Noah - 6 Weeks

He truly is Mr. Adorable

Mommy and Noah..on our way to church!

Look how big I am!

Mommy almost caught my smile on camera!

He loves to watch his mobile!

Noah is 6 1/2 weeks already and the first 6 weeks of his life could not have been much crazier! He is doing wonderful and very healthy! I took him to the doctor's last week because of some jaundice issues and he weighed in at just over 11 pounds. He has breastmilk jaundice and his bilis were 6.7 by heel stick. Hopefully those numbers will drop in the next month. He also has some reflux that is causing some horrible choking episodes. He doesn't spit up much, but the choking scares me because he can hardly breathe until he clears the milk. He never turns purple, but it is still scary to watch. So, the pedi put him on Zantac and we'll give it 2 weeks to see if it makes a difference. Other than that, he is so mild tempered and such a joy to have around. He is very calm and really only fusses when he is hungry. When hungry, he starts to fuss, not even scream and will fuss until you pick him up. Once you pick him up, he calms right down and waits patiently for me to get ready for him to latch on. He is a great nurser, eats in 10 min or less and then is satisfied. He makes this adorable cooing noise while he nurses and has started to look at me when he nurses. His smiles have really picked up in the last couple of days so I have been enjoying that. He is such a happy little guy and what a wonderful addition to our lives. He gets a little needy in the evenings around 7:3o pm and and as long as you hold him, he is happy! Once I put the boys down for bed at 8:30pm, I snuggle up with Noah on the couch. I have a million and one things to do but nothing is more important than my snuggle time with the little guy. Those are memories I will cherish always and forever!

At 6 weeks he is starting to have more and more awake time and really responds when you talk to him. He smiles and coos and will really focus on your face. He adores his big brothers and just gazes at them, partly in awe and probably mostly in shock! ;-)

Noah was never a part of our plan, but God's plan. How thankful I am that God knows better than I do. While his addition in our lives has created more work and stress, his presence is a blessing we could not have imagined! It is crazy to think that these three boys are three consecutive eggs, it really has been since June 2006 since I have had a period. I thank God every day for my three healthy boys and despite the stress, I am such a blessed mommy and wife!

Caleb - 19 Months

What a little charmer!

Caleb is about to turn 20 months so I thought I should document him as a 19 month old! Caleb has grown and changed so much and the last 7 weeks have probably been the hardest 7 weeks of his life. Thank goodness he won't remember them! The week that we moved, he had to adjust to a new "home", getting a new brother and his molars broke thru. What a rough week for the poor little guy!

Caleb is very different from Jacob and yet so similar in many ways. He is similar in that he looks to Jacob for guidance and how to act. He often imitates Jacob and what Jacob does, so must Cay - Cay! We still call him Cay Cay - a name that Jacob gave to him when he was born because he couldn't say Caleb. He has been slow to talk and what he does say is not clear. Jacob was the opposite having such a good vocabulary and very articulate from day 1. Caleb tries to speak but it is often not very clear. It is getting better and when I ask him a question, his receptive language is perfect. He has probably close to 100 words which is far above the norm, but most of them only I or Brian would understand. My favorite is hot dog which he says "Hot Nog". He also thinks that if something is broken, it needs batteries which is "Baa Baa". Water is "Wa Wa" so you can see how he puts many of his words together. He uses the first syllable and just doubles it up if it is a 2 syllable word. I have a feeling that one day in probably about 6 months, he will just start talking in full sentences!

He and Jacob now sleep in the same room. We put them together on June 21st when we moved to Connecticut. They do great together and seem to keep each other company. Caleb is an instigator when it comes to Jacob and loves to harass him just to get a reaction. He has figured out that screaming and crying get a reaction so he will do this if Jacob is bothering him and he wants me to rescue him, even if he is not hurt. It is amazing how smart they are. He loves Buzz Lightyear just like Jacob as well as Elmo and Mickey Mouse. He is attached to his "nigh nigh" or blanket and would take it every where if I let him, but it stays in his room or in the living room. He loves to take things apart and put them back together. He will sit very still for a long period of time if he is really focused on something. He seems so interested in figuring out how things work. He loves music and loves to dance. He dances in circles and stomps his feet, giggling the whole time. Caleb has a smile that could light up a room. He will get by in life on his charm, as he loves to smile at people, engage them and win them over with his beautiful smile and blonde hair!

