Happy Birthday Baby B and Mr. H

August 28th is Mr H's birthday. It was also Baby B's due date but instead he turned 1 week old today.  Staying in the NICU for 7 days has a way of making me disoriented.  It was easy to not mention Mr. H's birthday, not that I forgot, but because I did not know what day it was.  With the help of both moms I put together a little surprise birthday party in the NICU.  We had king ranch chicken and peanut butter pie, along with the cake he had at work and yummy cinnamon popcorn.

I told Mr. H happy birthday in the early hours of the morning but didn't make a big deal out of it.  Then I had his mom put a card from me on his desk at work.  His desk was also decorated by the ladies in his office.  He decided he HAD to mow the lawn that day so he didn't get to the hospital until after both families came with the goods.  We can even see the parking lot from our room so we knew when he arrived. 

Surprise!

 First Family Photo

Surprise! 

Happy Birthday Daddy!

 His favorite birthday gift!

The Life of Baby B - The First 24 Hours

Baby B was born Tuesday August 21, 2012 at 1:14 am.  

The day before: 

Of course for me it all started Monday morning.  I got up to get ready for work, disappointed I did not go into labor that weekend despite the massive amount of walking I did on Saturday. Sunday I had signs of labor but a Google search told me I could still be a week away from delivery.  As I got ready for work more signs of labor started.  Not enough to know if I should stay home from work but like I said, I was disappointed I didn't go into labor over the weekend.  The signs were so faint that after Mr. H gave me a kiss I told him I thought I had been feeling a contraction.  His response, "I have that affect on people." 

I called my doctor's office to ask questions only to leave a message.  I decided not to go into work and ended up being walked to death into labor.  My mom, sister and I went to my sister's school (the one she will be attending during the 6 weeks my mom is in town). While my sister tested, Mom and I went grocery shopping at King Soopers.  We picked up Caitlin from her tests and did some more shopping at Walmart.  By 12:30 I was not the only one complaining about all of the walking.  Thanks to my sister's complaints we were allowed to go home, where I went to bed immediately.  At that point contractions started coming every 7-10 minutes and this time they were for sure contractions. 

So I called Mr. H home from work so he could take me to my doctors office to be examined.  At the examination we were told Baby B was ready and to head over to the hospital.  

The hospital:

We arrived at the hospital and instead of being examined again we were immediately taken back to a delivery room. The rooms at Lutheran are pretty snazzy, equipped with not only everything they need for the delivery and after but also had a jetted tub. The labor did not take long, I pushed for 30 minutes and everyone was amazed.  Yes, I pretty much rock at birthing a child. I had the help of Mr. Epidural.

The rest has turned in to a bit of a blur.  After he was born at 1:14 am on Tuesday August 21 I was able to hold him immediately while the nurse and doctor cleaned up the room to allow family to come see him.  Baby B was then passed around until he had to get cleaned up and given a shot.  Baby B loved getting his hair washed.

At 4:00 am we were taken to our post delivery room where the nurse noted "told patient all information needed but patient could barely keep her eyes open." She was a funny nurse with a southern accent.  Mr. H and I got a couple of hours of much interrupted sleep.  I don't remember when visitors started to trickle in but they were there throughout the afternoon.

Things take a scary turn:

We had noticed a couple of times that Baby B's lips would turn blueish and his skin tone turned a dusty color.   We would pick him up or rub him and his color would return. We mentioned it to the nurse who told us to let her know if he did it again.  At some point I took a shower or went to the restroom and he had turned again.  The nurse checked his oxygen levels and they had dipped but returned as soon as Mr. H had stirred him.  They decided to take him down to the nursery to observe Baby B for any trends during these "episodes." Visitors continued to come and Mr. H would take them down to see Baby B.  I had yet to see him since he left our room and after Mr. H returned from one visit he let me know Baby B was going to be transferred to Children's Hospital where they would continue more test.  Seizures were mentioned but I didn't really hear anything else.  Mr. H helped me get ready to see him and I was taken to the NICU to sit by his side until the Flight for Life team arrived.  (He was not taken by helicopter but by ambulance).  My doctor gave the ok for me to be released (only 7 hours after I had delivered), and Mr. H and I drove straight to Children's.  When we arrived doctors and nurses were at his bedside in gowns and masks.  We were not allowed in the room due to a sterile procedure we were later told was an LP or spinal tap.  We waited in the hall able to see the doctors work.  Finally Baby B's doctor came out to explain the need for a spinal tap.  They wanted to rule out everything, including meningitis.  The only way to test for that is to test fluid from his spine.  Unfortunately they were unable to get the fluid but they started his antibiotics to treat meningitis and would try again the next day.  I was strongly encouraged to go home to sleep and since I had no energy to think I was numbly taken home where I cried...and cried...and cried... So much for getting sleep.

