Carvin' Punkin'

I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures of when we carved our Halloween pumpkins. It was a lot of fun, even though Riley had a freak-out tantrum and had to go to bed midway through. Just because it's Halloween doesn't mean we get special treatment! It was even more fun because we grew them ourselves- we'll definitely do that again. I guess all the petting and rubbing that Eric and Riley did throughout the summer worked!

Riley's "before" picture (I couldn't figure out how to rotate this- sorry!)

Eric's "before"- how handsome he looks!

my "before"- how... tired I look!

Riley actually liked getting the goop out herself!

Bleh

the "after"- Eric suggested tons of "silly faces", which was Riley's only qualification. She rejected them all, only to pick the most simple one!

again with the rotation... Riley the Pumkin Head

Eric decided to drill holes all over his- I think he felt quite manly with the drill!

my "after"- you can't tell by this picture, but she has eyelashes

Mr. Pumpkin-Head

Iris and Riley's pumpkins

Punkin'

We picked the pumpkins from our garden the other day- quite an impressive haul! Some were still greenish, but as the vines were freezing, we thought it was better to pick them now. We had an impromptu photo shoot with the girls posing with the pumpkins, and I liked the pictures so much, I changed their clothes to do more. Here are a few of my favorites:

Riley loves her sister

Trying to get one looking up at Iris- it sort of worked

Neither girl was very interested in this pose

Look at those cheeks!

After a change of clothes.... I love this one!

This is Riley's fake smile- she mostly refused to smile naturally...

... and got really irritated when we kept trying to make her!

Iris passed out before too long...

... and resisted all efforts to wake her!

Coooool Pix

I'm now the proud (paper) owner of this sweet little sussy, and it should be delivered in five days! So, allowing a day to let me figure out how it works, my posts should get much more interesting in six days! Eric's big ol' SLR had way too many knobs and wingeys, was much too expensive, and I was terrified of it. I'm told that there's little I can do to mess this baby up, and the salesman at Best Buy promised that I could bring it straight to him if I figured out a way, and he'd fix it. So there.

Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner

I love Dirty Dancing. It's a fantastic movie. I'm still not sure why I don't own it. I rented it the other day, and as I sat watching it last night (in the dark, by myself), I noticed my face involuntarily stretching into a huge grin every few minutes or so. It's just so good! I know it's one of the cheesiest movies ever, and one of my guilty pleasures, but I don't care! It's like the movie Clue. So hokey that I can't get anyone to watch it with me, but worth watching alone.

I've had the time of my life.

Kid's Say The Darndest Things

Riley is constantly spouting off these hilarious comments, and I thought I'd share with you some of my favorites.


To me as I dropped her off at day care: "But Mommy, you look like a nice human, and I don't like it when nice humans leave me."

To Eric: "Daddy, why don't you have enough hair to comb?"

To me: "You have red owies all over your face. ALL over it!"

To a female whose identity I shall hide: "You look like Grandpa Craig- you have hair on your face!"

"I had poc-porn at the cervix!" (Translation: "I had popcorn at the circus!")

Last but not least... my personal favorite, to me: "Mommy, if Iris is out of your tummy, why is it still so big?"

Introducing Iris Helena Bartlett

Hey everyone! For once, I have a good excuse to not have posted in a while! If having a kid in the NICU doesn't get you off the hook, I don't know what will. But it no longer applies to us, because Iris is home now! I doubt I have to try to express how happy and relieved we are. She's doing great: gaining weight nicely, sleeping well, hardly fussing, and most importantly, having NO breathing problems! Hurrah!

A quick summary of her time in the hospital: she had the pneumonia at birth, which took 10 days of antibiotics to get rid of. She had underdeveloped lungs , which took a few days on a C-PAP, about a week on a ventilator, another two days on the C-PAP, and then a day on minimal oxygen to get up to scratch. And, due to all her energy going into breathing, she wasn't digesting her food well, and then not gaining weight once she was. So the last week of her stay, we concentrated on that. Two Sundays ago, I checked back into the hospital, and had her "room in" with me, so I could be there 24/7 to give her all her feedings. They had taken out her feeding tube, and we were trying to push her into eating more using hunger as our tool. Once again, she showed her independence and unwillingness to be pushed into anything, and went and LOST weight! So after not leaving that cursed room for three days straight, we admitted defeat, and the tube went back in for a few feedings, to let her rest up for the next round. So I went home... I think it was Wednesday night... and then came to the hospital every three hours during the next two days to feed her- the nurses gave her a bottle at night. For some reason (probably since we weren't pushing her!) this seemed to do the trick for little Iris, and she finally gained weight for 48 hours of breast or bottle feeds! (That was the requirement before she could leave.) So hallelujah! We got her home Saturday morning, and have been adjusting ever since.

Luckily, Riley is being a real sweetheart about the whole thing. Actually, when Eric and I came home from the hospital after the birth, sans baby, she was a real terror, and we quaked to think of the coming years. But now that she had some time to adjust, she's being terrific. We have to watch her, obviously, to make she she doesn't suffocate Iris while piling blankets on her to "keep her warm", or shove binkies down her throat... she likes to give Iris each and every one of her own, as well as the binkies we have for Iris. It's pretty funny.

So thanks to everyone who prayed for us... I promise we felt those prayers! It was only after Iris made the turn that the hospital staff let on exactly how sick she really was. Ignorance is bliss! We felt the blessings of the prayers and thought that people put in on our behalf, and we really appreciate it. We love you all!

So What Did You Do This Week? I Had A Baby!

As some of you may have heard already, we had our beautiful baby girl this week! Big surprise! I woke up Sunday morning with a "stomach ache" that Tylenol wouldn't cure, and was tracking contractions by noon and into the hospital by one. Iris Helena joined us at 1:02 AM- suffice it to say, this labor was quite a bit different from my 5 hour Riley labor! We got to hold her once before she was taken away to the nursury, then the Special Care Nursery, and then to the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). She's early, obviously, so her lungs are a bit under developed, and she also has a stubborn case of pnemonia. We haven't been able to hold her since that first time, which is pretty hard to take, and it's so difficult to see her covered in wires.

She was born 19 inches long, 5 pounds and 13 ounces, and full of sass! The NICU nurses tell us that she has no difficulty making her wishes known, even under all the sedation! We named her Iris, thinking that such a sweet and gentle name would rub off- but it looks like we have another Riley on our already full hands! We're so excited for her to get better so we can take her home. Riley doesn't understand why she can't see her, and it's causing her some stress, I think. Iris's antibiotics will take 7 to 10 days to run their course, and then we need to concentrate on getting her lungs up to scratch, and then we'll be able to bring her home. So, sometime between 2 weeks to a month. I'm optimistically thinking it will be 2 weeks to the day.

Thank you so much to all the people who helped and supported us while I was in the hospital, and who are continuing the help now that I'm out. (By the way, I feel fantastic!) We appreciate it more than we can express. It was so nice not to have to worry about Riley on top of everything else! Thank you!