Some assembly required

Christmas has come and gone and New Years is fast approaching. Daddy spent a good 30 minutes putting together your excer-saucer this morning. That thing sure had a lot of parts! Although you are still a little young for this (your toes just brush the floor) you seemed interested in the lights and sounds it makes. You even showed us a hint of dance moves to come when the jazzy music played a rag time song. We've spent the better part of today putting away all of our gifts and reading your new books. You are no longer just interested in black and whites but all the colors now. You have become quite the talker as well. You continue to coo and smile all day long which makes me melt EVERY time.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Luke!

This year is your first Christmas and it was so special. This morning we went over to Nana and Papa Schneider's house for breakfast and gifts. As always we opened our socks from Santa first! You got a cute outfit, some spoons (because you'll be eating real food soon!) and a little zebra teething toy. Santa was good to you! After socks you were ready for a nap which worked out perfectly for Mommy and Daddy. While you were sleeping we ate the feast Nana had worked so hard to prepare. It was delicious! It was time to open gifts and you were still sleeping. I think you were still pooped from all the activities last night! You got so many nice things. Lots of books and cute outfits, and exercise activity thing, blocks and something to protect you from the germs on the carts when we go to Costco. This all sounds like a full days worth of activities but we were just getting started!
After a quick trip home to let Macy and Sakai outside we headed over to Pops and Grammies house for dinner and fun. Pops had great fun showing you all the pretty ornaments on his tree and reading you Christmas stories in between cooking a great dinner. Once again it was your nap time and off to sleep you went. We tucked you up in Uncle Patricks room so you could catch some quality z's. You slept clear through the opening of presents to awake just before dinner. Grammie, Pops, your three uncles, along with your great Grammie and Papa gave you many nice gifts. Lots of cute outfits and special ornaments to remember your first Christmas. We all had a great time and left with full tummies!

Christmas Eve

Christmas is such a busy time of year for us. Once you get a little bigger you will see what I mean! On Christmas Eve we started out at Nana and Papa Schneider's house. You were such a good boy. You talked to so many people tonight. To name a few: The Fosters, Nana and Papa S, Uncle Mike and Aunt Suzanne, Cousin Will and Cate! And this was just the first stop. Mommy and Daddy filled their tummies and off we all went to our second party. Let me tell you little Luke you were a hit. The second we walked in the door you were snatched from your car seat and the kisses began! Your little chubby cheeks were red with lipstick kisses by the end of the evening. You couldn't have been a better boy tonight. You talked to all the ladies and snuggled quite a few of them as well. This is a picture of you with your second Cousin Claire. She was in love! What a good little helper she was :) By the time we made it to the car you were pooped and off to dream land you went. You slept so well Daddy had to wake you up the next morning to get the Christmas festivities started!

Welcome Olivia Claire

Just in time for Christmas! Ambrey and Tim welcomed to the world little baby Olivia Claire.

She weighted in at 7 pounds 6 ounces and was 18 1/2 inches long.

She is beautiful.

Luke and Olivia meeting for the first time. Luke maybe next time you can open you eyes and flash Olivia that great smile of yours!

Meeting Santa

Who would have ever guessed that Santa would show up at Great Grammie and Papas house! Every year just before Christmas we go to Great Grammie and Papas house for a Christmas party and this year was no different. You were dressed so cute in your little red Baby Gap outfit fit for the holidays. We were all hanging out visiting in the front room while the children played with the train that went around the big beautiful tree when a loud knock on the door caught every ones attention. We were all shocked to find SANTA at the door! Santa came inside and talked to all the children and asked them what they wanted for Christmas. Each one sat on his lap and whispered in his ear what they wanted this year. Mommy was a little nervous that you might not find sitting on Santa's lap much fun but you did great! You sat just long enough for several pictures to be taken and you only cried a little when you'd had enough.
You were even a good sport and squeezed into a Santa outfit to have a few more pictures taken! And I mean squeezed!

Your First Christmas Tree

It took Mommy and Daddy a little while to get out and find a Christmas tree but once we finally did what a fun day it was! We packed you up in the baby Bjorn, your favorite mode of transportation and went off in search of the perfect tree. It didn't take long before we found your first tree. It was prefect! Nice and tall, fat and very green. Uncle Matt even commented that it looked fake! But it wasn't. We tied it to the roof of the car and took it home. Once inside the smell of Christmas filled the house. You watched very closely as Daddy put on all the beautiful white lights and cooed and talked to the tree while Sakai promptly began to eat it!


