Keith Christmas

We had Kaitlin's first Christmas last night at her Nanny and Papa's house and it was blast! She wore her red Christmas dress and matching shoes that her Nanny bought for her and looked beautiful (pictures will be on Shutterfly, shortly). Aunt BJ, Uncle Roy and their crew were there, along with Aunt Rhonda, Uncle Rabbitt, Uncle Mark and Aunt Lisa. Kaitlin really enjoyed getting to see her aunts and uncles, whom she hadn't seen in a while. In fact, she was so excited that she refused to take her normal nap and was wide awake until things settled down. She can't wait until she gets mobile and can keep up with her cousins Cameron and Dillon! She got lots of great gifts, but her favorite hands down is the princess wand that her Aunt Amanda made for her. When we got home, she kept waving it around at Buddy and ordering him to "do my bidding". I think we've created a monster. Speaking of Buddy, he loves the Giraffe and the Gander that his sister Merry got him. However, he feels like an ass for not sending a gift for Merry with his parents. It was great to get to see everyone and we really appreciate all of the gifts and hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Love to all!

Kudos to Scott!

As a follow up to Scott's post below, I just want to say I am so proud of him and Kaitlin! I was gone a total of 48 hours and while the first 24 of those were hard going, I'm so glad to hear that she ended her bottle strike and started taking it like a champ. I was pretty concerned when Scott was calling me every couple hours that first night because I could hear Kaitlin screaming in the background, but I think that maybe this was something that needed to be done and my brother's wedding forced us to do it. Now we just have to keep giving her a bottle everyday to keep her in practice. It was fun being out in California seeing my brother get married, but it was even more fun to meet Kaitlin and Scott in the airport this morning! It's good to be home!

Flying Solo

On the tail end of my first weekend alone with a child, I am compelled to provide a synopsis of the weekend's events. For those who don't know, Summer spent the weekend in San Francisco with her parents for her brother's wedding. I stayed behind with mini-me and Buddy to man the home front. The following is an unedited peak at how the weekend has gone thus far (mama ain't coming home until 11:45ish, weather permitting). Friday started off innocently enough. I picked Kaitlin up from daycare and she was in a great mood. The teachers at her school had a staff Christmas party from 1-3pm when the babies were supposed to be sleeping, so some parents filled in. Upon reading her report card, I noted Kaitlin had only slept for 40 minutes on the day (typically this is more in the 2-3 hrs range). I was not immediately concerned and actually thought this could work out in my favor in the form of an early bed time...I was sorely mistaken.

When we got home, I hastily changed out of work clothes and began prepping a bottle. Kaitlin's report card indicated she'd only had 5 oz b/w 10 and 6pm, so all signs again pointed to an easy bottle feeding experience...again, very, very sorely mistaken. Immediately she began to scream and flail around, so I went to the tried and true method of squirting milk into her mouth by pushing on the bottom of the bottle liner and aiming at the inside of her cheek. This is a messy, yet effective maneuver in times when she is refusing the bottle, however this time she kept continued to dance on the panic button. So, in an effort to more closely simulate the breast-feeding experience and hopefully calm her down, I grabbed the Boppy pillow and headed for the couch. For those unfamiliar with the Boppy pillow, it goes around your waist and the baby then lies on it side-ways, facing you. I had Kaitin on there for maybe 5 seconds when the bottle liner fell out and milk went everywhere. She immediately starts screaming and I was frantically trying to assess where exactly the full contents of the bottle had gone. I need to interject here (mostly for Britt Brown's entertainment) that I've never wanted the man-teat set up that Robert Dinero has in "Meet the Fockers" so bad in my entire life (if you don't know what I'm talking about, see the "manary gland" write-up in the "Characters" section, mid-way down here). So, I put Kaitlin in the swing and went into full clean up mode. Luckily, most of the milk was on the Boppy and my shorts, so the couch was relatively spared. Rather than read between the lines here, I just smiled at my "good fortune". It wasn't until I went back over to the swing to pick up Kaitlin that I noticed only one side of her head was wet. Surely this is just because she's hot natured, like her dad, and was sweating due to all of the crying, right...INCORRECT! My oversight was that in order for the milk to soak the Boppy, it had to first go all over KAITLIN'S HEAD AND FACE.

After a quick smell-check to confirm, I hastily readied a bath. This is another first, as I typically am in an assistant role to Summer for bath-time (e.g. I hold the towels and catch the wet baby at the end). Now was no time to panic b/c I had a very sleepy, hungry, dirty and pissed off baby. Thankfully, the bath went well, as did the post-bath procedures and change of clothes (she typically hates this). After a quick clean-up, she went down for a nap and we tried the bottle again at 8:30pm and she actually latched on and took a few ounces. Amanda came over and spent the night and was a big help. I was actually able to make some dinner and get a shower. The feeding got incrementally better after the disastrous start. Since saturday morning, she's been latching on and taking a minimum of 3 ounces each time, which is great. I've been texting Summer the update after every feeding, just to keep her in the loop. Nanny and Pa Pa came over yesterday and took some pictures of Kaitlin in her "Elf in Training" onesie in front of her first Christmas tree (look for these to get added to the website later). We also took her for a walk around the block at night, so she could see the Christmas lights. She got very excited each time we came up on a house with lights and started kicking and smiling.

All in all, this has been a great experience for me. My confidence level in terms of how to handle Kaitlin's day-to-day schedule/needs has increased tremendously. This would have only been possible by going at it alone for a few days, as Summer was not there to lean on (which is what I'd been doing the last few months). I definitely would recommend the a weekend alone for all first time dad's.

Catching up

Sorry for the lag in posting, but we've been very busy with holidays and trying to wrap up work in order to take our big trip to Hawaii the week of Dec 17th. Kaitlin is very excited about this trip, as it will be her first plane ride (9 hours non-stop)! Her mom bought her some swimsuits back when she was still in-utero which, much to her dad's chagrin, are mostly 2-pieces (ridiculous!). We will have lots of pictures and a big update after we get back. Now to catch you all up on what's been going on...

We enjoyed a fun half-week trip to Spring the week before last. The Hey's put on a great Thanksgiving, which was extra-special for us as it was Kaitlin's first (see pictures in the Shutterfly link, to the left). Kaitlin was very excited to see all of her grandparents, as her Nanny & Pa Pa even made the trip down on Thursday. Aunt Amanda was in town the whole week, as well. We enjoyed lots of turkey and were able to squeeze in a viewing of our favorite Thanksgiving movie, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Our beloved Aggies made the the friday after Thanksgiving special, as well, with a trifecta of sorts...1) Beat Texas in football; 2) Won the pre-season NIT against Ohio State in basketball; and 3) Coach Fran resigned!

As for Kaitlin, she has adjusted nicely to day-care and really likes her teacher Ms. Marvetta. We get a report card each day on how her day went, which is a big help for her mom and dad. Kaitlin gets lots of visitors at school, as her Nanny, Pa Pa and Aunt Amanda come and see her often. Her Pa Pa has made it a ritual to come and see her a couple of days a week. She has slowly but surely gotten better at taking the bottle. The last few weeks have been really good, as she's taken 3+ ounces in several sittings and for several different people. All of this makes her momma a little more comfortable leaving Kaitlin with her dad this weekend. For those who did not know, Summer's brother Chris is getting married this weekend. Kaitlin and I are staying behind to make sure Buddy doesn't throw any crazy party's, which means it's the bottle or nothing for Miss Kaitlin this weekend.

That's all for now,

Genius comment of the day

Scott to me, feeding Kaitlin at 4:18am Monday morning: "Why did you wake her up to eat so early?"

I know it's early, but let's think before we speak sir.

