It's been just over one week since Marcus and Michelle came home. THey are both doing great. In fact, Michelle went out for dinner yesterday with Cindy to Olive Garden. I think they had a good time and I'm sure it was great for Michelle to get out and spend some time with her dear friend.



In other news... I hope to be back at work soon. Now that Michelle is home and Mom is gone we are just getting back in the routines of childcare. I spent yesterday with Marcus in the morning, Madison to dance and shopping in the afternoon and soccer with Matthew in the backyard in the evening. It was a wonderful day, but I didn't get a lick of work done. Hopefully today I'll have a chance to get back to the office.

They're home! Marcus and Michelle were able to come home Saturday night! Here are some of Michelle's thoughts on being out of bed. And here are some pictures of the big day.

1. Mike and Marcus



2. Coming home from the hospital



3. Marcus meets his siblings

New IM address I've changed my IM address (due to the fact that we are no longer "M4"). Now my addresses are as follows:

Yahoo: michael_lyn_williams

MSN: mike@mikelwilliams.com

Marcus looks great! He's in Michelle's room at the hospital with no equipment attached! Here are some photos...

Marcus is doing better each day! He continues to do better and better. He is off of all the oxygen now and is just being monitored for respiration, heartrate and blood oxygen. Hopefully he'll be home in the next few days.



Michelle spent last night at home! For the first time in three weeks Michelle slept in her own bed. It was wonderful having her home. We are getting ready to go back to the hospital right now to spend the day with Marcus. They are going to let him out of the nursury today and into Michelle's room there at the hospital. If she does well for a couple of days there then they may let him come home.



CPR Training is required for all of the "primary caregivers" since Marcus continues to have occasional fits of low oxygen saturation. We are all going for CPR training at 11am today.



Baby Registry is online Many of you have asked what we need for Marcus. Thanks to a lot of hand-me-downs and good friends we have all the big things already. Here is a link to an online baby registry for the other items we need.

GREAT news... Michelle just called and she was able to hold him! and change a poopie diaper. It was about midnight on Saturday when she went to see him one last time for the night and they let her hold him because he's on oxygen through the nose, not the CPAP or incubator. She was so happy. I am happy also, but sad that I missed it! :-(

Good news... I found the Memory Stick and new pictures are here.

Frustrating news...I brought home my new Memory Stick full of pictures and video of Marcus. I laid it on my desk while i tended toother matters. However, when Madison saw it she just had to look at it (purple IS her favorite color you know!). Now she can't remember where she put it! So, no new pictures of Marcus until I find the Memory Stick. DOH!

A step in the right direction... I just got a call from Michelle. The nurse came in and said that he has slowed down to a much more moderate breathing level and they anticipate removing the CPAP soon and returning him to an incubator. He's breathing about 60-70 times per minute now so they will be able to feed him soon. We just can't wait to hold him!

What a night... Marcus is not breeathing too well. He's breathing much too fast. About 120 times per minute instead of the normal 60 times per minute. Last night we spent at the hospital watchinghim go from an incubator, to a CPAP (continuous pressurized air pump) and nearly went on a ventilator. This morning the Dr. suggested that a ventilator was eminent depending on the results of his blood gas tests. Fortunately, his blood gas tests revealed adequate levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide. So the ventilator was spared. However, he continued to breathe much too rapidly and worry all of us.

Marcus Tate Williams is born! at 4:33pm Thursday afternoon. He weighs 5lbs 14oz and is 18in long. He is receiving oxygen but they doctors expect he should be fine in the long run and off of oxygen within a few days! I'll keep brief updates here. You can find more information, pictures, and video at here.

Today is the big day! The C-Section is scheduled for 4pm. Mom and Dad arrived last night and we are all getting ready to meet Baby Marcus. I've borrowed a friends digital video camera and I'll post video and pictures tonight when I get home. Or, if I spend the night there I'll post them tomorrow!

