Thursday, March 7, 2013

Update

This is just a quick update. I went to the Perinatologist yesterday because they didn't see me on Friday when I went for my first ultrasound. I was slightly concerned because they called Monday and wanted to get me in ASAP. He read to us what the pediatric cardiologist sent over that it was  good prognosis, he also scanned and specifically looked at the brain, lips, hands, feet, and spine and said that everything looked good and normal! This kind of heart defect is not commonly associated with chromosomal abnormalities, so at this time we're not doing the amniocentesis or the blood test that tests for trisomy 13,18, or 21 and both the Perinatologist and Pediatric Cardiologist seem comfortable with that since there doesn't seem to be any other abnormalities. I will continue to be seen by both. The Perinatologist said his job is to make sure the baby is growing at a proper rate and possibly give advice to the OB for delivery, or whatever becomes necessary. I also have a slight placenta previa (which is where the placenta is over the cervix a little bit) which I think it should move up as the pregnancy progresses. If it doesn't it just means we'll have a c-section.

I felt encouraged and more positive after this visit, just that everything was confirmed and they all seemed to be on the same page. And that the doctor looked specifically at everything else and that both doctors were ok with not doing further testing. We are very, very thankful that everything else looks fine. I'm still praying that nothing else is wrong with her heart, I'm going to ask specifically at the next cardiologist appointment if he sees anything or not, but as far as we know they didn't find anything else last time. We go in a little over a week.

Thank you to everyone for praying. We GREATLY appreciate it! So glad that God is in control and we can trust in Him no matter what.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

It's a...complicated....

GIRL!!! We're very excited to have found out a few days ago that we're having another baby girl. I think we had all convinced ourselves it would a boy! So what a fun surprise. Luke and Emily have always wanted another sister with each pregnancy and then Josiah said we needed another girl, because there were too many boys!
However, while I was at my routine ultrasound the babies heart had an arrhythmia, so they referred me to a pediatric cardiologist for a more detailed heart ultrasound. They actually had an opening right away and so we were able to go right from the ultrasound appointment to see the pediatric cardiologist. There were two ladies that were doing the ultrasound of the babies heart and while they were doing that they were mumbling to each other the whole time. A lot of what they said was trying to figure out the right of the heart from the left of the heart and then switching it around for some reason and trying to decide which arteries came from which side, etc. They also mentioned the words "Conference Room" (which in my opinion sounds scary) and he's going to want to scan it himself (referring to the doctor). By this point I had about decided it was bad and everything was mixed up. So then the doctor came in went over a little history, etc, mostly normal stuff and then he started looking at the ultrasound pictures on the machine. It took him about 30 minutes with one of the ladies that did the scan showing him different things and how they came their conclusions. So they stood there and mumbled to each other-THAT was a very long 30 minutes. Of course every possible scenario of anything that could possibly be wrong goes through your head while you sit there and try to listen and make heads or tails out of what they're saying. Then he had her scan some more while he watched and they took some more pictures.
Then he gave us our baby's diagnoses. I'll try to be brief. The first thing he told us is that she has Dextrocardia, which basically is instead of her heart being pointed toward the left of the chest (which would be normal) it points to the right and is a mirror image of what it should be. After looking it up online it looks like there could be a lot of other things that go along with that, but he did not mention any of that, so I think as far as that diagnosis is concerned it's very basic and nonproblematic.
The next diagnosis he gave her is Congenitally Corrected Translocation of the Great Arteries (CCTGA). I'm not going to use right or left in regard to ventricles because her heart is backwards and it gets very confusing even though they're referred to backwards (We're already confused, see?) So in a normal heart the larger ventricle is connected to the aorta and pumps blood the the entire body, the smaller ventricle is connected to the pulmonary artery and pumps blood to the lungs; In our baby girls heart, the arteries are switched, the larger ventricle pumps to the lungs and the smaller ventricle pumps to the body. There can be complications with this in regards to too much pressure to the lungs and in the arteries there, the smaller ventricle having to work too hard and not adapting well, as well as some other things. They don't usually do surgery for this type of defect, it could come to that as well as heart failure and needing a heart transplant, but for the most part a lot of it can be helped with different medications and such.
Her other diagnosis because of the CCTGA is a problem with the electrical pathways not triggering properly which causes arrhythmias and can potentially cause heart block in which case a pacemaker would be necessary.

