Big New Year Beginning!

Just wanted to post really quick about the big things that have happened this year so far! Layla has moved up to a booster seat! This is a big deal...we didn't think she would every get here! Jillian has gotten rid of the pacifier! Those are 2 HUGE things in a short period of time! Go girls!

Catch Up

Ok, playing catch up here! :)

December 13th...Marshall's Baptism. It was so nice! His GodParents are Jen and Bill Barneclo and Carli Davis. We had a wonderful visit with friends and family at our house afterwards. Thank you to everyone for making that day so special for Marshall (even if he won't remember it!)

Christmas...what a great time we had! Christmas Eve we went to Eric's mom and dad's house for the Crowell Christmas. It was a great night! We had wonderful food and lots of fun watching the kiddos play. I can't imagine what next year will be like with both Josh and Marshall walking around! Watch out girls! Christmas Day we spent here at home, Eric's mom and dad came over for lunch. It was a very relaxing day (in between the sharing fights of the girls!). My folks came up on that Sunday then to spend the day, but ended up not being able to stay TOO long due to the massive amount of snow! Layla went with them for a couple of days and Jilly and Marshall and I went there on Tuesday. We stayed there for the New Year. It was a WONDERFUL holiday season.

I took Marshall for his 2 month appointment on the 29th. He is weighin in at 14 pounds 7 ounces and is 23 inches long! He is such a big boy! Doc said he was in great shape! I am so glad! He is much happier now so hopefully the colic is on its way out!

Love,
Theresa

Forgot...M at 4 weeks!

I had to take M to the doc last Wedesday (the 25th) because he had been SO grumpy and crying all the time. He had pretty much 3 moods: eating, sleeping, and screaming, that was it. He also snorted a lot like his sinuses were always stuffed, especially when he was sleeping. So, we went to the doctor. Doc said that it sounds like Colic...duh duh duh...and gave me some suggestions to help. Well, while we were there, they weighed him to make sure he was getting enough to eat. WOW...our little man weighed in at 12 pounds 3 ounces! That means he gained 2 pounds in 2 weeks. So, Yeah, I would say he is getting enough! They had me change how I am nursing him too. How it works know is that he can eat when he wants, but in a 3 hour time period, he can ONLY eat on one side. Then after that 3 hours, I can put him on the other side for a 3 hour time period. Apparently it is supposed to help...Not sure yet.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving we headed to Aunt Rebecca's and Uncle Jeff's house for the Crowell Thankgiving dinner. We had a really nice time even though Richard, Tiffiny, and Josh weren't there. THey were all sick. Grandma and Grandpa brought Sarah, so we were happy to see her!

Then on Thanksgiving day, we headed down to New Castle! I haven't been to New Castle in about 6 months! It was so great to go! We first were at Aunt Nancy's and then went to Aunt Sheri and Uncle Scott's house. We ate WAY too much! But, it was great to see everyone. I have missed my family so much. Eric left the kiddos and me there and drove Mom's Intrepid back and we stayed until Sunday. We didn't do much exciting, but it was a great visit. Then on Sunday Mom came back with me so she could get her car. All in all it was a wonderful Thankgiving. Now, onto Christmas!! :)

Love,
Theresa

Marshall's 2 Week Appointment!

I took Marshall to the Doctor yesterday for his 2 week check up! Boy, this little kid is GROWING! He is weighing in at 10 pounds 3.21 ounces and 21 1/2 inches long! That is a gain of about 1 1/2 pounds and a 1/2 inch!! You can tell that he is getting big. Not that I am surprised given that he eats ALL THE TIME! He is not sleeping very well and I am struggling with that, but we will get there. The doctor clipped his frenulum (the connector piece of his tongue) so hopefully we won't have the nursing issues I had with Jillian. Doc said that he looks great. His cord looked good and she cleaned it all out and said his Boy parts look good too!

Good news too...both girls got their H1N1 vaccines and Jillian was able to get her seasonal flu vaccine. The office didn't have Layla's but they said they would be getting more, so I will just keep checking. They both seem a little "sniffly" and grouchy today, but I was expecting that. Now, if I was in a better mood, I would probably handle it all better. Oh well. Such is being a mom!

