Starting over?

4 months? Really?

4 Months?!

Has it really been that long? I always have good intentions to actually blog...but then don't. Matt always asks if I'm "blogging" and almost always answer, "well, it depends on what you consider "blogging". If you consider blogging reading others' blogs, than YES, I am a faithful daily blogger. For some reason though, I think blogging means you actually have to write something too. You don't just get to read and occasionally comment on others' blogs.

Let's play quicky catch up and what's been going on with us:

-Emily is 23 months old. We cannot believe our baby is turning 2 next month. I feel like I just had her! She loves to sing, dance, TALK (all the time, in sentences etc). She really is a little person. She is not a baby anymore. Not at all a baby! We are thinking about potty training soon. She loves dolls, house, Mickey, Cinderella (Cinbawewa, as she says it). She recognizes her own name when it's written and can spell is too. She can count to 13 and say her ABC's. She loves coloring and playdoh and helping me with Ethan.

-Ethan is 4 months old. Yes, seriously, he is 4 months old. He is a very sweet baby and very mild too. He is a go-with-the-flow kind of guy, which works well for all of us. He loves to eat and nurses about every 4 hours and occasionally goes 6-8 hours without eating at night. He loves to watch his big sister play and lights up when he sees her. He smiles easily and I love his laugh. He loves to be sung to and talked to and loves to babble back to you. He has rolled over both ways and has excellent head control. He loves to be stood up and sit on our laps. We put him in Emmy's high chair the other night and he looked like such a big boy! I think he will enjoy sitting in the high chair at meal times when he is awake just to see what we're doing! He doesn't like to be alone and lets us know when he's unhappy. He's such a good baby and such a wonderful addition to our family!

-I went back to work part time when Ethan was 2.5 months old. Since then, I have started a new job at a different hospital. I will be working on a peds floor and working 12 hour shifts. This works much better for us. I can work more hours but less days per week.

-Matt is working at Sage Products still and enjoying his job. He had the opportunity to travel to Dallas for work in September and has the big National Sales Meeting coming up in February (which is thankfully in Chicago this year).

I won't bore you with every little detail that has happened since September. We are doing great adjusting to being a family of 4.

I am looking forward to spring and being able to get out more with the kids. It's a little difficult to go places when it's snowy and -50 (just kidding, but it is really cold here right now) with 2 kids. We are hoping our mom's group will pick up a little more now too since the holidays are over. We have recently discovered a children's museum that is close by and plan to check out open gym soon too. I can tell when we have been indoors at home too long-we all get cabin fever.

I am hoping to (planning to?) blog more often and more pics too. Then I can tell Matt, "yes, I am blogging".

-Erika

Ethan Robert is here!

September 1, 2009 was one of the 3 most wonderful days of my entire life; it was the day we met our son, Ethan Robert Klitzke. We arrived at the hospital nice and early (slowed down by a bit of traffic...ugh), and got all checked in and ready to go. It was very comforting to be taken care by people I knew. It really didn't hit us until I was walking into the OR and getting ready to get my epidural that we were going to be having another baby!

This is me in triage getting ready to go into the OR! Last pregnant pic!

They had a hard time getting my epidural to work, which is why Ethan's birth time is a little later than we had expected. I sure am glad they got it to work though :)

So, at 10:57 am, Ethan Robert arrived-healthy and perfect as can be!

This is our first real meeting. I never wanted the moment to end. He was so beautiful and perfect and I couldn't wait to get my hands on him.

Here he is on the warmer bed before they finished cleaning him up.

Finding out how big our little peanut is.....7 pounds 14 ounces, 20 inches long! We were shocked to see such a "small" baby (ie non-giant like his sister).

We came home on Friday, Sept 4, which ironically, was our original c-section date! Here's our little monkey all dressed and ready to hit the road!

And yes, that is a BEARS hat he is wearing!!!!

Stay tuned for more updates. Just be patient with us :) I am getting ready to be home alone with 2 kids starting on Monday. Yikes!

Thanks to all for all of the warm wishes and congrats, meals, gifts, phone calls (and FB and texts), visits etc! We love you all!!!!!

love,

Erika, Matt, Emily and Ethan

A new plan

I have had some issues with my BP again (sigh) so, they have decided the safest thing for both baby and I is to move up my c-section to this Tuesday, Sept 1 at 10am. You may be asking, why not earlier if I am having issues?

