Update and more pictures

Another Broncos Fan is Born!

Well, we are now home and getting ourselves settled in. Adjusting to life with a newborn has been wonderful! We find ourselves getting nothing whatsoever done during the day because we're so consumed with cuddling, kissing and simply staring at our little bundle of joy.

A lot has happened since the last post- let me rephrase that, a lot of pictures have been taken since the post. We have been hounded by various friends and family members for more pictures, so this post will have LOTS. Hopefully this will suffice, at least for now. :)


Luke had his first doctor's appointment yesterday. He did so well! He now weighs 7.6oz and has grown 1/4 inch already, putting him at 21 1/2 inches. He is in the 90th percentile for height, 10th percentile for weight! So we have a lanky little one... future basketball player perhaps?

I have to tell one quick story and then onto the pictures, I promise, but this tale is too funny NOT to tell...
Yesterday afternoon Luke was in need of a diaper change - we're talking soupy poopy diaper- so Matt and I 'tag teamed' it and decided to change him in his room on the changing table versus the pad on the dining room table/make shift diaper station we created downstairs. We got Luke all cleaned up and feeling fresh, no problem. Matt was in the process of putting some vaseline on Luke's 'member' (recommendation from Dr. for the circumcision site) when all of a sudden there is a yellow fountain! Matt didn't know what to do so he 'helped Luke aim' for the wall! In the meantime I'm telling Matt "no!" trying to get him to cover it with the diaper but Matt thinks I'm telling him not to get pee on the wall, so he 'aims' in the other direction! Picture an out of control fire hose - that's probably the best image for this scene. Both Matt and I are laughing hysterically while poor little Luke is crying! When we finally look around there is pee EVERYWHERE! All over the wall, changing pad, carpet, glider, crib...everywhere, including all over Luke... sprinkled on his face and even a drop in his ear!
We got Luke and the room all cleaned up, laughing the entire time. Needless to say, we learned an invaluable lesson! :)

Ok, onto the pics....

Sleeping so peacefully

Matt - staring at Luke for hours on end

So tiny!

resting at the hospital - Matt had his own 'bed/cot' but mine was more comfy.

Some of our Visitors at the hospital:

Dan and Sarah Schenkel

Dan and Sarah brought their daughter Aliyah. She was SO excited!

Liz (and Greg - not pictured)


Matt Wiers


Bill and Harriet Bierling



Jennifer DiDonato


Sheila Tinklenberg


Heading home from the hospital!

All dressed up in his duck outfit from Grandma DeBoer

Finally home


We just can't stop kissing his little cheeks...

or staring at him while he sleeps...
The DeBoer family.

Luke's scrunchy face

Luke's first official outing

- we went to out for Frugos Frozen Yogurt after his doctor's appointment

Grandma Thomson

The best naps are on Daddy.

Easter Arrival!

Luke Randall DeBoer!!!

Finally! We welcomed Luke Randall DeBoer on Easter Sunday- April 12, 2009. He is an absolute joy and we are thrilled to be new parents to such a precious little boy! (forewarning- this post will probably have lots of exclamation points and pictures, we hope you don't mind)

Luke officially entered our world at 9:01 pm after a somewhat stressful labor. I started feeling contractions about 11:00am but they were mostly inconsistent so I chalked it up to another set of false labor contractions (which I had been feeling a lot of lately). Matt and I were going to go out for a walk when those contractions got extremely intense and fairly close together. It was obvious that this was the real deal when the contractions forced me to my knees and those contractions continued to get stronger and were coming every 5 minutes, like clockwork. Matt brilliantly suggested that we head to the hospital versus going on a walk and we were off! We arrived at the hospital around 2pm. I was already dilated to 5cm and having strong contractions about every 3-4 minutes apart. About 45 minutes after arriving at the hospital my water broke (quite the mess, let me tell you). I opted to go for the epidural (which I am convinced was one of the best decisions of my life! I give worlds of credit to women who give birth without drugs- yikes!) Within 2 hours of getting to the hospital I was resting comfortably, watching the cubs game with Matt in our labor/delivery room. However, while I was feeling fine, poor little Luke had gotten himself tangled up in his umbilical cord and was getting distressed! Everytime I would have a contraction Luke's heart rate would plummet. I had to be on oxygen the entire time I was in labor and would flip from left side to right side every hour or so to see if my position would help keep the heart rate up. Luckily, I was progressing at a pretty good pace. The on-call doctor opted to let me try and push at that time rather than go in for an emergency C-section right away. Once Luke moved into the birth canal his heart rate stabilzed, thank God. I pushed for a grand total of 40 minutes and then there he was! All 7 lbs, 11oz, 21.5 inches of beautiful baby boy!

Due to the fact that his heart rate was so irregular during labor the NICU was in the room during the delivery. They took Luke immediately after he was born and got him breathing, cleaned up, and all that good stuff. He wasn't breathing very well at first and they were debating about bring him up to the NICU to keep an eye on him. But, again, luckily, they let us try to get him settled by placing him directly on my chest to see if my breathing would help regulate his - worked like a charm! Within minutes Luke was calm, alert, and rooting around!

