Week Four

Nathan enjoyed Halloween quite a bit this week. he was able to celebrate several times. Starting with a Halloween party at his friends Will and Jake's house. Then a party at preschool and finally he was able to go trick or treating. We went with some neighbors one was Batgirl and the other a darling witch. Since Nathan was Batman he and Ellie fit well together. Natalie was a cow. The outfit was a bit large on her. The hat was humongous no way on earth that was fitting her. But it kept her nice and warm in dad's arms as Nathan trick or treated.

The other highlight of the week was Ryan blessing Natalie. We had almost our entire family together. Both Ryan's sisters were there as well as both of our parents. I had five of my six brothers and my sister there. We also had many extended family and friends there. It was a neat day. Natalie was so good through all of church. Of course it did rain. It rains anytime I plan a gathering at our house. But it went well anyway. It was so fun to have my parents stay with us for a few days before taking off to Hawaii. Of course the day after they left we got several inches of snow. It's just not fair.

Week Three

She has started to open her eyes once in awhile. She still sleeps quite well. She is such a good baby. We feel so blessed.

Nathan talked us into carving his pumpkins this week. You can see he really enjoyed it.

It was such a nice day we decided to go for a walk. Natalie didn't take to the idea at first. But before long she was back to sleeping soundly.

Roland and Lizzy had their baby girl this week. We went to visit them in the hospital. Isabel was actually born on Natalie's original due date. She has such blond hair and looks so much like her sister.

Nathan also had his last soccer game this week. He will miss playing with his team. He had such a great experience his first year playing soccer.

Week Two

We had our ups and downs this week. Nathan must have seen something on one of his cartoons about gingerbread men because for several days he had been trying to get me to make gingerbread men. He finally talked me into it. We don't have a gingerbread cookie cutter so we took some various shapes from his play dough bin and washed them to use on our gingerbread. We made special gingerbread so Nathan could eat it. It took lots longer to make than he had expected. But in the end he got to "decorate" his cookie. He didn't end up liking gingerbread but had fun with the candy he had picked out at the store.

Here is my complaint about that shopping trip. I had gone to buy ribbon two days before Natalie was born to make bows. Once I was home I realized I had been charged for 54.4 yards of ribbon instead of 5.44 yards. The difference was something like $16 but was a pain right to have to return to fix the problem not to mention I couldn't use that ribbon until I got it sorted out. Well, because Natalie came early I wasn't able to get to the store to return it until a week and a half later and this time with two kids in tow. I went to customer service and waited in the long line to be told I had to go back to the cutting table and have the ribbon measured. I tried to explain what had happened but was told there was nothing they could do until I had it measured. So we went and stood in that long line. Longer than usual with Halloween being so close. Finally we got it all measured and checked out with our other items before returning to wait in the customer service line once again. This time I was told the person at the cutting table had not provided the right information and they tried to send me back there again but I refused telling them the problem once again and that it was their mistake and I had already spent too much of my time trying to fix their mistake. She finally saw the light and refunded my $16. What a pain!

Friday Nathan complained that his stomach hurt and that afternoon proved it really did my throwing up. Not a little throw up may I add I used a cup and scooped cup fulls into a bowl. He had been sitting on our new couch so three of our cushion covers had to be dry cleaned. He continued throwing up for about 24 hours always making it in the bowl he carried with him. he was really a good sport about it. The next afternoon he had a soccer game. He really wanted to go and since he had missed his game the week before I decided to take him. Ryan went to the football game so I took Natalie with us. She stayed in her car seat the whole time. Nathan played off and on but not too hard since he was feeling a bit under the weather. He never had a fever or any other symptoms. I ended up checking the reactions from the vaccines he had gotten that Monday and it said that one in fifty children vomit 4-6 days later. So I think that is what it was from.

We had the Wagstaffs over to celebrate Terri's birthday that Sunday. Her birthday is exactly one week after Nathan and Natalie's.

