The Deal Breaker

Hey y'all, Preacher here.

So it seems like I was all big talk last week when I promised to stay on top of this blog. A funny thing has happened. I'm feeling older with this baby, and I'm not the one who has done most of the work thus far (birthing, nursing, etc.). But really, I'm tired. It could be, I suppose, G's illness or Lent/Easter, or maybe the basement project that we're still putting the finishing touches on - but whatever the case, I'm pretty pooped. Anyway, that's a lame excuse. Everyone knows that you're supposed to be tired when you have a baby. The blog must go on.

Things have been going really well since the last update. Wes has had his first well baby visit and he's doing just great. For several days he barely opened his eyes, but now he has them opened a bit and he's doing a great job tracking us, especially G. When he hears her voice, he practically flips over to see her. It's pretty cute. He's also doing a great job eating. He's hungry, which, I suppose is to be expected from a 9+ pound viking baby. At this rate, he has a few more days left in his 0-3 month clothes.

At first glance he looks a bit like G did as a baby. Then, when one looks closer, one can see a few of my traits in him like a wide nose, big feet and darker skin (than Eleanor). He also, unfortunately, has his daddy's hair. This is very much on my mind today since I had a haircut earlier this afternoon. In fact, my barber, who I really like, I'll call him 'A' to protect his identity (just in case) engaged me in this very topic. Our topic went something like this:

A: So, did your baby get your hair?

T: My hair? I dunno yet, he doesn't have enough to tell.

A: Well, you can see cowlicks right away. A baby doesn't need to have hardly any hair to see that.

T: Yes, Eleanor has said that she thinks I cursed him with my cowlicks [yes, I do have a couple of poorly placed cowlicks that don't offer a lot of options for hair styles].

A: Mmhmm.

(a few seconds of silence)

On the subject of reproduction, I used to breed dogs. And when you breed dogs, you take your dog and look all over the country for another dog to breed with - a dog that will have traits that you would like to see in a pup. But when you straight folks get together, you don't think about these things.

T: Hmmm, so what are you saying?

A: That I wouldn't breed with you.

T: (laughing uncontrollably) Oh really? Ouch. Well, I guess that's okay since anyone who wouldn't date me over a cowlick wouldn't be worth dating.

A: Well.

T: Really though? A cowlick could be a deal breaker?

A: Yep. I've turned down guys for less than that.

T: Wow. I bet you're special on a first date. What, like you say, let me see your hair?

A: Pretty much.

So, that's it. Just for that little comment, as soon as Wes is old enough, I'm taking him to A to get his hair cut so A has to deal with our cowlicks for years to come!

I've attached a few new pics, although true to being a second child, there aren't nearly as many as there were for G. There are definitely some pics that look a lot like G too. See for yourself by looking back at postings from January of '07.

Thanks for reading.

-TC

We'd like you to meet Wesley Tyler!

Wes was born today- Tax Day- at 12:30 pm. SURPRISE! Our little sneaky guy weighed in at 9 lbs 4 ozs, 21 inches long with a 14 inch noggin. We are all doing well...just sleepy. So we'll keep it short tonight and just show you a few pictures. Here ya go!

The Preacher's Daughter (and son)

Hey Guys (or Y'all for those of you down south), it's the preacher here. I've been away from blogging for at least a year now. Sorry. I didn't mean to drop off the blogosphere, I just got busy. But, seeing as I'm sitting next to Eleanor in a hospital birthing room, it looks like I'm on paternity leave for a little while and I'll have time to post some stories, thoughts and (hopefully) clever comments. That, (cleverness) is something that this young son of mine will have to start learning early. It's a point of pride for the Christiansens that we are all clever. Now, this is not, mind you, corniness. No, our brand of cleverness is generally in the form of very dry humor that has a lot to do with timing. Sadly, this does not easily come across in blogging, but we'll give it a shot.

Speaking of things that a young male Christiansen must learn . . .

He must also learn to appreciate his mixed, but largely Scandinavian heritage. This includes eating 'skivers (see blog entry from January 2007), lefse and pretending to enjoy pickled herring on holidays (there, I said it. I only pretend to like it). If you are from the land of y'all-ers, lefse is a wonderful Scandi treat. Eleanor disagrees, but she'll learn to appreciate it one of these days, much like Minnesota weather.

Lastly, the young lad will have to, like his father, and his father's father, and his father's father's father, cheer for sports teams that will tease you and leave you devastated (see '91 and '97 Gopher Men's basketball, two plus generations of Gopher football, the '00 and '10 Vikings, the Twins 2003-present. Sorry little buddy, but that's just the way it is.

Anyway, back to the hospital.

So, at E's doctor appointment this (Wed) afternoon, the doc said that it was time to induce. We were set for an appointment at 6am Friday. We thought that sounded good. It gave us a bit of time to finish preparing and two more good nights of sleep. And then, as if proving to us that he's already controlling our lives, E's water broke just after midnight. So, we got up, called the doctor on call and phoned grandma (my mom), who came over immediately to stay with Gboo for the night. Ellie and I jumped in the car. Wait, no, we actually took a long time to leave the house. I mean, for having our bags packed already, we still needed to gather a bunch of stuff together. Not only that, but when we packed a week or two ago, we packed winter clothes, but we had to repack tonight because it's pretty warm out. It's 65 out and it's the middle of the night. And humid here too. You 'Bama folks would feel right at home. Now that I mention it, Granny and Gramps, you should probably make your way up here now. Time for a stroll . . .

