Some more pictures

So, we've been home for 5 days now and are still in the process of adjusting to life with a new baby as a family of 5. The kids are doing really well, although we have seen some examples of jealousy. It tends to be directed to each other though instead of Micah. (Like just now Bri came downstairs and told us Jonah had drawn on her door with markers. Clearly he was needing some attention...even if it was negative attention!)

Micah is doing really well! We had a home visit with a nurse on Monday and she checked his color, his temp, and his weight. He had gained 3 ounces since we got home which was excellent for only two days! She said he looked like he was doing great. He is a very content baby. He doesn't really cry unless he is hungry and I don't get to him as quick as he thinks I should, or if you undress him to change his diaper. (He hates to be undressed!) He is my only baby that likes to be swaddled. The other two didn't like that but he loves to be nice and tight. It could be something to do with him being early. He still sleeps alot, but is starting to have more awake periods where he just sits and looks around. We're trying not to hold him all the time and put him down when he's sleeping, which is the only reason I'm writing this now. It's so hard though because there is just something about holding a sleeping baby! Especially one as sweet as Micah!

I am doing really well too. I definately don't feel like I just had a baby 6 days ago! But I know that I still need to take it easy and not push myself. It's kind of hard because I want to help Steven as he is trying to get the house whipped back into shape. Yesterday was Bri's room and the kids playroom. Today is Jonah and Micah's room and our closet in our bedroom. I might be able to sit on the bed and help with that one! But mostly I'm spending my time holding the baby, trying to spend time with each of the kids, watching way too much daytime TV, and surfing the web. I'll be glad to get back to normal in a few weeks!

So without further ado here are some more pictures of Micah from his birthday.

That look is just pure love!

Jonah had a shirt that said "Big Brother" and Bri had one that said "Big Sister". We made them with them Wednesday night. (Not Micah's!)

The adoring big sister! (The marks on her face are a story for a different day!)

See- he can be sweet!!!!

Our beautiful kids!

How fast they grow!

Going home. He looks soooo tiny in that carseat!

Arriving home. My mom made that bow on the door! Isn't it awesome!!?!??! She should start selling them!

So that's the update for now! We go to the doctor on Friday for Micah's one week appointment and we'll post more about his progress then.

Introducing....

Micah Edward
July 9, 2009

2:19 pm

6 pounds 2.9 ounces

20 inches long

We are very excited and thankful to announce the arrival of Micah to our family!!! He arrived safe and sound, and a little small, but bigger than had been predicted.

We arrived at the hospital at 6:30 am on Thursday. They got me hooked up to the monitors and got an IV going. They started the pitocin around 8:30 am. By 1:40 I was ready to start pushing, and he made his grand entrance at 2:19 pm. So not quite by lunch time like I had bet the doctor, but pretty close!

He was pink and very healthy. He didn't cry a lot, just when he was being poked by the nurses, and when he did he was very good at calming himself down. But since he didn't cry a lot he also didn't get all the gunk out of his throat that he needed to which caused some problems later in the day.

Thursday night, around 9:30 pm he was admitted to the NICU because of rapid breathing and a problem maintaining his body temperature. They also checked his blood sugar and then just watched him for a few hours. It was something I was not expecting, and it was hard to leave him there and go back to my room, but I was tired and needed my rest also. So we left him, Steven went back a few hours later to sit with him. Then around 12:30 am the nurse came and told us that if he would eat well that they would let him come back to our room. So I went to the NICU to feed him, he ate really well for the first time all day, and by 2 am he was back with me. It was a little scary, but I am so blessed that he was only there a few hours and not a few days!

His big brother and sister are so excited to have him here. Brianna is the little mother hen. She wants to hold Micah all the time. She will let other people take him, but then she cries and whines until she gets him back. We're working on sharing!!! Jonah thinks he's pretty funny (he also said he stinks!) but he looses interest very quickly. We're working on not harming the baby. He's already honked his nose, almost punched him in the head, kicked him in the head, poked his eyes....we can't leave him alone for a minute! But then again, he's 2!!!

