cool santa!!

http://portablenorthpole.tv/home/

Dresden

This is a song that I sung to Dresden early in my pregnancy.. you know, in the first weeks, when there is a chance of miscarriage.. I sang to him today when the song came on the kids playlist..

by :laurie berkner
The great big dog came down the meadow
Wagged his tail and shook the meadow
Go away dog, go away dog
You can’t have my baby
Mama loves you
Papa loves you
Everybody loves baby
Mama loves you
Papa loves you
Everybody loves baby
Everybody loves baby

cool

you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is serving in Iraq . You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed services.
http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home1280.html

share walk newsletter

http://www.nationalshare.org/Walk_Issue.pdf

fun weekend!

look closely.. gwen tried to 'steal' a cup from the pizza place! ha

1st game of checkers - lasted a few minutes!

swimming at the hotel
silly

tree hugger!

annual penguin pic.

our tree

no flash

ah, how i love 1 hand typing at 2am! haha why am i up??

bits of November

Awesome uncle Shaun (aka daddy) helps the kids make a leaf fort in our backyard!

tadaa!
two sleeping girls

studly working men!

lego adventure!

Gwen giving her baby the very best! ;)

Gwen in leaves at the village!

happy baby!

so sweet!

Delaney's first time at the movies! We saw A Christmas Carol.

love!

Gwen helps with bathtime.

look twin grouchy faces!! hehe

Hopefully in the not too distant future, I'll be able to post about our fun time up north and also putting up our christmas tree!!

Delaney's birth announcement

click to make the announcement bigger :)

family pictures!

Our friend Mirak did a photo-shoot for us, in our very own living room!! Taking pix w/ kids is hard work.. but after only 242 shots,, we got some goodies!! Gwen wasm't much in the mood for pictures.. so we were lucky! :) and now, i'm off to bed.

My sweet girls!

A couple pictures from this bad poster... I just don't have time right now - there are so many things and pictures that I want to post about, but seeing as Delaney is in my arms 90% of my day.. and I'm not fond of typing with one hand, this is all I got right now!! So, I AM still here.. sort of! ;) Here are a couple of pictures of Gwen and Delaney.. maybe someday, I'll get to post about the 2 halloween parties we've hosted this month (there are many awesome photo's from those too!!)

Gwen is better at slinging babies than I am!

sisterly love
A happy little pirate!! :)

enjoying some fall weather!

Gwen decided to be a cat wizard for her halloween party (a plain wizard for halloween in the village, and a pirate wizard for the library halloween party - I wonder what she'll be for actual halloween?!)

Remember with us..

October 15th is pregnancy and infant loss remembrance day. Light a candle at 7pm and remember Dresden with us as well as all the other babies who left their families too soon. http://www.october15th.com/
The biggest fear that we have is that people will forget about our baby boy. People will think that as the years go by, we will no longer feel the desperation to hold him that we did in the beginning. Special events like this and the remembrance walk we took part in a couple of weeks ago are times that we can embrace our loss fully and with others who know the pain that we will carry with us for the rest of our lives.

updated walk link..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqZZG2LXWNo

The remembrance walk

I've really been wanting to post about this walk (as well as a billion other things) but time is very limited these days!! Since this photo slide show was posted, I wanted to share it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFE0GgGWyRQ
The walk was beautiful!! The people who worked so hard to set it up did such a wonderful job organizing everything!! I felt such love, sorrow and even happiness that day.. it was a very emotional event and there were lots of tears as we remembered so many sweet babies who were taken too soon.
I want to thank the family and friends who joined us that day, it means SO much! We're glad you were all there to support us and remember Dresden. I look forward to doing this again next year.
October is pregnancy and infant loss awareness month - with the 15th being the specific day set aside to remember - http://www.october15th.com/

walk to remember

Our local SHARE group is doing it's first walk in memory of all babies who died too soon. It's 10/4 @noon - heritage park.. if you're local, feel free to join us! You can also donate an get more info through the following link. hope to see you Sunday!!
http://www.metrodetroitsharegroup.com/walk_to_remember.html

Delaney's tricks!

