William Oneal at 3 days old

William in his "cool shades" under the photo-therapy lights due to elevated bilirubin that is now improved.

This was Heidi's second opportunity to hold William.  They cuddled for more than an hour.  William really enjoys time with mom.  He was very calm and peaceful for all but 20 seconds (see video below)

William's sad, pathetic cry.  Didn't last very long.  I was lucky to capture it on film.

William is now 3 days old and continues to do very well.  He was placed on a ventilator for just a few hours and then transitioned to CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure).  At the very worst, he suffers from only mild hypoplasia of the lungs.  He will begin weaning from CPAP starting tomorrow morning.  Feeds were started very slowly at 1 ml every 4 hours on day 1 and increased to 5 ml every 3 hours as of this morning.  His breathing is now much slower and less labored.  Infection work-up to date is negative.  Our four older daughters have all been to visit him in the NICU. 

Baby boy Parkinson

Baby boy Parkinson (name pending but will likely be William Oneal) was born on 12/11/2011 at 1:26 AM at 28 weeks 6 days.  Obviously premature and in the NICU for a little bit, but doing well.  He was 3lbs 2oz (1425 g) and 15 inches long.  Heidi is doing well and should come home in the next 1-2 days.  I anticipate our baby boy will spend at least the next 6-8 weeks in the NICU.  Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.  If this post doesn't work you'll have to blame me (Jason).  I usually don't place posts on our blog.

Halloween 2011

I was only able to take pictures of the girls carving pumpkins this year. No pictures of the finished product.  Being on bed rest, its a lucky thing I even got that much.  They all worked very hard!

Rachel was an American Indian this year.

Melissa was Cleo DeNile from Monster High. 

Sara wanted to be a scary bat.  She looks pretty scary to me!!

Ashley has reached the ripe old age of 13, our cut-off age for costumes and trick-or-treating, and Emily never did get a costume this year.  I had to hand-sew Melissa's as it was, since I couldn't sit at the sewing machine.  Rachel used a costume we already had, and luckily I got Sara's done before this pregnancy started falling apart!!  I'll be in the hospital for quite a while, so future posts may be few and far between.  Jason will bring me the laptop once in a while to catch up.

Sara's 5th Birthday

Sara celebrated her 5th birthday early because Jason had the  day off and there's no telling what time he'll be home on her actual birthday.  She didn't complain, though!  She got her Pop the Pig game.  That was a big deal.

 She also got the Superman cape she has been waiting for forever.

Because of  a difficult pregnancy, I'm not able to do much, so Jason made her cake this year.  He did such a great job!  She wanted vanilla cake, vanilla frosting, vanilla ice cream and with dinner, cream soda.  Vanilla was definitely the theme.

Everyone was singing so loud she had to plug her ears.

Emily wasn't going to wait for a fork before digging in.

Philadelphia Temple Groundbreaking Ceremony

Jason was asked to help out with the first aid tent at the Philadelphia Temple groundbreaking ceremony.  That meant tickets for all of us!  This ishim with his medical team.  The hardest (and pretty much only) thing they had to do was to keep the tent from blowing away in the cold wind.

This is not a grave site.  It's the dirt they used to turn over for the ceremony!  Notice all the nice, shiny, golden shovels in the back.

This is the view from where I sat, and what you will see a you walk out of the future temple.  Not too shabby!

 You can faintly see the picture of what the temple will look like.  Very different from Manhattan, and so beautiful!

President Eyring and city officials breaking ground.

Then it was our turn!  What a wonderful experience.

Ashley Becomes A Teen

Ashley turned 13 years-old last week.  It's hard to believe I am the mother of a teenager, but it's also very fun.  She is so helpful around the house and I'm sad that she has to be in school all day, because then I have to do everything myself.  We had a fun little party.

 

 To prove that she is my child, she chose a double chocolate cheesecake as her birthday cake this year.  Yummy!!

Central PA Flood of 2011

This past Wednesday, our tiny town was sandwiched between a tropical storm and a hurricane, causing tons of rain and, as a result of the rain, flooding.  This is Mahoning Creek.  It is supposed to be (and usually is) a little creek that runs next to the middle school.

This is Ashley's school.  The school was probably under four feet of water this morning.  By the time I took the picture it was down a foot or two.  She left her flute in her locker.  Luckily, though, that is about the only thing we lost in this flood, where many have lost everything.  We feel very fortunate.

There is supposed to be a highway in between the store to the right and the school.