Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Hospital Stay
Despite not being able to sleep in the hospital bed and going home a day earlier, I had a much better hospital experience with Lydia's birth than I did with Dylan's. I think it had a lot to do with the time of day she was born, the fact that the hospital wasn't as busy, and much better nurses. First of all we got a room that was 3 times the size of the one we had last time. It was a double that they converted into a single. That was very helpful for when Dylan came to visit and was running around. Secondly, I realized that the fury of activity that I complained about last time happens at the 24 hour mark, not necessarily the afternoon of the day after you give birth when everyone is visiting. So we got all that business taken care of in the morning before our visitors. The staff seemed much more knowledgable and helpful this time and despite the fact that it was only a 5 hour labor, the whole stay seemed much more laid back and relaxed.
This is a really bad picture of me and not so great of Lydia but Dylan looks cute.
We had some cranky kids (we left the hospital at 7:30pm on January 3rd) so we didn't get many pictures of the actual departure from the hospital except this one of Lydia bundled up in her car seat. 
Here we are nice and relaxed at home! My mom swaddled Lydia up good - my mom took a class, Dr. Karp's Happiest Baby on the Block. :)
Dylan got to meet his baby sista the day she was born. Martin picked him up from Laura's around lunchtime and then they went home and both took a nap. They came back to the hospital around dinnertime. I was surprised - Dylan "got it" right away. We told him once who Lydia was and he never once got confused or pointed to me or my belly when we said baby sister. Dylan has been very good with Lydia. He asks to hold her almost everyday. And there have been times when he has said "Dylan's turn" when I've been holding Lydia but I'm beginning to think that he's more jealous of me getting to hold Lydia than he is of Lydia. Dylan likes to give Lydia kisses on the cheek. There have been a few true moments of jealousy where Dylan has pointed his finger and looked at Lydia and said "get off" very sternly but he's mostly very sweet to her. Here is our first family of four picture:
This is a really bad picture of me and not so great of Lydia but Dylan looks cute.
Shortly after Martin and Dylan arrived back at the hospital, my parents got there. They were so excited to get to see us in the hospital and to meet Lydia the day she was born. With the first round of grandbabies (Steven and Dylan) my parents didn't see the kids in the hospital but this round (Zak and Lydia) they made sure of it.
Here are the going home day pictures. Lydia wore purple for the occasion and so did grandma.
We had some cranky kids (we left the hospital at 7:30pm on January 3rd) so we didn't get many pictures of the actual departure from the hospital except this one of Lydia bundled up in her car seat. Here we are nice and relaxed at home! My mom swaddled Lydia up good - my mom took a class, Dr. Karp's Happiest Baby on the Block. :) 
Swaddling has actually been working very nicely for us with Lydia. It really helps her stay asleep. I think she's still mixing her days and nights up a little but we'll work on that.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Lydia's Birth Story
Since I wasn’t having a scheduled C-section or wasn’t being induced, Lydia’s birthday was a surprise for everyone but God (unlike her name which I think everyone got with the last clue.) We had some clues as to when she would be born but the exact timing was definitely a surprise to us. Since Dylan was 10 days early I pretty much had it in my head that Lydia would be early too but as they say “every pregnancy is different.” Plus, after our last doctor’s appointment on New Years Eve (see earlier blog entry from that day) I was starting to expect that Lydia would arrive closer to her due date. Well, she ended up being 1 day closer to her due date than Dylan. But the similarities with her labor and delivery compared to Dylan’s ended there. While labor onset slowly and progressed slowly with Dylan, born in 2006, labor with Lydia, born in 2009, onset rapidly and progressed rapidly. At another doctor’s appointment we were told that second labors are usually about half the time of the first. So we thought we would be looking at about 12 hours this time, which sounded great to me after almost 25 with Dylan.
At 3:15am on Friday, January 2nd, 2009, I awoke with a start, not sure why. The answer became clear seconds later, when I felt something that made me think “I wonder if that’s my water breaking.” I had had feelings like this before that turned out to be nothing so that was the reason for the pause. Still, I said to Martin, “I think my water may have just broken.” Moments later, I felt something akin to a gush of water exiting my body and look down and this time I knew for sure. “Yep, my water definitely just broke,” I exclaimed to Martin and you never saw anyone get out of bed so fast. We had both physically prepared for the event with packing, but this was much more sudden and sooner than either of us anticipated. I hurriedly cleaned myself up while Martin assembled the last-minute of the items on the packing list. I remember thinking “cool, she has 12 hours to be born so we can donate the cord blood!” We made a call to the doctor and in a very sleepy voice he gave me the choice to either wait at home until the contractions started or head for the hospital and just walk around for a while. Knowing that we had to drop off Dylan at a friend’s house, we opted to head out.
Martin packed up the suitcases and other items and got Dylan ready to go as well. Dylan was in a fine, happy mood, despite being awakened at such an early hour. About a mile after we departed, he mentioned that he didn’t have shoes (he was still in his pajamas). Realizing that we hadn’t packed any, we returned home to grab them. On our way to the home of my dear friend, Laura H. where we planned for Dylan to stay until my parents could retrieve him later, we passed about a half dozen trash trucks – the only other vehicles out at 4am. Dylan pointed them all out. We dropped Dylan off, hoping he would give Laura a bit more sleep, but after seeing all the Cars paraphernalia that her boys got for Christmas, we doubted Dylan would be able to sleep. He cried a little when we left probably out of confusion but was soon at ease.
From there we drove to the hospital, and I began to feel the contractions as we traveled. They were brief, but they were very frequent. We made it to the hospital around 4:30, and I had an extra walk, as the main entrance wasn’t open yet and had to walk around to the ER. After we made it through registration, we headed to Labor & Delivery. The contractions became more intense during the hour long process they called triage. By the time I got to my delivery room, I decided to start the process to get an epidural. This time the needle in the back seemed a lot more doable compared to the pain that I knew would come and the pain that I was already experiencing (the pre-pushing contractions seemed more painful to me this time.) I didn’t feel like going through the pain – been there, done that. So, I needed to have an IV full of cold liquid which dropped my body temperature significantly and I started shivering. My blood pressure was also very low (89/37) due to the pain. My blood pressure is usually low (105/60 ish) and my doctor told the nurse “she’s just very healthy,” but the nurse was unsure if the anaesthesiologist would give me an epidural with my blood pressure that low. She even said, “I’ve never had a patient with blood pressure that low.” Nonetheless, the anaesthesiologist was able to get the epidural started, albeit a bit slowly. Shortly after the epidural, I was having contractions but not even feeling them. I felt very calm and had a relaxing talking with the nurses. Dr. Bruchalski arrived around 6:00 and came in to check me. He felt everything was going well and spent time talking to me. We discussed baby names for a while. When Martin mentioned our plan to donate the cord blood, he lamented about private cord banks (where they charge people to store the cord blood) were unnecessary. It was a very relaxed time. I also gave the clues on the baby’s name (from my contest). They spent a while trying to figure it out.
