Welcome Landyn Tyler(August 17th-September 4th)

Well August 17th was a day to remember for us! It was the day that our beautiful baby boy was born.
It all started on August 16th with my routine obstetrician appointment. The doctor did an exam and I wasn't dilated yet so he broke through my cervix...not the best feeling in the world. When he started feeling my stomach he was like this is a 42 week stomach(I was 37 weeks) so he sent me up to 7th floor for another sizing ultrasound. We knew the baby was big from previous ultrasounds but he wanted exact size for that day.

It was determined that the baby was 8 pounds 9 ounces and could be a pound bigger or smaller. They were showing me how big his belly was and had me convinced this baby was huge. Dr. V decided I should be induced that day just to make sure we don't have problems with labour do to a big baby. At that point I was allowed to go home, pick up Tyler and head back in for mid afternoon.

It was an exciting and sad time all at once. We were super excited to finally get to meet our little man and I was excited not to be pregnant any more.  We were nervous for the actual labour and it was sad to leave Addison as we had never left her for that long before.

Our little family before the big day!

37 weeks the day I was induced

By 5pm, I was induced and we then the waiting game began! The doctor told us this would be a long process as my cervix was not ready at all. We decided we would go for a walk to try to get things moving. Well it worked and the pressure got so bad we had to go sit down.

By 8pm I was getting in and out of the bathtub trying to ease the pain. By 11:30 we were on our way to the Birth Unit to get an epidural and get the process going!

I dilated throughout the night and by 5:30am I  was fully and ready to push. The epidural wasn't working the best as I was feeling way more then I felt with Addison.

So....the nurse says, "Push with your next contraction"....normally an exciting part of the labour process...for me very very scary. This is when the feelings that we have had for 9 months started to make an appearance. It was going to happen and he would be here...which means we will find out if he is going to be healthy. Throughout the tears I managed to push luckily it only took 27 minutes and he was out. An amazing feeling...the weight of the world was then lifted of our shoulders. I don't think I realized how much I was worried about that moment and for it to turn out perfect was amazing.

Of course for the delivery we had obs and neonatal in the room and they took the baby as soon as he was born but gave him right back. It was such a different experience then the first time around. We had no idea what we missed out on and how traumatizing our experience was. I feel very blessed to have been given a healthy child...something sooooo many people take for granted everyday.

He has arrived! 

No words to describe this moment

So tired but so in love!

Dr. M and nurse Ashley

The rest of the story is history...no more need to dwell on the past. We are going to take this experience as a healing time in our life and move forward. We have more then accepted what happened on that October morning in 2010 when our lives forever changed. We were not only blessed with a daughter, we were blessed with a miracle. A child who forever and always will teach us something everyday. She has taught us that if you have your health, you have everything and not to sweat the small stuff. Addison has overcome challenges that most of us don't even think about in our lives. She has fought infections, spasms, seizures, colds, reflux, oral aversions, aspiration, hypertension, hypertonia, and Cerebral Palsy(and who knows what I have forgot).She doesn't get to do what her peers do. She doesn't have the chance to pick up the toy that she wants in her hands, or run to her dad when gets home from work, or have an ice cream or a cold drink on a hot day, or hug me when she feels pain.  She has fought and continues to fight these everyday and somehow manages to smile and laugh. I have watched her reflux so bad she looses her whole feed and then look at me with those big eyes and smile...could you do that? I know I sure as hell couldn't! In the end, we will forever and always do everything in our power for our little girl and make sure her daily experiences are all they can be and as close to her peers as physically possible.

It has been almost three weeks since the little man joined the family! It has been an amazing time. Addison has been in a great mood for the most of it and Tyler and I are just in love with our family. It is a great feeling to wake up in the morning(even if you have had no sleep) and see two babies looking at you and needing your love!

Landyn is a perfect baby! He is nursing great, sleeping good(well if you call waking every two hours great..haha), and if he cries he just wants to eat or his soother! He is as cute as a button and most people think he looks like his dad.

We had Tyler off with us for the first 10 days and have been on our own since then and haven't had any major set backs. The days go quick and with two kiddos there is always something to do. <

We took our first overnight last weekend and went to Debert to Nanny and Poppy Mill`s house. Landyn did great and we can`t wait to do it again.

Addison is starting horseback riding on Sunday in Truro we are very excited!

Otherwise, our life is consumed with love and happiness:)

I will try to post weekly......that is not a promise it will depend on the babies!

Enjoy the photos! Instead of writing about the last few weeks I think the pictures will speak words for us!

First Bath

Thanks Alicia and Ian!

She loved him

Such a proud DAD!!

Wagon Ride the the Cottage!

sorry for the sideways pictures!

July 25th-August 15th (plays of the month)

Plays of the last month!!

