Caroline's new favorite....

Deer.

Yes, deer.

As in deer hunting.

Dead deer hanging from a hook.

Strange.

The hubs pretends/likes to hunt.

He leaves the house all decked out in his boots and camouflage (be serious!).

J and I sit here with the babies while our husbands hunt until dark.

Well, one night (before Emma came home) we got a phone call. Jordan's husband Justin had killed a deer. Oh great. We (as the wives) were sent to the hunting club to take pictures. Fun times.

This was Caroline's first experience with a deer.

Her first reaction... she didn't want to get out of the car. I didn't either but we had to. The hubs finally got her out and showed her the deer.

Her second reaction... she wanted to touch the blood soaked deer.

I'm laid back about things. I don't care if Caroline spills drink, gets dirty, has messy hair... whatever. But... touching a blood soaked dead deer... be serious!

But guess what? She touched it.

Then she wanted ME to touch it.

I did...

With my boot. My Ugg boot. It grossed me out a bit.

After that it was time to go. Next, she would have probably wanted to kiss it and I would have just died. I had to get her out of there.

Can you believe she goes from being a princess to being so boyish (is that a word? I would google it but I don't feel that it is necessary.)

Her is princess Caroline with Justin, Daddy and the deer.

CONGRATS!

I forgot to mention a congratulations to MckMama and her family. She had Baby Stellan yesterday at 10:19 am CST by c-section. He weighed 6 lbs. 10 oz. and was 19 inches long. Baby Stellan is doing good. He even got a 9 and a 9 on his APGARs! Go visit MckMama's blog and let her and the family know that you are thinking about them and praying for them as well.

Their story is amazing! Here is what MckMama writes about Baby Stellan (aka MckMuffin) on her blog...
"MckMuffin is our 36 week old unborn son S--our fourth blessing! He was quite unexpectedly given to us, and even more unexpected was his diagnosis of heart failure: Premature Atrial Contraction at 20 weeks; Supraventricular Tachycardia, hydrops, and intermittent advanced secondary heart block at 23 weeks; and enlargement of the heart at 32 weeks. We were told at 24 weeks that he would surely die. God performed a miracle and MckMuffin is still with us! The doctors are unsure about what will happen to our baby when he is born. But God is not unsure!! We are praying for MckMuffin's full healing, but we know that God is good no matter what He decides."

i AM alive despite not blogging.

Yes. I'm still here.

Very busy now.

Busy due to the fact that I have a two year old crazy woman and a newborn at home with me all day now.

Yes, Emma is home!!

It has been a roller coaster ride these first few days but I'm getting the hang of it.

Let's just say I have a new found respect for Jon and Kate plus 8 and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Serious!

Emma came home Sunday. She was discharged at 4 lbs. 2 oz.

We went to the doctor yesterday and she was 4 lbs. 4 oz.

She is an easy baby.

She feeds every 4 hours. She has pretty much kept the schedule they had her on at the hospital. She eats at every 8, 12, and 4.

Caroline has been more difficult.

She wants to touch Emma and hold her. She doesn't understand that Emma is tiny and she is big.

We are working on it though. Fun times.

Here are some pictures from the past few days.








Ryan wanted Emma to lay with Caroline to get a picture while Caroline slept. Emma didn't feel like it. She yelled... Caroline yelled SHHHHHHHHHHH and Ryan got the picture about the time this was going on. Notice Caroline's lips are saying SHHHHHHH!

Ok, I'm off to shower then to the doctor for Emma's eye exam. I'm a little stressed about the whole eye exam process that I've read about online. Maybe it won't be so bad. I promise to blog a funny fact about our one and only wildchild Caroline when I get back later this afternoon. Until then... be serious.

WHAT?!

So I'm writing a post.

It showed up on reader.

I don't know why.

I'm not ready to publish it yet.

Thanks blogger for screwing up and publishing a post that shouldn't be published... BE SERIOUS!

FABULOUS!

If you see it... read it... delete it... don't complain when I actually publish the real thing. Thanks.

New blog title.

So... I've changed our blog title.

The Lafone's was getting on my nerves.

Everyone has cute titles.

For example... her, her, her, her... the list could go on forever.

Back to MY title. I couldn't think of anything funny or cute so it is now just going to be "Be Serious."

This is because I use this phrase more than enough in our house.

Ryan says/does something that makes me want to scratch my face off... I respond with BE SERIOUS!