At 7am, there was a shift change so new nurses came in. Also, Dr. B left and Dr. Lorna (Cvetkovich) came in. At 8:06, the nurses called me complete and I soon began to some pressure. Because of the epidural, I wasn’t sure if it was an urge to push. I began to laugh nervously at the prospect that my child would be arriving soon. Then when I pushed, it was only one push and Lydia’s head was out. One small push later (or what the nurses and doctor called a laugh), and she was out. Dr. Lorna delivered her onto my chest at 8:16 and I was overwhelmed with emotion and began to cry.
The neonatal nurse cleaned her up and checked her out as I lay there recovering. She was beautiful, and everyone commented on it. She weighed 6 lbs, 5 oz and was 19.25” and was perfect. Moments after birth, she found her fingers and began to suck. After she was checked out, I began to nurse her. Over the next 1.5 hours, she nursed with a few breaks. Martin, Lydia, and I had a lovely quiet time. We ordered breakfast and watched the sun start to light up the mountains, which we could see from the window. It seemed like forever before I had enough feeling in my legs to get to a wheelchair. We didn’t get to the post-partum room until almost 11am where we started making phone calls and got the cord blood ready for pick up. Lydia was nice enough to arrive before 3pm so we could donate the blood.
I’m glad I had the epidural this time. It was really only running for about two hours and I didn’t feel like I was going to die this time. That said, I’m glad I didn’t have one the first time. I feel like I can sympathize with all those women in our time and in ages past (like my mom, my sister, Mary (see my Christmas post), etc.) that have not have the desire or luxury to have pain medication. And since things were going so slowly the first time I’m glad I didn’t do anything that might make me later think I helped to slow things. I had a lot less fear of having a C-section this time, which obviously wouldn’t be the end of the world but it is something I like to avoid if possible.
At 3:15am on Friday, January 2nd, 2009, I awoke with a start, not sure why. The answer became clear seconds later, when I felt something that made me think “I wonder if that’s my water breaking.” I had had feelings like this before that turned out to be nothing so that was the reason for the pause. Still, I said to Martin, “I think my water may have just broken.” Moments later, I felt something akin to a gush of water exiting my body and look down and this time I knew for sure. “Yep, my water definitely just broke,” I exclaimed to Martin and you never saw anyone get out of bed so fast. We had both physically prepared for the event with packing, but this was much more sudden and sooner than either of us anticipated. I hurriedly cleaned myself up while Martin assembled the last-minute of the items on the packing list. I remember thinking “cool, she has 12 hours to be born so we can donate the cord blood!” We made a call to the doctor and in a very sleepy voice he gave me the choice to either wait at home until the contractions started or head for the hospital and just walk around for a while. Knowing that we had to drop off Dylan at a friend’s house, we opted to head out.
Martin packed up the suitcases and other items and got Dylan ready to go as well. Dylan was in a fine, happy mood, despite being awakened at such an early hour. About a mile after we departed, he mentioned that he didn’t have shoes (he was still in his pajamas). Realizing that we hadn’t packed any, we returned home to grab them. On our way to the home of my dear friend, Laura H. where we planned for Dylan to stay until my parents could retrieve him later, we passed about a half dozen trash trucks – the only other vehicles out at 4am. Dylan pointed them all out. We dropped Dylan off, hoping he would give Laura a bit more sleep, but after seeing all the Cars paraphernalia that her boys got for Christmas, we doubted Dylan would be able to sleep. He cried a little when we left probably out of confusion but was soon at ease.
From there we drove to the hospital, and I began to feel the contractions as we traveled. They were brief, but they were very frequent. We made it to the hospital around 4:30, and I had an extra walk, as the main entrance wasn’t open yet and had to walk around to the ER. After we made it through registration, we headed to Labor & Delivery. The contractions became more intense during the hour long process they called triage. By the time I got to my delivery room, I decided to start the process to get an epidural. This time the needle in the back seemed a lot more doable compared to the pain that I knew would come and the pain that I was already experiencing (the pre-pushing contractions seemed more painful to me this time.) I didn’t feel like going through the pain – been there, done that. So, I needed to have an IV full of cold liquid which dropped my body temperature significantly and I started shivering. My blood pressure was also very low (89/37) due to the pain. My blood pressure is usually low (105/60 ish) and my doctor told the nurse “she’s just very healthy,” but the nurse was unsure if the anaesthesiologist would give me an epidural with my blood pressure that low. She even said, “I’ve never had a patient with blood pressure that low.” Nonetheless, the anaesthesiologist was able to get the epidural started, albeit a bit slowly. Shortly after the epidural, I was having contractions but not even feeling them. I felt very calm and had a relaxing talking with the nurses. Dr. Bruchalski arrived around 6:00 and came in to check me. He felt everything was going well and spent time talking to me. We discussed baby names for a while. When Martin mentioned our plan to donate the cord blood, he lamented about private cord banks (where they charge people to store the cord blood) were unnecessary. It was a very relaxed time. I also gave the clues on the baby’s name (from my contest). They spent a while trying to figure it out.
At 7am, there was a shift change so new nurses came in. Also, Dr. B left and Dr. Lorna (Cvetkovich) came in. At 8:06, the nurses called me complete and I soon began to some pressure. Because of the epidural, I wasn’t sure if it was an urge to push. I began to laugh nervously at the prospect that my child would be arriving soon. Then when I pushed, it was only one push and Lydia’s head was out. One small push later (or what the nurses and doctor called a laugh), and she was out. Dr. Lorna delivered her onto my chest at 8:16 and I was overwhelmed with emotion and began to cry.
