Baby Tate Comes Home Today!

Friday, January 23, 2009

Good news! Tate is coming home today. After only 10 days in NICU, too! Tough little guy. Tracee and I ran out to Newton to put balloons on Ben and Jamie's house to welcome them. Her family had beaten us to the punch, with VERY cute decorations, but we figured the more the merrier and just added ours to the mix. You really can't miss the house with all of those balloons! We haven't heard if they're home yet or not, but I just thought I'd let all y'all know that today's the day! Hooray!

Progress on the Nursery Front!

Monday, January 19, 2009

Hooray and good news! Bethany stayed in her nursery class for 45 minutes yesterday without crying for me! (To put this in perspective, her previous record was four minutes.) I was so excited! My strategy has been to stay with her during Sunday School, then duck out sometime during the Relief Society hour, increasing the time each week.

She did great during snack time, lesson time and singing time. Her undoing was apparently "The Wheels on the Bus." During that song, she had an "a-ha" moment of "Where's Mommy? She always sings this song to me!" So after singing time she had a little meltdown and they came and got me. But when I went with her back into the nursery, she immediately hopped off my lap and ran to play again. I was so encouraged! (The last time they came and got me when she was crying she refused to get off my lap and cried herself to sleep. Very traumatic for both of us.)

Anyway, she just seemed overall better yesterday. More interactive with her teachers, more interactive with the other kids, just happier all around. Let's hope next week is even better! (I'll have to talk to her teachers about maybe avoiding "The Wheels on the Bus" for a few weeks?)

An Up"Tate" on the Tater Tot

First of all, please pardon the pun in the title of this blog. Just my "Gene genes" coming out, which they do once in awhile (thanks Dad!).

The Tater Tot is doing really well! As of last night, all of his IVs, tubes, wires etc. were all out. (He's only actually had the IV for the past several days.) He's been breathing on his own since the very first day. He's also eating really well and is up to 35 ml per feeding! I think they still have him under the lights for his bilirubin. Ben and Jamie have some really cute pictures of him where it totally looks like he's just tanning himself! After losing some weight after the birth, which they expected since newborns always do, Tate is back up to 4 lbs. 5 oz. Go little guy and grow! Grow! Grow!

Even though Jamie has officially been discharged, she and Ben continue staying at the hospital to be close to their son. The hospital rents them a room for $15 a night--a great option for them since Newton is a 1/2 drive away! It's nice that the hospital does that, since Jamie needs to feed him so often. So she gets the benefit of being close without all of the poking from the nurses all night long!

I'll post more pictures as I get them this week. Jamie and Ben say thanks to everyone for your support and prayers!

Move Over, Shawn Johnson!

Friday, January 16, 2009

A new gymnast is in town! A very new gymnast--well okay, Shawn, your gold medal is safe for awhile. But Bethany loved her first day at "Parent/Tot Tumbling" class today! She took one look at that huge room, with all of the mats and trampolines and fun things to climb, and it was like "Ahhhhhhh!" angels were singing. She was in heaven! A whole, humongous room to jump and play--and Mommy wasn't even confining her to a shopping cart! Bethany took off running and didn't stop until it was time to go home, smiling and giggling all the way. Below are some fun pics from our tumbling class!

Running down the stretch:



Falling on the Mats:





Jumping on the Tramps:

Baby Tate Greets His Public--Through the Glass

Thursday, January 15, 2009

We finally got to peek at little Tate tonight--through the NICU window! Oh my goodness, he is so little. He looks so much bigger in pictures than he does in person! (I think his head is about the size of my dad's fist.) But he's so cute and so very precious. He's still doing well, but has to be in NICU for awhile (maybe two to three weeks?). They're releasing Jamie tomorrow, and that will be sad for her to go home "without the prize" as she put it. But as long as he keeps thriving, we'll be grateful and try to be patient.

Bethany is getting used to visiting the hospital every day. In fact, when we pulled into the parking lot tonight, she looked up at the hospital and said, "Jamie's house!" Which is kind of true, for now anyway. Bethany loved seeing "Baby Tate" as she calls him. All evening, after we got home, Bethany kept saying, "Baby Tate, bed. Crying." We sure love that little guy! We can't wait to hold him, but we'd better. Below are some more pictures from his NICU debut! Please continue praying for him, everyone!

Welcome, Little Tate!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Yesterday our family had a very joyous (and anxious, and surprising) day as we welcomed Ben and Jamie's little son to the world! He was due on February 19, but taken by emergency C-section last night. Apparently, when Jamie went to her routine checkup yesterday morning, they found her blood pressure sky-high and she had preeclamptic symptoms. So because her (and the baby's) health was at risk, they took him last evening--five weeks early. So far, so good!

