Merry Christmas!

Well, the holidays/Christmas has really snuck up on us this year! As I write this, Kellen is sneaking up to the tree to yet again pull down the ribbon and grab a few bulbs! That kid is into everything! With that said, lets start the updates from the year...

Kellen - Kellen Paul was born on March 10th! It was so exciting and now our all boy house-hold is complete! Ty and Colt were super excited and have always been awesome big brothers (maybe not always to each other - but always to Kellen;). Kellen is falling in line with Tyler and doing things pretty darn early. He rolled over around 2 months, started crawling at 5 month, stairs by 6 months and my mom taught him to go 'down' stairs (the right way) by 8 months. Now, at 9 months he is walking along everything, crawling up onto everything, everything goes in his mouth, he tries to stick his fingers in all electrical outlets and got himself zapped a bit by putting a computer cord (plugged into the wall) into his mouth. We have had to be on our toes with him more than any of the others! He is just awesome though - happy and laughing constantly. He also just got 2 teeth while we were in NC!

Colton - Colt started out the year pretty rocky with his treadmill accident that happened right before Christmas. He recovered really well after a few months of often times weekly dr visits and his scars have healed pretty well. He gashed his nose open in late January so we got our first experience with stitches...Oh and then he had to get his forehead glued shut about 6 weeks after that. GOOD LORD. We have had smooth sailing after that though! He is so happy go lucky and hilarious. He turned 2 January 21st and has lots of big events such as learning to ride his big boy bike with training wheels early summer. He is a total daddies boy (Kellen is a mommy's boy;) and always cracks us up. His latest funny comment is: 'I want to go outside daddy, I promise I won't freeze my nuts off!' WHAT?! That was a jaw dropper, but pretty funny! He loves to sing at all times and sometimes breaks into dance. He is a pure lefty and has proven to be pretty athletic like his older brother. He loves to throw everything, play football, occasional baseball, ride bike and LOVES shooting hoops. I am thinking football is his game because he can basically knock Tyler's block off - he will go crazy on Ty if Ty ticks him off and it usually ends up in Tyler (yes, the 5.5 year old) crying and Colt getting whatever he wanted - he has given him a few punches square in the nose and put him in a few sleeper holds that Ty cannot even begin to get out of;) All I can say is - with all these boys...let the games (and black eyes) begin! AND one last note - Colt is now potty trained! Ty was a couple months after his 3rd bday and Colt just took to it! He literally only had 2 nights of accidents and for the past week and a half has been in big boy underoos 100% of the time and even gets up in the middle of the night to go!! Who can say 'cha-ching...NO more pull-ups!?'

Tyler - Ty has had an awesome year! He turned 5 last May 20th with a Super Mario birthday and is just the best kid ever! He was in swim lessons a few times and learned to swim (about 20 feet at a time) and has been in the FBA (Fargo Basketball Academy) a few times and has done great. The last time he was definitely the leader of his class and coach Tom said he should certainly get moved up to the next level! Al and Corey worked with him and taught him to ride bike without training wheels early in the summer and he just loves it. We spent most of the late spring, early summer and early fall outside. Ty loves all outdoor activities, jumping on the tramp, LOVES baseball, basketball, riding bike, football and even kicking the soccer ball around! Even though Ty was above avg for his kindergarten placement test, we made the last minute decision to keep him in pre-school 1 more year. He was fairly shy and always would have been one of the youngest in the class. We did a lot of soul searching and CRAZY amounts of research and talking to all kinds of people from teachers to experts to people who have taught him to parents who sent their boys early or kept them an extra year and it was overwhelming that it made the most sense to keep him and have him be one of the older kids, more mature going into all stages of school and adult-hood, and give him that extra year just to be a kid. We thought he would feel bad seeing his school friends get on the bus and he couldn't have cared less. He adapted great and is so much more mature and outgoing - this was 100% the right decision. He has loved his extra time at playcorner and is now in his 3rd year of pre-school;) Yes, he is one of the biggest kids there and I like to think after being tall and 3 years of pre-school...next year he will be the 'uber-kindergartener!' OH - forgot to say Ty lost his first two bottum teeth while we were in OH! Al and Gisela called us on a Sunday morning saying he lost his 1st tooth while eating pancakes...then they call about 5 saying he just lost another eating pizza!

