Picture Overload

Since I waited so long to update our blog again I now have a ridiculous amount of pictures. I narrowed it down as much as possible and will try to keep my words to a minimum :)

Grammy and Grampy Mecham came for a quick visit.

This was the first time Grampy met Tanzi

One day we had to walk Kyri to Joy School and it was cold and rainy. (it was only a few houses away so I couldn't justify driving) But I did want to make sure Tanzi was warm, so I bundled her up in the first warm item I could find. On our way home she fell asleep so I laid her in her swing and thought she was just too cute (as always).

Kyri graduated from Joy School a couple weeks ago.

She absolutely LOVED Joy School!

So pleased to be SO big!!

Great Grandma Hansen decided she had waited long enough....she needed to see and hold this baby girl! And she even got to feed Tanzi when she came to visit.

Great Grandpa came along, of course, but was happy to play with Kyri and Gray instead of holding a newborn :)

Headbands.

Awesome!

Tanzi...getting SO big!

And this is why I call them my little monkeys :)

One day I came home from the dentist to this:

The pants his daddy put on him didn't stay on so he decided to change into some [pajama] shorts all by himself!

Catching a little smile on camera!

Tanzi had her 2 month appointment on Monday. She weighed in at...

drum roll please....

8 lbs 15 oz

That means she gained 2 whole pounds in the 4 weeks since coming home!!

What a Rockstar!

She was about 50% for length, 10% for weight, and not even on the charts for weight for length.

Long and lean, as the doctor says.

She's actually right on track with the other kids. I found Kyri's 2 month chart the other day and she was 9 lbs 5 oz. So, I think Tanzi is catching up just fine, all things considered.

Tanzi was actually REALLY sad after getting her shots, which was new for us because our other kids have never really been bothered by them. However, Tanzi did have to get an oral vaccine and our other kids both gagged on it, but Tanzi welcomed it gladly....she just gobbled it up! The nurse was really surprised because she said it was even still cold. Yep, that's our girl, eating anything that you put in her mouth! (which right now is prune juice once a day to help her be a better pooper....yes, she even loves that!)

This is the only picture I got on the day of her appointment

Today Kyri had to give a talk in Primary. She did AWESOME! And loved talking into the microphone :) But since I was helping her with that then Gary had to bring Tanzi to church for a few minutes because he had to teach his Sunday School class. When he put her in the car seat he said she just kept smiling, so he tried to get some on camera.

Happy to be getting out of the house

She loves sticking her tongue out while smiling

And she LOVES looking at the car seat cover my friend made, which is why she's looking up in all the pictures and not at the camera :)

(I'll have to take a picture of the cover because it's SUPER cute)

Loving life

Okay, this picture cracks me up! She is making the funniest face! And it shows her double chin. Yes, she is still very small and not at all chubby, but she has always had a double chin, which I think is hilarious!

Just TOO cute!

Wide-eyed and very alert, just like Kyri was as a baby. And we wouldn't expect anything else since our kids all came from the same mold :) And she's sporting off her crazy hair!

We LOVE that it finally stopped raining!

Three peas in a pod

Tanzi actually has the saddest face in this picture and I thought it was just so cute!

And remember how I'm obsessed with hats and headbands for my girls?

LOVE them!!

Our little man

The BIG sister

Going for a ride in the Baby Bjorn

She was a fan....there will be many more rides to come

Tanzi was in the NICU at PCMC for 4 1/2 weeks. Tomorrow she will have been home for 5 weeks. I can NOT believe how fast these last 5 weeks have gone! They have flown by, especially compared to how extremely SLOW the previous weeks dragged by. It is amazing how time flies when you're having "fun" aka: not at the hospital :)

Privacy

By the title of this post you may think it has something to do with the fact that I can't even take 30 seconds to go to the bathroom without my 2 & 3 year olds interrupting me. And while at the end of the day I truly feel that I have had absolutely NO privacy....unfortunately, that is not what this post is about.

Actually, we will probably be going back to a PRIVATE blog soon. We made it open so that those who wanted to stay updated on Tanzi while in the hospital could. We could not take the time, otherwise, to keep everyone informed. Now that she's home, and we're not posting very often, and most of you aren't checking in on us as regularly, it is time to have some privacy. AKA: make sure random people are not blog stocking us (it happened before we went private the first time and totally freaked me out!!) If you would like to make sure you have an invite to our blog so you can still check up on us, then please leave a comment with your email address.

Thanks

On another note: we took Tanzi to her 2 month appointment on Monday. I have been wanting to post about it all week, but have been quite under the weather.

So, stay tuned.....

Since She's Been Home

We obviously haven't been very good at updating our blog since Tanzi came home. We've been slightly busy. Not to mention sleep deprived :) But my mom took Kyri and Graysen to her house for a couple days (THANKS MOM!) so I'm trying to get a few important things done around here...like update the blog...while I have 2 less children! ;)

This post has a TON of pictures (in no particular order). I will try not to be too wordy so this post doesn't seem too long and boring, but I'm not making any promises. You all know I get carried away with words!

