The Barry's

Stationery card

2011-12-02T20:55:00.001-08:00

Candy Cane Love Holiday Card

Create personalized holiday cards online at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Family Game Night

2011-09-02T20:33:00.001-07:00

We had our first ever family game night tonight. After Collin went to bed Chris, Kaitlyn and I played several games of Hi Ho Cherry O and SORRY!

Remember this game?

And this one?

Hi Ho Cherry O was a little basic but Kaitlyn had told us she liked it so we decided to try it.

After 3 rounds of Hi Ho Cherry O, which took all of about 15 minutes, we played 1 game of SORRY! which took longer than all 3 games of Hi Ho Cherry O and was a little more challenging for Kaitlyn.

Here are some of our favorite phrases Kaitlyn said tonight in her frustration during the game:

"Oh Tarter Sauce!" which she got from Sponge Bob

"Oh the Horror!" only she pronounces it "Hoyer" which made it all the more funny

Then when she was trying to talk smack she tells us "I am going to squeeze you out of business!" so then of course we had to ask her where she got that phrase from and she told us Good Luck Charlie, which is a show on the Disney channel.

And last but least, at one point Chris was trying to explain something to her and she exclaims "Well I guess I am just sticking my nose in other people's business."

Chris and I were rolling. She is one funny girl!

Our little man is 18 months old today!

2011-08-18T19:54:00.000-07:00

18 months

22.6 lbs, 32 inches

Says Ma Ma, Da Da, Ba Ba or Be Be

7 teeth, molars are coming in now

Loves...

to play in water, even if only for a minute while washing his hands

to throw things-a ball, sippy cup, a fit

slides and swings

banging things

Fruit, especially watermelon (see picture) and fresh mango
Hates...
being taken out of the bathtub, this causes a meltdown every time

Kaitlyn lost her 1st tooth!

2011-04-18T21:53:00.001-07:00

Here's the proof! Of course, it was very dramatic. Mee Mee was driving Kaitlyn to her Soccer game on Saturday and Kaitlyn was in the back seat of her car. She was trying to open her Happy Meal toy with her teeth and out came the tooth! It flew underneath the seat and blood is gushing out and Kaitlyn is crying and saying "Something's not right" to Mee Mee. Mee Mee had to pull over and locate the tooth and stop the bleeding and rinse Kaitlyn's mouth out. The tooth fairy came and brought Kaitlyn $10 for her first tooth!

So much to catch up on, so little time!

2011-04-18T21:25:00.000-07:00

So it's been 4 months since I updated the blog, bad I know, but I haven't had a spare minute to get/stay caught up. In fact, I should be sleeping now as I have my field trainer riding with me tomorrow, but my guilt finally got to me. So here is a brief and I mean brief update! Kaitlyn started playing Soccer this year. Her team is the Sharks and their colors are lime green and navy blue. You can't miss them on the field that is for sure! These are some of her new teammates. She prefers hugging them to actually playing Soccer.

Collin is getting 3 new teeth right now so it is fun around here! Pictures of this to come later.

We have been to 2 weddings already this year and have 2 more coming up. I have still got to upload pictures from Katrina and Chad's wedding. I was the Maid of Honor; however, I was upstaged by my dancing queen daughter at the reception!

And last but not least, I just got back from spending the weekend with my friend Lindsey in Littleton, CO. Lindsey now owns a Gigi's Cupcakes and I got to visit her store and even got put to work! She had a delivery for a wedding on Sunday so we went to the store for a few hours before to get things ready.

It was not all work though...we did do some relaxing!!! We went to eat lunch at Cheesecake Factory (YUM) and then went to get massages at Tall Grass, a spa up in the mountains. The scenary was so beautiful. It makes me want to move to Colorado!

Then we went back to Cheesecake Factory for round 2 (Drinks and Appetizers) before catching a movie. I even got to see Mason on Sunday and play baseball with him in the backyard. He has quite a swing!

I will post more pictures later as I find time...Hopefully that will be before I retire!

Meet Bailey

2010-12-01T08:10:00.001-08:00

Meet our new puppy Bailey!

We adopted Bailey from Pup Squad http://www.pupsquad.org/

She is a 9 week old Beagle Mix. Her Mom was dropped off at the shelter when she was pregnant and so the puppies were born in foster care. Pup Squad specializes in pregnant dogs and puppies and fosters them in individual homes so that they don't become sick, since the puppies are too young to be immune to the diseases they can contract in shelters. We found Bailey on their website and fell in love with her precious little face. She and her 3 sisters were all being fostered together. They were named after the Golden Girls (see pictures of her sisters below) and Bailey was originally named "Blanche" but we decided to change her name when we brought her home.

After we adopted her we took her to Petsmart for the first time because we had to get a few supplies. Kaitlyn picked out a sweater for her, but she pronounces it "sweather" (like it rhymes with weather) it's hysterical. Bailey took a bath in when we got home and got all dressed up in her sweater.

Bailey and Kaitlyn her first night with us

Bailey in her sweater Kaitlyn picked out for her

Bailey's Sisters

Dorrie

Rose

Sophia

We are enjoying spending time with Bailey and getting to know her. She is quite fond of our Christmas tree and so we are frequently having to pull her out from underneath it. I don't know what she will do when there are actually presents underneath!

Collin is 9 months!

2010-12-01T07:55:00.001-08:00

Collin is 9 months old!

9 month milestones and events: Makes several sounds-Ba, Ba, Ga, Ga, Da, Da and several others, claps his hands, scoots around his playmat on his butt, leans way over when in a sitting position to reach his toys, celebrated his 1st Thanksgiving, began eating 2nd foods with meat (Vegetable Chicken, Vegetable Beef, Apples and Chicken, Sweet Potatoes and Turkey, Turkey and Rice, etc)

He celebrated his first Thanksgiving this month. He enjoyed Turkey and Rice baby food for his Thanksgiving dinner and he ate the whole jar!

Kaitlyn and Collin during Thanksgiving Dinner

Collin loves playing on his playmat, here he is with his toys

Our little man is his PJ's

Collin is 5, 6, 7, actually 8 months old

2010-10-30T21:09:00.000-07:00

I have been a little behind on my blog updates lately so here are pictures and updates from Collin's 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th month.

5 month milestones:

Started eating rice cereal, screeching noise, splashing in the tub, finding his feet, flailing both arms and kicking legs at the same time, holding himself up on his arms while laying on his tummy, sitting up in bumbo

6 month milestones and events:

Sitting with assistance, tried his first vegetables-carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, and peas (which he hates), sported his first mohawk, and he was the "Baby of 2 weeks" at school (see the picture of his poster below), and got baptized!

Eating his first veggies-Carrots

Collin's Baby of 2 Weeks poster

First mohawk

Kaitlyn's first time feeding him on her own

Collin and his Godparents

7 month milestones and events:
Sitting unsupported, eating 1st fruits, first haircut, first pictures at the St. Andrew's pumpkin patch for Halloween

Eating Prunes

8 month milestones: Eating 2nd foods, starting to form sounds Ba-Ba-Ba, first Halloween and Trick or Treating

Stay tuned for more updates! I will try to make them a little more timely :-).

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween from Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion

Okay so he is not cowardly but he sure is cute!

Dorothy and Toto

Our Sweet Emma

2010-10-26T21:08:00.001-07:00

Emma Barry

March 9, 2004-October 26, 2010

Emma joined our family on Memorial Day weekend of 2004. It was two weeks after I found out I was pregnant with Kaitlyn. We picked Emma out the weekend before I found out I was pregnant.

The day we picked her out

Emma or "Emma Bean" as we nicknamed her, was our baby before we had Kaitlyn. She layed on the couch with me and/or Chris and tried to lick away our stresses of the day after we had a long day at work. Emma enjoyed playing with her toys, learning to fetch, rollover and speak and even got to play in the snow her first year with us.

Lounging with Dad

Snow Day

When Kaitlyn joined our family we nicknamed Emma "Sister Emma". Mom and Sarah brought home the blanket from the hospital used to wipe Kaitlyn off when she was born to let Emma know she was going to have some company. Emma took right to her new baby sister and loved to smother her with slobbery wet kisses, whenever she got the chance, so much so that one of Kaitlyn's first phrases when she learned to talk was "No, No Emma!" to keep Emma from licking her in the face.

Emma testing out the bassinet

Emma & Kaitlyn at Mee Mee's

Emma was diagnosed with a heart murmur approximately 2 years ago. One of the most common conditions associated with heart murmurs is mitral valve disease (MVD), sometimes referred to as mitral regurgitation. Cavalier King Charles Spaniels are particularly prone to MVD, and it is often earlier in this breed than in others.

Emma was evaluated by a cardiologist and started on medications to help slow down the progression of her MVD. Emma had been taking medications for the past 2 years but when she was evaluated in February of this year the X-rays showed some enlargement of her heart. When Emma was evaluated again in August, her heart had grown substantially since February and we added even more medications to her regimen.

In recent months, Emma was having breathing attacks closer and closer together due to the size of her heart. We were consulting with the cardiologist every couple of weeks to adjust her medication and keep her comfortable, but she started to develop fluid build up making it more challenging for her to breath properly. Emma was still playful and was still happy to wake up every morning and do her barking routine while we were preparing her breakfast and her pill pocket with her medication, but she was starting to have nights where she really struggled to get comfortable.

On Monday night, Emma developed alot of fluid both in her lungs and main airway. I could tell she was not comfortable and I couldn't get her to come to bed. I gave her some more medicine hoping it would kick in and she would be comfortable. After an hour and a half, she still was not comfortable, so I told Chris that we had to do something for her. Since it was late at night, she had to be taken to the emergency vet; and Chris and I had to make a hard decision because the vet said she may or may not recover from this particular event.

It was a really hard decision to make, especially since she was only 6 years old, and we were not ready to lose her but we didn't want her to suffer.

We had to tell Kaitlyn the difficult news after school on Tuesday. She made cards for Emma and signed them from all of us and I bought balloons which we released with the cards tied to them to send them to Emma.

It has been a difficult week for all of us. We keep coming home expecting her to be waiting for us in the front entry hall like she always did. I keep looking for her in her usual spot outside our bedroom door when I walk into or out of my bedroom. In the morning, I keep thinking "I need to feed Emma". Kaitlyn got really upset when she saw that Emma's food and water bowls were no longer in their usual spot.

Even though Collin won't remember her, he will be able to see these pictures of Emma that were taken when his newborn pictures were taken by Laura. We will tell him how his face would light up when he saw her and how he laughed when she licked him on the hands.

We all miss Emma tremendously!

Kaitlyn's Cheerleading Camp

2010-07-22T20:30:00.001-07:00

Kaitlyn attended cheerleading camp this month and begins practice next month for the fall season. She is going to be cheering for the Raiders this year! Her uniform is going to be white, silver, and black.

