Our One Year Appointment

So I am about a week late in posting this. What can I say? Birthdays take it out of this Mommy! Here are Ethan and Ella's stats from their one year appointment last week

Ethan

Height 29" 21%
Weight 18 lb 9 oz 3%
Head Circ 44.6 cm 8%

Ella

Height 28".25 20%
Weight 18 lb 10 oz 12%
Head Circ 45.1 cm 51% (You go girl!)

So as you can see, we have 2 little tykes for sure!!! They are in a slightly higher percentile for the Preemie curve but not much. They were so good at the appointment. They got 4 shots and their iron levels taken. Both of them still have pretty low iron, so they have to stay on vitamin drops. Overall, they got an A + and the doctor is pleased with their development. They are slightly delayed on their milestones, but that should all even out over the next year. (I can tell you that I am in no hurry for them to start walking!)

Happy First Birthday!!!

Today is Ethan and Ella’s first birthday. Wow what a year it has been! Eric is taking most of the day off so we went to the Famous Loveless Café for breakfast to celebrate. My cousins Patricia, Sarah, and Collin are coming for lunch. We are excited to see them and for them to meet the babies. Can I still call them that? I think I can : )


Here are a couple of Then and Now pics of the babies…………


Ethan Then: 4 lb 4oz. 17” long






Ethan Now: 18 lb 9 oz. 29" long











Ella Then: 4 lb 17” long







Ella Now: 18 lb 10 oz. 28" long














Whew .....birthdays take it out of you. Just 364 days until we do this all over again : )

October 16, 2006

October 16, 2006 - This is the day that I thought I would finally get to meet my precious babies. I thought I had been doing pretty good up until the day before. The whole time I was in the hospital I was told I was having contractions 4, 6, or 8 minutes apart. Never felt them. I always thought "How weird! That isn't the way labor is on TV!" Well on Sunday, the 15th, I finally felt my first contraction that afternoon and it never stopped until I finally had them. That night lasted forever. I was in so much pain that I didn't sleep. My stomach just felt like someone was squeezing and squeezing and my back was in agony.

On the morning of the 16th I told Eric to call my parents and get to to come to Nashville. This was finally the day! I was so disappointed when Dr Evil came in and told me that they would just up my mag yet again. My only consolation was that he would give me something to help me sleep......I thought. Instead of it making me sleep, it just made me jittery and sick. Poor Eric stayed with me instead of going to work because he was so worried about me. He had to practically carry me to the restroom when I felt sick (which was often and I am not gonna lie - I was not small by any stretch of the imagination then!) So that was a very long 24 hours.

Finally the next morning came. When they were monitoring the babies heartbeats, as they did every morning, they noticed they were unresponsive. Apparently the mag was having the same effect on them as it was me. Then my OB came and said I was dialating and "It's time to have the babies, Stephanie!" Never have words been so sweet. Eric got nervous, teared up, and prayed with me. All I could think was "Thank you God!!!!! The time is finally here!!!!!" That was at 9:45 am and they were finally with us at 11:07 (Ethan Brent) and 11:08 (Ella Bailey). That is just about all I remember about the day my babies were born. I was in and out the rest of the day. That was actually a blessing since I couldn't go to see them until the next day. If I had been with it, then I would have been a basket case not being about to see them. Eric went to the NICU to spend time with them and took lots of pictures to bring back to me.

32 weeks and 5 days of pregnancy, 79 days of Bed Rest, 69 days in the Hospital, countless pills, shots, IVs, just a few tears shed, hundreds of thousands in medical bills - all for 2 wonderful gift from God. Absolutely priceless and I would do it again and again in a heartbeat : )

The Big 1st Birthday Party!

On Sunday, we had Ethan and Ella's first birthday party at Mimi and Papa's. We had a really good time. We visited with family and friends, opened presents, and ate cake. By the end of the day, Mommy and Daddy were beat. After cake, the kids were crawling around the house at warp speed! Luckily, they crashed only an hour later than usual. Unfortunately, I did not get the memo that said that babies quit taking their naps after their first birthday party! We had an entire day of nap strike today. I am hoping that by tomorrow the icing will have worked its way through their system!

Here are a few videos Eric took at the party. If you get motion sickness, you may want to take something. I think I am enrolling him in a course for Christmas........ : )

Singing Happy Birthday to Ethan and Ella






Ethan eating cake







Ella eating ALL the icing






So as I sign off, I also have a couple of tips for my friends who have yet to celebrate the big 1 with their kids.
1. Strip the kids down and be ready to run to the bathtub after the cake.
2. Your outfit......make sure you coordinate your colors with the icing. For example - me...Blue sweater and black cords with WHITE icing = BAD. Brown shirt with chocolate icing = GOOD.
3. If possible, coordinate the icing with your hair too or dye it. Otherwise you will hear "Steph you have icing in your hair" like 20 times. And for some reason, Mommies having icing in their hair is not as cute as the babies. Go figure.

Pumpkin Patch and Bringing the Zoo to the zoo!