Caroline does something that makes me want to pull my eyeballs out... BE SERIOUS!

Caroline is now drinking out of a shot glass... BE SERIOUS!

Emma is finally up to four pounds (as of last night at 12) and coming home soon!... BE SERIOUS!

Caroline is still randomly pretending to swim in the middle of the floor... naked... BE SERIOUS!

I'm being totally serious when I say all of these things.

And I use the phrase, "be serious" for all things... good and bad... happy and sad.

So, I guess I'll end this with Welcome to Be Serious... remember to be serious! :-)

Letter to Caroline- Month 27.

Dear Caroline,

It's been 27 months since the day you were born. 27 months since you took your first sweet breath in this big world on your own. 27 months of laughter, smiles, and tears. Oh, how you have changed. You have become your own little person.

It has been a crazy month so far. Baby sister decided to come a little early. Well... actually... Mommy's body decide it didn't want to keep Baby Sister inside any longer. So out she came. You are a big sister. Baby Emma isn't home yet but you are already a great big sister. You share everything with Emma. The other day you were coloring and you stopped and looked at me with a very serious face. You said, "I share baby Emma." You wanted to share your markers with your baby sister. A few months from now you will be screaming because she is touching your things. But no matter what, you will always be the most wonderful big sister. That's just you. You are good at everything that you do and you are only two.

Mommy has been a crazy woman this month. We went from being together all day everyday to how we are now. I have to leave you for a few hours everyday to go see Emma. I hate leaving you but you don't seem to mind. You have fun with everyone you stay with. I never thought it would be so difficult to be a mom of two. Maybe one day you will understand. It's hard to explain. I want to take care of you but I have to take care of Emma too. When she comes home it will be much easier. I will be with you both. I won't have to leave one of you to be with the other. I will have both of my princesses with me. It will be just fabulous.

You love your baby more than words can say. It never fails that when we leave, you grab baby and your pocketbook. Baby and pocketbook go EVERYWHERE we go. Sometimes the stroller has to go too. Sometimes I look at you and think that you are like a little old lady that has to have her pocketbook by her side at all times. If I'm lucky, I get to dress you before we go out. On some occasions you like to dress yourself. Let's just say you have your own sense of style.

Sitting on the step... solving the world's problems with Baby

Example of your style and look at those pocketbooks. There are three hanging on the stroller. THREE!

You sing all the time. If it isn't Happy Birthday it is Twinkle, Twinkle or 5 Little Monkeys or Miss. Mary Mack. It is a constant in our house to hear your sweet little voice singing. I church you sing with the choir. Everyone around you is sitting quietly listening. Not you. You, Caroline, are singing right along with them.

You have stayed with Nana a lot lately. I drop you off at her house around lunch time on most days so I can run to the hospital to feed Emma. One day Daddy George cleaned the carpet. It was wet and you didn't understand. You told me that you were going to "spank his tail." It took me a minute to figure out what you were saying. When I did all I could do was bust out laughing. You have started saying lots of things like that. When we get home, you yell HOME JAMES. That's what Daddy says and that what you started saying. You also say Wooo Joe. That's what I always say when you fall or drop something. It is funny how you catch on to little things. You also repeat a lot of things we say. Good and bad. We have to be careful with what we say around you. I don't mean ugly words if that it what you are thinking Caroline... ok maybe you have said one ugly word... but words like dookie is what I am talking about. I don't know where you heard this word. When you said it for the first time I flipped. You thought it was so funny... you still say it and my heart drops every time that you do. I don't know what my issue with it is but I don't like it and you say it just to worry me.

Your imagination is still running wild. You lay in the middle of the floor naked and pretend to swim. You pretend to hold Emma and rock her. You pretend to cook and eat food. You pretend that your babies are real. It is so fun to just sit here and watch you. You do and say some of the sweetest things when you don't even realize I'm watching.

Those are the fun times. Believe me when I say this though... you are in your terrible twos. There are times that we both just lay down and cry. There are times that you throw yourself in the middle of the floor and kick and scream. You pull hair. You pinch. You do things that I tell you not to do just to test your limits with me. It is frustrating at times. It is exhausting too.

You are absolutely wonderful. You have made my life complete. Keep that beautiful personality and style. You are going to do big things one day. 27 month of pure happiness. I can't wait to see where life takes us next.

