The girls had fun with some of the freecycle clothes we got for their brother tonight! There was also a random pair of adult shorts that Eliana loved trying on.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Our Little Guy
We had another ultrasound this morning to check on our son's growth. He is measuring in the 10th percentile for weight. And this is down from the 17th percentile in the last 20 days. Thurs. Feb. 12th he was measuring in the 15th percentile and Tues. Feb. 3rd he was measuring in the 17th percentile. There is still good blood flow & oxygen exchange between the placenta and umbilical cord. However, the growth rate is not proportional to a 34 week gestation. So, he is a little guy.
The Maternal Fetal Medicine physician said that he hopes we can make it to 37 weeks before delivering; dependent on normal, or "reactive" Non-Stress Tests between now & then. He wants us to have 2 NST's a week. We have had 3 so far and they have been normal, or "reactive." However, he really doesn't want us to go beyond 37 weeks because of the risk of stillbirth (due to umbilical cord compression).
On a humorous note, the baby is now in the tranverse fetal lie position (sideways). Mikaya and Karina laid that way - head on the left side, feet on the right from 20 weeks or earlier through to their births. Statistically speaking it is more rare to have a baby remain transverse at the time of birth than it is to have twins! :) Statistics show that most babies turn to the vertex (head down) position before 30 weeks not into the transverse (sideways) position. And now we have had 3 in a row! Must be a record. :)
We'd appreciate your continual prayers for our family. We go through the gamet of emotions each time we see the doctor. It's hard because nothing can be said definitively except that he has club feet. Other things are just puzzling and what's actually going on may not be known until birth. As a result, we're not sure how to plan ahead or what to expect which is difficult. Pray that God will give us peace through all of this and that we'll continue to parent "the girls" with love and patience. :)
The Maternal Fetal Medicine physician said that he hopes we can make it to 37 weeks before delivering; dependent on normal, or "reactive" Non-Stress Tests between now & then. He wants us to have 2 NST's a week. We have had 3 so far and they have been normal, or "reactive." However, he really doesn't want us to go beyond 37 weeks because of the risk of stillbirth (due to umbilical cord compression).
On a humorous note, the baby is now in the tranverse fetal lie position (sideways). Mikaya and Karina laid that way - head on the left side, feet on the right from 20 weeks or earlier through to their births. Statistically speaking it is more rare to have a baby remain transverse at the time of birth than it is to have twins! :) Statistics show that most babies turn to the vertex (head down) position before 30 weeks not into the transverse (sideways) position. And now we have had 3 in a row! Must be a record. :)
We'd appreciate your continual prayers for our family. We go through the gamet of emotions each time we see the doctor. It's hard because nothing can be said definitively except that he has club feet. Other things are just puzzling and what's actually going on may not be known until birth. As a result, we're not sure how to plan ahead or what to expect which is difficult. Pray that God will give us peace through all of this and that we'll continue to parent "the girls" with love and patience. :)
Friday, February 13, 2009
Is home or work crazier?
I have to blog about this, because today I was struck with the thought that I must be nuts to be a teacher and a father of many children as well. Just to give you some perspective, I teach second grade and I have like a mini version of the United Nations in my classroom. I have three students from Burma, one who just arrived two days ago, one from Rwanda, one from Iraq, one from Vietnam, and one from Russia. That’s seven students who are in the process of learning the English language and are at one level of proficiency or another.
Anyway, we celebrated Valentine’s Day today, so I thought I’d do this fun activity with candy hearts that was given to me by a fellow colleague (thanks Linda). We’ve been studying measurement and on the worksheet, the students had to find the perimeter and area of three separate figures with candy hearts. So picture this: candy hearts all over, kids concentrating on counting how many candy hearts it takes to go around each figure and how many it takes to fill the inside. Everyone’s of course asking when they can eat some. Bob (not real name) is picking his nose while counting his hearts, and I notice he's sneaking some from his neighbor with the exact finger that's just recently left his nostril! The activity is fun and fairly organized. Everyone finishes except for five of the above mentioned ESL students who were at ESL class and have just arrived after being gone for about thirty minutes. I tell them with a mixture of words and gestures that I’ll let them do the candy heart activity in just a minute but we need to start writing time.