Corey and I - We loved out time off for parental leave - spent the whole time with family. We took a trip to MSP to see the Twins with Al, Gisela and the kids for their innaugural season in the new stadium - it's amazing! We also bought a RV timeshare at Hart Ranch with my parents and Shelly and John so made a couple trips down to Rapid City - both times with all my family and Al and Gisela went with us once as well. SO fun - swimming, biking, sightseeing, fires...we love it there! Corey took a new job with the Premier National Team at Microsoft and is a Technical Account Manager to some of our top Microsoft Customers - a couple of his accounts are Borders Books and Dominos Pizza. It was a great change for him and he loves it and I am still on the same team as I have always been (Services Engagement Manager for the Southeast - providing sales and project management for billable technical services). We are both so lucky to love where we work and the people we work with. In Sept we headed to St. Pete Beach for 4 days for our 7th anniversary (I think? I'm bad with dates and years;) - just relaxed and hung out on the beach! We also met up with an old Disney friend and her husband (Malia and Barry) and had so much fun after 10 years!! We enjoyed the new Bison football season with lots of tailgating and cheering and also decided to buy in on on some season basketball tix - so we are Bison crazy these days! In Nov we headed down to OH and caught a Sunday Browns/Patriots game and Monday night Bengals/Steelers game - and then speaking of season tix, we got Tar Heels tix again this year and headed down to Chapel Hill for the game against KY with Al and Gisela. LOVED IT! We got a tour of the Dean Dome, took pics in Roy's office and locker room, got a big win on game day and did all the fun touristy stuff we haven't done there in so long!

Other than all that crazy stuff - the other big events were Al, Gisela and my mom Kaye all retiring within 3 monthso of each other! They have all been living up to the old saying 'you are busier in retirement than you are working'...they are all definitely enjoying and truely living life! Derek, my brother-in-law, also came back the end of Summer from a full year in Kosovo!!!! - good thing it was never announced the soldiers (on their charted flight) were getting in over an hour early and NONE of us were there to greet him off the plane...GRRRRR. Ok had to vent on that 1 last time;) Well, time to close and get ready for a housefull of 25 of Corey's family tomorrow!!! I hope you all can answer the same way Colt does when we ask him how his day was...'FANTATHSTIC MOM!'...here's hoping you all have a 'FANTATHSTIC HOLIDAY SEASON AND YEAR YEAR AHEAD!'

The Cruchets

Updates...

Well hello! I haven't made a post on here forever so I figured I'd do a quick post to update you all on the boys...Tyler turned 5 the end of May and literally about 2 weeks before school started, we decided to keep him at Playcorner and pre-school 1 more year. He did great on his Kindergarten screen, but we just figured he was always going to be the youngest and we'd rather he be one of the oldest in his class and we are so glad we made the decision...he has had SO much fun being at PC and he is totally fine when his 'schooly' friends go off to school, which is something we worried about. So he started year 3 of pre-school and is loving it and also just finished a 5 week session of bball at the Fargo Basketball Academy. Basketball alone really validated our decision as well...last year when he did 2 of the beginning basics classes he was one of the youngest and this year he was one of the oldest in the session and has done fabulous - Coach Tom uses him for examples and he has really shown huge improvement and is one of the 'leaders' of the class rather than the follower that he tended to be last year. Oh! I also forgot that Ty has 2 teeth that are loose...so looks like the tooth fairy will be making a visit to The Cruchet household in the next couple weeks...I wonder what the going rate is these days?

Colt is Colt - crazy and hilarious! He told Tyler a couple weeks ago he was going to call the cops on him and send him to jail. He also told us he wants to be football player when he grows up to 'smash people into the ground and then throw them in the garbage!' ummm, nice. He hasn't had any trips to the ER lately so we're all good on that front. He is doing really well potty training and we have a challenge going with his daycare that if we can have him potty trained in 2 weeks...we will get Chinese for the staff for lunch one day! He has been in underwear every night and all weekend with the exception of sleeping, so he's doing really well!

