My budding photographer, originally uploaded by Jennifer J.

]]> http://www.jennandlucien.net/babyx/2011/06/27/my-budding-photographer/feed 0 http://www.jennandlucien.net/babyx/2011/06/27/my-budding-photographer http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JennAndLuciensBabyX/~3/-I6bL_Mibuo/dog http://www.jennandlucien.net/babyx/2010/05/21/dog#comments Sat, 22 May 2010 04:52:51 +0000 Lucien http://www.jennandlucien.net/babyx/?p=240 Continue reading →]]> A few days ago Jennifer, Maxine and I were driving home from somewhere, and Maxine started going “oo oo oo” – I’m not quite sure what she means by that yet.

In any case, it sounded like a dog howling, so I went “owww owww owww” – like a howling dog… Maxine replied with the “oo oo oo”.

Then I thought to myself, let’s try barking – “ruff ruff ruff” I went.

Maxine said “dooggg”!!

She knows what a dog is supposed to sound like. Yes, I was a proud father that day (well, really every day).

– Lucien

Lucien

Maxine and Jennifer, originally uploaded by Lucien W. Dupont.

A quick shot from tonight – things are going great, we just never seem to have time to blog anymore.

http://www.jennandlucien.net/movies/MaxineOnHerNinethBirthday.mov

I have also changed the Theme of the blog and had to adjust several blog entries to fit in the new theme.  I am hoping to also get a few more blog entries written as Maxine has grown up a lot in the past couple of months.

Enjoy.

A little video of Maxine chatting away..

Right now she is fitting perfectly into 6 to 9 month clothes.  I have a feeling it won’t be long until she is in 9 month clothes, so keep this in mind if you buy her clothes for Christmas.

Also, please mark your calendars for Sunday, Aug 9, 2008 as we will be having a 1 year Birthday Party for her.  I mention this now as I know that some of you are already making summer plans.  :-)

It’ll be back when I re-encode it in a different format that’s available in QuickTime.

We hope you enjoy it!!

Lots going on in our life, besides Maxine, mostly good, just busy you know?

At Maxine’s two month appointment, she weighed in at 12 pounds, 6.5 ounces, a height of 24 inches tall, and her head was 41 cm in circumference. She also got the first set of immunizations, 3 in all, and really freaked out that night after the two big needles in her thigh muscles.

She’s pretty normal so far.. we’ve been noticing a lot more smiling the past week or two, and lots and lots of cooing and chatting when we talk with her.

We’ll try and be better about posting more here, so stay tuned still.

Pictures soon..

Lucien

Maxine is doing great, she’s really the perfect little baby so far.. yes, we aren’t getting a terrible amount of sleep, but for those days that she sleeps in 3 hour bits at night, we’ll get a good night like last night where she sleeps 6 hours!

I’ve been noticing what I’m going to call ‘the awakening’ – signs of the human brain in her.. she’s been looking around a lot more, following my hand when I move it around the front of her face.

And she smiled a good 4 times this morning at church, probably the most I’ve seen so far.. which is awesome!

So far so good – she’s a small blessing to us, and I’m looking forward to when she can crawl around, and dance, and talk back to me.. ya, I’m a crazy father.

She’s sleeping pretty well, all things considered being 4 weeks old tomorrow. Jennifer and I are feeling pretty blessed right now.

Here’s a couple of pictures to keep you all happy out there.

The following is a list of things that she has done in her short 2 week life:

- Gone out to dinner (several times)
- Gone to church
- Gone to Entheos (the High School Youth Group Lucien and I used to help with)
- Gone to the Mall
- Participated in a professional photo shoot (click here for a preview of the photos)
- Gone to the airport twice (once to drop off Grandma Crumrine and another time to pick up Grandma and Grandpa Dupont)
- Seen the Pediatrician twice (first time to check her weight which she is gaining steadily and another time to get the standard 2 week check up which included taking blood from her heel)
- Lost her umbilical cord
- Had her first bath

She has also spent a lot of time sleeping, eating, and getting her diaper changed. Once she is asleep, she can sleep through just about anything, including being in a room with 20 loud teenagers and a noisy restaurant.

Mom (and dad) also love having her fall asleep in their arms and dad, once baby is asleep, likes to play with baby X as if she was a doll.

Overall, the first 2 weeks have not been has hard as expected. Mom and Dad are able to get enough sleep to feel like functioning adults. We just hope she continues to be as good as she has been for the first 2 weeks.

