I am not sure if this will work...I just downloaded a program so I can blog from my iPhone. Baby Luke was born on Saturday, July 25th at 10:32am (after 26hrs of labor! :) weighing 7lbs 9ozs, 20inches long. He had an uneventful 2 day hospital stay with kidney scans confirming his dilated left kidney but no reflux and no other problems, so we got to go home!! We have been home for almost 4 full days now and while it has been VERY busy and pretty sleep-deprived, it is amazing to have our happy family all in one place. Both grandmas came down for this week to help and have been incredible supports to us! I will post pictures soon, but for now going to finish feeding our littlest monkey and head to bed as every minute of sleep is precious around here:)
Love to all,
Katie, Ryan, Kieran and now Luke:)
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Baby Luke Tomorrow!?!?
So Becca and Richie's Wedding was fabulous and we made it back to San Antonio in one piece. We will post pics from the wedding soon and CANNOT wait to see Nicole Wickens' amazing coverage of the event!!!
When we got back, I had an OB appointment showing that Baby Luke's left kidney dilation has gotten worse and now seems to be affecting his right kidney, so we are headed in early tomorrow morning for a scheduled medical induction. We are hoping for as uneventful of a delivery and immediate postpartum period as possible. Our moms are here (my mom flew in tonight and Grandma Ellen gets here tomorrow early afternoon), which is an AMAZING blessing!!!! We will do our best to keep the blog updated and will post pictures of little Baby Luke ASAP:)
Love to all!!! -Katie (and Ryan, Kieran and soon, Luke!)
When we got back, I had an OB appointment showing that Baby Luke's left kidney dilation has gotten worse and now seems to be affecting his right kidney, so we are headed in early tomorrow morning for a scheduled medical induction. We are hoping for as uneventful of a delivery and immediate postpartum period as possible. Our moms are here (my mom flew in tonight and Grandma Ellen gets here tomorrow early afternoon), which is an AMAZING blessing!!!! We will do our best to keep the blog updated and will post pictures of little Baby Luke ASAP:)
Love to all!!! -Katie (and Ryan, Kieran and soon, Luke!)
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
July Is Flying By!
Above are a few pictures from the recent weekends....the Roast, The Woods' Baby Shower and Franny & Jesse's Wedding to name a few of the big ticket events:)
We flew in last night from Franny & Jesse's amazing California mountain backyard wedding. It was beautiful and COMPLETELY them! The exchanged breathtaking vows and started the wonderful journey of marriage on Sunday around 4pm, July 12th, 2009. Thanks to them for having us be such a special part of their big day!!!
I took my annual in-training exam today (a mock board exam) and then worked half a day in the clinic. Ryan took Kieran up to Austin to meet with his boss and had a very productive article-writing pow-wow. It's looking like his current research article will be submitted for publication by August 1st and then shortly thereafter he will be planning to defend his doctorate dissertation...AMAZING!!!!!
We head out tomorrow to Chicago for Becca & Richie's Wedding!! We will be sure to take lots of pictures as Kieran is the ring bearer (with help:) and I am the VERY pregnant matron of honor. Not sure if my hot pink bridesmaid dress will zip up still, but we'll rig it to work one way or another:)
Baby Luke is being VERY well behaved and has only generated a few contractions here and there. We are at 36.5 weeks now, so only a little bit left to go. Due date is 8 August, so stay tuned:) He will get some kidney scans/studies at 48hrs of life. If it shows something markedly wrong, we will be transferred from the Air Force Hospital to another center in downtown San Antonio for surgery. If it looks okay, he will be allowed to come home with us on prophylactic antibiotics until 4 weeks, at which time he'll get another scan of his kidneys. If it shows 40% or less function of his left kidney, he will have surgery at 4-6 weeks of age. If > 40% function, then continuing the waiting game with repeat scans and watching. The pediatric urologist indicated that given the degree of Baby Luke's left kidney dilation, there is about a 75% chance he will have surgery sometime in his first year of life. We are rallying together and just counting our blessings that everything else about Luke's development appears to be going perfectly. We will love our little guy through this:)
Okay, time to go balance the checkbook (ugh) before heading off on our next adventure. Love to all!
-Katie (and Ryan, Kieran & Luke)
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Exciting Times!
