Hope's Doctor's Appointment

Yesterday Hope went to see Dr. Henderson for her two month check-up. Everything went really well. She is now very close to the 9lb. mark, and will probably pass 9lbs. within the next couple of days. Based on her date of birth, she is in the 5th percentile for both height and weight. Dr. Henderson was very pleased with her progress, and said that he thought she looked great. Hope received four shots at her appointment. She didn't really care for the shots when they were being administered, but she seemed to recover from them quickly. She will go back to the doctor in May for a four month check-up. At that time Doctor Henderson said that if she continues to be doing as well as she is now, he would feel good about Hope being able to start going places and meeting new people. It will be such a blessing for our family to be able to go places as a family of five.

Camden has now been to school five times. He loves it! The first week everything revolved around Clifford and this past week it was Dr. Seuss. He is enjoying his teachers, time spent playing, music and time in his "gym". On Wednesday of next week he has his first field trip. He gets to go swimming at mom and dad's school. He can't wait. He definitely thinks he is a big kid now. He even has homework to do this weekend which he is excited about. I only hope that he will continue to be excited about homework when he is in middle school (probably not!).

Ryann is finally healthy. She missed four days of school last week because of the flu. Soccer season should be starting within a few weeks, and she is excited to be playing again. She continues to be the best big sister to Camden and Hope, and we continue to be very proud of her.

Camden Starts School

Over the last 3 months we have noticed Camden having some speech difficulties. He also was getting increasingly more upset when we did not understand what he was saying. Last week we took him to be tested. They determined that he did have some speech dificulties. They determined these dificulties to be easily overcome. With that said, he started ECSE today.

He loves going to school because he has a backpack, he will get homework, and he is just like his big sister. Camden thought playtime was the best thing at school and also remembered that a "girl" was naughty. He also enjoyed the "gym" (gross motor skills room) where he could swing, play with balls, and jump.

Check out these pics. Our little boy is off to school!

Update

Hope should now be officially born. Her due date was yesterday, March 13. We originally had a c-section scheduled for last Friday, March 10. Today should have been our first complete day home as a family, but instead we have been a family of 5 for a little over 7 weeks and we wouldn't give up these 7 weeks for anything. Everyone continues to do well in our family. Today Hope got another RSV shot. The nurse came to our house to give her the shot. She was about 21" long and 8lbs. She is growing like a weed. Jen thinks that Hope should be sleeping through the night because she is so big. Because she was so big, the nurse had to use two vials of medicine ($800 per vial - thank goodness for insurance!!!). We hope you enjoy these new pictures of Hope that were taken today. Please check in tomorrow to see the big news regarding Camden.

New Pictures

We think they are so cute ....

Hope Is 6 Weeks Old

Two months ago, on January 3rd, this journey for our family began. In the two months since that day, our family has experienced a wide range of emotions: nervousness, fear, excitement, joy and a great deal of love. 6 weeks ago Hope came into this world and has changed our lives so much for the better. In these 6 weeks, Hope has come so far. She continues to grow bigger and stronger each day. She is starting to be more alert and is awake a greater amount of time during the day. She continues to eat well and is having success with both nursing and with her bottle feeds. We continue to be extremely cautious when it comes to visitors and germs. Hope has only been outside of our house 4 times (once when she came home from the hospital and the other 3 times for doctor's appointments). Our caution seems to be paying off. She continues to be healthy and does not have to go back to the doctor until March 20th. Ryann and Camden are in love with their little sister. They can't seem to walk by her without giving her a kiss or touching her or talking to her. This makes us as parents so proud and so glad that our family of 4 has now become a family of 5.