fun with alex and jet

Much needed December Pictures

A modification of the picture earlier this year. Instead of them all sitting in front of the door, now they are all standing there (screaming and laughing at the dog!!)


If there is a blanket anywhere where Grant can lay on it, he will, thumb in mouth. And that is where he will stay until the blanket is taken away. :) Some days I just don't mind if he is like this. It is better than the alternative.




They aren't babies anymore. They are toddlers!! Toddlers that like to CLIMB!!! Check out Grant on the left and Alex on the right.


Jet is starting to allow the boys to be closer to him and sometimes to actually climb over and on him. It is interesting to watch them interact. Here is Alex and Jet "cuddling".




Excuse the food on the face. Like a lot of toddlers I know, my boys do NOT like to have their faces washed, so it is a fight to get the big stuff off most of the time. Alex screams so hard when he sees the washcloth coming. But, I have found that singing the ABC's to him has started to help calm him a bit so I can get more of the food off the face! But look at those baby blues...


And Jet, the child that used to take up most of my blog posts, hardly ever gets mentioned anymore. So here is a picture of him!! :)


My little clown, Ethan, has decided that even though he is small (but gaining, he has finally broken the 18lb mark!!) he is still a boy! Note the bruises on his forhead. That is from taking a head first dive off the couch, more than once. You would think he would learn, but he doesn't seem to mind.

And look at his baby blues too... Can you tell Alex and Ethan apart still?


These are some wonderful hand made ornaments I got from a friend. She did all these by hand. Aren't they awesome??


The boys love having Christmas decorations around. I let them play with my snowman figures from Hallmark since they play music. Watch Ethan in this video. :)


And, finally, the video you have been waiting for. ALEX WALKING....

Videos from this week

When Ethan is pushed up to the table he somehow figures out how to get his feet up on the table. The other day he was doing this with his feet...


Alex is getting good at the crawling thing. He loves to crawl up to something or someone and pull up. He is also walking along furniture now. It won't be long for him to be walking.


One of Alex's favorite things to do is to crawl into the kitchen/dining room and toss a ring around. It sort of bounces and rolls around so he has to chase it. Watch him play...


I found Grant sitting on this water play mat yesterday. I suppose it works well to build up his core strength...


You get to witness some of Ethan's first "steps" crawling. We have been working hard on crawling, but Ethan and Grant just don't quite have it yet. He is Ethan's progress though. He is so close...


I caught Grant this morning pulled up on to his knees for the first time. I was so excited I had to get the camera. The are progressing fast.

Sneaky Jet

So, you must watch the video in the post below. At the start of the video watch the patio door in the background. Jet has learned to open the sliding screen. He does it twice during the video!!

Now, we just need to teach him how to close it too and we are home free!!!

My cutie-pies!!

Alex, Ethan, and silly faced Grant Alex, Ethan and GrantAlex's two front teeth (on the bottom!!)K comes over with her Grandma MJ to take care of the boys while I go to work. They are such a WONDERFUL, AMAZING help!!!Grant... uh....Ethan, big boy in the bumbo...Love this picture. This is one of their favorite things to do right now. Stare out the patio door at the world...AlexAlexEthanGrantAll my boys looking out the window...Alex... master of the piano!!!Their "new" favorite toy. I bought this before they were born, and just found it in the shed this weekend. They are loving it, and it teaches some good things about music... numbers, colors, even solfege (do, re, mi, fa, etc). LOVE IT!!Ethan sucking on Grant's pinky as Grant sucks his thumb.

Boys Laughing at Jet

I got out the lazer light for Jet to play with today and the boys, especially Grant, loved watching him chase it. Listen for the boys laughing. Grant is the furthest away from the camera so he is harder to hear, but he has the best laugh!! You may want to make sure you have a kleenex next to you cause you will be laughing so hard you will have tears!! :)

30 weeks today!!

