laugh

Spencer has been laughing in his sleep for quite a while now but yesterday he did a first real laugh. I knew I better catch it on video, because who knows when he'll do it again. So, excuse the messy bed, but I wasn't about to clean things up and risk missing that sweet giggle! And sure enough, he hasn't done it since :)

double duty dinner

Just thought I would share this dinner idea, especially now that it is summer and I am avoiding my oven at all costs :) Sorry this is a really vague recipe but trust me, it's very forgiving. What you do is make the crockpot BBQ chicken one day and serve on buns, then use the chicken the next day for the BBQ Chicken Salad.

Meal #1
Crockpot BBQ Chicken Sandwiches:
-chicken breasts or tenders - I do 4 or 5 chicken breasts if I want leftovers for the salad, but my family is small so you may need to do more
-Your fave BBQ sauce - I use good ol' KC Masterpiece, just pour a bunch on there
1. Cook on low until done, or on high if you're in a rush. Sorry for the lack of time frames but my crockpot is a turbo cooker and can cook chicken in like 2 hours on low. My guess is most slow cookers take more like 3-4 hours to cook chicken.
2. Shred or cube chicken, mix with more BBQ sauce if you want, serve on buns.
ps - if you totally forget to start the chicken early enough (like I did this week) you can boil your chicken. You don't even have to defrost, just make sure you cook it until just done because if you're like me, tough chicken is just not as good. Then just shred or cube and mix with bbq sauce.

Meal # 2
Southwest BBQ Chicken Salad
-leftover BBQ chicken, shredded or cubed
-1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
-1 can corn, drained
-lettuce
-your choice of salad toppings - tomatoes, celery, carrots, diced red peppers, diced red onion, etc. are all yummy
-dressing: mix equal parts of ranch and bbq sauce

we just let each person mix/top their salad as desired. For picky kids just serve everything separate - Kate will actually eat the salad but Sadie likes everything in separate piles and then gobbles it down, minus the dressing.

These are some of my favorite summer meals because they are easy, don't use the oven or stovetop, and are fairly light. Serve with lots of fruit. Actually on that note let me share another concoction - this one is Brent's. I always thought fruit salad needed some sort of whipped cream or pudding or something, but Brent made this once and it is much easier, and healthier and thus our new favorite.

Fruit Salad
Your choice of mixed fruit - some of our favorites are:
-bananas, sliced
-strawberries, sliced
-canned fruit, drained (we love the tropical fruit mix, pineapple, and mandrain oranges)
-berries, cantelope, etc. you really can use anything

Mix the fruit, add a little bit of sugar to get the juices flowing if you don't use anything canned, and chill. It tastes much better chilled.

Adventures in Babyland

There are a lot of posts that I've planned in my head while I sit and hold my baby, but I don't know that I'll ever get around to them. I do want to post some more pictures .

The girls love to take turns holding Spencer. I love that Sadie frequently says "I just love him" (except she pronounces love "lub"). Sadie also calls him "buddy". It is very sweet.

Kate is very good with Spencer. She is very careful and really likes to help. The 2nd week Spencer was home Kate got some bug bites that got infected with staph. Until the bites healed, she was super contagious. That was a rough week not only because we had to be so careful about germs, but because we had to drain the bites and massage them, etc. and it was very painful. Kate was such a trooper letting us take care of her bites and also taking some pretty nasty medicine without complaint. The hardest part for her was not being able to be around Spencer. She likes so much to be involved and it made her so sad to have to stay away. We're so glad everyone is healthy now.

Tummy time. Look at how well he lifts his head - I'm such a proud mama! He also likes to lift his legs up like that and even gets his hips off the ground sometimes - it's hilarious.

Squeaky clean.

Every baby needs three mamas.

This week Spencer weighed in at 10 1/2 lbs. He has been back on breastmilk for two weeks (I'm not restricting anything in my diet either) and he's doing great - no blood in his stool - hooray! But it sure is fun to keep inspecting for it :) I am trying to transition him to total breastfeeding and he finally seems to be making some improvement. We'll see how that goes. The whole breastfeed, bottle-feed, pump routine was getting old fast because it just takes so much time.

