it it up to high really fast and covered us in flour. We just laughed and Brian grabbed the camera.
This is our what happened/ oh no pose
A little circus came through Twin Falls and we got FREE tickets to it from Brian's work, YAY! So we took Braden and Emmitt to see the circus. We thought Braden should try cotton candy for the first time, and he loved it...of course cause it is nothing but sugar....why do I encourage these things:) Not photoed but there were two giant elephants that you could ride on. We asked Braden if he wanted to ride on one as he watched the other children there get in line. And he very quickly said no, I think he was a little scared to see how big elephants are in real life. Not quite the same as on Tarzan. We enjoyed being outside for the afternoon while we watched the little circus.
Just a few photos of our first days with Emmitt at home. This one is right before Grammy headed home.
First bath at home....and he loved it.
Braden is always so helpful.
And he always wants to hold him. We have to watch him because he has already attempted caring him around the house...YIKES.
I went in for the morning feeding and the doc was not in yet, so I headed back home anxious to know what the results of the x-ray were. Just as we were sitting down for lunch I got a call from a nurse saying the doc was releasing Emmitt and I could come and pick him up, and the sooner I could do that the better. Well, you didn't have to ask me twice. I called Brian who was out on the road for work and told him we could take our baby home. He was about 15 miles away so he would meet me there. YAY!!! My mom, Braden, and I all climbed in the car and headed to the hospital. Finally we could bring him home with us.
Braden helped me dress Emmitt in his new little outfit from his Uncle David. Thanks Dav!!
Many kisses for baby brother.
Our newest addition...I guess I should look at the camera.
Happy Mommy!!
It is hospital policy I had to ride in a wheel chair...I didn't object. However, someone should have told me I had chubby cheeks here.
I guess kinda like my baby, HA.
I rode in the back with both of my boys since we had my mom with us too!
Happy Daddy taking his baby into his new home.
Brian is super sensitive (sweet) when it comes to his boys...so he was really excited when Emmitt came home. This whole experience was really hard on all of us but especially him.
Grammy with grandson number two. Now she has 4 grandchildren!!
Everyone enjoyed having him home and he slept through it all of course.
Brothers! Best friends already.
He has his daddy's and brother's chin, nose, and dimples! He has mommy's eyes, lips, and we think his hair is going to be strawberry blonde like his moms. We will see.
This morning when we went to see Emmitt we got some not so good news. During the night he had a few dips in his breathing, enough that it caused concern to watch him. SO for a few hours they watched him carefully and he didn't bounce back up without a little stimulation. So in the morning the doc ordered another chest x-ray. He reviewed the results with us. The x-ray they had taken just two days before looked normal. This one showed a little fluid forming in the lungs. It appeared a little pneomonia had begun. So the doc ordered for some antibiotics to clear it up. This was not good news because usually that means another 3-5 days in the NICU...depending on how things are looking. And we hoped to bring him home possibly today...since his feedings seemed to be progressing nicely. 
He kindly posed for a few photos of his goofy new hat.
We noticed Emmitt seem to do better with keeping his feedings down the more we visited so we tried to be at each one. I should mention we didn't go to the 2:30am time but we made all the others....Brian and I became quite familiar with our hospital route and elevator rides. Thank you to mom for coming with me to the 11:30pm time so Brian could do the 5:30am time before work. All I can say is this driving back and forth pretty much took up our entire day, luckily we only live 1o minutes from the hospital..can you imagine if it were further?? I am so grateful my mom could be here so we could be with Emmitt and Braden had someone who loved him taking great care of him. She ran him ragged no naps and he usually was in bed by 10pm I think. They had a lot of fun playing together. 
We were happy to see that he didn't need his little oxygen tube today! As you can see he doesn't get to wear clothes yet. He is currently in his own little room, this is where they keep the ones they are watching more carefully, so at least we know he is in good hands. We have had several nurses during all of this. They switch nurses at 7am and 7pm. So we have Amanda in the day time, who we really like. She is great, and doesn't treat us like we know nothing, but she gives us the info we need. At night is our goofy nurse Max, he is totally over helpful. He takes good care of Emmitt, but I think he forgets we have been doing this for 3 days every three hours. So we always get the same thing, "are you comfortable changing his diaper, or would you prefer I do it." HA like I have never changed a diaper. He is a little strange but I think genuinely a nice guy. Our doctors were Dr. Trotter and now we have Dr. Moffitt, who is really great. 
Maybe a half smile....
So tiny, so cute! Today he got to start eating a little food. We started with 10 cc of breast milk. That was like 4 little swallows for him. He has to get to 45cc which is just over 1 ounce. So we give him his milk in a little tiny bottle. The next feeding they will see if it is digested or if it comes back through his little NG tube. He progressed slowly and he would digest some but not all, so if there was some left the nurse gave it back to him through his tube then we would feed him another 10cc. She also pulled out some air, but that went down as the day progressed. He was able to move to 15cc later in the day or it might have been night.... :)
We are trying to remain positive that he will get to come home soon, he just has to keep up the eating and get to his 45 cc. At about 20-30 cc they will let me breast feed him instead of doing it through the bottle. SO that means I better keep pumping so I can get this little guy some food. I have been doing okay, at least he can't eat too much since I bring in like an ounce or two at a time. The nurse always cheers me on though and says this is GREAT! Just keep it up. And I always laugh cause it isn't very much....but this stuff is liquid gold. Hopefully the real milk will be in soon.
Today when we went in to see Emmitt they added the high flow (oxgen) to help open his lunges so he didn't have to work as hard so his little tummy could rest and get better. This was a little hard for Brian to see, just another set of tubes in his nose:( They discharged me on this day so we went home...without a baby. But we came back every three hours.
They alternated this little cuff every three hours from left to right foot.
Each time we came in (every three hours) they would take his vitals, I would change his diaper, and then we could hold him:) the best part. 
That night we took Braden in to see him for a minute. He was so careful with his baby brother. I was a little worried he might pull on the cords but it was like he didn't even notice them.
