Pre-register

Will's fake scared face as we enter the hospital

Well, you all know how I like to keep my pregnancies interesting so here's another story for you. This past Saturday we celebrated my niece, Faith's, 2nd birthday in Madison at my brother's house. We were almost to their house when I started having contractions. Nothing new for me...I have had several with each pregnancy (Braxton Hicks). But these felt different. They were definitely stronger and some of them I was really having to breathe through. We got to their house and for the next hour or so I just toughed it out. I got a bottle of water to see if that helped but it didn't so I decided maybe I should lay down for a little while. I layed on their bed for a while and finally started timing the contractions. They were as close as 2 1/2 minutes apart!! I didn't really care for that so I thought I would call the doctor's office although I knew what they would say. She said I needed to go to Huntsville Hospital and not take the time to drive home. Well, I didn't really care for that either so we called Danielle who said to take 2 Tylenol, drink lots of water and lay down for an hour and if they weren't gone, go to Huntsville Hospital. So I moved to the couch where I could lay down but still socialize (after having some snacks and cake from the party which I had missed earlier). The contractions would slow down some (never more than 12 minutes apart) and then they would speed back up (2 1/2 minutes apart) so we decided we were going to have to do something. We were supposed to be staying after the party to celebrate and eat with my dad for father's day but it just didn't look like it was going to happen. Will ended up calling Dr. Allen who has been such a huge help to us during both pregnancies. He told us he thought we would be fine to drive home (what we wanted to hear) but if I continued to have them on the way home, we might ought to go on to labor and delivery and just make sure everything was okay. So we hurried home, dropped off Callan, packed a bag just in case and headed to the 4th floor of the hospital. They hooked me up to a monitor where we heard Lizzie's heartbeat (always nice to hear) and they monitored my contractions. Still just as strong and frequent as they had been for the last 5 hours, they finally checked me. No dilation of course which didn't surprise me any but still contractions. Not nearly as bad as my ones with Callan the day of labor but probably half of that (enough to make it uncomfortable). Will went downstairs to pre-register us which we got to do early with Callan when I passed out in childbirth class. She finally decided to call Dr. Woodford and see what he wanted us to do and when she told him who it was he said, "Aw, I know her, send her home". Don't know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult but he didn't seem to think the contractions were a problem. I think as long as I'm not dilating any, they don't really care. Once I start dilating, they might have to stop them. So I was sent home that night around 8:30 with a take it easy and drink lots of water. I stopped having them around the time I got settled for bed so that was a relief and haven't had any to complain about since so hopefully I can take it easy the next few months. We've still got 2 months left so I would like to keep her in there as long as possible to get everything done and feel a little more prepared. August 20th will be here before we know it. We have our 32 week appt. in the morning so maybe I'll know more then. At least we got to pre-register!!!

Good news and a few new pics

Well, I'll start with the good news. We got a letter in the mail today from the endocrine doctor with the results of Callan's bloodwork. She had checked "normal, no immediate action required". This was amazing news to us. It showed that the prealbumin test they had done yielded a 26 for Callan and normal is anywhere between 20-40. We aren't for sure everything that this means but we do know that the test (according to google) checks for malnutrion issues.. So this shows that Callan's body IS processing the nutrients correctly. From what Dr. Karabell told us last Wednesday, this will mean that once and for all, she is just a small baby. I left a message for the doctor this afternoon but haven't heard back from her. We are just wanting to make sure there is nothing else we need to be doing for Callan. We feel so blessed to have such a sweet, happy, HEALTHY baby girl!! We cancelled the return visit with the endocrinologist and will just look forward to her 15 month check up in July.

As for the second part of my post, meet Lizzie Ruth. We got our 4-D ultrasound done this past Friday for my 30 week check up. We had such a busy weekend with the funeral, etc that we haven't had a chance to scan them and post them. So here she is.

