Our First Week with Isabella

Wow! What an exciting week it has been. So much to write about, but not enough time.

We had Isabella on Christmas Eve day. She came at the perfect time in terms of the visitors we were having from out of town. Robin's mom had flown in to Cedar Falls from Florida the Sat. before and her sister, Nancy and nephew, Gus, were arriving in Cedar Rapids from NYC on Christmas Eve Day at 2pm. So, it was very nice of Isabella to arrive at 1:05pm. Isabella's first visitors in the hospital were Uncle John and Aunt Kristy. When their visit was ending, Grandma Groves, Aunt Nancy and Cousin Gus arrived. Diane and Aleah Lemke and Diane's sister Darla also stopped by. We visited for a while and then Grandma, Aunt Nancy and Gus went back to stay at our place. Little did we know that Cousin Gus was going to be throwing up 15 times in our basement. Yes, he had gotten a stomach virus which he would eventually pass on to Aunt Nancy.

We spent Christmas Day in the hospital. Things seemed pretty quiet around the hospital so that was pretty nice. Uncle John and Aunt Kristy came to visit in the morning. Next, Grandpa Groves and Grandma Groves showed up without Aunt Nancy and Gus. We were told Gus wasn't feeling very well. Because of that, they were all quickly heading back to Cedar Falls. Next, Grandma and Grandpa Kellbach arrived from Ohio. They brought a string of Christmas lights to make it a little more festive in the room.

We were discharged from the hospital on Wed 12/26. Grandma and Grandpa Kellbach, Uncle John and Aunt Kristy all came over for the big homecoming. G & G Kellbach stayed at U. John's and A. Kristy's that night, so we were home alone with Isabella.

Back in Cedar Falls, Robin's dad also got the stomach virus. This was making it extremely challenging for them to get here to spend time with Isabella. Luckily, Robin's mom didn't catch it, but we also thought it was wise she stay back in Cedar Falls until everyone got better.

Jeff's parents stayed with us Thurs - Sun. They were so extremely helpful in having someone to always hold Isabella and lend a hand when needed. Together with U. John and A. Kristy they overflowed our refrigerator with food and made numerous trips to the store to get us anything we needed. We think Grandma's favorite time with Isabella was at around 7am each morning, when after we fed Isabella, we would very sleepily pass her off to Grandma so we could get a few very needed hours of sleep.

Oh yes, and through all of this Isabella slept, ate and pooped.... and looked adorable!

It sounds like the stomach virus has finally gone away in Cedar Falls, so we are planning a visit from Robin's family on Tuesday. We will finally be able to celebrate Christmas with them.

"Best of" Isabella Photo Album

We've added a link to the right called "Best of" Isabella Photo Album. Many of you know how camera happy Robin is, so expect lots of pictures to keep coming. However, we know it gets to be a little tiring looking through every single photo, so we thought we'd pick and choose a few that are our favorites and put them in a special photo set. We also plan to post some photos right on the blog.

Winner of Baby Grover Pool is......

Congratulations to Mary Knapp a family friend from Manchester, Michigan who had the best score in the Baby Grover Pool. Mary correctly picked that Baby Grover would be a girl and her guess was 4oz. off, 1 inch off, and three hours off the actual. That is pretty amazing! If Mary lived closer we'd award her the prize of sitting with Isabella at 3 in the morning when she is having a meltdown, but I guess we will have to think of something else. Robin was almost last place and she says it shows once again that she has no mother's intuition (not true!) I did not do too good in the pool either. Last place goes to Kevin who continues to show me that his guesses aren't worth sh** as he had originally proved on Trivia Night. (Just kidding, Kevin). Go to the Baby Grover pool link on the right to see how you did!

Early Christmas Present

Robin and I received an early Christmas present on Monday as Isabella Betty Kellbach was born at 1:05PM. Isabella is 6lbs. 12.5oz and 20 inches long. Mom and baby are both doing great, we are going to be discharged on Wednesday pending any unforeseen problems. We have lots of pictures and will post some tomorrow assuming we get some sleep soon.

5 Days Left ????

We had our appointment yesterday and we are starting to show some progress. Robin is 1cm dilated and is 80% effaced, these are both things I did not understand 9 months ago and at this point only understand minimally. Although Robin did not grow much since her last appointment (she is still measuring at 34) everything seems to be going great with the pregnancy. Normally I take the vitals such as weight, blood pressure, and baby's heart rate each appointment and the Nurse and Doctor report the information to us so we can keep track. During the appointment when the Doctor checked the baby's heart rate instead of telling us the heart rate she said "pretty good." For some reason I could not bring myself to ask her what the heart rate was, I really don't think she kept track and that is why she replied that way. This was the first time we had seen this particular doctor. Our next appointment is scheduled for the due date of December 27th. Here is the week 39 picture of Robin and could possibly be the last of the belly shots.

