babygiraffe06

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:04:27 GMT

All of our pictures have been moved to an online photo album. If you'd like that info, please contact me at:

mrskroberts @ gmail.com

Thanks!

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 01:38:00 GMT

9 Month Check-up stats:

29.75 inches
22 lbs 3 oz

Our doctor said he is growing great and to just keep up what we're doing.

The little one has turned into a total ham and turns on the charm anytime he sees a camera. He's crawling now and can really get around the house. We baby-proofed most of the stuff last weekend but still have a few small things to do. We also set up a baby pool for him in the backyard and he LOVED it.

Still working on getting all his pics up on line. Most of you know by now that we're gearing up for a deployment so things are a bit crazy right now.

Take care!

Wed, 16 May 2007 11:46:56 GMT

I'm working on getting all of the pictures we take onto an online photo storage place, but it might take a little while.. just know I'm working on it! Until I get that going...

Lots of stuff has happened since the last update. We took our first family vacation to Chattanooga, TN and had a blast. We visited the aquarium, rock city, and even made a stop to see the Easter bunny. Jesse had a great first Easter! Grandma Skip came to visit and we had a nice time. On Monday we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary and yesterday our little guy turned 8 months old! He can drink from a sippy cup now and says "dada" all day long. He's still working on crawling, right now he does his best work scooting backwards or spinning himself in circles. Time sure is flying.

He'll be waking up soon but I'll post as much as I can until he does. Hope everybody is doing well!

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 22:03:17 GMT

Look! A storm trooper!

Snow Day! (Yeah, these are old pictures)

Random:

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 21:21:48 GMT

Happy Easter, everybody!

Six month check-up information:

Weight: 18 lbs
Height: 28 1/4 inches

He's in the 50% for weight and still hanging around 95% for height and doing great.

We just got back from our first family vacation and I have lots of pictures to add, but for now I'll leave you with this:

Pictures

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 04:39:34 GMT

He got his daddy's eyelashes. Lucky boy!

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 18:31:36 GMT

I guess it's been awhile, sorry! After we started to relax from our Christmas rush, my niece came out to visit for a week. When she left, she left her cold behind and I got sick and then the baby got sick. It's been a rough few weeks around here! We're feeling better and things are finally feeling somewhat normal again. I have lots of pictures to update with soon.

We had our 4 month checkup today and he is now 16 lbs 7.5 oz and 26.75 inches long. He is wearing 6-9month clothing now and in size 3 diapers. I can't believe how much he is changing! He loves standing (with us helping him, obviously) and the pediatrician said he might even be scooting around in the next few months.

Hope everybody is doing well. I'll work on getting those pictures up soon.

We wish you a merry Christmas...

Tue, 26 Dec 2006 03:37:57 GMT

We had several Christmas outfits that we had to rotate throughout the day to make sure they were put to good use...

Well on our way to a spoiled baby! Lots of thanks to Santa, Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa Cooper, Grandma Skip, Auntie Coco & Uncle Curt, and Auntie Tina & Maggie. You all helped to make his first Christmas a very special one.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

More pictures..

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 00:04:37 GMT

Leo likes to stay close...

Some pictures from when Nana, Auntie Tina, and Maggie came to visit:

His new play thingie - he rolled over for the first time on Monday (12/11/06) while he was playing on it. Eep!

Just for fun:

Two month check-up

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 23:45:56 GMT

Our little guy is growing!

He is now 12 lbs 12 oz and 25 1/4 inches long.. he is in the 50th percentile for weight and head circumference, and the 95th percentile for height.

He also got his first round of shots today, had blood drawn, and another ultrasound on his kidneys just to be sure there was no damage from the dehydration he suffered from at birth. Even with all he was put through, he seems to be in a great mood now that he is home and nobody is poking at him anymore.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Merry Christmas

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 23:04:38 GMT

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 02:44:00 GMT

From the day we left the hospital:

Two months old!

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 01:34:13 GMT

Off to the pumpkin patch!

Pictures!

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 23:08:13 GMT

While my guys are napping on the couch, I thought I'd try to get some pictures up for everybody. Enjoy!

With his belly button stump gone, we were able to give him his first real bath. He actually enjoyed it, and still does. He doesn't mind it all, but he does have a time limit and he lets you know when he is ready to get out.

Life is good as long as he can find his fist...

Leo guards the bathroom door each time we give him a bath..

