another catch up

Sean went back to CBC this quarter. He's trying to get he pre-reqs out of the way so he can apply for the X-Ray technology program. He has a handful of classed to get out of the way first, but he;s pretty excited about going back to school. He's awesome, working two jobs, raising a baby and going back to school. I think it's been a little different getting back into the swing of doing homework for him though.

Boston is three months old now. It's crazy how quick that three months went by. Why didn't the first three months of my pregnancy go by that quickly?!?!? I could spend every second of every day with him and it wouldn't be enough. I feel extremely blessed that we have such a happy baby. He isn't too happy when it's tummy time though. He really dislikes being on his tummy!

A little catch up....

Everytime I think I am going to post an entry something happens to keep me from doing so.....well, no tonight. I just fed, changed and put Boston to sleep so I am taking FULL advantage of my free moments to post an entry!! We had our appointment at the children's hospital. It was on Tuesday February 2nd at 9:45 am. I have a ladies bible study on Monday nights that doesn't get over until 8 pm so that meant we woke up at 4 am on Tuesday so we could be on the road by 5 am. I was thinking that we were leaving a little early, but I ate my words and I was glad Sean wanted to leave so early because we got to the hospital at 9:40. It was pretty perfect timing!! At the hospital the nurse weighed, measured and took Boston's blood pressure with the cutest little foot cuff I have ever seen! Then the student doctor (I can't remember her name) came in and asked all about our family history then checked Boston's entire body for any bruising and then went to talk to Dr. Pendergrass. Both the student doctor and Dr. Pendergrass returned in about five minutes to tell us that although Boston does have the bleeding disorder we will have to return to Seattle in June or July to have him tested again because they don't know how accurate the Von Willebrand Factors and the Factor VIII levels are when the test is done right after birth. Since he had just gone through a huge trauma the factor levels could be at their all time highest levels, but they could also be at their all time lowest levels or some where in the middle. We then asked what that meant for getting the circumcision because our pediatrician, Dr. Patillo wanted to know more before he would do the procedure. Dr. Pendergrass had to call the Puget Sound Blood Center and speak with them before he could tell us. One really long day later Dr. Pendergrass called to say that Boston would need a dose of Humate-P one hour before the procedure and then another dose 36 hours after the surgery. Boston will have to be admitted to Kadlec for the procedure and stay for 24 hours so they can observe him, but Dr. Patillo said he would be willing to perform the circumcision as long as it was scheduled before Boston turned one month old. After a month a urologist would have to do the procedure. Dr. Pendergrass also said that instead of the usual method of using a scalpel to remove the skin they would use the Bell Method because it would cause less bleeding, which is a good thing for a person with a bleeding disorder! Luckily for us Dr. Patillo was able to schedule us in at 6am on Tuesday the 9th. We'll be in the Pediatric Wing at Kadlec and we are very confident in the team of doctors who are working together to make this a success! Dr. Patillo is also giving us a prescription for Humate-P so that we can have it ready at home, just in case after the second dose Boston starts bleeding again for some reason. If we need to take him to the emergency room we will be prepared with what we need. (Hospitals don't have Humate-P on hand and it would have to be ordered in from Seattle.) It's very unlikely that we will need the third dose, but it's better to be safe!! Prayers for a successful surgery and quick recovery would be very much appreciated, as would prayers that our insurance companies would cove most of, if not all of the procedure. Dr. Patillo warned us that our insurance companies may deny the claim because this is an optional procedure. I sure hope not!!

Von Willebrand Disease

Well, we found out this week that Boston does have Von Willebrand Disease. It's a hereditary bleeding disorder that has a fifty fifty chance of being passed on with EACH child conceived. Sean's family has type II A and that means the bleeding is moderate to severe. Their blood is missing the factor that causes it to clot correctly. The blood will actually form clots, but they aren't good and blood oozes out of the clots. People with Von Willebrand Disease bruise easily and even minor cuts and scrapes can take an extremely long time to stop bleeding. For instance when Boston got his PKU test (the heel prick) he bleed almost completely through the gauze, where as you or I would maybe have a little bit of blood on it. Also, as they get older people with Von Willebrand Disease tend to start bleeding at their joints and if they aren't treated can cause severe pain and crippling. As terrible as this sounds, it really isn't that bad because it's all preventable.

