Words....we have words!

Eli is finally starting to talk. Slowly but surely we are getting there! Yesterday he was saying cookie, which sounds more like coooo-key. He has been saying dada and mama slips out when he is angry. He also says sister, fish and dog in his own little way.

At our last developmental check up in November, he was doing amazing. The doctors were all impressed with his abilities. To us he is just a normal little 21 month old, but from a medical perspective he is an 18 month old still.

In the first 6-9 months, yes I noticed him a little behind compared to my friends babies. But shortly after he hit the 9 month mark, everything started to fall in place and he understood everything we were saying and now he is just a normal little kid!

This is such a proud day for me.

I always dreamed of having a family. And after crappy relationship after crappy relationship it seemed it was unlikely to happen before my 30's. Which I'm not saying is bad, I just pictured in my head that I would be married by 23-25 and have at least one kid by 25-27.

My husband and I met when I was 24, we shortly found out we were pregnant. While the news scared me, I was happy. For the first time in years I was happy. Then you all know the story, 28 weeks rolled around and Eli decided to make an early appearance. We got married that November and the rest is history. We found out we were pregnant again in March of 2011. Peyton was born November 1st 2011, 11-1-11! Pretty amazing.

Everyday I look at my life as if it were all a dream. I still look at my kids in just awe that I gave birth to them. They are something I produced.....craziness. Eli runs around and talks now, Peyton is rolling around so close to crawling. I think the best gift in life is children, being able to watch my kids grow and become little people with personalities. I wouldn't trade this life for anything. All those bad experiences, those hard times I went through are all made so distant, so miniscule...so worth it!

Our March of Dimes Walk

So today we walked the March of Dimes for the first time! We had so much fun! Both the kids are tuckered out and sleeping peacefully! We saw an old NICU roomie and chatted along the walk for a bit about nurses and drama in the NICU. Glad that Peyton decided to wait til 39 weeks to make her final entrance to this world. Not sure how it would have affected me to have a 2nd baby in the NICU especially since when she was born Eli was only 15 months old. I did spend quite a bit of time in the hospital while pregnant with Peyton, one 4 day round of Magnesium and 2 shorter stints where they denied me food in fear of full blown labor and when I was finally allowed to eat, my contractions stopped! :) Apparently I have an incompetent cervix, which will make for a tricky pregnancy. With Eli I had a placental abruption....which I did not know at the time, but either or both of us could have died from that. I am so thankful that it all turned out alright. I am looking forward to being pregnant again as we do want more children but the uncertainty of my body's ability to go full term makes us hesitant. I would love to at least have 1 more baby, but we are waiting until both Eli and Peyton can be a little more self sufficient just in case I am put on bedrest again. That and we will need a bigger car lol. Looking forward to making a tradition out of the March of Dimes and hoping next year to contribute donations and maybe build a bigger team.

March of Dimes/Prematurity Awareness

My son Eli was born at 28 weeks. So March of Dimes strikes home for us. After a very normal pregnancy aside from the morning sickness that was constant, at 28 weeks and 6 days I started bleeding, so after a trip to University of Washington Medical Center, I was wheeled back for an emergency C-Section. On the way to the hospital I was shaking, not knowing what was happening and scared for the life of my child. In my head I thought we would go there, they would give me some magical pill or IV and I would be back to normal and we would go back home. So when my midwife told me to pack my bags I threw some socks in my purse. Why socks, I don't know....so my feet wouldn't get cold?!? After we got to the hospital at 8am I was in Labor and Delivery meeting an OB-GYN that was checking my cervix...I was about 3cm dilated and my membranes were bulging. So at first they told us there was nothing they could do and I would be wheeled back for a C-section. After about 10 minutes we were told they were going to try Magnesium and give me steroids for the baby. So they admitted me and put me in a delivery room, where we were greeted by about 20 different doctors, nurses, interns, surgeons, the NICU team....can you say overwhelming!?! They explained the process and started the IV's. After a few minutes I was having rolling contractions that would start in my lower back. After an hour or two of complete pain and torture, I was wheeled back to the operating room. At 2:21pm, my son Eli was born. Immediately they wheeled him off to the back room and my husband followed. He was then transferred to the NICU and I to the recovery room. I saw him for a few minutes that night. I was given a breastpump and told to try to pump as breastmilk was the best for him (obviously!).

The next few days were difficult, but not as difficult as leaving the hospital without my son! I didn't take my pain meds so I could drive myself to see Eli. I was in pain physically and mentally but seeing him and holding him made it all go away for those moments. At 2lbs 14.7oz he was fragile. Some days we were told we could only take him out of his isolette only once.....how do you choose which parent can hold their child? Some days we were only allowed to hold him for 2 or 3 hours. Such restrictions broke me down. I would just sob when I got home from the hospital. Most days I would come home to the house destroyed by my dog, I would freak out. Was I not dealing with enough stress already?!? As the days went on, it got easier. We learned the routine at the NICU, we got close to some of the nurses. He was growing, he was healthy just small. It was a miracle that he only needed help breathing for 2 days. My miracle baby! Some days we took 2 steps forward and others we took 1 step back but it was all part of the recovery. We were told what to expect and that was included. He was strong, stronger than I was.

I never thought I would love someone so much, but just looking at him, watching him sleep on the other side of the plastic walls around him, my heart was full of the greatest love of all. After about 5 weeeks in an isolette, he graduated to a crib. Progress....! We watched other babies go home, some on oqygen, some on monitors still. We wondered why our son who was so strong had to stay....but we knew it was best.

Finally our day came! After 53 days/7 long weeks, we got to bring him home!

Then we started our life as a family! So tomorrow, May 5th 2012 we will walk, as a family, to support other families that will be in our situation. If this touches you, please make a donation to March of Dimes, however big or small it may be, it all makes a difference!

Mother's Day Giveaway

Alright, so starting off for Rockin Tots is a Mother's Day Giveaway! The prize is a Lavender scented stress relief eye pillow! I have a new found love of sewing and love making stuff for my kiddos (20 months and 6 months) and would love to make stuff for you or your kiddos too! I have been making cloth diapers and bibs and burp cloths and am learning as I go so all of my creations are "unique" or as I like to say perfectly imperfect! Let me know if there is something you would like to see me create. In the next few months I'm going to try getting some patterns for dresses for my little girl so we shall see how that goes! I will keep you all posted with new creations and post pictures and you can always shoot me in e-mail if you see something you are interested in and would like to purchase! Thanks for checking out my blog!