DC. Friends come to Town. and 2 month Check Up.

Well it's catch up time and that can only mean one thing. This is going to be a LONG post!! Just warning you...

So, way back in the day... like three years ago to be exact... while we were on our honeymoon gallivanting around Orlando, Jeff somehow was persuaded into going to a Wyndham timeshare presentation.

Despite my better judgment, he somehow (lots of begging) convinced me to go too... with the intentions of not buying ANYTHING. All we wanted was their free tickets to a Knights of Arabia show and two free tickets to MGM Studios, which is how they convinced us to go in the first place.

We arose in the early hours (on our honeymoon nonetheless) and ............ Two hours and lots of schmoozing later.... we left with empty wallets and a package deal that we "thought" would save us lots of money in the long run, considering we would be traveling lots of places for Jeff's interviews. WRONG. I swear to this day never to go back to one of those things because, as I mentioned earlier, despite my better judgment, those guys are very convincing and I think I could easily fall for their scheme every time.

The points we bought were supposed to be enough for two weeks of vacations in their resorts. However, it turns out every time we tried using our points, the places we tried going to were booked (and by booked I mean like 6 months in advance booked), or they had a minimum stay of 3 nights, or our points had expired, etc ... basically we got screwed. 3 years later, Jeff finally had called and yelled at them enough that they extended our points for a few extra months.

And that is why we ended up with a 3 night stay in a presidential suite in Washington DC. Not our first choice of places to go, but we took what we could get without having to pay for plane tickets.

Despite all our frustrations with Wyndham, we had a good time. Jeff's parents, sister, brother in law, and their baby Lydia came and stayed with us. Jeff and I spent a good chunk of our time relaxing in the condo while his family was out touring the sites. We met up with them in the afternoons just in time to catch the end of their sightseeing. (I had been to DC two times in the past year and was all DC'd out) We did however get a tour of the capitol, thanks to Jeff's friend Dave who was our personal tour guide.

I think Tony was a little tuckered out. What do you think?

It was so fun to meet Lydia for the first time and to see our little babies next to each other. So fun in fact, we took LOTS of pictures. Have I mentioned Trey is a BIG BABY??


Keep in mind... Lydia was born December 29th and Trey was born March 12th. All I have to say is good thing I have a boy and she has a girl!

It was impossible to get them to both look at the camera.

We stayed up late playing games and chatting. It turns out, it's not as easy to do all these things with a baby. I have now experienced nursing in a restaurant, in the Capitol on a bench, in the American Indian Museum, and on a bench outside at the Arlington Cemetery. Hey, desperate times... call for desperate measures. But Trey was a trooper. He didn't once make a peep in the car or the stroller. Somehow we lucked out. It's almost like the stroller and car trick him into sleeping. That is until last week. He broke his two month record and cried the whole way home from the grocery store.

This is how he spent the majority of his time in DC, not sure he got much out of it. :)

Our little vacation went by way too fast as always, but we had a blast. The best part was getting to spend our time in DC with family. Thanks guys for taking some time out of your busy schedules to come hang with us for a few days!

While we were in DC we also got to visit my cousin Emily and her kids and my Aunt Patty. It was so fun to see them and go to lunch with them.


Jeff had the week off due to the end of semester break. It was so nice to have him home and to get to spend some more time with him. I think he enjoyed his daddy bonding time with Trey too...

We also were able to have a get together with all the second year dental students. It had been so long since we'd all gotten together!

Here's a few of us.... Literally. A few of us.

Laci and Kelli come to Town........

My friends love me so much they came all they across the country to come visit me and Trey. Okay maybe I had a little something to do with it by my constant nagging... but hey, it worked. My friend Laci even dragged her one year old little girl with her... who may or may not have been a bit of a nightmare on the plane. Sorry Lace! I am just glad I got you to come once because I am guessing you will probably never come back! Even if Navi didn't particularly love being in an unfamiliar place so far away from home, I still think she was a doll and has the cutest little grin.

