Jami & Cory

Our friends Jami & Cory (they coach with Brad) stopped by to visit and to meet Ollie. They have been so supportive of our growing family. Brody always refers to them as Jami & Cory. He can never say their names separately.

Thanks for the visit! (and sorry I didn't warn you about being on our blog)

Cory & Jami & Ollie


Jami & Ollie

Ollie's 1st Bath

You would think that by our third child we would have bath time mastered. It seemed like we were confused parents trying to give Ollie his first bath. (As a side note, Ollie did not get a bath until day 4 in the hospital and even then it was a very small sponge bath)



Ollie wasn't especially happy at first but he seemed to calm down pretty quickly.

The Big 3!

Happy 3rd Birthday to our little superstar, Brody!

We will always remember the day Brody came into our lives. He has a contagious smile and spirit and is tons of fun to be around. We especially love watching him be the big brother in our house.

Brody showing us 3!

More Pics of Ollie

I'm just trying to make sure the third child has some pictures.

Here are a few more of Ollie.

A proud Big Brother

As soon as Brody & Colt returned from Papa Bob's, Brody was so excited to see his brother. This was the first time he actually got to hold Ollie.

You can probably tell from the pictures but Brody was SO happy and still loves to hold him. He always tells me he doesn't need me to help him. He can do it by himself.

This truly makes my heart melt.





I still need to get a picture with all 3 of the boys and a family picture. We were never able to get that in the hospital.

Ollie & Biliruben

We were anxious to go home and were sitting with the doctors and nurses on Monday morning when they told us Ollie's biliruben count was high (Jaundice). We had two options. We could stay at the hospital another day and Ollie could have phototherapy to get his count down. Our 2nd option was to have home phototherapy and put him on a light bed. This wasn't as aggressive to get his count down but we still decided this was the option we wanted.

We had to keep Ollie under the lights for 2 days but his count quickly came down and now he is in his own bed.


Ollie and his light bed.

Staying at Hotel d'Overlake

Brad treated me to a nice weekend retreat at Hotel d'Overlake. It had all the amenities. A nice view of the traffic on 405. Room service with a respectable menu. Nice ladies who would make sure we had enough towels and other amenities. They even came during my precious sleeping time.

A few days would have been perfect but when we realized we were staying more than that we knew we had to make the best of our stay even though we wanted to be back home with our family.

With baby #3 we didn't have nearly as many visitors but it was probably for the best since the main attraction was staying in the NICU. It was still nice to have some distraction throughout the day to keep our mind occupied.

Here are a few pictures from our stay.

Nanny (Brad's grandma) and Ollie

Fafa and Ollie



Brad feeding Ollie with a bottle. We had to supplement his intake for a little while but now he is getting enough food from me.



The baby next door to Ollie had to be under phototherapy and had to wear these "sunglasses". Brad wanted Ollie to have a pair too and our nurse gave him one.

This is the monitor that was constantly hooked up to Ollie. At first we were waiting to get the numbers in a good range. By the 2nd day he had great numbers that often looked like this.

By far our most constant visitor was Karl (Brad's friend). He lives in Portland but was doing some work in Tacoma so made the drive up every single night we were in the hospital. It was great visiting with him and since he is a top doctor he was very encouraging with Ollie being in the NICU.

One of the few pictures of Mommy & Ollie. It was hard to get pictures with him since he wasn't in the room with us. (We are still waiting for our family picture)



I found Brad in the room sleeping with Ollie.

My friend Rachael came to visit. (Brad got me this nice new outfit to go with our great room.)


Brody and his mask. He had a little cold so we had to make sure he wore a mask when he went to see Ollie.

This is the board by Ollie's room.

We are glad our stay is over.

Home sweet home

I was discharged from the hospital on Sunday afternoon. Since Ollie was still in the NICU and there was room for us we were able to stay at the hospital. They finally discharged Ollie on Monday at noon.

We know the chaos and lack of sleep has now started but we are so excited to have all of our family back together.

Ollie in his car seat ready to break out of the hospital.


Snuggled in and ready to go.



