Ana-versary

Recovering from the stomach bug can do a lot to you, but I can't believe it let yesterday slip by without a mention. Two years ago yesterday, Ana was placed in our arms forever. I simply cannot believe it has been two years already! It seems like only yesterday we were sitting in that crowded hotel lobby holding an 8 month old Ana, in disbelief that she was finally coming home with us. Not hearing a word the hogar director was saying to us, only admiring chubby cheeks and crazy dark sticky up hair that covered her sweet head. Two years later, and she has brought so much joy and laughter to our house. I can't imagine our lives without her!

Happy Ana-versary Liliana Michele!
We love you so, so much!


Oh, and thanks to Debbie over at World of Weeks from whom I stole the term "Ana-versary" from. They will be celebrating their own "Lilianaversary" in just over a week, which also happens to be while they are in Ethiopia picking up their newest addition, sweet Naomi. Congratulations guys, and have a safe trip, we'll be thinking about you and can't wait to see pictures of Lili with her new baby sister!

Hello 2010!

I cannot believe it's January already! (Okay, so I started this the beginning of January and am now finishing it near the end, so I guess I should say I cannot believe January's almost over already!) I did so little blogging last year, and I'm hoping to change that this year. There's so much that I just didn't blog about, so there's lots of catching up to do! The problem is, I have no idea where to begin! I guess I'll start with just a basic update, then go back and cover the events of last year that I missed. Here we go, onto an update on the kids:

The Beaner

I still find it very hard to accept that he is 8 years old already. I won't lie, age 8 has been met with some challenges; I don't think they are unusual for his age, but they are frustrating nonetheless! You know, back talk, testing, not listening, and a good share of potty mouth! No, I don't mean swearing, he definitely knows better than that. I mean, some days it seems like every other word out of his mouth has to do with boogers, butts, or armpits, and is most often followed by fits of uncontrollable laughter; he just doesn't know when to stop! Anyways, it has been trying. This is not to say we don't have our good days when he is sweet to his sister and plays with her for hours; or gets a real kick out of how much Cooper's eyes follow him around the room and how he gets the biggest smiles out of him when he gets down on his level and talks to him. All in all, he really is a good kid and I think we are just going through a testing phase at the moment. He does well in school, and is respectful to all other adults so I guess I have to be thankful he keeps the difficult behavior at home! His teacher tells us that he is great at school, and that he is one of the kids in the class that she goes to if she needs helpers, so that makes me proud! Anyways, his current interests are reading (even if his favorite is the Captain Underpants series), art (he's started to do some really great drawings!), and using his various building toys (legos, train tracks, dominoes, marble tracks, lincoln logs) to build large intertwining structures; he will spend hours working on them while listening to music on cable's "kidz only" music station. He's still taking piano lessons, and seems to enjoy it most of the time. We also gave him as a Christmas gift, a few karate classes to try it out, so we'll be doing that in the near future. We're hoping it can teach him some self control!

La Princesa Liliana:

What can I say about our little 2 1/2 year old ball of fire? She has about a million personalities, I swear. One moment she can be so very sweet to you, and the next she is literally growling at you! Look at the above picture, she refused to smile for the camera, the picture oozes her attitude! She's pure drama for sure, and we are never short on giggles when she's around. Her current loves are tutu's, and other dress ups which her Mimi has made sure she has a steady supply of, but she'll get down on the ground and push cars around with the boys any time. She'll get down and dirty in the mud, and the next minute be whining that she needs a wipe to wash up. She is often seen trucking around the house in a tutu and mismatched rain boots toting around 3 or 4 bags filled with random stuff. She is intensely independent, and has for at least 6 months now completely dressed herself from shirt to tights and shoes (seriously, I remember still putting Ian's shoes on when he was 4!). Remember when she used to wear shoes around the house on her hands? Well the obsession has not passed and we can't be out of bed for more than 10 minutes before the feet have to be dressed. She is a major trouble seeker and will wait until I'm busy feeding Cooper to find something to get into. Her favorite is when I leave the gate open so she can get into the bathroom (did I mention she can open doors now?); and the gate is no longer enough to keep her from going upstairs, she slips through the railings on the side of the staircase. I'm telling you, she's a total monkey! She loves going through tubs of wipes at a time changing her baby's diapers, she's gotten into my makeup and completely painted her body from the waist down with lipstick, and we've had several incidents where she decides to change her own poopy diapers (most of the time during nap time, arrrgh!). She definitely keeps us on our toes! But at the end of the day, she's a real sweetheart. She loves her brothers so completely, constantly tackling Ian for hugs and will get down and speak sweetly to Cooper and tell him "It okay Coopa" when he's crying. She is full of "I luvs you"s for mummy, daddy and her brothers and she always keeps us smiling!

