well, 2 months have past

Hmm, I used to come home, do the normal evening stuff and I would have energy and time to post after 10 pm. Maybe I would come out of the shower around 1130 and post. This doesn’t happen now. I’m exhausted and falling asleep by 10 unless I am doing work for work; as apposed to work for fun or work for the hell of it. Anyway; I think of 5 or 6 posts I could make every day if I only had the time and was in some convenient spot, like not driving down the road. I need something that can record my thoughts or allow me to speak and post it. I should try one of the speaking > typing programs like dragon naturally speaking although they have their shortcomings, especially on nerdy words.

Went to Disney World this weekend and we had a great time; we went to the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. It was fun but it is time for bed already. While at the Animal Kingdom today we met a 31 yr old lady who at 18 had a down’s child who has now been diagnosed with a form of autism. She was a fun kid and as we are just starting our journey it was fun to see a teen age girl who was doing so well.
More later, time for bed. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Rants of the week

Rant 1: Here in the United States we drive on the right side of the road. I expect the same in stores too. Why do people puish their carts in the store the wrong way down an aisle. I’m in Sams pushing my cart down the aisle on the right side and a guy pushes over toward my side to go down an aisle. He ends up stopping in front of m on the end of the aisle so that I had to go around him on the left. I HAD to go around him so he could get into the aisle I was walking past. He could have just let me pass and enter the aisle by going behind me.

Rant 2: There was an ice cream social advertised for 4-8 pm last Thursday night at my son’s school library to celebrate a book fair. We showed up at 7pm and were told they ran out of “gelato” at 445. Apparently the gelato was donated and there was no regular amount of ice cream available for anyone else. When we were talking to one of the people who were working at the library responded to our statement that it was advertised to run from 4-8 said “Well it started at 4.” Very snottily. Like Duh, don’t you realize you should have been here at 4 if you wanted any ice cream for a social that was suppose to run til 8. If I had talked to my mom the way she talked to me I would have had my teeth slapped out of my mouth.

Rant 3: People who have the time to plan school events seem to be the stay at home moms, which is great. They can work their schedule around things to get there and plan things. But could you remember those of us who do not work at home but have a  job at the office? We can’t all be at some event that starts at 3 or 430 in the afternoon.

Enough for now.

Venti Mocha Solo

My wife and I took advantage of her mom visiting us and went to see a movie, Brooklyn’s Finest. After leaving there we did our traditional trip to Starbucks for a Large Chocolate Latter with a single shot of Espresso, er Venti Mocha Solo.

We walk out to the van hop in and I tell my wife:

Me: I know where we can get 2 cases of bottled water for free

Wife: Where, over there”, pointing to the semi delivering food to the Starbucks.

Me: Yep, they are sitting on the lift. I’ll pull up there and press the button to open the side door, you hop out and throw them in.

She chuckles while I make squealing tire noises like we are pealing out from the scene of the crime.

This gave me an idea for a comedy skit for preppy urban thugs. They would wear their Ralph Loren shirts and would pull up there in the Lexus their parents own and of course steal 2 cases of bottled water. It just struck me funny.

Evil Wil Wheaton + Big Bang Theory + this week = Awesomeness +10

Seriously. Evil Wil Wheaton is filming on the set of Big Bang Theory this week. Reprising his role as the arch nemesis of Sheldon. I think this means several things on many levels. The new ep might be out in a few short weeks (let’s hope). Wil Wheaton gets to play an evil arch nemesis and unsettle Sheldon’s world. I get to see one of my favorite writer/actor/geeks on tv on one of the funniest shows out. I may have to watch it twice; one never knows.

I can’t wait for a big dose of awesomeness.

Can we keep her?

I held Sheridan in my arms tonight for 2 hours; Kept her arms and feet bundled up, snuggling her against me, and she ate it up. She slept the whole time, warmly, securely, safely, soundly, in my arms. And it was wonderful. I enjoyed every minute of it too and asked my wife “Can we keep her?”

She’s lost 1 oz since coming home because the girl will not eat,, but  we think we figured out her eating habits a bit. Our other 3 children started out on 3 hour feeding habits and the hospital started Sheridan out on the same and we tried to keep that up at home. My wife just ends up frustrated trying to get her to feed more than 2 minutes at a time. Even more frustrated from the lack of sleep spending an hour at each feeding time during the night trying everything she can think of to get her to eat. However, today my wife figured out Sheridan just seems to need some more rest between feedings and she eats fine. Every 4 hours seems to do the trick. We’ll see where it goes from here and hope to have her eating regularly in the next day or so. Maybe she’ll be putting on the oz again real soon.

