Merry Christmas 2009!

We packed up everything and drove the 2 minutes to get to our holiday destination (my parents house a few blocks away)! We had a great Christmas eve lasagna dinner and then headed to church. Came home and opened up jammies and ornaments (tradition) and headed off to bed. Santa arrived (and so did Uncle Scott), sometime in the wee hours of the morning. We woke up to full stockings and our traditional cougar sausage and bubble ring breakfast and headed into present opening. 2 hours later the room was a disaster of boxes and paper and everyone spent the rest of the day enjoying their new toys! Thanks to my parents for a wonderful time. Now on to Christmas Round 2 with Grandma Val arriving today! Hope everyone had a fun and blessed holiday...

Here Comes Santa Claus!

Our wonderful daycare provider had a holiday party for all the kids at her home. With food, games, presents, and a special visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus! An annual tradition that is so special! Really kicks off the holidays and is our private photo opp with Santa to avoid all those long lines at the mall! :-)

Giving Thanks!

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving meal at Deedra's parents house. We are so thankful for family living so close and the times we get to spend together!

Captain Cohen Turned 3!

Cohen had a fun pirate birthday party on Nov.29th. He had several friends over for a treasure hunt, pirate game, pinata, cupcakes, and fun! His actual birthday was Dec. 1 and he went out to his favorite restaurant (Old Spaghetti Factory) for a family dinner. He got lots of fun new gifts, including a Playmobil pirate ship and a Razor scooter!

Trick or Treat

We drove to the Tri Cities to visit our friends, the Backlunds. Their children, Makenna and Lilly, are Cohen and Griffin's ages. We dressed the kids up in their costumes and headed out into their neighborhood for some trick-or-treating. Cohen (being the shy guy) let Makenna ring all the door bells but stepped right up when the candy was being handed out! He always remembered to say thank you in his sweet little voice! Griffin was wide awake for it all and loved looking around at everything going on. Then we headed back to their house to check out our loot and to watch the Cougars lose miserably to ND!

Griffin the giraffe

Cohen the dino

Happy Halloween!

Brother love!

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

On Sunday, we headed to Joe's Place farm in Vancouver for Griffin's first pumpkin patch experience. We checked out all the festivities and gathered up our pumpkins for the season!

Grandpa and Grammy came along. We all rode the hay ride together and Cohen LOVED Joe's apples- he ate two before the day was over!

Finding the perfect one!!!

Heading home with all our pumpkins! What a fun day...

WHY???

Cohen is not yet three but is fully engrossed in the "why" stage. Every sentence begins with "Why Mom???" (Then immediately answers his own question with another question)... "Why Mom? Because???" Must be that our response to his "why" is always a statement like "because......." As Shelby suggested, mildly annoying but quite cute too! :-)

I do exist!

Finally a picture with me in it! I feel like since I am the one always taking the pictures, I never seem to be in any of them! (Which is actually fine by me NOT to document on film this time of losing the baby weight :-) I am completely loving my maternity leave and time at home with the boys. In fact, I never want to return to work. I love my days of leisure spent with them and visiting my parents (they may not be enjoying it as much!) Their house with added chaos of an infant and a toddler not their picture of peaceful retirement, for sure. But they moved here to be close to grandkids, so here they are!

(P.S. Note how adoringly Cohen is looking at his brother- he really is so good with him! We are lucky...)

Tummy time!

Griffin doesn't seem to mind tummy time as much as Cohen did. He has had a pretty strong neck from day 1 when he is held up to your shoulder. But for some reason when he is in his car seat, he is always slouched over. I think it is because it is such hard work to keep those chubby cheeks up!!! :-)

Daddy Playmate!

Donnie is definitely the play mate in the family! He plays with the boys for hours on end (while Mommy runs around and cooks, cleans, takes care of things...) He surely has the better end of this deal. Life is busy right now with Cohen potty training! He now stays dry all day long and goes pee in the potty. We had to buy a tall step stool to get him up high enough in the bathroom to use the pedestal sink! Still working on it though, as he hides to poo every time still. Which is not fun for mommy to clean in his big boy pants!!! To add insult to injury, I am trying to use some reusable, washable diapers with Griffin to cut down cost of disposable diapers and the effect on the environment. Am I insane???

Catching those first smiles!

Griffin is smiling a lot these days. He has these funny wide open mouthed smiles and his eyes squint up with these little curled lashes. Too cute! He is such a happy and mellow baby!

Boy Brothers

What is the fun of having two boys if you can't dress them alike?!?!?! I am going to do it until they get old enough to say "no"! :-)

He is getting so big!

