Weekend Fun

I made it to all 8 stores for the Shop Hop! Yippy! I drove and drove and drove some more.... but I made it. I left Seth home with Daniel on Saturday while I hit 4 of the stores and drove a total of 214 miles! ( I might actually be a bit crazy. Good thing I ran into some of the same people at different shops!) Yesterday I only had 2 stores left so I brought Seth along with me. He did really well.

I picked up some neat stuff at a few of the stores. To Daniel's surprise I didn't buy something from every store nor did I break the bank. I got some fun funky retro fabrics to make a reversible purse. Also, I got a quick baby blanket kit, two books, and thread. I could have gotten a lot more! I really like the books I found. There is a pattern book and a kids book that goes with it. The book has a story that coincides with each quilt block! It's sooo cute. I might selfishly keep it and make it for Seth's 2nd birthday. The good thing is if it is a smash hit, ie. everyone says they want one, then I can order more copies of the book.

Simon is back at school today. He really didn't want to go but we made him. He is perfectly fine to go back. I went in and talked to the nurse about it all. The crazy part is I have to get a note from the doctor to excuse his 2 week absence. I asked the lady in the office if the 4 inch scar down the back of his head was enough of an excuse. No, they need a note for his file. Bureaucracy.

Hannah is fairing well. I feel like I've left her out of the posts recently but that is because there isn't much to report. She is super smart and her teacher just loves her. She plays with Simon one minute and screams at him the next. She helps me with Seth after a lot of grumbling. She's a good kid!

Might as well report on Seth too. He has a really runny nose today. We were going to play with Tiff and Chloe today but Chloe is turning 1 this week and she doesn't need to be sick. Her grandparents are in this week and her big party is this weekend. Can't be sick for those things. Any other week we'd let 'em swap germs. I can just see her in pictures with a big chapped nose. John and Tiff would forever remember her sick on her first birthday.... because of Seth! :)

Shop Hop

For the non-quilters out there you are probably thinking, "Shop what?" Shop Hop is an annual event where quilt stores, in this case NJ, decide on a quilt and each store comes up with a different lay out or colors for the blocks. Then over a weekend if you go to all the stores and get your passport stamped you are entered to win prizes. For me it is an opportunity to get myself out to see the quilt stores in the state! And I mean all over the state! There is one on the northern portion of NJ and another all the way down past Atlantic City. I have 4 days to go to all 8 stores. I think I can make it! I took Simon and Seth to 2 of them yesterday. Simon was fantastic. He even convinced me to buy him some fabric for a pillowcase cover. I am a sucker for cute boys and fabric! Anyway, I will be enjoying my weekend as I frantically drive from one end of the world to another to look at and possibly buy fabric at new quilt stores.

I watched a video yesterday about a woman who had triplets and it was spectacular! It was rather emotional and empowering. Here is a bit of further information on it from one of my yahoo groups.

What I want to know is how did you carry triplets to 37 weeks?
It wasn't all cake or anything, but I felt it was just what I had to
do for my babies. I ate 4500 calories a day. No junk food, no sugar,
no white products. 200gms of protein. Lots and lots of beans and meat.

What restrictions were placed on you trying for a homebirth? Eg. have
to be right positions/after set date etc.
I had to be 36 weeks (a day or so before was fine, but nothing before
that). They had to be all in their own sacs with no birth defects or
possible health issues. *I* had to feel comfortable with it. My
midwives never would've taken me on if they didn't feel that I knew
my body, which I do. They wanted to know how my pushing stage went
with my last child to see if they thought breech would be easy.

Did you have all of the mountains of monitoring?
Not what most triplet moms get. I didn't allow any vaginal checks
during pregnancy with anything, ultrasound wand or fingers. I didn't
have the multitude of constant ultrasounds most moms get nor did I
have home uterine devices or anything like that. I wasn't put in the
hospital or on bed rest because I simply didn't need to be. I did have
several ultrasounds, the last one being at 36 weeks, just to make
sure everything was good to go.

Did you see an OB at all or just midwives? Did you have anyone on
backup at the hospital etc.
Well, technically, I never saw an OB. I went to an OB's office, but I
just saw their PA. The OB never came in to see me. My midwives knew a
high risk peri at my local hospital.

Was it what you always wanted or were the times you questioned it
with it being labeled 'higher risk'?
I never questioned it. As long as the babies were healthy and I got
to 36 weeks, I saw no reason not to have a homebirth. Just because
there's 3 babies doesn't make it a reason to have to birth in a
hospital. Woman have had multiples at home safety for hundreds of
years. Hospitals are wonderful for people that really need them.
Preemies/TTTS/Monoamniotic/etc.. just wouldn't survive without them.
They have their place. It just wasn't a place for me, a full term
perfectly healthy mom.

