A Little Premature

As Ashlyn turns three months old, I am trying to remember her first hours and first days in this world. My Labor and Delivery story and five day stay in the hospital can be read below, but this post is about Ashlyn's surprise entrance, almost five weeks early.

Due to severe preeclampsia, the doctors decided to induce me but before this could be done, an ultrasound had to be performed to check on the baby's lungs. Praise the Lord, everything looked great with the baby; however, there are always some unforeseen events that could occur with the baby after delivery, so a NICU team was present, just in case. Again, another praise, that Ashlyn looked and sounded great after she was born, her lungs were developed, her breathing was great, and she didn't have any trouble eating. Ashlyn weighed 4lbs 15 ounces but was holding her own. She didn't have to go to the NICU, another praise.

Ashlyn is considered to be what is called a "late-term preemie," but one thing to watch for with preemies is their body temperature. The babies have to regulate and maintain their body temperature without any help from the warmers, so the nurses wrapped the Ashlyn in at least four blankets, they put three hats on her head, a shirt on her as well as a shirt upside down to be used as pants. Ashlyn needed to have a temperature of 98 degrees for 4 hours straight before she could have a bath. She had a little trouble doing this, so it took a while before she could have her first bath.

Wrapped up like a burrito

Upside down shirt as pants (you can kind of see it in this pic)

Ashlyn was doing great so she was able to come home with us! She was almost 4 1/2 pounds so in order for her to leave, the nurses had to perform a car seat test. Ashlyn had to sit in her car seat for 40 minutes with different monitors hooked to her to check her breathing and oxygen levels. She passed!

Here is a pic of Ashlyn during the car seat test.

Now, three months later, Ashlyn continues to do well. She is gaining weight and eats well. She weighs 8 pounds 3 ounces now (some newborns are this size, hehe). I know there will be some developmental delays, she might possibly lag behind on some benchmarks by about a month. She is JUST starting to smile a little, which is WAY different than the other girls who started smiling at six weeks old. She is a little fighter though. Other than a few delays, it doesn't look like there will be any long term affects due to Ashlyn's early arrival. Yet, another praise!

My Heart...

is overflowing with love! Some days I have little "bursts of happiness" as I like to call them, when I think of how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family.

(not pictured: my amazing husband!)

Chuck E. Cheese Experience

We decided that tonight would be a great night for a family fun night at Chuck E. Cheese. Wahoo, everyone was excited and the girls couldn't wait to get there.
"Are we there yet?" the girls chimed every two minutes.

The night was filled with games, rides, pizza, you name it. When all of our tokens (Ambria called them "coupons") were used, what else is left, but to go to the Ticket Muncher and see how many tickets we had....

Drumroll please.....800!!

Are you kidding me? 800!!

Do you know what this means?!

This means we can get a cool prize and not some stupid little prize that breaks on the way home.

This means we can get more than a Tootsie Roll!

This means we can get more than a necklace!

I think I was more excited than the girls were.

I have never had 800 tickets before so I was like a kid in a candy shop, my eyes wide with excitement.

Ok, time for the girls to choose a prize. They could get an awesome toy, like a ball with spikey things all over it, a slinky, a purse, some sort of crazy lizard thing...the options were almost endless when you have 800 tickets (ok, so we weren't THAT cool, and didn't have 1000 or 3000 tickets like some other chumps).

I was trying SOOO hard not to persuade them into something they didn't want, but I really didn't want them to choose a crap toy that got lost the next day or broke in an hour. We really don't need any more little crap toys around the house.

This is what Mariah chose: Cotton Candy, a crap necklace, and crap lip gloss.

This is what Ambria chose: Cotton Candy, a crap bracelet, and a crap pack of crayons.

Oh! Ugh! No! Really?! Is that what you REALLY want?!

Yup.

Cotton Candy was a good choice, but everything else I had to cringe.

I had to let the girls be independent.

I had to allow them to choose.

I had to let go.

I had to be ok with them getting crap toys.

The Chuck E. Cheese experience is just the beginning of the girls' independence, like it or not, ready or not, I have to allow them to be individuals.

In a World of Oblivion

Oblivious
–adjective
1. unmindful; unconscious; unaware
2. forgetful; without remembrance or memory

Sometimes I would like to be as oblivious to the world as a young child...you know, where your biggest concern is what's for lunch or what is for dessert or what show is on television or what color should I paint the butterfly.

I have seen a few pictures of myself lately and I can "see" what I am thinking in each photo. It is usually something like, where are the girls, I have to get dinner started, where did I put the keys, the laundry is getting wrinkled. I am always thinking one step ahead and not living in the present.

I wonder how many wonderful, priceless moments I have missed in the last few years, because I am focusing on the past or thinking about how we are going to get to the future.

What about the present?

One of my favorite times of day is when I go check on each of the girls before I go to bed myself. I silently pray blessings over each one, re-tuck them in, and give them a kiss. They are oblivious.

Sometimes I wish I were oblivious as a young child.