Ellie is Here!

I meant to update this while we were in the hospital, but it always sounds like we’ll have more down time in the hospital that we actually do.  Anyhow, here’s a recap of what has happened during Ellie's first few days (this is a long post, sorry).

Monday (Labor Day) night we took the kids out to dinner as our last outing as a family of 4.  Crazy, right?  We enjoyed some yummy Mexican food together.

Tuesday B and I went to work for the day.  Tracy came over to pick up our boys after work so that we could get ready to go to the hospital.  We were set for an induction at 8pm.  Once checked into our room, they started an IV and when the doc came in to check progress and get us ready for a Foley catheter induction, I was already at 3 cm, which is what the Foley is meant to achieve.  So, we didn’t have to go that route (celebrations).  We’d just sit tight and wait until the morning to start Pitocin.  Everything looked great on the monitors through the night and Pitocin started around 7am.  Around 8am, they started having trouble with the heart rate monitor.  It looked like Ellie’s heart rate was dipping down to the 50s, then rebounding back into the high 180s or 190s.  The audible beeping was still tracking okay, but they needed to be able to watch the monitor from the nurses’ station.  Dr. McKenna came in and did a quick ultrasound to make sure Ellie’s heart was doing alright, and it was, but said that they’d need to break my water and use an internal monitor on Ellie’s scalp to get an accurate reading on her heart rate through labor.  My water was broken around 9:30am, which made my contractions much more severe.  At this point, we’d progressed to about 4 cm.  My parents and Brandon’s parents headed down to sit with us for the day.  An anesthesia resident came down to start an epidural soon afterwards… but the epidural didn’t take.  Contractions became much more severe and I waited (not so patiently) for another epidural.  The anesthesiologist came in to start another epidural.  This one took, thank goodness, but because of the blockage caused by the first one, the 2^nd one only covered the left side of my body.  I could still feel full contractions on the right.  Not unbearable – I could focus and breathe through them, but it was weird to feel it just on half of my body.  

At noon, my nurse came back in and said the anesthesiologist was headed back my way to give me something for the right side.  In the meantime, she’d check progress again.  We were now at 6cm and progressing well.  Brandon and our parents had just come back into the room from getting lunch.  Instantly, my pain level went through the roof.  I could feel unbelievable pressure and the contractions on my right side were now so strong that I was gripping the side of the bed, laying on my side, and couldn’t focus on much at all.  The nurse brought in the OB resident (Dr. Brahman) to check progress again.  By this point, we were complete… ready to start pushing.  Holy cow – did that all happen in 30 minutes?  They got the team ready and rolled me down the hall into the OR.  On the way there, I let my nurse know that I was trying hard to keep from pushing… they picked up the pace so they were now running to the OR.  By the time they broke the bed down and got everyone in their OR garb, we were pushing.  About 4 minutes later, Ellie arrived at 12:52pm!  Uhh… she’s my favorite child now… kidding.  But everything went so fast that we weren’t able to get many pictures when she was born.  I was able to feel exactly what was going on this time, though… if only on the right side.  [side note: Lance was about 30 hours of labor, then just under 3 hours of pushing.  Kaleb was about 8 hours of labor, and 20 minutes of pushing.  Ellie was around 4 hours of labor total and less than 4 minutes of pushing.]

I didn’t get to hold her right away, they lifted her up so that I could see her, but then took her into the adjacent NICU room.  Brandon and mom were able to go see her, but even at that, there were so many people checking her out, that they weren’t able to really get close.  Once the docs were done with me, I was wheeled into the NICU room and they handed Ellie to me (all bundled up).  She weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces at birth (almost 2 pounds smaller than our boys).  I only got to hold her for a minute or two, though, as there were twins being delivered in the other connected OR.  We needed to clear out. Ellie looked okay, but they needed to monitor her in the NICU.  I was wheeled back to my labor room for recovery and was able to eat some lunch while B went down into the NICU with both sets of parents to check on Ellie.  They came back with pictures for me.  Around 3:45, I was able to leave my room and was wheeled down to the NICU while B, his parents, and my dad brought our stuff to our postpartum room.

Shortly after birth.

When mom and I arrived in the NICU, they were finishing up Ellie’s echocardiogram.  We’d have to wait to hear from our cardiologist later in the night on the results.  Ellie was still covered in vernix (a waxy coating on the skin), but I could see that she had a lot of hair (not so much on top) and she had extra-long nails on her fingers and toes.  She was beautiful!  I was able to hold her skin to skin and she nursed a little for me.  At this point, her breathing and heart rate were looking good, but her oxygen saturation was fluctuating greatly.  For a “typical” baby, they want the oxygen saturation to be above 90% for sure.  For Ellie, the NICU team was shooting for it to stay above 80%.  In the first few hours, it floated anywhere from about 60% to 85%.  Anytime she would cough or cry… or try to work up a burp, her O2 levels dropped and set off alarms.  Scary stuff, but the nurses were showing us ways to open her airway and help those levels increase again.  I went back up to the room to get B and to let our parents go home… then after dinner, B and I came back down to the NICU to get our cuddles in.  We came down in time to see our cardiologist checking Ellie out.  Dr. Luby said that Ellie looks great.  The echo on her looked a little different than the prenatal echoes, but nothing to be alarmed about.  The right chambers of Ellie’s heart are a little smaller than initially thought, and there was slight leakage in her A-V valve (but not even enough to hear with a stethoscope).  The smaller right chambers could be accounted for and adjusted some when Ellie has surgery down the road.  Good news!!  They had inserted a feeding tube in Ellie’s nose so that they could give her additional fluids through the night to keep her hydrated.  Her hematocrit count was high and they wanted to make sure she had plenty of fluids that would help keep her oxygen levels up.

