The Wilsons

This is actually just a couple more pics from yesterday when we were shopping at KMart.  No new news since my 4am update. LOL.  I woke up at 830a.  Not much sleep.  The kids are still sick.  Izzy’s sleeping a lot.  But putting her in the swing is causing her breathing monitor to go off frequently.  So we’ve stopped that for the moment.

In other news, we’ve had our 30 acre property on the market since January.  We really love it, but with the economy so tight, we figured it’d be better to not be paying so many payments.  At any rate, we hadn’t had a lick of movement.  Then the realtor called yesterday.  He’s had several calls on it this week, and one who may put in an offer.  Of course, having sold a house just 6 months ago, we know how that works (it’s like the check that’s in the mail!).  But, it would be nice to see an offer come in and let this property go. 

We’re still keeping a 3.7 Acre property we purchased about a 1/2 mile up the road from our friends Adam and Danelle Padd, out in the country in the Bemus Point/Jamestown, NY area.  Being smaller, it was less expensive, so the payments aren’t a big hit on the budget. Not sure yet if we’ll build a cabin there.  Every summer, we’ve wanted to build, but it hasn’t come together in the Big Plan, yet. So we continue to wait and see.  Pray that we’ll sell the 30acres, though. That’d be great.

Well, as Melodia noted in her last post, I’ve been burning the candle.  Things have been hectic since bringing Izzabelle home.  We’ve had to start to figure out our schedules. Wil and McKinley have become a hair bit more “demanding” now that Izzy’s here.  Basically, they just want to be holding/touching/kissing her all the time, and that really doesn’t work.

School starts for me next Wednesday, so I’m under the gun to get a few projects done.  Lately, I have been redesigning our club volleyball website.  That’s been a build-from-scratch thing really, rather than a redesign.  But it’s allowed me to explore some technologies I haven’t yet used on my other sites and given me some good ideas for my school teaching website (aka allowing me to beta-test these ideas out here before implementing them).

But, because the kids are such an issue right now, it’s hard to sit back and work on it in my chair.  They’re always climbing up to interrupt.  And I don’t like to leave right now, because I want to be available should an extra set of hands be needed with the kids. So here I am at 3:55am writing this post, because I’ve been up working - and am just now about to go to bed.  It’s crazy.  Only a few more days to squeeze in time to prep, too.  It’s going to be a tiring week.

On top of that, McKinley busted out with a cold two days ago (basically, the day after Izzy arrived home).  So maybe Izzy was carrying something (a little present) from the hospital, who knows?  But yesterday both Wil and I started to come down with it.  Hopefully, Mami and Izzy will remain sick-free.  But the rest of us aren’t.  McKinley’s got it worse.  I’ve been listening to her cough in her sleep the last several hours.  Poor kid!

And before I sign off… another first for Izzabelle. Tonight we put her in the swing (aka one of God’s gifts to parents) for the first time. She felt right asleep. But it may have worked too well, because her breathing monitor alarmed about 4 different times during the 45 minutes she was in the swing.  She was resting so much at times, I think she forgot to breath.

Needless to say, that always causes us to jump up and see what’s going on.  Drama queen.  She’ll likely be rivaling McKinley for that title in a few years!

We did attempt some garage sales this morning.  Nothing amounted of that.  Apparently, labor day weekend is NOT a good garage sale weekend. We did, however, spend a good deal of time at Target and KMart hitting their summer clearance sales on kids’ clothes. KMart had the best deals.  We bought 3T clothes for McKinley that she can wear next summer (since we don’t really have any for her at that age yet).  But we did stock up pretty well: 4 dresses, 3 skirts, 3 shorts, 7 or 8 shirts.  It doesn’t take a lot of outfits as long as they can mix and match.  And of course, we figured it was worth it to buy new for her (rather than hit freecycle), because we’ll have Izzy to go through them, too.

Oh yeah, and another thing to file under The Kids Like… bananas.  Two little monkeys here.  They were eating bananas today, and of course, wanting to be running around in nothing but diapers, despite feeling under the weather!

