Happy Birthday to Grace!

Grace turned 3 on September 19th this year. This was a bittersweet day for me. I was really sad that my mom wasn't able to be here to celebrate with us and watch Grace really understand and enjoy her birthday. At the same time I had so much fun watching Grace really enjoy her birthday for the first time. Below is a video of Grace enjoying the birthday festivities at Jenny's (the kids' babysitter & family friend) house.

Baby Giggles

In the beginning of September Patrick really figured out how to laugh. I was fortunate enough to catch it on video one day after work. There's nothing like those big belly laughs.

Video a Day?

I just got an Iphone in August and I really love it. I felt really guilty for buying such an expensive phone for myself, but so far it has been worth it. I have taken a ton of videos of the kids and I haven't been posting because I went back to work at things are crazy. I am going to try to post a video-a-day to catch up and keep people posted on our family.

These videos are from August. Grace has turned into quite the little singer lately. She picked up the microphone and just rocked out. At the time Jason was working crazy hours so you can hear Grace sing "and Daddy's at work..." haha.

Dance Camp

Grace completed her first dance camp this summer. It was a five week program and during the last week of class we were able to watch. The class was from 1:30-2:15 which was a little tricky since that is her nap time. Fortunately, she will be joining a class in the fall that meets on Saturdays from 10-10:45. We are really proud of Grace and her progress from just a few weeks. We can't wait to watch her dance skills continue to grow this year. Jason took some fantastic pictures. It was so hard to choose a few to add to the blog. Feel free to check the gallery for more.

Scaring one of the other little girls.

Getting her bunny nose ready!

Jumping over the puddles.

She just loves getting her sticker at the end of class.

Is it August Already?

I cannot believe that it is August already? I wanted to be better about blogging this summer, but it just didn't happen. We have been so busy just enjoying life and I have loved spending so much time with my family.

Patrick is getting so big, so fast! It is unbelievable how fast babies grow. I think that with Grace I was rushing to get to the next stage, but with Patrick I have really tried to soak it all in which makes it a little harder to watch him grow and change so fast. He had his 2 month check-up on July 15th and he weighed 11 lbs 3 oz. He is also 23.5 inches long and his head circumference is 15.5 in. That all means that he is in the 19th percentile for his weight and head circumference. He is in the 49th percentile for his height. He is already wearing some 3-6 month clothing and even some 6 month items. He rolled from his back to his belly to his back for the first time on July 22nd and just yesterday he rolled from his back to his belly. He is still trying to gain full control of his head so we don't let him sit in the bumbo seat yet, but I know it will come in time. Patrick also loves to chew/suck on his thumb and hand. It is so adorable.

As for Miss Grace, she became fully potty trained in the beginning of June. She still has some accidents here and there, but we are so proud of her. This took a lot of patience on our end, but she did in her own time and when she was ready, she was ready. I was really bummed that my Mom was not here to see this accomplishment. She was often here helping Grace along and even from the hospital she tried to bribe Grace to use the potty. I know she would have been so excited and proud of Grace. Grace recently started taking dance classes and she loves it. She is completing a five week camp right now. She likes it so much that we decided to sign her up for the full year class in the fall. She also had her first dentist appointment today (8/5). I am so proud of her! She was the perfect patient and her teeth are fantastic according to the dentist. We are going to begin brushing her teeth twice a day, flossing and teaching her how to use "big girl" toothpaste. Here are some pictures for you enjoyment.

Seabreeze and a Growth Spurt (so old, but here it is)

This week was the beginning of my summer vacation. My aunt, cousin and I decided to take the kids to Seabreeze yesterday. I have many fond memories of this amusement park as a child, so I could not wait to take Grace there. We kept telling Grace about it all week, so by Friday she was more than ready to go. We arrived right when the park opened at 11 and went straight to the wave pool. Grace had a ton of fun there and on the kiddie water slides. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures because I was either feeding Patrick, pumping or enjoying the fun with Grace. At about 1 o'clock we headed over to the rides. The water really tired her out, but she still had a great time. Here are some pictures of her on the rides.

Patrick August's Birth Story

I have been trying to write this post since May 11th. Apparently life really is a lot busier when you have a two year old and a newborn.

