Anna's NICU story

Two months ago today Miss Anna Kathryn Tripoli came into our lives. She has been an amazing blessing, but gave us a little scare at the start! At birth Anna had low blood sugar and spent 24 hours in the NICU at St. Luke's Hospital in Allentown. Having a newborn admitted to the NICU was terrifying. Although the doctors and nurses reassured us that low blood sugar is not all that uncommon, Matt and I were on edge. Every three hours we went to the NICU, scrubbed up, and I'd nurse our baby girl and then supplement with formula. The nurses were just amazing. They took such wonderful care of Anna and made Matt and I feel as comfortable as possible. Every three hours they checked Anna's glucose level. If her levels remained under 60, they would reduce the amount of glucose in her IV fluids. If they were above 60, she would stay at the same level for the next three hours. It was really a wait and see game. My worst fear was being discharged without Anna. Suddenly at 7:00 p.m. on March 18th there was a knock at my hospital room door. The nurse wheeled in Anna's isolette. Luckily after 24 hours her levels had been low enough to admit her back to the regular nursery. Having her in our room during our second night in the hospital was wonderful. I'd taken that for granted when Alex was born. We were discharged together on March 19th and spent our first week together as a family of four.

Arriving home from the hospital. Having that
"AH! We have TWO kids" moment.


Newborn Anna

Anna at 1 month: 4/17/11

Anna at 2 months 5/17/11
My how she has changed!

Still here!

Well, things around the Tripoli house have been pretty crazy for the past two months. We are so happy that Anna joined our family and are all adjusting well. Alex loves his little sister. He loves to "Tickle, tickle, tickle" her belly and often says, "Look at her little hands Mama!"

When he walks into the room and sees her he says, "Hi Pretty Girl!" It's the best feeling in the world to witness the sibling bond materialize between my two little ones.

Despite still adjusting to our new addition we've been quite busy. We've made a few trips to Danville, had our first Easter in our new house, visited the Philadelphia Zoo, spent time at the Crayola Factory, and been out and about with our Mom's Groups.

My two cuties

Enjoying one of the few warm days we've had. After his toes were in the
water for a few seconds Alex declared the water to be "too too cold!"

Anna enjoying the warm weather in her bouncy seat.

Alex with his cousins Ben, Ethan, and Lauren at Easter Dinner

Having a blast with Daddy at the Philadelphia Zoo

Anna Kathryn has arrived!

Green Eggs and Ham

Yesterday morning Alex asked me to "cuddle". Basically, this means he wants to lay on our bed and watch a show. He knows his mommy will fall for the "cuddle" line every time, so its a pretty easy way to get me to let him watch TV.

Yesterday morning instead of turning on the TV I brought out our new copy of Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. We read the story and then Alex said, "I want to eat green eggs!"

We went down to the kitchen and scrambled some green eggs. Alex added the food coloring himself (a little on the heavy side) and enjoyed them quite a bit!

We decided to leave the "green" out of our ham!

Posing with a cheek-full of egg

Alex told me, "I like them Sam I am!"

Birdhouse

On Sunday Alex and Pa built a birdhouse together:

Settled

Finally, after 5 weeks we are pretty well settled into our new house in Allentown. This week Matt and I even hung a few pictures!! I guess we're here to stay;)

Alex has made the transition beautifully, barely skipping a beat. He LOVES his new house. We have so much more space to spread out and play.

The weather was awful during our first few weeks here, so we weren't able to get out much. However, in the past 2 weeks I joined an awesome mom's group, we've gotten to go the library, taken a few trips back to Danville, and EVEN played outside a little bit! Spring is on the way.

I have been an awful picture-taker during the past few weeks. I've been mostly using my iphone (since my regular camera was often lost in piles and boxes). I will upload soon and get some pictures of the house on the blog!

Crazy Days

Things have been mildly chaotic around the Tripoli home this week. We closed on our house in Allentown Thursday. Matt, his dad, and my dad all spent Saturday painting. Sunday we ran around like crazy trying to get some last minute things accomplished before we actually move this week.

Tonight is our last night in our house here in Danville. It's just Alex and I (Matt's staying at the new house because he's already working in Allentown). It's such a bittersweet night. I'm excited for the move, the new house, and the great job opportunity for Matt. However, this house is very special to me. While it was technically Alex's THIRD home, he accomplished so many of his "firsts" here! He started to crawl right after we moved in, walked shortly thereafter, said his first words, ate his first real food, moved from his crib to a bed, and on and on. We've made some great memories here.

Snow Fun!

We finally have a little snow outside! Yesterday morning Alex and I bundled up and ventured outside to play. Our industrious little guy decided we needed to dig out the driveway to help Daddy. He's such a great little helper! At one point Alex got some snow on his face and in his mouth and started spitting and sputtering to get it out. I told him it was okay to eat a little snow and the rest of his time outside was spent licking snow off of his mittens. "MMmm, Mmmm! That's good!" He would tell me. After over an hour outside I had to bribe him with candy to come inside. My toes were freezing!

I didn't take any pictures from yesterday's snow adventures, but Matt took Alex outside this morning and I very briefly ventured out in my jammies for some photos.

Play

Today Alex and I were stuck at home for the morning waiting for our new (king!!) mattress to arrive. Our friends Holly, Natalie, Jenn, and Jacob came over and brought lunch to help occupy our time. The kids hadn't played together in quite a while because of the craziness of the holidays. I think they missed each other!

They had so much fun running around, playing play-doh, eating cookies, and being silly. It was a great way to pass an afternoon! I'm going to miss our Danville friends so much that I can hardly stand it. Its hard to believe that we won't be here 3 weeks from now...

Budding Chef

Alex loves to help me bake and often asks if we can make something together. Today at breakfast he asked if we could make pie. Since we were waiting around for a contractor to come look at something for us, I figured we might as well have a project to occupy our morning. I started to get out the flour and butter, but Alex quickly dismissed those ingredients. He had his own plan. We pulled a chair over to the counter and Alex brought with him a handful of grapes left from his breakfast. He also requested the apple juice from the fridge and a pie plate.

He mixed his ingredients together:

Then he decided he needed to make "mussins" (muffins).
We took out a muffin tin and he got to work!




Once he'd distributed his apple juice among the muffin cups,
he asked for raisins. He took such care in putting raisins in each of the cups!


Finally, we were able to taste his creation. He declared, "That a good recipe Mama!"

So far behind!

Today I am owning up to something that I've known for a very long time. I am terrible at keeping up with my photo albums and memory books. I am currently downloading pictures to my computer from August. I haven't put a picture in an album since Christmas 2009. Alex's baby book is largely empty.

I keep putting these things on the back burner. No more. Time is slipping by so quickly, and while I try to live in the moment, I really need to spend more time capturing the moment. Anyway, I am going to try to hold myself to this resolution for 2011 despite many changes on our horizon.

We move in 2 weeks.
We have a baby due to arrive in about 10 weeks.

I am determined not to fall this far behind again!

I leave you with a picture of my two favorite guys from our wonderful Christmas!