Jennifer took some pictures of Marshall and the girls last week. The first couple can be checked out at her blog. The girls did great. Marshall wasn't happy about it at all, but we got a couple great ones! Thanks Jen!!

It's A Boy!!!

OMG, we have a boy! That is so hard to believe! Marshall George made his appearance on October 26th at 1:54pm. He was 8 pounds, 15 ounces, and 21 inches long. He is beautiful and perfect! Eric will never admit to it, but he just kept staring at him as if he couldn't believe he had a son! He was so sure that the baby would be a girl, I'm not sure he ever even entertained the idea that it could be a boy! He is so happy! The girls are adjusting to him too. They have both been sick so they haven't been able to hold him, but seem to like him regardless. If you want to know more details about that actual birth, check out my journal blog (link on the right) for all the gory details. :) Below are some pictures of the beautiful little boy. He has most definetly completed our family. I've also included a picture of Halloween...we had kind of a generic one as the girls and Eric were sick, but my mom and I took them a couple of places! Layla was so excited to be Scooby Doo and Jillian really loved the dragonfly costume, She didn't like it when we took her out of it. Thanks so much to Terresa for sharing!

Almost There!

Well I know that I am like the worst blogger of all time. But, hopefully if you have had any clue about what has been going on in our lives, you will understand! Catching up from where I left off before in like July, much has happened. Turns out that all the contractions I had ended up thinning out my cervix by 50%. So, the doc put my on bedrest. We ended up having to hire someone to help me with the girls during the day as I was not allowed to lift anything over 10 lbs. It sucked. Luckily we were able to find someone that we really like and trust and the girls adore. Her name is Claire Sheets and there have been days that we would have been lost without her! Thank the good Lord for bringing her into our lives (and my good friend Amy C.)! After being put on bedrest, I ended up passing at least a total of 12 kidney stones, 3 of which I had to do in the hospital. They get caught in my bladder and get stuck and are almost impossible to get out on my own. I would have to go and get an IV and get flushed full of fluids and pain killers since that is all they could do with me being preggo. The other 9 (at least) I passed at home, thankfully! :) I met with a Urologist and he put me on a strict diet of NO spinach, caffeine, dark sodas, nuts (including peanut butter), chocolate (yeah, that one has sucked!), and very limited dairy. As much as the diet sucks, it does work as I have not had any stones in about 2 months. Apparently I have some genetic condition that makes me pre-disposed to getting kidney stones (thanks Dad and Grandpa!), but when I am pregnant, makes me like 4 times as likely as the normal person. It sucks. But, I have never had a stone when I haven't been preggo (knock on wood), so I am planning on saying screw the diet after kiddo here is born and we will see what happens. I have been without ice cream, chocolate or peanut butter for too long! Someone better be bringing me a Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard from Dairy Queen when this is over!

So, since all of this we have had a couple of false alarms of labor, but nothing has panned out. Last Wednesday, I was having contractions about 4-5 minutes apart and went to the Doc.'s office. The nurse practitioner checked me out and my cervix is COMPLETELY thinned out even though it wasn't dilating any. She sent me to the hospital. They watched me for a couple of hours and NOTHING. So, I am still stuck at 1 cm as I have been for about a month. They sent me home and I have now decided not to stress about it. I am to be induced on Monday, October 26th and if kiddo decides to come in the next couple of days, great. If not, well, we will see him or her on Monday! It is really exciting, made even more so with all that has gone on. The only part that is a bummer is that due to the outbreak of Swine Flu (H1N1), the hospital has introduced a bunch of restrictions, mainly that no one under 18 may visit and only 2 visitors at a time. So, the girls are not going to be able to go to the hospital. Layla is going to be angry, but what can we do? We don't want her or Jilly getting sick, you know?

