What a day. Scratch that - what a week!

Everyone probably knows about the horrible week we had, but I'll write about it just in case. Sunday night after church Jon put Lorelai in her bed to go to sleep. She had been completely fine all day and all night so we had no reason to suspect something was wrong. About five minutes after Jon put her down I heard him running in there (I was in Asher's room). Immediately I knew something was wrong so I went in there. She had thrown up everywhere in her crib. It was a mess, and needless to say she needed a good bath. She got sick a couple of more times throughout the night, and the next day she only threw up once or so. She started some diarrhea that day as well, but nothing too bad so imagine our surprise when Tuesday came and she was still throwing up and had even worse diarrhea. I honestly had expected her to be done with both by Tuesday because it seemed like she was on the mend by Monday evening. So Jon took her to the pediatrician who gave her some medications and did a blood test to check her Co2 levels mainly. The Co2 came back as 12 which is very low. He called me to say she absolutely had to be admitted, no questions asked. He said that he'd never seen a child with a Co2 of lower than 15 be able to come out of it on his/her own without at least an IV. So we left for the hospital, got admitted, got her IV, etc. The doctor also said that her glucose was low (50s), but the main concern was the Co2 level. They checked her blood again when we got there, and the results showed her Co2 at 14 (doctor said it can fluctuate like that) and glucose now at 43. By bedtime that night her glucose rose to 89. After hearing that I was very confident in her being able to go home the next day. I felt like the IV was doing as it was supposed to, and things were good.

The next morning the nurse came in to get her blood for a re-check. While her Co2 level was now at 15 (still not great, but pretty good considering) her glucose had dropped to 43 again and her sodium was still too low. She had already been on a bag of fluids to help with her sodium, but the doctor said she definitely couldn't go home today (Wednesday) and we'd reevaluate the following morning. We pushed food as much as we could the whole day because we were told that her levels were too low overall which was what was keeping her glucose level from stabilizing. In order to get it up and keep it up we really needed food to be getting in her system which she hadn't really had much of since Sunday. We pushed food, juice, anything we could get her to take the whole day until bedtime while she got more IV fluids for each level. By the next morning her Co2 was at 19, glucose at over 100, and sodium was 138 (135 was what it had to be in order to leave)! We were ecstatic! The doctor said we could leave that afternoon if Lorelai could drink plenty of fluids and show that she could do well off the IV which praise the Lord she did! The day before it was a struggle sometimes to get her to do that, but she finally seemed to show interest in food and drink again. She still had bad diarrhea, but the vomiting had stopped so we just had to stay away from dairy products since it can upset their tummies. We were able to leave that afternoon, and after two nights in the hospital it's an understatement when I say that Jon and Lorelai were thrilled. :) Here the kids are the day Lorelai got home from the hospital.





Wednesday morning while Lorelai was in the hospital Asher woke me up crying. I just had a feeling so I ran in with a bowl (thank goodness!) and was able to catch him throwing up in it. I was so frustrated because the last thing we needed was another sick child while one is in the hospital with the same thing. Somehow, though, he was completely fine after that. He went back to sleep until 9-ish that morning, ate, drank, played. It was strange. However, on Friday night (after my sister got in to town for the weekend) Asher threw up about 30 minutes after going to bed. It was bad. And no one caught it in a bowl this time. Cleaning up and getting him settled again took about 2 hours which put him in bed about 11:45 PM. Thankfully we still had the Zofran (anti-nausea meds) from Lorelai being sick and had been given permission to give it to him. I'm a big fan of Zofran these days! It worked like charm! While he still wasn't his old self, he at least didn't throw up again. He started with the diarrhea on Saturday, though, and today is his first day with neither vomiting or diarrhea. I'm praying we're done with the sickness now! Asher is definitely back to his old self, but his appetite isn't quite back completely. He's getting there, and today was much better than yesterday in that area. I'm so glad to have two happy kids again! These are the sweeties tonight before bed.




