Pajamas and Ice Cream

Here is Sam getting in a little morning reading while strengthening his neck and back:)

Last Thursday Aunt Liz and Uncle Mike invited us to Sonic for an after dinner treat. Of course we said yes! I gave Kate her bath before dinner so she could be in her jammies and all ready to go get ice cream after dinner. I snapped a few pictures of her in the bath, but she wasn't into it, as you can see below:)

Sam hung out with us. They aren't ready to take a bath at the same time yet. I am looking forward to when they can though! This poor boy hardly ever gets bathed I'm ashamed to say.

Kate wore her ice cream jammies to get ice cream. I was trying to get a picture of her and Aunt Liz but she had spotted the merry-go-round and was totally distracted.

All smiles once she got on the horses!

This is how Sam spent our time at Sonic! This is highly unusual. Usually if he is in his car seat but the car is not moving he cries his head off!

Watching TV with big sister

He is strong enough to sit in the Bumbo seat for a few minutes now! Kate makes me laugh so hard in this picture. Sorry to catch you at such a bad moment baby girl!

SUCH a smiley boy!!!

Adorable feet!

Kate's Health

It's been awhile since I've updated on where Kate is health wise. When she first got diagnosed with the Epilepsy and put on medicine (which worked immediately) it was easy to forget anything had ever been wrong. The whole process was so quick and seemed resolved so easily. However, about 6 weeks ago we began seeing seizures again. These were different then the initial seizures because she was waking from naps and nighttime sleep. She would be going through a series of little all over twitches when we would go to check on her. She would have 4-5 twitches and return to normal. I called the doctor and she increased her medicine dose and told us to call back in 2 weeks with an update. We saw decreased seizures but not total disappearance. So, I called again but the neuro didn't want to do anything else just then and said to call if things continued.

Well, they have continued and seem to be worsened. David and I both feel like she is having seizures at times during the day that don't show any symptoms. There are moments when Kate will be totally fine and playing or eating and then will suddenly begin to cry and become very upset. She is also continuing to have the seizures that wake her up at night. After I called the neuro again she ordered a 24 hour EEG. It's scheduled for the 24th of March. This means Kate will go in in the morning to have the electrodes placed on her scalp then we'll go home and she has to wear them for the next 24 hours. If there is any seizure activity the neurologist will be made aware of it promptly incase we need to make any medicine changes. It's obvious to me that a medicine change is needed but I think the doctor needs more info to go on then our rather vague reports.

I am relieved that Kate is going to have the 24 hour EEG because I really feel like we need a better picture of what is going on with her. I am really hoping some seizure activity shows up because I know she is having seizures and I want her to get the treatment she needs. I am also really nervous! How we are going to keep her from ripping the electrodes off over a 24 hour period I don't know. Hopefully she will forget they are there after a time. David is going to take the day off from work to be home and help. I don't think there's anyway I could care for Sam and keep Kate happy and distracted enough otherwise. I'll update once we have the results of that.

On the developmental front, David and I finally took the plunge to have Kate evaluated by Mecklenburg county's child development service. We have a number of friends who used this service for their children and were/are very happy with it. Our experience thus far has been very good. I had the initial interview with the case worker yesterday morning and I really like her. Kate has a hearing and eye exam on Monday and then on the 31st of this month the case worker, a speech therapist, and a psychologist will come to our house and do the actual eval. They test Kate in 5 different areas of development (language, gross and fine motor skills, social, and cognitive) and we will get the results that same day. If she is 30% delayed in one area or 25% delayed in 2 or more then she qualifies for therapy through the county's program. If she doesn't qualify but does have delays they will help us get set up with some other venue.

To be honest I'm kind of hoping she does qualify! Her slow progress in talking as well as in understanding what we say to her has been frustrating to both David and I. She is able to communicate her wants/needs pretty well using just one word at a time but we really want to see her grow in knowing how to put words together to express her thoughts out loud! It's truly hard for me to imagine her ever talking. I can't even picture what it would be like to have a conversation with her, however rudimentary it might be.

If you took the time to read all of this, thanks! I certainly wish that we weren't facing all these things with our little girl. I wish she didn't wake up crying from seizures. I wish she would sit and let us read a book to her, or pretend to care for her dolls, or know what to do when I ask her to get a diaper for Sam. I know all these things will come in time even if I can't imagine them actually happening. And I know God has made Kate. He made her the way she is for a reason. Probably many reasons. He will give us the grace and wisdom to care for her as we ask him for it. He can heal her of her seizures so that she doesn't have to be affected by them. She is a precious girl and I love her so very dearly. I want to help her in every way we can!

Just Pictures

My Look-A-Likes

Don't they look a lot alike!?

Just Throwing This Out

I love to research baby items. Cribs, car seats, strollers, cloth diapers, baby carriers, pacifiers, bottles. You name it, I've probably researched it to death sometime in the past 2 years. I google, read reviews, look at pictures, and YouTube videos. Yes, I'm crazy, but it's kind of my hobby:)

So here is what I'm throwing out: If you need to make a baby item decision and don't have the time or desire to do research, and would trust me to do it, let me know and I'll get to work! I'll gather information and send it your way (I'm not gonna lie, I'll probably throw in a bit of my own opinion too;)

Checking In

I don't have time to write much as Kate is waiting for me to get her up from her nap, but here are some pictures from the past month or so. Sam was 2 months old on Valentine's Day! I took him to the doctor this past Tuesday for his well check and he is our little pork chop! He weighs 13 lbs. 9 oz. (90%) is 24 in. long (75%) and his head is only in the 40% (ha! He got Dave's small head:) He has a little flat spot on the right side of his head so we need to encourage him to turn his head to the left as much as we can. Other then that, he is healthy as can be!