Many reasons.....1st being, I do not have classic PIH. I have had high bp's on and off for the past few weeks but not consistent other signs (labs, urine studies, blurred vision, headaches, right upper quadrant pain, etc). My other symptoms seem to come and go (not charactaristic of PIH), like headaches and some blurred vision. Also, my BP does get high, but then usually comes down into the normalish range with rest. The 2nd (which goes along with the 1st), is that unless things are clinically "bad" (like if my bp didn't come down with rest and I was in danger or if the baby wasn't tolerating all of this, which he is), they cannot do a scheduled c-section (or induction, for that matter) until week 39. So, I will be 39 weeks on Tuesday and that is why that day was chosen. Dr L will be doing my c-section. I am going to be seeing him in the office again on Monday am (I saw Dr C in the office again this am for an appointment and another non stress test) just to make sure every thing is still on track.

Emmy and I have had to adjust our routines a little bit. I will admit, I did go to a friend's house yesteday am so Emmy could play and I could couch rest and be with my mommy friends too. There seems to be something very therapeutic for all about being with good friends. We had a fun time and I know the girls did too.

We are just finishing things up this weekend around the house and spending good time with Emmy. I'm not supposed to do anything strenuous so I am trying to do things that involve sitting, laying etc. I am planning to do a little cooking tonight though. I can't help myself and I don't consider that strenuous anyway!

After nap this am, we all laid in bed together and watched Little Mermaid...Emmy's first time for one of my all time favorite disney movies!!! I think she liked it and I don't think it will be the last time we watch it!

We promise to post updates as soon as we can on Tuesday, but if you are on facebook, you might see updates there first. Blogger seems to take longer than I want sometimes and facebook is so fast! We will also send out pics on shutterfly as usual.

Papa Bill and Auntie Kristen (and cousin Drew) are coming on Monday and then my mom is planning to come next weekend and stay for the week to help after Matt goes back to work.

Well, that's the plan for now! No new updates means we are doing well and the plan is on for Tuesday when we become a family of 4!
love
the Klitzkes

The summer summary

We've had a fun and busy summer and with Labor Day right around the corner, I know it's coming to an end. That doesn't mean fun has to end though! We have so many exciting things coming our way this fall! We love fall at our house and not just because it means FOOTBALL (but that does help!).

Here's what we did this summer:
-went to the Milwaukee Zoo with the Davis'
-went to Lincoln Park Zoo as a family
-celebrated mother's day and father's day
-celebrated my birthday, grandma j's birthday
-went to the Sonshine Singer's concert in Ames
-met Uncle Jim and Uncle Dick and Auntie Phyllis for the 1st time
-had a visit from Amanda
-had a visit from GG, Auntie Kristen and Drew (aka Dew)
-played with many friends
-went to the splash park in Grayslake and Mundelein
-played at the beach in Lake Zurich and in the sand for the 1st time
-celebrated the 4the of July with many friends and saw fireworks for the 1st time two nights in a row (Emmy fell asleep before the fireworks in 2008)
-celebrated many little friends' 1st and 2nd birthdays
-went to Galena and Dubuque for vacation
-visited Great Grandma and Great Grandpa P and Uncle Greg and Aunt Mary in Dubuque
-ate watermelon all by herself at the sage picnic in June and again on the 4th of July! It was a hit!
-went to Lamb's Farm and went on the train, saw animals, jumped in the bouncy house and rode the carousel for the 1st time
-went to Libertyville Days and Grayslake Summer Fest and ate my first cheese curd (for the record, she spit out the cheese and ate the bite of breading)
-went swimming in Galena
-went to many dr's appts with Mommy and was very good at most of them :)
-played in the yard, the park and at Grandma J's!
-spent a few days with Papa Mike when he came to help Daddy do some work outside
-spent time with Papa Mike and Gran Diane when Mommy and Daddy went to their friends' wedding in May
-spent time with Grandma J when Mommy and Daddy went to another wedding in July

All in all, it has been a wonderful summer and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I can't imagine anything more fun than being with our sweet baby (toddler/big girl, you know)! We love you Emily Ruth and can't wait to share all of this fun with your little brother soon!
Love,
The Klitzkes

"A" name clue.......and pics of the baby's room!

We had to keep up with our tradition (in a slightly different manner this time) with keeping our baby's name a secret. Tonight we are releasing the first clue. Here you go:
I cannot tell you where in the first name "a" falls but it is there! Happy guessing! Hahahahaha

We also finished the baby's room today as well. We are pretty darned pleased with how it turned out! We are going to use Emmy's crib when she goes into her big girl bed, sometime before she turns 5. Ha ha. We have a basinette to use in the mean time and then we also have the pack-n-play if we need to buy ouselves a little more time before she is ready to move. Here are the pics:

The quote above the bookshelf and changing table reads, "Every child is a story yet to be told". I found it at Hobby Lobby and really liked it. Putting it up was a little hairy......that's a story for a different day though.
Grandma Gretchen made the valances and there are footballs on the ends of the curtain rod.

Below is the changing table we bought at a 2nd hand store and refinished! Pretty proud of our work and find, for that matter.

