Crawling... Finally

Ok!! DECEMBER 15 is the Date. After many frustrating weeks he finally did it. And I am a blubbering idiot. Ahhhh babies.

Sorry so behind.
We love you all

Meeting the Cousin

October 27 weekend we were able to visit with Elizabeth, Ed and Kathleen. Here is what JR thought of Elizabeth. So Excited!!

Rollin' over

Just in time for his 5-month birthday, John Robert suddenly started rolling over (from back to front) on his own.

Spoonfed

John Robert has been eating rice cereal and other baby foods by spoon for one meal each day since around mid-September. Here he is enjoying one of those meals.

Elizabeth

John Robert ecstatically welcomes his first cousin to the world!

Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!

link to her blog

Drew's Crew

Not long after the Bocksnicks' visit, we had a visit from Cheryl and Rob and their 7-month-old boy Drew. Even though he's about half his age, John Robert was about as tall as Drew. He didn't get those genes from my side of the family...

Bocksnicks visit Bocksnicks

As soon as we got back from Washington, we got a visit from the other half of John Robert's family. Mom, Dad, and Roger came for the weekend and we all had lots of fun playing with JR (and with Roger's iPhone).

A Washington Wedding

It was lonely staying behind while Meg and JR visited Wisconsin and Washington, but before too long, I joined them at the Links’ home. I hadn’t seen him in about a month—two thirds of his life. He had definitely grown and was more active and aware of his surroundings.

It was wonderful to spend time with family, and Anna’s wedding was a load of fun. JR got dressed up in the khaki pants, orange polo, and blue sport coat that had been picked out for him, but the sandals didn’t stay on his feet long. It was hot at the outdoor ceremony and the little guy quickly got uncomfortable, but we ducked into the shade and the vows were soon completed and it was time to move to the reception.
He slept through most of it.
The next morning, while they were playing, JR began to coo and gurgle at Suz. So she made gurgling “wookie” noises in response. They went back and forth for a while. It was one of the strongest “conversations” he’d had to date.

The flight home went smoothly. John Robert was extremely calm and well behaved. We stayed the night in Atlanta, and had breakfast with Kathleen at a nearby café the next morning. While there, JR had a blowout—our newest term for explosive poo that can’t be contained by the diaper—and I had to change my shirt before driving back to Charleston.

Cry Cry Again

This is a little video we shot on June 26th.

Airline Travel

On the Fourth of July we drove to Atlanta. Megan and John Robert were to fly from ATL early the next day, so we planned to stay the night with Ed and Kathleen. It turned out to be a nice evening, and we went to the park with some of their friends to have a picnic dinner and see the fireworks. JR was good the whole time, and slept straight through the bombs bursting in air. What woke him up was the applause from the crowd when the show was over. Go figure.

The next day was tough, having to say goodbye to my wife and baby boy. Kathleen agreed to come with us to the airport in the morning, which was incredibly helpful as I'm sure we would have gotten ourselves lost on the way in the dark before sunrise.
When we got there, Megan and I took John Robert and the luggage in, leaving Kathleen to sleep in the car while she waited. It took a while to get checked in, but once that was done it was only a short walk to the security gates where we had to say goodbye. I wasn't prepared. The moment came so abruptly.
"This is it?" I said in near disbelief, looking over the lines leading into the metal detectors. I could feel tears starting unbidden to well up in my eyes.
After giving Megan a hug and kiss, and kissing JR on the forehead, I sent them off. I watched them as long as I could, but soon they were though security and out of sight. I tried to keep it together as I turned around and headed back out the way we came.
Before long, Kathleen had us back at her house, and I headed out right away toward Charleston and my month of bachelorhood.