Here are a few recent-ish pictures of Kate. She's so active these days I can't really get a good photo of her with my point and shoot!

Really needing her bangs cut!

Watching "Einstein" on our bed

More Einstein on the iphone:)

This little series of pictures is from quite a few weeks ago and the quality is poor, but I loved them!

Getting bigger!

The majority of pictures I take of Sam are of him sleeping because he just looks SO cute whenever he's asleep on his tummy (which he is only allowed to do for naps. Swaddle blanket and back sleeping for nighttime:)

Look at those little lips!!!

Precious skinny legs and pudgy feet

Big cloth diaper bum!

I just took these next pictures two days ago so they really show what he looks like now. He is ALL smiles when awake and being talked to! He also really gurgles and coos in response to us talking to him!

Most of my cloth diapering paraphenalia! But I'll update on that another day:)

Birthy Story/Quick Update

It's a sunny Sunday morning and Sam laying next to me with his blue eyes wide open and is gently waving his arms and legs, he's utterly content. I have a cup of coffee and breakfast on my lap and I'm feeling grateful for my husband, and sweet children. God is good, really, really, good!

I wanted to take a quick minute to write up Sam's birth story for those who like to read birth stories.

I feel like I gave the impression in the weeks before his birth that I was really struggling that he hadn't come yet. I really wasn't. I was feeling well and getting good rest at night. I just THOUGHT he was going to come early due to my doctor and so it was kind of 2 weeks of limbo and feeling a bit anxious that his labor was going to be super quick and we weren't going to make it to the hospital. Anywho, just wanted everyone to know that I was actually doing great in the weeks before he came!

So, on Monday the 13th Kate and I headed out to Target around 3:30 to do our weekly grocery shopping. On the drive and while we were shopping I started noticing that I was having BH contractions that were coming with some regularity and, while not painful, were causing me to have to think about them. I was feeling a bit grumpy and had a few "panic-y" moments wondering if I should just head home. I didn't and made it though shopping but I called Dave when I got home and told him I would feel better if he could get home from work asap because I was feeling different.

We had a normal evening and went to bed around 11. The BH's were continuing but were anywhere from 9-20 minutes apart and felt very mild. I was prepared for this to be "it" but wasn't certain. Kate woke up around 11:30 and couldn't go back to sleep so we brought her into our room and read books in our bed until a little after midnight. It was a really sweet time that I feel like the Lord gave us as a last special moment with her as our "only". I fell asleep easily after that and at 3:12 I woke up to a painful contraction. I dozed and waited to see if I'd have another. When it came just 6 minutes later I woke Dave up and told him I thought Sam was gonna come soon. Because of my history of a fast labor with Kate my doctor had told me to call when I was contracting 5-7 minutes apart. I wanted to make sure this was "for real" since it was the middle of the night. After 30 minutes, during when time I had begun shaking all over which happened with Kate, David told me I had to call the doctor and not keep waiting. In the 10 minutes it took to get in touch with her and get into the car the contractions were 2-4 minutes apart. I was beginning to feel a little panic coming on because I knew things were going very fast again.

We got to the hospital a few minutes after 4 and David dropped me off at the door and went to park. I had to go in through the ER entrance since it was the middle of the night. That meant I had to get checked in by a guy from registration even though I had already called my doctor. I was as patient as I could be while the guy made me spell out my name and give my doctor's office. Thankfully they gave me a wheelchair because I needed to sit down. They put Dave and I in a little waiting room and told us that a nurse would be down to get us. It was really hard to stay calm in that little room, waiting. Then, the registration guy comes back in and says, "Are you having contractions?" Um, why do you think I am at the hospital at 4 in the morning buddy?

The nurse from L & D came down soon after that and thankfully she put us straight into a delivery room instead of taking me to triage. David and I laughed later because he said it was like a movie where the music is playing slowly and the nurse was calmly following her routine....until she checked me and realized I was about to deliver. Cue movie music speeding up and the room filling with nurses setting up the room and pulling out gloves and supplies as fast as they could. After she checked me the nurse was like, "Don't push, just don't push." I told her I would try but I wasn't promising anything. My doctor wasn't even at the hospital yet so they just pulled the only doctor on the floor (who was from a totally different practice) to come in and deliver Sam. He was so kind because I was laying on the bed in a way that made me feel tolerable and in control. The nurses wanted me to move down and I told them no and the doctor said, "She's fine." I was so grateful! He gave me 2 shots to numb me a bit "down below" to make the delivery more comfortable. By then my doctor had come in and about 4 pushes later Sam was born at 4:42 am! He was 8 pounds and 20 inches. I felt the biggest rush of relief and delight when I saw him! He cried before his feet even hit the air and he was beautiful!

He is one of the easiest babies I can imagine so far. He is eating without any trouble at all. He has slept two 3-3 1/2 hours stretches the past two nights and is calm and precious during the day. I'm totally smitten I have to admit. I told David I was afraid I love Sam too much:)

Kate is adjusting well, though I can tell she misses her normal routine with mama. She pretty much ignores Sam except for the occasional kiss.

David and I are both feeling great emotionally and loving having two kids.

My biggest prayer request would be for my quick healing. Sam was born with his hand against his face which led to some stitches that are proving to be very painful. I am trying not to get discouraged by this as it has been even worse then what I experienced with Kate. I know I will heal day by day.

We also all have coughs and runny noses that we can't seem to shake (going on over 3 weeks now.) Please pray for healing for all of us and protection over Sam!!!

Thanks to everyone in advance for your prayers and for all the love you show us!