Home at Last

Her first picture without the NG tube.
That red mark on her head is a hemangioma, which is a cluster of extra blood vessels. It's basically a birthmark that will go away someday, but it might get much bigger before it goes away. I'm hoping it stays tiny! Luckily she's a girl and I can put a bow over it. It felt so good to hold her without wires and tubes, and no alarms beeping at us.

Strapped in for the ride home. We laughed when we put her in because she was so small in the carseat.Now Joey and Tyler can hold her to their hearts content. They have to take turns, though, much to their annoyance. They want her all to themselves. Jason still won't hold her.It's such a great feeling to have my kids all safely gathered. When I was at home I thought about her constantly, and wanted to be with her. When I was at the hospital with her I was thinking about Jared and the boys, and wanted to be home with them. My mind is at ease now.

Allie

When I went to see Allie she was sound asleep. I thought she looked a lot like Tyler when he was a baby. But when I went home and looked at his newborn picture I realized how FAT he was!! Really, it's not that he was fat, it's just that she's so darn skinny!

Look at him, he was huge. And he really wasn't huge, he was only 6 1/2 pounds. That's not a big baby.

So little.

And just to show you how adorable she is:

I can't get enough of her.

No I can not.

Baby Allie is here

Here is the newest addition to the Moore family:

Baby Allie. Her arrival was not at all the way we expected.
Last week, on Wednesday and Thursday I was feeling really crummy. My stomach hurt and I was nauseated, and just felt lousy. Our boys were in Colorado with Jared's mom and dad, and we were going to pick them up on Friday. On Friday morning I woke up feeling crappy still, and decided that all these symptoms were probably big red flags, telling me there was something wrong. I had flashbacks to 9 years ago, laying on my bed one saturday morning, crying as I called Jared at work, telling him I just didn't feel good. On that day we went to the emergency room, and later that day I gave birth to Joey, because I had Toxemia.
I asked Jared to take my blood pressure (handy, having a nursing student around) knowing that if it was high, we were headed down that road again. It was high. I was really upset. We went to the hospital, and after waiting all day, a doctor told me it was toxemia, and if it got any worse they would induce and I would have the baby immediately. If we could hold off for 48 hours it would be ideal, though, because I could get steroid shots to strengthen the baby's lungs. My doctor was in Hawaii on vacation. When he got back (Sunday) he said he thought it might actually be my gallbladder, not toxemia. So we did ultrasounds, and more tests. Turns out it was toxemia after all, so on Monday afternoon I got the Pitocin going, and Magnesium Sulfate, which stops me from having seizures, which I was at high risk for, and could kill me. I know, very scary stuff. My body didn't want to give up this baby. Magnesium sulfate is something they use to stop premature labor. You see the problem here? I might also mention it makes you feel really crappy. I have never been so miserable in all my life. I was so weak and drugged I couldn't lift my arm. I was terrified about having my baby six weeks early. It was the worst 5 days of our lives. But on Tuesday morning, after 17 hours of weird labor, Allie was born. She was so tiny! In my drugged state of mind I asked the doctor if I tore, and did I need stitches? He looked at me like I was crazy, and said that my birth canal never knew there was a baby in it. She was the ugliest and the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. She was slimy and purple, and squashed. But she was my baby, and I loved her instantly. They whisked her out to the NICU, and Jared went with her, and she was having a hard time breathing. It was really scary for him, watching his daughter fighting for life, and didn't help that he understood all the medical jargon they were using.

She was 3 pounds, 12 ounces. Even for a 34 week old baby she is tiny. But she only needed help breathing for an hour, then she was fine. She has been doing great every day. She is fed through a tube that goes through her nose into her stomache. They increase the amount every 12 hours, as long as she tolerates is, and she is almost up to the full amount she needs. Today she got her IVs out, and probably tomorrow she won't need the bilirubin lights anymore. She just has to be able to eat on her own, then she can come home. That will probably take some time though, maybe a few weeks. It is difficult for babies born so early to figure out how to suck and swallow, and it takes a lot of their energy. So we try a little bit at a time, and slowly she will figure things out.

At first it was okay that she was in the hospital, I was so weak and my body had been through quite the ordeal, It was nice I didn't have a baby to take care of. Now it makes me sad to put her in her "E.T. bed" as Jared calls it, and leave her there. I want her home with me. It also makes me sad that my boys can't go see her. They can only go on weekends. They've seen her once. Tyler really liked her. He touched her feet and looked at her, and was very interested in his new baby sister, "Owie." That's how he says Allie. LOVE it. Jason just looked at her, didn't want to touch her. He thinks we should keep her, though. Joey could not get enough of her. he asked if he could go see her again the next day, and I told him yes, (not knowing that he couldn't) and he just lit up. He was upset when he found out he couldn't go. he said it's like they have an age line around the NICU, like in Harry Potter, how there's an age line around the goblet of fire, and oly 17 year olds can get through. If only he could get his hands on an aging potion.