Eventually, I get all the other students working and I have the five join me at my back table figuring they’ll love this activity and it won’t be too hard given that it’s just placing candy hearts around the outside and inside of these three figures (hah). Everyone else is supposed to be writing a creative paper independently that we began a few days ago. Jim and Jerry (not real names) have been out for the last four days though so they have no idea what I’m talking about when I say, “Take out your creative stories.” I quickly decide to let them catch up on hand writing instead of taking twenty minutes to go over what we’ve been doing while they were gone. They’re fairly independent workers, so they find their handwriting workbooks and are off and running. Tom has been here for all four days, but has no clue what I’m talking about and can’t locate either his planner or the story itself, so I help him go through the process of planning his paper while I’m helping English Learner #1, who’s brand new to the country, figure out what to do with his candy hearts. I’m quite impressed, he can count to twenty! Jill and Jenny (non-ELL's who are sitting in the corner) are supposed to be writing of course, but they're not. They’ve decided it’s time to investigate the various games, candy, cookies, and etc. parents have brought in for a party that we’re having later. It’s also fun to gab about the latest who did what on the playground and compare whose hair is looking cutest today. Ok I made that up, but what else could be more exciting that writing independently? I quickly break up their social hour and send Jill back to her desk looking extremely dejected that she must leave Jenny behind. I look over and Bob is picking his nose yet again and has lost his creative story. What’s ironic is that he found his planner but can’t seem to find his story, which is odd because yesterday he could find the story but couldn’t find the planner?? Go figure. I tell him to look harder:) My attention goes back to Tom to see if he’s understood any of my directions for writing his creative paper, knowing that we’ve been interrupted numerous times by other students, namely the ones working on hearts, who need help. He nods yes; I’m seriously doubtful, but send him on his way anyway, because the kids in front of me are doing everything but counting candy hearts. Finally I slam my head on the table (not literally but in my head of course), after all it’s five minutes until lunch and it’s time to leave. I look back at what I’ve accomplished: I taught four ESL students that hearts are pretty and fun to eat but that they can be used for math too! I taught two students the meaning of the word “Snippy” as in that’s what your teacher is when you lose your things for the nth time, and I’ve taught myself that I guess I can multitask faster than I thought I could. The bell is about to ring and someone yells, “Mr. Slates, one of our fish died and it’s lying on the rocks at the bottom of our fish tank!” I looked down at my hands, covered with candy heart dust and laugh. This is life as I have come to know it as a teacher. Fun, yes. Crazy sometimes, of course!
Anyway, we celebrated Valentine’s Day today, so I thought I’d do this fun activity with candy hearts that was given to me by a fellow colleague (thanks Linda). We’ve been studying measurement and on the worksheet, the students had to find the perimeter and area of three separate figures with candy hearts. So picture this: candy hearts all over, kids concentrating on counting how many candy hearts it takes to go around each figure and how many it takes to fill the inside. Everyone’s of course asking when they can eat some. Bob (not real name) is picking his nose while counting his hearts, and I notice he's sneaking some from his neighbor with the exact finger that's just recently left his nostril! The activity is fun and fairly organized. Everyone finishes except for five of the above mentioned ESL students who were at ESL class and have just arrived after being gone for about thirty minutes. I tell them with a mixture of words and gestures that I’ll let them do the candy heart activity in just a minute but we need to start writing time.
