A Max Update

Went to the pediatrician today. The pediatrician checked everything. It was a really long exam, and he's the spouse of my sister's best friend, so he gave up his lunch to see us. He says Max is mostly normal for a child his adjusted age (read for 7 weeks old). Max IS behind (between 3-5 weeks, even adjusted). But, it's measurable, and in one area only. He doesn't SAY much, but he's doing well in other areas. He is vocally behind, but gross-motor skills are ahead.

He holds his head oddly because it's shaped really ROUND. It's a birth "defect" that will look really good when he goes bald like all the other men in my family. It's not a "defect" exactly, but it doesn't allow him to sleep comfortable flat on his back, so he arches. This causes him to slump a bit when being held, which also freaked us out. That it's just a round issue is SO RELIEVING. I'm supposed to get Max a gel-filled donut to sleep on so he can actually sleep with his head on his back or else the sides of his head will get flatish (probably more flat on one side than on the other.) Max is doing well with muscle tone!! This is huge, and is a great factor meaning probably NOT cerebral palsy.

Max gave me a REAL smile today---whole face lit up, and he has a dimple we didn't know about!! He also has a funny half-grin that really freaked me out when I thought he had cerebral palsy (Thought it was evidence of a stroke at birth) but the pediatrician says it's "just cute" and that if he can move his whole face (and he can) he didn't have a stroke. They checked his reflexes--legs a bit weak, but they have slower growth and come later in development--not supposed to worry too much yet. He gave the doctor a HUGE smile. It was great. Max found himself in the mirror (didn't know it was himself, but he saw the baby and was very interested). Max could not have performed better for him, and the news was very, very good.

Anyway, it doesn't mean he won't have some damage (he's still 3-ish weeks behind vocally), but it does mean he's moving closer to normal, and he can SEE!!! And he doesn't seem to have motor damage. I am so, so grateful. We'll have to wait and see on the neurological damage, but OMG, I am relieved. I have been feeling guilty because I wanted this baby so bad, and then I had every problem under the sun, spent hideous amounts of time in hospital, and on meds, etc. I was feeling like my selfishness was going to be his burden. At least I know he will be mostly normal. I also do know I can't do anything about being so selfish and that guilt doesn't help---but I do feel it!!.Chances are still good that he's got a few problems---but we can mark off cerebral palsy, and there are no signs of stroke (which was another concern. Preemies often have brain bleeds or strokes, and we saw a couple of potential signals for that. The pediatrician said the signs we saw could just be misfirings from immature nerves. Thank God for that, too.)

To top off Max's amazing day, he ROLLED OVER front to back. He performed such feat with 3 witnesses, Dad, Mama, and Xandri. He also thought it was great fun to flip himself over. I guess it's his time to shine. Thank Heavens! Thanks for all the prayers!

A Frank & Michael Christmas

Each year, my darling friends Frank & Michael send me their CD Christmas Celebration. In fact, John and I look forward to the CD much like our children look forward to St. Nick. This year, we were sure THIS would be the day... and when the CD finally came, we spent the evening (which was date night, btw) listening to the CD.

Now, I'm not sure how Michael and Frank pick the songs on the CD. Quite honestly, I think they look through their Christmas CD's and think, "Which songs would be the most obnoxious to our family and friends?" John and I laughed and laughed over "The Cat Carol." John hummed it all the way through the store we went into.

Michael put on Sarah McLaughlan's gorgeous "What Child is This" and we laughed over Michael's commentary about Kurt Bestor's music. He says that Bestor's music is "on Prozac." How profoundly true.

We're so lucky to be on Michael & Frank's mailing list. Their commentary on the CD is exactly like being at dinner with them: we're together sharing their voices and humor. What a wonderful gift. It always reminds me of how much I miss them, and how much I value their friendship. It's a friendship that's lasted 20 years. I can't express how much that means to me, how much they mean to me. It is the same for all the friendships I share. You, my friends, are the true gift that I celebrate this season. My friends give me the joy of the season. I send cards to connect with you, and to remember the love I have for you.

