Just as an FYI

Hi everyone,

Its been a long time since we've posted anything. Im really sorry about that. Melanie is doing great, and continues to grow. I think Nicki said she is over 7 pounds now!!!!!!!!!! What a porker. I think shes got a bit of acid reflux going on, but shes growing, so its all good I guess. Im writing you all today for some help. The Westra family has been asked to be an ambassador family for the March of Dimes in Holland. To be totally honest with you, Im not exactly sure what that all involves, but I did hear something about public speaking after I told them we would do it. Although it might be a bit uncomfortable, Nicki and I have a strong passion to help those who have helped us while Melanie was in the hospital. The March of Dimes continues to play a huge role in helping premature babies, and when they asked us to this, we absolutely couldnt say no.

The next reason Im writing is where you all come in....if we have any followers left since WE HAVENT BEEN KEEPING YOU UP TO DATE! Sorry again. Part of being an ambassador family is setting up a team for the March for Babies walk in our local area. This is a fundraiser for the March of Dimes. We've set up a team name called Melanie Marchers, and you can help us out in two ways. #1, it would be awesome, only if you are able to, donate money to this cause. #2, if you are planning a trip to Holland Michigan around April 17th, or, if you live in the Holland area, you can also walk with us. There is usually an enormous get together where many teams show up and walk for babies. It looks like an awesome event. I will try to get you more information as time goes on. Im really sorry for the late notice, as I just got our team set up this morning on a beautiful sunny day off of work.

If you can donate, here is a website to do so. Feel free to comment with any questions, and, who knows, maybe we will see you in Holland in a couple months!

http://www.marchforbabies.org/team/t1377031

Thanks, and we love all! Its time for the Westras to serve a bigger cause after we have been so wonderfully served by the loving hearts of all of you. Thanks again!

Pictures

Here are a few updated pictures of Melanie. She is growing, growing, growing. Tomorrow is her 'due date' and yet here are her 3 month old pictures!! Hard to believe she has been here for over 3 months already and yet she shouldn't be here at all. Last week Friday she weighed 5lbs 14oz. Next weight check...tomorrow.

Its Been Too Long!

Dads turn...

I had some things fall through for the night, so I had a suprise free night. So, I did what any sane dad would do....I sent Nicki out so I would be able to spend part of the nite with 3 girls under 4 years old. (Sane...yeah right...this could get ugly). I was looking at several blogs that are linked to ours about other families we got to know in the NICU, and I told Nicki that I should post another one once. She also said...I quote "Good luck getting that done while Im gone". Dont know about you, but I took that as a dare. So she is just gettin ready to leave the house, and I am fully prepared to do this while she is gone. I will let you know by the time Im done writing how this works.

Let me start by saying, Nicki said we dont have very many good pictures of the girls. Every picture we have, she says, is with a kid not smiling, one of them with their eyes closed, the oldest two looking like dorks, or Melanie not in the right position. So I decided, it would be a good idea to let you in on some secrets about what has been going on around here...kinda letting you be a fly on the wall for a bit. The two oldest of our three girls are not your typical girls...and, if Melanie is going to have a prayer at surviving in this household, she is going to have to have some boyish spunk in her as well. Yes, there are dolls in the house, and yes, Miya and Jayden pretend to pump like their mom at times, and yes, there are pig tails and pink, but something tells me its gonna get even crazier than it already is at this 'humble abode' we call the Westra residence.

