Braden, Emma and I were playing doctor the other night. You know, it sounds creepy saying it that way, but it shouldn’t. But I digress. Braden grabbed a play hammer and tapped my knee. He looked at me and said “Daddy, I’m checking your kneeflex”. I asked if maybe he meant reflex. “No, Daddy, it’s called a kneeflex.”
And I couldn’t really argue too much with him!
Let’s see… Alex is now 3 1/2 months old and I suppose it’s about time I posted something.
He’s doing great! He’s really such a good baby we’re very lucky. He hardly cries, although lately he’s been getting a bit more vocal about his needs. If he is crying, he’ll calm down immediately when we pick him up. He has slept through the night a few times now. Tonight he actually laughed for the first time. A real full belly laugh for about 30 seconds. The odd thing is that he was fast asleep when he did it. He was making cooing noises in his sleep and I laughed at it. He must have heard me and just start laughing away. He’s also able to sit in his exersaucer now… well, with a blanket to help hold him up. Kathie thinks he’s growing up too fast… and he probably is. But it’s kind of hard to stop.
Braden is enjoying the summer. He loves playing outside! He’s so tan I hardly recognize him as my kid! He loves riding his bike (with training wheels) and doing yard work. He likes digging up our mulch and moving it to other spots. I think if I had mulch delivered, he’d probably get it all in place for me. It might take 2-3 weeks, but he’d probably do it all.
Emma loves being outside too. She like riding her tricycle and her scooter, even if she doesn’t like wearing the helmet she’s supposed to wear when riding it.
We’re all a little sad that our good neighbors the Pines moved to Houston. Braden really misses ‘the boys’, but we’ve all adjusted. The kids like playing with Ryan and Riley next door.
We bought a new car. Thanks everyone for your help with that via the taxes you pay. Yep, we turned in the Blazer on the Cash for Clunkers program and bought a 2009 Camry Hybrid. Good thing too, because the Blazer was on it’s last legs. The check engine light even came on when I was driving to the dealer. It’s very nice having a nice car to drive to work. The blazer was a good vehicle for a long time for me, but the doors were starting to..um… fall off, the air conditioning didn’t work, the heater was sporadic, the CD player hasn’t worked for years, the catalytic converter was pretty much shot, and someone broke the lever to recline the driver’s seat… with the seat in a slightly inclined position. (Don’t worry Dad, I won’t tell who it was). So, needless to say, I’m really enjoying the Camry!
Alex smiled at me this morning! It made my day. He has smiled at Kathie, and even our neighbor, but had not given me a smile yet. It’s amazing how such a simple thing can light up your morning.
And it was more than just a quick one… he was smiling away for a couple minutes.
Kathie could have reported the first smile here and received credit for it, but she refuses to learn to blog :)
We have a new dog. Yes, I know… we’re crazy. Braden picked out his name: Chuck. He’s a very nice dog. Braden loves feeding him. Braden even likes it when he licks his face. Quite often we find Chuck looking at Alex. He also likes sleeping with Braden.
Braden walks Chuck and makes sure we pick up his poop. We’re also very careful when we see other dogs when walking so that Chuck doesn’t get too excited.
Here’s a picture of Chuck with Braden and Alex:
Yes, Chuck is an imaginary dog. But Braden has been taking care of his imaginary dog 24 hours a day for 2 days now. He has even been telling our neighbors and people we meet on our walks about Chuck.
So, maybe we don’t need to get a dog after all. We could probably even get an imaginary pony for Emma.
Not that I have an extremely high sense of loyalty to RedPrairie or anything, but it is pretty cool to see your company’s logo up at some place like Miller Park. And it’s even in a spot of honor next to a Miller sign. Too bad about the Time Warner sign though.
We’re having our carpets cleaned today. Braden came in and said “The carpet cleaner man sure has his hands full.” We asked him why and he said “Because he’s carrying a lot of stuff.” Apparently he literally had his hands full.
Ok, so Emmaisms isn’t quite as catchy as Bradenisms.
Dad: “You could have blueberries on your waffle.”
Emma: “Yuck! Silly Daddy”
Braden asks to go watch TV upstairs by himself.
Dad: “You need some alone time?”
Braden: “yeah”
Emma goes up by him and Braden comes out to tell us: “I’m having alone time with someone!”
Braden’s t-ball coach calls him “Rabbit”, trying to encourage him to run fast. Braden: “I’m not a rabbit! I’m a boy.”
Where have all you faithful readers been? It’s been forever since you’ve been here reading my blogs. Err.. I mean, it's been forever since I’ve blogged. My bad.
One of the reasons I don’t blog more often is I try and wait until I have pictures uploaded to make the blogs more interesting. So, it’s not that I’m lazy and don’t blog. It’s that I’m lazy and don’t upload pictures. Actually, it’s even more complicated than that because I also want to try and get videos uploaded to add content to the blog too. And that’s more complicated than the pictures. Ok… I know… what a lame excuse.
So, let’s see, what has happened since my last blog. when was that anyway? Alex is now 9 weeks old. Which, from a developmental standpoint makes him 4 weeks old. Or is that 2 weeks in dog years? Anyway… he has doubled in weight! He’s grown 5 inches. And he’s doing great. He’s really a pretty good baby and rolls with whatever we throw at him. He does really well in his car seat when we go places. He has had some issues with what we think is a milk allergy. Emma had the same thing. I won’t go into the details, but he’s quite often pretty uncomfortable and has some gas issues. But he tends to let us calm him down pretty easily.
Braden and Emma have been great siblings. Braden especially. He really loves Alex and at least a couple of times a day he stops to just admire Alex. Emma has her phases. One minute she wants to help us feed Alex. The next minute she’s throwing a tantrum because we can’t cuddle with her. She’s been acting up a little and we think it’s because she’s a little jealous. But she also has her very, very sweet moments.
Braden started t-ball and soccer. Wow. That’s an experience. He seems to be having fun It’s certainly adds a little chaos to our schedules with t-ball twice a week and soccer once. We also got Braden a big boy bike (with training wheels). Boy is he getting good at riding that! This spring he couldn’t even pedal his tricycle!
Both kids have been having a blast playing with the neighbor kids. Braden really likes playing with Ryan next door and Tyler from down the block. We just wish Tyler had a little more supervision as his parents are never out with him… kind of bad for a three year old, in our opinion.
Braden also started speech and his teacher commented on how funny Braden is. She also said he has quite an advanced vocabulary for his age. Must be all the PBS TV we let him watch :)
We are considering getting a dog. We even applied for a few adoptions online. But we were either turned down (we’re not sure why) or the dogs had already been adopted. We’re kind of thinking about a Great Dane or Mastiff mix. We want it to be a mix so it might not be as large as normal Danes or Mastiffs. And we want the Great Dane or Mastiff breed because they’re great family dogs that have a little less energy than say… a Lab. But, of course, at her last allergist appointment, we found out Emma is allergic to dogs. It’s very dog/breed specific, so we may still be able to get a dog, but we need to figure out how allergic she is and get her exposed to some dogs to fine out what breads are good. Braden is very excited about the possibility of a dog, especially since we' told them dogs we’re looking at are like Scooby Doo. I’m not so sure he’ll be so happy if we actually get a dog because he’s still pretty nervous around dogs. But we hope a dog would be a good experience for him and help him gain confidence. Plus I LOVE dogs.
That’s all for now. I’m sure I forgot a bunch of stuff. I know I’ve left out a lot of ‘Bradenisms’. I’ll try and do better and keep this up to date more frequently.
Great weather this weekend and good times. No, not the big parties or exciting events some people might focus on, but a great weekend in my books.
Today we had a great picnic in the park. Braden is really starting to become an accomplished tag player. Emma can climb playground equipment like no one else. And Alex thinks napping outside is divine.
We decided to stop having Braden take naps this weekend. So far he’s doing very well with it. He does seem to relax and calm down a little while Emma is napping, so that probably helps. But so far he’s done pretty well and an earlier bed time seems to be working out well too.
Alex is doing great! He’s eating like a champ and is growing very quickly. He’ll sleep somewhere between 5 minutes and 3 hours at a time. Although right now he’s going on 3.5 hours… SHHHHH…. Alex… go back to sleep. Well, time to go get a bottle! Good night!
