Shady, I'd be happy to help out if no one else can who's closer to you. I'm in Fort Collins.

I don't know if I could take them all though. I would put them inside the fenced off area of my vegetable garden, and I would put them in the aisles - as I've heeled in a bunch of stuff in the beds. I reckon the area is about 23' long x 10' wide. The aisles are pretty small 1-2' wide. Do you think that would be enough room? The only reason I suggest keeping them in this area is to keep the dogs away from them. You never know what the puppy might decide is food or a toy!

Oh, wait (picture Alice smacking her forehead)! I just remembered I put in a big old lasagne garden out front. There would be plenty of room for them on top of it!

Thank you Alice, very much. I'd like to get someplace closer, since it'll take a couple of carloads to get them moved, but if not, I'll definitely take you up on the offer of your lasagne bed.

i've got lots of room and would be glad to take them but i'm far away in rifle. if you want to come over the passes let me know. sandy

Hi Shady,

I donÂt know if this will work for you or not, but I have a possibility. When I first read your post, I was trying to think of somewhere I had where you could put them and couldnÂt think of anywhere (you werenÂt here for the swap, were you?) Anyway, it finally dawned on me that I have a fairly large rock mulch area outside of my fence in front of the house thatÂs fairly well hidden from the street by a large pine tree, and if you want to (how many do you have??), you could put them out there for a few months. The only possible problem is that there wouldnÂt be any way to water them if we have a dry winter and it stays too cold out to use the hose out thereÂcanÂt use the hose unless itÂs warm enough to melt the water thatÂs in itÂand it needs to be above freezing for more than a couple hours for the whole thing to thaw. If theyÂre in big enough pots to retain enough moisture to get them thru the winter, it should work. And if they are getting dry, and itÂs warm enough to water them, you may need to make a trip over here to do it yourself! Because of my job, I may not happen to be here on "the right" day or days!

If youÂd like more info, post here and IÂll email you. I still have your address from sending swap info. (DonÂt PM me thru GWÂI wonÂt get it.) Or if you still have my "real" address from when you were receiving swap emails, contact me that way. Since itÂs out in front of the house, you could even bring them over when IÂm workingÂwhich IÂm doing a lot of this month!Âif necessary. Do you still have the directions to my house? IÂm in Thornton!

Let me know if youÂre interested,
Skybird

Hi Shadyplaces,

I probably have room for your plants in my back yard, but I'm not very close either. I'm in southeastern Centennial (sort of near the Southlands mall).

Connie

Thank you guys, all of you. Haven't been online in several days, daughter still hospitalized, we are on pins and needles from day to day. One minute they are going to take the baby (at 1 pound 4 oz), and then they aren't. At the moment, she is still pregnant, but probably not for long. Supposedly there are blood clots in the placenta preventing nutrition from flowing through the cord properly.

She won't be going home for bed rest, but we are still going to live in her basement, since she will be delivered soon, and after a c-section, she isn't going to be up to caring for my 2 year old grandson.

Since I'm in northern Lakewood, Skybird, you are probably closer to me, and the temptation of a front yard instead of carrying everything to the back is huge. Thank you for the offer. Certainly not expecting someone to water for me, just give them a spot to sit.

Hi Shady,

I was just checking in here one more time before going to bed, but I wanted to let you know that I'll email you directly tomorrow sometime so we can make arrangements for you to bring them over. I'll post here again quickly when I do so you can be looking for it in case it goes to your spam box.

Hope all goes well with your daughter,
Skybird

Hi Shady,

My prayers are with your daughter and I wanted to pass on a link to a great high risk pregnancy support group, Sidelines National Support Network. They were very helpful to me.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sidelines Nat'l Support Network.

Azura,

Thank you! I glanced at the sight, and am going to have her explore it more thoroughly. She has her laptop with her, and that will help.

Part of our issue here has been keeping her sane. She went for a normal ultrasound right after Thanksgiving, got a call at home telling her to report to the hospital. They started running tests, not giving her a lot of info, did an amnio on a Friday and told her no results til Monday, but that there was possibilities of downs syndrome, didn't think Caitlyns arms were the same length so possible deformities, and a host of other issues. But sit tight and we'll know more on Monday, and by the way have you considered chosing burial or cremation!! God help that nurse if I ever lay hands on her in a dark alley.

Then they decided since her blood pressure was a bit high, (duh?)and to put her on antidepressants, which when we researched were absolutely not safe for pregnancy.

In the meantime, the company where both her and her husband work was bought out, and the new owners came in and told everyone their AETNA health insurance was canceled, and all employees had to reinterview for their jobs, and if they were rehired, their health insurance would be through Kaiser. We can't get a straight answer about her disability, or maternity benefirs.

And they wonder why her blood pressure isn't ideal? Slow torture for the nurse who mentioned cremation would do a great deal for mine.

Shadyplaces,

My husband was laid off during one of my pregnancies, and Federal law allows you to keep your current insurance for up to 18 months, if you pay the full premium, including the part the employer normally covers. It's called COBRA, and with her pregnancy complications, it would probably be worth looking into, as I'm sure the hospital bill would be much more than the insurance premium.

It is a blessing that you are able to be there for your daughter right now, and provide her with much needed physical and emotional support.

Bonnie

Ok, I'm a little late to the party and it sounds like you and Skybird have this worked out but my place is up for grabs too in case anything falls through - I'm at Broadway and C-470. Not trying to get you to change horses in midstream...just wanted to throw out another option.

