Nolan is 4 months old today - almost 3.5 times his birth weight!!

Nolan's four month stats:
Length - 25 inches tall (50th percentile)
Weight - 15 lbs 4 oz (50th percentile)
Head Circumference (75th percentile...lots of brains!!!)

Needless to say, our little boy isn't so little anymore. Looks like he's catching right up to his friends and leaving some in the dust! Go Nolan! He continues to amaze us and show us what a strong little guy he is! It's amazing how such a small person can carry so much strength. Ever since he was the little munchkin weighing 4 lbs 14 oz when he was born and dropping down to 4 lbs 6 oz in the NICU, he's proven just how strong he is.

Nolan is finally getting better from his little virus that he had. Last week after heading to urgent care, they told us that if he wasn't better two or three days later that he should go to see his pediatrician. So last Friday to the doctor we went. He had a very nasty sounding cough and wasn't acting like his normal self. Well, I'm sure glad that we went. He had an ear infection and she also thought that he had RSV. NOOOO!!! RSV is what he had gotten the shots for two months ago and one month ago to prevent him from getting a serious case of it. The test did come back negative and he's getting better and better each day. We continue using his nebulizer to help get the gunk out of his chest and he'll be on an antibiotic for one more week. We can't wait for spring!


Tessa continues to be a goofball and a great big sister. Nolan is starting to think she's the silliest thing. Soon enough he'll be up chasing her around and they will be playing together, like perfect little angels:) Of course they will never fight:) Here is Tessa playing with one of her favorite toys. The blocks from Daddy's classroom that she loves building towers with and spelling words (with the help of others of course).


This is what happened a few days ago when daddy was getting Tessa dressed to go sledding outside. I think he was in such a hurry because he was so excited himself. When he was getting her dressed I heard her say, "Daddy, that is too tight", a few times but never thought anything of it. Sure enough...her pants were too tight because both of her legs were shoved into one pant leg. Nice job daddy!! We all got a good laugh out of that one!

A Night Out for Derek and I

What a night it was! We were lucky enough to have our kiddos stay at Grandma and Grandpa's for a slumber party while Derek and I had a slumber party with our friends. (Yes we are 28 and 29 years old and we still love the slumber parties...who doesn't!?!) It was great to get out of the house together with the two of us and socialize with our friends together. The last time that we really socialized with our friends was in July, one month before I was in the hospital and before our world started spinning a bit. Of course we did a lot of socializing with our friends while I was in the hospital but that doesn't count!!

So to the Mayfield's we went on Saturday night to an "ugly" sweater party. Now don't be offended...just because the sweater looks "ugly" on me doesn't mean that it looks "ugly" on you. Derek and I both sported the holiday sweater, mine compliments of St. Vincent's and Derek's compliment of a friend of Jess'. We also both had the most comfy pants on. Derek's were my dad's from the 70's and mine were my mom's from the late 60's to early 70's. My oh my were they comfy. Not to mention my stud of a husband won the "ugliest outfit" contest of the night for the guys. And what a prize he won. Thank you guys for the beautiful rooster lamp with no shade that looks 100 years old...but oh, sorry that we "accidentally" forgot it there the next morning. Nice try Mayfield, slipping it into our blankets that we forgot...and now the present was pawned off onto the Baron's. Rosie - Merry Christmas, we knew you'd love it God-daughter of ours:)

Nolan's first trip to Madison...to urgent care :(

Last night was Nolan's first trip to Madison. He's been in the car riding home from Madison when he came home from the hospital on October 30 and hasn't returned until last night. Starting Sunday he started to get a pretty nasty cough. Over the past few days it has gotten progressively worse so yesterday evening we took him to urgent care to be checked out. With his once premature lungs, the biggest fear of him getting sick this winter was having his cough turn into pneumonia. We want to nip this in the butt right now so it doesn't come to that. We have been living in a "bubble" for long enough now that our "bubble" is full of germs. We didn't want the germs to enter but they found their way in...darn. The doctor last night didn't seem too concerned and said that everything that is going on seems very normal for an infant with a very bad cold or virus. We just need to keep a close eye on him and make sure a fever doesn't develop. After we got home last night, mister man slept right through the night like he's been doing lately. I wasn't expecting that after his day yesterday.

Then he woke up today and he seemed okay in the morning. He went to Jess' today and he needed quite the snuggles. He didn't want to be put down for very long and wasn't very interested in his bottles. He is spitting up quite a bit but it's all normal with his chest and nasal congestion. He has had moments where he struggles with his breathing but will then catch his breath and be fine. We just want this nasty cold to go away!! We don't want it to turn into anything worse than a cold! I've always been paranoid when Tessa has gotten sick and now with Nolan, it's a whole new ballgame. The poor doctors are going to be sick of me but that is why we pay for insurance, right?? If Nolan continues to stay the same or gets worse we will be heading to see his pediatrician on Friday. She's great but she's going to fall over when she sees that he now weights 14 pounds 12 ounces (with clothes and a diaper on)!! The miracle formula is sure doing it's job!!

