Why Would You Do That?!

This morning just before Malia’s 6 a.m. feeding, her nurse called me and told me that Malia’s stats were all over the place, that she had lost weight, that she was super sleepy and hard to rouse and that they were going to skip her feeding and just do a tube feed.  I, or course, got all stressed out.  What mother wouldn’t?  It seemed that my baby had taken a sudden turn for the worse.  So as soon as I was able, I walked down to the nursery to get some more info.  By then there had been a shift change and Malia had a new nurse, one that has spent the day with her before.  When I asked how she was, the nurse informed me that she was doing good.  Yes they tube fed her this morning, but it was because she was pretty sleepy (which is totally normal for a 34 weeker) and about an hour after her feeding she roused and had a good fuss session.  Her temperature was just fine and her blood oxygen had dropped for just a few minutes so they just did a bit of blow by oxygen and then she was back to normal.  She had lost a bit of weight, but it was less than she had put on the day before.  Essentially, things were pretty much the same as they were, no major changes.  We think Malia was just a bit more tuckered out because of all the good feeding and alert time she had yesterday.

So let me ask you: why in the world would you call a mother, rouse her from sleep and tell her that her baby was not doing well if there was nothing to be alarmed about?!    I mean, it doesn’t take much to make the mother of a five day old preemie baby panic.  Not only is there the standard worry that happens in any situation where your child is threatened, but there are a boatload of hormones still all whacked up as well.  And you would think that a nursery nurse would know that.  But obviously that is not always the case.  So I’ll take a big breath and keep on moving forward…

Yes, I Actually Chose to Stay Here

Our hospital has a program that allows mothers to stay in their room free of charge if they have a baby in the level 2 nursery and either live more than thirty minutes away or are breastfeeding the baby.  It is based on whether or not there is space, of course, but as of right now there are numerous empty rooms so I've opted to stay here at the hospital for a few more days so I can continue to nurse Malia.  I am no longer a patient so I can come and go as I please which means that in between feedings I was able to go home a couple of times which I think was good for the boys.  They are doing fine, but it has been a rather stressful week for everyone and having me home for dinner gave them (and me) just a bit of normalcy.

As for Malia, in between her improved feedings and tube feedings, she put on a bit of weight overnight.  It's only about an ounce and a half, but for such a little thing that is pretty significant.  Today she has been feeding well enough that they are only tube feeding her if she doesn't nurse for long enough.  This evening she was actually hungry enough and alert enough that she got mad when I didn't feed her fast enough.  So it was a good day.  Hopefully a few more days like today will get her to the point where we can take her home.

It Is As They Said It Would Be

After Malia was born, the doctors and nurses told us that progress would be one of those "one step forward, two steps backwards" deals.  And they were right.  After doing so well yesterday morning, Malia began to have trouble maintaining her body temperature again so she went back under the heat lamps.  Her blood sugar was better with the IV in, but she still wasn't feeding well so yesterday afternoon the pediatrician opted to taper off the IV fluids and place a feeding tube instead.  So now she feeds as much by mouth as she can before she gets too sleepy and then gets the rest through the tube.  So that would be the two steps back part.  After having enough to eat a few times, she is more alert when she is hungry which facilitates better feeding.  And getting enough nutrition means she is back to maintaining her body temperature.  So our current game plan is to keep feeding by mouth and by tube until Malia is feeding well enough on her own to be able to take the tube out.  I will be discharged tomorrow, but obviously she is not ready to go home yet.  We don't know when that will be.  Taking things one day at a time is part of the game as well.

Life Doesn't Always Turn Out the Way You Expect

I like my life to be organized, planned, predicable even.  So even though all the c-sections are not exactly fun, being able to pick a birthday and plan every detail in advance seriously appeals to me.  But life doesn't feel inclined to go along with all my plans and this week has turned out to be the biggest deviation from my plans to date.

My c-section was scheduled for September 22.  It has been on the calendar for several months already and we were just beginning to get the details set up.  But my water broke early on Monday morning so instead of Malia's birthday being September 22, she was born on August 22.  She was five and a half weeks early which was giving me pretty big panic attacks as we were being prepped for surgery and waiting for the doctor to arrive.  Malia arrived at 1:37 p.m. and she weighed in at 5 pounds 6 ounces and 18.5 inches long.  She is actually pretty big for a 34 weeker (although she is tiny for our family), so that definitely works in her favor.  She was breathing well on her own from the very beginning, the only respiratory concern being that she was breathing a bit fast on Monday.  That problem resolved quickly, thankfully, since that was one of my biggest concerns.  She has had trouble maintaining her body temperature so she has spent most of her time in the nursery under the heat lamps.  She seems to be doing better that way this morning and once she actually gains some body fat that problem should cease to be a concern.  Our big focus right now is getting her to eat enough.  Her weight is down to 5 pounds 0.6 ounces today.  She is burning extra calories in order to maintain her body temperature, but she is early enough that she is very sleepy and doesn't always feed well.  Her blood glucose was so low yesterday that they had to put her on an IV to get her sugars up.  Today they will begin to gradually decrease the amount of IV fluid she receives and hope her glucose level doesn't drop too far.  We don't know yet when she will come home.  We are just taking things one day at a time. 

As for me, everyone here has listened and responded well to all my concerns and as a result my recovery has gone very well.  I wasn't sick at all and besides a huge lack of sleep and worry about Malia, I feel pretty darn good which means I can put all my focus on getting Malia to where she needs to be. 

(The ultrasound was right about the hair.)

