Gong Home

We got out of the PICU last night due to some overcrowding. So we are now in a regular hospital room. We saw the doctor this morning and he said we are going home tomorrow! We're not sure what time, but we are just excited to be going home. Thank you all for your prayers and support. We will keep you posted as much as possible. Take care and God bless.

-Jason and Corin

oreanfamily.blogspot.com

Day 1 after surgery

We are in the pediatric ICU and she is recovering well. She was throwing up last night so they had to stop her feeding but other than that no complications!!! She is very swollen (her eyes are swollen shut...the picture above was taken yesterday afternoon so she looks a little more swollen and bruised today). The swelling will start going down tomorrow. We will be transferred to a regular hospital floor either today or tomorrow (yay! a bed and a bathroom!) She is mostly sleeping and only wakes up and cries every once in awhile. We are so happy that everything is going ok and we are on the other side of the surgery! Hopefully she won't need any more surgeries until she is 2 or 3.

Finishing Up

Praise God everything went well. The doctor spoke with us and said she is doing great and they took her off the breathing tube. This is very good considering last time we couldn't take her off for a while because of complications. She will be a little swollen for the next couple of days. The doctor wants to keep her in the ICU for a couple of days just to be sure she will be fine. She's in recovery right now and we cannot wait to see her. If everything goes according to plan Amarie should come home on Tuesday, just in time for Thanksgiving and boy do we have a lot to be thankful for. Thank you all for your prayers and support. God bless.

-Jason and Corin

First hour update

The doctor's just called to say the intubation went well. Only 4 more hours to go.

Surgery Day

As most of you know Amarie is having surgery today. The surgery will last about 5 hours. They began around 10:30am today. This is the third time we've had to hand her over, and it does not get any easier. The doctors are going to give us updates every hour, so Corin and I will be at Children's Health Care at Scottish Rite all day. We will do our best to post updates as much as possible. We are asking everyone to pray. Please pray specifically for Amarie to heal, the doctors to have skill and wisdom, and for us to have faith. Thank you all for your care and concern.

-Jason and Corin

Lamb picture

[The Lord] tends his flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart; He gently leads those who have young." Isaiah 40:11
It is so reassuring to know that during Amarie's surgery the Lord, who loves her even more than we do, has her in his arms and is carrying her close to his heart!

~Corin

Surgery info

Amarie's surgery is this Friday, November 20 at 11am. She will be in surgery for 5 hours. A neurosurgeon and a craniofacial surgeon will remove pieces of her skull and then use those to create cheekbones and eye sockets for her. They will also do some slight adjustments to her eyelids. She will go to the ICU after surgery for a few days and then to a regular unit of the hospital. If everything goes well we will get to go home on Tuesday...hopefully we will be home for Thanksgiving! Please pray that Amarie doesn't have any complications (we don't want a repeat of the first surgery!), wisdom and skillful hands for the surgeons, quick healing, and grace/rest for us as we go through the third hospital stay and surgery. We will post updates here to let everyone know how things are going and updated prayer requests. Thanks so much for your support!

Sorry it has been such a long time since we have posted any updates. Life is crazy!!! Amarie is doing well with her new tube in her tummy. She gets her hearing aids in two weeks...we are looking forward to the look on her face when she hears us better! She is getting bigger (slowly but surely..she is still shrimpy! She is 4 months old and can still wear newborn size). She weighed 9 pounds 8 ounces this week at her 4 month checkup. She is keeping us busy with all of her doctor visits (we have 8 appointments this month and its about like that every month). Its a crazy life being her full time mom/nurse/secretary! Plus, life has been a little crazy this week because Jason has swine flu. He has been out of commission since monday and has to stay away from everyone for another 48 hours. He is doing much better now but had a really high fever. The doctors put us all on tamiflu so I'm praying that amarie won't get sick!

