Photos Much Over Due

These are my favorite photos from our photo shoot with Sonya. I was extremely pleased with how well they turned out. I can't wait to do another shoot, hopefully outdoors next time. The first one is my absolute favorite of all. Thanks Sonya, I'm sorry it took me so long to post them.

"Normal" Stuff

Joshua had an appointment today with the pediatrician. He did great! He weighed 18 pounds 3 ounces which was up 2 pounds from his 4 month appointment. He also gained two inches and is now 28 inches long. He got a couple of shots, cried for just a minute and then went back to chattering happily. His doctor said it was fine to start giving him whatever food we really wanted to give him. He said to stay away from nuts, eggs and honey until at least one year, but we're free to give him any soft table foods that he will eat and we want to give him. Things like mashed potatoes, smashed fruits and veggies, yogurt, ice cream, etc.. Plus he said it's fine to start giving him Cheerios and that kind of thing. I need to head out and get him a box of those!! I love his doctor. He's not the kind of doctor who just reads the "doctor manual" and spits out what it says, he actually uses the years of experience he has to tell you what works and what's really best for your child. I love that. We've been really blessed with the medical team that has surrounded us lately. We've had this same pediatrician for awhile and I've always loved his style. But we've had surgeons and doctors dealing with Joshua's care that I have just loved also. His main surgeon is incredible. I just sent him a little email the other day with a picture of Joshua in Mickey ears and he was so kind in his response. He really is a good guy.

Tonight we had a nice family night out. We went to Pizza Tower for dinner and then went to the park to play. I am really enjoying the weather lately. I'm ready for spring! Joshua went down a slide (with his siblings help) and swung in the baby swing for the first time. The park was empty for most of the time we were there, so we just ran around like we owned it!!

The homeschool convention is coming up in about 3 weeks. I am so excited. One of the speakers that I loved two years ago will be here again this year and I can not wait to see him again. He was really the beginning point of the transformation in my way of thinking about what schooling means to me and my family. I can't wait to see what else he has to say. I get so energized at the convention. Homeschooling parents are such a minority and it's so nice to be surrounded by like minded families, even if it's just for a few days. It's nice to know you're not the only one.

The last two nights, we've watched the International Space Station fly by. It's really kind of cool. It looks like a star that moves across the sky in a minute or two. It doesn't flash or blink, so it's easy to tell it's not an airplane. When it gets to a certain point in the sky, it loses it's sunlight reflection and seems to "go out". I think that's the coolest part. It's supposed to do it one more time tomorrow night between 8:11 and 8:17pm, but I think it's going to be cloudy tomorrow, so we probably won't be able to see it.

We've also been watching Molly the barn owl as she eagerly awaits the birth of her owlets. You can see the live cam here. Isn't she cute?? Oh and I heard a man fishing found a nest of bald eagles a couple of miles from our house here. It's pretty rare to have a nest here. That's pretty cool.

I've finally gotten back into couponing. I'm doing it a little differently though. I just don't have the time to clip coupons right now, so instead of buying newspapers every week, I go to couponclippers.com and order the coupons I want. I end up spending right about the same amount I'd spend on newspapers every week, and I only get the coupons I want, in the amount I want and the best part is that they're already clipped for me!! I went to Kroger yesterday (they're having one of the mega sale things) and my order was 57 before sale and coupons and I walked out paying only $11! My coupon box has shrunk a lot, but it works for me right now. I'm happy to be back on the wagon saving money at the grocery again. When things were so crazy around here, I was lucky to actually make it to the grocery store, let alone worry about couponing. Now I'm back to where I want to be!

Our house is sooo beautiful!! Well, it was beautiful when we first got home from vacation anyway. We got the whole downstairs interior painted and I love it so much. It was a Christmas present from my parents and we ended up splitting the costs to make sure we could the trim, ceilings and everything done. I am so thrilled. We've lived in this house almost 6 years now and it feels so good to have the downstairs finally "done". I'm working to get everything put back away, but I had forgotten how hard it is to get things done with a baby in the house!! Especially this baby, because he sure does love his Mama!! I cut him some slack though, because we both missed out on a lot of mommy/baby snuggle time when he was in the hospital for 105 days. The housework will get done eventually, maybe when he's 10!! I am hoping to get a lot done this weekend. I should be rested up because tonight is my night off from overnight baby care. Daddy does Friday night to give me a break. I actually don't mind getting up with him. I love cuddling him at night, but it is nice to get a full night's sleep.