Evidence to Support the Hypothesis That While Boys May Get Older, They Don’t Necessarily Grow Up

Matthew

December 2007

Matthew

August 2011

I don’t think Darth Tater’s helmet will fit him in another four years, but it definitely made me chuckle at how much he has grown…and stayed the same.

In Praise of a Spool of Thread

I learned how to sew a long time ago.  My mom started teaching me when I was seven or eight or somewhere around there.  I don’t remember exactly, I just know it was a really long time ago.  In my 30 years of sewing, I’ve done a lot of things and tried a lot of different products.  But I had never used any specialty threads (they come in metallic, iridescent, shimmery colors, all kinds of cool stuff), just the normal kind in an enormous rainbow of colors.

Right now I’m sewing Halloween costumes.  Yes, I know it is only August, but 1) it is actually pretty normal for me to be sewing Halloween costumes in August (Kev saw a t-shirt once that said “I have CDO-it’s like OCD only in the right order.” It is a pretty apt description of me.) and 2) I want to get them done before baby gets here so I’m not trying to create Yoda ears out of fabric and fleece in the midst of the exhaustion and sleep deprivation of those first weeks.  And Nathan’s costume has some lovely silver braid on it.  Seven and a half yards of lovely silver braid to be exact.  This is the stuff that I would normally sew on by hand so that it looks fabulous (Yes, I know this is a Halloween costume for an 8 year old.  But it can still be well made and look great!), but I have neither the time nor the energy to sew 7 yards of braid onto a wizard robe.  And yet my OCD won’t let me just slap the stuff on with the glue gun.  I have some great craft glue that is washable and dryable so it would work well, but it is so stinky that with my current super charged nose I just barely managed to make it through the few minutes it took to glue braid to the wired brim of the hat.  There is no way I could stand smelling it long enough to glue the remaining seven yards.  Besides, even glue would be a huge hassle since I’ve got seven freaking yards of trim to attach.

But while I was at the fabric store over the weekend, I happened to notice that one of the more readily available brands of specialty threads was on sale for 50% off the regular price.  So I picked up a spool of invisible thread.  And I am in love.  It is a bit more fickle than regular thread (It is harder to thread the needle of the sewing machine and it breaks more easily.  However, I loosened the tension on my machine a bit and that problem went away.)  but it is totally worth it.  In mere minutes I zigzagged all seven yards onto the robe and the best part is that it looks like I spent hours and hours painstakingly stitching it on so that the stitches are impossible to see.  The only proof that it is machine stitched is the gray thread I used in the bobbin.  It is seriously awesome!  

So while the invisible thread is not suitable for every task, I’m sold on using it to attach decorative trims.  And I think I might have to come up with some projects that will give me an excuse to try out some other specialty threads as well…

You Really Cannot Make This Stuff Up

Have you ever been startled awake at 1:30 in the morning by someone knocking vigorously on your front door?  That would be a yes for me.  Have you ever sent your husband to answer the door only to discover a police officer standing on the front porch?  Me in the affirmative again.  To tell you the rest of the tale, let me introduce my guest blogger, Kevin:

BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM!!!!!  At o-dark-thirty in the morning, a pounding at a door is never what you want to hear.  BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM!!!!!  I glanced at the clock as I startled awake a couple of weeks ago.  Somebody knocking at the door at 1:30 a.m. can never mean a good thing.  I staggered toward the door as fast as I could.  By the time I reach the front door I am fully awake, thoughts of what happened to the cars, or is the trailer still there, or any number of problems racing through my head.  As I reach for the locks on the front door, I glance out the window.  Yep, there it is.  Standing at my front door is a local Sheriff and my heart takes a jump and drops into the pit of my stomach.  I greeted the officer and asked what was going on.  He proceeds to tell me that they have caught 4 youths digging up sod in my yard and throwing it in the street.

Um, what??!?  Digging up sod in my yard?  Surely I misheard him.  No cars, spray paint, knives, rocks, eggs, or something else that sounds,  well . . . . fun?

He proceeded to tell me that a witness saw these youths get out of an SUV and walk over to my yard and dig up 4 or 5 6” to 1’ holes in my yard.  The witness called the sheriff and they got there fast enough to catch them.  He said let’s go take a look.  Being 1:30 in the morning, I had to excuse myself to go get shoes on.  The trip back to my closet to get my shoes had quite the personal dialog:  Really?  How is that fun? Digging up my yard?  Why my yard?  Of all the yards on the street, mine didn’t need any more help looking like the local redneck!

I go out with the officer, and sure enough, there are holes in my yard.  I had to ask him: did they say why?  He said no, and it doesn’t make any sense to us either.  I asked what was going to happen to them.  He said they would be charged with criminal mischief and their parents would have to come get them from jail.  UM OOOOOPS!!! 

Shauna here.  Want to know what was I doing while all this was happening?  I was lying in bed trying to go back to sleep, which turned out to be a futile attempt since a huge adrenaline rush is not exactly fabulous for lulling one into a peaceful slumber.  And once Kev came back in, he couldn't sleep and had to get up again and go rescue the sod from the street.  Now back to Kevin...

Jump forward to tonight.  There is a knock at the door.  Only this time, it is early evening.  There are two youths, and one disgusted looking father.  Turns out, 2 of those who caused the problem came and apologized.  They will be here later to help make my yard not quite so redneck.

You cannot make this stuff up:  so there is my sod story. :-)

Me again.  Yesterday two of the sod perps arrived to do some yard work in order to make up for their stupidity.  Kev made them dig up sod from where we don't want it. The first pieces were used to fill in the holes they made.  I think that would be called poetic justice.

Random But True

Baby has enough hair that we can see it on ultrasound.