Black Friday for this Newbie

I've never done Black Friday before. The stress of trying to get the best deal stresses me out TO THE MAX. I can literally feel my blood pressure going up because of it.. But my friend Amy said she wanted to do it and because I'm such a good friend :) I went! She needed a Cricut and Walmart had them for $189 at midnight. All of their big ticket items went on sale at 5AM so we missed out on all the crazies which was WAY nice! We showed up at 1030 just to be safe and scouted out our deals. We each got smokin' cheap movies and a blender (which I only bought because it was $13 and I was caught up in the joy of black friday cheapness.. after I realized I already own a blender and had to take it back Friday night. I'm SUCH a nerd!!)




We left around 230, went to lunch with her hubs because he had to work on that unfortunate night, and then headed over to Kohl's for their 4AM sale. They had a sewing machine for $50!! Since I don't know how to sew, I figured a cheap one bought with a gift card was as good a time as any to learn! We only had to wait outside for about 45 minutes but it was dang cold.. and the people inside were crazy! Grabbing everything they could and running around like crazy! But we are SO doing it again next year! I may even snatch all my stuff up, go hide it in a cooler, and go back later to buy it when the lines aren't crazy (Heather... you're a genius!)!!

crib similarities

HA. I just realized how similar my last post's title is to this one. Funny how we're doing it all over again.

And it's working. She's sleeping deeper for longer. WOOT.

FINALLY in a real crib!

Back in, I think, September-ish, of last year, my friend Becky (who's little girl is only 1 months older than Darbi! I love that they will be so close in age!) found this super lucky ad on KSL. It was a furniture manufacturing warehouse that was going out of business and they were selling off all their inventory at crazy low prices. We were both able to get super nice cribs for only $100. Ours has been sitting in its long skinny box in the hallway for moooooonths and I'm happy to say that it is there no more!! Clint put it together tonight and thanks to a super generous friend who supplied the mattress, Darbi is now sleeping in her new digs. I'm hoping this will help with the small sleeping issues we've been having.. so we'll see how the night goes.

(sorry.. it's a cell phone pic)

Overnight Oxygen Study Update

We are 2 hours into our oxygen sleep study and we've already had to turn Darbi's oxygen back on. :( I'm so bummed. She's not ready to come off of the oxygen. When we started, she was awake and sating in the high 90's which is good and normal. So we took her oxygen off - still sating in the 90's - then she fell asleep and slowly started dropping off into the high 80's... then mid 80's... then low 80's. The lowest she reached, that I saw, was 78. I'm glad that we haven't had a saturation monitor these last 7 months because I could go crazy just staring at it making sure she keeps in the high numbers. I was watching it for about 10 minutes when her heart rate started to drop. From our time in the hospital, I knew when the numbers were becoming dangerously low so we decided to call our doctor's office after hours clinic. Unfortunately, they closed at 10 and it was 11:15. We then decide to phone up our old friends at the NICU. :) They remembered who we were and told us that we should consider this an "emergency" and go ahead and call our doctor's office emergency number. I knew that her numbers were getting lower and lower but because of this test, I didn't know how low was considered "acceptable". The nurse that we got a hold of said to put her back on the O2 and keep the test going so they can see the difference of her being off the O2, then on the O2 while asleep. We turned her up to 1/4L (the amount she was on when she was discharged from the hospital in May) and it took her about 5 minutes to get her saturation levels back into the 90's.

So. She still needs the oxygen. I'm bummed but a little relieved. I want it close this winter. If she didn't need it now, I wanted to at least keep a few tanks around in case she got sick. It would be nice to maybe take it off during the day and only use it at night but that will be the Dr's call. I have to go in on Monday to get her booster H1N1 shot so I will get the update from the doctor then. Ugh.

Play!

Clint has been looking forward to tonight for about 2 weeks! Him and his brother went to see Play! a Video Game Symphony up in Salt Lake. They play music from a ton of different video games and since they both grew up with every gaming system known to man, they knew almost all the songs. NERDS. :)

Earlier today, Clint and I were trying to plan for the evening and he was worried about the dress code. He jumped on the website and it said "costumes welcome" which then spurred a 2 hour search through the DI, Savers, and Harbor Freight for items to create the perfect Mario/Luigi costumes. It was SO FUN. The costume planning, I mean... I didn't go to the concert. I'm not a nerd. :) I made their black mustaches, yellow buttons, and hat logos from cardstock I had laying around the house. They said only a few others were there in costumes and a few people even asked to take their pictures with them! HAAA!!! They are so funny!!

