Pseudo Update

First of all, I want to apologize for not posting an update sooner . . . things have been ridiculously crazy since last Thursday, and we are still trying to get our bearings.  The second thing I would like to say is THANK YOU to everyone for the tremendous outpouring of love and support that we have received both before and after Claire's arrival.  Your kind words and offers of assistance have helped us more than you know, and we are forever grateful.

I would love to post a long update right now, but I think that would take more time than I currently have (but I promise I will get to it before the end of the week).  Suffice to say that Claire is doing incredibly well, much better than we could have ever expected.  She arrived at 9:18 a.m. on Thursday, May 16, 2013, and has been exceeding all expectations since then.

Meet Claire Bear

Claire is pretty much taking care of things on her own - maintaining her own temperature, breathing, and definitely eating - since Friday.  She was given a little oxygen assistance on Day 1, but that was just due to her having a little fluid in her lungs that was resolved almost immediately.  She was allowed to start nursing on Day 2 (and has been a little piggie ever since).  All of her nurses and doctors, including the amazing Dr. F, have been impressed with her progress, and we are hoping to bring her home in the near future.  Although a possibility, we decided to hold off on surgery for Claire's "O" at this time, but will instead keep it wrapped (with a little compression) to give Claire's abdomen some more time to grow so it can accommodate everything.

Okay, must run - my fantastic sister, Kati, is waiting outside to take me to the hospital for Claire's 2:00 p.m. feeding.  

Thank you again for everything ~~ I promise that a more complete update will be posted soon!

Love, 

Val

The Final Countdown

First of all, just to make sure we are all on the same page as to where the post title came from (and so that I am not the only one with this song stuck in my head):

You're welcome.

Anyway, today was the third-to-last non-stress test and my last ob-gyn appointment before Claire's big debut.  I really don't have anything exciting to report, but it felt strange not to do a blog post, so there you have it.  Once again, you're welcome.  Claire passed the non-stress test (when she wasn't turning away and hiding from the heart monitor), but she remained stubborn and refused to uncover her face for the mini-ultrasound.  The appointment with Dr. H actually ended up being with Erin, the physician's assistant, instead.  She gave me some more info as to what to expect on the 16th (assuming we make it that far), such as: even though the C-section is scheduled for 8AM, we will need to first call the hospital at 5AM to make sure a bed is available, and, if so, actually arrive at the hospital at 6AM for pre-surgery fun.  Erin also told me that Dr. H isn't actually on the OR schedule for the 16th, but is coming in just for Claire (but don't tell her that - the child doesn't need to think she is special or anything).  I was also sent to the lab for one last platelet check, and then that was that.  Now there is nothing to do but wait to see if Claire will hold out for the 16th or decide to do things her own way and arrive ahead of schedule ...

Given the lack of substantive information in this post, I figured I would supplement it with some pictures of Claire's room so everyone could see the MASSIVE transformation that took place thanks to the hard work of Bo and our amazing friends and family. 

As you can see, we started out with some pretty AWESOME  wallpaper.

About a year ago, I tried to remove the wallpaper myself, only to have barely made a dent after a full day's worth of work due to the multiple layers I found (including plaster!) and the generally poor overall condition of the walls themselves.  Thankfully, my husband is a genius, and he decided it would be easiest if we just put new drywall over the whole room.  Even better, he was able to enlist Riverview's finest to assist him with this task:

Tearing out the small closet and sealing up the door between Claire and Cole's rooms.

Even the ceiling was covered.

Of course, after the drywall came the mudding.  Once again, our neighbors pitched in, but not before Bo proved that he was not above violating the child labor laws:

Since we had pretty much exhausted the goodwill of our neighbors by that point, we were more than willing to take my parents up on their offer to assist with the painting.

The walls look pink in a lot of the photos, but are more of a light lavender.

Of course, that did not mean that Cole was able to escape without being put to work:

Finally, we were able to start moving everything in.

Now I just need to finish washing and putting away Claire's clothes, and we will be absolutely ready.  Thank you so much to everyone for all of their hard work and assistance in helping us get to this point ~~ we definitely could not have done it without you!

~~Val

Appointment Trifecta

Once again, I apologize for not posting sooner . . . yesterday was the perfect storm of appointments, which completely wiped me out for the rest of the day, and today is the first day of the invoice period, so I have been very productive this morning (except replace "very" with "somewhat, when not distracted by Facebook, e-mails, and shiny objects," and you'll have a more accurate picture of my day so far).

First on the agenda for yesterday was the non-stress test.  I was a little concerned about how it would play out given that I didn't eat a lot of lunch ahead of time (for some reason, the plastic utensils did not survive the move to the new office, and it is very hard to eat mac-n-cheese without a fork or spoon), but Claire proved me wrong and kicked butt.

From there, we went to our ultrasound appointment, which was pretty uneventful.  We did learn that Claire weighs approximately 6 lbs, 8 oz, but, as both the ultrasound tech and the doctor were quick to point out, this is just an estimate as it is largely based on the size of her abdomen (which is hard to determine given her "O").  Otherwise, everything else looks to be on track.  The ultrasound tech tried to take some pictures of Claire's face, but she kept throwing her arm up in the way:

Pretty sure we have yet to get a picture where her mouth is not hidden.

The tech kept trying, but it was easy to tell from the grumpy expression in the last picture that Claire was quickly losing patience with the whole process:

Can't hide those chubby cheeks, though!

Finally, we had our appointment with Dr. H., who confirmed that everything continues to look good.  He did stress the importance of doing "kick counts" 2x per day to keep track of Claire's movements as the higher amount of amniotic fluid increases the risk of Claire getting tangled up in the umbilical cord, but I am not too concerned as it is usually harder to keep track of the times when Claire is not moving than when she is.  Dr. H also gave us some more details about the C-section.  According to him, the earliest I can expect to be discharged is Sunday the 19th, and I will not be able to drive for two (2) weeks . . . so if anyone wants to volunteer to provide taxi services, let me know!  I promise not to "backseat drive" (much), I will let you pick the music, and I will even throw in the chance to drive my awesome uber-preppy soccer mom SUV that we were able to get thanks to Bo's brother, John. :)

One of the many shiny things that has distracted me lately.

So, that about sums it up.  Dr. H. said that we will not have any more ultrasounds between now and the 16th, which just leaves four more non-stress tests and two more ob-gyn appointments before Claire is here!  I know I have said it before, but I really cannot stress enough how much everyone's love and support has helped Bo and I over the past couple of months . . . thank you, thank you, thank you!

~~ Val