Michelle is doing well biding time at the hospital. We see her every day and play lots of games like War, Go Fish, Sequence, and Little Bear. It's a good time. We're counting the days until Marcus joins us now. It won't be long...

Here are some pictures of our nasty green walls.

Here are some pictures of us visiting the hospital. You can see Michelle's big, pregnant belly, as well as the kids and I wrestling in the front lawn of the hospital.

Thursday is the day! They won't even do another amnio. They'll just scoop him out on Thursday assuming that Michelle can hold out that long. She's in pretty good spirits all things considered. The kids and I are doing okay also. Thanks to all of our friends who continue to go above and beyond in serving us.

No change... the results are back from Riley and they initially conclude that the lungs are not mature. They are going to give the test to their specialist for futher interpretation, but right now it looks like we'll be waiting a while.

BREAKING NEWS... They did the amnio this morning. The initial report is that the lungs are not mature enough yet. However, they are running some more tests that will be concluded around 3pm. If they are positive, we'll have him tonight. Otherwise, it will be next Thursday until we try again.



I'll keep you posted.

A new potential birthday for Marcus... Dr. Belotti (sp?) discussed Michelle's case today and encouraged us to have the amnio as soon as safely possible which is at 35 weeks, or this FRIDAY. So if the amnio reveals mature lung development they will take Marcus out of there on Friday night! I'll keep you posted about new developments. However, I'll be at the hospital all day Friday just in case. Michelle's room # is 812-353-2905, Room 2905.

By the way... Michelle is doing pretty well. Physically she is OK, occassional contractions but no more bleeding. She's in pretty good spirits all things considered. Unfortunately, Bloomington Hospital still doesn't have broadband connections in their rooms so Michelle can't check her email (click here to ask them to install broadband in each patient's room). However, you can reach her by phone at the number above.

A big thanks to the Newlands for watching the kids tonight so I could play tennis and Michelle and I could have a date. We played scrabble and I won convincingly. I should point out that Michelle was ahead by a mile until one of the doctors came in and talked with us for about a half hour. His best friend lives in Carn Town (sp?), TX which is near Beeville. So they shared Beeville stories for awhile. When he left and we returned to our game, I made my move and beat her like a rented mule!

She'll be there for a while... Dr. Eden called Michelle this evening and informed her that they decided to keep her in the hosptial until Marcus arrives. Hopefully that will be two weeks from tomorrow. However, since it's so close to the delivery, they won't give her any more medications to stop the contractions. That means it could be any day now. So far, Michelle is in good spirits.

Of course that's because she hasn't seen the paint in the hallway yet! HOLYCOW! It's VERY GREEN and shiny. You wouldn't believe it. It is absolutely awful. It should be illegal to sell that color paint in a semi-gloss to an unlicensed person. Ugh. However, thanks to Phil for his excellent help in applying the wretched stuff.

Michelle is back in the hospital... Sunday night she started having contractions at about 6pm (this is the third time she's had contractions right when I would be heading to 6:29. Is God trying to tell me something?) She really did not want to go to the hospital so she kept avoiding calling until almost 9pm. Finally around 9:00 she started bleeding and by 9:30pm we were back at Bloomington Hospital. The kids and I left her there a little before 11pm. She called this morning and Dr. Eden thinks she may have placenta previa. I'll keep you posted about that. For now, he thinks she may have to stay there until the 19th. But we'll see. We've heard that before and she has come home within a few days. So we'll just wait and see. Stay tuned here for more info...



What a week! It was terrific by in large (or is that by and large?). Michelle had very few contractions and was pretty comfortable. I got 0 work done, but had a good time playing Mr. Mom. The kids had a wonderful Halloween and the Crisps joined us for trick-or-treating and dinner. Matthew went to a really fun b-day party at the Allison Jukebox Center in Bloomington. It was so much fun, that he decided to stay for the bitter end of the party and miss his final tennis lesson. Watching the kids play made me wish I was a kid again.



