Christmas 2013

After all of this exciting stuff happening with me having Amelia, the NICU stay, moving and going back to work it was time for Christmas.

Christmas is my favorite time of year, not because of presents but I like the spirit of Christmas. I am not a cold weather fan, especially if I have to drive it in. But I love sweaters, and hot chocolate, I LOVE Christmas music, and I love that most people are super happy and nice. Oh and I love romantic Christmas movies that come on the whole month of December.

One of the really fun things that Adelyn really enjoyed this year was we had an elf come visit and her name was Jingle and she did little pranks and left a gift once. Adelyn loved her and hated to see her go but we told her if she was good she would probably have an elf of her own come to her new house next year. 

Love her face she was so sad to see Jingle leave I told her maybe when we get our own house next year we might have our own elf. 

Since it was Amelia’s first Christmas she didn’t get much from Santa, she got some clothes and toys from everyone but that was about it. Adelyn got some fairies (Tinkerbell ones), and a few board games. She got a Christmas book from Santa. On Christmas Adelyn and Amelia got a Christmas movie and new pajamas. Hers were Hello Kitty and Amelia’s had penguins on them.  Adelyn also got a few movies, and finger nail polish.

Casey and I got Adelyn a Belle Dress for dress up. 

Amelia liked to stare at the Christmas tree lights she loved them

It was a wonderful Christmas, Casey was able to come to my parents and celebrate it with us and it just made it super special. Hopefully next year I can blog that we were in our new house for Christmas.

Halloween 2013

Last year I made Adelyn's costume and then Casey and I sort of made ours and we were the Big Bad Wolf, Grandma, and Little Red Ridding Hood. It was supper cute and I would like to do a theme every year, but this year was a bit crazy with Amelia and everything so we just let Adelyn pick out her and Amelia's costumes.

 Amelia was Snow White

 Adelyn was Tinkerbell 

Her wand blinked she loved it. :)

Our new life as a family of 4

After our NICU stay, Amelia got a fever and was readmitted for 2 days for observation, they did a spinal tap, blood work, urine and it was all traumatic for her but she ended up being fine and we got to go home.

After we were sent home I stayed a week at my parents and then went back to Washington. I was in Washington for about a month and a half and we decided that I needed to get another job since I had quit mine before I had Amelia.

We also had decided that Casey was going to school and that I was going to get a job in Idaho and stay with my parents until we sold our house in Washington.  I moved here to Idaho just before Thanksgiving and it is now April and Casey still isn’t here. Our house still isn’t for sale and it is a super hard thing on my family. I am going up this weekend with my mom and my babysitter Zoe to finish the house and get it ready to sell because I am so done with living in a different state than my husband and my kids miss him too!

I work at my old job at West Valley in Caldwell and I am doing Phlebotomy again, I love my job. I love what I do and it is nice that it can work out that I can do it and Casey will be able to go to school.

Our NICU Stay

Last time I wrote about Amelia’s birth story and today I am going to write about the aftermath of her birth.

Amelia was born in the afternoon, and when she was born she was quite big for her being 3 weeks early, 7lbs 5 oz is the size of a full term baby usually. They checked her glucose and it was 20 then they fed her an oz of formula and re-checked it and it was still only 23 so they told us if they came back in a half hour and it was still low they would have to take her to the NICU. They came back in a half hour and it was 21 so away she went to the NICU. I didn’t get to go with her then because I still had my epidural and it was taking quite a while to wear off.  After about another hour or so I was able to go and see her in a wheel chair because I was still a bit wobbly.

We checked into the NICU and washed up and they took us back to see her. We found out on top of her having a low glucose that she also had a high bilirubin and then she also had polycythemia (which the proportion of blood volume that is occupied by red blood cells increases) They were talking about doing a reverse transfusion, and stuff and everyone decided that they would just put a line in her umbilical cord (because they couldn’t get an IV in her) and give her fluids and recheck her and then go from there. When they rechecked her, her count had gone down so they didn’t have to do the reverse transfusion.

Through her umbilical they were also giving her stuff to keep her sugars up and help stabilize them. Once they were stable they were going to start to wean her off of the meds. It took two days for her to stabilize and then it took another day or two til she was fully weaned off the meds. But because of all of this that was happening she was so tired that she was sleeping a lot and wasn’t eating so she was dropping weight pretty significantly. So they ended up putting and NG tube down her nose to do her feedings through.

The NG tube was horrible to watch being put in, just because I am in the medical field does not mean that I am okay with stuff like this being done to my daughter. It was horrible because they couldn’t get it down the left side so they had to try down the right side. She just cried and cried the whole time I felt so bad for her.

