Saturday March 30th

Have I mentioned how grateful I am for volunteers? And for my husband, who had yesterday off? We've had no overnight help the past two nights, and after Isaac's ER adventure that had us out past midnight and up past 1 am, with babies waking up at 5 am to eat, I was ZONKED yesterday! And two volunteers couldn't make it, which reminded me yet again how amazingly blessed we are by our usual team. Our parents have also been amazingly helpful. Thank you God!

One of our regulars, Gladys, handily managing all five before 8 a.m.! She comes at 4 a.m. every Thursday. Isn't that amazing!?  Left to right: Seth, Marcie, Will, David above Will, interested as always in something/someone else, in this case Gracie and her bouncy seat.

Lynette's mom LOVES our babies and is a big help at holding, feeding, folding clothes, etc.!

Isaac was pretty darn tired too yesterday and requiring pain meds pretty regularly. He had to go to the orthodontist to fix some damage to the work he'd had done, and while his lip was being held way up and he looked super funny in the chair, he said, "Thank you for your service." Which sounded more like "'ank you 'or your ser-iss." Thank YOU for your kind messages to him! He is touched and grateful, too. He got to go see a movie with my parents yesterday, so that was a happy experience anyway. :)

Isaac's room at the Children's ER was identical to Seth's room there earlier this month. He also got X-rayed on the same table as little Seth. Gavin and I both said how grateful we were to NOT be visiting our baby boy or bringing him in for more treatment! It's much happier to come with a 9-year-old who can be fixed immediately. He still has some looseness in his jaw and it hurts to eat, plus his laceration hurts continuously, but he's managing okay. He is very appreciative of all your prayers and notes!

Okay, on to baby reports: Seth had his pulmonology appointment on Wednesday and got an excellent report, praise God! His lungs are nice and clear, his weight and length are following a good curve (THANK YOU for praying, THANK YOU Lord for answering with a yes!), and his oxygen has been halved as a result. He's tolerating it great, still growing an amazing amount - he's starting to look really fat again! - and breathing well, not too fast.

Another therapy session: Check out that great neck strength!

The fun part of Wednesday was that my in-laws had the other four babies, enabling us to head over to the Dallas Arboretum for their Dallas Blooms event. What an amazing plethora of tulips and all other kinds of spring flowers! The trees were almost all in bloom or in leaf, waving in the wind. We had a blissful time just sauntering through the gardens and paths, pushing a very happy Seth in his stroller. He didn't cry or even fuss once! It was PERFECT weather. Wow, what a gift that was from the Creator of all the beauty around us and the Sustainer of Seth's life. We were overwhelmed with gratitude.

Not the best picture of Seth, but the tulips are beautiful and Gavin is handsome :)

This was our favorite blooming bed of tulips - what amazing Easter egg colors! I liked the pink most.

There are a couple of new things to report about the babies and what they are doing: Will rolled from back to front earlier this week. David has gotten VERY baby-talkative, with real intonation like he's having an animated or emotive conversation. He was SO cute this morning (even though it was only 5:30) babbling away and making extended consonant-vowel sounds to himself after he was done eating and back in bed while I was feeding Will. Seth is hilarious when he plays, making super intense and happy faces and kicking and grabbing away. It's so wonderful to see him be a REAL baby! :) He's vomiting so much less and just seems to feel so much better, praise God! The goat's milk does not smell good when it does come back up a couple of times a day, so there's a certain semi-permanent odor of feta cheese around Seth. He gets a lot more baths and clothing changes than the others. He no longer needs to be vented at all, just burped; a huge blessing! Gracie is back to being very calm and happy. Marcie is still the screamer/squealer when she wants to communicate, be it happy or sad or mad. Generally she's very contented. We are blessed with mostly happy babies! :)

There is an advantage to being asleep when the other kids and grandparents head out for a walk: You get one-one-two time with Daddy and Mommy when you wake up. Marcie is a charmer!