See??

You'd think we would try to cram as much stuff into the few days they were here as we could but we did quite the opposite. Instead we spent much of our time hanging out at home visiting and catching up on lost time. It was hard getting up early when we stayed up into wee hours of the night chatting. And by the time all of us girls got ready, it was time for Navi to have her nap. But don't worry... we did make it to Pamela's... and maybe to the mall. :) We had a great time together. I am so happy you guys came to Pittsburgh to visit... even if you did both get the flu the day you got home. I hate airplanes... or maybe you didn't like our cooking. :(




Goodbye guys! See you in a month! (Little did you know this was the beginning of a very LONG night.)

2 month Check up. OUCH!

As I mentioned earlier... Trey is a BIG BOY. We went to his two month check up yesterday and he is off the charts in both height and weight! No joke. He is 9 weeks old tomorrow and he weighs a whole 15 lbs and 10 oz. He is a little chunker! The good news is he is 25 inches long which means he isn't totally fat. At least he's proportionate, right? He is just the average size of a 4-5 month old is all. :) We couldn't believe it! Well, actually we could. My arms get tired from carrying him around all day!

Along with his 2 month check up... comes the horrible shots. What a sad day it was for both mommy and baby. He didn't just cry, he wailed! Poor kid. Mommy made Daddy stand by him and hold his little hands. I couldn't take it! I stood back and shed a few tears myself.

Here are just a few fun things about our little guy...

~He now love his baths. He doesn't even cry when I take him out anymore.

~He doesn't mind being naked or getting his diaper changed.... unless he is hungry.
~He loves to cuddle with daddy.
~He is a great sleeper! He usually sleeps from 11-7... give or take. And then will usually go back down until about 10. I realize that is usually not the case for most babies so I am very grateful.
~He loves to just hang out, smile, and kick his little feet.
~He is usually a very happy baby unless he is tired or hungry.
~He has the most contagious little smile!

I love my little guy more than I ever thought was possible. He brings both mommy and daddy so much joy. We can't get enough of him!

Trey sure LOVES his Daddy

Untitled from Kimi Wegener on Vimeo.

HERE'S TO THREE AMAZING YEARS...

And this little chunk makes our lives even more amazing....

LOVE YOU JEFF!

We sure do love this little boy...

Untitled from Kimi Wegener on Vimeo.

Trey has been smiling since he was three weeks old. And at exactly four weeks, I even got a little laugh out of him when I went to get him out of bed in the morning. I knew no one would believe me until he laughed for my mother in law later that day... and then for Jeff the next day. Who would have thought that such an innocent little smile would make a person so happy!? We just can't get enough of him and his cute little dimples.

Jeff's parents were able to come spend a week with us. Trey was so excited to meet his grandparents and I was so relieved to have a little extra help. We didn't get to do much with them since taking care of Trey kept us busy enough. But don't you worry... we still made time for dinner every night! Thanks Tony and Kathie for treating us! You guys are the best!

We were also able to bless Trey while they were here. So glad to have at least some family here to see the blessing! Jeff did a great job and gave him such a sweet blessing. Trey is so lucky to have such a good daddy. And I am even luckier to have such a good husband.

Enough pictures already!!

Bonding with Grandma Kathie

I just love cuddling with my little guy. He is such a good snuggler.

And this folks... is what I get to enjoy every day. I love being a mom!

The Baby Story

If you don’t care to hear the labor story (because I know it’s long) just scroll down to the end of the post for some pics. This post is mostly for my own record so I'm sorry if it is quite detailed.

So it goes like this...

