Halloween

It was our first Halloween going out as a family, none of my sisters and their kids joined us and I have to say, I rather enjoyed it. It was very tiresome for me as I am 17 weeks pregnant and DBF walks super fast (doesn't help that I'm only 5'1").
Bonus daughter was dressed as an old housewife, hair up in soft rollers, pajamas and robe. It was very original and everyone thought she looked cute. Baby E was a dragon, and was absolutely adorable. We had some practice runs in his costume, as he hated it the first couple of times we put him in it. He did wonderful at a Halloween party on Saturday and again on Halloween for his first experience trick or treating. He fell asleep midway, but when he woke up, it was dark and you could hear the kids being loud and he wanted to see everything. All in all, he had a good experience for his first Halloween. His first Christmas was spent in an incubator, so this year will have to be extra special for him. And I can't believe that he will be 11 months old in 8 days. He has gone from being a tiny 3.8 lb baby to a 22 lb healthy baby who is just an absolute joy to be with. His kisses are the best and I can't wait until he starts to talk.
I do have to mention, bonus daughter did an outstanding job this past quarter in her 8th grade year, 3.7 GPA, first time ever. She is doing so good and we are so very proud of her. She has come a long way.

Once again M.I.A.

but with good reason. Life has been moving fast as lightening. I can't believe that little E is already 10 months old and so happy and full of energy. Who would of thought our tiny little baby would grow so quickly and so well. He did have a little minor procedure due to mommy and daddy not cleaning his boy parts properly. Let's just say, we will never, ever make that mistake again. Little E has been full on crawling for over a month now and as soon he mastered that, a few days later he was pulling himself to a standing position. He walks along the sofa and tries to walk along the walls but that proves to be a bit trickier. He loves to get into the cords and chew on them and push the buttons on the cable box but for some reason hasn't touched the speaker box, which is weird, but also very good that he does not do that.
Dear bonus daughter has been doing very well considering she had some trouble in school last month with another girl. She handled herself well and came through the situation proving she is not to be bullied. She had her first concert last night and due to Little E's not feeling well after his doctor's visit I had to miss it, what a bummer. She has been doing well this quarter in school, I'm very proud of how much she has improved, she will have 4 A's and 2 B's and she has earned some credits for when she gets to high school. We are looking at possibly enrolling her at a charter school rather than a public high school. They are just not the greatest here in our area.
I have finally have an official due date for the newest addition to our family, 4-10-12, making 14w3d today. This pregnancy looks like it will be even difficult than the last. I already have to take the 3 hr GTT as I failed the 1 hr and it's pretty early in the pregnancy still. I have a complete previa that we hope moves it's way up as the weeks progress. I have the possibility of having a second PPROM (Preterm Premature Rupture of the Membranes) due to the bi-corneate ute and don't forget that I have PCOS as well. The fact that we even conceived this child is a miracle in itself, having it born healthy is going to be a job.
I'll try to keep everyone posted, but I'm not really sure that anyone reads this blog, it's at least for my records.

Big News......

