Christmas 2012

This year was Cole's 2nd Christmas.  He got into opening the presents a little bit, but mostly just liked to climb on top of all of the boxes.  We had fun with Cole this year, but I already can't wait until the time he understands more about Santa and the magic of Christmas.  I have so many fun traditions planned out in my head.  We spent Christmas morning at home, just the three of us.  Then in the afternoon we went to my parents house to watch Cole open their presents and to eat lunch.  My mom is a great cook, and we were stuffed after we ate.  We all went up to the hospital to visit my sister and Kyle in the early evening.  We wanted to make sure they got to celebrate Christmas with the family too!  It was weird not having them at my mom and dad's, but we know Kate is where she needs to be to keep the babies safe!  Actually, we had a great time at the hospital.  They bent the rules a bit and allowed Cole to come in too!  We were probably loud, and I hope the person in the room next to my sister's wasn't too mad.  Cole did great being contained in the room too.  We did our stocking exchange and Cole opened MORE presents.  Even though our Christmas was not "normal", it was as good as it could have been.  Really to me, I just want to spend time with family.  It didn't matter to me where we were.

I'm already looking forward to Christmas next year.  There will be 3 little ones and Luke and Margo are moving home too!  It'll be awesome to have the WHOLE family together. 

Ritz and Cole wanted to switch stockings the entire time they were opening them. 

Tree in our nice finished basement this year :)

What is this stuff?

I think I'd rather climb on top

Ok, if you insist...I will open it

Just chillin on the box

Playing in the tent at Grandma and Grandpa's house

A new sled...no snow, so for now we sled in the house! 

Grandpa made the mistake of getting the iPad out in front of Cole.  

Aunt Kate & Uncle Kyle (and Grandma snuck in there too)

Twins Christmas gifts

More stuff for the twins :)

Apparently this is how you keep a 1 year old entertained in a hospital room.  Trust me, it's whatever works! 

Love Love Love My Family! 

Cole's 1st Birthday

We went all out for Cole's 1st Birthday bash.  The theme was Winter ONEderland.  We decorated with penguins, snowflakes, and candy canes.  Everything turned out perfect!  I wanted to share some pictures of the party.  One thing is for sure, Cole is a very loved (and spoiled) little dude!  

Trip to Peoria: Kidney's & Diapers

Yesterday Matt and I traveled to Peoria with Cole for another appointment at The Children's Hospital of IL to check his kidneys.  We were lucky last time we went and didn't have to go back for 6 months...man the last 6 months sure flew by!  I really was not looking forward to this appointment at all because Cole had to have a VCUG procedure done.  It's not a painful procedure, but it entails a catheter and a screaming baby.  We had to hold him down on the table so they could get x-rays.  All in all, it was about a 15 minute procedure, but it seemed like a lifetime.  I was so glad when it was over and I could hold my baby again.  They are so great with children at this hospital.  They let us wear lead gowns so we could stand by him while he was being x-rayed and they were so nice to Cole.  I am glad the people who were doing the test work with children often...we were in good hands!

Even though I didn't want to do this VCUG again, I am glad we did.  The x-rays showed that he does not have any reflux in his kidneys anymore.  He really did outgrow the reflux like his doctor thought he would.  We are so grateful!  He does have to go back in 6 months again, but this time just for an ultrasound.  If that looks good then we hope we only have to go back once a year at this point until he is potty trained.

After Cole's appointments, we went to the NICU to deliver the Teeny Tears diapers.  Everyone who donated towards the cause should feel so proud...we delivered 500 diapers to the NICU in Peoria.  That's 250 sets...or 250 families we will help.  It felt awesome to hand these over to the people they are meant for.  I would never wish for anyone to need these diapers, but the reality is that people do.  I am happy that we can try to help someone who is on the journey of losing a child.  I saved out 22 sets to take to Bromenn on January 9.  That's right folks, in total we made/donated 545 diapers!!!!!  Can you believe that?  That's beyond my wildest expectations when I started this project.  Thank you all again so much for your love, support, and donations to make this possible.  Love you all!

I have some pictures of all of the diapers...but my storage on my blog for photos is at it's max.  Once I figure out how to fix that, I'll post some pictures.

Thoughts...

I was thinking today about how Cole's birthday is right around the corner.  It's so crazy to think that it's been one year already since I first saw my beautiful baby's face.  I have grown to love him so much more than I ever thought I could.  His personality is showing through in new ways each day.  He is so fun to be around and his giggles just melt my heart.  He is a very strong willed child already, and I know I'll have my work cut out for me, but I'm so ready to experience all that the next several years bring.

It's bittersweet thinking that this could be the only 1st Birthday that I celebrate for a child of mine.  And because of that, we are going all out for Cole's party!  Some people may think Cole is a spoiled little guy, but I think he is just well loved :o)  I am trying to live every moment with Cole to the fullest.  It's funny to me that I don't want each stage to end, but at the same time I absolutely can't wait for the next stage.  I have so many fun ideas to make his childhood memorable.

We found out a few months ago that our health insurance is changing at work for 2013.  Our new health insurance won't have any coverage for infertility.  We have been so blessed to have coverage for 3 IVF's and several other infertility type expenses over the last few years.  However, it doesn't make it any easier to digest that we won't have any more help paying for these expensive procedures in the future if we want another child.

My thoughts go back and forth about having another baby.  I would love for Cole to have a sibling, because some of my greatest memories involve my siblings, and to this day my sister is my best friend.  But getting pregnant is so complicated...and then carrying a baby to full term is so nerve wracking.  I just don't know if I want to go through all of that again.  Plus if we only have Cole we know for sure we can provide anything he ever needs.  It really stinks to have to think about these sorts of things.  If we do IVF again, it would cost close to $30,000 out of pocket and there is no guarantee that it would work.