30 weeks! What a mile-stone! Sucha big weight off my shoulders too. I know that 30 weeks is a GREAT week to make it to with 3 babes inside. It is still early, but we are going. I have heard from a couple of people that they want to see "us" growing, so here is a belly picture... 30 weeks.

The babies are doing as well as can be. The dopplar on Baby C's cord this morning was ok. There is still absent diastolic flow, but no reverse flow. He is very low on fluid, so they are going to be watching that closely. So, we'll have to make sure that they just keep growing. We have another growth check on Wednesday, so we will try to update here once we know more. So... just more prayers are needed. Thank you.

As for other things...
Since I have been in here I have gotten a lot of visits from friends and family. It has been soooooooo wonderful to see everyone, even though they all saw me at probably the worst they will ever see me! :) I have received some wonderful flowers and some gifts. Here is a picture of the beautiful flowers and diaper cakes we got...

I'll explain left to right- If you look closely there in the left corner there is some M&M's and the game Farkle (which I am totally addicted to) and some Beudreaux's Buttpaste (remind me to tell you the story behind that!). We received those gifts from the Goodman family from our church.

The orchid is from our church's music director and his wife, Kevin and Rachel Padworski.

The diaper cakes are from Samantha and James Soesbe, friends from Gillette. The left cake is 30 premie diapers, the middle is 30 size 1 diapers, and the far right is 30 newborn sized diapers. They are great!! She didn't realize it till later, but take a look at the "Fisching" pools. Our babies will be little Fischer's, Get it??? Ok, good. She makes these cakes for lots of people (you can find others she made on her blog here.)

The daisies are from James (and Grant, Alex, and Ethan). James has been keeping the vase full of flowers for me from them.

The mini roses are from my aunt Marie and my cousins Alecia and Ryan. They are so pretty and very fragrant.

The pink and white roses my mom brought to me over 2 weeks ago. They are still going strong. I don't know what the growers or store did to these flowers, but they are the LONGEST lasting flowers I have ever had. They are still very beautiful and I get lots of complements on them.

We have received other gifts from some other church friends, Nita Brown and Cathy O'Brian came by and brought some goodies. They were wonderful homemade cookies, other snacks, games and a wonderful giftcard!

I cannot thank everyone who has just dropped by either. I love having visitors. I get bored here alone!

Speaking of family coming by, they allow patients dogs to visit them. So, Jet has gotten to come by a couple of times. He absolutely HATES the elevator, so James brings him up the stairs. I have missed him since I have been in, but here is a picture of he and I "cuddling" on my bed. (he only stayed there for the picture to be taken.)

Well, I suppose I should update you on James. He kind of gets left out of these things often! :) He is doing well. Working hard. Keeping busy. He doesn't like to be here in the hospital (I don't blame him, neither do I) but he comes by twice a day and stays most of the evening with me. He has started helping me with my monitoring in the evening. He finds the babies and straps them down to me. It's kinda fun that he can be involved like that.

He is really excited for these boys to be born. He is going to be a wonderful dad. See, he's all smiles...


Thanks for all thoughts and prayers.
Love,
Jessica (and James, Grant, Alex, and Ethan) :)

In the Hospital Until They Come Out...

Yes, you read correctly. I am in the hospital now until the God decides that it is time for the boys to be born. I'll explain why in the recap of yesterday below...

It was a very, VERY long day yesterday. (It still really hasn't ended for me, cause I can't sleep in this bed.) I came to the hospital for my nurse/office visit at 3:00 pm. Everything looked great there. My blood pressure was 116/74, not protein or glucose in my urine, my weight gain was ok (only 2 lbs) and everything else looked just fine. We chatted with the nurse just like we would be going home at the end of the day.

At 4:00 pm we stepped inside the ultrasound room. They did growth checks on all the babies and here is what they found. In the 1-day-short-of 2 weeks, Baby A went from 1lb 5oz to 1lb 10oz. Baby B went from 1lb 7oz to 1lb 14oz. Baby C went from 14oz to 1lb (or 16oz).