Ellie getting skin-to-skin time with Daddy

We were both able to cuddle Ellie and give her plenty of skin-to-skin time with us.  She’d have to spend the night in the NICU, though.  B and I were up before 6am on Thursday and were able to shower and get some snacks before heading down to the NICU again to snuggle our baby girl.  We came back up for a late breakfast and were back in the NICU right away.  In Miami Valley, each baby has his/her own NICU room, so we had plenty of privacy with her.  Ellie was able to nurse, and we were able to give her the pumped colostum from the night before through her feeding tube.  It wasn’t much, but that stuff is liquid gold and I wanted to get her as much as possible.  The neonatologist, Dr. Belcastro, came in and talked to us about how Ellie was doing.  He said that her saturation levels stayed between 85 and 90% through the night and that as long as she could do well without the feeding tube and nursing directly, she’d be able to come to our room.  She had to prove that she could handle this for 8 hours (noon to 8pm).  We fed her just before lunch, then headed up to our room so that we could eat.  We had a big afternoon with our little bug.  We said lots of prayers and held her pretty much the entire time.  Her oxygen levels stayed up well for us (except when she needed to burp) and she was eating well for me.  We had some visitors come in and squeeze on Ellie, too – including Lance (Kaleb couldn’t come back because he is under 3 years old).  Very sweet! 

We left the NICU around 7pm so that the team could make rounds and decide if she was healthy enough to come to our room.  Around 8:45, our nurse told us that she’d be wheeled up to stay in our room for the night.  In total, Ellie spent about 30 hours in the NICU – not too shabby at all!

Skin-to-skin snuggles with Mommy

Getting the colostrum into Ellie's feeding tube

 Smiles for Aunt Tracy

 Cuddles for Aunt Emily

Kisses from Lance

That night, Ellie was doing great.  Her nurse came in around 1 am (just as I was putting Ellie back into the crib after nursing and cuddling).  She needed to take Ellie to the nursery to do some tests on her and asked if she could keep her there until the next feeding.  I agreed… but told her that I needed her back at 3am for the next feeding.  My alarm went off… and I waited… and waited.  Finally, I called my nurse at 3:45 and asked if I could have Ellie back to nurse.  Ellie’s nurse came back with her, but said that they were worried about Ellie because her O2 levels were low.  I asked how low, and the nurse said they were in the low 90s.  I said, “Hey, that’s fantastic for her”.  The nurse didn’t think so.  She said that Ellie was turning blue around the mouth when she got upset.  Yes… this was standard for Ellie, too.  Anyhow, they had me go into the nursery to nurse Ellie on the monitors again, but since we were on the transitional floor, the nurses in this nursery were coming up from the NICU to help out.  The nurses in the NICU had been with Ellie the day before and knew that the doctors were trying to keep her above 80%.  I’m thankful that the first nurse was concerned.  She was just going by the standards they use for the rest of the babies in the “typical” nursery… not the same standards that they used for Ellie in the NICU.  Either way, Ellie did fine on the monitors and was able to come back to my room with me after nursing. 

Friday was a rough day… after constant interruptions and going back to the nursery through the night, I had very VERY little sleep.  We did get pictures, though... Julie Davidson from Bella Baby Photography was amazing!  Ellie had another echo done (looked great, again) and we were finally released to go home around 7:30pm.  We made it home just before 9pm and my parents met us at home with our sleeping boys.

Lance didn’t wake up at all.  Kaleb woke up to see us, but was not crazy about Ellie right away.  After refusing to touch her for 10 minutes or so, he started to give her kisses and hold her hands.  Then he didn’t stop giving her kisses and laying his cheek against her head.  I think he’s in love!  Whew – time to rest and enjoy home life as a family of 5… yeah, crazy… FIVE!!  Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts.  We know that each one was crucial in getting us all through these first few days.  We love you - thank you so much for following along.