We took a trip out to Dunbar Cave State Park last weekend. If we're still here when he's older, it will be a great place to take him to feed the ducks.

And, he celebrated turning one month old by finding his smile. He smiles at us all the time now, and he is the only kid I know that thinks have the bulb syringe put into his mouth is hilarious. He'll let me attempt to suck spit out of his mouth all day long if I want to. We're still trying to get a good shot of his smile on the camera, he seems to be a little bit shy.

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 22:14:48 GMT

The rest of our stay in the hospital really is a blur. I remember everything that happened but when it happened and stuff like that has completely escaped both D. and myself. We thought we were going to be heading home on Sunday which would have been the normal stay after a cesarean. I think it was late on Saturday when a nurse came in and told us that his bilirubin levels were incredibly high for a newborn and to help his jaundice, we were going to have to keep him under the "bili lights" for 24 hours.

It was really hard having him in there. We could only take him out for 15 minutes at a time every few hours to feed and change him, and he hated being in there. He had to wear that special mask to protect his eyes and he hated that just as much as we hated having to put it on him. I Between his crying and nurses coming to check on him on a regular basis, don't think either of us got any sleep that night.

Once his levels were back up we were allowed to take him out and I was encouraged to walk around. It got easier each time I walked, but I was pretty slow for awhile. The good news about being in a locked down maternity ward is that everybody else is slow too :)

Our freedom didn't last for long. We noticed that the baby hadn't really been peeing much so they started to monitor him and ended up having have a catheter inserted. At that point the pediatrician came in and said that his urine was almost the same color as coffee and they were going to keep him down in the Special Care Nursery to figure out what was wrong with him. The pediatrician on call that night told us that he thought the baby was going to have to be sent down to Nashville for surgery to correct a valve that was keeping him from peeing. Seeing him hooked up to everything and having an IV in him was difficult, but the nursing staff in there was great.

When the shift changed, the new pediatrician came in and told us she believed the baby was just dehydrated but was going to send him down for an ultrasound just in case. The ultrasound came back fine so she was convinced there wasn't a valve problem and proceeded to push IV fluids to get him to pee. She also said I should start pumping my breast milk so I could go in there and feed him - and I did. I was down there every three hours to feed him and spend as much time as I could with him.

Eventually he was the only baby in the Special Care Nursery so he was getting quite a bit of attention. Anytime he would pee, the nurses would get excited and call to tell me about it. Being there that long we got to know some of the staff pretty well, but we were still happy to leave them behind when we were finally released to go home.

So, we're all home - happy and healthy even if we are a bit tired.

A little late, but worth the wait...

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 14:38:18 GMT

As I mentioned earlier, I went to the doctor on the 12th of September and had an ultrasound done. The doctor told me there was plenty of amniotic fluid and made another appointment for me on the 19th, but said that since I was past my due date I should come in for a Non-Stress Test on Thursday. They just wanted to monitor the baby for awhile since I was past my due date. I got to the hospital around 10am for my NST and started chatting with the nurses in there. They all felt bad for me being past due and said they were going to force a doctor to see me and told me to practice my sad face while I waited. They told me if I looked pitiful enough, the doctor would induce me and I could have the baby that day. The first doctor they found, Dr. Waer, said he would induce me just because I was past due, but he wasn't the doctor on call so it wasn't his decision to make. They paged Dr. Wakefield and he came in checked me but I still wasn't dialated.. he did his own ultrasound and decided there wasn't enough amniotic fluid and it was time to induce labor.

D. was just getting ready to eat lunch with the guys from work so I had to call and tell him he should come on down to the hospital. They got me all set up with an IV and some pitocin to get labor going and I sent D. back home to get the rest of the stuff we needed.

The "Before" picture. They had started the pitocin but I wasn't in any pain yet. At this point my only complaint was an uncomfortable bed. Looking back, the bed was probably the least of my worries:

The room was set up pretty nice. There was a sink and a mirror across from me and it was angled perfectly so that I could see where the baby would be placed (had I delivered in that room).