Love always,

Not me! Monday

Another edition of Not Me! Monday. Thanks again to MckMama for starting this fun little activity I enjoy doing every Monday. Go to MckMama's site and see how you can join in on all the fun every Monday too.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I did not lay on the bedroom floor to stretch, hold my breath, bend, do crazy looking yoga-type moves... just to get a pair of jeans on.

I did not cry when I got them on... pure joy.

I did not continue to cry when I saw them on my body. It took longer to get them off than it did to put them on. Let's just say Britney Spears would be majorly proud of my dance moves I was doing to get them off.

Speaking of dance moves... I did not dance in the living room with Caroline only to get caught by the hubs. I wouldn't care if I had actually been dancing but I was clearly twirling my way-too-cool skirt like a 4 year old.

I did not stare excessively at Emma's hot doctor. What a lucky little girl she is to have such a hot doc. He pretty much could put McDreamy to shame. SHAME!

I did not choose not to breast feed that morning... I finally admitted it was because he (McHottie) was in there.

I did not come home and gush to the hubs about McHottie. McHottie said this... McHottie said that... like the hubs cared.

I did not have WAY too much fun in Babies-R-Us. The hubs did not have fun either.

I did not laugh out loud when Caroline looked at me and said that her butt hurt. That's not the funny part. She then added... Mommy, kiss my butt. I did not roll on the floor in laughter.

I did not finally admit out loud that I was throwing dish rags and dish towels away because they were gross and I just didn't want to wash the gross off of them.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's it. A look into my life.

Don't judge.

You try it.

All is well.

Everything is still going good with us.

Caroline is finally settling down and getting back in her regular routine.

In the beginning, she was acting out to get attention. She was hitting, kicking, biting, etc. Fun times.

Now she is back to her old normal self.

Just yesterday she took all of her clothes off and laid in the middle of the living room floor.

I walked in from the kitchen and asked what she was doing?

She told me she was swimming in the BIG pool.

I told her to put her clothes back on or at least just her big girl pants.

She replied, "No! I naked."

Whatever. I let her lay and pretend swim in the middle of the floor... naked.

As I sit here and write, she is sitting on top of the couch playing with the blinds. She knows that this is a BIG NO-NO but she does it anyway. She has already broken numerous pieces of the blinds. Now she is just adding to the tackiness that people can see as they drive by. Again... whatever.



Baby Emma is doing great.

She is still in the isolette. Her doctor (one of my favorites that I haven't seen in the nursery yet) called the other day and told us that she would be out of the isolette at 1800 grams (Four pounds= 1816 grams). She was at 3 lbs. 11 oz as of last night at 12. Not far to go. Her doctor said that hopefully by the weekend we can have her out and in a regular bed. Keep your fingers crossed.

Little Miss. Emma enjoys eating like her Daddy and sister. She sucks her bottles down in no time. Daddy fed her for the first time Sunday afternoon. I nursed for the first time this afternoon and she did GREAT! Much better than Caroline ever did. I don't think Caroline was ever interested. Caroline was ready to eat real food when she came out of the womb. :-)

Here is a picture of Emma from Tuesday night. Daddy was holding her. She always keeps one eye open when we hold her. Cuteness. Daddy's hand looks so big.



I am slowly getting back into the mood of blogging. I will be doing more of it soon. Promise.

Not me! Monday.

It's my turn to be "brutally honest".

Let's start from the beginning...

These "not me's" are from two weeks ago.

I did not have to go to Michael's (the store I hate most on this planet) only to have Caroline scream at the top of her lungs when we walked in the door. I did not feel like doing the same thing. I did not ignore her and laugh uncontrollably while old white-haired ladies stared at me like I needed to control my child.

I did not laugh again when Caroline took a Styrofoam wreath and hit a lady in the arm. I did not feel like doing the same thing to her when she looked at me like she wanted to knock my kid out. Maybe if her small cart hadn't been taking up the WHOLE aisle we could have passed without any hitting at all. One day you aisle hogs will learn.

I did not eat a king size kit-kat in less than one minute.

I did not ignore my sister when she asked me how many kit-kat wrappers were stuffed in between my drivers seat and the center console.

This week:

I did not have bad days this week because I miss my baby and feel very overwhelmed by everything that has happened in the past two weeks.

I did not buy mini kit-kats and a pack of reese's and eat them all in two days.

I did not tell myself that it was ok to eat them all because I am still SUPPOSE to be preggers.

I did not drink multiple coffees this week in order to keep my eyes open.

