The day we met Rylee

Thursday, January 29, 2009

At 12:30 my heartrate was 172 and Rylee's was over 200.  We were both looming with infection.  She needed out.

At 1:30 they realized the contraction were not registering on the screen like they'd like.  So they inserted an internal monitor.  However the first one didn't work.  The student doctor checked me and said I was at 4 or 5.  But since the monitor wasn't working, the actual doctor was going to put it in.  When she checked me, only a couple minutes after the student, she said I was a definite 7. The phone rang, my mom had arrived.  As she was placing the monitor she asked me to roll a little more to my side...BOOM..full 10!  Just in a roll.  BOOM...contraction...need.to.push!  A couple minutes later, as people had came rushing in, Rylee arrived.  The room was full of people.  The student doctor delivered her.  It was his first baby he delivered.  She fit in the palm of his hand.  He handed her right over to the NICU doctors.  3 of them worked on intubated her and fiddling with her.  Kris was taking pictures of her.  I got to see her before she was wheeled down to the NICU with Kris and his mom in toe. 

 At 2:30 am, I was all cleaned up and asked them to bring my mom in.  My mom came in and asked where Kris was.  I said, he's with the baby.  She didn't even know that the entire time that she was in the waiting room, I was delivering Rylee and watched her be wisked off to the NICU.  Kris came back and showed me some pictures.  He also told us that she was 2 pounds, 15 ounces and 15 inches long.  I had to wait until 3 before I could go down.  Kris took his mom and my mom and Rich to the NICU to see her.  My mom called my dad and told she was born.  Mom and Rich headed to a hotel.

I proved to the nurse that I could walk.  She loaded me in the wheel chair and I went to meet Rylee for the first time. 

She was lethargic.  She was tiny.  She was doing as well as could be expected.  She held my finger.  I wanted to hold her.  I wanted to stroke her hair.  But all I could do was let her hold my finger.  The NICU nurse introduced herself and explained what all the machines were and what they did.  After a little bit, I got wheeled back to my room.  Me, Kris and his mom slept.  I was up quite early itching to go see.  (Literally, I was itchy.  I developed a nasty rash that ended up lasting well over 3 weeks that spread to every single inch of my body.  Some say it was PUPPs and some say it was eczema, who knows.)  Throughout the day, I got to go see her.  I got to get up and walk to see her.  Kris and his mom went home so he could get Troy and they would come back the following day.  Today was Day 1 of Rylee's 79 days in the NICU at University of Iowa Children's hospital. Today, we became a family of 4.  Today, Kris's parents got their first granddaughter.   Today, was an amazing, life changing day.

Happy Birthday Rylee!

At this very moment, 1:55 am, 365 days ago, Rylee Marie was born weighing 2 lbs, 15 oz and 15 inches long.  Today, she is 13 lbs and 25 inches long. 

Rylee has spent 23.5% of her 1 year of life in the hospital. And 49.8% or 182 days on oxygen to assist her breathing.

Throughout the past year, Rylee has been tested for Cystic Fibrosis, negative. She has been diagnosed with ROP, Chronic Lung Disease, Hydrocephalus and Chromosome 6 deletion q25.1-25.2. 

Today, Rylee is full of smiles.  Her personality is shining bright.

She loves her Jumperoo.

She loves her brother.

She has just recently taken to a pacifier.

She goes to bed at 7 pm and gets up at 5 am to eat and sometimes falls back to sleep afterwards.

She loves dolls and girly stuff.

Anything she can wrap her fingers around go in her mouth.

She can sometimes roll, sometimes not.  She can not yet sit up unsupported but can do pretty well with minimal support.  She is seen by a speech therapist and occupational therapist once a month and a physical therapist twice a month. 

She has 1 tooth.  She is eating single grain organic cereal.  We have tried to feed her organic sweet peas but she hates them.  Maybe we'll try in a couple weeks again.

Happy Birthday Rylee. 