And here is Ellie's birth announcement:

not in LABOR toDAY

Welp, I see that it’s now been 2 weeks since my last update – sorry.  Since our last update, just after our 37-week appointment, things have gone pretty well.  On Monday, August 18^th, we had another ultrasound to measure fluids for Ellie… and the fluid level had gone up from 5.6 cm to 6.3 cm… which is good.  We were no longer on that borderline where the fluid needed to be watched so closely.  They’d check it again in a week.  Ellie & I had another appointment on the 21^st (38 weeks) and were able to meet Dr. Glover (another possible doc for delivery).  Dr. Glover was awesome – I have yet to meet a doctor that I’m not crazy about in this journey.  Ellie did great for the non-stress test and we discussed in detail the plan for the induction on 9/2.  We’d arrive at 8 pm, get checked into the room and such, and they’d start the induction using a foley catheter.  At some point through the night, they’d also start Pitocin to get contractions going, and we should have a delivery sometime on Wednesday, 9/3.  Sounded good to me!

The next morning I woke up with strong contractions, severe nausea, and other flu-like symptoms (I’ll spare you details).  I told B before he left for work that I wasn't feeling well and that my contractions were so strong that I couldn't stand up straight in the shower when they hit.  We brushed this off because I’d been having random contractions for so long (and did the same with the boys).  I’d call him if things progressed much.  About 2 hours later (around 8am), I called my mom to tell her what I was feeling and had just started writing down my contractions so that I could see how far apart they were.  I was trying to work and track these at the same time.  I also told mom about my other symptoms and she encouraged me to call the hospital and get their take on it.  I waited until 9 am to call, since the doctors’ office opened at 9.  By this time, contractions were consistently about 10 minutes apart, and strong.  I had to focus and breathe through them.  I held the boys at home with me because I wasn't sure what the day would bring.  When I called the office and talked to the nurse, I started to break down a bit.  My voice was shaking at one point and (with Kaleb having a meltdown in the background), I began to cry.  She said, “Are you okay?  Do they hurt so bad that you’re crying?”.  I said, “No – they’re painful, but I’m crying because I feel totally overwhelmed right now and I have a toddler having a meltdown in the next room… and I've never gone into labor on my own… this is scary when I’m by myself.”.  Poor lady.  Ha!  She was very sweet, though.  She told me that she’d check with the doctor and call me back – allowing me time to take care of Kaleb.  She called back to say that Dr. Glover asked that we come down to at least get put on the monitors and check progress.  I called B to have him head home from work, and everything just started to get very real in my mind (key the start of a small panic attack).  I called mom to say they wanted us to come into the hospital and she let me know that she and Tracy were already on their way to our house.  God bless them!!  I ran around the house trying to pull together a few things that we hadn't packed yet… or weren't in the car.  I’m pretty sure I’d broken a sweat by the time Mom & Tracy were here.  I’d gotten sick a few more times and the contractions were getting stronger and closer.  I wasn't timing them anymore.  Tracy asked how close they were and I said “I don’t know”.  She said, “Are you afraid to time them because you know they’re getting closer?”  “Maybe.”  She helped me pack my bathroom stuff up and stared at me with 100% understanding as I held on to the bathroom vanity to breathe through another contraction.  This is about when B showed up and started packing the stuff I’d gathered into the van.  I shared hugs with Mom & Tracy before we left and let them know that I was absolutely terrified.  First, because I’d never done this (labored without an induction) before, and also because I was worried about Ellie.  Ugh – I've really got to get over this fear thing.

As B drove to the hospital (which is a good hour away), he was trying to lighten the mood and tried to make me laugh.  When he realized that I was just trying to not break down, he changed the tone and went into “get there fast” mode.  He kept asking how far apart my contractions were, and I tried to time them, but I was just looking at the clock… them my mind would go crazy between contractions and by the time I’d look again, I had forgotten when the last one was.  By the time we were in Troy (about 20 minutes away), I told him I couldn't focus long enough to remember.  I tried a little harder, but was still spacey – I guessed they were about 6 minutes apart.  About 40 minutes into the drive, he gave me his phone, set up in stop watch mode.  Now I could be a little more exact.  By this time, the contractions were much stronger and were coming about 4 minutes apart – whoa!  I was not ready for this to go so fast.  He started driving a little faster and we were now in Dayton, which is not ideal for driving – EVER.  I was trying to tell him how to get to the hospital and focus through contractions… I may have said a choice word or two about the stopped construction traffic around our exit… oops. 

By the time we arrived at Miami Valley, it was hard for me to get out of the van and walk to the registration desk.  I got checked in quick and then wheeled up to a maternity triage kind of room.  I guess I’d describe it as an observation room… but with several beds, separated by curtains.  Remember, I’d only delivered in Sidney and they’re all about the small, private spaces.  I guess when the hospital delivers 5,000 babies a year, things are a bit different.  They took my vitals and told me that I was dehydrated.  I let them know about my symptoms that morning and that every time I’d try to drink water, eat… anything… that my system was kicking it all out.  They gave me a dose of Phenergan for nausea and started an IV for fluids.  They checked for progress – nothing.  The resident (I didn't catch her name) said that they’d push the fluids, but since they didn't want to admit us until we were in active labor (so… they needed to see some progress, not just contractions), they’d let us go home in a few hours.  I couldn't believe that we didn't have any progress.  I think I would have been frustrated, but the Phenergan knocked me out.  Dr. Glover said that we should go into a room and that they’d keep us until about dinner time so that they could monitor us.  They didn't want us to get all the way home and have to turn around and come back.  So I spent the next 6 hours sleeping… I could barely stay awake long enough to talk to the nurses as they came in.  Sure enough, the contractions faded as I slept and around 5:30 pm, we were released to go home. 

