Addison's 11 Week Smiles

November Pictures

A few pictures of the little scheister! She is becoming very alert and throwing smiles and laughter our way. We still have to work for our smiles by making silly sounds most of the time but on occasion she just throws one out there and it just melts your heart!

The art of taking a temperature

This truly is an art that we have not quite mastered. Well, Deb has mastered it well enough to get a temperature on Addison but only after multiple attemps. Let's just say she's a little bit of squirmer, Addison I mean. She had a very rough 1st Thanksgiving at her Grandma Di and Papi Bob's house. She was just a bit out of sorts, cranky, screaming and just not feeling well. The only way she would eat is if she was laying flat on her back in the pack and play. Needless to say, we were very thankful to head home and put her to bed for a few hours. When she awoke, she was ready to eat again, normally this time, and midway she left go of a bit of a rumble in her britches. Upon investigation, I found that she had sent poo flying up her back to her shoulder blades. Saturating her onesie and cute little, Baby's 1st Thanksgiving shirt. Into the bath for a 2nd time that day, I forgot to mention that before going to my parents for lunch, she peed all over herself in the middle of a diaper change and this too went up her back. I told you it was a rough day!

With the 2nd bath complete, she settled in for the night still very fussy and out of sorts. We spent the evening make 180 sugar cookies, minus the ones we ate, in preparation for our annual Sledding & Spirits party on December 15th. Our friends Kelly & Teena came over to help which was a blast and Kelly had her first chance to give Addison a bottle and change her diaper. She'll be watching her on Friday the 5th because grandma Di has to go to a workshop for work and we thought we'd give Kelly a little test of her baby watching skills. She did well with the bottle and the only drawback to the diaper change was that she didn't move quick enough when swapping the dirty diaper out for the clean one which resulted in Addison once again peeing all over herself and the changing pad. Not to worry though, a 3rd change of clothes and she was whisked off to bed where she slept for about 4 hours (in a row!!).

So, back to the art of taking a temperature...........this morning, Addison still seemed fussy and warm so we decided it was time to take her temp. Deb prepped the thermometer with vasoline and I busied myself up by her head trying to entertain her. Deb inserted the thermometer and had it in for about 4 seconds before Addison scrunched up her face and 100% blew poop out her bum. Luckily Deb had somewhat propped her diaper up which prevented it from flying onto the changing table. Deb then went to wash of the thermometer while I began to clean her up and prepared to put a new diaper on her when the rumble came again and this time it went all over the changing table, onto my hand and arm and onto the rocking chair. Disgusting!! I then got a clean diaper on her, cleaned up myself and the area around her and we attempted another go at getting her temp........3 tries later and 3 more poop filled diapers, Addison was safe at 98.8 degrees. The positive aspect of this experience aside from her being fever free is that she hadn't pooped since 10pm the night before and had spent a great deal of time grunting so we're certain she felt much better. The thermometer in itself proved to be a wonderful tool if one is ever trying to help their child out of constipated situation.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Cheers,
Mic, Deb and Addison

Work is for the birds

Addison has decided, and I fully support her, that having her mommies go to work every day is for the birds. She thinks it's quite unfair that she only gets to spend about 4-5 of her awake hours a day with them. She is suggesting that they start a collection to support Mama Mic not having to work so she can stay home and snuggle with her. Her Momma D has to work because she makes the big bucks and will be starting her doctoral degree in the spring.


As you can see, we are all bummed about me having to return to work. I've only cried twice (in the 2 days I've been back) and both times were on the way to work. I was brilliant enough to park in a lot far away from my building so by the time I got into my office, the tears would be dried up and my face would just look red from the chilly weather outside. Work itself is great, it's nice to get back into the swing of things and get caught up. It's the 8 hours of being away from the little peanut and always wondering what she's doing that makes me bonkers. I've held myself off from making phone calls to check in, with that said though i've certainly picked up the phone multiple times and then reminded myself that she's just fine and Kasey would call if she needed something.


Speaking of Kasey, we are so fortunate to have her come to our house on Mon-Wed to take care of Addison. She is my godchild and has a little guy, Carter who is 7 months old. Addie will get to hang out with her Grandma Di on Thurs and Fri each week also. Thankfully, she doesn't have to go to a real daycare until January 26th and that will only be on Mon-Wed because she'll spend her Thursday & Fridays with Grandma Di.

Back to Kasey and Carter, apparently Carter likes to pet her feet and tummy when Kasey puts Addison in her papasan chair and plays with Carter on the floor. Their days are spent watching Baby Einstein dvds and juggling 2 babies eating and sleeping schedules. Not sure how Kasey does it but each day when we come home Addie is very relaxed and usually sleeping.


