Pictures

Earlier this month the boys' school had a fundraiser at Chuck E Cheese. Of course, we gave in and went for a little while. The boys had a blast playing games and seeing their friends while I sat around eating pizza and talking to other parents.

We have finished working on Tyler's room now. We added some baseball wall decals to try and break up the color a bit. Here are some pictures of everything...

I can't believe Tyler will be born in 4-6 weeks probably! The boys keep asking if it is time for him to come out. They think it is pretty neat to watch my belly move around as Tyler moves. Zak thinks that means he is too big and needs to come out.

Update On the Boys

I haven't done an update on the boys for a while so here goes...

Zak: He is a social butterfly at school and at home. When ever we are outside playing he will talk to anybody that walks by and asks them to play with him. He really likes school and seems to be doing well academically. He is very excited about having a baby brother coming soon and is always talking about baby Tyler. I am not convinced he really knows or understands what a baby is since he calls most toddlers we know babies. We recently measured both boys and Zak is now 41 inches tall and weighs about 35 pounds. He still looks so small compared to everyone else in his class, but he is also the youngest in the class. I took the boys shopping yesterday to start getting their warm weather clothes and was shocked to see what size shirt they needed! Right now they have been wearing 3T and 4T tops, but after trying on various sizes we ended up getting the 5/6 in the boys section. They are growing up so fast! He is still wearing 3T shorts unless they have the adjustable waistband then he can wear a 4T in those. Zak is definitely an athletic kid who loves to play all kinds of sports. We signed him up for t-ball which starts very soon. He is extremely excited about it. This Fall he is going to play soccer even though he would really like to play football. His favorite things to do are play on his Leap Pad, play video games (mainly sports themed ones), and run around with the dogs.

Ryder: Ryder is doing good in school. He enjoys going and has started to become more social with the other kids. We had his IEP meeting a few weeks ago to discuss his progress and next year. He will be getting speech therapy over the summer which is good. We have no idea how he will do next year with full-day school and a larger class with a faster paced academic schedule. But everyone is on the same page and will be watching out for any issues that might come up. He is not excited about having a baby brother on the way and makes it very clear to just about everyone. We are trying to keep him involved with preparing for the baby, but we are already seeing regression in some areas. Potty training has become an issue once again along with more tantrums and he is wanting me to do things for him that he used to do on his own (putting shoes on, helping with jacket, etc). Ryder is now 42 inches tall and weighs about 35.5 pounds now. We have stopped all of the ADHD medications because of bad side effects and now he has lost a little bit of the weight that he had gained while on them. We are still going to behavior therapy twice a month to work on various things instead of trying more medications. He recently went to an ENT who wants to do surgery. She will definitely take out his adenoids and do a scope of his sinuses, but he has to do a sleep study before they decide if his tonsils will come out too. The sleep study will be in a few weeks and his surgery will probably be sometime this summer. Ryder is also going to play t-ball this summer and do soccer in the fall. He is not as athletic and does get very frustrated when trying to keep up with other kids, but we think it will be good for him to play some team sports. He also loves to play his Leap Pad and sports themed video games.

Working on the Nursery

I figured I would start with some belly pictures. I have done a good job of avoiding the camera, but the boys always want to take pictures and my belly ends up being in some of them. These pictures were taken when I was 29 weeks (2 weeks ago). I am all baby out front now.

Zak was talking to Tyler

Ben has been busy working on the nursery. He had to Spackle a bunch of areas where the boys had made holes and dents. Then he let the boys help him with the painting. The boys had lots of fun, but of course Ben had to go back over their wall to fix it.
Ben ended up painting the ceiling, walls, trim, and doors. It looks so good now. The color is hard to really get a good picture of because it looks different from every angle and in different light.
We now have the changing table/dresser and crib in the room. We also got a small rug to cover some of the floor.

Now for an update on how things are going with the pregnancy. I had a growth scan done at 30 weeks and Tyler is measuring very big! He was measuring at 4lb 4oz which is in the 83% for size. They expect babies to be around 3lb at that point. More than likely his bigger size is due to my Diabetes. My blood sugars had been under really good control, but the last 2 weeks or so things have been crazy. The high risk OB and regular OB both told me it isn't anything that I am doing wrong, but between 28-35 weeks they tend to have control issues with most Diabetics. I talk with the high risk OB twice a week about my numbers and we make changes to my pump settings frequently. I have almost tripled the amount of insulin I am using now and we might have to add an injection of a different kind of insulin at night if things continue this way.

I have my next growth scan at 34 weeks and if he is still measuring big they will do another scan at 36 weeks. If he is huge at that point they will talk about delivering him around 37 weeks (week of April 18). Next week I start having non-stress tests done twice a week because of being Diabetic. That test takes about 30-45 minutes and just looks for contractions, watches the heart rate of the baby, and checks the fluid level. My last 17P shot will be March 30 so after that there is a higher chance for me to go into labor at any point. I will have a scheduled c-section at 39 weeks if I make it that far which would be May 2.

