Family Updates

Sorry I've completely gone off the blogging radar. Now that Hotel Aagard is closed for the season, I actually have time to update the blog! We had Michael's parents here for a week-and-a-half. Then one week later, my dad came to stay with us for week. He overlapped one day with Michael's sister, Annette, who also stayed a week and was here with us for Christmas. We took her to the airport to catch a flight to Tel Aviv (she's doing a Christmas Jerusalem tour) and picked up my mom. She stayed until New Year's Eve. So now Shaelyn doesn't know what to do with herself after having an influx of visitors who played with her non-stop. Thank goodness she has all the cool new toys to keep her occupied!

Michael was home practically the whole month of December. Ok, not really, but between all the time he took off when his parents were here for Thanksgiving, the week (and a day) he took off for Christmas, and the last four days he's been home, I'm getting used to it. On Monday it's back to the grindstone, with just me and the bug at home. But his big news to share is that he got a promotion at work. He's been working really hard this past year on all kinds of new projects and responsibilities to prove that he deserved it, and he found out it was happening right before the new year. It's especially honoring and humbling to be coming at a time when so many people are losing their jobs, even within Michael's company. So we consider ourselves very blessed for Michael to not only have a job, but to be getting this recognition and slight pay raise. The additional money will certainly help our growing family as we anticipate a $1500 delivery for Rachelle and our other expenses to increase.

Shelley is now in early labor. I've been having contractions since my 25th week, all decently painful but not very regular. Some days I would have 10 or 12, and others none. Lately they've been increasing in frequency, so that I was having some every day. My doctor told me not to worry or call him until I had 6 in an hour. On Tuesday of this week, I had 6 in 30 minutes and they never slowed. I continued having my contractions about 5 minutes apart for about 6 hours, and even after they slowed down, I was still averaging about 4 an hour. I went in for a non-stress test to make sure the baby was not in distress (she's not) and to see if I'm dilating yet (I'm almost fully effaced, but not yet dilating). Since at the time I was almost 35 weeks, my doctor said "we don't really want to stop these at this point." He said if I was in severe pain (what counts as "severe?") I could get the shot to make my contractions stop, but that he felt like we should let this play out. He went ahead and did my Strep B test so that I'll be ready in case I go into active labor soon. Chances are rare that my early labor will turn into active labor any time soon, but it's always possible. Chances are also rare that I will go full term with my body gearing up this much this fast. His best guestimate is that I will go around 37 or 38 weeks, which puts Rachelle as a January baby instead of February. When I was pregnant with Shaelyn, I wanted to hold out as long as possible before giving birth to ensure that she would be healthy and ready for the world. With as much pain as I'm constantly in with Rachelle, if she's ready, then so am I! I'm averaging about 3 to 4 contractions an hour, some of which are strong enough that I feel like I'm in active labor - so I just get to enjoy this for another few weeks while being home alone with Shaelyn! Great timing for our visitors to leave and Michael to go back to work!

Shaelyn had her 2-year-old check up earlier in the month and of course it was a disaster. I took her alone (what was I thinking?!?) but luckily she was sick and so couldn't get her scheduled immunizations. There is no way I could have helped hold her down for that. Shaelyn is very intense and focused, which translates both good and bad. Good for projects like coloring and painting, which she focuses all her energy and attention into and is really good at, good for memorizing song lyrics and ASL signs and being observant about the world around her. Bad for tantrums and anything she doesn't like, because her tantrums are very intense and focused, and you cannot distract her out of them. She hates going to the doctor, and the older she gets, the more irrational she gets when we get in there. And once she gets worked up, there's no calming down. Luckily her pediatrician is great and works right through it, but this time it took both of us exerting all our strength (that girl is STRONG!) to get her to cooperate. And on top of the traumatic experience, we got some bad news. We've always been concerned about Shaelyn's weight, as she's very petite for her age and doesn't like to eat. A lot of kids eat like birds and it's normal, so we kept telling ourselves that, even though we watched her weight slowly decline every time we went in. Plus, you always hear that wonderful adage, "They'll eat when they're hungry." True, most of the time. I was just reading an article about that very fact, and that parents of non-eaters shouldn't worry, that their children know how to self regulate and will eat when they're hungry, unless, as the article points out, they aren't gaining weight. And then there might be a problem.

Well, Shaelyn is now finally off the percentile chart for weight. Again, the percentile your child is in doesn't matter as long as they measure the same against themselves. So if your child is in the 25th percentile, they should consistently stay around that number every time you go in for a check up. Shaelyn has been steadily declining - starting in the 40th when she was born and quickly dropping off from there. This last time was most concerning because she had only gained 1 pound in a 6 month period. Granted, she might have lost some weight from being sick, but a child as active and healthy as she is should be gaining on average a 1/2 pound a month. She is now officially off the "she'll eat when she's hungry" list and on the "get calories in her" program. Her diet (or lack thereof) is now being supplemented by instant breakfast chocolate milk (her pediatrician said the instant breakfasts have the same things in them as Pediasure and are much less expensive) 2-3 times a day (or as many as she'll drink, which it usually takes her all day to finish 2). Thank goodness the girl likes chocolate milk!! Her doctor did warn me that when we first started supplementing her, she might eat even less since she was filling up on the "chocky milk" as she calls it. The first two days she drank two a day, and ate 4 grapes and 10 goldfish one day, a cheese stick and 1/2 a banana the next. I was freaking out. But now she's back to eating the same amount she was before (which isn't much better than that list...) plus the milk. Michael and I have noticed a difference - she seems a little "fleshier" and substantial, but I haven't weighed her yet because I don't want to get my hopes up and be disappointed. She has to go in next week to get the immunization shots we missed at her check up (and this time Michael is coming too), so we'll see how much success we've had with our new eating program. We also have a blood test scheduled to make sure there aren't any deficiencies we aren't aware of that might be causing her lack of weight gain. I have friends (and my sister) with children who always want to eat, and their struggle is trying to get their children to not eat everything that they see. It's frustrating that our struggle is to get our child to even show an interest in food. It always surprises me to see kids come running when a box of crackers is opened. My child will be the one jumping or running or swinging in the corner, not caring a lick about the food up for grabs!

So we'll keep you posted on Shaelyn's weight gain and my labor adventures. Hopefully both turn out to be successful!