Yesterday, I was laying on the couch almost passed out from exhaustion after sending Ryan for his nap. I was hoping to nap myself. Ryan came back in and asked me to tuck him in. I told him, "Mama's really tired". So Max jumped up and said he would tuck him in. And I heard him tell him about 10 stories about a chicken named, "Bawk Bawk".
A sweet tender mercy.
Today, I began to nurse Jase and Max ran out of the room. Then he came back in with my huge cup filled with water. He brought it to me just because he has seen daddy do it and I never asked him too. Another tender mercy.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Blessings and Birthday
I am so tired but I feel so blessed. Yesterday we spent the day with some great friends and my boys had a blast. I was so relaxed I even cat-napped on my friend's couch. As we left, she loaded my arms with baby supplies.
Today is Max's real 5th birthday. He woke up early because of a nightmare and I was so tired after last night that I cat-napped this morning. Then I remembered a free event at the library and tried to get the kids together but we didn't make it in time. Thankfully there are more dates scheduled at other libraries and so we won't miss it entirely. Max still had a great birthday as some cute friends surprised him with some cupcakes and airplanes and an impromptu playdate. We were so thankful.
And then another friend brought dinner and a yummy dessert so we sang to Max one more time. I wonder what he wished for! ; )
And then some more friends stopped by tonight to see how we were doing and bring a little surprise. Our family is blessed to know so many good people who truly exemplify kindness and service.
Today is Max's real 5th birthday. He woke up early because of a nightmare and I was so tired after last night that I cat-napped this morning. Then I remembered a free event at the library and tried to get the kids together but we didn't make it in time. Thankfully there are more dates scheduled at other libraries and so we won't miss it entirely. Max still had a great birthday as some cute friends surprised him with some cupcakes and airplanes and an impromptu playdate. We were so thankful.
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| From June 16, 2012 |
And then another friend brought dinner and a yummy dessert so we sang to Max one more time. I wonder what he wished for! ; )
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| From June 16, 2012 |
And then some more friends stopped by tonight to see how we were doing and bring a little surprise. Our family is blessed to know so many good people who truly exemplify kindness and service.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Keeping it Real
This weekend, I started "real life". My parents left Friday morning and Tony had to work Saturday and Sunday. Saturday went okay but I had planned on a very relaxed day at home. My friend came over to visit for a few hours and everything was fine. We even celebrated Max's birthday that night. I had made plans for Sunday--who I was going to sit by at church(since it was just me and the three boys) and Jase and I were going to go home after Sacrament meeting and have a friend bring the other two boys home after Sunday School classes. However...Saturday night/early Sunday morning was a bit tiring. And then Sunday daytime was full of feeding Jase, pumping, feeding the boys, feeding Jase, feeding the boys seconds, back and forth. The boys didn't get dressed until Tony came home from work and I never showered or completely put myself together. That's so not how I roll so that was very humbling. I did finally get a nap after Tony got home. After one crazy day (with more to come), Tony and I did figure out a few things we could do prep-wise to make the mornings smoother. He's going to put out cereal for the boys before he leaves for school with a measuring cup full of milk. I just didn't trust Ryan with a gallon of milk. This morning went better but I don't expect things to be easy. I'm multi-tasking as I write this. There are no complaints in this blog post, just a real history of life Chez Epperson with a newborn.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Happy 5th Birthday, Robert "Max" Epperson!!!
We have a 5 year old! Technically his birthday is Tuesday the 26th, but Tony has school and work that day and won't even be able to see him so we celebrated tonight after Tony got home. Max wanted a chocolate airplane cake with chocolate frosting and Neapoliton ice-cream. Easy enough! He also chose to go on a present hunt instead of unwrap presents. We did this for Ryan's birthday and it may start a tradition because it makes things so much easier!
Here is Max showing off his brand new bike that he got with birthday money from Grandma Pearl and Grandpa Dan.
Captain America sunglasses
A slinky
Also, shirt, swimsuit, goggles, pajamas.
And the piece de resistance!
The look on his face when he first saw it!
So excited!
Yummy!
My favorite part was hearing Max say, "This isn't a dream, I really got my favorite lego set! I'm so excited! This isn't a dream!"
And the birthday fun isn't even over because he has a friend party coming up!
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| From June 16, 2012 |
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| From June 16, 2012 |
Here is Max showing off his brand new bike that he got with birthday money from Grandma Pearl and Grandpa Dan.
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| From June 16, 2012 |
Captain America sunglasses
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| From June 16, 2012 |
A slinky
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| From June 16, 2012 |
And the piece de resistance!
The look on his face when he first saw it!
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| From June 16, 2012 |
So excited!
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| From June 16, 2012 |
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| From June 16, 2012 |
Yummy!
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| From June 16, 2012 |
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| From June 16, 2012 |
My favorite part was hearing Max say, "This isn't a dream, I really got my favorite lego set! I'm so excited! This isn't a dream!"
And the birthday fun isn't even over because he has a friend party coming up!
