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

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???

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!

G3

My beautiful youngest child....

And he is still a HE!!!

He is already a chunker - weighing 2lbs 14 oz at 27 weeks! He could be a 9 pounder when all is said and done.
Everything else is excellent! Placenta has moved to a safe place, my BP was 100/60 and I passed the 1 hour glucose with a 113 - YAY me!!!

I can't even post once a month!!!

So it has been 6 weeks since I last wrote! Sorry!
Here is our life in bullets....

• Rob is insanely busy at the new restaurant. Never home but the business is good. It has slowed down some this past week and I am no longer feeling like a single parent
  



• We bought this

We really had no choice with 3 in car seats. As much as I said I would never own a mini-van I actually enjoy it. It is pretty tripped out - power doors, XM radio, and all the jazz. *sigh* I am a mini-van mom now....

• Ryan attempted soccer classes. He is just not ready for them I guess since he spent the entire 45 minutes making trips to the bathroom and back to me for water. We tried twice and then decided we won't try again until next year. He seemed so excited though....




• Rachel did this:

So we really have no idea how but she ended up with a buckle fracture of her left leg (tibia? fibia? I don't really remember what they said). I picked her up on a Thursday from the sitter and she was crying and miserable. She had done this a few nights before so I thought she was maybe teething (although she had never been cranky about it before). She spent all night like that until she fell asleep on my lap. I went to play with her adorable toes and she started screaming again. It was then that I realized that her leg was a little swollen looking. Friday at 10 we went to the pediatrician and after that, Xrays, and an ortho visit she was sporting her cool purple cast. 2 weeks later and she is as good as new! There was no defining injury (although she did take a tumble at my mom's the night before the pain seemed to start) and she had napped in a pack n play (ruling out her leg getting caught in the crib bars). Unsolved mystery of toddlerhood I guess! Oh yeah, the line of questioning about it at the ortho's office was kind of insulting to us!

• Ryan had a birthday!

3 years!!!! I can't believe it has been 3 years already! He is an amazing child. So fated to become an attorney with his amazing arguing and bargaining skills. Got a clean bill of health and development at his well child exam this week. And a flu shot which he wasn't 2 happy about but the stickers seemed to make it better.

• Speaking of development: Rachel is doing wonderfully in her physical therapy! of course there are now concerns about her communication and self help/adaptive skills being delayed. We are scheduled for another EI evaluation in a month to see where she is at. I don't think she'll qualify for services yet, but she is probably pretty close to needing them. She wasn't even that early a preemie, but she is definitly working very hard at keeping up with her peers right now!


• I'm currently 26 weeks pregnant!!! No complications from the previa to date (knock wood) but I did take a nasty fall Sunday that sent us into a panicked tizzy! No need to see the midwife as I had no conractions, no bleeding, and good kick counts from G3. Another 2 weeks and we will see if the placenta is cooperating and double check the gender since the pictures and videos we have seem to resemble Rachel's U/S more than Ryan's.... Hey, they have been wrong before!

What will you be doing in 20 weeks???

I'll either be:
Giving birth;
nursing a baby; or
miserably, hugely pregnant!!!
I can't believe we have made it to the halfway point already - woohoo!
Wednesday was our BIG ultrasound. Everything is great! WE found out that Rachel will be retaining her princess status! Yup, another boy will be joining our clan!!!
He was a very active, silly little man through the entire ultrasound - repeatedly standing on his head or spreading his legs for us. But he measured right on target and looks good.
The placenta doesn't look so good. Let's take a journey through my palcental history shall we?
2004 - low lying placenta diagnosed at 20 weeks. By 30 it was migrated to a good spot for a normal labor and delivery
2006 - marginal placenta previa. Not on my cervix but too close for comfort. Moved by 35 weeks (which is when the other issues were diagnosed). Pathologoy reports that it is smaller than it should be but older looking than it should have been. One possible cause was that Rachel literally laid on it for 35 weeks. We will never know...
2007 - "partial placenta previa" not covering entirely but covering a portion of my cervix none the less. I am given some moderate restrictions - no heavy lifting, no strenous exercise, and no sex. We go back in 6 weeks for another check.
So there are a few things in life I can't ever get right - placentas and instant rice being on the top of that list!!!
No other news. I'll try to get pictures up this weekend. The kids are devine as usual :)

baby wiggles, puke free (knock wood)

17 weeks today!

