6 week check up

Today I had my six week check up. My weight is great, I am 21 pounds less than when I got pregnant. Unfortunately my blood pressure is still not back to normal :-( I am so discouraged about it. It really isn't high when it comes to the parameters that doctors set, but it is higher than before I got pregnant. The OB also recommended I contact the cardiologist "sooner rather than later." So unfortunately I have to schedule that now too. But all in all it was a great appointment. I am so thankful to have the pregnancy behind me, and praising God that He protected Paisley and I throughout the whole thing. Hard to believe the little miss is 6 weeks old today! Her smallest weight was 3lb 13oz and she is up to 6lb 4oz!!! Growing like a weed. Unfortunately this week has been a little bit rough for her. I am not completely sure what is going on, if it is something that I am eating that is upsetting her stomach, or if it is reflux. But she has been spitting and puking with just about EVERY feeding. Poor girl seems to have some discomfort with it too. We will be headed back to the doctor on Monday.

Tubby time

Miss Paisley got a bath today. She fussed initially when they put her in the tub but then she relaxed and was just floating with her legs crossed. The nurses are so wonderful, I feel so blessed to have such kind women caring for my girl. She is doing so well. She is up to 4lb 11.7 ounces now. She is taking almost 1.5 ounces when she bottle feeds, and is nursing for anywhere between 6-15minutes per feeding. Right now she eats every three hours, and we are alternating between breast and fortified breast milk to give her extra calories to help her grow quicker.

Reunited!!!

So FINALLY I got to have my whole family together. That is the biggest drawback to being here. They have such strict rules about children visiting. The doctors said that Paisley could have a little visit with her siblings. It was so fun. Sam and Sophia were beyond excited to hold her and were so proud when they held her. Neither of them wanted to allow me to take her from them. Preston initially wanted nothing to do with Paisley but then wanted to hold her. He was so cute. He held her for like 30 seconds, and then say "take her off" and tried to push her off his lap. I look at these kids and think back on each of their pregnancies and births, and am just amazed at the miracles that God has done. Each one of my babies is such an incredible blessing. God has given me so much!!! Love my family so much.

Lots of loving

Paisley is growing so well. She is now 4lb 7oz! And she is officially bigger than Sammy was when I brought him home from the hospital, as Sam was only 4lb6oz. So she is doing phenomenally well. The biggest issue that she is still having is that she won't eat very much by mouth. She is probably only taking 30-40% of her intake by mouth. We had lots of visitors today. Meme' came and snuggled Paisley for a while, and Grammie Shuttle and Gail came too. Grammie Shuttle mentioned my grammy and it made me so sad. It is so sad to know that Paisley and Preston will never be rocked and sung to this side of heaven. I also had a doctors appointment today. Unfortunately I had an allergic reaction to the steri-strips they used to close my incision. So I have blisters all over the incision and some of them the doctor believes are infected. So I started antibiotics and prayerfully nothing else will happen with it.

I'm a big girl now!!!

Paisley is doing so incredibly well. They were thinking about taking her out of the incubator tomorrow but she kept her little self so warm today that they had to take her out of it today so she wouldn't be too hot!!! She continues to gain weight well and is up to 4lb 5oz. Auntie Chantal came and loved on her today which was so nice. It is so nice to be surrounded by so much love and support. The kids at home are being loved on by tons of people too. I think it is still really hard, wanting to be at home and wanting to be with Paisley but we are just so blessed with so many people willing to help. I was really struggling last Friday feeling so torn between Paisley and my big kids. Sam had IVIG (which praise God Auntie Paula went with him to), Sophia was having tons of pain in her mouth and had an emergency dentist visit.... Preston is just missing things being normal at home.... I just want to be everywhere at once.

Medical Crisis and a new baby girl

Wow I am so very behind documenting what has been going on.... Last wednesday Aug 7th, in the middle of the night I woke with an excruciating headache. I took some Tylenol and tried to fall back asleep. Bright and early I called my mom and asked her to come over and check my blood pressure. It was significantly higher than it had been, but not critically high. I also checked my blood sugar at that point as well and found that to be very low too. I called the OB doctor and they had me come right in. When I got to the office, they checked my pressure and again it was a bit higher than it had been but it wasn't hypertensive yet. She sent me over to the maternity ward where they could monitor the baby and I. My blood pressure at that point was still ok. However they checked my liver enzymes and some other blood work and that is when things got scary. I was transferred via ambulance (lights and sirens, even though I begged them not to drive too fast) to Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston. So Wednesday night they kept me on the labor and delivery floor, with the thoughts that they wanted to give the steroids (for her lungs) 48hrs total to work. I got the initial dose on Wednesday at 2pm. Wednesday night not a whole lot happened, they continued to check blood work every 2 hours, and vitals every 30minutes. It was a very long night. On Thursday morning my labs were really wacky but the doctors couldn't really determine what was causing me to be so sick. At that point they weren't sure if it was pre-eclampsia or something entirely different. I also had some metabolic changes that were very concerning to them as well. Excuse the HORRIBLE picture but this is for memory sake... The delivery story will be next...........