Natalie is still such a great sleeper and we found out on her two week checkup that she was 7 pounds 5 ounces and 19 and a half inches long. So she is getting enough to eat. I asked if we should be worried about how much she sleeps and I was reassured it was just fine as long as she was eating well. So we will just be grateful for a good sleeper for now.

Week One

The first week Natalie's life she pretty much slept through. This is the closest to eyes open I could get. My parents stayed with us until the 12th. It was so nice to have them here. My dad held Natalie almost the entire time. Sunday I had to take her back to the hospital to get her blood drawn to check for Jaundice. Luckily she was still doing well no lights needed. Monday I took both Nathan and Natalie in to our new pediatrician. Nathan for his four year check up and Natalie for a follow up visit from the hospital. It was my first adventure with two kids and I thought I was doing pretty good. I liked the doctor okay she was very nice and I could tell she knows what she's talking about. I wasn't too impressed with the facility but I think when the new hospital is built that will improve. But the nurse was terrible. Nathan had to have four shots. He was scared to death. I was trying to reassure him and make him feel okay about it. Natalie who was still undressed from her exam was not so happy about being left to fend for herself, so she was crying. The nurse came in and had Nathan lay back with his legs dangling off the table. I held his arms and looked at his face trying to distract him. Well as soon as she went to poke his leg he moved his leg (what kid wouldn't) the needle went through his leg and started bleeding, it left quite a bruise too. Shouldn't the nurse hold the leg while she gives the shot? As if that weren't enough she says well if your going to move your leg of course it's going to hurt. HELLO!!! He is FOUR years old. I couldn't believe it. He of course is hysterical at this point and Natalie is crying and he still needs three more shots. I left there and promised him he wouldn't ever have to go back. I made Natalie's two week old appointment with our old pediatrician. We work with the nurse 90% of the time and there was no way I was going through that again. Nathan was a good sport when it was all said and done. He still wanted to go to Isabel's house to play. Thank you Angie for taking him that day. It helped to distract him.

Here is Nathan playing Candyland. He played a piece for him and one for Natalie. I played my own person and the picture above is Nathan's way of discarding the cards during that particular game. He is so cute with Natalie. He loves to hold her and makes sure everyone that comes to visit washes their hands before they hold her. He is a good big brother.

