Teaser...

I have been working on pictures from our visit home a little at a time and thought I should post some for all of you so see. We had such a good time visiting and hope to do it again soon! Brady and I feel that we have the most awesome families on the planet and our friends just plain ROCK! We miss you all so much, and while we are glad for the new life and friendships we have here in Nebraska, we will always be missing the wonderful people at "home."

So a teaser...I have the cutest nieces and nephews...

Beckah's 2 month stats and other craziness...

Sorry we are so late updating about Beckah's two month stats. Things around here have been...interesting. Most of you that keep up with me on Facebook know that we have been in and out of the ER with Beckah getting tests done. She was projectile vomiting after every feeding for a whole day and it freaked me out. I, unfortunately was all alone when this happened. Brady was away getting more training at Keesler for two weeks. :o( So I packed all three kids up and headed to the ER. After a couple of ultrasounds, x-rays, and some really wonderful people in the ER helping me with the girls we figured out that she was constipated and has a bit of reflux. She isn't bad enough to be on meds and once we got her constipation taken care of things got MUCH better. A combination of a little bit of watered down prune juice mixed with some baby safe probiotics has made for a much happier baby. She hasn't vomited in a total of 5 days now and I am so happy about this.

So on to her two month stats. She was 11lbs 15ozs and 23 inches. Puts her in the 75^th percentile over all. My little chunky monkey. She has some serious leg rolls and adorable chins. Brady was changing her diaper the other day and told me “Our daughter has some serious junk in her trunk.” Yes sir, she does. It's dang cute too!

Beckah smiles and coos all the time now. She also has found her thumb. For real. I am not looking forward to getting her off of her thumb later in life, but for now it is really awesome. She self soothes and puts her self to sleep very easily. Her pacifier is always on hand. Literally. She also LOVES our Classical Baby videos (all the girls love them really). Makes my life just a bit easier when you can have 25 minutes to do whatever needs doing. Oh and two hands to do it with.

Cady and Rory have been great. Rory had what we are pretty sure was an allergic reaction to Mahi last week. We don't eat much fish (other than canned tuna, which both girls love and neither have had a reaction to). So I was trying to branch out with the Mahi. It was really good and Rory LOVED it. So when her face turned red and her face, neck and arms started itching I was pretty bummed. Well worried and then bummed. We got another referral to our allergist (gotta love TriCare) and we will be figuring out how bad the allergy is and what else we need to keep her away from. Oh and if we need to start carrying an Epipen (sp?). Fun times.

Cady is getting geared up for School in the fall. I can't believe that she will start kindergarden! She is so ready for it. I have no idea what we will do without her all day.

That is about it for now. We are gearing up for our trip to Vegas in a week! SOOOOOO ready for a vacation and some family time! I also can't wait to meet my newest nephew for the first time, and take lots of pictures of everyone! :o)

Comparison Pictures

Do my kids look alike? You tell me.

The first picture is Cadence, second Rory and third is Beckah. I think they look a lot a like as babies.

Life with my girls...

It is impossible to get them to all look at the camera at the same time. Rory is just plain goofy and Cadence forgets that she has to look at the camera while fake smiling and Beckah is, well, a month old. lol

So what have we been up to? Lets start with Cadence. My dear Cadence.

She is such a joy to have in our home! She is the best big sister ever. Rory follows her around like a shadow and Cady rarely complains about it. They are always playing some kind of game and laughing, laughing, laughing. My house is full of laughter. What more could you ask for?

Cadence is totally in love with Beckah. She is also old enough to understand that Beckah takes up a lot of time. She is always helping me care for her in any way she can. I love how much Cady loves to help. She is awesome about getting me anything I ask for or need when stuck on the couch nursing. Beckah smiled at Cadence today. Her first real smile. I was a bit jealous, but to be fair Cadence is always talking to her sister and trying to get her to smile. Cady earned that smile.

Rory. My sweet, darling, wonderful, goofy Rory. I love how much crazy is packed into her little body. I love how much love is stuffed in there too. She is sooooooo good! Despite everything we have been through with her health wise, she is always all smiles, goofy faces, and so much laughter.

