Moments in the NICU: Refrigerator by Bossy

I've been after Bossy for a couple of weeks so that we could hear about the birth and the extra days in the hospital NICU for our sweet baby Skittles. Imagine my surprise when I opened an email with about a dozen stories!

Thanks to Bossy, here is the first one:

Refrigerator

Skittles was born via emergency c-section at 34weeks 2 days due to a partial placental abruption which sent me into labor.  My placental abruption started 2 weeks prior and I received the steroid shot to help Skittles’s lung development. Skittle was transverse when I went into labor and he did not correct himself after 12 hours of progressing labor so we went into surgery at 11:45pm.  We never had any answers for Calder’s passing, but my ob/gyn and I had suspected my many miscarriages and Calder’s passing where related to placenta problems.  With both Calder and Skittles I took progesterone supplements during the first trimester to assist with placental development.  We had discussed at length if we would need the progesterone shots during the second trimester to prevent early delivery, ultimately we decided that the insurance would likely not cover the shots because there was not a documented history of premature delivery. Taco missed being a preemie by a few hours.

One of my favorite visits while we were in the NICU was when Dog Walker, Puppy Lover, Drama Queen and Grandpa came up to see us. Dog Walker missed riding up with Drama Queen and we thought he and Puppy Lover would not come up.  I was impressed that Dog Walker found the hospital in the avenues.  I had to google maps it the first 3 visits.  He ended up coming at the same time as Drama Queen and Grandpa.  It had been a long week, my mom was on vacation and Gamer had taken Taco to Arizona for a baseball tournament.  I hadn’t had any visitors in two days and I hadn’t seen my family in nearly 2 weeks.  Dog Walker wanted to understand more about why Skittles was born early and why we had a c-section instead of waiting for him to come on his own.  I was trying to explain what a placenta was and its role in helping Skittles grow.  Drama Queen came up with a great analogy of the placenta as a refrigerator providing all the food for the baby.  When I was explaining what a placental abruption was, Dog Walker didn’t understand that it had just partially pulled away from the uterine wall.  Everything seemed fine from the outside.  Dog Walker thought my placenta completely fell out of my body.  He imagined it more like an actual appliance coming out of me and asked a series of concerned questions that led to a hysterical fit of giggles that were a challenge to my healing abdomen.  I wish Drama Queen had written down the story the evening it happened like she promised.  I can’t remember what was said, but I do remember how hard and long I laughed.  A welcome relief for a stressful end to our first week in the NICU.

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!

Bossy went back to work today, so Skittles and I had our first hour alone together. He did awesome! And this will be the norm at least for a while. Gamer has to be to work at 2:30 and Bossy gets off at 2:30, but she still has to drive across town. It's not an ideal situation, but hopefully it will work. Tomorrow I will have Twizlet and Skittles. Thankfully, I will have Puppy Lover here to help me as well.

Scout has been trying out for the 9th grade volleyball team at her school. Since she is only in 7th grade, that is a pretty tall order, but she is a good player and tomorrow night we will know. My sweetie is headed out of town for a couple of days for work, so it's a good thing I spent the morning with him. It was his birthday and we decided to go out for breakfast. He is such a blessing for me. I'm not sure what I did to get such a good man, but I am grateful for him every day.

I'm finally finishing up for the evening. So much going on, I've been burning the midnight oil again. Maybe ones of these days I will actually get caught up!

Robotic Hand

Our pack meeting is coming up this week and Curly wanted to get as many belt loops as he possibly could, so he was working on various projects this past weekend. One of them was this cool robotic hand.

Puppy Lover offered to assist him, so I headed off to the next project. They were slow and careful and were nearly finished when they came to ask me for help. All that was left was the threading of the straws.

So much fun and all made with things laying around the house. Not sure why he made it so big...

Showered Again

We had a baby shower for Bossy with family and a few of her close friends on Saturday. It was a crazy, busy day with football, a couple of parties for the girls, the shower and then our Stake Beach Party, but somehow we managed to pull it all together. I missed the first half hour of the shower because I had to pick up Scout across town at a swim party for her girl scout group that is going to Catalina Island in California in October.

