See Luke, Mom was around!

Being that I'm the one always taking the pictures around here, I'm not actually IN any pictures with Luke. (My Aunt has taken a few but they were early on from the hospital and from the house the day after we came home and I wasn't really 'put together')

Luke and I went up to my work on Thursday to join in on the After Busy Season festivities (they were kind enough to invite me even tough I had to leave early March!) This year's party was a Mariner game viewed from a wonderful suite! So Luke did his first game and hung out with a couple of my co-workers. He was very good and an Safeco Field employee even dug a baseball trading card out of his bag on the way out and gave it to us for his first baseball card. It's a few years old and of a Padre. I wonder if the player or card meant anything to this old guy, but the elevator let out and we were walking to the car alone... And 98% of everyone was long gone so there wasn't a crowd to safely blend into.

This weekend we picked up my in-laws from the airport who were vacationing in Mexico for almost 3 weeks. Grandma couldn't believe how much Luke had changed! He's now about 11 lbs and he's getting little chubby cheeks and legs! :o)

Saturday night Luke slept on my chest all night long, we still had our feedings so he didn't sleep through the night, but I was too tired to try and put him back in his bassinet. He always wakes up when I lay him down and then we do the pick up, comfort, lay down, shake the bassinet, plug with the binky and add in the Mylicon because now he's on his back and the bubbles tend to get painful on his back after he eats... And then again, and sometimes again, if it didn't work. This way he fell asleep immediately while I was burping him, and he sleeps SO GOOD when he sleeps on his tummy, facing us, snuggled in on the chest that it's so hard to want to spend the energy staying awake, when I can just lean back and sleep and snuggle with him. We all get more sleep this way. (I was better last night and he stared out in his bassinet and stayed there until about 3:30.) We even attempted church yesterday morning! We got in there and he slept through the worship part and as soon as the sermon started, he was up and with a tummy ache (stupid antibiotics!) I left the sanctuary out the nearest door when he'd get fussy and it put me smack in front of the newborn-2 year nursery. Kaelyn was in there so I checked on her a few times and then Luke and I sat and pumped his little legs most of the time to ease the pain, after about 10 minutes of that, I'd take him back in and he'd be fine for another 10 minutes and then I could hear and feel bubbles in his stomach and he'd get fussy. The Mylicon was left on the counter so we had to keep repeating the leg pumps and leaving. Lake Sawyer doesn't have a 'cry room' with audio piped in so I missed most of the sermon. Each time I came out the women in the nursery kept begging me to check Luke in so they could oh and ah over him closer, and then I could go back in and actually listen to the pastor, but after surveying the current occupants: 2 snotty faces, 1 barking cough, 1 little cough, and a mystery goo. I just really wasn't feeling it! I politely told them that I just wasn't ready to be where I couldn't hear him yet and then tried to get the chick that was holding Kaelyn to come over to the window and keep her there to avoid her exposure to germ central. Hopefully after these antibiotics are gone (2 more days!!) he'll be feeling better and next week we can try it again. I'm going to have Dr. Mark (our chiropractor) look at Luke again today to see how his right side's doing. A couple weeks ago (right before the ear infection) Luke's head  seemed to be always going to the right side and his shoulder was elevated. I should have taken him in then, but was still hung up on how little he was. And then when he got the ear infection on his right side, I knew I blew it! When we went in last Wednesday Dr. Mark  adjusted him and he's been much better with his range of motion in his neck since. I probably could've avoided the whole ear infection/antibiotic had I done it earlier, but now I know and am going to have Dr. Mark at least look at him every couple of weeks. 