Another update is about the genetic testing. A few months ago Amarie had genetic testing sent to Johns Hopkins to confirm her Treacher Collins. Well...we have learned to expect the unexpected with her! The geneticist knows that she has treacher collins based on her features but the testing was a mystery. Johns Hopkins is stumped. They have never seen the kind of mutation that she has before. So they did genetic testing on us and it turns out that I am a carrier. So we were really disappointed because that will make having more biological kids difficult. We have a strong chance of having another child with treacher collins. While we are so in love with our beautiful amarie, we don't think we could handle her and a child that could be more severe (complete deafness or trach dependent). The geneticist offered us several options for future pregnancies: an amniocentesis to see if that baby had treacher collins so if we wanted to terminate the pregnancy; to undergo genetic testing on multiple fertilized embryos and then implant the ones without the mutation; or to use an egg donor. Believing that life is precious and that it begins at conception we don't want to go with the first two options. We will probably look into adoption. We are trusting God's plan for our lives and know that He knows exactly who is supposed to be in our family. We are relying on Him every day because there is no way we can do any of this on our own! I am going to have to cut back my hours at work to take care of Amarie so we are excited to see how God provides. Its so funny that after we have seen God's faithfulness to us over and over again that last few months I forget that and still get scared. God says to "test him and see if he will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room for it."
Sorry this was so much to read..I had a lot to fill everyone in on! Love, Corin

McKenna loved visiting her cousin Amarie at the hospital. The funny thing about this video is that she had been eating Cheetos before she was rubbing the baby's head so Amarie had an orange head! :) Amarie was very alert and curious.

Amarie did great! We are so relieved that her surgery went well (the doctors are too...they said they were all holding their breath when they were intubating her). She had no complications and was able to come right off of the ventilator...which we were so happy about because that meant we were able to avoid a repeat trip to the ICU. It is much better having the feeding tube right in her belly instead of being taped to her face and going down her nose. Plus its more long term and permanent method (she can't pull it out as easily!). We are at our home away from home, Scottish Rite, until Thursday. Thanks for all of the encouragement! :D

Corin

Yet another surgery

Well Amarie is under the knife once again. She is getting a feeding tube put into her belly today. This procedure only last around 8 minutes so it should be a little less stressful. They will observe her for at least one night, maybe two if there are no unforeseen complications. We are of course nervous and concerned but we trust that God has her in his hands and will take good care of her. Thank you for all your prayers and kind words. We will post another update when she gets out of surgery.

-Jason Orean

Amarie has had several follow up appointments this week that have gone really well. We went to the craniofacial doctor on Tuesday and they took out the distractors (the metal pins sticking out of her head). We are excited about having her little "antenna" out :) We also went to the hematologist this week (Scottish Rite is our home away from home!). They repeated the CT scan of her brain and the blood clot/bleeding is gone!!! We are thanking God for her improvement. She had some blood work done to see if she has a clotting disorder before she gets another surgery in two weeks (to put the feeding tube in her stomach). Poor little thing has been picked on a lot this week between getting her shots, blood work, CT scan, and putting her feeding tube back down after it came out again :( She's going to be a tough cookie! She is so alert now and loves to look around. Such a cutie!

Swallow study (other update is below the pics)

We had the swallow study yesterday and it went pretty well! We were pleasantly surprised :) She aspirated only once (where the liquid went down her airway instead of into her stomach) when they were using a faster flow nipple. Using the slow flow nipple she had improved a lot since the last swallow study. Yay!! She still needs a lot of practice and time to get it down but we are encouraged that there was improvement. We will have a speech therapist (they also work with swallowing) that will be working with her through the Babies Can't Wait program so it will be great to see how much she will improve with lots of practice. Also, the therapist that did her swallow study said that she thinks Amarie will do great with baby food since it is thicker so she will be able to eat that once she gets old enough. She still needs to have the surgery to put in the G tube (tube in her stomach instead of going down her nose) since it will take time for her to work up to get her full feedings from the bottle. The G tube will be more comfortable for her (and it will be farther away from her sneaky hands!). Her surgery (if we can get the ok from the doctors following her blood clot and brain bleed) will be June 22nd and we will probably spend a few days in the hospital..so we hope she tends be a little complicated!! :)

My favorite spot...mom and dad's bed

Pictures (update below the pictures)

With cousin McKenna

Going home from the hospital

Its late...I'll post more pics tomorrow...promise :)

