Just Staying Busy

We are still here. Just staying busy with new baby, not getting much sleep, preparing for Mamaw and my sweet daughter-in-law to come for a visit tomorrow. No son visiting with her though:(. Hopefully next time. Enjoying summer but getting ready for school to start back up. Spending my free time (what little there is) researching curriculum choices for two of my little guys. How about you? What occupies your summer days?

Oh, Ouch!

I read THIS  post just now and knew I had to blog about it in case someone else struggles with this like I do... I printed it out and will add it to my "mommy" binder where I keep all the articles that I want to keep and reread.

Lavender and a Sweet Baby!

I love lavender! Is there any better smell than lavender? Well ok, coffee and a sweet new baby rank up there as well. But I do love the smell of lavender. I have quite a few lavender plants and it was time to harvest them if we wanted to dry them and use the buds for anything so B#2 set out to harvest them and then she painstakingly bunched, tied and hung them for me.

 And here is the sweet baby...I think he is about a week old in this picture. I would post more pictures of him but I have to be careful about posting pictures that I want to keep as sometimes they disappear from my camera card after I have used them in a blog post.

The Plans of a man's heart

I was scrolling through the blog just now and saw the verse at the bottom that I have had there forever, thinking I would change it pretty often. As I read it again it got me to thinking about B#11's birth. I spent a good portion of my pregnancy reading about natural childbirth and birth after a C-section. DH and I read about birthing without pain meds. But in the end things didn't go as I had planned. Am I disappointed??? I am not sure I can answer that. We both said all along that the most important thing was a healthy baby and healthy mama. We have both. Was my birth experience what I had hoped it would be? Nope. But there are little things that came up during the baby's C-section delivery that made me think that this way was the better way. The Lord is in control and many are the plan's of a man's heart but it is the counsel of the Lord that will stand.

Baby #11 Arrives

Just a very quick post from the hospital to let you know about the arrival of baby Aaron Thomas.

I went in for my usual twice weekly prenatal appointment and non-stress test and unfortunately my blood pressure was up too high for my OB's comfort. I was given a couple of choices and since DH and I had already discussed what we would choose if we were confronted with these options I knew what we were supposed to do. I was trying for a VBAC since B#10's birth was an emergency C-section but that wasn't what the Lord had in store for us this time. We chose to have a repeat C-section so that we could stay near our children and with our regular OB rather than have to drive about an hour away and be induced with Dr.s we had never met. The Lord gave me a peace about this decision and I feel like I handled the C-section pretty well for someone who can tend toward panicking. Everything went well and little Aaron was born safely, weighing in at 6lbs 13 oz. All of the siblings(except big brother #1) were able to come and see him shortly after his birth. We are just hanging out in the hospital for another day to recover more from the delivery then we will all be home together again. If you want to see some more great photos of baby go to B#4's blog HERE.

We Could Be a Magic Eraser Commercial

 Little Miss B#9 is somewhat of an artist in our family. Whether that is a tattoo artist or a graffiti artist we aren't real sure...early in the day yesterday she came down stairs with purple permanent marker all over her hands and arms. Then in the afternoon she found a dry erase marker and apparently wasn't sure where the dry erase board ended and the wall began so this was what we all walked into the dining room to see...

 

Praise the Lord for Magic Erasers from Walmart. Cleaning it up took as little time for me as it took her to make the mess and I didn't have to paint the wall. What do you think? Could we pass for a Magic Eraser commercial?

This Could Be You...Or Me! Welcome to Soviet Amerika

CPS Still in Charge After Hearing on Gestapo Style Baby Snatching

by SARAH, THE HEALTHY HOME ECONOMIST on MAY 1, 2013

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The right of parents to determine the course of medical treatment for their children has suffered yet another slap in the face.

On April 29, 2013, a hearing took place regarding theGestapo style abduction by Child Protective Services of 5 month old baby Sammy after his parents, Alex and Anna Nikolayev, took him out of Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento.

They left Sutter Memorial in order to seek a second opinion at Kaiser Permanente, a rival hospital, for Sammy’s flu-like symptoms.

Anna and Alex sought medical treatment at Kaiser because they were extremely concerned about the quality of care baby Sammy was receiving at Sutter Memorial.

When doctors at Sutter Memorial began discussing the possibility of heart surgery for the infant, the alarmed parents took the baby and left as the medical staff would not discharge Sammy so they could seek another opinion regarding the child’s heart murmur.

“If we got the one mistake after another, I don’t want to have my baby have surgery in the hospital where I don’t feel safe,” Anna said.

She added, ”We went from one hospital to another. We just wanted to be safe, that he is in good hands.”

While at the second hospital, medical staff determined Sammy was fine. The attending doctor at Kaiser said in a written statement, “I do not have concern for the safety of the child at home with his parents.”

Despite the all clear from the medical staff at Kaiser, CPS escorted by armed police showed up at the Nikolayev’s home the next day and took baby Sammy in outrageous and dramatic fashion.

Anna’s home video of the incident shows police entering the home.

“I’m going to grab your baby, and don’t resist, and don’t fight me ok?” a Sacramento police officer is heard saying in the video.

Prior to abducting the baby without so much as a warrant, Alex was slammed against a wall, pushed to the ground and his house keys forcibly removed from him after meeting with officers outside.

Worst of all, after taking the baby, CPS returned the child to the protective custody of the exact same hospital the parents had originally fled to seek a second medical opinion – Sutter Memorial – for wanting to perform unnecessary open heart surgery on the infant.

Court Hearing a Slap in the Face to Parent Rights

At a hearing on the matter, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Paul Seave determined that custody should be immediately returned to the parents.

The Nikolayevs can now see Sammy whenever they want. They also supposedly now have full control over the child’s medical decisions.

In reality, however, the Nikolayevs are still under the thumb of CPS and their rights as parents continue to be violated.

Rather than the child returning home where the parents would continue under the care of medical staff at Kaiser Permanente which was their original choice, baby Sammy was transferred by court order to yet a third hospital – Stanford Medical Center.

The judge also ruled that Anna and Alex must follow all medical advice from now on, including not taking their child from Stanford Medical Center without proper discharge.

Why are Anna and Alex being forced to follow the medical advice of Stanford Medical Center and not the medical staff at Kaiser Permanente who determined the child was safe at home for the time being?

Why is this child still in the hospital and not at home and under the supervision of the medical staff the parents originally chose?

Most alarming, Child Protective Services is still involved with this case even after its Gestapo style abduction of the child as captured on home video.

While Sammy will be returned to the custody of his parents upon discharge from Stanford Medical Center, CPS will continue to monitor the situation with regular home visits by a social worker.

Why is CPS being permitted by the court to monitor this child when the parents did nothing wrong?

Inexplicably, Alex and Anna are still vulnerable to future action by CPS for the “crime” of seeking the medical care for Sammy that they saw fit.

Welcome to Soviet Amerika comrades.

 

Sarah, The Healthy Home Economis