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.
Well, Pippi has made her debut.
The story goes a little something like this:
Because of the blood stuff my last two babies encountered, Dr. Thein had me seeing a neo-natologist named Dr. Pan. Theiny and I liked to refer to her as “Yang”, because she was unapologetically blunt and acted like whatever she said was gospel. She immediately told me that we would be delivering Pippi no later than 38 weeks, but would probably deliver earlier than that. Theiny and I had the same outlook. My fourth was going to have blood problems no matter what, that would most likely require some sort of transfusion — so we thought that keeping the baby in my womb as she developed was the best route. As I continued to see her, Pippi’s numbers stayed stable. She was “mildly” anemic, and they were able to monitor something in the brain via ultrasound to see if that “mild” ever increased. On a regular Thursday morning, and at Pippi’s gestational time of 35 1/2 weeks, I went in to have a stress test and get an ultrasound.
Yang performed the ultrasound, and said, “Well, how do you feel about having a baby today?”
I immediately went out and called Theiny and tried to convince him to convince her to move it to the following Tuesday. That worked much better with my schedule! But when he got the ultrasound results an hour later, I got the call that said, “I looked at the results, and you need to be in today — and as soon as you can!” I knew I was pushing my luck, but pleaded to be able to go to Scout’s Back to School night, and he said, “Fine. But don’t get in any later than 8:00.”
Deal.
Here I am on my way to Back to School Night.
Clearly I was going to deliver early, because my deep belly button never came flush.
After Back to School night, (which I am SO glad I attended, because Mrs. K. went over everything for the entire year, and I would have been lost without the instructions!) we headed over to In-N-Out for 10 cheeseburgers sans onions for the nursing staff. We walked into the hospital at 7:58, delivered our food, and then were walked into one of the two nicest delivery rooms in the hospital. (Sidenote: we have gotten one of the nicest rooms three out of the four times I have delivered. In-N-Out is the KEY to our success!)
Once there, they got me checked in, started me on the cervix softening pill, and by about 3am they had me on Pitocin. My first contraction had me buzz the nurses for my epidural man. Within a few moments, he was there, and I felt nada. But my contractions were coming in quickly and putting the baby in distress. So much so, that they gave me a steroid shot to stop the contractions all together. In the meantime, the nurse checked me to see that I was dilated to a 3, and they wanted to have someone break my water. Unfortunately for them, Theiny is a hands on guy, and said he would be over quickly.
When Theiny came in, he was irate at the nurse because he found that I was dilated to a nothing! He was also worried that the baby was really far up, and wasn’t coming down. At the same time, Pippi’s heart rate and blood pressure were giving us a run for our money. That being said, Theiny came in and said, “I know you don’t want a C-Section. I will try everything to get this going, but if in a bit there has been no progression, we might be heading to the operating room.” I told him I trusted him implicitly, and to do what was best. But to wait until the last moment before making that decision. Ten minutes later, he came in (he had been monitoring things from the nurses station) and he said, “This baby needs to get here safely, and the only way that is happening is by a C-Section.” Before we left, I told him, “That’s fine Dr. Thein, but I know your boy is an artist. And so when you cut me open, I want the most beautiful piece of art down there you have ever created.” He replied with, “My son got all of his skills from his mom!”
So Micah and I both got geared up, and off we all went.
Here I am mid Section above the curtain.
And mid-section below the curtain.
Theiny — the greatest doctor in the world, worked calmly and meticulously.
He brought in another doctor to assist, there were several nurses from labor & delivery and a couple from the NICU in anticipation of a possibly sick little baby. The Section went great. I had a great conversation with the doctors as they were working their magic. One doctor said, “You have the most beautiful muscle structure!” I thought that was about the nicest thing I had ever heard, and basically high-fived Micah when I heard it. While laying on the table, Micah snuck a camera over the curtain and recorded the whole thing. It was awesome, and so great to have! In it you can hear me asking if “I have the most beautiful inner stomach they have ever seen”. And if they have found any chewed up bubblegum in there. I was really calm during the whole thing, and so were the doctors.
At 5:37am they got Pippi out, and she made two teeny tiny cries before Theiny lifted her over the curtain for a split second for me to see. I only saw a hand and said, “I only saw her hand, but that is the cutest little hand I’ve ever seen!” Then they rushed her over to the table to make sure all was well.
They cut the cord, swaddled her, and then they brought her over to me for about 30 seconds to see her.
They had to send her to the NICU ASAP, so I really only got to look at her, but the nurse had her close enough that we touched cheeks for about 2 seconds and I closed my eyes and fell in love. She was darling with a head full of black hair. She reminded me of Scout, because when both were born, they had their eyes wide open and just looked around and blinked. About five minutes after she was born, she was in transit to the 5th floor. When there, Micah was informed that she was born with her Biliruben already at an 8.5, and they were going to immediately perform a double exchange transfusion as soon as the blood was there.
While she waited for some good blood, she weighed in at 4lbs. 6oz. And was measured at 17 1/2 inches long. Soon after, they got her all gussied up with her leeds/cords/monitors, etc.
