Mind your manners!

The kids were eating cinnamon rolls for breakfast before school this morning, and JM came downstairs to finish getting ready for work. I asked him if he wanted one for breakfast and he said no. So after about a 30 second pause, Nicole looks up from her breakfast and says (in a tone that sounded eerily similar to something that would come out of my mouth) "Ummm, how about 'no thank you?'" My throat still hurts from choking on my coffee.....

Chaos, Part 1

As I sit here writing this post, I can think of a million other things that I could be doing. Giving the kids showers, doing laundry, cleaning the house, the list is endless. We are just wrapping part 1 of what can only be described as a joyful sort of chaos. Last weekend, James was baptized. We had a houseful of family who shared this beautiful occasion with us for several days. James slept through the first half of the ceremony then woke up and got REALLY mad when the holy water was being poured on his head (the picture above is right before he lost it completely!) So the second half of the ceremony was full of screaming and crying and an explosive diaper incident. Besides my concern that the incident in question was going to leak all over his gown, it was a really beautiful and special ceremony.

Two days after our baptism guests departed, our Thanksgiving guests arrived. I was so glad we were able to spend a few days with our friends from New York and Virginia. The meal was excellent, thanks to JM and Shawn (deep-fried turkey is excellent!) And we have TONS of leftovers, so hopefully that means no cooking for a couple more days! So our turkey-day guests departed this morning and the house is relatively quiet (ok not really, but a little more quiet than it has been!) There is much to be done to get things back to a relatively normal state, all the while gearing up for Chaos, Part 2! That entails 5 Nutcracker performances, Christmas preparations and a trip to Disney! (which we will return home from on Christmas Eve!)

With all of this craziness there is much that I could probably find to complain about. Instead, I am taking the time to remind myself of all of the things that I have to be thankful for. My husband and beautiful, healthy children; family and friends; the ability to live comfortably; the list is endless. God has blessed us in so many ways. So even though this holiday season is going to be a little crazier than is typical for us, I feel better when I have a sense of gratitude. With so much to be thankful for, it is a little easier to find some joy in all of the chaos!

Isn't it pretty?!?!

I want to say a big THANK YOU to my friend Jen for the complete blog makeover! I think it looks FABULOUS! She is starting up her own blog design business so if you are in need of a great blog designer, let me know and I will put you in touch with her!
It has been a long week here in the Insetta house with daddy away for work (Is it really "work" when you are in Hawaii? I don't think so!) We will be very happy to have him back on Sunday! James had an appointment with the cardiologist today, and everything with his heart is looking great! We go back again in 3 months for a follow-up. He now weighs 9 lbs 1 oz!
The other big development here today is that we had to break out the footie pj's because it has been so cold here at night (plus I haven't caved in yet and turned on the heat!) We might have to start doing jumping jacks to keep warm! On second thought, turning on the heat works much better for me.....

Beautiful Baby James

Wow, I really am a slacker with keeping our little blog updated! We certainly have had MAJOR CHANGES since my last post! James Matthew made his entrance into the world on Sept. 21 @ 4:45am (he just knew how much I LOVE early mornings, haha!) weighing 6 lbs 12 oz (the exact same weight as big brother Michael!) By the grace of God, he is completely and perfectly healthy! We spent 5 days in the hospital, just to be safe. He really has amazed everyone! Little James has blended right in to our family, and we are all totolly in love with him! Though Michael did say to me one day "Mommy, isn't it so nice when baby 'Janes' doesn't cry?" But big brother and sisters seem to be handling the extra noise just fine. And they are generally good with helping out with him, which is really nice for me!
I am surprised at how fast time is flying by, can't believe it is the beginning of November already! All of the Christmas commercials on tv are a shocker! Speaking of Christmas, we are planning a trip to Disney World the week before Christmas (our present to the kids!) So we are all SUPER excited about that!
JM is enjoying his job, especially this week because he is in HAWAII!!! No spouses allowed, so bummer for me! so on that note I will say ALOHA for now (does that mean hello AND goodbye?)

The Countdown Begins!

I just realized how neglectful I have been updating our little blog. I have to admit, I have become semi-addicted to Facebook updates instead! We have been plugging along here in NC for the last couple of months. Baby James is still in utero and doing amazingly well! His heart rate has been within normal limits for quite some time now, and his hydrops is completely gone! He is growing well, and weighs somewhere between 6 - 6 1/2 pounds right now. The doctors plan to induce labor on the night of Sept 30 (3 weeks to go!), and if all goes according to plan, he should be born October 1 (which just happens to be Grandpa Insetta and Aunt Jessie's birthdays!) So we are doing our final preparations to get ready for his arrival! It has been so long since we've had a baby that we are pretty much starting from scratch! But it is a lot of fun! We have been told that James will have to spend at least a few days in the special cardiac ICU that they have for kids, and then we will take it from there. Hopefully he won't have to stay at the hospital for too long.
In other Insetta news, the kids started school a couple of weeks ago. Kiera is in 4th grade, Nicole is in 2nd, and Michael is in Kindergarten. After an initial adjustment period (mostly on the part of myself and the 2 little ones), all seems to be going well. We are now in a nice routine and everyone is generally happy. Michael has his first soccer game this Saturday, so we are all looking forward to that! The girls both got parts in the local production of the Nutcracker, so they are very excited! We are keeping busy and enjoying life in NC. The weather here is nice, still in the 80's. I have to say, I will definitely miss the Fall weather in NY. That is my favorite season for sure. I will miss the leaves turning colors and the apple and pumpkin picking. But on the flip side, I won't miss it when the snow starts flying!
So that is it for us for now! Hopefully the next time I update the blog, we will have a brand new baby to talk about!

