What a Whirlwind!

Wow! I cannot it has been four weeks since we first met our sweet baby girl. And I have pretty much missed the entire month of September.

Miss Ryleigh Katherine Rowe joined our family at 8 am on Friday, August 26th. Bright and early that morning Ron and I got up and headed to St. Mary's in St Louis for our scheduled c section. Actually, since it was about 5 am when we rolled out of the Holiday Inn it wasn't so "bright" but it was damn early.

Dr. Daddy, scrubbing in for surgery. 

He did a great job making me laugh because I was so nervous. :-)

Me in my sexy pre-surgery get-up.

Everything went pretty much as scheduled and I headed to the OR just before 7:30 for surgery. Ryleigh came out and sneezed right on the mask of one of the doctors. No need to worry if she was breathing :-) She was whisked away to a side room for measurements and vitals and to wrap her up to protect the lesion on her back. She was 7 lbs 9 ozs and 19 inches long. Daddy took a couple pictures and brought them back to me, as I was getting my belly put back together. Soon I was in the recovery room and the transport team brought Ryleigh in so I could see her and hold her for a few minutes before she went to Cardinal Glennon.

Ryleigh Katherine Rowe

 Mommy meeting Ryleigh for the first time.

 Mommy, Daddy and Ryleigh

While I was at one hospital recovering from surgery, Ryleigh was getting ready for her surgery at CG. The afternoon of her birth she underwent surgery to repair the myelomeningocele on her back. Her surgery went well and she was back in her NICU room recovering by early evening. I look at the pictures of my little girl in those first couple days and I do not even recognize the baby I know now. She was pretty swollen from the fluids and meds they gave her during surgery. She kind of looked like a Cabbage Patch Kid. Saturday I was able to get a "hall pass" to come over to the hospital to see my little one for a bit. She still had a breathing tube and was pretty sedated from all the pain medicine. It was hard for mommy to see. Sunday by the time I came over to see her again she was off all oxygen and breathing well on her own. She had even started to eat from a bottle. An accomplishment that surprised many of the medical staff...they thought she would be on a feeding tube for at least a while.

On September 5th, Ryleigh had another neurosurgery to place a shunt to drain any excess fluid and pressure in her brain. Her recovery from this surgery was a lot easier for her. But it came with a pretty bad haircut courtesy of Dr. Elbabaa. They had to shave one side of my baby girls head. All her long hair...gone. :-( He told us that it is a common joke that neurosurgeons give the worst, most expensive haircuts you can get. After just a few days Ryleigh was able to lay on the right side of her head, where the shunt is, with no problems. She incision is healing really well and her hair is starting to grow back little by little. 

Because of the myelo surgery she has had to stay on her belly for these first few weeks to allow her back to heal. Last Friday was the three week mark. The plastic surgeon has said four weeks from the beginning, to allow enough time for her incision to fully heal. In the last couple days we have gotten the green light to go ahead and put little miss on her sides and back for short periods of time. She was so funny when we laid her on her back for the first time. She was a little disoriented at first, but then really seemed to like being able to look around. and she didn't show any signs that her incision was hurting her at all. Yay! Our attending neonatalogist has said that if things keep going well we could be home by early next week!

Our little chubber on her side for the first time. Can you tell she is a good eater?
She's tipping the scale at nearly 10 pounds now.

First time on her back, looking at her daddy.
She has one small incision on her belly from the shunt tubing. It goes down to drain any excess fluid into her abdomen.

For now we spend about 12 hours a day in Ryleigh's room at Cardinal Glennon. We use terms like "neuro" and "plastics." We know what all the beeps are on the monitors around the hall. We have come to love our kooky favorite nurse Joanne, and she has been hooking us up with some free supplies for when we go home. I wear sweatpants out in public more often than I care to admit. We have met a lot of good people at the Ronald McDonald House. We have met other parents in better and worse situations than ours. There are actually two other babies in the NICU right now with the same condition as Ryleigh. One underwent the prenatal surgery that we had considered thru the Fetal Care Institute. The baby ended up coming early and had some of the complications of being premature that we did not have to worry about with Ryleigh being healthy and full term. While their case is different from ours; being able to meet this family and hear their experience really confirmed what Ron and I felt: that we made the right decision to forgo the prenatal surgery. We have no regrets at all about our decision.