Coopie Monster

What can I say about this gushy squishy fellow? I'm smitten for sure. He is the most laid back child I have ever encountered; he really only cries when he's hungry or needs a diaper change. I remember having to carry Ian around everywhere, having to walk him around to keep him entertained (maybe it's that he has constant entertainment with his brother and sister, we're never short on activity in this house!). At night I remember having to rock Ian back to sleep after each feeding; Cooper pretty much eats and goes right back to sleep, it's crazy and I'm so spoiled! For the past week or so, he's been going to bed around 8 or 9, waking between 1 and 3 for a feeding then going back to sleep until 4-6 usually not actually getting up for the day until around 6 or 7, it's amazing (yes I'm knocking on wood)! The only problem we've been having at night is that after that first feeding he really doesn't want to go back into the cradle, he'd much rather cuddle with me in bed; but I have to admit, that's really not a problem for me! Anyways, he's just a sweetie and I wish I could keep him this way forever. But you know how it goes....they grow; and boy is he growing! I had him at the doctors a few weeks ago and he was already approaching 13 pounds! The picture above was taken at about 6 weeks and he's now 3 months old (I just took more pictures, but they are still on the camera), I can hardly believe three months have gone by already! He's a big smiler, I heard his giggle a couple weeks ago, he's started to reach for things and grab onto them, and has started to discover just how fascinating it is to have hands, often spending lots of time just staring at them. We only got a week with Ana when she was this age, and it's so nice to experience it again!

As for Greg and I, we're just flying by the seat of our pants trying to keep up with this crew. We feel like the luckiest parents on earth to have these three as our own. I would have never imagined when we started dating in high school that this is where we would be 18 years later (isn't that crazy?!). It's been an interesting road to get here, but in the end I would change nothing. Everything that we've been through has contributed to where we are, and who we have become. I feel so truly blessed.

The Pictures

Just before stepping into the flattering hospital wear, my last picture in maternity clothes:

Moments after his birth, the cheeks kill me!

His first picture with mummy and daddy:

Just outside the operating room:



Ian holding Cooper. The black and red sweatshirt is the day of his birth.

Our three kids!



Love how his face smushes in this one:

Just a couple with mummy and daddy. The one of Greg is the day he returned home from Children's Hospital with Ana; he was exhausted!

A couple of my favorites of Cooper that my mum took:

That's all for now. I took some shots at home of Cooper, and I'll get those up next, I just have to fiddle with them a bit more first.

It's been pretty crazy around here. We're all quarantined for Thanksgiving this year. Ana came down with what they thought was H1N1 this weekend and was in the ER with a 106 fever. They called the next day and thought it might be pneumonia. Anyways, to make a long story short, Greg was sick, Ian has been out all week from school with a very mild case, and poor baby Cooper started with it last night. I'm the only relatively healthy one at the moment (knock on wood!). Everyone seems to be dealing with it okay, even with Ana's past breathing issues, she hasn't had any problems this time around. She was never tested, so we're not sure what has invaded our home so Thanksgiving dinner with Mimi, Bumpa, Tim and Uncle Shawne has had to be postponed unfortunately. We're planning on a small meal and an easy day tomorrow. Life is never boring here, that's for sure!

The Story...

Hold onto your hats folks, this is going to be a LONG post. The past four weeks have been so surreal, I almost feel like I've been watching events from the outside in. So, you know that Cooper joined the family on October 15th; what most of you don't know is what unfolded less than 8 hours after his birth; I'll get to that story in a minute. Let's talk about the good parts of the day first.