It's probably good I don't have to decide about any of this today...  But sooner than later we will have to face some tough decisions.  I don't know what my family will look like in the future, but I do know we have one incredible little boy that we are going to continue to love.  I'm so thankful for all the moments this year held for us with Cole.

I can't wait to share some posts about his birthday party and his birthday in the next few weeks.  Then right after that we have Christmas to celebrate, and this year it'll be so fun to watch Cole and to start new family traditions.

Diaper Update

Today was an awesome day!

I talked to a nurse manager at Bromenn about donating a few sets of teeny diapers.  Bromenn was super excited to accept some of the sets!  They have babies that are too young to be sent to Peoria to the NICU and sometimes they have stillborn babies.  These babies and their families could definitely benefit from having these precious little diapers.  The nurse manager asked if I would be willing to come in and talk to all of the L&D nurses at their next staff meeting about why I chose to make these and how they should be given to parents that have just lost a baby.  I will write more about that experience once it happens :)  I'm so excited that this hospital would like to help others by giving out the diapers.

Next, I talked to the nurse manager at The Children's Hospital of Illinois in the NICU.  This is where Braelyn spent her 12 hours.  They also are excited to accept our donation.  Matt and I will be delivering 2 baskets filled with diapers on December 14.  I can't wait to drop them off.  I'm just feeling really good about helping others who are going through a similar situation as Matt and I did.

I had some extra flannel left over and I mailed it to another angel mom who makes tons of diapers!  She told me that she would donate the ones made from the flannel I sent in honor of Braelyn.  That made me really happy too.  Who knew that Braelyn would touch people all the way across the country.

One other organization I wanted to mention is Robby's Rabbits.  You can find them on Facebook.  This is a mother who is honoring her son who passed away far too soon.  She sends stuffed rabbit's to mom's who have lost children.  I had 90 yards of ribbon that I ordered that was too thick to tie around the diaper sets.  I contacted her to see if I could donate the ribbon for her to tie her cards around the rabbits neck.  She gladly accepted.  I felt good that the ribbon went to someone who is doing good for others!

This diaper project has been going on for a few months and I am so ready to make the donations.  I have been overwhelmed by the support you all have given to me.  Thank you again for everything.  I will continue to update my blog as we make our deliveries.

Giving Thanks

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year!  This was the last "1st" holiday for Cole man (if that makes sense).  I think Thanksgiving was a great one to end on for him since he is now old enough to eat table food.

We got together at my mom and dad's house for the day.  Mom made a TON of great food.  I don't think I could have eaten any more if I had tried.  She is a wonderful cook and we always know when we go there we are going to eat well.  We had all of the traditional fixings.  Cole loved it all!  He tried turkey, potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, and rolls.  He was one happy little dude.

My sister and Kyle (and the babies) came over too for the day.  Kate laid on the couch all day (b/c she's soooo lazy...jk Kate!).  It was great to see her up and at mom and dad's for a change.  I'm sure the new scenery was good for her mental state too.  I know from experience it gets so hard to sit inside your own house day after day.  She looks great...and is getting HUGE!  Those babies are growing which is a great thing.  We got to feel them moving for most of the day.  That's one of the best parts of being pregnant.

After we ate, we spent a lot of time playing with Cole.  My mom and dad have a huge toy box full of toys from our childhood.  It brought back a lot of memories when Cole was dragging them out.  He had a blast and wore himself out quickly.  The guys all watched some football and the girls browsed through the Black Friday ads.  My mom also got out some old home videos of us as kids.  We like to do this when we are all together for the holidays.  Watching some of these videos we realized Cole looks like my mini-me. :)

It was such a great day for all of us to be together.  I am so thankful for my family and how much they have stood by me throughout the years.  They have accepted Matt as one of us and they unconditionally love Cole.  And they even put up with Ritz coming along too!  I always have such good memories each time we go to my parent's house.  I love that childhood memories come back to me when I'm there and I love that we are making new memories too.  I want their home to be a place that Cole has such fond memories of when he gets older.

Thanks mom and dad for a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I also ventured out once we got back to Bloomington to do some Black Friday (or Thursday) shopping.  I went to Toys R Us around 11 p.m. and got the two things I wanted for Cole.  I walked in, found what I was looking for, walked right up to a register with no line and paid, and was back in my car within 15 minutes.  No rush or crowd at all.  I decided to wait around and go to Kohl's when they opened at midnight too. I did stand in line to get in, but I didn't get out of my car to go stand in the cold until 11:55.  I got into the store quickly and found everything I went for and got in line to pay.  The line to pay was already pretty long even though I didn't dilly dally around.  But I still got out and back home within a half an hour.  It was a short but successful shopping trip.  I may have to do my shopping on Black Friday in the years to come.  I scored some awesome deals for both Cole's Birthday and Christmas.  Funny how I said I'd never have a kid close to Christmas...and here we are again this year celebrating both within a 4 day span :)  It's ok...I'd do it all over again if I had to!

We put up our Christmas tree on Sunday and I love sitting in the evenings with the lights turned down and the tree lit up.  I love all of my Christmas decorations.  I realized I have way too many when we started dragging out the tubs.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are ready to celebrate the Christmas season.  I hope that in the midst of all of the busy times that the holidays bring I can remember to celebrate the real reason for the season.

Cole is 11 Months Old!

Little man is 11 months old today!  Only one more month until he's not a baby anymore...  This year has just flown by.  We have made so many good memories and I can't wait to continue making more!  I love this little guy more than life itself!!

Ohhh, he has an eye...

Would you quit with the pictures already, mom?

He discovered he can climb into the basket

Just chillin'

So grown up!