Caleb at times prefers Brian over me, but he is still very attached to his mommy. It has been nice to see Brian get the chance to have a child prefer him! He loves Baby Noah and absolutely dotes on him. He has never shown any aggression. He likes to hold him and asks for him first thing in the morning. For the most part he just leaves him alone, but he does like to get down on the floor and just look at him! They grow and change so fast and Caleb is no exception to that! He is a great sleeper and eater. He sleeps thru the night, takes 3 hour naps and will eat just about anything. His favorite foods are hot dogs, green beans, block cheese, oreos and anything with chocolate! He loves to color and play with legos. He is also my little hoarder, needing at least 5 things tucked between his left hand and his chest. He is definitely right handed and a very happy child 99% of the time!

He thinks he is as big as Jacob and can pee on a tree!

LOVE that smile!

Hmmmm......

He loves to hold baby brother!

You can take the boy out of Texas, but you can't take the Texan out of the boy!

Jacob 39 Months

Jacob will be 39 months tomorrow, or 3 years 3 months! It is hard to believe that he is already that big. I look at him sometimes and wonder where the time has gone! It has been fun having Noah almost 3 years later because it brings back a lot of memories from 3 years ago and my time with Jacob. I can remember all the hours I spent just rocking him while I watched a movie. I cherished every moment, well almost every moment. Thinking back to how Jacob was as a baby makes me appreciate how calm and even-tempered Noah is. Jacob has always been difficult and the pediatrician told me a few months back, that Jacob will always push me and always be a difficult child. But with these challenges comes a very sweet and kind child. He is quick to apologize and offer "lots of hugs and kisses" as he says! He is not afraid to say "I love you" and is always mommy's big helper! He is constantly getting diapers or pacifiers for Noah and will say to me "Mommy, I need some cuddles, please!".

Jacob's interactions with Caleb are quite different. They have their moments of sweetness when Jacob is quick to help Caleb or play with him. They will chase each other around the house and giggle so hard. They have even started wrestling on the floor. But then in the next minute, he turns on Caleb, puts him in a choke hold while Caleb screams "NO!". Or he is pushing him down, pinching him or hitting him. It is these moments that break my heart and make me question everything I do. How can he be so aggressive and yet so sweet. This aggression surfaces every couple of months and usually lasts about a month. Then it gets better for a while and the cycle repeats itself. I pray continuously that God give me the strength, patience and wisdom to guide Jacob thru these years and the years to come! Jacob is quick to boss Caleb around and "parent" Caleb when I'm not right there. It is comical to watch him correct Caleb when he is doing something wrong because he is usually no more innocent than Caleb. The can be the best of friends and the worst of enemies all within an hour.

Jacob adores Noah. He wants to hold him every day and asks to have me take pictures of the two of them. He is very loving and gentle. When Noah starts to fuss, he is quick to rush to Noah's side and talk to him, touch him or give him his pacifier. He loves to talk to Noah, tell him about things and will sit there and say "Noah, give me one smile please, just a little one". Wonder where he gets that from? :-) It will be interesting to watch these three boys grow and see how their relationships develop, especially since they are all so close in age.

All mothers think their children are incredibly bright, so it would be uncharacteristic to mention how intelligent I think Jacob is! ;-) He asks at least a hundred questions a day and is very inquisitive about animals, plants, plumbing, construction, anything that he encounters. He takes all my answers for face value and rarely challenges me on them, although there are times he has his own opinion and only HIS opinion is correct. I just smile and go along with it. No sense in arguing with him. He has suddenly taken an interest in letters and numbers. He recognizes numbers 1-10 and some of the letters. I am going to order some preschool curriculum for him for the fall. I found some great stuff on www.chcweb.com. It is Catholic curriculum for Preschoolers and Kindergarteners. He tells me all the time how he wants to do school at home and this will give us some more structured activities to do during the day. My greatest fear right now with Jacob is that he won't get enough socialization this year. So, I am going to make a concerted effort to attend story time at the library and other activities to get him interacting with other children his own age! He knows all his colors, able to count objects, sings many songs. He loves to listen to church music and usually asks to sing "Doug's Songs". These are contemporary Christian songs that we used to sing at St. Luke's at the Youth Mass. They come from a great CD called "Songs 4 Worship" which we love to dance to! He also likes Lady Gaga (Alejandro), Taio Cruz (Break your heart) and Black Eyed Peas (I gotta feeling). The videos are anything but kid friendly, but the songs are catchy and he seems to enjoy them! His favorite color is red...everything gets colored red and he notices anything red and will remark about it. His favorite animal right now is the elephant and his favorite number is 3. He is quick to anger, quick to forgive and full of love and warmth if he chooses to share that side of him with you. I honestly think he says everything his little brain is thinking because he hardly stops talking to take a breath. He is very outgoing and quick to talk to strangers and engage them in his world! At times he can be shy, but not very often.

