The Mauldin News Desk

6 months old already?!

2012-01-23T21:35:00.002-06:00

Our little Teddy is already 6 months old! I can't believe it's gone this fast! He is still a very happy, easy baby and we love him to bits. He went to the doc last week for a checkup and weighs 16 pounds 14 ounces, which is in the 40% for weight and is 25.5 inches, which is 25% for height (seems he's right on track like Charlie, shorty!), but he must be smart because his head is 43 cm which is in the 60%! We'll take it! He has his two front bottom teeth (the first came on New Year's Day) and looks like he may be getting more shortly. He is starting to rock on all 4's and can helicopter around with the best of them. I think he'll be crawling before too long. Not sure I'm ready for him to be mobile, but looks like I won't have a choice. The last week he started sleeping through the night again which is really great. We travelled a lot during the holidays and it's hard for the 4 of us to sleep in the same room without waking each other up. Plus he was cutting teeth so that contributed to the night waking. But now we are back on track for now. We have tried to start him on solids and he just doesn't seem to want them. I tried rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, applesauce, squash and baby mum mums. We get the same reaction every time. Gagging, making faces like we just put the most disgusting thing in his mouth and eventual crying and fussing. So looks like he's not quite ready yet, so we'll keep offering until he decides he's ready.
We had a nice Christmas here at the house and Charlie loved ALL of the toys the boys received. It's hard trying to explain to a 2 year old that he has to share and that not all the toys are actually his. We went to Louisiana for almost a week to visit family and friends there and came home for Christmas, then went to Fredericksburg to spend New Year's with Jeff's family. As always, there are lots of pictures so you can peruse them at your leisure.

Pictures from Louisiana Christmas

Pictures from Fredericksburg Christmas

Pics from our house Christmas morning

Jeff and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on January 5. We decided to take a quick getaway to San Antonio for the night while we had babysitters around. We stayed at a hotel on the Riverwalk and just enjoyed being kid free for about 24 hours. The hotel was awesome and gave us a free bottle of sparkling wine in our room! What was even more amazing was the wine they gave us was one of our favorites and we have actually been to that vineyard in California. How did they know?

view from our room

Looking out from our balcony

Present from the hotel

I also celebrated my birthday a couple of weeks ago and I decided I wanted seafood. And rather than go out to a restaurant (which is harder and harder to do these days), we had a few friends over and cooked ourselves. It was an actually feast and Jeff was great and did most of the cooking. We had bbq shrimp, grilled redfish, fried catfish, fried shrimp, fried pickles and homemade chips. My friend Erin so kindly brought the cupcakes, Andes Mint, which were amazing! No one left hungry I can tell you that! I had a great day all in all.

Now it's been awhile since my last post, so we have tons of pictures, but I'll try to put up some of the great ones (since they're all good!).

Taking pictures after bathtime

Charlie helping to decorate for Christmas

Charlie modeling the onesie I made for him.

Brothers

Like Father, Like Son

Sweet!

Baptism, Thanksgiving, Santa and a few things in between...

2011-11-26T16:09:00.001-06:00

We've been pretty busy lately and I lose track of time and what's going on with the boys so I'll try to remember everything! Teddy is now 4 months old, as of last Saturday and is growing rapidly.

I weighed him last week and he was 14 pounds 6 oz. I just looked back at Charlie's 4 month stats and he was 13 pounds 12 oz, so Teddy is only slightly bigger than Charlie was at this age. He feels so solid though! He was sleeping through the night for a good 7-9 days (I'm talking went to bed at 9:30 and woke up around 9, no eating in between!), but somehow has not done that recently. I think it may be a growth spurt or something (I'm hoping?) and he will go back to that sleeping through the night deal again. Right now he cluster feeds in the evening until about 9:30 and then will wake up again around 2-3am to eat and then goes back to sleep until 6-7am. :( I know he's only 4 months old so I should be thankful for the times I do get to sleep all night, and I am. I just know that he had gone all night before without eating so lets go back to that! :) But anyway, he's smiling and interacting a lot more now and has discovered his hands and that he can use them to put things in his mouth.

Smile!

He's also rolled over a few times and it won't be long till he's doing it more consistently. Here is the first time he did it:

Teddy rolled over!

He loves to watch everything that is going on around him and especially loves to watch Charlie. He's starting to laugh that really sweet belly laugh and we actually caught it on video:

Charlie continues to be the cute, sweet kid he's always been. He's like a parrot these days and I have to answer the same 2 questions multiple times daily. He always asks "What's THAT, Mama? and Where'd Daddy go?" over and over and over. Every. Day. But that's how they learn, right? :) Gotta love him!

Asking "What's, THAT, Mama?"

We are very excited that the LSU football team is doing so well and we all get dressed up in our LSU gear when the games are on. I think they look cute, don't you?

Geaux Tigers!

Last weekend we had Teddy baptized at St. Mary's Catholic Church here in League City. We had most of our families come in for the occasion so I had a brunch before church so we could all talk and visit before hand. I worked hard all week baking and cooking and I think everything came out great. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of that, but I made pumpkin and zucchini bread, homemade goldfish crackers (in the shape of longhorns cause it was the smallest cookie cutter I had), granola, greek yogurt, doughnut bread pudding with a cappuccino sauce, hash brown omelet, mini quiches, bacon, bisquits, chocolate croissants, coffee and oj! Whew! That was a lot of food! We made it to the church on time and sat through a very.long. service. Even by Catholic standards, it was long. But the kids did great. Teddy was a trooper and Charlie entertained us all with his comments. He was playing with my phone and I have a flash card app and he was going through them and all of a sudden he busted out with "I want some carrots!". He was going through the C flash cards and one had a carrot on it and he suddenly had a craving for carrots. Then he came up with me to get communion and saw me get the host and he said really loudly, "I want a cookie!". He would have been very disappointed with that cookie if he would have gotten one! Never a dull moment around him. Anyway, we had a private ceremony after Mass so here are some of the pictures. The Godparents are Stephen, Jeff's bff, Carrie, Jeff's sister, and Nicki, my sister. After that was over, we went back to our house for more food. I made a roast with gravy for sandwich's and sugar cookies for dessert, along with the rest of the food from the morning.

The Mauldin family with Deacon Sam

Nicki, Deacon, Lauri, Charlie, Stephen, Teddy, Jeff, Carrie

Lauri's family

Stephen, Teddy and Jeff

Jeff's family

Jeff, Carrie (Jeff's sister), Teddy

Nicki (Lauri's sister), Teddy

The next day we went to see Santa at our mall. It's been a tradition the last couple of years to get Santa pictures with Charlie and my sister's kids the week of Thanksgiving. And we usually alternate where we do them. The first year was here, last year was in Baton Rouge and this year here again. I guess next year we'll need to go to Baton Rouge!
I was worried that Charlie would not like Santa and I was right. I put him on Santa's lap and he immediately starting crying and trying to get away. I was prepared though and brought something I only use in emergencies...jelly beans! He loves them and I told him if he sat in Santa's lap he could have some. And just like that, he sat in his lap! Of course he is chewing the jelly beans during the picture so he is not smiling, but he's not freaking out either, so I guess it's a win. Teddy just chilled out on his lap. And he also fit in Jeff's old outfit that Charlie wore the first time he saw Santa. Amazing it fit!

All smiles before Santa:

Grayson, Nicki, Charlie, Kirsten waiting for Santa.

Santa:

Teddy and Charlie with Santa

Kirsten, Grayson, Teddy, Charlie

Jeff had to work evenings Mon-Wed of Thanksgiving week, so we stayed in town for the holiday. We went to our friends house for Thanksgiving day and had a great feast. Unfortunately, no pictures from that either, so I'll leave you with these two:

Cutie...

...Patootie!

We're relaxing and enjoying Jeff being off from work for a few days and getting the house ready for Christmas. We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We have a lot to be thankful for this year, mainly Teddy and my 2 years of being cancer free. Life is good!

2 year checkup

2011-11-16T15:21:00.001-06:00

I had my checkup this week and we got great news! Still no new tumors on my chest ct! This is awesome news! I haven't reached this milestone yet in my entire cancer journey. My first "two year checkup" in 2007 after my leg surgery revealed the metastasis in my lungs, which followed with chemo and 4 thoracotomies. October 14, 2009 was my last surgery (when Charlie was only 2 weeks old!). I have now graduated to every 4 month checkups instead of every 3 months, which we'll do for the next 2 years and then go from there. Thank you to everyone for all your prayers. I truly believe we have beaten this!
What a great time for Thanksgiving! :)

A wedding, pumpkins and Halloween

2011-11-01T16:24:00.001-05:00

2 weekends ago we went back to Louisiana for my BFF's wedding. It was a short trip but we had a lot of fun. The wedding was Saturday and my mom babysat while Jeff and I attended the wedding festivities. We had a great time seeing two great friends get married and we got to see lots of old friends from high school and Camp Avondale (where Jeff and I met).

Besties

The bride and groom

Camp Avondale Peeps

On the way back, we stopped at a pumpkin patch and met my sister and her family there. The kids had a great time playing on all the different things there and each kid got to take a pumpkin home (even Teddy!). We took a bunch of pics but here are a few...

Charlie, Grayson, Kirsten

Kirsten, Charlie, Grayson

Charlie and my mom, aka Grams

Charlie in the hay maze

climbing on top of the hay maze

Charlie, Grams, Grayson

Charlie got to dress up for a party at Mother's Day Out last Tuesday. I hadn't finished his "real" costume, so on Monday I brilliantly came up with this:

The cutest Saints player you have ever seen! There was even an LSU cheerleader in his class, too. Teddy and I went to his "party" at school. It was nice to see what he did in class and how he interacted with the other kids.

Yesterday was Halloween and the first year we went trick or treating since Charlie wasn't walking last year. He did great and said "Trick or Treat" when we reached the door up until someone opened the door. Oh well! He had a great time going door to door getting candy. We put Teddy in his car seat and he and Charlie got to ride in the wagon around the neighborhood. Teddy was awake the whole time just taking it all in. Next year will be even more fun when he can actually participate (and hopefully be walking!). Charlie was Mickey Mouse and Teddy was a mummy. I made both of their costumes and I think they turned out fabulous!

