Ladies Man

Our friends Nate and Brooke were passing through the area from Oregon and stopped in for lunch before Thanksgiving. Baby Adell is a few months older than Micah, so she's taking initiative and trying to hold his hand! Micah looks like he's wondering if it's okay.



Micah and Grace are only 4 days apart in age. It was fun visiting our friends Tom and Lindsay and seeing how similar the two babies are. So cute!



The Santos family welcomed us into their home overnight and each of their kids had a chance to hold Micah.


Here's Micah sitting all by himself on the couch, surrounded by the ladies!



Below is a short clip of Micah totally entranced in his mobile friends. There's no sound because our camera doesn't have that option, but we recently got a video camera so we will soon be showing clips of him talking!

All Smiles

Our little bundle of joy is now smiling at us. He has even chuckled a few times... his shoulders went up and down and he laughed. It was the funniest and cutest thing ever!!

Baby Language

Six weeks have gone by since Micah was born and things are starting to get a little more under control.... finally! I just have to have the mindset that nothing can get done around the house with a newborn. Micah was having trouble gaining weight in the beginning, so we were going to the doctor every week to check his weight. I have been nursing him, but we are also supplementing with formula because I wasn't producing enough. Thankfully he takes both, so it's the best of both worlds. The doctor had wanted me to feed him every two hours, supplement after every feeding as well as pump so that I would produce more milk. I have learned to take what the doctor says and modify it a little so that I can stay sane. That every 2 hour thing was tough because I would just get done with all of it and have to start over right away again. So, we're doing better now, he's getting fed and I'm staying sane... which is important!

Micah is now doing pretty well at holding his head up on his own and he seems to smile sometimes when we talk to him. At this point, though, it's still hard to tell if he's just doing something in his pants or smiling because we're talking to him. :)

I am getting a little couped up since most days are raining and cold now and Micah sometimes seems to need to be fed every hour or so... But there are days when I get out to go for a walk with him in the stroller, or we get to the store, or out to his doctor appointments. Most of the day I'm reading a good book or watching TV. Micah likes to be held a lot. Even if he's sleeping in my arms after a feeding and I try to put him down in his crib or bouncy seat, he seems to cry. I'm learning what his cries mean. I've been learning the secret language of babies... something I learned from Oprah, who's quickly becoming my best friend during these monotonous days of breastfeeding and changing poopies.

A few days ago Oprah had a lady on her show who has studied the language babies use. It was incredible! There are 5 distinct cries a baby will make when they are trying to communicate with us. These cries are only made by babies who are 0-3 months old. Take a look!

Oprah Show about Baby Language

• Neh="I'm hungry"
• Owh="I'm sleepy"
• Heh="I'm experiencing discomfort"
• Eair="I have lower gas"
• Eh="I need to burp"

This was timely news for me! Micah really doesn't cry very much, but I can definitely distinguish the "neh" cry when he's hungry. Some of the other ones are a little more difficult to distinguish.

Anyway, we're doing really well so I thought I should finally add some meat to this blog for all you friends who check it out! Thanks for reading and posting a comment.

More photos

A sweet father-son moment.

Micah's big cousins Jack and Joe along with Aunt Danielle and Uncle Mike came to visit Micah. Both Jack and Joe took turns holding Micah!

Our Little Pumpkin!

Micah and Friends at the Harvest Party!

"I'm all ready to go Mom and Dad!"

Family Portrait at our Church Harvest Party. Good job smiling little man!

Micah's 6 week older friend Drew Atkinson, the Bumblebee

Micah's 3 day younger friend Braden Smee, the cow

Micah's 6 months older friend, Gavin Teodoro, the pouty face dinosaur

Micah having a moment with Cindi Pleau


Time to go home to bed!

Photos of Micah's first week

Baby Micah is Here!!

Micah David Wolfrom was born on Saturday, October 7th at 5:15pm. He weighed 7lbs 8oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.