We got to the hospital a little before 7am, and started to get prepared for my c-section. When they put me on the monitors, it turned out that I was contracting every 3-7 minutes, so it's good that we scheduled when we did! I was very nervous because I really didn't know what to expect. I did have a c-section with Ian, but ended up being put under general anesthesia for the procedure due to problems with my epidural. So I have no recollection of the procedure, and Greg wasn't able to be in the room for the delivery. While I was excited that Greg would be there and I would be awake, I was very anxious about what was going to happen; especially about the spinal as there's a big difference between getting an epidural when you are in agony knowing you are doing it for relief and getting one when you are in no pain whatsoever. It wasn't as bad as I imagined, a little discomfort, but nothing too scary! As soon as that was set, the action started and to be completely honest, I don't remember a whole lot about it; I was so anxious! I remember the draping and the prepping, Greg coming into the room, the "can you feel this?" test pinching on my belly, the sensation of knowing the cutting had started (so WEIRD! I could feel no pain, but could feel the scalpel going through tissue...too hard to explain), the panic knowing the cutting had started but realizing I could still move the toes on my right foot (seriously, it was almost like being at the dentist anxiously thinking the novocaine is going to wear off before he's done drilling, on a bigger scale of course!), I remember the doctor saying, "Okay, here comes the amniotic fluid", and the PRESSURE! Oh my dear Lord...I've heard it time and time again from others that you just feel a lot of pressure, but my goodness, you cannot really prepare for what it will be like! I could swear they were pulling me apart from every direction! Greg says the doctor assisting looked like he had a wrestling foot hold going on and I believe it! I wonder if Cooper was holding onto my ribs or something! Anyways as soon as he was out, I heard some suctioning going on, and then the cry; the most beautiful sound ever! The doctor told me to peer over the drapes and there he was but to be honest, I didn't see much before they whisked him away partly because my blood pressure dropped all of a sudden and I thought I was going to be sick. Greg says they quickly gave me something that remedied the nausea, along with a nice dose of morphine which is probably why I don't remember a whole lot after that point. I do remember Cooper crying and looking at Greg and crying myself, just in complete awe of it all. I think up until that moment, I was fully expecting someone to come in and say, "Sorry Mrs. Fraize, you were never really pregnant", or to find out that we'd been on some sick version of Candid Camera or something. This wasn't supposed to happen to us; we were not supposed to be able to make a baby "normally"! But there he was, screaming; proof that miracles do happen, it was so surreal. When they brought him over to Greg all wrapped up like a burrito, all I could see were cheeks; this child came out with some serious cheeks! I remember someone commenting on his eyelashes and why do the boys always get the eyelashes, and me saying that he looked like Ian which is really not true; he looks a lot like his daddy actually! I remember hearing them say that he scored a 9 on both Apgar tests, and thinking to myself, "Holy moly, he really is okay even after the flu and pneumonia, and strep and all that nonsense, and...hmmm they would have already noticed if he was missing fingers or toes, right?". I remember feeling like I was floating, and hearing the doctor ask her assistant to hold my bowels in place and thinking this was part of the procedure I didn't need to have knowledge of! Anyways, everything went exactly as planned as I'm told. When I got back to my room, Cooper had already been weighed and bathed and I learned that a couple of our family members had been denied at the door by Greg to get a sneak peek; he wanted me to be able to hold him before they did because everybody held Ian before me when he was born. The nurse laid him on my chest and I was able to get a good look at him, and I remember thinking he looked so different from what I expected. Ian came out with strawberry blonde fuzz and I kind of expected the same for Cooper, but he has a full head of dark hair. He is very much like Greg whereas Ian was my spitting image at birth. After a while, visitors were allowed in and Ian and Ana got their first look at their new brother; Ian thought he was cute and wanted to hold him but Ana really didn't know what to think. I think she just didn't know what to make of mummy being in that big bed with all those tubes and wires coming off. She was happy to play on the floor with Stevie instead. After their visit my mum and dad took the kids back to their house to hang out for a while and Greg and I had the afternoon to get to know Cooper. That's when the day got really interesting...

