Pediatric Care for Our Baby Class

So, we went to our first baby class at the Hospital we plan on delivering at. When we arrived we were given a pamphlet with info on the Pediatric practice of the doctor that was running the class that night. We also got a book, Baby 411, which turned out to worth the $15 fee for the class. In all the class only took up about 1 hour of the 1 and a half allocated, but was over all fairly informative. There is something nice about having some face to face time with a Physician so that you can ask all the questions that might be looming in the back of your mind. The doctor talked a little about what to expect from your Pediatrician and time lines for when things will be happening like shots and when the umbilical cord falls off. She also discussed what shots we should be getting for the baby and the ones the recommend and she also went into depth on the differences between vaccinations now and ones many years ago and how they are much safer now due to the fact that there are a lot less live viruses now then before in the vaccine. We think over all it was a good question/answer session but hope that they have a little more structure in the next few classes to come.

Here are some other things that we thought was good to know:
1. Check our insurance to see what the cover for the baby's first year (shots, etc)
2. The peak of the baby's crying should come at 6-8 weeks of life.
3. If the baby is crying inconsolably then check his temperature and if it is at or above 100.4 degrees call the Doctor.
4. Recommend house Temperature is 69-72 degrees.
5. Nothing should be in the basinet with the baby (to help prevent SIDS). If we feel the baby is cold layer clothes or use a velcro swaddling blanket.
6. Start doing "Tummy Time" right away.
7. We got the IL poison control number (1-800-222-1222)
8. Don't use a walker because they aren't safe. Try and give the baby as much time on the floor as possible which will help with development.
9. The baby can be sick up to 1 month combined in his first year of life (He is building his immune system)
10. Get Saline and one of those blue bulb suction things to help with baby's congestion.
11. bare minimum 1 urine every 8 hours (less then that there might be a problem)
12. Use a rectal thermometer for the first 4 months of live because ear thermometer doesn't get a good seal until 4-6 months.
13. Safe to travel after 2 months (recommended)

Update on the naming front: We are pretty close to deciding on this and think that it might end up being the first name we considered, Ethan. It just sounds so right! Anyway, I was thinking about using my Fathers middle name for our baby's middle name, Vincent. What does everyone think of Ethan Vincent Lake?

Another Doctors Appointment

Ok, I guess we are in full gear here with the doctors appointments and are now going every 2 weeks. This last one on Monday was with another of the 4 doctors that comprise the practice our primary OB works at. It is nice that they have that arrangement and that we can meet all the doctors that possibly will be delivering our baby. Everything went well with the visit, the doctor answered some questions we had like when should we feel the baby's kicks and jabs from the outside (this month) and what the next steps are going to be with the pregnancy. We also found out that our OB, Dr. King is only working part time with the practice now because her husband got and moved to a job in St. Louis.. Who intentionally moves to St. Louis? Anyway, so now our Doctor of choice will most likely not be the one to deliver our baby (very upsetting). On another note we have another appointment in 2 weeks where Fatima will have to do the 1-hour glucose challenge where she will have her glucose levels check to see if she has Gestational Diabetes. I guess that it is not uncommon for a pregnant women to get this during pregnancy. We will see what the results tell us, hopefully we are in the clear on this front.

Yesterday we received a package from soon to be Grandparents Wesley. They sent us a bunch of bedding and baby boy cloths, they also sent us the bedding set complete with a mobile for the crib. Thanks a lot grandma! We took some pictures and I will post them in the next few days. Fatima also got a nice onuses with teddy bears on it from her boss at work, thanks Diane!

On the name front, here are a few more that I was looking at: Conlon, Aden, Jude, and Mason.

Names!?...

We know that we are having a boy, so now comes the part of this adventure when we get to pick out a name. I was looking at some lists on a few websites and who knew there were so many names out there to choose from! When I was looking I kinda narrowed it don't to a few that I thought were somewhat unique and one specifically that I thought had a nice ring, Ethan. Then, I was looking some more a few minutes ago and found this site which is cool, but I thought Ethan was a fiarly unique name (not common or that popular). Guess I was wrong.. I find this list amuzing because I know a few people that had babies recently that named their kids names on this list. Going a little further I found that putting in the year I was born put my name (Robert) as 8th most popular name in 1978. I feel like I owe it to my kid to give him a name that is a little more unique than 3rd most popular in 2008 but not so out there that he has to pronounce his name for every teacher on the first day of class or face mockery every day on the playground for his entire life. So, I continue to look and run them by Fatima until something sticks out as the one. Other people have told me that I should make a list of 10 or so and then wait to birth and that something would kinda stick out to me once I get to see my son and hold him in my arms. I guess that makes sense and if I can hold off my internal instinct to constantly prepare I might give that a go! As the next few months go by I am sure Fatima and I will compile a list and post them on the site to get some feedback from all of you out there. In the mean time, any ideas for names would be apprecitaed and who knows they may make it onto our short list! How about this, if we pick the name someone posted on this blog we will send that person a $25 gift card to the resturant/retail outlet of their choice! Hows that for incentive? Ethan is already officially on the list so that doesn't count!