PPE (Pitiful Painting Experience). We've been wanting to paint the upstairs for some time now. About three weeks ago Michelle picked "Japanese Garden" as the perfect color. This weekend I spent every waking minute painting (I'm almost done). The bad news is that within four hours of starting Michelle was pretty certain she didn't like the color. However, she isn't 100% certain she doesn't like it, and we've already bought the paint. So it's pretty much a no-win situation. I've spent 20 hours or so painting, she isn't sure she likes it, but neither of us are excited about going and buying more paint and trying again. Especially considering the fact that painting the stairwell requires renting scaffolding and is a lot of work. Yuck. I'll post some photos up here later today. I left my camera at the hospital last night.

Exciting news today... We had a doctor appointment and we officially scheduled the amnio for 11/19. The amnio is a test they perform to examine the maturity of the lungs. If the lungs are mature, then we will have a c-section that evening! If the lungs are not mature yet, we'll wait a few days. This is great news because it means three weeks from tonight we might have a new little "M" running around! I'll keep you posted if anything else develops.

A good weekend... at least mostly. The good news is that Michelle came home Friday night and was home all weekend. So far no contractions and all is well. We have another weekly checkup tomorrow morning, but we expect all is well.



The best news of the weekend is that I wore a suit to church on Sunday that I haven't worn in five years! It was a little big for me, but overall it was pretty close to right. I hope to undergrow it before the Spring! The suit I've been wearing the past 3-4 years looks like a clown suit on me. :-)



The bad news is that I spent way too much time installing a garage door opener this weekend (which still doesn't work right!). Matthew must have asked me at least 25 times if I was ready to play with him yet. How ridiculous that I would lose two days of playing with my kids (who won't want to play with me forever!) to save $99 of an installation charge. I'm a wienie. Of course, as I say this I'm picking out the paint that I'll use to waste my next block of free time splashing on the hallway. I'm a VERY slow learner.



Monday was a big Mr. Mom day. Madison had dance, then we had to run some errands at Target and such. Then a late lunch at Taco Bell, some more errands, checking on Michelle, and then the matinee of Jonah the Veggie Tales Movie with our good friend Jonathan (sp?) Crisp. We got home late, but still had to clean the house before the housecleaner comes tomorrow. (BTW - what kind of crazy world is it when you have to clean the house for the housecleaner!!!!).



The other bad news... struck me when I (finally!) logged onto my computer tonight at 11pm. Today is the day I was supposed to be in Boston interviewing at Northeastern University for a position in their b-school's IS dept. What a turnaround. From being in beautiful Boston interviewing for a coveted faculty position to cleaning up for the housecleaner. I hate to think of the direction my life is moving... (said with tongue firmly planted in cheek).



The other good news... 1) The Redskins won convincingly (almost) over the Colts. 2) I had a wonderful bike ride this morning for about 13 miles through the peak of fall foilage here in Southern Indiana. It's really beautiful. I'm going to try and capture some of it with my camera Wednesday morning when I'm out. For those of you who live in non-green environments (Stan and Susan!) you are really missing out.

Thursday... Michelle was in the hospital all day. She hoped to come home in the afternoon, but they decided to keep her overnight. I spent the day there reading a few articles. Thursday night we (I) had plans for our monthly GFGT. So the Crisp's and Wheeler came over for dinner. I made Tequilla-Marinated Chicken Fajitas. Very yummy. Although I didn't have time to go to the store for skirt steak so I just used chicken. I also didn't have any limes, so I used lemon juice. It was pretty good, but I'd like to try it with lime and beef.

Friday... The kids and I went to the hospital around 10 AM and took Michelle to the dr.'s office for a sonogram. Everything looked OK so they sent us home. :-) Michelle came home and went right to sleep in her bed. The kids and I are playing on different computers. I'm working, Matthew is playing Dungeon Seige on his computer, and Madison is playing Barney Christmas on her computer. What a day to raise a family!

Tuesday... A great day. I was able to get a good bit of work done at the office while Matthew was at pre-school and Madison was with Jennifer (Thanks Jen!). Plus, in the evening I played one of my best nights of tennis yet. If ESPN had only had their cameras there!



