The Tale of Two Preemies: The Farm

Monday, July 23, 2012

The Farm

Our next trip was done without Pat. If I waited for him to come along, I'd never leave. We've talked for the last few years about heading up to my Uncle's, but never seem to make it. My Dad grew up on a farm just south of Canada. His brother runs the farm now, another lives in town, and a sister lives about an hour away. It was our favorite summer destination growing up.

We decided to head up at the same time my sister and her family was going to be there so the kids could play together and with Uncle Roger!

Sprinkler fight!

It was hot, hot, hot! We headed into the pool for an afternoon too. It was the one day there was a threat of rain, so we did our best to end the drought. It didn't rain, but we had a great afternoon at the pool.

When Roger puts his mind to something, he goes all out. He had a juicer and thought it would be fun to make juice with the kids. He bought the store out of fruit and we made juice! Cole was very curious about sugar beets, so we also juiced some of those. He even tried the mud colored juice to see if it tasted like sugar.

Juicing sugar beets

We also got to meet my cousin's baby, born in December. He and Shelby got a little acquainted.

4 months apart

It was a wonderful vacation. The kids got to run free and I got to relax.

6 of the 9 next generation

Cole's new obsession is sugar beets. We are hoping to head up this fall and take in some of beet harvest. I hope it works out because I don't know if I can stand the questions for that long. He's kind of like Roger, when he's got an idea in his head, he goes all out :)

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Cole's Story

Cole was born at 30 weeks 3 days, much to our surprise, in 2006. I went in to the hospital because I wasn't feeling well and was afraid I'd get dehydrated. I ended up being air lifted to a larger hospital where Cole was born 24 hours later. He weighed in at 4 lbs. 2 oz. and was 17" long. He had some developmental delays, mostly due to acid reflux. He also had positional plagiocephaly and was in a remolding helmet for 6 weeks. At 14 months he underwent a cardiac catheter procedure to close his PDA. At 25 months he tripped getting out of his kiddie pool and broke his femur. He was in a cast from his hips to his toes for 4 long weeks. He also broke his shoulder at age 5 1/2. His latest medical drama has been a cyst in his left ear. He's had his adenoids removed and another surgery to remove the cyst. He'll have a second surgery in August. He's been through the ringer, but you'd never know it. He just rolls with the punches. He's 100% farm boy. He wants to know how everything works and why. He loves the farm. Farming is definitely in his blood.

Tate's Story

Tate was born at 34 weeks 2 days in 2008. Since I had a previous premature delivery, I was on high alert for another one. It didn't help. We had ultrasound after ultrasound and everything looked great. Tate, however, was not patient. I was admitted to the hospital with preterm labor. He held off for a couple of days, but was still born early. He weighed 5 and a half pounds and was 19" long. Fortunately he had no problems and was released from the hospital 3 days after he was born. He was born the middle child. He desperately wants to do what his big brother does, but has his own interests and wants Cole do to those with him. He's my trouble-maker, fit-thrower, and snuggle bug.