Starting a new bee...

Freedom Block Exchange/Bee

Welcome to the Freedom block hosted by Krista (Protect and Provide)and Erin (misserincrafts). This block swap will start Memorial day and end Labor day. The purpose of the swap is to have a fun quick block exchange that each quilter can piece on his or her own time. We are going to limit the swap to the first 15 people(we already have about 4 people signed up to make a total of 20ish people).

When you sign up please send Erin your address at its3oclockinthemorning@yahoo.com and also list the block name you plan on making. Don't forget to sign up on the flikr pool that Krista made and post your pics and a bit about yourself!! Here is the link to the flikr pool: http://www.flickr.com/groups/freedomblockswap/

Rules:
The swap starts Memorial day and ends labor day(hence, the title Freedom). Please make sure your blocks are back to everyone by Labor day.
Each block should be 10 1/2 inches unfinished (to make a 10 inch finished block).
Please sign up for the block you will make; it is ok if we have repeats.
Please make one block for each person in the swap.
Send enough material to each person to creat a 10 1/2 inch block.

Have a great time sewing and getting to know new quilters!

Krista and Erin

To join, go to Erin's blog here and comment!!

Spring to Finish 2

I did this last year and I just found out about it this year!! I'm so excited to do this because I'm finally feeling good enough to quilt again!!

Here is my list:
1. Finish bee blocks (Lisa, LP block-dresden plate)
2. Finish M's quilt DONE!!
3. Finish Marianne's quilt
4. Finish PIF quilt
5. Finish Magic Quilt DONE!!!
6. Start and finish Baker's baby quilt

I'm going to finish these before I start anything new.

I have volunteered to make 4 quilts for my friends. I want these finished first so I won't get stressed out. PLUS, I will have more room in my sewing closet for more fabric!!

random pictures of the past few

This is one of the statements from Tricare for Glo bug's hospital stay. $17,009.30. That was just the cost of the NICU. Not including his infusions or doctor's fees or anything else. Thank goodness of our insurance!

This is my sun baby, Glo Bug. He had to be in the sun cuz of his jaundice when he first came home. Now he just loves it. He takes his afternoon nap in the sun. (Doctor's said it was great)

You can really see Glo bug's eyebrow issue here. They said it's superficial so we aren't worried about it anymore.

Here's another angle. I think he's just handsome!

Speaking of handsome!! I'm probably going to frame this one. This is the pool at the hotel in ABQ. We went up there for Glo bug's appt with the skull specialist and to pick up Marie.

We went to El Paso with Marie and this truck was in the parking lot of Chris' favorite restuarant. He's now in love.

And this is Chris and Bee waiting for the doctor. They were running 2 hours behind!! It's a cheap way to entertain Chris and Bee!!!!!

Bad Mom

Yup, I'm a bad mom.

See in the background, those are my flip flops.

I taught Bee how to climb the slides. I admit it.

Sorry to his future playground teachers.

But its just so fun now!

He's fast.

Glo bug's first slide

Last night it was too hot in our house. (Our air isn't turned on yet) So Bee, Glo bug, Hooch and I went to the elementary school down the road. I tested out my new carrier from the Airmen's Attic with Glo bug. It worked GREAT!!

So we got there and Bee talked me into going down the slides with him.

"Mommy, peeeezz go wee meee!" (Mommy, please go down the wee (AKA slide) with me!)

How can you say no to that??

Not wanting to take Glo bug off and wake him up...we will went together! Including Hooch!! LOL

Everything baby part 2 (plus my anniversary)

So we got pulled over, freaked a cop out and headed to the hospital. Chris and I got out of the truck. Maimom and Bee headed to the hospital. That was really hard to leave my baby cause I didn't know when I was going to see him again.

The hospital that I was in, NMU, they don't let kids under 16 in the hospital unless they are the ones sick. I was told it was the whole hospital. And as you know, once you are admitted, you can't just walk out and go to McD's. (It turns out this hospital has wings and then a center hall. Kids can be in the center hall!! YEAH! So I was able to see Bee and Maimom every day.)

