Happy Father's Day

I LOVE having Casey home. I can’t believe a full week has already passed. It stills seems kind of surreal.

Casey is still having a hard time adjusting to a normal day. There wasn’t really a day and night in the NICU so she is often wide awake at night then sleeping all day. We have been trying to keep her attention during the day so that she can sleep better at night. She is getting a little better.

On Sunday we decided to see how she would take to a little shopping trip. Being that is was Father’s Day, it only seemed right to take her to Daddy’s favorite place. We drove out to Fry’s. She was really good for the first half of the drive, but the vibrations started getting to her toward the end. Once we got her out of the car and walked around the store some she relaxed. She seemed to like walking around the store. The ride home was better, she slept most of the way.

Today Casey had a busy day. She and I got up early and took Daddy to work. Then we headed home for our morning nap (she is such a good napper). Later in the morning Casey had an appointment with the surgeon that was very please with how well she is doing on the tube. They ordered her button and we will plan on going back in about 4 weeks to get it put in. The button is a very small (nearly flush) tube entry. It will be much more convenient than the larger tube she has right now. They have to start with the larger ones in order to build up the canal.

This afternoon Casey had an appointment with her pediatrician. Casey has been really congested at night and I was worried. Doctor said it is nothing to worry about and gave me a few suggestions to try to see if I can help her.

We have a lot of appointments over the next few weeks/months. Nothing we can’t handle.

Anyway, all is going well now that we finally have our little angel home. She loves to sit on the couch with us, or cuddle with us in bed in the morning. She is so affectionate :)

Casey is finally home!!!!

After 7 weeks and 2 days we finally got to bring our little angel home. What a great day it has been. I picked Tim up at 3:PM then we went to pick her up. We were home shortly after 5:PM. It was so exciting to pull the monitors off of her. We put her in her first dress and she looked so pretty.

All of her doctors, nurses, therapists, etc came by to tell her good bye and wish her luck. They all said they are going to miss her. They have a NICU reunion every 2 years so she will get to catch up with everyone at the 2006 reunion. They took her picture (all dressed up) to post on the graduation wall. Everyone loved her little dress.

Now that we are home we are doing it all and it feels great. Casey has a bunch of follow ups with everyone over the next weeks and months, but nothing we can’t handle. She has her first appointment with her pediatrician tomorrow morning. We have talked with her pediatrician many times on the phone but have yet to meet her in person.

Over the next few days we will just get adjusted, then once we are settled in we will have to get into a schedule. We are so happy to finally have her home. I don’t think we have stopped smiling all day.

Tim’s mom happens to be in town visiting this week so she timed things pretty well. It’s nice to have some extra help while we get settled in. She is here until Thursday and with Tim back at work I am sure I will have many things for her to do while she is here.

I will post more updates and pictures as she gets to experience all of the things that have been waiting here for her. She will get to go on walks, swing, sit in her bouncy chair, sleep in her own crib, etc. So many new things to do.

Starting to plan for coming home!

Casey finally had her last IV removed today! It was her PICC line went all the way up her arm and into her chest - by far the one we wanted out the most and of course the last one to come out. Since she is getting all her nutrition through her g-tube and finished her round of antibiotics from her pneumonia 2 weeks ago, the doctors decided she didn't need the line anymore.

She is still on a number of other medications, but they can all be administered in liquid form through her g-tube.

Since Casey isn't on her IV food anymore, she has gotten a little jaundiced again. The doctors said this is a normal reaction to her liver adjusting and should subside in a few days.

With feedings going well and her vital signs being stable, the doctors are starting to talk about sending Casey home. A lot of details still have to happen, but it looks like it could be real soon. They had us come in Saturday for a continuous 12-hours where we moved Casey into a "transition room" and we took complete care of her, drawing and givings meds, suctioning, changing, feeding, etc. The nurses were closeby in case anything happened, but it went very smoothly. We also took CPR, and did training on the feeding pump that we will be using at home and what to do if her feeding tube gets pulled out.

It's going to be quite a task coordinating with all the doctors and home health care to setup our followup appointments and order equipment that we would need to care for Casey at home. We are going to need to do regular checkups with our pediatrician, neurology, physical/occupational therapy, social workers, and gastro. Thankfully the NICU is helping to get a lot of this setup for us.

Grandma Barnes is coming in town to see Casey again tomorrow. Casey has grown up so much in the last month - she is almost 9 pounds and moves around quite a bit more now.

As soon as we know more on when Casey is coming home we will make sure we post pictures and video of the homecoming!

