Right now there just isn't any time to blog. I'm sad to not write everything down about Miss Louie, but it's life. I did want to report we are all alive and well. Louie is still sleeping in her carseat and does pretty well at night- 2 four hour sleeps, and usually 1 hour of opening her eyes as big as possible and grunting as loud as possible. The boys looooove her! Since I'm deaf in my right year (from Joey's pregnancy) Ray Ray alerts me when the baby is crying by saying, "Baba crying." Then he runs to his paci drawer and goes over to her and shoves it in her mouth unless I catch him in time. Little Joey is in love with her. He asks to hold her all day long, I catch him staring at her, and I have also caught him rubbing her head and saying "You are so beautiful."
There are two huge adjustments right now... well three.
1. Not being able to leave the house much. We are trying to stay as healthy as possible till May- knock on wood.
2. Attending to 3 children 3 and under's needs.
3. Going on 5-6 hours of sleep for several weeks in a row.
Overall, I can't complain, and Miss Louie has been such a sweet little joy. Welp, I have to get going. It takes about 30 minutes to load up and we have to be at Joey's school for his Easter Egg Hunt in 25 minutes.
More pics later.... way more pics later. We had a photo shoot last week by Annie Syers and I think we had 10 costume changes- yah for little girls!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
A Gift
Louisa LaVon Matis is here! She arrived March 11, 2012 at 1:18pm. Weighed in at 8 lbs 9 oz and 21 1/2 inches long! The biggest of the 3 kiddos. I didn't think my linebacker was going to be my girl. Louie came on her own on the day I was supposed to be induced. I woke up right at the time change with a huge feeling she had dropped. Within an hour my contractions went from 10 minutes to 3 minutes. I called my mom to come over and we headed to the hospital. I was dilated to 5 cm so they hooked me up and I rested. The most amazing doctor, Dr. Star, rolled in around noon and 2 pushes later I had her. It was quick and easy and worth the wait. Have I told you how much I love Clarion North Hosptal? Well the food and nurses were superb and I'm blessed to have a perfect place like that to go to.
This is Dr. Star. He has come in on his day off for every kid and lets me call his personal cell phone to inform him I'm going into labor. I feel so lucky to know him.
Suprise, as I'm typing this I realize that I'm really tired, so this blog is going to be short and sweet on the wording, but filled with lots of pics.
Joey, of course, fell in love right away. The tears were a'flowin. But can we have a 20 second and recognize how nice of a wife I am?? Look at what we are watching during my labor.
Joey, of course, fell in love right away. The tears were a'flowin. But can we have a 20 second and recognize how nice of a wife I am?? Look at what we are watching during my labor. Wife. Of. The Year.
Then Little Joey walked in and melted my heart. He loves loves loves his baby sister and adores her every blink and move. He could watch her for hours and hours and keeps telling me how beautiful she is and how much he loves her. It was so hard to be away from the boys for 3 days.
Ray Ray, ya not so much of the same interest as Joey. He'd rather watch trains on my iphone. He is my kid that I need to remember to sit down and spend some quality time with every day. He is Daddy's boy and Mommy is definitely 2nd. He will come around, and until then I need to remember he is 2and #2, and he needs as much attention as the other kids.
However, he is still a stinker.
For example, can't you tell Ray is deciding whether not to "Roar" at her or gouge her eyes out?
The fam.
And so the family of love rolls in...most everyone got to visit except Grandma Connie since she got Ray Ray's cold from last week and my Papa. We have made up for it and thank goodness for videos and picture texts they are capturing every moment.
My mom, Nannie.
My sister, Brooke.
My brother, Beau, and my sister-in-law, Julia, with their 10 month old, Leo.
My brother-in-law, Jason.
My future brother-in-law, Liam
My sister-in-law, Katie, and brother-in-law, Mike.
Grandpa Matis and Louie fell in love. She loooooved him!
Us.
On our way home.
While picking up the boys at Nannie's house, she obviously had to
Then Little Joey walked in and melted my heart. He loves loves loves his baby sister and adores her every blink and move. He could watch her for hours and hours and keeps telling me how beautiful she is and how much he loves her. It was so hard to be away from the boys for 3 days.
