due date

 Today is my chuby baby boy's due date but he is 10 and 1/2 weeks old! These pregnancy pictures were taken for our Christmas card but ended up being our maternity pictures at 26 weeks.

This is the day Kohen was born... so crazy how tiny he was just 10 weeks ago!

This is the diaper he started out in and the diaper he is in now.. just graduated into newborn size!

This is my chub now! He is still such an easy baby. Never cries and enjoys laying flat on the ground.

The big news is, he started rolling over!!!:) We were told he would do things two months behind a normal baby so we were in complete shock when he rolled over.

Being a mom is the best thing EVER, everything I thought it would be and so much more.



HE IS HOME!!

Kohen came home January 14th, the first time. We were so excited to bring him home but nervous all at the same time. The Saturday before we took him home he had an "episode" is what we call them. He forgets to breath so his oxygen and heart rate drop and sometimes he would realize it and start to breath again and other times a nurse would have to stimulate him to remind him to breath. After he had his episode we were so nervous to bring him home. The nurse went and talked to the doctor and he said since he had not done that in the longest time that it was ok and we were still on to take him home Monday. When we went to get him on Monday the nurse said he spit up and it came out his nose, she was nervous to let him go but the doctor said he was ok and so we went home. He was fine most of the day and then started to do his episodes but when I would stimulate him it would still take him a while to start breathing again. He would turn grey and sometimes cry when he started to breath again. It seriously is so sad and scary! I was crying constantly and neither Kellen or I were sleeping much. We were scared even with a machine that will beep to tell us if he is going down. On Wednesday I called my brother Travis and he came over and called 911 (his fireman friends) and they came over to check on Kohen. He had many episodes that day and I knew it wasn't normal. They looked him over and checked out the machine to make sure it was working good and comforted us. Seriously all those men are the sweetest! I love knowing that if we ever need anything they will be the ones to come and help. They said if he has another one that we should take him in. He had another one about an hour later and so I called his pediatrician who said to not stop anywhere to go straight to the ER. We called the NICU since we had just left two days before, we knew they didn't let babies return but we thought it was worth a shot. They said to bring him back in and they will take care of him. ( he was pretty popular at the NICU, every nurse loved him and some would fight over who's he was lol) We took him in and they got him naked and started to do many tests and look him over. They found that he had aspirated into his lungs and that was making it hard for him to breath normally. They started him on antibiotics. Leaving him at the hospital this time was even harder than when I left the hospital the first time without him. He was back at the NICU a little over a week and then returned home January 25th. We were a lot less stressed this time since he had not had any more episodes:) He has been back home for a couple days now and we are loving every second of it :) I still don't sleep great because any noise he makes I open my eyes to see how he is doing. He is the best baby! He never ever cries and when he does he cries for a couple seconds, he has such a cute cry. He smiles so much and lovse to cuddle. He is wearing newborn size clothes now but they are still big on him lol
We still haven't had visitors and we don't take him out of the house. The Nurses suggested to wait for 6 weeks before having visitors so we are waiting till March to take him out except to doctor appointments and to bring visitors over. I can't wait till sicknesses are over with so we can show him off :)

chub!

This is a picture of Kohen's legs at a couple days old and then at almost a month old. It is crazy how much he has filled out but is still soooo tiny! We love him and can't believe he is already a month old(tomorrow) hopefully we will be celebrating his two month at home:)

He is eating from his bottle once a day but is eating all his food for that time, which is 32 cc. He downs that bottle!! He is going to be a good eater:)

He still hardly ever cries, he mostly just gets restless when he is not happy but we hardly ever hear a cry from this baby boy! He is usually all smiles or just has his mouth wide open. When he is sleeping really good his mouth is usually wide open. He is seriously just so dang cute! 

select few

 Grandpa John

 Grandma Trina

 Grandma Julie

 Grandpa Randy

 Uncle Jeremy

 Aunt Liana

 Uncle Travis

 Aunt Collette

 Aunt Emily

 Uncle Josh

 Uncle Ryan

 Aunt Melissa

 Great Grandma Allred

 Great Grandpa Jackson

 Great Grandma Jackson

Great Aunt Cheryl

Kohen is such a loved baby boy. Many more people would love to come meet him but with  him being so tiny the nurses have asked us to pick a select few to come meet him. We are so glad our siblings, grandparents and his sweet aunt Cheryl could come meet him and we can't wait for him to come home and get bigger so everyone can meet him :)



update on Kohen

 Kohen LOVES his binki :)

 so tiny in daddy's arms

 one week old



2 weeks old

I thought we should do a little update on how Kohen is doing.

