Karma Sue Berry

Little Karma entered this tough world June 4, 2008 at 5:29am weighed 6lbs and was 19" long. My water broke the night before and 6 hours later, she was here. We were so excited to have her but unfortunately she wasn't quite ready and coming 4 weeks early her lungs weren't quite developed. They let me hold her for a few minutes and then Pat carried her to the NICU. The first day she was under a hood that blew oxygen around her. They thought she'd only need that for a day or two, but she had other plans!
Day 2 she was put on CPAP which blows a certain percentage of oxygen directly into her nose and mouth. She wasn't being fed at this time but she was hungry based on the way she devoured the pacifier! By the end of day 2 she couldn't breath on her own anymore even with the help of the CPAP so the morning of the third day she had to be intubated (put on a ventilator). It was very sad and scary knowing that this was the worse case scenario they had given us on day 1. They diagnosed her with premature lung disease and a surfactant deficiency. Surfactant is a lipid rich layer that coats the lungs and acts as a lubricant during the oxygen transfer into the blood stream. Infants make surfactant in the last weeks of pregnancy and hopefully make enough to last them the aprox. 3 days it takes for their bodies to trigger the production of it on a regular basis. Because she was early she had not made enough and by day 2 she couldn't breath anymore. They gave her a synthetic version of surfactant and immediately she began to improve. We did have a scary experience when her tube became clogged by the surfactant and we watched as the nurses rushed to save her. She turned completely blue and flat lined. It was horrible but we were blessed to have wonderful nurses that were experienced, knowledgeable, and calm and everything ended up fine.
Pat was able to extubate her (take the breathing tube out) on day 5 and she spent the next few days learning how to eat, gaining weight, and slowly requiring less and less oxygen. She was finally able to come home after 9 days in the NICU! She is still on oxygen and probably will be for a while. She's on almost the smallest amount possible but is very attached to it. We were sent home with a monitor that she wears at night that warns us if her oxygen levels or heart rate become dangerous. We are so grateful for nurses and doctors that took such good care of her. It was a very scary, sad, and long week and a half but we are so grateful to our Heavenly Father to have our beautiful baby girl home and healthy. We are very grateful also for all of the prayers and support we received! We couldn't ask for better family and friends!
Merik is totally in love and takes very good care of her! He is always asking about her and wanting to check on her! I expected him to not really care about her but he adores her! He has been pretty cranky and clingy but it could be worse. She has had a toothbrush and a ball thrown at her head but they were deflected and she was saved.
We're so excited to have our little family and can't wait to see her grow up!

These boots were made for ME!

"Look at my muscles!" "So Cool!"

Feeding the Ducks

We took some old bread and fed the ducks at the park. Merik enjoyed it but kept trying to eat the bread!

My pregnancy is going great. I'm 35 1/2 weeks, and dialated to a 2. The midwives say anytime so we'll let you know when it happens. I hope I make it to the hospital or Pat may be working overtime for this little girl! We're really excited but definatley not in reality. I finally did pack a bag though and cleaned really well so if it happens at least that's done. Hopefully it will set in that I have 2 kids once i'm holding her?

Goofy Kid!

Merik is definately Pat's child and already has his sense of humor. He's realized that he can do things just to make us laugh and spends a lot of his time doing those things. He recently smelled his shoe, which smells horrible, and made me smell it. After my reaction that is now his favorite thing to do is make other people smell his shoes. He just thinks its so funny. He also loves to scare you. He is still a dancing fool which always shocks us because he'll dance forever. We were at yet another wedding the other night and Merik was of course on the dance floor stealing the show, until he made himself sick by spinning too much. It was really sad but funny. I am always shocked how much food he can put away also! We went to a mexican restaurant last weekend and ordered him a kids meal (12 and under) which had a bean burrito, a beef burrito, beans, and rice. HE CLEANED THE PLATE and then ate my guacamole and beans and rice. PIG! I don't know that I expected anything less from Pat's offspring but jeez! He and pat love to wrestle and make farting noises, another shocker. He's just adorable and we're having so much fun playing with him.

Ok every mom says this but my child is so cute! Here's a little update on all the adorable things he's doing today. First its wedding season, especially for our family! Pat's cousin was married 2 weeks ago, Joslin got married last weekend, and my cousin Mekelle gets married next weekend. Busy Busy Busy! But with weddings comes....music and dancing! Merik's heaven. He is such a mover and shaker. He has a whole repertoire of moves and he loves to bust them out! It's so funny, especially to see him do certain moves depending on the music. Needless to say, he loves weddings. He has been the center of attention and loving life at every event we've gone too. He also loves to spin which gets him into trouble sometimes because he's not an ambi-turner so he gets dizzy really quickly but doesn't understand what is making him dizzy. He loves to jump which consists of squating and standing up really fast, never having his feet come close to leaving the ground. He loves to help these days, especially sweep! Goof!

Ok life isn't perfect with our little ball of laughs! He is a screacher and squealer! We've tried everything we can think of. We've asked him nicely (yeah right), we've gotten mad, we've ignored him, we've flicked in the mouth and nothing works! We're doing the corner as dicipline but the problem is that he never seems to scream when we're somewhere I can put him in the corner. He does it in the car or at a restaurant and I need ideas! Any suggestions?

I am deep into motherhood. Yesterday I laid Merik down for a nap in just his diaper because it was really hot. About 30 minutes later I heard him crying really hard like he was in pain. I ran in to see what he had gotten stuck in and found him sitting with his blanket, butt naked, next to a pile of poop. He was crying because he had stepped in it. Yum. I wanted to grab the camera but I felt bad making him sit with poop on his foot for the sake of a picture, plus I'm sure it won't be the last time. It was so funny. I'm just glad I didn't find him eating it or something!

Eat Sand!

Ok so I know I started this awesome blog and then did nothing with it- SLACKER! But I am determined to make it a habit to update things. We just got back from california for Joslin's wedding and had a great time! We had a great time! The wedding was wonderful and we are so excited for them, they're so cute! Pat, Merik, and I stayed 2 extra days after the wedding and had a mini vacation. We were so lucky- the weather was in the 80s! We took Merik to the beach and the first day he really didn't want anything to do with any of it. He'd walk on the sand but that was the extent of his interest and even that took about 30 minutes to happen. The second day, however, was a different story! Pat coaxed him into the water and from then on he was a natural beach bum! Pat finally brought him in because Pat was cold and only his feet were in the water. Merik was up to his waste being hit by waves, shivering, but screaming because he didn't want to stop. His new thing is saying "So Cool!" and its hilarious! Its not that he says it that is so funny, its that he says it appropriately! Everytime a wave would hit him he, of course, said "so cool!" After we dragged his little blue lips out of the water we were able to convince him that sand was also fun....again, another mistake. Next thing we knew he was eating it by the handful! I wish I had pictures but my camera battery had died but it was hilarious! We kept trying to get him to stop but apparently it tasted really good! We had a great time!