Allie learning to use the Potty

My niece Allie is finally potty trained, now she just has to learn how to play Super Mario Brothers. When one of my nephews was being toilet trained, he had to be completely naked, have the fan on, eating a bowl of grapes, with a glass of water at the ready. As for me, I forgo the grapes.

Libby in the Sunlight

See pictures of Libby in the sunlight here.

Bishop Paul

I think my brother-in-law Paul (Laura's husband) is considering converting to Mormonism. I have over 150 channels that come with my cable package, yet a few nights ago Paul insisted on watching a 1970's cartoon show about how to become a mormon. He mentioned that his goal is to become a Bishop in the Mormon Church. He also thinks it would be cool to have multiple wives and wear the special underrwear. If you or anyone you know would like to find about more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints you can find all the information here.

Meeting Dr. Geiger

Libby had her first doctor visit today with Doctor Geiger of Laurelwood Pediatrics. When we got there she weighed 5 lbs 7 ozs, but after being fed, pooping and peeing she was re-weighed and had gained 1/2 an ounce. She is a little jaundiced, so she had her heel pricked for her bilirubin test and we should be hearing the results later this afternoon. Libby has to go in and get re-weighed on Thursday.

White noise machine

I bought a white noise machine last week on eBay and what a boon it has been. We keep it on all night and not only does it block the noise of my neice Elise when she crys at night, but it seems to really sooth Libby. Beware of the brown noise machines, they don't work as well.

Great Night Sleep

Libby was so tired last night. She slept from 11 p.m. and we had to wake her up at 2:30 a.m. to eat. She ate for about an hour and a half. At about 3 a.m. I had her laying on the bed while I was changing her poopy diaper when she sprung a leak and peed all over. She fell back to sleep after nursing and slept until 8:00 a.m. What a good girl.

Bilirubin Update

We heard back from the Doctor and her bilibrubin count was 10.4 (which is good).

First full day home

Well it was our first full day home today and it seemed like all it consisted of was eating, sleeping and crying. It was the same for Miss Libby. We all pooped today, but people were only excited when Libby did it. Beth's sister Laura has been such a help around the house cooking and cleaning and imparting all of her mothering wisdom on Beth. Since Libby has not taken to sleeping in her bassinett, Laura came up with the brilliant idea of letting her sleep in her car seat (not in the car, but in the house). Libby has her first doctor appointment on Tuesday at 9:40 a.m., we have heard great things about her pediatrician (her husband works at St. Jude's with Beth).

Laura and Paul went out shopping today with their daughter Elise to get out of the house for a while and let Beth take a good nap. They stopped by Old Navy and picked up a monkey costume for Libby for next years Halloween. Elise got a chicken outfit that she modeled for us.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

Beth made these letters to go over Libby's crib, they spell out her name.

Home

Beth and Libby were discharged from the hospital about 1 p.m. today. All the nurses were amazed at how well Beth was doing after having a c-section, she was up and walking the first day. We were very lucky delivering at Methodist Germantown Hospital, the nurses were great and the room we had was huge, it even had a couch in it for me to sleep on both nights. A fellow fellow from St Jude's also was in the hospital after delivering his child on Saturday and stopped in to say "Hello". Damon and his wife Jen gave birth to Isbelle Catherine.

Libby always seems to be hungry and is a viking when it comes to nursing. Beth is hoping her milk comes in sooner then later. I am the GREATEST husband EVER. I went out today to Walgreen's and bought Beth some feminine hygenie products

My mom and dad were in from Michigan and my mother made a great meal for Beth's first day home. We had salad, French bread, pork roast, potatoes, and carrots. Plus our favorite lemon chocolate chip cake. They are flying back today so my dad can ride the Dalmac for the 12th time.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

Our bundle of joy.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

Libby is wearing her little princess outfit, but she has a cute little old man look on her face. Her feet are little, but her toes are long like her mom,s

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

Hearing Test

Libbster pasted her hearing test in an unheard of 1 minute 1 second, the average is 8 to 10 minutes.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

We want Libby to take up boxing so she is borrowing cousin Elise's boxing gloves.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

My little peanut.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

Beth & Libby taking a short snooze

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

Libby being held by Aunt Laura the Carrot

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

Goomma Kurt holding Libby Lou.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

Papa Kurt holding Ms Libby.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

Libby Danielle's first pink outfit that Aunt Laura got for her. She has socks on her hands cause her nails are long and she is scratching her face.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

Libby Danielle Kurt was born at 8:26 a.m. weighing 6 lbs 1oz and 19 inches long. Beth and Libby are doing great!

