Nicu update...Tessa Grace

Well, you can see here Lee finally got to hold this little baby girl. He is smitten. Tessa made a lot of progress today. We were actually able to hold her, I sang to her, and she even did pretty good nursing (although to get her out of her she needs TONS of food to maintain blood sugar so they are also having her take a bottle and she has a feeding tube down her nose). They said we are waiting for benchmarks not time so we should plan on her being here a week ( they hope that is the high end). She has to be able to eat an ounce bottle on her own (without the tube), and be off the the glucose IV (which they are thinking we can be done with tmo). We are hoping that she comes around quick....we can't wait to have her home with us!

Tessa Grace

After a pretty rough and tumble pregnancy Tessa Grace came and joined us Sunday May 29th about 1:45 in the morning. She weighed a whopping 9lbs 10 oz and was 22 1/2 inches long. She is the giant of our babies. She was born 4 weeks early (with the treatments we had to get pregnant we are sure on the date).

Lee and I had gone to lunch Sat afternoon and during lunch I started feeling strong contractions. I knew I was already dilated to a 4, mostly effaced, and had "bulging waters" so we were thinking it may be the night. We got back dropped the babysitter off and the contractions got really strong. We dropped our kids off with our good friends in the ward the Dittos (they had her sisters 2 kids, their 6 kids, and were willing to take our 2) and headed to the hospital. When we got to the hospital I was REALLY not feeling well. They got us into a room and my BP was 197/107. They kinda freaked and put us right into a delivery room. The put a "lead" on the baby's head so they could monitor her stress and see if that would break my water slowly and speed things up a bit. My water gushed and we were off. My BP kept high so they put me on Magnesium (awful stuff that feels like you are on fire) and suggested an epidural so I could keep myself calm (if you know me very well you know that it didn't take much to convince me to have an epidural).

Things progressed relatively quickly on their own and by 1:20 I was ready to push. I was thinking of my last experience with my little tiny 6 pound Savannah where I pushed 2x and was done so I was a little freaked when this took a TON more work. The epidural either wore off or I have no idea what real pain is. I just kept pushing and pushing. Once I got her 14 cm head out of a 10 cm hole I was hoping I was done. No such luck the shoulder were the real hard part. She has shoulders like her Dad!

She finally came out and they put her on my stomach and tried to get her crying. She was pretty blue and not terribly good at crying. They let me hold her for just a minute and love on her before she was taken to the NICU.

I will keep updating here as I can to share her progress and hopefully some pictures that don't look like she fought in a cat fight :) We are thrilled she is here though and grateful that Mom is doing great and that she will be fine! Thank you for your prayers and love through this ordeal!

