My Mother's Day Gift

from Vannan

May 8 - Getting Some Joel Time

Love Is ... Reading Together

May 8 - Watching Cookies

Stood up by myself

May 2 - Mudbugs 3

May 2 - Mudbugs 2

May 2 - Our Mudbugs

May 2 was HOT.
Rhoda ran the sprinkler for a little while for the kids.

And then we had

MUDBUGS.

This one is mine.
Those are Thomas the Tank Engine swim shorts.
Can't tell, can you?

May 28 - Day 1 After Karen's Surgery

Dear Friends & Family,

 

Karen passed a really good night, if you can say that about a night in which she only dozed. Paul came, and nursed, and stayed. A friend of Karen's in the nursery very sweetly brought a newborn crip for him to use, but it became evident that it was just a bit too narrow for him to sleep comfortably in, so Karen basically had to hold him in her lap all night (making the night nurse very nervous, but he stayed put). However, Paul makes little noises (associated with his breathing - little squeaks, chirps, drawn-out hiccup sounds, and even snores) and I'm sure her sleep was negatively affected thereby. 

 

Then there's the common complaints about hospitals everywhere -- first, the constant traffic of people whose job it is to keep you alive. Dunno why they gotta check you every hour, though - you're wired for all you're worth to the wall and you can hardly turn over without the floor nurse knowing it. In fact, I'm sure they know exactly when you fall asleep, else how could they time their entrances so precisely to the point at which you had only just ceased to be awake?

 

Next is the infernal machine that squeezes your legs alternately to keep you from getting clots. A laudable goal, to be sure, but I guarantee you would have to be on more dope than they gave Karen to be able to sleep through its tender mercies. And since she had stopped using the narcotic self-dose machine after about 6:15 PM last night (no pain!), it did a good job keeping her wakeful.

 

I didn't sleep much better than Karen because the spouse accomodations are rather sketchy, even though my legs aren't being squeezed, and even though the people who come in aren't after me (yet). The pull-out armchair / lounge / trundle bed is not even when extended, there are joints between the sections, and in consequence your hips and shoulder fall into the resulting pockets -- just try to turn over without giving yourself a bad charlie horse in your thigh. I couldn't!

 

Even though (while enduring it) the night felt like being subjected to midieval torture on the rack, once I dragged my aching bod to the floor and got going, I didn't feel that bad the rest of the day, so maybe you can chalk up the above to the human propensity to gripe, no matter how good you have it. And griping is inappropriate, since it shows ingratitude to Him to whom I owe everything, not to mention doing no good. So I pray you will consider the above to be more of a mild attempt at humor.

 

Karen at least should have a better night tonight because today they unhooked all the machines, so she was free to walk around the room, sitting on the bed or chair at need as pleased her. The bathroom is available to her now as well, a welcome relief no doubt! I've never had a Foley and hope I never have to. She also progressed to liquid food, then light solid food, and now can have anything she wants provided it's not greasy or spicy.

 

Dr. came back this afternoon, and after checking her and reading her chart says she's doing GREAT, still on track to go home tomorrow!

 

Love,

 

--Steve

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Rachel's Note:

I talked to Karen around Noon, just for a short time since we were getting ready to eat lunch.

But Karen says that they took Paul up to the nursery for a little while today.  When they brought him back, they told her that Paul now weighs 10 lbs and 11 oz.  That's 8 oz more than Matthew was when he was born, and Paul is now 2 1/2 months old.  Karen said we did a good job feeding him.  She has really enjoyed having Paul with her.  She enjoys SHORT visits, and notes and cards. She says her biggest WISH / NEED right now, is for somebody to volunteer to do some basic house cleaning for her this week.

The big girls are being a TREMENDOUS amount of help with the little kids.  Tonight we managed all 10 of our little ones with barely a hitch (they wanted to slide down the back of Dad's couch).  That included feeding and bathing them.  Plus the kitchens were cleaned, food packed for a picnic tomorrow after Valarie and Lathan's birthday parties, water bottles filled, teeth brushed, and laundry and sweeping chores completed.  WOW.

My Dad was saying tonight that the 3 big girls really deserve something special to happen to show how much we appreciate their help.  Not sure what to do for them though.  But it's the stuff that REAL LIFE is made of - they are getting an education about life.  And we were very pleased with our little guys too - Anthony at barely 8 all the way down to baby LaRue - just really co-operative and pleasant.   

Pray for us this weekend - we have THREE family parties.  It will be fun, but I think we might have a very slow Monday and let everyone take afternoon naps, even the big girls.

May 27 - Karen's Surgery Update

Dear Friends & Family,

 

They cut on Karen today, making a necessarily large incision to extract intact "the thing", which turns out to have a $5 name, "mucinous cystadnoma". It ALSO turned out to be HUGE, maybe the size of a honeydew melon. Frozen slices were taken and sent down to Pathology, who returned a negative result for carcinoma, meaning benign, praise God!!! Permanent slides will be made and those will take a week to get back.