I love how bright she is. She figures things out much to quickly and is growing up way to fast. We are slowly starting piece together the puzzle that is her health. She is currently off of all soy and milk products and takes Singulair to help with what we think are gastrointestinal allergies. She is starting to gain more weight, have solid stools almost every day, and is just plain doing better than she ever has before. She is a trooper through it all too. She always cooperates with the doctors. They always tell me how wonderful it is to have a 2 year old smile during all the check up things that need to be done. She is silly, chatty, and loves people and it shows in every encounter she has with others. I am super thankful that she loves food like she does. With all the changes we have had to make, things could have been very complicated diet wise for her, but she eats her "special" foods with no issues. It is such a blessing.

She is totally in love with Beckah. She loves to hold her, kiss her and touch her. She is always telling people that she is the big sister now and gets to take care of her little sister. She is always gentle, always kind. She will be just as wonderful of a big sister as Cadence is and I dearly hope that she will have just as tight of a bond with Beckah as she does with Cadence. Rory adores Cadence. She calls her "My Cady" and is terribly upset if Cadence has to be away from her. Cadence starting school this year should be very interesting.

My sweet Beckah. My pregnancy with Beckah was horrible. I didn't realize how bad it really was until after she was born. I realized then that my morning sickness had never really gone away. It had become bearable to the point that I was able to get used to it. My skin and hair was a mess while I was pregnant. I felt awful and ugly. The acne was insane (you notice I never posted one picture of my pregnant self online). After Beckah was born it all disappeared!

She is a wonderful baby. She has been a great sleeper and rarely has bad nights. She is very quiet. She is my first baby to take her time eating. Cady and Rory were always in such a hurry to eat and be on their merry way. Beckah likes the cuddle time I think. She loves to be held and we love to hold her.

She was born with a white mark on her forehead that turned red about a week after she was born. Her doctor has confirmed that it is a Hemangioma or an abnormal build up of blood vessels under the skin. About 30% of hemangioma's are present at birth. They may be in the top layers of the skin (capillary) or deeper in the skin (cavernous) or a mixture of both. Beckah's looks to be capillary right now, but we won't be sure for a while. It can, and probably will grow, much like a tumor, and can become very large. This can get complicated in the toddler and preschool years since they can bleed a lot if injured. Small, superficial hemangiomas often disappear on their own. About 50% go away by age 5, and 90% are gone by age 9. They can be treated with lasers and steroids, but if left alone she shouldn't have any scaring. We are lucky that it is on her forehead and not near her eye or on the eyelid as that could impact vision. I am a little concerned about other children teasing her, as we all know that people can be cruel, and we have already had people ask what is wrong with her head. I have found explaining what it is in a very detailed matter of fact manner has stopped people from being negative about it. I am hoping that we will be able to keep her from being self conscious about it. I am also hoping that it won't turn out to be cavernous, so it will just look like a birthmark. Honestly though I don't really see it when I look at her. It's just part of her beauty.

These pictures were taken before the hemangioma turned red.

I feel so blessed in my house full of girls. Brady often tells us how special it is to be the only boy, surrounded by his girls. All three of them are so special and I feel so honored that the Lord felt that I should be their mother here on earth. They each have taught me so much and I can't wait to see how they grow and mature. I feel like the luckiest mom in the world.

Beckah's Stats...

Beckah's 2 week appointment was today! She was 8lbs 1oz and 21.5 inches long! Looks like we have another Cadence on our hands! :o)

Beckah is here!

I went in for induction on March 4th at 5:30am. We didn't actually get the ball rolling until 9:15am (yeah...I was very bored seeing as there isn't much on TV that early in the morning). My Dr wanted to be there for pretty much every stage (which I thought was awesome!). This was by far my easiest birth. My nurses were wonderful and my doctors were awesome. Yes I said doctors! lol It's a smaller area out here so there wasn't that many women delivering. My doctor is a resident (so still in training) and her attending was with us to keep an eye on everything. There was also another doctor there to observe and lend a hand (she had asked me if it was okay for her to hang out). There was a nurse for Beckah and a nurse for me and of course Brady was there. I had a really good time. I feel a bit silly saying that, but it's true! Once I was complete it was only three sets of pushing and Beckah was here!

Beckah was born on 3/4/2011 at 2:33pm weighing 6lbs 13ozs and was 19.5 inches long. She screamed her lungs out when she was born and has barely cried since. She is very sweet, an excellent eater and sleeps well (hope that lasts!).

I think she looks like Cadence did when she was born. Her eyes are a dark blue though instead of light. Dark wavy hair, but her eye lashes and eye brows are white blonde so I think her hair will lighten up.

Her sisters love her so much! Especially Cadence. She holds her every chance she can get and is always wanting to help. Rory likes to kiss on her and rub her head. :o)

We are so happy to add her to our bunch and can't wait to see how her little personality fits in with the rest of us!