Love- Mommy and Daddy

The 14 Days before Rylee, Day 14

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Today was my dad's birthday.  I called him in the morning.  The team of doctors came the previous morning.  I asked about being trasferred.  They were going to check into it.  The same team came in, hadn't gotten a response from Mercy yet.  Baby Rylee must have liked breakfast because ever since, she moved like crazy. It took 45 minutes to get a good enough readout for the stress test because she was moving so much.  The nurse that day was my favorite.  She kept telling Rylee to take a nap for a few minutes.  She was super nice.  At noon, all of the movement stopped.  I told nurse Rebecca when she came in.  She wanted to do another stress test.  Passed with flying colors.  She thought the baby had moved around because she couldn't get a heartbeat in the normal spot.  The night nurse came.  I didn't care for her much.  She also did a stress test.  Passed again!  But the baby was sitting very still.  There was hardly any movement all afternoon.  After dinner, I talked to my sister.  I talked to her and completely forgot about Bingo.  Oh well!  I mentioned I thought I had a contraction.  Nothing out of the normal though.  After talking to my sister for an hour, I got off the phone.  I instantly felt terrible.  I just felt yucky.  My back hurt so I got in the shower.  I literally stood in the shower, doubled over in pain.  I got dried off and dressed and paged the nurse.  I told her I thought was having contractions and they hurt.  She got the doctor.  Sterile exam time.  But this time they couldn't get the speculum open.  She got a wheel chair and got me to labor and delivery.  They wanted to do an ultrasound to see it the baby was still breech.  Now, I was told that the baby would be born by c-section because she was breech and wouldn't be able to turn on her own in the low amount of fluid.  When the doctor brought her up on the screen, it was evident that miss Rylee had indeed flipped to the head down position.  They took me across the hall into a laboring room.  I didn't know if they were going to try and stop this or not.  The nurse took my temperature, 103°F at which the doctor replied, yup your having this baby TONIGHT!  I had developed an infection probably because I stopped the antibiotics a couple days before.  I was also dehydrated so it took 4 times of trying to get an IV in. 

I had called Kris before I paged the nurse just to give him a heads up.  About 45 minutes I called and told him to come.  He met my sister at our house so she could take Troy and he and his mom (after he quickly showered the stink of work off) literally sped down.  They got there around 11.  Just in time for the epidural.  I was freezing because of the infection.  The room's temp was turned up rather high. The 3 of us just chilled for a while.  My mom and Rich were headed down.  My dad stayed home.  We were just waiting.

The 14 days before Rylee, Day 13

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Again...a normal boring day.  After the fetal stress test, my stomach was itchy.  I took another shower to get off the goop from the test.  Lots of kicking towards dinner.  The woman who cleaned my room came in and told me that I didn't look pregnant.  I certainly felt pregnant.  The woman with the things to do stopped in and invited me to play bingo.  She gave me a packet with all the information in it.  I could play bingo the following night at 7 over the TV.  The first one to call the number with a bingo, won!  I don't remember what you could win but I could do TV bingo.  Sure why not?

The 14 days before Rylee, Day 12

Monday, January 26, 2009

Just another normal day.  Alone.  Shower, eat, fetal stress test, eat, nap, read, eat, tv, bed.  Nothing new and exciting.  The normal team of doctors didn't see me that morning.  UGH!  Today was my last dose of antibiotics.  One less pill I had to take.  And they finally removed the IV I had in my arm since the 16th.  It had expired days ago.  The relief was amazing.  I threw out the seran wrap next to the shower since I didn't have to wrap it anymore.  Some good came out of a boring day!

The 14 days before Rylee, Day 11

Sunday, January 25, 2009

It was sunday again.  I got teary eyed thinking of Kris and Troy leaving me.  Kris would take Troy down to get some food since he couldn't be left with me.  I would order mine before they left and by the time they got back up, I would have mine and they would have theirs.  We would eat together in bed.  I made it feel more normal to eat with them.  At 8 pm, Kris started packing all of their things out to the car.  Tonight, during our alone time, Troy learned how to turn on a light switch.  He was proud of himself.  He kept turning it on and off as I balled like a baby because I knew in a few minutes they would leave me.  I know this was as hard on Kris as it was on me.  He just could keep himself more composed than I could.  They left.  I cried.  I made my decision right there and then that the following morning when the doctors came to see me, I would ask to be transferred back to Dubuque.  I knew if wouldn't be at least until the following weekend but I knew I wanted to closer to home.

