Christopher's First Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our Family and Friends. We had a wonderful Christmas together as a family. It was such blessing to have Christopher with us this year! He is such a joy.

Mama and the two girls joined us on Friday, then Daddy and Si came up on Saturday. We spent a few hours over at Jon and Vera's (my uncle/aunt) with them, AJ and Deb (uncle/aunt), and Grandma and all their respective children. It was fun to see everyone.

Christmas Eve was a lazy, fun day. First, we slept in and Daddy and Christopher snuggled in bed.






















In the afternoon, we all baked and decorated Christmas cookies. We loaded paper plates with cookies and candies that Mama had made and delivered them to the families of Christopher's fellow preemies that are in the NICU, as well as to the NICU staff. Christopher was all gung-ho about it until we arrived at the NICU. When he heard the voices of several of the nurses that had cared for him, he started whimpering/crying until we left the hospital. Poor little guy. When we arrived home, there was a message from one of the fathers of a baby girl that's in the hospital now, thanking us for the encouragement. It was a true blessing to know we were able to bring a small amount of Christmas love and cheer to a family that's going through what we did a month ago.

Here's Christopher getting ready to deliver his gifts.















Christmas morning, my family came over to our house and we ate breakfast, spent some time taking pictures of Christopher, read the Christmas story, sang Christmas hymns and opened gifts. It was a special day.

Here's our favorite Christmas gift, sleeping between the stockings...
















...and later between the gifts.

















The newly expanded Tolan Family:
















Four Generations:

Great-Grandma Steury, Nana, Mommy and Christopher.

A Visit from Great-Grandma

Great-Grandma Steury came to visit Christopher yesterday. Well...Andy and me too, but mainly Christopher =) She arrived from FL on Monday to spend the Christmas holidays in KY. It was a special blessing to see her holding her first great-grandbaby.

We weighed Christopher at the Dr's office on Monday: 6 lbs. 12 oz!!! Wow! We can hardly believe how "huge" he is now.

"Ahhh!" (*sigh*) Finished!

Rachel Marie Didyk, RN
(or at least as soon as I pass my boards, which should be easy after that last final! :) But no more school - PTL.)

I successfully completed my schooling with an amazingly difficult final on December 13, and participated in our class pinning ceremony on December 15. First, let me say thank you:
Thank you, God, for helping through these last two years and especially the last few months...I couldn't have done it without the strength, love and support He provided through my family and friends. Thank you Andy for putting up with me and loving and supporting me through this time. Thank you, Mama and Anna Leigh for basically moving in with us over the past 3 months and doing all the cooking, cleaning, and baby care. Thank you Daddy for 'lending' your wife and daughter to us during this challenging time. Thank you to all our family and friends who have encouraged me and prayed for me/us as I finished school. Thank you to my instructors and classmates for your understanding, helpfulness and encouragement. I could not have made it without you. God has truly blessed us with a wonderful support network for which we are extremely grateful.

Our class had a ceremony on Friday night, where each graduating nurse was "pinned" by their family members. It was wonderful to have my Hubby and Son, Daddy, Mama and Anna there to celebrate with me (and many others there in spirit).















Christopher celebrates as Daddy puts Mommy's pin on her jacket.


I was also greatly honored to be nominated and chosen by my professors to receive the "110% Award." Each semester it is given to a graduate nurse who has gone above and beyond to overcome a major personal struggle in order to complete nursing school.






















Here's my little reason why I was given the award. Thanks, Christopher.






















When they showed up at the ceremony, Babu, Nana and Aunt Anna surprised Daddy and Mommy by dressing Christopher in a suit to help Mommy celebrate. Along with Daddy, they were "crowd control" to help keep him from getting sick since he wasn't really supposed to be out in a public place like that yet. It was really special to have him up on stage with me when I was pinned.















A very happy family...no more school. Now I can be a "stay-at-home-mom" (After a few days of being a "stay-at-home-dad" during my last week of school, Andy decided that was fine with him...he'll go to work instead.)















My girls: Angie (blue), Ashley (purple) and Annie (green) are wonderful friends. They have been such a blessing as we've all 'suffered' through nursing school, especially the last few months. Thank you, Ladies. I love you all.






















And finally, our son in his new suit:

Christopher S. Didyk, "The Godfather"

Zero!

Well, today looked a little different than we thought it might several months ago. When we found out in March that we were expecting a baby on December 9, we talked and dreamed about today: bags packed for the hospital, Rachel suddenly telling Andy that it was time to go, a crazy-wild drive across town with Andy trying not to panic, phone calls telling family it was time to drive to Kentucky...

