TeN!

My boy #1 turned 10!  Double digits!
With the 10 year anniversary of the 2002 SLC olympics on TV last week, I kept thinking about how Sambo's premature arrival rocked my world.  I was 34 weeks pregnant and working a 12 hour night shift in Labor and Delivery.  As I worked into the late night hours I noticed my belly was hard as a rock but not painful.  And it was constant, not regular like a contraction pattern.  It was just a tight sensation.  I brushed it off and kept working hard on my feet, caring for my patients in labor.  Soon I noticed some pressure down there.  My OB came to the hospital to deliver one of my patients and I mentioned to him what I was feeling.  He told me I should go home and rest.  "Oh, and have one of the girls check you before you go..."  So I did.  As the nurse checked my cervix, I saw it on her face.  The worry, the bad news.  "You are 6 centimeters dilated!  You aren't going anywhere!"
I was in denial.  I remember thinking, if I just stay down tonight then the labor will stop.  I remember charting on my patients while I laid in the hospital bed, trying to catch up.  I really didn't believe that I would be having my baby soon.
But he came.  And he was posterior, and the epidural didn't work.  By early morning Samuel Jackson Clark was born at 34 weeks.  He was a big boy for his age, weighing 6 lb 9 oz.  So big in fact, that his immature lungs could not support his weight.  The NICU staff were in my room when I delivered, anticipating a preemie.  I only got to see him for a moment and touch his feet before he was taken to NICU.  He was healthy except for his lungs.  All day he needed oxygen.  By early the next morning he was intubated and on a ventilator.  Moments after being intubated,  I witnessed him turning blue and his alarms were screaming.  Soon it was discovered that his right lung had collapsed (popped).  The NICU staff ordered  me to leave while they stabilized him.  I've never cried so hard.  I went from nurse mode to Mom mode.  My mind knew he would be okay, but my heart wouldn't listen.  It was rough.
Long story short:
-He stayed in the NICU for 9 days and came home on oxygen.  The total bill was $35,000.  Thank heavens for good insurance.
-Beside the concern for his well being, the next concern we had was, where the heck are we going to take him when he is discharged? This had all happened the week before the olympics.  We had signed a contract with the German Ski Team to rent out our house for 3 weeks (because we lived so close to Snowbasin Ski Resort, a venue) and they had already moved in!
-Spent those weeks going back and forth from the cabin (where we ended up going) to the hospital, then to the downhill skiing olympic event, then to the cabin, then to Park City for another olympic event, then finally to the cabin with my new baby boy when he was discharged.  I spent the days after glued to the TV watching the olympics while nursing and cuddling him.  I was lucky to be able to go to the events while he was in the hospital because it really was the chance of a lifetime!  I will never forget it!  But even more, I will never forget the day my handsome Sambo was born.  He has truly blessed our lives.
Anyway... he had a really fun party at the Lehi Legacy Center.  He invited 18 of his friends - we did the "party" part first...presents, cake, ice cream.  Then they swam their little guts out!  They LOVED the big water slide and all of the play features in the pool.  It was a huge success!  I think it's safe to say that 9 and 10 year old boys are quite annoying in the way that there is no controlling their wild nature and their inability to focus and listen for more than 5 seconds!  :)  No really this is an awesome group of boys and Sam is very lucky to have so many good buddies.

Part of the party package included these swim goggles

Plugging his ears because the boys are singing Happy Birthday SO LOUD!

His cake of choice.  Thank you Pinterest!

Wilbur

Watching for the jumbo bucket to fall...

...And there it goes!

Quincy had her own kind of fun!

Jack and Will

Awesome water slide!

Of course 9 year old boys think this sign is hilarious

Millie and Haley