Welcome Lucas Elijah Fugler!

Needless to say, things have been a bit crazy in the Fugler household!  On 4/4/12 we welcomed out little Lucas.  He weighed 6 lbs 12 oz and was 20.5 inches long.  As expected, he was born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate.  He is a beautiful baby, and we are truly blessed.

However, it has been a lot of work to keep up with a toddler and a newborn...especially a newborn with weekly dentist appointments.  We have been very, very busy so I am going to take a hiatus from this blog for a while.  I will continue to keep Facebook updated with lots of pictures and posts.  Please look for new pictures there!

Love, Caroline (and the rest of the Fugler Family)



Our First Family of 4 Picture

Tummy Time



Newborn Lucas at the hospital

Almost 36 weeks pregnant

Today we had our 35 week midwife appointment and our growth scan/ultrasound.  I'm still measuring small according to my fundal height (33 cm), but luckily I grew enough to be considered in the normal range.  I've only gained 21.5 lbs, but the ultrasound showed that baby boy is 5lbs 9 oz (if the ultrasound is reliable) so he is on track to be bigger than Josie when he is born...unless he is born in the next week!  I'm 1 cm dialated, so things are heading in the right direction.

Since I've only gained 21.5 lbs and the midwives wanted me to gain between 28-40 lbs, I got the ok to eat a little more...even with my gestational diabetes.  I can add 15 carbs to my meals, and the midwives want me to eat foods with more fat.  That means full fat dairy, olives, etc.  I've already been doing that lately, but I'll really go for it now.  Did someone say bacon cheeseburger for lunch?!  The baby is on the small side of normal (27th percentile), so it is unlikely that he will get too big in the coming weeks.  However, if he goes past 40 weeks they may decide to induce me just to make sure he stays a good size.

All of the baby's measurements still look good.  The doctor confirmed that it appears the cleft involves both the lip and the palate.  The cleft appears to be fairly wide, so we should expect both nostrils to be affected.  Nursing will be difficult if not impossible.  None of this came as a surprise to us, as we are expecting the hardest possible situation with the cleft lip and palate.  However, there are other things that the baby will have to be tested for after he is born...heart problems, various syndromes...  Please keep this baby and our family in your prayers as we continue to hope that we will not have to face any of these other problems.

We will be 36 weeks pregnant on Sunday, and I am quite ready to meet this little guy!

Getting Ready for Baby

I am 33+ weeks pregnant!

In the Fugler house, we are finally starting to get things ready for our new arrival.  I dug out some of Josie's old clothes and managed to find some white snap shirts/onesies and other gender neutral items.  A bunch of them had yellow stains on them (which I found out were breast milk protein stains that can appear on clean baby clothes when exposed to heat)...but I soaked them in OxyClean, and they washed up pretty nicely.

Also, I ordered a Haberman bottle from Amazon.com, and it came in today.  Our baby will most likely be eating out of this special bottle, so I wanted to make sure I already had one on hand since they don't sell them in the regular baby bottle sections of stores.  These are literally the most expensive bottle/nipple sets I have ever seen, so hopefully it will work!

We still have a lot of work to do to get ready (paint nursery, dig out the swings and bouncer, get pack n play with bassinet set up, etc), but at least we are getting started.

Next step - pack my hospital bag!  If baby boy decides to come early, I would take it in stride since this Gestational Diabetes has made it hard to make choices of what to eat...and once he is born we can get him over to Children's Hospital so we can start making decisions and scheduling appointments for managing his cleft lip and palate concerns. 

Until he is born, we will be playing the waiting game...

Add another thing to the list

On top of everything else going on, today I got a call from my midwife that I have gestational diabetes.

 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001898/

It is one of the most common pregnancy problems/complications, and it is easily managed.  My midwife said it looks like I have a fairly mild case that should be able to be managed by watching my diet carefully.  But I'm still frustrated that I have so much to worry about with this pregnancy. 

I will be meeting with another doctor and a nutritionist in the next week.  In the meantime, it looks like my Girl Scout cookies will be finding a home in the freezer for the next few months...