We have SO much coming up in the next few weeks and are super excited to have so much celebrating to do!!! On July 12th, Franny and Jesse are getting married in California and on July 17th, Becca and Richie are getting married in Illinois. Barring Baby Luke's early arrival (send him good vibes to stay put!!!) we will be at both amazingly happy events...I will be a maid of honor in each, actually. A VERY big maid of honor!!! Ryan and I were just saying that this big belly of mine seems kind of like a ticking time bomb with the plans we have ahead:)
Baby Luke is 32 weeks along and continues to kick like a champ. I have had intermittent Braxton-Hicks contractions here and there...mostly when I'm on call and tired....but no false alarms yet.
I am heading into week 3/4.5 of the pediatric ward. It has been fine so far, but SOOOO exhausting! I literally get up for work at the latest at 430am, drag my big pregnant self into the truck at 5am, start work at 6am and don't get home in the driveway until usually around 7:15pm. This repeats Mon-Friday with an overnight shift Friday until Saturday morning around 9 or 10am. Makes for LONG weeks!! I cannot say I will be sad when this sprint is over on June 30th!
Ryan is closing in on the actual end of his research. He is starting to write an article with aims for publication and hopefully a doctoral dissertation will come directly from this. His subsequent game plan is working on his PGA pro teaching certification so he can teach golf lessons and work on his own game in anticipation of making a run at the pro circuit himself. He will be watching the boys at least part time in there, as well, hopefully pinning down a golf-related part-time job.
Kieran's vocabulary has exploded. He recently started saying "I love you", which is more than enough to melt us. He has no idea what is coming his way in the form of a little crying/sleeping/peeing/pooping/nursing Baby Luke, but we think he'll adjust pretty quickly. He gives my belly kisses.....SO cute!
The biggest stress in the house is definitely money! Ryan's graduate program doesn't bring in much in the way of salary, but once that's done, my paycheck alone will make it VERY tight to pay for the house, the cars, daily living expenses and especially childcare for 2 boys. We are working really hard to be present and cutback on unnecessary spending, but it is probably the #1 source for tense moments and potential arguments. I have a feeling we are not the only family for whom that is the case these days!
Annie is officially going to Iowa State and Scotty to Drake so the youngest Kaufmanns will be taking Iowa by storm in a mere 2 months!! My mom is working on a way to get down here to visit and Gramps Bob will be turning 60 at the end of the month. Grandma Ellen, too, is planning to head down here to visit sometime soon and very graciously has a double stroller to bring us when she arrives!:)
Hmm, that's about it for now. Ryan just walked in the door from practicing on the driving range so we have a few minutes to ourselves before the monkey gets up from his nap:) Love to all!!
Baby Luke is 32 weeks along and continues to kick like a champ. I have had intermittent Braxton-Hicks contractions here and there...mostly when I'm on call and tired....but no false alarms yet.
I am heading into week 3/4.5 of the pediatric ward. It has been fine so far, but SOOOO exhausting! I literally get up for work at the latest at 430am, drag my big pregnant self into the truck at 5am, start work at 6am and don't get home in the driveway until usually around 7:15pm. This repeats Mon-Friday with an overnight shift Friday until Saturday morning around 9 or 10am. Makes for LONG weeks!! I cannot say I will be sad when this sprint is over on June 30th!
Ryan is closing in on the actual end of his research. He is starting to write an article with aims for publication and hopefully a doctoral dissertation will come directly from this. His subsequent game plan is working on his PGA pro teaching certification so he can teach golf lessons and work on his own game in anticipation of making a run at the pro circuit himself. He will be watching the boys at least part time in there, as well, hopefully pinning down a golf-related part-time job.
Kieran's vocabulary has exploded. He recently started saying "I love you", which is more than enough to melt us. He has no idea what is coming his way in the form of a little crying/sleeping/peeing/pooping/nursing Baby Luke, but we think he'll adjust pretty quickly. He gives my belly kisses.....SO cute!
The biggest stress in the house is definitely money! Ryan's graduate program doesn't bring in much in the way of salary, but once that's done, my paycheck alone will make it VERY tight to pay for the house, the cars, daily living expenses and especially childcare for 2 boys. We are working really hard to be present and cutback on unnecessary spending, but it is probably the #1 source for tense moments and potential arguments. I have a feeling we are not the only family for whom that is the case these days!
