Going Home.

While we had a great experience at our hospital, by the time Friday came along we were more than ready to leave. Nurses and doctors coming in all hours of the night got old after a while, and I was ready to take Baby Kaleb home.

Waiting to change into his "going home" outfit.




Not really liking it.



A little unsure about putting my tiny little guy in his car seat!



Taking off his security anklet.



Daddy is already an expert clothes changer. (and diaper changer!)



All ready to head out.



He looks so tiny in his seat.



Walking, ever so slowly, out of the maternity ward.






It was so humid that day that my camera lens fogged over!



First stop: The post office to apply for Kaleb's passport. Unfortunately, mommy wasn't as organized as she should have been and didn't have the checkbook. Thus I ended up waiting in line for what felt like eternity while John ran to the bank to get cash. If only I would have remembered that the US government won't accept credit card as a form of payment for passport issuance. At least the workers were so sweet and accommodating about it. I won't make that mistake again!



We're HOME!!!!!



After all that waiting mommy is exhausted. Time to cuddle up with my precious little son.

Sweet Baby Kaleb.

Just a quick post to share with you our sweet little boy. He is sleeping at the moment, and so should I... it could be a long night!

Our precious bundle of joy has finally arrived. Kaleb Josiah Turek is such a sweet baby boy, we are beyond blessed. He was born on 7/20/2010 at 7:31 a.m. weighing in at 9 lb. 1 oz. and measuring 21.5 inches long.

One last photo before heading to the hospital at 5:00 in the morning. Instructed to wear glasses, no jewelry and no makeup for the c-section.





John decked out in his ill fitting scrubs.



Starting to get nervous. I managed to throw up before the surgery even began!



He is here!



Meeting my sweet little boy for the first time. I didn't get to hold him, but I got to touch him and tell him that I loved him.



Weighing in after getting cleaned up. What a big boy!



Getting to see him again before they took him to the nursery to check his vitals.

















Kaleb meeting his four week old cousin, Judah, for the first time!



I love you sweet baby boy.













Kaleb is doing great and I am recovering slowly but surely. I will post more on the birth later, but for now I should really head to bed. Thanks everyone for your prayers!

Nursery Reveal.

Finally... photos of Baby Turek's nursery! We are hoping to get to bed soon... in a little over 12 hours we will be meeting our son for the first time. I can't even begin to explain all the emotions racing through my mind, so I won't even attempt such a thing at the moment. I told you I would try to get up photos of the nursery, so here they are. I know if I don't do it now, it may never get done!

View when you first walk in; the door is his closet. Loving the owl theme. Dresser was a Craigslist purchase which John refinished and then we added new hardware. The bedding is part Dwell Studio, part Dwell Studio for Target and the crib sheet is from the Summer Infant organic line. (I will try to post links to everything later!)



Tray with letter in the middle was from Target, all frames were from Target as well. I lucked out with the color selection for their new fall line! The table is also from Target, I may add another one and am hoping to find some cute little white chairs.



The rocking chair came with denim blue covers, so we found new fabric and my mom sewed new covers. (Thanks grandma!)




Thanks Emily for the beautiful pillow, it makes the crib complete!








Owl found on Etsy from one of my favorite bloggers: Centsational Girl.



Found this towel at Anthropologie while shopping with my girlfriends... covered a piece of foam board with batting and then tacked this towel on top for a three dimensional look.






That's all for now. I'm off to get ready for bed as we have to be up at the crack of dawn! Let's hope and pray I actually get some sleep tonight. We'll try to post pics, his name, and all the other exciting information as soon as possible. Thanks for your many prayers, we are at total peace that God is in control. We can't wait to hold our son tomorrow!!!!!!!!!

Baby Turek's Expected Birthday...

is Tuesday, July 20!

Unless our little guy decides to arrive on his own, he will be here at 7:30 in the morning on Tuesday. I don't think I will be able to sleep Monday night. I know it won't be right away, but I will still get to hold him in my arms on Tuesday morning!

It is so strange knowing ahead of time when his birthday will be. I think it actually makes it a little more overwhelming. I feel like everything has to be done before then, whereas if he just came on his own I wouldn't have time to think about it. I am going to try to do my best to just enjoy the weekend and not worry too much about the "to do" list.

I am already looking forward to date night on Monday, our last one for quite some time I'm sure. Everyone always says how much life is going to change, and I know it will... but I know it will be for the better. The love that will take over when I hear my son's first cry and get to hold him in my arms for the first time will be worth far more than anything I've had to go through or anything I'll have to give up.

I'm already more in love with my husband, watching him as he becomes the father I've always dreamed of having for my children. The look he has on his face when he talks about "our son" is priceless. Every kiss he gives him melts my heart, and I know that my love for John will only grow stronger as I watch him love our son and lead our family.

Most importantly, my love for my savior has and will continue to deepen. When I think that God gave his ONLY son for me, I can't help but to have a greater appreciation as I get ready to have my own son. I don't think I will comprehend how great my Father's love is for me until I become a parent myself.

Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray that unless Baby Turek decides to come before Tuesday, that everything will go smoothly with the c-section. Please pray that Baby Turek would adjust quickly to life outside the womb and also that I would recover as quickly as possible. As we wait for further information on plane tickets, please pray that everything would work out with his passport and leaving the country.

Thanks once again. I fully intend to get photos of the nursery posted this weekend, so stay tuned!

Update on "decisions."

Sorry to leave you hanging, we're tired of waiting to hear back from the doctor as well! Finally at 2:00, we called again and were told this time that both our doctor and her assistant were out of the office today. I wish they would have told us earlier, the five hours we waited seemed to drag on forever.

