Thanksgiving

Mike and I have so much to be thankful for.  First and foremost, our beautiful boys.  While Noah is currently in the terrible twos, he constantly keeps us laughing and surprised and what comes out of his mouth and the facial expressions he goes through.  He is a joy to us both.  Ian, while struggling with fussiness and sleep, is a wonderful addition to our family.  He is so sweet and laid back; we can already tell he will be so different from Noah.  Although I worry he will be a pushover and let Noah boss him around (I'm rather familiar with this tactic being an older sister!)  I'm so grateful that Noah loves him though so no complaints!

We are also extremely blessed to have such amazing families who were able to join us on this holiday.  My parents drove in from Kansas, my brother flew in from Chicago and the Reicherts joined us from Alabama.  We were even blessed to have my Aunt June and her family join us (minus Jess, who we all missed!)  Emily's mother, Mary, came as well so we had a full house.  

Uncle Ryan got in a bit of fun with both nephews on Friday before he had to go back to Chicago.

What a catch!  I can't believe some woman hasn't snatched him up already - such a natural with the boys!!  We were very thankful he could come in for a visit, even though it was a short one.  Noah talks about his Uncle Ryan all the time so I know he misses him.

Saturday we thought we'd try something new and took Noah to the "North Pole Fun Park" where he rode the North Pole Express.  Before boarding the train, Noah had some fun with the animals they have there.  We had to practically tie him to the pony to get him to ride it, but he seemed to enjoy it after he was on.

They also had a small petting zoo and Noah LOVED holding the rabbits!  It was tough to get him out of there.  And the answer is NO, we will not be getting any animals, esp. a rabbit (Don't even think about it Matt!)

We finally made it to the train and while it didn't quite meet my expectations, I think Noah really enjoyed riding on it.

They had a song program first and when they called all the kids on stage, Noah wanted to go at first, and quickly changed his mind once he was up there.  Daddy had to go get him (as seen on the left)

As we were led out, we walked through a Christmas Tree forest and on to the train.

Noah has really enjoyed having all of the family around.  He had a blast with all his Aunts and Uncles.  He can't wait until they visit again!!

Happy Thanksgiving and blessings to all. 

Love,

Corri, Mike, Noah and Ian

Ian

I was all ready to post how Ian has changed in the last month, but I discovered I was remiss in the last post in mentioning Ian's stats from when he was born!  He was 7 pounds, 15.7 oz and 20 inches long.  At his 2 week check up, he was already 9 pounds, 8 oz. and grew just a smidge at 20.8 inches.  His current range is in the 75th-90th percentile.  He's taking right after his brother and is doing very well!  We have another check up on Friday so I'll be sure to note his changes.

While he started out as a very peaceful baby, that quickly changed after hitting the two week mark.  He became much more fussy and and we still have trouble getting him to sleep more at night than during the day.  What hasn't changed is how incredibly adorable he is!  He gets cuter every day - maybe I'm predjudice being his mother, but I don't think so!!

Noah is very much taken with him and loves to kiss, hug and hold him.  It only lasts for a few minutes, mind you, but he wants to do it often.  I am very grateful that he wants to shower him with so much love.  We'll see if that continues when Ian can take Noah's toys!

We are lucky that Ian will take formula and does not have the reflux and constipation issues that Noah had.  I don't know if I could deal with that again. 

There are moments when he is awake and very thoughtful.  He takes in his surroundings and observes.  Its really quite sweet and we bask in the few times he's peaceful and alert. 

Ian seemed to have an issue with the first formula so we switched him to a sensitive and  hopefully that will help ease some of the fussiness. 

We're still praying for sleep.  It's a raritiy STILL - I thought as we neared a month, he'd sleep better through the night, but he wants to eat every three hours and after he eats, he's up for another 30-45.  That REALLY limits the time we have to rest.   I try to nap during the day when he sleeps, but it always seems there's stuff to be done.  I need to get my priorities straight! 

I'll write again once Ian has his month apt.  We'll see how much he's changes.  I'm sure he's a good 10 lbs by now!!

Cheers,

Corri, Mike, Noah and Ian

The Birth of our Beautiful Ian!

Mike and I were to arrive at the hospital at 7am on Tues. Nov. 2.   It was already a special day as it was my Mom's birthday.  She was going to get a grandson from us for her birthday - beat that Dana and Ryan! :-) 
I took one last picture before we left in all my huge glory.