Too smart for her own good

Why, dear Lord, have you blessed Scott and I with both a dog and now a child that is too smart for his or her own good? We used to say that Chunkie got himself into trouble because he was too smart. For instance, he learned how to open doors so he could let himself into rooms looking for us when it stormed, and when he couldn't find us he would just start chewing on whatever he came across - door frames, garage door wires, ficus trees. You know, the usual suspects. So he was smart enough to look for us because he was scared, but not smart enough to learn that he was going to get in trouble for that when he got home. Similarly, Kaitlin has taken on some of those same attributes with her "Battle of the Bottle." I thought that after a week in daycare she would learn that in order to eat, she would have to start using the bottle. "Not so fast Momma!" she says. Instead, she's taken to stocking up in the morning and at night and continuing her standoff at daycare. Poor Miss Marvetta tries four, five, six times a day to feed her and she will have none of it! She won't even try to suck on it. Miss Marvetta has been resourceful though and squirts it in her mouth and lets her eat slowly like that, but she'll only take about 2 ounces and then she lets Marvetta know she's done by spitting it out. This plan of attack was working well for Kaitlin up until this morning. This morning was when, after gorging herself upon wakeup, she promptly vomited up all that she had worked so hard to eat in the early morning hours. I'm talking about 4 ounces here people that came spewing out of my dear, sweet child while I burped her. And then when I thouht she was done I put her on the changing table to clean her up, and here comes what must have been at least another 4 ounces! She had vomit EVERYWHERE! But again, no crying, just a look of shock on her face like "Man, how did I get so wet?!?" So she got an early morning bath, a new outfit and was ready to fight another day full of evil bottles that awaited her in Infant Classroom #1!!

Last week at home :-(

Well, this week has been bittersweet for me. I'm trying to enjoy every last moment with Kaitlin before I have to go back to work full time next Monday. It really is unfair how maternity leave works - just as she's getting more and more fun and full of personality I have to go and leave her! She smiles all the time now and even has a small giggle that is sure to become full blown laughter any day now. We have a game we play when we get up in the morning called "Who's that girl in the window?" It doesn't involve a window at all though, rather the mirror and it's us looking in and me singing "Who's that girl, who's that girl, who's that giiirrrlll in the window?" while bouncing up and down. She starts off just staring at me, and then a slow smile creeps across her face and she'll bury her head in my shoulder like she's shy, but then turn back and look and smile some more. These past few days she's capped it off with the giggle I mentioned. Such a sweet girl.

I took her to daycare twice this week for a couple of hours to get a handle on it before she has to go for a full day on Monday. It was tough, but I'm glad we went. Her teachers are really nice and were totally understanding when I was bawling my eyes out on the first day. She still doesn't take the bottle well, but the second day they actually got 2 oz in her so that's a start. Hopefully after a full week there she'll be a pro. Other than that we've just been enjoying this beautiful weather with lots of walks and time outside. She's able to ride in the Baby Bjorn facing forward now since she has pretty good control over her neck, so she enjoys getting to see the world head on, and Bud enjoys being able to come with us for walks again. He's not allowed when I take her in the stroller because he doesn't quite get the concept of not constantly cutting in front of us and his heels have taken a beating because of that. But now every time I strap on the Bjorn he comes running up to me with his expectant tail wag and won't take no for an answer. I will sure miss my family these next few weeks, but I just have to remember it's for a short while and January will be here before I know it!

Miss Kaitlin's Houston Debut

Little Miss Kaitlin took Houston by storm in the less than 24 hours she was here and as a result has a huge new following of adoring fans who couldn't get enough of her! After the initial shock and awe of her beautiful hair, everyone was impressed by what a healthy baby she is, all agreeing that surely she must be at least 4 months old. But the thing that blew everyone away, hands down, was the sweet, alert, and interactive personality of our beautiful granddaughter. Even after so many strangers tried to hold her (she was in no mood for such closeness with all these people she didn't even know!) she was able to turn on her charm once she was allowed to lay on her back doing what she loves best: kicking her legs and smiling and cooing at everyone with whom she made eye contact. She even let out a little giggle much to the delight of all. Yes, I know if ever her mommy and daddy need another set of grandparents besides Nanny, Grandpa Stan, her Pop and me, they will be lined up waiting to fill in for us down here in Spring! I'm quite sure that when she returns for Thanksgiving she will be talking and walking, not to the surprise of this grandma...

Happy 2 Month Birthday!

Today is miss Kaitlin's two month birthday! I can't believe it's already been two whole months that we have been blessed with her. She is growing up literally before our eyes and already displays so much personality. I can't wait to see what she's going to be like in another month or so.

Happy Birthday, baby girl!!

Love,
Dad!!

Worst Day EVER!

I believe I blogged about the day her newborn pictures were taken as the worst day ever, but yesterday blew that right out of the water. We went in for her 2 month checkup, which went well at first. We got all her stats - 13lbs 10oz, 25 inches (97% for both) and had a good visit with Dr. Meyer and got all our questions answered. She reiterated that Kaitlin was doing great, "thriving" is the word she used, and made us feel pretty proud of our parenting skills (or I guess I should say our genes - we haven't done a whole lot of parenting to date). And then everything fell apart. In the infamous words of Lynyrd Skynyrd "In walks the man with the gun in his hand and he was looking for you know who" - but replace "man" with "mean, awful nurse" and "gun" with FOUR HUMONGOUS NEEDLES!! Oh the humanity of it all! We attempted to feed her during the shot, which was the the trick that worked at her 2 week checkup, but she was NOT having it. The lady stuck her and she immediately screamed like I've never heard her scream before. :-( It was indeed the worst day ever. Scott had to take her from me and calm her down because I wasn't in a calm place my own self.

She also received the Rotavirus vaccine orally. If you don't know, Rotavirus is a virus that rages through schools and daycares and basically makes you vomit and diarrhea like a fire hydrant. After hearing about Ethan's experience with it, we were all for getting Kaitlin the vaccine so as to avoid having to do what Scott recommended to Heather and Mike when Ethan got it, and that was "Can't you just hold him naked under the shower until he stops?" When I suggested that might be a bit traumatic for a one year old, his alternate idea was to tie a black plastic garbage bag around his waist. Yes folks, that is what I'm dealing with here. But anyways, the doctor mentioned that since the vaccine contains a small portion of the actual Rotavirus to make Kaitlin immune, she might experience side effects of vomiting or diarrhea. She seemed to be doing fine all day yesterday up until Scott got home from work. As Murphy's Law dictates, I had five thousand things going on - spaghetti cooking, tea brewing, some bread in the oven and I was washing dishes. Scott was in the bedroom changing clothes so I decided to pop around the corner to check on Kaitlin in her swing. At the precise moment she comes into my view, I see a tube of vomit come spewing out of her mouth and all over her. :-( POOR BABY! She didn't even cry though, just sat there looking confused. I hurriedly called Scott in to take her while I cleaned it up and got the kitchen under control so we didn't start a fire while attending to her. She had a small fever, which we had to determine using a rectal thermometer (did I mention this was the worst day ever?!?), so Scott cleaned her up and put her in just a t-shirt so she could stay cool. We spent the rest of the evening fretting over her and covering her with hugs and kisses to help her feel better. She also vomited after her 4am feeding this morning, so it's turned into the worst 2 days ever. Long story short, she's requested that we avoid the doctor's office at all costs until further notice. WORST PLACE EVER!!

Chernobyl

Kaitlin is growing like a WEED! Summer weighed her yesterday and she is somewhere between 14.5 and 15 lbs (per our home scale) and 2 feet long! Of course these are unofficial measurements, which will be confirmed next week when she goes in for her 2 month check up and first round of shots. Last night, Summer, Amanda, Kaitlin and I all went to Papasitos to celebrate the sale of Summer's car on Craigslist.com (in 2 days, no less)! Up until about 8pm last night, Kaitlin had been in a poop stand-off, as she had not gone since 4am Sunday morning. We called the pediatrician a few times and she told us to wait until it had been about 5 days and then give her a little prune juice. Well, I think the intoxicating aromas of mexican food at Papasitos did the trick. When we got home and while Summer was feeding her, we had a Chernobyl incident. I had to call in a HAZMAT team to assess the damage and appropriate clean-up protocol. However her mommy and daddy were just happy she's regular again.

I only wish one of the grandma's had been there to take care of that diaper change!!!

Pumpkin Patch

Tonight we took a trip to the Pumpkin Patch up at our church. Kaitlin put on her "My First Halloween" onesie, took a quick power nap on the ride up there and was in good spirits for the thousands of flash bulbs she had going off in her face. We took pictures in the Indian Corn, with scarecrows and of course with pumpkins. She was very cooperative and I think it had something to do with all the strings of lights hanging throughout the patch. In fact, she's requested that we string similar lights throughout our house. Before we left we picked out pumpkins for each of the three of us and one for Bud and an "in absentia" one for Chunk. All in all it was a great night.

Click here to see pics: Link

New Pics Posted

Link to Shutterfly

Sleep, glorious sleep!

