Here are a few little update stories on the cutest baby around. We are going on day 9 in the NICU. He is doing well. His Bili numbers are decently stable, and have jumped around from 8.5 to 14. They are currently around 10.5, and I believe he is going off all lights today. The jumps have come because he had to have a blood transfusion that was a four hour process three days in a row, which made more blood in his body. Because there was more blood, there were more blood cells - which allowed for more biliruben. The blood transfusion so far seems to have done the trick. He went from an H&H number of 18.4 all the way to 34. We were shooting for 40, but are really thrilled with 34. As of now, he is considered stable, and the doctors aren’t even checking that number again for a while. So in essence, we are decently out of the woods there!
I try to be with him as much as possible. I have always been confident that the baby will be fine, but I have not enjoyed splitting my time between a baby who loves me to hold him and two kids who want me to be around. So when I get my breaks, I spend them with Scout and Navy, and when feeding time approaches, I head back to CHOC. He has had a few other visitors, and it is very safe to say that my mom is in love.
And honestly, who wouldn’t be with that sweet little face with those pouting little lips!
Scout and Navy can’t go into the NICU, but my mom made it really easy to split my time when she brought them to the Ronald McDonald house outside the NICU.
This is Scout’s first time with Legos - I took him out to lunch at the mall and then we stopped by the new Lego store where he went nuts. So of course we had to buy a bag of them to make “awesome rockets and planes”. He and I made the most awesome plane that a turkey was driving that could “shoot all the bad guys”.
Icka just goes from toy to toy, and tries to charm everyone as she pretends to not know what to do. But as soon as anyone goes to help her, she smiles and then quickly shows off that she knows exactly what to do.
Back to Dash.
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He is feisty! The nurses all adore him. The third morning when I went in, a nurse told me that he had three nurses crowding around him in the night because he was on his tummy with his arms out, and lifting himself into the air. He literally had his head and neck arched up to the sky, and the nurses couldn’t believe how strong he was. Scout was the same way. They both came out with totally strong necks. And Dash’s newest thing is doing a back bend when he is on his back. Everyone cracks up that he totally fits his name!
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Notice the netting on his arm. They had to put it there because Dash was trying to bite the I.V. off. He got a bunch of the cotton around his I.V. in his mouth, so they had to do something to protect him from choking. What a little rascal!
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This boy lets everyone know when he is hungry. He is as calm as can be, and the second he feels a little hunger pain, he starts squealing. But as soon as I have him in my arms to nurse, he coozies right in and falls asleep. I try everything to wake him up, unwrap him, jiggle him, wave his arms, and he is dead to the world. But the second he gets put back in his bed, he screams again. And then he eats 3 ounces. Apparently, e loves to be held by his mom, and immediately relaxes into the deepest sleep with me near.
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My little boy is constantly dreaming and gets huge smiles on his face while he is in la la land. I love to watch him in action, and am sure he is dreaming of just days ago when he was back in Heaven.
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I love this boy so much. I always wonder how there will be room for me to love another child, but it always happens. He already has a piece of me, and I can’t wait until he is all mine, and the Micah and the kids get to experience what I have over these past 9 days.
When we finally determined the name, I told Scout what it was. He immediately said, “I hate that name!” I told him it was set in stone, but that if he wanted to call him a nickname, he could. He said, “I am going to call him Spear Kei Denison.” (Speare was a name Debra suggested, and Scout fell in love because it was a weapon — even though she meant it to be after William Shakespeare.) I said he could call him whatever he liked, and so the next three nights, I heard, “Heavenly Father, please help Spear to get better at the hospital” in his prayers. I giggled every time!
In an attempt to get Scout on the same page as us, Micah started to tell Scout that Debra liked Speare after one of the world’s greatest writers. After a brief description of who he was, Scout said, “No Dad….I am one of the world’s greatest riders! Haven’t you seen me on my scooter?!
The good news is that there has been movement on this front. Scout announced the other day that he LOVED the name “Dashy”. I was excited for him, and said I like that too. So now whenever I refer to him as Dash, I am corrected to add the “y” at the end. And he tells everyone that he named his baby brother! I think he thinks the extra letter means a whole new name for our little guy. So for now, “Dashy” it is!
