Homemade Christmas gifts are terrific!

Eliza received some wonderful homemade Christmas presents from her grandparents this year. Nana Cathy made Eliza her very own Raggedy Ann doll. It's really cute, and almost as big as Eliza herself! Eliza likes running her fingers through Raggedy Ann's hair.

Grandma Jan has made and decorated toy chests for each of her grandchildren, and this year she made one for Eliza. It's decorated in a traditional Scandinavian Rosemåling style that we think is absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately we weren't able to fit it in the (extremely full!) car to bring back from Georgia with us after Christmas, but it's safe at Grandma and Grandpa's house for now and we'll retrieve it as soon as we can!

Eliza's first Christmas (kinda)

While this wasn't Eliza's first Christmas, it was her first Christmas "at home". Which is definitely the best kind! Plus, since Eliza's original due date was December 27, this Christmas should have been her first - so we treated it as her first Christmas as much as we could.

Here's another "then and now" picture comparison - Eliza with the Christmas stocking her Nana made for her last year. Yes, that's really the same stocking (and the same Eliza) in both pictures!

 

Although Eliza isn't a huge fan of road trips so far, she was nonetheless very happy to be free to travel and visit her extended family instead of vice versa. We were able to get away to Georgia for several weeks which gave Eliza the chance to celebrate Christmas with each side of the family.

 

Of course, at 15 months old (almost a year adjusted) Eliza didn't really understand what the fuss was about. But she was happy to see her relatives, fascinated by all the decorations and excitement, and of course any opportunity to rip up some paper was an opportunity worth seizing!

All in all, it was a great "first" Christmas for Eliza and we couldn't have wished for a better one!

Then and now

Just wanted to share a couple of "then and now" pictures showing how Eliza's grown over the last year.

First, here's Eliza's silhouette from when she first came home compared to at her birthday:

She hardly even looks like the same baby, does she? She looks so much less like a "baby" and more like a "kid" now too. We have both silhouettes side-by-side on the wall at our house, and I plan to add a new one every year.


And second, here's Eliza with Santa last year and this year:

Yes, that's her underneath the blanket Heather's holding (she'd just had her laser eye surgery which is why she's covered up). Still in the hospital, still hooked up to all sorts of wires and tubes running off the left edge of the picture, and still so tiny!

How far she's come - sitting up with almost no support, having close to a full head of hair, weighing almost 20 pounds, and having SIX teeth now (not pictured - she's shy about showing them off still)! What a kid!

Year in Recap: 2010 (Heather's PoV)

I saw this on another blog that I read and thought it would be a good exercise in summarizing this unbelievable year that we've had. Here is my best try with my terrible memory.

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?
Wheew this is a hard one to answer considering how much has happened to us this year. Just a highlight of the main ones:
Trained for a triathlon. Jogged (for part of the time!) in the Krispy Kreme Challenge. Got pregnant --pregnant with triplets even!. Canceled a cruise vacation. Saw my doctors far more often than I saw anyone else. Visited the ER. Went on bed rest. Stayed in a hospital (several times!) over night (many nights!). Had an emergency C-section. Gave birth to triplets. Lost my son. Watched my daughter die. Quit a job I liked. Learned oh so much about the neonatal intensive care unit. Gained some insight on how it feels to be a mother and the strength required to be one.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I never really make specific resolutions anymore since it is too easy to fail at them and then feel terrible about it. But I did plan to be more physical and possibly participate in a triathlon. Glenn and I both committed to the training and did a really great job I think. We both got bikes, joined a pool, and trained about 5 days a week. The triathlon was scheduled for May and a month before it I got pregnant and really sick with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. I had to stop training and couldn't participate in the race. I'm sad that I wasn't able complete it but I am still proud of how hard we worked to get there. One day I hope to get there again.
Looking ahead to 2011:
I would like to be better at remembering the special moments. I think I am pretty good at living in them ( Hope so at least!) but as for recalling them later, I suck. Whatever I need to do to accomplish this... writing on the blog, taking more pictures, doing SOMETHING with the pictures, video, taking ginko biloba, or whatever works at the time.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes, me! And a good friend had twins in the spring!

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Yes. Two of my triplets. Oliver when he was 3 days old due to internal bleeding (a liver subdural hematoma). Charlotte when she was a little over 3 weeks old due to a klebsiella infection and intestinal perforations.

5. What countries did you visit?
None.
 First year in many that I have stayed in the USA the entire time.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
A more boring, predictable, plannable year.

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
So many.

• Easter: when I found out we actually had ovarian follicles for only the second time in a year and that we actually had a chance of pregnancy.
• April: Found out I was pregnant.
• May: Found out I was expecting triplets.
• July: Beginning of major pregnancy complications, strict bed rest and last day of working in the office.
• August 27th: Devastating OB visit resulting in hospitalization for rest of pregnancy.
• August 30th: Eliza's water breaks.
• September 8th: Babies' birthday
• September 11th: Oliver passes away
• October 1st: Charlotte passes away
• September & October: The most brutal months of my life to date

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Getting pregnant, and surviving the last 4 months.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not being able to keep the babies in for longer than 24weeks 2 days. Everyone says there was nothing I could have done and that I did everything possible to keep them in for as long as I did --But its still my FAILURE.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Yeah the pregnancy was rough... ovarian hyperstimulation, retinal occlusion, cerclage, 3 hospital stays...