I guess you could say life is just normal now. I could not be more happy with normal. Oh, and here's a tip. If you haven't already, you need to go out and buy some Wal-Mart brand (Great Value) peach sherbet. It's about 2.83 or something like that, but it's so good, I'd pay 5 bucks for it!! Trust me you won't be disappointed!! (Thanks Dad!!). Also, if you have a cell phone that doesn't include a camera, may I implore you to reconsider that. I was one of those people who for so long said I have a camera to take pictures and all I need a phone for is to make calls. Then one day my husband convinced me I needed to get an Iphone. He couldn't have been more right!! Without that camera, I would've missed pictures of: Joshua's first smile, Abby and Noah at Meijer's "pumpkin patch", Abby and Noah on Big Thunder Mountain in Disney, Joshua's first ride in a shopping cart and first visit to the park. Maybe I would've gotten over not having those pictures, but I'm so glad I was able to get them. All of the pictures in this post were taken with my phone. Just something to think about.

A Synopsis of Our Disney Trip - March 2010

When we arrived in Disney, it was chilly.
Joshua's first ever ride was the parking tram!!
I was overcome with joy, and even shed a few tears when I first saw the castle!

Ok, so Joshua's first REAL ride was Peter Pan.

He eventually rode all he was big enough for!

The weather was pretty nice, not too hot or cold.

The kids swam in the pool a lot!!

The pool was heated, so even on the chilly nights we could swim, that was nice.

The pool was themed about an ancient city and had a huge Mayan pyramid and a jaguar slide - very cool!

I carried the baby in the sling as much as I could. We both enjoy that.

Abby got to meet her favorite character - Jessie!

Joshua met Mickey and Minnie together in Mickey's house.

Joshua was wearing a Mickey outfit that Minnie loved.

We found out that Joshua loves to touch the characters noses!!

We had lots of great meals.
At many of our meals, we also got to spend time with characters.

We had an awesome early morning safari.

We saw elephants, cheetahs, lions, flamingos, crocodiles and a pregnant giraffe to name a few.
The safari is my favorite ride in all of Disney.

We had lots of fun interaction with the characters.

Joshua slept through a lot of it, but we got pictures!!

Abby has become the family daredevil.

She rode Everest with me, the Tower of Terror with Daddy and many others.
She rode the Rock n Roller Coaster for the first time (Noah rode that too).

Both kids rode the "mountains" of the Magic Kingdom.

Daddy and I love riding the big rides with the kids, it's so much fun.

Joshua wore a lime green Dumbo shirt while riding a lime green Dumbo.

That matching stuff makes me happy!!

We saw Remi from Ratatouille at the french restaurant in EPCOT.

It was really cute and funny as he reacted to us at our table.
Even Joshua was interested (can't you tell?).

The Flower and Garden Show began at EPCOT began while we were there.
We loved strolling around and looking at the beautiful topiaries.
Someone gave us their pink Mickey balloon because they couldn't take it on rides!

We stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort.

The grounds at our hotel were just stunning.

Our room was on the top floor facing the water, the view was gorgeous.
We could see EPCOT and Disney Studio's nighttime shows from our window.

Noah is always ready for some audience participation.

This time he had a turn driving our Jungle Cruise.

He is never shy about that stuff, I love that about him!

Abby always looks for nuts or acorns to give Chip & Dale.

They are always gracious receivers!!

We got to meet the characters from Up for the first time!

Our last day was at EPCOT.

I loved this picture with Joshua and the "big ball"!!

Our little viking family!!

We can't leave without our yearly viking photo in the Norway pavilion.

Well, that's about it. It was a long trip but lots of fun. On both ways we stopped in Atlanta (we drove). On the way in, we spent the night with Steve's family. It was so nice to see them. On the way home we stopped to eat lunch at the Varsity which is a drive-in we've seen on many Food Network and Travel Channel shows. We're not sure when we're going to go again. Only time will tell I guess!

Quick update

We leave for Disney on Friday. I'm so excited and the kids are too!! I've worked really hard to get our entire downstairs emptied and ready to be painted while we're gone. That is going to be so nice to come home to.

We're driving down this time and we're stopping in Atlanta to visit family. I'm also excited to see them, we don't get to near enough. We're spending a total of 11 days in Disney and then with the drive time both ways, we'll be gone about 2 weeks. We're staying at the Coronado Springs resort on Disney property. We haven't been there before. They recently remodeled and they are the only moderate resort with queen size beds instead of just the doubles. That will be nice. I just can't wait to get away from everything and relax with my family and have lots of fun too!!

