Leah's Half-Birthday

Today Leah turned two and a half years old! It is her half-birthday and we celebrated her 2.5 year milestone with cupcakes!

My little girl is growing up so fast. I am so proud of her. She is such a smart little girl and she has the biggest personality. Leah is so witty and makes us laugh with some of the things that come out of her mouth. By the way she talks, you would never guess she is only 2 1/2. She knows all of her colors and shapes and loves to do any type of art project (luckily she gets to do a lot of them at daycare).

She loves all animals and says when she grows up, she wants to be an animal doctor. She's been a great big sister to her little brother Mason. She has a big heart and loves her friends and family. She is definitely a daddy's girl!

We are still working on the potty training 'business.' We bought her a little potty, a seat for the big potty, a sticker chart to reward her for her progress and a book about going potty, but nothing has really worked yet.

 

I know she is smart enough to tackle it, but I don't think she is mentally ready. She tells me she has to go after the fact. I've read a handful of blogs about 'how' to go about the potty training (http://www.growingajeweledrose.com/2012/05/how-i-potty-trained-my-daughter-in-3.html). One of them suggested just putting her in underwear and see what happens. The thought is that after a few accidents, she would figure out that she doesn't want to be wet and will want to go on the toilet. This method did not work for us. After 5 accidents, she was so upset and was insistent that she wanted her diaper back on. She hates not wearing pants and cried until we put them back on. When she is ready, we will try again. My daycare said she is willing to work with her too, which is great! She'll get it!

Overall,  Leah has brought us so much joy and we can't imagine life without her. Happy half-birthday sweet girl!

Happy One Month Birthday, Monkey!

Our little Mase Man turned one month old today! It seems like he was just born yesterday! Mason's doctor said it wasn't necessary to bring him in for a 1 month checkup since he did great at his 2 week appointment (so he won't go back until his 2 month well baby visit). At one month old, Mason weighs 8.5 lbs. I'm not sure of his length. I'll have to have the doctor measure him at the next appointment. He drinks 4 ounces of formula at each feeding and is in a size 1 diaper. We haven't gotten the whole nighttime sleeping routine down yet, but have definitely shown improvement over the past 3 nights. He has been more consistent, waking up twice during the night after 4 hour stretches of sleep. I hope we are on our way to sleeping through the night!

Mason has been an amazing addition to our family and it feels like he has always been here. He is sweet and loves to be held. He has already developed a little personality. He 'grunts' when he is upset or wants something. He is a bit more vocal than Leah ever was when she was his age! It's interesting to see how different (and similar) Leah and Mason are to each other. While I knew it wouldn't be super easy transitioning from one child to two, it has been a pretty smooth ride. I am enjoying every minute with my babies!

We love our little Mason! Happy One Month!!

Mason's Second Photo Shoot

A few weeks ago I mentioned that we had the opportunity to do a second newborn photoshoot for Mason just a week after he was born. I received the images back today and am thrilled with the way they came out. I am so happy we decided to do it!

This session was completely last minute and was not planned. When I was still in the hospital, I received a message on FaceBook from a friend (who does photography) and she asked me if I was interested in doing a newborn photoshoot with Mason. She was attending a workshop and the facilitator was looking for newborn models that were between 5-12 days old. I was a little hesitant considering Mason was just born and had arrived 3 weeks early and the session was going to be held in Lincoln Park downtown. This means we would have to truck it to the city with a brand new baby who was 7 days old. Plus, Mason had already done a newborn session the day before at our home.

I reached out to the photographer for more information (http://jaciforshtay.com/). Basically, she conducts these mentoring workshops where she has a group of photographers who learn how to conduct a newborn session from beginning to end. She goes through set-up and preparation and reviews camera and shooting techniques. She also teaches different soothing methods and her posing techniques. Each of the participants at the workshop would have an opportunity to photograph the babies for their own website/portfolio. The session would be completely free to me, and as a "thank you" she would edit 10 of her favorite images from the session and give them to me on a CD. (If you've used a professional photographer in the past, you know they can be quite expensive so this was definitely appealing to me)!

