new blog address

We decided to switch blog domains and are now using Wordpress, instead of Blogger. The address to our blog is now: http://www.jeremyandkellie.wordpress.com.
Please change your bookmarks accordingly! The blog on blogger, will still be up for a while, but I will delete it soon, and all the new posts are now going on the new blog! Thanks!

10.5 weeks

I ended up having to go to work for a couple of hours this evening. I was hoping to get called off for the entire shift, but there were too many Christmas babies. Well, I was only at work for 2 hours and then got to come home, but before I left I took a little peek at our baby :). I took a video on my phone. I know it is hard to tell what you are looking at; the babies head is to the left and the feet are to the right, and it is laying on its back. And its moving like crazy!

10.5 weeks from Kellie Fredin on Vimeo.

backtracking a bit

Since I have been completely blog lazy, I feel like I need to update on a few things that happened in between the past two posts.
Thing #1: We took a great trip to Iowa with Jeremy's parents to go visit all of their extended family. We went in the middle of October. It was about a 9 hour drive, which I was a little hesitant to do with Liam, but overall he did VERY well. I still continue to swear by our portable dvd player, that I know keeps us sane on long road trips with him :). Jeremy's parents rented a cute little cabin in Clear Lake, Iowa. It was a great place to be able to go for Liam's naps, and when we needed some down time, and great to spend time with Jeremy's parents. Jeremy's grandparents, and many of his aunts and uncles came down for our wedding (I feel like that was forever ago), but we hadn't seen any of them since then so it was nice to able to see all of them again, and to meet the ones I hadn't met yet. No one had met Liam yet, so of course he was the center of attention :) Liam enjoyed running in the tall rows of corn at grandpa Oscar's farm, and picking apples from the apple tree :). On the way home we got to visit grandma and grandpa Birkey in Des Moines!

Thing #2: We flew to Houston, TX for Thanksgiving! Liam is well traveled for being 19 months old :). Our whole family (with the exception of Dathan and Elizabeth), went to Texas to be with John and Erika for Thanksgiving. We did this two years ago also...I think we should just go ahead and make it a yearly tradition. We had an amazing time, and Liam LOVED it down there. We took him to the beach for the first time, and he could have stayed there all day, chasing birds and dodging the washed up jellyfish :). 2 years ago when we went I was 12 weeks pregnant with Liam, and still not feeling the greatest. So I was looking forward to enjoying this trip, and not being pregnant. HA! That didn't happen, but praise the Lord, my morning sickness has been much more bearable with this pregnancy so far. The main things we did were, the beach, shopping and the Kemah boardwalk. Oh, and a few of us adults went to NASA one afternoon. There is SO much to do down there, you really have to pick and choose. The Saturday before we came home, our family got to meet my Aunt Korrene and Uncle Michael (my dad's sister) at Kemah for lunch, since they just live in Houston. So that was definitely an added bonus! We were very nervous flying with Liam for the first time, but he was a champ, and is now completely obsessed...I mean OBSESSED, with airplanes. Perfect. I mean, that is a pretty cheap hobby :).

blog neglect...but big announcement!

It is quite ridiculous how long it has been since I have posted anything on here! I am going to do a better job. Well I figure, since its been a couple months since posting, I might as well come back with a bang! So here it is...Looks like we are going to be adding another little one to our family in July, and Liam is going to be a BIG brother! :). We are SO very excited. We found out quite a while ago, and I am very proud of myself for keeping it somewhat of a secret until now! I am 10 weeks pregnant today. We are due on July 19th, which seems like SO far away. But honestly, right now, that date can just take its time getting here, because Liam has a little bit of growing up to do before this little one comes :)

So far he seems pretty excited. I know he doesn't understand even a tenth of what this really means. But he does understand that there is a baby in my belly. He will come up to my belly and kiss it, and say, hi baby. It is pretty sweet. Although, he also thinks there is a baby in his belly...I'm sure he will get it all sorted out soon :) Ha! Liam and this little one will be a little over 2 years apart, which I'm hoping will be a good distance. I have a feeling it will be more than we bargained for, for quite a while, but hopefully we can make the adjustment smoothly.

