Kids Update

Update on my kiddos!

Arland:

At 2 and half we are now potty training! It has gone GREAT he is a champ! I decided that I am SOOOO sick of poo diapers. Seriously it is the worst thing to change a 2 year olds diaper. So we went and bought a potty and pull ups and toy story underwear and BAM the kid loves sitting on the potty and after two days he doesn't pee in his undies any more! Number 2 is another story and is still a work in progress.
He LOVES trains! Seriously I have never met a kid that loves trains more than Arland. Heath and I took him on the Heber Creeper last week and boy was he happy. He cried at first and we were trying to figure out why he was crying while we were getting on the train and he kept saying "OH NO Choo Choo!' we found out that he was thinking about Toy Story 3 where the Choo Choo goes off the cliff. haha well he got over that really fast. Soon he forgot how scary it was and he was so happy to just be on the train. He has a little wooden train that he plays all over the house with and I know I will have to invest in another for Porter.
Arland is Loving out new house. He loves to play downstairs in his play room and he loves being outside with out cute neighbors. We are loving who Arland is turning into, he brightens our little family every day with his little personality.

Porter:

Porter is now 4 months! WOW where has the time gone?! Seriously I remember when this little Peanut was just 16 inches long and 3 lbs! Now he is 9 lbs and who knows how long he is! He is at such a fun stage right now where he is cooing at everything and loves to smile! He really has the brightest personality and is such a patient baby. He loves to just be around people, and he is so calm. I have a nurse that comes to my house every month to chart Porters growth and development and she said that he is doing extremely well for how little he was when he was born. She said that he is in the 25% for his weight gestationaly and that is WONDERFUL! He loves his binky and his swing and he is getting really good at tummy time and lifting his head. He sleeps through the night waking up around 6 am and going to bed at midnight! We are loving this schedule! He truly is such an angel and shows us little glimpses of his spirit every day. We love you Porter boy.

Porters Blessing

 

We were able to have our sweet baby blessed yesterday and it was such a perfect day. Because of how premature he was I am SUPER paranoid about sickness and people around him so we chose to have him blessed at our house. I loved having it at the house because it became so much more personal with our close family. We decided to have just our immediate family come (not because we don't love all of our family and friends) but because I just cant have that many people around my little Porter and I am very protective and proactive about people getting their DTAP vaccine. We are SOOO thankful to our family for being supportive of our decision to protect our baby after everything he has been through.

Heath did a wonderful job, and the blessing was so beautiful and perfect for our little miracle baby.

 

 

 

Grandpa P Grandma P and Great Grandma P

 

Grandpa and Grandma Pulham

 

 

Grandpa Neubert

 

Grandpa Neubert and Grandma Neubert

 

Great Grandma Neubert

 

Great Grandma Jepsen

 

Hannah's Family

 

Mom Dad Arland and Porter

 Daddy and Porter

 

Pulham Family

 

Porter Boy

Cutie Patootie

That is what the nurses in the NICU call Porter. One day we came to the hospital to see him for the day and one of the nurses called him that. It has stuck. This little cute has been a miracle from the day we found out that we were pregnant. He amazes me everyday at the progress he is making in the NICU, as parents Heath and I worry all the time. I worry every second of the day about this little boy of mine, but he reassures me every day that he is here for a reason and he wants to be here so he fights for it. I am so blessed to have such a strong little spirit in my life and that he chose us to be his parents. 

After Porter was born they hooked him up to a ventilator. He was having a hard time breathing even though he came out kicking and screaming, he still needed help his lungs were not developed. This was all to be expected. He was on the ventilator for 2 days and then was taken off and put on a lower dose of oxygen with humidity. All the nurses were so impressed with how well he was doing! It was a couple days after that (around day 4) that he had his first bowel movement! Who knew that you could be so excited about that, but we were ecstatic! That meant that he was processing everything through his intestines and his kidneys were functioning properly. He also started taking in around 3-4 ml. of milk through his feeding tube (a low dose as to not startle his stomach). In the NICU there are 9 rooms. The first room is connected to the room where I delivered Porter by a window. He stayed in room 1 for a week exactly. Porter was given a nurse to care for him one on one 24 hours a day. There is one nurse assigned for one baby. Porter was then moved to room 2 after the first week and it was one nurse for two babies. This is when I was able to hold Porter for the first time! He was finally stable enough that I was able to do skin to skin and have him hear my heart beat. It was wonderful! I will always remember the first time that I was able to hold him, he was so small and fragile but as I held him I couldnt help but think about how amazing he was, I told him about Arland and his daddy I whispered to him about how much we loved him and how proud we were of him. I sang to him softly so that he could remember my voice from being inside of me. I was so special. 

