New Baby! — The Weekly Smile 1-3-22

Yup! A new grand baby made me smile this past week. She was born on the 26th which was her actual due date! We had sort oped she would come a day early so she would share my birthday but that’s okay, she is here and she and mama are safe!

My daughter didn’t tell us the baby was here until the next day! Baby didn’t have a name until she was discharged on Wednesday.

The funny thing is that they hadn’t told anyone at all the name they were thinking of. On Tuesday night I had a dream that the baby was named Spirit. On Wednesday afternoon, my daughter messaged that they had banned the baby Alma Luz which means Spirit Light in Spanish. She’s a beautiful baby but I don’t have my daughter’s okay to share pictures so I can’t post any to prove it, you’ll have to take my word for it!😃

So this week brought a new granddaughter, bringing the total of my grandchildren to six. And I got another one of those uncanny dreams that I get sometimes.

What made you smile this week? Stop by Trent’s blog and let us know if drop a link to your post there.

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“Bad” — #WeeklySmile

I have been pressed to find smiles, or smiles I’ve wanted to write about, i the past few weeks. I’ve been trying to come up with smiles that aren’t grandchild related but I have come to realize that most of my smiles DO come from those grandchildren.

This weekend was not great. I got word that my son was in a car accident but is okay, which is more than can be said about the car. But at least he’s okay. Then the next day came word of the death of their dog, one of their dogs, Bear. Although he was past his life expectancy, it still came as a shock as he’d not been ill. But I will write some “Bear Smiles” later in the week or for next week.

A few days ago, my son-in-law finally came to replace my thermostat which had been sitting here since the baby was born almost six weeks ago. I’ve been dealing with no heat in our very cold winter. Finally, my daughter got after him and he came that night. Spencer came with him when he came to replace the thermostat. So those were the first two smiles, a new thermostat and a grandson visit.

He was sitting watching his dad work on the thermostat and I asked him “How is Maya today?”

He answered right away with an annoyed look. “Bad.”

“Maya is bad? Is she sick or is she a bad girl?” I chuckled thinking it silly that a six week old could be a bad girl.

“Bad girl. Cry, cry, cry. Five times. Crying.” He held up all five fingers on both his hands. “Maya cry five times. Cry. Cry. Cry. Five times. Crying. Maya bad.” He shook his head and grimaced.

That really made me crack up! I told him babies cry because they need something and can’t talk. I told him maybe she was hungry or sleepy when she cried.

“Yes. Hungry. Maya ate baby milk and then no cry.”

Those were my smiles this week. Pretty good ones, I’d say!

The #weeklysmile is a blog link up hosted by Trent at Trent’s World. You should go check it out. Maybe you can share a smile with us!

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Not Just Another Week-#WeekendCoffeeShare

Well, on the one hand it was just another week busy with the grandchildren, but on the other hand, it was a lot more. First, I started tutoring a little fourth grade girl. It’s a pleasure to work with her and I will be working with her twice a week. Then, on Wednesday came the news that there might be a problem with my daughter’s baby so they had her go up the hill to Labor and Delivery to be monitored. I kept the boys and tried to stay sane as I waited for word from them. Finally, around midnight, word came. They were doing a C-section in a few hours. Apparently this little girl had not yet turned and the cord was snuggled in the way of the birth canal so there was no way for the baby’s head to engage if they turned her. The cord presenting like that is not a good thing. There was also excess fluid which is also not a good thing. It was preventing a clear imaging picture. So a C-section it was. Hours and hours later we got word that baby was okay but in NICU and mama was still in Recovery with some minor problems. They were finally reunited about six or seven hours later and they are both fine now.

Of course, I had the boys so we drove up to the hospital (it’s like a major trip) to meet their baby sister on Friday evening. Their auntie, the photographer, also made the trip so there were lots of pictures taken of the boys meeting their little sister for the first time. And we made the trip again on Saturday. Today, nope. I am too exhausted to get them ready and loaded in the car to make the trip. I think they will be coming home tomorrow. Crossing my fingers. I need a break. I haven’t had a moment to myself since Tuesday evening. I can’t think. I can’t even go to the bathroom in peace before one of the boys barges in! So yeah, I need a break!

I did manage to finish reading a novel before all of this happened. It was pretty fantastic. At first, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it through and I really disliked the mother in the book but then things fell into place and it became an amazing story. It’s called Sisters One, Two, Three by Nancy Star.  It’s well worth the read. Have you read a book you could recommend? As far as movies, not much because everything I have watched this week has been an animated kids’ show. Right now we are watching The Bee Movie. They like it and it is allowing me to write this as I sit with them! Yay!

What are YOU up to? Are you looking forward to next week when Emily takes over the Weekend Coffee Share? I am. It should be just as wonderful as it has been with Diana!

#WeekendCoffeeShare is a weekly blog link up hosted, for now, by Diana at Part Time Monster. 

 

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Still Cannot Believe It –#WeekendCoffeeShare

So this happened yesterday at the reveal party…and I can’t believe it…

Pink! It’s a girl!

