This is not a competition

But if it was Mr.P would be in the lead. So not to be out done by all his older siblings Mr.P decided that he too wanted to have a turn with the Bili light at home. We went in today to have his little stitch removed from his chest and to check to make sure everything still looked good, and it does other than he is YELLOW! One point away from being readmitted to the hospital. My Love says it's probably just because he misses all his cute nurse friends in the NICU. I can't help but think it's a conspiracy.

Gus- 11 hours of labor from the time my water broke, bili blanket 3-5 days, a little chilly incident
Handsome-11 hours of labor from the time my water broke, 2 extra days in hospital and a bili blanket at home for a week
MsTay- well you can read about most of it here, a few days at home with the bili blanket
Mr.P- He is testing my limits, but that's what the baby of the family does right?

So grateful for each of the blessings, even if they are all working together to make me a little crazy. 

Such a good helper

ISAT # 1

This totally awesome third grader passed her first ever ISAT. Her goal 204...her score 220!!!!! Way to go Gus!!!

one week old, first day home

It was so good to be home today. A little tricky at moments, juggling a newborn and a two year old but we made it through with only a little drama. MsTay slept in till 10:00 which was great because the first night at home with Mr.P didn't exactly go smooth. I had to feed him AND change his diapers.  One of those things that his wonderful nurses took care of for me in the middle of the night. I guess I was a little spoiled. So needless to say we all slept in till 10:00. MsTay is so excited about having a baby at home. She was pretty helpful most of the time. She did get a little jealous a few times during the day and tried to explain to Mr.P that I am "her mommy." The toughest part was that she wanted to be picked up and I can't do that for a few weeks. I'm sure tomorrow will be it's own adventure.  Mr.P was great all day it's amazing how fragile he was just a week ago and how much his little body has healed itself.
So grateful for the blessing we've been given.

The Presidents meet Mr.P

Day 7- Homecoming!!!

Today's job was to eat eat eat!! Well I did end up being able to stay at the hospital last night and the biggest perk was setting my alarm to wake up every three hours to feed mr.p. At 3:00 am he had his first bath. The nurse asked me if I wanted to give him the bath, being that I was super exhausted I left the bathing to the expert and just watched. It was so nice to cuddle my fresh clean baby. He's such a handsome little man. I woke up again at 6 to start our busy day of eating and pooping. Early in the day the possibility of going home was mentioned if the final job of eating was solid.
It was a long wait with lots of work but we got it accomplished. At 7:30 the official call was made and we started the prep for going home. They took off all of the sensors and turned off the bili light. My love came with the car seat and a cute outfit for mr.p. We gave a few last hugs to the nurses in the NICU. They were all so wonderful in this little hiccup in mr.p's beginning.
When we finally got home the other presidents were so excited to meet their baby brother. Tomorrow I plan on having my own little photo shoot but here are a few pics from tonight.

Mr.P

It's a baby!

Proud Big Brother

Gus loving on  her baby brother for the first time

Helping mom

Sensational day six

Well last night I was unable to stay at the hospital so my love and the presidents came down to pick me up. At first I was pretty upset about having to leave mr.p but I didn't have much choice. After my initial breakdown moment I figured I'd look on the bright side, a night with the other kiddos, mr.p was in great hands and I needed some sleep. We went to dinner and then headed home. The kids and I snuggled and chilled and talked. MsTay was pretty funny she would pull up my shirt to say "baby" and then look at me confused because well though my big belly is not all gone it is significantly smaller. I told her the baby was at the hospital she told me that we needed to go get the baby! It was super cute.
So early this morning I caught a ride with one of mr.p's nurses into the hospital. Brought my bag just in case I could get a room for tonight. We had another busy and exciting day. He still had the bili light but today we doubled the power and shown it from above too. He wasn't a big fan but well beauty is pain. First feeding of the morning the decision was made to let him try and nurse. He was a champ, no problems at all. I am sure doesn't hurt that his mom is a veteran at the whole nursing thing. Most of our day was spent under the lights and eating. We did have a few adventures. One that well must be shared is when I was changing his diaper ( in my defense it is not the easiest thing to change a diaper with 10 cords or wires all running every which way) anyhow mr.p had a lovely poopy diaper and as I was getting him all cleaned up he peed everywhere. The nurses on the other side of the curtain just laughed at me and mr.p's nurse. Yes we are awesome.
There was also a slight concern about a heart murmur, which supposedly all babies are born with and closes shortly a birth, but because of all the other trauma his body is just now getting there. So they ran a few tests and looks like it's going to be fine.
After his 5:30 feeding it was decided to take away his oxygen tube completely, we had been, weening him off of it for the last two days but this was the test. There wasn't even a hiccup he did great in the transition in fact I am quite certain he was relieved to have it gone. After that we removed his IV.
It's so great to know that we are almost done here. The only tube left now is his feeding tube which is currently used to give him meds if needed, and to check his residuals. The other wires are to track vitals, and of course the bili lights. That may sound like a lot but compared to where he was even yesterday morning he's practically naked!
Hope to post pictures tomorrow and bring him home Monday. Thank you for you love, support and prayers.