They immediately put her in the incubator, and thus her life in the desert was about to begin.
Back on the 2nd floor, I was getting stapled up, and was wheeled into the recovery room. But before I fell asleep, I called Seth to come over and give Pippi a blessing, and we wrangled in Jim Zimm for some help. Seth came to visit after he came, and he and Micah reported to me that they were pretty sure the doctors and nurses had out the manuals to figure out exactly how to do the exchange. And Micah also let me know that one of the nurses hadn’t performed one of these in 15 years. That’s when I told him that maybe these weren’t the types of things a mother of a sweet baby in the NICU should hear.
Pippi and I both slept for the next few hours. At hour four, she got her transfusion, and it went perfectly. At hour four, six and eight I was transported to different rooms while I waited for my real room to be cleaned and evacuated. Each time they moved me, I threw up about seven times. Something about that medicine made me crazy motion sick.
When I finally made it to my room, I wanted to go and see Pippi, so Micah wheeled me up to see her. She was as peaceful as can be, and looked like a little doll. I spent a little time with her, whispering sweet nothings to her, met with her nurse Rhonda who loves me and the other two kids she remembered, and headed back down. But before we went down, we headed to the first floor to visit Britni who had come into the E.R. with bad stomach pains. We went down and hung out for a while with her and Jason, and then went back to our room. The nurses were baffled as to where we were for so long, but we just kind of played dumb.
Pippi had a few visitors, but being in the NICU made it so nobody could really see her. But Nonnie came by — of course, and Seth and Brett (who had taken our kids like champs) came by before they headed back to Utah. The saddest part of my day was that Tristen was out of town, and wasn’t there to spend the night with me — as tradition goes — but we called each other a bunch.
The day went great.
We got our darling little girl.
She had a very successful transfusion.
We have great doctors/nurses.
I feel great.
The kids were well taken care of.
Not much more you could ask for!
Welcome to the world my sweetest little Pippi.
I’m going to take good care of you.
Is all of Dash’s perfection going out the window? I am crossing my fingers and arms and legs and anything else I can cross that it isn’t. But for a few days the whining coming from this boy could kill a girl. And then today, for the very first time, he got out of his crib three times. The first time, he came out with a look of victory on his face like he had just won some sort of game. I immediately and sternly put him directly back into his bed. The second time, he got out quietly and went up behind Nonnie, who was applying her make up at the time, and happily said, “Boo!”. This time he went back with a little swat to the booty. And again…..I sternly put him right back. Then I thought he had gotten the message, because I didn’t hear anything for a bit. But as I went to my closet, I heard noises through the wall that weren’t the noises of a sleeping baby. And there that boy stood, staring at me….knowing he was caught, in the middle of one torn up closet. The steamer was on its side, the shoes were everywhere, drawers were opened with belongings out and about, and his bed wasn’t anywhere near where it was supposed to be. It about killed me to put him back again as he cried, kicked and screamed. But back he went into his crib. (What I wanted to do was cuddle him and let him lay by me until he went to sleep.)
I’m now sitting outside his door to type this little story out, and we are going on ten minutes with no noise.
Maybe he got the message.
Maybe he is really quiet this time around.
Maybe he’s too tired to go for round four.
Maybe I was mother of the year and just turned my boy’s bad habit around.
Or maybe we’ll be in therapy over this for the rest of our lives.
I guess … time will tell all.
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(Update - I just went in to a little noise, and caught Dash in the act of trying to escape. I am now outside his door listening to the most beautiful melody of screams and “mamas”!)
I guess I should have checked the pockets better on this load of laundry.
Look at the loot that came out in the dryer.
The crazy part is that this is totally expected from Navy.
But this junk came straight from the pocket of Scout.
The only way I knew was that Navy gives every last red cent away, and Scout hoards each penny he gets.
(It is actually a perfect little relationship in that respect.)
But beyond his dollar or so in change came an entire collection of b.b.’s, tree fallings, a shell and a decently large rock.
Clearly, he and his schoolmates are in a “collecting bombs and throwing them at the girls” mode.
How humiliating is it when you pick up your girl from preschool and the teacher immediately asks, “Is everything alright at home?”
I rolled my eyes and told her it was.
She explained to me that Navy was “very disrespectful” and was taunting one of the teachers.
Apparently, she was asked to line up and she wouldn’t. But when she finally decided she might, she demanded the teacher to “move”! When the teacher asked her to go around, she told her to “move now”!
The story goes on and on — to my embarrassment.
I blamed it on how kids know there is another baby coming and they act out?!
But I knew it was my stinky daughter just being naughty.
So our nighttime activity was this little note:
“Dear Ms. Kendra, I am sorry for talking rude. I will not do that again.
Please give me another chance to be nice. Heart, Navy”
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Interesting how the first page took over an hour to write, but the second took about four minutes. And that second page is nicely written — nicer than page one. And most interestingly of all, Scout was begging to have Navy play with him. But I put my foot down on my disrespectful child and told him she couldn’t play until her letter was written.
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The good news….the teachers reported the next day that she “was like a different child, and was perfect!”
Boo Yah!
Mother of the year!
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