I got a call around 5am telling us that we had to delay our arrival as things got rather busy over the weekend and all the rooms were full.  Ok, a slight setback, but no worries, they were going to call at 9 and let us know when to arrive.  I got in a little more sleep and by the time I woke up, noticed it was 10:30 and no phone call yet. 

I opted to take matters into my own hands and call the hospital, to which they said, "come on in."  Mike and I were ready to get the show on the road.  We arrived around 11 and they got us back to a room around 11:15.  We had the sweetest nurse (who was also a bit of a talker) so she spent the next hour getting information from us and chatting.  I didn't get my IV until close to 1.  By this time, I'm STARVING as the last time I ate was around 6:30 the night before. 

I was only dilated to a one, so the doctor prescribed cydatec (sp?) to ripen my cervix (sorry if this is too much info!) versus starting the petosin (sp?).  This was done around 1:40p and they'd check me 4 hours from there to see if it had done any good.  I was getting contractions and was rather uncomfortable until my next check around 5:30.  The good news at that time was that the drug did work and I was well on my way to a 4!  Now we just had to get Mr. Ian to drop.  Since I was in pain, I was finally given my epidural and from then on, it was happy sailing.  We had a lot of waiting to do so I tried to rest while Mike entertained himself with a movie. 

You can see I was not thrilled, but sucked it up.  I knew at some point this child was coming out!

My doctor stopped by around 6 and we all placed bets on when the baby would come.  I was highly optimistic and said, surely by 9p!!  Mike and the doc were more realistic and guessed it would be after midnight.  You know me, I don't like to lose...but, I lost.  We had another long wait - to 12am to be exact.  Once midnight hit, I was fully dilated and they were ready for me to push.  By 12:21, Ian Nicholas Reichert was born.

Now, at the time, we didn't have his name, he was still just "baby."  We talked names with the doctor and the nurses to get opinions.  Even when he came out and we looked at him, out of the list we had, we still weren't sure.

When I saw him and held him, you know what my first thought was?!  I'm holding grandpa Al!  This baby was definitely a Reichert and saw that right away, even though Mike tried to tell me he looked like me.  Who's he kidding?!  Just look at that face!! 

He's such a good, sweet-natured baby!  After he was wrapped up, he calmly took in the world.

Proud papa!

And it was his disposition that brought us to figuring out his name.  He was so relaxed and calm, we went through our names and their meanings.  We went back and forth for a while and Mike opted to bring up a name we had initially eliminated from the list:  Ian.  When we saw the meaning:  God is Gracious, we decided that was perfect.

By 3am, I told Mike to go home to get some rest, I had gotten moved to my room and now just had to wait for the overnight nurse to go over some things.   When she finally showed up, turned out she was a chatty Cathy as well and I didn't get to sleep until after 4:30am.  Then I had nurses coming in by 5:30 and 6:30 to get stats and Ian was brought in at that time, along with breakfast.  Looks like I was not going back to sleep.  I left Ian to sleep in his bed until he started getting fussy.  All it took was picking him up and holding him.  That's pretty much all it takes.  He really doesn't cry at all and is such a good baby!  We tried dozing off and on, but I continued having nurses in and out of the room.  I think Mike arrived around 10a and we again tried to rest until lunch time.  2p-4p is official nap time in the hospital so we tried to take advantage of that as well.  The day kind of came and went and we were anticipating our first visitors, Noah and Aunt Dana. 

They got to the hospital around 6 and we had bets on where Noah would go first - Me or the baby (Mike was holding Ian.)  Well, I lost AGAIN!  I thought surely he'd want to see me, but no, that was not the case.  I had hoped to post a video of Noah's reaction when he arrived, but I couldn't get it to work (sorry!)  He comes bouncing in the room and as soon as he sees Mike with the baby, he heads over to get a look.  Instead of asking about Ian, Noah tells daddy he wants a balloon (he saw some outside our room) and that became his focus for the night. :-)  We were however, able to distract him with gifts "from Ian" and Noah was entertained for a little while at least.  Aunt Dana took over holding duties while Mike and I ate dinner.

Before they left (Noah's attention was rather short lived), we were able to get our first family picture and some interaction with the baby.  Noah did say he wanted to hold him several times.  I think he's going to be a wonderful big brother!  Very loving and sweet!

My beautiful boys!  It just doesn't get any better than this. 

Love to all,

Corri, Mike, Noah and baby Ian