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Just to update everyone really quick Sara came home from the hospital Tuesday. She is still on bed rest but she is doing very well.
Also, Tuesday morning my niece was born. We are all very excited.
Well good bye for now and I will update everyone in a few days.
What a week! This post is a positive post. No sadness, just happiness.
Sara and Claire are doing very well. Sara has been off the Lovenox since Wednesday night. Everything is going great! She has been feeling pretty good and the doctors say that she may, MAY, be able to go home this week. She has an ultrasound on Tuesday and may get to come home after that.
We had the coolest moment on Saturday. Sara was on the contraction monitor. They have her on it just to see if she is having any contractions, which she is not. They wrap this band around your waist and put a monitor on her belly right below her belly button. Sara says Claire always kicks her like crazy when it is on. Sara started to feel her kick and told me to just take two fingers and slide them under the band and I may feel her kick. She kicked almost immediately! It was really cool. I was so excited to feel it. I was laughing with Sara and telling her how cool it was when Claire kicked even harder again. I only got those two kicks out of her but that was the coolest thing in the world. I am so glad I finally got to experience that.
God continues to bless us every day. He is listening to our prayers and the prayers of everyone else. It is a great feeling to know that she is off the medicine and everything is really good. We both have so much to look forward to. We are very thankful!
PS - If Sara comes home this week I have a bunch of pictures to post and will do them later in the week.
Sara had another ultrasound today. Everything looked good. They said that her placenta was actually migrating away from her cervix. It is 1 millimeter away but needs to be 3 millimeters to be safe. The specialist said that the baby is developing really well and that everything looks great.
Now the not so great news. The doctor and the specialist want to see Sara come off the Lovenox, which is the blood thinner. The doctor told her that they have no reason for her to be on it. They originally put her on it because of her past history and thought that it may be something different to try. She also said that with Sara on it this late in the pregnancy there is a big risk that she will have a contraction and start bleeding. The doctor said that she most likely will not go close to full term. She said that if she starts to bleed when Sara is on Lovenox they will have almost no way to stop it and it could take her and Claire's life.
Of course with this news we were thrown for a loop. Sara was really upset and I do not think she stopped crying last night. I am just beside myself. Sara and I talked about it and we really have no choice but to take her off the medication. The doctor still wants to keep her on the baby aspirin, which helps prevent clots. Keeping her on the Lovenox risks to many lives and I think we both feel that is not the right option. The doctors said that they would run tests on her after she is off the Lovenox and make sure everything is ok. I think the doctors feel the baby will be coming sooner than later and they want to make sure Mom and Claire are safe.
I think the next step is a lot of good old fashioned prayer. God has blessed us by getting us to 21 weeks. We are not sure why so many hurdles are in our way but we are trying to stay strong and make it through all of this. Every spare moment in my day I say a little prayer that everything will be ok.
Love and thanks to all!
Jason and Sara
Sunday Mom and I worked on the nursery. We started at about 9:30 in the morning and got all of the stuff cleared out and moved into the basement. We repacked everything and stacked it downstairs.
When I went to see Sara on Saturday she picked out the color that she wanted Claire's room to be. She chose a very pretty lavender. Mom and I primed and painted the room all day. We finally finished at about 7:30. It looks really cute and as we decorate the room it will come together. The task Sara has assigned for me is to look for wood flooring. I am excited that we keep getting closer and closer. This Wednesday she has another ultrasound and will be 21 weeks.
I have so many pictures to post but not a lot of time. As soon as I get a few hours I will post all the pictures. I am excited that I get to see Sara tomorrow. I miss not having her at home.
I will post later in the week and update everyone on Sara's ultrasound. Sara and I give our love to all.
Hi everyone. It is Saturday morning and it has been quite a week. There are not many changes to update. Earlier in the week Sara had stopped spotting for about 36 hours. This happened between Tuesday night and Wednesday. They were actually preparing Sara to go home. All the nurses were explaining to Sara what bed rest meant and what she could and could not do. Sara was excited that she may get to come home and at least be with us at the house.
Well Thursday came and she had more spotting. The idea of her coming home kind of went out the window. The doctors told her that they want to keep her for at least another week. The bleeding had to stop for 5-7 days before she can go home. That is at least the ideal scenario.
Sara got to have an ultrasound on Thursday and she got to see Claire again. We got a side profile of her head and also a picture of her toes. I will post them when I get a few hours at home so everyone can see them. Sara's mom was also there and said it was really cool to see the ultrasound and Claire's heart ticking away on the screen. Doctors said Claire looks great. All of her organs are growing and she is progressing along nicely.