She looked so cute I just had to snap a few pictures before we left and during practice.

Our precious little cheerleader with her first "real" pom poms

By this point she was getting tired of my picture taking and I think was getting a little embarrassed that I was taking her picture. She was suprisingly shy since she didn't know anyone on her team.

Collin at cheerleading practice

He was there to cheer Kaitlyn on!

The first night of camp was cut short because there were dark clouds rolling in and it was threatening to rain the entire practice. The second night of practice was cancelled due to the weather because as her coach told her "Football players practice in the rain, but we're not crazy and cheerleaders don't practice in the rain."

Her third day of camp was on Saturday morning at 9:00 AM and it was hot! They practiced on the track at Pearland High School that morning and you could tell these little girls were not used to being outside in that kind of sun and heat. The coach's daughter was vomitting 5 minutes into the practice, but she was a trooper and ended up splashing some water on her face and was back out there in less than 30 minutes. At the beginning of practice, Kaitlyn spotted a little kitten that was hiding under some equipment at the end of the track, this became her distraction the entire practice. She couldn't focus because she was trying to keep an eye on the cat. Then as practice wore on and the heat became more unbearable, all of the little girls started whining. About every 30 seconds you would see one of them come running over to where the Moms were sitting with their latest complaint in their whiniest voice and Kaitlyn was no exception! I kept having to send her back out there because she kept coming over for a drink or to tell me she was hot even though the coach was giving them frequent breaks. Finally when she had enough, she walked over to the coach and proceeded to tell her "We all want to go home." I could have died!

Her first game is August 28th at 11:30 AM. Hopefully she will be able to tolerate the heat long enough to finish cheering at the game that day! Wish us luck :-).

4 months old and back to work!

2010-06-28T22:01:00.000-07:00

Collin is 4 months old! I can't believe the time has gone be so fast. I knew that it would, but it still seems like it went by so quick.

Collin is holding his head up really well and can lay on his stomach and hold his head a 90 degree angle from the floor. He has also discovered his feet this month and can now reach out and grab some of the toys on his toy bar and hold onto them.

He can now roll from his back to his stomach really well and has rolled from his stomach to his back a few times. For a while he would lay on his back on the floor and use his legs to turn himself onto his side and get about 3/4 of the way over, but stop just short of flipping onto his stomach. He would stay there for a few minutes and then flip back onto his back.

Now, he can flip completely over and he does it really fast. One second you look at him and he's on his back and then you look away for a second and he has flipped completely over and is holding his head up.

Working on rolling over

Collin started daycare full time on June 16th, which was also my first day back at work.

Here is a picture of us on our first day!

And last but not least, here are some pictures of Collin at 4 months!

It looks like he is thinking "I'm how old?"

Sitting in his bumbo

Just when I thought...

2010-06-28T21:44:00.000-07:00

That Kaitlyn had outgrown all her cute phrases she tells me this morning "Mom, Emma's breath smells like Petunia Fish!"

I said "Do you mean Tuna Fish?" and she says "Yea", like of course that's what I meant Mom, duh.

Then on the way to school today, she was telling me about how they now have Toy Story 3 Action Figures at Walmart and Target, only she is telling me that there are "Toy Story Action Fingers". I tell her they are called "Action Figures" and she tells me that she has "2 My Little Pony Action Fingers." I give up at this point, it was too cute to hear her say it to correct her again.

She also pronounces "Crayons" as "Crowns" no matter how many times Chris and I try to set her straight it always comes out as "Crowns" when she says it.

It's funny, at the time you think you will never forget all their cute phrases, but then they get older and start to pronounce things correctly and you forget some of the cute ways they used to say things.

One of my all time favorites though has to be "Yarden". She used to refer to all yards as "Yardens" as in "Let's go outside and play in the yarden." I think this originated at Mamaw and Paw Paw's house because they actually have a garden, so if you think about it a yard with a garden in it too = Yarden. Makes perfect sense right?

I know there are several more that I can't remember at the moment, so if you are reading this and you remember some of her cute phrases that she used to say, post a comment to remind me!

Kaitlyn is a graduate and Collin is 3 months old!

2010-05-23T11:48:00.000-07:00

Where does time go? Kaitlyn graduated from Pre-K last weekend and Collin is already 3 months old.

Kaitlyn's graduation ceremony was last weekend and we had quite a little celebration. Friday night we went to dinner with Mee Mee, Paw Paw and Seth at one of Kaitlyn's favorite restaurants, Texas Roadhouse. Kaitlyn stayed the night at Mee Mee's and got to hang out with Seth and Mee Mee's neighbor Taylor and her friend Lauren. Taylor is Kaitlyn's teenage idol and the both share a love of Justin Bieber, so she loves to go to Mee Mee's and visit Taylor.

Saturday morning Mee Mee had arranged for the Sweet N Sassy limo to pick Kaitlyn up at the house and take her to graduation. Seth, Lauren, Taylor and Paw Paw Kenny rode along with her in the pink limo to the graduation ceremony.

Kaitlyn's ride to graduation

Lauren, Kaitlyn, & Taylor

When Kaitlyn and her entourage arrived at the school we were all there to greet her and of course we all had to take pictures with the graduate!

Grampy, Grammy, & Kaitlyn

Paw Paw Kenny, Kaitlyn, & Mee Mee

Paw Paw Kenny, Kaitlyn, Mee Mee, & Seth

Kaitlyn & Mamaw

Me & my sweet girl

Once inside, Kaitlyn and her fellow classmates got ready for the ceremony and I was able to get a few pictures of them before the ceremony.

Reagan, Kaitlyn, Analyse, & Sydney

After the ceremony I snapped a few more pictures of the graduates and this is one of my favorites. These 3 girls have been in the same class since they were at least 18 months old. All of them have January birthdays within a week of each other so they always transition to the next class together. Going off to Kindergarten without Reagan and Isabela is going to be a different experience for Kaitlyn, but we as parents have become friends so I am sure we will still get together occasionally and let the girls hang out.

3 amigos-Isabela, Kaitlyn, & Reagan

Collin, Kaitlyn, & Hannah

After the ceremony we celebrated with lunch at Cracker Barrel and a cookie cake. Then we went back to the house for Kaitlyn to unwrap her graduation gifts. All in all it was a great weekend of celebration! We are so proud of our little graduate and can't wait to see how well she does in Kindergarten in the fall and how she handles this new phase of her life.

Kindergarten here she comes!

Ready for Kindergarten with her new backpack and lunch kit

Collin continues to amaze us. It seems like he is learning something new everyday. He has quite a few different noises now, most sounds like squeals or squeaks but he also sucks his bottom lip in occassionally and lets out this little cry that is so sad and cute at the same time. Here are some pictures from this months activites. He is really doing well with holding his head up now and doesn't seem to mind tummy time as much now. He is also sleeping really well at night and sometimes sleeps from 10:30-5:30 or 11:30-6:30. He occasionally wakes up around 3 or 4 am but he usually eats and goes right back to sleep. He likes to sleep in until 8 or 9 if we don't have to get up and take Kaitlyn to school and I am enjoying my last few weeks to stay home with him. I can't imagine not being with him 24 hours a day in a few weeks from now. I just can't get enough of those precious smiles and squeals!

Chilling in his Nap Nanny

After bathtime

Tummy Time

Trying to take a bite out of his Nap Nanny

Naked Baby... well almost naked

Snuggling with Daddy

Not sure where he learned this already!

Look at the middle finger!

Kaitlyn's alter ego and new love interest

2010-04-28T13:53:00.000-07:00

Kaitlyn has a new alter ego. Her name is Katie and according to Kaitlyn she has "dark hair".

Kaitlyn has become obsessed with dark hair. She tells me that when she turns 10 she is going to dye her hair dark. Apparently her and her two BFF's, Reagan and Isabela, sit around at school and talk about how Reagan and Isabela (both brunettes) want blonde hair and how Kaitlyn wants dark hair. Lately, when she is playing around the house I will call her name and she will tell me "I'm not Kaitlyn, my name is Katie" then she will bring me a toy or a stuffed animal and pretending to be someone else she says to me, "This is for your daughter Katie", then 5 minutes later she comes back again and says "Whose is this?" and I give the response I have been told to give "It's Katie's" and she says "Well that would be me." She is hysterical. I never know if I am talking to Kaitlyn or Katie but she is quick to correct me if I get it wrong.

On to her new love interest.....

Apparently she is sooooo over Zac Effron. The new love of her life is Justin Bieber. Justin Bieber is 16 years old and is every teenage girl's dream. Kaitlyn likes to pretend she is 16.

She always wants me to spell his name for her so she can write it on a piece of paper. She knows every word of his song "Baby" and she takes my People magazine the instant I get it out of the mailbox and scours it for pictures of him. I actually have to tell her to let me read it first because she will be ready, scissors in hand, to cut out every picture she can find before I even read it. I get them in the mail on Fridays and she will ask me all night, practically every hour, "Have you finished it yet?" He was on the cover a couple of weeks ago and they did a story on him as well so she got quite a few pictures from that one.

He was also the musical guest on Saturday Night Live a couple of weeks ago and I recorded it for her. I played it back for her when Grampy and Grammy were here visiting one day and she performed. She was a little more reserved in her performance then she normally is because she knew Grampy and Grammy were watching her. This is where I was going to post the video of her performance but after trying to post it 4 times I figured out it must be too long to post because it wouldn't upload :-(. If you want to see it email me and I will send it from my Flipshare account.

When we were at Tom and Thelma's a week or so ago Kaitlyn was out picking wildflowers in the yard. She picked one of those flowers/weeds that you blow and all the fluffy things fly away. I told her to make a wish and then blow on it, which she did. I then asked her what she wished for and she said "I wished I would marry Justin Bieber". Oh dear, what do you do with a boy crazy 5 year old? I thought this wasn't supposed to start until she is in her teens.

I am sure that "Katie" and Justin Bieber would live happily ever after ;-).

Collin is 2 months old!

2010-04-28T13:26:00.000-07:00

Collin is now 2 months old! He has gotten so big. Chris and I think he is approaching 10 lbs because he was 8 lbs 12 ounces at his last Dr's visit and that was exactly 2 weeks ago today and he has been gaining about an ounce a day.

We took some pictures of him at exactly 8 weeks old and you can see how much he has grown compared to his one month pictures. The outfit he is wearing in these pictures did not fit him 2 weeks prior but you can see in the pictures that it now fits him perfectly.

Chris and I recently took Collin to meet his great grandparents, Grandpa and Grandma Dugas. Collin visited for a little while and then slept the rest of the time we were there. Grandma was impressed that he was such a good baby.

