Another Beautiful Girl....

Well as many of you already know we welcomed a sweet and healthy baby girl into the world on July 17th, 2011. She has been an UNEXPECTED gift from above. She came into this world at 1:27 a.m. She weighed 7lbs 11 oz and was 20.5 in long. She was the picture of a perfect healthy baby. Thank goodness! I do not think my heart could have taken any unexpected news.
From the beginning...Jeremy and I knew when I got pregnant this time that the Lord had most certainly had a hand in it. I am pretty sure after our last delivery experience that had I not unknowingly become pregnant that I might not ever have done it again. We conceived sometime late October and knew for sure in November that we were expecting. Being as hard headed as we are we decided to keep it a secret between the two of us. We choose not to tell our family or our friends until we were positive that she was healthy. The big plan was not to tell anyone until our first sonogram but we eventually had to tell my mom so that we could get her there. But even before that my grandmother figured it out. We were able to surprise Jeremy's parents with the news by inviting them to lunch but instead of lunch we took them to the sonogram. It was priceless to see the look on their faces when they walked into the room. To be honest I was a little sad that we lost our secret that day. It was fun just keeping the information between the two of us and very few select others. ;)
To the end....Libbie was due on July 28th, 2011. She was expected to make her grand entrance on or around July 7th, unfortunately she had other plans! I stayed dilated at a four for two weeks before she decided it was OK to come! After both of her grandmothers were out of town she decided it would be the most optimal time to come. She might just be a little stubborn! haha! Jeremy and I discovered that I was going into labor about 10:30 the night of the 16th. Thankfully my grandparents were in town (they were dropping of my brother and sister from their vacation) to take care of Addison and Karter. If they had not have been here there is no telling what time I would have actually made it to the hospital! My grandparents came over right away and Jeremy, Memaw, and I reloaded and went to the hospital with my contractions being about 3 minutes apart. We arrived a little after 11:00 and were rushed right on up to labor and delivery. By the time they got me to a room to check the progression of my labor I was already at an 8! Luckily they rushed me into a private room and almost immediately gave me my epidural! Libbie then made her appearance about an hour and a half after us getting into a room.
The next day and so on...When Karter and Addison came into the room the next morning we did not know what to expect. The last time we had gone in to have a baby Karter was flown out almost immediately so Addison was never allowed to see her. We did not know what to expect from her, would she be afraid that this would happen again? Would she be jealous? Would Karter be jealous? As soon as Addison bee bopped on in all of my worries ceased. She was elated! All she kept saying was Oh My Gosh. She was just precious to watch. Karter on the other hand was too busy trying to make it around the room! P.S. SHE IS CRAWLING! ( I will give an update on the girls soon!) I will say though that since we have been home Karter went from pure fascination over this other creature in the house to pure love. She is often found near her patting her with her hand, giving her a finger to suck on, or pulling up on her chair to watch her sleep. Addison has become a little momma and makes sure that not only does Karter have what she needs but that Libbie does as well. She is growing up to fast! She went from my little baby girl to my little helper.
Trucking Along...So now we are a happy family of five. Jeremy unfortunately had to go back to work when Libbie was only three days old. So this Momma has been doing it by myself since she came home from the hospital. While it has had its challenges it has also had its rewards! :) I would not trade my time with my girls for anything. We have learned how to load up in the car, how to take Karter to therapy, how to get momma to work, and our newest adventure of how to go grocery shopping! Three is a lot different then two but has been pretty easy to adjust to so far. I can not wait to get back to the blog and let you guys know all of the progressions Karter has made as well as let you know how much Addison has grown up! Libbie is calling my name now for her last feed for the night so I am off of here for now!


Love to All!
The McHams

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We're Back!!!

I know it has been forever since I have posted on the blog but these last five months have been very crazy! We have had to make several major changes in our lifestyle in order to incorporate such a blessing into our lives. I think the hardest part of all of this has been just getting organized and making sure we stay on schedule! Anyways a quick update on the girls!

Addison Grace

Can you believe she is almost three? Where has time gone? She is so full of life these days! She now has a very full vocabulary, which I must admit on some days I wish it was not so "full". We are still working on potty training. She just does not care to use the potty. I feel like I have tried everything except being extremely stern about it. Any advice? Trust me we have tried to bribe, to be relaxed, taking her every 30 minutes, putting her in big girl panties, pretty much the whole nine yards.

She is now fully in a "big" girl gymnastics. She seems to like it for the most part. She likes the trampoline the best and then I would say the bars. She hates the floor exercises though! She is also becoming very comfortable with her teachers and therefore has sort of become the ring leader of her little group in class. While it is entertaining to watch at times, I do have to admit that I feel bad for her teachers when she gets to going!

She is fully in love with her sister and is not afraid to let you know about it. She does not like it when Karter gets shots, blood taken, or anything that might cause pain to her sister. In fact she has been known to give the Doctors and Nurses a piece of her mind. As well as they know Karter from our visits they are also becoming very acquainted with "Miss Addison". I love the fact that she is her sisters protector. I will also have to say that Addison has probably spent less time away from Karter, since we have been home , then either Jeremy or I. Where Addison goes, Karter goes and vise versa.

Baby Karter Bear

(As Addison pronounces her name)

Karter is now 9 months old and is fully acting like a baby should be! She can roll over from side to side, almost sit up by herself, push up fully extended on her arms, and is now working on getting her legs under her enough so that she can begin to crawl! She is in therapy three days a week with the most wonderful group of people one might ever know. They have given her so much of their time and have pushed her to get her to where she is now. They are simply amazing! She now, however, has developed a slight attitude with them whenever she does not feel like doing something that day. It is quite funny to watch! I believe the funniest thing she has started to do lately, is laugh when someone is in trouble or is crying. She especially finds it extra funny when her sister is in trouble and is crying!! She is one of the happiest babies I have ever known. She does not cry unless something is really wrong. It is very rare for her to cry even once a day. She is now eating baby food at a constant rate. Although, she does not care for your typical baby food so most of the time she eats yogurt or something that I have mashed up from our food. And the occasional ice cream her daddy sneaks her out of the kitchen.

She recently had her cardiologist visit and did extremely well at her check-up. He did determine though that she was getting chunky enough so he dropped the calories on her formula from 30 kl/cal to 24 kl/cal. This is still above normal but is just enough to allow her to grow without becoming obese. Obese seems like such an awkward word to use for a baby. I think the more fat on a baby the better, but due to her heart this will not be the case. The only new development we received from her heart doctor is that they are probably going to push her second surgery up. In September they had estimated that she would not require any more surgery until she was 3 possibly 4....at this appointment they said to prepare ourselves for surgery in 9-18 months. Okay so now you may be wondering why? Well Miss Karter's leak on her left side of her repair is starting to become a little bit stronger than they anticipated. Therefore while they are trying to get her as big as possible (to replace the conduit they attached in the first surgery) they are now more concerned about her leak. Jeremy and I just want whatever is best for her! She has also been placed on thyroid medicine to help her grow at a better rate. Her thyroid was slowly and steady becoming hyper active in which it was over producing. Thankfully her new medicine has now steadied that out.

Over the next few days I will be making a few other post on what we have been doing these last few months. From Halloween to Christmas I would love to share with you their most treasured events.

Thank you for allowing us to take time off from the blog to get our life back in order! It was greatly needed!

Love,

The McHams!