Apparently Mario traded Yoshi in for a Civic..

Poor Darbi was so afraid of him!

New Stats

We went to the Doctor today for her regular check up and these are her new numbers:

Weight: 13 pounds 11 ounces
Length: 25 inches
Head Cir: 16.75 inches

Our pediatrician has a computer that does all the math for the percentile and for her actual age (10 months 16 days) she is in the following percentiles:

Weight: 0.03%
Length: 0.19%
Head Cir: 5.26%

HA! She's FINALLY on the actual age growth chart, just barely. We met with the NP because our doc was out of town. She's super super nice and I actually was glad she was there this time. Our Dr. has not been in any hurry to take Darbi off of the oxygen and she suggested that we try getting rid of it now! I'll admit, I'm not too keen on getting rid of it, but if she really doesn't need it, it would be nice to not have it. So.... We will be doing a 24 trial run with a machine similar to the ones she was hooked up oh-so-long ago in the hospital. The oxygen company will then send the results over to the doc where he will review them and make a final decision. I'm hoping before Thanksgiving!!! I should be getting a phone call in the next few days to schedule the trial run with Praxair. I don't really want to drag 5 tanks down to AZ with me!

She gave me some tips on how to help her sleep through the night better. When she wakes up, I'm such a push over and feed her every time. :( It's just so easy.... I'm terrible. So I need to stop doing that. Other than that, the NP was super happy with how D is doing so far!

High Fives

We taught her how to give high fives!! She's really gentle about it and it's SO stinkin' cute! Every time I play this video for her she smiles really big when we all shout "Yay!"

I put our tree up! Blame Darbi.

I know I know.. Every year, after Halloween, I boycot the Christmas music radio stations and refuse to shop for Christmas decor or even look at it until after Thanksgiving.. but this year, I couldn't resist and it doesn't bother me!! This is also a good time to announce.. I'm going to Phoenix this Christmas and I'll be there FOR A WHOLE MONTH!! :D I'm SOOOO excited about it. So I wanted to be able to enjoy my Christmas tree in my house before I leave. My bro is flying up the first weekend in December to drive down with me and D and Clint will fly down a week later, after finals are over! I haven't had Christmas for FOUR YEARS with my family. It's gonna be a good one!

First Snow

Today was the first snow since Darbi has been home! Give me till after Christmas and I'll be cranky about all the snow but for now, it's exciting! She's too small to go outside and play in it and there wasn't enough to even do that but she was fascinated by it.

Ignore my goofy bangs in this pic.. I hadn't done my hair yet.. who am I kidding.. I still haven't done it...

She looked so cute while I was out running errands today! I love love love her in a beanie!

Holiday PJ's

Newest Addition to Clutter the Floors of Our Tiny Apartment

She is so freaking cute I can't even stand it!!!! You have to trust me.. it's even cuter in person!! She wasn't sure about the Bumbo at first but I think she'll like it.

The Hair is There

It's slowly coming in!
You have to click the pic to get the full effect.

Great Grandma's Chair

She's still looking kinda small.. Our nurse came by the other day and weighed her. She's 13 pounds 8 ounces and 10 months old.. She stil HATES tummy time but will actually lift her head and sometimes smile. However, she doesn't use her arms AT. ALL. She doesn't get it. So we're going to try sitting up by resting her on her hands like a little monkey to see if she gets it. It makes me laugh when I set her on the couch or in a chair and she starts to tip.. she doesn't try and stop herself but just turns her head to the side and falls. She always smiles while she does it because I'm laughing at her. It's not encouraging I know but she's just so funny!

Copycat

Sorry we have been a little MIA this week. We've been making some changes to Darbi's sleep patterns and it's taking a toll on my sleep patterns. She's up every 2 hours! Also... she's not really getting the eating-rice-cereal thing so it's hard to make her try it every night. I know the taste is an issue but with her it's more about technique problems. Any tips would be appreciated...

Here's a cute video of her from about a week or so ago. She's starting to imitate us more and she has to be in the right mood for her to want to do this but it's so dang cute when she is! Sorry the video is turned the other way. Clint was taking video and I guess I haven't taught him proper taking-video-with-the-camera technique yet. It's on my list. Promise.

Aaannnd she's awake again... ugh.