Much Better!

Harper is feeling much better as you can see. She is almost back to her old self, smiling and cooing...and dare I say it... sleeping! Last night, she did sleep from 10pm to 4am and then from about 5:30am or so till 9am with a little encouragement from me and the passy.
I feel like I am catching up on some sleep. Still feel like I could snooze for about 3 days, but I am not about to lose my marbles like I was Monday afternoon. Praise the Lord!

Forgive me, all you residents, or spouses, significant others, and parents of residents... I am sure all are not like I described in the post below, and one must remember that I was devoid of sleep for an ungodly number of hours when I wrote it. (This, however doesn't mean that I take back what I wrote:)

Resident Rant

We are going home today! Yea! Probably sometime in the early afternoon. Praise the Lord. Harper did great last night, no desats... but she's got her days and nights mixed up. She's been wide awake since 3:45am... she's been in a great mood, talking, cooing, smiling and has been enthralled with some colorful balloons that 'Nanny Em' brought by. (no, we don't have a nanny... that's just a good friend of mine who is a nanny for a living!) The sleeping thing worries me because before we came in, she was very close to sleeping through the night. (10p-4:30a) I am just dreading more sleepless nights! (Pray that she'll go back into her normal routine very quickly!)

Anyways, back to the title of the post. A little disclaimer: I've been awake since 3:45am, I haven't gotten more than 2.5 consecutive hours of sleep in about 5 days, and I'm generally a really awful person to be around with no sleep.

Disclaimer part deux: I fully understand and realize that in order to have good health we have to have doctors, and to have doctors we have to have interns and residents, they do study a lot, sleep a lot less, and try to be good at what they do... BUT...

Here's a little note to residents, interns and the like from a parent who cares:

*First of all, smile, greet your patients, or parents of patients like they are living human beings..... they are not a text book, or a dummy, or a cadaver...

*It doesn't impress us when you say the word 'order'... "I will order that, or order this...etc" and according to the nurses, there's not a snowballs chance in hell that you know how to get in the computer and actually 'order' something anyways.

*If you are going to come in the wee hours of the morning, after I've just gotten my child to sleep; un-swaddle her, disrobe her, and put all kinds of cold instruments in places I don't like to think about; for the love of Pete, PLEASE put her clothes back on, swaddle her back up and give her the passie when you are finished. Just because she came out of my you-know-what doesn't mean that I am the only one who can do that... And PLEASE have the decency NOT to wake a sleeping parent to do this for you!

*If, by chance, you discover a poopy diaper in the midst of the aforementioned routine, PLEASE wipe the child's butt and clean her up before you put another diaper on her. (Or maybe you'd like her to get a rash so you can 'order' some desitin)

*Just because you can "slap a tube up her nose" or "throw in an IV" doesn't mean that you should, and more importantly, that it's necessary.

*Please treat the nurses with respect, they do more for their patients that you can ever know... and you are not on a cloud above them and the rest of America. Your poop looks just like ours after your coffee in the morning. Just remember that.

*Don't treat the dads with less respect. "Where's the Mom...?" is NOT the first question that should come out of your mouth in addressing them. Sometimes the mom's need a break and it's the good dads who actually give them one.

*Don't you take some classes on bed-side manor? Well, in my opinion, those are the most important classes. When you are spouting off your textbook to me in a monotone voice, gazing a little to the right of my face, it really doesn't impress me and frankly just frustrates me. Give me information that I can actually use and care to hear. And do it with a little inflection in your voice so I know that you are not a robot.

*If you are trying to comfort a baby, don't shove the passie in their mouth and hold it there against their will. It doesn't work.

Whew... I feel better... If I think of anymore... I will add them, but for now, this has helped my mood tremendously...

Ok, so my child is screaming in the bed, and I have another one coming in a few minutes, one husband leaving to go to a meeting. I have to go... I can't escape into bloggie world any longer... at least not right now.

A little fuzzy.

Today I am just that. A little fuzzy. Let me give you some examples: First of all, I was on my way back to the hospital after a shower and a short nap, talking to Chris on the phone about running by Panera to get a bagel that I was desperately craving. Keep in mind, I was about 1/2 mile from Panera at this point... and for some unknown reason, I find myself in the parking garage of the hospital, driving right past my spot...with NO bagel in hand. I had completely blanked out and forgotten to go by Panera...

Before I left my mom's house to come back, I had a bottle of lotion. I was planning to put some on my legs before I left. At this very moment, I have no idea what I did with the bottle of lotion before I left and I know for a fact that I didn't put any on my legs! Not to mention that I had every intention of folding the blankets that I used, and I have NO idea if I actually did...!

