HMS 11-11-11

We had a very exciting weekend! Friday was Veteran's Day, so Harrison didn't have to work. Neither did I because I don't work Fridays, so we drove to Aileen's house after work on Thursday. We were going to be 'in-charge' of the boys since they would be heading to the hospital at 4:30 Friday morning for Aileen's C-section. Everyone was so excited to find out if there was going to be another baby boy or the first baby Swartz girl.

We got the sleepy boys up around 6, dressed them in good-looking big brother outfits, bagged up a to-go breakfast, and strapped them into their carseats, and we were off to meet their sibling!

The procedure was scheduled for 7:30, but with ten births during the night and five more women in labor to go (probably due to the full moon and 11-11-11), Aileen didn't have the baby until 9:16. We all waited anxiously:

 Finally, Andrew came out and shared the news with everyone!

We are so excited for Aileen and Andrew to have a daughter, for Blake and Ryan to have a sister, and another niece for us! I can't wait to spoil her!

Ryan and Blake say 'cheers' to Hailey Marie Swartz:

Isn't she perfect?

Swartz party of five:

Hailey with her mommy, one of her aunts and two of her uncles:

 Uncle Nate and Hailey

 Pops and Uncle David with Hailey

 Uncle Harrison doesn't really know how to hold babies, and that frustrates him. Can't you tell?

Paige meeting her first girl cousin:

Paige will be meeting her sisters in a couple of months!

How precious are those brand new feet?

Day 2

I dressed Hailey up in everything blue and orange that I could find since it was game day:

War Eagle, Hailey!

I left the hospital to head back to Aileen's and take care of the boys for the afternoon. Although Auburn had a tough game against those Bulldogs, Blake and Ryan's Auburn Team Spirit was impressive!

Here are pictures of Ryan and Blake when they were newborns:

 Ryan

Blake

Compare to Hailey... does she look like her brothers?



Paige's first birthday!

After work on Thursday, I picked up Piper from her grandparent's. There have been some suspicions lately that she may be in heat and I was planning on taking her to the vet Friday to be spayed and micro-chipped. Isn't she cute?

On Saturday morning, we picked up our pooch from the vet. She was definitely more chill than her usual hyper self! After dropping her back off at Esther and Perry's we were on our way to Newnan. There we met up with Aileen, Ryan, and Blake to carpool up to Marietta for Paige's first BIRTHDAY!

We had so much to be thankful for and celebrate on 11/5/11! Paige is such a blessing to all of us, and it thrills me to know that we'll be able to celebrate many more birthdays with her thanks to a very special organ donor family!

The Birthday Girl and her dad, goofing around:

Kellye is a master at scrap-booking, and she made all this adorable timeline of Paige's eventful year!

The cake was lovely, and of course decorated in LSU colors!

Time for cake!

Paige got a little scared when her mom tried to protect her hands from the candle's flame while they waited on me to snap pictures. Unfortunately, she wasn't in the mood for cake after that!

Eventually she became a little more interested.

Aileen (with Baby Swartz #3 due in 6 days), Blake, and Ryan:

Harrison and Ryan having way too much fun:

Cousin buddies:

This photo makes me laugh every time:

Halloween

I LOVE HALLOWEEN! I love how it gives everyone an opportunity to be creative, imaginative, and light-hearted. This year we were pretty low key since it was on a Monday, but because it was on a Monday, that meant Trivia Night at Niffer's. We play with Joey, Jessica, Chris, Kate, and Eric every Monday that we can. We're usually pretty good and get 2nd or 3rd place. That's why our team name is usually 'First Place Losers.'

For trivia, we showed up in our Halloween costumes, as many others did as well. Can you guess who we were (costumes are independent of each other)?

Magnum P.I. and Princess/Duchess Kate! I made the hat from a tutorial I found on Pinterest. It took all of an hour. Harrison's mustache kept falling off.

Can you guess who Joey is dressed as?

Yep...Harrison. I bagged up a bunch of Harrison's typical clothes (see prior post) and delivered them to Joey before trivia. He really shocked Harrison when he showed up!

I had to throw in an adorable picture of my niece. She was dressed as an unbiased Tiger, since her parents are split between AU and LSU!

 Aren't my nephews adorable?

 Aileen's about to pop with Baby Swartz #3. He/she will be arriving very soon: 11-11-11!

Birthday and football

Last Wednesday was my birthday! After work Harrison took me to dinner at Cafe 123 in Opelika. The food was fantastic. We'll definitely be eating there again soon!

Here are some photos from the AU v. Ole Miss game. The weather was perfect football weather during the day, but the temperature took a sharp drop during the night. We were pretty chilly at the game!

Harrison and Shane playing DJ at the tailgate:

Cold and windy:

WAR EAGLE!

