to the doctor's

in our quest to have a bit more normal and a bit less drama in our lives, we've hit some road bumps. all seemingly minor in the grand scheme of things, but road bumps nonetheless.

so the first ongoing saga since we've had graham home has been carson. he's had some doggy gland issues, which unfortunately, hasn't cleared up with antibiotics and now requires surgery. next in the line of bumps was a little cold that greta picked up. normally, this cold wouldn't have even made it on the map of illnesses because it was so minor, but alas, it became the little cold that graham is now working on getting through. given that he is just 2 weeks past his due date, he has very limited capacity to fight off a cold, so our well children visit to the doctor's office last week turned into a sick kiddo visit for graham.

fortunately, after a few doctor's visits and a week and a half, graham is seemingly on the road to recovery, which hopefully means we can get back to the "regular" routine. continuing the good news, greta had a great 3 year visit at the doctor's office. she passed the "tests" they gave her for hearing and was such a big girl (and a bit of a showoff) for the nurses and doctor taking the weight (35 lbs) and height (35 inches). she even hopped on one foot when the doctor asked her to hop, prompting the doctor to use the descriptors of "advanced" and "athletic" since many kids can't do that until the 4 year visit. the doctor also noted that greta's eagerness to please bodes well for her eventual success in school since much of the culture of education rides on that type of incentive.

while we weren't able to make our triumphant return to tahoe last weekend due to illness, we are still hopeful that it will be in our very near future. meanwhile, i can't believe it's already march. evan's parents have gone back to vermont and my parents arrived for their visit last week. both greta and graham are getting good grandparent spoiling time in.

the birthday post

february 15th had special significance this year. not only is it greta's birthday, but it was also graham's due date, which means on that day, greta turned three and we were able to "start the clock" with graham. all the milestones that a baby hits are based off of their due date, not when they were actually born, so we are finally, thankfully into positive territory with graham and ready to start counting those weeks until milestones hit (sleeping longer stretches at night and returning smiles are around 6 weeks!!!).

while graham's big milestone came & went without much notice or fanfare, greta's was celebrated in style. she's managed to have three separate celebrations so far. her actual birthday fell on president's day this year, so it was a holiday for evan and no camp for greta. we had fun celebrating with just the family that day... greta and i made and decorated cupcakes to take into camp the next day and she went to the park with evan and met graham and i out for dinner (his first outing under the protection of his blanket cloaked car seat). we had a few presents to open and a cupcake with a candle to blow out.

the next day, greta celebrated at camp with cupcakes we had made for her friends there, and the following sunday was the big soiree. given all that was going on this winter and graham still not being ready for exposure to lots of people, we decided to have greta's party at a place called my gym in town. we arrived a few minutes early and met the two teachers that ran the party - joey & dwight. they were very energetic and great with the kids. the party went off without a hitch and all the kids (and i think the adults) had a great time. they ran around,

played games, danced,

did a zip line,

played in the ball pit,

had a birthday parade for greta, sang songs,

and ate pizza and cake.

what more could 3 year olds want? it was a really great party and we were lucky that evan's parents were in town since mark volunteered to stay home with graham so both evan and i could go to the party.

one more potential celebration up in tahoe house for our february birthdays: greta, evan and avis!

the all in one

once again, i find myself in catch up mode, although this time with very good reason. a few days after writing (although not posting) my last entry we had a very unexpected surprise. so here i find myself writing the "all in one" post which will include birth announcement, holiday wishes, recap of december and january and the homecoming.

our surprise came to us early morning on december 5th, when our son decided to join the outside world over 10 weeks early. needless to say, not how we had planned to spend the weekend or the holidays, but we rolled with the punches.

we were watching a movie friday night and around 9:30 i couldn't get comfortable, so i decided to head to bed early to see if laying down helped. around 1am, i knew something was certainly not right since i was still uncomfortable and it seemed to be coming in waves every 5 or so minutes. we called the doctor, tried her suggestion and after that failed to work, woke up greta and headed to the hospital (we didn't have a 29 week, middle of the night contingency plan set up for greta). when we arrived at the hospital, greta wasn't allowed in because of special visiting rules outlawing kids during flu season, so evan waited at the entrance with her while i got checked out. i was 4 cm at that point and the doctor admitted me to try and slow things down. evan drove greta back to the house and dropped her off with one of our wonderful neighbors and headed back to the hospital (45 minutes away).

they were able to slow down the contractions for a little while, but they picked up steam again and when the doctor checked on my, i was 7cm and not showing any signs of slowing down again. since he was breach still, the doctor prepped the OR for a c-section. after a quick call to evan (who was still 30 minutes away from the hospital) and one to my mom to give her a quick heads up, i was wheeled into the OR about 10 minutes later. the doctors and nurses were wonderful in terms of prepping me as to what would happen. our boy was pulled out at 5:55am saturday december 5th, and to my great relief, let out a lusty cry (one of the primary things they are concerned with at this point was developed lungs). the team of neonatologist doctors and nurses (i think there were about 6 of them) grabbed him and got him ready to go to the nicu. the only time i got to see him (from a distance) was as a vague bundle of blankets being wheeled out of the room. evan arrived into the room not too long later while they finished putting me back together.

the rest of the day was a bit of a blur... getting to my room, being wheeled over to the nicu, seeing our boy with a cpap over his nose and mouth to make sure he was getting sufficient air (fortunately, he did not need oxygen and only had the cpap on for a day), and my mom scrambling for flights to arrive that evening. i was in the hospital until wednesday and all in all, had a really great and quick recovery. while i was there, i got to visit the nicu several times a day, get good holding/cuddle time and had time to contemplate what we would name our son (we didn't have the name nailed down at 29 weeks either). finally we went with a late entry and named him graham r. aronowitz. the middle initial r is an aronowitz tradition for the men's side of naming.

fran and mark had tickets to visit later that week, so they were able to come and visit graham in the hospital and spend some quality time with greta. we celebrated hanukah in fairly low key fashion, and greta was delighted by the nightly candle lighting and presents.

a week and a half after fran and mark departed, my family (dad, brother ross, sister-in-law april, and nephews austin and chase) kept their tickets and came out as planned to celebrate christmas, so the adults got to visit graham and the kids got a wonderful week of playing together and celebrating christmas.

january settled into routine of visiting graham in the hospital and getting all the things ready that we had planned to do later in the month. graham was released and allowed to come home on the 15th of january, a day shy of 6 weeks after he was born and just over 4 weeks shy of his due date. he spent 1 week in the nicu and 5 weeks in the level 2 intermediate intensive care nursery. i can't say enough about the wonderful doctors, nurses and staff at lucile packard children's hospital. they made this journey as smooth and easy as it could possibly be, and it was so reassuring to know that graham was in such loving, capable hands when we weren't able to be there with him.

my mom returned home a week after graham came home after having stayed and helped out for 7 weeks. we are incredibly grateful for the help and support she and all our other family and friends, near and far, provided to us.

now, we adjust to a more normal newborn routine, and we are loving it! we hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and a great start to the new year!