4 Years Breastfeeding

Today marks a collective 4 years of breastfeeding between the girls and Leland. Leland nursed a little over 27 months before I slowly weaned him in preparation of the girls' transfer. And now, the girls have been nursing nearly 21 months. Most days the still nurse three times a day - first thing in the morning, when I get home from work, and before bed.

It's been one of the biggest challenges of my life and yet also one of the biggest triumphs. Nursing my babies is both painful (Elizabeth still has a lousy latch and I'm pretty certain I've been having nipple vasospasms - more on this later) and wonderful. It's strengthened and expanded my faith. I'm so thankful that embryo adoption made nursing possible.

5 Year & 20 Month Stats

Yesterday we had well check for all three kiddos. It was Leland's 5 year check-up and the girls 18 month check-up (though they are actually 20 months now). All three got shots and it was traumatically awful! (well, traumatic for me at least)

Here are their stats:

Leland - 43.5 inches & 41 pounds

Charlotte - 31 inches & 23.3 pounds

Elizabeth - 32 inches & 23.8 pounds

The girls have grown 5-6 inches and gained 6-7 pounds in the last 6 months.

And now some silly pictures....

Yummy Breakfast!

Big Smile

Potato Soup Face

Fun at Aldi

Lake Trip

Some fun photos from a recent trip to the lake with college friends. They have a son a year younger than Leland and a daughter just a week older than the girls. It was so much fun watching them play together and getting some relaxing adult time with old friends.

Driving the two and a half hours north to our friends' lake house, we stopped along the way at my college. We had a snack perched on the fountain and stretched our legs on front camps. 

Brenau is a women's college with an enrollment of only about 800. We have tons of fun traditions, including throwing girls into this fountain when they get engaged!

10th Anniversary

It's hard to believe we've been married 10 years. And September will mark 15 years since we started dating. We really can't be that old, can we?

I am so thankful for Robert. We have been blessed to have walked hand and hand  on our many adventures of the past ten years: 

• 10 jobs
• 5 college degrees (between us since we got married) 
• 3 houses in 3 different cities
• 3 children
• 3 cats
• 1 dog
• 18 months of unemployment
• 10 years of infertility
• 2 embryo adoptions
• 1 treated NAIT Pregnancy
• 1 death of a parent 
• 4 churches

Lot's of ups and downs. Many challenges and joys. This is what we cling to: 

Resting in the promise that if we love one another, 

God lives in us and 

His love is made complete in us.

1 John 4:12

First Day of School

My crew started school earlier this month. They are all at our local Montessori School where Leland has been going since he was 18 months old.

Leland is in his third and final year of the Primary Program. And the girls are just starting the Toddler Program. I have been so excited for them to start because I know how much Leland loves school and how quickly he learned and developed after starting the Toddler Program. 

Lizzy, our au pair, gave the girls "Schultüte" - it's a German tradition to give this paper cone filled with school supplies to a child on his or her very first day of school, which in Germany occurs at 6 years old. 

Drop off on the first day was mostly smooth as Robert was able to walk them to the door. The following week brought a few teary drop offs, but after a week the girls were happily walking themselves in, hand-and-hand with one of their teachers.

Leland has been such a proud big brother, excited that his sisters are attending "his" school too. He said to me over the weekend that he wished he could be in their class with them. When I asked why, he said "so I can help them." Sweetest big brother ever! 

End of Summer - Savannah Trip

This has been a great summer! And a very hot summer. We've had so much fun and the pool and on little adventures around town. We were able to end our summer with a short stay in Savannah by tagging along to a work conference with Robert. 

We went down a day early and were able to squeeze in a beach day and a trip to The Crab Shack on Tybee Island. Leland, Charlotte and Elizabeth paniced when be tried to take them into the water, but they had a blast digging in the sand and searching for seashells. 

For the next few day while Robert did "conference stuff," me and the kids played. We found a tumbling gym with a toddler program one day. And spend another day at the Telfair Art Museum. 

Overall a great trip and a fun way to end the summer!

I went to church today...

We attend church every Sunday unless we are out of town or really sick. I would estimate that we miss no more than 6-8 Sundays a year.

But I haven't been to church on Mother's Day in over a decade.

Before Leland, we would traveled to see Robert's great-granny for Mother's Day. And then for the past four years we have spent the weekend in Chattanooga. But we had a bit of a change of plans in regards to our Chattanooga trip this year. And here I am home and headed to church on Mother's Day.

Interesting I found myself quite anxious today, though the day proved rather (nicely) uneventful. I hadn't really meant to avoid church on this day for so long, it just sort of happened. And as it happened I felt strange and anxious being in church today. It's a wonder how all of this infertility stuff just seems to dig in and stick with us.

Thinking of you all today - those with blessings to celebrate, those still waiting, those who mourn the loss of a mother or child(ren). May God hold you in His arms today and grant you peace.

Birds and Bees

When I started trying to figure out how to explain embryo adoption to Leland I realized that I could not really explain it with out also explaining reproduction a bit. I found a great book called "What Makes A Baby" (I wrote a lengthy review that you can read HERE). 

Leland understands that his genetic mother gave us an egg, his genetic father gave us a sperm, and that he grew in my uterus. One day I will help him better understand having been conceived and frozen, how IVF works, the adoption process, etc.

