RIP

Unfortunately the demands of being a Mom, wife, and full time worker have made it impossible for me to keep up a blog. I would like to redirect everyone to: http://hilarykendro.shutterfly.com/ for all things Matty related. The password is....his name (shhhh).

Thanks to those of you would kept up with the blog.

Growing Up

Matty enjoying some sweet potatoes!

Painting Day at School!! Someone loved getting dirty!

Matty is exploring so much now! He wants to see, touch, and smell (and put in his mouth!) eveything around him. He is now eating fruits and veggies. Sweet potatoes and applesauce are his favorites and he doesn't like peas or green beans (yet!). He is almost ready to crawl, but we have been saying that for over 2 weeks. I think he has figured out it is easier to just roll or hop to where he wants to go. He goes to 'school' everyday and loves playing with his friends and teachers. Everyday our little boy advances!! He is growing up so fast...and he is not even 6 months!

Back from Hiatus

I’m baaacckkkk! It has been a long hiatus thanks to working full time, taking care of Mr. Matty Pants full time, keeping up a house, and going to and from doctor’s appointments (thanks acid reflux). But now things are starting to calm down. Mr. Pants is on two different medicines to manage his reflux and they seem to be working well. He is going to ‘school’ during the day so Mommy can focus 100% on work during the afternoon hours and focus 100% on Matty in the early evening. Win/win! It has been heartbreaking making the decision and taking my little man to daycare. I hate every morning when he has to go but he actually likes going and interacting with the kids and teachers. He just finished up his first full week….and got a virus from daycare. Thanks germs. I guess illness comes with the daycare territory (ugh).

So this week he is 4 months and 3 weeks and has had a host of firsts:
- First time rolling over
- First rice cereal (hated it)
- First dip in a baby pool
- First dip in the big people pool
- First time on the beach
- First time in the ocean
- First time on a carousel
- First time in a swing
- First road trip with Mommy
- First virus
- First best friend (cutie Will)
- First highchair

Matty Pants has already developed his own personality; which may cause Mommy lots of heart attacks for years to come. He is very adventurous, loves to be around people, and loves doing new things. He is incredibly smart and has figured out how to do a lot of things just by watching others. He loves lions, monkeys, his Aden and Anais blankets, being outside, and playing!

Shots, shots, shots

‘Shots’ take on a new meaning when you are a mom. Before baby it meant a fun night out and a deadly hangover, after baby a horrible day in and a deadly earache. Matty got his first round of 2 month shots. I am not sure if it was worse on Mommy or Matty. I thought after seeing my baby in the hospital for 8 days I would be able to handle needles in my baby….WRONG. Fact: I will ever be able to handle it. After he got his shots and started SCREAMING, tears started pouring down my face. I was able to get him calm after 2 minutes but my tears kept coming.

Matty did not have the best reaction to his first shots. He cried alllll night. And as luck would have it I was unable to find generic Tylenol for three days prior to his appointment due to the Tylenol recall. I ended up just calling stores to see if they had it. I finally was able to locate a bottle and that helped Matty’s pain/screaming a little. I am not at all looking forward to his 4 month shots.

Matty's 2 Month Picture

NEW PICTURES!!!: http://hilarykendro.shutterfly.com/527

What a Happy Boy

Matty playing on his playmat. What a happy little man. Notice that toys start raining from the sky.

Matty's first tub bath given by Grandma and Pa. Matty makes a fountain in the bath :)

Delivery

Below are some videos of my labor and delivery exerience. NO it's nothing graphic; it is just shots of my neck and above. BK is asking me dumb questions like "how are you feeling?". My response "in pain you big dummy!". Well, I didn't really say that!

Mother’s Day

I had my first Mother’s Day!!! It was great! BK took me (and Matty) to lunch at one of my FAVORITE restaurants in the world that just opened in our area, Seasons 52. Matty slept the whole time (another plus! Eating with no crying!) BK then took me to Pandora to pick out a charm to represent my first Mother’s Day. Even after all this he still vacuumed, cleaned the bathrooms, made dinner AND made chocolate covered macaroons!!! He has been working so much it was a present just to spend some time with him but BK helping out so much was definitely an added bonus. All Matty had to do was smile, that was present enough. Having him home from the hospital and healthy is the best thing I could have gotten this Mother’s Day. I am VERY excited for the many more Mother’s Days in the years to come.