Eventually, I get all the other students working and I have the five join me at my back table figuring they’ll love this activity and it won’t be too hard given that it’s just placing candy hearts around the outside and inside of these three figures (hah). Everyone else is supposed to be writing a creative paper independently that we began a few days ago. Jim and Jerry (not real names) have been out for the last four days though so they have no idea what I’m talking about when I say, “Take out your creative stories.” I quickly decide to let them catch up on hand writing instead of taking twenty minutes to go over what we’ve been doing while they were gone. They’re fairly independent workers, so they find their handwriting workbooks and are off and running. Tom has been here for all four days, but has no clue what I’m talking about and can’t locate either his planner or the story itself, so I help him go through the process of planning his paper while I’m helping English Learner #1, who’s brand new to the country, figure out what to do with his candy hearts. I’m quite impressed, he can count to twenty! Jill and Jenny (non-ELL's who are sitting in the corner) are supposed to be writing of course, but they're not. They’ve decided it’s time to investigate the various games, candy, cookies, and etc. parents have brought in for a party that we’re having later. It’s also fun to gab about the latest who did what on the playground and compare whose hair is looking cutest today. Ok I made that up, but what else could be more exciting that writing independently? I quickly break up their social hour and send Jill back to her desk looking extremely dejected that she must leave Jenny behind. I look over and Bob is picking his nose yet again and has lost his creative story. What’s ironic is that he found his planner but can’t seem to find his story, which is odd because yesterday he could find the story but couldn’t find the planner?? Go figure. I tell him to look harder:) My attention goes back to Tom to see if he’s understood any of my directions for writing his creative paper, knowing that we’ve been interrupted numerous times by other students, namely the ones working on hearts, who need help. He nods yes; I’m seriously doubtful, but send him on his way anyway, because the kids in front of me are doing everything but counting candy hearts. Finally I slam my head on the table (not literally but in my head of course), after all it’s five minutes until lunch and it’s time to leave. I look back at what I’ve accomplished: I taught four ESL students that hearts are pretty and fun to eat but that they can be used for math too! I taught two students the meaning of the word “Snippy” as in that’s what your teacher is when you lose your things for the nth time, and I’ve taught myself that I guess I can multitask faster than I thought I could. The bell is about to ring and someone yells, “Mr. Slates, one of our fish died and it’s lying on the rocks at the bottom of our fish tank!” I looked down at my hands, covered with candy heart dust and laugh. This is life as I have come to know it as a teacher. Fun, yes. Crazy sometimes, of course!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Countdown
This morning we had a 20 minute Fetal Non-Stress Test (NST). One of the reasons a NST is performed is if a baby appears to be small or not growing properly. A NST monitors (and records on paper) a baby's heart rate and activity/movement as well as any contractions a mother may be having. In addition, they may ask the mother to press a button every time she feels the baby move.
We were told our son is small, in the 15th percentile, due to his femur (leg) and humerus (arm) bones measuring 6 weeks behind his gestational age. The nurse asked me to press the button every time I felt him move and after 10 movements I could stop. I had to smile knowing this would not be an area of concern/issue. He has always been very active. :) And like I thought, the nurse returned shortly and said that was enough of that. :) The result of the NST was normal, or "reactive" meaning our son is getting plenty of oxygen, there are no problems with the placenta or umbilical cord, and he appears to still be doing well in the womb. :)
The Maternal-Fetal Medicine physician would like us to have NST's and ultrasounds done every 3 weeks for the remainder of the pregnancy. (8 weeks from now is the due date: April 7th). Today's NST will serve as a baseline with which to compare the follow-up NST results to watch for any decline in his well being/signs of fetal distress.
President's Day, Mon. Feb. 16th at 10:15am, I have my routine OB visit at which time they will do another NST. And these will be done as part of every OB visit hereafter.
Mon. Feb. 23rd we are scheduled for another ultrasound to follow-up on our son's femur (leg) and humerus (arm) bone measurements.
Again, the doctor does not know the cause/reason behind why our son appears to have short extremities. But the doctor's hunch is that our son's short extremities are still part of a more "global" issue indicative of a chromosomal abnormality. However, he is not concerned that it would have a fatal/lethal outcome! :)
Below is the doctor's response to my many questions about how we should be planning and preparing for our son's arrival.
His best guess is that it is unlikely that we will go until the due date of April 7th. He feels a more likely scenario is that our son will need to be taken sometime in March, that he will be small, and will be immediately whisked away to the NICU to be evaluated by a Neonatologist. They will want to take blood samples as soon as possible to test for chromosomal abnormalities. Depending on how he does after birth will determine what types of interventions, therapies and/or treatments are needed - if any. The doctor did say that he hopes he is just being overly cautious - that when our son is born everything would turn out to be fine/normal but he did not think this was likely to be the case.
Of course, it is our hope and prayer that he will simply be born with club feet; absent of any other issues related to his extremities. But we do not know how he will join our family...Now we wait - expectantly - for his addition to our family, for the special place he already has...
We so appreciate your conintued prayers for our miraculous and precious son! We thank you for praying with and for our family.
~Joy
We were told our son is small, in the 15th percentile, due to his femur (leg) and humerus (arm) bones measuring 6 weeks behind his gestational age. The nurse asked me to press the button every time I felt him move and after 10 movements I could stop. I had to smile knowing this would not be an area of concern/issue. He has always been very active. :) And like I thought, the nurse returned shortly and said that was enough of that. :) The result of the NST was normal, or "reactive" meaning our son is getting plenty of oxygen, there are no problems with the placenta or umbilical cord, and he appears to still be doing well in the womb. :)
The Maternal-Fetal Medicine physician would like us to have NST's and ultrasounds done every 3 weeks for the remainder of the pregnancy. (8 weeks from now is the due date: April 7th). Today's NST will serve as a baseline with which to compare the follow-up NST results to watch for any decline in his well being/signs of fetal distress.