I also wanted to tell you that I'll put your daughter in my prayers, I'm glad you're able to be there to help.
Take care!

I just emailed, Shady. Watch for it!

Shady,

Which hospital is your daughter at?
I hate the lack of information that doctors sometimes keep patients in. I think that for some people more information is more worry but for me I need the specifics to cope with the situation better. I don't like to see fear in my doctor's eyes when an explanation would be better than ignorance.
That being said, do you know what an emtala violation is? Don't let them move your daughter to another hospital or somehow fail to give her the best care even if her insurance situation is up in the air. I included a link below. The hospital I was at tried to move me when I was in active labor at 21 weeks gestation. My mother in law is a case manager at a hospital and you should have seen the turnaround in their behavior when she started talking about 'emtala violations'.
I am glad to hear that she has her laptop with her. I learned how to build my first website when I was in the hospital on bedrest. I know that journaling about my feelings helped me to focus my energy in a positive way.
I will continue to keep your daughter and your family in my prayers and if I can help in any way, please dont hesitate to PM me here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Emtala

Another one late to the party here. I haven't checked this forum in a couple weeks.

Shady, Your daughter, grandbaby, and family are in my prayers too.

I'm another mom of high risk pg. My twins were IVF miracles who arrived 5 wks early and spent all 5 wks in the NICU, one with major surgery before coming home. I was put on bedrest for high bp and pre-eclamsia at about 31 wks. Today they are 4.5yo and keeping me very busy.

I too found journaling was a great help, then I journaled on a website to keep family informed of our progress. Some of the hospitals have "caring pages" that allow patients to do this.

I also found great support from forums on ivfconnections.com They have one forum especially for mom's who are on bedrest and others for various high risk situations. Was very useful to find out I was not alone in the process and to learn what others were doing to get through similar situations.

I'm with you on choking that nurse. How dare they say something like that! I don't care how dire the situation appears, it can turn around. I've seen it. One step at a time, lets pray her thru to 25 wks, then go from there.

Lots of prayers and best wishes for great outcome.

Thank you all. I've passed along the websites for her to read.

She learned yesterday that she was fired. They gave her husband a letter of termination for her. Her husband, who is more in management that she was, has been rehired by the new ownership, and was able to sign up all of them for Blue Cross, and was told that it would cover so long as there is absolutely no lapse from Aetna.

But we now have one more week of pregnancy done, and Caitlyn is up to 1 lb 8 oz. My other daughter has had multiple preemies who are now doing fine, so we are not totally uncomfortable with this, although so far, this one is half the size of the other two. Her doctors are shooting for 34 weeks, although I'll be happy with every extra one we can get.

WE much appreciate all your prayers and good thoughts. Thank you.

Best wishes from here as well. We will keep you in our thoughts and prayers. Keep us all informed please. I hope you have many more weeks to report "one more week of pregnancy done."
If you need any help with that nurse...
That brought to mind another story, but that is for another time.

Best wishes for "another week" and a Merry Christmas.

Billie

Update.

We didn't make another week of pregnancy. Caitlyn Merry aka Tinkerbell, was born Friday evening. Her heart rate on the monitor dropped from 140 to 54 and stayed there for several minutes, so my daughter had an emergency C-section. Tinkerbell weighed 1 pound 13 oz. at birth and has lost 4 oz since then.

But, she is breathing on her own, without a ventilator, with only minor oxygen support needed, and is very feisty. She passed all the tests quite well, got an 8 out of 10 on her apgar.

Overall, everyone is quite pleased with her, and although she won't be home for a while, she is in good hands, and doing well.

Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas and congratulations on a safe birth! What a fantastic present. Wonderful her apgar was so good and that she is breathing on her own, that's a big milestone in itself.

How many weeks did she make it too?

Your family remains in my prayers until she is able to come home.

If someone could tell me how to post a picture?

I am just about as lame as one can get on this but here are a couple of suggestions.

I'll assume that you've taken a digital photograph and stored it in your computer. You'll then need to open an account with photobucket.com or some other photo hosting service. If you don't want to bother, you can just do a one-time deal thru tinypic.com. That outfit is owned by photobucket, anyway.

Click the "browse" button and find your picture in the computer. Pick a size - I like 320 x 240 so it doesn't take too long for the folks here to open the thread. Click "upload."

After, your picture is in tinypic - copy the "HTML for Websites" code. Paste it here in the Rocky Mountain Gardening "Message" box and click "preview message" to see how everything turned out. Then, let us see the baby!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Tinypic

Thank you. Here goes...

Here is a link that might be useful:

Being held by big brother:

Here is a link that might be useful:

Oh, wow! It's a baby! Congratulations!

Big brother will need to grow up quickly too.

digitSteve

Oh, and you can just "plunk down" pictures of that size in the message box if'n ya' wanna! Just be sure they have the full "a href" code. Seems to be the only one to work. Try it a few times and do the preview to see. Or use the "GW test forum to play around."

Thanks for the help. Wondered how you got a picture and all I got was a link.

I'm still trying to get used to a baby that is smaller than a puppy.

Oh, look at that tiny little munchkin. Isn't she just perfect!

Congrats on the beautiful baby girl! The photo made me cry. I'm the Mom of 29 week preemie twins and my dd weighed about the same as Caitlyn (that was one of our possible names too). Memories just flooded back. My dd had an apgar of only 3 so we're super blessed to still have her and that her only long-term problem has been asthma.

Congratulations to the whole family and I hope things continue to go well.