Izzie Sings Her ABC's

I was just going through some of our older videos on our camera and I came across this one from about two months ago.

Izzie Sings her ABC's at 19 months old.

Izzie Shakes the H1N1 Away

Another Quick update!!!

Izzie was diagnosed with the H1N1 this past week… and had some trouble shaking it… but she finally figured out a way!

See the video below, to see how she did while she had the flu!

Halloween 2009

It is the usual right of passage forthe kids to go out trick-or-treating on Halloween night and this year was no different!

We headed up to Salem, MA to my cousin Karen's house, who lives on Witch Way, in Salem in the neighborhood of Witchcraft Heights. And just to add a little more flavor to the Halloween spirit, it's right down the street from "Gallows Hill". You really can't get anymore "SALEM" than that!

We drove into Salem early taking the backroads to avoid as much traffic as we could. And if you're not from around here, believe me, there is plenty of traffic. With Halloween on Saturday this year, they expected to have 100,000+ visitors in the city for the "holiday".
We got to my cousin's house around 4:30, let the kids play for a bit and had some pizza and headed out around 6:15 for a night of Trick or Treating around the neighborhood with the kids.
Izzie was "Little Red Riding Hood" and Aidan, as "alert" as he was for the entire evening looked perfect as a "HOT DOG".

As responsible parents... we walked around with the kids with "frosty beverages" in hand. With the unseasonably warm weather it made for a fun and thirsty evening.
The crowds in the neighborhood were pretty mellow early, but by the time we were making our final rounds at close to 8 pm. Most houses were out of candy (lights off) and there were kids everywhere.

My Mom, who was at the door handing out candy for a good part of the night was over 100 visitors by 7 pm. We're guessing they easily had over 200 kids visit for Trick or Treating. A great night for sure.

Sandy insists we dress up next year with the kids... so we'll have to come up with a great "family" getup for all of us.

Enjoy the photos below!
-JB

It's a... It's a... IT'S A...!!!

So there we were, 7 days after the due date of Baby Beauregard #2 and Sandy was still feeling nothing.

The baby was moving around fine, kicking like a champ, but still no progress from her doctor's appointment a week before. At the doctor's office, Dr. Richer gave us the same news, "slightly dilated, a little soft," but really nothing to write home about. It was time to make a plan!

"Come back Thursday night, and we'll get you going with some Cervadil. Hopefully that will kick-start things like it did the last time."

There it was, finally a light at the end of the tunnel. It was now time to prepare for what Sandy and I had been most worried about going into this birth... "where is Izzie going to stay?"

We decided that Izzie would stay at Sandy's brother, Jon's house with his girlfriend Jane and their new three-month-old baby Kay. It seemed to be a great choice because Izzie is clearly smitten with "Uncle JJ" whenever she sees him. It could be that he pulls her around The Plantation in the Radio Flyer wagon that Jon restored for his Dad, Frank, a few years back. (I think it was actually Frank's wagon as a child). We knew Izzie would be in good hands with Jon and Jane.

So, we dropped off Izzie, said our good-bye's and headed to the hospital. We checked in at around 7 pm on August 20, 2009 and as we were in registration Sandy was getting very uncomfortable. I thought "woohoo, here we go". However, after being admitted to our room, and the doctor administering the Cervadil at 8:40pm that kept Sandy stuck in bed for two hours on a monitor, which she wasn't too happy about, and going to bed hours later with nothing more than a few "kicks" we knew we were in for the long haul.

We woke up Friday morning again with no progress. Then at 9 am nurse Debbie started the pitocin drip to continue the induction process.

At about 10:30, Sandy rolled onto her side and started to slip off to take a little nap and I started to do the same since the only job I had was to wait. About 30 minutes later, I opened my eyes slightly to look at my wife laying on the bed in front of me in the hospital and her eyes were WIDE OPEN!

"There was one!" Sandy said, as a look of shock came across her face like what the hell was that? Then all of a sudden, Sandy's face changed and she felt a sharp pain and said, "I think I might have just peed."

The nurse looked over at Sandy and said, "Hold on, let me go get something to test it to see if your water broke!"

Indeed it had! At 11:03 am it was confirmed, WE WERE IN LABOR!

From there, the contractions got alot stronger and more regular and Sandy could really feel them. She said they were much stronger and more painful than she could remember with Izzie. So, as soon as it started to get painful Sandy said the words most women long to say when they are in labor, "I want my epidural!"

