Thursday, April 17, 2008

Rachel






Rachel. My daughter. My "easy" kid.





Rachel was my girl baby. The smallest of my kids at 5lbs 3 oz (4 lbs 12 oz at 2 days old). She was 6 weeks early and her courageous battle in the NICU taught me how strong I was (and what a kick ass little girl I had!). She spent 2 weeks struggling to learn how to breathe but once she figured it out that was it. She has continued to learn like that. She starts everything off slowly but once she decides to do it she just does. Like walking. After 9 months of seemingly unproductive physical therapy she just walked one day (at 20 months old). After being silent for her first 18 months of life, one morning she just began talking. 2 days later she was putting words together. I think Rachel senses when we are getting concerned about her not doing something and just begins to do it!





Likes





Stinky & binky (her blanket and pacifier!). Stinky is a light green fleece blanket that we got when she was born from the hospital. She was wrapped up in it for days because she couldn't regulate her body temps very well. After she came home we continued to wrap her in it because it smelled like the NICU and it comforted her. Somewhere around her first birthday I realized that she loves this blanket and sleeps with it every night! Stinky never left her crib until a few months ago when Rachel decided that she needs both the blanket and the pacifier all the time. I still try to limit her use of them, but come on! The girl started walking, talking AND got a new sibling all at the same time???? Heck, I could use a comfort object and I am 31 years older than her :) Oh the blanket gets it name from well, the stench of it! Rachel hates having it washed and sniffs it to clam herself down (can we all say ewwww together?)





She also likes: the Very Hungry Caterpillar book. It is handed to me every single night. She will tolerate another story if you read that one first!, playing with her brother's toys - most noteably the sit and spin - she loves that!
Dislikes





Her older brother most days! Being disciplined, peas, and messes. Rachel loves to clean up and put things away! I need to write that down so when her room is a disaster when she's a teenager I can remind her of how she used to be!!! She also seems to dislike barrettes since she takes them out all the time!





Will grow up to be:





An Engineer! Rachel loves to examine everything! She is quiet and methodical. She enjoys fitting things together (puzzles, etc) and analyzes all situations before reacting. Maybe she'll be an astronaut!!!










When her new brother came home Rachel immediately developed a "maternal instinct". She is always patting his head, giving him pacifiers, blankets, and doll bottles. If he cries she makes sure every knows it!





She is sweet and kind. Always been an "easy" kid - sleeps well, eats well, plays well. Of course she has also had 11 months of physical therapy and is on month 3 of her speech therapy which would make her seem like a high needs child but she really isn't.





Oh, and I am glad I have a daughter :)
Mothering the Woody doll


With Stink & Bink on Easter

Friday, April 11, 2008

Ryan






In an effort to post more regularly I thought I'd start with a post about each of my babies, starting with the oldest


RYAN


Born - 10/8/2004 after 36 hours of labor and 3 hours of pushing!


My biggest baby at 8lbs 3oz


Likes: Veggie Tales - more specifically, Silly Songs With Larry which we listen to almost continously in the van, Spongebob, watching hockey with Daddy, pizza with Mushrooms, the color red. Also likes to bargain and argue with me


Dislikes: sleep! Naps! Sleeping in his own bed! Being told no! That's pretty much it


Will grow up to be: A lawyer! Most likely a litigator given his propensity for arguing and his sense of fairness - I can not tell you how many times a day I hear "That's not Faiiiiiirrrr"


Ryan was my fist born. The one who showed me that my heart could break wide open with love. He is also my mini-me! He not only looks so much like me that upon finding a picture of a 3 year old me said "I don't remember having long hair and wearing a dress", he has my personality which is stubborn and agrumentative. We get into dead locked arguements sometimes and I frequently hear myself in him. It is funny (sometimes).


He is also the sweetest love bug EVER! He constantly hugs and kisses all of us and tells us he loves us (ignore the hugely pregnant lady in the picture)

When I was pregnant with Joey Ryan also had a baby in his tummy. HIs baby was named Jack and liked grapes! Ryan also reprimanded the fetal Joey for kicking me complete with a threat for a time out!


He adores his brother. Wants to hold him, kiss him, and (yikes!) carry him all the time!!! I am so grateful for the love he shows for them. As for his sister? Well, he likes her but doesn't like when she plays with his toys (which is all the time - her toys are no good aparently!) or when I direct my attention to her!


Ryan is 3 and half. He'll be going to VBS this summer and then preschool in the fall - how did that happen???

Thursday, April 10, 2008

STILL ALIVE!!!!







