Summer is here!!

Some new pics...since I have a little time.

Updates:

Seth- is officially a second grader and rather proud of it. His big plans for the summer is reading (has been off school for 2 weeks and has plowed through 3 chapter books already!) and playing.

Faith- is well Faith. Feisty and cute and sweet and adorable all on her own terms. She plans on spending her summer annoying big brother...at least that is what she has spent the last two weeks doing so far.

Josh- is HUGE! We go for his four month appointment next week but Dennis has a dr appt (more later) yesterday and they weighed Josh...18lbs 5oz! Already wearing 6-9 and some 12 mos clothes. I am hoping he slows down soon. Jeesh! But he is a happy baby and is wanting to be on the move all the time. He is mastering the use of his hands and is already trying to sit up. Oh and he had is eye appointment and he does not have albinism like Seth. Thank the LORD!

Dennis- is still looking for employment but is enjoying the time with the kids. He has been playing softball for the last couple weeks and managed to injure his knee, hence the doctors appointment. He has a sprained MCL on his left knee and possible cartilage damage. He goes again next week to follow up and see what needs to be done.

Joanna-is back to work full time as of the beginning of this month. Glad to be back, but learning to balance the chaos of three kids and a hubby at home and work can be at times crazy!

Belle

It is a sad day in the Jager household. Last night at 6pm, our neighbor (the crazy dog lady, for those who know the back story) came down to inform us that our little dog Belle had been hit by a car in front of her house. Dennis and I took off down there and picked her up and took her to the vet in town. Unfortunately, there wasn't much they could do. She had head trauma and possibly a broken neck, since she was unable to move her legs and couldn't feel the vet pinching her little toes. She was still conscious, so we were able to say our good byes before putting her down. We buried her last night under one of our pine trees in her bed with a few tennis balls, that she loved to chase. She was 9 years old.

Dennis and I are just heartbroken. She was our first baby before we had our other babies. She was a sweet little dog, a little neurotic at times, but only because she always wanted to be with us and not be left alone. We have lots of fond memories of Belle, like when we brought her home, and how she used to tear around our apartment and then our house after she got a bath, playing ball with her, and how she loved to have the top of her nose rubbed....All of which we are thankful for.

So, all you dog and pet lovers out there, keep us in your prayers while we mourn the loss of our Belle.

We made it home with Josh.....then back to the hospital with Seth!

Joanna and I were able to bring Josh home from the hospital on Saturday. Big brother (Seth) and big sister (Faith) were waiting for us with Grandma Shirley when we arrived at home. We are glad to be home but are very tired (which probably won't change much). Our memorable day was made even more so when Seth had a wall jump out in front of him while he was running around the house just before dinner. He ended up with a pretty good cut on his forehead....so, hours after coming home from the hospital with Joanna and Josh, I had to take Seth back down to the ER so they could glue the cut on his head. He is fine, but it was quite a day! Here are a couple more pictures of Josh just before we left the hospital!

More Pics

Welcome Joshua Christian Jager!

Josh came a bit earlier than expected! Joanna was having labor pains on Wednesday night (2/25), so we called the doctor and was advised to go in. She was admitted at 8:01 pm and was having contractions about every 10 minutes. After two hours of fairly regular contractions, she was prepped for a c-section, as per the original plan. Joshua was born at 11:26 pm on Wednesday, 2/25/08. He weighed 8 lbs, 3 oz and measured 21" long. He is much bigger than both Seth (5 lbs, 11 oz) and Faith (6 lbs, 3 oz) and two inches longer, as the first two were both 19" long. As you can see, he has a full head of blonde hair; similar to his big brother, but different. He seems to be his own little person and has spent many minutes just starting wide-eyed at the world. We are so blessed to have him as the third member of our family!!! Please enjoy the pictures!

February 27th is a go!

The ultrasound went well today. (That's a very good picture of his very round chubby face.) Baby looks good; fluid levels look good. The baby is measuring 3 days ahead of schedule at an estimated 6 lbs 1 oz. That is just 2 oz shy of what Faith weighed when she was born, and we still have 4 weeks to go. With average fetal weight gain in these final weeks being 1/2 lb a week, I could end up with an 8 lb baby...this one could be big!