We got our new van and it's so nice. It has so many different things going on that I'll probably never learn them all. We got the 2011 Toyota Sienna XLE if you're interested. They asked us to do a small bit in their next commercial. It is airing now for the next few days. Our part is very small. You blink and you'll miss us!! It's also on their website (Kings Toyota). I hate that you can't even see Joshua's face, but oh well, that's the footage they used.

I need to get baby boy ready for bed now, so I'm off. I know a lot of you want to see the pictures Sonya took, but you'll have to wait until we get back because I packed the cd away with all of our other stuff from the downstairs. Sorry, but I'll post them soon. They're really good!!

A European Vacation of Sorts

When we first arrived in the NICU (it's actually called the RCNIC at our children's hospital, it stands for Regional Center for Newborn Intensive Care), we were given a little "welcome" packet. In it was this short story that really hit home with me. When I read it, I really felt like someone understood how I felt. When you're in this kind of situation, you kind of feel very alone. You can be surrounded by friends and family and still feel that way. You know that no one you know can even begin to understand how this situation is. It hurts to feel that way. It's hard. It's these times that if you're not a believer, I don't know how you'll ever get through it. But alas, we're through it and the sky is clear now and Joshua is healed and Daddy and I are working on healing our emotional scars. In fact we're planning a 4 day getaway in a few months to do just that. So anyway, I just wanted to share this short story that I felt really helped me know that some people do know how this feels and I'm not alone:

Welcome to Holland

By Carol Turkington

When you're going to have a baby it's like you're planning a trip to Italy. You're excited. You get a bunch of guidebooks, you learn a few phrases in Italian so you can get around, and then it comes time to pack your bags and head for the airport in Italy.

Only, when you land, the stewardess says, "Welcome to Holland." You look at one another in disbelief and shock, saying, "Holland?? What are you talking about? I signed up for Italy! But I don't know anything about Holland! I don't want to stay" you say.

But you do stay, you go out and buy some new guidebooks, you learn some new phrases, and you meet people you never knew existed. The important thing is that you are not in some filthy, plague-infested slum full of pestilence or famine. You are simply in a different place than you had planned. It's slower paced than Italy, but after you've been there a little while and have had a chance to catch your breath, you begin to discover that Holland has windmills, Holland has Rembrandts.

But everyone else you know is busy coming and going from Italy. They're all bragging about what a great time they had there, and for the rest of you life, you will say, "yes, that what I had planned."

The pain of that will never, ever go away.

You have to accept that pain, because the loss of that dream, the loss of that plan is a very, very significant loss. But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you will never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland!

Of Scars and Band-Aids

Today Joshua is 5 months old!! And he is done with medical care!! He had his central line removed on Monday and that was the final step. He is now living solely on his bottle feeds and not longer has IV feeds. He has gone from this:


to this:

All that he has left is a scar (actually 3 scars, there are 2 small ones from the ostomies right below the diaper line) and a band-aid that covers the healing spot where the central line was. The redness is from the bandage he had on there previously. He has very sensitive skin and it turns red very easily. So he has the big scar across the belly that should get lighter and lighter over time. They used the same spot for both surgeries so he'll only have the one scar.

I can't believe we've gotten here finally. It is such a relief and a joy. We are just so blessed that our baby is healed. It's almost too good to be true!! He is growing so much and learning new things all the time. He laughs and smiles at us so much, it just melts my heart. He's a big talker too. He loves to just babble and babble. He's really into playing with toys now too. He likes to feel and look at rattles and rings. And of course he loves to put them in his mouth. He also loves to suck on his fingers. He's working on sitting up and can sit for just a few seconds right now. He still hasn't gotten rolling over down, but we've been keeping him from laying on his tummy too much because he had the iv line on there that would be uncomfortable to lay on. So we're working on rolling now that it's gone. He weighs almost 17 pounds now. He is drinking 150 ml (5 ounce) bottles now about every 3-4 hours (even at night, ugh!!).

I am still pumping breastmilk for him, but we've had a bit of drama with that over the past few weeks. We realized after he had several adverse reactions to certain bottles (pulling away from the bottle, gagging, letting it dribble out of his mouth), that something was wrong with my frozen breastmilk. After doing some research we realized that it had all soured. It wasn't a matter of storage because the milk I pumped at the hospital and they stored there was soured as well as the milk I stored here at home. So I can't use any of it. I read that some women have a high level of an enzyme that breaks down the fat in the milk too quickly or something like that. So I'm guessing that is what my problem is, but I'm not sure. I just know that I have to throw all of those gallons of milk out and it breaks my heart to do it. When we found that out, I spent several days pumping every 2 hours (about every 4 through the night) trying to increase my supply, but it just didn't work. So after talking with his doctors we are now mixing the breastmilk I pump fresh with Similac. Part of me is so bummed that he's now getting formula, but I can't beat myself up about it. I've been pumping daily for 5 months and it's very difficult. He's healthy and growing and that's the important part. I think I'll probably pump a few more weeks and then we'll see from there. I don't know if I'll pump over our vacation or not. Maybe just in the mornings and evenings. I don't know though.

