Walking for a Wonderul Cause!

This up coming Saturday I am walking 3 miles to raise money for March of Dimes. I set my goal at 200 dollars and I am so close, I have raised 165 dollars as of this morning.

As you know Boog was born at 37 weeks weighing just 3 pounds 15 ounces. He had to stay in the NICU for 10 days until he was just under 5 pounds. Ever since then I have donated as much money as possible, as often as possible to March of Dimes. It is a Charity that helps families with babies in the NICU that are born prematurely. They also use the money raised to do prematurity research. It is a cause that is very close to my heart.

Boog in the NICU

Here are some startling facts I got from March of Dimes website:

Every year, more than half a million babies are born prematurely in the United States. The rate of premature birth has risen by 30 percent since 1981.

Premature birth is the leading cause of newborn death worldwide. Even babies born just a few weeks too soon can face serious health challenges and are at risk of lifelong disabilities. Premature birth costs society more than $26 billion a year.

543,000 babies, or 1 in 8, are born prematurely each year.

Even before Boogs' birth I loved the history behind March of Dimes. President Franklin Roosevelt founded it to fight Polio. March of Dime originally  helped fund research to create the Polio Vaccine that stopped the epidemic when it was on the rise and it provided aid to Polio patients.  FDR ask our country to donate just 10 cents, and here is the amazing part to me, they did. Our nation as a whole made a huge difference with just 10 cents from everyone. To me that is a moment in time that shows how wonderful the world can be.

Once March of Dimes accomplished its fight against Polio it turned its efforts to birth defects and infant mortality. Then in 2003 they became know for their Prematurity Campaign.

Here is the link to read their complete history: http://www.marchofdimes.com/mission/history_indepth.html

If you are able to help support me and healthy babies please use this link to my fundraising page:
http://www.marchforbabies.org/personal_page.asp?pp=3673055&ct=4&si=&w=4685407&u=kim4leafclover

To those who have already donated, thank you for helping make this world a better place!

Family Fun

Sunday was a lovely day spent with my fantastic family. The kids and I started off the morning with Art and Easter Crafts.

I took a short video of Littles doing her coloring because I found her artistic style very cute. Plus she is in a stage where she is loves being on camera.

I always try and make the house as festive as possible each holiday (this holiday it wasn't decorated as much as I would have like, I ran out of time and energy). I got that from my mom, who always went above and beyond. (example: for my birthday each year she would put up "My Birthday Tree". It consisted of tokens from past birthdays like noise makers, paper plates, cups, goody bag stuff, masks so on and so forth. It was super neat)Here are a few decorations I put up.

The kids and I made this Easter Banner together. They put their hand prints on the egg shaped cutouts and I embellished them with glitter. It was a lot of fun and super easy.

Our Easter Table with the kids Easter Pails the bunny left for them.

I found this super cool banner from Hedgehog Studios, I printed, cut, strung them together and embellished the lettering and some of the children's' clothing with glitter. It is not the best picture, but it turned out perfect! Just what I wanted to add a little something extra and it was incredibility inexpensive!

Soon it was time for the Easter Hunt in the backyard. The kids had a ton of fun and so did I. I always do a mixture of eggs (this year plastic candy filled ones because Boog ate all the hard boiled ones the day before) and small toys (I did art supplies and dress up clothes this year).

Then my Easter present, a picture with all four of us. I always seem to have the hardest time getting pictures of all of us. And when I do the kids never seem to sit still, this time was no exception.

I love my family, I am such a lucky lady!

Happy Easter

Good Morning Everyone, And Happy Easter!

I hope your day will be filled with happiness and tons of family time. Be sure to create some wonderful memories, because they are the most precious gifts we can give ourselves, they last a lifetime. Tomorrow I will share some of the memories we create today with you :)

What a Wonderful World

Happy Earth Day Everyone!