But let's talk about the shower. Drama Queen did a fantastic job hosting and planning pretty much everything. I was in charge of getting invitations out, assigning the food, and paying the bill. Princess made her famous lemon bars and our Cupcake Club officers, Crafty and Sport, made several dozen cupcakes. Drama Queen carved a watermelon into a whale and that was the theme of our party.

Fish decorations from Princess waiting to be hung with the others...

All of the games involved whales in one way or another and we gave out Tupperware filled with chocolate for the prizes (you can't beat that!). We also laid out a beautiful serving table covered with sparkly blue tissue paper, our giant glass jars with the spigots, and then all the food. I guess Drama Queen really wanted the swedish fish swimming, because while she was running one of the games, she stopped mid-stream (yeah, the pun is for you...) and reached behind her for a drink of water. The next thing we know, the spigot is spewing water all over our lovely table! It didn't stop Drama Queen though. Per my instructions, she kept our guests engaged while Bossy, Teach, and I quickly changed out the entire table with new coverings and refilled water jugs. It made for some random excitement!

Bossy was spoiled again with some cute things for our baby Skittles. We even served skittles in tiny baby bottles for our party favors. Too much fun and too much food. I was totally happy to take a couple dozen of our cupcakes over to share at the stake party.

Car show at the stake party...

Oh and by the way, all 3 of our football teams had wins this week, even the high school team. Go Bingham!

Curly's team running through the paper banner we made for halftime...

 PS, you aren't going to believe this, but I have scoured my phone and not a single pic of the shower! I heard that Teach might have some. I will try to get them posted if they exist. Hope you enjoy some of the other parts of my crazy day.

Crazy Egg Lady

I am that lady... the Crazy Egg Lady. I make people stop and stare in the grocery store because I bring a baby carseat to the store to protect my eggs from being brutally smashed or tragically stolen...

OK, wait. Let's cut the drama and back up for a minute.

A couple of weeks ago, I was missing the time I spent with my sweet grandson, Little Warrior. It didn't seem like I was getting a chance to see much of him without a dozen other people trying to take him away from me. So I offered Beauty and The Beast the opportunity of having a monthly date when I could play with Little Warrior so he would get to know us better.

That day was today. We took him with us to the Stake Beach Party and then we tried to get him to sleep on the ride home. He was not at all interested in missing any of the excitement, so Sport and I took him to the grocery store thinking maybe he would fall asleep in his carseat.

That didn't work either. And it wasn't his carseat. Today Bossy brought over her spare carseat and left it with me so I would have one if I needed it to take the babies somewhere. Since Beauty didn't leave one, I used my newly acquired carseat. The Beast called me just as we were getting started loading our cart with Little Warrior strapped in the carseat into one of those Baby Deck things.

Then Beauty and The Beast show up, take Little Warrior, and head out the door leaving me and Sport with an empty carseat that had half a bottle of milk in it. Since we had to buy eggs anyway and our cart was full of cereal, we decided to put the eggs in the carseat. We had a good laugh about keeping them safe until we noticed a couple of people actually doing double-takes.

So when you hear stories, just remember, I am the Crazy Egg Lady...

Baseball Baby Shower

On Thursday night, Bossy's amazing friend gave her a baby shower in her own neighborhood. She has some awesome neighbors! But mostly I wanted to tell you that even though Drama Queen, Scout, Baby Doll, Crafty, Puppy Lover, and I all went to the shower to show our support, none of us took a single picture!

I did manage to get some from the setup before anyone showed up so you can see all of the hard work that went into this shower. And such cute ideas too; Bossy loves baseball, although our sport of choice is football for the moment.

Bossy's host even made all of these cute onesies for her! Now that's true friendship.

Love that Sweet Summer Rain

Our weather has been a bit dicey lately. Not that we have had anything major happen; there have been wildfires all over the state of Utah, so it is very dry here. That's why when something like today happens, it's time to stand up and take notice.

I had been watching the clouds all afternoon because I knew Curly had football practice and they looked pretty black. It was only about 20 minutes after I got back from delivering him to the park and picking up Scout from her volleyball practice that the rain began to pour.

It started with huge drops that quickly became a torrent. The kids said there was hail, but I didn't see any of it. By the time I got to the door, my eyes were only on the flood of water in the gutter and spilling out onto the road. This was "dancing in the rain" weather!

