Here I am!

Tap...tap... tap...is this thing on?

Can you hear me now?

Can you hear me now?

Good..

Okay, so it's been a while since anyone wrote on this here waiting for Monkey blog. Why, you ask? Well, that would be my fault...

Allow me to introduce myself...

My name is Anderson James Homburg...also known around these parts as Monkey! I arrived at 9:05pm on Thursday June 11th. I shocked my parents and the doctors by weighing in at a plump 9lbs 30z. Mom says she's glad she didn't know how big I was going to be!

I've been keeping my parents busy the past couple of weeks so they haven't had time to blog. They've been trying to keep up with pictures though, so here's a quick look at a few of the things I've been up to in my first two weeks of life. I promise to be back soon with more stories and pictures. These are just the ones Mom had easy access to.

So, first, I was born. I met my mom and my dad, Dr. Kaldas and a couple of nurses. Then, I got to meet my Aunt Barb. She came right away because my parents desperately needed food. She held me while mom ate a cheeseburger and dad scarfed a big mac. Then, she used Mom's camera to take this picture. Our first as a family!

The next morning I met my Grandpa Fred. He was in Wisconsin for work and drove a little out of his way to come meet me. He is eager to take me fishing. I guess that means Mom and Dad need to buy me a fishing pole.

I actually had lots of visitors that first day in the hospital. Aunt Barb came back and she brought Brad and Angie. Toni and Jason came to introduce me to my new friend Lily. Sam Fredlake came to see us too. She's carrying a new friend of mine in her belly who I'll get to meet this fall. Later that night I got to meet the Ossmanns!

I got sprung from the hospital on Saturday, which was very exciting. Unfortunately for me, I was feeling a little yellow by Sunday morning and so Mom and Dad had to take me to the doctor. The dr said I had jaundice and so I spent the next two days chilling out on this thing. The doctors call it a billi blanket, but around here we referred to it as the baby tanning bed.

Monday was a big day. I met my pediatrician Dr Riddlehoover. Despite my sassy face, I think she's quite nice. She has three boys of her own, so I think she's pretty qualified to be my doctor.

Then, when we got home, I met my big brother Walker. Mom says he's a crazy dog, but so far he seems to be pretty happy to have me around. He guards me in my crib and makes sure Mom and Dad know if I'm crying.

Tuesday is where things started to get a little scary around here. Monday night Mom noticed I was "twitching" a few times when I was awake and alert. She decided to call the doctor on Tuesday morning and the doctor decided we should go to the hospital to get checked out. Here I am sporting a big blue bandage on my arm so I wouldn't accidentally take out my i.v. I found the bandage made a pretty good pillow.
Wednesday morning I had to have a test on my brain called an EEG. But before they could do the test I needed to be awake for 2 whole hours! That's a long time for a baby as little as me. Mom did some pretty mean things to me, like tickling my feet and playing with my legs, to keep me awake for that long.
Then it was time for me to go to sleep while they watched my brain with those 25 electrodes. While they were watching my brain I started twitching and the doctors decided my twitches are actually seizures. They put me on a special medicine that I have to take every day until I hopefully outgrow the seizures.

The doctors let me go home from the hospital on Thursday, just in time to take a one week old picture with my monkey friends! Mom and Dad want to take this picture once a week so we can watch me grow.

For my first weekend home, Mom decided to give me a bath. I thanked her by peeing all over her when she took me out and wrapped me up to dry off.
My little pee routine was quite funny to my Uncle Steve and my Grandpa Mark. They were quite proud of me for already driving Mom crazy!

Lucky for me, my mom is very forgiving and once she changed her clothes she was ready to take me to my first block party. My mom is one of 5 women on the block having a baby this summer so I will have lots of friends to play with as I grow up.
Sunday was very exciting since we got to celebrate my dad's first Father's Day! We went out for breakfast (my dad's favorite meal) and then I gave dad his gift...a deep fryer. He promises to make me lots of yummy things when I get teeth.

So far this week things have been pretty quiet. I'm learning lots of things about my new home. I spend a lot of time in Mom's arms, but when she has to put me down to do something Walker is great at cuddling with me on the bed.

And when Mom has to do some work downstairs, I get to hang out in my swing! Pretty cool, huh?

So I think that catches everyone up on my first two weeks of my life. Mom says she's hoping the next two weeks are a little more quiet. I'm not making any promises.

Final Countdown: June 10th: The Day Before We Meet You

Dear Monkey,

I can't believe we're really here. If all goes as planned, this time tomorrow I'll be holding you in my arms. We'll finally know for sure if you're a boy flavored monkey or a girl flavored monkey. We'll be able to call you by your name. We'll be able to see if your cheeks really are as chubby as they appear on the ultrasound. We'll count your fingers and your toes and fumble to change your first diapers.