There was a chair that folded out into a bed:

And it was put to good use:

Unfortunately, this is where things start to get a little fuzzy. The doctor had warned me against getting an epidural too early because it was possible that I would become intolerant to it and wouldn't have any relief during labor. But, after 13 hours with no pain medicine I finally gave up. The standard procedure was to let you labor for 18 hours before going for a cesarean. Labor wasn't progressing and I figured that it would either help me relax, or at least help me get a nap. The anesthesiologist came in and got me all set up and as much as I hate the numb feeling, I had never been so happy to not feel anything below my waist. Since I didn't have to beg D. to tell me when each contraction was going to be over anymore I made myself comfortable and started to take a nap. Just as I started to fall asleep the doctor came in and told me that the baby's heartrate was dropping each time I had a contraction and he didn't like the way things were looking and told me they were going to prep me for a cesarean.

Everything happened so fast that I guess there was no time for pictures. D. was given a set of scrubs so he could come in with me and they wheeled me away to the operating room. I remember him coming in and the doctor telling him where to sit, and that's about it. I felt them cutting me but it was just pressure and not painful until they got to my right side and it really started to hurt. I told them they were hurting me and they increased my pain medication.. and that was it. I fell asleep and according to D., I even snored a few times. He was able to cut the cord and he says they showed me the baby (and I even responded!) before they left the room. When I woke up I was being put back together and I kept asking where my husband and my baby were. I had a really hard time coming out of the anesthesia and it took me awhile to be able to focus on anything.

I don't remember taking this picture, but this is me with Dr. Wakefield, and a few more pictures:

My hospital "jewelry", including a baby lo-jack type system. The blue watch has a matching band that the baby wears and if mother & baby are too far apart an alarm is set off and the whole hospital (including the elevators) is shut down:

One of the benefits of having a cesarean - a private recovery room. Every bed in the maternity ward was taken that weekend so I was pretty lucky:

Another small benefit - not being able to get up right away so D. had to change the diapers:

And that covers his first day. He'll be waking up soon so I'll post more later!

2 week check up

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 20:57:22 GMT

He's growing!

We took the baby to his 2 week check up today - he's up to 8 lbs 6.5 oz and 22.5 inches long. He's in the 50th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference. That was pretty much all they told us, we don't take him back for another appointment until he is two months old and I can't wait to see how much he has grown by then.

He lost his umbilical cord stump on Wednesday so last night we gave him his first real bath. I have pictures and, just like all the other stuff - I promise to do it when I have the time. D & I are rotating taking naps with taking care of the baby so it's hard to get free time but I'm sure it will get better.

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 12:17:49 GMT

I don't have much "free" time anymore, but I'm still working on getting a bunch of pictures up here for everybody. For now, this one will have to do :)

We're home!

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 01:55:41 GMT

After a slighly extended stay at the hospital, we're home!

Everybody is happy & healthy but a bit tired. We'll post pictures as soon as we catch our breath from everything that has happened in the past few days.

It's a boy!

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:20:40 GMT

September 15th at 7:42am .. 7lbs 12.5 oz and 21 inches long!!

We're still in the hospital but I'll get pictures up when I can.

Still pregnant..

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 17:18:12 GMT

I had an appointment today and they did an ultrasound to check on the baby. He has plenty of fluid in there and is, apparently, quite comfortable. My next appointment is on the 19th, and if he still hasn't found his way out then there will be an eviction notice given at that point.

Nursery Photos

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 23:10:18 GMT

I was holding off on these until my rocking chair came in and it arrived today. Other than adding a shelf up above the changing table, we're done.. I think.

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 11:38:43 GMT

I forgot to mention in the last post that we aren't going to be using the baby's name in the online journal. We'd really appreciate it if his name was left out of the comments as well. We're just trying to keep things safe for him :)

He had the hiccups twice yesterday and he's already got them going again this morning. I guess it is going to be a long day!

Not much new to report.. D. had the day off yesterday so we went all over the place picking up some last minute baby stuff. We still aren't ready, but we're definitely a bit closer. I have plans on working on the nursery this weekend but I also see a few naps in my future.

Hope everybody is doing well.

Welcome!

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 22:37:06 GMT

Welcome to our baby's online journal!

Updates will probably be few and far between until he gets here, but I'll try to post pictures of the nursery, etc. up until that time.

If you have any questions feel free to email me or leave a comment. You don't have to have a livejournal account to comment - just click on "post comment" and type your text into the response box. If you don't have a livejournal account, you would be considered "anonymous" and I won't know who you are.. so please put your name (or something) at the end so I know who you are :)

And in case you aren't keeping as close of track as I am:

We're almost there!