Rasmussen Boys and 1 girl!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Garrett's story, part 2.

I woke up from surgery and was greatful to be alive. Of course the first thing out of my mouth was how's my baby. He was doing good. He weighed in at a healthy 5 pounds, which isn't bad for being born 6 weeks early. The doctor told me that we had gotten in to surgery just in time. Once they were able to visualize my uterus, they say a window that was half the length of my previous incision.( A window is a thin spot in my uterus wall.) They didn't even make an incision. The doctor said once he got in there, Garrett was looking up at hime from inside my uterus. Then it tore open on it's own and he fell onto my lap. Luckily we were already in surgery so they could control the bleeding and work on Garrett. Every kept telling me that I must have a few guardian angels looking out for us, becasue they never catch a rupture before it happens. My beautiful baby was born on March 3rd, 2007 at 7:03 pm. He was 5 pounds and 18 inches long. He had some health problems, but at this point was doing good.

This is the first picture I got to see of him. They wouldn't let me go to the NICU to see him until morning so I could rest. It is a very daunting thing to see your baby for the first time like this. Everyone is telling me that he is ok, and then to see this just freaked me out. The doctors came down to tell me he was having a hard time breathing so they put him on a ventalitor. They would leave him on that and see how he was in the morning.

They started an IV in his umbilical cord, and kept him on the vent for a few days. He had jaundice for about a week, but once that was behind him we started working on his eating. Babies don't have the sucking reflux until they are about 34 weeks. Since he was born at 34 weeks and had other things to deal with at the time, eating became his last priority.

Here he is under the bili lights to help with his jaundice. It was pretty cute that the eye covers looked like sunglasses. The bili lights look like a tanning bed so when you would walk in there would be these naked babies with sunglasses tanning all over the NICU, it was pretty cute. Anyway, his days got better and better, and his eating improved. He had a feeding tube in his nose the entire month he was there. They took it out the day before we left.

They only let the siblings of these babies come into the NICU once to see them. We had brought mikey in about 2 weeks before they let us go home. It was so hard for him to understand. That we had a baby that we couldn't bring home. The day I brought Garrett home, Mikey was asleep when we got home. Here is his reaction when he say me home with his new brother.

He was stoked! It has been a long haul. Garrett for the most part is a healthy 2 year old boy. He has asthma, with chronic bronchitis. He was born with no enamel on some of his teeth, and if small for his age. Last week he weighed in a 22 pounds. I guess my reason for posting his story is this: Nothing in life is guarenteed. I wake up every day knowing that anything can happen at a moments notice that could turn my world up side down. Garrett has defienatly given me a new outlook on life. I am greatful that he chose me to be his mom, and given me the oppurtunity to love him unconditionally. You will never know what a blessing you are to me little boy, but I loved you my whole life. Happy Birthday,

Love mommy.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Garrett's story. Part one, it's a long one...

I don't even know where to start. Motherhood didn't come easy for me. I tried to get pregnant for a really long time and had no luck. After 3 years of trying, it happened. Then it was gone. I was sad, but glad because I knew I could get pregnant. And get pregnant I did. Two more times, and then came two more losses. After my last miscarriage, I was devastated. Shook to my core. What did I do in my life to deserve this? I went on this roller coaster of emotion. After two months of unstable hormones, I was finally feeling normal again! And then came the fourth positive pregnancy test. I was soooo happy, and equally as scared. As the weeks went on, I got more excited. Every time I made it past the point that I had had miscarriages in my past pregnancies, I was just amazed. I wasn't at ease though until Mikey was out and screaming. That beautiful boy came into my life 10 day early weighing in just under 9 pounds! 9 pounds! ( Jen if you read this, thank you for helping me experience the joy of motherhood, finally) The doctors said to wait a year before we started trying for another. We waited 11 1/2 months. I thought it would be as hard the fifth time around to get pregnant and stay pregnant. Imagine my surprise when I found out I was pregnant on Mikey's first birthday. Really nervous, but excited. Even though mikey was a very healthy full term baby, I was still worried about this pregnancy. I went to a specialist because of my history. At 6 weeks, I saw Garrett for the first time. What a relief that was! I couldn't help but think he was lower in my uterus then mikey was at that time. But the doctor said everything looked good, so I didn't worry. 3 weeks later, I woke up to a lot of bleeding. I panicked. I went straight to the doctor. As I waited for him to come in and do my ultrasound, all I could think about was I can't do this again. The doctor came in, said with the amount of bleeding I was having that it didn't look very promising, and he would look and see where we stood. As soon as he put the wand on my belly, there he was, just kicking away, like nothing had even happened. The doctor couldn't believe it. The baby was fine. I had a partial placenta previa, so it was covering my cervix a little. I had been carrying mikey alot the day before, so that caused some contractions, causing the bleeding. I spent the rest of my pregnancy being monitored very closely. A doctors visit every two weeks, with an ultrasound. The rest of my pregnancy was pretty uneventful. I had to take heparin, which is a blood thinner for a clotting disorder, but other than that, it was great.