In driving out of the Parking Garage this afternoon to take Grace home for a nap, I was consciously reminding myself: 'pay attention, Jamie, you are driving...don't let your eyes go blurry...'

Now I am worried that they need to check me out before they let me leave...? Do you think that I have cancer, or maybe early onset dementia? This is crazy. I know that I can be farily forgetful (losing my keys regularly etc.) but nothing like this. It's a little scary... In saying all this, pray for my mind... I can't seem to concentrate on anything, remember things, or keep my eyes in focus for longer than a few minutes at a time. Maybe it is just that I am extremely tired.

I thought I'd get more sleep with Harper being here in the hospital...not so, my friend! There are so many alarms that go off all night, she is in a 'tent' so her cries are quieter...therefore I have to sleep extra light in order to hear her. Nurses are coming in all the time, residents, doctors and the like make their rounds at 7am...at the exact moment that I drift off to sleep...finally!

Maybe I'm just tired... I hope so.

On another note, here are a couple of pictures. The only time I am able to hold Harper is when I am feeding her, so today I snuck in a few extra minutes because I could tell she still had a little gas in her tummy and needed to burp...(wink, wink). Also Grace Ann came by today and stayed for a while. There are so many cool things for kids in this hospital, and she had fun running around, playing on the stage, with the butterflies, watching the train, and taking care of 'her baby.' As you can tell, she was completely exhausted when I took her home... She was really cute, just like a little mama.

Hanging out with the Harps...makin' sure she is OK...

Worked so hard taking care of baby sis and playing a little too. (This is kind of what I want to do right now!)

Vanderbilt Children's

We were admitted to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital this morning, and spent the majority of the day in the ER, but were finally able to get a room tonight. Harper was diagnosed with RSV yesterday and last night just continued to get worse. She was very drowsy all night and was using almost every muscle in her body to breathe. She wasn't able to eat hardly anything and was just so worn out from trying to breathe that she would just give up and stop for a few seconds. She coughed all night, but as the night wore on, even the coughs got weaker and less productive. Chris took her back to the Pediatrician this morning and when she didn't respond to the breathing treatments and with her sats in the low 80's, they told us to bring her down to the ER right away.
I am so glad that Chris took her in. I tend to err on the 'conservative' side and I have this unreasonable fear of being sent away from the hospital for not being sick enough or what not... Maybe it's carry over from me being terrified that they would send me away from the hospital saying I wasn't in labor...
Anyways, thankfully, Chris insisted that she go. Praise the Lord for smart husbands...right? Well, we are here now and it looks like we could be here for a few days at least. Apparently almost everyone on our floor has RSV, and our nurse said she hadn't sent anyone home in less than 4 days. We shall see. I am just so glad that we will weather the worst of it here! Hopefully they won't have to intubate her, and the oxygen hood will be enough.

Thank you all for your prayers and words of encouragement! They mean so much. Jan and Feb have been ridiculously hard! I can't wait for March, warmer weather and more SUN! I'll try and update frequently, as there is little to do here in the hospital room! :) And blogging is therapeutic! Here are some pictures. The poor thing looks so pitiful. The hardest part is that I can't hold her. So when she crys and looks at me with those big blue eyes, my heart kind of breaks.

"C is for Wanna-dile"

"Excuse me... I have WHAT?"

First of all, I've got another ailing baby. Harper was diagnosed with RSV today and she's so sick. Poor thing is having more trouble breathing and she's coughing until she just gives up and collapses on my shoulder. Since often times RSV in babies can cause apnea, we have to keep a special watch just to make sure she doesn't stop breathing. I just can't believe she's gotten something else.

My prayer request would be that this sickness would pass quickly and that she wouldn't have to be hospitalized in the midst of it. The doctor told us that it would probably get worse before it get's better.

On another note.... Grace said the funniest thing yesterday in the car. She's obsessed with letters these days and wants to know what everything starts with... On the way home from school she was eating some letter crackers and found a "C". She yelled out: "Mama! C is for wanna-dile!"

I died laughing and asked her if she meant 'crocodile.' She paused and said: "Yeaaaa, I forgot what it called...that sounds better: Crocodile. "

Happy "Balen-times" Day Yall!

Gracie has a little Valentine who doesn't get nearly enough face-time on my blog... so this post is all about him!

You see, he is a very special little friend, Grace calls him her "bestest friend." His name is Corbin, but Grace calls him 'Borbin.' She is learning her alphabet right now and says that "B" is for Corbin, and "C" is for Borbin... Go figure.... anyways, Corbin had planned the nicest, sweetest day for his little Valentine... (no kidding, ask his mama!... this was his idea!)

