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Just a quick update on Cate..

(since it's 6am and she has BOTH Greg and I up tending to her)

We came home yesterday(to MUCH fanfare) and spent the day trying to figure out how to be a family of FIVE!  Mema and Pop-pop had to quickly head for home after we got here, so we spent the majority of the evening just trying to get everyone used to having Cate here...

Fionn was fine all weekend in the hospital, and he was THRILLED to see her in the truck yesterday, but had a hard first couple of hours with her here.  By last night he was okay, but it was a tough day on my heart, as I can't just run over and scoop him up and love him.  

The little princess however was not fazed by anything.  She did give Zilla an odd look, but he just laid there and stared at her lovingly.  I swear he even barked less once he realized she was here.  And that itself is a miracle.  Just now he didn't even bark at the garbage men when they came!  

We were having fun with Cate last night.  This was an impromptu shoot in our upstairs hallway.  Daddy had a black shirt on, Cate was naked since we were changing her, so I just grabbed her bow and told daddy to hold her for a minute.  Her hair BLOWS me away!!  The other two had hair, but NOTHING like this!  

We have lots more to share, but this post alone took me hours to finish, lol, so i'll post more again later!! Enjoy our princess!!

Catherine Jeanne

Catherine Jeanne...

was born on Friday, April 23rd at 2:32pm.  She is not nearly as large as they thought she would be, and only tipped the scales at 6 pounds 8 oz.  She is TEENEY tiny, my smallest baby after all.  She is only 19 1/4 inches long, so we have quite the little peanut on our hands...

 Big Brother sneaking his first peek at hie Cate-Eeeeee(as he calls her)

Proud Big Sister Maggie put Mema and Pop-pop on high alert that SHE was third in line to hold Cate, after that everyone else could "fight it out" after her before she left for school.  We had to promise her that no one would hold Cate(besides mom and dad) before her.  She IS, after all. the Big Sister...lol

 

Mema waited patiently for her turn in the recovery room, and this is their first meeting.  Cate was sweet and let everyone love up on her.  This is Pop-Pop with her once we got out of recovery and into our room.  

Big Sister was stalking her with my phone camera( her eyes were open finally) while Aunt Shell and Uncle Bill got some snuggle time in.  She made sure though that she got turns in between everyone else to hold her again.  She just sat and talked to her and stared.  It was beautiful to see.  Cate was comfy just listening to her big sister's voice!

THIS is Maggie giving Cate her lovie, and in return, Cate gave Maggie these awesome matching hats. Cate's ribbon was a little snug though, so she'll get a new one when we get home.  I'll post a better picture of Cate with her lovie later.  

All too soon it was time for the kiddos to head back home with Mema and Pop-pop so they took turns giving her good-bye kisses...even Fionn.  He wasn't so sure on Friday about it all, but by Saturday he seemed to understand.  Every little cry he has to check on, and Greg had to pull up a chair so he could watch him change her diaper. 

Greg had to leave Saturday morning to go take Mag and Fionn to swim lessons, and I'm not sure who was more sad about that, Cate or daddy.  Yes, she's THAT tiny!  Her sweet big sister picked out this outfit so we had it on her waiting for Maggie to come in after swim.  

Aunt Shell and Uncle Bill came back with Pop-pop for a visit while the kiddos were in swim as they had to head back home last night.  Uncle Bill made sure to help Cate style her hair, which she has SOOOOOOoo much of!  Much more than my other two babies combined!  Look at those cheeks, just like Fionn's!  It blows me away how much she looks JUST like him...only girlie, lol.

 Once Aunt Shell and Uncle Bill got done fighting over her, Pop-pop got a little more snuggle time in.  Look how big his hand is in comparison to her little head! 

It was a FULL day Saturday, but at least Cate and I got a good nap in while Greg was gone taking the kids to swim. Friday night was tricky as she was trying to figure out this whole nursing thing, but we seem to be getting the hang of it now and she's having great sleep and alert patterns.  She seems to understand to sleep when it's just her and I, so that when everyone comes to visit she wakes up and lets everyone fuss over her.  LOL, smart girl already!   

We are truly lucky, and she is PERFECT in every sense of the word!  Her size shocked us, and has us scrambling on a few fronts, but nothing is wrong health wise and that's ALL that matters.  She is with us in our room, and we are LOVING every second of our snuggling time together.  Right now she and daddy are zonked out in the chair, but I'm sure in just a little bit I'm going to hear a little squeak for breakfast!  

I'm going to try to sneak another little nap in since daddy has her, but we'll share more of Cate soon!! 

Re-purposing...

It's  

Earth Day  

and here at our house that's a big deal.  

Our post is a little late tonight as we had a HUGE day preparing for Miss Cate's impending birth tomorrow.  So before we tell you about our "re-purposing" I will tell you that Cate's Amnio went VERY well today. 

I was up ALL night, and Fionn must have known how worried I was, because HE was up and down all night as well.  I woke up shaky, still cramping and contracting, and just S-I-C-K about our Amnio this morning.  We had one two years ago with Fionn, and it was extremely painful and even though we had it, he STILL ended up in the NIC-U for eight LONG days. 