We went to get Ollie's picture in one of those hospital kiosks but as luck would have it the camera didn't work. (And of course he is our only baby who had his eyes wide open for the picture) After calling customer service they said it would take another hour before it was fixed. We were ready to go home so we took our own pictures of him. Isn't he adorable in this new outfit Grandma Shari picked up for him?

(Ok, so the truth is I completely forgot to bring any clothes for our baby to go home in. I had to ask Grandma Shari if she could get something...and told her she could stop by our house and get an outfit. For some reason she was more than happy to go buy a new outfit for her 8th grandson)

First pictures of Ollie

Here are some of the first pictures of Ollie. (Thank you Papa Bob for getting these downloaded).




Peacefully sleeping away.






Colt meeting Ollie for the first time. (Brad's wearing a mask only as a precaution. He is just getting over a cold so he doesn't want to pass along anything.)






Grandma Shari holding Ollie.



This is Ollie in his breathing contraption. This helped him get some oxygen pushed into his lungs so that his lungs could get rid of the fluid.

Trust me... it looks WAY worse than it really is.



As of Friday night Ollie is still in the NICU but he is now in his own little portable crib (the kind most babies move into right away). They are going to try and get him to nurse soon and see how he does with that.

We are so thankful for all the prayers, support and love. A BIG thank you to Grammy, Nanny, Papa Bob, Grandma Shari and Aunt Jessie for helping to watch Brody & Colt....and of course for visiting us.

Ollie Nels

We are excited to announce the birth of our 3rd baby boy.

Ollie Nels Barquist was born at 2:17 PM on March 11th.

7 lbs. 13 oz.
20.5 inches

He has fluid in his lungs so is hanging out in the NICU until it clears up. It has been difficult to not have him and not be able to hold him but we know he will make a full recovery.

We are so thankful for the overwhelming support and prayers.

Pictures coming soon!

Thoughts about #3

Tomorrow we are going to the hospital to have our 3rd baby. Brody was born via emergency c-section which required Colt to be born by a c-section and this baby will be born tomorrow the same way. While I still struggle with not ever experiencing a "normal" birth I am thankful for my healthy babies and a healthy body that can have more than one baby.

Another plus to having c-sections is the ability to plan for help and knowing by a certain time the baby will born. On March 11th at 12:30 the procedure will begin and our baby will born within 30 minutes or so. I'm so excited!

A few answers to questions I often get.

Since I don't know the gender, what do I think it will be?

At first I thought it was a girl since I had different cravings and a few other symptoms that were different than the boys.

Now that I am almost done with this pregnancy I think it's a boy. I seem to be carrying the same way and the heartbeat has been the same as the other two.

Do you want a boy or girl?

I've answered this before but I will be very happy with either one. I absolutely love my boys and could easily add another one. A girl would help me become a better mother (at least that is what I tell myself) Plus it would make my mom very happy (since she only has 7 grandsons right now).


Will the boys share a room?

Eventually they will. Right now Brody doesn't take a nap every day. He still has some "rest" time in his bed during his usual nap time. If they were in the same room neither one of them would go to sleep and all I will want for the next few months is knowing that at least they are both quietly in their rooms.

Are you nervous?

I am most nervous or anxious about the sleep deprivation that I will be getting in the next few months. As for the c-section itself I have now been awake for one of them so I know what to expect. (I was not awake with Brody so I was nervous when I had Colt's scheduled c-section)

Closing thoughts...

I am continually amazed by the wonderful support we are surrounded by. Our family is wonderful and willing to help out anytime it is needed. We have friends who share in our excitement and continue to support us through all parts of life. Running friends, soccer friends, childhood friends, church friends, former teaching colleagues, my MOPS group, my PEPS group and our neighbors are absolutely amazing. We are truly blessed in many ways and so excited to add to our family.

We are thankful to God for all that he has blessed our family with.

My Silver Medal

A picture of me and the silver medal. I wish it was mine from a "mom" event but it's not.



This medal belongs to Karen Thatcher. We had a great time talking to her about her experience.