I will already answer one question you might have...yes there is just ONE! By looking at the picture below, you might think I am further along than I am, or that I am carrying more than one baby. But praise the Lord there is only one :). Trust me, I have looked several times :). I guess that this is just how I carry my babies...very big. I did the same thing with Liam when I was this early, and everyone asked, are you sure you aren't having twins? So I might as well prepare myself for that question this whole pregnancy too. The other picture, is one we just took at work when I was 9 weeks along. You can see the little "nubs" for arms and legs on the baby :) When we looked yesterday it was flailing its arms around everywhere and spinning in circles. Its a feisty one :) We did have our first official appointement with our Dr when I was 8 weeks pregnant, with our first "official" sonogram. He said everything looked great, and was growing right on schedule.

Now...here's for keeping this thing updated more often :)

update on liam

Well we had Liam's cardiology appointment Wednesday morning, and it went well. Basically the cardiologist reassured us, that most likely, this is nothing to be concerned about. There still is that little MOST LIKELY factor that bothers me a little. He wanted to make sure Liam was acting and playing like a normal toddler...we reassured him that this is NOT a problem :).

Let me just start out by saying how proud of Liam I was. The first thing they did was a 12 lead EKG, which involves putting 12 little stickers all over his body, and then attaching a wire to each sticker. From this they can see a read out of your heart rhythm. You have to hold very still while they do this so they can get a good reading, (you can imagine how this might be hard with a 16 month old), but he did a great job! I think he was pretty scared, so he just laid really still and looked around, wondering what in the heck was going on. The EKG confirmed that he does still have an irregular heartbeat, that is "trigeminal". This meaning, he has an irregular beat (called a PVC), that happens every third beat. The reassuring part of this is that, when he is active and his heartrate speeds up, the PVC's slow way down and sometimes, go away all together. This is very good, that they don't speed up when his heart speeds up.

The second thing they did at the appointment was an echocardiogram (a sonogram of the heart). This was the check the size of his heart, the condition of the muscle of the heart, the bloodflow, and to confirm that there was no fluid around the heart. All of this came back normal. Praise the Lord! He said that Liam's heart muscle looked very good, and shows no signs of damage. So then, he drew us a picture :). There are two nodes in your heart that fire the electrical impulses (the SA node, and the AV node). Liam has an extra little node somewhere between these two that wants to misfire, every third beat. And according to Dr. Allen, this is nothing to be concerned with at this time. He said that he sees about 3-4 kids a month that come in with this, and usually the irregular beats just resolve on their own. They don't know what causes them or how to prevent them, they just happen. He did say there was a rare chance that this can be a warning sign of an event in the future, but there is no way to know if this is the case. This a very very slim chance. In the meantime, Liam cannot have large amounts of chocolate, any caffeine, or over-the-counter cough or cold medicines (basically anything that would artifically speed up the rate of his heart). We are going to follow up with Dr. Allen in 6 months and they will probably do these same tests again and see how things are progressing.

So, overall, it was a very reassuring appointment. There still is that small chance, that something bigger could be wrong, but we are just putting our trust in the Lord, that Liam is just fine :). Dr Allen also talked with a pediatric rhythm specialist, about Liam, and he recommended the same plan of care at this time. So that was very reassuring to us. Thanks so much for everyones thoughts and prayers :)

First haircut!!

Before. Try not to look directly
at the mullet. Its bad.

















After pictures...
MUCH better :)
















Despite the fact that he looks
approximately 3 years old now,
I love the new hair cut :)

please pray

Just a quick update, because I want everyone who reads this blog to be praying. My friend Sarah (from work) is going through one of the hardest losses I can ever imagine. Her husband just died a couple hours ago. He was the sheriff's deputy that was shot earlier this afternoon in east Wichita. She has a little girl whose name is Natalie, who is 2 years old. I cannot even BEGIN to fathom what she is going through right now, and I so badly want to do something to help, but I know all that is going to help her right now is for people to be praying for her. I know the only possibly way Sarah can find comfort during this time is through Jesus, so that is what I am praying for. Sarah and her mom Diane are both nurses on our unit. I was supposed to be working tonight, but got put on call because it is slow, which I'm sure is a huge blessing, because I'm not sure how anyone up there is functioning right now. Please keep them in your prayers.