Beautiful Girl

Now that I have finally finished Matthew's birthday post (almost 4 months too late!), I can move on to our first beautiful baby....who is definitely NOT a baby anymore! Our sweet Emma is eight years old today, and we're left wondering where the time has gone, and willing it to slow down just a bit! I can't believe we've had Emma for eight years already, and yet, could never imagine how we lived without her! She is the most sensitive, compassionate, thoughtful, intelligent little girl, and we simply couldn't ask for anything more in a daughter.

In lieu of a party with friends this year, Daddy and I took her out for dinner and a movie...just the three of us (thank you Nana!). We had a wonderful time tonight, and could even (barely) remember what it was like to just have our sweet Emma for those five years before any siblings came along. We love you so much, Emma. Just do us a favor, and stop growing up so fast!

15 months and 20 days ago today....

I know, I know....I'm a little tardy finishing that last post. Sorry!! Maybe it's silly to finish it now, but it's a story that deserves telling...even if I'm the only one who will read it! : )

Where did I leave off...oh, right....I went to bed knowing that I would see Mom the next day (June 5th) and have some time with her before the baby came. By 11:30pm, I knew it just wasn't going to happen that way. Even though I was 2 and a half weeks before my due date, I told Darrin I needed to go to the hospital. We called Trev and Missi, and Trev came over to be at the house with Nathan and Emma who were sound asleep....oblivious to the fact that by the time they woke up in the morning, they would have a baby brother!

We got to the hospital around midnight, and I was SHOCKED to learn that I was already 5 cm! We got settled in, and I called Mom to let her know that the baby was coming, and she was going to miss it by just a few hours.....I couldn't believe it. So close! Right when we got there, I asked the nurse to do the preliminary bloodwork which would give us a platelet count. With Emma I was unable to have an epidural due to low platelets. With Nathan, I chose not to have one, though my platelets were just above the cut-off point. (Still kicking myself for THAT one!) Even though Matthew's labor so far had been great, Nathan's delivery was still too fresh in my mind, and I wanted to experience an epidural. When the nurse came back in with the numbers, I literally held my breath. My platelets were at 104.....anything above 100 and you can have an epidural. The relief I feld is positively impossible to describe. I felt like at that moment, I could finally relax, and celebrate the fact that we were welcoming another baby!

Epidural in by 2am....Darrin and Katie asleep by 2:05am. : ) I tried to get some rest, but couldn't help watching that monitor...seeing those mountainous contractions....knowing that I was getting closer to seeing my baby with each one. BUT I COULDN'T FEEL A THING!!! It was positively amazing! By 6am, it was show time. Darrin and Katie stumbled awake, and the nurse told me to go ahead and push.....WAIT.....DON'T PUSH! He's right there! You're kidding me...right? There is NO way it can be this easy! I didn't even push one time, and then we had to just sit there and wait for 10 minutes until the doctor got there. Okay, NOW it's show time. One contraction....two pushes....and we have a perfect, beautiful little boy with tons of platinum blond hair! I was able to feel so much emotion, and enjoy that moment so fully because the entire experience had been so incredible. Our beautiful boy then:

And our beautiful boy on his first birthday (which is when I SHOULD have finished this post!):

Matthew has brought so much joy and laughter to our home....we love you so much!
(And he's so darn cute, that it just isn't right!)

One year ago, today....(part 3)

One year ago, today....this was me:

Well....ok....I was a LOT bigger one year ago today, than I was when this photo was taken, but you get the idea.

It had been a busy day. The carpet guys left around 4pm after installing the carpet in Emma's new room. That meant that I could finally move all of her furniture out of the guest room, and into her room, making room for Mom to arrive! Yes, nine months pregnant I moved in her bed, dresser and bookshelf and got everything situated nicely. After that was done, I decided to go ahead and put the second coat of paint on the downstairs bathroom walls. From there it was clean-up time...time to get the house ready for company. I think I stopped working around 10pm and realized I had better go to bed. The contractions had been coming all afternoon (which was nothing new), but I was ready for them to stop and knew that laying down to get some rest would help.

Mom called as I was getting into bed to let me know that she had stopped for the night and was going to get some rest. She was about 4 hours away. We said good night, knowing that we would see each other the next day, and looked forward to having some last minute prep time before the baby came.

Things didn't exactly go according to plans....

One year ago, today....(part 2)

One year ago, today....I was getting a little nervous. With the other kids, I never really had any advance warning that labor was on its way. I just knew when the contractions got regular and stayed regular, it was probably time to think about having a baby. But one year ago this morning, I got a couple little hints that something might be happening soon. I was still 17 days from my due date though....surely I had a little time left...right?

One year ago, today....(part 1)

One year ago today, I was excited. I was still 18 days from my due date with our little "surprise." The anticipation is so much fun...who was this little guy going to be? Who would he look like? What would labor be like this time (I was praying it would be nothing like Nathan's!). Would I finally have the chance to experience an epidural? We were busy finishing Emma's new room downstairs, finishing the bathroom downstairs, starting swimming lessons, and keeping up with an active 17-month-old.

Maybe it was the contractions I'd been having since about 19 weeks...

Maybe it was all the physical work I'd been doing lately (painting 2 bedrooms, painting a bathroom, moving furniture, landscaping our empty yard, etc.)...

Maybe it was just a gut feeling....literally...

Whatever it was, on June 3rd, one year ago, I had convinced my wonderful Mom to start driving over here. She wasn't planning on coming until around the 10th. We planned on getting her here, getting her settled, and having at least a week to finish the baby preparations together. And FINALLY, she was going to be able to be in the delivery room with me. That was a definite!