In our household we feel it is very important to teach our children about Mother Earth and how to take care of her. We do our part on a daily basis by cutting down on our water usage, keeping our energy use low and recycling. Each Earth Day the kids and I plant a tree to celebrate! It was a tradition my parents did with me each year and I wanted to carry it on with my own children.

This year I decided to have an Earth Day date with Boog and Littles. We first went out to lunch, which was pizza and then coffee for Mommy as a dessert (because Littles decided to wake up at 2 am this morning, I was less than my chipper self).

After lunch and a much needed caffeine pick me up we were off to pick out our new tree! As soon as we got to our local store and hit the nursery Boog spotted the loveliest lilies. I LOVE Lilies so of course they were immediately added to our shopping cart. Soon we came upon a Hibiscus plant. When Littles saw it she started to grab for it and say "my, my" over and over again until I put it in our cart. So Littles picked out our "tree" ( I think it is really a bush) and Boog picked out some flowers to add to our yard.

Now it was time to head home and plant our gorgeous finds and make our Earth a little bit healthier and a whole lot more beautiful. The kids love to play in dirt, so planting the tree was a blast!

Once our plants were in the ground Littles wanted her picture taken! She kept walking around the yard posing then turning to me and would say "Mama". Too cute, she is my little sweetheart!

Happy Earth Day Everyone!

Please share how you made Mother Earth a little more lovely today!

Lovely Lil Lainey Bug

Before I gave birth to Littles I never really drooled over little girls clothes or girly things, in fact having a little boy was always my dream. But after Littles' birth something changed inside of me, I found myself in awe of all things girly. When Littles expressed interest in dancing and music I started to have dreams of her being a ballerina, performing in River Dance, and playing Cosette in Les Miserables.

I also found myself always on the look out for cute little girls clothes. With Boog I knew a lot of people who gave me TONS of hand-me-downs.  I know very few that have little girls and the ones I do know are so close in age that hand-me downs are few and far between. (I love hand-me-downs. It is great for your pocketbook and the environment.) So I have actually had to purchase most of Littles' outfits myself.

Since I am always on the hunt for cute clothes, I was so excited when I was introduced to Lil Lainey Bug's handmade clothes! I was lucky enough to get to know the lovely woman named Stacie, who makes these clothes through conversations we have shared on Facebook. It is so wonderful that in this day in and age we are able to connect with kindred spirits long distances away from us.

Stacie is the mother of two beautiful girls right around Littles' age. (Crafter and Artist Mommies, hold a special spot in my heart). Stacie read my blog and told me that she is getting her degree in M.Ed in Curriculum and Instruction concentration on Autism and will go for her Board Certified Behavior Analyst position. I was already in awe of Stacie's talent, but finding out that she was going to be helping children with delays and disabilities made her a super star in my eyes.  There is something about handmade items and getting to know the crafter that is incredibly wonderful.

The first item I found and fell in love with was her Olivia Skirt. One of Littles' favorite story time books is the Olivia series How perfect, I had to get it!

When it arrived in the mail I was so impressed with the quality of Stacie's workmanship. I have no idea how to sew, but having two youngsters has giving me a keen eye to spot what will hold up and what will not.  Stacie's clothes are definitely going to stand the test of time. I can't begin to tell you all the compliments I have gotten on this adorable skirt.

At Littles' last dance and music class my day was made by a fellow Mommy's comment. She total me " You have the cutest little girl ever! She is so smart, beautiful and she is always dressed in the cutest outfits!" Then another Mommy chimed in with " Yes, she seems much older than 16 months! I am always impressed at all the stuff she can do. She is adorable. I can't wait to have a little girl so I can dress her in cute clothes like this." I was beaming with Mommy pride!

Stacie holds specials called Super Saver Sundays on her Facebook page. For the last couple of Sundays I  got amazing deals on more outfits for Littles.

Here are some more photos of my lovely Littles exploring and playing in her new skirts. (there are quite a few photos but I can't seem to take enough of her. She is so beautiful, sometime I have a hard time believing she came from me.)