Jacob may be a difficult child but he warms my heart in ways I never could have imagined. He challenges me to be more patient and a better person. God gave me Jacob and my other two boys to help me become a better person and to raise them to love Him and serve Him. My greatest fear in this world besides death is that I will fail as a mother. It is a job that I take seriously. I know I will make mistakes but I will try to keep the regrets to a minimum and always turn to God and our heavenly Mother, Mary for guidance.

The three little munchkins!

Jacob enjoying a rainy day!

My goofy little boy!

Jacob and Noah

May 25, 2010

I have struggled with whether or not I should recount some of the events leading up to our move to CT, but decided against better judgement and will do so! I want to be able to look back on these days and remember some of the details that for the sake of sanity, I know my mind will block out! The first to recall is the May 25th...the day the movers showed up!

That morning I woke the boys up, stopped by HEB to get them some lunchables and a few things for dinner that evening as well as a stop at Shipley's donuts! I headed over to my good friend, Jaime Anderson's house to drop the boys off for the day! So, in addition to bringing the boys for her, I also brought dinner for the night and some donuts for all the boys! I headed back to 4708 Oxford and finished getting things ready before the movers showed up at 9:30 am. They worked until about 1:30pm and then headed for the storage unit. By 3:30pm they were done and ready for me to fill out paperwork and pay them, of course! We ended up paying the moving company $6,600 to get us to CT.

This was a difficult day in many ways. Our A/C unit had been on the fritz so we had turned it off the night before and left it off. It was 85 degrees in the house all day which was quite uncomfortable, though not unbearable. I'm sure the movers felt otherwise! Physically it was difficult being 38 1/2 weeks pregnant and SO big. I was dehydrated and pushed myself too hard! Noah wasn't moving much that day which really had me worried. Once the movers were gone, Brian and I both realized how much work we still had to do at the house to get it clean for closing the following day! I went to pick the boys up about 4:30pm from Jaime's house. They had a great day and I was greeted by Jacob crying for me to leave and come back later.....it made me so happy to know that he had such a good time with Jaime, Luke and Daniel! Caleb was excited to see me and anxious to go. In his own quiet way, he was having a difficult week as his whole world was being turned upside down and getting in some molars...no fun!

I got a call from our Realtor who said the buyers wanted to come by for a final walk-thru before closing. So by the time I got back to the house, the Buyers had just gotten there and were walking thru. They had 2 boys as well and their oldest who was 2 1/2, went back to Jacob's room which was going to be his room. Jacob followed him and I heard the other boy telling him that this was his room. Jacob quickly touted back, "This is MY room!" I quickly removed Jacob and got him distracted! It was difficult seeing the people in person who would move into OUR home that was filled with so many memories for me. It was painful to listen to them discuss all the things they were going to change and redo. And yet, I had to step back and realize that by 10am the following morning, this was no longer our house.

By this point, the boys and I were exhausted and I still wasn't feeling Noah move much. As I headed out to The Cottage (our home for 3 1/2 weeks), I called my mom and melted down. Talking to my mom was exactly what I needed, she helped me put things in perspective, calm down and focus on what was yet to come. My was worried about Noah and once I got into the Cottage, I got the boys dinner, drank a bunch of fluids, cooled off and gave the boys a relaxing bath. They were in bed early and I was able to sit on the couch and just relax. By that point, Noah started moving more and I felt more relaxed! Brian stayed at the house until Journal Club which was at 6:30pm. He went back to the house around 9pm and started cleaning and getting all the boxes out of the house! He didn't get to The Cottage until 1:30 am, took a shower and hit the sack until he left at 5:3o am that morning for a full day at work. I am SO appreciative of Brian that evening, because there was no way physically I could have done what he did. The house was immaculate!

We survived moving day and though it was hard, it was just another milestone in our lives! My only hope is that the move next year is a little easier!

Our bedroom...packed and ready to go!

Jacob's Room

Caleb's Room

The Living Room

Living Room

Couches and dining room chairs all wrapped up!

This was all the stuff that we needed to keep with us and was going to have to fit in both our vehicles...let's just say it barely fit by the grace of God. Though Brian had to make several trips to the Cottage to get it all!

WOW...we have a lot of stuff!

Watching our belongings get loaded onto an unmarked truck...yes this did make me a little nervous!

Gratitude

This seems to be the word of the week..Gratitude! Gratitude is something that always seems to come naturally when life is going your way and the way you have planned/arranged it. Yet, when things go astray and I am thrown into a situation that is uncomfortable...gratitude is hard to come by. Life in Connecticut has been difficult and a journey I would have rather avoided all together. But this is where we are and all I can do is make the best of it.

