We have had a few challenging weeks. Charlie came down with a fever a week ago Thursday, February 8th. On Thursday night his temp got up over 104 degrees. At the doctor on Friday he was tested for influenza but came up negative. Charlie was not feeling well. He had a temperature for six days. In the end his doctor said he certainly had influenza. He started feeling better on Wednesday and was his old self by the weekend. Sam developed a cough on Wednesday, the same day Charlie started feeling better, but did not have a fever. He went to the doctor on Thursday afternoon; he was wheezing and laboring to breathe. He was prescribed albuterol which we administered with a nebulizer. He was very uncomfortable on Friday, so we took him in again, and this time he was diagnosed with a double ear infection. Sam was prescribed with an antibiotic for the ears, and it would help prevent pneumonia as well.

He seemed to be improving on Saturday, but on Sunday morning he was wheezing loudly and having trouble breathing even after the nebulizer treatment. Our doctor’s office advised that we take him to Children’s Hospital. I’m writing this from the emergency room. They are testing Sam for Flu and RSV, a respiratory viral infection. They are going to do chest x-ray to look at his lungs and to see if his heart is enlarged.

UPDATE: The x-ray shows that his heart is probably enlarged and the lab tests are positive for RSV. Sam is being admitted and will see a cardiologist tomorrow (today is Sunday).

UPDATE: Today is Monday morning and Sam and Jodi had a restless night in the hospital. Sam was given oxygen while he slept and he needed nasal suction numerous times. He’s not eating as much as we would like due to the congestion. We’ll see the doctors this morning and get an update. Charlie’s Grandma Sue is coming to the house to play (Thanks Sue!).

UPDATE: Monday night: Sam did well today. He was eating this afternoon and his oxygenation was holding fairly steady. And he’s a happy little guy as usual. This morning his doctor said we should expect him to be in the hospital until Wednesday or longer. He had an echocardiogram this afternoon to see what is causing his heart murmur and enlarged heart. As we expected, he has a VSD — a defect where the muscles between chambers hasn’t completely grown together. Sam has thrived in his first 12 weeks, so there isn’t anything to do at this point. Most VSDs close over time and we’re optimistic. Hopefully Jodi and Sam have a peaceful evening.

UPDATE: Tuesday afternoon: We’re home! Sam had a very good night and morning so they let us come home today. We’d like to thank everyone who sent their wishes and prayers, and especially Sue and Dale, and Kris, Dave and Conner who helped out at the hospital and with Charlie at home.

I have been interested in collecting information about my family history (genealogy) for some time. Every few years I’ll come across the family tree my sister put together for a school project many years ago and it always sparks my interest in my family tree.

I came across a new web site Geni that helps you build and share family trees. Although its still in beta and pretty buggy, the interface is slick and easy to use. It allows all your family members to access it and input information, and its free. So I’ve started a project to collect all the information I can gather and build and extensive family tree. So far I have just over a hundred people on my tree.

My mom sent me a bunch of materials including pictures of many paternal ancestors, data on maternal history, and even an Italian passport and a naturalization certificate from my paternal great-grandfather. I’ve used the web site Ancestry.com to locate census records for many of my relatives. The next task is to query my relatives to verify and extend the data I’ve collected. I’ll also scan and post the pictures and other documents (e.g. census records) I’ve collected. Not only does this share them with the family, it is a good way to archive them for the future.

If you’re in my family and want an invitation to participate in the Geni family tree, send me a email.

2_Samuel 075
Originally uploaded by The DeToffols.

Jodi was at 41 weeks when we went to see our midwife on 11/27. She said the baby had turned so that his face was towards Jodi’s stomach, not the ideal position, and that’s what had probably stopped labor the previous Saturday. We agreed that we’d get induced on Friday night if needed.

The next morning, Tuesday 11/28, Jodi woke me up at 7:00 AM saying that she had been having contractions and had called our doula. As she was telling me this her water broke. We quickly got everything together and headed to the hospital, as Jodi’s contractions were getting serious. It was raining and rush-hour, and Jodi’s Dad gave me a heads-up that the highway was backed up, so I took and alternate route and made it to the hospital in St. Paul in about twenty minutes. We arrived at the hospital at 7:55 AM. Jodi’s Mom Sue was there when we arrived and our doula Marla got through traffic and got there shortly after.

Luckily, the water birth tub was available, and Jodi was in active labor, so she was able to get in the tub at 9:00 AM. Jodi’s Dad Paul and his wife Anne came to the hospital to take Charlie home. But since labor was progressing so fast we asked them to stick around. Everything happened very fast, and at 9:52 AM Samuel Paul DeToffol was born! He weighed 9 lbs 4 ounces with ten fingers and ten toes. Jodi, Sam (and Charlie and Scott) are doing fine. More later.

Click on the photo to see more pictures of the newest DeToffol at our Flickr site.

Anybody reading this most likely knows Jodi is pregnant with our second child. Her due date was November 21st, so as of this writing she is a week late. Technically, if you go by the standard measurements using a women’s menstrual cycle, her due date should have been November 14th. Her cycle is not typical, and we know exactly when we conceived, so we adjusted the due date to be more accurate.

Jodi has been contracting fairly regularly for at least two weeks now. We’ve had a few false starts where we thought she was moving into active labor.  So basically she has been in early labor for weeks.

We have an appointment with our midwife this afternoon, which really won’t tell us much, but we’ll discuss at what point we would induce labor. At this point we’re probably going to wait until two weeks overdue.

This experience has been the opposite of our first labor with Charlie, where Jodi’s water broke at 7 AM and Charlie was born at 7 PM the same day.

So, we’re busy staying ready and hoping that our new baby comes sooner than later.

Google has a cool and controversial new service called Google Print. They have indexed entire libraries of books and made them searchable. When a search gets a hit, Google will display an excerpt of the book showing the searched word(s).

For fun I typed in “DeToffol” to see if anything showed up. Much to my surprise something did. My mom, Barb DeToffol, is in a book.

Bob Cary is a famous local Ely writer. He quotes Mom in a very short story about a Pioneer Press reporter writing about Ely’s long winters:

Barb DeToffol had just walked in the office. “If you think people have long faces up here, you’re wrong,” she said. “What we are doing on Shagawa Lake is this: We have all the resort people building big bonfires, and we are going to melt the ice off before the walleye opener.”

Very cool. Congrats Mom.