Lizzie's New Look

So a couple of weeks ago we began noticing that Lizzie was struggling to read letters and write clearly. After some more observing and a visit to the eye doctor, we found that Lizzie has a pretty bad astigmatism. We ordered her glasses and they finally came in yesterday.


Doesn't she look adorable?







So far she is doing well with them, though I never realized how many rules there would be for a pair of glasses :

- don't touch the lenses
- don't take them off and leave them lying around
- take them off when playing tickling games (with 4 girls there isn't much "rough housing")
- put them in the case when you go to bed at night
- don't let your sisters wear them



And I am sure there are more. Can you think of any???

Amazon.com Girl

So Ellie is our tall, active girl who is probably the girliest of our 4 girls (so far). She loves everything pink, sparkly and will ALWAYS choose a dress or skirt over a pair of pants or shorts. Generally she can be seen walking on her tip-toes, because that is what princesses and ballerinas do.

Well today my girlie girl was in the bathroom and all of a sudden I hear her yelling for me in a panic. "Ahhh!!! Mommy come quick. There is a GIGANTIC spider!!!!"
I run to the bathroom, paper towel in hand to find her on the toilet pointing and shaking at a small dot on the bathroom rug. After I disposed of this vile creature, Ellie asked me, "Wasn't that a HUGE spider!"

"It wasn't really that big sweetheart."

"But it was the most GIGANTIC spider I have EVER seen!!! It was SO scary!!!"

So apparently our Ellie isn't planning on living in the Amazon Rain forest anytime soon.

She is more of an Amazon.com sort of girl :-)

Clean-Up, Clean-Up, Everybody Everywhere...

So I have taken to sweeping up toys as I clean the kitchen floor. Rather than bend over every 5 seconds to pick up a toy that I have asked a child (or children) to pick up at least a dozen times, I choose to act as though I am going to throw it away. In order to prove I mean business, there have been occasions that I have had to throw away a crayon or other such items. The older two girls have learned quickly to examine the pile I am sweeping into, in order to be sure their beloved items are not going to be disposed of soon.

I was at it again this afternoon. Lizzie quickly grabbed some crayons, a drawing and a marble machine piece. Gracie appeared to have found something in the pile as well, and followed her big sister's lead. When I looked to see what she had decided was valuable enough to pick through a pile of kitchen floor dirt, I saw that it was not a toy, or a crayon or even a scrap of paper that a child had made into a piece of artwork. Nope, it was...a goldfish cracker.

Of course it was in her mouth before I could stop her, and since I was cleaning, I chose to let her finish digesting those germs, without putting my unclean hands into her mouth in an attempt to remove the already mushed up, floor-fishy.

Who knew that goldfish crackers were such a valued treasure?

Running

Well Christmas has come and gone, and now to get this post-pregnancy-post-holidays-post-life body into a shape that doesn't resemble a Christmas ornament.

I have NEVER been a runner. In fact, even those that are closest to me have probably never seen me "run". I was just too self-conscious about "doing it wrong" or "looking silly" to even try. Despite my lack of running, I have been intrigued at the idea of marathons. A tangible goal that I could reach for, even if it seemed super far away. Recently I have become even more interested in the thing called "running".

I read about friends' experiences and can't help but wonder if I could... possibly... maybe... Try... running.

Yesterday I mentioned this interest on Facebook, and in a very short period of time had more people respond than I would have ever imagined. The funny thing is that most of the responses lead me to the same place...a program called C25K (Couch to 5k). After looking at it, I think I am going to give it a go.

So tomorrow will mark Week 1 Day 1 for me and hopefully in 9 weeks I will be able to say that I can not only run, but run a 5K.

Anyone want to join me?

Ellie's Belated 4th Birthday Party

With Serafina's arrival taking place the weekend of Ellie's birthday, we put off celebrations until everyone was home together. Ellie was a trooper and didn't complain even once. She is such a wonderful little girl who has a very big heart, especially when it comes to her sisters. It was a joy to celebrate her birth this past weekend and to watch her face light up with all the attention put on her.

Here are some of the highlights from her family party:

Even opening the cards was a thrill for Ellie

The "strawberry shortcake" (or a white cake with strawberry filling :-)

The excitement of the gifts was almost too much

Gotta love the face of a happy birthday girl!

Home at Last

It seems forever ago we were impatiently waiting for our littlest girl to arrive. She is now 8 days old and doing wonderfully, despite the crazy labor that brought about her arrival and the strange disease (Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia, or NAIT) she was born with, not to mention the way that disease was discovered.

Warning: Detailed Labor Story that may be boring to some and too much information for others.



Labor:
I was induced Saturday December 4th at about 9am. I wasn't thrilled with the idea, but being 2 weeks late, I felt I had pushed things as long as I would be permitted to wait. The Pitocin took immediate effect even at the lowest levels, but our little girl wasn't liking it, so the nurse had to continually shut off the Pitocin drip and see if the contractions would continue. After a number of hours back and forth with Pitocin, the midwife suggested we break my water and see what happens. This seemed to be the trick, but at 7cm things stopped progressing.

