Chloe's Ear

We saw the doctor today for Chloe's ear. We had been told to just "wait" by the pediatrician, but that didn't sit well with us. We decided to make an appointment with an ENT who is very well known in town without a referral from our pediatrician. We showed up with a list of questions for him and were anxious to find out what he would say about her "special" ear.

We could not have received better news. The doctor told us that he wanted to remove the extra skin flap TODAY and he would be right back to do so! WOW! We were not expecting that, but were excited he thought it should be done at such a young age. He told us that waiting to remove it would only make things much harder in the long run. He said that getting babies (3 weeks old) to sit still for a surgery is much easier than trying to get a one year old (or a 4 year old, as one doctor advised us) to sit still! Praise the Lord.

Being the "great" mom that I am, I could not stand the thought of holding her while she was being cut. Greg volunteered to hold her and within a half hour of arriving at the office she was all stitched up and the skin was removed. The doctor used a scalpel to cut around the base of it and then used a tweezers and a scissors to cut through the cartilage. The doctor also told us not to do anything with the small abnormality that is on the inside of her ear. He feels that if we start messing with that, her ear will look more "abnormal" and that the small bump on the inside of her ear will look rather normal as her ears get bigger.

Chloe did well. She screamed when she got the shot, but after that she fell asleep and we think she was asleep during the entire procedure. We couldn't see her face because the only part of her head that was exposed was her ear.

We are so thankful today went the way it did. We could not have asked for a better outcome. Now, she will have to heal. The doctor guesses it will take about two months for it to be totally healed, 48 hours until it can get wet and about a week or so for the stitches to dissolve.

These pictures are off of Greg's phone so the quality isn't fantastic, but you can get the idea. After Chloe got numbed up, the base of her ear turned white and the extra flap seemed to grow!

Chloe held so still...UNTIL the needle went into her ear! At that point, she screamed.

Look at her little hand popping out. It breaks my heart, but I know she wasn't feeling anything at this point. I also know that she will be very happy we got this taken care of when she was so young.

Chloe's new ear. It is hard to see, but she has two stitches and a pretty normal looking ear! Yeah! God is so good.

I LOVE these kids

Chloe-Belle (3 weeks)

Jo-Jo (4 years old)

Kennedy (6 years old)

Buddy (2 years old)

Love them.

Can't Get Enough

I just can't get enough of this little boy.

He is so happy.

He is so spoiled (new toy).

He is so naughty (on time-out).

And he is so funny.

I love you, Brooks.

3 weeks old

Happy three week birthday, Chloe-Belle. I can't believe you have already been with us almost a month. I feel like I have known you forever and can't imagine life without my princess.

At three weeks you are:
--Starting to bat at objects
--Smiling (or half smiling) once in a while
--Sleeping only 3 hours at a time during the night
--Enjoying being "up" at 4:00 in the morning, ready to play
--Eating 4 ounces of formula every three hours during the day on a schedule
--Barely ever crying or fussy
--Loving your infant seat set up with Beethoven and Bach playing on your musical toy
--Fitting only newborn clothing and have not yet been able to wear any 0-3 month items without swimming in them
--Around 8 pounds (a little more)

At three weeks you:
--Have very skinny legs, a tiny head and super chubby cheeks
--Have a small case of baby acne on your nose
--Love to suck on your fingers, hands and pacifier
--Have had more doctor appointments than a "regular" baby because of your special ear
--Have already had an ultrasound and did very well
--Have a full head of black hair and no cradle cap yet
--Get a bath every morning from your Daddy
--Sleep in your crib and have since the second day you came home
--Are our very special baby girl and WE LOVE YOU!

Happy Brooks

Brooks is such a happy boy. I am so glad that he feels safe and secure in our home. He is a bundle of energy and sometimes disobeys us, but for the most part Brooks is an amazing kid. His energy wears me down, but also makes me smile. His smile melts my heart and his tenderness is something that I hope he never loses.

Brooks has done a good job adjusting to a sister and has needed just a little bit more attention lately. It is very sweet and understandable. Yesterday, I took just Brooks to his Oma's house to play. It was really nice to have one-on-one time with my Buddy. Chloe had a babysitter and the report is that she slept most of the time. Go figure.

Brooks loves to read and one of his favorite books is still "Marley and Me". He loves to talk about "Baby Louie" and can tell us the story pretty well on his own.