First off, we wanted to thank ALL our family and friends for all the calls, visits, texts, prayers, love and support! I can not believe all the love we have received. We apologize for staying distant. This was physically and emotionally hard. Emotionally sooo hard! We are getting used to things each day. We spend most of our day at the hospital and when we aren't there we are usually sleeping/resting at home. Thank you so much, we can't wait for everyone to meet him one day!

Our baby Kohen is doing amazing! He is up to eating 26 cc every 3 hours in his feeding tube (30 cc's is 1 ounce) He now weighs 3 pounds 1 ounce!!!!!!!!!!!!! I screamed and could not even sleep I was so excited about his weight gain. He is getting some cute chubby cheeks :) very kissable! The humidity has been turned off in his bed and he will be graduating to a different bed that helps heat only. His brain scan came back NORMAL! we can not believe how blessed we have been and how amazing he is doing. Some nurses say he looks so much like Kellen and I both but all the family members think he just looks like his daddy! Whoever he looks he is darn cute! lol

Kohen will be 3 weeks this Monday and I can not believe he will already be 3 weeks old! He is still so small but he already looks bigger. 

our little miracle baby, Kohen

We were able to go to one, yes only one hypnobirthing class. The November class filled up and the teacher suggested we take it in December so we have more one on one with the teacher and we had the time since baby wasn't due till February so we waited and Kohen came before our classes officially started!

Monday, November 26th Kellen and I went to our doctors office for our first non stress test. Baby looked great and I was having contractions every 3 minutes and still didn't know they were contractions. (first time being pregnant I was a bit clueless) The doc sent us home and we planned on coming in on Thursday for another test. As the night went on I started to feel the contractions and realize when they happened. I was up every hour very uncomfortable and then from 3-6 I didn't
sleep at all. I kept getting in the bath tub hoping it would relax me and that I would be able to feel baby kick. Kellen had left to work and I was able to sleep for an hour and was up again trying a bath. I started to get really nervous that I had not felt the baby kick all night. Every time I went to feel him kick my stomach would get tight again so I called my doctors office and told them what was going on. They made me an appointment an hour later. Kellen's work would not let him leave so I took my dad's truck and went to the doctor. He checked me as soon as I got there and I was dialted to a 1 and was 60% effaced. He sent me straight over to Labor and delivery. Who knew a drive accross the street could be so hard? I drove over and sat in the car for five minutes just trying to calm myself and get the energy to walk inside. As I am walking inside I puked 3 times having many people look over at me all grossed out. I get inside and they have me get in a gown and hook me up to see baby's heart beat and my contractions. They were every 1-4 minutes apart. They started an IV and gave me the first shot to help his lungs. They tried a couple different things to get my labor to stop and it just wouldn't so they admitted me and started me on magnisium. They kept me on magnisium for a little less than 48 hours and let me tell you that drug is strong and hard. I felt like I had to keep my eyes shut all the time because it changed everything. They gave me a cathitor and that is when the contractions finally stopped. That cathitor was more pain than labor all together. I hated it and freaked out any time they talked about it. They moved me upstairs and planned on me staying till Monday and if I had not dialted anymore I could go home on strict bedrest. I had no contractions and was doing good all day Saturday.

(29 weeks, so swollen from all the IV fluids!)