I went to my 40 week Doctors appt hoping for some good news. The doc told me I was dilated to almost a three and about 75% effaced. That got my hopes up a little thinking Baby Trey would be making his arrival soon. But unfortunately he had no intentions of coming on his own so we had to schedule an induction date… in hopes that maybe he would come before that. I was feeling pretty confident… but Baby had other plans. :) My OB scheduled me for Friday, March 12, 2010. 8 days after my due date. 8 DAYS!!! She tried to get me in on Wednesday or Thursday but there weren’t any rooms available in the hospital. I was getting so anxious to meet him so you can imagine I was quite restless during that last week. I went on a walk every day but to no avail… I had been having some contractions but nothing that got me too excited…

Which led me to Friday. The day that changed the rest of our lives…

-We got to the hospital at 7 am. I was dilated to a 3+ which I was excited about.
-By 8:00 they already had me hooked up to my IV and had started me on pitocin. They sure didn’t waste any time.
-I started having some contractions, but I was going to be tough and wait it out as long as I could. (Don’t be fooled, I didn’t last long.)
-By around 9:00 the doc came in and broke my water, which is when my contractions started getting really strong.
(After this I’m really not sure on the times… it is all a little bit of a haze, so I will do my best)
-I tried passing the time by playing Phase 10 with Jeff and my mom, but I made it to about phase 3 before I asked for my epidural. I was worried that by the time I asked, it might take the anesthesiologist longer than I might expect so I might as well get the ball rolling!

And from there it pretty much goes like this…
-Anesthesiologist comes in around 10:30 to give me my epidural. Made my mom and Jeff leave the room. Not happy about that. Waited for a while for the epidural to kick in. (This is the part where I was expecting immediate or somewhat immediate relief) Did NOT happen. Waited some more… Still feeling my contractions. Asked nurse if I could get some more medicine because it didn’t seem to be working like it should. Anesthesiologist came in and put another dose of medicine in my IV. Worked like a charm for an hour. During all this the doc had been coming in to check on me. I wasn’t progressing like I should have. I was at a 4 for a good 5 or so hours and his head wasn’t dropping. The doc seemed concerned and mentioned the possibility of a c-section if he didn’t drop in the next couple of hours. I was a wreck and a little over emotional about the whole thing. Wasn’t prepared for that news… and did NOT want a C-section. The doc explained that sometimes if the baby hasn’t dropped by now (considering I am 8 days late and had been on pitocin for a good while) then sometimes the baby is trying to tell us something, and we need to listen to the baby. In other words, there is a good chance he can’t fit through my pelvis. I rationalized with this for a bit, and after much convincing from both Jeff and my mom and after realizing that I really wanted to do what was best for the baby, I had decided I would go ahead with the c-section if that’s what the doc felt I should do. She came in a couple of hours later and he was still at the same place. She told me that it was completely up to me what I wanted to do, but that she strongly recommended a c-section because she is against those labors that you push for 3 hours only to end up doing a c-section anyway. She told us she would give us a bit to discuss it and be back in a half hour for my decision. During this time, I had mentally prepared myself for the c-section and had finally come to grips with it. Doc came back… checked me once more. I WAS DILATED TO A 7 AND HIS HEAD HAD DROPPED! I had been praying that I would do whatever was best for me and the baby and I felt like this had been an answer to my prayers! It was really a miracle that in that short half hour span, he had decided to drop! Despite, the roller coaster of events, I (and both Jeff and my mom) were so relieved! The doc said, wow, that’s certainly not what I was expecting… but we will go with it! From then on I progressed rather quickly. The next time she came in I was at a 9… and then when the nurse checked me a while later I was at a 10 and almost completely effaced, which meant it was time to start pushing!

Now back to my epidural… it had not been working nearly as well as I had hoped and I had to have the anesthesiologist come back in twice to give me another dose of medicine… which only seemed to help for an hour at a time. So for a good 2 hours of my 11 hour labor, I was pain free. :) Not quite what I was expecting. They kept telling me that it was pretty normal to feel my legs and the contractions a little. The thing is, I could feel them a lot!! Especially the contractions! I was starting to get worried because I knew that I was going to have to start pushing soon, and the medicine had started wearing off more and more. They wouldn’t give me any more medicine.

