What is Stay At Home Woodworks?
Stay at Home Woodworks creates home furnishings. Anything from dining room tables, piano benches, built-ins to frames, it can be done. All the creations are made by a stay at home dad, Aaron.
We always look forward to new challenges that our customers present to us. If we haven't built it before, we'll learn how to make exactly what you want! It will be strong, it will be beautiful, it will last, and it will be #AriaApproved.
Wherever you get your inspiration, we're happy to bring it to life. We will work with you through every facet of the process from design to pricing. We want you to be 100% satisfied with your custom piece from Stay At Home Woodworks. If our craftsmanship doesn't hold up, we're happy to fix the piece to make sure it's able to be enjoyed again.
We always look forward to new challenges that our customers present to us. If we haven't built it before, we'll learn how to make exactly what you want! It will be strong, it will be beautiful, it will last, and it will be #AriaApproved.
Wherever you get your inspiration, we're happy to bring it to life. We will work with you through every facet of the process from design to pricing. We want you to be 100% satisfied with your custom piece from Stay At Home Woodworks. If our craftsmanship doesn't hold up, we're happy to fix the piece to make sure it's able to be enjoyed again.
Our Story
Stay At Home Woodworks started because of our Daughter Aria coming into this world super early. Our journey with her prematurity and challenges that it brought led Aaron on a journey to find a passion with woodworking. From this passion started a business and a new life for our family. Each piece is made in honor of our sweet Aria and is #AriaApproved. Now that Aria is getting older she helps in creating the pieces too! If you want to know more about our story of how aria came to be continue reading! We're glad you're here, if you need any help with going through the NICU or have any questions feel free to reach out to us we love being a support for whoever needs it.
Our Story
In January 2015, my wife Jennifer, was 27 weeks pregnant with our first daughter. With a little over 3 months left in the pregnancy, we were taking our time getting the nursery together, as well as final arrangements. We actually hadn't even completely settled on a name.
At Jennifer's 27 week appointment, the nurses took her vitals and they noticed Jennifer's blood pressure was a tad high. After multiple readings, they all seemed a tad high, but not anything to be ultra alarmed at that point. They asked us to monitor her blood pressure over the next couple days. They informed us to call the clinic immediately if Jennifer's blood pressure numbers got above 140/90. Not thinking much of it, we went on our way and back to work.
Luckily for us, Jennifer's place of work had multiple blood pressure machines all over her campus. This allowed for her to monitor her blood pressure at any time during the day, and keep a close eye on it.
On Thursday, Jennifer called me and told me in a concerned voice, that her number had reached the high point where we needed to call the clinic. She was obviously distraught, so she asked that I make that call. I did just that, unfortunately, I received no answer all 3 times I called. I also left voice mails each time stating we were following instructions they had provided us the day before.
I never received a call back. Jennifer continued to monitor her blood pressure throughout the day, sending me pictures of the numbers every so often. I kept waiting for a phone call on what to do, but it never came. We went to bed that night, not thinking anything of it, as Jennifer wasn't really showing any symptoms of anything negative related to her high blood pressure. And we figured if it was bad enough they would surely call us back.
The next day, Friday, Jennifer sent me 3 consecutive pictures of blood pressure readings. All of the numbers were extremely high. I called Jennifer to check on her, and found her in tears and completely terrified of what was in our near future.
I once again called the clinic, finally getting a hold of someone. I told them the situation, and awaited their instructions. The lady on the other end of the line asked what her blood pressure reading was, to which I told her the reading... 153/105. She responded... "just a moment... (3 seconds later) You need to bring her to the hospital right now."
I was completely floored at her response for immediate action. It was time to bring Jennifer to the hospital, for what, we didn't know yet.
I called Jennifer and told her we needed to take her to this hospital. She left work immediately, came and got me, and we made our way to the hospital.
When we got there, we checked into triage around 11:30 am Friday morning. They hooked Jennifer up to multiple machines to check the baby, and make sure Jennifer was doing alright. Again, her blood pressure continued to register high readings, which was concerning. They also started taking blood for testing. All the while, we were still kind of wondering what was going on. They also gave Jennifer a steroid shot in the butt! We learned that the steroids can help the baby's lungs develop a bit faster in case of emergency premature delivery.
It wasn't until later that evening, they told us that Jennifer was going to need to stay the night for further monitoring and observation. She was then moved to an L&D room for the night.
