Doctor Doctor Doctor Doctor

As  I posted earlier this week I've been working very hard to distract myself.  I've kinda been in lala land since right before Christmas.  I've been walking around the house worrying about paint colors and finding more and more things for Philip to do.  Baby C (Did you see that name hint in my last post???) and I have been hanging out and crafting away not worrying about a thing.  Well we had a reality check this week.

On Monday we met with the pediatric cardiologist for the second time.  While there were not big changes it brought back into focus the future....my child will be here soon.....my child has a hole in her heart...my child will need open heart surgery...oh yeah forgot about that.  When we met with the cardiologist in Dec. he said we would only have to come back one more time, around 28 weeks.  Well today he said he would like us to come back at 34 weeks too.  It made both of  us slightly uneasy that he wants to see us again.  He said that everything looked good but he wanted to check her ventricle growth again.  The main change was that she has more regurgitation in her heart.  Yes regurgitation is the medical term he used which I find kinda amusing.  My word is squirt back.  Whichever word you use, what he was talking about was the blood flow in the heart. Like I explained before the blood flow in the heart is from the top to the bottom (atrium to ventricles)  The blood is not supposed to come back up into the atrium.  When it does go back it is because the valve isn't working correctly.  This is what they mean by regurgitation--the blood is regurgitating back into the atrium.  Or in my words, the blood is squirting back up.  This is common with her type of heart defect.  What the cardiologist noticed was that there was a small increase in the amount of blood squirting back up.  Yay.   

On Tuesday we met with the surgeon.  Overall we liked him.  He obviously loves his job and is confident.  He was also very personable and did a very good job explaining the heart and the surgery.  I really liked how much emphasis he put on the team.  He really focused on how important it is to have a good team working together.  He is obviously very proud of his team and thinks that every single one of them is essential to the success of each surgery.  He praised all the other doctors and nurses who will be taking care of Baby C. Here are some of the questions we had and his answers:

UVA is a teaching hospital, who will actually be performing the surgery?

• The surgeon will be the only one.  He may have a fellow watching him or holding something because he needs help but the he will make every cut and stitch.  

When do you think she will need the surgery?

• It depends on how she is thriving after birth.  Based on the echo cardiograms they have done so far they think somewhere between 3 and 6 months.  

How long will the surgery take?

• The surgery will take 4-6 hours

How long will she be at the hospital?

• A week to a week and a half.

What will he mend the heart with?

• He will use gortex to mend the ventricular septum (this is the lower part of the wall that divides the heart in half).  He will use bovine something or rather to mend the atrial septal (the top part of the wall that divides the heart in half).

What will the surgery and recovery process be like for Baby C?

• She will be put under before they start any IVs or other medications.  After the surgery they will continue to sedate her and have her on a breathing tube.  During the first 24 hours or so after the surgery they will slowly take her off the medicines and breathing tube.  They want to gradually have her heart and lungs have to take over the work.  After the surgery she will most likely be puffy looking, pale, and a bit rough.  

Today we went to see my maternal fetal specialist and my OB/GYN.  Everything looked stable which is fabulous :)  We found out that she weighs about 3 pounds and is in the 60th percentile on weight.  We got to see her practicing breathing which helps her lungs develop.  We could also see her hair!  She was laying on her tummy with her legs crossed and tucked and her arms hiding her face once again.  But because we could see the back of her head we saw hair there!!! It was very cool.  We got results back from a blood test I did earlier this week, a fasting homocysteine test.  According to most of the MTHFR (my blood clotting thing that may or may not be associated with why we lost Emily) research an abnormal fasting homosysteine level means you are at higher risk for blood clots.  My fasting homocysteine is NORMAL :)   This is very exciting because we are only a few days away in this pregnancy from 29 weeks 1 day, the day we lost Emily.   They have no idea if it actually means anything but I still take it as positive sign.  We are approaching 29 weeks 1 day with a lot of anticipation and faith.  We are looking forward to moving past it and getting Baby Noakes here.  

I will post again soon.

Love, 

Megan   

Distractions

Well we have entered the third trimester and Baby Noakes is doing great!  She is quite a mover!  At a work meeting last Monday we all stopped and watched my stomach for a minute because it looked like waves moving across my stomach.  It was crazy!  Starting this week I will see my doctor on a weekly basis.  We have also seen the pediatric cardiologist and the pediatric cardiologist surgeon.  After I've gone to all my appointments this week I will post a medical update.  Right now all I know is that as long as everything stays stable I should be delivering the first week of April.  So that means we are only ten weeks away from baby!

When I realized earlier this week that we are only 10 short weeks till baby I was a little shocked and had the epiphany that I haven’t done very much to actually get ready for her!  Instead I’ve been focusing on house projects.  I think I’ve been doing this in order to distract myself from the fact that I’m pregnant and all the fears that are stewing right below the service.  Thus Philip and I have been super busy!  