With Grammy

My thinking face

Men from New Covenant Bible Church praying over her in ICU

Update and pics

I'm finally posting more pictures! Sorry it has taken so long:) Amarie is doing really well. At her last doctor's appointment a few weeks ago, she weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces (she was 5#1 oz at birth so she's getting bigger!). She went for a follow up at the craniofacial doctor last week and they took out the stitches in her jaw (she still has her pins in...we thought that they would take those out but they will do that next week). She will also see the hematologist next week and the neurologist the week after that to follow up about the blood clot and brain bleeding. We will also see the ear nose throat doctor...we are very curious about her hearing.
Life has been very crazy the last few weeks! Besides adjusting to the normal newborn stuff, we are adjusting to her tube feedings, medications, equipment, and lots of doctors appointments and paperwork. She gets her feedings through the tube in her nose every three hours. By the time you warm up her milk, set up the pump, let it run for 1 1/2 hours, flush it, and then wash the bottles and syringes, it is time for the next round! I had been pumping but stopped last week. I really struggled with that decision because I really had my heart set on nursing but I just could not keep up with pumping and the tube feedings. I had no time to enjoy Amarie. It has been better to take one thing off of the load but is still disappointing to let go of the hope of breastfeeding. I am trying to focus on what I did accomplish by pumping for 6 weeks in the midst of crazy hospital life and to be encouraged by the freezer full of milk I still have.
She goes for a swallow study this Friday. She is allowed to have a 5mL snack from the bottle everyday but she has trouble with this and gets gagged. If she does not pass her swallow study she will get a tube put into her stomach instead of the one in her nose. While we are not looking forward to another surgery and hospital stay, it will be better to have a more permanent tube since she figured out how to pull her NG tube out! The other day I was up doing one of her night feedings and I thought that I was starting to get the hang of things...then she pulled out her tube and the dog got sick all over the carpet! You just have to laugh.

Two Week Update

Hello,

We have been home a little over 2 weeks now. Amarie is doing very well. She is still on the feeding tube and we feed her every 3 hours and the feeding takes about an hour and a half to complete. So we are constantly feeding her throughout the day with a continuous feeding schedule throughout the night. We have to get up two times during the night to add more milk, but other than that she sleeps pretty well. She gets her distractors taken out on Tuesday!!! We are so excited. The main concern right now is her swallow study she is having done in a couple of weeks. If she doesn't pass she will have to get a feeding tube put into her stomach. I'm not sure what the technical name is for that. It will be better for long term use, but we aren't excited about another surgery. Well that is all for now. Thank you for all your prayers and concerns. God Bless.

-Jason Orean

Home at last

Hey Everybody,

Well we are finally back home. Corin called me Thursday afternoon and asked me to pick her and Amarie up. What a blessing. We have been home for 5 days now and it is such a relief to have everyone back home now. The dogs also came home Friday from the Pearson's. Amarie is still on a feeding tube and she has to be hooked up to a sleep-apnea monitor while we are not holding her. Other than that she is doing great. She is on several medications right now. One is for seizures, the other is for stomach reflux, and the other is to wean her off of the pain killers she was on. We still have to follow up with the doctors over the next few months. We are still concerned about the blood clot in her frontal lobe(although the clot did get smaller on her last CAT scan), and if we are carriers of Treacher Collins syndrome. If we are carriers then there is a 50 50 chance that if we have more children they will also have Treacher Collins. We are focusing on the bright side right now however. We are just glad to be home and together. Thank you all for your prayers and encouraging notes. God bless.

