Stellan Update

**Another Update** Stellan is doing so good!!! Going home tomorrow is a distinct possibility.

**Almost Home** Stellan had a good night off o2! Once he slows his breathing rate and starts retracting a bit less, he can go home!

**Great News** Stellan is OFF oxygen still...for a few hours now. Holding his own o2 sats steady at 95 with no help!

**Another Update** Stellan was moved straight to the floor! Praise the Lord!

Stellan is being moved to the step-down ICU!! (And quite possibly soon to "the floor," where all of the regular pediatric patients are.) He has most certainly turned the corner in starting to kick this RSV and is getting much closer to being out of the woods. Hip, hip, hooray!!

Emergency Prayer Request

**Update** Stellan is still in the Pediatric ICU and his blood gases are still very low. He did not have to be put on a ventilator after all, but all the equipment is out just in case. He is not allowed to eat or even have sugar water which is very hard for his mother to watch as her baby boy cries for her breastmilk. We are confident that God will see him through this battle. Please continue to pray for his breathing problems and his family who is wracked with distress over this tiny guy. More updates to come as things progress.

Please pray for baby Stellan. He is in the ICU with RSV and things are not looking good at all. He has been put on a ventilator because his oxygen saturation is so low. I will be updating my blog as I know more, but here also is the link to MckMama's blog.

Merry CHRISTmas!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Here are some pictures from the past few days:

Joshua with a book from Nana on Christmas Eve.

Rachel and her new purse.

Our birthday cake.

Joshua enjoying chocolate cake on Christmas morning.

My favorite family tradition!

Opening presents on Christmas morning.

Joshua playing with his new baseball set.

Rachel on her new ride toy.

Me & Rachel outside Target the day after Christmas.

So tired from all the shopping!

All my loot!

I would have posted sooner, but our internet just came back up. The neighbor's dog keeps digging up & destroying our internet wire, so the past few days have been like living in the stone age! Anyways, we love you all.

The Mother Letter

A wonderful man started "The Mother Letter Project" as a gift for his wife this Christmas. I wanted to participate and here is the letter I wrote and submitted (Warning-it's long). It is an open letter to all mothers. If you are a mother, I encourage you to submit your own letter. Everyone who submits a letter before Christmas will get an electronic copy of all the Mother Letters (over 500!) What an amazing thing to share with future generations.

Thank you to all the mothers out there, especially to my own mommy. I love you very much! I'll write you your own letter one day, but I've already cried writing this one, so I'm all cried out for today. ;)

Dear Mother,
Do you know how fast time goes by when you are a mother? Scientifically it does not move any faster than before you had children, but it sure seems that way. Do you remember staying awake all night on Christmas Eve because you were too excited to sleep and you watched the clock tick so slowly you were sure the battery had died and time was standing still? Do you remember how long it used to take for summer vacation to come during the school year?

Growing up I couldn’t wait to be a mother. My youngest sister was born when I was six years old, so I had my own personal baby doll. Truth be told, she didn’t learn to walk or talk on time because I carried her everywhere and knew what each of her whines and grunts meant. We had our own secret sister language.

In high school everyone was focused on finding the career field they wanted to pursue after graduation. Me? I just wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. There’s no job fair for that position. I took home economics and cared for the “flour-bag baby”, but it’s not the same.

My middle sister got pregnant at 19 and once again I had my own "baby doll" to help take care of. I loved every minute of it.

Time still moved so slowly back then. When would I meet the man who would become my husband? When would I get to be a mother? Years went by and my heart ached for a child. I was sick of being single.

Finally I realized that I would never find my husband in the places I was looking. What my heart really ached for was God. He was calling me. I was finally done pushing Him away.

He gave me my husband in May of 2004. We wanted to wait at least a year before we started a family so we could have some “us” time before we were overrun with little ones. Time couldn’t have moved slower.

