Deja Vu Roller Coaster - The Grand Finale

I debated for several days about how to approach this post, and in the end decided that honesty is always the best policy.   A blog, by definition, is an online journal, and journals are where you can freely state your thoughts.  Though the ending is a happy one, this post comes with a very different side of my life, which includes rare glimpses into a difficult few days.

Before I began we are happy to announce that our beautiful second son was born at 9:20 am on Friday, February 21st, weighing 6 lbs and 11 oz, and stretching 19 inches long.  Welcome, with love, Cameron James.

Now I know some of you are searching your memory right now to figure out why these pics seem familiar.  Well as many of you know our oldest son, Little Pope, was born at 33 weeks due to preeclampsia, and spent 3 weeks in the NICU getting healthy enough to come home.  When I blogged about his arrival the posts included many of these same pics.  The day he came home was one of the happiest days of my life.  We were so thankful for the wonderful care he received and said good-bye to the wonderful NICU staff, or so we thought.

With my second pregnancy there was so much more monitoring to make sure that the previous issues were headed off, including seeing a perinatal specialist.  In January it was discovered that the baby had low amniotic fluid, and it continued to decrease until delivery.  At my last appointment I was told that the baby had a 1% chance of any breathing issues by the perinatal specialist, and my OB told me that they were not having the neonatology group attend the delivery because they were hoping for a normal delivery.

So Friday comes and we are so excited to meet our new little one.  Everything seems to be going really well and I was super excited to get to hold Cameron.  I wasn't sure how long it would take because Brady's delivery was not normal.  The Nutrition Nazi was going between the baby and myself giving updates, and then about twenty minutes in I heard the words that broke my heart.  My OB had been giving direction on how to help the baby because he was having some breathing issues, but when she asked the nurses to call the neonatologists my heart sank.  Though everyone assured me the neonatologists were just going to try and suction him a little deeper and they would only have him for a few hours, I knew better.  Unfortunately I, as well as our family, had been here before.

I was basically inconsolable for the next couple of hours because I knew the battle that lie ahead in getting him home, and honestly did not want to re-live the experience, especially with a toddler at home.  A few months ago I promised myself if I had to face the NICU ever again that I would be a force to be reckoned with, and I spent the days after Cameron's arrival making sure that everyone in the NICU was working for my son and not just going through the motions of their job each day. Cameron spent six days in the NICU while he worked on getting the excess fluid off of his lungs and learning to feed.

I am not sure how many people go through the NICU more than once, but it is definitely a club I could have skipped joining.

We did, however, get a chance to re-connect with some of Little Pope's nurses.  He apparently left an impression judging by the number of people that remembered him.  Cameron was fortunate enough to have Tanya as his primary nurse as well, which was a ray of sunshine at a very difficult time.

Little Pope was excited when we finally did get to bring Cameron home.

We will see if he still feels this way in a few months!

The family could not be happier that the Littlest Pope is home and doing well!

Like I said in the beginning the ending was ultimately happy, but the journey was not as smooth as we had hoped.  We find closure in knowing that we will never be faced with the NICU again since Cameron is lovingly referred to as our Grand Finale. We feel very blessed to have our sweet little one home and thriving.  All's well that ends well.

Playing with Letters

As we are furiously trying to get ready for the Littlest Pope's early arrival in the next week or so, it occurred to me that I haven't posted any updates along the way.  For all you know we changed our minds and said we were good with the Team Leader and Little Pope! 

So first things first.  There has been a minor complication in the last month with the baby's amniotic fluid being low, which will lead to an early delivery no later than the 21st.  Dr Adam, my perinatal specialist really doesn't have an answer, but I am lucky enough to get to have two doctor's appointments each week, and the nifty co-insurance portion to go along with it.  The Littlest Pope is going to be a big one, or so we think.  At  35 weeks (last Friday) the baby weighed 6 lbs, 7 oz, and its femur length is in the 86% percentile.  As Dr Adam so bluntly stated, "This baby is not missing a meal."

My awesome friend Kimmy put together a wonderfully small baby shower a few weeks ago.

She made not one, but two diaper cakes.

Maybe she will finally quit her crappy day job and come start a business with me.  Yes I called your job crappy, which is mild compared to what I could have said about it.  Sixteen hour days are not normal.

She also made this very creative fruit salad.

NN and Little Pope definitely enjoyed the fruit salad as evidence by the blackberry remnants on his chin.

Little Pope wasn't in the picture mood, but my mom was, so two out of three isn't bad! 

Spirit Fingers came to enjoy the festivities as well!

