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.