So for this post, I am going to tell a few stories...very recent stories just to let you know what kind of a zoo we live in...
Exhibit #1....Children in subject...Miya and Jayden - This story was told to me by Nicki. It happened...today. So, lately...we arent sure why, Miya has had a little trouble with solid BM. Lets just say, she has been suprised from time to time, not pooping in her pants, but getting too close. She has trouble knowing what is about to come out, whether it be air, or liquid out of her rear end. When this sudden moment displays it's urgency, typically Miya thinks its going to be air, at which, she says, I tooted!!! (Im so proud, both her and her sister usually laugh and come running saying something along the lines of..."Daddy, I toot!!...Daddy, I toot!!!" I wish Nicki hadnt taught them this...its going to have to get weaned out of them before they get to some form of schooling, or we might get some calls from teachers :) When Miya is incorrect in her guess at what is passing, she gets a bit of 'not quite air' in her panties. When this happens, she says she had a 'naughty toot' because she generally needs to change her underwear as there tends to be a bit of 'streakyness'. So, back to our story. On todays occasion, Miya had a naughty toot, and Nicki was apparently busy, so, Jayden took the liberty of cleaning Miya's pants. This meant that Jayden got out the baby wipes and attempted to wipe Miya, however, her gag reflex showed up again. Nicki heard the commotion, and prevented Jayden's vomiting excercise that happened a week or so ago. This apparently is a trait that has been handed down from her dad. Note: Jayden doesnt change diapers, nor does she look at her own.

Exhibit #2...Child in subject - Jayden One of the funniest things I ever saw. Again, dealing with....poop. Jayden has a way of expressing herself, and Saturday night, while she recieved a bath, I recieved a laugh. In the past, Jayden has had a few problems pooping in the bathtub. When this happens, she immediately stands up, screams at the top of her lungs, and starts gagging. This incident was a bit different though. This child has a very good memory. I sat in the kitchen and laughed as Jayden stood up in the bathtub, afraid that a few days ago, when she pooped in the tub last, we handn't cleaned it up. So, the bubbles were in the tub, and Jayden was worried these little 'brown monsters' were going to swim up and bite her feet while she stood there in the tub. She so badly wanted to get out, tears were flying, and mom and dad just laughed in amusement. Who needs a date when you get laughs like these!

Exhibit #3....Child in subject - Melanie Ok, so this one is a little harder, and I didnt want to leave her out for laughs. Her humor isnt quite there yet, but we needed a break from the BM, so I thought I would throw her in. I think, the funniest thing about this kid is the fact that she can sleep through anything. Miya and Jayden can come up screaming to her crib, climb in with her, and all she might do is grunt...and toot (OK! I couldnt leave it out:) Miya and Jayden are not only good at pointing out when they toot, they can do it when their little sister does too!

Exhibit #4....Child in subject - Miya and Jayden From what I can see, these two can hardly play together for more than 5 minutes without yelling at each other, but when they do, its sure to bring humor. Miya tends to 'dumb herself down' so Jayden can understand her. They will laugh at the silliest things. For example, right now as I type this, they are eating thier snacks making a grunt noise and giggling like crazy at each other, seeing who can make the craziest noise. Also, we have this "dont lose your child in the mall cuz she's tied to you device". We have never used it at the mall, nor has it ever seen the light of day, but it gets used often in this house. It is a harness that your child can get into and walk around, but has a rope attatched to it, so you can hang onto it, and they will bever be more than 6 feet away from you. The girls love this thing. Typically, one will be tied up, and the other will start running until the rope jurks tight, and the other either lets go, or what usually happens is, the other uses the brains of their father, holds on for dear life, and ends up falling on their face, laughing hysterically.

And the list goes on and on. Miya playing catch with dad while he's in the shower, as she hooches the ball over the top, and dad throws it back attempting to have it land on her head to practice her eye-hand coordination. Jayden changing diapers of every baby in the house. Both playing farm with daddy's combines, tractors, and trucks. Melanie laying on dads chest without a care in the world. And dads favorite, wrestling and tickling his girls until they are so exhausted they want to do nothing more than go to bed. I could tell stories of the few short years of these beautiful girls lives who usually arent "striking a pose" for the camera, arent hiding thier 'embarresing gasses', and are calling for their daddy every second that I am home, which, at times can almost drive a guy nuts, but usually makes the kid in me laugh like crazy thinking that Im a dad of these sweethearts, and Im not anymore grown up than they are.

