A whole lotta action

A lot has happened in the last few months and I have not had a lot of time to post. About six weeks ago Oliver was in significant pain, we happened to be at Gillette for another appointment at the time when Oli had a wet diaper and we realized he was passing stones. A whole lotta stones, which would explain the high level of pain. They did an ultrasound and his bladder was full of sediment. So now we cath Oliver if he holds his potty too long. We were hoping the pain was resolved at this point but Oliver had some more going on. He had been passing some blood from his tummy which we have been managing from home but the amount kept increasing so Oliver went to the hospital for a quick five day tune up. They scoped him and found small erosions in his tummy. They figured it was a mechanical injury from his extreme movements. His G-tube was scratching his tummy causing it to bleed so they did a quick procedure and put in a different tube. This will cause less damage when he does have his crazy man action going on. So, now we are home preparing for Santa to come. Every time Adina is being a stinker I just have to say, "oh, I'm calling Santa!" Works every time! We will milk that one until she figures the whole Santa thing out! Do not worry, all of you who do not believe in teaching kids the magic of Santa. She knows the whole Jesus part of Christmas too but kids are only kids once.

Unfortunately, it looks as if we will have another hospital stay this week. Oliver has two meds that run through his IV continuously for pain and irritation. One of those meds is Versed. We were running low on our supply over the weekend, which rarely happens, because the pharmacy is so on top of things. I called and we learned that there is a nationwide shortage of that drug and all of the drugs in that family. It is a drug that cannot safely be stopped abruptly because of withdrawal and there are no other IV drugs to switch to because they are all out as well. Our safest option is to bring Oliver to Gillette to safely find an alternative where we have doctors that know Oliver well and can help quick without making many phone calls. It is just life and now we are thinking of ways to make Christmas just as special if Oliver is still in the hospital. We will be figuring this all out on Thursday as we have enough meds to get us through that day. We are so lucky to have such great resources for Oliver. His Gillette team is amazing and the hospice team have all become special to our family as well. The kids got to see Santa at Gillette and decorate Gingerbread houses. If you are ever questioning if there are genuinely nice people left in this world go and sit in the waiting room at Gillette. Everybody that works there is really a special kind of person. It is the one place that we can go where people see Oliver in his chair and say, "What a cute little boy!" Usually people see him and do the pity thing, which gets old. All kiddos are treated this way at Gillette, it is a safe place.
Kids are all doing well. Adina is on a LONG two week break from school. Cora has learned that hitting big sister is fun. She is also learning a lot about the time out corner. Phinneus is two months old and is one easy baby! Oliver is happy and has been playing on the floor with his siblings a lot!
Sorry for the mother load of posts. A lot has happened the last month. We hope you all have a peaceful Christmas, Hanukkah, Christmauka, Kwanzaa where ever you are.

Our many attempts to get all four kids to smile nice for Christmas pictures!






Adina loves to take pictures, usually of her foot. This is one of my favorite pics of Phinn!

Bummer

We had a good few months and managed to stay out of the hospital but we hit a bump or two. A month ago we realized Oliver was having pain when he went potty and then he actually passed some sediment. They tested it and realized Oliver had kidney stones, OUCH! That explains the pain. We had a few appointments and are managing that, at least we were managing all from home. Then Oliver had blood from his tummy that kept increasing. He is at Gillette PICU trying to figure this out. Of course we get there and it stops!! It is more frustrating than I can say! I will post more soon but wanted to let everybody know. Now the balancing act of staying with Oli and getting the other three back and forth!! Sorry for typos, didn't proof this one.

BOO!

The kids painted pumpkins, Oli did a pretty awesome job on his. I helped him hold his brush and then we tied it on and away he went! We had our own little family party the day before. We cranked the Halloween tunes and had a blast. Oliver is quite the little party animal.




A skunk, pumpkin, pirate, and the Queen of Hearts all in one house. Oliver had a lovely hook assembled by one of his nurses out of tin foil. He laughed when we put the make-up on and smeared it right after. Stinker!







Phinneus all snuggled up in his blanket from Great Aunt Gail and Uncle John. He loves it!


Oliver is doing so well we were able to use his stander again! He was working so hard he had to wipe his brow! We have not been able to use this since last spring but Oliver is in rock star mode and showing everybody what he is made of.


Hope you enjoyed the pics. We had a fun family party and went out Halloween night with the Choudoir family as we have done for the past few years. It was a blast! Oli is doing really well right now. I am almost afraid to talk about it but I will. He has gained another whole KG in just one month. He had an Ortho appt and his bones have become very fragile meaning we have to be very careful when moving him. He is at a high risk for fractures and breaks. This news was not unexpected. He has been one happy little man and we are enjoying every second of it knowing how fast things change. We also all survived our first cold of the season and managed to keep Oli out of the Hospital. Life is good!

Brothers!

Here are the pictures I promised of the Klawiter Brothers. Oliver loves Phin, at least he loves it when he cries. He seems to enjoy when his siblings are upset and crying. Typical big brother I guess. Oliver loves when Phin snuggles with him, he is very curious and becomes very still. Oliver is not a still kind of kiddo. Everyone is adjusting well, we are just getting used to a new kind of crazy. The biggest issue is that we have had some nursing shifts open that didn't get covered in time. It is a juggling act to maintain all of Oliver's vent and IV stuff with a newborn but we made it.
I know many of you are wondering if Phin is okay. As far as we know he is fine, just like all of our kids. Oliver is perfect in every way so if we are comparing him to Oli or the girls yes he is great. We have the option to do an MRI to see for sure but John and I both agree that the risks of the sedation are not worth it. If Phin starts to show signs then we will do it, but for now we are just enjoying our kids. I would be lying if I said it didn't cross our minds that it is a possibility. This is the official news as far as that topic goes. If we ever do learn something we will tell you all, so stop worrying.
Happy Halloween! We will have some pics of that I am sure.