The photographer already had 2 baby girls lined up and she was looking for a newborn boy. After giving it some thought, we decided to go ahead and do it. We didn't have anything to lose!  We needed to be in the city by 10:00 am. This would be our first time venturing out of the house as a family of 4 and I was bit nervous about making it on time. After feeding, changing, and getting everything together - we were on our way. My brother agreed to watch Leah for us so we didn't have to bring her along. We dropped her off at his house. Leah was super excited to play with her cousin Annabelle. We made it to the studio just before 10:00 am. It was a very hot day and when we walked in, it was even hotter inside! They had a small space heater running. I didn't understand at first, but learned that the warmer it is, the easier it is for the babies to cooperate. The babies would be photographer naked (with no diaper). The warm temperature helps keep them in their 'sleepy' mode. It definitely worked for Mason. He was a perfect little angel for the entire session. He didn't even pee (although he did poop once - whoops)! We were there about 3 1/2 hours. I give photographers so much credit. It takes a lot of work, time, skill and patience when working with newborns. Overall, I was very pleased with the results and am so happy we did this! It was very interesting to sit through the workshop. Take a look!

Behind the scenes of Mason's photoshoot

WW Starts Tomorrow

I had joined Weight Watchers (online) after I had Leah and had some success with it. I decided that I am going to give it another try. I really like the program and it is pretty easy to follow (for the most part), as long as I commit to follow it. They have an app for the iPhone, which makes it convenient to track and log my points.

Luckily, I didn't gain as much weight as I did when I was pregnant with Leah, but I definitely still have several LB's I need to shed! I gained 50 lbs this time with Mason, but over the past couple weeks 40 of them have dropped off. (I think a lot of it was water weight. I had TONS of swelling and developed preclampsia towards the end of my pregnancy). Even though I am only 10 lbs above my pre-pregnancy weight, my clothes are not fitting how I would like them to fit. I think some of my weight has shifted to other areas of my body - ugh! I definitely need to fit back into my clothes by the time I go back to work. I refuse to buy new clothes that are a size bigger. (If I had to buy a size smaller, I would be happy, ha!)

Once I get the all-clear from my doctor in a few weeks, I hope that I can start making it back to the gym. Also, I bought a Groupon for 20 Zumba classes in Plainfield. I've never done Zumba, but I think it is something that I would like. Some of my friends have done it and have said they enjoy it. We'll see!

Life is Busy

Life sure has been busy lately. Between wrapping things up at work before my maternity leave, to taking care of my new baby (who hasn't quite figured out his night and days) and my family, trying to be there for my dad after his intense surgery, and dealing with the daily hustles and bustles of life - I haven't really had time for much of anything else. However, late last week I had a brief moment to sit back and think. I had a chance to think about my mom and how much I truly miss her. Of course I think of her daily, but I've been so busy I haven't had the opportunity to 'really' miss her because I have been going through the motions of day to day life. (I hope that didn't come out the wrong way).

Last Friday, we had a cleaning service come over so I needed to get out of the house for a little while. Leah was due for a nap and I wasn't quite sure where I would go with her and Mason. It was about 95 degrees outside and it was way too hot to go for a walk or take them to the park. I decided to take a drive out to the cemetery and visit my mom. I haven't been to see her in months. It is not intentional that it has been so long for me to visit, but as I said before life has been busy. I guess I've pushed my feelings to the back of my mind and haven't dealt with them for awhile. I guess everything that has been going on with my dad has put things in to perspective. If anything were to happen to him, it would just be devastating.

Both kids fell asleep on the ride there, so when I pulled up to my mom's grave I left them both in the car and left it running. I only spent about 10 minutes visiting, but they were a good, much needed 10 minutes. I haven't 'talked' to her for awhile, so it did me good to get some things off of my chest. I sat down on the grass and I couldn't help it, but tears just ran down my face. I introduced her to Mason and told her all about him. She would have fallen in love with him the instant she met him. He is the first grandson on our side of the family. I wish she could have been at the hospital the day we welcomed him into this world. All girls want to have their mom with them. I asked my mom to continue to watch over me, my family and my dad. I know she is with me everyday. I've had constant dreams about her and each time she was the mom I used to know, not the mom that had changed before our eyes. It breaks my heart that my kids will never know her. It felt good to talk to her and let her know she is always on my mind. I know I've said it before, but it just isn't fair that she was taken from me (and my family) and the road she had to travel. She must have been needed more in heaven.

