Michael is 6!

Michael turned 6 years old on August 28th!  I really can't believe I have a six year old!

I decided to skip his well check-up this year.  He goes to the doctor so often for diabetes related appointments, and this whole past year was wrought with ear infection appointments.  I figured since yearly check-ups were recommended until age 5 at which point the pediatrician said to come back every year to two years, I'd take the two year route and give Michael a break.

He's just over 60 pounds and is four feet tall.  He's a big boy.

He wears size 8 clothing and a size 2 shoe in big kid sizing.

He designed his own birthday party.  His invitation has Ice Kirby on it, and his party decorations were Super Mario and Pokemon and Pac-man.  All combined, we dubbed it a Super Smash Brothers Party.  We sent invitations to family, and some of his friends from church and his entire class at school.

Our family friend C came, as well as K from church, and we had one classmate (also a K) come too.  We held his party on Sunday afternoon of this past week.  Aaron & I bought and borrowed some outdoor games (ladder golf, horseshoes, ring toss) for the kids to play with outside.  One grandma got Michael the board game "Guess Who?" so this was also played at the party.  His little friend from school got him a Dinosaur Fossil Kit, and the kids had a great time chipping away the clod of dirt to reveal a dino bone, dino poop, and a dino tooth.

Michael planned his menu, which included chili dogs (because Sonic the Hedgehog likes those), Pac-man cookies (made by Aaron's stepmom), cheese puff balls (to represent fireballs from Mario), and a confetti cake (made to look like Pokemon stadium from Super Smash Brothers).  Each kid took home a little bag filled with Mario trinkets and a small Kirby toy.

On his actual birthday, he was chomping at the bit to go to school because his teacher gives kids a Pixi-Stick on their birthday and he couldn't wait!

For dinner that night, he got to choose what we ate and he chose Marco's veggie pizza.

He told me over and over that it was the best birthday ever!

It's hard to get a picture of him these days because he's so busy, but I just love him to pieces.


Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba

Avery: 12 Months

Avery turned one year old on August 20th!

She had her 12 month check up on August 23rd and weighed 18.5 pounds and was 28 inches tall.  She's in the 25th percentile for height and weight.  My smallest baby.  (Michael was always in the 90th percentile, and Noah was in the 50th percentile).  

I'm so excited every time she hits a new phase or discovers something new about the world!  I have to remind myself that she's experiencing everything for the first time (sometimes it's hard to remember that since my oldest two are years ahead of her). 

Diapers: She is comfortably in Size 3 and we won't be moving up anytime soon.  

Clothing: There's still a few shirts in her drawer that I put on her without thinking that they're 9 month size.  Mostly, she's in 12 month clothing.  She received a super cute overall set for her birthday, and it's size 18 months but I put her in it the other day just because, and it wasn't too super huge. :)  She got a good amount of clothes for her birthday, and a couple things are long sleeve 12-month size that she'll be able to wear this fall, but most of the clothing was 24 month size and I think I might be more excited to dress her in toddler sizes than I was to dress her in baby sizes, and that's saying a lot because I have fully enjoyed dressing a little girl!

Sleeping:  She is still sleeping through the night, which makes me give all the praise hands!  She'll go to sleep around 6:30 (sometimes as early as 5:45), and she'll wake around 9 or 10, but only for a minute and she puts herself back to sleep.  She wakes in the morning anywhere from 6:30-7:15.  

Feeding: She detests baby food now, and prefers to feed herself whatever we're having.  I can't remember if I mentioned it on the blog, but she had an adverse reaction to rice right before she turned 9 months old and her pediatrician told us to refrain from giving anything with rice (rice flour, rice cereal, rice pasta) until she was a year old.  At her appointment, I asked about this and the doctor said to keep refraining until she's 18 months old.  So, we're doing that but it's hard to find things that don't have rice!  On the nights when I cook something for the rest of us that has rice in it, then Avery will get something separate.  She still loves shredded cheese and has recently discovered jello (red, of course) and go-gurt (which I squirt into a bowl).  I'm also working on getting her to use sippy cups for water in between bottle feeds.  She knows how to use the one with the straw, but doesn't like the sippy cups resembling bottle tops.  She takes about five 8-9 ounce bottles of whole milk during the day.  

Mobility:  She is working on running!  She still likes to be held at certain points of the day, but most of the time she's meandering around on her own.  

Habit:  She's taken her diaper off a couple of times in the house, but fortunately it's been right after a diaper change, so nothing is messy.  I quickly put a onesie on her though when this happens!  