Aside from above, Addison has had a few new adventures:

• She spent her first day in the company of the Koeppel Family. She had an absolute blast with Barbara and Tom (Maria's parents) while her mommies went to the Iowa/Purdue game with their friends Maria and Britney. She couldn't believe how lucky she was to be held all day long and snuggled. She wasn't sure about their 4 legged friend Joey but she thinks that she'll certainly try to make another stop by the Koeppel's and is excited to wear her Iowa Hawkeyes bib that they gave her.


• She decided to up the amount she was eating and is now eating between 4-5 ounces which makes her mommies so proud.


• She had her first blow out diaper for Momma D. She felt a thousand times better but this was less enjoyable for Momma D because she had to clean off the changing table, all of the stuff on the changing table, and the floor and rocking chair next to the changing table in addition to stripping Addison down and redressing her with poop free clothes. Mama Mic was at a night meeting for work so she missed the whole thing and is just fine with that.


• She had her 2 month pictures taken. This experience was much more favorable than the first time and she had her picture taken with her new elephant that Grandma Di made her. She thinks Grandma Di is pretty darn crafty and should sell the animals she's made so other kids can enjoy them.

Cheers,

Mic, Deb and Addison

Last few adventures of maternity leave

Addison made her first trip to Iowa City to visit her Uncle Ben last week. She was very pleased with the outcome of this trip because she ended up with a few cute outfits from Von Maur, courtesy of Grandma Di, got to see Uncle Ben even though she doesn't understand why he doesn't like to hold her, got to hang out with great-grandma Pat (aka: Big G) and got lots of kudos from Mama Mic for taking a bottle from Grandma Di. She's officially shopped in Madison, Wi, Davenport, IA, Iowa City, IA and Galena, IL. She's looking forward to Thursdays and Fridays with Grandma Di where there's certain to be more shopping adventures.

We've winterized her car seat with a little bundling thing to keep her warm considering the temps have certainly dropped. She loves her new hat, maybe love is a strong word but she only screams while you're putting it on her and then she snuggles into it. Who wouldn't love being snuggled into a warm fleece blanket and having someone carry you around??!!! Babies sure live the life!

I'm preparing to go back to work this week. I'm starting with 1/2 days on Thursday and Friday and then will go full time on Monday. I had truly convinced myself that it wouldn't bother me to go back to work and that seemed to shatter this week when I realized how much of my time I'll spend at work and not at home with my peanut. It's going to be a bit tough but I'm sure i'll get through it as a result of the laughter and sarcasm I'll endure in the office from having to pump during the day. Thank heavens for comedy in our lives.

Addison is doing much, much better with eating these days. She's realized that in order to not be hungry she'll need to accept a bottle during the day. We can't quite convince our sitter our my mom to strap the bottle on to their chest to make it seem more real so she'll just have to learn to love the bottle. She's also doing really well with the terrible tasting Nutramigen. I think she secretly likes it! She screams less overall as a result of her tummy so we think we're heading in the right direction. I personally live for the day when I can eat Happy Joe's pizza again but it's worth it to abstain from dairy now in order for her to get all the good stuff she needs. Sleep on the other hand is still a battle. We've started a new routine at 7pm: I feed her if it's time for her to eat, we give her a bath if it's bath day (if not, she gets her head and bum wiped with a warm wash cloth and calming cream on her arms and legs), we read her a book and then we say goodnight and lay her down in the pack and play. She hasn't moved to her crib yet, i'm just not ready!! We promised each other that at 3 months she would start sleeping in her crib and out of our room. This seems to work for 20-30 minutes tops and she sleeps but then she is up and she is mad. It then typically take anywhere from 2-3 hours to get her to go down and stay down. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We take turns soothing and putting her back down after she's cried for about 5-7 minutes but it just doesn't seem to work. If anyone out there has suggestions, send them please!! When she does officially fall asleep, she'll sleep for 4-5 hours before waking up to eat. We do this routine every night and cross our fingers that one of these days, it's going to click with her and she'll just zonk out when we put her down. She has little bags under her eyes at night and we know she's too young for eye creme!!! A positive lately though is that she has started sleeping during the day. A few hours at a time!!! It's fantastic!!! She's so much happier when she wakes up and I'm so much happier because I've rested too.

Well, that's about all that's new on Perry Street. We're hoping to get pictures taken on Friday since she'll be 8 weeks old and has grown so much since the last time we had them done at 8 days. She also goes to the Dr. on thursday for her shots and well-child check up. I'm certain I will cry more than she does!! She's growing up so fast!!!!