Surgery

April has been quite a month. On Wednesday April 21st our son was taken to the Chester County Emergency Room after vomiting yellow bile twice at home. He continued to vomit over 5 times overnight at the hospital Wednesday. Thursday morning he had an ultrasound and upper GI test which discovered he had malrotation. Malrotation is a twisting of the intestines, pretty much Matty’s intestines needed to be rearranged. This meant intestinal surgery. We were transported to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to have the surgery. During this entire time I think that my heart actually stopped. Seeing your little tiny infant vomiting bile uncontrollably is the worst, most terrifying feeling. At CHOP he was poked and prodded. It took 5 hours and 3 teams of people to start an IV and draw blood. Due to the vomiting he was severely dehydrated. On Friday morning Matty had laposcopic surgery on his abdomen to rearrange his intestines and colon, take out his appendix, and check damage to his digestive organs. Our surgeon was a University of Maryland medical school grad so we knew we were in good hands. The surgery was a success but Matty still had to have a stomach tube and no food. Things were looking up, however, on Sunday after 24 hours of continual bile vomit he was put back on his stomach tube. Monday morning it was verified that the surgery was a successful by an extended time upper GI x-ray series. By laaaattteeee night Wednesday he was back to breastfeeding. On Thursday we were discharged.

We have been home for a little over a week and things have been good. We had a scare Thursday night after Matty had projectile vomit but after much observation he seemed to get better. We are still on high alert with every cry, spit up, and poop. We never want to go through seeing our baby in the hospital EVER again.

I want to thank everyone for being there for us through this whole ordeal. Words can never really illustrate how much it meant to us. I wouldn’t wish this type of hardship, pain, and terror on anyone.

I was gripped with fear and anxiety for 9 days straight. I look at myself in the mirror every morning and wonder how I got through this then I look at the smiling face of my healthy baby boy and remember.

One month old today!

Not the best way to spend a birthday.

With 'Aunt' Amanda, still have in his stomach tube :(

His face is hilarious "Who is this crazy lady holding me?"

With 'Aunt' Tricia

With 'Uncle' Mike

*Who brought the best sandwich I have ever eaten

Our house for a week. Matty is waving 'hi' in this pic

Cute even in the hospital

Some of the comforts from home: sleep sheep & soft blanket.

Such a big bed for a little kiddo

"Daddy, can we go home now?"

Miss Velada was his favorite. She was the only one who didn't poke at him!

Finally at home

Breastfeeding, Not As Easy As It Seems

Before Matty’s birth, I read and researched everything I could on breastfeeding. I was determined my child would be breastfeed. I just figured as long as my milk came in and he latched on it was smooth sailing from there on out. Wrong. Luckily he took right to breastfeeding just after delivery. Someone must have been paying attention in breastfeeding class, A+ Matty! Everything was perfectly wonderful at the hospital and then they sent us home: dum dum dummmmm. For those of you who didn’t know this, you can actually get an oversupply of milk which is similar to taking a drink of water from a fire hose. This issue has caused stomach issues with Matty, e.g. screaming at the top of his lungs fro 8 pm-10 pm every night. We have been told he will grow out it at around 3 months. Thanks doctors, until then BK and I will just have to concentrate on not going insane or being kicked out of our apartment for excess noise violations.

Another thing none of the books really talked about is the emotional element of breastfeeding. The feeling of all you are is a pair of feed bags and will never be able to leave your house because you are feeding your child 12 hours a day. Seriously, 12 HOURS a day! Also, no one tells you that your husband will develop “boob envy”. I define “boob envy” as jealousy that you are able to quiet the baby in seconds and get to spend more time with the baby. Yes because, I define fun, quality time with my child as a painful activity that leaves both people crying and ends in horrible gas. F-U-N! Thank goodness bottles were invented so now our baby can get fed by both Mommy and Daddy. Matty has showed not one issue swithcing between bottle and breastfeeding. Yay.

Regardless of the hurdles my stubborn nature means breastfeeding is here to stay; plus Matty is gaining weight and very healthy. My next step, venturing out into the world and not getting arrested for flashing.

Week 1

Week 2
Look how much he's grown!

Phillies Opening Day
**Swings are ideal for picture taking!! Quiet, happy, still baby :)

Baby’s First Easter

Matty had his first Easter at the shore (Ocean City, NJ). In hind sight it was not the best idea for Mommy to ride in a car for over 3 hours with a severe episiotomy. PAINFUL. Or try and plan breast feedings for a one week old around a car trip, they aren’t too interested in schedules. However, Matty did great in the car!

Matty Update: Matty had his first pediatrician appointments (2 in 2 weeks, the norm)! The main goal of the ped is to make sure the baby is at least at his birth weight by week 2. Matty was not only at his birth weight but actually gained 8 ounces in less than a 2 week period! As of Wednesday April 7, he was 9 pounds and 6 ounces. The nurse said Mommy had “mighty milk”. Matty has already become too tall for a majority of his newborn clothes!! His 3 month clothes are still a little too large around his arms and middle. We just have a VERY long legged kid.