Merry Christmas, all. Thanks to my Michael & his Frank for reminding me, every year, of the joy you bring me.

Gingerbread Fiasco...

Gingerbread night has traditionally been the kids FAVORITE activity, so this year to step it up, I ordered a HUGE foam gingerbread house from Oriental Trading Company. So, no real gingerbread, no real candy. DUH, mama. That didn't go over well. Anyway, the pieces from my foam-from-China-kit did not STICK. Mama didn't anticipate that. The kids really enjoyed THE BOX the thing came in. Hahahaha. Kids. So, back to lots of candy, royal icing, and real gingerbread next year. What was I *thinking*??

They also decorated my tree. OH MY GOODNESS. John says to take deep breaths and remember I can decorate a gorgeous tree when my children are grown. ACK. It took serious will power to not remove all that the kids had put up and start again. I am going to buy another tree---hopefully I can find one on sale after Christmas. I really, really want a shiny tin-foil looking tree---one to put pink and aqua lights on and decorate with all the cute home-made ornaments from my kids and with my pink flamingo ornaments. It will be a tree to remind me to not take it too SERIOUSLY. I have been planning for these activities for MONTHS, and then when they actually happen... it's a bit anticlimactic, and definitely NOT the fun I expected. The kids are having fun, and that's what I need to remember.

How can it be FUN to fight that much? No, I ask you seriously.

Thankful

I bought the new Josh Groban CD, entitled Noel, and it has the lovely song "Thankful" on it. It encapsulates how I feel this Thanksgiving:
Somedays, we forget to look around us,
Somedays, we can't see the joy that surrounds us,
So caught up inside ourselves,
We take when we should give.
So for tonight we pray for
What we know can be.
And on this day we hope for
What we still can't see.
It's up to us to be the change.
And even though we all can still do more,
There's so much to be thankful for.

What a wonderful time of the year! I'll post more as we get our house decorated. Tonight's Gingerbread House night! "Deck the Halls" and fa-la-la-la-lah....

More Max

For those of you still looking, here's more photos of Max.

Photos of Max

Jen said I had to update my blog. Here's the boys with the boy. Daddy loves Max and Jack thinks Max is awesome. Max eats all the time, and Mama never sleeps. There. That's the update.

No School for YOU

I delivered a check and some papers I'd graded to the school on Wednesday, and the school secretary told me that if I was on school property again during my maternity leave, I would forfeit my maternity leave entirely! I was shocked, as it's very obvious I can't work---I can't hardly WALK and my shoes don't go on my feet are so swollen!

I delayed as long as I could before I went in for my NST today--and my blood pressure was 170/105, so I had to stay several hours and do several irritating tests. I also have to go back to the hospital to repeat the tests tomorrow. I sure hope everything goes really well because I don't want to spend another weekend in the hospital. That's not my idea of "fun." Plus, I'll be there on Tuesday for the amnio, Wednesday for the delivery, Thursday for the tubal ligation, so... I hope I am home on Friday next week, too!

We're getting SO close, and the kids are excited. I'm excited for it to just be DONE. It'll be nice to be home as a family together and not have to constantly worry about my blood pressure, etc. That will be heaven.

The Final Countdown

Well, after a LONG weekend at the AF Hospital, they finally sprang me from the joint! I took in over 20 bags of IV fluid, and they said I'd had a wicked, nasty virus (but not cryptosporidium again!!)

We're on schedule to deliver on 10/10/07, but next Tuesday we go for an amnio just to make sure Max's lungs are developed. We're definitely in the final countdown. Jack and Xan are counting down the days, and I guess I am, too. I'll be glad not to be on bedrest anymore, and I'll be glad to have had Max safely. I am not looking forward to being in the hospital another second, but I'll put up with it to be done, done, done!