Mickey and Tiger

Mickey

Mummy

Pumpkins Jeff carved

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-17T17:09:00.001-05:00

We went to the local pumpkin patch today to take pictures like we do every year and get some pumpkins. It was kinda hot and naptime for both boys so we didn't get many good pictures, but we managed a few and got some pumpkins as well. We'll probably go back later this week when Jeff's sister comes with her two girls and we can take some pictures of the cousins in the pumpkins which I think will be cute!

Charlie wearing Jeff's shirt from when he was little.

Birthdays!

2011-10-06T13:41:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was Charlie and Jeff's birthdays. We had a small gathering on Saturday to celebrate and Sunday we took it easy. I can't believe Charlie is 2 already! Where does the time go? He got his first haircut on Saturday and he did really well. Here are some pictures:

Before Haircut

After Haircut

Happy Birthday!

I think he likes it! Thanks, Erin for making the cake and cupcakes!

A little too small! :)

A new ride

Table and chairs from Mom and Dad

Nothing new...

2011-09-22T20:06:00.001-05:00

Just some more pictures:

2 month update

2011-09-20T13:28:00.001-05:00

I took Teddy to the doctor today and we got his updated stats. He weighs 13 pounds (75%), length 22.5 (25%), and head circumference 40 cm (75%). So he's keeping with the trend except for his length. But he got a good report from the doctor so that's all that matters. I'll leave you with some pictures. Who do you think he looks like?

Hello!

2011-09-20T08:43:00.000-05:00

I'm 2 months old today! Going to the doctor tomorrow so I'll have some updates then.

Teddy

2011-08-26T13:31:00.001-05:00

Teddy is one month old (actually, 1 month and 1 week today) and the time is flying by already! He went to the doctor last week and weighed a whopping 10 pounds 8 ounces! He is following in his big brother's footsteps with a 3 pound weight gain in the first month. That and he has reflux like Charlie did, but he's doing better on his medicine. But that's about the only similarities health wise. He has grown to 21.5 inches (75%) and he is in the 75% in weight as well. Charlie was and is holding steady in the 25% for everything. He may not be the "little" brother for very long. ;) He is continuing to eat and sleep like a champ and for that we are thankful!

When I was around 36 weeks, I had my friend Shea come down from Austin to take some maternity/family shots for us. As usual, they came out awesome and I wanted to share them with you. There are more at www.photosbysheablog.com.

Another checkup...

2011-08-18T09:26:00.001-05:00

That says I am still cancer free! Amazing! We are so happy with these results. The whole family went to my doctor's appointment yesterday to get the news. My doctor wanted to see Teddy, of course and everyone was very excited to see a brand new baby at the hospital. Both boys brought a smile to people's faces, which is nice. I only did a CT scan this time along with the usual bloodwork, but no chest xray. Apparently they have changed the policy of requiring a chest xray before CT scans, which I am ecstatic about. Less radiation for me in the long run. My next checkup is in mid-November and if I am all clear again, I will have surpassed the 2 year mark for being cancer free, which is huge! I am confident that all the prayers that everyone has said tirelessly for me over the years have helped along with the support of my family and friends. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Welcome to our new baby!

2011-08-01T14:54:00.001-05:00

Our little baby has arrived! Theodore "Teddy" Howard Mauldin arrived on July 19, 2011 at 12:35 pm. He weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces and was 20 inches long. He is now 2 weeks old and doing great! He is eating and sleeping very well and as of last week at his doctor's appointment he weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces. We're not quite sure who he looks like yet, but time will tell. Charlie is doing very well adjusting to being a big brother. He likes to "help" out and gives lots of kisses. We are adjusting to having 2 kids, which is a challenge, but seems to get a little easier everyday. Jeff has been able to stay home and has been a huge help, so much so that I don't want him to go back to work! My mom was able to stay for over a week as well, and she was also a huge help. She and Charlie were BFF's and we were all sad to see her go home. But enough yapping, I know you really just want to see some pictures! These are from his birthday, so he has changed quite a bit.

36 weeks and counting...

2011-07-08T14:19:00.000-05:00

I'm now 36 4/7 days pregnant. Still having a hard time grasping that concept! Our little baby will be here before we know it. And it's looking like sooner rather than later. At my appointment yesterday I am already 2 cm dilated and 60% effaced. Things are progressing quicker than I imagined. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but the space shuttle launched today (yay for that!), but Jeff is working this mission, which may cause a few hiccups should I go into labor before July 17. But I won't be working during this time, so I can lay low at the house and not do too much and hopefully keep cooking this baby for another 2 weeks. I'm getting more and more uncomfortable everyday, but that is the nature of the beast. Good news is that head is down and in good position for a natural delivery. So everything is going well and we may have a baby here before we know it!

35 weeks

2011-06-27T20:34:00.000-05:00

Today I'm 35 weeks. Can't believe it's almost time for this baby to come! I had another dr appointment today and we got good news all around. I only gained 1 pound since last week. So my total weight gain thus far is 25 pounds. Not too bad. This is about 10 pounds less than what I had gained with Charlie at this point. Last week the baby was breech and the nurse practioner did an ultrasound in the room to see if things had changed. And guess what? They have! Happy to report that at this point, baby is head down. And hopefully will stay that way! I'm sure we'll check again in a few weeks to make sure that the head is still down, but we are happy with this news. I've been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions, but so far, they haven't really caused any changes, which is good. I'm not opposed to an early baby, but I'm hoping to make it to at least July 18. So we'll see. Next appointment is next week. We'll have more info after that!

Award

2011-06-22T12:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Jeff received the very high honor of hanging the Soyuz 24S TMA-01M
Plaque for the Attitude Determination and Control Officer (ADCO) team in the
Mission Control Center. This is for all his hard work on the increment he worked on
for 6 months starting last fall. We are very proud of him and all the accomplishments
he has had since working at NASA.

Sorry it's small. This is from a cell phone. Waiting to get a copy from the NASA photographer.

Catch up

2011-06-20T14:00:00.000-05:00

Wow! So it's been almost 2 months since I've updated. We've been busy as usual, so I'll try to catch up on everything that has been going on.

May was busy with work during the week and working outside on the weekends. We have wanted to build a flower bed along the back side of the house for awhile now and finally decided to do it. We were going to get a landscaper to do it, but it was more expensive than we thought, so Jeff decided to tackle the immense project himself. With appropriate supervising from me, of course! ;) We got yards of dirt and mulch delivered to the house, Jeff dug out the grass/clay/various building materials left by the builders and trash, hauled away said grass/clay/various building materials left by the builders and trash, filled in the hole with dirt, added a border, then put a weed barrier on top, then planted all the new plants and mulched on top of that. We added a small bed in the back corner of the yard and planted some azaleas there. We had extra (lots of extra!) dirt and mulch, so we (Jeff) tended to the front flower bed, mulched around the trees we have AND made two garden areas in the backyard (which we will plant something in next year). We did all this for the same price that we got quoted for just digging a new flower bed and adding the dirt and mulch to it. That's it. Jeff worked really hard and I think it looks great! This was my Mother's Day present and he worked on it for a long time.

Dirt and mulch piles in the driveway

The beginning of the digging stage

What it looked like before

Charlie and the dogs helping

The pile of clay

Border is in

Plants strategically placed

Where the azaleas are going, before the bed is finished

All done!

Another view

Another project Jeff tackled was remaking our old picnic table. The one we had was about 30 years old and was pretty rickety. I wanted to remake it the same size (it's pretty big) and make it more sturdy. So Jeff got to work and remade it and it's awesome! Very sturdy and waterproof, so it should last forever!

New picnic table, prewaterproofing. You can see the garden boxes in the background.

We've also been doing some rearranging in the house to get ready for the new addition that will be here before we know it! The guest room is no longer a guest room. The bed has been taken out and the closet and dresser cleaned out and filled with baby clothes. We have purchased a futon that we put in the office so that is where guests will stay when they visit. Our next step is to paint the room, which should happen sometime this week. We are going to move Charlie's crib in there at some point, but haven't decided when to make that transition. I really like him in his crib! But he will be moving out of there shortly so we can put it in the other room.

Last week we went on "vacation" with my family to Galveston. I'm not allowed to travel very far, so that's as far as we went. We stayed at Jeff's Uncle's beach house for the week and did a few things in Houston and some in Galveston, many of which we had never done before. We went to Discovery Green, the zoo, the beach, Moody Gardens Rainforest and Palm Beach. The boys also went to an Astros game one night, while the girls stayed home with the kids. We went on a couple of boat rides into Galveston Bay and rode the golf cart around. The kids had a blast and I know the adults enjoyed themselves too. Here are a few pictures from that:

My sister and Charlie

At Moody Gardens Rainforest

Nicki, Grayson, Charlie and Kirsten

Jeff and Charlie and the dinosaur exhibit

Grayson, Nicki, Mom, Charlie, Me, Kirsten

Now for a baby update:

I'm currently 34 weeks along. I had an ultrasound today to see how big the baby is measuring. We found out that he's breech, measuring 2 weeks ahead and weighs about 6.5 pounds. (For reference, Charlie was born at 37 weeks and weighed 6.9) We're praying that he'll turn at some point in the next few weeks. I'll have another ultrasound at 37 weeks to see if that has happened and we'll make plans from there. I've been feeling good. Having contractions here and there, mainly when I'm walking around and they'll stop when I sit down, which is good. I was slow to gain weight at the beginning of the pregnancy (with Charlie I was at a steady pace of a pound a week from the 2nd trimester on). This one I'm gaining it all now towards the end. For instance, from my appointment last week to today I have gained 3 pounds! That's a lot! But I'm not swelling anywhere so it must be going straight to the baby. Hence the measuring 2 weeks ahead. So lots will be happening in the next month or so. Never a dull moment around here, that's for sure!

Updates from the last 6 weeks...

2011-04-27T16:07:00.001-05:00

So it's been awhile since my last post because we have been extremely busy around here. Let's see where to start. My last post was about Maggie, so I'll update her status first.

