She DID IT!!!!

Yaayyyy!!!!!!!!! Melanie is now on the growth chart!!! I took her in to the Dr. tonight to make sure her cough was "just a cough" before we leave for Iowa tomorrow morning. We had good news all around. It is just a cough, her chest sounds normal which means I was one of those run-to-the-dr-with-a-little-cough moms (a little embarrassing I have to admit), but now I will have peace of mind for the next week. The other good news-Melanie weighed in at a whopping 18lbs 3.5oz which put her in the 5th percentile!! We have been oh so diligent trying to get her weight up, ice cream, licking chocolate off the spatula, mac-n-cheese, suckers, cookies and some high calorie milk!! Since it's working I guess we'll have to keep spoiling her a bit and see if we can make double digits in the percentile chart!!

Here are some pictures and a video of Melanie's friends from the NICU neighborhood. **side note-I typed this before uploading the pictures...well they didn't upload so I put them all together in one video. I'm going to leave the picture descriptions below since I can't add that many words in the video***

Here is a picture of Melanie with Dr. Gelfand, her primary doctor in the NICU. He is an amazing dr and we will forever be grateful for all he did for Melanie. He is the one who came up with the idea to insert a tube into her lung to drain the 'stuff' inside. He then had to persuade the rest of the Dr.s and then perform the procedure!! We know all things happen of God's will alone. We also know that Melanie would have had a lot of problems with her lungs if that procedure wasn't done and thank God that Dr. Gelfand was Melanie's primary Dr.

Here is a picture of Melanie's favorite weekend night nurse-Kelly We went back to the Hospital after the NICU reunion to say 'hi' to anyone that was working. So glad we could see Kelly and get a picture with her.

And then there's ONE of the other favorite weekend day nurses-Jane. Jane was the nurse taking care of Melanie right after she was born. We will always have a special bond with her because she walked us through the hardest weekend of our lives (and some more after that too). We tried to get a picture of all the kiddos with her....maybe next year they'll cooperate :)

Melanie's friends from Nursery 1. These kiddos are so strong. They each had their own struggles in the NICU and continue to fight their own different trials each day. We praise God that He has sustained all of these little ones and are thankful for all of the blessings He has given them along the way. Brady and Paige and Levi.

The parents from nursery 1. We will forever be thankful for the help and encouragement from these 4 parents. They walked us through the ups and downs of the NICU and provided lots of needed laughter during the good times. We love you guys!!

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Late Pictures

We have been without our camera for about a month now and it's driving me CRAZY!! Hoping it will be here before we leave next week for Christmas in Iowa. I found and discovered our old camera works so I'll try to take some pictures and videos of the craziness at the Westra household. Little Melanie is into EVERYTHING!! For now, here is a quick little collage of my attempt at a one year picture for Melanie. After two days of trying, I gave up and went to Target for her pictures thinking then I could focus on getting her to smile....WRONG. The little stinker has become quite stingy with her smiles as of lately. I also put some pictures of her enjoying her birthday cake. That was her first taste of sweets (aside from a crumb of cookie a couple times). She LOVED it!! She now gets to eat birthday cake and ice cream everyday....seriously. I've been told to add fat to her diet in every way possible. Some examples they gave me: when giving her mac n cheese use whole milk and real butter (she's never had mac n cheese). Add butter, oil, and dips whenever possible. Hagen Daz ice cream every night (460 calories per scoop vs 200calories of regular ice cream), etc. I'm not ready to set her up on this kind of diet just yet. We are changing what she eats and offering her more sweets. She also is quickly learning she can have a high-calorie bottle of milk whenever she wants....even twice during the wee hours of the morning if she so chooses :( but I'm not adding butter, oil, and dips to everything just yet. We'll see how her next weight check goes.

