More prayers and hope

I have asked for your prayers for this sweet family before. Please send them more well wishes and prayers today. Their little daughter, Kayleigh, may not recover from her most recent surgery (there is a possibility she may be brain dead). It hurts my heart to even type those words and it's not even my baby. Please send them your prayers and hope today as they are faced with such a difficult time. Check out the link I enclosed to read more details from her Daddy, Adam. You just have to click on the title of this post and it will link back to the Freeman's blog.

On another note, Stellan is doing well and recovering from his ablation (http://www.mycharmingkids.net/). All of the orange wearing and prayers for Stellan were a success. His surgery was not a complete success (I think MckMama quoted a 65% success in the words of their dr) and he is not out of the woods yet. He will most likely need a pacemaker somewhere down the road but at this point they are praying for later rather than sooner.

It looks like a beautiful day here in IL! Go out and enjoy some sunshine :) I know we will be later on today!

love and hope

Erika

Hope and Prayers

Two of my "blogger friends" need some hope, prayers and encouragement right now. Check out their blogs for details:

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Kayleigh was born very early and has been in the NICU for over 9 months. Can you imagine your baby being the hospital that long? Today she is having some surgeries to get her closer to going home with her Mommy and Daddy :) Here is the website in case the button doesn't show up right: http//www.kayleighannefreeman.blogspot.com

Here is the link to another blog I follow daily: http://www.mycharmingkids.net/

This is MckMama's blog. Their youngest baby, Stellan, is having intractable SVT, which is an abnormally fast heart rate/arrythmia, which does not fully respond to medications (and he's having yucky side effects from the meds too). The main problem with SVT is that it eventually causes heart failure and can cause pretty severe damage to the heart. He was diagnosed with SVT in utero but they thought he was cured. He has been in the hospital (PICU and Step Down Unit) at a Children's Hospital in Minnesota. They are flying to Boston right now for a 2nd opinion and possible surgery (an ablation, which is very risky for such a little baby and runs the risk of needing a pacemaker). They have 3 other children, all under the age of 4. By the way, the kids' names are "Big Mac", "MckNugget", "Small Fry" (their only girl) and Stellan's bloggy name is "MckMuffin", just in case you want to, um, MckPray for them :)

Have a good day and send some good wishes and prayers out to these people :)

love and hope

Erika, Matt, Emmy and O.J.

I made this blog again...does that make me blogamous?!

In case you were wondering, I decided blog+famous=blagamous. Ha! So, because this is the 2nd time I have "made" someone else's blog, I thought I would post the link to her blog: http://www.myspecialks.com/

I love Renee's blog. The stories about her Special K's are great. Some make me laugh until I pee my pants and some make me cry. They are from TN and take one of their kids to Vandy but I never had the pleasure of meeting them (actually, it would have meant Kennedy was really sick if I had to meet her in the PICU so I guess it's actually a good thing).

See if you can tell which question from her most recent Q & A is mine! Have a happy Tuesday (I almost said Monday...guess I'm a little behind the game)
love
Erika

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter at my parents' house. Emmy awoke to TWO Easter baskets filled with lots of fun loot and some to share with Mommy and Daddy too. She got some new Sesame Street books and an Easter Care Bear in her Easter Basket from us and candy (um, for mommy and daddy, of course), a beautiful Peter Rabbit Pop-Up book and a stuffed bunny (one of Emmy's many "babies") from GiGi and Papa. She got Easter gifts from Grandma J last week before we left-some new springy board books, a "Spring Chicken" Shirt and a swim suit. She also received savings bonds from Grandma J and Auntie Joanie. What a lucky little girl we have!

Emmy also gave her cousin, Drew, a matching (green, of course) Easter Care Bear (Emmy's was PINK!). Emmy had a great time trying to talk Papa Bill into opening all of the Easter candy for her and "feeding" it to her babies. She is so sweet when she feeds her babies! I just love watching how "mature" she is becoming. Maybe I'll have to get her a little mini Boppy so she can sit by me when I am feeding #2.

Drew was baptized at church on Easter and Matt and I (and his uncle Nate, Aunt Andrea and Uncle Al) were his sponsors. We were a little worried because church was at 10:30, which is generally nap time for Emmy. She actually did really well. She fell asleep cuddling with GiGi during church and didn't even get upset when Matt and I had to leave her with GiGi for the baptism. She could see us so I guess maybe that helped. Both babies were exhausted by the time we got home from church! I think Emmy slept almost 2 hours after church while we were all eating.

We left FD a little later than we had planned but it worked out just fine. We made great time coming home and overall, Emmy did great in the car. She was a little grumpy when we stopped for dinner in Davenport but then went back to sleep once we were back in the car. We got home around 11pm and all went straight to bed! We were beat! We had such a great weekend seeing everyone and we feel honored to be one of Drew's sponsors for his baptism.