Miracles Do Happen!

It has been a while since our last post and we have certainly had an eventful couple of weeks! Our first week down here was fairly uneventful, just some unpacking and getting situated. On July 4 we had a little barbeque with a few of JM's coworkers. Throughout the day I became a little concerned because I hadn't really felt the baby move. I decided around 5:30 to take a ride to the hospital and just get checked out to ease my mind. I thought I would go in and everything would be fine, I would feel a little silly but at least be reassured. Boy was I wrong! They hooked us up to the monitor and immediately something didn't sound right. They they did an ultrasound and discovered that our son had developed a condition called SVT (Super Ventricular Tachycardia). Basically his little heart was beating twice as fast as is considered normal, and his heart was rapidly losing its ability to function properly. He had also developed a condition called hydrops. He was retaining a whole bunch of fluid because of his heart failure. They quickly decided to send us to Duke University Medical Center in Durham, which is about 2 hours from where we live. They are better equipped to deal with these types of high risk situations. They were basically telling us at that point that they were likely going to have to deliver the baby and that he had a very low chance of survival. So that was a really bad time for us. We were taken by ambulance to Duke and were given a little glimmer of hope when they told us they wanted to try a medication regiment first before considering delivery. He was just too young and sick at that point to have much of a fighting chance. So they started the medication, which I had to take at much higher doses than is normal so it would have a better chance of crossing over to the baby. They had to monitor us both very closely to make sure that my heart rate wasn't badly effected and also to make sure that his was getting better. After severaly days of worry we started to see some progress. Eventually over the course of the next week his heart rate was able to convert back to a normal rate! So after 9 days in the hospital they released us with an intensive outpatient after care plan. So we now see a cardiologist 2-3 times a week as well as a maternal fetal medicine specialist. The baby's heart is making slow but steady progress. They hydrops is still there, but they say that may take several weeks to resolve. We are seeing the MFM doctor tomorrow to check up on that. I truly believe that God has given us a miracle with this baby! When we were sent to Duke, we were basically told that our son wasn't going to survive. A little over a week later we were being sent home because of all of the progress that was made. The doctors and nurses at Duke are wonderful, but I firmly believe that God has held our son in his hands and given him the miracle of healing! We still have a way to go on the road to recovery, but we are very thankful that we have made it to this point. He is moving around like a little maniac, so that lets me know that he is feeling better. (He was barely moving when he was sick.) I have to continue to take the meds until he is delivered and he will have to be on medication and closely monitored for at least the first year of his life. Will update again when we have more info!

ARE WE THERE YET?

HOW MUCH LONGER?
STOP TOUCHING ME!
ARE WE THERE YET?
I HAVE TO GO POTTTTEEEEE!
So these were the most heard phrases Thurs and Fri as we made our way to our new home (though I have to say that the potty stops were more often for me than the kids). Really the trip was uneventful. Long, but thankfully, uneventful. I would like to send a special shout-out to the man or woman who invented the in-vehicle-DVD player! We did look a bit like the Griswald's driving down here. We had so much stuff in the van that you could barely see the kids! Poor Kiera had to do quite a bit of climbing, stretching and contorting her body to get herself into the back seat. We made it here safely Friday, mid-afternoon. It was so sad to leave our NY friends, Thursday morning saying goodbye was definitely really rough for all of us. But we were all happy to get here and be together as a family again. All of the kids are really happy to be with daddy, but especially Michael. There's just something about a dad and his son....Also we are very happy to have cousin Kasey with us for the kids to hang out with. I think it is making the transition easier for them and takes their minds off of missing their friends. We haven't really done any major unpacking this weekend. We have been busy doing other things like going to WalMart (3 times!), running other errands, going to church and doing other things around the house. We definitely have to get serious about unpacking tomorrow! There are certainly a lot of boxes! I did find time this weekend to check out the local nail place to get my toes done! So much more motivated to unpack when I have pretty toes! We have had some yummy family dinners together, which is so nice after not having that for the last couple of months.
So in a nutshell, everything has gone well so far. We are all happy to be here and slowly getting used to our new surroundings. And let me just say that it is really HOT here! Nothing like NY hot! Everyone says that we will get used to the heat. At this point, I am definitely thankful for central air!