Mother's Day

YoI am a mother and as such I can write a Mother's Day post (never mind it is a few days late though.)

I love being a mom. The average kid when asked what they wanted to be when they grew up would answer something like, astronaut, basketball player, fireman...etc. My answer was a mom. I can't remember ever wanting to be anything else. I might have said something else, but I knew that a mom was the only job for me. I can remember begging my mom to have another baby and I tried to convince her that all she had to do was have it, but I would get up with it in the night and feed it and change its diapers. She didn't buy it, but I don't blame her. A 5 year old can not keep a promise like that.

My first Mother's Day was nice. Matt made me breakfast and cleaned all the dishes. He also got me a frame and put pictures of him and Sienna in it. I love it. Sienna's gift was being home in time for Mother's Day. And she also slept 5 hours straight that night. Yup I am pretty blessed.

Well I have been a mom for a month but the real mom duties didn't start until a week ago. So I haven't learned much, but I will share the few things I have learned.

*Always have an over stocked diaper bag. Because your baby might poop four times in an hour, or pee on the new diaper you were getting ready to put on her.

*Dont feed or change your baby on your bed. If you do, be prepared to wash your sheets EVERY DAY. We are still trying to apply this rule

*You really can't have enough blankets.

*Holding a baby while preparing and eating a meal is considered a workout. 

*Somehow the baby always knows the moment you got comfortable in bed because without fail they will start to cry. 

*Sleeping babies are the sweetest thing

*She can have all the gas in the world as long as she smiles while she passes it.

*Snuggles in bed with daddy cannot be beat.

*You will love your husband more as you seem him interact with the baby. 

*My clothes will never stay clean for a full day again

*Goodbye freedom. 

*Hello love you couldn't before imagine feeling. 

*I loved sleep before, but now it's even more precious

*I am amazed at the end of the day if I didn't take a nap. 

*You get special parking spots at Walmart. 

I am sure there is more. I know if I were to do this every year the list would grow, just like Sienna and there would be more negatives but here would also be more positives and those would far outweigh the negatives. I love my baby girl so much and feel honoured to be her mom! 

The End.

I got really behind on the blog updates on Sienna. The hospital doesn't have Wi-Fi and when you are spending a large part of your day there you don't have much time to write posts, especially when things are changing all the time!

So to kind of rewind on Sienna, mostly for my own record and memory is after the dye test, things really took off for Sienna. We could now try giving her a bottle because nothing would leak out. Sienna loved the taste of breast milk. She could only have 5 mls to start off because despite being 2 weeks old, her stomach was still the size of a pea cause no food had ever gone inside. One night I called the nurses to see how she had been doing with bottle feeding and was told that she had been doing good but was really fussy because she wanted more then they were allowed to give her so they were hoping the Dr's would give them the okay tomorrow to up her dosage because she was ready and wanted it. The goal was to get her to 150 mls which she eventually did, but some of it came thru the bottle and the rest was given thru the tube in her nose. After she reached that we were allowed to try breast feeding. But because of being given milk thru a bottle and a tube she had gotten kind of lazy and would tire really fast and then give up completely. On Thursday we were told that the feeding tube could be taken out the next day and if it went well with her eating from a bottle or breast feeding we could go home on Saturday! That was huge news because we were told to expect her to be in the hospital for about 2 months based on an average. Least amount of time would be a month, longest 3 months. So when we got told it could be saturday, we were ecstatic because we had only been there for not even 2 and a half weeks. It was also a blessing cause matts mom was going to be leaving in just over a week and really wanted to see the baby blessed, but the NICU was on lockdown to help prevent the babies from getting the measles or the flu so only moms and dads could come in and see them. 

But then Saturday came and Sienna had not been gaining any weight. So it became not today but tomorrow. And then tomorrow came and the answer was the same as the day before. And I was starting to get really emotional and frustrated because I felt like we were never going to leave and that we'd be taking steps backwards because we would have to put back in the feeding tube and IV's so that she would get the nutrients that she needed. I just wanted my baby home. 

On Monday she was still losing weight so the dr's decided that we should try supplementing a bottle of  my milk to give her extirpate calories and if she gained weight by doing that then we could be leaving on Wednesday. That was encouraging but almost frustrating as we'll cause my thoughts were, she hasn't been gaining weight for the last 6 days... Why did you not think of doing this sooner! I am sure they wanted to see her gain the weight in her own but this seemed like such an easy solution I wish we had tried it sooner so we could have left sooner. But the great news is, the supplement worked and on Tuesday (May 6) they told us we could take her home! Oh I have never smiled so much and so big as I did on that day. We didn't tell our parents cause we wanted to surprise them. We also wanted to stay a little longer at the Ronald McDonald house was a few reasons. 1) we wanted a nice dinner before we left and 2) we had signed up for free haircuts that night and didn't want to miss out on that opportunity. 