I started to write ‘Happy Memorial Day’, but then thought better of it. Memorial Day is intended to remember and honor the soldiers who have given their time, talents and in some cases, lives or health to server their country and protect our values and way of life. I’m not really sure ‘Happy’ would be right in most cases.
So, I’ll simply say thank you to all those men, women and their families who have sacrificed so much for all of us.
I think the Happy part comes in too much for a lot of us ‘civilians’ who see Memorial Day as just a long weekend. I hope we can all take some time out of our festivities and parties to thank these heroes.
The new Miller Lite commercials are annoying. You know the ones where the Sopranos characters come in and offer ‘protection?’ They’re annoying to me for two reasons:
Ok, maybe it’s Braden and Emma that are annoying there? Nah… we’ll blame the writers at Miller.
We’re changing Alex’s name to Billy Rueben Ehlke. Ok, not really, but I’m starting to wonder if we shouldn’t.
But we had some good news today! His levels went down from 9.7 to 8.8. So we’re headed in the right direction without any light therapy, other than sitting in the sunlight.
Ok, get off my back already! I mean come on… I know I haven’t blogged in like two weeks, but is the hate mail really necessary? :)
Yeah, right.
Anyway, I’m tired. Kathie’s tired. Emma’s tired. Braden never stops talking, but he’s probably still tired too.
Alex is doing well. He’s already gained a pound and was up to 5lbs, 9 oz when he was last weighed. He is off the Billiblanket, but his billirubin levels are still pretty high. They don’t seem too concerned, but we have had to get his blood tested every day this week. That’s a major drag.
But he’s a good little baby. He’s eating like a champ and sleeping pretty well between feedings. He tends to get a little gassy, but who doesn’t?
Braden had his end of the year school program with the preschoolers and kindergartners last night. Wow, that was fun! Braden did GREAT! We were a little nervous: they put him front and center, pretty much by himself in front of all the other kids. Kathie and I were wondering if he was going to do a solo, but we think maybe it was so the teacher could prompt him or keep an eye on him better that way. But what a difference from the last programs he’s done. He would just stand there and not sing. You could usually here him sighing or yawning very loudly and that was about it. But last night, he was belting out the tunes, doing most of the hand gestures and generally performing to the level you’d expect to see on American Idol. I was very proud of him, even we he’d yell out “Hi Dad!” right in the middle.
Grandma and Grandpa helped out for a couple weeks and we greatly appreciate that! But I think they’re probably happy to be back in the relative peace and quiet of their own home.
That’s about it for now… back to work.
I am back at work. Grandma and Grandpa are here helping out.
It’s been pretty hectic, but things are slowly settling into place at home. I even got the lawn mown and the bushes trimmed yesterday. Happy Mothers Day!
Alex is doing great. He has a blood test today to see how his billirubin levels are doing. Hopefully we’ll be able to take him off the blanket! He’s eating well, sleeping well and has now found his ‘voice.’ He doesn’t really cry hard, but definitely is getting more vocal.
The kids and I planted flower seeds in a mini green house kit on Friday. They’ve already sprouted and Braden is amazed by the fact that they grow towards the sun. And then grow back when you turn them around.
Baden an Emma helped with Alex’s first bath at home. Braden was impressed that his umbilical cord had fallen off… because now he has a penis, and it’s so long! We had to explain that the umbilical cord was where the belly button was. But of course, Alex picked that moment to start peeing… and Braden added his color commentary by saying “It’s like a sprinkler.” Video of the event is coming.
We got a Moses basket to make it easier to move Alex around the house with us and even to go outside. I was reading a story about Moses to Braden and explained why it’s called a Moses bed. He looked at me and said “No, Dad. We should call it an Alex Basket Bed because his name is Alex.”
We think Emma has some more problems with allergies. She has no major symptoms, but she’s been very cranky and rubbing her nose a lot and coughing. Then again, it could be just because she’s two.
Sorry for the rambling… I’m just blasting this out there just to get it out of my head :)
Again, I apologize for not keeping up on blogging. I’m really trying to get some overdue work done for…well…work. I’m pretty stressed out about it and really need to get it wrapped up.
Anyway… Alex is now 15 days old. He had a blood draw and a doctor appointment today. His billirubin levels are down to 8.0 and he gained 4 ounces. He’s now up to 4lb, 12 oz. He’s really doing great. He eats very well, sleeps even better and still hasn’t really cried. We will keep him on the light until Monday, when he’ll have another blood draw. If his levels drop again, we’ll take him off the light to see if they stay down. He’ll have another test Friday and another doctor visit.
I apologize for the delay in Alex updates. It’s been a bit…um… busy around here.
Alex is 13 days old today. He’s doing great! He’s really a wonderful little baby. He eats well, sleeps well, poops well and doesn’t cry. I know I’m cursing us by saying it out loud, but I’m so happy with how he’s been doing.
He had a doctor visit Monday and another blood test for billirubin levels. The levels came up to 9.2, so we had to have another follow up on Tuesday. That one was lower at 8.9, so we go back to the doctor and the lab on Friday. We’re making sure he has as much skin contact and time with the BilliBlanket.
His checkup went well. He didn’t cry or complain about any of it. He got a clean bill of health, except for the billirubin. They want us to increase his feedings to every 90 minutes to help get him flushing the billirubin out of his system. The doctor also strongly urge us to allow no visitors with the swine flu situation going on. Which is actually ok with us because our house is a mess :)
I’ve been feeding Alex during nap times and the last night feedings (I’m up anyway) and Kathie is getting up with him in the early morning feedings. It’s working out pretty well.
I know you all are probably looking for updates on Alex (and the rest of us… right?), but I need a slight diversion today.
Why is the Man with the Yellow hat called the man with the yellow hat when he wears all yellow clothes? Why not "The Man with the Yellow Boots”, or “The Man with the Yellow Pants”, or possibly “The Man with the Yellow Underwear?” On second thought, that last one is probably not a good idea as it could apply to a lot more people than him, I’m guessing. Plus, I don’t really know that he has yellow underwear… I’m just guessing.
And why is it that George always seems to be the one coming up with the good ideas? Shouldn’t The Man with the Yellow Hat/Pants/Boots be smarter than his pet monkey?
And what’s with Dr. Wiseman and Yellow? Are they dating? Unrequited love? Former lovers?
Why do all kids shows seem to have one character that has a speech impediment? Ming Ming the duck, Ord the Dragon, Baby Bear, Geroge. Ok, maybe Goerge shouldn’t count. Maybe the purpose is to get kids used to other kids that might have impediments, but I wonder if it affects how some kids learn to talk.
Then again, I suppose we could just turn off the TV.
We are home. All of us. All five of us.
In typical fashion, they all of a sudden said “Well, you want to take Alex home now?” That was about 12:30. We were home by 2:00. It was by far the fastest I’ve ever seen anyone discharged from the hospital. It worked out pretty well, even if it was pretty sudden. Everyone came to the hospital for a visit, so we were there when they told us we could take him home. So Braden and Emma were with us when we took him home.
Alex gained 39 grams yesterday, which is probably the big reason they decided he could go home. His billirubin levels were the same, but he’s still on a light therapy blanket here at home.
We’re all thrilled to have both Alex and Mom home! But I’m not sure anyone is as excited as Braden. He was just giddy! 
The first thing he did when we got home was to give Boo Bear to Alex. At one point he looked at Alex sitting in Mom’s lap and said “He’s soooo cute.” He also said he loves having Alex home and that he thinks Alex loves him too. He also mentioned that Owen and Melita love him. “All babies love me.”
Emma seems to like Alex too, but probably doesn’t quite understand it all as well. She did go get her babies to play with when we got home though.
We’re all pretty tired, but things are going very well so far. We’ve got Alex’s room all set up. He’s sleeping in his crib. And his three feedings have gone very well so far. He’s still nursing like a champ and even told us he was hungry for his latest feeding by crying out a little. He wasn’t doing that in the NICU, so that’s good. It would be hard for us to know he’s ready to eat if he just waves for someone like he was doing for the nurses. He even has his own built in night light thanks to his billi blanket.
So, now things start to get really hectic! It was kind of nice having to be in the hospital as long as we were. We basically had a very expensive nanny service. Now things get complicated, hectic and even more exhausting. But I see Alex sleeping in his crib and it’s all just worth it.
I don’t think I can accurately express my gratitude to my mom and dad for all they did this last nine days. I know they were exhausted, but it was amazing being able to have the time and flexibility they gave us.
