FREE Happy Baby Product coupon!

This is awesome and there is actually time for me to sit down and share this with you!  If you are a mom to a baby or toddler, you will want in on this deal!!!  Yes, I will get credit if you sign up for RECYCLEBANK, but I assure you that I would not refer my own family and friends to do something like this to just get credit if it were junk.  Its NOT!  This is a chance for me to share the opportunity for you to get a free Happy Baby Coupon!  It took me about 10 minutes to sign up and earn enough points for the coupon last night. 

Sign up for RecycleBank HERE

I noticed today that the FREE Happy Family Product Coupon on RECYCLEBANK that has been sitting at 200 points forever has changed to only 150 points.

This coupon is a mailed offer, not a printable, so it will be accepted at Target, and it is valid for ANY Happy Baby/Happy Family product up to $6! If you are new to RECYCLEBANK earning the points for this coupon is super easy with all the ways to earn right now in the Green Your Vacation Challenge too.

IF YOU ARE NEW TO RECYCLEBANK
To get this coupon, you will first need to sign up for a NEW RECYCLEBANK account.  It’s completely FREE to join and if you are completely new to  RECYCLEBANK then you can quickly & easily follow these instructions to earn enough points for this coupon: 

1) You will first need to Sign up or log in to your RECYCLEBANK account (completely FREE to join).

2) Come back to this post and click on this link:  RECYCLEBANK'S GREEN YOUR VACATION

3) Once there, click on the word “travel” above the closed suitcase, to get it to open like in the photo.

4) Once the suitcase is open, click on  any of the animated items (train, ship, plane, both cars, raining clouds, red suitcase on the train, and flying bag) to quickly and easily earn points in your account! Once you are done with the Travel area, click on the “Beach” and “Camping” areas to collect even more points!

IF YOU ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT
If you already have a RECYCLEBANK ACCOUNT just click on the “get rewards” tab once you are signed in to access this coupon under grocery & beverage on the left.U sually Recyclebank is pretty fast at mailing out coupons too.

If you haven’t done so yet be sure to check out all the ways to earn under the Earn Points tab, including the RECYCLEBANKGreen Your Vacation Contest under the “Earn Points” tab. The “travel”, “beach” and “camping” areas are now open on the Green Your Vacation Home page, and you can easily earn points in each of these areas! You will also earn points when you refer your friends and they complete activities in the “Green Your Vacation” contest too. The other category, staycation will open up randomly sometime the latter part of July offering more opportunities to earn points. Top point earners will win various prizes including a vacation to Costa Rica or the Galapagos Islands!

Not Familiar with Recyclebank? Recyclebank is a great program that rewards you for recycling by working with a variety of partners. You can add points in many different easy ways, answering quick questions, purchasing specially marked products and trading in your old electronics. Just go here and sign up for RECYCLEBANK to find out all the ways to earn and save!

Scout Gracyn Fletcher

On May 17th, at 38.5 weeks pregnant, I went to the hospital to deliver my daughter.  It was a scheduled c-section.  My birth plan was simple because I had learned from my son's birth---don't plan too much because it will NOT go as you plan.  My birth plan for Scout was for my husband and I to go back to recovery and then my room together and spend time alone with her before allowing her big brother into the room to meet her and spend some solo time with her.  Then, only after her brother had loved on her a bit, would everyone else meet her.  Pretty simple.  Scout had a different birth plan.  Apparently there is a sign in my uterus that says "be dramatic with your birth and show mommy who is boss!"

By the time I checked in for delivery, most of the nurses already knew me from my three previous "observation" visits over the past couple of weeks.  My nurse knew I was specifically scheduled that day and asked to be my nurse.  Hey, I am just thankful that not all the nurses were running the other direction from me at that point!

I was scheduled to deliver at 11:30am.  I was prepped.  My anxiety over the epidural (it took five tries with my son) placement was all for nothing, as the epidural was easily placed on the first try.  I definitely had the jitters.  I was chewing ice like crazy because it was the only thing I was allowed to have.  During all this, my husband read the paper and investigated financing for a possible vehicle purchase.  Don't get me wrong, he was supportive of me and knew his role...but he also knew that all the prepping was up to the nurses.  I was all ready to go when the nurse came in to let us know that an emergency c-section had just bumped me back an hour, which translated to an hour and a half.  When it was finally my turn, all my jitters had gone away and I was remarkably calm given that a doctor was about to cut a six inch line into my belly. 

