He's here and we're both safely home.

I apologize to anyone who's already read this in email or message board format. It was a VERY scary ordeal and I am grateful my parents were here to help.

The day started out shitty when Eric woke up with a 101 fever and puking. So, I had to wake up my parents at 5 a.m. to take me to the hospital, thank God Sam was already off school anyway.

That wasn't so bad...... but it started a day of waiting. They got me into a room, started setting me up, then had to wait for the anesthesiologist to get out of an emergency surgery. They even had me in the OR and waiting.

They got me set up, they got Henry out just fine. They were sewing me up and I told the anesthesiologist I was having a throbbing headache, then I started having chest pains. Not the kind where you're being jostled, but the kind that you feel your heart is going to jump through your chest. He told me both were normal. I don't remember chest pains like that when I had Sam.

Meanwhile, they're prepping the next c/s in the next room over for both the o/b and anes. They wheel me back to my room and my nurse starts pushing on my belly and notices WAY too much blood. Both my dad and our friend told her that I looked way pale. She soaks through two layers of pad, telling my mom, dad and our friend Don to leave the room, that she needed to check me. Then she started pushing buttons and "screaming" for the other nurses to get the OB. They kept telling her he was in the OR, she said she didn't care, he needed the be in the room. Ob comes in and I don't remember anything other than being wheeled down the hallway FAST back into the OR.

There is a blood vessel that is supposed to clot and rescind upon removal of the placenta and the uterus contracts. Mine didn't. My uterus just relaxed, so the vessel kept pumping.

I lost a lot of blood and wound up needing 2 pints. I was taken directly to ICU from the OR with a pic line in my carotid vein (not the artery). this was in addition to the two I had in my left hand/arm.
I spent Friday night in ICU, my mom got HJ's band so that she could come and go from the nursery, E was fairly sick at home, still running a fever. Saturday I got another blood test, in hopes they could remove the pic line and I wouldn't need another pint. My dad was ready to go as far as donating (he's O- as well) if I needed it.

Saturday afternoon, my OB turned HJ's monitor off, put him in an isolette, and took him out of the nursery and off the floor to bring him to me. The ob stayed as long as he was permitted without alarms sounding in the nursery. It was the most awesome thing, he and the nurse practitioner from the office spent an hour with me. He told the ICU nurses to go ahead and take out my iv lines, but leave the monstrosity in my neck. I could barely move. I got to get out of hte bed and sit up for a while, but that made me dizzy for a while. He also told them to take out my catheter. Um, yeah, I got my first taste of a bed pan! I had to go and all of a sudden I was going. The night nurse and I played bp check/bed pan leapfrog all night. Every time the blood pressure cuff went off, I had to pee.

Sunday morning, I had another blood test to make sure I was either maintaining or at least not dropping below where I was. My white blood cell count was still high and my blood number was 7.2, a full point higher than Saturday. Since I wasn't dropping, they let me get the pic line out. I sat up for quite a while and as soon as they got the pic line out, I was taken up to the maternity ward. Of course, when I got upstairs, I was laying down again.

They brought HJ in right away, but I didn't hold him long because he's a BIG BOY.

I'm not nursing, didn't even attempt it because well, with all the crap going on, my health was a bit more of a priority. HJ's doing really well on the formula and it makes it easier for me (I know now the reason not to bf, but given the circumstances, I think it's understandable).

He is a PERFECT baby, he's a good eater and sleeper. My mom did a lot of feeding and rocking over the first two days. The nursery staff even let my dad into the nursery even though he didn't have a tag on his wrist. ALL of the nurses in both wards were fawning over Henry.

The on-call pedi did his circ before the OB had a chance, which is fine. He was PHENOMENAL.

Sam just adores him, at first he wasn't too sure of him, but after dinner, he was all about holding him and kissing him. He was quite pissed off that I wouldn't let him pick him up!

I'm on iron supplements for the time being, they'll recheck my blood in two weeks to make sure I'm coming back on my own. Otherwise it will mean more blood.

