St. Patty's Day

This morning Brinley was SO excited to wake up and find traces of "Lucky the Leprechaun". She had to tell everyone that he left footprints on our walls and fridge, a "big big mess" in our hallway and turned our milk green. You would have thought it was Christmas morning at our house if you had seen her excitement, I wish I had the video camera for that.

Missing.....

My sewing machine.

It hasn't been pulled out in a couple of months. Yep, That's right.

I miss it.

I have been way too busy to break it out. Plus, I feel like there is not enough room in our little basement apartment. It makes a total mess.

The mess I don't mind, it's the cleanup.

I miss the creative things that can be made. I miss trying new patterns.

It will still be a few more weeks until I dust that baby off and fire it up. Until then....

I'm dreaming up the things I could make...

Vegas

A couple weekends ago we went to Vegas and it was so nice. It was nice to get away and see some nice weather. We took the kids to the Mirage to see the tigers and dolphins there. It was definitely worth the money. All the tigers were out and playing and so were the dolphins. The kids LOVED the tigers and Beckham kept saying he was Shir Kon from Jungle Book. I can't wait for spring and the weather it brings! On a side note: I can't believe how big my kids are getting. Beckham is talking more and more everyday and Brinley is always wanting to learn something new. I feel like just yesterday I was in the hospital with each of them and the doctors were handing me these precious bundles. Crazy how fast time goes by.

Overwhelmed

I just got back from the doctor. Another ultrasound. This time the baby wouldn't turn its head at all, we only saw hair. Disappointing. Then the doctor came in. The baby is small. It should be measuring around 4 1/2 to 5 pounds. Its only 3 1/2. No biggie, Brinley was small too. 5lb 13oz full term. The doctor said that since the baby is so small on top of the cleft there is going to have to be more tests. Great. They have to monitor the placenta to make sure it is fully functional. They also have to monitor the heart rate to make sure that it elevates to where it needs to be when the baby is active and that it goes back down when the baby is resting. Ok. So I go to the next room where they strap on the monitors. I have to do this twice a week, every week. The doctor comes back in. "I would like to give you a steroid to insure the baby's lungs will be developed in case we need to take the baby early." Say what? What do you mean if you have to take the baby early? I guess if the numbers of the placenta aren't where they should be, they will induce me early so the baby can get the proper nutrients that the placenta may not be producing. "Don't worry" she says "This is just standard, I am sure the baby is just small because you are small, it's all just precaution" Great, now I feel much better. Another 15 minutes goes by, in walks the doctor. "The monitor shows you have been contracting regularly every 3 minutes. I am going to send you to labor and delivery" Excuse me? I am not in any pain here and am definitely not in labor. Again, its precaution. So labor and delivery, here I come. I get changed into the attractive hospital gown and sit on the bed. All that is going through my head is, "wasn't this supposed to be a routine ultrasound? This is a mistake." In walks the nurse, who announces she is going to check if I'm dilated. Great. "Your at a one" Sweet. An hour goes by with me still contracting every 3 minutes. Checked again, still at a one. Finally, I can go home. Nope, not yet, I have to get the steroid shot. Right in the hip. Ouch. K, now I'm done. But not before learning I have to come back in the morning to get the second steroid shot. Fantastic. Now I am home. Feeling very overwhelmed. A lot of emotions. This is all very frustrating. I know this is very minor in comparison with what so many other parents go through with worse complications. But they are all setbacks. Expensive setbacks. The baby is still healthy and very very active of which I am grateful. Your prayers are very much appreciated in this long process. Like I said, I am grateful for all of the positive things

just overwhelmed by the hard ones.

Ultrasound

So I went in for another ultrasound to make sure that everything was still going smoothly. It is. This time the baby was big enough to get a good picture in 4D. Baby did not want to cooperate that is for sure. It took forever to get a picture of the face, it kept burying its face into the placenta and would not turn. Finally, baby turned just enough to get this one. It turned out so great! You can see the cleft on the one side, the other one is still hidden. I have another ultrasound at the end of February and so hopefully we can get a shot of both sides and the inside of the mouth. There was no luck with that this time.