-Jason Orean

Update-Monday

Amarie is out of ICU! :) 24 hours after they extubated her she was transferred to a regular floor. It is so nice to have her out of ICU and to be able to stay with her all the time now (though I can't wait to get home...the constant beeping of machines and staff coming in and out will drive a person crazy!) Amarie is one month old today- hard to believe it. Its kind of sad because we have spent that whole first month (except for three days) in the hospital. She is doing really well though. She is so awake and loves to look around (we still can't get over how exciting it is to see her with her eyes open..we missed that so much!) She is still hooked up to a lot of monitors and is also still on tube feedings through her nose. She had a swallow study today to see if she would be able to start eating orally but she didn't do very well with that and was getting a little bit of the milk down her airway. So she will have to go home on the tube feedings and then they will repeat the swallow study in a month. That was really disappointing because I was hoping she would be able to start nursing. Another month of pumping :/ They are going to repeat the CT scan of her brain tomorrow morning so we are praying that the blood clot and bleeding have improved. Depending on how the CT looks and how long it takes to get all the equipment we need to go home with, the "plan" is that we will be able to go home towards the end of the week. That would be the best mother's day present to be able to take my baby home!!! (I'll post lots of new photos tomorrow when Jason brings the laptop)

Update- Friday

Finally we have good news to share! Amarie was extubated (taken off of the ventilator and breathing tube) today!!! She is doing great...breathing on her own and wide awake. We are cherishing seeing her eyes open and being to hold her. After two weeks it is best feeling in the world. She is going to be so spoiled now because I'm sure we will hold her all the time. She had another CT scan today. There wasn't any change in the blood clot and the bleeding which is good and bad. We are thankful that it hasn't become worse but are praying that it will resolve itself. They will repeat the CT scan on Monday and then decide on the best treatment. Please continue to pray that her body will heal the bleeding and clot and for wisdom for the doctors in how to treat her. Jason and I are so grateful for all of the support and prayers...we could not have done this without each one of our wonderful family and friends!
~Corin

Update-Wednesday

The fluid in Amarie's lungs has cleared and they were able to turn her oxygen down...yay!!! So this morning they took her off of sedation and were going to remove the breathing tube. The ICU doctor came in and said that we were definitely on track to take it out within the hour. A couple of minutes before they extubated her, the neurologist got the CT scan results back and decided that she needed to be kept on the ventilator for another 48-72 hours. While we were really disappointed after getting our hopes up (again) that we would be able to hold her today, we are more upset about the results the neurologist gave us. After looking at her CT scan they determined that the seizures she had yesterday were caused from a blood clot in her brain. The blood clot also caused a little bleeding in her brain. Right now they are just trying to determine if the clot was from surgery or if she has a clotting disorder. They would need to draw a lot of blood to test her for a clotting disorder so they are going to test her when she is a little bigger but are sending Jason and I to get blood tests to see if we have any clotting disorders that could point them in the right direction. They will repeat the CT scan Friday morning to see if anything has changed.
~Corin

Getting the EEG of her brain. She weighed seven and a half pounds today!

Update-Tuesday

Amarie is still on the ventilator. The fluid and swelling all over her body is improving but she still has fluid in and around her lungs. Because of this fluid and the amount of oxygen she still needs they want to leave her on the ventilator. She was anemic (low blood levels..mostly because they have needed to draw so much blood work on her) so she had a blood transfusion yesterday which helped. However..as soon as we get one fire put out another one comes up. She started having seizures today. She had about 8 seizures today before they were able to get her on a medication that stopped them. They did an EEG and we are just waiting to see the neurologist. Hopefully he will be able to figure out why she is having seizures and give us some answers.
Thanks so much for everyone's support and prayers! Sorry we haven't been good at returning phone calls...its been so busy and you can't have cell phones in the ICU. It is such a blessing knowing that we are surrounded by such wonderful family and friends who are praying for Amarie and are so willing to help in any way possible. We couldn't do this without you guys!
P.S. Today is Amarie's due date :)

She is definitely a fiesty little girl! Whenever the nurses turn her she will open her eyes and give them a look (the top picture they had just turned her so she has her eyes open and her fist balled up!). They have been giving her extra sedation medicine because she has been waking up and fighting the breathing tube. She has a lot of spunk! :D

