The milestones of a micro preemie keep coming!

Who would have thought that I would be posting posts of so many milestones in such a short time! I am so blessed with the fact that my 23 weeker, one who was not expected to make it, is doing so much! He took his time...but now he is just blossoming into such a fun and exciting little boy!
He learned something new last night...

the eve of our lighting a candle in memory of his twin brother, Nick whom I seriously feel gave his life to be Kenny's guardian angel...

On top of eating...which he's getting pretty good at, he has been trying to color in coloring books, play with his dolls...he loves his babies. They have to sleep next to him, wake up with him in the morning, and go in the car whenever he goes in the car. I am actually trying to find a boy doll (similar to an American Girl doll) so if anyone knows of such doll...please let me know.

He is learning to feed himself, put his shoes on by himself and drink from a cup. So why should I not be surprised that last night, Kenny learned to do a somersault! He was having more fun with Morgan rolling over and over! It was so nice to see him come out of his shell from only playing with lining his cars and cans up. He is actually in a new developmental stage of play and I am loving every minute of it!

 

 I love the fact that this little boy whom the doctors told me he'd never walk, is doing so much! I prayed for the last 5.5 years that he would be as normal as he could be...and he is really trying! I am so proud of my 1.7 pound miracle!

 

Happy 15th Birthday to my oldest!

Fifteen years ago today,
my life was changed in an incredible, amazing way.
I spent 5 weeks in the hospital on bed rest. My water broke at 29 weeks and my doctor was determined to keep you in for as long as possible.
5 weeks...
5 weeks of not walking into our home.
5 weeks of not being able to go to work.
5 weeks of not knowing if you were going to be born to early for us to enjoy our first born child, in a way that every first time parent experiences.

I was so happy when I found out I was pregnant for the very first time!
I painted your room with love and care.
I had dreams of what you were going to be...yes, I knew you were going to be a boy, even though we didn't find out on the ultrasound...I just knew.
I had such a connection with you from day one.

When that day came, when my water broke.
I was so scared but honestly didn't have a clue what was happening.
I didn't know too much about pregnancy...you were my first.
When the doctor told me I was on bed rest at the hospital for the remainder of the pregnancy I didn't know what to think.
I followed their instructions. Only to get up to use the bathroom.
Monitored several times a day...everyday
ultrasounds several times a day....everyday, to make sure the fluid around you was sufficient enough to keep you safe.

I remember the one ultrasound that did me in.
I was looking at the screen, and the doctor showed me the one area of fluid
she told me that this is what is keeping you safe. Just that one spot...so small.
Then, when they saw that you weren't growing any more,
they decided that it was time...
time to where you were not safe in my belly anymore
they could take care of you in the NICU

The pain of labor was not what I expected.
it was really hard and very painful, but thanks to modern medicine...I really was OK.
I remember daddy so very excited, telling me that you were a boy.
Then them working on you to get you to breathe a little better.
You were tiny...all 4 pounds 8 ounces of you
but you were here, and you were healthy.
You were perfect!

I remember seeing your little round head
your squinty little eyes
your perfectly arched eyebrows...which you still have.
Your little nose, I knew right away that you had that Kowalczyk nose.
and a leg that bent over your body because that's how you were inside of me.

Happy Birthday Tony

You were born today, 15 years ago
You changed me from just being Michele, to being a mommy.
You showed me what unconditional love was all about.
You make me smile every day with the funny things you say.
When you started talking and naming all the Indians Players names off when you were only 10 months old, I knew you were something really special.

You have grown up to a wonderful 15 year old...minus the talking back
but I hear that is all to common :)
You have made dad and I very proud of you. With all that you have done these last 15 years.
All your firsts.

You are a great kid...you all are great kids.

Your sisters and brother look up to you.

You are a big brother...a big job for a 15 year old.

You lead the way to which your sisters and brother follow...

but I know you can handle it. You are a great kid.

I am so very, very proud of you...my first born son.

Thank you very much for being in my life.
I thank God for you every day.
I pray he watches over you for the rest of your life.
To show you right from wrong
To keep you safe from harm
and to just make you happy with you being you.

So, again...Happy Birthday Tony
We love you with our hearts and soul!
Thank you for making the last 15 years amazing...a little crazy, but amazing!
Please be gentle on us these next 15...we're begging you. tee hee

I love you

Another GREAT accomplishment on top of another!

I just want to share Kenny's newest accomplishment...aside from putting his own shoes on this morning which is another HUGE milestone for this 1.7 lb....23 weeker preemie!

I posted last about how he is a lefty...well, here he is, lefty and all, in action...drawing a circle...

