Friday, June 22, 2012

Welcome Baby Girl!!

Natalie Danielle Starr has arrived!!
born Tuesday, June 19, 2012 at 1:53pm
6 lbs, 3.6 oz and 19 inches long



With Granny Starr

With Grandma Bauer


With Papa Starr


With Aunt Lacey

With Aunt Kayla

Mommy and all four kids!

Just had her first bath


With Great Aunt Jenny

Some snuggle time with Mommy.  
Wow... it's been quite a long day!!


She has some long fingers and toes!!

Trying to get those eyes open

Natalie and Daddy



Mommy and a very excited big sissy!

Natalie Danielle with Aunt Melanie Danielle

Katie got some Hello Kitty slippers from her baby sister





Proud big brother holding her for the first time

Nolan got to hold her too, but was so intrigued with her eyes that he kept trying to poke them.  He seemed to really like her, and kept pointing at her and saying, "Baby? Baby?".

The moment Kaitlyn's been waiting for... getting to feed her a bottle.

Beautiful roses from Daddy!

Friday, June 15, 2012

5 Years Old!!

On the 6th of June, Talon turned 5 years old.  We went for his check-up this week, and he is tipping the scales at 41lbs, and is 42 inches tall.  He's now in the 50-60th percentile for height and weight.  Not too shabby, seeing he started out in the 5-7th percentile!

We started out the day with his favorite breakfast.... pancakes with peanut butter and syrup.  He wanted blue ones, so that's what we had.

We went to Papa and Granny's for dinner and he got to open his gifts.

In case you don't know much about Talon, he loves to play Mario Bros. on the Wii.  He runs around pretending he's Mario all the time.  So, Daddy searched online and found him a Mario suit.  He was pretty excited about it!  Of course, he wants to wear it 24/7 now!

He's pretty much outgrown his first little bike, so we got him a new big red bike.  He loves it, and is already asking to take the training wheels off.  Looks like we're gonna be doing some bike lessons and learning to ride without training wheels this summer!

Papa and Granny got him a Cars tent that came with a sleeping bag and pillow.  He informed us that he wanted to start sleeping outside in his tent.  Hmmm.... don't know how long that would last once it started getting dark!  

Kaitlyn's favorite song is "Happy Birthday".  She sings it every opportunity she gets, so she was more that happy to hug and kiss on her big brother, and serenade him all day long.  She sang it so many times,  Nolan would even break out into song and could sing it pretty well by the end of the day!



Another thing Talon had set in his mind, was that he was going to go to Cold Stone Creamery and get Cotton Candy ice cream on his birthday.  So, guess where we went for dessert that evening!

The next day, he got to pick where we went for lunch.  We went to Red Robin, where he got serenaded once again and got a gigantic hot fudge sundae.

The festivities continued over the weekend, and we went to Grandpa and Grandma Bauer's and had another party.  Any guesses on the theme?  Yep, Mario!  Grandma did a fabulous job, and made him a Mario cake.  He absolutely LOVED it!!

And, yes, he had to wear his Mario suit!




A family picture with Mario.



He got a lot of fun gifts- including a Mario back pack from Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Donna, Legos, and a bat and ball set.

And last, but not least, there was play time.  Whenever Uncle Jeremy is around, the kids have a wild time and love it.




It's hard to believe that the little 4lb.1oz, red-headed baby boy we brought home 5 years ago, is growing up so fast!  He's so much fun and adds so much life to our home.  He's so excited about learning new things.  He's learned how to write all of his letters, and loves to try and spell words.  The question is no longer, "Mom, what does that say?", but "Mom, how do you spell...".  He's pretty sure he almost knows how to read.  It's fun to watch him go from just randomly stacking Legos and blocks, to actually building things.  
His vocabulary cracks me up sometimes.  He likes to use really big words, and is very descriptive when explaining events and things that he's observed.  He was telling me about something that happened at Grandpa and Grandma's the other day, and started the sentence by saying, "Apparently, Aunt Kayla didn't realize it, but...."  I kinda just stopped and stared at him for a few seconds.  What happened to my baby boy?  At least he still loves to snuggle and play "How many kisses?" before bedtime.
Happy 5th Birthday, Talon Shade!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Baby Update

As some of you may know, and for those who don't...

