She's Here!

There is such a story to her birth. But first, She's Here!
Norah Rose was born at 9:11pm, weighing 3 pounds, 14 ounces, and 17 inches long.

With the two other kids and *life* I didn't always notice Tiny moving around, but always when the older two napped and I could slow down, I would feel her wiggle. Saturday morning Josh and I took the kids to the park in the next subdivision for a change, and we spent a good hour playing. When we got back and put the kids down for nap, I laid down too. But didn't notice Tiny wiggling. So I drank a glass of orange juice (yuck!) and laid on my left side and still didn't feel anything. In a panic, I called the on-call OB and she said to go ahead and head to the hospital, just for monitoring to make sure everything is fine. We dropped the kids off with a friend and sped over. On the way I felt one good movement, so I felt more at ease, but decided to head in just in case.

When we got there they hooked me up to do a non-stress test. Basically, they monitor heart rate and movement, making sure that baby moves at least once in the 20 minutes, and that when she moves the heart rate changes for a couple seconds. Though her heart beat was strong the whole time, it never changed, so she failed the test. So they ordered a BPP (biophysical profile) where they do an ultrasound and measure a dozen or so different things like fluid level, movement, and size. She failed that one too. And because the docs couldn't figure out why she failed, they decided she needed to be born. Immediately. They told me I needed an emergency c-section at 8:55, I was wheeled into OR at 9:01, and 10 minutes later we met our beautiful daughter. She was so tiny and had the cord wrapped around her neck twice.

She went directly to the NICU where she received a blood transfusion due to her levels being very low. The neonatologist theorized that she had a fetal-maternal hemmorage, where for some unknown reason, her blood traveled backward and into me, leaving her lacking. After the transfusion she pinked right up and was stable.

After I regained feeling, the nurses wheeled me into her room so I could see her for a little bit, and then I was settled into my room for the night.

Over the course of her 11 day NICU stay, she had ultrasounds on her head and belly to make sure her organs weren't affected by the lack of blood, and they discovered she had extra fluid in her belly. The nephrologist isn't concerned and will just check it again at about 6 months. She had trouble regulating her blood sugar, so they eventually moved the iv from her arm to her belly so they could push more fluid in at once. She started on oxygen but was weaned off that quickly. They then moved her to the isolette to provide her a consistent ambient temperature. She initially took feeds through an ng tube in her nose, and that was the last thing to get dc'd. Having adjusted to room air and temperature, stabilized her blood sugar levels, all internal tests came back fine, and learned to eat entirely by mouth, she was ready for discharge!

We eventually learned that the reason she was so small was because she had IUGR (intra-uterine growth restriction). There's no for-sure cause for it, but for whatever reason babies with this just stop growing in utero, and need to be born early in order to grow. I read somewhere this happens in about 5% of pregnancies. The fetal-maternal hemorrhage, if it's not caused by a trauma to mom (like being in a car accident) has no known cause. There's not a lot of information about it, but I read it happens in 0.3% of pregnancies. The only indicator is a lack of movement, and a few hours can be the difference between life and death. The fact that both of those happened to her, and she she's doing so well is truly a miracle.

We will be forever grateful to the wonderful staff who helped us care for our tiny baby the first 2 weeks of her life. We are so excited to take her home!

Summer Fun

It's been nice out so we've been spending a whole lot of time outside. Tiny makes me overheat quickly, so we're trying to enjoy the weather before I can't be outside for very long anymore. Luckily, with our fenced yard, I feel totally comfortable sending them outside without me. And they are so happy!

Josh is really enjoying their love of dandelions, they pick every single one they find in the yard! I have 2 or 3 "vases" of pretty yellow flowers going pretty much all the time. I'm so lucky =)

Lots of time in the pool. Both the baby pool that really they've outgrown but is so convenient, and the big pool.

Future Royals player right here!

Siblings

Taking advantage of the pretty flowers on my front step to take what might be the last good picture of our two kids, before there are three kids!

Handsome little ones, they are =) Cheese!!

Third Trimester

Can't believe it's already the third trimester! And I can't really complain, I'm only experiencing the usual pregnancy symptoms. Up to pee all the time, general discomfort. And a new one. My knuckles get so stiff while I'm sleeping that they *hurt* in the morning until I've wiggled them enough to loosen them up. It's annoying. But worth it. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

All my appointments are fine, happy little heart beat and measuring on track. The kids enjoy going because they like listening to Tiny's heartbeat. Tessa even nods along like it's a good song sometimes. =) Here's hoping this last stretch is equally uneventful!

Graduation

Say it isn't so! My baby boy is now a preschool graduate and nothing is standing in between him and kindergarten. (Happy and sad tears all at the same time).