Finally we began trying. Each month came and went with no blue line on the pregnancy tests. I knew something was wrong. The thing I wanted most was not coming to pass. I couldn’t wait the whole year before seeing a doctor. She agreed to run a blood test on my hormone levels to placate me. “The test will come back normal, and then you’ll just have to wait to come see me after it’s been a year.” Then, two weeks later she called me at work. “I guess you found something.” I said. I was not producing any FSH hormone, therefore I was releasing no eggs. I had to have an MRI done to make sure I didn’t have a brain tumor that was affecting the gland responsible for the FSH hormone. The results would take another agonizing 2 weeks.

The good news: You do not have a brain tumor. The bad news: We don’t know why you aren’t releasing eggs. I made an appointment with a fertility specialist to go over our options. There was a long waiting list. I don’t do well with waiting as you can imagine.

In the meantime, we had been given the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Germany with our church. The scenery was beautiful, the food was wonderful, but the weather was humid and the enemy was attacking me. Everywhere I looked I saw mothers with their children. I tried to focus, but one night I just broke down crying. The women prayed over me and shared their experiences. I felt loved and comforted. The next day our pastor also prayed for me with his hand on my belly, asking for healing and a miracle.

Just a few days later was our free day to sightsee and shop. I realized the date and a voice inside me said to take a pregnancy test. I argued with myself to just wait until we were back home to take one. There’s that waiting thing again. I can’t wait. I have to know now! So I went to a drugstore and bought a pregnancy test. It was in German. I had two choices: Schwanger or Nicht Schwanger. I didn’t need to speak German to see two lines. This couldn’t be. I went right back to that drug store and bought another test. The checkout person gave me the funniest look. I put the second test in my backpack and went to take a nap. I was sure I was just hallucinating the second line because I wanted it so badly. I woke up and took the second test and it also showed two lines. I started crying. This time it was tears of joy. I told my husband and we were ecstatic. We got our miracle.

Joshua was born in March of 2006 followed by Rachel in March of 2008. Maybe we’ll try for one more in March of 2010 just to make things even.

Being a mother is everything I ever dreamed it would be. Even when it’s hard and I’m sleepwalking at the 3am feedings. Even when I’m scolding my two year old to stop being mean to his sister. I’m so grateful and blessed.

But then there’s that time thing again. It flies by at a rate I never imagined. I blink and my baby boy is reciting the alphabet. I blink and my baby girl is cruising around and babbling mama.

I’m one of the fortunate ones. I have the luxury (and it truly is a luxury) of being a stay-at-home mom. My dream finally came true. And I try not to forget it. I have my own home daycare that allows me to be home with my children every day, but I see the pain in the eyes of the mothers that leave their babies with me.

Time moves fast when you are a mother. So savor and appreciate every moment. Even the bad ones. Even the sad ones. Even the messy ones. Because for every moment you cherish with your kids, there are thousands who would give anything to have one more moment with the children they lost.

Love,
Kristina Bailey

Flashback Friday

I can't believe Christmas is less than a week away. Here are some old pictures I found of Christmas 1985 - that's right, I said 1985. Thats 23 years ago people!

Here I am as Mrs. Claus in my elementary school Christmas play.

Here are me and my sisters.
Here I am sitting on my grandma's lap.

This will be our first Christmas on our own. Unfortunately we weren't able to make it back to California this year, but we will be visiting at the end of March 2009.

I'll update everyone more on our upcoming trip in future posts.

Until then, Merry CHRISTmas!

Baking with 2 year olds...

Today we are baking cookies.

Here is Joshua helping me in the kitchen.

Don't worry, I put that in the sink afterward.

Rachel laying on the floor putting God knows what in her mouth!

Oops! This is what I was dreading...

The finished product

Yum! I hope these last...

My new blog makeover!

I just got my new blog makeover installed, isn't it terrific?!?! It's one of my Christmas presents. Danielle did an amazing job. I love it!