This past week has brought on the very first baby wiggles in my belly! They are still inconsistent and occur mostly at night when I am settling down but I'll take them where I can get them!!! I also only puked once this week!!!

Of course the puking has been replaced by the afternoon headaches. Sigh. I had these with Ryan but not Rachel - hmmm, another boy perhaps? I guess we will know on 8/29!

IN non-pregnancy news:

Ryan is getting his big boy twin bed this weekend - YAY! Maybe he will actually sleep in it instead of my bed. Really we are starting to run out of room in there. I got him an adorable blue plaid quilt at T*arget and am planning on getting him the Little E*instein sheets from there as well. I have found some adorable blue rocket crib bedding in case G3 is a boy - they will look so cute together! Ryan is still convinced G3 is a girl but now we are naming her Elephant - nice huh? He talks to her(?) every morning and night through my belly now

The bad Ryan - well he is acting 3. Everything is his way or a tantrum - I am tired of them already and I know it is just the beginning. I swear last night someone in the store parking lot probably called CPS on me with the screams of "you're hurting me! I don't like you" that were coming from our car as I tried to strap a bucking 30 pounder into his car seat.

Rachel is, well, Rachel. She is such a princess and we adore that about her! She loves shoes as long as they are not on her feet and her daddy's ties. She sits in the bathroom every morning and brushes her teeth or her hair (with the correct brushes) while I am getting ready for work. Her physical therapy is coming along wonderfully and yesterday she managed to pull herself to a full stand all alone! We are so proud of her and all her hard work! I think she may be walking by Halloween at this rate!!!

In other family news, Rob's grandpa passed away a couple of weeks ago. We went to RI for the memorial service and are planning to make the trip to Arlington in October for his interment. My BIL skipped the service saying he was too busy working. After a week of vacation. Oh and we had almost 2 weeks notice on the memorial service. Oh well - no loss there!

To end some pictures:

baby girl eats her corn like a big shot

catching bubbles

yes, I know she has a power cord. Yes, I know it looks like Ryan is strangling her. I wasn't home and it is the only picture I got this month of the 2 of them together!

One trimester done, 2 to go....

Can you belive that I am 14 weeks already? Time has flown for sure! Onyl 5 more weeks until we find out which way the gender scale will be tipping in our house!!!

Had an appointment with my midwife this week. All is well, labs were good, HB was great, only thing was their scale showed me gaining 4 freaking pounds!!! There is no way - I weigh myself at home and I have gained MAYBE a half a pound. I am really trying to not use pregnancy as a license to eat since I am still trying to get rid fo the extra weight from Ryan and Rachel!!!

I am still puking my brains out every morning but it is getting better (minus the lovely stomach bug I got from Ryan earlier this week - I truly thought I was dying from it!). Mostly in maternity pants or regular pants and my bella bands (well generic ones from Ebay!). I ahve even been using those suckers to hold up my maternity pants that are a little too big on me!

I guess that's it for now. I'll leave with the closest thing I have to a belly shot - a picture of me and Rachel on the carousel!



If you look closely at my midsection you can see the bump! Of course, I am still getting those - is she pregnant or has she just not lost the gut from the last one looks!

A game...

Got this off of Michelle's blog and thought it looked fun! So here goes:
The game is SCATTERGORIES. Its harder than it looks! Here are the rules: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They MUST be real places, names, things. NOTHING can be made up! If you can’t think of anything, skip it. Try to use different answers if the person before you had the same 1st initial. You can’t use your name for the boy/girl name question.
Your Name: Andrea
1. Famous Singer/Band: ABBA
2. Four letter word: Arse (if we were in England of course!)
3. Street: Arbordale (about half a mile from my house)
4. Color: Aubergine
5. Vehicle: Audi
6. Things in a Souvenir Shop: A t shirt (so cheating on that one!)
7. Boy Name: Aidan
8. Girl Name: Adrienne
9. Movie Title: All that Jazz?
10. Drink: appletini
11. Occupation: architect
12. Celebrity: Alex Trebek
13. Magazine: American Baby
14. U.S. City: Atlanta
15. Pro Sports Teams: Arizona Diamondbacks
16. Reason for Being Late for Work: Accident
17. Something You Throw Away: apple core
18. Things You Shout: ARGH!
19. Cartoon Character: Alice in Wonderland

