Down the River

WE DID IT! I have to admit that I was really apprehensive about our river trip, but it turned out great. We had our ups and downs... With all my concern about Gavin I didn't spend very much time making sure Pop and especially river-trip-virgin Mom had all the right stuff, but between their stuff and our stuff and everyone else's stuff we were pretty well covered. We had a crew of 15 including 2 babies and a 5-year-old, and our group came together from FIVE states (UT, CO, NE, IL, and AZ). We ate well, drank well, and floated well in 4 rafts, a ducky and a kayak. I wish I could say we slept well, but at least I CAN say that Gavin slept way better than I did! Mom slept in a tent for the second time in her whole life! On the second night we had a tremendous thunderstorm that cut "Super Hero Night" short and banished a few folks, including Mom, to their tents. It thundered and lightning-ed and pelted all our gear with fat raindrops for a couple of hours. Gavin and I spent much of that time cozy and dry in our tent while Brandon and a few other super heroes battened down the boats and cooked a yummy taco dinner under shelter of a rain/sun canopy. For the most part the weather was perfect and we really enjoyed ourselves. It was a long drive home but we're happily enjoying a restful evening, aside from the 8 loads of laundry that are underway...

Spit up girl...

Poor little Evelyn... she has been spitting up all along, but became much worse beginning Sunday night. (She projectile vomited all over her daddy. Must say-he took it quite well.) Dave and I both noticed her cry was different on Monday night, as though she was in pain??? It seemed like she spit up everything on Tuesday and was real clingy. I called the doctor on Weds. to explain the situation. She was pretty concerned it may be pyloric stenosis (when the pyloric sphincter is narrowed and food can't make it to the stomach which requires surgical correction), so she sent Evelyn to have an ultrasound of her abdomen. Thankfully it was normal. So, our little darling just has very bad reflux. She is now on a medication called Axid twice daily. Hopefully it will help because she seems so unhappy and starving all the time, not to mention she is extremely gassy. We tried mixing formula with breast milk per the Dr's recommendation and will continue to travel that road with 2 more types of formula since it's thicker and should keep her satisfied longer, pending she keeps it down.

We'll keep you posted.

Anyone have $ .50

I'd pay a heck of a lot more...

cutie pie pics

Hi all,

Thought you might like to see some new photos of our little girl. We continue to adjust-trying to figure out life every day. We are still fighting colds, all of us have relapsed. :( I think we all could use some more sleep. :)

Evelyn's lip has completely healed and her tongue looks better every day. Her follow up appt. is Weds.

Hope the Utah clan is feeling better. Have fun on the rafting trip.

Looks like Chris and Sami are having lots of fun in the kitchen. Watch out Paula Dean!!!

Food network TNG

Because food tastes better when prepared by you or your sibling, we have added Cooking 101 to our curriculum. Sami is very excited to be using dangerous utensils and playing with fire, mostly playing with fire. Their cooking lessons take place at lunch, so dad is happy to enjoy the fruits of their labor at dinner. Both children are becoming very good at cracking eggs and peeling vegetables.

Sami made green eggs and ham, and carrots. She had a lot of fun adding enough food coloring to make an Irishman proud. Chris enjoyed the eggs so much he had seconds. She has also cooked sausage for sausage and pepperoni pizza. Once we all assembled our pizzas, she put them in the oven to bake and helped get them out. No small task, given that their finished pizzas weighed more than a baby elephant. She found a recipe for alphabet soup to make this week. To round off the meal, she made pepperoni bread.

Chris has made spaghetti and meatballs. He was not happy about touching the raw meat. He then made the interesting combination of egg drop soup and tacos. He made scrambled eggs and Parmesan chicken and carrots. Sami offered to teach him how to peel the carrots, but he didn't want his little sister to teach him.

They enjoy pretending to be on cooking shows as they cook and directing when the other is cooking. We plan on pitching the idea to producers of Food Network and becoming bigger than Emeril and Rachel Ray.

The scoop from Hyrum

We made a family trip to the doctor today and got our flu shots. Brandon's been sick for a week and this morning woke up with a whole new set of bothersome symptoms and Gavin's had a cold for over a week too, so we all went in together. Turns out Brandon has bronchitis and Gavin has an ear infection! They're both on antibiotics now and Brandon also got some powerful cough medicine that is allowing him to finally get a good night's sleep (so far). I'm feeling very fortunate to be mostly healthy right now! Mom and Pop, don't worry - by the time you get here we'll all be in tip-top shape. Brandon has to fly to Pittsburgh early Sunday morning, so you won't even see him until he gets home on Wednesday afternoon. We've still got lots to do to get ready for the river trip, but I'm making lists and things are starting to fall into place....

What did Chris and Sami each make for dinner this week? And how's little Evelyn doing since the cauterization?

BIG HUGS to each and every one of you,
Julie

Leaving the hosptial...

Here are 2 pics from Friday just before leaving the hospital. It's so nice to be home. :) We are adjusting well and trying to get Evelyn to be awake during the day since she likes to keep us up all night long. I have to admit, she did much better last night. Perhaps our strategy is working???

We had a great weekend packed with visits from family and friends with more visitors coming tomorrow.

Evelyn goes to the pediatrician tomorrow. We have our list of questions ready. :)

Stay tuned for more baby posts...

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY
JULIE AND BRANDON
WITH LOVE
MOM & POP

Oh My Goodness - Baby Girl!

Times are approximate:

1:30am - I wake up to Melissa looking around in her closet. "what are you doing?", "nothing" she replies, with a scared look on her face. "doesn't look like nothing" I said. Melissa then admits that she thinks her water broke.

1:30am I thought the timing couldn't be much worse, but as it turns out this was only the beginning of a long road that might as well have begun when it did.

3:00am arrive at the hospital and watch Melissa (and baby) get hooked up to some machines. I think we both managed to get a couple hours of sleep in.

To pass the time, we watched the news and Office Space. I managed to do some work. Only because "+2" (business day 2) is one of our busiest day of the month, good timing :)

1:30pm contractions start. Melissa is doing a great job and the doctor says he thinks we might be able to get this done in under an hour!

2:30pm many pushes later and Melissa is starting to get tired, not to mention ill from the medication she was given to kill the pain. I'm sure Melissa was wondering why the baby wasn't out yet.. the doctor said....

4:03pm Here comes the baby!! A couple snips to make some room and..... It's a girl!!!

She is 19 1/4 inches and 7 pounds 6 ounces!

We had a nice visit with Mom & Pop, Jim, Kay and Bobby Beyer (shout out for 1st time grandparents and first time uncle for the Beyer family :)). Special thanks to the Wood grandparents for making the long trip up north - I know they felt it was well worth it.

Visiting hours are over at 8pm so we tried to pass out, but Evelyn didn't want to sleep as much as we did. About 4 feedings that night made it hard to sleep for Mommy.

Here are some pics of Evelyn Avery Wood (we reserve the right to change the name, but hope to be sure when we leave the hospital tomorrow with the birth certificate).

get ready, get set, ....

I just heard from Dave. Melissa's water broke at about 2 A.M. and they are currently at Lake Forest Hospital. We will no doubt have a new family member soon. I'm very excited!