On that note, I think I’m going to head off to bed and get some sleep before the next feeding in 4 hours. Thanks again to all of you for your thoughts and prayers.
Alex is doing well again today. That boy can really sleep! He’s gained 7 grams and his billirubin levels only went up slightly to 7.5. That’s without the second therapy light, so it looks like he’s going to continue to improve there quickly. He also passed his car seat test. He was able to identify 9 of 10 different car seats. No, wait, that’s some face book quiz I saw. The test him in his car seat to make sure he’s safe, secure and able to support himself well enough.
He will get circumcised tomorrow. I’m not going to hold his hand for that one. Sorry Alex!
Here we are again, though, playing the guessing game for his departure. It won’t be before Sunday, not with a circumcision on Saturday. I’m beginning to think we’re look at least at Monday, but who knows?
Thanks again to all of you following along and offering your support and prayers.
Alex spit up all over me tonight. We’re talking projectile spit up. Apparently he was full. So, just to recap, he’s now peed, pooped and spit up on me.
He continues to do well. He’s sleeping soundly between feedings. We haven’t really heard him cry at all so far. I know I’ve probably cursed us for some major screaming soon with that statement. But the nurses have been impressed. Today we came in for a feeding and the nurse told us that Alex flagged her down. She looked over and she could see him waving his hands in the air like we was raising his hand for help. When he’s awake, he feeds very well for 15-20 minutes, then falls FAST asleep. I mean he’s out. And then he sleeps soundly until the next feeding.
Oh, yeah, the other first… I cut Dad’s hair tonight. Scary, right? But I had done Braden’s hair and called ‘Next.’ He did sit still and didn’t cry once. Well, he did kind of cry when Braden stabbed his ear with a comb. This is definitely one of those things I never really imagined doing. So, I’m pushing my boundaries… which is good… I think.
Two days into this whole adventure, I said it felt like a week. Now a week into it, and it feels like… well… a fast week. Alex is now one week old! Time flies!
His billirubin levels were down to 7.2 today, so they turned off the therapy lamp and he’s only on a Billi Blanket. I asked whether the lamp would help him get his levels down faster, but they told me they turn off the lamp so they can see if his levels will creep back up without it. If they don’t, then they can be sure he’ll be ok without any more light therapy. They also took him off the pulse/oxygen monitor. He’s still on heart and respiratory rate monitors, but he doesn’t have to wear the cusp for pulse/ox anymore.
He also gained 2 ounces yesterday! Way to go Alex! He’s still sleeping very soundly. In fact, we had a hard time feeding him at 10 because he just wanted to sleep.
Kathie seems to be getting stronger every day. She’s a little nervous about being able to keep up with our little eater though!
Alex has been given permission to sleep for four hours at a time now. You didn’t know he needed permission, did you? They were waking him up every three hours to eat. But he’s been eating and sleeping so well, the doctor changed the order to let him sleep longer if he’s out. And he’s definitely out!
Basically this is what he’d be doing if he were home as a newborn. We’d probably be feeding him every four hours. Of course, it’s usually the baby that tells you it’s time to eat, as opposed to us waking them up!
The current nurse seems to think Friday or Saturday is when he’ll come home. She said that she think we should plan on Saturday. But we’ll see… those nurses are a lot more optimistic than the doctors, it’s seems. Then again, I think the doctors are playing a joke on people. They tend to say “Oh, you can plan on going home Sunday.” Then all of a sudden on Friday they tell you it’s time to go. And then you have to scramble to get out of the hospital and then quick run and get the things you still need for at home. I suppose the insurance companies have something to do with that too.
Kathie seems to be doing much better today and her pain isn’t as bad. She even changed a diaper today! I think that leaves the score at 25-1, Scott. But if you factor in that whole 8 months of pregnancy, I’m losing by about a gazillion points.
Hi Penny.
Hey, it’s my blog… I can right dumb things when I find out someone is following the blog and puts pressure on me to keep it going.
Braden and Emma finally got to meet their little 
brother Alex today! And boy were they excited. Although you can’t tell Emma’s excited from the picture. Alex was wide awake and checking them out too, which was very fun. Braden asked if he could touch him. So we did him one better and let him hold him. He did very well and was quite happy with it! He’s really going to be a great big brother.
Alex is doing well today. His billirubin levels are down to 8.5 from 10.5 yesterday. So the light therapy is really helping. He lost another 2 ounces, but that’s fairly typical, especially when fighting off jaundice. We still don’t know when he’ll be joining us at home, but the important thing is that he’s ready to come home and is safe.
We have a fun time trying to wake him up this morning for a feeding. We stripped him down to his diaper, tickled him, talked to him… nothing worked. But he ate anyway, even though he was really still asleep. Of course, right after he ate, he woke up and was very alert. I just hope he sleeps as well at home!
As usual, there are more pictures on our photo site here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Scott.Kathie.Ehlke/AlexBirth?feat=directlink
Wow, Day 5.
Alex continues to do well. But last night his Billirubin levels went up to 10.5. So, they’ve started double light therapy with him. He’s basically getting light from both a light blanket and a therapy light. They’ve got him basically naked. In fact, when I went in this morning, he was laying with his naked butt up in the air for everyone to see.
It starting to sound like he’ll be here for at least 3-4 more days to get his levels under control. It could be longer, or it could be shorter. We’re going to prepare for it to be soon, though. In the past it seems like they say “we’re not sure… it’ll be a while yet” and then all of a sudden say “well, ready to go home now?”
He was much more alert when he was awake today. He was looking back and forth between his Mom and I, which was very cool
So, I’ve noticed something very curious. Before we got pregnant or right after we got pregnant with Alex, people told us that the third kid is really not too hard. That he’d just fit in with the other two and it’s really not that different.
Now, after he’s here, people are telling us things like “Wow, you’ve got your hands full.” Or “Now that they out number you, you’re in trouble.”
What confuses me is that these are the SAME people that were telling us it’ll be easy!
Everyone is doing great. Odd for a Monday, some might say :)
Alex saw the occupational therapist this morning. No, he’s not looking for a job… they just call them that. Not really sure why. She says he’s doing great for someone his age. He can use Excel and Word as well as a calculator and shows good use of tools. Ok, seriously, she says he’s doing great. He has good reflexes and ‘positioning’ and isn’t showing any thing that would cause concern. She did caution us that kids his age have a tendency to do very well and then fall off and do poorly at things like eating for a while. She’ll check him again and then show us some therapies we can use to help out at home.
He ate very well again and was quite awake afterwards. He’s looking around, which is very cool. They are also starting to do the ‘discharge’ tests like hearing. That doesn’t mean he’ll be discharged soon, but since he’s off the IV and the antibiotics, they can start getting them wrapped up.
We still aren’t sure when he’ll be released, but our first concern is making sure he’s really ready to come home.
It seems like it has been a week since this adventure started. But oddly enough, it’s only the 4th day.
Alex is off his IV! Yeah!!!! He’s also eating 35 mg of milk/formula at a time now. They’re very impressed with his eating in the NICU. He’s using a BilliBlanket to help with his jaundice, but that’s really all he has hooked up to him at this point. And that’s just a blanked they wrap him in.
I’m back at the hospital, hanging out. I slept at home last night, which was sooooo much better than the couch here. I even got to go play hockey last night, which was fun!
Kathie will be discharged today, but no one is leaving. Alex will be here probably a week yet and we’re going to board in a room down by the NICU. It’s really nice that they make this option available to parents. And it’s even free of charge! They make sure we know there’s no nursing service, but honestly, at this point, that’s probably more of a pro than a con. They’re great here and the service is wonderful, but after a while, the interruptions become a pain!
We just went down to feed him, but his schedule has changed a little and he was sleeping soundly, so we went back to the room to let him rest.
Grandma and Grandpa have been doing a wonderful job with the kids at home. Emma has a fever and Braden has a cold. It’s really poor timing for them to be sick! But that’s the way things go.
Kind of a lazy day today, relatively speaking. Grandma came with the kids. She was very excited to be able to hold Alex. Braden and Emma were very good too.
Braden got to see a mom and dad go into the OR for a c-section. I explained what was going on to him and he was fascinated. He was especially interested in the fact that Dad had to wear the silly white suit and hat too. Of course, when Kathie came to the lounge, he announced: “I have some very important news! The doors over there open both ways too.” He’s apparently more fascinated that each of the double doors in the hospital open different ways than any surgery procedures.
