Our "Weekend"

This week was Brian's last Sunday-Monday "weekend." He'll work through Labor Day next week, and the following weekend is the last weekend that the park is open. We are super excited to have Daddy around for 3 days weekends soon!

Sunday was a pretty laid back day. Brian had some yard work to do (okay, 5 hours of yard work to do), and then he had to clean the pool. I spent the day going through clothes and packing. We have so much stuff, and I can easily get rid of some of it. Especially my stuff. I'm not saying that I'm a fashionista, but I used to spend a pretty significant amount of money buying clothes. And now most of them don't fit. And if they did fit, I probably wouldn't wear them anyway (I mean, they're old, out of style clothes).

But I can't get rid of the kids stuff yet. We're planning to have more kids, and we'll want the clothes for future babies. At least, theoretically we will. I have a feeling that our future kids will end up wearing more new clothes than recycled clothes, but I'm hanging on to them anyway. And I'd also really like to have a quilt made for each kid out of their baby clothes. And there are some little dresses that Reese has that I think would be adorable for her to save and put on her little girl one day. Even if it's just to compare pictures. But I have taken all that stuff and moved it to storage. Or packed it to move to storage anyway.

On Sunday we went out for ice cream at Handel's. We decided we would celebrate the fact that it had been a year since Reese was able to breathe on her own, and the fact that it had been a year since we'd held her. Wyatt had a blast, and Reese loves some ice cream!

He is so funny eating his own ice cream cone!
Brian and the kids

She tired here, but her eyes are so blue!

Holding Our Baby!

A year ago today Reese was extubated and came off of the ventilator! I was finally able to hold our baby girl for the first time since her birth. I think the pictures say it all!

Laughing

Last year at this time we were obviously going through a pretty tough time. I'd been released from the hospital, and we'd left Reese there in the NICU.

But while we were completely down, we were also thankful that our friends and family recognized that we wanted to laugh a little too and be normal. My brother let me know how disgusting he thought the whole "pumping" process was (especially when I did it at my parents house!). Our friends came and visited us and told us jokes. And when Brian went back to work after taking 4 days off (during the summer! While the park was open!), he found his office a little rearranged....

Brian's Mickey Mantle photo replaced with a picture of some Phillies player.
Dave's face covering Brian's....

Oh! Look who's name is on the door.

The Yankees trash can replaces by a "Phillies" logo.

And Dave sitting at Brian's desk.

Brian called me laughing hysterically after he saw this, and I have to admit it was pretty funny. Even though Dave broke a cardinal rule and touched Brian's stuff. And went in Brian's office. And it looks pretty clean, so Dave probably did that too.

Fortunately for Dave, he didn't touch anything Star Wars related, and he kept his hands off of Noelle's stuff....

Reese's 12 Month Well Baby Check Up!

Brian and I took Reese to her Well Baby check up yesterday. It was a lot of fun for us to just be able to hang out with her. She was talking up a storm, and she had so much fun exploring the office while we waited for the doctor.

She is now 22 pounds, 13 ounces, 29.25 inches long and her head circumference is 18.5! That puts her in the 78th percentile for weight, 62nd for height, and 93rd for head size! She is a big girl.

She wasn't a fan of the doctor visit, but she did enjoy his rolly chair and the door stop! We've never actually taken the camera to the doctor's office before, but I'm glad we did yesterday because she was in SUCH a good mood. I think it was because she had Daddy and Mommy all to herself!

Look at this door stop!
Just hanging out

Nakey baby smiling at Daddy!

So they started playing hide and seek

And doesn't every baby love the rolly chair?

Reese's Birthday!

We all had a really fun time yesterday. We watched the Sunny Side Up Show on Sprout to see if Reese's birthday card made it on, but it didn't. We figure they'd rather put up pictures of kids who actually KNOW that they're on TV...putting her card on would just be for us!

Brian went to work for his morning meeting and then came back home so that he would be here at 10:07. He went back to work soon after, and the kids and I hung out and played until naptime. After naps we loaded up in the car and went to pick Daddy up from work so that we could go to NICU. A lot of really special people took care of her there and we will always be grateful that they cared about her so much, and that they wanted her to get better just as much as we did!

Like Kari (who admitted her), Nicky (who took care of her almost every day), and Fallon (who also took care of her a few times).

