It's a BOY - Landon Charles Meidam

IT'S A BOY!
LANDON CHARLES MEIDAM

Saturday, August 27, 2011 - 1:47pm
7lbs 10oz and 19.5 inches Proud Mommy! Longer pushing this time than with the others - still only about 25 mins. Once I was more upright things went better! The doctor held him up right away - "It is a boy!" I had a "gut" feeling this entire pregnancy it was a boy - and he was! Crazy!

I never would have guessed though that he would be 7lbs 10oz. Grant was 5lbs 14oz; and Alayna was 5lbs 15oz. I asked the nurse if the scale was right? She checked again - still 7lbs 10oz :)


PROUD Daddy!

Baby Meidam #4 =Landon Charles

Awesome Big Brother

Best kisses from the Best Big Sister

Grandpa and Grandma Kok - thanks for taking care of Grant and Alayna while we are having Landon!

Awwww

Sweet boy! Just exhausted after his circumcision this morning. So far nursing is ok, but he's sleeping so much and not waking up a lot to eat. We're undressing, using a cold wash cloth, etc. Hopefully it gets a bit better...not wanting to repeat the nursing issues with Grant. I need to THINK POSITIVE :)

Grandma and Papa Meidam. We always seem to have babies when they are "up north" Grandma had to wait 24 hrs to meet this little guy...she could hardly stand it! Thanks for making the trip back early! Glad you did!


His name? Landon - we just liked it. Charles - after my (Shana's) Grandpa Kok.


Welcome to our family Landon Charles. Your big sister Briana was watchin' over you these last 39.5 weeks. We are so blessed to have you with us! Love you!

Preggo Party

Some great friends of mine threw a little Preggo Party for 4 of us ladies who are all expecting. It was only a first baby for 1 of us - so we weren't really having a "shower"...just a girls night out to celebrate all these upcoming babies we are all so blessed to be having. So - we went out to Firefly for some appetizers and drinks (of the water and diet coke variety) :) and were given some lovely Mommy gifts from those who were not expecting. We will all have the opportunity to head to the spa for some pampering either before (or maybe after in my case) these little bundles arrive.
Pictured: (back row) Kara, me (preggo - Aug), Heidi, Lynn (preggo - Nov), Sarah, (front row) Liz (preggo - Nov), Des, Liz (preggo - Dec), and Jen (preggo too - but nobody knew at the time - so we will celebrate her later :) )

A HUGE thanks to everyone who organized, came or participated in any way. I know I had a GREAT time!

39 Weeks

39 Weeks - WHAT? I never thought this would ever happen! Here I am at 39 weeks pregnant. First contracting at 34.5 weeks and afraid it would come too soon - now wondering why in the world it can't follow in it's brother and sister's footsteps and come at 38 weeks! (Am I really asking too much :) )
Wow - it has thrown me for a loop though. Mainly because if I didn't go on my own at 38 weeks I always knew my dr would be fine inducing me shortly after b/c of Briana's loss. He's always said - there is no real medical reason to do it, but to ease any anxiety we might have we could do that. I however - don't want to be induced. My own experience with it was horrible and what I've heard from others usually isn't good either - so I'm not real excited about it.
Anyway - so here I am at 39 weeks - and I have to admit I'm going a bit crazy (sorry to all of you who have carried 41 or more - you are amazing!) Hopefully this baby will be here soon!

Little Bit of Great Grandpa Kok

One great memory I have of my Grandpa Kok is his singing. He would make up a song about anything and everything. Alayna never met Grandpa, but she must have gotten a few of his genes.... She spilled some grapes this afternoon and while picking them up she sang a little made-up tune something to the affect of - pick em up and put them away, pick em up and put them away, repeat, repeat, repeat. :)

38 Weeks and 9 years

38 weeks. WOW! Seems like it could be any day now right? At least that is what I am counting on! Both Grant and Alayna were born about 38 weeks. I think Grant was right at 38 and Alayna was maybe 38 and a day or two. Let's just say I will be REALLY disappointed if I don't easily go about 38 weeks. At 38 weeks my NST showed a heartbeat/min rate of 145 (average) to up to 160. I measured about 37 weeks in size and was 3cm (again - doesn't seem to mean a whole lot).
I was however always hoping I could at least not have the baby before our anniversary - which is the same day as our 38 week mark - August 17. Can't believe it's really been 9 years already! 9 years of dating and if you add our dating years to that - we've been together for 16 YEARS! Wow - are we old! :)
Brian and I headed out to dinner to Maggiano's and spent the evening relaxing. We walked through a house, stopped at Kohls and Target and headed back home. It was a nice night. NOW - it's time to have a baby! Hopefully sooner than later! :) Can't wait to meet this little one! Please say prayers for a safe and HEALTHY arrival! Thank you!

