New Beginnings

I have decided to end this blog and start the Van Vorhis Family Blog at vanvorhisfamily.blogspot.com. Please join us there!

-jenn

March 22, 2009....It's a hard-knock life...

Sorry it's been awhile (I know I made the same apology in the last blog)...

Life's been a little rough for us in the past few months. January ended with Greg's hours at the Sentinel being slashed.

February brought illness to our house in the form of RSV for Kaleb, which landed him in the hospital for 24 hours with a diagnosis of RSV, bronchitis, dehydration and a double ear infection. Our poor little guy was poked and prodded. It took them 5 tries to get the IV started. By the time they got the IV in, Kaleb was just whimpering when they would stick him. In addition to the IV, they had all sorts of monitors.

Four days after his hospital stay, Greg was laid off from the Sentinel. Words cannot describe the terror and hopelessness that I felt that day. What could possibly be next?

At Kaleb's 4-month appointment, we found out that they're concerned about Kaleb's fontenel (soft spot) closing too quickly, so we have to go back for monthly appointments so that they can monitor these. The good news is, his head grew another 1/2 cm this past month, but they want to continue monitoring it. Should it close too soon, he will require surgery to create room for his brain to continue growing. But hopefully, it's not as big of a worry as they think it might be, and they just can't feel it.

Work is finally picking up for me. After a few setbacks with clients who have passed away or gone into nursing homes, it looks like we're finally catching up and I'll start getting bonuses again. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, since we REALLY need the income now.

Prior to Greg's lay-off, we had decided to start getting our bills and spending under control. We recently signed up for Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and are working towards getting things under control. Since this blog has become more of a family blog than a baby blog at this point, i think I might start a new one to utilize to keep everyone updated, even if it's just with pictures!

BUT, since it's 10:30 at night, that's something I'll do it another night.

Kaleb is doing really well, despite the medical issues. He's now 5 1/2 months old, and he's getting so big, so fast. He can sit up and stay sitting up now... for the most part. He tries so hard to sit up on his own, too. He can roll over and get himself comfortable when he's sleeping, and that includes sleeping on his tummy. I can't get him to sleep on his back now. He now sleeps in his crib in his own room....until he decides that it's time for a meal-- it varies between 2:30-5:30 am now. With his wakeup call, he gets scooped up by whichever one of us (usually me) stumbles into his room and brought back to our bed to eat and sleep out the rest of the night. That's how Mommy is able to make it through the day. I'll tell you what, though-- I'm exhausted by about 9pm every night. It takes everything I have to stay up later.

Kaleb also "talks" to us now, often with a series of squeals and shouts to get our attention. He enjoys playing "PEEK" and is ticklish! He has the best laugh I've ever heard! Very boyish, though, definately not a girly giggle!

He's becoming attached to favorite toys. He loves his "puppy" that his cousins gave him on his birthday and a penguin named "Star" that Evan gave him. He's also very partial to a ladybug that rides on his carseat. He and his bug have long conversations in the car. It's quite funny.

Kaleb is also starting to respond to music and other children. We went to cousin Sami's concert the other night, and the kids were all dressed up as bugs. You should have seen Kaleb BOUNCE up and down when they walked by and then when they were singing. It was priceless!

He's definately started recognizing people, too. He LOVES his Papa's! They're the ones that he sticks his tongue out at every time he sees them, and knows that they're going to play with him. Papa B likes to "scare" him and Kaleb will squeal in delight. Papa V got him to do the squealing... Thanks, Papa. He LOVES spending time with his Gramma's, too. Once he's with one of them, it's fairly easy to sneak away. He's got them wrapped around his little finger!

We're still waiting for the crawling thing. I think that's partially our fault that he's not already doing it. We just don't do enough tummy time with the kid. He's so happy in his exersaucer, and he gets madder than a hornet when he's left on the floor.

We started him on solids this week. What a mess that is proving to be! LOL! He REALLY enjoys his cereal, but boy, is it messy!

Magic has amazed us. She LOVES Kaleb, and will let him pull and prod her without protest. When she's had enough, she simply walks away. Kaleb's ended up with a few mouthfuls of fur from our letting him "pet" her. Whoops.

Evan is doing fantastic, as always. He's getting so big. And he's so stinking smart and athletic.

He can out-manuver Greg now in checkers. He really has quite a strategy when he's in the mood to do so. He's also moved on to "big-kid" games, such as Clue Jr, Yahtzee and Monopoly. He's so close to reading, too. I have to admit, though, we haven't been very good at reading a book to him every night we have him. The days seem to get away from us! We need to work harder at building that time in for him, and for Kaleb, too.

