4 months old (a little late)

Zane is already 4 months old! It has gone by in such a blur- maybe because I have been rather sleep-deprived. He is a very tough baby. Lately, he has only been sleeping like 2- 2 1/2 hours a night in half hour chunks and not consecutive. He had his 4 month check-up 2 days after he turned 4 months old. At that time, they had him at 24.2 inches (25th percentile) and 11 lbs. 8 oz. (3rd percentile) - and that weight may have been slightly generous. At least he is back on the charts. It is so interesting to see how different he is from Hope. We are getting use out of things she never liked, he "talks" a lot, and doesn't sleep.

3 months old in Indiana

Cheering for the Bears!

Zane is 3 months old!!!

We were in the Midwest last week for my sister-in-laws wedding. Uncle Brad also flew in to see us and the kids.

Hope also got her first haircut ever while we were there. This is the "after" picture.

First cut!!!

"Before" picture

The kids stayed with my parents and Uncle Brad while we went to the wedding in Michigan.
Hope had fun riding the skateboard down the driveway.

And playing the leaves with Zane and Grandpa

Grandpa saved up leaves for a long time so Hope could play in them. It about killed him to not mulch them.

Hope and Zane with Uncle Brad
Zane- 3 months old
Zane and Uncle Brad Kids with Uncle Brad

2 months and more

Zane was 2 months old last week! Time has just flown by! He has been a little happier lately, so it has been nice to just enjoy him. He has gained more weight this week so things are looking much better. We are still following up, but hopefully, we'll keep getting good news.


This is right as Hope decided she was done holding him and started to drop him. She does that a lot. She holds him for about a minute, decides she's done, and just drops him.


My little Cubbie!

Look how happy I am! You'd never know I screamed non-stop for the first 8 weeks of my life.

Look at his scrawny little arms! And this is AFTER he gained some weight.

Ups and Downs

It has been a rather crazy couple months for us. We had Zane 2 months ago and everything was great- until we got him home. He SCREAMED constantly, didn't sleep (we could get about 2 hours at most once a night, then no more than 30-45 minutes), and wasn't gaining weight (he was 7 lbs. 11 oz. at birth and 7 lbs. 10 1/2 oz. at one month). The doctor was really concerned about his lack of weight gain, so we tried 5 different formulas and several kinds of bottles. He then decided to run some tests. The blood and urine came out fine, the barium swallow showed a "considerable" amount of relux, and one test they didn't get to work. Since he still was only gaining like 1-2 ounces a week (as opposed to 5-7), he sent us to a pediatric GI specialist. She decided to re-try the sweat test at a different hospital, do some stool sample stuff, and try adding rice cereal to his bottle. The results of the stool samples came out fine, and he was still screaming constantly and not sleeping. However, the sweat test that tests for cystic fibrosis (CF) came back "borderline"- meaning that they aren't saying he has it, but they aren't saying he doesn't. So on Monday (just over 8 weeks old), he only weighed 8 lbs. 4 oz., so she put him on a super high calorie diet, plus rice and set us up with a pulmonologist visit to check about the CF. So on Thursday, I went to his normal pediatrician for his normal 2 month visit and they had him weighing a good amount more he weighed on Monday. So I called the GI doctor to see if I could weigh him again on her scale since I wasn't sure I would get the same results. So I went in on Friday and he weighed 9 pounds!!! He gained 12 oz in 4 days!!! All the doctor kept saying was that it wasn't possible. He has been sleeping a little better and been happier this week, too. He is like a different child. We still are following up with the pulmonologist and keeping him on the high calories for now, but things are looking much better than they did a week ago. Maybe he will be okay!!
I have some more recent pictures of him that I'll post later.

Hope and Zane Pictures- Zane is one month old!

Hope's first night of Cubbies. We are taking her to a different church than our normal church so she could start at age 3. Our other church doesn't start until age 4. She doesn't have any the Cubbie stuff yet, but she will soon.

Zane having "tummy" time. He has somehow learned how to roll from his tummy to his back already. This was one day before he turned one month old. He rolled over 6 times that day! And he's getting pretty quick about it now.


1st regular season Bears game.



One month old! He actually turned one month old last Tuesday, but I'm a little behind.

Backyard!!!

We FINALLY got our backyard landscaped!! It only took us like 5-6 months. The whole backyard was just really hard dirt before. We aren't quite done, but close enough for now. Here is our walkway to our backyard.


View from the patio. Yep, our yard is pretty small in Midwest standards, but isn't too bad for Southern California.


View from the other end

Our tree and bushes. This is where I compromised. I didn't really want any bushes or anything, but gave in. We're going to eventually put rock or something around it.

This is side yard. We are going to put in a mow strip...... eventually.

Zane Alan

Zane Alan was born Saturday, August 15 at 12:13 pm. He weighed 7 lbs 11 oz. and was 20 inches long.
The picture above is from about 9:45 am when I getting ready to leave for the hospital. I got sometime in the 8:00 hour thinking I might have possibly felt a contraction. But it didn't hurt very much and didn't last very long. So I got Mark up and we got ready "just in case". By about 9:30, we decided that they could be contractions and we should probably head to the hospital "just in case". So we left about 9:45 and got there about 10:30. They checked me and I was 6cm so they admitted me. The doctor came in and decided to just break my water. She did so at about 11:35. And Zane was born at 12:13. So really, I had less than 45 minutes that was actual hard labor. Good thing my water didn't break at home- I probably wouldn't have made it to the hospital! Here are some pictures from the first few days. More pictures to come.

(Hope had a baby the same day I had Zane. Hers was a girl though)