A Christmas miracle

Isaac gave me the most special Christmas gift I could have ever received this year.

A perfect smile!

I've been trying for weeks to capture his beautiful smile with the camera, and he would never let me. I literally have spent hours holding a camera in front of his face while cooing and laughing and talking to him hoping to get something, even a hint of a smile, but he was totally camera shy. Then, on Christmas morning, after opening all of our gifts, Steve set the camera timer and we all layed down in the wrapping paper for a family picture. I leaned down to place a kiss on Isaac's forehead, and Steven was just lying there looking at him. Isaac looked up at the flashing light on the camera and broke out it the biggest baby smile you've ever seen. Steve and I both just held our breaths, afraid to say anything, silently praying that he would hold it long enough for the flash. Then the flash took, and immediately he lost the smile and started looking around. I started screaming for Steve to look at the camera to see if we got it, but I knew we did. Then I saw it. There's nothing more beautiful that seeing one of your baby's first smiles. Though I've seen him smile a few times on other occasions, it is such a rare thing, and I wanted a picture so I could see it whenever I wanted. And now I have it!! I truly believe angels whispered in his ear and the perfect moment and told him to smile for Mommy. I cried for about 15 minutes afterward, because it was just so incredibly special.



Thank you baby for giving me that beautiful genuine smile to see whenever I want, and thank you God for telling him what I wanted for Christmas and helping him give it to me. This was by far, the best Christmas of my life. I never knew life could be so perfect - I am so incredibly blessed.

Isaac is 2 Months Old!!

Recognize this sweater?

I know it's been forever since I have updated this blog, but man, being a mom is major hard work. I barely have time to get pics posted online for people and catch up on email. But I'm going to try to make more of an effort to keep everyone updated on how we're doing on this blog. I know I have several faithful readers, including my friend McKenna, who are just fed up with checking in to see that Sept 11 is still my last post. So, McKenna and everyone else, I hope you haven't given up on me.

Isaac had his 2 month check up on Monday. I can't believe he's 2 months old already. Time has flown. Before I know it, I will be back at work after 5 months of being home. In some ways I'm looking forward to getting out of the house and back into the land of the living, but at the same time it wrenches my heart to think of handing my little boy off to some stranger to take care of everyday. I am so worried about missing out on his growth and development. What if I miss the first time he rolls over, or his first laugh? It breaks my heart. He's also been breastfeeding so well and hasn't had a bottle in weeks, and it breaks my heart to think that someone else will be feeding him. That's my special time with him and I'm sad about having to share it with someone else. Not to mention the fact that he doesn't take a bottle very well anymore. I guess we're going to just have to start giving him one a day or something so he can get used to it, but oh, it makes me sad. But, luckily, the daycare he will be going to is only 2 blocks from my building, so I will be able to go feed him at least once a day, and hopefully he'll only have to have 1 or 2 bottles a day that way.

As for his doctor's appointment, it went really well. He weighs 10lbs 3oz (4lbs 15oz at birth), so he's more than double his birth weight now. He is 22" long (17" at birth). He's perfectly healthy. He had to get his vaccinations. One was oral, and he loved it - it had a sweet taste, and he was sucking on his lips afterwards wanting more. Then came the needles - 3 in all, right into his little chubby thighs. My poor baby, I've never seen him make such a face in his life. With the first needle, he belted out a cry, then by the second one, he had his poor little face frozen in a silent scream and stopped breathing and turned bright red. He held this for about 30 seconds, until the 3rd shot was over, then he just screamed and cried with tears streaming down his face for a couple of minutes, then he fell asleep. I cried longer than he did. It was so hard to watch my poor baby in pain. But, at least that's over with, for another 2 months anyway.

