Bethany's 7th birthday, March 9, 2009

We had just gotten home from the hospital with the baby at 8pm the night before and had to go back up to the doctor to have her blood drawn the next morning to see if her bilirubin had come down, but I still wanted to do a little something for Bethany so she wouldn't feel forgotten.

We picked up some High School Musical supplies, exactly what she wanted and had us a little party. We played "pass the birthday present", High School Musical Fast Match, and had a scavenger hunt for the goodie bags.

She's been wearing this hat everyday since.

Bethany fainting after unwrapping the High School Musical 3 DVD

Bethany and her Little Pet Shop presents.

Bailey's First Party

Yesterday Bailey had her very first party! It was so much fun. My friend Denise kidnapped all the girls to shop, decorate and bake cupcakes. They had a blast. Here they are in charge of the diaper cake-Brittany made it mostly by herself.



I knew they were working on a "project" but they wouldn't tell me what it was. It turned out amazing! I can't bear to take it apart yet.

Here is Denise, the lady with the plan!


Here is me in "the pretty chair". It had a flower garland and pink bow.

Here are the girls. (Everyone except Bailey. She slept through her party.)

Jeri and Elizabeth. Jeri kept us entertained with fun games. How many words can you make out of Bailey Caroline?? WAIT for the timer!

Kim likes punch!

Peggy and Bailey

The yummy spread.

We had veggies, meatballs, deviled eggs, strawberries, these delicious cream cheese puff things with cinnamon sugar on top, and pretty, pink cake. Chocolate. My favorite.

Kelly

Bailey's goodies all compacted and ready to be loaded in the van.

Heather

Vickie and Carmen

Rachel

Jaye

Marsha

Wendy and Bailey

Caterina and Hope peeking behind her.

And...... the sleeping party girl.

It's a ........

BAILEY!!! (not a Travis)

Born on Friday, March 6 at 8:28 p.m.

9 pounds 6 ounces and 21 inches long

This girl is about 1/3 hair, 1/3 cheeks, and 1/3 everything else.

They went ahead and induced me on Friday. I went in for a regular appointment and after a non stress test, they decided that her heart rate was dipping and not recovering as quickly as they would like. They sent me on over to the hospital and I was totally surprised. I didn't expect them to do that so I didn't bring my bag or anything.

We came home on Sunday night- she had to stay a full 48 hours since I had tested Group B strep positive this time. And, her bilirubin was a little high so they had us take her in for blood work on Monday and back to the doctor on Tuesday. They tell the mom to go home and lay down and do nothing for 2 weeks, but you have to get up and take the baby all over town! No rest for the mommy.

It was also Bethany's birthday on Monday so we did a little party for her. I'll have to post that later. I am really quite tired, so I'll post her birth story and some more pictures a little later, too. Hopefully the rest of this week will be mostly uneventful, so I can get to that laying in bed that I'm supposed to be doing. :)

A Plan....

Okay. We have a plan. I have an appointment with the midwife tomorrow morning and, if there is still no baby by Monday morning, then we are scheduled to go in at 7:30 to induce. Because, I will be 42 weeks by then. But, it's still Bethany's birthday. I think she's okay with sharing.

There is still the possibility that things will get going on there own. That is what I'm hoping for anyway.

You wouldn't believe me if I told you

This morning we woke up to "eeeekkkkk, squeeeek, squeeeeeeellllllllll, squeeeelllllll, eeeekkkkk, eekkkkkkkkk, squeeelllllll, squeeellllllll".

Silence.

Whoooooshhh.

That's probably not a good thing.

It appears that our heating and air unit has breathed it's last. It is the original with the house, 25 years old, and we knew it was coming, but it would have been nice to hold on a little longer. Well, at least we are expecting weather in the 70's next week.

Tristan's hands look totally worse. Without being too graphic, he has what look like huge fever blisters on both hands. While I have gotten them on my lip before, I have never heard of them being on hands. It looks totally awful and I know he must be miserable. Perhaps the kids don't have hand, foot and mouth. Just some weird virus and his immune system was compromised just enough to let the virus break out on his hands. And, his hands are very susceptible to eczema breakouts normally. Very puzzling. I hate taking him to the doctor just for them to tell me that there's not much you can do for fever blisters on hands-if that's what it is. And I already know there isn't much you can do to treat them. They mostly just have to clear up on there on for about a week. I can't think of anything else it could be. I googled and all I could come up with were links to hand, foot and mouth. Maybe this is just a worse case scenario for it. Has anyone else heard of such a thing? I just hate seeing my baby miserable.