I wish I could bottle this feeling I have right now. It's like the night before Christmas meets the first day of college meets the night before my wedding. And yet it's like none of those things, because all of those things came easily compared to what we went through to get to this day. Every moment of the last 39 weeks has been a little surreal. Tomorrow will be surreal too, I'm sure.

I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight with all this excitement but I know I'll need my rest.

Can't wait to meet you!
Love
Mama

Final Countdown: June 8th: The Last Weekend

Good Morning Monkey!

It's quiet here in the house as I'm typing this morning, much different from the craziness you would have heard a few hours ago. You see, we had a thunderstorm last night. If there's one thing you need to know about your big brother Walker, it's that he *hates* storms. He thinks he needs to protect the family from that loud scary thunder. It makes for a loud and long evening when those storms happen overnight. Nobody got much sleep around here until the storm ended at around 4 this morning. Now, of course, Walker and your dad are sprawled out in bed, but Mama can't seem to sleep anymore.

Our last weekend before your big arrival has been a busy one, with lots of errands to run and last minute things to catch up on before you arrive and turn this place upside down. Saturday your dad shot a wedding while Mama stayed home and focussed on not having a baby while he was gone. I did get out for lunch with Barb and Brad at Panera before coming home to wash and fold some itty bitty baby clothes while watching the RedWings game.

Sunday called for more housework and some photoediting before Aunt Barb came over for our last girls night before your arrival. She brought the coolest album for us to fill with photos from your first month on the outside! Then, we had a very yummy dinner at Fratellos before heading over to the Performing Arts Center to see Grease! You seemed to really like it, or else you were kicking the daylights out of me in an attempt to get someone to turn down the volume. Grease was the last show in our season of tickets which worked out to be perfect timing.

Now here we are at Monday morning. Our last doctor's appointment before your arrival is in just a couple of hours. It's hard to believe that we're having our last NST after all of these weeks. Let's hope you once again prove to be a rockstar.

Oh, and if you decide you want to come out today, that would be just fine with us!
Love you!
Mama

Final Countdown: June 4th: The Day Mama Gained 10lbs

Dear Monkey,

One week from today you will be here. You've got 6 more days to pick your own birthday, because come next Thursday, Dr. K is issuing an eviction notice. That doesn't sound very fun does it? It involves this nasty thing called Pitocin that Mama is very afraid of. So let's shoot for sometime before June 11th, okay? Sunday sounds good to me.

Today we went to our 38 week doctors appointment, even though it felt like we had just been at the doctor. Oh, wait. That's because we DID just go to the doctor on Monday. At this rate we should have our own parking spot right near the door! The appointment wasn't very exciting. You were a rockstar on the non stress test, which was a big relief after the worries of Monday. Mama stepped on the scale. It wasn't pretty. According to the scale, Mama gained 10lbs in a week! It's pretty easy to see why. Mama no longer has ankles, or calves, or knee caps. The doctors say swelling is to be expected at this point in the game, but 10lbs is a lot of water retention. No more salt for Mama.

Dr. A also checked to see if things were progressing and delivered the bad news that nothing has changed in there since last week. So, we're still waiting on you Monkey. The bags are packed, the car seat is installed, and if Mama's feet get any bigger she'll have to walk into the hospital barefoot. Lets get this show on the road, okay?

Love,
Mama

Final Countdown: June 3rd: The Day to Honor Aunt Barb

Dear Monkey,

Today I want to talk to you about someone very important: your Aunt Barb. Now, don't be confused. She's not *technically* your aunt, not in the biological sense, but you should consider yourself very lucky to have her around. Not only is she very smart, and very talented, she keeps your mama at least partially sane...which I think is important for both us!

If you are a girl flavored Monkey, Aunt Barb will turn you into a fashionista by sharing her deep love for furry boots and puffy vests. If you are a boy flavored Monkey, we'll skip the boots and vests and Aunt Barb will teach you to love things like cupcakes and risotto. She'll also share her love of reading and learning and she'll probably try to sneak in some lessons about eating organic and recycling. We'll go with Aunt Barb to the farmers market this summer so you can learn all about the joys of the tomato people, and the dangers of buying flowers that might contain spiders.

Another reason you are lucky to have an Aunt Barb? Because of her, we'll probably wind up celebrating your half birthday. Aunt Barb loves a reason to celebrate! Today is actually her half birthday and we'll be celebrating with Dairy Queen later tonight. (Don't worry...I'll eat your share too!) It's probably too late for you to actually arrive on Aunt Barb's half birthday, but she did say she would be willing to share if you wanted to be born today. That Aunt Barb sure is generous.

