Random thoughts of a happy housewife: CJ Rampy

Hello Blogger World!!! It's been a long time. Too long. Actually, I've been back quite a few times in the last few months. I've started several posts. However, because I have a 3 year old, a 2 year old, a 1 year old, and a 1 month old, interruptions are inevitable. One of them would need something the minute I got a good thought going. Before I finished meeting their need another one would need something. And so the story goes until all four of them have needed something, the phone rang, daddy came home from work, and dinner had to be cooked. By the time I again found time to work on the post, the thought was gone!! Such is the life of a mother . . . and I wouldn't change it for ANYTHING!!!! Okay, I'd give a few hours of it to get the house cleaned, take a bath, and get a long nap :-) but the life of a mother????? I'd rather have this than anything. One of these days I'll go back and finish the other posts I've started. Until then I'm gonna try to get through this one with my husband on his way home from work, my 1 month old sleeping soundly in his playpen beside me, my 1 year old walking around the living room crying, my 2 year old playing a guitar, and my 3 year old running around dancing and singing. If things seem to ramble or don't make sense . . . well, you'll know why!!

The life of a mother . . . I said I wouldn't trade it for anything. Well, God has taken me up on that and extended the years of motherhood for me! On March 1, 2013 we welcomed another little blessing into our family. At 4.5 weeks early, Mr. CJ Rampy was born at 3:13 PM weighing only 5 lbs, 7 oz. He is, by far, our smallest baby yet. However, at 18.5 inches, he is also our longest.

With two previous preterm deliveries, we knew that there was almost a 100% chance this one would be preterm as well. So early on in the pregnancy we started Progesterone shots. They are not fun, but I was willing to do whatever it took to keep from doing the NICU thing AGAIN! The doctor told me that it is only effective in 90% of women. Well, apparently I'm in the other 10%!!!

The morning of 35 weeks I went to the doctor thinking my water had broken. One of her tests came back positive - that it had - the other two came back negative - it hadn't. However, I was dilated to a 2. She sent me to the hospital to be monitored. We were there for several hours with no change, but by that point it was getting late and we lived 45 minutes from the hospital. Afraid I would go into labor and not be able to make it back in time, they kept me over night to make sure no more changes were going to happen.

I forgot to mention that two of Chase's sisters had come in town for a week to help me out around the house so I wouldn't go into early labor. All I can say is that if they hadn't come, CJ probably would have come earlier than he did!

When they decided to keep me over night, my sister and grandmother got in the car and came up to help me out. They figured that if he was born that night I'd need help at home since I wouldn't be there for my girls. If he wasn't born that night, I'd need to be VERY careful at home to keep from going into labor. Well, it's a good thing they came! The next morning (Wednesday) the doctor sent me home on complete bed rest with instructions to stay on my left side as much as possible. That worked for a little while. But not long enough! By Thursday night I was having contractions 5 minutes apart. They were intense and lasting a LONG time. So we headed back to the hospital. I was dilated to a 3. Once again, they decided to keep me over night. It was well into Friday before I changed to a 4 and got my epidural. Once that happened, though, things moved quickly.

Unfortunately, he had fluid in his lungs so they took him to the NICU. I on;y held him for about 30 seconds - and Chase not at all - before they took him from us. It was terrible!!! It was after 9 that night before I made it up to see him. The girls were very confused. They saw him in the nursery window before he was taken to the NICU, but after that they didn't get to see him again until he came home. His lungs cleared up almost from day 1, but he didn't want to eat. After 10 very long days though, he came home!!!!

He has been such a great addition to our family. He sleeps ALL the time - already 8-10 hours at night. He sleeps through all of his sisters' noises. He sleeps through the vacuum cleaner and all the other noises that happen around here. He wakes up to eat and then immediately goes back to sleep. He still doesn't eat much, but hey, he's still gaining weight and he's saving me money on formula!!!! I'll take that! Here are some pics of our new guy . . .