family time

My husband is home and i freakin' LOOOOOVE it! i just cant get enough. I'm so happy to have him here. we are getting ready for our holiday trip to Nebraska. it is going to take a few days to get there and I'm really not looking forward to it. i hate snow and i have a feeling i am going to be seeing alot of it. i don't know how the baby is going to like being in her car seat for that long either. i know the big kids will be fine cause they have the DVD player to watch movies. that always keeps them busy.
my mom is going to fly in on Xmas day to stay at our house and to take care of the dog. i have no idea what we are going to do about him for the first week tho. i told Matt that he needs to ask one of his friends or get some boot to do it.
we were going to come home earlier than planned cause the huskers are going to be playing in the winter bowl here in San Diego on DEC 30th, but the tickets are like $250 and up. that's just way too freakin expensive for us right now. oh well.
i don't know what our plans are for news years yet either. i think we will be on the verge of leaving to road trip home or on the road already. it would be nice to go out with my husband and have a good night away from the kids, but i don't mind spending it with my beautiful family.
after the new year i have to remember to make dentist appts for all of us. i think we are about due.
i took the kids to the mall to see Santa and they sat on his lap and told him what they wanted, not Lola tho- i know its her first Xmas, but she was sleeping and I'll take it when i can get it.



we put up our Xmas lights last night and they look really good, but Matt and i both agree that we need 5 more strings. that's one nice thing about having a big house- you can go all out and not look overdone.
Lola is doing well. she rolled over a few weeks ago, she plays with toys. everything goes in her mouth, she even sucks her thumb. she talks (baby babble) A LOT! she doesn't really cry EVER. she just mumbles and jabbers. she is so stinkin' cute! she is getting more hair too. its fun to make it all stick up. it is still strawberry blonde and looks like it might have some curl to it. her eyes have also gone to a really pretty bright blue.
Matt and i have been going to the gym together lately. i love spending that extra time with him. I'm looking forward to a great family vacation!

Keeping Busy

Im trying to keep my self busy these days til my hubby gets back. i had alot of fun in WA last week. i partied my ASS OFF at my dads 60th. and then i was hungover for a couple days. then i got a cold. i also got a tattoo. i got Lola's footprints around my wrists like the other kids'. it was nice and cold there and i loved it. i had to drive a PT cruiser which was lame, but oh well. the kids got to see everyone and i loved to visit with the family. the time went by so quickly but i was glad to get back home. the kids all did really well on the plane too. on the way home we all just zonked out and slept the whole way... so nice.



i wasnt going to decorate the house this year for xmas cause we arent going to be here but then i started thinking that maybe i should.... so i did. then i got carried away. i ended up cleaning the garage since i was out there anyways and then i made my way thru the house and cleaned the back yard, dog poop and all. after mowing and raking i decide to start on the dog. so he got his nails clipped and a both. he is such a good boy.
i lost my voice 2 days ago and i can only whisper. so the kids are getting away with alot since i cant yell at them. but tonight they had a food fight with their pizza at dinner tonight and then started pulling each others hair! WTF? haha they got busted and went to bed early.... like 7pm (oh well it was dark out already.) i got their school pics today. they look so good. damn i have some good lookin babies.
Lola had another visit from the developmentalist today. it went great. she is developing like a normal baby would. when i put her on her belly she scoots around and turns in a circle. she even rolled over front to back and bakc to front with a little help. it was awesome. she is smiling alot more too. its so cute when i go into her room when i hear her wake up and she is just babbling in her crib she smiles when she sees me, like she is so happy to see me. it melts my heart.
matt got word that he might be getting home a little sooner than we thought. which of course i freakin LOVE. i HATE when he is gone. i makes me nuts.

Its November already?!

wow time goes by so fast! we are already seeing Christmas stuff around. its nuts to think that the baby is almost 3 months old!


she still feels brand new. she is getting to be big girl tho. she can hold her head up for a long time by herself now and she is drinking 150-180 mls. that pretty much happened over night. i don't think I'm going to continue pumping- its too much work trying to keep up with her appetite. that will free up alot of my day to get other things done too.
today is Matt's USMC ball in temecula. I'm not going cause we didn't think that we would be able to find a sitter for Lola. and also i don't think i could be away from her for that long. so he is going to get all dressed up and look all handsome and I'm gonna miss out. lame.
then on the 15th he is leaving for Mojave viper. I'm really not looking forward to that. i hate when we are apart. he wont be home til mid December. at least that time will be broken up by my trip to Washington. I'm really excited about that. i cant wait to see my family and friends. i have missed them so much. a week with them is just what i need. i get to cook thanksgiving dinner too. and they all get to meet Lola. the kids are really excited too. they love to travel and they are missing everybody back home too. now i just have to figure out if we have any warm clothes and then ship them up there before hand so i don't have to drag 3 kids and luggage thru that airport. i was really stressing that. i guess sending it thru ups is cheaper than paying the luggage fee at the airport.
as soon as Matt gets home from Mojave viper we are going to be driving to Nebraska for the whole Christmas vacation. I'm not sure how that is going to work out. I'm scared to travel in the snow and we will have to stop every few hours to feed the baby. thank goodness my mom and Hans will be coming to stay at our house and they can take care of hunter for us while we are gone- that is one less thing to worry about. now we just nee to find someone to feed him for the first week that we are gone. maybe i will ask a girlfriend to come and house sit- we'll see.
i started working out again and Matt and i brought the elliptical in the house. i have to say that i hate working out and i am not motivated at all. but i have to do it- maybe it will get easier... maybe not. *sigh*

big girl ♥

i took the baby to san diego this morning for a dr appt to check her blood counts again. everything was perfect- as expected. they weighed her and she was 10lbs 2.6oz she is getting SO big. today she alos got her first pigtails- she is just so freakin cute!

