The Scariest and Proudest Moment of my Life

This literally is the scariest and proudest moment of my life until now.

This happened at my Grandpa's on Christmas Eve. It was the end of the night and a lot of people had already left. We were actually getting ready to leave and I was getting sippy cups for the kids. I was in the kitchen getting Annabelle some milk and picking out my leftovers of the delicious food. Yum!

I was walking back toward the family room where most of the family was when I heard someone screaming my name. I stopped because it was one of those moments where you aren't 100% sure you really heard someone call your name.

I asked, "Did someone just yell my name??".

No one else heard it. Then my brother in law Andrew came into the room and said, in a very hurried voice, "Meghan! Angela needs you. Addie's choking!".

I dropped the sippy and ran into the living room where Andrew had come from and saw my sister and Addie on the floor. It was the scariest sight of my life. Not Addie. Which in itself was downright terrifying. But because my big sister was on the floor holding Addie and crying. I can probably count on one hand how many times I've seen my sister cry. It's that few. My sister is brave and strong and always so tough and sure of things. She's who I look to or call when I need a strong one. So to see her so visibly scared was horrifying.

I dropped to my knees and grabbed Addie and could hear my sister say, "Help me, she's choking! She's choking!".

After that, I don't really remember hearing anyone else. I just remember thinking, thank goodness they make us take a Basic Life Support class to get into Nursing school! I flipped Addie over onto her tummy, held her up (kind of rested her on my leg) and started hitting her on her back. I hit her about 5-7 times and I flipped her over. I looked in her mouth and lightly felt for the object, then I flipped her back over and started hitting her again. On about the 3rd hit of her back, she coughed out the object. It was a teeny tiny binder clip.

Like the smallest one on here:

Angie picked her up and she started crying. I don't blame her. I was hitting her kind of hard to get it out of her. I was so scared. After she calmed down she wanted a sippy cup. I don't blame her for that either! Poor girl had a binder clip stuck in her throat! We got her a sippy and she was a happy girl again. Although she didn't really want much to do with me for awhile! Although, one more time, I don't blame her. :)

Angie kept saying telling me thank you, thank you! I was just so happy I could do it! She made me nervous but she's a happy and healthy girl again. And she didn't need to thank me, of course I would do that! I'm just happy I learned the class and could do it. If it had happened to Annabelle though, I probably would've just freaked out and forgotten everything, so not that I wanted it to happen to anyone, but I'm glad it didn't happen to Annabelle because there could have been a different outcome. We were lucky though and my cousin's girlfriend is a resident at a hospital in Chicago and they had just left. While I was working on her someone grabbed her and she was on her way in. So I think we had her covered.

Also, Angie told us what happened when the whole thing was over and I'm glad I didn't see it. Ang was changing Addie's diaper and she was laying on her back and holding the binder clip in the air. Ang didn't know it was a binder clip because it was so small and my aunt had brought these 3D felt stickers for the kids and they had all been holding them all night. She just thought she was holding a small sticker. Then Addie dropped it and it literally dropped straight down her throat. How scary...

Ang told us she was screaming at the top of her lungs for help and no one heard her. She was in tears by the time Andrew came in. Andrew didn't even hear her. She asked Cecilia to go get Daddy and that's how Andrew found all this out. So Addie had been choking for a minute before I even got in there. The whole thing has randomly given me nightmares since it happened. I've played the "what if" game a few times and started freaking out and Nick has to remind me to stop, because everything worked out and Addie's fine.

I'm so thankful that I've decided to go into nursing school. I'm proud to be going into a position to help save people's lives or at the very least help them. I'm extremely thankful for my BLS class that taught me CPR and how to help choking victims. I think everyone should take a Basic Life Support class if they have the opportunity.

Here's the posted on how to help a conscious choking victim:

Whew. What a Christmas Eve!

My Immediate Family Christmas

We always do our immediate family Christmas the Saturday or Sunday before Christmas just because the holidays get so crazy busy. This year, my sister and I took my mom to see Wicked at the Fabulous Fox on Saturday so we did Family Christmas on Sunday.

It was a great time. We went over to my parent's around 3 pm. We did dinner first because I knew my kids wouldn't sit through dinner if we did presents first. We had a great meal and then did presents. All of these kids are so loved and spoiled that it's ridiculous. :)

Dominick got a ton of stuff on his Christmas list, including: new Christmas PJ's, a new "piggy bank" which is a big green dinosaur, a big boy green cup, a new puzzle, Ice Age: Continental Drift, and a ton of the Melissa&Doug brand wooden food. What a lucky boy.

Annabelle got a new baby doll, a baby stroller, Melissa&Doug wooden food, new Christmas PJ's, and something else I think, but can't remember...