Maggie:
She was starting to build up fluid around her neck again and antibiotics didn't seem to be helping, so she had surgery to remove the cysts around her neck. She did great and only spent one night at the vet. She was ordered to be on limited activity for 2 weeks while the incision healed. Anyone that has met Maggie knows what a challenge that is. She had 2 cysts removed and came home with 2 "drains", which were open to air, meaning anything that came out of those drains just dripped out. Nice, right? We prepared for this by placing sheets on the couch and rug and hoping for the best. Luckily, she only had one instance of really oozing out of the drains and incision, so it wasn't too bad. She had the drains removed on Monday and is not leaking out of the holes where the drains came out of. We take her back in a week to remove the stitches from her neck and then she should be good to go. She kinda looks like Frankenstein because of the large incision on her neck. But all in all, she's doing great.

Here she is post surgery with drains:

Mini Vacay to Fredericksburg:
Jeff finished his increment and shuttle mission, so we headed to Fredericksburg for some R&R for about a week. We stayed with his parents and had a nice time. Jeff and his dad went to a few wineries, we picked strawberries, made jam with those strawberries(well, helped a little bit with the making of jam ;)), went to Austin for a day to visit a couple of friends of mine, went to a "living farm" and saw cows, chickens and sheep and had a nice picnic and then went to our niece's first birthday party. We were plenty busy on our "relaxing" vacation!

Here are lots of pics from our trip:

Rebecca's Birthday:

Charlie:
Charlie had his 18 month checkup and weighed in at a whopping 21 3/4 pounds! Still my skinny little guy! He also had a double ear infection, which we had no clue about. He didn't exhibit any symptoms. He took his 10 days of antibiotics and was fine at the follow up visit. He continues to learn and do new things everyday. He understands more and more of what we tell him, which is nice. He has so many new teeth that I lost count. We have gone to mostly one nap a day, which I was dreading, but it hasn't been too bad. He's mainly in 12 month clothes and some shorts fall off of him cause he's so skinny, but what can you do? We get a lot of wear out of his clothes, that's for sure!

Lauri & Baby:
I've had an interesting month myself. At the very end of March, the pollen was out of control here. I got pretty sick from it, sick enough for my OB to get concerned and send me to the hospital. I had a lot of fluid in my sinuses and a bad cough that turned to wheezing. So I went in for a 23 hour "observation" to see a pulmonologist that would make me feel better. That was a joke. He claimed that I had a "virus" that just had to run it's course. My xray was clear and when he examined me, I my lungs were clear as well. :( I did not get one respiratory treatment while there. I got claritin, sudafed, and one dose of iv antibiotics. Oh, and lovenox, a blood thinner (a shot, by the way), since I was laying in bed. I did my best to be a "good" patient and tried to get out of there as soon as I could. I got a z pack prescribed to me for when I went home (not sure of that since I was told I had a virus), but I think that helped me get better, since I really think I just had a bad sinus infection. I was fine for 2 weeks, when I woke up one morning just feeling weird. My stomach was crampy (more menstrual than contractions) and my hips really hurt. I took a warm bath, but that only helped a little. A couple of hours later, I noticed blood in my urine. Knowing that is not good, I called my OB, who promptly sent me back to the hospital, but I went to the Assessment center this time, I was not being admitted. They checked out me and the baby and really could find nothing wrong. The baby was fine, I was not contracting or dilated or in danger of going into labor, so all good news there. My OB ordered an ultrasound, which was supposed to be a kidney ultrasound, but instead I got a baby ultrasound. Every time I get ultrasounds, I ask them to make sure of the sex of the baby. I told the girl that I was having a girl so let's be sure it's still a girl. Well, she did a really thorough u/s and then started acting kinda weird and even left the room at one point. She had seen what she thought were boy parts and didn't want to tell me! She fessed up that she thought it was a boy, but she had been wrong before and maybe it was really a girl with swollen parts, blah, blah, blah. But from what I saw on the screen, I thought it was a boy too, but what do I know. Now I was really confused and wait till I tell Jeff! He took the news well (it really doesn't matter in the end) and now we have to come up with 2 sets of names just in case! I went back to my OB the next week for a follow up for the blood in my urine (had just a trace, so that's good news) and told her the whole story of we thought it was a girl, but now we think it's a boy and she's confused as well. My high risk dr is the one who told me it was a girl (twice!) and he's NEVER wrong! We had a quick scan in the office and it was pretty inconclusive, so now we have no idea what it is. Guess we'll find out when I deliver!

I had my 3 month checkup at MD Anderson today and the results were great! No tumors showed up on my xray, so my next checkup will be mid-August after the baby is born. Yay!

Easter:
We had a nice, quiet Easter at home. Charlie and I went to church so the Easter Bunny could come. We had an egg hunt inside and outside, but Charlie figured out quickly that the eggs with the candy were only inside, so he wasn't too interested in the eggs outside. We have one smart cookie on our hands! But it was a nice, relaxing day and we enjoyed ourselves. Here are the pics from Easter:

Charlie with the Easter Bunny:

I think that's about all I had to update on, and I'll try not to wait so long between posts!

Poor Maggie...

2011-03-15T20:07:00.000-05:00

Last week we had some excitement with Maggie. On Wednesday, I noticed that she had some bloody drainage coming from her left side. After further inspection, I found that she had a couple of areas that were like sores or wounds. Only one was "oozing", the other looked like it had a scab over it. And she was also swollen on the left side of her neck and shoulder. I could tell that it hurt and she didn't feel well, so the next day I brought her in to the vet to see what was going on. I didn't know if she had gotten bitten by something or gotten attacked by a stick (she's been known to get long sticks stuck in her collar) or it was something more serious. The vet shaved her neck and found that it was a cyst (or cysts) that had gotten infected after she scratched it and her skin was getting stretched by all the swelling and fluid build up. So she got put on some oral antibiotics and a cream to put on her skin and we were told to come back in on Monday to reevaluate. Depending on how well she was healing, she may or may not need surgery to remove the cyst(s). By the end of the weekend, she had stopped oozing and was starting to look and act like her old self. I brought her in on Monday and the vet said that she was healing very well and she didn't lose any of her skin so we will continue antibiotics and come back when she's finished taking them and go from there. Thank goodness! We were very happy with that result and very happy that Maggie is feeling better. She looks a lot better, too. She is prone to these "cysts" and has a few of them that have been there for years and not bothered her, so we leave them alone. They are sort of like pimples, harmless unless they rupture or get infected. Hopefully we have seen the worst and nothing like this will happen again. And the only way to describe how bad it was is to show a picture of it. And a little warning, these pictures are pretty graphic so if you get grossed out easily, DO NOT click on the picture! But, me being a nurse, I have to show you! And I know some of you are curious and want to see it, too!

Maggie

And the verdict is...

2011-02-21T20:19:00.001-06:00

Today I went and had my anatomy ultrasound with my high risk doctor. Everything looks great and really low chance of the baby having any sort of birth defects. The baby weighs about 6 ounces and is measuring right on at 17 weeks 1 day. Yes, back to my original due date of August 1! I guess we just caught the baby on a growth spurt or something last time. And for those of you waiting with bated breath on what the gender is, here you go:

First birthday...

2011-02-17T16:16:00.001-06:00

I know it's a little late, but we had some pictures taken for Charlie's first birthday way back in September. I am just realizing that I didn't put them up here for everyone to see. They came out so good! We couldn't decide on which ones to get, so we got most of them!

The birthday boys

My favorite

Walk like a Man...

2011-02-17T14:53:00.000-06:00

And we are FINALLY walking! Charlie has been "officially" walking for a little over a week now. He will still crawl occasionally, but mainly walks. I must say, he's much slower getting around while walking than he is with crawling, but I know that will change the better he gets at it. So, one more milestone achieved. He has gotten 3 of his molars in and is working on the 4th. He likes to get his teeth in groups I guess! We'll how long it takes before the next round comes in. He is saying a few more words now, too. He will say please and I swear today he said biscuit after I asked him if he wanted a biscuit for breakfast. Not sure he will repeat it for anyone else to hear, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it! He recently got some bubbles as a gift so we gave him his first bubble bath the other day. I'll let you decide if he liked it or not...

I think we'll be holding off on the bubbles for awhile. Not sure why he didn't like them, but that's ok. We will try again at another time.

I just realized that I forgot to update about my latest appointment. Everything is looking good and the baby is actually measuring a week bigger so they have moved my due date up a week. Which would be the end of July. Which is fine with me, but we'll see if baby continues on this trend through the duration of my pregnancy. Not sure I agree with the new dates, but what do I know? ;) Still not feeling (or looking) very pregnant, but I am slowly transitioning to maternity clothes.

That's about all the news I have right now. Next appointment is the big one! Stay tuned!

And just some random pictures for fun:

Happy Valentine's Day!

One year ago...

2011-02-02T10:24:00.000-06:00

A year ago Jeff set out on a weight loss journey and I am happy and proud to announce that he has lost almost 50 pounds! He's worked hard to lose it and keep it off. Way to go, Jeff! Here are a before and after pictures:

Checkup

2011-01-28T08:29:00.000-06:00

I had my 3 month checkup this week and I'm happy to report that the news is good! Nothing showed up on the ultrasound of my leg or on my chest xray. Hooray! This has officially been the longest I have gone without something coming back in my lungs since 2007. What a relief! We are more confident now that we finally have gotten all of the original tumors. I will go back at the end of April for bloodwork and a chest xray.

Charlie continues to be a happy and healthy baby. Still working on walking, but he will get there in his own time. He is currently working on getting in some teeth. He got 8 teeth from May to August of last year, and none since then. I think he is making up for lost time because I think he's getting at least 4 new ones on the bottom-all at once! Hopefully they'll come through quickly and with as little pain as possible.

Now as for me, I'm currently 13 weeks along and still feeling fine. My main symptom is being tired. I find that if I don't get a nap in, I'm really feeling it by evening time. I haven't gained much weight yet and still fit in my regular clothes. I have a small bump, but I think I was bigger with Charlie at this point. I might be carrying this one slightly higher so that's why my pants still fit. My shirts are getting a little "short" though, so I may have to start wearing maternity shirts soon.

That's about all the news we have for right now. Next OB check is next week. I'll update then!

And 3 became 4...