We had these pictures done at 29 weeks. For those of you who don't know, a full term pregnancy is 40 weeks. I was huge! I am glad we did it, because the next week I woke up in the middle of the night with this horrible recurring back pain. I tried to reposition myself, going pee, and walk around, but nothing helped. After about 2 hours I remembered having that same pain when I was in labor with Mikey. I kept thinking this can't be right, it's way to early. I went to the hospital in carson city. They hooked me up to the monitor, and sure enough I was contracting away. They gave me shots to stop the labor but it didn't work. So they sent me to reno where my doctor was. When I was in carson, the bleeding started again. When I got to St. Mary's the hooked my up to the monitor, and confirmed I was in labor. My doctor came over and did an ultrasound. I had a very large blood clot in my placenta. He told me that I would spend the rest of my pregnancy in the hospital on bed rest. I was shocked. I was feeling fine, and now my baby's life was in danger. He told me that the best case scenario was 48 hours. He didn't think I would make it longer than that. They put me on this medicine called mag. I swear it's poison. But it worked. The days passed, and before I knew it, a month had passed! I was slowly taken off the mag and was doing great. I woke up on Saturday morning and felt like crap. I couldn't put a finger on where the pain was coming from, but it was really bad. I had another ultrasound and found out that I had hardly any amniotic fluid. Every where they thought was fluid was umbilical cord. They told me that the likely hood of him stretching and pinching off his blood supply was very high. They wanted to keep him in another week, for his health. So they put me back on the monitor and said if there was one dip in his heartbeat, they would take him immediately. As the day went on, the pain got worse. I had the most amazing nurse that day. She had been my nurse most of the month I had been there. She kept coming in and checking on me because she said I was acting funny. Finally I broke down. I just started crying. I told her the pain was unbearable. She called the doctor and he came to talk to me. I told him I felt like I was going to explode. He started freaking out. He said he thought my uterus was rupturing and we had about 5 minutes to get me to surgery before I bled to death. Panic took over. I called mike who was in carson and said to please hurry because we were in trouble. I called my sister and asked her to call my dad. Anyone who knows amy knows she had 2100 questions. I just said, call dad, we might not make it. My dad was just up the street at a UNR basketball game. As soon as I hung up with amy, about 10 people came rushing in my room. They were starting new IV's for blood transfusions, making sure Garrett hadn't died, and prepping me for emergency surgery. I just laid there and thought this can't be happening. I can't die. Mikey needs his mom. And then the most horrible thought crossed my mind, what if I live and he dies? Just then the doctor said it was time to go. I was terrified. I was alone, and thought that me and my baby were going to die. Just then my dad appears out of no where. He grabbed my hand and told me it was going to be ok. He came with me to the O.R. but they wouldn't let him in because it was emergency surgery. My nurse that day had been talking about how she couldn't wait to get home to see her kids. They put me in the O.R. and she came in and sat down next to me and asked if she could stay. She said she didn't want me to be alone. I asked her to tell mike and mikey I loved them. She smiled and said they made it, and I could tell them when I woke up, and that's the last thing I remember.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Garrett's birthday!

My sweet boy turns 2 on tuesday.

I can't believe it.

We had his party this weekend so all of our friends could be there.

We went to boomtown, and he had such a good time.

There were cupcakes

And pizza and ice cream
Every kids dream. Garrett thought they were delicious.

The best part was this wind machine. Garrett got to go in for a whole minute with his dad.
It was sooo funny. I thought he would be scared, but that wasn't the case.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Dear Emily...(Roda)

You are amazing!

