Another Trip To The ER For Logan...

The scariest moment of my life was last night, Logan woke up late last night coughing unlike any cough I had ever heard, I knew it had to be croup we grabbed him out of bed and took him outside but the cold wasn't helping and he was starting to really struggle to breath. He was so scared, it was awful. Matt threw him in the car and went to the ER. They took him right in when they got there and gave him two steroid shots and a breathing treatment and then observed him for several hours. Ugg what a night, Ava is the only one that got any sleep last night. He is doing better this morning, no coughing attacks so that is good. That was the scariest moment of my life, watching your child struggling to breath. Now I am praying Ava doesn't get sick. It seemed to come out of no where, he seemed like he might be getting a little cold yesterday, sneezing and a little cough here and there, but when I put him to bed the cough started sounding horse so I figured he was tired and for sure getting a cold. When he woke up coughing though we knew it was something worse.

Last time Logan was sick he had a cough and the doctor said it was croup and gave him the steroid shots but that cough was nothing like this and he never struggled to breath, I feel so bad for him he keeps getting these big old shots in his legs. I know he was bad last night because this morning he keeps telling me he loves shots, for him to say that it must have been bad!

So last night takes the cake for scariest parenting moment so far!

It's Potty Time!

For Logan that is! We started hardcore potty training this past Saturday and we are happy to report that Logan is doing awesome and we can pretty much say he is daytime potty trained! Saturday morning was a bit of a struggle, he did not want to give up his diapers, so at first we let him wear a pull up, he went on the potty but then a minute later when again in his pull-up. So we switched gears and let him go commando in his pj bottoms which would be easy for him to get down and up on his own. We set a kitchen timer and made him sit on the potty every time it went off, and he did and sometimes he went before the timer went off, but only if we asked him if he had to go. He had a couple of accidents, but did more in the potty than out. I had to skate on Saturday so I took Ava out to my Mom's so Matt could just work with Logan and by the time I got back from skating Logan was using the potty on his own. We put him back in diapers for bedtime and called it a pretty successful day. Sunday morning Logan woke up early and Matt put another diaper on him thinking he would go back to sleep, but nope Logan was ready for the day and he promptly took off his own diaper and went and sat on his potty...wow! Sunday Logan started with the timer, but was so good about going on the potty on his own, we sometimes forgot to reset it and he did good without it. On his second day of potty training he did not have one accident, Matt and I were shocked at how easy of a time we were having. Since Logan was doing so good, on Monday we wore his first pair of big boy undies (Thomas of course) and some of his track pants (easy to get down) to see how he would do, while he needed a little help once in awhile, he did great. He had one accident on Monday, I had not used the timer that day and he was busy playing trains and forgot to go. He wanted a diaper right after the accident and I could tell he was really upset about it, but I told him it was ok and accidents happen when you are learning and that he was doing an awesome job. He hasn't had an accident since though and we are so proud of him! We haven't ventured out with him yet, gymnastics or school will probably be his first trip out without diapers, but he is doing great so I bet he will handle that just fine. At school I know they will work with him so that will be helpful. So I guess it's true when they say, when they are ready it will be easy, because it sure has been, we couldn't be happier with the way things are going! Only having to change one kids diapers a day is AWESOME!!!

As Promised...

Lance posted our pictures today from the shoot on Saturday and they turned out beautiful as usual! I wish I could take pictures like that, hopefully I will get a SLR camera one day...

It was hard to choose but here are some of our favorites!

Isn't she BEAUTIFUL!

A Year Ago Today...

