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Foundations is located in Medina and is the largest manufacturer of children's products for the day care and hospitality industry. They have generously given us a six child stroller as a gift on behalf of their company. There are two different versions we can choose from and while I love the Gaggle I also like the other model because it has the ability to fold down. We have some time to decide which one we would like since they won't be ready until March of 2013 but we are SO grateful for this wonderful gift! THANK YOU TO JOE LAWLOR FROM FOUNDATIONS FOR THINKING OF OUR FAMILY AND METTING THIS NEED!!! These are the two strollers we have to choose from...both are amazing products so I'd love to hear positives and negatives anyone can forsee for either one. I like that I could hose down the red one but I also like that the blue one folds down. What are your thoughts?
So much to celebrate this time of year! We hope everyone enjoys the day with their families and friends! Although our Christmas traditions have been put on hold for this year we look forward to many years of old and new traditions combined with everyone. December 18th was the "normal" due date and all of them have reached "normal" baby weights by the time they should have been born.
Today we had a nurse come to the house to give a second round of shots--such a nice convience as oppossed to bringing 5 babies to a doctor's office! They were weighed first and we couldn't believe how much some of them have gained. Giovanni: 8 lbs 7 oz. Brooklynn: 7 lbs. 1 oz. Jade: 6 lbs. 8 oz. Kensley: 7 lbs. 2 oz. Leighton: 7 lbs. 2 oz. Yesterday I had to drive Brooklynn and Giovanni downtown to Cleveland Clinic's main campus in order for them to be checked for Retinopathy of Prematurity. It was the most stressful exam I have ever sat through! Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a condition in which premature babies experience disorganized blood vessel growth in their eyes. Although the less severe cases can correct themselves, the worst cases can result in blindness. If you're not familiar with what one of these exams looks like do a quick google image search of the procedure and you'll see where my stress came from! I felt so bad for them as their eyelids were being held open...I know it was for the best to have them checked out but I hated every minute of it! The good news is that they both checked out great with no signs of ROP. The other three-Leighton, Jade, and Kensley had their exams while they were still in the NICU so at least I didn't have to witness 5 exams! Its great news to know that all 5 of them were able to develop fully functional eyes and have avoided reason for concern with their vision!
Tonight Amy came over and helped me and Amanda with a Christmas photo shoot. The pictures are too cute to only choose a few so this is your warning that you might be overwhelmed with the amount of pictures;)...haha. Hope you find them as cute as we did! Tonight is also Amanda's last night with us...it will be hard to see her go! She has done so much for us in the short time while she was here. She took away all of our anxiety about having people in our house all of the time. I'm sure every other volunteer will be just as great as she was but I tell her that she has set the bar pretty high!! We are finally all home together and just in time for the Christmas holiday!! Saturday we brought the four already at home with us back to the hospital so that we could bring them all home together. It was such an emotional day for all of us!!! It was a long-awaited moment and eventhough we will miss our Fairview Family, the drive and extra expenses will not be missed! It has been a great couple of days enjoying our family together at last! Check us out in the Medina Gazette here! Check us out on Channel 5 news here! Leighton is coming home tomorrow!! I can not tell you how excited we are to have them all home before their due date. What excites us even more though is the fact that we will no longer have to spend an hour every night driving back and forth to the hospital or spending the ridiculous amount of money we did on gas and parking. We are bringing all of the others back to the hospital with us so we can get a group picture with everyone and probably talk with couple papers and/or stations at that time as well.
As you can imagine things have been very busy lately. Jade is home--that makes 4!! Leighton is still in the NICU recovering from his hernia surgery that was performed yesterday. Things went really well with the surgery and luckily they were able to circumsize him at the same time. As long as recovery goes well they don't anticipate it being much longer before he is home with the rest of them.
Having 4 babies at home is quite the task--Gibson Newborn Services though has taken a majority of the stress off of us. Amanda is currently staying with us and we could not be more thankful for her help. She has such a way with the babies that keeps them calm--and us too! :) We (Jacob) moved all of the cribs to the basement and put two twin beds (Thank You Mandy) in the spare room down there so now the babies and volunteers are all located in the same area. The idea is so that they can rest inbetween the needs of the babies at night but I'm convinced Amanda runs on no sleep whatsoever--not sure how she does it!! My mom has been really sick so we've missed having her help around this week but with Amanda's help we are getting things somewhat organized and together. I look forward to Courtney arriving and helping us get all the last minute details and organization together. We have also been fortunate enough to receive a donation of several months rent free from an apartment complex for some of our volunteers to be housed. They even went as far as contacting CORT to have the apartment furnished for us as well. None of this could have been done without Courtney and Gibson Newborn Services--I can not express enough gratitude towards them!! We are still looking for assistance with the fees for utilities but so far things are starting to come together better than I could have ever imagined. This past weekend two of my aunts and my cousin came to visit. It was great to be able to spend time with them since we weren't able to make it home for Thanksgiving this year. Not only was there company nice but they brought food with them so |
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September 2016
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