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| This was a beautiful card from my wonderful parents in law. |
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| Paul |
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| Joe, David and Kip cooking steak |
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| Hans |
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| Salad, couldn't have been better at the best restaurant |
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| Lee |
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| Gina |
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| Miriam |
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| Martha |
Monday, June 18, 2012
Mothers Day 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Prevent class
The motto you learn the 1st week is: "you bite it, you write it" So for 16 weeks I wrote down every bite I took. We wrote down how much fat and calories were in each item also.
It was very interesting.
I didn't loose more then a few pounds even though I always ate less then 1500 calories per day and less then 40 grams of fat. But it was fun to be exact and figure it all out.
Also we promised we would exercise at least 150 minutes a week. This was an eye opener. I thought I exercised at least that. Well I was surprised how hard it was to get to 150 minutes a week. Towards the end 170 minutes was typical.
For a while Mishael really got into the exercise and even did a run to raise money for a cause.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Family
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| Eliza and Grandma |
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| Paul 14 yrs |
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| Gina |
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| Gina, Monica and Mishael |
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| Ellina |
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| James took this picture on his cell phone. He was on a bike ride close to our house. |
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| Monica holding Shawn and Eliza |
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| Mishael |
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| Martha |
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| Hans |
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| Jon and Carson, 2012 new years day |
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| Moriah, Ellie, Monica and Lynette Jan. 2012 |
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| The kitchen when it's clean! |
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| The upstairs family room |
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| Gina and John |
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| Eric's birthday and his cake that is a house on fire. |
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| Martha and Tony the fireman |
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| Kendra |
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| Lynette |
Servents of today
As I got up today and started a load of laundry, then went down and started a load in the dishwasher, I could have even started the roomba to sweep the floor.
I was thinking of how are different our lives are then yrs ago.There was a time when servants helped people that could afford it. we sure have have interesting servants! Mine seem to brake or not work very well much of the time. Although my washer hasn't broken for many yrs. lately it's making a loud buzzing noise when it starts to spin. My dishwasher has been fixed so many times I'm not sure if it's worth it or not.
Well I am very, very thankful for my "servants" I love having a my automatic helpers. I dream about having someone come in once a week to help me get on top of housework. But then I always wonder what I would actually have them do, I don't want them to do my children's chores and my children grow up with out leaning how to clean.
Then I was thinking that if once a week or ever 2 weeks they came in and gave the bathroom and the kitchen a good detailed cleaning, while that day the children and I tackled some huge projects instead, maybe it would slowly but surely begin to get me caught up.
In the Philippines almost every household had a "helper" just someone to help mom. She usually had a broom in her hand. She would clean bathrooms, sweep endless tile, do laundry, cook dinner and babysit if you want her to. I would love having a "helper"
Ellina
Ellina is going to be 2 yrs old next week. Below I pasted in her birth story and you can see why I say she is a miracle. Born at 1 lb 6 oz at 24 weeks. An identical triplet girl. Her sisters are waiting in heaven for her. But God gave Ellina to us to enjoy and we truly do. She is such a sweetie!
Birth from Grandma Joyce's view
You can see how tiny her hand is in this one.
She weighed 1 lb 6 oz at birth and has dropped to 1 lb 4 oz, but is coming back up now.
Mishael had been feeling early labor for a few days. It's hard to know when labor like that will turn into the real thing. The Doctor had said if she started labor they would not stop it.
On Thursday she was having some good contractions, but we asked the nurse to check the monitor to see if there was any regularity to them ( they are computerized here and can look back at all FHT's and ctx. any time) She said she had 17 ctx in the last 14 hours. Well, that's not as much as we thought, so we will wait and see.
I went back over to the Ronald Mc Donald house and ate some dinner, and Mishael called and said, I had another ctx. It was hard. Ok, I said, call me as soon as you have another one. I took a walk and she called again about 30 min later.