At this point all this means for Boston is when he gets circumsized he will have to have a medicine called Humate P. It's the stuff that his blood is missing in order to clot correctly. Unfortunately, it's given through IV. I'm going ot have to learn how to give him the injections. :( Who wants to learn how to do that? I know that in reality it's not going to be that bad, but I still don't want to do it. Luckily, I won't have to learn how to do that until he is older. For now if anything happens to cause a bleed then he would have to go to the hospital and they would treat him. We also will be getting him a medic alert ID bracelet as well as getting a sticker for our vehicles so if we were ever in a car accident the EMT's would know what to do.

Our pediatrician referred us to Seattle Children's Hospital's Pediatric Hematology department, so we will be making a trip or two up there. The pediatric hematologist will help us better understand exactly what this means for Boston and help us to create a plan of action in case of emergency. I know we're in God's hands, so I'm not worried!

He's a week old already!!

It seems strange that Boston is one week old already. Time is going by quickly!! Sean and I were surprised on Thursday afternoon when we were told we could go home. Originally they had told us we would be in the hospital until Friday afternoon. We were SO excited to go home. Especially me. I couldn't wait to sleep in my own bed. The hospital bed was like sleeping on concrete with a giant speed bump right where your hips are. Sean's mom Debbie has stayed at our house almost every night since we came home. It has been such a huge blessing to have her here helping us!! She has been doing the cooking, cleaning, etc for me. She wakes me up every three hours to feed Boston and then changes him. It's great!!! I highly recommend that everyone have a super moth-in-law like I have!!! Sean had to go back to work on Monday, so it's been kind of a bummer in the aspect. He's been just as tired as I have because he wants to stay up all night with Boston, but he has to work at 5:30 in the morning and really needs his sleep!

On Saturday was the baby shower. It's kind of funny that Boston was at his own baby shower. Needless to say it wasn't your average baby shower. It was mostly just a time to visit and eat cake! :) Boston did really well being passed around from person to person. I don't think he cried much, if any. It was nice! Then on Sunday morning Sean took him to church. I was too exhausted to go, so I stayed home. After church we went back to the hospital for our check up and to have my staples removed. I was having some serious anxiety about having my staples removed. I'm such a wimp when it comes to that stuff!! Finally it's time to get them out and she's almost done before I even figure out that they are being removed. I couldn't even feel it. All that anxiety for nothing (thankfully)! I've healed really well. Debbie keeps telling me how amazed she is at me and how I have bounced back so quickly. I told her that I take no credit for my recovery, God gets all the credit!!

I didn't know that I could be so exhausted, but so happy at the same time!!

Our Baby Boy!

On Monday the 11th I was so tired I slept ALL day long. When Sean got home he thought I was sick or something. I made a joke that maybe my body was preparing for labor and I was going to have a baby that night. I went to Ladies' Bible Study at 6:30 and was itching miserably. Everyone told me to call the doctor to see what was wrong. They thought maybe since my blood pressure was high this might have something to do with that. I really did NOT want to call the hospital again because I had already been there three stinking times and all they do is give me a urine test, draw my blood, monitor my blood pressure and monitor the Boston's stress level for an hour to six hours and then send me home. What's the stinking point I figured, but my mother-in-law let me borrow a blood pressure cuff and my blood pressure was 147 over 115. Kelly called me to see if I had called the hospital yet and I said no, but that I was going to. I called Kadlec and the nurse said relax for ten minutes, take your blood pressure again and then call me back. Ten minutes later my blood pressure was 145/114, so of course the nurse said come in. I told Sean don't worry about it, go back to bed and I will be home in a few hours. He looked at me like that was the dumbest thing he had ever heard and said Are you kidding me?