My understanding of what the doctor told us. There is a very good prognosis. Some people don't even know that they have this and have lived long normal lives. There would be monitoring and watching over the years. As long as her body and heart are able to adapt to the different pressures and function well, she should be able to do whatever she wants to. He talked like it would be over time (several years) before we would have to treat anything, of course that would depend on how she did right after birth and such I would think. If she adjusted well and seemed to do okay we would just monitor and it would either stay the same or be a gradual decline. He said if her heart starts to have problems it would be a gradual thing, not sudden.  At this point I think that is all that's wrong with her. He did not mention any other heart abnormalities or anything that could go along with this. We are going back in two weeks for another ultrasound, so hopefully everything will be clear and there will be a definite there's nothing else wrong.

It's been a lot to process and figure out, but I think we're doing ok. God is good all the time. It's not just a saying it's truth. He has a plan and a purpose in it all and we firmly believe that. I hope and pray that it's not His plan to take our baby girl to Heaven soon, but if it is I know He'll give us the grace and strength to deal with that as well. I puzzle over trying to find the balance between being hopeful and having faith that she will be well and healthy, yet being realistic, yet not worrying.

Here are some links I found helpful that explain it fairly well:
http://www.chop.edu/service/cardiac-center/heart-conditions/congenitally-corrected-transposition-of-the-great-arteries.html

http://www.achaheart.org/resources/for-patients/health-information/cctga.aspx

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

News Flash

Emily learned how to ride her bike over the weekend! I had worked with her a little before we moved, but she would get whiny, and I would get frustrated, so I was going to let Leigh help her. She was very close. In our new house, the bikes get to stay on the back patio, so they can easily take them in the yard and ride them. (The rental house, they were hung from the ceiling in the laundry room and I couldn't get them down by myself.) So, Luke's been helping her!! It took her all of a day and now she's as fast, if not faster than Luke is!! Which is typical Emily fashion-taking off and trying to do better than Luke!
Interesting little fact: Luke learned to ride his bike on Grandmommy's birthday, September a year ago, and Emily learned to ride on Grandpa C.'s birthday, Saturday, Feb.2.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Happenings

