Introducing Johnathan Douglas Bierer

Johnathan Douglas Bierer was born on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 at 9:12am. He weighed in at 7lbs 11oz and was 19.25 inches long.

Johnathan was born by planned c-section, but apparently he had planned to be born that day whether we were ready or not, because my water broke about 15 minutes before surgery. :) Talk about timing!



Doug got to be there, our doctors and nurses were wonderful, and the whole experience could not have been better! Unlike Danika's birth, there were no complications, nothing unexpected (except the water breaking!) and the recovery has been a breeze so far. Not that it is without pain, but compared to complications last time, this is a piece of cake! :) As soon as they let me get out of bed (24 hours after the surgery) I felt GREAT. I even convinced them to let me out of the hospital a full day early because I was feeling so wonderful. It was great to be home and to have our little family of four all under one roof.




Danika ADORES her baby brother. She loves to kiss him and pat him and she has been really gentle with him. We are so proud of her. She loves to be Mommy's helper and wants to help change diapers and assist in putting his binky back in when it falls out. :) Yesterday she crawled up next to me leaned over, gently put her hands on both sides of Johnathan's face and softly said, "I love you baby John. You are my best friend." Talk about melting a Mommy's heart.
I feel so blessed I am just beyond amazed at this precious gift times two. To be entrusted by God to care for these two precious lives and to raise them to love Him...it overwhelms me sometimes.


And speaking of being overwhelmed...I have the most amazing husband. I will post more about it later, but for now let's just say I love that man. He was just fantastic through the birth and the subsequent days in the hospital and now that we are home, I just couldn't ask for more support or help than I get from him. He is just fantastic.

John is doing great...already gained back all of his birthweight and then some. He is a great eater, and sleeps in decent chunks, so I'm tired but not falling apart. He is easy going and pretty easy to appease...so far so good!






So....the adventure shifts to a new chapter as the little Bierer family becomes four instead of three. Thanks for tuning in! :)

Pregopotamus

So a friend of ours recently posted on his Facebook page this comment: "Things not to call your pregnant wife: Pregopotamus." When Doug and I saw it, we pretty much laughed until we cried. It has become our favorite pregnant description...I would say we use it roughly 3 or 4 times a day. Everytime one of us says it, we both just crack up. (Thank you Brandon. :))

D: How are you feeling today?
A: Pregopotamus.

A: How do I look?
D: Pregopotamus.

D: Um...can you move, Pregopotamus? I'm trying to get through this door... :)

D: How is my favorite Pregopotamus doing?

You get the idea... a special thanks to Brandon for adding to our humor here in the last few weeks of this pregnancy...we appreciate it!

Anyway...here are some pictures from this past weekend to help you truly appreciate the Pregopotamus. :) I am SO ready to have this kid on the outside and NOT on the inside anymore! He is way too big and he is being evicted from him current home. :)
We met with the doctor this week and they confirmed that a planned c-section is the better choice for me this time around, so we will be having this baby on Tuesday, July 28th at 9am. :) I've got to say...knowing what time and day is kind of fun! I'm very, very excited.

Danika has no idea what is about to happen to her world...but to her credit she is VERY excited about having a little brother. I'm just certain she doesn't really know what that means. :)


Anyway...that is the update on us. These pictures were taken over the weekend. Doug's cousin Lindsay got married and we also celebrated Dana's birthday. It was a fun family weekend together.

Danika thinks that my enormous protruding belly makes a GREAT tent to hide under....I have to tell her to get out from under my belly all the time. It ranks right up there with other statements I must now make as a mom that I never would have imagined I'd be making out loud. "Don't bite the cat." "Please stop sticking your toe in Daddy's eye." "Please don't eat the chicken nugget that fell on the floor....at Wal-mart." Yep. Welcome to "Momhood". And soon I'll be doing it times two. :) (What have we done???) :)

Hospital Adventures

So, since the last few weeks have been so uneventful, I thought I needed to spice things up. :)

Monday was supposed to be our first REAL day back at work after the last two emotional weeks we have had...and instead, Doug and I had to head to the hospital by 10am.
I started experiencing some pretty significant pain in the right side of my abdomen on Sunday...by Monday it had increased and my doctor ended up sending me to the hospital for evaluation...I spent all day at St. Vincent hospital. It was a long boring day in a very busy, over-crowded Labor & Delivery floor. They took blood, monitored the baby, took my vitals, and sent about 5 different doctors in to check me out. In the end, they sent me home and said to call/come back if I ran a fever.