Collin also had some visitors of his own this month. Grammy came to see him for the first time since she saw him at the hospital in the NICU. Grampy came too :-).

And now I am going to post some long overdue videos of Collin.

The first video is of his first bath, which he didn't get to take until he was 22 days old! Don't worry it is G rated :-) He couldn't take a bath until his umbilical cord came off and that didn't happen until he was 22 days old. I thought he was going to hang onto that thing until he graduated! He was able to have sponge baths, but could not have a real bath while it was attached. Listen to Kaitlyn talking in the background.

The second video is more recent. I recorded this one morning when he was really active. He is making cute little noises and he even shows us his big gummy smile at one point. I love those smiles!

So much to catch up on!

2010-03-13T12:59:00.000-08:00

Collin's first month flew by, especially since we weren't home until he was almost 2 weeks old.

Here is a picture of Collin on his original due date (St. Patrick's Day) and a few from March 18th at exactly 1 month old.

It is amazing how fast the weeks go by! Collin is now 7 weeks old. He had his 2 month check up yesterday (a week early) and got 3 vaccinations :-(. He now weighs 8 lbs 8 ozs and is 21 inches long.

He is in the 10th percentile for weight and the 5th percentile for height, but Dr. Talbot said if they adjusted it because he is a preemie he would actually be around the 25th percentile for weight.

Here are a few pictures of Collin from this week, in his motorcycle outfit, so you can see how much he has grown from the previous pictures.

I also got the disk of Collin's newborn pictures from the photographer. You may have already seen some of these from the sneak preview I posted a while back but here are a few more.

On another note...Since I am so far behind on updating the blog here are a few updates that I would have posted...if I had the time.

Little Miss Helpful

Kaitlyn has a new excuse for getting out of bed at night. Normally what happened, prior to Collin's arrival, is that we would put her to bed and she would get up 4 or 5 times before we went to bed to come to talk to us and she would just make up an excuse for being out of bed (my leg hurts, I have to tell you something, etc.)

Now her tactic is to act like Little Miss Helpful and she uses this a her "Get out of bed free" card. When she hears me in Collin's room, or if she just wants to get out of bed, she opens her door and asks "Do you need any help?". If I say no, she tells me "Well, just wake me up if you need any help", as if she would actually be sleeping ;-).

A hungry baby and the Easter Bunny

So Chris and I tackled the task of taking the kids to see the shopping mall Easter Bunny the week before Easter. (It feels weird to type "the kids" as I am not used to that term yet because I am so used to saying "Kaitlyn"). Everything was going fine when we arrived, Collin was asleep in his car seat and Kaitlyn was on her best behavior. We went into the mall and changed Kaitlyn into her Easter dress and fixed her hair and stopped in Baby Gap to find an outfit for Collin (I had been on the search for weeks with no luck, so this was our last resort because everything was either to big or too ridiculous looking). We found an outfit for Collin at Baby Gap and headed over to see the Easter Bunny. The line was fairly short and was moving pretty fast so we thought it would be smooth sailing. Once we got to the front of the line and it was our turn we took Collin out of his car seat and he woke up. He was doing fine at first, but then the camera lady decided that she would just take her own sweet time so Collin decided that while he was waiting on her, he would try to nurse the Easter Bunny. Once the camera lady decided she was ready to go Collin had his face buried in the Easter Bunny's fur looking for a meal and so the first 3 pictures were of Kaitlyn smiling pretty and all you can see of Collin is the back of his head.

Then the computer crashed before we got to pick out our picture and so once the lady got it up and running again we had to take new pictures. By this point, Collin is screaming because the Easter Bunny won't feed him and so this picture is what you get when you take a hungry baby to the Easter Bunny. Kaitlyn was of course smiling pretty and Collin...well see for yourself.

Happy Easter!

I will try to post more pictures, and possibly video, soon and maybe even a few more updates!

PS I started drafting this post on March 13th so even though I posted it in April the posting date says March 13th because it obviously took me a long time to complete it!

Our new routine

2010-03-09T15:36:00.000-08:00

So we are still settling into our new routine but Collin has made it pretty easy on us so far.

Collin's routine consists of waking up, getting his diaper (changed all the while squealing and grunting because he has suddenly realized he is starving even though he was asleep seconds earlier), eating and sometimes getting a diaper change again and new outfit and blanket after his diaper leaks all over me and him while he is eating, going back to sleep for 2.5-3 hours and repeat. In the past 24 hours Collin is working on setting some kind of record for the most outfit changes by one baby. I think we have gone through at least 6 onesies/sleepers!

He is apparently very attached to his umbilical cord as he has not parted with it yet and he is now 20 days old and it is still hanging around!

My routine consists of nursing Collin on demand, which usually happens every 2.5-3 hours, but surprisingly; I feel like I have alot of downtime in between his feedings during the day. Now at night when I am trying to get back to sleep after being awake for an hour, it doesn't feel like there is that much time between feedings, but I still don't feel as sleep deprived as I did with Kaitlyn. I think the second time around is definitely easier! Maybe it is because I knew what to expect but it seems easier this time to find time for things like eating and showering! Don't get me wrong, I am still exhausted but not as overwhelmingly as much as I was last time.

Chris' new routine has been helping me with Collin throughout the night (he usually gets burping duty after I feed Collin because I just don't seem to be able to get him to burp like he does for Chris) grocery shopping, washing clothes, and making sure I take care of myself during the day, then cooking dinner, cleaning the kitchen, bathtime and bedtime with Kaitlyn in the evening. I know that he is exhausted and there are times when we are both delirious so it is good that we have each other to keep things straight. Chris is sure to win Father/Husband of the Year this year, at least in my book!

Last week we had Laura from Studio Bloom Photography come to our house to take Collin's newborn pictures. It was fun, but it was alot of work for all involved.

Collin decided he was starving as soon as Laura arrived so I had to feed him right when she got here. Then instead of falling fast asleep like he usually does after eating, he was wide awake. As you may or may not, know taking pictures of a newborn is definitely easier when they are sleeping because you can pose their little arms and legs when they are asleep and they leave them in that position. This is especially helpful when the baby is naked and you are trying to cover certain areas with their legs! Collin would let Laura pose his legs and feet and right when she got ready to snap the picture he would decide to stretch his legs and show off all his little parts we were trying to cover.

I put Collin in one of his pea pods that Mee Mee got him for one of the pictures, keep in mind he was naked underneath the pea pod. Collin decided that since it was a "pea pod" he would make it a pee pee pod and emptied his bladder and I didn't realize that until I picked him up and held him against my shirt so then my shirt was also wet.

I wanted to get a few pictures of Kaitlyn with Collin in his birthday suit and I had bought this really simple white dress for Kaitlyn to wear in the pictures. I got Kaitlyn all dressed in her outfit and sent her into Collin's room to take pictures with him. Laura had Collin wrapped up inside a piece of material and she took a few pictures of Kaitlyn with Collin all swaddled up and that worked out fine. Then I asked Laura if we could take the wrap off and get some with Collin in his birthday suit with Kaitlyn; this is when the photo shoot ended for Kaitlyn. She refused to take pictures with him while he was naked! Laura, Chris and I tried to think of every possible thing we could say to bribe Kaitlyn to get her in the picture but she wasn't having it. We took a few more pictures of Collin by himself and some with me and Chris, then it was time to take a picture of the whole family. Collin was, of course naked, and Kaitlyn refused to get anywhere near him. She finally agreed to get in the picture but she sat on Chris' lap as far away from Collin as possible and she had her arms crossed in most of the pictures and looked as if she was miserable. This is when it got really interesting...

Sometime during the process of taking the family photos Collin decided he had to go to the bathroom and apparently pooped all down my shirt and on my jeans, only none of us noticed because Laura was mainly focusing on our faces and we were all looking at the camera. When we finished taking the family pictures Chris looks at me and said "Kara he pooped all over you". So needless to say, I had to have a wardrobe change for the remaining pictures.

It was all worth it though because the pictures are so cute. Laura put a sneak peek of the pictures on her blog. Click the link below and look for the posting on March 9th titled "Newborn Boy" and you can see a few of the pictures from our session.

http://www.studiobloomphoto.com/blog/

We haven't left the house much during this time because the pediatrician suggested we keep Collin as isolated as possible during this time because he is a preemie and is more susceptible to respiratory viruses and that could put us back in the NICU, but we have had a few visitors since we have been home.

Here are some pictures of Collin with some of his first visitors.

Collin & Mee Mee

Collin & Aunt Sarah

Collin & Mamaw

Collin & Paw Paw Barry

Collin & Cousin Seth

Collin & Paw Paw Kenny

Collin & Grampy

And last but not least some of my new favorite pictures of Collin.

Collin in his tie onesie ready to go visit Mee Mee

Sleeping peacefully

Before with the pacifier

After Chris pulled the pacifier out

We're home!

2010-02-27T14:53:00.000-08:00

A quick post to say "We're finally home!"

Collin was taken off of oxygen Thursday night around 8:30 pm and did fantastic maintaining his oxygen saturation on room air. Friday morning Chris and I were in the NICU when the Dr's rounded and they said that since Collin has maintained his oxygen saturation he would be getting his circumcision on Friday and have his car seat challenge and after that we could go home.

We couldn't believe it. The day we had been waiting for had finally come!

After his circumcision and hearing test Collin had to do his car seat challenge where he had to sit in his seat for an hour and maintain his oxygen saturation between 85-100. The car seat challenge is to make sure that he can sit in his seat without closing off his airway because preemies are subject to lowering their heads and closing off their airways in the car seat.

Collin passed his hearing test and car seat challenge with flying colors and we were given the green light to go home. Mom and Kaitlyn met us at the hospital so that Kaitlyn could ride home with us but as soon as she got in the car she decided she would rather ride with Mee Mee.

So we all made it back here at about 7:00 pm Friday night and we have been enjoying being home and spending time with Collin without any tubes, wires, or monitors attached to him.

We have quite a few pictures and videos so once I have a free moment I will work on getting them uploaded but for now here are a few of the first pictures without any tubes or monitors attached.

First Picture without oxygen or feeding tubes

Collin during the car seat challenge

Collin and Chris getting ready to go home

Collin and Mommy getting ready to leave

Kaitlyn's 1st time to hold Collin

Home stretch

2010-02-25T15:53:00.000-08:00

Today has been an eventful day.

Chris and I were with Collin this morning when the Dr's rounded. They told us that they are going to take him off the oxygen tonight and that I could start breastfeeding him and then offer the bottle to him after I feed him.

I fed him this morning at 10:30 AM and he did really well. He nursed for about 40 minutes and then had 15 ml from the bottle. I was able to feed him again at 1:30 pm and 4:30. At his 1:30 feeding he had another 15 ml from the bottle but at his 4:30 feeding he did not want the bottle at all.