I worked today after finding our you can take intermittent FMLA leave. This will save me  some PTO while helping keep my projects at work moving along.

WAAAA! My Parents left

My parents left this afternoon after being here with us for the past 5+ days. Mom was a great help keeping things running smoothly in the morning and evening; feeding the kids, getting kids ready for school/daycare and getting kids ready for bed in the evening. Also, she did several loads of laundry and lots and lots of dishes. And cleaned the upstairs for us too.

Dad was here to help with all the unplanned things that broke in the past 5 days: Hot water heater developed a leak near one of the heating element brackets and the entire thing had to be replaced, the overflow switch for the air-handler in the garage went bad and instead of replacing it we just piped PVC to run to overflow to the garage floor saving $85 in the process, our master bath toilet handle arm inside the toilet busted off and a fluorescent fixture is going bad but it looks like replacement bulbs may buy us some time. On top of this we apparently have a GFCI circuit breaker/plug going bad and I will be replacing that and maybe the light fixture in the near future myself.

Now if I can only get to my list of stuff I made for my dad and I to work on. But then again we didn’t expect my wife and newborn to be in te hospital for 5 days. We are very thankful to have my parents be able to rearragne their schedules and lives to come help us (and mostly help me) keep our household running smoothly.

My mother-in-law will be here Tuesday for a 2 week visit so we have to do everything ourselves for the next 2.5 days. Wish us luck  till then 8)

She’s home….again

Sheridan is finally out of the hospital and home with mom & dad. She passed her car seat study (breathing, O2 levels, etc) and came home with us this afternoon.

I also managed to get a 30 minute nap in at the hospital and it was great.

Grandpa and grandma have taken turns holding her. Her brothers and sister and excited to have her home too.

She’s been feeding well and when fed from the bottle we have to make sure her head is supported well to keep her neck straight. The short neck can cause a problem with this of course.

She’s so cute. We are definitely glad to have her and her mommy home again. YEAH!

A new Olympic event

Car seat installation. Take a min-van and 4 car seats, install them, install them correctly for the various size children according to the laws. And then try to extract yourself from the back seat, past the middle row without moving the middle seats forward or leaning any seat backs forward. And you can’t climb our the back of the minivan.

I only cost me 2 broken thumbnails and a twisted knee. The extraction was memorable too: My head was twisted to one side and stuck out over the back of one car seat into the back of the minivan; I have one legged locked supporting me and try to squeeze the other leg between it and the middle row seat; And turn it into a T-like position by standing on the same one foor and fully extending the leg once it got past the seat until it was straight back. I looked like a figure skater. I eventually escaped the gaping maw of the side door and took in my first breath of freedom.

Sheridan’s sweet ride is ready for her trip home.

Cold body, warm heart

They are weaning Sheridan off the TPN feed as she is feeding well on her own. I was able to see her awake, hungry, and looking around today. That was AWESOME. She is cute, did I say that recently. Glee!

However today she can’t keep her body temp up. This  can mean she is sick but she doesn’t have any symptoms so we don’t think that is the issue. It could also mean she is using more energy than she is taking in and needs to eat more. We are hopeful her body will keep her warm enough by tomorrow so she can come home with us on Friday. She should be off the TPN by then.

Sheridan, the name, also happens to be the last name of Captain Sheridan from Babylon 5. A friend of mine asked if we should call her “Captain”. Why not 8)

10 too low

Sheridan is doing well but here is a recap summary with an update:

The CBC (which looks at red & white blood cell count and platelet count) showed the red blood cell count is still a little high but on the  cusp of being ok so they feel this number is fine. However the platelet count which should be at 110-120 is at 11 and after a retest is 10. So my wife signed off on the platelett transfusion and the blood risks. My fingers are crossed that we get a healthy blood transfusion.

She is off electrolyte fluids and is now on Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) which is a good thing. They have also let her try to breastfeed but she was still so tired from everything she has gone through that she preferred to sleep rather than eat.

Also I talked to my sister who happens to have a Down child too (Angel) and she asked how many and which markers did Sheridan have. In case anyone else wants to know, she has the shortened neck, the eyes of course, and one hand has the line going all the way across the palm.