2011-01-14T15:29:00.000-06:00

Well, in case you didn't know, I am pregnant! We are very excited, yet nervous because of my health history. I am currently 11 weeks along (or 12, depending on my calculations or the recent ultrasounds I have had). This puts me due towards the end of July. I've been feeling really good, with none of the typical pregnancy symptoms that plague most women. My only symptom is being tired. So all in all, this is pretty close to how I was with Charlie. I'm not complaining! I will continue to keep you updated on my progress. The next big hurdle is my checkup at MD Anderson, which will be on Jan 26-27. We are praying for good news here and only thinking positive.

On a lighter note, Charlie had his 15 month checkup on Tuesday and he continues to do well. He is continuing on his growth curve, weighing 21 pounds (10%) and 31 inches (I think! 25%). He is still not walking, but is really close. He says a few words like "woof" and "quack", but his greatest trick is shimmying on command! We have yet to get it on video, but it is the cutest thing ever! Sometimes he does it spontaneously, but will also do it if you ask. We will get evidence eventually! Other than that, he continues to thrive and bring joy to our lives everyday. He's such a sweet kid! I'm hoping his sibling takes after him, but we'll see. ;)

Here are a few pictures from our ultrasound on Monday:

And a picture of the future Drew Brees!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T16:16:00.000-06:00

We hope everyone had a fun and safe New Year's Eve. We had a quiet night at home. Charlie was in bed by 6:30 and Jeff and I managed to stay up till midnight to ring in the new year.
2010 was an interesting year for us. Jeff lost his 3 remaining grandparents and I lost my Godmother, but we welcomed 2 new members to Jeff's family and we are thankful for them! I managed to go a whole year without a recurrence of my cancer (next checkup is in a few weeks). Fingers crossed that I remain that way!

We look forward to what 2011 has in store for us. As it looks now, it's going to be exciting!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2010-12-30T14:46:00.000-06:00

Just a short post to wish everyone a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We have been traveling a lot and are finally back home. No plans to go anywhere anytime soon. Here are a few pics from our Christmas...

From 2010-12-25

From 2010-12-26

Santa

2010-12-07T09:35:00.000-06:00

While I was in Louisiana for Thanksgiving week, my sister and I decided to take our kids to go and see Santa at the mall. We did this last year when they came to Texas for Thanksgiving and it worked out well. It did not work out that well this year. Kirsten and Grayson went first and we actually got a few good pictures. Then Grayson started getting antsy, so we tried adding Charlie to the mix. He was all smiles until I sat him down on Santa's lap. Then he burst into tears! And then Grayson didn't want any part of Santa. We got one with a partial Grayson, Kirsten smiling big and Charlie crying. That was the best we could do. Oh well, maybe we'll have better luck next year!

Before Santa

Kirsten and Grayson

Grayson, Kirsten and Charlie

Charlie

Halloween

2010-11-02T13:37:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! We had a nice day. Since Charlie is still pretty young and doesn't walk yet, we didn't really go trick or treating. We went to the church where he goes to Mother's Day Out and participated in their "Trunk or Treat". It was pretty small, but fun. We then went over to our friends' house who live on the next street over and "trick or treated" there, but that was about it. Charlie was in bed by 6:30 and slept through all of the doorbell ringing, barking dogs and trick or treaters coming up to the door. He was super cute in his outfit though.

Charlie Brown

Handing out candy at Trunk or Treat

Charlie and Linus

Trunk or Treat!

We went to a Halloween party on Saturday night at one of Jeff's coworker's house. Can you guess what we went as?

One Year

2010-10-15T13:42:00.000-05:00

So one year ago (yesterday) was my surgery to remove the tumor (and my left lower lobe) in my lung. It was hard leaving my 2 week old baby, but he was in good hands with Jeff and his mother. This surgery was easier than all the other ones (I figure, by the 4th time, we should learn from past mistakes!) and I didn't have to stay in the hospital long at all. I think surgery was on Wednesday and I was home by Saturday afternoon. I had a good reason to be a good patient and get out of there quick! My baby needed his mom! And I needed him, too! I (we) are hoping and praying that we are finally done with all this cancer nonsense and can move on with our lives. I believe Charlie is my miracle baby in many ways and feel that he is the ultimate healer for me. It was a gamble to have him and it paid off. I don't regret anything and would do it again in a heartbeat. I can't imagine life without him and he brings such joy to our family. He is our hope for a better and brighter future.

Potty training

2010-10-04T10:15:00.000-05:00

I think he'll be a natural when it comes the time to start potty training. I think this is so cute! He is on the space toilet.

Birthday weekend

2010-10-03T16:38:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we had a joint birthday party for Jeff and Charlie. The weather was excellent and so was the food. We had a great day and were glad so many of our friends and family were able to come and celebrate with us. A big thanks to Erin for baking the cupcakes and Charlie's cake. Everyone loved them! Here are the pictures:

Birthday #1

2010-10-01T12:50:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday, Charlie! It seems like just yesterday that we were in the hospital preparing for your arrival. We went to the doctor today and he is still very skinny at 20 pounds (10%) but has gotten a little taller at 29.5 inches (50%). He got a great report from the pedi and escaped with only 1 shot and one blood draw. He has a total of 8 teeth, 4 on top, 4 on bottom, with more to come shortly I'm sure. He's chewing on his hands and drooling a lot. He is not walking yet, but we are practicing with the new push toy he got for his birthday. It won't be long now. Not sure I'm ready for that just yet! He sleeps from about 6:30-7pm to about 630-7:30am. And he takes one morning nap for about 1-1.5 hours and an afternoon nap for about the same amount of time. No complaints there! He is saying Mama and Dada and can wave bye bye and also sign for milk. He's pretty much fully weaned and on mostly cow's milk until we run out of the frozen stash of breast milk. I achieved my personal goal of breastfeeding for his first year. No small feat, but definitely worth it. Now the next challenge is getting rid of his bottle. Sort of ironic since it was a battle to get him to actually drink from one consistently! He truly is a blessing and a joy. We love him to pieces and can't wait to see what the future holds for us.

For those of you interested, we took some birthday pics on Monday. Check out this website www.mindyrathe.com to see the sneak peeks!

Can't believe it's that time already!

2010-09-28T15:43:00.000-05:00

It is almost Charlie's first birthday! Where has this year gone? This past weekend, we went to Louisiana to celebrate my stepmother's birthday and also have a party for Jeff and Charlie. It was a very busy weekend, but very fun. We had my stepmother's party on Saturday night. Then on Sunday was Jeff and Charlie's party. On Monday we had family/birthday pics done by my friend Mindy and then drove home. Here are some of the pictures from the weekend. (They first ones are random ones from the house).

NASA Tour

2010-09-28T15:34:00.000-05:00

A couple of weekends ago, NASA had a family day where they opened up the entire center to employees and their families to come and look at the facilities. This included areas usually restricted, ones that many people (including employees) don't get to visit. So Jeff, Charlie and I decided to go and take a look. It was really neat to see the simulators and mock ups of the shuttle and space station. We had a great time and took lots of pictures.

Grandpa Mauldin

2010-09-28T15:31:00.000-05:00

Last week we got the unfortunate news that Jeff's grandfather had passed away. This was his dad's father. He passed away in his sleep, so he did not suffer at all. He was a generous, kind, funny man and will be deeply missed by all who knew him.

4 Generations of Mauldin men

Jeff and Charlie with his grandparents

Bromley snuck in the picture!

Picture post

2010-09-16T15:53:00.000-05:00

Some random pictures I had-still practicing with the new mac and putting pics up...

Lauri's Checkup - Good News!

2010-09-14T19:57:00.000-05:00

Lauri and I returned to M.D. Anderson today to get the results of Lauri's chest CT scan, X-ray, and blood tests. We have these checkups every 3 months to check to see if the cancer has returned. The good news - Lauri got a clean bill of health! The radiologist report reads "No evidence of metastatic disease"!

This was a nervous appointment for us; it marks about 1 year since we found the last nodule in Lauri's lung. For the past four years or so, we've returned to M.D. Anderson to find out the cancer had returned about 1 year after the previous finding. So while we were very hopeful, we were worried we'd remain on schedule, and find another nodule this time around. Thank God, not this time.

We are due to go back for another checkup in December, and I'm sure we'll be nervous again. But for right now, we've broken through a barrier we've been working a long time to break.

Fredericksburg-Wineries and A Baptism

2010-08-24T20:46:00.002-05:00

This weekend we went to Fredericksburg to tour some local Texas wineries and celebrate the baptism of our niece, Rebecca. We arrived on Friday night and on Saturday went to 3 different wineries, Spicewood, Flat Creek and William Chris. We were very impressed with how good the local wines were. Sunday was the baptism at Resurrection Lutheran Church, where Jeff's mom is a member and also where Carrie and Chris got married. Rebecca did great and didn't cry at all during the ceremony! I have the honor of being her Godmother, while Chris's brother, Jeff is the Godfather. (Kinda crazy that Carrie and Chris both have brother's named Jeff! And Chris's mom is named, Laurie! They were meant to be together!) Anyway, after the baptism we had a great lunch at the house.

Monday, we went to even more wineries. This time we went to Texas Hills, Pedernales Cellars, Woodrose, and Becker. Whew! That's a lot of wine drinking! We had a great time and found something we liked at each winery, but Becker was our favorite. We pretty much liked EVERYTHING they had! Now our wine fridge is fully stocked.

We came home today and will have just enough time to reset and repack because Thursday we leave to head out east to Louisiana. We are spending the weekend in Covington for my mom's birthday celebration. Should be fun! I'll leave you with some of the highlights of the trip from this weekend.

Spicewood

Elway, the Spicewood dog

Texas Hills

Flat Creek

William Chris

Charlie at Woodrose

Chris, Lauri, Rebecca, Carrie, Jeff, Pastor

From Rebecca's Baptism

Pictures from Destin

2010-08-13T11:15:00.000-05:00

Ok. Here are just a few of the pictures from Destin. I am still having problems uploading from iphoto to picasa, so this will have to do.

View from our room

Kirstin

Update

2010-08-11T11:40:00.003-05:00

So Charlie didn't win the contest. :( Boo! But that's ok. We still think he is super cute!