So we got sienna out of the hospital at about 400, went home and napped, showed her off during dinner, had one of the best dinners there in the 2 weeks we stayed and got our hair cut. 

It was so much fun surprising our parents. It was about 11:00 pm when we got in, so we were pretty exhausted but we still wanted to surprise them. Matt's mom was staying at mine and Matt's place so we went to pick her up first and then go to my parents. When she saw the car there I don't think it quite registered to her that Sienna was in the car until Matt told her there was a baby in there and she needed to put her shoes on. Her smile got so big and she looked like a little kid at Christmas. We snuck into the house my parents were house sitting at the time and told them that we had someone here who wanted to see them. They got so excited. It was so tender to see our parents hovering over Sienna, oohing and awing over how beautiful she was. It was such a beautiful moment and worth the wait. 

We have loved having Sienna home. She is the sweetest baby. She sleeps pretty good at night, like 4-5 hours at a time. She gets held and snuggled all day long so she is becoming a little conditioned to being held, a habit we will have to try and break if we ever want to get anything done again! But we lover her so much and couldn't be happier. 

Rewind

There have been a few things that occurred before and after Sienna was born and took over my blog that I want to take a moment to post about.

Number 1. Matt got the Newel K. Whitney award. He was nominated by at least two business professors and only 8 people get this award in the business department. Here is a little description of the Newel K. Whitney award. "Awards are given to students who are honored for their character, academic performance, and desire to build the Kingdom of God.  Selected students are nominated by their department faculty and are those who they feel would represent the Church, University, and Department as an exemplary employable-quality graduate. The Newel K. Whitney Scholar award is in memory of the early Church leader who used his gifts, talents and means to build the kingdom of God. Whitney was innovative, frugal, and honest. Additionally, he was able to improve his business yet remain loyal to the Church despite hard times. "He was a successful businessman, a presiding bishop of the Church, a prominent civic official, and a notable member of his community." (D. Michael Quinn, "The Newel K Whitney Family," Ensign, December 1978, 42.) Whitney was part of the School of the Prophets and an in-depth, effective communicator. This award in his name is given to students who have displayed similar traits. Specifically, you are being honored for your character, diligence and pursuit of excellence."

Number 2. Matt graduated. I was really happy I was able to return to the states so I could be there to support Matt in this accomplishment. Matt was also playing the piano for a little business choir. Matt did so well this last semester. He had a pretty heavy load of classes, was a teachers assistant and the executive secretary of our ward which made him really busy Sundays, one of our only days to relax. He did great in all of his classes and worked so hard. I am pretty proud of him and all his accomplishments.  I know it was so important to him that I be there and I am glad Sienna was able to wait a couple of days to come because we cut it close. We returned to Canada on the 12th of April and she was born on the 15th. I was positive I wasn't going to go into labour while I was in the states but I never dreamed about anything going wrong that would cause me to need an emergency c-section. All I know is I am grateful she waited cause having her in the states would've been EXPENSIVE. We never would've recovered. 

Number 3. Matt and I celebrated our first year anniversary. Two days before she was born Matt and I were on a walk and talked about what we'd like to do. We were kind of limited cause first off it was a Sunday so we couldn't really go out to eat or anything, second it was 5 days from my due date so we didn't want to go anywhere farther the lethbridge in case I went into labour. So we settled with  making lasagna, which was our first date meal and one that Matt does a fantastic job of making, getting sparkling apple juice, watching our wedding video, making predictions for the next year, and watching a movie with popcorn or milkshakes or both. Well... That didn't quite go as planned. Instead, we spent the morning in the hospital, had lunch at Wendy's (so classy, I know) and drove to cardston to have a yummy family dinner at my aunts house. We did end up watching our wedding video but that was the only thing we did from our original plan. But it was great getting to spend some of it with our baby girl, regardless of the circumstances.

It is so hard to believe that one whole year has gone by. So many unexpected and wonderful things have occurred and we couldn't be happier. You might want to stop reading now if you don't like a little mushy gushy talk. I am so grateful I married Matt. I would've been a fool to let him go. He is honestly my other half. I feel like we compliment each other so well and also teach each other and help one another grow. He makes me think more about serving others in small ways like letting someone go ahead of me into the elevator or holding the door open for someone, or just simply saying hello. I have fallen more in love with him as I have watched him take on the role of a father. He is so sweet with Sienna. I love watching him kiss her little feet and smile down at her. He doesn't complain about changing diapers either, which is a plus cause this baby has a lot of stinky ones. I can't wait for what the future holds for us as a couple and as a family. 