Within the half-hour, the anesthesiaologist came in and administered the epidural and slowly the pain subsided. Finally, Sandy got her epidural. She missed her chance to get it with Isabelle and she wasn't going to let it happen this time!

However, after an hour or so of the pain killing medication kicking in, Sandy couldn't feel anything below her waist. Whenever, the nurses or doctor needed to examine her or have her move, she couldn't move her legs at all. The funny part, was whenever Sandy saw her leg move, it really weirded her out because she couldn't feel it. She actually asked them to stop the medicine on the epidural so she could feel "something" because she wasn't feeling anything and felt like she wouldn't be able to push at all.

At around 2:30 pm, they turned off the epidural medication. The baby had worked its way down enough that she could start pushing soon, however, in the state she was in, she wouldn't have been able to do anything.

By 3:25 pm Sandy could start to wiggle her toes and actually slowly gained feeling and movement in her legs and by this point the baby was in position for her to start to push.

Slowly and methodically our new nurse, Deb, began to coach Sandy to push. The great part is, in between contractions and pushing, Sandy and myself along with the nurse were cracking jokes, talking about random stuff and giggling, which made it a really great experience. At one point Nurse Deb even told Sandy to slow down on the giggling because when she laughed, she pushed and "the doctor hates when he's not here to catch!"

Sandy continued to push during the contractions to get the baby in place and by 3:50 pm Dr. Richer came into the room and said "I think we're ready to have baby!".

A few more strong pushes and the head was out and one last strong push by my amazing wife and.....

"Oh My God It's A Boy!" Sandy said and the baby came out and was put on her stomach. Tears filled Sandy's eyes as well as mine as we welcomed our new little baby into the world.

Now, all of this happened so fast that I never actually go to see "The Merchandise", so, I didn't know if Sandy was just seeing things or not. It was a good five minutes after they rubbed him down, cleaned him off and flipped him over that I actually saw confirmation that we had actually had a boy.

Aidan Charles Beauregard, August, 21, 2009, 4:06 pm - 9 pounds, 1 ounce, 22" long! Our Little Big Man had finally joined the party!

I really couldn't beleive we had a boy. I was kind of in shock to be honest. I had set in my head that I was going to have all girls. For whatever reason, I just thought that was the way it was going to be. It was pretty amazing to know that I had a little boy to go along with my beautiful little girl.

Five hours of Labor. Not too shabby! Sandy again was absolutely amazing. No issues, no problems with the delivery and just as with Isabelle, texting people minutes after she gave birth to let them know. As soon as we got down to the post pardom room about an hour and a half later, Sandy was walking around like nothing had happened. The woman is truly amazing!

The entire experience was completely amazing and so drastically different than when we had Isabelle, but just as exciting. Finding out that Izzie had a baby brother was definitely a tear-filled moment for Mommy and Daddy.

The Nurses at the hospital were absolutely amazing and made all the difference in the world at making us (especially Sandy) feel comfortable with everything that was going on. Our Doctor, Dr. Richer was great, we were all cracking jokes right up until the time Aidan was born. It was a great experience.

It was also pretty fun posting our progress to my Twitter and Facebook accounts. It was kind of neat reading people's reactions to our progress. I even posted pics of Little Big Man within 20 minutes of having him from my phone. Technology really is amazing.

Here are a few pics of our new little guy as well as Sandy, and big sister Izzie. More will come very very soon!

Thanks to Everyone for all of your love and support!

-JB

It's a BOY! Aidan Charles Beauregard, 9lb 1oz, 4:06pm.
Mommy, baby and Daddy are all doing well. Pics to come soon!

We are on our way... Sort of. Admitted to start cervadil at 8:30pm then ots a waiting game again. Hopefully this kicks Sandy into labor soon! More to come!

Izzie running around the Plantation!

On a recent visit to "The Plantation" as Sandy refers to her parent's house where she grew up, Izzie had fun running around in the grass with the dogs.

This is a look from her level as I was chasing her around the yard!

No new news... Sandy and i are both back at work today and nothing is happening! hopefully we will have more news sooner than later!

"DUE DATE" Update

NUTHIN'!

How's that for an update?

Sandy went to see her Doctor yesterday, Wednesday the 12th, on her due date, and he said she was "slightly dilated, cervix is a little soft and the baby has dropped, but still not enough progress."