This is Littles in the Spring Has Sprung skirt

And here she is again in another sweet little skirt

 Thank you Lil Lainey Bug for making the cutest clothes, we cherish each and everyone!!!

The day that changed my life forever: Part Two Delivering Boog

Soon I was on my way to the hospital with my mom and my hospital bag in the car. I arrived at the hospital at 11am. Once getting there they immediately got me ready to deliver Boog. I guess it was decided before I even got there. They put me in a hospital gown, Hooked me up at the monitoring devices ( a Doppler to monitor Boog heart rate and my contractions, also a blood pressure cuff.)  I called my husband, Mr. R to let him know what was going on. To my surprise he was already in route, which was comforting to know soon he would be by my side.

Calling Mr. R and finding out he was already on his way

Then at noon they hooked up me up to the IV and started the Pitocin to induce labor. With the Pitocin I started contracting very quickly. It went from no contractions to major ones. Soon they asked if I had planned to have an epidural. I was going to try to go natural, but they didn’t want me to do that. With my blood pressure still extremely high an epidural would help lower it at least a little, so I agreed.

Having the epidural put in was the oddest experience! I had a nurse keeping me steady during the procedure because I was contracting and was having a hard time staying still. While they were inserting the epidural they touched a nerve and my left leg kicked out. I ended up kicking the nurse, I felt so bad. I have never experienced my body move without me controlling it. (no this isn’t something that normally happens, I was just lucky).

The next couple hours there wasn’t a whole lot of action. The only thing that really happened aside from them coming to check on me was the OBGYN came and broke my water (the very little amount left).

The OBGYN that came to do it and would be delivering Boog was Dr. D. I couldn’t believe it, the one I had been dreading would in fact, be the one doing the delivery.

Then at 9:05pm it was time! They had me push once and told me to stop. Boog’s head was already half way out and they weren’t completely ready for that. Then it was time to push again. Three pushes and Boog had entered the world.

As soon as he was out, the labor wing’s Code Pink alarm went off (in my hospital code pink means, mother or baby in trouble). Immediately three more nurses and the on call pediatrician came rushing into the room. It was because Boog was only 3 pounds 15 ounces. His Apgar score was great, at one minute it was a 9 and at 5 minutes it was a 10. He was healthy in every way except his weight.

Then they let me hold him, but only wrapped in blankets because since he was such a low birth weight he need the blankets to keep his body temperature up. I was crying and told him I loved him, but the words that kept coming out of my mouth over and over again were “He is so small, he’s so small.”

Holding Boog for the first time

Mr. R getting to hold Boog for the first time

Soon they took him from me. Boog had to go the NICU, Mr. R went with him.

I was so happy that he wasn’t going to be alone with strangers, but with his Daddy.  At the same time I wanted to go, I should be with Boog! He needs his Mommy. Unfortunately since I had the Epidural I was forced to stay in the delivery room. I have never felt so helpless and alone in my life. This wasn’t how it was suppose to be.

I was in shock, totally unprepared for this.

Soon Mr. R was back and told me that he got to feed Boog a bottle and that he ate the whole thing. My heart broke. I wanted to be the first to feed him, and it should have been breast milk. But at the same time I was so happy he was doing okay and that he was being taken care of.

Mr. R took my parents one at a time to go see Boog. And then once my in-laws arrived he took them. Mr. R was beaming, he loved Boog so much and was so proud of him and wanted everyone to meet him. I still had to wait in that damn bed.

After an hour and half of waiting a nurse came and got me and put me in a wheel chair. I asked if I was going to see Boog. I was told no they were taking me to the post delivery room. I cried again. They said I could see him soon but they are having a shift change and the NICU is closed to visitors for 30 minutes. I was told, for right now just get some rest. I don’t know how they expected me to rest when my son needed me.