We went to Destin, Florida a couple of weeks ago on a family vacation. We had a great time and got to relax and get away from it all for a week. We took a ton of pictures and I'm still trying to figure out how to import them from iphoto to picasaweb. Bear with me. My picasaweb account is almost full, so I need to find somewhere else to post my pictures. This will take some time as I have a 10 month old that is very mobile and doesn't stay still! Speaking of Charlie (again), I believe he has had a growth spurt. He has been sleeping a ton (which I love!), taking 1.5 to 2 hour naps, twice a day. Sleeping 12-14 hours a night, only waking up once to eat. I hope this trend continues. The past two days he's slept until 9:15am! Awesome! He know weighs 20 pounds and is 29.5 inches long. SO he has grown 2 pounds and 2 inches in about a month and a half! If I have done my interpretation of the growth chart correctly, he is still in the 25% for weight but has jumped to the 75% for height! I have noticed he has gotten taller lately. He is crawling around like a madman, pulling up on everything and getting more steady standing while holding on with only one hand. We are practicing walking around the house, although he doesn't seem too interested in that all the time. We will keep working on that. So I guess that's it for now. I'll leave you with a picture...

Cutest Baby Contest

2010-08-02T16:43:00.004-05:00

My friend is a photographer in Covington and is running a cutest baby contest on facebook. Of course I entered Charlie, since I think he IS the cutest baby! : ) The winner receives a free photo session and $100 of photos from the shoot. I want to win but I need your help! Those of you that have a facebook page, all you have to do is become a "fan" of Mindy Rathe Photography, find Charlie's picture and "like" it. Comments do not count, only "likes". The voting ends this weekend, but we are already way behind!

http://www.facebook.com/MindyRathePhotography

More recent pics...

2010-07-20T19:39:00.004-05:00

Helping Jeff with the laundry:

Drying off after swimming:

Random

2010-07-16T13:21:00.006-05:00

Fun with photoshop

2010-07-06T21:28:00.005-05:00

We recently got photoshop so I've been playing with it a little to try and decipher the program. I ordered a few books to help me out and they will be here in a few days. I can't wait to learn how to use it! Here is one picture I doctored (thanks to my friend Shea for walking me through it). It's not perfect, but I just love this effect.

From photoshop

New Pictures

2010-07-06T13:23:00.004-05:00

Just wanted to post a few pictures we took. This weekend we gave Charlie his first bath in the big bathtub. I know, I know, its about time. It was just so much easier to put him on the counter in the baby bathtub, but he was starting to make a mess with the splashing, so here we are.

Sunday was July 4 and it was finally sunny! We went to our friend's house for a pool party and had a great time. No pictures from the party :( but I took a few before we left.

9 months old

2010-07-01T15:49:00.005-05:00

Charlie is 9 months old today and I just can't believe it! He's growing so fast! I took him to the pedi today and here are his stats:

Weight 18.4 pounds (25%)
Height 27.5 inches (20%)

So he's still short and skinny! Oh well, at least he's staying on the same growth curve. It will be hard to fatten him up since he's mobile now. He's crawling all over the place and pulling up on everything. He has 3 teeth (two on the bottom and one on the top). I'm attempting to teach him sign language and I think he has started doing the sign for "milk". The problem is, he doesn't really do it when it's appropriate so I'm not sure he's gotten the concept just yet. I'm going to keep working at it and introduce more signs when he's gotten the hang of it better. He's babbling up a storm and can say baa, mama, lala and occasionally dada. He doesn't know what he's saying, so it's kinda hard to get excited when he says mama, since he's not associating it with me. But that comes with time. Anyway, he's doing great and I can't wait to see what he's going to do next!

Father's Day

2010-06-29T21:09:00.002-05:00

So I finally gave Jeff his Father's Day present. I was waiting until we got our new computer (which we did this past weekend) since it involved pictures and our new Mac is great at editing and sorting pictures. It is going to take some trial and error to figure out the differences between this and our old pc so bear with me while I get used to it. I have some great pictures to post, but I have to do some homework. Here is what I got Jeff. What do you think?

Couldn't resist...

2010-06-24T19:22:00.005-05:00

I took two great pictures of Charlie today and I just had to share. The first one was in Wal Mart. He was practically laying down in the buggy. He stayed like that throughout the entire trip. I guess he was tired! But he was not fussy or anything. Crazy baby!

The second one was after his bath tonight. We got him that outfit when we went to the outlet mall in San Marcos. I think it's adorable and its made of terry cloth so it feels really comfortable. And he looks great in it!

Cousins

2010-06-23T20:55:00.002-05:00

Last week we went to Fredericksburg to visit Jeff's parents. Kasuen and Annika were visting from California and Carrie, Chris and Rebecca came for the weekend as well. This was the first time that the 3 cousins had been together and it was great! They are all 3 months apart and it was neat to see them in each developmental stage. Charlie is 8 months, Annika is 5 months and Rebecca is 2 months. We had a photo shoot with the babies wearing the new Huggies jean's diapers and they were so cute! We took a million pictures so here are just a few:

We can't wait to get the cousins together again for our next family function. It's going to be so exciting watching them grow up together.

3 month checkup

2010-06-15T21:03:00.002-05:00

I went to MD Anderson yesterday to do my 3 month ct scan. I got the results today. All is clear! Great news to hear. Jeff and I went to the hospital today and brought Charlie with us. He brought a lot of smiles to many of the people we came across. It always feels good to brighten some one's day, especially at a place like MD Anderson. This was the first time we got to bring Charlie to the doctor's appointment, but unfortunately all my normal doctor's and nurses were out. My oncologist is on maternity leave, her nurse is on vacation this week and my surgeon's nurse practitioner was also not in today. Oh well. Maybe next time.

All I want for Christmas...

2010-06-04T19:38:00.004-05:00

...is my two front teeth! We got Christmas in June!

California dreamin'

2010-06-04T16:09:00.004-05:00

Last Friday we headed out to California for a Mauldin family vacation to visit Jeff's brother, sister in law and niece. Jeff's parents and godparents met us there as well. So it was truly a family vacation. This was Charlie's first airplane ride and he did great! He even received a certificate and his own set of "wings" from the flight attendants! We arrived Friday afternoon and hung out at his brother's house and waited for everyone to arrive. We had a nice, relaxing meal and enjoyed everyone's company. Saturday we stayed in the Berkeley area and went to UC Berkeley to see the campus, got some great cheese and pastries at the Cheeseboard shop, and had a super nice dinner at a fancy restaurant in Berkeley. Sunday we went to Mt. Tam and had a picnic lunch up there and enjoyed the wonderful view of San Fransisco, saw the Golden Gate bridge (without fog, for once!) and went to a party for Kasuen (Jeff's sister in law) thrown by her graduate professor. (Clayton and Kasuen just graduated from UC Berkeley with their PhD's). Monday we toured Napa Valley which was awesome. Jeff's Uncle Carl is very big into wine, so we got some VIP tours of a few of the wineries in Napa. Tuesday we did a little shopping at the North Face outlet, had lunch at this great place called "Crepevine", and then went to Half Moon Bay to see the Pacific Ocean. So Charlie has been to the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean's within 2 weeks time! Pretty cool! The Gulf of Mexico is next on the list, which shouldn't be a problem since we live 30 miles from there. Dungeness crabs are are always on our "must do list" when we go out there, so that's what we had for dinner on Tuesday. We flew home on Wednesday. We had an excellent time and really enjoyed ourselves. Charlie did really well considering he was travelling, not on any sort of schedule/routine and was cutting two teeth during this time! Of course we have lots of pictures, so sit back and enjoy!

Ready for Launch...

2010-05-19T12:15:00.003-05:00

The space shuttle Atlantis was scheduled to lift off from Kennedy Space Center on Friday, May 14 for the last time and we got the opportunity to watch it live. It was a whirlwind trip because Jeff had to get back to Houston as soon as he could because he is working the mission. We left on Wednesday afternoon and drove to my mom's house in Covington, La. We drove the rest of the way to Orlando on Thursday and settled into our hotel room. On Friday (launch day) we got up, got ready and met Jeff's coworker and her two friends and started the drive to KSC. We were about 50 miles away from where we needed to be to watch the launch. We had turned the local news on in the morning and it said that traffic was expected to be twice as bad as normal. Not really knowing what that meant, we left the hotel around 9:45am thinking we had plenty of time to get to KSC before they closed the gates at 1:20 (one hour before launch). Remember, we were a measly 50 miles away from KSC. It was a straight shot down the expressway and we should have been there around 11:30 or so right after the gates opened. Needless to say, we got to KSC around 1pm! Very close to the cutoff time. The traffic was horrible. Never have we seen traffic this bad. It was crazy! Luckily the friends of Jeff's coworker had a toll tag that they let us borrow so we didn't have to wait in the mile long line to pay the tolls. That really saved us! We parked the car and staked out a spot on the "causeway", about 6 miles from the launch site. We had a great view with hardly any obstruction from trees. There were a ton of people there (I think that this spot can hold 3-5000 people), but we were all spread out so everyone got a great view. Jeff got the camera set up on the tripod and I was ready with the video camera holding Charlie.

From Launch 2010

And the countdown began...10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1 LIFT OFF!

From Launch 2010

What a glorious site that was! The sky couldn't have been more beautiful and the takeoff was perfect. So awesome! I tried my best to get some good video, but Charlie was bouncing on my hip and the wind was blowing, so the video came out sorta like the Blair Witch Project, but pretty cool anyway. It wasn't very loud, but you could feel the vibrations in your chest. Charlie did great and wasn't scared at all. After about 2 minutes, the shuttle is so far away you can hardly see it with the naked eye.

From Launch 2010

And just like that, it was over. Godspeed, Atlantis!

We got back in the car and suffered through more traffic and finally got back to the hotel around 7:30. What a long day! But one we will never forget!

Saturday morning, we got up early, checked out of the hotel and headed to Cocoa Beach. We came all this way, we wanted to see the Atlantic Ocean! We went to the famuous "Ron Jon's Surf shop" and got a few things. Our friend Erin's parents were staying right down the road, so we met up with them and headed to the beach. Charlie was not very enthusiastic about the water. I think it was too cold for him. But now we can say that he's been to the Altantic Ocean. :)

From Launch 2010

We got on the road and decided to make a detour to Daytona. We ate lunch at this little hole in the wall restauarant on the water. We stopped at the beach for a few minutes, but didn't really have time to do much, so we headed to Daytona International Speedway.