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Trip insurance for the cruise we had to cancel at the last minute.
A crib off of Craigslist that ended up being recalled. We got a voucher from the company for a brand new one. :)
A chest freezer for all of the breast milk we are storing

12. Where did most of your money go?
Baby stuff

13. What did you get really excited about?
Pregnant!! Triplets!!

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:
– happier or sadder? Happier and sadder
– thinner or fatter? About the same but in much poorer shape.
– richer or poorer? About the same.

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Relegated myself to the bed/couch the moment I found out I was expecting triplets despite the conflicting advice. Maybe it would have made a difference.

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Worried about how we would afford and care for triplets.

18. How did you spend Christmas?
At the hospital with Eliza, just Glenn and I. Then at a friends for the evening. My family came into town at 3 in the morning the next day. They spent the entire night driving through the snow so they could be here with us before we were all snowed in. At 3:30am our electricity went out. Luckily we had enough blankets to stay warm for the 9 hours it was out. It was one of the strangest Christmas's ever but it was still great. If nothing else, this year has taught us to roll with the punches and to never plan anything in stone.

19. What was your favorite TV program?
Dexter, Breaking Bad, United States of Tara, Nurse Jakie, Modern Family

20. What were your favorite books of the year?
Sookie Stackhouse books. Thanks to my sister for lending them to me.

21. What was your favorite music from this year?

Mumford & Sons, Matt & Kim, Ke$ha, Regina Spektor

22. What were your favorite films of the year?
How to Train Your Dragon, Inception, Date Night

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Turned 29. Glenn made me breakfast, went out to lunch with friends and had dinner with more friends!

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Argh. Don't like this question. What would make me immeasurably happier RIGHT NOW? Eliza being healthy, happy and at home in my arms. :)

25. What kept you sane?
HAHAHAHA - who said I'm sane? NOT!!

26. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.
When all else fails, just one step in front of the other. Do what you gotta do, man.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our little Christmas elf!

Thank you to all of our family and friends for all of your love and support this year. May your Christmas be a peaceful and joyous one.

Xmas and New Years, 2009

We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas and New Year's vacation in 2009. The bulk of our time was spent at St. George Island on the Florida panhandle, but we also stopped in Charlotte, North Carolina and Conyers, Georgia. We got to spend a good amount of time with both of our extended families, plus experience some unseasonably nice weather at the beach. All in all, it was a great vacation — perhaps our best one yet!

After first leaving the Triangle, we drove to Charlotte and stopped there to have a Christmas get-together with my brother Mike and his family. My parents and brother Paul drove up from Athens and met us there as well. We caught up with Mike, Martha, and the kids, toured their new house, and later shared a delicious Christmas dinner with a traditional Scandinavian feel. (I found out that I actually rather like glögg and pickled herring - I guess it's something in my genes!)

Soon it was time for us to leave Charlotte and continue on our southward journey. Our next stop was in Conyers, where we stayed with Heather's parents and were joined by the rest of her family. We celebrated Christmas morning there with the family tradition of "monkey bread" for breakfast, followed by opening of gifts around the tree. Later, we headed to Heather's grandmother's house to celebrate with the extended family, and a good time was had by all.



Next came the great journey down to Florida, which we drove as a caravan of vehicles united by walkie-talkies and guided by not one but three different GPS units. It turns out that Garmin and Tom-Tom either use different data or different algorithms, because we had some confusion when different GPS were telling us to take different routes to get there. But we sorted it out and made it safely to our destination, a rented beach house named Eye Catcher. The house was absolutely huge (four stories, seven bedrooms, even an elevator!) which was good, as we had quite a crowd coming — 14 people all told. It was located all the way at the end of the island, so while it was quite a drive to get there, the ocean views were absolutely spectacular and we had a corner of the island beach basically to ourselves.



Our stay at the beach was filled with non-stop activity yet highly relaxing all the same, if such a thing is possible. We played board games, card games, party games, and video games until we'd all had our fill — even Heather's cousin James had had enough Rock Band by the end of the week. We walked up and down the beach, collecting shells and watching the dogs run and play in the waves. (Pasha and Red both played to the point of exhaustion, to where they would all but fall over the moment we got back inside the house.) Other members of my family came down to stay in another beach house, so we got to visit and play games with them, and we brought both sets of family together one evening for a big dinner. Heather and I went jogging to keep preparing for Heather's upcoming triathlon, and found that a barefoot walk on the beach makes for a lovely "cool-down" at the end of a jog. In short, it was a wonderful time.



We stayed at the beach through New Year's Day (and yes, we managed to make it to midnight on New Year's Eve, if only just), then on January 2 we had to make the long drive back home. Google Maps and our GPS told us that we could save several hours by driving up the coast along I-95, but that turned out to be a mistake. I can never understand how I-95 manages to have total gridlock out in the middle of nowhere, miles from any city of any size, but this time was no exception. After several hours of frustration, we ended up taking state highways across South Carolina to rejoin our usual route along I-85 instead, and eventually made it home, tired from the long drive, and sad that the vacation was over, but happy that we had the vacation and that it was such a good one.

We hope your holidays were wonderful as well!

Christmas decorations

Just thought I'd share a few pictures of our holiday decorations. It's hard to get good pictures without the camera flash, but with the flash turned on, I just can't capture the way it actually looks and feels... so my apologies for the blurriness!