So I get admitted and nothing exciting happens for a few. I get woke up every hour for something, doctors, nurses change, blood pressure... The doctor's say they don't want to induce me. In fact, they want me to stay in the hospital for a week or two!! Ha ha ha

If you know me in real life, you know that I don't go down without a fight. We had to drive up to ABQ right away because it was an emergency. But as soon as we get up there, it's fine??! No, I don't think so. The doctor that sent me up here, Dr. B talked with my specialist doctor, Dr. R and they decided to send me up there to be induced.
I practically yelled at the doctor that came in and said I had to stay in the hospital until my due date. "I was told I was coming up here to be induced."

"Who said that?" asked Stupid Doctor A

(If you would read my chart that I just looked at, it says Dr. R admitted me and I was to be induced, Dr. A.)

"Dr. R and Dr. B. When am I going to be induced? I know my platelet level is increasing. What is the plan?"

(I have a way of pissing off doctors when I know more about my health than they do. But if they would read my chart, it's on the first page.)

"Well we'll have to see about that. Dr R. is my boss so I'll be talking to her after my rounds," said Stupid Doctor A. I think he was trying to intimidate me. No such luck.

"Okay, when will that be? Could you call my nurse and tell her the plan after you speak with Dr R.?"

Dr A, with a shocked look on his face, "Uhhh yeah sure." Turned and walked out.

Chris, says," You like making people uncomfortable, huh?"

Ha ha ha It might be true.

Anyway Dr. A called my nurse. He couldn't get a hold of Dr. R but his orders were to not be induced until the next week. We were pretty bummed. That is a freaking long time to be in a hospital, woking up every hour. Not to mention, having contractions and being away from my little man. Oh and being in an automatic adjusting bed that made noise everytime I turned over. And being all emotional and hormonal. I don't think I was very good company.

So I complained to my nurse. She understood and would try her best to do something. She didn't see a reason to wait. Logan looked healthy. No signs of any stress. My platelet levels high.

So my mom, (Maimom) and Bee came to visit. It was nice to play with Bee. Spending all day, everyday with that little boy, makes a night away pretty hard. So we played in the little room they had. Mom brought Burger King. Life was good. Told Mom the news of being here over a week. She said we'll work something out. (She took leave to be there for me. but she didn't have a lot and needed to get back as soon as possible.) Nap time for Bee came too soon but it was needed. So Maimom and Bee went back to the hotel, Chris and I to my room.

We get back and the nurse was all excited. She said, "I've been trying to find you."

"Oh, how come?"

"Dr. R over ruled Dr A. You're being induced in an hour, IF the labor and delivery rooms don't get filled. You are on the bottom of the list because you can wait and your baby is healthy. So in other words, if someone comes in and sneezes...they will get ahead of you and you'll wait until there's an opening. Which could be a week."

"Awesomeness!!!!!!"

"K so pack your stuff cuz there's only ten chicks over there and there's 20 rooms. I just had to say that stuff just in case there's a bus load of pregos to walk in."

So I start texting away. When we had Bee, we were so stressed about everything and everything was new that we just called our parents with updates. Well we got in 'trouble' from some people and I didn't want that to happen this time. So anyone and everyone in my phone book that I knew got texts, got a text saying that I was being induced!!

So off we go into the L&D room. I got one of the big rooms but I was a high risk. They knew that I would have to have at least 3 nurses, a doctor and a tech in the room, plus all of Glo bug's doctor's and nurses.

So they start the meds, hook me up to the baby stress monitor and off we go.

We had a really great nurse, Cara. She is from Alamogordo too. She works up at NMU on the weekends. She's had two boys. She was just funny. She even sat on the bed and watched the Olympics with us for a few. (I was her only patient.)

So my texting friends are starting to fall off cuz it's getting late. I'm still texting my sister,Kassy, Erin (who was working the night shift in DC), Amanda (who wanted me to text her while in labor cuz she wanted to 'see' me on drugs) and Nicci.

Then all of a sudden, my water broke.

I look at Chris with a scared look on my face, "I think, I think my water just broke. Oh no! Oh no!! Push that button!! Get the nurse in here!! Oh no...oh no...oh no...