• Addison finally got better after taking the steroids. It is so nice to have her back to her normal happy self.
• We had a week of crankiness. She was getting five teeth all at once. All four eye teeth and one of her two year molars. It was pure stressful that week but I am glad it is all over for now!
• We finally have lots of chemicals and cleaning the pool looks great. It only took three weeks but it was worth it! Addison loves it and finds it very relaxing. She has fallen asleep three times when in the pool. I just take her out and she sleeps on the deck while we swim!
• I had lots of doctors appointments and ultrasounds and everyone keeps telling me the baby is huge!!
• I went to the mall last Sunday alone with Addison. Tyler dropped us off he had to do a few things for work...well that was a mistake. Addison was hysterical. She screamed and people starred and starred. I was beyond flustered. I just wanted to get out of the house and do some shopping...well Addison had different ideas! People can be so rude. It is one thing to look, its another to stare. And the most frustrating thing is when people see you coming with a stroller and don't hold the door open for you..grrr!
• Addison's reflux has gotten much worse. We are not sure if it is because she is teething or the formula. I think next week are are switching formulas to something that is more food based and often helps tube fed children with reflux. 
• The week she was teething she had more seizures. Now that she isn't teething as bad it seems to have slowed down. Fingers crossed it stays that way. We also noticed she was jerking her head back funny. It almost looked like a spasm but also like reflux. We had an appointment with neuro and they did an EEG(which might I add was AWFUL because Addison screamed the whole time). The EEG came back as her previous ones so no new spasms. We decided we would watch to see what happens before moving to a new medication. Steroids are the next step and they have an abundance of side effects one being irritability. Thankfully Auntie Debbie came with me that day!

Add caption

This is what our pool looked like before we got it straightened out. It was all because we added  our well water. 

Welcome Baby Fallon Poirier 

No people I am not going for a "scheduled c-section"

It all begins when a woman finds out she is pregnant. Sometimes that can be when she misses her period and decides to take a test, maybe it was planned, or maybe it was a huge surprise only found out because of the terrible morning sickness. Regardless how one finds out it is a life changing moment.

In January of 2010 when I found out I was pregnant with our first child Addison we were over the moon happy. It was all I ever dreamed of. It was only a few days after that I had some bleeding and was told I had a miscarriage. After two weeks and still feeling terrible I went back to the doctor, went for more blood work and was still pregnant. At that point I thought that was a bad experience and it could only go up hill from there. Ha...if only. At 30/31 weeks I started bleeding again, was put on bed rest, went in and out of the hospital and it was all un-explained. The baby didn't move much, I had weekly (often more then one a week) ultrasounds but still everyone told us everything was fine.
At 39 weeks exactly I was induced and within 20 minutes labour began at 7:20 pm. After a typical birth experience with less then 2 hours of pushing Addison was born at 10:04 am on October 1st!

Just like most people who have babies your concerns are breastfeeding, size, etc. You push and push and your baby finally comes out and all the fears go away and this is now the life changing moment and the beginning of your life with your new baby.

Imagine the moment when your baby comes out and there is no crying, the room fills with people and then empties just as quick, your baby is gone, your husband is gone with the baby and you are left on a bed not able to move and not looking very graceful with no idea what is going on.

That was probably one of the best and most traumatic experiences of my life. 

The rest from there is history.

It does bring me to 36 hours later....it would have been Saturday night. We were sitting in our hospital room..without our baby and a few of our family members were there. We still had no idea what was wrong with Addison. All we knew was she was sick, having seizures, couldn't eat, and had a lot of cords attached to her. A doctor walked in the room and told us that Addison had HIE. She might as well talked to us in a foreign language. I looked at her and asked her to tell us worst case scenario....That's when we first heard it....severe cerebral palsy. At that moment it was as if our life fell apart around us. I can not explain in words how that felt....

When I look back at that moment now I think....well it's not that bad. We did get worst case scenario, but we are handling it and love our little angel who has taught us more then anyone or any education could ever have taught us in our life.


Why am I talking about all of this again....

Well lots of babies are being born around us all the time! Everyone is experiencing what every new family should experience....a healthy baby! Not a person goes into labour without my stomach doing a little flip when I hope that everything works out fine. This is something I hope will change once I get to have that experience too.

HIE- We are one of the cases who do not have an answer. They don't know when or how it happened. All they told us was it happens in 1 of every 100 births...maybe not always to our severity but it happens.


Yes I am pregnant again, this pregnancy has gone great and I feel soooo much movement, I have not had any bleeding since the first trimester, and have a very big baby (7.4 pounds at almost 35 weeks).

I met with the obstetrician today and have developed a birth plan. At 37 weeks I will go and have an exam. He will try to get things moving then. If nothing happens I will be induced at 38 weeks. The reason for induction is so the baby doesn't become too big which can cause a difficult birth.

C-Section has been discussed by the doctors throughout the pregnancy, by our family and our friends. I have heard every opinion possible. What is important for us now is that people support our decision to go on and try to have a vaginal delivery and understand that we are doing what was recommended by the professionals. What happened the first time has the same chance of happening again to us and it does for any woman who is going to give birth.

No there is no ideal situation right now. We are nervous and probably so are you.  The next few weeks until the baby is in our arms and healthy are going to be very long, emotional and stressful. Yes, we have been through a lot, have a lot of daily challenges, and have lots of bad days along with our good ones but in the end this is what we want and hope that you will respect that and offer your support not opinions!

Thanks for listening!

And remember...the song "Today I'm going to try to change the world" by Johnny Reid is Addison's song! Check it out.