Christmas: Take 2

So I'm ridiculously far behind on blogging. If you'll remember, we had a pre-Christmas celebration at home with me, Brian and Reid. We flew to Denver a few days before Christmas to spend time with Brian's family. We had a great time hanging out, playing Wii, supervising babies and opening a ridiculous amount of presents.

Reid's first Christmas Eve was a little rough. He started the day by falling over the bottom rung of a bar stool and hitting his head on the tile floor. (No one was alarmed. We have a crazy, fearless child, and, unfortunately, injuries go with the territory. ) He had small bump but seemed fine. Brian and I decided to take him to an early afternoon church service just for kids. While we were there he was totally not himself. For those of you who know him, he did not smile at anyone, he was not amused by the dog in the live nativity, and he did not seem to be enjoying the music.

We got him home from the service, and he was pretty cranky. We thought he was hungry so we tried to feed him, but he was having none of it. As I picked him up out of the highchair he started projectile vomiting all over the kitchen. He has NEVER thrown up before. We cleaned him up and he immediately fell asleep.

By this time it's almost 5 on Christmas Eve. I called the nurses line of our pediatrician's office which is staffed 24 hours a day. Given the combination of hitting his head that morning, vomiting and lethargy, the nurse said she thought Reid needed to be seen in an ER to rule out concussion or other head injury. So, Brian, Reid, Grandpa and I were off to the ER at Littleton Adventist outside of Denver.

As wretched as having to take a sick baby to the ER on Christmas Eve is, I can't complain too much. The ER was nearly empty, and they got us back to a room in the ER of the attached children's hospital less than 10 minutes after we walked in the door. Way too much information, but while we were waiting for the doctor, Reid had several episodes of diarrhea. This actually turned out to be a good thing (in a way) because it made it more likely that Reid had a stomach virus and not a head injury. After being thoroughly checked out by the doctor and nurse, it was confirmed that Reid did not seem to have any sort of head injury, and he had coincidentally come down with a virus the same day as hitting his head.

We were in and out of the ER in about just over an hour, and Reid perked up enough that evening to open some gifts and play a little. The day after Christmas we all headed up to Winter Park to enjoy spending time in the mountains and skiing. Reid got to sled and play in the snow, and Brian and I got a day of skiing alone together while Steve and Connie kept Reid. Enjoy some pictures of Christmas #2!

Playing and sledding in the snow and Mimi and Grandpa's house

Playing with Grandpa and Allie in the snow

Reid, on Christmas Eve: trying to offer his Pedialyte to his younger (but bigger!) cousin Garrett; In the second picture you can tell he isn't his usual energetic self

All bundled up in the snowsuit

Playing in the snow with Mommy

Sledding with Daddy in Winter Park. It's hard to tell because he's so bundled, but his eyes are definitely smiling in the second picture :)

11 months

I'll Be Home for Christmas

We were scheduled to be in Colorado on Christmas day, and one of Santa's elves tipped us off that Reid's gift from Santa was a little too bulky to be delivered to Denver. So, we had our own family Christmas celebration at home on December 18th and 19th. Reid seemed to have fun, and Brian and I had a blast giving him gifts and capturing his reactions.

The stockings were hung...

Reid got to open his Christmas Eve gift--the original Tickle Me Elmo. We think he liked it :)


This is the gift that Santa left for Reid while he was sleeping. Santa is quite frugal and saved 75% off of the price of tumbling mats by shopping on Craigslist.


Reid was very excited to discover Santa's gift on Christmas morning. He hasn't stopped climbing, crawling, diving and tumbling since.



Mommy and Daddy gave Reid a drum that he loves to play. He's so talented.

Even Baxter got in on the gift giving!

double digits

Baby boy is 10 months old, and more active than ever. He even took his first steps on Saturday! We leave tomorrow for Denver to spend Reid's first Christmas with Brian's family. We are spending New Years weekend with my family in College Station. Busy, busy, busy!

Reflections

I have always had a freakishly good memory...emphasis on the freak. I have also always been someone for whom sounds, sights and smells bring memories flooding back. In fact, I recall sitting in my hospital room holding two day-old Reid last February 22 and weepily telling Brian how last February 22 I had the day off from work, and I had spent the day getting ready to host a baby shower the next day wondering if I would ever have a baby of my own and then we had a belated Valentine's Day dinner at Jaspers. And now we were a family (insert more post-childbirth-crazy-lady weeping here.)

Anyway. This Christmas season has left me reflecting on this time last year. I spent Saturday reflecting about how last December 12 I left work at noon for a routine OB appointment and was told things looked drastically different than they had one week prior. Only 1.7 centimeters were keeping Reid inside of me, and there was concern that my amniotic sac was slipping into the open portion of my cervix. I thought about that moment of realization--Brian was in New Orleans at a wedding. I was only 28 weeks pregnant. If the baby came now, he would probably survive, but it would be a long road. I remember driving myself home in a calm fog, and I took a shower while I waited for my sister to come pick me up and drive me to the hospital. Packing was surreal because I didn't know if I was packing for the trip to the hospital. I calmly packed the camera and battery charger just in case. Brian finally got the hospital after midnight, and we spent our time listening to Reid's heartbeat and the sound of him moving and kicking the fetal monitor while lying in the hospital bed together watching NCIS on my laptop.

