Better late than never...

I have been seriously slacking on this blogging thing! So much has happened and I have not had the chance to update at all! So here is a brief run down...

1. Amelia has been 100% potty trained for over 2 months now...this includes bed time! Big girl panties all the time for this little miss!!

2. Amelia now sleeps in a "big girl" bed and LOVES it! Caelan has switched to the crib and every now and then still sleeps with mom :)

3. Judy just left back for Michigan. She was here for a month helping out with Caelan and Amelia while I started back to work. She has been a god-send!

4. Caelan turned 4 months on May 15th and is continuing to light up our lives! He is such a happy kid! He loves to smile and laugh and "talk" your ear off! He is close to rolling over and we are just waiting for the day when he goes all the way!!

Anyways, check out some of the pics below! Hope you all are well and I will try to get better at keeping in touch!!


Sleeping in her big girl bed!


Ooooh! Lobsters!


At the zoo...


4 Months Old!

Time Flies!

It is hard to believe that Caelan is already 9 weeks old! Where has the time gone!! Just check out how much he has changed in such a short time...

Just born...


One week old...


4 weeks old...


8 weeks old...


At his 8 week appointment he was 14lbs 6oz and measured 24" long...

Traumatic!

Yesterday proved to me why you can never turn your back on a toddler!

I had placed Caelan in his car seat (unstrapped) on the kitchen table yesterday while I went about trying to clean up the kitchen. As most of you with two children know, getting any sort of household chore completed can be extremely difficult. I have done this trick with Caelan a number of times and he really enjoys it. In his car seat he can see me and I can talk to him as I go about my tasks. However, I usually do not have Amelia around. Unfortunately, I forgot that she is extremely curious, especially when it comes to her brother.

As I was cleaning, I had turned away from Caelan for no more than a minute when I heard a sickening thud followed by a loud wailing cry. I turned around and found Caelan laying on the kitchen floor and Amelia saying "Caelan fell down!" I PANICKED! I scooped him up and just remember frantically screaming "What did you do? What did you do?" to Amelia. I guess I called Nick and was so hysterical that he thought one of our kids had died. I was crying and Amelia was cowering in the corner. I managed to call the doctor and they said to bring him in immediately.

I managed to calm down and get both kids into the car. At this point, Caelan was calm and Amelia was confused and trying to understand what had happened.

We made it to the doctor and thankfully he said that Caelan looked just fine. From what I told him, he thinks that Caelan most likely did a somersault in the air and probably took most of the fall in his bum. Which is good since any other way could have resulted in a very serious injury.

I didn't punish Amelia because she did not do anything maliciously. She just wanted to see her brother. The fault was my own for leaving him unattended and in a very precarious position.

Anyways, I am happy to announce that we are all doing well today. Caelan is his smiley happy self and Amelia was in good spirits this morning as well. As for me, I am just glad that my children are ok and will definitely be more careful in the future.

Hope you are all well! Tomorrow Caelan will be 8 weeks old and I will be sure to post new pics!

Birthday Postponed...

Yesterday marked Amelia's 2nd birthday! It is amazing to think that it has been 2 years already!!

Unfortunately, we have no pictures as of yet. For those that haven't heard, Amelia was diagnosed with pneumonia yesterday. Quite the birthday present! Her and I spent an hour at the doctor's and then another 45 minutes at the hospital for her to get a chest x-ray.

So tomorrow we are holding a belated little celebration for her with just Nick and I and my friend Sue who has become like an aunt to Amelia.

Anyways stay tuned for "birthday" pics! And if you haven't visited our Picasa in awhile you should! There are lots of new pics of Caelan and Amelia!

http://picasaweb.google.com/nicksquires

Birth Story

As many of you know, Caelan Dean made his grand entrance into this world on Friday January 16th at 3:16pm! He is doing fantastic and we are so blessed to have such a precious addition to our family!!

So anyways, for those that are interested, here is the story of how it all happened!

Thursday 1/15:

Spent the day much the same as any other day. Wondering when he would finally come and agonizing over the delay in "action." They only difference was that for once I seriously had NOTHING on Thursday. No contractions, no pains, nada!

That night I went to bed and can only say that I just felt "off". I was slightly nauseous and just didn't quite feel right.

