Madison Weekend

It seems like yesterday that we were married - and now we have a baby. We went back to Madison on Memorial Day weekend to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. We had fun reminiscing but also got to "show" Luke the sights. We took him to the farmer's market, the Monona Terrace (site of our wedding reception), the Memorial Union, and Lakeshore path.

We enjoyed a nice dinner, while Luke was at Nana and Papa's house, at Biaggi's (the site of our rehearsal dinner). A lot has changed since Alyssa and I graduated from the university, but Madison still feels like our home away from home.

Also on the trip, Luke found a friend that was just his size. Sorry... I had to throw that in for cuteness.

Happy Mothers Day

Luke is continuing to grow. His newborn sleepers don't fit anymore and he jumped up from diaper size zero to size one when he was 6 weeks old. He just had his 8 week check up and the doctor said he is doing great. He is almost 11 pounds and is in the 50 percentile for height. After getting 3 nasty shots he is relatively good spirits.

Another new thing is that he is starting to smile. Nothing makes me smile more than seeing him smile. In the morning he when he starts to wake up he is fussing. I pick him up, lay him on the changing table, and has a big smile waiting for me. Luke is like Alyssa - they are both morning people.

Alyssa celebrated her first Mother's Day. Luke surprised her with flowers the day before to catch her off guard. Alyssa is sliding into the role of motherhood with ease. I am honored that she is Luke's mother.

We were also privileged to dedicate him on Mother's Day at church. Both of our immediate families were able to attend. Several other couples from our church small group also dedicated their children that day. We feel lucky to have other friends that are also new parents who can share the joys and struggles.

Cute as they come....

Luke is the best baby. I love him. In fact, that is all I tell him all day long. I do not have much else to say to him. On average, I tell him I love him once every two minutes. Here are some words from Celine Dion that represent how I feel.
-Alyssa

“I’m overwhelmed with happiness, so blessed to hold you close, the one that I love most. Who could ever love you more?’

“You’re my angel from above, only God creates such perfect love.”

“A romance that is pure at heart, I never knew a love like this till you. You break my heart with tenderness. Who could ever love you more?”

Nutso

I, Alyssa, have been enjoying my time with Luke. We are bonding in more ways than one. I am a proud mom when Luke stops onlookers with his charm while he is in the stroller. I love him all the time, he even makes me laugh when he cries.


I need to come up with an enduring nick name for Luke. So far we call him “Nutso, Goof, Mr. Mad, Mr. Big Stuff, or Mr. Pouty.”


I also need to learn how to take better pictures of Luke, see enclosed photos. This is the reason I already have had to take Luke for professional photos.

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.

Will you be one of my bridesmaids? + First Baby Shower

Back in the fall Alyssa was asked to be a bridesmaid by my cousin Julie. She said yes and was very excited. But a few hours later it sunk in that she would be 7-1/2 months pregnant the day of the wedding (Jan 21st).

However, there was another problem – we had NOT told anyone we were expecting a baby. After a day of consideration along with trying on the exact bridesmaid dress, Alyssa decided to tell Julie she couldn’t be a bridesmaid and didn’t want her 7-1/2 month pregnant stomach in shiny, silver satin for all the world to see.

As it turns out I think she looked beautiful in her strapless maternity dress.

We also had our first baby shower last Sunday put on by our friends from church. We felt very loved and encouraged.

Key West

We spent 5 days in the Florida Keys during the beginning of January. We had fun kayaking, hiking, eating good food, watching sunsets, sailing, and spending time together. However, it was also the last vacation without a stroller, diapers, pack-n-play, etc. From what we hear we will probably need at least twice as much luggage traveling with three people. We will look forward to family vacations in the years to come and feel it privilege to introduce new and exciting things to our child.

Baby Preview

On New Year’s day we saw our baby for the first time – even though it is still inside of Alyssa. We had a 3d/4d ultrasound done. The images were awesome and very clear. It was easy to bond with the baby compared with our first 2-d ultrasound which showed alien-like images compare to these pictures.

We also found out during this ultrasound that we are having a boy!

The technology allows you to see the baby moving around in real time. At the beginning he was sleeping and had his hands by his face. Then he became very active, moving his hands and feet around. He even had one of his feet up by his ear for a few minutes. I guess he gets his flexibility from Alyssa. Near the end of the session he curled back into the “fetal” position as shown in the last picture.

We are in awe of how God has made him. We are very thankful for this beautiful gift and look forward to meeting him around March 29th.

Baby Announcement

On October 8th we officially announced to Alyssa's family that we were going to have a baby. We were able to tell her parents, along with her brother & sister's families, at the same time because we were attending her cousin, Erin's wedding. The next day we told the rest of the extended family at the wedding including the bride and groom. A few days later we told my parents in person and called the rest of my family.