I'm hesitant to post about this in case I jinx us, but it seems Miss Kaitlin might be getting her cute little bottom on somewhat of a schedule! Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights she slept from 10:30/11ish all the way until 5:00/5:30ish! I of course woke up at 3am each night to check and see if she was breathing, just because I'm so used to a middle of the night feeding for the little chunker. And then last night was the coup de grace - 11:15 until 6am! While it wasn't that much longer than the previous nights, this night had special significance because I put her down at 10:30 wide awake and she just hung out looking around and cooing to herself until she fell asleep ON HER OWN at 11:15!! WOOHHOOOOO!!!! This might have had something to do with the hysterical 45 minutes Scott spent trying to get her to take a bottle at 9pm, but I'll take it every time! She probably just wanted both of our grimy hands off her by that point! It's amazing though that I'm getting excited over 6 continuous hours of sleep, when I used to be a 9 hour minimum kind of girl. I feel positively refreshed and ready to do anything after a stretch like that! And I feel it's a blessing because Chunk was always up with me for the middle of the night feeding, following me to her room to supervise the diaper change, hanging out with me when she wouldn't go back to sleep. I think when I do have to do one again it will be tough, but at least I've had a reprieve for these past few days.

Back to the hysterical 45 minutes I referenced earlier, Kaitlin is not very fond of the bottle. We've tried Dr. Browns, Avent, Playtex and Medela and none seem to be to her liking. Poor Scott has to wrestle with her to get her to take it, and half the time she's either screaming, flailing, or gagging because she's screaming and flailing so hard. We're still working on it though and hopefully she'll get the hang of it before I have to go back to work, otherwise I feel for the people at Dallas Presbyterian (her daycare for my 2 month stint at full time work).

Farewell Chunk

Today is a sad day in the Keith household. We said goodbye to the best dog ever, Chunk. We love you Chunky and will miss you everyday. Now you'll be above the storms.

Best friends...

Grandma and Grandpa Hey were in town Friday night and Saturday morning to see the munchkin. Grandpa Hey couldn't believe how much she's grown in the past 3 weeks! We ventured out to dinner at Saltgrass, which was actually a good location since it was so loud, so she wasn't much of a distraction to other patrons when she cried. She was pretty good though and only cried a few minutes at the end of the meal. Dad took her around to look at all the pretty lights and that calmed her down. If you didn't know, lights are 1B on Kaitlin's list of friends - she could look at them all day. I've heard it said that since babies are fresh from heaven where it's filled with light, they love to look at lights here on earth because it reminds them of home. Item 1A on her list of friends is ceiling fans. If she's ever freaking out we just have to take her into the living room and show her the fan and she's immediately enthralled. All the toys in the world and she prefers 4 spinning blades on the ceiling - who knew?

First real bath

Notice the trend of firsts here! Last night Kaitlin got her first real submerged bath in her fun little tub. We had been giving her sponge baths up until her appointment on Tuesday just because I was scared of her belly button. Side note - there's a phrase I never thought I'd use. I guess life is pretty good if one of your top fears is your daughter's belly button. Dr. Meyer said it looked good though, so she was ready to move on up to the next stage in bathing. But I digress. I went to get the tub ready while Scott was removing her diaper and cleaning her up so she didn't have any poop in her first bath. Apparently I should've told him to stand by for a while because it took me about 5 minutes to attach the base on the tub and get it all ready, during which time Scott came into the bathroom holding a naked Kaitlin who proceeded to pee all over him! What was funny was that she was crying (because she was naked - she's very modest) and she stopped mid-wail to empty her bladder on him. He still hasn't reached my status though, as she sharted on me during the pictures on Sunday. Which, by the way, he freaked out about. I had to tell him "Honey, this is the first of many bodily fluids I will have spewn on me over the next few years." Anyway, back to the bath, as soon as she was laid in that warm water she immediately stopped crying and got a look of "Waaaaaiiit a second, this isn't so bad!" She loved every minute of it! She couldn't stay in there forever though, so the whole episode ended poorly with her screaming again as she was removed from her new favorite spot. But it's good to know that she enjoys it, so we will try to streamline the process next time and make the before and after portions as short as possible.

Remember the monster I mentioned a couple posts ago....

Well, she's still growing at a phenomenal pace! We had our 1 month checkup today (even though she's only 3.5 weeks) and she weighed in at a whopping 11 lbs even and has grown to 23 inches!! If she were able to stand, she'd officially be taller than Buddy, much to his chagrin. Dr. Meyer said that she is doing excellent and that this is the kind of growth you want to see - a steep curve at the beginning and then she will even out. She said based on Scott and my build she doesn't expect Kaitlin to be huge and that she imagines she will end up in the 50-75% bracket, but for now it's great that she's up there in the 98th! Way to go Kaitlin!

First Pictures

Ummm, I think we'll get the next professional photos of Kaitlin when she's old enough to understand us - say in about 3 years. The poor girl had what was probably the worst day of her short life thus far on Sunday. She was naked, angry, and needed a nap, but what did her mean old parents do? Subjected her to 2 hours of endless posing and manipulating, trying to get that perfect shot. We got about 25 minutes of calm Kaitlin at the end of the shoot, when she was just so worn out and sick of crying that she resigned herself to lay there with a vacant stare. I imagine she was transporting herself back into the womb, thinking "I'm in my happy place." If so, she's remarkably good at zoning us out. I suppose we'll see that skill again when she's a teenager. Needless to say, she slept like a baby last night. I had to wake her at 2:30am after she went SIX HOURS without eating - unheard of! And had I not woken her, I think she would've kept on snoozing trying to undo the damage we did to her poor psyche during that torture session. So she hopes you enjoy the birth announcements you'll be getting, knowing that she had sell her soul to the devil to obtain them.

First pictures, Aggies vs. ULM and Cowboys-Dolphins.

Well, we've got a big weekend lined up for Kaitlin. Today, a photographer is coming out to the house to take her first professional baby pictures. In order to assure she is calm, cool and collected, we will have to fine tune our schedule to ensure she eats and has time to fill a diaper before the photographer arrives. The last part of the schedule is paramount as the majority of the photos are of her naked, so things could get messy otherwise. I am also hoping that my inclusion in the photos will be minimal, if not non-existent. I think the prenatal photos were traumatic enough for me!

Nanny, Lou Ann an Aunt Amanda all came by to visit last night. Lou Ann gave Kaitlin a gift bag full of Aggie and bath time stuff. We're pretty excited because most of Kaitlin's Aggie gear is still too big for her to wear, but Lou Ann's looks like they'll fit her now! We'll get them washed up this weekend in time for Kaitlin to try out their luck when the Aggies play Miami this Thursday. Kaitlin was pretty upset this morning when I told her the Aggies would not be on t.v. this weekend. However, she was relieved to hear that she could listen to the sweet musings of Dave South as he calls the game online.

On Sunday, we are hoping to make the trek over to Nanny's house. Kaitlin has been begging me to take her to watch the Cowboys on her Papa's big screen HD t.v. We planned on going last weekend, but the weather turned bad so we stayed home since Chunky is afraid of storms. Keep your fingers crossed that the weather stays nice tomorrow.

On a side note, Ben and I are heading to visit Big Jason at Parkland this afternoon. Jason was in a very serious car wreck on Wednesday, but thankfully is recovering well. He had a lacerated kidney, a broken collar bone and slight bleeding in the brain, which were all consistent with a high-speed car crash. They expect he'll be in the hospital another week and then will need six weeks at home recovering before he is back on his feet.

Please keep Jason and his family in your prayers.

We're growing a monster!

We had our second pediatrician appointment on Tuesday with Dr. Meyer, who will be our main physician. She was very nice and much less cartoonish than Dr. Vicktrin whom we met at our first appointment. It was confirmed though - Kaitlin is quite a strapping young lady! She's in the 97% percentile for height and 95% percentile for weight!! She weighed in at a whopping 9lbs 8 oz - a full 7 oz over her birth weight (which she wasn't due to gain back until her 2nd week birthday!) As my friend Brooke said, "you must be eating some extra fortified food or something!" Apparently it's from the Keith side of the family though, as Cindi has told me many stories about how quickly both Scott and Brandon grew. It will be interesting to see how much she grows before her next appointment!

