All Hail Princess Megan!

We have had our little Princess home from the hospital since Saturday night. Shelly is resting up and the boys are in love with their little sister. Here's a sequel to the cutest video we've ever taken, this time starring Jeffrey and Megan. Mom, brace yourself:

A Baby! A Baby!

Here meeting Megan for the first time is big brother Benjamin. Jeffrey got to meet her too, but he was kind of busy playing with the T.V.

And now, the most adorable video I have ever shot of my kids. Grandparents, prepare to melt:

As many of you have already heard, Shelly had some bleeding after her C-section yesterday that caused her to lose a lot of blood. However, the doctor was able to stop the bleeding and she didn't lose enough to warrant a blood transfusion. So she's just a little weak and is taking vitamins, resting, and eating her way back to a full recovery.

Apparently, the bleeding may have been due to a failure of her lower uterine segment. Dr. Gebka described a "paper-thin" area of Shelly's lower uterus, almost like a potential "window". It was so thin, Shelly could feel Megan's hand and wrist through it in great detail in the days before she was born.

We are certainly grateful that Shelly trusted her instincts and came in to the hospital yesterday. Had she progressed to active labor and more forceful contractions, it seems almost certain that she would have ruptured her uterus, causing catastrophic blood loss and an emergency cesarean section + hysterectomy. We consider ourselves truly blessed for the marvels of modern medical technology and the skill of good doctors that have allowed us to get all of our beautiful children here, safe and sound. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers for us. Shout out to Grandma Sapp, who just got back from the hospital today. We love you Grandma and wish you as speedy a recovery as possible.

Much love,

Brian.

Surprise! Megan Kimberly Nyberg is born!

Megan Kimberly Nyberg was delivered by cesarean section on Wednesday, November 5th at 1:20 pm EST. She weighed in at 7 lbs, 12 oz, about 20" long and got an 8/9 Apgar score. She was pink and cried well and looked big and healthy. We're so happy to have our beautiful baby girl with us and can't wait to introduce the boys to their new baby sister!

Shelly did really well through the surgery (which I recorded in all its gory details for posterity) and made it through the recovery just fine, although she was cold and shivering from the effects of the spinal and had some heartburn and abdominal pain. Once she warmed up and got some pain medication, she was doing a lot better, although she did have some hemorrhaging and required some meds for the bleeding too.

For those of you who haven't heard yet, this wasn't the expected due date. We had the C-section scheduled for Tuesday Nov 11th, but Shelly was having lots of painful contractions and went into the hospital today to get checked out. Once they found she was dilated to 1 &1/2 cms, 50% effaced, and having pretty regular strong contractions, our doctor decided to proceed with the surgery and we were only too happy to oblige!

Some of you have asked if we are done having kids. Although we do make beautiful babies, I must admit, we think 3 C-sections is enough for poor Shell's body. She had a tubal ligation done as part of the C-section today.

Wanted to let you all know and get the word out. We are doing well; we have a few Church members volunteering to help watch Benjamin and Jeffrey in the mornings and wonderful medical students who are helping watch them in the afternoons and bring meals over. This is great because it means I can still go to class and study for my exam on Monday. Then next week on Monday, we have hired someone to watch the boys during class time until Shelly has recovered. So that's the scoop!

We love and miss you all. Hope you will get a chance to meet our beautiful Megan in person very soon. We'll keep you posteed!

Love, Brian.

PS: Here is the gory birth video. Watch at you're own peril!

I got adopted by a kitty cat

Now I'm not usually a softie for cats, but this one was just persistent. He kept coming by our house and playing really nicely with the kids. Obviously, someone is missing their cat and we need to post some signs around the neighborhood. Not a typical stray cat; had a flea collar on too.

When we didn't see or hear from the kitty for a few days, we didn't think anything of it. But when I opened up our van last night to finish putting the car seats back inside, the kitty jumped out of the passenger seat! Apparently, he had been trapped inside for about 24 hours when I closed the trunk of the van and I didn't realize he was inside! Of course, he had pooped all over inside, which I had to clean up. But I felt bad for him and, against my better judgment, set out some cat food and a dish of water on the porch. He ate like it was Thanksgiving and spent the remainder of the evening purring and trying to climb up into my lap.

Then I decided that I would fix the outdoor GFCI outlet on the porch so I could plug in an electric mat. While I was trying to work, he kept getting in the way and finally succeeded in jumping up on my shoulders. I eventually gave up on the outlet (had the wrong kind of GFCI to replace it, I think) but set up a little covered area with a blanket for him to sleep on. I know, I know, I pretty much just got myself a new pet. But I'm going to try to find his owner, nonetheless. Still toying with names, though.... Peanut? Norman? Shire Kahn?

Happy Halloween

Benjamin and Jeffrey had a great Halloween this year. Jeffrey wore the doggy costume, while Ben dressed as a ninja. Daddy couldn't help but join the fun and dressed up as Raiden from the Mortal Kombat video game (old school, I know). We had fun showing them off at about 3 different social events. Here are the pics:

Wisdom teeth and a visit from Auntie Sharice!!!

For those who don't know, I decided that my wisdom teeth needed to come out ASAP about two weeks ago. Well when I decided things just kind of fell into place really fast. After calling my little sister Sharice near tears begging her to come out and watch my kids for me while I was recovering, the plans were set and in motion. Sharice was so wonderful to come out, especially on such short notice! We couldn't have done it without her, she was a HUGE help and it was so great to finally meet baby Kael! She was such a trooper and traveled with a buddy pass and just took whatever flights were available. My surgery got bumped from Wednesday to Thursday so we had a day to ourselves where we went and got my hair cut and got to enjoy one another. She didn't get to see much of East Tennessee, but what she saw, I think she liked. :) Who knows, maybe she and Derek will come out here for medical school? We could only hope! After my surgery she was only here for a couple of days, but we still managed to give each other pedicures and have some fun. I was pretty out of it from my pain medication for a while. I had trouble with the "creepy crawlies" on my skin, but Sharice and Brian took great care of me. I think everyone has that really embarrassing story of something they did when they were coming out off of their anesthesia, evidently I had to pee urgently and then they were taking me out to the car and when they got to the door, I INSISTED that I had to go again....those poor women were so patient with me. Sharice and Brian can probably tell you more about after I got home and how "non-compliant" I was. :) That's my drugged up and crazy story, I want to hear everyone elses, so if you have a funny wisdom teeth story, leave it as a comment so we can all enjoy it! Sorry...these are the only pictures I have, hopefully Sharice will send me some of hers to post too. Love, Shelly. p.s. I can't believe I'm going to do this, but I'm going to post the video Brian took of me coming out of the oral surgeon's office, hope someone else can get a good laugh out of a drugged up pregnant chick too! :)

I think Brian handled the nearly two hour wait before the surgery better. :)

VERY MUCH tired of waiting. :)

All three of the boys just hangin' out.

Jeffrey and Kael getting to know one another.

A short note for Great Grandma and Grandad Sapp

Dear Grandma and Grandad Sapp,
Thank you so much for sending us our halloween treats. We especially LOVE the balloons you sent and Mommy says that the air pump was REALLY nice! Here are some pictures of us enjoying our balloons.

Love,

Ben and Jeff

34 weeks and still going!

Here is the much requested belly shot. :)

Just a few pictures from my camera.

We finally got a charger for our camera's battery. Here are just some pictures of my guys from the past month.