Hello ER. Goodbye Appendix.

It all started Friday evening while Ryan, his brother, Ty, and I were enjoying a fabulous surf-and-turf meal on our deck. I had an annoying stomach pain in my upper abdomen that finally led me to excuse myself from dinner to go lay down. I thought it was because just before dinner I scarfed down a bowl of cereal and a small plate of leftover eggs and sausage. By the time Ty left to go home, I had already retired to our bedroom and taken a couple Tums, but still felt nauseous. I spent the whole night until around 10am getting sick and the only thought that kept coming to my mind was, “I can’t seriously be pregnant again.”

In an attempt to get something (anything!) in my stomach, Ryan picked up some popsicles. But I could hardly get past one lick of that stupid popsicle, because it reminded me way too much of the past two years of entering into a pregnancy nightmare. I decided to try to go back to sleep instead. Around noon, my stomach started cramping and I was having sharp, shooting pains in my lower right abdomen. Unfortunately, while I was resting, Ryan thought it would be a good time to take Alexia on a bike ride to his parents’ house (without his phone). So I was bent over, hobbling around the house trying to call out his name in between the stomach cramps. Once he was home, I told him we needed to go to the hospitalpronto. The pain wasn’t excruciating, but I knew something was definitely wrong. And if I learned anything from my own personal child labor experiences….the longer you wait at home, the more pain you will have to endure without drugs. So away we went, leaving both the girls with poor Ty all by himself (his wife, Jenna, was away for the weekend and Ryan’s mom was unreachable).Something to know about me is that I enjoy being in the hospital. Not that I would go out of my way to be admitted, but I don’t mind being taken care of while I’m there. It’s always instant relief too. Once the drugs are pumping into that IV, it’s time to sit back and cut some z’s. However, getting the IV into my so-called “tiny, rolling veins” is always an obstacle. Three nurses, four pricks, and two blown veins later, an IV technician was called in to do the job once and for all (thank goodness, because I felt myself going into nervous-breakdown mode). The tech used an ultrasound machine to find a vein and with one try, the IV was finally in. Blood was drawn, saline was attached, pain and nausea medicines were flowing. From there, I was able to proceed with getting a CT scan to find out the condition of my appendix.

This was the first time I had ever had a CT scan, and it proved to be quite humorous. An older nurse introduced herself, I signed papers, and she told me I would hear instructions through a microphone of what to do, and she left the room. I slowly was moved into this donut-like machine, and was caught off-guard when an Austin Powers-like voice told me to take a deep breath in. I could hardly keep myself from laughing at the male British voice giving me instructions! What happened to the lady nurse? I could picture them sitting on the other side of a glass wall, watching me while sipping their Earl Grey tea, and a tiny British gentleman leaning into the tiny microphone with hands clasped in his gray suit with a bowtie. Anyway, by the end of the evening I went to the OR, they removed my appendix (which was gangrenous, but not ruptured) and I spent the night by myself (Ryan went home to be with the girls) and was discharged the next morning.

I was back at home by 10:30 Sunday morning. It is so random to me that you can have stomach surgery and be back home the very next day. When else can you respond to the question, “So what did you do this weekend?”….”Oh, I just had stomach surgery on Saturday, but Sunday I just took it easy and hung out with the family.” The one good thing about the terrible timing (I mean seriously, I just birthed a child three months ago) is that the pain was nothing compared to child labor. So it is strangely a blessing that enough time hasn’t passed by to where I’ve forgotten that pain (I apologize for that comment to those of you about to deliver your new little ones!). While I was away, Naiya had her first taste of formula (she went through all my precious frozen milk supply). Fortunately, it has given me confidence to leave her for longer periods of time.

I feel much better today, and will attempt to remove my bandage and not make myself sick by doing so. The pain is subsiding, I’m getting back into our normal nursing routine, and I just can’t wait to get back to normal to finally enjoy Fall for the first time in three years!

All Dolled Up

Are we serious here? I mean, I might as well have rolled out a red carpet with this shot. Poor girl…all dressed up and no where to go.

Alexia has recently taken a liking to this purse (from my wedding day) and bracelet she found. They both have become part of the daily cycle of toys she plays with. She knows to put the purse on her shoulder and bracelet on her arm. The other day, Ryan gave her a pocket bible to store in her purse and this has become part of the “dress up game”.

I have to say that it’s looking good so far for my hopes of having future shopping/bonding trips with my daughter(s).

Alexia is 16 Months 09.22.09

Staging Alexia on the retaining wall proved to me her cautious nature. She had a strange, concentrated look on her face as I shot pictures of her. It wasn’t until I saw her slightly lose her balance and try with all of her might to remain as still as possible, to keep from falling. (I know, I would have felt terrible if she actually fell, but I NEEDED her 16 month photo!) Needless to say, this is the closest thing I got to a smile from her. However, today she has been extraordinarily giggley. It’s funny to see her actually playing games with me now. She started growling and coming up to me real slow, just as I do to her, playing the “Tickle Monster”. I still remember my dad chasing my cousin, Jason, and I around our little condo playing the same game.

Alexia has started to say, “No!” and point to things we have taught her not to touch (i.e. dirty diaper wastebasket, books on OUR bookshelf, the toilet). She has learned to say “Dog” followed by “Woof, Woof”. Although every other living creature is also a dog. I pulled out a dusty, deflated soccer ball and we had our first mother-daughter training session. I was surprised that she can actually kick the ball.