Getting Ready for Tyler

Recently I have started to really feel the need to start getting things ready for Tyler's arrival. I will be 26 weeks along tomorrow and am started to feel very pregnant so I want to get things done while I still feel able to. We are going to turn the playroom into Tyler's room which means the boys' bedroom will also be their playroom.

This weekend we moved the toys into the boys' bedroom. Now we need to figure out exactly how we plan to organize the toys because right now their room is chaos and filled with lots of stuff. We are going to hang the TV on the wall and get rid of the dresser it is sitting. Then we are going to get some storage bins that fit under their bed to help hide some of the clutter. We are also looking into various storage units for their room. So far they are very excited about having the toys in their room and just fine with Tyler taking over the other room.

We also started to get some baby stuff that we need for Tyler. Babies R Us is having a big trade-in event so we took advantage of that. We traded in an old car seat, exersaucer (used by Piper, the boys, and Maddie), and stroller (no need for a double anymore). That gave us 25% off three new items. We got a new travel system (actually my mom bought this for us as a gift), exersaucer, and high chair. The boys were very helpful in picking out the things we got, they enjoyed trying out the various strollers. We also started to look into dressers for Tyler's room and found one at Ikea we like. It is the perfect height to also be used as a changing table which we never had with the boys.

Dresser (not sure what color we would do yet)

High Chair

It turns into toddler seat, booster seat and a regular chair

Travel System

Exersaucer

It is a play mat, exersaucer, and standing toy

As you can see, we really like the products that have multiple purposes and grow with the baby. It helps save some room and money! Once Tyler is a little bigger we plan to get another Radian car seat (like the boys use) because they fit well 3-across in our car. The newer version of the car seat actually works for rear-facing, forward-facing, and a booster seat. We plan to keep Tyler rear-facing as long as possible (the boys were over 3 when they turned forward) and this seat would allow for that.

We are also talking about what color to paint the room. The only room in the house we have painted since moving in is the boys' bedroom. So we figure if we don't paint it now then it probably won't ever get done. At the moment we are pretty sure it will end up being green because the boys think that is the right color. We want them to be involved as much as possible.

Immunologist Appointment

This morning we had Ryder's Immunology appointment. He gets blood work done every 6 months and then we have an appointment to go over everything. His blood work looks really good which is always nice to hear. His overall IgG is up to 952 which is much higher than he started at and is now in the normal range. They also look at specific antibodies within the system and he is showing protective levels in 10 of the 14 they look at which is great since he was none to begin with. We will keep his weekly infusion dose the same for now.

We talked about the infections Ryder has been having which tend to be sinus, strep or pneumonia. He has been on antibiotics 8 times in the last year which they consider too much still. After doing an exam the Immunologist agrees with Ryder's pediatrician that his tonsils are probably the culprit. He has HUGE tonsils which always look red. The Immunologist said they could be harboring infection in them which could also be the cause for his chronically swollen lymph node behind his ear. So we have an appointment with an ENT on February 16. The Immunologist works closely with this ENT so they know how to handle CVID patients. It looks like we will probably be planning a surgery date for Ryder after the ENT appointment to get his tonsils (possibly adenoids too) out.

A quick update on myself and the baby. I had an OB appointment last week. Everything looked good with myself (urinalysis and blood pressure). I have gained about 9.5 pounds so far and will be 25 weeks along tomorrow. The baby's heart rate was in the 130s and seems to be measuring about a week ahead. I talked to the OB about my concern of having another hernia and she confirmed that I definitely do have one. Last pregnancy I had one on the left of my belly button and one under my belly button which were both surgically fixed when the boys were about 11 months old. This time the hernia is to the right of my belly button. This means I will be needing surgery once again at some point after I have this baby. Not looking forward to it. We will probably put it off as long as possible because Ben will use his time off for the delivery of the baby and my c-section recovery. So he won't have more time off until 2013. The recovery from the hernia surgery will not allow me to pick up the baby or the boys for 2 weeks so I will need help.

Fetal Echo Appointment & Name

Things have been pretty crazy since we got home on January 3. We have not even completely unloaded the car from our trip yet! I had a fetal echo ultrasound done on January 5. This test was scheduled because mothers with Diabetes have a higher risk of having a baby with heart defects. The test showed the baby's heart looks good with no obvious problems. They went ahead and did a growth scan as well. So as of January 5 (I was 22 weeks) the baby weighed 1lb 2oz and everything looked good. My cervix was also still looking really good. I see the OB next week for a regular appointment and then I have another growth scan on January 31. I will have growth scans every 4 weeks until I deliver.

I announced the name we had chosen on Facebook while in Florida, but in case you missed it I wanted to add that here too. The boys are now using his name all the time so we decided it was time to let everyone know....

Tyler Luke Croissant

Pictures from Florida

I just wanted to post a few links real quick. I have been posting pictures from our trip to FL on my Facebook page. Here are the links to those photo albums for people to see who don't have Facebook. We leave FL tomorrow and will get home on Tuesday.