Carpet and Crib: Check

Ok, we had the carpet installed and we setup up the crib! It all looks very nice! Here is a picture of Fatima and I with the crib.

Here is one of Fatima with the crib that I thought was nice and in this picture you can see the carpet better.

Thanks again to Fatima's Mom for getting us the crib, it is very nice and we appreciate it a lot!

New Carpet Coming Soon!

So, the carpet guy came and we decided to go ahead and get the carpet done in the master bedroom and nursery. It was really bad and really needed to be done. We decided on "Taupe Mist" for both bedrooms. It has a good mix of durability and not being to light of a color which we think will help with the wear and possible accidents with the baby coming. We are looking forward to the padding as well. The guy was shocked when he stood on our current carpet and wasn't even sure that there was padding at all, it is that hard. Anyway, we look forward to getting this done so we can start setting up the room and get the crib in there and out of the living room! It gets installed next Saturday and we will be sure to take some pictures and share them here when it is done.

Baby Crib

Now that we know what we are having, a Boy, we thought it would be ok to start getting things in preparation. Fatima's mom wanted to help out by getting us some of the furniture for the nursery, so this past weekend she bought and had shipped the crib for us, Thank you! We recieved the crib on Thursday (that was quick) and now it sits in our living room waiting for us to possibly get the carpeting replaced in the nursery (the previous owners ripped the hell out of the carpet at the entrance of the room) and then assemble it. Here is a stock photo of the crib.

Kitty likes the crib, still yet to be seen if he is going to like what will be going into the crib! We have an appointment with the carpet guy today to get an estimate, any ideas for color and type?

Our Baby Boy at 20 weeks!

So we went to the OB today to have our half way point Ultrasound and we found out that our baby is a boy! It took about an hour for the tech to figure that out, but none the less we are going to be proud parents of a new boy in just about 20 more weeks (give or take a few weeks)! Here is a picture of our soon to be new addition.

Baby Boy at 20 Weeks

You can see more pictures in our flickr feed which can be accessed by clicking on the pictures to the right of this post.

Its a BOY!

We will post proof later tonight! Still at the doctors, we will post more later! Anyone have suggestions for a name?

What's it going to be!

We will be finding out if our baby is a boy or girl in T - about 1 hour! We will keep you posted!

16 weeks in Doctors Appointment

So we had our 3rd doctors appointment where we got to meet Dr. Beyer, another of the 4 doctors in our doctors practice. She was very nice and gave Fatima a good tip to help with her heart burn (Pepcid not Tums). The doctor asked the usual questions about how Fatima was feeling and what not and then proceeded to do a "belly check". I guess thats OB for use the doppler machine to check the heart beat.

Here is what we heard!

A healthy 150 bpm!

After that Fatima had some more blood drawn for a test to check for Downs Syndrom and Neural Tube Defects, sounds scary but we are not high risk for those things! Anyways, our next appointment is in 4 weeks with Dr. King and we are excited because this is when we get another Ultrasound and find out the baby's sex!

Also, we got a baby present from Fatima's Mom! She sent us our first onesie! She also sent us a receiving blanket (which we will take with us to the hospital), a frame, mini picture album, a rattler ducky, little baby socks (a years supply!), and 2 baby shirts! Thanks Grandma!

Check out the pictures in our picture gallery!

Chinese Birth Calendar says...

So, I was talking to a friend at work who has had a baby recently and she asked me If I knew what the gender was. I told her no and then she mentioned that she had fun reading all the different theories out there on how to figure out what sex your baby is going to be. Sounded interesting so I looked up what the Chinese had to say about it and turns out that there is a 83% chance that we will be having a boy! Check it out here! I think it would be fun to look for other old wives tales on how to predetermine the sex and I will post what I find in the coming days!

2nd Doctors Appointment

Yesterday, Fatima and I went to our second doctors visit and got to meet doctor number 2 of a 4 member practice. Fatima is now 12 weeks along and based on that fact and the fact that this is our second visit the appointment was brief. We got to the office and Fatima made her donation in the restroom and then we went into the examination room. The Nurse that saw us back explained briefly what this visit would entail and left us to wait for Doctor Cheng. Once by ourselves I joked that when the doctor uses the Doppler to try and listen to the baby's heart that it would be strong "Lakes have strong hearts" and he would hear it right away! A few minutes passed and the doctor came in and asked us if we had any questions. We had asked so many the first time around that we really didn't have much to ask him during this visit so he went right into checking the baby's heart beat. When he placed the Doppler on Fatima we immediately heard the very loud (chug,chug,chug) heartbeat at a healthy 160 beats per second. Fatima and I had a good laugh about that, which was also amplified! Anyway, overall it was a very good visit (and extremely short)!