So after 33 months of being vomit free Ryan decided last night was the night. Could he do it at home? NOOOOO! Could he do it somewhere easy to clean up? NOOOO! How about the car? YES! After a lunch of Spaghetti-os? YES! UGH! I now feel like my car smells like carpet cleaner and puke but I could be imagining it (or it could be the pregnant women super power sense of smell)
The thing about this is Ryan ate spaghetti-os that I just bought a few weeks ago and when I checked the can last night they had expired in February 2006!!!!
My poor baby!

Don't want to jinx myself, but....

it appears that at 33 months my genius boy may be potty trained!
We have been taking a very casual approach with it - I didn't want to push him if he wasn't ready, but then we went 3 dry days - with me constantly prompting him to go. Then there were 2 poops in the potty. Then another 4 dry days where Ryan actually told us he had to go. Really he told us he was going but he meant that he had to :)
And then today he went by himself and then told us he had gone!!!
I am so happy that he is doing so well with this! He is such a big BIG boy now!

One year ago yesterday...

Rachel came home from the NICU!!!



She was 4 pounds 13 ounces and I've got to say she looks about as freightened in that picture as we actually were to have her home! She did great though! Slept well, ate well and grew into an 18 pound 10 ounce TODDLER!!! How, exactly, did that happen????

11 weeks down, 29 more to go

I did a dissmal job of journaling my last 2 pregnancies. I am taking this suprise third one as an opprotunity to write things down (and maybe take some pictures!). I love LOVE being pregnant and want to remember it forever.
So, here I am 11 weeks today and at this point? Not so enjoying it :( The morning sickness held off long enough that I though perhaps I would escape it this time. It appeared around 9 weeks - what the heck??? It has peeked this week. Yesterday was by far the worst day ever! Today, not so bad - no puking but then maybe I would feel better if I did (that didn't work yesterday but worked up until then). What settles my stomach seems to change daily. Some days salty snacks and other days sweet snacks. It is hit or miss and breakfast is always an interesting time for me. I generally bring 3 or 4 different things to work and try them all until something works. I hope that I am almost out of the woods on this. It went away around 14 weeks with Ryan and 18 weeks with Rachel.
I can feel my uterus now - above my pelvic bone but below my belly button. It feels about the size of a large softball which I think is about right for now. Some days I need maternity pants but I think that is more bloating than anything else.
I have some weird insomnia that I remember getting with Ryan. I can fall asleep fine but then I wake up around 4 and have the worst time sleeping after that. This means that I am ready to crawl under my desk by 2 most afternoons :)
Onions. Did you know that they are the weed of the devil? Seriously they are fatal to me right now! Even one little piece and I will have horrendous heart burn for hours. I just have to avoid them for the time being (which isn't hard since I don't really love them anyway). Oh and hot food is kind of grossing me out. All I want to eat are sandwiches and fruit. Too bad the deli meat is off limits for now :(
No belly pictures for now because you really don't need to see my left over pooch from kid A and kid B :)

Ryan, the hot dog snob

We live in Rochester, NY. The city is known for Kodak mostly, but also for some serious hot dogs.
Zweigles to be more specific. Now, I am not a huge fan of hot dogs at all, but I will get one of these at the ballpark every summer because, after all, what's a ball game without a hot dog?
ANYWAY, when we got out to eat locally (and we go out a lot sadly) Ryan almost always gets a hot dog. They are almost always Zweigles.
For Rachel's party we bought a huge pack of hot dogs at B.J.s - since we had 50 people coming over. Last night I told Ryan we were having hot dogs (and all the other party leftovers) for dinner. He told me that he didn't want the "yucky" ones from Rachel's party! When I asked why they were yucky he said they just were and they were to tiny. I think he meant skinny!
My boy child - a true Rochestarian* :)

* He can also identify a Wegmans truck on the road as well as requesting Abbotts for ice cream :)

One finger old!