Annie is officially going to Iowa State and Scotty to Drake so the youngest Kaufmanns will be taking Iowa by storm in a mere 2 months!! My mom is working on a way to get down here to visit and Gramps Bob will be turning 60 at the end of the month. Grandma Ellen, too, is planning to head down here to visit sometime soon and very graciously has a double stroller to bring us when she arrives!:)
Hmm, that's about it for now. Ryan just walked in the door from practicing on the driving range so we have a few minutes to ourselves before the monkey gets up from his nap:) Love to all!!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
It's June Tomorrow!?!?
The Myhre Family is doing well! We are a bit swamped with bills and extraneous expenses and the prospect of having 2 childcare bills soon (did you know avg. childcare for 2 little guys comes to about $22,000/year!?) so there is some palpable money stress, but everyone is in good health, I survived the cardiology rotation, 2nd yr (of 3) of residency ends in a month, Ryan is getting closer to finishing his PhD, Kieran is toddling around everywhere and baby Luke is 30 weeks along, so life is good!!!
We can hardly believe Franny and Jesse's wedding in California is 6 weeks from today and then 6 weeks and 5 days from today, Becca and Richie get married in Chicago. YAYYYYYYYY! We are so excited about both big events and are keeping our fingers crossed that Baby Luke hangs on and cooperates with the travel plans:)
We had this whole weekend off together, so we transitioned Kieran to his "big boy room" upstairs where he sleeps on a futon mattress on the floor instead of in a crib. He wasn't so sure for the first hour or so, but now he realizes it is "his space" and he loves having the freedom to do whatever he wants when he wants in his room. It is pretty adorable!
Annie and Scott graduated from high school last week! Can you believe my parents got 5 kids all the way through high school! INSANE!!!! Scotty is heading to Drake in a couple months and Annie is thinking maybe Iowa State. Hard to believe we will vacation in Iowa at some point in the next year...not exactly the typical destination location:)
Ryan is working hard at his golf game and really fine tuning some of his techniques. I have to say, Ryan's sun-kissed self in a polo and khakis is a welcome sight:)
I baked some turnovers, we are thinking of driving down to the public library for a couple hours and then coming home for dinner and I will get ready for a month of working at least 6am to 6pm (meaning leaving/returning to the house at 5am and 7pm at the earliest!)...yuckola....but it's the pediatric ward, so it's okay...we keep telling ourselves we can do anything for a month:) Thanks to Ryan-super-dad for being Kieran's driver to and from school everyday for the next month!
We will post some pics soon of Kieran walking like a madman and my ever-growing belly. Love to all:) -K, R, K and L
We can hardly believe Franny and Jesse's wedding in California is 6 weeks from today and then 6 weeks and 5 days from today, Becca and Richie get married in Chicago. YAYYYYYYYY! We are so excited about both big events and are keeping our fingers crossed that Baby Luke hangs on and cooperates with the travel plans:)
We had this whole weekend off together, so we transitioned Kieran to his "big boy room" upstairs where he sleeps on a futon mattress on the floor instead of in a crib. He wasn't so sure for the first hour or so, but now he realizes it is "his space" and he loves having the freedom to do whatever he wants when he wants in his room. It is pretty adorable!
Annie and Scott graduated from high school last week! Can you believe my parents got 5 kids all the way through high school! INSANE!!!! Scotty is heading to Drake in a couple months and Annie is thinking maybe Iowa State. Hard to believe we will vacation in Iowa at some point in the next year...not exactly the typical destination location:)
Ryan is working hard at his golf game and really fine tuning some of his techniques. I have to say, Ryan's sun-kissed self in a polo and khakis is a welcome sight:)
I baked some turnovers, we are thinking of driving down to the public library for a couple hours and then coming home for dinner and I will get ready for a month of working at least 6am to 6pm (meaning leaving/returning to the house at 5am and 7pm at the earliest!)...yuckola....but it's the pediatric ward, so it's okay...we keep telling ourselves we can do anything for a month:) Thanks to Ryan-super-dad for being Kieran's driver to and from school everyday for the next month!
We will post some pics soon of Kieran walking like a madman and my ever-growing belly. Love to all:) -K, R, K and L
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Quick Update
So I am supposed to be studying for a cardiology test that's tomorrow morning, but I wanted to post a quick update. I decided I am going to do it in list form as that seems to be the fastest/easiest way I can think of right now.