Primary Children's

So on Friday we went and met with the Cleft Repair director at Primary Childrens. It was very informative and she is fantastic! She is pretty much the parent's advocate when it comes to anything. She went over feeding and gave us the nipples and bottles we will need to use and explained how they work. She went over the basic anatomy of the mouth and palate and of course what to expect. She showed us pictures from the most minor cleft to the most serious, trying to prepare us for what we may see. Since we won't know what we are dealing with until the baby was born, it was good to see every possible scenario. She also gave us a basic timeline which is something like this:

Day one - 6 weeks: fitted for prosthetic palate

6-12 weeks: First surgery on the lip and nose, placement of prosthetic hard palate (The time of surgery depends on how well baby is gaining weight)

8-12 months: Surgery of the soft palate, Prosthetic is still left in

2-4 years: Surgery of hard palate (They wait this long because they want the palate to fuse together on its own as much as possible making it less of a hole to fix.)

There may possibly be another surgery between 6-7 years depending on whether or not there is bone in the gums. If not, they will do a bone graft.

We have another ultrasound tomorrow to make sure everything is still going good in there. Cross your fingers that baby will open it's mouth to get a better look.

Our Holiday in a Nutshell

This is probably going to be a long post. This has been a crazy Christmas holiday. A great one but we have been going and going. We kicked off the holiday season with our annual Burrup Christmas Party with all of Darren's brother's (at least the ones that were in town. We were only missing one brother. We missed you Cam and Lori) As usual we had a fantastic dinner and presents with grandma and grandpa.

All of the kids in their matching pajamas. Notice there are only two girls. We were only missing two girls and two boys.

Brinley enjoying the blanket that grandma made for her. She loves what she calls her pillow blanket.

I could not get Beckham to look at the camera for anything. He was too absorbed in all the presents.

There are too many pictures to post from that party, we were seriously spoiled. Stockings and all. Thanks grandma and grandpa!

Next was the annual Christmas Eve party with Darren's mom and his brothers as well. We had a really nice program with the kids singing Christmas songs and some great stories. We were really grateful to have Darren's grandpa there and he shared some memories of his of a Christmas he spent in Germany during the war and a journal page from Darren's grandma that she wrote before she passed away. A very special Christmas treat.

Darren and Beckham watching football probably. Everytime football comes on Beckham will yell out "touchdown!" So funny!

Brinley opening her Christmas pajamas the kids always get on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning was SO much fun. Brinley woke up excited that Santa had come. Beckham went crazy when he saw all the presents wrapped under the tree. Brinley would say "just what I always wanted" after almost every present she opened.

This is Brinley's big present from Santa. She LOVES to do hair like her mommy. Whenever I am doing Darren's hair she will get a little stool out and make Beckham sit on it, cover him with a blanket like a cape and "cut" his hair too. So we thought this was a great present for her. Turns out we were right. She sits there every morning to do her hair and throughout the day when her hair gets "all crazy" Thankfully my grandpa was there to help put it all together. Who would have thought there would have been a TON of little pieces to put together.

Beckham and his stocking goodies, well most of that is stocking (not all of it though, we aren't THAT crazy with gifts) Again, too absorbed in gifts to look at the camera. He was just excited about everything he opened.

Next we headed to Preston, ID to go to Darren's grandma's 90th birthday celebration. It was a great turnout and we were happy to be a part of it. Happy Birthday Grandma! We hope to spend many more birthdays with you!

Brinley sharing her birthday cake with Beckham. I love it when little kids feed each other. Notice her mouth? She has to make the face too.

Braden, Aaron, Grandma, and Darren. Only three of the boys were able to make it, but it was fun all the same.

Here we are sledding and having snowball fights out in the backyard. The kids loved the sled. Every time they made it to the bottom of the hill, Beckham would say "again".

Darren told Brinley he found a big hill to go sledding on and of course we haven't heard the end of it. So today after a couple of phone calls to daddy asking him to take her on "the big mountain hill" Darren took them when he got home from work this afternoon. Again they loved it, the bigger the hill the better.

We hope your holidays were as great and memorable as ours has been!