This morning we're off to meet an attorney, things are starting to get a little hairy with the medical bills after the accident/delivery and it wasn't suggested, but hinted that I might want to talk to someone (from my adjuster at our insurance company)... The at fault party's insurance offered me like $500 and said that seeing as I was going to have Luke anyway, and that he was alright - they weren't covering the costs for anything pertaining to the delivery. I don't expect them to cover the entire thing, but from what I've heard they are responsible for anything over an normal delivery, i.e the 2 extra nights, for both of us, the additional drugs, the OR, etc. If that stuff goes to my regular insurance, and then we pay the 10% after their coverage and our deductible - that $500 isn't really going to cover it.  Not out looking for a huge pay-out, but we'd already paid our portion of a 'normal delivery' to the doctor and hospital. I just want the bills paid... Preferably before we go to collections! Our medical insurance company also believes that Farmer's should pay a portion... which leaves bills in limbo while they're arguing. It's getting messy, so we thought we'd consult an attorney that Dr. Mark recommended, he's supposed to be the non ambulance chasing type. We'll see.

Well here's a couple pictures that my boss took of us at the game, hence the title of this post -  I finally have a picture with my boy that I look somewhat 'together'... I wish you could see him better, he had his cute little baseball outfit on!

The HVC group

 (minus a few that didn't come)

Luke & Laura... Any GH fans out there :o)

He loves to snuggle in his carrier! See his hat, the whole outfit was that pattern - so cute!

Charlie (new managing partner), Steve (former managing partner - he's 'retiring') - both looking at Luke, Serena and us.

Seriously!?!

My little man has his first ear infection. After 7 weeks we've officially heard him cry - a real cry... It's terribly sad!

He was in some pain last night and I was nearly in tears and Ben just followed us around the house trying to talk to Luke telling him he needed to stop cause he was making his Daddy really sad... Didn't work.

I totally understand now how people can OD their kids though! You give them the tylenol, wait and wait and when they're still upset after it should've kicked in, you wonder if just a little more is okay... Maybe he spit some out that I didn't see and didn't get a full dose? I was good but man it was hard! He did alright through the night, I set my alarm at the soonest he could have another dose of the tylenol so that there was always some pain reliever working in him to avoid it getting too bad again. He did get a bit worked up and I finally had to put him down to change his diaper and he fell asleep on his changing table. Previously (and all day today) anytime we'd move him we'd wake up so I didn't really want to pick him up only to try and lay him back down again, so what's a Mom to do? Take the changing pad with me. I lifted up the entire pad and put it on our bed in between us and he slept there the rest of the night instead of his bassinet.

With it being so warm the last couple days it's been really hard not to overheat him while trying to rock him. He really loves his car seat so this afternoon after a long few hours of trying but not successfully napping we put him in his car seat and walked around the house for a minute like we were headed out to the car and he was gone! I was able to take him out in that and do a little yard work too! The doctor said we caught it before it got really bad, and we've got antibiotics going so hopefully this will only take another day to get him feeling better! Still with not feeling great he's starting to be a little social. He was on my lap today telling me a story with his sweet little voice! He's not smiling interactively yet, but I think it's close. He's also starting laughing as he drifts off to sleep on occasion, which means that Ben and I hover every time he's falling asleep hoping to hear a little boy giggle.   

Here you go Grandma!

Just Relaxin'

He's holding his head up here and had been for about 10 minutes by the time I took this picture - it kills me because he doesn't even look like my baby  with this expression!

He's getting tired

We're done being strong and now realize there's toys to look at!

At the Miller's house - Auntie Rachel likes him a little bit.

In his Easter outfit... 0-3 months and it's still HUGE on him! 

When it Rains...

Today I went in to my OB's office for my post natal, 6 week check up and I had planned on getting an IUD. I really don't do well with oral BC, it always makes me feel sick and I was loving some of the benefits of the IUD. We knew I had a retro-verted Uterus, but didn't know it was tilted so severely. This made the insertion incredibly painful and because my doctor couldn't make visual confirmation it was in right, she wanted me to have an ultrasound to check the placement. It became clear rather quickly, even before my ultrasound that it wasn't right and my doctor quickly got me in and we found that the IUD was no where to be seen (apparently there are long strings attached to allow for placement that get cut when it's right, so thankfully she had a way to get it out, but on the screen they noticed quite a bit of fluid. I called Ben during the ultrasound who was almost to work and told him I needed him. He got to the doctor's office as my doctor was explaining the risks of the emergency surgery they were about to do. Hysterectomy was mentioned and I lost it - to which my doctor got upset too and all but promised me she would find the bleed and fix it before that became necessary, but she wasn't sure she could promise that she wouldn't have to cut my stomach open. (initially it would be laproscopic.) And she was almost sure that a transfusion would be in the picture. She never left my side for more than a few moments, to get her coat and cancel the rest of her day and she wheeled me herself to the hospital (thank goodness the building's connect!)

