One of the many joys of summer is...

getting ice cream from the ice cream truck...

My boys

Luke decided to climb up on to the changing table and lay down next to Wes. I was a bit nervous at first but Luke just cuddled up next to his brother.

Sponge Bath time!

Wes was overdue for a sponge bath so today my mom and got him all cleaned up. He did not even cry but then again, he really does not cry anyway. When we put him on his stomach he started to lift his head and make crawing motions. Looking forward to giving him his first real bath soon.

Baby Wes 6 days old

Wes with his eyes open! He is such an easy baby that he does not keep his eyes open for very long. I feel that he thinks he is still in the womb. We had a doctors appointment today and Wes is gaining weight but not as much as we had hoped. We will be back in on Saturday for another weight check.
Nick and my boys. Wes is wearing a yellow outfit that Nick wore when he was a baby. Luke also loves his brother and every morning comes in and says, "hello my sweet!" Too cute!
Grandy Damuth and Wes... what a blessing that my mom is here to help me with everything from playing with Luke, making meals to helping around the house. All I have to really do is nurse Wes.
Grammy Belitz and Wes

These beautiful flowers were given to us by Nick's coworkers at Encana.

The meaning of a name...

After finding out we were having another boy Nick and I went around and around to try and agree on a name. Of course, we had already decided on a girl name early on but a boy's name took awhile longer. In the end Wes or Wesley was it! In researching the meaning of the name Wesley, which was important to Nick, we found that the suffix -ly or -ley means meadow. Therefore Wesley means western meadow. This was interesting because my name Kimberly has the -ly in it and it means a royal fortress by a meadow so both my name and Wes' name have meadow in it.

As for the middle name Dean, I wanted to keep a family name for Wes since Luke is Lucas Nicholas. Interestingly enough the name Dean is my Grandfather's, Dad's and brother's middle name. Their full name is Harold Dean Damuth with my brother being the third. In talking to my Grandma Damuth, she told me that the name Dean goes back even farther and is researching that for me now. It was the last name of a relative who was Doctor Dean. More information to follow as I get it in.

Not to forget about Luke (Lucas Nicholas)... his name means "bringer of light," and Nicholas Greek in origin, means people of victory.

Adventures in parenting

I got this great idea from my friend Courtney to put baby Wes in the Moses basket or carseat and then put him in the crib safe from Luke. Well, yesterday, Luke decided that he wanted to crawl in the crib with Wes. So much for that strategy of safely separating them! We quickly took a picture of Luke in the Moses basket but I am having trouble emailing it from my mom's iPhone to me. Will post the picture of Luke when I get a chance. Any ideas out there for putting Wes down and separating the boys when I can't watch them both like using the bathroom?

Head Up, Eyes Open

Just a quick post today. Wes must have been pretty exhausted by the birth, because he has hardly opened his eyes to look at the world. But Kim was able to snap one photo when Wes was having a brief post-nursing burp. We also were able to get a shot of Luke getting ready to walk baby brother out of the hospital and to the car for the trip home.

Wes in the World, Day 1

We had a quiet day in the hospital, at least as far as regular doctor and nurse visits and cold diaper changes would allow. Kim, fueled by fairly decent hospital fare, started breatfeeding in earnest and Wes, much like his older brother, seems most content when firmly cuddling with Mom. Dad, on the other hand, was thankful to merely scavenge the free generic ice cream from the nurse's station and was able to venture homeward for a few hours to prepare for Wes' arrival, which is planned for Sunday. Our pediatrician pronounced the little guy's health to be good and Wes passed his hearing and eye tests. He was also admitted to the Circle of Circumcision, regarding which he voiced substantial protests. However, I think we can all agree that his protests would be even louder had we attempted to do a circ a few years or more from now! We also had visits from Pastor Michael, Scott and Courtney Raecker, and another visit from Grandma, who no doubt enjoyed the break from her full-time babysitting of Luke while the rest of us are camped in the hospital! We have no pictures uploaded from today, but will add other posts as we can in the days ahead.

Welcome to the World, Wes!

To the surprise of many, including himself, Wesley Dean Belitz came into the world today at 3:05 PM. While he wasn't due until early June, Kim felt like she had started leaking amniotic fluid late Thursday afternoon and, after a brief trip to the hospital that night, came in for further testing Friday morning and ended up being induced. The doctor broke her water at about 1:30 Friday afternoon and serious contractions started less than one hour later. After about 1.5 hours of labor, Kim went from being 5 cm dialated to a full 10 cm and crowning! That wasn't enough time to get the epidural in, so quite by accident Wes was born without the benefit of pain relievers for his mother (or his father, for that matter, who REALLY thinks there should be something more relaxing than popsicle sticks available for the dads in the delivery ward). So, after a brief but eventful labor, little Wes arrived at 6 lbs, 6 oz and 20 inches long. As this is being written, Nick is preparing for a night at the hospital with Kim in the comfortable bed, baby Wes swaddled in blankets, and himself left to ponder how to sleep at all on a cough originally designed for Pygmies.
Also, earlier this evening, Luke was able to meet his baby brother for the first time and, after some initial gawking, was happy to climb up on the bed with his Mommy for a few pictures. He even tried tickling Wes with his toy train, which didn't work very well, but it was a nice gesure...
More updates as time and energy allow...

A beautiful shower

Joanne and Jill



Yesterday, my mother-in-law Joanne and Aunt Jill threw me a beautiful shower at Glenmoor Country Club. We all had a great time and laughed so much that I joked I just might have the baby there! The food was delicious and so was the cake. I truly felt showered by all, even my Californa relatives who sent presents early for me to open at the shower!

New Playhouse!

So I realize that I have been neglecting my blog as of late. The truth is that I have been busy doing other things like wrapping up the school year, washing baby clothes, scrapbooking and most of all trying to go to bed early. With that said lots has been going on in the Belitz household this past month. One fun thing for Luke is that he got his new little tykes playhouse as a Christmas/birthday gift from Grammy and Poppa. He loves it and I love it too! It is great for lots of imaginative play as it has 4 sides - a school house, sports center, market and ATM and a side for tools/repair shop/gas station. I am hoping that this will provide many hours of entertainment for Luke while our second addition is here and the weather is nice.
Luke has been preparing for his baby brothers arrival by signing "happy birthday baby brother." He also gives his baby brother kisses on my belly and says hi to him. This does not happen often but it is cute when it does.
Nick was offically offered a full time contract with Encana, the natural gas company that he has been working for since the end of January. Before he was a contractor so this means that he gets benefits including 5 weeks of vacation off a year! What great timing for us. Everyone he works with seems great and he is enjoying his job.
Finally, this past week you could call me clumsy because I have fallen twice in 5 days. I guess with this big belly my balance is off, however, this has caused me to get monitored twice this week. On Monday, I fell on some ice outside my classroom and had to go to my doctors office for 30 minutes of monitoring. Thank goodness Luke was good because I was strapped in to the monitor and could not move. We came prepared with snacks and books so the time went by fast. This past Friday, I caught my two feet together and fell down the last step while dropping Luke off at preschool. Because my knee hit my belly (not hard at all) my doctor said that I had to go to Labor and Delivery to be monitored for 4 hours! This meant that I had to take the entire day off of work. Baby was doing great the entire time but they did not let me eat and only let me drink water so besides being bored and realizing that daytime TV was not good, I was starving and did not eat lunch until 2:30. I guess this means that I need to slow down and take it easy. Only 4 more weeks to go....