So I was getting ready to go back over when she called again and said are you coming? I rushed over to find her in the delivery room. The Dr had checked her and she was dialated only 2-3, but the bad of waters was funneling out of the cervix. This made her fluid level even lower then the already low figures of 4-5. But the Lord was keeping our little girl, as all throughout labor she never had any decels. They put Shell in a position with her head down, hoping for the fluid to go back in and with the remote hope that if the fluid did go back in the cervix that labor might possibly stop. With this hope still in mind of her labor stopping, it made coaching a little difficult. Besides for Mishael who is used to laboring being in any position she wants, in and out of water, very natural, etc. to laying in bed, tilted backwards, with IV, O2 monitor, baby and ctx. monitor, catheter, etc. it was different to say the least. We weren't sure to work with labor to get this done or try to stop it. It's a weird mind trip. Martha, Maria and Moriah were on their way, but still not there. Cody was not back yet, and knowing Mishael would only be holding one baby out of 3 made this was the hardest emotional birth. Mishael and I did a lot of crying during the labor. The nurse left us alone until I called her when Shell was feeling pushy after only 3 hours after her last call to me.
When the nurse picked up the sheet to check her we saw this horrible black fluid. It was not thick, but it was black and very weird. At the same time we had lost FHT's.
Mishael's pulse was 120 which made it very difficult to tell if we were getting mom's or baby's heart. Baby was 120 or was that mom? No one could tell. So they had a nurse come in with a doppler, she thought she got baby, but mom was 120 and baby 121??? We were doubtful. So she brought in an Ultrasound machine (waiting for Dr still, breathing through ctx, grandma thinking, lets stop looking for heart tones and push this baby out) They found the baby's heart on the Ultra sound machine and the nurse didn't want to say it out loud, so she pointed to the heart, It was not beating at all. She would look around again and come back to the same place. Point again at the heart. It was not beating at all! Mishael and I prayed, Oh Lord please don't let her loose this one too. Please Lord........
The nurse said to everyone (probably about 8 nurses in the room) "are you all agreed, we should just get this baby delivered?" Every one said yes, and I also said a loud yes.
So next ctx, Mishael pushed, when the ctx was over, we said keep pushing and she did. Our little Ellina was born and quickly handed to the NICU nurse (neither Dr was there still, the baby's Dr. heard that she was having a C section and ended up in the wrong spot in the hospital) The nurses were excellent. I was so impressed with their team work, know how and confidence. Everyone in the room thought we were delivering a baby that would need to be resuscitated or wouldn't make it, but before she was on the warmer table we heard a little noise, and the nurse said "she's respirating". Oh the relief and the tears. God breathed breath into our little sweet heart. Thank you Lord!
They immediately started working on Ellina and took her to the NICU. Mishael had to go back to the focus of delivering Ellianna and Emmalin. The Dr was there now and when Mishael said that she felt like pushing the Dr said "I trust your instincts". I wonder if he realized they should have listened to her earlier, LOL. The girls were delivered quickly. Both were born in their bag and it had to be broken. Their fluid was also black. 2 beautiful little girls. Since Ellina was in the NICU, Mishael and I enjoyed touching, holding our little angels.
Such a mixed, emotional, bitter sweet time.
Looking at the placenta and the very tiny fragile cords, it's a wonder that Ellina made it. She's a little fighter. The first time I went in to see her, she was waving her arms pushing off the Saran wrap ( they use saran wrap to keep the baby's warm). She would cry when someone would bug her. The Dr told me later that it usually is 2-3 weeks before they start crying like this.
She weighed 1 lb 6 oz at birth and has dropped to 1 lb 4 oz, but is coming back up now.
Mishael had been feeling early labor for a few days. It's hard to know when labor like that will turn into the real thing. The Doctor had said if she started labor they would not stop it.
On Thursday she was having some good contractions, but we asked the nurse to check the monitor to see if there was any regularity to them ( they are computerized here and can look back at all FHT's and ctx. any time) She said she had 17 ctx in the last 14 hours. Well, that's not as much as we thought, so we will wait and see.
I went back over to the Ronald Mc Donald house and ate some dinner, and Mishael called and said, I had another ctx. It was hard. Ok, I said, call me as soon as you have another one. I took a walk and she called again about 30 min later.
