Welcome Home Kyle!

Well, Kyle has been home for three weeks now. He is 38 weeks old and weighs 6 lbs! He is breast feeding some, but gets most from a bottle, so I am spending alot of time breast pumping. I have a great milk supply, I'm actually running out of room to store all the milk, I even have a freezer in the garage that is full! Kyle usually has a couple hours a day when he is awake and alert. He doesn't cry much, but when he does, he has a much stronger cry. He enjoys being held and likes to sleep in your arms. Bryson seems to be adjusting well. He shows some interest in the baby, but mostly doesn't pay him any mind. Bryson is obsessed with books. He reads books or wants you to read books to him all day! He carries them all over the house. He also loves to be outside and play in the dirt.

My mom came to help out for a little over a week and my dad came for a weekend. My mom was a great help and cooked and cleaned for us and watched Bryson so I could focus on breast-feeding with Kyle. It was sad to see her go. Steve, Jan and Anna were able to come by on the weekend to meet Kyle and visit with Bryson as well. Ken's friend Sheila is staying with us while she looks for a job in Portland. She is helping out with Bryson and some work around the house. I feel like things are under control now, I don't think I would be able to do it all on my own yet (Ken is working full time). I am thankful to all our friends and family who have helped us out in our time of need!

Welcome Kyle!

Well, it's been a crazy couple weeks! My water broke at work on 4/29/09, I went to the hospital and they verified it was amniotic fluid and they said I would be in the hospital until I had the baby. It was a pretty scary experience, I got steriod shots to help the baby's lungs develop. They said 75% of women go into labor within 72 hours of their water breaking. I made it one week. On May 6 the baby's heart rate dropped periodically and when they did an US they found he was in an unusual position. His "hand" (it turned out to be his foot) was over his head (he was head down) and the umbilical cord was next to his "hand". The doctors felt this was a bad position due to the posibility of cord compression and recommended a c-section. So I decided to go with the surgery and Kyle was born at 9: 56 that night. He had his foot up by his head. He weighed 3 lbs 14 oz and was 16 and 3/4 inches long. He was able to breathe on his own and had good color. He was crying vigorously (I took this as a good sign.) The surgery went much better than the first for me and I recovered much quicker. After a couple hours Kyle started to show signs of labored breathing and they put him on a c-pap machine. He was only on the c-pap for one day. I was glad, it was hard to see him with it on because his face swelled so much he couldn't even open his eyes. He had IV fluids for a couple days and he needed to be under lamps for a couple days due to jaundice. He has tried breast feeding twice a day to practice, he's done really well overall. I am so happy with how well he is doing. I got sent home from the hospital on saturday the 9th. I think it was very hard on Bryson, I sure did miss him. It's great to be home, but it is also difficult to juggle everything. I try to be at the hospital form Kyle from 9am to 4pm and then I come home to put Bryson to bed and then I go back to the hospital to "feed" Kyle at 9 pm. I am lucky because I am producing alot of milk for Kyle, he is eating through a naso-gastic tube, we practice breast feeding twice a day.

April

April has been a pretty good month for the Zimmermans. We've had a few really nice sunny days and had a picnic at the park one of those days. Ken had two weeks off work before starting his new job and he got alot of work done remodeling our bathroom. Bryson decorated easter eggs and had fun finding and opening the plastic ones with treats inside. We went to Cory and Melissa's for a little easter egg hunt, (the weather outside wasn't nice enough).

Bryson and I flew down to Sacramento to visit with my sister and parents. It was a little rough traveling pregnant with a little one, but it was a pretty easy flight. It went quite well overall. Bryson watched his first parade and had a great time. He also saw the doxen races which was quite funny. He had a good time visiting with his family and cried when his Aunt Jessie had to leave. Grandma and grandpa read him books and sang itsy bitsy spider. I put a new video on drop shots of him trying to sing itsy bitsy spider; he can do better, but that's all I was able to get.

He's talking a little more and tries to say bye bye to specific people/things, like bye bye mamma or bye bye gramma and grampa. Ken has just started his new job and it's going well so far. Unfortunately Bryson is sick again, he hasn't been sleeping well at night or for his naps and he has been very clingy, so I really haven't been able to get much done. And I really want to get my garden going!!!! Oh well, maybe next week.

