Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Thanksgiving visitor
Got a call today saying Spuds brother was coming into care. Little J showed up a few hours later. Urgent care visit for a pretty massive case of thrush. But other than that your typical newborn baby who even takes a bottle!
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Spud is a Big Brother
Born exactly 11 months to the day apart. Spud is three inches taller than his baby brother and 9 pounds heavier. I'm bringing her all the stuff the boys outgrew. Because seriously I am not taking more babies. If and or when we have grandchildren they will get new things anyway. But I'm nice sometimes lol.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
no more oxygen
Spud is free. Mostly he freed himself. We have weaned him off from the day and even his naps during the day. He had oxygen still for bedtime. He has decided that he wants to take it off. Last night he was off the off whole nightg. He's monitored so I can still hear if he desats and if he recovers. The monitor went off 4 times last night but recovered up to 94-97 less than 3 beeps later.
Unfortunately all of the babies also have seemed to catch a cold. So we shall see how he does with it. But this is great news.
Unfortunately all of the babies also have seemed to catch a cold. So we shall see how he does with it. But this is great news.
Saturday, November 7, 2015
We have 6
As in 6 kids. Currently I am the expectant mother of 6. A place I had never expected to be when I heard the words, "You have uterine cancer". Just like that my dreams of having children with my new husband had been dashed forever. Countless invasive infertility tests, surgeries, and inseminations down the drain. Wiped away with 4 simple words. Years of trying to conceive a child were dashed with the news that at 27, I needed a total hysterectomy and removal of my ovaries. I was lucky though, because this was secondary infertility. I already have two biological children. They were and are amazing. But I didn't feel lucky.
I moved forward with life and decided on a new route. Time for different dreams. I decided to move 2500 miles away from everything that I'd known in my adult life, to leave all of my extended family, in order to start over. Something was calling me back to Arizona. I thought it was the weather. But I think maybe there was another plan.
The year my daughter started high school was the year I decided that enough was enough and I needed to get serious. $12 an hour and constant struggling was not a lifestyle I wanted to maintain. I decided to fulfill my other dream. When I didn't want to be a mother, I wanted to be a nurse. So I did it. I worked hard and obtained my nursing degree. I did it in steps. LPN then RN. But I did it. I did it with the help of amazing family and support. Just like moving across the country, many thought I couldn't or wouldn't do it. But I did.
Even though we'd moved thousands of miles away, even though I couldn't have children of my own, children were never far from my thoughts. I'd researched many ways to have children. From surrogacy to foreign adoption, and even foster care. Id thought about fostering previous to becoming a nurse. We'd even gone to the first few classes about 6 months after we'd moved to Arizona. I always felt like there was someone missing from our family. Always! But the kids then 10 and 11 at the time, decided that they did not want to share rooms or share parents, because the thought of taking a baby had never crossed my mind. For some reason when I'd thought of foster care it'd always been school aged children, who had issues. So we nixed that idea and didn't think about it again for a few years.
Then I started working Pediatric Home Health Care. I met a wonderful family. They were foster parents. They were foster parents to the most fragile of children. They were busy. They were inspiring. They were a type of foster parent that I didn't even know existed. They were the type of foster parents that a person with a nursing license was destined to become. Because of a special family and a special little girl. I was called to parent again. I think Jackie is our guiding spirit, our guardian angle. She walks with Jesus now, but daily I feel her presence. I can hear her voice, " Miss you should get a baby. So I can help you. I'm a good mother." A few weeks before her 11th birthday we were picking out her doll. All she wanted that year was to be a Mom. We picked out the real life baby doll. A boy doll. She had to have that one. I wish I could find that site I found it on so I could post the picture of it.
Our first baby was born 4 months later around the same time that Emily came to us. She would have loved her too. But she wasn't the baby Jackie had wanted, because she was 3. When D came to us 2.5 months after that, I could feel her smiling down at us. This was her baby. This was the one she'd picked out. My heart sang because here was that real life doll she'd wanted for her birthday that year, the birthday that had never come for her. But I know she is watching.
Samantha, Daniel, Emily, and I can't wait until D and S and M can add their names to this list as well. Is 6 the end? Never say never... Jackie is up there probably waiting to send the next one to us soon.
