PureShots Photography

Things haven’t gone quite as predicted. We are still in the hospital. Everyone is healthy and doing well though. Here’s the story…

Right after birth they took a culture to the lab. On Friday they found out it was infected, but weren’t able to tell yet with what. The pediatrician assumed the worst - that it was Group B Strep, an extremely serious infection in newborns if it isn’t caught right away. I knew there was the potential of Ethan being infected since I am a carrier of the bacteria (1 in 3 or 4 women is), so I was administered Pennicillin through the entire labor. This was supposed to take care of the situation. Unfortunately that didn’t seem to be the case. So the pediatrician erred on the side of caution and admitted us to the Pediatrics department of the hospital. We anxiously waited since the infection would be identified in 48 hours if it was Group B Strep.

In pediatrics, Ethan was put on breathing and heartrate monitors. After 24 hours we were able to take him off those monitors. He was also given an IV for antibiotics through his wrist. It is SO hard to see my brand new baby attached to all these cords and tubes. I couldn’t help but think how fortunate we were that he wasn’t in the NICU where I couldn’t even hold him. At least I have been able to pick him up, feed him, snuggle him, etc.

After 48 hours - Saturday afternoon - the pediatrician came to talk to me with the best news I had heard since I went into labor on Tuesday. The culture tested negative for Group B Strep. Praise God!!! Several prayers were finally answered. It turns out the sample had been contaminated by a lab technician or someone accidentally touching the inside of the dish or breathing on the sample or something. Ugh! So we are pretty much in the clear. However they are still monitoring Ethan for any other signs of infection while we run the full 5-day course of antibiotics. So we are here in the hospital until Wednesday afternoon.

In the meanwhile, Aaron has been well taken care of by 3 grandmothers. He has been the focus of their attention and has loved it. I miss him SO much and can’t wait to have this family all together again. And in other good news, Nate made it home on Saturday so has been able to be here to experience some of this with us. Aaron is excited to be a big brother and is super interested in what Ethan is doing, where he is, and all things Ethan.

For anyone who prayed for our situation, thank you so much. God is good. I wanted him to have the glory in this childbirth and he certainly has. He has proved that he is in control and we need to let go and allow him to take care of things. (This was made clear from Tuesday afternoon when I was admitted through now!)

Here are a few more photos of our expanded family…

Proud Grandparents

And Great Grandma

Uncle Jason…

Aunt Sara

Grandma Diana

Grandpa and Great Grandma

Daddy’s 1st handoff

The benefit of the pediatric dept… toys!

Who’s this handsome kid?

After 38 hours of labor, Ethan Isaac has joined our family. He was born today, July 3 at 3:59am, weighed 7 lbs exactly, and was 19.5 inches long. We’re still in the hospital for one more night and will be headed for wonderful home tomorrow. Ethan is doing fantastic and (I may be biased) is one of the two cutest baby boys in the world. Enjoy the photos…

I headed in to the doc this morning for my weekly appts at 8:30 am. Baby’s heartbeat looks good. Amniotic fluid level…not so good. So I have been admitted and am waiting for the doc on call to come induce me. This baby will be making his/her appearance in the next day or so. Figured why not blog during the process…what else is there to do?

Well, since I don’t have any news about Baby yet, I can tell you about a photo show I am doing with a cooworker/friend. Several of my photos will be hanging at Wired and Unplugged, a coffee shop in Snohomish, Washington. I have never been to the shop before so can’t endorse it yet, but hopefully it will be great. I plan to go check it out one day this week to see how my photos were hung and arranged and what the coffee shop is like. This all depends on baby taking his/her time for a bit longer. Maybe there will be more updates after my doctors appointments tomorrow. I have tried walking, bouncing on a yoga ball, and napping. All of my “to-do” list is completed. Everyone is healthy. I’m not sure what else I could do to coax this baby out. I even tried talking to him/her for 10-15 minutes this morning - reassuring him/her that I will be a fun mom, I want to see his/her eyes, I want to hold him/her and love him/her and take care of him/her. Anybody have any other tricks on how to get this show on the road?? haha.