A year ago today I found out I was pregnant with Ava! I remember that day so well. I had taken a pregnancy test the day before and it was negative, but it was still early enough that, that didn't mean anything, so I took another one when I woke up in the morning. Well it looked negative at first but as I looked at it more and more I swore there was a line there, I couldn't get a good picture of it so I couldn't really have my mommy friends and their expert eyes on the board look at it, but I swear I saw something. I should have waited until a little later in the day to test, while most tests say to use your FMU (first morning urine) that has never really worked for me, I should have known better. Of course I had no other tests in the house and Matt was at work and I didn't want to take Logan out just to get one. So I called Matt and told him to bring me home one of my old trusty digital tests. So all day I spent staring at that darn test, I kept thinking maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me. So once Matt got home I ran upstairs to take the digital, I didn't tell Matt about the possible line earlier in the day and I didn't tell him I was taking the one he just brought home. Heart racing I did the digital test, if you haven't used one, it blinks an hour glass while the test is working and it blinked for a really long time... Finally I look down at it and there is was "PREGNANT" the first thing I said, "I new there was a darn line there!" and then my heart was really racing. I went downstairs and Matt was sitting on the couch and I showed it to him, and of course he had that shocked look on his face he gets every time I tell him I am pregnant. That day I thought I had pink eye, so I was going to go to immediate care to have it looked at since it was the weekend, so as soon as I told Matt I was pregnant, I had to head over before they closed so I left Matt in his shocked state and went. They took my blood pressure when I got there and it was high and so was my heart rate LOL! I said well I just found out I am pregnant like 15 minutes ago and then they weren't so concerned. (A side not I didn't have pink eye, the problem was from my contact so then I had to go over to Walmart so the eye doctor could look at it, it was a crazy day) By the time I got home, Matt was a little less shocked. I remember telling Matt that I was going to take today to just be excited, but by the time we were laying in bed that night, my excitement was gone and terror had taken over.

While I was excited I was pregnant, I really didn't get excited about the pregnancy. Granted I was taking my meds and hopeful they would keep me pregnant this time, I just couldn't get attached yet. Sure enough about 2 weeks later I was bleeding again, and lot worse than with my miscarriage and the sad thing was that wasn't even that upset. I thought at least it's happening early this time and we won't ride the emotional roller coaster of literally watching our baby slowly die this time. I called the doctor told them what was going on and the nurse told me she was sorry and to come in for another blood draw to see where my numbers were at. Of course my number had went up so even though it was early I headed in for an ultrasound. I expected the worse of course and to make matters worse Logan had the stomach flu and I had to go alone, it was not a fun day. So I go in for the ultrasound and everything that should be there at that stage (fetal pole, sac) was there still and after the ultrasound tech looked around she said I can't see the baby yet, but at this stage it's ok, and just as soon as she said that she said wait and all of a sudden I saw this tiny little line and it was pulsating, she said, it's too early to put in the report but between you and me that is your baby and the pulsating is it's heartbeat. It just took the breath right out of me. It was truly amazing to see life at that stage. I left still feeling uncertain and refused to let myself become attached to that beautiful pulsating line after all they couldn't see a reason for the bleeding, just like last time, I thought my body was failing this baby again.

I had more bleeding on and off the next week, and I went back in for a follow up during the sixth week, thankfully Matt was with me this time, but we both remained very detached to the whole thing, we always expected to be told our baby was gone. Once again everything was still there and there it was a beautiful little bean with a strong heartbeat measuring spot on. Amazing truly. During this ultrasound the tech found the source of the bleeding, it wasn't too big of a uterine bleed, but it was very close to the baby. My heart sunk again. It was pretty much a 50/50 shot now either the bleed gets bigger and detaches the baby thus causing another miscarriage or the bleed heals up and we have a baby. I was put on modified bed rest and we hoped for the best, I wouldn't have another ultrasound until my first OB appointment at 9 weeks. It was another hellish 3 weeks but when we went in for that 9 week ultrasound we saw a beautiful baby in there with a beautiful heartbeat and the best news was that the bleed had healed! Matt looked at the ultrasound and said it looks like a jellybean, and I thought well maybe we are going to have a baby after all...

