Crash course in parenting - Life as a foster mom

Yesterday Ben was being pretty cranky. He is usually a low key guy, he has his moments but he usually isn't that bad.  Well they noticed last night that his tummy was getting a little distended.  They did an xray, and found some inflammation in his intestines.  So they decided to stop feedings to allow his gut to rest and put him on antibiotics. The doctor said he might possibly have necrotizing enterocolitis, also known as NEC. Don't look it up, I promise you just don't want to.  But his xray this morning showed improvement, so if he does have NEC then it is probably a mild case. Otherwise he might just have an infection which the antibiotics should clear up hopefully, and he would be able to start eating again in 3 or 4 days. If it is NEC, they will fast him for 10 days.  The thought of that about makes me want to cry.  I totally get it, NEC is bad news...but it is hard to think about your baby not eating. He will still get IV fluids and nutrition thoug...

This blog has rapidly changed from foster parent blog, to adoptive parent blog, to mother of a preemie blog. Now it is some very weird combination, and I'm sure it's only going to get weirder. My husband's uncle died a few days ago, and his funeral was yesterday.  I am basically married to my pump now, so going anywhere requires thinking and planning ahead for where and when I am going to pump.  I pumped before we left, we drove an hour and a half to my parents' house so they could watch the little kids for us, I pumped when we got there, we went to the funeral then to the grave site, and had to high-tail it out of there so I could pump. Then we were informed that there was a family reunion type thing that night, so I pumped again at my parents house, then we went to the reunion with the kids, and I pumped there (in the bathroom!). Most of the people in my husband's family I just don't really know.  I've met a lot of them before, like once or twice, but ...

Now for some good stuff. Ben is breathing 100% on his own. He is doing way better than "average". He amazes me every day! He is eating 14 ccs every 3 hours. I am making 18 to 20 ccs every 2 to 3 hours, so I am keeping up with him. He is up to 2 lbs, 10 oz after loosing 8 oz his first few days of life. He will hopefully have his iv removed within the next few days. He receives food through a tube to his belly (called an OG tube). He will hopefully start nursing in the next 2 to 4 weeks and at that time they will run the tube through his nose (NG tube) so that it doesn't get in the way when he is trying to suck. Look Ma, no cannula! He has made a lot of headway and at this point we are just waiting for him to get bigger and stronger so that he can start learning to eat on his own. The nurses are always so impressed with Ben. I am so thankful he is in such a great NICU with such knowledgeable staff. There is just so much to be...

During labor I told my midwife that I thought this would hurt more.  She told me, "I think anybody else would think it hurts worse than you think it hurts."  I thought that was pretty funny!  I have done things like walk around on a broken foot for a month and play soccer on a torn ACL for a few months, but really those things just didn't hurt that bad.  Labor was really not that bad except for the last 15 minutes when I was pushing him out, and I would have given anything in the world for it to be over. I have never felt pain like that in my life. Someone told me that they heard ACL reconstruction and recovery hurt as bad as child birth. I'm here to tell you - no, it doesn't. I checked out of the hospital after a day and a half. While I was there I made it to every care time. I had thought about sleeping through some of them (like the midnight and 4 a.m. ones), but I figured hey, this is probably the only time I'm going to make it to a midnight or 4 a.m. ca...

Things that don't matter when your son is in the hospital:  -how much weight I'm going to gain with pregnancy -when I'm going to run again -what the nursery will look like -"me" time  At this point it is 5:45 a.m. Ben is doing so well, he is breathing on his own which is so awesome! The nurses are all very impressed. I want to find some time to write and kind of process some more, but not sure when that will happen. This pumping session is almost over, then back to bed for me!

I think I have a new least favorite NICU nurse!  Oh my goodness, I got there today and brought the stuff I pumped overnight and she asked how it was going, how often I was pumping, etc.  So I told her I was pumping every 2-3 hours round the clock and I felt like it was going pretty well. She got really concerned and said I should only pump if I happen to wake up at night, so I didn't get too tired. Then she said that it's OK if I can only pump for a few weeks, it just gets too hard and a lot of people quit. I don't know, she just made me feel like I couldn't do it or that it wasn't even worth it to try. Well, I can't say what is going to be happening in 2 weeks, but I CAN say that I am going to pump as long as it takes! And if I need to supplement with other women's breast milk then that's fine, but I am still going to do my best to get what I can for my baby. Then she told me that his feeding schedule changed to 8, 11, 2, 5 round the clock. We h...