From Launch 2010

We would have liked to have done the tour there, but again, we needed to get on the road since we had a long drive ahead of us. We took a bunch of pictures (from the outside) and headed back to Louisiana, where we spent the night. Sunday morning we slept in and then had lunch and headed out for home. We had a wonderful trip and it was a great experience to see the shuttle launch. Charlie did very well for being stuck in the car for 5 days straight. Our next trip is Memorial Day weekend where we are going to California to visit Jeff's brother and his family. We'll be flying there so that will be another first for Charlie.

Here are the rest of the pictures:

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T21:36:00.004-05:00

I have been thinking about what I could write about what Mother's Day means to me and I happened upon this. It sums up my feelings perfectly and I'm sure all you other Mom's out there feel the same way.

Before you were conceived, I wanted you.
Before you were born, I loved you.
When you were born, I saw you and knew I was in love.
Before you were an hour old, I knew I would die for you.
To this day and always, I will.

I had a great day. Charlie gave me some sweet cards (one he made at school) and a beautiful butterfly necklace with the top wings opals (Charlie and Jeff's birthstones) and aquamarine stones on the bottom wings.

We went to our friends house with the intention of going swimming, but the sun never came out and the water was too cold. We did get Charlie in the water for a few minutes and he seemed to like it. But we had a great time nonetheless.

Charlie and Erin:

From May 2010

Jeff and Charlie:

From May 2010

Me and Charlie:

From May 2010

Now we are getting ready to go on a road trip to Florida to watch the shuttle launch. Should be interesting! We'll have plenty of pics to post for that one I know!

Side trip

2010-05-02T21:41:00.000-05:00

While in Louisiana, we made a short pit stop in White Castle to visit my grandparents. Here are a few pictures:

Another Award!

2010-04-30T14:25:00.002-05:00

Jeff worked on console during the last shuttle mission a few weeks ago. It was an extremely busy mission (from what I've been told ;)) and we are both glad it's over. For those that don't know, after the mission, they hang a plaque in mission control to celebrate a successful mission. There are two "honor" jobs during this ceremony. One person holds the ladder and the other hangs the plaque. These 2 people are selected for an outstanding job done during the mission. Well, Jeff got to hold the ladder! He got a replica plaque signed by the crew (astronauts) and he also got to sign the plaque that is hanging in mission control. Very cool! We couldn't be more proud of him and all these great achievements he's been getting lately. Makes all his hard work well worth it. So now in May we have 2 awards ceremonies to attend at Space Center Houston. Can't wait!

Award winner

2010-04-28T11:19:00.004-05:00

Jeff came home from work the other day and showed me a signed letter he received from the Director of JSC, Michael Coats.

(Sorry about the bad picture. Our scanner is not working and it's the best I could do)

He has received the NASA Johnson Space Center Director's Commendation Award! This is a very high honor and very special award. He has been doing great things at NASA and we are so proud of him.

Weekend

2010-04-27T21:13:00.003-05:00

This weekend we went to Louisiana for the Baptism of Jeff's Goddaughter, Anna, his best friend Stephen's newest daughter. We had a good time and squeezed in a lunch with my sister and her family and my best friend and her fiance. We got some great pictures.

Houdini

2010-04-27T20:37:00.002-05:00

Last week I put Charlie in his bumbo while I was in the office doing stuff on the computer.

From April 2010

When I turned around, I saw this!

From April 2010

Here is the way he got out...

From April 2010

I think he twisted himself out of it! Little booger! I'll have to keep a close eye on him now.

School

2010-04-18T15:15:00.003-05:00

So Charlie has been going to Mother's Day Out since February. They took "school pictures" a couple of weeks ago and I didn't know they were going to be doing everyone, so Charlie wasn't dressed appropriately (ie in something I would pick out specially for spring pictures). But the pictures came out too cute to not get, so I caved and bought some. Let me know what you think of his first "school picture":

His class also did a "craft project" and of course, he was included. Check it out:

It's hanging on our fridge!

Road trip

2010-04-18T14:08:00.003-05:00

This weekend, Charlie and I took a short road trip to visit the new cousin and a double baby shower for some friends in Austin. We left Friday and came back Saturday night. We spent the night at Carrie's and got to meet the new cousin, Rebecca and see their new house they just bought. Here are Charlie and Rebecca:

Saturday we headed to Austin for a baby shower for 2 of my nurse friends in Austin. We all started at Seton at the same time and now they are having babies about a week apart! We decided to come home after the shower so we could spend some time with Jeff since he has been working so hard during this shuttle mission and we haven't seen him much.

It's good to be home and have Jeff back to a regular schedule again. I'm sure he's happy too!

Next up...road trip to Louisiana next weekend for a baptism. Jeff's going to be the godfather for his best friend's new baby girl, Anna. This will be easier since there will be two of us in the car. It's a little tough with only me and Charlie since he doesn't quite like the car seat. And he does not have carcalepsy like I do, so he doesn't sleep the whole time. :( But with two of us, it's much better.

Fun with food

2010-04-14T14:54:00.002-05:00

The last few weeks, we've been giving Charlie some table food and letting him explore, taste, feel and try to feed himself. It's been pretty fun and I try to take pictures of each new food. So I've started an album on the side underneath his month pictures where you can go and look at the new foods he is trying. So far he has had broccoli, asparagus, waffles, cheese, noodles, sweet potatoes and more. He really loves the broccoli! So check it out occasionally and see how he is doing.

Much anticipated arrival

2010-04-08T20:54:00.002-05:00

Today Carrie had her baby! A girl, Rebecca Ann. She was born at 12:56 pm, 7.6 pounds, 19 inches. We are all very excited that she is finally here (a week and a day overdue!). Only a few pictures so far..

Easter pics

2010-04-06T22:14:00.002-05:00

Charlie loved his Easter "bucket" he got. I took a bunch of pictures to document the occasion. Enjoy!

Mystery Solved...

2010-04-06T12:16:00.002-05:00

The Party Lite mystery is solved. Turns out, one of our neighbors ordered the stuff and it was dropped off at the wrong house. Thank goodness for modern technology! Or, maybe we need to meet our neighbors. ;) Anyway, I'm glad the goodies got back to their righful owner. Although that cheeseball looked mighty tasty...

The weekend

2010-04-05T21:30:00.002-05:00

This weekend we went to Fredericksburg to visit Jeff's parent's. We also went to Copperas Cove, Tx to visit Carrie, Jeff's sister, and Jeff's grandparent's from Waco met us there as well. We were hoping to meet the newest Mauldin (Russell) cousin, but he/she didn't want to come out yet, so we are (im)patiently awaiting it's arrival. Should be anyday now...

Carrie and Chris:

From April 2010

Grandpa and Grandma Mauldin with Charlie:

From April 2010

We were excited to see Jeff's grandparent's because they had not had the chance to meet Charlie yet. He didn't disappoint and greeted them with many smiles. We got a much anticipated 4 generation Mauldin photo with Grandpa Mauldin, Jeff's Dad, Jeff and Charlie.

From April 2010

Carrie and Lauri:

From April 2010

And a picture of how Charlie likes to sleep.

From April 2010

Charlie enjoying his "real" food:

From April 2010

A milestone...

2010-04-05T21:19:00.002-05:00

5 years ago today I had surgery to remove the primary tumor in my leg. That was a very scary day for us because we did not know what was going to happen during the surgery and the outcome and consequences of how the doctor removed the tumor. The possiblities were skin grafts, muscle grafts, cutting my sciatic nerve and a combination of these things. We ended up with the best case scenerio, no grafts and sciatic nerve intact (very damaged, but intact nonetheless). I consider this 5 year anniversary a very significant victory because of the agressiveness of the cancer that I have. A lot of people don't make it this far. I have not been cancer free for 5 years, but I have survived the 5 year mark, and I think that is a great accomplishment. I am truly blessed in my life with my wonderful husband, family, friends and miracle baby. They have gotten me through the tough times and I couldn't have done it without them. I am 6 months cancer free so far, and I hope to stay that way.

My Nanny

2010-04-01T21:04:00.002-05:00

This has been a tough week for us. My aunt/godmother Debra passed away on Saturday after battling cancer. She was my dad's younger sister. I will miss her terribly and I know my family will as well. She and her husband came fairly often in the last year for her treatments at MD Anderson, so I was able to see her a little more than normal, which was nice. I take comfort in knowing that she is no longer in pain and in peace. I will cherish the memories I have of her forever.

Something pretty weird happened today. I went outside to get the mail and there was a bag from "Party Lite" (sorta like a pampered chef thing I think) with some jelly's, a vase, a cheeseball mix and some scented oil. And there was a sticky note inside with only one word on it..."Debra". I don't know about you, but I think that is a pretty strange coincidence. Of all the names in the world, it was hers. I know it was random, but maybe it was a sign from her saying that she is ok. I have contacted the only person in League City that sells Party Lite in the hopes that I can return the items to the rightful owner.

So this makes 3 funerals (Grandma and Grandpa Bratton and Nanny) we have attended this year and it's only April. I'm hoping we are done for awhile. Poor Charlie is only 6 months old and has gone to 3 funerals already. But I think he makes people smile in a time of sorrow and that is a blessing.

On too brighter subjects, Charlie is 6 months old today (no picture yet, maybe tomorrow)! He got his shots today and only cried for a minute. He weighs 16 pounds, which is in the 25%. The same curve he has been on, so not concerning. We upped his reflux meds just a little and now we get to start real food! 3 meals a day! This may be a challenge, but we'll do our best.

We are headed to Fredericksburg tomorrow to spend Easter with Jeff's family. We are hoping that Charlie's cousin will make an appearance so we can meet him/her while we are in town. Jeff's sister, Carrie was due yesterday, but no signs of baby yet. We are all hoping it will happen soon, especially Carrie!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Easter Pictures

2010-03-25T18:32:00.003-05:00

So here are the Easter Pictures we took last week. It was early in the morning and kinda cold, so we didn't get the usual smiles like normal. But I think we got some good ones. The yellow outfit was Jeff's from when he was little. Good think we didn't wait any longer to put it on him. It wouldn't have fit!

