It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas??

Or something like that.

Currently, Stephen, the big boys and several of the neighbor kids are having a large water fight. They're equipped with water balloons, guns and hoses. All of them are soaking wet. I heard Stephen on the roof a bit ago and have the house surrounded by water blasting kids.

Saddest part is they came to the door asking if I could come out and see something. Fortunately I was nursing at the time so Stephen grabbed his mega water gun (that was taken off the market due to injuries it caused) and went out.

Gotta love Christmas in the desert!

My sympathies to all the sufferers of snowy places. Snow is something I like to look at for about 5 minutes and then I'm done.

{;-D

I've Been Told...

There needs to be a new picture of Lynneah...not screaming her head off...posted here. Well, she did a whole lot of that screaming her head off, anytime she wasn't attached, for a while. I most definitely wouldn't recommend a two week maternity leave to anyone. It makes that time you're trying to get life + one figured out REALLY complicated. I've been tired somethin' fierce! The boys have been yelled at a lot; I was just flat out too tired to deal with the sassy little mouths, and total disregard for all the rules. Oh, and don't forget the new full contact wrestling/fighting moves they have. One more week and Christmas...er..."Winter" Break starts. It'll be a long couple weeks with all of them home all day *but* I won't have to worry about getting them up at a certain time, badgering them to get dressed so the can eat, have the morning fight about brushing teeth or have to get myself ready for work.Yes, they will still brush their teeth I just won't need it done by 7:10 am, and yes, I'll be looking pretty great in all my hag glory. Hopefully I can get lots more pictures of Lynneah at that point too. For now this will have to do.

I can never get pictures to embed where I want them too. I swear one of these days I'm gonna get smarter than this darn computer and and then we'll see who's laughing.

Anyway, the above picture was taken the morning I woke up to my alarm rather than already being up with her when it went off. I was SUPER excited. She slept from 10:00 pm till 6:15 am...IN HER OWN BED. We've had several days of real chunks of sleep at night. I hope she's not just teasing me. She's got allergies on top of acid reflux (very common in kids with diaphragmatic hernias) and wouldn't sleep, especially laying flat. So on nights Stephen was on shift she slept in the bouncy seat next to me. It kept her elevated and let me just bounce her back to sleep when she woke without getting out of bed. Poor guy spent 2 nights "camping" on the floor when he was home because I was so proud of my new set up and didn't want to give it up. After 2 nights he squeezed back in bed with the bouncy seat between us. I found the perfect pillow to help elevate the mattress in her cradle and she'll sleep in it now. The bed is ours again!

Don't Know If I Should Be Worried Or Not...

I always have background noise on, namely the TV, when I'm at home. It's not a good thing, I know, but it is what it is.

Today "Say Yes to the Dress" came on. All I've really ever seen of it is what ever I saw till I changed the channel to something I liked better. Today I came in, plopped down to nurse again and changed the channel. Gabriel looked over and said, "No Mom! I want to watch that." When I questioned exactly why he wanted to watch a show about picking wedding dresses he had a perfectly logical answer. "So I can know what to buy for Blianca (Bianca) when she...if she...marries me someday."

He's gotten pretty excited to bring the Helzberg Diamond ad, that comes in the mail, to me too. Maybe he can be my shopping buddy someday. I'm thinkin' he'll have a happy wife someday. {;-D

Welcome Home

There's no easing back into life when kids are involved.

This poster took Gabriel ALL DAY to finish. He wouldn't do it because I accidentally called it "homework" rather than just having him "color". He's the First Grade Friend of the Week and the poster is part of that. The 2+ hours of homework every night is getting fatiguing. Tonight I was informed that "homework sucks" and that "everyone at school says sucks". Nice.

While encouraging/prodding/ordering/pleading with Gabriel I discovered this...

This would be Garrett's Pull Up he didn't put away. I know it's gross that I took a picture of it. I have no idea if it was wet or dry because I made him clean the darn thing up. The dogs rip these things to shreds, wet or dry, and I'm not cleaning them up anymore. While scrubbing his hands this happened...

I left a grocery bag on the counter with two bowls of soup in it. I thought it was back far enough...I.WAS. SO.WRONG. Lincoln is like elasta-boy. He stretched that long ol' body of his and pulled the bag down. One of the lids popped off and did this. Grrr!! I let the dang dogs have a treat so I could take care of this...

*Notice she's mad as heck and still the right color.*
Life is Good.

Lynneah has "sun downer's syndrome". I don't know if it's a real thing or not, but the nurses at the NICU said it too. Everyday as the sun starts to set she completely freaks out. She looks like this till it's dark outside. So while I was addressing the above "issues" I was trying to soothe her at the same time. Stephen was on shift...this was one of the nights I missed having him here.

Everyday around sunset the body snatchers take my sweet kids and leave a bunch of crazies in their place. Once the sun is down the body snatchers bring my kids back.
Really, it's the weirdest thing!
Some nights I triumph patiently getting through the mayhem, other nights I'm a yelling crazy lady (probably when the body snatchers take me too). I actually made it through this night with my sanity semi in-tact.