Mommy Update: I was diagnosed with a uterine infection 5 days after delivery. I ended up going to my obstetrician due to blood clots and they discovered the infection. It only happens to 5% of women (WebMD) and my doctor concluded the infection was due to my long delivery. I did a round of antibiotics and everything seems to be ok.

Baby's First Easter

Matty was a little squirmy but this is his 1 Week and 1 day pic

Too Cool for School at the Shore

After Matty's 1st Bath

Matty's First Photo Shoot

The Hospital has a photographer that comes around to take pictures of the newborn babies. I know, I know this sounds like a ploy for new parent's dollars but we choose to get some pics then decide what we thought. Well we underestimated the cuteness of our baby. The photographer said he was the star of the day! He was the only baby that didn't hysterically cry. Maybe they say this to all parents, well it worked. We purchased the rights to eight pictures. Below are our top 3, the other 5 are on our shutterfly site: http://hilarykendro.shutterfly.com/

Matthew Richard Kendro

Matthew Richard Kendro (‘Matty’) was born on March 27, 2010 at 7:26 am. He was 8 pounds, 14 ounces and 22 inches long. After a full day of shopping and having lunch with a girlfriend (who said she did a triple take when she saw his birth time), I went into labor at around 7:00 pm on Friday night (on our way to see Hot Tub Time Machine). We ended up heading home but not before stopping at a local pizza place to grab some food :) I went to the hospital at 11:00 pm Friday night and was already 5 centimeters. By 5:00 am on Saturday I was 10 cms and ready to get this baby out. So labor was fast and pretty easy…however delivery was a different story. I pushed for over 2 ½ hours. The nurses thought for sure our baby was only ‘just seven pounds’. Hold onto your lunch, but things had to be ‘taken care of’ to get Matty’s big noggin out (luckily there was no need for a c-section!). My ENTIRE body is still insanely swollen from the process. Shoes don’t even fit!! However, looking at my little man makes everything worth it. My heart grew when that little guy entered the world. BK and I couldn’t ask for a happier existence. We already love being parents to the most adorable kid on the planet (we are a little biased, haha).

Here are some pictures of his first days: http://hilarykendro.shutterfly.com/

Our Beloved Jacks

I am writing this through tear stained eyes, on Thursday March 25th at 1:40 p.m. our little furry baby Jacks passed away. He suffered severe kidney damage Wednesday night into Thursday morning. I took him to the vet Thursday morning at 10:40 a.m. and the vet determined the extreme extent of his kidney failure by 12:30 p.m. The vet said he wouldn’t last the rest of the day. Bryan and I were there when he passed on and wanted the last thing he saw to be the parents who loved him so much. This is probably the hardest thing we have gone through in our adult life. The timing is kind of odd since we are expecting our first baby within days of Jacks passing. Words cannot even come close to express the tremendousness of this loss. Jacks was ‘our family’, we always referred to the three of us as ‘the fam’. It is heartbreaking that Jacks will never be able to meet his ‘little brother’ but we know Jacks will always be with us.

Waiting

Everything is ready to roll for baby so now we are just waiting…and waiting…and waiting…and waiting. Some people call cleaning your house, doing laundry, creating scrapbook albums, and organizing your ITunes “nesting”; I call it boredom. We thought for sure this baby would be early but it looks like we may be wrong. Everything is moving ahead according to the doctors. Also according to the doctors the baby is all developed so he is pretty much just freeloading from here on out. I guess this freeloading will prepare us for his early 20’s.

39 Weeks (and HOPEFULLY the last belly pics!!)

Jacks, our furry child

Anyone who knows us well knows how much we LOVE our kitty Jacks. And anyone who has met Jacks knows exactly why we love him so much. Not only is he is the most adorable cat in the world, he has a big personality to go with it. It’s like he knows he runs the show, and uses his adorable-ness as a weapon.

I adopted Jacks over 8 years ago and have loved him like a furry child ever since. Unfortunately, this year his health took a little turn for the worst. Jacks has had serious sinus infections since October 2009. He lost over 3 pounds and has been on antibiotics for almost 2 months straight. Our WONDERFUL vet suggested he have dental surgery to get out any infected teeth that could be causing these serious infections.

He went in for surgery (“operation” as defined by BK) Friday morning and was out of surgery by 1:30 pm. To our wonderful surprise none of his teeth were infected so no teeth were extracted!! Hooray!! The vet did a nasal flush and got out the blockages in both nostrils that were causing the majority of issues. Fingers are crossed that he will continue to be infection free!!! I guess his breed has a lot of nasal issues. We can’t wait to have our little man back to running and jumping and demanding attention per usual. If only kitties could just blow their noses.

Pre-Surgery: Looking Adorable

Post Surgery: Friday afternoon - Drugged up and bloody

Post Surgery: Monday afternoon – back to his old self!!

This is just an adorable picture that I threw in. We couldn't ask for a more WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERFUL pet :)