Matt was amazing. He was by my side the entire time, extremely supportive and encouraging. It was such a thrill to watch him follow Luke around after he was born doing all the typical father things- counting fingers and toes and other body parts, telling me what was going on with Luke, etc.

I'm doing well... tired and sore, but feeling great overall. At the time of this post we are still in the hospital waiting to be officially discharged and head home!! Yesterday we had a steady stream of visitors, which was wonderful. It was so great to feel so supported and loved by friends and family. Thank you to everyone who came by, called, wrote emails, facebook, etc. We feel very loved and encouraged by all of you!

As promised - here are some of the pictures from our Easter Adventure. The first of many!

Nice and puffy, on oxygen, waiting for Luke to make his grand entrance.


Little Luke Randall

Check out the Conehead!!

7lbs 10.5 oz (Matt guessed he would be 7.11)

Proud Dad overseeing the activities.

Luke likes to keep his hands up by his chin just like Matt did as a baby.

Matt had to wait an hour before he could actually hold his son.

After that, he wouldn't put him down.

This is our nurse, Nicole. She was fabulous!

Proud Daddy

Grandma and Pops Thomson were the first visitors - at 1am!

Our happy (and very tired) family!

Still waiting...

Well, we are now one week and one day past Baby DeBoer's expected arrival date- which, is actually average for first babies according to what we have heard/read on the Internet. We had a doctor's appointment last week which determined that the baby is fine, I'm fine and thus, my doctor "let me go" for another week. In all honesty, that was NOT what I wanted to hear. Don't get me wrong, I am so glad that the baby is doing fine and there are no concerns whatsoever, but I am VERY VERY ready to meet this little one who has been kicking me from the inside out for the past several months. That day will come and in the mean time I am learning a valuable lesson in patience and giving up control.
As is stands right now, I am scheduled to be induced on Tuesday, April 14 at 4am. It isn't how I had pictured going into labor in my head but I'm coming to terms with it.

After getting that news from the doctor Matt and I decided that we were NOT going to just simply sit around the house and wait for something to happen- that would drive us nuts. So instead, we opted for a different "drive" and went golfing! Yes, nearly 41 weeks pregnant and I went golfing! I didn't really play, I just walked along and putted a few while Matt played, but it was fun. It was a gorgeous day and Calimesa "County Club" (I put that in quotes because it's NOT what you would picture when thinking of a true country club - it's far more ghetto than that) was only $16 for 18 holes, walking of course.
Matt had a good time and was finally able to use his new golf shoes that I got him as a Christmas present. We trailed a two-some who later told us that we 'made them look bad' since they were driving in a golf cart, we were walking AND I am pregos and we were able to keep up with them- highlighting their lack of golfing skills. Ha.

I took our camera along to document the occasion - here are some of the pictures.






TERRIBLE form, I know. It's quite difficult to swing a golf club around the basketball I have under my shirt.



My parents arrived on Thursday. When they bought their tickets they were thinking they'd be in town AFTER the baby came but oh well. My dad has to adjust his ticket heading home since his original ticket has him heading back to Chicago on Tuesday - our induction date. Its been very nice having them here. Matt and my dad are doing all sorts of projects around the house that we couldn't do without my dad's handy man know how- pictures to follow.

My mom wanted to get a few more belly pictures before baby arrives and I was more than happy to oblige. Here are the latest, and hopefully LAST, baby bump (which is more like a bowling ball than a bump at this point) pictures- enjoy.


41 weeks

overdue....

Well, yesterday was my official due date. April 3 has come and gone with no baby DeBoer and no news to speak of. I shouldn't really be surprised since I've read and heard that the majority of first babies lean on the late side. When Matt and I first found out the official due date we were trying to keep it in our heads that the baby would be late, end of story. But family and friends kept betting that the baby would be early, believing that it would be born in March, not April, so that got my hopes up somewhat. Oh well. Matt is thinking that April 6 would be a good day for the baby's debut - for those of you who follow March Madness at all you know that April 6 is the championship game date... which would make for a very memorable day - he can be such a goober sometimes. :)

I must say, it was very tempting to pull some April Fool's pranks this year - telling people that the baby arrived. But we were strong and held out, not wanting to 'cry wolf'. (Although Matt has already done this a few times - which ended up being kinda funny but cruel at the same time. - sorry Andrea and Leonards)


However, a friend from my work DID use this idea and convinced the other girls that I had the baby. She got them all excited, made up a name, weight, etc. Then pulled up a picture of a super fat, ugly baby on the internet and claimed that it was our offspring. Nice to know that she thinks we've got the potential for some seriously derranged looking kids. According to Jen, this is what our kid is going to look like....