Around 2am I started feeling some more painful contractions, so I labored at home for a little while and then called the doctor and David and I went in to the hospital at 6am. I was 6cm dilated at that point, so I was definitely in labor and ready to go to the birthing room. I labored without an epidural until about 9:30, doing different breathing techniques and in the bathtub, but then decided to get the epidural. I am so glad I did!!!

When they checked me again (after all those hours of labor) I was only dilated to 8-9cm. Once the epidural kicked in, I was in a lot less pain! I was able to take a nap for about an hour or so, and then I read for a while. Finally, they checked again and this time I was finally at 10cm, so I was able to start pushing. Well, I pushed for 2 1/2 hours but baby Micah was not fitting through my pelvic bone. It was pretty exhausting and close to the end of that time my epidural had worn off. The doctor had been checking in on me the whole time, and by the end of the 2 1/2 hours of pushing, he checked again to see where the baby was, and he still wasn't coming through the pelvic bone. He also saw when he checked that there was some meconium in the uterus, which means the baby had pooped in my uterus, and this is very scary because it is poison that he could swallow. The doctor gave an option of using a vacuum to try and get the baby through, but then I would still have quite a bit of pushing to do, and there really wasn't time because we didn't want the baby swallowing the meconium. Plus, the doctor didn't think there was much use of doing the vacuum. He was not fitting because he was posterior, meaning the back of his head was trying to fit rather than the front of his head. So, we had to do a C-Section. This was a change of plans that we really weren't prepared for emotionally or physically. However, as soon as we decided on the emergency C-section, everyone jumped into action.

An anesthesiologist came and as they were wheeling my stretcher over to the O.R. he was telling me what was going to happen and that everything would be okay. I was on oxygen, my right arm was out to get the epidural drugs, and my left arm was stretched out for my blood pressure. David was in there with me, along with the two nurses who had been with me all day and about 8 other people! I was grateful the doctor I had been seeing all along was the one on call that day, so he did the C-section. It was amazing how much I could feel of the pulling and tugging when they were working on me. David was right there holding my hand. It was really hard on him - he watched the surgery, and he was holding my hand while I was shaking because of the drugs.

When they finally pulled the baby out, I couldn't hear him scream or cry, and I couldn't see him because there were 3 pediatricians in the room working on him. He had it rough right at first. He was not breathing well, so they cleared his passages from the meconium and they also had to pump his lungs with air. They realized later that he had pneumothorax, which is something like a collapsed lung. Micah was taken up to the NICU and had to stay there in an oxygen tent overnight. He was in the NICU for two days. We finally got to have him in our room Monday night and then Tuesday (today) we are able to take him home with us. We are soon to go home with our new baby boy, who is now very healthy and happy. He is beautiful and perfect and we love him so much!!


This link at the bottom is for a bunch of pictures of Micah David's first couple hours.

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/growlerpower/album/576460762320379880

Pictures of the baby's room

Here are some pictures of the baby's room now. We have added quite a bit to the room! I got the bedding for the crib, which will be nice for the baby so he doesn't need to sleep on a hard, cold mattress!



The thing hanging on the doorknob in the picutre below is a clean diaper holder. Not sure how much use it will get as it's intended function, but we'll see! It came with the rest of the bedding.

So I still need to clean a bit and put some things away, but as soon as we get the changing table, which is also our dresser I'll organize everything! All of these items came from our baby showers. Everyone has blessed us so much! We have a lot of diapers and wipes, toys, clothes and other important items.



Isn't this a beautiful baby quilt?! This is the quilt my friend, Amanda made for me. She had taken me shopping to pick out the fabrics and then worked really hard and put the quilt together. She was also making another baby quilt for Heidi and had both ready for us at the church shower, and she's making a queen size quilt for her brother's wedding, which is this weekend!! She's a little bit of an overacheiver. She is such a sweet servant - she's the same one who helped me paint the room and she also came over last week to give me a pedicure. Oh, not to mention she's also helping me plan Canadian Thanksgiving at my house. Wow, what a girl!



This is a picture of the cute little embroidered feet that she added for a special touch!


Mario and Luigi are a bit curious, but here you can see the back side of the quilt. It's a flannel print with stars and moons. Very cute and snuggly!

