Wednesday, August 19, 2009

A Pictureless Post

This afternoon we discovered that we had blown a fuse in the basement. Unfortunately, the extra refrigerator/freezer we have down there was attached to that fuse. All the food we had in there defrosted, including the 20 lb bag of chicken breasts that Joe had just bought. We ended up having to toss out all kinds of food and essentially throwing money in the trash. What does this have to do with anything? Well, it is our excuse for not having any pictures in this post. In all the commotion with the freezer Joe forgot to grab the camera when we left the house and therefore we did not get any new pictures of the babies today.

That's the bad part. The good part is that the babies are still doing well. A few changes were made today, but nothing major. Annaleigh had a few episodes yesterday of dropping her heart rate, which is rare for her. In order to correct this she will be receiving a higher dose of caffeine from now on (she most likely needs more since her weight has gone up) and will also be tested to see if she needs blood. There is no cause for concern though, and Annaleigh was her usual happy self today. She gained 25 grams tonight to reach 1315, or 2 lbs 14 oz. She's slowly creeping towards 3 lbs! Both times we held her she pooped - wow is that little girl stinky!! I changed her diaper tonight after I held her and she rewarded me by pooping even more while I had her diaper off. Thanks, baby!

Charlie had his feedings increased to 26 ml today and of course he is happy about this! He put on another 20 grams to make him 3 lbs 10 oz. He's still doing well alternating between the CPAP and nasal canula and had a nice snuggle with me this afternoon.

No changes for Lily today, other than a weight gain of 40 grams to total 3 lbs 6 oz. She was asleep both times we were there, but she did very well when Joe held her this afternoon and didn't have on desat while she was out - a big accomplishment for her!

Joe and I kept busy today when we weren't at the NICU. This afternoon we went to two different Honda dealerships on our minivan search. The first one did nothing but make us angry. We sat there for an hour and a half before we even SAW a van! The sales guy had to run our numbers. Then the van we wanted to see supposedly needed power steering fluid and was taken over to the repair shop from which it never returned. Another van we wanted to see wasn't on the lot. He finally showed us something but it had just come in and had yet to be detailed. I could not get past the stained seats and scratched, dirty dashboard. So we left.

On a whim we stopped at a dealer near the hospital and had a much better experience. The sales guy there led us immediately out to see two different vans and simply took our information to work up some numbers for us while we were gone. We plan to go back tomorrow to review the numbers and test drive the cars. One of them is a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan. Does anyone own a Grand Caravan? Do you like it? Anyway, the second visit was at least productive and we also have some other things in the works. Our good friend Ryan hooked us up with a friend of his who owns several dealerships, and his friend is trying to get us a good deal on something nice. So our fingers are crossed that something comes of that. Thanks Ryan!

Then this evening Joe and I attended a baby care class that the NICU was running. It covered basics like bathing, swaddling, tummy time, vaccines, etc. and we both found it very, very useful. There is a LOT to know about babies! Good thing I took notes!

13 comments:

Michele from FTHS said...

Wonderful news about the babies. My sister has a Grand Caravan and loves it. She is actually looking to get another one!

Jill said...

Sorry to hear about all the food you had to toss :( We had something similar happen to our fridge/freezer in the garage, we didn't catch it because we were at the hospital most of the time. Unfortunately, that's where I was storing my stash of breast milk since I was WAAAY overproducing what our baby needed. I had to dump (yes, I counted) 218 4-ounce bottles of breastmilk that thawed out. It was not a good day to say the least!
Good luck with your vehicle search - and great report on the babies! Grow babies grow!

Jill in Iowa

Lani said...

Ug.. car buying just stinks, plain and simple. Just wanted to say if you have any questions about the Sienna, let me know! We have one and my husband works for Toyota!
Sorry to hear about the freezer! That's so depressing to have to throw out so much food:( But glad to hear the kiddos are still doing great!

Momma said...

Brooke, I only owned Caravans when the Copzkids were growing up and never had a minutes trouble and LOVED them..we owned a total of three.

