Game ball

Caleb scored his first game ball today! A super proud moment for his brothers! They are still working to keep his oxygen stats stable to give him a few more days until surgery.

Discharge for mommy

I'm about to be discharged. I stayed an extra day in my "resort room" due to the spinal headache situation yesterday. This will be an odd way of being discharged-- with no baby in my arms & no husband by my side (he took the boys to a spring football scrimmage on campus). Not the normal picture for the baby book. oh well, I'll never get those complete anyway! :).

Ready to be over with the baby!

Meeting his Siblings

Caleb's oxygen levels were at a better rate today. The doctors were pleased. We tried good old Nuk pacifiers to comfort him and he seemed to like them. The kids came up to visit and played teddy bear clinic. The older 3 got to meet their new little brother! It was priceless to see their smiles of pride. Made me long for bringing him home from the hospital.
I started having a headache midday that went from bad to excruciating. I hardly remember part of the day. They called it a spinal headache which I had been cautioned about since they accidentally went too far when they put in the epidural and pulled out spinal fluid. Sure enough- it happened! Ugh! They did a blood patch which is basically another epidural and taking over 50 ccs of blood out of my arm & putting it in the hole in my back; creating a "bruise". The headache feels better; now just sore back. But I'll take it so I can get back to seeing my little man soon!

Nitrogen head tent

Day 2: Caleb is under a head tent to control the oxygen his body intakes. We normally intake about 21% oxygen when we breathe in regular air, but they turned his down to less than 16% to help his profusion (kind of like circulation) of his blood level to stabilize out. Prayers needed for this so they can hold off on his surgery for a couple of days.
We facetimed the kids so they could "meet" their new baby brother. They were thrilled and actually were more interested than if they were there in person-- the power of technology & kids is silly!! Bo was precious and kept giving kisses and asked if "mommy was almost done"!
Caleb went on his first "field trip" tonight as they decided to move him from the NICU to the Cardiac PICU to be in a more specialized unit.

Baby Caleb is born!

Precious baby, Caleb Bradshaw Daniel, was born this morning at 11:11. He was 7 pounds 14 1/2 ounces and 21 inches long. They had difficulty getting his lines in and had to whisk him away to the NICU after letting me give him a quick kiss. They continued attempting to get his lines in including IV s and lines through his umbilical cord; however, could only get one. They had to put in a pic line eventually. He was whimpering a good bit.
He's very cute and has a head full of dark, dark hair!

Pedicure Day

Kate and I snuck in some special Mommy/ Daughter time and had spa pedicures today!   She was home "recovering" from being sick the day before.  (Prayers that we all stay healthy from here out!)   She was completely fine today and it was actually nice to have her home to spend time together while all the boys were in school.  (Like I said in my last post, I do not like to be by myself!)  Although all the cleaning and sanitizing has become a full time job; Darci pointed out, we turned lemons into lemonade and thanked God for this extra time together before baby arrives and just had a great girls' day!  I haven't had a pedicure in years and this was her first experience.  It was so nice for us to get to have this special one on one time to feel so relaxed and girly.  She thought that they were just going to paint her toenails and was so surprised by the special massaging chair and all the extras.  She said that she could definitely get used to the pampering and can't wait to go back!  Well, back to the laundry, bleach, and lysol!

Bo Going to School

     Reality is starting to kick in.  It's been a bit of an emotional week as we get closer to the birth of our little one.  The doctor will induce me next Wednesday.  We started Bo at preschool where Cooper goes.  He was signed up to start next year; however, Zack and I decided it would be helpful to have two days a week where they would both be in school.  I know he is going to have a blast playing with his friends and has the most special teachers and staff loving on him all day; however, it was a super hard day for Mommy to leave him.  It was the first day in 9 years where I had all of them in school!  I didn't know what to do with myself and after my 2 hour doctor appointment, just went up and sat in Zack's (empty because he was in a meeting) office and cried!  Well, I prayed, too, and it was nice to have some quiet time; however, it just hit me that he isn't just going to school only for fun, but because of all of the change that is about to occur.  It just was hard to swallow.
     He had a great day and fit right in.  We do need to search our house for a boy backpack-- how can we not find one with all these boys??  The only extra one I could find was Kate's girly monogrammed one!  Luckily he didn't mind.  I guess that comes with being the fourth child!