Rooster soup, stomach flu, sprained wrist

dirty duck at the park

 As I write this post I am sipping on a mason jar full of chicken broth. Dylan is making rooster soup for us and he has been making this fantastic broth for hours. Rooster meat is the darkest and most flavorful poultry I have had, except maybe Dove but I would need to have Dove again to compare. This broth is revitalizing me.

  Our family was hit very hard by the stomach flu. We are all on the mend now. I had it the worst, 16+ hours of violent stomach flu; I could hardly get out of bed. I couldn't keep anything down for all those hours so at midnight we all piled into the car in our stinky pajamas and took me to the ER. Luckily the flu hit our family in waves. First we were up all night with Wallace, as soon as I started getting sick Wallace stopped and once I could hold down food Dylan couldn't.

Wallace loves to wear his helmet!

 When we got to the ER they took me immediately from check in to the hospitals birth center. I told them I was 38 weeks pregnant having contractions and muscle cramps. At the birth center they put me in a room with three other women and monitored Helena for what seemed like forever before giving me fluids. I knew I was having contractions but I wasn’t timing them. On the monitor they were 3 minuets apart.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

 The RN helping me was making me feel uncomfortable, she said they treat the baby before the mother. I was lying in a hard bed surrounded by other women in distress; I felt panic. I was begging for fluids and ice chips. I had already talked to my midwife twice and was at the hospital under her advice. She had said to demand fluids and a medicine called Zofran.

Big Mama Belly Easter Sunday 3-31-13

 Finally after an hour the RN gave me an IV of fluid and within 15 minuets my contractions were beginning to slow down to 5 minuets apart. By the time we were discharged they were 7 minuets apart and they went to 9, then 30 then 45 minuets apart until they stopped the next day. The hospital would not give me Zofran, I'm still a little miffed about that, it would have stopped my nausea immediately.

Out to Dinner with Jack

My decision to go back to Davis to have this baby was reconfirmed in spades by this hospital visit! The Davis birth center believes, as do I, that the baby will come out healthy and in less stress if the mother is the primary focus of care.
 Two Sundays ago Wallace was playing in our yard. He was running and falling and getting back up only to fall again. He was running towards me when he took a bad tumble up a hill. He started screaming bloody murder! He got up climbed the rest of the incline, fell again coming down the hill and just laid on his belly screaming. I picked him up and cleared the dirt from his nose and mouth and tried to calm him down. He would not be calmed. We went into the house and I striped him down. I tried to nurse him but he still couldn’t calm down. He was holding his arm crying. The last time he was that upset he had a broken shoulder.

Action shot of Wallace running

 Dylan had just lit a half a dozen or so burn piles on fire and he could not leave the property. He called Jack and Jack said he could meet us at the ER. Wallace cried and held his arm the whole ride to Paradise; it wasn’t until he saw Jack that he calmed down. He was like a different kid in Jack's arms. We waited for well over an hour before being called back. Jack has Net flicks on his phone and he turned on  a kids show for Wallace to watch. Wallace doesn’t see much TV so he was very interested. The show had kids singing "If your happy and you know it clap your hands," Wallace went to clap his hands and immediately started saying OUCH and tearing up.

Some delicious eggs. 

L-R: silky, austrolorp, americana, bard-rock, americana, turkey, austrolorp

Once in the office Wallace saw the same DR as the clavicle visit. I was relieved because the DR remembered what a tuff kid Wallace is. Both this visit and the last the DR came in to find a happy toddler running around playing. He examined Wallace and determined his left wrist to be sprained. He didn't want to do an x-ray. I called Dylan and he asked me to ask for an x-ray. When I talked to the DR about that he said that the kid my husband saw leave the property is not the same kid he just examined. If Wallace begins to favor the wrist or it burses and swells up then it does need an x-ray.

MMMMMMMM Wallace's first cup cake

It has not swollen up and he isn't favoring it very much. He says ouch when he falls or it gets tugged on, but it hasn’t slowed him down much. He takes me over to the hill and tattles on it. He points to the hill and babbles, points at his wrist and says, "ouchie" and then touches the ground where he fell and keeps babbling. I'll say, " you fell and hurt your wrist right hear?" Wallace will say yes and then take my hand and we walk away.

Goliath my rooster. Look how big his comb has grown!  

 Wallace went to his friend Max’s first birthday party on 3-16. He had a blast with all the other kids. He got to eat a few bites of cupcake without the frosting and hit a piñata.

 We have been staying close to my midwife in Winters for the past few days. I miss my life, house, animals, routine and my friends. I feel a little lonely up here and I don’t like feeling that I am neglecting my life. BUT Helena is well on her way and it is not safe for me to drive back home. I feel so close to labor! I’m pretty miserable actually.

Max's Birthday cake

Wallace says Ball now. "Bawl" ball, ball, ball, ball, ball. He has even touched my big belly and said, "

Bath time