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!