Progress, progress!

Another great day! It's kinda scary to say that, but it's the truth. Like the rest of the presidents he woke up too yellow so was on a billi light first thing this morning. The X-ray this morning looked good. I went to my room for just a min to eat something with the pain meds so I didn't make myself sick. Jumped in the shower quick and was heading back to mr.p in record time. (15 min!!)
As I was walking back to see him and get any updated info on the X-ray one of mr.p's nurses sent me back to my room. They were about to take out the chest tube and would come and get me when they were done. That was pretty close to, if not the longest hour of my life. I ate an apple, texted a few people, started a baby blanket, checked my email 100 times. Finally the phone rang and they told me to come down to mr.p's room. Woohoo! No more chest tube!! Just a bandage where it use to be. My baby was holdable again. And that's the first thing I did. The nurses insisted on changing his bedding so I sat in the chair rocked and cuddled my baby while they cleaned up his bed and changed the sheet, and built his little nest. Then we fed him and I snuggled him some more.
After a while of cuddling I had to put him back on the light and I had to clean my things out of the family stay room. I went to lunch came back and stared at my beautiful baby boy some more. Changed one of those fun black tar-like diapers. Yeah for bowel movements! Held him fed him and cuddled him some more! They lowered his iv assistance and now it's just building up his strength. 5:00 chest X-ray was strong and beautiful!
All and all it's been a great day! Thanks to those who came to visit, and texted today.
Thank you for your prayers!

Mr. P's GREAT day 4

The family stay room is such a blessing! It is much closer to the babe thus most of my day I've been right next to little mr.p. We have a great nurse today, she's totally OCD. First thing she did was decludder then list off the goals for today. And wow what a day it has been. We started with the chest X-ray. Left lung still looks great so they clamped the chest tube to see if the little lung would be good and be stable without the extra support. The right lung still has a little pneumothorax but it's not causing any issues and looks to be healing itself.
Just after lunch they removed the respiratory tube, the one he pulled out yesterday. He's stable without it, they are giving him just a little oxygen for awhile longer but much less invasive. We moved his iv to the other hand and his iv bag was switched to a one of more calories and nutrients (meat and potatoes with butter and sour cream). He also used his feeding tube a few times today; yeah for a milk supply!
It was a super day. I even changed a diaper, first one! The nurse didn't let me be intimidated by all the tubes and wires and I did it!
The kiddos skyped tonight with me and mr.p. MsTay was excited to see the baby baby! All of them were glad to see he was getting stronger.
This evening little mr.p received a fathers blessing. Which as Grandma C said yesterday, it helps the family as much as it helps the babe.

All day I have felt so blessed! Thank you for your love, support, and prayers.

Mr. P's third day

I think I over did it yesterday between visits and walks to the NICU I was exhausted last night. So today I tried to take it easy. About 7:30 I tripped down to see mr.p. We hung out til around 8 when it was time for yet another chest x-ray. I asked them to please let me know the results when they came back and headed back to my room. I ate breakfast and laid down not expecting to sleep long but ended up taking a long and and much needed nap. When I woke up I called the NICU to check on little mr.p's X-ray results, left lung looks good, right lung still had the tension pneumothorax but it was small. Our dr was consulting with the specialist in Boise to see what the next steps should be.
It was decided to give mr.p some help with his lung development and strengthening. In the process of giving him the meds, silly mr.p pulled out his respiratory tube. The doc and nurses watched for just a minute to see if he would stabilize with out it, unfortunately no, so they put the tube back quickly and no harm was done. The next X-ray of the day was pretty much the same. Left looks good, right still watching. One more bright spot is that he is now breathing what the doc called "room air" meaning he is not needing to receive extra oxygen he is able to pull it out of the air himself, still with aid of the respiratory tube.
Tonight the rest of the kiddos my beautiful sis in law, and the kiddos grandma C came for dinner. It was nice too visit and not nearly as crazy as last night. After they all left I finished the business of being discharged from the hospital and moved into what they call a "family stay room." How blessed I feel that the hospital has this option for me to stay and be close to mr.p as he heals and gets strong enough to go home.
Thank you too all of you who are praying for us I can defiantly feel the strength buoying me up.

Baby story-Day two

At 6:30 this morning I had my nurse wheel me down to the NICU. Mr.P was doing well, he had had a good night and so it was more of a waiting game. At 9 my Dr came in to check on me and tell me we had some new developments with Mr.P. They had notice that he was having to work harder to breath and so ran a chest x-ray. His left lung had collapsed in what is technically called tension pneumothorax. The doc in the NICU along with the nurses worked quickly to remedy
the situation. They "needled" his lung and pulled out the unwanted-misplaced air. And Mr.P once again seemed to be doing a lot better. After I had myself several good crying episodes, I took a shower and went to visit the little man.
I was so excited they let me hold him, this was the first time I'd gotten to hold him. So I grab a seat and grabbed my baby and cuddled him for a long while. It was very healing for both mom and baby. I took a trip back to my room to order lunch and visit with a couple great friends who brought me hugs and chocolate today. About 2 o'clock I tripped back down to the NICU, only to find they had just done another chest X-ray and results didn't look good. They tried to pull the bad air out again but unfortunately it wasn't enough so the doc had to put a chest tube into Mr.P's lung. This works to pull out the bad air before it can accumulate causing more problems. Again we saw a huge improvement, color was better, breathing was better, he was more relaxed and happy, etc.

