For those of you who don't know Wesley is having some trouble with his kidneys. He has a condition called hydronephrosis, which is swelling of the kidneys due to a reflux of urine from the bladder. It usually corrects itself as kids mature after birth but with Wesley it hasn't gotten any better and the function of his kidneys was found to be not quite right either. He is going in to have a test done next week on the 18th that might tell us if their is some sort of blockage that is inhibiting the flow of urine etc. If you all could keep him in your prayers it would be greatly appreciated.

So in a nutshell this has been the last couple of months. Mitch studied for finals, Wesley is starting to hold up his head really well, we went to see the lights in downtown Milwaukee, opened Christmas presents, got a new family picture taken, went to a Jazz Basketball game and Wesley is a little laughing and playing ball of fun.

So when we were coming home from the hospital with baby Wesley we were trying to think of nicknames for him and Mitch said how about Ruggedy, so then we would have a Buggedy (Addie) and a Ruggedy(Wesley). Well the name stuck so we have a little ruggedy man around the house now and of course he has to have a theme song so to the tune of spider man we sing "Ruggedy Man, Ruggedy Man. If you can't do it, nobody can. Ruggedy Man,Ruggedy Man." When Addie wants to sing it she asks for the "baby Wesley song". A few other nicknames we use are little fella, little man, duders and buddy. Wesley has started to smile and loves to look at all of our smiling faces and smile back. A cool thing I learned the other day is that babies actually prefer smiling faces not only because they are fun to look at but smiling faces apparently give them a sense of security. I'm sure the babies told the doctors this personally in so many words, but who am I to argue when the Wesley smiles back? If he's happy, he's happy!

We loved Halloween this year. Addie actually was a little more attentive to things this year than last, so it was a lot more fun. Our neighbors put up the fake spiders web in a neon green color and every time we went past it she would say, "see the spider web, mom?". She also loved a new story that we read called "Dorrie, and the Weather Box" which she still asks to read by saying when we're reading books, "Where's the witch mom?". One of her favorite things to watch is the Sorcerers Apprentice from Fantasia, starring as she says "Mickey O". So she dressed up as the sorcerers apprentice this year. There is a safe trick or treating event at the Medical College of Wisconsin every year that we were on our way to, but when we got there I turned back and Addie had fallen asleep, so we turned back toward home without going trick or treating, but with my sweet tooth, there was no shortage of candy this Halloween. We also got to go to Mike and Robyn Larson's home for a Halloween party. We enjoyed such fare as zombie skins and witch fingers and played some games. Mitch dressed up as a retro 70's man complete with polyester floods and toupee. Wesley was a little blue bunny and I was, well I was something colorful although it was said that I looked like a flower, a clown, a wood sprite or nymph etc. I'll let you be the judge. Hooray for Halloween!!

Addie and I were playing with some pretties the other day and Addie decided that Wesley needed some pretties too. Although he didn't look to thrilled to have them on after she was done he didn't put up much of a fuss and I was glad she wanted to include him in our fun.

Mitch and I celebrated our third anniversary this week, and oh how the time has flown. Three years of marriage, two kids, two years of dental school, two moves and we've only just begun! Since being married I've learned a lot of different things, mostly that Mitch usually knows better than I do and that I should listen to him, even if I do it grudgingly. I've also learned that marriage is a lot different from what I expected. Do you find yourself quibbling over what drawer the utensils are going to go into? That was Mitch and I's first big argument and how trivial it is. Most things that I get mad over are very minor. A great thing I heard the other day was that Satan doesn't care why you are mad, he just wants you to stay mad. So I've been trying not to stay mad, especially trying not to stay mad at Mitch, because like I said he is usually right and I like Laman and Lemual just get mad, because I know he's right! Anyway, my man is awesome, that's all there is to it. He goes to school, comes home and helps with the kiddos, helps with household stuff and doesn't complain about his lot in life. What an example he is to me of fortitude and faith, and lots and lots of patience. I sure love you Mi Guapo. Happy Anniversary and many more to come.