Alex was breast feeding like a pro this afternoon. He latched on and did quite well. He even refused his ‘supplemental’ bottle afterward.
He’s now off the antibiotics. The doctor says he’ll probably be here at least a week, but would be surprised if it’s longer than that. He’s down about 4 ounces from birth, but that’s normal and he seems to be doing better all the time.
Kathie will most likely be discharged tomorrow, but we’ll probably board here at the hospital and take advantage of Grandma and Grandpa being here.
I just got back from the NICU. I got to feed Alex his bottle! A whole whopping 10 mg! And boy did he suck it down fast. But that’s ok… we spend the next 45 minutes just hanging out and rocking.
He’s doing pretty well. He looks redder to me, but they say his billirubin levels are still ok. They’ll test again tomorrow, which is probably when the levels will really start showing problems. I imagine he’ll need light therapy.
Kathie tried nursing him earlier tonight, and that went fairly well. He isn’t quite latching on, but he was certainly trying!
He’s quite jittery and active when he’s awake. We’re a little nervous about that, but I don’t think it’ll be anything serious. He may just be hyper like his sister!
It was good to stop at home and put the kids to bed. I think they miss us, even with fun Grandma and Grandpa there. I even managed to squeeze in a quick mile run before heading back to the hospital. That felt great.
Thanks to everyone for all the congratulations, thoughts and prayers over the last two days. It actually feels like a week! It’s kind of odd thinking back and realizing it has only been two days!
Braden and Emma (and Grandma and Grandpa, too) got to meet Alex today. Well, kind of. They got to see him through the window while I held him. Emma was more interested in the NICU room and all the ‘stuff’ than Alex, but Braden was doing a little jig and smiling. He’s going to be a great big brother. Well, he already is, but I think he’s really going to help out a lot with Alex.
Just got back from seeing Alex in the NICU. I spent about 45 minutes sitting with him, talking to him and generally enjoying his company.
The gang is on their way to see their new brother. Unfortunately Braden has a cold, so they will not be able to go in and see him. But we hope to be able to bring him over to a window so they can see him. He’s still on a cannula getting air, but the nurse thought that they’d probably clear him to take it out.
Alex is doing very well. He’s breathing well, eating well, and sleeping a lot. They think he’ll need some light therapy for jaundice because he’s so ‘ruddy’ right now. They took him off of the neonatal service and is now being attended by a regular pediatrician. But it is starting to sound like he’ll be in the NICU for at least the weekend if not longer.
Once nice thing here is that they have some boarding rooms that we can use if he stays longer than we do, free of charge. We’re not sure what we’re going to do, but it’s great knowing we have the option to stay here and be near him.
Kathie is unplugged! Yeah! She got her catheter and her IV out this morning and is fully ambulatory. She’s ordering breakfast and then we’ll go down to see Alex. She can’t wait to hold him!
We’ll have Grandma, Grandpa and the kids over later this morning to meet Alex.
It’s 4:20 AM. I just got back from holding my third child for the first time. He is such a little peanut! There’s just nothing like that feeling. I rocked him for about 20 minutes, but it seemed to go by so fast.
He’s doing well. He’s breathing well on room air through his canulla and his stats all look good. He’s sleeping well, probably because he’s also eating well. They’re giving him 5mg of formula at a time and it sounds like he’s a good eater. He slept the whole time I was there.
He’s still on antibiotics and probably will be for 48-72 hours. That means he’ll probably stay in the NICU for at least that long. But that’s fine because we want to make sure he’s very healthy.
Kathie is doing well, but getting a little antsy about being cooped up in bed with all the tubes and stuff connected to her. She was able to go down and see Alex earlier last night. I’m sure she’s looking forward to eating and getting more mobile so she can spend some more quality time with her newest son.
Tomorrow… um… today… we’ll get Braden and Emma, oh and Grandma and Grandpa too, over to meet their newest family member. I’m looking forward to seeing how they’ll react. That reminds me… I have to go down and get Big Brother/Big Sister t-shirts!
I just got back from the NICU. We baptized Alex, which went fine. He looks stronger already. He has an IV in his left arm, but he was sleeping comfortably. He feels very warm. The nurse told me that his respiratory rate is coming down, which means he’s not breathing as hard: A great sign.
I asked if he keeps doing this well if he’d be able to come out of the ICU tomorrow and she seemed to think so. Obviously things can change, but I think that’s probably going to be what happens.
She also said we’d probably be able to hold him later today. I can’t wait!
Welcome to our lives, Alex!
Alex was born April 23rd, 2009 at 9:33 AM. He weighed 4lbs, 9 oz and was 15.5 inches long. He came 5 weeks, 1 day early. But he is doing very well considering.
He was delivered via Cesarean Section and came out crying. That was different than Emma and Braden. They both were very quiet. We’re very happy he decided to announce his arrival and show off his lungs. He was a little purple when he came out, but quickly ‘pinked up’ when they gave him oxygen. He was very active and even helped the nurse hold his oxygen hose for a while. And, no, Braden, he wasn’t purple AND green… just purple.
Alex is in the NICU for the time being. They are feeding him via an IV to make sure there’s no risk of him aspirating any milk.
He seems to doing well considering how early he was. They’ll monitor him closely to make sure he gets stronger. He is grunting a lot, which is supposed to help his lungs expand more. They’ve also done full blood workups to make sure there are no infections or anything that would explain the early delivery.
The surgery went very well and Kathie is resting comfortably. Although she’s itching quite a bit, which is normal from the anesthesia.
Pastor Gates came to baptize him. So he is ‘officially’ a child of God. So, he’s got that going for him… which is nice. :)
We really do need to settle on a name other than Barney soon.
Kathie’s contractions are anywhere from 4 to 10 minutes apart. But she is able to sleep. The nurse said that if it were ‘real’ labor, she wouldn’t be able to sleep through them.
We both managed to get a little sleep, but we still don’t want Barney coming yet!
Grandma and Grandpa made it to our house safely and tried to get some sleep too. They may need it more than us! Braden isn’t up yet, but I can just imagine the surprise he’ll get when he finds Grandpa downstairs! Grandpa is all worried that he doesn’t have any brownies. He did notice we had cake left though.
The OB/Gyn will be in shortly to see us and we’ll know more then. I think it’d be odd to send us home, but I also don’t want this baby coming too early!
I will start with a disclaimer… the staff here at Waukesha Memorial are all great and doing a wonderful job. We fully understand that it is part of their job to make our stay here as uncomfortable as possible :)
This morning the nurse asked Kathie if she could get her anything. Kathie responded, “Can I have anything?” Of course the answer came: “Well, no.”
Kathie has been trying to sleep, but every time she turns over to try and get comfortable, they have to come in and readjust the fetal heart rate monitor. You’d think they’d invent something that could deal with the mother turning over to her other side without having to have a nurse spend 10 minutes trying to prop it up, move it around, or bang on it like Fonzy did the jukebox.
I’ve also noticed the hospital has a new policy: “Family Quiet Time”. This, apparently, is from 1 – 3:30 PM. During this time they try to let the family have alone and quiet time. They limit their intrusions and the visitors during this time. I’m wondering why they don’t add 10 PM – 7:00 AM to that time.
I’m trying to keep my personal complaints to a minimum, because, frankly I’m happy I’m not having any contractions, have an IV in my arm, or am hooked up to any electronics, not counting my I-pod. But I do believe the hospital is in league with the local chiropractor association. I’d have been better off sleeping in the bathtub than on this ‘sleeper’ couch.
So, they hook you up to an IV, a fetal heart monitor, a contraction detecting thingy… (not sure what the real name is) and tell you to rest. Of course they’re pumping fluid into a pregnant woman, making her have to pee more…. which obviously means she can’t rest.
And of course, they tell you to rest, but then come in every 20 minutes to check on you.
I am writing this sitting on a ‘really comfortable’ hospital couch/sleeper bed/medieval torture device.
Kathie has been having what we thought were Braxton/Hicks contractions for the last few days. But today they seemed to get more frequent and consistent. So, we decided it was time to head in and get monitored to be safe. She went in around 9 PM while I stayed home with kids and got them in bed.
Upon arrival, she discovered she was 4 cm dilated and 80% effaced (yeah, I don’t know what that all really means either), and that the contractions were pretty consistent. So they decided to admit her. The hope is that things will settle down after a night of rest and that Barney will incubate a little longer. We’re at 34 weeks right now, which is obviously a little early.