I worked all day Tuesday...the pain remained mild to medium, but during the night Tues it increased significantly. By Wed morning, I was in a great deal of pain...and they sent me to the hospital again. For fear that it might be something that would require surgery, they put me on clear liquids and wouldn't let me eat. Pain escalated until Wednesday pm, and at that point I had a 20 minute bout of pain that was some of the worst pain I have ever had. I had two sets of sonograms of all the organs that could possibly be involved. I had several sets of blood work done, and again met with all sorts of doctors. In the end, they still don't know what it is, but they are fairly confident it doesn't require surgery right now, so they finally let me eat at 2:30pm on THURSDAY and sent me home on at 4:30pm. Really, it is not a good idea to starve a pregnant woman...we get very cranky. :) The pain has been in the mild-medium range ever since.

I did NOT plan on spending three days of my week in the hospital...and I really am not the biggest fan of pain. I was really hoping that our life would settle into some semblance of "normal", but that was just not to be. On the positive side, the extra sonograms confirmed it...we are having a little BOY for sure! :) That was a fun bonus...we are pretty excited!

Doug has been a saint...as a result of this annoying pain, I am forced to sit down a LOT...it hurts to be too active. So, he is the man right now...he makes the food, gets Danika up, dresses her, chases after her, gets her ready for bed, does the dishes, takes care of the laundry and basically takes care of almost everything in the house right now. He is my hero. :)

So that was my week last week...we are hoping this week is way less eventful. Boring and normal would be great. :)

Belly Shot

Well...it has come to my attention that this poor child I am carrying is less than 9 weeks from its scheduled entry into the world and I have yet to take any profile shots of my growing belly. Bad mommy.

Take my word for it....I have been HUGE for a very long time. I'm sure it's due to the whole "second time around" scenario, but my belly popped MONTHS ago, and I have already exceeded the girth I had when I delivered Danika...and I have 2 months left to go. Yes...I know....it is going to be a long, hot summer. :) My ankles have been swelling for a while now...or should I say "ankle"? My right ankle stays pretty close to normal and only swells mildly....the left ankle on the other hand gets ENORMOUS. I look so attractive in capris and skirts, let me tell you. I was trying to find some cute black sandals that would work with dresses and capris...I finally gave up and bought a really well padded pair of sports flip-flops. They are my new best friends...I wear them everyday.

Anyway...for your viewing pleasure...here's a picture taken this weekend of my growing belly.


I had a doctor's appointment this past Wednesday...everything is measuring perfect, my blood pressure is great, my numbers are great, the baby is growing and kicking like a wild thing....so things are looking good.

August 5th...here we come!

It's a boy....we think.....

Well...Friday was the big 20 week sonogram....we were excited and hoping that they would be able to tell us if it was a girl or boy....

The baby was extremely uncooperative. He stayed in a tough position the whole time and it was pretty hard for the sonogram tech to even get the measurements needed. We got a few "glimpses" of the necessary area....and it sure looks like a boy. But, that baby just wouldn't hold still and let us get a really good look. So...it's still pretty up in the air.

But, in our home, we are now referring to the baby as "he" and trying to come up with boy names. :) They said I will have to have another sonogram in a month to measure the stuff they couldn't see Friday, so we should have another shot at a "for sure" answer. :) We will keep you posted.

So far, so good!

So we recently had another sonogram, and everything appears to be healthy so far. :) Here's one of the pictures...the baby is "face down" and wasn't very cooperative...but you can see the spine and the jaw and the little hand as he/she moved it up to put the thumb in his/her mouth. It is always so fun to hear the heartbeat and see the movement on the screen! :) Especially when things are still so small and you can't see or feel anything on the outside...just the lovely morning sickness and nausea. :) Thanks, kid!


Next sono will be at the end of March and we will find out then if it is a boy or girl. Doug's hoping for a boy, but either way, we are super excited. :) Poor Danika...she doesn't even know what's happening to her world. :)

We will keep you posted.