Ray Ray, ya not so much of the same interest as Joey. He'd rather watch trains on my iphone. He is my kid that I need to remember to sit down and spend some quality time with every day. He is Daddy's boy and Mommy is definitely 2nd. He will come around, and until then I need to remember he is 2and #2, and he needs as much attention as the other kids.
However, he is still a stinker.
For example, can't you tell Ray is deciding whether not to "Roar" at her or gouge her eyes out?
The fam.
And so the family of love rolls in...most everyone got to visit except Grandma Connie since she got Ray Ray's cold from last week and my Papa. We have made up for it and thank goodness for videos and picture texts they are capturing every moment.
My mom, Nannie.
My sister, Brooke.
My brother, Beau, and my sister-in-law, Julia, with their 10 month old, Leo.
My brother-in-law, Jason.
My future brother-in-law, Liam
My sister-in-law, Katie, and brother-in-law, Mike.
Grandpa Matis and Louie fell in love. She loooooved him!
Us.
On our way home.
While picking up the boys at Nannie's house, she obviously had to get another squeeze in on baby Louie.
And so the madness and juggling begins....
What Louie has to look forward to...
and when we aren't acting crazy we will watch her sleep.
She's doing well at home. Nights are long, and she's sleeping in her carseat. I'm scared to death of Monday when Joey goes back to work, but I'm blessed to be so close to family.
And so the madness and juggling begins....
What Louie has to look forward to...
and when we aren't acting crazy we will watch her sleep.
She's doing well at home. Nights are long, and she's sleeping in her carseat. I'm scared to death of Monday when Joey goes back to work, but I'm blessed to be so close to family.To be completely honest, I feel God's presence in every aspect of my life. Big Joey and I grow closer every day even though we don't get to spend time we each other. We enjoy being there for each other and laying in bed next to each other at night is such an activity we look forward to at the end of the day. Please keep us in your prayers for continued health.
Meanwhile, I'll dread Monday.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
God's Perfect Plan
After I failed my glucose test and I became pre-eclamptic at 35 weeks, I thought I was definitely going to have this baby early-- I was thinking any day past February 21. I had Ray 2 weeks early and he was almost 8 lbs, so a week or two early didn't really bug me. Once February 25th hit, I realized I didn't want to have the baby close to Ray's birthday (Feb. 27) or leap day. I got off my feet a lot and prayed to get to March 1, BUT any day after March 1 sounded pretty awesome. After gaining around 40 lbs and having every maternity shirt show off my mid section, I wanted the pregnancy to be over with.
Well, March 2nd rolled around and Ray woke up with green junk coming out of both eyes. He acted fine, but still, not a good sign. By 5:00 we had a lot of junk and started eye drops. March 3rd, Ray Ray wakes up with a high fever. I gave him some Ibuprofen and thought he'd rebound fairly quick because he is such a trooper. That night Ray developed croup, and he got bad quickly. He barked all night long with cough medicine and woke up pale and lethargic with green junk coming out of everything. I called the Doc and an antibiotic was called in. Monday he got worse.... waking up pale, not eating, talking like a frog and wanting to be held all day long. Let me just say carying a 30 lb baby and occasionally a 50 lb 3 year old while holding 40 lbs from this pregnancy up the stairs makes my knees feel like they may break in half. These were some long, long days. My poor husband would race off to work to try and get as much done and race home to take care of us all. Big Joey has been completely swamped at work with switching jobs, prospecting and trying to wrap things up so he can take a week off when the babe comes.