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Then and Now - Hands and Feet

While creating Melanie's one year video, I couldn't figure out how to compare pictures from then to now and still have it flow. So over the next couple months I'll be creating "Then and Now" posts. I'm going to try to keep them in order from when the original picture was taken. However, I'm already struggling with that since I can't find the first diaper (size) she wore. We seem to have misplaced (given away) ALL that we had. Jeff LOVED giving them away when people visited. So, if any of you still have one, I would love to borrow it for a picture. (Just let me know vie e-mail jeffwestra11@yahoo.com thanks)

"Then...and Now..." Hands and Feet
Melanie was born on October 31, Jeff's birthday is November 1. So last year his birthday was spent in the hospital with not a lot of focus. The wonderful weekend nurses found out it was his birthday and gave him the best birthday gift possible at that time... his first card from Melanie. Thanks Nurse Jane for such a special memory! Little stinker didn't want to co-operate with her feet for even a second...little different then a year ago.








Also, let me know if you have a request of something you'd like to see side by side and I'll do my best to get a picture of it.

Happy 1st Birthday Melanie Grace

****Warning, this is a VERY long video. We created this video as a way to remember Melanie's first year of life. We thought we'd share it with those that are interested. If you choose to watch it, scroll to the bottom of our blog to turn off the music on the playlist first.

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A little Catch-up

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(The pictures in the rest of this post are from an outing to Post Family Farm on Saturday with some of our dearest friends. We had a blast despite the weather!!)

Things are busy, but everything is going great! Miya loves preschool and is bummed when she doesn't have it. Her favorite thing to play at home is still babies, however there's a twist now. They ask if Melanie can play to, guess who Mel gets to be? Yup, she's the baby. Miya will carry her from one room to the next. One time she was actually in the baby highchair. While I was posting pictures today Miya quickly got Melanie up into our bed to play babies in bed. I couldn't help but laugh!! Then we discussed how careful we have to be with Melanie since she's not a pretend baby and can fall and get hurt, not sure she understood :)Foot zip-line we couldn't get the girls to say goodbye to last Saturday. Jayden was the smallest kid up there but absolutely LOVED it!
Ridding horses. Thankful it was one time around the pen (for $2!!!!)and the girls couldn't get too attached :)

Jayden is officially potty trained, YAAAAAAAAY!!!!! After a couple disastrous attempts earlier in the year when I think I was borderline insane, she pretty much trained herself...once she figured out how to actually 'let go' in the potty. She pouts every night because I won't let her wear underwear to bed at night. She is still our CRAZY kid, although Melanie is going to give her a run for that title. She does not like Miya going to preschool. When Miya gets out of the van in the morning she encourages her "have a good day in preschool My". She then asks me all morning if it's time to pick My up yet. When Miya gets back in the van Jayden greets her the same every time "how was preschool today My? Did you have fun?" Jayden is still struggling with ear-infections (arrrgh) even though she does not have the cold symptoms. Thankful Dr. Green referred her to an ENT, not because he wants tubes, but because he wants to make sure her hearing is normal. So we'll meet with the ENT Dr. and then with an audiologist. I can't say I've noticed her hearing below par, but all of the bloody drainage from ruptures really concerns me. So we will see what they have to say next Tuesday. Aside from that she's one happy kiddo that loves to play with her big sister!!Jaydes thought these bikes ROCKED!! She kept going and going and going and going with the same look on her face. Pretty sure we could have left her there all day!
Jayden has a thing lately for kissing goats. GROSS!!

Little Melanie will be one on Sunday!!! Yuppers, Sunday!!! I can't believe it's almost been a year. Her health is fantastic. Insurance declined her synagis so we will have to be extra careful this cold/flu season. She will not be in nurseries, around sick children, and no indoor playlands. Hmmmm, I sure did enjoy the freedom of summer! Melanie is officially crawling as of this weekend. She is much faster at army crawling but will get up on all fours and crawl, of course after rocking in place for awhile first. Her newest progression is going from sitting to crawling. This was one of her goals from her last physical therapy appointment. On to the next goal- tummy to sitting position. Her personality is really starting to show. For a two week period I couldn't get the girl to eat her food, by boycotting her meals she was telling me she no longer liked the baby food and wanted big girl food like her sisters instead. Since we figured that out she's been eating what we eat (unless were on the go or in a hurry-then she'll eat her babyfood). She can hold her own bottle now and will drink a 6oz bottle of formula.
Melanie pulled the cutest faces while getting her face painted!

