Team Zamboni- March of Dimes Walk

I formed Team Zamboni to walk in the March of Dimes Walk for Babies on April 25 in Everett, Washington. Most of my blog readers know his story of an early arrival. For newcomers, here it is. Please consider supporting Team Zamboni. Follow this link and click on the donate button. March of Dimes

I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia on November 9, 2007. My baby boy (nicknamed Zamboni) was not due until January 28, 2008. I was placed on bed rest at home until December 3. On that day, my tests showed that my blood pressure was getting higher and my kidneys were not keeping up, so I was admitted to the hospital for closer observation and more restrictions on getting out of bed. I am a very active, hyper person, so staying in bed was not easy for me. The only treatment for pre-eclampsia is to deliver the baby, so it is a waiting game where the doctors take daily tests to determine the point where it is too dangerous to the mother to continue the pregnancy. The risks to the mother include seizures and strokes.

On December 18, 2007, I hit the critical point, and the doctors decided to induce labor. I was given the usual labor starting medication, plus magnesium sulfate to prevent a seizure. Ryan Jeffrey was born at 10:23 AM on December 19. He weighed just 4 pounds, 15 ounces. I was only allowed to hold him for a moment before he was whisked away to the NICU. Luckily, I was in a good hospital, with Children's Hospital staff in the NICU. Ryan suffered from the effects of the medication that I had to take, and had to have an intubation tube for the first 2 days. He spent a total of 2 weeks in the NICU. During this time, he was on so many machines, I didn't know how to hold him. He had to be fed by a tube through his nose, which he quickly learned to remove himself. I remember his first feeding was 1 ml of my breast milk shot up his nose! We didn't master the art of nursing until after he came home from the hospital. He had a terrific case of jaundice, and laid under those lights for several days.

Through it all, the nurses were supportive of us and gave us a two week parenting course so that we had none of the new parents at home type anxiety. Someday soon, I want to take Ryan back to the NICU and let the nurses see how he turned out. I'm sure the mothers of all premature babies would love to do this too. To show our appreciation, my family will be participating in the March of Dimes walk. Ryan will be in the stroller, he can't go 3.5 miles at once.

If I used Twitter...

I'm a non-texting cell phone user. It would take me sooo much longer to type out what I need to say than to just freaking use the phone, so there is no point to it. Also, last time I checked, twit was a derogatory term for an insignificant or bothersome person. 

However, if I did use Twitter, here are some thoughts I would have posted today.

1) Toddlers are so amazing! Ryan is doing/saying/figuring out new stuff every day now!

2) There should be an award for bathing with a toddler AND managing to shave my legs.  Even with him trying to help "wash" the shave cream from my legs.

3) Ryan eats dirt when we play outside. According to the latest studies, he should have a great resistance to allergies.

I would love to post new photos, but I can't find the stupid cord to do it. Maybe next time I post...

Vampires

I'm getting a taste of the single mother lifestyle for the next two nights. CJ has gone off to the bustling metropolis of Forks, WA for work. I'm guessing it has something to do with teenage vampires:)

Usually, the whole family loads up for these overnight adventures around our great state, but this time, Mommy has to work. I took time off last week for a quick adventure to the Midwest, to take Ryan to see his grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. So I NEED to work this week. Here is a cute photo of Ryan and his cousin Addilynn (2yrs old) playing together. They are "cooking" oatmeal according to Addi.  Yes, I am aware that they look enough alike to be siblings!! It was great to go back and see my family, if even for a brief visit. Flying alone with a 14 month old is a true test of character and upper body strength. I won't be doing that again any time soon.

I saw this in the paper..

And it made me laugh out loud. 

We live in a small city north of Seattle, known for the abundance of elderly residents. The local weekly paper tends to be a bit "granny-ish" in its reporting of police news. This report is just skirting on gossipy. It is so exacting in standards, calling the cars "units", but instead of mentioning that the people involved were spouses, it HAD to say the passenger in one vehicle was the wife, which implies some sort of affair.  Too funny!  The following is directly from the paper.

"Accident. 23000 block of Highway 99.  Unit #1 was traveling southbound in the center turn lane of Highway 99, and Unit #2 was traveling southbound in the left turn lane of the same.  Unit #1 intentionally steered to the left and impacted Unit #2.  Unit #2 came to rest partially in the center turn lane and the left southbound lane.  Both drivers are known to each other, and the passenger in Unit #1 is the wife of the driver in Unit #2."

In other news, CJ and I celebrated our 3rd wedding Anniversary last week, we had a night out over the weekend. And Ryan took 3 steps on our anniversary, his gift to us. He's still wobbly as heck, and reluctant to go more than 13 steps at a time (yes, I counted) but he will be running around next week for sure. 

Cute, But Gross

Little boys are cute, but gross. Here are the latest skills my son has acquired.

Nose picking-followed by, you guessed it, sticking his finger into his mouth. Lovely.

Today, he has a diaper rash that has been around for a few days, so post-poop, I decided to give him a little nakey time to air it out. What better chance to let him sit on the potty, right? Well, he didn't pee-IN the potty. Instead, approximately 5 seconds after I lifted him off and placed him back on the floor, Ryan squatted like one of those pot-bellied third world children, and peed a nice stream on the bathroom floor! 

Oh the joys of motherhood!

12 Months, 18 Days

Yesterday was Ryan's 1 year check up the doctor. He weighs 19 pounds, is 29 1/2 inches tall, and his head was 46 (cm? not sure there). Anyway, this means he is holding steady at the 5-10 % point. No need to worry, because Jeff and I are petite people, therefore it would be worrisome if our son was some sort of BABY GIANT. Ryan took his shot like a man (crying, no screaming, and the binky helped), and the appointment was over!

The weirdest new thing about my almost-toddler is that he LOVES cooked onions. I had some on my plate that I cooked with chicken to give it flavor, but I was not planning to eat. He started pointing at them and signing for more. He had just eaten a whole banana, so I gave him a small bite of onion just waiting for the look of disgust at the mingling of those flavors. It did not happen. He gobbled up the onion and began signing for more. So now I won't waste my cooked onions in the compost bin, they are going through my baby bin instead. :)

Ryan's vocabulary is changing everyday too. Here is a list of current words-phonetically spelled : Claw (Claudia-our cat), key (kitty), momma, daddy, tay-too (thank you), zam (Shazam!- while pointing drink stirrer/imaginary magic wand), boo (moo-means cow, or what it says, not sure there), guh (grandma or pa-works for either), and Ahhh (noise made whenever someone is enjoying a refreshing beverage). For other communication he signs "more" by clapping his hands really hard and grunts and points to get his ideas across. He is also really good at pushing away his tray when finished eating.

Ryan's favorite things: Claudia, playing with the cat with a "kitty stick" (fishing pole type cat toy), moving all of one object to an area (animals from farm into silo or puzzle pieces into his easy chair), and taking a bath.

Due to my insane diligence of the past week, the boy has done both #1 and #2 in his potty chair. I was very excited but I don't think poor Ryan had a clue what was happening. I don't think cleaning poop out of a training potty is any less disgusting than changing a diaper, so we won't be pursuing that one again for a while. For now he is content to sit on the potty fully clothed while I do other mommy related bathroom business.

Picture catch up

Here is Ryan's Moose Cake, made with chocolate cake with frosting for the adults, and applesauce cake with no frosting for the birthday boy. He loved it! He ate/dropped almost 1/2 an antler on himself at the party.  We got 6 inches of snow on his b-day, so the festivities/guests were downsized. He still had a good time.

Also pictured, is Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa P were visiting for both occasions, so the little man has been plenty spoiled!