Layla is getting VERY excited. At first she told us we had better be having a girl and she would be mad if we brought home a boy, but has come around in the past 2 weeks and wants a brother. I guess we will see. We do have names picked out, but you will have to wait! :)

In other news, Layla turned 4! We had a great Cinderella Princess Party for her. Lots of family and some friends came and we all had a great time. She received a lot of wonderful gifts (which I am WAY behind on getting Thank You notes out...SORRY!). We got her a Princess Bike which she wants to ride all the time and is getting mad that it is getting dark earlier and cold and that she can't go out whenever she wants. But, such is fall. :)

So, I guess that is all for now, I hope that catches you up! :) I will leave you with a couple of pics of the girls and say I will be back next week with pics of a new baby and 2 proud big sisters!

Long Time No Type!!

OK, OK, so I know that it has been months and months since I have been on here, but life just gets crazier and crazier.

The girls are doing really well. Sometimes I can't get over just how big they are getting. Layla is 3 1/2 going on about 20, but is so darn cute. She is so smart. Sometimes I just can't believe how intelligent she is. She is very into puzzles right now. She has 2 large ones that she does on the floor. She insists that she needs help, but almost always ends up doing them on her own. And she is obviously so proud once she completes them. She has a map puzzle too and knows where we live and where Florida and usually California are (Disney World/Land). It is really funny. She loves books and can often be found chillin' on the couch reading her story books. I am going to have to figure out how to start teaching her phonics so that she can start to read by herself. She has several books memorized like "Go Dog Go", "Goodnight Moon", and "A Woset in the Closet". As you read them to her, she says them along with you. It is very cute. She is such a beauty too. As she gets older, we are really in trouble. But, that is probably going to be the case with both of the girls. Oh, Layla loves jokes too, her favorite is "Knock knock", "who's there?", "Olive", Olive who?", "Olive you!" It is so very cute.

Then there is Jillian. I swear that girl just LOVES to laugh. She is really ticklish and loves to laugh at her daddy and sissy. She is loving riding around on the play tractor and she really likes books too. It is so funny to sit and watch her "read" them. Well, and then she tears them up, but oh well, that is what a little girl is supposed to do. :) She is getting big, sometimes it is difficult to believe how big she is getting. She runs all over the place, says "Dada" and "Mama" and sometimes we swear she says "Layla", "sissy", and "I Love you". She is such a loving little girl and is always ready with a hug or kiss (although, we are still working on kisses, she usually just gives you her forehead).

The baby is doing well. This kid is as strong as a horse. And, it is a good thing because we have had a lot of complications over the past couple of weeks. On Father's Day, I ended up having to come into the ER at the hospital with big time abdominal pain. They sent me home that morning, but after throwing up stomach acid for 5 hours, I knew I was dehydrated and wasn't getting better, so back to the ER I went. Turned out that my appendix needed to come out! Can you believe it? I mean weren't the kidney stones with Jillian enough? Apparently not. So, I had the surgery that Sunday night. It turned out that the appendix burst as the surgeon was taking it out, so I had the further complications of a drainage tube and such. I went home that Wednesday, but never felt better. I felt like I would take 3 steps forward and 10 back! The last straw was about Thursday or Friday and I started having what I thought were stomach cramps, but as I started paying more attention to them, I realized that they were about 1 to 3 minutes apart. Eric and I headed back to the ER about 1am Monday morning and have been here ever since. The doctors FINALLY were able to get the contractions to stop completely last night, but the medicine really made me feel awful. But, it did stop the contractions and that is what matters. Luckily the contractions were NOT productive and I wasn't actually in labor, just in a lot of pain. I am feeling better now, but am REALLY sore. I feel like I went to the gym for the first time in like 5 years and worked myself to death. The doctor should be here soon so hopefully I will know what is going on. I am just praying that I won' t have to be on bedrest as I am not sure how that works with 2 little girls at home. I guess we will see though.

I think Eric is doing ok, I know he is stressing about all that is going on. Especially since things at work are FINALLY picking up, he is trying ot balance everything. Please keep him in your prayers as I know he is working really hard to keep the family going and I love him more for it every day. He is such a wonderful man and I think GOD for bringing him into my life.

Thank you for all of the well wishes, the support, and the prayers. They are all greatly appreciated. I am a very lucky women to have such great friends and family.