Name::Abq MomFrom::Albuquerque, New Mexico
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Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Bath Time Serenade
My kids love to take baths. They know as soon as they are done eating its bath time. "W" says "want to take a bath." "Sy", when we get her down from her high chair and say "'its bath time" she seriously starts running to the bathroom as fast as her little toddler legs can take her.
They love to take baths regardless, but they especially like to take baths when Daddy is in charge! With mommy, its down to business. Get in, get washed, and get out. But with daddy, oh with daddy, they have a great time! Daddy puts some water in the tub, adds the kiddies, gives them a few toys, but the best part; the best part is they get a serenade played for them while in the bath. "S" practices in the bathroom while they're in the tub! He says it's good acoustics... Sometimes "W" and "Sy" are done with bath time before daddy. I have heard on occasion, "Daddy, all done." after 30 minutes or longer, with a reply "Not yet. Just a few more minutes." "No daddy, all done." through chattering teeth and severely pruned up toes and fingers, as he's trying to climb out of the tub himself!
My husband is a violinist. I am a clarinetist. We both followed the rule of 2 hours (at least) of practice a day while we were at Ricks, but whereas I saw it as a homework assignment, Shane saw it as relaxing enjoyment. I practiced so I wouldn't make a fool of myself, Shane practiced till he perfected the music and it became a part of him. His love for playing has not faded just because he didn't become High School Orchestra teacher. He's been in the Albuquerque Symphony for the past two years, and then this spring he became a part of a String Quartet where he is first violin. He has reason to practice.
My kids have grown accustomed to the sound of daddy playing violin. It's also become normal to hear daddy on the piano working on a new string quartet piece he's written, or something he's arranged for string quartet. It is regular background (funny thing I almost wrote bachground instead of background) music to our normal daily activities.
The kids love bath time with daddy because they get to stay in as long as they want, and play and splash. Sometimes they come out of the bathtub and their hair never even got wet! I'm sure they also love the calming sounds of daddy playing violin while in the bath. I just hope they don't become too used to the idea. I would hate when they are adults, they tell their spouse "oh, I'm sorry; I can only take a bath or shower if there is classical violin music playing in the background. Do something about that."
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 11/30/2005 09:25:00 AM :: 4 Comments: 
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Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Fish Bowl
From July 14, 1997 to October 11th 1999 I attended Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho. Ricks College (now known as BYU-Idaho) was then a junior college. 2 years only. (Though it isn't uncommon to have found someone that was there for 3 years...) Because it was only a 2 year school, there were only freshman and sophomores. But really it worked out so freshman = freshman, but sophomores kinda = seniors. Even I was there for 2 1/2 years.
Since I was a music major I pretty much lived in the Snow Building. (Eliza R. Snow). The Snow Building was the home of the fine arts departments. My sophomore year I lived there even more so then my freshman year. I had pep band at 7am, different classes throughout the day in the Snow and around campus, then I would have to squeeze in two hours (at least) of practice time, and I also worked as a tutor in the piano lab. I was also the band historian on the band council so it was my job to take pictures of everyone throughout the year. Some days I wouldn't see my roommates till 11pm. A famous line from my old roommate pretty much sums it up. I had walked in to the apartment at 10:30 at night, (30 minutes after curfew) when she standing there in the living room and said "Hello, Stranger of the world!!!"
The lower level of the common area in the snow building was called the Fish Bowl by all those that lived there. It was called the fish bowl because anyone could see you from the top level, the railing all around the top was clear glass. When you are at the bottom you felt like you were in a fish bowl. This is where we studied, ate, took naps, talked with friends, and had a good cry. At each end of the fish bowl was a small staircase that went up to the upper level. There was a wall of windows on the outside wall of the stairs.
My apartment wasn't too far away from the Snow Building and on some days I would have a break between classes so I would try to go home for a minute or two. I always seemed to go home by going down the stairs on the north side of the fish bowl and then out onto the street. It had become habit to slide down the railing from the upper level to the landing in the middle before the stairs would turn 180 degrees to go down to the bottom level. The railing between the landing and the bottom floor was too close to the brick wall that made up the top section of the stairs, it wasn't very condusive for sliding down the banister.
So pretty much every day I would do the same thing(if I had the chance to go home). I would go sliding down the railing of the top section of stairs and then walk down the bottom section. There were maybe 10-15 steps on each section. One day I was in a fairly happy and silly mood. I hopped onto the railing to attempt my normal routine, but this time it was far from the norm! The strap from my backpack had gotten stuck under my legs, this didn't allow me to slide very well. I lost my balance and tumbled over the banister to the second section of stairs, where I rolled down the stairs to the floor. I just layed there for a minute looking up at the ceiling. At the other end of the fish bowl was Dr. Taylor and a close friend of mine talking. They had witnessed the whole thing. They both came running over to me. I sat up quickly. In my backpack I carried my electronic metronome and tuner for practice time. During the crash the tuner turned on and while I was sitting there on the floor it was playing a very loud Concert A. While trying not to laugh, or cry I sat on the bottom step to open up my backpack to turn off the tuner. My friend said I looked like a rag doll being thrown down the stairs. One second my backpack was on top of me the next it was under. Dr. Taylor was very concerned, but once I stood up and showed them I was fine, he tried not to laugh at the situation. After we were all done wiping the tears of laughter from our eyes I very slowly walked home.
I had quite a few bruises from that ordeal and walked very slowly for awhile. I never tried to slide down the railing again. Even before this accident when I would walk down stairs I would have visions of taking a misstep and tumbling down the stairs. The fact that it actually happened has only made these visions in my mind occur more often and move vivid.
(If you want to read another post about my time in the Snow building please go read Music Lit.)
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 11/29/2005 08:35:00 AM :: 8 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Monday, November 28, 2005
Turkeys, Dinosaurs, Quartets, Incredibles, and Harry Potter, OH MY!
The first day after a long holiday weekend is always depressing for me. My husband has to go back to work, and any family we had visiting have to go home. Its back to just me and the kids. But I guess because it's sad when it ends means that it was fun before.
TUESDAY:
"S" and I had been talking about our Thanksgiving Menu for almost a month. We bought our turkeys two weeks prior, and any time the television was on is was probably tuned into the Food Network. Tuesday was our son's 3rd birthday. For breakfast that morning he got 3 heart-shaped pancakes with powdered sugar sprinkled on top and a candle in each one. He was very excited about his heart-shaped pancakes and whereever we went that day he made sure to tell people about his pancakes.
Tuesday I started cooking. A few of the things that could be made ahead of time. I made the cranberries, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and the spice butter I use to baste the turkey.
I had to make another trip to the grocery store to pick up a few more items as well. Goodness Thanksgiving really takes a chunk out of your grocery budget!
