Thanksgiving Post

Life has been a bit of a blur since our hospital stay, but we are all finally getting more rest and a little time to do things like catch up on blogging. This is a quick post to showcase pictures of Reese and Lane before the hospital stay and during Thanksgiving.

My friend Debbie came over for a visit around week 4. Reese got another cool toy, a hamster named Roxy. Debbie is determined that Reese has a pet - that is fine as long as it is not a live pet!

Reese loves to ride her trike around the house. I am usually doing dishes or something and not really paying attention. This time, I was watching her from the couch as she sped through the living room. It was the funniest thing because she was going so fast and was very focused. It cracked me up - I was so glad I was finally sitting down (feeding/holding Lane) to witness it.

Lane and Mommy at 4 weeks of age.

Reese is way more into Lane's boucner than he. To be honest, he really does not prefer this toy just yet (even as I post this at 8 weeks). This picture is around 4 weeks.

More park time with Reese and Daddy.

Reese about to enjoy a Thanksgiving Turkey cookie from GiGi.

A visit from my friend Christina. This was Monday, Lane was two days into his cold. Ironically, she and I were discussing the time her daughter Adeline had RSV. She told me to watch for wheezing - little did I know we would be in the ER the next night and get diagnosed with RSV at 5 weeks old.

We received this neat gift - I will post the vendor for you.

Reese and Matt spent Thanksgiving day at Aunt Sharon's with his family while Mom and I spent our day at the hospital eating our Luby's meal at the Ronald McDonald house. We were thankful to have a hot meal and that Lane was receiving great care!

Reese had a great time with Aunt Lauren and MaMa Pat.

Playing catch with Copa - Scott and Lauren's new black Lab.

Celebrating the Holidays

First things first - here is an updated picture of the house. This one is already out dated, but you get the point. The brick is done on the outside of the house, but they still need to brick the wall, both porch floors and the top of the chimney. Inside the sheet rock and wood floors are done and they are doing the trim, cabinets & doors now. Things are progressing nicely!


Here is Reese standing in her closet.

And the two of us in her room.

The first weekend in December, the kids and I stayed with Mom and Grandma and spent Saturday decorating the house. We are celebrating Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning at Mom's and are not decorating the rent house. It's too small for a tree and I really do not have the time or energy. Next year we will be in the new house, so I am ok with this plan!

Reese did a great job decorating the tree with a little help from GiGi. She would pretend to hang the ornament and then ask GiGi to help her.

She did decorate Granny's tree all by herself. Granny is my Dad's mom. She passed away from leukemia when I was in middle school.

Butterfly!

Lane enjoyed the view for about 1 minute!

Here are some fun pictures of Lane at 7 weeks. I just love that sweet face!

He is wearing 3-6 months in this Children's Place sleeper. If you ask me, they run small because they look tiny compared to 3-6 months in Carter's. I just love how cuddly these sleepers are!

During the day, Lane sleeps in the pack and play in the living room. At night, he does well in his bed. During the day, Lane eats every 2 - 3 hours and at night he will go 4 hours for one feeding, then go back to 3 hours. Wait until you see the 8 weeks pictures - the boy is getting chunky!!!

Last weekend, we had a fun picnic at the park. Then Matt and Reese played in the park while Lane and I strolled around the track.

See those cheeks!

Matt had to work on Sunday, so the kids and I spent the day at GiGi's. Isn't this the sweetest picture of Lane? Earlier in the morning we took family pictures in Mom's living room - stay posted for those.

Grandma gave Lane this sweet red velvet outfit.

At 7 weeks, here are some things we love about Lane:

1. His long eyelashes - they get longer each day!

2. His super soft skin - I just can't kiss him enough!

3. Moving in bed - he starts off laying straight and when he wakes up he is at an angle.

4. He is our little Butterball - getting lots of chunk everywhere!

5. At 6 weeks, he began smiling and cooing when we talked to him. Each week he becomes more and more alert which is so much fun.

7. He is still a very noisy sleeper - it doesn't pay to take a nap with him in the living room because he'll wake you up.

8. At 7 weeks, he is still eating every 3 hours (sometimes 2) taking 4-5 ounces. Not sleeping through the night yet, but Mommy is hoping that will happen very soon!!! At 8 weeks (12/15/10) he ate at 8:00 p.m., went to sleep at 9:00 p.m. and slept until 1:15 a.m. 5 hours - not bad! After the 1:15 feeding, he slept until 5:15, so he went another 4 hours. I was well rested after that. Unfortunately, Reese would not go to sleep until 11:30 p.m. We are having a tough time getting her to go down at night. More on that later.