Ronald McDonald house

Matt and I have recieved so many blessings thru this little trial of having Sienna in the hospital. One of the greatest blessings was getting into the Ronald McDonald house. For those who don't know what it is it's a house that becomes your home while your child is in the hospital. I don't know what it costs or is like at other Ronald McDonald houses but ours is pretty fantastic. It only costs $12 a night to stay here. You have volunteer groups come in every night and make you fantastic dinners, like we are talking roast beef dinners, lasagna, chicken dinners, with so many left overs you have lunch for the next day. I have never ate so many mashed potatoes in my life!  And there are always people coming in and making treats like cheesecakes, cookies, muffins...etc. They have arts and crafts night, movie and popcorn nights and they have people volunteer to give you things like free massages, haircuts, or photography sessions. I am so bummed the NICU Sienna is in is on lockdown. Only moms and dads can come in because flu season is still around so in order to control that from spreading to the babies no other visitors are allowed. If they were though I would've seen about getting the photographer to come to the NICU and take baby pictures of sienna, regardless of tubes. Maybe she could use photoshop and make those disappear. It would just be nice to get pictures when she is a little baby as she will likely be about a month old when she gets out of the hospital and from what I have heard its best to do newborn pics before they are 2 weeks old. Anyway, not a big deal because at least my baby is okay right? I just want cute pictures of her cause I have been thinking about that since I found out she was a girl.

Examples of the yummy food we get.

Examples of the yummy food we get

So we pretty much love the Ronald McDonald house and are very lucky we got in so soon. Before getting into the house this is how our travelling looked. Matt drove in Wednesday morning to be with her, came home Wednesday night so he could be with me. We went in Thursday. Come home Friday afternoon. Went back up Saturday afternoon, drove home Sunday. We decided for our benefit we would stay home Monday-Wednesday so we could get some rest emotionally and physically. We called the RM house Sunday afternoon to find out what position we were in for getting into the house. They told us we were fourth in line and that they didn't have any families leaving until at least the end of the month, we were pretty bummed about that. 

Monday came and  I had a breakdown and just started crying and telling Matt how much I missed Sienna and wanted to be with her. I couldn't imagine waiting until Thursday to be with her again. Not more then 10 mins later Matt comes and tells me that the RM house called and that a spot opened up but we had to confirm by 5 that we wanted it and then be there by 9. Well there was no way we were going to miss this opportunity! It was an answer to ours and many others prayers that we got into the house. Now we are just a 5 minute walk away from Sienna and can come over whenever we want to. From this experience Matt and I know we will be a lot more likely to donate to the children's hospital or the Ronald McDonald house. I've thought about how many times at Dairy Queen or mcdonalds I have been asked to donate to these two places and I just say no thank you. Now I wish I would've always donated cause they have blessed my life so much! I am so grateful for these organizations and will probably go broke from donating to them every time I get a chance. 

Here are some gifts we have recieved from the Ronald McDonald house thru the donations of generous people in Calgary. 

Diapers and wipes. I know it's just a small dent in the diapers we need. But 1120 wipes plus the pack of 900 my mom got for us I think we should be set. 

This is a little gift basket that was in our room when we got her. It has so many baby essentials and that Winnie the Pooh blanket is so soft and cuddly. I hope it becomes her favorite blanket as for Matt and I it is special and reminds us of the kindness we recieved while here. 

Sienna is getting better!

Today Sienna got her dye test. They gave her a liquid dye in a bottle, which she loved. The nurses said they had to pretty much pry it out of her mouth she liked it so much. After they gave her the dye I assume they did some sort of X-ray on her chest to see if the dye had leaked out of her esophagus. Matt and I were so anxious to find out the results. I fell asleep for about 20-30 mins but it was very restless as any noise coming from the hallway woke me up as I hoped it was them returning with her and telling us good news. Finally after an hour they came back and told us that while they hadn't heard it officially from the surgeons from what they say there were no leaks. So we felt really good but still had to wait to hear the official word, which in the end was that she didn't have any leaks. Tonight they will start feeding her about 5ml every 4 hours. They are giving her a small amount so that they can prime her stomach for real feeds and hopefully get he bowels moving. She hasn't pooped in 9 days, poor baby. Those are kind of the last things that need to be done before she comes home. At least I think and hope. :) 

Sienna is such a sweet baby. She has been more of a cry baby the last few days, but I guess that and sleeping is what babies do best. But all the nurses come in and tell us how beautiful and sweet she is and we have to agree. I love doing skin to skin with her and giving her kisses on the head and smelling her sweet baby smell. I can't wait for her to come home and be able to do this all day long without all the yucky cords all over and in her.

While it does stink that she is in the hospital but there are a few perks. I don't want anyone to think I am happy she is there when I say these things, but the circumstances are what they are so I might as well find some good in it.

-Matt and I have free baby sitters whenever we want
-My alarm is set with specific times to pump and I never have to stay up longer then 15 mins
-I only have to change about 1 diaper a day. I also haven't had to purchase diapers for her. Win win
-I will have a nice supply of breast milk in the freezer for when Matt and I want to go on a date.
-We get to stay at the Ronald McDonald house and have volunteers cook meals for us every night and eat the leftovers for lunch.
-We get free massages and have other fun activities planned for us by the RMH.