Born: December 6, 2009 Weight: 5 lb 15 oz Length: 18"
Our little William gave us a rough pregnancy and couldn't make it easy right off the bat either :)
As is common and expected with premature babies, his lungs weren't quite ready for our world, so he was taken to the NICU, expecting a 12-24 hour "transitionary" stay. However, after a couple x-rays, questions and scares, they discovered he had a pneumothorax. If you've seen the movie "Just Like Heaven" there's a hilarious scene where they help out a waiter who had a Tension Pneumothorax where they had to make an incision in his chest to free some air.
William's lungs allowed some air to escape into his chest, which put pressure on his heart and lungs and needed to be drained. (At first in x-rays, they thought it may have been fluid which could've been more serious like pneumonia or an infection, so air at this point is good news.) They attempted simply using a needle and syringe to suck some air out, but the opening in the lungs wasn't healed yet, so air accumulated again. This brings us to 11pm yesterday where Matthew and I were with him and were present for them surgically inserting a tiny tube into his chest that would constantly suck any possible air out of that space. I wish we had copies of the x-ray, technology is amazing, it was a simple procedure and William did great. He got morphine, what would you expect?
They didn't know (still don't know) exactly how long it would take the lungs to repair and recover, but once it's 100%, they'll remove the tube. Exciting news this morning was they sealed the end of the tube, which means it wasn't sucking air out to see if air accumulated again - so far so good! Way sooner than we expected for that... he still has some haziness where his lungs have 1-2 days of catching up to do, so he's hooked up to what they call a CPAP, giving his lungs a little bit of pressure with oxygen... if I were a doctor I could explain this all way better. Anywho, the numbers are looking great, they're going to attempt giving him some milk I pumped through a tube into his tummy around 3pm today... if it goes well, they'll continue to do so every 3 hours. About 5pm tonight, they'll take an x-ray to see the status of the haze and air. I'm allowing myself to get my hopes up so I can bear this. But I'm doing well and felling really good about it.
We love you all, appreciate your prayers. We know he's being watched over, he's a strong boy, if things continue on the right path, we could possibly have him home this weekend!!!
PS The labor was a terrible 13 hours, but ended on a humorous note when I told them "it's hard not to push..." and ta-da, 1 1/2 contractions later, he popped out - Dr. Wilde didn't even have both of his gloves on, but luckily he caught him! (I told them it was hard not to push!) ;)
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Where there's a Will...
Me oh my. Let me give you the sum up of this pregnancy:
Week 5- week 18: TERRIBLE nausea. With this one, not only was I throwing up, I got strongly nauseous after doing dishes for 5 minutes, it was a sad time. I felt awful. - lost 11-13 pounds.
Week 18: I joined a Thyroid study. They're testing to see if pregnant mom's thyroid being normal makes the baby have a higher IQ than babies whose mom's lower thyroid was left untreated. Magical side effect --Nausea was 80% gone! I could live again, it was awesome.
Week 20: Totally inspired Dr. Wilde decided to test me early for Gestational Diabetes. Results were positive. I was scared and devestated. Anywho, baby was healthy, I'm glad we discovered it early. It was really hard to be on a restricted diet, not because it was hard to diet, but hard to stop losing weight.
Week 20-32: We struggled A LOT with learning what to eat to gain weight and finally got it figured out after getting IV fluids on 4 separate occasions, weekly diabetes "specialist" visits and 3 ultrasounds to check on the bugger. Whole milk instead of 1%, as much bacon and eggs as I could stand, nuts and soda... soda? Who knew.
Week 33: Blood pressure goes up... my lower number was chilling nicely in the 60s for the whole pregnancy, week 33 -> 92. Grr... Now they're worried I have Pre-eclampsia or Toxemia. I get a couple of blood tests and a 24 hour urine. I know it's not a fun topic, but something funny, I had to work while I was doing the 24 hour urine... you basically collect everything for a day and keep it in a jug, then keep that jug with ice packs or in a fridge. I didn't want to keep this backpack with me at all times, so I left it in the bathroom on the floor under the sinks with a note: This belongs to Amy Garner, please DO NOT MOVE. Thanks! 801-373-9810... someone complained anyway, security removed it anyway. I had an angry talk with that security officer and my favorite argument was, "if you thought it was something dangerous like a bomb, it's better to go off in [the manager's] office opposed to the bathroom?"
Labs came back fine - we're just tracking blood pressure more closely now. Fun fact: little guy was head-up during the ultrasound this week, naughty boy. I'm so ready to spank his newborn wrinkly tush.