We're just happy that he's here safe and sound. Those last few days were pretty stressful and scary but we are very blessed and I'm very glad to be home with my family! Just a few more pictures to hold you until I can update again!

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and concern for our family! We appreciate it and our prayers were answered with a beautiful, healthy baby boy!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow..I Love Ya Tomorrow!

So yesterday was a very full day. We left the house at about 10 am for a 10:30 doctor's appointment. We discussed the results of the ultrasound and what implications the information we had recieved meant for the baby and for me as well. The doctor wasn't as worried about the fluid levels because they were still in the range of what they consider acceptable, he was more worried about the babys' size. If I had a history of having small babies they wouldn't be as concerned, but since Jonah was almost 8 pounds and Bri was 7 1/2, a 5 lb 7 oz baby is very small! So we decided to let him sit a few more days because he doesn't seem to be in destress and they will be inducing me tomorrow at 6:30 am. By tomorrow we will be at 38 weeks so he will be considered full term, although he will be looking at his own host of possible complications if this is indeed IUGR like they are suspecting. (IUGR is interuterine growth restriction)

Babies born with IUGR can have trouble maintaining body temperature, sugar levels, breathing on their own, etc. so we're just praying that he's big enough (not too much smaller than the 5 lb 7 oz they've predicted) and strong enough to do what he needs to do to thrive.

After the doctors appointment in the morning they sent us over to the hospital to do a biophysical profile. This is usually a better indicator of what's going on inside and includes another ultrasound and nonstress test. We got some amazing pictures from this ultrasound that I couldn't wait to share. They got some different numbers with their test, but the doctor had warned us that that could happen and not to get too encouraged if they got a different result than the other tests we have had. But he did really well, and we even got to see him practicing his breathing, which is really fascinating to watch! He passed the nonstress test with flying colors after a little stimulation from the tech. So we didn't get any really new info from those tests.

We finally got home around 5:30 (I was soooo exhausted!) and now we're just getting ready to go to the hospital in the morning and meet our little guy face to face! Steven has the kids at the aquarium for some daddy time and then we'll do some shopping, laundry, etc to make sure we're ready for when we get to come home (hopefully on Saturday!). We'll post pics as soon as we have access to a computer to do so! Thanks for your support and your prayers! We really appreciate it more than you know!

And I'll close with some of my favorite pics from yesterdays ultrasound:

His cute little face! Isn't he sweet?!?! I've never had one this clear before!

His nose and little pouty lips! And fingers there in the right corner (two I think!)

A shot of his little fingers! Soon to be wrapped around everyone's fingers I'm sure!

His toes. Those little buggers have been digging into my ribs for the past two months!

So another sneak peek at our little guy! We'll get to fully see him in a few short hours! We can't wait!

Calling All Prayer Warriors

Today I'm putting out a call to all of our friends of faith. We need some prayers.

I had an ultrasound today to check on the baby's growth. They've really been watching his growth because I had a very hard time delivering Jonah and we wanted to avoid that this time around. It had been about 6 weeks since the last check so at my appointment last Thursday the doctor ordered another ultrasound for today.

I was not prepared for the news that I got however. From the measurements that the OB tech took he is nowhere close to Jonah's or Bri's size. In fact, he is very small. From what they can tell he only weighs about 5 lbs 7 ounces, which makes him approximately the size of a baby at 34 weeks gestation instead of the 38 weeks that we are at. His growth has dropped from the 17th percentile which he was at at 32 weeks to the 4th percentile. Basically, he is no longer growing where he is.

The other thing that we discovered is that my amniotic fluid levels are very low. In fact they are right on the verge of what they consider to be dangerously low levels. Why this is we don't really know, and they only thing to really do about that is bedrest (yeah right! Like that's going to happen with a four and two year old) and increasing fluids (I already pee every 40 minutes...what more do you want me to do?!?!?!) Since they were going to induce me next week anyway the question then becomes whether one week of bedrest is really going to do anything. He may gain a couple ounces but it's not going to make that much of a difference in the long run.