The 14 days before Rylee, Day 10

Saturday, January 24, 2010

I awoke early. I picked up my room.  I organized my cabinets to accommidate Kris and Troy's things.  I made sure the woman came and changed my bedding.  I made sure to fluff the pillows for them.  I missed them terribly.  I only talked to Kris on the phone for the past 5 days.  I had seen Troy 2 days earlier, but missed him all the same.  At 10 am, I heard a little rap rap rap on my door.  The sweetest 1 year old with chubby cheeks came waltzing through the door right to me.  He hadn't forgot about me.  He gave me a piece of paper folded up.  It was a card that he made at the daycare specially for me.  He missed me.  I got to spend the rest of the day loving him up.  I got to give him his bottle at bedtime.  I got to snuggle to sleep with him.  I missed him like crazy.

Kris and I got to chat quite a bit.  We got to snuggle up on the couch and watch a movie.  We talked about Mercy's NICU in Dubuque.  We were torn as to whether or not I should move there.  I wanted to be closer to family and Kris and Troy.  BUT, I wanted Iowa City's NICU.  I was torn.  Kris was torn.  We didn't make a decision that night as to whether or not I should make the move.

The 14 days before Rylee, Day 9

Friday, January 23, 2009

On this day, I did my taxes. It's not as if I didn't have the time. It was the first and probably the last time that I have my taxes done BEFORE January 31st. I was just happy that I had everything to do them. I did pass my time with other things. A woman stopped my room every few days and would drop things off to me. She would bring me books or movies or whatever I needed to help pass the time. Thanks to my family, I had plenty of movies and books and puzzles to do. And of course, I had my laptop and an ethernet cord. AMEN to that. I spent a lot of time online. I also read 5 books and completed an entire book of sudoku puzzles during those 14 days. I went to bed early that night. When I was little, I remember my mom telling me to go to sleep, it (whatever or where ever we were going or getting) would come sooner. I wanted Saturday to come sooner. I wanted to see my husband and my son. I wanted them so bad.

The 14 days before Rylee, Day 8

Thursday, January 22, 2009

I had been told that my sister in law, Jen and my sister Erin were coming down to see me with my niece Isabelle. They were bringing me the best present, Troy. I couldn't wait to see him. I was so excited, I got up early and was ready to see them. I could've cried when I seen them. The day or so before, I asked a nurse to take me to the gift shop. I got Troy a puzzle that he could do when he came to visit me. I gave it to him that day. He and Isabelle played with it well. This day sticks out in my memory because I missed him so much. You have to understand that I had only ever been away from him for 1 night since I had him. Even then, he was home with his dad. Now he was being passed around and I wasn't there to kiss him goodnight and put him to bed like I was used to. When it came time for them to head the 2 hours home, more for Erin, I was so sad. I cried for a long time after they left. Troy was crying as they left. I was so sad. I wanted them to take me with them. I couldn't stand it. Tears are spilling now as I recall what that afternoon felt like. It was one of the best days out of the 14 but one of the hardest. I was extremely grateful of Erin and Jen for taking the day to come down and see me and bring Troy. I couldn't bare not seeing him again for 2 days. Plus, he had to be put to bed another night without neither of his parents. That was the hardest part throughout the entire 14 days was not being with Troy, not knowing if he was happy or sad, not being able to hug or kiss him whenever I wanted, not knowing how his first days went at the new daycare, not putting him to bed, not being able to smell that sweet fresh out of the bath smell and hoping and praying he wasn't forgetting about me. I shed a lot of tears over that little boy. So day 8 was a great but hard one!