Cheers,

Mic, Deb and Addison

12 hours of crying

Well, we surived (barely) an entire day of crying. Yesterday, Addison decided that she would scream all day long, only taking short breaks to fill her britches with runny poop and refuse to eat. For a new mom, this was a totally stressful day and I was a bit of a wreck when Deb got home. It started at 6am continuing to 6pm and she ate 2 ounces of formula, nursed twice for 5 minutes each time, screaming all along. She's got it in her to be a bit of a colicy baby but this seemed a bit extreme as the hours passed by. I finally called the Dr's office realizing it really wasn't going to stop and they told us to give her pedialyte throughout the evening and made an appointment for right away the next morning. Deb convinced her to take 3 syrings of pedialyte and she took a small cat nap for about 20 minutes and then fussed again. About 2 hours later she truly seemed hungry with her little hands balling into fists and gravitating towards her mouth. She kept spitting her pacifier out and so we made an executive decision to try and nurse her instead of pedialyte. Miraculously, she nursed. She then slept from 9pm-1:30 am, nursed again, slept from 2am-5:30am, nursed again and woke up at 8am to go to the Dr. Did I mention before that she only slept 2 hours during the course of the 12 hour scream off?

So, we went to the Dr. and he came to the conclusion that she just has a bum tummy. He gave us a sample of Nutramigen which is a pricey formula that is supposed to do the trick. Apparently it tastes terrible, we'll take his word on that one, but is easily digestible and helps with the colic. She also will be taking Zantac twice a day to help with what he thinks is a bit of reflux. The positive part of our Dr's appt is that she weighs 10 pounds!!!! He was very pleased with her weight gain and it made us feel so much better that despite the terrible fussiness and refusal to eat (only 1 day), she's still gaining weight (aka we're doing something right!). We got home from the Dr. and Deb gave her a 4 ounce bottle of Nutramigen which she fussed a bit at first and made funny faces but ended up drinking 3 1/2 ounces of it. YAY!!! We were so proud! I can't give her bottles because she refuses to take them from me. Who would have thought a 6 week and 5 day old baby could make a decision not to take a bottle from her mom who usually nurses her because she's mad that I'm offering her the fake stuff?!!! Is this a sign of stubborness already??

As I type this,the little peanut is sleeping on the bed next to me after 6 attempts to put her in her bassinette. She's now been sleeping for and hour and a half so I guess she won this time!! We are looking forward to the days when her tummy is better and she learns that sleeping during the day is a good thing too. We can't complain too much because she does sleep for hour spances at night! :-)

Cheers,
Mic, Deb and Addison

Life as we know it has changed

Deb and I were reflecting recently on how much our life has changed in the past 5 weeks and here are a few examples & things we've learned:

1. Never before did we find random pacifiers in our pockets and vehicles

2. Never before did we find Mic pumping breastmilk as we travel up Hwy 35 to Winona, this in itself is quite funny if you are brave enough to picture it. No worries, Deb was driving, I'm not that talented. The things we do for our kids!

3. Sleep is a thing of the past. We've adopted the college student sleep schedule over the past 5 weeks.

4. Colicy babies don't comprehend pleading and begging for sleep at 2am.

5. This one Mic learned from our friend Maggie, when preparing a bottle of formula at a volleyball game, be careful removing the lid after you've just shaken the heck out of it in order to avoid showering those around you with it. :-)

6. Never before did we venture into the baby section each time we're in a store, followed by a discussion of who has the better deal of diapers and other baby products. Shopping for ourselves is also a thing of the past.

7. Pack more than one outfit in the diaper bag because it's possible for an 8lb baby to create enough poop to blow through three within an hour. Gross!

Each day we learn something new with Addison and most importantly we learn that each day gets better (a few prayers to end Addison's colicy evenings would be nice though) and we really can do this parenting thing. We are in awe of how her cheeks & thighs are filling out, her smile is slowing creeping its way across her face, her hair continues to be curly and she turns her head in our direction when she hears our voices. I've said it before but life with Addison is truly amazing.

Cheers,

Mic, Deb and Addie

Corn on the cob in training

A friend of ours loaned us this costume and as you can see, Addie was destined for Iowa residency! :-) For those non-Iowa residents, that would be a cob of corn she's sporting!

Everything is going very well and Addie hasn't quite figured out that night time is the right time for sleeping but we go into each night hoping and praying for a few hours of sleep, preferably in a row. She is growing, growing, growing and it's terribly difficult to wait until her 8 week

appointment to find out how much she's gained and how long she is! We've discussed taking her to Hy-vee and putting her in the fruit scale but just haven't been brave enough to do so!

We went on our first roadtrip this past weekend to Deb's parents house in Shawano, WI. Addie did fairly well, sleeping a majority of the car ride. It was slightly eye opening to see the amount of stuff you need to pack for a baby. Luckily we returned home with everything we brought, including Addie and are heading to Winona this coming weekend to introduce Addie to the Winona crew and WSU volleyball.

Cheers,

Mic, Deb & Addison

Addison Awake

People keep telling us that they don't believe that Addison is awake ever or that she even has eyes and here's proof that she is and she does! Please ignore the stupid human voice and enjoy!

More Pumpkin Patch Pictures

Our little pumpkin

We took advantage of the beautiful fall weather and took Addie on her 1st trip to the pumpkin patch. Her Aunt Brit, Aunt Megan, Grandpa Jack and Faux Auntie Mo accompanied us. As with many outings these days, Addie decided to trust that we would capture this new adventure on the digital camera and chose to sleep through all of it. We had a great time snapping pics of her and realized that dressing up the dogs was fun but dressing up Addie is an absolute blast.