We are on the countdown now! Just 12 more days (or hopefully sooner) until we meet the newest member of our family! We can't wait!

Love,

The Klitzkes

PS I do realize there are quite a few of you that know the baby's name. Our family and a few of our friends DO NOT KNOW and we want to keep it that way. Please don't ruin the surprise :)

37 Weeks and waiting.....

Many of you know already, but I had a little mini hospitalization on Wed am this week. I was feeling really crummy at work (yes, convenient since I work in post partum/well baby nursery/NICU, and LDR is just a floor away!). So, I tried eating a snack, drank water and put my feet up and then took my blood pressure. My BP was elevated and after trying to see if things were going to "settle out", I was encouraged by my co-workers (ie forced) to page the dr on call. They ended up sending me to LDR for monitoring and IV fluids and labs and let me rest. I finally started feeling better towards morning, so they had me order breakfast and see how I felt then. I went home about 11am with orders for modified bedrest until Friday (today).

So, I actually did follow orders. Grandma J watched Emmy and got dinner together for us 2 nights in a row (thank you Grandma J). I had my follow up appt today and did get released from bedrest but need to "take it easy" over the weekend and I will see them back in the office on Monday. I was supposed to work this weekend, but clearly that is off for now.

I feel pretty good but keep having periods where I feel really dizzy and lightheaded and have had some really bad headaches with visual changes too. More or less, they are just watching me for pre-eclampsia, which can set in any time during pregnancy (I'm not going into crazy medical definitions here, but basically, any time after 20 weeks post conception, and there are other qualifiers but not going to bore anyone....) and can be even more common after 37 weeks.

I will be 38 weeks on Tuesday, so any time this little man wants to be born from here on out is just fine with us! We are almost done with his sweet little room. I can't wait to finish it and show it off. I think it has really turned out nice. We are pretty proud of ourselves for designing his room on a bit of a budget (and it not looking like we designed on a budget). I am hoping that I feel good enough over the weekend to finish things up! I just love putting baby things away and organized. I think I did this with Emmy's room like 10 times before she was born.....I had a lot of time on my hands since she was born at almost 41 weeks!

We have no plans for the weekend. The Bears and Cubs on Saturday evening so we are excited! We are also counting down to Hawkeye Football too-2 more weeks! What could be better, a new baby boy AND Hawkeye football?! Emmy has a new Hawkeye Cheerleading outfit to sport for the season too, plus some cute new shirts compliments of her "Auntie Amanda". She also picked out some cute things for little man too that I can't wait for him to wear.

Have a good weekend!
love
The Klitzkes

Nesting?

Yesterday we had a huge playdate at our house (I am claiming that this is the LAST one before the baby arrives) complete with lunch too! No, I didn't cook for everyone, are you crazy? We ordered from Jimmy John's-yummy yummy!!! Too bad Kate and I ordered it the day before and we had the SAME delivery girl both days. I think she thought I was crazy. Oh well, she got a good tip out of the deal and went on her way.

I don't have any pictures from the playdate, but I think every toy was out in our basement. There was food everywhere and babies everywhere too! It was a great time though and a fun way to see everyone before our baby arrives.

After everyone left, you would have thought I would have been exhausted. Nope. Not me. I cleaned the basement and all of the toys (yes, for real) and then had a brilliant idea. I wanted to go through more baby things that we had put away-bottles, pump things, the carseat etc etc etc etc! It was a little out of control. I washed the carseat cover and put it back together and now it is sitting in a bag in the garage all ready to be put in the car. I went through all of the bottles that we used for Emmy, threw away the nipples and then went through my entire "Emmy cupboard" and reorganized so it can become the Emmy and @#$%^&* cupboard. I could have kept on going but Matt wanted to go to bed (this extended on after nap because I can't do anything like this with Emmy's help).

I actually made dinner 2 nights in a row (actual cooking, not just a frozen pizza or something like that). Actually, I have made dinner every night since Sunday, thank you very much.

I can't believe how much energy I have (and still have some this am too....). Something may be going on I guess! I had a dream last night that we had the baby this week. Someone suggested to me yesterday that once you start nesting, the baby comes within 3 days! Yikers!

I also washed a bunch of clothes (mainly things that were hand me downs) and Emmy's old onsies that we are "recycling" for the baby. Don't worry, they are just white. No pink onsies for our little guy!

I have 3 weeks until my scheduled c-section but I guess only time will tell. I am convinced it might be a bit earlier. I would like to go to at least 37 weeks so hopefully the "3 day" thing won't come true!

We are terribly excited to meet our little guy (or big, knowing my history.....). I am afraid to even think about washing newborn clothes but I don't want him swimming in his coming home outfit! In my dream last night, the baby weighed in the mid 6 pound range. Who knows!!!!!

Have a wonderful day.
love
Erika and Co