6-7 Week Update

I have fallen a bit behind in my posts :( Let’s see, what all has happened since the last post….

On Friday (a week ago) they moved Casey to what is called the step down room. They have the main room for the sicker babies, but as babies become more stable they are moved to the step down room. When they told us they were moving her we were so happy. The new room is much quieter, not nearly as many alarms going off. Also, there is more space. We are able to pull up rocking chairs and hold her a lot.

The move was perfect timing too. They moved her early Friday morning, and my mom got to town just a few hours later. It was a really nice visit. My mom was so happy to see how much Casey has grown and developed since her last visit.

Casey has been doing really well on her feedings. They started moving up the volume very slowly, but since she was doing so well they sped up the increase a little. She hit her calorie goal yesterday. They have her on what is called a continuous feed. A continuous feed just means that she is basically always being fed. Right now she is getting 20cc every hour. Over the next few weeks they are talking about moving her towards a bolus feed. This will take time and we will have to work our way up to them. The goal will be to have 60cc over a 20-30 minute period then give her 2.5-3 hours off the feeds. We will probably start by giving her 20cc over 50 minutes, 10 minutes off until she adjusts, then slowly move the off period up from there.

Tim and I have been working with all of the nurses to learn as much as we can about her equipment and needs. In the step down room they encourage as much parent involvement as possible. We are giving her medicine through the tube, loading the feeds, cleaning the area, etc. Everyday we try and do a little more. I learn new words everyday too.

Casey’s legs are still very stiff. We had the head of ortho come by this week and take a look to see if there is anything at all that he could do. He did have some ideas, but said that with her stiffness and young age he really wanted to wait until she was at least a few months older. We have also been working with PT and OT as much as we can to help the tone and keep her as loose as we can.

Casey has been coughing lately. This sounds very simple, but it is a HUGE deal. She is able to cough up some of her secretions which means she needs less suctioning. Some of the coughs sound awful, but they are a really big step in the right direction.

Neuro came by this evening while we were up visiting. We talked with him some about what is next for Casey as far as tests and things go. We will be looking to do an MRI soon.

Casey is almost 9 pounds now, she is growing so fast. I can't believe she will be 7 weeks in just a few days.

I think that’s the main stuff for the past week. She has been doing really well. Everyday she just amazes us more and more. I will try and post more frequently :)

Extubated and Feeding

Today was a huge day. Casey finally got her ventilator out today. After her surgery they kept it in and decided to keep it in until she was able to eat. However, after surgery Casey had some issues that caused the doctors to postpone feeding her through the tube, which meant she had to keep the vent in longer than planned as well. They finally got her feeding through the g-tube yesterday evening, and they took her vent out this morning around 9:30. I am so happy, and I think she is too. She really hated the vent the past few days.

After getting her vent removed the doctors stopped sedating Casey. She is still swollen from surgery, but she is awake much more now and getting back to herself. I missed her like crazy this past week. We were not able to hold her until yesterday due to the vent as well. Now that she is awake more and we can hold her again we are all happier.

Casey’s PT & OT are going well. PT had some boots made for her to wear that help relax her feet and legs. OT did the same for her hands. Now that she is off the vent they will both work with her for oral stimulation as well. Hopefully they can help her work on her gag, suck and swallow.

The nurses said that Casey may be able to move to a crib soon. She will have a lot more space if they move her. She had lots of toys in her crib back at St John. If they move her to a crib again we can take back up her toys :) I think she misses them.

My mom is in town this weekend. We will get some new pictures and post more updates soon.

Casey's Surgery Update

Casey has had a really busy week. She got all settled in her new bed at UCLA around 1:AM Wednesday morning. Tim had to be at work by 8:00 Wednesday so we did not get much sleep. I dropped him off then went up to UCLA to spend the day with Casey. She and I had a nice relaxing day. She had to do a few tests, but for the most part they had her just resting before surgery the next morning. She and I read some of her favorite stories, I held her a lot, and we just hung out. I went and picked up Tim after work and we went back up after dinner. Casey and her dad spent some nice holding time together that night.