WEDNESDAY:
"S" took Wednesday off to help me get everything ready for Thursday. I had put the turkeys in the fridge on monday in hopes that they would thaw. Didn't happen. We spent most of the day thawing the turkeys. Yes, we had two turkeys. Each 13 pounds each. I had to redo the sweet potatoes, my sister-in-law had called tuesday when I was cutting them up and I cut them up too small, and then cook them for too long, it was like baby food mush. YUCK. I also made up the brine for one of the turkeys. Because the oven was pretty much going to be in use the whole day on Thursday we cooked up the second ordinary turkey Wednesday night and then cut off all the meat.
THURSDAY:
My in-laws arrived at the airport at 12:30pm. While my husband was picking them up, I was preparing everything for our holiday meal. The turkey that had soaked in the brine for 24 hrs was cooking with a yummy spice butter rubbed all over it, the appetizers were layed out on the table, and the sides were starting to be prepared. The kids were napping, and "W" woke up shortly after they arrived. He walked out in the living room and immediately recognized and named all the new comers. We sat down to dinner around 2pm. Everything tasted so good, and my in-laws wanted recipes for a few of the things I had made to introduce them back into their own families! The rest of the afternoon was spent playing hearts and playing with the grandkids.
FRIDAY:
For not being an overly large city, Albuquerque has a lot to offer. We have quite a few museums that you can visit. We have a zoo, an aquarium, a botanical garden, a children's science discovery museum, a natural history museum, an atomic history museum and an art museum. All of the museums are centered around Old Town. We decided that on Friday we'd go to the Natural History Museum. On a past visit we've taken the family to the atomic museum. We thought "W" would love to see the dinosaurs. We hadn't taken him there yet. We got there, and we were right, "W" loved seeing the dinosaurs. It was a really great museum! The museum was completely based on things that have been discovered in New Mexico.
After the museum we went to "El Modelo" by request of my father-in-law. Its a whole-in-the-wall restaurant that doesn't even have indoor seating. "S" had taken his family there the last time they had visited and his dad had to go again this time. The food is outstanding, you go in and place your order, than you can either take it home to eat, or you go outside to the picnic benches along the side of the restaurant.
Friday night "S"'s string quartet had a gig at a BBQ Restaurant. Every time his family has come down they have asked hopefully if he had some concert performance while they were visiting. This time they lucked out. We went to the restaurant and ate while listening to Shane's quartet play. It was a lovely evening, and even though it seemed kinda strange to have a string quartet at a BBQ Joint it turned out to be a great event. His parents loved being able to hear him play again, and the best part was to hear a few pieces that "S" had arranged himself. (At Ricks, "S" was a music major like April, Proud Mum, Sariah, and I, his instrument was violin, but he was also a composition major, and has a real talent for writing and arranging music for string quartet).
SATURDAY:
I took my MIL, SIL, "W" and "Sy" to walmart. They wanted to get something for "W"'s birthday and also get some christmas presents for the kids as well. (Save on shipping costs). When we got back from Wal-mart, we went to Old Town. Old Town is where Albuquerque originally began. It was the city center when the town was first created. There is the big catholic church across from the plaza, and surrounded by two blocks of buildings. They used to be houses, and things like that. The church was originally built in 1706, (when Albuquerque was first orginated, next year is the 300th anniversary). All the small buildings surrounding the plaza and church have been converted into shops, boutiques, restaurants, and the like. If you come to Albuquerque and you want an authentic souveniere Old Town is where you need to go.
We then took them to another New Mexican restaurant that we really like called "Dona Pepa's". They have the best chips and salsa in town, and a ultimate burrito that is to die for. We went to Ethan Allen for a few minutes, and then headed home for the birthday boy's party. "St" (my BIL) had decorated our house with "The Incredibles" birthday decorations on Friday night. When "W" woke up Saturday morning he knew it was his birthday party day. The whole drive home from Ethan Allen "W" was talking about his birthday party, and as soon as he walked in the door headed right for my closet where I had his presents hidden. He was ready for presents!
We had his favorite meal for dinner; Broccoli Soup, and then I went to go pick up the baby-sitter. Except for the kids, we all went to see Harry Potter #4. It was a great flick, and like Karen, I cried a little!
SUNDAY:
Saturday night I got severely sick. Sunday for me was mostly spent in my bed in and out of consciousness. I don't remember a lot that happened that day. At 5:30pm "S" took his family back to the airport. "W" was very sad to see them all go. His auntie "J" was leaving him. He was glued to her side throughout the whole visit, and really didn't want her to leave. Then he got even more upset because he thought daddy was going on the airplane to Idaho with them. It took me a little while to get him to understand that daddy really was coming home. By the end of the visit even "Sy" had warmed up to everyone, and was willingly giving bye-bye hugs to granma and papa.
Papa Snedigar is really fun to have around. He's a big kidder. At one point during the visit, Papa was pretending to be a dog or something, crawling around on hands and knees. He started to chase after "W", pretending to try to bite at his ankles. "W" went walking down the hall backwards saying "Papa, don't eat me!" It was seriously the funniest thing we had heard all week.
Being far away from family makes visits a lot of fun, but it makes the good-byes really sad. The first day of "normalcy" is always very emotional for us. Even the sappy t.v. commericals can make a few tears drop onto our cheeks. So we look forward to, and start to plan the next visit from family. In four weeks, my parents and brothers will be down for Christmas.
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 11/28/2005 11:07:00 AM :: 3 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
My, How you've grown
Today is my son's birthday. He is 3 years old. Here are a few pictures from over the past three years. Isn't it amazing how much he's grown?
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 11/22/2005 09:30:00 AM :: 6 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Monday, November 21, 2005
"Waiter, water please."
Up until he turned 2 years old, my son always called anything that is liquid that you can drink a "bah-bah". It didn't matter if it was in his sippy cup, our glass, a pop can, everything was "bah-bah". It didn't even matter what the liquid was, it could be water, milk, orange juice, pop, kool-aid. Anything that you could drink. I tried and tried to correct him, he would ask for his sippy cup and say "bah-bah", I would correct him and say "No, Sippy-Cup." He would look at me with the most serious face and say "No, bah-BAH!"
I remember one occasion when we had gone out dinner. It was sometime during the four months between my daughter's birth and "W"'s 2nd birthday. I had gone to pick up "S" from work, and he decided we should go eat dinner at one of our favorite New Mexican Restaurants "Bea's". We sat down and the female server asked us what we wanted to drink, it was water's all around. "W" got his water in a styrofoam cup with a lid and a straw. He was very excited. The server came back and we ordered our meals. While we were waiting we were talking about "S"'s day at work, and "W" is just downing his water as quickly as he could. We looked at each other and said "Wow he's thirsty!"