Not the best picture but here it is!

Your first ornament was this little solider from Nana and Papa E.

Christmas Came Early

Since Nana and Papa Eschinger are going to London this year for Christmas we celebrated a little early! Your favorite gift was your giggling cow. It dances and plays music which really seemed to catch your attention. You also got a very neat ball that lights up, changes colors and plays different sounds and songs. You are just starting to pay attention to toys and Nana and Papa got you some great ones to start out with! You also got your first Christmas tree ornament, a little solider. As soon as we pick out a tree it will go on up top for everyone to see. As usual you were a great boy all night. You can see from this picture that your beautiful dark baby hair is starting to fall out. We are all anxious to see what will grow in it's place. Be it dark or blonde you will always be adorable!

Inspiration

I've been inspired to change up the blog a little bit. From now on instead of writing the blog to you the readers I'm going to write to Luke. I've been printing off the entire blog as an addition to Luke's baby book and it just seems fitting to write to him now. Continue to enjoy and follow along as Luke grows so big!

Three Months already

It seems like just yesterday he was 7 pounds of little baby boy and now he's 16+ pounds of a huge baby boy! How time flys. Luke is doing great. We hate to comment for fear of jinxing ourselves but he is the best baby ever! Luke now sleeps 10 hours a night and gets a few naps in during the day. Sometimes we luck out and he takes a 3 hour morning nap! His awake hours are spent smiling, cooing and kicking up a storm. He is such a joy! With all this sleeping he is getting he is far less grumpy when he is awake. He continues to eat like a champ, love bath time and is mesmerized by the TV....something about that football!

Who knew Luke loved football!

I was hoping that Luke would be a Greys Anatomy fan but it turns out he loves to watch football. We were testing out Luke's new bouncy seat and he seemed to be more impressed with the Patriots than the monkey and frog!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Luke's first Thanksgiving was spent with Nana and Papa Eschinger, Mommy and Daddy and Aunt Ambrey. Good food and fun was had by all! We were sorry to not have the time (or energy) to go visit the Schneiders or Jacksons. We are so thankful this year to have such a happy and healthy baby boy, a knee that is on the mend and a bimonthly paycheck! Life is slowly returning to normal and we love it.

Luke's Room

Luke loves his new mobile from his Uncle Matt, Aunt Michelle and cousin Adeline. He stares up at his fish in the morning just chatting away with them giving Mommy and Daddy a little extra sleep!
This is a shelf that the Minors gave Luke. It took us a while to hang it up but now that it's up doesn't it look so cute!

Two Month Check Up!

Today we had Luke's two month check up! They have him get near naked and wait in a freezing room for the doctor. Here are a few pictures of Rob keeping him warm while we wait.
The doctor said Luke looked great. He even called him chubby! He had four shots today, two in each thigh. He was a real trooper though. He only screamed when he got the shots and then calmed right down with some snuggles from Mommy. His stats are below!

Weight~ 13 pounds 10 ounces (90th percentile)

Length~23 1/2 inches (73rd percentile)

Head circumference~15 1/2 inches (40th percentile)

One year and counting!

Hard to believe it's been a year already! Let's see we got married, went to Belize, bought a house, got pregnant, made it through two knee operations, pre-term labor and our first child was born! I'd say we've had a very busy year. Here's to many more exciting years together and a lot less time in the hospital!

For our anniversary Rob and I went to dinner and a movie. We dropped Luke off at the Jackson's and headed over to CPK for my all time favorite salad. Then we went to The Esplanade for "Dan in Real Life". Dinner was great, the movie was wonderful and the time together was much needed. I think we both look forward to doing it again soon. Now who should be call to babysit this time...

Happy Halloween!

For Luke's first Halloween we went trick or treating with the Jacksons.

Here is a group shot of all the ghouls!

Ben: Evil Pirate

Colin: Creepy old man

Patrick: Robot

Luke: Pumpkin

Our little Pumpkin however was not a ghoul.