9. I think those eyes are going to stay blue! They are beautiful. Besides his eyes and light hair, he still looks very much like Reese when she was a baby.

10. He weighed 11.9 at his post hospital doctor checkup (was at 9 & 10 pounds in hospital).

At 2 years and 11 months, here are some things we love about Reese:

1. Her favorite color is green and she loves to tell us this. She wants a "green" birthday party. And a green clock. Sometimes she says she wants a brown clock like GiGi's. Good thing we are painting her new bedroom green!

2. Wants to do everything herself (which can be time consuming ;)) and help Mom with making breakfast, lunch, get her toothpaste out of cabinet, etc. All week, she has helped me make her waffles for breakfast. She puts the waffle in the toaster, gets the nutella and agave from the cabinet, spreads the butter on her waffle, puts the nutella on the side and drizzles the agave on her waffle.

3. She say "brand new". Every day she says something new. Where did you learn that word or phrase?

4. Reese still wants to wear clothes with animals on them - any animal will do. Why do I even try to buy anything else? And again this year she will not wear her Christmas dress! I think those pricey garments I bought from Hanna Andersson are going back. :(

5. She has a fantastic memory and can remember things from weeks ago like the name of her reindeer she received at Thanksgiving. MaMa Pat asked her the name 2 week later and Reese told her. She had not even played with the toy since Thanksgiving day. She also knows exactly how her books read, so I we say anything incorrectly, Reese will tell us, "No, it's says ......"

6. She saw snowmen in our a yard on the way home and said there were 3 of them (and there were).

7. Reese does not want to sleep in her bed! Getting her down is a challenge each and every night. I know we have spoiled her and it is going to be hard to get her back in the routine of sleeping in her room. We do well and then get off track like when she gets sick or when a baby is born and we spend a lot of time at the hospital. However, even if we lay down with her or let her fall asleep in our bed, she still takes forever to fall asleep. It's like she gets a second wind and has a ton of energy when the rest of us are exhausted. Maybe some of this is her working for our attention now that Lane is here - who knows! I am hoping we can resolve this soon for every one's sake. As of now, we basically sleep where we can. Some nights, Matt ends up in her bed or I end up on the couch. One night, Reese was in our bed while I was in the twin in Lane's room and Matt was in Reese's bed. How crazy is that? Ah, the joys! Thing is we don't really care where we sleep as long as our eyes are shut.

8. Reese likes to make decisions on what she gets in her lunch - peanut butter sandwich or soup, type of fruit crisps, type of bunnies, smart puffs or goldfish, etc.

9. When she wants something (usually at night when we are trying to get her to stay in her room), she keeps saying, "Mommy" over and over - use your words I say. I don't know what "Mommy" means. It is just her way of stalling. Ugh!

10. She loves to pretend play and has a great imagination - this is very fun to witness.

11. Reese loves to watch Dora and Max and Ruby. She laughs at the funny parts and tells Mommy what toys she wants when she sees commercials. Got to love those holiday advertisements.

12. A few weekends ago, after we got back from the hospital my Mom kept Reese. She was unloading the car and asked Reese to stay in the living room until GiGi got back. When Mom got back from the car, Reese had climbed the stairs and was chatting with Grandma Ruth. Yikes! Mom had a little talk with Reese and told her she must always have someone with her when going up and down the stairs. I don't know - maybe we are too paranoid, but we would hate for her to fall down them! The new house will have stairs, Reese will get used to them soon enough.

13. Says, are we having fun yet Mom?

14. Says, what are you doing Mom? Then says, say to me what am I doing.

15. She knows what disgusting means - when I asked where she learned that word, she said from Max & Ruby. Ah hah!

16. Calls Lane, her brother.

17. Loves M&Ms - especially the green ones.

18. Reese knows she turns 3 in January.

19. She likes to wear jeans and a t-shirt - and be super casual at all times - just like her Dad! Hence, the no Christmas dress!

20. Likes to share with Mommy and says she will share with Lane when he is old enough to play with her.

21. Reese mimics mommy and daddy in her pretend play saying if you don't do this, I'll take away this. I know she got this from our nightly routine's when we say to her, "If you get out of bed, we are turning your night light off." Uh oh! So she really does pick up on EVERYTHING we say and do.

We are home!

We just arrived home and Lane is sleeping peacefully while I grab a bite to eat and update you all.

