The Shag is GONE...

We FINALLY took Brady to get a hair cut! He cried at first, but when it was over he was happy with his new look!

Cirstyn is 1 month old!

On June 12th Cirstyn Delaney turned 1 month old! She has been such a good baby and really doesn't cry much unless she needs to eat, be changed or just needs some cuddle time! She has her moments of crying sometimes, but nothing that a pacifier or just plain old letting-her-cry-it-out can't handle! She has been sleeping about 5 hours consecutively over night which has been so great the last few days. I just hope the trend continues because Lord knows I can use the sleep. It's still so crazy to think she has been in our lives a whole month now. Her smile is so sweet and her eyes so bright and curious. She just takes in the world around her like a sponge! I didn't think it was possible to love another person as much as I already love B & A, but I guess my heart grew a bunch more just for her! It's so funny how she is soothed by Larry's voice like her brother and sister were. It's even better when we are both tired and I can't seem to calm her, Daddy steps in and save the night! It's hard to imagine a world without this beautiful baby girl in it -We love you baby girl!

Fun in the Sun!

Fun in the sun with Brady and Angelina! They had such a good time playing together. This doesn't happen very often so we wanted to make sure to get pics of them having a good time together. Angelina was enjoying all the splashing and Brady was enjoying doing all the splashing! She sat up so well and he was trying to help her kick her feet to splash as well. They were just so darn cute!

First visit to the Rainforest!

Last week we took the kiddos to Grapevine Mills to the Rainforest Cafe and it was great! Brady had such a great time looking at all the gorillas, fish and huge butterflies. They all were very good as well. The girls pretty much slept most of the time but Brady was just taking it all in.

After we left the restaurant we went walking around in the mall but that was short lived. Brady found the "cars" to ride in and didn't want to leave that spot. Needless to say he had a meltdown in the mall so we decided it was time to go home and get a well needed nap!

Stuff about Angelina - Great and Not-so-great

Here are some pictures of Angelina this past week sitting up at her stage toy playing and playing. She is doing so well sitting up and gets completely mad if she falls over and can't get back up. Her physical therapist is working on getting her fitted for a wheelchair, floor chair and bath seat. She is just getting to be so big and needs a little extra help until she can do it on her own!

This little girl continues to be a mystery. Apparently even medicine can't even figure out how to help her so here we go again with figuring out what to do to help my baby. She had a blood draw done about 2 weeks ago so that neuro could see where her levels were sitting for her seizure medicine. Her sodium came back low and so we took her again for a STAT blood draw on Tuesday to see what it was that day. Still low in the sodium area. Angelina has been having these inconsolable fits lately and it's hard to tell if it's related to the new being in the house or if she is having pain or what. So the consensus was to change her seizure medicine. It seems that Triliptal can, over time, affect one's sodium levels so it's time to switch. We started the switch on Wednesday evening cutting her current medicine in half and replacing that half with the new medicine.

Thursday we wanted to take Brady down to the zoo to take a train ride. Nanny agreed to hang with Angelina for several hours so out to the farm she went with bag in tow. We no more got to the train station, were about to purchase tickets when Nan calls concerned about movements Angelina was making that she had never seen before. Long story short Angelina was having a seizure. Luckily, Larry had remembered to put her "stop the seizure" shots in her bag so I told Nan what to do and she gave her the shot. The seizure stopped and over the next few minutes she relaxed and slept. We immediately headed back to the farm. Logic would say stay and enjoy the train ride you promised your son, but mommy and daddy heart strings said get to your baby as soon as possible to see for yourself she was okay. So that's what we did.

I have to say I was very impressed with Nanny. She was so calm and collected. Attended to the task at hand and saw it through without freaking out. She later told us that once Angelina was calm, breathing normally and sleeping she had to take a few minutes to get over the whole ordeal. I have to admit, witnessing Angelina have a seizure for the first time is very intense so I was surprise all Nanny needed was a few minutes! She is a rock! We stayed at Nan's until Angelina woke up and played for a little bit. Larry and I were so glad she's still the same Angelina as before!