We should be home with Max by Friday, 10/12/07, or 10/13 at the latest, and I know I'm VERY excited about that!!

Another Update...

I've been back to the hospital, this time for headaches. It seems my blood pressure is high---again. So, I'm creeping back toward preeclampsia/ PIH/HELLP or toxemia. It's all the same, no matter what you call it. Today my feet were all swollen, so that's another sign of being close to done.

The school hosted a baby shower for me and 2 other cute pg girls. They are each having their first babies, but they invited me, too. I told the ladies hosting I didn't need any gifts---cake was enough for my 4th baby!! Anyway, they DID get me presents, and that was SO NICE. The school gave me a gift card to walmart, and then I got some cute little outfits---which is great because I don't have tons and tons of clothes---With Asa, I borrowed some from Jen, some from Kristen, and some from Steph. I need to see what I still have down stairs!! LOL. I'll have to post a picture of the cake they had made for the shower. It stood 18 inches high and was 3 tiers in the shape of a baby bottle. It was like a cake from a comptetition---like an "Ace of Cakes" cake. It was very neat.

Jack is anxiously counting down the days until the baby is to be born. I'm counting down the days until I can quit working! My last day is October 4th. I think they are going to give Max steroids on October 5th, so since diabetics don't tolerate steroids well, I'll be off work after that. YAY!! I'm definitely NOT feeling my best. Either way, the date is fast approaching, and we're all getting excited. Asa climbs under my shirt at least twice a day and talks to Max. The other day, he banged on my belly and told Max to "Come out now!" Wait until he finds out Max is coming home a baby and not a playmate!

33 Weeks

Today I'm 33 weeks pg--according to the hospital. If you go by ultrasound, I roll over on Wednesdays (thus the 10/10 delivery date). Anyway, I was supposed to start Non-Stress Tests last week, and I figured since I was seeing the doctor on Friday, I could put them off. Even as I came home from work today, I figured, "I don't have enough TIME to go do that at the hospital today."

Anyway, I have contractions quite frequently, and I had some often today. So, after a long day at work, (and *I* even cooked dinner!), it was no real surprise that I was contracting. Then, when I spotted, I felt guilty for not going to have the test run, and mostly for running down the hall today at work.

After an hour at labor and delivery (took my best friend RaeLyn with me), I was declared fine (as fine as I can be HA), and sent home. So it was a good test. I passed, Max is great, and Mom and Dad are hoping to make it home from their trip to see the fall foliage before Max comes. It's now only 22 days and change! Wow. Time flies.

Phamily Phun

John and I have long agreed that the best thing we ever did was to spend a little extra, one-on-one time with the great-great grandparents. Yesterday, we visited G-Grandpa Alan and G-Grandma Viv. My kids adore them. Jack wanted, immediately, to plan his next trip to the farm and ride the motorcycles. Xan wanted to know if we could "go to Viv's in seven days." So sweet to know they have a relationship they treasure with both of them. I only vaguely remember Great-grandma Grace. We visited her once in Cardston, and I remember the old-folks-home as being scary and antiseptic. She also didn't know who my mom was, and I found that the scariest part. Such a difference to have great-grandparents who are active and vibrant.

We ate ourselves silly on some great jello salads, Jen's yum oriental salad, and all the chips you could eat! It's always fun to spend a Sunday with the family. Really, that's what living is all about, being together with the only folks who make life WORTH living. It's why we do what we do, right??

I also enjoyed spending time with Cody and Brad---I love the age they are. I know, I do love my toddler, but give me a kid who's 18 and has the world by the horns. That's a person to know. They are so delightful at that age: all is possible, most is probable, and they know no difficulties yet. Such a great age to be, at the cusp of "real life." I can't wait to hear more about their experiences in college---and then the missions!! Kids change so much in 3 years, and it's always a delight to follow that change. I think I'm the only parent on earth who's looking *forward* to those teen years. I've seen thousands of other teens, and I hope I like my own as much as I've enjoyed other people's teen agers!

