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