One year ago, today...my wonderful Mom was busy making last minute preparations, so she could start the long drive tomorrow. Stay tuned for the rest of the story!

BIG, EXCITING NEWS for our family!!!

No, I am NOT pregnant again. Come on, admit it....you were all thinking that!

Here are a few pictures illustrating our big, exciting news:

If you look closely in the first two photos, you'll notice that darling Matthew is preparing to enjoy a few Goldfish crackers. In the second two, he's getting his first taste of ice cream. Upon first glance, this doesn't seem like any big deal...right? But wait! Both of those food items have milk in them....and the Sweeneys are giving them to their child? That must mean....yes, that's right!

WE HAVE OUR FIRST CHILD WHO HAS NO FOOD ALLERGIES!!!

It's hard to describe just what that feels like. Today was the first time in almost 8 years that one of our children has eaten something with dairy. Matthew is our first child to try Goldfish crackers. I went to the store today and purchased Spagetti-O's, string cheese, macaroni and cheese....and once I got home, I thought of a host of other food items that we've always just avoided and haven't really thought twice about. Matthew can eat all of those things we've had to avoid with the other two! Matthew can eat whatever Darrin and I have for dinner! It's an incredibly liberating feeling! I can't wait to give him all kinds of new foods!

In more sobering news, Emma is extremely jealous of her baby brother, and has proclaimed the un-fairness of it all several times today. Unfortunately, Nathan has quite a severe allergy to milk and egg, as we figured. It's difficult to have it confirmed though, and difficult to put the kids through testing in the first place. Thankfully Nathan won't mind one bit, since he doesn't eat more than a few foods anyway. We're working on that, but that's a story for another post!

I'm off to make a grocery list....I guarantee everything on it will have some dairy in it! : )

The Mommy Workout

My idea of a workout?

Cardio: Run the stairs several times while groggy in the middle of the night because your two-year-old is throwing up every half hour.

Strength Training: Carry a very hefty (23 pound!) 10-month old around the house for hours because he has a 104 degree temperature, and just doesn't want to be put down. For increased difficulty, carry said infant with one arm, while preparing meals, sweeping floors, picking up toys, and doing laundry (please see reference to "throw-up" under Cardio).

Endurance Test: Perform all of the above, along with all the other tasks required of moms (which are too numerous to list here), on less than three hours of sleep.


No way do I feel bad about not getting on the elliptical today!

Finally getting started!

Hey everyone! I finally decided to post on the family blog...not just on the business blog. Although, I'm not very good at posting on the business blog either...hmmmm...guess I'm a reluctant blogger! I keep wondering what is interesting enough in my life to blog about, and it's always the kids that come to mind. Every day is truly an adventure...ups, downs, laughs, tears, and everything in-between.

What finally prompted me to sit at the computer and blog rather than design vinyl, is Nathan. Not that Emma and Matthew aren't fascinating creatures as well, but we've started on a heck of a journey with Nathan, and I thought it would be fun to follow it here.

As some of you know, Nathan has severe eating problems. I know what most of you are thinking...he's two...of course he's a picky eater! This goes WAY beyond that. There are very few foods that he will eat, and very few foods that he would EVER eat. He just hasn't progressed as he should have in this regard. He doesn't feed himself, shows no interest in holding his own utensils, won't try new foods, won't even try familiar foods if presented differently than normal. Hates texture, won't take bites of food, doesn't chew food well...and the list goes on. For the last several months, he has survived on dry cereal, crackers, soy yogurt (the only thing he will let us feed him), and french fries. I'm not kidding.

We have finally sought help, and have learned that he has severe sensory disfunction. He hates texture, hates extremes, gets uncomfortable with loud noises, severely withdraws around unfamiliar and less-familiar people, etc. All of this is interfering with his development and learning...especially in the area of food.

To try and make a long story short...we are now seeing an occupational therapist every week to try and help Nathan overcome some of his sensory issues, and hopefully, get him to branch out and try new foods eventually. My goal has been to make our home a texture library. We have Play-doh, rice bins, bean bins, bubbles, shaving cream, moldable sand, etc. and we play with as many things as we can each day. Nathan is not always a willing subject. As of a week ago, he wouldn't even touch Play-doh. When he got up the nerve to put one finger on it, he re-coiled, and rubbed his fingers together like they had gotten dirty. So strange! In the last week we have gone from that, to Nathan picking up balls of Play-doh and putting them in the back of his little trucks and driving them around! He still won't squish it, but at least he's touching it!

Today I introduced him to the rice bin. I showed him how it runs through a funnel, how to scoop it into a bowl with a tablespoon, how we can bury his cars in it (he didn't really like that!), and he seemed to be doing pretty well. He certainly didn't dig his hands in and start going for it like most kids would, but he did touch it, and that's good. Toward the end of the day, I was trying to show him again how to scoop it into a bowl with a tablespoon, and trying to get him to do it. After running downstairs to get something, I came back up to hear him giggling uncontrollably, and found this:

Yes, he has discovered that it's much more fun to dump the tablespoon full of rice onto the floor and watch the rice scatter...put it in a bowl? Nah....that's boring!

In this one, you can actually see the rice bouncing! You can also see how much rice I had to vacuum up once I put a stop to the dumping.

Well, at least he had fun with it, right? We'll take every small victory we can! Stay tuned for more updates on this long journey....and some updates on the other ones as well! : )