Today's Amnio was very easy, and I felt silly being so worked up about it.  The difference was (it would seem) is that  I was oligo with Fionn (VERY low fluid) and they had a hard time hitting that teeny tiny little pocket of fluid.  The sweet tech had to dig that nasty needle around to hit it and it hurt like crazy.  When they pulled the fluid out last time there was so much pressure it was unreal and when they pulled the needle itself out, it actually made a little popping noise because of all the pressure.  Because I was oligo, my placenta was starting to "poop out" and Fionn had to be born that day, so when we got the news that his lungs may not be quite mature, it scared us like nothing ever has.  And then he was born, and didn't cry right away...scariest thing IN. THE. WORLD.

But the good news is he DID cry, even if it took eight more days to bring him home, at least we did!!!

So you can see why I was so worked up about today's amnio.  Scared silly.  Blood Pressure through the roof.  From the start it went much better this time.  LOTS of fluid to chose from, and no problems getting some of it extracted.  The worst possible thing that could have happened after today's (besides my water breaking) would have been that we would have had to wait a few more days to meet her...as uncomfortable as I have been, that still would have been much easier than seeing her head off to the NIC-U.  That has been the main goal all along, just a NORMAL hospital stay, and I am more happy than I can tell you that as of right now, it looks like THAT is what we're going to get!!  

Thank you ALL for all the prayers, they were felt today!  There is not enough words to express our gratitude for all the well wishes we got today.  

Not sure if you believe in the power of prayer?  Today while FREAKING out, waiting in my Drs office waiting room, even though I had NO SERVICE I kept getting text messages from people telling us they were praying.  Seriously, there is ZERO amount of service at my Ob.  It's in the basement of a large hospital and it is the deadest dead zone I've ever seen.  Yet, somehow...the messages kept coming.  Thank you Father, thank you!

BUT back to why I started writing this post, EARTH DAY (and how it applies to Cate)

You've all seen my hats, if not, just click on the Etsy tab above.  We wanted though to make something special for Cate.  We looked around the web and found a pattern for a lovie.  It couldn't be just ANY lovie though, according to Maggie.  So we found it.  And made it.  

 This is not it.  LOL.  THIS, however is a stuffed animal that was tagged for the "donation" pile by Maggie.  We just went through ALL her toys (and the whole third floor was a playroom) and played, "trash, donate, keep"  This sweet puppy just didn't make her cut.  I guess that's what happens when you're the only child for FOUR whole years.  Her build a bear stash is big enough to make me blush.  (BUT, since I didn't buy most of them, I'll pretend it's not that bad.)

This sweet puppy though, instead of being donated, was "re-purposed"  Cate's lovie needed some special touches, and we looked around for things we no longer were using to give it those touches.  It makes it more special that way.  So we un-stuffed this guy, making sure to take out ALL his stuffing and saving the extra we were not using for another purpose later.  It seemed much more economical than just going out and buying a bag of stuffing.  And the best part about it, Maggie was THRILLED to think of her things having a new use.  SO not only did we use this puppy to stuff our NEW lovie's head, but we also re-purposed an old Barbie play dress that no longer fits and has seen better days for it's pink satin underskirt.  

Maggie INSISTED that Cate's lovie have a satin backing(she has a thing for tags)and who am I to say no? 

Here is a sneak peek at Cate's lovie, we can't WAIT to show you the whole thing, for it has some GREAT additions on the front as well...

BUT...

you will have to see the lovie WITH Cate to see the front!!  I promised her sister! 

Prayers for Cate

This fabulous picture is compliments of my wonderful hubby!!

This is it folks, it's FINALLY here, the week we welcome our new little girl to our family.  It's been QUITE the ride, and I don't remember a time that I've been this tired honestly.  As we count down our final days I ask that you PLEASE say a prayer for our sweet Cate.  Please pray for Lung Maturity as we head in for our Amnio on Thursday.  I have been in REAL active labor for over a week now, and although the contractions are slowly coming faster and harder, I am not progressing.  I already had a C-section planned for NEXT Friday (the 29th) but because of the labor, they have bumped me up to this week. 
We know that girls lungs mature faster than boys, but there is still a chance because of the Gestational Diabetes that she's not going to be ready.  IF she's not ready, then we wait another week...we don't want to put Cate in ANY danger, but I'm not sure my body can handle another week of this.
So please if you could keep Cate in your prayers this week, we would greatly appreciate it.  IF she's ready to go on Thursday, we'll be showing her off this weekend for sure!!

Happy Easter!!

Everything is in bloom here in the Burgh, and it is absolutely GORGEOUS!

We went to church this morning, and even though we've lived here for almost four years now, its our first time for Easter Mass at OUR church. We ALWAYS go home for Easter. It was a bittersweet day, it's so hard to want to be in two places at once.

Greg's schedule didn't even give us the option this year as we are saving up the days off for Cate's arrival at the end of the month...So here are a few of our peanuts all dressed up after church. The dogwood is in bloom and we took advantage. I noticed it yesterday as we drove by and made sure to take my camera to mass with us!

 Speaking of Cate, here are a couple from our Ultrasound this week.  We were SUPPOSED to have a 3-D ultrasound this past week, but SOMEONE wouldn't cooperate.  The top pic of Cate is as close to seeing her beautiful little face as we're going to get until she is born on the 29th.  In the US she's looking straight out at us with an arm up on the bottom left of the picture(just in case you are wondering what you are looking at)  The bottom one is a foot that was shoved into my ribs.  It's not so little, but then again, we're not surprised.  Cate's weighing at a whopping SIX pounds already and we're hoping she stays on a good growth pattern until the 29th.

We hope you all are having a BLESSED Easter, and we promise to post more soon!!