Twizlet, Baby Doll, Scout, and I hurried over to enjoy it because in Utah, the weather can change so fast, the rainwater could be gone in a minute. The girls all had their shoes off and they waded, danced, and "swam" in the four inches of water surging through the gutter.

All my life I have danced in the rain. I learned it from my mama, and now I want my kids and grandkids to learn it from me. That sweet summer rain is sort of like childhood, gone in a flash.

Football vs. Scouts

We had another crazy Saturday around here. Our morning started out with me running around trying to get everything ready for our Girl Scout Awards Picnic later that evening. Curly had his first football game and I was so happy to see him walk midfield with the other captains. He sure loves this game!

#92 may look nervous, but he showed them on the line.

 They only have 15 boys on the A Team this year and he loves playing on both sides of the ball. This was our preseason game and the boys beat Tooele by a pretty good margin.

The afternoon was a flurry of party planning and last minute stuff. Crafty made all the brownies, my sweetie finished up the pulled pork, and I gathered everything else before we had to be at the bowery at 6:00.

I told Bossy those shoes were too big...

 By 6:30, most of the girls and their families had arrived and we enjoyed a nice meal before calling each girl up and presenting her awards for the year. Crafty is the President of our troop and she and Scout did a great job making sure each girl felt important and included.

I love scouting, but it will be nice to have a month off before the new year begins. Can't wait until my cute little niece will be part of our troop...neither can she.

Happy First Birthday, Little Warrior!

On Friday, our cute grandson, Little Warrior, turned one! It is so fun to watch these sweet ones grow. Beauty and The Beast have been posting pictures from his whole life on Facebook, but I will leave it up to you to find them there and I will share the ones from his birthday party on Sunday afternoon.

Unlike most of our parties, all I had to do for this one was show up. Beauty did such cute decorations and some yummy cupcakes and ice cream. Of course we all spoiled Little Warrior with tons of stuff. My sweetie and I gave him 8 different pullback cars that make the most obnoxious sounds... they should drive The Beast nuts! (After all, isn't being a grandparent all about payback time?!)

The party was early and relatively short and sweet, so we spent the rest of the evening preparing for the upcoming week. I cut my sweetie's hair and Sport's hair. I took Sport driving, and we went over some Scout stuff with Curly. We have lots of craziness coming up with the older kids starting school this week and baby showers for Bossy.

Have I ever told you how much I love this guy?
Both these guys?

Bye, Bye Birdie at the Scera

Last night Dog Walker and Puppy Lover took Scout and Baby Doll down to the Scera to watch their outdoor production of Bye Bye Birdie. They loved it!

Tonight we had 10 more tickets to use, so after the Girl Scout Swim Party, we piled into the big van and headed for Orem. This outside amphitheater is mostly on the grass, so we spread out our blankets and claimed our space.

There were 13 of us counting the two babies, Twizlet and Skittles. We waited about half an hour for the show to begin and there was plenty of singing and dancing (and eating!). Just before the intermission, it began to rain and it continued through the entire intermission and when they announced that they were going to extend the intermission in hopes that the weather would clear up, we simply loaded our van and headed for home.

I'm not sure how the show ended, but it was fun through the first half. Maybe if we ask Baby Doll...

Let the Canning Season Begin!

Sorry I didn't post last night. I was so tired after a long day of canning. Wait, let's back, up a bit. On Tuesday afternoon, Teach called me from the grocery store. She was so excited about the 99-cent strawberries!  That's because she knew that we had been out of strawberry jam for quite a while now.

Last year the strawberries never got cheap enough to justify the expense of canning, and it is expensive. We made 56 quarts of jam. I already had bottles, so it only required lids, but that was $10. Sugar was about $30 and pectin was $1.69 a box and we used 41 boxes. And that doesn't count the $50 for the strawberries.

Pretty sure Taco stirred every pan of pectin.

But I digress...

Scout was the best at mashing the berries.

Although Twizlet came in a close second.

So on Wednesday morning, Scout and I ran to the store for pectin and when we returned, Bossy was here with her family and they were already starting to prep the berries. We finished the project just before 4:00. I also did 13 quarts of beets from the garden in between batches. That was our entire beet crop and it only cost me a couple of dollars for the lids.

So pretty when they are finished.