We're almost there!

It could be any day now! Very exciting and scary and nerve-wracking all with one single thing. We are about to become parents! Wow. At least I'm able to keep telling myself that although the very beginning is exhausting because of lack of sleep, the baby is very small and doesn't do a whole lot except eat, sleep and poop. So, our job is pretty easy at first. They don't come out running around and needing discipline right away. We can kind of ease into the whole parenting role. My body is getting ready, I'm having light contractions all the time. Things are happening, and I could go into labor any time. Who knows! I'm still planning things as normal because it could still be a while yet. We are definitely very excited to meet our son!

We are planning on having Canadian Thanksgiving here again this year. Last year we had it a few weeks late because we had just moved into our new house. This year, even though it's just a few days after the baby's due, we have to do it this weekend because Dan and Brandy are coming here for a wedding and want to hang out with friends on Saturday night. It's Brandy's favorite holiday in the whole world and she was so excited during their four years with us to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving twice! They want to get together with all their friends anyway, so why not?! We're going to do the turkey, but if Baby comes and we're out of commission, the party will be moved down the street to one of two other places.

Baby Showers

I have had two baby showers recently - one that was thrown by friends from work and one that was at the church. Both have been an incredible blessing for David and I. We were feeling a little unprepared, but have a lot of the things we needed now.

My friends at work put a lot into planning and preparing this baby shower. It was above and beyond what I was expecting! A lot of people who couldn't make it to the shower pitched in to purchase some bigger items, so we received our crib mattress, the "pack'n'play" we had registered for, our baby monitors, a toy box, a bottle warmer, and many other essential things! We also received some cute clothes, a baby tub and bath supplies, as well as diapers and wipes.

One of my very sweetest friends, Julie, from Ontario is living in Vancouver, BC right now, and she was sweet enough to come all the way down for the shower. Her and a friend of her's with her friend's little 17 month old made the trip down just for the day. I'm sure it was a lot of driving for them, but it was such a blessing to me for Julie to be there. The games they played were a lot of fun, they had to guess how many squares of toilet paper would fit around my belly, blindfolded and racing with another person we had to powder, change a diaper, and dress a baby doll... getting me ready for those sleepy nights when I just want to quickly get back to bed and am changing the diaper in the dark! It was pretty funny to watch!

The shower at the church was also a blessing. It is always so sweet to see how many ladies come out to support and care for us. This was a baby shower for myself and another girl because there are something like 17 women pregant in our church right now, due between now and March!

I want to thank everyone who might read this who participated in, came to, or gave towards the showers. As I said, David and I were extremely blessed by your gifts and generosity and your love and support! Thank you so much for helping us to be better prepared for our wonderful little baby that God will soon be blessing us with!

Baby's Room

My friend Amanda and I were able to complete the painting and wall-papering of the baby's room this past weekend. I'm very happy with it! It is very cute. We couldn't believe how well the wallpaper matched the fabric we had picked out for the baby quilt that Amanda is making. We spent all afternoon on Sunday together. It was so nice of her to help out, even though she was tired from being pregnant herself. She is a fabulous painter, and she did all the cutting in on the top and at the edges - and she did a superb job. Thank you so much Amanda!!

David was gone over the weekend to Chelan for relaxing time at his parents condo with the rest of the family. I wish I could have joined them, but I had to work on Saturday. David played mini golf with our nephews, Jack and Joe, and had a great time on his uncle's new Jetski. When he got back, he set up the crib for the baby's room. We still need a mattress, but we're excited that the room is quickly coming together!

Will and Amanda joined David and I for a night out at the Mariners game on Tuesday night, too. We had a great time - the Mariner's played a very exciting game, leading off the first two batters of the night with homeruns! It was a little scary when our pitcher was hit in the head with a line-drive ball off Vladimer Guerrero. Our pitcher, Rafael Soriano, was taken off the field on a stretcher and taken to the hospital, but the next day he was released with nothing more than a concussion. The sound of the ball hitting his head was horrible, as if he had fractured his skull, but we were glad to hear the report the next day that he was okay.