Week 34- week 35 1/2: visiting the Dr's office twice/week for blood pressure test, two NST (non-stress tests where they monitor baby for 20 minutes), and yes, another 24-urine on Thanksgiving day. Yay.
Thanksgiving Day: My feet swell... this is normal for some pregos, but not for me and it went from 0 to 60 in 24 hours without going down during the night. I was admitted to Labor and Delivery and monitored for 3 hours... my blood pressure was the highest it's been and they start talking about "if" we had to induce... thank goodness it's not pre-eclampsia yet, still just high blood pressure. I get to go home, but on BEDREST. dun dun dun...
Week 36: Present time :) After 3 days of bedrest, my blood pressure is the lowest it's been in 3 weeks. Yay! Even though there aren't studies backing up the theory bedrest lowers blood pressure, I guess I've become a believer - for me anyway. Every day counts. We're praying this week is a boring one and my blood pressure stays down. I am SOOO lucky and blessed to have people in our new neighborhood volunteering to come play with the boys a couple hours each day. Stephen was talking up a storm with Jen Ricks who helped us today - thank you so much!
So... I was laying in bed a few days ago, crying... why on earth is it one problem after another with this baby? He's kicking and going crazy everyday like life is peachy keen but we are struggling to keep him in there! Then it popped into my head, "where there's a Will, there's a way." I cried myself to sleep, but thought, okay, this guy's going to come when he's meant to come and he'll be ready. I'm so happy we chose to name him William. No Bill, Billy, Mac or Buddy... if you don't want to call him William, it's Will, because his is strong.
Love you all!!!
Week 5- week 18: TERRIBLE nausea. With this one, not only was I throwing up, I got strongly nauseous after doing dishes for 5 minutes, it was a sad time. I felt awful. - lost 11-13 pounds.
Week 18: I joined a Thyroid study. They're testing to see if pregnant mom's thyroid being normal makes the baby have a higher IQ than babies whose mom's lower thyroid was left untreated. Magical side effect --Nausea was 80% gone! I could live again, it was awesome.
Week 20: Totally inspired Dr. Wilde decided to test me early for Gestational Diabetes. Results were positive. I was scared and devestated. Anywho, baby was healthy, I'm glad we discovered it early. It was really hard to be on a restricted diet, not because it was hard to diet, but hard to stop losing weight.
Week 20-32: We struggled A LOT with learning what to eat to gain weight and finally got it figured out after getting IV fluids on 4 separate occasions, weekly diabetes "specialist" visits and 3 ultrasounds to check on the bugger. Whole milk instead of 1%, as much bacon and eggs as I could stand, nuts and soda... soda? Who knew.
Week 33: Blood pressure goes up... my lower number was chilling nicely in the 60s for the whole pregnancy, week 33 -> 92. Grr... Now they're worried I have Pre-eclampsia or Toxemia. I get a couple of blood tests and a 24 hour urine. I know it's not a fun topic, but something funny, I had to work while I was doing the 24 hour urine... you basically collect everything for a day and keep it in a jug, then keep that jug with ice packs or in a fridge. I didn't want to keep this backpack with me at all times, so I left it in the bathroom on the floor under the sinks with a note: This belongs to Amy Garner, please DO NOT MOVE. Thanks! 801-373-9810... someone complained anyway, security removed it anyway. I had an angry talk with that security officer and my favorite argument was, "if you thought it was something dangerous like a bomb, it's better to go off in [the manager's] office opposed to the bathroom?"
Labs came back fine - we're just tracking blood pressure more closely now. Fun fact: little guy was head-up during the ultrasound this week, naughty boy. I'm so ready to spank his newborn wrinkly tush.
Week 34- week 35 1/2: visiting the Dr's office twice/week for blood pressure test, two NST (non-stress tests where they monitor baby for 20 minutes), and yes, another 24-urine on Thanksgiving day. Yay.
Thanksgiving Day: My feet swell... this is normal for some pregos, but not for me and it went from 0 to 60 in 24 hours without going down during the night. I was admitted to Labor and Delivery and monitored for 3 hours... my blood pressure was the highest it's been and they start talking about "if" we had to induce... thank goodness it's not pre-eclampsia yet, still just high blood pressure. I get to go home, but on BEDREST. dun dun dun...
Week 36: Present time :) After 3 days of bedrest, my blood pressure is the lowest it's been in 3 weeks. Yay! Even though there aren't studies backing up the theory bedrest lowers blood pressure, I guess I've become a believer - for me anyway. Every day counts. We're praying this week is a boring one and my blood pressure stays down. I am SOOO lucky and blessed to have people in our new neighborhood volunteering to come play with the boys a couple hours each day. Stephen was talking up a storm with Jen Ricks who helped us today - thank you so much!
