the reluctant roller

a not- great video of Ian escaping tummy time and then getting irritated when I roll him back into it, showing him at a young age that I am the meanest mom in the world.

Go Eebo, Go!

A friend sold me his jumperoo, has a few missing toys, but as you can see, he doesn't care. His first outing lasted 103 of nearly nonstop jumping. He didn't want to get out of it. When he does become a movin' baby, we are in for a world of hurt!

H1N1 Blues and Viking threats

Isn't he just the cutest thing ever? Yeah, that was last week. Then we found out that we had H1N1....the dreaded flu. Bug is the only confirmed case in the family, the rest of us were diseased by association.

He had a little cough for a few days, felt a little warm, but was breathing fine and eating like normal, no worries. Then Saturday came....why is it always a weekend?

He was crabby, he didn't smile, his little head bobbed when he was breathing. He didn't want his pacifier, he only wanted me. All day long. The only thing was I came down with it Friday night so I was dying all day too. With a little remora stuck to my chest. We called the clinic, and they put him back on the oxygen. This seemed to help him be more comfortable. And so did the ibuprofen, although that did nothing for his fever.

Finally he settled down and went to sleep. then at 11:30 he woke up with a croupy cough. Steam...freeze...sleep....steam...freeze....sleep all night long.

He stayed on oxygen on Sunday, I took him to see the pediatrician on call (not wanting to go to Children's...the ER is a cesspool of germs) she wrote us a script for prednisone to help with the inflammation around his larynx which caused the stridor, that he still had a bit, even though the cough disappeared at sunup (I swear that croup is the pre-cursor to vampirism.......)

Last night he slept much better, and at 6:30am was up and ready for the day!!!!

I was not.

Super G has not fallen ill as of yet. I cannot believe it, he either has very good luck, or a cast iron constitution. Either way, he better watch out. I was holding/nursing/praying Eebo into a nap today, watching a show about the Middle Ages and Charlemange. Of course he beat back the Moors with no problem etc etc, but who gave him the hardest time? The Vikings!

Discussing how mean and nasty the Vikings were, they took a traitorous man, tied him to a table, broke open his rib cage and splayed out his lungs like wings.....all while he was alive. Be warned Super G, these are my people. Be afraid, be very afraid.....

(okay so those were Danish Vikings, I'm sure the Swedish ones just killed everyone with their lutefisk or something. whatever, the point is that he may have escaped this illness, but he can't keep skating by forever!)

Little Eebo is waking up, must return to my role as a remora host.

Ian, the Kickin' Chicken

He's a kickin' machine!

Ian's Gymini workout video

Ian being super happy in his Gymini.

Dear Long Neglected Blog

I feel like a teenager who has forgotten her dear diary, after swearing to divulge her innermost secrets to it's secured and forgiving pages.

I suffer through bouts of insomnia, and what I should do is hop onto ye olde blogger and scoop the thoughts out of my head. But instead I spend my time on Facebook. I never should have joined, it sucks the time right out of your hands.

Things are going fairly well here. Tomorrow Ian goes to his BPD (BronchoPulmonaryDisplasia) clinic, and they will determine if he can be taken off the oxygen at that time. So naturally this weekend he had to come down with croup. With some loud stridor, which scared me more than the coupy cough. Saturday was a long night, I alternately steamed him and froze him, and he was able to clear up for a few hours to get some sleep. I, on the other hand, was on high alert, and slept very little.

The thing about croup is that it has a small virus attitude. It's little, it's annoying and fairly harmless. It gets no respect when up up against the big guns, like Strep Throat, Viral Meningitis or the new kid on the block, H1N1. So it makes up for it's small stature in other ways. It is loud, very loud. It scares the crap outta first time parents. And it only strikes at night, disappearing at first light. So it's either a real party animal among viruses, or it's also a vampire, I haven't figured that one out yet.

Sunday night had only about 4 minutes of coughing that didn't even wake up the baby, but intermittent stridor episodes that kept me wide awake.

We saw the pediatrician today, who could hear the stridor with his stethescope, and knowing that tomorrow could be our oxygen free day, he gave Ian a shot of steroids to help reduce the inflammation and clear up the stridor.

Fingers crossed, I hope and pray that tomorrow is the last corner that Ian has to turn......

Ian in the Hoopty

Funniest Laugh in the world

Oh man, this guy's laugh is just incredible!! Beats the old grandma and the machine gun hands down!!!!

Ian's smiling dream

he's just so cute! Ian at 7 weeks of age, still 7 weeks premature, smiling in his sleep.

Ian gets mad as a hornet.

Ian hates getting his nose suctioned, we have captured his reaction here, to show you why they call him The Little Hornet. Some might want to cry, or be upset by seeing a baby cry like this, but in the NICU, the world is turned on it's ear, and a baby who fights and cries is a baby that nurses are happy to see. The ones who lay there and don't respond are the ones that break your heart.

Itty Bitty Baby Arrives 14 weeks early!!!

Everything about this kid has been a surprise. Yep, I had me a baby boy on March 25, 2009. He just had to have a March birthday like his sister and brother.

You can find out all about the birth and his progress at

www.caringbridge.org/visit/ianrapp

Thanks!!

Old woman shoots MP40 Machine gun

I want to be this kind of grandma when i grow up..... it's something to aspire to.....

Rhinos 4 RINOs

For the uninformed, a RINO is a Republican in Name Only.

There are three RINOs in particular that I think need to be sent a message:

Arlen Specter (R-PA)
United States Senate
711 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-3802

Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
United States Senate
154 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Susan Collins (R-ME)
United States Senate
413 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-1904

I propose that these so-called Republicans receive a fair and proper representation of what they really are. Therefore, I ask that all of you who feel that we, and our children and our grandchildren, have been betrayed and sold out by their "yea" votes on the Stimulus, ahem, Spendulus package, please consider purchasing a rhinoceros and mailing it to them at the above address.

Now, if you're a big game hunter, by all means, have at it. But, honestly, that would bring down the blood reign from PETA and other like minded animal rights activists, due to the whole Endangered Species thing that the rhino has going on.

I suggest going online and buying a small plastic rhino, such as I found here:

Plastic Animals ~
Tapir and Friends Wildlife World

And send one to each of those turncoats. Or maybe buy in bulk, nothing says "you done stepped in it this time" like a gross of rhinos in a pretty box.

There was more pork in that spending bill than in all of the Hormel plants in America. It's ridiculous, wrong and completely irresponsible. As I sat home on Friday night, watching the horror unfold, I realized that this pregnancy has stolen my waistline, the kids have stolen my chocolate and now Congress has stolen my money. The waistline will reappear, the chocolate can be replaced, and hidden better, but the money, I'll never get that back. Now I'm pissed.

So lets make the RINOs an endangered species, until we can vote 'em out, lets show just how much they've pissed us off!

Let the stampede begin!