More pictures

2010-03-24T14:12:00.003-05:00

So, I've been taking a few pictures and thought I would share. We put Charlie in his "high chair" and he is doing great sitting in it, but still not sure on the eating in it part. I currently feed him his cereal while sitting on the couch with him propped up in my lap on the boppy. We can't do this forever, so I would like to get him used to eating in the high chair. He keeps his head down, which makes it extremely difficult to feed him the cereal. Not sure what to do about that, but just keep trying. I have given him a few "table" foods and he likes to play with them more than eating. Maggie hovers like a vulture, waiting for him to fling the food on the floor. The beginnings of a beautiful relationship! ;)

Last week we had an Easter photo session, complete with live bunny and everything. I should be getting the cd with the pictures on it today, so I will post them then. I can't wait to see them! I saw 3 of them and they came out great.

Anyway, here are the pictures:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-17T15:50:00.001-05:00

We had a little photo shoot today in honor of St. Patty's Day. Enjoy!

Medical update

2010-03-16T22:01:00.002-05:00

I had my checkup at MD Anderson yesterday with the results today. I got an all clear from the Doctor! Yay! This was pretty much expected because if there is anything there, it wouldn't have had a chance to grow big enough to see it yet. So good news today and I will go back sometime in June.

I have been lax in taking pictures of Charlie, but I will try to do better. He is sleeping through the night, going to bed around 8-8:30 and then waking up around 4-5 am to eat, then will go back to sleep until about 8. Very nice! The time change has kinda screwed up our schedule, but hopefully it will get back on track here in the next few days. He loves his oatmeal cereal, which he gets 2-3 times a day. He is on the verge of getting a tooth. He has some white showing through on his bottom gums, so I'm anticipating an eruption sometime soon. He continues to be a very happy, smiley baby. We are working on rolling from back to front and sitting up unsupported for longer periods. I think he is also "scooting". In his crib anyway. We put him down to sleep at the bottom of the bed (towards the right side) and when he wakes up, he is at the top (on the left side). He wakes up because he has scooted so much his head has hit the end of the bed and he gets mad! So anyway, lots of things going on. Here are some pictures I took the other day.

5 Months already!

2010-03-01T22:25:00.004-06:00

Charlie is 5 months old today! It's hard to believe. He has been learning new skills like crazy and it's so much fun to watch. He now rolls from front to back pretty regularly. Mainly in his crib when he's sleeping. He sleeps on his tummy and rolls onto his back and ends up waking himself up, which is no fun at 2am when he should be sleeping. :( I'm hoping he starts going from back to front soon so we don't have to keep flipping him over so he'll go back to sleep. He is grabbing things, putting everything he can in his mouth (mainly his hands) and sitting up supported for a good amount of time. He's also starting to laugh, which is so cute!

We had noticed that he was spitting up quite a bit lately, so I took him to the pedi. He had not gained very much weight in the two weeks between his 4 month apt and that day. We decided to change his medicine and start him on cereal to try and see if the thicker food would stay in his stomach easier than just plain breastmilk, which is pretty thin. Well, needless to say, he hated the cereal about the first week we tried it. He would cry! But if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. And we did! Today he finally seemed to be interested in it. Not to say he actually swallowed anything, but he didn't immediately spit it out and start crying. Baby steps...He's not getting any nutrition out of it anyway, it's just to help keep the milk down. It's been about a week since we changed medicine and started the cereal and it seems to be working. He's spitting up less and he gained about 1/2 pound in 6 days. So he is 5 months old and weighs 15 pounds. Hopefully he'll outgrow the 3 month clothes shortly! ;)

He has been going to Mother's Day Out on Tues/Thurs from 10-2. This has been really great. It gives me a chance to get out and do errands and things and he gets to be around other kids. It kind of throws his routine off a little because he doesn't take great naps there, but he is pooped when he comes home and usually takes a really long nap as soon as we get home. This gives me more time to get things done. I'm hoping this trend keeps up so I can use this time to sleep when I go back to work (whenever that is, not sure yet).

I will leave you with some pictures that I thought were pretty cute.

Charlie using his feet on his playmat:

Bathtime! He decided he wanted to naw on the side of the bathtub:

First try at cereal. He likes the empty spoon best:

Jeff and Charlie relaxing. Charlie had a stuffy nose. :(

I think he got a little tired in the excersaucer. Decided to rest his head:

Grandpa Bratton

2010-02-14T14:24:00.003-06:00

Yesterday morning we got some unfortunate news that Jeff's grandfather had passed away earlier that morning. He was a great man and loved by many. We know he is in a better place and has been reunited with his wife, Grandma Bratton, for Valentine's Day. We are happy that he got to meet Charlie, if just for a few short months. Here they are just a few weeks ago.

I hope everyone has a Happy Valentine's Day!

Carrie's Baby Shower

2010-02-11T11:15:00.002-06:00

Last weekend, we had Carrie's (Jeff's sister) baby shower at the house. It was a small group, but she got a lot of good stuff. I took lots of pictures since many people couldn't make it. Charlie ended up crashing the party, but nobody seemed to mind a "boy" being there. Ha! Enjoy the pictures.

What else...?

2010-02-03T20:51:00.005-06:00

Charlie Pics!

Pics from this weekend

2010-02-02T14:52:00.005-06:00

Here are a few pictures from this weekend. Don't have very many, but here they are:

Kirsten, the birthday girl!:

Charlie and Papere:

Charlie update

2010-01-29T14:25:00.003-06:00

Today Charlie had his 4 month checkup. (He officially turns 4 months on Monday). He weighs 13 pounds 12 ounces (25%) and 24 inches (10%). So still skinny and short! He has followed this curve since birth, so not too concerning. He is still taking his Prevacid for his reflux, but still spits up a lot. Not sure if this is contributing to his slow weight gain, but we are upping his dose so maybe that will help. We shall see.

Yesterday Charlie rolled over from his front to his back! It's exciting to see how he is growing and changing every day. I also think he will be sprouting some teeth really soon. He drools constantly, always has his hands in his mouth and his gums are swollen. My sister and I got our teeth early, as well as my niece and nephew. So I don't think it will be long.

Tomorrow we are leaving on a short trip to Louisiana for a friend's baby shower, my grandmother's birthday dinner and my niece's birthday party. Whew! That's a lot! I'll have pictures from the weekend and some recent ones of Charlie next week. Stay tuned!

PS. I lied! Here is a picture:

Baptism

2010-01-20T20:50:00.008-06:00

This weekend, Charlie got Baptized. We had a lot of the family come in for this special occasion and it turned out really nice. Charlie did great! He didn't cry at all. I think because he thought it was a bath! He loves baths!

His Godparents are my sister, Nicki and Jeff's brother, Clayton. Unfortunately, Clayton couldn't make it because he and his wife just had a baby girl, Annika Grace, in California!

After the Baptism, we all gathered out the house and watched the Saints stomp the Cardinals. A great day all around! Here are a few of the pictures from the day.

Charlie in the family christening gown. Many babies in our family have been christened in this gown.

Nicki (Nanny) and Charlie:

Here are the rest of the pictures:

Christmas Pictures

2010-01-08T15:09:00.005-06:00

Here are all the pictures from all of our Christmas's. There are a lot (go figure!) so have fun!

The last few weeks...

2010-01-06T15:44:00.003-06:00

So, after many travels, we are home now. We spent Christmas in Lafayette with my dad and Charlie gave us a great Christmas present...he slept through the night! It was great. He has only done it once since then, on New Year's night. But he is sleeping better and waking up to eat and then going right back to sleep. We were only home for a few hours on Dec 26 when we got bad news that Jeff's grandmother had suffered a massive heart attack and passed away. She was 84 years old and will be greatly missed. We spent last week helping out with arrangements and housing Jeff's family that came in for the services.

Grandma Bratton and Charlie:

We left on Thursday night to head to Fredericksburg to celebrate our Christmas/New Year's with Jeff's parents, sister and husband, and godparents. We had a great time watching football (except for Friday's game, still bitter over that loss) and visiting. We got back on Sunday evening where my aunt and uncle were here staying with us. They left on Monday morning. Jeff took the day off on Tuesday so we could celebrate our 8 year wedding anniversary. We didn't do much, cleaned up and got the house ready for the next round of guests (who are arriving today!), but he did let me go get a much needed massage! The last one I had was the day before Charlie was born! It was great! All in all, a very low key day, which was fine with me.

Jeff's parents are due to arrive any minute now. They are coming in to watch the National Championship game tomorrow night. We are confident that Texas will win! We are having some family over to watch it, so it should be fun. Jeff's cousin is in the UT Marching Band and will be performing at pregame AND halftime. Pretty impressive for a freshman. We'll be looking for him on tv!

We have tons of pictures from Christmas, so I will be putting those up soon. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We got a new camera for Christmas, so as soon as I learn how to take the pictures off of it, I can put them on here. :)

Christmas in White Castle

2009-12-21T21:51:00.003-06:00

We are in Louisiana for Christmas and Sunday we went to my aunt's house for Christmas with my mom's family. We had a great time visiting everyone and Charlie enjoyed meeting the family for the first time. Here is a picture of my immediate family with my grandparents.

Maternity pictures

2009-12-11T15:58:00.004-06:00

I finally got the rest of the maternity pictures I took back in September. I think they came out really good and I'm very pleased. If you care to look, feel free.

Maternity Pictures

And the diagnosis is...

2009-12-03T12:35:00.005-06:00

Reflux, just as we suspected. Not a shocker since most babies have it. We're going to start him on some Prevacid and see how that works. Anyway, he did great during the procedure and sucked down the contrast with no problems at all. Only got fussy during the very end.

Now onto the fun part. Pictures!

And his 2 month picture. (I will start a link on the right side of the page just like my baby bump so you can see how he grows.)