Our Ryleigh is such a good baby. For all she's been through already she doesn't cry much, eats well and sleeps well. ...Of course I just jinxed us. Just like any other newborn, she cries when she's hungry or when she needs her pants changed. Being on her belly, she wears her diapers backwards, Kris Kross style. Let me tell you backward diapering is a challenge for rookie parents. We will be experts at it when we get to put them on the normal way! She is so tough and I am so proud to be her mommy. We are looking forward to so many fun times with our little girl.

And just a few more pics of our sweet girl:

Mommy and sweet Ryleigh the first time I got to hold her.

Daddy holding little bug for the first time.

One of mommy's favorite pics.

Another mommy & Ryleigh pic.

 

Close-up baby face.

Cardinal Glennon NICU, Pacifiers as big as your head.

Everything is going great. We are cruising toward being paroled early next week. We are SO looking forward to getting our little bug home and having her all to ourselves. ...Remind me I said that when I am up feeding her at 4 am. ;-) I was starting to get a little nervous about going home and having to do everything ourselves. But the three of us make a pretty good team and I am so excited. Things have been going really well for us the last week or two. Ron got a job, found out today that he passed the Indiana Bar and we are getting ready to take our Rymonster home to her purple room. Today is a great day! Hopefully it won't be another four weeks before I post an update. 

One last thing to share. A real tear-jerker of a video Ron took the first time I got to hold Ryleigh. You may have seen it on Facebook already. 

Thanks for all the love, support, kind words, thoughts and prayers. It has meant so much to us through out these first few weeks. 

Ten More Days...What?!?!

Here we are ten days away from meeting our little one. I can't really believe it. We have our delivery scheduled via cesarean section bright and early Friday morning, August 26.

A couple weeks ago we had a little run in with low amniotic fluid that landed me on bed rest for about 4 days. Boring times my friends. I did watch an entire season and a half of Weeds. And I just have to say, I don't really think I like ol Nancy Botwin. I have kept on watching. But when she makes bad decision after bad decision it just starts to get a little annoying. I think I am more a fan of characters who learn from their mistakes and grow. I don't know if I'm ready to give up entirely on the show. But...eh...we'll see.

But I digress. Since the "fluid incident" We have been going in for weekly ultrasounds and non-stress tests for baby. We had one this morning. She kicked ass. Basically they check in to see that she's doing all the little baby things that a 37 week old fetus should be doing. Things like practicing breathing, punching and kicking her mama. And of course check that she has enough amniotic fluid in there. Then they hook us up to a couple monitors that track her heart rate, movements and any contractions for about 30 minutes while I kick back in a super comfy recliner. Based on measurements they say she weighs about 7lbs 2 oz right now. I don't put too much stock in those estimates though as they can be up to a pound off in either direction. But she should gain at least another half pound before her birthday.

I've decided Friday will be my last day of work before maternity leave. I really thought I would work right up until she came but man am I tired. I don't know how people do it. Maybe if I didn't have to be in at 8am... Anyway, I'm going to take next week to get some extra sleep, get last things ready for baby and spend some time with my hubby before we are no longer a family of two.

As mentioned in the previous post, we've started getting things together for baby's arrival. Today her crib arrived. Luckily we were still home because Mr. FedEx man just rang the doorbell and left it at the door and it was starting to rain. It was in a box, of course, but still. Daddy's gonna get busy putting it together soon, I just know it. I am getting ready to order the rest of the things I want from our baby registries. We'll be getting lots of packages in the next 10 days. I am having a difficult time focusing on one task at a time, I feel like there is so much to do...and I'm too tired to do much of it.

We've sort of become amateur furniture dealers. We started selling some things we wanted to get rid of on Craigslist. We got rid of my old computer desk, an Ikea chair and ottoman, a book shelf and a TV. Cleaning out the house and we've made a little bit of $$. Not too shabby.

Now for a few fun little pics from my iPhone over the past week or so...

Lucy in her natural state: chillin'

I have the inniest belly button in the world! No signs of this bad boy popping out. That scar is from getting my gallbladder out and is normally hidden inside. Eek! I kinda can't believe I'm posting this pic on the interwebs. My tummy looks all blotchy and a little gross. Oh well, we're all friends here right?

And the obligatory baby bump self-portrait. This was taken Saturday and I seriously think the belly is already bigger.