Kellen is so much fun these days! He started crawling at 5.5 months (he will be 8 mo. on Nov 10th) and has been all over the darn place - somewhere between 6.5 to 7 months he also started pulling himself up onto everything and started doing stairs around 7 months as well...he can take a few steps while holding onto things, so he's shaping out to be a little Tyler who was early with everything! He absolutely loves Ty and Colt and for some reason, all Ty has to do is look at him and Kellen starts full on belly laughing. He continues to be a fabulous baby that is always SO happy - he either sits and watches or sleeps all the way through the bison football games...fireworks and all! He also started saying mama mama around 5.5-6 mo and is started to get a lot more syllables going:) His favorite things these days are to pull himself up on everything - push a balloon around and chase after it or laugh at Tyler.

Same old same old with Corey and I - we just put the RV away for the winter:( but had some great times and even had it out to a few bison games for tailgating. Corey is getting his knee scoped in a couple weeks so will be set back a bit for bball this winter, but will be good to get it done. We did a trip to St. Pete Beach in Sept for 4 days for our 7th anniversary - great time of just hanging at our hotel or the beach and saw one of my long lost - great Disney friends and her husband one night (Malia and Barry) who live down in Tampa!! We also have a trip coming up in Nov to Ohio - we are hitting a Browns/Patriots game Sunday afternoon and then Monday night Bengals/Steelers game!! The Browns game will be freezing - outdoor stadium 1 block from Lake Erie!

alright - other than that, nothing too major going on...I included some 6 mo pics I took of Kellen and some randoms of Tyler and Colton and our neighbor Olivia...talk to you soon and Happy Halloween!

Kelly

An original song by Colton John Cruchet at bedtime...

ABCDEFG...HIJKLMNOP...LMNOP...TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR...QRSTUVWXYZ!

I can tell Colt will be a great interviewee in the future...he obviously had a brief memory lapse in the middle of the song, which was telling by him repeating LMNOP 2x, but hey, he went with it...he wasn't gonna let on he didn't know, he just kept on truckin...with a new twist on an old alphabet song!

Kelly

Tyler story

Ok I haven't made a post for months! I will do one in the next couple days to catch you all up on Kellen and all of our goings-on, but wanted to post a funny Tyler story. He is in art camp everyday this week from 1-3 and yesterday when we picked him up he was just pumped. He said - 'Mom! look what I got!' ...He said I got a bag and an earth! It was a green mesh bag (and an earth stress ball deal) and he says, 'now mom, I have to tell you about this bag...it is NOT a garbage bag, it is a grocery bag and you should take it to the store and get your groceries in it so we don't get so many other grocery bags that create more garbage for the earth!' - I was VERY impressed;) So they must have an earth theme this week which is great - definitely cool to hear a 5 year old come home and tell a story like that!

More to come...

Kelly

Updates from home...

Hi everyone! Well, baby Kellen Paul Cruchet was born last Weds, March 10 at 3:29pm...21.25 in long and 7lbs 3oz! Paul was Corey's Grandpa Cruchet. I was induced at 7am and it was a long and interesting day. His HR kept dropping every time they would do the pitocin so they have to back off, put me on oxygen...etc. Things were moving pretty slowly and with lots of ups and downs I think everyone was under the assumption as the dr was on the way to the hospital that it was going to end up with a csection as my contractions were pretty bad to the point the epidural wasn't doing much at all and it was time, but Kellen just wasn't ready - little stinker! Thankfully we didn't have to go the csection route and we had a new healthy boy #3...WATCH OUT WORLD - YOU NOW HAVE 3 CRUCHET BOYS TO DEAL WITH! I certainly would have been happy to have a girl, but I have 4 nieces and I'm just fine with that - we've already got a groove going with our boys, so why break the stride?! Poor Sversons in our backyard - their 2 girls (ages 2 and 5) are now TOTALLY outnumbered by us and Eversons...we now have 6 boys between the 2 of us...ages 0, 1, 2, 2.5, almost 5 and 6.5 - Yikes! Hospital time was great - and coming home the same. My parents and Lauren were staying here with the boys from Tues to Sat and Shelly was also here and was in the room with us for delivery! Colton has really gotten to like Kellen and doesn't mind when he cries (he actually runs to see if he's Ok and doesn't try to steal his pacifier (yes, I broke down after 2 sleepless nights and gave it to him and he loves it;)). Colt also isn't bothered or jealous when we hold him - which we thought would happen. Tyler LOVES Kellen - always wants to sit with him, hold him, give him baby toys, sleep by him...etc. VERY good big brothers!. Things with us haven't been too crazy with the exception of nights 1 and 2 at home and no sleep. He will sleep alone no problem during the day but the little bugger wants to be right with me at night, so we'll have to figure that one out quickly. Ty and Colt and all the daycare kids (and 2 teachers) walked to our house yesterday to stand outside the picture window and see him - they all had so much fun and were so excited. Kelly said Kellen was the talk of daycare yesterday!