On another note, Fatima and I decided not to get a genetic test that might give us some early warning of Down's Syndrome. The doctor explained it to us and also pointed out that we were not at a high level of risk for it but that it would be good to do and that if it was positive they would do some things differently during the pregnancy. I wonder if anyone else has an opinion on this and whether that was a good decision?

By the way, I plan on getting a recording of the heartbeat next visit! I just wish I had remembered to do it this last time, it was so clear and sounded really strong!

Testing mobile updates

So I am sitting here at the park listening to the Grant Park Orchestra play Beethoven's 9 and realized this would be a good time to test posting to the baby blog via my phone! I figure that during the delivery I can use this to update the most people at once and that it will be interesting to see later on what I was going through during the whole thing not to mention what Fatima will be going through...!

First Doctors Appointment - Week 8

We went to our first Obstetrician appointment today and got to meet our baby formally at the end of a Ultrasound wand! It is pretty crazy how these techs are able to find anything resembling anything in particular. When she was like "theirs your baby", I was like what are you looking at because all I see is a speck mixed in with some white stuff. I wanted to grab a paper towel and some Windex to make sure the screen was clean and that I wasn't missing what she was seeing. But, sure enough that's our baby and according to the doc He/She is doing fine and about the size of a prune.

Speaking of the doc, our doctor seems very cool and knowledgeable. She gave us a big blue folder that was busting at the seams with good information for Fatima and I to peruse. It is amazing how much you need to know to bring a kid into this world. We already started reading one book and the insurance company gave us the Mayo Clinic book and the doctors office gave us another one. I guess there is no such thing as to informed. Fatima was very excited to meet the doctor and she really turned out to be a great choice for us. You could tell that she liked what she was doing and that she enjoyed meeting new patients and going through all the info that we would need to know. She was also impressed that we had some good questions for her. I guess not to many people (men) come into her office bringing any value or curiosity to the table, which is really sad.. Anyways, everything went really well and our next appointment will be September 8th. We don't know the sex of the baby yet and won't until week 20! We will keep you posted!

Our Hospital - Week 7

So we went to the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Prentice Women's Hospital to take a tour of their facilities and find out what we would need to do to have the baby there. It is in the neighborhood called Streeterville here in Chicago, just down the street from Navy Pier. You can see some pictures of the facility and rooms here. This place is awesome and it is entirely for women giving birth, they do 13,000 births there a year! Anyways, we got to the building and went up to the info desk to find out where the tour was starting from. We got badges and then sat down to wait for the tour guide. When the tour started we were taken into the triage area where we would be admitted and where they would run a few tests and determine how far along we are and when it is appropriate to send us up to the LDR (Labor, Delivery, recovery) room, which by the way are 100% private. After that we went up to the 8th floor where we were shown the birthing suite or LDR room. These rooms are pretty awesome! They are huge! Everything will take place in this room and the baby will never leave our side, here is a picture I found on someone else's site. After that we went up to the 11th floor to see where postpartum recovery would take place. The rooms are similar to the birthing suite just a bit smaller. In all, this place is going to be a great place to have our baby and we know that we will feel comfortable there!

Breaking the News - Week 4

So I got home from work and Fatima was already home. I road my bike that day, you know because I try to stay in shape! When I was walking up the stairs I saw the stray kittens that we had been keeping an eye on recently and that Fatima desperately wanted to adopt one. I thought it would be nice to grab one and bring it up and surprise Fatima! So, I come in the door with the kitten and Fatima is really surprised but at the same time a little reluctant (which I didn't think any thing of at the time). I get the cat box ready and we put the kitten on the bed (all the while pushing Murry aside and yelling at him for hissing). Now, I look up at Fatima and she looks like she is going to cry. So of course, I asked what was wrong and if she was feeling ok. The answer I got was definitely not what I expected. She said, "It doesn't look like I am going to get my period"... I honestly don't really remember my first thought, but I do remember getting very happy and thinking how great a mom Fatima will be and how much I was excited about being a dad! Enough with the mushiness, I immediately hugged and kissed the mother to be and proceeded to take the kitten back down stairs and promptly said, "sorry kitty I am going to have my hands full"!

Big Belly Baby Babbling Blog - Week 6

Today we wanted to create something that our family and friends could go to so that they can track the progress of our pregnancy and stay involved to the degree that they wish. We are very excited about sharing our experiences with you and hope that you all take joy in knowing how things are going with the upcoming addition to our family (and yours in some cases).

Today we were waiting to hear back from the obstetrician that we wanted and while we waited we decided to look for an alternative and that's when we found Dr. King! She had great reviews and seemed like she would make a great partner in our journey. We called her around 10am and left a message and had a return call by 10:30am at which time we setup our first appointment. So, on August 11th we will be meeting the doctor and getting the first set of tests done along with an ultrasound. We are very excited about possibly hearing a heartbeat and generally getting some assurance that things are on track for delivery of a healthy baby!

We hope to keep adding to this blog either daily or several times a week. So, keep checking back for updates and don't hesitate to call us or email us (Fatima or Drew) to get info between posts. We are very excited and we hope you are too!