The Spider Hunt

Lately, Mason is obsessed with spiders. He's also always had a thing for flashlights. Put the two together, and what do you get? A spider hunt! This one particular night, we were all hanging out in our room for various reasons. Vance was doing homework, I was folding laundry, and Mason was, of course, looking for spiders. He had this particular corner where he would sit and shine his flashlight in and point to a black speck on the carpet, and just talk about that speck being a spider. He was entertained for hours! At one point, Vance put Mason's toy ant in the corner while Mason was distracted. However, with the reality Mason was trying to create, he was not too impressed with the ant!

The next day, I decided to clean our front window. As I was doing so, I noticed a small banana spider up in the corner. I had Mason stand on a box so he could see it, and boy did he go nuts! He went even more crazy when I reluctantly persuaded the spider into a glass jar so Mason could see it up close and personal! Needless to say, the spider hunt was a success!!

However, unfortunately the spiders fate was inevitable. While carrying the jar around like it was attached to him 24/7, he dropped it in the kitchen where it shattered all over. Vance removed the spider while Mase was not looking! It was fun while it lasted, but lucky for us the spider hunts continue on everyday. He even talks about spiders while trying to fall asleep, and first thing when he wakes up. I just hope he finds a different obsession soon because I HATE SPIDERS!!!

What To Do??

So about a week ago, I took Mason in to the doctor for a check up and while I was there, I told the doc about Isaac. He spits up a lot (which I figured meant he has reflux), but he is also always acting uncomfortable. He's always grunting and groaning all the time and I wanted to know what was wrong. He then told me that because of his reflux, he is having pretty bad heartburn. He gave me a prescription for Prevacid and said it would help take the heartburn away. He also said I could try giving him Mylanta/Maalox before each feeding and see if that works before trying the Prevacid if I wanted. I am so torn between what to do. I definitely do not want my poor baby to be in pain and uncomfortable, but I have heard my mom in the past say how crazy she thinks it is for baby's to be on medication like that. She is so anti-medication, and pro-anything natural, that she strongly believes that probiotics will solve almost any problem. I want to agree completely with her because anything natural is always better than medications IF it does the job. But I can't stand the idea of my helpless little baby being in pain. I have started giving him probiotics everyday and it does seem to be helping. He's definitely a happier baby, but I wonder if the Prevacid would do even better. I need to do my own research on the medication, but if there is anyone out there that has any experience with this same situation, or has any opinion on the matter, I would love to hear from you!

Date with Dad

Vance rarely gets an opportunity, or an excuse to take Mason out and spend time with just him. So when Isaac and I had a baby shower to go to on a Saturday afternoon, Vance took the opportunity gratefully and with much excitement. He ended up taking Mason to the park, and then to McDonalds for lunch. They both had a very enjoyable time. I am so grateful for what an amazing dad Vance is. He really treasures these moments of spending quality time with Mason. Soon enough, there will be two boys running around at times like this!

Yellow's!!

If candy was all Mason could eat, he would be so happy. He loves any candy he can get his hands on. M & M's (which is what he calls "yellow's" at my parent's house because we tried teaching him the color yellow with them), mike and ike's, licorice, lemon heads, etc... In these particular pictures, he had licorice in his mouth and was so excited about it, he wanted to share it with the camera! Enjoy!!

Happy Third Birthday Carter!!