The urine, blood and spinal fluid tests all came back negative for bacteria, so we were discharged at 1:00 p.m. today December 1st. The only explanation for his high fever is that his body was fighting the RSV. They treated him with 2 antibiotics while in the hospital just in case there was a bacterial infection, but we were sent home free of meds! Good, because those were beginning to upset his tummy.

The cough from the RSV could last up to 6 weeks, but he seems pretty clear of mucas now. The nurse advised that we keep him from crowds until March, post flu season.

We will follow up with his pediatrician next week to make sure all is well.

Thank you all for your prayers and positive thoughts! We truly appreciate it. Love you all!

Prayers for baby Lane

We have been in and out of the hospital since last Tuesday with Lane. He has RSV (a very bad viral cold) which makes it difficult for him to breathe. We went to the ER via ambulance last Tuesday evening as he was coughing forcefully and having difficulty breathing. We learned he had RSV. They suctioned him and sent us home a few hours later. After a sleepless night, at his follow up appointment with his pediatrician the next morning at 9:00 a.m. his oxygen was at 85% so his doctor called 911 and sent us back to the ER via ambulance. They admitted us and we spent Thanksgiving at Texas Children's Hospital. He didn't require oxygen just a lot of help to clear the mucus. We went home Friday morning and he improved all weekend. Then on Sunday evening at his 11:00 p.m. feeding he had a temperature of 101.4 which sent us back to the ER where we got admitted again. They have run many tests and we know his white blood count is high so he is fighting some sort of infection. The immediate blood and spinal fluid test came back negative, so we are now waiting for 48 hours to see if any bacteria grows on his cultures. He is eating well, has not had any more fever and is acting like his normal self so we have reason to believe his body may just be reacting to the RSV and he doesn't have any sort of bacterial infection. We will know more today and tomorrow.

As you can imagine, we are worried, stressed and exhausted. We are very thankful he is doing well and is at Texas Children's receiving the best care possible.

Your prayers and positive thoughts are appreciated. We will do our best to keep you posted!

Love to all,

The Sicinski's

Second time in hospital - Monday, November 29th

Poor baby had to get an IV, but he did great thanks to the sugar water they gave him for the pain.

First time in hospital - Wednesday, November 24th

HUNGRY!

**Disclaimer - I've been working on this post since Monday! So hard to get anything done with a newborn. Shower, eat, yeah right! I just managed to get lunch today at 2:00 p.m.** Ok - now on to the good stuff.

Apparently both of our kids are growing like crazy because they are both starving all the time! I can't give either of them enough food.

Reese literally tells me all the time, "Hungry! Hungry!". It's like she is so famished that she cannot even bother to ask for something to eat using a complete sentence like "Mom, I am hungry, may I have something to eat?" Reese has sprouted up significantly although I have yet to measure her height. However, all of her 3T pants that fit well are now baggy in the bottom because she is now long and lean. Bye bye baby fat. Hello slim little girl. She loves to snack and could just snack all afternoon and evening. However, sometimes she does not eat all of her dinner but can't wait for the next thing to eat, so we are working to get her to eat all of her real food before she gets any treats or snacks. I found that when I held out long enough she will eat her meal - so you do like tacos?

As for Lane, well he still eats about every 2 hours during the day, stretches his 6:30 p.m. feeding into the 8:30 p.m. feeding, so I feel as though I'm feeding his all evening, but during the night he goes 3 hours which means I can get 2 full hours of sleep at a time! At 3.5 weeks old, Lane out grew his newborn clothes in both length and width and graduated into size 1 diapers. I got smart this time - as soon as the poop started leaking we move up to a bigger size! ;)

So onto the fun stuff - pictures from weeks 2 and 3 of Lane's life. I tried to stage some "good" pictures; they are not fancy but turned out pretty well. I really need a better camera and some editing classes!

The infamous bunny picture at 3 weeks old. Remember we did this with Reese!



Reese was closer to 2 months when I started her bunny pictures.


Other snap shots of Lane. I hoped to include Reese, but she was not interested.

I have a similar picture of Reese. It's amazing how much they look alike in some photos and then totally different in others.

Ahhh....full and sleepy!

I have decided boys clothes are cute! This navy and white onesie is so cute with the khaki pants! I've also done the mis-matched look which really works for boys!

Two Saturday's ago, Reese and I attended her friend Chloe's 3rd birthday party. Reese's entire class was there. It was a lot of fun. The kids got to jump and bounce while the parents got to chat.