Sorry if this is rude but what were the first signs your little one
was sick?
Sadly enough, there weren't many. She was really cranky. We assumed
she was teething because she calmed down when chewing on teethers. No
fever. She had a stuffy nose and a slight cough, but that was the
RSV. It was the meningitis that got her so sick. She was just cranky.
We got her to sleep at 3 am. We woke up at 5 am and she was gray, not
breathing, and seizuring with probably a 106F temperature.

what are the songs played during the montage
Lullabye by Dixie Chicks, Hurt by Johnny Cash, and My Immortal by
Evanescence

Well, we are going to have a busy day today. We'll start with gymboree, then on to Tiff's house for lunch and play, hopefully a quick trip to the grocery store, and then we have to take Malaya to the vet after we get Hannah from school! The poor kitty has a yucky sore under her front leg. All of this in the rain. I'd rather be quilting....

Wednesday Already?

How'd that happen? It's the middle of the week already! I need to get my tush in gear and get the next newsletter for The Quilt Cabin ready by Monday. Eek!

Simon is feeling pretty good. It has been really nice outside the last few days so he goes out with Hannah after school and they dig in the dirt or some other mellow activity. I think he'll be ready to go back to school on Monday. I just sent off an email to his doctor to check on restrictions. Simon would probably go sky diving if we offered it right now!

Daniel had quite the evening yesterday. The permanent stay was issued until the appeal process is over with Vonages lawsuit with Verizon. So, they started drinking at the office to celebrate and once they were well inebriated they all went out for dinner and more drinks! They had a great time. Don't worry, Dan got a ride home.

Well, that's about it. Hannah has Girl Scouts today and Simon is going to accompany Seth and I to Gymboree this afternoon. I thought I'd throw in an adorable Seth picture to finish off the post today. I know I am a bit biased but isn't he just freakin' adorable!?

Birthday Surprise!

I am sorry for not posting in a while. I had a big secret to keep and I wanted to blab about it on my blog. That would have completely ruined things since my mom reads my blog and the surprise was for her! My surprise was flying Karl out here for her 50th birthday. She was SO excited when she saw him! It was totally worth it. I feel like there should be a master card commercial in here...

Plane Tickets- $200, Cake and Flowers- $30, the reaction from mom- truly priceless!

And I got to see my brother too! Unfortunately for Karl, I was house bound with Simon while he was here in NJ. I wanted to take him all over the place. Well, at least to the beach! Instead we hung out here and got to go out shopping once. Bummer.

I am not very good at keeping secrets so this was a hard one. I let Frank in on it last week so he could prepare.Mom had reservations for dinner Saturday night and I knew we needed to add one more person. I was so happy our little surprise worked.

We did a bit of sight seeing while we were in Baltimore. The weather was perfect. We went to Ellicott City, dinner at the inner harbor, and after church on Sunday we went to Fort McHenry. Shopping in antique stores is always fun. Dinner was yummy! The fort was pretty cool. All in all I'd say it was a success.

Simon had a nice weekend hanging out with his daddy. They ate un-food all weekend (pizza, donuts, McD's, etc) and played video games. Not my idea of a fun weekend but they had a good time. Simon continues to improve at a rapid pace. We've already had to talk to him about not climbing on things outside! Only one week after surgery and we already have to tell him to take it easy. That's my boy!

It's Good to be Home

Being away from home like that is hard. We almost didn't get to come home on Monday. The neurosurgeon who has seen Simon Monday morning said we'd go home most likely if he ate breakfast, lunch, and drank fluids. Done, done, done. In the early afternoon our nurse had the resident call neurosurgery to get us out and they said, "No." Ahh! They wanted to keep him for "observation". At this point we had already checked out of the hotel because we were told we'd be going home. Dan was pretty upset about it but managed to not lose his composure. Right after we were told this I ran into Simon's neurosurgeon in the hall. Dr. Storm came in and looked Simon over and said there was no reason for us to stay. He ok'd us going home! Yes! I don't know if Dan could have handled one more sleepless night in the hospital. I am very proud of Daniel. He put aside his own personal fears and anxieties about the hospital to be there for his son. I know it was a difficult thing for him to do.

Simon is doing really well. He goes back and forth on how he feels. I think a lot of it is tied to how tired he is. Yesterday I had to remind him to take it easy. Today he walked up the stairs all by himself... and then made me carry him back down. His neck is still very stiff and he gets headaches too. All he is taking is Tylenol and he doesn't even take it every 4 hours. I am amazed at how well he is doing. In a week I am going to have to tie him down to keep him from climbing trees!

