Updates (pictures below)

Okay, before I give you an update on A I absolutely have to give you an update on my other two children first (pictures do follow for those of you who skip the text and just want the pics). Let's just say they have been having quite the time with Nini and Auntie A in town (hmmm... I guess I better come up with a way to distinguish between all the Auntie A's...).

First of all, my mother-in-law almost got herself issued a National Amber Alert, which I think would have been pretty funny although K doesn't think it would have. She flew in yesterday morning without telling us, which consequently happened to be just after the arrival of our little nephew in Rexburg. (The kids were born 2 days and 1 hour apart, we are so excited!) Given that it would be her only chance to go see that little one she devised a plan to drive up to Idaho from the airport. Somehow that plan included taking our children with her, but somehow didn't include letting us know about that. We thought the kids were going to go see animals at Aunt J's for the day. Luckily Uncle M informed us of said plan and thereby prevented us from calling the police. I was able to spend a good chunk of time explaining to Nini over the phone how to find the closest rest stops on the GPS system so that B wouldn't have a potty accident, and yet, B still had a potty accident in my car. Oh well, at least I don't think it will show up on the Carfax report.

Since they hadn't been able to see A, the kids were very excited and surprised to see people in a real hospital room holding a real baby. Little K went into a lengthy explanation for everyone on how the hospital had lost our baby so that's why they hadn't held A yet, and B confiscated all the cameras and started taking pictures of confidential medical documents and other sensitive things. Oh, and somewhere in the trip Auntie A got pulled over.

The kids have been doing pretty well without us, and since Nini and Auntie A don't know all the rules, they decided to run things for them. This morning the relief society president called (the sweetest lady in the world), and B decided to pick up the phone. Since he was talking for so long, Nini thought he was probably talking to us so she picked up the phone to listen in. She heard something along the lines of...

RP: So you're home all alone?
B: Well, no. My sister K is here, and my doggy Apollo, and my dog Dandy.
RP: Is anybody else there with you?
B: No. My Baby is sick so he's in the hospital with Mommy and Daddy. They have to stay with him because he's sick.
RP: So what are you doing?
B: Watching TV.
RP: And nobody is there with you guys if you need anything?

At this point Nini decided she had better jump in. After assuring the relief society president that they were okay, that there was a competent adult in the house and that K and I really hadn't left our 4 and 2 year old all alone, she clearly stated to the RP that, "we have everything under control". That's when Little K started screaming bloody murder. She's only 2, but when this girl screams the neighbors come running. That's when it was the RP's turn to listen in on a conversation:

Nini: B, where's Little K?
B: She's in the closet.
Nini: Why is she in the closet?
B: She needed a time out so I locked her in there.
Nini: Don't you think we should let her out?
B: No, she really needed a time out. I even turned off the lights.

Hopefully child protective services is not on the way to our house. I don't know if Nini was successful in convincing the relief society that we don't need much help, but I do know that whenever I tell her that we don't need help in the future she is not going to believe me at all.

Back to the baby. He is doing very well, and his lungs sound clear now. He will probably be weaned of the CPAP today (the rubber tubing you see going up his nose), and we will be able to hold him more often. He was under lights last night for jaundice, but hasn't been most of this morning. He's quite alert now and tries to look around, but for some reason still has a hard time opening his right eye. This morning his IV started leaking fluid at the site for some reason and they had to do a new one. After sticking and failing to put one in his other hand, they finally got one in his head. (Even though it looks worse, it's actually one of the best places for an IV). He fought and yelled the whole time, and in an effort to punish the nurse he managed to dislodge his CPAP, so the nurse in turn had to punish him by replacing it. For being 3 days old the kid has some strength to him.

Even though he looks like an "O - N", it's still hard for me to see the other two kids in him. He got to say goodbye to Grandma this morning who is on her way to South Dakota for the birth of yet another cousin, which we are very excited for. K is doing very well herself, and aside from being pretty sore has been up and moving around the past couple days. Thank you again for all of your support and love.

A.C.E.

HE'S HERE!!!! He's finally here! After nine months of eternity we finally have a baby boy with us. And believe me it was 9 months of eternity with the last month being just as long as the previous 8. At 7:02 in the morning K delivered a 7 lb 14 oz, 20" long ball of joy with the longest black hair I've ever seen on a newborn (the longest hairs are around 2" long!). He is the biggest kid yet with nearly a full pound over his other two siblings at birth.

The night before the delivery K and I dropped the kids off at G & G's and then had our last little date for a while at Tepenyaki (Sushi and Hibachi place). Then we came home to find a message on our answering machine telling us that the delivery had been bumped up, and we had to be at the hospital at 4:45 am. We spent until 11 or so cleaning the house and then went to bed. Well, I went to bed. K fell asleep for about 30 minutes and then was back up for the rest of the night.