Thanks Jen, thanks alot. ;)

Ankles? What ankles? ... and other joys of the third trimester

It is now 5:38am and I have been awake for the past 2 hours. Its not that I'm not tired, I am, I just can't get comfortable. I've now tried getting comfortable on two of our different couches in all sorts of different positions...no such luck. (side note: I have discovered that ABC family plays all of the old sitcom shows that I remember from junior high... Step by step, Sabrina the teenage witch, etc. in the wee hours of the morning. Its amazing (and really pathetic)how many episodes I still remember. )
So, here I am less than 2 weeks away from becoming a mom and I'm watching ridiculously bad actors on cancelled TV shows from my past. I think I need a new hobby.
That said, I am getting very ready for Baby DeBoer to arrive. The last few weeks have brought about new discomforts that I would rather do without - hence the picture of my ugly feet! I am nice and swollen most of the time now... lovely effects of retaining water. My hands, feet and face are definitely fuller - especially my feet. Matt affectionately refers to my feet and ankles as "clubs" or 'hobbits feet sans the hair'. I've also developed carpal tunnel in my hands and wrists from the swelling causing pressure on nerves. It takes me 5 times as long to do anything now that I have to stop and shake out my hands to get some feeling back to the fingers. Hopefully this will all go away once the baby comes, but then again, carpal tunnel syndrome has haunted the women in my family for years so I'm not holding my breath.

Here's the latest prego pic... 38 weeks



In other news, there really isn't much other news in the DeBoer house. Thursday marked the beginning of March Madness which basically means that I am a basketball widow for a few more weeks. Matt has been looking forward to this tournament for weeks. So far his bracket is doing pretty well. I came home from work on Thursday to find Matt watching one game on T.V, one game on the Internet, Sports Illustrated laying out on the coffee table and his bracket in hand. I just had to take a picture...

Such a sports freak... gotta love him.

Before... After!

Before...
I bought this glider on craigslist for $10 awhile ago with the intent to re-finish it.


After!
I spent this past weekend sewing a new cover for the glider cushions. It's not perfect by any means but I am pretty excited about how it turned out. A definite improvement from what it was like when we bought it. Not bad for $10 plus fabric costs. I got a stool at Jo Ann's that Matt painted the same color as the glider and made a cushion for it too, so now we have an ottoman to rest our feet on as well.


Before...
We were given furniture for the nursery from a good friend of mine at work. It is great furniture, just needed a good cleaning and some TLC.


After!
Matt sanded, primed, and repainted the furniture an espresso brown. Then we changed all of the knobs out and voila! Like new! I didn't get good 'before' pictures of the dressers (I always think about that after the fact) but here are the 'after' pictures.




Before...
This is me at 14 or 15 weeks pregnant, looking nice and tired.


After! (sort of)
Here is the latest prego pic at 36.5 weeks, still looking nice and tired... and quite a bit bigger!
It's hard to believe that we'll be meeting Baby DeBoer within a month. Sometimes I feel like I have been pregnant forever and other times I wonder where the 9 months went!

Visit from family!

My mom and friend Katy came out to visit us two weekends ago. It was wonderful to have them out here! The time FLEW by, as usual, but we were still able to get everything done on Katy's 'wish list'... we visited Matt and his class at RCS, did LOTS of shopping, went to Hollywood to "roll on the stars", went to Santa Monica Pier, and even had a baby shower with friends of mine from work... all in just a long weekend.


Matt's 6th grade classes wrote Katy letters a few weeks ago... part lesson in letter writing, part pen pal thing. Katy loved the letters and was so glad to get the chance to actually go see the students and talk to them a bit. (and I'm pretty sure Matt enjoyed the break from actually having to teach)


Katy and Matt's class.


The girls from work threw me a baby shower... so nice that my mom was able to be here for that.





We got a lot of really great gifts for the baby. We're really starting to feel more prepared to meet Baby DeBoer.


The picture is a bit blurry but the onesie says "diaper loading...78% complete" - cute.

My Aunt Marilyn and cousins, Heather and Kristen, were also able to be here for the shower. It was really nice to see them and catch up a bit.


Mom and Katy outide the wax museum in Hollywood.

We didn't actually go in the wax museum but it was fun to see the scene from The Wizard of OZ out in front. (the women in my family have a strange obsession with the wizard of oz)


Katy with "Marilyn Monroe"... and we didn't even have to tip 'Marilyn' for the picture.

Mom and Katy outside the Chinese Theater - too bad it started raining while we were looking at all the footprints and handprints. Oh well, a little rain never hurt anyone.


Katy at Santa Monica Beach... first time seeing the beach!

We really had a great time and managed to squeeze a lot in a short amount of time. Poor Katy was stuck in an uncomfortable wheelchair the whole time though. They had rented some equipment to make the trip easier for her - including a lift, hospital bed, handicap accessible van, and power chair. Unfortunately, the power chair didn't quite work for her - it was more like a scooter. Matt, on the other hand, had a BLAST with that chair and was in it constantly when Katy wasn't trying to use it. He really got quite good at manuevering around and let me tell you, those suckers can move! I should have gotten a video of it or at least some pictures but I wasn't thinking.