Prematurity Awareness Month

For those of you not aware, this month is Prematurity Awareness Month, and today is Blog For Preemies day. 

I was lucky enough to not have to deal with the heartache and stress that comes with having a preemie, but follow stories of those that have.  Not all stories end up happy, but one that did is documented on a blog called Our Stork Got Lost.  It deals with prematurity as well as infertility in a wonderfully humorous but serious way.  The willingness of these people to share their story, and the courage they display is inspiring.  (I went to high school with Jeff but haven't seen him in years - I give him, and his wife Kerry, so much credit for displaying their life and struggles to the public and putting themselves out there for scrutiny.  You'll see what I mean when I say scrutiny.) 

The strength of parents that have children born 10 or 12 weeks early amazes me.  The months their babies have to spend in the NICU must be agonizing.  I don't know if I could do it and I pray that I never have to. 

I didn't realize, though, that my chances of having a premature baby are higher here in the United States than in most other developed countries.  According to the March of Dimes the U.S. gets a "D" grade when it comes to the number of premature births.  In the U.S. alone more than 540,000 babies are born prematurely (that's 1 out of every 8 births!).  And worldwide the number is around 13 million.

So why is this the case?  Why has the percentage of premature births grown so drastically in the last 20 years? 

Most of the time there is no particular reason for a woman going into premature labor.  But there are precautions that can be taken to help prevent a premature delivery.  The March of Dimes website has some wonderful suggestions for pregnant women to help them stay pregnant for their full term.  It gives some great information on prematurity for moms, families and professionals.  It also gives you ideas on what you can do, pregnant or not, to help fight prematurity.

Arizona's budget

I have been meaning to post this link for a while now.  I don't really know what took me so long.  It might have to do with a certain seriously teething 17-month old.

Anyway, most of you have seen the posts I've put up in the past about how Arizona is in a serious budget crisis right now.  Most agencies have laid off employees throughout this year in an effort to reduce costs.  I've been lucky enough to make it through two rounds of lay-offs at my agency.

Just recently the Governor asked all agencies to put together a proposal for what they would cut should they be required to reduce by another 15%.  These can all be found on the Office of Strategic Planning & Budgeting's website.  My agency is Administration.  To go directly to ADOA's proposal click here.  Go to page 62 for the Human Resources Division section.  The gist of the document for HR says that if ADOA were to cut the amount requested in the proposal then HR would essentially go away completely.

If that happened all the agencies would be required to handle the HR duties that ADOA currently does (HRIS entry, recruiting, employee relations, etc.).  The problem, though, is that the agencies that we help out are saying that if they have to cut 15% they will cut their HR department as well and give everything that we aren't already doing back to us.  Ummm, hello?  There is going to be no HR anywhere!  It just can't work!

It still remains to be seen if something will come of these proposals.  Our Governor is still pushing for a temporary tax increase to help offset the deficit we have but the Legislature isn't having any of it.  There still is not a budget passed for FY2010 (which started July 1).  I think that they are getting ready to start a 4th special session to try to get things worked out.

So that's where we are.  Who knows when we'll ever get in the black again.

Halloween 2009!

Halloween was a crazy day for us this year.  We had a garage sale (more on that in a different post) and then went to the Coyotes' game.  I didn't think O is ready for the whole trick or treating gig this year, but we'll definitely try next year.  My parents were also in town so we wanted to make sure they got to at least one game this year.

We carved pumpkins for the first time since John and I have been married.  I think our jack-o-lanterns turned out pretty good.  I free-handed, and John used a pattern.

John deciding which pattern to use.

 O enjoyed playing with the guts more than anything

I guess before we had a baby we never really got that in to decorating for the holidays.  Sure, I'd put a few things out for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but now that O is here I want to make sure she has great holidays, and that means decorating.  It's actually kind of fun!

I went a little overboard with the pictures but O was so cute as Supergirl.  I just couldn't resist.  Enjoy!

This costume was so cute.  I had to get it from all angles.

Up, up and away!!!

Supergirl has to re-fuel at some point

Christmas ideas

I received a couple of e-mails this week for fundraisers that are currently going on.  No, I'm not going to ask you for money or anything like that.  I wanted to give you guys some links to take a look at because, not only are they fundraisers for some really great causes, but they are also great ideas for Christmas gifts.  We have less than two months worth of shopping days remaining!

The first is for our friends Tom and Melanie.  They adopted their adorable daughter Riley in April 2007 and are currently going through the adoption process again in the hopes of bringing another beautiful child into their family.  Unfortunately the adoption process is not cheap so they are doing their own "fundraiser".  Basically a percentage of proceeds from their Just Love Coffee! storefront go to them to help defray some of their costs.  If you love coffee, and I know a lot of you out there do, this is a great site!

