Climbing Ivy

I was doing laundry the other day, and when I turned around, this is what I saw. She is really, really proud of herself.

The Averett's Year in Review

It was quite a big year for the Averett's. Since everyone is coming out with lists of the top stories of the year, here is ours

Ivy
When 2009 began, Ivy had been home from the NICU less than three weeks, and weighed about five pounds. This year she gained nearly fifteen pounds, learned to roll and sit up and crawl, and has shown no lasting problems from her early entrance. She has attempted a few words (ba-ba, Mum,) and we are waiting for her first steps, which could be very soon.

Kezie
Two words: Potty trained. Woo-hoo!

We bought a house
In April we moved into our first house in Ogden. It's very close to downtown, but in a nice quiet neighborhood with fantastic neighbors. We love living in a house after eight years of renting, and have all sorts of plans for it.

Shawn's surgery
Sinus surgery took a big chunk out of his summer. We were grateful that his mom could come stay and be a big help while I tried to take care of him, the kids, and the house and yard. The girls loved spending a few days with "Grandma Wheat"

Car accident
In August, the four of us were in our Buick on the way to Shawn's post-operative appointment, when a young man in a Blazer ran into the back of us. We then hit the car in front of us, who hit another car. Our car was totaled, and Shawn's knee was slammed into the dashboard. Luckily, he was on prescription pain killers, in preparation for his visit with the surgeon, and didn't feel much pain until later. Thanks to my Mom and Ted, we got a ride and then borrowed a car until we could replace the Buick. The kid who hit us had no insurance. To be continued...probably in court...

New car
This was kind of not optional after the demise of the Buick. Neither of us had ever owned a car that didn't look like it had been through a war, or at least a disaster or two. Buying a new-ish car was a lot of fun, and it makes a huge difference not to worry about what is going to go wrong with the car next. It put all of our home improvement plans on hold for the next couple of years, but we felt very fortunate that we were able to buy it.

Family changes
Our extended family looks very different now than it did a year ago. May brought a new member of the family when Mom married Ted and gave us a fantastic step-father and grandfather. Britt and Beth will both soon bring brothers-in-law into the family. We anxiously await Alli's and Davin's baby girl this spring.

We had a couple of other pretty lousy things happen this year, but overall it was a good year for the Averett family. I hope this next year is good as well, and for all of our family and friends.

Ivy's new trick

Someone, or other, or all of us, has been sick for more than a week now. You can tell there've been a lot of runny noses because my 14 month old loves to wander around the house doing this:

Treehouse Museum

We love the Treehouse Children's Museum. Kezie has a season pass, and we go often. We love having tea parties in England, eating Sushi in Japan, and putting on puppet shows in Medieval Europe.

Kezie all dressed and ready to fly

Tea party

Ivy in the Oval Office. I think she's giving an impassioned speech to the American people.

Kezie's ready to go to work as President

Prematurity Awareness Day

Today is prematurity awareness day. Preventing premature birth is a favorite cause of mine, so I'm answering the March of Dimes' call to blog about it.

Ivy is just over a year old today, happy and healthy and doing just fine. Exactly one year ago she was in the NICU, she weighed between two and three pounds, and she was learning to eat and breathe and regulate her body temperature.



Ivy's early birth was not preventable with our current level of medical knowledge. I had a condition called HELLP syndrome, and she had to be born so that we could both survive.

A lot of premature births are preventable. Smoking during pregnancy is a cause of premature birth. Lack of dental care is another cause; gum disease has been linked to premature birth and low birth weight. Lack of prenatal care is a big problem; moms can't afford it, or are trying to hide a pregnancy so they don't seek it, or they don't realize that it is necessary.

As sad as those causes are, nothing makes me more angry than the doctors who induce labor early, for their convenience. Induced labor is harder on mom and baby, leads to emergency c-sections more often, and is sometimes done before baby is ready to come out. In the U.S., roughly ten percent of premature births are due to early, unnecessary, inductions and c-sections. These are performed by doctors who are supposed to help, not hurt, their little patients.

My tiny little baby doesn't seem to have any lasting effects from her early arrival in the world. We are lucky that some potential problems with her growth were caught early and monitored, and that when I developed preeclampsia at six months my midwife caught it and kept an eye on it. Preeclampsia tends to run in families, so I hope that by the time my daughters have children, we know what causes it and can prevent or treat it. I also hope we get better at preventing premature birth from other causes so that more little babies are born healthy.

A year went so quickly

We had Ivy's birthday party on Halloween, which seemed fitting because I sometimes forget that Halloween isn't actually her birthday. All of the scary stuff; the onset of HELLP, the ambulance, and her birth happened on Halloween or just after midnight. I'm glad to say this Halloween went much better.





Almost everyone from both families crowded into our house (Uncle Davin and Grandpa Leon were missed) for food and to watch Ivy down her first cake. Costumes were encouraged, though I didn't get pictures of everyone (share, people! That's what Facebook is for.) People went all out, though; the costumes were fantastic.





It has been pointed out that this picture showcases three of Mom's grandchildren; Kezie, Ivy, and Alli's Bean.
My little butterfly loved the attention and the cake. She got pretty carried away and required a post-cake bath.







We went trunk or treating with the Averett cousins that night. Here is my little witch Kezie having a great time. She's wearing a moustach courtely of either Mario or Luigi, who looked suspiciously like her uncles Mike and Dan.

dress up

Kezie has been watching rhythmic gymnastics, and practicing in the family room. She wanted a costume, and we played around with some costumes for a while. This is what we came up with. She looked so grown up, it kind of freaked me out. Then she hammed it up for the camera for a while.