Home!

Friday morning we got a long-awaited surprise.  The doctor on rotation told us that they had over-estimated the amount of antibiotic doses Logan would need before going home, and that we were free to go home as soon as he passed his audiology test.

Wahoo!

I called Troy, made arrangements with his mom and step-mom for getting ourselves ready and tending to Aliyah and Gavin, and flew around in a flurry getting things ready.  By 1:00 we were all set to go… or so we thought. After a week full of hang-ups, the powers that be weren’t going to let us go so easily.

We went through the fanfare, said goodbye to our nurses and took our leave of the NICU in grand style.  We got down to the car (our brand new Dodge Grand Caravan) and realized (belatedly) that the car seat we had for Logan would not fit the seats of our new car.  What the???

So guess what? Troy’s mom and I got to make a frantic trip to Target to buy a new car seat, and Troy got to hang out in the lobby with all our stuff and the baby.

To top off a now exceptionally frustrating afternoon, while I was stressing out at Target, Troy was –get this—being hassled by the hospital security for being a possible baby-snatcher.  Some well-meaning soul had reported a “suspicious man with a baby” to security because he wasn’t wearing his wrist band. 

Luckily the nurses on the second floor vouched for him, but by the time I showed up with the new car seat, we were neither of us in a very celebratory mood. 

By the time we got home, we had both cooled down and it was so nice to just be HOME.  The kids spent one last night at Grandma’s and Troy and I got to enjoy the baby and each other in peace and quiet. 

Logan has done wonderfully since being home, and we are so excited to be out of limbo and finally able to start being a family of 5.

Rebel

Last night my parents and my brother Joe came to visit Logan.  He was especially awake and alert, looking around at everyone and snuggling his Uncle. 
He seemed to be staring at the logo on my dad’s shirt (the logo for my parent’s chip company), so my dad grabbed his shirt, stretched it out so Logan could see it better, and said “Yeah, you better get used to looking at this!  Burn that logo in your cornea!” At that exact moment, Logan had his first true projectile spit-up, right at Pop’s shirt. It was like he was responding “Oh yeah, here’s what I think of your logo!”
The best part was that my mom caught it on the camera, and we laughed so hard looking at the picture. 
Looks like our little Logan boy is not one to be told what to do… a rebel to the core.

Will you please come home?

Dear Logan,

Well, this whole hospital/nicu thing has sure been fun, but really it's time to come home now.  Seriously.  This hospital bed I'm sleeping in is not as comfortable as the room price would suggest, and while I have a lovely view, I much prefer the one from our house.  You will too. 

I know we're a little crazy, you've certainly heard plenty of that from inside my tummy over the last 9 months, but we're not that bad.  Craziness can be fun.  So stop dragging your feet, stop procrastinating and convincing the doctors that "another day or so" will do the trick, and just come home.  Pretty please?

Love, Mom

**Update:  Logan has been "symptomatic" of infection, with rapid breathing (tachypnea) and elevated CRP levels (an indicator of inflamation or infection in the blood).  He has been eating well and doing well in every other area, but those symptoms have been slow and stubborn in going away.  To eliminate all chance of an infection sneaking up on us once we're home, the doctors want him to finish a full 7 days of antibiotics.  They are hoping his symptoms are due only to slightly underdeveloped lungs and will self-resolve over a few weeks of being home.

A Name for Mountain Boy

It took some serious deliberation,  a texted phone survey, and a conference call with the kiddos, but we finally have a name for our little chunky monkey. Drumroll please.......

 Logan Don Richardson

We had narrowed our list down to a "final four" that we had our friends and family weigh in on.  The finalists were:

Aaron
Blake
Ian
Logan

When we called to consult with Aliyah and Gavin, they were both very decided in their own way.  Aliyah said "Ian is best, Blake would be ok too."  Gavin listened to the list, asked Troy to repeat it, asked him to repeat it again, then again, and finally said, "Ummm.... Starwalker" and passed the phone back to Aliyah.  I think he meant Skywalker, but it was still an interesting option since Logan's closest cousin is named Luke. 

So, goodbye Mountain Boy, Hello Logan.  Welcome to the family.

It's a [Mountain] Boy!