Surgery was scheduled for 7:30 Thursday morning and they told us they would be coming for her around 6:30, so we decided to get to the hospital by 5:30 so we could hold her and be with her for a little while before she had to go. Around 7:00 the surgery team started to get her ready. We talked with the team a bit and were sent to the waiting area. They told us it would be about 2 hours and that they would either call or come for us. About 2 hours went by and we got a call. The nurse told us that things were going slow due to her liver being enlarged. About 2 more hours went by and we got another call. The second call they told us that they were finishing up and it would be about 30-45 more minutes. A little more than 1 hour went by and Casey’s surgeon came out to talk to us. The enlarged liver made it very hard for him to get to the stomach laparoscopy. While he was in doing the first procedure he had a hard time getting to the area, and Casey started bleeding. Since he could not get around he could not stop the bleeding. Casey had to get blood during surgery. Casey also had a hard time breathing when they would fill her abdomen with air so they had to stop a few times to help her breath. They finally got the fundo done and started on the g-tube. The surgeon tried all he could, but just could not get around the liver. He ended up having to cut her open afterall :( The bleeding turned out to be minor once he got her open. Also, once he opened her up he was able to get the g-tube in place with out any more complications.

It was a really hard morning for our little girl, but in the end she did get all of the procedures that she needs. The respiratory group decided to be on the safe side that they would keep Casey on the ventilator for a little while after surgery. Since she is still intubated and will remain this way for a little while she is being sedated. She sleeps a lot, but she is not in pain. The open surgery requires a little more recovery time, so I think it is probably a good thing that she is sedated during the first few days. I don’t think I could handle seeing her in pain.

The NICU is starting to wean Casey off the ventilator, but it will still be at least a few more days before she is off of it. When she is intubated we can not hold her, so Tim and I have just been sitting with her and rubbing head and back and talking to her. We can still give her kisses, I just can’t pick her up. They took off her bandages today as well. The cut is closed very clean so hopefully she won’t have a bad scar. The tube hole is not very big at all. She looks really good. She is exhausted, but she is doing well.

Thanks to everyone for your calls, emails, etc wishing Casey well during her surgery. We will post more after we get her off the ventilator. After she has had some time to recover we will post some new pictures too, she is 8 pounds now :) Our little girl is so strong, and growing so fast.

Casey moved to UCLA Westwood

Casey has been transferred to UCLA Westwood - they decided to move her late last night just to make sure their open bed didn't get filled, since they are so busy. She handled the transport well and settled into her new bed fairly quick and is making lots of friends with her new nurses and doctors.

Her surgery will be early tomorrow morning, probably around 7:30am and will last 2-3 hours. Afterwards, it could be another couple hours before we can see her.

We're sure she is going to do great - she is such a fighter and has made so much progress over the last few weeks. We are nervous since it's surgery but also excited that if she is able to feed with the g-tube that we can start thinking about her coming home sooner rather than later.

4 Weeks Old

Casey is 4 weeks old today. She is getting so big. She has passed the 7 pound mark and has grown more than 2 inches in length. She gets bigger and cuter everyday.

Casey had a big week. Her surgeon requested an upper GI before her surgery. To do this test they had to take her down to radiation. Since they were taking her down they decided to get her second CT scan as well.

The upper GI was really hard on Casey. She has been getting 4 cc’s during her feedings, but they have not been able to go past this amount with out her spitting up. During the test they had to give her barium and then follow it with water. In total the nurse said she ended up having to give her just under 30 cc’s of water. She spit up some, and was so tired all afternoon. The doctors decided to give her system a rest and hold off on feeds for at least 24 hours.

On Friday the doctors told us they were going to wait another day before starting feeds. Since she only gets 4 cc’s, and since they have to stop them 24 hours before surgery this week, Tim and I asked if there was any benefit in starting back up at all or if she would be better just staying on 100% IV until surgery. The doctor agreed that there was no benefit and so they removed her nose tube. This was the first time we saw her with out any tubes on her face. She looks great! She breathes a little better too. They still have to suction her, but not as often.

The neurologist came by on Friday as well. She had not seen Casey in a while and seemed pleased with the progress Casey has made, and with how much she has grown. She reviewed the CT and said that the swelling is gone, which is great to hear. She was not able to give us much more. She still wants to give Casey time to recover as much as possible. In addition to time she wants to have a few more tests run. After Casey gets back to St John’s from surgery she wants to have an EEG done. This test will show her if it is safe to start getting Casey off her seizure medication. Then when Casey is getting ready to come home she wants to do an MRI. This will show her any damaged areas. Even after the MRI we may have to wait a while to really know the extent of any damage that was done. The brain is still a mystery in so many ways and it just takes time. Everyone is still very hopeful.

For now Casey is resting and getting ready for her transfer to UCLA on Wednesday and surgery on Thursday. We will try and post later this week to let you all know how the surgery goes and when she will be moved back to St John’s.