Update- Sunday

Well we are still waiting to get her off of the ventilator. The ICU and ear, nose, throat doctors told us that they were going to take her off of the ventilator on Friday but Friday morning they called and said that they were going to leave it in. We were so disappointed. They took her to the operating room and replaced the breathing tube with a larger one because she was having trouble keeping her oxygen levels up with the smaller tube now that her airway was opened up a little more by her jaw moving. She did much better on the larger tube. Then we were told that they would take her off the next day (Saturday). That didn't happen because she had fluid in her lungs. Same thing today (Sunday). We are trying not to get our hopes up but it is so frustrating and discouraging to think everyday for the last three days that we will get to hold her tomorrow and then be told last minute that they aren't going to do it. Please be praying that she can get the fluid out of her lungs so that they can get her off the ventilator and for peace and patience for us!
~Corin

Breathing Tube and PICU

Hello everyone,

  Well Amarie is supposed to wake up tomorrow (Friday, April 24).  They are going to take her into surgery in order to remover her breathing tube.  We are so excited to see her little eyes again!  She will have to spend at least another day in the PICU, but after that she should be able to move to another less serious room.  She will have to be monitored for another week, but at least she will be awake and breathing on her own.  The jaw continues to grow as the doctors adjust it twice a day.  This will contiue for another 7-8 weeks.  Corin will have to adjust it when we take her home.  Everyone has been awesome through all of this.  Corin's mother (Mary) has been over our house and the hospital almost every day.  My mother has been calling every day to check on her.  Corin's sister Marissa has been an incredible emotional support.  Mary's small group has been amazing, they have cleaned our house, made us meals, and have been consistantly praying for us.  Our friends Laura, Hannah, and Jesse have made us meals and dog sat while we needed to be at the hospital over night.  Jim (Corin's father) has been at the hospital on a regular basis too.  My aunt's are pitching in to pay some of our utilities this month.  The Tucker's were very generous with some gift cards.  Thank you everyone who has been so amazing, and if I forgot to mention your name I apologize, there are just so many people who have helped us through this.  Thank you everyone!

-Jason Orean

Update-Sunday

Amarie is doing ok but is still having a hard time getting stable after her surgery. Her blood pressure continues to be low. The nurses are slowly trying to wean her off of the dopamine but her blood pressure keeps dropping. Her pulse has gone back down which is good because it was high earlier. She had fluid in her lungs this morning but it was ok this afternoon when they repeated the chest x-ray. She was really swollen all over today which is so sad to see her like that. We just keep praying for her recovery and are counting down the days until she is no longer sedated. We miss seeing her eyes open and can't wait for her to be awake again...not too many parents are hoping for their newborn to wake up!! :)
~Corin

Update- Friday

Amarie is still in ICU recovering. They have been having trouble getting her blood pressure and heart rate stable. She will stay sedated and on a ventilator until Wednesday. We miss seeing her awake and being able to hold her! I went home last night since she was sedated and there really wasn't anywhere to stay...it was nice to be home after being gone for a week (and especially nice to get some sleep after not sleeping for two weeks!) but it was so hard to leave her. We are so glad to have the surgery behind us and to be heading in the right direction. She will go back to the ICU for a day or two after they take the breathing tube out on Wednesday and then will go to the pediatric floor for a while until she is stable enough to go home. Thanks so much for all of the prayers and support!
~Corin

Surgery Update

Well Amarie's surgery went well. She only lost a teaspoon of blood, which is really good. She has a couple of rods sticking out of her head, which is hard to see, but I know it is for the best. She is recovering in the ICU right now and probably will be there for another 5 days. The doctor said she could possibly go home in 7-10 days. We will see. Thank you again for your prayers and support.

-Jason and Corin

Surgery

Well Amarie is going in for surgery today. She did not do well in her sleep study so she is going to have her jaw extended so she can sleep, breathe, and eat better. I am not too familiar with the procedure, but from what I can understand they are going to break her jaw and place some sort of vice and crank in there. This will help stretch and extend her jaw so she can breathe easier. She will be in the ICU for about 5 days after the surgery. The doctors here have been great and I've been told this procedure was created at this hospital. This has put her mother and my nerves somewhat at ease. There are some risks of infection and potential blood loss, but this is a risk with any surgery. The bright side is that after the surgery Amarie should be able to eat on her own and breathe with a lot more ease. We are very hopeful and we have faith that she is in God's hands. Thank you all for your prayers and encouraging words. God bless!