They have alerted the NICU that we’re here, just in case. It’s all a little scary, but we have faith that things will work out as they should.
I scrambled to get the ‘gear’ packed up and our neighbor, Heather, bless her heart came over to sit with the kids. Mom and Dad are on the way down and should get here around 12:30… bless their hearts. Kevin offered to come over too… bless his heart.
I got to the hospital around 10:45 and ran into Kathie on her way to her new room. We’re settled in and Kathie is trying to sleep. I’ll probably try and get as much sleep as I can too.
But first I’m sending emails to people at work to let them know that all the stuff that I needed to get done might not get done! That’s kind of fun, since it’s been such a pain. But my priorities are here and I don’t think the world will end at work.
Braden’s Birthday is done and now we’re looking forward to Barney’s. But we want Barney to wait at least 3 more weeks. Actually, it’s probably a bit of a conundrum for Kathie since she’s really sick of being really uncomfortable. But the most important thing is Barney being ready to come into the world kicking and screaming and healthy. This is where I remind my wife that she’ll actually miss being pregnant after he’s born, as weird as that is.
I think we’re mostly ready for Barney to come. His room and clothes are pretty much set and waiting for him. The car seat is out of storage. We even have diapers out at the changing station/butler’s pantry. It seems hectic at times (always), but I do think we’re more ready than with either of the other two. Of course it won’t seem that way when the time comes, but I know we’ll have all kinds of support from our friends and family to help. Right? Right?!?
Braden’s birthday party went off without too many hitches Sunday. Apparently it was the talk of the class Monday at school too, so I think we did a good job. We had nine kids total and it wasn’t too much of a zoo. We went to Saltos, a gymnastics…um… gym? We had a ‘baseball’ theme, which may have been a little odd at a gymnastics place, but they don’t really have gymnastics party supplies. We ordered pizza from a new place, Glass Nickel Pizza. I recommend it. Lots of variety and great pizza. The kids and the non-pregnant parents had a blast running, jumping and swinging on the pads, pommel horses, trampolines and foam pits. Braden really had fun and got some very cool gifts. Pictures are coming.
Braden was a little more timid than a lot of the kids his age. But I think that’s more mental than anything at this point. I believe he had some occupational therapy type issues early on, along with his speech issues, and that has made him a little timid to push his physical boundaries. I think he’ll get over it though.
Emma, on the other hand, has no fear whatsoever. She was jumping, swinging and generally giving her parents heart attacks the whole time. In fact, she kept joining other groups and escaping during dinner to go back and play. She climbed a pommel horse and jumped off the other side. She wouldn’t let us help her in the foam pits and had to do it herself. She was doing iron crosses on the rings. Well, ok maybe not a real iron cross, but she would hang from the rings and pull her knees up to her chin.
Aunt Penny and Cousin Abby came to visit Saturday and Sunday for the party. We all had a lot of fun. Emma and Abby are definitely two peas in a pod. They had fun playing together and fighting too. All the kids had a great time and they wore Dad out playing tackle Daddy, hide and seek and whatever other games they thought of. We were really glad they came and hope they come more often.
We are getting attacked by Robins. It’s like the sequel to Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds.’ I’ve had to remove three nests from places we just can’t have nests: Over our front door, on the swing set and on my bike in the garage. Yes, I use my bike a lot.
Work is still a pain, but I’ll get it figured out soon, I hope… Every time I figure out how to do one thing, it causes problems somewhere else. But such is life and I’ll get through it!
Ok, enough rambling and back to work.
It’s been a while since I blogged. Things have been very hectic at work. I’m working on getting our legacy c code to support Unicode via a UTF-8 encoding. It has turned out to be a lot more involved than we originally thought and I’m way behind schedule on it. It has also kept me out of a couple other efforts that I need to be involved in, but this really is my highest priority right now.
Anyway, work stuff aside… it’s been pretty hectic at home too! We had everyone over to celebrate Easter and Braden’s 4th birthday on Saturday. Thanks to the wonderful food everyone brought, I think it was a smashing success! And the gifts for Braden were wonderful! I’m sure if he blogged, he’d thank everyone.
It was very nice just spending time with everyone. It was pretty nice seeing Owen and Melita. I’m not sure Braden and Emma knew what to make of them, but it was a good precursor to ‘Barney’ for them. It’ll be fun seeing all three ‘babies’ together soon!
Braden is staying with Grandma and Grandpa this week. It sounds like he’s having a blast! Hopefully he’ll come home in time for this birthday party Sunday. It does seem like he’s worried about how Emma is doing without him. I’m really impressed with that; I think he’ll be a great big brother! We also really appreciate the updates Grandma has been giving us on the forums and the fact that Uncle Mark has had time to play with him too.
Emma has seemed to enjoy her time as the ‘only child’ as well. She was very cuddly the first day or two. She’s also playing very well by herself and with Mommy. They discovered tea parties and she really seems to love it. She also seems to go down for bed and nap time a little easier. And here we always thought it was HER causing all the trouble!
News flash… I have a headache. I know… how rare… right? I think it’s because my pillow is too thick and my neck is not in the right position when I sleep. Or it could be this thing I’m working on at work where I’m trying to figure out how to magically support UTF-8 encodings in all 4 million lines of our legacy c code without having to completely rewrite, or even modify most of it. Yuck.
I got a great birthday card and note from Brett and Lori Tuesday. I think it’s pretty cute that Lori still signs the card and Brett doesn’t just sign her name for her. Newlyweds! But, because of the note, I found out that I have to change my typical “all two of my readers” comments to “all four of my readers.” They claimed they WERE the two readers I have, but I know for a fact that my mommy and my wife read it. I suspect there are other closet readers too… like the IRS, NSA, FBI. Remember, you’re not paranoid if they really ARE watching you.
I had a good morning, even with the headache. Braden was a ray of sunshine that just made me laugh and start my day off on the right foot. Hard to really explain, but he was just in rare form and made me smile. It started with “Dad, I want to play with you.” And ended with a hug and kiss before I left. In the middle was “Dad! You can’t go to work without shoes!"” and “You can’t go to work with a balloon on your shirt. People will laugh at you.”
I’ve lost my birthday weight, finally! 7 miles in three days on the treadmill and it feels great! But I’ve got a ways to go if I’m going to hit my 30 lb goal by Barney’s arrival. I added a widget to the left side (<---- That way) that shows my running log from dailymile.com. Pretty cool site if you just want to get in the habit of tracking your workouts.
I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone Saturday for Easter and Braden’s birthday. It’ll be great having everyone who can make it, but it’ll suck not seeing Josh, Brett and Lori (mostly Lori…sorry Josh and Brett). And yes, that was an attempt at trying to weed out some of those closet readers. I know Mark doesn’t read it because he hasn’t corrected any of my major grammatical errors up to now, yet.
I had a great, if mostly unproductive, weekend! My birthday’s just get better every year I spend with my family.
Kathie and I were going to go the Admirals' game Friday night for my birthday. Can you say “automatic designated driver?” :) But the babysitter didn’t quite work out. Kathie, of course, urged me to find someone to go, but I decided I’d much rather stay home with my family and have my celebration with them. I’m so glad I did. My evening started by coming home to my beautiful wife and then my kids getting up from their nap and both of them wishing me a Happy Birthday, unprompted…. It was very cute!
We had Chinese food and Kathie baked me a cake. The kids frosted the cake. Kathie and I fixed the cake after the frosting. Even better than the birthday wishes when I got home was the singing! Braden sings happy birthday very well and Emma follows along like a champ. I was very impressed.
I got a Magic Bullet blending system, which I used all weekend for cappuccinos, smoothies, chocolate shakes, pancakes and omelets. I also got a bunch of new shirts, a size smaller than I’ve been wearing. And yep, they fit!
Saturday we went to Toys R Us and did some shopping. Braden bought a garbage truck and a cement mixer with money from Christmas. I don’t think he’s stopped playing with them for more than 10 minutes all weekend. He even told a little boy he met this weekend all about them.
Braden called Grandpa to wish him a happy birthday and did very well. He wouldn’t sing though. He did, of course, tell him about the garbage truck and cement mixer, though.