He had drunk enough so that the straw couldn't reach anymore. The server had already come back to refill our glasses. "W" was trying to get some more water out of his cup, but wouldn't let us adjust his straw. He held up his cup, and looked around the restaurant. He saw a male server, made eye contact with him, and say "Bah-Bah". We burst out laughing. We had expected that when he wanted more water he would have asked us, his mom or dad. The idea that he knew to ask the server for more water totally caught us by surprise. The waiter had walked away, so we thought "Oh, he didn't understand, we'll just wait for our waitress to come back". When just then the server that "W" had "asked for water" showed up at our table with a pitcher of cool, fresh water and filled his cup. We apologized profusely to the waiter for the rudeness of our son.
A few minutes later our server brought out our food and we ate our delicious spicy food. But thoughout the meal, we couldn't help laughing any time we thought about him asking the server "Waiter, I would like some water please"!
(p.s. "W" chose this color.)
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 11/21/2005 07:36:00 AM :: 3 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Thursday, November 17, 2005
new avenue?
I've been thinking about starting a cooking or recipe blog. It would just be a place where I'd write about what I've cooked lately, and what I've done to it to alter it to our tastes. Along with nutritional information of course.
For example:
Last night we had strawberry shortcake. I know, how can you alter that? Bought the regular shortcake cups, and some cool-whip. My husband said I was insane for buying cool-whip, that I need to use real whipping cream instead. He made whipping cream and I got the cool-whip out of the freezer.So I cut up the strawberries, added a little sugar and corn starch, and a little lemon juice. Mashed it up a bit and created triple decker shortcakes using both whipping cream and cool-whip The kids love it immensely.
I asked my husband what he thought about me starting a cooking blog. He said "Don't you have enough that your doing already?"
I asked Proud Mum. She warned me about copyright laws. Which was very true, I didn't even think about posting recipes from cookbooks, and the repercussions that could come from that.
I believe recipes should be shared. Good food, plus good friends equals a good time. Everytime I make something and someone asks me for the recipe my gut instinct is to tell them its a secret and keep it to myself. If they like it they have to come to me to eat it. But then I remember something "S"'s grandmother told me. And then I go ahead and give them the recipe.
His grandmother is an amazing cook, and anytime we went to her house in Tempe we where mostly like in for a real feast. She has spent a good part of her life perfecting recipes passed down to her from her mother and collecting recipes from others when she's tasted something good. She shared a story with me once. She had gone to someone's house, or a church function or something. This woman had made this delicious dessert of some kind. A cake or something. Mother(thats what we call "S"'s grandmother) was really pleased with it, and had asked the woman for the recipe. The owner of the delicious dessert said "Oh, I couldn't possibly part with it. Its a family secret." She has actually asked her a few times, on different occasions over the past 10 yrs or so. It has always bugged her that this woman wouldn't share the recipe with her.
This last Christmas Mother compiled all the recipes that she's become known for and published them in an awesome cookbook. (I think she was getting tired of trying to remember the exact recipe when a 3rd generation female relative would call her.) She told me that if someone ever asked about the recipe of something she had put in the cookbook that it was okay to pass them along.
I'm always looking for good, new recipes, and I would assume other young mothers would too. Getting a recipe from someone you know has made it and has had success with it makes it easier for you to try it. I've purchased cookbooks, and looked at the black and white on the page and thought "ya but is it good?".
So if I was to start a cooking blog, kept it private (i.e. can't find it on the blog search), and gave as much information as to where I found a recipe, would you even be interested in reading it? I love to hear from people when they have made things that I've given them the recipe for. Especially when they've altered it and made it their own. Let me know what you think about this. Should I go ahead with it or not?
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 11/17/2005 09:23:00 AM :: 11 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Smell of Wet Dog
Wednesday's at 10:30am are our regular park playgroup days. Last night we had our first hard freeze, "Sy" didn't wake up till 9:30am, and I had some errands I needed to run around town so we didn't go to playgroup. While running around I promised "W" that if he was good and stayed with me, (yesterday while I was putting "Sy" in her car seat "W" took off running down the sidewalk and around the corner of the store. It truly scared me to death.) that we could go to the park after all of my stops.
He kept his end of the bargain, so I had to keep my end. "W" has a tendancy to not like things to end, any time we go to a place he likes, (the park, or volleyball, or even the UPS store with the cool toy) he makes it very hard to leave. I end up having to practically drag him away kicking, screaming and crying. This makes me not want to take him to the park, but I promised. Instead of going to the park we have playgroup at I decided to take him to the park with the dog park. He loves to see the dogs. Its a long stretch with a sidewalk running along the fenced in dog part of the park, and to the other side of the sidewalk is a hill that ends in a type of bowl in the middle of the park. Great for kids to really run and get some energy used up. As we pulled up to the park I noticed that the sprinklers were running on the far side of the dog run. It wasn't watering the sidewalk part where we would be so I let the kids get out anyway.
"W" was running down the sidewalk, "Sy" clumsily running behind him trying to keep up, and I was walking slowly behind her. "W" stopped to look at some Shar-Pei's on the other side of the fence. As "Sy" and I were walking towards him, I was close to about 10 feet away; the sprinklers changed their setting. The group of sprinklers turned on right where we were. A long spray separated me from "W". At the moment neither of us were getting wet ("Sy" was on my hip), but the sprinkler was turning to where "W" was standing. I encouraged him to run parallel to the sprinkler down the hill into the grassy bowl area. He was too freaked out, he just stood there. I kept telling him, "run, run down the hill. You won't get wet, just run down the hill". Instead he started to cry a little and back up. The sprinkler that was separating us was getting closer to him, and he was backing up into the spray from the sprinkler behind him. The sprinkler behind him started spraying on him, and he started to cry more. Once that one passed, then the one between us started to spray on him. He started to cry even more. By this point I had a clear path too him, I ran to him and helped him run down the hill between still more sprinklers. We ran up the otherside of the bowl, and started walking to the truck so we could go home. His hair was all wet and his shoulders and the tops of his arms.
He was sad that we were going home, he wanted to see the dogs. I told him all the dogs were going home too because they didn't want to get wet either. As I was loading him up into the truck I smelled his wet hair. Even though he hadn't touched any dogs, he smelled like wet dog. It made me smile.
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 11/16/2005 02:42:00 PM :: 2 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Midnight Robbery
With the thought that my In-Laws are coming to visit next week for Thanksgiving, I started to get quite anxious looking at my extremely dirty carpets. (Imagine; 3 years in the house with young children, and they've never been cleaned!)