Sad News on Chunk

Last Wednesday morning, Summer noticed Chunk's lymph node in his neck was very swollen. I took him up to the vet at about 4pm with the hopes that it was just an infection and nothing worse. I was wrong. The vet confirmed that he has cancer (lymphoma), which is very common in middle aged large breed dogs. While the cancer is treatable, it is unfortunately not curable. We have him on a 3-week run of steroids to help reduce the swelling of the node and give us some more time with him. The most aggressive form of treatment is full-blown chemo, which runs abut $5k and will only give him another year or so. As such, we're going to stick with the steroids he's on now. Summer and I are devastated, but are slowly coming to grips with what must be done. Thankfully, this form of cancer does not cause him much pain. The vet said that as it progresses, he will get sicker and stop eating, but that's about it. As such, our plan is to watch him over the next few days and weeks and take advantage of the time we have. However, at some point in the coming days/weeks we're going to have to send him home because we do not want him to suffer.

We ask that you all pray for Chunky that he not suffer and for strength for Summer and I.

First Trip to the Pediatrician - 8/29

On the 29th, we took Kaitlin to her first trip to see the pediatrician since she'd left the hospital. The waiting room at the office is a mural to the Little Mermaid and they have the video showing on an infinite loop. For those of you who do not know my little sister that well, she also used to show this movie on an infinite loop when she was little! I don't know how the admin employees deal with hearing that movie over and over again every day. Unfortunately, we could not get in to see her actual pediatrician, so we saw another lady who operates out of the same office. She was an Aggie and very nice, but was eerily similar to the Cheri Oteri cheerleader character, from Saturday Night Live. She was overly animated, maintained the same wide-eyed look as Cheri Oteri and must have had 25 cups of coffee that morning. Any who, they told us at the hospital that it would be up to 2 weeks before Kaitlin would regain her birth weight. When we left the hospital, she weighed 8lbs 110z. We were pleasantly surprised to see that she weighed an even 9lbs at this appointment and was doing a great job of putting on weight. Unfortunately, she got a little over stimulated in the weighing processes and peed all over the scale and then peed all over the padded bench she was laying on, as well. You'd think all that water would be good for another ounce or so, right? The pediatrician checked her eyes, reflexes and gave her a hepatitis B shot and sent us on our way with a clean bill of health.

Going Home

Apologies for the tardiness of this post, but I am trying to keep these in chronological order, so next in line is the going home story. Monday was our designated check-out day and a day that I had been looking forward to since the moment Kaitlin was born. As helpful as the hospital was, I could not wait to get my family home and under MY roof. Big Jason and I had traded text messages about this the entire time we were in the hospital. He was 100% right...there was nothing like the feeling of driving both Summer and Kaitlin home!

Both Summer's doctor and Kaitlin's pediatrician gave clean bills of health, so we started the going home show around noon. Ms. Carter had given us a beautiful white dress along with a pair of white knit shoes that Kaitlin wore home. The process started with me running cart loads of our things to the truck before we loaded up the family. The last cart load was full of flowers and gifts from all of you! My mom was there at the hospital to help us pack up and the Hey's were waiting at our house to help us unload.

Kaitlin did a great job on the entire trip. She got a little fussy when we put her dress on, but that didn't last long. She also was an unbelievable trooper when it came to the whole car seat thing. It took us a couple of tries to get her buckled in right and it was about 150 degrees outside, nonetheless, she didn't cry. In fact, she was snug as a bug the entire ride home. Speaking of which, that was the scariest drive of my entire LIFE! Everyone who drove past my truck received a James Koenig stare-down for being too close or driving too fast. Thankfully, the drive itself was pretty uneventful.

When we got to the house, John and Barb had tied some pink balloons to our mailbox and were waiting in the drive-way with the camera. We pulled in and John took lots of pictures, most of which are posted on the Shutterfly website.

Hospital Stay

The nurses at Medical City are amazing...very knowledgeable and helpful in all things baby. If anything, Summer and I owe them an apology for taking advantage of their services, most notably in the area of diaper changing. The two nights we were in the hospital after Kaitlin was born, we had her stay in the nursery at night, so Summer could get some rest and recover. The nurses would bring her in every 3 hours so she could feed and then take her back afterwards. In all of those feedings, I can honestly recall MAYBE one time that we changed her diaper before sending her back to the nursery. Summer would be feeding her and all of the sudden we'd hear an explosion...then I would laugh, roll over and go back to sleep, knowing full well that the nurse was going to have a nice present to take care of when she came to pick her up. My how I miss those nurses now that it's just us at home.

Another funny story along this same subject matter. On the Monday that we were due to check-out, a pediatrician (older man) came to do one more final check-up on Kaitlin before discharging her. On her first check-up the day after she was born, they detected a slight heart murmur. Thankfully in this second check, it was gone. After finishing his work, the pediatrician wished us well and then walked back around the curtain (we had it drawn b/c Summer has been feeding before he came in) and was about to head out the door. All of the sudden this massive explosion occurs from inside Kaitlin's diaper that shook the walls of our room and rustled the curtain. The last thing the pediatrician says as he is walking out the door is, "I heard that." Simple and straightforward, but utterly hilarious. Kaitlin was very, very embarrassed.

We really enjoyed all of the visitors, gifts and flowers that made their way to our room this past weekend. I shot some video and pictures of the hospital room, so check out our Shutterfly page if you want to see how your arrangement's turned out. I also wanted to thank all of you for the prayers, well wishes and text messages I received during the labor and delivery process. Christine did an awesome job of being the point person for sending out my updates and then forwarding me your responses. From time to time, I would read them to Summer as she was resting and they provided a great boost to her. We are very blessed to have such great friends and family.

Pictures

We'll be adding pictures to our Shutterfly album, so check there often! The link is to the left and below.

Shutterfly

Birth Story

Disclaimer: I wanted to have this all down to someday tell Kaitlin, so that's why it's so long and detailed. Please feel free to skim.

Let's see, where to begin? Friday, August 24 I called the doctor because I had some "issues" that I will not go into here, and he told me to go ahead and come up to the hospital so we could monitor the baby and make sure said issues weren't affecting Kaitlin. I called Scott at work at about 10 am and told him and he got home at about 10:10, even though work is 30 min from our house. Weird. He rushes into the house and starts packing everything up, not really speaking a word to me though. As we're going to the hospital, he is driving like a madman, weaving in and out of traffic with a determined, stoic look on his face. Finally I turned to him and said "Look, this isn't "it" and if it was, this is EXACTLY the opposite of how I need you to be behaving." He apologized and just said he was really nervous, but that he would try to calm down, and he did.

We arrived at the hospital and got all checked into a room, I got strapped to all the monitors and we waited around listening to her heartbeat and watching me have very small contractions for about 2 hours. Dr. Ruk came in and said everything looked great and that we were free to go, but he did mention that he thought he'd be seeing us again this weekend as I was having those small contractions.

Since it was now past 1pm, I was starving, and I figured it was close to the end, I deemed it alright for me to eat lunch meat again so I asked Scott to stop at Jersey Mike's subs to pick us up some lunch. I had been looking forward to ripping down a club sandwich from there for 9 months and I thought Friday was the day, but alas the A/C people called and said they were at our house to replace our unit so we had to go. (Note to self - never be due at the end of August in Texas with a temperamental A/C). At this point I had been standing in line for about 20 min though, talking to several people in front of me who were amused by the extremely pregnant lady in her dress. One was an Ag and one was an 7 month prego lady. The Ag had asked me when I was due and when I told him last Sun he said "Yes, I was getting the vibe that I may have to deliver a baby in the sub shop." I didn't tell him that I was actually having contractions at that moment!

Anywho, Scott and I head to the house and hang out. At about 4pm I decided to try and take a nap, but at that point the contractions were strong enough that I couldn't really sleep through them, so I was just laying in the bed trying to relax. It was here that I started to get worried though, because the pain I was feeling was originating in my low back, which I knew was not a good sign. I had been feeling for a couple weeks that she wasn't facing the right way and this was proof of that. Quick lesson for those that don't know, the optimal position is to have the baby head down, which she was, but facing your back so when contractions happen she's bent in such a way that it pushes down on your cervix rather than your tail-bone. When she faces out towards your stomach, her head is basically a ramming tool directly into your low back. More on that later. Around 7pm we started a game of scrabble to try and keep my mind off of it, and then we took a walk. Throughout this I'm timing my contractions and around 10pm I notice that they've been 5 min apart, about 1 min apiece for about an hour, so I told Scott that we should probably start heading that way. I took a shower and Scott made sure we had all the last minute stuff and we hopped in the truck.