So I was getting ready to go back over when she called again and said are you coming? I rushed over to find her in the delivery room. The Dr had checked her and she was dialated only 2-3, but the bad of waters was funneling out of the cervix. This made her fluid level even lower then the already low figures of 4-5. But the Lord was keeping our little girl, as all throughout labor she never had any decels. They put Shell in a position with her head down, hoping for the fluid to go back in and with the remote hope that if the fluid did go back in the cervix that labor might possibly stop. With this hope still in mind of her labor stopping, it made coaching a little difficult. Besides for Mishael who is used to laboring being in any position she wants, in and out of water, very natural, etc. to laying in bed, tilted backwards, with IV, O2 monitor, baby and ctx. monitor, catheter, etc. it was different to say the least. We weren't sure to work with labor to get this done or try to stop it. It's a weird mind trip. Martha, Maria and Moriah were on their way, but still not there. Cody was not back yet, and knowing Mishael would only be holding one baby out of 3 made this was the hardest emotional birth. Mishael and I did a lot of crying during the labor. The nurse left us alone until I called her when Shell was feeling pushy after only 3 hours after her last call to me.
When the nurse picked up the sheet to check her we saw this horrible black fluid. It was not thick, but it was black and very weird. At the same time we had lost FHT's.
Mishael's pulse was 120 which made it very difficult to tell if we were getting mom's or baby's heart. Baby was 120 or was that mom? No one could tell. So they had a nurse come in with a doppler, she thought she got baby, but mom was 120 and baby 121??? We were doubtful. So she brought in an Ultrasound machine (waiting for Dr still, breathing through ctx, grandma thinking, lets stop looking for heart tones and push this baby out) They found the baby's heart on the Ultra sound machine and the nurse didn't want to say it out loud, so she pointed to the heart, It was not beating at all. She would look around again and come back to the same place. Point again at the heart. It was not beating at all! Mishael and I prayed, Oh Lord please don't let her loose this one too. Please Lord........
The nurse said to everyone (probably about 8 nurses in the room) "are you all agreed, we should just get this baby delivered?" Every one said yes, and I also said a loud yes.
So next ctx, Mishael pushed, when the ctx was over, we said keep pushing and she did. Our little Ellina was born and quickly handed to the NICU nurse (neither Dr was there still, the baby's Dr. heard that she was having a C section and ended up in the wrong spot in the hospital) The nurses were excellent. I was so impressed with their team work, know how and confidence. Everyone in the room thought we were delivering a baby that would need to be resuscitated or wouldn't make it, but before she was on the warmer table we heard a little noise, and the nurse said "she's respirating". Oh the relief and the tears. God breathed breath into our little sweet heart. Thank you Lord!
They immediately started working on Ellina and took her to the NICU. Mishael had to go back to the focus of delivering Ellianna and Emmalin. The Dr was there now and when Mishael said that she felt like pushing the Dr said "I trust your instincts". I wonder if he realized they should have listened to her earlier, LOL. The girls were delivered quickly. Both were born in their bag and it had to be broken. Their fluid was also black. 2 beautiful little girls. Since Ellina was in the NICU, Mishael and I enjoyed touching, holding our little angels.
Such a mixed, emotional, bitter sweet time.
Looking at the placenta and the very tiny fragile cords, it's a wonder that Ellina made it. She's a little fighter. The first time I went in to see her, she was waving her arms pushing off the Saran wrap ( they use saran wrap to keep the baby's warm). She would cry when someone would bug her. The Dr told me later that it usually is 2-3 weeks before they start crying like this.
New Birth Suite
I sold the birth center in town to another midwife. I sold it with the verbal agreement that I would be able to rent it on a per birth basis. It sounded like a good plan. :) But you know how life is. Things didn't go as planned! I had many baby's due and no place to conduct business.
After lots of praying, research, and figuring I decided to make a birth room out of our upstairs apartment.
This room at one time was a computer business our family ran. Later it was an turned into an apartment, complete with kitchen and bathroom.
So in order to update it for the birthing room, I mainly had to update the bathroom. I put in a nice deep jacuzzi bath tub and tiled the bathroom. It turned out really homey.
It's very nice to have my business right next door. I've used it for a few births now and lots of prenatals. We have classes in the main house living room.
It actually works better all the way around, except for being 4 miles from town.
New vanity and tile floor: 
Here is the tile bathtub. Hard to see in the picture. But it's very pretty.
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