A Bit Behind...

So I was really in the swing of things and then life with 2 kids caught up with me... :)

I suppose I should get used to the feeling of being behind, though anyone who knows me gets how difficult that is to comprehend!

In absence of lots of wonderful blogs with pictures and memories I am going to try and do some quick hits and maybe add pictures later. It will probably be a bit disjointed as I am actually terribly sick with a head cold so bear with me! :)

Anna Beth is now almost 2 months old! Time has certainly flown by. She is sweet as can be and I can finally start to see her emerging from just a life of reflux and gas (though these two things do mostly occupy her waking and sleeping time). She has started "talking" to us more regularly and actually wants to be entertained more. She looks more and more like her daddy every day (except for the silly blonde hair) and she loves to look at us. She is much bigger than her sister was at this age but seems to be developing at about the same pace. Her smiles seem to still be gas related but I don't care, I cherish them anyway. She eats about every 3 hours during the day and we are slowly getting her into sleeping in the pack n play or cradle though she still mostly sleeps in one our many baby seats. I cherish our feeding times even if they are still a bit stressful to start (thankfully I can just let down into a towel instead of pumping now) and there is nothing sweeter than where she is right now which is asleep on my chest. I didn't know my heart could love any more than it did but it grows each day!

Mia Grace is now 2 and full of love/joy/energy/craziness/independence and all that goes along with being 2. She is such a light in our world and I am so thankful for the 4 months I have been able to spend at home with her. She has grown up before my eyes and I am constantly amazed at what she knows and can do. She is trying to say everything we say and her vocabulary grows by the day. She knows words and stories I had no idea she knew and she will happily repeat any word she hears (though often its only understandable if you were the one who just said the word). She loves to tell you NO and if she starts doing something she knows she is not supposed to and you catch her, she will look at you and say "No No". She clearly knows right from wrong and loves to do "wrong". She has started saying "luh-you" at nap/bed time which melts my heart and when daddy puts her to bed she always wants to come and give mommy a kiss. She loves her baby sister (sometimes to much) and really seems to be adjusting well. She laughs, plays and just wants to be with us which I cherish.

One of my favorite memories from her 2 year old birthday trip to the Great Wolf Lodge was when we tried to put her down for her nap. We had just arrived about 30 minutes before and she was super excited to be running around the room and jumping on the bed (and even walking out of the room and WAY down the hall before daddy knew she was gone). She wanted NOTHING to do with her nap and when I told her she had to sleep she tried a great trick. She plays a game with us where she says "sEEp" and then we lie on the ground together and she counts to 3 and says "wake-UH". So we put her in the pack n play screaming and she would drop down, lie down sobbing and yell .... 1-2-3 "wake-UH" over and over again. It was so pitiful but so hysterical.

We had a blast at the lodge, Anna Beth slept most of the time and Mia Grace played like a champ. We have been trying to do all the things I don't usually get to do while I am home and have gone to the Science Museum, Little Gym (which she is now enrolled in and we are super excited to watch her blossom), walks, games, you name it. Each moment is a moment to treasure.

My two girls are truly the light of my life and I am so thankful for them. I have an incredible husband who loves us and cares for us tremendously and I am so blessed. I have a little over a week left before my world is rocked by returning to work and I look forward to cherishing every second I have left.

Remind Me....

Some days I feel overwhelmed.
Some days I am just a jerk to my husband.
Some days I feel like I just can't do anything right.
Some days I focus so much on what's not going right.
Then I see these sweet faces and remember God has blessed me beyond belief and I have so much to be grateful for.

Trials come and go but He is good all the time.

These moments are but a blink of an eye and I shall cherish each one, good, bad, crazy, stressful, tearful, joyful and all.

When I forget, remind me!

2 Weeks...

Anna Beth had her 2 week check up today and they said she is GREAT!!

She is now up to 6lbs 11oz so she has regained all her lost weight and a little more. This puts her in the 10% for weight. She is in the 50 % for height at 19 3/4 and is in the 80% for head circumfrence at 14 3/4! (crazy how one and 1/4 cm can change it from 25 % to 80 %). I am not sure I am buying the % though!