Wednesday... started out well. A wonderful morning devotional, a great accountability group, some work, Dungeon Seige with Matthew and a bike-ride. Who could ask for more. However, around 5:30 Michelle started having regular contractions. By 8pm we were at the hospital. The kids and I came home around 10pm, but Michelle is there for at least 24 hours, and maybe more. We'll just see. I'll keep you posted. It's now midnight and I've not heard from the hospital so I assume that the contractions have stopped for now.

Congrats to Wheeler! He is now officially half the man I am! He completed his first marathon last Sunday in Chicago!

Happy birthday dear Shanon,

Happy birthday to you!

Michelle came home Saturday night and continued to have occasional contractions throughout the day on Sunday and Monday. Monday evening we almost went back to the hospital. I called my buddy Phil and asked him to come over and watch the kids if necessary. He, of course, was more than happy to. However, the contractions slowed down and we were able to have a pretty uneventful evening at home.

Monday I played the entire demo of Dungeon Seige. What a terrific game! I'm definitely adding it to my Christmas wish list, if I can wait that long!

Ok. It's been a pretty quiet week of bed rest, child-care, and home life. Things were going very well early in the week. On Monday, the Doctor told us that Michelle was doing so well she could take one hour a day out of the house. Her first day out she went to Target and rode around in the handicapped stroller! I wish I had my camera there that day! It was hilarious watching her in there. She was in heaven just practicing some consumer behavior.

Tuesday she went with me to pick up the kids from pre-school and we had lunch at China Wall. She was really enjoying being out. She was hankering for some hot and sour soup and steamed dumplings.

Wednesday she stayed home all day, but her friends came over and they all washed and put away baby clothes for Marcus while I was at accountability group. It was fun for them, and it kept me from having to do it! Thanks a million, Krista and Jill!

Thursday she stayed home while I dropped the kids off and ran errands. New tires on the car and, thanks to Bort and Brent I got a manicure! Ohmygoshwasitterrific! I've never felt so pampered. I mean how nice can it be to have a hand massage! Holy cow.

Friday we had plans to join the Crisps for dinner. However, at about 4pm Michelle started having contractions. We went ahead to the Crisps, but by 8pm she was having very predictable contractions. We went to the hospital around 9pm. She was admitted and spent the night there.


They immediately gave her some tributalene (sp?) which stopped the contractions. I picked up the kids and come home.

Saturday began with a phone call from the hospital. She continues to have contractions so they will keep her there throughout the day and probably tonight. Ooh well. I think she'll be home tomorrow. We're just hoping she doesn't require magnesium again. The good news is that she is officially thirty-two weeks now so we can have the baby in Bloomington and they can keep it here. That's a BIG improvement over daily trips to Indy!.

As always, I'll keep this posted with the most recent info.

Thanks!

A great big THANK YOU to my friends Scott and Cindy Newland who watched the kids Tuesday night so I could go play some tennis. It was GREAT to get out and get some exercise. I need to figure out a way to keep riding my bike despite my new home responsibilities. But in the meantime, a greatly appreciate all the help from our wonderful friends.

Bedrest Support for MEN:

On the advice of some good friends, I decided to start a section on my web for expressing my thoughts, observations, and advice for men who have a wife on bedrest. You can check it out at here.

Thursdays RULE!

On Thursday both of my beautiful children have preschool. That means I get to actually go to the office for a few hours and pretend to be a working professional! It's been wonderful to be here at the office today. I've met with co-authors, finished editing another round of a research project, and read some articles. All those things may sound mundane, but it's incredible exciting to me considering I've not had anything like a professional life for the past few weeks.

Kingdom Parables:

I wrapped up the Kingdom Parables class at Sherwood Oaks last night. It was a lot of fun for me, and I hope for the rest of the class. It was a perfect group, very small (about 6-8 per week), pretty talkative, and very interested in the subject matter. You can find my notes and handouts here.