ER

Vance did not want me to blog this for some reason, but this blog is like my journal, so I am blogging it anyways. Wednesday, Feb 18th was a day I wish I could forget forever. It started out just great, but ended with a haunting experience I'm afraid I will never forget (It seems like it's one thing after another with us). It started with Vance dropping me and the kids off at my parents so they could watch the kids while I went to a doctor appointment. After the appointment I had to run a few errands which I completely enjoyed. I feel like it had been months since I had been out driving around by myself during the day, and it felt great! I stopped at Bountiful Nutrition to get Gripe Water to try it with Isaac. He seems so uncomfortable all the time and I have heard people swear by it up and down, so I was quite excited to try it. When I arrived back at my parents house, the first thing I did was open the Gripe Water and get the dosage ready to give him. It comes with a syringe to use instead of a dropper, but I didn't really think anything of it. I measured out 1/2 tsp, and put it in his mouth. I barely pushed on it cause I know it can come out fast if you're not careful. Well, it did just that. It just shot right out and Isaac started choking and gasping for air. My mom was holding him, and she quickly started patting his back trying to help him get his breath. He got a small breath of air, and was right back to choking again. This happened over and over again until he was purple... and then gray. I was just yelling his name over and over again not knowing if he was going to take another breath again. I just kept thinking that he was just fine, and that there was no way this was happening to my baby. But my mom kept reminding me that he was still choking and turning purple. She called my dad in and we all started to panic. Julie walked in the house, and at that point, we were pretty much on our way out the door to take him to the ER. She took one look at him, and confirmed the idea of getting him there asap. His car seat was in our car at Vance's work, but that didn't matter. Car seat or not, we were taking him. I called Vance on the way and told him to meet us at the hospital. Luckily on the way there, Isaac burped a little and got some of it out and from that point on, he was able to breathe better, and started to slowly get his color back. When we got to the hospital, I was so shaken up that I could barely tell them what had happened. While filling out the paper work, they took his vitals and got us to a room for the Dr. to look at him. The main thing we were all concerned about is if he had aspirated or not. They said his lungs sounded real good but they did an x-ray just to make sure. The verdict was that everything looked good except there was a "marking" on the lower part of one of his lungs that they weren't sure what it was from. He said if he had aspirated, he would have expected something on the upper part of his lungs. So...they sent us home with the understanding that we would come back if he had any trouble breathing of any kind, or if he developed a fever. I was relieved that there was nothing serious enough for them to keep him there at the hospital, but what was the "marking" on his lung all about? I just pray that it's nothing serious and nothing more happens. This boy is already keeping us on our toes and has been from week 13 of the pregnancy. I'm so grateful he's okay!

Isaac's First "Real" Bath

After exactly one week, Isaac's umbilical cord fell off, and boy was I excited! This meant that we wouldn't have to keep folding down his diapers, rubbing alcohol on it 3 times a day, and that he could finally have a real bath! It's always interesting to see a baby's reaction to their first bath. Mason HATED sponge baths, but LOVED real baths right from the start. Isaac hated sponge baths, but he also doesn't care much at all for his real baths either. He loves to lie in the warm water, but as soon as we start lathering him up, he goes crazy! I even make sure I let the soap sit in the warm water for a while so it's not shockingly cold. Anyway, here are a few pics of Vance giving him his first bath.

Baby Isaac!

The day after Isaac was born, my parents brought Mason in to see us and to finally get to meet the baby he'd constantly been told about for the last 8 months. It was so fun to see his reaction as he grinned from ear to ear as he looked at his new baby brother. He made the real connection when Vance told him that this was Baby Isaac, and that he wasn't in Mommy's belly anymore.

He had already been walking around saying "Baby Isaac" all the time, especially when pointing to my belly. Well, when my parents took him home, he walked right over and picked up a stuffed animal duck that was in his toy box, then walked over and grabbed a blanket. He carefully wrapped up the duck in the blanket and carried it around for the rest of the day calling him Baby Isaac. Apparently he didn't let that duck out of his sight! I just thought that was so cute and how amazing it is how quickly kids learn and catch on to things.

In Mason's words, in this picture, he was "change a diaper!"

Warning to all Future Parents!

So while we were at the hospital, all three of us (Vance, Isaac, and myself) had to wear wrist bands for identification. Well, they have added extra security to the babies, which is awesome, but they need to come up with a lot better idea. They put the usual bands on each of his ankles, but they also put a strip of paper with his name on it onto his thigh and it was secured with tegaderm (the tape used to hold IV's in place). I was a little skittish about this idea from the beginning. It too the lovely CNA that put it on him kept 3-4 tries to finally figure out how the tegaderm works. Each time she kept putting the piece of paper too low, so the corner was jabbing into his knee. I kept kindly asking her to cut the extra inch off the paper because it kept jabbing into his knee, but she kept ignoring me. Finally after asking the nurse that was standing there for a pair of scissors, the CNA cut it off. Then as we were getting ready to leave the hospital, we asked the nurse if she would take it off, and she said to just do it at home and that it would peel right off. Well, this was not the case. Poor little Isaac just screamed every time we'd attempt to peel it off. I even used an adhesive remover. When we finally got it off, his poor leg was red and sore for quite a while. I was so mad at the whole situation that I just wanted to warn everyone about the possibility of this happening to your baby.

