Preemie Parents Day!

It takes a lot of courage, strength, willpower and grace to navigate the traumatic NICU rollercoaster. It is a long never-ending road we travel. -Beautifully put by a fellow preemie mom.

Today is the first ever Preemie Parents Day!

To all my fellow preemie parents - big hugs!!! I'm blessed and honored to be among such an amazing group of people. You have inspired and supported me in ways you'll never know.

It's a day that shouldn't have to be, but I am one proud preemie mom!

The Dude

We finally had Parker's update after his last procedure. Here's the skinny-

His EOS wasn't taken care of by being on twice daily Prilosec. In fact, his counts of bad cells in his esophagus are actually getting higher. And now there's evidence of these cells in his stomach as well. Not the best news. This is not something that goes away or he will outgrow. You can treat it, but you can't cure it.

So we will continue on with the meds we're already on and add another twice daily one to the routine.We will go back in 4 months for another scope and another set of biopsies. So we carry on, and see if we can make it easier for the little man to eat.

Here's his mug shot from the weekend - covered in dirt, bubbles, and sidewalk chalk. And not overly happy that mom's taking his picture.

Glamour Shots

Lsst weekend was full of craziness - it was the big Baby Fair weekend that we'd been working on for months. It was a huge success! If you're one of the people that helped support us in any way, you don't know how much you're appreciated.

One of the best things that came out of the weekend was the completion of our website - quietlight.org . If you haven't already been there, go look. It's just the beginning and it's already amazing. Jason and Nick - thank you for all your hard work on the site!

The other great thing from last weekend was the pictures. Jason, our marketing Director for Quiet Light, came in for a few days from Denver so we could get some work done. One special thing he did was photo shoots with several families with preemies of varying ages. I've seen just a few of the ones the shot and they are unbelievable. These are two of the ones he shot of my duo. I'm so graetful for these beautiful pictures, there are almost no words.

A Diva is Born

Payton loves music. She loves everything having to do with music. She loves watching The Voice, Dancing With the Stars, she stops to look at a commercial with music, she could watch the Hot Wings video on the Rio DVD a million times and be perfectly happy.She is also becoming the worlds biggest diva (or ham as I like to call her).

Payton has been practicing some of her songs with Ma-Maw, Mommy and at school. She actually let me film her if I promised to let her watch them. There's counting, Twinkle Twinkle, This Little Piggy (the Payton version) and Johnny. I'm going to need more camera time for her for sure!

Hysterical Bath Time

I have no idea why...but bath time and dumping big cups of water on ourselves was the best thing that ever happened to us the other night. It was too funny not to record. Enjoy! :)

Defy Gravity

We had a fun opportunity to try something new this last week. As part of the family nights Respite Care puts together, we had a chance to go to Defy Gravity. It's an awesome place out LaVista that is nothing but trampolines and you get to jump and go crazy. We were able to go for free and see if the babies liked it. We took Aunt Bo with us to check it out. Payton liked it and was trying to get the hang of jumping. Parker was more interested in sitting on someone's lap and doing a little light bouncing while he watched some of his older friends from Respite Care go crazy. It was an awesome place and I would love to go back there - with or without the kiddos. After a while, Payton sat down and told us that she was "all done". It was definitely worth it going to try it out. Thank you Respite Care and the Nebraska Cerebral Palsy group for arranging a fun time!