Braden and Emma watched me run on the treadmill today. The first 4 or 5 minutes was mostly giggling. I’m not sure if it was because they’d never seen anyone run on a treadmill or because I look that silly running. When Braden saw me stretching before my run, he asked what I was doing. I explained it to him and he said “No, Dad, you stretch like this:”, and then yawned and stretched his arms like you do when you wake up. He’s very helpful and keeps me in line!
Exciting week ahead of us. Need to do some birthday shopping yet for Braden, bring cupcakes to class on Wednesday and get the house ready for guests Saturday. We’re looking forward to everyone coming here to celebrate Easter and Braden’s birthday. Braden is also pretty excited to be going to Grandma and Grandpa’s without Emma for a week. Kathie also has Bunco this week, so we’re hopping to get rid of our Flamingo (don’t ask…).
Wow, that turned out to be a semi-novel! Maybe I’m getting the hang of this blogging stuff after all!
I’m old.
Yes, it’s my birthday today. I’m 38.
I don’t feel old though. Well, I feel older than I did, say 10 years ago, but honestly I’m feeling the best I’ve felt in years. I still have my aches and pains, but I have a bunch more energy, flexibility and better health.
More importantly, I’m happy. I’ve got it good. I look at all the great things in my life and I have to just thank God for where he’s put me.
I could probably go on and on with more blessings I have in my life, but unfortunately I’m not overly blessed with time! I just want to thank all the people in my life for helping bless my every day.
I’m currently without network access, which completely derails most of my work efforts. So, I thought I’d take some time to blog some general thoughts. Be warned… they’re pretty random.
Thanks to Mom and Dad for coming down this weekend and babysitting. It was a huge help. It was nice to get a weekend away from the kids, even if the main reason for the trip to Algoma was to move Kathie’s dad’s ‘stuff’ out of one apartment into another. We actually managed to have a great time at the bed and breakfast and just hanging out at a local cafe for lunch or dinner. I have a new favorite wine… Framboise from the Von Stiehl Winery. Raspberries and brandy… yum.
The move went pretty well. We got down in a little over three hours. Thank heaven we were only moving three doors down (no, not the band.) A lot of stuff was moved, a lot of stuff was thrown out, a lot of stuff was handled with hazardous material handling guidelines. There was a lot of pickled stuff in the fridge… some of it intentionally pickled. Thanks to everyone who helped out!
We are under 7 weeks until B-Day (Barney Day). Yes, we’re still calling him Barney. I’ve made a deal with Braden that if the baby comes out green AND purple, we’ll call him Barney; otherwise we’ll use a different name. I think the AND is important… it’s possible he comes out purple or green, but not both.
We’ve got quite a bit of stuff to get done before B-Day. I’m sure Kathie has a whole list ready to go on all the things we need to do, buy and worry about. We need to stock up on baby supplies… get out the baby clothes and sort them… pick a name… have a birthday party for Braden… square away all the work tasks I need to have ready for when I’m off, etc… So, see? Kathie has a list :)
It’s my birthday Friday. I’m going to be 38. Yikes. Honestly, though, I feel better right now than I have in a long time, so that really doesn’t bother me too much. No big plans, that I know of, for my birthday. Might go to the Admirals game, might go to Kevin’s band festival at KML, might sleep :)
We discovered a great bed and breakfast this weekend in Algoma: The Belle Isle Inn. I highly recommend it to anyone staying in the area. The inn is very a beautiful house with incredible woodwork and interesting architecture. The rooms are very spacious. They have WIFI, HD satellite TV with movie channels and even a Wii.
They offer a gourmet breakfast. Saturday we had fresh kiwi, some very tasty homemade muffins, a wild rice blend and bagels with turkey Salami, eggs and a creamy parmesan sauce, followed by a 
cream cheese pastry for ‘dessert.’ Sunday was fresh strawberries, some homemade bread (I think it was banana), some homemade turkey sausage and a quiche with spinach, red peppers and a bunch of other stuff, followed by grilled apples with a caramel sauce.
Each evening they offer wine and hors d’oeuvres. Friday night was some very tasty Bruschetta with an assortment of cheeses and a Sweet Cherry wine. Saturday was a spinach artichoke dip that I couldn’t stop eating and a bottle of Framboise, that I couldn’t stop drinking! Both wines were from the Van Stiehl Winery, just across town.
More importantly, the inn keepers, Tia and Scott, are a delightful couple who are extremely pleasant, friendly and helpful. They obviously strive to make everyone feel at home. They certainly did with us, as we 
spent Saturday night just chatting in the kitchen with them, turning what probably would have been an evening of watching TV in our room into a fun social night.
They are even kid friendly and encouraged to bring our kids with us next time. We told them they don’t know what they’re asking for!
I highly recommend a stay here if you’re in town.
My hockey team won the Pettit Center, Adult C2 Gold championship last night. The whole team played great, especially our goalie, and we won 3-1 against a team that probably had a bit more experience and talent than we did.
We really played well as a team and everyone put in a great effort! I played center, which I was a bit nervous about, but I really felt like I was flying last night. I was lucky enough to get our winning goal and an insurance goal. That felt great!
Looking forward to Spring hockey with the team!
Catchy title, isn’t it? I’m not nearly witty enough to come up with a fun, exciting, creative title every time I blog. So, deal with it.
It has been yet another interesting week. Ok, maybe not so much interesting as, well, normal. Oh well.
The painters are done, mostly. The house looks good, the colors look great, and we’re pretty happy with the results. Kathie was getting a little sick of the painters after more than two weeks. And so was Sterling. I’ll post pictures soon, but we need to get things cleaned up a little and the stuff put back where it belongs first!
Emma is being…well… Emma. She finally fell off a breakfast counter stool and hit her head. I say finally because we’ve been telling her she’s going to fall and hurt herself since she started climbing them at 12 weeks. Ok, maybe it was more like 16 months,
but you get the picture. She also hit her eye on an end table and looks like she’s wearing purple eye shadow. The other night she decided it was time to get up at 2:00 AM. She came out of her room and refused to be put back to bed. And when I say refused, I mean refused in the sense that she screamed loud enough to wake the neighbors for 30 minutes. Oddly, Braden slept through it all. After I finally got her to fall asleep again, she decided it was time to get up at 3:00 AM. I think she’s just trying to train us for when Barney comes.
Speaking of Barney, we have under 8 weeks to go! We put up the crib and move the furniture in his room last night. It felt good to get that started. Emma doesn’t seem to miss her crib. She kept calling it the “Baby Bed.”
Braden has two field trips this week! On Monday they took the city bus to the library. Yikes. I can only imagine taking that many preschoolers on the city bus. Braden had fun, though, and was very proud to tell me about going on the city bus. Tomorrow they’re going to see a play.
Braden and Kathie also took his friend Joey and his mom to an Admirals game this last weekend. Braden and Joey didn’t stop talking the whole time. Braden even explained the use of a cup to Joey and his mom… and not the kind you serve drinks in. Of course, the best parts of the experience were the Zambonis and the human hockey puck!
This weekend Kathie and I head up to Algoma to help her Dad move his stuff to a new apartment. More accurately, we’re going to move his stuff for him. He’s still in the nursing home recuperating. Hopefully he’ll get his strength back and be able to move back to the apartments.
Enough about my family; Time for something about me! Sorry if it seems self-absorbed, but you can always skip this post :)
I feel great! I have now lost 20 lbs since January and am running 3-4 times a week. I think the combination of the weight loss and the exercise has really started to have an affect on my attitude, my energy levels and just my general happiness! I feel more confident and excited and am just generally more positive.
I can fit into clothes that I haven’t worn for a year or more. Some of my ‘current’ clothes are getting too big.
I’m not getting as many headaches. I feel like I can keep up with the kids better (no one can really keep up with Emma). I look forward to exercising and am really starting to think I look good.
I’ve still got a ways to go to be really healthy, but it has really been fun and exciting to see these changes. I’m so thankful to Kathie for her support through this (even if she wants pizza too often :) ). She has really shown me how proud she is of me and encouraged me through it all.
My goal was to get down to 200 lbs by the time the baby comes. I’m 9 lbs away and we’ve got 9 weeks left, so it’s definitely in reach. It won’t be easy, but I really look forward to not looking like a big slug in the baby pictures!! Plus, I think I’m going to need the extra energy with three kids!
Thanks for indulging me and this post. I’d really encourage any one to get out there and get active. It’s really amazing how much difference it can make in your health, energy and, even better, your happiness.