Surgery at UCLA Westwood

Well, Casey is officially no longer a premie - today was her due date, and last night she was right at 7lbs too!

Once space opens up at UCLA Medical Center in Westwood (also called Mattel Children's Hospital), Casey is going to be transferred for a gastric feeding tube and possibly a Nissen fundoplication. Our neonatologist and pediatric surgeon want to do the surgery at Mattel's in order to perform the procedure laparoscopically and reduce recovery time.

We went over to Westwood and toured the NICU yesterday and were pretty overwhelmed. St. John's is brand new, quiet, and isn't a teaching hospital - Mattel's is the opposite. We know Mattel's is where she will get the best surgery for her, so we are just hoping it won't be for long. Casey is definitely used to the nurses and environment at St. John's.

We expect her to be there for at least a few days and hopefully not more than a week, depending on how quickly she recovers. After she stabilizes from surgery, we are getting her moved back to St. John's until she is ready to come home.

Currently they expect Casey to be moved next Wednesday and are trying to schedule the surgery for next Thursday (May 25th), but it all depends on availability.

Tomorrow Casey is having an upper GI test done so the gastroenterologist can consult with the surgeon on the Nissen details. While down in radiology, Casey will also be having her second head CT scan to compare with the first one she had a couple weeks ago. This will help the neurologist with making a better long term prognosis.

That's about it for now - will post more after we have test results and transfer dates...

Eyes cracking, oxygen off, reflux test

The last couple of days have been pretty good. Casey started to crack her left eye open just a little bit - you can see her eye occasionally drift in or out underneath but not too much movement yet. We are hoping she starts to open the other eye as well and moves her eyes some more soon.

Casey has been doing well with her breathing so they decided to take her off the oxygen again. She looks so much better without the nasal canula, especially with the tube for her feeding having to always be in her nose.

Since she has had problems feeding and spitting up, the doctors did a "reflux test" last night for twelve hours. They basically put a probe in her nose down to her stomach and monitor the pH level to check if feeding is causing too much reflux. Based on the results, they could recommend moving to a gastric feeding tube (requiring surgery) sooner than originally expected. If the pH test shows low or moderate levels, it may just mean we have to keep taking feeding very slow due to the risk of aspiration. Even if surgery is recommended, we still would have to research surgeons and types of g-tubes to make sure we are comfortable with the procedure, so nothing would be happening for a little while.

2 Weeks Old

Casey is 2 weeks old today :) Tim and I picked out a few little shirts for her this weekend, and she looks so cute in them. She is not quite big enough for new born clothes, but preemie fits her perfectly. We found a store near our house that has some really cute stuff for her.

Tim has talked to a few other doctors at other hospitals just to be sure that there is not something that they would be doing that our hospital is not. We are getting the same response from everyone, just wait. It's really hard to wait, and some days are better than others.

We expect to have some more tests run later this week, but nothing is scheduled yet.

Casey had a hard time breathing Saturday morning so they put her back on the nasal canula. Since they started the oxygen back up she has been doing a lot better with her saturation. They have been backing the oxygen off gradually and she has been able to maintain a healthy saturation level, so hopefully they will be able to remove the canula soon.

The doctors also stopped her feedings on Saturday morning. As we increased the feedings from 1cc up to 10cc (gradually over many days) she started to spit up around 6cc. She would not spit up with every feeding, but she spit up a few times. On Saturday morning they did an x-ray and saw that she had aspirated on some of the spit up. Until her lungs can clear out the fluid they will hold off on the feedings. They are checking her lungs daily to see when the fluid is gone. Once the fluid is cleared out they can start the feedings again. They expect it to be a few days.

Casey was feeling bad on for a few days (most likely due to the aspiration), but today was a much better day. Her fever was gone, and she was not nearly as stiff as she had been. I think she is feeling a lot better today.

We got to give Casey her bath tonight and read her a story. We will post more later this week unless we have an update to post sooner.

Casey and her bears

Casey got a couple teddy bears and the nurses let us leave in the crib with her. I got this cute shot of her hugging one of them.

Today they reviewed xrays and decided to do a small amount of stomach feeding through her nose tube. They will monitor Casey closely to make sure she is able to digest safely and if so will increase her breast milk and decrease her IV intake.

A second EKG is coming today or tomorrow to check that small irregularities in her heart are improving from original one last week. Next week they are planning to do new EEG and CT scans as well to gauge progress.