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted an update. I'm keeping very busy being Mr. Mom. Michelle is doing fine and we have the best friends and family in the universe! My folks came and picked up the kids and kept them for a week (Thanks Mom!). Our friends have sent tons of flowers and plants, helped watch the kids, keep us enteretained, cleaned the freaking garage! and generally have been terrific!

Michelle continues to have occasional contractions, but nothing major or frequent. The doctor thinks we'll be fine as long as she stays in bed. I met Mom in Cambridge, OH Sunday to get the kids. They are doing GREAT and had a terrfic time at Mimi's. Here is a link to some photos of them playing in Uncle Mark's new boat.

In other news... How about them 'skins? I'd say the QB controversy is clearly over for now. :-)

Official nickname change TMQ, who has been calling Dan Snyder the "Owner/Menace to Western Civilization" for a year, feels it is time for a name change, if only because Western civilization seems determined to undo itself with or without Snyder's aid. His new nickname: Lord Voldemort.




Sinister, scheming, power-mad - just like Lord Voldemort. Loves to fire people -- just like Lord Voldemort. (OK, Lord Voldemort loves to kill people, but it's the same premise; Snyder takes pleasure in firing those faithful to him, Lord Voldemort takes pleasure in otherwise disposing of those faithful to him.) And that can't be Snyder's real body, can it? He must be capable of taking over other forms - just like Lord Voldemort. As the world braces for release of the next Potter book, Harry Potter and the Global Marketing Campaign of Doom, Dan Snyder will become Lord Voldemort to TMQ.

She's home! The sonogram revealed that her cervix was in good shape and the Dr.'s agreed she could go home if she chose. She's on orders to stay in bed or on the couch, but she can get up as neccessary. We made it home about an hour ago and she is getting all settled in. Now the work begins. She's already asked me if "bedrest" includes cleaning out the closet or the pantry, or the cabinets. That girl...



Thanks for all your prayers and support. It has clearly made a major difference. We feel very supported and loved by all of our friends and family. I'll keep you posted of any further developments.



Mike

I just got a call from Michelle and she had a great night. No contractions! The Dr. on call is ready to discharge her, but her Dr. wants a sonogram first. If the cervix is less than 2 inches long he wants her to stay in the hospital. If it's more, she can come home this morning!



I'll keep you posted.

Michelle had a great day today. She has been off of all medication (other than Tylenol) for about 24 hours now. Assuming that she doesn't take a turn for the worse, the doctors will let her come home tomorrow (Tuesday). She is feeling pretty good, and I'm sure it's going to be a full-time job just keeping her in bed for the next few weeks. You know how she can't stand to sit still!



We talked to the kids today and they are being spoiled rotten by my folks. :-)



I'll let you know when we bring her home (assuming she'll let me come upstairs and get on the computer!) Thanks for all the support and encouragment. She loves all the visitors, kindness, flowers and gifts. I collect all the emails and print them out for her to read each morning in the hospital. You guys are the best!

Great news! Michelle is feeling much better. They were able to reduce the Magnesium throughout the day Saturday and completely turn it off on Sunday. She continues to have some contractions, but they have not required more Magnesium. The meds they are using now do not have the narcotic side effects.



Saturday night she had minor contractions that were stopped with some medicine I can't spell or pronounce.



Sunday she had only minor contractions throughout the day and was mostly fine. She is able to operate pretty normally now in terms of talking, reading, writing, etc. She just has to stay in bed.



Sunday night she had more contractions but they were able to stop them without medication.



Monday morning they removed her IV and suggested that if she goes another 24 hours without medicine, they will be willing to release her from the hospital on Tuesday. However, she will continue to be on bedrest until the baby comes. If she comes home, I"ll need a six week supply of duct tape to keep her fastened to her bed!



The baby continues to appear fine. Strong heartbeat, lots of movement, and no signs that concern the doctors.



Mom and Dad took the kids to MD on Sunday. They arrived safely and are having lots of fun being spoiled to no end.