As we pull up the the hospital I was said maybe that joke about sleeping so much because I might go into labor tonight wasn't so funny huh? He said yeah, maybe not! The nurses immediately put us in an exam room, give me a gown and tell me to undress. I looked at Sean and said, ok maybe this is a little more serious because they don't normally give me a gown. Of course they give me the cup and say go to the bathroom, then tell me the lab will be by in a bit to draw my blood and hook me up to the blood pressure and baby monitor. It's maybe ten minutes and Kelly shows up and the nurse comes in to take a look at the monitors. Then in walk Dr. Mulholland and I knew something was out of the ordinary because he wouldn't come in unless it was warranted. He looks at the blood pressure and says something to the effect of Holy Cow, how long has it been that high? He talked to the nurse for a minute and says he'll be back. The nurse does her checking and leaves the three of us alone. We're all thinking great! Then the nurse comes back in and says that I'm most likely going to stay over night to be monitored. I ask her if I can eat but she says to wait until the blood and the urine test comes back. It's been maybe another 15 or 20 minutes and she comes in to say there was a lot of protein in my urine and I am well on my way to having a baby. The likelihood of being induced is pretty high. The next thing I know she is back telling us we're going to have a baby tonight. Although, since it's a quarter to midnight we all know that isn't exactly true. Dr. Mulholland is going to induce me because I am pre-eclampsia and the baby is better off out than in. They transfer us to an actual birthing suite and tell us that no more than two people are allowed in the room because they don't want me to be any more stressed out than I already am. Then they make an exception because my mom, Kelly and Sean are all supposed to be in the room, but the nurses aren't real happy about that. They nurses hook me up to an IV and give me pitocin to induce labor and magnesium or something to lower my blood pressure. We make all the family phone calls and then we wait, and wait, and wait some more.

Around seven thirty in the morning we are still waiting, by this time my contractions are getting to be more frequent and stronger, but they are still manageable. The nurses ask me if I want the epidural and I immediately say yes...even though I felt kind of silly since the contractions weren't THAT bad yet. They give me the epidural about a quarter till and tell me that the epidural will make my blood pressure drop, so that's good since it's still high. Immediately after the epidural I am feeling great. I can't feel any of the contractions. I'm thinking this is easy. Then I look over at the nurse and see the look of concern on her face as she is studying the monitors. Great I am thinking. She says she's going to show the tests to Dr. Mulholland and come back. A few minutes later they both walk in and he tells me that they are going to perform a c-section. He explains that my blood pressure drop was so severe that it made Boston's heart rate drop dramatically and that it wasn't safe. He said luckily it's not an emergency, but it's still serious enough that they didn't want to be continually messing with trying to stabilize his heart rate. He said we were waiting for the room to be free and we should have our baby by 10 am.

I was like ok! Although having a C-section was no where on my to do list for this lifetime! Sometimes you just don't know what is going to happen. When we got the operating room Sean was already beaming from ear to ear because he knew it was close. He couldn't wait. All I could see was him looking over the drape and eagerly awaiting Boston's arrival. Then next thing I know they are calling Sean over and telling me to turn my head to the right and there was our beautiful baby boy!!! It was so weird! I was like you are done already?!? I was in and out of the operating room in one hour and two minutes. I really think it was five minutes of actual surgery and the rest was prepping me and stapling me up. There was even a medical student in the room so you know it took longer than it normally would have because he was teaching as he was working!

Tuesday January 12th Boston Alexander Campeau graced us with his presence. He was born at 10:08 am, weighed 6 pounds even and was 20.5inces long. He has a ton of hair! No wonder my heart burn was so bad!! Sean was the happiest man alive and I was so thankful for him because the next 16 or so hours were pure un-imaginable misery for me. I really don't know what I would have done without Sean. My body did not handle all of the drugs well at all to say the least. The nurses were then giving me all kinds of nausea medicine and other injections to counter act the narcotic effect of the epidural. I think I finally felt human again around three am. It was COMPLETELY worth it though and I would do it again in a minute!!

Sunday!!!!

