Pickled Peaches Update 29 weeks

Hi folks,

Today was another growth scan. I am 29 weeks and the baby was measuring roughly 3 lbs 5 oz, still around 65th percentile (I think, I didn't specifically ask but the ultrasound tech said that is what his/her belly measured.

The doctor was happy with pretty much everything, which I was honestly not expecting because my BP has been up more at home (which is to be expected but still bugs me and freaks me out bc it happened with SH). But it was quite low in the office, which leads us to wonder if our machine needing new batteries has been affecting it.

Anyways, as expected, I will begin bi-weekly (yes, twice a week) Non-Stress Tests at 32 weeks, so the week of 9/8, which just means I have to go in 2 days a week and get hooked up to the monitor while they check the baby's heart rate and movement. One of those days they will do a quick ultrasound to check fluid level and position (I think, this is what they checked in the past). 

I go back on Monday, Sept 15th for my next growth scan and OB appointment.

That's about all there is to report right now. These few weeks are tough, we are at the time when I started to worry something was wrong during my pregnancy with SH (not to mention with Emmy at this point I was on bedrest and soon in the hospital), and needless to say while my public face is fine, it's really, really hard for us. So we continue to covet your prayers and love. Forgive me if I'm slow to respond these days for that reason. (Emmy is also on a break between camp at her preschool and starting kindergarten next week so we are together a lot...anyone know of any day time baby-sitters in Colorado Springs? All of ours have gone back to work full time or off to college, yikes!)  We don't want this baby to come early, believe me, but I would like to fast forward if not the whole 10 weeks, at least the next few!

Also pray I pass another 3 hour glucose tolerance test this week. Not sure I can handle that complication at this point! (Although the doctor seemed completely unworried about it either way.) I would just like some total "normalcy" (whatever that means...)

There are a surprising number of our family and friends dealing with difficult illnesses, injuries or deaths in their families, so please know our prayers are with you. We love you all.

Hugs,
Beth

P.S. I promise I will put pictures on the blog soon. No, really, I will...

Changes, changes

It seems time to share with all of you that have been holding us in your hearts and prayers the last few months that we are expecting another baby this fall, around Halloween.

As you can imagine, we have a lot of mixed emotions, joy, excitement, worry, sadness, and more. But also we have a lot of hope. I cannot explain it, but things feel different this time.

I will update the blog after my appointments, I promise.

I went in for 12 week scan today (Tuesday) and everything looks good. I have consulted with both the doctor (I am with the Maternal Fetal Medicine group at Memorial Hospital already and will be exclusively under their care for the duration of my pregnancy) and the genetic counselor, and while the risks are high, both are also optimistic. What has happened before (high Alpha-Feta Protein levels and growth restriction) are "unexplained" and there is always the chance that everything will be perfect this time.

My next ultrasound is not until June 17th so likely there will be not much to report until then.  I will have some more lab work done between now and then, but June will be the next big update.

In other news, I was "let go" a few weeks ago, my position was eliminated to make room for a full time HR person.  It was a disappointing and sudden end to a long relationship with the company, but I am trying to see the silver lining. Being a pregnant military wife who could possibly be on bed rest in a few months doesn't exactly make me very marketable, so for now I'm just going to take advantage of the extra time and less stress. Charles will be changing jobs this summer (around July) and we will be in CO at least until summer 2015.  He is also having LASIK surgery done this week so it's a busy time around here!

Thank you again for your support. We love and appreciate you so much!

Hugs,
Beth and Charles


P.S. Emmy is calling this baby Pickled Peaches.

Holding our baby tight

A couple of days ago I noticed a friend of mine on Facebook had posted a link to a blog and commented that she was praying for the family of Layla Grace, "an angel being called home too soon". For those of you not familiar with Facebook, people regularly write "status updates" that may say anything from something about their family to what they ate for dinner. If you are friends with that person, their update will appear in a list that you see when you log into your account.

Anyways, for some reason I remembered seeing that link and yesterday while Emmy and Charles took a nap I went back to my friend's page and clicked on it. Then I sat there and read Layla Grace's story and cried my eyes out. She is two years old and has sage four neuroblastoma, an aggressive "monster" of a cancer, her family calls it. In late January her parents found out that the tumors were not better following months of massive chemo and a bone marrow transplant, but in fact there were more tumors. The doctors gave Layla Grace two months, but months turned into weeks.

I know people who have lost babies and children. I know people who have suffered other terrible tragedies. Just a few days ago two of our friends mourned with friends of theirs the sudden and tragic loss of their eight year old daughter (named Emmie) in a car accident. I read with pain about Haiti and the recent quake in Chile, not to mention the terrible suffering people here in our own country endure on a daily basis. All this to say, I hear about those things and I pray and cry and I wonder why. But for some reason, this story of Layla Grace has stayed with me long after I've closed the computer.

I cannot stop thinking about her parents, who are as I write this are sitting beside her bed at home in Texas watching her die. She is hours, if not minutes, away from leaving them. I cannot even imagine, especially after watching her suffer through painful treatments for nine months. Yet their strength and their faith they write about utterly amazes me.

I don't know, maybe it's because there's something about the shape of Layla Grace's face I saw in photos on the blog that reminds me of Emmy. There are a couple of faces I see her making that I thought "So cute, Emmy makes a face like that!" Maybe it's the way her parents have shared her story and the honesty with which they write about their precious daughter's struggle, I don't know, but I cannot stop thinking about this family.

Social media continues to amaze me. I don't know this family, I seriously doubt I would ever meet them in the future, but I have been thinking of them and saying a prayer for them since yesterday, not to mention following their story on Twitter. I don't "tweet" but it's possible to read people's Twitter comments (sort of like perpetual Facebook status updates!) and so I know what they have most recently said is happening. They mentioned on their blog that they first started the blog and the twitter page as a way to keep their friends and family regularly updated. They said returning all the calls and text messages they were receiving was draining, and I can imagine! But the one person shares the site with another person and soon they have over 25,000 people following their story on Twitter. That's a lot of prayers and caring people, for sure!

So, in this age of "newfangled" technology, I am moved in ways I couldn't imagine, hurting for these people I've never met. And I'm watching my healthy nine month old baby girl happily playing on the floor and I'm hugging her a little tighter.