Merry Christmas!! Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone is having a happy, lazy holiday season. I know we are.

We enjoyed a nice Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas Eve was just our family trying to start some traditions. Max got new pajamas that were really cute and a Santa hat to go with them. He actually didn't mind the hat. And he was darn cute in it.


Max wasn't sure what was happening Christmas morning. He's still a little young to get excited about presents.


But he did perk up when we opened the puppy from Grandma and Grandpa K. It makes lots of noise when you press on different parts. Thanks for that. Actually, Max got lots of toys that make noise. We're really excited.


We had the traditional K family Breakfast Burritos that morning and invited the Payson family up to enjoy also. We sat around playing with Max and Jordan and with presents. Unkie Zach was especially generous this year and gave all his nieces and nephews a 4GB iPod Nano. They each came preloaded with music and were individualized for each kid. Max's is currently hooked up to the iCrib that his Daddy bought him quite a while ago. Now he doesn't have to borrow one of our iPods when he wants to listen to music. And his will play videos which is quite a step up from the relics that we're using. (Reminder to self. Take picture and post.)

We spent the morning talking to family on the phone and enjoying our loot and then spend the late afternoon and evening at my parents enjoying good food and family. There were Grandma Lindy and Grandpa Wes presents waiting for all the grandkids so we got in another round of present opening. Max was just as impressed as he was in the morning. Just wait until next year though. He'll be almost two and a little more into the holiday.


More Christmas pictures can be found here. And there will be even more if I download the camera again. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. We love and miss you!!

Good News Everyone!

It's just a big head. Nothing to worry about.

So on Wednesday morning we had an appointment at Primary Children's Hospital with a neurosurgeon. We had been referred there by our pediatrician because of concern about Max's head size. While he measures around the 25th percentile for weight and height his head is in the +95th percentile. We've been watching it climb for the past several months so we were referred for a more thorough examination.

Everything went really smoothly. Max was really well behaved and didn't get upset at anything that happened. We even got a giggle out of him during the CT scan. That may be due more to Mom and Dad acting goofy while trying to distract him from the fact that he was being strapped to a board. We did get a concerned look from him while they were stabilizing his head so it wouldn't move but that was the worst of it. And he's good at giving us the concerned look. They started pretty early on.

Pictures? Again?

Who are these people and why do they keep looking at me?

I love the furrowed brow he gets. He gave the nurse at the pediatrician's office yesterday a pretty good one. We went in for his monthly RSV shots and also his follow-up flu shot. That equals three big shots, none of which he likes of course. We have to wait for 15 minutes after the RSV shots to make sure there are no adverse reactions. When she came around the corner to check his legs, he gave her such wary look she couldn't help but laugh.

Back to the hospital visit though. It looks like Max's skull is growing faster than his brain is. The growth should slow over the next few months so his brain can catch up. I can't remember the exact name of what the doctors called it, but it started with the word Benign and that really is the most important word.

So "Good News Everyone!" It's just a big head.

Hey You Guys! Go Elf Yourself!

We've been Elfed. And for the Scrooges out there go here.

May I Recommend - The Political Edition

Go here. This is a very interesting quiz to see where you line up with the candidates for POTUS. That's President of the United States for those that don't know.

If you're interested, I line up on the liberal side of things. Big surprise.

Life So Far: A January Retrospective, Part 3

So we're in the hospital in Payson, trying to get my blood pressure to come down so I can go to Provo by ambulance. We kept talking to family on the phone while all this was happening. My mom came to the hospital for a bit before she had to go to work. I know I talked to Gretchen for sure. Erik ended up running home while all this was happening. They thought I would be leaving for Provo in the next hour or so and I was getting worried about Solomon at home. He hadn't been out since around 4:30 am and now it was 10:30 am or so. So Erik went home to quickly shower and really get dressed for the day, not just hurry and take my pregnant wife to the ER clothes. He was going to drop Sol off at my parents and then meet me at the hospital in Provo.

It ended up taking a little longer for me to leave Payson and I was getting a little worried that Erik would end up waiting for me in Provo. I really didn't want this to happen since I needed him to be with me as much as possible. It ended up that he came back to the hospital in Payson as they were loading me in the ambulance and was able to give me a kiss before they closed the doors. My nurse from Payson came to Provo in the ambulance with me which was nice.

It was weird riding in the ambulance. I'm laying on a gurney facing backwards and trying to judge where we were by the landmarks we were passing. There aren't many of those between Payson and Provo from that angle. At one point I realized we were passing a semi pretty quickly and asked if the lights were on. They were.

During the ride to Provo, one of the workers (EMT I suppose) called in to let them know what was coming. When we got to the Emergency Room there was a whiteboard telling them where to take me. Where they had to take me was on the other side of the hospital. So there I am strapped to the gurney getting wheeled past who knows what or who, looking my 4:30 am best. When I got to my room they moved me to my bed and the Provo nurses took over. Somewhere in this time Erik got to my room. This was around 1 pm.

We met with the doctor that had been consulted earlier. He said that it looked like we would be having a baby soon. How soon? we asked. Well, we were told, the anesthetist will be in around 3 pm for the epidural then we'll take you to delivery by 3:30. We were happy that I would be able to stay awake for the c-section because that way Erik could be in the room. If I had to be knocked out entirely, he would have had to wait out side the surgery room.