He is now sleeping contently and Chris and I are in the lobby waiting to check into our room tonight and the nurses are doing shift change.

The Dr's asked us if we wanted him circumcised and said they would do that at most a day or 2 before he goes home so it will probably be tomorrow. He received his HEP B vaccination today and he cried more about having his temperature taken then he did when the nurse gave him the shot!

They asked us to bring his car seat in so that they can start putting him in his car seat and checking him out to make sure he is still breathing properly.

His temperature has been a little lower today and it seems like he has had a harder time maintaining it today. The room has been a little colder than usual though so the Dr. said that his temprature is acceptable. We have just had to keep him bundled up in his blankets and a fleece outfit today to keep him warm.

Here are a few pictures of him all bundled up!

Since moving to the Elephant pod he has been more alert and responds to our voices when we come in to see him. The room is much quieter because there are not as many alarms going off as there were when he was in the Rabbit pod because the babies in Elephant are more stable in their oxygen, respiration, and heart rate. There is, however; a very unhappy little girl, Deja Lynn, in his new room that is constantly crying and screaming. Collin opens his eyes when Deja Lynn starts crying and looks around like "What is all that noise?" and "Why is she screaming?" She has 2 swings in there and a bouncer. Mom came to visit last night and told Collin that he wasn't going to get any swings or bouncers in the NICU and that if he wanted toys he had to come home! Her pep talk seemed to work because Collin seems like he is making the progress needed for us to come home.

As I am typing this Dr. Doan just walked by and said he is going to ween Collin off the oxygen tonight for sure. We have been so impressed with Dr. Doan and Dr. Chen. They work at least 36 hour shifts when they are here and they do their official rounds in the mornings but usually stop every few hours and check in on all their patients so we usually see them several times a day.

Well, it is almost time for us to take all our bags and move back into a room so I will post another update tomorrow as soon as time allows. Hopefully I will not have time because I am hoping they will discharge him tomorrow but it may be Saturday.

Collin is moving to Elephant pod!

2010-02-24T14:49:00.000-08:00

Last night was a long night because they changed Collin's feeding schedule so it caused my pumping schedule to change as well. We did not get as much sleep because of the new schedule because I had to catch up with Collin's new schedule.

This morning was an eventful morning though.

I decided to sleep a little more after my 5 am pumping before getting up for the day. Chris ran over to Starbucks to get us some coffee once I finally got up around 9 am. We were sitting in the cafe in the Ronald McDonald house and Matt, the guy in charge of the Ronald McDonald house here, came in and told Chris and I that he was going to transfer a phone call for us. Chris answered the phone and it was Kelly, Collin's nurse, calling to ask if I wanted to breastfeed for Collin's 10 AM feeding.

Collin wasn't too sure what to do but he was at least alert and responding to my voice and he maintained his respiratory rate in the 40-60 range while trying to figure it all out. We ended up feeding him through the feeding tube because he couldn't quite figure it out, but he at least stayed calm and seemed content while we were trying.

The Dr. came by after I had tried to breastfeed him and said that he wanted us to try a bottle for one of his feedings today and see how he did with that before we tried breastfeeding again.

After our attempt at breastfeeding, we were able to dress Collin in his own clothes! This is the first time he has had clothes on besides the little t-shirt they put on him the other day that swallowed him up. We put one of his preemie outfits that Mee Mee bought him on and swaddled him up in a blanket. Collin was also moved from the incubator type crib with a heater to a regular crib!

Collin in his first outfit

Tonight at shift change (6:30-7:00) Kelly, his nurse, will move him to a different pod in the NICU. Currently Collin is in the Rabbit pod but tonight he will move to Elephant, which puts us one step closer to going home...Elephant is the first pod you get to when you walk into the NICU so he is close to the exit! We have now learned all the pods in the NICU, at least we think we have a good understanding, (Duck, Bear, Giraffee, Rabbit, Sheep, Cat, Elephant) in order of increased severity to decreased severity. Collin started out in Giraffee his first night here.

We have been really fortunate the past 2 nights because we were able to get one of the rooms through Ronald McDonald House on the same floor with Collin. I just found out that we have a room again tonight so we will be here with him again. It has really been such a blessing to be able to be so close to him and to be able to take his bottles right down the hall when it is time for his feedings!

Since Collin did not breastfeed, I was able to pump for his next feeding and it bought Chris and I some time to run home today and get more clothes for the next few days and bring a few things home. Today was the first time I have been out of this hospital in the past week. It is a beautiful day outside so it felt good to get away even if it was only for 2 hours.

Chris is now back there with Collin trying to feed him his first bottle so I will try to post another update later.

More signs of progress

2010-02-22T21:41:00.000-08:00

2/23/10

New Pictures!

Chris holding Collin for the first time since he held him in the OR!

No More CPAP!!!

What a cute face!

Yesterday was a really long day so I am including the update for yesterday and today. I was discharged yesterday so Chris and I were trying to figure out where we were going to be staying the night after I was discharged. We were able to secure a room through Ronald McDonald House on the 7th floor right down the hall from the NICU. There are 7 rooms offered for families of children in the NICU and they are given out based on severity of the child. We had to put our name on the list and wait all day to see if we got a room. We were able to move into our room beween 7 and 9 last night so we had to wait on my nurse to discharge me and then get all of our stuff transported to the room on 7. Then Chris had to leave and find a 24 hour pharmacy to get all my prescriptions filled so that I would have pain medication for last night and today.

It was all worth it though because today was a great day!

Even more progress. They increased Collin's feedings today to 33 ml and disconnected the IV early in the day.

I just got back from visiting with him and they have now removed the IV completely and he is on 21% oxygen which is equivalent to room air!!!! Another milestone for him.

While I was in there his respiratory rate was between 40-60 which is exactly where they want it to be. Now he just has to stay there consistently. While I was in there he was sleeping but they want to see him maintain his respiratory rate between 40-60 while he is awake and being held then they will consider switching him to a bottle feeding and then to breastfeeding. They want to be sure that he will be able to maintain his breathing at the proper rate while sucking and swallowing so for now he remains on the feeding tube.

Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to see if he continues to maintain his respiratory rate and when the Dr's round we will know how they are going to proceed.

2/22/10

Collin has made a substantial amount of progress over the past 48 hours.

Yesterday Collin was still on the CPAP machine but was steadily decreasing the amount of oxygen he was requiring. He feedings were increased from 7 ml to 13 ml and he tolerated them well and had very little undigested breastmilk left when they checked before his next feeding.

Chris went up after 3 AM last night to take a bottle I had pumped and they had decreased his oxygen to 25%.

This morning Chris went up to take another bottle and to his suprise Collin was completely off the CPAP machine and only had a nasal canula. When Collin was on the CPAP the pressure he was requiring to force the oxygen in was at 6, then over last night it came down to 5 and then 4.

When he was switched to the nasal canula today they further decreased the pressure to 2 and today while we were visiting they decreased it again to 1.5.

Coming off the CPAP machine was a huge sign of progress. Throughout the day today Collin has maintained himself on around 30% oxygen but has only needed the pressure of 1.5.

They also increased his feedings today to 27 ml and he has tolerated them well and gained some weight. He was up to 5 lbs 10 ozs last night, which was good because he was down to 5 lbs 9 ozs, and they will weigh him again tonight to see what he has gained today.

The next step is to get the IV taken out. The Dr. had mentioned that if Collin gets to 30 ml feedings and tolerates them well they could probably turn off the IV. He is currently still at 27 ml because they only increase his feedings once a day but when the Dr's round in the morning they may increase it again and hopefully at that point will say that the IV can be removed.

At this point it looks like we may be able to take him home Wednesday or Thursday but hopefully he will suprise us and continue to improve as rapidly as he has over the past 48 hours so that we can take him home even sooner.

We want to thank you all for your prayers and emails. We look forward to seeing your responses to our good news.

Mom and Kaitlyn came up today and Mom was able to hold Collin. Chris is currently in the NICU with Collin having some bonding time so I will post some pictures when I get a chance.

Update on Collin

2010-02-20T15:04:00.002-08:00

2/20/2010

The card Kaitlyn wanted to give Collin

Good news to report on Collin.

Chris and I went to see him after breakfast this morning and they had increased his oxygen to 64%, the good news is that since that time he has been able to have his first meal (via the tube they have down his throat into his tummy) and his oxygen has now been decreased, to the lowest it has been since he was put on the CPAP machine, 44%. He has to get down to 21% before they will take him off the CPAP, but he has made quite a bit of progress today.

At noon today he received his first feeding of breast milk and he was fed again at 3 pm and Chris just took the last bottle I pumped up for the 6 PM feeding and got a report that they have now decreased his oxygen to 42%. He is responding well to the feedings and has not had any problems keeping them down. I am pumping every 3 hours so that they can continue to feed him breastmilk but he is also receiving supplementation with formula.

He is also now sucking on the pacifier every now and then, which he was not doing before, so hopefully that means he will be able to breastfeed soon after he comes off the CPAP.

Chris and I will be here through tomorrow at least and if Collin has to stay Sunday night then we may also be able to stay Sunday night with him. Hopefully he will continue to make progress and we will all be able to go home together on Monday but we won't get to talk to his Dr's again until they make rounds tomorrow morning between 9-10.

Please keep Collin in your thoughts and prayers! He is making progress.

We will be seeing him again after the nurses have shift change tonight so hopefully we will have more good news to report.

2/19/2010 @ 11:09 PM

As many of you have already heard Collin arrived yesterday via c-section 4 weeks early.

Collin was doing well in the OR right after he was born but started grunting before we made it out of the OR and was taken up to the nursery for further evaluation and oxygen.

After a couple of hours in the nursery on oxygen he was still struggling to breath because his lungs are not fully developed and the Dr's made the decision to take him up to the NICU and admit him.

Collin has been in the NICU now since a couple of hours after his birth and will be staying there tonight. He started out with an oxygen dome over his face, then they put the tubes up his nose and now they have him on a CPAP machine to give him even more oxygen. We saw him about an hour ago and his was getting 50% oxygen. They need to be able to decrease it down to 21% oxygen before they will take him off the CPAP.

He is receiving IV fluids and has not been able to breastfeed. We are hopeful that he will continue to improve over the next day and be able to come off the CPAP and attempt to eat.

Kaitlyn is anxious to see him. She hasn't be able to see him since they brought him out of the OR and put him in the nursery.

Chris was able to hold him in the OR quite a bit while my arms were still strapped down. I was able to hold him for the first time while I was in the recovery room for a few minutes before they took him up to the NICU.