The Schneiders first Halloween.

I'm a terrible blogger...

Mom and Jon had us up to Munds Park twice in October. We all had a great time. We went for walks, went night elk seeking, drove into town (Flagstaff), played mexican train, lounged around in our PJ's all day, had a bar-b-que and lots of other things! We even got to go see the Foster's cabin when Mike, Suzanne and the Schneiders were up for a visit. Here are a few pictures from our trip. Lots more can been seen on our picasa web albums!
Luke and Mommy trying to win at mexican train.
Luke and Mommy napping.

A family picture.
Papa Jon sending Luke into a milk coma.

My Secret Weapon

It turns out Luke is a lot like his Dad and not just in physical appearance. Luke is proving to be a bit of a night owl. I however am not a night owl or a morning person these days. I tend to prefer "normal" sleeping hours and with Luke's new awake hours of 9pm to 2am I've had to try out some new techniques to calming the beast. On several occasions Luke has near instantly calmed down and gone to sleep listening to the sweet sounds of Cyndi Lauper's Time after Time. When Cindy doesn't cut it a little vacuuming at 4am seems to do the trick as well!

Pictures!

Get your Luke picture fix here!

http://picasaweb.google.com/aej1976

Luke Timeline

Positive pregnancy test~ January 16, 2007

First trip to the ER~January 21, 2007 Fainting at work!

First OB appointment~ February 6, 2007

First time hearing the heartbeat~March 6, 2007

First time feeling the baby kick~March 26, 2007

Finding out the sex~ April 3, 2007

Picking out a first name~ April 3, 2007

Bought a Mom and Dad car~ April 10, 2007

First trip to OB Triage~April 14, 2007 Falling at work!

Luke's first cousin on his moms side is born~

~Adeline Emma Jackson~May 18,2007

Rob feels Luke for the first time~ May 21, 2007

Luke has the hiccups~ May 29, 2007

You can see my tummy move with kicks & hiccups~ May 29, 2007

Second trip to OBT~First admit to L&D~ June 13, 2007

Luke weighs in at 2lbs 5ozs~ June 14, 2007

Discharged home~ June 17, 2007

Third trip to OBT~Second admit to L&D~July 8, 2007

Luke weighs in at 3lbs 5ozs~ July 9, 2007

Discharged home~ July 15, 2007

Forth trip to OBT~Third admit to L&D~ August 1, 2007

Luke weighs in at 5lbs 4ozs~ August 1, 2007

Discharged home~ August 5, 2007

First non-doctor appointment outing~ August 10, 2007

Luke's Room~painting in progress~ August 11, 2007

First baby shower~ given by Becky~ August 15, 2007

Second baby shower~given by Ambrey~ August 22, 2007

Rob's third knee surgery~ August 27, 2007

Terb pump is turned off~2:10pm September 1, 2007

Contractions start~10pm September 1, 2007

Luke Robert Schneider is born~2:33am September 2, 2007

Luke and Mommy home, Luke 6 lbs 14 ozs~ September 5, 2007

First doctors appt, 7 lbs 4 ozs~ September 7, 2007

Luke's cord falls off~ September 9, 2007

Luke's cousin Cate is born~September 12, 2007

First funny diaper changing story~September 12, 2007

Second doctors appt, 7 lbs 10 ozs~ September 14, 2007

Mommy and Daddy first night out~September 20, 2007

Aunt Katie here to meet Luke~ September 21, 2007

Luke and Cate finally meet!

Rob, Luke and I had a big outing this afternoon. We packed up the whole gang and went to meet baby Cate! What a darling baby and such a good little sleeper. Even for Luke and Cate's photo op she slept through the whole thing. Luke and Cate are only 10 days apart and look at the difference in size. I'm sure Luke will pass her by real soon!

Loving every minute of it!

First snuggle with Daddy
First time Mommy got to see Luke.
First family picture.

As you can imagine it's been a little harder to work on the blog! I hear little Luke stirring from his nap right now so a nap for me is out of the question. So I thought I would post some overdue pictures.

Things have been going great here at the Schneider house. Luke sleeps most of the day only waking to eat every three hours or so. Our nights have been a little bit harder but really nothing to complain about. Luke had his circumcision done on Friday and has been a little cranky the past few days. Can you blame him?