Porter was moved from room two to room three the next day! They say that the big babies go to room three through nine! My baby is anything but big, he is doing so well on his oxygen that they decided that he could handle being in room three! I was so surprised when I got to the hospital that day! They have a board that parents can look at to see where their babies are and who their primary nurses are. So when I saw that they moved him I was so proud!

He is still in room three and will be there for a VERY long time hopefully. He has one nurse to three babies and is doing extremely well. He is still on oxygen and they moved his feeding tube from his mouth to his nose because it was starting to irritate his mouth. His oxygen has continued to come down every day. We breathe oxygen at a 21 and he is usually at a 21! They keep the cannula in his nose to help him remember to breathe, and sometimes he has to have his oxygen level increased up to a 23-24 but for the most part he is doing really well on the lower oxygen levels! He is also now learning how to control his own body temperature, and they are thinking about putting him in a onesie soon. Porter now weighs 3 lbs 15 oz. Once he hits 1800 grams they will be able to move him from his isolet to a crib which is a HUGE deal. He is so close to this goal now. They are also fortefying his milk. Like I said, when he was first born he was taking around 3-4 ml. now he is taking 31. The milk I give him has 22 calories in it and they add an extra 24 cals to it. We are hoping this little boy puts on some weight! 

I go to see Porter every day. Yes it is hard, but he is my baby, Porter is just as much my baby as Arland is and I would do anything for both my boys. They mean the world to me, and that is why I go to the hospital every day. Porter amazes me by his strength every time I see him. The other day I was holding him and he started to breathe really heavy, I couldnt tell why he was breathing the way he was so I asked the nurse what was going on. She said that he was retracting and that I needed to put him back in the isolet. She then took a hose and sucked out his nose. She got the biggest booger out of his nose! The poor boy couldnt breathe because of it! Because I go every day to the hospital I am able to learn about him and the different "cues" that he gives off to the nurses. Learning all of these things really will help me when I get to bring him home, just like when I noticed that he was having a harder time breathing. I love going up there and holding Porter, I love to watch his little face when he is sleeping and I love to see his little eyes open and look around. I love his little cry and the little facial expressions that he makes. I love to tell him about his brother, I love to tell his about Arland and all the fun things they are going to do together, I love telling Porter about his daddy and how much his daddy loves him. He is making so much progress and we continue to see little miracles in Porter every day, he is our little ray of sunshine and we are so blessed to have him here with us today. 

Birth Story of:

 

 

I have since realized that after being released from the hospital that I have absolutley no time to do anything any more. I have gone from a sluggish physically and emotionally exhausted person to a crazy person trying to do everything and be everywhere all at once. That is what happends when you have a two year old at home who hasnt lived with you for the past two months and a little baby in the NICU.

The day that Porter was born is a day that will forever be engraved in my memmory. It started mostly on Sunday, I had started to feel incredibly tired and so emotional (not that pregnant ladies are already emotional this was a million times worse!) I thought of it as just being tired of being at the hospital. I told Heath that I was just so tired of everything. I was tired of being in that hospital room with one window that I rarely got to look out of because I had to stay in bed, I was SO tired of the food. I was getting mean to some of the nurses, I was just TIRED! I couldnt tell if the ache in my back was just from sitting in bed for so long, I could barely get the strength in my legs to stand in the shower any more and every time I stood up my hip would lock out of place. I literally felt like I was falling apart. My inlaws came over that Sunday, and I was just miserable. My sister in law told me that I looked like I wasnt feeling well and boy was she right! That night I cried to Heath about how I didnt know if I could be in that room much longer, I knew that I had to but the thought was unbarable. I eventually fell asleep and that next morning at 5am I woke up in labor. I started bleeding and the doctors were afrain that I could start hemoraging so they rushed Heath and I to Labor and Delivery. The previous post "Tired" explains what happend there. They hooked me up to an IV and started giving me steroids and magnesium to ease my labor. I went from having contractions every minute to every 15 minutes. The steroids were given to help the baby with his lungs at birth and the magnesium was for the babies brain to prevent brain bleads. I absolutley HATE that magnesium. The drug makes to feel like you are swimming through mud, HOT mud. I was so groggy and dilirious, feeling like I was a thousand degrees. I remember being wheeled into that room and not feeling the panic that I felt the first time we were in that room. The first time they wheeled us into the room with the window to the NICU I felt scared, helpless, unsure because we didnt know if our little 23 week baby would choose to come that night. This felt different, Heath and I talked about how calm we felt (scared but calm) we knew that if he came tonight he would be strong, he would be comforted and he would be able to fight for this life alot harder then his little body would have at 23 weeks. 