Griffin is changing so fast...

Our little rock star!

Uncle Scott, need a bandmate???

Family Fun!

We had a great visit with Grandma Val when she came out to visit a month after Griffin was born! We made trips to the zoo, the the county fair, to a monster truck show, lots of dinners out, and of course, shopping! Cohen loved having his Grandma sleep in his room and each night have a "pajama party".

We are doing well!

Griffin just hit 10 pounds yesterday (at exactly 3 weeks old). By his 2 week check-up he was back up to birth weight (which is always the goal with babies, even those not off to such a rough start!)... Cohen is getting back on track and seems to be adjusting well and happy to have mom and dad home and back into a routine! He is very kind and gentle with his brother. So far, so good! It has been extremely hot here in Vancouver (like 108 degrees) so we are very thankful for the AC system Donnie installed last year! Cohen is doing swim lessons with his friend Tova at the community center 2 nights a week. Mom and Dad are still helping out daily to keep Cohen occupied with trips to the library and parks. We are looking forward to Grandma Val coming out from Illinois to visit next week! With only 3 weeks left of summer vacation here, I am extremely excited that mine lasts until November 30! Yeah family medical leave! Cohen will go to day care a few days a week this fall, which will be great for him to be around his friends again, and for me to have some one-on-one time with Griffin. Now Donnie and I are just figuring out how we can squeeze a concert in sometime soon! (Miss those days!)

A HUGE THANKS!

Second full day at home, and we are all beginning to adjust. THANK YOU to all my wonderful friends for being so supportive this past week- especially Julie, Kathy, and Ryanna- your trips with food and encouragement were so appreciated!!! I feel so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life!

We are home!

We were released from the NICU after 2 days with a new feeding plan to get Griffin's weight back up and his jaudice levels back down. He was under the phototherapy lights for 12 hours and was bottle fed every 3 hours to ensure he was getting adequate calories. After sending us home, we had a follow-up with the pediatrician today. He weight was back up again (to 8 pounds, 8 ounces), and was still looking jaudiced but having enough diaper changes to believe it is passing through his system. He was referred to an ENT to disucss the clipping of his frenulum (the tongue being tied down too tight). So or now, we are having to put aside the breastfeeding and I am having to pump what he needs and feed him through bottle. Once he builds back his strength we'll work on the breastfeeding again. He is also likely to be referred to an OT or SLP to work on his oral motor skills to strengthen his suck and ability to transfer milk within his mouth to make breastfeeding successful. He is starting to have more alert times and slowly becoming less lethargic and more awake to the world. We go back to the pediatrician in a week to see how everything is going. For me, I am just so happy to be home. It has been exactly one week today and I have spent 4 days in the hospital and 2 days in the intensive care unit. Maybe now it is time for a nap!

Report from the NICU

Well, it is now official... both my boys have had to be admiited to Southwest Medical Center NICU. Good thing they are great there! Since our release from the hospital yesterday, Griffin became more and more lethargic. He started to not wake or rouse for feedings and started looking more jaundice. We were following our lactation orders to supplement, but things just weren't seeming to go well with the feedings. We gave him his first bath at home and he seemed extremely lethargic, wouldn't even wake to the cold water and wasn't opening his eyes or wking up and crying when hungry. We took his temp and it was down. I decided it was time to call the pediatrician since it was Friday afternoon and I didn't want to spend a weekend home worried so hoped they could get him in to check him over for peace of mind. When I called and gave the report of his low temp, lethargy, lack of eating, etc., they told us to drive him to the nearest emergency room since we could make it quicker there with him than sending an ambulance. I had no idea we were in that much danger! After a frantic and fast drive to Southwest, we checked into Kids ER and they checked him over and decided that he wasn't in any emergency danger but wanted to admit him to the NICU for assessment by a pediatric doctor and recommendation for treatment. After trying unsuccessfully to get blood testing from him, they determined he was dehydrated. Finally they inserted an IV to draw the blood from and tested his jaundice levels. They determined that the lactation orders I had been given were only providing him about half the amount he was needing and his jaundice and lethargy were building. They decided to keep him overnight under the Billirubin lights and work on upping his intake of food each feeding. They also determined that he has a "tounge-tied" issue (extra flap of skin binding his tounge) making successful breastfeeding a problem (and future speech issues too). Tomorrow morning they will determine whether or not a procedure by an ear, nose, throat doctor is needed to correct it. For now, we are camped out overnight to keep watch of him under the lights and feed every 3 hours...
We are hopeful this is a minor setback and that he will start to turn around and thrive! Sad that both boys had feeding issues and jaundice issues at the beginning- didn't make for an easy transition or start either time! :-( But things turned around for Cohen and he became a successful eater and I hope the same for Griffin!

