Chicken Wire

Remember that time when our family planted been seeds and felt super good about doing something productive as a family?

Remember how we have a dog that digs?

Twice now the entire pots have been emptied by the dog.  We'll be lucky if we get anything to grow in these conditions.

You Can't Even Tell How Tired I Am!

The day after Lee came home from the hospital Charlotte's pre-school had "Moms and Muffins" so I went to her class to enjoy some time with just her.  One of my eyes is smaller than the other, but other than that I don't look too worse for wear.  I had such a fun time with Charlotte that afternoon.

Planting a Garden...Or Something Like it

Lee has successfully made it through 4 weeks of life!  This is how he feels about that news:

 Also, he feels that his nose is quite possibly the most important thing to keep track of.  At least that's what I think considering how he can't seem to keep his eyes off it.

In an effort to do a bit of gardening, and get Charlotte to stop asking, we decided to plant some green bean seeds.  Here is our family's efforts to do some "gardening":

 Dad helping Greg decide what pots we should use.

 Lee sleeping through the entire process in the baby k'tan that our friend Mindy lent us.  This thing is awesome.  I haven't had one with any of the other kids, but I would totally go back in time and tell myself to get one if I could.

 Charlotte and Greg filling the bottom of the pots with small rocks for drainage.  Luckily we have an excess of small rocks to use in the bottom of the pots.

Getting more small rocks and dirt to fill the middle of the pots.  On top of that we put potting soil.  Then I let Charlotte and Greg plant the seeds at random.  We'll see where/if anything grows from this experiment.

The Scale Lies...Or It's Broken

Today we went back to the doctor's office (that's two stays in the hospital and 4 visits to the doctor's office in his three weeks of life so far) for a follow up appointment after Lee's discharge from the hospital. Everyone just wants to make sure that he's getting better as he's supposed to. He's developed diarrhea from all the antibiotics and they just wanted to make sure that situation is resolving as it should be.

Part of the check up was measuring his weight. Turns out he's lost weight since his first weight check in the hospital and he's exactly the same weight he was the last time we checked it at the doctor's office.

The doctor said he's not "overly concerned" with it because he has been sick and needs to build up his strength for feeding still, but that he should have gained a bit more by now. Personally I think the scale lies. Either way we have to go back to the doctor's office again to check his weight in a couple of weeks.

New Lessons

On Sunday night Lee got a fever of 101.7. We gave him Tylenol and after his fever still didn't go away Dan decided it was time to take him to the hospital. It is terrifying when your husband, who is a doctor, and who often says that things are not such a big deal, says that something warrants a trip to the emergency department.

Lee was admitted for a mandatory 48 hour watch and they took blood samples, chest x-rays, spinal fluid samples, and nose swabs to check for any of the more scary type of infectious diseases. The last 48 hours of my life have taught me a whole lot.

Lee with a cool wash cloth on his head trying to cool him down before we decided to take him in.

Now I know how helpless and worried I can feel when I hug my inferno of a child close to me as he screams. It's hard to not cry myself and just tell him I'm sorry, so very sorry for this happening to him and not being able to help him.

Now I know how many pokes it takes to get an IV inserted into my newborn's hand (3) and how hard it can be for them to find a place that will work. I've seen how to use a "wee sight" and I don't want to see that again.

Daniel cuddling Lee after he got his IV inserted.

Now I know the ingenuity that was required to build the "chair" newborns have to sit in so that they can have chest x-rays taken.

Now I know how many medical personnel it takes to do a lumbar puncture on my baby and how his spinal fluid appears. Strangely, when that happened Dan had to look away while I felt compelled to watch as if my watching the resident would make him perform any better.

Now I know how to endure the waiting game to find out if something truly scary is happening with my child. How to half sleep, half pass out with exhaustion on the "sofa bed" in the room without being able to cuddle my child to sleep as I know he likes because he's hooked up to too many things to take him over to my bed.

Lee trying to sleep in his hospital crib.

But there are other sweet, sweet lessons that I learned the last 48 hours.

Now I know how much I miss my kids when I can't be with them. Not only do I love Charlotte and Greg, I enjoy their company and when I can't be with them I miss them terribly. In all five years of my motherhood I've never had that experience before. I think my kids are fun to be around.