Other than that, we are just adjusting our schedule to having 3 and spending both family time together as well as giving each 1-1 time. That has been my biggest challenge but things have been going pretty smoothly and I think it will be really good once Corey is home on his time off and Kellen is a couple months older. I am taking 4 months and Corey is taking 6 weeks - he will take it at the end of my time so we can all hang out together and then we'll both go back Tuesday, July 6th.

OH! Yesterday Tyler had his Kindergarten screening at Central Cass - so I have included some pictures below of that. I was so pumped and did awesome - scored really well on his tests and will be on his way to kindergarten on the bus with 'the schoolies' next fall! They will have 4 kindergarten classes - so Ty should have a pretty big class through the years.

Will have lots of pictures to come - from all the ones I am taking at home (see below)...Trudy is taking some pics of Kellen for her website on Friday and we have Mark coming here to take both his newborn pics and Colton's 2 year pics at our house next Tuesday!

Talk to you soon and Happy St. Patty's Day!

Tyler, Colton, Kellen, Corey and Kelly

New pictures!

Dr appt update

Well things are moving much more along since last week - now dilated to a 2 and could go at anytime, but he set an induction date/time for my official due date of next Weds at 6:45am, but Corey and I are both pretty sure he was thinking I'll go before that. The good thing is he is actually on call this weekend from Fri at 7pm to Monday morning at 8am - so if I went in Thurs or Fri ...or M, Tues of next week he would deliver and anytime this weekend he would as well (and then obviously he would with my induction if I wait that long), so I should be good unless I have an overnight weekday baby. I'm sure it will be on Saturday during the Duke Carolina game and Corey and the Dr. will both want to kill me - but rest assured, with Corey being the big Tar Heel fan and Dr. Dangerfield a CRAZY Duke fan, they will be watching the game on my tv in the hospital while I'm delivering! >:(

Kelly

Visitors at Hospital

Well hello everyone - one of those nights! I have basically been up since about 2 or 2:30am! Doing some work, watching Millionaire Matchmaker and eating a couple brownies;) One thing I was just thinking of is hospital visitors. Corey and I talked this over and we would like to ask you to not bring any children to the hospital - with the exception of our boys, Lauren, Jess, Oakley and Jayla (the 4 cousins). Tyler and Colton are both coming off bouts of croup and pneumonia and there is just too many viruses/germs/illnesses going around and we do not want to take the chance of the baby catching anything being 1 or 2 days old. This ask will also be the same for our kids/cousins if any of them are sick of course. I am a complete germ-o-phobe:) and with that said, also want to remind everyone - please DO NOT come to the hospital if you are sick - cold, cough and especially if you have anything worse...you can see the baby at a later date and I'll email you some pictures;) Also, please DO NOT come to the hospital if you have a really sick family member at home - such as anyone with influenza, chicken pox, strep...etc (basically 'the bad stuff' that you could be carrying germs for). Meritcare actually had a visitor restriction in place for a good amount of time due to cold/flu season (specifically for the baby floor and strictly toward any visitors under 18 - even our boys!!), but it has been lifted - with the exception of anyone that is sick. Last note, which I have also probably told most of you...please wash or sanitize your hands as soon as you get in the hospital room!!!!! :) ...'no washy the hands = no touchy the baby'... :) Yep, I'm a big loser, well aware of that!! Any of you who read this blog know me well and I'm sure none of this will surprise you! ;) I have my 39 week appt this morning at 9am, so will send another update after that.