Cady's First lost tooth...

Today started off a little crazy but the best news of the day was happened at breakfast. Cadence lost her first tooth!! She is super excited to put it under her pillow tonight and see what the tooth fairy brings!

Today was nutty. It started with my taking Brady to to work so that I could have the car for various appointments today. Half way to work the check engine light comes on and the car starts shaking. Not cool. All kinds of crazy thoughts go through my head at this point. We had a very busy day planned and it was looking like our only car was going to mess that up. So I said a quick prayer that I would be able to handle whatever needed to happen. When I got home I explained the situation to my mother-in-law (who is visiting to help with the girls when the baby comes). She was planning on picking up her rental car in the afternoon and called to see if we could get it early. Nope. All booked up. So I called and found a rental car and we pack the kids up and headed out. When I arrived the nice guy at the counter asked me why I only needed it for the day. I explained the situation and he took pity on me. He gave me an awesome deal on the car for the day and wished me luck. We got our car to our repair man and explain what is going on. He said he would do his best to have it back to us tonight since we will be going in for induction and it would be good to have our car.

We head back home to drop off Grandma Suzi and Cady only to find that I had a serious blonde moment and left both my house key and the garage door opener at the car repair shop. Oops. Rory has an appointment with an allergist that we can't miss so Grandma and Cady will have to come with. We get to the appointment just in time and Grandma and Cady decided to head to the near by shopping center and browse while Rory and I see the Dr.

The Dr is wonderful. Takes in our whole history and then asks a bunch of questions and then does a simple reaction test on Rory's back. Tested for skin reactions to common indoor/outdoor stuff and basic foods...including the soy we have been avoiding. Fifteen minutes go by and Rory has NO REACTION TO ANYTHING. Huh?? Dr comes back in and says he thinks he knows what she has (I can't remember what he said it was called...very long complicated name and I forgot to write it down). He decides that we should continue to avoid Soy and to now avoid all milk products as well. I'm thinking, "Excellent, my life wasn't complicated enough lets just add taking away some of Rory's very favorite things!" lol. He also has her on Singulair. We are to do all this for a month and then come back. Meanwhile the Dr will get copies of everything her drs have done to date (all labs/scope results) as well has has me digging up a complete height/weight timeline for Rory so he can see her growth progress since birth. Once he knows what all the other Drs have done he may or may not order more blood work and do some other tests.

Once the appointment is over we pick up some lunch and then stop by the repair shop for keys and the garage door opener. I had a few minutes to eat and then headed out to my OB appointment. Everything is good, baby is fine and my induction is scheduled for 5:30 am tomorrow.

I then pop over to the pharmacy on base to fill Rory's script. I wait and wait and wait...only to find out that their printers are down and it will be at least an hour and a half before they can get them fixed. I head home to pick up Suzi and the girls to get Suzi's rental car. Switch car seats to her car and then take mine back. Next we are off to pick up our car. Had to replace the starter coil (thankfully not very expensive). I'm happy that our 12 year old car has lived to drive us around some more.

I then headed over to pick Brady up from work and stopped by the pharmacy again. They had the script ready and we headed home to make some tacos. Yum. Suzi and I then headed to Walmart for some milk that isn't milk and butter that isn't milk. lol We ended up with Coconut Milk and a soy free/milk free butter that I am excited about. I can now make several of Rory's favorite foods possible with the help of these products.

To round off our night Cadence's other loose bottom tooth decided it was going to come out too. It was a bit more traumatic and bloody which freaked Cady out pretty good. After a blessing from Dad she calmed down enough to appreciate that the tooth fairy was leaving two surprises! lol

Today has been one big blessing to me. No really! We were able to get everything done that needed doing. When the day started I honestly didn't think it would be possible. I know that the Lord only gives us what we can handle. Most of the time I feel that he has grossly over estimated my ability to cope, but today he once again proved me wrong. I am always thankful for opportunities to grow and today was one serious growing opportunity. Next time He throws me a curve ball I hope he can give me a couple of days to regroup...instead of my next big curve ball being the next day! lol

I am now getting ready to get some much needed sleep before waking up early and heading to the hospital to welcome our third little girl into our family. I am very excited and nervous but I am so ready for her to be in my arms. I will be posting about Beckah and her birth as soon as I can. Those of you who follow on facebook can find updates there as well. :o) Happy Friday!