We had a little party for her on the Saturday before her birthday.  It was peachy floral themed.  We made her cake from scratch (German Chocolate from the old Betty Crocker cookbook) and it was so good!  She thought so too!

Here's her 1 year old photo shoot. 

Oh, Avery, you bring such joy to everyone around you!  We love you so!

Until Next Time, 

Much love, Reba

Just the Way Our Journey Is

So, National Breastfeeding Awareness Week was within the last two weeks, I can't remember specifics right now.  Anyway, I missed being a part of it.  Again.

See, with Michael (who also has an August birthday), I breastfed him until he was 9 months old.  By that time, I was very early on in my pregnancy with Noah and I had no supply left.

Noah, born in January, was allergic to the milk proteins.  I tried changing my diet and eliminating/decreasing the amount of dairy I ate, but it made no difference.  He had to be on formula by 4 months old.

With Avery, my goal was to make it to one year, but I would be happy if I surpassed the nine month mark.

We made it to nearly 11 months.  My supply dropped so much that it was almost nonexistent and nothing I did could bring it up.  In addition to this, I was having medical issues.

The night before I turned 30, my monthly cycle returned.  I hadn't had one since giving birth to Avery.  This was very odd for me, since my cycle immediately returned to normal after the birth of my boys.  Well, I say "normal."  The cycles after Michael were 45-day cycles rather than 28-day cycles.  My OB said this sometimes happens.  The cycles after Noah were back to normal 28-day cycles.  Then, after giving birth to Avery, I had about 9.5 months of nothing.  It was kind of nice, to be honest, but also stressful because I didn't know when it would return.  I halfheartedly joke about not liking my 30s, and the main reason is that my cycle came back.

Well, between April 24th and July 13th (when I went to my OB), I had nine cycles.  We knew this wasn't normal.  I was hoping that a change in my thyroid medication dose would correct the issue, which is why I didn't alert my OB prior to the middle of July.  After realizing that a change in dosage wasn't helping, I knew something needed to be done.  I alerted my mom of the beginning of yet another cycle and this time, it came with clots.  She phoned a friend and got me in to see my OB that day.  He knew something needed to be done to regulate the hormones that were causing these increased cycles.  I was tested for anemia and didn't have it, but it was only a matter of time.  He gave me a prescription to stop the current cycle.  This is all God's timing, because I had actually weaned Avery that very week on Tuesday and my appointment was Friday.  He made sure that I had weaned her and told me that I could not breastfeed her while on this special medication.  I assured him that we were finished nursing. We went over my options and decided that endometrial ablation was the answer.  My OB will absolutely not conduct an endometrial ablation without first tying the tubes through bilateral tubal ligation.  So, I was scheduled for a bilateral tubal ligation, a D&C, and an endometrial ablation for July 31st.  He wrote me a prescription for the medication to stop the current cycle and it included one refill in case I happened to have another cycle before my surgery date (which I did, bringing my total to 10 cycles from April 24th and July 31st).

I'll have a post in the future about that experience, but I wanted to write this post today to express some of my feelings about still not achieving the year mark of breastfeeding.  Although Avery had expressed disinterest in nursing, and was super comfortable with a bottle & even with formula bottles, it still hurt knowing that the special medication completely eliminated any chance of breastfeeding her again.  Although my supply was really low, I still semi had plans to pump whatever I could and save it for her.  But this medication rendered that impossible.  It's a different feeling when a choice is taken away from you, even if it's the choice you would have made yourself.

I knew we were done breastfeeding.  I just wish it was ultimately my decision to stop, rather than having a medication make the final call.  I knew something had to be done about my recurring cycles and the impending threat of anemia and clotting.  And I knew that Aaron and I had three healthy children and had met our goal of having three kids.  But I still wish it was my decision to undergo permanent birth control (for either him or myself).  I didn't want the final call to rest in the hands of a medical condition that required permanent birth control in order to get the surgery to relieve the medical problem.

So, each decision that was made was one that I was going to make anyway (weaning, permanent birth control), but I wanted to be the one to make those decisions.  I didn't want them to be made for me.

As National Breastfeeding Awareness Week rolled around and social media was flooded with stories and inspiration from moms all over who were proudly feeding their babies via breastmilk, I hurt inside.  Figuratively and literally.  My heart ached because I wanted to be one of those moms who hits the year mark and keeps going.  My body physically ached because I woke up with three incisions (when I thought I was only having one since all we ever talked about was one).  My recovery was drastically more painful than I expected and had read about beforehand.  So all this intertwined itself into a sinking feeling that I missed the mark again.  I didn't make it to the one year mark with any of my three babies.  And of course, I absolutely do not judge any mom at all for any of the methods of feeding their babies.  I only judge myself.  This third time (that's the one that's supposed to be the charm, right?) was going to be different.  I had reasons for stopping my breastfeeding in the past (new pregnancy, and allergy).  But this third time was going to be the different one.  And yet another reason got in the way that made decisions for me that my heart wasn't ready to surrender.