Today was his last day of school, his end of the year party, and his graduation. Some of the moms also arranged an impromptu picnic at a nearby park for right after school. Busy Busy Busy! When I asked him this morning if he was excited for his last day, he kept cheering about the party. I don't think he quite understands that he won't be going to back to that school again. I will for sure miss the routine, but I think after a week or two Luca will really start missing spending all that time with his friends. He was never one to ask me to keep him home or to be reluctant to go--I hope that attitude continues!

His party was a lot of fun! We did a carnival theme with that style of games and prizes and temporary tattoos. Thankfully it was a pretty day (though a little windy) so we got to spend time outside. Our best idea was a pillowcase sack race. Seeing them all hopping across the field by the school was hysterical! =) He was very excited to tell Oma that he won ALL THE GAMES! (Everyone got a prize for playing each of the five games).

Luca with Miss Coleen and Miss Jane

And then, that night, **sigh** graduation. Not gonna lie, I was getting teary eyed already when the 1st year preschoolers were doing their stuff. Was it only last year that Luca was that big? Of course a third of the way through the program I got the low battery warning on my camera, but I still got some good pics and videos. Very glad that I took a picture with him and his teachers before the program though, after was a mad house! Pa stopped to get us all dinner on the way home (in the rain) to continue the celebration. I just can't believe he's gotten so big! At the end of the program the director introduced us to the class of 2029! At least that feels far away, though I'm sure I'll blink and miss all of it!

Congratulations Handsome Fella, we are so proud of you!

22 weeks and Name Brackets!

Even though this is my third pregnancy, I still have no idea how they work out what month of the pregnancy I'm in. Because it's 9 months, but 40 weeks, and the first 3 weeks there isn't even a fertilized egg... It's all very confusing to me. But I think, at 22 weeks, I'm six months pregnant. Because that's what a handy infographic on the internet said.

Kid is already a critic and will grimace if he/she doesn't like what I'm eating

My bump feels so much bigger in real life. If I stand straight and tall and look straight down I can only just barely see the tips of my toes. The camera is moving my pounds around willy-nilly, I think.

Anyway, we had the anatomy scan a couple weeks ago (April 1st, actually) and everything looks normal and great. We had a student working with the tech, so the scan took an hour because she let the student try after she did. Which was fine by me, since it was the last time we'll see the baby until they're born. And, much to the disappointment of several people, gender is still unknown! We call the baby Tiny, and I use masculine pronouns just because I don't like saying "it" and I figure since it's okay to call a group of women "guys" and a lady friend "dude," surely if it's a girl it won't mind.

Because we decided not to find out the gender, we've got lists of girl's names and boy's names going. And because when we started our lists it was late February, I thought at the time "Wouldn't a baby name bracket be awesome and hilarious!?" So we picked out 32 names of each gender (some we are in love with, some we think are ridiculous) and I built a couple brackets. Play with us!

Josh is filling out his brackets, I'm filling out mine. I'm predicting we will have less than half of the same choices by the Sweet 16, and only 1 of the Final Four the same. We won't decide for sure until the baby is born, but I want to hear your guesses early!

Some things to consider:
The names are "seeded" based on popularity according to the Social Security Administration. So the names on the left side of the bracket were more commonly given to babies in 2014 (the most recent year they had data on) than the names on the right side of the bracket.
We don't have any idea what the middle names will be, hopefully family names. But consider how it sounds with our last name at least.
I like nicknames, but only Luca goes by one so clearly that's not a had and fast rule.

Again I say, Play With Me!!

Petting Horses

Every year the park district has a "week of the young child" where they have a free activity daily geared toward younger kids. This year the only day we managed to get to was the pet a pony day at the local stables. Tessa was very, very unsure at first. Luca was so excited I was afraid he was going to spook the horse.

He pet the one that was out with her handler, and fed the one behind the electric fence (that had been temporarily turned off) handfuls of grass. Inside the building we ran into one of his buddies from preschool and made a horseshoe necklace. After chasing the barn cats around for a while, we went back out to say goodbye to the horses.

This time Tessa was willing to stand close enough I could get a picture, and even pet the horse's side while I held her. They had lots of fun!

Happy Easter!

I know the kids enjoy coloring eggs. And we enjoy watching their fun. But neither of the kids eat hard boiled eggs, Josh likes deviled eggs ok, and I'm the only one who eats egg salad.

An erupting egg

A dozen colored eggs makes a lot of egg salad. So, this year we did eggs two ways. With the vinegar and baking soda like years past, and this year I made like a play dough out of baking soda, hid some foam cut outs inside and shaped it like an egg.

She made that face every time the vinegar overflowed the bowl, and then got excited when the egg came back into view

Then the kids used droppers and cups and poured vinegar on them to watch them dissolve and collect the little shapes from inside. Still a dozen eggs worth of fun, but only a half dozen's worth of egg salad. Win/Win!

The Easter bunny came to our house and hid lots of eggs full of lots of candy all over. Both kids had fun hunting, and Luca was super good and didn't try to steal all the eggs before Tessa could find them. So proud =)

Emptying all the eggs while eating some of the candy!

