My girls are growing up!

So many changes! Ella is rolling over from her tummy to her back and today she started making a new noise and silly faces. She recently fought off a cold which was beyond exciting for us. Olivia was sick and Ella needed some O2 a few nights. She was sneezing quite a bit but it never turned into anything more then that. I can't even express what it was like to watch my tiny little preemie with lung disease actually FIGHT off a cold!! The power of breastmilk!
Olivia is potty training and doing a WONDERFUL job. She hasn't had any accidents and only wears a diaper for sleeping. Today she had her first poop in the potty. She gets so proud of herself. We dance around the house and she gets to have a jelly bean after she pees or poops in the potty. We're SO proud of her!! We're working on getting settled into our new house. I still have so much unpacking to do but we've got a lot of Olivia's bedroom set up. She wanted a princess bedroom so we gave her one! :) She goes to sleep in her princess bed at night and usually ends up crawling in bed with me in the middle of the night. She's growing up TOO fast!!!
We'll be spending Easter up north with Shane's grandma's as we usually do. Olivia is excited and has been asking to see her Great Grandma for the last two days. We're looking forward to being able to spend some time with her as well. It's always a joy to see her and spend time at her house!

3 months ago was Ella's due date!

I can't believe I haven't posted in here since January. I had really intended on keeping up with this as a way to document everything but then life got REALLY REALLY crazy. We put an offer in on a house and it was accepted. Shortly after that, my husbands father passed away unexpectedly and we had to plan a funeral with heavy hearts while also preparing for our closing. Shortly after my father in laws funeral, we closed on our house and moved in the next day. It was a whirlwind of moving and then Shane had to work on packing, cleaning and moving his dads apartment into our house. Then, two and a half weeks ago, those dreaded germies that we so desperately tried to keep out of our house attacked. Olivia got a cold and then two days later, Ella got that cold. Or what we thought was a cold. She woke up with a couch and a few sneezes. Because she had only been off oxygen for two week, I called and requested we have an oxcymeter sent to our house so we could make sure she was getting enough oxygen at night. We got it that same day and thank God we did. I hooked her up that night and 2 hours later, we were in the emergency room. We were admitted and found our she had human metapneumovirus and a collapsed lung. Metapneumovirus is very much like RSV and just a very nasty respiratory virus. VERY nasty...especially for a tiny little preemie with chronic lung disease. I'm not totally sure that everyone quite understood why we were so careful and so afraid of colds and germs but once she was admitted into the hospital with a collapsed lung from basically a cold, I am hoping people understood a bit more!
We went home 2 days later, were home for 8 hours and had to go right back to the hospital because Ella was SATing low, even on oxygen. Ella and I stayed at the hospital for 10 days. It was crappy. No if, ans, or buts about it. It sucked. I didn't see Olivia for over a week and Ella was very sick. I was incredibly blessed however with wonderful friends who brought me clean clothes, took my clothes to their home to wash, brought me a care package and enough food to last me almost the entire time I was there. It was tough but Ella came home no worse for the wear except needing oxygen support at night when she's sleeping. Her lungs are working hard but eventually they'll go back to where they were before...not that that's saying much ;-).
We love our new house and the beautiful weather that we're finally having. Olivia absolutely loves the new house and we have been able to go play outside and "walk in the no" for the last 3 days (quote from Olivia). We've had some unexpected things come up...had to buy some brand new appliances (thank God for interest free store credit cards so we could break that up over a few months!), replumb our ENTIRE KITCHEN (thank God for handy husbands who could do that in an afternoon!!)...but we're so happy in our beautiful new home. It's been a trying 6 months with the bedrest, the premature birth of our baby, the death of Paul and then Ella's rehospitalization but hopefully things are finally settling down and we can settle into our life as a family of 4 in our beautiful new home. :)

Just an update!

It's been a while since I've updated on here so I thought I'd do a quick one. We are closing on our house in 2 weeks and 6 days (am I counting down? Oh yes I am!!) and we're moving exactly 3 weeks from today. I've been super busy trying to pack while also taking care of the girls--not an easy feat! They keep me sooo busy! Olivia is 2 and gets into everyyyyyything! Ella is a high needs baby and needs to be constantly held. For the most part, she doesn't love being put into my sling or carrier either so it makes it difficult to pack. Last week, my mom came over most days so she could help with the girls but even then it can be tough to get any packing done.

