A Year Ago

Can you believe that one year ago my precious Angel was born?  Riley Rose turned one on Friday October 7, 2011.

Josh & I were very lucky to be able to get pregnant right away with both of our girls and both of them were planned.  I knew one thing ... that I did not want Zoey to be an only child.  Finally with her in the GA Pre-K program, we were able to afford to add on to our little family.  My pregnancy with Riley was very different than my pregnancy with Zoey.  While I have have chronic hypertension and developed Gestational Diabetes with both girls, I had a much harder time managing them with Riley.  At our 20-week ultrasound we were told that the baby had dilated kidneys, so I would need to be monitored by a Perionataologist in addition to my regular OB/GYN.  The upside was that I have a lot more photos of Riley in the womb than I do with Zoey.  The downside was I felt like I spent my entire pregnancy in a doctors office and I worried that my new baby would have kidney problems.  Despite all of my ultrasounds, the one thing that was not picked up with the fact that Riley had a heart defect.

On Tuesday 10/5/10, I was having a lot of back pain, so I called me OB in case I was in labor, having been induced with Zoey, I didn't know what it felt like to go into labor naturally.  Well, false alarm, no labor for me, but my blood pressure was high enough that the Natalie, the midwife, decided I needed to be admitted to the hospital and induction started.  I guess natural labor in not in the cards for me.  So off we went to get our ducks in a row ... Anne to watch Zoey over night, bags packed (I wasn't quite ready)  ... and off we went to Northside Hospital.  We were admitted fairly quickly and settled into a nice large birthing room.  I thought that with my 2nd baby things might progress a little quicker.  Nope, not gonna happen.  56 hours later which included 2 attempts (the first was an epic FAIL) on having my water broke by the midwife, an epidural and many shots of insulin, we were ready to push (yea!).  Despite the epidural, I still had a bit of pain.  The upside what that within 10 minutes and 2 1/2 pushes, we were blessed with a 2nd beautiful daughter.  Again, I was a little surprised that she was girl since I had such a different pregnancy than with Zoey, but heck, I thought she was a boy too, so what do I know?

In an odd twist of events, I was so sick about 10 minutes after delivery that I was literally throwing up all over myself.  Good thing I did, since we decided to send Riley to the nursery sooner than we would have.  In the nursery they were able to see her O2 drop, because of that they called in the on-call pediatrician who heard a "clicking" noise in her heart.  That prompted the visit by the cardiologist, who detected the VSD (among her other heart defects).  All of this going on while she was in the NICU - so they were able to see that she had a bit of jaundice, and administered the lights

Being in the NICU, they also saw that when she ate Riley's heart rate would rise and her O2 would drop, which was rather puzzling, so a swallow study was ordered. The results being that Riley was aspirating her food into her lungs and would now require a feeding tube.  The NG-tube lead us in the direction of knowing that my sweet baby would need surgery for a G-tube ... the only problem was that she was too tiny to have it done at Scottish Rite.  Thankfully we have an awesome GI doctor, Dr. Olga Sherrod - not that I liked her much in the hospital, but only due to the fact that she was giving me (more) bad news - Dr. Sherrod called over to Egleston to talk with Dr. Mark Wulkan, a fantastic, cutting edge surgeon.  Luckily for us, Dr. Wulkan could do the G-tube surgery, it was just a matter of finding a bed space for Riley at Egleston that held us up.  So on her due date, 10/27/10, Riley was transported by a phenomenal ambulance team from Northside Hospital to Children's Hospital of Atlanta at Egleston, and on her 3-week birthday, Riley had her 1st surgery.

Nothing in this world prepared me for how she would look post-op, absolutely nothing.  But with the help of of CICU nurse Lisa, we were able to understand all that was happening to her and for her.  By the next day, Riley looked amazingly better.

