What?
Post pics on Facebook.
I never planned to actually post any pics of my kids. In fact, I haven’t even posted many pics of myself on there. But hubby, who “shares”/lurks on my account has many people on Fbook who keep asking him for pics of the kids. So, he asked me to post a few pics so that he can just refer everyone to my page. LOL.
Gotta love him!
There’s a monster in my house. It needs to exit pronto.
For some bizarre reason, unknown to us, Jamayia has practically stopped sleeping. Both during the night and nap time. If someone knows why, please tell me so that I can fix it!
She’s always been a great sleeper. She’s been sleeping through the night for the longest time now, at least 10-12 hrs per night. Nap time runs anywhere from 2-4 hrs. Tuesday night was normal and she napped on Wednesday. But Wednesday night? She probably only slept a wee bit, and then was up for the rest. We changed her, and she asked for her customary stall tactics: food & water. (She got the water, but not the food). Finally Jonathon opted to lie on the bed with her and sleep so that the rest of us to sleep too. Thankfully, Jhyelle sleeps through this all. I’m also able to sleep some because I know she’s in good hands with her daddy.
Funny story: Early Thursday morning, I took Jamayia downstairs for some water, and saw that it was 3:20 a.m. Early Friday morning, when she was again begging for water, I took her downstairs. Guess what time the clock said? Yeppers–3:20 a.m. I felt as though I were stuck in a twisted movie, for a split second.
Oh how this girl needs to get back to her old habits.
I wanna do more with my blog. My ultimate passion/dream would be to get paid to blog on a site somewhere (for something completely legit & relevant). And by getting paid, I more so mean earning enough income so that our current bills are paid and able to save for rainy times. I’m not looking to add a bazillion dollars to the mix.
So, en route to at least the passionate part of the blog, I’ve got to start blogging more regularly. I have a ton of stuff I could blog about. Time seems to be a big issue for me right now. By the time the 2 little ones in my life are tucked into bed and hubby doesn’t need the computer for work things, I’m wayyy to tired to even attempt blogging. Part of the problem also stems from my desire to produce posts that have correct spelling, flow & make sense.
I’m looking to shake things up a bit. I’m going to try more spontaneous posting. This means posting quickly, without any rewrites. This means not taking too much time to think search for cool adjectives in hopes of sounding less redundant. This means doing more honest posting. Not to imply that posts prior to this one were untrue: they were all true. I’d just like to be able to tactfully state an occasional opinion without worrying about potential backlash, no matter what the issue at hand may be. This means blogging more frequently. As things occur, I should do my best to just open blog and insert new post.
I’ve also updated the photo on this site, as well as the title and description.
Here I go…
Day 12: Sleeping peacefully. Still not quite ready to come off the nasal prongs completely.
Day 13: Bye bye nasal prongs. Finally!!
Day 14: Doing so well, that she’s ready for her car seat test. She tested and passed during the night shift.
Day 15: I’m outta here! Jhyelle was finally released on Oct 22, two weeks after her birth.
Despite the look, she’s really good in the car.
Day 8: “Hello Mommy!” She’s finally in a regular bassinet.
Day 11: “Welcome back, Daddy!” She was moved to yet another step-down “pod”. It’s kind of nice to hear the nurses say that they needed her previous bed for a sicker baby. It means that she’s truly improving.
I’m one of those people who never seem to win anything really cool. Most times, if there’s a contest of some sort that I could enter, the prize is really small or really junky. Or else I seem the win the “contests” that I didn’t voluntarily enter (ie: work contests were everyone is automatically entered because the bosses said so).
For once, I won something cool. Actually two things. The first is a bar of soap from Tiber River Naturals. They often have contests on their blog where if you leave a comment, you’ll be entered into a draw to win a small prize. Well, I left a comment one day, and they were feeling generous and awarded all commentators (or commentors??) with a free bar of soap. That was very exciting for me.
Second contest was courtesy of Baby Bin Boutique. They ran a cutest BabyLegs contest, where you could email pics of your kid(s) in as many different pairs of BabyLegs you had. They were posting these on their blog and then all the names were entered, with five to be drawn to win a free pair of BabyLegs. So, I got the girls ready for a quick photo shoot and emailed 2 pics. Both girls won. I felt sooo excited!!! We won two free pairs on something decent and usable.