I did not lay in bed for hours because I couldn't sleep.

I did not let Caroline color a mini pumpkin with a black sharpie.

I did not ignore the fact that Caroline got the marker all over the kitchen table and her cute PJ pants because I was just too tired to care.

I did not drink about 100 pepsi's this week. They are not so very good. I am now able to drink regular pepsi. Remember during pregnancy, I could only drink diet.

I did not wash Caroline's sheets this week twice because I forgot to put them in the dryer after the first wash.

I did not ignore the two piles of clothes upstairs on my bedroom floor that needed washing for three days.

I did not go 9 hours Saturday without pumping.

I did not cry when I realized it.

I did not continue to cry until I went to bed because I was worried I had messed up my milk supply.

I did not put Caroline in the tub this morning with her clothes still on.

I did not let her pick out her own outfit either. She did good though... a cute brown and pink dress and her pink crocs.

I did not put off cleaning while Caroline was napping to write my Not Me! Monday post.

Nope... NOT ME... I didn't do any of those above mentioned things.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to MckMama for starting Not Me! Monday. Totally fun and such good therapy.

Quick update.

Everyone is doing good.

Caroline is a proud big sister.

Emma is now out of NICU and in the newborn nursery at a hospital that is closer to home.

We are glad to have her out of NICU.

She is doing well.

She is up to 3 pounds 6 ounces.

She is bottle feeding some now too.

Continue to keep our family in your thoughts and prayers.

Chinese food and child birth.

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 23rd
General Tso's chicken with lo mein and hot sauce.

I thought it was the death of me.

This was my dinner Tuesday night.

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 24th

I made it to lunch before throwing up everything but my brains.

I felt much better.

I even went to my Nana's Wednesday night for spaghetti.

Hello heart-burn from hell.

I drank 3 glasses of milk when I got home. I hate milk. I should have known something was wrong.

Fast-foward 4 hours... I start throwing up at about 12ish... every 20 minutes until 8:45 Thursday morning.

Ok here is where the story begins...

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 25th
I had a doctors appointment at 9 Thursday morning. I knew I couldn't make it there without getting sick so my Mom called for me and moved it back to 10:45. I peeled myself out of the bed, sent Caroline to my Nana's house, showered (I didn't even shave my legs... I wasn't concerned with it at the moment), and made it to the doctor right on time.

Of course they call 3 women back before me... even though they can clearly tell and know that I am extremely sick. ANYWAY! I get to the back and my blood pressure was like 161/108 or something extremely terrible like that. To make matters worse, I go to tinkle in the cup and I tinkle what looks like Bojangles sweet tea. (sorry for being graphic but you need to know that I was one sick puppy). When the nurse sees this, she makes a noise I have never heard before. That makes you feel good. ANYWAY... I knew something was wrong. She then calmly comes and tells me to follow her to a room. She makes me lay down (on my left side... I'm use to this... lowers your pressure) and she turns the lights out.

As I laid there, I still thought I was just extremely dehydrated and had a stomach bug. I laid in the dark praying that if God would just make me feel better, I would NEVER eat General Tso's chicken again.

Fast-forward 5 minutes... the doctor walks in... with terrible news... "I'm sending you over to the hospital. Your blood pressure is everywhere, you've gained 10 pounds in two weeks(I blamed the Kit-Kat bars), and you have +4 protein in your urine." Ok... maybe the kit-kats aren't the cause of the weight gain. Sweet. I now begin to break down. You can't do this to a pregnant woman. Breaking news like that needs to be done gently. ANYWAY... my wonderful doctor called my Mom at the hospital and sent her over to get me.

By the time we get to the hospital (which is really within walking distance) my head is hurting so bad I didn't want to keep my eyes open. My favorite doctor was on-call so I was happy to know he would be there. I was so glad to finally lay down... then I hear those words... magnesium sulfate. Oh, how much do I hate this stuff. I was on it when I was in the hospital at 28 weeks. It makes you hot, it makes you see funny, it makes ME CRAZY.

Much of being at the hospital is a blur to me. This is probably a good thing. I remember them telling me they were going to have to ship me to another hospital because Baby Lafone would probably have to be delivered. They wanted me to be with the baby and the baby would have to go to NICU. After finding this out... I went blind. You heard me. I went blind. I could open my eyes and I couldn't see a thing. This was about the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. After going blind, I made myself go to sleep. I couldn't focus on being blind. I was beginning to freak out.

