UCSF Toy & Supply Drive

We have started collecting donations for our annual toy and supply drive for the child life program at UCSF.

Owen has had a heart cath, a cardiac MRI, and 2 heart surgeries at Ucsf, and we will head there this spring for another cath and his next surgery. 

We will likely mail the donations unless we can line up a family member to drive them down... Things are a little busy around here these days:).

Here is the wish list:

Child Life Services

A hospital stay can be a challenging and unfamiliar experience for children and their families.  

UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Child Life Services creates opportunities for children, teens and families to play, learn, and discover every day at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.

Thank you for your generosity in supporting these programs.

 

Toy Donation Guidelines​​​​​​​​​​​​  

These guidelines help to ensure donations are appropriate and safe for hospitalized children. Please follow these guidelines when selecting items for donation.

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Because of infection control issues, toys must be new.

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Please do not wrap gifts.

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No weapons or violent games of any kind, please.

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Please make sure that glue, paint, markers or crayons are non-toxic.

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No latex balloons.

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Limited need for stuffed animals.

 

Items of Greatest Need​​​​​​​​​​​​

 Infant Items	 Teen Items	 Interactive toys/ art kits
 Light spinners	 Batteries (C & D)

 

Infant Items​​​​​​​​​​​​​

 Nesting Cups	 Teething rings	 Plastic rattles
 Crib mirrors	 White noise machines	 Plastic crib mobiles
 Interactive noise & light toys	 Board books	 Links
 Sock & wrist rattles	 Baby clothes	 Fisher Price soothers
 Musical toys	 Blocks & soft balls	 Water and bath toys
 Sassy Baby rattles	 Fisher Price mobiles

 

Toddler & School Age Items​​​​​​​​​​​

 Electronic push button toys	 Plastic dolls (multicultural)	 Fisher Price doctor kits
 Small cars & trucks (hot-wheels)	 Play-doh & play-doh kits	 Craft kits
 Barbies (clothes & accessories)	 Thomas Trains​	 Legos & lego kits
 Interactive toys for toddlers	 Pop up toys	 Musical toys
 Musical instruments	 Little People	 Action figures (no guns)
 Brio and plastic train cars	 Board Games	 Cartoon character toys
 Plastic play food	 Dora and Diego toys	 My Little Ponies
 Animals & Dinosaurs (plastic)	 Stickers	 Books that make noise
 Weebles toys	 Puzzles (24 to 100 pieces)	 Travel games
 Transformers	 Medium sized toy cars	 Little Tykes toys

 

 

Teen Items​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

 Gift cards (Target, Amazon, Best Buy)	 Art & bead kits	 Journals
 I-tunes cards	 Backpacks	 Make-up sets
 Movie passes	 Blank CD-Rs	 Headphones
 Baseball hats	 Teen board games/cards	 DVDs
 Video games (Rated T Wii or PS3)	 Sports balls/gift cards	 Giants/A’s/49ers gear
 Individual acrylic paint sets	 Metal water bottles	 Teen male t-shirts
 Perfume/cologne	 Jewelry/Acessories/Watches

 

Creative Arts Items​​​​​​​​​​​​

 Drawing pads	 Michael’s gift cards	 Modeling clay
 Individual paint sets	 Drawing pads	 Small portable music stands
 Beginner music instr. Books	 Guitar picks	 Glue (tacky, mod podge)
 Paint by number kits	 Stickers	 Scrapbooking stickers (baby)

 

Games & Electronics​​​​​​​​​​​​

 CDs (children/teen music)	 CD players	 Batteries (C & AA)
 Sony Playstation 3	 E & E10 Games for PS3	 PS3 controllers & USB cords
 X-Box 360 Console	 E & E10 Games for X-Box 360	 I-pads

 

Parent/Family Support Items​​​​​​​​​​​

 Journals	 Gum, Mints
 Magazines or subscriptions (US Weekly, People, Spanish)	 Journals & pens
 Wrapped candy, snacks & bottled water​​​	 Water Bottles
 Stamps, envelopes & stationery​​​​	 Crossword/Sudoku puzzles
 Toiletries: razors, toothpaste, nail clippers, hairbrushes​	 Starbucks Gift Cards ($5)
 Individually wrapped snacks (popcorn, granola bars, etc.)	 Massage knobs
 Chap stick	 Ear plugs
 $5 Subway Cards	 Eye masks
 Kleenex	 Neck rolls
 Slipper socks	 Panda Express Gift Cards
 Hand Sanitizer	 Gas cards

 

 

 

Thank you for your interest in supporting the children, teens, and families at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.

