Parker is 2!!!

Can you believe it, Parker is 2, today. So we thought we should share some Then and Now.

A Few Months Old




Two Years Old





My, how far we have come. Can't wait to see Then and Now in 10 years if this is what we have in 2.

Finally Updating!!

Well life has been a little crazy and I started to think that I should really get back into the blog and updating everyone on the fam. Lately, everything has been going fairly well, except that all three of us have been sick for 3-4 weeks with a cold that we can't seem to shake. We are hoping to get over this bug soon.

Parker's stats:

18 Months and counting
17 lbs
Almost walking
Eating all solid food
Loves Chinese and Pasta
Loves Music and dancing
Loves Books

So what has happened since my last post. Well, lots of stuff. Erik turned 31 and I turned the big 30 and most of all, Parker turned 1. We had a great birthday party for him at the park with some of his friends (and our's too). We also had a party in Georgia with Parker's great-grandmother, great-great aunt and the rest of the Redden/Crawford clan.

Halloween was a blast and Parker went as an Astronaut. Thanksgiving was fun as well and we had a great time at Christmas.

Parker has been attending daycare and loves it. He is one of eleven boys. He has a blast and they love him there. We were so lucky to have found such a great place to take him.

Work for everyone is as usual, stressful but good. Erik's company Outdoor Spaces LLC is going strong and while being self employed offers new challenges, overall he loves it. I am still working for CLARB and traveling but really enjoy it.

What else....New picture's below and I will try and get back into this. Hope everyone is doing well. Keep you posted.

Growing Boy!

Well, Parker had two appointments this week. One was with his pediatrician. He is now 12 lbs and growing. He is still in the 5th percentile for weight, but "wait for it", he has advance to the 25th percentile for length (who knew). Grow baby, grow.

The doctor wants to hold off for about another month before we introduce solids so that was disappointing because we were so excited to get to start feeding him other stuff besides milk and formula. I probably have about another 2 weeks worth of frozen milk and then we will have to be on formula only (big bummer). I will say that the doctor thinks he is doing great and thriving.

The second appointment was back at the hospital with the Follow Along Clinic. This is in the Rehabilitation department. The did a few tests, with pictures, bells, rings, and people to see how Parker responded. As well as some tummy time and strength tests. According to the doctor, he is doing great. I think that this appointment was more of a benchmark and he will go back in 6 months and they will see how much he has developed since this appointment. The doctor did mention that we should not let Parker watch television, as preemie's have a higher risk of ADHD and television can cause that to develop even more. She said that not allowing television until the age of 2 has shown to reduce the risk of ADHD.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Back to Work!

Well, my maternity leave is now over and I am back at work full time. I have to say, the 3 months of not going into my office really spoiled me and this traffic is now even more annoying then it was before but I have to say that I don't really mind being back. I truly believe that it takes a special woman to be a stay at home mom and I know that I am not cut out for it. I believe that for me, it is quality time with Parker not quantity.

Well this is my second full week back and things seem to be running smoothly. Both my mother and Erik's mom have agreed to help us out for the next 12 weeks with child care by alternating weeks and coming to stay with us to take care of Parker during the day. We are on the second week of this routine and it is working perfectly. We are just so happy to be able to have Parker stay with family for a little longer before we have a stranger take care of him.

Parker has turned out to be an amazingly great baby. He is already going to bed around 10pm and sleeping until around 8am so that has been wonderful. He is a great eater, happy, laughs and smiles all the time and as we watch him, we just know that he will be rolling over on us sometime really soon. His personality is already so developed that it is scary. You can definitely tell when he is giving you the "Don't bother me look" and the "What do you think your doing" look. He also says "I love you", "Your funny" and "Please Don't" with just his facial expressions. He loves bath time TV time, story time and of course MUSIC.

We are having the best time getting to know him more and more each day. We can't wait for everyone to get to meet him and of course, based on my previous pictures, he will definitely be a Mountaineer fan.

God Bless.

We know it has been a long time so we thought we would make a quick post. Here are some photos from the past few months. Everything is going really well. Parker is now six months old and doing awesome. He is over 10 lbs and 23 inches long. Growing rapidly. I am back at work and Erik's business is off to a great start this year. Hope all is well with everyone of you. Take Care. God Bless.

Homecoming!

Well, I know that is has been forever since we have updated but here it is. Parker came home on December 21st just in time for Christmas. It was wonderful. Erik's parents were able to come over from West Virginia and spend the holiday with us. After Christmas, Uncle Tim and Aunt Kate stopped by to meet Parker as well before they left to go back to Turkey. We really enjoyed having all of them come.