She definitely has a cold (which has made the last couple of days VERY hard on mommy). He said I am doing everything correctly to help ease her discomfort and they checked her pulse oxygen levels and she is great so that was reassuring. Poor little thing also has clogged tear ducts so she has had a rough couple of days.

So I started this yesterday and am finishing it now and am so thankful to say Anna Beth's cold seems to finally be easing up! Of course, the MDO said I didn't have to wake her up to eat at night but the little stinker will gladly wake herself up every 3 hours at night but sleep all day if I let her. I am just thankful she slept in her cradle last night because she can finally breathe better!

Well, I am tired, I have clothes to put away and pre-pregnancy clothes to find as I inch closer to fitting into them again. Mommyhood is sure sleeply bliss...

Maybe I will just take a nap :)

Mia Grace - Around 2 weeks (only have a few pictures on this computer)

Anna Beth (around 2 weeks) and Mia Grace almost 23 months! I ADORE this picture!

A Typical Morning....

Life is a little different these days now that there are four Fishers!

Our morning usually starts like this....

Mommy finishes nursing Anna Beth around 6:45/7:00 and brings her back to the room for her post eating vertical stay to help with reflux (more on this later).

Around 7 or 7:15 we hear ..... "Daaa-Deee!.... Da-Da.... DAAAA-DEEEE.... DAAA-DAAAA" coming from the room next door.

Daniel goes in and gets my "Sunshine" and brings her into the room followed by the words .... "Bay-BEE" with kissing noises indicating she would like to kiss her sister.

We all cuddle into the bed (typically with the cat and then we hear "Muk" = Milk and our sweet Dad/Husband goes downstairs to get Mia Grace's cup of milk and Mommy's Breakfast drink.

This all is followed/coinciding with one of the following shows - Little Bill, Handy Manny, Timmy Time, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Cat in the Hat, Martha Speaks or whatever happens to be on at the hour she awakes that she will choose to watch. These days the only things that truly suit her fancy are the songs in between shows like "Choo Choo Soul with Genevieve", "Dance A Lot Robot" or whatever they show.

I cherish these moments as I know they won't last long and love getting to start each day with the three loves of my life!

Here is a phone shot of her other favorite thing to ask in the morning... "Hole... Hole...." which means hold as she begs to hold Anna Beth :)

 (Not the best quality as it was dark and on my phone but it captures the joy and the essence of our morning on the 29th of November)

Nursing round 2...

One of the joys and challenges I chose to partake as a mommy is nursing. I had made up my mind long before Mia Grace was born I would nurse and my strong will was determined to stick it out no matter what. Mia Grace and I had our ups and downs for sure as she was born early and spent 9 days in the Special Care Nursery so I was pumping milk from the time she was less than a day old! I literally pumped milk for over 365 days straight! I stopped nursing Mia Grace in February of this year and stopped pumping on her 1st birthday. Some of the challenges MG and I faced included her not really learning how to properly latch until around month 3 (and then battling going backwards throughout), overactive letdown (IE fire hoses on my chest - HA!) etc etc. I am also now convinced that the use of the  pacifier also was not our friend at the start; however it was crucial to her staying soothed in the ICU so I wouldn't change that for the world.

Anna Beth and I have been off to a much better start. I got to try and nurse her when she was about 2 hours old (beat MG by a couple days) and we did not allow the nursery to give her a pacifier. It was evident from the start that she too had a tight little jaw and thus the blisters commenced! She knew what to do though so I had a strong inclination we would be better off! It was also very evident by day 3 that my milk supply had returned in full force and so did the strong let down! Thankfully the lactation specialists are wonderful and quickly helped me master (OK so that's a strong word, lets call it get a good grasp on) the football hold which is very helpful for C-Section recovery as well as angling little ones head to help with the let down.

I am happy to say the blisters are gone and while we still work on our latch we are off to a great start! I have a good grasp of when to take her off to let her breath (poor thing gulps and swallows from first suck) and often pump off an ounce or so particularly at night to give her a breather and start building my stock of milk. I must say though, I forgot how MUCH of my time this takes up at the beginning! Silly little girl also has her big sister trait of wanting to sleep much more than she wants to eat. I still wake her up for most feedings though of course she is glad to wake herself up in the middle of the night!

