Two Steps Forward...One Step Back

Journey is doing great. We were soooo excited Christmas day when we walked into the NICU and she was out of the incubator. It is so hard to see them in their little space ship. Seeing her in the regular little baby convertible hospital bed made her seem totally normal. Then yesterday she got to get the IV's out of her arm. Yes, progress is being made. I let the doctor know that my kids are not even sure that she truly exists because they have not got to see her yet, so the nice doc. went around and told all of the nurses that some kids would be coming to the first NICU window, but please pretend you don't see them. (You see the rule at this time of year is that kids under 12 can not even go onto the second floor of the hospital.) I went home and told the kids that they got to come to the hospital to see Journey. They were so excited. The one that surprised me was McKade. I did not think that he would even have a clue what was going on. The second I held her up to the window McKade's eyes lit up and the biggest smile I have ever seen spread over his face. He stayed like this the entire time he got to see her. I had told Ben from the beginning of this pregnancy that McKade needed to bring his little friend down to Earth with him and I believe that is exactly what happened. I can't wait for the two of them to grow up together.
I went into the NICU last night to feed Journey and found out that she has lost some weight being out of the incubator. She is able to keep her body temp. up really well, but this takes calories to do, calories that she can not afford to use for this. The doctor says that it is not a lack of eating that is making her lose weight, because she is peeing and pooping enough for 3 babies. We are packing the calories into her. So here we go back into the incubator. It was really hard to take this step back and the doctor says we should not see it as a step back (ya right). She has to stay in the incubator until she at least gets back up to her birth weight. She is down to 3 lbs. 10 oz now. Hopefully she will start to fatten up soon.

One Journey ends and another begins.

Journey Isabella Cobb has finally made it into the world at last. She is 3 lbs 13 oz and 16 inches long!

On Sunday December 20th at 8pm Shani had her appointment to be induced. After dropping off the kids at her mom’s house (thanks Tana and Brie) we headed to the hospital for the long night ahead of us. Shani told me they were going to use a “shoe string” to induce her because it is a slower process and they don’t want to hurt the baby because of her size. If you don’t know what the “shoe string” is look it up cuz I aint going into detail on that one.

After Shani changes into her gown the nurse comes in to explain what is going to happen. The nurse tells us they are going to place the “shoe string” and leave it in for 2 hours then check her again. Before they place the string in she checks Shani and says she is dilated to a 2.5 and 50% efffaced. We were thinking Shani will be ready anytime since this is almost how all the kids have started and then quickly came after. The nurse continues to explain that the string will be in for 12 hours and then they will take it out and see where she is at. The nurse tells us our only job for tonight is to sleep and that the baby won’t be delivered till this time tomorrow. I get a little annoyed at this and ask Shani if I could go home for the night but that wasn’t happening.

After the nurse does her thing Shani starts to have lots of contractions but the nurse assures us the baby won’t come till tomorrow night. We finally get to sleep and I am woken up at 1 or so AM to Shani rocking in pain on her bed asking for an epidural. Last time Shani had an epidural it slowed the process down. I was still planning on the baby coming the next day and it was barely Monday morning so I tell her “no, you can’t have an epidural!” Ya, wrong thing to say (to my credit, I was half asleep). Well the nurse was thinking the same thing I was but decided to check Shani out. She checks for the size and says “ya, you need an epidural, you're at a 4!” The drug doc finally made it to the room and relieved Shani from the pain. She checks Shani again and gets on the speaker and in a little bit of a panic asked if Doctor Guzman was still in the hospital. Shani had moved from a 4 to a 9 in no time and was ready to go.

Dr Guzman finally shows up and is kind of mad at the nurses because after all, Shani is not due to have the baby till tomorrow. The Doc checks Shani and you could see the surprise in his face and the slightest bit of panic in his voice as he starts shouting commands to get people and that the placenta had detached from her uterus a little. Three pushes later baby Journey is out crying. Still in a bit of a panic the Doc asks me “Dad you don’t care if I cut the cord do you” as he is already going for it. She was so small they were in a hurry to run a bunch of tests on her to see if she needed any special attention but the test never came back with a reason to why she was so small and stopped growing. Dr Guzman apologized to the nurses for being mean to them and that he was glad they made his hurry to the delivery room. Dr Guzman stated he was called to the hospital to admit someone and this must have been the reason he was here because it could have gone bad.

