Bump bump..Bump bump

So Julie had a doctor's appointment on Monday and it appears that there is a living thing inside her as evidenced by the heartbeat heard inside her. I still remember watching a great show on Discovery back in college with the Shelly's called "Body Story: Body Snatchers". It was all about how babies completely take over a woman's body to grow. Even down to feed off their bones. So good luck Julie. Hope you survive the invasion.

OK so maybe I went too far.

So I was trying to funny in my last post but I think I may have flopped. I may have gone too far. I assumed that anyone who read this blog, because it is so awesome and I post so much, would know what was going on and find the humor. Unfortunately, Julie didn't think it was funny and I don't think many others did either. So I'm sorry.

Here is what is really going on. Julie is being a surrogate for Cindy and Dave. She is about a month along. She has morning sickness (all day) and is tired. I have to give her shots twice a day. She is on other meds as well. She has to have blood drawn every week. We are banned from activities! And we have 8 months to look forward to more sickness, tiredness, increase belly size, etc, etc. Then we get to enjoy the joys of childbirth and the aftermath. (Such a "magical" time)

Given all that I am, no kidding, really excited. It is so nice to be able to help Cindy and Dave. They have had a tough rode and it is hard to sit on the bench watching them suffer. Being in the game and actively working toward a solution makes all that stuff very much worth it.

What to say...?

We have four kids (aka monsters). I love them. They wear me out and make me crazy and sometimes bring out the worst in me (I'm the bad cop in the parenting duo). But in the end they are wonderful. This father's day they got me ties and a keyboard. I needed the ties and am super excited about the keyboard. I've had the same keyboard for 3 computers and the shift key sticks and the keys are loud. They also brought me waffles in bed and then after church Lizzy and Sarah sat and cuddled with me while we watched Peter Pan. Life is good, maybe even ideal or perfect.

Each one of these four bundles of joy have come to us in the natural way. And with three out of the four when Julie has said to me in a soft, loving, and possibly even timid voice, "Uh, John?". I have replied knowingly, "Yes, I know.". (With the fourth we were both surprised and my only response was laughter.) Well, recently Julie called me at work and told me she had just taken a pregnancy test and that she was pregnant. However, this time there were no "I knows" not even laughter. In fact, I wasn't even the first person she told. Why would I deserve such treatment? Well, because this time the baby isn't even mine. That's right my wife is pregnant with someone else's baby. So in the end I didn't have much to say. But here are some ideas. Please feel free to share your's.

1. "Who was he?" followed by "Where's my gun."
2. "That's OK. I still love you."
3. "What! But I was only in Chicago for a week!"
4. "How could you do this to me!" (either yelling or sobbing)
5. "Well, I hope your happy with yourself."
6. "Call Jerry Springer."
7. "Call Dr. Phil."
8. Hang up and say nothing.
9. "Is he rich?"
10. "Well, I'm not going into the delivery room!" (my personal favorite)

Congratulations Cindy and Dave!!!! I hope this works!

Weekend Update

(This posted was started last week but finished this week so it may read weird.)

I didn't get a weekend update out last week so this week I am updating before the weekend. So let's see....last weekend consisted of BYU football Friday night; conference, gardening, and a movie on Saturday; and conference, Kearny, and Fablehaven on Sunday.

This weekend I am home alone until tomorrow. Julie and the kids went to Kearny yesterday because Sarah had a pediatrician appointment yesterday and one with the cardiologist today. Tonight and tomorrow I hope to get some cleaning and unpacking done without Lizzy undoing everything. Also tomorrow I hope that we can go to the fair. I know the kids are excited about it and I am actually sharing their excitement. I hope they have good craft and photography exibits. Man does that make me sound old. Anyway nothing too exciting.


The main reason I wanted to write today (apart from taking a break from cleaning) was to update on Sarah's heart. In order to do that I feel like I should give some background. Not because I think there are people that read this blog that haven't already heard it all but because this blog is actually more of a journal for me then a fun read for others. (Not that I don't enjoy haven't people read and comment it is just that if you were here for fun then you are not very good at the internet. There are sites that are way more fun than mine. I mean I don't even have a cool mp3 player on the side.) OK. Here we go...