Baby Jase
13 days old
This picture makes me want to cry. They grow up so fast!
14 days old--fresh from a bath
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| From June 16, 2012 |
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| From June 16, 2012 |
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| From June 16, 2012 |
This picture makes me want to cry. They grow up so fast!
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| From June 16, 2012 |
14 days old--fresh from a bath
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| From June 16, 2012 |
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| From June 16, 2012 |
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| From June 16, 2012 |
Fun with Grandma and Grandpa
There was a lot going on the two weeks that my mom and dad came to visit so I didn't take a lot of pictures. However, the boys had a lot of fun and Tony and I are VERY appreciative of all the help they gave us. There were so many little and big things they did to make things easier for us while we were spending time with Jase in the NICU. My mom cleaned because my anal mclooney self has a hard time dealing with grime. She organized some cupboards, cleaned my Brita filter, took care of my laundry, etc., etc. Most importantly she came and kept me and Jase company in the NICU, and played and loved on my boys while I was away. Mom, you will NEVER know how much your help meant to us.
And my dad thinks that the service he gives is no big deal. It was a huge deal. He even let me make a "daddy-do" list of yardwork projects that I wanted to get to, that I have a hard time getting to because of the kids or weather. I now have a garden, a billion less weeds, pavers near my garden, a cleaned patio, pruned hedges and the list goes on. And most important, he loved my boys and read to them and tickled them while I was away.
So there may not be many pictures, but we are forever grateful for all of your help! <3 <3 <3
A few pictures of a "baking" project the boys did with Grandma Pearl--chocolate-dipped bananas.
And my dad thinks that the service he gives is no big deal. It was a huge deal. He even let me make a "daddy-do" list of yardwork projects that I wanted to get to, that I have a hard time getting to because of the kids or weather. I now have a garden, a billion less weeds, pavers near my garden, a cleaned patio, pruned hedges and the list goes on. And most important, he loved my boys and read to them and tickled them while I was away.
So there may not be many pictures, but we are forever grateful for all of your help! <3 <3 <3
A few pictures of a "baking" project the boys did with Grandma Pearl--chocolate-dipped bananas.
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| From June 16, 2012 |
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| From June 16, 2012 |
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| From June 16, 2012 |
Thursday, June 21, 2012
8 Days in the NICU
Jason's birth story starts in the previous post.
As the nurses were weighing him, and after giving him Apgar scores of 8 and 9, they noticed that he was grunting. They gave him some air and had the NICU nurse evaluate him. They had me hold him real quick before he was taken to the NICU to be on the CPAP machine. Tony went with him and I had to stay in my room until I could stand up and pivot into a wheelchair. But instead of it taking two hours like they told me, it took a little over an hour and I was down with my baby.
He had to have an IV to make sure he was getting some nutrition. No mom wants to see her baby with an IV in his head.
Getting his first bath.
The crazy thing about the NICU is that when your child is there, you feel like you are in a time warp. It doesn't help that you are getting up every 1.5-2 hours to help feed him or pump. We were told initially he would just be there for 4 hours. Then it became over night. A chest x-ray revealed that he had Pneumomediastinum or a pocket of air in the Mediastinum (area in chest between lungs). This site shows a picture of an x-ray that looked similar to Jason's. It was spontaneous and caused simply by his coming out in only 6 pushes and there not being the chance for a lot of the liquid to be expelled from his lungs. We had initially understood that he had a pneumothorax which is a small leak in his lungs, but that was probably just because of us being tired and there being such an onslaught of information. There are several kinds of "pneumos" that babies can get and Jason had the one that is least problematic. An x-ray on the 2nd morning showed that the air had mostly been absorbed and it had resolved itsef.
The fact that Jason's body had to concentrate on his breathing and resolving the pneumomediastinum, meant that he struggled with his suck reflex from the beginning and it took him a little longer to learn to feed on his own. They did a cranial ultrasound to see if there was anything wrong with his central nervous system but there wasn't. So even though he came in for breathing issues, he stayed for eating issues. He had to be be tube fed for awhile. Also, he developed jaundice because Tony and my blood is incompatible.
On his tanning bed.
Lori, one of our favorite nurses who helped us understand why Jason was being kept in the NICU so long. It didn't seem necessary at first and she helped us understand why Jason wasn't eating on his own.
Hanging with daddy.
Skin to skin
Beautiful boy.
Me and my sweetie.
Meeting Max.
Meeting Ryan. "I'm all done". Almost exactly what his big brother said when meeting him.
Jason's white board. Annemarie had added the balloons. Tony added the airplane, helicopter and space shuttle.
Angela was a favorite nurse.
And Victoria was another favorite.
Grandma came and held baby Jase a lot. It never ever seemed to be a problem. ; )
"I've got no strings to hold me down" Thanks to nurses who understood the need to help things progress and challenge him just a little, Jason got his feeding tube out on Thursday morning (day 6). He would feed on-demand and if he maintained his weight and gained, he could go home.