Cara comes in and Chris tells her why I'm blushing and totally like freaking out. She's like, "Hello!! THis is totally normal. These beds are made for that. Just CHILL!"

I'm shaking at this point cuz I'm totally freaked out. (With Bee, they broke my water for me so I knew what was coming and there was doctor's down in that area.) Cara and Chris are both telling me to calm down. Finally Chris hands me the phone and says, "Text Taron and Kassy and everyone else that your water broke."

Okay, I can do that. Something to take my mind off of, what feels like I'm peeing the bed and can't stop....seriously, out of the whole kid-having-process....that's the weirdest part. For reals.

After my water broke, the contractions started to hurt. I texted until 3:01am. Then I said I had to push. I told Chris and Cara. The doctor said to wait until Glo bug's doctor was in the room. I'm pretty sure I said No. I waited one contraction and then told Cara I was pushing. The doctor came flying across the room. I pushed twice and had Glo bug at 3:07am.

They laid him on my tummy for a few seconds. Chris cut the cord. Glo bug cried and then the doctor's took him away. (He finally made it into the room! :) ) They took him so fast cuz the chances of him having low platelets were like 95%. With low platelets comes all sorts of stuff after being pushed through a birth canal, like bleeding in the brain.

So they wisked him off to his NICU bed while I got stitched up. I lost a little more blood then normal but nothing the doctors were worried about. I got to hold Glo bug in my arms at 5am, in the NICU. We stayed around for a few and then went back to my room to sleep. I was breastfeeding so I asked the nurse to call when Glo bug was awake.

So I went back and forth to the NICU and my room pretty often. I just wanted to hold that baby. It took a lot of work to get him here and I wasn't going to let some nurse just hold him! :) Maimom brought Bee and we watched him while she went and held Glo bug. (In the NICU, you are only allowed two people at the bedside and you have to scrub up to go into the room.)

George and Christi drove all the way from Alamo to come see Glo bug. Chris took them in individually. It was good to see them. They brought presents for Bee, which was so sweet. And Glo Bug present's too. They are good people. They watched Hooch and Diesel, no questions asked while we were in ABQ.

So Glo bug was born with 19K platelets but no bleeding problems, anywhere. They did an ultrasound of his heart, no extra fluid. Just perfect! They gave Glo bug a platelet transfusion and IVIG. I believe he had 3 doses of IVIG and one transfusion. His platelets gradually went up. He was born on Sunday morning and we left the hospital Thursday afternoon. We had great nurses. Our first doctor, Matt, was awesome! (NMU is a teaching hospital so they trade patients often.) I was discharged on Wednesday at 12pm. Mom's flight left at 1:30pm.

To the boring details....you can skip this part if you want. I just gotta write it down.
Tuesday, Mom and I almost took on a nurse. The doctor's were saying that we could go home since Monday but then would change their mind because of something. Monday, it was because his platelets weren't high enough. Understandable, they wanted to get him more IVIG. Tuesday the doctors were ready for us to go but made their rounds too late and this nurse, out of nowhere, came over and said that it was too far to drive a newborn 3 hours home. And then she said that I couldn't do other things like possibly know what the symptoms of low platelets were, and other stuff. Finally she walked away and told the doctor to keep Glo bug another day. Well it just so happened that it was good we stayed because his billirubin went up to 17. Which is high for newborn of 3 days...like really high. Like any higher and they would take his blood out and clean it for him and put it back. I guess it's drama for parents but not for nurses or doctors. (I learned all of this from my NICU nurse, friend, Erin. She was sooooo wonderful through all of the hospital stay. I owe her!) Thursday morning rolls around and Glo bug's platelets are good enough, billi is going down and we convinced the doctors that I knew enough to take my baby home. (we all know that I have low platelets myself, I did this with Bee and I'm a Medical Assistant.) So because of those 3 things, Chris, Bee, Glo bug and I left ABQ at 4pm. We had a doctor's appt for the next day on base to check platelets and billi levels. We also had an appt at NMU for Glo bug's eyebrow the next week. His left eyebrow isn't formed the right way. They were worried about his skull fusing together too early. But we saw the specialist and he said it wasn't fusing. That it was probably just superficial. He brought the plastic surgeon in and he made an appt for us the same day as Glo bug's eye appt. May 6. They want CT scans done but can't do that until they can put him under. So May it is. They also worry that because the bone that is there is pointed the wrong way, it could be hurting his eye nerves. So May 6 is a big day.