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

I am all ready to go into the OR. At first I thought I had to be nude under the gown also, but was quickly corrected.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

Beth has been prepped and the IV is in. Now we have about an hour to go. We are both kinda sleepy and a nap sounds good

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

We left for the hospital at 5:30 AM. Neither of us slept past 3:30, when we awoke and started discussing middle names.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

My niece Elise trying on a new hat on our trip to downtown Memphis

Last visit to the Perinatologist

Special K

Today was Beth's last visit to the Doctors before the big day. Special K did great!! She took practice breaths right away and got an 8 out of 8 on her Bio-Physical Profile. Beth's fluids level are about same (still low normal) and the baby should be just under 6 lbs when they deliver on Friday. We were very excited about the news from the doctor. As you can see from the 4-D picture she has a cute nose and pouty lips, they also told us her hair was bout 2 cm long and lots of it. Today also marks the last day of work at St. Judes for Beth until beginning of October. Please keep her in your prayer for the next few days as she is taking her Internal Medicine boards on Tuesday and Wednesday and then having a c-section on Friday, she is a Wonder Woman.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

Rudi loves chickens

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!
Originally uploaded by Jon Kurt.

My wife and Gallagher in Las Vegas back in March (she is on the right). She has always been obsessed with him and meeting him in the airport was one of the highlights of her life.

Hotter then a mustard fart

I now know why they call it "Hotlanta", Memphis is just amazingly hot. At 10:00 p.m. it was still 92 degrees. I spent most of the morning trimming the hedges with my Black and Decker 16 inch hedge trimmers when all of the sudden they froze up. I figure that a branch had gotten jammed. So I spent about 20 mintues taking them apart to try and un-jam them, and of course they don't use normal screws, I had to dig around to find my "star" shaped un-screwer. I had most of it apart and couldn't find anything wrong with it. So I spent another 45 minutes running up to Home Depot and buying new ones. I got home and plugged them in and still nothing was happening. So I figured I had blown a fuse, after checking the fuse box still nothing. So i finally pulled a "Clark Griswald" from Christmas Vacation and unplugged the extension cord and plugged it back in really HARD and the extension cord snapped in half from where I had trimmed right through it. Of course I couldn't get the old set of trimmers that were perfectly fine before I started messing with them back together, I had to many screws and washers left over. So I ended up throwing them away along with a once perfectly good extention cord. And because of the Home Depot delay I ended up not finishing up until about 12:30 when the heat index was 110 degrees and almost getting heat stroke.

To the Docs we go

Beth had another OB appointment this morning and everything was better then expected. Her amniotic fluid level had increased from 6.8 to almost 10 (I'm not sure if thatis feet, gallon, centimeters or what) and Special K has gained over 12 oz in the past two weeks (16 oz is what they would like). We also set the date/time for the c-section, Friday 8/26/05 at 8 a.m. (sorry Dan) for all you would like to be here. We also have confirmed the name...

Breakin' the Law

On July 18, I was driving Beth to a drug test that she needed to take for work (she passed....but BARELY) and I was pulled over for speeding in a speed trap set up right near my house. The cop said I was going 45 in a 35 area, which was basically impossible. I am known to have quite a lead foot, but this time I really wasn't speeding, so that kinda sucked. The cop wrote it up for 40 in a 35, and told me that usually if I fight it they will dismiss it and just make me pay court costs and I won't get any points. So today was my court date. I got there about 8:30 a.m. for my 9 a.m. appointment. I waited in line for over an hour and as I walked into the court room, one of the clerks was walking up and down the line asking to see the tickets. She grabbed mine, looked and it and wrote "Dismissed" on it. It was great, I didnt' even have to pay court costs. Fight the Power.