-Jason and Corin

Pictures

Update

We are still at Scottish Rite Children's Hospital and will be here at least until Wednesday. Amarie is doing well...much better now that she is getting tube feedings. She is on a monitor to make sure her breathing is ok and is getting fed breast milk through a tube in her nose. We are all doing well just sleep deprived! She was seen by two more doctors today- a craniofacial specialist and an ear, nose, throat doctor. The biggest issue that is causing her feeding and breathing problems is her small jaw. They are going to do something called a sleep study on Monday where they monitor her breathing while she sleeps. Since her jaw is small her tongue can fall back in her throat and block her airway. If she does ok on the sleep study they will probably send us home Wednesday on tube feedings and breathing monitors and then they will do surgery when she is bigger. If she has trouble during the sleep study then they will do jaw surgery and we will stay here for two weeks. Also, the ENT doctor said that he could not see an ear canal on her right ear so she more than likely will have hearing loss. Thanks so much for all of the support and prayers from everyone! Keep praying!

Love, Corin

Week 37 Back to the Hospital

OK, so I know a lot of you are wondering why we are back at the hospital all weekend. Well let me first say everything is ok and I'm sure it will get better. As previously mentioned in a prior note/blog Amarie was born with a syndrome known as Treacher Collins. This syndrome causes some physical abnormalities in one's facial structure. The severity of the distortions varies from person to person. In Amarie's case she has a recessed jaw. Meaning her jaw is small and it causes some trouble when she eats and tries to breathe at the same time. We have been feeding her every 2 or so hours, as one should do with a new born. Every time we feed her she snorts and sometimes the milk or formula protrudes from her nose. This is because she is not swallowing properly due to her recessed jaw. In other words it is difficult for her to swallow properly. We discovered this during our appointment with a lactation specialist. The specialist referred us to the pediatrician who referred us to the emergency room at Children's Health Care in downtown Atlanta. So we have been here since Friday night. Amarie is doing well. They had to place a feeding tube down her nose and into her stomach to ensure she digests the milk properly. The primary concern was the milk was going into her sinus and lungs, which puts her at risk of infection. We are going to see a geneticist tomorrow who can give us further counsel. Any prayers and encouraging words are greatly appreciated. Thank you all. 

-Robert J. Orean

for more information check out oreanfamily.blogspot.com

Amarie Grace Orean

Well she is finally here.  After a month of labor Corin's water finally broke.  At 9:55 PM Friday April 3, 2009 the water broke and the clock began.  We called the hospital to see if we should come in, however there was no room in the inn.  They told us to wait until morning to check in, unless the contractions got stronger.  So Jim, Mary, and Marissa (Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt) came over and spent the night at our house.  It was a sleepless night to say the least.  Everyone was so excited that I don't think anyone got more than a few hours sleep.  We arrived at the hospital around 8 am Saturday morning to find that there were still no rooms available.  So we had to wait in a small triage room for a few hours before a bed opened up.  The contractoins were very mild and she was only at 2 centimeters dialeted so there was no rush.  Once we got into the room the doctors started Corin on Pitocin.   This is a drug that helps to increase contractions.  Once the Pitocin kicked in labor was intense.  I never seen my wife in so much pain.  Around 3:00 PM the doctor came in to start the epidural.  Around 3:30 PM he finished and the pain subsided.  At this point Corin was 3 centimeters dialted so we decided to take a nap.  She needed to be at 10 centimeters in order to deliver and the average pregnant woman dilates at 1 centimeter an hour.  So we were preparing for a long evening.  Well at 5:00 PM we awoke from our nap to find out that Corin was fully dilated at 10 cm.  That means she dialted 7 centimeters in an hour and a half.  We couldn't believe that she was ready to push, none the less she pushed and out she came.  At 5:09 PM Amarie Grace Orean was born.  We were so happy.  Poor Corin was not feeling so well though.  She was ill from the painkillers and antbiotics that she was on.  The nurses took the baby to be cleaned and examined while Corin was recovering.  I got to hold my daughter for about 20 minutes while Corin recovered.  Corin finally got to hold her for a few minutes before they took her to the NICU (that is the neo natal intensive care unit)  That was the last Corin got to see her that day.  The pediatrician came in to talk to us a little while later to inform us that she thinks our baby has some sort of syndrome.  It is still not confirmed but we are pretty sure she has what is called Treacher Collins Syndrome.  She tells us that this affects 1 in 10000 babies and it is mostly cosmetic, although hearing loss is often associated with it.  Obviously this was hard to hear, espically only having such a short time with her that day.  God is good and even though that was hard to hear things are working out well.  I will elaborate more on that later.  That night was hard, Corin was ill and tired from the medicine and the child birthing and I was an emotional basketcase.  Jim, Mary, Marissa, Chris (my mom), Bryon and Anna (close friends) were all amazing and very supportive.  I was able to take the grandparents over to see Amarie in the NICU later on that night.  It was very hard telling her good night and having to walking away from her.  I tear up now even as I write.  After a good night sleep Corin and I felt much better.  Amarie was able to come to our room later that Sunday afternoon and we got to spend some much deserved time together.  The grandparents were absolutely in love with her.  Lots of pictures were taken and spirits were much higher.  It turns out her hearing is just fine.  We had some tests done.  Her heart, lungs, and kidneys were all tested and came back fine.  So we are on our way home now and can't wait to start our new lives together.

