A normal, boring woman as usual……

Well, as you all blog lovers know that I have a baby boy on December 16, 2008, there is more,………………..

 The next day after c-section, DH and I went to see Layne at NICU, I was shocked to find that the IV was put on his hand, just like me on IV.  The good part is, at least, the tubes were not put on his head or nose or all that.  His vital signs were great, according to the nurses.  Even the pediatrician told me that he showed no complications at all.  DH and I thought, so if he is fine, what was the point of him being in the NICU? I know it is undestandable that he has to be kept in until he was 36 weeks.  To me, if he is fine, how much longer is he is going to be in there?  The saddest part is, my brother and his common-law wife and her 18yr-old daughter could not be in the NICU to see the new addition, but they can see Layne through the window between the waiting room and the NICU.  For the next 7 days since he was born, we were there every single day, me nursing him and DH cuddling and talking to him.  One day, he had a low level of jaundice so he had to be put under the small light, and DH was not happy.  As we were getting ready to leave for the night to go back to my brother’s house, I had to put Layne in his crib under light, and as I was connecting the heart monitor wires back on to the monitor, and the nurse, Jackie, was adjusting him for comfort when she felt something wet and gooey, and Layne was pooping, so I told her to go wash while I change diapers.  As I was in the middle of changing diapers, Layne pooped and peed all over the crib big time and I found myself laughing as the nurse came back and she laughed, too.  She said,”Wow, a big one!  It’s a good sign that he is getting way better!” So we cleaned up the crib and laughing together, and yes, Layne was very content.  And yes, the jaundice dropped down to normal level within a night.

Two days before Layne’s discharge, DH was rocking Layne when he looked accross the room to find that our friends, a couple, was there, looking at their newborn in an incubator.  We thought that their baby was going to be born in January but I guess not, so I was shocked that the mom-friend and I were on the same boat. The baby boy’s head swelled up due to labour and delivery complications at 37 weeks, but he recovered quickly.  Even more, DH and the father-friend were on the same boat too, irritated by nurses and doctors LOL.  Such a coincidence that we didn’t think our boys were going to be born within 4 days apart when our EDD were 10 days apart in January.

The night before Layne’s discharge, we were at my brother’s house for the evening after a long day at the NICU.  We were praying that Layne was going to be discharged as mentioned by the nursing supervisor, and my common-law SIL’s dad, who lives with my brother and family due to poor health, decided that night he told my brother that DH and I watch a pay-per-view movie and the cost is on SIL’s dad. So we thanked him and DH and I watched “DAve” starring Eddie Murphy.  Ok, we always think that Murphy’s movie was always going to be another FLOP as usual, but we found ourselves laughing throughout the whole movie. The good part is, after the movie, we slept good throughout the whole night.  And when my brother drove us to the hospital early, the pediatrician that checked LAyne gave us the two thumbs up and said,”bring the car seat around and I will bring you a new pack of Swaddlers diapers, because Layne wants to see his FIRST home!”  We were so happy that we told my brother to WARM up his truck so he can take the day off from on-call duty from the stucco company (his main boss and the whole staff found out about me, that one foreman and his wife were phoning everyday for updates LOL).  When we told my brother that Layne was ready to go home, he was waiting for all of us in no time to get us home. So for the next two hours from REgina back to Yorkton, Layne was all bundled up, waiting to get home, andcould not wait to get a close-up look to his big brother, too. We finally reached home, and when we stepped into the house with Layne, he was smiling and he relaxed, knowing that he is finally settled in his first home.  My brother had to hold him most of the time, as he is glad that Layne didn’t spend much time in NICU like my brother did almost forty years ago, when he spent two months in the hospital as a preemie himself. Two hours after we all got home, my parents brought DS1 home after he spent a week and a half with my parents, and even had a few playdates with my mom’s boss’s daughter.  I just couldn’t believe that DS1 has grown over the week and a half’s time, that I asked what did I miss out on!  In the end, we are so happy that we are all home in time for Christmas as a family.

Layne did so well since he was home from the hospital.  The funniest part is that he haven’t lost a few ounces at all when he was weighed by the public health nurse, and to the delight, he went from 5 pounds, 5 ounces on December 16, 2008 to a good 9 pounds, 1 3/4 ounces recently.  When it comes to feedings, he only had two spitups out of all the good feedings.  And for the baby clothes? Well, he is quickly growing out of the clothes and luckily, we didn’t have to go out and spend alot on new clothes as all the clothes were the same ones that DS1 wore when he was a baby.

If you were wondering about the couple and their baby boy that was born at 37 weeks, well, Kieran is doing very well, and is BIG at 10 lbs, a 5 pound-gain from his birth weight over the month and a half’s time.  Since then, Kieran’s mom and I have been checking out each other’s pics of the boys we uploaded on FaceBook so we can imagine the good progress the boys made.  Hopefully next week, we’ll have a first playdate for LAyne and Kieran when we go to the hometown to visit.

Wow, I just can’t believe I have two healthy boys. BOYS! And I can imagine DH getting tackled by the two little boys later on in life LOL.

TO us, it is a GREATEST miracle.

Today is the anniversary of the passing of DH’s mom.  And it is hard to get through the day without thinking of her.

 Tonight, I made myself an instant coffee, but I guess it will keep me awake all night? Drinking the instant coffee has a reminder of all the visits with MIL that always include instant coffee, not real coffee unless she had a huge crowd to serve coffee to.  But now, it is still not the same having the instant coffee without her around,………….

DH’s little sister had wrote her note on Facebook today, which described as ,”I wished I had my mom call me on the phone every five minutes to hear how was my day at the university.” She knew that graduating from high school was not easy because MIL wasn’t alive to see her graduate and be proud of her.  MIL will never be around to see her little daughter graduate from university, get married, and even be there to hold her new grandchild at all.  To me, it was a real tearjerker, and I wish I could tell my little SIL that she is not alone, because my mom have been through this before.  Mom lost her mom when she was 16, and for me, I wish I knew what my maternal grandma was like.  BIL told her in response to her note, that his 7-month-old son and our (DH and I) 1-month-old DS2 will never know how great their grandma is.  And to me, that broke my heart to see that. I know we are not alone, but as to what SIL finished off with in her note:”I never will get to hug my mom again but please hug your moms as often as you’ll never know when it ends”.

For the past year, DH would be down and upset when Mother’s Day came around, MIL’s birthday came and went, even Thanksgiving went, and when money was tight before Christmas, he felt life didn’t matter anymore, and I felt that nothing matters anymore.  And when DS2 came too early, healthy and happy, DH felt that MIL was around to make us happy for Christmas by having a healthy baby in our lives.  I would like to believe it, despite the premature birth, but I am very happy that DS2 is fine and healthy.  And I still feel that MIL is trying to tell us to move on with our lives and be happy for the best.

Take care up there, Linda.