Our Midnight Scare

One night last week we were up still around midnight (which is pretty typical for us). We were trying to get settled for bed when Vance came in from the kitchen and said that something was burning. We went back into the kitchen and it quickly became clear that it was coming from the dreyer. We had our big fuzzy blanket in there and I guess it was way too big for our tiny dreyer. We opened the dreyer door and were over powered with the smell of fire. There wasn't any smoke but we weren't sure what the cituation was in the wall, or anywhere else we couldn't see, so I called 911. They told us to quickly get out of the house and wait for them to arrive. Vance quickly went outside and started the car so we could keep the kids warm while I got Isaac bundled up. After pulling Mason out of his crib and putting his coat on, we were just getting in the car when a fire truck and ambulance pulled up. Mason and I just danced to the music in the car while Vance went in with the Firemen to see what the verdict was. Luckily there was no damage anywhere and they said something in the dreyer caught on fire for a split second before we caught it. Otherwise we could have been in big trouble. We are so grateful that nothing serious happened and that we are all safe. It's so scary to think that we were that close to disaster. Unfortunately we are out of a dreyer for now until we can get it looked at to make sure it is safe to use again. Perfect timing with a new baby here! One thing I know for sure, we will NEVER run any dreyer in our house while were are sleeping, or not home. It's just not worth it.

Our Bundle of Joy!!!!!

Introducing...Isaac Vance Sandgren!! Born on January 23, 2009 at 6:16 am. Weighing in at 5 pounds 6 ounces and measuring 19 inches long, our precious new baby joined our family. It all started on Wednesday the 21st when I went into the hospital to have my amniotic fluid levels checked. Part of the testing was done by ultrasound where they divided my belly into four quadrants. Then they took a picture of each quadrant and measured the amount of fluid in each quadrant and added it together to get the total amount. Two of the quadrants had no fluid at all and the other two added up to be 6. Normal is 10-24. I was at 10.5 while at the hospital during Christmas, and in 4 weeks, it went down to 6. The nurse was a little concerned, I was way concerned, but she said to come back to have it checked again on Friday. Then we noticed with some contractions, the baby's hear beat would drop a little. They kept me there to monitor it a little longer and said everything looked fine and sent me home with the warning that if my levels had not changed or gone up by Friday, they might keep me there and induce me that day. I came home and Vance and I got our bags packed and got everything ready just in case. Thursday night, after finishing getting everything ready, we finally laid down in bed around 1:30am. Around 2:15, the contractions started. Every 2-5 minutes, and they hurt more than normal. I decided to take a bath to see if that would make them stop, but no luck. I went in the room and woke up Vance so we could go to the hospital. This was it!! I called my parents at 3:30 in the morning so we could drop Mason off (He danced in the car to the music all the way to my parents house! He didn't mind getting woken up at 4 in the morning at all! He's such a good boy). When we got to the hospital (around 4:30), they put monitors on me, and immediately noticed the babies heartbeat dropped with almost every contraction. They immediately called my doctor, and he got on the phone with me and prepared me for the strong possibility of a c-section. He arrived at the hospital rather quickly and he gave me the choice to wait it out and see how the baby does since he seemed to be doing better with contractions, or we could stay on the safer side and go forward with the c-section. Thinking only of the safety of my sweet baby, I gave the go-ahead for the c-section. They instantly started preparing me and within 10 minutes, had me sitting on the operating table getting my epidural. I had never been so nervous and scared in my entire life. They had me hooked up to machines so they could hear my heartbeat, and it had to been 40 beats per minute or lower. After they put up the famous blue shield to block my view, they started poking my belly to see if I was numb yet. I could feel almost every poke. The anesthesiologist asked me to look at his finger, and the next thing I knew, I was staring at the blue shield again and I could faintly hear a baby crying in the background as Vance told me he was good and healthy and weighed 5 lbs 6 oz. I guess before I was really awake again, I looked at Vance and said "pictures, pictures, pictures..." I told him before the surgery that all I wanted was pictures of the baby like crazy since I couldn't see anything, but I don't remember saying that to him. They had taken the baby into a room separate from the OR but it was connected by a window. So through my blurry vision, I could look over and barely see little arms and legs sticking up in the air frantically moving around. After they got me back to my room, I had to wait patiently, just hoping that everything was okay with the baby, for Vance and Isaac to come into the room so I could finally meet my new son. I was still very loopy and out of it, so the fact that I hadn't really seen him yet was just fine. I think if I hadn't been put under, I would of had a lot harder time with that. After what seemed like forever, and bugging the poor nurse like crazy asking where he was, in strolled little tiny Isaac with his proud daddy by his side. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. He was so TINY all bundled up in the blanket, and he was NOT happy. He just cried and cried from the moment he came out until the moment he was snuggled against his mommy! We are so incredibly grateful that everything went so smoothly and that our little boy arrived here safe and healthy. We love you baby Isaac!!!