As summer dwindles down, Alexia is taking full advantage of the last fruits of our garden. She has become quite the pepper picker. I have no idea how she learned to do this, but her routine is to search through the pepper plant (pushing leaves and branches aside to find the perfect pepper, I assume), then she plucks the pepper off, strips the extra leaves off, pulls off the remaining stem on the pepper, and then takes a bite out of the pepper. Then on to the next one…

For indoor playtime, throughout the day I can find her flipping through some of her books by herself. Recently, she has wanted to crawl into my lap and look at her books. I love the affection! The greatest thing is if I’m already holding Naiya in my lap and Alexia crawls onto the other leg and there I am cradling both my girls at the same time. Alexia often lands a huge kiss on Naiya head, complete with sound effects, “Mmmmmmm…..”.

She is still taking two naps a day and sleeping 12 hours at night. We have learned (thanks to Ryan) that if we are out past her bedtime, when we get home she needs time to unwind and get settled into being at home before putting her down. I never would have thought a BABY needs that sort of thing, but it’s worked! After fifteen minutes of playing, she goes right to bed (when we rushed her to bed, she would be abnormally hysterical). She has moved up to Size 4 diapers (goodbye convenient diaper packing with both the girls wearing size 3). She is wearing 12-18 months clothing (I accidentally found out she can still squeeze into 3-6 month pants that look like really cute capris). She cannot keep her bows in her hair for longer than an hour, they always end up in her mouth all mangled and slobbery. She is making me laugh more than ever as her personality comes to life, which is comforting because I have this fear that I’m going to be severely depressed when she’s not a baby anymore. It’s hard to believe by this time next year, we will have Baby Naiya doing all the same things.

Summer Fun With Cousins

My sister-in-law, Tanya, and I took advantage of free babysitting from one another in the last couple summer months in order to run errands kids-free. It’s amazing how much more capable I feel now with two of my own, that adding a couple more isn’t a big deal! Especially since Sterling and Alexia are able to play with each other and the two littlest ones sleep most of the time. The best part about it was feeling like the cousins were growing up with one another, and getting to spend time w/ my sweet nephews.

Click here for more Summer Fun With Cousins photos.

Family Staycation

(Click for more Staycation photos.)

We spent this last weekend with Ryan’s family to spend every last minute possible with his sister, Tanya, and her husband, Tim, and their two boys (Sterling and Thorin) before their departure to Kurdistan on Sunday afternoon. So our “stay-cation” took place at our house and began Friday evening with fine dining at Chart House (without the kids) and ended with a three car caravan to the airport to drop the Mewmaws off and say our heart-wrenching goodbyes at the security gate. We came to the conclusion that the airport is a highly emotional place. The upstairs (departures) is full of sad, goodbye tears and the downstairs (arrivals) is full of happy, so-good-to-see-you tears. Unfortunately, we were upstairs. Unlike my MK (missionary kid) husband, I haven’t had to deal with too many goodbyes that hurt so much. And I swear once kiddos enter the picture, it’s a whole new ballgame of emotions! The next time we will see the Mewmaws again will be June of 2010. It is so strange (and sad) to me that we will have to re-introduce our kids to one another. But I know it will be a sweet reunion and I can’t wait to see those two boys interact with our two girls, all as toddlers by then.

So our last few days with the Mewmaws (no, not the Newmans or the Newhaws) was full of good food, card games and Beersbie (minus the beer).

We had the last of our family pictures until next summer.

There was a wrestling injury, some R&R at our neighbor’s pool (they let our family have the pool all to ourselves!).

There was a lot of packing, minimal sleep, more packing, and we concluded our time at our house praying for Tim and Tanya and the boys. Oh yeah, and lots of tears and lots of hugging on Sunday. Okay, and some more tears for me the day after too. But memories were made and we were all blessed by the Grossman-Mewmaw Stay-cation 2009. It was a perfect way to say farewell.

We miss and love you T&T, Sterling and Thorin!!!

3 Months Comparison

Alexia 3 months:

Naiya 3 months:

Naiya is 3 Months Old 09.04.09

Coming to the three-month mark has been so much fun. Sleeping through the night? Check. On a scheduled routine? Check. Finally interacting with us? Check.

It has taken me until now to really “feel” connected to Naiya and feel like she is my own. Fortunately, I was forewarned this might be the case by other moms’ experiences with having their second child. I think mostly because I wanted so badly to be able to interact with Naiya, and up until this point, I’ve had to constantly meet her needs without any kind of return of affection. But alas, she is smiling and cooing!

I’m amazed at how different her and Alexia have looked from the get-go. Naiya’s eyes are much more almond-shaped (I’ve had people tell me she looks more asian than I do), but the shape of her head is more Ryan’s side (long and narrow). A couple people (Ryan included) think she looks a bit like Tanya (Ryan’s sister) did when she was a baby. I had a bright idea of putting Naiya in the same outfit as Alexia for each month birthday, to put a creative twist on their comparison photos. However, I had to nix that idea when I found out there’s no way Naiya was fitting in the same outfit Alexia was wearing at her three-month birthday. Alexia was still wearing NB, and Naiya is comfortably fitting in 0-3 months and some 3-6 months.

My dirty little secret about Naiya is that she sleeps on her stomach. In the first couple weeks of her life, she seemed to be able to sleep longer on her belly, so I stuck with it. Probably because she could find her thumb more easily to soothe herself. She gained head control much faster than Alexia (who slept on her back), but the down side to belly sleeping is Naiya usually cries every time she is in her carseat or stroller. I’ve tried slipping in a pacifier for long car rides, but she’s over that (it worked for the first month of her life). Just yesterday, while on a walk with my friend Heather, I discovered if I put Naiya in the double stroller on her stomach (strapped in backwards), she goes right to sleep! Other than getting a dirty look from my pediatrician, I’m fine with having her sleep on her stomach.

I’m really looking forward to putting Naiya’s chubby-self in some cute Fall outfits! There is a pair of brown corduroy pants (compliments of Mr. and Mrs. Parsons) that are waiting for the weather to turn a little more chilly.