We went over to his house this morning with some salt-dough creations that Grace and I had made last night so that we all could paint them. But when we got there, Corbin had to give Grace her valentine present first. He'd made her the sweetest card, along with a picture of the two of them in a picture frame that he had picked out all by himself at Target. (it's adorable, by the way) But that's not all... Out of the fridge comes this BIG beautiful heart-shaped cake with 'sparkles' all over it. (that's sprinkles in Gracie-speak)

Here are some pictures of their day... or date, excues me...
Let me just say that the two of them are hilarious together....We do not encourage or instigate any of what they do or say... they just have this little 'thing' together. They have inside jokes that will make them die with laughter and no one else gets it... they talk to eachother like little grown-ups, they have lover's quarrles, they give eachother confidence in situations where alone, they would be timid. They have eachother's backs no matter what, and they just click, they just 'get' one another. It is really endearing.... just so adorable and funny to watch.

Making the salt-dough hearts

HELLLOOOOOO Borbin!

The picture frame Corbin picked out for Grace, she is so proud!

Painting the Valentine crafts!

The cake Corbin made for Grace....and another kiss...

And little Bennie and the Harps have a budding relationship...It is cute how he responds to her.

Harper's Room and Preview of Grace's

Here are some long awaited pictures of Harper's nursery. It's finally finished! (She's only 5 weeks old... )





I'll also post a little preview of Grace's big girl room too. It's not finished yet, and may not be for a little while, but you'll get a little preview! I've still got to get her headboard monogrammed, we've got to get the big girl bed in the room and the crib out...and a few other little things. I just think her room is going to be so fun, with bright colors and happy things!

Love silhouettes!
This is the quilt for her bed.

A little funny....or not so funny.....

Let me begin by reiterating the fact that The Harpster is a pretty good baby. She's pretty good-natured and easy going. But this post is not really about her.

I am inspired to write this because of an email that I sent my friend this morning as I was fuming over the events of the night.

Harper cried ALL night. It all started around 11:45. She'd give us about 30 min of quiet, and then more crying, ummm, we'll call it screaming for now. I was already tired from the events of the past few weeks, so I was silently dreading the night I could foresee ahead of me. (Notice I said ME).

At one point (around 12am) my very smart, intelligent husband rolled over and spoke these words to me:
"Can you just figure out what is wrong with her, this screaming is really getting on my nerves..."

"Exxxccccuuussseee me?" I replied in a very sarcastic tone. "Can I figure out what is wrong with her...? Why don't you do it, genius...?"

Those were the only words he spoke to me the whole night. One may quickly conclude that this was a good thing... But it wasn't. Keep in mind I was up ALL NIGHT and this man was "sleeping" right next to me. Do you know how many times he offered to get up and help me? That's right folks, ZIP, ZERO, ZILCH, NONE.

I could have somewhat given him the benefit of the doubt if he would have had to work this morning, but I am afraid (for his life) to tell you what he had on HIS schedule today....(Gasp)....... GOLF... Yes, that's right, GOLF.

"Sweetie, let me take the baby to the rec-room so that you can get your beauty sleep. I wouldn't want you looking like you have pink eye on the course... If your eyes are dry and tired, you wouldn't be able to efficiently hit the ball, would you?" (puke. puke.) "The driving range may look just a little fuzzy after a night of reduced sleep, and I wouldn't want you to endure that!"

Oh, honey, I pity you right now as I know all the Mothers reading this are about to go POSTAL on your hind parts. (At this point, I wouldn't defend you...sorry....)

If he thinks he's leaving this house without a baby bjorn strapped to his chest, he's smoking crack!

So now that my vent is over, guess where my lovely husband is? You got it! Legends Golf Course, now I will say that he promised he would only hit balls on the driving range and be back by the time Grace woke up, but we'll see.

In his defense, he did let me sleep from around 10:30am to 1pm this afternoon while the in-laws had Grace out and about. And he did take Grace to the doctor this morning. (Another ear infection and allergies. Add that to the list of the Burton infirmities.) So, yes, I am still here with the babies, although one is asleep... the other is still crying on the floor beside me.

I was able to go (with Harper) to the 50% off day at the goodwill...but the people (shopping) were rude and obnoxious and it was packed, and I didn't find anything good, so I was annoyed about that. But hey, I was up anyways, and in the car, little H is just fine, so I took the opportunity to leave.

Ok, so just for the record, I am not mad at Chris anymore, and I think we just need a date night (and a trip to Anthropologie), WITHOUT the kids.

My child is LOUD.