Thanks for your continued prayers and support.

THANKS to God for hearing our prayer and bringing the contractions to an end for now. Thank you all for your prayers and support. I'm collating all the emails and printing them out to bring to Michelle in the hospital (when will they put broadband connections in hospital rooms!)



My mom and Dad are coming in tomorrow to help with the kids. I think they are going to take them back to MD with them on Sunday. That will be a big help.



Michelle is in good spirits tonight, but pretty drugged up. If anyone wants to send flowers or anything, I suggest potted plants instead. Since she'll be there five weeks, flowers don't have an adequate shelf-life. However, to all those who have already sent flowers, THANKS a ton. They are beautiful and really make the room a much nicer place to be.

As you know we are expecting Marcus Tate Williams in late November. However, the last couple of nights Michelle has had minor contractions. Last evening at about 5pm we went to the hospital to have it checked. It looked like a minor case of false labor. They put her on the monitors and it looked like we would be dismissed in a few hours.



Around 8pm the doctor performed a physical exam and found that Michelle had dilated 1CM and the contractions were continuing. Since we are only at 28 weeks this is a problem.



Michelle was admitted to the Bloomingotn Hospital (room 2909, phone 812-353-2909) and will most likely remain in the hospital until the baby comes. The best case scenario is that the medicines they are currently giving her through the IV will keep her from progressing. Alternately, if she does begin to progress at any time in the next three weeks, they will transfer her to a hospital in Indy where they can care for babies born eight weeks premature.



I'll continue to post regular updates at http://www.mikelwilliams.com/latest.html.



Thanks for your prayers and support,

Mike

I've just posted my web to a new webhost. Let me know if you have any problems accessing it.

We had a terrific time on our vacation. We went to see Stan and Susan Beck in New Mexico, Granny and Grandpa Al in Hinton, and Grandma Lusk in KS. We had loads of fun. Check out all the pictures.



Also, I attended AMCIS 2002 in Dallas recently. I met a bunch of wonderful people and had a terrific time. Who knows where we'll go from here!!?!?!?

Bad news... the 2nd Annual BLT (Buddy League Tournament) was postponed due to illness. We'll reschedule for the fall when it's a little cooler. Until then I'll practice so I can beat Lovelady this year!



Also, check out the improved "Recipes" section of my website.

I'm back! Boy did we have a great time at the PNFR. Check out the pictures I've posted on my website.



Plus, our good friends Richard and Lenora Arrington came to visit this weekend. We had a wonderful time at the Crisp's catching up on old times. I'll have pictures up tonight. I'm having a contest with Lenora to see who can build a better page: me, using the web, or her, using Creative Memories. Stay tuned...



BTW - Crisp beat my like a mule in chess today. Ouch... Good thing I'm not competitive.

I'm gone!!! The PNFR starts this morning and I won't be back around until Thursday. Have a great week everyone.

I just put some new recipes on the website including Mom's zuccini bread and banana bread. Check them out on the Lotus version of my site.

Check out the new "Lotus Version" of my website. There is a link on my home page.

The 6th Annual PNFR is scheduled for this weekend. Here is a list of the cabins we're considering using. Which do you like? Here is the list. I just reserved Papaw's Porch for Monday and Tuesday nights.

Yes. :-)

Does this latest bit of information (possible name) mean you know the sex of the little one?

Very interesting. I've known a few "Williams" but never had any romantic interests. Have any of the rest of you ever had romantic interests in someone with the same last name?

MARCUS WILLIAMS??!! When I was in 5th and 6th grades I was in LOVE with a guy named Marcus Williams! You gotta do it!

Great news! I just found out that I passed my qualifying exams! I didn't do well enough on the paper review, so I get to review another paper. But other than that, I'm done! I should complete the second paper review in the next couple of weeks. Isn't that great! Assuming that I get it the second time around, I'll be ready to focus on my dissertation!

Feel free to post here if you want. You can ask questions, make comments, or tell me what you think about whatever is on your mind. I'll check often. - Mike