Greg got a call on his cell phone about 4pm from my mum and she was in a panic. She was chasing Stevie who had decided to try and get up the stairs for the millionth time and Ana who had been playing with a roll of wrapping paper contentedly took the opportunity to get into her purse and had managed to open one of her prescription pill bottles. The bottle which she knew had pills in it was now empty and she had no idea how many were missing, and if Ana had eaten them or dumped them somewhere. Greg told her to call the ambulance, but she was already in the car on her way to the hospital. Greg went down to the ER to meet them. It got pretty cloudy for me here; I don't know if it was the morphine, or the fact that people were pretty much with holding the whole truth from me. I kept being told that she was going to be fine, that she was a little groggy, but she would be fine. Little did I know that a little groggy meant that she couldn't stand, could barely sit, was drooling uncontrollably and was slurring her speech. Anyways, it's probably best that I didn't know the full situation because really what could I have done? Greg was there with her and I felt like things were under control. The doctor from our pediatricians office really wanted her to be under observation by a PICU unit that could monitor her one on one overnight which left us with the option of her going to Boston, Dartmouth or to Portland all of which are over an hour away. The doctor was so amazing and actually came up to my room and talked to me about the decision and assured me that Ana was going to be just fine. That we just had to wait until the drug worked it's way out of her system, and once it was gone there would be no lasting effects whatsoever. So Ana was transported by ambulance with a team of three physicians to the Children's Hospital in Portland, ME where she and Greg spent two nights while she recouped. My first report from Greg was on Friday morning where he told me she still couldn't really stand steady on her feet. I said to Greg, "She can't STAND?" to which he replied, "Well she can sit now which is an improvement from last night." That was my first knowledge of the severity of the symptoms she was having. They returned on Saturday around lunchtime and though I was told Ana was back to herself, she most certainly didn't seem it to me. Her speech sounded slurred and she was walking a little funny. Nobody but me seemed to notice it though; probably because they had all seen where she had come from where I hadn't. At any rate, she still didn't seem herself to me. I don't think she was 100% Ana until Monday actually. I think she just needed a ton of catch up on sleep as Greg had a heck of a time getting her to sleep at the hospital. As I hear they did a LOT of rocking, and walking while she did a lot of kicking and hitting and crying; she was just so out of sorts, and didn't want anything to do with anything or anyone. Honestly, through it all, the things that caused me the most angst were the fact that the ambulance crew didn't allow Greg to ride in with them, and by the time Greg got to the hospital she was already up in her room playing in her crib. It kills me that she had no one that she knew getting her through those transitions and though I know they were hospital staff, it was to me, the equivalent of having complete strangers care for my child for that time. The other thing is that Greg said she cried for me constantly and he believes she was actually hallucinating that one of the nurses in the hallway was me and she was trying to get to her but Greg wouldn't let her go. These two things still bring tears to my eyes, I just hate that she wanted me and I couldn't be there for her, and hate what she may have thought being in that ambulance without her mummy and daddy. I have had a few weeks now to reflect on it all and my biggest concern is that people may have thought I didn't care as I kept getting comments on how well I was taking it all and that if it were them they would be a basket case. I don't know what caused me to take the news so well; there are a lot of possibilities. Like I said, I didn't know the full extent of the situation, and at the time I didn't even know for sure that she had definitely ingested anything; that's probably first and foremost. I was on morphine and though I don't recall feeling terribly loopy, events of the day are a little fuzzy, so that's an absolute possibility. Ana has gotten into so many things in the past and has been fine; I mean we have had to call Poison Control for her more times in her short 1 1/2 years here than we've had to call for Ian in his entire 8 years of life! Lastly, I think I was really focused on trying to keep it together for my mum. She was absolutely devastated that this happened on her watch; I have never seen her in such a state, she was terrified! Even though EVERYONE who was involved assured her that it was not her fault (and many had their own stories of two year old woe) she just couldn't forgive herself. Two year olds are notorious for getting into things, and Ana is an absolute professional! She is very adept at sneaking things, and at knowing the precisely perfect moment to conduct her business. Someone asked my mum shortly after the incident if we were mad at her and I want to make it absolutely clear that there was never any bit of blame put on my mum for this. This could have happened anywhere! Like I said, we practically have Poison Control on speed dial, and we're her parents, AND we live in a child proofed home! It was simply a horrible accident and after all is said and done, she is thankfully fine with no lasting effects at all. It hasn't even stopped her from getting into things unfortunately!

So there you have it; that's the story of Cooper's birth. An absolutely wonderful, yet totally insane day that no one in the family will ever forget and that will likely be one of those passed down through generations family stories. Crazy huh? But did you expect anything less from this bunch?!

