Monday, November 29, 2010

Give Thanks

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. This is the first year in a very long time that I sat down and made myself think about all the things and people I am thankful for. So many people have touched my life in some way or another and because of each one of them I am the person that I am today. Now we settle into advent and Christmas. I love this time of year. It is so beautiful, romantic, and magical.

We had a lot of good visits with family this past week. My mom came down from Pennsylvania last Saturday and alternated staying with my brother and I throughout the week. Here are a few pictures she took:





Sunday, November 21st we had Joel baptized. It was a beautiful service and it meant so much to us that so much of our family was there for it.
Here is Joel being put into the Christening gown. Look at that big smile:













This year was our year to be at Grandma Green's for Thanksgiving and celebrate with Joe's family (we alternate families each year). It was in the upper 70s and so we played outside with the children most of the day. Joe, Quint, and their cousin Matthew even took them fishing.


Thursday night the elves came to decorate our house for Christmas. They even decorated the girls' room. It was so funny the next morning because Jolie got up and came straight to my room. I told her to go to the bathroom and while she was in teh bathroom Josie woke up and started yelling for Lol to come into their room. From the bathroom Lol yells back, "Why is it clean." They were so cute going throughout the house to see what all the elves had done.

Friday we had my mom, Chris, Crystal, Elias & Annaleigh over for the IronBowl. It did not turn out like we had hoped, but at least the food was good. Saturday my mom went home and Joe and Lol went and picked out our Christmas tree. We will give it a couple days to settle before we decorate it. We spent most of Sunday at church.

This Christmas is going to be a lot of fun. Josie is already starting to ask for specific things. We did go take the girls to Bass Pro Shops to see Santa while my mom was done so that she could be there for that. Both girls talked to Santa and told him what they wanted.

I'll end with some more pictures from Joel's birth that I'm just now uploading to the computer.

I love this one. It is a very "raw" moment for Joe and me. The pain I had just been through was excruciating:















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Friday, November 19, 2010

Joel's One Week Photo Shoot

I know that Joel 7 weeks today, but I'm just now getting around to posting the photo shoot we had done when he was a week old.

Here are my favorites of Joel:







All three:
It was love at first sight for all of us:




And I aboslutely loved this caught off guard one:

Ms. Josie Madelynn:



Ms. Jolie Hannah:




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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Our Adventures the Past 7 weeks

I know it has been a long time, but we've had a lot going on.

On September 30th I left the girls with my dad at our house and had my bags packed for the hospital, as Joe and I headed to my work. My 38 week appointment was scheduled for 9:00 that morning, and so I went in to work for about 40 minutes and then headed to my doctors appointment. I was nervous. I was praying my doctor would say go on over to the hospital, which he did, but only because my blood pressure was a little too high for his comfort. So Joe and I left my doctor's office and went across the street to the hospital calling family and friends on the way. It was about 10:15 when we got to the hospital and it was 12 by the time they had me in a room, hooked up to the iv, starting the whole process. Shortly thereafter we had Other Mama, MeMaw, Crystal, Sheila, and Rebecca all hanging out with us.


Then things started getting painful. They put in an epidural, but I kept feeling every contraction and they were getting worse. They kept asking if I could feel my legs and I kept saying yes. The anesthesiologist looked a little panicked when I could still feel my legs an hour later, but the nurse kept telling me not to worry. Well then in a matter of seconds I went from 7 centimeters dilated to being fully dilated and I could still feel my legs. People started running around and they kept shooting things into the epidural hoping it would take, but nothing worked and I felt EVERYTHING. They said they could hear me screaming in the hallway, but at 3:36 p.m. I delivered our beautiful baby boy. Only Joe, Other Mama, and Memaw got to be in the room but I think it was because things got so crazy so quickly. He weighed 8 lbs 10 oz and was 21 1/4 inches long. He was what they called a "blue baby." His skin was blue. His oxygen was fine, he was just blue. It took almost 2 days for the blue to go away.





Lots of family and friends came that night and during our stay to meet the newest member of our family. The girls got to meet him the next day and we got our first family photo.



We went home on Saturday afternoon with instructions to come back in the next morning to have his bilirubin levels checked.


That night we got settled in and Joel got to watch his first Alabama game. ROLL TIDE. Later that night he got his first bath at home. He wasn't too fond of it.


Sunday morning we went back down to the hospital and his levels had jumped a couple of points. We were told to see our peditrician on Monday. So Monday Other Mama came to our house to watch the girls while we went to the pediatrician's office. Later that evening we got a call saying that he needed to be on a light for his juandice and that Home Health did not have any lights that they could bring to our house so he needed to be admitted to the hospital. We immediately called Other Mama who came and got the girls so that we could head to the hospital. Our pediatrican told us things would happen one way when we got there, but she was very wrong. We got there at 8:00 p.m. and since we entered through the E.R. (since it was after hours) we were told we had to see an E.R. doctor to be admitted. So we had to wait 2.5 hours in the E.R. waiting for our turn to be seen. Then once we got back to see the doctor they kept sending doctors in. We saw 4 different doctors and were in the ER until 1 something in the morning. It was after 2:00 a.m. before we finally got him on the lights. I got a little sleep, but of course had to get up with Joel when he was hungry. The next morning I had a horrible headache and Joel's nurse was concerned about me. She checked my blood pressure and it was very high. She told me I needed to go back downstairs to the ER to have something done about my blood pressure. Thank goodness Memaw and Paw-paw had brought us lunch and agreed to stay to help us. So Paw-Paw stayed with Joe while Memaw went downstairs with me. They eventually figured out that it was just a stress headache that shot my blood pressure up. We got to leave the hospital Wednesday afternoon.


The following Monday Josie started K-4 associated with the Millbrook school system. She is loving it and doing very well. Here is her ready for her first day of school:


On October 26, 2010, Jolie had her tonsils and adenoids removed. She did great. This is her waking up after surgery:

That night she was asking for food. I was dreading the surgery because Josie had a very rough time with hers, but Jolie did great. I was so impressed with her.

At Joel's one month appointment he weighed 11 pounds. He is such a good baby. The girls love him. Jolie is especially protective of him and loves to give him hugs and kisses. Here he is at his one month appointment:


Both girls were very excited about Halloween and we let them pick out their own costumes. Josie was a "scaredy cat" her words, not ours, Jolie was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and Joel was a lion.





On Friday, November 12th I had to go back to work so Joe stayed home with Jolie and Joel. That afternoon we took the girls to Other Mama and Pap-paws so that they could get up early the next morning to drive to Atlanta. They had a blast and Joe and I could some much needed cuddling time Joel.

On Monday, November 15th Joel started a home daycare in Millbrook and Jolie started K-3 at the same school as Josie. Jolie loves it, but is having adjustment issues when she is with us. Sometimes I feel like laying on the floor beside her as she pitches her fits and pitch my own, but I'm almost 30 and I guess that would be frowned upon. We are all getting used to our new routines and I'm trying to remember to slow down because all of this will pass too quickly. We have had pictures made of him and the girls, but I have been so busy that I still have not got them mailed out yet. I also have a few thank you cards to write.

I finally got more than 4 hours of consecutive sleep last night, as Joel slept from 10:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. So hopefully the extra sleep will help get some of my act together again :)

These next two weeks will be really busy: tonight we have Awana, Friday night we have a birthday party, Saturday my mom gets in from Pennsylvania, Sunday Joel will be baptized, and then next week is Thanksgiving, and the Iron Bowl. I can't believe it is almost Christmas.

Well next time my post won't be as long.
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