Jennifer is hoping to write a birth story post tommorow, so stay tuned for that.

I’ll expand on that later, as I’m using the iPhone WordPress client and it’s a little difficult to write long posts. And the wifi at the hospital here doesn’t work with a Macintosh.

I’ll leave you with a picture of her.

The basic plan is this:

- We’ll check into the hospital tomorrow at 8pm. Yes, 8-8-08 at 8pm.
- Jennifer gets checked out, and takes some drugs to get the cervix ready.
- In the morning they check things out, and if things are fine she will start the pitocin to start the labour.

And if thing go well, Baby X will be out in the world by the afternoon or evening.

Stay tuned here or on the email list for updates as they happen.

So now you are wondering when is the big day. Ok, are you ready for this?  We (or really I) will be checking into the hospital on 08/08/08 at 8:00 PM.

I will check into St Vincent’s in Portland and they will give me some drugs to get the womb ready for labor.   Lucien and I will sleep through the night (hopefully) as the drugs should only cause some cramping and then in the morning they will give me some stronger drugs to kick start my body into active labour.   The plan at this is to start with a Vaginal Birth and if complications arise we will go C-Section.  I am fine either way and have trust in my Doctor.  She has done her homework and knows her stuff.

1. New Email List – babyx@list.jennandlucien.net

This will be the main form of communication that will be used while we are at the hospital or getting ready to go to the hospital. You can join the list at the following site:

http://lists.jennandlucien.net/listinfo.cgi/babyx-jennandlucien.net

Or you can leave a comment letting us know that you want to join the list.

2. Facebook Group – BabyX Updates

Lucien has created a Facebook Group for BabyX updates. This page most likely going to be updated less frequently than the email list. We will try to update as often as possible, based on Internet availability. If you would like to join this group, you need a facebook membership and then you can use the following link to be added to the group:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=31655510002&ref=nf

3. This Blog

Finally, we will continue to update this Blog, it just will probably be several days after the birth when I or Lucien are actually coherent.

Yesterday, I had a marathon of a time at the doctors. First, I had a Non-Stress Test for the baby or NST for short. This consisted of me laying on a bed (on my side) with a fetal heart rate monitor attached to the lower part of my abdomen and contraction monitor attached to my upper abdomen. The goal was to watch the baby’s heart rate spike and return to normal three times within a 30 minute period. Each spike of the heart rate signifies a movement that the baby made. If the rate doesn’t spike three times within the 30 minutes (which could happen if the baby decides it is time to sleep) then I need stay on the monitor until it happens. Yesterday the heart rate spiked about 25 times so I was fine. If the baby is sleeping they will buzz my stomach with a funky little device. If that does not cause the baby to move then the doctor is brought in and it is time to worry. I will be going through this test every week until I deliver. And the reason for the test is because the new condition that I have developed, Cholestasis, increases the chance of a still birth.

After the NST, I had an ultrasound. I have been measuring big and in the last couple of ultrasounds the Baby has been measuring large. The first measurement was at 80th percentile, and the second one was at 82nd percentile, and the good thing is that this time it looks like baby is in the 59th percentile. To me it seems like by controlling the diabetes the baby’s growth is slowing. During the ultrasound Lucien was noticing how many weeks the computer said the different parts of the were developed based upon the measurements. So the humerus was like 35 weeks and 2 days and the femur was like 36 weeks and 1 day. The sad part was that the head was at 40 weeks and 1 day. So I am really hoping that the head stops growing and the rest of the body catches up.

Finally, we got to see the doctor. Unfortunately, our normal doctor was not available so we got to see a really cute male doctor. He basically took a look at the results from the NST and ultrasound. Then he looked at my charts and we basically chatted. He explained a little more about the Cholestasis that I have developed and mentioned because of the increased risks of still birth (or demise as he called it), doctors tend to induce women with the condition at 38 weeks. This means that those who picked August 11th for the day of birth may be right. Needless to say, I was not disappointed to hear about the inducing early. As for the increased risk of still birth, I am not really thinking about it. The baby is still moving a lot, in fact right now the baby is twisting and turning in the womb. Plus I am now going to the doctor once a week for appointments and having the NST weekly. I see my normal doctor on Thursday and I am sure I will have a better idea about when she is thinking of inducing. We also have not discussed C-Section vs Vaginal birth. I have a feeling if the size stays within normal ranges, I will go Vaginal although I either way I plan on using as many drugs as they will give me.