Glo bug is now growing like a weed. He has broken 8 lbs by our scale at home. Just this week he can fit into newborn size clothes and diapers. (We were in premmies before.) He's platelets at last check were 175K.

I breastfed him until just this week. I wasn't making a bunch. I'm not a very good person to sit down and do nothing and in the beginning, you need both hands and sometimes legs and teeth to get things right. Plus my heart just wasn't into it. I gave him a great beginning with my milk but now he is on formula. I think a lot of my heart not being into it was I wanted my body back. I hadn't eaten the things I wanted or done the things I wanted to because I was throwing up and so sick for the whole 9 months, that I just wanted to sleep without some sort of my body freaking out! :)

Also I have a case of the baby blues. They put me on medicine and the doctor was iffy on whether or not I should continue feeding. She said it was my choice...people have done it before. Well I decided that my heart wasn't into it so I was just going to stop.


So there you have it. The details of Mr. Glo bug's start.

Knowing all that you guys know about this munchkin and his start, would you do it again? If the doctors said it was fine to have more but to expect the same symptoms and treatments. Thoughts???


Now onto my anniversary. It was today, April 12. It's when Chris and I didn't listen to our parents and got hitched. No one thought we would last the year....let alone 5!! But here we are.

And you know what I got Chris??? (Well me too) Tickets to TOBY KEITH and TRACE ADKINS!!!! The concerts in August. I got us VIP Box tickets. IT's going to be AWESOME!!!! It comes with VIP parking, access to the VIP club and our own private waiter!! It will be Chris' first concert EVER so it's awesome that it will be amazing!

Sorry no pictures...it's too late and I'm tired of living that week again!

Heart quilt

I made this quilt for Tessa. Melissa  won a giveaway on my blog so I made this for her.

Everything baby part 1

Glo bug at about 6 weeks. He is wearing his first newborn onesie. (He wore premmie stuff before.)

So let's start 7 weeks ago, February 19. I went in for our biweekly stress test. (Our high-risk doctor saw some extra fluid around Glo bug's heart so we started going in to get stress tests.) A stress test is the machine that they hook up to you during labor. They wrap the stretch things around your belly and you can hear baby's heart beat and watch your contractions on the paper.

Well I usually go by myself and Bee. But it just so happened that Chris had that morning off. I asked him to go with to help watch Bee and we could go do something after. (I can't remember what it was now but it got canceled.) They hook me up to the machine and ask me to drink some water or juice to get Glo bug moving.

Twenty minutes later, the MA comes in the room and checks to see if Glo bug has moved enough to see his heartbeat and if it's stressed. She looks at me and back at the paper. She asks me if I'm feeling okay. I said yes just tired. I didn't sleep much cuz I was having small contractions since Wednesday night. (It was Friday AM.) She looks at the paper again and leaves.

Katrina, the RN, comes in and says, "Hey Trouble-maker, I see you are causing trouble again."

I look confused, "I am??"

Katrina points, "See this line here...that's a pretty big contraction. Are you feeling those?"

"Yes I feel them but I just thought they were Braxton-Hicks."

Katrina laughs, "No Crazy-lady, those are contractions. You are in labor. Dr. B will be in here in a second but pack your stuff up cuz you're going over to labor and delivery."

Chris and I look at each other and laugh. I made him rub my belly the night before. He asked if we should go to the hospital. I said no. (I guess he was secretly timing them cuz he knew when we went to the doctor, how far apart they were that night. I believe every 11 minutes or so.)

Dr. B. came in and said, Yup you are in labor. You gotta go to the other end of the hospital and check yourself in. We'll call so they know you are coming. I'll be there around 12pm. Tell them to check your platelets before they put an IV in and that your contractions are about every 7 mintues.

