Little man in tights

Aunt Nicole Jeffreys got Floyd this sweet Alta onesie, which proclaims "I love big dumps!" The double entendre is perfect for  Floyd. He is also sporting his Union Jack baby legs. To ENGLAND!

Get me through December....

It has been a busy December. Grams and Gramps Z dropped by before Christmas to deliver some gifts. Gramps thinks the boy is pretty "neat." (Classic adjective from my Dad.)

We had our annual Christmas party with the Hot Doctors Club - my preferred name for our group of friends in defiance of the previously used "A" listers - at my house on the 22nd. Erin, Erica, Cristi, Nicole,Heidi, Jen, Darci, and I got together for a minor gift exchange and dinner. Heidi and Roman got engaged as of the 21st. The hand shot above was to document Heidi's poor sad sad manicure but the pick does not do it justice. She had some strange theory about removing nail polish once you have messed up that involved painting the entirety of her fingers - strange.
The girls got to meet Floyd. He hung out for a while before heading to bed.
Erica made tortilla soup.
The next morning I woke up to a cold house. The furnace apparently konked out in the night. It was 60 degrees inside by 7 am. We dressed Floyd in his bear costume and took to calling him "Fozzie the Bear." He was oblivious to the cold. Rob and I mulled around the house in our puffy coats all day. I did get to go out and do some skiing with Erin. We very slowly skated around Mountain dell golf course. I am in bad shape. Rob spent the entire day fighting with the home warranty company and their subcontractor. The fight continued until 6 pm on Christmas Eve.
We moved into Grammy B's house on the 23rd and did not make it back into our house until the afternoon of the 25th.
It was a major downer of a Christmas for Rob and I overall eventhough we were able to spend quality time with the Beyers. Floyd was happy and warm. He is our greatest Christmas present ever any way.
This is his Elvis outfit. Notice the sweet impromtu Elvis pose. The outfit has frogs wearing crowns on it.
We settled on a nanny finally after all the stress. Bertha's daughter Micael is going to be our nanny. Floyd has become a bit of a fuss bucket. He has been holding me prisoner, hence the outfit. It is a good thing he is cute.

Christmas Time

Christmas time means that I am another year older, 32 today. I look at Floyd who is 25 days old and I can't believe who fast life moves. It seems like yesterday I was wearing green velour knickers and singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" in front of blue Christmas trees at Ricks College with the Rainbow Connection.

merry christmas from Rob and Floyd

Farting Elves: 12 Days of Christmas | Funny Jokes at JibJab

Floyd

3 weeks

2o days old. What an adventure...it is uncharted territory for all three of us, well 4 if you count the dog. I think we are doing remarkably well considering what many of you thought about any maternal skills I may have. Floyd has taken to breast feeding. I still have not gotten used to the "milk let down" or what is better termed the ejection or firehouse effect. Every morning I wake up soaked despite my best efforts otherwise.

At his 2 week check up Floyd had gained over a pound to get up to 7 lbs 11 oz. Dad says it is because he is a booby man. Rob's new favorite song to sing to the boy is "Its booby time!"

I ventured out of the house without Floyd for the first time to go to Yoga with Erin. I left dad with a bottle of breast milk. He said the boy chowed down and was ready for more. It was hard to relax during corpse-pose because I imagined Rob pulling his hair out trying to console Floyd without me, but I came home to a peaceful house, with Floyd asleep in daddy's arms. Rob insists that he has mad skills with the boy. He likes to crank up Radiohead and dance with Floyd in front of the Christmas tree.

We still have not learned how to effectively combat the sniper; Floyd peeing on us at every diaper change. I think he waits for the freedom of being without the diaper to open the flood gates. At least we know his kidneys are working (see earlier posts).

He is so amazing to stare at, as you can see "Grammy B" doing above. He has great facial expressions, likely inherited from mom, and a furrowed brow likely inherited from dad.
I think right now he looks like dad. We are waiting to see his eye and hair color. As you can see he inherited dad's hair line.