 Today we are making grape jelly. Bossy's boys (including Gamer) brought me a couple of 5-gallon buckets full of grapes and I juiced them down to about 18 quarts. Now comes the jelly process. I'm hoping to see Bossy sometime this morning to help me, although maybe they are all still sleeping. That's where I would like to be...

Can you guys handle another day of canning?

Reading with the Bees

I love all the summer reading programs, but one of my very favorites is the Read Today program in conjunction with the Bees baseball team. It usually becomes available around the middle of May and everything is uploaded, including the reading records, but basically 20 minutes a day earns each child a pencil, Happy Meal from McDonalds, a book, and tickets to see the Bees on a special night in August which just happened to be tonight.

This was Sport's last year to participate in the program, but with him and the other younger kids, we were able to earn 8 tickets to the baseball game and that was enough for everyone living at home except the Dog Walker and Puppy Lover** Please note that Cat Lover has opted to change her blog name so that she and Dog Walker can be more similar than opposite. Crafty also stayed home because she had a Youth City Council Meeting. Even though she is no longer the Youth Mayor, she is still an Executive and they are planning their new calendar.

But I digress...

Tonight at the Bees game was Taco Tuesday, so we enjoyed delicious tacos for dinner when we got there just after the first pitch was thrown. Curly had football practice and his coach was kind enough to let him leave a little early even with a scrimmage game tomorrow and the first preseason game on Saturday.

We had a great time even though the Bees ultimately ended up losing 6 - 3. We slipped away during the 8th inning so we could avoid the traffic since Curly and Baby Doll have school tomorrow.

Thank you so much Read Today! You sure know how to put on a party... and trust me, we know parties!

O Happy Birthday!!

I love it when the kids come in and hand the babies over so I can spoil them a bit with some "grandma love." Yesterday we had another party for Curly, a family party this time. Princess let me hold her cute Tadpole, but he was very stoic.

Not even getting his mom into the picture helped.

I think it is because he couldn't have any cake...

Happy Birthday, Curly!

Today is actually Curly's 10th birthday! Can you believe it? He was just a little guy when we began doing this blog. But on Friday we had a birthday party that included 15 of his favorite friends and his dodgeball nemesis... Sport.

We had a great time at the church for a couple of hours with me as the referee, Teach as the facilitator, and the boys as more than willing participants. From the pics it may look like Curly spent a bunch of time on the sidelines, but that is not actually true. He is one of the best players, so that, along with his free passes back in as the birthday boy, put him in action most of the time.

We took a break about halfway through and did presents and cupcakes and then the boys were back at it again. It never ceases to amaze me how much energy kids have. After almost 2 solid hours of dodgeball, most of them were sad when their parents arrived and it was time to go home.

Not Curly... he still had 2 hours of football practice left in him...

The Parade

Yesterday Bossy called me at exactly 5:38 pm. "Are you coming?"

I know I don't always listen that well, but I didn't have anything on my radar. "Where?"

"To the parade!" Honestly, I didn't remember any of this conversation, besides, parade season was over. But I gathered up anyway. Baby Doll wanted to go and ride her bike and I had Twizlet too. My sweetie quickly loaded the wagon into my car while I loaded Twizlet into the car seat. It was a tight squeeze, but we finally got in and on the road. It was about 15 minutes to Bossy's church and we were in rush hour traffic. The odds of us getting there before the parade left were pretty slim.

We turned in to the parking lot with 1 minute to spare. The kids were lining up on their bikes and in strollers and wagons with a handful of parents and siblings. We took our space at the back of the line.

Bossy was there with Skittles and we carefully laid him in the wagon with Twizlet (who was pretty grumpy about being disturbed from her nap). Bossy was visiting with a neighbor, so we started hoofing it.

The parade wasn't long; only to the park where they had a bbq and carnival provided by the youth. Overall, it was fun, except that Bossy kept leaving me to visit with other people on the route.

The most interesting part was that no one was watching the parade because everyone was in it. 

Moving Day for Princess and The Frog

Monday was a rather busy day. Princess and The Frog were moving into their new house and they needed some help. Drama Queen, Sport, Scout, Twizlet, and I showed up about 10:30 to help them unload the rest of their storage shed and then move everything into their new place.