Six weeks old

Venturing Out

Little John Robert has been going out to see the world more and more over the past week or so. He's been to the dog park three or four times already. We went to see the Angel Oak with my mom, and he attended his first concert on his 5-week birthday (he saw Plain Jane play at Patriot's Point). He's been out to restaurants, too, with minimal incidents. Just last night he made it through a whole meal at Outback without fussing.
He's smiling now. Not all the time, but it's getting to be more and more common to get a big cheery grin out of him. I'm sure Megan sees that a lot more than I do, now that she's spending most of her day at home with him. She's been great, even letting me sleep while she changes and feeds him in the middle of the night when I have to work the next morning. I know there's not much I could really do to help when she's breastfeeding anyway, but I still feel guilty sleeping through that stuff.
His feeding schedule has changed over the last couple days. Now he's eating more often, and almost always seems to be hungry. It must be another growth spurt. He's definitely getting bigger. Some of his "0-3 months" clothes are getting too small. We're already starting to use some of the "3-6 months" clothes... and he's not even a month and a half yet!
John Robert and Megan are at the breastfeeding group as I write this. He gets weighed there, and we're considering that the "official" weight for now, so when they're back, we'll see how much he's packed on since weighing in at 10 lbs two weeks ago. I'm betting on 12 lbs, Megan thinks it's 11 and a half.

4 weeks old

Tongue Tied

On our first visit to the lactation consultant, we learned that John Robert was "tongue-tied". His lingual frenulum--the part of your tongue that attaches it to the bottom of your mouth--was shorter than normal. This meant that the tip of his tongue was held tight and he wasn't able to use it like he should while breastfeeding.
Our GP referred us to an ENT, who successfully "clipped" his tongue on Tuesday of this week. I wasn't at the appointment, and Megan wasn't allowed in the room when they did it, but everything went well. You could tell a difference right away. He did better at breastfeeding immediately--though he still needs practice. For the first day or so, he looked puzzled by the new sensations in his mouth, and you could watch him discover his tongue. It has been sore, and he's taking a little Baby Tylenol for pain relief, but I think he's recovering from that now and he'll be just fine.

10 days old

One of those new-fangled moving pictures of John Robert, only 10 days old.

Happy Birthday, John Robert!

John Robert was born May 4th at 2:51 am. This is how we got there... from my point of view.

On Thursday, May 3rd, I was working a closing shift at the bookstore, meaning I started at 3:30 pm. At 4:15, Megan called the store, saying, "Hans, I think you need to come to the hospital."
"What's going on? Where are you now?" I asked.
"I'm at the hospital. They're going to break my water."
Megan had been feeling sick for the past few days, and had been especially bad that day. She made an appointment with her midwife for 3:30. Apparently, her blood pressure was high, indicating preeclampsia. The midwife said that Megan had to go to the hospital, and wasn't leaving without a baby in her arms. So here she was calling me as she was being checked in to Labor and Delivery.
So I told the store manager, "I think I have to go to the hospital..." And I was on my way.
I called my parents from the car as I drove to the hospital to let them know what was going on and relay the little information I had at that point. Mom asked if they should come down right away, but I said maybe we should wait until we knew a little more and I'd call with an update within an hour.
When I got to Labor and Delivery, Megan and her Mom were in a room, Megan in the bed in a hospital gown. A nurse was in the room, entering her information into the computer and setting up her IVs--like pitocin to induce labor and magnesium chloride to bring her blood pressure down.
By the time I was situated and ready to call my parents with an update, I already had a voicemail from Dad, saying they were already on their way to the boarding kennel to drop off the dog and would head down to Charleston right away.

At 5:30 pm, while the nurse was still entering info into the computer, Megan was starting to feel her contractions.
At 6:15 a midwife came to break her water and hook up sensors to monitor her contractions and the baby's heartbeat.
By 8:30, Megan's contractions were getting strong enough that she was ready to ask for the epidural. The anesthesiologist that came to apply it was a bit of a cowboy. As he pulled the sterile wrap off of his tools, he tossed them away with a devil-may-care attitude.
At 10:00, the midwife checked on Megan and found that she was still dilated only 4 centimeters--the same as she was when she came in, and also as when she had her last appointment about three days earlier. So she said we should try to get some shut-eye and she'd check back around 4:00 am. I called my parents, who had just gotten in to town, and had gone directly to our house to let the dog out and wait for news. I told them to go ahead and sleep and we'd update them in the morning. The delivery room had a pull-out cot and a rocking chair. Julie and I agreed that I would take the cot for the first half of the night. So I got as comfortable as I could with my hospital blanket and tried to get some sleep. From time to time some activity in the room would wake me up and I'd check the clock, and try to go back to sleep--although now I wish I hadn't tried so hard to sleep.

