Category Archives: Family

Family

I did not expect that reaction

I was so proud of myself. I had stumbled on the “Curious George” movie, voiced by Will Ferrell and Drew Barrymore, earlier today and recorded it, thinking my boys would love it — they love watching Curious George on my PBS app. And I gestured smugly toward Michael, who was riveted by the movie when he got back from daycare, with a “I told you so” look on my face for my husband.

At the movie’s climax — right where the Man in the Yellow Hat (named Ted in this movie) is letting George be taken away to be shipped back to Africa — I was dealing with Chris, who had a fever, and telling Mike to take his fingers out of his mouth.

And Mike burst into tears.

I was floored. I knew instantly what the problem was — he was so into the movie, and became distraught at the thought of George being put in a cage and taken away from his dad. Wow. Obviously, I was not paying attention at how Michael was growing by leaps and bounds and understanding more and more around him — of what he watched.

He spent the rest of the movie in my arms — in fact, I had Chris in one arm, in my lap, and Mike in the other arm, keeping his arms down.

I feel bad that both of them felt so bad, but at the same, it was so nice to have my big boys in my arms, without them struggling to extricate themselves.

An Elliott photo gallery

Elliott is three weeks old today, so I figured it was time to get on the computer and share some photos of the little guy. I’ve had to soften on my policy of keeping Elliott’s photos off social media for the first six months because Trinity has totally blown it to smithereens. However, this is still the best place to see photos of the little guy’s face.

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One of the first things folks ask me when talking about Elliott is, “how are Mike and Chris doing with the baby?” They are absolutely fascinated with their new baby brother. Michael is constantly asking to see him, and lately has been frequently declaring, “aw, he’s so cute!” and “he loves you!” (to me), in his adorable preschooler’s lisp. Chris also likes to try and see his baby brother, but I have to shield Elliott away from him a little more because Chris is like an oversized puppy — doesn’t know where his limbs are half the time and is totally unaware of his own strength. These past couple of days, however, I’ve had to keep the boys from kissing their baby brother because they’ve had the sniffles.

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This photo is a bit fuzzy, but is basically our first photo as a whole family. This is it, people. This is IT.

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We got this little preemie-sized outfit as a gift for Michael, who only got to wear it once. So Elliott sported it for Easter last week.

I’m still mostly barred from lifting heavy things (Chris is seriously weighty these days, plus he kicks) so Trinity is still handling bath and toothbrushing duties on his own. So one night, as each big kid was getting his teeth brushed, I took pictures of the other kid hanging with Elliott. And I got lucky with an in-focus photo of all three of them together — its a perfect illustration of their fascination with Elliott.

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Elliott seems to be taking it all in stride. Maybe he got used to the chaos while he was still in the womb.

Elliott rounds out the Powells 5

It occurred to me this morning that many good things come in fives — five fingers, five toes, five senses, counting in fives. You know what else comes in five now? The Powells family, which welcomed Elliott, its fifth (and final) member yesterday.

Elliott Jeremiah Powells arrived at 4:58 p.m. yesterday, weighing in at an even four pounds and measuring in at about 16 inches.

(And generally, this would have been the only place you could see pictures of newborn Elliott, but Trinity completely beat me to that punch. But it makes sense since he had all the pictures yesterday, and I was simply numb most of the night, literally.)

As for how everyone is doing, I may be going home as soon as tomorrow. I actually got to eat today, whereas during previous hospital stays, it took up to 48 hours for me to get actual food. Elliott is another story though — because he is only four pounds (which, to me, is not that small, considering Chris went home right away at just 5 ounces heavier) — he’ll be staying in the NICU for maybe another week. We doubt it will be longer than that, though, since in most respects, he’s doing fine — he’s eating well, sucking well, even latched on for a while today. It drives me a little nuts that I can’t have him with me, because I feel that having him close to me would help him get bigger faster.

Anyway, it is what it is. Enjoy these pics of my new little cutie.

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34 weeks and getting close to the end

I had another ultrasound this morning, and it was a good news/bad news kind of appointment.

First, let me preface the news with some truth. Being at home, I’ve probably been doing more than I should — for example, I vacuumed the rug yesterday, and the other night I helped finish cleaning up the kitchen (in spite of the excruciating back pain signaling to me that I should sit the hell down), all of which I am definitely am not supposed to do.

Considering all that, the bad news first is that my fluid is low again. First, the perinatologist measured me at 4, then later amended it to 6.5, but either way wanted to re-admit me to the hospital.

Good news? Baby is growing well and is at Chris’ birth weight two weeks earlier. I’m not having stubborn headaches, major swelling or high blood pressure readings and I’m apparently not spilling more urine — which would all be signs that the pre-eclampsia is getting worse.

I know, from researching during my previous hospital stay, the dangers of having low amniotic fluid — the chief being that the baby won’t be able to move as much and could wrap the cord around its neck. However, the baby has been moving well — in fact, I’ve been joking that he’s already rough housing with his brothers, he punches and kicks me so much — so with everything in consideration, I decided to go against the perinatologist’s recommendation and stay home.

It goes against my instincts to not go with an authority figure’s recommendation. But I feel strongly that my mental well being contributes a whole heckuva lot to my physical health, and staying in the hospital as a precaution not only feels like overkill, it will stress me out more because it’s not as comfortable as being at home and I would have to be away from my family — again. I already hate that I can’t do what I normally would do for my family but not being able to be home to greet them, but instead having to wait on them to come out to the hospital, where — let’s be honest — they don’t quite know how to act also stresses me out.

Besides, I have another non-stress test Friday — a test where they
monitor the baby’s heartbeat for at least 20 minutes, check my fluid and my blood pressure — and the perinatologist, upon hearing my intention to not be admitted into the hospital, upped my scheduled NSTs to three times a week. Plus I have another ultrasound on Tuesday. If things continue to appear to deteriorate at that point, then I will acquiesce to the hospital stay.

In the meantime, no one has to worry that I will continue to bed rest badly — I’m typing this out on my iPhone (I’m about two hours in, haha), I’m making sure to drink plenty of water, I’m taking long naps, and staying off my feet as much as possible. I’m doing my best to stay out of the hospital until it comes time to have the baby, and with next week being 35 weeks, if hospitalization has to happen next week, both the baby and I will be more ready.