Then we went over to mom's where the Easter bunny had also stopped by and found a whole bunch more eggs full of a whole bunch more candy. Poor Tessa had caught Luca's cold earlier in the week and still hadn't gotten rid of it, so she and I stayed behind while Luca and Josh went to his grandparents for even more Easter festivities. So much fun and family for one day!

Happy Easter!

Ok Guys

Consider the last 365 days "The Lost Year"

I could make all sorts of excuses as to why the blogging stopped, from the pitfalls of modern technology to the struggles of two kids, and anything in between, but does it really matter why?

I also have a couple of posts that I was writing that never got finished, but it seems silly to post about last years egg dying now. So, we're moving forward. Except for one on Luca turning 5, cause that was just a week or so ago. Going forward, I'll try to be better.

My dad likes to talk about how the first kid has a flip book of every moment of their early childhood, the second kid gets a picture of two of the highlights, and by the third kid they just appear at about 5 years old in the background of someone else's pictures. I am going to try very hard for that not to be true.

So, with that, I'm pregnant! Tomorrow I'll be 19 weeks along. We are not finding out the gender this time, and all plotting to find out without our agreement is just plain silly. Everyone will be surprised in the middle of August with us. Woo hoo! The first 14-16 weeks were ugly, which was disappointing, but I'm finally feeling pretty good. I think at first I thought the miracle second trimester would somehow provide me with more energy than I had when I was just mothering two kids, and now that I have more realistic expectations, I can finally start to enjoy this pregnancy.

Tiny Bumping

I'm thinking we might do another baby pool this time, except a very traditional one. Guessing gender, date, and time. Details to follow

Josh is good, I'm good, kids are good, Luca is enjoying preschool and tae kwon do, Tessa is enjoying ballet. And so I begin again =)

Rocket Ship Birthday Party!!

This year Luca decided he wanted a rocket ship/volcano birthday party. I couldn't figure out how to incorporate the volcano part, and thankfully it fell to the wayside as we discussed more rocket ship ideas.

I started watching the weather report two weeks before the party, hoping for nice weather. We've had one extreme to the other for his party, and naturally I was hoping for a pretty day this year. The closer the day came, though, the worse the forecast. It went from 60* and partly sunny, to 40* with a chance of snow. Bummer man.

Despite the chilly temperature, we had a whole bunch of people come out to celebrate our little (big) man! And we had fun! A nice lunch, lots of friendly conversation, and a lucky dude.

Happy to be able to celebrate our handsome fella with so many friends and family. Happy Birthday Luca!

The Big Oh-Five!

It happened. Luca turned five. I tried to tell him that four was a way better age, but I guess I shouldn't have already told him that when he's five he gets to go to kindergarten, cause he's pretty set on doing that.

He's loving preschool and comes home talking about what he played with his friends and what they had for snack. He also brings home crafts and letter/number learning worksheets, so I'm pretty sure he's learning too. ;)

He's been doing tae kwon do for about a year and really seems to be enjoying it. In December he had his promotion test and moved up to yellow belt. Because he's under 7, he has a white stripe in it. Any belt that he earns before he turns 7 will have the white stripe, but he doesn't have to earn them again when he's older. We're taking the classes through the park district, and this last session he was the only one enrolled, so he's basically been getting private lessons. So far he's the only one signed up for the next session too. The instructor has offered to let him take the class with older boys so he's not alone, but so far he's content with it just being him so we'll see if that changes next session.

Speaking of kindergarten, I finally ended up calling around to school district offices to figure out where he'll be attending next year. Our address is on the edge of the city, so we have weird divisions of services. One city for the address, we have fire and police protection from another city, and now it turns out we are in the school district of yet another city. But I got it all sorted out, we'll go to registration at the school in a couple weeks and hopefully all my questions will be answered. Can't believe he'll be going to kindergarten!! I'm a little anxious about that, and it doesn't help that his first day is also my due date. Yikes! I told my OB I have nightmares that my water will break while I'm bringing him into school and he'll be known forever as the boy whose mom peed her pants. She very politely didn't laugh at me. =)

He is really looking forward to summer and everything that goes with it. He wants to play outside all the time. He keeps asking when we can play water guns and get out the pool and ride in his power wheels and I keep explaining that he just has to wait. It's pretty impossible.

By and large he plays well with Tessa, though it often seems that it's mostly because Tessa doesn't mind being bossed around. He usually decides where and what they'll play, but she seems happy to go along with him. He's also pretty excited for Tiny to get here. I've taken both kids to my last couple OB appointments and he gets a kick out of hearing baby's heartbeat.

Can't believe my little dude is growing so fast! At his five year check-up he's in about the 25th percentile for weight and the 51st for height. My little bean pole. =) He got all his shots so he's ready for school and taking the bandaids off was by far the worst part of it. Sad five years have passed so fast, but excited for what the next year will bring.