Natalie Ann

Wednesday morning I went to work like usual. I was working on a data request and had it just right when I realized I had a nine o'clock meeting. I left the final run until the meeting was over. During our hour long meeting I started wondering if I was leaking amniotic fluid because I was getting a little uncomfortable. Shortly after the meeting I visited the restroom to find I was bleeding and it wasn't just a little. I was soaked through. Embarrassed yes but scared to death I found my friend and coworker and asked for a ride to the hospital. I didn't even have time to run my program one more time or clean up my desk we got my purse and left. We stopped by my car to get the bag I had packed and drove to the hospital. I called Ryan while en route and while trying not to scare him to death did. We arrived first about 10:30 am, and I went to the desk to check in. I had called ahead of time to make sure that is where I should go. At the front desk I answered questions and waited for a room maybe ten minutes. As we walked in the room the lady from the front desk looked at me and saw the blood and went into frenzy mode (not making me feel any better about the situation.) I was hooked up to the monitors quickly and then received a reassurance that the baby was fine, while bleeding wasn't a good thing the baby was fine so I was okay. I guess Ryan was still not certain I was okay so he was stressed a bit longer than I was. We were told our doctor was being called to see what should be done. I wasn't in labor so we didn't know if we'd be staying or what. My doctor asked for an ultrasound but because our vitals were both so good we weren't high priority and didn't get into get an ultrasound until close to 4:00 pm. I had talked to the nurses and they knew I didn't want to have the baby that day because it was Nathan's birthday and I didn't want them to have to share their birthdays. She totally understood being a twin and all and said she'd do what she could putting the baby's safety first of course. While waiting for the ultrasound results I started having some labor pains and consistent contractions. The doctor that gave us the results said there wasn't anything she could see on the ultrasound so it would be a clinical call but she didn't think I'd be going home for at least a day or two. When we got back to our room I was hooked up to the monitors once again and the baby was still doing well and we watched my contractions come and go every five minutes or so. They were slightly painful but nothing too bad. The nurses told me I would probably be having the baby in the near future and not going home. Around 6:00 the nurse asked me again if I wanted anything for pain. I asked what my options were and one of them was an epidural. I was like already? I thought I was supposed to labor on my own lots longer before they'd give me one of those or at least be in more pain. I asked if now was a good time to get it and the nurse said yes. So I said sure. The nurse said there were two ahead of me. Then she said well I'd been debating whether to give it to you first or another woman but she is screaming during contractions and you well, you seem okay. I was like sure give it to her I'm fine. The epidural went fine and the pain from the contractions was gone. I stayed at an 8 for awhile which was fine with me. When my doctor came into my room around 10:00 pm he checked me still an 8 and was like can I break your water. This baby will come soon if I break your water. I was like no not for another couple hours. He shook his head saying there were 8 other women trying to get their baby's out as soon a possible but I was the only one asking to wait. He said he'd go take a nap and check back after midnight. We watched the news and some of Jay Leno. Around 11:00 pm my water broke. I called the nurse to let her know. She came in and checked me. She said I was not going to make it to midnight. My doctor came in around 11:15 pm and Natalie entered this world at 11:26 pm. She weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and was 19 inches long. She looks so much like Nathan did it is amazing. I am so glad she is here and healthy. We stayed in the hospital until Friday morning when we were able to go home. My parents drove down from Afton and stayed with us through Sunday. We have had so many people offer help with dinner and Nathan it is amazing. We have the greatest neighbors and friends. So far Natalie is a sleeper. She sleeps most of the time. It is rare to see her eyes open. She and I are now staying in the guestroom to minimize the disturbances in the night for Nathan and Ryan. Although lately I think Ryan has been up with Nathan more than I have been up with Natalie. I guess I better get rid of the baby countdown since it is far from being accurate at this point.

Nathan's Birthday

Well, we began celebrating Nathan's birthday almost one week early. He had his friends party on Friday the 3rd. It was a pirate party. 13 of Nathan's friends were able to come and help him celebrate. We played lots of fun pirate games they even went on a treasure hunt. Nathan's reply to how his party was made it all worth it "It was the best party ever!" He knows how to make his mom feel good. Thankfully it was a nice day and the kids played outside and we could do many of our games out there. Ryan's mom was so kind to come help as were Dan and Kyli. I was glad Natalie waited long enough to come so I could get through his parties.

Sunday we had the family over to celebrate. Nathan is quite spoiled by family members. We are grateful for all who came to celebrate with us.

Tuesday we took cupcakes to preschool so he could celebrate once again with his friends at preschool. Then on his birthday we had planned to go to dinner and open presents from mom and dad that night. Well, Natalie didn't want to be left out so Nathan got to hang out with grandma all day which he loved. And then came to my hospital room to open his presents. So although he and Natalie now share the same birthday, Nathan did not suffer for it, at least this year.

Nathan the Helper

Nathan has been dying to help paint. He finally got his chance. Ryan was so very patient with him and let him help in the basement, on more than one occasion. Well, it is all done and Ryan's office and Nathan's playroom are down there. I love having all the toys downstairs. I can keep the tv room and Nathan's room lots cleaner this way. Plus Nathan has a place to go that is just for him (for now anyway). We are slowly getting everything rearranged and hopefully I will have Natalie's room ready soon. I am in the process of finishing her quilt, 10 more squares to quilt. Then as soon as I move all my junk to my new office/craft room, I can get her room all ready for her. Very exciting! Time is going so fast.