Happy Halloween!

Bath time!

Always looking up to dad :)

Mommy time!

First Halloween!!! Cutest bat on the block!

First Halloweens can be exhausting!

First Halloween is not complete without being put inside a pumpkin, right?! He wasn't a huge fan of this, but he was a trooper.

Calmed down for one good picture :)

Sarah, Justin and Jordan came to visit this weekend!! Jordan was Superman this year, what a stud!

This is how Jordan fell asleep last night, coloring can be very tiring.

Cousins!!! Jordan's first time holding Kale. He has waited a long time for this! Kale looks completely calm...or terrified. Haha, it was great!

Well, as you can see, Kale had a nice little weekend!! His first Halloween was a success. He was a bat this year, and a very cute bat at that :) This year we actually had trick-or-treaters at our house, it was SO fun seeing all the cute costumes!

Kale also got to visit with his Aunt Sarah, Uncle Z and cousin Jordan. They came down Saturday and Jordan got to spend some quality time with Kale. It's so cute watching them together! Jordan was so busy playing with Kale and Mack that he missed his bedtime and fell asleep while coloring, so cute :)

Kale had an eye exam on Friday and it went really well! His ROP is GONE! Retina have fully developed and he is in the clear for anymore detached retina concerns. She will see him again in 6 months. He is still at risk for vision problems but she said all preemies are, so she will continue to monitor him closely.

So the goal this week is that we get Kale on a routine since I'm going back to work. Kale is sort of thinking that it's ok to stay up until 1am. Since I haven't been working full time we've been able to work with that....but I go back to work tomorrow full time and I need about 9 hours of sleep to function, so that's not gonna work out so well for us!

This weekend was opening day for pheasant season, so Derc and Mack got to go hunting. They wait for this day all year and they had a lot of fun. Derc said Mack did well, so he must not be terribly out of shape, just slightly :) This week I'll have a biopsy for the lumps in my neck. The cat scan showed that they were swollen lymphnodes and since I don't have any symptoms that would indicate infection (like mono or something) she wants to do a biopsy and make sure that they aren't anything more serious. So, we're obviously crossing our fingers and saying our prayers that it's nothing more than some fluid buildup. We'll get you an update as soon as we know anything.

Kale doesn't have a check-up until Thursday this week so we are hoping for a big weight gain this week! We're also hoping that we can try no oxygen sometime this week, so we will let you know if we get the go ahead for that!

Have a great week!

Growing like a weed!

That's our boy! Above you can see that Kale has been giving the boppy seat a try recently. Mack of course is always there to offer his moral support. I think Kale is mesmerized by the large nose that is sniffing his face in the picture, hense the terrified eyes :) So, I know it's been a couple of weeks since we have updated you on our lives...so if Kale looks chubbier, it's because HE IS! He is up to 10 lbs. 5.5 oz now!!! That means that he has gained about a pound in 2 weeks. What a porker. We switched the nipples on his bottle to a Level 3 and it made all the difference. He's also spitting up/throwing up a lot less so that always helps him tip the scales.

He is down to 1/16th of a liter of oxygen now, which is GREAT!! We thought he would come off of it this last round, but I think the Dr. wants to play it safe and give him one more week on this. We are supposed to call her and let her know how he is doing and then I'm hoping she'll tell us to do a test run with no oxygen......we can hardly wait!

He has an eye exam later this week.....hopefully the last one for a while (I know, I know, we say that every time). His eyes seem to be tracking things better so we're hoping that means his eyes are developing.