So after the ultrasound I had to have a non-stress test done. If you've never done one it's really easy. All they do is hook you up to the fetal monitor and you push a button every time you feel the baby move. They look for 10 movements in 20 minutes. He passed that with flying colors which I knew he would, they just had to make sure that he wasn't in destress since my fluid levels are so low. So at least we know he's still happy in there, even if he doesn't have as much room to move around.

I asked the tech that had done the non-stress test when we just say enough is enough, let's get him out and she said it's when the growth falls below the 10th percentile, which we are way below that. So tomorrow I have to meet with another Doctor to go over everything and decide what the best course of action is. From where I stand, even though I never want to see a baby born premature, if he's not growing anymore on the inside let's get him out so he can start to grow again on the outside. Since we were going to be induced next week, what's one more week in the grand scheme of things!??! So that's where I stand (and pretty much everybody else that I've talked to, including the tech at the office!), which means that we could have a baby before the end of this week!

We will keep you all posted, we just ask for prayers that the doctors will make the right decision for our little guy and that we'll have the patience and the ability to accept whatever decision that may be. And prayers that he is just small and that there isn't anything else wrong with him. Hopefully we would have a clue to that already but maybe not. I'll post again tomorrow after I meet with the doctor again and hopefully have some anwers!

Michael Jackson- dead at 50

Okay, so some people may find this posting a little cliche, but I don't really care! Today I am very sad over the passing of the great Michael Jackson. I have been a fan of Michael Jackson since I was a young child, literally. My earliest memories of Michael Jackson aren't even my own but those of my mom. She remembers when the Thriller music video was being debuted on MTV. Her manager at Hardee's was having a video party and her and my dad went, and took me with them. I was little...maybe 18 months old (maybe younger even than that.) Not many people had cable in those days, let alone MTV since you had to pay extra for it (kind of like HBO nowadays.) So anyway they took me to the party with them and mom says I stood pulled up in front of the TV bopping my head to the music. Everyone couldn't believe that it didn't scare me, just the opposite...I was intrigued!

My uncle Morty had a video tape (remember those?!?!!) that had the music video of Thriller along with a documentary on the making of Thriller, and several other videos from the Thriller album (Billie Jean and Beat It I think). I was around 3 or so and had to watch that video every time we went over to their house. I could do the Thriller dance, every move (can't now but probably could if I watched it enough!) Anyway, my grandpa begged my parents to let me take the video home just so that he could have some peace! I thought about calling my uncle to see if he wants it back...but now it's gonna cost him because that thing could be worth some money! I'd never give it up but I have a feeling it will become a collector's item.

I don't think there is a Michael Jackson song that I can't sing word for word. And I have so many memories of dancing to them with friends and at dances. One memory I will never forget is the surprise appearance that he made at the MTV music video awards in 2001 with 'NSync. The guys from 'NSync had always talked about his influence on them as artists and he came out on stage during their performance of "Pop" and people went nuts! I will never forget that! Oh, and the first time he did the moon walk. Again, I was very young but I remember.

No matter what you might think of him in his personal life (which I must admit was very odd and very unhealthy) you have to admit that as an artist the man was a genius! Everything he touched was golden and he always surrounded himself with the best people from producers (Quincy Jones!), to writing collaborators (Lionel Riche, R Kelly, Paul McCartney, among many others) to choreographers. The man was a musical genius...and it's evident the way he transcended generations. His career spand a 40 year period. How many artists can we say that our parents grew up with that we grew up with too? Not too many! I will miss seeing if he could have made the come back he was working towards because I think it would have been great...especially for his children to see!