Ben was with me and my amazing friend Aubrey came to get Luke while I was in surgery. Ben was told it went really well, that the blood on the ultrasound was far more than she would expect with the perforation that the IUD made while shooting out the side of my Uterus. No big incisions, no transfusion, just a few stitches to close up the hole... Praise God!

My mom is staying with us tonight to help with my sick little man (he and his Daddy got a cold) and we'll be spending Ben's work shift with Chris and Dad tomorrow - who are both working from home. I'm actually doing alright, just really, really sore. My prayer request is for a quick heal for me and that Luke doesn't get the Chicken Pox! Yes, the chicken pox. (This is part of the 'it pours') Ben's poor grandfather found out Easter evening that he has shingles, he held Luke for a little while on Easter afternoon and we're praying it wasn't enough exposure to infect him. His pediatrician's office told us it'll be 2-3 weeks before we know and there's not a thing anyone can do for him in the meantime... She doesn't know how many "pray-ers" we're blessed to know! 

I've got some cute Luke pictures I took at the request of Ben's mom who's in Mexico right now that I'll try to get up tomorrow. 

We love him!

Luke's pictures aren't on the photographer's site anymore and I've been asked to add these here so people can still look at them. :)  Enjoy!

1 month old!

Luke is such a good baby still! He's been much more awake lately but pretty content to just look around the room. He's now 8lbs, 5 oz!! He's making all sorts of noises in his sleep - I LOVE it! We've tried to avoid getting him too dependent on his binky, but he knows his thumb exists... He's also aware that it fits perfectly in that cute little mouth of his if no binky is present. 

It's been more than 4 days since I've been able to kiss and snuggle this sweet boy... I'm going crazy!

Really late night!

Posting is much, much easier than talking at this time, so I'm very sorry to those that might have normally expected a phone call - this is just a much easier way to update.

Last night I had a new "fun" symptom. My Mom was here and when I told her she started telling me that we needed to go in. Ben called a few minutes later and I was trying to get an ally so I told him expecting him to side with me that she was over-reacting. Dumb move! Apparently the fevers and lack of sleep impaired my judgement into thinking that was a good idea. He totally took her side... And so did the on call doctor. So Mom and I loaded up Luke and headed to the ER for some blood work. I got to do the "ha ha!" when nothing immediately relevant to this pneumonia showed up, but the doctor and both of them pulled the "better safe than sorry" card. 2 iv attempts, 3 blood draws from 2 different sites, 1 big bag of fluids, and an iv antibiotic to jump start the ones I'm already on... And we got home around 3. I was so excited about finally being able to crawl into bed, but Luke was excited about eating. RIGHT. NOW! With being so sick, yesterday my milk production slowed drastically and I was nursing every couple hours trying to keep his tummy satisfied. At 3 am, I was out far earlier than he needed me to be. The binky wasn't cutting it and there didn't appear to be any chance he was going to be able to sleep for any amount of time to let me hopefully get some more 'in'. So I here I am with a very sad baby (not the mad cry but the sad, pathetic little pouty cry that makes you feel so bad!) pacing my room trying to rock him to sleep, crying myself and just begging God to ease his hunger long enough for us to sleep a little and to give me enough to provide him with what he needs when he wakes up. God answered my prayer and finally at 4 he was sleeping and we didn't wake up to eat again until 7, and again at 10 - which I had just enough to get him back to sleep. He is so good!

Thank you all so much for your prayers!   

We're going to lay back down but I promise to post later and there will be a 1 month picture and update of my little man!

Please Pray!

I have Bacterial Pneumonia. The bacterial part is causing the high fever and is assumed to be very contagious. I haven't really taken the mask off at all now, and I don't know the last time I've felt this bad. 

Please, please pray that my sweet little boy doesn't get sick!!!