The Suters are hanging in there as we cross the one month mark this weekend with Cole. He's doing super well and has had great reports at all three newborn checkups. He currently weighs 10 lbs 8 oz and is 22 inches long. Just in the last few days he's started smiling at us. Can't tell you how much seeing him smile makes us want to do cartwheels to see more of them. His first real smile (unrelated to food or gas) was for his sister -- which I just love! So everything is going well. He's a healthy boy -- we just wish he would sleep more at night and less during the day. We can't keep him awake for anything in the middle of the day -- he is checked out.
Cole Joseph Suter was born two weeks ago Wednesday July 1st at 6:53 pm weighing 7 lbs 12 oz and measuring 20 1/2 inches long. These two weeks have flown by so quickly -- he's such a great baby and has been a champ at eating. We took CJ to his first doctor's appointment 5 days after he was born and he had already regained the weight he lost since birth.
So we try to write down or keep up with the things Natalie says as her vocabulary develops. Our list started out with "pips" for chips and "pis" for "kiss". As she goes she is learning how to say things correctly, but now we get full sentences, sometimes they make sense to us and other times only a few words.
The biggest thing for Natalie now is making deals with us..."just one more time,"..."this is the last time." Picture her little face with her index held up in front of her..."just one more time."
All her stuffed animals and dolls are now named after everyone she knows. Friends from school, teachers, friends from church. In fact, "kitty" from the last entry is now named "Phoebe" as of today. Named after our friends' dog, I'm sure. Two identical Strawberrry Shortcake dolls are named after our neighbors Martin and his wife Sarah. We're not gender specific at this point. But we're getting there.
More Natalieisms...."p-tuz" (because), "listen to me", "give me a huv", "don't worry", and "I'm a princess" (whenever she has the occasion to wear a dress).
I also confess that I hear a bit of a southern accent from Miss Natalie Joy and I realize that I'm the only one in her life that she could be getting it from. Hmm. Sounds cuter on her, for sure.
She is full of compliments, if she knows something to say, she'll let you hear it. At bedtime, after saying "goodnight", you can hear the full rendition of "The Hills are Alive..." from the Sound of Music sung at the top of her lungs. I'm sure her stuffed animals and baby doll friends appreciate the moonlit performance that's just for them.
On the subject of baby brother, we've been reading stories about new babies and talking about his birthday coming up. There's a space made in daddy's office just for him with the bed set up and changing table. There's even a song we've made up about baby brother coming to play with and love on Natalie. She is pretty protective of the bundle in mommy's big belly. Hopefully she'll be as excited when he's actually here.
When Natalie was born she spent 8 days in the NICU. The first 12 hours of her life she wore an oxygen hood that resembled an astronaut's mask. That was the first time I saw her after they wisked her away. She was sleeping and breathing and the condensation from the H2O had dripped onto her hair and face making her even that much more pitiful and sweet looking.
She improved and progressed quickly and as we visited and held her we became even more grateful for God's healing and protection on her little life as so many other babies in the same unit fought for their's.
An angel, some sweet stranger, placed a stuffed kitty cat in Natalie's crib early on. That kitty has been somewhat of a permant attachement to our little girl. Some babies rely on a pacifier, Natalie had her entourage: kitty, blanket and baby. All three had to go everywhere for a little while. Note: first words after "dada" and "mama" were "baby" and "kitty". We'll have to highlight baby as some point, who finally has a name after a year and a half: "baby Kyle". ?
Looking at Natalie's baby photos, as we look forward to the arrival of her little brother, I realized that "kitty" has really been loved on and doesn't look quite the same as he did those first days as Natalie's companion in the NICU.
Growing up, I loved the story of the Velveteen rabbit who finds encouragement from the skin horse who had also been well loved. Perhaps this "kitty" will have the same sweet future -- dearly loved and precious to our "twinkle, twinkle little star" singing girl.
Baby brother, we look forward to your birthday and all the adventures you have in front of you as well. Keep getting fat and happy and we'll see you in a few weeks!
By the way, we'll most likely update our Facebook status to communicate baby's progress as he arrives. But more to come here as well.
Here we go, ready or not! I had another appointment with my doctor today. All is well and we're 1 cm dialated, so things are starting to happen.
Summer is in full swing here in New Orleans. We've had several snowballs and a few dips in the pool so far. The Campus Crusade team gave us some passes to the zoo and aquarium so that will be on our list.
We had a visit from my folks over Memorial Day weekend which was really fun. Natalie especially enjoyed all the attention from 'G'mama, Papa and Aunt Amanda.
Adam visited CA for a few weeks to hang out and catch up with friends and family before the baby comes. He brought some presents home for NJ. One of which was a "tinkerbell" outfit from Ms. Michelle. When Natalie put it on, she said, "I'm a princess". Reminded me of our friend Sally's little girl who wore a similar costume daily for a little while.