Christmas in FL

Zoo in FL

The baby is a....

BOY!

Today Ben & I got to see the baby for our anatomy scan. They looked at all of the organs and said everything looks good. They also measured my cervix since 19 weeks is when I started to have issues with the boys, but everything looks great so far. I will go back for a fetal echo cardiogram on January 5 which is a few days after we get home from FL. This scan is done to take a close look at the heart since my Diabetes puts the baby at a slightly higher risk for heart defects, but as of today it looks good. I look forward to getting to see the baby again!

Ben was definitely disappointed we are not having a little girl. We made the decision before getting pregnant that this will be our last baby so I plan to have my tubes tied during the c-section when I deliver this baby. He is very happy that this baby is healthy and things look great. I will admit some disappointment as well since Ben & my mom had done a good job of convincing me this was going to be a girl. But deep down I love the idea of having another boy! We had a girl name picked out very easily, but now have to go back to the drawing board to come up with a boy name. We have both thrown around a few names, but none that we could agree on.

School Pictures

The boys had their pre-k pictures done in November and we finally received them. I am so happy with how well they turned out! I know looking back at my school pictures I am not pleased with any of them, but I think these of the boys are really good.

I know I have been slacking on the blog. We have been really busy with the holidays coming up. We need to get all of the gifts bought and wrapped along with the house picked up and everything else ready for our trip. We are leaving December 22 on the auto train to go to FL and visit my mom for Christmas. I am so excited! We have told the boys they are going on vacation and getting to ride a train, but have not told them where we are going. It is going to be a big surprise for them. We will get back to MD on January 3 so it will be a nice vacation.

Zak has really been misbehaving recently. It seems to be a huge power struggle between him and myself. I know he is testing limits and this phase will end at some point, but it makes it so difficult some days. He is doing well in school and seems to really enjoy it. We were told he is definitely a social butterfly in the classroom.

Ryder has been struggling with behavior issues as well. He started on a medication for ADHD and irritability in September, but the positive effects we did see wore off. We have recently had to increase the dosage and hope to see the positive results once again. He also had a potty training regression, but that seems to be much better now.

I have been doing well. I am still having issues with morning sickness which is no fun and insomnia has been pretty bad as well. I did start weekly progesterone shots (17P shots) to try and help prevent pre-term labor this pregnancy. There is a nurse who comes to the house each Friday to do the shots which is nice. I have my anatomy scan on Monday and we are hoping the baby cooperates so we can find out the gender!

Ben has been working a lot recently. He has been in Kansas City all this week for training.

Surprise!

We are very excited to introduce the newest member of our family to everyone! We are expecting a baby May 8, 2012! I had my 12 week scan today and everything looks great. The heart rate was 155 and baby was very active the whole time.

This pregnancy has been very different from my pregnancy with the boys. I found out pretty early on and have been experiencing some pretty bad morning sickness. My doctor has given me medication to help with the morning sickness, but it is causing really bad headaches. I am having the normal back pain, cramps, and just overall feeling pregnant. I have to say I don't remember feeling most of this with the boys. I have told Ben several times that I am glad we had decided this would be our last baby because if not at this point I would definitely be saying that. I am not sure how people do this more than once if they feel like this every time. I now realize how lucky I was with my pregnancy with the boys. This is the main reason why I have fallen behind on posting to the blog. Things have been busy with the boys in school, Ryder's weekly therapy session, and recently both boys have been battling illnesses. I have been slacking with a lot due to not feeling great, but luckily Ben has been awesome and helped pick up the slack. I am really hoping the morning sickness passes soon so I can stop taking the medication which will hopefully decrease these horrible headaches. I will say that I already have a definite baby bump and have had a few people question my stomach. I had a very close friend (practically family), a family member and the nurse at the pediatrician all ask some sort of question about being pregnant or when I was due! So I am not able to hide it any longer plus with the good ultrasound today we decided it was time to share the good news.

I have been seeing my regular OB every 2 weeks just to keep a close eye on everything due to my Diabetes. They have done lots of the normal pregnancy testing along with checking on my kidneys and a few other things which have all come back very good. I have also met with the high risk OB at Franklin Square Hospital (which is where I will deliver) and have a plan in place to e-mail my blood sugar numbers to them every week. We have been talking about a few things that might be options this time around to help prevent pre-term labor, but most of the doctors really believe I had the boys early because my torso is so short and there were two of them. At the moment the plan is just to keep a close eye on everything with frequent appointments and ultrasounds. So far my blood sugars are under good control and I feel very good about all of the doctors who are involved. I should have the big anatomy scan in December just before we leave for FL so I will definitely update after that.

This afternoon we showed the ultrasound picture to the boys and asked if they knew what it was. Ryder really had no clue, but Zak quickly said "It's a monkey!". Then we asked if they wanted a baby and Ryder said "yes" while Zak said "maybe". We told them the picture was a baby and that the baby was in my belly. They don't seem to really understand, but I am sure as time goes on they will figure it out.