And on a final note for those of you who keep asking, and you know who you are, here are some of the potential letters of the baby's name.  There might be one letter missing from this, and one letter is for certain.  And no I will not tell you the baby's gender.  You will find out soon enough.

Working on Golf Skills with the Nutrition Nazi

Little Pope LOVES to play with his golf clubs.  Unfortunately I am never pleased when he plays with them in the house.  My furniture and floors usually don't fair too well either, even though the clubs are only plastic.

So on one of the recent unseasonably warm January days we decided to start teaching him the right way to use the clubs.

The Nutrition Nazi started by helping Little Pope with his swing.  The Team Leader loves to chase golf balls and bring them back.  Since kid golf balls are really ping pong balls disguised as the real thing we had to make sure the Team Leader didn't crush them.

A successful shot!

 Another successful shot and a smile.

Little Pope actually was able to hit the ball without any assistance.  YAY!

Then in true Pope form he lost his ball somewhere in the rough (bushes) after hitting an awesome shot and had to go find it while the crazy Team Leader assisted him.  They were both going in the wrong direction, for the record.  God bless me when the Littlest Pope arrives!

Lovesac is not a dirty word

Clearly we have lost our minds.  Recently we decided to buy a new couch that we had been eyeing for over a year, even though we are getting ready to have 2 small children under the age of two.  Besides being modular so that we can make whatever shape we choose, the sofa cushion covers are washable and you can also order new ones to change up the look.  You can check out the manufacturer's website by clicking Lovesac Sectional, and like the title says Lovesac is not a dirty word!

Here are some pics of the children enjoying and breaking it all in.

Little Pope hanging out on Christmas morning.

Here Little Pope is taking full advantage of the new couch to harass the Team Leader, while wearing monster feet no less.  Can you feel her lack of enthusiasm.

A rare moment of pause!  The couch is very nice to relax and watch a movie on, or so I am told.

More than anything else these two sleep on it.  I come home from work and usually find the Team Leader spread out over several sections.

Such a stressful life these two lead! 

Christmas Recap

I can't believe it is already 2014.  The past several weeks have been a blur of Christmas cheer. Here are a few pictures to recap our holiday season.

Our holiday party was filled with lots of delicious desserts.

I love baking during the holidays, as you can see.

I debated letting the Team Leader come to the party because she has a tendency to act like a drunk girl at a bar.  This is my alleged oldest child at the party.  For those of you who know the Team Leader, you can understand my concern during the party when this is basically all she did.  No begging, very little barking, and almost no jumping.  I made NN check her several times to make sure she was still breathing.

A week later we had family over for Christmas at our house.  NN and Little Pope were goofing off before the crazies, I mean our family showed up!

So handsome!

Right before we were going to open gifts Little Pope decided to take a nap.

His large pile of gifts would have to wait.

So Christmas morning finally arrives and we are so excited for Little Pope to see his Santa gifts, but he on the other hand was not as impressed.

At least one of my children was happy and interested in their Christmas presents.

Little Pope was too busy watching Christmas Story to be bothered with opening presents.

No one is exempt from a Christmas morning kiss.

Finally we found something to grab his interest.  Yes the truck that makes noise worked for a few minutes, but he was more impressed with the socks NN got in his stocking, which are laying to his left side.

And of course the box was way more fun to play with!

We wish you all a very prosperous 2014!

Cloudy with a Chance of Wind, Irritability, and a Random Stick

Right now the Nutrition Nazi is probably laughing to himself as he reads the title recalling the two, yes two, attempts at family pictures this year.

I alluded to an explanation to this pic in my last post, and I am not one to break promises.  This was one of many unsuccessful attempts to capture the elusive attention of a toddler.

For the first attempt we went to Rice, and my mother-in-law (aka Spirit Fingers) played photographer.  I started setting up shots and tried to let everyone get used to the surroundings, or so I thought.

So not so bad, but Little Pope was too busy playing with the Team Leader's fur.  I should also mention that both Little Pope and I had a nasty cold on this day, and my patience was already short before I got sick.

Another ok shot, but the solemness of Little Pope's face is not making this year's Christmas card, and the wind did not help either.

So then I tried tickling Little Pope to try and get a smile, but it did not help.

He was more concerned with playing in the dirt.

Attempt number two where my parents accompanied us to a closer location in Sienna.  I started the same and got a nice pic of these two.  Maybe this one would go better since this time everyone feeling well.

Little Pope's attention seemed to be elusive again, even with an extra person dedicated specifically to it.

And this pic sums it all up.  We gave Little Pope a stick hoping to get him to look at the camera in a final attempt and then the Team Leader took it from him, multiple times.  All we could do was laugh at that point.