So, we wait! And wait!

Sandy is doing well, although getting more uncomfortable by the day, and she is definitely running out of steam quicker and quicker as the days progress. But, just like with Izzie, it's a waiting game.

We have another appointment next Wendnesday the 19th and if we don't have a baby yet, Dr. Richer will schedule Sandy to begin induction on either the 20th or 21st!

For Sandy's sake, I hope it doesn't go that long.

I'll keep everyone posted as much as possible.

I'll be posting updates from the hospital to the blog from my phone, so be sure to check in to see what's going on!

More to come.... hopefully SOON!!
-JB

Mmmm Watermelon!

There is nothing like a piece of watermelon bigger than your head to refresh you on a hot Summer day!

Point Sebago 2009

We just came back from our annual trip to Point Sebago, Maine, and while the weather didn't really cooperate with us for the entire week (2 days of full sun, 2 days of rain, 3 days overcast) we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless!

Izzie really enjoyed playing in the water and playing in the sand with her cousins and spending time with MEM.

And surprisingly enough, she enjoyed all of the characters and wasn't freaked out by them at all. She even gave kisses to each of them at the character breakfast on Friday morning. Which impressed the counselors that she so young and wasn't afraid.

As for updates, Sandy is STILL pregnant! Any day now (she hopes). As you can tell by the pictures... she is definitely pregnant and ready to go!!

More updates soon.

-JB

New Location, Same Great Stuff!

It's been a long time since our last post and things have been crazy.


So, here is a really quick update:

Izzie will be 18 months old at the end of July.

Sandy is now 8 months pregnant and is due on or around August 12th.

Daisy (our Beagle) turns 3 August 4th. Happy Birthday DAISY!

Wyatt (our Puggle) is a hyper 16 months old with no signs of settling down.

And they shut down our old blog website so, I had to find a new place to post our blogs and updates to keep everyone in the loop!


So, this will be our new site. I'll try to re-upload the old blogs to keep everything in one place. That way we can provide updates and keep a record of Baby #2 when he/she arrives as well!

Here's a picture of Izzie playing in the dog house in the backyard.





Since the dogs don't use it much, it might turn into a cute little play house for her. We'll see how much she likes it. Right now she steps on the "porch" and the pulls at the door molding, and then quickly starts whining because she needs help getting down. Good times!

I hope to provide more updates pictures soon.

And I'll be sure to post information about the new baby as soon as things progress!
-JB

Just Teething... We Think!

The past seven to ten days have been pretty brutal. Not in the fact that things are going badly or that any major changes have been happening, there is just one thing that has been making the last week or so really tough… Lack of Sleep!

Isabelle, is teething. At least we think she is teething. So, she has not been sleeping through the night very much since the Friday before last. She has been waking up between 1 and 3 a.m. a bit fussy and then when you settle her down, she just doesn’t want to go back to sleep, she’s ready to party. At her daycare, they actually call her “party-girl”, I hope that moniker goes away by the time she’s out of pre-school, God help me!

Whenever this happens, Daddy has night-time duty. So, I get up with her and I either bring her down into the living room and put her into the swing and we watch a little television, while Daddy tries to catch some more z’s on the couch. However, this method that used to work like a charm and lull her back to sleep has failed miserably in recent attempts.

She now begins throwing her binky and monkey blanket about the room and leans over and looks at me while I sleep on the couch with her arms dangling over the edge of the swing like a monkey swinging by its tail off a tree limb.

As cute as this really looks, it’s not so charming or cute at 3 in the morning.

The next phase after this 45 minute failed attempt is to bring her back upstairs to her room, and try to see if she’ll rock in the rocking chair for a few and put her cute little head on Daddy’s chest and fall asleep. Once again, in recent attempts, miserable failure!

Izzie pushes away from me and wants to get down and play with her toys and “read” her books. I mean why not, she’s wide awake right? So, I put her on the floor to play with her toys and she starts walking around her bedroom carrying any number of books or stuffed animals in a dizzying circular motion. I don’t know if the dizzying effort is for her, for me or to lull the stuffed animals into a false sense of security, but either way, my head starts spinning and Daddy needs to lie down on the floor.