• Addie sporting her pumpkin outfit
• Addie in the car ready to go
• Addie and her mommies at the pumpkin patch
• Addie, her mommies and Auntie Mo
• Addie, Aunt Brit, Mom and Grandpa Jack

Cheers,


Mic, Deb and Addison

She could play libero???

Addie had her 3 week appt today with her new pediatrician, Dr. Mullen. We really liked him and I actually went to high school with him and we worked together at Thunderhills Country Club. I lifeguarded and he was a bartender and until he figured out how he knew me at the appt. he couldn't focus! It was rather hilarious! His mom was also my 8th grade teacher and I was not very fond of her but I was an 8th grader and they typically have attitudes so i'm sure it was as much me as it was her.

So back to Addison, she weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs!!! She was 6 lbs, 11 oz at our appointment on September 25th so she's gained a good amount. I was hoping so for all of the gosh darn nursing she's been doing. All I can say is that Wal-mart isn't the only place to get milk 24 hours a day around here!! She also measured at 20 1/2 inches which is 1/2 inch longer that she was at birth and means she's probably not going to play front row but i'm pretty sure that there's no height requirement for a libero! Who knows though, she could have a major growth spurt! Keeping our fingers crossed! Her head grew 1 cm and overall, Dr. Mullen said she looked fantastic and we were doing a great job with her. What a relief!! No one mentions how easy it is to worry about every little thing when you have a baby!!!

She also slept for 2 hour increments last night, 2 solid hours at a time. You wouldn't believe how much of an improvement that was and how much better we both felt today. Lately I have been up nursing her most of the night, cluster feeding again, and when Deb gets home from work, she takes over and I try and get as much sleep as I can between feedings. We're really hoping she is going to start settling in to sleeping a few more hours at a time.

Here's another Addie picture. As you can guess, Grana Di intervened and supplied the pink bow headband!

Cheers,

Mic, Deb and Addison

Addison loves Baby Gap

Here's Addie showing off her new baby gap sweater and jeans!

Life with a 16 day old

Sorry about the delay in posting an update about our newest and cutest family member. It's crazy to see how fast every day slips by as we focus on meeting her needs and try to keep our house in order. With that being said, life with Addison is amazing. Every day we watch as she seems to make developmental milestones, I can't decide if it's a good thing or a bad thing that Deb knows so much about her reflexes and all of the other tricky little developmental things she's doing now or should be doing soon. Addison is somewhat of a guinea pig in our household. She has an unbelieveable grip with her hands and is spending more time awake during the day with her big blue eyes watching everything around her. We know her vision isn't refined at this point but it's fun to think that she's really looking you in the eyes (we know we're just shadows to her at this point) when you sing her a little song.

We head to the pediatrician on Wednesday for her 3 week check-up. We're very excited to see how much weight she has gained. She's really gotten the hang of nursing, almost too well if you ask Mic, and seems to be filling out these days. Her newborn clothes seem to be getting a bit more snug though she seems to be swimming in the 0-3 month clothes. She's clearly going to be a tweener, just like her Mama Mic, always just between one size and another.

A few firsts over the past week:

• Addie's first trip to the dog park. She got to hang out on the outside of the fence in the baby bjorn carrier with Mama Mic while Momma Deb took Lucy in for a little frisbee fun.


• Addie's first nose sucker experience. We were very nervous about using the little nose sucker gadget on her but had to on Saturday because she was collecting some little boogies. Momma Deb did the sucking and Mama Mic was encouraging and supportive of her. You'll soon see who has the wimpy stomach in this family.


• Addie's first trip to the grocery store where we learned that her car seat doesn't sit in the top of the cart like other ones do. She therefore got to ride in her very own cart while Momma Deb pushed another cart with the groceries in it.


• Addie's first trip to a football game. She attended the Loras homecoming football game on Saturday where she demonstrated her lack of interest in football by sleeping through the entire game. That's my girl (says Mic)!!!

A few pictures to enjoy:

• Addison & Mama Mic
• Addison & Great Grandma Pat (Big G)
• Addison doing what she does best, SLEEP!
• Addison's monkey toes!
  

Hoping everyone is enjoying the beautiful fall weather. It's amazing to think that we are already heading into week 3 with Addison. More to come!

Cheers,

Mic, Deb and Addison

PICTURES OF ADDISON

Click on the "Addison" to the right and this should take you to the Kodak Ofoto site where you can view all of the pictures of the little peanut!

