4 month +

At Connor's 4 month check up he weighed in at 11lbs 10oz (10%) and was 25 inches long (50%). He's long and lanky!!! Everything looked great with him and even though he is only in the 10% for his weight the peditrician says as long as he is on the charts that is all that matters. These days Connor is laughing and giggling away. He has recently decided that he doesn't need to sleep during the day. He is still sleeping through the night with an occasional night of waking up once. We were given the ok to start rice cereal and boy was that interesting. It didn't seem to be the best thing he has ever tasted! I reluctantly sucks it down. At the cabin this past weekend I added some unsweetened applesauce to the cereal and this seemed to make things go down better. We are anxious to try and experiement baby food with him. Well, Jared is more anxious because he likes the fruit! In early June Connor rolled from back to front for the first time and has repeated it only once or twice. According to Jared, Connor enjoys watching ESPN Sportscenter in the morning while Jared gets ready for work. I may have to look into the parental lock feature on our TV b/c having one man obsessed with Sportscenter is enough! When he wakes up in the morning he tends to lay there and talk to himself for an hour or so. He keeps himself occupied with the discovery of his feet and sucking his toes. He still loves to be outside and look at everything in his sight.

We were at the cabin recently and I said rain or shine Connor is going in the lake because he loves bath time so much that I figured he'd love the lake. Sure enough on Saturday afternoon in 68 degree lake water he went in and didn't make a peep! Of the 4 grandchildren up there he was the only one who didn't cry when their foot touched the water!

I don't have my camera with me today so I don't have very many pictures to put on here but here are a few to enjoy for now!!!

This was at Jeffrey and Jill's wedding

Playing on the new playground up at the cabin

Connor Rolls

Connor rolled over for the first time on Saturday April 24th!!! I did not get it on camera b/c I was trying to find my camera and all the sudden I turn to look at him and he was mid roll! He rolled from his tummy onto his back rolling on his right side. He did it again two more times at uncle Matt and auntie's Julie's house on Sunday, which I didn't have my camera then either! UGH! I thought Saturday was maybe a fluke but when he repeated his performance on Sunday we counted it as a milestone! Connor truly doesn't mind tummy time and does really well at holding his head up. My camera will be on and right next to me so we can try to capture him rolling over. In 11days Connor will finally be able to meet his uncle Jerame, or Germbutt as most people call him. Jerame has been in Costa Rica studying abroad and had to leave about 8 days before Connor was born. Connor is getting really excited to meet him!!

We are also all getting excited for my brother's wedding on May 21st which means that my sister Michelle, and her husband Nick, and my nephew Christopher who live in New Hampshire will be coming to MN!!!!!!! This will be the first time in 4 plus years that EVERYONE will be together again!!! We will be taking family photos when they are in town which should be very interesting b/c Christopher is almost 4, Nora is 2 and a half, Carter is 11 months, Marshall is 4 and half months, and Connor is 3 months. Does anyone know where we can find those guys who dress up in clown costumes for rodeos to corral the bulls in, b/c we will need someone to corral all these kids! Let's just say Christmas 2010 will be CRAZY! That's all for now, hope all is well with everyone and enjoy the pictures!!

These next pictures are of the quilt my aunt Sharon made from my Grandpa J's pants, shirts, and hankies. It is designed with puzzle pieces and all the suites of a deck of cards which were a few of the things my Grandpa loved to do. She does beautiful work and it turned out GREAT!

2 month check up

Connor 2 Months Old

Today was Connor's 2 month check up with his new pediatrician Dr Bryan and he did really good! He weighs 10lb 5oz (born at 7lb 11oz) and in the 20% for his age. He still has a ways to catch up to Marhsall and Carter!! He is 23inches long (born at 21inches) and in the 50% for his age. His head is 15 1/4 inches (born at 13inches) and in 25% for his age. Connor is smiling, cooing, and kicking his legs away these days! He is very smiley in the morning when we are both getting ready for the day. He seems to be a morning person which Jared and I both hope changes in the future b/c we both love to sleep in! Connor is not sleeping through the night but does have some good long stretches of sleep. Some nights he can go 5-6 hours without waking up, then other nights he gets up every 3 hours on the dot, but we take what we can get. Connor was able to watch his first Minnesota Twins game yesterday as he got to stay home with daddy and have a boys day together!