Good times friends. Check me out, declaring myself the worst blogger ever and then BAM! Two posts in a couple days. How'd ya like that?

Oh, one last thing: Happy Birthday 4th today to my sweet (and feisty) little niece Avry Gabriella!

It's the final count down

Do do doo...do do doot doot. Yeah, you feel me.

Maybe not quite to the final countdown, but we will be meeting our little girl in exactly five weeks. Pretty crazy. Especially for me, considering that I have been pregnant for all of 2011. But I really can't complain. I feel really good. I told Ron this evening, "if all pregnancies were this easy, I think I could have 10 babies." Now I realize that is a HUGE exaggeration. Especially since I have not yet given birth, tried to get my body back to normal or had a tiny human fully dependent on me 24 hours a day. For the record, I have ZERO desire to raise 10 children. I'm just sayin' I feel pretty great, even with a heat index of 110.

This week I was able to borrow some maternity clothes from a friend who just had a baby. Total score! Now I should be able to make it through the next five weeks without having to buy anything else for myself. Although, I did see a cute top at Target last weekend... Oh, I got to hold little baby Reese. She was just 12 days old. I haven't held an infant that small in a few years. She's so cute! It made me both excited and scared about having my own wee baby.

Husband has pretty much been kicked out of the bed. Between me, the belly and all my pillows taking up most of the space, he's been crashing on the couch and occasionally the guest bed. Not to mention that his brain is crammed full of all the legal junk he can stuff in there, making it difficult for him to relax and fall asleep. He said this morning, "After I fixed up my bed last night..." Before he caught himself referring to the couch as "his bed." Methinks it is high time for a king size.

Not much new to report on the baby Rowe front. Had a quick little check up today. Her heartbeat sounds great and really strong. She's an active little booger. But she is definitely running out of room for her activities. I cannot figure out what part is pushing out where. But she is poking and pushing. Often there are some feet or maybe a little booty pushed up against my ribs on the right side. She's growing well and my belly size is measuring right on target. They think she'll be around 8 pounds, which doesn't surprise me. That notion did inspire me to do a little research (read: asking our moms) to find out the birth stats for mommy & daddy Rowe. I knew I was pretty big, and mom confirmed 8 lb 6 oz. Ron on the other hand, was just 5 lb 10 oz when he was born. We both had some hair when we were born too. You weren't getting a bunch of ultrasound pictures back in the 70's that's for sure. But we know from our many ultrasounds our little nubbin has a decent head of hair. And a first-class pout. I hope she has her daddy's long(er) eyelashes instead of my short, non-existent lashes. No matter what I know we are just going to think she is the cutest baby in the universe and love her to pieces.

Like I said, not much new baby news. I may just write another little post with some crafty projects I've been working on. Or maybe you'll just have to wait for another day. We'll see.

Lucky Seven?

I haven't posted in a while, so let me apologize in advance that this is probably going to be kind of long. 

Last Thursday (7.7.11) we went to STL again to meet with docs. We "tentatively" set baby's delivery date for August 26th. I keep saying tentative, because I am not ready to believe she will be here in just 7 weeks!

We had an ultrasound at the Fetal Care Institute. And got a pretty good look at our girl. She is getting big, too big to fit all in one screen. She weighs over 4 pounds now, right in the 50-55th percentile for size. She has long legs and lots of hair. Finally, finally after all the ultrasounds they were going to give us a 3D/4D peek at her face. But alas it was not to be. The little stinker was being stubborn and had hands and feet in front of her face the whole time. Darn it!

 I know this is a really terrible picture of a picture. But can you make out half her little nose there? And the side of her mouth, it's slightly open and she was sticking her tongue out. And part of her chin. Well, that's it, that's all we got. And even from that tiny little partial image, I kinda think she looks like me. Ha ha! Guess we'll just have to wait a little while longer to see.

We met with the brand new (to Cardinal Glennon) head of pediatric neurosurgery, Dr Elbabaa. He will do the surgical repair on baby Rowe's back. We were impressed. He answered all our questions before we even asked. He had been brought up to speed on our case and seems very confident in what he can do for her. He said that the location of her myelomeningocele, low on her back, is very good for future outlook. The fluid in the ventricles in her brain are enlarged. Which we expected. She will almost assuredly need to have a shunt placed sometime in her first year to keep excess fluid from building up in her brain.