Flashback Friday

Here is me as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the Chino Christmas Parade way back when I was in Girl Scouts. Brownies to be exact.
I'd also like to give a shout-out to my friend Marcie who is also in the picture and who I had lost touch with many years ago. We ended up on the same mommy board when we were pregnant with our first born sons and due in March 2006. I recognized her maiden name from her username & messaged her to see if it was her, and it was! She was living in Ohio! What a small world!

Merry Christmas!

AJ Update

AJ has just been discharged from the hospital! They have adjusted his asthma medication and he will have to be given nebulizer treatments on a daily basis from now on to control his asthma. Hopefully those changes will keep him from suffering from any more breathing problems in the future.

Advent Conspiracy

This is a video I saw on Angie's blog. Hopefully it will change the way you think about Christmas. Don't forget to scroll to the bottom & pause my music first!

Emergency Prayer Request

**Update on AJ** He is staying in the hospital another night. His O2 stats keep falling in the middle of the night & he has been given oxygen when this happens. They are keeping him to do more tests & to keep an eye on him.

**Answered Prayers** Adrienne is doing fine and the baby is great. She and the baby are not in any danger. Praise the Lord!

**I don't have an update on Adrienne yet, but I have another prayer request: My best friend's son AJ has been admitted to the hospital overnight due to severe asthma symptoms and trouble breathing. He's getting breathing treatments every 2 hrs & will be starting him on steroids tomorrow. Please pray for a quick recovery!**

My friend Adrienne is 13 weeks pregnant & has begun leaking amniotic fluid, which can be a pre-cursor to miscarriage. If it is a tear, it could repair itself, so please pray that it is God's will that her baby is safe and that she does not miscarry. I will update this post as I get more information.

Thank you.

Flashback Friday

On December 10th, it will have been 5 years since Brian & I got engaged. I'm still so impressed that he actually yelled out "Will you marry me?!?" from the balcony of the mall during the height of the Christmas shopping rush. Strangers were coming up to us crying because it was so romantic. I'm so mushy in love with him that I'm sure it makes everyone sick, but it's my blog and I can be mushy if I want! =)

Brian, thank you for asking me to marry you...twice.

Rebel For A Cause

I have been kicking around the idea of upgrading our little point & shoot camera to a super cool "real" camera for a while now and here's a great way to maybe get an awesome present under the tree & help out some wonderful causes. A raffle is taking place over on MckMama's Blog for an amazing prize package. Check it out & tell a friend!

Flashback Friday

Since tomorrow is my nephew Tyler's 9th birthday I thought I'd feature him in today's Flashback Friday. I had the pleasure of helping take care of him for the first few years of his life and he was my "practice baby". Happy Birthday Tyler! Auntie loves you and your card is in the mail!

Seven Things

My friend Bridget tagged me to make a list of seven things you may or may not know about me:

Seven things that attracted me to my husband-
1. His eyes. They're super cool. They are greeen when he wears green & blue when he wears blue.
2. His commitment to the Lord. That was at the top of my list of requirements for a husband.
3. His butt. I always used to give him "special hugs" where I go to hug him, but grab his butt instead!
4. His smile.
5. He knew how crazy my family is & still wanted to marry me anyway..
6. He always helps me when I ask.
7. Easy going personality (I need that in a husband) That's how he puts up with me! (Amen Bridget!)

Seven things I always say-
1. Bad Monkey! (When Joshua does something bad)
2. Joshua, do you need to stand in the corner?
3. Go get a book.
4. Miiiiieeeer! (When calling my hubby downstairs.)
5. Seriously!?! (usually talking about a mess the kids made etc.)
6. I-Boo! (Sort of my nickname for Rachel that I say when she is chewing on shoes or getting into something.)
7. Oh my poor baby! (When Rachel is crying.)

Seven things I love to eat-
1. BBQ Sunflower Seeds
2. Dr. Pepper (okay I drink this & not eat it, but it's my favorite!)
3. Salad with cheese, sliced black olives & ranch mixed with salsa
4. Orange Chicken from Panda Express
5. Chicken Bacon Ranch from Subway
6. Eggo waffles for breakfast
7. Teriyaki chicken on a bun w/mayo.

