First Thanksgiving

November 25, 2011 at 12:22 PM | Posted in Baby Romaezi | 1 Comment
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This time last year, we announced to the family over dinner that we finally knew the gender and we were having a boy! Insane how it feels like just yesterday. Everyone knew that we found out the gender of the baby. And they were completely frustrated that Kayvan and I just would not spill the beans. It is how we told family and their reaction that makes me giggle.  I’ll get to this year, I promise but first, this story.

Kayvan and I hosted Thanksgiving last year. I tasked him with setting the table. A task which included hiding an ultrasound picture. When dinner was ready, everyone sat down to eat. They filled their plates and as the hungry group started taking their first bites, kayvan asked if they would like to know the gender of the baby. We got a certain “yes” from the entire table. Then Kayvan told them that the answer was hidden in or around the table and they had to find it.

We actually thought that our hungry guests would continue eating and look for the answer later with dessert. We were wrong. Of the 18 people at dinner, my mom, Kayvan’s mom and Kayvan’s uncle were the most eager. My mom jumped up, started looking and before I knew it was crawling on the floor in her dress. Kayvan’s mom was looking everywhere. Under the tablecloth, seats, you name it. Kayvan’s uncle was sitting across from me and scoured every inch of the table within his reach. I had no idea where the picture actually was hidden, so I couldn’t help. Eventually, Kayvan started giving cues. I kept eating because let’s face it, I was pregnant and just got my appetite back. It was Kayvan’s uncle who found the photo first, but before he could read it, my mom ran over and snatched the photo from the man she had only just met. She ran into the kitchen followed by Kayvan’s mother and stretched her arms out until the photo was visible to her. She shouted, “it’s a boy.” and hugged Kayvan’s mom as if they indeed were the ones who were going to have a baby. A comedy scene, really.

This year was much different. We picked up our friend Chris as we do every Thanksgiving and lugged the pack n play and portable high chair to Kayvan’s uncle’s house where his family was visiting from out of town. Everyone just loved seeing Kamran and got a kick out of his outfit, complete with a vest and bow tie. He was fully spoiled and got lots of hold time. Kayvan loved watching his uncle feed Kamran his solids at lunch time. Later in the night, we all laughed as one of his cousins fed Kam his dinner solids as well. he did a good job, it was more Kayvan’s pride–and heckling that was funny. Both Kayvan’s cousin and his uncle asked the same question, how much does he eat?” I’m not sure why I found this funny. I had handed them each a 2 oz portion of homemade baby food but they asked like it was an entire turkey leg. everyone had fun feeding the baby. Even me. We planned it out so that Kamran could try turkey for the first time on Thanksgiving. Now that he is 8 months the pediatrician says we can start meat. I decided that puréed turkey would be gross and instead broke it into the smallest bites then shared it with Kamran. He always makes a funny face upon first bite and that he did. Not only did he continue to make this face, but he spit the turkey out. This photo sums up his disdain pretty well.  Check out more photos from Thanksgiving here:  http://theromaezis.smugmug.com/Family/First-Thanksgiving/20290626_84LWgd#1604304130_B2ZWb2f

 

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World Prematurity Awareness Day

November 18, 2011 at 2:52 AM | Posted in Baby Romaezi | 2 Comments
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November is Prematurity Awareness month, the 17th specifically is World Prematurity awareness day.

Reading so many stories of preemies has brought forth a lot of emotion for me today. Before I turn this blog into something deep, I share with you one way in which I raised awareness today. Below is a snippet of conversation with a coworker. I won’t generalize and mention her hair color, but it certainly doesn’t match mine. We often write quotes like the one I share below on our board and tease her when necessary.

Me: You’re wearing purple, happy prematurity awareness day!

K: Right, because I’m so mature.

Me: (giggle–then I realize she wasn’t making a joke) Wait, you do know what prematurity awareness means, right?

She didn’t. Of course I filled her in–then wrote this conversation on our white board.

This day obviously held much deeper meaning for me than for my coworker.

I spent some time when I woke up today and this evening after work reading the preemie (I will abbreviate) Awareness Day Facebook page. Mostly happy stories were shared and occasionally sad. Whenever I see stories of 20 something weekers, I always well up. If there is one thing this whole experience taught me, it is that you truly cannot understand the depth of some things without experiencing them firsthand.

I am lucky to be able to say that I didn’t have a 23 week preemie. Last December, doctors thought I would. When my water broke at 23 weeks 2 days I was told I HAD to make it to 24 weeks to give Kamran the chance to survive. I was also told that there was a very high likelihood of delivering within 72 hours. Further, if he were to be born at 24 weeks and survive, he would face serious challenges. This information changed me forever. It rocks you. Hearing it makes you numb–lost in a dark abyss. On the shallow end, the perfect pregnancy you were expecting is suddenly out the door. Forget all of those cute pregnancy clothes you invested in, they will just sit in your closet and taunt you when you are fresh out of the hospital and no longer pregnant. On the deeper end, visions of meeting your perfectly pink and chubby baby for the first time fade into the fear that you may not actually meet your baby at all. From there the thoughts just spiral, can my marriage handle this, I’ve failed my baby and my husband…all among the medication, doctors, nurses, blood tests and the barrage of stimulation that is hospital life.