The 14 days before Rylee, Day 7

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Kris's parents came down for a little while to visit. During this time, while Kris and Troy were home, my dad and Deb were watching Troy while Kris was at work and Kris would go sleep at their house until morning then go home and then to class since the semester had just started. Those poor boys. While Kris's parents were there, an aid stopped by my room to take me to peds cardiology. Another 2 hours of laying on a table measuring blood flow and taking photos and discovering what the shadow was. After returning to my room, I sat the rest of the day. Periodically throughout my time before Rylee, I received patient emails from Kris and some coworkers. I also got tons of personal emails and phone calls. My mom called me everyday at least once or twice. I had a set routine of getting up at 7 am, ordering breakfast, quick shower, eat when my food arrived, fetal stress test, meds, order lunch, eat lunch, read or nap, order dinner, eat dinner, talk to kris, watch tv, go to sleep. That was the pattern of my weekday. Laying around all day makes for a long day!

The 14 days before Rylee, Day 6

January 20, 2009

Many remember this day as a day that made history. President Obama was inaugurated. I was in the waiting room of Radiology waiting for my big ultrasound. I got to see much of his speech. I got to see his inauguration. It was bittersweet. I was an Obama supporter. I was excited for our country. I was sitting in the waiting room in a hospital gown and those white leggings in a wheelchair nervously waiting for an ultrasound while people clapped and cheered around me.

That ultrasound lasted for 2 hours. Now ultrasounds are fun. You get to see your baby. I did infact get to look and stare at all my baby's parts for quite a while. I was sore lying in the chair for that long. My tailbone was severely bruised from the days of laying around. The ultrasound tech confirmed the enlarged kidneys but was more concerned with a shadow around the baby's heart. The fluid was indeed low. And my baby was on average measuring 2 weeks behind schedule. Not great news. However, not much we could do right now. I was going to have a doctor look at my baby's heart while still in utero. I was interested to see how this would work.

The 14 days before Rylee, Day 5

Monday, January 19, 2009

I was dreading this day. I knew that after lunch, Kris and Troy would be heading home. And I would be all alone. Sure enough. After lunch, Kris and Troy headed back to Wisconsin. It was the worst day yet. I laid in my bed and cried.

Later on, I was transferred to a post-partum room. Even though I was still pregnant, I was put on this floor, just to monitored since everything had calmed down. This is where I would remain until my baby was born. It would be no later than February 20th which would've been my 34th week. I was taking a prenatal vitamin, iron (since we didn't want a relapse of Troy's birth) and antibiotics. I had a team of doctors that would start visiting me every morning.

My room had large closets and cabinets. It had a couch, recliner and double bed. Yup, a double bed. AWESOME! It was much comfier than that laboring bed. My poor tailbone was crushed from laying for 4 days in that laboring bed. My bathroom had a HUGE jetted tub. I knew Troy was going to love it.

The team of doctors stopped in that even to meet me. They said I am aloud to get up for a total of 30 minutes per day. That included going to bathroom and shower. I could get up and refill my water pitcher. They said I would have a 20 to 45 minute fetal stress test every day. They also told me that I would be having a big ultrasound done the very next day since the baby's kidneys were enlarged and I had been constantly leaking fluid for 5 days.

Later in the afternoon, my brother Craig, sister in law Jen and niece Isabelle stopped to see me. Then I was really on my own. Jen thought that she would bring Troy down on Thursday to see me. I held on to hope that she would.

The first belly picture I had taken during this pregnancy. 1 picture is better than none I guess. This was it. Not much belly there.

The 14 days before Rylee, Day 4

Sunday, January 18, 2009

At 2 am, Kris called my dad to come and get Troy. It looked like our little girl would be coming. The doctors checked me, still closed, breech baby still high. Dad and Deb came over and picked up Troy. Troy kissed me goodbye. I started to cry. I was so freakin' nervous. I labored the rest of the wee hours of the morning. The doctor, the curly haired one, was in and out quite a bit. No change. At 7 am, the new nurse, after the shift change, decided that maybe I needed some fluids. So she started a bag of fluid. TADA! Within 20 minutes, my labor stopped completely. At 10 am, they granted me a meal! Now, it was Sunday at 10 am and I hadn't ate since Friday at 8 am, which was just a toaster stroodle. I was hungry. I enjoyed a plate of french toast. It was good! The rest of the day continued like the day before.