I’m not quite excited because I don’t think it has sunk in yet. I did go out and get a baby girl outfit and a baby boy outfit before the party so I could give her the first outfit for this baby so she has one pink outfit and it is from this Nana! Many more to come and I might just try to dust off my crochet hooks! The first girl after three boys is sure to be a favored child! But then again, each one is my favorite!

That’s about all that has happened this week…preparations for the party and then the party and then the disbelief! Now the name game begins. I am not looking forward to that.

I did read a whole novel since last week. It was another good one, although not what I normally read. It was also a freebie from Kindle for Samsung (you can get a free novel each month if you download the Samsung Kindle app for your Samsung device). It’s not a new title but it and its author were both new to me, Out Of the Black by John Rector.  I’ve started another which is also not my usual type of book. Not sure if I like it. We’ll see if I can get through it. I’ve finished all seven seasons of The Gilmore Girls and all seven of The West Wing. I am currently streaming the last season of Army Wives which I missed when I got rid of TV a few years ago.

Our “killer storm” turned out to be almost nothing, at least in the greater Portland area. Lots of rain but not unbelievable amounts for this area. Lots of wind but nowhere near the anticipated high sustained winds. So we can breathe a sigh of relief and wait for the next one.

What about you? What is new in your world?

#WeekendCoffeeShare is a weekly blog linkup hosted by Diana at Part Time Monster Blog. Come see what it’s all about!

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Today’s the Day!

Today’s the day that the BIG STORM is supposed to come in. So far we’ve seen a lot of rain, thunder, lightning, hail, and strong wind gusts. But nothing like what has been predicted. That may change. It’s 1:30 in the morning and the storm is not scheduled to come in yet, not until later today. So we shall see what we shall see.

Today’s the day that we find out if Grand Baby Number 4 is a girl or a boy. We are doing a gender reveal this afternoon so I’ve been busy helping my daughter run around and find things for the party…cheap things because neither of us has money. She was able to get some things for free from the local Buy Nothing group. And just about everything else was found at the Dollar Tree. I am making some signs and decorations. She bartered with a woman who works at a bakery so the cake cost her nothing! The food is being prepared from items given them by the Gleaners group they belong to (surplus food from grocery stores donated to low income families). I should actually try to sleep because, although the party is not until 3 this afternoon, I have a poster to prepare for the morning so hand lettering and gluing and decorating it. I also agreed to make up little slips of paper for name suggestions. Luckily, I found a flamingo rubber stamp and they are going with flamingos for baby decorations, I think. So index cards will be stamped with flamingos for name suggestions. And I am doing the prep for that.

Then I will find my hands and sit on them so I do volunteer to do anything else!

In any case, I will be back tomorrow with a coffee share and the baby’s gender! I have all but lost hope of having a grand daughter, after three grandsons. But who knows?! Maybe they’ll surprise me. 🙂

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Hopes And Dreams

If we were having coffee, we would be indoors. It’s raining here in Seattle. It’s not cold, just wet. You would have to help yourself to a drink before settling in as I have a baby in my arms! I drove up here on Tuesday morning and was handed a baby as soon as I got in the door. The rest of the time has been filled with holding him, feeding him, and lots of burping! Mati is four weeks old. He’s quite alert for four weeks. I think I’m spoiling him. He’s been attached to me almost all day, every day. I got to be his first babysitter, too. His mommy and daddy had tickets to two soccer games this week so they got a couple of nights out and I got this precious little boy to myself.

This past week has been filled with shock and sadness in the world. Being here with this tiny, innocent little boy has helped me both empathize with that grief and sadness and also get through it without totally falling apart.

As Mati sleeps in my arms, I’m reminded of holding his daddy in my arms when he was this age. I’m reminded of how much simpler the world was; how much less hate, fear, and danger we faced. I am also filled with hope and dreams that Mati’s world will be a better place; that he won’t have to know the hate and intolerance; that he will be in less danger when he grows; that he will live in a world that embraces all mankind.

I’ll be driving home to Portland tomorrow. I’m already missing this little one and wondering when I’ll be back to see him. I’m lucky that he’s only a three hour drive away from me. Hopefully that will translate into frequent visits.

 #WeekendCoffeeShare is a weekly blog linkup hosted by Diana at Part Time Monster Blog. Come join us!

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Oh Baby, Baby!

If we were having coffee this morning, it would be indoors as I’m in Seattle and it’s raining and a bit on the cool side. I would be yawning and obviously tired but I would also be very happy to share my news with you. I know I teased a bit about it yesterday so I will tell you now that the week has been horrendously stressful. We almost lost my daughter-in-law. She and the baby were both in distress but she is home now and we are going back and forth to the hospital to see the baby who is still in the NICU.

