It's Confirmed!

Tuesday June 24, 2008 - 31 weeks 2 days

As if there was ever any doubt that I had the sweetest most caring husband, he goes and does something like this and totally...confirms it. I worked 11p-7a last night and assumed that my good news about passing the NCLEX would travel fast, but I had no idea. When I got to work everyone was very excited and wanted to know all about it. Then another nurse that I work nights with said, if you don't take them home. I will. By this point I was pretty confused and when I walked up to the nurses station, these are what I saw....

Brian had called my friend Lindsey Kenny at Bittersweet Floral in Maryville and had them delivered. My co-workers had the pleasure of enjoying them most of yesterday and into this morning. They are so beautiful, they both did a great job. So yes it is confirmed, I have the cutest husband ever, ( and soon to be cutest dad ever ).

I Passed...Again!

Monday June 23, 2008 - 31 weeks 1 day

As promised I am posting a picture of my pregnant self. The wedding this weekend was at an outdoor gazebo- holy hotness- but beautiful.

If you cant tell by the title, I PASSED my NCLEX. I took 75 questions, and was freaking out when I left. I was so nervous, but thank goodness I passed. I guess that is one hurdle down for the summer.

On the 2 week Plan

Friday June 20, 2008 - 30 weeks 5 days

1st off Happy Birthday to my sister Staci as she is celebrating in Iowa today, preparing to be the best Auntie ever!

I had a routine check up at St. Francis with Dr. Feuerbacher today, as I am now seeing him every two weeks. Everything looked pretty good, I am measuring at a little over 33 weeks. He measures from my pelvic bone to the tip of my fundus. This generally correlates to how many weeks along you are, but since my amniotic fluid has increased, so has the size of my belly, making it look as if I am farther along than I really am. My blood pressure was fine as was my weight ( a number I will never disclose ). We talked about the appointment that I had on Wednesday, since Dr. Feuerbacher is about 10 days behind, I usually give him the scoop before he gets the written reports from Dr. Gray in KC.

All in all I am feeling pretty good, tired, but good. My feet have really started swelling more and more, so I decided to treat myself to a pedicure today. It felt amazing. We are heading out of town for a wedding this weekend and I will be taking my NCLEX (state board of nursing test) tomorrow morning in Kansas City. We will try to take some cute pictures so all those who haven't seen me for a while can check out my "baby bump" as my best friend Darci puts it. I am pretty sure I surpassed the "bump" phase about 10 weeks ago, but who knows.

Sounds like baby Kinley is having a pretty rocky 48 hours post operation, so please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers ( and it's okay to slip one extra in for me to pass my NCLEX). As always, thanks for the overwhelming support. Love to see all the turquoise bracelets, especially at my work. We have decided to order a bunch more since we are currently out. So everyone is soon to have one.

No News = Good News?

Wednesday June 18, 2008 - 30 weeks 3 days

Profile shot of her face

Her BIG feet- Dr. said she has very long arms and legs~ wonder where they came from?

Sucking her thumb with her pinkie out

The arrow is pointing to hair on the back of her head- they say she has a ton!

Lying on her side with her arm curled up around her face. She was in the craziest positions.

Yesterday we had another appointment at St. Lukes for an ultrasound to ensure everything was right on track. It had been a while since we had one, i think almost 5 weeks ago so I was pretty anxious to see how much our little girl had been growing. Our appointment was at 1:00 but we didn't get into see to start the ultrasound until after 1:30 because they are making everyone re-register in admissions for every appointment which takes forever.