So what do I do now? Well, I am taking some drugs that will help flow of bile and cut down on the itchiness. For the baby, this new condition can cause extra stress on the Baby, so I am going in tomorrow for a baby stress test to check on the baby, an ultrasound to measure the baby again, and then talk to the Doctor. Unfortunately, tomorrow I am not seeing my normal doctor as she is scheduled to be in surgery all day. Although, she did say she was going to talk to the doctor that I am going to see and said that he is a great doctor.

So here is a run down of the pregnancy issues that I am dealing with:

1. Gestational Diabetes -> This means that I am limiting the number of carbs that I am eating per meal, testing my blood sugars 4 times a day, and is mostly like causing the largeness in the size of my baby.

2. Anemia -> I have low iron which is why I have been so tired throughout this pregnancy. I am now taking iron pills and feeling much better now.

3. Cholestasis -> So this I think is one of the more serious conditions that I have. I will be going in for weekly stress tests to see how the baby is functioning and then the best news that I heard today is the fact that I will most likely be induced early. Lucien actually thinks it will happen tomorrow, but I am thinking it will be a couple more weeks. Either way I am definitely ready to have this baby.

We have another ultrasound and doctors appointment on Friday afternoon, I will post more after that point.

If you would like to keep up to date on exactly what is happening when the little one starts arriving, I urge you to sign up for this email list we’ve set up:

http://lists.jennandlucien.net/listinfo.cgi/babyx-jennandlucien.net

I’ll be sending out emails and pictures to the list via my iPhone during the labour and delivery.

Jennifer looks great – not much time left now! I’m officially making a prediction:

boy
August 11

Anyone else? Post a comment or email us

You can click through to see the pictures on flickr.com – if you can’t see them there, you aren’t friends with me, please log in and becoming a friend, I will mark you appropriately so that you can see them.

So, BabyX is doing fine – he’s still measuring a little large, so we’re going in for another ultrasound next week.. Jennifer found out last week that she has gestational diabetes – which is strictly caused by a woman’s hormones.. basically it means she needs to watch her carbohydrate intake and measure her blood sugar levels 4 times a day.. (morning, and 2 hours after each meal). She’s found that 20 minutes of walking after a meal lowers the blood sugar in her body a dramatic amount, which is a good thing.

Just yesterday we got the bedding, and picked up the mattress today. So expect a picture of everything done up over the next few days.

This month it’s a ‘he’ btw.. we don’t know the sex yet, and hope to still keep it a secret for the next 8 weeks or so.

I’ll be gone for work the week of July 7th, and the gone on a mission trip the next week – I’m seriously debating about talking to the youth leaders about canceling my part of the mission trip, it’s been weighing heavily on my mind being gone for that week..

I had a Drs. appointment a couple of weeks ago and below are pictures from the Ultrasound.

This is a picture of the Baby’s face. It looks a little squished and alien like.

Ok, now it looks like it’s blowing bubbles and still looks a little Alien-ish.

This is 3D picture that was taken. By now the baby was playing shy and wouldn’t move it’s arm.

The technician kept saying that the Baby took great images (like mother like baby). We had an opportunity to see the heart, lungs, hands, and toes. On one foot, the second toe is longer than the big toe. I am hoping that the other toes catch up.

The many reason for the ultrasound was to measure the baby. On my previous visit, I measured a little big so the Doctor wanted to check on the size. Well, the result is that I have a big baby. Go figure. It is in the 80 Percentile which means that 80% of the babies at the stage are smaller than my baby. The Doctor is not really worried (they start worrying at 90%), although she wants to keep an eye on my little one.

I have another Doctor’s appointment on Monday. At this point, they are going to check my blood glucose level for diabetes (standard practice). This requires that I drink a sugar water mixture within 10 minutes and then have my blood drawn within an hour of starting the drink. The doctor will also measure my uterus and listen to the baby’s heart beat.

You can tell she’s semi-happy about it by the tiny little smirk on her face.

The baby is fine, but some of the measurements from the ultrasound are measuring it at 28 weeks – the official word is that it is at 80th percentile. (80% of babies at this time are smaller than it, and 20% are larger).

Fun fun!

Last Thursday, I had a Drs appointment. We got to hear the baby’s heart beat and Lucien learned how to determine where my uterus ends. At this time, it is half way between my breastbone and belly button. Unfortunately, it is a little larger than the Dr expected so I am going to get another ultrasound next week.