Aunt Barb can't wait to meet you Monkey, so whenever you're ready, feel free to come on out. The bags are packed!

Love you!
Mama

Final Countdown: June 2nd: The Day of Decisions

Hello there Monkey!

Today has been a big day around here as I, your mama, finally clicked "buy now" on some items for the walls of your nursery. I'll tell you it wasn't an easy decision, even though I'm pretty sure you won't even notice anything on the walls around you for at least a couple of months. Mama felt a lot of pressure to find just the right things.

Of course, I'm fairly certain the items we finally ordered today won't arrive before you will. That's what I get for procrastinating. Here's a look at a few of the items soon to arrive on our doorstep:

Something similar to this will go above your crib. The "trend" right now seems to be to put the baby's name in letters above the crib, but your dad nixed that idea. Apparently he's a nonconformist...who knew? But the monkey will be just perfect for your room, and maybe looking at this every night will engrain in you that it would be a bad idea to try and escape from the crib!

These two prints will hang above your changing table. I hope they make you smile as much as they do for me! We're also going to hang some pictures of all of us together once you arrive. I'm sure you've figured out by now that you won't be able to escape the camera once you're on the outside!!

Now these next two prints haven't been ordered yet because we need to know the specifics on your arrival:

Don't worry, if you're a boy flavored Monkey we'll make sure it's not pink and orange!

And no, we're not going to name you Maxwell, even if you are boy flavored!

So there you have it Monkey. Maybe now there's a little more incentive for you to come out and play. I know *I* feel better now that these decisions have been made!

We can't wait to meet you!
Love,
Mama

June 1st: The Day of the False Alarm

(As we enter the "final countdown" until Monkey's arrival, I thought it would be fun to record some of my feelings in these final days as a preggo.)

Dear Monkey,

You earned a new nickname today. Drama Queen (or King as the case may be)! This morning started just like many others. Since it's June 1st, I reminded you that you couldn't be born today. Your Uncle Stephen doesn't want to share his birthday, and since he was kind enough to not come on my birthday some 24 years ago, I figured it was only fair to honor his wishes!

We made our way over to the hospital for our nonstress test appointment at 8am. It's becoming pretty routine for us. I'm even learning which channel is which on the hospital's cable system. Daddy didn't come with us this time since he had his monthly conference call at work. No big deal since the test is pretty boring for everyone involved.

Today, though, was not so boring. In addition to watching your heart rate on the monitor, I was also watching my contractions. It was kind of weird to watch them as I was feeling them and then watching what the contractions were doing to your heart rate. You did a good job of poking me plenty while the monitors were on. I was pretty sure we'd be cleared to go when the nurse came in to bring the strip to the doctor.

But today wasn't like the other days. Today the doctor who was filling in for Dr. K didn't like what she saw on your strip. She said there were some "variables" that could be nothing, or could be a sign that maybe you were getting low on amniotic fluid. I tried to act like I wasn't panicked when the nurse told me I'd need to come back in a couple of hours to get an ultrasound. I held it together until I got outside to call your Daddy. He ALMOST didn't answer his phone (he was on that conference call, remember?) but he picked up on the last ring before voicemail. When I heard his voice, I started to cry. I managed to tell him that he needed to come to the hospital with me because today might be the day to have a baby.

We met up at home and used the time before the ultrasound to get all of our bags packed and your carseat in the car. You'll learn once you get here that sometimes we tend to procrastinate. Well, the non stress test scare was just what we needed to get those last minute things done. We packed up the car and headed to the hospital all the while wondering if we would be driving back home in a couple of days with you in the car seat!

The ultrasound went more quickly than any other ultrasound we've had before. After causing problems during the non stress test, you were a rockstar for the biophyiscal profile ultrasound. The tech was making sure you were doing important things like practicing breathing and moving. She also checked to make sure your fluid was okay. Everything looked great and you scored an 8 out of 8 in ten minutes. We got to see your little face once again and this time you didn't have your hands blocking our view! My favorite part though was seeing your foot on the ultrasound as we watched it poke my belly on the outside! The tech was amazed by how hard you were pushing on my belly!! I told her you do it all the time! They sent us home with a clean bill of health just a few minutes later.

So Monkey, June 1st will now be known as the day of our false alarm. I guess we're kind of lucky, since many women have their false alarm in the middle of the night. At least we got to have ours while we were already awake.

Our bags are still in the car by the way...just in case you decide to come before June 11th!

Love you,
Mama