Mama's got a brand new bag

Lately we have been spending time on ebay checking out things primarily for the baby. Last week Robin was able to find a diaper bag that she liked and was the high bidder on it. So that is her Christmas gift from Jeff. We received it this week and both are happy with it. We have also been looking at baby monitors as there are many of the one we are registered for brand new and considerably cheaper than the store price. Jeff got a little crazed with the whole ebay experience and ended up buying two monitors. The second one was too good a deal to pass up on, we currently have the second monitor up on Craig's List hoping to sell it as we don't believe that two monitors will be necessary.

Week 38 Picture

There is nothing new to report. We have continued to prepare the house and get all of the necessary items for Baby Grover. We have an appointment this Friday and hopefully we will have an idea of whether this baby will be born this year or not. Here is the Week 38 Picture, I will try to get the Week 39 Picture up on Friday after the appointment.

Have you read the Blog?

Just recently I was alerted to the fact that when asked "How are things going?" the answer "Have you read the blog?" is not an appropriate answer. The reason I answer this way isn't because I don't want to share or don't want to talk to someone, I just don't want to bore someone with details about what is going on if they've already read about it. So I just check first to get a handle on what they might already know and then I go into the boring details about sleepless nights, weekly doctor's appointments that last five minutes, and a baby who has gone from a polite kicker to quite the mover and shaker. I found out that my friend Cathy is actually boycotting the blog for this very reason. She would rather have me actually talk to her (gasp!). So, I guess I can write anything about her and she will never find out.

Anyway, please don't be offended if I ask if you've read the blog. Jeff and I are doing it to keep everyone in the loop as to how thing are going. I know it will get much more interesting once the baby is here, but then again, we might never have time to post anyway. Thanks for reading!

XOXO,
Robin

(by the way, I do write this all in good humor! It gave me quite the chuckle when I asked Cathy if she read the blog and she said "No, I hate the blog".)

15 Days to go

Sorry to all of our loyal followers of the BLOG that we have not been updating it as much as we should. We have been working hard to get all of the shopping done to prepare for Baby Grover and finish all of our Christmas shopping. We picked up the stroller and car seat in Des Moines last weekend(Thanks Grandma Linda) and have most of the other necessities thanks to many of you that read this BLOG. We have attached pictures of Robin at Week 36 on the left and Week 37 on the right. Robin is looking bigger and bigger each day which is causing her some discomfort. Robin has been struggling to get good sleep at times due to having trouble finding a comfortable position. We are doing weekly appointments now and had one today. The Doctor examined Robin today and determined that nothing has started to happen yet. We were sort of hoping for an early arrival, like the 21st of December so we could have everyone home in time for Christmas. It doesn't look like that is going and will see what happens. I stick by my prediction of January 3rd and that I will win the Baby to happen unless something dramatic happens in the meantime. We have another appointment on December 21st Grover Pool. We are starting to come upon the first guesses of Birthday as Kevin has guessed that Baby Grover will be born tomorrow. I will have to tell Kevin he is wrong again, much like last week's Trivia Night (Just kidding Kevin).

Just a little rant...

Jeff says that he read somewhere that pregnant women develop extra skin on their fingers. I haven't confirmed whether this is true or not, but supposedly it is part of the reason why pregnant women drop things so often. This is a pregnancy symptom I have really experienced. Things are just constantly falling out of my hands like I forget how to grip things or something. The kicker is that one of the hardest things for me to do is bend over and pick up anything! So, I've been finding it interesting that when you are pregnant you are constantly dropping stuff, but due to your big belly it is basically impossible to pick anything up. Just something that has been bothering me.....

Baby Shower Weekend

We had a really fun time the weekend of 11/17-11/18. Jeff's parents drove out all the way from Ohio. They got in Friday night. Jeff made some of his homemade pizza, John and Kristy came over and then we went down the block to visit little Aiden Davis.

