A little bit about Chase and I

So everytime I write on my blog its always about what jayda is doing...which is great since she is such a fun little girl but I noticed that I haven't mentioned anything about what Chase and I have been doing.

For the past few months I have been training for the half marathon that I am running on the 6th of November. I started running a little bit after Jayda came home but even a couple miles killed me. I would run every now and then to try to lose the baby weight and I ended up losing 25lbs! Wahoo! I would still like to lose 10 more pounds before we get prego with #2 (hopefully we will be this next year!) but we shall see since my cycle has been all over the place with training for the marathon. Anyways, now I am up to 9.1 miles! It took me 1:34 to do that. So I'm not very fast but hey 9 miles aint too shabby so no complaints here. :) The one stupid thing that I did today though was I forgot to stretch before i ran so now I am SO sore and am limping. Not so smart. One thing about running to that is nasty is I have these nasty blisters on my feet. After I run my marathon I'm gonna go get some serious pedicures (poor person that has to do that haha). I am really getting nervous but excited though! Can't wait!

Other than that I am going to school. I am taking 2 classes: American Government and Sociology. I particularly like my gov class because I have learned so much and love that my teacher is very impartial in his views. These classes are pre-reqs for my degree. I am getting my associates this fall (could have gotten it a long time ago but was slacking). I was majoring in intergrated studies: psychology and communications but they recently brought the U of U degree in social work down so I want to do that. But I think I may just double major since I am already half way through that major. I still need to go talk to my counselor though. My end goal is to be a social worker in a childrens hospital. Its good because I already have connections since we lived at the hospital for 3 months and already have talked to the social worker in the NICU about an internship. She told me that she will have me rotate and be not only in the NICU but high risk, MFM, antipartum, postpartum, PEDS, etc. What a dream job!!!

Chase just got promoted to assistant manager at State Bank of Southern Utah. He is also going to school through University of Pheonix majoring in business aminstration. His end goal is to get into commercial lending if he can. He should be done around next december. Its really nice because he can do most of his homework online at work so when he gets home he can spend time with Jayda and I. Chase has also lost 20lbs just from eating better and cutting portion control! He wants to lose more but I think he looks good! If he could have his way he would be golfing or playing softball everyday. He really got into his work's softball league this past summer. He is SOOOO competitive! haha like me!

Chase is such a good daddy and Jayda just loves him. She gives her daddy hugs so much and when he walks in the door she just beams from ear to ear. She loves her daddy!

NICU reunion

So I am a little late posting this but figured I should for our "records" :P. So wednesday we went to the NICU reunion at Stalehi Farms. There were farm animals, swings, and a cow train. We had a blast seeing all the nurses, drs, and other families that we were in the NICU with! The only crappy part is now Jayda is sick AGAIN! Poor little girl gets EVERYTHING! The first pic is of Roylaine and Brynlon. They were our roomies for about a month and she was also a 26 weeker. Then we have Maci and her mom (cant remember her name!) she was a 23 weeker who had a twin sister that did not make it. She is doing amazing though. Also in that pic is Emily. She was one of our primary nurses and I love her! Then the guy in the hat and plaid shirt is Dr. Eggert who was one of Jayda's Neonatologists. Then the other pic is of Chase and Dr. Riddout. He was another Neonatologist of Jayda's and one of my faves. He is a character thats for sure!

ER fun!

Well yesterday was a BLAST! Jayda had been sick since about wednesday/thursday just throwing up but otherwise her normal happy self. We figured that she just had allergies and some post nasal drip so she was just trying to get rid of the gunk. Nope. We dropped her off at my parents house Saturday night because my mom wanted to see her since they hadn't for awhile and it was going to be a nice break since this week was rough for us with the puking 25 times a day. Needless to say I was D-O-N-E with puke.

We went to pick Jayda up yesterday from my mom's house and she looked HORRIBLE! She wouldn't stop throwing up and she just was not her normal looking self. Her eyes were all red, sunken in, she was lethargic, fussy, etc. So we decided to take her straight over to the urgent care. They took one look at her, took her back right away (even with a whole waiting room full of people) and the nurse looked her over for a minute and said "she is WAY too sick for us to take care of. You need to head straight over to the ER and get some fluids in her". So we did.

We got there and we went back and they said she is definatly dehydrated because of how lethargic she was and her eyes were so sunken in. It took 3 or 4 IV pokes (not sure because I left I couldn't handle seeing her in so much pain...I've been through months of that to last me a lifetime thank you!). They finally got the IV in her and she was PISSED! I guess she puked she was so mad. Poor thing.

They took blood labs and wanted to get stool samples to see if she had c-diff again but her stool was too liquidy and wasn't enough so they sent us home with a cup (fun fun stuff!!). The Dr. came in and said that he had gotten about 10 kids just today with the same thing and that its just a really bad virus going around that should last anywhere from 7-10days. He said of all the kids that had come in there was probably only 1 that looked worse than Jayda. We waited a few hours for all the blood to come back. They wanted to check to see if the acid levels in her blood showed she needed to be admitted. Luckily it was normal but he said she definatly needed the fluids and that her kidney function levels showed that she was very dehyrdated. He said he almost ordered a bone needle she looked so bad (a bone needle is where they have to drill a hole in their bone and deliver fluids straight to their bone marrow).

