Who 'dat baby???

When a family has their first baby, everyone wants to know, "Who does that baby look like? Mommy? Daddy?" But when you have baby #4, the baby no longer looks like Mommy or Daddy. The big question is, "Which brother/sister does he look like?"

Judge for yourself! Elizabeth

Micah

Benjamin

Timothy

So who do you think the newest Krajca looks like??

How cute are my FOUR babies??

Sweet Baby

The plan

In the past few weeks since Timothy's early arrival, I've found myself saying, "Well, the plan was...." Because I had a plan! Thing were getting taken care of at certain times. I had a schedule! But my body and Timothy had a different plan.

One of the things that was in my plan was maternity pictures. My plan was to take pretty maternity pictures the weekend after I turned 36 weeks. I had looked though maternity pics on line, and found some cute ideas. Here I am trying out one of the cute ideas. My plan was to wear different clothes, go outside, and play with a few different cute poses to capture my last pregnancy. I wanted to capture what I looked like in the last few weeks of pregnancy. We aren't planning on having any more biological children. It was important for me to savor the end of the pregnancy, every little kick and move. To take lots of pictures so that I could remember what I looked like huge pregnant. I wanted to take a video of Timothy kicking. I wanted to take pictures of the kids feeling their new brother moving around inside of me.

But I didn't get that.

Knowing I had "missed out" on all those picture, videos, kicks and moments, made Timothy's surprise, early arrival hard for me in some ways. There was a sense of loss.

All of this is a reminder to me that I am not in control of my life. I'm also not in control of the lives of my children. But I do have a loving Heavenly Father who controls the events in my life, even when those events make me feel scared and out of control.

The picture above is one of the last pictures that I have of my preggo belly. When Curtis took that picture, I didn't think it would become so precious to me. But it has. This picture not only reminds me of what it's like to have a baby growing inside of me. This picture reminds me that I am loved with an everlasting love. That my life is in the hands of the same One who created the heavens and the earth. And that even when my plans don't work out, and I feel a sense of loss, that every even in my life is drawing me closer to my Savior.

Timothy's birthday Part 2

When a baby is born, he's given APGAR scores. At one point during our hospital stay, I asked Curtis if he had heard what Timothy's APGAR's were. He said that no, he didn't know, but the fact that our baby was turning gray probably didn't make for a good score.


After Timothy was born, he was quickly taken to the NICU where he could get the oxygen he needed. The neonatologist also wanted to really check him out, and assess his lungs with an x-ray. Even though Timothy weighed a healthy 7lbs 2 ozs, he was a preemie. I was 35 weeks and 5 days pregnant. The chest x-ray showed the doctor that Timothy had a lot of fluid on his lungs. All things considered, that's not too bad for a preemie! It could have been so much worse.
When a baby is put on oxygen, a tube is placed down the baby's throat and into the stomach to help release any built up air. When the NICU nurses did this, they realized that Timothy's stomach was not just full of air, there was also blood in his stomach. They were using a syringe to suck the blood out, and there was blood in Timothy's first diaper. This showed the docs that the blood had been in his system for longer than just the time since delivery. There were now two main concerns. First, we needed to "dry" Timothy up. Between the fluid on/in his lungs, and now the blood in his stomach, we just needed his body to get rid of all the fluid so that he could begin to nurse. The second concern was fairly obvious. Where was the blood coming from?

The doctors final conclusion was that the blood in Timothy's stomach was mine. We're not sure when he swallowed it, we're not sure where the blood was coming from. But Curtis and I are convinced that there was something going on with either Timothy or myself, and that if he hadn't been delivered, there would have been major problems. We are amazed, but not surprised, at God's protection over Timothy and myself!

I didn't see Timothy till I was on my way out of recovery. Unfortunately, I don't have many memories of that first meeting. Due to the stressful nature of the delivery, the anesthesiologist had given me some medicine to "help me relax". Don't get me wrong, I was really, really thankful for that! I needed something to help calm me down. But I am disappointed that I don't have all those precious memories of seeing my son for the first time.

The next time I saw Timothy was at midnight, 14 hours after his birth. I was also able to hold him during this time, but I wasn't able to nurse him till he had gotten rid of all his extra fluid.

Immediately following my delivery, I was somewhat thankful for the situation of having a baby in the NICU. I was able to rest, recover, process the events of the day, plan for the next few days, share news of his birth. But by the evening, I was ready to see and hold my baby! Normally, after a c-section, the nurses get you up 24 hours after delivery. I had the unique challenge of attempting to get up only 14 hours after surgery. Let me tell you, it was not an easy task! But it was totally worth all the effort.

By Wednesday morning, Timothy was doing well enough to start nursing. As with any baby, it's important to get them eating well and gaining weight. It was even more critical for Timothy to show that he could eat well and sustain his oxygen while eating. We were very thankful that he was able to do this, on the first try.

The NICU at our hospital had a visiting schedule. Curtis and I could only go to the NICU every three hours, and we could only stay for one hour. This schedule made for a very rough night on Wednesday. Curtis and I were waking up, getting me into a wheel chair, getting to the NICU, staying there for an hour, heading back to our room, and going to sleep. We were sleeping for about an hour and a half at a time.

By Thursday morning, I was at the breaking point. I was tired. We were unsure of when Timothy and I would be heading home. I didn't feel like we were getting straight answers from the doctors in the NICU, even though I knew they really couldn't give me any straight forward answers. It was at that point that God graciously allowed a wonderful nurse to come into our lives. She did everything she could to get Timothy out of the NICU and into my room! I was so thankful!!