WOW - what a long time it has been since I posted on the old blog. I feel bad because I really like to use this as a record of all the cute things the kids say and do!
So, let's play catch up shall we?
Otober - December:
Uneventful 3rd trimester marred only by a panic trip to L&D for what I thought were ruptured membranes but turned out to be very weak bladder control (I am still SOOOO embarassed by that!) and the fact that I had biophysical profile ultrasounds every week because, yet again, the level of amniotic fluid was low. Low enough to warrant concern but not another preemie - YAY!
Also in December - Christmas day to be exact, Rachel learned to stand unsupported at exactly 18 months & 1 day! I was so proud of her!!! Her physical therapist was as well but was also very concerned by how she pronates her feet (a bilateral pronation to be exact!) and we were off to the orthotist for ankle foot orthotics (AFOs - sounds like a cheesy band from the 90s doesn't it?).
January - what an eventful month!!!
1/7 - Rob's grandma passed away. Christmas morning she had blacked out in her bathroom and once she got to the hospital they discovered some issue with her bowels. I believe that they were dying off. She had surgery and was doing better. My MIL left Detroit and came home on the 6th. She dies the next morning.
Funeral was scheduled for the 10th and I really wanted Rob to go BUT I was 38 weeks pregnant! The day before the funeral I had an U/S and midwife appointment so he tagged along. The deal was if I wasn't dilated at all and the fluid was okay (meaning no induction) Rob was going to go.
1/9 Well, I had my first internal of this pregnancy and I was..... 3cm, 90% effaced, and the midwife could feel Joey's head! So yeah, Rob wasn't going anywhere :) She stripped my membranes and sent me home to have the baby!!! Honestly I was suprised I was dilated - I had been having inconsistent contractions for a week (I had some the weekend before that had us packing our bags!) but I was suprised I was that far along! Left the office and went back to work! Started getting regular contractions (every 7-8 minutes) towards the end of the day so I headed home. Of course they promptly died after I got home
1/10 I chose not to go to work because I was honestly afraid my water would break there. of course, I had zero contractions that day
1/11 4am - I woke up to STRONG contractions - REALLY strong and REALLY close!!! I woke Rob, called my mom to come watch the kids, called the midwives, and waited. Most of this morning is a blur but I do remember throwing the address book at Rob and telling him to call our neighbors and that I would be in the car waiting. I felt like I couldn't wait for my mom any longer. I was sweating and naseuous with each contraction and in some serious pain! I remember telling Rob when he woke up that we were going to meet our little guy before lunch, when I was in the car waiting for him I realized it would be before breakfast!
Rob get sin the car and we got the first red light on our way. He must have known I was not kidding about needing to get to the hospital when I told him to just run it! I also felt the need to throw up and told him NOT to pull over! I puked in one of his dirty chef coats that was in the car (I guess I owe OG a new chef coat now!).
Rob says that he didn't realize how serious I was until we got to the hospital and I asked for the wheelchair (I had gracefully walked to L&D each time before!)!!!
So we get to triage and I get hooked up. About 3 minutes later there was a whirlwind of activity. The nurse was paging for someone, anyone, to come check me (she tells me later because the contractions were right on top of each other - duh! I could have told her that!). A staff midwife came to check me at 5:55am and informed that I was right, I would not be getting an epidural as I was 9 cm and ready to "go"!!!
6:00 we get to a LDRP room and in the process of transferring me from gurney to bed - POP! my water broke. Of course, G3 had decided to poop before birth so they called the NICU team (incluing one of our faves from Rachel's stay!). My midwife showed up and had no sooner finished washing her hands when I gave a mighty push and this is what we got:






Allow me to introduce....
Joseph Robert G, born at 6:24 am (after 2 hours of labor!)on January 11, 2008
He was 7 lbs 2 oz and 19.5 inches. It took me 3 tried but I finally got my medium sized, on time baby with a natural delivery (that I seriosuly didn't want at that point - the delivery not the baby!!!!)
Crazy? Yes, but life has been insane every since!
In the 3 months since Joey's birth the following has happened:
- Rachel got her AFOs and started cruising
- my grandmother passed away (1/20)
- Ryan started music appreciation classes and Loves them!
- Rachel started walking (about the last week of February). She was 20 months old at the time!
- Joey is a great baby :) He had a little bit of a slow start on breastfeeding but is quite the champ now! He is snuggly and smiley and we can't imagine ourlives without him!
I want to get back into blogging so I'll save the details on all the kids until later. Now I'll leave you with some pictures:






Ryan meets Joey

Contrary to the look Rachel is giving she really does seem to love her "baaabee"
Ryan incorporates Joey into arts and crafts time!


Rachel FINALLY has enoug hair for pigtails!!!


Joey at 10 weeks - what a little clown!