It took a long while to get excited about Ava's pregnancy, I just couldn't let myself get hurt again, but as she held on and grew we opened our hearts. One of the reasons we found out the sex ahead of time this time was because Matt and I were both having a hard time connecting to the pregnancy and to the baby, once we found out we were having a girl and we picked her name out, it really helped to kind of pre-bond with her and I think that helped us during the pregnancy and I think it also helped me post delivery in bonding with her. She is our little fighter and I just wish I knew how that story was going to end a year a go today when I found out she was on the way. I do wish I could have enjoyed more of her pregnancy, but after you have suffered a loss, I don't think you ever look at pregnancy the same, I think about how happy and care free I was with Logan's pregnancy and sadly Matt and I have talked about how it will NEVER be like that again, your changed forever when it happens to you.

Ava was truly a gift from above and we know our angle baby Peanut was watching out for her.

Our Christmas Recap...Finally I Know!

We hope all our family and friends had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! This Christmas was really fun for us, we had Logan who was really in to it this year which made everything a little more magical for us and of course we had Ava celebrating her first Christmas. My how things change in a year! We had a lot of fun the whole month of December doing our regular holiday traditions (Holiday Magic at the zoo, seeing Santa, cookies, lodge Christmas party, Christmas Eve candlelight service at church) We started of course by putting up the tree, which happened right after Thanksgiving this year since Logan was so darn excited. Logan had fun putting up all his special ornaments this year.

Ava got her first ornament from Matt's Mom and we had one made for her at the mall as well as a new family ornament, they both turned out really cute!

We received a special ornament from my Mom in remembrance of our little Peanut, always close to our hearts and never forgotten, it's nice to know others remember our Peanut too.

Logan loves to help cook, so he was very excited to make Christmas cookies this year. He helped me make all of them, so once Ava would go down for a nap each day we would head into the kitchen to make some cookies. Logan added ingredients for me, cracked eggs, put kisses on, and rolled dough and did cut-outs. He also made some cute mouse cookies when he spent the night over at my Mom's.

Seeing Santa went better than last year (we actually didn't do mall Santa last yea,r just the one at lodge and that was traumatizing enough to Logan...) Logan was excited about it, but as we grew closer to Santa he got a little worried, but he did sit beside Santa and took a picture and after that he did tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas (a BIG garbage truck) and all was well. We saw Santa again at the annual Mason Christmas party and Logan cried when he had to go up and get his present from Santa, but after he opened his gift he did go up to Santa and shake his hand, it was so cute! Ava also got to take a solo picture at the lodge party which turned out really nice.

Of course we hit Holiday Magic something Matt and I have been doing since we started dating, the only year we didn't go was 2006 since we had just had Logan and we didn't want to take him out in the cold after his NICU stay because of pneumonia. Ava did great we bundled her up and she stayed in the baby carrier most of the time. It did start to rain towards the end of the night but we were on our way out anyway. Logan's highlight of the zoo is sticking his face in the cutout board...

Christmas Eve we went to the candlelight service at Church, and Logan was such as good boy, he sat with us the whole time and was quite, we were very proud of him, after church we headed to Grandma Blumes for Christmas with Dad's side of the family. Logan was way excited to get to the presents! I took some pictures of the kids in their Christmas duds before church.

After celebrating at Grandma's we headed home to get our cookies and milk ready for Santa and put out our reindeer dust that Logan made at school. After that was taken care of Matt read the kids The Night Before Christmas and then it was off to bed!

We had a blast Christmas morning, once Logan woke up enough he got right into the swing of opening presents, of course being the wonderful big brother that he is, he went ahead and opening Ava's gifts too and made sure to show her everything she got. Logan was pretty excited when he opened his BIG garbage truck that he asked Santa for. He must have been a good boy this year because Santa sure spoiled him! After we were done at our house we headed to Matt's parents and then my Mom's to finish up celebrating Christmas. This year we were reminded how blessed we are as we celebrated with our two beautiful children and wonderful family. I really can't wait until next year, just think Ava will be walking and Logan will be a big preschooler I am sure it will be a blast!

Ava Is 3 Months Old!!