Sooo.. 4 weeks already!! and i'm typing w/ 1 hand btw... yeterday, Delaney was on her belly, and lifted her head!! i tried to get the camera but it as too late... so last night trying to show Shaun the newest trick.. we had the camera (not the video one tho) she showed daddy the head lift and THEN.. rolled over!!!! HOLY CRAP!! Go Delaney!!! :)
btw- i should add that this is only like the 3rd time she's been put down for tummy time! I guess even babies who are constantly held can do things like this quickly!

more later- when i have 2 hands ;)

AWSOME YUMMY SOAPS!!

This is our friends new soap shop! I've sampled many of their varieties and they are SCRUMPTIOUS!! Check them out.. CELLAR DOOR SOAP CO there is free shipping through Halloween! :)

some pictures of Delaney..

Dresden - the worst day and his birthday

Delaney holding onto Dresden

September 8 - the worst day of our lives. One year has passed.. today is the day we found out our sweet boy was gone. I spent the entire day, trying to get a good movement. I just thought he was slowing down, getting ready for his birth.. sadly that was not the case. After spending the day willing him to move, we went to the hospital.. I wasn't even nervous until we arrived there. I just KNEW he was okay, after all, if your baby dies inside of you, it's something you'd know, right? At the same time, I look back and feel like I already knew he was gone. I just didn't want to find out that it was really true. This week has been difficult for me, retracing the last moments with my boy.. not knowing for certain when the last moments were.. but guessing that he died on the 6th, and was gone for 2 days before we found out. Nothing helps the fact that he's gone, it doesn't matter what day, or time - none of that will bring him back. We miss him all the time though.. all the time.

September 9 - Well, here we are. Dresden's first birthday. Instead of preparing our house for a big ole party, I'm trying to think of a special dessert to make to honor our sweet baby boy. Shaun says it has to be something that we only make for HIS birthday.. i'm thinking something with apples. I really can't believe it's been a year. I miss him so terribly, I wouldn't be able to explain it, if I tried. I have no perfect words for this day.. I still long for you my sweet boy, I always will. Time may make things easier, but there are some things that never heal.. like the hole in my heart that went with you when you left us. I sure wish I was watching you dig into a birthday cake today and not writing this post. Happy first birthday sweet one. Your family loves you and misses you all the time.

Some pictures of our rainbow baby!!

Delaney is seriously amazing!! Our whole family is just smitten with her.. including big sister Gwen, who tells everyone who comes over all about her little sister Delaney. She also runs into the room if Delaney is crying, usually telling us that she needs nummies! ;) So far, the girl takes after the rest of her family and looves to sleep - and so far, in her first two nights has woken around midnight and fussed until falling back into a full sleep around 3 or 4! Nursing is going well.. my milk is coming in a lot faster this time. I'm recovering nicely from the cesarean... even made some no bake cookies this morning! I needed something with lots of oats, to help boost the milk! MMM! Delaney is snugging up with her daddy right now, which he adores!! We're so happy that she's here, and that we're home!! Thank you everyone for your well wishes and for caring about our family. Here are a few pictures, since people have been asking!! There will be more soon.. for now we relax! :)

Shaun got to cut the cord after her bath (they left it SUPER long!)

We are home!!!!

Yes you read that right... Shannon and Delaney were released from the hospital today and we are now home. We welcome visitors that wish to see our precious little Delaney :)

Delaney is here!!!!!!!!

Well I am going to keep this short and sweet. Don't worry there will be a lot more updates once we get home :)


Welcome Delaney Shea Ryan
Born on August 31st, 2009
She weighs 8 lbs 5 ounces
Length ??? Not sure yet since they measure her during the bath and that has not happened yet.


Here are a few picks to enjoy....

Delaney opening her eyes to get her first peak at Daddy

Mommy and Delaney :)

we're hours away!!

and now we try to sleep..

tomorrow..

