July

In July...

 

We moved into our HOUSE!!!!!!!!

 

...

 

Lilia turned 9 months!

 

...

 

We were finally able to use this jumper because we finally had doors with the correct hardware, and Lilia LOVED it!

 

 

...

 

Lilia experienced her first Independence Day!

 

To celebrate before fireworks, we decided to go here...

 

Lilia and I didn't climb up.

 

It was seriously a scorcher that day.

 

...

 

We witnessed the Drum and Bugle Corps play at NCHS!

 

Did you know that Casper has its own?

 

The Troopers.

 

Pretty sweet.

 

...

 

For exercise, Seth and I would go to the river...

 

He would play, and I would run with the kids.

 

Usually, it was as nice as this, but one of the days, a severe thunderstorm crept up on us.

 

We made it back to the cars right before it hit where we were.

 

Multiple lightning strikes hit right by as we drove home.

 

Ah, the plains...

 

...

 

Lilia and Porter have been helpful...

 

...

 

Lilia had her first pedicure...

 

...of which I learned to paint her toes when sleeping next time because this was the "good" foot.

 

...

 

Lilia started climbing up the stairs!

 

She hadn't quite mastered going down, so I would have to follow her up.

 

If I didn't follow her, I would hear her whine and hit the top stair in demand for me to come get her.

 

...

 

Lilia like to save things...

 

...

 

Lilia dancing...

 

 

Seth and Clark decided to compete in a mountain bike race!

 

No prizes, just happiness and bruises from crashing.

 

Porter liked riding around while they raced...

 

...cutie.

 

...

 

Porter and Wyatt helping with the building of a fire pit at Mama and Pops' place.

 

It looks like they're fighting, but they're not.

 

It was pretty cute.

 

...

 

And, that's July!!

Ouch

Lilia got her first bump on the head a little while ago.

 

I had her in her rocker so she could be close to me while I was busy in the bathroom.

 

I was about to close our mirrored sliding doors to our closet (because I'm OCD about them being open), when  I heard stuff rattle like I had hit something with the door.

 

I started opening the door again to see what it was, and this came tumbling out...

 

 

...the corner of it landing right on Lilia's head.

 

I was horrified as I watched it all happen in slow motion.

 

Feeling hopeless.

 

She had a couple supplement bottles land in her lap, but, thankfully, she wasn't too badly hurt.

 

She was surprised more than anything, and I comforted her before taking a look at things.

Look at that smile! Even with the bump on her head.

 She got annoyed with me when I put some ice on the bump...

 

 

...and wasn't too fond of the flashlight as I checked her pupils until I let her hold it.

 

But, then she found it wasn't very soft, and was done with it.

 

 

Until she took her afternoon nap, this is how she let me know she was upset with things...

 

 

Pitiful as an art form.

 

I was happy that only the corner of the shelves hit instead of what would have happened had she just been a foot back from where she was.

 

I'm so glad she was fine, and have since made it clear that we need to make sure those white drawers are shut at all times.



February Sum Up: Part Two—Playful Porter

This guy…

…caused me quite a few headaches this last month.

Let’s just say he had a bit too much fun with pen…

…with crayon…

…with scissors…

**cut pants not shown**

…and with glue.

So, we have hidden those things.

Porter also decided, one day, he would see what this…

…would do on his eye.

He found out!

I guess sometimes we all have to learn things the hard way.

Our Weeks Generalized

Most of my day is spent feeding Lilia until she looks like this:

 

 

Then, I spend some time with a pump.

 

Because I have now gotten mastitis 4 times (twice requiring antibiotics), I have to make like a cow after every feeding for prevention purposes.

 

Then, when she wakes, she usually looks like this...

"How dare you put me down!"

Before she starts crying to be held.

 

Then, I hold her in a carrier while I get stuff done for the remainder of the day unless Daddy is home.

 

And Porter?

 

Well, he's still awesome at entertaining himself:

 

Occasionally, we play dress up...

 

Usually when we have somewhere to go like a Christmas party.

Even though we're not doing much, we are happy!

 

Happy to have that tight hat off!

Ouch

November 1

All of a sudden, I felt really ill.

Like, am I getting the flu? ill.

I also had an enormous headache.

So, migraine? I asked myself.

I decided to take a nap and see what would happen.

After a two hour nap at the same time as the babe, I felt worse.

I even had more symptoms--hurting breast, weird red marks, and a fever.

Mastitis.

Never had it before, so I wasn't totally sure that was what it was I was feeling, and decided to wait a bit longer before calling the doctor.

I showered (becoming a rare thing lately), and felt even worse.

I was too sick to move.

That was the final straw, and I called the doctor.

Well, the on-call nurse, anyway, as it was after 5 at this point.

She prescribed me antibiotics after I described my situation.

She called it in at 8:55 PM.

The Walmart pharmacy I frequent closes at 9, so Seth rushed to pick them up.

He got there two minutes before closing, and practically begged them to fill it for me.

They stayed late to do so.

He must have been convincing.

I will give them baked treats for this...

...once I make some.

Anyway...practically the moment the antibiotics kicked in, I felt better.

I still had a fever, but "better" was definitely a needed improvement.

Lilia became a sleeping pro that night and surprised me by sleeping 6 hours!

It was totally awesome, and hasn't happened since...dangit.

When I woke to feed her after that long stint, I felt awful again.

I guess I went too long in between antibiotics.

I ended up having a fever until 11 AM, and then I started feeling more normal.

