Half-Way There, 20 weeks

Last week, I had an appointment with my OB and MFM. They both went fine and Baby Girl is still growing great. My ob said that I need to rest more now that we are 20 weeks, and suggested 6 hours a day of lounging around. So far, that’s been pretty hard to achieve.  He also mentioned hospital bed rest at some point as a precaution. While I was at the office my blood pressure was 140/90, a little high but not stroke high. That night I checked it at home and it was a perfect 120/80. It seems I have a real anxiety problem when I go to the doctor. I had the same problem when I went to my MFM appointment but I told them that I check it regularly at home and it is always between 110/70 and 120/80. It’s really mind boggling that it gets so high because I don’t stress a lot before I go. The MFM didn’t seem worried about it. I also asked him about bed rest and he said that we don’t even need to be thinking about that right now because everything is going really well. I’m worried that if I did have to go to the hospital because of my blood pressure, it would not come down if it doesn’t come down at the doctor’s office. 

The MFM is over an hour away and while I was there I was able to go meet a friend from my on-line support group for women with FSGS. She just had a baby girl a few months ago after an experience similar to mine with Malakai. 

I guess some of the nervousness of this pregnancy is starting to subside since we have made it past 18 weeks when we delivered Teddy still-born. Now I don’t worry so much that we might not find a heartbeat, but I am concerned that we might not make it full-term.  We are staying positive and planning for a full-term, bring home baby. We have started stocking up on all the things we will need and I have found a lot of cute baby clothes at consignment sales. Matt ordered her Travel System and put together the stroller. We also moved the boxes out of the nursery that didn’t belong in there.  I have a sweet aunt that has sent me several packages of knitted booties, sweaters, hats and bonnets. She also made some really cute bonnets from my great- grandmother’s hankies and they are so cute.

I started to feel flutters from baby girl around 16 weeks, but last night they were really big kicks. On the ultrasound she is always very active. It’s so cute to watch her get comfy and roll around.  We still have not settled on a name yet, but we have a few ideas we are tossing around.

Please continue to pray for this pregnancy, specifically that my blood pressure does not get higher or uncontrollable, and that she continues to grow on target and does not fall behind. I am very thankful that we have made it this far without any problems and that my kidney function has even improved, we are praying that things continue to go this way.

18 Weeks

Yesterday, Matt and I went to our 18 week appointment to see our Maternal Fetal Medicine Doctor and have an in depth look at Baby Girl on the ultrasound. I was so nervous about this appointment! I feel like 18 weeks is one of several milestones since our first pregnancy with Teddy ended at 18 weeks.

 

The appointment went really well. The ultrasound tech was great and made the experience so much more enjoyable. I drank a lot of sweet tea before the appointment to make sure that Baby Girl was awake and moving around and I think it back fired because she was really active. Next time, I won’t drink caffeine before the appointment. During the ultrasound we got to see her flip around, hold her hands together like she was praying, wave at us, and wiggle a whole bunch. It was really cute for us but I could tell it was making the ultrasound tech have a hard time getting her images.  

 

With Teddy, my first pregnancy, we suspect that the antibodies in my body attacked the uterus cutting of blood flow to him at 18 weeks. Then with Malakai, he had already started to fall behind on growth at 18 weeks because of the anti-bodies again (he was below 40% on the growth charts at this time). Having Teddy pass away at 18 weeks and Malakai already showing signs at 18 weeks that there was a problem, it added to the fear of my appointment yesterday. So far, baby girl is still growing and she is maintaining her 61% on the growth charts. The MFM said that we should count on a big healthy baby since she is looking so good!

 

We continue to pray that she grows bigger and stronger every day. We are specifically praying that the antibodies don’t attack the placenta so that she continues to get all the nourishment she needs and her growth stays on track.

Kidney Update

Last week, I had an appointment with my nephrologists. My nephrologists is three hours away and on the way down there I started to wonder if I should find a new one closer, but once I got there I remembered why I keep going there. My doctor is great and I don’t feel like he tries to scoot me out quickly. The down side was that I was by far the youngest person in the waiting room and old people stink. I’m sure you’re not interested in my stories about the others that were in the waiting room, so I will move to the good stuff- my latest kidney numbers.

I’m always nervous to go to these appointments for fear that I am going to hear horrible results from the 10 tubes of blood that were drawn. I’m so excited to tell you that my results were really great. I’m really excited about my good results. So here it is: my kidney function came up 8 points! I’m pretty excited to have improvement. My creatine is finally below 2 again- 1.89 J My bun was within normal range too- I’ve not seen it this low in a long time, actually  I don’t remember it ever being within normal range. Last time my potassium was high but it’s also now normal, which I was really surprised about because I have been eating a lot of high potassium foods.

I’m really amazed that my numbers are finally starting to improve, I keep trying to figure out if I have done something that might help but I can’t think of a thing. I have been eating a lot of junk food- potato chips, pickles, cookies, hamburgers, fast food. I had gone gluten and dairy free but I didn’t notice too much of a change and so about 2 months ago I started eating normal again. The only thing that may have helped has been our new water filter. Well, and lots of prayer too, I think that’s the biggest difference.

Mark 9:23-24 “‘If you can [help us]’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”

 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Recently, my pastor preached on these verses, and for the entire story go here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+9&version=NIV. In summary, the boy’s father had asked his disciples to heal his son, but they were unable to. I’m sure that he was disappointed when they were unable to, so when he saw Jesus he asked Jesus if he could heal his son. That’s when Jesus proclaims that Everything is possible for one who believes. I really felt like I could relate to the father when he asked Jesus to help him overcome his unbelief. To me, what stands out is that he did believe, but maybe he felt it was TOO big for God. I know that I often feel like some stuff is too big for God, but Jesus reminded him that EVERYTHING is possible when we believe. I’ve been praying a lot that God would help my faith grow, to help me overcome me unbelief. It’s been pretty cool too, because as I pray for others and I see God work in their life in BIG ways, it encourages me that God is also going to be able to do great things in my life too, and He is.