On Saturday morning, Jennifer's doctor arrived to check on her and see what was going on. She informed us that Jennifer had gone from one of her lowest risk patients, to highest risk in the matter of hours after her appointment. Jennifer was diagnosed with early onset pre-eclampsia. She explained to us what that meant, and the repercussions of the disease. After Jennifer;s doctor came, a series of other specialists came and talked with us. We had someone from the NICU come and introduce themselves, as well as how the unit operated. We had a maternal fetal medicine doctor come in and speak with us about the repercussions of the condition. To this day, I cannot tell you what they said. I was in so much shock of everything that was going on, I could barely hear a thing. I was inside my own head just trying to grasp at the situation.
My one takeaway from all of it, was Saturday night, we were having a baby. Yes, we were about to have a baby at 27 weeks. We were not ready for this. We had 3 more months in our minds. The doctors told us that they were scheduling an operating room for later that evening, and preparing us for what was to come. Jennifer and I sat in the room pretty silent, and shocked still.
Later that evening, before the scheduled operation, Jennifer's blood pressure was staying lower while she was on bed rest. We were told that because of this improvement, they wanted to keep the baby inside her as long as possible. Babies grow much better in the womb than they do outside of it, so it was best for her to "cook as long as possible."
Jennifer was then moved out of her Labor and Delivery room and sent upstairs to a much smaller room, where she would await the babies arrival. The doctors all told us that Jennifer was going to be making her home at the hospital until this baby arrived. That wasn't supposed to be for another 86 days.
That Saturday night, I went home and started gathering things to make our room a bit more livable. Jennifer's pillow, some blankets, her iPad, clothes, food, books. You name it, anything to help the time pass during what we thought was going to be a 3 months stay in the hospital. I stayed the night with Jennifer both Friday and Saturday nights, at the time thinking the worst was going to happen at anytime. On Sunday, Jennifer continued to show improvement and stabilizing, so I decided to go home and sleep for work on Monday.
On Monday, I went to work and stayed in constant communication with Jennifer throughout the day. She seemed perfectly fine, and showed no signs of popping any time soon. I went straight to the hospital after work, stayed until 9ish, and then went home for bed again.
Tuesday was much of the same, nothing to really write home about throughout the day. I went to visit Jennifer after work that day, with a splitting headache. Jennifer was in high spirits, which was completely odd to me given her condition. She had dealt with the reality of her situation, and was at peace with it. She was where she needed to be, for both her and the baby. I seemed to be the one struggling with the situation the most. I hated seeing Jennifer laid up in bed, not being able to leave. I hated the fact that she couldn't come home with me. But at the same time, I knew she was right.
I mentioned my splitting headache that evening, and Jennifer could see it. She told me that I could go home early, that she was doing fine and I could get some rest. We both had had a long last few days. I reluctantly agreed, and left for home right after shift change, about 7:40ish or so. I stopped by Panda Express on the way home to grab something to eat. Once I got home, I sat down at the table and took a couple bites. I took out my phone to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Well, I had.
I had multiple texts from Jennifer, one after the other. The only one that mattered to me was "I'm going into emergency c-section. My blood pressure spiked. Get back over here"
I was back in the car and speeding back to the hospital. I called Jennifer on my way, to make sure nothing happened until I got there. She was anxious on the phone, mentioning there were now about 8 nurses in her room, all scrambling to get her ready for the OR.
Upon my arrival back at the hospital, at 8:47pm, I found Jennifer in a new L&D room with multiple nurses all over the place doing different things. Jennifer brought me up to speed, and I started to get information from the nurses. They informed us that Jennifer's blood pressure had peaked beyond acceptable measures, that her proteins in her urine were 10x the highest acceptable level, and also that other factors were now at a point of needing to immediately remedy the situation. In this case, that meant delivering the baby.
Jennifer was placed on Magnesium sulfate to make sure she didn't stroke or have a seizure. I was given my outfit for the OR. The anesthesiologist then came in and got his info for the surgery, and we were on our way.
On our way back to the operating room, I had to stop outside while they went and got Jennifer ready for surgery. A nurse then came and got me to come meet Jennifer in the operating room. She was laid out on her bed. She was nervous, This all happened so fast, neither of us knew what to think.
There was a lot of anxious tension in the next 7 minutes. Holding Jennifer's hand, kissing her forehead, and saying small little prayers that everything would turn out okay for both my girls. At 9:35 pm, I heard the faintest little sound I wasn't expecting to hear. A little babies whimper. I immediately stood up and laid eyes on my little baby girl for the first time. She was so much bigger than I imagined (weird to think seeing as how small she actually was) she would be. She was so much more defined that I anticipated. Her legs, her arms, her little head, all there, all accounted for. She was barely moving, but noticeably alive.
Our Story
In January 2015, my wife Jennifer, was 27 weeks pregnant with our first daughter. With a little over 3 months left in the pregnancy, we were taking our time getting the nursery together, as well as final arrangements. We actually hadn't even completely settled on a name.