At about 1:25 Friday morning, Megan's contractions had been bothering her. The nurse was hesitant to give her another bump of pain relief through the epidural. She thought she'd go ahead and check to see how she was progressing.... And she was complete. The nurse flipped all the lights on, and said, "OK, it's time! We're going to start pushing." It turns out the monitor wasn't recording the strength of her contractions correctly and they had been getting stronger and stronger without the computer indicating how strong they actually were.
The nurse started having Megan push in sets of two or three 10-counts during her contractions. After a little while the midwife came in to handle the actual delivery. They were both great and coached Megan on how to push and gave her the appropriate encouragement. When the midwife could see the top of the baby's head, she said, "I can see some hair. It looks like the color of dad's."
A few more pushes and the head was out. I noticed the midwife quickly pull the umbilical cord over his head. It was amazing to see him being born, but the moment passed quickly because another push and--ploop!--his whole body was out. The midwife, nurse, and a couple more nurses who had just come in acted quickly and confidently. They clamped the cord, cut it, dried him off, got him under a heater and started giving him some oxygen. It was 2:51 am on Friday, May 4th.
The magnesium chloride had lowered his blood pressure as well as Megan's, and his umbilical cord had gotten wrapped around his neck as he was born. Because of that he looked pretty pale. Pale and wrinkly. He weighed 7 lbs, 11.9 oz on the electronic scale. Practically everyone in the room yelled at me to get the camera and take a picture of him on the scale. Then they brought him over to Megan for a moment and Julie snapped the picture above. It's John Robert's birthday.

How I Heard The News

I was living a spartan life in Jackson, WI. The movers had taken most of our furniture except for a few pieces we planned to give away. Megan and I had driven down to South Carolina a few weeks earlier, and I had returned to work with EPIC Creative through mid-September.
During that time, Megan's brother, Wade, and Suz were getting married in Minneapolis--in a ceremony officiated by Megan. She had flown up a couple days early, and I planned to drive up on Friday for the wedding and to see Meg.
Thursday night, the day before I leave for Minnesota, I get a call from Megan. She's speaking in a hushed voice, and noticeably nervous.
"Um, I don't want you to get scared," she says.
My mind starts racing. What happened? Who's been hurt? Is something wrong in Charleston? "What is it," I ask.
"I think I'm pregnant."
I'd like to think that my response was immediately reassuring to Megan. That I didn't hesitate to tell her that I was overjoyed, that this was amazing, that we couldn't be more blessed. In truth, I don't remember my exact words. I was happy. I was excited. I'm sure I told her not to worry, that I loved her, and things were going to be great. But I'm also sure there was a pause there first. Just a beat, but I know I could feel my mind reeling. This was something we wanted, yes, but we didn't expect it so soon. It was a genuine surprise, and I hope my hesitation didn't distress Megan. I can imagine one second of silence on the other end of the line feeling like an eternity after revealing news like that.
A minute or two later, the conversation was over. I remember her making comments like, "everyone's here, trying to pour me drinks and asking why I'm not touching mine. I keep saying I don't feel well." And, "I'm in the bathroom. Anna's here. I have to go."

The next day, on the way to the rehearsal, my car dies on the highway in western Wisconsin. I'm stranded for a while, and eventually get a tow to a dealership that's able to replace my alternator and get me back on the road in time to catch up with everyone at the dinner. Megan's not drinking. People notice. She's feeling sick and has to leave the table a time or two. People notice.

It turns out that in the last 36 hours, she's used five pregnancy tests, and consulted Anna and Kathleen on the accuracy of the results.

The next day, the wedding goes off without a hitch. It's a beautiful outdoor ceremony. Megan does a great job marrying her brother. Don't think that phrase wasn't batted around a few times.

The next day, we want to tell our parents. We figure it's early, but we're both here with her family, so we'd better do it now while we have the chance. It's Megan's parents' anniversary, so we have a card for them. Inside the card, Megan puts a pregnancy test with a ribbon tied around it. We go down to her parents room first thing in the morning, knock on the door, get the muffled, "Who is it? What do you want? What time is it?"
We retreat to our room and decide it's a good time to call my parents. We get them both on the phone and ask, "How would you like to be grandparents?"
So that goes well.
A little while later, we head back to Megan's parents' room and try again. When she realizes what's going on, Julie is ecstatic. And for the rest of the morning she can't help but tell everyone she sees. So I guess that went pretty well, too.

To Begin at the Beginning Part 2

In August we started the trek to South Carolina. So much was going through my mind. A new job, new house, life with out Hans for a month and now having to make decisions about kids. Hans and I knew that kids were on the docket but when and how was going to be later. I decided that we would find a specialist when we got settled to review our options.