Oh, let me add on a third moment, which felt like winning, though no contest was involved. The BBB always has a promotion of some sort occuring. This past Saturday & Sunday, they were doing a “draw your own discount” thing, where you could earn between 10-50% off your purchase of both new & consigned items. I went down on Sunday, put a large purchase down on the counter and picked a folded piece of paper from their draw basket. I got…. 40% off my entire purchase. Yes, f-o-r-t-y!!! I felt like doing even more shopping, but held back. I’ll wait until next time. (Thanx, Jenn!!!)
It’s fun to win.
Day 5: Even less tubes
Day 6: First time we got to hold her. We fed her too. We even got a family shot in.
Day 2: An idea of the amount of equipment she was hooked up to. The ventilator is cut-off on the left side.
Jhyelle is doing remarkably well. She was so very sick at birth. The truth is that we almost lost our little baby. When she came out, the laid her on my stomach for a brief moment. She looked ginormous to me (turns out she weighed 8 lbs 10 ozs, so she was h-u-g-e!!). She had her eyes open and was squirming around. But, she didn’t cry or make any big noises, just tiny little wimpers.
The very attentive nurse immediately took her over to the warming bed and started working on her breathing. And they worked, and more people were coming into the room. There were nurses of all kinds, doctors and respiratory technicians. They ended up moving her to the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit to watch her. At first, they all thought it would be quick and they’d update us in about an hour.
Little did we know….
Jonathon went to try and see her well after an hour had passed. He couldn’t get in at first..they’d told him to come back. He eventually got through a bit later and took a few pics. She was hooked up to enough machines, including a ventilator. It appeared that she’d swallowed some fluid on the way out. There was also meconium during the birth, and they weren’t clear on if or not she’d swallowed that. But she had fluid in her lungs and in her stomach. She also appeared to have some sort of infection and high blood pressure in her lungs.
Jhyelle was a very, very critically sick little baby. The doctor came by later that evening (she was born at 9:33 am) to talk to us. She explained how critical her status was and that they were proactively treating her infection, even though they weren’t sure of the specifics. She also explained that a blood transfusion is sometimes necessary and wanted our permission should they need to do it. The doctor also explained that this problem is common and that there’s nothing we could have done differently. There was also the possibility of long term developmental delays (which we’d find out down the road) and even the risk of death. She was given a 60-70% chance of recovery.
I finally saw her later that evening for the first time. They had her heavily sedated and she was receiving the blood transfusion. The fresh platelettes were helping to improve the oxygen levels in her blood. She was so fragile that they couldn’t even weigh her or measure her, let alone bathe her. We were barely allowed to touch her, only briefly on her legs.
She had intravenous lines in both arms and was on the ventilator. She also had a couple lines through her umbilicus, for nutrition and blood drawing purposes. She was quite warm, and didn’t need to be clothed.
That first night, she’d actually gotten worse. They had even put her on a heavier ventilator that helps to basically “shake” the air into the lungs. It looked more intimidating than it sounded. When we arrived the next morning, the doctor explained that her illness looks to have plateaued, and they were hoping she’d only make improvements from that point on. This tiny little baby was connected to and dependant on so much equipment that she occupied the space of 2 beds in the NICU.
Some other things that happened for her:
–Lumbar puncture on Oct 9, to determine the specific type of infection.
–Came off the ventilator and onto nasal prongs on Oct 11.
–Started on breastmilk, via gavage tube on Oct 11.
–Met Jamayia for the first time on Oct 11.
–We were able to hold her for the first time on Oct 13. We bottlefed her then too.
–Moved to a regular bassinet on Oct 15.
–Breastfed for the first time on Oct 15.
–Mom changed her for the first time on Oct 16.
–Moved to a step down pod in the NICU on Oct 17 (en route to going home).
–Finished intravenous antibiotics for the infection on Oct 17.
–2nd visit with Jamayia on Oct 18.
–Moved again to another step down/going home pod in the NICU on Oct 18.
–Nasal prongs removed on Oct 20.
–Passed car seat respiratory test the first time on Oct 21.
And she was finally released on Wednesday, Oct 22.
Play by play pictures to follow in next post.
Part of the kitchen. (The dishwasher still isn’t in because the gable was crooked and now the flooring also needs repairs. Know anyone who can install dishwashers??)
Other side of the kitchen.