Check out his umbilical hernia. It's massive, isn't it? I took him to the doctor about it last week because it looked like it was going to pop or something, and I was so worried about it. But turns out it is very common and nothing to worry about. But even the doctor said it was pretty impressive. It should go away on it's own, and they won't do anything surgically unless it's still there when he's 4 years old. I'm hoping it will be gone in a few months, but by the size of the thing, it might be around a while. Steve's worried this will give him an outie belly button.

I'll leave you with a few more pics of my cutie.

9 Years Ago Today....

That's when it all began. We don't really celebrate the anniversary of when are two lives came together since 9/11/01, but we will never forget. I was 17, Steven was 3 days shy of his 17th birthday; we were just beginning our senior year of high school. He lived in Houston, TX, I lived in Mountain Home, AR - seemed like a world apart. The night of 9/10/98 I came home from a horrible day, feeling so alone. I got online to quickly check my email before bed. Then, suddenly, just as I was about to sign off, this guy named Steve that Joe had given my ICQ (istant messenger back in the day) number to, sent me a message asking how my day was. I began talking with him and telling him all the struggles I'd had that day. We began chatting about anything and everything, getting to know one another. We'd never met in person or spoken on the phone at this point, but we talked as if we'd known each other for years. Before I knew it, the sun was coming up. We signed off at 7:30am the morning of 9/11/98. When I crawled into bed that morning, I knew in my heart that this boy had just changed my life forever. I don't know how I know, but it was as if God placed this peace on my heart and I knew my life would never be the same, that something very special had just happened. 2 days later on Steve's 17th birthday we spoke on the phone for the first time. 2 months later, he had managed to convince his dad to allow him to move back to Mountain Home with his mom in the middle of his senior year to see if we could make our relationship work. God certainly had a plan - how many parents would let their child make that kind of a move for a teen romance? We finished our senior year together, went to prom together, and he proposed to me the night of our high school graduation. My family, of course insisted we wait until after college to get married - we were too young to be so serious. So 7 and a half years after that night, we were finally married. Now, we have created a life together. It seems like the last 9 years have led up until this moment in our lives. I am so proud to say that Steve is my first and only love, and always will be. And we will be able to provide our son with parents that have a strong and loving marriage, something neither of us ever had. God has truly blessed us in so many ways.

Senior Prom 1999

Summer 1999

April 23, 2005

June 9, 2007

Little Isaac Lee

Crib and Blanket

We finally got our crib put together (I say we, but I really mean they - Steve and his dad). It's beautiful - Thanks Dad and Rebecca!!! It matches the stain on our chair rails perfectly. Steve did a fabulous job choosing the stain. And as for the blanket, I do take all the credit for that. I started it about a year ago, knowing it would one day be a baby blanket for our child, I just didn't realize how soon that would be! It's made with Cotton Fleece, which I adore, although it does split easily, using large needles to give the lacy effect. I'm so glad to be done with it, I was seriously getting sick of it. I did run out of yarn while working the last row of crocheted trim, but it ran out just as I was about to start the very last edge of the blanket, so you can't even tell - even if you look very closely, it looks like it was done on purpose.

Pattern: Lace Blocks from Big-Needle Knit Afghans by House of White Birches

Yarn/Needles: Brown Sheep Co. Cotton Fleece; US10.5

Introducing my new friend.... the terb pump

So for the last 4 weeks I've been taking terbutaline pills to help stop my contractions. Terbutaline is an asthma medicine that relaxes smooth muscles (including the uterus) the doctor's often prescribe for preterm labor. It was working pretty well, up until labor day (see labor day post below). Since then, I was having contractions breaking through the pills. So they decided to put me on a terbutaline pump that delivers the medicine constantly into my body. I have to stick my leg with this little needle that inserts a small catheter just under the skin, then the needle comes out. The tube connected to the pump hooks up to the catheter and the pump delivers a very small steady dose of terbutaline (0.06mg/hour). Every 4 hours it delivers a large dose of 0.24mg, and if any time my contractions are getting bad, I can have it deliver the larger dose, as long as it's been at least an hour since my last large dose. The pump has a case that clips to my pants and a bag I put it in when I take a shower. I only have to change the catheter every 5 days, so at least I don't have to stick myself every day. I have to change out the medicine cartridge daily though, but they send me all the stuff by fedex weekly.