And, why when kids have to cough, do they turn straight into your face to do it? If I was going to catch this whatever it is, then I would have already gotten it for sure by now. "I need to cough. Where's mommy's face?" Or "I need to sneeze. Where is mommy's plate of food?"

Poor Thomas must just be delusional (sp?) from his fever. This morning he was sleeping on my bed with me. He woke up from sleeping and said, "A duck and a cow, Okay?", and then closed his eyes and went back to sleep. (LOL)

On and ending note, I find it ironic that I hate to be late in life. I will rush, and rush just to make sure I am not late anywhere (although with a husband and 7 kids it is still a little difficult) but, I absolutely hate to be late. So, what is the deal with all of my babies making there grand entrances nothing else but

LATE?

Just possibly God has a sense of humor.

My poor baby ticker bear has fallen off the map. No contractions, no baby. We have been advised by the midwife to try to start labor the old fashioned way. (It's exactly what you're thinking. Isn't it interesting how the very thing to get you into that predicament is the same thing that is supposed to get you out of it?) But, apparently that doesn't work for me. Only with normal people, as does walking and spicy food.

I had an ultrasound yesterday at the 41 week mark that gave me some really enlightening news.

There is a baby in there.

It is not coming out.

And, it's so far down we couldn't see it's face.

Yeah. I KNOW how far down it is. I didn't need to pay $600 for an ultrasound to tell me that! Have I ranted before about rising medical costs because if I haven't I am now. Especially since we have no insurance right now and are paying cash for this baby. And, I guess I won't be having the epidural since I'm paying for the doggone thing. Yes, I think I am that cheap.

But, I guess it was reassuring to find out that all is okay with baby.

The next plan of action is to have a non-stress test on Friday. I don't really see the point since I just had the ultrasound to check everything. (The baby is fine. I am the one stressed!) Then, schedule an induction for Monday. However, that is Bethany's birthday. What to do....what to do.....

Hopefully the baby will just decide to go ahead and show up before Friday.

I guess it's a good thing the baby hasn't come yet, because I'm fairly sure that what the kids have is hand, foot and mouth. They had this three years ago when it was going around, but I haven't heard anything about it going around this time. Their symptoms fits the description and I suspected it when Tristan's hands started breaking out into blisters last night. His hands look soooo awful! I know he is miserable. It lasts a good week, and they started to get sick last Wednesday, so if the baby comes in a day or two, by the time we get home, hopefully they will all be well.

Today, Tristan's nose was running and he said, "Mom, my snot is falling down."

Science Fair Projects

....that didn't make it to the science fair because all the kids were sick.

:(

sigh. Ah, well, here is a little run down of what they did. Brittany will post hers a different day.


Magic Milk: Seeing the fat content in milk.

by Bethany, Brooke and Tristan

Here is what we did: We poured a half cup of milk into a bowl. We tried powdered milk, skim milk, 1%, 2%, whole and cream. We put drops of food coloring around the edges of the bowl and then put a toothpick dipped in dish soap in the middle of the bowl.

Here is what we found out: Food coloring will move around pretty easy the less fat the milk has. The food color moved around best in the powdered milk and the least in the cream. The dish soap has a reaction with the milk and made the food color move really fast to the edges of the bowl at first, but then made it easier for the food coloring to swirl around in the milk.

Making a Mummy: Which combination of salts will dry out an apple the best?


by Timothy

What I did: I cut up an apple and put a piece into six different cups. Then I put baking soda in one, salt in one, epsom salt in one, combined baking soda and salt in one, combined salt and espom salt in one and salt and baking soda in one. I waited a week to see which one would dry out the best.

What I found out: The Epsom salt did the best job. It kept the light color and was really dry. The salt and baking soda together did the wost. It was a dark color and was still king of wet and spongy.





Cleaning Pennies: Which liquid will clean a penny the best?


What I did: I took six pennies made before 1982 and six pennies mae after 1982 and put each in a cup with these liquids: lemon juice, soda, apple juice, dish soap, vinegar and milk. Pennies made before 1982 are 95% copper and pennies made after 1982 are only 2.5 % copper. I checked the pennies after 10 minutes, 1 day, 2 days and 5 days.


These were my results:

Lemon juice: Old: cleaner, but dull
New: got corroded
Soda: Old: started to corrode
New: very clean and shiny
Apple Juice: Old: dull, not as clean
New: slightly cleaner
Dish soap: Old: turned darker
New: turned darker
Vinegar: Old: didn't get clean
New: turned black and green
Milk: Old: black on front, but clean on back
New: very shiny, but not much cleaner

The lemon juice and the soda made the biggest difference in cleaning the old and new pennies.
The apple juice and dish soap made the least difference in cleaning the old and new pennies