So here's what we've been up to:

The day after we brought Tanzi home from PCMC we had to take her to her Pediatrician for a follow up visit. In fact, we couldn't be discharged from Primary's until we had this appointment made. While we were at it we decided we better do Gray's 2 year well-check appointment. So, we had a family outing to the doctor's office

Here's Tanzi getting ready to be checked

Kyri...being a lioness?

She made it very clear to both the doctor and the nurse that she did NOT need any "pokes" today!

Gray being cheeky...and happy...for the moment

Graysen had to get one "poke" and he was not too thrilled. In fact, when the nurse poked him he first said, "OUCH!" before starting to cry. It made Gary laugh because he had never heard Gray say that before...and it was pretty cute, even though it was a little sad :(

(don't worry, we have since retired these 12 month pants that look like capris)

Our first look at Tanzi in the bassinet

SO sweet and SO nice to have her HOME

Kyri doesn't normally nap, but here she snuggled up to me and dozed right off

Our 3 little monkeys

Here you can see the bruise from when they took out Tanzi's central line. Not to mention the bright red skin from the bandage that was on it. But it has all healed nicely.

All snuggled up in her swing

Kyri was nice enough to share Pink Bear with her baby sister. She has had this bear since birth. What a sweet sister!! And it looks like Pink Bear isn't much bigger than Tanzi.

Kyri and Graysen got into my Winter drawer and shoes

Here's Graysen all dressed up with no place to go

Kyri looking winterized

Kyri and Graysen have learned that while I'm feeding Tanzi they've got a few minutes to do whatever they want without me knowing!

GREAT!

So, the other day I started feeding Tanzi and Kyri asked if she could color. I said, "Sure!" She said, "Okay, I'll go get my markers." I told her, "No. No markers. You can color with crayons or colored pencils, but no markers!"

Well, a few minutes later Graysen came into the room looking like this:

Yep, his mouth is FULL of black marker ink!

I told Kyri that this is exactly why I told her no markers!!

Graysen didn't sleep very well that night....I wonder why!

A few days later we found the tip to the black marker on the floor in the play room.

NICE!

We LOVE having this precious angel home where we can sneak a peek when she is sleeping ANY time we want :)

Grammy came for a visit the other day and brought a late birthday present for Gray.

He was SO excited about his new book, but Kyri was much more interested in another part of his present. CANDY :)

Tanzi's first REAL bath.

She hated it.

I loved it.

No more sponge baths for this baby!

She has since realized, though, that these full baths really aren't too bad.

Nice and clean...and out of the water...much better

We have a LOT of pictures like this with ALL 3 of our kids.

Gary just LOVES to snuggle his babies!!

Future USU student

GO AGGIES!!

Just too cute!

Kyri can NOT get enough of her baby sister!

If she's not asking to hold Tanzi she's at least asking to see her face

Sweet Sisters!

Today we had a follow up appointment at PCMC with Tanzi's surgeon, Dr. Meyers.

Everything looked fabulous!

I don't get Tanzi dressed up real often for a couple reasons: 1) We don't go anywhere so it's easier to leave her in jammies or onsies 2) We don't have a lot of outfits that aren't onsies or jammies that are small enough to fit Tanzi right now (but don't worry she almost fits into her 0-3 month stuff...and I can't wait to dress her up in them)

So, since we were going out today I decided to get Tanzi all cute and stuff.

Kyri likes to call her "Tanz" and Gray likes to call her "Zee"

This baby girl couldn't be any more loved than she is right here in this home!!

While at PCMC we made a visit up to the NICU to see McKell. We were glad she was working today. We (especially Tanzi) miss her! I also got to go see one of Tanzi's little friends in the NICU, MaKenzie.

I am so grateful for the forever friends we have made!!

Got Milk?

I do!

Home Sweet Home

Yesterday was such an amazing day. We finally were able to bring Tanzi home after 4 1/2 weeks at Primary Children's. We left extremely happy that we finally got to come home, but we will truly miss all the wonderful doctors, nurses, and people that we grew to know and love while we were down there.

When we got there, McKell told us she had to fight to get Tanzi. They were going to put her with some other baby, but we were super glad she was there yesterday. When Mauri talked to McKell this yesterday morning she told us that Tanzi had gained about 2 ounces and so they cleared her to go home, she just had to have her PIC line removed from her chest by surgery. We got there with the hopes that it would be removed, but to our disappointment, it was not. McKell and the NP had already called to let surgery know they needed to come up and remove it so we could go home. We just chatted with McKell for a while waiting for surgery to come up. We waited, and waited, and waited. We decided to go get some lunch because we were hungry and hopefully, surgery would be there by the time we got back. We came back and Tanzi still had her line in. We started to get a little frustrated at this point and so the NP decided to call every hour until surgery came up. We continued to wait and I started joking around with Mauri wondering what we would do if we weren't able to take Tanzi home today. Finally, around 4:30, the NP took matters into her own hands and got surgery to come up. Dr. Rollins was there for a total of about 10 minutes and took out her line. Yippee, we could finally go home. They wanted to keep Tanzi there for about an hour or so, just to monitor her vital signs and make sure everything was okay. Shortly after 6, we loaded Tanzi into the car and finally were able to take her home.

