Weather or not...

#1 main gripe about Utah, the weather. I am constantly reassured by everyone around me that "It's usually not like this" and "It's never this cold this late" but it doesn't matter. I just want spring and I can't even get that. On May 1st we had a snowstorm, and now we are reaching all the way up to almost 50 degrees....IN MAY! So I expected a little winter when I moved from southern Cali, but this is out of control. I made a promise to myself after I came home from living in Russia that I would never live in a cold climate the rest of my life. Guess what, never make promises to yourself. I am now just a big softee that's been acclimatized to tropical weather...so sue me

Fishing on the brain

My son is officially a fishing fanatic. He has always enjoyed it, but convinced me to take him on a sport fishing trip on the ocean before we left California. After hauling in about 15 fish including a 20in sand bass, he won't stop. Literally. Every time he sees me he reminds me of the trip, or upcoming trips, or even speculating on some time of behemoth leviathan he will eventually catch. To appease some of his incessant talking, my wife promised to take him. Since our pole was packed away some where, she bought a launching one that works awesome....when it works. It's like a spring loaded gun that shoots out the bobber and line. They sorta had fun, but after about the 20th time the line got tangled and it was all done for the launcher. Because he was so adamant, I promised to take him today. Of course, today its sleeting, hailing and snowing at maybe 40 degrees. Not cool

Under Contract

We're brand new to the home buying world but have been looking ever since we moved to Utah. There;s a lot of ins and outs to the whole process and honestly, it's a little overwhelming. We aren't loaded so things in our price range tend to be dilapidated or just plain run to the ground. We found one home we thought would be a good investment opportunity but the owners were stingy, so we backed off. We recently found another house in an awesome neighborhood. It's in pretty good condition, but there is still enough to do that we could make it feel like our own. So we made an offer that was accepted so we are currently under contract!! which means we're on our way, haven't bought it but most likely will get it depending. Yay! Whew, told you it was exausting.

Reunions and Separations

When we moved out to salt lake, we did it in stages. I came out two weeks before, flew back to California for easter and to finish packing and then back to Utah. My wife and kids drove out a few days after that. After being here for two weeks, they drove to Oregon and I get to fly out and meet them tonight! So why all the crazyness? I would not have let my wife do all of this if I didn't trust her completely. It is rough though being here by myself, or rather, being away from my wife and children. Hopefully, we will have a long season of being together after this. I don't know If I can continue to take this separation anxiety. I had my bro and sis and fam. come up from Provo, but it didn't take the place of wrestling my boys or cuddling my wife. Tonight!! Yay.

NICU Exhaustion

Our oldest, Kayden had a cough about 1.5 weeks ago and gave it to mommy and we coughed a lot and had bad headaches. On Saturday, McCoy came down with a cough and stayed up all night Saturday and Sunday uncomfortable and screaming constantly. I called the Dr on Monday and told him McCoy's symptoms and he told me to take him to the ER. I personally thought the Dr was over-reacting, but he wouldn't see him, so I had no choice but to take him to ER. When we first arrived in ER, they took his temperature and vitals and everything was normal. We waited 4 hours to see a doctor and he slept in my arms the whole time - the only time he'd really slept in the past 2 days. Once the doctor saw us, they took a chest x-ray that was normal and did an RSV test that came back negative. The nurse came in and said that they were finishing up paperwork so we could go home, but just wanted to check his temp one last time. This time, it was 102.2 and she immediately said, "Nevermind, any newborn with a temp over 100 immediately gets admitted to NICU." I called Chad and he and another guy came and gave him a blessing before they had us moved up to NICU.

In NICU, they did another RSV test - again negative and after other tests, began tracking/fixing the following issues: they took about 3 different cultures to test for bacterial infection, took blood and found that he was severely anemic and almost gave him a transfusion until I explained spherocytosis to the doctor, he was dehydrated and also had a heart rate at about 220. They immediately started antibotics for a bacterial infection in case the cultures came back positive, hooked him up to an IV to get him fluids and continued to track his red blood cells. Also, his white blood cell count was high, which meant he was fighting an infection and the next day the count had almost doubled and there was a fear of menangitis, so a spinal tap was done to rule that out as it is common in sick babies as they can not localize their illnesses well and they seem to spread with a scare of spreading to the brain. The spinal tap came back showing that it was not menangitis and gave us a big sigh of relief.

That same day (2 days after being admitted), his symptoms started looking better. His fever had finally come down, his heart rate had come down, white blood cells had normalized and he was finally back to his calm and alert self - eating well and just being a good baby. His red blood cell level is still low which is a tell-tale sign of spherocytosis, but they are not worried about it, as it is slowly increasing. Only one of the cultures had anything on it and it showed a specific type of influenza. As of Thursday afternoon, McCoy was officially labeled STABLE. What a relief!! He will be staying in the hospital until Tuesday to complete the full 7 day antibiotics. He is a happy and content baby now and relishes in the time we are able to be with him.

Week One

It has been one week since wee baby McCoy was born. We brought him home on Saturday, after a two night stay in the hospital. Unfortunately, it was not quick enough and the nurses diagnosed him with Jaundice, meaning he was a yellow baby. All sorts of tests and phone calls ensued to try to convince the doctors that A, it is most likely from a blood disorder that Beth that we are well aware of and B, there are home treatments available for him such as the billibed (photocell suitcase type thingy) and feeding. Without getting into it, we were able to keep him from being re-admitted into the hospital and he is thriving. He loves to sleep, eat and poop...in that order. I have included a few more pictures from the delivery for you enjoyment. More recent ones will appear soon.

Beth and McCoy with Dr. Mark Dwight who delivered him. The best doctor bar none and I'm serious.

Who could resiste eating such cute little feet

McCoy's first bath

...and one more makes three!

McCoy Daly Hutchings was born on January 31st at 7:36pm at the Good Samaritan Hospital in downtown Los Angeles. He weighed 8lbs. 3 oz and was 21.5 inches long. Mother and baby are doing great. I have no clue how my wife did it without an epidural. Enjoy the pics, more to follow.

Mom, Dad and new baby McCoy.

Baby McCoy was so tired after his first bath, and has light hair.

What a face, sourpuss.