Aaron’s favorite fruit: strawberries (and blueberries, but for this day it was strawberries). And did he ever get to indulge in strawberries yesterday. We headed out to Biringer Farm and picked to our hearts content. I thought we would be swinging in to pick up a ready pick flat of berries but we ended up walking the rows and Aaron picked as many berries as Grandma and I. He didn’t even try to taste one until we were all done and I showed him by example the joy of picking your own berries. By the end he had eaten 3 or 4 and was a telltale sign that we had been taste testing in the fields. The berries were huge, the sun was shining, and we picked enough for a strawberry pie, strawberry shortcake, just plain berry eating, and lots leftover for freezing. Anybody have a good strawberry recipe?

I couldn’t wait for the day long in the future when Nate is able to put up chair rail. And…my mom painted a nice level strip through the center of the 2 paint colors. So I practiced my ABC’s. The nursery is 99.9% complete. Now we’re still just waiting.

I received a Moby Wrap from the baby shower down in Oregon a few weeks ago. I love it (I think…) but it is going to take some practice figuring out how to get it on and get the baby in it! It might help when I don’t have an extra large baby bump already on my belly!

How does this thing work?

Is this how you are supposed to get that baby in there? I don’t think so! Maybe a cabbage patch kid is more difficult than a real baby???? haha - ya right!

There was a picture of an Aunt wearing the baby in a Moby Wrap so Sara thought it was her duty to try it out also. Of course she couldn’t use the cabbage patch kid cause that would be a little too real. She had to try it out on Aaron’s stuffed monkey.

About a week ago we had a scare and thought I was going to have to be induced. So, my mom realized 4 hours was way to far to drive if the doctor just decided to induce me right then and there. She is now up here with me and we are just waiting…and waiting…and waiting. We were planning on going down to Oregon for my sister-in-law’s graduation (Congrats Sara!) but the family talked us out of it. Said we should put the safety of the baby first. So we are still just waiting and waiting… All of this precaution is probably guaranteeing this baby won’t come until after the due date. In our state of anxious waiting, Aaron is helping us find things to occupy our time. We made a quick trip to Seattle for some Ivar’s clam chowder. We head out for daily walks to the park that overlooks the train tracks. We have the entire yard weeded and mowed and trimmed. Aaron watered the plants, the sidewalk, the barkdust, himself, and all of us in the warm sunshine. Aaron also has been busy running back and forth from Canada to Oregon with a stop in Washington in the middle (he runs north on the sidewalk and goes to Canada then runs south on the sidewalk to Oregon then goes back to our house in Washington). We filled up our squirrel feeder with peanuts and watched a squirrel hoard and hide them all over the course of 1 1/2 days. In the backyard, Aaron has excavated the bark dust around the edge of the lawn with his dump truck.

It has been a busy week! On top of it, we all three are coughing and taking turns having sleepless nights. I should be napping right now but I must fulfill my blogging responsibilities… Mostly we have forgotten to remember the camera on these fun excursions, but we have snapped a few shots. Enjoy…

Aaron and his friend Jovie after an afternoon of painting:

Thoroughly enjoying poteca - similar to cinnamon bread:

Checking out a ladybug on this backyard plant. Any idea what kind of plant it is?

The squirrel:

Trying to get mom wet:

Fireman Aaron:

I’m not sure if I am having lots of pregnancy hormones moments or if these are normal mom moments. Do any of you other moms ever look at your kids and just want to cry because they are growing up too fast? I used to be excited for Aaron to start walking, talking, cutting teeth, and all those other fun grown up kid things. And I am still excited for what lies ahead. But I can’t help but want to stop time right now while he is in the middle of a cute sentence like “lookit mommy lookit” when he stacks his cars on top of each other. I feel like I am WAY too aware of how fast the next 18+ years are going to go. Last night I even went a step further! I snuggled up next to him in his bed after he fell asleep and just listened to him sleep and breathe and live. I feel SO blessed to have him in our family and just don’t want it to go too fast. (I think the extra hormones have something to do with this…)

Our small group from church wanted to do some practical service activities this summer. Fortunately someone (not me I am ashamed to say) thought of including Nate in the brainstorming process. He suggested we organize a coat drive to collect new and gently used coats to send to Nate and other soldiers in Afghanistan who would then distribute them to the local people over there.

In Mazari Sharif, where Nate is stationed, the winter temperatures fall well below freezing from November through February or April. Nate has commented on how poor the living conditions are in this country. He said of all the low income areas he saw while pulling into ports throughout South America, none compare to this.

So, if you are interested in helping us out, you can drop coats or $ for postage off with me or at our church. E-mail or call me for information. Nate has also said you can send the coats directly to him. I will get you his address if you are interested. We are hoping for several boxes of coats by the end of July.