I have been wanting to get the carpets cleaned for over a year now, but the idea of my family coming and seeing how bad they are really made me jump into action. Yesterday I went to Walmart to rent a Steam Cleaner. I wasn't planning on doing the whole house just the high traffic area between the garage door and the kitchen, and then the dining room area, so I figured I could do it myself. When I was signing the paperwork I realized that it was only a 24 hr rental, and that it had to be back by 1pm today (wednesday). Tuesday nights are when our alumni group have chat, and since I'm the host, moderator, and creator its important that I be at the chat night. I decided that it was going to be a long night for me.
While I was chatting with all my old music major friends, "S" had fallen asleep on the couch around 8:30pm. I ended my conversation so I could shoo him off to bed and get started on my task of cleaning the carpets. When I woke him up, he was really startled, he didn't know where he was, or what was happening. I scooted him off to bed, and while he was brushing his teeth I got out the vacuum and starting to vacuum the carpet. I had assumed that Shane would come out and ask me why I was vacuuming at 9pm at night, but he must have been really tired because he had gone right to sleep.
After I finished vacuuming the house I got out the steam cleaner. Read the directions, mixed the solution and turned on the machine. I was hoping that it would have been quieter than the vacuum, but instead it was much louder. I was expecting "S" to come wondering out asking me what I was doing. Every time I turned off the machine to change out the water I would expect to hear one of my kids crying. It ended up being a very quiet night. No kids were awoken and neither was my husband. I had moved some furniture around, and pushed the dining table against the back sliding glass door. I finished up my job around 11:30pm and then went to bed.
This morning when "S" came in to kiss me goodbye, I waited to hear him say he noticed that I had done the carpets. He said "wow, the carpets look really good, I didn't even know you did that." I told him I was up till 11:30pm doing it. Later on around mid-morning I called him at work to continue the conversation. I asked him if he really had no clue that I was steam cleaning the carpet last night. I told him I was expecting him to wake up and come out, dreary-eyed and confused.
He told me he hadn't had a clue that I was doing that last night. When he went to bed he assumed I had come to bed too. He said that throughout the night he had dreamt that we were being robbed. And this morning when he walked out to the kitchen to eat breakfast and saw that the furniture wasn't in their normal places had jumped to the conclusion that maybe he wasn't dreaming! He flipped on the light and discovered that everything was still there just moved around, and instead the carpet was really clean.
I have always said my husband was a heavy sleeper, but to dream that the loud noises he was actually hearing in real-life was a burgler is pretty funny. Then this morning actually think that maybe he wasn't dreaming is even more funny! Even though it had caused him to have weird dreams he was very impressed that I cleaned the carpets myself in the middle of the night.
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 11/16/2005 02:22:00 PM :: 3 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Monday, November 14, 2005
Silly fears
My biggest fear is that I have done(or will do something) that offends someone. I am always afraid that I've said something or done something that will make (or has made) someone not want to associate with me ever again. After conversations with someone I sit and knit pick and analyze everything that was said and look for something that I wish I hadn't, or had said a different way. I wonder if they're thinking "geez, she's not as cool as I thought she was". I seek out approval, I need that validation. I do something I think is cool, but I can't wait to hear what others think (blog comments included). Why do I do that to myself? Its one of those things about my personality I wish I could change. Can I? Will I ever? Will I always seek out validation? Will I always care what people think?
If I go for a few weeks or months without hearing from someone I begin to think of things that I might have done to make them not want to talk to me anymore. Is it really my fault? Why do I constantly think I've done something?
Please validate that I am not a loser, that I am a cool person, that I do okay things, and that you like reading my posts. Please. If you don't, of course I will understand...
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 11/14/2005 08:18:00 PM :: 12 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Proud as a Peacock
Its the right of any mom to be proud of her kids. Just as a warning to all those "Anti-Mommy Blog" people out there, this is one you won't want to read...
The other day as we were walking in through the front door of the house, my son pointed at the pumpkins by the front door. He said "Look, Mommy, Four pumpkins, 1, 2, 3, 4. Four Pumpkins." I was so proud! I have been working with him on his numbers for awhile, he knows the names of them all but when it came to actual counting he'd do it his own way. "1, 5, 3, 6, 8, 2, 4, 9..." I know this may not be a big deal for other moms, but it was for me!
For about a week now he has been playing "Peek-A-Boo" with his little sister in the car, and at dinner time. Its so cute, and I love that he's playing nicely with her. Its what I always looked forward to with kids, the cute things. Some days it seems like there is nothing but yelling, fighting and tears, so on days like this it makes me really happy. Yesterday while trying to get him dressed for church he was playing "Peek-A-Boo" with me. He kept saying "peek-a-boo mommy", over and over. Then completely and totally on his own he said "peek-a-boo Winnie-The-Pooh". I giggled and thought, wow, he just found a word that rhymed. Again, no biggie to anyone else, but I was so proud!
"W" has been singing a lot more lately. I'm proud of him just for that. But yesterday at church his Nursery teacher said he did very good. He played well with the other kids, he was nice and respectful, and he participated in singing time. The funny thing is, she said, is that he was always a couple of notes behind. My thought is that he was waiting to hear the phrase before singing. Thats my only explanation for him constantly being behind. But he participated, he sat still, and he sang. I was so proud!
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 11/14/2005 12:34:00 PM :: 7 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Friday, November 11, 2005
My Daughter's Birth Story
My husband and I had decided quickly after our first baby was born that we wanted another as soon as possible. Because our son was so big and it took me so long to recover from the c-section I felt like I had missed out on the newborn stage. I felt jipped and we wanted another newborn. We wanted all our children to be close together, get them done and over with if you know what I mean.
Because I was nursing my son, I didn't have a cycle till he was 10 months old. And boom, we got pregnant again. We found out we were pregnant about a week before my son's 1st birthday. We were really excited, and figured out that meant this baby would be due in July of 2004, they'd be 19 months apart. We went up to Idaho to spend Thanksgiving with my husband's family. We wanted to wait a little bit before telling everyone the news, so we kept the secret to ourselves. Thanksgiving night I came down with a stomach flu, then my baby, and my sister-in-law, my husband, and my father-in-law. It was a wonderful time!
I planned on making the announcement of this new baby at Christmas time. My in-laws were planning on coming down. I made two iron-on t-shirts for my son to wrap and put under the tree. The first said "I'm going to be a Big Brother", and the second said "The Big Brother". Since my in-laws weren't going to be here ON christmas day but a day or two after we would only have that one present under the tree along with all the presents for the rest of the family. They'd see that present under the tree addressed to Will and they'd say "oh, theres another present for him." I'd casually say, "oh why don't you go ahead and open that for him". They'd open it, and see the t-shirts and be really surprised and excited. Well, it ended up that only my father-in-law was able to come down, so we had him open it. He saw the t-shirts, and was indeed surprised, but he also said "how did you keep this a secret at Thanksgiving? You know Mom did suspect something when you got sick". But I really did have the stomach flu just like everyone else did.