Finally on 11/2/10, Riley was able to come home to us for the first time

We have survived 5 G-tubes busting, the first few of which required ER visits at Egleston, colds that turned into 10-day Egelston visits for respiratory infections, open heart surgery, and too many doctor's appointments to count.  Today we celebrate Riley's milestones:

• Off of continuous feeds through her G-tube
• Off of night feeds
• Cutting back on medications
• Repaired VSD (woo-hoo!)
• Eating baby foods ... and now some table foods to
• Sitting up
• Rolling over
• Tracking
• Smiling (although she is selective about her smiles)
• Reaching and playing with toys

All things that you generally take for advantage, but here we are today with a fantastic kid thanks to every one's hard work

Wedding Photos ... finally

I know I have been a slacker, but here are a few photos from Melissa & John's wedding:








Zoey & her Aunt Melissa getting (more) beautiful at Salon 7



Granpa with a few of his girls

The Jacobs Family

The New Mr. & Mrs. Giantinoto



Count Down

Only 4 more days and my baby will be 1.  Where has this year gone?  We have had so much going on with our precious baby and with her equally precious big sister:

• Zoey started pre-K
• Slightly premature birth of Riley
• A month in the NICU
• Surgery at 3-weeks old for a G-tube (I hate you G-tube, but love you too)
• Sent home with a hear condition and swallow issues
• Spent several weeks at the Children's Hospital with respiratory infections
• Zoey started playing soccer
• Rose Mary moved in to take care of Riley since day care was not an option for us
• Heart surgery on 2/25/2011 (yea!)
• Riley started speech therapy
• Riley started Physical therapy
• Riley started to "catch up" to her age - sitting up, babbling, etc
• Riley started eating some baby foods by mouth
• Zoey graduated pre-K (what a big girl she is!)
• Summer camp for Zoey
• Riley continues to progress with eating
• Zoey turns 5 years old and we have a fantastic Art Party
• Zoey starts Kindergarten at Ocee Elementary and my heart breaks a little at how big my girl is
• Riley is eating more & more by mouth
• We are told by the GI doctor that the G-tube will eventually come out, it's just a matter of time
• Party planning for Riley's big 1st birthday

10-year Anniversary

In order to celebrate our Tin Anniversary, Josh & I were able to take a long weekend trip to San Francisco.  Thanks in large part to my mother-in-law, Rose Mary and to Anne for watching the girls for us while we lived it up on the west coast.  We flew out on Friday morning, arriving afternoon local time, so we were able to do quite a bit that day.  We checked into our hotel, the Radisson on the Wharf, walked out their back door and were practically on Pier 39.  Of course one of the first things we saw were the seals, lounging in the sun.  Then we walked around all the shops and enjoyed a late sushi & delicious cocktail lunch.  Following that, we hiked.  That is the only word that best describes "walking" in San Francisco.

We took the Filbert Street stairs and started our climb up to Coit Tower, then down the hill and over to Lombard Street - the "crookedest" street, which of course, we climbed up.  We ended this excursion at Ghiradelli for a yummy (although expensive) brownie sundae.  After recouping in the hotel for a bit, we capped off the night at Fog City diner where we learned the difference between New England clam chowder and San Francisco clam chowder.

Saturday we rented bikes and embarked on a 15 mile tour of San Fran.  Unlike my unwise hubby, I opted for the electric bike - considering I have not ridden a bike since before we were married, I thought this was a good choice.  Now listen, you still have to peddle, like a normal bike, but when you come to a tough hill, you pull back on the throttle and it's just like you have someone giving you a push from the back.  Our bike ride took us though San Francisco, down to the water along a path.  We detoured over to the Palace of the Fine Arts, which was beyond gorgeous.  If we'd gotten married in San Francisco, this would have been the place we'd have taken photos for sure.  The best part of the bike tour was riding over the Golden Gate bridge - what a breath taking experience that was!  Finally we were down hill to Saulsilito, where we had a quick lunch, then a ferry ride back to San Fran (can you see I am getting tired of writing San Francisco over and over?).  Our next adventure was a Go-car ride.  This is basically a scooter with a fiberglass body around it and seats 2.  Built in is a GPS (we call her Rita) which guides you on a set path and shares information about where you are.  What a fun way to explore and have some freedom of where you are going.

Sunday was a nice, romantic day which started with a champagne brunch on a ship, which takes you around the bay.  We arrived at our assigned seat to find a card and a box of chocolates waiting for us - such a nice touch.  The food was delicious, and the champagne was flowing.  We had a piano player/singer to serenade us as well.  We got a different view of the Golden Gate bridge than the day before as we went right underneath it.  After our brunch we motored down to the pier for the boat to Alcatraz.  Yes, I know there is something wrong with me, but going to Alcatraz was probably #1 on the sightseeing list for me.  We did an audio-tour and took lots of photos.  Let's just say I am glad that I never had to do any time on the Rock.  Not a fun place to be, but man, did the prisoners has a fantastic view.