But, I want to hear some of your funny stories of kids....if we have any followers anymore now that Melanie is on track :) I love humor, especially kid humor, so if you have any, please, dont be afraid of posting a comment and making it way too long...I wanna hear about it. And, with that, I leave you with some pictures of the goofy Westra girls who look to be leading 'normal' lives...lives that I so bad want to stop for a few moments and take more of it all in. (By the way, Im done, and Nicki still isnt home, and Melanie is sleeping, Miya is done with her snack and ready for bed, and Jayden is still makin a mess out of her popsickle in her high chair)

Enjoy!

Dr. Appointments

Okay, a very quick post for now. Melanie had an audiology appointment yesterday for a re-check of her ears. While at Devos she passed one ear and failed the other. The nurses there though it may be because she was on oxygen. Well, that seems to be the case because she passed both ears within 2 min of the test. I was very relieved as this was a test I was very anxious for her to have since we left the hospital. She also had another check of her eyes (a weekly test while in the hospital). After waiting for over an hour and a half the doctor looked at her eyes for 1 min (I'm NOT exaggerating even a little) he said there was no change. This means her eyes are still at a level 2. He assured me no change is good at this point. As long as her eyes don't go to a level three we'll just keep checking them EVERY week. This could continue till she's 44 weeks (gestation). Typically babies eyes are not developed until 4 weeks after their born(currently she is 39 weeks gestation). All in all, a very good day! We continue to see the Lord's blessings as Melanie develops. It amazes me how perfectly God has created our bodies to form and develop inside the womb. There are so many little things that have to grow at specific times that I have never even though of. I simply took for granted a baby develops and then is born healthy. I have taken so much for granted with my 'normal' pregnancy's. Watching Melanie grow has opened my eyes to so much more and caused me to be thankful each and every day for the little (big) steps Melanie is making.

As for Melanie's weight. As of Tuesday she weighed 5lbs and 13oz. I think she may be having a growth spurt today. She ate every two hours last night. Maybe she was just hungry from her busy day yesterday. :)

Adjusting

Everyone here is still adjusting to being home together. We are very excited to be home as a complete family...well most of us anyway. Tuesday morning at breakfast Miya had a question for me. "Mommy, can I have another baby sister?" I about choked on my cereal and then reminded her that Melanie was home just sleeping in the crib, thinking she forgot about her. "No mom, I want ANOTHER baby sister." I asked her why. "Cause I want you and daddy to go to the hospital for long times so I can play with my friends." I guess we don't have to worry if the girls had fun while we were at the hospital. I do think it's taking Miya a little longer to adjust simply due to the fact that she wants to go, go, go and now we are stuck, stuck, stuck! I really thought Jayden would have her toes stepped on with Melanie needing more attention, however, she is doing great. I haven't really noticed any jealousy from her. That might yet come as Melanie gets a little older. As of now, they LOVE having Melanie home. Miya is always asking to hold her (so that also means Jades does too). While Miya is holding her she can't stop giving her kisses. It's the cutest thing! And Jayden just wants to show her to everyone. Be warned, if you walk into our house, Jayden will grab your hand, pull you to Melanies's bedroom, saying "elanie, elanie, elanie" the the whole way (weather she knows you or not). As for Melanie, she left the hospital Thursday at 5 lbs and 3/4oz. Saturday morning she weighed 5 lbs 1oz. Growth, but not exceptional. On Monday a home-health nurse came out for a weight check and she weighed in at a WHOPPING 5lbs 5oz. Exceptional!! Yeah Mealanie, that's a 'rate of gain' of 2+ oz a day. I think she is LOVING her new surroundings and knows she's HOME! Here is a little video of what Melanie has to sleep through. We are truly blessed with three little girls that absolutly LOVE eachother! I'm so excited to watch them grow-up together.

:) you design your own picture

Dad here again...just an update of how things are going in the Westra household now that Melanie is home. I have to tell you, its been very good having everyone home. Today was Nickis first day at home by herself with all three girls, so I think she was looking for help when I got home. However, when I got home, the trooper she was said the day went really good. Miya and Jayden are turning out to be really good big sisters already. As long as everyone is getting naps, everyone is happy.

So Im thinking, after tonite, we are better off keeping dad away. The reason I say this is because when I got home today, I started helping...and here is where all the problems began. It was actually quite hilarious...so funny, we were laughing throughout the whole time. This is where your imagination gets to draw your own picture in your head.