So, let's hope that we hear something tomorrow. At this point we are planning on scheduling a c-section but hoping that he decides to come before then so that we can at least give labor a try (before he gets even bigger). I spoke with a friend today who is a midwife and she offered a lot of wisdom and advice. From her experience, if a baby is too large to be delivered vaginally then the mother's body won't progress far enough along to do so anyway. Many times the early stage of labor can be an indicator of what direction to go.

Thanks everyone for your prayers. We really, really appreciate them and know that ultimately God is in control... not us.

Images of our son.

At 38 weeks, 3 days. Our little man was sleeping and thus we were actually able to catch some 4D images of his precious face. We even got to see him stick out his tongue and open his left eye. The ultrasound technician had just said, "Sometimes they open their eyes and creep us out." As if he were listening to us, he opened his left eye on cue.

I have more images, but I after a while they all start to look the same anyway. (Especially to anyone who isn't mom or dad.) Technology never ceases to amaze me though. The fact that we can see our son before he enters the world is still rather unbelievable to me. It was such a joy getting to watch him, knowing that in just a matter of time we will be holding him in our arms.

Decisions.

Life is hard. It is full of choices, decisions to be made. Parenthood is difficult. Who doesn't want what is best for their son or daughter? And then there is labor itself. While I have no experience in that arena, listening to mothers speak of their experiences is similar to listening to vets speaking of their war experiences. Everyone's is different, but not many have an "easy" experience.

And yet it is all a consequence of the fall of mankind. Sin entered the world and ruined what God had originally created. Genesis 3:16 says, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children."

Every time I reflect on this I think to myself, "Thanks Eve."

But, that is life. You take the good parts with the bad. I know that there will be much more to life than this on the other side. The pain, the worry... all will be erased when I am face to face with my creator.

For now though I am here... and life is very real.

We had our doctor's appointment yesterday and the ultrasound revealed once again a big baby boy. They estimated him to weigh 8 lb. 15 oz. with his head only in the 70th percentile but his abdomen in the 98th percentile. This is where the problem lies, obviously any doctor wants to deliver the largest part of the baby first. In our son's case the shoulders are larger and present a possible problem: getting stuck in the birth canal.

Shoulder dystocia occurs in 30% of babies weighing 3500 grams or more. Which, if the ultrasound measurements are correct, ours does. Which means there is a decision to be made. Do we try a vaginal birth, knowing there is a possibility he could get stuck (and thus also meaning there is a possibility of neurological damage, brain damage or even death) or do we try to do things the "natural" way?

After talking to some labor and delivery nurses last night (one that delivered both John AND me years ago!) and doing tons of research our first instinct seemed to be confirmed over and over. While I really, really want to avoid a c-section, I just couldn't live with myself if something happened to my son and I knew I could have prevented it. Sure I shed some tears when I think of not being able to hold my little boy right away, but I would shed far more tears if something worse happened.

For obvious reasons I didn't sleep well last night. I kept dreaming of c-sections and wondering if I am making the right decision. A c-section is a major abdominal surgery and not something to be taken lightly. Early this morning it hit me: I should get out his measurements from when we were in Germany and see what he was measuring.

I thought I remembered his abdomen being big back then too. Sure enough, at our 20 week scan his abdomen was already nearly off the charts. That was back when he was still so tiny, only weighing a little more than a pound. They don't do percentages in Germany, but rather a line scale. His measurements were nearly at the very end of the scale.

To me, that only solidifies our decision. It also puts me a peace that he doesn't have a huge tummy from my diet or something. (I have read that moms who have gestational diabetes often have babies with big tummies!) I guess our little guy must have broad shoulders. Only time will tell, but all arrows seem to point that direction.

So as soon as our doctor's office is open and I will call them with their decision and pray that they can schedule a c-section for early next week. The more recovery time the better. We are supposed to fly out August 11th, so we will see what happens regarding our departure time. That might be pushing it since the recovery from a c-section is a much longer process.

However, all that matters is that we do what we can to deliver a healthy baby boy. Whom, by the way actually cooperated with us yesterday and thus we have some great 3D images of our him! John is so cute... we were already in bed when he said, "Where are the pictures of our son?" Then off he went to find them and bring them back for us to admire. We laid in bed looking at those images, getting even more excited to meet him and hold him in our arms.

I'll try to update some photos later once we have heard back from the doctor and have more news. To make things more complicated, our doctor is actually out of the office this week and thus we are having to go through her P.A.

For now, I am going to attempt to get my brain to wind down so I can get a couple more hours of sleep... I know in the coming days it will be a rare commodity!

Welcoming our Newest Nephew.

We got a phone call one morning, that John's sister was having contractions. Later that afternoon we went to pick up the girls after their mother had been admitted to the hospital. It was an exciting day, as their baby brother would soon be here! After a long battle of the wills when it came to naptime, the oldest finally fell asleep. (Who can blame her? I wouldn't want to take a nap either!) Before we knew it we were off to have dinner and then to run to Target so the girls could pick out a gift to take their baby brother in the hospital.

Just as we were setting foot inside Target, we got the phone call. Baby Judah had arrived! The girls were giddy with excitement. As we were looking for "big sister" shirts she exclaimed, "Baby Judah just popped out!" So cute.

We didn't find "big sister" shirts so we went with matching outfits instead. After all, this was a very special occasion.



Making our way into the hospital. Probably past bedtime, but I'm pretty sure they were too excited to go to bed anyway.



Meeting Baby Judah for the first time.





The oldest was excited to give her baby brother the gift she picked out. Unfortunately he started crying almost immediately. The timid look on her face was a mix of disappointment and "oh no... what did I just do?"



Kids are hilarious. Out of everything there was to choose from... they picked out these tag along chimes.





Already in love. I can't quite imagine what it will be like getting to hold my own son for the first time.





John, always the cautious one. Just a word of warning to those who are able to come visit, he may greet you at the door with a mask and Purell.