At 12:30am I woke up and had to go to the bathroom. When I walked to the bathroom there was a "trickle" down my leg. I definitely thought it was weird but went back to bed. I figured, if it was my water leaking then I would start contracting. But after an hour of nothing, I fell asleep again.

At 3:30am I woke up again to go to the bathroom. I had a weird cramp in my side when I got up and this time there were 3-4 "trickles" as I walked to the bathroom. I turned on the light and there was some blood mixed in...that was when I knew it was the real deal.

Nick and I arrived at the hospital at 4:00am because I was Strep B positive and needed to be put on antibiotics. So they hooked me up to the IV and the wait began. Five hours passed of absolutely nothing. I had minor contractions about every half hour and literally felt completely fine. That is when they decided to start the pitocyn.

They started the IV at 9:00am and told me I should start feeling more steady contractions in about an hour. Well an hour and a half passed and nothing was happening. So they up'ed my dose.

At 11:00am the nurse came by and said that if I was ready, the Dr. doing the epidurals was going to be on the floor and I could get mine at that time. So, at 11:30am the Dr. came in to do my epidural and just as he was about to start my water broke and I went from no labor to active labor in a minute. My contractions were strong and about 2 minutes apart.

From there, things went very fast...and I mean very fast. I was fully dilated by 2:30pm and pushing by 2:45pm. Then at 3:16pm Caelan Dean made his grand entrance!!

He weighed in at 8lbs 10oz and 21.5 inches long! And is doing really really well!!

Check out our site for pics!

http://picasaweb.google.com/nicksquires

And the days continue...

Apparently my uterus is way too comfortable, because this kid just does not want to come out.

And for all those in a similar situation or soon-to-be...one bit of advice:

ALL THOSE STUPID "REMEDIES" FOR SPEEDING UP AND ENCOURAGING LABOR DO NOT WORK!

So don't waste your time and money!

Here's hoping he comes within the week!

Supposedly 9 more days?!?!

Ok so the most frustrating part of pregnancy has to be the last two weeks. You are uncomfortable and swear every day has to be "THE DAY" only for the day to pass and for you to wake up the next morning feeling exactly the same as the day before.

Now I admit with Amelia I was continually hoping that she would go early, only she didn't and arrived a lovely 5 days late. With Caelan, I told myself, there is no way this kid is coming early and had resigned to the fact that he would either go right to his due date or be late like his sister. The latter I am dreading, especially since from what we can tell he is not a small kid!

The cruelty of this pregnancy is that I have had some serious bouts of nice hard contractions and pre-labor signs for a week now. In fact, last night my contractions were getting stronger and about 5 minutes apart! We called my midwife and she said to come on in! At last, this baby was looking to be on his way!

WRONG! After 4 hours of what looked like some good early labor, I remained 2 cm dilated and in an even crueler twist of the fates, my contractions slowed to 16 minutes apart and eventually stopped! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!

So the wait continues...and continues...and continues...

Anyone want to venture some guesses on when this kid will come? I am officially opening another pool just to keep myself occupied. So place your bets...when will this baby grace us with his presence?!?

Let the games begin....

(FORWARD: Idea completely stolen from Kara Tait!)

Well I am 21 days from my due date so it is time to play...(cue cheezy game show music)

GUESS CAELAN'S WEIGHT!



Place your guesses now and the winner will receive a prize!

GOOD LUCK!!!

A Very Merry Christmas

Despite being in Massachusetts for 3 years now, this is the first Christmas we have spent here and not gone home to Michigan. We had a great day and Amelia had so much fun opening her presents...the only thing missing was our families.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well!

Much love
The Squires


http://picasaweb.google.com/nicksquires

Winter Wonderland

Yay for snow! The past few days have brought an amazing amount of snow for us here and Amelia has loved every bit of it! Here are a few samples of her joys in the snow (we have had a hard time getting her to come in!) For more, make sure you check out our website:

http://picasaweb.google.com/nicksquires



Rosy cheeks and ready to play!



Laying in the snow...



Daddy - Daughter Snow Angels...

Hospitals already?!?!

So although I am still only 34 weeks, I had my first trip to the hospital today. I went in for my normal appointment and while waiting my heart started racing and my blood pressure sky rocketed (it has been doing this on and off for about a week now). They quickly shipped me off to the hospital where I sat hooked up to the non-stress machine (so much fun) and had to have an EKG.

