The Plans???

Here is a beautifully written post about life after a loss.

First Item Has Been Received!

A VERY special thank you to BJ for this beautiful boy burial bubble suit! (say that 10 times over - LOL!) She did an fabulous job and it was a special treat to receive since it's the first of its kind for me to see in person. Not only did she do a fabulous job on its construction, she tagged the items with their dimensions.

In addition, she sent this handmade crochet hook holder made from a placemat. It will be one of the prizes at the conclusion of the drive.

I got tagged

Thanks, Anne! (said with great sarcasm....just joking of course). Oh my, not sure if I can come up with 7 interesting things about myself. Since it's actually 7 Random Things, they don't all have to be interesting...do they??

First of all, the rules:
Each person tagged gives seven random facts about themselves along with the rules of the game, as well as tagging seven others by listing their names as part of the blog post and leaving a blog comment for the tagged individuals to let them know that they've been tagged.

Ok, let's see.....

1. We've lived in 5 different states in 10 years: Alabama, Georgia, California, Mississippi, and Texas. Nope, we're not military, but dh's company sure does like to transfer us. We'll be moving to the Atlanta area in the next 9 months or so. And....I'm growing roots. It's been fun and quite an adventure, but I'm done with the moves.

2. I'm originally from a very small town in south Alabama. I'm talking 2000 people small, no red light, no fast food restaurant, just a couple of banks, a post office, a grocery store, and a Dollar General, of course. Oh, and I can't forget, my Grandmother's Florist. I think she and Pawpaw (who is now deceased) have had a business there for something like 53 years. It's certainly a slower paced lifestyle.

3. I can wiggle my ears, too. I saw this on kittymuggins' blog. I have no idea when, why or how I discovered this incredible "trick" but I can do it.

4. I'm short....5'1" short even though I was a head taller than all the other girls in my 5th grade class. I just stopped growing. Must be all the times my parents dropped me on my head. LOL! We laugh about it, but yes, I fell off things a lot when I was young. Mom claims the first time I ever decided to roll was from the top of the washing machine. I road my walker right out the door of the trailer. Mom and Dad lived in a trailer while building their house. Which leads me to the biggest fall of all. Somehow they thought it would be wise to take a toddler into the attic while stuffing insulation. I was supposed to play on a piece of plywood and as one would expect, I managed my way off the plywood and fell 2 stories to the basement. Thanks to my fuzzy pink coat, I survived completely unscathed.

5. I'm an engineer by degree so all those falls must have not damaged too many brain cells. Hannah did that for me. LOL! I swear, I've lost my noodle since becoming a mom. It's a trade, though, that I'd make a million times over.

6. Speaking of Hannah, she's an IVF baby. I don't mind sharing that we did IVF to conceive her. By the grace of God and the miracle of modern medicine, we are so blessed to have an incredible daughter.

7. I hate to clean house. I actually think, well know, that my house is cleaner since being on bedrest. That's so sad, so so sad! Dh just came up here and announced that he has been cleaning. He said, "I know in the past that you've been 'afeared' of the vacuum, but I'm letting you know that I've tamed it." ;-) I'm thinking that he's done such a good job why stop when I get off bedrest! Seriously, my main problem is that I sew a lot and end up spreading stuff all over the house. I'm demanding a dedicated craft room in our next home.

Now let's see if I can find a few folks that haven't been tagged. How about....

Marcia

Cheryl

Kathy

Kate

Mary

Minotte

Stopping one person short. I hope I haven't tagged someone that has already been tagged. Forgive me if I have!!

Wow, that killed an hour of my bedresting time. Thanks Anne! :-)

Another Request

Today I received another email request for bereavement items. Word is getting out about the foundation. I may need to re-think donations. I am bad about donating everything I have on hand and not keeping anything for urgent needs. Plus, being in bed all of this year (wow! sounds crazy to say that) has greatly limited my contribution to bereavement items.

Anyway, today's request came from St. Joseph's Hospital in Houston, TX. The bereavement coordinator did not give me specifics regarding their need. I hope to hear back from her shortly and will update this post.

So....let's start the 2nd Annual Remembering Emma Grace Donation Drive NOW!! :-)

ETA: Just heard back from the nurse. It's a large hospital with about 20 losses per month (5 from the NICU and 15 from L&D and antepartum). They need items (bereavement and NICU) in all sizes.

An Update on Austin

Friday I had an appt with my peri and man was it a madhouse in her office. The quick rundown is that the stitch is still holding, fluid level is up to 13 (great news!), but Austin has decided to slow down on his growth. He is measuring 3 lbs 8 oz now and that's only the 24th percentile. She didn't seem too concerned because I don't have another appointment until the 31st. It, of course, scares me a bit since Hannah was a biggun' and you would expect him to be one since I have gestational diabetes this time. Current plans are to shoot for 36 weeks and call it done which is more than ok with me! She also gave me permission to lounge outside. Yesterday I went down the steps, spent several hours outside, and slept on the couch. Today, I went back outside and spent a few hours again. Tonight, I made my venture back up the steps and had a shower. I'll spend the next few days in bed again before my next excursion. :-)

Thanks, Kathy!