President's Day, Mon. Feb. 16th at 10:15am, I have my routine OB visit at which time they will do another NST. And these will be done as part of every OB visit hereafter.
Mon. Feb. 23rd we are scheduled for another ultrasound to follow-up on our son's femur (leg) and humerus (arm) bone measurements.
Again, the doctor does not know the cause/reason behind why our son appears to have short extremities. But the doctor's hunch is that our son's short extremities are still part of a more "global" issue indicative of a chromosomal abnormality. However, he is not concerned that it would have a fatal/lethal outcome! :)
Below is the doctor's response to my many questions about how we should be planning and preparing for our son's arrival.
His best guess is that it is unlikely that we will go until the due date of April 7th. He feels a more likely scenario is that our son will need to be taken sometime in March, that he will be small, and will be immediately whisked away to the NICU to be evaluated by a Neonatologist. They will want to take blood samples as soon as possible to test for chromosomal abnormalities. Depending on how he does after birth will determine what types of interventions, therapies and/or treatments are needed - if any. The doctor did say that he hopes he is just being overly cautious - that when our son is born everything would turn out to be fine/normal but he did not think this was likely to be the case.
Of course, it is our hope and prayer that he will simply be born with club feet; absent of any other issues related to his extremities. But we do not know how he will join our family...Now we wait - expectantly - for his addition to our family, for the special place he already has...
We so appreciate your conintued prayers for our miraculous and precious son! We thank you for praying with and for our family.
~Joy
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Mistaken Identity
I, Steve, must confess that I didn't write the latest blog post below. Some have written how eloquently I expressed myself, which is so very nice, but it was actually Joy that wrote the whole thing:) Most of the time we write the posts together, but this time, it was all her. She's the eloquent one. I've tried to convince her to write for Hallmark. We'll have to see.
Are you sure you're the right patient?
We had a fetal echo done today by a pediatric cardiologist specializing in fetal cardiology. We did not know what she would tell us or what we were going to hear. But we cerainly did not expect it to be good news.
After getting all the angles & views of the heart she turned to us and said, "I see nothing wrong. I don't know what could have changed in 2 days but I see nothing of what they were concerned about. The heart is perfectly healthy & normal. The four chambers, ventricles, arteries...everything...looks good. Are you sure you are the right patient?" :)
Of course this great news came as a complete shock. We were dumbfounded and speechless! As a parent you plan & prepare for the worst all the while praying & hoping for the best. It is a hard place to be. Not wanting to get your hopes up only to have them crushed. But also prayerfully hoping that God will miraculously heal this precious life that he has created & formed for His glory.
And not only did we receive good news about the heart but also about the amniotic fluid. They did not find the amniotic fluid level to be low. In fact, they double checked it again and said that is was well within the normal range and looked good.
She also said that the baby was in the perfect position for getting good pictures of the heart; as if he knew that he was going to be photographed today. She said you could not have asked for better positioning to get optimal views of the heart and that these were the types of pictures you see in text books.
This is the miracle that we and so many of you prayed for and our prayers have certainly been answered. We thank all of you for your intercessory prayers on behalf of our son and our family!
Next Thurs. Feb. 12th at 8:30am we follow-up with our Maternal-Fetal Medicine physician for an ultrasound, non-stress test, and consultation on the issues of his short femur & humerus measurements. The pediatric cardiologist was careful to say that our son could still have a chromosomal abnormality even without the heart issues involved.
So there is still the issue of his short extremities - a 6 week discrepancy compared to the other measurements for his gestational age. As well as his having club feet.
Words are inadequate to express our appreciation and thankfulness for your prayers and support. Thank you for being with us in this journey.
After getting all the angles & views of the heart she turned to us and said, "I see nothing wrong. I don't know what could have changed in 2 days but I see nothing of what they were concerned about. The heart is perfectly healthy & normal. The four chambers, ventricles, arteries...everything...looks good. Are you sure you are the right patient?" :)
Of course this great news came as a complete shock. We were dumbfounded and speechless! As a parent you plan & prepare for the worst all the while praying & hoping for the best. It is a hard place to be. Not wanting to get your hopes up only to have them crushed. But also prayerfully hoping that God will miraculously heal this precious life that he has created & formed for His glory.