...instead, Christopher is 11 weeks old, or 0 today if we use "adjusted age." Rachel spent the day studying for a final, and Andy hung out with Bill. Then Dave and Lizbeth came over and LB cooked a delicious dinner for us and we all watched a movie. Quite a different scenario than we ever imagined. We already know it's a boy, and his name is Christopher Steven...and in honor of his 'birthday' today, he surprised us:
















Recognize this outfit? Christopher now almost fits in it - his first newborn outfit (with a newborn size diaper underneath - goodbye preemie diapers). He even weighs as much as a tiny newborn, 6 lbs, 3.5 oz!
















Here's how it fit in October.
















Our little Christmas Baby - dressed in an outfit from Gramma, stuffed in a stocking from Daddy and Mommy, lying on a blanket made with love by great-Grandma Steury.























Christopher trying to smile. He will now stare very intently at us and try his best to smile...occasionally he succeeds, but we don't think he's quite mastered the "intentional smile."
















Mommy and Christopher taking a break on the couch and watching TV.

Thank you for all your prayers that have brought us through to this day. We love and appreciate you all.

~Rachel

Grandparents and Great-Grandparents

Proud Gramma and Grampa Sobota came to visit Christopher. When they volunteered to take one of the night shifts and feed Christopher, Daddy readily agreed. When Daddy and Mommy woke up again 1 1/2 hours later and realized Christopher was still "missing" from his bassinet, Daddy went out to find him. Gramma and Grampa had him snuggled between them in bed, with Grampa's reading light hooked to the headboard and shining down on Christopher as they played with him. They looked guilty as charged as they handed Christopher back over to Daddy to go back to sleep in his bed.















Christopher's famous pose. "Charge!"















Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Tolan also came to spoil their new great-grandson.














Great-grandma telling Christopher about all the candy and yummy food he can have if he comes to visit. He was very attentive to every word she said.















Ah, peace! Christmas lights, a pacifier and lulabyes finally calmed this eating-machine down. He was hungry ALL DAY yesterday...eating almost every hour and not sleeping much. Fortunately, he did better throughout the night. He really likes to watch the lights change on the Christmas tree.















Christopher Steven Didyk. Our little miracle. Look at those big blue eyes. Praise the Lord we just went to his last eye exam to screen for "retinopathy of prematurity", and the doctor said his vessels have fully matured and he's no longer at risk. One more preemie "problem" out of the way. Thank you so much for your prayers. We know Christopher is doing so well because God is answering you all and taking great care of him. His apnea monitor has not gone off in 2 weeks. We're so thankful.

Thank You

Just wanted to say thanks to the person who took our blog pictures and put together a small photo book through Snapfish. We just got six of them in the mail and were excited to have something small to carry around in a purse/wallet/briefcase. There was no indication of who put these together for us, so if you want us to know, please tell us...otherwise, thanks to the currently anonymous gift giver.
~Rachel

Happy Thanksgiving!

5lb 60z Christopher takes on a 12lb bird...and sleeps to tell about it.

Ahhh...thanksgiving. The holiday that is about giving thanks, and we have a lot to be thankful for indeed. We had a bit of a scaled back holiday, all things considered, so that we could still celebrate but not be overwhelmed. Grandpa D. came down along with Auntie Meg, and somehow we managed to cook enough food for about 35 people. It was a great and relaxing weekend. I'm not really used to the slow pace of weekends/holidays now that Christopher is home. It basically entails sleeping in as long as possible because we're exhausted, and then chilling out all day long, passing him back and forth while he sleeps on people and feeding him every 3 hours. He's eating really well now, just so fast that we have to pace him or he throws up. Good problem to have, I guess.

Starting about 4 days ago, Christoper started to "wake up", staying alert and interacting with us for longer periods of time. Before then, he would wake up to eat and then just go back to sleep until his next feeding. His doctor said that as he nears his due date (still December 9th!) this will be more and more the case. It's fun to be able to interact with him more and to see him start to hit some developmental milestones. It's a bit confusing in some ways, because some 2 month old milestones he's hitting (tracking objects with his eyes, waving his arms around like he wants your attention) while others he's behind on (smiling, etc.) because he's technically not supposed to be born yet. Everyone says that he'll catch up right around 2 years old. I disagree with them; I'm pretty sure that he'll be way ahead of the curve by then =).

