Baby C finally showed us his heart and it looked really good. He also waved at us a couple of times as we first started looking at him. However, when they went to measure the (I think) diastolic pressure in his umbilical cord, it was absent. (I think I am getting these terms right. It was a lot of medical jargon that I am not used to.) Basically, in layman's terms, he is having trouble pumping blood out and to the placenta. It is resisting him for some reason. This is the reason he is small.

"What can be done about this?" you may ask. Well, not really anything to cure it. They admitted me to the hospital to regulate how much I am on my feet and so they can monitor the babies 3 times a day.

Basically, Baby C is going to have this issue from now on. Dr. P wants us to try and eek out another 4 weeks that he can grow. Then when C decides that he needs to come out, all 3 of them will have to come out. Dr. P said it's not if Baby C gets sick, its WHEN Baby C gets sick (or stops growing) that they will bring them out. (We just hope it is at least 4 weeks from now and not any sooner.)

The other issue that we have is since the placenta is acting up, it is also putting bad stuff into my body. Putting me at a much greater risk for Pre-eclampsia (click on the word for information). Since I also have a history of this in my family, that puts me at a greater risk also. So, they want to closely monitor me for this.

Dr. P ordered that I go swimming 2 times a day, at 10am and 3pm (the hospital has a pool!). I told him that was great!! (That's way more than I would be able to go on my own.) He said that the swimming will help push some of the nasty stuff that we are all getting out and keep the swelling down a lot. Hopefully this works (as it seems to be working well with me just at home, so 2 times a day here should work wonders.)

So, I was allowed to go home and gather my stuff and go out to eat one last time with James before I had to check in. We went to Olive Garden and stuffed ourselves. It was hard to leave Jet at home, because I know he is going to miss me like crazy since I have basically been home with him every day.

I checked in at 8:00 pm and we did a mountain of paperwork. We monitored the boys for the first time (an hour each time we do it) and they all looked good. Though they did say that you could see that C was having a more difficult time than his brothers. I then got swabbed for Strep B, got a steroid shot (which will help the babies develop faster), and had my blood drawn for a couple of lab tests.

The nurse finally left me to go to sleep at 11:30pm. I was sooooo exhausted, or so I thought. I tried to get comfortable on this bed, but it has this weird airbed feature that inflates and deflates every-single-time I move. It got very annoying and the nurse didn't show me how to turn it off. So, I have been up quite a bit and now it is 6:00 am Thursday and I have probably only gotten 2-3 hours of sleep. I guess I will have to nap quite a bit today.

So, long post, I know, but I thought some splainin' was needed. I am at Presbyterian/St. Luke's hospital and I am allowed visitors. However, no one under 18 is allowed due to the threat of H1N1 still. If you want to come visit, just give either James or I a call on our cell phones and let one of us know. (James will be working still, but he will call me if anyone calls him.)

We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers. God can do great things and we just pray that C continues to grow for a while longer.

June Snow (ok...hail) Storm!!

Once the Magic/Lakers game finished overtime tonight, I took off to bed. However, I would not quite make it. I got upstairs and saw a wonderful lightening show taking place a nice distance from our house. I haven't seen a good light show in a long time, so I thought I would lay on the guest room bed and watch the storm for a while.

Well, it moved in FAST!! James had luckily seen the radar and pulled my Expedition in to the garage and secured everything in the backyard just in time!

It started POURING!!! Soon, we couldn't even see across the street. Then, came the HAIL! I have never heard hail like that before. I couldn't even hear myself think. I quickly got away from the window and ran around the house trying to find James. He was at our front door taking video of the storm. He couldn't hear me yell at him from the top of our stairs. It was BAD!!

It finally completed "snowing" and I grabbed my camera. This is the scene immediately after the storm! (James' car was out in it, but didn't get damaged.)