The 14 days before Rylee, Day 3

It is now Saturday, December 17, 2009. I contracted all night. Troy and Kris didn't sleep well. I tried to sleep on one of those break apart labor and delivery beds. If you have ever sat on one for more than 10 minutes you'll know that they are uncomfortable. I could only get up to go to the bathroom. And even that wasn't an easy feat. I had to have Kris help me unplug the IV pole and take the leg things off me. They put these white tight leggings on me and had a thing that wrapped around my calves that blew air in and out to ensure blood flow since I was bed ridden.

Throughout the day we had many visitors. I am foggy on who visited on what day. They all seemed to blend together. I think that my mom and Rich were there for much of the day, my dad and Deb arrived and Kris's mom, dad and sister-in-law came down too. I labored all day! My dad and Deb got a room at the same hotel that my mom and Rich stayed at the night before. Mom and Rich went home as well as Kris's parents. I was starved the entire day. I was still having contractions. They picked up in intensity towards the end of the day. I was so hungry and tired and worn out, I just wanted to go home.

The 14 days before Rylee, Day 2

The time is now 8:15 am. I got up early, made Smothered Steak in the crockpot for my mom and Rich who were coming down that afternoon to watch Troy. We were all dressed and in the car on the way to my appointment.

The time is now 8:30 am. We are just getting off the exit onto Highway 151 going into Dubuque. I told Kris, "I'll be really embarrassed it they tell me that I have been wetting my pants all night, but I REALLY hope that is what they are going to tell me." He squeezed my hand and we entered Iowa. Little did I know that I wouldn't be back in Wisconsin for 18 days.

The time is now 8:45 am. I was called right back with out any wait. I had to drink the diabetes stuff...yuck! I had to undress from the waist down. Dr. M came right in and explained to me that she was going to do a sterile exam in case my water did indeed rupture. She opened the speculum just a tad and confirmed my worst nightmare. She wanted me to go to ultrasound to have the fluid level check.

The time is now 8:55 am. I am on the ultrasound table, Troy was squirming around, the ultrasound tech, who had done everysingle one of my ultrasounds ever, was sober in the face, measuring and scanning, typing and pointing. The baby's kidneys are enlarged. The baby has very low fluid. Go back into the exam room and Dr. M will be right in.

The time is now 9:15 am. Dr. M came back in. She told me the baby is breech and that I have to go start to Mercy hospital for steriods, talked to a NICU doctor, and figure out a plan from there.

The time is now 9:30 am, I am on my way to Mercy. I was calling my parents, my boss, my sister. I was mentally making a list of things for Kris to grab and do once he headed home.

The time is now 9:35 am, I walked up to OB. Opps, suppose to go through the ER, check in and be wheeled up to maternity. Oh well. They got me to my room. I got changed into a gown. Kris stepped out to call his parents. The nurse was growly that Kris left Troy in the room with me. That ticked me off that she was so growly.

The time is now 9:45 am. I have 2 nurses. One nice, One groochy. Dr. B, my regular OB is on call at the hospital, comes into my room. He explains to me that I am not far along enough to have my baby in Dubuque. I will be receiving steroids, IV fluids and antibiotics and be taken by ambulance or medflight to Iowa City. He held my hand as I got the steroids. Holy cow, it hurt. I got my IV. They drew my blood for the diabetes test. The phone was ringing off the hook and people of all kinds were in and out of my room. One of the nurses gave me a scrap of paper to make a list on for Kris. I had the shakes something terrible because of nerves.

The time is now 10:10 am. Kris and Troy kissed me goodbye with list in hand. Next time I would see them is hours later in Iowa City. At this point we weren't sure what the heck was going to go on.

The time is now 10:20 am. The ambulance men arrived. The temperature is -29° amd that's the actual temperature. They loaded me on a stretcher and a nurse named Mary road with me to Iowa City. The ride was bumpy. I was strapped to the stretcher the entire hour and half ride. Nurse Mary tells me that my diabetes results came in right before we left. I am diagnosed with gestational diabetes on a stretcher in a cold ambulance during -29° weather and scared to death. A lot was thrown at me in the last hour and half and I was really still not sure what the heck would happen in the next few hours.

