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| It took FOREVER to get a decent photo. |
I am so behind on a Savannah update. We made it home 3 days before Owen's birthday, so I even met my goal! She turned a corner during her last couple of days and really just figured everything out. She was discharged after 31 days (3 less than her brother) and NO oxygen. Hallelujah! Sometimes it makes me sad when I think that I basically missed the first month of my baby's life, but once again, we are just grateful she is here and healthy.
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| So excited to be coming HOME! |
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| The last bottle in the NICU |
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Our favorite nurse! She was the nurse for my nephew Max when he was in the
NICU 8 years ago. She was also Owen's nurse and saved his life
when he stopped breathing. She's the best. And yes, I'm ignoring my giant
scarf in this picture. |
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| Our chauffeur. |
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| Love. |
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| Lovin on my kiddos. |
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| Snuggles with Dad. |
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On our way to the doctor for our weekly weigh-in! She's just over 5 and a half
pounds. Our little porker! |
She is such a good baby! I kept telling her in the womb that after everything we were going through to get her here, should would have to be perfect. She must have been listening! She's never cried longer than about 14 seconds, and except for her two night feeds, she sleeps the rest of the night away.
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Yes, that is what you think it is. Also, I think she holds the world record
for her umbilical cord - it finally came off after SIX WEEKS. |
While she was still in the NICU, one of the head nurses came in to ask me if a local news station could come film us for a news story. I'm definitely not enamored with being on the news, but decided it would be fun for Savannah to look back on, so we said ok. I really didn't know what it was even for, but I did my hair and put some makeup on so I wouldn't look too embarrassing. I laughed to myself when the crew arrived and told me they were doing a story on the new safe sleeping recommendations. Now don't get me wrong, of course I don't want anything bad to happen to my children, but there is NO WAY I'm going to have my child sleep in my bedroom until they are 12 MONTHS OLD. Seriously - whoever makes these recommendations obviously has never raised a child, and they must hate parents. Sometimes I picture them like an evil villain, laughing at all the silly parents who follow their advice to the letter. And here I should pause and say props to anyone out there who actually follows all the guidelines - you are better than me! So they were asking me all sorts of questions about how I was going to follow the new guidelines when we made it home. I basically lied through my teeth and gave the people what they wanted. At least Savannah looked cute and smiled at the camera. But now I'm wondering if I wasn't all that convincing because it still hasn't aired! Joke's on me! ;)
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| Happiness is a milk coma. |
Poor Owen has been through SO much the past few months. His mom leaves him to live in the hospital for TWENTY EIGHT days (I finally counted). He doesn't see much of either parent that week Savannah was born. Mom finally comes home only to drop him off at Grandma's each day so she can go to the hospital, and when we're finally all together again he discovers he is competing with his sister for attention. And he has handled it all like a champ! Seriously - he only had a couple of meltdowns the week she came home and has been great since then. We've been blessed.
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The birthday boy! He's obsessed with soap lately. Should
have just got him his own bottle to play with. ;) |
He is usually a very well-behaved kid (don't get me wrong, he's still a kid and he has his moments). Most of his "moments" are at mealtime. So I read up in my favorite parenting book about how to appropriately use time-outs, and was ready to tackle mealtime. The next day at dinner his "awesome" behavior struck again, so Dan carried him to our bathroom downstairs (the designated time-out place because there is no way this kid would sit in a time-out chair for longer than 4 seconds). Unfortunately for Owen, he locked himself in. After a couple minutes of failed locksmithing, Dan decided it was time to break down the door. (Owen was in full-on alligator tears mode by this point.) Thankfully the doors in our new house are cheap and flimsy (and I think it's secretly every man's dream to break down a door). Dan was one kick away from breaking in when Owen hit the magic button and unlocked it. I'm not sure Owen learned his lesson, but his parents sure did!
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| Looking at "Sahnanna" |
Parenting fail #2 occurred last week when I decided it was time to potty train Owen. He just barely turned 2 and has been wee wee-ing on the toilet for months now. But only when I put him on (it's never self-initiated). So I read the book, took notes, bought all the supplies and figured it would be as easy as the example in the book and my two-year-old boy would be trained in a mere few hours. I'm pretty sure the beautiful snow storm we woke up to that morning was a sign. It was screaming at me to skip potty training and let Owen come out and play, but I was determined, naive, proud, and had made up my stubborn mind. It was a disaster and thankfully Owen still loves me. We'll try again. Maybe in 2 years or something. (Kidding. Sort of.) We threw in the towel about an hour before it got dark, so at least he got to make a snowman with dad. These poor oldest children who are the "experiment" child. It's amazing they turn out normal. :)
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This is the "before" picture I was going to proudly display when
he was all trained. Parent fail!! |