Watch for Floyd's first feature film to be posted this week.

Babies Babies

Here is a picture of Tanner Nelson. He made his debut 6 weeks early. Congrats April!

Here comes trouble

Floyd and I finally got to meet little Joseph Royal Cooley, born 6/28/2007 6lbs 8 oz.

Both the boys decided to sleep through the photo shoot. Floyd is two weeks old, and Joe one week old today. Floyd put on his pouty face (pictured to the left) when we went home. I am sure Julie and I are in for years of trouble with these two little guys.

Lil' Joe Cooley

without further adew...
Jules and Cools are in the pictures too of course, but little Joe is the star. Floyd has yet to meet him in person , but we check in daily. It is kind of an adventure to get out of the house, and to schedule a rendezvous with another breast fed baby.

We will make it happen and get some pictures of Floyd and Joe together.









































April Nielson, friend from work, had her son this morning 6 weeks early. He was 5 pounds, and 18.5 inches long. She only pushed three times - Brat! Jenny Meese had her babies too, Graham and Harrison on Sunday. I hope to get pictures of all of them soon.

The Gremlin

WARNING!!!!!
Don't Feed Ice Cream to my Mom.

I may look cute and all, but I don't like lactose. It makes me fussy, which poses a problem for mamma, as that is her favorite beverage. If you do feed her ice cream I turn into a Gremlin after midnight.

Check me out in the bath tub. I covered my business for the internet.

Ooh and don't you think I am stylish in my Brontasaurus Shirt and knit hat.

Dad really likes me too. He reads me a book every night.

I am still waiting to meet lil'Joe Cooley. I will post pictures when mom lets me out of the house.

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.

Wild Boys!

Tonight was a party in honor of April (on the left) and Jenny (on the right), my friends and coworkers. I have a few weeks on both of them. We are all having boys; Jenny has a two-fer going.

It has been so great to commiserate and swap stories with the two of them over the last several months. Even more important is never having to make excuses for how you are feeling. I always look forward to seeing all the girls in the Ultrasound department. They have all been so good to me. I will miss Jenny especially, hopefully she will at least keep up her blog so that I can see what she is up to on a regular basis.

Highschool Mafia

Well this time it was Julie Cooleys turn. Hannni and Sarah threw a little shindig at Hanni's house in Julie's honor. The highschool girls got together, and started sharing pregnancy , labor, childbirth, breast feeding, and child rearing advice. Julie and I got more unsolicited horror stories about 13lb baby's , tearing (need I say more), swelling of the perineum post labor to resemble a cow's utter (thanks Susanah). It was relentless. (Left to right: Susanah, Hanni, Susie, Julie, Sarah, Bethany)

Julie is about 28 weeks and I am 33 in this picture. Would you have guessed it?
This picture is especially for Susanah, who not only like to share all the horror stories-supposedly for our own good- but also bad mouthed my blog.

Babys'R'us

Last night Rob and I had a date night which involved the Lone Star Taqueria, and a trip to Babys'R'us to pick up a gift from my girlfriends. While I went to customer service, Rob grabbed a basket and started up and down the aisles. He was suddenly very excited about everything we could get for Tecumseh. He has been reading a few daddy-to-be, and new daddy survival guides, which are full of suggestions.

He was most excited about the diaper genie, claiming that it has had rave reviews. He also found a changing table pad, an additional car seat holder so we have one for both cars. He was just about to buy a pack and play, but our cart was fun. He is excited about all the goods!

#2

My best friends from medical school threw me a shower this last weekend. (Heidi, Erin, Erica, and Cristi).
I am worried that my nose is starting to slowly spread across my face with weight gain. Incidentally I am up to high school weight 164lbs. My freshman 15 from college were in the negative direction thankfully. Oh well, there is always skate skiing this winter with the girls, and mtn biking with the boys in the spring. In the words of Fergie, "Its time to be a big girl now, and big girls don't cry."
I was so excited that so many people could make it, especially my family (Mugs, Ray, Ana, 'Lil' Lil, and my mom).