We took a tour of the NICU at Cardinal Glennon. It is where baby girl will be spending some time after her surgery. I have to admit I was a bit overwhelmed, and I know it showed. Katie who we giving us the tour asked me a couple times if i was doing okay. The floor is really nice. She will have a private room. And Ron or I will be able to stay with her 24 hours a day if we want. There isn't really room for both of us to stay. But, we are candidates for accommodations at the Ronald McDonald House. There are three in the area. The closest one to Glennon is usually pretty full, but if we are willing to stay a little farther away we may get the option to move closer when something opens up. Since it is a charity the room there is available for $5 a day as long as we need. That is a huge relief. There is a kitchen, we can buy and store our own food there and volunteers come and make dinner for families every night. Since I am planning on nursing our little nub, I can get three meals a day provided at the hospital.

One of the most difficult parts of all of this is that baby will be delivered at one hospital and then she will be transferred by ambulance to Cardinal Glennon a few miles away. This leaves mommy (me) at St. Mary's to recover from a C-Section without my baby girl in the same place. I feel pretty strongly that Glennon is the best place for her care, so this is a necessary part of that. But it breaks my heart that I will not be able to hold or even see my sweet baby girl for a few days. And I know daddy is going to be torn as well, wanting to be in two places at once to take care of both his girls.

I've gotten spoiled by all my other doctors and their offices. The new fetal-maternal specialist we met kind of lost me at the shabbiness of the offices. I mean there were pee dribbles on the seat! And another restroom didn't even have any TP. WTH?!? Just one more visit to that office, I guess I can handle it. We were told that the maternity ward at St. Mary's is recently remodeled and really nice. Let's hope so. We'll get a tour when we go back on August 2nd.

So, in our "regular" pre-baby life. Ron is super busy studying for the bar. Coming down to big time crunch time, we are less than two weeks away from that. He was able to stop studying long enough to come to a couple baby showers this week. Our good friends the Pourneys hosted a wonderful shower at their house will a lot of our Columbia friends. Baby girl got lots of books and other necessities. We are really blessed to have great friends. Daddy was happy to receive some of his favorite "chew toys" that he had picked out for the registry. I had to explain why everyone laughed when he said that. When it's for a dog it's okay to call it a chew toy, for babies you usually call it a "teether." :-)
Then we had our final baby shower at my office. Lunch and presents with all most of my MAA co-workers. I was really blown away by how generous everyone is. I almost cried. We got a couple big items from our list - the swing and the video monitor - as well as some smaller baby necessities. So, so nice and very unexpected. Our guest room has totally turned into an explosion of baby stuff.

We are still crazy cat people. After the Warlock incident we stopped feeding all our friends. But then gray kitty came back...with one little baby in tow. How am I supposed to resist feeding this little furry face?

So it seems that Gray kitty and baby kitty live here pretty much full time. They tend to stay under our cars. And when the little guy gets spooked he runs in to the storm drain near the end of our driveway. So we continue to facilitate the kitty HIV epidemic on Calder Court. There are probably worse things.

Okay, so I think this post has gone on long enough (and taken me long enough to write).
Hope all is well.   -carmen

Baby Update: Week 30

Oops, I actually wrote this post on Friday and didn't get around to actually publishing it all weekend.

So, here we are at 30 weeks of cookin' a little baby. Our little nub is getting close to 3 pounds now. We had an ultrasound a couple weeks ago and could see that she's got at least a little bit of hair sprouting. And according to Dr. Martin she's got some pretty full, pouty lips.

Our girl is pretty active, she is also pretty stubborn. She wouldn't move for anyone who wanted to feel her kick when we went to Indiana last weekend. Then was kickin up a storm Monday and Tuesday. And Wednesday when Dr. Welch wanted to listen to her heartbeat she wouldn't sit still. Feisty little booger.

We went to Indiana for the weekend and had a great baby shower with family and friends. We completely filled the trunk of our car with loot for the little nubbin. I had several helpers for opening presents. My niece Abilyn was one of the helpers, checking out the presents here:

Looking at the photos from the shower I really don't feel as huge as I look in pics! I mean that is one pretty huge belly. And baby is going to more than double in size over the next 9 weeks.

And just one more picture of me and a couple of my favorite girls.

