End of School Year Assembly

Ms. Arend, the girls' favorite teacher, who teaches 2nd grade, came by after to see the new baby.

First Blowout

It's always a doozy.






And it never gets NOT gross, no matter how many kids it is.

Still Baseballers

At the Weisse's





Edward at home. He can slide!

Mesa Outing

To give Bobbins a break, I took the big 5 out to Mesa to play in the parks where my sister works (well, it's her department, Parks & Rec). They've got some great equipment out there!

This slide was at Pioneer Park

RIP Sean

I was home on paternity leave when I got the devastating news that my good friend at work, Sean, died of a massive heart attack. He would start every work day by running up five flights of stairs before going to his desk. Evidently, his ticker wasn't up for it that day and he perished. Sean started a month before me and we hung out outside of the office, especially on the golf course. He had a PhD in physics from ASU but also rode dirt bikes on the weekends. He was one of the smartest and most helpful guys in our group. He was a great guy who is greatly missed. Myself, Dennis (in the green shirt), and Mary C spoke at his funeral. I will never forget the anguished face of his poor father, Mike, who had just lost his wife of 60 years (Sean's mother) the previous year.

Rest In Peace brother.

(Photo from the VdM charity golf tournament in 2015. Both guys on the right meant a lot to me, and they're both gone.)

Chicks

One of the chickens got broody, so Bobbins bought some fertilized eggs and let her sit on them till they hatched. She then used the dog crate as a separate little coop for the hen and her chicks to stay in.

Hard Work Being a Newborn

Mom + 6

JoJo Loves Her Baby Brother Too

He LOVES His Baby Brother

Just a New Baby in the House

The Sun Cures Everything

Don't you know?

Christo's Homecoming

The joy of bringing him home the first time was almost as great as the joy of his birth!

Margaret's Confirmation and Communion

Amidst all this was Margaret's sacraments of Confirmation and First Holy Communion! Mark and his family came into town since he is her godfather. Bobbins had a beautiful dress picked out and was planning the party for Sunday when someone decided it was time to come out early.

I was able to be there in Church with her. Her confirmation sponsor, Mrs. Dwyer, was great and helpful. Katie was at our house manning the fort and doing her best to keep everyone and everything going. The dress was left at the dry cleaner, which was closed on Sunday, so Katie had to make a last-minute run to JC Penney to get a new one. Margaret had a little fit over it all but got it together enough to pick out a good dress.

Fr. Steve confirmed her, and Fr. Bolding gave her her first Communion, which was special.

Since her mom wasn't there, I took Margaret over to the hospital to see Bobbins and Christo. She was the only member of the family to visit him in the NICU. All the nurses thought it was quite cute when Margaret came through the door in her dress. It actually was fairly special, and unique.

Margaret with her godparents at the end of the big day.

Christo into the ICU

As beautiful as the birth went, there were problems the next day. Like all our other kids, Christo had low blood sugar. They kept poking his feet to get blood to test his numbers, which would be high enough once but then too low twice. He had to have three "good" numbers in a row before they would let us go, and he couldn't manage. The pediatrician came in and gave us a lecture about all the negative side effects and potential disasters that could befall him if we didn't treat him with glucosamine. It was exacerbated by the fact that he was premature (which he wasn't -- we concluded the dating was off -- how could an 8lb. baby be premature!)

Since he was a newborn, a glucosamine drip meant going into the ICU. We really thought hard about leaving, but in the end decided to put him into the Neo-natal ICU since we were already at the hospital and playing by their rules.

He got put in a bay with with a preemie twin who had been born at 22 weeks. That little guy really needed to be in the NICU. They have four beds in each bay, one nurse per bay. At first there were just two of them. It's set up for the baby and the nurses, not the parents to be in there, but they were good about letting us stay with him. It was incredibly hard to NOT be with him. How could we leave our precious baby in the hands of strangers (no matter how qualified those hands were). Bobbins only left the hospital once. Since he was out of maternity, that meant Bobbins was too, and no room for her. They did let her sleep in a room a couple night, which was nice. For the most part, we tried to have one of us with him constantly. Over his four day stay, he was "alone" about 8 hours.

In the picture above you can see the arm/wrist that had the IV. It was painful just looking at it. That was probably the hardest part of the experience, watching the nurses put that in the first time. We went from the elation of a birth to the distress of an IV, constant beeping of machines, an unnatural bed & place, and a sterile environment.

We got to know the nurse each shift and did everything we could do on our own. Bobbins nursed and pumped to supplement the formula they gave him. She held him on her chest as much as possible. We changed all his diapers (which were weighed and measured every time). The nurses were great and accommodating, which we appreciated. We tried not to push too hard, but our constant refrain was let's get him out of here and home, where he belongs.

Welcome Christo!

It started out as a normal Thursday. I was just about to get into the shower and get ready to drive the kids, including carpool, out to school. Bobbins had just awoken and was in the bathroom when she called out: "I think my water just broke!" The due date wasn't for another two weeks at most. The water had definitely broke, however, but there were no contractions. We called the midwife and she said just to rest in bed.

I drove the kids to school and told my boss I wouldn't be in. By noon Bobbins still wasn't progressing. She had some contractions in the mid-morning but nothing serious. I took O & TF to meet my buddy Dennis for lunch. It was still nice out, so Bobbins and I took several walks. We weren't in a major hurry to go to the hospital, although we wanted to get it done. We also had to wait for my sister to show up to watch the other kids, per tradition.

Finally some serious enough contractions started around 6 that we made the call, in consultation with the midwife, to drive down to St. Joe's on Thomas (where both girls were born). We got checked in and told a little fib about when the water had broke so they wouldn't freak out. We spent about an hour in maternity triage before they put us in a birthing room with a nurse, Cortney, who was fresh out of GCU Nurshing School. She tried to get Bobbins hooked up to everything, which Bobbins resisted. Thankfully, we were able to get things mostly the way we wanted, especially with Dr. Hervey. Lynnette, the midwife, was excellent too. We couldn't do this without her!

About 10pm it got real, and within the hour he was out! Another baby boy! Praise God. Bobbins was a champ, no surprises there. No epidural, nothing, just naturally pushed him out into the world, like Our Blessed Mother did. I got to cut the umbilical cord.

What a happy day, and blessing!