My problems with gratitude right now are rooted in our house. I am grateful for my husband's job, his ability to pay the bills so that I can stay at home, we have plenty of "stuff" to live on and we have loving and supportive families. The house though, is another story. We have no Central Air...which I thought, "No big deal" at first. Now almost 3 weeks into it, I'm trying to figure out how to use the window units to keep the house comfortable yet not too cool that we are paying an arm and a leg for it. I guess we will find out next month when we get the bill. This house is old and needs about $50,000 dumped into it to renovate it. It is mostly wood floors (again, not feeling grateful for having to sweep and mop these floors, vacuums are SO much easier) that are very beat up and need to either be refinished or have carpet laid over them. I have never seen a house in such bad shape. Everything is "jerry-rigged" and barely held together. The closets all have these ridiculous doors that fall off every time you just look at them. There are four levels to the house and I'm not enjoying all the stairs, especially carrying a newborn up and down them, it feels very dangerous. Caleb has already taken 2 falls down the stairs and one time for Jacob. The washer and dryer are in the basement, so kind of a pain to have to go down there all the time...especially having a newborn, I'm doing laundry all the time! The kitchen is ridiculously small. It held about 1/3 - 1/2 of my previous kitchen and there is no pantry. So we bought some storage unit for our dried/canned goods ($100) and have the fold up table in the kitchen for more counter space. The bathrooms are disgusting with mold and look like they hadn't been cleaned in a year. There is only one tub and there is NO way I will be taking any hot tub baths in that thing unless I bleach it out first. The colors in the house are hideous and there were NO drapes or blinds on any of the windows or any hardware to hang them, so we had to purchase rods and curtains, over a hundred dollars gone. The basement is very moist so we had to purchase a de-humidifier to keep the humidity from ruining our things, another $200 gone. We spent over $500 getting our vehicles re-titled in CT and driver's licenses and blew about 7 hours total of our lives doing it. The oven didn't work for the first 2 weeks we were here and the list could go on and on. So, do I feel grateful? Well, I'm working at it. Life has been really hard the last 3 weeks especially but I keep praying things will get better. I will continue to wake up each day and focus on the things that are good. Most of all, I have a loving husband who works hard and three beautiful, healthy children. There are many people who don't even have that...so that is what I focus on! The rest of it is just stuff. Stuff that I can't take with me to heaven (assuming I make it there). It is our family and friends that matter the most and that is what I will focus on!

Brian's Graduation

Brian graduated from General Surgery on June 18, 2010! After 5 long years of a lot of long hours, sleep deprivation, studying, devastating and gratifying surgeries, Brian has completed his training. 5 years ago, it seemed that this day would never come. Now that it has come and passed, it is hard to believe. I marvel that my husband really is a doctor. I often kid with him that I don't believe he is truly a surgeon. Perhaps because he is a very passive, patient and kind man with few words who rarely looses his temper. Most surgeons are not of that temperament. We could call the graduation, the "Brian Sadowski Show". I was so proud of him that evening as he took home more awards than anyone with 4 total. He was supposed to have a fifth one (Outstanding VA Resident) but Dr. Thomas (the current program director) advised the VA to pick another resident as Brian already had so many. The awards he got were:

1. Roberts Award
2. Best Clinical Resident
3. 3rd Place for Research Day
4. Scott Surgical Scholar (this was for getting the highest score out of all residents on his Absite exam)

We were all so proud of him that evening. My father was able to be present as well as both of Brian's parents. Ben and Veronica Vacula were in attendance as well to celebrate with us! What a night it was and Noah was able to tag along while Jacob and Caleb stayed with good friend, Melissa Daniel and her two boys Hayden and Elijah.

Brian, Jess, Noah and Dr. Mohsen Shabahang
Dr. Shabahang had been at S&W for 8 years. 5 years ago he took over as program director and guided Brian through his whole training. He has been an incredible boss and mentor to Brian. He is a fabulous surgeon and an excellent teacher!

Jess, Noah and Dr. Riley. Dr. Riley is a Urologist who has circumcised all three boys!

Dad, Jess, Noah, Jack, Vicki and Brian

Jack, Vicki, Brian, Noah and Jess

Brian, Jess, Veronica, Noah and Ben

Brian and Jess

Thankfully I was able to get into my cocktail dress being only 3 weeks post-partum to the day!

Welcome to the World Noah Matthew!

Noah Matthew entered the world today on May 28, 2010 at 8:45 am! He weighed 8 pounds 9 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. We are so in love with you Noah and thankful for another healthy boy!

My first picture with my three little men!

Baby Noah

Welcome to the World!

Noah's first picture with Mommy and Daddy!

My sweet baby boy