So now it's Tuesday, March 6th and Ray has been sick since Friday. I am now praying Louisa holds off for another week. I need to get this babe healthy. When my mom brought me home from the hospital, my brother and sister both had Chicken Pox. I couldn't imagine how scared and tired she was trying to take care of everyone and keeping her sanity. You may think "Oh, kids are so resilient. You will be fine. " My experiences have been a little different. After almost losing Joey when he was 13 months old, my anxiety level and fear is so intense and I do whatever I can to avoid anything like that at all costs. I'm a changed Mom from that and I'm definitely okay with that. By 6:00pm on Tuesday Ray is coughing up junk all day and he seems to be a quick downward spiral. I call the Doc, and we go. The nurse confirms we need to do everything-- antibiotic, cough medicine, steroids, benadryl and ibuprofen. I hate hate hate chucking all of this down his poor little belly, but on the other hand, I trust science and medicine so I do it. Wednesday is worse. Ray has now woken up 4 days in a row at 5:00 a.m. and cries for 3 hours straight till he falls asleep on the floor. Big Joey and I take turns taking him to the basement for him to cry because it's so loud and disturbing. Poor Little Joey was an angel. He didn't say much and played so well by himself while we passed Ray back and forth till he fell asleep. What was wrong with Ray Ray? Was he teething, did he have something else going on, should I have taken him in for a CT or chest xray? I was at a loss. He fell asleep 4-5 different times that day on the floor and when he wasn't asleep, he was crying loudly. He had never done this before. Thursday same thing. At this point, I'm about ready to lose it. I completely forgot I was pregnant. Sleep? What sleep! I was getting about 3-5 hours a night. Ray was a 24 hour deal while being on all of these meds.
Thursday night Ray pukes on me. Really?! Did we pick up something else at the doctors? I call the Doc again. He is so congested he can barely breath, and I can feel it in his back. He had been limp all day and was not getting any better. The nurse prescribes a different antibiotic and we start breathing treatments. We all prayed. We prayed for Ray to turn a corner, we prayed Louisa would stay put and we prayed for tomorrow to get easier.
5am rolls around. Joey comes to our room "Daddy, I'm hot." Joey has a super high fever, refuses to take medicine then pukes on me. You see, Joey is not the Puke and Rally kind of kid like Ray Ray. He is devastated. He is heartbroken he puked on me, terrified he is hot and distraught we are trying to get him to take medicine. After cleaning up everything I laid down with him for the first time and we went to bed. Big Joey relieved me an hour later and the sun came up.
It's Friday by now. It's really Friday already... it was just Friday and Ray had double pink eye. Did a week really just happen and I haven't had the baby yet? Doc called in a script for Joey to be preventative and Grandma Connie Matis came over to save the morning. By now I remembered I was pregnant. Ray had a pep in his step and knowing we had the right antibiotic gave me encouragement for the weekend. The only upside to my week was when my sister-in-law Julia was shopping at Keystone and sending me pics of every counter in JCrew so I could pick up my new spring wardrobe. We call it ishopping and Leo, Jules and I had a blast!!!
Now it's Saturday at 3:30pm. Ray is dancing again, but still has a disgusting cough. I think Joey's fever is finally gone and they only took one nap today. The perfect storm of whatever they had may finally be leaving our home (knock on wood).
Is it safe to have the baby now?? Well to tell you the truth it doesn't matter what I think. It's up to God. He obviously knows more than I do and his timing always seems to be much better than mine. I couldn't imagine having had Louisa home this week... trying to avoid getting her sick, taking care of the boys, getting zippo amount of sleep, taking care of my broken body from labor and exposing helpful family memebers to our yuckiness.
A good friend of mine had me read Psalms yesterday. Getting my Bible out during nap and thumbing through some of my favorite verses was just what I needed. God is soo soo Good, especially when you put all of your trust in him. You know, his plan for us is always so much bigger. Thank the Good Lord!!!
Well, March 2nd rolled around and Ray woke up with green junk coming out of both eyes. He acted fine, but still, not a good sign. By 5:00 we had a lot of junk and started eye drops. March 3rd, Ray Ray wakes up with a high fever. I gave him some Ibuprofen and thought he'd rebound fairly quick because he is such a trooper. That night Ray developed croup, and he got bad quickly. He barked all night long with cough medicine and woke up pale and lethargic with green junk coming out of everything. I called the Doc and an antibiotic was called in. Monday he got worse.... waking up pale, not eating, talking like a frog and wanting to be held all day long. Let me just say carying a 30 lb baby and occasionally a 50 lb 3 year old while holding 40 lbs from this pregnancy up the stairs makes my knees feel like they may break in half. These were some long, long days. My poor husband would race off to work to try and get as much done and race home to take care of us all. Big Joey has been completely swamped at work with switching jobs, prospecting and trying to wrap things up so he can take a week off when the babe comes.