My labs came back and they were everywhere. My platelets were down to 90,000 and dropping. After doing a little research a normal platelet count is anywhere from 150,000-400,000. Mine kept dropping. My liver enzymes were all out of whack too. They told me I was severely pre-eclamptic and had HELLP syndrome. Go ahead... click the link(s). HELLP is rather scary.

Back to the story. An ambulance comes to get me. When I make it to the hospital, I could see again. But barely. People had already told me that my body was rejecting my baby. They told me that the only way for me to get better was to have the baby. The doctors decided to go ahead and induce labor with a pitocin drip when my labs came back and my platelets were down to 26,000. I was induce with Caroline and I knew that pitocin was a terrible medicine. I hate it. My contractions were coming what felt like every 45 seconds. I would breathe for 15 seconds and have another one. It was just awful.

Like I said before, magnesium sulfate makes you VERY hot. My head and feet were on fire the whole time I was having contractions. My Mom, Nana, and aunt Lesley took turns wetting towels and putting them on my head and feet. Ryan was somewhere in the room. I think he just tried to stay out of the way. They had the air on 65 in my room and I was still on fire. Everyone else had on jackets and were shivering.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 26th

Sometime after 12 am, in a matter of seconds, my water broke and I knew the baby was on her way. I knew I had to push and told them. They all yelled for me to wait. Question: How do you wait to have a baby? Do you know how difficult it is to suck a baby back inside? I don't think you have any idea.

They wheeled my bed to a different room and made me crawl on a hard black table. (SIDE NOTE: Upon entering the room, they slammed my bed against the door frame... HELLO baby about popped out.)

After about 3 pushes, I gave birth to a beautiful 2 pound 15 ounce baby girl at 12:45 am on September 26, 2008.

She was tiny. Her cord was wrapped around her neck twice which scared me to death. Her doctors were wonderful. She got a 5 and 7 on her APGAR. She went on CPAP for a short time and was off and breathing on her own by the time everyone was able to see her.

As most of you know, Ryan and I were having a difficult time choosing a name for our sweet baby. I was still on mag after I had her and don't remember much of anything. Thank goodness I was able to make a good decision.

We talked about names. We decided we liked Cameryn. Well, Ryan went to go see her and as soon as he came back he said she wasn't a Cameryn. So he sat down and we made a list of names. We decided on Emma. He agreed that she was an Emma. We both liked the name Raegan. I just didn't want to use it as a first name. So we decided to use it as her middle name. And that my friends, is how Miss. Emma Raegan got her name... FINALLY! It fits her well.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

I am finally feeling normal again. I am not 100% and they still have me on blood pressure medicine but I am getting there. I go back to the doctor Thursday for a blood pressure check and hopefully they will take me off this medicine.

Emma is still doing great. We are just so ready for her to come home. We are ready for things to get back to normal. It is difficult to be a Mommy to a wildchild two-year-old that needs me and to be with a baby that I feel like needs me too.

Caroline is doing great. She helps me pump and make "Baby Seester EEEmma" bottles. She loves visiting Emma. She wants to hold her but we told her that Emma was too little right now but when Emma gets home, she can hold her as much as she wants. She enjoys pulling a string on an elephant that sings and laying it beside Emma.

As of last night (October 5th) Emma was 9 days old and weighed 3 pounds 3 ounces. She is doing well. I can't see how much she weighs when they weigh her tonight.

Thank you for all of the thoughts and prayers you have sent our way. We appreciate them more than you will ever know. We are so thankful for all that we have. Continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Here are a few new pictures of Caroline and Emma. (PS- Caroline still won't look at the camera! Sorry!)

More pictures of Emma.

Talking to Daddy

Big Sister trying to touch my face

I promise I am in the process of writing our crazy story about why Emma came so early. I will be done soon.

Emma is still doing well. She is now off her TPN and lipids. She is up to her full feeds (25 cc) as of this morning at 2 am. She is weighing 3 pounds.

Continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We will keep you updated.

Surprise!

Emma Raegan Lafone is here!

Much to our surprise, our little baby girl decided to make her debut a little early.

Friday morning September 26, 2008 at 12:45 am Miss. Emma was born at 2 lbs. 15 oz. She was 16.5 inches long.

She is still in NICU but is doing well.

Here are a few pictures of our sweet angel.

I will post the FULL story on Emma's arrival soon.