We got all checked in again at the hospital and got our nurse, Brandi, who told us at about 11pm that I was only 3 cm dilated. Yikes, not what I wanted to hear after what I felt had been quite a while of terrible back pain. At this point I was still wanting to go natural though, so I got up and walked around a bit, went to the bathroom and just tried to breathe through it. She checked me again around midnight and I still hadn't progressed any more so at that point I told Scott that I didn't think I could do it, that I wanted to have an epidural. He was completely supportive and so we told the nurse who got the paperwork started. It's amazing how quickly I signed all those papers once I decided to with the drugs! The anesthesiologist came in and got down to business and at about 1:30am I was a happy lady! It really was a blessing because I was now able to sleep for what turned out to be a long road ahead.

Cut to 6:30 am, 30 min before our nurse Brandi was about to get off. She checks me and says I'm at a 9 and that while she wouldn't be there to see our baby be born, it would probably be very soon that I would be pushing. Woohoo, celebration in the delivery room! This was short lived however, because around 7:30 the doctor on call, Dr. Ryder, came in and checked and said I was only a 7.5, maybe an 8! And Brandi of course is long gone at this point, so I can't tell her where she can put her 9 cm assessment! My water still hadn't broken at this point, so she pointed out that we could still do that and perhaps start a pitocin drip to try and speed things up. They gave me about an hour after they broke my water before they checked again, and I was still at an 8, so they started the pitocin. Another hour or two goes by and I'm still an 8, maybe an 8.5. Additionally, with the pitocin I'm starting to feel the contractions and they're STILL in my back! Ugh! That means the little lady hasn't turned around like she was supposed to. It was at this point that I fell in love with my new nurse, Suann. She was just the most patient, wonderful nurse who had many tricks up her sleeve to help us get Kaitlin out of there. Suann also asked us if we knew how big the baby was. We told her that we had no idea, but were guessing she would be somewhere around 7.5 lbs. She replied back that she had seen "skinny people like me" hide some pretty big babies before. Scott and I just laughed it off! She had me changing my position every 30 min to try and get her to turn, and she was upping my pitocin all along trying increase my contractions to get me over the 8cm hump. Finally, at around noon she said I was 9 with a small lip, so I would be able to push soon!

Around 12:40 she follows through on her word and we start to push. What a strange, strange situation that is, let me tell you. At the beginning it was just me, Scott down holding my left leg and Suann holding my right leg. With every contraction I was instructed to take a deep breath, hold it and push for a count of 10, exhale, and do that again 2 more times (total of 3 ten counts during each contraction). At this point my epidural had worn off enough that I felt each contraction starting in my back, so I would say "here it comes" and they would have me wait a bit until it built up and then we would do our thing. Scott was the BEST coach anyone could ask for though, always counting down for me and encouraging me the whole time. After about 40 min of pushing, Kaitlin was crowning so Dr. Ryder joined in the party. At this point there were also about 4 other nurses that kept coming and going in the room...must have been a slow day in Labor and Delivery! Oh, side note, Kaitlin finally turned about 20 min into the pushing, and then turned AGAIN 20 min after that. Interesting that she couldn't do that during the previous 20 hours of labor, but who am I judge? Finally, at 1:40 here comes all 9 lbs, 1 oz and 21 inches of Kaitlin Rose, onto my belly! It was the most wonderful, amazing, miraculous thing I have ever experienced in my life. Scott and I were laughing, crying, the nurses were exclaiming "Look at all that hair!", Dr. Ryder was saying "What a HUGE baby!" It was good times all around. Scott cut the cord and then ran out to tell the family that she was here. They took her to the other side of the room and cleaned her up while they attended to me.

I'll post some follow-up stories on the rest of the stay in the hospital and our first trip home as a family, a little later.

Quick Update

We went to our last weekly appointment with Summer's doctor today and everything looks great. As some of you know, Summer asked that he push the inducement date back (it was originally going to be today) a few days to give the baby more time to come on her own. Today, we booked our final inducement date for this monday at 7:30am. So, she'll either be her on her own terms or we will go and get her Monday morning!

Please keep all three of us in your prayers!

She's late!

So it's my due date today and no sign of the little lady. I thought she would come for sure on Friday night, after making me work every last day that I had committed to, but alas she did not show. And then I thought she'd come today since we had tickets to Wizard of Oz in Ft. Worth, but again, she stood me up. So I guess I'll stop trying to determine when she's going to show and just wait it out. I'm off of work all week so feel free to call, stop by, whatever because I'm sure I'll be bored. Here are the links:

Link 1
Link 2

Nursery Pics

We've still got a few things to add, but I thought I'd go ahead and post pics since it's almost complete. We will probably put her name on the wall above the crib and add a few more hangings, but this is the gist. Notice the fine painting and craftmanship on all the furniture, thanks to a one Mr. Scott Keith! And also notice she will not need any new clothes until she turns 2! Hope you like it!

Happy Birthday!

Today is Summer's 28th year and our little girl's 39th week birthday! Last night, Summer requested Freebirds for dinner, followed up by a trip to Marble Slab. Summer had initially requested a trip to the Rangers game last night, but common sense finally intervened. I simply pointed out that the long walk from the parking lot to the game, only to be rewarded with a hard-plastic seat in 95+ degree temperatures were not good things for someone a week away from her due-date. Instead, my parents met us at the movies to see Bourne Ultimatum (which was greatness!). This morning we got up for church, where the little old lady sitting next to us was amazed that Summer was out and about one week before her due date! It's funny to watch all of the eyes follow Summer's stomach as we walk around church. After church, we went to brunch at the Blue Mesa with my parents. Summer had one plate of breakfast food and then a heaping pile of dessert. After brunch, we took some of the birthday money our parents had given Summer and went and bought her a hardwood bench for the back-yard.

We hope you all had a great weekend!

Here is the week 39 update.
Link1
Link2

Pack-n-Play

Ok, so lets talk Pack-n-Play. Summer and I have been debating on what to get for the baby to sleep in our room the first few weeks. On Tuesday night, we went to Baby's R Us and scouted out both the bassinets and the Pack-n-Plays. After much consideration and debate, we decided to go with a Pack-n-Play since it is relatively close in cost to the bassinet, but is multi-purpose. Summer had been trying to get me to set it up all week, but I had not had a chance to do so. Also, I kept pointing out that it seemed like it would be very easy to put together and it would be 2 days before the baby even came home from the hospital. So, finally last night, I gave in. At 10:14pm, I confidently told her that I was about to begin assembly and would be finished before 10:30pm. So, I hastily ran down the hall, retrieved the box and set to work. In about 3 minutes, I had it pretty well put together and was feeling pretty confident that I was about to shatter my quoted time of 16 minutes. However, I hit a snag when it came time to install the netting that goes below the mattress for the bassinet portion. Nonetheless, I fought through it and had everything put together by 10:26pm.

Pure domination!

38.5 Week Update

We had Summer's 38.5 week appointment today. Not much progress has been made since last week, however her blood pressure, weight and measurements were all looking really good. Dr. Ruk went ahead and scheduled an induction date for 8/22, as an administrative measure, as that is the day he is on call during the week after her due date. We're hoping our little girl decides to come out on her own, but if not, we'll see her in two weeks!

By now, you're probably wondering what purpose the picture to the right serves. Those of you DFW residents should know him as the greatness of David Finfrock, NBC 5 lead meteorologist. How does he fit into our weekly doctor visit update you say? Well, we actually rode down the elevator with him on the way out of the hospital. It's not every day you get to stare Finfrock eye to eye. Looking back, I should have taken the opportunity to discuss how terrible his morning weather girl is, Becky Miller. For those of you who know our Golden Retriever, Chunk, he has very high thunderstorm anxiety. That damn Becky Miller has cost me a FORTUNE in missed weather predictions. She'll call for rain, I'll take Chunk to doggy day-care, and it ends up being drier than the Sahara. And my personal favorite, she swears there will be no rain, I confidently leave Chunk at home and then come home to a soaking wet dog who is covered in mud and has tracked it all over the house...or, better yet, he chews up the bottom of the door frames, trying to escape.

I missed my only chance to 1) get $1,000 back from Finfrock; or 2) take it out of his ass!

More nesting...