They rolled me to the OR and Ep had to wait outside as they prepped everything and finished prepping me in the sterile room.  The doctor appeared and then my husband appeared.  Everyone was chatting.  All was well and the procedure began.  Ep was sitting near my head.  I had already cleared it with the anesthesiologist for Ep to be able to stand up and watch them pull Scout from my belly.  I wanted him to see his daughter being born, just like he watched his son be born.  So, the doc let him know to stand up and he watched as they literally pulled Scout from my belly.  And he took pictures.  Now I know what it looks like.  Yes, really.  Its amazing.  No, I will not post the pictures here.  I will tell you its incredible to look at a picture of your own child being pulled from your belly. 

Scout was born at 1:23pm weighing 8lbs and 5oz.  She was 20 inches long and had fat rolls, including a double chin.  She hollered at us.  I was laying there when suddenly I see the doctors hands holding a baby over the drape.  There was my daughter's beautiful scrunched up face looking down at me.  She looked like this:

Scout was then taken over to the baby warmer, where the nurses poked and prodded her.  Her daddy watched from afar until the nurses summoned him over to take more pictures and also to start filling him in on a concern. 

Scout had some concerns of her own and let us know by hollering at us.  She was not happy to have left my warm belly and arrived in such a cold room!

They prepped her for transfer to the NICU because she was raspy with her breathing and seemed to have fluid somehow in or around her lungs.  As the nurses explained this to me (the drape had been lowered and I could somewhat see them and Scout), I am pretty sure that my brain just kind of left the room and took my emotions with it.  I didn't say a word to anyone, but I nearly passed out.  I felt myself start to fade, but rolled my head the other direction and snapped myself out of it.  I am not even sure if the anesthesiologist realized that happened.  All I know is that then I had a massive headache. 

By the time I went through recovery (they said it would be a couple of hours, but my husband and I both agree that we think it was less than an hour!), Scout had settled in up at the NICU.  They wheeled my entire hospital bed into the NICU for me to see her again before going to my room.  I will be eternally grateful for that.  This is Scout all snuggled in her NICU bed and wearing a diaper backwards.

  

And this is Scout at one day old, still wearing her diapers backwards.

Although it broke my heart that our birth plan did not work out, we were thankful for things to go as well as they did despite the circumstances.  Kale got to see his little sister through a glass window instead of getting to hold her.  We did not allow anyone else in to see her because she needed to rest and a quiet and calm NICU room was what we needed her to have for a quick recovery.  My parents met Scout the next day, but they were not yet allowed to hold her.  I got to hold Scout when she was right at one full day old.  My husband held her when she was two days old. 

We stayed in the hospital for 3 nights and were both discharged together on Friday when Scout was 3 days old.  She was in the NICU until about 10 minutes before we were discharged.  They gave me the option to stay and room in with her one night, but all I could think about was all of us getting home and her big brother finally getting to touch her and not have a wall of glass between him and his sister. 

Scout decided that we needed just a tad more drama and didn't want to be any less dramatic than her brother.  We requested an EKG to rule out the heart defect that her older brother has.  The EKG ruled that out.  The the doctor said BUT...as in but we found something else that concerns us.  There was concern over a part of her heartbeat called the QT wave.  Thanks to Kale, we are familiar with what the QT wave of a heartbeat is.  Scout had a long QT wave in her EKG.  They told us that most times when this is found at birth, an EKG a week later will show that it has resolved itself.  Apparently Scout just wanted to make sure that her parents were on their toes...because a week later, she had a clean EKG. 

That is Scout's birth story.  Her first two weeks of life were another fun adventure and definitely not your average newborn's first two weeks.  More on that later...

Rambling

There is so much on my mind tonight.  This is just a ramble.  Sorry about that. 

My poor brain won't slow down.  Job hunt, frustration with someone who won't take time to listen, hurt because I am tired of going in this circle, fear that this will keep happening, sick of trying to explain something that I am starting to believe can only be understood by experiencing it, considering turning tables, knowing that a reduction in pay is worth it but that it will be an adjustment, trusting God to do what He does best--lead me and provide me the right opportunity in His perfect timing and trying to be patient with that process.  Simply overcome with love for my kids, even when one of them makes me wonder if I will survive raising him.  Maybe I just need a good cry.

I really want to write tonight about Scout's birth, but its nearly midnight and I need to go to bed instead.  I need to write about it soon, before I start "losing" the details.