Epiduraled. Erik suiting up.
(Cell phone picture=bad quality)

During this time my family started showing up. After half a day at school, they were able to find a sub for my mom and she was able to get to Provo. My dad and Bridgett also came then. Bridgett and my mom had been crying because they were so worried about us all. During this whole time I wasn't worried about anything but that fact that we weren't ready yet. I just knew that everything was going to be okay.

My dad isn't the type to just sit around so he asked if there was anything he could do for us. He kindly agreed to go to our house and get our new camera which we had forgotten. When he got back, he and Erik gave me a blessing that really comforted everyone, I think.

Neither of us was that excited about a c-section. I had just been telling Erik a few weeks earlier that it wasn't like Alien. The baby wouldn't come shooting out. But you know what? It kind of was like that. The doctors were all pushing on me to push the baby up and out of the incision. Not to be gross, but there was splatter involved. Erik and I were both very grateful for the curtain that was up so neither of us could see what was going on. At 4:13 pm Max was born.

Life So Far: A January Retrospective, Part 2

So after a delicious dinner at Noah and Kaila's, Erik and I went home. With work the next day, we did what we needed to prepare for the next morning and went to bed.

I'm not sure what woke me up early the morning of the 29th. The dog? My bladder? It could have been anything since I just wasn't sleeping much anymore. But when I was up and moving around at 4:30 am I thought to myself "I must have slept funny, my shoulder and side sure hurt." I tried to go back to sleep but it wasn't happening. I tried sitting up on the couch but it was really hurting. By this time I had woken Erik up with all my fidgeting and discomfort.

We tried using an heating pad on the hurt. We tried Tylenol. We tried Erik rubbing the hurt. Nothing was working. So he said "We're going to the Emergency Room." I didn't argue, so around 5:30 am, off we went. I think I was still in my pajamas. The hospital in Payson is only about five minutes away from our house but it seemed further. I just remember it was really cold outside and that every bump in the road we hit really hurt.

We checked in with the Emergency Room and they sent me right up to Labor and Delivery. It must have been near shift change or something because our first nurse wasn't there for very long and she didn't seem very helpful. She kept wondering why they sent me up to L&D for side pain. When they were doing the initial check on all my vitals they found that my blood pressure was sky high.

By this time we had a new nurse that had just come on shift. She was great. My doctor was called and he showed up around 7:30 am. He suggested that I would probably be having a baby in the few weeks. He called in another doctor to consult with after my blood pressure kept rising. Then they started talking about me having a baby in the next few days. All I kept saying was "We're not ready." Nothing on our beautiful list had yet been accomplished.

It turned out that I had developed Preeclampsia and probably HELLP Syndrome too. That shoulder and side pain? Bingo, classic symptoms.

They gave me an IV of magnesium sulfate that was supposed to bring my blood pressure down but the initial dose wasn't working. I remember looking at the monitor one time and seeing my blood pressure was something like 220/110. WAY TO HIGH. They wanted to get it down to around 160/90 because they were going to put me in an ambulance and send me to UVRMC in Provo. I was being sent to Provo because the hospital there has a NICU. It looked like we were going to be needing that pretty soon. I was 32 weeks pregnant.

While all this was happening we were on the phone calling family to let them know what was going on. We called our parents and they let everyone know what was going on.

Erik called his work to let them know he wouldn't be in. He was thinking we would be home by noon and we could take a long nap. Didn't work out that way.

I also made the call that I was dreading. My boss. Remember? Accountant? Quarter-end? The first time I called her was to tell her that I wouldn't be in that day because I wasn't feeling well but hopefully I would be in the next morning. My next call to her? That night to tell her I had just had Max earlier in the afternoon and that I probably wouldn't be in for a while. Shocked silence would probably describe her reaction best. Yeah, we had a lot of conversations over the next few days so that she could get all my work covered. I even went into the office one morning the next week to talk over some stuff. (And to use the fax machine so I could submit all the short-term leave paperwork they required.)

Life So Far: A January Retrospective, Part 1

When January 2007 started we were starting to get a little anxious. After six months of pregnancy we really hadn't started doing much around the house to get ready for a baby.

We knew what room would be the nursery, but that room? FULL of junk.

We knew, with grandparents out of state, we would need to get a digital camera to facilitate the multitudes of pictures that would be required. What kind of camera? How much to spend?

We knew babies need things like beds and clothes. But what to get? That stuff can get pricey fast.

So with a due date looming two and a half months in the future, we made lists. Comprehensive lists that detailed, room by room and item by item, what needed to be done, purchased, painted or thrown away. Comprehensive lists that would make everything okay.

But it was quarter-end at my work. I'm an accountant. That's a busy time. So things had to take a backseat to work.

Erik headed up the camera task. He researched, compared and decided. I said okay and we ordered. The camera came on January 26th. We took it to dinner with us on Sunday, January 28th. See?

Gabby and Alex playing at Sunday Dinner.

Dinner was great. Kaila made a delicious Beef Tenderloin and French Onion soup. Two of my favorites.

Less than twenty four hours later, this picture was taken with our new camera.

Obviously, things didn't go quite as we had planned.

May I Recommend

I'll occasionally be listing things I'm really liking in the sidebar.

This song is free on Amazon right now. You need to have an account to get it and you have to use their downloader (not for Mac I think [Update: there is one for OS X!]) but it is free. And worth it.

I first heard of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings when I was listening to Fresh Air on NPR last week. I liked what I heard so I went looking for more.

Yes, I know listening to NPR makes me old. What of it?