Olivia breastfeeding her baby sitting on Auntie Faiths lap

Olivia got that doll from my grandma after Ella was born.
It was bigger then Ella when she was born. Look at it now! 

Ella staring at her Great Grandma while she sang to her <3

Ella is doing excellent! She's still on O2 and we have an appointment with the pulmonologist on Monday. She weighs over 9 pounds now!! I don't know the exact weight but several days ago she was 8 lbs 14 oz and she's been gaining about 2-2.5 ounces a DAY! She's such a little chunker...she has a big huge double chin, fat rolls on her thighs..she's so sweet and chunky! She's getting more alert everyday and can hold her head and shoulders up really well. She also rolled from her back to her side the other day and follows people with her head and eyes. She's right on track with where she should be with her adjusted age.

Shane got hit by a car tonight

So, tonight we got home from visiting Shane's dad and we pulled into the parking lot of the apartments. There are two handicapped spots, side by side and there was a car parked dead in the middle of both of them, still running. Shane got out of the car to tell the person to move but they weren't in their car. Then they came out of the building attached to us and Shane told him he had to move. The guy told Shane that he "couldn't tell him what to do and he wasn't going to move". Shane told him we had a disabled daughter and that the guy wasn't allowed to park there and we needed to. They argued back and forth and the guy went into his car, grabbed some stuff and WALKED AWAY. So we called the police (all the while, both girls are in the car, crying) and were standing behind his car.

The guy came back out and I had taken a picture of his license plate (but not the car in the parking space SIGH) and was on the phone with the police. I told him I was on the phone with the police and they were on their way out. He got into his car AND STARTED BACKING UP.I started moving out of the way and Shane went to move me out of the way and the guy in the car HIT SHANE WITH HIS CAR. He actually HIT HIM. Shane slammed his hands down on the trunk and the guy HIT HIM AGAIN. A piece of the guys thin trim came off and he got out of his car and started screaming that we had "effed up his car and we were going to pay". HE then takes out HIS phone and called the police on US, telling us we were going to pay for this and that we "effed up his car" etc etc. The police came out, we had already pulled into the spot because the guy had moved and was parked at an angle behind us. 

The police came and spoke to us and I explained what had happened. They talked to the guy, who started arguing with them about parking in those spots. Yes, they argued with the police. The police were unable to do anything because the picture I took only had their license plate in it and the guy said he didn't hit Shane intentionally (UH LIE, I was ON THE PHONE with dispatch when he hit him!). They were pissed at the guy and chewed them out for like 10 minutes but in the end, the guys reparked and the police gave them a warning. 

It gets even better, we came in and called the apartment manager who said they wouldn't do anything to enforce the parking spots and all we could do is call the police. Shane asked them to send out a notice to the residents asking them not to park there and the manager refused!!! He said he "wouldn't do that and we'd have to keep calling the police" because it was "the police's business". 

I cant believe this happened. I'm so upset that this keeps happening and we still have 4 freaking weeks to live in this dump. 

Just life

Well we got some wonderful news! Our offer was accepted on the house! Hurray! We close on February 25 and I'm HOPING we'll be be moving in the next weekend. The paint colors are super weird in there so I want to get the living/dining area as well as the kitchen painted before we move in. I'd LIKE to paint the master bedroom before we move in because the light blue doesn't match our comforter AT ALL but it's not my main concern. The living areas are the biggest thing to me and I'll worry about the rest later.

I had blogged the other day that Ella might be off o2 in 3 (now 2) weeks? Wellll, that changed. Yesterday, when home health came they noticed that Ella was having some mild retracting (pulling in under her ribs). Now,  a lot of babies with chronic lung disease are apt to have some retractions, it's just kind of part of the package but she told us to keep an eye on it. Well, by evening, I noticed they were slightly deeper and she was also taking deep shuddering breaths pretty frequently. So I called the pediatrician and spoke to the on call ped. I thought we'd have to go back into the ER. Thank goodness we didn't, but we did end up turning Ella's O2 back up to 1/8 of a liter. This morning we talked to her pulmonologist on the phone and they cancelled the overnight sleep study for now. She's just not quite ready, and that's okay!

On another note, when Ella was weighed on Tuesday, she weighed 7 lbs 6 oz. On Friday, at her pulmonology appointment she weighed 7 lbs so she gained 6 oz in just a few days!! The really exciting thing about that is that I only had her on one bottle since her medications were moved to only once a day. So that's alllllll boobie milk except one fortified bottle! Hurray!