I love logging on and seeing that all three are chugging right along...way to go babies! Boo for wasted food.

Amanda said...

Glad the babies are going great. I read everyday but sometimes don't get a chance to post a message to you. Thank you both for being so diligent about updating us who care but who are too far away. :hugs:

Mike and I have a 2007 Dodge Caravan. We LOVE it. I seriously don't have one complaint! I went on and on so much about how much I loved it that within a year, my sister and brother-in-law bought one too. :) And they love it as well!

The Stow-N-Go seating and dual automatic sliding doors are a freakin' godsend when you've got kids. I can't rave enough about this vehicle! :)

Good luck with your decision!

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to hear about the food but the babies accomplishments make up for it. Think positive...

Good luck with the van search.

All My Love, Auntie :) xoxoo

Jen said...

Hi Brooke,
I am so glad that the babies are doing well.

I am not a fan of the dodge vans. My sister has one and has had tons of issues with it. She has 5 kids but lucky for her her DH is a machanic so the repair cost isn't bad. She got rid of her van when the mileage was only 90K on it.

My dad had one when I was growing up and the enginge seezed up on the way to the ER with my mom. I guess it is why I never will own one. Everyone one I know here in DC where we drive a TON hated the van once it hit about 70K miles.

We have had luck with the toyota family. Dad had the prius with 250K miles on it and going great, my matrix has 150K miles on it and my aunt has the mini van with 110K miles on it and says she loves it and it still runs like new, only had to do oil changes and scheduled maintenance on it.

I contacted a friend here in VA where we got Jim's SUV and he did some digging. He said that NEW ROCHELLE TOYOTA
47 CEDAR STREET
NEW ROCHELLE, NY 10801

had a few siennas (2006) low mileage under 40K for 17K. He said that you could probably get them down another 2K off.

Anonymous said...

Hi guys!

Great news about the babies!!! Now get some pics next time, huh?! :) Sorry to hear about your fridge and the lost food- that stinks.

Just wanted to let you know that I have a 2005 Grand Caravan and I personally love it. There's lots of room. Now that I drive a van I don't think that I could go back to driving a "normal" car again. Also, Joe-- do you remember Dennis who used to work with us? If so, let me know. His son is the manager, I think, of a Honda dealership.

TTYS, and see you in less than 2 weeks!

Cheryl

Anonymous said...

SAIF nestie here! Glad your babies are doing so well!

I have a 05 Grand caravan....I love the idea and features of it, but otherwise have nothing but issues! We have had it for 2 years and have had to put a lot of money into it, on top of making payments! Be careful and get a warranty! The duel sliders are awesome though!

Anonymous said...

Sucks about the food! How frustrating! So glad the babies are doing well, Charlie is just packing on the ounces!!!

We just bought our second Caravan (our first was a 97 Grand Voyager, we traded it in with 263K miles on it!! The dealer was amazed it had THAT many miles and was still in good shape, lol) and we got a Town and Country. They're all the same thing, but the "Grand" in front, (or LX/Limited afterward on the T&C's) means it's a longer wheelbase. We LOVE our long vans. My mom had 3!

Anonymous said...

Installing carseats is much easier with the LATCH system is much easier than simply using seatbelts. I think I've heard that only the Sienna's and Odyssey's have 4 LATCH systems. That might be something to investigate.

JoLynn said...

Hey Joe...thanks for the post on my site! If you want to check into, the email for the Indiana auction guy is rward@indy.rr.com. Basically you tell him what type of vehicle you are looking for and he comes back if any are available currently, sends specs and pictures. He will let you know what other comparable vehicles have been going for and you tell him what you are willing to spend. He goes to the auction weekly. As I said, we bought our Mazda CX9 this way late last year and got a 1yr old vehicle for 1/2 price. I would definitely do it again. Good luck on your search!

sheepi83 said...

This is probably little consolation while your babies are so sick, but if you call your homeowners insurance you can probably claim the food you lost in your freezer.

I will be thinking about your children and praying for them.

Joanna