This kid is just jumping hurdles left and right!

We have a lefty!

Today I decided that in between the screams and the tantrums of Kenny, I would sit him and Gina down and have some structured coloring time. Come to find out a few things during this actually very fun and quiet time with my two youngest...1) that I thoroughly enjoy...I mean...really love to color. I think it is right up there with making headpieces, beading jewelry and drawing/painting for me. Its a very relaxing experience (especially when your at your breaking point).

And 2)Kenny is a lefty! Yep, he falls right along side my brother with this one! After all this time of holding a crayons, pencils and pens with his whole fist, he is now developing the right way to hold a writing utensil! I am so proud of such an accomplishment! And it took just 5 short years to learn to do this!!!

Please don't mind the little girl without a shirt on...she was playing "army guy" and chose to not wear one...haahaa!

Gina concentrating on a very colorful and really good (in the lines) coloring job...

OK...so in this one he decided to hold crayons in both hands!

Little things in life are so precious...time of nice and quiet...playing (or coloring) with my kids are so worth it! I am just so excited to share how far Kenny has come...even from just a few months ago!

Touching the lives of others...

Who would have thought that our sorrow, our remembrance of our Nick...and well, just the whole pregnancy and infant loss remembrance month sign would bring someone to leave this...

To the person that left this folded up and placed right by our sign about Pregnancy and Infant Loss...

 

Thank you for taking time to write about your nephew and acknowledging the loss of our baby Nick. I know you are hurting...your whole family must be...from the loss of your nephew. My heart is breaking for you but I also feel the compassion you have. If we can just remember that our families losses are never going to be forgotten, then that makes it just that much easier. Our Nick and all of our babies we lost from miscarriages will always be part of our family and in our hearts until we (hopefully) meet them in Heaven.  Always remember those we lost. Always do things to help others and be kind to everyone you come across because you never know the pain in their hearts, the loss in their lives or the battles they are facing or have had to deal with in their lives.

Thank you for taking the time...just thank you.

a junk drawer marker...and a curious little boy

 

The first mistake is leaving a marker in the junk drawer...you know the drawer...its where everything ends up that doesn't really have a real place to go. Well somehow, said marker ended up there...in the overly crowded little drawer tucked away in at the farthest corner of the kitchen. There, mixed in amongst the screws, pennies and battery chargers, was this dreaded marker that should have been in one of the kids pencil pouches for school...but nooooo...it had to be where it was when my son decided to stop lining up his matchbox cars and take a break from his usual daily routine and see what he could get into while mom went to the bathroom for 52.3 seconds.

 

 

As fate would have it, he spotted that beautiful bright red marker and decided to copy what he has seen his sisters do several times during their "lets practice applying makeup" times. Yes, my five and a half year old developmentally delayed, hearing impaired...and chronically ill micro preemie finally figured out how to apply lipstick and eye shadow. I love the fact that he is actually doing things...but I can think of better things to do...lets say...potty trained or speaking words...but hey, its a start!

God help me.

 

 

Today, applying marker...tomorrow, many more smiles and laughter!

Welcoming in October 2012

Finally, a fun filled weekend that kept all of us busy and tired out by Sunday night! Friday night was my son, Tony's homecoming game for his high school. Yeah...we lost, but the stands were filled with a great group of kids and their families rockin out to the marching band (yay...proud band mom moment) and the Dazzlers (marching bands dancers) and the beautiful cheerleaders (yay...proud auntie moment). They started off with the parade to the stadium then went into the game. The whole thing brought back memories of when I was in High School. Yikes, I'm that old!

We made sure we sat away from the band, even though I wanted to sit right by the drum section (again...yay, proud mom moment), I knew it would be a disaster with Kenny. He usually has major meltdown halfway through the game...so we tried something new...sit AWAY from the noise...and guess what? It worked! So anyhow, no...the school didn't win but it was so much fun anyhow. I tried to talk my son into going to the dance on Saturday, but he didn't want to go (until last minute, when he had second thoughts about wanting to go...and by that time, it was too late). Next year, he better get his butt in gear and goooooo!

Onto Saturday Morgan and Sydnie cheered for their schools football team really early in the morning...I stayed home with the little ones because they were still really tired and crabby. I got so much cleaning done...the laundry that was creating a mountain on my living room couch was finally bulldozed and put away and the yard was cleaned up. We had a relaxing evening watching Father Of The Bride (I want that house by the way), and that was that.

Sunday was a very fun. We really don't get out much as a family...doing something really fun. Yeah...we have the girls in cheer leading and Tony in the band, but I mean...other than something pertaining to school. So Tony and I decided that we were going pumpkin picking. Something we used to do when the older kids were smaller, but after Kenny, we just stopped doing everything. We packed up after church and went to McDonald's, got everyone breakfast and off we went! Red Wagon Farms, here we come!

