Alyssa is the newest 4 month old on the block

Today Alyssa is 4 months old! As you can see I did a little photo shoot of her tonight. I should have done this before her doctor's appointment this afternoon because I wanted to show off her big toothless baby grin. But after getting four vaccines today smiles were not easy to come by and now she's passed out and I wanted to get this up tonight. But I thought I got some really cute shots of her.

Where has the time gone? Four months ago I was in a hospital having contractions and trying not to punch the doctor who was on call the night I went into labor. I think I forgot how great 4 month olds are too. I kind of feel like I was a little robbed of the joy of a 4 month old with CJ with all the problems we ended up having. Here is what Alyssa is up to these days.

She is smiling so big and pretty. I love it. Joe can be holding her from across the room and I can be doing something else and she'll be looking at me with this huge gummy grin. Melts my heart. She is such a sweetie.

She's rolling over occasionally front to back and back to front. She doesn't do it a whole lot and usually gets upset when she does it.

She holds her head up really well though. I don't have to give her much head support except maybe when she is tired.

She giggles for everyone but me. I have of course heard her giggle, I just haven't been able to make those giggles happen. I sure love hearing it though. Even if I'm not the one who can get her to do it.

She has slept 6 hours at night. That's the closest we've gotten to sleeping through the night so far. Although, that only lasted for a few nights. She is now back to her 3 or 4 a.m. feeding. At least she goes right back to sleep after she eats at 3 or 4 in the morning.

She is still exclusively breastfeeding and it's going really well.

Her hair which used to be so dark is now going very light. She still has a lot of it too. It's actually getting really long and almost in her eyes. I might have to get it cut soon.

I guess that's about it for what she's up to. A lot of you probably want to know about her doctor's appointment. More specifically about her weight. I asked my Facebook friends to make a guess as to how much she was going to weigh today. I had guessed 12 pounds. And I'm happy to say I was wrong. She's 12 pounds 7 ounces. Natalie's guess was the closest at 12 pounds 5 ounces. She's doing great though. She is 25 inches long which is in the 70th %tile. I can't remember what %tile her weight was in though. The doctor is super pleased with her head control. All looks great health wise. She seems to be right on target and maybe even a little advanced. The doctor was disappointed to have her already not happy to be examined. Already a little stranger anxiety. Well, she is only ever with me though. So it kind of makes sense I suppose. I was told I can start giving her baby foods. I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet though. We'll see what happens.

I discussed what we can use in the sun this summer with her. I don't want to have to always be finding shade this summer when we're outside to keep her delicate skin safe so the doctor said there's a baby sunblock by Neutrogena that she recommends. So we'll be giving that a try with her. I don't think the doctor really wants us to use sunblock, but she also knows that with 3 older children it's really going to be hard to avoid the outdoors.

So all is looking great with Alyssa. She's been such a joy these past four months and I'm cherishing every single moment with her. She's such a beautiful, sweet, funny little girl already. Next doctor's appointment is her 6 month check up.

36 Years

Today, my mom and dad celebrated 36 years of marriage. That is amazing to me! I sure hope someday my kids will be talking about how their mom and dad have been married for 36 years. Mom and Dad, just wanted you to know that I've been thinking of you today! You have been such a great example to me and hopefully I have learned enough from you to keep my marriage going strong for 36 years. I hope you had a great day today. Happy Anniversary!

Birth Story #4

Here is the final chapter in my posts of my children's birth stories for the month. Here is Alyssa's. I know I pretty much gave the story just about 4 months ago, but here it is again with everything leading up to her birth.

Alyssa was born February 2, 2011 at 11:00 p.m. Eastern time.

So much like my pregnancy with CJ this one was not without its problems. I continued with the blood pressure issues and I had questionable Gestational Diabetes. I say questionable because I opted out of the 3 hour glucose test. Instead my doctor had me check my sugar levels four times a day. All of my numbers were really pretty good though so I never needed insulin. As long as I watched what I ate I was good.

My doctor was getting concerned about her size. Meaning too big so I had to go for a couple of growth scans. I was also getting twice a week non stress tests. The last month or so I was contracting pretty regularly although I did not feel it. I tested positive for Group B strep which was a concern for Alyssa and not so much for me. So I needed to get antibiotics on board and of course being allergic to penicillin (the drug usually used to treat Group B strep) that made things a little more complicated. My doctor and I discussed what we could do. Now having had the c-section with CJ my doctor knew that I was going to attempt a v-bac (vaginal birth after c-section). So we discussed being induced. This way we could get antibiotics on board before my water broke and my doctor would be there to deliver. I wasn't entirely keen on Pitocin, but after discussing the problems with Pitocin I decided it wasn't that big of a risk and my doctor knew what she was talking about. After all she was the one who had performed my c-section 3 years before. So the plan was actually we would try breaking my water first and then if things didn't work we would add a little something to get things moving. I figured okay, we have a plan. My induction was scheduled for February 3rd which was six days before my due date. I had everything all planned out. My mom was going to come up early in the morning to get the kids off to school while Joe and I headed to the hospital and then hopefully by the time they got home from school they would get to come visit their baby sister in the hospital. At my last appointment on January 31st I was contracting away as usual. All looked good. My doctor did not want to check me and I kind of agreed to just leave it be. We didn't need to know. I figured I was going to see her 3 days later and things should go perfectly.