She was asleep for the whole entire ultrasound although she still did kick a little. As soon as we walked into the room, Callan started crying so hard. It broke my heart because she already recognizes the doctor table and paper and thinks that she is the one having the appointment. She had already been to the doctor twice last week so I think her little heart couldn't handle it again. Thank goodness it wasn't for her. Lizzie seems to look a lot like Callan did in her ultrasound pics so we'll see when she finally gets here. She definitely seems to have Callan's lips. She made a couple of snorty face looks, opened her eyes a little and kept her hands and feet right around her face. I was probably only laying down for a total of 7 minutes and all of a sudden I got extremely hot. I realized very quickly that I was about to pass out so I said something to the ultrasound tech and she had me sit up immediately. We were done with the ultrasound anyway so I layed back down on my left side for a few minutes. She cut the fan on and just let me relax until I felt like I could walk around. We went out to the lobby until they called me back to see Dr. Woodford. We were waiting on Woody to get in there and I started feeling bad again. I got lightheaded again and by the time he got in there, I knew I was about to pass out (again). He inverted the table so that my head was lower than my body which made me feel so much better. I finally got the blood flow back in my head which I think hadn't happened from the previous pass out time. Leave it to the ole' vena cava to have me feeling fabulous. For those of you that don't remember this happened to me at about 32 weeks with Callan. I passed out in child birthing class and had to be admitted, monitored, etc. The doctors finally realized that I can't lay or even sit leaning on my back for an extended period of time because it cuts off the blood flow and I pass out. I like to keep my pregnancies interesting! Hopefully this won't happen again because I know the signs and signals of it and know how to make it go away.

Hopefully I'll talk to the endocrine doctor and maybe even Dr. Hamilton tomorrow and see if they say anything extra. If it is worth blogging about, I'll let you know!

Beach trip

I don't know why I can't keep blogging regularly so that I don't have to remember the events of the past month everytime I do sit down to do it but I guess I can't so here is another catch up since the last blog. May went by faster than ever with mom's birthday and work day, Mother's Day, nursery duty for 5 weeks, and Will working longer hours. June is quickly doing the same thing. We have been getting Callan's little $5.00 sunshade pool out in the afternoons to let her get used to swimming and she seems to love it.

I've also taken her to Aunt Susan's a couple of times to swim in the big pool and she really loves her hippo float more than anything.

Will started off the first week of June with a trip to Detroit for a couple of nights. I started off the first of June with some pretty scary dizzy spells while sleeping. After 2 nights of it, he made me call the doctor. They wanted me to come in to check my blood pressure, which was fine, but I just told Danielle I didn't feel right. She wanted to do some blood work but since I had just done my glucose test, she didn't have to. After flipping to the results of that, she said, "No wonder you don't feel good". My iron count and my blood sugar were both low. Not low enough to take the 3 hour glucose test or to be classified with gestational diabetes but low enough for her to put me on a diet. For those of you that know my eating habits, this diet is not for me. I was hoping low blood sugar meant eat more sugar, but it is quite the opposite. High protein, low carbs. Basically all I eat is carbs (hence why I feel so sluggish a lot) but now I am supposed to eat as few as possible. This has really been a challenge for me. Some days I do very well, but I can tell the days I'm in a hurry I don't pay as much attention to it. Breakfast is the hardest. I went to the grocery store and bought some crackers, tuna salad, trail mix, jello, things like that that don't contain many carbs but are higher in protein (except for the jello!) It is hard to do but I really want to stay commited because I know it will make me feel better and even more so, I know it is healthy for Lizzie.

So, Will got back on Thursday night around 8:00 from his work trip and we left for the beach at 6:30 on Friday morning. We borrowed his parents minivan so that the 3 of us could ride down with Jack, Kimberly, and Henry in one packed car. Ben, Brooklyn, and Brooks were driving separately. The ride down was very good. Both kids sat on the back row and did great. We laughed about how many times Callan sneezed and Henry blessed her. So sweet! I'll go ahead and tell you that Callan stayed sick with a cold the whole time we were there. I guess that is why she sneezed so much on the way down. Her nose ran constantly and so did her eye (clear fluid) but there was also a big red ring around one of her eyes. We thought she might be allergic to the beach weather. It was absolutely pitiful. When we would be holding her she would have her head on our shoulder. If we were in the pool, she had her head on her float. It was just so obvious that she didn't feel god but she handled it so well. She was such a good sick baby. Hopefully this explains why all of the pictures of her look so sad. Maybe also because she was on Benadryl the whole trip.

We finally got to the beach house around 2:00 if I remember correctly. It was a very nice 3 bedroom, 3 bath house across the street and around a few corners from the beach with a very awesome walk in pool right across from our house. We found our rooms and we laid Callan down for a nap while the Mann's went to the beach for the afternoon. B, B, & B all arrived a couple hours later. We decided to go out for dinner since we didn't have any groceries yet and hit up Pompano Joe's. It was very good (crab legs for us) and I would go back. I love the open restaurant on the beach feel! After dinner we took the boys and babies back and me and Kimberly went to Wal-Mart for food! Saturday was spent between the beach, the pool and napping babies back at the house.