Spencer has a mellow personality. He loves to be held but is also doing pretty well sleeping on his own. He spits up LOTS and poops out his diapers lots and in general produces a huge amount of laundry. We're still in the trenches of having a new baby. You know, those days when your daily ambition is to shower and perhaps feed your other children. It is easy to forget how completely needy newborns are, how taking care of them requires almost every minute of every day. But it is such a privilege to have such a responsibility. It is such a wonderful feeling to be needed so completely by another human being, to be loved so unconditionally by this sweet baby. He just stares into my eyes with such love and makes me feel important and beautiful and needed. I feel humbled to be a mother. There are definitely many quiet moments that I feel the truth of this quote: "Motherhood is near to divinity. It is the highest, holiest service to be assumed by mankind. It places she who honors its holy calling and service next to the angels" (First Presidency Statement, 1935). I am grateful to be a mother. And when it is hard (which is most of the time), I try to remember that Heavenly Father wants me to succeed at being a mother, and so He will help me. And oh how I need that help. And I have received that help time and time again.

coming home

Spencer's 2nd mama - his beloved primary nurse Laura. We were SO very happy she took care of him three days every week since he was born. She is the BEST.

Going home day - May 10th

Getting final discharge instructions from the nurse.

The week Spencer was getting ready to come home was kind of a roller coaster. He was ready in so many ways. His due date had come and gone, he was huge (over 9 lbs), finally taking all 8 feedings by mouth and generally acting like a normal full-term baby. He even shocked us all by rolling over. We thought it might have been a fluke but he is super baby and did it again several days later :) But he still scared me. The main last issue keeping him in the NICU was that he had blood in his stool and we were trying to figure out how to resolve that. After scaring us with a lot of extreme possible causes, the doctors concluded that they would first see if he has a cow-milk protein intolerance. He started a special (=very expensive) formula where the proteins are already broken down into amino acids and so less irritating to the colon. Meanwhile I started a very strict dairy free diet (you would never realize the things that have dairy until you read the labels) and waited a week to get it out of my system. So we started him on dairy-free breastmilk the week he was set to come home and the docs were basically waiting to see how he responded to that. Meanwhile, he kept having heart rate drops (bradycarida) while eating and burping. I was told this is was ok, even full-term babies hold their breathe sometimes, but it scared us so much and we begged and begged to be sent home with montiors (to no avail). The doctors and nurses we were assigned that week had never had Spencer before and it was making me uncomfortable that they weren't familiar with his history. I was becoming more and more nervous to bring him home and had a few pretty big break-downs about it (luckily I have a very supportive, loving husband).

He was set to come home on Friday May 7th, but on Wednesday night he had a heart rate drop in his sleep. He had to go 5 days without doing that before he can come home, so we started that countdown again. It truly was a blessing to have more time because it helped us feel more prepared and confident in bringing him home. On Thursday he starting having blood in his stool again so was put back on the special formula and we would just have to follow up with the Gastrointerologist once he was home. On Sunday night I got to spend the night at the hospital "rooming in" with him which means you are taking care of him all by yourself but you're still at the hospital in case you have questions or problems. It was a perfect mother's day gift. By then I finally felt at peace and knew he was ready to come home. I was so grateful that the Lord helped me feel confident and know that it was the right time, so I could let go of all those fears that seemed to consume me at times. It was so exciting to bring him home and I just felt this great sense of peace and felt that we finally could start having a normal life together as a family. The girls are so thrilled and do very well with him. We feel so happy and so very blessed.

Spencer is home

We got to bring our little man home last Monday. He's doing wonderful. I'll post more as soon as I can. Right now we're in newborn baby mode and cherishing every moment.

Love this boy

This boy just melts our hearts.

April 3rd, 2010 - 11 1/2 weeks old

Spencer has had a better week. He still has scary moments, but for the most part he is doing great. He can have oral feedings 3 times a day and is improving at the art of "suck-swallow-breathe". He now weighs 6 lb 14.4 oz. What a chunker! He loves to snuggle - which is good because mom loves it too.

An Easter Bunny Story

Um, Mom, what is on my head ....?

Uhhhhh, mom! What are you doing?

Seriously, get it off!

Ok fine, if I sit here and look adorable, will you leave me alone?

Yes son, thank you. I just couldn't resist :)