I spent three whole days going through the phone book looking for a doctor. It had to be a woman, in private practice (or at least her own office), willing to do a vbac, and taking new patients. Finally I found one.
I had the first ultrasound on February 13th 2005. We had to go to the hospital to have it done. I kept expecting the technican to ask us if we wanted to know the sex of the baby. Thats what they did with our son in Phoenix, so just assumed this person would do the same thing. Did it come to a surprise when she started to wipe off my belly and say okay, you're done, without ever asking us the question. So I asked her "So, what was the sex?" She said "Oh, well you didn't ask at the beginning, so I didn't check". I was fuming! I said "Well, I'm asking now!" This woman was the biggest meany-face (not the word I want to use, but you get it) I had ever met. She was rough, and pushy, and impersonal throughout the whole exam. She tried to see what the sex was but the baby was in the wrong position. I left that ultrasound room in tears. Not only was I treated poorly, but the due date of July 8th was a little off. They pushed my due date back to July 20th.
My doctor was very sympathetic, and requested that I get another ultrasound in a few weeks to see verify that the due date should be changed. She also thought it would be nice to give me a better experience and see what the sex would be.
I went back in for another ultrasound, and the same technican was there again. I thought I was going to start crying before it even started! She looked at my chart and said "we've already done this, why are we doing it again?" I told her "the doctor wanted to verify that the measurements are correct so they can officially change my due date." She gave a heavy sigh and said "okay fine." I also said "Okay and I'm asking you upfront, I would like to know the sex of the baby this time." She then responded after looking at my chart again "we did last time but the baby wasn't in a good postition." I said "Yah after you stopped and I requested that you look for the sex." I wasn't going to back off this time, my husband had to work and I had a 15 month old with me as well. She was just as rude, in a hurry, rough and pushy as she was the first time. And then she said "I think its a girl, but I wouldn't go betting at the horse races on it."
I left the room, mad at this woman for being so rude, but also scared to death that I might be having a girl. I had always planned on having boys, I grew up a tomboy and the only girl, I didn't know what it was like to have a girl.
Throughout the pregnancy I was very concerned that this baby would run as big as my son did. Remember, he was 9 lbs 1 oz. I was planning on a vbac. I worried about the fact that my previous doctor said I had a heart shaped pelvis and wondered if that was what made my son turn breech. And I worried that the back pain that I experienced with my first pregnancy, and was starting to get with this pregnancy might also have something to do with his turning breech. I requested from the doctor a name for a chiropractor. I went for adjustments throughout the pregnancy.
July 9th, 2004 the day after my original due date my husband and I went to a concert with some friends at the zoo. We saw Indigo Girls! It was so much fun.
Because of my concern about size, the doctor scheduled me for another ultrasound around 38 weeks. To determine the size, because of my bad experiences at the hospital, they sent me to a private ultrasound lab. It was so wonderful, they even did the cool 4D ultrasounds. They estimated the size of the baby being around 7 1/2 pounds, (which is what the doctor had guessed just by measuring my abdomen externally), and were finally able to determine that I was definitely having a girl. We had also discussed if the baby was of good size possibly scheduling an induction rather than waiting for me to go into labor on my own. We both felt that because I was having a V-bac it would be better if I were induced so I could be monitored throughout the process. My induction was scheduled for Friday July 16th. On Tuesday July 13th I received a call from my doctors office that my doctor was leaving town for Wisconsin for a family emergency, and that there was probably little chance that she would be back for my induction on Friday. The nurse told me they would be calling the hospital to cancel the induction. I was really frustrated. I went in for my normal checkup on wednesday and saw the Midwife in my doctors office. (who by the way was awesome and if my insurance had allowed I probably would have seen her the entire time). As of Wednesday July 14th, I was showing no progress. She said that if nothing happened between then and the following Tuesday for my next appt with the Doctor that they would schedule me for an induction.
My mom had flown in on Wednesday afternoon so she could help out with Will, since I was supposed to be having the baby that weekend, and would be staying for two weeks. Thursday it was like close to 100 degrees, I drove our Aerostar Minivan that didn't have working air conditioning to go pick up my husband from work so we could go to furniture stores to look at new dining tables. I remember the store we decided to buy from, one of the salespeople asking me when I was due. I told her not until the 20th. She wished me good luck.
Friday morning at 1:30am I woke up to having contractions. It felt like really bad menstral cramps that were centered around my c-section incision. I tried to sleep a little longer, and didn't want to wake up my husband yet. After a few more hours, and not being able to sleep I started tracking the contractions. They were 10 minutes apart but around 3:30am were getting much stronger and were 5 minutes apart. I woke up my sleeping husband. The first thing he said was "darn there goes all the things we had planned to do today!" And then he fell back asleep! Can you believe that? I got my things together, and got dressed. Tried to sleep a little more but really couldn't. The pain was all around my incision. I had read in all the books that contraction pain felt like a rolling sensation from the top of the uterus to the bottom. Mine felt like lightning strikes right at my c-section scar. At 4:30am, with the contractions being about 3 minutes apart I woke him up AGAIN and told him that he needed to take me to the hospital. He got up and Showered, can you believe that? I'm in pain and he's taking his time in the shower? :-) We woke up my mom and told her we were going to the hospital.
We arrive at the hospital and go up to the OB floor. I go to sign in and there my name was on the list. The doctors office had never called the hospital to cancel my induction and they were expecting me at 5am. Thats when I arrived, 5am! They had my room ready for me and everything. We get all settled in the room, and I go get changed into the hospital gown. The nurse checks me at 5:30am and I was 2 centimeters dialated. Right after the nurse left I felt my water break, but wasn't sure thats what had happened.
After my water broke my contractions were still 5 minutes apart but the strength of them had dimished dramatically. She said that I could either continue like this or that I could be given a pitocin to help things along, but she gave me this big warning that there was a higher risk of uterine rupture with women that were given pitocin than those that weren't. The doctor left, and my husband and I discussed what we should do. We decided that I should get the pitocin.
At about 8:30am the new shift started and since my regular doctor was in Wisconsin, the back-up doctors were the ones that attended me. At 9am or so the new doctor on shift came in the check me. I had been on Pitocin for a few hours and was not doing very well. Every contraction was like fire and lightning being thrown right at my incision and I felt like I was going to rip open. I couldn't handle the pain. The doctor said I was still at only 2 centimeters. I told her that I thought my water had broke shortly after I had arrived at the hospital. The nurse tested for it, and my suspicion had been confirmed. The doctor said since my water had broke, and I was on pitocin there was no reason why I couldn't get an epidural right then even though I was only 2 centimeters dialated. The anethesiologist came in about 30 minutes later and gave me my epidural. I was SO greatful!