All in all, things are going well. Journey is giving us a baby shower this weekend and I have a feeling they are planning to spoil us rotten. Such a great group of friends!
So, I started a new blog on blogspot. I have been frustrated for quite some time with the functionality of this blog, so I've done a bit of research and decided blogspot is a better fit for me. I'm not deleting this blog, but this will be my last post on it. I have put a link to the new blog under my links to the left.
To entice you over to the new blog, I started it with the main purpose of chronicling my 33rd year of life. Yesterday was my birthday and I've decided to add some excitement to a rather mundane birthday by jumping in to Project 365 (where you take a picture for each day for an entire year). But instead of doing it from January to January, I'm doing it from birthday to birthday.
Come on over...the grass really is greener over there! :)
Five more weeks and our family of three will be changed forever! I've sort of freaked out lately that all of a sudden we're here on the brink of knowing another little Suter. It seems like I notice every little thing Natalie does lately and I can't help but think back about where we were and what we were feeling before we met her.
Natalie is excited about her baby brother. She has fallen more and more in love with her own babies in recent months, dressing them, bathing them, feeding them which always results in a big mess but she loves playing babies.
My parents and sister were in town this weekend and the spoiling that took place was unparalled and understandable. She often says out loud, "I'm a princess" and she is for sure -- at least right now. I worry about her feeling jealous, but at the same time, I can see her going crazy over having her very own real baby at her house. She is protective of her baby brother already, especially when my sweet neighbor rubs on my belly too often. :) "Don't touch baby brother!" she scolds. So bossy.
At almost 2 and a half she loves school and all her friends. Natalie has named all of her babies at home by her school or church friends' names. Note: most of her friends at church are in their 20's +. There have been at least a hundred funny things she's said lately that I want to share, I'll just have to keep a list and save them for next time. When my family arrived late Friday evening, she was so excited and wound up that she immediately provided snacks and babies to my mom, dad, sister and me. Miss Hospitality. The snacks of course came from her fake food in her room, but everyone had something. "Okay, guys," she'd say, ready to play hard core at 9pm!
Anyway, all is well. Doctor's appointments are weekly and everything seems great with baby boy. I love my doctor and feel so blessed to be under his care. Looking forward to a great labor and delivery. Due date is June 28th!
Got the results of my biopsies this afternoon. Overall, it was good news, but the journey is far from over.
First, my salivary (or parotid) gland...
The biopsy came back as benign. The doctor said that it is entirely
possible that I have some chronic inflammation in the gland that will
go away by itself. For right now, there is no treatment and we will
just keep an eye on it. Very good news there as that surgery carries
some fairly significant risks (like facial paralysis).
Secondly, my thyroid...
The biopsy came back as benign here as well, though it was a little
less clear. The biopsy indicated the presence of some follicular
cells, which could be bad. There are two types of thyroid cancer and
one of them is follicular. Because of the sample size of the biopsy,
it is unclear whether these follicular cells are malignant or not.
There are benign follicular neoplasms (another word for "mass") as
well. For now, we are in yet another holding pattern. I had more
blood drawn (sigh-3 tries, 2 nurses) to test the function of my thyroid
and will get those results next week.
Overall, it is good news. I will NOT be having surgery anytime very soon. I will likely have to redo the CT scan and possibly the thyroid biopsy again in August or so. I will also be seeing an endocrinologist in the near future, especially if the blood work done today indicates thyroid functioning problems. That could end up being very positive, as my weight gain and fatigue could not be Harper's fault, but my thyroid's!!
Thanks again for all your prayers! It is more appreciated than I can say.
I don't have an update yet on the results of the biopsies. The doctor's office called me this morning to confirm the appointment on Friday, so hopefully the results will be in by then.
I do have an update on how I'm doing. A lot of people have been asking me how I'm doing these past few days. Their concern is heart-warming and the prayers are felt and appreciated. However, up until yesterday, I didn't know how I felt. I think I've finally figured it out.
My overwhelming emotion is not fear or worry, like you'd expect. As I mentioned in my other post, I'm not thinking either of these things is life-threatening and I feel like all the doctors I've seen are very competent and aggressive, so there is not that type of worry. My overwhelming feeling is depression. In thinking through what the best possible outcome could be on Friday, what could make me happy leaving the office, I decided it would be if I went in there and he said both were benign and that they didn't need to do anything else to treat me and I could go home. But that's not going to happen. Even if they are benign, we're still going to have to make decisions regarding surgery risks and I'm still probably going to have to have more tests, more blood work, and more doctor's appointments. Oh, how I dread that.
I will do a post Friday or Saturday to let you know what I find out. In the meantime, if you could pray for that depression to lift and my outlook to improve, I would appreciate it.
