BIG NEWS

Kyle has his first tooth and another one will be in shortly. He has had a bulge on his bottom gums for a few weeks. FINALLY I felt the top of a little tooth last night. It's hard to see it because when we try to open his mouth he sticks his tongue out, but we got Zack to make him laugh (all Zack has to do is look at him or make a face/sound and Kyle is in hysterics) and we could see the little sliver.

In other news big news at our house, Zack started Kindergarten this week. So far he likes it alot and has even made two new friends, although he doesn't remember their names. He was very excited to learn the they have bathroom IN the Kindergarten room. He has a friend from Small World in his class and a few others are in different classrooms, so he is feeling pretty good about that. Yesterday he went on a safari in the school and went looking for Zebras in the Principal's office! Fun stuff!

I will post pictures as soon as I can get them loaded.

My big boy!!

Kyle is standing! Well, he is pulling him self up into a standing position. He is getting bigger by the day and surprises us with a new trick every day. Here he is looking out the front window.

Long Overdue

I can't imagine anyone is still reading this after my last update was in MARCH!! Is it really August already?? Where does the time go. Kyle and Zack are both doing GREAT! Zack is getting ready to start Kindergarten in few weeks and Kyle is getting ready to crawl. When I went in to get him out of his crib this morning he had pulled himself up to a sitting position on his own. He is also getting up on two hands and one knee, the last one bent under his body and not *quite* ready to move. I can't believe how big my babies are getting.

The picture is Zack's experiment with a soap Mohawk, Kyle has one too, but with water.

Brothers

An Interview with Zack.

I saw this on another blog and decided to interview Zack. Too funny...

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Good morning

2. What makes mom happy?
When I say “I love you.”

3. What makes mom sad?
If I’m not here.

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
When she said "Kung Fu Panda Pizza."

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Like I am now

6. How old is your mom?
60

7. How tall is your mom?
About this tall

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Play

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Feed my brother

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
They saw you in the newspaper

11. What is your mom really good at?
Having some fun

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Exercising (You got that right, kid!!)

13. What does your mom do for her job?
Bake pizza

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Pizza

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
giving me toys

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Johnny Test

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Play Connect 4

18. How are you and your mom the same?
We both cut our hair

19. How are you and your mom different?
I’m a boy and you are a girl

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Becuase she always says that to me

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
California Pizza Kitchen

My Boys

Kyle

Cute Kyle

One Month Old!

Kyle is one month old today! I can't believe he is growing so fast. He is now out of the newborn clothes and we are stretching it with the newborn diapers. I don't know how much he weighs now, but two weeks ago he was just over 7 lbs. He likes to eat..a lot. Several times he has nursed for close to an hour and still acts hungry. I have given him a few ounces of formula and he does well both digesting the formula and switching back and forth between breast feeding and bottle. He'll need to drink from a bottle at daycare (in a few months) so it's great that he is having no issues. Zack is loving his little brother even if he is a little "boring." Kyle gets hugs an kisses from his big brother and they even play "baby karate" and pirates. This consists of Zack moving Kyles arms and either saying "Hi-ya" (karate) or "Arghhh" (Pirate) while Kyle stares with big eyes. I think they will have fun together.

I am healing up pretty well after the c-section. I have to say this recovery is significantly harder than with Zack. Of course I didn't have my abdomen cut open when he was born... I'm just grateful that I live in place and time where they can get the baby out out 5 minutes after they discover a problem. Since Kyle decided it was a good idea to wrap the umbilical cord around his neck twice, he would not have made it into the world in the traditional way. Stinker!

I hope to update more often as well as get some pictures posted. Between the lack of sleep, holidays and internet problems, I have not been on-line much in the past month. I'm sure that will change. Especially after I go back to work in March...

He is here!

Kyle Erik was born December 11, 2008 at 12:18am. He weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces and was 22 inches long. More to follow.

Almost there...

We went in today for our weekly appointment. He passed the biophysical profile, but his numbers on the non stress test were a little off. The Dr. had me come back this afternoon to re-run the NST and he passed in 20 minutes... So all is well. I will be going back next Monday for another biophysical profile and non stress test. We will then go in on Thursday to repeat as well as get measurements to estimate size. THEN I will be admitted on Sunday December 14th in the evening to get my cytotec to help prepare for the induction which will begin on Monday morning the 15th. Hopefully he will be born sometime on the 15th. She did warn us that since he is head is still pretty high, there is a greater risk that an induction will end up in a c-section. However with my blood pressure and immunological issues, the risk of waiting is higher. Plus I'm now at the point I was with Zack when my placenta stopped working, so I would never risk it.

