Finally . . .I can share her with y'all!

Our daughter and granddaughter #3 are going to have a story to tell. Wow! I think that Easter Saturday is a good day to write about them! I just couldn't write earlier. There was too much of the unknown.

I shared with y'all (and y'all prayed - thank you!) that our daughter was in the hospital with pre-eclampsia. She was admitted through the ER on the evening of March 10th.

The doctor had told her that his goal was to get her to 37 weeks. When he rounded on Friday, the 15th, he told Laura that he hoped she would still be in that bed pregnant on Monday when he returned. She was. He then adjusted his time table and said that if she could make it to 35 weeks, that would be really good.

The 35th week arrived on Wednesday, March 20th and at 10:30 p.m. my phone rang. Mark was out of town. I had just worked a very long day and finished a paper for school and turned it in and I was out cold. I woke up enough to answer the phone and to hear Laura say, "My water just broke." Is that TMI?

I didn't text Mark until 5:30 the next morning because I knew he would have to put the boat up, etc. and would have to wait for daylight. I was frantically getting ready, texting the office, etc. At 5:30 a.m., she had progressed very little over night so we felt like we had time.

Before either of us could drive from different parts of the state to the hospital, we got a text that it was time. The text literally said, "It. Is. Time." Twelve minutes later we received a text that she had arrived.

The next text said, "They had to take her to the NICU. She's not wanting to breathe on her own right now."

I had clothes for Mark so I dropped those off at Laura's house and headed to the hospital. I was able to see Laura for just a little bit and her BP was ALL over the place. I went to the waiting room so they could see if they could get her pressure down. Here is an excerpt from the Sunday School lesson I taught on Sunday. I've removed location and baby's name for now. The portion in quotes below gives some of the back story, too.

"Our daughter has been at the Hospital in her town for several weeks now. About 10 days ago, Mark and I took turns driving back and forth and spending the day in the hospital room with Laura and then spending the night on the crinkly plastic sofa in her room. A week ago Friday, I went out to my car at 6:30 a.m. to take a load of stuff and when I came back, the women and children’s center portion of the hospital was locked. You can exit through that portion of the hospital, but you can’t re-enter until later. I had to walk around to the end of the hospital (not far) and sign in again and get a new badge and then the security guard had to walk me to the women’s/baby’s side of the hospital. There were two young men signing in at the same time and so we all walked together. One of the young men looked like any of our kids might look. Of course, y’all know me - I talk to everyone. He told me that his wife had pre-eclampsia just like our daughter, Laura. His wife was only 32 weeks pregnant, and they were doing a C-section that day.  The other young man was very tall and very thin and had some shiny gold teeth and really cool dreads. His wife also had pre-eclampsia and they had done a c-section a day or so earlier and his baby boy was in the NICU. We all wished each other well and went our separate ways. Wednesday night at 10:30, Laura called and said her water had broken and since she was 35 weeks, they were going to allow labor to proceed. I was already asleep when she called and Mark was at the farm so I told her I would see her bright and early the next morning. Before Mark or I could make it to the hospital, baby made her arrival into the world. I got to the hospital before Mark so I was able to see Laura but her blood pressure kept rising so I moved to the waiting room. Mark arrived and there we sat. I texted Scott, our son-in-law, a few times but he said they still wouldn’t let him into the NICU to see baby girl. The text from Laura right after she was born said, “They had to take her to the NICU. She’s not wanting to breathe on her own right now.” Mark and I sat there for hours and finally at 1:25, Scott got into the NICU and sent us a couple of photos. I’m not going to lie. Those hours were torture because we had no idea whether our daughter or our new granddaughter were ok or not. We were beginning to get worried that something bad had happened. We thought if it had, Laura’s blood pressure was SO INCREDIBLY high, that maybe they didn’t want to give them bad news. Why is it our minds go to the worst places?

Back to my friends I met the prior week as we were escorted through the ER. I had gone out into the hall and was literally walking fast up and down the hall and was headed back into the waiting room. At the same exact moment, I looked up and there was my friend with the dreads from the week before. We started talking and he told me that he and his wife were there to take their baby boy home after a 10 day stay in the NICU. I opened my mouth to tell him about Laura and got about a sentence out and got very emotional. He looked me in the eye and said, “God is going to work it out.” “God’s got this.” Now put this picture in your mind – very tall, very thin, gold teeth, guy with dreads and me – short, round, wearing a skort. He was being the body of Christ to me. I actually sat down at the table and had to close my eyes and take deep breaths because I was about to totally fall apart. Still no news. In a little while, the doors opened again and out strolls my new friend with the car seat in his hand and his baby boy in the seat. He came over to our table in the waiting room to show us his baby boy. He wanted us to have hope. He told us again, “God has got this. God is going to take care of it.” Y’all – that tall skinny man was Jesus with skin on. He was the body of Christ. He was representing Christ to us."