Baby Richardson

Born June 8, 2012

3:37 pm

8 lbs, 8 oz. 19.25 inches long

Four months ago when we took the kids with us to our ultrasound appointment and found out we were having a boy, we asked them what his name should be. Without hesitation, Gavin answered "Mountain Boy." We asked why, and he said "So when we want to go camping, we can say 'let's go to the mountains, Mountain Boy!" Well, the nickname stuck for the last 4 months, and while his real name continues to elude us, our little Mountain Boy has finally joined the family!
Delivery Summary:
Friday morning at 5:15 am I was fighting the urge to get up out of bed and go to the bathroom when it suddenly felt like I was wetting the bed. I jumped up with an "Oh!" and ran to the bathroom. After I changed and came back to bed, Troy asked "Well, was it pee or did your water break?" I wasn't really sure and told him so, adding "But I never leak!" Only the mother of a 4 year old boy would quote Cars 2 in such a situation.
Well, my water had broken, and I used the 4 hour window before mandatory check-in to put the house in order and be ready to go. By the time we got to the hospital my contractions were steady and close together and we were ready! I'd been having false labor on and off for a couple of weeks, so the beginning part was pretty much more of the same. Once things got more intense, we buckled down, and Troy was amazing, rubbing my back and staying right by my side every second.
My contractions were very long and very hard, and the midwife was perplexed as to why the kid hadn't popped out already. Turns out his head was a little hung up on my cervix (which wouldn't dilate past an 8) and once she slipped the cervix over his head on the next contraction, things got underway quickly. Not a fun experience, but it had to be done.
At this point the midwife let Troy take over the delivery, and I put my focus to the test. Troy and I make a great team, and in 4 more pushes, Mountain Boy was out and screaming away.
We held him for a few minutes, but when his breathing didn't regulate, they whisked him away for tests and Troy stayed with him. Embarrassingly, it was right about then that my body went into shock. It was seriously bizarre to be shaking so uncontrollably and not be able to stop. The best part is, that about 30 minutes later when Troy came back to check on me, he snuggled up to me, and the shaking stopped. Turns out all I needed was him. Like I said, we make a great team.


Current Update:
Mountain Boy is fighting off a little infection, and his breathing is still rapid so he is a temporary resident of the NICU for a few days. Talk about bringing back memories. We hope to have him home by Monday, but may have to wait longer if the infection doesn't respond to the antibiotics. We've got our fingers crossed for our little Mountain Boy!

Making Jam

Homemade Jam is one of Troy’s very most favorite things.  He loves it.  The best jam of course, is Grandma Moss’ raspberry freezer jam, but since we’re to poor for that, we do strawberries instead. 

This was my first year making jam with my two special helpers Aliyah and Gavin.  They really did a great job.  We managed to make six quarts of strawberry freezer jam without bathing the house in sticky red goo. 

I love these little serendipitous moments where we can just spend time together in the sunshine, enjoying each others company and making fun memories.  It doesn’t hurt that the product is as sweet as the time spent together.

And seriously, what could be cuter than a sweet little girl in a pink cast and a sugar-monster with nap-time bedhead?  Let’s not even mention the big fat lady (me) 39 weeks pregnant…

A coin, a cast, and a few contractions

     Growing up in a house full of boys who kept my mom on a first-name basis with the ER staff, I always assumed that you had to have a Y chromosome to cause that much trouble. 

Not so.

The Richardson women at our house have been stirring up our fair share this week.

Wednesday: The Coin

     Mindy (Troy’s cousin) invited us to go swimming at her grandma’s condo pool, and we gladly accepted.  I’d been having contractions all day and couldn’t wait to get in the water and get some gravity relief. 
     After a relaxing swim, we buckled in the car and were heading out when Aliyah coughed a couple times in her car seat.  She was making a funny face, and asked me for a drink of water.  I passed her the water bottle and asked if she was ok.  “Yeah,” she said, “I just swallowed my money.”

“What??!!”

     She had apparently found a coin at the pool and thought she would hold it in her mouth.  Gross.  I tried to help her identify what size coin it was, but could only get her to say that it was like a quarter, but not.  Great.  Looked like me and my contractions were going to the Instacare. 
     Fortunately Troy got home about then and took over the dirty work.  Even better when he called a few hours later to report that Aliyah had swallowed something that appeared to be a 50 cent piece, or at least measured as large as one.  The doctors at the instacare and Primaries were baffled that she even swallowed in the first place.  That’s my girl, always going above and beyond. 
     They sent Troy and our little “piggie bank” home with stool softeners, a poop-sifting bowl, and orders for another x-ray if she didn’t “pass” the coin in 5 days. Fun, fun, for everyone.

Thursday: The Cast

     The next day was my dad’s birthday, and we all headed over to the park for a picnic birthday dinner.  We ate, laughed about Aliyah’s new “savings” plan and were just about to head home for some pie when…… CRASH! Aliyah fell off the gymnastics bars at the playground, landing right on the tippy tip of her elbow. 

Our Piggie Bank now had a crack in it.

     So back to the instacare, where everyone still remembered our names, back to radiology, and finally back home, with a newly splinted arm, to be casted after the weekend, assuming she didn’t need surgery (which thankfully, she didn’t).


Friday: A few (more) contractions
     The library sounds like a calm enough place to take your kids at the end of a long, rather horrible week, right?  Really, it would have been, except that I went into labor.  False Labor, as it later turned out, but intense, every-five-minute-contraction labor nonetheless. 
     Now it was my turn to get to visit the very special back room at the Library, to get carted off to the hospital, and then get carted back home again bawling like a baby because my contractions stopped and “Couldn’t anything have gone right this week??”
     Luckily, many a weary frustration can be easily mended by a good, long nap.  So I had me one of those, let my mother-in-law fix me dinner, and put on my big girl panties for whatever is coming our way next week.