Those tiny, cute preemie outfits!

Today I was cleaning out Nolan's clothes because he is growing out of his clothes like a madman! I couldn't help but take a picture of him with one of his old outfits sitting next to him. Right after Nolan was born he didn't wear clothes. All he wore was his diaper since he was nice and warm in his isolette. When he was two weeks old he started wearing jammies...preemie size just like the picture. I can't believe how much he's grown! Those jammies that are laying next to him are so tiny and so cute! They are even too small for most of Tessa's babies that she plays with. We love watching our little guy grow bigger and bigger and bigger! (And yes, that is a "circle" you see in the upper right-hand corner of the photo...I'm not too surprised to see that show up often!)


Tessa loves building towers with her blocks (or anything that can be stacked on top of each other).


She also loves the binoculars that Mason gave to her. This past week I went to get Nolan from Jessie's after school. I was just about to walk out the door and Mason came flying up the stairs screaming, "Wait, wait. You need to take Tessa her pwesant from me. I wapped it and it's weady for her." (He talks so cute, almost like he's living on the East Coast.) I guess around Christmas time Mason found some Dora wrapping paper and wrapped this present for her. When we got home she tore it open and it was a pair of Mason's binoculars. She loved them and it was so cute how excited he was to give them to her. Tessa had to call him right away after opening them to say how much she loved them and to thank him.


Of course dancing with Nolan is always a favorite! He just keeps that straight face on as she flys around him and sings really loud. She's a crazy monkey and he loves watching her!


Snuggle, snuggle, snuggle. There is always time in a day for some snuggles.

New Year's Eve

This is picture from tonight at Keva. For those of us in my family that know and believe in the "circle", the picture was very neat. I cropped it so it was just of Tessa but there were many things going on in this picture with many different kids and Tessa seems as if she is looking right at the circle where she could reach out and grab it. I had to include it tonight in my post...

Almost the beginning of a new year...it's hard to believe. This year sure put us on a rollercoaster ride of a lifetime and I couldn't have asked for the year to end any better than it has. We are very lucky for everything that we have in our life. Four months ago we didn't know what to think, three months ago we had a few answers to some of the unknowns but still weren't really sure what our future was going to bring for us. Now we are looking back, thankful that the "loopty-loop-upside-down" part of the rollercoaster ride is in our past, and we are looking ahead to the new year thankful that our ride has stopped and finally He is letting us off. I used to love rollercoaster rides...not anymore! Now I'm too scared to get on as I don't know exactly where the ride is taking me.

We celebrated the beginning of a new year tonight at Keva. A fun outing for kids...lots of kids...tons of kids...hundreds of kids! Derek and Nolan stayed home once again for some football watching boy time and Tessa and I went to Keva. Jess, Beau and the kids were there, as well as Jeremy, Brenda, Sadie, and Evan. Tessa LOVED it! So much fun! There's a short video below showing what Sadie and Tessa did over and over and over again on the mats. Tessa had a difficult time waiting in line to take her turn again because she was sooo excited to run and jump on the mats again. The mats were set up so the kids could do somersaults...Sadie was close to getting it and Tessa just wanted to jump and land on her butt. All of the kids were glowing with excitement! There were so many kids there. As we were running, chasing, jumping all over I actually ran into one of Nolan's nurses from the NICU. I chatted with her for just a few moments and she asked how he was doing, so I of course filled her in that he's growing like a weed. I am starting to feel a bit guilty about always leaving him behind and not coming with us places, but after my conversation tonight with her, she verified that he's doing exactly what he should be right now...staying away from as many germs as he can!

Tessa loved going down the slide (notice how many kids are all over the place on the bounce house...CRAZINESS but so much fun!!). The picture below shows what the bottom of the slide looked like...piles of kids. Mitchell (aka the pirate) and Mas were loving the action too!

Here are a few random shots from the day.Tessa playing hide-n-go seek and never understanding how we can find her so quickly (as she is hiding behind the sheer curtain in Nolan's bedroom!!). :)

Just hanging out being cute. Tessa wishing she was a baby again and reliving all of the moments underneath the elephant toy.

Here's to a happy, healthy 2010.