Kale has really started to get a personality recently. It's SO fun to watch. He is becoming more and more interactive. We think he has purposefully smiled at us a few times. He loves his Grandpa Doug's beard so we sometimes get smiles out of him that way. He is also proving how strong he is. He headbutts us a lot, lifts his head up, kicks his legs and flails his arms and yesterday, he literally stood up. I'm not kidding. He was sitting on my lap and just jumped up and next thing I know he was standing on my lap. Scared the crap out of me. Of course as soon as he made it up on his feet he started falling over so I grabbed him. He seems to be having a little bit of colic around 8pm. The last few nights has has just wailed for 3 hours straight. It's so sad/frustrating because it just seems like there is nothing we can do to help him. Funny how Mike (our roommate) seems to get 'tired' and goes to bed when it starts. Haha! Last week we were over at our friends, Ben and Kyli's house, and Kale had his first literal blow out. It was awesome. Luckily they have a beautiful baby girl who is 6 days older than Kale so they fully understand baby messes. Derc immediately handed him over and I got to change him. About 10 diaper wipes later, I was almost done cleaning him up and of course, right when we're about done, he starts peeing on himself. I'm not proud of this, but it was all over his outfit, his hair, face....and I'm pretty sure he got a drink too. Ben and Kyli got some humor out of this since Brynna doesn't give them unexpected showers like the boys can. Just lovely. Oh well, he was WAY more content afterwards :)

Other than those things, not a whole lot new going on with Kale. Derc has started his new job within Wells Fargo and he is loving it. I'm back to full time at work next week, just in time for 4th quarter! Kale is really excited for Halloween this weekend. He is going to be a bat. We will also be pumpkin carving and I've got to find one big enough for him to fit into. My sister called today and baited me with the excitement that they might come down this weekend. Then we could get some pictures of our bat and our nephew Jordan who will be rocking the superman look this year! Speaking of Jordan...I'm proud to announce that our nephew is a big boy now and no longer needs his pacifiers. Sarah and Justin cleverly used our son as leverage in negotiating the end of pacifier use. They have been trying to clear the hurdle of no paci's for a few months now, and turns out Jordan is on board once he decided to mail all of his paci's to his cousin Kale. He decided he no longer needed them and wanted Baby Kale to have them. Jordan and Sarah called us one night to let us know this, and it was the cutest voicemail ever. So, I called Sarah the next day to thank her for the paci's (that I thought were in the mail) and she laughed and said that Jordan did in fact seal them in an envelope for Baby Kale but she would be crazy to actually mail them in case they needed to cave in one day and give him one, so they are hidden in the closet :) Sneaky...

Over the past few weeks I've had quite a few tests run to see if the Drs. can figure out if there is anything going on with me with the whole antibody ordeal. Turns out I have a few antibodies, the SSA, SSB and AntiSmith. I haven't done much research on them yet. I've gone to the Rhuematologist and he doesn't seem to think that I have Lupus or arthritis at this time, but those antibodies are precursors for those diseases so he said they can still develop. I'm having a cat scan today because I have some lumps on my neck. The Drs. weren't sure if this is related to whatever else is going on, so they want to see if they can figure out what they are.....we're hoping they are nothing and are just some calcium deposits or something....I'll keep you posted!

On another note, Derc and I want to send our thoughts and prayers to Phoenix where my Aunt Sue passed away this morning. She has been fighting some health ailments for a while now and has been in hospice the past month or so. We are very hopeful that she is now at peace and is in no pain. We also are hopeful that she had a handsome angel named Tim waiting for her to welcome her to heaven. She was very brave during her fight and kept such a positive attitude. We love you Aunt Sue and hope that you can rest peacefully!

Until next time....thanks for checking in!

Happy FIVE month birthday, Kale!!

T

Pucker up!!!

We would like to say HAPPY FIVE MONTH BIRTHDAY KALE!!! Holy cow, we can hardly believe it's been 5 months since Kale was born. Time certainly does fly by! We posted some pictures from the past few days above....I wish I could figure out how to put captions by each one because I love putting words to his faces :) I love the ones that he is on his back and his man boobs are hanging out and he has crazy faces. It was fun getting Mack and Kale to pose together...this may have been 'Take 3'. Our roommate, Mike, got a good laugh watching us try to get this pic taken. I don't want to incriminate ourselves, but lets just say I didn't realize I was holding one of Kale's socks (Mack's new favorite chew toy) in my hand while trying to get his attention so every time I would wave my hand Mack would jump up and it was like getting double bounced on a trampoline for little Kale. I'm sure it's not the worst thing he's been through...