On affording children.....

The addage goes, "if you wait until you can afford children, you'll never have them." I firmly believe this. You can also have all the best laid intentions for being prepared and lots of things go wrong. Nine months is a LONG TIME.........just ask anyone who's been pregnant.

As for us personally, when we got pregnant this time around, we both had decent jobs at decent wages and we were finally getting on higher ground financially. The weekend I got pregnant is the same week Eric lost his job. Had I known that was going to happen, we'd have stopped trying.

Had I known that three weeks before my scheduled c/s I would lose my own job, we'd have stopped trying. I had no reason at all to think that I wasn't going to eventually be hired permanently at HMH. Unfortunately, my lack of forethought proved me wrong.

Hindsight is 20/20, but the joy of a child in your life is priceless.

Children are a gift from God and should be treated as such.

Developmental Update

Howard Phillips Center

Things in GREEN are what he's able to do as of today, February 12, 2009. Just two short years after starting OT and speech and behavior therapies.

12 - 18 months of age - Receptive Language Skills

• Understands simple one-step commands
• Recognizes body parts when named
• Understands names of common objects by bringing them from another place upon request
• Identifies two or more familiar objects from a group of three to four objects by touching/pointing
• Enjoys listening to rhymes and jingles
• Begins to look more selectively at pictures to recognize them when named

Expressive Language

• Attempts to get objects by pointing and vocalizing
• Uses from three to 20 single words meaningfully
• Imitates many new words
• Uses words of more than one syllable
• Answers questions such as "What's this?"
• Asks for "more"
• Uses two-word combinations as single words such as "gimme"
• Communicates primarily through true words and gestures

18 - 24 months of age - Receptive Language Skills

• Recognizes body parts and clothing articles in large pictures
• Understands simple yes/no questions
• Understands differences in personal pronouns (me, you)
• Follows a series of two - three simple relations commands with the same object
• Appears to listen to meaning of languarge, not merely words
• Recognizes many common objects and pictures as they are named

Expressive Language

• Replaces jargon with meaningful words
• Imitates animal sounds and other environmental sounds in play
• Refers to self by name (only in pictures and mirror, not if you ask him his name)
  
• Uses "no" frequently
• Uses "my" to declare ownership
• Begins combining words to form two-word phrases
• Asks questions by raising pitch of voice at end of word or phrase

2 - 3 years of age - Receptive Language Skills

• Understands actions in pictures
• Recognizes names of smaller body parts (chin, knee, elbow)
• Understands functions of objects
• Understands size concepts big and little
• Understands quantity concepts one, more, all
• Understands spatial concepts in, on, under
• Becomes aware of a sequence and organization for daily routines
• Understands question forms who, where, what doing
• Understands genders (boy/girl)
• Likes to listen to short stories

Expressive Language

• Combines words to express: - Possession: "my coat"
  - Recurrence: "more juice"
  - Action: "go outside"
  - Location: "want up"
  - Negation: "no eat"
• Usually uses two- to four-word phrases
• Asks for help with personal needs
• Uses I, me, mine, you
• Can say first and last name when asked
• Can repeat two numbers in sequence
• Talks about an event that has just happened
• Uses many commands ("go get it")
• Uses here, there
• Begins using "is" verb form
• Speech is understood by others 70 - 80 percent of the time

3 - 4 years of age - Receptive Language Skills

• Understands concepts hard/soft, rough/smooth
• Understands spatial concepts front/back
• Understands question forms, "What do you do when you're hungry? Sleepy?"
• Follows two-step directions involving two different actions

Expressive Language

• Asks many who, what, where, why questions
• Uses four- to five-word sentences most of the time
• Engages in detailed conversations
• Uses language in imaginative play
• Imitates whispering
• Relates two events in correct sequential order
• Completes simple verbal opposites
• Uses verb forms is, am, are
• Uses regular plural forms consistently ("blocks")
• Uses possessives ("mommy's car")
• Begins using "because" as an explanation