The rest of the day I was able to relax a little, and gain some strength. I labored all day and all night. As I progressed the left side of my incision (where I believe it tore a little more than the doctor had cut when my son was born) was hurting A LOT! So every few hours the nurse and my husband would rotate me from my right side to my left side (and back) so the pain meds to concentrate on that side. Farther on in the night, with every contraction my baby's heart rate would drop. The nurse suggested that I be put on oxygen. Because I am a little claustrophobic Shane requested that they use the nose tubes, but the nurse said it wasn't neccessary that the mask be right on my face. I was able to just let it rest on the pillow close to my nose.At 11 pm I was 4 centimeters dialated. The nurse and doctor expected that it would still be awhile. It seemed like the epidural was starting to wear off and I was beginning to feel a lot of pressure. At 1 am the nurse checked me again and I was 10 centimeters and plus 1. She started to get me set up to start pushing. I did a little bit of pushing with the nurse, and then at 1:15am the doctor came in and we got down to business. I pushed for 1 hour 45 minutes before my baby girl was born. My daughter was born at 3:03 am on July 17th. 7 pounds, 12 1/2 ounces, 20 1/2 inches long. She had quite the egg-head, and the first thing I noticed was the red mark on her eyelid and the line on her top lip. The same line that runs between my nose and top lip.
I had tested postive for group B strep earlier on in the pregnancy, so was required to stay in the hospital for three days so the baby could be monitored. About an hour after the delivery (or at least it seemed like it was an hour, maybe it was longer than that) I was wheeled up to the 5th floor for recovery. My little girl stayed in the room with me. The only time she went to the nursery was to be cleaned up, weighed, measured, and given her first shots. On Monday, July 19th I was supposed to go home, but that morning the pediatrician had come in and thought my baby was showing a lot of jaundice. We sat around in the hospital room waiting to receive the billiblanket we were supposed to take home with her. At 5pm, we were fed up with waiting, talked with the head nurse and checked ourselves out. We told the nurse if they guy comes to deliver the billiblanket he was to turn around and deliver it to our house instead, and with that we left!
Over the next week I had to take my little girl in to get her toes pricked to test her blood. They wanted to see if her jaundice was improving. It was so frustrating. To me she didn't seem any worse then my son had been. But then again, we moved when he was only a week old, he probably slipped through the cracks. She had to sleep under that light for 5 days at home. She was supposed to be under the light at all times except for feedings and diaper changes. It was so hard not being able to hold and cuddle her. I felt like I was being robbed of my newborn cuddling time again!Because my mom and all my inlaws had come down a few days after this baby's birth my friend decided to throw my baby shower AFTER the birth rather than before. I am so glad she did, my family was able to be there. They had missed the baby shower for my son and I didn't want them to miss another one as well.
She was such a good baby, she would sleep for 7 hour stretches, and hardly every cried. She was born exactly 5 days shy of my son turning 20 months old. He was excited about "the baby", but wasn't really sure. One minute he would be giving her kisses, and the next minute he'd smack her across the head. Poor thing, she quickly learned how to play the victim or "damsel in distress". I sure hope she learns how to be a tough girl as she gets older.
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 11/11/2005 02:32:00 PM :: 2 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Ode To Washington
When we were first married, I would often have days where I would get really down and miss Washington State. A lot! We often talked about where we wanted to live when "S" was done with school. Since his family is in Idaho and my family is in Washington we often talked about somewhere in between. Do you know whats exactly middle between Kennewick, WA and Shelley, ID? Boise, Idaho. Not a bad town, actually its a great little town. But we knew that we couldn't completely determine where we would move when school was done, it all depended on where he got a job. And after 9/11/2001 we would be lucky to be offered a job at all!
My husband and I both worked for the same company. Cox Communications. At least thats where we got our paychecks from. I actually worked for CableRep Arizona, (now named Cox Media) which was the advertising side of Cox Communications, at the other end of town. He worked in North Phoenix, and I worked in Downtown Phoenix. During the day we would write emails back and forth to each other. Continue conversations that we had from the night before, or just send each other little notes to make each other smile. It was fun.
I think he sent this to me one morning after I had a bad cry the night before during the first year of our marriage.
I am not talking about the president at Valley Forge,
I am not talking about the city on the east coast,
It is the beautiful state on the Columbia Gorge,
It is even better than I boast
With wonderful seasons, all four,
The state abounds with fruit and greens,
And sagebrush and aroma, rain and more,
Wind and shine and many pretty scenes,
Most of all, friends who care,
Sadie who misses you, and family too,
Peace and silent nights fill the air,
And sometimes horsy, llama, and cow pie --Pee-Eww
Shane loves you.
Water abounds not from local skies,
But underground and in a glittering river nearby.
Small town Washington girls and boys go away,
But in their hearts they know they will be back someday.
(This is Sadie)
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 11/10/2005 10:16:00 AM :: 7 Comments: ---------------------------------------
Saturday, November 05, 2005
My Son's Birth Story - Pre-Pregnancy
I don't know why I decided I needed to write about this specific event. Its been on my mind all week. Maybe its that his birthday is coming up in a few weeks. Maybe it was spurred about by reading Proud Mum's trip to the emergency room with "Little Red" for croup, or reading GoofyJ's recount of her son's heart surgery. This week has been hard on me.
(There are three consecutive posts; "pre-pregnancy", "pregnancy and delivery", and "RSV", I feel they are all part of his birth story but was just too long to be in one post all together).
9 months after we were married my husband and I discussed the idea that maybe it was time to bring a baby into our family. He wasn't even a year through school and still had two more years left before he graduated. I was working fulltime so we could eat while he was going to school and working parttime but we really felt sure of it. I had only been taking the pill since we were married and stopped taking it after only nine months. The first three cycles were a little irregular, as to be expected after stopping the pill. At the end of the first cycle I experienced a horrible bladder infection. I had never had one before and didn't know what was happening. It had spread into my kidneys, but luckily it was caught, I was given antibiotics and stayed home from work for a few days. When I first started noticing that something wasn't right I thought I was pregnant. (I had never done that before either so didn't know what to expect.) After those first three cycles, my body basically turned off. For almost a year I went without having a cycle at all. The pill that I had only taken for 9 months had messed up my system so bad it took over a year to get back to normal.