Warning: This is very long and TMI.

Most of you know by now that Patrick August Gringer was born on April 28th at 1:43 am. On Easter Sunday I was awakened by our house phone ringing at 6:15 am. It was the hospital (Unity) calling to tell me that my mom was bleeding from her trach again and they were moving her back to ICU. Unfortunately this meant that she had to go back on the ventilator. I immediately got dressed and called my brother so we could head up there to make sure she was ok. As I was driving up there I thought to myself this stress might make my water break and that's the last thing we need. After sitting at the hospital for a few hours I started to cramp and I decided to use the restroom. To my surprise, I started to lose my mucous plug. The cramping seemed to stop though. On Monday morning I woke up for work feeling nauseous. I went to work and felt fine the rest of the day. On Tuesday morning I woke up feeling really nauseous and I actually got sick. I felt pretty terrible all day and I was extremely tired. I wasn't really sure what was going on since part of our family was battling a flu from the weekend. I didn't know if it was labor or if I was sick. I was having what I thought were braxton hicks contractions, but at times they were kind of painful. I began timing them, but they were all over the place. I ended up going home right after work and I didn't even go to the hospital because I still thought it was a flu and I didn't want to get my mom sick. I laid on the couch all night and timed my contractions but they were still all over the map. I went to bed early just in case anything happened. I didn't have any contractions throughout the night and when I woke up I felt really good. I showered and began getting ready. While I was drying my hair I began to have some mild cramping. I drove to work while having some more cramps. When I arrived to work (@7am) I felt off so I went to the bathroom and I was immediately shocked and scared to see blood. I called Jason immediately to tell him what was going on and he said to calm down and call the doctor and then call him back. I called the doctor and waited for what seemed like forever for the on call doctor to call me back. When she called back she said it is completely normal, but she wanted me to head to their office to get checked just in case. I left school completely in denial that I was in labor. While I was waiting to see the doctor at about 9am I began to have very mild contractions. I couldn't even tell if they were braxton hicks or the real thing. They were more regular though. I saw Dr. Herron who actually delivered Grace. She checked me over and said that I was 1 cm dilated and about 60 % effaced. She said I could have the baby that day, the next day or two weeks from then. Since I had a substitute for the day and I still wasn't quite sure if I was in labor I decided to go sit with mom at the hospital. Mom was convinced I was in labor and telling all of the nurses and techs that came in the room. I was still in denial. As the day went on, I did notice that the contractions seemed to become more intense. I decided to go pick up Grace from Jay's moms and head home just in case. I got home around 4pm and the contractions were getting progressively stronger and regular. Our friend Lilac came over around 7pm so Jason could help her make B-day invitations for her son's party. By this time I had the labor ball out because the contractions were much more intense and now they were also in my back. I didn't say that I was in labor yet. She noticed as soon as I came in and said "You look like you're going to pop! I bet the next time I see you, you'll have the baby." She was over for a while and helped with Grace as it was becoming more and more difficult for me. By 9pm the contractions were 5 minutes apart. I called my doctor's office and the doctor on call (Dr. Dwyer) called me back. She asked if the contractions were so intense that I couldn't talk or move during them. I said not really. She told me to me to take a shower, relax and come in when they were more intense. Jason called my brother Brian and asked him to come over and stay with Grace. He also called Nana and I remember at this point he told her that "I might be in labor". He asked if she could come a little later to watch Grace the next day since Brian would be there. I decided to take a bath and after the bath I laid down for a while to get some rest. Jason ran over to the gas station to get beef jerky while I was bathing and when I was in bed waiting for him to get home my brother arrived. As I was laying down the contractions became more intense. When Jason got home, I asked him to finish packing the rest of our things using a list I had made at the hospital earlier in the day. Every now and then I asked him if we should just head to the hospital and he said no let's wait a little longer. At one point I called him in and said we need to go now and he was still hesitant, but said ok. I got out of bed and began to walk out of our room. I made it to the dresser and had an extremely intense contraction and at the end of it my water broke (@11:30pm). Brian started to call my dad and my mom to tell them my water had broke. My mom of course said she was staying up until I had the baby and she wanted us to call her when that happened. I remember changing my pants and then I headed downstairs to the car. You could tell Jason was not the one in labor because it took him a while to get into the car. I remember being a bit annoyed by this, but I was in too much pain to say anything. On the way to the hospital the contractions continued to be very intense and they were now 4 minutes apart. We arrived at the hospital at midnight and we had to go through emergency to get to the birthing unit. I went in to the triage area and waited to be admitted. It seemed like it was taking forever and by this time the contractions were so painful that I had to make some sort of noise. The resident came in to see if I was dilated and went to check me in the middle of a contraction. I remember kind of yelling at her to wait. She checked me at I was 5 or 6 centimeters. It still took them a while to do everything and I don't remember much more about triage except during one contraction I felt like I needed to bite something and went for Jason's arm and then realized what I was doing and stopped. Since I couldn't really walk at this point they rolled me to my room in the triage bed. I don't even remember how I got to the bed in our actual room. We arrived around 1am. Once we arrived they checked me and said I was now 9 cm dilated. They began to prep the room for the delivery and they said that there was no time for an epidural and I said ok. A few minutes later I remember feeling like I needed to push. They checked me again and said I was 9 1/2 and I could begin pushing since the baby's head would push me to 10cm. I remember pushing and yelling because of the pain and then apologizing because I was so loud. They kept telling me not to worry because the woman in the room next to us had just delivered and she was even louder. I pushed for about ten minutes and then Patrick was born at 1:43 am. They immediately put him on my chest so I could hold him. I held him for quite a while and then they took him to clean him up. By 2:15 we were all cleaned up and I was able to nurse him for the very first time. I remember right after he was born my mom called to see how we were doing and to her surprise Patrick was already born. It was such an amazing labor and delivery. It was definitely my dream birth. We were so fortunate that everything went the way it did and we ended up with a healthy baby in the end. Everything happened so fast that Jason didn't have time to get the camera from the car. We were waiting until we were in our actual room and then Jason was going to go get our bags. Thank God for camera phones!