Being in labor at 23 weeks is so many things. Number 1, it is scary. More scary than I imagine normal full term labor to be. At 23 weeks, you aren’t supposed to be there. You have no control over the situation you are in and are entirely at the mercy of medical professionals to save your baby’s life and keep you safe in the process. I can’t even accurately paint the picture of emotions I went through last December. But I was scared.

Knowing what we went through and NOT having a 24 weeker, I cannot begin to imagine how much more scary it would have been to actually have had Kamran at 24 weeks. To those parents who have realized those fears, I tip my (crochet) hat.

Knowing just how lucky we got off, most days I feel silly calling Kamran a preemie. He was born at 35 weeks. He was practically term! It pales in comparison to what could have been but thankfully was not. However, we spent 33 days in the NICU. Kamran had his own set of challenges and he certainly was a preemie regardless. I am thankful that I did not have to realize the fear of being mom to a 24 week preterm baby and am oh so happy for my happy healthy 8 month old boy born only 5 weeks early.

Kamran’s First Halloween

November 7, 2011 at 5:26 AM | Posted in Baby Romaezi, Sookie the French Bulldog | 1 Comment
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What was Kamran for Halloween? —–A little blue monster!!

What was Sookie for Halloween? —–A hippo ballerina.

The Friday before Halloween Kamran had a parade at school. I took off of work early, skipped our work Halloween party, met up with Kayvan and watched all of the little bits at daycare parade around in their costumes. So stinkin cute!! Kamran just sat in the big red 6 child stroller straight faced observing all of the crazy people in the school parking lot. We had a ball dressing him up and seeing all of his friends.

Halloween was on a Monday this year so I got home a little early, dressed both of the babies up and we all went for a walk before the sun went down. All of the kids LOVE, LOVE, LOVED Sookie and her costume. Then we knocked on our neighbor’s door to wish them a happy Halloween. We ended up sharing our 8 x 8 plot of a front “lawn” while the adult boys drank a beer and passed out candy and the girls talked about crocheting. Eventually Kamran needed to eat so I headed in early. Kayvan made sure to come in before we ran out of candy so we could have a little for ourselves! It was a really fun night and I’m glad we got to unexpectedly hang out with our friends for a little while.

Fall Festivities

November 4, 2011 at 2:24 AM | Posted in Baby Romaezi, Crochet | Leave a comment
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I have become an infrequent blogger. Our family has been enjoying all things fall and fall festivities. To quickly sum up the past few weeks, a few weeks ago we trekked out to the Maryland Renassance Festival, followed by the pumpkin patch with friends the next day. The weekend after that we had a pumpkin carving party and the baby shower for a good friend. This past weekend we enjoyed some down time at home and met some friends for food to celebrate their run in the Marine Corps Marathon.

Whirlwind tour but a ball none the less. I actually wrote a blog about all of this but my phone hated me and decided to delete it all.

Kamran LOVED the Renaissance Festival. He rode around in his snuggli complete with pumpkin hat and got all of the attention a little guy could hope for. We should have turned it into a drinking game. “Take a drink every time you hear someone reference Kam’s pumpkin hat.” I should have gotten ahead of the pumpkin hats because they got more compliments than any hat I have made to date. When we got there, the little guy cooed, and ooohed more than I’ve ever heard I’m sure the 2 hour nap in the car seat on the ride there put him in a brilliant mood. I’m so glad car rides are no longer a scream fest!

I was personally SO excited about our trip to the pumpkin patch. I love everything fall and could not wait to take pictures of our little guy on haystacks with pumpkins. We met up with Kayvan’s co-workers and their 9 month old, Jackson and photograph we did! I made Jackson a hat to match Kamran’s and they looked like two adorable little pumpkins. Kamran got to see a momma cow and learned about how the farmers milk her. Momma friends, be jealous. A momma cow can pump a gallon of milk in 5 minutes!!! Bet you want that pump! Kamran also got to see the baby cows and watched them eat the milk that was just pumped. Then we met a big ole piggie and man did she STINK! Of course the adults got their fill of kettle corn (my favorite), apple cider and dominion root beer. Yummy! On our way out we took pumpkin pictures and picked out 3 baby pumpkins to take home. I still have to go through those photos but here is a cute picture of the boys talking.

The following weekend we went to a baby palooza pumpkin party at a friend’s house. Kamran met a new pint sized friend while we were there and hung out with his old bud Jackson. We carved a witch pumpkin and ate some fantastic food. Here is a picture of our pumpkin all lit up!

For Terri’s baby shower to celebrate the anticipated arrival of baby Autumn, we had another long drive and baby boy was a champ! He slept the entire way! It was great to see Terri and she seemed to enjoy meeting Kamran for the first time. Autumn is due a few days after Christmas so I made her a hat to fit the season!

This past weekend was a much needed low key weekend. We cleaned up the house, had dinner with NICU friends on Saturday and met with Millie and Linda to celebrate their marathon run on Sunday. To be able to run such a distance is admirable and I’m so proud of my friends!

On the developmental front, I’m so proud of my boy. He sits unassisted now, waves hi, but only to daddy, holds his own bottle, scoots, spins, twists, turns and rocks on his knees and has established a favorite stuffed animal–his giraffe. He is getting pretty mobile. Also something I am incredibly proud of is that Kamran is starting to sign back to us. We started sigining to him when we started on rice cereal at 5 months. Now he has started signing “milk”! I walk into his room in the morning, he smiles and once his eyes have adjusted to the light he will sign “milk” to me. He also just got his 3rd tooth, it is on the bottom left and is still working on the tooth on his top right.

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