Oh my dear lord in heaven, my son just turned 8 months old on the 10th, the bonus daughter turned 13 on the 13th and on the 12th I took a HPT and found out I am having my 2nd child. I will go in to the dr. tomorrow and find out the EDD. Excited and nervous (to say the least).
I picked up the bonus d on Saturday morning at 9:30 AM almost an hour and half away from our home. I was on time, yee haw!!!! No matter how hard I try I am always 10-15 minutes late, oops, oh well. I guess BM has been complaining about me being late, oh well, get over it, like you've never been late, ha. DSD wasn't feeling very well when I picked her up, kept saying her stomach hurt. It's hard to tell what it is with her though, she doesn't quite know how to explain the kind of pain that she has. I will say, all she had for breakfast was a donut, that her grandma had bought her, WTH kind of breakfast is that. I make us some plain ole quesadilla's for lunch, and she eats one, says she feels a little better. She goes to lay down and takes a nap, they had her up at 6:30 AM to go garage/yard saling. When she wakes her stomach is still bothering her, poor baby. By this time I had already started her b-day dinner and I was hoping she would get to enjoy it. We drove to the Cheese.cake Fac.tory as she wanted a cheesecake as her "b-day cake". She chose the Red Velvet Cheesecake. Shortly after we returned, she threw up. Went back to lay down and a few hours later threw up again. Needless to say she did not eat her dinner, nor did we cut into her cake. I went to get her some Pepto and she took that and went to bed for the night.
The next morning she woke up refreshed and feeling much better. We took it easy on the eating though and I had her eat a couple pieces of dry toast and some juice. She also got to go to the movies with her daddy, they went to see that new planet of the apes movie, I'm not interested in it, so me and baby stayed home. When they got back we headed to my parents house for my mom's b-day bbq, her actual b-day is today, Happy Birthday Mom! I was so glad that my niece and nephews got along so well with DSD, my niece usually starts to bicker with her.
I finally got around to telling DBF that we were going to be adding to our family on Monday evening. We are keeping it a secret until we are further along to 1. make sure there are no complications and 2. just because we still have the lil at only being 8 months old. We know this is going to be tough for us, but I ultimately believe it is what is best for our current lil, he will have a playmate close in age and they will get to hang and do everything together. Believe, I know that they will have their bickering as well, but with DSD being 13 already, she won't be around for that much longer, shoot, in 5 years she will be graduating High School and our lil will barely be going into Kinder.
School starts Monday for DSD, we got all her school shopping done last night. I was tired, to say the least after 2 hours walking around a store. I am so glad we got everything she needed there though, it was awesome. We even got a few things for the lil and a dress for mommy and some shorts for daddy.

Progressing

Baby E has been progressing at his own pace, no problem with me, he is doing great. He has been rocking on knees and holding himself with his right arm, hand down, left arm, forearm down. He lunges himself forward this way and he knows how to turn himself around. Well, the other night (Wednesday), I noticed that he was completely on all fours and doing the rocking motion. He didn't move, but he held himself up for quite a while. He is so silly sometimes. I love that he cries until he is with me at night to go to bed. He doesn't want to have anything to do with daddy once momma is home. I'm not sure how long that will last, but for now, I will take it. It's all about the momma when she's home. Other than that, nothing new.
DSD will be 13 in just 8 days, holy moly, we will have us a teenager in the house. She will also be home in those 8 days after spending the entire summer at her momma's house getting to know her new baby sister Z.oie, she was born on June 19th or somewhere near there. I can't wait until she is home with us and gets to be a kid again. She has been a babysitter while she's been at the moms house. They even left the baby with her when she was only 3-4 weeks old, who is exclusively BF along with her 4 yr old autistic brother and friends 2 children, who I believe are in the 3-8 year old range. I'm glad her mom decided to come home "early", not sure how early that is but she had a bad feeling. I don't mind her holding, feeding and loving on the baby, but not being responsible for them. If something were to happen, it would tear her world apart. To me, that is just too much responsibility for a 12 year old.