Sara continues to be in good spirits. So many family and friends have come to see her and spend time with her. She has had a music relaxation volunteer visit her. She was supposed to visit Sara Tuesday or Wednesday in the afternoon but Sara was sound asleep both days. Mama's gotta get her rest :-). Sara has also had the pet people (not sure what you call them) see her and Sara was signed up for a wheelchair ride today.
My mom and I are going to clear out and paint the nursery on Sunday. We are super excited. I woke up Friday morning thinking we should paint the nursery since Sara is not there. The whole week I was thinking I would remove the rest of the wallpaper. Not sure why I was thinking about that when I should be doing painting. So with the nursery being painted the only thing left to do in the nursery is the wood floors, thats where Uncle Justin comes in, and decorating. Mom and I are excited to get the painting done and get the nursery started.
Sara asked me to make sure to put and extra special thank you to everyone that has kept us in their prayers, asked other people to pray, has given us words of encouragement, and been there for both of us through this first week. I have gotten special emails from so many people. I have found out that there are people praying for us in Montana, Oklahoma, Alabama and the list goes on and on. We really cannot thank everyone enough that lends us a helping hand in every way. This little girl is so special to us and having so many people behind us is amazing.
Hi everyone. I have let Sara know of all the well wishes and prayers and she says she is very thankful. She is still having a little bleeding and the doctor told her today that he is in no rush to send her home anytime soon. Looks like she may be in for a while of not up until she gives birth. Thank you to everyone for everything. Please keep us in your prayers and I will update you with any new information I get.
Well this weekend has been an interesting one. We got quite a scare on Saturday. I was half way to work when I heard my phone beep because I had missed a call. It was from Sara. I called her back and I could tell right away something was wrong. She told me that she had started bleeding a bit and that we had to go to the hospital. I asked how bad and she said not to bad but because of the past history she knew that they were going to want her to go. Of course I turned around and did about 60 the whole way home.
I got home and Sara was doing ok. She said that she felt Claire move about 5 minutes before she noticed the bleeding. So we headed to Northside Hospital in Atlanta. We were told to go to the women's center. I had my fingers crossed the whole way that they would not send us to the ER. We got there and the women's center kept Sara. We were sent to room LH7 in like 15 minutes and they started running a bunch of tests. First they noticed that she had a bit of a bladder infection. Then the nurse came in with the heartbeat monitor to get Claire's heartbeat. Our fingers were crossed the whole time. She found it pretty quick and Sara said she could feel her moving around a lot. That right there was a huge relief. Let me say the nurses are all so nice and so friendly.
We then got to go get an ultrasound and see what was going on. Sara's perinatal specialist was there that knows all of her history. Audra did the initial ultrasound. She had mentioned that because we were getting one today we did not have to have one this Thursday. I told Sara that we needed to know for sure what the sex was of the baby. So we told Audra that the regular doctor had told us a while back but we would like a definite confirmation. Audra decided to make it a point that it be the first thing she looked at. "It's a girl!" Sara and I were very happy. Claire Bear is here to stay. So Audra showed us her hands and feet, she does have 5 fingers and 5 toes on each. We got to see her head, abdomen, femur, stomach, kidneys, her heart and her brain. It was all really really cool. They said that she looked great and that she weighed around 12 ounces. My little girl is getting so big :-).
Well they also checked Sara out and here comes the interesting part. Dr Lopezina (sorry if I spelt that wrong doc) said that the placenta is growing two close to the cervix. Sara has what is called marginal placenta previa. It is dangerous because the cervix and the placenta can tear away from each other and cause bleeding. Since Sara is on blood thinners they are worried about potential severe blood loss. Now, the good news is that as the placenta grows it could move away from the cervix, or the bad news, it could grow over the cervix.
Depending on what happens all of this news throws us a lot of curve balls. Dr Lopezina said that we are probably looking at a c-section at 36 or 37 weeks with the confirmation that the baby is full grown and developed. We are also looking at a potential of bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy or a complete hospitalization until the end of the pregnancy. We are not sure yet. Dr. Lopezina talked to the OB-GYN Dr Nix and explained everything that they saw. Bottom line is Sara is in the hospital for observation over the next couple of days.
As we were headed back upstairs to the room Sara looked at me and said "and I thought that if we got to 20 weeks then we were passed all the hurdles and obstacles and we would be ok". I laughed and said "C'mon, did you really think that Claire was going to make this easy." We got a good laugh. It was nice to know that she and mom were ok. We were sent back to LH7 for a bit while they tried to find us a room. As soon as we got back Sara had a lunch waiting for her of turkey and gravy, potatoes and a veggie with dessert. It looked pretty good. Since she was staying a while they said that they are going to try and get us moved soon.