2 months old

2009-12-01T14:19:00.004-06:00

Charlie is 2 months old today! I can't believe it. This time has just flown by. We had his two month checkup today, which included his shots. :( He did really well, and so far, no ill side effects. He now weighs 11 pounds 12 ounces (50%) and is 22.5 inches long (25%). So he is growing great! We have been thinking that he has reflux and that is getting slightly worse. We talked to the pedi about it and she wants us to do an upper GI to see if and how bad the reflux is. It's an outpatient procedure and I'm waiting on a phone call to let me know when that will happen. Should be sometime this week. If he does have reflux, he will be on some medicine to help it. So we'll see.

In other developments, Charlie has started to smile more and we've gotten some great pictures. Here are a few:

Isn't he cute!

Santa pictures

2009-11-30T16:47:00.002-06:00

My sister and her family came to visit during Thanksgiving week, so we used that opportunity to take pictures with Santa with all three kids. I highly recommend going sooner rather than later if you plan on taking pictures with Santa. We walked right up and didn't have to wait in line. It was great. Charlie did great and slept through the whole thing. He is wearing the outfit that Jeff wore for his first Christmas. Although Jeff was a lot bigger than Charlie when he was born (11 pounds compared to 6.9 pounds) it still fit. It was a little long, but you can't even tell. I think he looks super cute! Kirsten and Grayson did great with Santa as well. You never know at their age if they will be scared or not. Then we took a few of the 3 grandkids together.

Road Trip

2009-11-30T16:37:00.002-06:00

The weekend of November 20 we went on our first road trip to Fredericksburg with Charlie and the 2 dogs. It was Jeff's dad's 60th birthday on Friday and Clayton was flying in, so we also had a baby shower for him (his wife, Kasuen couldn't fly in from California since she is too far along in her pregnancy) on Saturday. We survived the road trip just fine and only had to stop twice. It was a good practice run for Christmas and we fit everything in the Acadia and still had plenty of room. Here are the pictures from the events:

Random things

2009-11-19T20:29:00.002-06:00

Just a little update on how we are doing and what's been going on around here. Last week I had my checkup with my surgeon which mainly consisted of an xray and looking at my incision. My incision is healing quite well and everything looked great on xray. Till the next day when I got a phone call that said there was a pocket of air in my lung and they weren't sure if it was a pneumothorax or not. :( So I had to go back this Tuesday for another xray to see if was resolving or not. Thanksfully, it was, so no treatment needed and I don't need to see him again unless I need surgery again. My next regular checkup is Dec 14 or 15 for an MRI of my leg and a ct scan.

Charlie is continuing to get bigger and cuter every day. He now weighs 11 pounds! We are getting a little more sleep at night and going a little longer between feedings. We are starting to see a few more smiles so I don't think it will be long before he will be smiling at us all the time. We are getting out a little more and getting more comfortable doing that. We went to NASA for an awards ceremony to watch Jeff receive an award for all his hard work during the last shuttle mission. (More to come on that later. Waiting for Jeff to write that post!).

Tomorrow we are going on our first road trip to Fredericksburg to visit Jeff's parents. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. Charlie finally gets to meet his Aunt Carrie and Uncle Clayton. But it's a 5 hour drive with a 7 week old baby and 2 dogs, so it will be interesting. Will let you know how it goes... :)

1 month checkup

2009-11-02T11:36:00.004-06:00

We went to the doctor this morning for Charlie's 1 month checkup. Things have been going really well, so we didn't have many questions. The main thing we were wondering about was his weight. I know that he has been eating well and therefore growing, but had no idea how much weight he has gained. We figured he had gained about 2 pounds since birth, which would be around 8 pounds 7-8 ounces. Boy were we off! He weighs a whopping 9 pounds 10 ounces! That's over 3 pounds in a month! What a piggy! He was in the 10% for his weight and now he's in the 50th%. He's catching up. His length is 20.5 inches (18 1/2 at birth), still in the 10% there. Hopefully he won't stay short! We think he has a mild case of reflux, but nothing major and no need for meds at this point. We mainly keep him elevated when he sleeps and that seems to help him sleep for longer periods of time. (I REALLY like this, especially at night!). All in all, a good appointment. Next one is in 1 month.

1 Month Old

2009-11-01T17:18:00.004-06:00

Charlie is 1 month old today. We can't believe it! Here is his picture from birth and today:

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T19:37:00.008-05:00

We are enjoying Charlie's first Halloween by handing out candy and watching the Texas game. Pretty quiet, but nice. Hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween! Here are some pictures:

Charlie in his outfit Aunt Carrie got him:

Where's Charlie?:

There he is!:

Charlie, Jeff and Jack O'Lantern's:

Lauri and Charlie:

Family Portrait:

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-28T17:02:00.002-05:00

Today we went to a pumpkin patch down the street at a local church. We took Charlie's pictures there. He slept through the entire thing! This may have been for the best since we could put him anywhere to get a picture.

Ballunar Fest

2009-10-25T17:04:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we ventured out to the Ballunar Fest that NASA holds every year. They have a bunch of hot air balloons, food, booths and some entertainment. It was our first official outing with Charlie and I think he did pretty good. He slept through most of it! It got kinda cold in the evening, but he was really warm wrapped up in his blankets. We all wished we had adult sized blankets we could swaddle in too!

Other than that, we have mainly just been hanging out at the house. I'm getting better every day and Charlie is growing so fast! My mom left this morning, but Jeff has the next week and a half off of work so that should give me plenty of time to recouperate and be ready when I'm on my own all day. We might venture out some more this week (mainly to run errands), so hopefully the weather will cooperate. I would also like to take Charlie's picture in a pumpkin patch, so that is on the to do list this week as well. Anyway, here are more pictures. Can anyone tell who Charlie looks like now? Still not sure...

Due Date

2009-10-21T14:02:00.002-05:00

Today was my official due date, but Charlie is already 3 weeks old! It's been a crazy 3 weeks, but wouldn't change any of it. He really is a great baby. Very laid back, only cries when he needs a diaper changed or is hungry. He eats really well and I'm very impressed how well he did switching from breast to bottle and back again. Couldn't have asked for anything better. I've been home from the hospital since Saturday afternoon. I've gotten my pain under control with the oral pain meds and not experiencing the nausea and vomiting that I had after my last surgery. I'm hoping that trend will continue. My mom is still here and plans on staying through the weekend. Jeff's parent's left on Monday. All of them were such a big help and we couldn't have done it without them. (Especially the cooking and stocking of our freezer!) Luckily this week we don't have any appointments so we can take it easy and rest at home. We may even venture out at the end of the week to do a little shopping! We'll see though. One day at a time. We have some new pictures of Charlie, which I'll try to put up a little later. Hope everyone has a great day!

Home

2009-10-17T19:22:00.001-05:00

I am home. :)

Today might be the day...

2009-10-17T11:10:00.002-05:00

I get to go home! My chest tubes were pulled this morning at 9am. I am waiting on a chest xray to see if my lungs look ok for me to go home. My epidural was capped off and now I'm on oral pain meds. This is the test to see if the pain is under control with the oral meds rather than the epidural. The rest of the tubes will be pulled out sporadically during the day till eventually I will have none. Then home for me. I'm getting really sleepy right now, so I think I will try to take a nap. Will update later on...

Day 2 Post Op

2009-10-16T18:40:00.004-05:00

Today is Day 2 Post Op and I'm doing really well. My pain is well under control with the epidural (unlike my previous surgeries) and I'm getting up and walking around, doing my breathing exercises and my appetite is slowly coming back. I was not a happy camper when I got to my room and they told me I could only have ice chips till 6:30 the next morning! I had had nothing to eat or drink since midnight on Tuesday and couldn't get anything but ice chips till Wednesday morning! Someone needs to change these rules. That sucked! But alas, I survived. Jeff stayed with me the first night and left around lunch time to go back to the house to help his parents out with Charlie. My mom and my dad hung out with me during the day. My mom spent the night with me last night and she quickly realized that you can't get any sleep in a hospital. (She actually had it pretty good, because the night before was even worse with the interruptions). She got a nap this morning while my dad and Jeff were here. My dad left this morning, so now my mom and Jeff are alternating staying with me. It's kind of a lose/lose situation because you get no sleep in the hospital room but if you go home, you have a baby that wants to eat every 1.5-2 hours! So anyway, my chest tubes still have a slight air leak so those can't come out until the leak is gone and I drain only 300 cc's in a 24 hour period. I'm hoping they will come out tomorrow. Then I will have to get my pain under control with oral pain meds and tolerate those without any nausea/vomiting. I'm hoping for a Sunday discharge date, but we'll see. I miss my baby! I am hoping to get a short visit from him later on, but haven't heard from home to know.

So I guess that's about all. This surgery has been so much better than the previous ones because my epidural worked right the first time. Everything was pretty smooth after that. That's all for now. Will try to update soon!

In Recovery

2009-10-14T13:29:00.003-05:00

I just got to see Lauri in the Post-Op Recovery room, and she is looking good. She says the epidural is working much better this time around! She is still tired from the ordeal and all the pain medications, but is doing well enough that they will be moving her to a regular room here at MD Anderson within the hour.

A note on Recovery

2009-10-14T11:31:00.002-05:00

I forgot to mention - the Surgeon believes Lauri will remain in the hospital for the usual ~5 days or so. Removing the lower lobe should not effect her recovery time in the hospital. The fact that they worked in the same area as before (repeat surgery) is more of a factor for the extended stay in the hospital.

Out of Surgery

2009-10-14T10:53:00.003-05:00

Lauri is out of surgery! We just talked to the Surgeon, and he reports he only found that one tumor - he didn't find anything unexpected. The surgeon removed Lauri's lower lobe in order to obtain "negative margin." He was able to save the upper lobe of Lauri's left lung (i.e. he didn't have to remove the entire left lung). Negative margin is important because it means he got the entire tumor, and didn't leave any cancer cells behind to start new tumors later. A post-op biopsy of the removed mass will be necessary to make sure the margins are negative, but the Surgeon gave Lauri the best chance for success by taking the entire lower lobe.

Lauri has shown remarkable healing from the previous surgeries, regaining very good lung function in the past. The surgeon believes that assuming she continues her good healing, she will not even notice that the lower lobe is gone.

It will take time to heal, but Lauri is headed in the right direction. Here's hoping we don't have to do this again!