I sat in the room, waiting and crying until they told me I could see him. At this point my legs were still numb and useless so I wheeled myself to the NICU and was finally reunited with my little boy. Seeing him in the incubator was hard, but I bucked up and put a smile on. They handed him to me and I tried to nurse him. He wasn’t latching on and after 30 minutes of trying they brought me a breast pump. So I pumped and then feed him my breast milk from a bottle. I stayed there all night until I was asked to leave for the next shift change 8 hours later. They had told me to go back to my room and sleep many times, but there was no way I was going to leave him if I didn’t have to. Sleep could wait!

The next ten days were spent in the NICU, but that is a story for another post.

The day that changed my life forever: Part One

It was the morning of March 10 2008, I had a full day of fun activities ahead of me. First thing that morning I had my 37 week prenatal check up at 9 am. After my appointment I had made plans with my Mom to pick her up, do a little shopping, lunch and then head back to my house to set up all the wonderful gifts I had received the week before at my baby shower.

This is me 36 week pregnant at my baby shower. I was very swollen from the preeclampsia.

I got ready as normal and headed to the OBGYN’s office. I waited the normal wait and then went through the normal routine, weighed in (192 pounds, my “super skinny” weight is 160 and my pre-preggo weight was 170), had my blood pressure taken, and then waited to be seen by the doctor. This was the first time I would be meeting this doctor, Dr. H **.

Since the office was three doctors and a nurse practitioner, I saw the nurse practitioner most of the time and at least once a month I would have one appointment with one of the OBGYN. And then in the last four weeks of pregnancy I would only see the OBGYNs. Up until this point I had met one that was a female doctor, Dr. Y**.  I had seen her on several appointments including an extra one when I came in because I couldn’t feel Boog move (all the others I went to the hospital). I had mostly been seen by Dr. D**, one of the male OBGYNs. I didn’t care for his bed side manner, and had been keeping my fingers crossed that he wouldn’t be the one to deliver my son ( he was the one that had seen me and dismissed my concerns on a regular basis, Dr Y did too, but I didn’t see her nearly as often).

Back to March 10^th….while waiting the doctor’s assistant came in and took my blood pressure again. After she was done she asked me to lie down while I waited. I thought it was strange, but did it. Then Dr. H came in and told me that he was going to take me into the next room and do a quick ultrasound. At this point I was getting nervous, but thought that maybe they do another ultrasound on the 37 week visit to check the baby’s position. After the ultrasound I was taken back to the first room.  With in minutes my world was turned upside down.

Dr. H informed me that my blood pressure was 145/110. They had checked it twice and it didn’t come down. When he did the ultrasound, he saw that I only had one pocket of amniotic fluid left surrounding Boog. He told me that he was sending me to the hospital and that there was a good chance that I would be delivering my baby today. He said I didn’t need to rush; I could go home and get my hospital bag (which I had just packed the night before, thank goodness). I asked if I had enough time to pick up my mother and he said yes. I also asked if I should call my husband and have him leave work to meet me at the hospital. Dr. H said no that I should wait to make sure I was going to have the baby, and that wouldn’t be decided until I got to the hospital. As I was getting ready to leave Dr. H total me “You are the reason we have prenatal care”.

At the time this comment had very little effect on me, I had much more to think and worry about. But looking back on it I have a lot of resentment. I am the reason we have prenatal care!!! Well I got news for you buddy, your group of OBGYNs is the reason we have Malpractice insurance!!!!!!! (No I didn’t sue them, but there sure was grounds for it. I would have sued if Boog had huge medical issues that he would have had to deal with for the rest of his life. I would have gone after them to insure that Boog’s medical cost was covered by them for the rest of his life.)

When I left the office and got in my car, it was the oddest sensation. I was very worried and sacred, but at the same time I kept myself amazingly calm.

I called my mom and told her I was on my way to pick her, but we would be going back to my house to get my stuff and then heading to the hospital. I could tell she was trying to stay calm for me, but you could hear in her voice the worry she was experiencing.

