Surprise!

I'm nearly 5 months old....and I'm as cute as cute can be!

Teach a boy to fish......

Coop is really, really, REALLY into fishing lately.  It kind of came out of nowhere.  He just woke up one day and said I want to go fishing, and we said ok!  So many of his evenings are spent at the lake near our house.  Sometimes Maddie and I tag along.  It's a beautiful lake, we're really lucky to have such wonderful activities right on our doorstep.



And here's Happy Maddie!



Quick one

We've been neglecting the blog lately but I think we have a good excuse.  Two good excuses actually.  In our defense though, Steve and I have both started lengthy posts on here but have had technical difficulties.  Here are some recent pics taken within the last craziness of the past week.

Coop dressed for Aunt Jo's wedding, waiting patiently and watching the cool tv in our hotel room.

And our little Maddie girl, smiling and being the awesome baby that she is.....

A family of four....

Madison is the complete opposite of Cooper, in every possible way.  Except she poops a lot and makes the same cute stretchy face when you pick her up.  She sleeps a lot and is generally pretty content all the time, unless she is hungry.  I knock on wood a lot these days b/c I'm waiting for all of these things to change.  Coop loves his baby sister.  He kisses her and cares for her, until she poops or he loses interest.  Then he says "I'm done with her" or "ew, she pooped, I'm gonna throw up".  Although I'd say we are all a little sleepier these days we've fallen into being a family of four quite nicely.  I hope the luck continues for us.

Welcome to the world Madison Jean

4:50 am on 6/15
8lbs
21 1/4 inches

Happy, healthy and extremely tired :-)!

Funny Faces

A Scene

On Thursday's, Coop spends the day with Pappy and then when Nana gets home from school they hang out until me or Steve get home from work.  Last Thursday this is the scene I came home to.  I walked in, laughed, walked back out, took my shoes off, got my camera, walked back in, snapped the pictures and then realized I should make sure everyone was still breathing since it was an interesting scene.  Then I woke my Mom up and asked if she was sleeping on the job. 

I guess this was more comfortable for him....

Birthday pictures and Maddie update

Here are a couple of pictures of Coop with his birthday cake.  He requested a Dora, Boots and Diego cake and surprisingly that was an extremely difficult request to fill.  I missed the memo that Dora only comes in ginormous doll sizes and Diego is only in teeny tiny figurine sizes!  I muddled it all together and Coop seemed happy with it, so I'm happy with it!

I made it to the 35 week mark, officially the longest I have ever been pregnant.  It hurts.  If Coop hadn't been in he NICU after his early arrival I would be begging and pleading with Madison to come out right now.  One more week and the begging will commence.  In the meantime, we got her name/wall letters in the mail a couple of weeks ago.  A good, old friend from high school, Dacia Stickovich of Picadilly D. Designs, hand paints each of the letters and decorates them beautifully.  I think they look great in Maddie's room, we added the birdhouses since they are scattered throughout her room.  Here's the last wall to be completed! 

Father like son....

Cooper has been practicing really hard at riding his bike (w training wheels).  We have been hitting the bike trail maybe 3 times a week for a few weeks.....on his request.  I do reward him with a stop at Farmhouse Coffee for some ice cream.  :)

Yesterday evening he asked to ride his bike so off we went.  We decided to stop at the playground first (which is right off the bike trail).  The plan was to play for a little bit at the playground....than bike the rest of the way to get some ice cream where mom would pick up Cooper and I would sneak in a late evening/night ride.

Well....Coop was having so much fun at the playground that I couldn't get him to leave.  As the sun was setting, I finally got him to leave but it was getting dark quickly and also getting chilly.  I broke out my night riding light, strapped it to his helmet and also gave him my cycling coat.  Off we went...riding into the dark!  Those that know me, know that I love mountain biking at night....so riding with my son on the trail in the dark with matching cycling jerseys and lights made me smile!  I look forward to blazing some trails with you Cooper in the future!

A Celebratory Weekend

There was lots to celebrate this weekend.  Most importantly, Cooper Jay turned 3!  He partied hard at the Carnegie Science Center most of the afternoon and then fell asleep mid-chew of his goldfish crackers on the way home.  It's tough work being 3.  Sunday was a nice day to recuperate and enjoy Mother's Day.  It was really a great weekend for our last few weeks as a family of 3.  Coop and Daddy made me breakfast in bed and Coop told me I was a good listener.  It doesn't get any better than that!  Here are his 3 year old pictures and a quick shot of the afternoon at the science center.