*******Note to the nurses reading this******It was a sad, sad, day when the freezer no longer held any of Melanie's 'special milk'. I am soooooooooo thankful to ALL the nurses at DeVos that encouraged me to pump. There were times; 1am, 3am, and 6am for 4straight months that I wanted to throw my alarm clock at you, but when I pulled out that last bottle I cried wishing I had gone longer. It brought back lots of memories of our little peanut and the long days and nights in the hospital. So keep up the great work ladies. Karen, without you I don't think I would have made it past month 1-you ROCK!

Back to Melanie, we love her to pieces and are so thankful that we can celebrate her first year of life; there were days we never thought we'd be able to stay that. We praise God he has blessed our lives with her. We'll try to post on or around her b-day with more updates.I want to paint her face to look like a kitty everyday!!

Pre-school

Going back a few weeks-here is a picture of Miya's fist day of preschool!! She was so excited to go (I was not). I woke her up in the morning to get ready and she started SCREAMING, "i get to go to preschool today, I get to go to preschool today!" Of course that woke up Jayden and she joined in too. Jayds and Mel went with my mom to the fair and I went with Miya to a shortened day of preschool. She was all chatter in the van. Once we got to Hudsonville the van became very quiet. After parking the van, I told her we had to go quick because we were running late. I couldn't get her to move her buns any faster. I've never seen her take so long to go down a flight of stairs. Once I looked at her face I saw the reason for the extreme pokeyness, she was NERVOUS!! Once we got into the room she was much better and then it was just a matter of time before she was VERY comfortable in her new surroundings. She absolutely LOVES preschool! Mom's still not so sure!!

Dad brought her on day two-the first day to leave her there. She did wonderful! Jeff said goodbye and started walking up the stairs and decided he wasn't ready....he walked back down into the room and asked Miya if she had to go potty. Of course her answer was no. So then he asked for another hug and said goodbye to our 4 year old!! (you can see she's nervous)

Computer Glitch

Yay!! We are back on-line. Our monitor went out. It has been warning us for a couple months; we would just smack it and it would come back on. Then we would have to smack it several times before it would turn back on. Then one day it didn't matter how many times I hit it, it wasn't coming back on. Sooo, Jeff tried to fix it. The girls and I were at the kitchen table, Jeff took the back off the monitor and was poking around at it with a screwdriver....I heard a zap and then I heard a girl scream....from the computer room. It was Jeff. I ran to check on him, trying not to laugh. Thankfully he had a little smile on his face, I BUSTED out laughing. After being electrocuted he decided to find a different monitor. :) I'll try to post Miya's preschool pictures Wednesday. We love you dear-Thankful you didn't get hurt...and that you were okay with me laughing right away-sorry about that. Thanks for getting us another monitor too!!

Phfissing and ar-melon-nos

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WOWzers!

WOWzers, has things been busy over here. They say every year your kids grow, you get more busy....I'm beginning to see this! I'll try to catch everyone up with some bog posts.

Last week we were blessed to be able to spend some much needed family time out at Baseline lake with the girls and Dad!! What a wonderful week we had. The weather was on the chilly side, but we created lots of memories anyway. Dad's favorite I would guess would be fishing. The fish didn't really want to be caught like they did last year. Could it be the noise from two little girls playing "babies" on the boat instead of fishing....I don't know? The girls LOVED going fishing because one of Dad's rules -you have to take snacks and drinks when you go fishing. Mom enjoyed some QUIET moments with Melanie while Dad took the older two on the boat. It was wonderful to have time together playing, eating, and playing some more. For the record, I thoroughly whooped Jeff at Baggo and he squeaked out a win against me with the girls crochet set (they played for about 30 seconds and ran off to play babies on the boat). I'll try to upload some videos today. Early morning fishing with dad.
Actually caught her holding her fishing pole :)
Enjoying a boat ride.
Miya and Jaydes playing babies on the boat!! Their favorite activity of the week!!!
Yaaay, finally caught some fish.

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I really think Jayden should have a "titty" at home to play with; how about you????

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Before I could get the camera out she actually was holding the kitty by it's tail, by it's neck, and fell down pulling the kitty down with her!!

The Journey to Freedom-CRAWLING!!

Can it be??? Melanie will have a physical therapist coming in a couple weeks since she's not sitting....and now she's decided to start crawling!!! What a little stinker. She is VERY sanguine though as you'll see from the video, one little speck and she's sidetracked for awhile. We are so thankful she has reached this milestone and praise God for ALL the blessings He has given us.