Heath called our families telling them that we had been taken to Labor and Delivery, they came as soon as possible staying with us in that little room until things stabalized with my contractions. They monitored me for infection signs are (fever, nausea, tender stomache, bleeding, blood test showing high blood count).

Eventually our families left and they wheeled Heath and I to our room where we would hopefully be able to keep this baby in a little bit longer.

 

On Wednesday I woke up with the worst indigestion that I have ever had (I had not had this problem my whole pregnancy). I was really dehydrated and every time I drake water I felt like it was stuck right at my throught and wouldnt go down. My nurse pumped me with every anti nausea indigestion medication you can think of. It would not stop. I had a horrible pain in my back again and anyway that I laid in my bed I could not get comfortable. My good friend Shelby came to visit me and my mom that day and she brought me my favorite pregnancy food, a cheap crunchy taco from taco bell. haha weird cravings! I was still so sick though. I kept telling them that I was feeling really strange that day, I was so thirsty but couldnt drink anything and I was so uncomfortable. My doctor then came in and listned to the babies heart beat. It was unusually high 160-170. His base line is usually 140, she then told me that she wanted to feel my stomache and I flinched right as she touched me. My body was hurting. My nurse took out my IV and had two nurses from life flight replace it. (I am a hard stick) They usually are some of the best people to put an IV because they can do it in the most random places in the air. They got it in on the 4th try and went on their way. I asked my nurse before if she could just wait to put an IV in because I hated them so bad. She told me that she had a feeling that I needed a fresh IV in for that day. They did some blood work after that and then Dr. Weber came to my room. She is my high risk OB and told me that she wanted me to go back to labor and deliver for some monitoring. My grandma and aunts had come to visit at this point and were able to see me for a small period of time. Shelby walked with me down to Labor and Delivery and called Heath to tell him what was going on. My mom picked up all of my personal belongings and came down later. They hooked up my IV and started me on fluids. I thought my contractions were around 15 minutes apart, it seems as though I was wrong though, they were 3 minutes apart, I just couldnt tell because they were leaving a constant pain in my back. My back hurt the worst. My team of doctors came in to talk to me about what was going on. Shelby called Heath and put him on speaker phone. They told me that I was in labor and they couldnt do anything to stop it because I had a  infection called corio, coria (not sure how to spell it). They babies heart rate was up and they needed the baby to come that day. Dr. Kamyar (she is my main high risk OB and I LOVED her!) told me that at 29 weeks and 5 days Porter would be born. He would have a high risk of undeveloped lungs and because of my low fluid he may have problems moving around his little arms and legs because he was inside of such a tight space for such a long time. But with all of the things that could be wrong we felt that he had a higher chance of things going right if we could get him out of my body which had an infection at this point. I started to fever and then Dr. Kamyar sent in the anesthesiologist to give me my epidural. It was WONDERFUL! I was finally able to relax for a while and let my body prepare to have this baby.

Our families arrived at the hospital and we were able to relax much more this time then two months earlier. There was a peace in the room that I will never forget. I know for a fact that Porter was supposed to come at that time because of the peace and comfort we felt in that room that day. We were definitley being watched over and comforted that day. After two hours on the Pitocen I was dialted to a 3! We had made great progress, 5 hours passed though and Dr. Kamyar came into tell me that I was still at a 3. She told me that she wanted to do a c-section. My heart rate was too high and the babies heart rate was dropping too low. She told me that we needed to get him out and I had NO problem with that. They wheeled me into the surgical room and prepped me for surgery. I drank this anti nausia medicine that made me feel like I had just drank 40 gallons of grape juice, it was aweful! I was shaking really bad as they strapped my arms to the table. The anisthesiologist told me that they didnt have time to do a spinal block so they upped my epidural and told me to call them "numb and number!" haha he then poked my arm and asked me if I could feel it, I couldnt feel a thing! Heath came in the room and sat behind the curtain at my head. Dr. Kamyar told me that because my skin was still tight she would have to do some acrobatics to get Porter out. She did too! Heath peaked over the curtain with camera ready. We wanted to get a picture of the baby before they passed him through the window. As I sat and waited for what seemed like the longest 4 minutes of my life I waited to hear somthing. I waited to hear my baby. Dr. Kamyar told me that she could see the baby. It was then that I heard it. I heard him cry, I heard a cry that told me that my baby had a strong set of lungs. The cry meant that he was strong, alot stronger then people thought he would be. Heath took pictures as they passed him through the window to the NICU. His little arms and legs were kicking all over as if to say thank you for getting me out of that tight place. Heath followed the nurse into the NICU to see our baby. I laid on the surgical bed to to stitched up. Dr. Kamyar was able to get our precious little baby out in 4 minutes with a total time of 20 minutes when they wheeled me out. She was amazing!