 Sunday morning Kellen went to our nephew's baby blessing and my parents came to hang out with me. We went down to Labor and delivery to do my daily testing and I mentioned to my mom that I had felt pretty wet but didn't say anything to the nurse because I thought it was nothing. My mom said something as soon as the nurse came in and so she did a check and my water was broken.They called my doc and decided not to stop labor anymore. I called Kellen who came back as soon as he could. My brother Ryan, dad and Kellen gave me a blessing and thirty minutes later labor started and started good! Everyone left so Kellen and I could do this labor business together. I was really nervous about everything and didn't know if I could do natural. The nurse came and checked me and I was a 4-5 and I decided to get an epidural. She checked again right after the epidural was in and I was a 6. Kellen and I laid down to take a nap and about 45 minutes later I was a 10 and ready to push! Our nurse called my doc who came for the delivery and kellen called my mom. We have always wanted to deliver our kids just the two of us and it was just the two of us. We decided since this was so scary and a lot to take in, that when kellen went with the baby my mom would come be with me. We were so excited we were getting to meet our baby boy but we were beyond scared. We were only 29 weeks and 5 days. He was going to be so little. I pushed for 3 contractions and was able to watch the entire thing in a mirror. I LOVED every second of pushing and seeing Kellen so excited. 3:16 AM Kohen was here! Dr. Watts laid him on my belly and let Kellen cut the cord.  We were both freaking out and just wanting them to take him. He was purple and we knew he needed help as soon as they could. The NICU team was in the room ready to help him. They handed him over to the team and my doctor kept finishing my delivery. The NICU doc had told us that Kohen would not cry when he came out and so we knew not to wait for that but it is hard not to wait for his cry. The NICU team was working so hard to get Kohen stable and was having a hard time. They did CODE BLUE and many many more doctors came running in. They were doing compressions and trying to get his heart rate going. Kellen grabbed a chair and was having a hard time while I was trying not to listen to anything they were saying and freaking out. My sweet doctor finished my delivery, came and sat next to me on the bed and held my hand. Finally they took Kohen into the NICU and Kellen followed. My mom came in and I just lost it in her arms. My doctor went to see how things were going and came back in and told us Kohen was stable and that he weighed 2 pounds 4 ounces. Kellen came in a while later and showed me pictures of our amazing little boy:) It was the scariest minutes of my life! I am so glad my mom was able to be there to comfort me so Kellen could be there with baby Kohen! about an hour later I was able to get up and go visit Kohen for my first time. I could not believe he was here and he was ok!

Kohen is doing so amazing! He was taken off the ventilator a couple hours after being born. He was taken off oxygen at 6 days old. He has graduated into room 2/3. He started food 12-6 in a feeding tube he started off with 1cc every 6 hours and did so well that they gave him 1cc every 3 hours. He is now going up in cc's every 12 hours. He still has his IV in his belly button but once he is doing full feedings that will be coming out! The NICU nurses are the sweetest people and are so cute with Kohen. The nurses that were in the delivery room come up to him often and say how much he scared them and how strong he is! I can't believe I am a mom, Kellen is a dad... We just sit and look at pics of him when we are home and stare at him the entire time we are with him. We are now able to hold him 30 minutes once a day and have a hard time sharing that time with each other lol

 

27 and 28 weeks

 

This week was an interesting one to say the least.

It all started on a Wednesday, I was itchy head to toe and thiking maybe I was allergic to something different I ate, the only thing I ate differently was ice cream at my cousins wedding. I just thought it would pass but as time went on the itching got worse and worse. Finally after nights of no sleep I decided to go to labor and delivery after no response from my doc for a while. They took my blood and said it would take a couple days for the results.

We saw the doc the next day and asked a million questions like always. baby looked great and we were still waitng for results. Tuesday I finally got the call.. I knew it wasn't good when Dr. Watts said "do you have a minute to talk" He told me that bile acid levels are normal when they are in the range of 0-10 and that mine were 100! My heart sunk. This meant I have cholestasis. Cholestasis of pregnancy is a condition in which the normal flow of bile in the gallbladder is affected by the high amounts of pregnancy hormones. When my body was super itchy I had read about this and read that it could cause preterm labor and stillborns which scared us so bad! My doc talked to me for some time about this over the phone and told me that I would now need to start medications to help and that I need to come into his office every Monday and Thursday to have baby checked along with my every 2 week appointments with him and my every 4 week ultrasounds. I got off the phone with him and started to cry but had to keep it together since Kellen and I were at the dentist office. I went back in and talked to Kellen and my sister on the phone. We decided I needed to call my colon doctor to see if I am able to take the medicine very first. I did and he agreed that I should take it. phew!

That night my brothers, dad and father in law came and gave me a blessing. Kellen gave me the sweetest blessing! I am so lucky to have all these men in my life! I am miserable scratching all over all the time but I will be miserable for the rest of this pregnancy as long as he is growing in there and getting ready to meet us. We had another ultrasound Wednesday and he is growing perfectly! He weighs 2 pounds 7 ounces :)

The medicine has not been agreeing with my stomach so far so I have been sooo sick but I think it will just take some time to get used to it. I thought the medicine was going to help me to not itch but it doesn't. I asked a nurse what does help and she said having a baby helps. We are hoping to make it to 36 weeks, they say most docs take the baby between 35-36 weeks when you have cholestasis. If this is the case baby Kohen will be our January baby!

 

We are now 28 weeks, I don't have a picture. I didn't even take any on Thanksgiving, does that tell you how awful I have been feeling? lol Every Thursday marks another week down. We want to thank all our family and friends who have said prayers for baby Kohen and I. We know we are so loved.