With the NG tube, we would try to breast feed then we would try to bottle feed and then we would put the rest through her NG tube. And while it was going in her NG tube I would pump and they would store all the breast milk in their fridge for the night time when I wouldn’t go over and feed her.

We were lucky enough that Casey was able to make it to the birth this time, he had training and it finished Saturday and I had Amelia the next Tuesday. And he was able to stay for about a week. We were super lucky and they housed us at the Ronald Mcdonald house which is like a block away. It was a life saver! Seriously if you ever want to donate money to a good cause (or products) it is a fabulous place that could use any help they can get, some families stay there for months. I ended up staying for 18 days. My normal day schedule looked a little like this, it was exhausting!

·         745am- leave for 800am feeding, drive over and go upstairs taking all the milk I had pumped during the night and all my pumping supplies

·         750am- sign in to NICU and wash hands for 5 minutes

·         800am-change Amelia’s diaper, check her temp, weigh her diaper, and then weigh her.

·         From 0800 to 0820 try breast feeding her

·         820-835 try bottle feeding her

·         835-925 put rest of her feeding in her NG tube and I pump

·         925-945 cuddle with her and burp her (when her umbilical line was removed)

·         945-955 pack up my stuff label milk I just pumped, wash pump parts and head to the parking garage

·         1020 Arrive at Ronald McDonald house again

·         1050 head back over to do it all again.

We had feedings every 3 hours 8am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm, 8pm, 11pm and then at night they told me I should stay and rest and just come in the morning. I did skip a feeding here and there that just to keep my sanity and I went to my good friend Elise’s house which was close and it was nice to just relax and have some adult time and sometimes I even fell asleep there.

We were in the NICU for 18 days and it was nice to be able to go back to my parents and I stayed there for another 2 weeks before I went back home to Washington.

Amelia Gwen's Birth Story

One of these days I will have to write Adelyn's birth story because to be completely honest it was horrific and I was almost positive I never wanted to have another kid again but here I am with two sweet little girls.

 

Amelia's Birth story...

 

Casey had just gotten home from his military training on Saturday so we had a couple days together before we were getting induced. We decided that the day before we were going to take Adelyn to the movies to do one last family of 3 thing before we brought little Miss Amelia into our little family. I had everything packed (and when I say everything I had a big suit case because I expected to stay for 4 days because that is what happened last time and I had ran out of stuff) So me being my over planning self had packed everything I could have possibly needed.

My Last Picture of me being pregnant, I am exactly 37 Weeks here. 

 

We got up early on that Tuesday morning we were suppose to be there at 0730 in the morning and I wanted to shower and stuff before we left. (I had Adelyn 3.5 weeks early so I have never gone into labor on my own) we packed the car and headed over to Boise to St Lukes. We got there a little early and went up stairs to check in, there was another couple there and she was at 41.5 weeks and they figured that I was over due to so we got to talking and they were a really nice couple. They checked us in, and walked us down to our room. They have nice big rooms so I got my stuff put away and set up took one last picture and of to the races we were. My nurses name was Kathy she was this sweet little old lady and I really did like her. I assumed that I would be there FOREVER (my labor with Adleyn was 18.5 hours and then 3.5 horus of pushing) So I just assumed she was going to be the same, they put my IV in and started all my stuff, they checked me and I was at a 1 and 80% effaced.

 

Casey and I just sat there for awhile watching Tattoo shows (there was nothing else on) I went to the bathroom a few times and they asked me if I wanted to go walk around to get my labor going quicker so I said yes, and they said they didn't have a pack to attatch to me to, so they can keep track of my heart and contractions and stuff so we decided to sit and hang out for awhile. I talked to Kathy and we discussed epideral options (I have to have one because of my hip, my bad hip kills me in labor and delivery because it doesn't move and spread like a normal one does) My last one had worn off and it was a horrible experience, so she said the longer I wait the better chance I have for having it not wear off. So my Dr came in and broke my water I was at a 3 and I don't remember it hurting that bad last time, but this time it was pretty painful.

 

After he broke my water my contractions were coming pretty good, I went to the bathroom again, and I was sitting on my bed and I decided that it was time to get my epideral. When the nurse came in and checked me I was at a 6 and the anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epideral and then had me lay on my left side. My epideral only worked on my left side, it was a really weird feeling having my left side completely numb and my right side feeling completely everything talk about WEIRD! I was totally freaking out! I was so worried it was going to be a bad experience like my last one where my hip was hurting so bad I was on the verge of passing out. The anesthesiologist came and repositioned my epidermal to see if it would fix it and my nurse went on her lunch. I was laying there and I could still feel that it was not working right and then it started hurting and in my butt area and in my lower abdomen, my nurse came back from her lunch and I told her about it hurting and she said "lets just check you" and there I was at a 10 and ready to push. She called the Dr. and I was on my way.