So that brings us to today - because nothing in our lives lately seems to be without doctors and hospitals. I had a regularly scheduled appointment this morning with my perinatologist, and I really thought once it was over we'd be done with the doctors/hospitals until my next appointment next week. Heidi kept the kids so Jon could go with me (thank you again, Heidi!!). We got there and started the ultrasound just to check things out before checking my cervical length. We got some great shots of Micah! He's even more adorable this week! :) The doctor again confirmed that he has a big noggin', but nothing more - no reason to suspect problems because his head is beautifully shaped and anatomically perfect. I mentioned the possibility of dwarfism because I know bigger heads can be an indicator for that, but he dismissed that saying that his femur bone is measuring right where it should be almost to the day, and if there was a reason to suspect dwarfism he would be at least 2 weeks behind on his femur. Hoover babies are just big-headed. :)

So then we did the cervical length check. It has again shortened. I didn't really think it was that big of a deal. Yes, it's changed, but not a drastic amount in my opinion. His concern was that I'm now consistently below 2.5 cm even with no pressure, lying down, and resting. The problem with that is the cervical length is below 2.5 cm especially at an early gestational age the chances of preterm labor are increased. Also, when there is such a short cervix left the cervix shortens at a faster rate due to it being weaker especially under pressure. Because of this he decided it was time to start the steroid injections for Micah's lungs and development. He also was concerned about some leaking and it possibly being amniotic fluid. I was quite certain that it wasn't amniotic fluid, but he wanted to make sure so he sent the report over to my OB. She told me that she'd rather me go be admitted into labor and delivery at the hospital so we could the results more quickly and to get my steroids there. She doesn't have the steroids to give so I'd have to get a prescription filled for them and then bring them in to be given to me so felt this was easier, faster, and better for the situation. Needless to say I was less than thrilled about going to the hospital after spending so much time there last week, but I knew it had to be done. The test came back negative so it's not amniotic fluid I'm leaking which is a great thing obviously. I also got my steroid injection and was then told to spend the night in L&D so I could get my next shot the following day, but if I wanted to I could go home and come back for it tomorrow. Naturally I chose to go home. Who would actually choose to stay there if they have the opportunity to go home anyway? Unfortunately, though, I will have to be admitted into another room tomorrow to get the shot. I told them they could do it in the hallway, and I wouldn't mind, but they didn't go for that. Then I had to wait for almost an hour for transport to come and get me because they said I couldn't leave without the wheelchair due to what is going on with me. It was a little crazy, but I waited. Poor Jon was doing laps around the hospital with the kids in the car trying to keep them entertained while he waited for me to get down there. Finally I called the nurse to make sure I hadn't been forgotten, and the sweet nurse who gave me my shot decided she'd take me herself so I finally got out of there. Now I have to go back at about 4 PM tomorrow for round 2, but hopefully that is ALL we'll be doing there. Being at home I'm even more thankful for my comfortable bed and couch after spending way too much time in a horrible hospital bed and room. But look at how sweet this face and profile are - definitely worth it all.

So sad to look back on these things

I found this video in my Photobucket account tonight, and I had to share. She's such a cutie and always loves to have an audience and dance or sing.

Appointments, Bed rest, Birthdays, and New Clothes

The title of my post pretty much sums up our lives over the past week. Of course appointments and bed rest are old news, but we've added two new ones for this week. Birthdays and new clothes. Asher's birthday is coming up on March 7, and he will be turning 4 years old. Four years old?! I can't believe even believe it. I have been talking to him about it a lot to try and figure out what he wants to do and get for his birthday. He really wanted to go to Wallabies which is an inflatable jumping place here. Selfishly I didn't want to do it there only because I don't know if I'd be able to go even if I sat the whole time with my feet propped, but if it was really what he wanted I was willing to do it even it meant me missing it. He's been very patient and sweet through this pregnancy despite the fact that it means I can't pick him up anymore or get on the floor and play with him or play with him as much in general so I wanted to do this for him if he really wanted it. On top of that the cost of renting a party room and paying for admission for all the kids, etc. is pretty high which would mean he probably wouldn't be able to get as much for his birthday. So we made a deal: party at our house complete with a cool cake and theme of his choice, fun on our swing set in the backyard, lots of fun games, and some kind of snacks/meal provided. In exchange he and his best friend, Seth, are going to Wallabies probably the Saturday before for a play date together and lunch of his choice. Everyone wins here. He can still go to Wallabies (and with his best friend), he gets to have his party (which mommy can attend), and he gets the present he wants for his birthday (John Deere Gator Power Wheels).

As for the new clothes, I have been using my bed rest time as usefully as I can by going through the kids' clothes from last summer and deciding what will work for this summer. Most all of Lorelai's stuff won't work due to her height (yet everything still fits in the waist - skinny thing), but Asher does have several outfits that will work. All of his shorts still work, but not all of the shirts. So all of the things that won't work is getting put away. Since Lorelai will be needing more than Asher I've been buying her new spring/summer stuff online since I can't go out. I'm so happy that I have almost her entire spring/summer wardrobe picked out and most purchased. Yay! We get out tax return in about a week so I'll get Asher's stuff then. I'm waiting on getting stuff for Micah for now at least until I know exactly when he's born and sizes. I have enough to get by for a little while thanks to some of Asher's baby clothes, but unfortunately Micah will probably be in a completely different size/season than Asher was when he was first born. Thankfully I'm sure Micah will be able to wear Asher's stuff as he gets older and wears sizes longer, but the smaller stuff probably won't work with the seasons. Our babies usually live in sleepers or onesies at first anyway.