35 weeks

Still having contractions! She is a determined little thing! I had an OB appointment today. The baby is doing well. I had an ultrasound last week because my belly is still measuring two weeks behind where it should be. She is measuring right on track so I think its just because she is hiding around the side/back...some women have the little basketball..I have the tire :) She was 5 pounds 3 ounces last week! I'm still on bedrest (boring!) and on medicine to stop contractions (though it is only slowing them down, not stopping them. I still have a lot through out the day which is really frustrating...nothing like having pointless labor for a month. I'm thankful that I've been able to keep her cooking for this long but its not fun to have contractions all the time for no reason.) This Tuesday I will be 36 weeks so they are going to take me off of bedrest and off of the medication so we will see what happens!

33 weeks

I went back to work on Saturday for the first time after the labor Wednesday...well, for about two hours. I had been having random contractions since then (about 10 a day...ouch they hurt!!). But while I was working Saturday I was having about 4-5 contractions an hour. So I told my midwife and she sent me back to l&d to monitor contractions (the nice thing about being at work was that my midwife was right there working on my floor too and I only had to go downstairs to get to triage...makes it easy!) They monitored a couple contractions and then did an ultrasound. She's doing great...active and a good heartbeat...we even got to see on the ultrasound that she has hair (sorry, they didn't give me any pics!) So its bedrest for me until it would be ok to deliver (about another 4 weeks) and medicine to stop contractions. Hopefully I won't go crazy!

32 weeks

Last Wednesday, I went in to labor at 32 weeks. Though I had been having contractions off and on for the last several weeks, they had been irregular up until this point. We had just gotten home from lamaze class when the contractions started coming closer together. Soon they started coming every 4 minutes like clockwork. So we headed back to Kennestone (my home away from home!). The contractions kept coming while I was on the monitor so they gave me two doses of a medication to stop them. That worked so we headed home around 4am. I think when we were taking the tour of labor and delivery during our class that night she thought it was time to come!

28 week pic

This is the ultrasound pic from 28 weeks- we finally have a shot of her face! I had an ultrasound at 28 weeks because my belly was measuring 26 weeks instead of 28 weeks (turns out it was because she was still laying sideways).

20 week ultrasound pic

ultrasound pics

Sorry it took me so long to upload these! This is the ultrasound from 8 weeks

26 Weeks at the boat show

24 weeks

Lots of movement! I started feeling her move at about 15 weeks (though I wasn't sure at first if that was the baby or my stomach!) and it keeps getting stronger every week! She moves the most right after I eat. Jason got to feel her kick at 21 weeks...a special moment! I've been feeling good except for being really swollen in my hands and ankles/feet (the 12 hour shifts on my feet definitely don't help!)

Christmas- 22 weeks