Moving in the right direction

Today is the first day that Addie and I are home alone. All's well and we've spent a lot of time in the glider nursing, did tummy time, went to the Dr. to have mom's incision checked out and are now working on getting her pictures up on the blog through Flickr.
We're not sure how but my c section incision is infected and we spent some time at the ER last night where they gave me antibiotics through an IV and sent us home with more to be taken orally. It had been bugging me yesterday and when we checked it out, it appeared as though I had gone tanning but only decided to burn the heck out of my lower abdomen. Deb drew lines across my stomach (looked a bit like a treasure map) so we could make sure that we knew if the redness got higher and we spent the night checking my temperature. I'm feeling better today and hoping the antibiotics are working their way through my system and praying that Addie doesn't get thrush because i'm taking them.
We did break one rule already and have allowed her to have a pacifier. Only in times of great desperation when she has a meltdown and nothing else will work. Today at the Dr. I felt guilty about letting her have it and hid it under the blanket. Seriously!!

Lastly, we took Addison to a portrait place to get her first pictures done and it was a NIGHTMARE. Addison was fantastic but the lady who did the pictures and went through all of the "packages" was the NIGHTMARE. We really just wanted some 8x10s and wallets of her and the lady kept insisting we spend $148 for a gazillion different poses of her including the ones that we didn't even like. Considering that all three of us (Deb, myself and my mom) were exhausted from all of the things happening in our lives lately, no one had the energy to tell the lady to back off. My head was spinning as she kept talking circles around us and I finally informed her that we just wanted to choose 1 pose that we liked and get a few different sizes of this. Apparently in the world of picture taking, this is not the thing to say. She became very agitated with us and informed us that we could just get the $9.99 package that included everything that we were requesting but we would lose the other photos FOREVER. I informed her that we were planning on brining Addison in for pictures monthly and that we would survive without having the other poses. Another comment one should apparently not make to the kodak queen. In the end, we got what we wanted which is an amazingly cute picture of Addison and left the portrait place knowing that it would take some heavy beer consumption to ever get us back in there again.

Cheers,
Mic, Deb and Addison

Guthrie, March 1999-September 2008

We have some sad news to add to our already emotionally charged rollercoaster of a week. On Friday, September 26, we had to put Guthrie to sleep. He had kidney failure and it had been getting worse over the past few weeks. Upon returning home from an outing with my mom yesterday, I found that he kept falling down and not being able to pull himself up. Deb took him to the vet and stayed with him. The vet told us that it was time and he had been hanging on as long as he could for me. I'm terribly sad at the passing of my best pal of 9 years but know that he isn't hurting anymore and know that i'm so incredibly lucky to have had such a great sidekick for so long. It'll take a while to adjust to life without him and Lucy has spent much of the past 12 hours wandering the house in search of her "snuggle buddy".
We're hoping this is the last of the heart tugging times for now and we can enjoy the little things that we already love about Addison- her long fingers and toes, her gassy smiles, her cooing noises and much, much more.

-Mic

Life on Perry Street

Well it's day 3 of being home with Addison and all is well. We're all adjusting to life as a trio and learning lots about how to keep this little one happy. We had a home visit from a hospital nurse on Tuesday and found out that Addie has gained 1/2 of an ounce, Deb was pumped about this and I was thinking it didn't seem like much but the nurse was pleased and we're hoping she's continuing to gain weight. She came home from the hospital weighing 6lbs and 6 ounces and every ounce from here on out counts as we try to get her back to her birth weight. We also found out that she is very jaundiced and after two sticks to her heels for blood, we will be heading to the pediatrician for the first time on thursday to find out if it's gotten any better or if they'll need to put her in a "billy blanket" or back in the hospital for some major rays of fake sun. For now, she spends a lot of time snoozing in her bassinette next to the patio doors, trying to soak up as much as she can before the appointment.

We're all pretty sleep deprived at this point and savor every little nap she takes to rest and regroup. A few things we've laughed at ourselves for over these past 3 days:

• Smelling diapers and high fiving each other when she's had a wet one





• High fiving each other when she finally pooped and it wasn't the black stuff





• Dropping the breast pump supplies on the floor and watching the "liquid gold" fly





• Mic eating 2 oatmeal creme pies at 4 in the morning just because she could





• The fact that Lucy thinks that Addie is just another toy and sits pretty for her

Every day is a new adventure and we feel so incredibly blessed to have this little one in our lives.

We'll try to keep on top of the blog and have new pics every couple of days!!

Cheers,

Mic, Deb and Addison

P.S. Grana Di just got back from a shopping excursion (because Addie is so small, her clothes were all too big) and Addie now has TONS of pink sleepers!!

Introducing............ Addison Marie Sazama Nauman

Hi everyone!! The wait is over. After 21 1/2 hours and a failed induction, Addison (Addie) has arrived via C section on September 19th at 4:32 pm. She is 7lbs 2 oz. and 20 inches long and has dark, wavy hair and dark blue eyes. She came out screaming with her tummy growling and is settling in to her new life outside of Mic's belly. She's just over a day old and the three of us are enjoying getting to know each other and learning what each little sound and holler means. Deb changed her first poopy diaper this afternoon and Addison is slowly getting the hang of nursing (oh and so is Mic). We have taken tons of pictures and didn't realize that we forgot the usb cord for the camera in Mic's office until today but we will get some up on the blog tomorrow hopefully.
We are scheduled to be discharged on Monday around noon and will keep you all posted with the New Adventures of Addison.