I moved forward with life and decided on a new route. Time for different dreams. I decided to move 2500 miles away from everything that I'd known in my adult life, to leave all of my extended family, in order to start over. Something was calling me back to Arizona. I thought it was the weather. But I think maybe there was another plan.
The year my daughter started high school was the year I decided that enough was enough and I needed to get serious. $12 an hour and constant struggling was not a lifestyle I wanted to maintain. I decided to fulfill my other dream. When I didn't want to be a mother, I wanted to be a nurse. So I did it. I worked hard and obtained my nursing degree. I did it in steps. LPN then RN. But I did it. I did it with the help of amazing family and support. Just like moving across the country, many thought I couldn't or wouldn't do it. But I did.
Even though we'd moved thousands of miles away, even though I couldn't have children of my own, children were never far from my thoughts. I'd researched many ways to have children. From surrogacy to foreign adoption, and even foster care. Id thought about fostering previous to becoming a nurse. We'd even gone to the first few classes about 6 months after we'd moved to Arizona. I always felt like there was someone missing from our family. Always! But the kids then 10 and 11 at the time, decided that they did not want to share rooms or share parents, because the thought of taking a baby had never crossed my mind. For some reason when I'd thought of foster care it'd always been school aged children, who had issues. So we nixed that idea and didn't think about it again for a few years.
Then I started working Pediatric Home Health Care. I met a wonderful family. They were foster parents. They were foster parents to the most fragile of children. They were busy. They were inspiring. They were a type of foster parent that I didn't even know existed. They were the type of foster parents that a person with a nursing license was destined to become. Because of a special family and a special little girl. I was called to parent again. I think Jackie is our guiding spirit, our guardian angle. She walks with Jesus now, but daily I feel her presence. I can hear her voice, " Miss you should get a baby. So I can help you. I'm a good mother." A few weeks before her 11th birthday we were picking out her doll. All she wanted that year was to be a Mom. We picked out the real life baby doll. A boy doll. She had to have that one. I wish I could find that site I found it on so I could post the picture of it.
Our first baby was born 4 months later around the same time that Emily came to us. She would have loved her too. But she wasn't the baby Jackie had wanted, because she was 3. When D came to us 2.5 months after that, I could feel her smiling down at us. This was her baby. This was the one she'd picked out. My heart sang because here was that real life doll she'd wanted for her birthday that year, the birthday that had never come for her. But I know she is watching.
Samantha, Daniel, Emily, and I can't wait until D and S and M can add their names to this list as well. Is 6 the end? Never say never... Jackie is up there probably waiting to send the next one to us soon.
In pictures
Emily got a new toy! Finally a gait trainer for home. Alternative mode of transport instead of rolling along the floor. With the babies becoming mobile and moving toward walking themselves... this is a very important step for her gaining independence. 
Halloween came and the babies looked adorable. We did not trick-or-treat. D was cranky and I had to hold him up to even snap this pic, plus his face is not visible. S puked everywhere after getting scared by a car driving by. She's afraid of everything these days. Spud's costume had an unfortunate placement of the tail so he couldn't sit well. Plus looks like he was eating his oxygen.
Speaking of Spud. I finally found a newborn picture of him. He turns 1 next month on Pearl Harbor Day. Despite his challenges, he really has come a long way.
Halloween came and the babies looked adorable. We did not trick-or-treat. D was cranky and I had to hold him up to even snap this pic, plus his face is not visible. S puked everywhere after getting scared by a car driving by. She's afraid of everything these days. Spud's costume had an unfortunate placement of the tail so he couldn't sit well. Plus looks like he was eating his oxygen.
Speaking of Spud. I finally found a newborn picture of him. He turns 1 next month on Pearl Harbor Day. Despite his challenges, he really has come a long way.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
A waiting game
Right now we are just waiting on the judge to certify our application to adopt. Then we contact the lawyer to get them to file the intent for each child. The only question... will it be two or three that the intent is for? Nov 18th is the court date for Spud which will be just a change of case plan from reunification/serverance to severance only. However the BM wants to relinquish to us.
Either way I really just can't wait to make these two mine!
Either way I really just can't wait to make these two mine!
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