1) MRI on Friday showed that Baby Luke has a MASSIVELY dilated left kidney....taking up much of his abdomen and crossing the midline. That said, he has had a normal echocardiogram (heart scan) and the rest of his body on MRI looked great. SOOOO, we are waiting to hear from the pediatric nephrologist and urologist, but the tenative plan will be to wait for him to be born and then tests for the function/structure of his kidney and likely in his first weeks to months of life, surgery. Scary, but we are counting our blessings that the rest of him is developing wonderfully and we love him so much, we are sure we will love him all the way through this:)
2) This was an AWESOME weekend OFF with my boys....we went to the Texas Open and read and drank tea and just relaxed. Ryan has been practicing golf a lot and I truly can't wait until the day we get to walk the course watching HIM on the professional circuit!
3) Ryan's PhD contract has been renewed for 3 more months and hopefully during that time he will be able to finish experiments and start writing his PhD defense...gameplan: finish and graduate by 6mos from now.
4) We are almost COMPLETELY restored to full health in our house! That piggy flu was pretty intense! We still have an occasional cough here and there, but sore throats have gotten better and earaches have resolved and we are up and running.
5) We are so excited for Annie and Scott's upcoming high school graduation, Becca and Franny's weddings and finishing 2nd year of residency! (2yrs down, only 1 to go!)
6) I am halfway done with pediatric cardiology....an academically rigorous rotation but so far so good.
7) My belly has gotten QUITE large! I weigh less than I did at 7mos pregnant with Kieran, but my belly wouldn't believe that statement. We were at 28 weeks as of yesterday.
8) Kieran is sleeping, Ryan is at the driving range, and I REALLY need to get back to studying EKGs, so that's all for now:)
xoxoxo,
Katie and the boys
1) MRI on Friday showed that Baby Luke has a MASSIVELY dilated left kidney....taking up much of his abdomen and crossing the midline. That said, he has had a normal echocardiogram (heart scan) and the rest of his body on MRI looked great. SOOOO, we are waiting to hear from the pediatric nephrologist and urologist, but the tenative plan will be to wait for him to be born and then tests for the function/structure of his kidney and likely in his first weeks to months of life, surgery. Scary, but we are counting our blessings that the rest of him is developing wonderfully and we love him so much, we are sure we will love him all the way through this:)
2) This was an AWESOME weekend OFF with my boys....we went to the Texas Open and read and drank tea and just relaxed. Ryan has been practicing golf a lot and I truly can't wait until the day we get to walk the course watching HIM on the professional circuit!
3) Ryan's PhD contract has been renewed for 3 more months and hopefully during that time he will be able to finish experiments and start writing his PhD defense...gameplan: finish and graduate by 6mos from now.
4) We are almost COMPLETELY restored to full health in our house! That piggy flu was pretty intense! We still have an occasional cough here and there, but sore throats have gotten better and earaches have resolved and we are up and running.
5) We are so excited for Annie and Scott's upcoming high school graduation, Becca and Franny's weddings and finishing 2nd year of residency! (2yrs down, only 1 to go!)
6) I am halfway done with pediatric cardiology....an academically rigorous rotation but so far so good.
7) My belly has gotten QUITE large! I weigh less than I did at 7mos pregnant with Kieran, but my belly wouldn't believe that statement. We were at 28 weeks as of yesterday.
8) Kieran is sleeping, Ryan is at the driving range, and I REALLY need to get back to studying EKGs, so that's all for now:)
xoxoxo,
Katie and the boys
Sunday, May 3, 2009
The Infirmary
Our house has turned into what seems like a mini-hospital of sorts. I was sick all last week, now slowly getting better. At the same time, little Kieran-monkey had similar symptoms and is now rallying back. Ryan is just now beginning to feel under the weather and has spent all day wrapped up in the comforter from our bed, drinking tea and taking Motrin. Oh, AND Tamiflu. Yeah, about that....