Just before I was about ready to push, I started throwing up. The nurse informed me that that is actually a really good way to get labor going, so as soon as I was done she had me start pushing. The first 15 minutes of pushing was bearable… I actually thought, okay, I can do this. Ha. If I only knew... To spare everyone of my pain and the gory details I will just leave it at this... It was not pretty. In fact, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep pushing for much longer, I was losing strength and energy fast. After about an hour and 10 minutes of pushing, the nurse called the doctor in… At which point I started throwing up again. This had to be a very pretty sight. Pushing out a baby while throwing up. Awesome. As horrible as it was to throw up at the very end of my labor, I actually consider it quite a blessing. It got that baby out in literally less than a minute. In fact, he came out so fast the Dr was trying to slow it down, so he didn’t just shoot out. I guess the convulsing of my stomach is what pushed him out so fast. Unfortunately for my sake, the Doc wasn’t able to ease him out to prevent some tearing. It was too late!

So… 11 hours later we are blessed with a beautiful baby boy. It was hard, and one of the most painful hours I have ever been through but it was worth every second.
And yes, I would do it again.
It took me a little while to recuperate, so I didn’t actually get to hold Trey right away which I am sad about, but once I finally did it was truly one of the best feelings in the world. I couldn’t believe I was actually holding my sweet baby boy. That same little boy that had been growing and moving inside of me for 9 months. How can anyone not believe in a God after witnessing something as beautiful as that. What a miracle the birth of a child is and what a blessing and responsibility I now have as a mother. I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Jeff said it perfectly when he said, I realized I loved him unconditionally...I did not TRY to love him...I just DID.

Fast forwarding to today… On Friday, Trey will be a month old. I can’t believe how fast this first month has gone. I love my little boy more and more every day. It’s crazy how much love you can have for a child. I can’t imagine life without him.

Here are just a few "Trey-isms"…

-If you haven’t noticed, Trey has two dimples. I Love Them.
-Trey HATES to have his diaper changed, although he is getting a little better and doesn’t scream through EVERY diaper change anymore.
-He also HATED his baths… that is until his umbilical cord fell off and now he loves them!
-He hates to be naked! (Are you seeing a trend?) Jeff claims it is just because he is a modest boy. Let’s hope that carries on through teenage life… :)
-He is so strong he could lift his little head up from day 1! If I try and burp him before he is done eating, he will lift his little head up and start eating my cheek. It makes me laugh every time.
-Everyone says he looks like me. I don’t see it, but then again, I’m not good at noticing that stuff.
-He pretty much has a perma scowl... especially when he sleeps. (Apparently I do too) Like mother… Like son.
-I swear he smiled at me the other day. Actually, he smiled at me a few times. And I promise it wasn’t gas! I even got it on my camera phone for proof!
-He is a pretty good sleeper. At first he wasn’t good at all. Then by day 9 he went a 7 hour stretch between feedings! That lasted all of three days and we are back to about 4-5 hour stretches, sometimes less. We will keep working at it though!

Overall, Trey is doing great. He is such a sweet little boy. All I want to do is cuddle him. He is the best little cuddler! He has been a good eater since day 1… (hence the 9 lbs. 7 oz.) and he LOVES his mommy... and his daddy of course. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Just a few stats I want to remember:

One week appt:
-Back to his birth weight and looking great.

Two week appt:
-Weighing in at 10 lbs. 2 oz. and measuring at 22.5 in. long. (I told you he is a good eater!)
He is in the 90th percentile for weight and 95th percentile in height. That’s my boy!

Now for the long awaited pics…

Coming home from the hospital. Can you believe he fit inside of me!?

He loves his Grandma

... and his dad

His first outing... To the Doctor

One Week

Saying goodbye to Grandma Wendy

He loves to sleep in this position

I love to rock him in our swing. It has been so nice here lately. Like 80 degrees nice! (Sorry, I won't rub it in)

2 Weeks

This is one of the few times where we tried every trick to wake him up and he wouldn't budge! We couldn't believe we got him naked and he still didn't blink an eye!