I was then wheeled to my room where my family was, they all looked through the window at the baby hoping to get a glance of the "hair" that everyone was talking about. Boy did he have a head of hair! He truly is our miracle baby! Porter David Pulham was born on April 18th 2013 at 12:18 am. He was 3lbs 9oz and 16 3/4 in. long. He was perfect! We are already so in love with this little baby. We are truly blessed and have witnessed miracles. It is amazing how a little person can take up so much room in your heart.

  

 

 

 

Love, Heath Hannah Arland and baby Porter

Tired

A lot has happened in the past 3 days. On Monday morning I started having contractions and bleeding heavily ( not what most people want to hear, but I am over offending people) since I have been in this hospital room I could care less about offending people with what is going on, yes I am sick tired and grumpy so for those people that are offended get over it, you are welcome to stop reading this. It was about 5 am when everything started, my sweet nurse Ally checked me out and told me that I needed to go to labor and delivery ( I hate that place by the way) they took me to the room with the window again to the NICU ( hate that room). They started me on an IV which hurts like crap and that is because I have the worst veins in the world seriously! They then started me on saline,penicillan, magnesium and batamethazone (steroids). For my little veins it what ALOT going in my arm. When they started me on the magnesium my contractions went from 1 every minute to 1 every 10 minutes. It started to slow everything down a little bit, also the blood started to go down too. Eventually they moved me from that room to a smaller room across the hall and that next morning I got to go back to my own room! I am now exhausted, 7 weeks on bed rest is not easy and I have lost motivation for everything. Tired doesn't even explain me right now. I am so happy that I have made it to 30 weeks sat but I honestly don't know how long my body can take the physical and emotional exhaustion from this. I cry every day just hopeing that one day this will all be over and I can just take my little critter home ( my mom named Porter that) I hope for the day that I can feel like a normal person again, I am walking through mud everyday. I am hopeful for the day when I can be in the delivery room having this little boy but I fear that my body won't be strong enough, I know that women have this underlying strength within them but I am just so tired, some days I don't know howi will ever make it through this but I know that I have to, Porter needs me to be strong for him. So for here on out I just pray for the strength to make it through all of this.