We have been to see Parker's pediatrician and ophthalmologist a few times so far. The eye surgery for his ROP that took place right before he left the hospital went really well. His eyes are healing great and now we will continue to just follow his eyes with the ophthalmologist. The pediatrician is perfect. He seems to know preemies really well and is working out great for us. Erik and I really like all of the doctors that Parker has had so far. The major thing we have to get used to is adjusting Parker's age. With premature babies, they take Parker's actual age and calculate what they call an adjusted age to use as a guide for his development. For Parker, he is actually almost 5 months old, however, for medical and developmental purposes, his adjusted age is 1 month old. To calculate Parker's adjusted age, they take his actual age and subtract the number of weeks he was born early, which would be 15 weeks and 2 days.

For a couple of weeks Erik and I were just able to be alone and spend some time with Parker which was wonderful. We then took him on his first trip to the ski house which went really well. He tolerated the car ride very well and seemed to transition just fine.

On Martin Luther King weekend my parents were able to come up and see their grand baby too. We had a wonderful time. We went out a couple of times, took Parker and Erik to Fort Belvoir and just hung around. It was a wonderful weekend.

Since Parker came home Erik and I have been adjusting to his changing sleeping patterns. Some nights he does wonderfully, others, like last night, not so much. We have been told that in a couple of months, when he is roughly 3 months old, we can start trying to set up a sleep pattern but at this point he is still too young to not pick him up when he needs it.

Our next visitors are Uncle Ben and Aunt Vikki coming this weekend. We can not wait to have them. Then President's day weekend Uncle Scott and Aunt Danielle will come to visit also. Then we are hoping to have Uncle Trent and Aunt Jennifer come sometime in March.

Having Parker home has been a big adjustment but has been amazing. I will post some photos soon. I will try to get back into a regular schedule of updates. Hope everyone is doing well.

Short Update - Lot's of Changes

There are some great changes in the world of Parker, so here they are.

1) They took Parker off the CPAP machine and put him on the nasal canula. He is at a flow of 1 (which is great) and his oxygen is set to 21% (which is room air, what we all breathe) which is awesome.

2) They have moved his feeding tube from his small intestines to his stomach and he is handling that perfectly.

3) They have now started to compress his feeds. Currently, he is being feed through his tube for 2 hours and the he goes 1 hour with out food. This is to introduce the feeling of hunger and full so that he can tell Erik and I in the future when he is ready to eat. He is doing great with this also.

4) He now weighs 1710 grams which is a little over 3 lbs. 12 ounces.

5) Hopefully soon they will be able to introduce a bottle for feeding so that he can learn to actually eat on his own and soon they will start his vaccines that full term babies normally get.

6) He had another eye exam on Tuesday, which he hates but the nurses say he tolerates better the most babies do. He still has a level two ROP but at this point they are just going to watch him. They have said he may need Laser eye surgery but that the ROP could still resolve on it's own as well.

Even with everything that is going on he is doing great. We appreciate all the prayers and support. Please keep them coming. All of our nurses know of our great support group and of our Christianity since we talk of it. With that in mind, our nurse Megan informed us that another family (they are not allowed to give names), lost one of their twins on Monday. She asked if Erik and I and our group could prayer for them and I of told her absolutely.

Love to All.

BOO!!

Well, this was Parker's first Halloween and we were able to dress him up and take off his CPAP for a few minutes for a photo-op. He was splended and looked amazing. Enjoy!

A quick update: Parker is now 1590 grams or roughly 3lbs. 7 ounces. He has been taken off the CPAP and put on a low flow nasal canal and his feeding tube has been moved from his mouth to his nose. Hopefully in the next couple of days they will pull his feeding tube back into his stomach and as long as that goes well they will start timing his feeds instead of having him on a continous feed and they will start introducing a bottle. Cross your fingers.

Hope everyone is well.

Happy Fall!

Big Update

Well, our life has been a little hectic since Parker was born. Sorry for the delay in updates. So, two days before Parker was born Erik and I had a mini vacation in Baltimore. We went to the acquarium and an Orioles game. It was a great time.

Then our little guy arrived after church on Sunday. What a scary but amazing day. Parker Brooks Moden is doing very well. He is now gaining weight and is off the the ventilator. When he was still on the vent we really could not hold him a lot but we did get one opportunity to hold him. Now that he is off the vent we can hold him almost anytime unless he has had a bad day, which would mean that he was needing more oxygen support and was restless all day. So far he has not had many bad days and we were able to hold Parker again yesterday.

Below are photos of our mini vacation and some of Parker. Enjoy.