I am hopeful that I will be able to hold him tomorrow if he is doing better. He has made some progress today but does not want to suck on the pacifier. Overall, he is doing pretty good he just needs some help breathing because he is having to work so hard to breath because of his underdeveloped lungs. His heart rate is good and so far he is not showing any signs of infection.

I am doing much better today than yesterday and have been able to get out of bed since around 7 this morning and move around. Chris and I have been up to the NICU several times today and are about to visit again before trying to get some sleep. We are both super exhausted but Chris has been taking good care of me.

I know this is a long rambling message but I wanted to post an update so that I could catch everyone up. I am attaching some pictures of Collin hopefully he will have some more pictures soon without all the tubes and wires attached.

Collin in the OR

Collin in the NICU on the CPAP

Please keep him in your your prayers. We are so eager to hold him and have him in the room with us.

Collin has arrived

2010-02-20T15:04:00.001-08:00

Collin Andrew Barry arrived February 18, 2010 at 2:16 PM

5 lbs 13 oz

18. 5 inches

We're home for now

2010-02-16T10:47:00.000-08:00

I had another ultrasound this morning and the ultrasound showed that the amniotic fluid had increased to 6.8, not a great increase, but better than a decline. In fact, the tech said really .4 couldn't even be considered an increase but basically that it had stayed the same.

Chris and I went back to our room expecting Dr. Jurney to say that she would do the c-section tomorrow or Thursday but that I had to stay in the hospital until then. Suprisingly, when Dr. Jurney called she actually said that I could go home today and come back on Thursday for the c-section.

So we are now back at home and the c-section is scheduled for 1:30 PM on Thursday.

We are happy to have a little more time to pack appropriately and make sure we have everything we need and give Collin a couple more days to grow before he is forced from his warm comfy home!

Keep checking back for updates on Thursday afternoon. Hopefully I won't have anything more to add until then!

Possible change of plans

2010-02-15T18:08:00.000-08:00

So today was an interesting day. The Dr's office called this morning and asked me to come back in today for another ultrasound to re-check the amniotic fluid levels. I went in today for another ultrasound and it showed that my amniotic fluid level had dropped to 6.4. On Saturday it was at 7 and it should be between 5 and 25 so although it is in the normal range, it is lower than the Dr. wants it to be given that I have placenta previa. We left the Dr's office after that ultrasound and the tech told us they would call us tomorrow to review the results.

We had just pulled out of the parking garage when the nurse called us and asked me to go over to the hospital to Labor & Delivery for IV fluids to try to hydrate me to get the amniotic fluid levels up. Chris and I thought that this would be a simple in and out type thing and that they would just hook me up to an IV for a few hours and then send me home. After we were triaged and admitted the nurse asked me if they had explained to me that I would be staying overnight. I told her that they hadn't. She said that they needed to keep me overnight to get the fluids in and do another ultrasound in the morning.

So we are here for the night now and will have the biophysical ultrasound in the morning where they will measure the amount of amniotic fluid again. We are at Children's Memorial Hermann in Room 584. Hopefully, we are not here to stay!

We were not yet packed for the hospital (I had just begun to pack my bag since we were supposed to have another week and 1/2) so Chris had to go home and pack for me and him and get Kaitlyn and Emma packed for Mee Mee.

I will post an update in the morning if time allows. Going to bed soon just in case this is my last night for a full night of sleep ;-). I am hoping to go home tomorrow and wait another week though!

Getting ready for Collin's arrival

2010-02-13T12:35:00.000-08:00

This past few weeks has gone by fast. I am now 35 and 1/2 weeks pregnant, just a week and 1/2 to go!

I have been keeping busy lately with a baby shower, scrapbooking weekend and preparations for Collin's arrival.

Jorja (Chris' sister) and Lindsey (Chris' niece) hosted a baby shower for me 2 weekends ago.

The shower was great. We received bottles, pacifiers, hooded towels, blankets, baby wash, diapers and more. I spent my first week off work washing all of Collin's precious new outfits, blankets, and towels. It is so much fun to wash his clothes, although that is probably not what I will be saying when I am washing 2-3 loads a week!

Here are some pictures from the shower. The cake was the cutest cake I have ever seen!

Unwrapping gifts

The crocheted blanket Jorja made for Collin

And last but not least, Kaitlyn felt like as the Big Sister she should test out Collin's Bumbo seat...for quality assurance and safety of course. I can't believe her little butt fits in a baby seat. She didn't even get stuck!

So after the shower and a week of running errands, I was able to get away for one last scrapbooking retreat before Collin arrives. We tried out a new place in East Bernard, which is only about an hour from Pearland. The short drive was really nice because if we had gone to our usual place in Rockport I would not have been able to go because I cannot ride in a car for more than about an hour and 1/2 at this point. One of my projects while I as there was to work on Kaitlyn's big sister scrapbook. I was able to complete it, as much as possible at this point, without pictures of Collin to put in there. Once he is born I am going to add pages for his footprints, pictures of Kaitlyn holding him for the first time etc.

Here are some previews of her big sister book. This is one of the gifts she will receive when she comes to the hospital to visit Collin.

She is also going to receive a James Avery big sister necklace from Collin!

And finally, this week was my 35 week visit. I saw June, the NP, and she said that I am measuring about average size for this stage in my pregnancy. She also said she wanted to get one last ultrasound to check the position of the placenta and get a better estimate of Collin's size.

Since the ultrasound tech is not in on Thursdays, which is the day I had my appointment, my ultrasound was scheduled for today.

Nothing has changed as far as the placenta and Collin is still head down. The ultrasound tech estimated that Collin weighs about 5 lbs 7 oz at this point, so he has gained about 2 lbs since my last ultrasound at 31 weeks. According to the ultrasound, he is measuring around 33 weeks gestation, but I am actually at 35 weeks and 3 days.

At this rate, with only a week and 1/2 left until the c-section, he will probably be around 6 lbs, just like his big sister! His heart rate was a strong 130 and he was moving all around during the ultrasound today. Chris and Kaitlyn were with me and we were able to see him practicing breathing on the ultrasound by watching his chest move. We were also able to see his heart beating strong. The tech said that my amniotic fluid is measuring a little on the low side of normal so she wants me to chug as much water as possible this weekend.

My next appointment is scheduled for Feb 18th, next Thursday. This will be my last appointment before delivery!

Until then, I will close with some pictures of my belly at 35 weeks. I will be taking maternity pictures this coming Wednesday so I will have at least a few more pictures of my belly before I deliver.

31 weeks and Kaitlyn's Birthday

2010-01-23T14:09:00.001-08:00

I had my 31 week visit and ultrasound on January 13th. Collin is no longer breech but will still be arriving via c-section because the position of the placenta hasn't changed.

The ultrasound tech said he was measuring approximately 3 lbs 7 oz. June, the nurse practitioner, said he is "not going to be a linebacker" when he is born. He is measuring on target for 31 weeks though and his heart rate was 136.

I was able to get another profile picture of Collin from the ultrasound. I believe that this will probably be our last picture of him until his BIRTHday!

Speaking of his BIRTHday...I got to pick the date for the c-section at my 31 week appointment. Collin is scheduled to arrive on February 24th, 2010, he will be exactly 37 weeks gestation.

Chris and I have to be at Memorial Hermann in the Medical Center at 7:30 AM and the surgery is scheduled for 9:30 AM! We are so excited. It is getting so close.

While I am on the topic of birthdays I can't end this post without some pictures/video of Kaitlyn's 5th birthday at Sweet and Sassy. She had a great time and it was really entertaining for us to watch her and her friends on the runway. They were so stinking cute all dressed up with their hair, makeup and nails done.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from her party.

All dressed up in her birthday outfit before the party

After choosing her dress

During her makeover

Ready for the runway

Dancing with the girls

The 3 Musketeers-Isabela, Kaitlyn, & Reagan

Her Moxie Girlz Guitar from Mom & Dad

And last but not least...my 3 favorite videos from her party!

All the Single Ladies

Pre Fashion Show Dancing

Kaitlyn's Song on her new guitar

You have to watch the whole video, the ending is the best!

Big Sister Class, 27 week ultrasound and 28 week visit

2009-12-28T21:35:00.000-08:00

Kaitlyn recently attended sibling class at the hospital to learn what to expect as a "Big Sister". The instructors taught Kaitlyn and another sibling that attended the class about why the baby cries, how to support the baby's head, and they even got to go to the nursery and see a newborn. The instructors gave Kaitlyn a baby doll and had her change the diaper. She did quite well at changing the diaper. She removed the dirty diaper and wiped the baby and even got the clean diaper on correctly, then she flipped the baby doll onto its forehead so she could fasten the sides of the diaper. Up until that point we were pretty impressed with her diaper changing skills! When the instructor talked to her about supporting the baby's head she picked up her baby and cradled it in her arms and sang "Rock a Bye Baby" to her baby doll, then proudly announced "My mommy taught me that". She also informed them that "We have a dog, her name is Emma but we call her Emma Bean and she is my big sister and we are both going to be Collin's big sisters!"

Her are a few pictures of the proud "big sister" before her sibling class.

I don't know where she gets these poses from!

I had my 27 week ultrasound on Dec 15th to check the position of the placenta. Nothing has changed so it looks like we are still on for a c-section in mid-late February. Also, Collin is now breech, not that it matters since I am already having a c-section. There is a possibility he can flip around still since he is not "engaged" but it really doesn't matter at this point since it is pretty much a guarantee that I will have a scheduled c-section. I was able to get a few more pictures of Collin from the ultrasound.

You can see his little hand resting on his head in this profile picture.

And this picture of his feet leads me to believe he is going to have big feet like his sister!

We saw Dr. Olemacher on Dec 22nd (one of Dr. Jurney's partners) for our 28 week visit since Dr. Jurney is out on maternity leave. When they tried to check Collin's heartbeart with the doppler you could see him moving all around in my stomach. Chris could see it from where he was sitting. It was cute. His heartbeat was a strong 156. At this point he should now weigh around 2 and 1/4 lbs and should be around 14 inches long, I don't know how accurate that is, but that is what my weekly newsletter from Babyzone says :-).

I asked the Dr. what a typical birth weight would be around the time I will deliver at 36-37 weeks. She said probably around 6-7 lbs, I have to say I think she has some high expectations on that one because Kaitlyn was only 5 days early and weighed a whopping 6 lbs 3 oz at 39 weeks and 2 days! Chris and I took her to the Dr. this week and at just a month shy of her 5th birthday she now only weighs 34.8 lbs! I also had the blood test to check for gestational diabetes this week and the results were normal.

Speaking of Kaitlyn' s birthday...we are going to have her party this year at a place called "Sweet & Sassy". I played dress up with her the other day and had Chris take pictures so we could use them for her birthday invites. It is going to be a small "girls only" party this year with her friends from school. They are going to have makeovers and get dressed up and then they turn on the dance music and let the girls go out on the runway and perform. I will definitely have to upload video of this occassion but here are some of the pictures from our dress up session the other day at home. She has on the necklace I wore on our wedding day and the hair comb from my veil!