And not only did we receive good news about the heart but also about the amniotic fluid. They did not find the amniotic fluid level to be low. In fact, they double checked it again and said that is was well within the normal range and looked good.
She also said that the baby was in the perfect position for getting good pictures of the heart; as if he knew that he was going to be photographed today. She said you could not have asked for better positioning to get optimal views of the heart and that these were the types of pictures you see in text books.
This is the miracle that we and so many of you prayed for and our prayers have certainly been answered. We thank all of you for your intercessory prayers on behalf of our son and our family!
Next Thurs. Feb. 12th at 8:30am we follow-up with our Maternal-Fetal Medicine physician for an ultrasound, non-stress test, and consultation on the issues of his short femur & humerus measurements. The pediatric cardiologist was careful to say that our son could still have a chromosomal abnormality even without the heart issues involved.
So there is still the issue of his short extremities - a 6 week discrepancy compared to the other measurements for his gestational age. As well as his having club feet.
Words are inadequate to express our appreciation and thankfulness for your prayers and support. Thank you for being with us in this journey.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Newest Update
We will be going to Park Ridge on Thursday for an appointment with a pediatric cardiologist. She specializes in heart issues in utero. Thank you in advance for all of your thoughts and prayers.
Tough News
Hi everyone,
We wanted to give an update following our 2nd Level II ultrasound this morning. We saw a different Maternal-Fetal Medicine physician this time. He has twenty years experience and a much better bedside manner. :) Here is what we learned about our son:
First, what is most concerning is his heart. He has an overriding aorta with right ventricular overflow. What does this mean? The physician really doesn't know other than it is not typical to have that amount of dilation in that part of the heart. He referred us to a pediatric cardiologist, who specializes in fetal cardiology, for an echo cardiogram of the baby's heart within a week.
Second, the femur (leg) and humerus (arm) bones are short for his gestational age. They are measuring 6 weeks behind. Therefore his weight is only in the 17th percentile.
Third, the amniotic fluid is a little low.
Overall, the physician is not sure what's going on but he feels all of these add up to a more "global issue." He's thinking a genetic issue/syndrome however in all of his years of experience he's never seen this set of issues all together (club feet, short extremities, heart issue, etc.).
So, what we're looking at is a boy that will most likely need to be delivered somewhere downtown due to possibly needing more specialized cardiac care. But again, we won't know more until there is a diagnosis by the cardiac specialist.
Thank you to all who have prayed for us these last several weeks. Right now we're feeling pretty discouraged. We know God's in this and with us, it's just a lot to take in right now. So... please pray that we can get in to see a specialist this week preferably sooner than later. Also pray for us as we continue to try and parent our four girls who need our love and patience while continuing to have that nagging worry for our son in the back of our minds.
Thank you.
Steve & Joy
We wanted to give an update following our 2nd Level II ultrasound this morning. We saw a different Maternal-Fetal Medicine physician this time. He has twenty years experience and a much better bedside manner. :) Here is what we learned about our son:
First, what is most concerning is his heart. He has an overriding aorta with right ventricular overflow. What does this mean? The physician really doesn't know other than it is not typical to have that amount of dilation in that part of the heart. He referred us to a pediatric cardiologist, who specializes in fetal cardiology, for an echo cardiogram of the baby's heart within a week.
Second, the femur (leg) and humerus (arm) bones are short for his gestational age. They are measuring 6 weeks behind. Therefore his weight is only in the 17th percentile.
Third, the amniotic fluid is a little low.
Overall, the physician is not sure what's going on but he feels all of these add up to a more "global issue." He's thinking a genetic issue/syndrome however in all of his years of experience he's never seen this set of issues all together (club feet, short extremities, heart issue, etc.).
So, what we're looking at is a boy that will most likely need to be delivered somewhere downtown due to possibly needing more specialized cardiac care. But again, we won't know more until there is a diagnosis by the cardiac specialist.
Thank you to all who have prayed for us these last several weeks. Right now we're feeling pretty discouraged. We know God's in this and with us, it's just a lot to take in right now. So... please pray that we can get in to see a specialist this week preferably sooner than later. Also pray for us as we continue to try and parent our four girls who need our love and patience while continuing to have that nagging worry for our son in the back of our minds.
Thank you.
Steve & Joy
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