lots to be thankful for

we celebrated thanksgiving this year at jen and ray's house. i was so happy to not be hosting. miles and i have hosted thanksgiving for the last seven years. it was nice to take a year off. i was sure i would go into labor again on thanksgiving if i hosted. of course that did not happen but it would have been so hard to prepare for it with our newborn. instead of being stressed out this morning i was in my pajamas sitting at the computer doing some online shopping. i felt so spoiled.

jen and ray did a great job preparing the meal. everything was delicious. the kids had so much fun playing with all of bodhi's toys. the only thing i really missed was the big sleepover that we usually have on thanksgiving. with all our kids we had to come home. connor slept through most of the day. he was very cute. his first thanksgiving and we are very thankful to have him here.

happy birthday dahlia

today is dahlia's real birthday. she is two years old. she is growing up so fast. she is 27 pounds and 35 inches tall. that puts her at 50% for weight and 80% for height. wow. 80% how crazy. i don't know where she gets that from because i am short. she is super smart. she can count to ten, and she speaks in full sentences all the time. i think having mason to chat with helps. they are really sweet together. they play all the time.

we didn't really do anything to celebrate her birthday today since we already had a party for her. we actually went to a friends birthday party. i was going to make a cake, but after having cake at emily's birthday i decided that was enough sugar for the day. it was a fun day though. we all relaxed together at night and watched winnie the pooh's christmas movie. yay. the holiday's are here.

newborns

wow. i completely and totally forgot how much work a newborn is. i thought it would be so easy to have connor home. no more running back and forth to the hospital. i forgot about the getting up every three hours during the night to feed and change them. i am so tired. after a week of interrupted sleep i am exhausted. today i do feel a little better. my house, however, has seen better days. what a mess.

i think we are finally settling in on a routine. things have been different with connor than with dahlia and mason. connor sleeps in a crib. yay us. connor is mostly bottle fed. this is a pain and requires me to pump and wash a ton of bottles. we are thinking it will just be until he gains some more weight. if i breast feed him, he never eats enough and just wakes up an hour later being hungry. we like to give him a bottle so we know how much he is eating. he tends to sleep at least three hours after a bottle so that gives us a break. he also requires a bit more attention with his medicine and monitor. we will be happy to get rid of those things. he should only need them for about six weeks.

on a happy note. he is adorable and mason and dahlia seem to really like him. we are all doing well.

he is home

hurray. he is home. they actually let us take him home today. i was so relieved and happy that it is true. he is actually in his crib at home at this very moment. he is so cute. today was a bit busy and crazy. i had to drive mason and dahlia to orange county for my mom to watch them. after that i had to go with miles to take connor home from the hospital. before i could even enjoy him i was back on the road to pick up mason and dahlia from my mom's house. whew. that is about 100 miles of driving. all worth it of course because my family is together now.

dahlia loves her new brother. she helped me feed him a bottle. mason of course seems to not be interested. he did take a look at him before announcing that he needed to go play with his trains. maybe mason will find him more interesting when connor is older and they can interact with each other.

there were five babies that left the nicu today. leaving only ten. the nurses said the babies all decided that today was the day to leave. i wonder who led the movement.

connor day 12

the hospital played a dirty trick on us today. miles went to visit connor in the morning and spoke with the doctor. he said connor was doing great. he passed his 12 hour sleep test last night. he was eating good. he was back up to his birth weight. everything was great and we could take him home. today. he said to go home, get the car seat, the monitor, his medicine, and a change of clothes for him and we could take him home. i got so excited. even miles got excited this time. we got all his stuff and went back to the nicu. in the elevator we made jokes about how they wouldn't really let us take him home. and sure enough. we were right.

the doctor was there and told us he just looked over connor's bilirubin levels and decided he needed one more day of phototherapy. he said we could either take him home today and bring him back first thing in the morning for a lab test and to be possibly admitted again or to let him stay one more night under the lamp. of course we let him stay there. i would not want to take him home for a night and then bring him back in the morning. what would be the point of that. so of course i started crying again. just a little bit. i am trying to control myself. stupid post-pregnancy hormones are making me nuts.

we went home with our empty car seat. so sad. maybe tomorrow they will let us take him. i have decided that i won't believe it until he is in the car and we are driving away.

connor day 11

i didn't get to visit connor yesterday. miles went with his mother after dahlia's party. i watched mason and dahlia. i was glad she got to see him. it was her first time meeting him. i went this morning. all by myself. i decided that it has been a week and i am going to start driving again. the doctor's instructions said to not drive for two weeks, but i feel fine. i was so happy to drive. i don't like depending on people to take me places. i like to just go when i want to.

connor looked great today. he was so active and alert. he woke up right away for his feeding. the physical therapist fed him. she has put him on all bottle feedings today. we are all hoping that he does good with the feedings. his feeding tube is still in but they aren't using it today. they are going to do another 12 hour sleep test tonight and if he passes then he can go home tomorrow. despite my best efforts not to be, i am really excited. i know he may not come home tomorrow, but he just might and i can't help getting my hopes up.

birthday party for dahlia

we celebrated dahlia's birthday early this year. i was worried that i would go into labor during her real birthday november 22nd, so i planned the party for the 8th. little did i know that i would have already had the baby. it was such a fun day. dahlia loved her party. we had a small group. just the immediate family and some close friends. the same crowd that was at mason's birthday.

dahlia had a scooby doo theme. she loves scooby doo. she is a bit obsessed with it. everyday when it is television time, she says "doo where are you." mason usually wants to watch thomas the train, but dahlia almost always wins and we watch scooby doo. i like scooby doo and don't really get tired watching them over and over.

i decided to give myself a break and order take out. we had italian food. it was still a lot of work to throw a party. i loved it though. i had fun. we also were celebrating my birthday so i treated myself to a glass of champagne. the kids had so much fun playing with all their friends and cousins. it was a great day.