The next several hours are fuzzy to me, mostly because the pain was intense and I was exhausted. I cannot begin to count the number of times that I mentally gave up. Despite my own weakness, God pushed me further and used those around me to give me the strength I lacked. Allen was an amazing comfort during what would be my most difficult labor of the 4. And Judy Bufford was a lifesaver, as Allen needed to be with me more and more, she was able to support him and to be extra support for me during the truly trying moments (including a pillow when I couldn't sit up anymore, and my cold cloth provider when things got really rough :-) ). By this point it was the first hours of the next day and everyone was tired. I was 9cm and still only 85-90% effaced (which for those that don't know is the key to being able to get that baby out).

Realizing that I may not at this point have the energy to push, I decided that at the slightest twinge of a "need" to push, I was going to try now and not wait for 10cm and 100% effacement. After some of the most insane pushing I have done, and for way longer than I have been used to in the past (I have been blessed before to not have very long in the pushing phase) we were able to welcome Serafina Faith into this world. Despite her low heart rates throughout labor and very low heart rates during the last hour, she was strong, healthy and alert when she finally joined us.




Labor story over.




Once she was here we moved to the Postpartum room and tried to get some much needed sleep between feedings. We did the normal after-baby-arrived-family-visits and the typical nurse checking-in visits. During the first few baby checks Serafina was consistently cool, despite the efforts we were making to bring her up to 98.6. They checked her blood sugar, and found she was at normal, but her heart rate was also low at times (as it had been during labor).

Suspecting these were signs of an infection they took some small blood samples. The first would be cultured for 48 hours to see if anything turned up in the infectious category. The second sample was to check her white blood cell counts to see if they were up in an effort to fight off something in her system. Shortly after the second sample was processed they found something very unexpected, perfectly normal red and white blood cell counts, but off the charts low platelet counts. Her cultures were still processing, but this new news was concerning.

We would now journey with her to the NICU, where she would ultimately stay for the next 5 1/2 days. Once there, the nurses set to work placing two IVs and a few sensors to monitor heart rate, oxygen levels, and other needed facts. During that night they would begin two antibiotics and a platelet transfusion. Then, in the next days they would monitor her platelet counts, ultimately diagnosing her with Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia or NAIT. The platelets given to her Sunday evening (the 5th, her birthday) would be enough to combat the bad antigens and allow her own immune system to take over in destroying these unwanted antigens that were eating up her platelets.

She came home Friday late morning, 6 days after being born, and is doing wonderfully. She is eating well, sleeping well (for a newborn :-) ) and per her doctor visit this morning, is gaining weight well. The doctors have informed us that she should never have this problem again, now that we have overcome it. Since the ultrasound done on her head showed no signs of brain bleed (the leading concern with NAIT), she should be a normal kiddo from here on out.

Lesson Learned:

What does all this mean? For me it has been an incredible reminder that God is in control and He is the provider of ALL things, including strength and health. This past week was filled with weakness, and lack of health, but now we sit at home, physically well and spiritually stronger. God got us through this tough week and now we can look back and see His hand in each moment. God is good all the time, even in moments where we find ourselves asking, "When?" or "How?" or "Why?" He is good!

Still...

...waiting. Maybe she will come today...

Now we Need a Date

So we think we finally have the name for this little girl. We are waiting for her to come before we announce it (mostly because we have changed our minds SO MANY times on her name, that we don't want to commit prematurely :-).

So now all we need is to figure out her birth-date. Any one want to suggest a day? My preference would be today, mostly because it isn't tomorrow :-)

She is due the 20th, but who knows!

Lizzie Loves to Organize

Lizzie has always loved to organize. At 1 she would spend what seemed like hours straightening my kitchen towels. Now she does things like making her sister's bed because she just can't handle the way Ellie does it (we are working on this, since she needs to be ok with her sister's ways of doing certain things, but funny none the less). Over the summer we spent our Saturday mornings at the local Saturday market where my sister (Melissa) and her roomie (Bethany) sold folding memory books. After watching these lovely ladies set up and reset up their display each week, she began to duplicate it in her playing:


Of course she used Gracie's toys, since we wouldn't want to have our own toys for sale :-)

Note: If you are interested Melissa and Bethany have been hard at work for the holiday season and are not only preparing their books, but some wonderful baskets filled with a variety of things based on theme (Christmas, Dora, baby boy or girl, gingerbread fun, etc). They will be at a number of bazaars and even the Thornton's Treeland in the next month or 2.

A Little Behind

Yeah, I know, it has been far too long since I last posted here. Soon enough we will be posting pictures of our latest pink wearing kiddo, so I thought I better get caught up a bit before she comes and I get behind again :-)

The following are some pictures of Lizzie and Ellie's bunk-bed (thanks Brewsters). I girlified it with some paint, fabric and fake flowers. It was a fun project, and although it doesn't look nearly this nice regularly, it was still worth the work.