I am working on uploading some photos to share...they'll be along shortly!

Mommy and bady are doing very well.

Introducing Cooper Fraize
Born: 10/15/2009 at 9:33am EST
Weight: 8.7lb
Length: 21in
Hair: Brown

Ten Things Thursday

My friend Amanda does a list every Thursday called Ten Things Thursday; it can be any type of list. I've decided to give it a go!

Ten Things I'll be doing tomorrow before 9:30am

1. Waking up at 5am.
2. Taking a long hot shower.
3. Coaxing a sleepy husband out of bed to shower.
4. Triple checking my bags.
5. Feeding the dog.
6. Getting two sleepy children out of bed way before they are accustomed.
7. Packing bags and both sleepy children into minivan.
8. Driving to my parents house at a ridiculous hour.
9. Arriving at the hospital by 7am.
10. Having a baby.

Wait a minute.......did I really just say that?

Long Time...

No blog, I know! I just have not had the time to compose a proper post! And it's not like there's been nothing to blog about, I just haven't kept up! The worst part is when things start to slide, and I do get a free moment I don't know where to begin! So much catching up to do! Things are good here. Ian just turned 8 years old this past Monday, I can hardly believe it!! I will dedicate separate posts to that soon. He's been a second grader for 3 weeks now, and seems to fairly enjoy school. Getting him up and out in the morning can be a hassle sometimes, but once he's there he seems to do well. He has been out two days this week with croup, but seems to be feeling much better today and will return to school tomorrow just in time for his birthday bash with his friends tomorrow afternoon. This years theme is SCIENCE, and I'm thrilled! So much fun to plan, and so many possibilities! Like I said, a separate post and pictures will come soon. Ana is doing great too. She's a true 2 year old, with a fiery temper and an attitude to match. Everything is a battle these days, and when she's caught doing something naughty, and I start to reprimand, she gives me a flippant "bye bye!" before running off and hiding. As exhausting as she can be, she matches the level in cuteness often. Her language has exploded over the past couple weeks and she can now really communicate her needs, wants and opinions in those cute little pieced together 2 year old word strings! This age is frustrating, and adorable all at the same time! Baby number three is still doing well, and I guess I can share with you all that we have finally settled on a name; Cooper (that is unless we see him and change our minds, so don't hold us to it!). I'm feeling fantastic and am having a hard time believing that it's only three weeks until he's here; I have yet to have that "Oh my God, get him out" feeling. I have so enjoyed being pregnant, I guess in a way it makes me feel normal, that my body is functioning the way it should. As much as I'm looking forward to meeting him, I'm pretty sad to say goodbye to pregnancy! I'm still watching Stevie (he turned ONE on September 3rd by the way!), though tomorrow is my last day until some time after Cooper arrives; don't get me started I'm pretty emotional this week. I'm so going to miss having my little Stevie toddling around the house and seeing my brother every day. At the same time, it has been quite tiring lately as Ana definitely has her moments with him and has lashed out at the poor guy on many occasions. Poor baby has been scratched, pinched and bitten on the toe; always followed by "Oh sorry baby", arrgh! She is doing much better now that she has some words under her belt, but when she gets really frustrated, watch out! For a long while there was a common occurrence of, "No baby!" followed by crying, followed by "Oh sorry sorry baby, shhh, shhh, shhh". I'd like to think she was feeling regret and was trying to comfort him, but really I think it's more likely she was thinking, "quiet down before mummy hears and I get in trouble!". She is certainly a handful; but she definitely has her sweet side too. She can be very loving, and shares really well with a little reminder here and there. She mothers Stevie by fussing with his clothes, trying to change his diapers, and kissing his boo boos (even when she caused them). She's coming along, we just need to get that temper under control! So we'll spend the next couple weeks having some mother/daughter time before her world is completely turned upside down again. Anyways, I think I'll close for now. I've got a list of things a mile long I want to accomplish before this baby arrives and have been trying to pick away at it during nap time. It's going slowly, but I'm beginning to see some progress. Mostly it's emptying and reorganizing closets, drawers, and cupboards, and throwing heaps of things away.....is this what they call nesting? I don't remember it with Ian!