Another Trip to Labor & Delivery

Well we were in for another little adventure last night. I was feeling crampy much of yesterday but really didn't think much of it, par for the course these days :) By the time I picked Alli up and we got home, I was having pretty painful contractions every 5-10 minutes and they just felt different. My OB had warned me that I needed to be cautious and call if anything changed so after dealing with it for a couple of hours (Alli was such a sweetheart and kept giving me hugs and kisses to help with the "boo boo") I called the doc after putting Alli to bed. We spent a couple of hours in L&D hooked up to lots of machines that verified I was indeed having contractions. Luckily, the test was negative, reassuring us that it is highly unlikely I will give birth in the next two weeks. We finally got home a little before midnight and were both exhausted. I had a follow-up with my doc this morning. We discussed options to stop or at least lessen the contractions but unforutnately, because of my low blood pressure and tachycardia, I really cannot take any of the medications so I get to rest, drink fluids and pray!!! I still have a sneaking suspicion that despite all of these little scares, the little guy is just going to stay put until the scheduled c-section ;-)

Happy Memorial Day!!!

What an amazing weekend we had!!! The weather could not have been better ~ sunny and in the 70s Friday through Monday. Garrett was fortunate enough to have Friday off work so we all enjoyed a wonderful four-day weekend ~ only wish every weekend was like that :)

We spent Friday around the house/neighborhood as Alli and I had our playgroup in the morning and Garrett was in charge of getting the big girl bed ready for nap time. That was a bit of a fiasco in that, contrary to the manufacturer's assurances, it needs an Twin XL mattress NOT a standard twin. Luckily, the trundle mattress fit well and that's where we planned on her sleeping for now anyway. The new mattress had to be ordered and will arrive next Saturday. Alli LOVES her new bed and has been sleeping like a champ ~ woo hoo! She got out during her first nap to play by emptying her dresser drawers but we explained that was not allowed and now she stays in and is pretty cute about telling us "no out." Here's a shot of our little sleeping beauty zonked in her new bed:

No pictures of the "new" big girl room until the new mattress arrives and we can set it up completely.

We spent both Saturday and Sunday out at the beach on Treasure Island, having a wonderful time throwing rocks in the water. It was so beautiful and relaxing out there and Alli could not have been happier to spend so much time at the beach ~ we're pretty sure that is currently her favorite thing to do ;-) Doesn't get much better than this!

Monday was spent working and playing in the yard. Garrett was even able to spend the afternoon golfing with his brother while Alli and I napped ~ it was a fun but exhausting weekend :) Sad to see it come to an end but we enjoyed every moment of it!!!

We hope you all enjoyed the weekend as much as we did!

Happy Birthday to our Favorite Moms!!!

That's right, our moms have the same birthday ~ what are the odds??????????

Happy Birthday Moms (Jean & Adele). Hope you both have a fabulous day!!! We love you so much!

Here are some of our favorite pictures of our awesome moms on a special day years ago . . .

Very successful garage sale!!!

Well, we had our garage sale this morning and it could not have gone better! The weather was absolutely perfect ~ sunny and very warm. Tons of people came by and we sold nearly everything :) We were doing this to get back our garage but we actually made quite a bit of money, which was a nice treat. It was a little overwhelming first thing this morning when we were getting set up at 6:30 and people were already showing up ~ yikes! Talk about some serious shoppers! We weren't scheduled to open until 8 but we had sold nearly a third of our stuff before the official start time. No complaints here, we were just glad to see it go. Fortunately, everyone was very pleasant and we enjoyed meeting new folks and visiting. Although it was tough to let go of Alli's cute clothes, I did well ;-) We actually sold most of it and only have two small bins remaining. Alli was a big helper by entertaining all of our shoppers. She went with Daddy to get his hair cut this morning and got her first hair "trim" No length really taken off but it is cleaned up a bit now. I have to say that I'm thrilled I wasn't there for it but glad that G brought home the little bit of hair that they cut. Overall, great day!!! Of course, now I'm ready for a nap . . .