The neonatal nurse cleaned her up and checked her out as I lay there recovering. She was beautiful, and everyone commented on it. She weighed 6 lbs, 5 oz and was 19.25” and was perfect. Moments after birth, she found her fingers and began to suck. After she was checked out, I began to nurse her. Over the next 1.5 hours, she nursed with a few breaks. Martin, Lydia, and I had a lovely quiet time. We ordered breakfast and watched the sun start to light up the mountains, which we could see from the window. It seemed like forever before I had enough feeling in my legs to get to a wheelchair. We didn’t get to the post-partum room until almost 11am where we started making phone calls and got the cord blood ready for pick up. Lydia was nice enough to arrive before 3pm so we could donate the blood.
I’m glad I had the epidural this time. It was really only running for about two hours and I didn’t feel like I was going to die this time. That said, I’m glad I didn’t have one the first time. I feel like I can sympathize with all those women in our time and in ages past (like my mom, my sister, Mary (see my Christmas post), etc.) that have not have the desire or luxury to have pain medication. And since things were going so slowly the first time I’m glad I didn’t do anything that might make me later think I helped to slow things. I had a lot less fear of having a C-section this time, which obviously wouldn’t be the end of the world but it is something I like to avoid if possible.
Next posting: my thoughts on the hospital stay this time
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
New Every Morning
"Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.' The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD." - Lamentations 3:21-26We are praising God for His blessings that are new every morning, especially the one we received on the morning of Friday, January 2, 2009. Lydia Mabel was born at 8:16am after only 5 hours of labor. She weighed 6lbs, 5.2 oz and was 19.25 inches long. We are all doing well aside from the lack of sleep. Lydia is eating like a champ and big brother Dylan is still very excited about Baby Sista.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Cord Blood Donation
If you've had a baby in the last few years, you've probably been bombarded with companies offering to store your baby's cord blood for a hefty fee. Many people may not know that you can also donate your baby's cord blood for free and it can be used to help people immediately or through research. According to the Cryobanks International website, "Currently, umbilical cord blood stem cells can be used to treat over 75 life-threatening diseases, including leukemias, anemias, lymphomas, and inborn errors of metabolism. As science continues to discover new uses for umbilical cord blood stem cells, many other diseases could potentially be treated using these unique cells. There are currently over 700 clinical trials being performed for diseases such as type I diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stroke, paralysis, heart disease, and wound repair." Cord blood is rich in stem cells and the more cord blood can be used, the less will be the demand for controversial embryonic stem cells. So we are going to try to donate our baby's cord blood. I say try because it has to be collected at a certain time and be a certain weight for Cyrobanks to accept it so hopefully it will work out that we can donate. I wanted to do this with Dylan but I got some misinformation and was told that my hospital didn't do it. But I asked again this time and my doctor told me that we could. I'll be blogging out this as part of my birth story and will let you know how it goes. So far, I had to fill out an online form, then fill out and mail in a more extensive medical history. Once they reviewed the forms, if I check out, which I did, they sent me the collection packet which I need to take to the hospital with me when I go into labor. I'm supposed to call Cryobanks when I'm in labor and then within a few hours after the baby is born. My doctor will do the collection and then give me the goods and then Cryobanks will come to the hospital and pick it up from me. I'm excited about it. This might make up for the fact that I almost passed out giving blood in high school and wasn't able to donate much blood and have been afraid to try again....but that's another story....
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Happy New Year and the final clue!
It's the first of a month so here comes another clue, the final one. It's five letters long and four of the five letters are in our son's name. (If you don't get it by now....:) You can still guess but I cut the phone call "prizes" off at 5. Here are the winners. Nancy, who guessed the name after only 2 clues! Next is my mentor from Crosstrainers (a working women's discipleship group at church) Sarah N., then Krista, then Amy, and finally Patricia. There have probably been about a dozen correct quesses total. It's been fun seeing all the guesses. We are still going to keep the middle name a total surprise.
So we're going to have 2009 baby. No tax exemption but more time to prepare for her arrival. And no health insurance issues (we switched insurances as of today). I can now say that I've never been this pregnant before. I wonder if I'll notice any difference in how I'll be feeling from now until she's born.
So we're going to have 2009 baby. No tax exemption but more time to prepare for her arrival. And no health insurance issues (we switched insurances as of today). I can now say that I've never been this pregnant before. I wonder if I'll notice any difference in how I'll be feeling from now until she's born.
Another update
I just got back from my 38 week appointment. I'm 2 cm dialated (normal for second pregnancy) but nothing else going on. My doctor said everything points to her being right on schedule. No guarantees but that was his best guess. Looks like she may provide support for my mom's theory that girls are either on time or late. My sister and I were just about right on time.
I haven't gain any weight in the last 2 weeks (how did that happen? with the holidays) but the doctor said that happens sometimes. I've gained a little over 25 lbs total this pregancy which is was my goal. That's just a little more than I gained with Dylan. I feel bigger though. Of course at this point in my pregnancy with Dylan I was going into labor.
I haven't gain any weight in the last 2 weeks (how did that happen? with the holidays) but the doctor said that happens sometimes. I've gained a little over 25 lbs total this pregancy which is was my goal. That's just a little more than I gained with Dylan. I feel bigger though. Of course at this point in my pregnancy with Dylan I was going into labor.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Pregnancy Update
Here's a picture of me one day shy of 37 weeks which was last Saturday. (Yes, I got my haircut, about 3 weeks ago - it's so much quicker to dry now and it will be out of the way more. It's a mommy do.) I'm now (as of today) 38 weeks so, any time now. Dylan was born at 38 and a half weeks but every kid is different and some think that girls are either on time or late and boys are early. I'm just trying to be prepared at this point in case she comes this week. The most pressing thing is finishing up some things at work which I think I can do a lot of tomorrow. (I'm working my same hours this week (except the holiday) but I'm working from home. Dylan will go to Patricia's tomorrow since this is Bushra's one week off per year.) This weekend we got a lot of the baby prep things done. It's funny because I blogged so much about all the prep with my last pregnancy and there really hasn't been much prep this time except now at the end. We got a bunch of stuff out of storage yesterday (bassinet, bath tub, car seat, etc.) I moved Dylan's clothes out of the changing table into his dresser and got out the newborn diapers and moved all the girl clothes to the changing table. While I was getting the clothes out I showed Dylan this pink jacket and I asked him whose jacket it was. He said "Anna's." Anna is a friend of Dylan's from church. At least he realized it was a girl's jacket. Then he saw the new pacifiers we got and he said they were Aiden's (another friend of his who is 7 months old). Here are some recent pictures of Dylan with Anna and Aiden:
At my last doctor's appointment (tuesday, the 23rd) the doctor confirmed that the baby had dropped. I had been feeling like I was breathing a lot easier for about a week before that. My next appointment is Wednesday. I got a pre-natal massage yesterday which felt awesome! I went into labor 24 hours after I had a pre-natal massage when I was pregnant with Dylan. But nothing yet this time. I'll keep you posted!