Happy Easter

It was a busy, busy weekend.  We ate a lot of meals with the whole family.  Coop was endlessly entertained by Aunt Jo and Uncle Brandon and he topped off his exhausting weekend with a comical version of hide and seek with his cousins Alison and Jeff. 

I'm tired......I wish I was doing this.....

That was the result of two of the people in this picture.....

The best he would do for an Easter picture, he's not real great at "posing"  :)

Fortunately, the weatherman was wrong about the weather this weekend and the worst it looked like was this:

Late Night Edition - Mr. Funny

I usually am in bed slightly comatose by this time but if I didn't make this post I would probably forget one of the funniest lines Coop has said to me recently.  He's a multitasker my child, so a little while ago while he was sitting on the potty having a normal conversation with me I was sitting on an exercise ball bouncing very gently; hoping for some hip/tailbone relief.  He was becoming very animated as he does when he gets deep into his conversations.  So I looked at him and I said, hey buddy, you just concentrate on your pooping.  And he looked at me, very sternly with one finger pointing, and said hey Mommy you concentrate on your butt face.  He was totally serious, Steve almost choked on his dinner and I nearly fell off the ball.  The best part is, he was wearing a shirt that said "mr. funny", and that is a true story.

Summer?

Not surprisingly, the weather is pretty unpredictable around here.  Yesterday it was in the low 80's, today in the 70's and tomorrow back down to 50.   Coop went outside to play yesterday at 7am at 9pm he was still trying to convince us that the moon was going away and the sun was coming back out and he could still play.  He konked out for about 5 minutes in the car....but it looked like it was a good 5 minutes!

The one and only.......

I don't do belly pictures.....I don't do "I'm pregnant" pictures.  But here is one, one that I actually do like, a lot. 

My Uterus is None of Your Business

I'm not sure who reads our blog these days so if the following rant offends you, I can't say that I'm sorry but I'll warn you that it's a rant about my uterus and insurance companies and greed!

Cooper was born at 34.5 weeks gestation.  He was considered a late term preemie but he had respiratory distress as most of you know and spent about 10 days in the NICU.  Fortunately, he's grown to be a perfectly healthy little boy with no lingering effects.  When I was pregnant with Cooper I paid $0 in prenatal care with the insurance that I had.  When he was in the NICU, his total bill came to a whopping $50,000.00.  Yes, that says 50k!  We didn't have to pay a dime because our insurance covered all of it.  Yes, we were lucky in many ways.

Fast forward just 3 short years and its as though it's been 20 years since I had a baby in terms of insurance and coverage.  I now have deductibles and coinsurance and much less coverage this time around even though I'm with the same insurance company under the same plan.  To get my prenatal care and give birth I can expect to pay around 2k out of pocket.  That feels harsh, but doable, and it was an anticipated cost when we were planning for baby #2.  We're lucky we can plan for that type of cost! 

All of this was acceptable, things change, times are different.  But with this pregnancy my doctor wanted me to get a progesterone shot beginning at 16 weeks through my 36th week that would significantly decrease the odds of my having premature labor again.  Since  there was no known cause for my premature labor and after one preemie you are at an even higher risk for another preemie I was the perfect candidate for this treatment.  I started my weekly shot at 16 weeks as scheduled.  I've had 11 of these shots to date. Enter KV Pharmaceutical. 

A couple of weeks ago I happened on an article on msnbc.com about a premature labor drug spiking from $10 to $1500 per shot.  This is my shot, that was covered by my insurance company, with no problem.  KV Pharmaceutical won government approval to exclusively sell "Makena", the new name of my progresterone shot.  Originally their suit was backed by the March of Dimes and by OB's because it meant the quality would be more consistent and would be easier to get.  They did not anticipate the greed, which quite frankly, surprises me.  Isn't that what these companies do?  Make a crap load of money off of people who need their drugs?  To me, not so shocking!  Everything was fine for my shots for the last couple of weeks, and then I needed a refill.  Now, pre authorizations aren't working, approvals aren't being made and now at 28 weeks I'm skipping a shot.  If I'm lucky, I'll get approved in time to get a shot next week.  If I'm lucky, I'll get approval period.  And if I'm super lucky, my baby will be full term.  If I don't get any more shots I'm hoping that I've had enough to keep my levels up so I won't have preterm labor. 