Happy Mothers' Day

I had the BEST Mother's Day so far (okay, so I will probably say that every year but it really was AWESOME!) I woke up to a little pat on my arm around 6 a.m. When I rolled over, I saw my little sweet pea. Apparently she got her foot stuck in her crib around 4:30 a.m. so G brought her to bed with us ~ she never sleeps with us so this was quite a treat. She gave me the sweetest smile, rubbed my arm then fell back asleep. It was AWESOME! We slept a bit longer before getting ready for church. When I came downstairs, I saw three beautiful plants and a couple of cards on the dining room table. Alli had a great time helping me open the cards and helped me put on my "Super Mom" sticker :) Before church, we went to my parents' house to visit and give my mom her gift. Church was a great as always and when I saw Alli after the service (she was down in her Adventures in God's Kingdom) she handed me a little red carnation. She was so proud and I nearly cried ~ I blame the sappiness on the pregnancy hormones. After church, we went for brunch with G's family at the clubhouse where we live ~ yummy!!! The afternoon was fairly relaxing. Alli took a great nap and G planted the flowers they gave me while I supervised During the evening, G took Alli for a run so I could take a bath. I was still in the tub when they got back and Alli came barging in and said, "I wanna come in!" Of course I had to let her and it was the best bath I've had in a long time!!! She was so snuggly. Poor thing has been a bit out of sorts all weekend and wanted to go to bed early (today she spiked a high fever 103+ poor baby). She was zonked before 8 p.m. I also fell asleep early. All in all, I would have to say it was a GREAT day!

What a difference a year makes . . .

I was looking back at our blog from last year and came across the following post:

Many of you know of the uphill battles we've faced with Alli and gaining weight. She's always been a little peanut but growing fine until last Fall when she got repeated ear infections. She lost weight and we've been struggling ever since to get her to eat and gain. We've been working with a team of specialists to address her low weight and had another meeting today. In the past, the main advice we were given was to "relax" and things will get better. Well, in the last month, we've tried to do that and thought it was working. We could not have been more wrong. Since her 1 year appointment on Feb. 4th, Alli has LOST 5 oz. We thought for sure that she would be at least 18 lbs, but nope, she was less than she was 3.5 weeks ago. I think the most frustrating part was they gave us absolutely no advice ~ just said that we're doing everything right. Apparently NOT or she would not be losing weight!!! I feel so helpless. My one job as a parent (aside from loving her with my whole heart) is to feed her so she can grow and I'm failing miserably at that basic job. I have gotten as creative as I can and I am out of ideas ~ what do you do with a child that just won't eat enough?
Posted on Fisher Family Updates 2.29.08 http://garrettandnikkifisher.spaces.live.com

So much has changed in a year. Not long after that post, we met Dr. Duro, a GI attending at Boston Children's Hospital. She gave us hope and a solution. Now, a year later, the little girl who was previously diagnosed failure to thrive, refusing to eat and off the weight charts is 25 lbs 7 oz (2oth percentile!!!) and 36.75 inches (90th percentile!!!). We went to see Dr. D (as Alli refers to him) for a growth check today and she is staying on her weight curve but exploding on height. She's tall and skinny just like her daddy :) What a little trooper she was. She loves Dr. D but usually cries once he comes in the room ~ not today. Nope, today she kept asking the nurse when Dr. D was coming and when he did come in, she smiled and chatted up a storm ~ he was very impressed. She got one shot today and while she didn't like it (who does?) she cried for only a moment then gave everyone a good chuckle when she walked out and asked the nurse for a sucker and stickers :) Life was good.

Yard Work and Supervising ;-)

Last week was fairly uneventful, I continued to take it easy and work from the couch as Alli enjoyed playing with her grandparents and friends. Garrett was busy with work. Fortunately, we've had a few nice days which allowed us (think Garrett) to get some work done in the yard. We decided to put in a vegetable garden but have not been agreeing as to how best to design it. Luckily, yesterday, we were able to compromise a bit and it is finally completed and ready for us to begin planting. Gardens are not new to us as we had one back in MA with both fruits and veggies but we have a new wild card here . . . deer. We have a lovely family of four deer that frequent our yard and as much as we like them, we do not want them eating our veggies! One of our neighbors suggested planting garlic around the outside to keep the deer out so we will give that a try. If anyone has other tips, we are all ears :) Since I'm still on modified bed rest, I wasn't exactly the most help but being me, I enjoyed playing the supervisor role ~ not too sure what Garrett thought about that ;-)

Aside from working in the yard, we've been going through all Alli's baby clothes to get them ready for our upcoming garage sale. This has been a slow process because I have such great memories of each little outfit and remember all sorts of things that she did while wearing them. Garrett has been patiently listening to me reminisce but I think he wishes I would hurry it up already! I cannot believe what cute clothes she had and as excited as I am to be having a little boy, I must confess that I am a little bummed that I will not get to reuse her clothes. Even Garrett would tell you though that I'm being good about what I'm keeping ~ very little actually!!!! The sale is in two weeks and we are hoping to get rid of everything so we can have our garage back. We are pricing to sell so wish us luck!

In other news, I have been given permission to fly back to Boston for one day to clean up my office and box up files I need to work from home. I fly out tomorrow morning and have to admit that I'm a bit nervous ~ silly huh? I'm sure I will be just fine and be back on my couch on Wednesday. We'll let you know how it goes.