He was 4 lbs., 8 oz and 17 inches long, and he's stable and doing well in the NICU. We're so grateful that we live in the 21st century, where premature babies are so well taken care of! As for a name, Ben and Jamie have pretty much decided on Tate, although they're not sure of a middle name. We haven't seen him yet, but Mom got to (below), but we should be able to see him tomorrow--through a window. But we've seen video of him and he's simply beautiful! We love the little guy so much already! Ben said they call him "fiesty" in the NICU. He's already improved so much today!

Last night, on our way to the hospital, I told Bethany we were going to see Ben and Jamie, that Uncle Ben was a daddy now. And she said, "Oh, Ben!" With the kind of tone like, "Oh, that rascally Ben!" if you know what I mean. The tone really made it funny. So cute! (And since it got such a great reaction, she's been saying, "Oh Ben!" all day!) We're so excited to welcome this little one to our family! More updates and pictures to follow.

Grandma Higham and Tate:



Little Scrapper:

Two Birds With One Stone

Monday, January 12, 2009

So, Saturday was a busy day! But really fun! My Grandpa H. turned 88 on Saturday, and out of the clear blue he decided he wanted the whole family together at Golden Corral in Orem for a birthday lunch. (Keep in mind this man is the father of nine children who have done their best to multiply and replenish. We're talking lots of posterity, here!) So we all went down to celebrate, and quite a few people were able to come--eight of the nine children and a fair passel of grand kids and great-grand kids. Happy birthday, Grandpa! It was good spending time with family whom we don't see very often.

Then, to "kill two birds with one stone" (Note: The bird in the picture above is still alive and thriving. No animals were actually hurt during the weekend) we took the opportunity to visit Stan, Kristie and family. Bethany had a really great time. Her four older cousins completely doted on her and she thrived on the attention! Thanks, Stan, Kristie, Amanda, Nicole, Alisa and Elora! We had a great time and the burritos were mucho-fantastico. (Totally "punk rock!") And thanks, Oasis (the aforementioned bird) for letting Bethany pet you! Oh, and congrats to Amanda, Nicole and Alisa for getting your Young Woman in Excellence award--we're very impressed!

Be Loyal to the Royal Within!

If you're thinking the title of this blog sounds like a Mormonad, you're right. I totally stole it. But I thought it was fitting. Bethany loves wearing her "king hat," and every girl deserves to feel like a princess--even when she's wearing nothing but a blueberry-stained onesie!

Hooray for James!

WARNING: This is a very braggy blog. If you don't want to listen to me go on and on about my wonderful husband, bail out now!

I'm just so excited for my husband I had to tell the world! Last Wednesday, he auditioned for the American Festival Chorus and he's in! The American Festival Chorus is a choir that Craig Jessop, former MO-TAB director, has started up here. It's a 300-member choir and they're very, very good! He was a little nervous to try out (I mean, Craig Jessop for heaven's sake!) but Craig told him he had a "beautiful voice", told him they needed him as first tenor and to come back in an hour for his first rehearsal. It all happened rather fast. I knew you'd make it, Sweetie! And I'm so excited, because James has been pretty darn stressed out with his job and he needed an outlet, something to fill his bucket. And singing with this choir will do that for him. Now he can look forward to his Wednesday nights! He loved the first practice (as it turns out, his cousin Danielle and a friend from high school are also in the choir!) and they're singing some amazing songs. Their first concert is Saturday, January 31st and it's going to be good! Mark your calendars, everybody!

Jenny in "January Mode!"

Friday, January 2, 2009

Happy New Year!

We've had a very quiet beginning to our new year, and it's been nice! Every January I go into my "January Mode." This means that I feel a frenzy to organize everything in sight. This usually lasts for only a few weeks, but generally peters out by February. Anyway, yesterday, New Year's Day, we just spent the entire day catching up on projects we've needed to finish for a long time--and it felt great! I finally finished all of the file folder games I've been working on for Bethany (since April, mind you), thanks to my sweetheart for all of the help! Man, what a project when you choose to laminate them all yourself! But she loves them already and again, yay for increased reverence in sacrament meeting!

I also have been working on archiving all of our digital pictures onto CD's. I realized a little while ago that we had over 10,000 pictures on our computer! And if our computer crashes--poof! All gone. I am not willing to lose three years' worth of pictures, especially where Bethany is concerned! So I've been burning, burning, and burning lots of CD's. What a great feeling to get them all done! I also finished up another project I've been working on for months for Bethany, so that made me feel good too!

And now I'm antzy for more projects! I think this winter will be a good time for me to get started on Bethany's lifebook. For those of you not familiar with lifebooks, it's a great way to introduce your child's adoption story to them. Bethany is now at the point where she recognizes herself and others in pictures, so I think I'll get going! It will read like a storybook, but be her special adoption story. I'm excited to do that!

Hooray for cozy winter afternoons and goals to accomplish! Happy New Year, everyone! We look forward to making good memories with you this coming year!