Last night I said something to Shaun about how this will be the last time the 3 of us do this or that.. then I felt wrong for saying it.. I said the same thing so often last year... turned out that we had a whole nother year of the 3 of us doing things. I can't help but have that fear. We're so close now, man, I can almost feel her in my arms! By this time tomorrow, I won't be pregnant anymore! Can I just say how absolutely NUTS it is to know when your baby will be born?? Today will be one of the strangest days of our lives, I'm sure. the waiting... wondering.. will we even sleep tonight? I keep wondering how I'll be able to go to sleep?! Fearing that I go so sleep with a wiggly baby inside and wake up to a dead one- when we're THIS close!? AHH.. I'm sure a lot of you think this is being 'negative' and that we shouldn't feel this way.. but it is hard to assume everything will be perfect, when you know first hand that it might not be. On the other hand, I feel like I KNOW the outcome will be perfect, and tomorrow morning when they pull our 3rd little baby from the hole in my belly that she WILL scream - I just know it!! I can't wait to hear her beautiful voice and see her beautiful eyes, wide open and full of life!
Our intention is that Shaun will send an email out to everyone in my address book tomorrow morning after she's born, sending you to this site.. hopefully we'll have a picture and some basic info by 11 tomorrow!

still hangin'

The braxton hicks aren't as common as this morning.. so I've been trying to get things done! Still could happen today, but soon we're off to a wedding! :)

well..

I'm getting quite a few Braxton Hicks this morning.. fairly close together! Nothing painful.. but possibly enough to make a hospital trip at some point today!? EEEK! I better get to cleaning, and putting those frozen raspberries away!! :)

2 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, it's amazing that it's so close.. I find myself feeling nauseous, nervous, excited, flat out scared! The range of emotions is crazy! Shaun started his vacation today (Friday) and was able to go to my NST at the docs office. Delaney was not having any real accelerations for the first half hour or so.. then all of a sudden had two nice long ones right in a row! YAY! I have to arrive at the hospital at 7am on Monday... I wonder if we'll be able to sleep at all on Sunday!? AHH! Shaun and I got to have a nice lunch after the appt too. Probably our last 'date' for a while! :) After picking up Gwen from Shaun's folks, we went raspberry picking - in the rain, but it was SO fun!! Then had a great visit with Jason and Jen!!! Now it's nearly midnight, I can just about change the chalkboard door to 2 days! She's really going to make us wait until Monday, isn't she?? hehe Oh well, we've got plenty to occupy us this weekend.

37 weeks - 6 days left (well, now 5!!!!) BPP and nesting!

By the time I post this we'll be 5 days away!! It's 11:59! I feel nauseous when I say that.. 5 DAAAAAYS! AHHH! Is it really happening? Man..
So, today was a pretty good day. My mom came and picked up our old furniture to take it to my sister's house... that way the family room was pretty cleared out for carpet cleaning! Then went to my ultrasound appt at the hospital where everything looked good! Our girl is measuring 7lbs 4ozs.. which goes along with the scan 2 weeks ago (they grow about a pound every two weeks at this stage) and also goes along with what size babies we normally have.. Gwen was full term @8lbs 11oz. Dresden was a week early @ 8lb 1oz, and going by these estimates, if Delaney went full term, she would be around 8lb 12oz! :) I'll guess her birth weight at 7lbs 11oz! After picking Gwen up from my mom's, I came home and started canning! Salsa, tomatoes, dehydrating tomatoes, and all the clean up that goes along with it! FUN! ;) We also had a nice visit with Brandon and Ro.. so Shaun didn't get the last pieces of trim up (thanks guys! haha) but he did complete the touch ups that he wanted to do! The family room is SOOO close to being done and our furniture arrives tomorrow! Keeping busy for the next 5 days should be easy! My mom asked today, what we're bringing the baby home in, and did I want her to get an outfit? I dunno? I'll probably pull out the box of clothes and have Gwen pick.. otherwise, a onesie? I honestly could care less what she comes home in.. as long as she comes home! I feel like there was more.. but I can't remember now. Oh, a little tid bit! I found out last night that the hosptial does indeed have wireless internet! Check here on Monday afternoon, hopefully we'll be able to post a picture and some info for y'all to see! Good night! :)

7 days...