Growth Spurts

I think Baby E had a little growth spurt yesterday, 8/1/11. He tends to not really want to eat and is just overall moody and sleepy. I don't mind, I'm sure they hurt, his big sister gets them all the time, her legs are almost as long as my body, me, I never felt them, but I'm a shorty and I'm sure I didn't grow very much, ha. Even over the weekend, he wasn't really feeling his food. Maybe it was because it was hot out, over a 100 degrees or maybe the growing was already starting.
I took our little guy to get his pictures taken, we missed the whole 3/6/9/12 thing, so I am opting for the 4/8/12 thing. He came out absolutely adorable (I know, maybe I'm biased because I'm his mother, but he really did). He has this huge wide open, gummy smile. It makes my heart melt everytime I see them. He is just a week and a half shy of turning 8 months old. Time sure is flying by.
Baby E is currenlty rocking himself on all fours and he can get around by lunging his body forward. He does the occassional backwards thing, but not too often. And he is a great navigator, turning himself to face another direction to get to where he wants to go. He is not yet sitting up but he'll stay in the seated position for a few seconds. He usually just throws his body back so he can be laying down and rolling around. He's been eating his Stage 2 foods, we try to do the organic, but there isn't much variety so we throw in the regular baby foods as well. I wish I had more time to make him his own baby food, but I'm kind of glad that I haven't, I just read an article about the nitrates in fresh vegetables is not too good for babies.
SD has been at her mom's for the majority of her summer, babysitting her newborn sister and 4 year old brother. We got to see her for a short weekend a couple of weeks ago, we didn't get to do much but enjoyed just having her around. She comes home for good on the 13th, her birthday, she will be 13, a TEENAGER!!! She's having an okay time at her mom's, just did get to go on a few camping trips, but that's about it. It's not like we would have done very much with her here though, we really didn't/don't have the money to spending on trips and such. Having a baby is expensive, but so well worth it.
School will be starting on the 22nd and SD will be an 8th grader. I can not believe that next year, at this time, we will be preparing for her to enter High School. It's insane how fast time flies.
We are currently trying to find a bigger abode for our growing family. It seems we always have someone staying with us since Baby E was born. First it was my sister who stayed for at least 2 months. Then a friend (who is no longer really a friend) stayed for about 2-4 weeks and left abruptly due to a disagreement between him and DBF, oh well, we really our not losing out on that great of friend. And a few days after he left, DBF's brother broke up with his girlfriend and needed a place to stay. Except he has so much crap plus a dog, it is a little much for me. None of these people compensated us for anything. My sister did buy about $100 worth of groceries, the friend would eat out or at another friends home, and the last does not have a job, but is going to school, so he really can't help out right now.
I just wish we could have our little family, but doesn't look like that will be happening anytime soon.
I need to keep writing about the happenings of my little guy and the relationship that he is building with his big sister.

Getting to really see him & bringing him home....

I finally get to see my baby, it's long into the afternoon already. I can barely move, c-sections are tough, but I must say, I have no idea what it feels like to be in labor. (In a way, I feel kind of cheated, but I'll get over it.) When I get to see Lil E, he no longer has the air vent and is breathing on his own. He is so tiny sitting in the incubator with wires and tubes around him. I hold him later in the evening when Daddy comes by to visit with us. We really shouldn't be taking him in and out as the temperatures in the incu are regulated for him because he is still unable to regulate his own temps.
Lil E stays in this room for only few days before he is moved to a less severe room. He remains there for about 2 weeks for a total of 3 weeks in the NICU.
We receive the call in December 31st (the day we call our anniversary, 7 years) about 10 AM that Baby is being discharged. Needless to say we were quite surprised as the previous day Lil E had not passed the car seat screening (he needed to sit in a carseat for 1 hour, and the last few minutes he destated) and when daddy was there feeding him he had stopped breathing, his lips were turning blue. I was unable to visit him for a few days because I had caught some kind of bug and did not want to pass it on to him. After receiving the call we had to go on a hunt for a car seat, we still didn't have one (he was 9 weeks early). It took us longer than we thought because we did not get to the hospital until about 4-4:30. I really wish we could have just showered and showed up, but I was really not anticipating him coming home until after the weekend.
He was so tiny in his car seat and I was so nervous for him to be in the car. He weighted 4.8 lbs when we brought him home, he was just so tiny. We really didn't sleep at all the first night, we were so worried how he would sleep. He was used to sleeping on his tummy and would not sleep on his back nor did he really liked to be swaddled (they don't swaddle in the NICU cause they have this little headrest & pillow around his head and all the wires are in the way). We couldn't stop staring at him.
My parents came by to visit on Sunday, my mom wasn't feeling well and neither was my dad, but my dad hadn't seen him (he didn't want to go into the NICU). My dad just adores Lil E as all do.

From where I left off.....