Seven things I can do-
1. Take care of 3 babies under the age of 9 months and a 2 1/2 year old without going crazy. (Well most days anyway.)
2. Breastfeed while reading a book to Joshua.
3. Tell you the name of most NASCAR drivers based on their number. (I know, I know. What do you want, I live in Texas now...)
4. Sew a super cool blanket without a pattern.
5. Get my husband to do just about anything with just a pouty look.
6. Recite lines from TV shows & movies that correspond to any daily situation. (Dude, my sister would know!)
7. Pay all my bills online & use my Excel spreadsheet to organize them all.

Seven things I can't do-
1. Whistle.
2. Be away from my kids.
3. Smell cinnamon without gagging. (Especially hard during Christmas time when they have those nasty scented pinecones in every store!)
4. Go more than one day without talking to either my mom or my sister Heather.
5. Do math (which makes me hesitant to homeschool in the future.)
6. Let a dog kiss me or lick my face (I know where it's tongue has been and I can't help but think about poop! - Me too Bridget!!! Ewwww - yuck!)
7. Stop worrying about my kids' future. (Like what would happen if I died & they didn't have a mommy. =(

Now I tag you...feel free to do your own and leave me a comment so I can check out your 7 things.

Brag On Your Man

My friend Bridget found the blog called Brag On Your Man, so here goes:

My husband and I have been married for 4 years, but have known each other for almost 15 years. We actually went to the same Jr High and were in band together in 7th grade. I was in colorguard and he played in the band. We didn't actually meet until high school and under sad circumstances. You see, Brian is best friends with Jeff, one of the boys that lived next door to me growing up. And it wasn't until Jeff's younger brother Tim was in the hospital that we met. Actually, it was in Jeff's car on the way to the hospital when we met for the first time.

After that I saw him from time to time when he would visit Jeff. We hung out in different crowds in high school. I was involved in student government, ASB & cheerleading and he was busy playing trumpet in band and causing mischief with his '67 Barracuda. Boy was that thing loud!

Anyways, fast forward to 2003. I had done the whole "bad girl" thing and hadn't found what I was looking for even though it was in front of me all along. "Hiding in plain sight" as it were. I had finally come to a place in my life where I truly knew what I was looking for in a husband and BAM! There he was! I always knew he had a crush on me, but he never followed me around like a puppy dog or anything. He had standards too. And I love that about him. He could have moped around feeling sorry for himself, but instead he simply purposed in his heart that he would never date me while I was living my life for anyone other than God.

Well he finally got his chance and we've never looked back. To say that he adores me is an understatement. He is so good about cleaning the kitchen after I've cooked and loading & unloading the dishwasher (I hate to do it!). He always comes downstairs from his computer when I see something funny on TV and pause the TiVo for him to watch it. (Even though it's usually like 20 times a night!) He is such an amazing father to our two children and has never hesitated when I've asked him to help me out or change a diaper. And of course the one thing I want to brag about most is that he gives me a back & foot massage at least 5 times a week before bed. Yes, seriously. He's so good that I'd suggest that he become a masseuse, but then I'd have to share him and I'm too jealous for that. ;)

He is the spiritual leader of our household, my best friend and I couldn't be happier. We often tell each other "Thank you for marrying me." And today, (even though you're going to kill me for this post) I say again, Thank you for marrying me.

Flashback Friday

This is a picture of Joshua at 6 months old.
It's hard to believe how he's grown into a little man.

My Daddy came to town

So my Daddy just finished his whirlwind tour of the United States, visiting my sister Heather in Virginia and then stopping here in San Antonio. Sunday was a beautiful day and we decided to go to the zoo after church. Here are the pics.

Joshua pointing at fish

Brian showing Joshua more fish

Papa with the kids

Me & Brian

The Bailey Family

The petting zoo

Joshua is rethinking this idea

Joshua is not a happy camper

Trying to get away from the animals

Me & Joshua