We moved in, celebrated and then Hans left. I immersed my self into getting my classroom set up and got ready for my brother's wedding that I was performing!! So I had a lot on my plate.

I hadn't seen Hans for over 3 weeks and was excited to see him at the wedding. I had gone a few days early to get things ready and Hans was going to be coming up for the rehearsal dinner.
Now anyone who knows our family knows that at these shindigs we consume a lot of food and alcohol. I was excited to see my family and whoop it up but I had a nagging feeling in my gut. I was 4 days late. This was not abnormal for me. I really wasn't on a regular schedule... in fact the month before I received my period for the first time in two months. But none the less I still felt odd. I decided to secretly by a pregnancy test.

Due to being around family there was no way to hide this so I had to enroll my sister to help me. I told Anna to get a test while I kept Mom busy. (Actually we bought 5 different tests) I took one in the bathroom and there it was one dark line and one really faint line. HOLY S*$*%. Anna I exclaimed do you see two lines or one?!! She said two.... Looked at me and said You are so pregnant. I decided due to my luck I needed to tell Hans what I suspected and talk to our sister in law Kathleen who just went through this earlier.

Ring Ring. Hans .... Are you sitting down? I need to talk to you about something. Nothing is wrong but I think I might be pregnant. I couldn't wait for him to get here and felt that if I was that he needed to know before Kathleen or Anna. He paused. Are you happy? I thought. "I know that I freak out.... I will take another one and make sure when you are here." He said he loved me and said that he would get here as soon as possible. Then his car broke down. Again my luck!!!! Here I am waiting impatiently for my Husband so I can legally freak out and he cant get here?!?!?! AHHHHHHH/
Meanwhile back in Link Land. Kathleen is on the phone with me and I am on line with her figuring out what a faint line really means. Kathleen exclaims.... "Megan look at those examples... you are pregnant". A faint smile curls on my lips. God came through.... earlier than we were thinking but came through none the less. If I was really pregnant.... We proved the doctor wrong... We were going to have a big change... We were going to have to think about so many different things. When should we tell our parents? Ohhh dear. My brain went into over drive. Then Kathleen said "Megan you should get a digital test. These lines are too confusing. " So out went Anna and I. We made up a story saying we had to get Suz food before her pedicure.
A day later..... At this moment I never wanted a drink more. I took the digital test and it was POSITIVE. Again HOLY S*&%. There we were at Buca De Beppos I am not drinking my family is asking why and my husband still has yet to show. I am a mess and feeling sick. Kathleen is looking at me knowingly and all I want is Hans to show up.
When he does I have never been happier. I have missed him. He seems happy and excited.

That night we talk it out and in the delirious haze decide that we can handle anything and that we will make perfect parents. We will tell our parents after the wedding so as not to take the spot light off of Wade and Suz.

The wedding was beautiful and we had a great time and moved into the next phase of our life together.

To Begin at the Beginning

Dr. Jayne was the OBGYN that my primary suggested that I go to for the problems that I was having in the Spring of 2006. Now it should be known that I was having these problems consistently in the past 4 or 5 years. I was diagnosed with Polysystic Ovarian Syndrome with a High FSH level. (your FSH level rises when you are in Menopause... I was 30 at the time!) She suggested that we work on regulating the FSH level, get everything else in check and if we were interested in having a child we could go on a few plans in a year or so.

This boggled the mind... Hans and I had just gotten married a few months prior... I know that we wanted children.... EVENTUALLY, However having to think about it right then and there really made my mind race. I was going through a job search. I knew that Hans and I were in for a stressful summer a possible move, my brother's wedding.. Honestly I was feeling overwhelmed. After talking to Hans we decided to take it one day at a time.

I still was disappointed, sad, and felt like I had failed my body or my body failed me. Hans was right though.. We just needed to take it one day at a time. The rest of my family was also so supportive. It was decided. We weren't going to think about it until we were settled in our new home in South Carolina.

We're expecting.

... and that's what this blog is all about. This will be a place for Megan and me to tell the story of our adventures as new parents and record our thoughts along the way.
Maybe this will be fun to look back on in a few years and see where our heads were at; but for now, it'll be a nice way for friends and family to to follow along if they're interested.