And Ethel, who was with her most nights!

None of her "main nurses" were there yesterday, but we still took them some yummy cookies and a thank you card with a picture of Reese. They told us Ethel would be there last night, so I hope they saved her some cookies!

With Mommy in front of the NICU
And here she is with Daddy!

After we went to NICU we took Brian back to work and we came home. Once Brian came home we all went to "the Big Red Robin" for dinner. The restaurant has received some pretty rave reviews from a promising (picky) young eater. A few of his quotes are "Grilled cheese! Mommy I love it!," and "Mmm mmm mmm mmm...it's perfect!"

Brian's parents came over for presents and cake (my parents were partying hard at the Kenny Loggins concert. My brothers and sister and I gave my Dad tickets for Father's Day). Reese had a lot of fun opening her presents and eating cake. I was exhausted by this point in the day! And I promise you, because I've been asked multiple times, I am NOT pregnant again :)!

Reese loves her Strawberry Shortcake doll. And I think that might be her Halloween costume...

Brian and I roamed Toys R Us for awhile trying to find the perfect present for her. It's harder for us to find her presents for a couple reasons.

1. We have a lot of toys already

2. We have a better idea now of the right things to buy for her age

3. We wanted to get her something she would love.

And she LOVES this little laptop. I had something else in my hands, but when I saw this, I knew it was for her. She loves anything with buttons!

Wyatt singing Happy Birthday and Reese clapping along!

"This cake is so chocolatey! I need milk Mama!"

She eats very properly, spoon and all

Sharing her cake with Daddy!

Reese is One!

Reese is one today! I'm working on a longer post for later, but wanted to share some pictures of her from this morning.

Eating her birthday blueberry muffin!

Here she was at 10:07am a year ago!

And these are from 10:07am today when she turned one!

Pulling the bow out of her hair....

And another attempt to get that bow

A picture with Daddy!

Newborn

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months
Six Months

Seven Months & Seven Months in Pictures
Eight Months

Nine Months
Ten Months

Eleven Months

Tomorrow

Since tomorrow is Reese's birthday, I thought I would re-post my update announcing her birth.

Our precious little angel Reese Lynn was born on Monday morning at 10:07 am. She weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces and is 20 inches long. She is absolutely beautiful and she looks like her big brother!

So, that's all the good news. Reese was doing some grunting as soon as she was born and once she was taken to the nursery it was decided that she has some breathing problems and needed to go to the NICU. At that point they decided her breathing problems were due to either an infection (less likely) or the fact that since she was born via C Section, that she hadn't had the opportunity to squeeze all the amniotic fluid out while traveling down the birth canal. This isn't uncommon in C Section babies.

She's been in the NICU since Monday. At first they treated her with "blow by" Oxygen, where they set up a bag valve mask in her bassinet so she could breathe in more Oxygen. Then she was placed in an Oxygen hood that allowed her to breathe in pure Oxygen. That didn't work, so she was placed on C-PAP which basically means that they hooked her up to a machine that would blow air into her lungs in an attempt to let the fluids out and to let the avioli in the lungs start doing their job. She seemed to be responding to the C-PAP well, but this morning they told us that they needed to intubate her and give her Surfactin, which will hopefully rid her of this and have her breathing on her own in the next few days. The reason that they held off on this is because they didn't want to intubate if they didn't have to.

It's mostly been a waiting game for us. I'm recovering OK, and I'm still waiting to see my doctor this morning to find out if I can stay on more night or if I have to leave her today. Brian briefly held her after she was born, but I haven't been able to. I've been pumping a lot to get her some colostrum and to get my milk in. Reese is on a feeding tube so she hasn't had any milk yet. It's also a struggle for me to get down to the NICU because of the C Section so I've been down about twice a day for 45 minutes each.

The whole process has been overwhelming for all of us. It's definitely not what we were expecting and the detachment from our Baby girl has been hard, especially not being able to even hold her. We would appreciate if you kept us all in your thoughts and prayers, but especially Reese. Just pray for her to be able to breathe on her own and to be able to come off all the machines,for her to pick up eating on her own quickly (hopefully via breast) and for her to be released from the hospital and sent home early next week.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I can't post them from the computer in my room. If we go home today I might post some, but in all honesty, I'm really hoping that we don't go home yet.