As I write this we (not me, I'm at work) are in the process of moving into a 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 2 level town home we are renting in Plymouth. We are most excited to finally be able to sleep in our king bed again!!! Connor will graduate from his pack and play to his crib tonight! For the past 2 months we have been living both at my parents house on the days Jared work and Jared's parents house the days he has off. Lots of back and forth and living out of bags, so it will be nice to finally get settled and have things in a permanent place. However, we all will miss Grammy, Grandpa J, Nana, and Granpda K as they have loved loved loved being able to spend time with Connor and watch him change. Connor will especially miss being able to cuddle and snuggle with them :(

All of these pictures were all taken before 7am! Told you he is a morning person!! When we get things unpacked and set up we will take pictures of our new place and more specifically Connor's room b/c we all know that is what people really want to see! Hope everyone has a great Easter!!!

Welcome Connor Arthur Kuyper!!!

Sorry this has taken so long to update but as many of you know these past 6 weeks of maternity have been nothing close to relaxing or dull. Connor Arthur Kuyper was born January 30th, 2010 at 9:03pm and weighed 7lbs 11oz was 21 inches long which = PERFECTION! He scored really well on his Apgar with an 8 and 9. He had quite a bit of hair when he was born but is now starting to lose it. We went in at 7:45am on the 30th to be induced b/c of my high blood pressure. They started pitocin around 9:30am and I started having some contractions. I went in and was only 2cm. Around 2pm my contractions started to decrease so around 3:30 the resident DR tried breaking my water but was not successful. At 6:30pm the DR on call came in to check me in which I was about 5cm and actually broke my water and this is when true labor contractions started. I went about an hour before I got an epidural and man did that feel good. I was going to take a nap but then my blood pressure actually dropped really low and they had to give me drugs to get it back up. This was a reaction from the epidural so they had to turn the epidural off which I wasn't too thrilled about. Around 7:30 I started to feel pressure "down there" so they check me again and I was 9cm!! I went from a 5 to a 9 in one hour! By this time my epidural had completely worn off. The nurse said that takes some people hours upon hours to do so I was pretty happy. We started pushing around 8-8:15 and Connor was born at 9:03 so I only pushed for about 45 minutes. My mom said that my body was made for labor! Jared was great to have in the room with me all day and didn't want to leave in case he would miss some action. He made a comment around 8:45pm to the RN, my mom, and his mom asking if we could hurry this along and be done by 9:15pm b/c the Wild game was on! I commented back jokingly with, "I'll see what I can do" and the other three women almost killed him with death stares! I thought it was pretty funny! Needless to say by 9:15pm we were done and he did not turn the game on b/c he couldn't leave Connor's side!

Connor is now 6 weeks old and smiling up a storm when you talk to him! Dad has no problem taking Connor out of mom's arm to get some quality snuggle time in. He has watched many movies with mom and dad and has even dabbled with the Xbox remote a couple times! He is a VERY good baby and we couldn't be any happier! Connor is a snuggler and could sleep for hours and hours in your arms but wakes up the second you put him down! He does not sleep through the night yet, I wish, but only gets up about every 3-3.5 hours to eat and goes back to bed.

We did go to Children's in mpls and did a Renogram and a VCUG and found out that he has urine reflux. This happens when his bladder is emptying and only about 50% of the urine is expelled and the other 50% goes back up to his kidneys. He does not have to have surgery right now but will need to go back in 10 months to repeat the VCUG and if the reflux stays the same or gets worse then he would need surgery at that time. But for now he is on antibiotics to prevent any infection and is doing just fine.

Here is a link to my facebook photo album of all the pictures from his birth so you can check them out! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2056135&id=74602027&l=4184ba3678

3cm and 3 days to go!!