I went and got his pictures taken by one of my friends out here. She did a great job! If you want to see more of her work click here.

We actually had to do the photo shoot on two different days because Trey did not want to cooperate. Remember how I said he hated being naked?? Well, we learned our lesson and kept him fully clothed the second day... except for maybe a couple shots.

Here is just a sneak peak.

This is pretty much how the first day went...

I don't love this pic of me, but I wanted to show you his dimple.

Don't worry... he wasn't fooled!

April Fools - (and Kimi strikes back)

So as I have mentioned before, April Fools is quickly becoming one of my favorite holidays. It is a day where I have been given license to harass and torture Kimi. (see HERE and HERE)

I will give myself a "B+" for this year's efforts. Kimi's reactions last year were great and this year they were good too. I will just chronicle how these hoaxes played out....

About a month before April Fools: I told her that I failed one of my Oral Pathology tests. I told her if I failed another one I would have to redo this whole year of Dental School.
About a week before April Fools: So as I studied and prepared for the next test I acted really worried and after I took the test I told her that it was possible that I failed it.

The night before April Fools: I told her that some of my classmates got their score back but that I did not receive a score....she asked me what that meant and I said it couldn't be good. I had the wife of one of my classmates text Kimi and ask, "How did Jeff do on his test, I heard he was pretty worried about it?" She didn't respond....hehe.

Early April Fools Morning: I woke Kimi before I left for school and told her that I got an e-mail from my professor that said he wanted to meet with me at noon. So as I was at school Kimi was home wondering what was going to happen, I struck her with another prank...I had gotten up pretty early that morning and got a zip-lock bag, cut a corner, and taped a straw so that it came through the bag. I filled the bag with cake frosting and the squeezed the frosting into our toothpaste tube. Kimi woke up that morning and didn't turn on the lights because she didn't want to wake Trey, and....you got it....squeezed that frosting all over her toothbrush and brushed her teeth. She was really confused as to what was in her mouth and then she realized....it is April Fools! She then started to wonder if my whole test thing was a joke, more accurately, she wished it was a joke.

The Afternoon of April Fools: I got home from school and asked her if she wanted to hear about my meeting with my professor. I sat down and started to tell her that he told me that I had failed and that he gave me the option to redo the whole year or retake the coarse over the summer (meaning we wouldn't be able to go home). She interrupted me and said, "This better not be an April Fools joke!" I couldn't keep a straight face and she got mad as I laughed and laughed. She then said, "And I don't appreciate brushing my teeth with frosting!"

Later that Afternoon: I cut up a little piece of snickers and molded into a little bean looking thing. Later, I was changing Trey's diaper and yelled for Kimi to come look at his diaper. (I quickly placed the snickers piece into the dirty diaper...on a clean spot. I said "Is he pooping solid??" There was a small solid mass in his diaper. Kimi was so confused looking at it and after a while I picked it up, smelled it, and put it in my mouth and ate it. Kimi gasped and tried to utter words to stop me but it was too late. I wish everyone could have seen the horror on her face. It is imprinted into my memory and brings a smile to my face whenever I think about it.

Later in the Night: I got home from playing basketball and showered and got ready for bed. As we were about to get in bed Kimi told me not to turn on the light because she was trying to get Trey to fall asleep so she held him while we said prayers and when we were done I slipped into bed in the dark and Kimi just started laughing. I had no idea what she was laughing about. I thought Trey was doing something funny....but she just kept laughing and laughing. She turned on the lights and told me, between her laughs, to look at my face. I looked in the mirror and had powdered sugar all over my face, head, and arm. She had put it all over my pillow and I hadn't seen it in the dark. I have to hand it to her....she got me. Although, I won't forgot about the people who helped her come up with this idea.

I hope you had an equally eventful April Fools.