Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Gabriel's Been Running

My sweet middle boy is always on the move. He has one speed FAST and one volume LOUD.  This past weekend we went down to the Med Center for a 5k and 1k race. This was Gabriel's very first race.

New shoes were purchased: He needed shoes that were super fast.



















A race bib was pinned on:






















After the race there were awards for the participants.




















And of course a picture with little brother who wanted to run too.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Elijah's birth slideshow

KD Loftis Blog

This is the slide show of Elijah's birth.

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Elijah David is Here! (It's long Sorry!)

I am writing this to the best of my memory. I am not 100% sure of some of the exact times.

Welcome to the World Elijah David

Elijah was born Sunday, February 27, 2011 via emergency c-section.

This Sunday started like any other Sunday. I got up, got the boys' breakfast and headed off to church. After church we went home, had lunch and Royal put the bo
ys down for their nap. I was watching TV. A little while later I went to the restroom and noticed blood. I figured I needed to call my doctor. My doctor asked if I was having contraction, I was but not anything consistent. He told me to go to L&D just to get checked out, but he was pretty sure the bleeding was nothing. So I told Royal what was going on and he called his mom. We grabbed my bag (just in case although we really thought we would be coming home the same day) and headed to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 3pm (this is were the times get sketchy, I wasn't wearing a watch and I didn't really take time to check very frequently). They put us in a triage bed and hooked me up to the fetal monitors and checked for dilation (I was right at 3cm). We got to listen to the heart beat and watch my sporadic contractions. I noticed that the heartbeat was very erratic. Then, after about 10 minutes I had a strong contraction, and the baby's heart rate dropped. The nurse came in and told me to lay on my left side. I rolled over and continued to lay there for an hour. During this time the nursed called my doctor who ordere
d some sort of biophysical U/S to figure out why the heart rate was dropping. The U/S was done, and we were told the baby was going to be about 8.5lbs but we didn't get much more info from her. A few minutes later the nurse came back and checked me again. I was now at 5cm and she wanted to call the doctor. She came back a few minutes later to let me know they were checking me in. They drew blood, started the IV and took me to a L&D room.

After we got the the L&D room we called our parents to let them know what was happening. I called my friend Kelley because she was going to photograph the birth. At this time Royal decided to take care of a few things and get himse
lf some dinner. The nurse put my pitocin drip at the very lowest level since Royal was gone. Well, my contractions picked right up with the pitocin going from every 10 minutes to every 2 minutes, so she turned it off. Kelley got to the hospital before Royal got back, so I had someone to keep me company. Royal got back to the hospital and brough Jack in the Box with him. We had a good laugh over his food choice. Kelley continued to take pictures and Royal ate his dinner. I watched the Oscars. My only observation was that no one looked particularly good. (Sometime after Royal left and Kelley got to the hospital I had my epidural put in). It's important to know that I was good and numb.

I think this puts things right around 7:30. My doctor came in and checked me. I was right around 6cm. He let me know he was going to break my b
ag of water. Sounded good to me. He broke my water and told the nurse that he was going to the doctor's lounge. Royal left the room go to the bathroom and get a snack. He figured we had a lot of time. So did I. After the doctor left, my nurse checked me again. I didn't know what to make out of her next sentence, "I feel the baby's fingers..." Ummmm OK... She follows that with, "I am going to call the doctor." My doctor comes back in and confirms that there are fingers where the head should be. This is a problem...add to that the baby's heart rate is continuing to drop with contractions and rebounding very slowly. My doctor explains that what's happening is very dangerous and we will need to do a c-section. Kelley left the room to go find Royal and let him know. When he gets back to the room they are getting ready to wheel me off.

It's a very strange feeling to be wheeled down the
hall of a hospital and actually hear people using the word STAT to describe you. When we got to the OR door the nurse realized I had ear rings in and a necklace on. All of it had to come off and we went into the OR. The room was 68*. I didn't take notice of time time, but I did see the temperature on the wall. They moved my bed next to the operating table lifted me up and told me to cross my arms over my chest. They rolled me from one side to the other. Not really sure what they were doing. Then they put my arms out to the side. I was there alone. Royal was getting dressed. I laid there and cried and prayed as they hooked me up to the heart monitor. It was a simple prayer, "Dear God, please take care of my baby and me." I just repeated it while tears ran down. Royal came in and it was time.

He held my hand. They put a curtain up and I was numb, so I really don't know what happened. I felt someone put all their weight on my belly and a minute later I heard a tiny cry followed by another and then they held Elijah over the curta
in and he was perfect. Pink with lots of dark hair. They took him over to the warmer. They asked Royal if he wanted to take a picture...Crap we didn't have a camera...Royal had his iPhone! Elijah's first picture was taken with an iPhone.



I am Grateful to God for my wonderful doctor and all the wonderful people who took care of us.
My sweet baby boy was born February 27, 2011 @ 8:05pm. He weighed 8lbs 2.5oz and 20in long.

Sunday, November 07, 2010

The Belly

If you are thinking about having a third baby beware the belly. It will show up without warning and become huge long before it should.
This was taken at 22.5 weeks. The baby has been consistently measuring a week ahead.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Name change

We found out we are expecting #3 back in June. Baby is due at the beginning of March. We found out last week that #3 is a boy. I am going to be greatly out numbered. In honor of this the blog needs a name change.

I am taking suggestions.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Baseball

Thanks to my friend Michele we went to the Astros game two weeks ago. This was the first game for both boys. Joshua loved the train and peanuts and Gabriel loved the hot dogs and popcorn. I loved that the tickets were free.


Daddy and boys

Trying to get a picture with three is hard work.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

A week of firsts

Our first first was on Monday. The boys had their first trip to the dentist. Much to my relief this was an easy trip. J&G are notorious for screaming at the doctor's office so you can only imagine what I thought a trip to the dentist would be like. I took them to see a pediatric dentist, John Zummo, who was my dentist from the age of seven until some time in college. I picked him because I knew he would be gentle. They each had their teeth brushed and florided by the hygenist. Then the denist came and looked at thier teeth. They each got a clean bill of health. And much to Royal's chagrin the spaces between thier teeth are good. It means when the adult teeth come it they will have plenty of space.

Our second first was a trip down to the rodeo fair grounds. We didn't really have time to do everything (it is huge), so we hit some of the kiddie hilights. The first stop was the pony ride. Origanally Joshua wanted to ride an giraffe. I told him I didn't think that would be possible, but asked if he would like to ride a pony instead. His initional answer was "no," but then he saw the ponies. I paied, we waited, then it was his turn. He picked a horse named Sarah. I thought he would scream the instant they put him on. Nope not today, he sat there and did just what the man said. Then, I thought for sure he would freakout when the horse started moving. Not.a.peep. He loved it. He smiled and smiled. When the ride was over he declared, "I wanna do it again!" he rode for aa second time. I was almost in tears. My little boy is such a big guy.





And not to be left out the little man had his first trip to a petting zoo. He was a little nervous at first beacuse all of the animals were eye to eye with him. After about a minute he was down and harrassing the animals just like big brother.