One Big Family

Last week on Easter Night Lee sat the kids and I down for a quick family home evening. He was leaving the next morning for a business week in Phoenix and didn't want to miss our family home evening. With it being Easter he naturally picked an Easter topic. He began talking about the events of that first Easter. He mentioned how our Older Brother died for us. Keaton was all over that...."WAIT he is not my Brother! I don't HAVE a brother!". Lee explained that Christ was most defiantly his brother because they have the same Heavenly Father. "SOOOO....if Mom has a BOY I will have TWO brothers...COOOL" Keaton was excited. Our family home evening had taken a different turn (which they usually do) but I wanted to be sure he understood completely (while of course Savannah bussied herself by lifting her dress over her head 1800 times). "Keaton you actually have LOTS of brothers! AND more sisters!" I told him. I explained how the kids in his class were his brothers and sisters, we talked about how Mama's friends are her sisters, how the grumpy guy at Costco is actually another child of our same Heavenly Father SO...even though he bugs....he is our brother :) After I felt we covered it pretty well the kids went to bed and I didn't think about it again.
Lee left the next day. I had planned on going to Utah to stay with my family while he was gone. This pregnancy has been really rough on me and I thought I would need the support from my family during the week. A couple days before we were to fly out I started having strong regular contractions. I was forced to cancel my flight (luckily Delta has a medical cancellation policy and we can reuse the tickets). My BP spiked Easter night and I knew I was in trouble. I asked the girls from church if they would come and help me take my BP 2x a day to track it. The list went around in Relief Society (our churches Women's Organization) and within about 10 people all the slots were filled. I also mentioned that with me down Keaton would begin to go stir crazy so if anyone would like a playmate he would be THRILLED to play.
My BP didn't go down but up and I called the Doctor Monday morning. They wanted me to go to Labor and Delivery. I asked if I could come into the office first so they could see where I was at (BAD insurance stinks). I went to my appt and 4 hours later they told me to stay down as much as possible and gave me some anti contraction meds that would hopefully lower the BP as well. 2 days later the BP rose even more and I found myself back in the Doctors office. She told me to stop drinking so much water (it raises BP...go figure) and to not get up unless ABSOLUTELY necessary (I did mention once again that I was alone with 2 active kids :). My Doctor said one more bad BP and I would be hospitalized until the baby came or the BP was down. She said that the state can make arrangements for the kids until my Dad could come get them. As if that didn't raise the old BP :(
I went home pretty upset. I got on my knees once again and prayed and prayed (what else can you do?!?!?). I called my home teachers and asked for a priesthood blessing. I asked my family to pray. I had no second chances. My home teacher came and was worried that my BP clearly would not stabilize in the hospital and that the baby would be induced. We both felt that if I could make it to Friday when Lee came I would be o.k.
Here I was in a city where I did not know a single person 6 mos ago and was facing a medical nightmare. A thought came to me about Lee's lesson on Sunday. I DID have family here.....just ones I did not know as well. My "family" came through. Someone called almost everyday and took Keaton to play. Two days they were even able to coax old Sassy Savannah into coming with them (which was a miracle in itself). Most of the people that had signed up to take my BP are nurses. They sat and talked with me and supported me. One sweet sister even called me at 9:30 pm just because she was still worried about me. Another sweet sister I had never met before in my life. She stayed both times for over an hour as we talked about the Saviour and life. She had had a rough year with her marriage falling apart, raising 2 teenage boys on her own, and starting nursing school. She spoke of how she survived by prayer. We cried together and felt the bond of sisters in life's rough struggles. Other sisters showed up with meals (I didn't request any since I figured we could survive off rotisserie chicken and a bag of spinach) just because. My home teacher brought me an auto BP machine that I could test when I was rested.
My BP stayed right below the cut off line. I felt it was a miracle of prayer. Lee came home and my BP immediately dropped 20 points. I let Lee take over the worrying and I could finally rest. It has been a week and I have not had anymore BP issues.
The day after Lee got home I thought a lot about our family home evening almost a week before. I teared up as I thought about my brothers and sisters. People are good. People want to help. People have compassion. Here Lee and I have a combined 10 siblings 2 sets of great parents and they were powerless to help us (except a lot of praying). We had to rely on our bigger family. I was amazed at how they came through for us (beyond anything I would have asked for). I was also amazed at how my body ached for and needed Lee. I have comfort in knowing that we are separated here and there for a week but we have a marriage that can last for eternity. I can be with him forever. What a sweet comfort that is to me.

Farm Co-op

While I was blog stalking a friend from the ward I ran across her post for the Farm Co-op. I had to ask her about it. It looked so cool. It really is just a farming warehouse. I was thrilled I got my tomato plants there for 30 cents each. Please, note there really is no room for a garden but the neighbor was tossing whiskey barrel planters and I HAVE to have some tomato's and basil growing.
In the back of the warehouse is a room they sell new baby animals. My kids were in heaven and would have stayed all day. The employee's don't care if you pick them up, or giggle so much they all hide in the corner so Keaton and Savannah were both in luck.

Savannah couldn't get over how cute they were with their peep, peep, peeping. She wanted me to kneel right by her and chuckle for a couple hours :)
While we were there there was a Hispanic couple that picked out about 50 of these little chickens. They didn't speak English when I tried to ask them what they were going to do....so of course being the "don't take no for an answer, nosey girl" that I am I asked the worker when they left. She said that they are "Meat Birds" (see the sign). They buy them and in about 8 weeks they are ready to eat. They are buying their food storage. I just am not thinking I could do the whole killing and plucking thing. ALTHOUGH, Keaton and I have decided when we find a house to own again instead of rent we ARE going to look into egg chickens (we have not broached the subject with Lee though :)).

Miss. Annie loved the Bunnies too. They were too fast for me to pick up but the clerk picked one up for Savannah to pet. Pretty cuddly.

My favorite were these tiny little ducks! SO cute. Their little webbed feet just cracked me up (pregnancy hormones I am sure :).