I will post pictures of the weekend soon. Emmy's Easter dress was just precious on her. My mom made an outfit for Drew to wear too. He is the 1st boy to be baptized in our family (as a baby) so he needed an outfit to wear and then pass along (next up, Klitzke baby boy #2...wow, we are really going to have to think of a better name for him :) )

I think we have decided on a name for our son....but we're not telling! You'll just have to wait until he is born! Ha ha! Maybe we will post clues in late August.

Have a great week
love
Erika, Matt and Emily (and #2, or as we like to call him, O.J.....if you know us well you'll be able to figure that one out....good luck)

Klitzke Baby #2 is a ....................

Sweet, beautiful BOY!!!!!! Emmy will have a little brother in September!!! Woohooo!!!! We went to our ultrasound yesterday morning (after a trip to the pediatrician...more on that later in the post). Everything measured out just fine but they might have us go back in another month to get a better look at the cord (she just couldn't see it very well). But, our little boy is not shy! It was quite obvious what we were looking at and that we will soon be adding some testosterone to our otherwise pretty feminine household.

In other news, Emmy has her 1st ear infection :( She just didn't seem like herself on Thursday. She has had a cold for about a week-very congested and a pretty productive cough (and had had a cold about 2 weeks ago too!). So, I checked her temp (and not really expecting to find anything )and sure enough, temp of 102! I looked at her ears myself (which I don't know that I will be doing again) and they looked pretty nasty to me. So, we took (I) took her in to sick call at the pediatrician's office and yep, sure enough-double ear infection. We started antibiotics yesterday am and have 10 days worth to do. She's now had 3 doses (plus motrin to get the fever down) and she seems like she feels much better already!

We are currently in Iowa for my nephew's baptism and to celebrate Easter! Have a wonderful weekend!
love
Erika, Matt, Emily and #2

PS Congrats to our cousins, Jill and Darren on the birth of their new little boy, Jacob!!!
PPS Double congrats to our other cousins, Elizabeth and Jon, on being pregnant with their first little baby!!! Yay!

A Girl or a Boy?

Well, tomorrow is the big day my friends! We have our ultrasound in the am and will be finding out the sex of our precious second child. I will update when I have news!

What do you think baby Klitzke #2 is?

I have thought boy all along until the past few weeks when I changed over to girl. I just don't know anymore! I can hardly wait...the suspense is killing me. I don't know how people wait 9 whole months to find out!!!!

Until tomorrow.....
love
Erika, Matt, Emily and #2

Mama's been a slacker

I know, I know, it's been too long! Don't give up on up on us though. It's been a crazy few weeks and we've had a lot going on. I really haven't been working a whole lot because work just hasn't been busy-no babies being born and no babies being born too early (so I guess the latter is a good thing). We've been going to playdates with friends and Emmy had a nasty cold the week of St Patty's Day.

We went out for a walk in Emmy's new wagon that she got for her birthday from her cousin, Connor (and his Mommy and Daddy and his Grandma too). Here Emmy is during the maiden voyage:


We also went to the Kohl Children's Museum in Glenview for a family day with our playgroup. Emmy LOVED the chicks but we found that she was a little too little for most of the other exhibits. We are looking forward to going again and probably getting a membership when she is a little older.

Emmy also has 2 new teeth that arrived on March 17 and March 18...in the midst of her terrible cold. She has handled teething so well and this was no exception. She had a fun 2nd St Patty's Day even though she had such a yucky cold.

Emmy and I had a fun girls shopping day yesterday while Daddy was in Milwaukee for a bachelor party. We went to the mall to see the Easter Bunny and get her picture taken. She really wasn't too thrilled with the Easter Bunny but we did get a picture of her not crying. It is a slightly better picture than with Santa. Then we walked around the mall and ran into our friend, Addie, and her mommy and daddy too. We looked at fun spring clothes and then at some maternity clothes for me. Then, we went to Babies R Us and picked out a purple Tinkerbell Chair and a few new sippy cups. I am trying to teach her how to drink from a cup other than the born free cups and something with a little harder spout. I think I may have found success in the Playtex cup!

We came home after our girls day, played, had dinner, played some more and then Emmy was ready for bed! I stayed up and worked on pictures and watched the Final Four UNC-Villanova game. We had a great time together but we were both excited to see Daddy this am!

We are going to FD for Drew's baptism next weekend and we are very excited. We also have our big ultrasound next Friday and we will be finding out if Baby Klitzke #2 is a girl or a boy!!! Stay tuned! Have a wonderful week! We love you all!
love,
Erika, Matt, Emily and #2