So she is here, safe and sound. After the delivery the doctor showed me the umbilical cord; there was a tight knot in it, and my placenta was beginning to calcify. He said there is no doubt in his mind that she would not have made it to full term. She would not have survived with a knot like that. I'm so grateful that God is in charge, and that he took such good care of me and Allie. We don't always know why things happen, but in this case we do. Everything turned out perfectly.

A Pink Christmas

My Auntie Betty stopped by a couple weeks ago on her way home from a vacation in Arizona. I loved seeing her again. I really never get to see her because we live too far away. She brought with her this humongous bag:

Tyler wasn't in it at the time. He's there to show the scale of it. It was packed full of adorable things for the baby. So much that it felt kind of like christmas.
This post is really for my mom and sister because they were almost as excited about it as I am. Also, this is a tribute to my aunt, whom we can all agree is pretty much AMAZING!!

First, some cute pink outfits:

Pajamas . . .

With adorable feet.

And frogs, because, have you heard? I love frogs.

Cute bum.

My favorite, and Auntie Betty's favorite, too. The "icecream dress," looks like neopolitan icecream.

And these are a close second. I love hoodies, and little sweaters.

Some more adorable outfits

Love this crab on the bum

Onesies and blankets

And sheets! I love these sheets, and bibs and socks

For the boys
Some more fun pajamas

I Love these feet! These pajamas are so soft, I wish they were big enough for me. They'll be great for cuddling the baby.

Cute, no?

Someone dropped by later that day and I had all the stuff out, looking at it. She said, "So you're having a girl?" How did she guess??

This Great Aunt also brought the coolest Lego Star Wars sets for the boys, way better that anything they've ever had before, and kites and bubbles, and pizza and pop, and cash for me and Jared, which we spent on a memory foam mattress topper for our bed. Now it's hard to get out of, it's SO comfortable . . . and also because, well, it's just plain hard to get out of bed these days, I have a big belly. I have to kind of roll out.

Thank you so much Auntie Betty! I love you! And I want to see pictures of baby Alice, the twin cousin, in the same cute things.

Really? Blog Spamming Now?

So I announce I'm having a baby girl and in the comment section I get a total stranger begging me to go click on his blog to help pay his tuition. Really?? Has it come to this? I don't really appreciate getting crappy spam on my blog. In fact, it really annoys me. You guys think I should go private again?

It's a Girl!

I'm going to try to catch up a little, I've been neglecting my blog terribly, as anyone who cares has noticed (ie. my mom).

We are having a baby in July, and it's a girl!!


I can't even begin to explain how excited I am about that. I never really wanted a girl that much, I was always so satisfied to have 3 boys. Until last summer, suddenly my life would just not be complete without one.
Now I can look forward to baby dolls, My Little Ponies (new ones, since my mom gave all mine away, which I was saving for my little girl), the Little Mermaid, pink things, dresses, bows, all sorts of cuteness.

She is an active little baby, I can feel her moving all the time. It's been so long since I've been pregnant, it all feels a little weird. Plus, it's all different since I'm so very OLD now. I'm not nearly as tolerant with all the annoying things that come with pregnancy now. I would desperately love for this girl to have a sister, but It's just not going to happen. This is it for me and pregnancy. At least, I'm 99% sure, you never really know how you'll feel down the road. That's why I was secretly praying that I'd have twin girls.
I can't wait to hold my cute little Jean.
That's what you get for giving away my prized possessions.

Caribbean Jerk Chicken

Linking up to my sisters blog, go check it out for good recipes

This is spicy! If you don't like hot, cut back on the hot sauce and cayenne.
I got this recipe from Blogchef, an excellent blog for recipes.

Caribbean Jerk Chicken
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons green onion (minced)
1 cup water
¾ cup ketchup
½ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons hot sauce
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 ½ teaspoons cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon cornstarch
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoons nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon sage
1/8 teaspoon thyme
In a small saucepan sauté onion in butter over medium heat. Whisk in the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes.


Boneless Chicken Wing recipe that we put the sauce on:
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into 1” chunks)
Oil (for deep frying)
1 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon paprika
1 egg
1 cup milk
Step 1: Heat oil in a deep-fryer to 375 degrees. In a large bowl combine flour, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and paprika. In a small bowl whisk together egg and milk. Dip each piece of chicken in the egg mixture, and then roll in the flour mixture. Repeat so that each piece of chicken is double coated. Refrigerate the breaded chicken for 20minutes.
Step 2: Fry chicken in the hot oil in batches until the outside is nicely browned and the juices run clear (about 5 minutes per batch). Drain on paper towels. Repeat until all of the chicken is gone.

We were pretty skeptical about this recipe as we made it--nutmeg? Allspice? Weird. But it looked so good! We even made some BBQ sauce in case it was gross and we couldn't eat it. But it was really good! It was too hot for me, so the 2nd time we made it I cut back on the hot stuff, and liked it better. When it comes to making the chicken, I felt like the double breading and refrigerating were pointless, so left that out the second time, and they were exacly the same. So make it easier on yourself and leave out the extra steps.