Time sure is flying these days! Ms. Ava turned 3 months old today! She is such a wonderful baby and always so happy! She is smiling and laughing up a storm these days and loves watching whatever her big brother is doing. She loves grabbing onto her toys now and just started using her jumperoo and she really loves that thing. Since babies don't have a well check at three months Matt and I took her stats at home using a tape measure and the Wii Fit (wish I would have thought of using that earlier to check on her weight!) She comes in at 14.6 lbs and 24 1/4 inches! She sure is a big girl! Her personality is really shinning through these days and believe me when I say she is all girl for sure!

Here are some picture of our big 3 month old!

Our Gift From Above Ava Sophia at OneTrueMedia.com

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ava's 2 Month Update...A Little Late

Ava turned two months old on December 8 she also got another one of Logan's colds so we spent a lot of time at the doctor's in December. The week before her two month check-up she came down with a bad cold that she caught from Logan who had croup, and he had it so bad he ended up getting steroid shots in both legs, but once they gave him those it was like night and day and he was feeling much better. Ava on the other hand got really congested and was coughing a lot and the doctor was really afraid she might end up in the hospital so she set us up with breathing treatments and instructions to go right to the ER if her breathing got worse and gave us a little less than a week to see improvement or we would have to bring her to the hospital. So we did the breathing treatments, she cried through most of them and then after the treatments we had to flip her over and pound on her back for 10 minutes...she wasn't a happy girl, but the treatments helped and by her appointment the next week they took her off the treatments. Whew dodged that bullet. Since she was well enough at her well check up she got her first round of shots...which she also did not like, but overall she took them better than Logan did and wasn't very fussy and no fever afterwards. She weighed in at 12 lbs 9.5 oz and 23.5 inches, she is in the 90th percentile across the board. The doctor had me start her on some vitamins also. So we had a very eventful second month with Ava. She started social smiling and laughing this month also which is one of the greatest gifts you can get from a baby. She just fills our hearts with love everyday.

Here are some pictures from month 2!

Actually sleeping through this treatment

Taken on her 2 month birthday showing us that big smile!

Showing off her new knit sweater and hat from Great-Grandma and Grandpa Kellogg

Having some fun with Daddy and Big Brother!

Blogging With Brandi!!

Brandi started her own Blog as part of her New Year's Resolution. Check her out here!
www.bloggingwithbrandi.blogspot.com

Ava's Baptism

We had Ava baptised on November 22 at Christ Church here in Des Plaines. My Mom made Ava's gown, jacket, bonnet and blanket and Ava wore the slip to my baptism gown as well and she looked beautiful ( We are having her professional baptism picture done hopefully next weekend and I will post pictures when I get them). We picked my sister Katie to be Godmother and Matt's younger brother Jon as Godfather. It was a lovely service and Pastor Erikson was so very happy for us, just as she did with Logan she got all choked up as she was doing the baptism. Of course Pastor Erikson has known me for many years, she confirmed me, married me, and now is baptising my children so I know it means a lot to her. We had a small lunch following the service which turned out very nice and we were so happy to have Ava's Great-Grandma and Grandpa Pable come up from Arkansas to finally meet her and be at her baptism.

Unfortunately, we were unable to do a big luncheon for the Baptism, we just don't have the space inside our house (and in November no one is going to be outside!) and we just didn't have the money to have all our extended family celebrate with us (and we have a very large family as I am sure you all know). We wish we could have invited everyone we wanted too but it really is an issue of space and money and Matt and I both made sacrifices on both sides of our family. So we just did our close family members for her Baptism and we hope everyone understands. We are planning on doing the big first birthday bash like we did with Logan so don't worry, we just have to find a place to hold it that will fit everyone! So I will leave you all with some pictures from the baptism and as soon as I have her professional pictures I will get them up!

Getting Dressed For Church

Ava and her Godparents

Family Picture

Ava's Cake

Ava's Gown and Jacket Made With Love By Grandma Kois

Happy New Year!

Hi Everyone!! We were on hiatus for a month as both Matt and I had our laptops die their final death and updating via our phone/ipod wasn't working, but we are back with a new computer so we will update the blog in the next few days. We have had a lot going on since the last post when Ava was only a month old, and she is now pushing 3 months so we have a lot to catch up on. We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year! Check back soon for pictures and updates!