Everyone knows that Grace Ann is loud. Bless her heart, she is so full of life and she can't really help it. She is just loud. She cried LOUD as a baby, she said her first word at 5 months (no kidding...) she talks NON-STOP, from the time she wakes up in the morning, until about an hour after we put her to bed... and about 12 or 1am, she starts talking again, in her sleep.

Yesterday I had to snap this picture of Harper. It is not staged, I didn't position her hands like this, I promise!

Her fingers are actually plugging her ears! No kidding! Here is the scenario: It was naptime, and I had put Grace in her bed about 30 minutes earlier. Yesterday she was in a particularly talkative mood....at this point, she was STILL running her mouth...very LOUDLY. Harper is pretty smart for a 4 week old. She doesn't even know what she is in for!

Here's another picture for good measure. I love baby eyelashes. They are so delicate and pretty.

Well, POOP....

So what does the title have to do with the actual post? Well, nothing except I felt it may be inappropriate to use a curse word in the title of a blog post, so I opted for the word POOP.
Forget all the happy, good attitude posts I've published in the last month or so. Today's will not be happy, optimistic, and may not even be in good taste. For that, forgive me in advance. I just need to vent.

First, can I just tell you how my day started...? I had about 5 minutes before Harper woke up screaming and hungry and about 10 before Grace would want to get out of her bed, so I go down to get my daily bowl of cereal. All is well, I pour a mixture of Multigrain Cheerios and Honey Nut Shredded Wheat Squares and head back to eat it in bed. As I am crawling into bed, some unknown force comes and knocks the bowl right out of my hand. The BIG bowl of cereal and milk spill ALL OVER my bed. (just for reference: our cereal bowls can hold roughly 4.5 cups of cereal and milk easily) I will confess, lots of expletives flew from my mouth. So I scraped the cereal back into the bowl, stripped the bed (for the 50th time in a month) and had to throw away my eggshell matress (for I did not want to sleep on sour milk). Then to top it all off, I didn't want to waste all that cereal, so I just ate it.... moistened with the spilled milk... yum, doesn't that sound wonderful!

Anyway, back to the sickness story...

I've briefly mentioned how everyone in the whole family has been sick, but have I really let you know how sick we've been? IF not, you'll find out here, mainly because I am sick and tired of it and it is pissing me off to no end right now.

Let's begin the story way back at the end of December. (Notice that it's now FEBRUARY) I was still pregnant and about to have this lovely baby named Harper. I was sick. Sore throat, stuffy nose, sinus crud, you name it. I was sick. My poor mother was also sick, but faithfully took care of Grace for days on end, was at my side for the birth and took care of us for the 2 weeks after Harper was born also. Saint, I know.

About the time we came home from the hospital, Grace had come down with the crud. Coughing, fever, etc. and I had still not gotten over it. Let's give ourselves a week or so, and BOOM...Puke bug infested our house. I got it, Grace got it and Chris got it the worst of anyone. Then, yes, my poor mom got it too.

As soon as we were all over this, Harper starts hacking and coughing like a smoker, and is running a fever of around 100 for several days. I take her into the doctor, and praise the Lord she doesn't have RSV. But whatever she has is still sticking around. Oh, I forgot to mention that she has thrush and a yeast infection...Keep in mind... I am still sick. Never gotten over whatever I had.

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon. I pick Grace up from school and am greeted by rosy red cheeks that looked like they've been slapped several hundred times. YUP... Fifth's Disease. Can you freaking believe it?

So as of today, Harper is still hacking, her nose is stuffed up, she's got thrush, a yeast infection, and is still spitting up all the time...Grace has Fifth's Disease, I have the crud and basically the only one of us that is well is Chris... and he's gone all day (and night) and can't take care of his sick girls.

I was debating whether to document the gory details of each sickness, but I thought I'd spare you the mental picture. It wasn't pretty.

So now that I am done venting, we need prayer! Obviously, the doctors cant do jack for us and we can't help ourselves. We need healing, and maybe some warm weather! At this point, I am at my wits end, so I am praying that the Lord would rid our house of sickness and protect us from getting anything else.

As for my mental sanity, pray for that too. I've been doing pretty darn well on very little sleep with sickness infesting my body, but I can feel myself coming toward a breaking point. Most days I can just go with the flow, but I feel I could snap at any minute, and I am praying that that will only happen when I am in the shower, or alone somewhere, so I don't have to subject my family to it! Hopefully I can go workout this afternoon when Chris get's home and burn some aggression off!

PS. What does Jamie do when all this is going on in her house? Put Harper in the swing, Grace at the table with Play-Dough and get on my hands and knees and scour every cabinet and baseboard in the kitchen. Don't really know why I felt it necessary to do that, but it was kind of therapeutic.