Rest in peace Michael, away from the paparazzi, the critics, the pressure and the demons that you spent most of your adult life running from. You will always be the King of Pop...no one will ever take that title...it is yours forever! And your fans will miss you, but you'll live on through your music, that much you can be sure of!

What?!?! 65 days!?!?!?!

Okay, so it's been almost a month since my last post (Sorry!!!) and when I got on today to make this post I saw the little ticker at the top telling me that I have 65 days until my due date! I knew we were getting close but 65 days?!!?!?! That doesn't seem like a long time! 9 weeks, 2 months, that sounds a lot longer than 65 days!!!! Good thing this is baby number 3 so there isn't a lot that we have to do or buy. We have the crib...in fact, in the past month Jonah has weaned himself off of sleeping in the crib and sleeps in the toddler bed full time. We had to do nothing to make the switch! I put him down for nap one day and he said "No mommy! Big bed!" so I put him in the toddler bed thinking he'd get up a million times, but he didn't! That night he slept in the crib, but from then on he has been in the big boy bed every nap time and bed time! (That was a little too easy!) We have the car seats, the stroller, the high chair, the rocker, the changing table...everything! So I guess the time is really sneaking up on me because we haven't been in these huge preparations like our friends who are having babies for the first time! The only thing we need are summer clothes, because all of our newborn boys clothes are winter clothes (since Jonah was a December baby!) but I figure with him being born in July he'll live in onsies the first month or so of his life since it's so hot here during that time. I don't feel a huge rush to go out and buy a bunch of clothes right now. Poor third children.....they get soooo neglected before they even arrive :)

Brianna's last day of preschool was two weeks ago so we are getting into our summer routine. We try to get up at the same time every day, get dressed and brush hair and teeth before we ever go downstairs so we can just get on with our day. Lunch and naps are at about the same time every day and I'm trying to make sure that we do a weekly visit to the library for books, music, movies, etc (for them and me!!!) So far, things are chugging along. We have our days as everyone does, but so far they are still alive (and so am I!!!!) and we're actually having a good time.

And with 65 days left the fact that I have had no real complications and am not on bedrest at this time is a miracle in and of itself...so keep your fingers crossed that it stays that way!

Oh, and if you're wondering why I haven't been posting pics...yes I have been taking them using my FABULOUS new camera. But somehow, already, the USB cord that plugs into the computer for me to transfer pics to the computer has been lost! So until I find it, or replace it my pics are stuck on my FABULOUS camera until I go to Walgreens to dump them! Then be ready for a rain shower of pics...I guarantee it!

Okay, well that's all for now. Just wanted to let you know that we're all still here, and I'm really going to try to be better at posting during the kids naptime (which is happening right now! Alleluia!!!!) so you won't have to go a month between news of us. For now, that's all folks!

One of those days

Have you ever had one of those days? One of those days when even though you tell yourself over and over that you love your children...you just don't like them very much? One of those days when you know you'll loose your mind if you find one more spill (even if it is only water!), trip over one more stuffed animal or clean up one more mess? One of those days when you know you're going to go horse from all the yelling about how nobody listens to you (and then you wonder why they're not listening?!?!?!) One of those days when you wonder why you even bother, is any of it making a difference anyway? Why don't you just go to work, and send them to daycare, and let somebody else do the hard part so you can do the fun stuff?

And then out of the blue your two year old runs up and throws his arms around you and says "mommy, I love you!", or your four year old (out of bed for the fifth time during nap time) comes in and says "I just want to give you a hug!" and then hugs your arm and goes back to her room.

And you realize that yes, today is one of those days, but tomorrow will probably be better! And you're probably not the only one having one of those days! And as much as it sucks at the moment to be part of that club, you know that you wouldn't have it any other way, because it's those days that make you grow. And it's those days that inspire change. And it's those days that you'll look back on years from now and say "Yes it was hard, but I survived and I'm better for it." (and hopefully they are too!)

Yes, today is one of those days. It's a good thing tomorrow is a new day!!!!!