 

Dr. Hodges came in 2 mins kid you not he was there so fast and as he is getting ready I break into tears because my epideral is still not working right and I am worried. He was so great at calming me down and my husband was so good at it to. As soon and they put my legs in the stirups, my epideral started working like it was suppose and I was completely happy then. I got a contraction and pushed that contraction, waited til the next contraction and I did a half of push and my Dr. told me to stop because he didn't want me to tear and there she was! She was 7.5 lbs and she was 20 inches long. From the time they put my IV in to the time I had her was 5 hours it was night and day from what my last one was I told Casey if they would all be like that I could do that 9 more time. lol (I'm kidding I am not having 9 more kids)

Our little Amelia 7 lbs 5 oz and 20 inches long and as cute as can be. 

 

As they are cleaning up Amelia they took her glucose and it was 20 so they fed her an ounce of formula and re-checked her and she was at 22 they said if they checked it again in a half hour and it was still really low then she would have to go to the NICU. Low and behold it was low and off she was wisked to the NICU.

 

That is my little Miss Amelia's birth story it was a wonderful experience and we are so glad to have her with us. I'll write all about our NICU stay and everything in the next blog post.

Getting Close....

Casey always has training in the summer usually it is towards the end and it is usually for about a month or so. This year was no acception he was going to training in Idaho and there was no way I could stay at home by myself with a 2 year old because of my blood pressure so we decided to have me move in with my parents and I would stay with them until casey was done with training.

So we pack up all of his things and I packed up everything I thought I would need for Adelyn and I and then I also pack baby stuff in case I had my little Amelia while I was at my parents and away we went to my parents house two cars packed to the hilt.

The good thing about going and staying at my parents house was that I got to have the same Dr that I had Adelyn with. I LOVE LOVE LOVE him I can't even tell you how sad I was when we moved and found out we were pregnant and I had to go to a different Dr and I didn't like him nearly as well and I like Dr Hodges. If I have a choice all of my babies will be delivered by Dr. Hodges he is a fabulous Dr and I have nothing but praises to sing about him. He remembers everything about my last delivery and he is a very "earthy" type of Dr. I guess is the way you could explain him. I tell him what I would like to do and he will either say yes or no or we will see what happens but he goes by feel a lot and he really sincerely cares about his patients and their feelings.

Casey went to his training and I stayed at my parents and my blood pressure got so bad that I was going to the Dr. every other day or to the triage in the hospital every other day just to check to make sure that I wasn't in danger or the baby wasn't in danger. We were just hoping that Casey would be able to be there since he missed Adelyn's birth because he was in Iraq. I didn't get much phone contact with Casey and I was pretty sure a couple of times that I was going to have to call the red cross for them to go find him because I was having her but I didn't have to. He finished his training on Saturday and my Dr. induced me the next Tuesday at exactly 37 weeks.

Unruhly Behaviors

I ended up having to stop working because even on my blood pressure meds my blood pressure would go through the roof so I just stopped and stayed home with Adelyn and sewed for my up coming shows.

This was the Soroptomist one I did in Moses Lake it was the bigger of the two in Moses Lake that I did.

This the Boise Christmas show

This is just a different angle of the Boise Christmas Show

I did three shows this year, 2 were in Washington and the other was in Idaho. The 2 in Washington were awesome, one was a family market and the other was the biggest show in our town and I did really well at both of them and it was great exposure for my business. The other one was the Christmas show in Boise, the same one I did last year and I did okay not as well as I did last year but still okay.

This year facebook has been probably the best source for selling my stuff I had a few sale and everything and I get a lot of people that see me on there and then want to have something custom made.

I just recently decided to close my business for awhile, (it is March of 2014 that I decided) I am just so busy with full time work and Casey still isn't in the same state (I'll get more into that later) that when I am off I want to spend time with my kids and everything and not have to worry about sewing or time lines or stuff like that and with Casey going back to school I just want our free time to be just that "free" time that we can do whatever we want and I can join in on the fun. Lots of times I am sewing and they will go do stuff or watch stuff because I have to sew to get stuff done. I am excited to spend more time with my family I am sadden that I have to close because I really do like the idea of spending more time with my family. I will however when I become a stay at home mom again start my business back up and start sewing for other people again.