The one good thing about how sick she was though was that we got tons of cuddles from her. She just snuggled right in and feel asleep in her daddy's arms (which she HAS NEVER done willingly). Then after they put the IV in she was mad at her daddy because he helped hold her down (took 4 people), so she cuddled up to me and fell asleep on my chest. And anytime a nurse walked in she would scream. She was SO tired though and finally just let her poke her foot without even waking up! Poor thing.

She is feeling a lot better today....just sleeping a lot. They gave us so Zofran for us to give her so she doesnt throw up as much. Then only give her 1 oz of fluid every 15 min. so she doesnt throw it all up. Now the poor thing has horrible diaper rash again so today we are going to the dr to follow up and will have to get some more of that magical butt cream. Hope she feels better soon though, Luckily Chase is taking off today and tomorrow so she'll have both her mommy and daddy! That girl just needs a break and we wouldn't mind one either from all this sickness!

15 month dr appointment

Well we went to the doctor a few days ago for Jayda's 15 month appointment (one year adjusted). Before we went though we went to Red Robin for lunch. Jayda was going at the fries! She ate like 3 fries! And Red Robin fries are huge! Then she took several bites of Chase's hamburger! She was eating like a pig haha! The workers thought she was so cute and they brought her a balloon to play with and she thought it was pretty awesome. :D

So then we headed over for her appointment. She got 2 immunizations and has done pretty well with them except she is a bit cranky and really tired but thats worth it to me! She was 16lbs even and 27 1/2 inches long. So she didn't gain anything in a month. I'm not worried though at all and neither is Dr. Cain. He wants her to come back in a month to weigh her again just to see if she is gaining. Then if she isn't then we will have to do something. But we think that its just because she started walking and she is burning a TON of calories and plus she had C-diff twice and a cold sooooo I didn't expect her to gain too much. Plus like Chase told the dr. thats 16 times bigger than she was when she was born :D.

We're really trying to push the solids now and she has actually done really well. She ate like a pig yesterday so I don't think she'll have a problem gaining weight. When she started walking she stopped eating as much and was on the go constantly because it was something new for her, but she's calmed down a lot. Plus I love her being little. Its so cute! Here is some pics of us at Red Robin. She is starting that phase of starting to throw temper tantrums. Yes we are that family now where their little kids are screaming and kicking their feet in public. Such a FUN part of development....

Then here is a picture of Jayda and Dr. Cain. He is the one that helped deliver her!

My little climbing monkey

Her new thing...climbing everything she can! Crazy little girl!

These shoes were made for walking!

So today we took Jayda outside today wearing shoes! Last time at the reunion when we tried putting them on her she just stood there looked at her feet like what the hell are these things and then sat down and did a stink bug crawl. So today I thought it was going to be a complete failure but it wasnt!! She was SO happy to be outside walking around! She loved it! I held her hand down the sidewalk for a few minutes and then she wanted me to let her do her thing! She is definately independent! She also does this really funny thing with her arm and just hangs it there in the air like the pic on the right. Its so funny!

We took her to the park too and she walked around the whole park. It's so funny people at the park were looking at Jayda weird because she was so small walking around. She loved it though. When we got home and I let her walk outside our apartment and she got so ticked when I brought her back inside. She kept pointing out the window and then I let her on the ground and she flipppppppped out! haha So I took her out for some more and she probably would've walked around the neighborhood if I had let her! ha She is too funny!

Oh and I tried to upload a video but it just wont work dang it!

Family Reunion & Jayda being home 1 year!

Labor Day weekend will never be the same for our family again. I'll always remember it as the weekend I should have had Jayda instead of the beginning of June. BUT it is also the weekend that we brought Jayda home from the NICU so it has some good to it too. So to celebrate we went to our Barney Family Reunion in Junction, Utah. It was a lot of fun but at the same time was so hard because all of us had colds and Jayda did not want to sleep. The last day she was throwing up all day and night. It was not fun! But it was great to see all my family and spend some time with them. Most of them had never even met Jayda yet so it was great to introduce her to everybody! I thought Jayda was going to be the smallest baby there but she had some competition! haha My cousin's baby boy was SO cute! His name is Matt and he has been through a lot in his life too. He is 2 months older than Jayda and was born at 36 weeks (I think they said he's like 15-16lbs right now). He had several surgeries to correct a few birth defects. But he is such a trooper and is walking and running everywhere. It was so funny to see both Jayda and him running around. It looked like 2 newborns running around everywhere. It was also interesting to talk to my cousin because I found out that he had the same blockage as Jayda when he was born and also his brother (my other cousin) was also born with the same blockage (he was also preemie and was 2lbs 6oz when he was born). It was kinda freaky when he lifted up his shirt and showed me the exact same scar that Jayda has because it makes me wonder if it really is genetic and whether I should see a genetic counselor with my next pregnancy. We shall see. The up side though is my Aunts next pregnancy at least went full term even though her second baby had that same birth defect. So that gives me a little bit of hope. Just something interesting to think about. Anyways now I am rambling. Here are some fun pics!