 

 

 

Tons of pumpkins to choose from...

 

 

Don't you just love farm markets?!

My love, my partner in crime and I...

 

The hay maze and play area...very fun...except to a little boy with sensory overload

 

 

JAZZ HANDS...

 

 

Haunted Hay Ride!!!!

 

It was cheesy but very fun!

The group...we had a crabby kid (in purple) pouting...but we still took the pics!

9 people, 4 very large pumpkins, t big hay bales and 3 very large corn stalk groups = a very cramped and funny ride home...

Unloaded and putting together...you should see the hay all over the car...ewps...

My hubby (a.k.a...the best sign guy around) made vinyl numbers to put on the pumpkins...

 

Finished and it turned out exactly how we wanted it to...

And it at night...now, keep in mind, the two top windows have orange lights in the flower boxes and the two trees on the porch have them too...

 

And Finally...

 

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed October as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month throughout the United States noting that, “National Observance of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month offers us the opportunity to increase our understanding of the great tragedy involved in the deaths of unborn and newborn babies. It also enables us to consider how, as individuals and communities, we can meet the needs of bereaved parents and family members on work to prevent causes of these problems….”
Subsequently, the resolution to declare October 15 Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day passed the United States House of Representatives on September 28, 2006. In honor of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, it is suggested by many bereavement groups that grieving parents light a candle at 7 p.m. in their respective time zones to create a wave of light around the world in memory of babies lost to pregnancy and infant loss.
So as a mommy of angels in heaven...both from infancy loss and from multiple miscarriages, I am and will always be a grieving mommy but stronger knowing that I have made it through the saddest, most horrible thing that as a woman...a mother could ever imagine...the loss of her child. I know I have my angels looking down and watching over us...but I really and truly miss my Nick and the pregnancies that I have lost. This is another reason why I loved Ronald Reagan as President! I will be lighting my candle on October 15 in remembrance of my babies...especially my Nicholas...please do the same!

 

...so true

Another milestone met!

We've wanted this for years and I'm proud to say that we finally have an eater! It took us breaking Kenny of his bottle and that cleansing of his digestive track, that last hospital stay, to finally get him to eat. He is now scarfing down blended/pureed foods, baby foods and even small pieces of non pureed foods! He was eating so much that I eased up on his tube feeds because I wanted him to want to eat and not be full from the liquid tube feeds. Yeah...in a real, healthy world that would be a good thing, which I thought it was...I mean, eating tons all day long means weight gain...woo hoo...right? Well, I made an appointment for him with the GI specialist as a follow up and also because I've noticed that ever since he started eating by mouth, he's had horrible diarrhea which I wanted answers to. So anyhow off to the doctor we went...with my hopes held high that my intuition of weight gain was right.

As we waited for them to call his name, I read several beginnings of books to Gina and Kenny...Boats, Planes and Trains, The Three Little Pigs, and an eye spy book, to name a few. They really weren't too interested in me reading to them...they were more interested in the little girl in the wheel chair and the Generation Doll that Kenny adopted as his own (ugh). Finally they called us. First things first...weigh and height. Dun..dun..dun...34.1 pounds...he LOST weight. Seriously? Ok...the award for Bad Mommy goes to...ME! How the heck did he lose weight? Was it the diarrhea? Was it the cutting back in tube feeds? Can you say I feel horrible that I let my son lose weight?!!! The doctor explained that because of the Pediasure that we stopped, the slowing down on the tube feeds and eating more foods by mouth that didn't have as much caloric value as the Boost Essential and Pediasure...could easily have caused the weight loss...then you add the diarrhea to the mix...bingo. So now we are back on all tube feeds and adding fiber to his diet to help stop the...well..messy diapers...several times a day. Did I mention that changing a watery stool diaper of a five year old is NOT the same as doing the same of a 2 year old...by far!

At least we have an eater and I am super proud of him for that!
...now back to a tube feed.

First Day of Fall...and a party to boot!