My next call was to my husband, Mr. R. The doctor told me not to at this point, but I couldn’t leave him in the dark either. I told him the plan and that I would call once I got to the hospital and that he didn’t have to leave work until I found out what was going to happen.

This is a rather long story so it will be continued in my next post.

** I changed the Doctors names for the purpose of the blog

Second Time is a Charm

So the morning on Boog's second day of preschool I was getting things ready and he started to talk about school. I quickly grabbed my camera and took a short video.

I began to worry a bit that we would have a repeat of the first day, screaming and then a long nap which resulted in a less than stellar first day. But by the time we were packed up and ready to go he seemed pumped instead of bummed about having to go.

We arrived at school early and Boog wanted to dig into his lunch box and have some of his snack. So we sat down just outside the classroom doors, had some string cheese and talked about his show and tell item. He decided to bring the bank airplane his Papa had got him for his birthday.

It was going great! When the classroom opened up we went inside, he immediately went and said "Hi" to the teacher and started to play. I went and said bye. He gave me a kiss, then I made my mistake.

After the last rough goodbye, I talked to several other Mommy who suggest I tell him exactly when I would be back and that he wouldn't be missing anything fun.

After the kiss goodbye I said " Mommy will be back in two hours to get you." Thats when the tears started to stream down his lovely red checks. I quickly added "Mommy is going home to do house work and you get to stay here and play". That didn't help. He grabbed onto me and gave the hardest hug, all the while crying and saying "No Bye".

I hugged and kissed him, said "it going to be alright, Mommy will be back soon" then left.

The two hours flew by. Littles and I had music class from 9:30 to 10:15. Then I dropped her off at home with Daddy and went to pick Boog up.

As I walked closer to the playground I expect to not see him again and hear he slept through his second day too. But to my surprise I found him playing. He soon noticed me and ran to the gate with a big smile saying "Hi Ma! In Mama! Hi Ma!"

Then recess was over so he lined up for a head count/roll call.

Then closing circle

Then it was time to go home!

I would say that day two of preschool....pretty much a success!  :)

First Day of Preschool or Should I Say Naptime

Some information before I start my story. Boog has been accepted into a speech therapy preschool. It is just like a normal preschool but it focuses on speech and once a week he will have a 30 minute, one on one sessions with a speech therapist. It is a two day a week program and the preschool is apart of our local elementary school system. I am so excited he is getting the extra help he needs.

This week was Boog’s first day of preschool. The night before I was a bundle of nerves, it took me forever to fall asleep. I stayed up and made a little sign for him to wear for the picture I was going to take just outside of the classroom. I set my alarm (even though Boog is my alarm everyday of the week, 5 am sharp) to make sure I had plenty of time to get up, get dressed, pack his school snack, make breakfast, get both of the kids ready, and make it to school a little bit early so I had time to take a couple of pictures before class started.

My alarm goes off at 6 am and half asleep I hit the snooze button (what can I say; if it isn’t Boog poking me in the arm or jumping on me to get up I have a tendency not to. Oops!). Then at 7am I wake up with a start.  What is going on, Boog is always up long before this time in the morning. I wasn’t complaining though, sleeping more than 3 or 4 is a rarity for me. So I get up, pack his snack, his backpack, get dressed, make some pancakes and Boog finally wonders out to the living room at 7:30am. I quickly get him dressed and have him sit down for breakfast and go get Littles up.

Littles is my sleeper; she usually doesn’t get up until 8:30 or 9 am. Waking her up at 7:35am didn’t make her a happy camper. She was super fussy and it made getting her ready a bit of a challenge. Soon Littles joins Boog at the breakfast table. While they are eating I pack my camera in my purse and did a couple odds and ends.

At 8am I packed both kids in the car with Boog’s backpack and paperwork for preschool and then we were off to school. It is only a couple of minutes away and class starts @ 8:30 so I have plenty of time for pictures.

We arrive at school and are walking from the parking lot to class and we see the school psychologist. We say good morning to her and she then say “Aren’t you running late?”

