Nolan visits the doctor

We took nolan in today for his first check up with our pediatrician. actually it is the second time he got to see her since she does rounds at the hospital, she came in to see him while we were still there. Everything went great! He is perfect and sweet, oh and medically he checked out great too. He has gained 11 oz since we brought him home and grown a whole inch! Most relieving of all was the fact that his chromosome test came back already and so far as they can tell his chromosomes are all in order, no deletions, or duplications. we were prepared for it to go either way. after having a child as wonderful and amazing as isaac we know that no matter what we can handle it and be happy with our family however God chooses to create it. it is however fabulous news, to know that we may not have to face as many challenges this time around. or at least not the same challenges :)
after the appointment we took the boys ( i love saying that) up to church to visit with the staff who have not seen nolan yet. after they were done oohing and ahhing we took isaac outside to swing on the big boy swings and nolan got to experience the out of doors for the first time. it was a great day for us all, but a tiring first outing. the boys are both down for a snooze and as soon as i finish typing this i too will head off to dreamland for a short nap.

Isaac holds Nolan

this is isaacs first time holding nolan! he did such a great job. he kept wanting to kiss him, and cuddle him. it was definitely a precious moment. looking at these pictures for the first time had me all teary eyed. these are my boys.

just nolan

just nolan

nolan and the family

Nolan Levi Arrives

as most of you probably know by now our little one has finally arrived! Nolan Levi was born on Friday at 4:28pm he weighed 7lbs 9oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. we started our day with a 7:30 am call from my doctor saying that he had reviewed the ultrasound we had on thursday and he wanted to deliver the baby now because my amniotic fluid was increasing rapidly (he didn't have to tell me, believe me i knew) i had already been awake when he phoned, call it mothers intuition if you will, but i had a feeling he would be calling and setting something up. i woke tom up, asked him if he wanted to go have a baby today and that is how our day began. when we got to the hospital they "fast tracked" us and we were in a room, pumping me full of iv fluid prepping me for surgery all in a remarkably fast pace for a hospital.

Isaac and Samantha

Here are a few photos of isaac and my niece samantha. they don't get to see each other as often as we would like since we live two hours away from my brother derek and his wife, april. we got together as a family on Elijah's birthday and it was great to see the kids together. my niece is the cutest little girl ever, she has this smile that just shines, and she is really sweet with isaac. isaac has a very hard time with other kids, mostly any person under the age of five. older kids and adults he does great with but little people his own size he just doesn't know what to do with. i think it is because they are so unpredictable, they might scream, or squeal at any given moment and isaac usually interprets these as negative even if they are just being kids. he did pretty good yesterday though, he actually played in the same vicinity as samantha and he even spoke to her a couple of times. he said, "we love you" when she first arrived and later in the day when she gave him his cup he said "thank you" these are big steps for him. he loves her, he talks about her all the time at home, he prays for her every night, he even talks to her picture, its just when he is actually around her that he has a hard time. poor samantha does a great job with him even though she is so little and doesn't understand why he doesn't just run and play with her. all in all it was a good day with them, i think they both had fun though not necessarily together.

Isaac and Samantha

A date for baby arrival

I just got a call from my doctor and they have moved my c-section up to Monday April 23rd at 1:30. that means only six days and 20 hrs til the newest little rundel will be here with us. I am so excited and nervous, and i can't wait to meet this baby. it seems like we have been waiting forever, and i definitely feel like i have been pregnant forever. tom pointed out to me last night that when you add up my pregnancies i have been pregnant for almost two and a half years, which is half of our marriage! wow when you put it like that its a lot of pregnant! well unless baby decides to show up before then we are scheduled now for delivery, we will keep everyone posted. please keep praying for the babies health and for the surgery to go as planned, no surprises!

