Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the greatest husband in the land. Lennie, I'm so grateful to have you in my life, and I love watching you with our son.

We love you Lennie!

Baptism

Today, we celebrated our son's baptism. We walk in faith that God is with us and hears our prayers. We believe that we are saved through grace, and that it is important that God is always a central figure in our family.

Matthew, we pray that you will be continued blessed in your life, as you have blessed us. Matthew means "Gift from God," and we truly believe that you are a gift to us. We can't wait to see you grow up and discover your strengths, and as you learn of your weaknesses, we pray that you will look to God for strength and wisdom.

During your baptism at First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue, I read the life verse that we selected for you. I hope that you find these to be words to live by:

Matthew 22:36-40 (The Message): One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?”

Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”

Three Months Old!

Today our son is three months old! My how time flies!

Son: everyday we find ourselves more and more in love with you! What a joy it has been to watch you grow!

Happy Memorial Day!

We've decided to raise our son right -- as a UW Husky fan! :) Here he is decked out for his first Memorial Day barbecue with friends:

Two Months Old!

Today our son is two months old!

First Wedding

Today, our son attended his first wedding ceremony. We're very excited for Ken and Leanne, and are glad that we got to share in their day.

Matthew turned more than a few heads with his dashing sense of style and his adorable smile!

7 Weeks Old!

Our son is almost 8 weeks old today! Here he is enjoying his new blanket from Aunt Carol:

Enjoying his blanket from Great Great Aunt Jewel:

Happy Birthday Aunt Tara!

We got to spend the weekend with my sister -- what a wonderful gift!

Her birthday was today, and we had great fun celebrating with her all weekend! Love you sis!

Postpartum and the NICU

To say that we weren't really prepared for this experience would be an understatement. After all, we thought that we had five more weeks to prepare for baby! With that said, having a "late pre-term baby" is an even more intense experience. We were fortunate that when our son was delivered, all of his systems were working normally, and there were no major issues right off the bat.

Our hospital has a standard rule that late pre-term babies must be observed for at least six hours after delivery. The first hour is spent with us in the room, and then the rest of the time is spent in the special care nursery / NICU. Since I was less than mobile (due to the C-section) and still on medication (including that darn Magnesium!), I still don't remember much of what happened. Although, I do remember the super-cool hovercraft like mattress that they used to move me from the operating room table to my rolling bed. (It was quite the trip!) Nonetheless, I was moved to a new room on the delivery wing, and Matthew got to join us in the room for a little bit. 

After an hour or so, Lennie escorted our son down to the NICU for testing, and I got to begin recovering from surgery. When Lennie returned from the NICU, he said that they were going to keep our baby for observation, since he had decided that he didn't want to eat. (Apparently this is normal for early babies.) Everything else was okay, he simply didn't want to eat. In addition, with the room being kept so cold (again because of the Magnesium hot flashes I was having), they decided that it wasn't the best place for our baby. 


As visitors began to arrive, we would spend some time in my room, and then Lennie would escort them back to see our new addition in the NICU. We're especially grateful that one of our church's pastors and one of our great friends were able to visit with us and talk about what had just transpired. Our friend's husband even delivered dinner to Lennie -- which I think he really needed!


My parents were finally able to arrive from Phoenix around 10 that night. They checked on me, and then were whisked back to the NICU to meet their newest grandson. Unfortunately, Matthew was still not eating, and the NICU staff had to insert a feeding tube through Matthew's nose so that he could eat. This was heart wrenching news, but I knew that our son was in good hands. 


Since I was still in the throes of recovering from surgery, I wasn't able to go to the NICU to visit or hold my son until late the next morning. Once I was finally up and able to walk (only a little bit, so I had to take a wheelchair with me), I was finally able to visit my son. At this point, Lennie was an 'old pro' at visiting our son, so he was able to show me the ropes.

He was sooo little!

After I was (thankfully!) taken off of the Magnesium, I was moved to a postpartum room on Saturday afternoon. While it was farther from the NICU, it was a nice room. Everything had still been swirling around me, but I'd say that the hardest times were on Saturday and Sunday for me. The postpartum room was surrounded by rooms with healthy babies who were in with their new parents. I didn't sleep at all on Saturday night, and was incredibly frustrated that I couldn't go down and visit my son without it being an ordeal (pushing wheelchairs, coordinating with others, etc.). The crying babies on either side of me definitely did not help the situation!

A note for new moms here: if you can't sleep or are uncomfortable, speak up and tell your nurses about it. Repeat after me: Ambien. After I was clued in to this opportunity on Sunday, I had one of the best nights of sleep, and was able to get my whits about me again. (Although, this did come after everything finally hit me and I had a really good breakdown/cry session.)

I was checked out of the hospital on Monday morning, but our son continued to need a feeding tube and was "right on the edge" of needing to be under the lights for being jaundiced. (Fortunately, his numbers never got into the range where he'd need that treatment.) I thought that it would be difficult to leave the hospital without my son, but at the same time I was completely at peace with it because I knew that he was in good hands. We stayed at my parent's house for the night since it was closer to the hospital, and Lennie was able to go back to work on Tuesday. I got to go and visit the NICU, so all was well.

On Tuesday afternoon, I met Lennie after work at the NICU for our son's evening feeding. When we walked in, the nurse said "I'm sorry that I had to feed him early, but go and take a look at your son!" When we walked over to his area, we discovered that our headstrong son had removed his feeding tube on his own, and was sleeping peacefully. What an amazing turn of events! We got to sit and hold him, and as we left the nurses said that he would probably be going home in 48 hours if he continued on the path that he was on!

