Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011...busy year!

We started off 2011 with one sweet boy and in May, our 2nd sweet boy arrived! We have spent the year adjusting to life as a family of 4, working, playing, and just in general having fun.

We have watched Jack grow into a toddler, learning new things daily. Reid spent the year growing from a tiny newborn into a big baby who has started to crawl!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Photo Card

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Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!!

So much to be thankful for this year...2 amazing little boys and wonderful husband who is also a fantastic dad to our boys!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Prematurity Awareness Day

Today is world prematurity awareness day...just a quick blog to remember those special preemie miracles who are a large part of our lives. I love my 2 preemie boys!!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Happy 6 months Reid

Reid turned 6 months old on November 4, 2011.  He is becoming such a big boy!  He is learning so many new things lately.  He's starting to sit up on his own and seems to be enjoying "tummy time" better.  He "talks" quite regularly to us with lots of "mum,mum,mums" lately.  He loves to watch his big brother, Jack.  He is enthralled with anything Jack is doing.  It is fun to watch his face light up and hear his great laughs when Jack is doing something.  Here are Reid's 5 month and 6 month pictures that I took in the leather chair...




6 month stats:  16lb 12oz; 26.5 inches


Elmo Birthday Party!!

We celebrated Jack's 2nd Birthday on October 23, 2011 with an Elmo themed birthday party.  It was wonderful to celebrate his 2nd birthday and to know that so much is behind us when it comes to his health and so much fun times lie ahead.  I enjoy watching him grow and learn about the world around him.  He is a very sweet, special little boy! 


Because we all open our birthday gifts in our diapers...



 The "kids" table




Monday, October 17, 2011

Jack-man

We have been crazy busy lately with all sorts of different things. For those of you who know me and our story with Jack, I worry about every little thing with him. Well, last week, we got some pretty good news...we went to see a dietitian because of his sporadic eating habits, I was worried that he wasn't eating enough. She said that he is a NORMAL toddler!! Also, no more pediasure!! Guess what, he is actually eating more now that we started giving him whole milk only!!! Go figure...he was filling up on those pediasure calories. Other good news last week, we were discharged from GI, so we are down to only 1 specialist!! Go Jack! Looking forward to this special boy's 2nd birthday on Sunday!!

Friday, October 14, 2011

Starting solids...

Reid got to start solids a couple weeks ago, he didn't seem to enjoy it at first. Then suddenly, he started eating like a champ. We have done rice cereal, squash, and sweet potatoes. He eats it up! I'm not sure what to try next...I might throw a fruit in there and then go back to veggies. He is still nursing really well and likes it much better than the bottle. I'm game to let him continue as long as he chooses.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Busy times...

It seems as though we have been crazy busy lately! The kids are getting big, Reid is now almost 5 months old, Jack will be 2 next month. Time sure does fly. It seems like yesterday that Jack was born...hard to believe he is going to be 2 and we are going through the normal terrible 2's at least I think so. He is definitely a sweet little boy when he wants to be but he learned the word 'NO' already!

Reid is getting huge! He is going to catch up with his brother before we know it! We tried cereal this week but he didn't seem interested, so I decided to hold off for a couple weeks and try it again. He is a fantastic nurser and has been gaining weight like a champ with only nursing. I have 2 complete opposites! Reid has recently decided to not take a bottle...he will wait until I get home from work to eat...what a crazy boy!

I need to update pictures soon...a good friend took pictures of the boys recently...Jack 2 year pictures and Reid 4-5 month pictures. I can't wait to see them!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

A night at Grandma and Grandpa's house!!

We went up to Huntington to see my parents last weekend.  My dad had not seen the boys in about a month, so he was very happy to see them and spend some time playing!  We took lots of pictures and just relaxed that evening!














Friday, August 26, 2011

NICU picnic

Each summer the NICU hosts a picnic for all the graduates and their families.  Last year was our first experience and though enjoyable, Jack really wasn't old enough to enjoy many of the things offered there...fast forward 1 year...he had fun!!  We saw Brooke, Shelly and Emily...so happy to see such wonderful people who took great care of our Jack. 













Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Ear infections...over them

Well, Jack is dealing with his 10th or so ear infection...it sucks! I took him to the doctor on Friday because I suspected that was what was going on, his ears looked fine then. Sure enough, took him again yesterday...ear infection. We are scheduled for tubes to be placed next Tuesday and it can't come soon enough. When Jack isn't sick, he eats like a champ, meals and snacks...when he is starting to fight an ear infection, he stops eating. We know his signs and I guess we realized an ear infection was coming before his ears showed it. So, now we are on another round of antibiotics until next week and hopefully we won't have to deal with frequent ear infections this winter!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Picture overload...

Here's a picture update of the boys...we have been taking pictures but I finally got out the laptop to load them onto the blog!  They are both getting big and doing very well!!








Saturday, July 23, 2011

Busy,busy...

Well, life sound here has been super busy! I go back to work on Monday and just the general life od having 2 kids. I swear I will put pictures up of the boys soon but it hasn't happened...

Thursday, July 7, 2011

2 months!!