Cheers,
Deb, Mic and Addison

When one door closes, another one opens...........

In the midst of all of the baby excitement, my grandpa Mike, also known as Gpop, passed away yesterday (September 17th). He had struggled for such a long time with COPD and we all know that he is now relaxing, breathing easier and enjoying the Rocky Road ice cream he always accused us of stealing from his freezer. Over the past few months, he had been in and out of the hospital all the while focusing on finding the perfect baby name for his great-grandchild. He came up with lots and lots of names, always asking his nurses:

• how they got their names
• what they meant
• did they have children
• what were their names, etc.

I'm sure the nurses were bombarded with this routine each time a new one came on duty. When we would visit he'd always run a new name by us and we'd toss out our ideas to him. He was never shy about telling us if he disliked a name and I always threatened to name the baby Hillary if it was a girl, he is NOT a Hillary Clinton fan. He nixed the name "Grayson" for a boy immediately and found great humor in "Tate" and the ability to call the kid Tater Tot.

So while we await our next baby appointment, today at 11am, to find out if anything is happening, we know that this little one is going to have an extra special person watching over them. We only wish the baby would have made it here sooner to meet their Gpop Mike but we know that he is breathing easily, taking advantage of the sweet tooth he has and surely canoeing down a river somewhere singing his favorite tunes.

Cheers,

Mic

Stew, Sugar Cookies and swollen ankles

I'm realizing why none of the baby books tell you how incredibly bored and anxious you will get in the last few weeks of your pregnancy. We're down to 10 days until the big due date and no progress has been made. Our Dr's appt on Friday was fairly disappointing. Waking up Friday morning, I was certain that progress had been made and the Dr. would give the green light to get things going but no dice. He just said, see you next week and if things are happening then, we can talk about the magic word "induction" but if not, we continue to wait. The baby's heartbeat was a healthy 140 and we were surprised at how fast the nurse found it. She had it cranked up so it was incredibly loud and my mom was with us so she got to hear it for a 2nd time. The baby is still pointing in the right direction with it's head right where it needs to be and is around 7lbs the Dr. is guessing. The little bugger is just going to take its sweet time to get here.
So, what does one do to pass the time when they can't travel more than 30 minutes away (which pretty much means stay home because there's nothing fun and exciting within 30 minutes)?
Here's how my weekend looked:
Friday-

1. Walked Guthrie
2. Visited my grandpa in the hospital
3. Went to the Dr.
4. Went to Happy Joe's with my mom
5. Went shopping with my mom for things we didn't need but needed to pass the time
6. Went to the nursing home with my mom where I read 1/2 of a book: "How Evan Broke his Head" Garth Stein
7. Stopped by the office for cake that I had been craving, thanks Matt!!
8. Walked Guthrie for a 2nd time
9. Went to dinner with Deb and some of her colleagues
10. Visited my grandpa in the hospital
11. Went and saw the movie "Women" with my mom and aunt Deb. Terrible, terrible movie. To add to it, the Shorty was rambunctious and insisted on kicking me in the ribs and playing patty cake with my bladder.

Saturday-

1. Walked the dogs with Deb
2. Went to the grocery store and we learned a valuable lesson. Do not let the pregnant woman shop alone! $103 later, we had a variety of items including all the fixin's to make stew, chili, a strange Wisconsin casserole and sugar cookies. Our usual grocery bill is about $50 so you know I splurged on random items.
3. Went to lunch with Maria and Deb at Champs
4. Cranked up the crock pot and made chili
5. Took a short nap and elevated legs to try and get rid of the massively swollen ankles
6. Played with Lucy in the backyard
7. Went for a walk on Grandview without the dogs
8. Took a 2nd shower for the day
9. Vaccumed the house
10. Debated painting my toe nails but remembered I couldn't reach them
11. Read the other 1/2 of my book
12. Watched 4 episodes of Nanny 911 and fell asleep at 9:30pm

Sunday-

1. Woke up at 9:50am paniced that I had slept so late (as if I had something major to do)
2. Walked Guthrie while Deb ran with Lucy
3. Visited my grandpa in the hospital
4. Cut everything up for Stew and put it in the crock pot
5. Prepared sugar cookie dough in my favorite kitchen aid mixer and put it in the fridge to chill
6. Put everything together for Deb's "Wisconsin Corn Casserole" and put it in the oven
7. Walked up to my parents house to get their lab, Eadie, and took her for a walk
8. Read the newspaper
9. Watched football with Deb (you know I was desperate for something to do, football!!)
10. Took a 2nd shower for the day
11. Went to the grocery store to find sprinkles to decorate the sugar cookies
12. Made the sugar cookies and decorated them
13. Watched a WNBA game
14. Fell asleep at 10pm