So life has been pretty good over the past few weeks. We have been terrible at updating the blog, our apologies! Turns out I didn't realize how little time you actually have to do other things when you have a baby at home. A few things we have mastered since bringing Kale home...

-Multitasking (read: feeding Kale, talking on the phone while eating breakfast)

-Patience (When Kale mixes up night and day and won't go to bed)

-Quick reflexes (When someone comes to the door unexpectedly and Mack jumps over Kale onto the couch, grabs the blanket off him and runs to the door)

-Quick showering (Never thought I could shower in under 4 minutes)

-Bottle washing techniques (I don't want to brag...but I can wash bottles with the best of 'em!)

-Maneuvering with lots of baggage (We're getting the hang of getting around with Kale, diaper bag, stroller, monitor and oxygen)

-Laundry (Doesn't bother him if he pukes on a new outfit....I think he feels that he gets bonus points if he hits me or Derc with it too...little stinker)

-Kisses (I asked Mike today how old is too old to kiss your son? He said he thought about 8 yrs. old I should lay off the kisses....I think that's crazy...I feel like if you made them you can kiss them whenever!! But...just in case Kale feels the same way, I have decided to double his daily kisses to a minimum of 100)

I was talking with a friend at one of the weddings we were at this weekend. We were talking to each other about how little you know at the time you become parents and how quickly you just pick up on it. I remember coming home from the NICU and wondering, how will I figure this out? Turns out, you just do.

Kale has been doing really well. We have turned him down to 1/8th liter and he is doing really well with it. I'm guessing 3 more weeks and he is off oxygen...crossing my fingers! His weight has really stayed around 9 lbs. 8 oz. lately. We just switched to a level 3 nipple for his bottles and he has been snorting down his bottles now. So, hopefully he can continue with that trend and put on some weight!

He has a pulmonology appointment next week, and other than that I don't think he has any appointments!

I think that's about it for now....BUT I want to say congratulations to Derc on his promotion, he deserves it...I'm proud of you babe!

Also....of the 3 weddings this last weekend...congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Zach and Shannon Jevne, Mr. and Mrs. Joe and Tara Boswell and Mr. and Mrs. Matt and Jodi Matthes!!!!!

Thanks for checking in!!!

Quick Update

Guess who's back... Yep the titan of blogging! So Steph has been working late these last few days and has had her hands full with appointments etc all week. I decided to jump in and give an update.

Kale is doing great, he had his NICU follow up on Monday and passed with flying colors. Steph took him and said the doctor was extremely impressed with how well he is progressing. Said that you would never know Kale was a 24 weeker, and that he is growing very well, and his movement and strength and progression with all the baby stuff is ahead of most preemies and right along with most full term babies. he is down to 1/8th on his oxygen which means the next step is no more oxygen! He is still eating well enough, and the nurse gave us the ok to let him sleep through the night if he wants. "if he wants... " I keep telling my self I have no set schedule with my life any longer. Between my amazing wife and my wonderful son, "its their world, i just live in it" (Steph will love this comment).

I think we can finally start talking about our normal lives as a family about now. Steph is still working part-time for now, she will probably go back to work full time in a couple weeks. We are going to be attending a couple weddings this weekend for good friends and unfortunately missing on very important wedding (CONGRATS JODI and MATT MATTHES) sorry we couldn't make it... For everyone else, Jodi is Kales favorite Nurse. Work is going very well for me, I just got a promotion for a manager position at Wells Fargo, and i am very excited to start that on the 18th! Pheasant season is just around the corner in a couple weeks and it will be good to get Mack out and run some of his depression out. It will also be good for him and I to spend time together doing what we love the most!

other than that, life is good, finally things are calm for a bit (knock on wood).

Until Next time....