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Baby thoughts on Christmas
Every advent/Christmas I try to focus/meditate on one aspect of the Christmas message that God came to us in this world to be with us and then to die for us. This year, not surprisingly, I've thought about how Jesus came into this world as a helpless baby. Why didn't He just mysteriously appear on the scene when He was ready to start His ministry at age 30? Why submit Himself to humans to care for Him?
I, of course, don't have answers to all my questions but here are some thoughts - Jesus came into the world in this way so that His humanity was firmly documented and accepted. (Jesus' humanity is a key element of Him being an acceptable substitute for taking our punishment for our sin. For justice to be served, a human had to die.) If Jesus had just appeared, His humanity could be questioned. But we know who is mother and father were and people watched Him grow up (John 6:42). And the fact that He was born into a certain line of a certain Jewish family is key in the fulfillment of prophecy (Jeremiah 33:17). It is also key that Jesus experienced and suffered all that we do as humans (yet was without sin - Hebrews 4:15). That would include being dependent on others. He knows what's it like to grow up in this world.
Yet it is still hard to fathom that God loved us so much that He would and could be a little baby. And imagine what it was like for Mary - I particularly like the verse in the song "Mary did you know?" that goes something like "when you kissed your little boy, did you know you were kissing the face of God."
I hope you all get a chance to marvel at the awesomeness of the incarnation this Christmas!
I, of course, don't have answers to all my questions but here are some thoughts - Jesus came into the world in this way so that His humanity was firmly documented and accepted. (Jesus' humanity is a key element of Him being an acceptable substitute for taking our punishment for our sin. For justice to be served, a human had to die.) If Jesus had just appeared, His humanity could be questioned. But we know who is mother and father were and people watched Him grow up (John 6:42). And the fact that He was born into a certain line of a certain Jewish family is key in the fulfillment of prophecy (Jeremiah 33:17). It is also key that Jesus experienced and suffered all that we do as humans (yet was without sin - Hebrews 4:15). That would include being dependent on others. He knows what's it like to grow up in this world.
Yet it is still hard to fathom that God loved us so much that He would and could be a little baby. And imagine what it was like for Mary - I particularly like the verse in the song "Mary did you know?" that goes something like "when you kissed your little boy, did you know you were kissing the face of God."
I hope you all get a chance to marvel at the awesomeness of the incarnation this Christmas!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
A whole new world begins today
No, I haven't given up on the blog and no I haven't had the baby yet. I just got really busy with preparing for Christmas. We also went to NC to see Martin's brother and his family. It's been a fun month but I do miss the blogging.
Today is my last day in the office before my maternity leave. I feel like things are going to be so different when I return. Not only will I for the first time in my career not see a picture of W when I walk into the building in the morning, but also my work content will probably be a lot different. What I'm working on now, which is something I've worked on, on and off, since I started in June, will wrap up next month (presumably) and in this environment things come up and priorites change so quickly that I can't imagine what I'll even be doing when I return to work in April!
My other thought for the day is about how I'm mentally preparing for our little girl's birth. I'm remembering how things went with Dylan and so in some ways I'm feeling more prepared (like, okay, remember this is what happened at the hospital the day after Dylan was born and then remember how we have to go to the pediatrician and oh, then there's the support group I can go to). I have a mental picture of what the places look like and that's somewhat comforting. But of course there are so many unknowns that challenge me to trust God - how labor will go, making sure Dylan is okay, life with two kids, what the baby will be like (temperment, eating and sleeping challenges), timing of her birth, which doctor will deliver her, etc. It's really hard to prepare for a big life change other than telling yourself, within the next x weeks my life is going to be completely different. It's hard to believe. Although being in town for Christmas is change for us so I feel like the new territory/phase starts today. And I'm excited. I couldn't fall back to sleep this morning after my 4am bathroom run.
I hope you all have a great Christmas! I plan on updating more soon!
Today is my last day in the office before my maternity leave. I feel like things are going to be so different when I return. Not only will I for the first time in my career not see a picture of W when I walk into the building in the morning, but also my work content will probably be a lot different. What I'm working on now, which is something I've worked on, on and off, since I started in June, will wrap up next month (presumably) and in this environment things come up and priorites change so quickly that I can't imagine what I'll even be doing when I return to work in April!
My other thought for the day is about how I'm mentally preparing for our little girl's birth. I'm remembering how things went with Dylan and so in some ways I'm feeling more prepared (like, okay, remember this is what happened at the hospital the day after Dylan was born and then remember how we have to go to the pediatrician and oh, then there's the support group I can go to). I have a mental picture of what the places look like and that's somewhat comforting. But of course there are so many unknowns that challenge me to trust God - how labor will go, making sure Dylan is okay, life with two kids, what the baby will be like (temperment, eating and sleeping challenges), timing of her birth, which doctor will deliver her, etc. It's really hard to prepare for a big life change other than telling yourself, within the next x weeks my life is going to be completely different. It's hard to believe. Although being in town for Christmas is change for us so I feel like the new territory/phase starts today. And I'm excited. I couldn't fall back to sleep this morning after my 4am bathroom run.
I hope you all have a great Christmas! I plan on updating more soon!