Arland

Through all this time at the hospital I have a lot of thinking time. Some of the questions that I ask my self on daily basis revolve around what happened, why did this happen, why Porter, why do I have to be away from Arland at this time, is he happy? Every mother hopes and prays that their child is safe and protected over, and I pray for that every day, for both of my boys. What I worry most about is not about what I am going to do to make the time go by fastest ( i do think about that alot) it is more about Arland and is he happy? When I first got here it was so hard to see Arland cry and yell out mommy and daddy. I felt like I abandoned him, and I know in his two year old mind he felt abandoned. No matter how many times our families said "he is fine, don't worry about Arland," I WORRIED! I would get angry at my self for missing out on so many things. I can't help that we are in the situation we are in, and that was the hardest. I went from being a mommy that got her little boy out of bed at 7 am to put him in bed with me to snuggle and laugh, make breakfast and hope that he would cooperate and eat some of it, fill bubble baths and watch my little boy run to the tub so excited that I couldn't get his clothes off fast enough to splash around in the soapy water, he would love to splash hard enough to get mommy wet and then we would laugh until he would say "DONE!" I would get him out of the tub and his naked little body would run away from me because he loved being free without the diaper on. We would play with his cars and watch Toy Stoy over and over again, I would watch him take Buzz Lightyear and fly him all around the room, in his little mind I know that he is flying just like Buzz. We would let Pazely inside to play for a while and he would just smother her with loves, he would climb on her like a horse and ride her until she got sick of it
and stand up, he would fall off and laugh. Arland loves to go to the park and go down slides, he
always looks at me before going down the slide and yells " mom!" Like he is saying watch me! Then we clap and praise him for overcoming a big fear. I was that mom, I was the mom that was so tired at the end of the day because we laughed, explored and played all day and I would watch Arland late at night after he was asleep in his crib. He amazed me as I would watch him. I remember a book that was given to me on my first Mother's Day. A mother talked about watching her kids sleep at night and the thought came to her that her kids would never be this little ever again. They are a baby once, a toddler once, a child on their first day of kindergarten once and they will never be that little person again. So as she watched her child sleep that night she thought about what a blessing it is to be their mother at that exact moment. I did that with Arland.
When we first came here I had a visitor that had a baby that was born at 25 weeks, the baby was 1.5 lbs. and was still at Primary Children's, she had been there for over 100 days and the mom came to talk to us about what to expect with Porter. Something she said stuck to me. She said that there are a lot of parents out there that wonder, why? She told me that although she doesn't have and answer she does know that everything that happens in our lives happens for a reason and it may be a lesson that we need to learn. She said that she has learned patience more than anything through all of this. When she left Heath and I talk about some of the things that we could learn from this. I think that we are learning to slow down and be patient as well. Nothing makes you slow down like 10 weeks on bed rest! But I am sure there are a lot of other things that we will learn through this process. Life use to be busy, crazy and hectic with work, finishing school, house work and many other things, sometimes all that matters are the small things like making time to snuggle in bed with your hubby and baby just a little bit longer in the morning, making pancakes with your two year old so they feel included in creating a mess rather then just a piece of toast in the morning, getting on the floor and playing cars, reading books to your kids while they snuggle on your lap.
I miss all of those things and more, I miss the past month that I have missed out on with Arland. The days that I do get to see him I love because he is so happy. I know that he is happy with his grandma and that makes me happy, I pray everyday that he is happy. There are lessons in everything and I try to remember everyday that it is a gift to have been here for as long as I have. I can't wait to see Porter as a baby, toddler, kindergartener. I can't wait to see Arland as a brother.

Update

Well here we are at almost 27 weeks! My days break down to three different sections during the day Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner Once lunch has come and gone I know that I only have dinner left and then I can go to bed and that is another day DONE! That is my life now at least until this babe makes his grand entrance at 34 weeks (fingers crossed.) my doctors say that if I make it to 34 weeks they will induce me then. After 34 weeks I have a higher chance of getting an infection and the risk out ways the benefits at that point in keeping him inside me. Porter has been doing really well lately, his heart rate which they check every 4 hours is between 140 and 160. I feel him moving around a lot. The nurses here have been really great and optimistic about my situation. They said that a lot of moms that have their water broken early can make it to 34 weeks so we have high hopes of this! It is just that we hope that I don't get an infection early. During the day I have been reading, watching tv, crocheting and cross stitching. I have a lot of projects here which has been nice because they are going to have to keep me entertained for the next 7 weeks! I have also had so many visitors and I am so thankful that they have taken the time to come and see me. (Melissa and Jason Cheney, Rachel and Jeff Mortenson, Shianne and CJ Healey, Colton and Harley, and many other people) Our families have been wonderful and supportive through this whole process. They take care of Arland and take time to stay with me at the hospital so I don't have to be alone here. One of my biggest fears is that I will go into labor so fast and no body will be here, so they have made sure that I am not alone. My grandma has been staying with me during the day and it has been so nice to have her company. I truly could not do it without all the people that have helped us along the way. I miss Arland like crazy, I miss being his mommy. When I see him I can't believe how much he has grown in the month that I have been here. He is such a little boy and it breaks my heart that I am missing out on so much. It does make me feel better that he is happy at my families house and he has so many people to play with but it is hard not to think about all the things I am missing out on. He LOVES when Heath picks him up for the day or night and will not let Heath out of his sight. Heath tries to take Arland home to sleep in his own bed as often as he can but Heath tells me that every time they pull up to the house Arland sees my car and says' mommy! I know this time will go fast and the past month has but it is sure hard to be away from my little family at this time. Everyday is a miracle that we have made it to this point, I am so thankful for all the help that has been shown our way and for the time that people have taken to come and see us. We have seen miracles and we are so thankful for the prayers that have been sent our way.