Someone is 2 years old!

We had Jonah's 2nd birthday party on Saturday. The weather was beautiful but the pool was a bit chilly. Jonah was a bit overwhelmed with all the people and kids. He really enjoyed opening presents. He received alot of trucks so I have stashed a few of them away for later! Here are a few pictures from that special day.

Updates. . .

A million times a day the thought "I'm a lucky woman" passes through my head. I have so much to be thankful for - my husband, my family, my kids, and my friends. I have so many great moments & memories!

We just returned home from our yearly beach vacation to Cape San Blas. We had a great time with our friends - the Donner's, the Wheeler's & the Hickey's. Jonah and McKenna did awesome with all the other kids with us. Jonah absolutely loved the pool. He even got up the courage to jump in. He wasn't thrilled with the sand on the beach. Actually, I would venture to say he hated it. He either sat on a blanket or in one of our laps. He did enjoy the ocean waves so we stayed in the ocean alot. No complaints!

Jonah's vocabulary has exploded. He picks up new words everyday. Some of the words are hard to understand as you may have seen in the video on the previous post. I absolutely love to hear him talk. It makes me want to scoop him up and squeeze him!

Jonah's 2nd birthday is right around the corner - Aug. 28th. I'm venturing to bake his birthday cake which will be a 3D car cake. I've been watching alot of "Ace of Cakes" & "Cake Boss" so I feel pretty confident that I can do this. But if it doesn't work out then there's always a Publix cake. My birthday is coming up fast as well - Aug. 24th. I'll be 32 this year. Enough said!

McKenna has been smiling and cooing at us. Her anemia has greatly improved and she is filling out. I've been enjoying my maternity leave with her. I will greatly miss being home with her and Jonah but I'm also looking forward to going back to work. I'm sure I'll have alot of separation anxiety when Sept. 14th rolls around. It's the adjustment to all changes that will be hard. My days of being scheduled and ridged are gone. Now I've learned to "roll with the punches". Nothing is ever perfect and neither am I - nor do I want to be anymore. I have learned the meaning of how life changes after kids. Your whole world changes and it's amazing. P.S. McKenna slept through the night last night - she's 2 months! Hopefully, I can get a repeat of that tonight.

Jonah and his popcicles...

Jonah loves popcicles... but he can't say it. He can say 'pop' and 'cicle' separately, but when you put the two together... here is what you get.

Modern Medicine

It's been an interesting day which all ties back to the day that McKenna was born. McKenna tested Coombs Positive when she was born. That means my blood mixed with her born at some point and my blood started attacking her blood. The major concern with Coombs is that the infant will become jaundiced. Luckily, over our two day stay at Northside, McKenna never developed jaundice and was doing well despite the Coombs Positive test.

The first visit to the pediatrician went well. McKenna gained a couple ounces and no sign of jaundice. The second visit for a weight check proved that she was not gaining enough weigh. Therefore I had to re-think my methods of feeding. Breastfeeding was clearly not enough for her alone. Our third visit was to diagnosed the acid reflux and start medicine for it. Our fourth visit (which was today), the pediatrician notice that the color inside her eyelids was really pale. It should be bright pink or red. She tested her hemoglobin (iron) and the results were really low. They should be above 10 and McKenna's was 7. That gave us a ticket to go to Scottish Rite to have her blood drawn for a more extensive test. The tech that drew her blood was great. He pulled it from her heel instead of having to stick a needle in her arm. I still almost cried.

I came home and tried to feed McKenna this afternoon which led to fussiness for over 2 hours. Her acid reflux was making it hard for her to eat and settle down. I finally got her soothed when the pediatrician called with the results of the blood test. Her hemoglobin was still low and we needed to supplement iron in her bottles. We are going to get it retested on Monday and if it goes any lower then she will need a blood transfusion. The pediatrician says there's a 1% chance of this happening so that's good news. This all stems back to the Coombs.

There's a bunch a medical stuff that I'm leaving now mainly because I'm too tired to process it all. Needless to say, after I hung up with the pediatrician I just started crying. Coombs positive, acid reflux, kidney reflux and now anemia. My poor little McKenna. We've gone to the pediatrician office 4 times now, been to Scottish Rite 3 times and seen a urologist. I pray that all this stuff works it self out over time and that I have the strength as a mom to pull through it as well. Right now, I'm tired and overwhelmed with information. My little girl fusses through feedings and have to give her 3 different medicines throughout the day. Please keep us in your thoughts!

Newborn Cries

My vacation time, sorry - my maternity leave is flying by. A month has passed and I've been keeping busy with taking care of a newborn, doctor's visits, visits with friends, trips with the family. I'm looking forward to our "actual" vacation to Cape San Blas the first of August. It's been a whole year since I've seen the ocean. I cannot wait to feel the sand between my toes.

I had a funny incident happen to me the other day. Actually, it wasn't the least bit funny at the time. I was at the grocery store picking up some essentials and something for dinner. By the time I got in the checkout line, McKenna had started to cry. I tried the pacifier and she kept spitting it out. I got the groceries unloaded for checkout. The clerk rung them up but I guess didn't feel like bagging them that day. By this time, McKenna was full on crying! So here I am in the front of the grocery store with my newborn screaming, bagging my own groceries, barking at the clerk, all the while ladies walking up to McKenna saying how pretty she was. My thoughts to them were " how can she be that pretty when she turning red from the crying?" Luckily, another clerk came to my rescue and helped me out to the car. I could have hugged her and I should have. By the time I got into the car, I was sweating and McKenna was still crying. About 2 minutes later, she was out - cried herself to sleep. This was the first time since she was born that I was all "panicky" from her crying. I'm blaming it all on the stupid male clerk at Kroger. Yet another reason why I hate to go grocery shopping.

Time Flies!

McKenna will be a month old on Friday. It's hard to be believe that a month has passed already. We still trying to figure this all out again. McKenna has been a very good baby despite the acid reflux (both tummy & kidney). Sometimes she has a hard time eating because of the reflux than it's hard to get her to settle down. I can't imagine how bad it must hurt. I have been fortunate to have never have experience reflux.

We are definitely enjoying her. I love having her curl up on my chest and sleep. She's so tiny! She likes to nuzzle under my neck. Big brother, Jonah, gives her kisses when he leaves in the morning and when he comes home in the afternoons. He hasn't mastered the art of being "gentle" yet. So there have been times where McKenna is prefectly content in her bouncy chair and Jonah smacks her on the head. Then she's all about crying. I imagine this is just the first of many "picking on each other" that I will experience.

Jonah loves his "mommy time". When I'm not holding McKenna, he wants to be held. I have the rare opportunity this passed weekend to cuddle with Jonah after his afternoon nap. He has never done that before and I'm not complaining. It's sweet to have my 22 month old nuzzle up to me as well. I'm very fortunate to have two wonderful children. Now, I need to work on getting some consective hours of sleep!