Mexico

Well, we had a great time in Mexico! We met Mara, John, Scott and Terri in Isla Mujeres. (An island across from Cancun). It was beautiful there, the sand is white (it's made of broken up shells from the reefs) and doesn't get hot in the sun. The white sand makes the ocean a bright tourquoise blue color, it's beautiful. It was a nice place for Bryson to play in the ocean because the reefs around the island cut down the surf so there are hardly any waves. Bryson loved the beach and ocean, we couldn't get him to stop eating the sand (I can't imagine it tasted very good, go figure!). He was obsessed with the golf cart we traveled around in, he pointed at all the other cars and said "car" and he would wave at other people in the golf carts. One morning he woke up and got my hat, his hat and then headed to the door and pointed and said "car"! He met a little mexican girl about his age on the beach one day and they played together, she shared one of her cookies with him. Bryson of course practically shoved the whole thing in his mouth and then reached for her cookie! The weather was great and the food there was wonderful. At our hotel they gave us freshley sqeezed orange juice every morning. The trip home didn't go so smoothly, we were stuck on the airplane in Mexico for two hours before we took off, to have the airplane checked and Bryson had a bit of a melt down. The delay caused us to miss our connecting flight so we didn't get home until 1 AM (we left our hotel at 7:30 AM). So it was a long day especially for a little one. I think Bryson did a great job traveling overall, it certainly isn't easy with a 1 and a half year old. So, it's good to be home, but unfortunately I've caught another cold (I think I've only been healthy 2 weeks over the last three months!). I'll put a few videos of our trip on drop shots this week, so check it out!

Haircut

Ken cut Bryson's hair last week, it turned out much better than I expected considering how Bryson couldn't sit still for the haircut. the bangs got a little short, but I think he looks pretty cute. Bryson is talking more, he can say "bubble" and "car" and he can make a moo and barking sound. He loves to pat my big belly and point at my belly button and then look at his belly, it's cute. Ken has started remodeling our master bathroom and we are living downstairs in the guest bedroom until it is completed. The weather has been pretty nice here and Bryson and I have been spending more time outside. He loves to collect rocks, his fills both hands and holds the rocks until we go back in the house and he screams when I pry them out of his little fists. We're getting excited to go to Mexico in a couple weeks! We haven't been on a vacation in so long! I put a few more videos on Bryson's dropshots site.

It's a boy!

I had my US today and there's no doubt, it's a boy! I'm very excited, we won't have to buy much of anything and the boys can share a room, so I can keep my craft/misc/junk room! We will have to come up with a name however and I was thinking it would be fun to go shopping for girl stuff, but it'll be much less work this way. The baby yawned during the US, it was so cute. Ken and Bryson were there too, but Bryson is pretty oblivious to it all. I'm sure he won't have a clue until we bring the baby home.

It has been a crazy few weeks around here. Bryson and I are still getting over our colds and Ken just caught it. Bryson got the rotavirus at daycare and had vomitting and diarrhea for 5 days,it was awful! What a mess, we were doing about 4 loads of laundry a day, there was vomit everywhere! Unfortunately both Ken and I got it and all three of us were sick. I had a pretty hard time, being pregnant I usually need to eat every few hours, so the empty stomach was horrible.

The other pictures are of Bryson's first trip to Mt. Hood. We went sledding with the Blickenstaffs, it was fun!

We got a few new things for Christmas, so we did some re-arranging of the furniture. We got a lap top, so we were able to get rid of our huge desk in the office and put in our old entertainment center. We put the old computer in the music area and hung up the guitars so Bryson can't get at them. We changed the set up in the living room and got a new TV, the room seems so much bigger now!


Bryson likes to talk on the phone, we gave him one of our old cordless phones to play with. He definitely says "ball" now and seems to know "mama". I've noticed him trying to copy words after I say them as well. He is more difficult to watch now than ever before! He wants to do everything you are doing and is not very good with "no" yet. I bought him a cheap little guitar at goodwill to play with and he really likes it. He enjoys music and is getting more advanced dance moves. He used to just sway side to side, but he jumps around now too, I'll try to get it on camera. I've been feeling pretty good lately, I've even been able to stay up past 9:00! My US is scheduled for Feb. 10th, I'm very excited to find out the sex. I'm thinking it's a girl, but it'll be great either way.