Moving time! Not so fast. No nice room, just down the hall to LH4 this time. It was bigger, not luxury but bigger. We were told that there was no good rooms available until Monday and they were very apologetic about that. The OB-GYN Dr Nix came down and explained everything in detail. She said that they would see how things go over the next few days and take it from there. I ran home and got all of Sara's medicine and some clothes for her. I called my mom and asked her to stay with us for a while and help me out since I have to work a lot over the next couple of days. She said of course and that was a huge weight lifted off of me and Sara. Now we know Phoebe and Wes will be ok. Sara's mom went and spent the afternoon with her at the hospital which was great because it kept Sara occupied.
When I got back to the hospital I learned that they have opened up a room for Sara. Our new room 135! Room 135 is in the High Risk Prenatal section. This is the place to be. Sara gets moved up there about 7:30pm. We both got a huge laugh as we were walking in because this is what we see on the room marker:
Spelt wrong? Um ya. Anyway, Sara is really taken care of hand and foot. Nurses come in and check on her, feed her, ask her if she needs anything all the time. I left at about 9 or so because poor Sara was tired. It had been a long day. I went home and got NO sleep at all. She was not there with me, Phoebe was wondering where her mommy was. It was a tough night. I was up at 7 this morning to go see her before I had to go to work at 11.
I brought Sara a few more things that she wanted and the Sunday paper for us to read. I missed her so much I could not wait to finally get to the room. It seemed I could not walk fast enough through the halls to see her. She was awake and waiting for me. She was just sitting there watching "A Few Good Men On" on tv. The 2 hours I was there it was busy in that room. Sara had already had breakfast. The nurse came in and did all of Sara's vitals. They listened for Claire's heartbeat which was a little hard to find. She was way down in the back. They found it though and she was ticking away. Dr Nix came up to see Sara and see how she was doing. Sara told her she was still spotting some and that she had some cramping during the night. The doctor seemed concerned and I kind of got the idea from the doctor that the "few days" may be a little extended now. We shall see. The snack cart lady came by and let Sara pick from a whole cart full of snacks. Then the lady that handles the meals came by. They take orders for the next several meals. Sara had to place her order for today's lunch and dinner and tomorrow's breakfast and lunch. For lunch today she had chicken cordon blue and yellow rice. Dinner is grilled chicken sandwich and french fries. Breakfast is eggs and bacon and lunch tomorrow is meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I was floored. She is going to be eating well. After I left today she said that she got up to take a shower and they put all new bed linens on and the cleaning people came and cleaned the room. She feels like she is at a resort.
So that is the weekend in a nutshell. Bottom line is we need to kind of wait it out and see what is going to happen. One of the nurses said they have the "3 strikes and your out" rule. That is where if you have this bleeding episode 3 times then you are in the hospital until you give birth. Maybe with Sara it will be the one or two strike rule because of her past history. Not sure. All I ask is everyone please keep us in your prayers. I cannot thank you all enough for all the prayers we have already received. Saturday was a huge scare and kind of let us both know we are not in the clear yet. Claire is so important to both of us already. The health of her and Sara is all I want right now. As I find out anything more I will let all of you know.
6/19/08 - Today was the first visit to the Perinatal specialist. We went and visited Dr. Lopez. He was very nice. We were very excited and I had devised a plan that would try and get them to tell us the sex. HAHA! Jackpot. Sara thought it was way to early. That is why she is still having a hard time believing it even today. Here are some pictures just one week later:
This one is Claire's side profile of her whole body. You can see her head, stomach, and legs. You can even see her bones starting to be defined.
This one is of little Claire's foot.
This is a picture of Claire's head. You can really see her cheek and jaw bones.
Look she is waving.
Just a few days after these pictures Sara felt her first flutters. It is no wonder she did because during the ultrasound Claire was moving around a lot. She was kicking her legs and waving her arms. It was very very cool. I had said to the doctor that "I wished we knew what we were having because I was tired of calling her the bean". The doctor then zoomed in from her bottom and said that he would give us a 95% chance of it being a girl. He said he did not suggest that we go buy a lot of pink (to late) but it looked like we were having a girl.
7/3/08 - Here are the next set of ultrasound pictures. You can see she has grown quite a bit. I think that the biggest change is she is becoming more defined.
You can really see her ribs and head. If you look close you can see her ear.
This picture is of her sleeping. She is sleeping with her arms and legs straight out. They had to wake her up this day.
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8/6/08 - Sara called me freaking out. She said that the baby just did a somersault under her belly button. Sara has felt a lot of flutter but she said that she had not felt anything like that. I cannot wait until her movements are strong enough so I can feel them. It should be soon.
8/7/08 - Sara's most up to date weekly doctors visit. Claire's heart rate is at 157 bpm. The nurse said she sounded like galloping horses because she was moving so much. Up till now Sara has gained 8 pounds and up to 132. I just noticed tonight while we were doing this that her belly button is TOTALLY different. She's gonna have an outtie!