Phase one:...Melanie has a terribly smelly diaper at 6:00 pm. Dad decides he will tackle this diaper as mom is clearing the dishes from eating supper (...or dinner, I guess all you backwards Michigan people call it around here...note: this is the only thing I havent gotten used to since I moved to Michigan :) Miya and Jayden are already cleaned up, so we set two chairs up by Melanies changing table so the girls could stand on them....Miya near Melanies head, Jayden near Melanies rear, to watch dad change the diaper........let me just take a step back at this point and tell you Jayden had a rough nite up to this point due to her lack of eating earlier that evening. She had many tears, cried hard, and was very tired.

Phase two:...Miya and Jayden are both standing on their chairs talking to Melanie and watching as dad begins taking Melanies clothes off in preparation for the ultimate diaper. Dad takes the diaper off, quickly wipes Melanie down, and puts the wipe in the diaper...(let me just tell you my mindset as this is all going on...Melanie has a problem...seems that every time we change a dirty diaper, she decides it feels good to be clean, and makes a dirty diaper again, almost immediately after we get her out of the 1st one....dad, knowing this, knew he didnt have much time to get the other diaper into place)

Phase three:...dad doesnt get the clean diaper up to Melanies rear end quite in time. Infants, especially on breast milk, have a tendency to have a little less than solid BM when they are this young. This being the case, I managed to deflect the projectile mass before it went all the way across the room. This deflection left some projectile on my hands, on the outside of what had been a clean diaper, and, you guessed it....all over the changing table.

Phase four:...Jayden is now the topic of discussion. Melanie's projectile, with all of its force, made quite a noise, scaring the heebeejeebees out of her big sister Jayden, especially after seeing the mess that was made, and she promptly began running in place on her chair, screaming at the top of her lungs wondering what had just happened. Jayden...in a nutshell....flipped out.

Phase five:...this is a problem...as you may recall from phase three, some of this projectile landed on my hands. This makes removing Jayden from the scene of the incident...all but impossible. Again, as you may recall, Nicki is, what seemed like a lifetime away from us in the kitchen. Upon hearing all the screaming hysteria from Jayden; the yelling 'DADDY DADDY!!! MELANIE POOPED!!' from Miya; and a dad who is just laughing and trying to keep himself together, much less his 3 girls who are all within a foot of him, Nicki slowly begins making her way to Melanies room. Mind you, Jayden is still running in place at this time. There is no way I am moving her with the amount of feces on my hands.

Phase six:...Enters Nicki...She grabs Jayden, who is nearly hallucinating at this time. While she tries to begin the process of calming Jayden, I begin the clean up process. There is BM everywhere. The way it looked to me, if this kid drinks 50 mls at every feeding, there is 49 of them that come out her rear end by the time the next feeding time shows up three hours later. As I begin the cleaning process, I hear a very familiar sound in the background. It seems to be coming from Jayden. The reason it sounded so familiar, is because I used to make these very same noises when Miya was a baby, and I got stuck changing her diaper. The noise, is nearly the same noise you would hear if you stuck your fingers in the back of your throat and played tug of war with your droopy. ( I call this your droopy...Im not sure what the real name is...its the dangling thing that comes down just above your tongue in the back of your throat) I dont recommend trying to make this noise, so if you havent heard it....its a very loud gagging cough.

Stage seven:...As I get most of Melanies BM cleaned, and begin to take the second diaper off to replace it with the third clean one, Jaydens coughing and gaggin comes to an end....why you ask??? You guessed it, she had worked herself up so much, she made her own projectile which came out of her mouth. Supper (or dinner) was shooting everywhere. It was at this point that I was happy she didnt eat so well. Not nearly as much food came out. However, once was not enough for Jayden.

Stage eight:...Since Jayden had worked herself up so well, she decided that once was not enough. The first projectile landed on the floor, however, Nicki got in the way of the second....and the third. Problem...we have Jayden still screaming, BM still on the changing table and on Melanies clothes, and Nicki and Jayden are stained with supper.