A wonderful best friend,

A wonderful girlfriend,

A amazing teacher,

and most importantly,

The best daughter your mom could have asked for.

You did more for her than most do in an entire lifetime.

I am confident saying she is eternally grateful for you.

Just wanted to let you know.

Love,

Em (Mary)

Thursday, January 29, 2009

That took forever!

A really long TAG.....
Welcome to the 2009 edition of getting to know your friends. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends that you might not have known!
1. What time did you get up this morning? Which time? 5:45, 6:30, and then 7:15
2. Diamonds or pearls? Big Diamonds Please
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Marley and Me
4. What is your favorite TV show?Biggest Loser, Big love
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Fruit or bagels.
6. What is your middle name? Ann
7. What food do you dislike? fish
8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? I listen to my ipod or itunes.
9. What kind of car do you drive? 2000 Escalade
10. Favorite sandwich? sub sandwiches, any of them!
11. What characteristics do you despise? lying and people who are fake.
12. Favorite item of clothing? Comfy flip flops
13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Going to Mexico for my next birthday!!!
14. Favorite brand of clothing? Don't really have a favorite.
15. Where would you like to retire? Somewhere warm and tropical.
16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? 23, I got Mikey as a present, who could ask for a better present?
17. Favorite sport to watch? football.....
18. Farthest place you are sending this? Who knows
19. Person you expect to send it back first? All my friends did it first, so maybe Traci
20. When is your birthday? August 13, 1982
21. Are you a morning person or a night person? definitely a night person
22. What is your shoe size? 7
23. Pets? 1 big ugly fish
24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? If I tell you, then I have to kill you!
25. What did you want to be when you were little? A nurse
26. How are you today?Sleepy
27. What is your favorite flower? Stargazer lilies
28. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Feb 5th. Wedding anniversy
29. What is your favorite pastime? Playing with my kids
30. What are you listening to right now? Radio
31. What was the last thing you ate?? Cinnamon Raisin Bagel, yum
32. Do you wish on stars? sure do
33. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? purple
34. How is the weather right now? Sunny but cold
35. The first person you spoke to on the phone today? Mike
36. Favorite soft drink? H2O
37. Favorite Food at a Restaurant? depends on where I am, but good ol' american food is always a winner.
38. Real hair color? Dirty Blonde
39. What was your favorite toy as a child? my little ponies
40. Summer or winter? Summer....fo sho
41. Hugs or kisses? kisses
42. Chocolate or Vanilla? chocolate
43. Coffee or tea? tea
44. Do you want your friends to email you back? Of course!
45. When was the last time you cried? last week I was sick, and everything on t.v. was so sad! I am a huge baby when I am sick!
46. What is under your bed? forgetten toys and shoes
47. What did you do last night? made dinner, went to the store, gave garrett a bath, cuddled, went to bed.
48. What are you afraid of? losing my kids
49. Salty or sweet? sweet
50. How many keys on your key ring? To many
51. How many years at your current job? Almost a year
52. Favorite day of the week? Saturday...mornings.
53. How many towns have you lived in? 3
54. Do you make friends easily? no, I only have few GREAT ones and I like it that way.
55. How many people will you send this to? whoever would like to read it I guess
56. How many will respond? Not sure.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Christams...

So seeing how christmas was almost a month ago, I figure that I could pull it together and post our christmas stuff. This was the first year that Mikey was really excited. Garrett a little, but Mikey asked everyday when santa was going to come. It was a awesome day. We woke up to this.

I can't remember the last time I woke up to a white christmas. Fresh snow!

I felt like a kid a again.

Then on to opening presents. Mikey woke up early and we made him wait until Garrett woke up. Garrett is the kid who sleeps until 10 a.m. Mikey was going crazy, so we decided to wake up Garrett and let the gift exchange begin. As you can see, Garrett didn't care much at first.

Mikey got a coloring table, equipped with like 7,000 colors.

They got matching everything. I didn't even chance the fight, just bought two of everything.

If you ask me, the best gift was the Incredible Hulk fighting gloves. They are so FUN!

Don't let the size of the gloves compared to the size of his body fool you. He can hold his own and have a good time. Bye the way, don't mess with him, he's tough.