Elijah Thomas 2nd Birthday

Tomorrow is April 15th. For those of you who know us, you know that this is a big day for us. It is our son Elijah Thomas' birthday. He would have been two years old. It has been an emotional week for us with all the anticipation of baby number three, and the anniversary of losing Elijah. One of the things i am so very thankful for is that since baby three is not here yet we will be able to go to the cemetery and spend Elijah's birthday there. We were able to do this last year and are so glad we will be able to do so again. It is very peaceful and restful to be there. i know that my son is not there, i know that he is resting safely in the arms of Jesus, but somehow we are comforted when we are able to be there at the cemetery. After we spend the day at the cemetery we are going to go over to toms parents house to have a dinner/birthday party. my parents will be there also, and my sister in law with my niece. it will be nice to be with the family and remember our beautiful, precious baby and all that his life and death have done to change our lives. On Elijah's birth announcement we had printed "each new life no matter how fragile or brief forever changes the world" when we had that printed we knew only a fraction of how true a statement that really was. from his life and death we are forever changed. who we are, how we relate to the world around us, how we relate to our father in heaven, our capacity to empathize with others who have experienced losses of there own, all of these things and so much much more were and are directly impacted by his short but beautiful life. i thank my God that i was able to experience the life of our little one, Elijah Thomas.

the trampoline arrives!

For Easter we had isaac's grandparents, his great grandma (G.G) and some family friends Pam and Doug go in with us to buy this wonderful little trampoline. It finally arrived today and we put it together right away. as you can see from the photos isaac loves it. they got one like it at physical therapy a few weeks ago. after seeing my little boy who would "never walk" jumpin with joy and enthusiasm on a trampoline tom and i had to have one for him at home. not only is it great fun for him it is great physical therapy as well! he is sure to have tons of fun with it for a long time to come. isaac and his mama and daddy say thank you very much to all who pitched in to buy him this great gift!

No Baby Yet

So here we are at the end of the week and no baby yet. We went in on tuesday for the amnio but three strikes and your out i guess. they tried three times but the little one kept jumping right in the path of the needle each time. I had been having contractions all through the weekend, and after having a needle put in my belly all those times my uterus staged a bit of a revolt and contracted quite a lot for the next five hours. they kept us in the hospital hooked up to fetal monitors and at one point they were convinced they were going to do the c-section that day. alas the contractions began to settle down and we went from were having a baby today; to we're going home now. it was a very up and down kind of day, very exhausting, emotionally and physically. we saw the doctor again yesterday and unless the baby decides otherwise they are going to wait to deliver until April 25th. with out the amnio the doctor can't be sure about the babies lung development, so is being cautious and waiting til we hit the 39 week marker. God has a perfect time for this baby to be born, and apparently tuesday was not it.

Belly Comparison

Belly Comparison

So this time around everyone wants to know how big did my belly get? am i as big as i was with the other two? well, i have finally gotten around to finding the photos from Isaac and Elijah and tom took some belly photos for baby number three on Easter. you be the judge. We can all say for sure that i had the biggest belly with Elijah. As for Isaac and number three i think it might be a toss up. i feel huge but i think any woman who is nine months pregnant feels huge, no matter what her size actually is! we are almost there, we are going in for our amnio in about ten hours. if all is well with the babies lungs we could have the baby by the end of the week! I am excited and nervous at the same time

Opening the Easter Basket

Isaac had so much fun with his easter basket and gift this year! (and so did mama and daddy) he got a couple of chocolate bunnies from other folks, some fruit snacks from mama and daddy, some elmo paper which he opened and used as a phone, and some bubbles.
It was all really simple stuff but if you know Isaac at all you know that it dosn't take much to make him smile. He has the greatest imagination, whatever we get him he will have fun with.





Here is Isaac and his daddy opening up the "big" gift we got him for easter this year, a toy vacuum! Isaac loves to sweep the floor with his toy broom, and for the last few months he has been pretending that his guitar was a vacuum. we decided to let him use his imagination on other things and spring for the vacuum, and as you can see from the photos it was worth every cent of the $12 we spent on it! He loves it and spent the remainder of the day vacuuming the carpet and telling us "i'm vacuuming" and "i got a vacuum!"

It really is a neat little toy, it has a headlight just like mama and daddy's and it makes noise like a real vacuum. (a little gorilla tape goes a long way when placed over the speaker) It is light weight and easy for Isaac to push without being too light and flimsy. all in all if he never touched it again i would say that he played $12 dollars worth just today.

Easter Basket

Here is Isaac's Easter Basket. We got this basket for his very first easter and have somehow managed to keep it intact and unlost. When he was a baby and we put his things in it for the first time he growled at it, it was the funniest thing ever. this year i think he will dig right in and want to play with his gifts and he will surely say, "i want to eat it"when he sees the fruit snacks. i will try to post more pictures later after he has gotten his presents, right now he is taking a nap.