We were in Phoenix, hundreds of miles away from any friends or family. Its kinda funny, I remember during that "dry spell" we were at my husband's aunts house in Mesa. One of his married cousins asked when we were going to have a baby. Before we could come up with an answer (or excuse) her mom gave her the excuse for us. "Honey, please, don't bug them, they are in school, they don't have any family here to help out." We didn't have to say anything to anyone, everyone assumed we were just waiting till we were done with school.
Looking back I realize it was all for the best. We found out we were pregnant in March of 2002, the baby would be due in November. Almost exactly a month after my husband would be graduating from college. It couldn't have been better planned. If we had gotten pregnant before then my husband probably would have had to go part-time to school or drop out completely. We wanted a baby, but while we were still in school wasn't going to work. We found out on July 3rd of that year we were going to have a boy.
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 11/05/2005 07:55:00 PM :: 9 Comments: ---------------------------------------
My Son's Birth Story - Pregnancy and Delivery
My husband graduated from DeVry University October 2002. I was exactly 36 weeks. From about 16 weeks on I had continuous back pain right at my hips. It always felt like something was out of place, like my hips and back were out of alignment. I woke up the morning of the graduation to start getting ready for the ceremony; I sensed that something was different. I had a little bit of adominal pain and finally decided that the baby had turned overnight. That day I discovered how strong-willed and determined and head-strong my son was and would be later. He had turned breech.
I called my doctors office and talked with the nurse, explained to her that I really thought the baby was breech and wasn't 36 weeks a little late for that to happen? She told me that I had nothing to worry about that if the baby was breech that its more than likely that he would turn again before his due date. For weeks I dealt with the uncomfortable feeling of a head been shoved up under my ribs, and his feet dancing on my left hipbone. I couldn't breath and was constanting trying to push his head out of my ribs.
I went in for my 39 week checkup and the baby was still breech. He had stayed that way since 36 weeks, never moved. I had been trying to ask the doctor if she noticed if the baby was not normally positioned for weeks. She said she thought the baby was head down, and that there was nothing I should be concerned about. At this checkup she did a check and decided that there was a body part at the bottom that WAS NOT the head and scheduled me for an immediate ultrasound.
The ultrasound was later that day and had confirmed my suspicion for the past three weeks. The baby was breech. Not only was he breech he was quite big. Ultrasound size estimates aren't always accurate, but they guessed that he was 8 pounds 14 ounces a week before my due date. the sac was starting to break down, and the vernix was coming off. These are all signs that the baby is ready to be born.
Months before my husband graduated he had been offered and had accepted a job in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Rather than trying to move a month before the baby was born and try to get all the insurance and doctor stuff worked out we decided to stay in Phoenix till Thanksgiving weekend. He would start his job on December 2nd. Our families were coming down to see the new baby, celebrate Thanksgiving at my husbands grandparents house, and help us move.
The ultrasound was performed on a Monday. My due date was a week from the next day, Tuesday November 26th. Thanksgiving was a week from that Thursday on November 28th. My husbands family was arriving that Saturday, November 23rd. On Wednesday November 20th, I went in to see the doctor again. She said we could wait till I went into Labor, and try to do a version. I informed her of our plans to move the following week. She thought I was crazy but understood our urgency. She suggested a new method. Her twin sister was a chiropractor and had lots of success with the webster technique(there is more info about it here and here.) I told her I was willing to try anything.
My Doctors twin sister had her chiropractic office in the same medical complex as my doctor. Later that same Wednesday afternoon we went to her office. After giving me a full adjustment she performed the webster technique. Really all it involved was putting pressure on a specific nerve in the left hip area. This is supposed to make the baby uncomfortable and want to move. Immediately after this procedure we went back to my apartment where I was supposed to lay on my back with my feet elevated above my head for 10 minute exactly. This was believed to make it easier for the baby to turn.
Later that afternoon I was still very concerned about our time schedule. I needed at least a week to recover a little before moving to Albuquerque. I called the doctors office and talked with her about having a scheduled c-section. She suggested waiting a little longer, or possibly trying the webster technique again. I was all for that but still wanted it scheduled just in case. I hung up with the doctor, the nurse called the hospital and scheduled an operating room for Friday November 22nd at 8am for my c-section.
Thursday November 21st I woke up, and nothing had changed. I went to the chiropractor again. She adjusted me, and performed the webster technique again. I went home and put my feet up (literally) for another 10 minutes. We spent the rest of the day walking around the mall trying to induce labor. We went to bed knowing the next day our son would be born by cesarean section. My theory is no matter how long I had waited I probably wouldn't have gone into labor on my own. The baby wasn't putting any pressure on the cervix to even cause labor to start.
Friday morning we woke up at 4:00am to be at the hospital by 5am. Got checked in and then they prepped me for surgery. They asked me if I wanted a spinal or an epidural. They explained the differences to me. A spinal made you numb from the chest down where an epidural was only from the waist down. A spinal only lasts for 30-45 minutes where an epidural lasts from 45-60 minutes. A spinal is stronger. You can't move anything. I was so scared of feeling anything I chose the spinal.
At 7:45am or so I was wheeled into the operating room. The surgery began at 8am. Once the doctor had me open she reached in to pull my baby out. I don't think he was in the position she was expecting him to be in, because I remember she let out a gasp and said "oops I just grabbed his balls". He had bruised balls for three weeks after his birth. I remember her really tugging on him and really pushing on me to try and get him out. I believe the inner layers of muscle tore farther than she had cut on the left side of my incision because he was so jammed in there. Even now I have little jabs of pain at the left side of my incision. The doctor commented that she had never worked this hard on a c-section before. She was perspiring. At 8:30am he was born. The doctor commented that he was really big. He was so jammed in there, and had been in that position for so long one side of his head was lower than the other. My ribs had run right along the middle of his head and had forced one side lower than the other. I freaked out inside, thinking I was going to have a mutated boy. As soon as they layed him down on the infant table to get him cleaned up he peed. He sent a huge arc flying onto the floor. Everyone laughed. He measured 9 pounds, 1 ounce, 21 inches long. He was then taken to the nursery to have his blood sugar levels tested. There is always a chance with larger babies that they can have high blood sugar.
As the doctor was closing she felt something that seemed weird to her and asked her assistant to look as well. She told me that she thought I had a heart-shaped pelvis. (whatever that meant). She said that she thought I might have a tough time laboring and delivering in the future, if I tried for a vbac. That freaked me out a little. As soon as I had scheduled the c-section that wednesday I knew my next baby would be delivered V-bac. While I was laying there waiting to be able to hold my baby I noticed an aching type pain developing in my shoulders and neck. I asked the anethesiologist and he said there were air bubbles trapped inside that floated up to my shoulders. He mercifully gave me more pain medication.