Today started off like any morning lately...my internal clock waking me at precisely 4:45 in the morning. Did I really want to get up...not really but I knew I had to get started on what was to be a very busy day. First things first, since giving up coffee due to gastritis that doesn't want to do right by me, I put my morning cup of tea on...then off to work. Baking 5 dozen chocolate brownies, 2 dozen cookies, one large bowl of death by chocolate dessert, a huge party bowl of my famous Italian salad, decorating, decorating and more decorating. Did I mention that at five in the morning when you have the hide-a-way bed open for the girls to sleep on...its always safe to make sure that your youngest (who isn't very good with her pee problems at night and still wears a diaper/pull up) child is wearing the diaper you asked your oldest daughters to put on her last night. Only to find the bed/couch soaked from pee, and no diaper on her...yeah, won.der.ful!
So after the pee episode, I got right back to baking...then, at 6:30, Kenny decides to wake up. Now when he gets up in the morning, he has lately been very, very demanding. Demanding on eating, playing, not wanting his diaper changed...just very challenging. So he didn't want his diaper changed right away...OK, I thought to myself, I could do it...sure...wait a while and just let him play...WRONG...ever since he's been working on eating solids (mostly stage 3 baby foods), he's had very watery stool. Were trying things to stop it, especially since I was thinking he actually gained weight because of how much he's been taking in by mouth...yeah...I win mother of the year award...he got weighed last week and lost another pound. WTF?! So you're probably wondering where this is all going...the talking of poop...well, yeah...you guessed it, he walked into the kitchen and BAM...the stench hit me hard! The dreaded "d" word! I walked him into the room to change him and, LET.ME.TELL.YOU...changing a diaper of a 5 year old with watery poop is NO FUN.
After changing him, washing my hands and spraying disinfecting spray...back to work I went. By noon, I got almost everything done. Enough time to just do the basics and relax for a half an hour until the food had to be put in the oven...for the party at 3. Did I mention I gave up caffeine and even wine? uh...yeah.
With this party, I have learned a few things...
1. I learned that you cant beg family to attend parties...especially because we have so many kids. Even though I keep telling everyone that the reason is not so my kids get gifts, we just want them to grow up around family...that's all. Its a great way for our families to get together and celebrate, talk..just have a good family get-together, I just have to say, thank goodness that I had a family/friend party for them...it turned out to be mostly friends.
2. That when you have a special needs child and a few teenagers, chances are the teens wont really want to help...the excuse of it not being their party so why should THEY have to clean or help take care of the little ones while I do it all...sucks.
3. Never....EVER think that large amounts of candy and sweets are a great party spread! Holy crazy farm, was my house loud with 40+ kids in our small 1100 sq. ft. house, a rainy cold day, and second & fourth grade boys scaring the cr@p out of all the little girls at the party.
4. I was glad I didn't scrub the house down before the party...esp. when one kid decided to shake and then open a 2 liter of red pop in my kitchen...yeah...does anyone know how to get the red stain out of woodwork, tile grout and counter tops? haha'
5. That with that many kids, they will eat and eat and eat! It was very comparable to when my kids get home from school, the amount they all consumed. Except...no one ate the two round birthday cakes we bought for the girls.
6. I really need to invest in overalls for Kenny (who cannot keep pants on for nothing)...the kid needs some butt fat!
7. 4 packages of Pillsbury crescent rolls and 4 packs of mini hot dogs makes all kids happy! Boy am I an expert at those appetizers!
8. Never drip hot chocolate onto a pinkie finger...ummm...ouch!
9. Living on a main road when parents are dropping off or picking up from a party...isn't very easy for said parents to do...due to lack of parking.
and finally...

10, Having a themed seasonal party is AMAZING...so much to do...thanks to Pinterest (yes, you can follow me and all of my great boards/pins)...and a good cup of decaf tea and a hot soak in the tub is very relaxing after an extremely crazy party...that is...until you hear Kenny starting the meltdown phase of a very over-stimulating day.

Finally starting up posting again...

But will take a few moments to talk about something that I found for my house that makes it smell as clean as a house with...uh...not so many kids...tee hee.



I chose to buy the lavender defusser for my bathroom and the Figi apple/spice spray for my downstairs! No more dangerous candles for me. The smell that these throw off are just better than plug ins, because you can spray the spray anywhere...and the pretty delicate design of the diffuser looks great in my bathroom! I also could not get over how long lasting the scent lasted! I spray In the morning, and my house still smells good by the afternoon! I am in awe of this product! There are 4 great scents to choose from so whichever one your store carries, i'd recommend trying any one of these!

...this is a great product that I really wanted to share with my readers!
I do have coupons for these that I can get out to you. Just e-mail me!

...and now, back to the Tomecko Ecko after a slight summer break!

First bee sting....

After a whole 5 years...and a complete summer, Kenny got his very first bee sting. I wasn't even sure it was a sting at first. I just though that he fell and scraped his arm until he kept making the ouchie face and he actually was said owe. I then looked more closely at it and saw that it has a center to it! Poor baby! Not one tear from his eyes though! What a tough little dude!