4 - 5 years of age - Receptive Language Skills

• Follows series of three unrelated commands
• Identifies two - three primary colors
• Understands concepts heavy/light, loud/quiet, day/night
• Understands directional concepts above/below, top/bottom
• Understands variety of question forms (where, when, how)

Expressive Language

• Combines four to eight words in sentences
• Describes objects according to size, shape, color
• Enjoys re-telling stories
• Enjoys asking meaning of new words
• Uses could and would verb forms
• Uses if and so in forming complex sentences
• Uses no and not" appropriately
• Uses contracted negatives (can't, don't)
• Regularly uses pronouns he, she, they and possessive pronouns his, her, our, their

5 years of age - Full Language Skills

• Defines objects by their use and can tell what objects are made of
• Knows spatial relations like on top, far, behind, and near
• Has a sentence length of five to eight words
• Has a vocabulary of about 2,000 words
• Knows common opposites like big/little and hard/soft
• Understands same and different
• Identifies all primary colors
• Counts ten objects
• Knows his/her address
• Identifies a penny, nickel and dime
• Carries a plot in a story
• Uses future, present, and past tense
• Stays with one activity for 12 -13 minutes
• Asks for information
• Distinguishes left and right hand in him/herself, but not in others

Moved into nightly wakings

Okay, I made it through the majority of my pregnancy......well, almost ALL of it......without getting up nightly to pee.

Past few nights have not been the case. Sometime between 1 and 3, I get up. Last night, I woke up at 1:00 from a contraction, at 3:00 to pee, 5:30 another contraction, and the alarm went off at 6:50.

Contractions are pretty "regular" as in I'm having them every day, but not regular in their timing or spacing. But, I'm still shy of 38 weeks at this point.

The next 8 days are incredibly full of lots of stuff to do, so I'm sure we'll be busy.

• Today and Friday are cleaning days. Some of it's nesting, some of it's just stuff that needs to be done. I'm also applying for jobs all over.
  
• Saturday is Valentine's Day and we have an ice cream birthday party to attend in the afternoon.
• Sunday my parents arrive.
• Monday is free (probably not for long), I hope to go to Ikea with my mom to get new dishes.
• Tuesday is E's big procedure day.
• Wednesday is my last OB appt.
• Thursday is my pre-op appt.
• Friday is eviction day, I mean, HJ's birthday.
  

10 days and counting

I'm tired, exhausted, stretched, sore, ready to be done, I have new stretch marks every single day from probably doing too much......

I can sleep, but it's in one position all night long which just kills my hips and back.

I'm feeling lots of anxiety about being unemployed and feeling the incredible weight of always being the responsible one.

Since I can't get my Picasa album to show up

Here's a link to Duck's artwork from school (CLICK HERE)

To the commentator on Oobi......

PLEASE contact me again with how to contact you! I am VERY much interested in Oobi dvds!

You'd think that because I'm home

My apartment would be spotless and I'd be updating my blog on a daily basis. HA! Life happens, ya know. I can say that I am much more prepared for HJ's arrival than a week ago. I feel like our bedroom can accommodate an infant.

Duck's room could use some work, but I'll get to that today. The living room needs to be picked up, as does the den.

But, most importantly, *I* feel better. I feel more relaxed, I'm getting sleep, last night I didn't move at all. Fell asleep watching Mulan laying on my right side, woke up in the same position this morning, 6 hours later. Usually I roll over at least once, if not twice. I'm waking up without the alarm because it's daylight.

Which reminds me of a childhood story:
When I was little, my dad had a beard. Weird when I think about him having facial hair now, but he did. anyway, he'd wake us up in the morning by flipping on our lights, then rubbing our feet against his beard. It's one of my favorite memories of my dad.

However, I now get up at the crack of dawn, even in the middle of summer. I'm so light sensitive in the mornings that I can't sleep if the sun is up. I have an equally hard time staying awake in the evenings in the winter.

OB update:
weight 196......total weight gain 29 pounds
bp/sugars: good
movement: awesome
hb: awesome