Line in, wiggle worm, grandmas

Casey had her arm IVs and umbilical line removed and they put in what called a PICC line, which will stay there for the remainder of her stay in ICU (they are telling us at this point most likely 1 month). It threads from her upper arm to just above her heart. It's safer for moving her around and is less prone to infection. They have to xray before and after to make sure it was threaded perfectly, so we weren't able to be there for the procedure, but the nurses said she did great.

Besides the PICC, she still has a nasal canula for adding oxygen and a little tube from that goes from her nose to her stomach. It's just used to vent stomach air right now, but will be used soon for feeding. The feeding tube is just until her gag reflex develops, which is needed before she can feed through her mouth. They still have Marty pumping is preparation and are storing her milk in NICU. Until they start using the feeding tube with mom's milk, they are feeding Casey a synthetic cocktail through IV. When they start mom's milk, they will do 1/2 to 1 cc and then take a series of xrays to check that her digestive system is working as expected. If everything looks good, they will increase milk and ween her off the synthetics.

Yesterday Casey wiggled and whined a lot when having her temperature taken and when they were doing physical therapy with her legs. This is the most response she has shown since before her seizures and is very encouraging. We took some books that we read to her during the last trimester before we went to bed. She definitely responds to our voices when we read these and I think her favorite book is "I Love You All the Time."

Marty is recovering well at home now. She is able to make it up our stairs and is doing remarkable considering her condition just 1 week ago today. It's great to be just a few blocks from the hospital. Right now we still drive and are trying to figure out a good schedule for visiting Casey, but when Marty is recovered more, we will be able to just walk over there any time day or night.

Marty's mom was here from Austin for the last few days, and my mom and my brother Ken and his wife Jen are coming in today from Chicagoland. Marty's mom brought a teddy bear that they let us leave in with Casey, and grandma was able to hold her grandaughter for a while. It's has been so great to have so many family and friends helping during this time for us.

Quite a day!

Well, Casey has had quite a good day - she is breathing on her own and is getting some flexibility back after a hard couple days.

Tomorrow is a new day and we are very thankful for today. 

Ventilator off, sunbathing

Casey finally got her ventilator tube taken out this morning and is stable. They are still giving her oxygen though a nasal canula. If she remains stable today they will schedule a CT end of the day or tomorrow morning.

She is definitely much happier without the tube in her throat. She is wiggling her toes and stretches her arms a little bit now. Her legs aren't as stiff today as they were the last couple days due to seizures. The nurses continue to do range of motion exercises with her to keep her as loose as possible.

They have her under a special light since she developed some jaundiced common with pre-term babies. This is why she has the mask on her face and her feet have been getting cold, which is why she has on the flower slippers, or maybe she just takes after her mom's fashion sense :-) 

Marty moving and Casey Updates

It looks like Marty will be moving out of ICU today into the post-partem recovery area today if things stay stable. This is great since we are on the 2nd floor right now and post-partem is on the 4th floor across from NICU.

Casey had head ultrasound and EEG done yesterday but the specialist was not in to read the results as she had an accident and broke her pelvis! This morning they will be trying to find someone else to do this. They have said Casey may get a CT scan today based on the results.

Casey is getting about 60% oxygen and is getting help from the ventilator at about 25 breathes per minute. She is breathing much faster than that, but they are very small. They will be trying to gradually wean her off the oxygen and ventilator support, but it took take days/weeks for this to occur based on how she responds at each level.

That's all for now - will update more later...

First Video from the NICU

Marty finally stabilized enough to get in a wheelchair and go to the NICU to see Casey around 5pm PST. Her color is much better and her breathing and heart rate have slowed down a bit from a high level that everyone was concerned about.

Here is a movie I brought back to Marty earlier in the afternoon. It's Windows Media Video (wmv) format, so please let me know if you have problems opening it. It's about 13MB so it's probably best to save locally before trying to open. 

It's a girl!

Well, the baby arrived quick and unexpected, but she is here. Marty and baby Casey are both in ICU here at St. John's in Santa Monica. They haven't been able to see each other yet, which has been really hard, but I am trying to relay status, pictures, and videos as much as possible. The doctors here have been great and both mom and daughter are getting better by the hour.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers! I will post more when I have updates... 

I can see the finish line....

I am so surprised at how fast this has all flown by. It seems like just yesterday Tim and I were talking about wanting to start trying to pregnant, and now we are less than a month away from being parents. I am ready to meet my little one, and I am more than ready to not be pregnant any more.

