Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Happy 3rd Birthday to Noelle

I am so excited that Noelle is now 3 years old!!  These 3 1/2 years have been by far the hardest in my life and I am ready to move on.  I love my little girl with all my heart and can't imagine life without her, but it has NOT been an easy journey to this day.

Here is the recap of Noelle's life so far:

-While pregnant with her I was sick in the evenings for a couple months at the begining.  I am thankful my body waited till evening though, since I was working 50+ hours a week (just M-F, not counting weekend jobs) at the time taking care of two barely 2 year old boys and an infant.  I spent the rest of the pregnancy with the WORST vericose veins ever (where they really shouldn't be).  It pretty much felt like I had just given vaginal birth, only it lasts for months and months.

-Her entry into the world was fairly quick and easy.  My water broke about 2 pm, we got to the hospital about 6pm, painful contractions about 7pm.  Only 2 1/2 hours of pain and a couple pushes later we had a gorgeous little girl.  She was 6 lbs 9 ounces and 18 inches long.  After Adam who was 8 1/2 pounds and 21 inches she was tiny.  Everything we brought to the hospital for her was way to big.  Justin had to go home and bring back newborn clothes.


-She was strong willed and stubborn from the get go and really only nursed once in the hospital.  When we got home she would scream and push away from me every time I tried, and that was only when we could get her to wake up and try.  Nothing woke that kid, I joke that she slept the entire first 3 weeks of her life!  We quickly switched her to a bottle with formula and the very tiny amount of milk I pumped.  I never could get more than an ounce at a pumping, and that is the total from both sides (it was the same with Adam).


-She could even sleep through bathtime!!


-She was a fairly easy baby those first few months.  Or at least nothing awful sticks out in my head.  She was sleeping through the night by 2 months.  This was great since it allowed me to go back to work doing a temp job that was caring for newborn twins overnight.

-Right at 4 months we noticed her eyes were not right and just happened to have her 4 month well check a few days or so later.  They sent us to the opthalmologist to be looked at.  We weren't able to get in for well over a month.  All during that time she got grumpier and grumpier.  She became VERY attatched to us and always wanted to be held by Justin or I.  We believe that since she was having more and more trouble using her eyes she was depending on her other senses, mainly scent.  Therefor she needed to be close to us in order to feel safe and secure.  When she finally got in to see Dr. King, her opthalmologist, her eyes were so awfully crossed that I had a hard time even getting good pics of her.  We had to start patching her eyes right away.  It did NOT go well!!  She had to be patched 4 hours a day, or something like that, but ended up being patched all day because she would cry and scream the entire time it was on.
April 18, 2007


May 30, 2007


4th of July 2007



-Since patching was not helping the crossed-ness of her eyes she had eye muscle surgery at the end of August, she had just turned 7 months old.  Surgery went well for her and was 80% effective.  She became a very happy baby who loved to play!  She was no longer attatched to just Justin and I!
August 29, 2007 - after her eye muscle surgery


late October - her eyes look so much better


-At 9 months she got her first pair of glasses and did great with them.  I would even go so far as to say she loved them!


-Just after Noelle turned a year old she really started to show her personality.  She became very hard to discipline, especially since we were used to a very easy child who just did/didn't do whatever you told him to/not to.  We put her in a toddler bed soon after she turned a year, BIG MISTAKE!  The first week was great, then she refused to stay in bed.  We also took her off the bottle near the same time, she spent a couple weeks drinking near to nothing.  She had also spent several months being sick constantly, which led to the removal of her lovey, who she sucked on for comfort.  The time from when she turned a year till now have been one big battle after another.  Sleeping time has been a big one, she just won't stay in bed.


-At 2 1/2 she got her 'big' girl glasses!


-She was also wearing underwear and having very few accidents August, September, and October.  Then I went back to work (I had been off those 3 months) and she decided to take Lexie as a little sister and do the regressing thing.  We went back to pull-ups and went about our days as if it hadn't happened.  I knew she would wear underweear again when she was ready.  And I am happy to say she informed me today, on her third birthday, that she is ready to wear underwear again!!  She had been slowly using the potty more and more over that last couple weeks.

-At 3 years old, barely, she is getting Bifocals.  Yes, you read that right.  My little girl with 20/20 vision will be wearing Bifocals starting this Friday.  They will be lined and noticeable.  Her eyes are crossing worse when up close to what she is looking at than when farther away from the object.  Hopefully she will 'use' the new lenses properly and eventually outgrow it as we have always been told she should.

-Now that Noelle is 3 years old things are really starting to look up for her and us.  She is finally learning to follow directions, it helps that we have learned how to speak to her effectively.  We really have to work hard with her on disipline and we can NOT take easy days away from it.  Right now the big thing we are working on is being respectful and not rude.  It's actually going great since we now know how to interact with her better.  I am so looking forward to the next year as she grows, matures, and learns.



2 comments:

  1. You forgot to mention what a chubby baby she was....that is one thing I will always remember about her being a baby, she was the cutest and chubbiest baby I have ever seen. It's so funny to see her now so thin and slender compared to her baby pictures.

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  2. Dangit! This is not how I wanted to start my day... with tears! LOL She is growing up very nicely -- can't wait until she's a teenager. Hehehe.

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