Journey is doing good but they are keeping her at the hospital till she feeds properly and gains a little weight. Shani is doing great as well as she is walking around and will be released soon. Thanks for all the help everyone have given us and to Tana and Brie for watching the kids. God really does answer prayers!

Baby Journey 5.6 lbs??

I got a call from Shani after a doctor appointment last week stating the Doc’s were ready to take the baby. Shani stated the Doc wanted her to go to her other ultrasound appointment first to see what they thought about it and to see how the baby was doing. Shani calls me Thursday after the appointment and tells me she has a meeting with the hospital on Sunday at 8pm where they will be inducing her. I think, “YES, let’s get the show on the road and get everyone moved out here!” Well…. If you know anything about Shani and babies you know nothing ever goes as planned.

I change my flight from the 23rd to the 18th and fly in. The Doc made Shani another appointment for the 19th at the hospital just to double check the baby before her big day. That day a routine visit turns into a FREAKING 3 HOUR ORDEAL!!! They didn’t really seem to have us in there database as they weren’t prepared for our visit. They put Shani on the stress test measuring baby’s heart beat and Shani’s contractions. After about an hour of that, was suppose to be 20 to 30 min, the nurse came in and said she was still waiting for the ultrasound tech. Being as patient as I am and already being there for an hour, I had had it and told Shani to get up and we were leaving. Well if you know me, you know who wears the pants in the family and we were there for another 2 hours.

The ultrasound tech finally makes her way into our room and tells us it might take her awhile because she does not know how to use the “new” machine! WTF!!! Now I am really ticked because she stops in the middle of it and takes 15 minutes to play with the machine to figure it out. The lady finally finishes the ultrasound and asked what the other ultrasound techs told her the baby’s weight was. Just for a quick background, Shani has been going to ultrasound specialists at least once a week for the past 3 or so months due to the fluid, or lack there of, in her belly and the baby has never been over 3.6 lbs. Any way, back to the story. Shani tells her 3 and ½ pound to which she replies “Well I Have her at 5.5 lbs” in a matter of fact tone of voice like she is Gods gift to ultrasound geeks!! What an IDIOT, the lady who admitted she didn’t know how to work the machine is going to tell us that the other actual ultrasound specialists, advanced ultrasounds are all they do at this place, were wrong? RIIIIGHT!!! We finally got released and went home to prepare for Journey’s big day on the 20th.

Seriously...

I had my kids make their Christmas lists awhile ago. The lists went on and on and I double checked with them for Santa many times. Now Bodin comes home with this letter to Santa...



This was not on the original list. I sure hope Santa's elves can get it made in time.

Student of the Month

The coveted award at my kid's school is the student of the month award. Only one child from each class is eligible to receive this award each month, so it is rather difficult to achieve. Bodin has been working really hard to get it. He comes home each month and says my teacher almost picked me. His teacher has told me that she has almost picked him each month, but since he is so good she has held off knowing that she can pick him at anytime. McKinna has also been working very hard. Here is what their teacher's had to say about them...
(you would have to click on the image to read it)




Good Job Guys! You cleaned house this month, plus McKinna also received an academic award and reached her AR goal.

The Christmas Season Has Begun

Last Saturday we went to the annual parade through Queen Creek. It was actually pretty good this year. The kids came home with bags of candy and so they deemed it a success.



This morning I took them to see the most awesome Santa Claus in the world. McKade was quite unsure of the whole situation. This, of course, always makes the best pictures.




Yesterday morning we woke up to frost on the ground. The kids were eating breakfast and kept telling me that the ground was white, and then they had to go investigate. They came in yelling that it had snowed. I hated to burst their bubbles. To them it snowed right here in AZ. Maybe we will have a white Christmas after all!