April Action

Wow, it is only April and we are already in Stage 1 water restrictions here in San Antonio. It is hot, hot, hot. Much to Elizabeth's chagrin we don't have a pool in our back yard and we need to find other ways to play outside, yet stay cool. Luckily not all of the rivers in Texas are dry creek beds.

We can't keep clothes on this boy.

The Friesenhahns invited us over for their annual Easter lunch and egg hunt. After hosting the Brooke Army Medical Center Auxiliary Easter Party at my house the previous week with about 50 people between moms and kids running a muck, I figured the Friesenhahn luncheon sounded like a good way to simplify life . It was a smaller gathering then usual as the younger generations are going off to school, getting married, and starting families of their own. The girls especially missed Aunt Andrea. However, even she was forgotten when we let the kids dive into their Easter baskets.

The month was rounded out with Gabe and I taking a house hunting trip to North Carolina, leaving Ryan with the other 3. He survived but I did hear quite a few words about devil children. All I can say is welcome to my world, as he has been gone for the previous 8 weeks leaving me to single parent. They are not bad kids, just high spirited. It doesn't help that their world has gotten a little crazier with a new baby brother, our house is for sale, and dad off training for two months straight. Things will get better after the move this summer. The good news it that we have a contract on a house in North Carolina. Sorry Elizabeth, still no pool in the backyard, but the house does back up to an elementary school so that we have playgrounds and soccer fields at our disposal and the YMCA is down the street. More on the house to follow.

H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y!

Just a private party at home with family this year, which was just fine by Casey. He was not about to share his "Happy Birthday cake" with friends. At least this year he can tell me the name of his friends. He speech has improved so much. He can even be understood on the telephone. His speech therapist said he could be discharged when we leave here. Now, if we can just get him fully potty trained. Casey currently has a thing for Mickey Mouse and Justin Bieber. (I blame his sisters for the latter). I figured Mickey was the better option for a cake. Not much has changed in the last year. He is a little taller a little heavier, but still a runt. Casey is still crashing into things and usually sports more than his fair share of bumps and bruises. However nothing will slow him down, he is bound and determined to keep up with his sisters. Since Elizabeth has entered Kindergarten, Casey and Ava have become best buddies. He will call for Ava first thing in the morning to let him out of his room and then curl up on the couch with her to watch cartoons. Casey is charming and delightful one minute, and destructive and obstinate the next. Most recently he destroyed his window blinds because he didn't want to take a nap. We prefer our sweet little boy, and hope that he will grow to be a good big brother over this next year. A marble run was his birthday gift this year, which all the kids are enjoying. I figure about the time they get bored with it, I will have to put it away because Gabriel will be crawling and putting everything in his mouth.

I am three, don't mess with me!

April Attractions

My best friend, Siusan, came to visit from North Carolina. With an extra set of hands and feeling pretty good post surgery, we decided to take the kids (minus Lizzy, she had school) and explore the outdoors before the summer heat wave hits.

We took the kids to McKinney Falls just south of downtown Austin. We packed a picnic and completed an easy 3 mile hike before cooling off in the creek. Casey, who is in the middle of potty training proceeded, to drop a log in the middle of the creek bed. At least is wasn't in his pants.

Another day, we headed up to Boerne, TX to play at Cibolo Nature Center and wander through the cave with no name.

The baby is in the polka dot sling.

Casey, the nature boy. He wanted his clothes off, but then didn't want to get in the water, citing that it was too cold.

Siusan and I played tourist. We checked out the Alamo, took a river walk cruise, and had dinner downtown.

I was very grateful for her company and help while Ryan was out of town again.

March Madness

With Ryan out of town for the month, the house on the market, and myself on maternity leave, we had to find ways to occupy our time. Here is just what I managed to take pictures of.

Picture day in Gruene, TX. Movie night. Fast asleep after "tummy time." Brotherly love. This boy has no fear.

Knight cousins minus the St. Louis two.

Spring break at Gram's pool.

The thumb is just as good, if not better than the pacifier.

Visit from Grandpa.

North East Independent School District Art Show. Elizabeth was one of two students picked to represent her Kindergarten class. That is her bluebonnet drawing.

Super Elizabeth!

Awesome capes from Aunt Annie and Uncle Billy. There is one for Gabriel too.

Catching a nap, with a little lamb from Ryan's Aunt Janine and Uncle Dan.

He said it was a hat. Skipping school to go to the zoo.