Kelly

Baby update

Well today is 38 weeks and had an OB appt this morning...fabulous news...baby finally (after all this time) flipped and is head down!! This means no version (today anyway)! I was very relieved, however he did say I do have a lot of amniotic fluid and it is still a little high, so it is still possible it could move around again so we'll have to just monitor things. All in all it was a great appt and will see him again next Weds unless anything happens before then. He said he would think about induction at the 39 week mark - so that is next week but we'll have to see. Anyway, just cross our fingers this little stinker doesn't do any major movements and I guess it could be anytime!!

Kelly

Colton - and weekend events...

Colton - well, the wound on the back of his arm opened up again and I just got off the phone with Sheri (the wound nurse)...and explained how it has went the last 2 weeks (I only had his bandages off for a few days as it seemed to scratch open and start getting larger and is hypergranulating again...and she said 'crap. yeah, we'll have to see him again - probably a couple or a few more times). Damn. So, we'll start our Friday ritual again tomorrow of heading in to see her and then making a McDonald's lunch run before heading back to daycare:) The funny thing is - even though it's a big bummer we have to go back, they are all really excited to see him again and were asking for baby updates;)

Weekend - should be a fun filled weekend...Parents, Shelly, Lauren and Jess are all coming Fri-Sunday so the kids can play and they may end up swimming on Sat (probably not Colton now with his arm deal going on again) and then DEREK IS COMING HOME FROM KOSOVO SATURDAY NIGHT AT 11:30PM!!!!!! We are all super pumped to see him, even if only for 9 days - I remember from the last time he came home for his 2 weeks from Iraq that the anticipation was just a KILLER waiting to see him step off the plane, so maybe it will be a joyous occasion in 2 ways...we get to see him AND it will put me into labor! Will be great to have him home and he will be here to celebrate Jayla's 2nd birthday next Saturday:) We will also be filling him full of lots of good and fattening food at his request (starting with lunch on Sunday):)

Kelly

OB update

Ok - met with Dr. Dangerfield this morning. The baby is still very high due to the fact I have so much amniotic fluid - it is in an oblique position, meaning 'kittywampus' as he said...or a bit diagonal, but head down to the side. He didn't make that sound like that meant much because it's still floating around and has so much room to move (as he put it - it's floating around so much that it's in a different county from where I am). With that said, he can't really do a version this week since the baby isn't 'engaged' or moved down as it should be (whether that be with the head or the legs - it is just still up so high). He wanted to see me 1 week from now to re-check position and said we would schedule & do the version (on the baby floor) that day of my appt if the baby hasn't moved into position and engaged. However, he must not have realized he is out Mon and Tues and possibly Weds, so they tried to schedule me with his NP, which I put the kibosh on as I know I need to see an OB doc. I just talked to his nurse finally and she spoke to him and he apologized saying he hadn't realized he was out but that he WILL be in next Weds so they have me scheduled for next Weds at 9am and unless the baby is completely flipped and engaged the right way, he will do the version that day. He also let me know it's possible my water could break over the next week and due to the nature of the position, if that happened I would need to get to the hospital right away and make sure to let them know the position info. If it would happen (water breaks) and I go in, they would need to check position right away via ultrasound - if it wasn't fully head down, it would be a c-section. So, now...just a waiting game.

Kelly

Colton and baby update...