At Jennifer's 27 week appointment, the nurses took her vitals and they noticed Jennifer's blood pressure was a tad high. After multiple readings, they all seemed a tad high, but not anything to be ultra alarmed at that point. They asked us to monitor her blood pressure over the next couple days. They informed us to call the clinic immediately if Jennifer's blood pressure numbers got above 140/90. Not thinking much of it, we went on our way and back to work.
Luckily for us, Jennifer's place of work had multiple blood pressure machines all over her campus. This allowed for her to monitor her blood pressure at any time during the day, and keep a close eye on it.
On Thursday, Jennifer called me and told me in a concerned voice, that her number had reached the high point where we needed to call the clinic. She was obviously distraught, so she asked that I make that call. I did just that, unfortunately, I received no answer all 3 times I called. I also left voice mails each time stating we were following instructions they had provided us the day before.
I never received a call back. Jennifer continued to monitor her blood pressure throughout the day, sending me pictures of the numbers every so often. I kept waiting for a phone call on what to do, but it never came. We went to bed that night, not thinking anything of it, as Jennifer wasn't really showing any symptoms of anything negative related to her high blood pressure. And we figured if it was bad enough they would surely call us back.
The next day, Friday, Jennifer sent me 3 consecutive pictures of blood pressure readings. All of the numbers were extremely high. I called Jennifer to check on her, and found her in tears and completely terrified of what was in our near future.
I once again called the clinic, finally getting a hold of someone. I told them the situation, and awaited their instructions. The lady on the other end of the line asked what her blood pressure reading was, to which I told her the reading... 153/105. She responded... "just a moment... (3 seconds later) You need to bring her to the hospital right now."
I was completely floored at her response for immediate action. It was time to bring Jennifer to the hospital, for what, we didn't know yet.
I called Jennifer and told her we needed to take her to this hospital. She left work immediately, came and got me, and we made our way to the hospital.
When we got there, we checked into triage around 11:30 am Friday morning. They hooked Jennifer up to multiple machines to check the baby, and make sure Jennifer was doing alright. Again, her blood pressure continued to register high readings, which was concerning. They also started taking blood for testing. All the while, we were still kind of wondering what was going on. They also gave Jennifer a steroid shot in the butt! We learned that the steroids can help the baby's lungs develop a bit faster in case of emergency premature delivery.
It wasn't until later that evening, they told us that Jennifer was going to need to stay the night for further monitoring and observation. She was then moved to an L&D room for the night.
On Saturday morning, Jennifer's doctor arrived to check on her and see what was going on. She informed us that Jennifer had gone from one of her lowest risk patients, to highest risk in the matter of hours after her appointment. Jennifer was diagnosed with early onset pre-eclampsia. She explained to us what that meant, and the repercussions of the disease. After Jennifer;s doctor came, a series of other specialists came and talked with us. We had someone from the NICU come and introduce themselves, as well as how the unit operated. We had a maternal fetal medicine doctor come in and speak with us about the repercussions of the condition. To this day, I cannot tell you what they said. I was in so much shock of everything that was going on, I could barely hear a thing. I was inside my own head just trying to grasp at the situation.
My one takeaway from all of it, was Saturday night, we were having a baby. Yes, we were about to have a baby at 27 weeks. We were not ready for this. We had 3 more months in our minds. The doctors told us that they were scheduling an operating room for later that evening, and preparing us for what was to come. Jennifer and I sat in the room pretty silent, and shocked still.
Later that evening, before the scheduled operation, Jennifer's blood pressure was staying lower while she was on bed rest. We were told that because of this improvement, they wanted to keep the baby inside her as long as possible. Babies grow much better in the womb than they do outside of it, so it was best for her to "cook as long as possible."
Jennifer was then moved out of her Labor and Delivery room and sent upstairs to a much smaller room, where she would await the babies arrival. The doctors all told us that Jennifer was going to be making her home at the hospital until this baby arrived. That wasn't supposed to be for another 86 days.
That Saturday night, I went home and started gathering things to make our room a bit more livable. Jennifer's pillow, some blankets, her iPad, clothes, food, books. You name it, anything to help the time pass during what we thought was going to be a 3 months stay in the hospital. I stayed the night with Jennifer both Friday and Saturday nights, at the time thinking the worst was going to happen at anytime. On Sunday, Jennifer continued to show improvement and stabilizing, so I decided to go home and sleep for work on Monday.
On Monday, I went to work and stayed in constant communication with Jennifer throughout the day. She seemed perfectly fine, and showed no signs of popping any time soon. I went straight to the hospital after work, stayed until 9ish, and then went home for bed again.