Brad and Karen Thatcher



Karen Thatcher -Silver medalist - Women's hockey

Brad was invited to attend a reception for the 2010 Washington State Winter Olympians. This was held at the Governor's mansion on March 6th. Since I am such a great wife I decided to go with him. The truth is that I had such a fun time in 2006 that I was anxious to go again. I was excited to meet Apolo and wanted to see if he would remember us. A few hours before we were going to leave we learned that Apolo would not be there. So my next hope was to meet JR Celski. He wasn't there either. Although I was a little disappointed it was a very fun event. Brad is an outgoing person so he easily went up to people and talked to them. I just tagged along. It was nice being 9 months pregnant because the conversation quickly turned to the usual questions surrounding a big belly. When are you due? What are you having? Is this your first one?

Obviously the best part was meeting the athletes. It's still quite amazing to think of all the work, time and effort they put into achieving the opportunity to go to the Olympics.

We met Karen Thatcher (women's hockey), Christian Niccum (Luge), Phil Mahre (downhill skiing from a different Olympics), Torin Koos (cross country skiing), and many other Olympians.

Unfortunately we didn't get any other pictures.

When Aunt Jessie babysits

Aunt Jessie has been such a great sport. Even though she hasn't been feeling that great she has offered to come up and watch the boys while I go to one of many doctor appointments.



The other day my appointment was during the boy's nap. In theory they should have been sleeping the whole time. Of course Colt was fighting a cold and had a hard time sleeping so Jessie brought him downstairs and snuggled with him. He finally fell asleep.



When I got home he was happily asleep on the floor.




Jessie does a great job and I'm so thankful for her willingness to help out. The best part is that the boys love her. Colt doesn't even notice when I leave and is always excited to see her and Gunner.

Wrestling with Daddy

Brody and Colt love wrestling especially when they can play on the daddy Jungle Gym.

Colt trying to get a good position on Brad's face.

Brody's Friends

This is Mr. Lamby. We got him as a gift when Brody was born from our friends, the Welkes. He has been with Brody ever since. It is his friend away from home and whenever he goes to sleep.
















Aren't they cute together?


















Somehow over the course of the last 3 years Brody has found some more friends. He now goes to sleep with all of these friends. I never thought I would let my child sleep with so many stuffed animals. In fact I didn't even know we had so many stuffed animals.

















In this video Brody is naming all his friends. Horsie, Dinosaur, Lamby, Hippo, Rhinoceres, Baby Elephant (on top of) Daddy Elephant. (Brody gets a little stuck here)






And he continues.. Daddy Elephant, Horsie, monkey, Shamu, turtle, Giraffe, turtle, Lamby, Pelican

The fortunate thing is that we only have to travel with Mr. Lamby. He doesn't need all of these friends to fall asleep.

Sleepwalker?

Last night, or early this morning, Brody came into our bedroom.

"Hey Mom"

"Yes, Brody"

"I need to talk"

(I was expecting a request to snuggle with him)

"What do you need to talk about?"

He left and walked back down the hallway.

Brad got up and went to see what he did. Brody walked back into his room, laid on his bed and went to sleep.

Not sure what this means, but we may have a little sleepwalker.

Spring Picnic Time

The other day we went outside to say hi to the garbage man. I noticed that it was very warm (for the first part of March) so I thought it might be fun to have lunch outside. I wanted lunch on the front porch so I could sit in my rocking chair and watch the world go by. The boys wanted to go on the back deck. Since we don't have our patio furniture out yet I had to move their chairs onto the back porch. They loved eating outside.




They did a great job eating their lunch and Colt kept trying to get some of Brody's.

Soon after we were finished the wind started blowing and I could tell the weather was about to change. Thankfully we were able to get outside before it got too cold and rainy.

Colt is 18 months

Our little guy is growing. It's hard to believe he is already 18 months. We had his check up last week and found another ear infection. (I was a little suspicious he might have one). He was not very happy about any part of the doctor appointment except when we walked out of the office and he knew he was free again.

His stats:

Height: 30 1/2 in. - 10%
Weight: 22# 9 oz. - 10%
Head: 19 in. - 90%


It's hard to believe that he is almost exactly the same size as Brody at this age.

















Somehow I got him to pose for this picture.

















We know....he needs a haircut! Hopefully it's coming soon.