Mastitis it must be.

And, man, is it awful.

The meds have definitely helped.

I'm not feeling as sick anymore, and I'm not hurting as much.

Another reason I am so very grateful for modern medicine.

And for pharmacists who are nice enough to stay after hours to fill an emergency prescription.

Grandma

Last Sunday, the world lost a beautiful woman.

 

Obituary

My grandmother passed away on October 14th.

 

Her funeral was this last Friday.

 

She had been diagnosed with cancer in June, and didn't have to suffer long.

 

She is now with Grandpa who passed away in 1995.

 

I'm glad she is at peace and back with him.

 

I'm even a bit jealous that she gets to hang out with him and the girls.

 

Grandma was a beautiful, funny, spunky, charitable, and creative woman.

 

I hope to have inherited a bit of her inner and outer beauty.

 

Love you, Grandma.

 

Say hi to Grandpa, Jilinda and Alayna and give them huge hugs from me.

 

Miss you.

Lilia Shay

We arrived at the hospital at 7:15 am.

 

I was measured at at one.

 

Still.

 

I wasn't too happy about this since I had been contracting pretty regularly all week.

 

The Pitocin drip was started around 8.

 

Along with Penicillin since I was Strep B positive.

 

Which burns really bad, if you wanted to know.

 

I felt like the antibiotic was worse than the contractions.

 

I stood and moved my hips around a lot to help with the progression of labor, but at 7 pm I was barely at a four.

 

I got my epidural before the contractions got bad.

 

I could still breathe through them, but I wanted to have a good, mostly painless experience since my last one wasn't all that wonderful.

 

I had my epidural about an hour when my doctor came and broke my water.

 

I went from a five to a ten in 40 minutes.

 

After pushing three times, she was out!

 

That is, after her cord was unwrapped twice from around her neck...

 

Lilia Shay Jensen

 

 

Born October 3, 2012 at 9:39 pm

 

Another redhead!

 

Well, at least she has red IN her hair...in fact, every day it looks darker...almost an auburn.

 

She shares her birthday with her cousin, Jordanne who turned 1 that day.

She weighed in at an even 6 pounds.

 

 

19 inches long.

 

I couldn't wait to hold her and couldn't keep my eyes off her as she was whisked away for her weighing.

 

Sadly, I didn't get to hold her long at first.

 

She had a lot of fluid in her lungs, her blood glucose was low, her temperature was low, and she was breathing way too fast.

 

So, I couldn't feed her for risk of her aspirating the food, but she needed the food because she needed her glucose level to rise.

 

It was quite complicated.

 

Therefore, she was taken with with her Daddy to the NICU while I cried.

 

I cried because, yet again, I wasn't able to hold one of my babies for very long.

 

I decided to focus on other things, like eating, while I waited to be transferred to the postpartum rooms.

 

 At this time, my parents, Rob, Wendy and Porter arrived to meet our sweet little one.

 

Sadly, four of them left after I was awkwardly transferred.

In the mean time, Lilia was getting poked and prodded.

 

Poor girl's veins were too tiny in her hands to have an IV.

 

So, they put one in her head.

 

Poor girl.

 

They gave her dextrose (glucose) to raise her sugars.

 

They pumped out even more fluid from her lungs, and her breathing went to a normal pace.

 

Then, Seth fed her some formula.

 

He came up shortly thereafter to check on me, arriving at about the time Mom, Dad, Rob, and Wendy left.

 

When some feeling came back in my legs, I wanted to see my girl.

 

So, I was wheeled down to the NICU while Seth and Porter waited in my room.

 

I didn't have the camera, but I got to hold my sweet Lilia's hand and sing to her a bit.

 

I started falling asleep, so I had the NICU nurse call my nurse down to get me.

 

I got to witness her bath before I was wheeled back up to my room.

 

She came up about a half our later at 2 am.

 

Porter stayed up and refused to leave until he got to meet his sister.

 

He was a bit loopy, but he was so excited!!

 

When Seth told him it was time to go home, Porter was confused as to why Lilia and I weren't coming back home also, and cried.

 

I thought it was sweet.

 

I didn't sleep much that night.

 

I held my angel for as long as I could.

 

That is, in between times when they would take her from me to prick her poor little heels and check her glucose levels.

 

They had to do so before every feeding, and she would have to "pass" three times in order for them to stop.

 

She passed two.

 

So, she had to be pricked three more times, and I needed to start supplementing along with breastfeeding.

 

She passed the next four.

 

Four, because they checked her levels after a feeding once.

She was NOT happy when the last one was done.

 

In fact, she threw a royal fit for a good hour.

 

After getting some sleep, Daddy and big brother returned.

 

 

Then, Grumpa and Gammie came with Mikki and her friend Michaela.

Grumpa loves his grand babies!

So does Gammie!

Mikki, uncomfortably, holding her tiny niece.

I was quite tired, but so happy to have my sweet girl here with me.

 

I love how she looks at me, and I love how Porter absolutely adores her.

 

He can't stay away, most of the time.

 

Later that night, Laura stopped by to meet our sweet girl!

 

 

She even took a few pictures for us!

 

Here are two of my favorites:

 

That little bow on her hat was taped on by the NICU, and I think it's the cutest idea ever for little girls.

We sure love our little bundle.

 

 

After three days in the hospital, we were going home.

 

 

Our itty bitty sweetheart.

 

Welcome to the world, Lilia.