There have been some that have been waiting for the story of little Wesley's birth. Well the short of it is this; He was born.
O.k. now to the long of it. Thursday the 19th my friend Jana Wells was nice enough to put a baby shower together for Wesley and I. Well after talking with all the girls, playing a fun charades game and eating some very yummy cake made my none other than Robyn Larson, I was tired, hot, full and ready to flop into bed when I got home. When I got home I started feeling really light headed and sick to my stomach. I laid on the floor in our dining room and didn't move for awhile trying to will myself to feel better, but soon I was up and vomiting. This went on the whole night, I was restless, nauseated, I couldn't even keep water down and on top of that was having little contractions, which didn't hut but we're just another annoyance on top of being sick. Well, in the morning I didn't feel any better and Mitch and I were worried about me being dehydrated, so we called the doctor on call and she had us go into the hospital so I could at least get an IV into me. We arrived at Community Memorial Hospital on Friday morning and the nurse put a very painful IV into my hand and started me on fluids and also put a stress test monitor on my tummy to see how baby was doing. They monitored him for 4 hours until my doctor came in and looked at the heart rate and what was happening. She told me that it looked o.k. but that she just had a feeling that something was up. She noticed on the graph of his heart rate that every once in awhile his heart rate would plummet, usually with a contraction, then would shoot up and stay up for a long time. So she gave us the choice to either go home and wait for labor to start or to just get it over with right then and there. We opted for the "get it over with" so they moved me into a labor and delivery room, connected me back up to the monitor so they could watch Wesley's heartbeat, gave me a little pill to get my contractions progressing and waited.
The nurse was saying that things might happen fast and if Wesley remained in the stressed out state that he was in that a C- section might be necessary in which case tons of people would come in, there would be little to no time for questions because they would need to get the little guy out. Thankfully, none of that happened, but Wesley's heartbeat continued to be high and sometimes irregular and on top of that my tummy was really hot. I didn't have a temperature, but my stomach was burning up so they knew Wesley must be pretty toasty too.
About an hour after they gave me the little pill the contractions really started in, but I couldn't be up and walking around because I needed to stay within reach of the monitors on my tummy. So we tried rocking in a chair by my bed, but that elevated Wesley's heart rate so the nurse had me lie back down in bed.My contractions were getting to the point where I couldn't handle them any more laying down, I couldn't control my breathing even with Mitch's help in trying to help me calm down and think of something else. I was hyperventilating and my hands were going numb because I wasn't getting enough oxygen, which freaked me out even more because I thought something was seriously wrong. I asked for an epidural and the anesthesiologist came almost right away which was awesome. As he was putting in the epidural I told the nurse I felt like I was going to vomit, and she said that was sometimes caused by the epidural. I threw up, and immediately felt better and my legs started to go numb. For the next hour I drank as much water and apple juice as I could get, I just felt so thirsty, even though they had had me on an IV the whole day, it was good to have something on my stomache. They put in a catheter and I filled the bag pretty quickly. Dr. Hasenyager broke my water and about an hour later I was ready to push. The epidural was wearing off by the time I started to push so I could feel when the contractions were coming and baby Wesley was coming out. At Push number 4 I yelled like a Banchee and Dr. Hasenyager looked up and said "the epidural must be gone, huh?". One more push and baby Wesley was here. Only five pushes and three hours of progressive labor, with an epidural and it's ll over, yeah!! Dr. Hasenyager said she was worried that I wouldn't be a good pusher and that she would have to use the forceps to get him out fast, luckily she didn't have to. After looking at the placenta it was confirmed that I had placental abruption which was causing Wesley stress and why my tummy was so hot, and probably why I was sick the night before.

He arrived August 20th at 6:03pm and weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces, and was 19 1/2 inches long.

The first thing I thought when I saw him was he had a lot of hair!! Baby Wesley had a temperature and they were still worried that he was having problems so I only got to hold him for a little bit before they took him into the nursery to hook him up to oxygen and heart rate monitors. His temperature went down by about midnight and he was off of the oxygen by 2:00am so that I could nurse him. He took right to it the first time, but after that he just was fickle and wouldn't latch on very well. And because he was really small when he was born the nurses and I were worried that he wasn't getting enough to eat. Luckily after the first night and a day of trying a bottle, a dropper, a nursing nipple, he finally caught on and started to nurse like a pro.We were discharged after 48 hours with a clean bill of health. Wesley did lose a pound while in the hospital but luckily gained it back plus some in a week.

We're so glad to have him in our family and he's been such an easy baby, he sleeps he eats, he barely fusses which has been so great. We sure love our little Ruggety Man.