Introducing Meredith Hope Beasley

Wow! It's been a week already since little Meredith was born. That had to have been the fastest week I've had in over nine months!! My pregnancy made time feel like it was stuck in molases, I just wanted it to be overwith. Now that Meredith is here time is once again flying by and I wish it would slow down again. I hate how fast these first few months with a new baby just fly by. Sure, there are the constant feedings, diaper changes, crying, and the disrupted sleep. But then there are the quiet moments with her curled up in a ball on my chest, or her laying on the floor looking around, and the constant adoration doled out on her by her siblings. This doesn't last long. Soon she'll be too interested looking around to want to lay on my chest. It won't be long before she can roll over which leads to mobility. She'll start to babble and give up the adorable cooing sounds she makes now, and soon (hopefully) she'll be sleeping through the night. So I've been trying to treasure every moment I have with her while she's so little. I know I'm spoiling her, she's already having a hard time sleeping in her bassinet, at least during the day, because neither Rob or I want to put her down. She has done pretty good at night so far. Last night she did great, we managed to be asleep by 10:30 with only one feeding around 2 am and then she had us up by 6. Would have been nice to sleep just a tad bit longer but we really did need to get up and moving anyway.

Her delivery went pretty smooth. I was disappointed in how long it took and the epidural ran out about when I needed it most but that was my fault. Other than that nothing to complain about. I managed to panic a nurse, that was pretty funny. When things FINALLY got going I jumped from a 4 to a 9 in an hour, after hours and hours of nothing happening. It was, of course, during this time that the doctor had decided to leave to go home for a bit. That has happened with almost every baby, the doctor decides I'm going to be awhile so he/she leaves and a nurse ends up frantically calling them back in. So, the nurse was a bit freaked out when she was faced with the possibility that she would be delivering the baby as the doctor was at least 20 minutes away. I did manage to hold out and wait for the doctor but just barely. Was just about to tell the nurse she'd be doing it when my doctor came flying in. Wasn't much longer until I was holding Meredith in my arms, with me half dead from the pushing and not having had anything to eat since 5 am (she was born at about 6 pm), but so happy to have her here! She weighed in at 9 lbs 4 oz and 21 inches long! Our biggest baby yet :) First baby of ours born with chubby arms and thighs too! So cute. She was, and still is, just beautiful. Somehow she managed to avoid the whole cone head look so she had a cute little round head, despite being so big. She was and continues to be a pretty laid back baby. Even when they were doing the different tests on her she never cried. Meredith slept through the hearing test they do and then during the heal prick and blood draw all she needed was a pacifier in her mouth.

She has been a joy to have home! The kids all love her and are always asking if they can hold her. She sat with Nathaniel for quite some time yesterday, just calmly sitting in his arms staring at his face. I think it was the glasses :) She doesn't cry much unless it's really close to time to eat and we don't do it immediately. Then she gets mad. She's only gotten really mad maybe a couple of times. Nursing is going really well with her, I'm very glad about this. I had thought about doing bottles just for the convenience but the thought of buying formula again always stops me, it's too dang expensive. And she just picked right up on it so no reason to not nurse her. Just gives me another excuse to sit down and cuddle her :) 

And now some pictures :)

 

It's Almost Time!!

Getting very nervous now. For once the day has flown by. So weird to think that by this time tomorrow we will (hopefully) have a new family member!! ACK!!! I'm not going to sleep well tonight. We leave here about 5:30 am to be at the hospital by 6. I think things will get started a little after 7. I'm going to be up all night thinking, I just know it. The last two nights have been that way, thinking about everything I need to get done. Just finished the last thing on my list but still feel like I must be missing something. Haha. I will not be bringing my lap top so pictures will have to wait until we get home, which will probably be Tuesday. And even then, doubt I'll get any pictures up very soon.

Can't wait to meet her! Excited to see what she looks like and how she'll resemble her siblings :) Right now it's pretty even, two kids take after Rob's side and two take after mine. Fingers crossed we don't see any signs of CF but we are ready to accept it if she does. We won't know for sure until results come back on the blood test. Oregon FINALLY has CF on the newborn blood tests they do. But there are things to watch for, at least the signs we saw with Elizabeth, we just didn't know what they meant at the time.

Of course the big question is-How the heck am I going to arrange pictures on the wall now? LOL 4 is so symmetrical, 5 just isn't. Unless it's a pentagon and well, hard to put the pictures on the wall in that shape. Believe it or not I've had several friends ask me about that. The ones that know I like symmetry :) At least it will be awhile before I have photos done of her. I have some more time to think about it.

Ok, off to see what I'm missing and make sure things are clean and ready to go. Then, have to attempt to sleep, HA!

Elizabeth Earned Her Blue!!

The Juniors class at the dojo had their belt test a few weeks ago and Elizabeth passed! She received her new blue belt last night. Very proud of her, she did an awesome job.

Here are some pictures from their testing:

All geared up and ready to spar.

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All done sparring!

Her awesome Juniors class with her most awesome teachers!

Fighting stance with a kiai!

I Should Be Sleeping

It's 9:30 pm at my house right now. EVERYONE is asleep. Except me. The one night everybody is in bed conked out at an early hour and the one who should be exhausted isn't. Ug! It's not like I'm not tired. I have just reached the point where I no longer look forward to going to sleep, which is terribly sad as I love sleep! I know what will happen. I will lay down exhausted. I'll start to drift off when my legs will either start itching like crazy or they'll just start moving on their own. I get restless leg syndrom really bad when I'm pregnant. It is incredibly annoying! If it's not that it's the horrible heartburn I've got going on these days. I have never dealt with that with any pregnancy before. I feel sorry for anyone who has to deal with this on a daily basis, it totally SUCKS! Zantac was working but the last two nights it hasn't even touched it and laying down will just make it worse, so why try? And lately, when I finally do fall asleep, I'll wake up every 1/2 hour to change sides as my hips get very sore. I'll officially wake up around midnight thinking it's at least 3 or 4 am. I just cringe when I realize I still have 6 1/2 more hours of trying to sleep!!