And last but not least, here are some of my most recent belly pictures! I am now officially 7 months so I am in my third trimester! Collin will be here in approximately 8-9 weeks!

26 weeks

27 weeks

I go back to the Dr. on January 13th. Stay tuned for more updates!

24 week appointment

2009-12-01T19:06:00.000-08:00

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving was our 24 week appointment with Dr. Jurney. I had an ultrasound immediately before the appointment with her to check the position of the placenta. Not much has changed in that regard since the last visit. The placenta is still covering my cervix and has not moved much at all so it looks like having a c-section is still in my future. Dr. Jurney said that she wants to do another ultrasound at the 28 week appointment, which will be Dec 22nd. At that visit I will see Dr. Olemacher because Dr. Jurney will be out on maternity leave herself.

Dr. Jurney will return in mid-January and when I see her for my regular appointment we will pick a firm date for the c-section...

So it seems as though Collin will be arriving mid-late February rather than March. Being that he will be delivered 3-4 weeks early we only have about 12 more weeks until we get to meet our baby boy!

Since we had an ultrasound again this time we were able to get a few more pictures of him.

Collin's Hand

Collin's Foot

Collin's Profile

We also toured the hospital over the Thanksgiving holiday, although most of the tour didn't pertain to our situation since I won't be laboring and delivering...I have to say I won't miss that part!

I figure the c-section will also make the "how did Collin get out of your tummy talk" with Kaitlyn go much easier! If she ever asks how Collin got in my tummy or out the answer will be very simple "The Dr. put him in and the Dr. took him out." :-) See IVF does have it's advantages it makes the birds and the bees very simple to explain!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T20:53:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We have so much to be thankful for this year!

Family, Friends, a healthy beautiful little girl, a little boy on the way and much more.

We have finally given the baby a name! His name will be Collin Andrew Barry, so we can finally stop referring to him as "the baby".

Collin's room looks so cute, Chris painted it and we have put together his crib and we dragged some of the stuff out of the attic to see what we have and what we still need. We still have to decorate a little more, hang the curtains and hang stuff on the walls, etc.

Here are some of the before, during and after pictures.

Before

During

Notice the beer in the picture!

Me choosing between 2 different shades of blue

After

Since Collin now has Kaitlyn's old furniture she got to get new big girl furniture. Her new big girl bed and furniture came in so Chris and I spent the day yesterday organizing her room and cleaning out her closet (what torture that was). We are still waiting on her new bedding so we have not taken pictures of her room yet. She had to sleep in Collin's room on Tuesday night because we had Stanley Steemer come clean the carpet in her room and it was still wet that night so we couldn't move her bed back in there.

When we were baby proofing Collin's room Chris found a child proof doorknob cover (so kids can't open doors they are not supposed to open) and put it on his door just joking around. We tried using this wonderful device one time when Kaitlyn was younger and I was in her room with her patting her back to get her to go to sleep, when I got ready to tip toe out of the room undetected, I couldn't even let myself out of the room which lead to frustration and some choice words, so needless to say we don't use it anymore. When Chris tried to take it off of Collin's door it wouldn't come off we just left it on there for now.

When we setup Kaitlyn's bed in Collin's room that night we realized that Kaitlyn wouldn't be able to open the door that night because of the doorknob cover and, therefore; would have to stay in bed, something she seems incapable of doing most nights :-). We had a good laugh about that before we put her to bed and warned her about the doorknob cover so that she would know why the door wouldn't open. So at about at 9:30 that night I am sitting at the dining room table working on my computer and I hear Kaitlyn on that monitor in the kitchen moving around in Collin's room, then I hear her picking up the monitor and putting her mouth right up to the monitor and saying in a very deep voice "I have to go to the bathroom". Chris went and opened the door for her so she could go to the bathroom.

Later that night, about 3:00 AM, Chris and I are sleeping and we could hear Kaitlyn over the monitor in our bedroom, picking up the monitor yet again and in a raspy sleepy voice she says "Mommy and Daddy I want Emma to sleep with me". We couldn't help but laugh, it was so funny that she suddenly has decided that since she can't open the door she would use the monitor as her own personal walkie talkie to communicate with us.

The next morning as soon as the sun came up, we heard Kaitlyn go over and pick up the monitor put it up to her mouth and say "Mommy and Daddy it's time to wake up!"

She is so funny and keeps us laughing with all the crazy things she does.

Here is another Kaitlyn story for your entertainment...

Since staying in bed at night has been a challenge for her lately I made a deal with her. If she stays in bed 20 for nights, not consecutively of course because that would be nothing short of a miracle; I will get her a "Fur Real Pet" or as Kaitlyn likes to call it a "Real Fur Pet". We are now on night 12 so and this has been going on since mid October so by Christmas she should have her "Real Fur Pet" :-). Every morning when she wakes up she gets to put a sticker on her High School Musical calendar if she stays in bed all night to track her progress. It seems like a combination of the "big girl bed" and Emma (our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel) are contributing to her success lately. Since getting her big girl bed Kaitlyn now wants Emma to sleep with her every night. Emma helps keep Kaitlyn in bed because if Kaitlyn starts moving around too much Emma will get up and leave; however, if we put Emma in the bed with Kaitlyn before Kaitlyn is asleep she torments poor Emma and we hear her yelp and have to go to her rescue. Our new tactic has been to tell Kaitlyn that we will bring Emma in before we go to bed. This seems to work out better for both because Emma doesn't get tormented and Kaitlyn falls asleep faster because she is not up tormenting the poor dog :-). We will see how long this strategy works.

It got so bad at one point I called the pediatrician's office they gave me some print outs on tips to help with "bedtime resistance". I find most of them pretty comical, as if we had not tried these and everything else under the sun prior to calling them.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Establish a rule that your child can't leave the bedroom at night.

(Does that actually work for anyone and did they really think we had not tried that?)

Close the door if your child is leaving the bedroom.

(Does the child they are referring to not know how to turn doorknobs because ours sure does!)

Despite all of our bedtime challenges, we fell so fortunate to be blessed with such a sweet little girl! I will close for now with some fall pictures of our little angel taken at her school.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Family Pictures

2009-11-06T17:10:00.000-08:00

It's that time again. We took our annual family pictures two weekends ago and these will be our last pictures as a family of 3!

We were in Austin that weekend for Amy & John's wedding and we drove back on Sunday and took pictures that evening. We got home at around 3 pm on Sunday quickly changed clothes and then headed out the door to drive to Kingwood for pictures. Kaitlyn of course fell asleep about 15 minutes before we arrived in Kingwood and that was the only nap she had that day. Needless to say she was a little wild, which actually worked out okay because Mackenzie was able to get some great shots in between Kaitlyn's wild antics. You can see the wildness coming out in some of the pictures though; especially the one where she was supposed to hug Chris but it turned into more of a death grip on him than a hug and the one where she is throwing her head back doing her evil laugh. Mackenzie said that at least you can tell Kaitlyn has a personality from the pictures. :-)

It's a...

2009-11-02T18:51:00.000-08:00

BOY!

We had our 20 week ultrasound on Friday, October 23rd. The tech asked us if we wanted to know the sex and we of course said yes. It was the first thing she saw when she started the ultrasound and she said "It's a Boy!"

His heart rate was 136 bpm which the tech said was great. We also got some great profile pictures of him and a great picture of his foot.

The tech looked at my cervix via the ultrasound and said that my placenta is lying right on top of my cervix and this is called placenta previa. She said there is a possibility that it could move when my uterus stretches as I get further along.

On Tuesday, October 27th, we had our appointment with Dr. Jurney. She said that although she doesn't think that I have a "complete" previa, meaning that it is covering the entire cervix, she said that it is covering more than 50% of my cervix and is on the back wall of my uterus, and therefore unlikely to move. She said to prepare myself to have a c-section and that since they can't let me go into labor that I would most likely have the baby via c-section at 36-37 weeks. We also got to hear the baby's heartbeat again and it was 139 bpm. Our next appointment is on November 24th and I will have another ultrasound then to determine if the placenta has moved or if I will definitely need a c-section.

On another note...Kaitlyn has decided that she wants to name her baby brother Adam. She got the name from the "Snow Buddies" movie that she loves to watch. The little boy in the movie is named Adam. We have tried to explain to her that we have some other names that we are considering but she is bound and determined to name him Adam.

On Monday I walked into her school to pick her up and Miss Tanya at the front desk said "I heard you're having a baby boy and naming him Adam". I told her "Well you got the first part right". She then told me that Kaitlyn had been telling all the teachers that she is having a baby brother and his name is going to be Adam. At the dinner table on Tuesday night she was talking out loud to her baby brother and she said "Mommy and Daddy said I can't name you Adam so I think I am just going to call you (long pause while she is thinking)... ADAM!" So Kaitlyn remains unconvinced that his name will be anything other than Adam.

Chris has been hard at work this week cleaning out the guest bedroom and moving everything into storage so we now have a clean empty room just waiting for the crib. We are planning on buying Kaitlyn new furniture for her room so once we have that we will just move her crib etc. into the baby's room.

And last but not least....here is my latest belly picture. This was taken at 19 weeks.

16 weeks and counting

2009-10-16T20:22:00.000-07:00

I had my 16 week visit on Sept 29th, 2009. Chris and I were anticipating leaving the Dr's office knowing whether we would be having a boy or a girl, little did we know the baby had other plans :-).

June, the nurse practitioner, did the ultrasound and in the first picture we saw the baby lying face down, facing my back. We had never seen it lay in this position in previous ultrasounds.

Picture of the baby face down

Head is on the right, spine at top of picture

The next sneak peak of the baby took the nurse practitioner by suprise so she just had to take a picture of it. The baby was laying on its back with its little hand over its crotch area. You can see the arm bones and then the bones of the hand right over its crotch! Did I mention it also had the umbilical cord between its legs further preventing the determination of the sex? You can't see the umbilical cord in the picture below but trust me it was there and that was pretty much the only thing you could see in that region!

Head is on the right but cannot be seen in the picture

Left arm at the bottom of the picture

Look for the bones of the arm and follow them across the picture (R to L) to the hand

And last but not least....our first Halloween picture of the baby, at least that is what June called it. The baby is looking right at the screen in this picture and you can see eye sockets. Kindof scary looking! We have a picture of Kaitlyn that is similiar to this only she had her mouth completely open in the ultrasound picture we have of her like this. It looked like the mask used in the "Scream" horror movie.

Baby's head is on the left

Look for the eye sockets looking straight at you

And finally...here is my first belly pic! This was taken at 16 weeks (4 months).