So now it's Tuesday, March 6th and Ray has been sick since Friday. I am now praying Louisa holds off for another week. I need to get this babe healthy. When my mom brought me home from the hospital, my brother and sister both had Chicken Pox. I couldn't imagine how scared and tired she was trying to take care of everyone and keeping her sanity. You may think "Oh, kids are so resilient. You will be fine. " My experiences have been a little different. After almost losing Joey when he was 13 months old, my anxiety level and fear is so intense and I do whatever I can to avoid anything like that at all costs. I'm a changed Mom from that and I'm definitely okay with that. By 6:00pm on Tuesday Ray is coughing up junk all day and he seems to be a quick downward spiral. I call the Doc, and we go. The nurse confirms we need to do everything-- antibiotic, cough medicine, steroids, benadryl and ibuprofen. I hate hate hate chucking all of this down his poor little belly, but on the other hand, I trust science and medicine so I do it. Wednesday is worse. Ray has now woken up 4 days in a row at 5:00 a.m. and cries for 3 hours straight till he falls asleep on the floor. Big Joey and I take turns taking him to the basement for him to cry because it's so loud and disturbing. Poor Little Joey was an angel. He didn't say much and played so well by himself while we passed Ray back and forth till he fell asleep. What was wrong with Ray Ray? Was he teething, did he have something else going on, should I have taken him in for a CT or chest xray? I was at a loss. He fell asleep 4-5 different times that day on the floor and when he wasn't asleep, he was crying loudly. He had never done this before. Thursday same thing. At this point, I'm about ready to lose it. I completely forgot I was pregnant. Sleep? What sleep! I was getting about 3-5 hours a night. Ray was a 24 hour deal while being on all of these meds.
Thursday night Ray pukes on me. Really?! Did we pick up something else at the doctors? I call the Doc again. He is so congested he can barely breath, and I can feel it in his back. He had been limp all day and was not getting any better. The nurse prescribes a different antibiotic and we start breathing treatments. We all prayed. We prayed for Ray to turn a corner, we prayed Louisa would stay put and we prayed for tomorrow to get easier.
5am rolls around. Joey comes to our room "Daddy, I'm hot." Joey has a super high fever, refuses to take medicine then pukes on me. You see, Joey is not the Puke and Rally kind of kid like Ray Ray. He is devastated. He is heartbroken he puked on me, terrified he is hot and distraught we are trying to get him to take medicine. After cleaning up everything I laid down with him for the first time and we went to bed. Big Joey relieved me an hour later and the sun came up.
It's Friday by now. It's really Friday already... it was just Friday and Ray had double pink eye. Did a week really just happen and I haven't had the baby yet? Doc called in a script for Joey to be preventative and Grandma Connie Matis came over to save the morning. By now I remembered I was pregnant. Ray had a pep in his step and knowing we had the right antibiotic gave me encouragement for the weekend. The only upside to my week was when my sister-in-law Julia was shopping at Keystone and sending me pics of every counter in JCrew so I could pick up my new spring wardrobe. We call it ishopping and Leo, Jules and I had a blast!!!
Now it's Saturday at 3:30pm. Ray is dancing again, but still has a disgusting cough. I think Joey's fever is finally gone and they only took one nap today. The perfect storm of whatever they had may finally be leaving our home (knock on wood).
Is it safe to have the baby now?? Well to tell you the truth it doesn't matter what I think. It's up to God. He obviously knows more than I do and his timing always seems to be much better than mine. I couldn't imagine having had Louisa home this week... trying to avoid getting her sick, taking care of the boys, getting zippo amount of sleep, taking care of my broken body from labor and exposing helpful family memebers to our yuckiness.
A good friend of mine had me read Psalms yesterday. Getting my Bible out during nap and thumbing through some of my favorite verses was just what I needed. God is soo soo Good, especially when you put all of your trust in him. You know, his plan for us is always so much bigger. Thank the Good Lord!!!
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