Hockey Game

My company had organized family event at a San Antonio Rampage hockey game at the end of February. Even though it was set for the day before Ryan was leaving for North Carolina, I thought it would be a fun event for all of us to attend. Of course, I thought I would be attending with a one month old baby, not a one week old. I felt like Rafiki showing off baby Simba to all my coworkers. At least, I had lots of people offering to help with the baby.

We had a blast. Our seats were fantastic and the free food and drinks were a nice perk. Plus, the Rampage won in a penalty shot shootout. The kids loved it more than baseball.

Elizabeth loves cheering for her favorite teams.

Hanging out with my boss's daughter/our babysitter.

Gabriel slept through the most exciting part.

Yeah! The Rampage scored.

Good times!

P.S. Even a month later, Casey is asking to go to another hockey game.

Introductions

Casey could care less about a new baby brother.Ava playing mom and taking care of her baby. Pure love, she can't keep her hands off of him.

Ryan chilling with boy #2.

Grammy loving on grandson #4. She didn't count on getting to see him hot of the press.

The longest 4 days to 4 miraculous minutes

Well the time between Feb 14th and 18th seemed to drag on forever. As I mentioned previously, everyone expected me to be back in the hospital sometime on Monday, Feb 14th. Over the next few days, I wasn't in the mood for much of anything. My mom was due to fly in at the end of the week to help and Ryan was leaving in 10 days and there was still no baby. With each random contraction, I was praying for labor to start. His eviction notice was set for Wednesday, Feb 16th, but since I had waited this long I thought I would give him one more chance to come on his own terms. I changed my inducement date from Wednesday to Friday which was 42 weeks and the end of the road. Finally on Thursday afternoon as I was wrapping up a few things at work, I started having contractions about 7 minutes apart. By 7pm they were four minutes apart and we called in the neighbors again, so that we could head to the hospital. Since I still feeling pretty good and didn't feel like being hooked up to monitoring machines yet, we hung out in the waiting room watching Discovery channel until 10pm before officially checking in. I was at 6cm and contractions were 3 minutes apart. I got a great doctor who was willing to let me labor with minimal medical intervention, she just wanted to monitor me and the baby for 20 minutes before letting me wander the halls. However, right at the end of that 20 minutes things start to look bad. The next 20 minutes were a blur! (Ryan can provide medical terminology.) The baby's heart rate started to drop after contractions, a sign of stress. They had me change positions and gave me oxygen but that didn't help. Since, I was now at 9cm, they broke my water to see they they could speed up my labor and get the baby out. The baby had pooped in the water, another sign of stress. My contractions were becoming more intense. I had a six minute long contraction, which the baby did not tolerate well. They gave me medicine to halt my contractions but it didn't make a difference, so they took me to the operating room to perform a c-section. I was pretty worried and in a lot of pain at this point. There were so many doctors and nurses, Ryan couldn't be at my side. In the operating room, the baby's heart rate improved briefly, and the doctors seemed to stand around forever deciding what to do. Mind you, I didn't have an epidural or any other pain meds. Previously, all my pain was in my back, but it had now moved to my front. I told them I needed to push. They said don't! I was 10cm, but baby's head and shoulders were still not rotated into the normal position, he was still having heart rate issues and drinking poopy fluid, and with continuous lower abdominal pain they were really worried that my uterus was starting to tear. Ryan was kicked out the operating room and they put me under general anesthesia, and within 4 minutes Gabriel Victor Knight was born at 12:02am, 18 February 2011. He weighed 7lbs 7ozs and was 21 inches.

I woke up awhile later in a lot of pain but with all my organs intact. However, my baby was in the NICU for not looking or breathing so well at birth. Ryan had a chance to be with him and take some pictures, but I didn't get to see him until about 12 hours later when I could get up and move. I couldn't allowed to hold him the first time I visited, which was probably best, because I was still very groggy and could barely keep my eyes open. It took everything out of me just to walk down the hall and back.

I was a surreal experience not to have my baby with me from the start. The NICU would call me and I would walk down the hall to feed him. Thank goodness, Gabriel's NICU stay only lasted 36 hours and then he was allowed to room with me. From there things started to get better.