Avry was so cute, she wanted to know how that baby got into my belly...and after a moment of thought, how we were going to get her out of there. Questions her mommy was not quite ready to answer for a three-year-old. :-)

Back to baby update. In two weeks we go back to STL to meet the pediatric neurosurgeon who will be doing baby's surgery after she is born. We'll have another ultrasound with Dr Vlastos. And we are going to meet a new OB specialist, Dr Gross. Who we hope will be delivering our babe. I hope we get a birth plan/schedule out of these appointments. If all goes to plan, we will know our little girl's birthday before she gets here. I have a check-up with Dr Welch the next day and she wants to make a back-up plan in case I go into labor before our scheduled date. Let's all just keep our fingers crossed that doesn't happen!

Ron and I are celebrating our second anniversary today! We are so lucky to have each other and cannot wait to welcome a new addition to our little family.

One of my very favorite pics from our big day. :-)

Thanks for checking in. Have a great week!

Surfing Lessons

I am really sorry that I have not posted in a while. I have been busy learning to ride the waves of our crazy life. So, what has happened?

We are now 25 weeks along in the pregnancy. Our baby girl weighs somewhere around a pound and a half. She is now more proportionate in size and is plumping up and gaining fat. She is pretty active these days and I can feel her kicking all the time. I love it. I am still feeling really good. A few aches and pains, but nothing too crazy. I don't walk quite as fast as I used to, something I need to keep in mind when going somewhere on foot (like Starbucks at lunchtime). Mmmmm, Starbucks.

We had an amnio done a couple weeks ago and all the results came back normal. So, that is positive. The test needed to be done if we were going to proceed with the prenatal surgery to make sure there were no genetic abnormalities with our baby that "caused" the spina bifida.

We got a call from Dr Yang that the hospital board did not approve the fetalscopic surgery that he was proposing. They will allow the open procedure, which is the surgery they have been practicing for 10 or more years now. But after much consideration we have decided the risks vs. the rewards of the open surgery are just too great. It was the toughest decision I have ever made. We were really considering the new procedure since it seemed to minimize some of the risks we were concerned about. We really did not even consider that it might not be approved, we thought that was just a formality. It was a hard blow to take. But we have to move forward and keep believing it happened for a reason.

While Ron was on the phone getting the news from Dr Yang, I was calling and texting my sisters in Indiana to get updates on my mom. who was in the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. She is doing much better now, heading back to work on Monday. But it was just another thing to add to our worries.

Ron finished law school...sort of. If you know my husband, you know he is a bit of a procrastinator, so there are a few loose ends to tie up. He did walk at commencement. Ron and Vicky were able to make it to town for a visit. And to witness their son's final graduation ceremony...we hope. ;-)

So in the next few weeks I guess we will be figuring out the plan for the rest of the pregnancy and delivery. I think we will probably be scheduling a C-section in St Louis. Baby will have surgery shortly after she is born. And then we will just have to wait and see how she does and when she will get to come home. Of course, we can make all the plans in the world knowing that things may not work out the way we think they will. But I think we've had enough curve balls for a while.

We are pretty much decided that we are going to wait until we meet our little girl to decide for sure on her name. We have several names on our list, which actually keeps getting longer rather than narrowed down. So you'll all have to wait until she's here for the big reveal. 

We are still shopping for a new car. Which can be pretty exhausting. We are looking at new mid-size cars. We've driven the Honda Accord, Hyundai Sonata and Ford Fusion so far. I am excited to get the car we will bring our little girl home in. I am also excited to do some baby shopping. I'm really itching to start getting things set up for her.

I guess that's all for now. Be well. 

Ups and downs

Friday was a pretty tough day for me which is why I did not post an update. We spent all day Thursday inside the Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St Louis. There were ultrasounds and meetings with this specialist and that coordinator, this doctor and that surgeon. By 6:30 pm I was mentally and emotionally drained. Then Friday, it was back to reality. Back to work. Back to dealing with all the emotions that come with this diagnosis for our baby girl that we are really just coming to terms with. I think I had some unrealistic expectations for what the outcome will be. I thought, "she'll have surgery on her back and she will be 'fixed' and she will be a regular little girl." And I had unrealistic expectations that the doctors would be able to tell us exactly what they could do for her and exactly how that will work. They can look at all the scans and all the tests and tell us the percentages for what they have done before. They can't say, "this is what is going to work for your baby." There are still so many unknowns.

