Baby Makes Five

We are settling in and that is the best news ever. Settling in with baby number 3 still has lots of ups and downs. Last week one day I called Kevin in tears afraid I was never going to be able to handle 3 kids on my own. Yesterday we were able to play outside, create sticker master pieces and beginning making some holiday food. So....we just are going to enjoy the ride. But mor importantly what everyone wants to see. More pictures.

Here is Konnor's first bath. He does not enjoy them but Daddy is really good at it.

Aunt Carrie stayed with us for several days and she was wonderful. She even took me shopping as I didn't realized you needed a whole different wardrobe after a c-section. Can you say incision and blue jeans do not get along. She was wonderful with Kenzie and just allowed me to enjoy my first few days home. Thanks a bizillion.

Aunt Marla has also done more than her fair share. She comes and will cook us lunch or play with the kids and last night she even let us out on a date supper for our anniversary. The kids love playing with Aunt Marla.

OK pictures are out of order but here are Kenzie and Aunt Carrie laughing. There is a great picture of Carrie covered in stickers but I think she will appreciate me not sharing it with everyone. :)

I think Klatyon actually took this picture. I am so proud of my boys. I love them so much!!!!

Kenzie is adjusting well. Here she is in her renaissance dress that Aunt Marla gave her that she wears at least 3 times a week. We do have to remind her to be gentle and she wants everything to kiss Konnor. That includes her my little pony's or her mouth full of food. She will hold him for a short period of time and she loves to put (jam) the pacifier in his mouth. All good intentions right?

Klayton is a great helper. He will bring me just about whatever I ask for and he also informs (tattles) every time Kenzie is doing something she is isn't supposed to with Konnor. They are both very proud of their little brother.

And then there is the changing of diapers. Kevin's least favorite job. He has an extra sensitive nose and it is just too funny.

Konnor is growing fast and is back up to birth weight. His blood sugars and platelets have stabilized and we don't have to go back to the doctor for 6 weeks. Whoo hoo!!! For now, we will just enjoy the newborn and our new family of five.

Baby Konnor

Wow what a ride it has been! Not exactly the way we had planned it but we are happy that things are settling down and ecstatic about having our new baby boy at home.

Inquiring minds want to know and I will need to remember the details so here is the story.

After much battling with the platelet counts the number read 80 on Monday. That meant I was elgible for an epidural and we set out to schedule in the induction but there was no opening until Thursday morning. Konnor had different plans. I started having a few contractions on Wed night but nothing regular so we went to bed. At about 1:00 in the morning the contractions were more than I could sleep through but I wasn't sure if they were regular so I did what any pregnant women would do :) I finished sewing a pillow and blow dryed my hair. After about 2 hours of light contractions that were 5 min appart I decided we should head to the hospital. That meant we arrived at the hospital at about 4:00 a.m. All was well

in about 15 minutes the calvary arrived and we just thought the nurses were bored so they were all coming to check on me.

Boy were we wrong. The OB arrived and announced that Konnor's heart rate was showing he was in distress and that we had to take the baby by c-section immediately and because of my platelets we would have to put me to sleep. I could hardly talk but I tried and she said there was no waiting. Luckily Dr. Gunn (who just happens to be the chief of anesthesiology) swooped in and agrees to do the spinal for the c-section. After some blood pressure drops and only 30 min later Konnor was born at 5:07 a.m. weighing 8 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches long. I think I was so scared and so nauseaus that I had a hard time even being excited. It was a very weird experience.

Nevertheless, who could resist those cheeks.
So it was on to recovery and Konnor went to get cleaned up. Still did not know why he was in distress but he checked out great so not too many concerns.

Then after his 1st feeding the doctor noticed he was jittery and the blood sugar checking began.


It was in the 20's and suppposed to be in the 60's so they did a supplemental feeding with formula and Konnor got to meet his new family.

The meeting was cut short by the news that his blood sugars had not recovered and he would need an IV which meant NICU. It was shocking, scary, heart breaking. You name it. We felt those emotions.

The afternoon was spent back and forth between NICU and getting glucose reading and adjusting meds. We finally got the blood sugars stabilized late in the night and only 2 short hours later learned that all the fluids were affecting his sodium levels so they needed to do a central line to increase the glucose while decreasing the fluids. Another blow. We went upstairs to find him with tubes everywhere and were told we wouldn't be able to hold or nurse him. Talk about emotional. I was a basket case. Luckily the nurses made exceptions and we promised to be extra careful and we were able to hold him only for feedings. They still wanted him conserving energy.

The next day the glucose continued to improve so we began the slow descent of sugars to try to test whether Konnor could sustain his own blood sugars. They would check them every 3-6 hours and we would wait on pens and needles for the result. Luckily we had severeal visits from Kenzie and Grandma and a visit from Aunt Marla and Lesley to keep us distracted.


The next issue was platelet counts for Konnor. Evidently I passed on the antibody for this and his platelets started dropping. They dropped down to 89 which meant no elective surgeries (i.e. circumcision) but no side effects. That definitely seemed small when we went upstairs on Sat. afternoon to find no tubes and no IV. We were all grins. It was never so exciting to see an IV machine turned off.

We had some feeding issues on the last day. Just enough to make me cry one more time. But luckily my milk was coming in and we were heading home. I don't know who was more excited us or the nurses. See Konnor was feeling better on Sunday so he was crying louder and more often. Which meant they were ready for him to go home. They are more used to 3lb silent babies. (Seeing those 3lb babies was also a reminder that blood sugars were much easier to control and God's small test for us was only a small cross compared to what many people endure)

After 24 hours off the IV and one final good glucose reaading it was time to go home.

Sorry hospital but I have never been so glad to leave something.

We arrived home to a clean house and a fresh cooked meal thanks to Carrie and Aunt Marla.

All the ups and downs will hopefully be a laughing matter in only a few short weeks. Konnor made his entrance in extreme fashion. I guess he wanted to stand out :)

Of course there are more pictures now that we are at home that I will get around too shortly.

Thanks to everyone for all of the prayers and well wishes. We are greatful to have so many people pulling for us.

We're ready!!!

I mean really ready. The rooms have pretty much been ready for a while but now they are done. Diapers, sheets, everything in place.

And of course Kenzie's new room had to get ready too. Thanks Melinda for all of the advice and the canvases too.

Even everything at work is ready to go. Luckily we don't look like this everyday but it was fun for the day.

The baby held off long enough to take the kids trick or treating.

And now I can leave the kids with Grandma and buckets of candy. Glad it is not me.

The bags are packed

And I even got my pedicure

(my feet are only a little swollen). The best reason that we are ready is that platelets are back up to 80 which may mean epidural. We could be having Konnor in a few short hours. We are ready!!!!