So on June 21st Julie went back to our room in Kearny to get some scissors for Ginny (which has story of it's own that is nothing short of a miracle) and found that Sarah had stopped breathing and was already blue. She screamed and started giving CPR. I ran back and by the time I was back there Sarah was breathing but was still blank. I could still see the white outline where Julie put her hand on Sarah's face when she had given her breathes. Sarah had a distant look on her face, was lethargic and despite having Julie blowing in her mouth was not even crying. It was a frantic time and a lot happened during the next few minutes. It was clear that even though Sarah was breathing she still needed help but unfortunately both the ambulance and the medical helicopter in Kearny were out on calls. (Not a wonderful part of living in rural Arizona.) Julie and I loaded in the car and raced towards Superior and Mesa to meet the first ambulance we could. We were able to meet up at the fire station in Superior and they flew Sarah to the hospital from there. Once we got there they started putting oxygen next to her face and she really started to improve. We knew she was going to be OK but still were quite shaken up.

Julie and I drove to the hospital after the helicopter but Bruce and Andrea happened to be in the valley so they were there to meet Sarah. It was really sweet actually. When Sarah arrived she was crying pretty good and the nurse was not having much success calming her. Andrea asked to hold her and as soon as she took her, Sarah calmed right down. Anyway, Julie and I were mostly concerned about brain damage due to lack of oxygen but fortunately we had a fantastic ER doctor. Ssince Sarah had showed some sucking reflexes he was wise enough to look for the cause of the incident. Sarah's heart beat was extremely elevated (over 200 bpm) which was very high even considering the ordeal she had just had. He ordered an ECG right away and saw that her heart rate pattern was missing a wave. We were booked in the PICU and were set up with visits from cardiologists.

By the end of the weekend we knew that Sarah had a heart condition and that it was at least controllable with medicine and possibly a surgery around 7 years of age. There was also a chance she could outgrow it. Anyway, she was in the hospital for two weeks. She had a whole bunch of tests including a muscle biopsy and when we left she had 5 prescriptions but at least she was home. Her progress since then has mostly been OK but she has had a hard time getting back to normal in terms of her heart strength and size. The results from the muscle biopsy also seemed to show that she might have a mitochondrial disorder so things had been a little discouraging.


The strange thing with everything has been how normal she seems. The doctors seemed to be painting this grim picture but by looking at her you could never tell. She is the the happiest baby we have had. She smiles all the time. She is developing normally. She has even figured out that if she wants to get across the room she can just roll there. So anyway, I have had my doubts. Julie says I was in denial but I just figured doctors can be wrong and especially when it comes to disorders in the cells.

So the first really good news we had was about a month and a half ago when we got results back from one of the blood samples that she did after the muscle biopsy results. All was normal! Then last week she had an appointment with the cardiologists and he said that her heart looked perfect. We are so happy. The doctor has taken her off one of her medicines and has started weening her of another. Really this has been the best news ever.

Another Weekend

This weekend was not nearly as eventful as last but it was still good. We watched 4 nieces and nephews starting on Thursday night through Friday night. It all came about because I had a conversation with my sister-in-law and I began speaking completely without thought and I very forcefully offered up our services without even discussing it with Julie. She was good natured about it and my sister-in-law really needed the get away so we got them. For the most part things went pretty well. I, conveniently, had to work all Friday so I only had to deal with them for a little while. Friday night we went to the park and let them play for quite a while so that was nice too. The best part of it was that when Julie's brother and our sister-in-law came to pick them up the stayed and visited until very late. It was really fun.

What made it even more fun was that Stephen didn't get enough of us last weekend so he came down to spend some time here. He got here Friday night and ever since then it has been a party around here. (We have seen more of John and David then we ever have!) Stephen's birthday was Sunday so for his birthday we had grilled brats and hotdogs. They were fantastic. Stephen and I used the German mustard that I use in my brisket rub on the brats and it was so good. We also had the key lime cheesecake that the lady on the plane last week gave use the recipe for.


Anyway, other than a lot of visiting we have had fun watching various TV shows. The main show of the weekend was Chuck (see the image above) . It is very good. A lot of Julie's family have been watching it and they recommended it to us. We caught Stephen up on season one and then watched the premier of season two Monday night. If you haven't watched it I would highly recommend it. It a lighter spy show with good comedy and romance. One of the main characters is also in Firefly so I also really like that.

Let's see...other than that it was a basic weekend. We did get a fair amount of chores done in between everything including getting my lawn mower fixed so that I can mow the weeds in my back yard.

Our Weekend

I am not going to apologize for my lack of blogging. I don't need the guilt. Instead I am going to move right on with nothing more than it has been a rough couple of months. Anyway, Todd's blog is nice because he just updates us with what he has done over the last weekend. That is my new goal.