Chloe lives on our street, where the new house is being built, we can't wait to get back to our neighborhood!

The next day Reese came down the the stomach flu (the entire class got it as did most of the parents). Thankfully Matt, Lane and I did not get it, nor did Mom, Pat or Grandma. It was a full 24 hour deal - felt so bad for her! Pat and Matt did a great job of caring for Reese while I cared for Lane. Popsicles made everything better the next day.

As did a super long nap.

Lane got one too (a nap that is).

Then it was time for art work - water colors this time.

Loving the skull and cross bones sleeper from Gap! See here - Lane looks totally different from Reese.

Now, why can't I do this with Lane? Normally, I try and be productive when he sleeps! But Matt needed a cat nap. I usually manage one 1 hour nap each day.

This past Saturday Reese and I went and got her hair cut for the 4th time.

She did well except when Christina tried to put the cape on her. Then came the tears, so we ditched the cape and all was well as she played her numbers game on the iPhone.

We treated ourselves to cupcakes afterwards!

Matt had to work on Sunday, so the kids and I packed up and spent the day at GiGi's. Here is Lane's make shift pack 'n play.

Reese and GiGi had a blast hanging out, watching TV and eating snacks. Lane and I chilled with Grandma and took a good nap.

And here is Lane at 4 weeks old. I plan to get his picture in a white onesie at each month milestone.

Updates on Lane:

1. He out grew his new born clothes at 3.5 weeks and also moved into size 1 diapers.

2. I am managing the tee tee sprays much better! A boy is so different from a girl (obvious statement I know). Reese never tinkled on me, but Lane does! The first week I was so out of my element, but luckily I remembered the advice of my friends Wendy and Stacy and was able to reduce the wet accidents. That first night home, I changed Lane's onesie at each feeding because he had leaked out. I was like what is going on here! Hint, point the boy parts down in the diaper that way the tinkle doesn't spray up and out of it.
3. He doesn't like taking a bath and let's me know about it. Well, today he didn't cry during the bath, so maybe we are getting somewhere. Did I post a picture of his first real bath? I'll do that next post.

4. The cradle cap started this week - lots of Aveeno on that sweet head!

5. Sleeps well in his pack and play during the day and is not bothered by the noise. And honestly, sleeps well in his crib at night. For the most part, he puts himself down. I rock him just enough to get him drowsy then put him down and this seems to be working!

6. His fussy time of day is 6:00-9:00 p.m. - Mommy usually has to feed and hold him the entire time which makes it difficult to feed and care for Reese, but I'm managing. Matt usually gets home around 7:00 p.m. so he helps out after that.

7. Lane makes the funniest grunting noises. To put it into words, it sounds like he is clearing his throat.

8. He is very strong and has been since day one. I really have to keep a hold of him when he is laying on my lap. He has been raising his head and looking around since week 1.

9. His face is filling out and he has the cutest chubby cheeks.

Updates on Reese:

1. She told teacher when asked if she helps with Lane, "Sure, but sometimes he sleeps too much!"

2. Can hold her bladder for hours - seriously is that healthy? When I ask her if she needs to go potty she replies, "I just already went potty Mom." Right, 4 hours ago!

3. Reese can count objects like 5 M&M's and read Brown Bear all by herself. I realize she has memorized it, but still that's cool.

4. Reese loves letters and knows what most letters stand for like A for Adrienne, R for Reese, etc. She learned this at school and it is also reinforced with her new bath letters that we play with each night. She says, "Let's spell words like cookie." She also asks me what letter words start with. Smart girl!

5. She is still smitten with Lane and loves to walk over and watch him in the pack and play. Especially when he is crying and waiting for me to get him more milk. Today she told him, "Mommy is getting your bottle." So sweet. I am still nursing, but also supplementing with some formula 2-4 feedings a day.

Updates on Mommy:

1. I got back in to regular jeans yesterday (not my regular size, but I'll get there) - a month after birth. Not bad, but it couldn't have happened sooner! I was ready to get out of the maternity clothes but was too swollen and wide for the first 4 weeks.

2. I am still sore from the surgery - I don't remember being this sore for this long last time, but maybe I am just more active this time around. With Reese, I could lay around nap more than I can now.

3. Matt and I had our first date night last Friday! We had a wonderful dinner and Brennan's. I had a glass of bubbly and some red wine and we enjoyed a lovely meal.

Updates on the house:

1. The house is coming along nicely. The brick and exterior paint go up next week as does sheetrock. We will try and get some pictures posted soon!