And last weekend there was a new development. I felt the baby move for the first time last Sunday, Oct 12th. I wasn't sure at first that was what I was feeling but it has become more obvious as the baby has started to move around more. I can't wait until Chris and Kaitlyn can feel it too! Kaitlyn has told me that she thinks the baby is going to kick her hand when she puts it on my stomach.

More to come soon! When Chris gets home I will have him take another belly picture.

We have our anatomy ultrasound scheduled next Friday, Oct 23rd! The ultrasound machine they will use will have a higher resolution than the machine they normally use and they should definitely be able to determine sex as long as we have a cooperative baby! Keep your fingers crossed for a willing participant this time :-).

11 week and 12 weeks

2009-09-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

I had an ultrasound, as part of the Ultrascreen test which screens for Down's Syndrome, on Aug 29th. The test is two parts, an ultrasound and a blood test. The great news is that all results were normal!

I had told Kaitlyn that she could go with me to one of my Dr's appointments so that she could see the baby and hear the heartbeat so she and Mom went with me to this ultrasound.

They ultrasound tech put us in a room with a flat screen TV on the wall and the ultrasound was projected on the TV screen so Mom and Kaitlyn were able to see the baby really well. We were able to see both arms, legs, and feet and hear the heartbeat. The heart rate was 158 this time.

We also saw the baby wiggling around and at one point it had its arm drapped across its forehead just like Kaitlyn did in one of the ultrasounds I had with her.

Here are some pictures from the ultrasound. I was 11 weeks and 3 days but the baby was measuring at 12 weeks in the ultrasound.

The ultrasound tech asked if I wanted to know what she thought the sex was and I said "Yes!". Even though it is really early to determine sex she said she thought it was a BOY and was able to show us what looked like a boy part on the ultrasound.

I then had my regular 12 week visit with Dr. Journey on Tuesday, Sept 2nd. She did another ultrasound as part of the visit but she was not able to confirm the sex during that ultrasound because her machine was not as high resolution as the machine the tech used at the 11 week ultrasound...so we will have to wait until the 16 week visit on Sept 29th to confirm the sex.

12 weeks

The proud Big Sister

2009-08-30T12:09:00.000-07:00

Kaitlyn is so excited about "her baby" as she calls it. She tells everyone we see, from the lady at Luby's yesterday to the pizza man who delivered our pizza last night and our friends at church "My Mommy has a baby in her tummy!"

She has so many plans for her and "her baby". She has told me it is going to sleep in her bed and share her princess pillow with her.

Here are some pictures of the proud big sister in her big sister shirt.

6 weeks, 8 weeks, and beyond

2009-08-18T07:42:00.001-07:00

Alot has happened since my last post. We had our 6 week appointment and 8 week appointment with Dr. McKenzie and our first visit with the OB/GYN's office.

At the 6 week ultrasound there wasn't much to see. The ultrasound tech told us that there was a 50/50 chance that we would be able to see and hear the heartbeat because all they are really looking for a 6 weeks is the egg sac and the fetal pole. Luckily we were able to see and hear the heartbeat! The heartbeat was 103. The ultrasound tech told us that anything over 100 was good.

Here is a picture from the 6 week visit.

Two weeks later at our 8 week visit.

At the 8 week visit we could actually see the head and body starting to form. The small circle near the feet is the yolk sac that provides the nutrition for the baby. We were also able to see and hear the heartbeat again. This time the heartbeat was a strong 160.

And finally at 9 weeks.

This was our first visit to the OB/GYN's office. We saw the Nurse Practioner, June, on this visit. June said everything looked great and that the baby was measuring at 9 weeks. We were able to see the baby's head, arm and leg buds, and the yolk sac. You can also see from this ultrasound that the baby has changed positions and is now lying on its back, head is on the right side of the picture and feet on the left.

My official due date is March 17, 2010, St . Patrick's Day!

Our next visit will be with the OB, Dr. Journey, on Sept 1st and at that point I will be 12 weeks. I will have an ultrasound every visit up to 20 weeks and after the 12 week visit we will only see the Dr. every 4 weeks.

I will continue to post updates from our Dr's appointments so stay tuned!

Coming March 2010...

2009-07-18T11:30:00.000-07:00

Baby Barry!

We got fantastic news when I went in for my pregnancy test on July 8th, it was POSITIVE!

I had been waiting on pins and needles all morning long waiting for that phone call and when it finally came I was really nervous. Chris was convinced that I was pregnant but I knew that the odds were not in our favor so I was trying not to get my hopes up. Luckily all those fears were erased when Judy said "I have good news, you're pregnant!"

Judy, Dr. McKenzie's nurse, said that my HCG level was 119 and that was a good result because they were looking for an HCG level over 50. I had to go back in that Friday, July 10th for more blood work to verify that my HCG level had doubled. Ideally it should double about every 2 days during early pregnancy.

On Friday, my HCG level had risen to 360 and my estrogen level was 919 which meant I was able to stop wearing one of the two estrogen patches I had been wearing. They told me to come back on Tuesday for additonal blood work to check my estrogen level again.

On Tuesday, my estrogen level had risen to 1018 which meant I was able to remove the last estrogen patch and just continue my daily progesterone injections. I will be on progesterone in oil shots until my 10th week of pregnancy.

Chris has to give me the daily injections of progesterone. He is becoming quite good at intramuscular injections!

We have our first ultrasound appointment July 22nd at which point I will be 6 weeks pregnant.

We are so excited!

The transfer is complete!

2009-06-30T16:55:00.000-07:00

The embryo transfer took place on Monday and everything went well.

The Dr. called us Monday around 11 am to give us an update on the embryos so that we would not have to wait until our 1:30 appointment to find out. She said that we had 2 embryos that we could potentially transfer. One was Stage 1 blasocyst in development and the other was a Stage 2 on its way to a Stage 3. She also said that we had several others that they would continue to watch over the next day as they might develop to the point where we could freeze them.

When we got to the office that afternoon we met with Dr. McKenzie to decide how many embryos to transfer (1 or 2). After talking with Dr. McKenzie we felt that transferring 1 embryo was the best decision because transferring 2 would have given us a 40% chance of twins. Transferring two has its benefits though because it basically doubles your chance of success, but we felt that after weighing the risks vs. the benefits it was better to transfer just one.

When the embryologist came into the room with the incubator he gave us a printout of what the 2 embryos look like under the microscope. Since 8 am that morning the embryos had both grown to Stage 3 so they were now both the same size and stage of development. Chris asked him how they were going to decide which one to transfer since we were only transferring one. The embryologist was not yet aware that we were only transferring one so he had to take the incubator back out of the room and look at them under the microscope again to determine which one was the best.

We got to watch the entire procedure on the ultrasound. It was all a very surreal experience. Now we just have to pray that it worked!

Tomorrow is a big day!

2009-06-28T19:14:00.000-07:00

We celebrate 7 years of marriage tomorrow.

It seems like yesterday; well maybe not yesterday, but it doesn't seem all that long ago that we were living in Arlington planning our wedding.

When the day finally came it seemed like it went by so fast but we enjoyed every minute of it. Luckily, one of the best things we did was hire a fantastic videographer who captured everything from us getting ready for the ceremony up to us leaving the reception in the limo. We occasionally watch the DVD and show it to Kaitlyn which is always fun because she always wants to know where she was during the wedding. Hmmm, how to explain that to a 4 yr old...

Anyway, 7 years later I finally have all of our pictures from the wedding scanned onto a DVD and ready to be made into an album. That's right, we still don't have a wedding album. We have all the pictures and the copyrights and I know exactly what I want in an album and who I want to make it, now it is just a matter of making the investment and getting it done.

There is one thing that is worse than not having your album done after 7 years of marriage...not having your dress heirloomed yet. I still have it hanging in the pink plastic bag it was hanging in on the wedding day. I am making sort of a mid-year resolution that I have got to get my dress heirloomed this year. I guess that is something I can research while I am in bed for two days straight :-).

Tomorrow is also the day I will have the embryo transfer.

We were scheduled for Saturday but it was postponed until tomorrow.

Saturday morning Mom came over to watch Kaitlyn for us while so that we could go to the Dr. We were pretty sure it wasn't going to happen on Saturday, but as of 8:15 we still hadn't received a phone call telling us not to come, so we headed towards Dr. McKenzie's office since our apptmt was at 9:00 in the Memorial City area.

As we were driving down Cullen and I was chugging bottles of water (per the Dr's instructions) because they want you to have a full bladder when they do the transfer, the phone rang. It was the nurse saying that we needed to wait until Monday. As of Saturday, which was 3 days after the retrieval, we had 12 embryos with 7-9 cells and a 3+ rating and since they were so close in size they couldn't differentiate the best from the rest. There were also 4 smaller embryos that only had 4-5 cells so those will probably degenerate.

Here is a picture of an 8 cell embryo, I imagine ours look similar to this :-).

I don't understand that much yet about how they "grade" the embryos but here is some information I found on the internet.

Embryos should be at least 2 to 4 cells at 48 hours after egg retrieval and preferably about 7 to 10 cells by 72 hours. The cells in an embryo are also referred to as "blastomeres".

From reading this information it sounds like the 12 embryos that are 7-9 cells are right on target. The nurse said that this is a very good result. We will get to sit down with Dr. McKenzie tomorrow before the transfer and she will review the grading with us and give us all the details on our embryos.

I was actually a little relieved that we weren't doing the transfer on Saturday, I wasn't sure that I was ready to be on bed rest just yet and I had forgotten to put my bottles of water in the refrigerator to drink. I know, I know, it's a little crazy but anyone that knows me knows I can't stand to drink room temperature water, especially not when I have to chug it because I have to have a full bladder for the procedure. That is why we always have half empty bottles of water in our refrigerator because as soon as it gets warm I put it back in the refrigerator. This is something about me that after 7 years of marriage still drives Chris crazy.

So now the transfer will take place tomorrow at 1:30 PM and this time we are prepared...

the water is already in the refrigerator, I have 3 movies to watch while I am on bed rest and Kaitlyn is going to Mee Mee's house after breakfast in the morning and we are excited that the day is finally here!

One last story and then I am off to bed...
Chris and Kaitlyn were talking earlier and I guess Chris must have asked Kaitlyn if she wanted a little brother and she said something funny so Chris brought her to the kitchen to tell me why she didn't want a little brother and she said
“because they eat meatballs with their hands and they are grossy posey”

I just died laughing.

It is moments like that when I know that going through all of this to have another baby is definitely going to be worth it!

Even better news...

2009-06-25T17:37:00.000-07:00

The nurse called this morning and said that they actually retrieved 22 eggs, they found 2 more when sorting through the fluid they retrieved with the eggs. 21 of the 22 were mature, meaning that they measured between 15-22mm in size. 16 out of the 22 fertilized so we have 16 eggs that are in the incubator now and we are scheduled for an appointment at 9:00 am Saturday.