Week 30

Today, I took my mom to my 30 week ultrasound. I have ultrasounds at least once per month to check Max's growth to make sure he isn't getting too much sugar (however, since I've been having lows on the insulin, it would be hard to be getting TOO much!!) My mom had never been to an ultrasound, so that was fun to see her responses to it. I've had so many that they are completely routine, not at all fascinating. She was definitely fascinated.

We didn't get to see Max's face, as he was curled up, head down, both hands crossed in front of his face. On 2 other occassions, I've gotten lovely shots of his face---and he looks like the other children. Turns out, my nose seems to be dominant. John's grandmother's eyes seem to be dominant, too, so the kids are a great mix. Only time will tell if he got all the dimples and the cleft in his chin. He measures 31 weeks, and for a diabetic, that's perfect when you're 30 weeks. For a Phippen, equally good! LOL.

My liver is not functioning at its peak. I'm suffering from a terrible itch all over my body, mostly on my trunk and legs. It hurts, but I got some cream for it, and hopefully I can make it the next 6 weeks. All that can be done is benadryl and cream---and it doesn't help much. Neither is a "magic bullet"---that's for sure!

I'll be having an amnioscentisis on 10/9/07 to check to see if Max's lungs are mature. He'll be 36 weeks on 10/10, and that's our "expected" delivery date. Hopefully, he'll be born on 10/10 and be healthy and happy. We're in our final count down: 5-4-3-2-1, blast-off!! It's also nice to know that I have a "vacate-by" date.

Adventures in FHE

I am quite certain that Family Home Evening is an instrument of torture for parents. Today we had a lesson on keeping the sabbath day holy, and it was an adventure, for certain. We started with a song (Jack's favorite: Latter-day Prophets) and then had the lesson from the Children's Friend. One would expect 8 paragraphs to only take about 2 minutes to read, however, with a 2 year old climbing all over every participant, the 4 and 7 year old jockeying for best postition to see the pictures, and loud laughter and giggling abounding, it took 15 full minutes--and then I had to do the Teletubbies route of re-teaching and going over every piece of information again. On top of that, I am quite certain retention was zero.

However, the banana splits were declared roundly successful, and all 3 clean children went to bed far stickier than they had been before FHE.

We've done all the homework (Mama had 20 minutes of reading with Jack, where he fully impressed me with his ability to read the hard words in his Avatar book, and then Dad had to do the math game while the pizza bites and garlic bread for dinner cooked. What do people who have more than 1 child DO? Where does one even find time to do all the homework AND practice an instrument?) Xandri went to soccer practice. It was "great!" and she had fun. Asa cried from the moment he came home today until he went to bed. Delightful. His one, brief shining moment was when Mama and Asa sang all the songs he knows. He knows almost all the words to "Twinkle, Twinkle" and he loves "Wheels on the Bus." Embarrassingly, he also sings "Hey, Delilah" by Plain White T's and "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne. His mother is a bad influence, it seems. He's still garbling the "ABC's" but he can always sing "G" in the right spot. He's also figured out MOST of the words to the song about being Asa Phippen. He's come great strides in 2 weeks, I must say.

And that's the Monday write-up. Thank Goodness Tomorrow's Tuesday. Hahahaha. I'm very ready for Monday to be done!!

Accessory & Bribery

No, it's not a felony or a misdemeanor. It's ALL about Xandri.

My Xanna attracts dirt. She's a piglette of the highest level. It's a skill she has honed over long experience, and we've learned to live with her magnetic attraction to all things dirty (and sticky, staining, and . She despises having her hair combed or groomed, and despite loving clothing, she can't keep anything clean. My new crusade has been to have her let me comb her hair, and I have stooped to the lowest level: I am now bribing her.