Update on my Dad

As most of you know, my dad had surgery last Thursday to remove the tumor on his lung. He had eight weeks of radiation and chemotherapy prior to the surgery. The chemo and radiation were very rough for my dad. He did have a few setbacks and even wound up in the hospital. Overall, it was physically and mentally draining on him. After this treatment he developed radiation pneumonia, where he had spots all over his lungs (from the radiation). The doctor was unable to perform the surgery until all of the spots cleared up. My dad was put on medication to help make them go away. After a few weeks they finally cleared up and the doctor decided he would be able to do the surgery. The doctor said there is only a 5% survival rate if my dad did 'not' get the surgery. Obviously the surgery was necessary, but the timing was not great. I just had a baby and my brother just started a new job. (I was hoping he could have had the surgery prior to Mason being born). Not only was the timing bad, but he was also going to be at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (in Chicago) which would make it slightly more difficult for me to go and visit him (considering I had a newborn at home). He had been referred over to a top specialist at Northwestern because he had an extremely rare tumor and where it was located, it was wrapped up in all of his nerves. The surgeons at his hospital (Good Sam) did not have the expertise to perform the surgery.

So the surgery was set and scheduled for Thursday, July 26th at noon. Luckily my uncle was able to take my dad to the hospital in the morning. I felt awful that I couldn't be there, but with a one and a half week old at home, I would not be able to make it to the hospital. My brother was able to be there the whole time. The surgery itself lasted 6 hours and then he had to go to recovery for a few hours. The surgeon said it went as good as it could have, but he would need to focus on rest and recovery. My dad was in a lot of pain afterwards. He was in and out of sleep but had a general sense of what was going on (he was very heavily medicated). The short version of the story, the days that followed were extremely tough on my dad. He said this surgery was far worse than his quadruple bypass. He was having significant breathing issues and had to receive several daily breathing treatments (and he almost wound up back in ICU). He was on morphine. They had to reduce his pain medication because his blood pressure was getting extremely low. It was VERY difficult for him to move around, but the nurses made him get out of bed to sit in a chair or go for a short walk. I could see how much pain he was in and it killed me to see him like that. It probably didn't help that I am already emotional as it is just having Mason. If you know my dad, he is always Mr. Tough Guy, but this surgery truly beat him down. I definitely wasn't able to go see him as often as I would have liked and I feel awful, but my dad understands. My dad had AWESOME nurses and we are so thankful for them! As the days went on, he started feeling slightly better and his breathing improved (it is still not great, but it is better). He is still in pain, but it is being controlled with medicine.

I talked to my dad earlier today and he said the initial pathology report came back and he is cancer FREE (for now). The surgeon was able to remove all of the cancer, but they still need to determine if he'll need any follow-up chemo or radiation treatments. He also said there is a 75% chance that it will not return. Today, they also unhooked him from all of the IV's, tubes and machines (oxygen, catheter, etc.) he was connected to. He is able to get up on his own (with some assistance from the nurses). Overall, this was great news! As of now, he thinks he will be able to go home on Friday. We weren't sure if he would be going home or going to an inpatient rehab center, but it looks like he will be going home. He will still need a great deal of help once he is there though. He said they may send a nurse to his house daily to check on him. Once he is home, it will be much easier for me to go see him and help since he is much closer.

Thank you everyone for your kind words of support and prayers. It's been a difficult week, but hopefully my dad is on the road to recovery and will remain cancer free!! We need him to be healthy for his grand babies!

Two and a Half Weeks

I can't believe little man Mason is already two and a half weeks old. And to think, Monday was supposed to be the day he was born (if everything went according to plan with my scheduled C-section). I am glad that we got to meet him sooner than later. I am thankful everything was okay even though he was born 3 weeks early! He has been such a blessing to our family. Leah has definitely come around and you can tell how much she loves her little brother. It melts my heart. She always gives him kisses and is very protective of him.

I took Mason to the doctor for a follow-up appointment on Monday. The doctor wanted to check his weight to make sure he was gaining. Our little champ put on 10 ounces since his last doctor's appointment. He weighed in at 7 lbs 7 ounces (he was 6 lbs 13 ounces) at his last appointment. The doctor was pleased and we don't need to go back until his 2 month check-up.

Mason is eating just about every 3 hours and is taking 3 ounces at each feeding. He is pretty laid back (most of the time), but is waking up about 3 times during the night. I am one tired momma. Usually, he will eat and go right back to bed (which I am thankful for), but there are other times he is wide awake and wants no part of going back to sleep. As I mentioned before, Leah was fully sleeping through the night at 3 weeks old. I told Mason he only has a couple of days to get his act together to keep up with his big sister. I know I was really lucky with her, but I am hoping he follows suit soon! If I can get him to do 4-5 hour stretches, I would be happy. (Right now he is like clockwork - every 3 hours). He has no problem getting his zzz's in during the day. This kid poops more than any baby I know. I am constantly changing dirty diapers.

I am definitely enjoying my time home with him!