The Favelo's: October 2008

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Costco

Always make sure you take your debit card to Costco!!!!!!!!!!!! (Or an American Express or check book) I almost learned that lesson the really hard way. I was in the checkout lane with Abigail in the Ergo carrier, and about 200$ of stuff on the conveyor thingy when I had the dreaded thought/picture of my debit card being at home on the counter. I had a moment of utter panic. I explained to the lady that I wasn't sure if I had my debit card and asked her for a minute to let me look. She asked if I had an A.E. card, which I don't, at this point I was going through all my options - call Doug and see if he would wake Noah up from his nap and come rescue me, call me mom for the same, ask them if they could leave the groceries in a cart (but 1/2 of it was frozen stuff), when she asked me if I had a check. I had a glimmer of hope as I thought I remembered having my checkbook in my purse, which I usually don't. Phew!!! Praise God! I did have it! Hooray - such a big relief.

There was also this REALLY friendly mature Chinese couple who were intent upon helping me with everything (unloading the cart onto the conveyor - pushing the cart to my car for me - unloading it all). On the way our the lady said (with a heavy Chinese accent) "In our country we wear out babies on our back so we have both hands free!" Next time you come over have me do an impersonation for you, when I did it for Doug and the Morris family it was pretty funny - or so I though! That really was a neat blessing and gift of service they gave me.

In other Costco news: If you are a bacon fan at all, you've gotta get their already cooked bacon. YUM! And it is so easy. I always hate the mess of cooking bacon, and this is delicious and you can eat it cold or put it in the micro. and it is perfect. Great for throwing in beans or on top of burgers.

Doug's big test

Doug went down to UCLA today to take his big written exam in Greek history and Greek translation. He had studied really hard, and we all prayed really hard! I talked to him this afternoon and he said he thought there was about a 51% chance that he passed it. When I talked to him tonight it was about 60% (after talking to a graduate student friend). I however am 100% sure he passed it! :-)

He has been working/studying like crazy for this one the last 4 months, so now he is taking a little break and playing a computer game on the couch next to me. We both have our laptops in our lap - he is playing and I am blogging. Probably a pretty funny sight. :-)

After Abigail was born

Abigail is 6 months old now! Praise God, He is SO faithful! She is such a delight and we are so thankful to have her, and happy that she is completely well after her rough start. At birth she had meconium aspiration which lead to persistant pulmonay hypertension, pnemonia, and sepsis. This is a little video of Abigail shortly after she was admitted to the NICU nursery. Her heart was racing and you can notice her rapid breathing n the video. She was on a hood of 100% oxygen, and had a little surgery to put umibilical lines in her tummy to give her nutrition and medicine. She was in a lot of pain and very agitated; they had her on morphine. (There isn't any blood or anything in the video, but it might be hard to watch if you are tender hearted.) Following are some pictures of our first days, and our stay in Modesto.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Abigail at Fresno Community

Less than 24 hrs after Abigail was born.

Oxygen hood of 100% oxygen. Little IV in her hand, oxygen monitor on her foot, and an umbilical nutrition line, and umbilical blood line.

Precious girl

She spent a lot of time screaming those first couple of days. :-(

She was still adorable.

More Modesto

Pretty girl - she graduated to her cannula here.

When Grammie came to visit. Abigail was happy, very alert and making all kinds of funny faces.

In her oxygen hood with all the tubes and wires. We had to transfer to Modesto,before she was 48 hours old because she needed a higher level of care than the NICU in Fresno had. There was no room left at Valley Childrens in Madera - hence Modesto.

Mommy looking wiped out, but happy to be in Modesto with her little girl.

Bright eyes - no cannula!

I was really happy the hospital had wonderful visiting hours in the NICU, they only closed for an hour in the morning, and an hour at night.

When Grandma and Papa came to visit. Notice the pictures of us that were on the side of her bassinet. They did that in part to make her and us feel a little better about the situation, but also so that they had a picture of the parents by the bedside, as a security in case someone else was by the bedside. They would only let non-parents stay for 15 minutes at a time.

My parents brought Noah to come and visit and meet Abigail. She "picked out" this little John Deere tractor for him. He was happy to meet his baby sister.

Abigail in Modesto

This was our doctor - Dr. Yao, he was wonderful, everyone spoke very highly of him and said we were lucky to get him. Behind him was our very favorite nurse - Toni. We were blessed to have her a number of days - maybe 6 or 7? She was awesome, very breastfeeding friendly, so she helped me a lot with that. She was from Australia, so she had all kinds of funny names for Abigail, like little "Vegimite" or "Sweet Pea" or "Possum". God hooked us up with the best people while we were in Modesto.

The first time Daddy got to hold his little girl (since she was in the NICU), she spent her first night with us in the hospital room at Fresno Community.

My mom stayed with me to help a couple of days, when Doug had to go back to school.

Bonding with Abigail.

My Dad came to stay for a couple of days to help as well.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Pumpkin patch

Such potential to be a cute picture - didn't quite work out!

Abigail and Doug.

Corn maze.

He has a lot of fun running through the corn maze.

Maybe we need to go again!?! ;-)

"I've never seen a pumpking before"

"Who took my pumpkin?"

They gave Abigail this cute little pumpkin to take home - she liked to try to chew on it!

She also really liked playing with the hay and kicking her little feet.

And examining the hay.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Front yard Olympics

A few nights ago we were having "front yard Olympics" (just any kind of competition we come up with), and I challenged Doug to a game of "who can jump the furthest". Only thing was Doug had to compete while holding Noah. We marked our lines - jumped, and then kept increasing our distance. We had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs. Do you want to know the really sad thing though? Doug still beat me, even while holding Noah!!! Uggh, something is not right! Maybe I need practice?

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Abigail in a tutu

She loved grabbing the tulle and kicking her little legs

Model material

Just hanging out

Big smiles for Mama

"Does this tutu make my butt look fat?" :-)

Angel baby

Doing push ups

Super cute

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Talking SO much

Abigail is babbling quite a bit now, and it really seems like she is trying to communicate and form words. It almost sounded like Dada earlier while we were eating lunch. She sucks her thumb every so often also, which is kind of amusing.

Rolling over

Abigail rolled from her back to her tummy yesterday for the first time! (5 1/2 mos) She has been able to roll from her tummy to back for probably a month now, but doesn't do that too often either. I just went and got from the attic this little toy that she lays on and there ar\re toys dangling above on a bar and the bar curves on both sides of her. I remember Noah rolling towards the bars and that helped him to learn how to roll over - Abigail is doing the same thing just now - so cute.