Catching Up

So much has happened in the past month that I don't even know where to start. I am now 37 week pregnant. It is hard to believe that soon our little guy will be here. At my last check up I found out that I have started to efface, but I am not dilated yet. I have another appointment tomorrow and I will find out the results of my Group B strep test and see if I have progressed any further. We have pretty much finished the baby's room. I will post some pics below. Jason and I finally chose a name a few weeks ago, but we are waiting until the birth to announce it. We figured we have waited this long already, why not wait just a few more weeks. My co-workers were kind enough to throw a shower for us last week. Due to my mom's health we had to reschedule it a few times, but we were finally able to have it during our lunch period last week. I cannot explain how much of a blessing they have been to me during the past few months. I am so honored to work with such professional, compassionate and caring people. They have definitely done way too much for us! Thanks to them the baby's closet is full of clothes!

Grace is doing really well. It's so awesome to watch how much she has grown in the past few months. She is full of so much joy and she brings so much to our lives. She has been such a breath of fresh air for me during this last month. I have been off of work for spring break this week and we have had so much fun together. Mom was moved to a regular room from ICU last week so now Grace is able to visit. We go up every morning and visit with "Moma" and then we come home for lunch and Grace takes her nap. She absolutely loves visiting Moma. Especially when no one else is there. She tends to act up when others are visiting too. She loves to use the potty in Moma's room because Moma is kind enough to give her "cookie money" when she does. Eventhough Moma is in the hospital, she still knows how to spoil Miss Grace. :) Here are a few pictures from the last month.

Here's one of Grace with her "boo boo" before bedtime. She is such a crack up!

We took a few pictures of my baby bump since we haven't taken any this pregnancy. I think this is from when I was about 33 or 34 weeks along.