This is where he is stable now as I blog tonight, I did visit a couple more times today to hold his little hands and cradle his tiny feet. It looks like he will be here 7 to 10 days but he's being a trooper and is in good hands.

Baby story (well to this point)

Wow what a day, we arrived at the hospital this morning around 10 am for our scheduled c-section. I was quite nervous but with the help of a priesthood blessing I was able to calm my nerves a little. The prep went well enough, my sweet nurse Emily told me how beautiful my veins are, which by the way does not translate well into great for putting in an IV.
I was wheeled into the OR at 12:33. Lovely spinal tap made me oh so grateful for my legs. A few minutes later the fun part began. Little mr. BabyP was breach. Which I kinda knew since he never really kicked my lungs, just head butted them a lot. They pulled him out a nurse brought him into my sight. The little stinker lived up to his name right then and there. He peed all over the OR. Hehehe! They took him to the next room for all that fun stuff nurses do. His weight 8lb2oz, length 22 inches. 10 fingers 10 toes or at least that's what they told me. And a great set of lungs which I heard loud and clear.
After they got him cleaned up my love brought him to see his mommy. We don't know if it was exhaustion or over flowing nerves but dad had to pass off BabyP quickly because he (dad) just about passed out. Once he got himself together dad he hurried to the nursery. And the doctors finished their work of sewing me back together. I was also told several times that my uterus was very large. How does one take that comment? I don't know.
When the doc was all finished the awesome nurses Emily & Jodi cleaned me up and wheeled me into recovery. While in recovery I learned that little BabyP was having a hard time adjusting so would not becoming to visit his mom but was instead headed to the NICU. I naturally was freaking out. Too many questions, not a lot of answers. I imagine they were trying to figure out what was going on. I was then wheeled to my room.
The doc came in to tell me what was going on, I of course was a mess by this point and cried the whole time the doc talked. What was wrong? Because of the c-section vs a regular birth the fluid in his lungs never got squeezed out. So he was having a hard time breathing efficiently. So they hooked him up to a machine like those used for people who suffer from sleep apnea. It's job to put needed pressure I the lungs by blowing air into them. We were hoping for a speedy stay in the NICU but it looks like he will be there for at least 48 hours.
This evening about 9:30 my fabulous nurse Amber wheeled me down to see Mr. BabyP. He of course is all covered in wires and whatnot but is making progress.
He is a very handsome little fella.

Now this mama is pretty tired but feeling many blessings.



So that's the story so far good times!

First for everything

Gus had her first heated religious discussion today with one of her class mates. Somehow the topic of religion was brought up the other girl asked Gus what church she went too. Gus's reply was perfect "I belong to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
The other girls response not so much "we'll that church is wrong and the only way you can get to heaven is if you go to the Baptist Church"
Gus's counter was simply " Well, that is your choice, we all can make our own choices. I believe in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints"
Her classmate tried to argue more but Gus didn't want to discuss it anymore so she walked away.

Tonight we had a pretty good discussion about how she dealt with it. Needless to say I am a proud mama!

A little president's day fun

Because our youngest president's birthday falls with in the same week as "our" holiday we decided no cake this year, instead we built our own log cabins. I think we had fun.

Laugh or Cry?

How many times have I uttered the words "Recess is not long enough"? I wouldn't even attempt to count nor should I, but rather I should wipe the phrase from my vocab. 
Imagine with me, if you will, the following scene.
It's a beautiful spring day. Lunch Recess is over. First and Second grade students are filing back into school with their teachers leading the way. Two very disgruntled recess duty teachers are up in arms because the kindergartners refuse to line up. Not just one or two stubborn kiddos but 42, five and six year-olds continue to play all over the playground. A few on the soccer field, a couple on the swings, several on the monkey bars, jungle gym, and slides. THEIR Recess is not over. Thinking that I can solve this problem I step out the door and yell for my class to line up, a few of them stop look at me, a couple even take a step or two but then change their minds and go right on playing. Wow, what persistence, and really what am I to do about this? The paraprofessional (aka Teachers Aide) from the other kindergarten class attempts the same strategy, for sure she would get results. No one blinks an eye. 
Not knowing what to do at this point I have to laugh how could they have possibly gotten all 42 of their peers to cooperate in this extended recess endeavor? Furthermore, how are they standing so strong in their cause? Okay time to out smart the little dears, this time as I yell out to the playground it is to one particular student
  "Emily, what were we going to do this afternoon? Oh yeah we're having a balloon party! I guess we'll just have to cancel."
That did it, all 21 of my little protesters came running in to class. The other class as if their leaders had fallen, or inspiration had ceased walked begrudgingly back to their own classroom.
What a great dream! So glad it was just a dream.

P.S. We really are having a balloon party in Kindergarten on Monday!! SO EXCITED!!