Back to the story . . .she arrived. She is getter better every day. Laura was finally able to go home from the hospital last night after a 19 day stay in the hospital. They had a rough time finding the right combo of meds to get her BP under control.

Mark nor I have been able to hold sweet baby girl yet, but that is coming! I did get to rub her arm and I sang Jesus Loves Me and Horsey Horsey (family song) through the porthole. This morning, we heard that she pulled out the nasal canula and the doctor decided to see how she would do without it. When her parents went to visit, she was sleeping soundly without it. Hopefully, that is one more step closer to going home.

Here she is in all her glory. She was 35 weeks and 1 day and she came in at a full term weight. When we've been in the NICU visiting her, we've been amazed at how tiny some of those babies are.

She's been on a feeding tube (donor breast milk which is AMAZING and such A GIFT!). She has been on oxygen and cpap and every machine you can imagine measuring her oxygen and heart rate, etc. etc. She was under two bilirubin lights at one point but is totally out from under those now.

Here is how her big sister got to meet her! Thank God for technology.

I told her she was getting a suntan. I also had them adjust her sunglasses because one of her eyes wasn't fully covered.

 

We are progressing! As soon as I find out when she is going home, Mark and I will arrange our schedules so that we can go back to help. I took Sunday, Monday, and half a day Tuesday to stay with Laura in the hospital and Mark took the second half of Tuesday, Wednesday, and part of Thursday to stay with Laura. She may be grown, but she needed her parents this week. Her hubby and his parents have also been amazing. They have had granddaughter #2 all of this time!

This Gran can't wait to hold this new baby girl. I think Pops is feeling the same way!

We now have three granddaughters -- an 8 year old, a 4 1/2 year old, and a brand new baby girl!

If you've been praying for us, please continue to do so! We are so close to getting her home.

Here is another photo dump!!

If you haven't figured it out yet . . .I've blogged a lot this week because I have spent two days and nights with our daughter in the hospital. More news to come!!

Last Wednesday, Mark went to the farm. He texted me this photo from the dock on the lake. It looks so peaceful.

I have written several posts about how much I love sunrises and sunsets. This was a sunrise last week. I took the picture from our front porch. Isn't that spectacular?

This is such a weird photo that I had to share. We live in a suburb of Birmingham, AL. There  is a farm right in the middle of a neighborhood and I drive by it most days. They were having a piece of farm equipment dropped off DURING RUSH HOUR and they had the intersection blocked all the way around. They finally moved and I scooted on by.

Isn't this picture cool? It was at sunrise on another day. I think the rays are so cool!

I was playing with portrait mode on my phone and took some photos of these cute Easter decorations. I've had them a long time.

I love the church - the sign says "Every bunny welcome."

We had our son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter #1, and our friend, Wynn, over for dinner. While they all went for a golf cart ride, I made clues for the Easter eggs and hid them for granddaughter #1 to find.

We had a great meal. Mark picked up steaks at Costco and he and Glenn grilled them. Glenn and Lauren brought the salad kits. I roasted some yellow squash and onions. Wynn brought twice-baked potatoes. Since we were still in granddaughter's birthday week, we used hot pink plates on a teal table cloth.

 

Neighborhood Supper Club

On March 16, we hosted one of our neighborhood supper clubs. There were supposed to be 10 of us, but one couple was unable to come due to illness of a parent. The groups are "shuffled" every month so the hope is that we get to meet lots of neighbors over the course of the year. Our year runs from September through April. In the fall, the gatherings are on Sunday night due to SEC football games. In January, they all roll to Saturday night. In May, we have a gathering at the Townhall and everyone brings a dish to share. For the momthly gatherings, the host/hostess get to provide the main course and the host/hostess emails their group and suggests what is needed for an appetizer, a dessert, a side, and a salad.

Since we had granddaughter #1's birthday party at noon that day, and we had both taken turns at the hospital with our daughter that week, and we had our long-time supper club (not at our house!) on Friday night, I decided to go with simple. We bought a Honeybaked Ham and a Honeybaked Smoked Turkey Breast and I made a big platter of meat. I also thawed a loaf of frozen bread dough and baked it.

We used our new bar. We didn't want to mess up the new Alabama marble so we used a sheet of glass and a sheet of plexiglass for the wine bottles.

I had out a few Easter decorations.

We actually have nice white cushions from Pottery Barn for our chairs but we have some neighborhood cats run loose at night and they have made a mess on the old cushions. The cushions cost too much to put out the new ones for the neighborhood cats to ruin. We ran over to At Home and found some really cute ones. Mark has actually been covering them up at night. He picked up a couple of ferns at Home Depot. I love our porches.