I could just eat this little boy. I love every inch of him and love how his whole body smiles when he is happy. I wouldn't trade his energy for anything.

As always, Brooks had a blast with his Daddy while I went out with the girls last night. They have so much fun together and obviously Brooks adores his Daddy. Couldn't you just kiss those red lips? I could IF he would hold still long enough to let me!

I adore my little boy. He is such a sweetheart.

Two Cute Kids

Here she is...Miss America! We have been working on awake time during the day and today has been great! Yeah! Maybe that means tonight she will sleep longer than 3 hours at a time. We don't expect that yet, but it would be a huge bonus!

Brooks is awesome. He had a babysitter today while we went to Chloe's appointment. He loved her. He is doing great as a big brother and has grown up so much in the last month or so. I asked him what he was doing in the bin he was sitting in and he responded, "hanging out"!

Greg is super daddy as always. NO he did not try to go on a hike with a 42 pound kid in a carrier that is not designed for a 42 pound kid. We did think it would be a cute picture though and we were right!

The weather is finally warm this week and we have enjoyed being outside. We took a trip to the pool on Wednesday and Brooks had a blast with his daddy in the water. Hopefully things stay nice this weekend and we are able to go back to the pool or to the beach. We don't have anything planned, so it will be nice to relax and continue to heal. Keep praying for less pain!

2 Week Check-up

Chloe-Belle had her two week check up today. She did great and we are thankful for a few things.

First off, here are her stats:

Chloe weighs 8 pounds 4 ounces (50%-tile)
Chloe is 20 3/4 inches tall (70%-tile)
and
Chloe's head circumference is 14 1/4 inches (58%-tile)

This is not what we are used to having a "giant" the first time around. Brooks has never been anything but in the 99th or 100th percentile his entire life. It is so different having a peanut! We have noticed that lots of her features seem to come from Greg's side. This is a great thing, since his genes seem to be a little bit more petite than the genes on my side of the family.

We are thankful that Chloe-Belle got a great report! She is very healthy, gaining weight at a great rate (1 pound in 2 weeks) and has strong joints. Chloe-Belle passed her exam with flying colors and the doctor had little to say about her, which is a great thing.

We are also thankful that the doctor seemed very calm about Chloe-Belle's ultrasound of her kidneys next Tuesday. He (our regular doctor is a she, but she was not in today) told us that there is a very "weak" correlation between kidney development and ear flaps and he seemed almost surprised that our regular doctor wanted to do an ultrasound. He was happy to refer us to get one done, but his demeanor made both Greg and me feel at peace about the whole thing. The doctor mentioned that if something were wrong with her kidneys, it would most likely have been caught on the ultrasound that we had done when I was 20 weeks pregnant. Praise the Lord!

We are also thankful to have an appointment with a well known ENT doctor a week from Monday. It turns out he retires the following week, but we were still able to be seen by him before he retires. Although he may not be the one removing the skin on Chloe-Belle's ear, we will both feel at peace knowing that whatever is done to her ear will be at the recommendation of him. The timing could not have been better.

We are so thankful that the appointment went well and so thankful we will have more answers about Chloe-Belle's health in about a week. She sure is precious and we can't remember life without her. It seems so much longer than two weeks and we are enjoying ever second we have with both of our beautiful children.

My Kiddos

Life with two children is wonderful even though I have yet to experience it as a functioning mother. Things with the C-section are not healing as well as I thought they would and I am still in a considerable amount of pain. So, this means that Greg has been on super duty for the last 12 days. I feel guilty not being able to do much, but the pain is so intense that I am pretty much useless unless I am sitting down or laying down. Hopefully before Greg goes back to work next Tuesday I will be feeling much better. We continue to pray.

Here I am with my sweet kiddos! Chloe still doesn't do much other than sleep and eat and Brooks continues to make us laugh every day. He is such a great observer and doesn't forget anything!

A rare photo of mommy and Chloe-Belle with her eyes open!

Brooks has become quite the artist in the last week or so. He loves to make projects for us and bring them to us to show us. He then proclaims, "I am an artist!". It is so cute and he repeats this several times an evening. We have noticed that Brooks enjoys drawing on notebook paper with the color black while pushing very hard on the crayon. It is great artwork as I am sure you can imagine.

Last night we let Brooks take out his glue and go to town. He had a blast having little to no restriction with the glue and actually did pretty well gluing things to his paper. He is so proud of himself when he finishes a project and we are pretty proud of him ourselves.