Hello Water!

For those of you who don't know, Brady likes to say hello and bye-bye to pretty much everything and everyone he sees. So when we go outside and there is water in one of his trucks or buckets it's "Hello Water" and when he pours it out he says "Bye-bye Water". Now that it's warm enough for being in the water he has been having a great time in his new pool! HELLO WATER!

Ride that Horsey DON'T FALL DOWN....

Okay, well for Christmas my mom thought it would be a wonderful idea to give Brady a horsey to ride in his play room. The same kind of horsey that I flew off of and smacked my face into a coffee table (I think) and broke my nose when I was 2! We didn't put it together until a couple of weeks ago because we didn't have room for it at the time and he was still a bit too small (not that he completely fills it out now though).

He does look cute on it but Larry wanted to make sure he got a picture of Mom with the horse as "incriminating evidence" for later use!
So hopefully he won't see the ER anytime soon with a face wound from flying off this ginormous contraption!

More pictures.....

And Baby Makes 5!

Okay, I thought I had already posted this here but apparently not! Anyway, without further adieu, I am pleased to announce the 5th memeber of our family.......(drumroll, please...drumroll)

Ms. Cirstyn Delaney Safford
Born May 12, 2009
6 lbs. 13 oz.
20 inches

She is 2 weeks old and has adjusted well to "life on the outside". Brady and Angelina have taken to her but about once a day she and Angelina have a crying tag-off, then Brady chimes in with his "outside" voice just for extra fun! I haven't completely gone off the reservation yet though. That will probably come when Larry goes back to work. YIKES! Anyway, I was reading today about my newest little cousin Nina and her Mommy, Daddy and Sis and reading through Mandy's birth story and thought to myself that I should probably get Cirstyn's birth story in black and white so I don't forget the already fuzzy details in the future. So here goes.....

On May 12, 2009 Larry and I got up around 2:00 a.m. to get ready and out the door. Larry's parents came to stay with the kids and so off we went. On our way to the hospital we decided it would be a good idea to stop in to Whataburger to get a breakfast sandwich since I wouldn't be able to eat anything else until sometime the next day. We had to go in because something was wrong with the drive thru, so we did and placed our order. It was all wrong and we didn't have time to wait for another whole order, so we took what they had made, they gave us our money back and on our way we went. We arrived at Harris SW at about 3:45 a.m. and signed in. I was wheeled up to L & D in the largest wheelchair I have ever seen. Seriously, Larry and the bags could have taken a ride with me in this thing! Anyway, the pitocin started at 5:30 a.m. and by 8:30 a.m. I was still at 1 cm but 50% effaced. At this point Dr. Suba broke my bag of water and contractions started to come faster. They were bumping up the pitocin every 30 minutes and by this time contractions were coming every 2-3 minutes. Dr. Suba kept telling me to take the epidural sooner rather than later because there was no reason to just sit around in pain. So I did at this point. The contractions were managable but getting stronger. It was wierd getting the epi and at some point there was a "shock" that the anesthesiologist warned me about. After that though I couldn't feel anything and started to get really sleepy. My blood pressure was still normal but at the low end. I had a strange headache that felt like it went straight down through my right eye and continued to the bottom of my jaw. If I turned my head toward the right where it was more light then it was way worse. The nurse didn't think this was normal and after a while it switched to the other side but finally subsided. Cirstyn's heartbeat became "variable" which meant that it was going up and down in vary degrees not so much in a normal range though. They thought it would be a good idea to administer oxygen just to make sure I was getting enough to Cirstyn so I had to wear the mask!

The last time Dr. Suba checked me I was 2 cm and still 50% effaced which was good progress - so I'm told - for induction. He wasn't so fond of Cirstyn's variable heart rate and wanted to proceed with C-section because he thought my uterus was being over stimulated and didn't want to risk rupture. So the three of us agreed to gown up and head off to the OR. The anesthesiologist gave me a very large syringe full of some concoction of medicine that really put me over the top. Literally I couldn't feel a thing from my chest down - no pressure - NOTHING.