Hannah grumbles each day about him staying home. C'est la vie, non? I actually told her on Monday that after I cut her head open with a scalpel then we could talk about fair (bad mommy!). I was tired.

I am looking forward to the weekend. We are going to go up to my mom's for her birthday. Since I have such a young mom I think I can brag and say she is celebrating the big 50. We are going to take her out for dinner and Ellicot City for some antique shopping. The only down side is we think Simon should stay home. I know he won't agree but I just don't think the 3:30 hour car ride is a good idea. Dan is going to stay home with him so maybe they can play video games all weekend.

Here is the picture of his incision..... It won't show at all when he grows up I bet.

Homeward Bound

Well, it looks like we should be out of here this afternoon! Hurray! Simon is feeling better today. Everyday should be better and better. The nurses put a call into Neurosurgery and we should have someone come in give him a little look over and they'll discharge him. It might take a while because this is a slow process...

I'll let everyone know later on today or tomorrow how things are going. Dan took a picture of the incision. Want to see it?

Super Star on the Floor

Simon is recovering so well that they have referred to him as a rock star and a super star. This morning while the doctors were doing rounds they commented on him breaking records with his recovery. The nurses all comment about it too. They took him off his IV's. If he is able to eat and drink well today then they might let him go home tomorrow! That'd be awesome!

He is still hurting as one would expect from a having craniectomy. He can't turn his head without a lot of pain and he has a pretty constant headache. He is off the fentanyl and if he can take Tylenol (he took it again last night) and/or Oxycodone that is another key to being sent home.

Little update

He is feeling ok today. He apparently puked a few times last night and was refusing more tylenol because he threw it up. We gave him some meds through his IV and he slept for a little while again today. He's gotten up twice today which they say is way ahead of the curve! Of course he's ahead of the curve, he's my kid! Today should be the worst day for him as far as recovery goes. He really is doing alright.

Simon is ok

This is actually Daniel posting, not Ellen.

The surgery went fine. Simon is ok. He has a 4 or so inch long incision on the back of his head, but surprisingly little of his hair had to get cut to do it. If Ellen had known how little was going to get cut, I doubt she'd have ok'd the mohawk. :-)

As a side-effect of having the pressure removed from inside his skull, his sense of balance and equilibrium are going to be off for a bit. This means that he's going to be naseous and puking for the next 36 hours. Poor kid.

He's sleeping now, as he has been for most of the day since he came out of surgery. The hospital doesn't have wi-fi, so posting has been hard. The nurses have also grumped at us about having Seth in the room. We're not sure what to do if we can't keep Seth with us as we had planned on having just Ellen and I here for most of the next several days. Now it looks like one of us has to stay in the hotel room with Seth while the other stays in the hospital room with Simon, with an occasional swap of position. I'm posting from the ever so convenient computer with internet access down the hall from Simon's room, but with Ellen and Seth over at the hospital, that means that he's alone if he wakes up.

Will post more later, I want to get back to his room.

The good...

Originally, I just had one thing to share but now I have two. First and coolest by far, Daniel got a big promotion at work. Yay, for Dan!!! He is very excited about it. More responsibility means more pressure to deliver the goods though. They are all very understanding that he'll be out for a few days while we deal with all the hospital stuff. Actually, yesterday they kicked him out of the building early and turned his badge off until Monday. I know he'll still end up talking to people on the phone and getting emails but he doesn't have to go in. It is awesome that they are so incredibly understanding. Some jobs would just ask, do you have enough vacation time for this?

Second- yesterday when Dan came home he told me that I have an appointment today for a spa treatment! Yes! It will be so relaxing. Dan is so good to me. I am a lucky person to have such a wonderful husband. Did you know that we have been together now for 12 years! Wow. What a long time.

I will post later on today with Simon's surgery time. We can't even call until after 3 pm. Oh, and Seth seems to be feeling better. Keep those fingers crossed that Seth kept it to himself!

You take the good with the bad

I'll share the bad with you today and save the good for tomorrow!(Tee hee, cruel aren't I?) Poor little Seth is sick today. He has a low grade fever, the runs, and he puked on me once last night. Don't worry, I've been puked on before. Simon was a champ at that! I am crossing my fingers that Seth can keep this little bug to himself so we don't have to reschedule the surgery. I truly think that would do us in! Seth has some molars coming in but you don't usually get vomiting with teething. So, we are house bound today. That isn't all that bad because I needed to get laundry run and the house cleaned up for Friday. Maybe I can work on Cynthia's quilt while he naps....