The delivery went off without a hitch. They let me go with K to the OR to get her spinal, and then they began the operation. The Nurse Anesthetist (heaven forbid you should call him an Anesthesiologist.... apparently the difference is anesthesiologists "don't care about people") happened to be from K's old home ward, and we actually had met him when we were living in California during K's first pregnancy. We also had a very chatty nurse in training who told K all about her personal life and why she didn't have kids yet and then she went on to speculate about what she would crave if she were pregnant which apparently includes a 3T from Maria's in Glendora of all places. I guess it's easy to talk to people who are strapped to a table with their gut split open.

When they first opened K up there was a sudden ball of hair that popped up out of nowhere. He got stuck there for a little bit because the doctors underestimated how big his head was (cabezon!). He came out swinging and pretty darn angry. He sounded good and was screaming pretty hard at people. Finally one of the nurses got close enough for him to land a kick on her stomach. He's a pretty strong little guy and he certainly got her attention. She didn't give him another chance.

Anyway, I got to carry him back to the nursery. After about 30 seconds he was still taking very shallow, very rapid breaths so he got moved back to the "Special Care Nursery". I didn't really like that until the nurse explained to me that it wasn't "special" in the same sense as some kids getting to ride the "short bus". He needed an oxygen hood because he couldn't keep the oxygen levels in his blood high enough and he was taking about 150 breaths a minute (about 3 times more than you like to see a newborn taking). His blood sugar was getting low (54 with 60 being normal) which was indicating that he was using a lot of energy just trying to breath.

Finally, a full blood test and x-ray was done. His lungs were completely lit up with infection in the images. He was born with congenital pnemonia, most likely due to either the high fevers his sister had a couple of weeks ago or an ear infection that his brother had about the same time. The good thing (really) was that he already had the infection and was in the healing stage when he was born. He just needs a little help. Uncle T and I were able to give him a blessing and then he was carted off to the NICU.

At the NICU A was fitted with a nasal CPAP (continous positive airway pressure) which helps to keep his lungs constantly inflated. He also has an intraveinous umbilical line, an IV in his left hand, and a multitude of electrodes stuck to his body. A wasn't going to stand for that and decided to push the limits by knocking electrodes off as fast as he could. Being the fighter that he is, the nurse was left with no option but to put socks on his hands, and then to swaddle his arms across his body. Well, he wasn't going to let her forget that he wasn't happy with that, so he would move around as much as he could to dislodge the CPAP. She was finally forced to give him a little sedative. That's my boy!!

K was a basket case after coming back from the OR and finding out that her son wasn't coming back to the room also. We kept her updated on A's condition as much as possible, but it was a very difficult moment. Finally, her nurse took her down to the NICU 5 hours before she was supposed to be moved at all. Seeing him and knowing he was okay finally put her soul at rest and she was able to calm down a little.

We are very grateful and appreciative of all the concern from family and friends yesterday. It was a very emotional and hectic day so we didn't get to talk to many people and we kept conversations short with the ones we did talk to. We hope nobody felt shutout or putdown, but please understand we had other things on our minds besides entertaining visitors and people would not have been able to see the baby anyway if they had come. Apparently the rumors flew fast though as we got reports that K's ribs had been broken during the delivery and that I was barring people from entering the hospital. For the record, K's ribs are completely intact and the Utah National Guard was able to talk some sense into me. (Apparently we weren't the only people who had a baby here yesterday. Who knew!?)

Both Baby and Mom are doing just fine now. A will be in the NICU until next Thursday or Friday and K will be in the hospital until Monday morning at least. The doctor claims that A should have spent the last month working on developing his lungs instead of worrying about his looks and growing hair (his lungs were fully developed... that was a joke for those of you who haven't picked up the "subtle" running sarcasm).

Both B and Little K have been very excited and cute and have come to visit several times. They both want to thank A for the gifts he brought and hold him. They sang a little song for the video camera that we played for him in the NICU and he definitely responded to it.

As a last note, if any of you want to come visit K while she is still in the hospital, you are more than welcome to if you do not have a sick family member who you live with or have been sick yourself within the last week or so. Since K and I are constantly entering the NICU we really can't even have contact with people who have had contact with sick people. There are some who we consider to be "sick, sick people!" regardless of their physical condition and we would appreciate it if such would stay away period. (Alright, I have to make a note here, because K thinks some people we actually know might think that last sentence refers to them. I was just trying to be funny. Really nobody we know well falls under that category. I promise.) Please understand that you won't be able to see the baby until about a month after he comes home, and we hope you can be patient with in that. But we appreciate your love and support, and can't wait to show him off to all of you (not just through pictures!)! We will update the blog as often as we can so you don't miss out.

Thank you again for all of your love and support and phone calls.

Uncle A's B-day

Uncle A turned another year and we all went to Chilli's and then bowling. Even K made it in her progressed state of motherhood! Once we told the kids we were going bowling that week we would have had to go bowling anyway whether or not the rest of the family's plans got changed. Last year when our good friends moved to Rochester we went bowling with them and ever since then B has asked when we're going bowling when we pass an alley. If only they didn't all have a great big sign with a bowling pin on it....