Colton - had his 2 year checkup today and all was great...on track growth-wise and developmentally. He had 2 shots which he didn't love, but no more shots now until he's 5! He does have to see an opthamalogist next week as he has a problem with a consistently blocked tear duct so they have to open it up and blow it out or something. Yuck. I'm sure he will love that. He's also seeing a dermatologist next week to check out one of his birthmarks and give final recomendations on sun care of his scars for the rest of the winter/spring/summer. He then saw the wound nurse right after. They are so great there - everyone from reception to the nurses just love him and are very excited to see the new baby - so they wanted to make sure I stop down after I have the baby so they can see the new addition. I laughed and told them all they have seen me more in my pregnancy than any of our family!! ;) The fantastic news is Sheri decided that was his last appt. She took the bandage off his wrist and it will stay off now. Nasty scar, but very little healing left and no bandage required. She had to do the nitrate stuff and scrape the back of his arm, which he hated, but she put a new heavy, duty bandage on that and said to leave it on for the next 4-5 days and it can then come off for good!! That is also a pretty nasty scar, but again, healing very well. I'd say he'll be all healed up in both spots within 2 weeks. Awesome!

Baby - was 35 weeks on Weds. Baby has been transverse (sideways) or breech (head up) for about 7 weeks so we did and ultrasounds and yep, still breech but everything else looks great and healthy. Crappy decision, but Dr said he wants me to decide on if I am willing to try an external version at 37 weeks if still in the wrong position. He said he is highly successful and I know he really wants me to try it. It's basically when they admit you to a room on the labor and delivery floor, give you meds to relax the uterus and try to turn the baby manually from the outside by lots of pushing and turning on your stomach. I have heard awful things about the procedure and horror stories on the pain, but it is successful 65% of the time and the other either they have to stop for pain or the baby flips back the wrong way within a couple days - in that case, that we couldn't finish it, it didn't work for some reason or the baby flipped back, it would then result in a scheduled c-section. There is always potential for complications and in that case, the baby is monitored before the procedure, during and then also after through the stress tests, they have anesthesia there and could do an emergency c-section quickly if need be. There's also the possibility it could put you into labor, but 37 weeks is full-term, so not a big deal. Anyway, I have my next dr appt not this coming week, but the Monday morning after (15th at 8:30) and they will check position again and we'll decide what to do if the baby hasn't turned. If it hasn't we'd schedule the version for probably Tues, Weds or Thurs of that same week.

Tyler - Ty finished his 2nd round of swim lessons last night! I guess really the 1st as the 1st time was parent child and that doesn't totally count...but over the past 5 weeks he has learned to swim on his own!! He will start them again, along with another round of basketball camp - for 5 weeks each, next Saturday the 13th. Bball at the Fargo Basketball Academy from 9:30-10:45 every Sat morning, then swimming at the Y from 11:30 to 11:55 - both run for 5 weeks. Busy Saturday mornings for Ty - and the crazy thing...he's not even 5 yet!

Corey - has is last day of his GPS job today (after about 6 years) and will start a new job as a Premier National Technical Account Manager on Monday! Premier is our highest level managed Customer support option, so he will have like 6-8 Customers he 'owns' and will manage their support needs, incidents, support cases to make sure they are going smoothly and getting resolved in a timely manner...etc. Basically these Customers pay the big bucks to have their technical/support needs managed from the Microsoft side. Some of these Customers are like Walmart, Best Buy, MGM Hotels in Vegas, NASCAR, a huge variety of pro sports teams...pretty much 'the big dogs'. He will have Customers so far in Ohio and Michigan...Pizza Hut will be one of his Customers...they are in Ann Arbor so like he said, would be a blast to catch a football or bball game out there sometime! He shouldn't have to travel nearly as much as his current job which is VERY welcome on my side! He does have to goto Redmond for 3 nights in late March and then again in August for a conference, but other than that, may have Customer visits every so often.

Kelly - well, no update on me...I count as 'the baby' update:) - other than that, I'm just really big;)

Kelly

Colton and Baby Updates -

Colt had a wound nurse appt on Tuesday and all went well - he had more hyper granulation occurring on each wound so she had to put zinc oxide or something on each of them which he did not like at all, but she thinks he's healing well and figured about 10 more days, however I think that could be true for his wrist but maybe a tish longer for the back of his arm. We also got his nose stitches out last Friday as they were starting to either get infected or he was having a reaction to them (which can happen on the face), that wasn't so fun but he has kept his steri-strips on pretty good until Tuesday when he has started to consistently pull them off. We only needed them on until yesterday, but I'm keeping on a couple days longer since he keeps pulling them off. He'll have a decent scar but at least the gash has closed up fairly well.

