A temper that "flares like a pack of hemorrhoids"!

Holy smokes, this kid goes from quietly sleeping to screaming bloody murder in like 2.5 seconds! He has no wind up cry to let us know that it's coming... it's just THERE! He stiffens up and turns bright red as he screams... really loud. We've been trying to change his diaper in record time because it's like the world is coming to an end! Right when we get him dressed back up and into our arms he is quiet again... just like that! It's crazy! He's our little fiesty one!!!

JAREN IS HOME!!!

FINALLY, Jaren is home with us! The kids are sooooooo excited to have him here! I see them always kissing him, touching his cheeks and "petting" him on his soft baby hair. They are itching to feed and hold him, but they'll have to wait a little longer for that. We'd like to let him heal from his circumcision first. Ed was telling them that he was cut down there and he told Ollie that he was also cut when he was a baby. Ollie said, "Yeah, I remember it." Then Eden looked at Ed and asked, "Did they cut mine, too?" I thought Ed was going to wet his pants laughing! Kids are so funny sometimes! We are so glad that Jaren is home and we don't have to wrestle around with all of the tubes, cords and wires anymore. He is just so sweet and cute... we are truly blessed!

Ready or not... HERE I COME!

I talked with Ed this morning and he said that Jaren is doing lots better. He still is having phototherapy, but they took the overhead lamp away and now he's just laying on the other light... my little glow worm! He was a little fussy last night with Papa at the hospital. We are expecting him to be released from his NICU penthouse tomorrow, Friday the 29th, around noon! YEA! He gets circumsized tomorrow as well... poor little man. We appreciate all of the prayers that have been said for him as well as the rest of our family. Heavenly Father has really been mindful of us at this time!

I've been home trying to get things ready for his arrival. I know that I was blessed to not have stitches or anything with this delivery. It was the easiest and smoothest labor and delivery compared to the other two! I couldn't hardly walk or sit for at least a week after Ollie and Eden were born. I've hardly had time to rest, being with Ed and Jaren at the hospital, hanging out with the kids at home and trying to get the house in some sort of order before he comes home!

The kids are so excited to have their brother home... not sure how long that excitement with last when they realize that babies cry alot! :) Ollie has been telling all of his friends that he has a baby brother and he's "so cute"! I know that they will be big helpers... if only for a little while.

A Bit of Humor in the Midst of Stress

Okay... Every day since I've been in the hospital I've been able to order room service. I call and tell them what room I'm in and what food I would like to order. They must be relying on memory because almost every time they've forgotten something or added something on that I didn't order.

Some things have been small, like... forgetting crackers with my soup or forgetting ketchup for the french fries. In those instances... not a huge problem. For the most part it's been things like... adding on Cream of Wheat for no reason whatsoever. They've forgotten to give me chips when I ordered them (on two occasions), chocolate cake instead of chocolate ice cream, cookies, a fruit bowl, etc. One evening I ordered my meal and Ed ordered a meal that would be billed to us. They forgot my chips (I was craving salt like a mad woman) and my fruit bowl. They also forgot Ed's strawberry ice cream. After several days of errors I finally called and told them what they had forgotten (especially when we are being billed for things that we didn't receive). About 5 minutes later, she brought the things up to us. Everything except for MY SALTY CHIPS!!! I was thinking, "What the crap! How hard is this to remember!?!" I just about walked my post labor self down to the cafeteria and got the doggone chips myself!





Now, Ed and I make bets on what will be forgotten when we receive our next meal. I slept here at home last night with the kids and Ed called me this morning and said, "Guess what they forgot..." I thought to myself, "HMMMM.... sausage?" Ed replied, "Sausage". Hey, after so much stress it's nice to find the humor in something!

If you feel the need to visit and bring us something, how about a bag of salty chips! Hehehe!

The Next Few Days in the NICU

Well, Jaren had a chest X-ray last weekend and the doctors spotted some gunk in his lung, which they are diagnosing as pneumonia. They are treating him with antibiotics and so he'll be here for several more days.

(This was the first time I held him.)

He has been on oxygen since the day he was born and has gone through several variations since. First, he had a clear plastic shield over his head, then he had several large tubes hooked up to a nasal tube and had to wear a little hat that held the tubes on tight. The hat always slid over his eyes, and we could hardly even see him through all of it. (I thought he looked like a little elephant with one of the tubes hanging out!) Finally, he just has a tube with the nasal prongs in it. They have been trying to wean him off of the oxygen so that he can breathe on "room air". He's doing better each day!

Also, he has jaundice so they started him on phototherapy for it yesterday, the 26th. He started with a lighted pad underneath him and has since added a light over the top of him. He has little shades covering his eyes, which are attached to his head with Velcro of all things! He looks like he's in a little tanning booth! It stinks because now we can only hold him while we are feeding him. He is a little cuddler that's for sure! :)

When they first hooked him up to the monitor, there were (and still are) several wires on his chest. He would constantly be trying to rip them off and rip the hoses off his face! So, they put socks on his hands and he's been better behaved since! (It's good that he's so fiesty, since he wasn't moving much after the delivery)

Introducing Our New Little Man...

So... as you know we did indeed have a little boy. His name is Jaren Freeman Palmer. I'm sure I will nickname him "J". I've already called him "Snip", "Bubba", "My Little Man", "Stink" & "Silly Boy". I'm sure I'll come up with more along the way... I know I have with the other kids! He weighed in at 8 lbs 5 oz and measured 21 inches long. Labor and delivery was about 7 hours. He's got lots of DARK hair and is the cutest little man! He looks alot like Eden when she was born. He struggled at first, but is slowly getting better each day! We'll take all the prayers for him that we can get!