I really thought we were having a baby that day.  I guess this was just Ellie’s way of letting us know that she’s going to do things according to her own schedule.  And as much as I really wanted that “Oh my gosh… it’s time to go to the hospital” moment… I kind of think it’s a little overrated now.  It was way scarier than I’d imagined.  Maybe it was Ellie’s way of showing her Daddy how to get to the hospital in a rush and her way of allowing me to have my little panic attack before her real arrival.  Dry run, I guess. 

The following week was much less eventful – thank goodness!  We had more appointments with fluid measurements consistent with the previous week - we got to have an ultrasound with Lara again (just love her) and she estimated Ellie's weight at 7 pounds 3 ounces, but the closer we get to our due date, the less accurate the ultrasound measurements become - because of Ellie's position and the shadows that bones now throw into the ultrasound picture, I guess.  We haven't been able to see Ellie's face in weeks because of her position - so I cannot wait to see those cheeks again!  On Thursday, 8/28, we had our last prenatal appointment.  What??  I didn't think we’d ever see the end of appointments for this pregnancy.  We got to meet Dr. McKenna (the 3rd and final doctor we could have) and of course, he's just as fabulous as the rest.  My nieces also helped me make a TON of monster cookies to bring to the hospital to share with visitors and hospital staff (I mean… I’m not bribing anyone here… but I will have cookies for visitors).  We capped off our week with another busy weekend.  I’m now to that super tired point (much like the first trimester).  I tried to help with home improvement projects, but wasn't much help to B.  I had a busy day with the boys on Saturday and helped (liberal use of the word "helped") with preparations at Mom & Dad's house for Sunday.  Sunday brought church, then family nap time (awesome!), then a family reunion for my mom’s side of the family - which is what we were prepping for on Saturday.  When my grandma saw me, she said “Oh!” surprised by how pregnant I look, I think.  I told her that we’d have a baby on Wednesday sometime, which wasn't a surprise to her at all.  I think she’s always ready to have more great grand babies.  In case you don’t know my family, my mom’s side is huge.  My grandparents had 8 kids and that led to lots of grand kids, lots and lots of great-grand kids, and some great-great-grand kids already.  Below is a picture of grandma with her great-grand babies… and this is NOT all of them.  We had several families who were not able to make it, so there are at least 16 great-grand babies missing here.  It may have been hot, but it was a wonderful day for family and we got to catch up with some people we rarely get to see.  Feeling very blessed to be a part of this family. 

They tried to get me to jump into this picture... just my belly... 

so that Ellie could be included with the other great grand kids. 

A tree w/ thumbprints of everyone present... how cool is this?  104 thumbprints in all!

This is Uncle Leo's train.  What a big hit with the kiddos!  Tracy was taking them around this time.

As I’m writing this on Labor Day, I realize that I have one more day of work – then the induction tomorrow night.  I think I’m ready this time… thank goodness we got those jittery nerves out a week and a half ago.  I’ll update several times this week, I’m sure.  The next update should include pictures of Miss Elizabeth Kate.  Thank you for following along. 

A new birth plan for Ellie, plus weekend updates

On Thursday, we had our first appointment at Perinatal Partners in Miami Valley at 2:45 pm [which is where we'll deliver].  When we arrived, a nurse navigator greeted us and took us on a tour of a labor and delivery room and showed us the NICU.  We were blown away by how amazing the NICU was.  The smell of the NICU is something that would take some getting used to.  I'm sure it's a mixture of cleaning products, sterile equipment, and hand sanitizer... but it smelled more "hospital" than "home" - which in this case, is a good thing, I guess.  Each baby has his/her own room, plus plenty of space for parents and grandparents to gather in privacy with the baby.  Our boys would be allowed in, too - as long as they're healthy.  Hopefully, we won't be needing the NICU, but since it's a real possibility, we wanted to know as much about it as possible.  The cardiology team will make that call for Ellie when she's here and breathing on her own.  They suggested that we might labor in one room, then move into the O.R. to deliver (naturally, still).  This is because the O.R. is adjacent to the NICU, so it'd be a quick transition, if we needed it.