We just got back from a walk. The nurse suggested that we take a stroll around the floor so we did. The only problem is that the floor is really pretty small, especially when you are walking for walking's sake. The highlight of the walk was the dozen or so times we paced by the nursery. Looking in at those babies is really quite the reality check. We were reminded that our lives are about to get rocked once again.

Okay, I'm getting pretty tired now. It's 4:04 CST and I'm actually struggling to type. So, I'm hanging it up. Next posting should include pictures, or at least his name!

-The Preacher

Easter fun

We had a lovely, but busy Easter celebration this last week. An event at church every day. Baby measuring huge (8lbs 4oz LAST Monday) and *hopefully* coming soon. Getting the house re-settled now that the basement is DONE and putting baby ____'s room together. Family time. Shew...we were busy...and cubby hung in there through 12 on Sunday so we are now cheering him on to make an appearance at ANYTIME. We are thankful that so many things have come together this spring just at the right time, so we won't complain. But we have been busy!

We took some pictures at our Easter dinner with Grandma Marmo yesterday (actually Aunt Kebbie took all the pictures....they are gorgeous. Her husband calls her the paparazzi, but we definitely benefit from her talent!) and we thought we should share. Greta is doing great as you can see in these pictures. It frees us up to really begin concentrating on the new joy that will SOON be entering our life (are you listening baby? SOON). Hope you enjoy some of our footage.

Much love and we hope you had a really happy Easter celebration,

E, T, & G

It's a green day in more than one sense of the word!

Happy St Patty's Day! And we are having some unseasonably warm weather here in MN. Hey-O! So we ventured out to our neighborhood park to celebrate. Greta & mommy walked/waddled the block and a half to THE PARK! (this is always spoken about with an exclamation point behind it) and Greta even pushed her stroller full of animal friends there. Perhaps she is nesting? Preparing for baby brother? Maybe. Or maybe she just wanted to figure out a way I would let her bring her animals to the park. Either way we made it and daddy met us there after work. It does us all good to get outside and get a little fresh air! I included a pic of myself in the collage. You can see how....substantial... I am. I'm measuring 3 weeks ahead- oiye. And no, I'm not carrying twins, no need to ask. Enjoy a few pictures of us stealing some sunshine today.

One more: Recovery

So, I'll just make one post about Greta's illness and recovery. We have a few pictures of Greta at her most ill...mostly for her one day if she wants to see them. I'm still not comfortable sharing them- they stir up such intense feelings of vulnerability and sadness. However, I will post some pics of the massive machinery that Gboo was hooked up to, just so you can have an idea how she earned the name "miracle baby" in the PICU. I'll then post some pics from various stages in our recovery...and say a little prayer of thanks for where we are today. Hopefully the rest of our postings will all tell happier stories from here on out. However, it feels weird not to acknowledge this huge life changing event too so here goes....

ECMO...here's a look at the Extracorporeal Membrane Oxgenator (machine that oxygenates and circulates the blood outside of the body). The 2nd picture shows our child on her bed...you can see the large tubes carrying her blood in/out of her body that hook up to the ECMO (located to the left of this photo). You can also get a feel for how many meds she was on by the scads of IV "brains" that are at the foot of her bed. She was hooked up to the ventilator but it wasn't doing any of the work for her at the time (the ECMO was doing that) and the big lights were warming lights to make sure her toesies didn't get too cold. You can see why we couldn't just hang out in her room....there was no space.

Waking Up:

A few pictures of Greta once we got up to the 5th & 7th floors. She loved the wagon and it was a great way to get her out of the room when she was still too weak & sedated to get around herself. We had to re-teach her how to walk & swallow. Thankfully we did not have to re-teach her how to snuggle...

Going home & further recovery:

Greta slept through her departure from the hospital- but daddy's happy face says it all. She continued to have muscle weakness including weakness in her left eye. We've been going to PT & OT (leg work & upper body work) weekly since home and have seen remarkable progress. Finally when we said goodbye to all of the weaning drugs this week we are really seeing our little girl shining through again...an amazing gift. Kissing mommy's baby tummy & standing beside her amaryllis, you can get a glimpse of what we're seeing today.

Just 2 months late...

Hi friends.

I know those of you that check this blog have probably followed our family's story on Caring Bridge for the last 2 months. So, I don't suppose you are surprised that there have been no recent postings of Gboo's bday party or any of the aftermath. Well, I'm here 2 months later to give some updates and try and get back on track.

I have to tell you...looking at the pictures from Greta's birthday party bring me more pain than joy right now. It just sends me to that scary place and reminds me of how strange Greta's illness progression was (from her party to life support in 24 hours). But I'm trying...and our idea for her party was cute...so here's the scoop. We threw Greta a storybook party and asked some of Gboo's friends (playdates within the last year) to come dressed as a favorite storybook character. We had a dress up station (if someone wanted to change personas), a bookmark making section (which was largely ignored in the hubub), a reading area with G's favorite books, and of course the play area. We served pizza then had a cupcake for each child...a bookworm of course! The kiddos were darling...Madelines, the Cat in the Hat, Princesses, Bob the Builder, Little Red Riding hood, and our own little WonderPet (yes I know, only loosely literary but that's the only costume she'd consider!). It was a fun little party...enjoy the footage of our first "friends included" birthday party!