BALTIMORE:

PARKER BROOKS MODEN:

Parker Brooks Moden

As most of you already know, Parker Brooks Moden is here!!

We are updating a blog provided by the hospital to us, specifically for him. If you have not received the email with the link and I would like to see updates on his status please just shoot me and email and we will get you the link.

Hope everyone is doing well.

God Bless!

Erik's 1st Post!!!

It took me a little over year, but Rebecca was finally able to convince me to post on our blog. I know, I know...what took me so long. Well, all that's important, is that I'm posting now, and that you all can enjoy my witty writing.

So what's new in the land of the Modens?

First comes baby Moden! Parker or Katherine is growing, growing, growing...and with growing baby comes growing Rebecca.

Here she is on July 26th @ 19 weeks and 5 days

To every ones amazement (and some envy), she is still wearing her regular jeans. She has however, begrudgingly started to leave her jeans unbuttoned while wearing her belly band.

We had our 20 week sonogram this week, a few days early, and were completely blown away by the experience! All hands, feet, arms, and legs were accounted for, and were growing just as they should be. Our sonogram technician said the baby has my nose, but I just felt lucky to be able to locate the nose.

Actually, the sonogram was very clear, and because the baby is still fairly translucent, we were even able to see individual bones. Seeing it's spine was probably the most dramatic. We asked not to be told the sex of the baby, and of coarse once it started, we wanted to know...but we stuck to our guns and now can only speculate as to what we may or may not have seen.

Here are the a few of the new photos: Baby Moden - 19 Weeks and 3 Days

I'm quite familiar with the photos, and am aware of what they are, but for those of you who haven't been staring at them (dumbfounded by how this little baby of ours is moving around inside Rebecca) , here is an explanation.

Baby Face - Our baby is sleeping with it's hand curled up under it's chin. You can see the eyes, nose, mouth, and right shoulder.

Baby Arm - Here you can see our babies right arm reaching up in front of it's face. You can see the translucency of the skin exposing the humerus bone.

Sleepy Time - Hopefully our baby will like to sleep (like Rebecca), but then get up early and keep themselves occupied by cleaning (like me.)

In this photo, our baby is reaching up to scratch it's eye. You can see it's right shoulder, arm, and hand, as well as it's mouth and nose.

And so the accumulation of STUFF begins.

I'm glad the baby's room has a big closet, because I'm a neat freak and won't be able to handle having crap all over the house.

Both old and new, we have our first few clothing items. Some of which were mine when I was a baby, and others are impulse buys we just couldn't pass up the last few months.

We have both been doing a lot of reading, taking in as much information as humanly possible. Of coarse, we have also been inundated with opinions on how to raise a child. Most of which are valid and very much appreciated, but some are aggressive and a little over the top. All you new parents out there, you know what I'm talking about! HAHA.

The baby's room transformation is complete and the furniture has been ordered. More photos to come later.

Lastly, because we don't have enough stress in our lives, a partner and I have decided to start our own business.

Outdoor Spaces Landscape Design (The most likely candidate for our name) will be a two person operation designing residential pools, decks, patios, walkways, retaining walls, etc. and subcontracting the installation.

We are still in the research phase, but are hoping launch this fall. Wish us luck!

Well, hopefully that is enough for now. I should do this more often! We'll fill you in again soon.

Love,
Erik

June 11th Appointment with OBGYN!

Well everyone, we had our next appointment with the OBGYN (Dr. Stokes) this morning. It went very well. It was a little scary at first because Dr. Stokes could not find the heart beat. So, we went to another sonogram and there our little baby was just flipping around in my belly and having a great time. Below we have a few more pictures since we were able to get another sonogram.

As it turns out, Dr. Stokes could not hear the baby's heartbeat because my blatter is pushing the baby up higher in my stomach then most women experience so he was basically looking for it in the wrong place. With the machine (no idea what it's called) we could finally hear the heartbeat after we new where the little rascal was hiding and we were able to record it on my cellphone. I tried to upload it to the blog but was unable to so, I will send it via email to everyone I have. If you don't get it and want to hear is just shoot me an email and I can send it to you. There is a lot of noise because I could not stop laughing because I was so excited. But if you listen to the whole thing you can hear it really well at the end.

Well we hope you enjoyed our first experience with the baby's heartbeat. It was moving at 135bpm this time and measuring at 7 sonometers (I think that's what he called them). So our little one is right on track and everything is going great.

Hope everyone is doing well and I am sure I will talk with you soon.

Love, Erik, Rebecca, Smokey, Dusty, Shadow, Ghost and "IT" (Baby Moden)

Aging, Changing House, Body and Baby!!!!