What!?!?!!?! That can’t be!! I know I looked at the start time a million times the night before to avoid this very thing. So I calmly say “The class starts at 8:30, that’s what the teacher told us.”  She then informs me that the class goes from 8 to 11. So I say goodbye quickly and made a quick dash for the classroom in a total panic.

Worst mother in the world, I can’t even get my kid to his first day of preschool on time!

We arrive at the class and I saw our preschool teacher. I said “I am so sorry we are late” and our teacher tells us it is only 8:15 am and we still have 15 minutes. Whew! I felt so much better. I wasn’t the worst mother in the world and I still have plenty of time to take Boog’s first day of preschool pictures.  

After I got my super cute picture of Boog wear the sign I made him, we headed inside. As I expected he instantly left my side and began to play and have fun. I signed him in and let Littles down to do some exploring of her own while we waited for his teacher to finish photocopying his immunization records for his file. Once all the paperwork was settled it was time for Littles and I to be on our way. I said goodbye to Boog, gave him a kiss and even got a cute picture of him saying goodbye.

Then he went back to his teacher and began to play again.

Just as we reached the door Littles yelled out “BYE”. Boog dropped the toy he was playing with and in a blood curdling scream he called “MAMA!”. At that very instant my heart dropped into my stomach and I froze. I wasn’t expecting this response from him. Normally he is the type of kid that is super independent and honestly doesn’t need his Mama like I have seen other kids cling to their parents. I was totally unprepared. The teacher waved me away, so I left the classroom.

As Littles and I were walking down the hall I kept telling myself “he will be fine, preschool is going to be great for him” all the while I could still hear him screaming my name. I wanted to turn back and give him a big hug and say “its okay, Mommy's here” but I knew that would only make things worst, so Littles and I headed home.

Once home I was feeling on edge and since Littles woke up before her usual time her mood wasn’t helping things. Then the phone rings, I look at the caller ID and it is his preschool. I was in shock, I had only been home for less then 5 minutes and they were calling me. I answer the phone expecting to hear he is freaking out and that I need to come and get him. It was the school psychologistBoog had calmed down. They moved him to the “Calm down” pillow to cool off. One of the teachers was sitting with him and he was talking to her. He was mainly telling her “I mad!” but he wasn’t screaming my name anymore. And that soon he would join in the activities of the day.

With the phone call my nerves were put at easy, he was calming down and would have a good first day. Before I knew it, it was time to go and pick Boog up.

I got there a little early and the kids were outside on the playground. I was looking for Boog and couldn’t find him anywhere. I started to get a little uneasy until his teacher saw me and yelled across the playground “He is inside sleeping”. I was very confused. When I got closer she told me “he curled up on the calm down pillow and went to sleep. We kept coming over and asking him to join each activity we did, but he just stayed asleep.” The teacher was wondering if he didn’t sleep well, or if maybe he was under the weather. I told her that he had slept in and I didn’t think he was ill.

I walked in the classroom to find this:

Unbelievable, the kid who wakes me up almost every morning at 5am and half the time refuses to take a nap, slept through the entire first day of preschool (okay so his class is only 2 hours and 15 minutes long, but still)!

I woke him up just as the kids were coming in from recess to do the goodbye circle. He was still half asleep but went to the rug and participated. Then we got his backpack and headed outside.

Of course as soon as we do he tells me “No Bye” and wants to play on the playground with the big kids (a Kindergarten class was having their recess). I asked the teacher if it was okay for my two little ones to join in on the fun. Once we got the okay the kids ran around and had fun. After about 15 minutes it was time for us to go. I had planed on getting him a treat to celebrate his first day of school. The only way I could pry him from the playground was to tell him about his treat.

Soon we were on our way to Starbucks for Cake Pops and a Crème Fappuccino.

It was a stressful day, I needed a treat ;)

I love that smile, even if it is covered in chocolate!