Some Christmas Wishes...

Merry Christmas to all...

May yours be as white and joyful as ours...

full of peace and brotherly love...

and to all a good night!!!

Yay, Everyone Is Home!!!

Eli was finally discharged from the hospital this afternoon around 1:00, and we drove him home in the beginnings of another snow storm, maybe the one he was waiting for inside me! We are all pretty excited, but wiped out too. We're all enjoying holding him and loving on him, and resting up. Now we will have to start thinking about Christmas again, and Isaac's birthday, both of which I can't believe are pretty much already upon us! Yet another December lost in a whirlwind! Travis and I have such an amazing record going of messing up the holidays, so I think that next year we will give everyone a break and just take a family ski trip. :)
How happy I am to have my boys together finally! Isaac was pretty excited to be able to touch Eli, and only had a few moments of sibling rivalry, including his first potty accident in about a month!

Two years ago, this picture was us introducing Isaac to Bojo. How blessed we feel now to have two beautiful and healthy boys, home for Christmas. I think Bojo would say that its way too much of a blessing though, poor old guy. I'm sure he can give Isaac some advice, :)

Loading up to leave the hospital,

Here he is, tube free at last!

Eli's Got A Reason To Smile!

This morning, Eli came off oxygen and had a great day of snuggling with me and breathing great. So, the doctor is having him moved to a regular room and Travis and I get to spend the night with him, monitor free (yay, no beep) and then, even more exciting, bring him home tomorrow!!! Poor guy, he doubled his brother's record in the NICU, tomorrow is day ten. I can't begin to describe how relieved I am to have this over with, feels like I'm emerging from a coma! Hopefully I'll have some better pics of Eli soon, home with his family!

Here's the best face shot yet, still obscured by his oxygen tube and feeding tube.

With big brother Isaac, who has no idea what's really going on yet. Pretty hard to explain that this is our baby when he never comes home.

Wearing the "shades" for the phototherapy lights. He really looks like Isaac here. Its hard to see in the pics, but Eli has dark hair, pretty funny to see that after blond bald Isaac!

Here we are in the OR before all the troubles began. The only peaceful moment we got together.

Elias' Ongoing Saga...

Well, Elias Jackson Stewart was delivered (removed from me) at 12:37 pm December 10th, the surgery went well and he was out and screaming pretty quick. Travis and I got to hang with him for a little while in the OR while the doctors were sewing me up, and then Travis and Eli left for our room. I got back there not long after, only to discover that Eli was having trouble breathing. About 20 minutes later, my worst fear was realized when he was whisked away to the neonatal intensive care unit (nicu). Today is the 17th, one week later, and he is still there. I was sent home on Sunday, the doctors kept me as long as they could in spite of my quick recovery, hoping Eli would be ready to come home too. But, right now we have no idea how long he will be in there. I don't think I will write much right now about all this, it is without a doubt the hardest most stressful thing I've ever experienced. When Isaac was in the nicu, that was almost as hard, but this is worse for two reasons, one, if I sit at the hospital all the time with Eli, I feel like I'm neglecting Isaac, two, when I leave the hospital, I don't have my baby in my arms. I'm leaving him behind with strangers night after night. And poor Isaac, what an introduction to big brotherhood. Anyhow, I'm sure y'all want to know why Eli is in the nicu. It took several days for the doctors to really agree on what was going on with him, but from the beginning it seemed apparent that his lungs had not matured properly. Within a short time of birth, he blew enough of a hole in his left lung to leak air into his chest, causing what's called a neumothorax. This became the immediate concern but was pretty quickly resolved by removing the air with a big needle so he didn't need a chest tube. However, with his lungs not quite developed, he still had to be on oxygen but since the neumothorax was a concern, that oxygen couldn't be forced into him with any pressure, so he ended up under this big bubble for his head. He was under that for at least two days and we couldn't hold him, or really even see his face much. Then he came out of that and we got to hold him for a day, then he had to go under the phototherapy lights to prevent jaundice for two days, so we didn't get to hold him much, or see his eyes much. He got to start nursing, only a couple of times a day, two days ago, and that is going to be a challenge, for both of us, after such a late start. But, I'm determined so I know once he's home it will get easy. Yesterday, he came off his IV, and today he is weaned down really close to being off oxygen. But, the doctor and all the nurses talk like he's going to be in there till next year it seems. That's how I feel anyways. We have no idea at this point when he will be home. All we can do is put everything on hold, live an insane schedule of home, work, hospital, and pray and hope we have our baby home soon.
I apologize, especially to Grandma and Great-Grandmas (that would be Isaac and Eli's) for not calling or updating more often! I've been at the hospital most of the time most days, and right now its tough to call people because I get so emotional trying to talk about all this. Please bear with my slacking!

Baby Tomorrow...

Well, looks like noon tomorrow I go on the table, unless labor starts tonight. So, one way or another, we will have the baby tomorrow. I will be in the hospital for a couple of days, I'm sure, so if you want to know all the details on the baby either call me or Travis, or wait till I post next! Until then...

Big news...

Well, my doctor called this evening and said my lab work shows preeclampsia so he offered a pitocin-induced VBAC or a c section. I'm pretty opposed to pitocin under any circumstances, but especially in a VBAC attempt (those extra strong contractions could easily tear a uterus) so c section it is, unless I go into labor before we're scheduled. We could have done it tomorrow am at 7:30, but that was a little too rushed for us so tomorrow I will find out in the morning when the big moment will be, and will let everyone know. Its looking like either sometime Wednesday afternoon, or Thursday. I'm pretty sad to give up the VBAC hope, but above all else I don't want baby ending up in the NICU like Isaac did, don't need a repeat of that trauma! With any luck, baby will just throw a monkey wrench in the plans and arrive naturally tomorrow!