This weekend his teacher sent an email home to all of the class. I think Leland may have been a significant contributor. Here it is:

Hello wonderful parents of my afternoon students,

I wanted to let you know that we attended Ms. Cara's school baby shower yesterday afternoon. The students were excited to attend, and along with the baby shower came questions about, of course, babies.

The students discussed it mostly among themselves, and they came up with pretty accurate information. I thought I would share it with you, so you know what they know!

They started by saying the baby was in her tummy, but a student corrected and said it was in her uterus. Another student said it was put there by an egg and "something," and another student filled in the blank that the "something" was a sperm. Then many of them chimed in about the umbilical cord being where the baby's belly button would be. They asked me how it turned into the belly button, so I told them after the baby was born, the umbilical cord would be cut and clipped, and as it healed it would become the belly button.

That was the extent of the conversation—relatively brief and fact-based. There is no real emotion about this stuff yet at this age, just scientific fact gathering.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Warm regards,

Karen

14 Months

I STARTED THIS POST AND THEN NEVER POSTED...AND THEN THE GIRLS HIT 16 MONTHS LAST WEEK.  SO HERE IT IS NOW. HOPEFULLY PLANNING TO POST UPDATES FOLLOWING THEIR CHECK-UP NEXT WEEK :)

I had a minute so I though I would share some updates on the girls.

Charlotte weighs 17 lbs 5 oz. She is crawling and pulling up to stand (sometimes). She is still struggling with weakness in her core and she tires easily with lots of crawling and physical play. She is wearing size 12 months clothes (with a few pants still too long, but a few tops getting too short). We are not wearing shoes yet, but if we did she would likely be in a size 2. She is chatty and talkative, saying lots of new words almost daily. She loves fruit and veggies - and fish sticks! She naps most days just once after lunch and sleeps through the night almost every night. She has her bottom center teeth and then two teeth on either side of her center ones on top (that just came in). Her top two center ones are just starting to cut through  now.

Elizabeth weighs 17 lbs 7.5 oz. She is crawling, standing, and sometimes even letting go while standing. She is getting closer to walking, but it still may be a bit. She is also is size 12 months and likely about size 2 shoes (though I think her feet are a bit bigger). She is even more talkative than Charlotte, regularly talking in common phrases ("I need milk" - "look at that" - etc.) Earlier this week when I picked her up for the first time since coming home, she snuggled into my neck, hugging me, and said (unprompted) "I love you." I just melted right there. She is committed to her naps taking a daily nap after lunch and often a morning nap as well. At night, she still wakes a lot to nurse. She has four top teeth and her bottom center teeth - and has had all six of these teeth for many month.

Both girls speak a little German as our au pair speaks German with them some. They will say "yes". "no", "please" and "thank you" in German all on their own.

Adoption Day!

Last month we finalized the girls' adoption in Superior Court. We did this with Leland when he was a baby as well. Georgia is unique in that not only does it have a statute (law) regarding embryo adoption, the law actually allows (but does not require) parents to file a petition for adoption and get an order of adoption.

Here we are with the judge:

Interesting to note is that this law allows both families who live in Georgia who adopt embryos to file a petition for adoption and families who adopt embryos whose donors live in Georiga to file a petition for adoption. So...if you live anywhere, but your donors live here, you could actually file for adoption in Georgia. Neat, huh! 

Since the last time we met...

Wow. I've become one of those "never blogs" bloggers. Life is full and busy. Since I last checked in:

Halloween was a blast. Leland was a ninja and the girls were Cabbage Patch Kids.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Robert's family on the farm. The girls got to meet their great-great-grandmother. It was a warm and beautiful day full of lots of play time with cousins.

The first week of December we went on a cruise to Mexico, Belize and Honduras. The highlight of the trip was getting to spend the day with my cousin who serves as a medical missionary in Honduras and getting to meet her new husband who she married in April.

We celebrated the girls first birthday in December. They loved their chocolate cupcakes. Admittedly, though, reaching the year mark did trigger a lot of emotions of our very difficult 21 day NICU stay. I am surprised at times just how much the treated NAIT pregnancy and their NICU time continues to affect me.

Christmas was lovely. I know the girls already had their first Christmas, but last Christmas didn't really feel like Christmas. I referred to Christmas this year as their "first Christmas home".

The first weekend in January we had a first birthday party with friends and family. We had a Winter ONEderland theme.

We've been for a one year check up. Charlotte weighed in at 16 pounds and is 26.6 inches. Elizabeth weighed in at 17 pounds, 1.5 ounces. She too is 26.6 inches, though we think she is actually taller than Charlotte. I call them my "little peanuts" because they are so small. Thankfully, our doctor's view continues to be "small, but healthy."

Charlotte has finally started crawling. She had fallen very behind with her gross motor skills (not really even sitting on her own at 11 months). After a several month wait we finally were able to see a physical therapist in, starting then end of November. Therapy has gone great and two weeks ago Charlotte started crawling!

Sadly this month we laid to rest the girls great-great-grandmother. Granny was a special lady who welcomed me with open arms to her family many years ago. She was 97 years old. I was blessed to have known her and happy that she got to love on the girls at Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.

At the moment, life is just life - with all the commotion, stress, and wonderfulness that comes with three little ones and working full-time. Leland has an ear infection; Elizabeth a stomach virus; and all three have battled pink eye this week. It's an adventure.

And tomorrow, we finalize the girls adoption in court. More on that (hopefully) later...