Chloe-Belle

I can't stand that our little Chloe-Belle is already a week old! I love how small she is, how she smells and her total dependence on us. She is amazing and we are so blessed to have this precious little girl in our lives. We are working on staying awake during the day as opposed to wanting to hang out awake in the middle of the night. She is such an angel though that it isn't upsetting that she likes to be awake during the overnight when everyone else is sleeping.

Here she is having some awake time with her daddy.

Brooks has adjusted well to having a sister. He isn't terribly interested in her, but did want to give her a check-up a couple of days ago. We had to help him be gentle, but he did a good job and reports that she is in good health. He wanted to give her a shot with his pretend needle but we said no to that because he pushes so hard that it even hurts his mommy and daddy.

As you can imagine if you know Greg, he is an amazing daddy to his little girl. He has been such a help while I recover from surgery. He does it all--feeds, burps, cuddles, cleans, mows, launders, vacuums and makes me feel like everything is going to be alright! He is home another week while I finish up recovering (hopefully). Thank the Lord for a great job that gives him two weeks off with us. He is a wonderful husband and daddy.

Apples!

Brooks loves apples. He typically gets one from the refrigerator and eats about a third of it. I think he mostly likes the idea of getting his own apple from the refrigerator all by himself.

Chloe Isabelle.

Brooks loves his sister. He is still working on being gentle with her, but adores her so much. He is very loving to her and stops to give her kisses on his way to play with his toys. He likes to climb up on the couch to see her and asks to hold her. He is already a great big brother and is adjusting well.

We were able to capture a sweet kiss from brother to sister. I will have to show him this picture when they are older and she is bugging him!

Chloe-Belle getting all dolled up to go home from the hospital.

I was so excited to leave the hospital, yet I was kind of bummed out that I wouldn't have all of the awesome care anymore. It was nice being able to rest when needed, have my medications brought to me and have no real responsibilities. I think they should let you stay for a week like they did in the old days.

Chloe-Belle is adjusting well to home life. She sleeps most of the time and is up every 3-4 hours in the night. She is a very easy baby so far and hasn't been a struggle at all.

We do have a doctor appointment on the 14th to have her two week check-up. At this appointment we will get a referral for an ultrasound of her kidneys and a referral for a visit to the ENT. Chloe was born with a skin flap on her ear and she has to have some of it removed by the ENT. They think it is purely cosmetic, but just in case they are checking her kidneys because they develop at the same time as her ear. I think modern medicine is just amazing. I praise the Lord that they think it is just cosmetic, but at the same time continue to pray for healthy kidneys.

We will keep you all posted and are loving being parents of two miracles! Thank you Lord for our beautiful family.

Welcome Chloe Isabelle

The surgery went perfect. This C-Section was a million times easier than the first one. I was rested and knew what was going to happen, but beyond that I had an awesome nursing team that talked me through the whole process. I got a little bit sick (like last time), but it was taken care of with medication within minutes. Dr. J removed Chloe much faster than the doctor who removed Brooks. I think it was less than 5 minutes from when he made the incision that Chloe was lifted out of me. The sounds of her screaming was the best sound in the world. Dr. J wasn't shocked that she had a full head of black hair just like her brother.

Here she is less than 30 seconds after being born. The man in the blue is Dr. J.

Chloe cried very loudly. The nurses back in the nursery commented on how strong her lungs are because she also cried the entire time she was getting her first bath and getting measured. She stopped crying as soon as she was in the room with us and hasn't been much of a cry baby since. She only cries when she is hungry and is very easy to calm down.

Our pediatrician told us that she is a "sucker". She loves to suck on her fingers and a pacifier. I told the pediatrician about Brooks and our struggles to get him off of his pacifier and she didn't seem to worry. She just encouraged us to let Chloe suck on a pacifier if she wants to.

Our first photo with Chloe Isabelle. She seemed so little compared to Brooks. She weighed in at 7 pounds 10 ounces but was 7 pounds 4 ounces when we left the hospital. That is just about two pounds less than Brooks! It makes such a difference. Brooks wasn't able to wear 0-3 month clothing and Chloe needed us to buy her some 0-3 month outfits after she was born because none of her clothes fit her. I put a 0-3 month outfit on her yesterday and she was swimming in it! I must say that it was pretty cute.