A little background about us.

My husband, Ross, and I have been married almost 5 years and just welcomed our first child this past November.  We are still stumbling and fumbling through life with an infant but things are getting smoother as the days go by.  We certainly aren't perfect - far from it actually, but being able to laugh at the imperfections is what keeps us sane.

Luke Ryan Rodefeld was born November 27th, 2010 - 6 weeks early.  We had a rocky pregnancy and had finally received news at our 33 week appointment that we were no longer considered high risk.  Yay!  We were excited and looking forward to a nice Thanksgiving visit with family in Houston.  Thanksgiving eve, however, I started feeling some tightening in my belly right before dinner.  After having some false labor pains weeks before I was reluctant to tell announce my discomfort.  I monitored them silently for about 6 hours until I finally told Ross we were going to have to go to the hospital to have them checked out.  So at 3am, off we went to Clear Lake Regional Medical Center.  We arrived and found out upon a quick examination that I was 70% effaced, dilated to 1cm and having contractions 1 - 3 minutes apart.  I was immediately put on Magnesium to stop my labor while they gave me steroids to help boost the baby's lungs.  After the round of steroid shots had been completed, I was taken off the medicine and my contractions started back up again.  This was not alarming to the nurses (though slightly alarming to the rest of us) as they had suspected it might happen that quickly.  They gave me some great drugs to help me sleep that night and told us I would probably deliver the next day sometime.  My parents, in town from Dallas, went back to my father-in-law's to get a good night's sleep before the next day's anticipated festivities.  As soon as they were pulling back the covers to climb in bed, they got the call from Ross to come back to the hospital.  They were prepping me for delivery right then.  My doctor had stopped by to check on me before she left for the night & I had progressed to being 100% effaced and dilated 3 cm.  She didn't want to risk me going into more active labor.  They had told us at check-in that since the baby was positioned feet down and had the cord wrapped around his neck, there was no question that I was going to have a c-section.  I remember very little about the preparations as I was high as a kite from the night-night drugs they had given me a few hours before.  They were very efficient and little man was born within the hour.  He was 5 lbs 13 oz & 17 inches long.  Since he was not yet 35 weeks, he had to be taken to the NICU.  He spent a total of 15 days.  It was a long two weeks waiting for him to be released but it made is homecoming that much more sweet.

We'll fast forward rather quickly to present day - Luke is almost 5.5 months old, I am back to work and we have a pretty good family schedule.  Below is a quick picture time line of the past few months.

Welcome to the world baby boy!

  I LOVE this one!

Our first family picture

Luke Newborn Photo Shoot (7 weeks)