This ultrasound was pretty short, they took measurements of all the little bones, head, abdomen and my amniotic fluid level. Dr. Gray who saw us last time was the Perinatiologist that saw us yesterday. He said that everything looks the same as last visit which is pretty much the best we can hope for. No better, no worse. He did confirm that a portion of the liver is herniated up which he suspected last time. He also said that my amniotic level is a little higher than average but that is considered "normal" for CDH babies because they are unable to effectively swallow and recycle the amniotic fluid. At this time Dr Gray said it was not a concern and that he would continue to monitor both baby and I via Dr. Feuerbacher. He said it was also unnecessary to come back every two weeks to Kansas City for my prenatals because of how far the drive was and how well both baby and I are doing. And yes baby girl reed did not behave herself again yesterday. She was moving around so much and doing summer salts the whole time. I am assuming that is why the ultrasound was so short this time. Both the ultrasound technician and the Dr. asked me if she moved that much all the time- ABSOLUTELY! I guess she will have time to sleep after she is born because she shirley doesn't seem to now. Dr. Gray said she is weighing in at about 3lbs 8oz so that is great news- she is really growing! We didn't ask about the LHR (lung head ratio) partially because it doesn't matter and because she wasn't being very cooperative we figured they probably couldn't get a good shot of the lung.

We also discussed the possibility of induction, trying to nail down a date when he thought it would be a good time so we can start planning some things- basically the longer I can keep her "baking" the better. Her chance for survival and a good prognosis depends on how big she is and how long her lungs ( what little lungs she does have) have to develop. Basically he said that we could talk about it at the next appointment but he would like to see me go to at least 38 weeks. I guess Brian and I are just scared that since we live so far away, we don't want to risk having her anywhere but at St. Lukes. As for now, no induction date. Dr. Gray just told me and baby to stay boring and not do anything too fun. I told him not to worry- I wont.

After the appointment we stopped by to see Kevin and Kathy Melcher at Children's Mercy, there baby Kinley who also has CDH was born about 2 and a half weeks ago. She was supposed to have her surgery yesterday to repair her diaphragm, but they got "bumped" because of some emergency surgeries. We had a nice visit with them, but made it short so they could get back to their little girl. She has been on ECMO for the last two weeks and will go into surgery hopefully today on ECMO. Please send up some extra prayers for Kinley and her family today as they are on an "emotional roller coaster" There is a link to their blog site under CDH Babies on the right hand side of the page if you want to check it out.

Also, we want to thank everyone for the awesome support and wearing the CDH wristbands, we still have a few to give out but don't have too many left. Thank you also to everyone that has sent notes, cards and prayers, they are much appreciated and keep them coming. It is unbelievable how a positive comment really brightens our day.

Wristbands are HERE!

Thursday June 12, 2008- 29 weeks 4 days

While taking a nap this afternoon after working last night I heard someone at the door. Brian answered it and it was our Wristbands- I ordered them about 2 weeks ago for our friends and family to wear to show support for not only our baby girl but Brian and I. I know I am officially a nerd, but I am really excited to see all our friends and family wearing the turquoise wristbands. We are going to try our best to try to hand them out whenever we see everyone and are planning on mailing some out to those we don't get to see as often as we want. I am super excited and even put one on Gabby for a little collar (evidence that I am really a dork). A little FYI if anyone wants one that we don't see very often- just leave a message on the blog and I will be happy to mail them out since they weigh practically nothing. Also, this way we can spread the word about CDH Awareness and get our website out to anyone that doesn't have it ( it's on the back of the wristband). OK well get excited to proudly wear turquoise (oddly enough it's the same as our wedding color) Yikes my dorkeyness is even amazing me. I will stop now before I scare people off.

P.S. All the "cool" kids will be wearing one so don't be left out! Let us know if you want one!

I Passed!

June 3, 2008- 28 weeks 3 days

This morning I had my glucose tolerance test. This is to test for gestational diabetes. It requires fasting for 8 hours before the test and me being so smart and trying to save gas decided that I would just do it this morning after work (bad idea). I had no idea how hungry and thirsty I would get not eating or drinking anything after midnight considering that I usually eat at 2am and drink way more caffeine that I should. By 8 am when I had to drink my 50 grams of glucose I was practically starving. My appointment wasn't until 9 am so I waited in the waiting room for that hour between the time I got off work and the appointment. Sitting there I could start feeling myself getting nauseated and our little girl started to get worked up. I guess the sugar hit her little system pretty hard because she was moving around so much, which made me feel even more nauseated.