Gretchen got new Christmas PJ's and a TON of clothes. Just what I wanted her to get!

The food was great, the kids had a blast, everything was perfect!

We gave some presents and got some presents but of course, Christmas is now all about the kids.

Here are some pictures of our day:

 Dad, Dom and Celia all opening a few presents

 Addie opening one of the presents from us, a bag full of baby accessories

 Annabelle looking at her new Christmas PJ's (which she's wearing today!)

 Celia opening her Lego Camper from Grandpa and Grandpa

 Celia opening her play-doh present that Dom picked out

 Gretch just taking it all in

 Angela opening her gift from us, kitchen stuff! 

 Andrew opening a present from Mom and Dad, a signed copy of Tony La Russa's book

 Another pic

 Grandma opening the Cookie Jar the kids made then

 Grandpa opening the calendar of the kids that Angela makes him and Mom every year

Annabelle playing with her new stroller and new baby that she named "LaLa"

It was a great FIRST Christmas. One of many that we got the pleasure of going to this year. What a lucky family we have. :)

Too long

It's been way too long, but again, there's no way to catch up tonight. I'll try tomorrow, but that will be tough since I'll be home with all three kiddos tomorrow.

So instead I'll just mention the most important thing right now, Gretchen rolled over for the first time yesterday!! Yay!! :) She's getting to be SO big!

I'll try to post within the next few days to catch up on everything.

Christmas
Cousins Holiday Party
Gretchen's Newest things
Dom's school Christmas show
My work
My school
My hospital stays, etc
Addie's Scare on Christmas

So much to discuss! I'll try tomorrow, I promise!!

Pictures!

My grandpa holding Gretchen and talking to Annabelle

My little dare devil. She climbed up onto the coffee table 

at my parents house and was smirking as if daring us to tell her to get down...

Gretchen napping in the pack n play while I cooked dinner one night. 

It amazed me how close in size she and the doll were!

HAHA, I HAD to post this picture!

Cecilia is SO skinny and tall. Her pants can't even stay up. When this happened

I asked if she needed help. She said, "no". She was more concerned with playing 

than worrying about her pants! 

Annabelle, Dominick and Cecilia

Cheering on the Cardinals!

Go Cardinals!!!

Big girl Gretchen!!

My Grammie, Gretchen and me. 

Gretchen at 1 month

Dommie and Addie cheering on the Cardinals. 

I haven't hardly taken any pictures, but this is what I have. Hopefully I can add more to it soon!

We survivied!

Nick went out of town for the annual golf trip and I was on my own with Dom, Annabelle, Ruby and Peyton from Friday to Sunday afternoon. Oh and I'm almost 35 weeks pregnant. :)

But I had a TON of  help and we survived! It actually went pretty flawlessly. For me anyway. Nick left Friday afternoon and I had to work on Friday from 3-11:30 pm so Nick's mom picked up the kids from school and kept them overnight. So Friday was a breeze!

I picked them up around 8:30 am on Saturday and we headed back to the house. For some reason I was really nesting on Saturday. When Annabelle was down for a nap, I cleaned the first floor and switched out Dom's furniture (by putting it on a little rug and pushing it. I didn't exert myself too badly, I promise). In case you were wondering, the nesting is already over. I'm back to wanting to nap all the time...

We stayed at the house until about 2:40 and then we headed north to my mom and dad's. Now let me back up and tell you that this is no small golf trip. This is like every male on my dad's side of the family. They've been doing it for years (this is Nick's 4th or 5th year) and about 70 or 80 guys go. It's a big deal. A big weekend. So my dad was there and so was my brother in law. And since my sister lives in Springfield now, she came up with the girls. So when we went to my parent's house, it was 3 adults and 4 little ones. It was crowded! In a good way.

We got there a little after 3 and I was a little nervous about how Dom and Celia would play together. They love each other and are always talking about each other and sending each other pictures, etc. but when they actually get together...sometimes it's a different story. But that's being 3 and 4 years old I guess.

But they did really really well together! And the little girls did well too!

We had a wonderful dinner, mainly put on by Angela with help from Mom...I seasoned asparagus for the grill. That's all I did. But dinner was an awesome salad (my sister makes the BEST salad I swear), grilled shrimp, grilled vegetables (asparagus and corn on the cob), grilled salmon, and hot rolls. It was awesome. I ate so much. And lucky for me, it was mostly food I could eat!

After dinner the kids played some more and then we attempted some dessert. We tried making cookies from the cookie dough Mom bought from Dom's school and it did NOT turn out well. I don't know if we didn't let it thaw enough or if it was the cookie dough brand is just bad or what the problem was, but it was not good. So we settled for ice cream instead. The kids were ok with that. ;-)

After dinner, I stayed for a bit longer and then I headed home with Annabelle around 8:45. Dom was lucky and got to have a sleepover with Celia.