So last weekend was kind of a big one for Julie, Sarah and I. Thursday the three of us drove down to Phoenix for our flight to Utah for the BYU vs. Wyoming game. The best part of the drive was watching people look at Cliff (my Jeep) in the city. I had been in Morenci the day before so Cliff was very dirty with mud from the pit. Julie and I had a lot of fun giving words to people's confused looks as they contemplated that strange brown substance on the side of Cliff. I also took great pride in driving by other Jeeps and 4 wheel drives that were all shiny and clean. That being said I can't wait until I stop going to Morenci for awhile so that I can wash my car. It is really really dirty. I want to see it shine again.


Anyway, Sarah did so well on the flight, I was very happy. The lady that sat beside us was very nice and chatted the whole way. Unfortunately, she and Julie chatted mostly so Sarah and I were left as the third wheel. Stephen was there to pick us up and all went over without a hitch. Shauna also had a gourmet meal of Italian food waiting for us. FANTASTIC!! We got to visit with Steve, Shauna, and Stephen that night which was a nice surprise since we didn't expect Steve and Shauna to still be there. I got people particularly excited about white shirts and ties at church at one point but there was plenty of topics to go around. Sorry Stephen about all the statistics talk.

Despite the late night visiting I was up bright and early so I went with Stephen to take Katie to school. Trying to eliminate a trip later Stephen and I decided to head to BYU and visit some old professors and get our BYU gear for the game on Saturday. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any professors and it turned out Julie want to go get her own gear. So we drove back to get her and once back I was able to catch all three professors that I wanted to and we got our gear. We really wanted to each lunch at the Legends Grill but we had to hurry back to talk Shauna to the airport for their cruise and since I had talked too long we were in a hurry. Deciding we had enough time to have a quick lunch we went any way. At first our thought was if they are quick and we eat quick we should be OK. It quickly moved to if we get our food soon we could box it up and still be OK. After 45 minutes which included serving the entire soccer team that apparently called in their order right before ours they finally STARTED making our food!!! Apparently the legends of the place are of how long it takes to get your food. Needless to say we weren't too happy and were a bit rushed to the airport. In the end though it all worked out.

The rest of Friday was pretty much spent visiting with Whitney, Amy Candi, and Stephen. We played a cool railway game and that was that.

Saturday was game day. The traffic was pretty good getting there so we were on time and everything. We started the game off with hotdogs and brats. Man I love the stadium brats. If you didn't see the game it was awesome. The offense ruled as usual but the defense was the star of the show. Shutouts are so fun. There were a couple of times when they got close but each time our defense stepped up and kept the shutout alive. It is also great going to BYU games because people are not drunk and are nice about the kids. The guys right behind us kept cooing and talking to Sarah the whole time. She was a big hit.

After the game we went to an old friends' place in Provo visited some more. In the end we visited 75% of the weekend, traveled 10%, and the remainder of the weekend was spenting eating and going to the game. Good times. Good times.

Thanks Steve and Shauna for the tickets and for a place to stay. Thanks Stephen for the rides everywhere. It really was a great weekend.

Evelyn is Sarah

OK, it has been forever since I have posted on this blog so I doubt there is anyone who still checks it. However, I have promised Brooke and Todd that I would start a new so here we go.

As most people who know me know we recently had our 4th baby. She was born Thursday morning (April 24th) at 3:13 am (technically 3:14 but oh well). She was 6 lbs 14 ounces and 19 inches long. She has thrived on the outside world much more than any of our other children. Originally, she was Evelyn Leigh Bauman but by the time we left the hospital Friday afternoon she was Sarah Lynn Bauman. Anyway here is a picture of her as she is getting ready leave.


So far Lizzy has done OK with her. There have been a few breakdowns but for the most part she likes her. Our real trouble comes from keeping her calm and not getting too rough with the baby. Here is a picture of her kissing Sarah.


The other exciting news that happened the last few days is Amelia broke her arm. While Julie and I were at the hospital waiting out labor Amelia was playing at home on her scooter and fell. She was so brave and by the time she was at the hospital she was in really good spirits. She joked around and was fascinated with the whole process. I don't have a great picture of her with the break but here is the best I have.


Just so that I can get a picture with everyone here is a picture of Jacob inside of a cave that we went exploring yesterday. It was pretty cool.


Oh and here is my other baby, Cliff.