Sister, Sister

Well after two weeks of fighting pneumonia, a hospital stay, lots of doctor's visits, and three trips to labor and delivery for monitoring, my baby sister finally made her debut to the world at 12:44 am on July 21st, 2014.  Luckily, she made it easy on Mommy. In fact, they barely made it to the hospital for delivery.  She wouldn't even wait for the doctor, the nurses delivered her.  We are all keeping our fingers crossed that this doesn't mean she will be a drama queen.

Please meet my baby sister, Reagan Avery Groesbeck--5 pounds, 7.9 ounces and 17 inches long.

I am obsessed with her.  I love kissing and hugging her and squeezing her head...this last part Mommy and Daddy are not too happy about. I had a very hard time leaving Mommy and Reagan at the hospital to go home with Gigi and Papa G, so Daddy stayed home with me until Mommy and Reagan were rested enough to come home.  I LOVED all my Daddy time.

When we took Reagan home from the hospital, I was a bit perplexed about why she was in my old carseat. In fact,  I refused to get out of it so the nurses could check it. Luckily Daddy bribed me with some chips to make me move so we could go home.

I was also a little confused when she joined us in the car. I'm not used to the backseat company but it was nice...we had our first co-nap on the way home.

Since home, we've been trying to figure out our routine.  I am back to sleeping in my big boy bed some of the night.  I wake up around 3 and head upstairs and sleep on the floor outside Mommy and Daddy's room. They think I'm weird since they leave the door open.  I find this position necessary so I can be alerted to anyone taking Reagan out of the room.  Once Mommy and Reagan wake up for a feeding, I get some water and sit in the baby swing to supervise the feedings.  It looks a lot like this during the day too. I love that swing. I *might* throw fits so sister can't ever sit in it.

This week was a great week for our family. We are feeling so grateful to God that Reagan and Mommy are here and healthy, and that Daddy was able to have time off from work to be with us.

 Here is a parting shot of Reagan.  Lots of thank yous go out to St. Luke's South Labor and Delivery nursing for delivering my baby sis and taking such great care of Mommy and Reagan during all their hospital visits.  Thanks to all Mommy's friends at Kansas City Allergy and Asthma and Women's Care and Children's Mercy for keeping Mommy and Reagan safe this pregnancy.  And a huge thanks to all our family and friends for their prayers and support the past 9 months. We love you! XOXO Griffin

Prayers for my Mama, Baby Sis and Me

Mommy is usually hesitant to ask for prayers for herself but we just got the call that Mommy has viral pneumonia.  She has really great doctors at KCAA and Women's Care but we are all pretty nervous about what this means for her and the baby since with her history, she could deliver at any time.  Please say a prayer that the treatments work and she develops no more complications so the baby and her can have a healthy labor, delivery and post-partum.  Please also say a prayer that I stay pneumonia-free because I'm pretty sure Mommy and Daddy couldn't handle that stress right now too.

Oops I Did It Again

The past few weeks have been eventful--lots of urgent care visits, family visits, doctors visits--so pardon the long post.

My first urgent care visit: Nursemaid's Elbow...again. Remember when I was about 6 months old and Mommy was putting me in my carseat and slid my ligament off of my elbow? Well it happened again.  Lesson learned: don't pull on my arm. Here I am post getting my ligament put back in place.

The Groesbecks all came in town for Uncle Ra's and Auntie Jessica's wedding. I didn't go but I hear it was a good time. I hung out with Cousin Evan and Auntie Becca, Mimi and Pa.   Here I am with Cousin Evan iPadding and plotting our takeover of the world. We got lots of cousin time in over the long weekend and I may have taught him a thing or two about dare-devilish stunts like scaling furniture and throwing things down the stairs.

I also celebrated my 2nd birthday while everyone was in town.  I started my day off with a new kitchen and chocolate chip pancakes.

Then Mommy and Daddy and I had a park date with Leland where I played in my favorite slide. The park has 5 different ones but I only use my favorite. I clog it up so no one else can use it. Kids love me.

Then we had a big party with family, food, cake, presents and lots of Sesame Street. I was a little hesitant about the whole cake and ice cream thing but caught on eventually. By the end of the week of leftovers, I have been begging for more.

 With all Mommy's preterm labor scares, I have jumped into practicing my big brother skills. I alternate between hugging my practice baby, feeding it and biting her head.  I *may* have a ways to go here.  I have been particularly obsessed with the baby since meeting Brandon's baby sister Sabrina. Poor Sabrina! I poked her eye and grabbed her forehead before realizing she was alive. When she moved, consider my mind blown. It scared the crap out of me.

My next favorite "get ready for baby" task is finding and opening all her pink presents.  Yes, I still LOVE pink.

                                     

I should have spent the 4th of July with these three cousins of mine, and my Auntie Kelly and Uncle Andy.  Unfortunately, Evan shared a nasty virus with all the Groesbecks wedding weekend and Mommy and I have been really sick.  We didn't get to see them at all because we didn't want to get them sick. Pretty sure we cried all weekend.

 I think Mommy and I win for being the sickest Groesbecks. So far I have had an ear infection and croup and ran 102 temp for 6 days.  I vomited 12 times in 10 minutes from coughing which earned me another trip to urgent care and two more doctor's appointments.  I haven't slept more than 2 hours at a stretch in over a week and I am on antibiotics and steroids.  Mommy is running behind with a close second. She is on the verge of pneumonia and has had so much trouble breathing she has won herself a visit to urgent care,  Labor and Delivery and the doctor.  Luckily, her friends at Kansas City Allergy and Asthma took excellent care of her (and put up with me) so that she could actually breathe again.  We are all a little nervous about sister making an early arrival in the midst of all this illness. Apparently delivering with pneumonia and bringing home a baby to a croupy brother is not ideal.The only good part about being sick is we realized how awesome Leland is. I'm not allowed to sleep by myself because I am having so much trouble breathing. Leland has figured this out and sleeps right next to me and lets everyone know if I am having a problem so they can wake me up and help me breathe.

 To cap things off, I spent this morning in the ER.  Steroids make me a little nutso and I was running around like a maniac, tripped over the bathmat or vacuum cord and went head first into the side of the tub that is surrounded by tile. Mom was vacuuming and felt the hit from across the room. After a quick call to the pediatrician and to Mimi, Mommy rushed me to the ER. Turns out I have a pretty hard head. I have to be watched closely for the next 24 hours but I should be fine.  Here I am with Mimi as I am getting discharged. Thanks Mimi for keeping Mommy calm so she didn't go into labor again!