While we are both now on the floor, Izzie starts handing books to me to read to her. I do my best to keep my eyes open and be at least mildly entertaining in the state I’m in. She usually gets bored rather quickly at my mediocre late night/early morning reading skills and takes the book from my hands barely halfway through and discards it immediately. She then picks up another book or toy and comes back over and basically sits on my chest or hip, bounces a few times, gives me a look and a giggle through her binky-filled mouth and goes back to playing with her chosen toy.

Our next fun step is cranky time. We’ve now been up around an hour and a half to two hours and we’re both getting sleepy again. Isabelle starts getting tired and rubbing her eyes. Daddy starts yawning and rubbing his watery eyes as well. It’s hard to tell which one of us is crankier at this point, but I’m going to have to lean toward Daddy.

Now, as much as you’re told not to give your baby a bottle in the middle of the night because they will get used to waking up to eat, you’ll do anything to get them to settle down and get back to sleep. To add to this, Isabelle hasn’t been eating very well lately because we think her teeth and mouth have been bothering her, so, she probably is waking up hungry as well, and that bottle isn’t going to hurt as far as I’m concerned.

And it’s a proven fact in the Daddy science book (that I am currently writing) that warm milk makes you sleepy and want to snuggle up with your stuffed animals. So, warm milk it is, and it usually does the trick. Lately, however, her awake times have been a little longer so, Sandy, aka Mommy, has been getting up at the four or five o’clock hour and giving Izzie the bottle.

To be honest, Mommy does have more of a magic touch when it comes to bedtime than Daddy does. It usually takes Mommy about 25-30 minutes to get Izzie back to sleep, and I welcome the peace and quiet and comfort of my bed after a long couple of hours awake in the middle of the night. Of course, getting back into bed and having to jockey for position with the two dogs is a story for another day.

What we did notice this weekend is that Isabelle’s two front teeth at the top that have come through, and two more on either side of her two front teeth are close behind. It also looks like two more bottom teeth on either side of her front teeth are on their way as well. Hopefully, when these come through, things will settle down a little bit and we can all get some sleep. Because I know I need it, and I’m sure everyone else in the house would benefit too!

Izzie's First Birthday

On Saturday, January 31st, Isabelle turned 1 year-old.
It’s amazing that it was a year ago that this beautiful little person came into this world. We are so happy, proud and grateful that she is ours!

For Izzie’s birthday we had a party at Grandma and Granpa Jenkins house or ”The Plantation”, as it is affectionately known. But first, we were off to do some sledding at the local sledding hill. The weather was bright and sunny, but a little on the chilly side so, everything was a bit frozen and icey. And as a result, some of the sledding tubes were sacrificed quite quickly… one on the first ride down the hill.

However, we carried on with the other sleds we had, and everyone seemed to have a great time. Isabelle went down the hill a few times with Daddy and it seemed to enjoy the speed and excitement. She was all smiles (I’ll have to remember that when she wants her first car!!!).

We then went back to The Plantation for pizza, cake and ice cream which Izzie definitely enjoyed!

Izzie then opened her birthday gifts with Mommy’s help and decided in the Letter Box that Grandma and Granpa Jenkins gave her was the place to be!


Izzie (and Mom and Dad) would like to thank everyone for coming to the party and making it very special. And also thank you for all of the great gifts, you were all extremely generous… Thank you so much!

MILESTONES:
Izzie is definitely walking by herself now. She started taking a few steps at a time, the week before her first birthday, but now is definitely walking around the house all on her own. She even catches her balance mid-walk, stops, and then keeps going without falling down. Regardless, it’s pretty fun to watch. On the other hand, she’s getting in to just about everything she can get her hands on. She’s alot taller than you think she is!

She is starting to say words for objects and of course “Mama” and “Dada”. “Bye bye” is a favorite and as always “Daisy” seems to be at the top of her list. She actually said “Bye Bye Dada” the other morning when Jeff went out to shovel and “Hi Mama” when she sees Sandy. It’s all pretty amazing.

Izzie also went for her 1 year physical and Dr. Natale said she looks great. She’s in the 95th percentile for height and head circumference and in the 75th percentile for weight. So, she’s right on track to be tall just like Mommy! She was such a trooper when they took blood from her finger, she just sat and watched and didn’t even cry. What a big girl!

And lastly, a third tooth has started to show… her top left front tooth has poked through the gums, but there is no sign of the right front tooth just yet. So, Izzie might have a professional hockey player look for a little while! GO BRUINS!