We also signed up for Birthing class last week. There are classes that you can go to once a week for 4 weeks or a weekend class. Because of our schedules, there isn’t 4 weeks in a row that both Lucien and I will be around this summer, so we are taking the intense weekend class at the beginning of July. Hopefully, it is not too far away from the Due Date so that we forget what we learned.

The original one is on Flickr here:

http://flickr.com/photos/lucien/2455477335/

You’ll need to be logged in to see it, and be my friend. Feel free to do that, those of you who know this url are welcome to the bigger sizes.

Update: At her prenatal appointment today, we computed that she is exactly 24 weeks pregnant today.

My theory is that she took her vitamin yesterday, and then had a cookie about 2 hours before it happened, so he got excited from all the good stuff coming his way!

“He” you ask? Well, we got tired of calling him an it, so for April we’re calling it he.. May it’s a she!

Hopefully he isn’t too confused when he arrives in August..

The Ultrasound above was taken on March 13th, yes a month ago, I am a little behind. The top 2 pictures are profiles of Baby X. During the Ultra Sound, Baby X was not being co-operative and the technician kept trying to make it move. The Top Right picture was taken after Baby X decided that he/she had enough was just going to curl up in a ball and not move. Sound familiar.

The bottom left picture is Baby X’s left foot (the picture looks better on the actual Ultrasound) and the bottom right picture is intentionally left blank.

Based on a 40 week pregnancy, I will be classified as pregnant for 10 Lunar months. So again, when someone talks about being 5 months pregnant, they are usually talking about Lunar months and not calendar months.

Only 20 more weeks to go until D-Day. Am I excited or nervous? I don’t know. I just wish I felt better. I still get an upset stomach almost every day and do not have a normal appetite. For example, tonight for Dinner Lucien and I went to John Barleycorns (a McMenimans restaurant) which servers my favorite Cheesesteak sandwich. The sad part was that I didn’t feel like eating it, I actually had a basic garden salad because I figured I had to eat something. I just want to be like other pregnant women who eat everything and can finish their meals. I know this is probably a misconception but it is one that I wish was true.

And for those who are wondering, yes I am showing and yes I am now in maternity clothes. I just wish it hadn’t decided to snow this week in Portland, since I don’t have any winter maternity clothes.

The set list is to the right. 

So what qualifies as a good day? Well, it’s a day when I feel like eating and don’t get an upset stomach. Also it’s usually a day where I feel like I have energy or I am able to take a nap.

On the flip side, a bad day is when I don’t feeling like eating, have an upset stomach and just feel tired all day. Wednesday is a good example of a bad day. I did not want to get up out of bed and subsequently got into work late (it’s spring break so no body is in the office). Most of the morning, I had an upset stomach but knew that I needed to eat. So I went to lunch and on the way back to work, I lost my lunch (I don’t think you want all the details). Needless to say, I grabbed my computer from my cube, went home, and took a nap. The rest of the evening I was very wary of food and sat on the couch the rest of the evening.

I am hoping that the rest of the day is a good day.

I am off to pick up Lucien for Baby X’s first concert, we are going to see Bruce Springsteen.

This is the first picture of Baby X taken at my first visit with the OB on Feb. 7, 2008. At this point in time, I was not doing well. I spent most of January either sitting on the couch or losing my breakfast/lunch/dinner in the bathroom. It was not fun. In the midst of the morning sickness, I got a horrible cold that was going around at the time. I wasn’t telling anyone that I was pregnant and everyone was telling me the best drugs that I should take for the cold. I basically just nodded and said I would look into it; little did they know that I couldn’t take a thing.

February was a little better, not so much throwing up but I was still nauseous. I still enjoyed just sitting on the couch although the couch and I were no longer “best friends”.

The sonogram helped make everything that I was going through feel “real”. Before that I just felt sick all the time and not enjoying being pregnant at all.

Baby X is not a calm docile little thing, it was moving around a lot during the sonogram. It was really fun to watch. Lucien really enjoyed looking at the technology that was used to make the picture appear on the monitor.

The answer is – we’re not telling. We.. well, me actually, started talking about names a long while ago, and had picked out the names that we liked last summer.. crazy I suppose.

We’ll know the name when we find out if it’s a boy or a girl.

Your guess is as good as ours!

Yes, we haven’t found out the sex. Jennifer talked me into it, and the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of the big surprise on birth day.

The doctors at her last pre-natal visit and ultra sound were kind enough to turn the monitor away from us, and blacken out the sex on the page.. so they know, we don’t.