Weekend with Grandma

Oh how wonderful it is to have Grandma around. Doug went to Utah for a commercial and my mom came just in time. We've had such a great time playing with Penny, going on walks, the mandatory trip to target and then the mall for kids' haircuts. That last one put Penny over the edge and she cried forever last night. She's been awesome today and feeling much better.

A little nuggle with G'ma



MY GIRLS

6 Great Reasons to be Happy

6. The weather is gorgeous here in Sunny LA.
5. Infections gone...I feel 100%
4. It's Friday!! No sports tomorrow makes for a very free day. Shopping, anyone?
3. PENNY
2. Grandma comes today.
1. Sophie got Owen up, dressed, fed, hair done and put lunch money in his pocket this morning without waking me. And Owen cooperated without complaint.

Wo-hoo!! Now if i can just get that book done for Grandma's 80th, I'll be in really great shape!

Pretty in Pink

Time for an update...and I'm happy to report, this is a good one. Penny went to the Baby Physical Therapist on Monday and the lady was brilliant. I was so relieved by what she was saying and how impressed she was with Penny's movements. You know how your brain goes crazy with things like this when you don't have any information? That was me all last week. Someone had mentioned that this is the reason hospitals and doctors carry insurance so that just made my mind go nuts and i was all balled up with the idea that Penny was going some gimpy arm her whole life and we were going to have to sue someone because my stupid doctor yanked her out the wrong way!! (not that that's what happened, but still...)

But then we saw what Penny could do, like, let the PT bring her left arm all the way up by her ear from the shoulder or a snow angel motion with arm extended up and down her whole body. Our eyes were popping out of our heads because we had just been babying that side, letting it do nothing. She showed Penny how to bring her left hand to her mouth to suck on the left fingers instead of only the right. She did that a couple of times and pretty soon Penny was doing it on her own. Muscles starting to tell the nerves to notify the brain that there is a left side with some super yummy fingers to suck on. We have exercises we do every day to make sure her muscles are getting stronger and symmetrical with the right side. That way she'll never have a gimpy arm.

Oh, the biggest bit of news is that she thinks the fracture has already healed. There was another little boy with the same fracture and he had a follow up x-ray 4 days after it was originally found and it was all healed up. Friday we get a follow up x-ray for Penny and will be all healed up too!

These are after her first bath last night. She laid there so peaceful and calm.

The first days home

So little Penny has had quite the introduction to this world. Poor thing. We went to pick her up at the hospital and the doctor told us that the nurse was giving her a bath so she'd be ready to come home and noticed that her left arm wasn't moving as much as her right. She had the IV in her left hand which was big and clunky so they did not notice it before. When she was first in the NICU they gave her a chest xray to make sure her lungs were clear so they went back to the xray and discovered she has a fracture in her clavicle on the left side. Ohhhh, it's so sad. She can move her arm from her elbow down but otherwise her little arm lays limp at her side.

We have an appointment with a Pediatric Physical Therapist to make sure there isn't any nerve damage but otherwise, all we can do is swaddle it close to her body on her tummy to immobilize it while it heals.

Our Girl's Coming Home!!

Thursday anyone? I love thursday! Especially if the doctor's keep their word. The ENT gave her a once over and then his stamp of approval, and then I found out her levels for all infection is way, way down. She's eating up a storm and we're all ready to bring her home.

Will post if anything changes!

Penny Update

Hi Everyone!

Thanks so much for all your calls and well wishes. We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful network of family and friends, we love all of you!

And now to the good stuff...Penny has been making good steady progress since being transferred to the NICU. She was under a super spacey humidity helmet that helped clear the breathing passages and today we heard that the doctor feels she's ready to be taken out from under the helmet. Hooray!

Late Thrusday she was switched from tube feedings to bottle feedings and has been doing great with that as well. She started out at 15 ml and increasing by 5ml each feeding toward a goal of 60 ml. This morning the nurse reported that at her 9am feeding today she was able to take and entire bottle (60ML) and then fell right back to sleep. Such good news.

Also, yesterday I was also able to go in and hold her for the first time since the night she was born. (which really wasn't that long ago but it sure seems like an eternity to a brand new mama.) Grandma Terrie and I sat in the NICU and rocked her for about an hour and it was just heaven!!

So, now I am discharged. It was quite unceremonious and a little sad but the nurse gave me the NICU blanket they'd been wrapping Penny in all day to bring home. Ohhh, it smells just like her, I love it. I slept with it last night and it made me happy.

We'll post and update when we hear when she'll be coming home. Hopefully soon!

and then there were three.

baby update.

Here goes:

I'm huge. We're almost ready. I still need to pack my hospital bag and find a spot for baby's clothes. No dialating or effacing really to report, but I go to the doctor tomorrow so we'll see if this baby is EVER going to come out! It sure doesn't seem like it, though, especially after the tease of preterm contraction drama.

til tomorrow!

a great family night

Aunt Loraine sent the kids the coolest quarter maps a few weeks ago. Both of my kids like collecting things and so we decided to sit down with a giant bag of laundry coins and start the great state quarter search. At first, it felt like we were cheating a little bit by using the laundry money {which of course we promptly repaid} but then I discovered how stinking hard it is to find 2 of EVERY state and decided to feel much better about it.

We don't have all of them filled yet but whenever the kids find a new quarter, they quickly check to see if it's one that they need.

THANKS, Dr. Jesse Aunt Loraine!!

Letting the kids take the reigns.

Get ready for some exciting stuff. Sophie and Owen are both new bloggers on our site.

The Flying Chicken by Owen Chamberlain

mom and dad said we are going to a flying chicken house. of the world aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


by owen chamberlain
the flying chicken

ooops!

My crazy motherly just told me she already wrote a post on baby names!! AARG, what the heck.

So maybe i'll tell you about the GIANT, HUGE, FAT, CANDY BASKET!!!!! WAAAAAAHOOOOOO!!! OH BABY!!!!! Anywho... at science night at our school there was a silent auction. There was a basket named Steve. Steve was a movie and entertainment basket that room 4 put together. ( they didn't really name him Steve.) We bid 130 bucks and won the basket. It's full of candy and movies and everything else that makes a mother go crazy! Happy day!

THE SOPHIE FILES!

Hi people! I guess your going to be hearing a lot from me because my motherly doesn't write anything anymore. I'm taking over the blog!!!!! Guess what? guess! Okay, i'll just tell you....WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A NEW BABY CHAMBERLAIN IN THE HOUSE!!!! We have girl names, but we need some help with boy names. For a girl I like Gracie and June. for a boy, I like Jonah or Jack. My dad doesn't like any of those names. He likes Penny for a girl and that's it! my mom and i like sorta the same names. But for some crazy, dumb reason she likes Ike and Beckford for a boy and Gwen for a girl. I kinda like Gwen, but it would be like Owen but with a "G". Anyway, the point is, we need boy names before .... next week or something. HELP!!!

p.s. middle names too, if you have any.

:)SOPHIE CHAMBERLAIN:)