The Gift of Giving

This year for Christmas Jessie came up with an alternative idea to exchanging gifts between us. What a great idea. Instead of purchasing something for Jessie, Beau, and Bryan, we instead were to do something nice for someone else. Oh what to do, what to do. The ideas started coming but we couldn't pinpoint exactly what we wanted to do. Since me being in the hospital was such a big part of the year for us, I decided to do something for someone else that is currently on bedrest at the hospital. I put together a goody basket full of tons of stuff (things to do, things to eat, things to take her mind off of just sitting). I delivered it to the hospital and because of confidentiality reasons, I was unable to know anything about the patient. I hope that their ending is exactly like ours. A pregnancy that resulted in a healthy mommy and baby (or babies). I heard that the mother really enjoyed the gift basket and that it was delivered during a crucial time where she needed some good news. I hope that it brought a bright spirit to her soul.

Derek decided to take a gas giftcard to the NICU to help someone pay for their tank of gas as they are making trip after trip to the NICU like we did. With all of the worries that some families have, it's too bad that some families also have to worry about how they will afford to travel back and forth to be with their baby. Derek delivered this giftcard to the NICU with a card explaining what we had been through and that he had hoped that this card could take a bit of stress off of the expense of gas. Of course all families in the NICU deserve this sort of gift. Derek told the nurse to give it to a family they thought could really use it. Yesterday we received a card from the family that had been given the giftcard. What a deserving family! It was a family that had been in there when we were in there. Their son was born the same day as Nolan so the entire time that we had been in there, they were in there. We would see them in passing in the hallways and had several brief conversations with them, but that was about it. We were in there because Nolan had to finish developing and at first they were in there for similar reasons. As days went on after the boys were born, this other little boy started to have other complications where he went through numerous surgeries. He is still in the NICU and this is the family that received the giftcard. It sure is another reminder for how lucky we are. Thinking about Nolan still being in the NICU makes my heart feel so heavy. I hope that baby Emmett will soon be able to come home to his mommy and daddy and his two year old sister. I pray that he will be healthy and that they can start to enjoy their family of four just as we have been able to do.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

We love Christmas. We couldn't decide which photos to place on the blog so we put all of them up! Too many to choose from and too many exciting moments to skip any. After our Christmas at the mom and dad's the parties started rolling. Tessa was the one that actually should be worn out since she's the only one that went to every party. Nolan stayed home from the big parties with either Derek or I while one of us took Tessa. We started Christmas Eve opening presents at our house with just the four of us. Santa came while Tessa was napping. What good timing Santa! A good way to start the evening and the Christmas festivities.

Christmas Eve Tessa and I went to the Mitchell family Christmas. Always so much fun! After our shopping trip a few weeks ago, I wasn't sure if Tessa was going to be too into the Santa thing come Christmas Eve. Oh boy, did she ever get into it. She was so excited. All of the little ones have this glow in their eyes when they see Santa. It's always such a magical moment. Tessa, like all of the others, were beaming with excitement from the moment that they heard the first bell to the second he left. It was adorable. She was very, very excited but wasn't willing to sit on his lab. Maybe next year. :) It was another great Christmas Eve with our family and it was so much fun to meet baby Ryan. Ace and Andrea - he is such a cutie! Can't wait for you to come back again to visit.

Christmas day came around quickly and so did the parties. We started the day going to Derek's parents to exchange gifts. Tessa was very excited about her toys that she opened but really, really wanted to go upstairs to play in the toy room. So she spent a majority of the time upstairs playing with her toys and playing hide-n-go seek with Uncle John.

Then Tessa and I headed to my parents for the Meade Christmas. Once again, great food, good times, lots of chatting and silly stories, and gift exchanges. Tessa was so tired that she slept for most of the time that we were there. She kept asking to go lay down with her "guys" and I felt bad saying no when she was exhausted. We were only staying for a short while so I had to wake Tessa up before the present opening. We all went to the basement but before we could start the Christmas celebrating we had something extra special to celebrate. Uncle "Mikers" turned 60 on Christmas Eve so we started the celebrating by singing Happy Birthday. What a great way to start the celebrations. Tessa and I stayed for only a short while and then Tessa proceeded to Christmas #3 of the day with Derek. Wow, what a day for Tessaroo. We are so lucky to have our families so close that we are able to join in all of the festivities!

I love hanging out at home while everyone else is partying, having fun, and eating delicious food.


Yes, I put my fingers in my mouth when I get a little nervous. I think I heard Santa's bells. Is it really him???


Yep, it's Santa! I better sit in my rocking chair and get ready to stare him down.


He called my name! Can you believe it! I WAS a good girl this year. (Not only was she a good girl, but helped to take stress away from so many stressful situations this fall!! Nolan is so lucky to have her as his big sister!)


Another one!?! I'm so excited that I can't stop giggling! What is it??? A Dora purse with some jewelry and Dora underpants! Maybe I should start wearing underpants and go on the potty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Always so sad to have Christmas over. Tessa was helping me to clean up Christmas before we rearranged our living space to fit all of the new toys!

A great end to a crazy year.