our family: January 2008 Archives

The amniocentesis went very well on Monday; Baby cooperated and the procedure went quickly and smoothly. Per the results, however, Baby's lungs weren't quite at full maturity at the beginning of the week, so Doctor prescribed two steroid shots to speed up the process of maturing the lungs. So one shot was administered on Wednesday morning; one on Thursday morning (yesterday). Doctor also checked me while I was there for my shot yesterday and was surprised at how much the baby had dropped in a matter of days. He said to be prepared for (but not counting on!) going into labor on my own this weekend. If that does not happen, we will check into the hospital on Sunday night and be induced Monday morning, giving Baby's lungs a full week since the amnio to be fully developed.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers! We can hardly wait 'til Monday to see our baby girl! Hale and Addi are so excited for their new(est) baby sister, and Sydney just lives in Sydney Land, which is just fine! She deserves that, and she is such a good little girl!

Birth story and baby photos to come....SOON!

The Original Family Truckster is being retired...she served us well for four and a half years, but it's time to move on to more reliable transportation (I speak on my behalf only...bring this subject up with Kevin at your own risk).

I have been enjoying our new (to us) Honda Odyssey (I can't wait to hear the name Kevin comes up with for it, as he lovingly refers to his Ford Explorer as "the Exploder") since Monday of this week, when we made our way to Michigan to look at an Odyssey being sold by an individual seller. That one didn't quite pan out, but we happened upon a much better deal at the Honda dealership in Ann Arbor and alas! Mommy and the kids are stylin'! This ride includes a few more options than we were looking for - the most obvious one being a DVD player that the kids can't wait to use. We have set down some strict usage rules for that one, such as the shortest car ride in which the DVD player will be used is to Shelbyville. So guess where they've been asking to go all week??!

The option I DO appreciate, as we near the arrival of our fourth child, is the eight-passenger seating in contrast to seven-passenger seating in the good ol' Montana. This will allow for continued carpooling from school, as well as enough room for Nannie & PaPo when we travel together!

And on the subject of Baby #4...

During our most recent visit with the Fetal Maternal Medicine specialist in Indianapolis this past Tuesday, we learned via ultrasound that "Baby Reid" is growing quite large -- weighing an approximate 6 pounds, 12 ounces and measuring at 36 1/2 weeks gestation rather than the calculated 35 weeks that I was. So that prompted my OB to decide today that an amniocentesis will be performed on Monday to make sure Baby's lungs are mature, and if so, labor will be induced next Friday morning! We are very much looking forward to our baby's arrival, and since this is to be our last, I am doing my best to take it all in and lock it away in my memory.

Happy New Year 2008!

Last year I made several predictions which I'll repeat here:

+ We will still be living at 542 W Park St Ext (barring catastrophe) in 2008
+ Sydney's hair will be straight
+ We will have grass in our front yard instead of mud
+ Jill and I will finally eat at Eddie Merlot's

Got them all pretty much right. We are still living at the home on Park Street; Syd's hair is mostly straight, although it might be curling up some; we do have grass in the front yard except for where I drove through the snow last week; Jill and I did eat at Eddie Merlot's, but won't be going back.

As for the present... Here's a picture that we took the other day with the kids in their "Christmas clothes" -- looking good!

Now for the future... I predict that:

+ we will have a baby girl and she'll be our last for at least many, many years
+ Jill will have a new vehicle by the end of the year
+ Sydney will walk by February
+ baby Reid will sleep through the night in the first two weeks she's home
+ we will have a snowfall of over 18" in one day this winter
+ we will have a terabyte of storage for photos and movies by the end of the year (currently we have about 1/4 of that)

I don't go too far out on a limb, as you can tell.

Before you go, check out our family page with this year's updated pictures!