With the help of Ms. Sue back home and Kathy we have a few items in the process of being shipped to Gadsden Memorial. The L&D nurse I spoke with was so sweet and said that they were completely out of small sized bereavement items. They only have 2-3 losses (24 wks and less) each month. Mom is sending 5 pink pouches and one variagated one. Look here to see the bathcloth pouches and gowns that Kathy is shipping. Here is her pattern for the bathcloth pouch. Gotta try it out soon!

Let's see...

What else haven't I shared with you in the last 7 or so weeks?

First of all, Happy Mother's Day. I was just reading on another blog in the case of Mom's who have both living and deceased children....."Today is celebrated with outer smiles and inner tears." I wholeheartedly agree.

Hannah, with the help of her teachers, made gifts for me. One was "Mom's Favorite Things." Most of the things listed were actually her fav things. :-) One was particularly sweet. My fav thing to do with her is: to go to the hospital and play with her. Boy have I missed my girl! I've allowed her to sleep with me the last 2 nights.

Hannah turned 4 while I was in the hospital. Anticipating issues, I scheduled her party at My Gym. As you can see, it looks like they had GREAT fun!

Check out the cute little Hello Kitty dress I ordered off of ebay. I usually make a b'day outfit for her, but found this at the last min. Don't ask me what this pose is all about. LOL!
As for crafting, here are the only 2 things I've been working on. This is Baby Brother's blanket. It's made from yarn that belonged to my mother-in-law that passed away 2 months before Hannah was born. I retrieved it from the barn on Thanksgiving Day. I searched online and found that if you put the skeins in old panty hose and send them through the wash, they clean up GREAT!



And, this little bunting was made in memory of my friend's daughter, Trinity, on her 5th Birthday. I took this before weaving in the ends and tying on the ribbons.

2nd Annual Remembering Emma Grace Donation Drive

Emma Grace

8/27 - 9/10/05

I have decided to go ahead and post all the info on the 2nd Annual Remembering Emma Grace Donation Drive just in case some little man decides to make his entrance before June 1st or in case I end up back in the hospital and unable to get into my blog. Please check out the link for full details, but here's the rundown.

Dates: June 1 - August 15
Goal: 243 items, one more than last year
Prize drawing at conclusion of donation drive: Michael's Gift Cards, crochet hooks and holder, Lantern Moon knitting needles, yarn, sewing patterns from Ginger Snaps Designs; all up for grabs

Photo from 2006


The incredible generosity of everyone that participated last year gave me the extra nudge that I needed to begin the foundation. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart!

P.S. - I know that's a lofty goal, but we can do it!!!

Another request for small bereavement items

Thurs (I think it was??) I received an email from an RN in the L&D Dept at Gadsden Regional in Alabama. She said they are in need of small bereavement items. Her mom used to make pretty pouches embellished with lace and ribbon, but she recently passed away and they've not been able to find anyone else to help out. It doesn't sound like she needs many. I've emailed her back to get more specifics. I assume that crochet and knit would be gladly accepted. If I were able to get up to sew, I could whip some pouches out really quickly.

Unfortunately, my Mom mailed off just about everything we have a couple of weeks ago. I sent mom home with one little bunting I had made and Ms. Sue recently dropped things off at my Grandmother's florist, but I'm not sure what was in there. Mom has to help Grandmother get through the Mother's Day rush before she can dig through Ms. Sue's donation. :-)

Thanks Ya'll!!

Update on Baby Brother

Let's see if I can post a short version starting of where I left off a month ago. YIKES!! Plans were if all went well, I'd be released at 28 weeks. Things were going great, other than the gestational diabetes diagnosis, and my peri wrote out discharge papers to be used the following day after a quick ultrasound.

That night "Baby Brother" had a pretty big deceleration in his heartrate. It freaked me out. The nurse came flying in my room telling me to roll over as she was simultaneously turning up the volume on the monitor. I was sleeping. The following day my peri scanned me to find the little guy (now known as Austin) breech with the cord around his neck AND low amniotic fluid. He was probably compressing his cord. I wasn't going home any time soon as long as he continued to have decels.

Two weeks later which was last Sunday, she scanned me again and Austin had moved head down with no cord issues. Fluid level was still on the low side but not dropping any further. He hasn't had any more decels since then. He was estimated at 3 lbs 3 oz. The stitch is still holding pretty well. The top one is a little bit loose. When she pressed on my belly, it opened a bit, but the bottom one is solid.

So, today I was released on day 46 of a much too long hospital stay. I am 31w2d and now peri says we're shooting for 36 wks. After a battle with the insurance company, I'm getting home uterine monitoring twice a day and NSTs twice a week. They weren't wanting to cover the home uterine monitoring. There policy is that you have to be pregnant with triplets or more or be a terbutaline pump. Craziness, I tell ya!!

I haven't done much crocheting. I'll post some pictures tomorrow. Basically, I am just too weak now to hold up my arms. A quick shower leaves me winded.

Hope all of you are doing GREAT and I look forward to seeing what all I've missed.

I'm Home! I'm Home!!

and still pregnant. I'll update later tonight, too much going on right now including a wonderful 4 year old that has missed her mommy. Anyway, I'm home and can get into blogger. Isn't that soooo weird that it didn't work at the hospital??