Better late than never????

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. We got Susannah's last test results back yesterday, but first I'm going to backtrack a bit. The last update before Susannah was born was from our Dr's visit on June 21st. On Thursday, June 27th we went to the high risk doctor and the baby's heart rate was normal and it had a normal looking pattern. The doctor was so excited for us, because then we wouldn't have to have a C-section if the baby's heart rate was high. He still wanted to go ahead and induce on the same day that the section was schedule for since the baby was doing well and her heart rate was high. He called the Cardiologist to let them know and they had us come in the next day on Friday. The cardiologist was very puzzled because heart block is not supposed to just go away, but what we were seeing on the ultrasound showed that her heart was beating in a normal rhythm and at a good rate. So we pondered the news over the weekend and I tried not to get my hopes up too high in case we went in on Wed. to deliver and her heart rate was low I knew they would go back to doing a C-section. On Monday, I went in for my regular OB visit and the nurse tried to find the baby's heartbeat. She listened to something and got a rate, but I couldn't tell what she heard. She told the Dr. that the baby's heart rate was in the 80's and was the same as mine. (My heart rate usually runs in the 90's) So my OB called the high risk Dr. and the high risk Dr. wanted him to take the baby's heart rate and then take my heart rate to make sure our baby was still alive. (Yes, the OB told me this.) Well, I knew she was fine because she had been wiggling the whole time we were there. First, he had to find a watch with a second hand from one of the nurses, and he took the baby's heart rate, which was 80 and my heart rate which was 120. So he let the High-risk Dr. know and he said just stick with the C-section on Wed. and be done with it. :) That was our entertaining weekend before our sweet baby girl was born!

The last post was about Susannah's birth. She did great. The C-section wasn't as bad as I expected and the recovery's gone pretty well. It kind of tickled me because all these people prep you and get you ready for the C-section, introduce themselves to you and then you get in the room for the procedure and you can't recognize a single one because they have caps and masks on. They were all really sweet, the anesthesiologist(?) was a student and she did a great job, she was the one who let me know what the doctor was doing. I had her on my right and another lady on my left, I don't know who she was, and I have no idea where Leigh was. I asked my doctor if he could take out some fat, so he showed me a little piece he took out! :) At the very end he showed me another little piece.  It was quite entertaining. I got to watch them weigh Susannah and clean her up a little, and they brought her to me for a few seconds before they took her to the NICU. They had told us it could be up to an hour before Leigh could go see her, but they came back pretty quick and let him go to her. He took pictures for me and came back and showed them to me while they were still sewing me up. They put dissolvable staples in me (which I didn't know they made) and glued me shut! (sorry if that's TMI) I was fascinated. I found out I DO NOT like morphine. It made me itch for three days and I couldn't sit up straight for several hours because it made my head feel funny. They offered to give me Benadryl, but I didn't want anything else to make my head feel fuzzy because I wanted to go see my baby, so I refused to take it. I finally got to go see Susannah at 4:00a.m. the next morning. It was quite a trek from the 8th floor down to the NICU on the 2nd floor. We tried to make it to all of her feedings. The first nurse was really nice and let me try to nurse her for as long as I needed, but most of the other ones wanted her to eat so much within a certain time, so that it didn't mess up her "schedule," so I always felt kind of rushed. It was a little frustrating, especially when they keep telling you if she doesn't eat so much, then we'll have to put her back on IV fluids. There was one nurse that didn't even let the kids touch her when they visited because she was sleeping. I wanted to remind them that Susannah was in the NICU for OBSERVATION, not treatment, and with four siblings at home she's going to be disturbed, and I don't do the whole schedule thing where they can only eat every three hours, I do more of a routine thing. And a lot of breastfed babies usually start out eating between 1-2 hours, if for nothing else just to get the milk to come in. If I hadn't of had a C-section they would have probably kicked me out, because I would have annoyed them to no end. They have "touch times" every three hours where they do their assessment, change the diaper, and take the temperature and then they feed them and then they have to sleep until the next "touch time." It makes sense and works well for preemies and sick babies I'm sure, but it was a little frustrating to feel like I needed permission to pick my baby up and feed her. We made it and I knew that it would probably annoy me, so I was prepared. It was so good to get home though and let the kids hold her and touch her as much as they wanted whether she was sleeping or not! :)

Well, since this is getting long I'm going to do a
to be continued.........

Hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow...