Saturday morning at the 2am feeding, the nurse weighed him and he had gained 6 grams. I had been on pins and needles because day one of no feeding tube he had done great, but the second day he had slept more. Luckily, he did gain and I was bursting with excitement to call Tony and tell him we were coming home. I did wait until a more reasonable hour though. Things moved slowly and it wasn't until about noon that we were discharged. We were chomping at the bit to say the least. Here's Tony making a break for it. ; )
In his carseat!!!! Ah, natural light, I'm not used to this.
Home where he belongs.
Brother's home!
Dearest Jason, even though the first week of your life was different than we anticipated, we are so excited to have you in our lives. You have been a joy to have from the moment I held you when you first came out. You have shown us that different than we expect is so good. You were earlier than expected, smaller than expected, had more hair than expected and we love you for being YOU! You look so much like your brothers did as babies, especially Max. It will be fun to see you grow and develop. We're so happy and feel so blessed to have you in our family. Right now I have you wrapped up and snuggled against my chest because you don't like to be far away. It's quite alright because I don't like to be far from your arms either. Je t'aime beaucoup mon petit chou chou!
As the nurses were weighing him, and after giving him Apgar scores of 8 and 9, they noticed that he was grunting. They gave him some air and had the NICU nurse evaluate him. They had me hold him real quick before he was taken to the NICU to be on the CPAP machine. Tony went with him and I had to stay in my room until I could stand up and pivot into a wheelchair. But instead of it taking two hours like they told me, it took a little over an hour and I was down with my baby.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
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| From June 16, 2012 |
He had to have an IV to make sure he was getting some nutrition. No mom wants to see her baby with an IV in his head.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
Getting his first bath.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
The crazy thing about the NICU is that when your child is there, you feel like you are in a time warp. It doesn't help that you are getting up every 1.5-2 hours to help feed him or pump. We were told initially he would just be there for 4 hours. Then it became over night. A chest x-ray revealed that he had Pneumomediastinum or a pocket of air in the Mediastinum (area in chest between lungs). This site shows a picture of an x-ray that looked similar to Jason's. It was spontaneous and caused simply by his coming out in only 6 pushes and there not being the chance for a lot of the liquid to be expelled from his lungs. We had initially understood that he had a pneumothorax which is a small leak in his lungs, but that was probably just because of us being tired and there being such an onslaught of information. There are several kinds of "pneumos" that babies can get and Jason had the one that is least problematic. An x-ray on the 2nd morning showed that the air had mostly been absorbed and it had resolved itsef.
The fact that Jason's body had to concentrate on his breathing and resolving the pneumomediastinum, meant that he struggled with his suck reflex from the beginning and it took him a little longer to learn to feed on his own. They did a cranial ultrasound to see if there was anything wrong with his central nervous system but there wasn't. So even though he came in for breathing issues, he stayed for eating issues. He had to be be tube fed for awhile. Also, he developed jaundice because Tony and my blood is incompatible.
On his tanning bed.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
Lori, one of our favorite nurses who helped us understand why Jason was being kept in the NICU so long. It didn't seem necessary at first and she helped us understand why Jason wasn't eating on his own.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
Hanging with daddy.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
Skin to skin
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
Beautiful boy.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
Me and my sweetie.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
Meeting Max.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
Meeting Ryan. "I'm all done". Almost exactly what his big brother said when meeting him.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
Jason's white board. Annemarie had added the balloons. Tony added the airplane, helicopter and space shuttle.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
Angela was a favorite nurse.
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| From June 16, 2012 |
And Victoria was another favorite.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
Grandma came and held baby Jase a lot. It never ever seemed to be a problem. ; )
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
"I've got no strings to hold me down" Thanks to nurses who understood the need to help things progress and challenge him just a little, Jason got his feeding tube out on Thursday morning (day 6). He would feed on-demand and if he maintained his weight and gained, he could go home.
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
Saturday morning at the 2am feeding, the nurse weighed him and he had gained 6 grams. I had been on pins and needles because day one of no feeding tube he had done great, but the second day he had slept more. Luckily, he did gain and I was bursting with excitement to call Tony and tell him we were coming home. I did wait until a more reasonable hour though. Things moved slowly and it wasn't until about noon that we were discharged. We were chomping at the bit to say the least. Here's Tony making a break for it. ; )
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
In his carseat!!!! Ah, natural light, I'm not used to this.
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| From June 16, 2012 |
Home where he belongs.
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| From June 16, 2012 |
Brother's home!
 |
| From June 16, 2012 |
Dearest Jason, even though the first week of your life was different than we anticipated, we are so excited to have you in our lives. You have been a joy to have from the moment I held you when you first came out. You have shown us that different than we expect is so good. You were earlier than expected, smaller than expected, had more hair than expected and we love you for being YOU! You look so much like your brothers did as babies, especially Max. It will be fun to see you grow and develop. We're so happy and feel so blessed to have you in our family. Right now I have you wrapped up and snuggled against my chest because you don't like to be far away. It's quite alright because I don't like to be far from your arms either. Je t'aime beaucoup mon petit chou chou!
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