We changed hotels on Sunday from the Raddison at the Wharf to the Hilton in the Financial District.  Evidently the Hilton is the largest/busiest hotel in San Fran, so it was a very different atmosphere.  We got to see a different part of the city.  Monday started with a walking tour of Chinatown, which was what I expected, but Josh was sadly disappointed.  From there we did another Go-car tour, only this time going over to the ocean and through Golden Gate National Park.  Granted it would have been a lot cheaper to rent a car, but it wouldn't have been as much of an experience riding around in the Go-car as if we were Speed Racers slightly slower cousin.  For our last night in San Fran, we had dinner and drinks at the Top of the Mark.  We enjoyed having the sun set behind us, looking over the city.

San Francisco was a fantastic place for us to visit together.  I'm sure we could have done a lot more, but we had a great time in the amount of time that we had.  Hopefully I'll get some photos posted next.

School Days

Zoey is doing fantastic in Kindergarten, most days she gets a green on her behavior chart and she is loving her teachers.  I am so glad that my little girl is enjoying school and all that it brings, I just hope that stays true for her through the years to come.

Riley is kicking butt with her therapies.  Although she is still using her feeding tube, we keep trying to get her to take food by the mouth.  Dr. Sherrod had increased her to 185 ml per 1/2 hour feeds, but Riley doesn't seem to be taking so well to that, so we cut her back.  No one wants to see her spit up

Wedding Day

Saturday 8/27/11 came very early for Zoey & I, with us getting up at 4 am so that we could be at Salon 7 for 5 am.  All would have been going smoothly other than a few things - (1) Melissa's slip for her wedding dress was not with the dress at her house.  She realized that at 1am and the bridal shop at Macy's didn't open until 10 am .... oh, yeah, the wedding was to start at 10 am.  (2) we had hurricane Irene breathing down our necks.  Due to Zoey starting Kindergarten and the fact that both girls had doctors appointments, we had to be back in GA by Monday (cue in the stress factor here).

Fortunately all the girls looked beautiful, some yummy breakfast and mimosas seemed to help things along.  We all went back to Melissa's apartment to get ready, except for Rose, who went down to Macy's to raise a little hell and get Melissa's slip.  Eventually she was successful, and we were on our way to the church, only about 40 minutes behind schedule.

The ceremony was beautiful - Melissa was a gorgeous bride, and although sweaty, John looked great too.  The pastor said just the right things, and I think that made things go a little smoother.  Despite having the wrong slip and no blusher veil, it was wonderful.

From there, we piled in the limo and headed off to Majestic Gardens for the reception and pictures.  It was rainy, but we found a break in the rain and were able to take some pictures in the gardens.  The photographer, John Lennon (yep, you heard me right), did a great job and I am looking forward to seeing all of his finished photos.  The cocktail hour was delicious, full of yummy foods and drinks.

Sadly due to the weather, we had to leave the reception early, and get back on the road, home to GA.  We'd heard that the bridges leaving Long Island would be shutting down at some point, and we really needed to get back home.  We headed west with our goal being to get to VA and finding a hotel for the night.  We ran into a family also headed back home at one of the rest stop.  Unfortunately for them, the wedding they were attending didn't get past the ceremony.  The reception facility opted to close due to Hurricane Irene.  We stopped in Winchester, VA and were lucky to find a hotel with a vacant room - they only had a King size bed, so Josh, Zoey & I slept together, with Riley on a make shift bed on the floor.  All the cots, and double beds had been taken by other travelers.

I so hate that Irene had to come in and mess up Melissa & John's big day.  I know what it feels like to have several years (not month's) worth of planning go right down the drain.  I know how bad it sucks to be missing a bridesmaid.  I know that yucky feeling in the pit of your stomach that comes when you go to the next wedding and it appears that everything is perfect.  Perhaps that is the Fesselmeyer sisters curse ... be glad you're not one of us if you are planning a wedding.