New best buddy!

Its official! Floyd already has a best friend. Little Joe Cooley was born 11.28.2007, 26 days ahead of schedule. Jules went in for her 36 week check and her water broke! So much for the suspense of labor. Floyd and I cannot wait to meet him.

So far our new family unit has survived one week! Time flies, my emotions are crazy. It doesn't take much to get me to cry. Everyone assures me that it is normal but I can't help but feel a little crazy. I need to just learn to relax and take care of Floyd and myself these days, and let things like laundry, housework, and studying go for a little while.

Thank you to everyone who has left little comments, praise, and words of encouragement. They are invaluable.

6 days in...

Floyd made it home from the hospital on day 2 of life. Now 6 days in, he is hanging in there with mom and dad not far behind. It is foreign territory for us all. The nice thing is, it is the first time for all of us, so Floyd doesn't really know if we are doing anything wrong.



Breast feeding is going better than expected. Floyd had only lost 5 onces on his four day check up. Apparently most baby's lose 10% of their body weight. Mom's milk came in with a bang, and Floyd's poop has changed from black to green to mustard yellow, ahead of schedule. He is really good at shooting the mustard stuff across the room, no joke, especially when dad is changing him. He is also especially astute at peeing on us whenever possible. He has already developed some great facial expressions, and rarely cries - knock on wood. So far mom is getting up only two times a night to feed him.

Floyd did get a follow-up ultrasound to check on his left kidney. It seems the collecting system is still dilated and he will need more tests at 6 weeks of age. What does this mean? Well right now nothing. He is healthy and peeing very well as described above. The best way to describe it now is that functionally his kidney are fine, but he may have a congenital obstruction that could cause problems in his kidney function years down the road, or it may just be the way he is built and it will never cause a problem. So I guess we will wait for the tests in January that measure his kidney function before we worry.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well the fun began Wednesday Night. I had been to the Doctor that morning. I was dilated to 2.5cm, but of course predicting the
arrival is anything but certain.


I returned home and napped most of the day, as Rob had been on call the night before so neither of us had much sleep.

Rob made it home around 3pm. He really was not feeling very well. Perhaps it was the suspect chicken curry salad he had had earlier in combination with his cold he has been struggling with the last 2 weeks (of coarse he thinks he has cancer, but that is another story). He took some Nyquil, we had an early dinner, then retired to the couch to watch some mind numbing TV.

Well I started having contractions, not painful ones, just regularly scheduled q5 minutes. I called my Dad, who is the experienced one as far as delivering a couple thousand babies. He said that if they were not painful, then it was probably not the real thing. So I sat and timed the contractions as I watch "Private Practice" - the Grey's Anatomy spin off with even poorer medicine than its parent. Perhaps that induced labor who knows.

Well I woke up at 11, and 12, etc. as usual these past few weeks. But then at 3am something seemed a little different. Uh, my water broke... I calmly got Rob up, but his body was not in it. Perhaps a GI bug, or anxiety, or his cold, or combinations there of - he did not look so good. We eventually made it into the truck with all the stuff we had previously packed. But I made Rob go grab a towel, so as not to ruin the new car smell.

We arrived at the hospital, which seemed abandoned and quiet. It turns out I was the only patient on labor and delivery. Which was awesome! I know some of you probably had reservations about me delivering at Salt Lake Regional, but I have no regrets. All the attention of the entire unit staff was with me. I got my first, yes first epidural shortly after arriving, and it did not due to much for the pain. It is what Erin Hinich refers to as an airball, and apparently is not uncommon, but of coarse it would happen when a Doctor is the patient. Well the second time around, with much patience from the nurse anesthetist, it made it into the epidural space. A little Zofran on board too, and I was feeling much better. By this time Mugs (my sister), and my Dad and Mary had arrived. My Dad was a wreck, Magan was pacing, Rob was pale and asking for IV fluids, and Mary was cool in the corner tellling stories to help all of us. I could feel a little pressure with each contraction. It seemed like I dilated from 4 cm on arrival to 9+ cm fairly quickly. Before I knew it I felt like I needed to push. Dr. Loewen was by this time en route to Honduras to scuba dive, again just my luck. Her replacement was Dr. Reiser, the spitting image of Mr. Peterman from Seinfeld.

I pushed for forever. Mr Peterman- I mean Dr. Reiser even threatened using forceps, but this the little dude could not make out. So after two hours of pushing, an intervention was made, and out he came. He peaked around, and gave a little peep. Everyone was snapping pictures, everyone was crying, it was happy pandemonium. Rob, Mary, and my nurse Sandy helped me with every push for 2 hours straight!

Overall it was a great Thanksgiving. I was so grateful for my family support, both near and far. I wished everyone could have been there, but as you can see from the pictures above, we had quite a lot of visitors.