Well, I didn't realize it had been a year since I last posted anything. A lot has gone on, mostly good! Trying to think back as to what we did that long ago. I think the kids and I went to Dothan in March.In April we went on "Spring Break" to St. Simon's Island and met up with Dana and her kids. We had a blast!! We had a sunrise service with baptism at the beach in April for Easter. The end of May we went to Dothan to pick up a friend to intern at our  church down here, and ended up swinging over to Pensacola to attend a funeral for a friends baby-very sad. Leigh was able to go with us on that trip because was over the weekend and combined with Memorial Day! June was a super busy month. The church had four interns that went out door to door almost every day, and the last week we had VBS. After July 4th, the kids and I took Norian back to Dothan and spent a week there. In August, we went to Sanibel Island to celebrate our 10 year anniversary (which was in June). We took the kids with us and were beach bums for a day and a half. It was sooo much fun and I am looking forward to going back sometime!
Luke started school the end of July. We started him in the A Beka video streaming, and I have absolutely loved it!! He does his school mostly independently, which gives me more time to school Emily and Josiah. I started Emily and Josiah the beginning of August. Josiah's in K-4, so his doesn't require too much work. He's been doing a really good job and seems to enjoy it! We had a little bit of a problem with Luke not thinking I was his teacher, too and not wanting to do the work I assigned him, but we dealt with that and this second semester, he has really jumped in and been  doing an excellent job participating and getting his work done quickly. A lot of days he starts earlier than the rest of us, so he can get done and play! He started going to the orthodontist over the summer and in the Fall, we started a treatment plan due to the way his teeth and jaw are aligned. This past week they put in an expander on the top and bottom of his mouth. The top one is one that we turn twice a week with a special tool. It's to help the top of his mouth expand out because his upper jaw causes his upper teeth to sit slightly inside the lower teeth and jaw. The lower expander is expand the lower part a little so that his permanent teeth will have more room. All of his teeth are crowded and when the permanent ones have been coming they are awfully crooked. There would definitely be a problem later on, so they say the earlier the better to start fixing some of it. He has really been a trooper through all of it! I thought sure his teeth would be more sore and he would be complaining about it while eating and such, but he's only mentioned it a time or two. He has eaten a little bit slower, but it doesn't seem to bother him much at all. He's had tylenol once since getting all this new hardware in his mouth. I've been very pleased with how he's done!!
We bought a house!! Signed contract in October and moved in December. We're still getting moved in and settled. I should say we're settled fine, but we still have a ton of boxes to unpack. They're mostly in the garage. We've had the normal homeowners issues of having to fix random things that break, etc. The roof is older, so we had to get some estimates on it and a licensed roof inspector out to inspect it per our insurance, but it passed, so we have a couple years before we HAVE to get it replace, but we're so thankful it's not this month/year. There's a leak in the floor/wall in a bedroom on an outside wall that Leigh's been working on trying to find the cause and fix. He's pretty sure it's related to how the sprinkler system hits it or something. Then he got new tires on the car and was informed his brakes were bad, so he replaced those, then he changed the oil on the car and van and realized two or the motor mounts on the van, that he just replaced had cracked  clean through, so now he has to replace those again. He feels like it's never ending. I've been trying not to ask him to help me move things in the house cause he's so busy already. But maybe I will ask him to hang my two big pictures! :)
In October we got to go to Orlando and meet Dana and her kids and go to Sea World. That was a super fun treat! We were offered a place to stay for free and Dana was offered free tickets from a friend!! That doesn't happen very often, and we had so much fun!!
We went to Dothan for the Peanut Festival Parade in November, and Mom and Dad and I actually took the kids to the fair! It was a lot of fun, and the kids seemed to really enjoy it! We don't usually go to the fair, just the parade, so it was a fun treat! In December we went to Pensacola for Christmas and had a nice time. We got to see some friends and Leigh's brother and family a couple times and hang out with my sisters and parents. It wasn't too cold, just a little chilly a couple days, so that was nice. Came back home and finished moving everything out of the rental and cleaned it and got settled in our new home.
I think that about brings us up to now. Very thankful for how God has blessed us and the fun things we got to do last year and family and friends we got to see! So very thankful for our new house, too! It's so nice to finally have a little more space!
If you're on Facebook, you can see all the pictures that should go with all our trips, etc. I tried to find them and add a few, but I couldn't get them to work!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Out and about with Kids

When I go out I almost always have ALL my children with me, yes all- all four. I know... it's an enormous amount!! I often get spoken to by people, usually older folks. Lately, I've gotten a lot of "God bless you" 's. I got brave one day and told one person, "Thank you, He has!" They gave me a funny look.  Some to the affect of "God BLESS you", which means "You need God's help", some which come across as "You're crazy," and then there was one nice lady who actually said, "God has blessed you." Which was really sweet, because I do feel very blessed that I have children, and that I have (hold your breath) FOUR children. The Bible says that children are a blessing in Psalm 127:3-5 "Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
It's funny because some people talk about four as being soooo many, and then they tell me they had 5, or 7, one man had 10, and I'm thinking, "you think four's a lot??" I just listen and smile and go on my merry way giggling on the inside because it's so funny!
Some people like to comment that I must be busy! I like to tell them, "It's a GOOD busy!"
Today, I had a new one. A lady in Dollar tree stopped me and asked,"Are they all YOURS?"
I said , "Yes, ma'am, they are."
She said, "Doesn't your husband know he's supposed to do something about that??"
I just kept smiling (trying hard not to laugh out loud)...and it was like she knew she probably shouldn't have said that and she went right into "Are there any twins in there?" No, ma'am. So then she asked each one how old they were. She then went on to tell me that she had two children and it was just awful!!
It was hilarious!!! Just makes me smile!!