Susannah Maxine

Susannah Maxine Riffel was born July 3, 2013 via C-section at 10:05 a.m. She was 6 pounds 11 ounces and was 18 1/4 inches long. She transitioned well without any problems and has been doing GREAT!! Her heart rate has actually been higher than it was in utero, which is good. She had two ECHO's and EKG's in the NICU and everything they saw was expected. We got to go home together Saturday afternoon. She's a little jaundiced, so we went home with a bili-blanket, but she looks much better today, so it's working. We are sooo thankful that she is doing so well and feel so blessed!!!!!!!

Update and Decisions

Last Friday was quite an entertaining day! We had our high-risk doctors visit first thing in the morning to recheck the fluid that was around the baby's heart. It was still there and the doctor was concerned about it so he called the Cardiologist to see what he wanted to do. While we were still there the High-risk doctor said that if we were 38 weeks along it would be a cut and dry decision to go and deliver. Before I even left the office the cardiologist office called to make an appointment to fit me in later in the afternoon. So I left the office under the impression that this was not good and we would possibly be having a baby sooner rather than later! I am so glad I waited to call people (mostly my parents) until after the cardiologist appointment because I would have had them coming down the next day. :) At the cardiologist they did the ultrasound of the baby's heart and they weren't finding any pockets of fluid. There is a very thin layer of fluid between the baby's heart and the outside lining (pericardial lining???) and the doctor explained it that when the baby's heart contracts and you take a still picture of it (which is what the high-risk doctor does) it looks like a pocket of fluid has built up, but as the heart expands it spreads it out and everything they were seeing at the Cardiologist was within normal limits of what could possibly be there. It didn't sound like there should be fluid there, but apparently there is a small amount that is considered to be normal. So he was greatly relieved and said we were good to go until I went into labor. So I went from thinking we were having a baby within a week to having 3 1/2 plus weeks left. It was a rather crazy day! I had Leigh meet me over there because I didn't want to have to decide when to have this baby by myself, but it turned out to be unnecessary, which was good. So we went to a BBQ restaurant for dinner since our anniversary was the next day. It was a nice relaxing end to our hectic day.

Our OB visit was Tuesday, and it went well. Leigh went with me because he hadn't met the dr. before and we went planning to ask him to make a decision regarding the delivery. The cardiologist was still saying natural was fine, but the high-risk doctor was recommending a cesarean. So our OB looked things over and he called the high-risk doctor and due to concerns about the baby's heart rate dropping during labor and delivery, and not getting enough oxygen to the brain, he also recommended a cesarean.

So, our C-section is scheduled for July 3rd (39 weeks) at 9:30 a.m. I don't really want a C-section, but I am comfortable with the decision and understand the concerns involved, etc. It's also kind of nice to have an end date. I've gone past my due date with all the others and that last week seems to last forever! :)

We went to the high-risk doctor this morning and everything looked the same. He said things were stable and we'd see him next week.

While we were at the high-risk doctor, he apologized for having us come in every week, and mentioned that I've probably been to the doctor more for this little girls pregnancy than I was with all the others combined. I agreed that I probably have. After thinking back over the past 17/18 weeks and all the ups and downs and puzzlings and questions and such, I feel very thankful for our baby and the problems that she has. I know it's still wait and see how she does once she's born, but it could be much, much worse. Our ups and downs have been minor compared to some of the life or death ups and downs that a lot of couples experience with their little ones along with constant monitoring, hospitalizations, bedrest, etc. I'm also very thankful for both the doctors that have been keeping a close eye on our baby. The high-risk doctor is a little over cautious I think, but I would much rather that, than him not call the cardiologist and something be really wrong.

God has been so good to us, and we feel very blessed.

Looking forward to meeting our little girl in TWELVE days!!!

Funny sayings

The kids often have quite entertaining conversations and such. A lot of times I listen from another room and giggle to myself because they're so funny. The other day, Leigh and Josiah had an entertaining conversation:
Leigh (in the kids bathroom): "Who put all this water on the floor?"
Josiah walks in: "Not me"
Leigh: "Did Luke put all this water on the floor?"
Josiah: "No."
Leigh: " Did Emily put all this water on the floor?"
Josiah: "No."
Leigh: "Did YOU put all this water on the floor?"
Josiah: "No, Timothy did it."
(Note: Timothy has to climb onto the counter to get to the sink and turn it on and then he gets stuck and doesn't think he can get down, so he hollers until someone rescues him. He hadn't been on the counter that night.)
Leigh: "Did you SEE Timothy put water on the floor?"
Josiah: "No."
Leigh: "Then how do know that he did it?"
Josiah: " Because the GROWN UPS wouldn't do that!"
Leigh: " Who are the grown ups?"
Josiah: "You and Mommy, and Luke and Emily and me. That's the grown-ups."
Leigh went on to explain who the grown-ups were and had Josiah help him clean up the water. It was hilarious. It's funny to me how Josiah thinks he's so much bigger than Timothy. Kids are funny!!