You can contact me via Facebook or Email or comments on here:

Chelsea.britton@yahoo.com

Arabelle Mae

Hermit life

We/I have attempted to be hermits with sweet Ara. I have left the house now for 4 doctors appointments, and 2 other outings. I didn't drive for 10 days... That's pretty hermit like!

Ara has had a weird infection on multiple hangnails. She had it drained once and checked on 2 other times.. In the sche of things this is technically minor but a random skin infection in a newborn had us concerned! We were using a topical antibiotic but after a few days her pediatrician recommended oral antibiotics:(. Better safe than sorry... And it looks better after 3 doses, so that's good!

We have had 1-2 visitors daily except yesterday. We hit the exhausted wall just in time to look like zombies for Halloween! We needed to alternate naps and we did, so that felt great.

I took Owen and Ara to Owens speech therapy yesterday. My first outing solo with 2 kids:). It's a mile away but I still had a sense of accomplishment! It's like starting all over again, establishing a new normal. 

Owen has been 1:1 with Chris most of the time, and has informed me that "daddy is a better player than you mom." Although that made me cry (darn hormones!) the boys are having fun. More  tantrums and a little snarkiness coming out of O but he's doing pretty well.

Ara continues to eat and grow. She's back up to her hefty birthweight-still can't believe she was so huge- and Breastfeeding like a pro. So fun to have this opportunity versus all the other challenges we went through with Owen.

Looking forward to our first fun family outing to Main Street tomorrow for some trick or treating. 

Home with a newborn!!!

Needless to say we are thrilled to be home!!! We came home the day after her birthday. Since she was such a big little girl they checked her blood sugars every three hours, 3 times, and they were all good so that was a relief. 

Owen was with Nana and Papa and we decided to have him meet Ara at home. We ended up having 2 cars at the hospital and Paul helped us out with that as well. Owen and papa had a lot of good quality time together!

I'll condense the birth story as I tend to really enjoy these and overshare. I went into labor at home, the night of 10/16. Jac was here and helped with Owen. Once we were sure I was in labor and had a plan we loaded him up, dropped him off and met Chris at the hospital. Of course he had just gotten off of work... Same situation with Owen... Sorry!! 

I was 4cm dilated at around 1am. The rest (other than contractions) went pretty quickly. When I was 7 cm the midwife offered to break my water but I said no, I was going to let it take its course, thinking I had about an hour. The next contraction I felt like pushing, and did, and broke my water like a water balloon, hitting anything 5 feet out in its path! Before you knew it I was ready to go. The hardest part came and went or so I thought. Her shoulder ended up being stuck in my pelvis and the midwife and RN did some maneuvers to get her out. She came out, but was taken quickly to the table to recover as she actually came out looking worse/more blue than Owen. These kids! They make an interesting entrance! Her color improved and even though I was insisting on getting her back to me quickly the team weighed her and then returned her... Yes... Fresh out the gates she was 9#6 oz... Then had 6 bowel movements that that day and was down almost a pound... Why didn't she just come out lighter!!??

Anyway, that is her story! We are ragged, recovering, but never happier!!! Family and friends have helped us out so much, we are so grateful. It is so sweet to be home, having 1:1 time with our newbie! No medical cords allowed!! It is just so wonderful I never really felt like we had missed out on that with Owen but boy we did. It was just part of his story... But being able to Breastfeed whenever, NOT PUMP!!, take pictures of your baby, and just share those moments in a cozy home environment. I knew I wasn't going to take it for granted but I also didn't know it would be so fulfilling! 

Ok Ara is almost done with her meal. Back to bed I go.