Sleep? Who needs it?

Sleep is over-rated.....right? Some of you may have heard recently of the sleep issues going on in our house.  Some of you may have heard a little bit about it but not really know what's going on.  Well, here's the deal.  Charlie has been sleeping less and less at night.  It has gotten to the point where Tyler and I are averaging 3-4 hours of sleep a night.  And that's on the high end.  4 hours of sleep is wonderful compared to what we normally get these days.  No, he's not sleeping too much during the day.  And yes, he's tired at night.  Going to bed isn't the issue.  He's the easiest of the boys to put to bed at night, but he never stays asleep.  In fact, he usually sleeps for about 2-3 hours before waking up for the night....yes for the night.  He's usually up for several hours before he will settle back down and sleep for another couple hours.

After dealing with this for a couple months and going in to the doctor time and time again thinking there is something medically wrong with him (ear infection and such) and only to find nothing wrong with him we were referred to the sleep clinic at Mayo.  On Tuesday he had his sleep consult with the doctor to come up with a plan and to see if he qualifies for a sleep study.  Turns out the sleep doctor is Dr. Kotagal...the same doctor Charlie sees when he goes to the NICU clinic!  So, Dr. Kotagal already knows Charlie, awesome.  After meeting with Dr. Kotagal it was clear that Charlie is a good candidate for a sleep study.  He was set up to go in for his sleep study on Friday.  But not so fast.  Dr. Kotagal wanted to check Charlie's iron levels since Charlie has had issues with his iron in the past.

So off we go to get Charlie's blood drawn.  We have the capability to check lab results online so on Wednesday I checked those and found his iron level came back at 16.  Now, 3 months ago his level was checked at it came at 35....ok, but not ideal.  They'd like to see it in the 50's.  So 16 is WAY low.  Dr. Kotagal said this could be part of the issue why Charlie doesn't sleep.  Well, 16, wow.  I guess that's why he's not sleeping.

I called Dr. Kotagal to talk about Charlie's low iron level because to me it was very concerning.  Low iron can affect many more things than sleep; development, motor skills, speech, organ development, etc.  Dr. Kotagal finally got back to me yesterday (Friday).  He said he'd like to cancel his sleep study for now since the iron level is likely the cause of him not sleeping.  He'd like to focus on getting his iron levels up and then go from there.  Since iron is slow to build up in your body Charlie won't have another iron check for 3 months.  Until then, he's on iron supplements twice a day and we will be adding as much iron rich foods as possible in his diet.  If his iron levels build but his sleep doesn't improve, then we'll look at doing a sleep study at a later date after his iron is under control.

So until then.....

Relax!  And enjoy the last days of summer!!

Everything And Nothing- Update

Not much going on at our house...ok, yeah right.  But I thought since the boys are napping (well, everyone but Charlie) I'd take a few minutes to write a quick update.

Did you ever think things could get more chaotic with 3 boys 2 years old and under?  Well, they have ever since Christian and Charlie started walking.  Yep, you read that correctly.  Christian began walking on August 1 and Charlie not far behind on August 8.  Christian loves to walk and you can tell by the look on his face whenever he's up and about.  Charlie is still a little leery and therefore still crawls a bit, but he CAN walk.  Need proof?  OK!

Can you about imagine how much crazier our house is?  We've really just been hanging out a lot lately and squeezing in some fun when we can.

One afternoon Christian got ahold of an apple and started going to town on it....yes, he ate almost an entire apple on his own.  But before he could finish it Charlie wanted a little nibble.  Seriously, this was the cutest darn thing I've seen in awhile.  And Christian was more than happy to share with him!  I have it on video too, but couldn't get it to upload.  

On another afternoon I found myself needing to grab a few items at Target.  Now, this was on a Monday so it was just me and the kids.  There are some things I don't mind loading all 3 up on my own and doing with them, but going to the store just isn't one of them.  But on this day I had no choice.  I found this lovely cart and away we went! It actually wasn't half bad.  They were all so well behaved!!

Lately on our evening walks Easton has decided he wants to ride his bike.  Our usual route takes us about 8 blocks total so I was a little hesitant to let him ride his bike...knowing he wouldn't last the entire time.  Well, he did it!  He rode the entire time!  He usually does wear a helmet, I swear!

Charlie likes to help walk Tank

We went to Lanesboro to meet Hunter!  Hunter is my honorary nephew, my best friend Gina's newest little guy!!  Can you tell that someone was a little jelous?!  I was holding Hunter and Christian crawled right up onto my lap and made himself comfy :)

Easton loved baby Hunter and couldn't stop talking about him on the way home :)

He also had a blast caching up with his best friend Oliver, Hunter's older brother!

My boys looks so big compared to Hunter!

Isn't he perfect!!

And of course we continue to have fun outside every day.  Here they are enjoying a break from playing and having a snack on our front step.  I love these guys!!

Next weekend we are going to a cabin with my side of the family for a long weekend.  I'm sure to have pictures from that!!

Another Busy Weekend

Go figure, right? Another busy weekend for our family?  Ha! That's all we seem to have lately.

SATURDAY

Saturday was the Little Miracles 5k & Family Fest at Silver Lake Park put on by Our Miracle Babies.  Since I am on the board of directors it was an extremely busy week getting ready for the big day.  I was up at 3am to get down to the park to finish setting up that morning after being at the park all evening.  We had fantastic weather for the day and it was a HUGE success!!  Tyler brought the boys down and along with my brother Jamison and countless friends we've met in the NICU and preemie community, we walked the 5k.  Ok, Ok....we walked MOST of the 5k.  We cut it short a bit since Easton had to go potty, but we were there nonetheless.  Jamison's wife, Whitney and her mom ran the 5k and walked back to meet up with us after they were done.  The event had games for kids, a basket raffle, lunch by Famous Dave's and lots of good friends and fun!

There was a balloon launch to remember all of the babies who have grown their angel wings.  Very emotional.

A group picture of all the Miracles present at the event!  Can you find us?

And someone just had too much fun!  Charlie couldn't make it another second and wanted to snuggle with Pa.

Melts my heart :)

SUNDAY

Today we met up with our preemie friends again and went to the NICU Reunion hosted by the Mayo Clinic.  At the reunion we saw many of the nurses who cared for the boys and one of the neonatologists.  We saw lots of friends we met in the NICU including families from Wisconsin and Iowa and some who live in town.  It was such a great weekend to spend with those who have walked the same halls as we have and understand the struggles we've been through.

See What?!

This is becoming a common sight in our house.....