So, I had Emry*s on December 10, 2010, 9 weeks early. I got to spend all of 5 minutes holding him after they checked him over and inserted an oxygen tube. I really didn't get to see what he looked like, but luckily, daddy took lots of pictures while they weighed him and measured him and whatever else they do with preemie babies. Having just had a c-section, I was in a lot of pain after the meds started to wear off. They gave me the mo*rfin drip and I hit that twice, but didn't really want to rely on it. DBF spent the night with me, it was very uncomfortable for him, to say the least. He went home the next morning to shower and get some "real" rest.
December 11th - Day one of babies life and also the day of our baby shower. I was really bummed that I didn't get to be there, but there was nothing I could do about it. Baby was here and he was all that mattered. Trying to get out of bed was torcher, I could not stand up straight and was in so much pain, but I wanted to hurry up and get better and be able to walk. Because I couldn't walk for very far I couldn't just get up and go see the baby, I had to wait for someone to come and see me so they could wheel me up to the NICU. No one came until early afternoon and I had only seen Emr*ys once the night before. My uncle and his daughter came in first and he wheeled me up to the NICU, that's when I first saw him all hooked up to monitors and feeding tubes, the oxygen had been removed, he was able to breathe on his on (which was totally awesome). I got to hold his tiny hands through the windows. I didn't want to pull him out of the incubator as my Aunt and DSD were also waiting to come in and see the baby. They came before the baby shower.

Lots going on since my last post....

I was going to do a post, but thought I should see where I left off. I left off 4 days before all the madness in our life began (it has since calmed down). Sheesh, my last post was about my excitement for my baby shower, which, I ended up not getting to attend :(. I'll just start from the beginning of when the madness began:

Dec. 7, 2010 - I woke up like I usually do at about 3 AM to do my usual pee business, the norm when you are 30 weeks pregnant. I went back to sleep (luckily). I keep feeling like I had to go again, but was so tired I didn't want to get up, so I was keeping my legs crossed like a little kid does. It was finally 6 AM, so I decided to just get up and start getting ready for work. As soon as I got up, a gush of water went running down my legs. To say I was in shock would be an understatement. We had been sleeping on the couch since it was more comfortable for me, I wake up the DBF and tell him, "I think my water just broke". His response, "Are you sure you didn't just pee yourself." I look down, I don't think so!!! I go to the bathroom to see if I'm bleeding, I'm not, awesome. DBF gets on the net to see if he can find any symptoms of unusual leaking. I tell him I don't think he is going to find anything. I get in the shower, tell him to get ready cause we will be heading to the hospital to get checked out. I try calling my dr's office after my shower but it's some stupid recording and then I'm put on hold for what seems like forever, I hang up. I call my parents to ask them to let my other two sisters know DBF can't watch the kids today. My mom asks why, so I have to tell her, I am not good at lieing. My mom calls me back about 2-3 more times. First to ask what hospital, then to ask about DSD, I tell her we will be dropping her off at school at about 7:45 and then head over to the hospital. She wants to know why I'm not rushing over there, I'm not really having any contractions. I tell them I'll call them to let them know what is happening, they don't have to rush to the hospital. We get to the hospital around 8-8:15 AM, there is no one in the lobby/waiting area. I do have to sign in and wait to be called. I had not yet registered with hospital as I had not done the Birthing Classes (those were to start in 2 weeks). So I had to register, they put me in a wheelchair (all the while, I keep feeling little gushes of water coming out). My BF rolls me up to triage, I tell them I think my water broke, I'm 30 weeks. At first the nurses are skeptical, but when I get up from the wheelchair, it's wet. I get undressed, go lay down in a bed and they do the litmus test, sure enough, my water broke. I immediately get a steroid shot to help the babies lungs develop quicker in the event he is born soon. When they get done, I tell DBF, I bet my parents are downstairs already, he doesn't believe me. The on call dr comes in to check me, I am barely dilated to a 1, not really having any contractions, which is a good thing, baby needs to stay in there as long as we can keep him in there. The dr tells us our options at this time, we can stay at the current hospital, but if baby is born, he will have to be rushed to the Children's Hospital (and I won't be able to see him until I am released from the hospital) or I can get transferred to the other local hospital that does have a NICU. We say we will think about it. As soon as the dr is done checking me, who walks in, my mom. I looked at DBF and tell him, I told you so. My mom had walked in earlier but they were checking me so she stepped out. I get my IV put in, then I get to go to my own room. My dad & DBF go to get something to eat, it's about 11:30 AM now and no one has had breakfast (including me). I order something from the hospital menu. The dr comes in and lets us know that they have made room for me at the other hospital and that the ambulance will be picking me up soon. At this point we had not decided, but thought it be best for me to be seen by the high risk pregnancy dr and have the Neonatal team on site for the baby. I get transferred about 2 PM and get settled into my room. Nothing is happening labor wise and all is calm with the baby, good signs. I eat an amazingly disgusting dinner and try to sleep. It's pretty hard with blood pressure readings, IV drips, antibiotics drip, bathroom trips (which include unhooking the baby monitor and hooking it back up, traveling with the IV's).