His due date was the 18th. He had threatened to come at 27 weeks but he stayed in mommy until his due date. At that point mom was still not having good quality contractions but she had developed a fever and other symptoms so she went in to the hospital where they determined that she had a pretty bad infection and was leaking amniotic fluid. The doctor decided to induce immediately. That was midnight Wednesday morning. By 8 am she had progressed to 8 cm dilation but then everything stopped. She and the baby began to show signs of cardiac distress so at 4 pm they decided it was time for a C section. Then we didn’t hear anything for hours and hours (actually about 5 hours but it seemed like an eternity). When my son called, he said that although both baby and mom were safe, things didn’t go well in the C section. Mama had severe bleeding. She lost 40% of her blood. There were also problems with her uterus which would not contract as it should. First they thought they were going to have to do a hysterectomy then things got even worse with bleeding and they thought they were going to lose her. Miracles happen. They were able to stabilize her but they immediately transferred her to another hospital for high risk post op monitoring. The baby, in the meantime, was having problems breathing because he swallowed a bunch of “gunk” during labor. He also has an infection from all of that. So baby stayed behind when mama was transferred. It was only my son here to go back and forth from one hospital to the other and deal with decisions and logistics. They had not wanted anyone up here until they got home from the hospital so none of the grandparents were here when everything happened. I drove up right away (I’m about 4 hours away). So I’m here. Mama was released Friday morning and went straight to the hospital to meet baby who was born Wednesday night. Baby will remain in the NICU until Wednesday as they are doing a full course of IV antibiotics for the infection. He is off of oxygen so now he can have visitors.

So here’s Matias meeting his Nana…

Matias Gael, 8 lbs., 2 oz and 20.5 inches, meeting Nana

So it has been a high stress week. I meant to blog about other things but my mind has not been settled enough to do so during this time. Now that mama is out of danger and I have seen the baby, I can relax a bit. I will be up here for another day or two then go home and come back again in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I won’t get to see him out of the hospital and without wires and tubes (that’s the IV for antibiotics in his head in the picture) during this trip but I will when I come back in a couple of weeks.

There was too much excitement and stress to do much of anything this week, blogging, reading, or anything else. I did do a lot of streaming of movies because it kept my mind occupied so I wouldn’t think of all the ways things could go wrong. Tell me about your week. Are you reading anything? Do you have a movie to recommend? What is up with you?

#WeekendCoffeeShare is a weekly blog hop hosted by Diana at Part Time Monster. Come over and check it out. Maybe you’ll join us?

 

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Hitting the Fan

Things are happening here at home so I’ve been absent. I can’t discuss it yet but I think this weekend’s coffee share will fill everyone in on things.

In the meantime, I have been thinking a lot about graduations and new beginnings. I guess it’s the season. I was going to write a whole post on graduations then things started happening on Tuesday and I couldn’t see writing that post or anything else.

What about you? Any graduation related memories? Tell me!

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The Cycle

Today we had Tina’s baby shower.  Tomorrow is her birthday.  One makes you think of the other.

I remember the day she was born, 25 years ago.  She was the most gorgeous baby I had ever seen.  Everyone asked if she was a C-section baby because she was so perfectly shaped with none of the misshapened features or facial bruising common in babies that have that long, arduous journey through the birth canal.  Her cheeks were full and rosy; her skin smooth and white as milk.  Even when she was born she was late and that hasn’t changed yet.  She was twenty days post mature.  She measured 23 inches and weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces.  I remember taking a maroon colored velvet sleeper for her to come home from the hospital in and it wouldn’t snap at the crotch because she was too long for the newborn size!

And I remember how we didn’t know if she was a boy or a girl before she actually emerged to face the world, yet I only had a girl name picked out because I had that feeling that she would definitely be a she!

Schedule-wise, Tina didn’t know how to be on one.  One day she would sleep for four or five hours and be awake for 45 minutes, only to sleep for another block of four or five hours.  The next day, she would sleep for an hour then be awake for five hours!  Not fun when mom doesn’t know what’s going on with baby’s sleep schedule.

I remember having to be ready to go run errands as soon as the baby woke up.  One day Tony, who was three, and I ran around and got everything ready to leave as soon as the baby woke up.  We put everything in the car then we got in the car and as I backed out of the driveway, Tony said, “Mommy, I think you’re forgetting something.”  I asked what I was forgetting and he answered, “The baby.”   I hit the brakes, pulled back in the driveway and we went back inside to sit and wait for her to wake up so we could leave!

Anyway, today has been a day for Tina to concentrate on her baby.  Tomorrow is a day for me to concentrate on Tina, my baby!   One day the cycle will continue with Tina accompanying her daughter or daughter-in-law to a shower for her first grandchild!

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December 25, 1955

This is my favorite Christmas story. It’s about the night that I was born. I have posted this elsewhere over the years.

DECEMBER 25, 1955

María lay in bed exhausted, yet unable to sleep. She’d had an endless day and had just finished putting out the gifts for her four children. Tomorrow would be filled with joy and much activity. The kids were sure to waken by seven, anxious to open their gifts and play with their new toys. There would be lots of cooking to do, too.

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