Shannon 16 Months Old!

Here is Shannon yesterday (May 29th) dancing in the living room. :) She LOVES to dance!

Baby Richard!!

I had a strange thing happen with Richard's delivery...or rather, something strange that caused labor...I was almost 35 weeks pregnant, and one evening started having severe pain in my side. It wouldn't go away when I went to bed, but got worse and spread up my side, in my ribs (they felt like they were on fire if I touched them) up to my shoulder, across my back and down my other side. It was SO strange. It was unrelenting pain--constant, and Tylenol didn't help at ALL. The next morning we went to see our doctor, and the pain got even worse while I was there...I couldn't lie down or sit up straight in a chair! Our doctor sent us to the ER, and there they did some tests, ultrasounds, etc...but every test came back negative...which is great, except nobody could figure out the pain! While I was in the ER, I started going into labor from the intense pain (??). (They were not labor pains, but it caused labor.) Because I was just shy of 35 weeks pregnant, they made the decision to airlift me to a bigger hospital in Spokane, WA, which is a 2-hour drive from Moscow. Apart from being in pain, the helicoptor ride (30 minutes) was sort of fun! :) They had given me an IV with some pain medication, and that took the edge off. In Spokane they did more tests..all of them were negative except for the amniocentesis (which I would never do if it were earlier in the pregnancy because of the risk of hurting the baby or provoking labor...) That test showed there was probably an infection in the uterus which was causing pain and also labor. So they gave me some pitocin and an epidural and some pain medication, and I went to sleep (the pain was only a tiny bit better all night...miserable, but at least I slept)...the next morning at 5 AM, I felt my water break, and about an hour later, Richard Allyn Beauchamp II was born! He weighed 7 lb 5 oz, which is big for a preemie! The took him up to the NICU to get some oxygen, and they said he aspirated some blood during delivery, and that caused a small infection in his lungs, so they had to give him an antibiotic, and also a surfactant to help his lungs out since he was born too early. But he got better really fast! After a week he had all the oxygen and tubes gone, and they just wanted to make sure he was eating enough to go home. That took another week.
I was in the hospital for another 3 days because the strange upper body pains kept on after I delivered...they gave me more antibiotics, and pain medication, and told me to rest, and it gradually got better! They think I must have had placental abruption that caused an infection in the uterus, but they never could find out for sure! I am just glad it's gone! :) Praise God for a healthy little boy! He's such a cuddler--I love it! :)

You'll need to scroll down to see the pics in order...


Little munchkin is down to a simple canula with a small amount of oxygen! Hooray!

Holding my precious boy...This was only about the 3rd or 4th day...before that I was on IVs and unable to hold him, plus they had him on the CPAP.

Richard getting Mommy's good milk via a bottle...

After I held him about 1 minute, they whisked Richard up to the NICU--he needed oxygen, and it seems he aspirated some blood during delivery.

Richard seconds after delivery...What a chubby little 35-week-old!! 7lb, 5oz!