We do know that we are the parents of a child with disabilities. The extent of which we will not know until she is here and maybe not for years to come. We are going to have to work on changing our expectations and hopes for this baby girl. We are not hopeless, we just have different hopes now. And I have to think of how different all this will be once she is here. Now she is just an image on a screen. But once we can hold her, see her little face and enjoy the simple joys and rewards of being parents I know things will feel differently. Now it is just so much uncertainty.

I have started to feel her kick on the outside now. And daddy got to feel a couple kicks Saturday morning for the first time. That was really cool! It was funny, Wednesday we had an MRI to get a good scan of our little nubbin. They gave me a pretty good dose of Xanax to relax both baby and me for the scan. Well, momma got pretty loopy, but as they rolled me into the machine to start the scan I could feel our baby girl just kicking away. Luckily, they still got the images they needed. I think they didn't give it quite enough time to make her sleepy, that and I am starting to think this little girl is quite stubborn. Later that afternoon we went back to the hotel for a pretty awesome nap for momma. Then Wednesday evening we went to Babies R Us to check out some gear that we might need for our wee one. Shopping for this stuff online is hard for me, it definitely helped to see the strollers and cribs in person. We closed down the store, but probably could have used another hour or so to check out everything!

Daddy is ready to get nubbin moving with some music. I have been spending some time the last couple days with headphones on my belly getting baby acquainted with Motown. Her senses are continuing to develop, mainly her sense of touch. In the ultrasound we could see her reaching around with her little hand, touching her face and even sucking her thumb. She is weighing in right at one pound now. And it appears she likes to sit breech when they are trying to get good pics of her back and booty. Dr Vlastos was able to push on mommy's tummy a bit and get her to scoot into a better position.

We still have a lot to learn and think about the possibility of prenatal surgery. Dr. Yang is pretty much an all-star in this field and our impression is that he is cool as a cucumber. He is interested in trying the procedure using laproscopic techniques that have not really been done before. Exciting and scary at the same time. Dr. Eicholtz is the neurosurgeon who will repair nubbin's back whether we decide on pre or postnatal surgery. He much more like an engineer, pretty dry and straight-forward. And although we didn't see him with his shirt off, it appears that his man-muff could rival Ron's. Dr. Vlastos is the "baby guy." He specializes in fetal care and is very warm and caring. He even recommended a book of meditations that he said might help us deal with all the stress and anxiety. Everyone we met at the Fetal Care Institute was really amazing. Cardinal Glennon is a nice hospital. We met with a neonatologist who told us all about the NICU where our little girl will be spending some time. I was glad to hear that they have private NICU rooms and one or both of us will be able to stay with her 24/7. I know with my sisters, who each had a preemie, going home and leaving their babies at the hospital was one of the most difficult things they had to do.

What are the next steps? We are going in to meet with Dr Martin on Monday, on her day off, to talk about everything. She has spoken with Dr Yang and gotten the results and info about what we talked about. If we are interested in pursuing the prenatal surgery we need to have an amniocentesis as the last "piece of the puzzle" to give the docs all the info they need. The window is closing on that option and if we do the surgery it needs to be done before 26 weeks...within four weeks. Oh yeah, and Ron is trying to study, write and finish up law school during all this too. His last graduation ceremony ever is in two weeks!

So this is a really long post and kind of jumps around a lot. It's kind of a stream of consciousness thing as I process all my thoughts and try to share them with you.
Thank you all so much for your continued thoughts and prayers.

What a Quick, Crazy Week

It's Friday already? Monday seems like it was a million years ago. It hasn't been an easy week for us. And I am sure we have many more trying times yet to come. I started this blog a few weeks ago with so much excitement to share updates about our baby. I have had so many mixed emotions this week. And after everything we have gone through so far, I realized that it is okay to still be excited about our baby girl's growth and development.

We are 21 weeks today. Baby girl should be about 10.5 inches long. She might be a little bigger, because she weighs more than what the averages say she would. Dr. Martin told us on Tuesday she is probably weighing around 14 ounces...almost a pound. And she likes to rest all of that weight on her momma's bladder these days. Jeesh, I have to go like every 20 minutes! Her digestive system is continuing to develop and she has started to swallow amniotic fluid. She has also started practicing using her lungs a little bit, breathing in the fluid as well. We were able to see this at our Tuesday ultrasound. I can definitely feel her moving occasionally now. I can't wait for her daddy to be able to feel it too.