Yesterday was Rachel's BIG day and what a great day she had!!!

The weather couldn't have been better - 80's and sunny with just a little breeze - which is great considering that we had almost 50 people coming to our house! There was plenty of food and drinks (and cake, of course!). And no lack of presents for the princess. We had a pinata (or a pana as Ryan called it) for all the kids that were in attendance and I realized that the birthday Princess was the only girl at her party! She had a harem of boys ranging from 2 to 6 years old! Lucky girl :)

She got GREAT gifts - too many clothes, but I kind of expected that! From Mommy and Daddy she got a newborn Cabb*age P*atch, from Aunt Renee a sheep rocker, Aunt Kara bought her books and a footprint charm for her bracelet (since she will, God willing, start walking this year!).

Ryan made out well too! Rachel gave him a D*ora lego set, he got some clothes and the coolest Auntie ever gave him a S*piderman slip & slide. Rob just called me to tell me that Ryan was bugging him about playing with it and then went upstairs for a little bit. He came back down in his bathing suit! How cute is that????

In honor of becoming a big girl, Rachel decided that she could, in fact, sit herself up! After practicing all day Saturday, she is now a pro at it! Go, Baby Girl, Go!!!

Rachel's big birthday post!!!

Hard to believe that a year ago today I was meeting with neonatologists to discuss what the situation may be after I give birth and this morning I was lugging cupcakes to the sitter's to celebrate that birth!
It's been a hell of a year - the whole preemie thing still gets me and I find myself saying "well, she was a preemie" at least once or twice a week! I hate that! She is a beautiful baby girl regardless of what she can (or can't) do!
That reminds me - I never did write about her EI evaluation. Basically what is boiled down to was that she was on target for her adjusted age in every area EXCEPT her gross motor skills. She was on par with 6 month olds (she was 9 almost 10 months adjusted). The therapist said her joints are hypotonic (which means she is a loosey goosey to the hilt!). Fortunately they don't seem to think that it is a sign of anything more serious, most likely it is caused by a combination of developing w/out amniotic fluid for a while and genetics (I am freakishly flexible and was a late walker as well). So she qualifies for an hour a week of physical therapy.
In the 3 weeks she has been receiving the therapy she has started scootching! YAY for scootching! She has also gotten herself to a seated position twice but no one saw her do it! She was laying down and then she was sitting. It's like the proverbial tree falling in the woods!!!
So, in a nut shell here is Rachel at 1:
Rachel has been overly healthy! She has had one cold all year! That is it! Did the Synagis help? Maybe, but then Ryan is a pretty healthy kiddo as well. I just grow em that way I guess!
* FOOD! Loves anything and everything! Her favorites are strawberries, hamburgers, ice cream, watermelon, basically anything sweet. She was fully weaned at 11 months, had about 3 weeks of formula and then went to whole milk. She is indifferent to it really. If it's in the right cup she will suck it down, otherwise she could care less about it.
* about weaning: it was a slow process honestly. Around 9 months I cut out on of my 2 daily pumping sessions but still nursed her in the am and before bed. At 10 months I cut out the second one and at 11 months she was no longer showing an interest in nursing at all. I feel like we did a combo mommy/baby led weaning thing and it worked for us. She never acted like she needed it (but she's not an overly cuddly baby to begin with so I think she always viewed it as nutritional more than comforting). I am hapy with the whole thing. I never thought I'd nurse even close to that long anyway!
*SLEEP! Rachel is an angel sleeper! 2 naps, and down for the night at 7:30 - sleeps until 6:30. I can't complain. If only she could teach her brother how to do that!!!
Things she can do:
Sit unsupported (if you put her there)
clap
wave
bang things together (LOUDLY)
feed herself - she will occasionally entertain the thought of a spoon but fingers are faster and this girl loves her food!
SCREECH if she doesn't get her way :)
THings she can say:
Mommy
Ha (this means hat and is said as she is putting her bowl (usually full of food) on her head
No
Yayan - we are pretty sure this is Ryan as it is said when he is not around OR when he is annoying her!
So, all in all, pretty damn good for a 35 weeker who couldn't quite figure out the whole breathing thing a year ago, huh?