Oliver

You will all have to wait patiently for the birth story because I wasn't there. WAH! Murphy's Law I curse you! Where ever Murphy is.... he needs to have his butt kicked! The one day I wasn't available! Alas, all is well. Misty is a super rock star mama! She gave birth ala natural (not in the water but she apparently labored there) to an 11 lb 6 oz baby! Yes, 11.6! He is a healthy boy and Misty is tired but doing very well. I eagerly await her birth story myself. Congratulations Misty and Lee.

Simon's appointment went well today. As Dan said in the comments section the CT was clear (no hydrocephalus) and he even got his blood drawn without totally freaking out! Friday is the big day. We'll keep you all posted.

Happy Easter and possible baby

I awoke yesterday morning at 6 am to the sound of little feet and little voices excitedly discovering their baskets of goodies and scattered eggs. They roamed the house finding the candy filled plastic eggs and then ate exorbitant amounts of chocolate! Ah, it's Easter, let them indulge. We had a nice day at John and Tiff's house. She had the kids decorate bags and go on an Easter egg hunt through out the house. It was to cold for the egg hunt to be outside. They also made us a yummy ham for dinner. We all had a very good time.

Well, we are off to Philly this morning. We're worried that Simon won't hold still for the CT scan because he'll be scared so we are following the sedation guidelines. Which really means no food for him. Hannah told Simon if it would make him feel better she wouldn't eat too. I think that is the coolest thing she's done as a big sister so far!

To top off the day. Misty called me just a bit ago and they think today is the day. Since I can't rush off to be with them (WAH!!!!) please send them loving wishes for a healthy happy birth. If she holds out until this evening I'll run to the hospital once we are home. I hate to wish for a long labor so maybe I'll just get to take some pictures of a beautiful baby boy in a few hours.

I guess, wish us all luck today!

Sheri's quilt

I finished the top! Hurray for me! It didn't take a year to do! I don't usually work with pastels (not my cup of tea) but Sheri told me she liked pastels. You do what you can to please people. I really prefer working with batiks. I guess batiks do come in pastels but this struck my fancy in many ways. First, it came in a kit (takes all the hard work of matching colors and cutting the right amount out of the equation.) Second, it was big blocks which makes it even easier. It is pretty cute all in all I have to say.

We had a busy day today. Tiff and Chloe came over to play and a few neighborhood kids ended up here too! We managed to squeeze a trip to the grocery store in before we took Simon to Tae Kwon Do. Tomorrow, if Misty is still keeping Oliver hostage from the rest of us, Marlena and Misty are going to join us for some Easter egg dyeing. It should be messy and fun. I can't believe Easter is this Sunday. The bunny will be good to the kids this year I just know it!

I have this dreaded count down going on now. Only one more week until surgery...

Popcorn Park Zoo

We went to a zoo yesterday. Not your typical big fancy-shmancy zoo. This is the Humane Society's rescued animals zoo. Amazingly enough they had quite the array of animals! From snakes and iguanas all the way up to tigers and bears. How people think they can keep a tiger is beyond me! They had lots of monkeys, sheep, and even ostriches. It was pretty neat. And sticking with the theme of "Popcorn Park" they sold popcorn to feed to the animals. The kids professed boredom while we were there and later said it was pretty cool. I don't know if we'll go back anytime soon because it turned out to be an hour away. (Tiff's GPS lied to us!) Thank you to all the great people at Vonage for the new toys that kept them entertained for 2 hours in the car! Speaking of which, Hannah and Simon made their own thank you cards that we'll take in tomorrow. I hope people will like them as much as the kids enjoyed getting all those wonderful gifts.

We ran to Target today. I of course spent more than I intended to. Never fails. We bought some seeds so we can have a vegetable garden this summer. I am hoping that will get the kids interested in helping out in the yard. At least they can watch it all grow and eat it too! We grew some veggies a few summers ago and the kids really liked it. I'd prefer to have someone else make my yard pretty so I can sit in the house and sew. Sadly, quilting isn't so fun in the oppressive summer heat. We don't have AC.

On the Simon front- He'll get his CT scan on Monday the 9th before he gets his pre-op physical. So everyone send Misty happy baby vibes so she can have little Oliver before I head off to Philly next week. Not just for my sake but because deserves to not be pregnant anymore.

Oh, I sent a gift over to my neighbors house on Sunday. They had a baby boy 2 weeks ago so I scavenged through my stash-o-fabric and put together a quick flannel blanket for them. We baked them some banana walnut muffins to go with it. Hannah said she was happy to get the gift. I was still in my pj's so I sent Hannah! Hey, it was the weekend!

I am not sure what is wrong with the comments section of my blog but I tried replying 2 times and it never showed up... hummm, hopefully it is just a bug and it will go away. They might just show up too. I am glad my blog is enjoyed by so many people. Now I know I am not talking to myself. Not that it'd stop me!