Looking ahead to next week a little bit; we will be heading to St Louis on Wednesday and Thursday for some diagnostic testing and meetings with doctors and specialists. We will be going to the Fetal Care Institute at Cardinal Glennon Hospital. This is probably the hospital where our little nubbin will be born. All I can say is that I am so grateful for the outstanding care and advice we have received thus far. Even over the phone the coordinators we have spoken with have been so caring and understanding. While I know these will be a couple LONG days, I am looking forward to getting more information and answers about what we are facing.

We will be learning more about the prenatal vs. post-natal surgery option for repairing the exposed nerves on baby's back. We have been reading up on the studies completed over the past few years. The New England Journal of Medicine recently published an article regarding the findings from the prenatal vs. post-natal surgery study. The article is full of statistics and medical jargon, but has a good information about the surgery.

I am so thankful for all the kind thoughts, notes and prayers that have been coming our way. I know with all the love and support we are receiving from all over we will stay strong for our sweet baby girl. Thank you!

Now on a lighter note: Ron and some of his law colleagues performed at a fundraiser variety show this past week. I know some of you saw this video on Facebook, but I just had to post it one more time. Enjoy.

The Day Everything Changed

I guess you could technically say that January 1, was the first day everything changed for us. That day, starting a new year with so much hope and potential, we found out we are going to be parents.

Fast forward four and a half months to April 18th. We again started the day with so much hope and excitement. We woke up in the morning to get ready for our 20 week ultrasound and find out for sure that our little baby is a girl. We got a little hint that she was at our 12 week ultrasound, but it was still too early to tell 100%. We did get our confirmation that our little nubbin is indeed a girl.

We also got a little more information that we were not expecting; our sweet girl has a birth defect. She has a protruding sac on her lower back that has been identified as spina bifida. We were shocked and numb. How could this happen? Our minds were reeling with all the worst case scenario options. My OB was talking about things like wheelchairs and meningomyelocele. Neither of us got much sleep last night. The worry about what the future would hold for our precious little girl was overwhelming.

Dr Welch, my OB, had scheduled an appointment for us with a fetal-maternal care specialist first thing this morning. She obviously has great respect for Dr. Martin and had worked with her before. We went to the office and first had another ultrasound, then Dr Martin came in to take some pictures for herself and get a first-hand look at our little one. She is really fantastic. Even though she had squeezed us into her already packed schedule for the day, she took the time to go over all the information with us and answer our questions. After several hours we left refilled with hope for our little girl's future.

So what we are looking at is definitely spina bifida. We were happy to see that she was moving, kicking, crossing and uncrossing her legs. She wasn't moving around too much yesterday and after receiving the news we knew paralysis was one of the possibilities. Not the case. The lesion on her back is pretty low, closer to her tail bone, below the spinal cord. Although this means there are still nerves exposed, it is a positive that her spinal cord itself is not. Her feet and ankle position looks normal. Another positive. Clubfoot is a possible side-effect that would make it very difficult for nubbin to walk. According to Dr Martin, there is pretty low chance of brain damage or neurological defects, which I was really worried about. She has a strong heartbeat and her heart development looks great. Like I said, we got a lot of good news today to put things into perspective for us.

While we realize we are at the beginning of a long road, we are feeling hopeful about positive outcomes for our family. I think Dr Martin said it best today when she told us we are getting a crash course in parenting. We are faced with some difficult decisions earlier than we thought we would be. But that is the job, to try and make the best decisions for our daughter and her life. We are certainly looking at more appointments with specialists, more tests and an ultrasound every few weeks to check on our wee baby. We are probably going to have to deliver in St. Louis via C-section. And she is going to face surgery on her back, shortly after (or possibly before) she is born. She will be spending some time in the NICU.

We don't have all the answers, but we have a better idea of what we are facing. I know that I can rely on my best friend, my partner, my husband to be by my side and we can lean on each other. I love you Ron. I also know we have positive thoughts and prayers coming our way from all over the place. Thank you so much everyone for all your positive energy toward us and our baby. Keep 'em coming!

Now a few pictures of our little girl. They are photos of the ultrasound printouts. They aren't quite as clear and distinct as some ultrasound pics we have seen, but still cute...I think.