Rachel at 4 days old - off CPAP but still needing some O2

Rachel at 2 months still wearing preemie clothes

4 months on Halloween

Chubby at 6 months

A 9 month old Rachel Bunny!

A bathing beauty at almost 11 months

the most beautiful birthday girl in the WORLD!!!

So much happening....

Alright - I still haven't made a final decision but for weeks I have been thinking about closing the blog. I never write anymore, I never have anything exciting to say, and well, I am boring.
I like blogging - I love reading blogs even more! If I could just sit down for 10 minutes every day and write I think I would be less overwhelmed by writing an entry.
The kids are doing so many amazing things that I really want to remeber that perhaps I should contine writing!
What the heck???
Now for our REALLY big news.....
I am, most unexpectantly and shockingly, PREGNANT!!! YUP! After finally deciding that our family of 4 was perfect, fate decided we should be a party of 5!!!
I'm due around mid-January (I will be 10 weeks tommorrow).
So I didn't write about this before because honestly, I wasn't very excited about it until recently. I was actually more upset and scared than anything. Now our families know and seem excited and I guess it has worn off on us, because we are pretty happy!
This changes everything - I need a bigger car (I am pretty sure 3 car seats won't fit in an Elantra!), if it is another girl the kids will have to swap rooms since Ryan's is much bigger and could accomodate 2 kids. All logistical I know. The one thing that we know we have enough of is love.
I am still freaked out though - Ryan will be just over 3 and Rachel will be 18 months when this one comes! YIKES! My new theory is to raise them like a liter of puppies! At least there will always be someone to play with, right?
So, those of you with 3 - what's it REALLY like?????

Mexican Fest, allergies, laziness and the weekend to come

We had a Cuatro De Mayo party here at work for lunch today. It was fun - the food was good and it was a nice distraction. I have, however, noticed increased raffic flow to the rest rooms!!!
The beautiful day of gardening I had on WEdnesday has officially kicked off allergy season for me! Saved by Benadr*l but I seriously can only take that while lying down in bed and with nothing ahead for 6-8 hours!
I have been so tired lately - like bone tired. Wednesday I fell asleep in Ryan's bed with him and woke up at 10 and went to my own bed! At any time of day I could probably close my eyes and LAY DOWN! So exhausted!
This weekend - WALKAMERICA!!! The weather is supposed to be GREAT! Rachel's Proud NICU Graduate shirt is in and is adorable! I can't decide if she should wear the pink or the green capri pants with it though :) It amazes me how much she has grown since she was born. I remember looking at her and thinking how impossible it seemed that she would actually ever be as cubbilicious as Ryan was in infanthood and now she is even more delicious than I ever could have dreamed!
Tuesday is her Early Intervention evaluation. I am kind of excited for it. I am interested in seeing where she falls over all for babies her age. Oh and Tuesday my dad is being honored at a luncheon so Rob and I will be going to that as well. We are also going to the circus next week - how fun does that sound????
And to end - a picture!
This is Rachel last month (so almost 10 months). If you look hard you can see the 2 bottom teeth!

I match!

It appears that my pants match my blog today! It is supposed to be in the upper 60's so capri pants it is! I am so glad the weather is finally decent around here - the lack of sun was really starting to get to me. I was only half joking when I told Rob I thought I was suffering from seasonal affect disorder!
Yesterday was the United Way Day of Caring. My team from work spent the day gardening and washing windows at the Sisters of St. Joseph Motherhouse. This is pretty much where old nuns go (and some priests). There is skilled nursing, assisted living, and a memory care unit. So it was pretty fun - the nuns were very interested in us and the Bishop was there celebrating mass which we were invited to join in for. I am going to count it as my church obligation for the week since Sunday is the March of Dimes Walk America! We are walking in honor of Rachel and raising money as thanks for all the resaerch and support MOD has done to help preemies like Rachel.

Look at me!!!

Just some spring cleaning of the old (tired and seldom updated blog!) Also a more recent picture of me and the kids. By recent I mean Thanksgiving of 2006! Rachel is much bigger now and Ryan, well, he is still Ryan!