Rob has come down with the body aches and has been sleeping near as much as Luke. Even though he is still quite a bit gimpy his help now that he is under the weather is greatly missed!

I'm finally starting to feel more and more like myself. I was given the ok to drive. My first outing actually brought tears to my eyes. I've never felt so fortunate for what I have, ever.

Both of our families have been more than amazing. My mom brought the three of us home from the hospital (a story for later) and stayed with us for six whole days! What a godsend she was. Once Mom left it didn't take long for the house to fall apart but I'm happy to say the downstairs is back to normal. The hurricane is still in effect upstairs. My Dad and Kelly have been great as well. From painting the babies room, refinishing the changing table and bassinet to giving lessons and constant advice on working a breast pump. Jon and Linda have been wonderful as well. With three grandchildren to juggle they always seem to make time for everyone. As well as a standing offer for taxi service and errand running.

Thanks again to everyone. We wouldn't have been able to make it with such ease these first two weeks without all of you!

In other baby news:

Mike and Suzanne finally welcomed Baby Cate to the family on September 12, 2007 at 11:21am. A little butterball she was weighing in at 8 pounds 6.2 ounces and 21.5 inches long. Rumor has it that Suzanne was amazing in the delivery. Not that this is at all a surprise. All are home and doing great.

A belated birthday shout out:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLIN!!

Your sister must be getting old...forgetting birthdays already.

The First Doctors Visit

Luke had his first doctors appointment today and everything checked out great! Luke now weighs 7 pounds 4 ounces. He's eating like a champ and is nearly back up to his birth weight. He also had his length measured at 20 inches. A slight difference from his reported 18 inches at the hospital! I knew he was taller. He would have been such a butterball at 18 inches and 7lbs 6.5 ounces! Those darn NYICU nurses must have been sleepy :)

Rob and I also received a great compliment from the doctor. She said that she couldn't believe we were first time parents. She said you both are so calm and act like veterans. So nice to hear from someone who meets new parents all day long.

Everything else with the check up went great. The doctor rechecked a MBR for jaundice as Luke was still looking a little too yellow. The test came back fine. Luke is spending a little time in the sun while sleeping in his pack and play to help him break up the bilirubin faster.

We go back in two weeks for a follow up!

First bath!

Just a few shots from Luke's first bath at home!

Home again!

I had such a picture of how taking Luke home from the hospital would go. True to form it went nothing like I planned. Lesson number on of having children: don't waste time planning things just go with the flow! I had spent a long day in Couplet Care being told I would be able to go home as soon as my ride arrived. This was far from the truth. Things kept coming up that needed to be done before Luke and I were allowed to go home. By the time the nurses were really ready to let us leave it was 3:30pm! My mom picked up Rob (who was unable to drive because of his knee) and came to get Luke and I. It took forever to simply cut off his sensor but then we were on our way.

Rob and Mom got little Luke all secure in his new car seat and we packed up the car. We weren't a half mile from the hospital when I noticed a weird light on the dashboard. Rob promptly pulled out the manual and we discovered that three of the four tires were low on air!! Not the safe ride home I had envisioned for my newborn baby. So in 110 heat we found a gas station and Rob crutches and all filled the tires up.

I forgot to mention Luke has been crying the entire time. Not cute baby noises but ear piercing cries. I was a mess. Not only was I frustrated from how long it took to leave the hospital (making it time for Luke to eat on the ride home) but I was in pain. It just so happens that a seat belt hits perfectly on a c-section incision. We finally made it home and at that point I was in no mood for trying to catch anything on film. I figured who would want to watch Luke screaming as we took him to his room for the first time anyway :)

After having a not so nice moment with Rob and my Mom I promptly fed Luke and went to bed! I never thought after spending over 12 weeks in bed I'd be so happy to see my bed. Luke has since learned to love rides in the car and Rob and I have learned to better gauge when a good time for a car ride would be (i.e. not when Luke is starving!). Although we got off to a rough start on our first day home things picked up and ran impressively well after that.

9/2/07 Re-cap

I have so much to report! For starters we turned off the terb pump on Saturday at 2pm. Nothing really exciting happened right away. I have to say I was a little shocked at how long it took for things to kick in. I started having a few contractions here and there around 5pm but nothing painful and certainly nothing regular.