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Another fun summer get-together
On labor day weekend, my pen pal Kelly was in town with her husband Jake and we got together for lunch and some site-seeing. I met Kelly in Yellowstone Park when our families were on vacation there in 1987. We wrote to each other a lot during middle school and while we wrote less and less over the years we always kept in touch and sent each other Christmas cards, etc. Until Labor Day, I hadn't seen her since 1987, over 20 years! Kelly contacted me over Facebook and said she was coming into town and gave me her cell phone number so we made a plan to meet up, we just had to recognize each other. We didn't have any problem. I was amazed at how familiar it seemed to spend time with Kelly. And I was amazed and how much fun we had and how much I enjoyed the time with her and her husband who is super nice and funny. Martin and Dylan enjoyed hanging out with them too. What are the chances that after 20 years we would still get along and have enough in common to talk for a few hours? And what are the chances that our husbands would get along? But we did and they did. Kelly lives in MN so I probably won't see her again for a while but we are hoping they move to DC in a few years after she finishes school.
Monday, December 01, 2008
Linus' First Birthday Party
(I'm catching up on posting pictures.) These pictures are from my friend Nancy's son's 1st birthday back at the end of August. Here's Nancy having fun trying to get the candles to light.
Linus is on the right watching all the kids from the party blowing out the candles...:)
Linus is on the right watching all the kids from the party blowing out the candles...:)
Linus did get to eat his own cake...
Dylan had a blast at the party playing with all the kids and the neighbor's dump truck. This is also where I heard about the idea for the dump truck cake that I used for Dylan's birthday.
Dylan had a blast at the party playing with all the kids and the neighbor's dump truck. This is also where I heard about the idea for the dump truck cake that I used for Dylan's birthday.
Photo #4 and Clue #4
Here I am at 33 weeks pregnant. I am now 34 weeks. It's getting close! Three more people guessed the name this month. I'm still going to take one more winner for the phone call list and after that if you guess I will tell you if you are correct (and swear you to secrecy) but you'll have to wait for the email announcement..:)
With more people getting the name we are hearing about different associations with her name that I hadn't heard before. This is one reason we typically avoid telling the name until its too late to go back. But as I mentioned before, we are very sure about her name so these associations haven't changed my mind at all about how I feel about her name. But I have changed my mind about this month's clue. This month's clue has something to do with one of the associations I have heard this month about our sweet little girl's name....:) The clue is purple tattoos!
Monday, November 24, 2008
Update on the kids (and Mommy)
I had a doctors appointment on Friday. All is well with our little girl. Her heartbeat was 136. I passed the glucose test and now I go back in 2 and a half weeks. I made my next two appointments and after that I'll be full term! I've already gained as much weight as I did with Dylan full term, maybe since I haven't exercised as much. Some people have told me though that I don't look as big or that I'm carrying differently. I don't see it but I feel it in my hips. It's hard to explain what it feels like. Exercising (I've been doing a weights class at the gym once a week) has helped a little and I think drinking more water may help. That's my plan for now.
Dylan has started climbing out of his crib, and quite proficiently too. I've watched him to it once. He swings his leg on top of the railing and then holds on tightly to the rail (with some amazing upper body strength) while he gets his legs over the top. Then he slides down the side. No thud, no crying. We just start hearing the doorknob jiggling and we know he's gotten out. He came out about twice when we were putting him to bed on Saturday and then before Sunday's nap he came out about 15 times before going to sleep. (We decided we needed to be persistent to stop this behavior so we didn't give up. I'm so glad we didn't because he did finally go to sleep after about an hour of climbing out. He definitely still needs a nap (and I need to work!) so hopefully the naps won't be a problem this week. We are still giving him a pacifier for the naps after he asks for it and sometimes at bedtime but not as much.) He came out once last night and then got up by himself this morning. We keep going back and forth about getting him toddler bed or putting a twin mattress on the floor or keeping him in the crib. Since he can get out of the crib safely now I'm leaning more towards keeping him in the crib until baby #2 needs it (grows out of the bassinet) and we move in the spring. It's still enough of a deterrent that it's helpful.
Dylan still eats less than we think he should be eating and it takes us forever to find him something to eat (we have to offer at least 5 different things for dinner), but I'm not to the point of worry or exasperation (yet). Breakfast usually isn't a problem - instant oatmeal and fruit. And he rarely refusing grapes or yogurt so we have some last resorts. He's still eating pureed veggies. He hasn't eaten meat for us in probably a week but that might just be a phase. He was all into pasta this weekend. We did switch to 2 percent milk since he turned 2. I asked the doctor if we should stick with whole and he said he Dylan gets fat in his diet from other sources then he didn't need the whole milk. So now we're letting him have more cheese and trying to offer peanut butter more. (We started PB a few weeks before his second birthday since we don't have a history of allergies in our family.) Martin and I decided that we could compromise and drink 2 percent milk too (we usually drink skim) so that we don't have buy two separate gallons at the grocery store. There's not too much left on our weekly grocery list that is just for Dylan now - just the baby veggies and plain yogurt (we switched from yogurt made with whole milk to low fat yogurt for him but Dylan still likes his yogurt plain, without fruit).
Along those lines, I've been thinking about how life with a new baby is going to be a shock for me since I feel like I'm almost back to my pre-kid "groove." We had a pretty busy day yesterday (church, friends over for lunch, made a meal to take over to some friends who just had their second, and then went back to church for a dinner/Harvest) and Martin says to me "I feel like we just had a day on Heather's old schedule," meaning before Dylan. And I've been working 30+ hours a week this last month. So I'm going to be in for a big lifestyle change (especially with going back to breastfeeding) in about 7 weeks. The good thing is I've done it before. Of course we didn't have a two year old then so some things will be different but people keep telling me that caring for the second one is easier because you know the drill now and aren't freaking out about every little thing. But then again every kid is different so what worked for #1 might not work for #2. But we'll roll with it whatever the case. Yes, I'm preaching this to myself.