Weather

Well, the last time I blogged I was not intending to do an update of what we'd done since October, but instead I was going to talk about..... the Weather!! I know, boring... Anyways, all I have to say is....I am absolutely loving NOT having cold weather. I would say Winter, but it's Winter whether it's cold or not. I will add to that although and say that the few days we have had that are "cold" (like in the 50's or 60's) have been kind of nice to air out the house and get it breezy and cooler, especially for night. I prefer it cooler when I sleep.

Friday, February 3, 2012

The Passing of Time

Well, the last time I posted anything was in October of 2011. A lot has gone on since then. In November the kids and I went to Dothan and visited my family. Rachel and Deborah got to come on the weekends and see us ( and Mark, too :) ) and Deborah got some personal days to spend with us and Rachel had a day off school and got to spend extra time with us. It was a very fun week. We got to go to the Peanut Parade, which is a tradition, and we also celebrated Luke's 8th birthday! The trip up went much better than I anticipated, which helped relieve some of my apprehension about future trips. When we got back to Fort Lauderdale (I almost typed Pensacola) we hit the books hard to finish up our last six weeks of the semester. We didn't quite finish, but off we went a week before Leigh to visit in December the week before Christmas. Leigh flew to Panama City on Christmas Eve and Dad went and got him. We spent Christmas Day together, and then we left on Monday to go to Kansas to celebrate Leigh's Grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. It was nice to see some of Leigh's side of the family, with some extended aunts, uncles, and cousins. We drove two days up, spent two days, and then drove two days back to Dothan, and spent one day and then drove down to Lauderdale. We've been busy, busy since then.
School's going well, we passed Lesson 100 a few days ago, which means we only have 70 lessons left! If we double up every day we'll be done in 7 weeks!!!! Buuuuutttt, we're not going to do that. I've actually been only doing one lesson a day, because I don't have a goal to be done for this six weeks, and it's made our school week much less stressful. I usually try to get six lessons done in a week, just to get a little extra done, and because we started later than we usually do, but I think we're pretty much caught up, although I do want to start doing some extra, so we finish the middle of May. We'll see. I'm also trying to plan a "Spring Break" or whatever you want to call my next trip. :)
Our church is having revival services the last week in February. There is talk of a ladies retreat in October, at either Camp of the Pines, or Bill Rice Ranch. Hopefully I'll be able to go. Leigh would have to get a day off work.
Valentine's Day is coming up, so I've been trying to plan some things. I think we're going to have a Valentine's party the Friday before to make cookies and valentines for our friends at church. We also might take it as a Holiday because February 12th is Abraham Lincoln's Birthday. Luke found this information out in one of his books he reads and keeps reminding us, so I'm thinking of making him a cake! Ha. I've also been planning a date night at church for Valentine's day, providing childcare at the church for the couples who want to go on a date. It will be presented this Sunday, so hopefully people will sign up. 
We've started looking at houses to buy. Last Saturday was our first time out, we only got to look at two and neither one of them were any good, so we're going out again tomorrow. We have absolutely no idea of how long this will take. Hopefully not too long..... There doesn't seem to be a whole lot out there with our criteria.
Anyways, That's all for now. It's getting rather late and I need to get to bed. The baby has had a fever today without any other symptoms, so I"m afraid it's his ears and I might be up all night-seems to be a trend with him when nothing else presents itself. I hope not!!
TTFN!!