Steve and I have talked about the long term vision of our family.  Baby #3 seemed like it was unlikely, but isn't that our decision to make?  If I can't get those shots then would I want to risk another preterm labor?  Why does KV get to call the shots on the state of my uterus? My uterus is none of your business!

Good News

This post is all about Maddie.  For the first time since I hit the 15 week mark I got good, solid good news about my pregnancy.  Maddie had always been peachy, me - not so much.  But luckily today we were able to see that my placenta had finally moved to the proper position!  Yay!  An odd thing to celebrate but it saves us a lot of worrying and wondering and possible bed rest for the time being!  We also got another pleasant surprise at the ultrasound when they were able to do a 3-D image of her and we got to see her face.  The pictures are a little funny, think "floating face in space" but it was neat to see her in a way other than seeing through her!  Here is a sneak peak of her room.  We just need to finish with curtains and her name on the wall.....

Updates and better things....

Pregnancy update:  Things are chugging along, starting into the last trimester finally and I am emotionally and physically DONE with being pregnant.  I don't like being pregnant, my body doesn't like it at all and I'm pretty sure it's bad for my psyche.  I just want to make it to full term and have a healthy little Madison to look at and I know it will be worth it.  But in the meantime, people should warn you that pregnancy a second time around is less fun than the first, especially if the first was no fun.  Someone should also tell you that if your boobs got all stretched out the first time around they will become completely unmanageable and ridiculous the second time around.  I'm tired of food landing down my shirt or on my belly, it is not cute, I look like a slob.  Hormone shots do not make things any easier or happier, they just make you cry more, feel like poo and make your rear end itch and swell up.  Oh and I have track marks along my back end from all the needles, it's awesome.  On the plus side, I'm almost done.  Yep, that's all I got for the plus side right now, I'm almost done.

Here is the better part, it was a warm weekend where we could get a lot done and Coop could play outside half naked and fully naked and pick up worms and name them "Wormy".  According to Coop, Wormy was such a nice worm.  And then he played with Wormy until he broke in half.  Rest in peace Wormy.  Even better, I have pictures of the Wormy fun.  If you don't like worms, don't look at the pictures.

Almost 3

It's hard to believe Coop will be turning 3 in two months.  The time has really flown by, especially the last two years.  I am constantly in awe of what come out of his mouth and how much he absorbs.  These three pictures are within the last week and to me it looks like he is about 10 years old, not 3.  I'll take 3 though, he still likes to snuggle with his Momma.

Cabin Fever

We're done with winter here.  It needs to just be over.  I didn't realize how bad Coop may have had cabin fever until last week when we had two warm days and he got out of the car and looked at Steve and said, "Daddy I want to run".  And run he did.  Up the street, down the street, up the driveway, down the driveway, through the yard.  I felt really bad for Steve's legs, but not bad enough to drag my big ol' belly out there with them.  Here are snapshots of our activities these days:

How to make a space helmet:

How to build a snow fort in the driveway with a plastic garbage can:

Hallway crawl racing, the good, the bad, and the ugly:

Coop trying to take Daddy out of the game.....

Will he recover......

He does recover and manages to try to squeeze Daddy out of the game!!!!

 When competing with Coop, there is only one outcome.....COOP WINS!!!

Change is coming....

I'm currently in my 22nd week and considering Coop came at 34.5 weeks we aren't going to take any chances with not being ready this time.  This past weekend we started working on Maddie's room.  Coop was really helpful with the painting and I think he is excited to have a little sister. 

He has pretty much said from the beginning he was going to have a sister, even before we knew.  He's very sweet to his sister already.  He likes to say hi to her through my belly button and he likes to poke her through my belly button, he thinks that is mostly hilarious even though it kind of hurts Mommy.  I'm looking forward to being home this summer on my maternity leave with him even though I'm sure I'm going to be busy with our little newborn.  It's hard to believe in a couple of months he will be 3.  There isn't a lot of baby left in him but I think I captured a rare moment of it this weekend when he was napping.