Last night I slept in the kids room in Isaac's bed. Him and Brayden were sort of camping out in the living room so it was just Kiersten and me in the kid's room. This morning my alarm went off and of course I hit the snooze button, the third time I hit the snooze button I thought I better get up or I am going to make us all late for church. Just then Kiersten gets out of bed and walks over to me and asks Can I lay with you? Of course I am just about to get up and take a shower so I say no because I need to take a shower and get ready for church and she needs to eat breakfast and get ready for church. Cheerily she says OK and starts to walk away. On second thought, what's better than cuddling with your niece?!?! So even though I know we are going to be late I say OK, you can get in bed with me. It made both of our days! She is so talkative first thing in the morning. Ten minutes later I reluctantly tell her it's time for us to get ready and race into the shower. Amazingly I was ready on time!! However, we were still late because all morning Brayden was screaming I don't want to go to church!! It was a fight to get him ready and out the door and Kelly was even the one getting him ready (she doesn't go to church with us). Brayden was fussy the whole way and all I was thinking was great, his number is going to flash on the screen as soon as we sit down. We get to church and my mom takes Brayden to his classroom and I take Kiersten and Isaac to theirs. As we are trekking up the stairs Kiersten looks at me and says You are on bed rest. You should have taken the elevator. You better take the elevator down! I giggle and think my goodness, I even have an eight year old telling me what to do, but it's cute. So on the way back I took the elevator down. The service was great!! One of those ones where you know he is speaking DIRECTLY to you and to no one else in the room. I left feeling both convicted and energized. I suppose that's a pretty good combination. Brayden's number never flashed on the screen either!! This time my mom went to get Kiersten and Isaac and I went to get Brayden. When I got there he is all smiles and enthusiastically tells me, My didn't cry Brandy, My didn't cry!! Good I tell him I am so proud of you and give him a big hug.

On the way home I tell my mom I am starving and ask her to make me fried potatoes, eggs and toast when we get home. She said ok. I was like really?!?! It's that easy? Man I wish I was on bed rest all the time and she always cooked me breakfast. Ha. Ha. Although, when we get home I am feeling guilty and ask her what she will let me do to help. So I did end up frying the eggs on a hot plate while sitting down. It was kind of funny. I have never cooked sitting down before! We had a really good family brunch, minus Kelly because she was sound asleep when we got home, but it was really nice to sit around with my family and have brunch. Sean wasn't there either, unfortunately he was at work. Family time is always nice, even if the whole family isn't there.

In a little over an hour my husband will be here and I am quite excited because I have not seen him since Thursday night. The weekends aren't so great for spending time with each other. Especially with me being on bed rest ans staying at my mom's. He wants me stay out here so that I am not alone and being taken care of. He doesn't come out here between jobs because we would both rather that he goes home and gets as much sleep as he can. But it's Sunday and he will be here soon!!!!

Boston has dropped. My stomach looks dramatically smaller now. It's really funny. I would think I would be looking huge right about now, but people keep telling me how small I look. Today I even had someone ask me if I had already given birth, but she just hadn't heard yet. When I told her nope, he's still in there her eyes got so big and she said you look so much smaller now. I sure don't feel small when I need to bend down and pick something up! Lol.

So for now I am still patiently/impatiently awaiting Boston's arrival!

It's Friday!!

Well, it's Friday and now that Sean is working at Joker's on the weekends I equally love the weekends adn equally hate the weekends. Obviously I love the weekends because I don't have to work and can spend time with the family and friends; however, I now hate the weekends because I don't really see my husband from Thursday through Sunday. He's either working at Lowe's, sleeping or working at Joker's. However, tonight is the Family Movie Night at Faith and Sean is going to come to that before he has to go to work. On one hand I love that he will sacrifice his sleep for some family time, but at the same time I want him to go home and sleep. I hate to see him so worn out! This weekend he is working at Lowe's at 6 am and then at Joker's from 9pm to 2am so he doesn't get much sleep. Dinner is a spaghetti feed from 5 to 6 and then Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs starts at 6:30. It's all FREE at Faith Assembly so you should come if you are reading this!! Even if you don't have kids it will be fun!! There is free popcorn too, and they will have other movie snacks that you can purchase if you would like.

I'm thirty six weeks today!!! Not much longer to go now. Boston could be arriving any day now. I am anxious for his arrival, but I could skip the delivery!!! Ha. Ha. I try not to think about labor because as most of you know, I am a WIMP!! I just keep thinking that when I can no longer do it then God will carry me through it. That makes me feel better. We did our tour of the birthing floor at Kadlec yesterday. I was excited to hear that I don't have to bring my own stereo because all of the rooms have them now. I will be listening to KLOVE from the time I arrive through Boston's birth!! That will help to keep me relaxed.