Dylan has started climbing out of his crib, and quite proficiently too. I've watched him to it once. He swings his leg on top of the railing and then holds on tightly to the rail (with some amazing upper body strength) while he gets his legs over the top. Then he slides down the side. No thud, no crying. We just start hearing the doorknob jiggling and we know he's gotten out. He came out about twice when we were putting him to bed on Saturday and then before Sunday's nap he came out about 15 times before going to sleep. (We decided we needed to be persistent to stop this behavior so we didn't give up. I'm so glad we didn't because he did finally go to sleep after about an hour of climbing out. He definitely still needs a nap (and I need to work!) so hopefully the naps won't be a problem this week. We are still giving him a pacifier for the naps after he asks for it and sometimes at bedtime but not as much.) He came out once last night and then got up by himself this morning. We keep going back and forth about getting him toddler bed or putting a twin mattress on the floor or keeping him in the crib. Since he can get out of the crib safely now I'm leaning more towards keeping him in the crib until baby #2 needs it (grows out of the bassinet) and we move in the spring. It's still enough of a deterrent that it's helpful.
Dylan still eats less than we think he should be eating and it takes us forever to find him something to eat (we have to offer at least 5 different things for dinner), but I'm not to the point of worry or exasperation (yet). Breakfast usually isn't a problem - instant oatmeal and fruit. And he rarely refusing grapes or yogurt so we have some last resorts. He's still eating pureed veggies. He hasn't eaten meat for us in probably a week but that might just be a phase. He was all into pasta this weekend. We did switch to 2 percent milk since he turned 2. I asked the doctor if we should stick with whole and he said he Dylan gets fat in his diet from other sources then he didn't need the whole milk. So now we're letting him have more cheese and trying to offer peanut butter more. (We started PB a few weeks before his second birthday since we don't have a history of allergies in our family.) Martin and I decided that we could compromise and drink 2 percent milk too (we usually drink skim) so that we don't have buy two separate gallons at the grocery store. There's not too much left on our weekly grocery list that is just for Dylan now - just the baby veggies and plain yogurt (we switched from yogurt made with whole milk to low fat yogurt for him but Dylan still likes his yogurt plain, without fruit).
Along those lines, I've been thinking about how life with a new baby is going to be a shock for me since I feel like I'm almost back to my pre-kid "groove." We had a pretty busy day yesterday (church, friends over for lunch, made a meal to take over to some friends who just had their second, and then went back to church for a dinner/Harvest) and Martin says to me "I feel like we just had a day on Heather's old schedule," meaning before Dylan. And I've been working 30+ hours a week this last month. So I'm going to be in for a big lifestyle change (especially with going back to breastfeeding) in about 7 weeks. The good thing is I've done it before. Of course we didn't have a two year old then so some things will be different but people keep telling me that caring for the second one is easier because you know the drill now and aren't freaking out about every little thing. But then again every kid is different so what worked for #1 might not work for #2. But we'll roll with it whatever the case. Yes, I'm preaching this to myself.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Two more cute sayings...
"Keem-ut" - At first we thought he was saying K-mart. But this really means "clean up" which is what he says when we try to get him to clean up his toys.
"Second!...Place!" - There is a game on the cars website where you can race other cars (it's very much like Pole Position that we used to play on (gosh, was that) Atari, (man, I'm old)). Dylan can't play it but he asks us to play it so he can watch the cars. It's not that easy of a game and so for a while the best we could do was second place (out of five). At the end it tells you what place you came in and it says, in this movie announcer type voice, "second place", or "third place" or whatever you came in. So I think Dylan thinks that "second place" is the greatest thing because whenever he's pretending to race his cars or when we're running around the house playing "race" he always says "second!...place!"
"Second!...Place!" - There is a game on the cars website where you can race other cars (it's very much like Pole Position that we used to play on (gosh, was that) Atari, (man, I'm old)). Dylan can't play it but he asks us to play it so he can watch the cars. It's not that easy of a game and so for a while the best we could do was second place (out of five). At the end it tells you what place you came in and it says, in this movie announcer type voice, "second place", or "third place" or whatever you came in. So I think Dylan thinks that "second place" is the greatest thing because whenever he's pretending to race his cars or when we're running around the house playing "race" he always says "second!...place!"
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Cute Dylan Sayings
Martin and I frequently comment on how Dylan just cracks us up sometime. I've been making a mental list of some of the fun things and now I'm going to blog about them, for as much your enjoyment (I hope) as my recordkeeping.
"Richie's Car" - Dylan hung out with his friend Richie one day (back when Bushra broke her leg) and rode in his (mom's) car, a maroon Toyota Prius. A few days later, we are walking out to our car and Dylan sees a silver Prius on the other side of our parking lot and says "Richie's Car." And now anytime we see a Prius on the road he says "Richie's Car." How he distinguishes the cars, I don't know. Sure the back of a Prius is distinctive but not so much that you would expect a two-year old to notice. I think he's going to be one of those 5 year olds that can tell you every make and model of every car that passes.
"Happy Tow Whoa" - translation, Happy Birthday to You. Dylan says this anytime he sees candles now or when he gets out the singing birthday card that my parents sent him.
"Watch....Bittus" - translation, "Can I watch Thomas videos?" Dylan can't say Thomas so he says Bit-tus. For a while Bit-tus, or bitten, or some variation was Dylan's word for many things he couldn't say like strawberry and Mater (from Cars). Dylan has also said "watch...starship" since he watched an episode of Star trek with daddy once.
"Picture...Anna" - translation, "Can I look at the pictures of me and Anna from Kings Dominion?" I'll have to post some of these later - this was from Martin's work picnic - Anna and her parents go to church with us and Anna's daddy also works for Booz. Watching Thomas and looking at these pictures are the things that Dylan seems to always want to do while we are at home these days, while Mommy wants to limit "media" time (computer, tv, etc.). I'm going to have to print out the pictures of Dylan and Anna for him.
"Bye Bye Ader" - translation, "Bye Bye, see you later." It took me a while to get this one. I thought he was trying to say Bye bye Heather but then we figured out he was saying "later."
"God Made You" not to be confused with "How old are you?" - We started Dylan's formal systmatic theological training recently (ha ha) with the first three catechism questions from the Children's Catechism. The first question is "Who made you?" and the answer is "God." Dylan often responds "God made you." And then separately we also tried to teach Dylan to answer the question "How old are you?" with "Two." So when we ask him "how old are you?" he responds with "God made you." Maybe he doesn't listen to the whole question and only hears the "you?"