The time is now 11:45 am. About 15 minutes out of Iowa City hospital. I have no idea where Iowa City is on a map. Contractions start. They are every 3 minutes apart. They aren't painful though.

The time is now 12:00 pm. I am wisked through the University of Iowa Hospital. I have no idea what I am seeing. People are turning and looking at me. The ambulance guys are practically running through the halls, Mary the nurse is running behind us and I am still contracting. We arrive at L&D where there is another lady in the hall on a stretcher. The guys push me into a huge delivery room. A nurse comes in. I don't remember her name but I didn't like her much. She made me us a bedpan instead of using the bathroom. That was an experience I only had to endure that one time.

The time is now 12:30 pm. A resident doctor comes into my room. He brings an ultrasound machine with him. He can't even figure out how to turn it on. I was nervous. He askes me what is going on. "well my water broke." "when did it break" "yesterday at 3:15 pm" "how far along are you?" "28 weeks today" "the baby is breech?" "yup, that's what they tell me". Now I relatively irritable from the events in the past 4 hours and the contractions and the shot of steroids, so this guy made me want to scream at him. I didn't but it took all my might not too. There were lots of umm and space between talking to me. The nurse had just told him everything I had to repeat. All the while he is trying to turn on this darn ultrasound machine. He finally gave up and grabbed another doctor. This doctor was in a hurry for sure. The L&D was filling up fast. This new curly haired doctor gave me a sterile exam, turned on the ultrasound machine for the student doctor and left. The student did the ultrasound. YUP, baby is still breech.

The time is now 1 pm. I am hungry. My mom and Rich arrive. Kris and Troy are on their way down. My contractions are sporadic now. Sometimes 15 minutes apart sometimes 2 minutes apart but they don't really hurt, just annoying.

The time is 2:30 pm. There is a knock at my door and in walk my husband and child. The sight of them makes me want to cry. I thought that if I was going to have a baby, I would be doing it alone. Now my best friend and companion arrived. AMEN!

From here we sat and sat and sat. I was not granted any food for fear that I would need an emergency c-section to deliver my 12 week early breech baby. This is where things get a little fuzzy. I really don't know how we made the time pass or what the heck was going on. All I know is that I was hungry. My mom and Rich got a room at a local hotel. Kris and Troy slept next to me on a twin sized fold down couch.

The 14 days before Rylee, Day 1

Let me take you back to Thursday, January 15, 2009. It was a relatively sunny, bitterly cold (in the negative degrees) day.

The time is 3:00 pm. I had just talked to my OB doctor's nurse about missing my gestational diabetes testing appointment because of some insurance stuff. She scolded me. She was going to talk to some people in the office and call me back.

It is now 3:15 pm. I felt a "gush" of something "down there". I had a flash back of my coworker Matt rushing another coworker to the hospital because she thought her water had broke. Turns out she just wet her pants. I just thought, Oh My gosh, I wet my pants. I instantly became ticked off, at myself of course. However, a few minutes after I cleaned myself up the best that I could, I felt another small gush.

It is now 3:30 pm. The nurse called me back. She said I needed to make an appointment when I had the insurance stuff worked out but to not let it go for longer than a week or so. Then she asked "how are you feeling?" "Well I think I might be leaking something. I must have just wet my pants [blushing bright red]" "If you are leaking any kind of fluid, I have to advice you come to urgent care and get it checked out. But with the insurance stuff, I will talk to Dr. B and call you right back."

It is now 3:45 pm. The nurse called back. "Dr. B says to go home and relax. If you continue to leak fluid for the next 2 hours, come in to the ER. Otherwise, Dr. M will see you tomorrow at 8:45 am to make sure everything is alright and we'll test for diabetes then."

It is now 5:00 pm. I told my boss that I had a 8:45 appointment and am not sure if my water broke or not. I was going to pick up my newly turned 1 year old little boy for a night of "relaxation", or at least as much relaxing as could be expected.