When I got to the OR Larry had to change into scrubs so I was without him for what seemed like forever! I was getting queasy from the medicine and couldn't breathe very well. I felt like no one could hear me when I was telling them I was going to throw up . Finally, the anesthesiologist came with a pan for me to vomit in - turn your head and spit - YUK! I kept asking them if they were going to wait for Larry to be in the room before they started. It seemed like it was forever before he came in the room. They finally let him in and began the procedure. I couldn't feel any kind of pressure during the whole process which was wierd because last time I could feel tugging and my body being moved somewhat and I kept wondering when that would happen. Later Larry told me that they were lifting me up off the table trying to get to Cirstyn. Also, Dr. Suba couldn't cut through my scar from the last time because it sat right on my pubic bone and too close to my bladder.

When Dr. Suba pulled her out he said something about her umbilical cord being wrapped around her neck and that he was glad we didn't waist any more time with induction because she wasn't coming out that way anyway. Larry looked freaked out when he saw her with her cord wrapped around her neck and when I saw him I kept asking what was wrong with no response but then finally was relieved with hearing her cry! I think from that point on all I could do was cry! We were both so relieved. She was completely okay and had such a loud cry. Dr. Suba held Cirstyn spread eagle and told Larry to look for himself to see that she was a girl! He actually got a few shots of that but I really don't want to post them here because, well umm, they are pretty graphic of me still being cut open and all. Anyway, while they were stitching me up the nurse told Larry he could take pictures of her being cleaned up but he didn't want to leave me. I was like just go, go take pictures. I wouldn't miss seeing any of it if there were pictures. Finally, I got to see my beautiful baby girl! She was perfect as she could be! I was so happy that everything was okay with her that all I could do was cry. I know - too sappy.

All the OR drama over and off to my L&D room for recovery. I felt absolutely horrible, so over-anesthetized, all I wanted to do was get over the anesthesia so I could enjoy my new little girl. My blood pressure was way low like 80/50 and I felt so groggy. I had to have Larry help me hold Cirstyn so she could start breastfeeding because my arms were like rubber! I remember everyone coming in to see the new baby and say hello and I vaguely remember the courior coming in to pick up the cord blood package from us. We were moved to post-partum for the remainder of the stay. Lots of pictures of the new baby with others and hopefully I don't look drugged in all the ones of me that day! I was so glad when the anesthesia started to wear off. I remember being able to move my toes and thinking yeah it's almost over!! The first night Cirstyn slept in the nursery and was brought into our room every 3 hours so she could "feed". The wouldn't let her sleep in our room if Larry was going to be sleeping because I was under narcotic medicine and couldn't hear the baby if see if she stopped breathing. So we got some sleep the first night. Needless to say the next day was much better for me all together! I was so hungry and finally got to eat - yeah! Lots of visitors that day and more picture taking. Marcey brought her awesome camera to take pictures and I intended on fixing myself somewhat, but that didn't happen. So homely is what I wore for pictures that day!

No more drama after all that and finally we were on our way home!

Here are some pictures from our hospital stay....

Cleaned up and ready for Daddy!

Nice to meet you Mommy!

My first picture with Daddy!

Baby Update!! Almost There!

Okay I saw Dr. Suba today and we did a sono. This kid is a whopping 7 lbs 12 oz!!!! I am freaking out! I am really no more dilated than last week so I will go back to see him next Monday. He will check things out to see if I am any further along and depending on how things are moving along we will do one of two things. He will either have me come back Monday evening to apply Cervidil to open things up and get things started or I will go in on Tuesday morning at 4 AM to start induction. That is if nothing happens on it's own - there is supposed to be a full moon on 5/9!! So we will have a baby next Monday or Tuesday!! I would have posted the sono pics but it was just the arm bone and leg bone - nothing spectacular.

Just so you know we will be at Harris Southwest in the Cityview area. So if you feel inclined I will definitely be there on Tuesday!