I wanted to get pictures of them in their matching jammies. Olivia kept saying
 "Nooo I dont' want to hold her!"
 She wanted to play with her cousin instead! 

I fought for this picture hah

Olivia, Ella and cousin Kyra

7 lbs 6 oz--what a change from 2 lbs 10 oz! 

Lots of exciting things in the Johnson household!

On Friday, we brought Ella to the lung specialist and lots of exciting things occurred at that visit! They put her down to 1/16 a liter (she was on 1/8) and took her off the caffeine. We are weaning her off the diurel (diuretic) and sodium so she'll be off that by this next Friday. In 2 weeks, Ella will have an overnight study done (at our place) where she is off the O2 all night and on a sat machine to see how she handles it. If she handles that well, she could be off O2 by the end of the month!! As of Friday, Ella was still 20 inches long but she now weighs 7 lbs!! Hurray!

Also on Friday, we went and did some house hunting. Our lease on our apartment is up on April 1 and with the market like it is, it's such a great time to buy a house. We're in the market for a pretty cheap house but there are SO many houses for sale that we actually have a lot of options. We didn't really expect to find something but the first two houses we saw were actually contenders. They weren't great, and they needed some work but we would have been okay with them. The third house we saw though...oh wow. We walked in and immediately fell in love. It's AMAZING! It's a 3 bedroom 1 3/4 bath with a family room AND living room. It's a single family home in Crystal with a 2+ car garage and a HUGE fenced in back yard. It's absolutely adorable. There are hard wood floors throughout the entire first floor and the basement has a fireplace. There is a 4th room in the basement that is called a play room on the listing but it's essentially a bedroom. They just can't cal it a bedroom because it doesn't have an egress window. Well, it was $15K less then our price range and we knew immediately we wanted to make an offer on it. We did look at some other houses and saw a few possible choices if we don't get this one but really, nothing that we LOVED like we love this one! Here are some pictures. They don't do the house a lot of justice because we took them quickly but you get the point.

Olivia just had a short bout of the stomach flu yesterday. We're really hoping that neither of us or Ella get it, but sometimes with these stomach bugs, only time can tell. Shane has been off work for the last 17 days and tomorrow, he's back to work. :-/ We have a fair amount of meals in the freezer that I made while Ella was in the NICU and a few things we made while Shane was off so that'll get us through a few weeks so I don't have to worry about cooking. Even though Ella has been alive for 3 months, she's still essentially a newborn and we're still figure out our groove with everything!

Here's some pictures of the girls from the last several days. Everyone keep your fingers crossed...your toes...your eyes...whatever you can, and pray we get this house!!!! :)

New Years Eve trip to the ER

This morning when we woke up, as I was changing Ella, I noticed that she was retracting in her chest just a bit. That's when the chest is sucking in under the ribs, which can indicate respiratory distress. It was pretty mild and right after, she got the hiccups so I decided just to keep an eye on it. We went to a small New Years party with just a few (HEALTHY!) friends and then came home for a nice long nap. I had seen it still while at our friends house but it was still mild. This evening, I checked and she still had the retracting. It hadn't gotten any worse but since it was still there, I called our pediatrician's office. I spoke to the on call ped who said that based on Ella's history and her current respiratory status that he wanted her seen immediately at Children's. So, off we went to the ER at Children's in Minneapolis.

When we got there, she was still having some mild retracting but everything else was totally fine. They hooked her up to a pulse oxymeter which indicated that her O2 saturation was 100%. She sounded totally clear, no temperature and looked great. We went back into a room and the doctor saw us and everything was the same except the retracting was barely noticeable. The doctor said that her belly was very full and had a lot of gas in it and that can sometimes cause babies to retract like that. They did do an influenza and RSV test just to be on the safe side though. If either of those come back positive, Ella will have to be readmitted into the hospital. We're really hoping it's not either of those two things because if Ella gets RSV or the flu, it is much, much more dangerous then if you or I get the flu. She could end up back on the vent or she could even die from it. With preemies like her, especially with the chronic lung disease and being on O2, it can be deadly so we're praying that it's not that. Thankfully, the doctor seemed relatively sure that it wasn't that.

We were in and out of there pretty quickly and got home about 10 PM. So no trips to ER in 2011 yet! ha!