I know nursing just doesn't work out for everyone for all sorts of reasons but I am so thankful to be given the blessing of sharing this gift with Anna Beth and pray we make it as long as Mia Grace did!

After our first nursing session... such a sweet moment!

Anna Beth Fisher

Anna Beth Fisher

11-21-2010 - 1:14pm

6lbs 8oz and 19 inches

What an incredible blessing to end our pregnancy journey!

Her arrival story....

Friday 11-19-2010 we went to the MDO and she indicated that my fluid levels were getting to the point that if we wanted to try and turn her sweet self out of the Breech positions we should do so sooner than later or miss our window. We had hoped to wait until 38 weeks so they could induce if she flipped but alas... that was not the plan. We scheduled our attempt for Sunday morning at 8:30 am.

Sunday morning we went in prepared for a baby in the event something unexpected happened but planning to be home in time for lunch. I had a few strong contractions the day before and that night but nothing to write home about. When the MD came into get ready for the attempt she checked my cervix and it had moved from 1cm 2 weeks earlier to 3cm and 50% effaced. She was a bit surprised but my contractions were abnormal so we moved forward.

They gave me a shot of medicine to relax the uterus and shortly there after we made two attempts to flip her. This entails me taking a deep breath and blowing out while the MD puts her hands on the baby's head and butt and attempts to get her to do a forward roll. We tried 2 times and she moved about half way and wouldn't budge! The MD explained they would watch me for a couple hours and then send me home. She also explained that if my water broke at home when later started I needed to get in the car IMMEDIATELY and get to the hospital and call on the way. Its too dangerous for a breech baby and they don't want to take any chances. This kind of freaked us out a bit and Daniel decided it sure would be nice if I could just have her that day and get the worry away. (Since we were going to have a c-section either way).

Well, Anna Beth must have agreed. About an hour after the attempt, my MD came in to ask if my contractions were getting more intense and I agreed as they were not too comfy any longer. She said they would watch and check again. An hour later, the contractions were increasing in intensity and frequency so they checked and I had dilated to 4cm and my water bag was bulging. Anna Beth had decided it was time to arrive.

Lots of information, doctors and about an hour later I was getting drugged up on the operating table while Daniel waited outside to join us. Anna Beth got the hiccups right as they were numbing me so that was pretty special last moments. Within 30 seconds of the anesthesia my body from the chest down was gone (that's what it felt like) and my hands were tingly. Daniel came in and it was showtime!

I got a little sick a few times (they think from the jostling of the stomach) and shortly there after I heard the sweetest squeaks I had been waiting 37 weeks to hear.

The first thing I said as the tears filled my eyes were she sounds so different from Mia Grace. Daniel was such a sweet support and I sent him over to meet our sweet girl. He did a phenomenal job documenting in photos for me as I was a big out of it. The next thing I know the NICU nurse brought me my sweet girl to meet her for the first time. Such an incredible moment that I am so thankful Daniel captured for me.

I then heard my MD ask Daniel if he wanted to see my uterus and she proceeded to show him the uterus, falopian tubes and ovaries. Ask him about it sometime!

They took Anna Beth away for met go get to recovery and Daniel stayed by my groggy side. I was in recovery for about an hour, Anna Beth's Apgar scores were 8 and 9 and she was in our room as soon as we moved to postpartum.

Even though the C-Section was not our plan. clearly it was HIS and we couldn't have asked for things to go more smoothly.

More to come on the following days but here is our first "Fisher Four" picture. Mia Grace loves her baby sister!

In case you dont know....

Bed rest round for baby fish #2 began a few weeks ago... :)

Clearly my body doesn't like being pregnant...

God is good. We are now almost at 28 weeks and shooting for sometime past 36 weeks which is 11-14-2010. WE CAN DO IT! :)

Here is a shot of Mia Grace and I after I returned home from hospital visit # 2! She was pretty stoked and so was I!