At theses regular scheduled appointments I get my weight, blood pressure and the babies heart rate taken. All which were fine, no signs of pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure). My blood draw was a little difficult, hence I was a little dehydrated, but in the end they got it after I told them where my best vein was. Like always I visited with Dr. Feuerbacher about what was going on, when my appointments were and how we had been getting along. He is always concerned not only about me medically but Brian and I emotionally, which is a really supportive. He had a Med student with him so we talked a little bit more about it, but thankfully Dr. F. had already briefed him on me and the baby. I was worried that we just started talking about everything and were leaving him out (oops!), but that wasn't the case.

Baby Girl Reed was extremely active hence she was on a sugar high and it took longer than usual to find her heart rate which was fine 145- I think. Dr. F. also took my measurement, right on track at 28 sonometers, wheew- it seems like my belly is getting really big. By this time It was about 9:45 and I was getting pretty tired and hungry so I told everyone that I had better get going, scheduled my next appointment (in 2 weeks) and went and got some Mc Donald's. I told my nurse not to call with the test results since I was going home to sleep and that I would just check the results at work that night.

June 4th/5th- I almost forgot to check my test results since work was so crazy last night. I feel like I ran a marathon this afternoon. Either way around 3 am I logged on and I PASSED! My glucose was 85 (really good!) as long as it is below 140, that indicated normal pancreas function. I also had a hemoglobin and hematocrit drawn to check for anemia. Both were slightly low, but probably not much to be concerned about. Maybe I will have a nice juicy steak for supper to help boost my numbers.

Wow that seems like a lot for a routine 1 hour check-up but it has been a while since I posted. Brian has been staying busy with the roads and softball games. His team won on Tuesday against their rivals so that was nice. Unfortunately I haven't been to too many games, but I guess they can win without me there (darn I was sure I was their good luck charm). I have pseudo been studying for my NCLEX which I am taking at the end of June since that was the first available time. I really need to get motivated to buckle down and study some more.

Okay I will stop babbling- Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers especially from our communities I recently found out that we are on several prayer lists which can hurt. Keep the support coming. Soon everyone will be able to show their support, I ordered CDH Awareness wristbands to support our growing baby girl. When they get in Brian and I will be passing them out for our friends and family to wear. I will keep everyone posted on their arrival since I am super excited about it, but then again Brian says I am a nerd- oh well. Next KC appointment is in 2 weeks, so unless anything "exciting" happens I will plan on updating then.

Keeping all other CDH families in my thoughts and prayers. These little miracles are really one way that God shows us that the very best things in life are worth waiting and working for. I can't wait to meet our baby girl. Thanks again for the posts, thoughts, prayers, and cards. The support is overwhelming and much appreciated!

Little Kick Boxer?

Is our little girl going to be a kick boxer? She is kicking and moving around all the time. I am now working nights at the hospital and she is so active starting around 1 am and continues until around 4 am! Then when I go home to try to get some sleep, she starts in again around 11 and continues into the afternoon, when does she ever sleep, God knows she doesn't let me sleep too long. I have been in awe of how much she moves around in there, it is so great to feel her moving all the time and you can actually see my belly "jumping" up and down from the outside. Hopefully this is a great sign of a strong willed baby girl, which I know she will be.

Still thinking about names, but nothing confirmed yet. Brian and I can't agree on one, who knows we might not know until she is born. Not much else, just working and trying to get some rest. We are still doing a lot of research on CDH and have been watching some of the other CDH babies blogs very close including the two babies that are currently at Children's Mercy. Sofie is getting ready to go home (we met her and her dad on our tour of the NICU) and now Kinley is in the NICU and doing well (only 2 days old!). The stories of other parents that have been going through the same thing is so reassuring and provide us with hope and positive attitudes that CDH can and has been beat! Thank you to everyone who has left comments on our blog, sent cards and the positive phone calls, they all mean so much and the continued support will help us stay in good spirits until we finally get to meet our baby girl. Keep the thoughts and prayers coming for not only our baby but the other families and babies battling with CDH.