It's hard to say that. I have been so lucky with everything through the entire pregnancy that I really can't complain. It has not been bad at all. Don't get me wrong, there have been a few bad days. There were a few surprises too. Did you know that nose bleeds are common with pregnancy? I had nose bleeds every day of my second tri, and off and on still into my third. Not gushers, but when I would blow my nose, there was normally blood. I guess if I have to pick between that and morning sickness I am glad I got the nose bleeds. I was also really surprised by how fast your body changes. It really is over night. I went to bed small and the next day I woke up with a belly, and it just kept on growing.

Now that we are getting near the end, I am feeling new stuff, and my body is changing even more. False labor (Braxton Hickocks - may be spelled wrong) has set on pretty good. I started getting them on occasion over a month ago, but in the past couple of days I am getting them more often, and much stronger. I swell like crazy too. My feet and hands are huge and squichy by the end of the day. I am SOOOO tired lately. Around 3:30-4:00 I hit a wall, HARD. It's a struggle to finish out my work day. I don't see the gym much anymore. I used to come home, go to the gym, make dinner, stay up and hang out with Tim and never felt tired. Needless to say, Tim has had to do a lot more of the cooking and chores lately. I haven't dropped yet, I don't think. And I haven't lost my plug either. They say that these could happen weeks before the baby comes, or minutes, so I guess it's not really a sign either way.

We had an appointment on Tuesday. We go every Tuesday now until the baby arrives. The baby looks healthy. Still bigger than average for his/her due date, but it hasn't gotten too much bigger since our last one. We meet/interview the pediatrician next week. Our OB refered us, so I am pretty sure we will like her.

Tim and I have been swamped with work. We both are trying to get as much done as we can before taking time off. In addition to that Tim's race season is getting started so he has been pretty busy training and getting ready for his races. He signed on with Polar, and he is the local team leader. He will have a little more to do, but it's worth it.

I have been interviewing people this week to take over while I am out. I leave work 1 week before the baby is due, so I am really running out of time. I have a few more interviews coming up, but hopefully we will have an offer out early next week and get someone in very soon.

That's pretty much all that's going on right now. I will post more as things continue to develop. Keep checking back. We will post pictures, video, etc VERY soon.

Less Than 5 Weeks Left...

No doctor appointments this week, but we do have a few other things to report on. Tim and I finished our birthing classes last night. I guess we are as ready as we are going to be. We learned a few good stretches and techniques to use to help with the pain of labor. The stretches they say to do now, and the pain techniques will come in handy later.

We have seen ads and all kinds of stuff all over the place talking about cord blood banking. As if we don’t have enough normal baby stuff to worry about, now we need to figure out if this is something we should do or not. We talked with our doctor as well as with the birthing instructor. It seems that our original thought was right. If we had leukemia or other types of cancers in our family then this is something we should probably do. But, being that the only cancers Tim and I are aware of on either his or my side is lung cancer (and the cases we know of were life time smokers) banking the cord blood is probably not something we should be worried about. Thank goodness, it’s kind of expensive. However, in reading up on it I did see a lot of places that take the cord blood as a donation. Many people are not able to find bone marrow matches. I think I am going to look into donating ours. It’s either that or it just gets discarded. If it can do someone some good, then why not.

Tim has been looking into video options. He is looking to post to the blog from the hospital with a video feed of the baby so everyone that can’t be here with us can still see the baby right away. I am not sure exactly when it will be, but keep an eye on the blog in the next 3-5 weeks and you should see the video post. Don’t worry, there won’t be any birth video, it will all be after the baby and I are cleaned up.

We talked to our OB and were able to find a pediatrician this week as well. We meet with them on 4/27. We both have a lot of questions about the test that are performed after birth, immunization schedules, etc, so having some time ahead of schedule to go ahead and get the insurance details on file and ask our questions will be nice. They tried to get us in sooner, but that was the earliest they could do.

Tim and I are both working up until the baby is due (I have 1 week before, but not much). So right now we are both focusing on getting as much done as we can so that while we are out we can enjoy each other, the baby, and not even think about work.

We start our weekly appointments on Tuesday (the final 4 weeks). They are doing a full work up next week. There is some state mandated test they have to do (strep B, etc). After the full work up we should have a better idea of what to expect for delivery. We should know if the baby is getting into position yet, if the size is going to be greater or less than expected, etc. So next week I should have a good bit to report on.

Hope everyone is doing great, and be sure to check back often. The last few weeks should have many post, and very soon the baby video and pictures!