Here are the projects we have worked on the past two months:

• Master Bathroom
• Paint
• New floor
• 2 new faucets
• New toilet seat
• New décor including a valance, bath rug, and basket
• Guest Bathroom/Kid Bathroom
• Paint
• New faucet
• New toilet seat
• New décor including valance (that I made!), bath rug, shower organizer and art
• Custom shelves in kitchen (That we made!)
• Created a craft space

Philip has had to do a lot of this because it involves painting or some installations that I can’t do because my tummy gets in the way ;)  He has been so supportive and patient with me.

I’ve also been doing a bunch of crafts getting ready for the baby.  I've made Baby Noakes a blanket, an elephant stuffed animal, and some artwork for her room. Through all these house and baby projects I’ve become ridiculously excited for baby Noakes to get here.J 

Most of my inspiration for all the baby and house projects has come from pinterest.  In honor of my love for pinterest the rest of the blog is all about the DIY projects we’ve been doing around the house.  I've loved getting our nest ready for Baby Noakes and I can’t wait to bring baby Noakes home in 10 weeks!

Master Bathroom--new paint, floor, toilet seat,
faucets, valance, and bath mat.

Sad, empty space in Kitchen BEFORE.

AFTER! Awesome Craigslist furniture find, new baskets and
knobs, and custom made shelves.

Guest Bathroom/Kid Bathroom:  New Paint, faucet, toilet seat,
bath mat, and valance (that I made!)  I also have some artwork in progress.

I'm super proud of my valance :)
I made this out of a full length curtain.

Zach all snuggled up with the elephant and blanket I made.

Baby Noakes room :)

I cut animals out of scrapbook paper to make my dollar store
bins cuter.  I'm going to laminate the animals and Velcro
them on the bins so Baby Noakes can pull them off and move them around if she wants.

Close up of two of the animals.  I also made an elephant, turtle,
monkey, bird, butterfly, crab, and giraffe.

We put a vinyl alphabet up around part of her room.

We haven't found a mirror yet to put over the changing
table/dresser.

 

27 weeks!

27 weeks...notice anything special in the background??? I made that too :)

Today, 28 weeks 2 days. 

Sorry the photos kinda stink....they are almost all from my cell phone.


Remember, be on the lookout for a medical update later this week.

Love, 

Megan

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

24 weeks 1 day...growing belly :)

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!  Philip and I spent Christmas down in North Carolina with his family.  We went shopping, played games, sang carols, chatted, and ate waaaaayyyy too much food.  The day after we returned, my family came to Richmond to celebrate Christmas.  We took them on part of the Tacky Light Tour here in Richmond (google it if you have no idea what I’m talking about), went shopping, hung out, and continued eating tons of food.  My newest craving is super healthy…chili cheese hot dogs Yuuuuummm.  All in all we had an amazing time with family.  

Christmas morning.  

Richmond Tacky Light Tour

We also celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary on December 29th!  

Baby girl has been VERY active as we enter week 25 today!  She let all her aunts and uncles feel her kick.  It means so much to us how excited our siblings are to meet their niece.  

One special thing we were able to do was invite my parents to my 24 week doctor’s appointment.  Their visit coincided with my appointment so it only seemed right to invite them along.  This was one of our best appointments, nothing new to report!  No news is good news right now.  My parents were amazed to be able to see her moving and see her spine, ribs, feet, etc.  They were also able to see what I’ve been trying to explain about the hole in baby Noakes heart.  It is always so amazing to me that we can literally see the valves in her heart opening and closing.  We were even able to see her move her tongue as she swallowed and breathed out the amniotic fluid.  As long as there are no more new developments my specialist thinks that I will be induced the first week of April (38 weeks) unless baby Noakes decides to come earlier.  We are hoping she doesn’t do that though because earlier could mean not fully developed lungs and that in conjunction with her heart issues would not be good.  So come on April!

I think that our ultrasound Thursday was number 9 and we still didn’t have a good profile/face shot of baby Noakes.  Every time we have gone in she has hidden her face or was facing away.  Well baby Noakes FINALLY cooperated and let us see her face!  Our specialist then used a new feature to their ultrasound machines, 4D ultrasounds!  Normally they don’t do them because they consider them "entertainment ultrasounds" but we were lucky enough to get a few pictures of her face!!!  If it is possible, being able to see our daughter's face made us even more excited for her to get here!

24 weeks 4 days :)

She is snuggled up against my uterus on the left and her hand is up on the right.

We celebrated New Year's in Richmond with a Mad Men themed party hosted by our friends Leigh and Matt.  We had a great time with friends and smoking candy cigarettes.

New Year's Eve 2011

We are so excited for the amazing blessings that 2012 will bring.  We wish you all a very blessed and Happy New Year!!!

Love,

Megan

PS Here are a few shots of our house all decked out for Christmas.  

Dining Room

Thank you pinterest for this fabulous idea!
Ribbon  on pantry doorand Christmas cards taped on.

O Christmas tree O Christmas tree

Nativity tree. 

Kitchen centerpiece I whipped up one evening.

Zach's girlfriend.