Monday, November 29, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!!! (Belated)

Well hello!
All dressed up

Happy face :)


The three of us were exhausted after Black Friday....not really sure why Kale and Mack were tired...pretty sure they weren't awake at 2am that morning!

Sarah, Justin and Jordan on Thanksgiving!

Nana and Papa Albrecht

Family pic!

The Rainbow/Zimmerman/Albrecht clan (Mack included!)

Hanging out with mom

Kale's already looking up to his cousin, Jordan!

Dressed in his Thanksgiving best

Close up!

Happy Family!


Smiles

They like to cuddle
Hello again! It's been a while since our last update, but not a whole lot has changed here! Kale is doing great :) He continues to amaze us each and every day. He is up to 11 lbs. 4. oz for weight, and next week he has his 6 month check up so I'll be able to get his length too (and shots :( ). He has been SO much fun lately. He is really starting to interact with people. He is smiling, 'talking', getting active with his arms and legs, he is starting to giggle every once and a while when his dad plays peek-a-boo with him. Kale's physical therapist says that he is right on track and is doing things well and as expected. He is doing well with tummy time and has even rolled over a few times on his own. We're trying to get him to relax his hands and grab on to toys and his feet. He has definitely realized that if there isn't a pacifier in sight then he can put his fist in his mouth. Kale is really getting a personality too, we're learning his cries, fake cries included. He is still on oxygen, at 1/32nd of a liter...which is practically nothing. We have done some tests with him off oxygen while monitoring his pulse ox and he has done great, doesn't even know it's gone. He's sleeping really well for the most part. He usually goes to bed around 10pm and wakes up around 6 or so. There is usually only one night a week that he wakes up in the middle of the night. He has been waking up with nightmares, just wakes up screaming. We hope he's not remembering all the needles in the NICU. He will have another cardiology appointment in the next few weeks, so I'll make sure to put up an update with whatever comes from that.
We had a great first Thanksgiving as a family! Derc and I hosted at our house and Derc's parents, my parents and Sarah, Justin and Jordan came to Ankeny to celebrate. Luckily they worked hard to get all the food together since I worked that morning I was out of commission for food preparation. Dinner was scrumptious!!! It was fun to get Jordan and Kale together, Jordan loves taking care of Kale, it's SO cute!
We got to put our Christmas tree up this weekend which is just about my favorite activity to do! We're excited for Kale's first Christmas, we'll be able to introduce him to midnight service at church in CR...only he'll have to go without oxygen for that, the candlelight service offers too many open flames for people on oxygen....yeah, that wouldn't be good. We're trying to find a good time for him to meet Santa too...Derc keeps trying to take him to see Santa at Bass Pro Shop. Pretty sure that's just because he wants an excuse to go buy hunting stuff.
I think that's about it for us in the Albrecht household!! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, we certainly have one miracle we're incredibly thankful for :)



Monday, November 15, 2010

Still Truck'n Along

Hi everyone, yep its the one and only blogmaster again! Steph has been out of town, and busy the last couple weeks, so i made the executive decision to update the Blog. Things are going pretty good. We found out that the lumps in Steph's neck are not cancerous so that was fantastic! But we still don't know whats causing them. So they are now getting her blood tests to a specialist. Kale is doing well, he is now down to 1/32 ltr on oxygen. The lung doctor is wanting to see some more improvement with his weight gain before taking him completely off the oxygen. To make sure his lungs aren't causing him to burn to many calories. Other than that he is growing well, and starting to smile and make noises. We think he kind of knows how to say HI now, i think he is just barely repeating it. Also, the Physical Therapist says he is developing as expected so that is great!



The holidays are coming up so we are all looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas with family and friends. Hopefully we will get to see some of you soon!