4 weeks old already!

We have been very busy during the last few weeks. Luke had his first Easter egg hunt. He actually slept through most of it, but eventually found his Easter basket behind a bush at Nana and Papa's house. We enjoyed spending Easter weekend with both sides of the family. Luke also had his first visit with Aunt Jan and Uncle Bill.

Luke is still doing well. Check out how he is growing. He is getting stronger by the day. He has a strong neck and likes to hold his head up when placed on his stomach or if held upright.

He also has strong legs. If placed on the floor he can push off my hands with both legs and move himself about an inch. So far his record is traveling about a foot with the span of a few minutes.

Welcome Home Luke

Well, the first week has quickly come and gone. Luke has been a great baby and is treating us well. On average he is sleeping about 4 hours at a time. He had several nights of sleeping 6 - 7 hours.

Everyday he becomes more alert to the world. He is opening his eyes for more time everyday. We enjoy watching all of his expressions and funny faces he makes. He has a variety squeaks and grunts that correspond to stretching, feeding, and pooping.

He caught on to breast-feeding right away so we are thankful. Our doctor called him a "champ" when it comes to feeding.

After Luke is done feeding he is either 1) so tired he immediately falls asleep or 2) very alert and will stay up for a few hours. Currently we have no way of predicting which option it will be. Pictured at the left is a shot of me reading him an annual report (which was a late night attempt at putting him to sleep - it worked!). Otherwise we revert to the more typical: swaddling, calming, holding, and singing.

Since the weather has been so nice Alyssa has been taking him on a stroller ride per day. I think Alyssa likes it more than Luke! She
is enjoying being home with him and bonding to him.

By the way you can double click on a picture to enlarge it.

Until next time.....

Happy Birthday Luke

We were scheduled to go into the Waukesha Memorial hospital on the morning of Thursday, March 30th and Alyssa would be induced. As it turns out we weren’t allowed to come into the hospital until 12:30 pm because they had about 5 - 6 women in labor.

We were taken to our room and settled in for the evening. Alyssa was put on a Pitocin IV, hooked up to a contraction monitor, and a fetal heart monitor. After a few hours Alyssa started to have very minor contractions but nothing of consequence. At 7 pm after no progress in contractions or dilation the doctor decide to stop and continue pitocin in the morning so she could get some rest. They applied prostaglandin gel to soften the cervix and planned to do this again at midnight.

However, Alyssa’s body had different plans. She started have contractions on her own at 9:30pm. They became intense very quickly – about a 1 minute long and 2 minutes apart. I will spare you the details but at 1:30am she was only 3 cm dilated and the doctor offered her the option of the epidural. She chose get it since she had been awake for 20 hours and wanted to be rested before having to push. Alyssa felt much better almost immediately after the epidural was administered.

They broke her bag of water to help her body continue to move the delivery process along. Alyssa was able to rest and even sleep for about 3 hours until 5 am. They checked her again and she was 8 cm. At 6 am she was fully dilated at 10 cm and ready to push. Everyone left the room and we had a chance to pray together. A few minutes later room started to fill up with a lot of people and equipment. Alyssa started pushing at 6:25 am.

I helped hold one of her legs and counted 3 sets of 10 as she pushed on every contraction. Everyone was impressed with how strong she pushed and gave her words of encouragement. After 37 minutes she delivered our son, Luke David Krause, at 6:57 am on March 31st.

I cried as tears of joy streamed down my face. The doctors did their checks and within seconds Luke was crying and they placed him on Alyssa’s stomach. In that moment I saw Alyssa became a mother. She held him and had an expression of love I had never seen before. As she cuddled with him, I got to cut the umbilical cord.

He was bigger than I imagined - how could he have been inside Alyssa. Luke was officially 7 lbs 14 oz. and was 19-3/4” long. He has a full head of hair, dark eyebrows, and long eye-lashes. Alyssa first impressions...."I had this love for Luke that was deeper than I imagined. I was relieved and amazed at how healthy he was. I love to love him. I think he is perfect. And I thank God for the great gift of my son.”

As you might imagine we have had a multitude of emotions over the last few days, and it is hard to express them through writing. Strong emotions such as deep love and great joy. But I hope you got a small glipse by reading this.

We have enjoyed and appreciated all the prayers, calls, and visits from friends and family. We hope you can meet Luke soon.