After the tour, we met one of our (3 possible) doctors for delivery.  We met Dr. Kovac and she was fabulous!  She's the doctor that delivered our nephew, Jake, two years ago.  She sat with us and reviewed all of our information that had been transferred from Dr. Dev and cardiology at Dayton Children's, as well as all the information that was already in their system from our appointments in Vandalia.  It's kind of awesome that everything is in one place and ready for delivery, right??  We discussed our labor and delivery experiences with our boys and our goals this time around.  Since I've never gone into active labor on my own and we're familiar with the induction process, and since our boys were both delivered after their due dates, we set up an induction date for Ellie so that we felt comfortable with the plan and so that the hospital was able to plan on having the teams she'll need on hand.  As much as I'd like to have the "oh my gosh, it's time to go to the hospital" moment... I also like the peace of mind that comes with a plan, especially since we're now an hour away instead of ten minutes.  So, if Ellie stays the course, we'll go in for an induction on Tuesday evening, September 2nd.  Did I mention that's only 15 days away?  Ahhhh!  If she wants to arrive earlier than that, anytime after 8/28 would be best (which will put us at 39 weeks).  With complications, we don't want Ellie to arrive any earlier than 39 weeks.  Her heart & lungs need those last few weeks, for sure.

We were supposed to end our appointment with a quick ultrasound to measure amniotic fluid levels, then be on our way.  However, when they measured fluids, they were concerned that the fluids were so low.  Up to this point, we've been measuring somewhere in the 18-23 cm of fluid range.  On Thursday, we had 5.6 cm.  Dr. Kovac said that they like to see measurements over 12 cm.  She said that 8-12 cm is okay, and 5-8 is a gray area.  Less than 5 cm is a concern because if baby doesn't have enough fluid, it's hard for her to get the nutrients she needs, and could indicate that fluid is leaking.  We went from our ultrasound room, into a room for a non-stress test.  During the non-stress test, they gave me ice water to drink and monitored Ellie closely.  Ellie did fantastic!  She moved around plenty and had good accelerations in her heart rate.  Dr. Kovac said, "Now, that's a happy baby".  Smiles!  We were finally released to go around 5:30 pm (almost 3 hours after we started).

Since we were kid-free, B and I went out to dinner quick before heading home.  I don't know how long it's been since the 2 of us went out to dinner alone.  We had to laugh at how little time it actually took us to eat this time since we weren't going on potty breaks or cleaning up spilled drinks, or trying to do a thousand other things.  While it was nice to have a little adult time, we both decided that for us, our lives would be too quiet and boring without those crazy little critters that add a good dose of chaos to every situation.  We were ready to go scoop them up.  When we arrived home, I noticed that the shrubs we had on the front porch were now nicely planted in our flower bed.  I walked into our house and said, "Mom, did you plant our bushes??".  I then quickly noticed that some other home improvement projects that were lingering had been wrapped up for us, too.  After I left to head to Dayton, Dad came over and helped Mom surprise us by doing some of the things in our house that we hadn't gotten to yet.  Awesome, awesome, awesome!!  What a great surprise.

This was a great way to roll into our weekend, for sure.  On Friday, we met up with the Beech family (who is FINALLY back in Ohio after years in Maryland).  We went to dinner with them, then watched movies with the kiddos at our place.  On Saturday, I took our boys to a Fishing Derby at Furrow's house (with church folks) while B was working.  Sweet Kaleb fell in the pond, so we decided to color fishy pictures, instead.  The boys were more interested in the frogs and cows than the fish.  They did enjoy throwing the bait into the water and watching the fish snatch it up.  Saturday night we went out with Skinners to celebrate a birthday and hung out with them a bit afterwards.  This was a kid-free night... which was a very rare thing for us and Skinners (who have 5 little ones) alike, and we had a blast.

Kaleb - after falling in the shallow water

Love going fishing with these little boys!

Sunday started with church service, then an family canoe outing with my siblings and parents.  If you have not been canoeing, I highly suggest it.  First, it's quiet and relaxing and with a little current, not much work at all.  Second, if you can go with goofy adults like we have in our family, it's a ridiculous amount of fun.  I'll post pictures soon :).  After canoeing, we went back to Platfoot's house (where all the kiddos were hanging out), and had pizza with the family.  We were home in time to crawl into bed and get a little shut-eye before heading into another busy week.

This week we just have 2 appointments for Ellie and 1 family chiropractic appointment (which is much needed right now).  Until next time... thank you for following along :).

3 B's of our busy weekend...

We had a gloriously packed weekend!  Friday was Kaleb’s 2^nd BIRTHDAY.  So we let him pick where to go for dinner and let him check out his newest book, too.  He picked pancakes for dinner, and we headed to Bob Evans.  We also did some mundane other stuff… like grocery shopping and such, but it was a nice family night, nonetheless.  Because it was his birthday, we ordered the boys special birthday treats (ice cream sundaes) while we were out at Bob Evans.  They loved these… and the picture below is of Kaleb enjoying his birthday treat.