Monday I had tickets to the suite for the Rangers game with work. The game ran kind of long, so I was not on the road home until 10:15pm or so. I called Summer on the drive home and she sounded pretty tired and said she was just about to put away her Harry Potter book and get some sleep. Naturally, I expected to come home to a quiet house...quite the contrary. When I walked into the house, it was lit up like a friggin' Christmas tree. As I made the corner to the kitchen, I saw pots, pans, Tupperware, dish towels and all sorts of other kitchen items strewn around the counter tops and piled up in stacks on the floor. Summer was standing in the rear of the kitchen next to the pantry and sporting a very sheepish grin and saying, "I just came in to get a snack!" Apparently, the snack trip turned into a complete rearrangement of all the items in the drawers and cabinets in the kitchen. I hope the baby will sleep peacefully, once she gets here, knowing that this critical task has now been undertaken prior to her birth.

You can all rest easy, now.

She beat us to the punch...

My cousin Joanna had her baby this morning and both mom and baby are doing well. She was due the same day as Summer, but this was her second baby, so she came a little early. So it looks like Summer is on deck!!

I CAN'T BELIEVE WE'LL HAVE A REAL, LIVE BABY IN 20 DAYS OR LESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

38 week update

Here are the links to this week's updates:

Link 1
3d Update

Doctor Visit

We had our weekly visit and yes, it's true, I have not only been MAKING A HUMAN BEING, I have also been preparing to give birth! According to Dr. Ruk, I am 1 cm dialated and 50% effaced (meaning the cervix is thinning out). Thank you, thank you very much. Scott was bugging Dr. Ruk with repeated questions "So, when do you think it will happen? Do you think it will be this week?" I finally said "He's not psychic Scott!" Silly boy. However, Dr. Ruk did say in parting, "See you next week...or maybe sooner." :-)

Full Moon

So Scott and Jason are psyching me out with the talk of the full moon and how I'm going to go into labor tonight because of it. Last night I dreamt that I did go into labor and it was so real! I can't handle this not knowing though! I need a date and time!! Once tonight passes I think I will feel better (and once Scott shuts up about putting down some towels on the bed "just in case").

This is an Outrage!

I am perplexed at the lack of faith from my mom and Amanda in the comments to the previous post, that I had no choice but to respond to everyone. First of all, a little refresher on what Amanda did in middle school. Long story short, she was in the garage cleaning the litter box for the cat, when BK and I heard a bunch of retching noises and then her scream "NOOOOOO!" Probably one of the top 3 funniest memories I have from growing up.

My first rebuttal point is there is nothing in the realm of changing diapers that I could do that would ever be construed as in the realm of hilarity compared to Amanda gagging in the garage and screaming "NOOOOOOOO!" (as if that was going to stop things for her). Secondly, keep in mind that I pick up Chunk and Bud's crap weekly with plastic gloves and a plastic grocery sack. Not once have I ever gagged or even felt queasy. In closing, I have the utmost confidence that changing the diapers will at no time trigger any gag reflex. I will surely get pruned hands and blistered thumbs from working the tabs before I ever gag.

Mark it down, people.

Dates

So the guessing has increased now that we're down to the wire. Chelsea was originally August 1, but after an update about yesterday's appointment (and the doc saying he thinks a few more weeks) she said she would take the 7th as well. But to clarify, she still has faith that it could be the 1st. Christine has chosen August 21, my dad thinks it will be his birthday present on the 25th, and Brooke's mom says I need to hold out until at least the 22nd so she's a Virgo and not a Leo like her mom. I think I agree that I should try for that - I know how hard-headed I can be, poor Scott will have a heck of a time mediating when it comes to the teenage years if we're both stubborn Leos!

In more current news, she's got the hiccups right now which has angered her to a point of frenzy and my belly looks like a wave pool. She tolerates the hiccups for approximately 5 minutes, and then she takes matters into her own hands and begins an all-out assault of flailing arms and legs trying to rid herself of these horrible things. Poor girl. If only she were breathing in there and could hold her breath. We'll try and teach her that trick when she gets out.

36.5 Week Checkup

We had a couple of good appointments today. The first one was with the OB and he said everything is looking good. The baby has dropped down a bit more, but still no dilation. He thinks we probably have a couple more weeks till she gets here. I checked the calendar and the full-moon is scheduled for this coming monday/tuesday, so you never know! Summer got a clean bill of health from her ear, nose and throat specialist, as well. We're supposed to call him in a month with an update, but otherwise no more office visits unless her symptoms come back.

I found a couple of funny clips on YouTube of guys changing diapers. I feel CONFIDENT this will not be the case for me. Check it out:
Link1
Link2

Prenatal Class, Nesting and the Final Countdown

We finished out last prenatal class this afternoon. Summer wasn't feeling well with her ear a few weeks ago, so we missed out on the opportunity to take the class in two sessions. Instead, we got the 9:30-4:30 all day version today. Overall, it was very a very informative class as we learned CPR, how to help a choking baby, the labor & delivery process and got to take a tour of the hospital. Summer was definitely the furthest along of anyone in our class and it's hard to believe we have less than 4 weeks to go. The video we watched today said typically the baby will come within 2-4 weeks after the baby dropped!! Tomorrow we are going to break out the car seat to make sure I can operate it correctly. The L&D nurses that taught the class today were really harping on us about the car seats. Summer also plans to wash the baby's sheets, some blankets, burp clothes and a few outfits. We're going to hold off on washing all of her outfits until we know what all is going to fit. Summer has continued her nesting ways. Last night she completely cleaned out the nursery of the extra hardware, instruction manuals and left over packaging from the last few weeks of unwrapping all of the nice gifts we've received to date. This week, I had to put together a list of all of the tasks I have started, but not yet finished for my boss. We are definitely heading down the home stretch and we both can not wait to meet our daughter.

Here is the 9 month update: Link

Baby Dropping?

It appears that the baby has "dropped" lower into Summer's pelvis. Summer says she feels a lot of pressure "down there"and can distinctly feel the baby movements lower in her pelvis than what she previously had. She said it feels like she is carrying a watermelon between her legs! What's funny is that the baby has positioned herself so that you can see her butt sticking out of Summer's stomach. We have our weekly doctor's appointment tomorrow, so we will post an update then.

Week 35 Update

Well, to add insult to injury, our air conditioner conked out around 4pm on Saturday afternoon. So, I packed up Summer and the dogs and we went to mom and dad's house for a sleep-over. Chunk and Buddy were VERY excited to be around all of the carpet (good for back scratching), Merry (Amanda's dog) and all of her toys. Luckily, I was able to get it running again today, but I am still having the AC guy come out this week to do an inspection. I'm no math expert, but something tells me that wife + pregnancy + 3rd trimester - air conditioning = a bad time for dad.

Summer is slowly but surely starting to feel better. To expand on the aforementioned Bell's Palsy diagnosis, she actually has Ramsay-Hunt syndrome which, in layman's terms, is a strain of chicken-pox in the ear (not contagious) and causes the pain on that side of her face. The temporary paralysis to the right side of her face is caused by inflammation which damaged a nerve on the side of her face. Once the nerve grows back, and it will, she will regain movement. After doing some research, we found that the disease originates from the initial exposure to chicken-pox as a kid, then lays dormant. It's activated by a couple of factors, most notably viral infection (e.g. her ear infection from last week) and being in the late stages of pregnancy (the disease is VERY rare, but most of the people who have it are pregnant women in their 3rd trimester). Thankfully, it has no impact on the baby, but makes mom very uncomfortable. The chances for a full recovery are VERY GOOD, especially when treated right away (we had Summer at the doctor's office 1 hour after the right side of her face went numb). The result is the right side of her face is pretty tender to the touch. Thankfully, the pain has subsided to more of a nuisance as of this evening and she has even been able to start sleeping on her right-side again. She actually has been eating much better and sleeping a lot. We're going to talk to her doctor and work this week about getting her schedule reduced to a part time basis. Then we'll go week by week and see how she feels.

As for the baby, it's hard to believe that we'll be able to meet her in 6 weeks or less. That's right, I said 6, even though she is due in 5. Her doctor has previously told us that he will not let her go more than a week overdue. Today we had a great time in Old Navy shopping for some swimsuits for the little lady. I will say I am quite displeased at the lack of selection of one pieces (there were NONE) in stores these days. Here is a link to one of the suits we got:

Bikini #1

And, in breaking news, I think we have a name picked out!! Unfortunately for y'all, we won't be sharing it with anyone else until her birthday, so she will continue to be "the little lady" to you! About 2 months ago, I thought we had a first name picked out. Then, about 6 weeks ago, we switched to our current choice for the first name and have been focusing on a middle name ever since. Well, one of the only positive aspects of the AC going out is that Summer and I agreed on the name while at dinner at the Cotton Patch Cafe (that's right, it's classy!). I'm just happy to know she won't be leaving the hospital "Baby Keith"! Here is the link to this week's update

Week 35

Please continue to pray for a speedy recovery for Summer and continued good health for our baby. We love you all,

This is what I have...

