Our Poor Yard

So my mom drove out to my house yesterday to get my mail... and this is what she found when she pulled up!! At least they're getting our plumbing problem fixed right? Our poor yard though... Well maybe... they have to relandscape our yard now! Hooray! New yard!!

On a side note... I'm staying at my parents while Justus is in Dallas. Here's a cute picture of one of the many things he's done while we've been staying there.

Grandpa, Uncle Connor and cute Xander!

Flooding...

So, Justus is in Dallas for a week. He left Saturday morning. Friday night while he was packing he went in our basement and discovered it was FLOODED!!! Our main drain is backed up; the drain from the basement out to the sewer. So he called his dad (after 10pm) and he came over and helped him clean up the water. We tried to call our builder to see what they could do, but the emergency number girl was no help... she said it was only for "life threatening emergencies..." if I'm having a life threatening emergency I'm going to call 911, not you!!! It was a rediculous night. So at 3am we drove over to my parents (since we couldn't use our water) and Justus was able to shower before his flight. I'm staying at my parents this week, so I have to go meet our plumber at our house this afternoon to get it all fixed.

My mom and I went through boxes that got wet and there wasn't much damaged... but there were some photos that got wet, luckily not ruined. Our temple blanket Justus' grandma had made us got wet, but I got that washed and will store it in a much better place now (like a closet). Oh...and our carpet at the bottom of our stairs got all wet too... so they pulled that up so it could dry out and we will have to get my parents carpet cleaner and clean that.

What a fun Friday night we had!! Oh... and Justus' phone broke yesterday in Dallas! What else can go wrong for us right now????

6 Weeks!

Our little Xander turned 6 weeks old on Monday (I know it's Friday, this is a very delayed posting...) but he is so adorable!! He finally fits into this cute Naartjie premie (yes premie) outfit that I got for way cheap since it was on sale, on sale... But he looks so adorable in it!

Pictures?

So... our little Xander is almost one month old!! I cannot believe it! We are hoping to get scheduled to get his pictures taken in the next week or so... that way we can send out some birth announcements to all.

Two Weeks Already?

Our little boy turned two weeks old yesterday... Justus and I keep thinking that had he not come early this would have been the week we would have had him (had he stayed breach). I cannot believe we've had him in our lives that long. Although we are both getting little sleep we still love him to bits and pieces!! We couldn't imagine out lives without him. My mom has still be helping out a lot with us at night so we can get some sleep, so thanks mom for all the help we really appreciate it; and Xander loves his Grandma!

He had his two week check up and all is well. He's gained his birth weight back, he measure 6 pounds 1 ounce and grew to 19 inches! He was 6 pounds at birth and lost 10% of his birth weight, and he was 17 1/2 inches long... Man he's a growing little boy!

Xander Wayne Koelliker

So, the story... early Monday morning (2/8/10) I woke up with contractions that were pretty close. I timed them, they were 5-6 minutes apart, I got nervous. I woke Justus up, who luckily stayed home from work that morning to be with me, and I told him how close the contractions were. He was kind of out of it and said to keep timing them and lets see if they slow down or get closer. Well, they definitely got closer. I woke him up again, telling him the last 3 contractions were 2-3 minutes apart. So, we scrambled to get things and head for the hospital. Luckily I had a "nesting phase" the week before and had a bag packed for the hospital. And we headed up to Alta View.

On our way there Justus called my parents (its 4:45am by the way) and he told my dad we were headed to the hospital. He just said okay, call us when you get there and let us know what's going on. My family thinks I overreact to things, so they don't always take me seriously... My mom asked him who was on the phone and he told her that we were headed to the hospital. And she said well should we go over there? my dad's reply "It's Katie..." so she ended up calling us back and she was going to meet us there. We also called the Koelliker's and they were more apt to head right over, we told them we'd let them know what the situation was before we had them head over.

So we get to the hospital and get admitted and all hooked up to a monitor. My contractions were strong and still very close. After being monitored for a while, Justus finally asked the nurse what was going to happen, if we were going to be there and have the baby or what... her response "Oh, you're going to have the baby today." POW! Definitely wasn't completely prepared for that answer, but I was still very excited but very nervous. Knowing that he was breach I knew I was going to have a C-Section. The nurse informed us that Dr. Tanner had another C-Section schedule for 7:30am but would probably push that back so he could do mine first (since I was in active labor). She went to call Dr. Tanner and let him know our status. He ordered to have them give me a shot of some medicine to see if my contractions would slow down or stop, since he knew I was only 36 almost 37 weeks along. I had a wonderful reaction to the shot, and almost passed out. It was fun stuff! The medicine made my contractions less strong but they were still going just as often and after maybe 15-20 minutes they were back just as strong and still very close together.

So, after being in the hospital for maybe 2 hours I was in the operating room getting set up to have our baby.

I was so nervous. We weren't ready for him to come yet, but we were so excited to finally have him coming into our lives. We knew we'd make it all work even though we weren't completely prepared.

Xander Wayne Koelliker born at 7:54am on Feb. 8th 2010

He was 5lbs 15.6oz and 17 1/2 inches long


Our first family picture

Mommy finally gets to hold her boy, he was so beautiful... I just cried. I was so amazed that he knew my voice and how he just stared up at me knowing I was his mommy.

Justus holding his boy. He is such a wonderful dad!

Grandma Burt, finally getting to hold her first grand baby!

She has been such a big help to me and loves our boy so much.

Thanks mom!

He's already posing for pictures!

Isn't he beautiful?! Especially when he has his eyes open wide!

Our little guy after his first bath at home.

We had to go out and buy some preemie outfits because we didn't have any and all the newborn clothes we have are too big for him right now. He's so tiny!

We can't even imagine our lives without him. He is such a wonderful baby.

I love you Xander!

Baby Koelliker is here!

Just a quick update, since I'm still in the hospital. Our baby boy, Xander Koelliker (middle name still undecided), was born Monday February 8th 2010 at 7:54am. He is beautiful! He was 36 weeks and 6 days, so he was one day shy of being "full term." He is healthy and did I mention beautiful?! I will post more after we go home. We will be leaving the hospital tomorrow.