Saturday was a bit of a whirlwind.  I spent the morning getting food and such ready for Kaleb’s birthday party, and then dropped all of it off at my sister, Tracy’s house.  She’d be hosting the joint birthday party later in the day.  We then rushed off to the 2^nd B for the weekend – a BABY SHOWER.  The ladies at church planned a baby shower for Ellie - I couldn't have been more tickled about it.  I felt a little selfish and über spoiled because we’d already had a baby shower before we had Lance, but I was deeply touched that they wanted to throw a shower, and I couldn't wait for the barrage of pink and purple.  Just walking in, I was overwhelmed by the love, time and effort these friends of ours poured into the shower.  The decorations were adorable, the food was beautifully presented (and delicious), and the company was warm and loving!  Brandon was working, so I had our boys with me, but Aron Tipps arrived to swoop them up and bring them to his house to play during the shower.  Super!  I can’t thank everyone enough for this experience – and I was super excited to come home and show Brandon all of the adorable outfits, blankets, toys and gifts we had for Ellie.  We were also given a sit & stand stroller for our boys – which we broke in right away.  Ahhhh – this little monkey is already so loved, I cannot wait to share her with the world!  A few pictures from the shower are below:

How cute is this?  Even better was how proud the little boy was who helped his Mommy & Daddy create it.  He told us all about it on Sunday.  You know who you are... and we love you guys :)

Pretty decorations!

I left the shower and went straight to Tracy’s house to prepare for birthday festivities.  Since our Kaleb and her Zandria have birthdays that are only a day apart, it made sense to celebrate together.  We packed out the Platfoot house with guests and had a great time!  The kids played extra hard and were fast asleep before we were halfway home.  Below are a few shots of birthday festivities... loving our little Ninja Turtle.

Kaleb's construction themed cake.  LOVE!

I don't know if he'll ever take off his Ninja Turtle get-up.

Did I mention that my brother-in-law also mowed our yard while I was at the baby shower?  How sweet is that?

Sunday morning is always a rush, and yesterday was no different.  We rushed to get the kiddos ready and out the door on time.  We enjoyed a fabulous service which had B and me talking all the way home about its impact on our lives and our world.  And after a quick pit-stop at home, we were headed up to Cridersville so that B could help his dad build a pergola for the remainder of the day.  We enjoyed our visit with Mamaw and Papaw Maier and again, our boys were totally pooped on the way home.  On Sunday, the 3^rd B was BREAKDOWN, though.  If I do not see you on Sundays, this may be totally weird to you – heck, it might be weird to people who see me every Sunday, too… but hey, this is me!

For those of you who see me on Sunday mornings, I’m really not a basket case.  I may look like one in church, but I’m really a very happy person who generally keeps things together… GENERALLY being the operative word there.  For those of you who are greeters – I especially thank you because this is the one public place I can go each week and not worry too much about my kiddos.  I know that y’all know who those rotten boys belong to and I know you’re not going to let them run out into the parking lot without me.  I sincerely thank you for that, too – because Brandon and I are usually tying up loose ends before service or catching up with friends.  For those of you who pick those boys up or let them lead you around by your finger… we love you.  You are each making a lasting impact on our kids and we cannot thank you enough for humoring them.

I know that everyone has their own “relationship” with Sunday service.  Over the past 4.5 years, I’ve come to find that this is my time for sanctuary each week – not to sound cliché.  I don’t know about anyone else, but there are just a few precious hours each week where I can come into a place and take off the hat as mom or wife, co-worker, daughter or sister.  I can take off all of those responsibilities and expectations.  I can take off the tough-girl, confident façade; melt into my seat, and become completely vulnerable.  I realize that some people come into church with the opposite purpose, and that’s peachy keen.  If you see me there as a total mess, though, just know that this is my time to be raw and open and a puddle at the foot of the cross.  Sometimes I hit the altar… maybe I’m especially weak or confused, maybe I have a list of praises to offer up.  Sometimes I stand behind the altar and stand in the gap for someone else on his/her knees.  Sometimes my seat is my altar.  Either way, if you see tears streaming down my face, or see that my make-up is a disaster after service… know that I’ve had a good morning!  I’m not always sad… sometimes it’s stress streaming down my face, sometimes it’s fear, worry or doubt (this was it this Sunday)… but this is where I let it all out… this is my safe and vulnerable place.  This is where I leave my burdens each week and walk out the doors feeling uplifted and cleansed.  I may pick those back up during the week… I sure try not to… but if I do, you can bet I’ll try to shed them again the next Sunday.  Does this make me a busted up mess?  Maybe.  But what better place to be a busted up mess, right? 

On the weeks when I do hit the altar, I thank those of you who stand in the gap for me.  I don’t know who you are most of the time… and that’s okay.  Know that I love you and I feel your presence.  This week, I think there were several people running their fingers through my hair and others rubbing my back.  Y’all must know how much I love that, right?  By the time the prayer song ends, I always feel like a huge weight has been lifted.  I know who is carrying it… and I know that each person standing over me helped to lift it.  After reading this part, more of you now think I’m a basket case… ha… and I’m still okay with that!  Thank you – I love you – and I’m touched that you’re following along ;).

Did I mention that we’re 24 days from our due date??  Eeeek! 

Just Like You...

My supervisor shared this with me today... and I thought it'd be great to share with all of you.

I have to say that watching the kids in the video participate in their activities (basketball, cheerleading, drama) and love on their friends was so meaningful to me.  LOVE!

One month from our due date!