I’ve noticed an emerging pattern: I get excited about blogging and blog once every couple of days for a week or two, then my blogging drops off. I think maybe what I need to do is set aside a time every couple of days and blog during that time. In fact, I think that I should apply that approach to a lot of things in my life.
In the mean time, I’ll try and catch all two of my faithful blog readers up on what has been going on in the Ehlke house. We’re STILL painting. Well, ok, the painters are still painting. It’s been a bit of an adventure. Both of the guys painting have been sick at different times. We through a party smack dab in the middle of the job. One of the painter’s dog fell down some stairs and had to be put down. So, yes, we’re still painting. But it is really looking great. I think the colors look outstanding; Kathie did a great job picking them out. I’ll post before and after photos once we’re done.
The weather has been good this week and the kids got to go out and play. They sure do love going outside. Emma has mastered the playset, so it’s kind of nice not having to stand right by her while she climbs something that’s way to big for her. I remember her hanging from a ladder run yelling, “Help!!!!” last year. Braden really likes playing soccer and baseball.
Kathie’s dad had a set back this last week. They think he had a virus that just knocked him off his feet. After a short stay in the hospital, he’s getting stronger, but, he’ll have to spend some time in a nursing home recovering.
Braden has his speech reevaluated this week. He has met or exceeded all the goals set for him last year and is making good progress. He’ll still qualify for speech therapy during the summer, but I think everyone is pretty happy with his progress. Emma is really starting to talk more and is using phrases and sentences a lot more. She can repeat anything we say to her. She still has a little trouble with her colors (everything is blue) and calls a fork a spoon, but that’s all normal and cute.
Once we get the painting all done, we can start setting up the nursery. I think we’re all pretty excited about that. We have nine weeks to go!
I’ve coined a new term: Bradenisms.
Braden continues to amaze me with his imaginative, extroverted comments and conversations. I really hope he keeps his ability to say almost anything that come to mind. Ok, I do hope he learns to temper it a little bit.
Bradenisms from this week:
By the way, the grass is the grass we planted on Science Night. Suddenly Tuesday it started growing, and growing fast. I think it might actually be growing fast enough to watch.
We have learned that Braden would make an excellent job site supervisor. We have painters in this week to paint almost every room in our house. Braden is helping out a lot. I think the painters both are amused and annoyed by him. The first day he watched them use rollers and, just to make sure they knew what to do, said “Up, down, up, down…” over and over again. Painter Matt really was unhappy that his ipod wasn’t working that day!
So, speaking of painting… it has been a fun week. Kathie hosted a neighborhood Bunco party last night. Yes, we are crazy. We had painters in our house all day Wednesday and then had a party that night. Somehow we pulled it off, but it was a long three days of moving furniture, hiding toys, cleaning, helping painters, keeping kids out of wet paint and shopping. To make matters worse, one of the painters got sick, so they were short-staffed. They got the kitchen, living room, dining room and living room all done, somehow. But they didn’t get to finish the arches between the rooms, so it looked like…well… like we were in the middle of painting! But the paint dried and it looked good before the party. I’m pretty sure I’m not doing the level of chaos justice here, but I think I’m also trying to repress the memory somewhat!
And to stick with the up-down theme, I had a fun night with the kids while Kathie’s party was happening. I took them to Monkey Joe’s. MJ’s, as they call it, is a indoor, inflatable slide/climber play land. They have all kinds of inflatable climbers, bouncers, slides and obstacle courses. It was a blast! Braden and Emma both started off in the ‘beginner’ course, which is designed for kids under 3. Emma had so much static build up her hair stood up like the bride of Frankenstein.
I had to pry them away from that area to try other playgrounds. They both like the bouncer, but that wasn’t quite exciting enough for Braden. We moved over to a smaller slide. Once Emma saw Braden do it, she was all over it. It got even better when she finally realized she could just go back in without asking me to put her in it.
Braden branched out to other toys then and managed an obstacle course designed for kids a little older than him. It ended in a slide that was about 12 feet high and he loved it.
Eventually Emma got bored with her slide and started following Braden around. They found a slide that went all the way up to the ceiling. I’m not sure how high it was, but I’d guess it was over 20ft. Braden climbed right up and Emma started following. Of course she was a bit slower and Braden was able to lap her. I figured once Emma got to the top, she’d realize how high it really was and I’d be climbing up to help her down. So I was watching closely as she turned the corner to where the slide was… and she basically threw herself down the slide with no hesitation. She didn’t even stop to think about it! I figured she’d come up screaming at the bottom, but all I heard was giggling and her typical “Again, Daddy!” I was thoroughly impressed!
They also found another obstacle course that was probably a little hard for Emma, but she surprised me even more.. she climbed a ladder that had rungs almost as tall as she was.
After Mj’s we had dinner at Denny’s, since they were too busy playing to eat. I do have to say that was pretty brave on my part, because I had two very tired kids and it was 8:00 already. But the hunger override the tiredness and we had a fun dinner.
I’m very proud of both of them… they were so much fun and so well behaved.
Ok, it’s been a few days since I’ve blogged. But I’ve been starting at my Windows Live Writer screen (yes, Josh, I use Live Writer and LOVE it) and just can’t come up with anything witty, fun, informative or worth reading.
And it’s not like I couldn’t just throw some random thoughts or news out there; I could. But I guess I just haven’t been that into it this week. So, to my two faithful readers, I apologize. I’m sure you’ll be able to find other revenues of entertainment or information.
Tonight, Braden and I get to go to Science Night as church/school. Should be very interesting doing scientific experiments with 15-25 preschool age children. I’m guessing our margin of error on the experiments might be a bit off. Maybe I should bring my laptop and do some data recording and write up a college style lab report, just for old times sake. On second thought, I really hated those labs. Scratch that idea. But it’ll be good Father/Son time for us.
Word of the week: “Yup” Not sure where/when Braden decided to switch from his very clear “Yes”, but now everything is “Yup.” And I can’t really do it justice in a blog… the attitude he conveys with it is something you have to just witness.
Emma is starting to really blossom as an orator. She is using full sentences all of a sudden and repeating almost every little phrase Braden has: “Close one”, “Yup” (it is the word of the week!), “Silly Daddy”, “Huh????”. Ok, those don’t really reflect her skills as an orator accurately. She actually uses a lot longer phrases, but those were the ones I could think of right now.
Ok, somehow I managed to dribble out some thoughts… time to get back to work.
What a weekend! Phew! Grandma and Grandpa came down Saturday to that Kathie and I could get some shopping and prep work done for painting. They took Braden and Emma to see the model trains at the Mitchell Park Domes. It’s an annual trip for us, but Grandma and Grandpa were excellent stand ins and it sounds like they had a lot of fun!
Sunday was Owen’s baptism. That kid gets cuter every time I see him! The baptism was at Risen Savior, where Stephanie teaches I
have to say they seem to be one of the friendliest congregations I’ve seen. Everyone there really made you feel welcome and took the time to talk to you. The service was very nice and the baptism went well, even if Owen decided he didn’t like water dumped on his head when he was napping. I do have to say Kevin has this dad thing down: he was able to calm Owen down like that, in front of church, in a very high pressure situation. Nice job! Open house followed at Kevin and Stephanie’s house. They really have lots of good friends and wonderful family. It was great talking and visiting with everyone. Braden provided the majority of the
entertainment. I’m still not quite sure how we got such a Type-A personality kid. He introduced him self to everyone, chatted up the other kids, and was polite for the most part. He even handed out cake! But he never stopped moving or talking. I had a couple people ask if I was his dad and then tell me he is a “Hoot.” Hopefully he wasn’t too over the top. Emma did her best to keep up with him, but I think the majority of her time was spent putting Boo Bunny down the ‘Boo’ chute.
All in all, it was a great day! I feel blessed to have such wonderful family and it’s always nice to be able to spend time with them and celebrate wonderful events like this.
Braden has quite the imagination. I’m not really sure where he really gets it, but it’s quite entertaining. Tonight he was running around the house pretending that he was racing.
He stops and comes up to me, shakes my hand, and says “Hello. I’m Bob. I’m a racer.” Bob.
Later he told Kathie, “It’s nice to meet you Braden’s mom.”
He really manages to put a smile on my face.