Meet the Newest Oswald

Cohen stayed at Grandma's house and we checked into Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital at 5:30 am on Monday, July 13, 2009. By 7:30 am I was prepped and ready! Griffin Ray Oswald was born at 7:56 am via a successful c-section. After working to remove the fluid from his lungs (he was not crying to get it out), he was weighed in at 9 pounds, 5 ounces and was measured at 21 and one quarter inches. He looked a lot like Cohen (though maybe more like Donnie this time) and had a full head of curly dark brown hair and chubby belly and chubby cheeks! Once the surgery was finished mom was able to hold baby and be rolled into recovery for the next 2 hours. We then were both stabilized and were transferred to our hospital room. Later that day, Cohen and Grammy and Grandpa came to visit us. Cohen was excited to meet his baby brother! Even later that evening, Kathy and Kim and Frank all came to meet the newest Oswald boy. Welcome to the world, Griffin, and welcome to the family! :-)

Griffin Ray was born today!!! Details & pics to follow....

Setting bets

Nothing to report... yet. I have officially reached the really uncomfortable stage so thankfully only have a handful of days left. I am so uncomfortable that I am pretty much unable to sleep at night. I figure if I am awake from 2 am to 6 am every night, I might as well have a newborn to care for! :-) Cohen is starting to sense some changes. That or he has officially entered the terrible twos! He is still sweet as ever but has been going through a no sleep phase, doesn't want to nap or go to bed at night (he doesn't want to miss out on anything) and always wants to take a "snoozer" on the couch or in our bed! Can't let him start that habit! :-) He must be feeling some anxiety and needs to have that closeness with us. Not to mention we finally had the "paci police" come and take the pacifier away since they are only for babies and he is a big boy now! Started the beginning stages of potty training too (am I crazy or what?!?) He likes to sit on the potty but gets frustrated when nothing happens and says "It's NOT working! Guess I'll try tomorrow!" How cute! Just met with the Dr yesterday for our final appointment. Still having contractions but they are inconsistent. Doctor wanted to place bets on size of baby- Donnie says 8 lbs, I say 9 lbs, Dr says 10 lbs. We'll find out soon! Nursery is officially ready. Bags are packed and ready to go whenever! Signed all the paperwork for an early Monday morning birth. Hopefully our next blog will be of baby arrival!

Update

So we finally saw the Dr again today. He said that the ultrasound results of the abdomen measuring large do not indicate a problem, just difficulty to birth and he said that if we weren't already having a scheduled c-section, he would be recommending a c-section now. I am dialated to 1 cm. Had contractions all weekend long- strong but inconsistent. So he is still hoping we will make it 2 more weeks to deliver on July 13, but this little guy may decide he wants to arrive even earlier- we shall see! All else was good, strong heartbeat, good position... did I mention I am miserable?!?!? :-)

Ultrasound

We had our ultrasound today. The doctor had been measuring the uterus to be about 2-3 cm larger than expected for several weeks now so wanted to check on size of baby. It was fascinating to see an ultrasound of the baby at this late date (36 weeks) as things look so different than in those early stage ultrasounds! We were able to confirm that it is definitely another boy and watch him "practice breathing". Most noticeable were his CHUBBY cheeks! After the technician perused and measured, she said, "Now don't freak out"... never something good to say to someone! My heart leapt and she continued with, the baby is estimated to be about 8 lbs 15 oz right now, give or take 1 lb 5 oz. WHAT??? I have 3 more weeks to go and they say they gain about a pound a week in there at this stage. Now, being a math teacher, I quickly calculated the good news- it could be only 7 lbs 10 oz, and the bad news- it could be already 10 lbs 4 oz!!! The femur measures 36 weeks (right on track) but the head measures 39 weeks and the abdomen measures 41 weeks! What does all that mean? Is the baby OK? Is there something bad that is causing this? Or is he just a chunky monkey? And more importantly, when can we get him out of there??? :-) Will have to discuss this with the Dr on Friday! Keep you posted...

Little Future Cougar

On a recent trip to Seattle, Cohen and his friend visited the Butch Cougar. I definitely see another WSU student in our future!

Baby O

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the newest member of our family. He is set to arrive on July 13. We have an ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow (since he is measuring big) and will determine whether his arrival will be moved up or not. We will keep you posted!