As of today, we officially have 1 more month until our due date.  I can't even begin to tell you how that feels.  We're super excited, of course... but we're also very nervous, but for different reasons.  Brandon is anxious because he knows that a newborn comes with sleepless nights and a wonky schedule.  I'm nervous because I honestly feel like we'll sit there and look at her and not know what to do.  Brandon reminds me that this was exactly what we did with Lance, though, and he turned out alright... so far.  :)  I'm sure there will be tons of unknowns in the days ahead - but I guess there's no sense losing sleep over that.  Aren't we all in that boat?  Who knows what tomorrow holds for any of us?  Sometimes we wake up to fabulous days where things are peachy keen... other times, we have days we never imagined would be true and have to deal with the impossible.  Either way, I think we can all agree that this is true for everyone.  That doesn't stop my fear, but fear is one thing that I continue to struggle with daily and will laugh at myself for later, I'm sure.

That said, let's talk about what we've been up to the last few weeks.  On July 13th I went in for my 33 week appointment with Dr. Dev.  My weight was down a bit (so up about 8 pounds total so far).  Because they want to keep a close eye on Ellie, they started putting me on the monitors for a non-stress test.  Dr. Dev will transfer my care to Vandalia at 36 weeks and we talked about how we'd start meeting weekly at this point.  On July 24th, I had a day that was scarier than normal.  Since Miss Ellie practices her acrobatics constantly, it was alarming to have a morning where I felt nothing.  She's usually so active, so around 9am when I hadn't felt her move at all, I sent B a text to ask him if he knew where our fetal monitor was.  [Yes... we ARE that dorky.  When I was pregnant with Lance, I bought a fetal doppler on Amazon so that I could listen to his heartbeat at home.  I do have to say, it's been my favorite pregnancy purchase to date.]  Anyhow, once Ellie started moving around a lot, we hadn't used it.  Instead, the boys had used it as a microphone, so I had to search the house to find all the parts to it.  I did a quick check and was so relieved to hear her heart thump along at 145 beats/minute.  I could get back to focusing on work before I headed to an appointment that afternoon.

She still wasn't her active little self at our appointment.  Her heartrate (HR) was fine, but didn't vary much at all, so they used the stimulator on my belly a few times.  I didn't know such a tool existed.  I'm sure it's just a buzzing sound to startle baby, but it could totally pass for a mini taser.  Ha!  They tried to stimulate Ellie twice and she only had a tiny reaction... not the elevation in HR they wanted to see.  Dr. Dev wanted to start monitoring her more often and scheduled us for twice weekly - blah.

Last week we had 4 total appointments.  Monday and Thursday were non-stress tests again with Dr. Dev - both went just fine.  On Tuesday morning, I had an appointment in Vandalia and the ultrasound tech said that Ellie weighs 5 pounds 5 ounces.  It was much harder to see things this time because as her bones harden, they deflect more sound and it's harder to see much in the ultrasound.  However, we were able to get a great view of Ellie's heart and everything looks on par with where it's been.  She was hiding her face completely, and is in the head-down position (SCORE!).  Her little foot looked extra chunky, and the ultrasound tech said, "Oh my, look at all of that hair!".  I don't know what she considers a lot of hair, but I'll take it!  Thursday, we also had a family chiropractic appointment with Dr. Josh Steinke in Wapak.  The adjustment sure made my whole body feel better - as always!

We had another appointment today with Dr. Dev and had a discussion about how the transfer of care works.  I also asked (since we're 36 weeks on Thursday) what was considered "full term".  I knew that they considered 37 weeks "full term" with our boys - not that it mattered because they both went past 40 weeks.  Anyhow, Dr. Dev said that they would not stop labor at 37 weeks, which took a little stress off of me.  I still want this little girl to stay put until the due date, but in a little over a week, it'll be safe for her to make an arrival.  I think we better get that carseat out of the attic soon... eek!

Busy holiday week

Wait... can it really be July already?  Oh my.

This week started out a bit stressful, heading back to work after vacation is always a little wonky, but we're feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world this week.  Good thing, too, because we were headed into a busy holiday weekend and have 3 appointments to report on.

Monday (6/30) was my regular appointment with my OB, Dr. Dev.  So far, my weight is up a total of 8.5 pounds and my blood pressure is fantastic.  He did an ultrasound to see how Ellie is measuring.  I was 30 weeks 4 days at the appointment and Ellie measured 30 weeks 1 day for him, so all is well.  Ellie was breech today, which isn't too meaningful since she's still doing somersaults.  We talked in length about the birth plan and decided that we'll leave the official call up to Dr. Luby (cardiologist).  So that is the plan for Thursday's cardiology appointment at Children's.

Tuesday morning we had an appointment in Vandalia at Perinatal Partners.  We didn't need to see the doctor this time, just needed to get lots of measurements on Ellie and make sure there were no surprises.  Below are some of the pictures from this ultrasound.  Seriously - the cheeks!!  Ellie currently weighs 3 pounds 10 ounces, has full, puffy cheeks, and some pretty long hair that we could see on the screen.  She also seems to use the umbilical cord as a lasso and hides from the paparazzi the whole time.  Tuesday, she was back to the head-down position - again, somersaults.  It is decided:  she's at LEAST as ornery as her brothers.

