None of my kids have really liked toys.
Until Dash.
He has recently found a love of trains.
It really is “Thomas Train” he loves, but he sort of likes all things trains.
In fact, every time he walks into my mom’s room it goes a little something like this:
“Thomas!”
“Thomas Train!”
“Peeease!”
“Pease Nonnie….Thomas Train!”
And guess what…?
Quite often I walk into Nonnie’s room to see a sweet little boy cuddled up to his Non, doing none other than watching a little Thomas the Tank Engine.
What a sucker that Nonnie is!
One week ago today, our lives changed forever.
And in only the most awesome way.
This little girl — whose head is smaller than my finger has made serious strides this week after a blood exchange transfusion, a platelet transfusion, a feeding tube placed, tons of pricks, at least one new IV a day, a PIC line that didn’t take, and a few downs - but mostly ups.
On average, one week doesn’t seem like a very long time.
But with so much happening this week, it seemed like a few months all rolled up into 7 days.
Seven of the sweetest and happiest days of my life!
Here we are at one of our pumping/nursing attempt/gavage feedings.
She is always so sleepy.
And then she woke up — because like clockwork, she needed a diaper change after her feed, because something really got her bowels moving.
Daddy calls her the “master of disaster”.
But we all know that title easily goes to two of our other kids.
But this little thing is trying to keep up with the Joneses.
Or Denisons in this case.
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Happy One Week Pippi.
My Pippi is 6 days old.
Amongst all of her cords and leeds, she is doing really well.
But this morning she had low platelets again which concerned the doctors.
They originally searched for platelets the day she was born, but there was no exact match in any of the local blood banks. So CHOC reached out to neighboring counties, and nothing. They were monitoring her as they were looking for platelets, but by day three her count looked decent. Unfortunately, today they decided to give her a platelet transfusion because her numbers were going down again. Luckily, we had the huge blessing of an exact match coming through a local blood bank.
Her transfusion went smoothly, and now it is just the two of us cuddling.
And me singing to her while she gets fed through her nose.
I am always trying to hog Pippi during her small little moments out from the desert lights, so Micah hasn’t held her until today.
And when he did, I think it was love at first hold.
Navy and I went to pick up Scout after his “after-school chess class”.
Literally the minute he got out, the rain came pouring out of the sky as hard as I have seen in years.
Of course Scout came running to the car with a huge smile on his face, and made it into an adventure.
(Of course all of the other moms were there waiting with umbrellas.)
Upon arrival into the car, my sweet little girl was so concerned with Scout getting really wet that she immediately took off her shirt and gave it to him to keep warm.
I love my adventurist, and my little protector.
Most of the time (emphasis on the “most”), they are a great team!
Pippi is one tired little girl.
Part due to her preemie status.
Part due to her anemia.
So in an effort to have her gain weight and get strong, the doctors decided to put in a feeding tube through her nose yesterday. She has been on an IV until now, and hasn’t needed to eat, but now it is an essential part of her getting strong and getting the heck out of dodge. It is a means to an end, and although I wasn’t that excited about the tube, it certainly has made her eating an easy experience.
And easy is just what this little trooper needs right now.
Bella finally got home from her trip to Utah, and got to come see Pippi in the NICU.
She is three days old today, and is allowed to be held for short stints while she eats.
This is the first time my mom got to hold her, so she didn’t let Bella have her turn for a bit.
Clearly, they are both in love and Bella declared that she looks like Dash.
(Nobody really has a clear cut thought on who she looks like, but the front runner is Dash. Originally, we thought she might have Scout’s lips, but now they are Navy’s lips. But she definitely has Scout’s wide-set eyes.)
Here the Pipster is in the hands of the master.
And then the master and Bella went out to the Ronald McDonald room to controll the masses while Micah and I fed Pippi.
This birth was a little different. Because of the suddenness and the fact that it was a C Section where she went straight to the NICU, I got my visitors after Pippi came. Usually I have a huge party in the delivery room, but tons of people were out of town, so my visitors trickled in after her birth.
Two days after Pippi came, Megan came to the hospital.
She came by at the same time Micah brought the kids by.
When we told her that Micah had taped the whole birth, she was dying to see it.
As she watched, guess what peeping toms wanted to see it all too.
They were all pretty amazed by the whole thing.
But Megan was more amazed by the amount of colostrum I drummed up.
My liquid gold levels are off the charts.
So much so, that the nurses told me to keep them kind of covered as I brought it up to the NICU for fear of other moms getting really jealous.
I know gold prices per ounce are through the roof at the moment — so maybe I’m going to start selling this stuff?!
I got some pretty special visitors today.
My three oldest stopped by with lunch for me.
They were all a little bummed they couldn’t see the baby, but it was fun to hang out with them and at least tell them the story of Pippi’s birth.
Even though I was freshly cut open in my stomach, Dash insisted on cuddling with me.
I was all for it, and he was pretty still for about a split second as he watched the tube.
Then Navy dug into some sushi with me in my bed.
She was much more careful than Dash was.
So careful, that she took all precautions necessary!
(This is a girl after my own heart, because the first thing I want to do in any hospital room is pilfer through all of the cool supplies!)
After eating and cuddling, I asked the kids if they wanted a tour of the hospital.
They did, and all hopped into the wheelchair.
And guess who was the tour guide?
The girl who was 24 hours out from surgery and was trying to prevent those gas bubbles.
So off we went….
First stop….Britni’s room.
Right after she used the restroom!
Then we stopped at the Ronald McDonald Room, and the NICU (outside the doors), the ice machine, and back to my room.
I wanted to take them to the gift shop, but my mom poo poo’d me going into the lobby?!
Party Pooper!
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After they left , I headed up to have a special date with #4.
Here my little girl lays in the desert.
She had lights above and below her, and was as warm as can be.
The doctors were pleased with her results of the day, and after her procedure the day before.
Her Biliruben was in the 8 range which was great. She was born with it at 8.5, but they were pretty sure by the time of the exchange it had reached the teens. So today, with it back in the 8’s, they were happy. Actually everything was looking great, but her platelet count was kind of low and the doctors made a note to watch it over the next few days.
She is SO teeny tiny it is amazing. I have really small hands, and look how much littler her head is than my hand is.
But she has the cutest chubby cheeks that make her look like she has a bit of chunk.
Here she is after turning the desert lights off and taking off those heinous glasses!
It was time for me to change her diaper, take her temp and feed her!
But what I really do during our teeny bit of alone time (with my hands through the incubator doors) is sing to her.
We sing our few favorites, and I know she loves it.
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And when our visit is over, and I head back to my room to “recover”, the hospital has set up an awesome camera that allows me to watch her every move.
And I’m not the only one — sisters, aunts, grandmas, cousins, and dad don’t want to miss a single second of her so-far short little life here on earth.
So we all log on to see our little Pip.
I heard that one of the miserable things from a C-Section is the gas pains that come along with it. I asked the nurse what I could do to bypass those, and she said walking around and drinking plenty of water help. So on night one, I was walking back from the NICU. And by day two, I walked everywhere. The nurses kept reconfirming that I was a “section” delivery. I told them yes, and they all kept saying I was not acting like one. So when I was walking out of my room for the third time the day after I delivered, the charge nurse said to me, “You wouldn’t happen to be going to the third floor to visit your friend, would you?” Oh crap! How am I getting in trouble in the hospital?!
And then I headed straight to the elevator and pressed three.
To visit my friend who was having horrible abdominal pains from her own C-Section two weeks before.
I guess she didn’t get the memo on walking around.
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