Nursery

Seems like it took a while this time around, but we finally got a bunch of work done on the nursery! Alayna just moved out of this room about a month or 6 weeks ago so it's not like it didn't have a lot still in it, but it needed major clean out and organization. I reorganized the closet, Alayna helped me get the newborn clothes and diapers put in the changing table, we got the "equipment" out of the attic (bouncy, swing, bassinet) and Daddy and Grant turned the crib from Alayna's toddler bed back into the infant (high mattress) crib.

Grant was a great helper! Can't wait to have a new little Meidam in that room! Hopefully sooner than later :)

Movie at the Park

A New Berlin park featured the Toy Story 3 movie outside at dusk Friday night. We met some friends, had a picnic dinner, ran around the park for a while and then watched Toy Story 3. How fun is it to watch a movie at the park? We had lots of snacks, popcorn and fun with our friends. This was the last one of the summer for this year - we hope to hit more next year!

Alto Fair

We headed to the Alto Fair again this year. I'm 32 years running - so being 37 weeks pregnant didn't keep me away :) The weather was great! 70s and sunny (very thankful it wasn't the 95 of the week before). Brayden was squirting water from the back of the firetruck
Grant and Alayna takin' in the parade. Alayna picked up her awesome clapping again and clapped at every music beat that went by. It took about 1/3 of the parade but they finally understood the candy being thrown should be picked up off the street and put in their bags. I'm glad they didn't really care to run out into the street after it, but having to tell them to step out 2 steps to pick up a sucker seemed kinda crazy :)

They also enjoyed the rides, watching Uncle Cory and Aunt Trisha tractor pull, all the animals, getting tattoos and the 5th quarter WI Badger band performance after the parade.

37 Weeks

Here's a little video of our 37 week Nonstress Test. What do you think...galloping horse or swish swish of a washing machine...apparently that is supposed to tell you boy or girl (no exactly sure which is which - so it's not telling me anything!) :)

37 week dr check I measured 37 weeks and was 2 cm dilated. Which also doesn't mean much since one can sit at 2cm for weeks :) Oh....time will tell! Can't wait to meet this little one!

Flip Flops and High Heels

Alayna has been really into wearing my flip flops lately. I could have them on and she asks me to take them off so she can wear them. Occasionally she will even go for Brian's just to have some to wear (that are not hers of course) :) Anyway - here she is wearing Daddy's flip flops with her cart full of "stuff" and her sunglasses up-side-down.
Grant on the other hand...hasn't been too into other people's shoes, but apparently Alayna had my high heels out and Grant decided to give them a try :) I think this pic is hilarious!

High heels, with a pom pom in his undies. NICE!

Hired Help

As this pregnancy gets further and further along - cleaning around the house gets harder to do for this growing mama. So - I now have "hired help". Grant is doing a wonderful job with my floors :)

And Alayna is the laundry queen! (Grant was helping this time too) She LOVES to fold and help put it all away!
Here are her piles.

Brewer's with the Kok's

Every summer we try to do some kind of fun summer activity with my whole family. This year we picked a Brewer Game. We had food at our house before heading to the game. My sister and her husband weren't able to make it at the last minute because a huge test she had for her PHD program was pushed back a couple days and she needed to keep studying. SO - that was a huge BUMMER they weren't able to come!

Aunt Trisha had lots of great snacks :)

Having lots of fun!

It really is all about the snacks

Alayna, Brayden, Grant

Alayna was quite funny - she clapped whenever it was appropriate and wanted everyone around her to do the same. Every great Brewer hit, every cheer, etc...she was on top of it!