Playing Catch Up

We've been through a lot of transitions lately, so it has been hard for me to get on the computer to post!  I'm going to do my best to do a quick summery of what has been going on.

- Christmas was great!  Josie was thoroughly spoiled by Santa, family and friends.  She is still enjoying playing with all of her new toys and treats.

- We all came down with colds and the stomach flu over the holidays.  NOT FUN!

- We have had 2 additional ultrasounds at the Perinatal Care Clinic to check on our baby boy.  Aside from the cleft lip and palate, all other measurements are normal.  That is good news!  We have an appointment at the Cleft Lip and Palate Clinic at Denver Children's Hospital later this week, but generally we will have to wait until the baby is born to start making plans for surgery and such.  Once he is born, they will be able to determine what type of care he needs.

- Josie started asking for "big bed" so we bought her a big girl bed.  She is now sleeping in it for naps and overnight.  Some days are easier than others...  :)

- We received over 2 feet of snow at our house on Friday/Saturday.  It was a big snow, but as soon as the snow stopped the sun came out...so we were far from snowed in.  There is still a lot of snow on the ground, but we are out and about in it.

Here are a few pictures from the past few months:

Christmas Eve 2011

Enjoying presents on Christmas morning

Worn out!

Addy and Josie

Playing in the snow

Nothing's better than hot chocolate with mini marshmallows after playing in the snow

It's a....

BOY!  We are 21 weeks pregnant with a baby boy.  We had our ultrasound yesterday, and Josie came along.  Ryan, Josie and I are so excited to expand our family and welcome this little boy in April.  Josie even pointed to the television showing the ultrasound and said "brother."  She has been talking about her baby brother and even helped pick out a little sleeper outfit for him in size Newborn.

However, the ultrasound did not come without some surprises.  After the ultrasound was over, the doctor came in to tell us that all of the measurements look normal except it appears that our baby has a cleft lip and will probably have a cleft palate.  Of course, this news was shocking to Ryan and me so we have been taking the last 24 hours to think, pray and let everything sink in.  We have another appointment with the perinatal care center on Monday to confirm, find out if there are any other unexpected concerns with this pregnancy, and find out more about our next steps.

As we process this and prepare, we ask for your thoughts and prayers.  We are so excited to welcome our baby boy, but we are also preparing for a difficult journey as parents.  We know that there are so many parents and children who have gone through similar journeys with unexpected difficulties, some much more trying than what we are facing.

Halloween and First Snow

Over the course of a week, we had our first snow of the season, then it all melted in time for Halloween, then it snowed again!  Josie enjoys the snow, but her clothes keep her a little too bundled up to get too crazy in it.  In fact, when she is dressed in her snow clothes she can barely move her arms and her legs!  But she definitely wants to be outside in the snow, so we've been getting some quality play time in.

Here are some pictures from our recent adventures:

First snow!

First snowman

Oliva the pig went Trick or Treating at

Highlands Ranch Trick or Treat Street

Mmm, candy

Addy and Erin

Trick or Treating in our new neighborhood

On our front patio with Daddy

Getting ready to go out in the 2nd snow

We're still getting used to it...it was deep!

Having fun

OK, I think we're done!

Finally blogging again

Now that it's fall, I will try to get back into blogging.  Our summer was very busy since we decided to rent out our townhome and buy a house!  We are still trying to get settled in, but I wanted to share some new pictures of Josie.  I will share some pictures of the house once we feel like we are more unpacked and settled.

We went to the pumpkin patch, and Josie had a great time picking out pumpkins!

Finally!

Finally, an update!  We are having a very busy summer as I'm sure most of you out there are...so hopefully you can sympathize with me.  We traveled to North and South Carolina in May/June for a wedding and a beach week, and it was a great trip!  We got to see lots of friends and family, and Josie was a pretty good traveler (although it is harder to keep her seated on the plane now that she's walking)!

Since we've been home, we've been filling our days with trips to the pools and parks in our area, frozen yogurt dates, and all kinds of summer errands.  Nothing too exciting, but it has still been a fun summer.  Here are some pictures from our adventures!