Stage nine:...not to be outdone, the baby of the family decides, since she started it all, she had probably finish it too. This is where the laughter really got going. I was cracking up pretty good when Melanie decided to...you guessed it, add to the mess she started with. And, since I hadnt learned my lesson the first time, the diaper still wasnt completely closed, and made more messes on the table...and...uh huh, my hand.

All of this happened in a matter of about a minute. Now, nearly four hours later, I am typing this, still smiling at how Miya held herself together so well. She gave the commentary on the whole deal. It was hilarious! Melanie now sits on my lap, clueless to the who ordeal, Miya and Jayden are upstairs in bed, and the house is sanitised. No one is sick, its just what happens when you turn diaper changing into a spectator sport I guess.

Hope you enjoyed yourselves at our expense! :)

Here is a picture to keep your tastebuds wet for tomorrow. No worries, I would never take a picture of tonites events!

Cya!

I guess I'll call it, Day 1

What a wonderful day. To not miss anything....what a blessing. Naps at our house, Miya and Jayden playing, Melanie doing all the things that she does best (I can name them: Eat, sleep, poop...in that order, however, she might throw a curve ball in there from time to time where its eat, sleep, poop, and then poop again immediately after we change the diaper). Today was the first time in a long time that I 'saw' us as a family. Everyone home, everyone doing their own thing...right or wrong, we were all here.

Im gonna throw a few pictures at you again, but let me say this...the hospital did cause for extra driving, however, to have to wake up at midnight, 3:00 and 6:00 am to do an hour care time at home....makes me appreciate even more what those nurses did for us. (Kelly, Im thinkin youre workin tonite....thanks, we'll be missing you again tonite :) I just got done feeding Melanie...Mom, Miya and Jayden are at the hotel with the Wassinks for a Christmas get to gether in Holland...and I kept thinking to myself what a wonderful journey God has put us through. Every single member of this family has grown up through this process. Mom and Dad mentally and spiritually, Miya and Jayden emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and literally, and Melanie...I guess just literally. Ive always heard that the journey is more amazing than the victory, and we got to experience that 1st hand.
Im so proud, especially of how this family handled this journey, as well as everyone else that was associated with it. Our immediate and extended family was brought closer, seeming to be a bit more relaxed as well, taking little problems in life, and making them to what they are....little problems. Our friends, new or existing, Ive never been so proud of each and every one of you. You've all been a part of a family, lifting them up in prayer, supporting them in so many ways, between babysitting, meals, cards, gifts, cleaning, hugs, tears, and so much more. Doctors and nurses, seeming to do their jobs, but taking the extra time to get to know a family (even though this family's dad seemed to be a pain in the rear at times) and doing more than required...All of you, I can picture the small children who said your prayers for Melanie at night, the adults that shed tears, the grandparents and other family members who felt distant, the pastors who prayed in their churches, the widows and widowers who gave to us more when they had plenty of thier own needs, and the families in the NICU who took the time to pray for our child, even when you had one or more of your own in there as well...all for a family in need.
I'd love to bring this story to a news station, and tell them the things they continue to produce on television are GARBAGE! This town, this state, this country, is full of people who do good...who go out of thier way to help others, who love, who pray, who trust in God for all things. Forget all their stupid news media making nearly every person of this world out to be a forsaken bunch of horrible, ignorant idiots. There are many...who witnessed to, prayed for, devoted time to, sacrificed for, cried for, and gave to a small family (getting bigger)in a small town called Bentheim Michigan. To me, as fast paced as everything seemed, it also seemed that time stopped for all these acts of goodness from all of you people to be fit in. You have so much to be proud of. I know we all blunder at times, and we do things we arent proud of, but looking back over the last while, Gods graciousness to us, through you, has been amazing. Surely God is in control, and we thank Him daily for you. We love you, and many times, I consider our little Melanie, to be yours too. Youve all been a huge part of her life for the last 77 days, and she hasnt met most of you.
Im so proud of each and every one of you...thank you again, and here are some more pictures of the little girl and the family you have loved on so much over the last while: