Handprint Craft

At work, I write all of the instructions for any of the kits we sell and this summer we will be doing Kid's Crafts and this year they are really cute and so clever! Whoever came up with this is so creative!! These are actually Darbi's handprints which I turned into fish! The kit will be available at Pebbles in a few weeks so be on the lookout! There's also a butterfly handprint magnet! They are so small and so cute.. I just love her little hands. I can't imaging turning her handprint from when she was born into a fish.. Impossible!!

Right Now...

- Clint sleeps with no blankets or sheets at all.
- I sleep with one super soft blanket that is even to small for me.. mostly because it's comfy.
- Darbi can keep her binky in for 5 minutes, then spit it out and play with it for 2 minutes, then cries.
- I love to read Ensign talks.
- I have a 42 oz. bag of Peanut M&M's on my nightstand.
- I feel very creative and want to (in the cutest way possible) document every minute of Darbi's life.
- I LOVE butterflies and teal.
- I have to bug to get organized.
- I have a Spiderman costume hanging in my closet and secretly want to put it on and wear it as my pajama's tonight. :)
- I feel very grateful for my family and feel very loved.
- I love my handwriting!
- I need my hair done. The grey's are exploding out of NOWHERE!
- I'm craving any and all dairy.
- I think I have a cavity. :(
- Clint is looking very tan... me likey. :)
- Darbi is in Newborn size diapers.
- I am itching to go swimming.
- I want to move back to P-town (NOT Provo).
- Darbi is asleep... and so is Clint. :)

First time Swinger

We tried Darbi out in her swing today for the first time. It is a loaner and used to be my 12 year old cousin's swing when he was a babe. It was NOT a good experience for her. It took a few minutes and she calmed down and even took a quick 15 minute nap in it. We'll try it again maybe because I really want her to like this thing.

Proof

that it's there...

(you need to click to enlarge.. but it's there!)

7 pounds

We have a 7 pound baby!! She is almost 5 months and 7 times her birth weight! Say that about your baby!! I went into the doctor today because our Home Health Nurse can't come out to the house anymore because our insurance won't pay for it. Bogus but whatev. So I hauled up Darbi by myself and took her in. We also turned down her oxygen need from 1/4 liter to 1/8 liter and she's tolerating it pretty well. Her O2 saturation in the office was 98-99 but when we came home she was really fussy for no reason so I turned her back up to 1/4 for the night. I'll try 1/8 again in the morning. We'll just ween her down slow. The doctor was really pleased with her progress for a 23 weeker. I think he'll say that to me every time we go in because he probably forgets everything about us until he reads her miracle story in her chart. I like when people brag about her so I like to listen to him. :)

Memorial Day Weekend

My Mom & Dad came up from Phoenix for Memorial Day to stay with us and see Darbi last weekend. This was the first time my Dad has ever held her and I think she's got him under her spell. I think he's a fan. :) We also stayed at my Grandma's house Sunday night with Darbi and it was her first time away from home aside from the whole 4 month hospital stay. We practically had to pack up the whole house to make sure we got everything she needed just in case. I don't know what her deal was.. maybe it was because she was getting so much extra attention but both Saturday and Sunday night she was awake the WHOLE night!! I got an hour and a half of sleep both nights! So Monday, when we came back I was SO tired. We got back late because we had a minor car emergency and Clint had to change the oil in the car at like 8:00. Anyway, I was dreading the night because I was so tired. BUT she slept 8 hours and only got up once!! And that one time, she didn't cry when I changed her (she ALWAYS cries when I change her diaper), ate, burped, and went right back to sleep. No problem. It was amazing. I think this weekend wore her out! I was so tired that there was one point in the night when I got up and was sorta sleep walking around the room rambling to Clint about something.. I kept thinking that I was forgetting to do something. I was so loopy and so tired. She had to make up for being so naughty the 2 nights before.

My Sweet Baby

My Mom brought her nice cameras up with her and we were able to finally get some good pictures of Darbi since mine doesn't do so well with the poor lighting in our dark apartment.

Meeting Nana

A few days ago, Clint received a call from his Dad saying that his Mom (Clint's grandma - Nana, Darbi's Great Grandma) wasn't doing so well and we might want to make a trip up to see her so she could meet Darbi. So last night, we packed up Darbi, in all her cord glory, and made our way up to North Ogden. She slept the whole ride up which was good because we had Kade (Clint's little brother) with us and as much as he loves kids, constant baby cries are sometimes too much.

It was so sweet. I asked Nana if she wanted to hold her and she was like "She's so tiny! I can't!" I made her anyway. I needed the picture!! :) So I layed Darbi in her arms and Nana LOVED her! Nana started to cry. It was the sweetest thing. Darbi got a little fussy so I took her back but sat on the floor next to Nana for the rest of the evening so she could get a good look at Big D. She just kept saying how sweet and cute she was and how what a good mommy she had (me - hee hee) and kept wiping the tears away. I am so glad we were able to go up and they could meet each other.

Nana is 92 and sometimes isn't as sharp as she used to be but she seemed to be doing pretty alright while we were there. We told her a couple of times that Darbi only weighed a pound when she was born but it never really sunk in I think. About halfway through the evening, she asked me how old she was. I told her Darbi was 5 months and her jaw dropped!! It was so funny! She could not believe it!



She mostly has it together, but every now and then, she can get a little crazy. :) I remember one time, about a year or 2 ago when Dave (Clint's Dad) was getting ready to move into the house they are in now. Clint and Dave were down in the basement getting ready to move some of the big furniture out while I was in the living room with Nana packing up some of the more delicate decorations. They had a ton of paintings hanging on the wall (asian themed) and there was one in particular that Nana wanted to tell me about.

Nana: "You see that painting of the tiger up on the wall there?"
Me: "Yeah Nana?"
Nana: "I painted that."
Me: "Wow, it's really pretty"

Here's where it gets good...

Nana: "I was 9"
Me: "WOW. You are very talented!"
Nana: "While I was painting it, there were these people standing off to the side.. They are outside of the painting so you can't see them. They were taunting the tiger so he would make that growling face!"
Me: "You must have been very scared!"
Nana: "No, there were people there to make sure he didn't attack us."

She did not paint the picture of the tiger but everytime I see that painting, it makes me smile and I'm glad that I now have a special memory of Nana that no one else has. I still need to take a picture of that painting so I remember what it looks like. On the car ride home, Clint and Kade kept telling funny stories that they remembered about Nana. I wish I could have know her a little better because she seems like a very unique woman and I am glad Darbi was able to meet her.

Crazy Sleeper

I love this

Great Grandma's house - a first for Miss Darbi

Sunday was our first trip out of the house with Darbi OTHER than to the doctor. She did really well with the drive up to Sandy and LOVES the riding in the car. We borrowed Clint's mom's car because ours doesn't have AC. :( It's kind of a hassle with all of her equipment but it's so nice to get a break from my little 12x12 bunker. Suddenly Summer popped out of NOWHERE for me! The weekend Darbi came home and the week and a half following that, I was either cooped up in the hospital or in our sunlight-less basement apartment. Summer in Utah is so pretty and so green!! I want to be outside all the time!

Sleeping Beauty

Her sleep patterns are starting to make me nervous. The doctor's have told me to not let her go longer than 4 hours between feedings. I'm assuming because she is so small and needs as many possible calories in a 24 hour period as she can get. On Thursday night, she went 5 hours between a feeding because she was so tired! I was super excited and not-at-all worried because I figured that a little treat like that (more mommy-sleep-time) is good for me every now and then and probably ok for her. SO, Friday was not a good sleep night for her and I took many naps yesterday to play catch up. That's normal for us so I figured we were back on our mommy-gets-no-sleep-schedule. No big. Last night, I put her down around midnight and she didn't wake up until 5! Awesome, I thought. So I made sure to set my phone alarm for 8 because I didn't want her sleeping forever again. I guess I turned my alarm off because here I go waking up at 9:45!!!! And not because I hear baby cries.. it's because there's sun in my face. SHE wasn't even awake!! I had to actually wake her up. I'm kinda nervous now though. I'm secretly hoping she wants to eat every 2 hours now to make up for that. I've watched other mom's of super-cute-babies go through the finally-sleeping-through-the-night-phase and figured that my time would come but not until like November or something. ACK. I hope she keeps growing! I know she needs sleep to grow but having a NICU baby taints everything you think you know about having a regular baby!! I question EVERYTHING now. So Clint gave her a fortified bottle at 10 and it's 10:45 and she's passed out again in my lap. I guess I need to take advantage of this but I do feel extraordinarily rested..