The second is for the Rhodes College Softball program.  This is a program that is near and dear to me having played for Rhodes for 4 years.  They are taking a trip to Florida over Spring Break - yes, they will be playing not just laying on the beach!  One of the fundraisers they are doing has to do with gift cards.  With Shop With Scrip, you go online and purchase gift cards for everyday expenses such as gasoline, groceries, dining out, home improvement, etc.   There are over 600 retail chains available, including Home Depot, Wal-Mart, and Applebees to name a few.  When you purchase a gift certificate, Rhodes Softball receives a percentage of the sale.  The percentage differs for each retain chain, but ranges from 2-25%.  The next order Coach Hicks will be placing is on November 3 so if you want to get a jump on some gifts this is a really good chance to do it.

Ordering Instructions

·         Go to www.shopwithscrip.com

·         On the right hand side, click “not a member.”

·         Enter your information.  For “student name,” enter the name of the student you want proceeds from your purchases to benefit.

·         On the next page, you will be asked for our organizational code.  It is 5C6798E21757L

·         You are ready to begin shopping.  Again, you will find hundreds of retailers, restaurants, gas stations, just about anything you want. 

·         When you have placed your order, you will come to a screen that will ask you to print a page and mail it, with your payment, to Coach Hicks at Rhodes.  Mail your check and this form.  Coach Hicks will place orders on the 10^th of the month, and by the end of that month, your gift cards will be mailed to you. 

If you have any questions about either of these, please let me know.

Mmmm, tasty!

My mom forwarded me a great site that I had never visited before called Still Tasty.  You can check the shelf/fridge/freezer life of all sorts of food.  So that ground beef that's been in your freezer for 2 months?  You have 4 months left before you should get rid of it.  What about that feijoa on your counter?  2-3 days or until ripe, a little longer in the fridge.

The site has listings for everything from spelt, to bison, to deer, to alcoholic beverages.  Even goat and chocolate chips.  Check it out if you have questionable items in your kitchen.  I know we all do.  I don't think I need any help with that plain yogurt that's been in the back of my fridge for a while though.  Yuck.

Feijoa, by the way, is also known as pineapple guava.  Who knew?

Pumpkin patch

John's mom was in town a couple of weekends ago so we decided to all go to a pumpkin patch and farm.  I was interested to see how O would react to all the animals and people.  I was not at all surprised to see her reaction to the horses, cows, pigs, goats and chickens.  She LOVED them.  She is such an animal girl.  I turned on Animal Planet last night to try to distract her from her whining and she stopped crying immediately and ran at the sea lion on the screen.  She even loves our stupid cat.  He provides endless entertainment for her.  And that's great for Mom and Dad.

First time meeting a cow - I love that they are looking at each other

She really enjoyed all the pumpkins - of course she tried picking up ones much too big for her

Yeah, she's not his kid at all.

Things have been going well here.   It is finally getting cold here.  We are expecting a high of only about 62 tomorrow!  Break out the winter coats!  Of course, it's supposed to be 80 again by Saturday so it'll be short-lived.  At this point, I'll take what I can get.

Jobs are the same.  Although we just learned yesterday that the Coyotes "owner" Jerry Moyes has agreed to sell the team to the NHL for around $141 million.  He could have gotten $150 mill from Reinsdorf a couple of months ago.  I'll keep my opinion on the guy to myself.  It looks like he and Wayne Gretzky (again, I'll spare you my opinion) will get to split between $9-11 million which I think is hilarious.  So where things go from here remains to be seen.  The NHL is still saying they are looking for a buyer that will keep the team here but who knows what will really happen.

O's hair is starting to get crazy.  She won't leave barrettes in her hair unless she is distracted when I am putting it in and doesn't realize it's there.

I'll leave you with this.  It was posted on a fence at the farm we went to for the pumpkin patch.  I can appreciate the sentiment.

Toddler puke - NOT AT ALL like infant spit-up

John and I learned this first hand yesterday.  I had just been thinking, Man, O hasn't been sick in a long time and I am so glad.  I'd even just called the pediatrician's office to find out when they thought their flu vaccine shipment was going to come in.  When I returned to my desk from a training session there was a missed call on my cell, a message on my desk phone AND an e-mail from John saying "Call me on my cell".  Oh great.

Turns out O had thrown up at her babysitters after she woke up from her nap.  Not once, but twice.  John went and picked her up about 3:30 and she proceeded to vomit in the car as well.  Fabulous.  John lucked out though because it all ended up on her and in her carseat.  Nothing got on his seats, and I really don't know how that happened.  So I stayed at work since he was already with her and told him to give her some water and crackers if she seemed hungry.  He didn't know how she couldn't be with the amount of stuff that come out of her.  Nice, honey. Thanks for that.