Being held for the first time by Grandpa Didyk. He was so proud! And he also took the opportunity to inform me of a Didyk tradition that I was not aware of: Grandpas don't change diapers.















Auntie Meg holds her first nephew. They had fun together mumbling and watching football. We even let Megan warm up leftover Turkey with gravy by herself!
















Our first Thanksgiving family picture. I'm confident that every dish we made weighed more than our son.


















I almost forgot to mention this, but my brother Tony and I kicked off the holiday on Thursday with a rare get-together to play some Axis and Allies D-day. For those of you who aren't giant nerds, Axis and Allies is a series of strategy board games based on the historic events of World War II. Because each game takes between 4-7 hours to play, Tony and I don't get to play that often. This was a nice break from routine and you'll be relieved to know that in the first game the Allies indeed defeated Nazi Germany. However, the second game ended at a draw due to time.

Christopher gets another shot on December 7th that will help with his fragile immune system. Maybe after that we'll get the green light to relax things a little around here...I'm tired of inadvertently eating hand sanitizer =). He hasn't had an apnea spell in a couple of days now, so that's some good progress, too.

Happy Turkey Day, and here's to Christmas!!!!!

Love,

Andy

Christopher with his stuffed animals from Grandma Steury and the big elephant from Aunt Anna and Aunt SaraBeth. Mommy's having fun taking pictures today. We're waiting to celebrate Thanksgiving until Grandpa Didyk and Auntie Meg arrive on Friday. Today we're just relaxing and hanging out with Uncle Tony - playing board games and eating cookies. It's fun!

Precious Times

Daddy and Christopher enjoy snuggling before bedtime. It's such a joy and a blessing to have these precious moments with him after so many days of leaving him in the hospital. He is a delight and we are thankful for each day spent caring for him.















Secure in Daddy's love - our precious miracle.



Christopher has had a rough couple days, poor little guy. Yesterday he had to have his eyes examined again. They take some wires and pry his eyes open and hold them in that position while using another instrument to move his eyeball all around to look at it. He was slightly unhappy about that. The doctor said his eyes are still not fully developed, but they are progressing as they should - no signs of retinopathy of prematurity yet - PTL! His eyes are a little bloodshot today, but don't seem to bother him much. Then this morning he took another trip to the pediatrician for a check up, where he had to get his 2-month-old shots. Four of them! Again...slightly unhappy. Needless to say, he's been a little more sleepy and fussy yesterday evening and today, but better than I thought he would be doing. No spells - so that's wonderful. He now weighs 5 lbs. 4 oz.! Thanks for your continued prayers. Sleep-deprived Daddy and Mommy still need them.

~Rachel

Brrr...

It's 41 degrees outside, and Christopher just went for his first walk. We took a picture of him in his carseat/stroller unit, but unfortunately I can't get it to upload. Oh well...we'll take another picture next time - He did look pretty cute all bundled up and covered with a warm blanket in his little seat. We just went around the block for today - it was nice to get some fresh air.

Today was our first day alone since Christopher came home from the hospital. My wonderful mother and sister stayed with us for a week, helping around the house and caring for Christopher on Friday when I had to go to school. They were a tremendous blessing as we tried to settle into some sort of routine. (no routine yet! :) )

Christopher continues to do well. He's had a few apnea/brady spells, so we've been thankful for the monitor, but only one of them even required us to do anything. All the other times, the loud beeping startled him enough that he was fine.

Thanks for your continued prayers.

Love,
Rachel


Aunt SaraBeth came for a visit. After spending the day with me at school,
she was happy to reach our house Friday night and hold her nephew.
Doesn't she look proud?

Firsts

My first bath. I liked sitting in water, and I really like getting my head scrubbed.















My first look at my new crib. (Ok, so I was sleeping and not really paying attention, but I was there.) Thanks Gramma and Grampa Sobota.















My first dance with Babu. For those of you who know my Babu, don't worry - it wasn't one of his crazy dances! =)





















My first trip to the doctor's office. Lucky for Daddy and Mommy, it's just at the entrance to our subdivision, only 3-5 minutes away. Thanks to Babu and Nana for my nice carseat.





















My first photo session. Daddy set up a studio in our living room. I let him take a few pictures...















...before I told him I was cold, tired and hungry.















My first kiss...uh...no...but I still liked it.














Daddy and Mommy say thanks for praying for them...I'm doing a good job wearing them out, but they love me lots and are very glad I'm home. Me too.

Love,
Christopher