I am 34 weeks this week and had an appt Tuesday - they said the baby is totally transverse (and has been since my last ultrasound at 28 weeks). This is the worst position it could be in, typically they can't flip transverse baby like they can breech (doing an external version - which is them basically numbing you up and doing lots of pushing around your belly to move the baby manually) and I have heard that version's can be very painful and in the case of transverse babies - they usually just go right back into that position because they are most comfortable that way. Basically the head is laying on my left hip and butt on my right - legs and arms up, and spine curled down at the bottom. Only about 1 in 2000 babies are still in this position when you go into labor, however since it has been in this same position for 6 weeks, there is a chance it won't turn and we could have to do a csection. They are starting my weekly appts 1 week early, next Tuesday, and will also ultrasound to check weight and position. I am measuring 3 weeks ahead (37 weeks) as of this week, so they want to make sure the baby isn't getting too big, but I'm sure it's just because it's in such an odd position. They will probably make a call in the next couple weeks if we would do a csection early. Typically they can wait till you go into labor to see if the baby will flip and if not, you are looking at a last minute csection, however, with the fact it has stayed in position so long and it probably won't and that I'm measuring ahead and that I typically have babies early - there will be lots to talk about next week after the ultrasound. I am obviously 100% hoping no csection, so we'll just have to see. More to come next week...definitely ready to wind this pregnancy down and SO IS Corey. I have been much more testy this pregnancy and let me tell you, if someone could capture all my thoughts, I'd have an international comedic best seller! Corey doesn't know this - but it's very funny. Sometime in the last week he and I were a bit crabby and I yelled something down to him and he said he couldn't hear what I was saying and I got totally annoyed because if he answered, obviously he heard me and in a fairly loud tone I responded back 'BITE ME! ...DID YOU HEAR THAT?!' ;) oh, I'm so lady-like sometimes it kills me!! :)

Kelly

Stitches out...

We just got back from getting Colton's stitches out - again we got to have Corey hold him down, a nurse hold his head, I held his feet and a childcare specialist came in to make noises and blow bubbles - quite the production:). Corey laughed and asked everyone in the room if 'childcare specialist was another name for social services? - and they all got a kick out of that. The dr. thought he was on the verge of infection from them, so she said they had to come out - but regardless, she (as the other PED told us) told us that facial stitches come out within 3-5 days anyway. It broke open a bit when she took them out but she said the cut was so deep that she put a steri-strip down them and we'll have to leave the strips on (and replace them if they come off) until next Weds - which is when we see the wound nurse anyway for his arm so she can make sure he's healing up Ok. She said no baths until next weds (just sponge baths) and we have to really watch him - obviously for any signs of infection being he was already seeming to be started down that path (she said it takes out a lot of the room for infection by taking all the stitches out that have 2 infection points each), but also because it's so deep and could break back open if he isn't careful - wouldn't that be just fabulous?! >:(

So, we'll just be hanging low, watching meatballs and keeping him away from all chairs, sharp corners, dangerous objects, couch jumping...etc...for the next 5 days:) She said he's fine to goto daycare, but it's good he's home the next few days anyway to give some extra healing time - even though we agree he seems to get himself in less trouble there than with us.

Ok - talk to you later,

Kelly

Colton, Colton, Colton...

Ok - I'm hoping to get to the point sometime VERY soon that these updates aren't always about 'little mister hell on wheels' ;) So...first off, update on his arm and the healing process...he has been seeing the Meritcare wound nurse weekly - and they are just all so awesome. They don't have many little ones in there, so they all (reception, nurses...etc) all get a kick out of him as he typically leaves some cars or toys under the chairs and likes making balloons out of the latex gloves. Last week Sheri (the wound nurse) said she thought he would be all healed up in 2-3 weeks and I silently disagreed - that it would be more in the 3-6 week range, so we'll see and I'm hoping she's right! He developed a latex allergy so we had to change his bandaging last week, and of course, he developed a new apparent allergy to the adhesive in general and so we had to change it up again this week to an interesting concoction of sponges and bandage wrap. She is really happy with the healing (we saw her Tuesday) and thinks he will start growing skin over the 2 areas in the next week or so. Great news! They were very surprised to see the new look he was sporting though this week...so lets get going on that...