Thank you everyone. Come and see the newest arrival.

Charles Floyd Jones
6 lbs 13 oz.

Its hard to believe

I know many of you reading this never thought the day would come where Lauren and Rob would be parents...well it hasn't come just yet, but we are on the threshold, the precipice, the edge! 10 days to be exact. Last Thursday I thought the day had arrived. I awoke from a nap with intense left upper quadrant pain, so bad I vomitted. (Too which my friend Erin-the anesthesiologist-says I should get my epidural early). Rob called in the midst of the vomitus, and hurried home. The whole night I was in pain. All I could think about was, is this it? Where is my mom, my sister, should I call people and wake them up? It turned out to be a false alarm and I am still holding tight.

Cephalopelvic Disproportion

I am freaked. I do not know how my pelvis is ever going to allow for a baby to get out. I lost sleep last night again worrying about an emergent C-section. You see I have broken my coccyx a few times, and now it decreases my overall pelvic outlet diameter. No I think I am going to have to have my coccyx broken, then I will develop coccydynia and then I will not be able to ride my bike which is what I am most looking forward to, even more than sushi. The baby's head measures 9.5cm right now. You do the math.

Taking a lesson from Grant

Grant seemed to be very successful in his efforts to buy a Nintendo Wii, so I though I would follow his lead. The baby's room is ready, we are stalked with diapers, bed sheets, changing table, car seat, bottles, burp rags, receiving blankets, etc. Everyone has been so generous to Rob and I with time, wisdom, and gifts. I hope we won't let you down.

Now all that baby wants (he put me up to this realy) is a Chariot as pictured above. He is looking forward to spring and going on long bike rides with mom and dad but he needs a trailer to join in on the fun. I am saving up my REI dividened towards the purcahse, but if you are feeling like contributing to the Chariot fund in the LAST 23 DAYS!!! of the pregnancy, the baby would not mind.

Panic at the Disco!

Another day goes by....another opportunity to watch STARWARS! No really I am watching Attack of the Clones, Episode II as we speak. Rob thinks I have problems but oh well. Well as you can see by the baby count down we are in the waning few weeks. Everyone has there opinions and expertise on the subject. He is going to come early, or He will be past due. Regardless, it is getting close. I had my 36week appointment on Friday. Luckily Rob was able to come too even though he has been swamped with the move to the Death Star hospital. (No I did not make that up, despite my love for STARWARS. It is the new IHC hospital in town.) Everything up to this point had been going well. However when my Doc measured the fundal height, which should roughly correspond to the number of weeks pregnant, I measured 4 weeks small. Which prompted the necessity for another ultrasound, I used my connections to get it done that day. My girls in the Ultrasound department are always willing to help me out. Long story short, My amniotic fluid was normal, the baby is appropriately sized, which means the fundal height discrepancy is likely because the baby is dropping into the pelvis appropriately. But.........we discovered that the baby has unilateral hydronephrosis (an obstructed kidney). This was a major bummer for me to find out, scary more than anything. It is hard to know what I do about what can go wrong. What does this mean for baby Tecumseh? It could resolve after delivery, or it could require several tests, and at the end of the spectrum-surgery. Rob, my friends, family, and Urologist acquaintances assure me that it will probably be just fine, but my anxiety has done nothing but increase.


Meanwhile my friends have rallied behind me to support me. We had a party last night at the Deshazo abode in honor of Roma returning, albeit briefly, from Boston to see her sis and her friends.Our intern class and medschool was filled with quality people that I know I will call my friends for the rest of my life. The pictures show their character for sure. As you can see Darcie in the middle will be going into GI like Rob. Jen the reserved party animal in the white vest is going to work at the Death Star next year, and well Roma she is in Boston for the time being.

The movie demonstrates her sense of humor and how much she misses Utah, as she demonstrates her Telemarking skills.

This is the End

Curious George was Rob's favorite when he was a kid. I bought him a few books yesterday so that he could start reading to the little dude. He was very serious about it at first, then realized it was a relatively long children's book. He got a little bored with the story and did a little ad-libbing as only Rob could do. Most of which is inappropriate for children. He cracks me up. He always asks me what the dude is doing when he moves around, as if I have a clue!

This is the same guy who when left alone tries to give Porter a massage with our high tech hand-held massager.
Anyway, we are in the final countdown. Mobility is becoming more of an issue. Our house was swarmed with kids on Halloween. We nearly ran out of candy in 1 hour! Josh, Rachel, and Conner came over to help out, and to cruise our street for some candy. I gave Conner a little Range Rover Hotwheel- note in his left hand-. He loves his Aunt Z.

Everything else is coming together. The Baby's room is ready, though Rob thinks it needs more color. He is a nut. I told him that we needed to get our bags packed for the hospital, and he made fun of me because we live 12 blocks away. But I like to be ready.