Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Reactions

It has been fun watching the boy's reactions to their new brother. I won't tell you who is who (you can pretty well figure out which is Manasseh).

Child #1 - Stood by the door staring, then took off toward dad, who was holdin the baby and stared from about a foot away. Then leaned over to "hug" the baby, and gave him a kiss... did not want to leave baby alone.

Child #2 - Walked in the door, said "what a beautiful baby".... looked at the person who brought him, said "look at my metal detecter!"

Child #3 - Walked in the door, asked "where's the baby? can I get a picture of me holding the baby to show my teachers?" (This child did not get to meet baby today, due to baby's doctor appointment and sudden trip to hospital).

Cassius Jackson Crum Welcome & first trip to the hospital, oi!


Cassius was born on Friday morning, January 8 at 8:02 am (I was cheering for 8:01 because how cool would that be, 8:01 on 1/08 -- but we were a tad late... I blame my sister for that because she called at 8:00 and distracted me.. or something).

He was 8lb 11 oz and 20.5 inches long. Cassius has lots of dark hair and nice round Billey type cheeks! On Sunday afternoon we were released from the hospital!

Big brother Manasseh met Cassius at the hospital and definitly took a liking to him. He wants to snuggle him, hold him, comfort him.. it's all very sweet.

When the pediatrician released him, he recommended that we schedule an appointment for today to have his bilirubin count checked again. Today Cassius was pretty lethargic and didn't eat a lot. After my nap I saw that he did, indeed, look jaundiced. We got him in to the doctor as soon as Randy got home, and they decided that he definitly was jaundiced and should go to the hospital lab for blood work to see how high his count was. They also checked his temperature at the office and found it was only 93.8. This set off alarms in doc A's head and she decided to admit him to the hospital to stabilize him.

We're here now, at the hospital with him. Cassius is under a Bili light and on a bili blanket. His bilirubin count was 19, which the nurse called "critically high". His temperature seems to have stabilized at about 97.7. No idea when they'll release us, I'm not sure what their policy is about the bilirubin count. My sister said that Isaac's had to be below 12 before he could go home. They'll retest Cassius in the morning and see what the light therapy has done to lower it. On a good note, he has eaten 2 ounces since we've been here (he had eaten very little for me today).

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Doctors and God

A month or so ago, when we asked Dr. Wheeler about when we would be having this baby, he said "We'll pick a day after Christmas, when the roads are not going to be snowy and icy". Randy joked with him about his connections with God and his ability to make the roads clear for our drive to Fort Wayne.

I guess he's not so connected with God because today and tomorrow are supposed to host a winter storm.

Diseases

One of our boys has a fear of getting diseases from other people - like the kid on the bus that laughs all the time for no reason and the boy at school that drools a lot. He thinks that if they touch him, or drool on him, he'll get their "disease".

This morning as he was getting ready for his respite care, I asked him to put his bag on the sofa. He looked at me and said "I don't want to get sick." "Huh? why would putting your bag on the sofa make you sick," asked I. "Um.. uh... er....." he paused. "I heard someone say that you were sick and I don't want to get sick."

So I think maybe we have a little confusion - maybe he heard someone say that I was going to the hospital, or someone may have asked me how I was feeling (no one asks you that so often when you're NOT pregnant). Somehow he got the idea that I'm sick and if I touch his stuff, he might get a disease!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

WHAT? WHO?

Daily I struggle with getting these boys ready for school on time. It isn't MY struggle as much as theirs, they are old enough to get themselves ready. Somehow it takes each of them well over an hour to prepare for school, that's at least half an hour in the bathroom a piece. I can't figure it out.

They wake up to their own alarms - or at least, they are supposed to. Generally it takes at least half an hour for the first to get out of bed after his alarm starts to go off and his mom starts to hollar at him. Then it's 15 minutes in the bathroom, 15 to get dressed, and so on.

Today, however - I don't know what happened, but it left me very confused. The alarm went off, the child got out of bed, went to the bathroom, changed clothes, had his glasses on, and was eating breakfast before 12 minutes had passed. He was ready to go with time to spare.

Randy's theory is that he was abducted in the night by alien dwarves.. I'm not sure about this theory, but more than willing to accept it as truth.

The characters for the script

Kind of funny that my last post was almost a year ago. There have been SO many changes in our lives and home over the last year that it's nearly unbelievable. A year ago, Manasseh was a sweet almost 6 month old, and struggling with a nasty cold. Let me introduce you to all the characters that appear in the stories to come...

Now, it's an ear infection and a very independent almost 18 month old. He doesn't talk, other than "no" - but he's working on it, sometimes. He communicates well with signs and gestures. His current plans for the future are "to be a big brother" and "to have my diaper changed as soon as mom puts the computer down".

In May we added Brandon, 12, to our family. He turned 13 at the end of June and is in the 8th grade . Brandon would like to be a pastor or a singer or a cook or a park ranger in the future.

In October we added Ryan, 10, to our family. He turned 11 shortly after he moved in. Ryan is a 5th grader. He hopes to some day be an inventor or a miner or somethin else that Ican't remember right now. Ryan can never find his socks when it's time to get ready to go someplace.

In 2 days - January 8 - we plan to add another boy to our family. This one does not yet have a name, and we don't know anything about his personality (other than he doesn't move nearly as much as Manasseh did). We look forward to meeting our new little man, and introducing him to his crazy assortment of family.

Randy is working at an instrument factory. He recieves stuff and enteres it into the computer. I'm sure there's more to it than that, but that's the part I know. He's a GREAT dad, very patient with the big boys, even when his incredibly pregnant wife is at her witts' end. He is a beekeeper - or "bee-haver", I guess we won't know until spring how many he was able to keep. He loves nature and gardens and all kinds of cool things like that.

Me, I stay at home with Manasseh - and soon with "baby". For real, this poor guy doesn't have a name for sure yet. I run the big boys all over the place for appointments, and have plenty of appointments myself right now - those will slow down soon. As stated, I am immensely pregnant, and I greatly look forward to being relieved of the condition. I hope it helps my mood, and my ability to get the "big boys" ready for school without wanting to eat them for their sometimes ridiculous behaviors.

So here we are - the Crum Family. An odd assortment of individuals, drawn together by God and sometimes God is the only thing that keeps us held together. In the coming posts, you will discover some of the craziness that is our family. I think every family with kids hosts a slew of crazy.. we just have to find it and learn to laugh at it (sometimes my laughing does not come for hours, days, weeks after the events have completed themselves).

Let's go -