Update

We had an appointment today. Everything was fine. Blood pressure is still good and baby is now head down! Who knows what he has been up to! Now I'm just hoping he stays put for the next couple of weeks. I am now 60% effaced and a fingertip dilated which means...nothing. I could go into labor at anytime, or not. The labs that I had last week came back great. The liver function number was down to 17 from the high of 44 a few weeks ago. I guess the bed rest is working.

Doing fine

Another appointment today. Baby is doing great. He measured in at 5 lbs. 11 oz. The ultrasound readout said that was +/- 8 oz. My blood pressure was good and he passed his test again with perfect scores. The only bad news is that the little stinker is no longer head down. He is now transverse, basically sideways. I couldn't believe it! Dr. Baker said he still has some time to get back into position. If he doesn't go back to head down before 39 weeks that means he will be born by c-section. That is not my first choice, but if that's the way things go so be it. The only reason I wouldn't want to have the c-section is the recovery time is longer. Anyway I hope he flips back into place in the next 3 weeks. Keep your fingers crossed for us!! Next appointment is on next Tuesday due to Thanksgiving. I can't believe the latest he will be here is 3 weeks from Monday!

34 Weeks 4 Day

Another appointment today. Baby passed his biophysical profile and non stress test with flying colors. He has been on the stretch today as well. I keep feeling him pushing into my rib cage and the Nurse said that what I'm feeling is his hiney. Even Erik could feel it from the outside. We spoke to the Dr. about what the expectation are in terms of how long we will go before getting induced. She is still waiting to shoot for 39 week (December 15) but it all depends on how things go. My blood pressure has been good on bed rest and the labs are now back to normal, so there is no reason to have him born any earlier. I want to avoid him a stay in the NICU so I'm happy with waiting, even if the bed rest is getting old at only 3 days in. I'll do whatever it takes.

Next week we will do another growth ultrasound to get an idea about how big he'll be. Of course it's can be off up to a pound (it was with Zack) but it at least gives us a little peace of mind as one of the problems with high blood pressure is growth restriction. I probably won't have any updates until next weeks as I will be laying on my left side watching TV until then.

34 Weeks 1 Day

We went back to the hospital on Saturday and got the second steroid shot. The labs were better and my blood pressure was good so they let us go home. Baby was not very active on Sunday so I freaked out a bit and went into the clinic today to get a non stress test to make sure he was ok. Of course he passed with flying colors! Stinker. My Blood pressure was high when I went in, so I know I need to do a better job with then bed rest. I was trying to work from home instead of starting FMLA, but that's not possible. Some of the people that I work with make my blood pressure go up when I'm NOT having issues, probably not a good idea to try to deal with them now. Luckily my management is very supportive so they were encouraging me to do what is best for me and the baby, the work will get done. It's nice to have that support and not have extra things to worry about.

We will be going in again on Thursday for a check and will get more information form the Dr. about what happened and what we can expect going forward. I'm not sure if 39 weeks is the goal any longer, may be 37 (Dec 1st) but we will wait to see what she says.

Update

I was supposed to update yesterday, but things went a little fast after the appointment and I have not had the chance until now. My blood pressure was still elevated and the labs they drew on Thursday came back with elevated numbers for liver function. The Dr. on call wanted me to go to Labor & Delivery to get the labs redrawn and have my blood pressure checked. They also had the heartbeat monitor on the baby to make sure he was doing ok. We were there for about 3 hours. My blood pressure reading were very good. It probably had something to do with the fact that I was laying down on my left side and I had just take a double dose of my BP meds. The labs came back with my liver function within normal range, but just barely. The cutoff for normal is 45 and mine was 44. My Dr. had them give me the first of two steroid shots to help develop his lungs and is having me come back in 24 hours to get the second one. They will also re-draw the labs to see where the numbers are today. I have also been ordered to bedrest, at least for now. I have a BP monitor at home ands have been checking it throughout the day. Everything has been good today. He is a little less active today, but he tends to have days where that is just the case... Maybe he is too busy working on getting his lungs developed. Either way he will be checked out in a few hours when we go back to the hospital.