It is now 8:30 pm. I talked to Kris over his lunch break at work. The leaking is still going. Sometimes more than others. I said I think something is wrong. We discussed going to the ER and decided to wait until he got home at 12:30 am.

When Kris got home, the leaking had pretty much stopped. The baby was still moving. So, I decided to stay home and go to the appointment in the morning. What a bad bad bad decision!

In the days to come...

Rylee's birthday is approaching!! However, there were some overly exciting, nerve-racking moments that led up to her birth. Therefore, in the next couple weeks you will get to relive the experiences that I went through before she graced us with her presence. Stay tuned for photos and memories that I have. Much of this "ordeal" was heartbreaking for me. I will share a story with you as I remember them...Starting tomorrow, January 15th!!

Time to pray

I personally have never experienced an earthquake. The closest thing ever is the when I was in high school and there would be blast in the quarry next to the school. It shook the school a little but nothing major.

However, Haiti experienced a HUGE 7.3 earthquake yesterday. I was reading stories online that were accompanied by photos. I seen this photo of a father holding his maybe 1 year old daughter who died as a result of this horrific tradegy. It makes me want to just be home with my husband and kids. However, I can't. Those 3 million people are in my thoughts and prayers today and the days to come. I can't imagine what they are going through. Pray for them. Help them if you can.

Hmmm...

I am not sure what to title this post. It's really just a bunch of nothing.

First of all, I love having a 2 year old. A month ago, I hated it. He was terrible 6 out of 7 days. In the last few weeks, we've only seen that old little boy a couple times. Since his surgery, he can hear. He seems so much more grown up. He even fetched the remote for me last night while I was preoccupied with feeding a very sleepy, almost asleep Rylee. I was a proud momma. This past weekend we have seen his true colors show. He dances! He dances ALL THE TIME. He loves dancing. Everytime there is music, he dances. I opened the door to car last night to load them up to go home and he started dancing, outside in the snow and cold of the babysitters driveway. This boy can really shake a leg.

Other news, we didn't end up going to Noah's ChuckE Cheese birthday party on Sunday. We weren't feeling 100% and decided it would be best to just stay home. Turns out the Noah's dad and big brother are sick. Good thing we just stayed put. Sounds like what they have is alot worse than what we had. Other than that we kept ourselves busy taking care of my sister's 2 hounds and football. Now, I will admit that 2 seconds into the Packers vs Cardinals game that my husband said a 4 letter word. I will also tell you that he was talking a lot to the television throughout the entire game. We had a sleeping Rylee towards the end of the game so Kris put her in her bed. Turns out to be a good thing because there was some hooting and wahooing coming from both of us and Troy copying us at the very end. Then there was 30 seconds of overtime. Boo! Well we all know how that game ended. All Kris said was, "where is the remote?" The channel was changed and nothing more was said. Needless to say we were bummed by the outcome. Maybe next year!

Have a wonderful day all!

Happy Birthday Noah!

Our nephew Noah turns 2 today. Happy Birthday Noah!

Kris and I meeting Noah for the first time with a 10 days old Troy!

Noah's 2 year old photo

(I stole this picture from his mom's facebook!)

Happy 2nd Birthday Noah!

Love, Uncle Kris, Aunt Mary, Troy and Rylee

On the agenda

Troy had his doctor appointment with Dr. K this morning. Kris and I got up early and warmed the vehicles. Kris ventured out with both kids to Dubuque this morning while I went to work. We both left at 7:15 and made it on time to our destinations. It started snowing last night about 7 pm at our house and hasn't stopped since. At least it is nice and fluffy snow. I have no clue how much snow we have accumulated so far in the last 15 hours but it's a good chunk added to our already accumulated good chunk! We are certainly have a white, cold winter!

Dr. K did a hearing test with Troy that came back fine. He took a peak in Troy's ears and said they look fine. He has to go back in 6 months.