On Sat. Stacey arrived from Cedar Falls, we went and got Cathy and we all went to the Iowa/Western Michigan game. We had a good time tailgating at Jeff's brother's spot in the EPB parking lot, different from our normal spot. Although the walk to the stadium is a little farther, it is a nice place to tailgate at. I got a little worried when the University Police decided to lock up the EPB building which is where we were using the bathroom. Normally they keep the building open, but since it was the start of the Thanksgiving break, they said all buildings were supposed to be locked. I was tempted to go plead as a pregnant woman to leave the building open, as there aren't even any port-a-potties in the area it could lead to big problems! But people just propped open the door and the police didn't seem to mind. They decided to get their ticket books and hand out tickets to underage drinkers instead. We all went to the game, and unfortunately the Hawkeyes lost. Very disappointing! That evening, Jeff's Aunt Loo arrived from Madison, WI.



On Sun, Stacey, Cathy, Tammy and Jesse threw a very nice shower for me. You can look at the pictures here. Jeff let them throw it at Pathways and it worked very well. We had good food, played a couple of games and opened gifts. We received lots of really wonderful gifts. I'd like to talk about them all, but there are a couple I'll just mention. Jeff's mom actually found a Baby Grover doll. Who would have known such a thing existed, but it does and it is adorable.

My mom sent a cute gift of things that reminded her of when I was little. Each had a note attached explaining the memories. I took pictures and they are in the shower set. Be sure to also check out the pictures of the adorable items knitted by Jeff's mom and my friend Cathy. Thanks to everyone for such a wonderful shower!

On Sun night, we went to watch Jeff play basketball and then we met John and Kristy for dinner at the Olive Garden.

Monday morning Jeff's parents got up and made the trip back to Ohio. It was a very nice weekend.

Week 35 Picture

Here is Robin before our Thanksgiving feast at the Iowa River Power Restaurant. I think I looked like her after we got home (at least I felt like it). We had a Doctor's appointment today and everything went well. We met with a different doctor in the practice, Dr. Adam. "You're just going to hide this baby, aren't you" is what she said after measuring Robin at 31. She said now they are just looking to make sure Robin is still growing, rather than be concerned that she is 31 rather than 35. So, no ultrasound came out of the appointment. The baby's heart rate was 140. Baby Grover has been moving around much more lately, we aren't sure she's getting much sleep anymore. She doesn't seem to be kicking much, just on the move, and letting us know she's there. Robin thinks she finally found some ribs to mess around with.

Robin's friends had a baby shower for her on 11/18 and she promises to post about it soon.

6 Weeks to go

Here is the Week 34 picture of Robin. Nothing new to report. We have noticed the baby getting the hiccups. At least that is what we assume - it is different from the kicking and moving that she normally does.

Baby Shout Out!

The Davis Baby boy has arrived!!

Aiden James Davis
10 lbs and 22 inches
Born 11/12 at 14:52.




Mom, Dad and Baby are all doing well. We went to see them Tues night and he is as cute as a bug's ear.

It has already been decided that Baby Grover and Aiden will NOT be dating - ever! Sorry Kiddos!

Baby Shout Out

Welcoming....


Alex Dean Peterson
Born: 10/24/2007 5:32 am
7 lbs 13oz 20 inches

Alex is the new son of Robin's good friend Tammy.

Alex just missed Jeff's birthday by 1 day - oh well... at least he made it in time for Halloween.

7 Weeks left

Time is certainly flying and it won't be long until Baby Grover is born. Here is the Week 33 picture of Robin. This week we went to our first baby class at Mercy Hospital. It is a child preparation class offered through Mercy Hospital in Iowa City. The class was not the most stimulating one we have ever taken, but it did provide us with a few laughs. We don't do so well as pupils sitting next to each other and tend to get the giggles. We were shown the different positions the baby might be in before delivery and which one to "try for" (head down, facing spine) as if we'd have any control over that. For some reason the teacher specifically mentioned trying not to eat too much canned soup because of the sodium content, causing us to laugh more because that was exactly what Robin was eating about an hour before the class. Robin got very little sleep that night as we were shown a tape of a delivery (omg!) and then a chart of what 1 - 10 cm dilated looks like (OMG!). We also got to see the delivery rooms and postpartum rooms. We have to go back again next week for part two of the class. Oh, and by the way, we were told "Tax Exemption" is not a valid reason for inducing labor - the whole class got a laugh about that as everyone is due about the same time.
We have continued to work a little bit on getting the nursery ready. This week Robin's Dad delivered us a bookshelf from Cedar Falls and hung up the rod for the valance.
I also included some pictures of our new living room furniture. We had no furniture in this room and after much shopping decided on a sofa, love seat, and a glider.