It seems that every time Icka eats something, she tells me what she has created. For example, she bit into an apple today, and she held it up and said, “Mom…it’s an ice cream cone!” Her little nibble marks did look just like the silhouette of a triple scoop.
This day, as she was mowing down a power bar, I heard her say, “Mom…look, I made a temple!”
Nice work my little artist!
I wish someone would have told me that for the last six months I didn’t ever have to buy anything except a few balloons and some plain paper. Nothing humors Scout more than paper airplanes and playing “keep it up” with a balloon.
I am talking about hours upon hours of fun.
It almost touched the “needles” or “hot lava” on the ground that he is so desperately trying to avoid!
When we needed donors for Dash’s blood transfusion, we were told that family members might not be the best matches because the same problems might occur. Immediately, Micah said he was calling his untitled best friend B. Tacky. I thought it was a perfect choice as we know he has lived a clean and pure life. Without hesitation, he agreed and asked where and when. Micah met him at the blood bank, and they took care of business.
Poor guy said it was the hugest needle he has ever seen, and he could literally look down the shaft of it!
Micah totally agreed!
We told Scummy he needed to take it really easy after the big procedure, but she had him at work the second he got home.
Poor Tacky!
It was definitely a sign when the next day, I was following this car. I had to snap a picture.
Because these are my sentiments exactly.
Halloween was a little different this year. With Dash in the NICU for his first Halloween, I spent most of the day feeding, holding and singing to him.
You know I am a sucker for costumes, but this little pumpkin hat (from Scummy) had to do for his big day. Hopefully he will warm up to dressing up soon!
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Tristen — the saint of lately — took the other two all day. They headed to RoRo’s beach for the morning. Went home for naps and then she got them all gussied up for Halloween. They went over to Three Arch to walk in their parade, and by the time they were finished, I was home.
Scout was a policeman this year, and Sissy was a “pawisoner”.
Here is his attempt at locking her up.
Too bad for him, she was pretty good at becoming an escapee.
On our way out to make our stops, we ran into some of Scout’s buddies who insisted Scout trick or treat at least one house with them. Scout thought he was such a cool dude as he ran up to the door with his friends.
Here are the weasels in action.
Auntie Gail had big candies and bags of grapes. Wouldn’t you guess that Scout went straight for the bag of grapes, and Sissy tried to sneak about four big candy bars!
(Notice the prisoner’s corn rows. Nice touch Tristen. Nice work Britni.)
Skilly (who wore my tried and true mechanic costume — but looks a whole lot better than I ever did) took the kids up to about ten houses.
Notice my boy — who is eating carrots instead of his bag full of candy!
This policeman found a cowgirl he especially liked.
And apparently she was liking him too — look at the little flirt!
Icka’s crime might have been involuntary manslaughter with how hard she was choking August. But it was all in the name of love!
That cow girl’s dad might just be my favorite part of recent Halloweens! Hank Williams put on many a concert for us that night, and had an entire neighborhood mesmerized!
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I feel a bit pathetic this year — I was supposed to be the ball and chain, Dash - a bag of money the convict stole, Micah - the warden. Oh well. There is always next year. And maybe next year we will carve pumpkins too. All in all, it was still a Happy Halloween. And at least I can partially claim (like only 10%, and my mom was the other 90%) that I made Icka’s costume!
Because of the complications Navy had when she was young with our blood incompatibility, they immediately tested Dash. It turns out that he had the same story going on, and they had him wrapped up immediately for some Biliruben light therapy. He was able to stay in my room for a few hours that way, but they saw his numbers climbing, and wanted to get him up to the NICU. So because of that, I only got to spend a few hours with my boy.
For the first few days, I got to feed the little guy under the lights.
Burping him was my weakest area of expertise, but thank goodness he compensates for my lacking.
It is so sad to see your little tiny baby have an IV in his hand.
Especially when it is in both hands! But it is better than when Icka had one in her head because they couldn’t find good veins in her hands. Also notice his little rash he gets from the lights. Poor little man!
But cute little man.
Don’t you die over those lips and those shades.
While I was up there, my kids got to watch cartoons and eat snacks on my hospital bed for the first few days. I loved having them there, but my sheets were nasty by the time they left!