The front downstairs porch is "L" shaped so we have chairs and the glider on the section across the front of the house and we have a teak table on the side of the "L." We picked up the two new solar lanterns while we were in At Home.

Here are a few pics of our house and Easter decorations. I put chocolate Easter eggs in the lantern around the candle and I put the cute bunny in the middle.

I made a really cute centerpiece with jelly beans, two vases, and tulips.

The photo below is actually from our Friday night supper club gathering. The same young adult who brought us the candy from Japan, also brought us a box of cookies - strawberry and macha flavored. I signed up for dessert and made a couple of pecan pies and we took the cookies from Japan.

Here is a better picture of the centerpiece. Did you know that Vodka is Viagra for tulips? Seriously! Have I already told y'all that fun fact to know and tell? 

We've been a tad busy lately :-)

Hodgepodge in a hospital room during Holy Week

Hey friends! I'm joining up with Joyce and friends for this week's Hodgepodge. I'm typing this at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday in my daughter's dark hospital room. More to come . . .

1.What do you love about your life right now? I love my family and I love my job and I love being back in our home. I love the ability to travel.

2. March 26th is National Spinach Day...are you a fan? If so, how do you like yours prepared/served? Mark LOVES spinach cooked or raw. I'm not that fond of cooked spinach, but will eat it. I do enjoy a great spinach salad.

3. In this current season would you say you need to spend more time looking inward or that you need to get out of your head? Tell us why. The last few weeks have been really tough. I'm not even sure how to answer that question today.

4. Are you following the 'March Madness' madness? (That's US college basketball in case you're out of the loop) What's something that feels like actual madness to you right now? We have been following some. We are Auburn fans and enjoyed watching their games . . .until. What seems like actual madness? The inability to get my daughter's blood pressure under control.

5. How will you celebrate the Easter/Passover holiday this year? Do you remember that I am on a church staff? I'm trading out with Mark today at the hospital and I'll head back home. We have noon day services Monday through Wednesday of this week with a guest pastor and lunch. Thursday night is Maundy Thursday with a service at 6:00 p.m. Friday night is Good Friday with a service at 6:00 p.m. The Good Friday service is always so amazing. It ends in darkness and in silence. I always imagine how the disciples and Mary must have felt. At some point on Friday, I will pick up the Honeybaked Ham and make Copper Pennies and I desperately need an Easter pedicure. Mark and I will head to Easter worship on Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. We added this service several years ago for folks who have to work on Sunday (we have lots of medical folks in our church) and for families of other pastors who never get to worship with their families. Easter Sunday morning will find me back at the church at 7:00 a.m. where I will be working the Welcome Center desk and taking turns with a co-worker driving the golf cart around the neighborhood behind the church. There is a Baptist church on the other side of our parking lot and they have their own parking deck BUT many of them want to park in our lot. We have signs posted and over the years, their pastor has asked them not to park in our lot . . .but they still do. We are already short on parking spots and are land locked. A lot of our folks end up parking on the neighborhood streets sometimes up to three blocks away . . .hence, the golf cart. We will be riding around offering folks a ride to the church. I'll be there from 7:00 to noon and THEN I will head to my  mother-in-law's house to enjoy Easter lunch with family. Either that afternoon or the next morning, I will head back down to take another turn with our daughter who will hopefully be out of the hospital by then. Everyone is going to be ok . . . but I'm just waiting to tell y'all everything all at once.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Granddaughter #1 is EIGHT!

How does time pass so quickly? When did 8 become almost a grown up? Our oldest granddaughter celebrated her 8th birthday a few days ago and we've been celebrating for a couple of weeks.

Her parents allowed her to pick the menu on her actual birthday and her daddy told me that she picked pork tenderloin, rice with pink sauce (I'm guessing Polynesian sauce from Chick-Fil-A but I need to verigy), and dumplings (as in Chinese dumplings).

The next day, she had her "big" party at Defy. It is a really cool place and she loves to do all of those things!!

Here she is in motion jumping into a ball pit.

Here she is swinging -- not just by herself -- but a duo.

She was getting ready to do the zipline below.

In the middle of the zipline, she decides to flip upside down.

They also have trapeze swings so of course she did that.

Her party room theme was Taylor Swift!

She had cupcakes with all of the Taylor Swift photos.

She opened her gifts and thanked everyone.

Here is the whole group -- all girls and one boy, who is her bestfriend since birth.

Here we are with her -- Gran and Pops, we are!

We celebrated on Sunday with the extended family.

Pastry Arts is a bakery here and they make baby bites.

If you are ever in town, stop by and buy a few.

They are expensive, but they are so good.

Happy birthday sweet girl! Gran and Pops love you so much!!

 

Random Photos

I actually have lots of exciting things to write about soon . . .but for today, here is a photo dump and a little bit of life lately.

