I doubt this is going to be long lived but the last two nights Rory has slept 7 or more hours straight. Needless to say I am over the moon! Of course I continue to check in on her while she sleeps and we are still sleeping in the same room so I hear all her noises as she squirms about. I was nervous enough to do a little research and make sure I shouldn't be waking her up and she seems to be relatively normal. Only a very small percentage of babies sleep through the night at this age, and they don't recommend more than 8 hours of her not eating but like I said in the beginning, I doubt this is going to be long lived so I'm just going to let her be and flourish in my well rested baby. I thought that if I shared it maybe I could jinx myself into having a sleep-through-the-night baby, wish me luck!

I decided while pregnant with Max that I did not like the traditional babybook and that I wanted to make my own. My mom had been wanting to make a wedding album since her original one had fallen apart years ago so she was excited to have someone else to scrapbook with. When I talked to my sister-in-law, Katie, she also wanted to make her own babybook for Lyla and our little scrapbooking get-togethers started. My mom was generous enough to offer to let us all get away for a weekend and scrapbook up at the lake. As you can see by the table, we have far too much stuff but it all comes in handy and we all want more!

Outside of my mom, Katie, and myself we also had our 3 kids, Dusty, Rosie, Randy and Randy's girlfriend, Ashley so it was a full house. We had Max sleeping in the laundry room and Lyla sleeping in the pantry! We still were able to make it outside to play in the little bit of snow before it melted, here's one of my favorite pictures from the weekend of Katie and Lyla.

Max and Lyla got lots of cousin time in. I think they may have gotten a bit more than they bargained for as they both got pretty crabby but it was fun to watch them interacting even if it was fighting over a toy. Here Lyla is trying to figure out how to pull Max.

Rory pretty much slept, cried or ate the whole time we were there. We brought up her swing that she loves so we could put her down and work on our books. I was able to finish up Max's scrapbook and even start on Rory's so I was very happy! I can't wait to get together and work on them again!

I had my first experience with Max being jealous yesterday. He didn't like me talking to Rory and pushed me back to sit on my lap and cuddle. At least he was OK with me talking to Rory after he was in my lap. Usually Max is quite the helper. He is actually a little too helpful as he brings me every blanket he can find while I'm feeding Rory and will even take the pacifier out of her mouth just to hand it to me all while saying "baby". He got to help feed Rory with Daddy the other day and he thought that was pretty cool.

Andrea and I were able to get Max to hold Rory all by himself (with a little pillow help) to get this picture. What was so funny was when we told him we were all done he wanted to give me the baby by shoving her at me.

He is constantly trying to pick up Rory and help get her in her car seat or swing. Thankfully she doesn't seem to mind all of the attention he is giving her. I have a feeling her first smile may just be at him instead of at me. I guess we'll have to wait and see!

Rory is a month old today! Naturally I had to snap a picture for the baby book and share it with you all!
Last night we had cousin Lyla over to carve pumpkins. (Mom, Dad and puppy came too!) It was rather fun watching the dads do all the work!
The kids had a great time digging into the pumpkins and eating the seeds.

Lyla even tried a bit of the "gunk".

Naturally the moms got to hold the kids for the picture and pretend that we did something!

I can't wait for Halloween!

Rory had been struggling with a cold for the better part of 2 weeks. On Sunday it developed into a cough that I just associated with draining from the cold. Tuesday night the cough started to get worse, resulting in little sleep for me and a very irritated baby. I made an appointment and took Rory in to see our pediatrician on Wednesday. They hooked her up to a monitor to measure the levels of oxygen in her blood. Rory was very upset during this whole ordeal as I woke her up from a deep sleep taking her out of the car. Her oxygen levels were just under 90% and the pediatrician informed me that we'd have to take her to Children's Hospital. I was doing OK with this information and told her I'd just need directions there. The pediatrician then informed me that if it stays below 90% we'd be going there by ambulance. I lost it then. I mean, who wants to go anywhere by ambulance, my daughter was that sick?!

I stepped out of the room to call Dusty and also to call Suzanne, my mother-in-law, to come and pick up Max since I was not going to bring him with me. When I returned to the room the pediatrician was able to get Rory to calm down a bit and when she was calmer her levels were just above 90% which meant we could do a couple tests at the clinic and then drive ourselves to Children's. Suzanne showed up about this time and told me that she would drive Rory and I there and then leave with Max so that was another relief. We did a chest x-ray and a virus check and then were on our way with the chest x-ray on a disk and the promise that the virus results would be sent strait there.