Baby Shout Out

This shout out is a little more difficult to write. It is for our friends', Paul and Michelle Kilgore, new baby:

Tadhg Michael Kilgore (Tadhg is pronounced like Tiger without the 'er'. )
Born at Mercy Hospital in Dubuque
1:22 pm on Friday, October 12, 2007

Poor little Tadhg was transferred to Iowa City Children's Hospital the night be was born because tests indicated he had a serious heart condition. At the Iowa City Hospital the doctors confirmed he that he had a disease called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. He went in for his first surgery on Thurs Oct 18th. Unfortunately, Tadhg has not been progressing as well hoped and they have been unable to stitch him up since that surgery. They have now put Tadhg on the heart transplant list and are waiting.

Every day Tadhg, Paul, Michelle, their two year old, Julia, are in our thoughts and prayers, please put them in yours as well.

Here is a picture of Tadhg and Michelle when Tadhg was minutes old.

Only 2 Months left!

Here is the week 32 picture of Robin.

Nancy freaked us out a little bit this week. She had lunch with a friend who is due on Dec 15. All along this friend was told she was having a girl and then two weeks ago an ultrasound showed she was having a boy!!! She's working on exchanging all the girl stuff for boy stuff now.

Still, we aren't worried. We've had 4 ultrasounds in which they said girl, I think it is fairly certain...

Doctors Appointment and Ultrasound #4?

We had our Doctor's Appointment today with one of the other Doctor's in the practice. Baby Grover's heart rate was between 160-170 and Robin was measuring at 28-29. As a result of measuring a little small the Doctor requested we get yet another Ultrasound. Being old professionals at this Robin and I were not real worried, but were able to get our ultrasound done right after the appointment. Everything continues to check out well with Baby Grover, Luann the technician we have had on two of our ultrasounds said that the baby weighs approximately 4lbs. 3oz and her heartrate during the ultrasound was 130. Baby Grover appears to be right around the 50th percentile for everything. Good news is we have even more Ultrasound pictures, here is our favorite from today. You can check out the rest of the pictures by clicking here or by going to the Set on the new Flickr account.

9 week countdown

We have made it back from our trip to Florida visiting Robin's family last Wednesday. Robin is in the process of uploading pictures of our Florida vacation as well as every digital picture we have on the computer. If you go to our Flickr Account (we've also added a new link on the right for our new account), you will be able to see pictures of the family, the minivan we rented, and our encounter with a couple of alligators. We have continued to work on the nursery since we have gotten back from our trip. We have put together the crib and started arranging the furniture around in the nursery.
We have another Doctor's appointment on Wednesday for Robin's checkup. We will give a report after the appointment. Here is the week 31 picture of Robin and a picture of the crib.

A few words from Robin

I've been saying for a while now that I need to post an embarrassing picture of Jeff because I don't think it is fair that week after week my picture gets posted. So, here is a picture of Jeff before he went golfing on one of the hottest days of the year. In addition to his sunglasses and hat, he is also completely covered in 50+ sunscreen.

The reason we are posting weekly pictures of my "progress" is that my mom gave me a Belly Book to journal my pregnancy. It has a place in there for weekly pictures, so since we are taking them, might as well post them on the blog too. Most weekly pictures are taken before leaving for work Thurs morning, which is why my hair is normally pretty wet. Looking at the pictures just makes me realize how little I do with myself throughout the week. For those of you who are unable to view the photos on this blog (according to our friends at the Bank of the West, when they try to bring up the site at work all the pictures are blocked) - consider yourself lucky.

Twin Shout Out!

The Lemke Twins are here and already waving hello to the world!

The 2 newest Cubs/Hawks/Bears fans are:

Name: Dustin Lee Lemke
Weight: 5 lbs 11 oz
Length: 18.5 inches
Arrived: 10/11 @ 1:02 AM

Name: Aleah Marie Lemke
Weight: 4 lbs 12 oz
Length: 17 inches
Arrived: 10/11 @ 1:03 AM

Both babies came home Wed, October 24th and are doing very well. We went up to visit them and they are the cutest little things!

10 Week Countdown

We had a Doctor's appointment on Wednesday and everything went well at the appointment. Robin is measuring at 27 weeks and the baby's heart rate was 148. We have switched from monthly appointments to bi-weekly appointments. Baby Grover is continuing to grow as you can see in this week's installment of pictures.