Biker Daver

BikingDave

A funny picture of Dave that my sister in law Kris took when we were out at some lake in South Lyon. He rode his bike up on his lunch break to visit us and trust me those shorts left nothing to the imagination...its was not a pretty sight.

Funny Tee-shirt

My brother-in-law Rudi sent me this, its funny. We all laughed.

http://www.cafepress.com/jewschool.13590100

Another Ultrasound

Beth had another checkup today at the perenatologist's office today. They do the normal ultrasound and a Bio-Physical Profile that measures movement, practice breathing, fluid level, and tone. The baby has 1/2 hour to complete all 4 things. Baby Kurt was being uncooperative and was apparently sleeping and no matter how much poking and prodding was done she wouldn't practice breathing. So Beth had to go into another room and do a Non-Stress Test, where they hook up a bunch of sensors to Beth's gut and then have her press a button everytime she feels the baby kick or move. After about 2o minutes the Doctor came in and said that everything looked just fine. We are hoping that the baby is able to hold out until the 25th, which is my brother Dan's birthday. The next appointment is Friday the 19th.

New Wheels

IS Sportcross


I left for Memphis this morning at about 1 a.m. which turned out to be a bad idea. I awoke at midnight and wasn't tired at all, but as soon as I got on the road my eyelids got heavy. I ended up stopping like 6 times at rest areas for short 10 minute naps. So with the time change I got home about 12:30 p.m. It was so good to see Beth, I was worried about leaving her alone for the weekend being about ready to burst and all. The nice thing about the drive was that I finally got to drive my new (used) car home, I had been storing it for the last month at my parents old house. It is a 2002 Lexus IS 300 Sportcross. It is pretty much loaded with everything but the navigational system. It drives so quietly and smoothly.

Baby Update

Beth had an OB appointment today at 10:45 and being the good husband I am, I was going to wait til after the appointment to drive up to Lansing for my last week of work. After the ultrasound we waited in the examination room for what seemed like forever. Dr. Miller came in (Dr. Keegan was on vacation so this was our first time meeting Dr. Miller) and told us there is a good chance they would have to deliver the baby today! Now, I am VERY excited about being a Dad for the first time and I can't wait to meet my daughter, BUT I was shocked and almost wet myself at the thought of it happening TODAY. Doc Miller said that she wanted to talk to a perinatologist and double check her findings. The perinatologist asked that we come right over to his office to have a cord doplar done to check the blood flow from the umbilical cord into the baby. Everything was fine, but since Beth's fluids were on the low side of normal, the baby is in the 10th percentile in size, and breech they would like to do a C-section in two weeks on a Tuesday. Beth was suppose to take her internal medicine board exams that day, which she had been studying for for the past year (4 years if include all of residencey). We had already plunked down $1000 for the exam which of course is non-refundable and they only give the test once a year. So Beth mentioned this to the Doc to see if waiting two more days would be at all detrmental to the baby. He said that it should be fine, but we would have to come in every 3 days for more ultrasounds to make sure the everything was ok, and if at anytime things looked rocky, they would have to do an emergencey C-section. So all is good.

By the way it is amazing what better treatment Doctors get when they go to see another Doctor. He noticed Beth was hungray and went into the staff room to get her a cookie. A few months ago Beth was having chest pains and a hard time breathing so her friend called the E.R. and let them know Beth was on her way. It's been a long time since I have been in an E.R., but I always hear of the hours and hours people wait. By the time I had dropped Beth off and went to park and made it back to the hospital (5 mintues), she was all ready being seen by nurses and led into a private room. 15 years of post-high school education does have its advantages I guess.

I guess not everyone loves Raymond

I realize my brother Dave hates Ray Romano, but his new tattoo seems a bit much.

Fountain Square Concert

Just got back from listening to a bluegrass/swing singer called Jen Sygit (even though at some point during her "set" she called her group Calamity Jane) at Fountain Square in East Lansing. Mom, Dad, Kevin, Susan, and kids, Nate (Kevin's cousin), and some girl named Kate who I had never meet all listened and clapped along. Jen Sygit Calamity Jane was pretty good I guess...but I didn't enjoy it very much and was ready to go home after like 10 minutes. But best part of it was watching Alli dance to the music .