When we got to the hospital Rory's oxygen levels were right up by 100% and she still did not have a fever so now we were really confused as to why we were sent there. On top of that, the disk with the chest x-ray was blank so they had to do another chest x-ray on Rory which meant pinning her down for the second time that day. They also did a nasal flush to check for H1N1 which was horrible to watch. She ended up getting a second one of these on Thursday and I got a picture that time so you can see how much fun that is to watch.

The chest x-ray showed a spread out infection which we were originally told was probably viral pneumonia. We'll later be told it is some sort of viral respiratory infection instead of pneumonia which will lead to even more tests but I'm getting ahead of myself. So we earned ourselves an overnight stay at the hospital. The hospital was full so we had to wait two hours for a room to open up. Yeah, two hours sitting in an uncomfortable ER room. Thankfully I had enough formula and diapers!

We finally made it to our room and met a bunch of nurses and the resident pediatrician who informed us that while it is possible we will only be there for one night they usually require a two night stay for babies under two months old with respiratory issues. Needless to say we were pretty frustrated and confused by the end of Wednesday evening as Rory still had no fever and her oxygen levels were still in the very high 90's if not 100%. The only thing they did the first night was keep her hooked up to a monitor to make sure her oxygen levels stayed high. She was eating great and keeping her diapers filled so there was nothing else that needed to be done; no meds, IV, nothing. Thankfully the nurses did let me put Rory in her car seat to sleep since that is the only way she sleeps right now. I don't know what I would have done if that would not have been an option! Here she is just hanging out in her crib. The cord is connected to her foot where the monitor is.

Dusty and I both developed colds Wednesday while at the hospital and since Rory was being tested for H1N1 there were a lot of extra precautions that were taken. Dusty and I had to wear masks whenever we left the room and all medical personnel had to wear masks, gloves and an additional layer of clothing which was removed and put in a canister to be washed every time they left our room. Everyone followed those rules which was nice since we were (and still are) pretty positive that Rory does not have H1N1; so we can feel safe that she will not get it from another patient if they were as diligent with them as they were with us.

The second day we met with the staff doctor and he ordered a bunch more tests since Rory's symptoms where not pointing to the viral pneumonia as originally diagnosed and he wanted to rule out a bunch of other options. Apparently a lot of the viral illnesses they see do not peak until 3-5 days so they told us we'd have to stay another night to monitor Rory and make sure she wasn't going to get worse. Rory was a champ through it all. Most of the tests that were done we don't even have the results for as they take 3-5 days but she never got any worse. She did have a slightly high white blood cell count so they took another look today to make sure it didn't go higher, and it didn't, it had dropped back down to normal, so we were discharged with instructions to visit with our pediatrician next week and obviously to watch her for any changes that could signal the infection is getting worse.

I'm exhausted since there is no such thing as good sleep when you are sleeping on a couch next to your child in the hospital. Stress, nurses coming in, a baby that still wakes up to eat 3 times a night, and a cold all made sure I never slept more than an hour strait at a time. But once we get Max to bed tonight Dusty promised me some alone time for a nice long bath and he'll help out with Rory's feedings tonight so hopefully I'll get a chance to recover too! Thanks to everyone for their thoughts, prayers and kind words. We have great family and friends and I really enjoy sharing our lives with you!

I promised pictures but I really don't have much. Max, Rory and I went to Underwater World with Auntie Rosie, Auntie Katie and cousin Lyla but I forgot my camera so I'll have to wait to get copies from Katie. The night before was a rough night for Rory and I but Grandma Suz watched Rory for me the next night so that I could sleep and it was MARVELOUS. Here is a picture of me with my kiddos before we left to go to Grandma's.

Yes Rory was not happy but hey, would you be happy if your brother used your body as a ledge while climbing into the seat? It was the best I could do. Hopefully she'll be smiling soon and then I'll work on a better picture. Maybe one with Dusty in it too since we have yet to get a family picture since becoming a family of 4?

We had Rory's 2 week checkup yesterday. Unfortunately it was not a good visit as we didn't even see the pediatrician until an hour after our appointment was supposed to have started. Max and Dusty were both with as they were getting flu shots and Max went from a happy child to a very crabby toddler during the wait. In our rush to leave I forgot all my paperwork so all I can tell you is what I remember. She weighed 8lbs 6oz and was in the 80th percentile for her height. Hopefully they call me back today and tell me they have everything because I left a lot of paperwork there.

Adjusting to Rory has been a lot easier since Dusty's been home to help. I shouldn't be happy that we're both home but it has been a lifesaver having him here in the mornings so he can get Max and let me sleep until Rory wakes up. Hopefully work picks up for him soon but I'm thankful for the time we're getting together to adjust to a family of 4. I promise to post more pictures soon, I haven't had the extra hand to pull the camera out; I could really use a third arm sometimes!