Josie and Mommy at the beach

Josie on the beach with Grandma and Grandpa Lindsay

She liked it!

Getting ready to swim in the pool

Josie and Addy on Mother's Day with Grandma Fugler

Father's Day with Daddy

4th of July

Walking Outside

It was brought to my attention that I haven't shared any videos of Josie walking since she took her first steps.  Since then she has gotten very good at it!  Here are a couple videos of her walking outside today.  Our across the courtyard neighbors have a talking parrot that was talking to Josie through the open window, so she was really enjoying herself.

Exciting April

April has been a really exciting month!  In 3 weeks, we had a visit from Grandma Lindsay (my mom), a trip to Breckenridge, and Easter.  With all the excitement, Josie got a little off her sleep schedule which was hard for all of us but it seems like she is getting back on track.  It has been fun to take Josie to do new things, and she really loves to eat out at restaurants...which is good because so do Ryan and I!


While Grandma was in town, we went to see the pirates at the museum. 

Josie loved trying on these red cowboy boots at a Western store in Breckenridge.  She couldn't stop smiling while she was wearing them!

Josie and Daddy in Breckenridge

Josie and Mommy on the slopes (or as close as we could get without skiing)

We went on an egg hunt in our neighborhood with some friends.

Josie is a good egg hunter! 

Raiding the Easter Basket

What's this?  Chocolate?

Yum!

Easter dress and jacket (the bunny ears didn't last long)

Walking

Josie took her first steps by herself on Feb 24, 2011 (15 months)!  We are so proud of her!  She still likes crawling better than walking but she is getting better and better on 2 feet every day.

As promised, here is the video of her first day walking.

We have really been having a lot of fun lately!  Josie has decided to only take 1 longer nap a day, so we are working on moving that nap from the morning to the afternoon (after lunch).  Once that happens, we can really take advantage of our time in the mornings.  Recently we have been to the Children's Museum, Little Monkey Bizness, the Downtown Aquarium, and several parks/playgrounds.  I'm hoping she will switch over to walking full time soon so she doesn't wear out the knees on all of her pants!

New Milestones

In the past month Josie finally got some major milestones we have been waiting for!  She took her first steps in February, and yesterday I felt her first tooth (on the bottom) broke though her gums! 

We have a video of Josie taking her first steps that I will post later.  In the meantime, here is a picture of Josie enjoying the magnet wall at the Children's Museum.

Super Sunday

Ryan was sick today (actually all this week), so we stayed home for the super bowl.  Josie loved watching the game and eating snacks! While we missed watching the game with friends it was best that we stayed home and we still had fun family time.

January 2011

Well January 2011 has come and gone.  The month flew by with Ryan traveling 2 weeks out of the month for work and Josie having an on and off fever for a few weeks as well.  I sure had my hands full!

While Josie had her fever, I thought she might be teething but she still has ZERO teeth at 14 months old.  Apparently anytime before 18 months is in the normal range, so we are still waiting.  Having no teeth isn't slowing her down from eating.  She usually eats whatever we are having for dinner.  I have been having a lot of fun trying out new recipes and seeing if she likes them.  Mac and Cheese Florentine and Bison with Mushroom Stroganoff have been favorites so far!

Josie is also still very happy with crawling...she's not the least bit interested in walking on her own.  We can hold her hands to help her walk and she loves pushing her walker wagon around the house, but when we encourage her to let go she just kneels right down and starts crawling.  I figure we might as well enjoy this time of her still being out "baby."  :)

As Josie gets older, she is really starting to do a lot of funny things.  Here are some videos of just some of the really cute things she did this month.

Josie showing off her "tricks"

Josie using her favorite words: Hi, Up, and Humph!

Denver finally gets a good snow!

Ryan and I are celebrating our 5 year anniversary today.  Good thing we planned on cooking a nice dinner in tonight because Denver got a good amount of snow for the first time this fall/winter.

We took Josie outside to "play" in the snow, but since the temperatures are below freezing she didn't want to be outside for too long.