Of course I got this awesome package from the Brockbanks!
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I am really glad that everything was caught early, and I have really caring and competent doctors taking care of him.
Scout was in his first primary program today. He did a great job, and according to Nonnie — who headed up the whole thing — “He was spectacular!” (And he keeps telling us that he was “spectacular”!) He had two parts, and had both memorized perfectly. He also had “pizzazz” (a Nonnie must), spoke clearly, was loud, put the microphone directly in front of his mouth, and spoke slowly. I was SO impressed, because I thought he would rush right through it once he was in front of a bunch of people, but he nailed it.
His first part was:
“And the most amazing thing is that we voted for this plan. We all raised our hands (he raised his little hand in the air at this part) and said, “YES, We will follow Jesus!” We were SO excited!”
His second part was a talk he recently gave in primary that went along with the program, so Nonnie tucked it in. It went like this:
“Neehow! Did you know that is how you say “hello” in Chinese? When I was a little baby, I went to China. See, here I am. (He is holding a blown up picture of him on the streets of China.) It was a very nice place with lots of nice people. But did you know that because of the rules in China, we aren’t allowed to go on missions there. But don’t worry. One day, China will have missionaries too. Do you know how I know that? In Doctrine and Covenants 133:37 it says, ‘This gospel shall be preached into every nation, and kindred, and tongue and people.’ That means that we will have missionaries in every country. When I am very big, I am so excited to go on my mission. And who knows….maybe I’ll go to China. I better start practicing my Chinese! Neehow. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
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Like I said, he nailed both parts, and he had a very proud fan club out there. But I’ll admit that my fears of him freezing up got my bribery juices flowing. I told him that he would earn a “golden coin” (a dollar coin) for each of his parts if he did really good with a loud voice. He negotiated and got me to agree to three golden coins if he did well. I relented, and three it was. So the program started, he was singing well, he was standing up when signaled, and he was very reverent on the stand. So when he looked at me and mouthed, “How about five” (while holding up five fingers), I knew exactly what he was talking about. He had me between a rock and a hard place, and so I smiled and said, “Fine…..five…..but you better be loud!”
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So our plans tomorrow consist of me doling out five golden coins. Heading to Costco for a churro that he is going to buy by himself. And then heading over to the Dollar Store for whatever his little heart desires!
The day I went into the hospital, I had a few errands to run. I originally had the kids with me, but then I dropped them off at Daddy’s work for about an hour to speed my things up. When I got back, Icka had blood all over her clothes and three bandages on her middle finger. When I asked what happened, I was told that she was holding a piece of popcorn and Scout was cutting it in half, but accidentally cut off the tip of her finger. WOW! And what was Daddy doing? Providing the scissors?
Each bandage kept falling off, so Bella was the one who came up with a great solution to her reopening her wound over and over. She bandaged it and then put on this little finger ??? over it. Navy is hilarious. She won’t take it off, or even get it wet. She has kept it on for four days, and is very protective over her hurt finger. When I tell her I think we need her finger to breathe, she says, “No….it will bleed and get everything bloody. It has to stay on!” I tried to convince her take the bandage off because it gets dirty. But my plan backfired, because she now religiously has Bella change out her bandage every day to keep it clean.
The first day I was home, I had a few things on the agenda. First, I had to head back to the NICU to feed Dash. While I was gone, Micah took them on a run in the jogger stroller and got the kids fed. He made them pancakes, and I heard about the Mickey Mouse pancake he made….and I had “to see the best Mickey Mouse pancake in the whole world”! I checked it out, fully expecting the round face with ears, but saw this instead.
It was an armless, walking Mickey!
Pretty impressive Babe.
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Another agenda item was getting our new baby car seat figured out and installed. In the meantime, the kids found some cardboard boxes to keep them entertained.
Icka said this was where the princesses sat.
A little later, I was walking in the house and had to walk around this box in my way.
After I passed it, I heard a noise and turned around to find….
Spiderman popping out!
This kid must have the patience of Job, because he had been there for at least five minutes — if not ten!
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The rest of the day consisted of a few more back and forth trips to the NICU to see this little dreamboat.
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