Then February 2nd the kids had yet another snow day. Everyone was home due to an ice storm. I had been feeling kind of blah that day, but really how I had felt a lot lately. I was noticing a few contractions, but it felt like what I had been experiencing for the past month. When the snow and ice stopped falling Joe went out to clear the sidewalk and driveway and clean off the car. Then he walked across the street to pick up something for dinner from the store. He came home and we fed the kids and then Joe and I sat down to eat in the living room. I was sitting on the couch finishing up my dinner when all of a sudden I felt this pop and then a gush. I jumped up and said, "Oh crap!" Joe was like what? I said, "I think my water just broke!" I ran into the bathroom to try to access the situation. I had never actually seen my water break before. It had always been done for me so I wasn't sure what was going on. I figured out pretty quickly that it had to be my water though. Joe started making phone calls. He called the doctor and my parents. The doctor told me to head to the hospital. So we packed up. We were going to wait for my parents to come to the house, but knowing that the roads were icy, we were 20 minutes from the hospital on a good day, and in the past I had gone quickly we decided we would have to meet my parents at the hospital. So we loaded everyone in the car. Joe was freaking out. I was trying to stay calm for the kids. Contractions were definitely there, but not too bad.

They brought me in and checked me out right away. I was actually only around 4 centimeters dilated which I was a little surprised about. They brought me to a delivery room where they hooked me all up. I was being closely monitored due to my vbac attempt. I also needed to get the IV antibiotics going. They had to give me a stronger antibiotic to make sure it took care of everything. I was contracting pretty hard while the children watched. Thankfully my parents arrived to take them away and I could really let it out. I was in a lot of discomfort and the jerky on call doctor wasn't helping matters by questioning my induction (which really was pretty moot at that point). And when I chuckled during a contraction when he said and you want no pain medicine and he was like what's so funny I wanted to jump down the man's throat. I did end up getting Nuban just to take the edge off the back labor I was having. I still felt it, but it made me sleepy so I could rest a little between contractions. It didn't last long though because I quickly became very uncomfortable. I was moving all around trying to find a comfortable position. The poor nurse who was trying to keep a close eye on me had to stay in the room with me to monitor things. I was standing, I was sitting, I was laying on my side. Finally the nurse suggested I turn to my other side which was super uncomfortable for me, but that was what got me fully dilated and pushing. I think I pushed twice and she was out with a perfectly round little head. I got to hold her and then they took her away to check her out. She was perfect and not nearly as big as my doctor feared. As a matter of fact she was the smallest weighing just 7 pounds 9 ounces and was 19 inches long. She looked just like CJ. Tons of dark hair. Explained all that heartburn I had. When they were done stitching me up, which I still swear took hours and not like 10 or 15 minutes they brought her to me and put her right on my chest to breastfeed. She was a pro, right away. We hadn't decided on her name yet. We had a few choices which we went through with her and she responded to Alyssa so that's how she got her name.

Because of my questionable Gestational Diabetes they checked her sugars shortly after birth. They were concerned with what they saw and wanted to give her formula. I refused a bottle so they set us up with a way to get formula at the breast. They didn't hold out much hope that it would work, but she was a champ sucking at the breast and got colostrum and formula in her all at once. And after that her sugar was fine from then on out we didn't even have to worry.

I pushed to get out of the hospital as quickly as possible. She was born at 11 p.m. on a Wednesday night and I was ready to go home Friday morning. However, they hesitated in discharging her because she was getting jaundice. I knew I did not want to stay there though and experience what I had with CJ so they let us leave only if we went back Saturday to have blood work done and go to see her pediatrician on Saturday which we did. All ended up being fine. My milk came in on Saturday too so that helped get that jaundice to go away.

My labor and delivery definitely was an adventure with her. She had to make things interesting. But I am so pleased that I can say that I had a successful v-bac. I wish it didn't have to be with the jerky doctor and I often wonder what would have happened had I truly let him have it like I wish I had. But she came on her terms and I accomplished what I wanted to with her. No surgery and a healthy baby!

And that completes my birth stories and our family of 6.

Natalie's Birth Story
Kaitlyn's Birth Story
CJ's Birth Story

Bronx Zoo

Last Monday Natalie went with her class to the Bronx Zoo. She had a good time until she was almost home. She brought my camera with her and ended up taking some pictures and video so I put it all together in a little movie for you.

Memorial Day 2011

While you're eating your hot dogs and hamburgers, watching your parades, and enjoying what is considered the official start to summer lets not forget what today is all about. Remembering those who we lost fighting for our country. And I want to say a special thank you for the families who are left behind while their loved ones are deployed! It takes a very special person to deal with that day in and day out and I will forever be grateful for all of those sacrifices.