It seems to be working really well so far. My contractions are coming about 2-3 an hour, they speed up a bit the hour before my large dose is due usually, but as soon as I get that they taper off. The first night, it turned out I didn't have the tubing connected completely and all the medicine leaked out. Then when I woke up I was contracting like crazy. I realized it was leaking so I changed the injection site and reconnected everything. I strapped on my monitor, and holy cow, I was having 10 contractions an hour . The nurse about freaked out and made me give myself a large dose and drink a quart of water (yes, a quart) and remonitor. Luckily they slowed down to 3 an hour once the medicine was being delivered correctly.

So it seems like I really did need this thing after all. I had no idea without the meds how bad my contractions could get. Some of them were even painful, which has never happened before. It was scary. So, even though it sucks being hooked up to this thing all the time, I guess it is necessary at this point, and it seems to be working well.

When I changed the injection site yesterday I let Steve stick me, and he enjoyed way too much. When I did it it didn't hurt at all, when he did it it felt like someone jabbing a knife in my leg and he thought it was hillarious. He's seriously diabolical.

Labor Day

Well, Labor Day this year almost became LABOR day for me. I think my body got confused and thought labor day meant it was time to go into labor or something. I was literally one contraction away from making a trip to the labor & delivery ER yesterday. I have this contraction home monitoring system where I have to monitor my contractions for one hour twice daily and send the data over a fax line to a nurse station so they can keep an eye on me. If I have 4 or more contrax in one hour, I have to hydrate myself and remonitor for another hour. If I have 4 or more the second hour, they call my doctor and decide what I need to do. So, I often have to remonitor, however by the second session my contrax have always tapered down to 2 or 3. Yesterday, after several days of feeling really good and having very few contrax, I decided to clean up my messy kitchen just a bit, as my in-laws were coming over for a BBQ and I couldn't stand the mess. Steve was asleep during all of this, so he can't be blamed for my moment of weakness. The big mistake - monitoring right after this little escapade. As soon as I strapped on the monitor I knew I was in trouble. I counted 3 contrax in the first 10 minutes! Now, these contractions I have are not painful, they are just a tightening of my abdomen that lasts 40 seconds or longer. So, I often don't notice them. After my hour was up I sent in my data, thinking I'd had 5 or 6 contractions and knowing I'd have to remonitor. The nurse called me back sounding very concerned - the verdict = 9 contractions in one hour. That's a record for me. I didn't even feel all of them. So, I was told to take a second dose of my meds, and drink loads of water (dehydration triggers contractions, as does a full bladder, so basically I should just camp out in the bathroom with a bucket of water). My second monitoring session was not much better - 8 contractions. So, being labor day, my doctor's office is closed, so they had to call my doc at home and get her opinion. During this time, I'm sitting at home waiting for Steve and his dad to finish grilling food so I can eat, and I have an apple pie waiting for me that I've been craving for weeks. So, needless to say, I do NOT want to go to the hospital, where I'm gonna have to wait for 2 hours probably for them to strap monitors on me, only for my contractions to stop (just my luck) and then I get sent home hungry and tired. I WANT that apple pie! So, finally after what seems like an eternity, the nurse calls me back and says my doctor wants me to drink more water (I already feel like I'm floating by this point) and remonitor a 3rd time. If I have 4 or more contrax the 3rd time, it's off to L&D, otherwise I can stay home and enjoy my apple pie. So, by this time I'm so paranoid, everytime Isaac moves I think it's a contraction. During my 3rd session I was pretty sure I'd felt 5, maybe 6 contractions, so we made plans to go to the hospital. But when the nurse called me back, turns out there were only 3!! Yay! No labor this labor day!! They really tapered down after all that, thank goodness, and I got to enjoy my apple pie and postpone my tour of L&D for a while longer!

