Friday, January 29, 2010

Heart Beating Strong!

Just wanted to update everyone on Baby girl's heart. I went back to my dr on Wed. to get my Rhogam shot (I have A negative blood so I have to get this shot once during pregnancy, and then again after the baby is born). As soon as I was taken back into a room, and before I even had time to ask, the nurse practitioner said "Let's listen to your baby's heartbeat again and see if it's back to normal". I was so relieved when she said this b/c I was planning to ask if they would listen again since it was irregular on Monday. Well, the heartbeat was strong, loud, steady, and normal this time around!!!! It was the best sound I had heard all day (well, that and hearing Joseph laugh). She assured me that everything sounded great, but they were still referring me to the specialist to do the EKG ultrasound. I still hadn't received a call to set up my ultrasound and was beginning to wonder if they were going to make me wait a couple weeks before getting in to see these high risk doctors. Thankfully that afternoon I got the call and they said they could see me Thursday (yesterday) at 2:30pm! I was most relieved!

Joe had his last flight with his squadron yesterday so I went in the morning to go watch his flight while Nana came over to stay with Joseph. Unfortunately his right engine failed and he had to do any emergency landing at the base and catch the wire with his tail hook on the runway to stop his jet. I watched it all happen and must say I was pretty nervous when I saw several fire trucks, an ambulance, and emergency vehicles all racing out meet him on the runway. His jet blew a tire when he landed, but he got the jet on the ground safely and was ok. What an eventful last flight! I'm sure he will miss flying the next couple of months while he's at safety school, but he'll be able to get back in the jet again by the end of March or beginning of April!

Joe and I headed to Norfolk yesterday afternoon for my appt while my mom (AKA Nana) stayed with little Joseph. We waited almost an entire hour before they called me back for the ultrasound. This waiting seems to be happening to me a lot lately at various dr appts for myself and for Joseph. When we finally got called back, the ultrasound tech did a VERY thorough ultrasound that lasted almost an hour. She went over the heart about 5 different times to make sure everything was ok. She measued all the bones, organs, and head of our sweet baby girl and told us that baby girl was currently weighing 3 lb 5 oz and looked absolutely perfect! She then told me she had to go get the Echo cardiogram ultrasound specialist to see if she needed to take a closer look at the heart and valves just to double check and put my mind at ease. So, that lady came in and did another 30 min. ultrasound of just the heart and zoomed in to look at the chambers and each valve. I asked her if she saw any abnormal features of her heart or a hole in it and she quickly said, "No, it looks beautiful with no problems". She assured me that baby girl's heart looked like a text book version of a very healthy heart and that it couldn't look or sound any more perfect! It was so comforting to hear both of these ladies tell us that baby girl was healthy. Joe and I left that appt. feeling relieved and grateful that God has given us a healthy baby girl that is continuing to grow well. The drs think the irregular heartbeat that was picked up at my appt. on Monday was due to the chocolate I had eaten earlier that day and also that the heart is still immature and continuing to grow. So, NO MORE CHOCOLATE FOR ME until after this little girl is born! I'm already wondering how I'm going to survive Valentine's Day and resist all that wonderful milk chocolate, but I can do it!!!! Gotta do it for this baby girl! :)

Thank you for all your prayers! We know that God is in control and he has a plan for our sweet princess!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

ENT dr.

We visited the ENT dr last week for Joseph. The dr. recommended that he have his adenoids removed and also tubes put in his ears. The adenoid removal should help with his heavy mouth breathing and tubes will hopefully get rid of all these yucky ear infections he's had this fall/winter and allow fluid to drain out of his ear. His surgery is scheduled on the morning of February 2nd. Please keep little Joseph in your thoughts and prayers. His best buddy Logan is having tubes put in his ears in a couple of weeks too.

I grabbed my camera when I saw Joseph wearing the fireplace guard on his bottom! :) It's basically foam that has sticky tape that sticks to the brick on the fireplace so he doesn't get hurt on the edge and corners of it. Well, Joseph loves to take the corners off and play with them. I guess one of the corner pieces was on the floor and he sat on it and it stuck to his bottom. He was running all around the house with this end piece sticking on his bottom and he had no idea! Too funny! Playtime with Daddy! Joseph crawled on Daddy's back to go for a ride!
Baby Girl update...... I had an ultrasound this Monday to check my placenta. The great news is that the placenta is out of the way and on the side. The dr said it should not cause any problems for me or the baby! It is still a little low, but my dr isn't concerned about it being a problem. They checked baby's heartbeat with the doppler and I was immediately alarmed that it didn't sound like it usually does each time I go for my appt. I asked the dr right away why it sounded like the heartbeat was skipping a beat at times. He told me that the baby had an irregular heartbeat at this visit and was referring me to the Eastern Virginia Medical School Maternal Fetal Medicine to get an echocardiogram of baby's heart. Bascially this is just a more specific ultrasound of the baby's heart to check and make sure everything is ok. My dr assured me that usually when they find an irregular heartbeat, it ends up working itself out by the time of delivery and that the baby is healthy and perfectly fine. I sure hope this is the case for my baby girl. My appt. hasn't been scheduled yet, but I hope they will call soon to schedule it. I find it interesting that baby girl has had a nice strong, regular heartbeat all during this pregnancy until now at 29 weeks??? Please keep baby girl in your prayers too that she has a healthy, strong heart and that everything will be just fine with her. I will keep you posted!

Monday, January 18, 2010

28 weeks and Joseph's teeth

Yay! I'm now 28 weeks with baby girl!
Joseph just got his last tooth in yesterday! He now has all his baby teeth until his 2 year molars come in! What a big boy!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Catching up

Well, it's been a while since I posted, so I thought I'd catch everyone up on our happenings!