Lennie and I returned to our house for the first time on Tuesday night, and it was an almost surreal experience. It had been over a week since I had been in my own home, and our friend Alycia had scurried around behind the scenes getting us "baby ready" at home. It was amazing to see all of the work that she had done!

On Wednesday morning, Lennie had decided to drop by the hospital before going to work. That's when I go the craziest call from Lennie -- our son was going home that day! Lennie told me with a big smile in his voice that I needed to bring clothes and the car seat to the hospital with me so that our son could do the "car seat test" (where he has to sit in the car seat for 45 minutes without any distress) and then possibly be discharged. To say that I was out of bed in a flash would be an understatement!

My mom and I went to the hospital in a daze, clothing and car seat in hand, and joyfully learned that my son had turned the corner and was eating like a champ. The day was filled with education from the nurses, nerves from me, and utter joy as my son passed the car seat test without blinking an eye. (And my Mom took 100 photos along the way -- thanks Mom!)

When you get discharged from the hospital with your new baby, the nurse escorts you down to your car. She inspected our car seat (and gave us some great pointers), and then sent us on our way. My Mom and Dad drove us out of the hospital parking lot with my son by our side. As we drove along, my Mom was chuckling saying, "my how things have changed since I took you home from the hospital! I think that I had you in my lap for the few miles home!"

Yes, how things have changed. How they have changed indeed!

Welcome Baby!

During our stint on bed rest in the hospital, I feel like we were taking things minute-by-minute and test-by-test. Lennie was a trooper, sleeping on a less than comfortable fold-out bed/chair in my hospital room, experiencing everything with me throughout the week. After a very long night on Thursday night where the nurse had to literally stand over me for over an hour in order to keep our little one on the monitor, we awoke less than rested and still feeling less than stellar. My obstetrician, Dr. Otto, came in for morning rounds to check on us and to have a discussion. Based upon my morning test results and the troubles with the monitors, she advised us that we needed to be monitored longer that morning, and that it was possible that we were going to deliver that day. Baby was most likely on the way -- 4+ weeks early. We immediately got on the phone with my parents, who were wintering in Phoenix, and told them that they needed to get on a plane because we might be going to the delivery room that evening.

I'd had breakfast that morning, a delicious combination of cream of wheat and grapes (which, oddly, I'd been craving while in the hospital), so that presented us with a bit of a problem. The doctor and anesthesiologist conferred / argued about the timing of the day's events, and eventually came to the conclusion that it was go time. Once the decision was made, we went from having two people in the room to what seemed like a swarm of people. It was craziness!

As the craziness unfolded around us, I observed to a nurse that I needed to go to the restroom. As I was finishing up,  I noticed some clear fluid on my leg. I thought that perhaps we were having plumbing problems in the room! When I walked out with a confused look on my face, I told the nurse about it and she said "Actually, I think that your water broke!" It seems that our little bundle of joy agreed with the decision to be born that day, and was exercising some impatience!

The craziness continued, and we were prepped to go to the operating room for a C-section delivery. (Between my exhaustion and our son's distress, it was determined that we wouldn't be able to successfully deliver any other way.) Our dear friend Alycia arrived to say hello, and she snapped some photos to commemorate the day. (Alycia, you're right: I do appreciate these photos now!)

Being wheeled down the hall and into the OR was a surreal experience for me. First, I was going down a hall that I had only hoped to be able to walk down for the last four or so days. Second, I was about to become a mother! As we were being brought into the OR, one of my favorite nurses ran over to me and leaned down and said that God had a plan for me and that everything would work out. She said a little prayer, and her words were exactly what I needed to hear at that moment. (Isn't it amazing how God provides in your time of need!)

When the doors opened to the operating room, I immediately wished that we had been able to take that hospital tour earlier (we were supposed to take the tour the next day!). The OR had all of these things hanging from the ceiling (were those chains!?), and all that I could think was that it looked like a torture chamber. Scary moments, but we survived!

Again, everything becomes a blur. I got onto the operating table using a step stool, and I remember working with our anesthesiologist to begin the surgery prep. (Now that I think back on the experience, the spinal tap is the one thing that scares and amazes me at the same time!) Once the drugs were on board, she used this really cool (literally) spray stuff to check to see that the drugs were working appropriately. Nurses buzzed about and two doctors worked around me, but again it's all a blur.

At one point, I remember looking up and realizing that I could see where they were working reflected in one of the surgical lights. I also remember looking at Lennie and saying "I don't want to see the reflection, so I'm going to look at you instead!" When they say that all that you will feel during the surgery is tugging and pulling, they are completely right (at least in my case!). I remember giggling at the feeling of them hitting one of my muscles -- it felt like rubber bands springing in my stomach.

Lennie, by the way, is still one of the heroes in this story. He sat in his appointed spot by my left hand and my head and was completely mesmerized by the process while also being attentive to me. It was awesome. The nurses made sure that Lennie had his camera ready, and when the time came, the anesthesiologist even took some family photos for us!

After all of this adventure, we had our son -- a healthy 5 pound 12 ounce, 18" long bouncing baby boy. Lennie and I had narrowed down the list of names to a handful, and when he came out we both simultaneously looked at him and then at each other and said "Matthew." It just felt right, and it was.

Next time: our time in the NICU.