Natalie the Country Music Star

So here is Natalie all dressed up as a country music singer. She had a project for her music class today. She had to write a report on a genre of music. She chose country music. She had a lot of fun with it I think too. She wanted to dress the part as well so I put her hair in braids this morning to help her out. Her hair is so pretty. Mine used to be like that, sigh.

Anyways, she missed most of class today because I had a meeting with her regular class teachers and the guidance counselor. I had wanted to talk about her struggles with keeping organized and keeping her grades up. It took a little longer than I expected because the guidance counselor wasn't ready for me. There isn't too much that can be done at this point for this year. I mean her grades are good. As her Social Studies teacher said she's a solid B student. Which is great, I'm happy with that. She's in accelerated classes after all. What I am not happy with is when she brings home 50's. Not acceptable. Because that means she has to work that much harder to increase her grades. So mostly her teachers just spoke to her about finding a way to come to them when she's not getting something or when there's a test grade she's not happy with. Whether it's coming to them after school, after class, or slipping them a note about it. We then spoke to the guidance counselor. I wanted to get more information about the Avid program she got into for next year. It is really going to help her with organization because she has a huge notebook that gets graded every week. So maybe that will help her out. Since we know what team she is going to be on since they put all of the Avid kids on a certain team I wanted her to hopefully get to know next years teachers a little. She will have that opportunity too with a field trip coming up for Avid that she gets to go on and her guidance counselor is going to set something up too.

So while all of the changes of this year have been tough for her I think we are getting her set up very nicely to do great next year. She went back to class and I came home after that. Natalie stayed after to retake a math test she did very poorly on and she was very pleased to tell me she got an 80 on it. Much better than the 55 she originally had on it. And she thinks she did really well on her music project too. Her teacher was really pleased with how she had dressed the part and loved the music she chose to play too. So hopefully she ends the year on a good note.

Kaitlyn is a success!

So last year I made no secret of my distaste for Kaitlyn's teacher. She was awful. She broke Kaitlyn's spirit and made 2nd grade a terrible year for her. In all honesty after talking to numerous parents who's child has had her as a teacher I'm surprised she's still teaching. She is definitely not well liked.

Now anyone who knows Kaitlyn knows she is a good kid. Now I'm not some delusional parent who thinks her children are perfect. I am sure they make mistakes at school, but in comparison to some teachers generally wish they had 20 more of my kids in their class. That's the feelings of Kaitlyn's teacher this year. We truly lucked out to leave the school we were in.

I've also made it no secret that the teacher Kaitlyn got in her new school has been superb. In all honesty the man is the best teacher any of my children have had. It's actually sad to see the year come to an end. This year Kaitlyn's teacher took that broken child and transformed her into one with great confidence. In October she announced to me and her teacher that she would like to reach a reading level of 30 by the end of the year. I worried that her goals were too high and she would be so disappointed if she did not achieve this goal. Her teacher and I even had a discussion about it. After all we're talking about a child who only managed to leave the 2nd grade reading at a level 12. She really made no gains to speak of at all in 2nd grade. However, while Kaitlyn did not reach her goal she came very close. Just one level away at a level 28. I asked her if she was upset that she didn't quite make her goal and she said no. She's proud of what she did. I am too. Her teacher is blown away by her. He has never seen anything like it. He attributes it to her work ethic. That is the thing with Kaitlyn, she doesn't give up. She keeps plugging away. She sets her mind on something and she works to get there. She managed to not let what happened last year get her down. She managed to do all of this at a new school with a bunch of children she didn't know. She managed to make better friends this year at this new school than she has ever had too. The entire atmosphere in her new school has just been such a great thing for her.

She came home the other day with a grade of a 95 on a project about kangaroos that she did. She was so excited. Here she is with her project:



A close up of the kangaroos habitat...

She had fun doing this. She had fun doing most things in school this year.

She is still behind where she should be. I will never know had we moved her out of her old school sooner last year if that would have been better for her. There really can be no looking back and playing the what if game. We are where we are now for a reason and she's getting the education that she needs and deserves and that she could not get in her old school.

She will continue with her special arrangements for testing. She will continue to work on the Wilson reading program to continue to build on what she has already learned. I see no reason why she can't possibly be at or even above grade level by the end of next year. Just look at the gains she has made in such a short time after having such an awful experience. To go now from a wonderful experience onto hopefully another wonderful teacher there really is no reason that she can't do it.

And her teacher has already assured me that he will sit down with Kaitlyn's teacher for next year and tell that teacher all about Kaitlyn. Honestly, there really is no better person to do it either. He knows Kaitlyn almost as well as I do. It is going to be so hard to say goodbye, but I know that he will continue to check in on Kaitlyn and I just see so many great things for her. Don't ever count Kaitlyn out of anything because she will work her butt off until she accomplishes what she wants to accomplish. With gentle nudging and a helping hand there for her in case she falls nothing will stop her. I will be forever grateful to the man who got Kaitlyn to increase 8 reading levels in one year! And I couldn't be prouder of what my determined girl has done. She's a true testament to the never give up motto.