So... I was laying in bed a few days ago, crying... why on earth is it one problem after another with this baby? He's kicking and going crazy everyday like life is peachy keen but we are struggling to keep him in there! Then it popped into my head, "where there's a Will, there's a way." I cried myself to sleep, but thought, okay, this guy's going to come when he's meant to come and he'll be ready. I'm so happy we chose to name him William. No Bill, Billy, Mac or Buddy... if you don't want to call him William, it's Will, because his is strong.
Love you all!!!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Holy Cow, October's almost through!
HELLO
So... I should blog more. :) The pregnancy is going fine, same drama as usual, it's just routine now. The baby's still healthy as far as we know, and kicking like crazy! Time is flying by. Only 9 weeks until I'm induced if I hadn't gone in to labor on my own. That sounds so short! Do you know what that means? Christmas is really close! We're stuck here for Thanksgiving and Christmas, which is fine by me.
MOVING AGAIN?!
We just moved from upstairs to downstairs, because rent is cheap and we didn't want to move anywhere but our old ward. I got a call from a friend in our old ward about a 3 bedroom apartment opening up. It's only $80 more than we're paying now. Um, yes, please? 3 kids in a 2 bedroom, I'm sure would've only been cool for half of a day. So, this weekend, we make the move! Then we better not have to move for a LONG, LONG time!
Job Hunting Again?!
Many of you have heard that Omniture was bought by Adobe. We had no idea what would happen with Matthew. We knew there was a possibility he wouldn't be able to stay, since he was hired as a "temporary" employee anyway. Yesterday, we received the news, he's being let go on November 6th. It was a blessing and a miracle that he got this job when he did. It was right about the time they were reducing my hours by 30% on a consistant basis at Nu Skin, this job financially saved us. Now we find ourselves facing the reality of the unknown again and all I can say is, please pray that things work out somehow. I love you Matthew! You worked extremely hard and this situation bites, but we'll make it!
The BOYS!!!
Patrick and Stephen are so funny. They have so much fun as brothers. They play fight, they really fight, and when one of them is not around, the other one asks where they are and doesn't know what to do with himself. So cute! Patrick turns 5 next month, I can't believe it. And soon Stephen will be 3. They're both aware of baby William and are looking forward to him coming. Stephen thinks William is going to punch him, and said he'll have to punch him back. I knew older siblings could be mean to little babies, I didn't know it was premeditated. We'll keep a close eye on that dude.
Love you all!
So... I should blog more. :) The pregnancy is going fine, same drama as usual, it's just routine now. The baby's still healthy as far as we know, and kicking like crazy! Time is flying by. Only 9 weeks until I'm induced if I hadn't gone in to labor on my own. That sounds so short! Do you know what that means? Christmas is really close! We're stuck here for Thanksgiving and Christmas, which is fine by me.
MOVING AGAIN?!
We just moved from upstairs to downstairs, because rent is cheap and we didn't want to move anywhere but our old ward. I got a call from a friend in our old ward about a 3 bedroom apartment opening up. It's only $80 more than we're paying now. Um, yes, please? 3 kids in a 2 bedroom, I'm sure would've only been cool for half of a day. So, this weekend, we make the move! Then we better not have to move for a LONG, LONG time!
Job Hunting Again?!
Many of you have heard that Omniture was bought by Adobe. We had no idea what would happen with Matthew. We knew there was a possibility he wouldn't be able to stay, since he was hired as a "temporary" employee anyway. Yesterday, we received the news, he's being let go on November 6th. It was a blessing and a miracle that he got this job when he did. It was right about the time they were reducing my hours by 30% on a consistant basis at Nu Skin, this job financially saved us. Now we find ourselves facing the reality of the unknown again and all I can say is, please pray that things work out somehow. I love you Matthew! You worked extremely hard and this situation bites, but we'll make it!
The BOYS!!!
Patrick and Stephen are so funny. They have so much fun as brothers. They play fight, they really fight, and when one of them is not around, the other one asks where they are and doesn't know what to do with himself. So cute! Patrick turns 5 next month, I can't believe it. And soon Stephen will be 3. They're both aware of baby William and are looking forward to him coming. Stephen thinks William is going to punch him, and said he'll have to punch him back. I knew older siblings could be mean to little babies, I didn't know it was premeditated. We'll keep a close eye on that dude.
Love you all!
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