Much has happened since that night but I will never forget those first 24 hours.  Today Baby B is one week old and has been extremely loved by his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles (even aunts and uncles who have yet to meet him).

The doctors were able to get the spinal tap the next day and the results showed that he had too many white blood cells indicating he was fighting something.  He will have two weeks of antibiotics before they will test his white blood cell count again with another LP.  If it's down we can go home.  If not we will need to stay longer.  Fingers crossed and prayers prayed for only being here 7 more days

Dad holding Baby B his first full day in the Children's Hospital NICU.

Doctors tested for everything, including seizures. The tech liked that we weren't freaked out about the Brodster being hooked up to the wires.  She said most parents freak. Mr. H and I take pictures he won't live down. We're awesome parents. 

Then Baby B become a little jaundice.  He only had the lights on him one day, what a strong little guy! He looks like a cross between Batman, Cyclops, Iron man, and a glow warm. Let me tell you feeding him while attached to an IV is hard, but feeding him while in a blue glowing blanket and IV, and his stats. Exhausting.

Baby B had a hard time getting a central line to get rid of the multiple IV's.  The doctors tried twice but it really needs to be done by a nurse specialized in that.  We had to be very careful with his current IV's and I came very close to talking to administration about a specific nurse who was not careful with his IV line.  I told Mr. H if Baby B lost his last IV the next day (she was a night nurse) it would be her fault.  And guess who was our night nurse the very next night.

Kitchen Inspiration

The kitchen will probably be the last project I start because it's the most expensive but it's always the first thing I google when looking for renovation/decoration ideas. Our current kitchen is a tad out dated.  We have a burnt orange sink that leaks, dark brown cabinets with a little damage, and horrible linoleum floors. 

We eventually plan on knocking out the wall between the kitchen and dinning room to put in a bar.  That has been the only real plan and many have offered to help with hitting our wall with a sledge hammer.  Before we get in over our head I just dream of a kitchen that looks like this...

(source)

What we would need to do:

• Paint cabinets
• Put in new hardware
• New sink
• Replace counter tops (butcher block style)
• knock out wall and install bar
• Replace floor (and possible remove a sub floor since our kitchen is a little raised compared to the rest of the floor)

Pregnant Pictures

If you have been reading this blog you know that not too long ago I broke down a little in this post about my scabbed face and chubby cheeks.  After reading the post a couple of days ago Mr. H said I was not allowed to think that...oops!  Well, I will have you know I finally got pregnant pics that I am ok with thanks to my mother-in-law who forced me to take pictures.  I do wish I looked like I had make up on but that is not a pregnancy problem, that is just a problem in general. (user issue)  But I am about to get a sister-in-law that is all about makeup, maybe she can give me a few tips.  I mean, I probably need to learn how to apply eye liner correctly! Basics, one step at a time people.

Here they are:

Something to Blog About

I like to write.  I hate having writer's block...or nothing to write about.  Therefore, I don't write that often.  As I said in the last post, the movie Julie and Julia made me want to blog more.  After googling "finding things to blog about" and "what on earth do I blog about"...if only I were kidding about the second search, I decided to tackle updating and renovating our house and writing about it. 

I needed the motivation to write and to work on the house. BINGO!

Home Stretch

We're in the home stretch! Exactly two weeks until my due date and I am ready to be done.  Baby B's bedroom is just about complete.  We just need a shelf and a side table, nothing major.  Car seat is in the car.  We just need to buckle it in.  The weird looks we get when it tips over are just too funny right now.  We have a hospital bag packed for me but I've been told as soon as I bring it back in the house and unpack it I will go into labor...tempting, very tempting. 

I have an entire binder full of coupons and I am actually having fun finding as many free deals as possible.  I'm excited that the shelves we have in the basement are actually filling up and I feel like I have some kind of storage, even if it is mainly toothpaste.  I've tried to become more self sufficient.  I would love to have a great garden, be able to can lots of veggies and fruits, make my own bread...basically I want to be Sandy Ligget. Don't know her? You should! 

Last night we watched Julie and Julia and it makes me want to blog about something...and cook everything in butter. Instead, I sit at my desk eating a very gourmet Pop Tart.  Baby steps.