Dr Pete answered some of our questions afterwards. He said he ordered the ultrasound to check the size of the baby and fluid levels, because high blood pressure during pregnancy causes the blood vessels to constrict, which can impede the flow of fluids and nutrients to the baby. This would cause low fluid levels and smaller baby. But that doesn't appear to be the case here. I will be going off the baby aspirin starting next Thursday in prep for delivery. I will start seeing the doctor once a week as well.

Dr Pete also allowed us to schedule the ultrasound. We are scheduled for 9:30am on February 27th. So, mark your calendars!

Another Ultrasound

I am now at 33 weeks, just 6 or 7 weeks away from delivery. I saw the doctor on Friday and he has scheduled me for another ultrasound on 1/30/09. He said everything looks good, but wants to check the size and position of the baby, fluid levels, and placenta location. I suspect its in prep for the C section since he didn't have any concerns other than my blood pressure is still higher than it should be. So look forward to some more ultrasound pictures in a couple of weeks.

 

Dennis and I are hoping that seeing the baby one more time before delivery will help us come up with a name, since we can't seem to hit on one that we both like. But, other than the name, Dennis and I ready for baby. We have a crib, a carseat, some clothes and blankets. All we need is to bring home a healthy baby in a few weeks.

 

We are just two and a half weeks away from Faith being 3. She talks a mile a minute ALL THE TIME!  You do have to watch what you say around her, because she makes a great echo. But we love it anyway. She loves to do whatever her big brother is doing, and for the most part he tolerates it pretty well. When Seth isn't around, she likes her dollies and playing mommy, and playing with their new dollhouse. She is taking a tumbling class now at the Y which she seems to really like. Daddy says she is the best somersaulter in the class.

 

Seth is doing well in school. His reading has improved dramatically since the beginning of the year and he is now reading slightly ahead of the required levels. He still works at his writing which is somewhat messy, but this has also improved from the beginning of the year. His favorite thing right now is Star Wars Clone Wars, the cartoon, and building things...with legos, with magnetics, with imaginext, anything. He is very creative and has a vivid imagination with his structures.

 

Baby Update

I had a doctor's appointment today. Everything looks fine. I am still having issues with the tachycardia, but I started on an additional iron supplement about a month ago and that helps some. I go in for the glucose test at my next visit in 5 weeks and will get my first Rhogam shot then too.

 

I asked Dr Pete about delivery again since I suspected he wouldn't want to do a VBAC with all the BP and heart trouble I have had already. (And I am completely ok with this decision. I could not imagine going through the stress of labor and delivery and having my heart issue on top of it.) He said that, providing nothing else presented itself before the end of the pregnancy, I would have a planned C section at 39 weeks. So, I guess on the bright side I know that I will not have to wait until my due date to see this little boy that kicks so much.

 

By the way, the arrow on the ultrasound was pointing at his boy parts. :-)

Florida was fun

Here are some pics from our whirlwind trip to FL. It was fast but it was a good time and good to see everyone.

Its a.....

See if you can tell???

Tachycardia or SVT

I got some results from the doctors office this week after a very frustrating couple of days trying to get information from them. They left a voicemail on Friday saying I need to schedule an appt to pick up an event monitor, which I was confused why I needed it, having just had the holter monitor on and had not heard any sort of results from that. It took Monday and most of Tuesday for them to locate my chart (not a good sign, right?) and have a nurse call me back. She said that the holter monitor showed I had SVT or Supraventricular Tachycardia...fancy words for racing heartbeat. She said the doctor couldn't figure out what was causing it and that was why the doctor wanted me to have the event monitor. The event monitor is not like the holter. Its something I would just carry around all the time and push a button anytime I felt like I was having an "episode", and then keep a detailed diary of what I was doing, eating, etc. The nurse said I would need to carry this around for a month!! I am currently scheduled to pick that up on 10/17, which means I will have it for our trip to FL, so that will be fun. I am pretty disappointed that I still won't really know anything until mid to late October since, I am pregnant, and it would seem that this would have some effect on the baby.

 

I had my echo cardiogram done on Wednesday by a tech there and haven't heard anything about it yet. But I did manage to leave a note in my chart for the doctor letting him know what I think is causing the racing heartbeat. I plan on calling next week to see if he has reviewed those results yet.