Thursday afternoon, we discovered that Timothy had jaundice. Of course! Not long after he was able to come into my room, they had to take him back to the NICU/nursery to receive photo therapy. But again, the wonderful nurse jumped in, and brought Timothy back to our room using a Bili blanket.

Little did we know, the battle with jaundice had just begun!

I thought of Elizabeth

This commercial is cute, and reminded me of Elizabeth.

Timothy's birthday Part 1

The day before Timothy was born, I started having some bleeding. I called my doctor's office, and we determined that I had probably over done it. I stayed off my feet the rest of the day, and the issue seemed to resolve itself.

At about 4:45, the morning Timothy was born, I woke up experiencing a lot more bleeding. We weighed our options, and around 6:45 called our friends the Findleys to see if they could watch the kiddos while we went into L&D (labor and delivery), just to get things checked out. I honestly thought they would tell me that it was no big deal, and I would be home resting for the rest of the day. I even actually told Curtis, "The worse case scenario would be that he had to be born."

Even though I was getting to the uncomfy point in my pregnancy, I was quite content to stay pregnant till Feb. 25th, when my c-section was planned. I had been working very hard to organize our home and family, and was about to get started organizing things for Timothy. I was in no way ready for him!

We arrived at L&D around 8:00. They checked me, monitored me for contraction, watched Timothy's heart rate.... everything looked great! Just to be on the safe side, they did a test to see if my water was leaking. I cannot even begin to express our shock when the nurse looked at us and said, "You guys want to have a baby today?" Together, Curtis and I replied, "NO!" She smiled, and told us, "Well, your amniotic fluid is leaking. This baby's coming today!"

Suddenly, Curtis and I were surrounded by a flurry of activity. The doctor was called, anesthesia was called, an IV was started, blood was drawn, phone calls were made, a disposable camera was purchased. We were literally in shock. We were scared because he was over a month early (my due date was March 4th, he was born on Feb. 2nd). All the things that I needed to do kept flying through my head.

In the midst of the craziness, an elder from our church arrived, and took this picture. The last picture that we have of me pregnant.

We arrived at the hospital at 8:00, got the shocking news that our son was on his way at 8:30, I was taken back to the OR just after 9:00 and at 10:07, our beautiful son entered the world.

I'll leave out all the gory details and just say that this was my hardest c-section ever. Not only was there the emotional side of a surprise delivery, one month early, but the c-section itself was hard. But we were relieved to hear the faint cry of Timothy, making it all worth while! Even though he came out crying, he quickly needed assistance breathing. We got a picture of the three of us, and he was whisked away to the NICU.

Not only was there concern over his lung development, but we also discovered upon delivery that Timothy has a cleft lip. At first, there was concern that he had a cleft palette, which would have been much more problematic. But we were thankful to discover this it's only his lip that his effected.

After spending some time in recovery, I was taken to the NICU. We were blessed with an amazing nurse who somehow managed to get my bed into the NICU so that I could really see him and touch him for the first time.

Timothy's birth was definitely memorable. It was stressful, scary, emotional, and one of the best days of my life! We are thankful for the protection that God showed both Timothy and I.

Stay tuned for Part 2, where I go into more details about all the medical issues that Timothy faced in the NICU.

I have FOUR babies!

Hi! I'm new here.

A few things I've learned about Timothy and life with Timothy.

• He loves being talked to, which works out well since his brothers and sister are always talking at him.
• For now, he sleeps all the time. I usually have to wake him up to feed him. Not sure how long this will last, but I'm enjoying it now!
• He has really long arms, fingers and feet.
• There's not much fat on his skinny little body. But he does have lots of sweet baby wrinkles.
• Timothy loves eating!
• There were a lot of things I forgot in the 2 1/2 years since I last had a baby. I'm shocked by the amount of diapers and wipes we're going through!!
• I missed baby noises. I didn't know how much till I heard them again.
• Timothy is a big fan of the pacy!
• If I had to guess, I think Timothy's eyes will be brown!
• We see each of our other children when we look at Timothy.

We are all so in love with this little boy!!

sweet faces

Elizabeth is in love with her new brother. I don't think she could love hm any more.... even if he was a girl! Having her be as old as she is has made her a huge help. She's willing to love on him, hold him, help me with him, or sing to him! If you've been around Elizabeth in the past week, you've heard about her brother, and how proud of him she is.

Benjamin has also been very sweet with his new brother. He isn't as enthralled with his brother as Elizabeth is though. He enjoys telling people that he's a big brother now!

Micah's reaction to Timothy has been very different than when he became a big brother the first time (at 14 months!). He's also more than willing to help me, love on Timothy, hold Timothy, and he loves talking to him. One of the first times he held Timothy once we were all home, he told Timothy, "Hi! I'm Big Micah, your brother!" Adorable.

And sweet Jeremiah!! At the tender age of 9 months, he has no achieved Big Cousin status! He could really care less about his new cousin though, unless his Mommy is holding Timothy.

We're home!

I have so many stories to tell, and so many details to fill everyone in on. But in the famous last words of any new mommy, "I'm tired!"

A few pictures

Timothy's birthday

Timothy surprised us this morning by deciding that he wanted to be born, at 35 weeks and 5 days. I'll save the whole story for another day. But here are a few pictures of our sweet boy.

Timothy Joel Krajca
10:07 am
7 lbs 2 ozs and 20 inches