So our vacation is in 15 days. We will be gone for a total of 14 days. We are staying at Coronado Springs this time. We haven't stayed there before and wanted to try it. It's the only moderate resort with queen size beds!! I'm really excited about it. I started our packing list today and that always gets me excited. We were planning to not do the dining plan this time, but in the end decided to go ahead and do it. We've really just gotten so used to having the nice meals, that we can't go without it. Having been through what we have over the past 5 months, walking down Main Street USA and seeing that castle welcoming us again, will be such a relief and a true signal to the "rest of our life". We can finally breathe again and get on with our lives. I've had so many dreams about how purely happy I'll be when we get there with my 3 children. It's so close now, I'm so excited.

Our other exciting news is that we're getting a new van. We're picking it up tomorrow. It's a 2011 Toyota Sienna. The 2011 models just arrived earlier this month. It's red with tan interior and has lots of cool accessories. It'll be fun to drive down to Disney in our new van. I spent the night tonight cleaning out our old van and I got emotional. We're trading it in, and I'm a little bummed about that. Am I the only one who gets sentimental about these things? We've had this van for 5 years and there's been lots of memories associated with it. We drove home from Texas in it, used it to move from our apartment to our new home, used it to keep us and the kids warm when we were building our new house in the winter, drove to Disney, Gatlinburg, Chicago, slept in at the hospital parking garage, brought Joshua home in it and on and on. I'll be sad to see it go, but I'm happy we're getting a new van with every safety feature available. That makes it worth it!

Well that's it for now. I'm ready to go pump and go to bed. Thanks for all the prayers, it worked!! He's healed and we're moving on with our life. I couldn't be more blessed, thrilled and in awe of God's goodness. Just look at these three blessings. What beautiful babes they are.

Life

*Disclaimer. I'm typing this in my phone while at Abby's cheerleading practice so there's not going to be any pictures for this post. Sorry. I'll put more up soon.

First off a Joshua update. He is doing so well it is truly a testament to how good God is. As of right now ( Sunday night) he is drinking 95ml bottles every 3 hours. He is only hooked up to the iv feed for 8 hours a day, which we do during the night. So he is free during the entire day!!! It's so incredible!!! We are continuing to up the feeds to about 120ml which is our max. We are supposed to reach that by Thursday (by upping 5ml twice a day). If everything goes as well as it has he will be off the iv feeds for good after Thursday!!! Then we should be taking him in for an outpatient surgery next week to remove the central line. Then that would be it. After 5 months it will finally be over. It seems too good to be true!! The only area he's having trouble with right now is actually breastfeeding. We've tried a few times over the past few days and he is not only not interested, but he gets mad. It's really kind of heartbreaking for me. In still pumping after all these weeks (20) and have always hoped I'd be able to actually nurse him at the end of this. Of course there's still hope, but I'm kind of bumming about it right now. I just don't see how I could possibly keep this pumping up for 7 more months. It is so hard to work the 20 minutes it takes several times a day on top if actually feeding him by bottle. Plus our vacation in 4 weeks is going to be really tricky if he's not nursing. I don't pump at his max right now so I supplement with what's already stored and I won't be able to keep milk frozen for the 14 total days that we will be gone. Please, please pray for us in this matter. It is so important that I keep feeding him the breastmilk for his first year, not only for the benefits every nursed baby receives, but also because it's the best for healing his intestinal tract. Thank you!!

Noah and Abby are really getting used to having the baby around now. They are such big helpers and are always asking to hold him. They are so cute with him.

They are moving right along in their lessons. We are trying a new "block" schedule where we only do certain subjects each day. For instance we only do math on mon, wed and fri. But we do 5 days of work in that time. I find we waste so much time in changing subjects that the less subjects we do a day the leas time we waste. We do have 4 things we do daily which is Bible, calculadder ( math drill) , spelling and poetry memorization ( the kids love this!!). Then we divide up math, English, writing, geography, Ohio history, science and handwriting. So far I love it!!! The homeschool convention is in April. I CAN NOT WAIT!!! I love it so much.

Well I need to go now cheerleading is over. More to come soon.