28 Week Appointment

I had my 28 week (27 weeks 1 day)check-up on Wednesday. Everything went very well. The baby's heart rate was 155 bpm again. It seems like his heart is always around this number. I was able to get my results from the glucose test that I took on Saturday and my count was 79 and I had to be below 130 to pass. The test also checked my iron levels and those came back good. I have been feeling really well especially compared to how I felt with Grace at this point. I must say that being pregnant during the winter is much more enjoyable than during the summer. We have had many illnesses going through our house lately though and I caught some sort of upper respiratory thing and I had a hard time sleeping during the beginning of the week. Dr. Ogden said that the best thing you can do is use saline nose spray 3, 4 or 5 times a day. I took him up on his advice and I must say that he is right. I felt much better towards the end of the week. I have had no more issues with my sciatic nerve anymore. Hopefully this trend will continue! Dr. Ogden didn't say anything about my weight gain this month although I'm pretty sure I gained a few more. I have still only gained 7 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight which I think is pretty good. I am hoping that I will fit perfectly into my dress for my cousin's wedding in May (about two weeks after the baby's due date).

I think the baby may have turned on Tuesday as I was feeling more uncomfortable and I am having a harder time bending over now. It feels like something is now in the way whenever I try. I have also noticed that his movements are in different spots now and not as strong.

As for now, we are all doing well. Grace loves to hang out in the baby's room. She is not thrilled with the fact that we haven't painted the closet though. She likes to point it out to everyone. She is definitely a perfectionist!

Proud Big Sister

We ordered some new furniture for the baby's room a few weeks ago and we found out that it will be delivered tomorrow. We have been working on cleaning out the "former" office for a few weeks now and on Saturday we finished the job. We also ordered some new bedding for our baby boy and it came in the mail on Friday. On Saturday we were able to pick out some paint for the room. It needed to be repainted anyways since we didn't do a great job the first time so we were kind of looking forward to it. Yesterday we put Grace in some clothes that she has grown out of and we threw on her Crayola art smock. We let her help us paint the room and I have to say that it was one of the best decisions we have made. Grace has so much fun and so did we. Unfortunately, her nap fell during the time we were painting so she had to stop in the middle which she was not very happy about. When she woke up from her nap the room was completed. We took her in to show her and her face lit up. She was so proud of herself! Of course,we weren't able to paint the closet because we still have to clean it out and she picked right up on it. All day today she kept opening the door and going in the room to show Moma her work. She also pointed out the "missed" spots in the closet. Here is a video that I took when we first started painting.

Driveway Sleddin'

It is 9 degrees outside today. Perfect weather for some driveway sleddin'. We met my Dad for breakfast this morning and when we returned home we decided to brush off my car and let Grace play outside for a little bit. I thought about taking her sledding down our driveway, but my intelligence clicked in and I decided that it probably wasn't a good idea for a pregnant woman to do so. Daddy stepped up to the plate. Please excuse my laughing in the video. I have really needed a good laugh lately and Jason was kind enough to provide me with some entertainment. The second video is my favorite.

24 Week Visit (a little early)

Last Wednesday I had to go in for my 24 week appointment. I was only 23 weeks at the time, but I am about a week ahead on my appointments. The baby's heartbeat was 155bpm. I also received my information and yummy drink for my glucose tolerance test. I have to go sometime during the week of February 2nd and I think I will have to go on Saturday, February 5th to avoid missing work. Apparently I gained 8 lbs in the last four weeks. YIKES! I am still only 1 lb heavier than I was before I became pregnant. Dr. Ogden checked to see if I was swollen, but I am not and my urine test was fine. Looks like it was the yummy holiday food and week off from work.

Last Sunday I decided to vacuum and mop all of the floors in our house. I was very sore afterwards and thought I probably overdid it. During the beginning of last week I was getting a pinching feeling down my left leg. I told the doctor about it and he seemed to think that it is sciatica. It looks like the baby is already sitting on my nerve. He showed me a few exercises that I could do to help relieve the pain and he said that if it continues I could go to a chiropractor (Yikes, no time for that!). Thankful when I woke up on Saturday the pain and pinching feeling disappeared. Funny how things work when your pregnant! It was back again on Sunday and now on Tuesday completely gone. Hopefully he continues to stay off of my nerves for now.

Grace Rockin Out on the Drums

Grace loves rocking out with Daddy. Here's a video that Jason took a few weeks ago with his phone. I just love her little dance in the middle of the video. She's such a little comedian.