 

In other news, Seth is loving his golf class. Dennis and I decided to give him his birthday present of golf clubs, early, so he could enjoy them before the snow started to fly. He loves having his own clubs and his golf bag, which is way cooler than the bags Dennis and I have and asks everyday if he can go out in the yard and hit the practice balls. We are so glad that we have happened upon a sport that he seems to enjoy. 

Baby Bump

Ok. I know. Its not that big. But for me its big. So here are some pics for those who haven't seen.

Dennis is so good to me!

He handed me a note around 130pm on Saturday afternoon that said "I am whisking you away. Mom will be here at 3pm to pick up the kids and we need to be packed and ready to go by 4pm." We got the kids ready to go and out the door with Grandma and got ourselves packed up but, missed our 4pm deadline by about 20 minutes. In the car, he gave me another note: "Dinner has been pushed back to 7pm. You have a 5pm appointment at the Vesario Spa for a 50 minute massage." Needless to say, I was already excited to have a night without the kids and let alone packing up to go somewhere, but this was over the top. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure where this spa was. As we got off at Pearl Street in GR, Dennis pointed over to the newest, and might be the nicest, hotels in the area and said that was where we were staying. How absolutely wonderful! The massage was very relaxing and nice. We went to dinner afterwards at Leo's, where I wanted to go, and just plain stuffed ourselves.  We ended up vegging out in front of the TV in our room afterwards because we were just so full. Our room was just beautiful, on the 15th floor, overlooking the river. What a wonderful surprise!!! It was nice to have an evening away without the kids.

 

We celebrated last night by dinner out with the kids and cake at home, which the kids thought was just fantastic. Seth actually scraped off all his frosting from his piece and ate that first, before diving into the cake.

 

Quite possibly the best part of my day was the phone call I received at 8am from the kids, where they both wished me happy birthday and then both proceeded to sing. It was just adorable!!! 

No more wires

I was able to remove the wires on Weds at 130pm. It was a long 48 hours!! I am still finding sticky spots on me. I dropped off the monitor at the doctor's office on Weds afternoon, but I probably will not hear anything more until I go in for the echocardiogram on 10/1. I also had blood work done to check my thyroid, but again, I doubt I will hear anything until that 10/1 appt.

Dennis is finally starting to feel better, but now Seth is sick. He ended up staying home from school today with a bad cough, a slight fever, and a sore head most likely from all the coughing.

Dennis and I are looking forward to our dinner out tomorrow night to celebrate my birthday. We are going to a local seafood restaurant that we haven't been to in a while. Its not Maui, but it will be a much needed date night.

New Blog and Wires Everywhere!!!

Yes, a blog. Why? It looks cooler than emails and sorry to say facebook users (you know who you are), its a little more grown up. Check back whenever to get updates on life at our house.

On to the wires everywhere...I got the heart monitor thing hooked up at the cardiologist today. I called it a halter in an earlier email, but actually iit is HOLTER which I am sure stands for something but I don't know what. After an excrutiatingly long wait (thank the Lord for an understanding boss), it took the nurse just 5 minutes to stick the little stickers on me and hook up all 7, yes 7, wires to a small monitor about the size of a cell phone on a very stylish way but too long gray nylon belt. I have a row of three stickers (1.5" squares of sticky gauze with a snap in the middle) about 2" below my collar bone in the center of my chest, which were really attractive sticking out of the top of my scoop neck top. The other four stickers are spaced around my lower rib cage. The colorful wires hooked to the stickers were so long that they stuck out from under my shirt quite a bit, so the nurse pulled them together and stuck them to my stomach with that wonderfully to sticky tape they use for IVs. She also used that to stick the connector between the seven wires and the monitor to my stomach as well. So lots of wire and all very itchy from the stickers. Only 40 hours to go...

Other notes from the household...Dennis has a pretty bad cold that the rest of us are hoping he keeps to himself. Right now he is snoring in the other room, so loud it sounds like he is in the same room. He is also facing a very busy week at work and says he just can't take a day off to rest. Seth is starting a golf class on Wednesday through the Y, which he is pretty excited about. He is also pretty excited about school, mostly art class. Faith is gabby; if she is awake she is talking...full sentences not always understandable except to mom... most of the time. If she isn't talking she is annoying her big brother or whining because he is annoying her.

Will check back in a few days.