So far this morning, my uterus is being pretty irritable, so hopefully we don't have a repeat of yesterday. I did learn my lesson - no more cleaning, even a little bit. I'm going to stay on my butt from now on, as long as I have too. This little guy has a lot more baking to do. Luckily I have my weekly doctor's appt today, so we'll make sure all those contractions yesterday didn't cause any more damage to my cervix. After a week of very few contractions and overall feeling great, I was really hoping this appt would give rise to a lessening of my restrictions, but after yesterday, I doubt it now. On the upside, I do have permission to attend childbirth classes one night a week for the next 5 weeks - tomorrow is the first night. I'll get to leave the house once a week in addition to my doc appointments - yay!!

Sooooo, on to the knitting of the holiday weekend. I finally got out the beautiful angora/lambswool blend that Joe gave me for Christmas last year. I've been saving it for the perfect project and the perfect moment. I've had the project picked out for some time, but was waiting for the perfect moment when I felt the strong desire to work with something as delicate and soft as this luxurious yarn. It was so amazing! I've never worked with something so soft, I couldn't help but rub it against my face the whole time I was working with it. So here it is. Isaac will be so spoiled after wearing this, he'll turn his nose up to anything made of acrylic or itchy sheep's wool.




Pattern: Baby Hat from One Skein by Leigh Radford,
Jimmy's Baby Booties

Yarn/Needles: Lorna's Laces Angel; hat: US8, booties: US6

And lastly, here's just a pic Steve thought was funny: pregnant lady digging into ice cream

Bed Rest Projects

Well, I guess I no longer have an excuse for not getting this blog up and running now that I'm at home all day everyday. Since I've been stuck in bed for 3 weeks already with no end in site, I've suddenly found myself with all the time in the world to knit for baby Isaac!! I never thought I'd have time to get this much stuff done for him, so in a way, I'm grateful for this opportunity. I think he must have had this all planned because he wanted to be sure he had a complete handknitted wardrobe by the time he was born. Although, being stuck home alone all day every day really really gets old quick, even with my pugs and yarn stash as my company. Below you will see all of Isaac's projects with the exception of a couple that are in progress. The blocks blanket has been put on hold while I work on two other blankets which are both almost finished and will be posted later this week hopefully.

Pattern: Baby Hat from One Skein by Leigh Radford.

Yarn/Needles: Rowan Wool Cotton; US7

Pattern: Ribbon-tied wool vest from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies by Erika Knight

Yarn/Needles: Universal Yarn, Inc. Pace; US2, US3

Pattern: Petal Bib from One Skein by Leigh Radford

Yarn: (Can't remember brand - ask Rebecca) Cotton; US6

Pattern: Sailboat Roll-Brimmed Hat, Free Circular Seamless Baby Booties by Megan Mills

Yarn/Needles: Baby Bee Sweet Delight; Hat: US6, Booties US2

Pattern: Umbilical Cord Hat from Stitch N'Bitch by Debbie Stoller

Yarn/Needles: Nature's Wool; US6

Pattern: Umbilical Cord Hat from Stitch 'N Bitch by Debbie Stoller

Yarn/Needles: Caron Simply Soft; US6

Pattern: Building Blocks from 100 Afghan Squares to Knit by Debbie Abrahams

Yarn/Needles: Caron Simply Soft; US5

Pattern: Baby Booties from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies by Erika Knight; Vine Lace Baby Hat by Sandi Wiseheart

Yarn/Needles: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino; Booties: US2, Hat: US3

Pattern: Baby Yoda Sweater

Yarn/Needles: Bernat Cotton Tots; US6

Pattern: Head Hugger Hat from Two Be Weavers, Salem, IN

Yarn/Needles: Rowan Wool Cotton; US6

(I have a matching boat-neck sweater finished, but needs to be sewn together)