Happy 2 month birthday Reid!! It has been a wonderful 2 months...especially since he's been home this whole time! Reid is growing well, eating great, but has had a couple colds...yuck! We had a great 2 month check-up and he was 10lb 5oz! He got his shots and gave the nurse the appropriate "boo boo" lip!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Whew...

Holy cow...going from one kid to two is exhausting. I've been completely overwhelmed lately. If it isn't one thing, it's another. I feel like I go from feeding one to the other or holding one crying baby to comforting the older one. It's definitely been trying...I'm so thankful for Dustin and his amazing help. I definitely couldn't do any of this without him. It's been crazy, exhausting, busy! I don't think I'd change it...except maybe some relaxation for myself during the day....someday I'll get them to take a nap at the same time...I hope!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Jack...

Poor Jack, he's been a little overshadowed by the arrival of Reid. He got to enjoy a ton of "daddy" time while I was recovering, but now he's been having to share me on the days I'm home with both boys. He doesn't fully understand about sharing, except his germs, and doesn't wait patiently. We are working on the "be nice to your brother" thing...it's not easy! I'm definitely thankful we are only going to have 2 children. Jack is doing well in general, he still loves school. He's been super sick all weekend with a fever and not eating at all...hopefully he's coming out of that, he needs to eat again! He got lots more daddy cuddle time this weekend since he felt so awful and only wanted to snuggle, but I got to put him to bed last night with cuddles and lots of books!

Here's one of our first pics of the boys together...what do you think?  Neither of them look extremely thrilled!

Friday, June 10, 2011

One Month Old...

Wow...a whole month has gone by...time sure does fly when you are getting little sleep!  Seriously though, it is amazing that Reid was born just over a month ago.  We have had a busy month...weight checks rather frequently to start off with, thankfully he's gaining weight very well now by mainly breastfeeding with only taking bottles overnight!!  Reid is now up to 7lb 4oz, which is terrific considering he's been sick for the past week, turns out he ended up with bronchiolitis (RSV).  RSV is scary for any parent but even scarier for the parent of a newborn, preemie.  Thankfully, he's been getting that awesome breastmilk, so it stayed mild and we did not have to go to the hospital!   He has this nasty sounding cough but overall he has improved greatly since Monday and I'm very thankful for that. 

We have introduced Reid to many of our friends this past month.  He's met our neighbors, our close friends, and new babies.  He even gets to go to a wedding next weekend!  He's a busy little boy!  I'm still not too sure how his older brother is taking all of this...just this morning, I had to stop Jack from pulling Reid off of the ottoman.  He also tried to sit on Reid the other afternoon.  I'm sure it will all get easier as Reid gets older and can hold his own around his big brother!!

Jack has been doing great...he has a blast at school, loves playing outside, and unfortunately is getting over another ear infection.  Looks like tubes are in our future...boo.  I hope it helps him avoid getting ear infections though, I feel like we have been on an antibiotic forever!

We are looking forward to some fun summer activities and hoping for both boys to be healthy this summer...it hasn't started off good!! :)

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Photo Card

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Sunday, May 15, 2011

Baby Reid

I haven't posted in quite a few weeks because we have been VERY busy at our house lately.  As you all know, I was hoping to make it full term with this baby, but he seemed to have different ideas.  Here's a brief recap of what happened:

May 2 - went to see my OB, everything fine, blood pressures were still borderline but non-stress test was great.  Plan, return to OB on Thurs for another appointment.  I went to work for the afternoon.

May 3 - spent the day hanging out with Jack, my sister and niece came over in the morning to help out for awhile, nothing exciting going on.

May 4 - Dustin's mom came over to help out, she watched Jack while I rested for the day, good blood pressure in the morning but it starting creeping up in the afternoon and I noticed the baby wasn't moving as much.  We decided I should call the OB and see what to do.  He wanted me to come in and be checked out at the hospital to see what was going on.  So, I got Jack's diaper bag packed and headed out (of course, I didn't have a bag packed yet).  Dustin was planning on meeting me at the hospital and then we'd decide what to do with Jack when we got there.  I got hooked up to the monitors, had a high BP reading there, so I started laying on my left side and it went down.  I started noticing the baby moving more frequently so that was a relief.  While I was hooked up to the monitor, it was measuring contractions - turns out I was having regular contractions, 5 min apart and increasing in intensity.  Dr. Kappelman came in and was glad my BP was down but was concerned about the contractions.  He checked me, I was dilated a fingertip.  He told us that he'd see what happens over the next couple hours and make a decision regarding the baby...he said that likely we'd be having him that night.  Of course, I was very nervous, I was 35w 1d, we made it to May, it was just so frustrating to make it that far and have this start but I guess he really wanted to meet us all!  Well, 2 hours later, contractions were closer together, Dr. Kappelman had spoken with one of the MFM doctors, and they said at this point it would be better if we had the baby, 35 weeks with my history is great...so on 5/4/11 at 9:43pm, Reid Harrison Albright was born.  He weighed in at 6lb, 19.5in long.  He came out screaming, which was a welcome sound.  The NICU was on standby, they checked him out, decided he didn't need to go to the NICU and would do fine in the Continuing Care Nursery (CCN).  I got to see him and give him kisses before he headed to CCN.  It was scary to have another early baby but he seemed to be doing well.

Here are a couple early pictures of Reid -