We are not panicking yet, just really glad I have a Dr. who is always on the side of caution when it comes to health of both the baby and me. Will update when we are back from L&D.

33 weeks 4 days

Another appointment today. The good news: The baby is great. He passed all of his test, including practice breathing. The bad news: My blood pressure is way up from last week. Almost 50 points on the top number. They took blood to test for pre-eclampsia, and I'm doing a 24 hour urine collection (fun right?) She also increased my meds from 100 mg twice a day to 200 mg. I think I'm probably fine, but will do whatever it takes to make the baby safe. She mentioned bed rest, to which I heard my inner scream say "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Eun and Emily will remember how much I loved it the last time... I'm not sure I can manage without Eun and Colin bringing me Chipotle and playing Trivial Pursuit with me to pass the time (Word to anyone who ever plays Trivial Pursuit with Eun...She cheats. A lot.)

Any way I'm going back in tomorrow with my big bucket of pee in hand to find out what the next steps are. If we do have to have him early, we are far along enough now that he should be fine with a little extra care. Of course that is not my preference, but whatever we have to do is fine, as long as he is healthy.

I'll update tomorrow after my appointment.

Happy Halloween!

32 weeks 4 days

We had the first of our ongoing biophysical profiles today. The baby is doing well. He is on track with his growth at 4 lbs 6 oz, already bigger than Zack was at birth! He passed all of the ultrasound measurements with the exception of practice breathing. I already know he is doing that because he gets hiccups occasionally and they tend to occur from the breathing. The tech was measuring his head and all of the sudden we saw a little foot pop on the screen. It was pretty cute. She counted and he had all 5 toes. Seems like an uncomfortable way to hang out, but I remember Zack chewing on his feet so they are pretty flexible little monkeys. Also she confirmed that he is still a boy!

He was being a bit stubborn for the non stress test. What they are looking for in the non stress test is to see his heart rate go up when he moves. Every time he moved he would move away from the monitor so we kept losing his heart rate, but he had enough variance in his heart rate that he passed. We also talked about how far she is going to let me go. She was pretty clear that she is not comfortable with me going past 39 weeks. Given my history with both Zack and the last pregnancy, I'm very comfortable with this. Of course I'd prefer not to be induced because of the worst pain in my life experienced when I was induced with Zack, but that's why God invented epidurals and narcotics. Yea for drugs!! If he doesn't decide to come before, he'll arrive sometime around the 15th of December. Zack's birthday is the 16th!!

Going forward I'll be seen every week on Thursday. Only 6 weeks left!!!

Update on everyone

We had a quick appointment today with a different Dr. in the practice as my Dr. is out on vacation this week. Everything was fine. I told her about my numb hands and she said it's a common thing in the third trimester. I didn't have numb hands with Zack so that was new to me. I didn't have an ultrasound this week so I don't have an update on measurements, but she measured my "fundal height" and I was measuring at 31 weeks, right on track. Next appointment is in two weeks and will be weekly after that until delivery.

We also have a very short list of names picked out and there is a front runner but have decided that we are not going to share until he is born. So don't ask! :)

In other news we met with an attorney last week to get the ball rolling on the step-parent adoption process for Zack. The attorney said our case was so straight forward that we didn't need to see him and could meet with his paralegal and save $150 an hour. The paperwork has been complete and she will be submitting that along with Zack's birth certificate and Brian's death certificate to Hennepin County shortly. She said the hearing will be in December or January and that will be it. I'm just hoping that I don't go into labor on the court date... We might push for a January date to be safe. After the hearing they will issue a new birth certificate listing Erik as the father and Zack's last name will be legally changed to Schefers. We decided that it was just easier for everyone, especially Zack, to have the same last name. Erik doesn't want him to feel different or not as much "his child" as Stitch because he has a different name. We will give him the option to change it back when he is old enough to understand what it means. Right now we just want to do what's best for him, and to us that means everyone having the same last name. He will always know he had a Daddy Brian who died before he was born, but that doesn't mean much to a 4 year old.... He is excited to see the judge and make it so Daddy is not his "illegal Dad" any more.