Long day...

Whew, its felt like a long day today, but not because I'm in labor. That's why its felt long, I guess. The last time I was in labor, 40 hours flew by. :) So, no baby yet folks. Its probably waiting for snow too.

Hurray for the Parade...

We went downtown to the Christmas Parade today, that was fun, and I'm glad to say that it is still called a Christmas parade, not a holiday parade. I thought the walk would put me into labor, but so far no luck. Isaac was so cute, its so much fun to watch him get into things like the parade now that he can, he even got to run out into the street to hug a duck, but once he got there he wasnt' too sure about that. :) It was a good time, and what a beautiful day! I guess if we aren't going to get snow, might as well be soaking up the sunshine!

Waiting....

Ok, the calls are starting to come in, reminding me that I'm not the only one waiting anxiously on this baby, so I'll try to update daily. Shouldn't be too hard since all I've been doing lately is sitting around, sleeping, napping, and puttering. Still no news to report today though, just turned in my two big jugs full of pee for the lab to test (I had to collect all my urine for 24 hours, that was pretty neat.) and get to have more blood sucked out of me tomorrow. My usual doctor is out of town for the weekend so a doctor I've not met is checking the results of all my fluids, and I imagine he kind of gets to make the call as to whether we keep waiting or everyone panics and I end up on the table. At this point, all I can do is think of the day when I'm home with baby in my arms, and I don't have to see another doctor for a while. Its ironic that I've seen the doctor more times for something so natural than I think I've ever done in my whole lifetime. I'm pretty over it! Well, enough of all that, y'all will know right away when I know. :)
Here's something funny, yesterday I had an early morning doctor's app't, and we've been struggling with starting the car anyways, but especially when its cold, so of course it was freezing early in the am so I fired up trusty ole Marmalade (the VW bus if you didn't know her name) and discovered that my belly is almost too big for me to fit behind the steering wheel! Its a good thing it's a pretty straight shot to the doctor's office since I could barely turn the steering wheel! Hee hee.

Quick Baby Update...

Well, so far it looks like we are off the hook for a scheduled c section this weekend so we are still just waiting for labor to start naturally. Had an app't today and blood pressure was fine, all the bloodwork from two days ago looked fine, and baby seems to be doing just fine too. So, unless the doctors don't like the results of my various pee tests I've done this week, we get to just keep waiting.

December is finally upon us, and there is still no snow in the hills. As usual, if it snows early in October, we don't see much of the white stuff again till January. For me, this is kind of a good thing, as much as I feel like a kid on Christmas morning every time I hear big snow reports or wake up to find a layer outside. If the snow holds off for just a bit longer, it makes the travelling for my Mom much easier, and she is kind of the designated babysitter for Isaac while Trav and I are at our favorite place having a baby. So, I kind of need her to get here as quick as she can, and she's a coastie so snow driving is pretty unfamiliar to her.
My blood pressure was up at my app't yesterday and so we all kind of freaked out a bit thinking the doctor was going to order a c section this weekend. So far, he's saying its ok, so we are still just waiting for baby to decide to come on out. I'm holding out hope that baby will make his/her move this Friday!
Isaac has had the giant momentous occasion of going poo in his potty! That has been the most exciting thing of the week around here! Now I'm just trying to get him to repeat the performance because he has also had three or four accidents in his undies to go along with the one success. :) But, yesterday he went all day without wearing a diaper, that's a first, and I'm sooo happy! Couldn't help but brag, and yes, these are the things that moms get really excited about.
Well, here's to just a bit of snow, enough to get the mountain open and the skiers shopping!

The Woodpile and The Belly

Here's a couple of pics, Trav needed to show off the GIANT woodpile we have this year, at least twice the size of normal, all thanks to his hard work and the 40-foot yellow wood-hauling vehicle we now own. He worked hard cutting all this, plus four other cords that he sold! And, here is an attempt at a belly-profile shot for all of you who wanted to see how giant I am. I wasn't kidding. :)

Countdown Agony

Ugh, the last few weeks of pregnancy are the worst! Giant belly, everything hurts, no comfortable position to be found anywhere, waking up to contractions thinking, is this it finally?, and waiting, waiting, waiting. Funny how I just did all this two years ago and have already forgotten what the final weeks are really like. I think Baby is getting impatient too, he/she wants to get out and play with big brother Isaac. Who can blame him/her, he is awfully fun to play with! That is one nice thing about these final weeks, I'm more or less on "maternity leave" from diaper making and have had quite a bit of time to just hang out and play with Isaac. The weather has been unusually warm so we've been out and about a fair bit. Isaac's big news these days is learning to use the potty, which is going amazingly well (warning, sales pitch...cloth diapers are awesome! They make potty-training sooo easy!). He only wears a diaper to go poo and at bedtime now, and for long outings, and has had very few accidents. I hope his good pottying continues after the massive disruption of baby's arrival!
Well, I just had to whine a bit about being gigantic and brag a bit about Isaac, so that's it for now!

So Why the Blog?

Well, here we are, days away from the long-awaited arrival of our newest member of the family, and waiting for our Thanksgiving dinner to finish up in the oven. I've decided to start a blog to keep everyone updated on the new baby (Iris or Elias?) and Isaac, who is fast approaching the grand old age of two. Lucky kid gets a sibling for his birthday and Christmas! Also, this will come in handy down the road when we've uprooted and become mobile once again to keep everyone posted on where we are. Right now, of course, the old Stewy school bus is still being used as a wood-hauler, but I'll be sure to keep y'all updated on its transformation into our future home once that fun process begins.
Hope everyone has had a fabulous Turkey day, wish we could have been with all of you, but we'll save the visitin' until we are a family of four.