Tuesday was much of the same, nothing to really write home about throughout the day. I went to visit Jennifer after work that day, with a splitting headache. Jennifer was in high spirits, which was completely odd to me given her condition. She had dealt with the reality of her situation, and was at peace with it. She was where she needed to be, for both her and the baby. I seemed to be the one struggling with the situation the most. I hated seeing Jennifer laid up in bed, not being able to leave. I hated the fact that she couldn't come home with me. But at the same time, I knew she was right.
I mentioned my splitting headache that evening, and Jennifer could see it. She told me that I could go home early, that she was doing fine and I could get some rest. We both had had a long last few days. I reluctantly agreed, and left for home right after shift change, about 7:40ish or so. I stopped by Panda Express on the way home to grab something to eat. Once I got home, I sat down at the table and took a couple bites. I took out my phone to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Well, I had.
I had multiple texts from Jennifer, one after the other. The only one that mattered to me was "I'm going into emergency c-section. My blood pressure spiked. Get back over here"
I was back in the car and speeding back to the hospital. I called Jennifer on my way, to make sure nothing happened until I got there. She was anxious on the phone, mentioning there were now about 8 nurses in her room, all scrambling to get her ready for the OR.
Upon my arrival back at the hospital, at 8:47pm, I found Jennifer in a new L&D room with multiple nurses all over the place doing different things. Jennifer brought me up to speed, and I started to get information from the nurses. They informed us that Jennifer's blood pressure had peaked beyond acceptable measures, that her proteins in her urine were 10x the highest acceptable level, and also that other factors were now at a point of needing to immediately remedy the situation. In this case, that meant delivering the baby.
Jennifer was placed on Magnesium sulfate to make sure she didn't stroke or have a seizure. I was given my outfit for the OR. The anesthesiologist then came in and got his info for the surgery, and we were on our way.
On our way back to the operating room, I had to stop outside while they went and got Jennifer ready for surgery. A nurse then came and got me to come meet Jennifer in the operating room. She was laid out on her bed. She was nervous, This all happened so fast, neither of us knew what to think.
There was a lot of anxious tension in the next 7 minutes. Holding Jennifer's hand, kissing her forehead, and saying small little prayers that everything would turn out okay for both my girls. At 9:35 pm, I heard the faintest little sound I wasn't expecting to hear. A little babies whimper. I immediately stood up and laid eyes on my little baby girl for the first time. She was so much bigger than I imagined (weird to think seeing as how small she actually was) she would be. She was so much more defined that I anticipated. Her legs, her arms, her little head, all there, all accounted for. She was barely moving, but noticeably alive.
Aria came out at 1lb 5.5oz. she was 12 inches long. She was our miracle baby. Little did we know that we would spend 138 days in the NICU watching her fight for her life. But this little fighter pulled through!! She's a true miracle. She was diagnosed with Chronic Lung Disease while in the NICU and had to come home on oxygen. Because of this she was unable to go to day care or go out of the house really. One of us was going to have to quit their job and stay home with Aria.
After many discussions, it was determined that I, Aaron the dad, was the lucky winner and would become a stay at home dad.
While I had down time, I began to take up wood working. We live in a developing neighborhood, so every day I would gather scrap wood from the build sites and start tinkering around in the garage. Eventually, I sold a piece, then another, and then another. This was turning into something after all! Something I had no intention of doing at the beginning of my tinkering around in our garage.
After numerous referrals and good reviews, I decided I would dedicate most of my spare time to building rustic furniture. It's been fun to watch my tinkering, develop into skills and abilities that create pieces people can enjoy and display in their homes. I am so blessed to be able to do this while getting to raise my daughter every single day. We love our customers and want to thank everyone that has supported us through this crazy time in our lives.
In honor of our little miracle we make sure every piece of furniture sold is #AriaApproved. It's made for you with the seal of approval from Aria!
After many discussions, it was determined that I, Aaron the dad, was the lucky winner and would become a stay at home dad.
While I had down time, I began to take up wood working. We live in a developing neighborhood, so every day I would gather scrap wood from the build sites and start tinkering around in the garage. Eventually, I sold a piece, then another, and then another. This was turning into something after all! Something I had no intention of doing at the beginning of my tinkering around in our garage.
After numerous referrals and good reviews, I decided I would dedicate most of my spare time to building rustic furniture. It's been fun to watch my tinkering, develop into skills and abilities that create pieces people can enjoy and display in their homes. I am so blessed to be able to do this while getting to raise my daughter every single day. We love our customers and want to thank everyone that has supported us through this crazy time in our lives.
In honor of our little miracle we make sure every piece of furniture sold is #AriaApproved. It's made for you with the seal of approval from Aria!