Dec. 8 - I get my next steroid shot (ideally 2 within a 48 hour period is awesome). It's quite an uneventful day, we try not to have the baby today (it's my nephews 9th birthday today). I spend most the day alone, my parents come by in the evening and DBF comes by after putting DSD to bed. Not too much goes on. I'm not getting checked to see if I'm dilated as to not make it happen.

Dec. 9 - Another quiet day. One of my sisters comes by in the morning before she goes to work for about 1/2 hour - 1 hour. DBF goes home so he can shower during the day and watches my nephew and picks up my niece & DSD from school. They have dinner, then he comes back to spend the nights with me. He is a real trooper sleeping in the awful pull out beds they have. They do end up having to remove my IV, it's not working right anymore. While it's off, I take a shower, yeah!!!! Then they have to put another one, ughhh! Then come & check me cause they notice the babies heartrate drop. The nurse is moving around the monitor, she hears it, and it's good.

Dec. 10 - Morning starts out normal, just laying around, watching TV. DBF does his routine, so I stay by myself all morning & afternoon. I had just had lunch and I feel myself get really tired, as I'm dozing off, the nurses rush in. Telling me turn this way, turn that way, turn again. Put the oxygen mask on. I have no idea what is happening. They explain to me, the babies heartrate dropped and they are trying to find it. They roll in the U/S machine, but by then, luckily they had found it. I have to stay in the position I'm in for a while. Talk about scary, I call DBF and let him know what happens. I ask him to pick the kids up from school as early as he can and come stay with me. At about 4-4:30 the come rushing in again, babies heartrate dropped again. This time there is about 4-6 people. I have one person looking for the heartbeat, the RN is calling the dr. to update him. He was at another hospital delivering a baby and is on his way back. He says they are just going to do a c-section to start prepping me. I freak out, I call DBF and tell him to hurry up they are prepping me. I call my mom, no answer it's just about 5 PM and she is just getting off work. I call my dad, I tell him, I'm crying, I'm nervous & scared, he doesn't really understand why. As soon as my mom gets home they will head up to the hospital. DBF leaves the kids with his friend, my other sister was on her way, she has no idea what is going on. I text my other sister, she's worried and I can no longer respond. DBF arrives, packs up all our stuff. I get wheeled into the surgery room, get my epidural (I really didn't want one, but at this point, I had no choice). I lay down, I start feel my legs go numb. They check to make sure the NICU team is ready for when baby is delivered (at this point, I'm 31w1d). They bring DBF in. I didn't even know the dr had started doing anything, he tells me I'm going to feel some pressure as they are pulling baby out(I didn't feel anything). DBF tells me he's out, he is precious. I see the baby out the corner of my eye as they are whisking him across the hall. He does not cry, I am worried. I tell DBF to go with him. Dr. cleans me out, as DBF returns he gets to see my insides, asks the dr how things look for another baby, pulls out my ovaries and does bunny ears and states, they look great. He stitches me up, DBF goes back to check on baby. I get moved to the recovery room. They bring baby in for a few minutes, he has the oxygen tubes in, he is so tiny. Emrys John was born December 10, 2010 at 5:45 PM weighin in at 3 lbs 8 oz, 16 in long. I get sent to my room. I don't get to see the baby anymore until the next day in the afternoon (the day of my baby shower).

This is a lot to read at once, but I will update on the rest of the story very soon.