They wheeled me back to the room where I spent 3 days in the hospital really drugged up. My husband made phone calls to close friends and family. Our immediate family where on their way down to Arizona. Our best friends came to the hospital and visited. We were pretty much the only patients on the floor and the nurses took very good care of us. We rented and watched a few movies in my room. My husband slept in the room every night. The food (once I was able to eat solids) was very good.
The only thing kinda wierd was getting used to the nurses as they changed shifts. Some nurses gave me pain meds every 6 hours on clockwork, they believed it was better to give the next dose before the last dose wore off so I wouldn't feel any pain. Other nurses(old school) said they worried that I would become addicted and would only give me meds if I asked for it. By that point I was crying with pain. I was encouraged to walk only a few hours after the surgery. I felt like I was going to tear open and my insides would burst out. I had horrible pains from the air bubbles trapped inside. It cause the aches in my shoulders but also horrible abdominal pain.
When my baby and I were released, my husband took me home to our apartment. Which happened to be on the 3rd floor. That was the longest flight of stairs I had ever climbed. I don't remember much else until my husbands family arrived. I remember trying to get up in the middle of the night when my baby cried, and crying myself because it was so hard. My mother-in-law and my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were so sweet. They fell in love with my son immediately. The next day my parents arrived. The day before Thanksgiving my mom drove me to my doctors appointment to have my staples removed, and then to my son's very first checkup. I had planned on putting some clothes together for myself and the baby as my husband, my dad and my in-laws would be packing up our apartment while I was gone. I had gotten a bag together for the baby but nothing for me yet. When I returned to the apartment everything was completely packed. I had to wear the same underwear for the next three days. There was no way I could get to my dresser as it was in the back of the u-haul trailer. I burst into tears. It had been my first day out since the delivery and just riding in the car was exhausting.
Thursday was Thanksgiving day. Everyone went to my husbands grandparents house in Tempe. It was a wonderful day but it was bitter-sweet. It would be the last day we would spend in Phoenix. Our best friends came to dinner. My mother-in-law was worried that my baby had a bit of jaundice. With her second son she got in big trouble by the doctor, and her baby had to be readmitted. My son was put in the sunshine while we ate dinner. (When my daughter was born the jaundice was taken very seriously, I was sent home with a billiblanket. I think if it wasn't for the fact that I had moved so quickly after he was born he would have probably needed one too. I swear he was worse than she was).
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 11/05/2005 07:45:00 PM :: 1 Comments: ---------------------------------------
My Son's Birth Story - RSV
Friday my baby son and I rode in my dads truck. My mom rode in our Tacoma with my husband. We drove to Albuquerque. That was a very long drive. My baby loved the ride and slept almost the entire way. I had to wake him for feedings. We got to our apartment to discover that the new carpet we were promised was not in. We had to stay in a hotel room across the street for a night so they could finish installing it. My dad and my husband unpacked all our belongings into our house. That Sunday my parents went home. The next day, Monday, my husband started his new job. I started to feel more like myself. I had only gained 23 pounds during my pregnancy with my son. I was back into my pre-pregnancy jeans two weeks after delivery. His face and head straightened out in just a few days. No he doesn't look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
A few days before Christmas I developed a clogged duct. That evening while watching a movie I started to get chills, and I developed a fever. I went to bed and ached all over, I couldn't stop shivering. My husband was freaking out. We had only been in Albuquerque for a few weeks and we didn't have anyone we could call. At 11pm my husband called my doctor back in Phoenix. She told us what had happened and what needed to be done.
A day or two after Christmas my in-laws came down for a visit. It was a wonderful visit and we were so glad they came. The first week of January my baby developed a cold. At first I wasn't too worried, but as the days went on it quickly got worse. He was very wheezy and I was scared to even leave him in his crib, even though it was in the same room. He slept on my chest so I could hear him breathing. I called the pediatrician, and they told me to bring him in immediately. The doctor was concerned, thinking it might develop to phnemonia. He had to have x-rays of his lungs. Luckily he didn't have phnemonia. They tested his blood to see what his oxygen saturation levels were. They weren't too low so they let me take him home. I was instructed to keep a bulb syringe near by to keep his nasal passages clear and to bring him in the next day for another test.
The next day it was even lower. They told me it was right on the borderline for hospital admittance for RSV. They would rather play it safe and have him monitored at the hospital just in case it got worse. I called my husband from the doctors office and told him to meet me at the hospital. I cried as I drove to the hospital. He was admitted on January 8th. I was a new mom, what mistake had I made already that allowed my baby to get RSV. Had I waited too long once he got a cold to bring him to the doctor? I was an inexperienced mom that didn't understand the dangers of such a young baby getting a cold.
The Relief Society president and the secretary had called the day before (Jan 7th) to see if they could come visit me that day(Jan 8th). When they went to my apartment and I wasn't there they immediately knew where I was. They called the hospital to find out if a baby had been admitted under our last name. When they found out they rushed to the hospital to be there with me. They hadn't even met me. They arrived before my husband did. They walked in to his room, here I am sitting on the bed, looking at him lying there on the other bed with oxygen tubes in his nose. When I looked up and they introduced themselves I immediately started to cry. I didn't have to be strong anymore, there was somone else there to hold me up.
Looking back at the 3 days I spent in the hospital with my baby I realize how naive I was. I assumed that because my baby was the size of a 4 month old at 6 weeks old he was 4 month old. He only had to stay in the hospital for 3 days, but those were the longest 3 days of my life. Every night while he was sleeping his saturation levels would drop and the alarm would go off. Every time I changed his diaper the nurse would take it to weigh it to see how much urine he had put out in a certain number of hours. I read through all the paperwork they gave me on RSV while I stayed there for 3 days.
He was lucky. He had a very mild case. I have heard of other babies having scarred lung tissue, they have to have breathing treatments for years. Children that get wheezy every time they get a cold. Children developing Asthma. Childrens getting Croup once or twice a year. I had thought my son wasn't going to have any side effects from having RSV. This week, watching my son fight a cold he's had going on 3 weeks now; I realized that maybe my son didn't luck out completely. I believe he does have a side effect of getting RSV so young. I believe a cold that he should be over in a week hangs on for two to three weeks, or sometimes longer. If thats the only side effect that he got from it I am so greatful.
So many other things have happened to my son since that time, but none of them required a trip to the hospital. Even though his RSV occurred at 6 weeks of age I consider that the end of his birth story. Anything that happened after that is part of his baby story. There are many of those baby stories, and toddler stories and I'm sure there will be many more as he grows to preschooler. I feel just as inexperienced for every hurdle I come to with him as a toddler as I did with a newborn. I guess thats just part of the world of mommyhood. Learn a little as you go.
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 11/05/2005 07:43:00 PM :: 0 Comments: ---------------------------------------