Tell me does my weekend not get any more exciting or what!! So as you can see, this baby either needs to arrive soon or people need to come up with creative ideas for things I can do!!! :-)

Thankfully Deb was trying to work ahead with all of her lectures so she was busy, busy, busy or I would have drove her nuts! :-)

Cheers,

Mic

Real Vs. Fake Contractions= Friday Night fun in the Labor/Delivery Ward

Well, we spent about 3 hours in the labor/delivery ward on Friday night! The evening started out innocently with a trip to Hy-vee for a quick salad and grocery shopping. As we perused the aisles, I started having braxton hicks contractions and somewhat brushed them off because i've been having them so often lately. We made it to the cereal aisle (about 5 aisles in) when I started to notice a lot of pressure in my lower back and hips and I was having a hard time standing up straight. Since I was having a hard time deciding on what kind of cereal I wanted (craving cinnamon toast crunch but knowing I should really choose a less sugary one) I used this time to lean on the cart and let the contractions pass. Strangely though, these seemed to last longer and intensify unlike the ones I had been feeling before. My stomach felt like a basketball and something just felt different this time. There was no gush of water (remember we're rookies at this) so we continued our shopping. I practiced my lamaze breathing as we checked off items on the grocery list and we made our way home. About an hour had passed at this point and things weren't letting up, even though I had changed positions multiple times and drank 2 huge glasses of water.

Deb thought it was time to call the Dr. so I did and they instructed us to head to the emergency room to get checked into labor and delivery. We corraled the dogs in the basement and headed to the hospital (Deb looking incredibly excited and me feeling very uncertain about this actually happening tonight). Deb dropped me off at the entrance of the emergency room and I informed the receptionist of who I was and why I was there. She took me to get admitted and kept informing the woman working that I was here to deliver. I corrected her each time saying that I was not here to DELIVER, but rather to just be checked because of these silly braxton hicks contractions. In no time, we were wheeled up to the 5th floor and I was strapped to a monitor.
All the while I must mention that Deb's face is like a kid on christmas morning and I'm silent wondering how this really could be happening now and not as a result of next Friday's appointment when they were planning on getting things started. I was clearly not ready or at least my brain wasn't.

We stayed on the monitor for about 2 hours with braxton hicks contractions as well as some real ones. Each time the nurse would say oh these just look like warm-ups, another stronger and longer one would come on and she would say, oh I think we'll keep watching these. At one point the little monitor jumped up high in numbers and Deb was excitedly reading these aloud to me so I would know when the contraction would start fizzeling out. As it got higher and higher, I very nonchalantly commented that "Don't you think that's kind of a problem" and we both cracked up laughing. I learned a valuable lesson here......laughing is not a good idea while contracting.

During the time we were on the monitor the baby's heart beat was lower than what the nurse wanted so I was given apple juice to get the little critter moving about. She thought the baby might have been sleeping which is amazing to me because it feel like someone was snapping a large rubber band on my stomach and how anyone could sleep through that is amazing. The apple juice worked about 30 minutes later and the little one was rolling side to side and throwing punchs left and right.

After a 2nd check in a certain region with no major progress and contractions that were slowing down and much smaller, we were able to go home. We did find out though that we had made progress from our last Dr's appt where there was nothing happening in that region and on this night we were 50% effaced and my cervix is thinning out. Wahoo!!

So, this experience was definitely a little eye opening for us. I think we were under the impression that the baby was just going to come on our due date or as a result of something the Dr. would do. What we learned is that there is no set time and whether we are ready or not, it might just come!! We returned home that night (the braxton hicks contractions stopped around 2:30am) and made sure the dishes were done, including a few bottles and on Saturday we did loads of laundry, vaccumed and made sure the dogs were stocked up on food and treats. :-)

All we can say at this point is....................bring on the baby!!

Cheers,
Mic

We are counting down the DAYS

It's unbelievable to think that we are no longer counting down the months until the Shorty's arrival but instead have moved on to days. 21 days from today, this little one is expected to arrive. We had our 37 week appointment today and are finally back to seeing our favorite OB/GYN Dr. B. It was a great appointment and we are measuring exactly where we should be, the baby's heart tones were 136, and the little one is in position. Dr. B surprised us a bit by letting us know that if I am dilated next week, that he would "strip the membranes" to try and get things going. Neither of us had ever heard of this before but apparently it's something Dr's can do to get the ball rolling (i'll let you google it if you really want to know the how's) and it is effective in 1/3 of women who have it done. Some women go into labor within 24 hours (which would mean we would have a baby in hand on September 13, AHHHHHHH!) and others just wait it out until labor happens on its own. We're trying to avoid getting our hopes up because there's no guarantee that it will work but it would be kind of FANTASTIC to meet this little one earlier than later as the anticipation is growing and the baby is healthy and is full term at this point. If this technique doesn't work then Dr. B talked about inducing labor at our next appt on September 18th with means potocin and an epidural.