Sunday morning Annabelle slept in until 7:15, which was perfect, because then we got up, got dressed and headed back north. Mom wanted to go to 9:00 am mass and didn't want to leave Angela alone with the kids. So we headed up and got some donuts on the way (Old Town Donuts in Florissant = awesome; if you've never had it, you should!). We got there about 8:40 and Mom went to mass. We just hung out and the kids played some more (and each had a donut - of course).

When Mom got home we started prepping for brunch. Michelle came over with Eliza and Baby Tucker (her hubs, Adam is part of my family and also on the golf trip) and we added two more little ones to the party! We made breakfast and it was also awesome. We had watermelon, scrambled eggs with cheese, made from scratch plain and blueberry pancakes, sausage patties, coffee, orange juice and I don't even know what else. But it was good.

After brunch, I stayed until Nick got back (he had ridden with Dad out there so his car was at my parent's). Nick got home about 3 ish and we left shortly after that to go home.

It was a great weekend for both me and Nick and I had SO much help with the kids (thank you Sue and Mom and Angela!!!!) but it was great to get the four of us back in the same house again. I love having the whole family at home where we belong. I told Nick that I hope he had fun because that's probably his last trip out with the boys for awhile! Not trying to be mean, but I can't stay home with three of 'em for awhile!

♥ ♥ She's HERE! ♥ ♥

My sister had her baby!!!!

Adelina Margaret (pronounced Add-a-leen-a) was born on Saturday morning at 7:30 am. She was 8 lbs. 13.8 ounces and just over 20 inches long. She has a LOT of dark dark hair. She's beautiful.

Nick and I were still in bed on Saturday when my dad called us at 8:15. He called and said, "I have no details, but Angie had her baby and everyone is doing well.". I was so excited! I waited until Andrew called about 40 minutes later and then I got some more details. Everyone was doing great he told me. I asked if visitors were allowed and he said yes, but wait until the afternoon because they still weren't even in their room yet. They were still in the delivery room waiting for their overnight room.

That was fine with me. Leslie was in town and a bunch of us were going to lunch at noon anyway. So we went to lunch (which was fabulous, by the way) and then Nick, Dom and I headed over to the hospital.

When we got to her floor, we were walking to her room when we saw Jack, Ginnie (Andrew's parents) and Cecilia walking our way. It was too adorable. As soon as Cecilia saw us, she came running down the hall. As soon as Dom saw Celia, he started running to her. They met in the middle and gave each other a BIG hug. We didn't tell them to do that or anything, they just did it. And it was adorable. Wish I had my camera out then!!

We went into Angie's room and she was feeding Addy so we had to be patient for a little while longer. While we were sitting in the room, I asked Angie about her birth story.

She said it wasn't a very long one, but she'd tell me anyway. She woke up Saturday morning around 3 am with a contraction. She tried timing them, but had to wake up Andrew. They continued to time them for awhile and around 4:20 am they were only 5 minutes apart. They called Andrew's brother, John, to come to the house to be there for Cecilia and they headed to the hospital. They got to the hospital around 5:00 am and Angela was in pain. They brought her back to L&D and got her hooked up and checked her. She was already 6 cm. She got the epidural and they waited. It didn't take much longer after that until she was ready to push. At 7:30, their beautiful baby girl was born.



I was so jealous when I heard her story. That's not a long labor at all!

After Addy ate, I got to hold her. She's so sweet! I forget how little they are. Dominick did really really well. I was afraid of how he would react, since he's usually not a fan of Nick or I holding other babies but he did great. He ran right up and looked at her and said, "Baby!". He wanted to hold her too. I let him give her a hug and he seemed ok with that. We did a few pictures of me holding both of them and then he was off playing Legos or something again. :)



We spent a little time there and then headed home.

I couldn't stay away though. Sunday morning around 11:00 am, I headed back to the hospital. For awhile it was just me, Angie and Andrew so I got to hold her for a long time. I loved it. They are so sweet and little and I can't get enough!

While I was there, Andrew's parents came up with Cecilia and then my parents and my Grandpa showed up. Also in the middle of all the visitors, Addy got her pictures taken. They were so good! It's a new company from when Dom had his hospital pictures done and this company does a much better job. I'm excited for Annabelle's pictures!



I stayed until about 2:00ish and then I headed back home to my boys.

I'm in no way ready to have my baby girl yet, but being at the hospital and seeing the babies and everything makes me really really excited to have my baby girl! I'll know this Thursday what the countdown is until my delivery date! So exciting!