Quick catch-up

I haven't posted in awhile, so here are some photos from the Auburn vs. Florida weekend:

 I must say, our tailgate is pretty awesome:

My brother and Katie:

 I love an Auburn sunset, especially over Jordan Hare Stadium. I stole this photo from a friend's facebook page:

Campus looks lovely in the background of the stadium:



Dad's 60th birthday celebration

I had such a fun weekend! My dad's 60th birthday was 9/26, but with all of the recent craziness (death of his father, Paige's heart transplant), we had to postpone the celebration. My brothers and sister planned a weekend full of Atlanta excitement. Our spouses were unfortunately tied up for the weekend (Kellye with Paige, Andrew in Arkansas with the boys, and Harrison hard at work catching up on grading and lesson plans), so it was just the 'Cunningham Originals.'

Friday kicked off by visiting Paige at her home. It was so nice to see her in the comfortable surroundings of home. She looked great; just a little fussy on some of the new meds. As long as she was in her dad's arms, she was content:

From there we picked up my parents from the Omni Hotel/CNN center. Nate booked them a couple of nights at this nice hotel. We had drinks at Meehan's Irish Pub:

 and then went to the Sundial for dinner. The Sundial is the rotating restaurant at the top of the Westin hotel (on the 72nd floor). The views of the city are phenomenal! We had a fantastic dinner and feasted on some incredible desserts. In 1993, I had my first slice of cheesecake at that restaurant, so I had to try it there again. It did NOT disappoint!

On Saturday, we met my parents at the Georgia Aquarium and spent several hours checking out all of the cool exhibits.

We had lunch at Der Beirgarten on Marietta St. Their version of Oktoberfest was going on during the full month of October, so we wanted to check it out. For lunch, it was pretty tame, but we enjoyed sitting on the deck eating bratwurst, knackwurst, weisswurst, Reuben rolls, and goulash. Everything tasted nice with a tasty Hefeweizen. Aren't they cute?

From there we went to the Sweetwater Brewery for a tasting and a tour. I LOVE me some Sweetwater Blue! For just $10, they gave us a souvenir glass, tickets to sample six beers, a tour, and live music.  The tour was pretty wimpy, but worth the value.

We had dinner at Stats, where we also watched the Auburn game. The game didn't end well, so I'll leave it at that. We had such a great time spending the weekend celebrating with our dear ole dad. Happy 60th, Dad!

Paige has a new heart!

The Cunninghams, immediately prior to Paige's transplant:

Our precious, nearly 11 month old niece had a heart transplant during the early hours of 9/30/11. Paige was only on the transplant list for 16 days before receiving word (late afternoon on 9/29) that she'd been blessed with this opportunity. Surgery only took about 3 hours, as opposed to the expected 6-8 hours. She was only sedated on the ventilator for a few hours before waking up (as opposed to the expected 72 hours...such a strong fighter). Today, her IV cardiac meds (Milrinone and Isupril) and oxygen were discontinued, and she was moved into the cardiac stepdown unit. We are so thankful and amazed at her progress. Thank you for all of the prayers; God is good! Please continue to pray for the donor family, Paige's successful recovery and acceptance of her new heart, the parents (Nate and Kellye ), and the mini-Cunningham's in Kellye 's belly! We'll know this week if Paige is going to have little brothers or little sisters!

Here's a photo that I took of Paige today in the hospital (2 days post-transplant:):

She's a little groggy from the pain meds :-)

Here's Kellye's latest CarePage update from today:

Paige is doing so well! As soon as they brought her to the floor, they took her off oxygen (so she could lose the tubes in her nose) and they removed another one of her IV lines because it didn't seem to be flushing well. So we're down to 1 IV line in her right leg and the Broviac catheter, along with the chest tubes, of course. They will closely monitor the chest tube drainage over night but hopefully those will be removed tomorrow.
I feel like Paige had a better day today than yesterday as far as her pain level. Yesterday, she continued to receive morphine because she would get so agitated and upset, and there was no real calming her down. Today she did not receive any pain meds until after being moved the the CSU (Cardiac Stepdown Unit).
On tomorrow's schedule she should have a chest Xray, an echocardiogram, and labs. All of these tests determine how Paige's new heart is doing and how her body is adjusting to her new heart. We are constantly praying for no rejection or infection because these can pose major setbacks in Paige's recovery.
We are so pleased with how quickly Paige is "jumping these hurdles" to quote Dr. Mahle. At the same time, it's a little scary because Paige has always been the "slow and steady" baby that takes a little while to adjust but eventually she gets it. Apparently with her new heart, she is just taking off and instead of the tortoise, she just might be the hare!
It appears our discharge date may not be too far in the future and she received her heart less than 72 hours ago! Our God is an AWESOME God! We continue to praise and thank Him for the precious gift of Paige's life and all the blessings He has showered on us -- including you (our fan base!) who constantly lift us up in prayer. Y'all are AMAZING!!