So Bee, Chris and I check in and I gown up. They check me and I am at a 2. Nothing to cause drama BUT they don't want me to have Glo bug in Alamo cuz they don't have a NICU. As soon as he was born, he would have to be airlifted to ABQ without me. (SOO not an option in my book.) So the nurse gives me a shot to stop the contractions. At that point, Chris and I realized that we needed to start telling people in case things started to happen.

I text Nicci, Amanda, Taron, and Kassy. I told them that I was in labor but they were trying to stop it. They didn't want me to deliver there or at 36 weeks. Well that just got things started. After they gave me the shot, I got jiggery and my heart raced but it didn't work. The contractions weren't steady anymore but they were still coming. So I got another shot. Same thing.

The platelet count came back, I was 19K. SOOOO not good for pushing out babies. So I got an IVIG infusion. It just so happened that the hospital had one on the shelf. (Blessing #1)

So Chris went and got McD's with Bee and my phone charger. I was texting my little heart out to anyone and everyone that would listen. Ha ha

The nurse came in after the IVIG and said that we were probably going up to ABQ to stay until I had this baby. So start calling babysitters for Bee.

I text Kassy and told her. Then called my dad and then my mom. Chris' mom was suppose to come to ABQ to help with Bee while I was in the hospital. He was calling his family. By the time I called my mom, she was already ordering a plane ticket and driving to Seattle airport. (Blessing #2 that my mom could drop everything and come to ABQ)

We hung around in the room until about 5pm. The doctor came in and said, "You can be airlifted to ABQ or you can drive up there right now. You have to be there within 6 hours."

I didn't hestiate and said that we would drive. I didn't want to be alone in my first helicopter ride. Bee would have had to stay with Chris and drive up there. So we walk out to the parking lot and George pulls in. We give him the key to the house so he can watch the puppies. As we go to leave, MSgt Chord pulls up in the parking lot. All 3 wives are pregnant! It was funny and we chatted for a second. (Come to find out, Chord's wife had her baby that weekend too!)

So home we went, packed our bags and jumped in the truck. A short stop at Wal-mart to buy a car seat for Glo bug and off we went!

Mom calls and says her plane gets in at 11:30pm. Perfect. Our GPS says we will arrive in ABQ at 11:25pm. (Blessing #3) So we pick up Mom and head to the hospital.

Just before our last turn into the hospital, red and white lights start flashing. Chris is getting pulled over! I start laughing so hard. Chris getting pulled over with his mother-in-law in the truck.

Officier, "License and registration please. Do you know why I pulled you over?"

(I'm wrestling through all the paperwork, trying to find the registration.)

"No, Sir."

"You were driving without your headlights on. Have you been drinking?"

"No, Sir. We just came from the airport and I guess I didn't turn them back on."

(My mom giggling in the background, me looking for the dang registration.)

"Where are you headed?"

"To the hospital. My wife is in labor."

The officier stops and looks at me. "Seriously???"

"Yes we have paperwork saying she needs to be at the hospital ASAP."

"Oh. Oh. OH!! Umm....yes, turn left at the next light. And turn your lights on!"

(He practically throws the insurance card back at Chris and waves us on)

Now how many people can actually say they were pulled over while in labor??

This story to be continued soon. Little Glo Bug is calling.

Seriously though, do you know anyone that's gotten pulled over while in labor??

Quilt Blocks

So remember the Quilting Bees I signed up for this time last year. I was so excited and it was so fun to learn how to do different blocks and help people make their quilts.

Well then I got pregnant and got really sick. I'm sure you remember me whining! :)

Anyway well my mom was here, we whipped out my sewing machine and got some blocks done! I'm soooooo far behind it's not even funny.

My mom asked what was stressing me out the most. I said that I haven't sent out a block in over 6 months. So that's what we did. We got 4 done while she was here and I have done 4 more since she's left. Just having the machine out and all the stuff together has really got my quilt gears going again!! I might actually get some of those quilts over there done this year!!

Well anyway, here are the blocks we made. I forgot how much I loved sewing.

(Blogger is being dumb and won't let me move my pictures so they are on top.)