March for Babies 2012

The March for Babies this year was another awesome day!  I just love how laid back the event in our area is and an "it is what you make of it" kind of thing.  (This year for me that meant that I felt the need to make shirts for everyone and put it off until the last minute and then caught a cold... oh well.)  For us it is a fun day together as a family, a way to give back, and something definitive to celebrate Noah.  (We celebrate him every day, but it is still fun to have an actual event once in a while.)
I know looking at Noah today it is easier to put to the side things like March of Dimes and all that "medical stuff" because there is just no way to tell by looking at him that those things were such a significant part of his early life.  But the truth is many stories don't go like Noah's has.  I was reminded and saddened by that at the march this year as I realized how many families walk in memory of a baby instead of in celebration of.  There is always an "ambassador family" at the March for Babies events and the family this year was one who had a preemie in the NICU, got to bring her home, and then lost her a few months later to SIDS.  And many of the babies started out bigger and healthier than Noah did.  He really is an amazing little guy and preemie success story and we are just so, so thankful.
And now for some pictures. :)

Team Noah!

 Display at the march of families' stories.

 

We had fun.

 

Noah LOVED the bouncy house.  Thankfully his cousin (well, technically cousin once removed, but that is just too much of a mouthful for a 2 year old!) Ruth was there to go with him.  She was the best bouncy house buddy ever!

You think he likes her just a little?

 

 Noah and Great-Grandpa, who he calls "Great Grandpa Tractor." (Tractors are one of Noah's very favorite things in case you didn't know.  He has quite the collection.)  He even got a new tractor this time. :)

 It was a super nice day so Noah had to show off his four wheeling skills. 

Those footprints on his shirt are a stencil of his actual footprints from when he was about a month old.  A little more perspective: I was curious and measured Noah's inseam.  It is 14 1/2 inches.  He was 13 long inches when he was born.  This is why we March.

March for Babies

We are excited to be participating the March of Dimes March for Babies event again this year. It is a fun time for our family and a way to try and contribute a little bit toward the fight to end prematurity.
The march is already this weekend and I haven't been nearly annoying enough with my fundraising attempts, so please consider helping out Team Noah! and donating with the easy process at this link:
http://www.marchforbabies.org/NoahsMommy1213
Thank you!

Happy Easter!

Christ is risen!
Or in the words of my very favorite 2 year old,
"Happy news! Jesus is alive!"

Happy Easter from our family!

Spring has sprung?

We have been having crazy warm weather here lately! I am a pretty huge fan of snow and winter, but I'll admit it has been really nice to get outside more (minus all the snow gear), especially with a 2 year old boy. (Not that I trust this weather. It will probably snow as soon as we're used to the warmth...) We have been spending a lot of time outside enjoying all kinds of spring-y activities.
We also had to do a little bit of shopping for a necessary addition to our spring wardrobe:This makes me so happy. :) I just love these boots! (Noah said I had to get some too and picked them out for me.
We have been enjoying bubbles:
Grilled food:
And Noah's favorite thing of all, riding on the lawnmower:
Seriously, this kid would ride on that thing forever. I cannot tell you how many times a day he asks for it...

Happy Spring!

If kids ran the world...

We are big fans of the child sponsorship organization Compassion International. A while ago we got a packet with a few pictures of kids waiting to be sponsored. We have used those pictures to pray for those children off and on since then and lately Noah has been asking to more and more. He has taken a special liking to one particular boy, Jeffrey from Ghana. Now every morning one of the first things Noah does is to find Jeffrey's picture and ask to pray for him, and then carry the picture around with him while he plays.There are descriptions on the back to read and ideas to pray for. One day when we were praying something along the lines of him having food to eat, this is the conversation that followed:
Noah took the breakfast he was eating and said, "Jeffrey, Noah's toast!"
Me: "What a good idea, you want to share some of your food with Jeffrey!"
Noah: "Yes!" He pretends to feed the picture and then hands me the toast, "Jeffrey toast!"
Me: "You want to bring that toast to Jeffrey?"
Noah: "Yes!"
Me: "Sorry buddy, he lives very far away."
Then it was one of those times where I could just see those little wheels turning in his head as he sat for awhile... and then looked at me proudly and said "Car!"
Me: "We should get in our car and drive it over to him?"
Noah: "Yes!"
Oh, what a sweet, smart boy! I'm pretty sure it would be a better place if kids ran the world. If someone needs something, somebody that has it should give it to them. If somebody is sad, you try to make them happy. Not really that complicated. (Silly adults can't quite seem to get it and follow through!) Thanks for the reminder, Noah.

The Details

Now that we've made the big announcement :) , here are some details. I most definitely fall into the category of "high risk" pregnancy. When I started talking with my doctor about getting pregnant again, she said that she was fine with it, but that I would need to be seen by an OB/GYN because I am "too scary." When I met with him the first thing he said was, "Well, you are... special when it comes to pregnancy." There you go, scary and special, that apparently sums it up when it comes to me being pregnant.
We are very happy, very excited, and slightly nervous.
The number he gave me for HELLP syndrome (the name for my liver going crazy and why Noah had to be delivered) occurring again is 1%. That's not so bad. Although when you consider the chances for someone that hasn't had it before are less than .1%, my odds are significantly higher. Still, 1% isn't too scary.
He said the chances of preeclampsia happening again are between 20-40%. But usually it can be managed and doesn't end with emergency surgery and 3 months in the NICU.
Unfortunately, both of them are pretty much just a big basket of unknowns, so there really isn't anything preventative to be done. I will be watched extremely closely to try to catch anything right away, having weekly appointments and ultrasounds once we hit 25/26 weeks.
I have had my first appointment already. They took a bunch of blood and said everything looks good to start with. I got to hear that sweet, fast little heartbeat. :) Due date is September 16, and we are going for as close to that as possible!
Overall I have been feeling...pregnant. Today is the first day in a few weeks I haven't felt nauseous all the time. Hopefully it lasts! I have had people ask how I felt when I was pregnant with Noah, but the weird truth is I don't remember too many specific details about it. I don't know if it is because it went really well (obviously up until it went really NOT well), or because I was working full time, or because it didn't go how it was supposed to and my brain does some weird defense mechanism. That's one of the weird things about being pregnant after having a preemie--in a lot of ways I feel like a first time mom. I am just as scared of labor and delivery and the third trimester because they are completely unknown to me. Strange. More on that later.
I think Noah is going to be a great big brother. When I first told him we were going to have a new baby in our family, I used his new cousin as an example. Then he asked to go see her like 50 times that day--he loves her. :) He has this weird thing where whenever there is a baby in the room, he wants me to be holding it. We'll see how long that lasts after there is one living in our house. :) Of course once we get closer we will talk about it more and hopefully he will do great! He asks to pray for the baby once in a while. When I pray that the baby grows healthy, he says, "no hurt, baby." Lately he has been very sensitive to his NICU pictures; whenever he sees them he says, "No no! Hurt, all done." I don't know why he is suddenly associating it with "hurt" but needless to say we share his prayer that this baby does not have to go through the NICU. We would appreciate prayers from you as well, and will keep you posted on how things progress!