Benefit Post for Children's Hospital

**1 comment = 10 cents for Children's Hospital. Even if you don't read this, comment!!** (no limit to how many times you can leave a comment either)

Chase was born on a chilly December day, 2 years ago next week. Within hours of his birth, he began seizing. We were expecting a healthy, full-term baby, and what we got was far from that. It sent a shockwave through my entire system - my newborn baby was fighting for his life.

You can find bits of Chase's story throughout my blog:
NICU: First 24 Hours (sadly never blogged the following days...)
The Update Post
Share Your Story for Children's Hospital of Alabama
The Cement Roof

The summary:
It was soon discovered Chase was seizing from extra blood on the brain (a grade 3 or 4 bleed), the pressure caused seizures, and his bleed was severe. Unsure of how to treat him, the local hospital put Chase on seizure medication, intubated him (as the medication surpressed his breathing to the point where he could no longer do it unassisted) and placed him under "do not stiumlate" protocol.

For me, this meant that I could only look at my hours-old son. No touching. No talking. Absolutely nothing except prayer from a distance.

Because Chase's condition was so incredibly rare (we are talking in the one in several million range) for a full-term and otherwise healthy baby, he was soon taken via helicopter to Children's Hospital of Alabama in Birmingham.

It was there I felt Chase had a chance.

He was removed from his "no stimulation" orders, placed on less medication, eventually extubated, and a few days later, Chase had an angiogram to find a "cause". His nurses were amazing. Everyone understood our situation, tried to be as accomidating as possible (it was Christmas and we were from out-of-town), guided us through difficult decisions and made extra efforts to respect our wishes.

In short, Children's Hospital saved Chase's life.

The level of medical care combined with their compassion and experience far beyond that of a "regular" hospital became the perfect combination.

The aftercare we've receieved has been amazing. Nurses on call for any issue, quick response time during problematic episodes and speedy appointments with specialists.

Chase has managed to absorb all of the blood without ever being shunted. He has no (known) neurological damage. He is developing completely "normal". We are stunned.

So to benefit Children's Hospital of Alabama, Michael and I have decided to raise a little cash. We are opening  comments for the day and each comment made on this post will equal 10 cents. (Sadly, I've turned on the capcha due to bots on this site, silly bots). You can leave as many as you'd like. Also, you can retweet this (Twitter.com):

Benefit post for @ChildrensALA from @themomjob. Each RT earns 10 cents. http://themomjob.net

If you'd like to donate to Children's Hospital with your money (hehehe), I have added a "Donations" PayPal Button in the right column near the top of this page.

Thanks to BirmminghamMommy.com for featuring this benefit post! And obviously, thank you to Children's Hospital for our amazing son, Chase.

In Which I Make Panda Cupcakes and Go Insane and Get Off-Topic for the 4 Millionth Time.

Seriously? Did I only post once this week? WTF?

I think I am a little frantic this week and I only realized it last night. Chase’s birthday party is next Saturday and then Christmas is the following Thursday/Friday. I have no idea why we didn’t count ahead 38+ weeks when we decided to have Chase. Life’s Lessons from Amanda #98347583459: If you are considering having a child, calculate their expected due date from expected time of conception or you may end up with a baby due on Christmas (see: Chase Alexander).

As of last night, I officially committed to making Chase’s panda cupcakes from scratch (see: store bought icing, possibly homemade cake mix) ALL  BY MY LONESOME. Here’s my “template”:

OMG I KNOW! Aren’t they adorable and edible and then more adorable?

You are probably wondering why I am doing a panda theme for a soon-to-be-2-yr-old…boy…. And the answer is simple: Chase is freaking obsessed with all things “pandy”.

He has a stuffed panda (affectionatly known as “Pandy”) that he sleeps with at night. It’s honestly a cheap, horrible feeling, dirty, 8-inch tall panda bear that came as  “freebie” with another toy (one that cost unheard of amounts of money and the boys never touch. go figure.) (which of course means that ‘Pandy’ is basically irreplaceable). On Ni Hao, Kai Lan, Chase is exceptionally partial to Tolee, a koala bear that wishes he were a panda.

When I began my search for Chase’s theme, I was torn between a few things - dinosaurs (“rawrs”), Diego, trucks (his fav.. we probably own around 200 trucks, cars, vans, etc) and a panda theme.

I ruled out Diego because he makes me want to hurl.

Then I ruled out trucks because I don’t see this obsession dying off any time soon, so I can always use it later and I believe the same thing applies to dinosaurs.

It was settled - ‘Pandy’ it would be. It is my last chance for a “baby” party (doubtful Chase would let me throw him a panda bear party for any of his “big boy” parties…). I googled panda cakes, he loved them, and that was it.

I typically don’t make the boys’ cakes (and by “typically”, I mean “never”). I get them from Publix and have always been impressed with the taste (last year’s duck cake was a little “meh” if you ask me, but it taste amazing).

So yes, blahblablah. Amanda = baking. I’m sure I’ll want to murder my face off and just buy a pre-made sheet cake in the end, but heck… if they turn out, it will be awesomesauce. OMG I THINK I KNOW THE RECIPE FOR ‘AWESOMESAUCE’ NOW!! IT IS COMPRISED OF PANDA CUPCAKES AS SEEN ABOVE. Knew that recipe would come to me someday.

Oh wait. Wasn’t this entry about how I am busy?

I have a special post to benefit Children’s Hospital of Alabama next week. You guys are going to have so much fun making me broke!! (you’ll see)

Conner is wrapping up school next week for the semester. Lots of preschool pictures for that one I might or might not get around to posting.

Oh, and Christmas. OH! And the things I have won off Twitter because A) I’m obsessed with Twitter and B) I’m obsessed with Twitter. 

I just made a blogging to-do list. You guys better hold me to this.