{Side note for those who may be unfamiliar with having children memorize a catechism: we obviously don't think that Dylan will understand much of these concepts now but we have heard from folks who were "catechized" has kids that the things you memorize when you are young when you can memorize things more easily stay with you for a long time and you can recall them later in life to help you then.}
"Jellyfish" - translation, peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
"Richie's Car" - Dylan hung out with his friend Richie one day (back when Bushra broke her leg) and rode in his (mom's) car, a maroon Toyota Prius. A few days later, we are walking out to our car and Dylan sees a silver Prius on the other side of our parking lot and says "Richie's Car." And now anytime we see a Prius on the road he says "Richie's Car." How he distinguishes the cars, I don't know. Sure the back of a Prius is distinctive but not so much that you would expect a two-year old to notice. I think he's going to be one of those 5 year olds that can tell you every make and model of every car that passes.
"Happy Tow Whoa" - translation, Happy Birthday to You. Dylan says this anytime he sees candles now or when he gets out the singing birthday card that my parents sent him.
"Watch....Bittus" - translation, "Can I watch Thomas videos?" Dylan can't say Thomas so he says Bit-tus. For a while Bit-tus, or bitten, or some variation was Dylan's word for many things he couldn't say like strawberry and Mater (from Cars). Dylan has also said "watch...starship" since he watched an episode of Star trek with daddy once.
"Picture...Anna" - translation, "Can I look at the pictures of me and Anna from Kings Dominion?" I'll have to post some of these later - this was from Martin's work picnic - Anna and her parents go to church with us and Anna's daddy also works for Booz. Watching Thomas and looking at these pictures are the things that Dylan seems to always want to do while we are at home these days, while Mommy wants to limit "media" time (computer, tv, etc.). I'm going to have to print out the pictures of Dylan and Anna for him.
"Bye Bye Ader" - translation, "Bye Bye, see you later." It took me a while to get this one. I thought he was trying to say Bye bye Heather but then we figured out he was saying "later."
"God Made You" not to be confused with "How old are you?" - We started Dylan's formal systmatic theological training recently (ha ha) with the first three catechism questions from the Children's Catechism. The first question is "Who made you?" and the answer is "God." Dylan often responds "God made you." And then separately we also tried to teach Dylan to answer the question "How old are you?" with "Two." So when we ask him "how old are you?" he responds with "God made you." Maybe he doesn't listen to the whole question and only hears the "you?"
{Side note for those who may be unfamiliar with having children memorize a catechism: we obviously don't think that Dylan will understand much of these concepts now but we have heard from folks who were "catechized" has kids that the things you memorize when you are young when you can memorize things more easily stay with you for a long time and you can recall them later in life to help you then.}
"Jellyfish" - translation, peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Recent (routine) doctor's appointments
When Martin switched jobs over the summer, we mistakenly put too much into his new health care FSA because we thought we were going to be able to claim things from before his start date that we hadn't claimed in his old FSA. We later figured that Martin could get a new pair of prescription sunglasses so we could use up the funds but now it's starting to look like we might not need to do that with my corneal abrasion and the $40 (!) we spent on this cream for a mark on Dylan's arm from a bug bite that didn't go away. (I wouldn't have gotten the cream if I knew it was going to be so much but our new FSA also automatically debits our account from CVS and I didn't realize this until later - I thought the prescription was fully covered because CVS told me there was no charge. And to all your CVSers out there, if your FSA does this, make sure the checkout person still swipes your CVS card because you get credit for your prescriptions and usually they won't ask for your card if there is no charge. I've messed this up two or three times now.)
But I haven't reported on three routine doctors appointments that we've had recently. I've had two OB appointments and Dylan had his 2-year check up. All is going well with the kidos and with me. At the Sept OB appointment, my parents came and we saw my favorite doctor - Dr. B. My parents were excited because they had seen Dr. B on TV in PA a number of months back and they had to tell him about it. So then it's time to hear the baby's heartbeat. Dr. B sees our squirming toddler and very smartly talks directly to him and says, "do you want to hear the choo choo." Well, that got Dylan's attention. He loves trains and loves to talk about them. So Dr. B puts the sonar thingy up to my belly and you "choo choo, choo choo....choo choo, choo choo." Dylan loved it. He was much more into the experience than when we said "do you want to hear baby sister's heartbeat?" He doesn't get that but he does get choo choo. So at my next OB appointment we listened for the choo choo again and we heard it loud and clear. It's coming down a little, about 140 these days. I also did my glucose test and apparently passed since I haven't heard back from them. And we got some good news that the baby's head is down (at the sonogram her head was up), which could still change but I think it's encouraging. My next appointment is next Friday and then I start going twice a month.
Dylan's 2 year checkup went well too. He's growing on his own little curve (about the 3-5 percentile for weight, 50 percentile for head circum., and 25 percentile for height.) The doctor said he was happy with Dylan's growth. Dylan only had to get one shot this time and now he doesn't go back for a whole year! The fun part of the appointment though was the developmental stuff. Dr. Karp (not the guy who wrote the Happiest Baby btw) and Dylan had a good time playing with the "ball" - a flashlight projection of a circle on the floor. Dylan hit the ball and kicked it (first time he did this - the doctor started doing this test at about 15 months). Then Dylan says "Niiicce" when he hit the ball. Then he said "Awesssome." Dr. Karp bent over laughing. He said "I see a lot of kids and I have never heard a two year old say 'awesome' before." So Dr. Karp was impressed with Dylan's development. I wasn't able to say that Dylan was saying 2 word phrases at the appointment so Dr. Karp was asking me some more questions but after he heard "awesome" there was no more concern. Dylan is now saying 2 word phrases like "mommy sleep" when I had my eyes closed a lot last week.
But I haven't reported on three routine doctors appointments that we've had recently. I've had two OB appointments and Dylan had his 2-year check up. All is going well with the kidos and with me. At the Sept OB appointment, my parents came and we saw my favorite doctor - Dr. B. My parents were excited because they had seen Dr. B on TV in PA a number of months back and they had to tell him about it. So then it's time to hear the baby's heartbeat. Dr. B sees our squirming toddler and very smartly talks directly to him and says, "do you want to hear the choo choo." Well, that got Dylan's attention. He loves trains and loves to talk about them. So Dr. B puts the sonar thingy up to my belly and you "choo choo, choo choo....choo choo, choo choo." Dylan loved it. He was much more into the experience than when we said "do you want to hear baby sister's heartbeat?" He doesn't get that but he does get choo choo. So at my next OB appointment we listened for the choo choo again and we heard it loud and clear. It's coming down a little, about 140 these days. I also did my glucose test and apparently passed since I haven't heard back from them. And we got some good news that the baby's head is down (at the sonogram her head was up), which could still change but I think it's encouraging. My next appointment is next Friday and then I start going twice a month.
