Saturday, February 26, 2011

Happy Birthday Rosie!

Today my baby is TWO! I can't believe that her babyhood has gone by so quickly.

 Rosie was due around Valentine's day but my babies are notoriously latecomers. Sooo due to the fact that I usually deliver quickly and we now live very far away from the hospital I decided to be induced on February 26th. I got to the hospital early and was receiving pitocin and having contractions by noon. I got an epidural early so I was actually feeling really good most of the day. I had lots of people there, my mom, my sister, my cousin, and most of my kids. We talked and played Scrabble while I was in labor. By 5:30 I was ready to push and Madison Rose was born at 6:01 pm, she weighed 7lbs 4 oz. She had big chocolate brown eyes and lots of dark hair. She was perfect.






Although Rosie seemed healthy I knew that she didn't look quite like my other babies (who all looked alike) and she wasn't nursing like I expected her to. I wasn't surprised when the pediatrician came from the nursery to tell me that she had a cleft palate that would need to be repaired. The hospital gave me almost no information and sent us home the next day with a baby who wasn't eating. Once we were home I knew right away that she wasn't able to nurse and she couldn't suck from a bottle. Babies with a cleft have no suction. I cut a large hole into the nipple on a bottle and squeezed expressed milk into her mouth. We went home on the weekend and as soon as I could I made an appointment to take her the craniofacial team at our closest children's hospital.  It was a long few days. She was hungry, she had a stomach ache from swallowing a lot of air, and she couldn't lay flat on her back and still breathe well.


 Rosie's cleft palate team turned out to be great. They explained that her jaw was very recessed which probably caused the palate not to close properly (pierre-robin sequence) although we would have to do genetic testing to rule out some possible syndromes. The small jaw and cleft caused her tongue to block her airway, affected her ears drainage and kept her from sucking. They gave us special bottles (Haberman feeders) to feed her which was our immediate concern.
 Over a year's treatment Rosie had jaw distraction surgery to lengthen her jaw and improve her breathing, ear tube surgery, distraction removal and jaw stabilization surgery, and a cleft palate repair. She was on a high calorie formula to help with her slow weight gain. She now has speech therapy.


Rosie with her distractors in place

 Rosie was and is the best natured baby I have ever seen,.She is very laid back and happy, she rarely cries. She has a very smart sense of humor and she loves to do silly things. She loves her baby dolls and her paci and she has a great imagination. She often pretends things like a much older child.
 Rosie loves to sleep, if she's tired in the mornings she'll ask to go back to bed. She likes to arrange her crib just right with certain animals and all of her little blankets.


Rosie is a joy to have around, she loves to be entertaining. She has a great little grin, a cute dimple in her chin and the MOST gorgeous hair I've ever seen.

Nicknames we call our little girl:

Maddy
Maddy bug
Rosie
Rosie posie
Pebbles


Being Silly





Happy Girl









Thursday, February 24, 2011

Our Life, In Pictures

We've been:

Daddy's gifts for his girls


Jamie's waffles (made with his gift)
Enjoying some Valentines treats



Betsy


Rosie

Enjoying the great weather


Beth's abstract art


Storytime clown art

Enjoying art class


Emma and cousin Jace
Mahaley and Michael
Sydney
Mahaley and Jace
Enjoying friends and family


Not enjoying dentist visits, colds, doctors visits, and car repairs.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Jamie's new do

 I hate to tell my kids how they can wear their hair but........



Jamie's hair has kind of taken on a life of its own. It's very thick and wavy and a little crazy.  I think he was going for a Wolverine look.


So I finally convinced him to tone it down a bit. So...
                                                            
                                                                        Before



During


And after


I think he looks very handsome!



Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Growing and growing

I took Miss Em for her 11 yr checkup yesterday. The kid is huge. I'm not kidding, she is in the 99th percentile on the growth charts. At 5'2" she is only 3 inches shorter than me. At this rate by adulthood she could top six feet. Definitely model material!


 The other kids have gotten in on the growing action too. Jamie and Beth have grown an inch in a month and Leah and Rosie have grown two inches each. I think I should stop feeding these kids miracle grow.



Leah

Beth
 
Rosie


Mahaley

Jamie

Monday, February 7, 2011

Books and art and cards and friends

We went to the library and stopped for lunch:


Emma and Leah started a new art class:


Leah's art

We made valentines:




We had friends over:










And Jamie bowled 285 in his bowling meet. WOW!
















Friday, February 4, 2011

My new love


I've needed a new camera for a long time. Ever since the unfortunate camera sitting episode. This isn't exactly my dream camera but it's the most I could stand to spend on something that I'm not very good at using. Once I've mastered this ( and it could be a while, the manual is 143 pages long and so far I can't take a picture off of auto) then I might splurge on something better.

Lately I've had some great things to take photos of so I'm getting a little frustrated that it's taking me so long to get the hang of this camera.

Last weekend Wayne and I went to a show.







Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy (Wayne's favorite). It was a really great show. Very funny. Honestly, anything would have been great considering it's been so long since we went out on a real date that I cannot remember the last time. We might have to make real dates a tradition.

While we were out Mahaley went to a dance with some friends.





Aren't they pretty girls!


Best of all, we got a new (to us) car!

I was really sick of my gas guzzling 12 passenger van with it's million and one "little repairs" so I was secretly glad when it finally kicked the bucket.
We had planned to get a more efficient 8 passenger minivan, but after driving around in my sister's van for a few days I knew that I could not live life as a sardine.
So now I am the proud owner of a not quite so gas guzzling Chevy Suburban. I bought it last weekend while it was 75 degrees and sunny. If it ever stops sleeting today I will take a couple of pictures of it.