Tomorrow (aka later this morning), we’ll be staying home from church.  With everyone sick, it isn’t worth risking giving it to others.  Plus, with Izzy on the heart monitor, it’s a little tough.  If she goes off, it’s quite loud.  So we’ll be around here.  Hopefully, I’ll be sleeping in.  But who knows?

Well we all know she came home at long last! And Mami has been busy tending to three kids and a husband!  So I did not get around to posting yesterday.  It was between posting and sleeping and I chose sleeping. :o)

Izzy is doing very well.  A home care nurse came by today, took her temperature and weighed her and asked questions on how much she is eating how long between feeds, etc. So we now know that Izzy has finally passed the 5lb mark, she weighs 5lbs .05oz.

<Rant> We have since learned that a home care nurse is considered a specialist by our great insurance company and we have to pay a co-pay every time she comes.  Add that to the additional costs of a preemie, they will nickel and dime you to death.  The nurse did tell me that we can deny them coming any more and I think that is what we will do.  I mean, we have a pediatrician and we can call the lung company that services the monitor if we have any issues.  Why pay extra for someone to come to your house and give you the same information your pediatrician will give you?</end rant>

So back to the new home life…right now I think I have figured out a system, Izzy sleeps most of the day so I have to plan the kids play time during her naps and I also have to think ahead on our meals.  I have to make lunch and dinner while Izzy sleeps so we can eat and I can be able to feed her when she wakes up.  I know it is similar to her being in the hospital sleeping most of the day, but the difference is that WE get to feed her every time.  And when she gets a little fussy WE can hold her.  She is a pretty peaceful child for the most part.  The only time she wines is when she is extra hungry or needs a little lovin.  This is a big change from Wil who cried most of the time when he was first home and we had a hard time figuring out how to calm him down.

Wil and McKinley can’t get enough of their new little sister.  Wil wants to hold her all the time and McMac wants to give her kisses all the time.  It is very sweet and exhausting at the same time.  Since Izzy is so small we have to take extra care that they don’t “over do it” with their LOVE.  They can get a little carried away.  Keeping Wil and McMac away from Izzy when trying to feed her is like an olympic event. There are a lot of repeating ourselves, “Be careful.GENTLE! Please wait until she is done eating. Back up please, give her some space.”  It’s like swatting flies when your trying to enjoy a good burger! LOL!  We had to establish four steadfast rules:

1. Always have clean hands.
2. No squeezing.
3. No poking.
4. No pushing on her to get in and out of the chair.

I know they love her and are so excited that there is a baby in the house so I try to give them their time with her.  I let McMac “help” me change her diapers, make her bottles, and feed her.  She holds the end of the bottle and throws the diapers in the garbage for me.  You should see McMac run to Izzy’s crib to tell her she made food for her! :o)  Wil is the big brother so he gets to HOLD Izzy when he sits next to us.  McMac gets to hold her feet. :o)

Lonni has been busy trying to get work done on the web site he is creating for the volleyball club and trying to get ready for classes to begin again. So he helps with Izzy as much as he can.  Sometimes he takes advantage of holding her to get in a well deserved nap. :o)  He has had to stay up through the night and into the morning to get quiet time to work so he has been exhausted during the day.  I don’t know how he does it.

As for me, I am still recovering.  I have some severe pain on my side when I sneeze or cough but other than that I feel pretty good.  I am getting things ready for my partime substitute job.  It serves two purposes; 1. I get to get out of the house two days a week. 2. We get some needed income, not much but enough for now.  I am also excited about two other things going on…we finally found a church we enjoy.  For those of you in the know, you know we have been searching for quite some time.  It is called Crossroads Christian Church and we are enjoying it.  One of the best parts is that they actually have a bowling league and I am going to be on it! LOL!  This will allow me a night out every other week, an opportunity to dust off my much loved bowling ball and shoes I have had since about 1999, and a chance to get to know some new people. I can’t wait!  More on my bowling prowess to come. LOL.