Dylan's 2 year checkup went well too. He's growing on his own little curve (about the 3-5 percentile for weight, 50 percentile for head circum., and 25 percentile for height.) The doctor said he was happy with Dylan's growth. Dylan only had to get one shot this time and now he doesn't go back for a whole year! The fun part of the appointment though was the developmental stuff. Dr. Karp (not the guy who wrote the Happiest Baby btw) and Dylan had a good time playing with the "ball" - a flashlight projection of a circle on the floor. Dylan hit the ball and kicked it (first time he did this - the doctor started doing this test at about 15 months). Then Dylan says "Niiicce" when he hit the ball. Then he said "Awesssome." Dr. Karp bent over laughing. He said "I see a lot of kids and I have never heard a two year old say 'awesome' before." So Dr. Karp was impressed with Dylan's development. I wasn't able to say that Dylan was saying 2 word phrases at the appointment so Dr. Karp was asking me some more questions but after he heard "awesome" there was no more concern. Dylan is now saying 2 word phrases like "mommy sleep" when I had my eyes closed a lot last week.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Coreal Abrasion
Last Tuesday night Dylan accidentally hit me in the eye with a piece of something in between poster board and cardboard. I waited until the next day to go to the doctor since it didn't get better overnight and found out that I had a "large corneal abrasion." Normally the doctor would prescribe percocet but since I'm pregnant I got to take Tylenol. At least my OB said extra strength Tylenol was okay. So I was in a lot of pain on Wednesday and Thursday and missed work. I went to the opthamologist on Friday and he said that 35 percent of my cornia was scratched. I felt a lot better that day and every day since and my vision is getting better and better (I could always see, it would just hurt to open my eyes for periods of time or to read for a long time). The neat thing that I praise God for is that corneal abrasions heal a lot faster (48 hours) than other scratches to say your skin. It's pretty amazing how God made that work, especially since there's not much you can do with an injured eye (couldn't read, watch movies, etc.) Our eyes are pretty important and God must think so too for them to be able to be healed that quickly. And the spiritual lesson for me out of all this was that I need to stop thinking about my to do list and think about ways to love those around me instead. Since I only had my thoughts (and my phone) for those two days (Dylan still went to daycare since I couldn't take care of him) and I couldn't do anything on my to do list, I thought about my thoughts and how I should be using them to glorify God.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Halloween pics
We call this one Dylan Thomas...
This is Lisa and Aidan, friends from our Home Fellowship Group.
Dylan and Oliver eating cupcakes after trick-or-treating. Yes, I gave him a cupcake after getting all that candy but I don't think Dylan ever got any of candy. We ate it all. Oh, except for the pretzels.
Dylan in action. I really didn't think I would ever get into the Halloween thing too much with kids and we didn't talk it up much but I found a cheap costume and our friends were having this get-together and it's fun for this age. I just don't ever want to get into the scary blood and guts kinda stuff. For now we've delayed drawing the line at least for another year.
Aidan, this time with his daddy, Agent Smith. :)
Dylan didn't even recognize Richie in his dragon costume. He knew we were at Richie's house and he looked all around for Richie but couldn't find him. Good costume Richie!
Abigail dressed up as a chicken. Dylan now knows Abigail's name and it's really cute when he says it. (Bonus hint: no, our girl name is not Abigail but Dylan is able to repeat Baby Sister's name too.)
This is Lisa and Aidan, friends from our Home Fellowship Group.
Dylan and Oliver eating cupcakes after trick-or-treating. Yes, I gave him a cupcake after getting all that candy but I don't think Dylan ever got any of candy. We ate it all. Oh, except for the pretzels. 
Dylan in action. I really didn't think I would ever get into the Halloween thing too much with kids and we didn't talk it up much but I found a cheap costume and our friends were having this get-together and it's fun for this age. I just don't ever want to get into the scary blood and guts kinda stuff. For now we've delayed drawing the line at least for another year.
Aidan, this time with his daddy, Agent Smith. :)
Dylan didn't even recognize Richie in his dragon costume. He knew we were at Richie's house and he looked all around for Richie but couldn't find him. Good costume Richie!
Abigail dressed up as a chicken. Dylan now knows Abigail's name and it's really cute when he says it. (Bonus hint: no, our girl name is not Abigail but Dylan is able to repeat Baby Sister's name too.)Saturday, November 01, 2008
Dylan's Birthday
Dylan got to open some presents as soon as he got up.
Martin's parents also got Dylan this Thomas sticker set which he loved too. 
Here's pictures from our trip to IHOP on Dylan's birthday. I unfortunately didn't get a picture of the smiley face pancake or the waiters singing to Dylan which he was a little confused about. Dylan didn't mind the ice cream that they brought though. Dylan is looking at the inserts from the Cars DVD that we bought him and gave to him before we went to IHOP and the truck book that my sister got him.
Martin's parents also got Dylan this Thomas sticker set which he loved too. Here's pictures from our trip to IHOP on Dylan's birthday. I unfortunately didn't get a picture of the smiley face pancake or the waiters singing to Dylan which he was a little confused about. Dylan didn't mind the ice cream that they brought though. Dylan is looking at the inserts from the Cars DVD that we bought him and gave to him before we went to IHOP and the truck book that my sister got him.
Dylan's 2nd Birthday Party
Here are the pictures from Dylan's party last Saturday. Notice the game with the guessing what's in the paper bag and the dump truck cake. See my earlier post.
Elmo
We let Dylan open one of his presents a day or two early. Martin's parents got Dylan a Tickle Me Elmo. Dylan loves the Elmo. He "parents" it - he gives it juice and lots of hugs. He also laughs when Elmo laughs, except when Elmo falls over from laughing - that scares Dylan a little but after hearing us tell him many times "Elmo's okay," he just says "Elmo OK" when it happens now.
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