Kazmaier Family Time

Brother-in-law, Jim, is in town for a visit from New Hampshire...unfortunately his wife, Tara, couldn't make it as her grandmother (whom she is very close to) is not doing well healthwise. We spent Saturday in Olathe watching neice, Alli, play her final basketball game of the season then went over to sister-in-law, Glenda's house. We celebrated birthdays (Jeff, Glenda, Jim and Audrey) last night at our house. It's not as often anymore that we can all get together. With children and other obligations, it make it more and more difficult to coordinate schedules. With Jim in town, it was easy to drop everything and spend some good quality family time together.

Painting, painting and more painting.

So I admit my energy level is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY up there...compared to the last six weeks of my pregnancy (in which it took great effort to do anything physical). So I decided to paint the living room one evening after the kids were asleep, then it turned into the foyer, upstairs hallway, downstairs bathroom, the boys bathroom, the kitchen and finally the dining room/toyroom (a work in progress). A lot of late nights...while Jason XBOX'd. I must be addicted to paint fumes. In all reality, it was necessary as the previous owners were pretty hard on the walls and we needed a washable paint surface (with three grimey kiddos) I think I'm finished.

Another (little) bump in the road...

It's been a roller coaster ride with our family and Katherine's health in the three short weeks she's been with us. We took her to her Pediatrician, Dr. Lively, last Thursday (Valentine's Day) because of some congestion and a cough only to be told I had to either take her straight to Liberty Hosptial or they would call an ambulance to take her from the office. Not what I expected to hear. His fear was RSV or the beginning of pnuemonia...fortunately that was not the case (just bronchialitis) but an overnight stay in the Pediatric unit with Katherine was necessary for oxygen and breathing treatments. Normally this would not be an issue, but at three weeks of age, it was a little scary for us. She's doing great now and we are grateful that it was nothing more than it was...and grateful for my parents quickly volunteering to take Jonathan and Nicholas Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night (they refused to return them to their rightful owners until Sunday afternoon). It gave Jason and I some one-on-one time with Katherine and (believe it or not with a newborn in the house) some time to rest a little.












Little Katherine resting peacefully in her crib after she was discharged from the hospital.










Grandpa took Jonathan to the barber shop downtown in Clinton while he stayed with them...got a nice little crew cut.














Nick got a haircut courtesty of Grandpa the following day at Snip-n-Clip in Clinton.

Recent pics of our family of five...

I've enjoyed the first couple of weeks of maternity leave...although it was more fun last week with Jason home with me. Thanks to all those who stopped by with dinner and gifts...we have great freinds! (Marie, Jason ate 99% of the dessert you made and insists I get the recipe from you).

Katherine has no regular sleep pattern at night...to be expected as she's only two weeks old, but it makes for some frustrating days when I'm just so tired. Otherwise, she's the sweetest little thing ever and I often find myself just staring at her in disbelief that she's now a part of our family. Jason and I are both just so smitten.

She had another appt. with our regular Pediatrician, and it appears she, like Jonathan, has a heart murmur. She'll go back on Monday for another weight check and to listen again...we may be going back to Children's Mercy to see a Pediatric Cardiologist. We had to take Jonathan too when he was just a few months old only to find out that it is an innocent one...hopefully this will be the case with Katherine if it's necessary that she see a specialist to be evaluated.

Update on Katherine...

Katherine was diagnosed with moderately severe hydronephrosis (a dialated right kidney and possible malformation and/or duplication of the ureter connecting the kidney to the bladder) in an ultrasound a week before she was born. They did a sono on her immediately after birth and referred us to Children's Mercy for some tests yesterday. They went well...it was a traumatic experience seeing my little newborn in a hospital gown strapped down to a table for voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG)... especially when having a catheter put in (she's feisty and doesn't like to be messed with). The appt's with Radiology and the Pediatric Urologist at Children's Mercy really didn't provide us with any definitive answers and she'll have to go back for another round in March (a Renal ultrasound (RUS) and a renal (kidney) scan) when she's a little bigger (any further tests at this point would be invalidated by the fact that all babies her age have immature kidney's anyway). She'll have to no doubt have surgery (but not until she's one) to correct her issue (malformed ureter) and may have only partial or no function in her right kidney (we'll know more in March). In the meantime, she'll continue to be on an antibiotic daily just in case of potential infection. Retrospectively, we are just feel happy and blessed that this was caught early, before any infections. If I hadn't measured large at my 37 week appt., my OBGYN would not have performed the sono at and the hydronephrosis would not have been detected at all. So we are just grateful for that...and that God gives us two kidneys when we really only need one! :)

Katherine's Birth Announcement

My father has taken over the task of writing the daily column in the Clinton Daily Democrat after my grandmothers passing. This has been a task taken on by many generations of family and I'm so proud of him for doing it. Here is the bit he wrote when baby Katherine was born...

Our little girl is finally here...

Two and a half weeks early, Katherine Elizabeth joined our family of four early Friday morning (1:52AM) January 25th. Mommy's water broke shortly after midnight and we made a mad dash to get the car packed, Katherine's big brothers in the car and dropped off at our friends, Ryan and Nicole, before speeding south through the city to Olathe Medical Center. Contractions were less than two minutes apart by the time we arrived at the ER. We were immediately checked into our room and our Dr. was paged when it was clear I was making progress very quickly (which meant no opportunity for an epidural). Aunt Katie made it to the hospital in time to be by my side for the delivery. The head RN was asking for gloves to deliver the baby herself when it was evident momma needed to push and Katherine was on her way! Just in the nick of time, Dr. Snider made it to our room and delivered his third Kazmaier baby....only 25 minutes after we arrived in the delivery room.

Katherine weighs 7lbs 7.9oz and is 18 1/2 inches long. She has a thick head of black hair and shares many features of her oldest brother. Jonathan and Nicholas, visited her just last night and don't quite seem to realize the connection, "yet". :) They were happy to go home with Meme and Papa for the weekend.

We do ask for prayers as her sonogram yesterday confirmed what the Dr. believed was a problem with her right kidney first seen in a sonogram on me earlier in the week. Her right kidney is dialated and not currently functioning so she will be closely monitored and will see a pediatric urologist early this coming week to run more definitive test to determine what abnormality or blockage we are dealing with. We are confident she will be just fine...she's a healthy, feisty little gal!

Recent Projects

Here' are a few pics of Katherine's room...we're just waiting on a chair and ottoman and a few finishing touches...then it's pretty much complete. We're ready for you any day little girl!

Here are a few pics of Jonathan's room, which we painted shortly after putting him in his "big boy bed". We also just recently moved the matress and boxsprings off the floor so he's much higher. He's quite proud of his room! So far, no middle of the night falls...but we're still working on the need to have the overhead light on all night.