He's such a good big brother. I'm so proud of him. He really tries hard to set a good example, and also is such an affectionate brother. He has to make sure he gives Kaleb kisses before he goes back with his mother.

He almost made me cry last weekend when we had him. He asked me if he could call me "mom", too.. When we got home, he and I sat down and discussed that together. He understands that he has his mommy, and by calling someone else her name, that might hurt her feelings. He knows that I will always be his "my jenn", as he has called me to his classmates when explaining who I was. It's funny... this would have been my dream a year or two ago, but becoming a mom myself changes that... I though about how I would feel if Kaleb called someone else "mom".. It's such a sacred name, and I don't think I could have truely understood that until I had Kaleb. What an honor though, for a 5 year old to ask me that...

Ev continues to do well with Karate, too. He got his stripes on his yellow belt. Greg and I are so impressed and proud of how he's progressed with Karate. We weren't sure that it was such a good idea when he started it, with his history of fighting and tantrums at school. But to his credit, he hasn't "karate chopped" anyone yet. And his teacher is VERY strict about hitting and only using Karate as a defense. We've also been very strict about it. He knows that if he EVER uses karate as a means to hurt someone, that his karate days will be over.

He's doing pretty good at school. He has more green and yellow days than he does blue and red, so that's good. We try really hard to use positive re-enforcement with him. I think Greg has found that I'm a little stricter than he is when Evan has had bad days-- the other day we just didn't have time to make dinner, so we went to McD's, Ev's favorite restaurant. He wanted a chicken nugget happy meal... I voted that he gets hamburger, apple juice and fries, but I got veto'd. He got chicken nuggets and fries with chocolate milk. But I was sure to point out that the toy was spiderman (one of his favorite cartoons) and that it was too bad that he had a rough day, or he could have had a happy meal.. bwahahah. I'm a mean step-mom.

He's a really good kid. I enjoy spending time with him and doing things. But, he's definately a boy. LOL. We took him to the art museum (free activity) and he really wasn't impressed-- except for the dead-guy stuff (mummies). The rest of it, he was bored to death with. Although he was pretty impressed with the glass blowing exhibit in the glass arts building.

Anyway. That's about all I have. I'm running out of energy, and it's 11pm. SO, I'll post this, plan on getting some pictures up tomorrow (maybe with Greg's help) and go from there!

love you all!
jenn

Kaleb is 3 months old!!

SO, I know it has been a while since I've updated the blog... sorry about that. I'll try to do better, really.

Life with an infant is SO busy, but I swear, it feels like I never, ever get anything done! I'm exhausted all the time, I don't feel like I get enough sleep, and yet I go to bed between 9-10 and don't wake up until Greg rolls out of bed at 6:30.

Christmas was nice. Kaleb and Evan both recieved a TON of really nice stuff. Greg and I recieved som very nice gifts from our folks, as well. I am especially happy with my new leather jacket. Greg was especially thrilled that he recieved enough gift cards to get his guitar hero band game (HUGE ROLL OF THE EYES BY ME).

Its funny-- I couldn't think of ANYTHING that I wanted for Christmas this year. I guess priorities change when you have a little one. Of course, I thought of something after all was said and done, so that was a bit of a bummer.

Kaleb is growing so fast! He's now into his 3-6mo wardrobe. Crazy! I weighed him earlier in the week, and he's now up to almost 15 lbs! I couldn't believe it when I got on the scale with him. It's no wonder his 0-3's didn't fit him anymore! It's good, knowing that he's getting all his nutrition from me, and is steadily gaining weight. For those of you that are curious, nursing is going much better, too- we're doing that almost exclusively. He hasn't had formula but once in about 2 months! Yeah me! That was a long, hard road, but we survived!

Evan continues to do well. We had our first major "I hate you" experience with him. He refused to eat his mac'n'cheese one night.. Said he didn't like mac'n'cheese because people call it "mac" and he doesn't like that. He also doesn't like how the cheese is all globbed together. NEvermind that he's eaten my mac'n'cheese many times before and always liked it. He ended up in bed early, and the next day, got it for lunch. He refused it then, too... But about 2 hours later decided to eat it. And guess what. He liked it. Was all this worth it on his end? "No". No kidding. LOL. Gotta love 5 year olds. But parental will-power won out.

OH, what else... Not a whole lot.

I'll try to post pictures tonight.

-jenn

November 28- Pictures and updates!

Hi Everyone! Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Life is just so different with a baby! Not a whole lot of time to sit and type. When Kaleb is sleeping, I'm either sleeping, too, or I'm trying to get SOMETHING done.

But anyway...

