Luke Thomas Timmerman

On Tuesday, February 19 at 11:14 am, Will and I welcomed a beautiful baby boy into the world - Luke Thomas Timmerman. He was 5 lbs. 1 oz., 19 inches long and had dark hair like his mom. Sadly, Luke had passed away the Sunday earlier because the umbilical cord had wrapped around our son's tiny little leg. We would like to think that if Luke had anything to do with it, he would be here with us today, our strong little fighter. Luke has his mom's feet - and they were really big! Luke also has his mom's hands and his dad's forehead, nose and ears. Will and I have never been so proud to meet such a tiny person, and are so happy that we have a son. He is our little boy up in heaven and we can't wait to one day be able to hold him again. Until then, he will be a part of our daily lives and Will and I are so much happier for having met him.

Luke's funeral will be Saturday, February 23 at 10:00am at St. Jane Frances de Chantel (Ryan Rd., between 16 & 17 Mile Rd.). Visitation will be at 9:30am. A private burial will follow at the cemetary.

Thank you to all of our family and friends for your support over the last several months. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we grieve the loss of our beautiful son, Luke.

Baby Timmerman's Little Face

Here is one of the ultrasound pictures from this past Thursday. You can see Baby T.'s little chubby cheek resting on his/her arm. The darkness along Baby T.'s hairline is just where the ultrasound left off - not hair, as I was hoping. So, it is still a mystery as to what type of hair, if any, that our baby has.

Ultrasound Update

Today Will and I had our weekly doctor appointment, followed by an ultrasound. It has been 4 weeks since our last ultrasound. This time we were actually able to see our baby's face in 3D, and noticed that his ears and nose look like Will's. However, he looks like he inherited my feet. Poor kid! It is amazing how clear the picture is on the high tec equipment at Royal Oak Beaumont. The best news is, there didn't seem to be any fluid on the baby's brain, which is great because a large percentage of babies with spina bifida do have fluid on the brain that needs to be drained with a shunt once they are born. So far so good for our little one though. The levels of amniotic fluid are still very high, and as we were leaving this afternoon, the doctor reminded us with a laugh to not forget our beach towel. Nice, huh.

Interesting side note - for the last week or two I have been having sharp pain under my ribs, and seasoned mothers have told me that is the baby kicking. Well, today during the ultrasound I was having those same sharp pains under my right ribs. So, the ultrasound tech investigated and found out that the baby's feet were nowhere near my ribs, but that my gall bladder was right there. So - a public apology to Baby T.! Mom is sorry for accusing you for the rib pain!

That's it for now. I'm going to go put my feet up. My ankles have swollen, and have been replaced with kankles! I hesitate to blame Baby T....

33 Weeks

On Saturday I was 33 weeks. Only 7 to go! At this point however, I will be shocked if I make it another 7 weeks. Last week at our doctor appointment, the doctor said I was measuring at 37 weeks because of the excessive amounts of amniotic fluid that I have. The good news about the large amounts of amniotic fluid, is that our baby's one kidney is working as that is what makes the amniotic fluid. The bad news is that because our baby's esophogus isn't connected to his stomach, he is unable to swallow the amniotic fluid and pass it through his umbilical cord and out through me. So, the amniotic fluid keeps building up with no place to go. We thought the doctor was joking at our last ultrasound, when she told us to carry around a beach towel. I guess the pressure from all of the fluid will eventually cause my water to break like Niagra Falls. I am just really hoping that doesn't happen in public somewhere!

Will and I are continuing to make preparations for the baby. On Saturday we had a tour of the hospital, and the neonatal intensive care unit where our baby will be after he is born. We feel a lot better now, knowing exactly where everything will take place, and are comforted by the fact that everyone we spoke with was very nice. I think we will be in very good hands.

A note about the arrival of Baby T. - we learned on Saturday that Baby T. will be staying on a seperate floor from me, in the neonatal intensive care unit, and will be unable to have visitors without either Will or I accompanying them, one at a time. Unfortunately we are going to have to request that our friends and family wait until Baby T. is stablized before we can have visitors, as it will be too difficult for Will to play tour guide while I am on a different floor recovering. This definitely isn't how we anticipated the arrival of our first child going - as we are very excited to introduce Baby T. to our friends and family. We will just have to make do with the situation we are given. So - upon Baby T's arrival, expect to find pictures on this blog to tide you over until we can accept visitors. The good news is - Beaumont has wireless interenet so we will be able to post the pictures quickly. AND, yesterday we bought a new digital camera just for this event, so hopefully the pictures will be top notch!