Around 9:30-10pm I decided I better get to bed. My plan was interrupted with contractions that were starting to feel a little more than just tightening. My mom and I started to time them around 10pm and they were already 3-5 minutes apart. We timed for a little over an hour and 3-5 became 3-4 and eventually every 3! We were headed to OBT around midnight by the time my mom came to pick us up and the dogs were let outside.

The ride over was uneventful the contractions kept coming but I was able to breath through them or cry. I wasn’t crying from the pain at this point but over the sheer emotion of the whole experience. I am fighting back tears now just putting it into writing. Rob, my mom and I made it to OBT after a long hike though the hospital. Some how we forgot to remember to bring my badge for quick after hour access.

What a relief to walk up to the OBT desk and see my doctor sitting there. It was almost as if she was waiting just for me. We were checked in quickly and I put myself on the monitor. I thought if there was anything I could do to speed things up I was going to do it! It was amazing to see all the contractions I was having. And that this time I was actually happy to see them! It meant that Luke was finally coming!!!

My excitement was followed by a little disappointment in hearing that I wasn’t next in line for the OR. There was one family in front of us and we would have to wait. I thought ok no big deal I can do this. It can’t take THAT long. Well once those contractions became two minutes apart and rather intense it started to feel like forever. I was just on the verge of begging for some terb when my nurse said it was time to go!

Relief swept over my body like you would not believe. Then I remembered I had to make it through the spinal and the nerves came back. I was fortunate enough to have the one CRNA I wanted working that night. He was so calming. It made the whole thing so bearable. The spinal wasn’t painful per say but just a really odd feeling. There really isn’t any way to explain it, or, the feeling of going numb. It was so strange to see them moving my legs but being totally unaware of the whole thing.

Rob and my Mom were brought in to the OR and both sat by my side through the whole thing. At this point I wasn’t sure if I was going to watch my own c-section. I think the whole two seconds I watched was enough! I did however watch the second they said “oh my gosh he has a lot of hair”. At this point I watched my son being born. Words cannot even come close to explaining how I felt the moment I became a mother.

Welcome Luke Robert Schneider!

We welcomed little baby Luke on

Sunday September 2, 2007 at 2:33am.

He weighed in at 7 pounds 6.5 ounces

and

measured 18 inches long.

Many more pictures to follow!

The Plan

Oh my gosh we have a plan! We have officially hit the 36 week mark and my doctor is ready to turn off my terb pump. What time today was left up to me. I would have thought this would be an easy decision. But turning the pump off at the crack of dawn before I'm ready to actually head to the hospital didn't seem like a smart thing to do! Nobody is sure what exactly will happen when we turn the pump off. Some theories are that I will continue to contract and actually go into labor, nothing will happen and he will come when he is ready or things will move along just at a slower pace. Since we can't just have a c-section at 36 weeks just to have one we have to wait until I'm having regular contractions and am uncomfortable. Both things don't seem too hard to accomplish seeing as they happen while on the pump! So keep your cell phones near by and check back for more details! We may be welcoming Luke into the family soon!

Who would have guessed we'd make it this far!

35.4 weeks

When we started this whole pre-term adventure I never thought we would make it this far! Luke and I continue to grow every day. I swear each day I feel so much bigger. Don't even get me started on what it takes to get out of bed! We have what may be our last OB appointment on Friday. The plan is to stop the terb pump at 36 weeks which is Saturday! So keep checking back as there may be a new addition to the Schneider family this weekend!!!

Gimp Update

Third time is a charm! Rob is home again from his third knee surgery and is doing great. The doctor repaired two quarter sized defects in his knee and seems to think this is it. Fingers crossed this will be the last knee operation for a while. Rob is recovering great and seems to have his pain under control. Which is a good thing with a baby on the way! Thanks to Linda for picking him up at the crack of dawn and sitting with him all day along with bringing him home the next day. It was so hard to not be there with Rob but it was comforting to know his mom was with him.

Things are coming together!

The crib is ready!
The changing table is almost ready.
My dresser from when I was little is ready for all those onesies!
Speaking of onesies....Nana washed tons of them!
And the glider is ready for rocking sweet Luke to sleep.