 

The surgery was quick, from "wheel away" to closeup was only about 40 minutes, if that. I barely had time to run out, get a burger, come back, and take ONE bite before they were paging me. Even so, they had time to take some amazing pictures, the least sickening 3 of which I've attached. Parents, be careful who's watching when you view these, nothing obscene, but "the thing" is a VERY nasty-looking customer, indeed!  (RACHEL HERE - I didn't include them on the blog)

 

They patched her up, sent her to Recovery, woke her up, worked her pain level down to a 5 (on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being "barely noticeable", and 10 being "makes you scream"), sent her upstairs to a room where she's sipping apple juice and hoping for solid food soon. That will be only a hope until tomorrow AM, assuming she barfs no cookies in the night. She's on a morphine analogue (Dilaudid, aka DOPE) which she gets IV every time she pushes the button on a little handheld device.

 

That device has become her best friend, you bet, because she is enduring some significant pain right now. When the pain gets above, say, a 4, she just picks up her new best friend and gets a squirt of DOPE. 5-10 minutes later, she's starting to relax again. Although it sounds like it could lead to abuse, this method actually reduces the amount of painkiller patients get, reducing the chances / effects of addiction, and gives the patient a very welcome voice in the course of their treatment. She's also got something perched on the end of her bed called an SCD Express, which alternately squeezes her legs (in the calf area) to keep circulation going down there while her system shakes off the anesthesia and periodic applications of DOPE. Her diastolic pressure right now is depressed to something like 60% of it's usual value because of the drugs.

 

The pediatrician said she can nurse Paul as soon as she is able to sit up and hold him, after pumping and pitching one cycle, which has improved her mood immeasurably. Dilaudid & breastfeeding info: http://www.drugs.com/pregnancy/hydromorphone.html

 

A while ago the respiratory therapist came by and gave her a little device to work their "incentive inspiration" program. When I asked what the incentive was (thinking something along the lines of a $50 Chili's gift card or some such), the response I got was, "you get to leave the hospital on time - alternatively, you can contract pneumonia and go a few rounds with a life-threatening disease". I said, "sounds great to me!!!"

 

Bottom line, she's doing GREAT, having gone from almost prone to almost vertical in the 3 hrs since they brought her up. Her vitals are great, her mood is great, and she will probably be ready to try nursing Paul in another hour or two (Rachel, you reading this?).

 

I'll spend the night in the room recliner tonight for Karen's peace of mind, and tomorrow they say they'll take out her Foley and the SCD Express and work on getting her up and out of bed.

 

All Praise to the Lord! "I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul." -Psa 138:1-3

 

Love,

 

--Steve

RACHEL's NOTE:

They dropped Paul off this morning around 9:15.  He did very well all day - the hard part was for me juggling two babies, but even so, they were both so good today - neither crying much at all.  Paul never quite figured out a bottle - so it was so nice that I am still very much nursing LaRue and was able to feed him too.  Another nursing Mom friend of ours came over in the late afternoon and she helped feed him too.  Baby Paul didn't go hungry at all.

Karen called around 7pmish tonight, just as my Dad was heading down to check on them.  She wanted Paul.  So I called Daddy really quick and he swung back home and picked him up.  The nurse came in just as Daddy got there, so he held Paul while the nurse did the temp and blood pressure thing.  Then asked Karen questions.  Well, just as soon as Karen started to talk, Paul was suddenly all animated and pushing himself up off Dad's shoulder and trying to look around behind him.  Of course that just MADE Karen's night.  Then as soon as he could, Daddy got her all fixed up with support pillows and put Paul in her lap.   Dad said that Paul just completely LIT UP.  All smiles and giggles and coos and jabbered for quite a while at her.

May 8 - First Peas

Kendra feeds LaRue many of her meals.
Not that she eats much yet.

This is one of her earliest attempts, maybe 3rd or 4th?

I think I like it.

OH NO - It's ON MY HAND!!!

You just gonna stand there with a camera?
Or you gonna fix my hand?

Kindergarten Fun - May 8

Joel did a crossword puzzle.

Marriana and Matthew did a cutting page.

Bethie loves to trace words.

Early May - School Days

I was trying to fit so many little ones around the table, and everyone was bumping elbows.
So we turned the table. More room for everyone.
But we still have some problems.

But what does LaRue do during school?

She'll play in the crib for nearly 2 hours at a time.
Rarely will she play less than an hour unless she is very hungry or very tired.

Until she learned how to belly flop and move around by kicking her feet.
She sat in the middle of the table and played with whatever she had in her hands.

Or could reach.

Ummm... baby girl?
Where are Joel's stickers?

Early May - Vannan's Harlequin Calico Bunnies

The line in the face makes it a Harlequin.