We had a very busy weekend. Aunt Amy (Tx), Emily and Meg came to see us!!!! The girls had a long weekend for Columbus Day, so they made the long drive to Tennesee. We were so excited to see them. The last time we were all together was for the 4th of July.

On Saturday we got up and went to Gentry Farms in Franklin. They have a large pumpkin patch, corn maze and lots of other things for kids to do. It was great even though it was so HOT!!! It didn't seem right to be at a pumpkin patch in your short sleeves and sweating but we perservered. Emily picked out a pumpkin for Ethan and Meg got one for Ella. Amy, Emily, Meg and I went through the corn maze and burned few calories. It was really fun. I look forward to going next year when our kids can enjoy it a little bit more. Hopefully it will be a little more like Fall too!

On Sunday we had an early birthday party for the family. Ethan got the Little People Garage and Ella got the Little People Doll House. So far (much to Daddy's dismay) the Doll House is the hit with both of them : ) We also had a trial run of the cake and it went pretty well. More went in the belly than on the floor, so we call that a success.

Our cousins from the Greer side had fall break all last week and this week too. To celebrate, Aunt Amy (TN), Houston, Elizabeth, Madeline, and my crew all packed up and went to the zoo. We really had a good time and are going to get a family pass so we can go more often. Ethan and Ella just really enjoyed the stroller ride. I don't think they cared a thing about the monkeys or elephants like their cousins did!

Not much else has changed with them. They are both working on yet another tooth. This is Ethan's 7th and Ella's 5th. They are keeping me on my toes crawling around and getting into anything and everything that is a no-no. Ethan would like to think that he can stand on his own with no help, but he isn't quite there yet. Ella is becoming more and more vocal - - - particularly at 6 am! She did the sweetest thing though earlier today. I was in a generally crabby mood because I had gone to Wal-Mart (natural side effect of shopping there) and my battery died in my minivan. She climbed up in my lap and gave me kiss after kiss after kiss for a good 2 minutes. It was great - I didn't even have to beg like I normally do! Kids are the greatest : )

HEY!!!! When did I get toddlers?????

Well it has happened. They have gone and grown up on me. It is amazing how every week they learn something new and exciting. They are both crawling around at top speed. It is amazing how quick they can go! I really have to be on my toes when they are playing.

Ethan is working on 2 more teeth. These are his incisors which I hear are some of the toughest teeth for them to cut. He hasn't been too fussy so we are pretty lucky. He has started a new habit that I am not too fond of.......biting. Or I like to think of it as "love nibbles." So far he saves these little "Love Nibbles" exclusively for Mommy. That either means he loves me best (my vote) or that I am just too slow to escape him. He really doesn't do it in a mean spirited way. He does it when he is really happy and excited. It is almost like he is saying "Oh my gosh!!!! I am so excited I just have to...chomp!" Maybe it can be attributed to me always nibbling on their toes? I can't help it - they are so so cute! Well I have little Ethan bite marks on both sholders and biceps. We are really working on the word NO.

Ella also has started something new. I prefer her new act. She has started giving kisses. Now she may have watched Majors give kisses a few too many times because her kisses resemble a dog's kiss a little more than people's. Wet or not, it is absolutely the sweetest thing ever. I will gladly get every single bug she has just so I can get a kissy from my sissy : )

Eric and I are doing well. Staying busy as always. I broke down last week and got my "Mommy Do." I was sick of spending forever drying all my hair, just to put it back in a ponytail. And it would only look marginally better than the ponytail before the shower! So I chopped it. I also started a big project last week. It dawned on me that my babies are turning 1 in a couple of weeks and I have not printed off any pictures since they were in the NICU. So I spent 2 days going through all our digital pictures organizing, deleting, fixing red eyes, etc. 700 pictures ordered from Snapfish and I am on my way! Next week I will work on world hunger....


We spent the weekend with Eric's parents (Nana and Papa) in Paris, TN. We had such a great time. Nana spoiled all the kids (Eric and Me too!) with her wonderful cooking. I was afraid they would reject Mama's food when they got home! I was so impressed that they slept so well while we were there. Must have been those full bellies : )

On Saturday morning we went to go get their 1 year (Oh my Gosh!!) and family pictures taken at a wonder photographer there. The proofs are on the following site if you want to take a look: http://www.pbase.com/pbym/greer_092907. I was so pleased with how well the babies did. A couple of funny stories from the session.....it is amazing that she got the one of them on their hands and knees because it was Ethan's MISSION to get Michelle's camera! As soon as we set him down, he was cutting a trail to get to her (please see the first paragraph). But she was great. She snapped it at just the right time. The last ones of the cake were so fun to watch. At first they just looked at us like " What are we supposed to do?" Then Eric mashed their hands in it and they caught on. As you can tell, Ethan put his foot in his cake. After that, he just held it up in the air the rest of the time. Ella looked over at him and started doing it too with the same foot. As if to say "Oh!! That is what we are supposed to be doing!!" It was great fun. It is going to be impossible to pick because I think they are all great.