So, I'm sitting here emptying one of my memory cards to my camera. Figured I may as well use the time to organize the photos off of it somewhat and then get it emptied so we have a camera ready for the hospital. It has been fun to go back through the photos. They go all the way back to Oct 2010 with Elizabeth's baptism. I never got those photos up at the time so may share some here. Then there was the crazy busy Christmas season. Then the pictures jump to Seth's bday in April.

I did finish the top to the quilt I'm making the baby. I will get a picture of it later. I don't feel like getting it and hanging it up so I can get a decent picture of it right now. I like it, it was a very fun pattern to work with and I will be trying some other colors with it in the future. The rest of the quilt will have to wait until after the baby is born as I have to lay it on the floor to pin it and, well, just not a good position to be in with a belly bump the size of a boulder hanging off the front.

I will be so glad when this is over. Not like I'll still get any sleep but at least it won't be because I'm in pain or I can't get comfortable around this ginormous belly. So looking forward to being able to sleep on my stomach again!!

As promised a few pictures from the past :)

Elizabeth and Rob before her baptism. She was baptized by her dad.



Elizabeth and Christy



Our beautiful happy daughter after her baptism



Our mad scientist around Halloween time



Seth being cute in front of the newly decorated Christmas tree

Seth's little music group performed Christmas music at a local nursing home



Jonathan's first band concert Dec 2010



Sick Girl Speaks

Rob and I had the opportunity to attend a CF forum today hosted by Kaiser. It was the first time Kaiser had invited OHSU patients to their event. I had no idea Kaiser had been hosting their own forums/seminars and OHSU their own. I hope inviting each other is something they keep doing.

The one we attended today was more on a personal level. They had a panel of 3 CF patients who spoke to us about their different experiences with the disease. Two had been diagnosed as babies but one not until she was in her 40's! What was interesting is she seemed from an outward appearance to be the healthier of the three. However, she also spends up to 4 hours a day doing her treatments. One young man looked like he'd been having a hard year and he admitted he had. The other lady was also having a harder year but she admitted to not being as good about her treatments. She is also suffering from diabetes. It was just amazing to see how different all three viewed their illness and how it affected their lives.

We then had the pleasure of listening to Tiffany Christensen speak. She is author of the book "Sick Girl Speaks!". She was so fun to listen to. Tiffany had you laughing one minute and tearing up the next. Though the tearing up may have just been me since I cry at the drop of a hat these days. She had so many wonderful insights into her illness and has had an incredible journey through life. She was selling and signing her book after so we picked one up and had her address it to Elizabeth. We gave the book to Elizabeth when we got home and even though it may be a bit over her reading level she is already trying to read through it. E told us she was happy to have it and I think it will do her some good to see she's not the only one suffering from CF. I plan to read it when she isn't and hopefully it will bring up some good conversation.

All in all I'm glad we went. I think we both learned a lot.

First Stitches

Rob and I have always believed our number 2 child, Jonathan, would be the first to either break a bone or have to get stitches. He's always having close calls but always manages to get out of the situation without major injury. Well, Seth surprised us this week and got the first set of stitches.

Poor kid was just walking near one of the wall corners, tripped over his own foot, and landed squarely on the corner with his head. I looked up just in time to see it happen and knew it was going to be bad. Sure enough Seth needed 6 stitches to close it back up! Rob and I had to run him to the ER. We really didn't have to wait too long and I really liked the doctor we had. Seth was great, the doctor told him his only job was to hold his head very still and he did just that.

We get to go tomorrow to have them pulled out. I was surprised they didn't need to stay in there very long.

I had to laugh because I realized this is the 3rd pregnancy in a row where something traumatic has happened around 8 or 9 months. When I was pregnant with Seth Elizabeth got lost at the zoo, I was there around my due date. Longest 1/2 hour of my life! When I was pregnant with her, Jonathan was screwing around and managed to puncture his tonsil with one of those long tinker toy sticks. Definitely afraid to have anymore as I'm sure someone is going to lose a limb the next time!

Birthday Fun!

Seth celebrated his 4th birthday on April 2nd. Can't believe he is four already!! He gets mad at me when I call him "baby" now :( He insists he is a big boy now! But just like I've told the others, he will always be my baby. A few weeks before he let us know he wanted a party. I told him we would go to Out of This World with a few of his friends. I just wasn't going to have the energy for a party. My friend has been telling me about this place for awhile now but I've never gotten over there. Figured this was a good time to try it. It's just a big indoor playland type place. The kids loved it! I will agree with the reviews about the food though, the pizza really isn't very good at all. The salad I got though was very yummy, so can always stick with the salads. I'm pretty sure all the kids thoroughly wore themselves out. They all left sweaty and red-faced. Even Jonathan had a good time despite being 11 and bigger than everyone there :) Seth came home and crashed for 2 1/2 hours. Had to wake him up for his cake and presents that we did later.

 

Rob and I bought Seth foam blocks. He was in the habit of taking all the tp we bought from Costco and using it to build with. We figured he needed the blocks :) 

This morning I was sitting here working with Elizabeth and Seth was quietly playing with his blocks. When I looked up this is what I saw. He's such a nut :) 

This is a TV pillow he received from our friend Lori. Came in handy as Conference was this Sunday. He immediatly ran down and grabbed it to lay on while we watched Conference.