It's a beautiful 5-bedroom home, just perfect for them other than it is a little bit far away from us at about an hour's drive. I did a bunch of moving things up and down stairs and pulling things off the trailer before they gave me the chance to sit and play with the babies. Twizlet and Tadpole had a great time sharing cookies and taking selfies with Grandma.

We worked and filled their house with tons of boxes, bags, and furniture. I talked to Princess today and she was excited because she had finally gotten Tadpole's room all set up. Scout is staying with them this week to help with the baby and get things together.

Having their own place is a dream come true for Princess. I'm excited to visit her little castle again soon... hopefully after everything is carried up and down the stairs...

Guest Blogger: Camping at Yuba by Dog Walker and Cat Lover

It's been quite a while for me and Cat Lover to write on my mom's blog ever since we explained about other great events we've had ever since we got married. Another fun event that we did for the first time as a couple is going on a camping trip to Yuba with Cat Lover's side of the family. It was a chance that Cat Lover and I could spend together while being away from our everyday routines. It was also a chance that Cat Lover and I could demonstrate the Wolf-em treat to her family.

The trip started on the 27 of July. We had to wait for almost an hour to wait for one of Cat Lover's sisters' husband to come out from doing a blood test at the doctor's office. We drove all the way to the Yuba Natural Park. I've never been to Yuba in my life. It's just on the other side of Nephi City where Drama Queen taught at Juab High School. When we got there, it was a great looking lake to sightsee. Cat Lover and I had a chance to go for a little bit of a swim in the lake before the rest of her family showed up with tents to set up on the campground we made a reservation to.

Cat Lover grew up loving to ride on a four-wheeler and motorcycle with her parents on bumpy dirty rides. In fact, her entire family had grew up loving to go dirt riding. I never rode a motorcycle or a four-wheeler. A funny thing is, I used my car to drive on the dirty bump ground near a beach of the lake. Even Cat Lover was with me on one run. She thought it was fun, but she would prefer riding on the four wheeler with her mom and the motorcycle with her dad.

We had lots of fun having a campfire around, even if there was so much wind that was always trying to blow our tents down and I would feel really stressed out that it's been a while for me and my family to go on an outing from home. On the first night, it was hard for me and Cat Lover to sleep on the air mattress that was blown up for the night, but then by morning it had deflated itself. However, on the second night, we slept with Cat Lover's parents on mattress pads. It was still hard to sleep inside a tent, because you never get used to camping often, but I didn't want to disappoint Cat Lover and her parents.

There have been a few of the times during a day that I was feeling so stressed out about being out in the fresh air with mosquitos flying around, wind blowing our tents down, and even having to toss and turn on the ground to sleep. Cat Lover was always worried that I wasn't having any fun on the camping trip, but I kept telling her that I really was having fun, even if my gestures sometimes didn't look like it. She did let me have the opportunity to go home a day early and wait for them to come back home, but I told them that I could still be at camp, because if I left camp without Cat Lover, my family would be so upset with me for abandoning my spouse with her parents all alone. That would make me feel like I'm a terrible husband, so I just stayed with them until the last day when we had a chance to go home after a fun camping trip.

We stayed in Yuba for two nights until Sunday when it was time to go home. We still had fun in Yuba, experiencing a new place you've never been to before and even sightseeing the valley. I'm hoping next summer, I'll have another fun camping trip with Cat Lover and her family. And that time, I will make sure that I really am having fun with a fun gesture!

Happy Birthday, Drama Queen!

August means more family parties and our first one is a birthday party for Drama Queen. My sweetie made a delicious beef brisket with roasted veggies and homemade rolls. We were all pretty happy about that except for maybe Tadpole. He kept throwing everything I gave him on the ground.

We did lots of visiting and Drama Queen's best friend Kierstain set the bar pretty high when she did a full front flip on the trampoline and then all the kids had to try it. Teach was pretty nervous when Twiz got up to do one, but he completed it like a pro.

 After dinner, Drama Queen opened her presents. She loved all of them.

Skittles was very popular and everyone wanted a chance to hold him.

I think Drama Queen's favorite gift was the big box full of Dr. Pepper.

This was my favorite gift. I could have snuggled with this tiny boy all day. I know it will just be the blink of an eye before he is off and running and doing flips on the trampoline with the other kids, so for now, I'm going to get all the baby cuddles I can get from all the grands. Love this life.

Happy birthday, Drama Queen!