Turns out that I might have what is called Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT) and that I most likely have had it my whole life, but for whatever reason Caelan is causing it to really act up. Basically SVT is when for whatever reason I have increased blood vessels to my heart which leads to increased nerve impulses resulting in a racing heart. I have always had a racing heart (seriously I remember it started racing when I was like 5 years old) and I have just dealt with it because it doesn't happen that often. However, Caelan is causing it to happen on a daily basis now and well it sucks. I get dizzy, light headed and headaches...not to mention out of breath.

So anyways, I have to take the rest of the week off of work and go see a cardiologist so that they can hook me up to a halter monitor (a mobile EKG that I have to wear for 24 hours). The good news is that it isn't life threatening and hopefully after I have Caelan will go back to only happening intermittently.

In other news, Caelan is healthy and doing well. Unfortunately for me and my pelvis, they are estimating that he is now about 6lbs and I have 6 more weeks to go...argh!!!

I will keep you posted on how my appointments go!

Latest update on Caelan!

I had an ultrasound and appointment today to check in on how Caelan is doing. For those that don't know, I am consistently measuring large for my date which could be a number of things. The ultrasound did show that I am on the higher end of normal for amniotic fluid, but that I am still in normal range (whew!) so no worries there. And, to no surprise, Caelan is turning out to be one big kid! He is measuring at a size that most would expect for 32 weeks (I am only just now 30 weeks) and his current estimated weight is 4lbs 4oz (the average is about 3lbs at this stage) so he is falling in the 81st percentile already! Looks like he is well on his way to being a 10lb baby! Anyways, see below for the latest pics of our "little" guy!










Closing his eyes and waving goodbye! :)

Halloween!

Halloween fun!







For the rest of the pics, check out our site!
http://picasaweb.google.com/nicksquires

Pumpkin (or Punkin) Carving!

Amelia helped carve out pumpkins this evening and we all had a lot of fun! At first she didn't want to touch any of the pumpkin guts, claiming it was "Dirty!" But, she finally gave into her curiosity and had a blast!








"SQUISHY PUNKIN!!!"


Two down...


Amelia stomping her feet singing "Spooky Punkin Patch!"


All finished...four "spooky" Halloween pumpkins!

Let's hope the neighbor kids don't smash them before Halloween!!!

Why I don't like Obama....

As most of you may, or may not know, I have always leaned a bit to the left when it comes to politics. In fact, I have been called a conservative liberal. However, I just can't bring myself to vote for a man who's followers, in my opinion, border on complete idol worship. I know some of you are "All for Change" but come on! Step back and realize just how fanatical the Obama followers, I mean "supporters", have gotten. Case in point, this photo was taken at a street fair in San Francisco...





If you don't find this disturbing, I feel sorry for you.

Autumn Fun!

Making caramel apples!!



Such a big helper!



First pony ride!





Pumpkin!



Walking to the pumpkin patch...

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY NICK!!!

Happy Birthday to a fantastic husband, loving father and most importantly my very best friend. I love you so very very much and look forward to sharing the next milestone with you!

Love always
Shaina

Like Mother Like Daughter

So in taking this statement to its most literal translation...Amelia broke her wrist yesterday. (For those of you that don't know, I have broken my arm (4 times...twice on each), my ankle, and numerous fingers and toes). She was at the table and was trying to get down. She misjudged how close she was to the edge of the chair and fell off.

After x-rays, lots of crying and 3 hours at the ER...it turns out she fractured both her radius and ulna (the two bones in the forearm). It is called a buckle fracture which is good because it should heal quickly.

She is in a temporary cast right now and we have to go on Tuesday or Wednesday to get her real cast put on. She will have to wear it for 4 weeks.

So that's the news...hopefully she can stop at one break and not have to try and surpass my record!

It's a BOY!!!

We are happy to announce that we are expecting a BOY! The ultrasound was yesterday and it was so exciting to hear (and see) that there is going to be a baby boy rounding out our family! Check out the pics!









Right after she printed this pic he started sucking his thumb!

Three weeks of fun....

We just got back from our three week vacation to Michigan and it was GREAT seeing everyone and being able to hang out!! It really makes you realize just how much you miss out on when you are not around family.

We have tons and tons of pictures so please check out our picture site!

http://picasaweb.google.com/nicksquires

In other news, we hopefully find out what we are having on Aug 29th...so keep your fingers crossed! I am officially 19 weeks today...almost half way there!