Now I know the depth of gratitude that I can feel for those people who help my children. The nurses felt like angels that provided such a feeling love patience and peace that helped to calm my fears. And not only them. My mother-in-law took wonderful and careful care of my other two kids at home so that I could stay at the hospital with Lee and Dan could go back to work. I can never express the gratitude in my heart for the love that I felt through all her practical help around our house.

Now I know the love and peace that comes from a loving God when I am in a turmoil. On Sunday, before we headed to the hospital Dan and I said a prayer over our littlest one. After that prayer and putting faith my my Savior my fears and anxiety seemed to dissolve. There was nothing more that I could do than to take him to the hospital and I did that. Being able to do that was a wonderful blessing.

Lee and me hanging out waiting to be discharged this morning.

Lee after all the tests came back negative and his IV was taken out.

More Photos of April

Update

Well, my mom went home yesterday and Dan's mom came out.

All I can say is I am so glad!

This is one demanding child and it's nice to have someone else (who is older than 2 or 5) hold him for sometime.

Our attempts for this week is to try to resemble a normal schedule.

Wish us luck.

Happy Easter

Here is what Easter weekend looked like at our house.

We found the Easter eggs and baskets that the Easter bunny hid in the morning. The Easter bunny thought that maybe an outside hunt would be fun for the kids, but that it was too cold in the morning so he left a pile of eggs for Daddy to hide later that afternoon. And so it went:

We colored the eggs Saturday afternoon while Daddy went and retrieved a free swing set from another resident family.
We made a family set of Easter eggs! Now we're a set of five.
And now for photos of Easter outfits!!! I truly do love to clothe my kids in matching outfits, but try to temper that. I do however dress my kids matching for holidays like Easter:
Greg was even happy to put the outfit on because I sold the idea that it was a "soft shirt" for Sunday and that he didn't have to wear a tie.
And the last, and probably most unflattering photo of me, captures my favorite moment of the day each day. Right when we all get up and the kids and I cuddle. I sure do love that moment each day.
So that's what life looks like around these parts right now.

The Next 24

Good news! Last night I slept in my own bed all night. Well, except for feeding him anyway. I still have to wake up fully in order to get that job done.

Here's Lee asleep some more.
This is what the kids were doing while I was nursing Lee yesterday. They filled the driveway with a mural welcoming Daddy home.
This was Greg's self chosen outfit yesterday. He kept pulling the shorts down to try to meet the boots. Also there were three different greens in the outfit. Currently he was throwing rocks in our garden. Just another reason those rocks need to go.
This is quite possibly the best reason to nurse my boy. When he's really truly full there's always a little dribble out the side of his mouth at the end. It looks like he's drunk on mommy milk.
This morning we took Charlotte and Greg to house of bounce to burn off some excess energy. Lee woke up and decided to get into the action by looking around.
This is the outfit that Greg picked out for Lee. Notice the way too big for him "soft pants"? That is Greg's signature look and he's already passing it down to his little brother.

As Requested

My sister can't come to see the new baby until May. She is really unhappy about this at the moment. She told me that I haven't provided enough photos or information to make up for the fact that she's not here. Apparently I need to post new photos every day. Ok then, I'll try.

Here we see Lee being held by Grandma Denise in his favorite position, tummy to tummy. He would spend all day every day like this if life were up to him.
Life might be up to him right now because Dan and I take turns sleeping with Lee in our big green recliner. That seems to be the only way he will sleep through the night. With the boppy under him so that you don't really have to hold him a person can get some sleep like that. This was my view as I woke up yesterday. I was holding my baby boy and looking at the happy, shining face of my big boy. (He got a haircut later that day and now truly does look big.)
Lee in his onsie.
Charlotte and Greg decided to dress up for Grandma Denise. Greg put all the clothing back right away, but we did have Snow White accompany us on all our errands yesterday.
This is what I am doing for most of my day.
I like the little skinny legs in this photo.
So there you have it.

Today I haven't taken any more photos yet, because Mom let me sleep in until 9AM! Now I have to go back to feeding my small one.

Because It's Easier this Way

I was going to write some sort of re-cap, but I think that can wait. Also, I'm pretty sure everyone is more interested in photos rather than the story. So here they are.

This is me the the Sunday before he was born.
This is Dan holding him after he got his eye goop on.
Here we are. Exhausted, but happy.
Charlotte and Greg have been surprisingly affectionate towards the new little guy.

Here is a photo sometime shortly after Dan gave the children Sunkist pop to drink. I'm glad I wasn't there when he took them home.
Here is Lee today in the outfit that Greg gave him.