Valentine's Day

Well we thought today might have been a double celebration. With contractions 4 minutes apart and other key signs, a trip to the hospital was warranted at 1am in the morning on February 14th. God bless our wonderful neighbors for coming over to watch the kids in the wee hours of the morning. However, after spending 90 minutes in the triage room, my contractions started to taper off. Since I was already past 41 weeks, they were ready to hook me up to pitocin and get my labor rolling again. However, I am not a fan of pitocin and I asked to be released to walk around the hospital to see if I could get my contractions going again. Ryan and I snuck out of the hospital briefly to grab some breakfast at Taco Cabana and then did some stairs and paced the halls of the hospital for another hour but to no avail. No contractions and no progression. Since, I had a Valentine's Day party to throw at Elizabeth's school and a birthday dinner planned for her, I asked to go home at 6am. Everyone thought I would be back before the end of the day, including myself. HA!

I took the day off work and raked and filled 25 bags of leaves before heading over to Elizabeth's school to conduct her class's Valentines Day party. Then, I went to daycare to attend Ava's and Casey's Valentines Day parties. My contractions continued throughout the day, but never became regular again. So, we invited our neighbors to celebrate Elizabeth's birthday with us at the Magic Time Machine. We figured it was the least we could do, since they watched our kids most of the night.

At this restaurant, the salad bar is in a car, the tables are all different themes, and the waiters dress as different characters, so the kids picked costumes also. Ava and our neighbor's daughter were princesses. Casey was a cowboy. Elizabeth was a rock star kitty cat. Don't ask where she comes up with these things. The kids enjoyed fuzzy potion drinks, fried goodness, and a brownie sundae. I enjoyed a margarita! Don't get me wrong, it was great to give Elizabeth her own special day, but it was frustrating not to have a baby today. (Once again my own fault, I could have taken the drugs and stayed.)

P.S. I have to mention that Elizabeth was a really good sport about not having a big birthday party this year due to the pending arrival of Baby Knight. Her response to our discussion was "Oh, I get it. I get to have a big birthday party every other year, so I will have a big party when I am 7."

Waiting on Baby

Birthday parties, Book club, Bible study, board meetings, and a baby shower pretty much wrap up most of January and month number 9 of my pregnancy. I continued to work full time, squeezing in doctors, dentist, and other appointments as to clear my calendar for February. My co-workers threw me a very nice baby shower and presented me with a Target gift card to ensure our baby boy didn't get all hand me downs. To help pass the time I took the kids to the children's theater and museum, arranged play dates, attended birthday parties, Sunday school, and Monster Jam. Ryan worked a lot because he front loaded his schedule to ensure that he had some time off around the baby's due date of 4 Feb.

Meanwhile, I was trying every trick in the book to have this baby in January. Being pregnant with #4 didn't make me any more patient. If anything I was more anxious for him to come out. I am not the type to savor pregnancy. Feeling him kick is cool, but waking up 6 times at night to pee is not so cool. Not to mention that I really miss wearing my regular clothes. Plus, our calendar is always full of activities and not knowing when you are having a baby can put a crimp in planning. Lets not forget the house is going on the market at the end of Feb. My personal wishes were to have some separation from Elizabeth's birthday, and I wanted Ryan to have some time with the baby before he headed off on his 10 weeks of residency rotations.

However, January 31 came and went, so did Ground Hog's Day. Now we have hit my due date and are going into overtime. We knew this would happen, I have always gone to at least 41 weeks with every baby. They just need more time to cook. Still, I was hoping just once that I could have a baby "on time" or even a little early. Oh well, it is my own fault for not scheduling an elective c-section at 39 weeks.

State of Emergency

Even with half a dozen days below freezing last year, we only saw a couple of flurries, and by a couple I really do mean two snow flakes. I was nothing like the mountains of snow that family received in the mid-Atlantic states. This year was shaping up to be similar. Lots of snow in the northeast and shorts and t-shirts in the middle of winter for Texas. Still, we had a few days below freezing and finally some moisture entered the air. Wallah! Snow! I have missed every time it has snow at our beach condo in North Carolina, but I did get to see snow in southern Texas. A whole .40 inches, as recorded at the airport a few miles from our house. All major highways were shut down for over 12 hours due to icy conditions. The airport closed for a few hours, and most airlines canceled San Antonio morning flights. We obviously don't have any plows or salt/cinder trucks here. Over 500 accidents were reported Friday morning, and it took Ryan over 2 hours to get home after working a night shift. The kids got a day off of school, but I only had a two hour delay. That became an issue because daycare was closed also, so I ended up taking a personal day to watch the kids. Elizabeth and Ava donned their warmest clothes and ventured into the dusting to jump on the trampoline and make snow balls. Thin blooded Casey deemed it too cold outside and quickly came back inside to enjoy a nice hot breakfast.

The snow play didn't last long, it was 60 degrees around lunch time.