Nursery Update

Sorry to all those who read this religiously as we have not been writing very much over the past two months. We have been trying to make decisions about things for the nursery and trying to keep up with all of the ups and downs of Hawkeye football. We have gotten several things done over the past two weeks. We have ordered the crib (should get here Friday), we have gotten the bedding, and painted the nursery. We are expecting our new living room furniture to arrive anytime as well which has the glider which we anticipate will get a lot of use with the baby.
We have a Doctor's appointment tomorrow and will let you know if we find out anything new. Also we fly out to Florida on Friday to visit Robin's Mom and family. We will post some pictures when we get back.

Week 29 Picture

Here is the week 29 picture of Robin carrying a basketball.

Entering the 3rd Trimester...

Here is the week 28 picture. We have been getting the room ready this week. We decided on a paint color and are really liking the choice. We have ordered the crib and it is on its way. We'll get some pictures of the nursery up soon.

Late Shout Out

This is a baby shout out for my mom's co-worker and friend, Kristin in Florida.

Amelia was born July 31st. She was a preemie but is doing very well. Here are some pics.

Another future Florida friend for Baby Grover.

Week 27 Picture

Here is the Week 27 Picture of Robin.

Week 26 Picture

Here is the week 26 picture of Robin.

Results from Tests

We got a letter from the doctor today with some results from some tests Robin had done at her last appointment. The diabetes screen was normal (yay!), but Robin's blood count was low, meaning Robin is anemic (boo). This is very common in pregnancy though, and Robin just has to take some extra iron supplements.

The ultrasound showed that the baby is growing well (yay!). She is almost right in the middle at the 53rd percentile. The doctor said that was very reassuring.

Baby Shout Out #2

Robin's mom's good friend and co-worker, Michelle, in Florida had her baby on Sept. 3rd.

Welcoming...
Dakota Akemi Wood
Sept 3rd - (same day as her mom!)
8lbs, 2 oz 20 inches long

Baby Grover is looking forward to playdates when she visits Florida!

Happy Birthday, Cousin Gus!

Baby Grover's cousin, Gus, had his first birthday on Sunday, Sept 16th. They celebrated with a party in their neighborhood park in NYC. View pictures here. We especially liked this photo:

Gus already had his own cupcake, and the second mom looks away, he goes for the big cake!

Ultrasound #3

Doctor's Appointment and a (Surprise!) 3rd Ultrasound

We had our 5th Doctor's appointment yesterday and a mild scare. The Doctor measured the length on Robin's abdomen and it had not grown very much since our last appointment. The Doctor wanted us to get another ultrasound to determine that the baby was not having any growing issues. We were able to get in for the ultrasound that same afternoon which was good for both of us as we would probably have gotten completely stressed out if we had to wait even a day. We had the same technician as the first ultrasound we did and she stated that the baby appeared to be in the normal growth range for 25 weeks. So everything is fine and as an extra bonus we continue to rack up more pictures of Baby Grover. The baby's heart rate at the doctor's office was 152 and at the ultrasound the baby's heart rate was 133. The 133 was by far the lowest recorded heart rate to date causing Jeff to look quite dumbfounded when the technician said it out loud. Robin being the thorough person she is asked the technician at the end if she still thought it was a girl. The technician checked it out and showed us and said that it would be her "guess". She did not attach a certain percentage this time and we did not push as we already have a 99.9999% that it is a girl from the 2nd ultrasound. We will post the pictures in the next post, Baby Grover once again had her head facing down and made it difficult to get good pictures of her face. This is the third time that we have heard that she is bashful, we will be surprised if Baby Grover turns into the next Paris Hilton.

Week 25 Picture

Here is the week 25 picture.

Baby Grover's First Home Game

Iowa had their home opener on Saturday against Syracuse. This is Baby Grover's first home game, but her second visit to Kinnick Stadium. Baby Grover made a trip back on April 14th for the spring practice. Here is a picture taken at the game with the Davis's.

Week 24 Picture

Here is the Week 24 Picture of Robin.

Pictures from the 2nd Ultrasound

Here are the pictures we got from the 2nd Ultrasound. Sorry, we are having trouble labeling the pictures - if you click on them you might be able to see better and see some of the labels the tech wrote.

Row1:
Left: Profile Right: It's a girl

Row2:
Left: 3D face picture Right: Belly, leg, nose,eye

Row 3:
Left: Face looking at us Right: Leg and toes (can you see the toes curled?)

Row 4:
Left: Heartrate Right: Hand holding foot