On to the appointment. I had an appointment with my OB this morning, and it went pretty well. I can't say enough how much I love her, though! We listened to the baby's heartbeat on the doppler, and I was told that at my next visit I get to do the wonderful glucose test (gag me). We also did another ultrasound which showed some change, but nothing too significant so that was good news. I measured at 2.5 resting, 2.2 with fundal pressure, and 1.6 when bearing down. Last week at the peri I measured between 2.5 and 2.7 resting, but there wasn't any change with pressure or bearing down so it has gotten a little worse, but nothing too major to cause alarm or anything. We're still continuing everything as before, and I see my peri on the 21st. I'll see my OB again the following week. Our schedule got kind of messed up because the peri is going to be out of town on the week he was supposed to see me (next week), but my OB thinks I should be fine to not have an ultrasound next week and just come in for my injection especially since it's only going to be a little over a week from now.

So that completes my boring post. No pictures, no videos. Lame, I know. Jon is responsible for those areas since I can't chase the kids with the camera so blame him. And I know he's going to read this which is why I wrote that. :) Maybe it will make him get some tonight, though!

A random collection of things

Because it has been several days since I last posted, and I have things I wanted to share from several different occasions, this is going to kind of be a random post of different pictures and videos. I'll start with the oldest set. This past Saturday night Seth and his mom Michele came over and brought us dinner. We had a delicious meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, baked beans, mac and cheese (very appreciated since neither of the kids really care much for mashed potatoes), and cookies. Before we ate they stayed for a little while so the kids could have a chance to play. Nikki, David, and Crissie were also there visiting for a little while, and Asher and Seth sure had a blast wrestling with David. It was so funny!




The boys were hugging on each other in this picture, but for some reason Blogger keeps wanting to turn it. I guess it thinks Seth is standing up and not lying down so it automatically turns it.





These were taken tonight of the kids. Asher's pictures make me smile. In the first one I just told him to smile so he did, but as you can see his eyes are all squinted. So I told him to smile and open his eyes, and the second picture is what I got. His smile came out funny looking as he tried to concentrate on keeping those eyes opened. :)






The kids are really in to singing duets together lately. Asher usually does a better job singing by himself (Lorelai singing the wrong words kind of throws him off, I guess), but they still love singing together, and I love hearing it. Lorelai absolute loves when Asher starts singing and never misses the chance to join him whether she knows the song or not. Here are two videos of them singing together. They don't really know either song great yet, but Asher can sing them better normally. I'm happier, though, with them singing OK together rather than singing perfectly separately!




I also thought I'd throw this in before I finished my post tonight. I have SO many people (including some of my blog readers) ask me if I have a cerclage (stitch that keeps my cervix closed) or if I'm going to get one. The answer has always been no, I don't have one, and no, I don't think I'll be getting one. I've never really known the answer to the next question, though, which is "Why?" Getting a cerclage has always been something that has been discussed by doctors but never done, and I finally found out why when I saw my new perinatologist on Tuesday. He told me that the reason I'm considered a bad candidate for a cerclage is that they can actually do me more harm than good. I do obviously have a weak cervix (whether it's incompetent or not is unknown for sure), but I also have a big problem with having too many contractions early on. The cerclage is good for people with only a weak cervix because their cervix shortens without contractions. They don't have a problem with early contractions. Mine, on the other hand, shortens without the contractions, but it also shortens when I have a bunch. Putting a stitch in to help keep the cervix closed can be dangerous for someone with a lot of contractions because it can irritate the uterus further and cause even more contractions. I'm glad to finally know why I can't get a cerclage. The peri also told me that if I did decide to ever get one I'd still have to be on bed rest because the contractions would obviously be much worse if I continued normal activity.

Since I'm on the subject I'll also post a quick update on how the appointment went. I really liked the peri I saw and feel confident in his plan of action for Micah and me. Last Thursday my cervix measured 3.1 cm when resting with no pressure on it, and on Tuesday it measured 2.5 cm when resting with no pressure. So it shortened 0.6 cm in 5 days. Bed rest is stricter for me now, but I do still have daily shower privileges so I can't complain too much. :) I see my OB on the 10th (next Thursday) for another ultrasound scan and visit.