The beach was about a 10 minute walk from the house so they had a very large golf cart trolley to get you there. Unfortunately the trolley driver was one of the rudest, meanest ladies we had ever met. She hated when someone called her to pick them up and sometimes she even acted like she didn't see people waiting on her. At one point, Jack, Kimberly, and Henry waited for about 15 minutes before calling Will to come get them in the van and when he left to go get them, the trolley driver was sitting out by the pool acting like no one had called. Also, at one point, she had a Bud Light can in her cup holder. Whether it was hers or not, we don't know but not cool! Okay, enough about her. We went out again on Saturday to the Old Bay Steamer restaurant in Fort Walton where we all shared a family style meal of crab legs, shrimp, potatoes, corn and salad. Delicious! Quickly becoming one of our favorite places to eat. Sunday night we decided to grill out pork chops and chicken at the poolside grill and just take it easy. The boys cooked and we had pork chops, chicken, salad, corn on the cob, baked potatoes and rolls. Oh my word, delicious! Some of the best food I've ever put in my mouth! After that, we headed out to the outlets which closed at 6:00 on Sunday night so me, Will, Callan, Jack, Kimberly and Henry ended up at Destin Commons where we walked around for a while and enjoyed the beach air!

We left Monday around 10:00 and had a very easy drive for the first half. About 45 minutes from Prattville Kimberly commented that she smelled something like tar and hoped it wasn't the car. I drifted off to sleep not thinking anything about it. We finally decided to stop and eat in Prattville and pulled off the exit. A few minutes before the exit, we noticed the van doing funny things. We got off on the exit ramp and stopped at the light. When it changed we were able to go about 10 miles an hour at most. Then at the next light, we knew we were in trouble. The van wouldn't go at all. Will kept trying and trying but it wouldn't budge. We were about a 1/2 mile from where we were going to eat and weren't going to make it. The boys got out in the 6 lane traffic and I hopped in the driver's seat so that they could push us from the very left lane to the very right lane and pull into the EconoLodge. We rolled into a parking spot and then it hit. We were stuck in Prattville with more stuff than you can imagine and hungry with 2 non-napping babies. Fun times! We called Darwin and after a lot of talking between him, Will, and Enterprise, we decided we would have to rent a car to get home in and Mr. Transmission would fix the van if we got it towed in. Darwin and Jo Anne had just gotten home from Tampa about 2 weeks earlier and on their way down, the transmission messed up and they had to leave it in Georgia for the week and rent a car to finish their trip. So with a newer transmission, we thought surely we were in the clear but I guess not. We ran across the 6 lane traffic to eat at Jim & Nick's BBQ and wait on the rental car. It took forever for Enterprise to pick Will and Jack up and another forever for them to get back with our Buick Enclave. Mind you, it was the only car they had available and it just so happened to have 3 rows. Godwink! We hopped in and drove across the street to unpack the van with essentials and repack the Enclave. We had to leave behind a few things that we won't see for a while but it was mostly beach stuff and a random loaf of bread. The tow truck arrived and after 3 hours, we were on our way home. We got home close to 7:00 only to realize we left the garage door opener in the van and had to find our spare key to get in the house. Thank goodness for that. It was a very long tiring day but honestly there were so many positive things that happened and so many things that could have been so much worse. Thank goodness for good friends to share the adventure with! Darwin and Jo Anne have headed back to Tampa this week to see Amy and the kids and on there way home, they will stop in Prattville and pick up the van so maybe by next week, we will have all of our stuff home. I will add that D&J arrived at our house Monday night with supper which was another blessing. All in all, it was a great trip although not quite long enough but eventful along the way.

Oh, we did take Callan to the doctor Tuesday when we got back and Dr. Hamilton said she had the beginnings of an ear infection so he started her on some medicine. Then yesterday we went to Southaven Mississippi for her endocrinologist appointment with Dr. Karabell. The doctor seems to think that there are no growth hormone issues since all of her numbers fall into the range that she goes by. She wonders if maybe there is a nutritional absorption issue instead. She was concerned that she had only gained 1 pound in 2 1/2 months (she weighed 16 lbs. 9 oz. and at her 12 month she weighed 15 lbs. 10 oz). She did more blood work to look at her protein levels and if I understand it all correctly, either something will come back possibly proving the absorption issue or she will determine that she is just going to be small. She said we might want to contact a nutritionalist about how to increase her caloric intake to try to fatten her up a little. She suggested adding butter to things, cooking things in canola oil and eating lots of ice cream. Unfortunately this is the complete opposite diet that I am on. Bummer! I have realized that it will be forever before we can turn her around in her carseat though. Oh well, we're definitely counting our blessings. She is such a good happy baby that we can hardly complain. Thanks for all the prayers and hopefully I'll remember to post the results of her blood work when we find out.