Our neighbor and good friend and traveling buddy, Lu, is doing the 26 mile Trailblazer to raise funds for the Make-a-Wish foundation. I think this is her third time to do it. It is a hike through the woods, over limbs, hills, etc. for 26 miles! She is three years younger than me so I think this is very impressive. She had a fundraiser at the Casual Pint and we went. Mark had her grandson in his lap and they were looking at the photo book from a previous Make-a-Wish trip.

The above was my dinner which I shared. It is my favorite thing on their menu. It is THE BEST pretzel I've ever eaten. It has sausage and cheese and beer cheese and coarse grain mustard.

Mark loves a good beer and they have a drink I like, too.

One of our young adults has been traveling a lot for his job. He brought candy from Japan. The one on the right is a freeze dried strawberry dipped in chocolate. The one at the top is strawberry kit kats!! The bottom bag contained regular kit kats.

This is a random photo of the new backdrop at the Welcome Center at work. I spend several hours every Sunday and every Wednesday night at this spot.

We have several friends who make the desserts each week for our Tuesday night group of Young Professionals. Isn't the bunny bark cute? It is white chocolate melted with all sorts of things added. The young adults loved it.

More to come on this later but this was two weeks ago. Our daughter had pre-eclampsia. Mark and I took a turn spending a day and night with her that week.

We both got to hear baby Lucy's heart beat!

We've been burning up I65 and passing each other - one of us going south and one of us going north.

I will do a separate post soon on Laura and baby Lucy.

Sunday! Sunday! Stealing the questions!

 

I’m joining with the other thieves as we answer the SundayStealing questions. Bev steals them; we answer them. Stolen from Swap Bot

         

1. If you could witness any event from history, what would it be? Since today begins Holy Week, I'm going to roll with that. I think it would be amazing to see the risen Christ BUT I wouldn't want to be at the crucifixion. 

2. What do you think about conspiracy theories? I know people who are big into conspiracy theories. I'm not into them unless they are written into a novel.

3. Do you like cartoons? Do you have /had a favorite one? I rarely watch cartoons as an adult BUT sometimes I do with one of our granddaughters. Bluey is a really good cartoon from Australia! My personal favorite is the Pink Panther from years ago. 

4. What did you most dislike in school times? I used to hate the smell of the cleaner they used in the restrooms in my elementary school. I have no idea what the cleaner was but mixed with other smells . . . yuck! Or how about this one? When I was in the lower grades of elementry school, girls could not wear pants to school. That changed at some point because I remember wearing pants in high school. We walked to school so when it was very cold, we had to wear pants under our dresses and go into the "cloak room" and take them off when we arrived at school. Isn't that crazy?

5. What sounds are in your opinion relaxing? The sound of the sea? Traffic? Vacuum cleaner? Combine harvester on the field? Some kind of music? Birds singing? ...The sound of waves on the coast of Alabama is very relaxing -- ahhh! I also use the white noise app on my phone when I sleep and we have a fan that we turn on in the bathroom next to our bedroom.

6. What was the last thing you read? I just finished The Wife You Know by Amy Melsa and now I'm reading a light mystery by Carlene O'Connor, Murder at an Irish Christmas.

7. What is one thing that has stumped you so hard you won't ever forget it? I know that I should have an answer for this question, but I have evidently forgotten it hahaha! 

8. What are you interested in that most people aren’t? There are probably not too many other 65 years old who are as deep into American Lit as I am right now. Most of my other interests are things that others are interested in, too.

9. What’s something you really resent paying for? Our credit card bill each month! Yes, I know we spent the money but I hate coughing up the balance each month.

10. If you could choose a different time period and place to be born, when and where would it be? I think I'm going to stick with the time period, place, etc. where I was born. 

11. What's one question you would ask Superman? Could you take me for a spin around the city, please?

12. What's your favorite smell? What's your least favorite smell? I have lots of favorite smells - freshly popped popcorn is one. I also love the smell of a library full of old books! My least favorite smells would be vomit (yuck!) and cat poop. I'm sure there are other equally yucky smells. I just don't want to think about them!

13. How do you feel about cars becoming fully autonomous and having no steering wheel, breaks, or accelerators? I drive a Lincoln Nautilus and it can't drive itself, but it can ALMOST drive itself. I have adaptive cruise. It pulls the steering wheel back if I try to change lanes without my blinker. It will scream and slam on the breaks if I almost run into someone. As we age, it might be advantageous to have a car that could SAFELY drive me wherever I needed to go.

14. What are your favorite books and authors? I'm a reader and enjoy lots of books and authors. I really like mysteries and thrillers. I like Jonathan Kellerman and James Patterson and Faye Kellerman plus lots of others.

15. Have you had a reading or palm reading done? I have not.