She looks like Kaleb here.  The "bubbles" around her mouth are actually 

the umbilical cord she kept swinging around.

 Another picture of her face... this time with her tongue coming out.  

Again, the white bubble on the right side of her mouth is part of 

the umbilical cord showing through.

 She was pretty rotten and didn't want to cooperate for profile measurements this time.

 Her foot - you can see some of the little bones here.

And another face picture - with more umbilical cord "bubbles".  

She almost looks like she's giving us a smirk here.  

Her little nose is very much like Kaleb's in this shot.

Thursday afternoon brought another appointment - this time in Dayton Children's with the cardiology team.  I met with Teresa again and her ultrasound and fetal echo lasted about an hour (Ellie was back to breech, by the way... crazy kid).  We talked in length about so many things... pregnancy, family, religion, baby names... it was fantastic.  She also said that she never refers to a baby as a fetus... because it's an unborn child... nothing less.  Ahhh... I'm so loving this woman!  She only spent a fraction of the time taking measurements on Ellie's body, the rest of the time was spent looking at her heart and listening to all of the veins, arteries and valves.  I'm so amazed that she can pinpoint exactly what she wants to listen to in Ellie's heart and hear just that.  The technology blows my mind!  Teresa explained that an echo is harder to do at this stage in pregnancy because Ellie's bones are starting to harden and sound waves don't like to penetrate through bone like they do other, softer materials.  She also explained exactly how they do the echo on newborns and how clear and crisp those echos tend to be.  Very cool stuff!

After a while, Dr. Luby came into the room to look over Teresa's echo and talk to me about how Ellie's doing.  She said that she likes to meet up with parents at this time during the pregnancy so that she can do another check on how the A-V Canal Defect is coming along.  A lot of times, as baby grows, the A-V valve in the middle of the heart starts to leak a little.  Ellie's, however, is snug as can be.  No leaks here!  This means that Ellie is doing fantastic - so well that we do not need to meet with the cardiologist again until Ellie is here and the echo can be done directly on her.  Yahoo!!

Dr. Luby asked me how I was doing with my other appointments and if I had questions for her.  I explained that I was torn about where to deliver since my OB had said that no matter where I went, Ellie would need to be transported to Children's, because it's the best for baby... the doctor at Perinatal Partners said that I should deliver in Miami Valley so that Ellie could go to their NICU, if needed.  I didn't know if Children's was a better place for her to be than the NICU... I know that all of my doctors have my best interest (and Ellie's) in mind, so I was very confused.  I asked Dr. Luby to tell me what I should do, since she dealt with these kinds of complications every day.  She said, "You will deliver at Miami Valley.  I will call them and make sure that they have all of your background information so that when you call and tell them you're in labor, they'll have everything ready.  I'll also make sure that I put these orders in my notes that will go to your other doctors".  I thanked her for giving me her take and for taking the burden off of me in making that call.  She really put my mind at ease.

She also explained to me step-by-step exactly how they do surgery to repair Ellie's heart.  While Dr. Luby is our cardiologist, she is not our surgeon... which I guess I didn't think about really... but she was great at explaining the whole process to me.  I knew they'd do open-heart surgery, but I didn't know what they used to repair the septum or how they created 2 valves where only one existed.  She explained in great detail how they'll sedate her, put her on a bypass machine, then go in through an incision down her sternum, peel back the pericardial tissue, and stitch a dacron patch (an artificial, very durable material) down the center of her heart to mend the atrial septum and ventricular septum.  In doing this, they'll give a barrier between the 1 A-V valve in the middle, which will turn it into 2 different valves.  Then she explained exactly how they stitch up each layer and take her off of bypass and how they'll check for leaks and begin taking her off of anesthesia.  She'll likely be in the hospital for 7-10 days when it comes time for surgery.  Again, she reiterated that Ellie will be closely monitored after birth with a regimen of medication and that, ideally, she'll be able to do this until she's 4-6 months old before needing surgery.  Once we get Ellie here and we have her on medications, we'll meet with the surgeon who will guide us through this procedure in greater detail before the big surgery day arrives.

This all sounds super complicated to me, but I'm so very thankful for the men and women who devote their lives to saving the lives of others.  The folks that willingly go into an O.R. and mend the tiny hearts of babies on a daily basis.  This is amazing to me!  Dr. Luby lightened up the mood by telling me that due to metal stitches that are needed to suture her sternum, Ellie might set off some sensitive metal detectors from time to time.  Nice!

So all in all, good news all around.  I know all of the prayers that are being lifted for Ellie are working.  I have full faith that God is going to heal our little girl.  Maybe it'll be through a miracle, maybe it'll be through the hands of talented doctors and surgeons... but I have no doubt that she'll be healed either way.  So thank you all for your prayers and happy thoughts.  We have 2 more months before we meet our little turkey and we couldn't be more excited (albeit a little nervous).  Thank you for following along.  God Bless!