Biting herself . . . pulling out chunks of her own hair . . . screaming at the top of her lungs . . . negotiating every parental request . . . pinching Dad . . . scratching Mom . . . throwing any object within reach across the room . . . reattachment to the binkie . . . complete loss of interest in potty training . . . inconsolable crying when mommy or daddy leaves . . .

The last several weeks have been a tough adjustment for our Miss Vivi.

She was at least able to verbalize her needs this morning.  “Put Baby Tad in his bed and hold me.  Tickle my back.  I want momma/daughter time.”

It’s tough to see my baby girl struggle and, in many ways, grow up over night.  Suddenly, her diapers look HUGE and she seems to weigh exponentially more than before.  But despite the temper tantrums, I try to take a deep breath and remind myself that she is just a sweet little girl whose world has been turned upside down.

I love you, Miss Vivi . . . to the moon and BACK!

Last night, we FINALLY got our act together enough to carve our pumpkin.

Looking at the late hour on the clock and feeling stressed and exhausted, I suggested that we wait until next week (as I’ve suggested for the last several weeks), but Ariana reminded me that Halloween is THIS week and that we really shouldn’t put the activity off any longer.

Too bad I haven’t given any thought to their costumes for this year.

I hope that my kids don’t carry any emotional scars because their mother was too scatterbrained to give each Hallmark-inspired holiday its due respect.

Vivi’s napping.

Tad’s napping.

I should be napping too, . . . but I can’t let yet another day go by without reflecting on the last four weeks of our lives.

Can it possibly have been four weeks ago already that Baby Tad joined our family? Even though life with a newborn is exhausting, we have had so many blessings poured out upon us over the last month:

• Tad’s stay in the NICU was brief.
• His jaundice responded perfectly to the “photo light therapy” which was able to be done at home vs. another stay in the hospital.
• Tad is much more “peaceable” than his two sisters were.  He LOVES to cuddle.
• His weight gain is right where it should be–at 2 weeks, he weighed 7 lbs. 15 ozs. (25th %) and was 21 1/2 inches long (95th %)
• My 1st trip to the ER (Presby Plano ER) showed no blood clot in my leg.
• Despite the ineptness of the Baylor Frisco ER, I did not bleed to death on my 2nd trip to the ER (for hemorrhaging).  Thankfully, I have a fabulous OB who talked the ER clown (I mean doctor) through the appropriate course of treatment.
• Grandma Hess and Gran Tolbert tended to our every need during their brief visits.
• Health insurance, hand-me-downs, Zoloft, elastic waistbands, Bravado Seamless Nursing Bras, Medela Freestyle pump.
• Our family was fed yummy meals and scrumptious treats by so many wonderful friends.
• The opening of our new CLOSE church building coincided perfectly with Tad’s birth, facilitating a bit more family time and help from BT.

Sorry for the delay . . .

I’ll leave the witty postings to BT and provide just the facts . . .

After the nursery hadn’t brought us our baby several hours after his birth, BT went in search of answers.  The news that he returned with was not what any new parent wants to hear . . .

• Your baby is showing signs of respiratory distress (“grunting & flaring”)
• Blood tests reveal a possible infection.
• An x-ray shows fluid in the lungs and possibly an enlarged heart.
• We’ve had to move him to the NICU for further care.

To make a long story short, we were able to bring our perfectly healthy baby home on Friday, just one day later than originally planned.

I’ll add more details later . . . gotta go take care of a crying baby.  What a great sound it is!

9:00 AM — It was a restful night, as restful as a night can be when people are constantly trying to plug some holes and empty others.  One of my biggest worries now is that someone gets confused with which is which.  I’m a little blue that it’s been so hard to get dad to work with me.  He’s got to learn that I need to be in charge so I’ve had mom order the first few seasons of Pinky and the Brain for him to watch.  Who’d ever have thought that my dad would be nicknamed Pinky.  On another front, eavesdropping on the nurses conversations this morning, it seems like I’ve outlasted them and should be headed upstairs to the nursery this afternoon – I think I’ll even get a suite with a tanning bed.  Life is good!

9:00 AM — Talked about being bored out of your mind – the only thing that has helped is secretly planning my escape from NICU.  After resting comfortably for the last few hours and surveying my resources and options, I decided the best course of action was to enlist the help of my fellow inamtes.  They all agreeed to help, so after the morning round of giving blood and x-rays, precisely at 8:30 AM, we started choir practice.  Not bad for a bunch of weak-lunged kids.  Thinking that the nurses would be distracted by the joyful noise, I caught dad’s attention and whispered that we needed to seize the opportunity created by the confusion and run.  Unfortunately, dad seemed to be working on some other method of escape that involved blinding the captors with the flash bulbs on his camera.  He should have known that was too amateurish to work.  The head NICU nurse saw right through his plan and put the floor on lockdown.  Choir practice ceased as they stuck bottles in our mouths to prevent further communication.  Hopefully, between today and tomorrow, I can come up with a better plan so that I can get downstairs to my mama. – JTT

2:00 AM — Having been away from my mom and dad for a few hours in the nursery, I started to get a little worried and call out to them.  Unfortunately, the nurses didn’t recognize my summons for what they were and instead labeled them grunting.  That made me mad and so they diligently noted the flaring of my nostrils in the log notes.  This is all so new to me that I didn’t realize grunting and flaring would precipitate a little trip.  So instead of going to spend the night with mom, I got sent to the NICU with promises that my stay shouldn’t be too long.  Dad tried to break me out while I took a couple of swings at the nurses which made them mad and now I’m wrapped up in a little makeshift straitjacket.  Now I’ve just got to play along and I’ve decided to look at the bright side – hopefully the air is better up here and will help settle my breathing down.  More updates to come when the sun rises. – JTT