Before I worry all of you, I want to let you know that at 5:24 a.m. on Thursday, January 17th, I gave birth to a 3 pound baby boy. He is healthy and doing awesome so far. I was exactly 29 weeks into my pregnancy. This is my birth story. The evening of the 15/16th I was having some contractions. Nothing too crazy though. The morning of the 16th I complained to Brian that every time I moved in bed I had a contraction.  After what happened last week (having contractions, went to L&D, nothing was wrong) I just assumed it was basically the same. The 16th was my 30th birthday.  I felt pretty crappy all day.  I assumed I was either starting to get sick (since my 3 little ones had been sick) or else that my body was working hard to fight off the sickness. I went to the Social Security Office to request new SS cards for the kids, came home and took a nap, and swept and mopped the kitchen floor. That was pretty much all I did, other than making dinner and general kid ta...

...you are sitting watching your son at swimming lessons and your belly starts moving like crazy. You look around with big eyes...nope, nobody else noticed.  Gets me every time! :)

So I'm pretty sure I have SPD, which is symphysis pubis dysfunction.  That is the type of pain I have been having for over a week now. It hurts to stand up, hurts to put my pants on, hurts to go up and down stairs, hurts to go from standing to sitting, and it definitely hurts to carry anything, like even something that weighs 10 pounds causes a definite increase in pain. Lifting Miss M to get her into the pack-n-play at nap time is enough to make me want to scream, thankfully it is over quickly!  Hurts to walk around, hurts to go up steps. Hurts to roll over in bed.  Hurts worse the more I am on my feet through the day.  Mercifully, when I am sitting down it doesn't hurt most of the time. I'm not complaining! I have had an easy, easy pregnancy so far, other than the exhaustion (and the one very weird day where I went to L&D). But let's face it, I have 4 kids, exhaustion comes with the territory.  I am trying to sit as much as possible but you know how that...

Mr. Y is very sick.  Like the pathetic, lie on the couch all day kind of sick. I took his temperature after he woke up from his FOUR HOUR NAP today - it was 102.9!!!  Eeeeck!  Meds got it down right away though so that was good.  I feel so bad for him.  :( The other two littles are still somewhat sick.  I will most likely not be going to church tomorrow because I will have at least one child to stay home with, if not two or three.  The good news is that I can still stream the service online, which is pretty darn cool if you ask me.  Also other good news is that I'm feeling great! Hopefully I keep that up and don't get whatever it is that the kids have.  I've been sick twice in this pregnancy so far, one time really just knocked me on my butt and it was no fun at all. We got a storage unit rented and one load of junk out to it tonight.  It's not really junk I guess, just stuff we don't need in the foreseeable future (Christm...

Yesterday was an eventful day. I had a list of things I planned to do, but my body rebelled and I spent a good portion of the day lying on the couch.  It kind of stinks how, as a Mom, basically everything on my "to do" list involves standing, walking, scrubbing, etc.  Like, why can't I have a to-do list that involves me sitting on my butt? How do I get one of those?  Of course I do have a few things, but once I spend a few hours doing that then there is just not much else I can do without getting back up! Anyway, in the afternoon I started feeling heavy and pressure, and kind of crampy. I had been in pain all day but it started to get worse.  Then I felt some things that I thought might have been contractions, but I wasn't sure.  I had a handful at random times, none closer together than 15 minutes.  I called my doctor and she said to come in the morning for a UTI test, but to call back if anything got worse or if there was any bleeding.  I tried to ...

Welp, 13 weeks (or rather, 12 weeks and 5 days??) til D-day. Or B-day. However you want to look at it. It's a little terrifying knowing that this baby could come technically at any time but could be here in, say 10 weeks. That is not very long. If my baby were born today, statistically he has a 90% chance of surviving even though he is supposed to stay in there at LEAST another 10 weeks. Isn't that amazing??  The email I got yesterday said he probably weighs about 2 pounds.  He is getting to be a big boy. :) I think I passed my glucose test. I took it Thursday. I almost vomited the drink up...it just was so sugary and was not sitting well in my tummy at all. But I managed to hold it down, and they said they'd call yesterday if I did have it, and they didn't call. So I guess no news is good news. Going forward I will have appointments with my midwife every 2 weeks. It just feels like time is flying! I bought a dresser off of Craigslist to use for the baby as ...

This past year has been completely, totally insane.  A year ago I could never ever have imagined my life to be where it is right now. One year ago we were pretty sure the boys would be going home. Miss M was living with her old foster mother and spending 3 nights per week with bio mom, D was spending 3 nights per week with bio mom, and we were told the little boys would begin over nights at any time.  They all 4 spent the night with their bio mom on Christmas Eve.  The plan was that the kids would most likely be home by March or shortly after. Needless to say, things changed and the case rapidly deteriorated.  In March the state filed for termination but the judge allowed a delay in the hearing, so it was delayed ...and delayed again and then again. In April Miss M began transitioning to living here with us, and in May she moved in with us as an adoptive placement.  In May also bio mom abruptly decided to stop all visits; the children have not seen her since...