It's a New Year

Last year was full of so many changes. First, we decided to start the adoption process. Then, we bought our first foreclosure property and totally remodeled it. Throw in numerous doctor appointments driving here and there. Oh and a few fun trips too.

We learned so much going through all the adoption classes. Things I was scared to handle, such as child sexual abuse, no longer seem so scary. I also learned a lot about patience as the process took us so much longer than we had expected. Finally, we are totally done and now we just WAIT and WAIT and WAIT to be matched to our kids.

Let’s not forget all the doctor appointments too. We maxed out of Flex spending account on co-pays and medicine. It looks like next year will be just as busy with appointments too. I am thankful through it all that I have met some great doctors and I think my care is going to be fantastic.

Looking back it was a really busy year. If we get matched with siblings our whole life will continue at this busy pace. If we throw in a new house our life will get even busier as we move and put this house on the market. We could make things even more exciting and busy by adding a baby to our family. What will 2013 have for us?

Two Little Words

Two Little Words

Matt and I have been waiting for months now to hear two little words. I wish I could say I have been patient, but the truth is that I am not a very patient person. I bet you were thinking that the two little words would be “We’re Pregnant”, but nope, that’s not them. We have been waiting and waiting to hear “We’re Approved” for adoption.

That’s right, after ten months of waiting we have been approved to adopt from the state foster system. So from here, we wait to be matched to our kids. We are hoping for siblings, under the age of 6. Maybe two or three, we didn’t put a max number down. I did see on the national waiting children website that there are sibling groups of five!

In a day our family could double in size! We are so thankful that God already knows who are kids are and we have been praying that he protects their hearts from the abuse they may experience before they come to us. We have also been praying that God will equip us to be able to help them and parent them the best way we can. It’s exciting and I would say that I hope you all will be praying for us too, but I already know that there are so many that are because I have an unexplainable amount of peace about everything that is about to change in our life.

The Little House Revealed- Kitchen

In April, Matt and I bought a Hud Home to renovate and live in. It has been a lot of work, but it is so rewarding to see all that we have accomplished. The home sat vacant for over a year, but before that the family that lived here did not do much house work, which was evident by all the dead bugs and bug poop everywhere. Before we painted we scrubbed everything down with disinfecting Pine Sol.

The house is little, 1100 sq feet little, but the space is laid out really well, and for such a small house it has a pretty nice size kitchen.
In the kitchen, we took out all the cabinets and scrubbed them, sanded them, and painted them. We also put Pergo floors in the entire house except the bathrooms and laundry room.


The new floors are great, they are really hard to scratch and so far even the chairs have not scratched them. I like them so much more than carpet and they have been so easy to keep clean. Some people said they would not do well in a kitchen, but so far I have not had any problems. We just made sure when we hooked up the dishwasher and ice maker they were not leaking.









 We took every single thing that was attached with a screw out of the house. We replaced all the hardware with brushed nickle and put in new electrical outlets and light fixtures. The only 2 things that were not taken out of the house were the bath tub and shower stall.

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 Painting the cabinets was a huge job, especially since they were so dirty and had to be scrubbed and sanded so much. We probably put at least 40 hours into them. Cabinets are expensive, so I think we still did really well. My dad had to help us repair a couple of them and he made us an entire new one to go on the side of the dishwasher so we could utilize the entire length of counter. You can see in the picture above that we have not hung the door on it yet.




  I really love my Folk Art chicken painting. I bought it on a Facebook resale page for my birthday present. You can't see it very well, but I have a vintage kitchen towel on the stove with a chicken on it and my paper towel holder is also a chicken. They are cute but I don't think I have overdone it in a cheesy way.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our little kitchen. I think it turned out great but what's most important is that I'm able to prepare and serve tasty and healthy meals.

It took me over an hour to format this correctly, and at the end I was so frazzled that I may have missed a few mistakes. Please ignore them. Thank You.

Kidney Check-up appointment

My girls in my kidney support group know what I mean when I say that the anxiety before a check-up appointment is horrible. I am sure it's just as bad if you had a cancer check-up. The fear that your labs will be bad is always present and real. My last appointment was a little less anxiety filled than normal, and I am thankful to report that I got a great report.

Exactly a year ago I saw my nephrologist right after Malakai had passed away and I was recovering from the Pre-Eclampsia. Looking back at the labs for the past year, everything is looking very stable and IN FACT things are getting better. (Yup, I am doing the happy dance right now!) The improvement is slow, but I am so thankful that the numbers are heading in the right direction. He said there is no reason I should be worried about my numbers since they are slowly improving. My creatine is slowly coming back down and my protein is also getting better. My protein was never a really big concern, but it has been hanging out above the normal range for a while now. Normal is 0-15 mg and I think I had about 50 mg. Some of the girls in my group spill 1 or more grams per day and that is when it becomes a concern.

We talked about getting pregnant again and he said that he would prescribe the IVIg treatments for me. Wahoo! He first wants to call and speak to a doctor that prescribes them to make sure they increase pregnancy success and to know how often I will need them. There are only a few doctors in the country that specialize in auto-immune disorders AND pregnancy (reproductive immunologist) and they all happen to be to far to drive to. These doctors use IVIg treatments a lot, so I hope they are able to help him help me. I'm praying that everything falls into place soon.

I'm so thankful that everything went well and we got all good news back. I'm continuing to pray for complete healing for my kidneys and that our family grows soon!

These pictures are from the appointment, since it was close to the beach we decided to stay and make it a vacation.