So.............it's looking like we may be meeting the Shorty in 21 days or less, all of which depends on where we are at during each appointment. Deb will more than likely send out a mass email when it does happen and we'll update the blog with details and pictures as soon as we can!

Cheers,
Mic

30 days to go

A few things happening around our house as the days wind down to "D" day................

• We are overly prepared with every possible baby item, the hospital bag packed and the car seat ready to go yet feel under prepared
• The shorty is becoming restless which results in minutes to hours of what feels like a 5 lb barbell rolling from side to side in my belly
• People keep telling me how great I look which I interpret as oh my goodness she is getting soooooooo big
• Guthrie and Lucy are beginning to notice that the baby room is off limits to them (gate in the door) and therefore lay directly outside the gate or mope around the house (we're certain this rule won't last long with their sad eyes)
• Deb has officially taken on the roll of "sock putter on-er" as I can no longer reach to put them on. I have however figured out a way to untie my shoes and loosen them before dropping them to the floor, stepping into them and then standing at the bottom of the steps with a foot up a couple of steps in order to tie them
• We now have a leather recliner in our bedroom to help me sleep at night, thanks Mom & Bob!!! It's only a temporary loan because it's Bob's favorite chair but it does help me get back to sleep when my hips and legs go numb from trying to sleep on my side

Each day we are more and more excited about the baby's arrival. We're amazed at how fast the month's have flown by. We're still apprehensive about bringing the baby home and not dropping it, which i'm sure all new parents have similar fears, but are so excited to add this little member to our family.

Cheers,

Mic

The countdown begins........

Only 5 more Dr's appt's to go!! Wahoo! We met with another new Dr. as we rotate through the OB/GYN Dr's at Medical Associates and this one was great. I measured at exactly 34 weeks, my blood pressure has been rising a bit but is still out of concern range and I did test positive for protein and sugar. I was then handed a glass of water to down and then sent downstairs to the lab to have blood drawn and another urine sample. We waited all day wondering if I would have to start testing my blood with the little finger prick doo hicky and at 5:15pm they called to say that I didn't have to but I really need to watch my sugars and walk after every meal. The protein was gone the 2nd time around so no worries about pre-eclampsia and early induction at this point. Yay!!! We're ready for this baby but not THAT ready!

I also attended the nursing class at the hospital last night. I spared Deb this experience. :-) It was very informative and the benefits clearly outweigh the drawbacks so I'll give it a go. That's all I'll say about that. :-)

My Loras colleagues threw a baby shower at work on Thursday afternoon which was a BLAST! I work with such an awesome crew of supportive yet squirrely professionals. We played a slightly gross game where candy bars were melted into diapers and we were charged with the task of identifying what candy bar (aka: poo) was in each diaper. Neither Deb nor I did well on this game but were reassured that in real life, we won't have to stick our noses in diapers to determine what's there. Little shout out to Kim for almost starting the office on fire while melting the candy bars into diapers!! (Sorry Kim, I had to, i've been harassed about burning popcorn in the office since last September!!) We then had yummy cake and opened awesome gifts for the little one. All I can say is we are officially set!!! One neat gift was a small stuffed lion that rattles from my Dean of Students daughter Eliza (aka: Lizzie Lou). It was her toy when she was a baby and she wanted our baby to have it. She's insistent that she'll be the dog sitter (however refuses to deal with dog poo) while Annika and Maja are the baby-sitters.

We're prepping for Launch into Loras (first year student orientation) next week which will be a blast but also a bit challenging as I waddle around campus. I've accepted the fact that I'll be an excellent photographer that week while my students traverse the high ropes course and teambuilders at Four Mounds and help with tasks at the Humane Society during our service project. I'm sure I can still hold puppies though so that's a plus! Deb's got plenty of work to do preparing her syllabi for classes and back-up plans for when the little one arrives.

That's all for now. 41 days until D day!!!

Cheers,
Mic

The Sneeze and Pee

Just thought I'd add a little humor to everyone's Monday morning. Last night Deb and I were in the kitchen chatting as she was putting groceries away. I was sitting at the kitchen table and happened to sneeze. This was no ordinary sneeze though as one typically just blows their nose following a sneeze. I on the otherhand made a mad dash for the bathroom due to the fact that at the conclusion of my sneeze, I PEED MY PANTS. Yes, you read that correctly. I literally PEED MY PANTS. Upon realizing this, I said "Oh shoot, I peed my pants" very matter of factly which Deb thought was quite hilarious. No worries though, a quick shower and change and I was good to go.

So, when you're having a stressful day, just be happy that you too are not experiencing the "Sneeze and Pee".

More Shower Pictures

• The Diaper wreath
• The paper plate game
• Irish Onesie
• Todd Parr Books