Emma is a card! She comes up to me tonight and says, clear as day, “Aw man! Don’t do that!” I’m not sure what I was doing that I was supposed to stop, but apparently I was supposed to stop. I stopped and started laughing hysterically. Of course she then had to ask “What, Daddy?”
What a cutie Owen is… and a good baby too. He was pretty alert
when we were there too. Braden got a kick out of holding him, right up to the point that Emma took Boo Bear and ran… We had to grab Owen quick before he dumped him on the floor! Phew!
It was good seeing Kevin and Stephanie… they looked tired, but it seems like they’re settling in very well in their new roles as parents. I think they’re going to be very good at it!
And it was great seeing Josh and being able to say good bye. Braden seemed very sad that he was leaving. He asked Josh if he “was coming back” and said he was “going to miss him.” We all will.
We spent some time at Kevin and Stephanie’s visiting and then headed to the Chancery for Linner… Dunch…Luppper… whatever you call lunch at 3:00 PM. Emma was a little cranky missing her nap, but all in all, I think they were pretty good. Braden ate like a horse, even with Grandpa tricking him by sticking broccoli in his root beer straw.
I had my first burger in what had to be about 4 weeks. My stomach didn’t think that was such a good idea… yikes. But my run tonight felt good!
The nesting has begun. In earnest. Today we moved Braden into Emma’s room in preparation for the baby taking over Braden’s room. It went pretty well. I had a lot of help taking down Braden’s bed, moving it, then putting it back up. I’d take out a bolt and Emma would put it back in. Very helpful!
The room actually works pretty well with both beds and their stuff in there. It’s nice and cozy, but there’s still plenty of room to play and read books.
Nap time went pretty well, but they both were up pretty early. I have a feeling that will be an issue, but I guess that’s just how it’s going to have to be. Bed time was interesting; We told Braden he needed to be a good example for Emma and go to bed nice and not mess around. Story time went well and both kids went to bed peacefully. But then Emma decided it was play time. I went in to put her back in bed and she tried climbing into Braden’s bed and then under the tent. The whole time Braden was ‘trying to sleep’ and said “Dad, Emma isn’t going to bed.” How funny, considering Braden usually plays in his room for 30-45 minutes every night.
After I put her back into bed, though, she calmed down and it seems like it’s going to work well.
Tomorrow we get to meet my nephew Owen. I’m very excited! Unfortunately we also have to say good bye to my brother Josh. We’ll miss him, but wish him luck in Dallas. I know he’ll do great. He always does.
We had a trip to the dentist today for a checkup and cleanings. Emma and Braden both did very well and have good teeth. Emma’s getting her two year molars, which might explain why she’s so cranky.
The biggest problem we had was getting Braden to stop talking while they were cleaning his teeth. That boy can chat!
Kathie was reading the kids a book about Creation for a bedtime story. She was telling them about all the things God created; except she slipped and said “These are all the things that Daddy created for us… I mean God.”
It would have been a slightly humorous slip at best…. until Emma looked at me and with all seriousness said “Thank you Daddy!”
Boy is she going to be confused in Sunday School….
Some catch up items. Phew. It was a busy, ugly weekend.
We were all sick this last weekend. Well, ok, I was sick on Monday and everyone else was sick on the weekend while I tried not to get sick. It was Ehlke Puke Fest 2009. And for the record, Emma started it.
The big girl bed is going great! Emma loves it and actually goes to bed better now than she did with the crib. Last night, though, she figured out she can come out of her room… we’ll see how that develops. The bottles are also all put away and we’re on to big girl cups. Every now and then she asks for a bottle, but we can usually deflect her to a juice cup instead.
Braden has now learned how to puke in a bucket. Woohoo! Talking about your major accomplishments. He’s pretty proud of it! And speaking of growing up quickly, he asked Kathie today how the baby got into her tummy. The conversation, as I understand it, went something like this:
Braden: “How did the baby get into your tummy? Did you have to eat him”
Mom: “God gives Mommies and Daddies babies.”
Braden: “Did he make a hole in your stomach?”
Mom: “Mommies have a special place in their body for babies to grow. It’s another way boys and girls are different.”
Braden: “What’s it called?”
Mom: “The Uterus”
Braden: “So, how do you get the baby out?”
Mom: “Eat your lunch.”
What a thinker. He also greeted one of the painters we had come give us an estimate at the door by saying “I’m Braden. You’re really going to like me!”
We’re probably going to move Braden into Emma’s room this weekend or soon. We want to start the adjustment sooner than later for when the baby arrives. Plus we’re looking at painting and that will help that process.
I have now lost 17 pounds since January and am feeling great. I still want to lose another 10 before the baby comes in May, but I’m really starting to feel good. I’m running 2 miles in 20 minutes and not really pushing too hard yet. I want to get my speed and distance up a little yet, but I’m really enjoying the running for a change!
Just to make it all about me, I am now an uncle twice over! Yeah! And I’m now an uncle to a nephew! Ok, my selfishness aside, here come some pictures of a very cute Owen Russell Ehlke, born to my brother Kevin and his wife Stephanie on Monday, Feb 16th, 2009 at 10:05 PM. He was 7lbs, 13 oz and 21 inches. Happy Presidents Day, Owen and welcome to the family!
One way to get out of having to take your wife on an expensive 
dinner and date is to spend Valentine’s Day taking care of of a sick little girl while you’re very sick wife sleeps all day after puking all night.
I wouldn’t advise this approach, in case you were wondering. I’m exhausted and have spent most of the day wondering if my stomach feels weird because I’m getting sick or because I’m worried I’m going to get sick.
One good thing about today was the treasure hunt I set up for the kids last night. I cut out hearts and wrote clues on them. I hid them with treat bags and small gifts. The kids went on an hour long search around the house finding the treasures. We had a blast!
Later, at bet time, Braden asked me why I got them the treats and toys and I told him because it was Valentines Day and that I loved him very much. He thought about that for a minute and threw his arms around me and said “You’re the best Dad ever!”
So, as it turns out… it was the best Valentine’s Day ever after all!
Last night Emma ate very little dinner. Ok, so that, in and of itself, is hardly earth shattering news. But she also didn’t drink a bottle after her nap or before bed time.
She didn’t want a bottle this morning when she got up. Odd.
Then, we figured out why. And in an explosive manner. She has a stomach virus. It sounds like she’s feeling better now that’s she’s puked, but of course now she’s asking for a bottle.
So, now we’ll probably try and wean her off the bottles. Two big accomplishments in one week! Such a big girl. Maybe we should potty train her too?
I wonder if Kleenix will sponsor Favre’s second retirement press
conference.
I’m now at the point where I’m looking forward to running at night. It feels good! I’m wearing shirts that were tight 3 weeks ago!
I’m really looking forward to meeting my new niece/nephew when he/she arrives. I’m kind of surprised how much the suspense of Stephanie’s due date is getting to me. I know it’s no where no near as bad as it is for them, but they are in my thoughts a lot.
I’m really impressed with how well Emma is doing in her new bed! And I’m really disappointed in how long it’s taking the government in getting this stimulus package approved and I’m not convinced it’ll really be the right thing anyway.
Speaking of our little princess growing up fast, last night we setup Emma’s toddler bed. We’re pretty sure she could have climbed out of her crib at any point, so we figured it was time to move on to a big girl bed.
She got pretty excited when I asked her if we should setup a big girl bed for her. Her big brother got even more excited about it. They both helped put it together. Braden had to help set it up by putting a pillow on it. Once we got it setup, Emma got her Boo Bunny, laid down and ‘went to sleep.’ Then she hopped up and turned off her light and went ‘back to sleep.’ We were even brave enough, at this point, to take down her crib!
Then it deteriorated into a monkey fest. Both kids spent an hour climbing over the side, then jumping off. They had a lot of fun, but 
it certainly didn’t bode well for a quiet evening or for Emma staying in bed later, especially since she loves going in and out and opening and closing doors. Needless to say, we thought we were in for a long night.
Bedtime came and we asked Emma if she was ready to climb into her big girl bed. She practically flew up the stairs! Story time went good, and Kathie had to sit with her for about 5 or 10 minutes to get her to calm down and stay in the bed. We heard her on the monitor for about 10 or 15 minutes more. But after that, she slept through the night and didn’t (as far as we know) get up and wander the house or make any midnight snacks.
Personally, I think we’ve been very lucky! Braden was the same way. As soon as we put him in the new bed, he just stayed in it and we had no problems. We’ll see if it continues with Emma.