Last December 14 I was in the hospital on my second day of bed rest. The doctors were finishing off the last of my 48 hour course of steroids to speed the development of Reid's lungs. I remember Dr. Hunt, who was on call for our OB, coming into the room and laughingly telling us that it was unfortunate that we were having a white boy. Apparently, baby boys' lungs always develop more slowly than little girls; and black babies' lungs develop more quickly than white babies'. Who knew.

Last December 15 they finally discharged me from the hospital once they determined that I was not contracting and that Reid wasn't in any immediate danger. Dr. Hunt dropped by to chat and to reassure us that no matter how early Reid came, he would be in good hands. I was given lots of information about how I would know when the pre-term labor started...about how it was unlikely they'd be able to stop my labor if my water broke. I'm a bottom line kind of girl, so as I peppered the good doctor with questions, he gently told me that it was not a matter of if Reid would be premature but how premature he would be. He told me that our OB, Dr. Fogwell's goal was to have a 2009 baby...to try to make it to sometime in January.

The weeks came and went...I stressed about Reid being breach and the possibility of not having the type of childbirth experience that I so desperately wanted. I tried everything to try to get Reid into a head-down position. And it the midst of all of it, I made it to 38+ weeks. And I had to have a c-section because my stubborn baby was still breach. Not my ideal experience, but a perfect baby, nonetheless.

And I'm sure that this coming February 24 I will be reminiscing about how last February 24, before being discharged from the hospital to take my sweet boy home, Dr. Fogwell dropped in and mentioned that due to me only having 1/2 a uterus...and due to it's odd shape...Reid had been much safer in the breach position. It was a position that allowed to him to grow free from the risks of intrauterine growth retardation. He also mentioned his feeling that if Reid had been in the normal, head-down position and putting all that pressure on my very weak, short cervix, it was highly unlikely that we would have made it to term.

So, this December, as I sit on the couch looking at our Christmas tree, I reflect on last December when I spent so much time on the same couch, looking at the same tree, wondering what the future held. And I am so humbled and thankful at what God has done in our lives.

Thanksgiving

I've been a productive blogger today. If you haven't seen the first post I did today "Pre-Thanksgiving Festivities" scroll down so you don't miss it. (I wouldn't want to be accused of being partial to my family over Brian's!)

We spent Reid's first Thanksgiving in College Station with my parents, Sarah, Toby and Cason. We had a wonderful time, and Reid truly embraced the meaning of Thanksgiving by eating everything on his tray. My sweet child (who continues to be around the 25th percentile for weight) ate turkey, brisket, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, part of a roll, and 1/2 piece of pumpkin pie with cool whip.





My parents bought a used double stroller, and Grandad had fun pushing his grandsons around the neighborhood. They might have been mistaken for twins except they look nothing alike :) Cason and Reid played together very intentionally for the first time. Unfortunately, Cason seems to be traumatized by his cousin Reid AND his Uncle Brian. I think they're just a little too...crazy, perhaps, for his taste.

Pre-Thanksgiving Festivities

The weekend before Thanksgiving we embarked on a major road trip with our feverish, fussy little guy. I did NOT have high hopes for the weekend. We left Friday afternoon and drove 6 hours to Wellington, KS, where we spent the night with Brian's grandmother. Leg One: Reid did amazingly well.

Early Saturday morning we left Wellington and drove 4 hours to Osborne, KS (which I spent the weekend referring to as Nebraska since it's in far Northern Kansas!). Leg Two: Reid did pretty well despite fever blisters developing on his lips and one very chilly, very dirty diaper change at a rest area.

Once in Obsorne we met up with Brian's parents and Brian's extended family at Great Aunt Berta and Great Uncle Bob's house. Reid also met his great grandfather for the first time, as well as Aunt Cinnie, Uncle Kevin and cousin Scott. We had a fun pre-Thanksgiving lunch and spent some quality time with family.

Meeting Great Grandad for the first time

Group shot in Osborne

Four generations of McFarland men!

Free from the car seat but we've managed to cage him again!

Trying to pull Great Aunt Cinnie's hair

Then, it was back in the car for 4 more hours back to Wellington. Leg Three: Mimi (Brian's mom) rode with us on this leg, and Reid did great for about 3.5/4 hours. As we neared Grandma's house he had a complete shrieking meltdown. And really, who can blame him?!

Saturday night we had dinner with more family at Grandma's house, and then Sunday we had another pre-Thanksgiving dinner with a lot of Brian's mom's side of the family. Some had seen Reid before and others met him for the first time. In no particular order we saw: Steve, Connie, Grandma and her boyfriend, Lou, Uncle Monty, Aunt Carol, Amy and Josh, Amy and Jeremy, Cole, Cason, Josh, Uncle Kris, Shawn, Amity and her husband and new baby Jaylyn.

This is the only shot we got of the family on Sunday, and as you can see, our camera was acting up :(

Then back into the car for 6 hours back to Dallas. Leg Four: Reid did amazingly well, again. Overall, he was an awesome little traveler considering he was in the car for 20 hours in a little over 2 days. He far exceeded our expectations, and we got to spent some great quality time with Brian's side of the family.