Monday, October 19, 2009

It's a Girl! ! ! !

Our story begins with Wednesday night. Barry and I have always prepared for a new baby by having a little date night just before our due date. Since we've always had a scheduled procedure this has been pretty easy to do. So my wonderful husband read my mind and got us The Proposal to watch. It was cute, even crowded around the computer screen. The only problem was I was having contractions. Nothing serous or at least I was doing a very good job to down play them. It was only happening every other hour or so. This of course put Barry on high alert, where as I said a little prayer that my water wouldn't break in the night, put it out of my mind and went to sleep.



The next morning I got punched (actually kicked, but we'll get to that part later) in the cervix as I was stepping into the shower. So I said to myself..."humm" and washed my hair. Then I proceeded to run around the house like a mad woman cleaning for a surprise visit from her in-laws. Barry had to literally take some dirty socks out of my hands and escort me to the car. Side note: I think "Nesting" should be listed in the Big Book of Crazy. In my effort to not make a big deal out of the fact that I was in labor I started announcing turrets-style the time on the clock when I felt a contraction, so that we could keep a eye on it. I don't think it was until after we had stopped for Dunkin Donuts for Barry (another Due Date tradition) that we realized they were three to five minutes apart. I said another little prayer similar to the last only more about Liam's borrowed car we were in. Then I talked Barry out of getting pulled over on purpose in order to get a police escort to the hospital. I wish I were kidding. I did consent to calling my doctor's office to let them know I was in labor. They said my doctor was already at the hospital and they would put me right through. I did stop long enough to take this picture Thursday morning. I'm usually not a fan of "belly"photos, but I had never been this big before and we were all a buzz to see how big this baby was going to be.


So we got to the hospital, Barry wheeled me up to Maternity. I got checked in, went to my room. Got the monitors on. Had some one fuck up an IV in my wrist with the biggest needle ever! They checked me and said I wasn't dilated at all so no worries and no rush. Got prepped for surgery and went in. The spinal tap went smoothly. Barry stood up and watched the whole thing go down on the other side of the curtain. After a few seconds of being pushed on so hard I couldn't breathe I was told there was a butt coming out of me and she was pooping. And Miss Imogen Grace Viprino was born. Barry and I decided on the name right there in the O.R. Later Barry told me all about how they had tried to turn her so she'd come out head first, but I think I'll spare you all that little story. Let's just say my insides feel man handled.



I swear I'm wearing a hospital gown here I'm just not sure why it's being camera shy. So nine pounds and thirteen (and a half) ounces. Twenty and a half inches long. Imogen was the biggest baby in the nursery. I think she scared a set of five pound twins who thought she might steal their lunch money. She skipped preemie clothes and new born diapers all together.



This is her getting burped by one of the nurses in the middle of the night. What a great smoosh face. Get a load of those cheeks!



Here's Daddy and big brother with baby Imogen. Gregory and Dahlia are in love with her. They want to help hold every bottle and burp her. I bet Dahlia would try to change her diaper if I let her.



Dahlia came with Grandma (Barry's mom) and Zoe to visit. I'll have to get some better pictures of all the kids together some time. We had lots of visitors. Here are a few.

My mom.


My stepfather BillBarry's grandparents.
My Dad and stepmother Carol.

Liam, Imogen's godfather.Darcie, Imogen's godmother.Her husband Ron. Isn't he a natural? (wink)
And here's one more of her sweet little chubba-face.

And because my mom never got to see her awake before she went out of town for work I took a little video of Imogen when she had her eyes open for all of fifteen minutes. Lazy baby.

Thank you to everyone who came to see us. And to our family too far away, we hope to see you all very soon. Thank you for all your well wishes. I'm going to go take a nap now... zzzzzzz

Friday, October 9, 2009

NH Haighs come to town and a few weddings.

Still trying to catch up on all the goings-on of the kids and I (and Barry). We've just been so busy that the list keeps getting longer.

Labor Day weekend (if I'm remembering correctly) my brother Ben, his wife Kellie and their two kids Amelia and Liam came for a visit. We only saw them for two days, but we packed a lot into those two days!

First we went to see them at Dad and Carol's house. We all went for a swim.
Then we all got dried off and dressed and got soaked some more at the beach.

It was low tide but they still found the water. To be fair, my kids were the only ones soaked. And there might be a pound or two of sand in the car (sorry unky Liam).


But they had a blast. It was Gregory's first time in the ocean. A Cape Cod Baptism if you will. I don't think he could get over the fact that I was letting him get so wet and dirty.


The kids all got a lesson from Barry about living animals and how we should leave them in the water. Of course as soon as we walked away from that spot some other kids came and scooped up the sand dollars he tried so hard to save. Such is life I suppose.


The next day they all came over to Mom and Bill's for lunch. They had some belated Birthday presents for Dahlia and some (really) early ones for Gregory.

He LOVES these blocks!



And she would wear this everyday if I let her. That dress sheds glitter, and for those of you who don't know I have an irrational fear of glitter (and hair butter but that's another story).

We do play with it, I just don't hug her while she's got it on.

*shudders*


They also each got some new books that Amelia was nice enough to read to them.
(That couch was covered in glitter for days)


After that we all walked down the street to the playground.


I think there's room for a third up there. Don't you?



Here's a video of my little man taking on the BIG slide. He did this quite a few times.
And that's it for that visit. We can't wait to see them again soon. Thanksgiving if I'm not mistaken.

For anyone who's hasn't seen me in a while, I wear a lot of bandannas. Mostly because I don't have the time or products to "do" my hair. So one morning the kids decided they wanted hats like mommy. And it turned into a pirate themed breakfast.


"AAARRRRG"



And then there is the stick mustache of course. My children have a multitude of disguises. Watch out!


