Landen's story

Landen Michael Royer was born 12:23 pm at 4.7 pounds and 18 inches long. All things considered, he's doing really well!

Here's a picture of our poor guy on a C-pap machine to help him breath. They did put him on the ventilator long enough to give him medicine then they took it out.

Our pediatrician said that he'll probably be in the nursery for about 2 weeks until he meets all his criteria of breathing on his own, eating well and able to maintain a stable body temperature.

Landen holding on to Brian's finger. It helps so you can see how small he really is!

Suprisingly he has really long arms and legs, and even a little double chin.

Yeah, all done!

Brian's hazmat outfit he had to wear for the delivery

Our night at the hospital for baby number one

It all began on the evening of the 14 of September. The wife starts her ritual of getting ready for bed. While taking off her pants she finds a huge wet spot on her pants and smells it for sweetness or ammonia. Well because of the due date being...not sure where Brian was going with that, but it's sounding kind of gruesome. He gave up, so I'll continue!
My water broke at 10:15 pm as I was getting ready for bed...yeah for 6 weeks early! I got in the shower while Brian started packing a bag then we headed to the hospital where I was only dilated to a 1 and 60% effaced. By 3:45 am, I was having some pretty good contractions, so the nurse checked me again and I was at a 3 and 80% effaced. They decided to call anesthesia and get and epidural in. It was in by 4:30...and boy do I love it. They started my pitocin at 6:30, and the doctor just came in here at 8 am to check me and I'm now at a 5 and 100% effaced...hooray for slow progress. So, thanks to the wonderful epidural, I'm able to update. He's projecting a noon delivery. I'll be delivering in the operating room so that they can hand the baby right through the window to the nursery. They said he might need to be on a ventilator and will probably be only 4 pounds, so pray for my little guy! I've been so worried about him this whole time, but he's still kicking away and his heart looks good, so everything should be fine, I just won't get to take him home right away. Oh, and I'd like to give a big shout out to Mel for sending me the only preemie outfit I own! It's packed in the bag for him...poor guy. Anyway, we'll update more later!

The Nursery...Pretty much done

So after a few months of planning and working, I think we've finally got the baby's room ready. I put everything out so that I can take pictures, but It will be taken down so that I can wash it all before the little man gets here. We're so excited!

A shot of the closet. Still trying to organize that mess!
A shot from the door including most of the room.
We had fun painting and hanging his name on the wall. The walls are still pretty bare, so if anyone has any suggestion...feel free to offer them!
Our crib and bedding set...love it!
One of my little nesting projects I made a little valence curtain for the window...it was surprisingly easy!
My other little project was making a couple of these changing pad covers. I was quite happy with how cute they turned out.

We still have little things here and there that we're trying to get prepared for as best we can, but I'm sure you're never fully ready.

8 months pregnant...maybe?!

Per request...here is my 32 weeks pregnant belly. As you can tell by my face, I'm so ecstatic by how huge I am. In fact, I had a doctor's appointment this morning, and I'm actually measuring at 34 1/2 weeks. So, I'm either having a big baby, or maybe he'll come early, I don't know, but I have been complaining of feeling huge lately and seriously gaining tons of weight in the last 3 weeks, and now I know why...Landen had a huge growth spurt. So, in my next appointment in 2 2 weeks, we'll see if he's slowed down a bit. If not, I guess they'll do another ultrasound to get a more exact measurement. The doctor also said that if I haven't delivered by week 39 and he's still showing to be a big baby, they might be a little more proactive in getting him here. I guess we'll see in another 2 weeks! Should I be worried about a big baby? I'm more worried about having enough maternity leave so that we can go home to Kansas for 2 weeks at Christmas time...I know, I have screwy priorities!

West Yellowstone

We finally had a chance to go up to West Yellowstone last week! We left after I got off work and spent the night in our timeshare...what a nice place! We took a couple of friends with it, and made a day out of it the next day. Here's some pictures from the adventure!

Old Faithful held true to it's name and performed just nicely for us!
Brian and I posing as Old Faithful was dying out.
We stopped for a picnic, and Brian & Chet found a tetor-totter (sp?) to see if they could balance on it. They did a pretty good job!
Yeah! We saw a buffalo.
We were amazed how close these animals would let us get to them. There were seriously about 20 people standing around them at a time just taking their pictures...no big deal!
Our timeshare where we spent the night...way nice!
A nice close up of...whatever they are, we never could really tell.
Chet, Kristi, their son Braden and us near the "stinkpots", or really the mudpots.

The mud pots...you can actually see how they're bubbling..it was kinda cool, even if it was stinky!

BJ's birthday

Many of you reading this post will probably think we're some of the most pathetic people in the world, but we love our dog! He turned 1 years old (or 7 in dog years) last week, and to celebrate, we took him to Petco to pick out a new toy and new treats. Needless to say, he probably enjoyed the car ride the most. We felt guilty because on his actual birthday we were up in Yellowstone and didn't get home until the evening, so he was left home alone for about 24 hours. I might have teared up a little when we left him, but Brian kept reminding me that he's just a dog and has all he needs to take care of himself while we were gone. It didn't help much!

Trip to Boise

So, amazingly, I had 5 days off in a row, and instead of spending them home alone, I went out to spend time with my brother and his family in Boise, with the hopes of getting a chance to see Brian. It paid off! I was able to pick him up on my way in town and spend the evening with him before dropping him back off by 9pm that night. I also got a surprise when he called me the next morning to come and pick him up to spend the day with him from 11am to 7pm that night! It was more than I had expected, so I was grateful. It was fun seeing all the nieces and nephew too. BJ and Kaden are the best of buds. Kaden was actually able to wear BJ out...which has never happened. They were so cute together. They disappeared outside for awhile one of the days I was out there and when they came back in they were soaked...we'll never know why, but I would have loved to have been somewhere to witness their fun.

Kaylee, Kelsey and Kaden getting ready to go float the creek
Yeah for self portraits, at least our heads didn't get cut off!
Kaylee and Kelsey's first day of school!

Oh, and to conclude this little adventure, Brian was able to come home early. He'd left the car parked down by the park, so when I came home, and he was hiding, I didn't realize it right away. I did have my clues though. When I first walked in the door, the TV was on, and I know I didn't turn that on before I left for work that morning, but I just assumed that BJ could have stepped on the remote and turned it on. Secondly, the kitchen light was on, but I figured if BJ was bored enough, he could have jumped up on the wall and turned it on. After all, he has learned how to open the gate in the back yard, and open the front screen door! The thing that started to get me concerned that someone was or had been in the house was when I walked by the laundry room and the cupboards were open...there's no way BJ could have done that! So, just as the panic is starting the set in, Brian jumps around the corner and almost put me in pre-term labor. It was so good to have him home a day early though, and it's been great having him home since. Now he's reading over my shoulder so I can't be gooey anymore.