Well today's dr appt brought no new news. I am about 3cm dilated and had my membranes stripped again. As of now it is just a waiting game until Saturday. They said that very early in the morning, 53o or 6am labor and delivery will call me to tell me what their schedule looks like and to let me know if they will be able to get me in. If they are too busy then I will be pushed back till Sunday or whenever they are not busy so we have to be ready to go whenever they give us the thumbs up and trust me I am ready! I've had enough of this bed rest business and living out of a suitcase has its cons too! Check back on Sat either for pictures of our new little guy or some not so great news of being pushed back another day!

5 days and counting!!

At my doctor's appt today we set up the big induction day for January 30th!! That is only 5 days away but not nearly soon enough! I tried begging and pleading with the doctor for an earlier date but she didn't want to go any earlier as she wants to avoid a c-section as much as possible and if I were to get induced today or tomorrow it would be a long induction process as I would have to fully efface and dilate which can take quite some time . I am only dilated to 2cm's today and she stripped my membranes so we are hoping that helps speed things up. 2cm is good considering last Thursday I wasn't even 1cm! I am still on bed rest which is making me go crazy but I get another big outing this week as I have my regular BPP/NST on Wednesday. I stayed out a little longer today and got myself a pedicure which should be a requirement before any woman goes into labor!

Jared is getting pretty excited as this is his last week working at the Rosemount Armory and he officially starts in New Hope one week from today! We both couldn't be more excited and happy! Stayed tuned for an update after my appt on Wednesday.

Weekly Update

I had my appt for the week today and boy was it a busy one. We started out with the weekly BPP in which he ended up failing with a 4/8. He failed the two movement criteria which are 2pts each. He was either very very quiet or sleeping b/c then we went downstairs for the NST and he failed that also. He wasn't showing any accelerations but had a good heartbeat staying around the mid 140's. They tried to stimulate him with a buzzer a couple different times to try to get some action or movement out of him but nothing happened. When they took my blood pressure it came back at 150/98 which is quite high. They re-took it one more time and it fell a couple points to 143/89. I have been having elevated blood pressures for the past couple weeks but not this high by any means. Since he got 4/10 for the week on his BPP/NST and b/c my blood pressure was so high, we were sent over to the hospital OB triage unit to do more extensive monitoring. We repeated the BPP in which he did much better this time and he was did but better being on the monitor. Before I left my DR's office I was instructed that I am unable to go to work and now need to be on bed rest until I deliver. I promptly said excuse me what??? Bed rest?? I don't think those two words go together in my dictionary so I needed her to clarify what she meant by this. So what she said I can do is pretty much nothing. I can get out of bed to shower, go to the bathroom, make a quick lunch/food, and lay back down. I asked her if I could get up and walk around b/c I get so uncomfortable and she said I can get up to stretch and then lay back down!! This is going to be a rough week and a half! My dr checked my cervix before I left for the hospital and she said I am almost 1cm dilated! WHOA, big progress..NOT!

Since things turned around at the hospital they discharged me and I have to follow up with my DR on Monday morning. My big outing for the week!! Jared and I are going to talk to her about maybe inducing next week for a couple reasons. One, is that I only get 6 weeks of maternity leave and now my bed rest counts towards that time and two, is that Jared starts in New Hope on Feb 1st so he/we would like for him to have some time as a family at home before he starts his new job.

Speaking of, JARED IS OFFICIALLY A NEW HOPE POLICE OFFICER!!! Jared accepted the job offer on Jan 7th pending his passing of a physical and psychological evaluation. He passed both which secured him a position, good thing he isn't crazy!!! On Wednesday this week he went shopping with his captain to get his uniforms, vests, and accessories he needs. He also purchased his gun this week which he was excited about. Jared has said a couple times that he could possibly start his career job and have a new baby son all in the same day!! We have started to look for places much closer to where we both are working and are hoping to move within the next month to month a half. That is all the news we have so far. After Monday morning I will for sure update the blog again if there is any news on inducing. Keep your fingers, toes, and arms crossed for us!