Bell's Palsy

Please pass on your prayers for a swift recovery! I don't like the "1 week to 6 month" time frame my doctor told me! I believe that I also have the Ramsey Hunt Syndrome that they talk about on here as those are my symptoms (intense ear pain, swollen lymph nodes, vertigo). I go back in 2 weeks to the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor so hopefully by then it will have cleared up a bit. Dr. Ruk (OB) wasn't too concerned from an obstetrical standpoint, but I am on weekly visits with him now. My biggest concern is weight loss since I haven't been eating like I should for the little lady. We got some Ensure shakes last night though so hopefully I can choke those down a couple times a day. I really should be thankful that this is the biggest complaint I've had this pregnancy, but it's hard to give thanks when half your face doesn't work! Ah well, this too shall pass.

Week 34 Update

Unfortunately, Summer is still on the business end of a very unpleasant viral ear-infection. After half a day of new med's, we've not seen much progress, but hope to at some point today or tomorrow. I checked in advance on all of the medicine and it's baby safe. The baby is still very active, but I think the lack of sleep Summer has had has probably shot any chance of us having her on a regular sleep schedule initially. But, at the end of the day, I guess we'll just be thankful for ANY sleep we can get that first month or two.

Thanks a million to Meredith, Christine and Chelsea for throwing such a wonderful shower. John and Barb were in town and helped me continue to finish out the nursery. John and I hung curtains, put together a table, and shelves while Barb organized the entire room. Summer and I really appreciated their company and help this weekend. This morning we put the bedding in the crib and big boss lady is very pleased with the result. We still need to unpack a few more gifts and order the glider today, but overall are in good shape. We've got another routine doctor's appointment wednesday and will update you after that.

Here are the links to the update pages: Update & 3D update

Comeuppance

I believe that my easy, worry free pregnancy has finally been breached. I have what can only be described as the most righteous, raging ear infection that has ever struck man, woman or child. I keep telling Scott, I would rather have food poisoning, bronchitis, the flu - anything but this GOD AWFUL PIERCING STABBING PAIN in my ear and throat. Seriously, I see now why babies and kids just scream for hours when they get these things. I would do the same thing if it didn't hurt so bad to just open my mouth. The one good thing I am hoping that comes from this is that maybe the little lady is building up an an immunity to ear infections in utero and will never have to suffer one. We can only hope.

New Website

For those that are interested, here is another web-page we found which not only gives you weekly updates, but it also has a 3D 360 degree movable image of what the baby looks like at each week.

3D Link

Julie Update

I talked to Jason today and they were able to take baby Julie home today. He and Lili are both very excited to have the whole family under one roof again. And they did decide on the middle name....Julie Mae Rannebarger.

Week 33 Update

Link

Hallelujah....maybe???

As a follow-up to the paint purchasing story, I finally finished painting the nursery. Actually, I should qualify that statement...I've finished painting the nursery, pending final review from Summer. On Friday night, I put on a coat of white primer. The room had been painted a pastel yellow by the previous owners, which had faded. As I mentioned in the last post, we are going to a shade of light green, which would end up gray with no primer. Being the "planner" that I am known as, I made a list of all the supplies necessary and made a run, post-haste, to the Home Depot after work to get said supplies. Summer had plans to go to dinner with a friend and with the rain and Chunk's storm anxiety, I had a brief window to make said purchase. In my haste, I forgot to purchase the most necessary of items...a big roller. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until Summer had left for dinner and I had already poured the paint into the pan. Alas, I was forced to put on an entire coat of primer, alone, with a small 2-inch roller. So, picture me on the floor in the middle of the room (see picture below), on my knees having just poured the paint into the can, as I realize my faux pax! Outstanding!!

Nonetheless, I persevered and was feeling pretty good about myself...until Summer came home from dinner. My efforts were met initially with the warmest of regards, which quickly faded into furrowed brow. She was concerned at the amount of yellow still bleeding through the thin coat of primer. So, in the face of potential second coat of primer, I used my most confident of voices to convey that the one coat was more than adequate. Luckily, my guess was right. Dad came over this morning and helped me finish the job. Here is a picture of the job-site and a sample of the paint-color. I took it against the white door, for comparison.

Note: I hesitate to post this picture, as it looks somewhat more gray than green. However, rest assured that it is the exact shade of green that was printed on the little card we got from Home-Depot. I would not be so stupid as to incriminate myself if I was not supremely confident the color was to the exact specifications I was left with by Summer. So, our plan is to complete the nursery next week while we're on vacation for the 4th. Keep your fingers crossed that we'll be posting completed nursery picks next weekend.

Julie Rannebarger is here!

Jason and Lili got a nice surprise early this morning. Yesterday, they had a routine doctor's appointment where they went ahead and scheduled their inducement date for July 19th, at their doctor's instruction. Throughout the pregnancy, the doctor has moved Lili's due date up and back by a few weeks in an attempt to determine how far along she was. By the doctor's calculation, July 19th would have put Lili at 39 weeks; however it appears her calculation was a little off. Jason called me at 5:30 this morning to tell me the baby was born and had just been taken to the nursery! Given that Julie was almost 7 pounds and 20 inches long, the doctor said there's no way Lili was 34 weeks at this point (which is where she would be today, if the July 19th date was correct).

Apparently, Lili's water broke around 1:15am. After having to slap Jason awake, they quickly called Jason's dad (John) to come out to their house (in Wylie) to watch Mia. During the 45 minutes it took John to get to Wylie, Jason "packed everything he owns" as he put it. By the time John got to the house, the contractions were 2 minutes apart. So, Jason put Lili in the car and started on the 40 minute drive to the hospital. Along the way, Jason mentioned he hit 90 mph somewhere down I-75. When they got to the hospital, it only took about an hour and half and 5-6 pushes and the baby was here. Julie has a little bit of fluid in her lungs and is currently in the NICU, but should be fine.

A big congratulations to the Rannebargers!!

Doctor's Visit Update

We went to the doctor's office for our routine visit yesterday and everything went great. The baby is measuring right on target and has a really strong heart-beat. The doctor said that her frequent hiccups are a great sign that her diaphragm has developed properly. We have a longer visit next time (7/11) because they are going to do an exam to see if Summer has started dilating, etc. At that time, he will also tell us if the baby is definitively in position (e.g. breech or not). Right now, he said it looks like she is head-down, but slightly off center. We also discussed some of the specifics on our birth plan and he was receptive to all of our thoughts. He reinforced that his main goals were to have 1) A healthy mom and baby and 2) for the birth to be an enjoyable experience for all of us. So, our main goal for the next few weeks is to continue to monitor the baby's movements & kicks and for Summer to eat up!

Thank you for your continued prayers and support....just 7 more weeks to go!

8 months old and 8 weeks to go!

Hard to believe, but we're under 60 days until she gets here! I will be painting the nursery next weekend, so look for some pictures to be posted shortly thereafter. Here is the 8 month update: Link
and the latest and greatest belly picture from this morning. I've also taken the liberty of posting a picture of Buddy's belly, for purposes of comparison.

I think we all know who the winner is!!

Picky Eater!

So these past few weeks I've been experiencing some nausea off and on, more so than the first or second trimester, but nothing too bad. I've just kind of stuck with some pretty bland foods when I feel that way and I've been fine. Last night, however, was a different story. I was feeling fine and Scott has been talking about how he has been craving wings SO BAD lately (like that's anything new), so I suggested we order Wingstop for dinner. Now flashback: I'm not sure if I posted on this earlier, but when we went to the Damien Rice concert back in May we ate at a Tapas place where we partook in muchos muchos fried foods and I proceeded to muchos muchos barfos later that night. I suppose I should have put two and two together back then, but our dear daughter has now made it abundantly clear to me after our wing feast last night that she does NOT care for fried foods, thank you very much. Let's just say Buddy was none too pleased to hear me retching again in the bathroom right outside his room at 3:30 this morning.

Now the only question I have for her highness is, what exactly is the big difference between the Whopper she so dearly loved and some fried chicken wings?