Another time we went to a barbecue at one of Barry's friends' from high school. They had a little girl around Greggy's age. The two of them sat on the fireplace together and she fed him goldfish. It was love and first bite.


Also Barry's friend T.J. got married. We are so happy for them. It was a beautiful ceremony and day. Lots of kids running around. Lots of me sitting on my duff. This was about two weeks ago when the pregnant really started catching up with me. I have since become increasingly less mobile.

No she's not eating flower petals. Lily had just fed her a pepperoni slice. I wonder why other kids all think my kids need fattening up...?

Isn't she so cute in her new jumper?



And get a load of mister curls! We just got them a bunch of cold weather clothes. His are a little big, but he's due for a growth spurt so I'll keep pinning his pants until they fit!
He was so enthralled with this two week old baby. T.J.'s little brother Charlie who's big sister was born the same week as Gregory. Little fun fact for ya there.

Anyway it gave me a little hope for him for when his new brother or sister comes home.
But we'll just have to wait and see how that all plays out.


Then this past weekend our friend Darcy had her wedding. Dahlia was one of her flower girls.
Here they are at the beach getting their photos done with the photographer. She had so much sand in those little shoes.




And here's my little girl in action. All that practice the night before really paid off. Her first run she would pause for a few seconds and pick just one petal, but she kept up with Leah pretty well the day of.


The kids had so much fun dancing all night with everyone. I had to try and keep them off to the side during Darcie and Ron's first dance. They were being so sweet with each other, I didn't have the heart to break it up.

Greggy was not short on dance partners by any means. My little ladies man.

I hate that there's red eye in this picture, but it's so cute to see Daddy dancing with his little girl.

And what's a wedding with out cake?

Congratulations to all our newly coupled friends!


At the suggestion of my mother I'm starting a second blog to track the progress of our house and it's renovations. Look for a link soon.


I think my next post here will be a birthing story complete with (clean) baby pictures.

If you can't wait for that, then swing by the hospital this weekend and visit us.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

In which brave Dahlia and Gregory ride TWO airplanes and our Cape Cod adventures begin.

We last left our tiny adventures in Florida. But very soon we packed up all our toys and books and watched them go on the big truck.
*For anyone who hasn't heard the nightmare that was our experience with Premiere Line Movers. I'll sum it up. They low balled the price on the phone to me on purpose. Then subcontracted the job out to another company owned by the brother of Premiere. They showed up late knowing we had a plane to catch. Jacked the price up and said if we didn't agree to the new price they were leaving. So we had to get the FL DA involved and lawyers and for a good week I thought I would never see any of our things again. But they did settle and finally deliver. And I hope we all learned a valuable lesson.

And if that wasn't enough... the second we got to the airport and checked our bags Dahlia threw up all over herself. It was very reminiscent of the trip down when she puked the first night in the car. Poor thing smelled like vomit all day. I guess crossing state lines is just too exciting for some people.


We missed our first flight and had to sit around for two hours and wait for the next one. Luckily Barry had his IPod and the kids had a dance party and an entire section of airport chairs to climb all over. Then we had to haul ass in Philly to make our connecting flight, only to find our flight was delayed due to some silly hurricane or some such nonsense. Here's Dahlia coloring at 11 at night with a little girl who only spoke Russian. Considering the whole ordeal that was that day the two kids kept it together pretty well.

Grampa Bill picked us up in Boston and brought our tired crew back to Gramma's house. We settled in there and stayed for a little over a month.
All our stuff got delivered there and we finally had more clothes and toys to keep the kids entertained. Barry hit the pavement looking for work and I got all our family things in order (ie. doctor's visits for me and the kids, health insurance).
We also visited with family and friends. Here we are at Nana and Bumpa's. I call this his James Dean photo.
Between the kid's they've been to Princesses on Ice, Edeville Railroad, the Zooquariam, and playgrounds a plenty. Not to mention a birthday party for Ron, a bridal shower for Darcie, a wedding for TJ and Krystal, and we're going to Darcie and Ron's wedding this weekend. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
This is my husband poking a Bobcat with a stick.... can we say good role model?
And of course there was lots of snuggling. Dahlia is also doing very well with her potty training. Even though we've moved on to Barry's mom's house she's still going strong. We're using a sticker reward system.
Tune in next time for a visit from the NH Haighs and pictures of our new house.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Back in my blog saddle.

Hello readers. I know it's been a while and I'm sorry to starve you of cute pictures of my children but things have been pretty crazy. They haven't really calmed down yet, but since we finally got Barry's computer online I can bring you all up to date. It may take a few posts, and it may be the quicky version so bare with me.


We left off with Dahlia's Birthday week long present opening extraaaa vaaa gaaaanzaaaa.
Here are a a few more. I really can't remember everything she got or who sent it at this point. But thank you every one. Dahlia loved all her gifts and getting all that mail didn't suck either.

At some point just before we left Florida the kids and I had another very nice stay at Russ and Jody's. Here's Mr Curly Q. riding a duck at the playground.


Also during that visit I showed Emily how to make friendship bracelets. Her excellent craftsmanship is displayed on top in a bracelet she made for Dahlia. Dahlia has it tied to the zipper of her Tinker Bell back pack. And the bottom one I made for Emily.




Another highlight of that visit was my first encounter with Lox. Very tasty. I even enjoyed it with the raw onion which is not something I'm usually a fan of.



A few days later everything came to a head and we made the decision to move back to Cape Cod. We are so happy to feel at "home" again (even though we aren't in a place of our own yet. more on that later), but we do miss all the family and few friends we met in Florida.

We all want to wish Ms. Emily a VERY happy twelfth birthday tomorrow. We are thinking of you and we miss you tons!

That's all I have time for today.