So last Sunday when I started feeling really sick, I went to the OB triage center at the hospital. I was noted to be wheezing and got an albuterol neb and also was rapid flu tested. My rapid flu test was negative. Monday Kieran and I had another sample tested as we was feeling so sick and no PCR was performed on my initial hospital sample. The initial reads were negative for flu again...sweet. Monday through Wednesday I stayed home with monkey as I could barely breathe and was coughing like crazy. Thursday and Friday I was beginning to feel better, Kieran seemed to be doing great and Ryan appeared invincible. Late Friday afternoon I got a call that the original PCR test that was run on Monday had a faulty control and when rerun, came back positive for Influenza A. The complicating factor: when it was further tested, the specific Flu A I had was negative for the known human strains. SOOO, to make a long story short, it appears, pending further more sophisticated testing, that I had the infamous H1N1 swine flu, affectionally termed "piggy flu" in our house. Kieran's tests remained negative though he seemed to have the same symptoms and now that Ryan is just starting to feel sick, the infectious disease specialist where I work has started him on a 5-day course of Tamiflu to treat him.
We did our best to stay within the confines of our home's walls during the sicky time (Ryan is now doing that)...aside from the visit to our loving neighbors across the street when their little guy put a raisin in his nose and I went to try to extract it...sorry guys!!! I wouldn't have come over if I knew I was harboring piggy flu! I was retested this past Friday and am no longer shedding virus so should be able to return to work this week. My protracted coughing and feelings of lung-tightness have earned me a 7-day course of prednisone and a trip to see a pulmonologist, but that's probably all good. Nothing like discovering asthma at 28 years old!
We will all be staying home one last day tomorrow to try to make sure I am ready to be back in the hospital and that Kieran is ready to go back to daycare. Ryan may end up needing a few more days but hopefully the Tamiflu works its wonders. Then back to the grind for all of us...I start pediatric cardiology, Ryan goes back to wrapping up his research and Kieran goes back to being a brilliant one-year-old....not that we're partial or anything:) Baby Luke's ultrasound appointment is Friday afternoon, May 8th and Kieran's 1st Bday Party is Saturday, May 9th at 3pm.
Hope this note finds you all well and piggy flu free,
Katie
PS - Good thoughts to uncle Jeffy as he is likely having his gallbladder out tomorrow....we love you Jeffy!!!
So last Sunday when I started feeling really sick, I went to the OB triage center at the hospital. I was noted to be wheezing and got an albuterol neb and also was rapid flu tested. My rapid flu test was negative. Monday Kieran and I had another sample tested as we was feeling so sick and no PCR was performed on my initial hospital sample. The initial reads were negative for flu again...sweet. Monday through Wednesday I stayed home with monkey as I could barely breathe and was coughing like crazy. Thursday and Friday I was beginning to feel better, Kieran seemed to be doing great and Ryan appeared invincible. Late Friday afternoon I got a call that the original PCR test that was run on Monday had a faulty control and when rerun, came back positive for Influenza A. The complicating factor: when it was further tested, the specific Flu A I had was negative for the known human strains. SOOO, to make a long story short, it appears, pending further more sophisticated testing, that I had the infamous H1N1 swine flu, affectionally termed "piggy flu" in our house. Kieran's tests remained negative though he seemed to have the same symptoms and now that Ryan is just starting to feel sick, the infectious disease specialist where I work has started him on a 5-day course of Tamiflu to treat him.
We did our best to stay within the confines of our home's walls during the sicky time (Ryan is now doing that)...aside from the visit to our loving neighbors across the street when their little guy put a raisin in his nose and I went to try to extract it...sorry guys!!! I wouldn't have come over if I knew I was harboring piggy flu! I was retested this past Friday and am no longer shedding virus so should be able to return to work this week. My protracted coughing and feelings of lung-tightness have earned me a 7-day course of prednisone and a trip to see a pulmonologist, but that's probably all good. Nothing like discovering asthma at 28 years old!
We will all be staying home one last day tomorrow to try to make sure I am ready to be back in the hospital and that Kieran is ready to go back to daycare. Ryan may end up needing a few more days but hopefully the Tamiflu works its wonders. Then back to the grind for all of us...I start pediatric cardiology, Ryan goes back to wrapping up his research and Kieran goes back to being a brilliant one-year-old....not that we're partial or anything:) Baby Luke's ultrasound appointment is Friday afternoon, May 8th and Kieran's 1st Bday Party is Saturday, May 9th at 3pm.
Hope this note finds you all well and piggy flu free,
Katie
PS - Good thoughts to uncle Jeffy as he is likely having his gallbladder out tomorrow....we love you Jeffy!!!
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