Monday morning while at home, he was up on one of our over sized dining room chairs - basically just standing there, but he flipped the back of it backwards by leaning too much on it and proceeded to fall with the chair directly backwards toward the ground and unfortunately it was the upper bridge of his nose that connected with the bottom foot bar of our wrought iron bar stools that broke his fall. What is the next word I can think of...ummm...BLOOD. We both grabbed him right away, held a rag to his face to eventually stop the bleeding, pumped him full of Motrin, his pacifier, made a make-shift bandage of a long bob the builder band-aid running from his forehead down to the tip of his nose and away we went to the hospital. Luckily they had a Pediatrician at the Meritcare Children's Clinic Walk-in that could do stitches so we opted to go there rather than the ER and got in right away. 1 look by the nurse, then 1 look by the dr and they said, 'yep, boy, that's a deep one...definite stitches'. So we had to get him numbed up for about 15 min, then get him into a new room with 5 of us in there - Corey laying with him on the table, a nurse and I holding his head in place, another NP at his arms and legs (along with Corey) and the doc to do his magic. Another handful of large needle pokes for numbing purposes and away we went with 4 stitches. We are getting them out already on Friday afternoon so hope his healing goes well - and I guess we'll chalk this up to yet another fabulous scar for him to brag about to his pre-school buddies when the time comes;) His poor little face swelled up so much he started looking like a lion and the doc expected some 'major' black eyes, but so far it hasn't gotten too bad. There could be a possibility of a break (EVERYONE CROSS YOUR FINGERS ON THAT ONE), being it was right on the bone, however he was so swelled they can't really tell that for the 1st 3-5 days until the swelling goes down, so we'll see - we just noticed the swelling decreasing a bit today. I have now uploaded some pictures of his arm in the few days after his accident happened as well as his face from this week. I'll try to get some more of the healing of his arm out in the next days.

We also celebrated his 2nd birthday Saturday night at our house and TODAY IS OFFICIALLY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO COLTON (JAN 21ST)!!!!! I was hoping the start of the New Year was literally a 'new year' to put the accidents behind him, but now lets say, I'm hoping the start of the 'new-him-no-accidents-no-pain-lets-just-be-happy-and-play-trains-and-basketball' year STARTS TODAY. 2 is going to be where it's at - happy, healthy and lots of fun - right?! ;) (I'm trying to convince myself of that anyway...but just in case, I'm stalking up on bubble wrap). I'll post his birthday party pics and updates this weekend maybe - and hey, maybe I'll even get around to sending out our Christmas pictures!

PS: Yes, it's 1:30am and I'm not asleep, just got done making his daycare treats and figured I may as well send out this update being I have become an apparent vampire who doesn't sleep anymore (either from the pregnancy or the fact I'm obsessed with the Twilight Series books;)

Have a good one,

Kelly

1.5.10 Colton Wound Nurse Appt...

Just letting you all know Colton’s appt went well today – each spot has healed a couple millimeters and they brought up the skin grafting idea again so we may be seeing a burn surgeon next week at our appt, but I’m still pretty sure that won’t happen. We got a thumbs up so far and will continue to see the wound nurse every week for the next 4-8 weeks so she can monitor the healing. She said he will have some pretty good scarring in both spots on his arm but good thing is neither of them are on a joint so the scarring won’t hinder his movement. She also agreed with all the other doctors that the redness/burns on his face and back will even out with his skin tone and go back to normal, so I’m glad to hear that (specifically from her).

But no bad news anyway – nothing has changed since Corey went to her all that time last year for his foot surgeries…she still seems to be on track with running ‘at least’ an hour late on all her appts, but does an awesome job!!

Kelly