Day of Induction - June 22, 2007

On Friday, June 22, 2007 we arrived to Allen hospital a little after 7:30 am for our scheduled induction at 8 am. I was very nervous and so I had stopped by the ladies room for a minute and then proceeded to the admissions area to get the rest of our paperwork finished. The admissions lady was rather chatty and we were running late already! We finally got upstairs around 8:15 am, but our doctor had already gone back to the Family Practice Center. We got settled into our room and I had Ed take a photo of me for the very last time pregnant with the baby. At my last doctor's checkup I was measuring at 41 weeks, so it was nice that I was going to be induced early... if only a DAY early! (My due date was Ed's birthday, the 23rd).

I was finally induced at around 9 am I didn't think it would take so long to start having contractions, since it only took like 20 minutes for the contractions to start with Eden. My mom came up and sat with us for most of the day. The contractions were getting more intense and finally when I got to a 5 I could get an epidural, "Hallelujah"! It worked right away and I was in heaven after that! Ed and I played some games and I did some crosswords and we watched some television. A little before 4 o'clock I started feeling some pressure and it felt like I had to poop. It went away and then came back again. I was about to ring for the nurse and then Dr. Day and the nurse came in. He checked me and said, "You're right. You are feeling pressure. The baby's head is right there!" They got everything ready for the delivery and a fellow doctor, Dr. Dechristina (?) came in as well. (My mom had actually left about 5 minutes earlier, thinking that I would be pushing for awhile). The baby pretty much just kept coming. I pushed a few times and it was going well. Dr. Day was gently guiding the baby through and I pushed about 3 more good pushes and before the last push, the nurse said, "Look down!" I of course couldn't see the baby because of my belly, but on the last push I heard the gush of liquid and then my belly just collapsed. (I wish that it would have collapsed into a 6 pack or something, but no such luck!) I saw the baby and Ed said, "It's a Boy!" Then they let Ed cut the cord. I started to tear up and we were excited that labor was over. He was born at 4:01.

The nurses took him over to get cleaned up and checked. After several seconds, he still was not crying or moving around much. I was quietly FREAKING OUT and looked at Ed and started to cry. I was thinking, "What is going on!?!" They weren't saying much to us, but there were at least 3 nurses and one doctor over by the baby and I kept hearing things like, "Come on little guy, you can do it, it's been 60 seconds, snap out of it." So, of course I was wondering what was happening. He was a nice shade of pink and looked okay, but was not crying at all. They called in another nurse and Dr. Waziri, the neonatalogist. He checked him for a murmur, but didn't find anything. I could only hear bits and pieces of what was going on.

Then they took him down to the NICU and plugged him up to all sorts of things. They thought it may be an infection of some sort so they were running all sorts of tests and doing x-rays and stuff. Dr. Waziri said that he thinks it's pneumonia so he's been on some antibiotics for that. He's on oxygen, antibiotics, sugar water (because he was born with low blood sugar as well). He has an IV in, tubes all over the place and wires hooked up to monitors to measure his heart rate, his breathing, and his blood oxygen level I believe. (The nurses are wonderful, by the way.) He will probably be in the hospital for 10 - 14 days. It's hard when you can't even hold your newborn baby...

Take me out to the ballgame!

On Friday night Ed, myself, the kids and my mom went to a Waterloo Bucks baseball game. The kids each had a free ticket to get into the game and when we got there a lady gave us three more tickets to get in! How nice was that!?! Oliver's favorite sport is baseball and the kids LOVE the movie, "The Sandlot", so I figured they would love seeing a real game played! Eden just ran up and down the stairs pretty much the whole time and Oliver kept waiting for a foul ball to catch!








They had fun getting their picture taken with the team's mascot, "Buck". He must have been so hot in that costume because it had to be in the 90's that night! Oliver even got his baseball glove signed by him!













Oliver thought he was hilarious when he made a beard out of cotton candy! What a crazy boy! We had such a fun time together!

Happy Anniversary to ME!

Well, today is the anniversary of my joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It has been 10 YEARS! I was baptized on June 14, 1997 at the age of 18! So hopefully everyone knows that it's not just a "phase" that I'm going through! It has been the best decision of my life! I have a REAL relationship with my Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. I know that they will never leave me comfortless. I feel more at peace than I ever have before. Things make so much more sense to me now that I have a firm foundation in the church. I am always trying to better myself and see things from an eternal perspective now, to be more Christlike in all that I do and say. I know that I will never be perfect in this life, but I know that I can constantly try my best and endure to the end. I know that my family has been blessed because of the Priesthood power that is felt in our home. I know that I am living the best life that I can live through the teachings of Jesus Christ as well as the prophets past and present. I am so blessed to have found the church and to have gone through many trials. I know that they are from a loving Heavenly Father and that they are to help us grow, gain strength and increase our faith in him! It is easy to ask why things are happening, but harder to accept that it is truly the Lord's will for us. I know that this church is the ancient church that Christ set up while He was on the earth. I know that the Lord STILL reveals many things to his chosen prophets that are on the earth today. I know that Joseph Smith truly experienced a vision, seeing God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, in the Sacred Grove and it's amazing that at such a young age, he remained steadfast, even while being persecuted for so many years... eventually resulting in his death. I have felt the spirit so strongly and I can't deny it. The Lord loves all of His children and has set up a plan that we ALL may be able to return to live with him someday. I hope more people can feel the way that I feel now. It is truly awesome!