Our wonderful neighbor Hannah was willing to watch the kids while we went to get Tanzi. We didn't expect it to take us as long as it did, but Hannah said the kids were great. We were very appreciative of her helping out. The kids were so excited to see Tanzi. They just wanted to hold her and kiss her. They were really cute with her and Tanzi seemed to enjoy all the attention from her siblings that hadn't seen her in over a month.

We are just so happy to finally be home together as a complete family. We know that it was everyone's thoughts, fasting, and prayers that enabled Tanzi to recover and to come home. We can only express our gratitude and thankfulness to all of you. We are so blessed to have such close family and friends.

Just a precious little thing, we love her so much!

This is one happy Dad!

And the happy Mom!

This was the Central Line we waited all day to have removed. She did not like it at all. I tried to include the least graphic picture for those that don't tolerate scissors to skin very well.

Getting ready to go home and putting on her ladybug outfit.

Tanzi was so nervous about leaving, she was even biting her nails.

All nestled away in her carseat ready to leave the hospital.

Kyri was so happy to see Tanzi, she just wanted to keep holding her.

Graysen is still trying to figure it all out, but he sure loves having a baby sister.

We are just so happy to finally have Tanzi home with us. She is just a special little angel and we are so fortunate to have her in our life.

A GREAT Weekend

Saturday. Day 30 in Primary Children's NICU.

What a fabulous day!

First, Gary went to see Tanzi when he got off work at midnight and stayed long enough to feed Tanzi at 2am. Not too many daddy's go to see their baby girl in the middle of the night! What a GREAT way to start the weekend.

Then later in the morning I was able to go spend some time with our sweet baby. I was there in time for Tanzi's 11am feeding. Now, remember, they have been feeding Tanzi every 3 hours (even waking her to feed her) and only feeding her 45mL's (1.5 ounces) max. Well, for this feeding I was able to nurse Tanzi!! Since it was her first time in 4 weeks the lactation specialist was there to help out. None of us knew what to expect, but, once again, our little Tanzi girl proved to be a true "Rockstar"! She latched on perfectly and went to town!

Sorry folks, no pictures documenting this most fantastic milestone!!

Since she did so well our nurse (yep, our favorite, McKell) asked the NP if we could try nursing again for the next feed. So, not only did I nurse Tanzi once, but TWICE yesterday! What a great feeling for this mama! Then they decided that since Tanzi is such a Rockstar they would stop feeding her every 3 hours with a certain amount of food. Instead they would feed her when she was hungry and let her eat as much as she wanted. And I even changed two big, nasty, poopy diapers! A very good sign that her digestive system is, indeed, working as it should.

YEA for poop!

When I got to the hospital yesterday McKell had Tanzi in her bouncer and she was "watching a show", as McKell told me. She had her little toy hooked to the crib. She was actually asleep. Sounds like her mommy and daddy...fall asleep watching a show. But oh how we love how that McKell takes care of our precious baby girl! She is just SO good to her!

Another cute headband.

McKell was telling me she thinks Tanzi looks like a genie with her headband that's too big for her.

A genie? Maybe. But at least she is the dang cutest genie EVER!!

Tanzi managed to push her headband off while pushing out a poop!

Here's one of her many cute faces! She is constantly making faces at us :)

Showing off her bright, happy outfit

Sunday. Day 31.

I walked into the hospital today and McKell told me that tomorrow will be THE day!

That's right, we're bringing this baby girl HOME!!

McKell told me that Tanzi was still wanting to eat about every 3 hours, but she was eating at least 60 mL's (2 ounces) every time. And eating it fast. I think she was probably feeling a little jipped about the 45 mL's she was getting before :)

As long as she gains weight again (she is now up to 6 lbs 12 oz!) and does well through the night, then we will say goodbye to this place that has been SO good to us!

This is how I found Tanzi when I got there today...showing off her outfit we took her. McKell found the cute headband and jacket to accessorize.

She was being held by McKell. I have never seen any other nurse hold Tanzi...another reason McKell is our favorite!

The very McKell we have talked so much about!

And while we may be leaving her place of employment she will always be a special part of this Allen family!!

LOVE her!!

Sleeping like her siblings...with her face covered up!

Take note of her pretty, long fingernails. That may have to be on the top of our to-do list after she gets home

We can NOT wait to get our beautiful baby home! We are so glad she is now healthy and doing SO well. We have to give SO much thanks to so many of you who offered prayers and fasting on behalf of Tanzi and our entire family. We know that it is through your faith that Tanzi made such rapid progress and is coming home as soon as she is! There truly is NO way to thank all of you for all your love, prayers, fasting, and support but please know how very grateful we are to be surrounded by so many angels on earth!!

We love you!!