PUMPKINS

the kids carved their pumpkins tonight and they turned out really well. then we baked the seeds so we could snack on them for the next couple of days. im loving that october is here and it should be coolin down a little bit soon. :)

.:this week:.

parent teacher conferences are all this week. the kids get out early so my day is kinda shortened. I'm hoping that the meetings go well. I'm assuming that Jill's teacher will say that she is doing great and Brian's teacher will have some concerns. the kids have been working really hard on getting their homework done everyday but I'm not sure how much is sticking. i think we are going to have to spend a little more time reading with Jill and more time on handwriting with Brian. its amazing how good Brian is at reading and math. he reads so fast and can solve math problems so quickly it blows my mind every time. Jillian has the best handwriting i have ever seen from a little kid. she is so artistic.


Lola is 2 months old today. she is so stinking cute. she started cooing last week. i was walking in the hallway to the living room and she just said, "newwwww." in a perfect little talking voice. it shocked me so much, i had never heard her talking voice before. then a few seconds later she did it again! it is the sweetest sound ever. so then she started doing it more often and now she is starting to make different cooing sounds. i freaking LOVE it.


last night she was sleeping on her tummy in the living room on the couch and i was doing dishes, Matt left the living room for a sec to go upstairs for something and all of a sudden she screamed- i go running out and she was on the floor! apparently she had rolled all the way over and fell off the couch! thank goodness our couch is super low and the floor has soft carpet, so it pretty much just woke her up and scared her. she didn't even cry. but it sure scared the crap outta me! i didn't think we had to worry about her rolling over for a few more months... guess i was wrong.


There is only a month left before i will be going to Washington to visit. I'm so freaking excited. i cant wait to see my friends and family. i cant wait to wear a coat and smell the rain. i just wish my hubby could come with me. he cant cause he will be at Mojave viper from Nov 17 to DEC 17. I'm kinda stressed about the plane ride tho, the airport is going to be bananas with luggage, 2 kids, a baby and car seats blah blah blah... all by myself. STRESSFUL. plus i have no idea how the baby is going to do on the plane. not looking forward to that part.

love at first sight.

Matt and i had a baby. her name is Lola Mae she was born on Aug 20th 2009 at 0932. she weighed 7lbs 11oz. it was a cloudy day, which made me happy. i thought it was a sign since i LOVE cloudy days. it was the first epidural that i ever had. that was an experience in itself. i couldn't feel my legs for 6 hours. nice.
there were a few complications during the birth, Lola wasn't breathing when she came out so they had to revive her. then they took her to the nicu for more tests to be sure that she was ok. when they returned they told us that she was diagnosed with downs syndrome.
what a surprise!! we had been tested and the test came back negative so we were totally taken by surprise. it didn't really set in at first. i was more upset that she wasn't right in the room with me- i felt like i had been robbed.
as soon as i could get out of the bed i went to the nicu to see our brand new baby- kind of expecting the worst, but when i got there and saw her all of that worry disappeared. she was so tiny and beautiful and perfect. i fell instantly in love all over again.
alot of times, babies with trisomy 21 have other health issues. such as heart defects, lung problems, leukemia and the most common problem is not having a strong suck and swallow. Lola was taken to balboa to the San Diego naval hospital to make sure that she was healthy. so the same day we had her we were traveling an hour south to be admitted in a different hospital.
the tests showed that her heart was healthy. her blood was good, even tho her white blood cell count was super elevated, they thought that she may have leukemia, but they came back down. her lungs were good- the reason for not breathing when she was born was because the cord was wrapped around her neck. she didn't have any blockage in her digestive system. everything was great. she have a healthy baby!
they put her under the blue LED lights for a few days because she was jaundice. her biliruben levels were at 19.5 once which is really high. but they came back down too.
my mom and Matt's mom had flown to Cali to see her and to be with us which was such a huge help. i don't know what i would have done with out them. while they were here they took care of our house and my 2 older kids. the new school year had started and i drove up to take the kids to their first day. it was so sad. i missed them so much while we were gone.
we were lucky enough to get a room at the fisher house on the same campus as the hospital. so it was just a short walk to the baby but missing the big kids made it hard. we were hoping to be out of there and back home by labor day, also Brian's birthday but that didn't happen. our moms had to leave to go back to their homes and so Matt and i started taking turns driving back home and staying with the big kids and one staying at the hospital to take care of the baby. when i came home i got a fever, which kept me out of the nicu for 4 days. that was the hardest 4 days EVER.
Lola was so close to coming home and there was nothing i could do to help. i was so frustrated. Matt stayed with her and pulled all nighters to make sure she got all of her feeds down. the Sunday that i felt good enough to go back down to see my baby Matt called me and said that she was ready to come home!
the doctors said that she was able to eat and she had put on enough weight. so on Sunday Sept 13th (25 days after she was born) we took our baby girl home.
she is almost 2 months now and she is already 10 lbs. she is getting so big and has begun to coo. it is the cutest thing ever. she makes this cute little 'duck face' all the time that we love. i call her my Lola bird <3