Oliver checking Phin out for the first time. These are some cute brothers.



That's a lot of toes!


Our first attempt at a family pic with all six. Not sure I would say successful!


All four kiddos, don't the girls look thrilled?


The boys alseep in their chairs, life is good.


Phin sleeping and snuggling Oli's hand.


More sleepy boys living the life.

It's A Boy!

Phinneus Tyrone Klawtier
October 17th, 2011
11:33 A.M.
7 pounds 15 ounces 21.75 inches
Adina and daddy picked name. Middle name after Grandpa Tyrone Hanson


I think he looks just like daddy! Cute as can be.


Proud sisters, tomorrow he gets to meet his awesome big brother!


Proud mommy and daddy!


Silly sisters.

More pics to come tomorrow of the brothers meeting!

5

Adina finally had her Birthday and is now a big 5 year old! She had her party at the Eagles Nest (huge indoor playland in New Brighton) and all of the kids had a blast. Adina does not enjoy attention, so eating, the Happy Birthday song, and opening gifts was painful for her but once they got to play life was good. I think all of the kids slept pretty well that night. Cora is doing well, she thinks she is five. Everyday we drop Adina off at school she also tries to walk into the class and is very unhappy when we say no (she even took one of the nametags of a kid who was absent and tried sticking it on the door). Oliver continues to be our stud muffin. As we keep increasing his feeds, we are pleased to know that he has gained almost a whole kg, a little over 2 LBS! Way to go Oliver! He really is so amazing.
Baby will be here on Monday the 17th, assuming he or she waits until Monday, (a little more then a day) I will be induced. Life is good and busy as it is for everybody right now. We are busy getting all of our Halloween costumes ready. We have fantastic nurses that work with Oliver and they are all like family to us. They deal with our craziness and love Oliver so much, we are incredibly blessed and life is good. We will update Monday with the news of number four. More craziness to come!!!

Oliver in his rock star skull headband. He will be wearing this for Halloween. He will also have a Mohawk, we have been patiently growing it out.


Adina making a candle at the Renaissance Festival.


Cora and Adina by the fire truck at Falcon Heights fire station.


Cora sitting on her favorite seat, the baby! Also, she has discovered the art of picking her nose. Yes we are proud parents!


Adina and cousin Charlie at the Eagles Nest on Adina's 5th Birthday.


Cole, Brayden, and Adina at the party. These are Adina's good pals and possibly a future husband. There have been proposals!


Auntie Martha, cousin Arne, and Uncle Dude (Mike). I love this picture!


Cora admiring herself.


Adina finally gets a two wheel scooter. First trip out she flew off the sidewalk and got a pretty sweet knee scrape. She did not find it awesome at all.


Adina's ice cream treat from her small celebration.


Cora's grumpy face.

Aug/Sept

Life is good in the Klawiter house. We are finding a new groove for fall and getting used to John being home more during the day. We are all loving it, but I am reminding myself that it is only for one more year. After John finished his internship we crammed as much summer as we could into two weeks and now we are cramming as much into the weekends as we can before baby comes! John is enjoying his classes and somehow finds time to play with the kiddos a ton and get all of his work done!

Coraline finally decided on her own to walk. She is very stubborn! I really don't know where our children get that gene! She is 16 months going on 5. She will try and walk into Adina's class room at school and gets mad every day I drop Adina off because she wants to stay with all of the big kids. Adina started preschool and is loving it. John and I are also enjoying the five day a week schedule although I do miss my girl! Last year I had to peel her off my leg and run out of the classroom the first week of school. This year she walked right in, I kept looking in hoping for one hug or wave, but she was little Ms. Independent!

Oliver is doing really well. We will always have our daily issues from nurses calling in, to calls to and from clinics, to a lot of pain and not knowing where it comes from, med changes, etc. We just deal with it the best we can and life goes on. Oliver has been happy and laughing again and playing with his toys. It melts my heart every time he looks at me with those beautiful eyes and big smile. He is awesome! Two weeks ago he had a quick surgery but recovered really quick! Now we just wait and see what happens during viral season. Oliver's main struggle right now is his movement disorder. We are trying to find the best medication to help calm his movements but struggle to find the right cocktail. It is times like those that I wish we could figure out his true diagnosis so we could know the best way to help. It might seem hard to understand this, but at times I honestly get jealous of other families that get a real diagnosis for their child. Yup, I actually hope, pray, and wish for a diagnosis! I don't think this is in the cards for us though, so back to the motto of, "life is life," I guess. No matter what, Oliver is a stud and teaches us endless lessons about life without saying a word.

Baby #4 will be here soon! John and I keep reminding each other that it is actually going to come. We have managed to keep the gender a secret, Oliver is the only one who knows. John and Adina picked the name, Adina just doesn't realize that she picked it yet. She said the name and we liked it. I know I said it a few posts ago but we are asking that nobody visits while we are at the hospital. We love you all but will need a lot of rest and also want to limit the germ sharing that we bring home to Oliver. Thanks again for understanding. We will let everybody know as soon as it happens. I am hoping to be induced the 14th of October. If not that day, for sure the 17th. Stay tuned for #4!

Milking a cow at the State Fair


Cora looking corny


Cheese!


First day of school



Oliver getting love and smoochy-poos (kisses) from his sisters



Adina sharing her ice cream cone after the girls got shots


Cora working on the first steps


Adina and Dad looking at Flamingos. I guess they are trying to blend in?