Look at how much hail is piled up against the house! I would say it was about 1 1/2 to 2 inches deep! (And COLD!!)


This was the street! As I walked down the driveway to take the shot I put a foot on the hail in the driveway and it slipped. The hail had all melted quickly together to make a sheet of ice!

Jet LOVED the cold water though! We couldn't keep him in the house once he thought it was winter again!!



We had a river running down our street. It was quite interesting. Jet ran up and down the river trying to catch the floating ice! It was fun to watch.

My tomato plants took a bit of a beating, but the tomatos themselves look like they will be fine. The plants just lost a couple of leaves.

20 Weeks and all the happenings in the Fischer household

James and I are so excited to be 20 weeks along now! Things are starting to come together. James painted the nursery. It is a beautiful tan color that will go with anything. We set up a port-a-crib that we got from our church. It will actually go in our bedroom in case one of the boys gets fussy.

My parents also bought us a really nice crib that James couldn't wait to set up. He also moved a dresser and mirror from our guest room into the nursery. All the woods don't match, but we are working with what we've got.

We have registered for some really, really cute bumpers and blankets for the boys at Target. They are blue, brown, and a few other colors. They are soooooooo cute. One of them is even camo!! (My brother would love it!!) There are three different bumpers that all coordinate together! We will eventually have 3 full sized cribs for each of them, so we thought we would coordinate since they will be in the same room.

We also have registered at Babies-R-Us. There is lots of good stuff out there and I think we have found what we want at both those places. Then again, if you see something that we are missing let me know.


We also put a changing table in the loft. We will have one there and one on the main level in the living room. We also got these from our church! They are so nice and we will have baskets full of stuff on the shelves. In this picture, it was just junk that had to have a place.




So, James' parents came to visit over Memorial Day weekend and Larry did a bunch of work around the house for us. He istalled the fan in the nursery, put up a bunch of shelves and patched the hole I put in the garage wall. Peggy helped with dishes, cooking and laundry. We had a full closet for the first time in a long time! It was so nice to have them here. We didn't get any pictures. Oh well. Next time!


So, I suppose I should probably let you know what is going on with our boys! Well, we don't really know a lot more than our last post. I know that I can feel them kick and punch quite a bit. Not all the time though, and that bugs me. I am sure it will just be a matter of time before I am feeling it consistantly.


I am getting HUGE!!! James also commented today that my face is looking a little "puffy." I didn't realize that it was until about 7:00, so it might be just the evening time.

We have another appoinment this coming Friday, June 5. It is a growth check for all three and a fluid check for the twins. I can't wait to see them all again!


My aunt Tina came down last Saturday and flew to Washington DC on Sunday morning. She surprised her boys with the trip. It was fun to be a part of the ruse!


Anyway, we told her that we go see a doctor at Presbyterian/St.Luke's hospital. She actually gave birth there to her twins that had the twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. Jeromy and Jacob were born (i think) 10 years ago, although Jeromy is the surviving twin. I asked her who her doctor was, and it turns out that her doctor(s) are the same as the doctors we have. I have heard nothing but good things about these doctors not only from Tina, but from a few others that have had Dr. Porecco and the others. That makes me feel good.


Well, it is time for me to get some sleep. Yeah for sleep!!! I need it. I was up ever hour last night, so hopefully I sleep better tonight. Good night, ya'll!

Random pictures from this week

Jet and I were lounging on the hammock on Monday. It was beautiful outside.

James got me a ring for Valentines Day/Birthday. I wear it on my right hand. It is a pink saphire. I love it. He couldn't wait to give it to me till next weekend so I got it last night.

Random pictures from the past couple of weeks

Jet

The proud triplet mommy feeding Levi green beans at Christmas!

James took these pictures at Denver City Park around the lake. It was a wondeful day!! Jet playing in the chilly water at the City Park Lake!

This was over Christmas! James and Aria were watching Baby Einstein!

Smile, Levi, you just got green beans!