My mom "cursed" me to have a child "just like me"---and she's right-on with Xandri. I haven't any idea how dirty I was (as my mother would never have allowed dirt), but I do know that what *I* loved as a child, Xandria also adores. To combat Xandri's dislike of personal grooming, I have purchased a variety of accessories that she can wear if I do her hair. On the first day of school, she had pink fake hair to add to a pony tail. It also had "diamond" rhinestones. Yesterday's accessory was a necklace and bracelet she got to wear that (not coincidentally) matched her outfit to perfection. The only catch is that she must remove jewelry after school, but since that's what mama always does, she thinks that's a normal "rule."

Today, Xanadu looked like a big birthday present because her accessory was a huge bundle of ringletted ribbons (very like a bunch of curling ribbon on a gift.) My students love looking out the window, and they're watching the "accessory of the day." Hopefully her love of stuff will continue so that she will get used to being well groomed.

You can thank Grandma Max; I assume *I* learned these skills at home while young. Certainly, it's one I am passing on!

How Will She Look Like a Million DUCKS?

Here's the shot of our Phippens on the morning that school started. They were so thrilled to be actually starting school. We told Xanna she'd "Look like a million bucks" all dressed up with her hair done, her dress, and her brand-new back-pack. Asa was SO MAD he didn't get a "pack-pack" like "Go-Go" (Diego) that he pouted and cried.

Jack was a bit baffled by what we told Xan. He said, "How will she look like a million DUCKS? That just doesn't make any SENSE!!" And, he's right. It makes no sense at all, but we had a delightful laugh over it. What joy our children bring us.

For example, tonight, Xanadu was singing "Hey, Macarena" in the shower. No person should know the lyrics to that song, and yet, from a 4 year old, they're pretty darn funny. Asa regularly masacres the "ABC's" and delights in singing them poorly over and over and over. His favorite song is actually "Wheels on the Bus." He loves the verse where the wheels go round and round, and he also loves it when the mama says "Sh, sh, sh."

Jackson thinks his teacher, Mr. Porter, is the best thing EVER. He told me that there could be nothing better on earth besides second grade. His teacher not only plays the recorder (Jack was humming the piece he's learning on the recorder), he also plays the guitar. That alone is enough to elevate him to demi-god state. If anyone knows of a good guitar teacher, we're definitely in the market. We also need to buy Jack a new guitar---preferably one that will hold the tune. It's my understanding that Aunt Starr's family has a Gibson guitar connection, so we need to get in touch and buy him a good one.

I'm so tired that I fell asleep putting my shoes on to go to Xanadu's magnet-ball game this evening. Interestingly, her soccer coach is one of my former students! My how the world goes round and round.

John's worked himself crazy, and he's amazing. He gets Jack and Asa to daycare every morning, and he doesn't complain that I'm the world's grumpiest creature in the morning. Sainthood is quickly approaching him.

I can't wait to update you as the year continues. Hopefully you'll get as much kick out of our adventures as we do!

It All Started...

When I was assigned by the school to have a website. Then, I figured since I was an English teacher, I should have a blog. However, the only folks who care to read my blog are actually family, and I can't allow comments on my school blog---so the phamilia blog is born.

I doubt you'll get to see much from John, but he might surprise me and blog a bit, too. Thus, it shall mostly be the musings from QueenMum, aka me.

Our little darlings started off to school thrilled with their new school supplies, shoes, and clothes. It was a mad dash to be ready before 7:15, but they were up and excited for the day. Even Xanadu let me do more than finger-comb her hair---it was full glitter, a pink fake-ponytail addition, and nylons for her this morning. Quite a feat, indeed, for the "I'll do it my way-Diva." Jackson is thrilled to be attending 2nd grade, and Asa definitely felt the difference this morning as we got ready. He also insisted on being dressed up in his Lightning McQueen shoes and shirt.

I'm off to get the munchkins now. Hopefully they've enjoyed their day in Oz and we can get back to the business at home. I've got my red shoes on, so onward and upward...