We're doing really well. Kaleb gave us a bit of a scare a few weeks ago. He just wasn't feeling good- we thought it was a cold, as Greg and I were coming down with one, too. He was coughing at feedings, very fussy and just not acting like himself. Finally, Saturday night, I decided to take him to urgent care, and from urgent care, they sent us directly to the emergency room. He was breathing way too fast-- 80 breaths per minute. Normal is 40 for an infant. Well, the ER sucked. They hooked him up to an IV, which was INCREDIBLY TRAUMATIC for both Kaleb and myself. I think I cried almost as hard as he did. He also had his first real tears. I still chock up just thinking about how upset he was 3 weeks later. They did a chest x-ray and a couple of other tests and generally ignored everything we told them and decided to call it diahrea, since he wasn't breathing fast like he was at urgent care. I was NOT happy. We took him into Dr. Stephanie on Monday. She noted that he was still breathing 80bpm and heard a heart murmur, (although she didn't tell me this part until 2 days later) and decided to send us up immediately for an ultrasound on his heart at a pediatric cardiologist at St. V's. I was in panic mode at this point. She decided we were going to rule out the scary stuff and then move on to the more mundane.

The echo on his heart turned out to be okay-- he has a few minor issues that are typical in infants, and they will monitor at his regular checkups, but should clear up on their own in a few months. In the meantime, we looked up information on reflux, including a list of the symptoms in infants. He has all 16 of the symptoms. The doc put him on Zantac and rice ceral in his bottles (when he gets them) and things have been much better ever since!

Kaleb was baptised last Sunday. It was wonderful. He was SO good the whole time. Pastor Dale baptized him and he didn't even flinch! He was so calm and relaxed and just a good little boy. And he's got wonderful Godparents to watch over him and to help Greg and I to teach him about God & Christ's love for him. Afterwards, we had a luncheon with family and friends. I made a ham. Our Mom's and sisters helped with the prep and clean-up and did SUCH a good job. There is NO WAY I could have pulled it off on my own.

Thanksgiving was good, too-- Although I didn't really feel like it was Thanksgiving. Is that weird? I didn't go to bed feeling like I was stuffed to the gills, (which maybe that's good) and I just dont' feel like I got enough turkey. I told Greg that I think I'll probably go over and buy a turkey breast to roast later this week. I'd love some turkey sandwiches. I think a lot of it was that Lindsey Annie was there this year. I really miss her.

We're planning to put up the tree this weekend. Woo HOo. I'm ready for Christmas, now. Kaleb had his first picture with Santa over at Klotz' last weekend. The Santa there was okay-- he's makeup was a little blotchy. I think we'll have to take him to see another Santa. We usually go up to Toledo to the Children's Wonderland. I wonder if we'll do that again this year. We'll see! We also did the Holiday parade with my dad, Sami, Cole and Evan last weekend. THey collected a TON of candy, which all ended up in my office. Evan, Greg, Kaleb and I went with Rick & Myra to see the Christmas Tree lighting at the BG LIbrary. That was fun, too. Evan hung ornaments on the tree and then we all walked down to Grounds for Thought for coffee and cocoa. Brrr! It was cold!

Anway. There's tons of pictures, since we've been lacking in that department. Sorry about that.

Love y'all,

Jenn

Week of November 1st. Back to work..

Hey everyone! I thought I'd write a short message to update you on our lives!

Things are going well. Kaleb continues to grow so fast!! It's shocking how quickly he's growing. I'm having a hard time with it already! He's no longer a curled up little ball in my arms, though he continues to be a little snugglebug. He would much prefer to be held rather than to lay down on his own. And I can't help but snuggle with him.

I'm also doing really well. In fact, I'm doing so well that I've decided to go back to work this week. I'll be starting back on Wednesday. We've found a fantastic babysitter named Cindy Craze, who lives here in BG. We're really excited about her- she has fantastic references and we think Kaleb will be happy there. I'm both excited and dreading going back to work at the same time. I'm climbing the walls at home and I'm just ready to be back to work. At the same time, I hate the idea of leaving my baby with someone that I really don't know that well and allowing her possibily witness Kaleb's milestones before I do. =-( That's really hard for me. BUT, I was never meant to be a stay-at-home-mom. I miss my clients and caregivers. I miss my co-workers and I'm always dying to know what's going on with them. I've talked to my scheduler at least once a week since I've been gone, getting updates!

Kaleb continues to be a good baby, and I think we're catching onto his routine, although he's up a couple of times a night still. Greg's going to be in for a reality check when he has to take over one of Kaleb's nighttime wakeup calls- I've been doing all of them since Greg went back to work with the exception of weekends. There's no way I'll be able to do all of the nighttime feedings and be functional for work the next day- especially since I drive a lot. SO, we'll have to split them. I'm going to have to get a cattle prod to get Greg out of bed, though.

Love you all!
jenn

Kaleb's 3wk pictures!