Little girlie parts (hee hee):

Arms up covering her face (zoomed in):

Profile, with cute little nose:

Another profile shot:

Close-up of a little baby foot: In the original I swear you can see her little toes.

Spring is finally here...maybe

Ahhh, we have finally gotten a taste of spring weather in mid-Missouri. And it seems we are going to just jump right into summer. We have already had one 80+ degree day and are expecting another tomorrow.

So here we are at week 19. Almost halfway to meeting our little nubbin! I can't believe it. Baby is about 6 inches long and weighs about 8.5 ounces. This week is all about brain development. Our wee one's brain is developing the areas designated for senses and lots and lots of neurons. I've been trying to eat lots of protein to help grow this little developing brain.

I've had a very active little baby today. After I had a Starbucks decaf mocha this morning baby was moving around like crazy for quite a while. I have been feeling little wiggles occasionally, like when I go to the gym or go swimming. But, this was by far the longest amount of time I have felt movement from the nubbin. So exciting! I guess I know what to do to make sure baby's awake for the upcoming ultrasound. I have a pretty busy week coming up at work. So I hope that will help keep my mind off counting down to April 18th. I cannot wait! I was being so good and patient, but I just can't do it anymore. I want to see how he/she has grown and what's going on in there.

I guess that's all for now. Just enjoying sitting here with the the windows open, getting ready to make tacos for dinner. Yummy!
One more thing: I gotta give a shout out to my sweet niecey Madisyn, who lost her first tooth today! I love you cutie face!

Have a great weekend all!

Happy April Fools Day!

Well, it’s Friday already. I am afraid I don’t really have too much to say today. 

I thought about posting some sort of joke like that we found out we are having twins. But, well, meh....

We're not by the way, just one little Rowe growing in there. :-)

We hit 18 weeks today. Our little sweet potato is about five and a half inches long and weighs about six and a half ounces. This week little nubbin’s bones are hardening and becoming stronger. The bones in the inner ear are some of the first to develop so that means baby Rowe can probably hear now. Mostly he/she can hear my tummy growling and my voice…and me laughing at all the silly things his/her daddy says and does. I laugh a lot. And thinking that is a sound our baby can hear makes me really happy. I also learned this week that baby has fingerprints by now. How cool is that!?!

My belly has definitely popped out in the last two weeks. Sometimes when I go into the restroom I am surprised when I look in the mirror! I actually look like I have a baby belly instead of a beer belly now.Thanks mom for the maternity pants! They are so comfy.

I am hoping for a little taste of spring this weekend. Seriously, enough already! We need some sunshine and warm weather. I am thinking of working on some crafty stuff this weekend with Christy. So hopefully I’ll have some pics of fun stuff to post soon. 

Oh! And I almost forgot about the final four this weekend. How could I do that?!?! GO CATS!

Have a great weekend! -c

Been a long time coming

Ok, so I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while now. And since 2011 looks to be a pretty exciting year for us, now seems like as good a time as any to get this thing going. So, here we have the official Rowe blogspot. Please bear with me as I get used to this whole blogging thing.

We found out on New Years' Day that we are expecting our first child. We're due at the beginning of September. I'm super excited about the timing, as September 4th will be the four-year anniversary of our first date, and three years since we got engaged. How cool would it be to have our baby on that day too?!?
I am 17 weeks prego as of Friday. I had a check-up same day; pretty boring run-of-the-mill, blood pressure, weight, pee in a cup type stuff. I did get to hear our little nubbin's heartbeat which was strong and baby was pretty active.

Some basic baby stats at 17 weeks: a little over 5 inches long, and about 5.9 ounces in weight. Baby has mastered some simple reflexes like sucking, swallowing and blinking.  My belly has started to pop out in the last week or two and I am definitely "showing."

Oh, and a little about nicknames; we have been calling the baby "nubbin" since about 8 weeks when the arms and legs were just little buds starting to grow and it kind of stuck. Lemondrop was another nickname a couple weeks ago when he/she was the size of a lemon. Creative, eh?

Everyone is waiting so patiently to find out the gender of our little one. We have decided to go ahead and find out before the big day. Our ultrasound is scheduled for Monday, April 18th. :-)

I am so excited to share this with all of you. I plan to keep updated with baby and non-baby related posts. I hope I will be able to share a lot more info here than facebook. I will work on posting some picture soon too. Yay! This is gonna be fun! Welcome to our blog.
-carmen