Miss Rylee has been getting up at 5 am for the past month or more. Everyone is exhausted but mainly Kris because he gets up with her. He has no problem falling back to sleep in the recliner. I however wouldn't be able to go back to sleep with her chattering as loud as she does. Boy that girl can talk and she can talk LOUD! And Mr. Troy is still being difficult at bedtime. He never wants to go to bed. Last night I think I fell asleep before he did. Kris and I are looking forward to the day that we get to sleep in. Maybe in 10 or 15 years. Then we'll probably be so used to waking at 5 that we won't be able to sleep in. Gone are those days that we sleep in until 10 or noon. Yes I actually did that in my teenage years. What a shame to sleep in so long. I never got anything accomplished in the morning hours of the weekend. However, 1 morning of sleeping in til..oh..8 would be lovely.

We have a busy weekend. My sister and her family will be out of town so we are taking care of their dogs. Our nephew, Noah, turns 2 tomorrow and his birthday party is at ChuckECheese on Sunday. I have to work on Saturday at the bank from 8 to noon. All I wanted to do this weekend was clean my house. We'll give one good shot on saturday afternoon.

Kris and I have been hard at meal planning. Since I work until 6 on Fridays and don't get home until 6:30 - 6:45 I try to make a meal in the crock pot so that Kris doesn't have to make anything. Tomorrow we are having Beef stew. My agenda for my lunch break today is to grab some of the veggies needed to make that tonight for the crockpot tomorrow. Yummy, my belly is hungry now! Have a great weekend all!

New things!!

Rylee popped her first tooth through on Monday. It was exciting time at our house. We took her to see Dr. C today and he washed his hands right away so he can feel her tooth. We went to see Dr. C today because we finally received Rylee's Synagis. AWESOME! Synagis is a vaccine to prevent RSV. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a very common virus that leads to mild, cold-like symptoms in adults and older healthy children. It can be more serious in young babies, especially to those in certain high-risk groups. As you probably remember, Rylee also has CLD (chronic lung disease). NP Diane said that if Rylee were to contract RSV with her current lung capacity and compromised immune system, she would have a less than 10% chance of survival. That's scary. NP Diane prior authorized the Synagis prescription on October 27, 09 and we just received the first dose yesterday. UGH! There were dozens upon dozens of phone calls and hours spent arguing over this drug for Rylee. But we have it now. And 28 days from now we will get another dose and then 28 days after that she'll get another dose. This drug is costing us $2,025.68 per dose. OH MAN!! Small price to pay for life though.

Troy has new things too. He is going to see Dr. K tomorrow for his post op appointment for his ears and throat. I have a whole new kid. Ever since the surgery he has been talking much more and pronouncing things much better. He talks constantly. He laughs constantly. He's a happy kid. AND he has always been a daddy's boy until recently. This tickles me pink (sorry, Kris). I love that he gets so so so excited to see me. Kris said that he looks for me during the day and is pretty mellow, until he sees me. Kris comments on his spunkiness everytime he gets like that. For example, there is this little playhouse at the doctor's office that he would throw a fit over before if he had to leave that thing to go in an office. Today, Kris was going to stay out in the lobby and wait with him while Rylee and I did the shot thing. However, Troy had other ideas, he volunteerily followed me and Rylee (and Kris trailing him) into the office. Turned out that Rylee had to stay at the doctor's office for a half an hour under observation after the shot. Since that shot took place over my lunch hour, I decided that during that half hour, I would take Troy to Culver's for lunch so that we both had ate. We each enjoyed the mommy and son lunch date. He even VOLUNTEERILY gave me a kiss. I LOVE THIS little 2 year today (I love him all days but sometimes it just takes more effort!)

Troy is saying new things. He copied words that I had said when I was talking on the telephone the other night. I hollared for "Kris" over the weekend and Troy repeated "Kris". If you asked what a car says, he'll tell you, "Beep! Beep! Outtamyway! Beep! Beep! [fist pumping in the air]" Now I don't believe he learned this from me. He absolutely has to wear his new Cars underwear that Santa left in his stocking to bed. Overtop his diaper of course. He loves underwear! Last night he put on his underwear and when I went to put him his jammies those undies had to stay on. So he wore his Cars jammies over his Cars undies over his fresh diaper. Funny kids. 2 hasn't been such a bad age so far. It was right before turning 2. Hopefully this lasts!