Doctors appointment

So I went back to the hospital today. And praise God all is looking well!!!! My blood pressure was great. Baby looked fantastic on the monitor. I am so very thankful. The contractions were less than on Friday. My heart rate is still off and I am waiting to hear back from the cardiologist but otherwise a fantastic appointment. We were told to just on doing what we are doing. A friend from work brought us dinner last night. Homemade ziti and meatsauce. It was so delicious. I think Preston had four servings! He LOVED it :-) And I am just so very thankful for such wonderful people in our lives that are taking care of us :-)

Playing catch up....

So had my appointment with all the high risk docs on 7/18, and essentially we are in a watch and wait period until something changes. Little Miss looked fantastic on the special ultrasound, and they are saying she is about 3 and a half pounds! Praise God. On Monday 7/22 I had another doctors appointment and non-stress test. She didn't look fantastic on the monitor but looked ok, it ended up being quite a long appointment but she eventually was reactive. Blood pressure was good too. On Wednesday 7/24 I got a very scary call from my cardiologist. She initially got on the phone and grilled me about how I was feeling and if I was having any chest pain, palpitations etc. She said my results weren't good, and that she had to call another cardiologist and would get right back to me. So apparently she called another cardiologist and he made a recommendation for changing the medication that I am on, however the new medication can be very dangerous for the baby. So essentially the conversation was to let them know immediately if I had any worsening symptoms and we would go from there, but to take it easy. On Thursday 7/25 I woke up feeling absolutely horrible. To the point where I was convinced I was getting very sick again:-( Praise God I wasn't! I did have some elevated blood pressures, and I did have protein in my urine which I hadn't had previously. But I was able to come home and was told to go to bed and stay there until I came back the next day.... On Friday I went back and my blood pressures were low! So praise God for that! The results of my 24 hour urine test weren't fantastic but they weren't terrible either. My liver tests and platelets are holding steady! So they again let me come home, saying "Go home and go to bed, don't get up until Monday when you come back." I did have a wonderful friend have a baby shower for me this weekend, and thankfully I begged to go to the shower and had a wonderful time but felt pretty yucky when I came back home and all day yesterday. Yesterday my mom came over at church and stayed for the whole day until after supper. She washed EVERY piece of dirty laundry and folded them and put them away. She also washed all of the bed linens including the blankets! Matt had taken the kids to a church picnic so I was able to really lay low yesterday and focus on growing this baby and spending some one on one time with my mom :-) Such a blessing! Sam had IVIG on Friday and he did fabulously. He had his friend with him and so they played the Wii and had a great morning/afternoon together, while I layed in the other bed until I had to go to the hospital. Thanks to Auntie Sara who stayed with Sammy until he was done. Another wonderful friend is organizing an army of help for me in these next few weeks! I just can't even believe how blessed I am. God is so good to me. He has put some absolutely amazing people in our lives. People are helping with childcare, cleaning, meals etc etc. So very blessed!!! I am headed back to the hospital in a little while. Please keep the baby and I in your prayers. I did unfortunately have some heart stuff going on this weekend and need to speak with the cardiologist this morning to see what the plan is.... On Saturday night I had palpitations but had been napping so when I woke I was sweaty and nauseous. Not completely sure what that means yet.

Pregnancy Update

Well praise God I made it to 30 weeks, at the rate things are going I may deliver sooner than we had hoped. I am so far behind in updating I am just going to do bullet points by date, just to get caught up.... So I had gone to the ER on June 29th. Two days later... 7/2/13 Was told to go to see cardiologist. I went and met her, and she was very nice. But very concerned with my history, as well as the fact that my mother had cardiomyopathy while pregnant. As well as multiple cardiac issues on my side of the family. My blood pressure was good. So she ordered echocardiogram (special ultrasound of my heart) as well as holter monitor. And increased the medication that the ER started to try to slow down my racing heart rate. 7/5 Labs were redrawn at the OB's office, due to the liver studies being off in the ER 7/8 On this date I received a phone call stating that my liver studies were significantly worse, actually worse than they were when they decided to deliver Preston! But due to some other symptoms that I had they were questioning something called "Cholestatis". This is a condition in which the bile acids build up in your blood. There is all kinds of risks associated with this. I also had my first non-stress test today. It was wonderful to hear this little one's heart beat so strong. I did have some elevated blood pressures at this visit, as well as this was the first visit that I had a large amount of ketones in my urine. 7/9 Preston had IVIG at Children's, and all went well, but no pics :-( 7/11 Had another NST test today. Baby continued to look good but I was also contracting fairly consistently. After the NST I went to the OB unit and had an appointment. At this point they informed me that I did have cholestasis, and told the risk of the baby dying. 7/12 Sent to a endocrinologist to try to figure out why so much ketones in my urine. Now having to monitor my blood sugars, four times a day :-( 7/13 Sam's 7th birthday! (I will write a post about it) 7/15 Echocardiogram: praise God this was normal!!!! Another NST, this time the baby didn't look as good as she had been on the monitor. Call placed to high risk obs.... Scheduled in depth ultrasound, and appointment with team of docs on 7/18 Here is an ultrasound pic of my sweet little miracle! I am relieved knowing that God has a plan for each of our lives and that His plan is perfect. Regardless of what the doctors say or think, regardless of what lab tests, and a variety of other tests show, God is in control of all of this!!! Praise God for His miracles! I look forward to holding this little one in my arms, as a testimony that against all odds God's will always prevails!!!