She perked up after getting rehydrated and ate the crap out of some crackers.  I, in the meantime, called the pediatrician's office, yet again, to see if they thought I should bring her in.  By this time she was playing and running around like normal.  She didn't have a fever or any other symptoms of being sick.  The dr.'s office said to just keep her hydrated, give her some watered down Gatorade and keep an eye on her.  They said that if she got worse or developed a fever to call.

Well, none of that happened.  She ate dinner, had a bath and was put to bed.  Shortly after John and I went out to his truck to reinstall the car seat that had been thoroughly cleaned.  When I came back in I hear her crying.  It wasn't one of those "I'm just making noise" cries.  It was a real "There's something wrong" cries that all moms learn to interpret (yes, Renee, you'll know what each cry means - I didn't think I'd be able to tell, I mean, a cry is a cry, right?  Nope.).  I walk in and she had thrown up again all over herself and her crib.  Back into the bath we go.  John stripped the bed down to the mattress, pad and all, and put new sheets on. 

Poor thing was shaking and wimpering.  I hate that feeling and it was awful seeing her going through it.  Good news is, though, she hasn't thrown up since!  I worked from home this morning to make sure she was okay.  She had breakfast and a snack while I was with her, with no return visit from the food.  So I took her over to daycare and headed in to work.

Of course then I had to go rinse out the sheet, her pajamas, and everything else.  I almost became the third victim to the puke wave going around (the cat threw up twice yesterday too - ugh). 

I had always heard people say that the vomit gets worse as they get bigger and eat solids but I didn't think it would be too bad.  I'll just say that you could tell every last thing that she had eaten.  And I don't know how her little stomach held so much.  The smell wasn't roses either.  I'm crossing my fingers that this doesn't happen again any time soon.

First Word

It's official.  O's first word was . . . daddy.  Yes, daddy.  Not dada, not mama, but daddy.  I think it's only appropriate because she can be a world-class daddy's girl when she wants something.  She is a great babbler and I was starting to wonder when she would ever come out with that first word and then this past weekend we heard it.  Very exciting!  She will say it for us all the time when we ask her to.  Now, to get her to say mommy.

I realized something as I was writing my post from yesterday.  John and I have spent every wedding anniversary we've had in Arizona.  We've lived almost our entire married life (with the exception of the first 5 months or so) here.  It's a little surprising to think of that.  The time has gone by so fast!  We are definitely ready to spend the next 7 years somewhere else though!

Happy 7th Anniversary!

I just wanted to wish my wonderful husband a very happy 7th wedding anniversary.  It's hard to believe that it was 7 years ago today that these pictures were taken.

That day was one of the happiest in my life.  And one of the most fun!  I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

I love you John!  You are my best friend and I have no doubt the next seven years will be just as wonderful as the first seven.

Austin and more . . .

I went to Austin a couple of weeks ago to do some wedding stuff with my mom and sister. It was a blast. I documented it on the travel blog I co-own with my friend Jenn. Find it here. But here are a few pictures from dinner on Friday night at a restaurant called, appropriately, Olivia. (Awesome, by the way!)

Mom and Danny
Me and Erin, ready to eat

Olivia is a piece of work. I guess that's a nice way of saying it. She had her 15 month shots last week, but we will have to go back for her flu shot soon. They didn't have their shipment in yet. She is into everything and is extremely smart, if I do say so myself. She has her daycare lady and dad figured out, but hopefully not me yet. I don't let her get away with as much. Yes, I will be/am the disciplinarian when it comes to her. Her hair is getting really long and floppy and, combine that with the fact that she won't leave barrettes in her hair (she likes to pull them out and then try to put them back in herself), it seems that it's always falling in her face as you can see below.

My little girl LOVES LOVES LOVES to be outside. She was scared of her sandbox at first but now she can't get enough. I think she likes the cleaning off part just as much because she gets to sit on the sink in the kitchen and play with the water coming out of the spout. Luckily it is finally getting cool enough where we will be able to start going outside in the afternoons and evenings to take walks and play at the park.

She does manage to get sand all over herself, including in her mouth.

I don't know why she just decided to lie down on the floor, but she did. I guess it was nice and cool.

Some of O's favorite things are: toothbrushes (she will gnaw and gnaw on them), yogurt melts (she has figured out how to open the pantry and other doors - not good when you are trying to go to the bathroom), going outside - especially to the front yard, Elvis - she chases him and gives him her bibs to wear, her ladybug and sheep lovies (Ladybug seen in the picture above), anything with buttons and makes noise - especially remote controls or the lock/alarm key fob for the cars, BOOKS! - which I am so happy about, and anything that mom and dad have - doesn't matter what it is. I think she's a pretty typical almost 16-month old.

She had just woken up and, while it's hard to tell, she has a sweet mohawk and kinda looked like Kenickie from Grease. =)