The nurse said to stay by the phone Saturday morning because there is a good chance they will cancel that appointment and let them grow until Monday in order to differentiate the best egg from the rest.

So I think Monday will be the big day. I will be on 2 days of bed rest after the procedure, which I plan on enjoying by watching movies and resting. Mom is going to take the little one off our hands for Monday and Tuesday because it is hard to explain to a 4 year old that you can't get out of bed for 2 days. She will enjoy getting to spend time with her Mee Mee too and Mom will get some much needed time off!

Tomorrow Chris gets to start playing nurse and injecting me with progesterone in oil every day for the next 2 weeks, at least. If we get a positive pregnancy test I will continue taking the shots every day for 6 weeks. I can't say I am thrilled about having to take an intramuscular shot with an inch and 1/2 long needle everyday but it will be worth it if this all works out.

We are praying for a successful transfer! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

We got 20!

2009-06-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

Today was the retrieval and they retrieved 20 eggs. They are going to fertilize them and put them in the incubator and tomorrow they will call and let us know how many actually fertilized.

So I am sitting in bed recovering and I have to say anesthesia is a great thing. I don't remember anything from the actual procedure, I don't even remember getting sleepy. The whole procedure took maybe 20 minutes and then I had to stay in recovery for 45 minutes before leaving.

The transfer could happen as early as Saturday, but will more likely take place on Monday. Since they retrieved so many it would be hard for them to tell on Day 3 (Saturday) which one is the best so they will give them a few more days to grow and look at them on Monday. Hopefully we wil have 1 super star fertilized egg that is ready to go on Monday.

Wish us luck...

2009-06-24T05:23:00.001-07:00

Today is the big day! Chris and I are about to leave to go to the Dr. so that they can do the retrieval and retrieve the eggs to fertilize. Based on how everything goes today, how many eggs actually fertilize and get to the appropriate stage, we will either do the transfer on this Saturday or next Monday. After the transfer I will be on bed rest for two days.

Keep us in your prayers!

Where we are at now

2009-06-13T12:36:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated the blog in a while to tell all of you where we are at now.

Chris and I are about to start the process of in vitro fertilization (IVF). After seeing one reproductive endocrinologist for 5 months and several failed attempts to get pregnant and complications from all the medications, it looked like we were heading towards in vitro fertilization as our best option for getting pregnant. Chris and I decided to get a second opinion and consulted another reproductive endo, Dr. McKenzie.

After meeting with Dr. McKenzie, Chris and I felt more comfortable about IVF and decided to begin the process with Dr. McKenzie. After much waiting, this month begins our first attempt at IVF; and if it works the first time, hopefully our last.

We are so thankful to have this option, even though we never thought this was a road we would have to take and we are looking forward to adding a new addition to our family.

We feel so blessed that we were fortunate enough to have Kaitlyn. I can't imagine what it would be like to go through this journey to have our first child. She gets us through all of this because if we start to feel discouraged we just have to look at her beautiful smile and remember what a miracle she is and we know that we will again be blessed when the time is right.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers in the coming weeks. It looks like the egg transfer may take place around the 1st of July.

Kaitlyn and the Easter Bunny

2009-04-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would share a picture of Kaitlyn with the Easter Bunny. She wanted to take her Build A Bear Rabbit "Reagan" who is named after her friend Reagan from school.

She was really excited about seeing the Easter Bunny this year. She was puzzled because the Easter Bunny was drinking a drink out of a Sonic cup. She kept asking me why the Easter Bunny "wanted to drink that". I told her the Easter Bunny gets thirsty too.

The Easter Bunny looks enormous compared to our sweet little girl!

A Serious Talk with Kaitlyn...

2009-04-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

So Chris and I sit down last night at the table with Kaitlyn to have a "serious talk" about her behavior at school this week. She received 2 "Oh No" reports this week mostly because she was not listening to her teachers and was disrupting other kids who were actually trying to take a nap; she obviously was not napping. As we are just about to finish our discussion with her on how to behave and how she is not going to be able to ride her bike when she gets home from school if she cannot behave, she looks at us and says with a smirk on her face and her hands out for emphasis..."Come on guys, what's the problem?" How are we supposed to keep a straight face???

We are in deep trouble if this is how the future "serious" talks are going to go.

Oh, and did I mention when we asked her what happened at school that day she says, through fake tears, "I'm afraid NOT to tell you." I say "You're afraid to tell us?" and she says "I'm afraid NOT to tell you." It is nearly impossible to keep a straight face through all this. She definitely can do dramatic performances that are Oscar worthy!

Fortunately, today was a much better day at school. I was holding my breath when I got to the school hoping for no "Oh No" report. Thankfully, she made it through today without an "Oh No"!

1 day down many more to go...

Finally as promised...

2009-03-31T20:26:00.000-07:00

video from Kaitlyn's 4th birthday party.

Tonight I was finally able to sit down and take the time to figure out why I couldn't play the video back on our computer so that I could get it uploaded to the blog.

Here is a short video of Kaitlyn and her friends playing "What Time is it Mr. Fox" at her birthday party at The Little Gym. Kaitlyn is playing the role of "Mr. Fox" and the kids have to follow her instructions. When she says "Midnight" the kids are supposed to run from her.

And here is a video of our sweet girl exerting alot of effort to blow out all 4 candles! Thank goodness there were only 4!

I haven't been blogging lately...

2009-01-07T19:53:00.000-08:00

If you haven't noticed I haven't blogged in quite a while. It has been a whirlwind these past couple of months between all of the Dr's visits, the holidays etc.

I have started all of my recommended/prescribed treatments and am getting used to this new routine-take a few pills, do a few injections, have blood drawn, have blood drawn again, and again etc. The nurse actually told me my skin is getting hard where they have been drawing my blood because they always draw from the same spot. I am starting to wonder if I am going to look like a junkie after all this is over with! Last week I ended up with a horrible bruise from the tape and another from the needle. I am getting quite well versed in all of the fertility medicines and all the different hormone levels etc. Chris went with me to the last consultation with the Dr. and he said "I am glad I came, now I am even more confused." I think it is a little bit easier for me to keep up with because everything is mapped out for me on the calendar they give me every time I see her.

On another note...Kaitlyn is going to be 4 years old this Sunday! I can't believe how fast these 4 years have gone by. I just look at her sweet little pictures from her first birthday when she was still bald and it seems like yesterday!

Here are some of my favorites from her first birthday!

The first birthday cake smashing is the best. I can't imagine what she would look like if we tried this now!

I will post some new pictures after the party this weekend.

So I had my first visit to the fertility specialist...

2008-11-06T19:02:00.000-08:00

two weeks ago today where they drew 12 vials of blood for testing. Today I went back to meet with her to review the results. Who knew getting pregnant could be so complicated?

The specialist said that I have a MTHFR Mutation which is a genetic mutation of 2 genes C7667/A2198. What does all that mean? It means I may have hyperhomocysteinteinemia (high blood levels of homocysteine) and low folic acid levels. This can cause problems with clots in the placenta and can be treated with supplements of folic acid early in pregnancy in addition to low dose aspirin and prenatal vitamins. I read on the internet that this mutation is commonly found in women who have experienced 2 or more early pregnancy losses so that may be why I had both miscarriages; however it is not a definite causal relationship. I asked her if I had this when I got pregnant with Kaitlyn and she said that I definitely did because it is genetic. We have always felt like Kaitlyn was a little miracle but little did we know how true that was. I try to remind myself of this when she is driving me to the brink of insanity!

All that sounds fairly simple right? :-)

Well, to complicate things further there was also some abnormalities in my protein C and protein S levels. I had no idea what protein C and protein S do but they are related somehow to a clotting disorder. The Dr. thinks that because both of these were off there is a possibility that the results may have been wrong and wants to repeat this lab work.

So where do I go from here? Well, I am going to go back at the start of my next cycle to have the lab work redone to find out what's going on with the protein C and protein S and then go from there. She also recommended starting Femara next cycle which is a drug that works similar to Clomid to induce ovulation. Then I will take an HCG trigger shot to trigger the follicles to release the egg and will have to take 2 more HCG shots after that to help keep my HCG level up and my progesterone levels up so I don't miscarry. Just to throw another wrench in the system there is a very good possibility that I am going to be out of town on the exact days when I am supposed to have all of this lab work etc. done so if that is the case that means we will have to wait until next month to start the process.

I mean really who knew it could be so complex? My head was spinning when I left her office with all this information but at least now I have some answers and a plan to move forward with.

Did I mention that I have to take someone with me to their office to get trained on how to give me my injections of HCG? They are intramuscular shots so they said it is easier to have someone else give it to you.

I know that all this sounds really complex but I still think I am lucky because there are women who have to go through far worse than what I am about to endure to get pregnant. And I just have to say "Thank God for Pharmaceutical Companies!" because it sounds like without all of these miracle medicines I might have very well never been able to have a child.

Well, I feel like every post needs a picture so here are some pictures of our little miracle in her Cheetah costume for Halloween. Too cute!

A look back...

2008-10-14T19:26:00.000-07:00

Chris had an idea to post pictures of our family over the past 3 years so that you can see how we have changed and how much Kaitlyn has grown. Our photographer, Mackenzie Wheatley with Chubbyfoot Photography, always takes a picture of our family walking together each time we take pictures with her. Here is a look back at at those pictures.

2006

2007

June 2008

October 2008

How quickly things can change...

2008-10-09T16:53:00.000-07:00

When we found out we were pregnant on October 2nd we were so excited we could barely keep it a secret until the results of the first blood test came back. Looking back, maybe we should have waited to share the news, but as anyone who has ever experienced it knows, you just can't wait to tell everyone the good news.

After a some follow up bloodwork, I got a phone call that made my heart sink. The NP called to tell me that instead of my hormone levels increasing, they were actually decreasing which indicates an impending miscarriage. She said that she did not expect this at all and she actually had to make sure she was looking at the labs from the correct day because she didn't believe that it had gone down. She asked me to come back that Friday for more bloodwork to see if the hormone levels had decreased again.

Today she called to give me the results from Friday's bloodwork. My hormone levels have now dropped almost back to normal and she said that I just need to follow up in a week to make sure that the hormone levels have returned to normal.

We are sad to say the least, but we know that God must have other plans for us and that when the time is right we will again be blessed with another beautiful sweet child just like the one we already have. We are so fortunate just to have Kaitlyn and for now that is enough.

Kaitlyn is jumping for joy...

2008-10-07T15:40:00.001-07:00

because......

It's official! Kaitlyn is going to be a "Big Sister".