Joseph got yet another ear infection on Monday, Jan. 4th and just finished another round of antibiotics. He seems to be having a time with fluid in his ears and multiple ear infections since Oct. We scheduled an appt. with the Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor for this Tues to have his adenoids checked out. Since he's always been a heavy mouth breather and now continues to have ear infections, we think he might need tubes in his ears or his adenoids taken out, or maybe both. He's had some pretty rough days the past couple of weeks with fighting naps and just overall not feeling good. The antibiotics gave him diarrhea for several days which was no fun for anyone. If the ENT dr doesn't think he needs tubes or adenoids out, he may be put on daily allergy medicine to dry up the fluid.

Speaking of allergies, we had him tested for certain food allergies back in Dec. His bloodwork came back fine and showed no allergies to foods. However, he continues to react to the acids in many fruits. I've gradually re-introduced pasta sauce and he seems to be able to tolerate it now without any outbreaks on his skin! Hopefully he will outgrow this problem so he can eat all the foods he loves!

Today Joseph officially graduated from his Occupational Therapy program! He has met all his goals and we are so proud of him! He is eating, chewing, and biting like he should be doing now and it will be nice to not have weekly OT sessions anymore! He had really met all of his goals back in November, but due to the OT canceling appts. and rescheduling them, today was his official last day! He is still enrolled in the Early Intervention program with the city and will continue to receive Speech services every other week for now.

Here is Joseph taking a bath at Nan and Pop's house. Bath time continues to be his favorite time of the day! When we say "Joseph, do you want to take a bath", he jumps up from playing and RUNS to the bathroom. Notice his hand on the drain lever. He is a smart little cookie and has learned that when we flip that lever, the water drains out of the tub. Well, Joseph doesn't want the water to drain out b/c that means bath time is OVER.....so he flips it right back up when we flip it down. Little booger! We have a rubber stopper for our tub at home and he knows to keep that covering the drain to keep the water in.


Joseph and his buddy Logan playing with his new Christmas toys...

Peek a boo. I see you Logan!


Here is Joseph giving his baby sister a big bear hug! Mommy's tummy is so big these days that his little arms can barely fit around me. Update on baby girl....As of yesterday I am 28 weeks pregnant!!!! The day I turned 28 weeks when pregnant with Joseph I had my first big gush of blood and was in the hospital for 4 days and then sent home to complete bed rest (and numerous other hospital visits before he was born at 33 weeks). I felt nervous all day yesterday anticipating a problem, but thankfully I am now 28 weeks and 2 days pregnant today and have NO problems!!!! We continue to hope and pray that baby girl will be a full term baby!!! I have another ultrasound at the end of January to check my placenta.
Look closely and you should see 4 little fingers coming out of the food pantry. The kitchen is another "favorite" place for Joseph to play. He loves to go inside the food pantry and pretend to close the door.
Joseph and his friend Troy went to play at "The Jumpin Monkey". They are in the bounce house here.
They have a play section for children who are 2 and under. Joseph is opening and closing the windows here just like his does in his playhouse at home.
Giving Troy a push in the car..


Joseph's expression when he saw the bounce house...
Firemen driving the fire truck.
Oh boy! This is fun!
Joe had his farewell party with his current squadron VFA 106 last week at an indoor go kart racing place. They have a hail/farewell party to welcome all the new officers and say goodbye to those that are moving on and joining other squadrons. Joe is actually leaving this "shore duty" tour 8 months early to accept his next job on "sea duty" as a Cag Paddles assigned with Airwing 7 here in Virginia Beach. This means that he will continue to be a Landing Signal Officer (LSO they call it) and will be in charge of helping all the squadrons land their aircrafts safely on the carrier. He will spend most of his time up on the flight deck on top of the carrier on what they call the LSO platform and will be talking to all the pilots as they make their approach to land on the back of the boat. He will still be able to fly some too so he's happy about that! He is leaving soon to go to FL for a 6 week training course and then off to start his new job on the USS Eisenhower carrier which will be deployed. Joe has worked very hard as a F/18 instructor here the past couple of years and I know he has trained the student pilots well. He was also given the opportunity to be the F/18 demo pilot for the airshows this past spring/summer/fall and he really enjoyed that! I am very proud of his accomplishments! Here he is ready to go race his go kart... Ready, set, GO!!!!


Joe's current commanding officer had very nice things to say about him and his work ethic. Joe was given this framed artwork of a regular F/18 hornet and a Super hornet since he trained the students on both these planes and is now flying both planes himself. His squadron patch and name patch were also put in the frame and it's a pretty impressive going away gift! I asked him where he was going to hang that huge thing and he said maybe in our bedroom. HAHA! I don't think so!!!! :) Of course he was joking! One day we will get him a "Me room" where we can display all his awards!
A traditional part of a farewell is the reading of the "scroll". Joe's friend "Snapper" in the squadron wrote this one and it's basically a speech that pokes fun of all the mistakes and "issues" you've had while working with the squadron. It sounds harsh, but it's all in good fun and everyone gets a good laugh! Joe is laughing at himself here!

That's all for now! Hope everyone is doing well. Love, CC

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Baby Girl

I had another 3D ultrasound the week of Christmas and I was 24 weeks pregnant. Baby girl looks good! I have another u/s in the next few weeks to check my placenta. We hope and pray that she will keep cooking inside until her due date. My due date is April 8, but my doctor will deliver at 39 weeks since I'm having a repeat c-section....so I might have an April Fool's baby!

My sweet little girl giving us a little smile!Cute face with mommy's nose
Who needs a big brother to do the choke hold, when she can do it to herself?
YAWN! She was worn out this day. She yawned 5 times during the 30 minute ultrasound.

We counted ALL her fingers and toes! They are all there! Joe thinks she has his toes (skinny and long).

Yum, yum! These toes taste great!