It's good to be home.

SHE'S HOME...

Again!

We're confident for good this time.

After our really bad afternoon, and a delivery of ice cream from Aunt Sassy, she was able to sleep it off and figure out how to eat again. She still wasn't a fan of night time so I ended up in the the recliner holding her for most of the night. She was eating, which caused weight gain, which led to going home...sleeping in a recliner...totally doable.

My nights in the recliner led to some interesting observations, the main one being that night nurses get pretty punchy around 6:30 am. They start joking and giggle/laughing like crazy about half an hour before shift change. I think I'd do the same thing if I'd been awake all night dealing with very time involved babies too. Lynneah shared a room with 2 25 week preemies and a 27 weeker. She looked like a moose even though she's still 1/2 a pound below her birth weight. Those teeny tiny babies kept the nurses REALLY busy, Lynneah's fussiness just added to the commotion of the room, thus the reason I sat there and took care of all her non-medical needs for a week.

I'll be getting a full detailed post up as soon as I can, mainly because we don't want to forget the last week. The NICU is truly a place where miracles happen; we will forever be grateful that we are the recipients of one of those miracles.

Three Weeks Old

Lynneah is three weeks old today...and here we sit...in the hospital. Last night I ran home quickly to grab some stuff I needed. It was exactly one week since I'd made the same trip with no baby in the back. I cried my eyes out all the way home a week ago. I probably shouldn't have been driving. What a different trip it was last night, still no baby in the back, but I had confidence that once again there will be.

She had a ROUGH night last night. This girl just hates nights she fusses and cries and runs the nurse ragged all night. She finished it off this morning by refusing to latch and nurse before I had to run to work for a short time. I got back down to the hospital and had to drive around for 30 stinkin' minutes to find a place to park. I walked back in her room just in time to find her finishing a bottle. I'm not anti-bottle but had wanted to get back in time to nurse.

Fast Forward to this evening. She FREAKED out! The sun started to set and she went INSANE! She screamed her little head off for 2 hours. She shares a room with several SUPER preemie babies that need quiet. She refused to latch and eat. Her heart rate went above 200 and her oxygen dipped. She just screamed at me for 2 hours. The nurse practitioner said it might be colic. I firmly believe I've done more than enough colic for a lifetime with Gabriel. The nurse asked if we should give her a bottle. I agreed because she needed to eat and because it might quiet her down. She latched right on and ate it down. I lost it. :'-( I sat here bawling like a baby because my baby is RUINED and will only take bottles now. She, of all the kids, is the one that needs to nurse the most and now I'm gonna have to pump to build her darn immune system. She was such a dainty nurser, it makes pumping that much more dreaded. The nurses were very sweet about my total collapse. One assured me that she's never seen a baby that wouldn't nurse again. Oh, how I hope she's right. As an added bonus she freaked out before I got my time sheet sent in. {:-/

The doctor had said if she continued to eat and had gained weight when they weighed her tonight we could go home tomorrow. Yeah, I don't think tonight counted as continued to eat. I just want to go home...with the baby in the back seat. I miss Stephen...and those wild boys that are running poor Nanny ragged.

She's crying again...here's to another night. I think I need cold stone.

Lynneah's Surgery

The NICU has computer access so I thought I'd update quickly but this will be VERY short. Sorry I'm beyond exhausted.

Her surgery went well. The entire colon, small intestine, appendix and possibly spleen were in her chest. The doctor was able to get it all down to the right region of her abdomen. He wasn't ever able to see the spleen so we don't know where that is. He said that it's all down but will be in different positions compared to a person that developed normally. Before we leave we'll get an ultrasound so we know where everything is for future reference. Things like appendicitis (too tired to worry about spelling that right) may not present pain in the lower right region because the appendix might have landed somewhere else. Her heart will probably stay slightly to the right but is developed normally and healthy. Her lung was little but very pink and healthy looking. The doctor said it had begun inflating well and he expects it will continue to inflate and fill the now empty half of her chest. This was an "ideal" case for this problem. These kids are normally very very sick right from the get go, she actually was home for a while. She's a strong fiesty girl and it's served her well so far. The nurses will attest to the fiestiness. :-)

Her vitals are looking good. She's having trouble regulating her temp but the heater in the bassinet is helping with that. She remains on oxygen. They were able to lower it quite a bit and thought maybe she could be off of it, but they can only go down so far before she starts having her oxygen levels drop. The biggest thing we're waiting for is POOP. I never thought I'd be anxious for a poopy diaper, but here I am hoping for it. As soon as she poops I can start her back on nursing again. I hope she remembers how and is willing. We'll just have to wait and see.

At this point all is well. She still has a long, and fairly painful recovery, but she's doing well.

Thank you for all the prayers. We've been blessed by them and felt the love extended from family and friends.

The surgeon gave us very clear pictures I will post those later with more details.