We had an ultrasound at my 32 week OB appointment. They wanted to check the growth of the baby, seeing that Talon and Kaitlyn were both small for gestational age when they were born. When they did the ultrasound, the baby's growth looked great, and I was only measuring about a week smaller than my week of pregnancy. They did find, however, that my amniotic fluid level was low. They also found a small mass on the baby's liver or possibly the spleen, but they weren't quite sure what it was. When we left the office that day, they were going to send us straight to a perinatologist to have a more in-depth ultrasound. After discussion with multiple doctors, they decided to have me get some blood work done, and come back in a couple of weeks to re-evaluate. They felt like it wasn't something that would interfere with the pregnancy, and this would give them a chance to see if the mass was growing, if the baby was growing well, and they could follow up on my fluid level. So, we went home without any answers and started praying. Praying for God's will, protection over the baby, and peace about the whole situation.

This brings us to today.

We went in for an ultrasound with the perinatologist, Dr. T. The good news is, my fluid level increased from 10 to 16. Yay!! That was a huge answer to prayer. They said if it kept dropping they would put me on bed rest, or even hospitalize me if it got too low. Thankfully that's not a concern at this point. Another answer to prayer is that the baby still appears to be growing great. She's measuring right on schedule for gestational age (even a couple of days ahead), and all of her organ functions seem perfect from what they can tell. They did find the mass that they had seen on the previous ultrasound, and it had grown. From the measurements 2 weeks ago, it was about 2cm by 2cm. This week, it was about 3cm by 3.4cm. They still are unable to tell exactly what it is. Getting a better look at it, it doesn't seem to be part of the liver or spleen. It is below the liver and appears lateral to the stomach. There is question as to whether or not it is compressing the stomach. Dr. T said they went through the long list of possibilities as to what it could be, and it is atypical of anything on the list. Hemangioma? Cyst? Tumor? Teratoma? Who knows.

It does change things a bit concerning where we go from here. Our plan was to deliver at Meridian Park Hospital. This will not be an option now, as we need to be in a place where she can be evaluated by a pediatric team as soon as she's born. So we will be delivering at Emanuel. This means that I also have to find another OB, because mine doesn't deliver there. They are getting the pediatric surgical team and neonatologists involved so they can start planning the scans and likely surgery after she's born. They also plan on inducing me around 37-38 weeks. This gives us about 2 weeks, give or take a little.

We appreciate all of the prayers and support from our family and friends, and are just trusting God at this point that he is going to take care of our little girl. We know he can heal her, but may choose, instead, to take us through this and just give us the peace and strength we need for whatever is to come!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

32 weeks!

Our active little lady at 32 weeks.  
We took the kids with us to the ultrasound, and they thought it was pretty neat.  They had gotten in their minds (especially Kaitlyn) that the doctor was going to get the baby out when we went into the office.  I think she was a bit disappointed to find out we still had to wait a while longer.

I love this picture.  She was sucking on her toes!


Monday, May 14, 2012

Katie Quip

Being Mother's Day, Daddy and the kids took me out to Yogurt Shack for a treat today.  As we pulled up and were getting ready to go in, a mom and her two young boys walked out of a store, and the boys were just wearing shorts and sandals- no shirts.  Kaitlyn was in shock, and very loudly exclaimed, "Wooops! They're not wearing any shirts!!"  
By the shock in her voice, she knew it HAD to have been an oversight on their part.  After all, WHO in the WORLD would go outside without their shirt on?!?!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mother's Day 2012

So thankful for the precious, beautiful children God has blessed me with!








So very thankful for such a wonderful mom...
and mother-in-law!

Happy Mother's Day 2012!

Thursday, May 10, 2012