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What a day!

This is one of my new favorite pictures. Saturday night I was able to watch my husband talk to and learn from the #8 leadership 'guru' in the entire WORLD (on the same list...John Maxwell, Stephen Covey, Ken Blanchard, Tony Robbins, Jack Welch, Jim Collins). What an inspiring moment for me as his wife. I love my husband. He is an amazing dad and husband. Most of all, I love that he is not complacent with who he is. He is always trying to improve and get better. I am so blessed with the leadership Jeff has provided for our family. I will follow him anywhere. Thank you for striving to be the Man God has called you to be- you inspire me to be a better mom and wife. God has tremendous plans for your future; I pray I'll be able to see the hundreds of lives you're going to impact.

Happy!

If I could just get this prickly grass INTO my mouth life would be good!!
Jayden loves my ears,
so does Miya.

No ones touching my ears, now I'm happy!

Nnnnnnn nooooooo Tipping!!

Jayden is very good at telling us not to tip back on our chairs while sitting at the table. Probably two reasons for that 1-she's fallen several times and has had to have many band aids. The last time she fell was the day we got home from Miya's urgent care visit. I may have told her she'd have to go to the hospital and have stitches like Miya if she kept falling from tipping on the chair, oops. Reason #2-She's almost 2 1/2 and wants to sit in a big-girl chair so she figures if she tells us how to sit properly she'll be able to sit in one soon :)

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Update

Yes, the zucchini is almost as tall as Melanie-probably weighs the same too!!

Melanie-
Melanie is doing WONDERFUL! She's rolling all over, especially in her crib when she's supposed to be napping. She thinks a few 20min naps are enough sleep for her lately. She seems to be right, I can't say she gets crabby from lack of sleep and she'll sleep through the night no matter what. I guess I'll let her win that battle and just enjoy watching her roll around. She weighs just over 15 pounds now. Yeah!!! However, she is still under the growth chart for her weight :( However, when people see her they always say she looks great and that she appears to be getting "chunky". She does have some chunky thighs, I love squeezing them!! She's eating baby food now and loving it. It was a slow start, but now that she understands it better she'll lean forward into the spoon to eat! She gets VERY excited when you put something she can grab in front of her like a toy, her sisters, paper and especially her bottle! At her 9month appointment; yes, she's 9 months old already, we were told she may need some physical therapy because she's not sitting yet (or really attempting to sit). We're not too concerned since she's hitting her other milestones. I would love to have some exercises to do with her though to strengthen her trunk muscles. I have a feeling that means crawling and walking are a ways off for her. I think I'm okay with that since that means more cuddle time with my baby, which she LOVES to do. She loves to snuggle which is not a normal thing in the Westra household. I'm treasuring every minute of it!!

Jayden-
Aaaahhh, there are no words to describe this kiddo lately :) She adds sooooo much humor to our house. She is a crazy, silly kid! When driving past our house she's the one you'll see outside wearing her orange Dora bike helmet a tank top and her diaper-walking around. She LOVES wearing her helmet even in this 90+degree weather with sweat dripping down her face; she'll just take off her shorts too cool off. She LOVES her big sister and trys to do everything she does. Whatever Miya asks me, Jayden will repeat even though I've already answered the question. Lately she's started to realize she doesn't HAVE to let Miya boss her around- that has caused some arguments here :) Potty training-not happening......yet. The kid is super stubborn and in her 28months of life she has yet to pee in the potty! The cutest thing as of lately has to be her stuttering. When she's copying what Miya says she does fine, but when she's trying to communicate to us on her own she stutters and it's sooo cute. For example, Aunt Wendi's favorite is when she's asking for help with putting her helmet on "nnnnnnnnnnooooooo, no, no hurt me" (she's had her chin pinched in the buckles a few too many times). We love her to pieces!! By the way, she's riding her bike all over and LOVES it!!