But that's the way our journey is sometimes, right?  Sometimes we don't always get to have things the way we'd want.  And nothing ever quite goes according to our plans.

I've just started the Beth Moore Bible study called "The Quest" and it's about prayer and being on a quest with God, towards God.  At this point in my life, this is what I need.  I need to want to be okay with my situation and surroundings and to relinquish the control that I've tried so hard to white-knuckle into existence.  This will be good for me.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes, and I'll write a future post about my recovery experience.

Thanks for reading!


Until Next Time,
Much Love, Reba

Avery: 11 Months

Avery turned 11 months old on July 20th!

She had her 9 month check up on May 21st and weighed 16 pounds 14 ounces and was 27 inches tall.  (A few days later, I had to take her back to the doctor for a separate issue and she weighed 17 lbs, 3 oz.)  She won't have another check-up until late August when she's a year old. My guess is that she's about 18 or 19 pounds. 

This year has gone by at lightning speed, but I'm not surprised by it.  That's the way it was for all of the "first" years for my kiddos.  This time around, though, I don't mourn the exiting of a baby stage as much as I did with my two boys.  I'm excited for each new thing Avery can do, and I remind myself that we've made it through the newborn days, which although super cute, are the hardest to get through in my opinion.


Diapers: We have transitioned her into size 3 just because we didn't feel like buying an entire box of size 2 right when she is on the cusp of outgrowing that weight limit.  The size 3 are a little loose, and we've had a couple issues with poop escaping. :(

Clothing: Avery can still wear 9 month clothes quite comfortably, but I think she only has a few 9-month things that I left in her drawer.  She's in 12-month clothes for the most part and has lots of growing room!  I bought her a couple extra 12-month footie pajamas, but her grandmas and great-grandmas supplied the rest of her 12-month wardrobe! 

Sleeping:  She is FINALLY sleeping through the night!  Aaron and I went away for a 4-day trip together to Washington state and I was so nervous that she'd keep up both sets of grandparents who'd be watching the kids during the 4-day trip.  Instead, she surprised us all by choosing to showcase her sleeping skills during her first spend-the-night adventure!  It was hit-or-miss when we got home, and she'd be up 2-3 times a night, but I attribute some of that to teething.  She has slept through the night for the past few nights for me and it's fabulous!  She also takes pretty good naps at home, so I'm happy about that. 

Feeding: She still eats baby food at lunch and dinner.  But we're including more "real person food" torn up into small pieces.  She likes everything we've put in front of her that she can pick up and feed herself.  She really enjoys shredded cheese and sharing frozen waffles with me (cooked crispy with butter and syrup!).  Also, Aaron shares ice cream with her and she's a super fan of that!  This afternoon, we went to a wedding and she enjoyed some bites of chocolate groom's cake and a strawberry with fruit whip.  

Mobility:  She began walking when she was about 10.5 months old!  She was my earliest walker for sure.  She has now started to "run" which really means she'll take about 8-10 quick steps and then have to get her balance again. :)  She'll be really running before I know it.  People are surprised to see her walk since she's so small.  At home, we block off the entrance to the hallway with a rubbermaid bin.  She has access to the living room, kitchen, and dining room (sometimes laundry room too if I forget to close the door).  She'll make her loops around the kitchen, living, and dining rooms and is super proud of herself for walking the whole way.  She only crawls now if she is tired or frustrated (which, pretty much means tired).  We also tried on a pair of shoes (hand-me-downs from my niece) the other day & she mostly loves wearing them. She laughs when we put them on het feet, and cankles have never been so cute!

Habit:  She seeks out her baby doll each morning and calls it "bah-bah."  She will hold her baby with one arm (a trick she's very proud of!) and pat her baby with her other arm while saying "pah-pah" since I say "pat pat your baby."  It's the sweetest thing.  She's such a sweet little girl and we're enamored! She's also out daredevil climber & mischief maker. She will try to grab my coffee cup on our end table, so I always have to be on guard. She's figured out how to open the DVD player and she'll grab Michael's portable game players if we're not careful. 

Michael was my assistant for the photo shoot, and I'm sure that's the only way I got any photos of her actually being still!

Most of the pictures look like this:

Oh, Avery, you bring such joy to everyone around you!  We love you so!

Until Next Time, 

Much love, Reba