A FUN DAY!

We had a very fun day on Monday. First off I went to the high-risk doctor and that went fine. The appointment was for 8:00am so I asked Leigh if he minded staying with the kids and going into work late, and he was fine with that. The high-risk doctor is 5-10min from our house and it was a quick appointment, so I was home by 8:30, which was nice. I had the kids pick up the living room and family room and then they got their swimsuits on and took them to a splash pad park thing not far from the house. There was one other day I was going to take them, but we drove by and it was packed with kids, so I thought if we went in the morning there wouldn't be too many other people. There were a couple other kids there when we got there, but by the time we left the parking lot was full and that little place was hopping! They seemed to have a great time! Timothy played on the little playground area while the others played in the water, and it wasn't until the end and I made him get in that he finally got wet and enjoyed the water part too.

After the water park we came home, they got baths, ate lunch, and then we watched a movie together. After that it was nap time and then supper time. After supper I took Luke and Emily to the library's summer reading program kick off. THAT was quite entertaining! They held it on the front lawn and had a DJ playing loud annoying music, a photo booth, a goody bag and then they had the kids hula hooping, doing the limbo and the chicken dance!! It was hysterical. Luke and Emily had  a great time because they got to learn how to hula hoop! Anyways, when it was almost over we went inside to check out some more books. I kept waiting for them to do something more organized, but it was basically just playing! Emily was really cute getting her books. It was only the second time we had been to this library, but she knew right where the books were that she wanted to check out and had them ready to go in under five minutes. Luke was still picking out his first one! :) This library is the Plantation library and isn't far from our house, so I'm hoping that we'll get to it more often since it's not out of the way.
Over all the kids seemed to really enjoy themselves!

Monday Update

At our high-risk doctor visit on Monday, he just did a biophysical profile and checked the little bit of fluid that was around the baby's heart. It had stayed the same, it hadn't increased or anything, so that was good. It actually measured a teensy bit less. Her breathing movements, amniotic fluid, etc were all good, so she seems to be tolerating everything just fine!! It was a good visit and quick! We go back to him on Friday and if everything looks the same, it'll just be weekly visits like planned before the fluid thing. That's all!! :)

"Quick" update

We went to the high risk doctor on Wed, May 29th, and the baby's heart rate was in the 80's and so he wanted us to get into the cardiologist within 48 hrs, so we went to the cardiologist on Thursday and it was confirmed that our baby girl now has Complete Heart Block. We went back to both doctors a week after to see how she was handling the lower heart rate, which was this Thurs. and Friday. At the Cardiologist on Thursday, everything looked good, but on Friday at the high-risk doctor, there was a little bit of fluid around her heart ( which is Not good and can be a sign that she might be going into heart failure, in which case we would deliver early) so we go to see him again on Monday (June10) and then on Friday of this week.  The high-risk doctor also does a Biophysical Profile and she has gotten a perfect score on everything they look at with that - breathing movements, tone, amniotic fluid, and wiggling - so that's good. We will also be seeing the high-risk doctor every week from now on. The cardiologist on Thursday said he was okay with a natural delivery, the high-risk doctor, however, does not seem okay with a natural delivery and thinks we should do a cesarean due to the lower heart rate and the natural heart rate drops that occur in labor and concerns with the baby not getting enough oxygen to the brain during labor and delivery. So we'll see what they decide and hope they end up on the same page, whichever way it is! My OB seems okay to go whichever way the cardiologist and high-risk doctor recommend.
We went on a tour of the Labor and Delivery floors as well as the NICU and PICU at the hospital today, so we have a slight clue of where to go and where everything is located. L&D and the NICU are on the 2nd floor, the PICU is on the 4th floor ( and only certain elevators go there) and postpartum is on the 8th floor!
We're praying the fluid either stays the same or goes away and that she will continue to be stable until it's time for her to be born. Trusting in the fact that God's ways are best and He knows every step of the way.