Miya-
Miya is getting so old. She is a huge help with Jayden and Melanie. Her favorite thing to play is babies (still). She has really enjoyed painting rocks with sidewalk chalk as of lately and swiping the cherry tomatoes out of the garden. I'll be looking around the house for her and then I'll see her little head (and Jayds' orange helmet) pop-up out of the weeds from the garden :) We also taught Miya to ride her bike without training wheels. She got the hang of it very quickly, but still needs some help. So when Dad's not around to help we put the training wheels back on. Miya will be starting preschool in a month and I'm so not ready....she can't wait!A skirt, dirty tennis shoes, roller skating arm and knee pads, and a bike helmet-Only Miya!!!!

Awww!

I love playing with Melanie's little piggys-probably why I don't even try to find shoes to fit her feet. When she sleeps she has a thumb in her mouth and with the other hand she rubs something soft on her checks, in this case her dress. I'll try to post an update when I have more time-I just couldn't resist this one.

Family Pictures

We finally completed the Berens' Family pictures (after two years of trying)!! They turned out great! Valerie Dietsche was our photographer and she did a wonderful job. Click here if you want to check them out. http://www.valeriedietsche.com/?page_id=2959 I think my favorite is of Jayden and Miya holding Melanie while she's crying. I love that big lip!!

Time with Family

We were blessed to be able to spend some time visiting Jeff's family in Iowa this past week. The long weekend away seemed to go way too quickly. It was a busy weekend even though there weren't a lot of things planned. The guys enjoyed golfing, some fishing, and even playing some baseball. The ladies were able to have a couple hours away from the kids to enjoy a trip to the bakery and some shopping at Maurices. And the kids...play, play, play. Miya and Jayden had sooo much fun playing with all of their cousins. The played outside on the bikes, mini pool, and slip-n-slide. Inside they made necklaces and birthday cakes. Played pretend babies and house and of course thought it was great playing in Aunt Janelle's room with all of her "very cool" stuff (sorry Janelle). Even Melanie and baby Whitney enjoyed playing with each other. Being around a large family is so much fun. There's always food to prepare and kids to re-direct, but the memories made are priceless. Thanks to our Iowa family for taking the time away from you're busy lives to make some family memories. We love you all and miss you already.

Enjoying our time in Iowa with family :)

Turned out pretty well for 8 grandkids 5 and under.

4th of July Weekend

Aaah, the 4th of July weekend has come and gone. We had an enjoyable weekend starting Saturday afternoon when Jeff got home from work. After the girls' much needed naps, we headed out to the beach to enjoy G and G's last day of camping. It was fun having Jeff there too. The girls rode their bikes to the General Store and the huge sand dune that takes over 200 steps to climb(yes Jayden is riding her bike now- yeah!!!).
Miya climbed it with no problem. Uncle Dan however had trouble with-in the first 4 steps....he blames it on his sandals :)
The reward for climbing the sand dune? ? A work-out for the adults and candy from the general store for the girls. Then it was back to the camp ground to ride bikes. The girls decided it was TONS of fun to ride back and forth between G n G's camper and my aunt and uncle's camper.
So they spent some time doing that while we had a little baggo tournament!

We stayed for the fireworks (BIG MISTAKE). The girls enjoyed it. Miya let all the adults have a turn holding her baby during the fireworks and Jayden couldn't decide who to sit by.
The fireworks were not great...not many are after you've seen Lyle's fireworks. Miya was sleeping before we even left the parking lot and Jaydes eventually fell asleep too.

Monday we had a group of friends over to our house for supper and then we all headed to the Oversiel fireworks. WOW!!
Once again, Lyle Brokehuis outdid himself. The fireworks were phenomenal!! Next year our family will be going early for the kids games. They LOVE the glow necklaces the best. So does mom since it's very hard for a 4 and 2 year old to sit and watch an hour's worth of fireworks (after 2 cans of POP...thanks Brenda ;) ), the glow necklaces gave them something to occupy themselves with. We had tons of fun, just wish I took my camera out more often.

Playing in the Puddles

We have had TONS of rain over here in Bentheim. Spots of our lawn have turned into little ponds, our garden is a mud pit (sunk to shins), and Miya informed me that she was jumping over the river in the lawn in the backyard. Instead of brumming about all the water and the fact we'll have to bale our lawn we went out and played in it! The girls loved it even though it was a cool evening. Jayden was just a shivering but didn't want to quit. Here are some pictures.