Well life has been a little wild here in Virginia. Lot's of stuff going on and it's pretty hard for Erik and I to keep up.

First, changes in our house. We finally decided to have new carpet installed because the old carpet was ugly and probably pretty nasty with two dogs and two cats. Here's what the new carpet looks like now.

Next, we decided to have new windows installed because the old windows were about 30 years old. In the winter the let the cold air in and in the summer they let the hot air in and we had to use 2x4's to hold them open, at least the ones that we were able to get open. Below, please view the beautiful before and after photos.

Before:

After:


Last, we started working on the nursery. We painted the walls and added beadboard and a chair rail.

Second, in the Moden household, Erik turned 30. To surprise him I sent him golfing with his friend Andrew and then had all are friends come over to the house that afternoon for a cookout. We had a wonderful time. Sorry, I was so busy having fun and coordinating everything I forgot to take pictures.

Last, Erik and I had are last appointment with Dr. Khan our fertility doctor on Monday and our first appointment with our OBGYN today. At the last appointment with Dr. Khan we had our second sonogram. The baby, my uterus and the heart beat all changed rapidly. The heartbeat jumped from 129 bpm last time (2 weeks ago) to 176 bpm on Monday. It was crazy to watch how fast the heart fluttered on the sonogram. Below you can see how much the baby has grown since last time as well and if you know me very well you can see how much I have grown too. I have already put on 8 pounds and am weighing in at a whopping 113.

Baby:

Belly:


Well, I hope everyone is doing well. I will keep you posted on my growing belly. Our next doctors appointment isn't until June 11th so we have a little while to wait this time.

God Bless!

Update from the Modens!

Well, sorry it has been two months since my last post but life has been crazy for a while. As most of you already know, Erik and I have been going through fertility treatments trying to have a baby. Well our most recent IVF treatment, I am pleased to say was a success and Erik and I are expecting our first child on December 15, 2009. We are 7 weeks and 1 day pregnant.

We had our first sonogram on Monday and everything looked great. They said that it (people make fun because I call the baby "it") is measuring at a good size and it's heart rate was 129 bpm which is supposed to be well into the healthy range.

The most exciting part was that we received our first baby picture and I have already found a place on the refrigerator for it.

We go back to the doctor on the 11th for another sonogram and then I am scheduled to see my regular OBGYN on the 13th.

We hope everyone is doing well and we thank you for all your prayers and support.

Happy Spring!

Skiing in Utah!!!

Well, it has been a while but life has been a little busy. It never seems to slow down but I am sure I am preaching to the choir when I say stuff like that.

This past weekend Erik and I took a couple of days off and went out to Park City, Utah with Krista and her husband Paul and some other friends to go skiing.

On day one, Thursday, Erik and I went to ski at The Canyons. This was my first time skiing in Utah and Erik helped me challenge myself of the double black diamond called the Yard Sale. From what I know about a Yard Sale while skiing it basically means that you whipe out and lose all your gear from your skis to you poles to your hat and goggles.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2172/2241493668_e1a21ea34a_b.jpg

Laugh all you want, luckily that did not happen to me.

After a nice lunch break, Erik and I decided to do some hiking to ski as well. This is where I called it quits.

Erik kept climbing,

And Climbing,

Until he finally made it to the top.

He did all this work and it only took seconds to ski back down.

We had a great time. However, to end the perfect day, clumsy Rebecca decided to fall on the ice entering the condo and jam her shoulder. So basically that was it for me and the skiing. My arm is feeling better so no need to worry. I know that you all are shocked and upset by this turn of events. The up side to this was that on Friday, I was able to go shopping and get a massage. Erik on the other hand decided to be insane on Friday and he went on a back country tour called the Interconnect Tour through Ski Utah.

http://www.skiutah.com/interconnect/

I will let him make another post with photos of that because he was there and can better explain his insanity. I do know he had a great time and that it was the experience of a lifetime.

On Saturday, we both took it easy. We lucked out and the Olympic Park was hosting the final races for the World Cup Bobsled tournament so we were able to go and watch them. It was amazing and cold. I was sure they were going to have to cut off some of my fingers aftering being out there for so long.

On the last day we went to Alta. Erik skied alone but I am sure he did not mind being able to ski all the harder runs that I can not. He took pictures that day too but again I will let him post them since he knows what they are.

We took the redeye home on Sunday night, which I will NEVER do again, but we survived. Now its back to the grind. We'll post some more soon. Hope everyone is doing well and that we can get to see you all soon.

Love Ya!