Nursery Update

We finally have a color nailed down for the nursery. After purchasing 3 quart-sized cants at $10 a pop, guess which one Summer decided on? That's right....THE FIRST shade of light green that she picked! So, last night I went to Home Depot to get gallon of Palm Breeze (that's the color) colored paint. As luck would have it, there was only one employee working at the paint desk at 7:30pm last night. When I arrived, the Home Depot employee was apparently helping a lady pick out the appropriate shades of paint to complete her Rembrant...there really is no other explanation for why she took 20 minutes with this lady, while 10 other customers milled around the paint desk with very easy requests to fill....like me, with a paint mix request. Here's an idea, ever thought about multi-tasking? Maybe this is why you've received your lot in life as a Home Depot paint employee. How about mixing my paint while you help Pablo Picasso with her art project. And come to find out, this lady wanted her bathroom painted, but had not taken the time to pick out the color or measure how much space she was painting. She actually thought the Home Depot employee would take care of that for her. Un-friggin-believable.

I pulled a "Jack in the Box" and took matters into my own hands (I'll let mom or Amanda explain the Jack in the Box incident in another post/comment). So, I go to the front desk and get a manager to come and mix my paint. So, what should have been a 10 minutes Home Depot run, turned into an hour. The best part of it is that I also needed to get some bug killer to treat our trees in the back yard and I was running out of day-light to do it!

Nonetheless, I persevered and we now have all the paint I need to complete the job. Britt and Christine have graciously agreed to take the full-size bed out of the nursery and use it at their lake-house. So, once I get the bed outta the way this weekend, it's smooth sailing to painting the weekend of June 30th. I'll post pictures once the project as done.

As you were.

Happy Father's Day!

On his first official Father's Day, Scott got breakfast in bed and a great gift if I do say so myself - his Diaper Dude camo diaper bag! I was nervous he would go nose up the registry and see that someone had purchased it, but thankfully he was too busy at work to do that this week so it was a complete surprise. Now he's ready to take her wherever she needs to go, be it to the store or to the deer blind with his dad.

Here's the week 31 update: link

You'll note she's around 4lbs now and I believe it! Every day I feel like my belly gets bigger and bigger. Sometimes when I'm lying on my side I'll look down and be completely surprised by it - it's like it's not even part of my body anymore. Especially when she's rolling around in there, which Scott got to witness last night. It is seriously like something out of the movie Alien. The whole thing just ripples and shakes and I have absolutely no control over it! Amazing what the human body can do.

Another new development is that Scott now gets a laugh at least once a week by pointing out that my belly has surpassed his in stick-out-ness. If he comes in for a hug he'll act surprised that my belly gets to him before the rest of me. And he actually acts like it's the first time he's noticed it, and he seems to think that I can't feel it. "Hey, um, your belly just hit me." Just in case I was unaware that I was wielding a 4lb human around in front of me. Dad of the year this guy, dad of the year.

Fun & Games

So, apparently our little girl already enjoys trying to best her mom. Lately, she's been pushing her knee against Summer's stomach (about 2" above her belly-button) to the point that you can actually see it. After a few days of this, Summer decided to push back against the knee (softly). As soon as she did, our little girl pushes right back.

It's the very definition of "ANYTHING YOU CAN DO, I CAN DO BETTER!"

30 weeks!

I can't believe we're down to single digit weeks left! We start going to Dr. Ruk every two weeks now which is also hard to believe. She'll be here before we know it!

Here's the link to what's going on with her this week:

Week 30

First Baby Shower!

Well, Saturday was our Houston baby shower and it was definitely a success! I think our little girl has enough clothes to last her until she's one! It was hosted by Brooke, Heather, Cheri and Lauren at the Bluebonnet Cafe in Old Town Spring. We had about 30 guests for some wonderful chicken salad sandwiches (my FAVORITE) and RJ Goodies cake. Yum! Everyone was extremely generous and we got a ton of great gifts. The only thing I would've changed would be to have more time to socialize - I feel bad that I didn't get to talk to everyone that came! But in the hubbub of games, eating and opening presents it was too difficult to work my way around to everyone. Ah well, that is how showers usually go I suppose. All in all it was a great weekend. Hopefully I'll get some copies of the pics that were taken and I'll post a few up here. I just want to say thank you so much to the hosts and to everyone for coming! I had a great time!

29 weeks

We spent the weekend at Britt and Christine's lake-house on Cedar Creek Lake. Thanks to Amanda for house-sitting and keeping Chunk from tearing the place apart when the thunderstorms came through. Speaking of thunderstorms, we got to watch a big one roll through this morning. It was pretty relaxing sitting on the porch and watching the rain fall into the lake. We really enjoyed getting to spend the weekend with our friends. Lots of washers, horse-shoes, dominoes, jet-skiing and boating made for a great time. Charlie and Sapna surprised us all with the announcement that Sapna is 2 months pregnant with their first child!! Summer is very happy to have someone else on the pregnancy train along with her.

Here's the week 29 update: Link

DVD at 28 Weeks
Who could have imagined watching you inside your Mommy? Your facial expressions, moving your arms & legs trying to stretch out in that warm little "cubby" you're now living & growing in? Not your Pop & me, that's for sure! What a miracle you are to begin with, & now with such advanced technology we're allowed to see you as you grow. Such a little chubbykins you are - we can hardly wait to hold you in our arms!! As your Nannie Keith said, your Mommy & Daddy will be lucky to keep you whenever we're around...our hearts are aching with love for you. Pop & ?? What will you call me? I'll leave that up to you, sweet girl.

7 Months!

It's already been an exciting Memorial Day weekend for us! We've finally been able to see what our little girl looks like and my weren't we pleasantly surprised. We had a feeling she might have a full head of Indian hair, like her daddy, but instead we found a chubby-cheeked baldy that is clearly taking after her mommy with long, gangly arms and legs! The technician even referred to her at a chunker! During the visit, Summer began to feel sick, and had to roll over on her side to relive pressure from her main artery (which was causing her to be light headed). This actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise as some of the best pictures we got were from the side angle! The 4D experience was worth every penny and then some. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested as you can't put a price on being able to see your baby inside the womb like that.

If you've had a chance to review the pictures, please feel free to comment here on this site. We also have 30 minutes DVD of the experience that I am trying to figure out how to upload. It's even more remarkable than the pictures because you can actually see her moving, smiling, opening her eyes, etc in that 4D view.

Here is the 7 month update Week 28

4D Ultrasound Pics!!

Click here to view pics

Password: budchunk

4D Ultrasound

Tomorrow we have a 10am appointment for the 4D ultrasound in Southlake. It's been almost 8 weeks since we last got to see her, so we are both VERY excited. Keep your fingers crossed that she'll be facing out so we can see what she looks like! We will get a dvd of the whole experience, electronic copies of pictures and several prints while we're there. I'll post some pictures and/or links at some point tomorrow.

I still have 4 years of eligibility left, coach....

So, I've been in Durham, NC since Monday afternoon attending a leadership retreat sponsored by the Firm. It's pretty interesting, but I am getting tired of talking about my feelings, values, goals, etc. Yesterday, we got to go participate in basketball event at Cameron Indoor Stadium where the Duke University Blue Devils play. It was given by the Duke basketball coaches and was essentially a metaphor for the subject matter of the retreat. We ran drills, learned an actual Duke play and scrimmaged a little at the end. In honor of the Larry Bird, Steve Nash and Jeff Hornacek I jacked a sweet 18 footer during the scrimmage...nothing but net, baby. As I jogged back down court, I gave the guy guarding me a little Dikembe Mutombo finger wag and said (in perfect Terry Tate "Office Linebacker" speak) "It's GONNA BE A LOOOOOONNGG DAY!!"

Here is a link to Terry's videos, to give you flavor (please pardon the language, but you do need sound to truly enjoy the greatness): LB

If you want more Terry Tate, just Google him....he's everywhere and they have several other videos.

We also got to keep the reversible practice jersey's they let us use, so that was pretty cool...even though I am a North Carolina Tar-heel fan. As much fun as this has been, I will be happy to get back to my girls and the dogs on Friday afternoon. The belly pic Summer posted was great, but I can only imagine what it looks like in person.

Scott

It's a basketball...it's a soccer ball...it's a bowling ball...it's HUGE!!

Chunk is quite apprehensive about this new development....



Bud couldn't care less...