Corban Update

I wanted to give you an update on Baby Corban. Since my visit with the peri-natologist on Aug 14th, that Dr. recommended I have Non Stress Tests (NST) twice a week to keep an eye on my blood pressure, monitor baby's heartbeat, and also monitor any contractions I may be having. I did have an NST while at the Peri office in Modesto and everything was just fine. However my last two NSTs which happened on the 21st and 27th showed that Corban's heart might have an arrhythmia or irregular heartbeat. My OB Dr. Brunel has consulted with one of the peri-natologists in Modesto, Dr. Slocum and both agree that arrhythmias are common and can develop at any time. In most cases they are also benign (not harmful) and tend to correct themselves either during pregnancy or after birth. Both Dr.s also agree that it would be beneficial to have a fetal echo cardiogram done on Corban, which is a higher level ultrasound looking specifically at the heart and its components. I will be going to Modesto sometime next week to have the fetal echo test done. Corban's heartbeats are strong and he's moving around normally, so that is good news. They just want to know what (if anything) we are dealing with.

I have another dr. appt in Sonora on Thursday of this week followed by another NST in Sonora. Our prayer is that Corban's heart would be beating regularly, that the arrhythmia would have resolved itself. Please keep us in your prayers. We'll let you know how it all pans out. We know for certain that God created Corban and that He has a great plan for His life. For now I am trying to rest in the peace that I feel him moving constantly and we have a fetal heart dopplar monitor that we can use to listen to his heart anytime we want.

30 weeks! 7 1/2 months!!!

We took some fun belly pictures today! Here are some of my favorites!!

An ode to our computer company!

Basketball belly!

Nice & Round!

Little Tiny Shoes!

Small sneakers!

So much LOVE!!!

10 Weeks to go!! We're so excited to meet Corban Michael!

28 Weeks- 7 months!!!

Welcome to the 3rd Trimester people!!! It's been a busy couple of weeks since my last prego post. Chewy is still as active as ever- moving, rolling, kicking nearly all day long! J & A love watching my belly move and they enjoy having their littlest brother kick them (something that will certainly change as Chewy grows up).

7 Months

I met with my doctor and we spent a lot of time talking about pre-term labor... is it likely to happen again? Would the hospital stop labor? etc. Basically it could happen... since it was spontaneous both times before, it could repeat itself. And the hospital normally wouldn't stop labor at 36 or 37 weeks, but in my case 37 weeks just isn't enough time for those lungs to develop. Aaron was born at 36 weeks and 6 days and still ended up in the NICU for nearly 2 weeks. Dr. Brunel said we would try to keep me pregnant as long as possible depending on what my blood pressure is doing. If my blood pressure stays too high for too long, the risk to my health outweighs the inconvenience of another NICU experience. We talked about getting steroid shots at 34 weeks which are usually only given once you go into labor to give the baby's lungs an extra boost of development. There really aren't any studies showing them to be effective for women who carry past 34 weeks, but it certainly couldn't hurt either.

Little foot!

I also had my first Rho-gam shot. I am RH negative which could cause problems if the baby is Rh positive. Basically my body could recognize the baby's Rh positive blood as foreign and start to attack it. So I have to get a shot of antibodies that will prevent my blood from attacking the baby's blood. It was quick and painless. If I experience any sort of trauma from here on out (say a fall or some other impact to the stomach area), I will have to get another shot and I will have my final shot after delivery.

 My doctor also suggested that I meet with a Peri-natologist in Modesto to discuss my birth history and current blood pressure issues and get his advice on how the rest of the this pregnancy and delivery should go. One thing we're trying to figure out is if I should deliver in Sonora and run the chance that the baby will need the NICU. Then the baby will be transferred to Modesto while I will have to stay in Sonora for at least 24 hours after delivery. This is what happened when Aaron was born and it was heartbreaking to be so far away for so long.

Beautiful face and hand!

 So off I went to Modesto this week and met with Dr. O. First I had a level 2 ultrasound during which the technician examined and measured all of Chewy's parts and confirmed that he is in fact a boy. Based on his bone measurements she said he weighed 2 lbs 15 ounces which is normal for his gestational age. Dr. O and I spent a lot of time talking about my delivery history. Of course my blood pressure was high in his office too, but I brought my trusty chart of my normal at home numbers. After hearing about the deliveries of Jonathan and Aaron he offered some insights. He said that because the hospitals never did their own ultrasounds to determine or confirm gestational age, it's possible that the boys were actually younger than we thought therefore accounting for their underdevelopment. He also said that the magnesium sulfate I was on for both labors and deliveries (which is a powerful muscle relaxer) would have greatly effected their abilities to breathe upon birth. He said that he would not recommend my being on mag sulfate at all during this delivery unless I developed pre-ecclampsia which is characterized by high blood pressure accompanied by protein in the urine among some other symptoms. He said that if my blood pressure is elevated for too long during labor and delivery I could be given different medications to treat just that, medication that would not cause the baby to be sluggish. He also had me stay and do a non-stress test where I was hooked up to monitors that kept track of Chewy's heartbeat and if contractions were occurring (which they weren't). That went well and also retook my blood pressure again and it had come down quite a bit (into the medium part of the normal range). He recommended that I continue to do the non-stress tests 1-2 times a week in Sonora and also that I have some additional blood work done to determine if I have high blood pressure in general.

Arms!!

 So I have my normal dr. appt in Sonora next week and now my appts with Dr. Brunel will be every 2 weeks now that we are in the 3rd trimester, and I have to go back to see Dr. O in Modesto in 4 weeks.

Here's the goal prayer warriors... We're praying that my blood pressure continues to stay in the normal range at home (so far so good there!) and praying that labor doesn't start on it's own until 38 WEEKS!! That's the goal... to get to 38 weeks. If I can make it to 38 weeks then I can deliver in Sonora and in all likelihood the baby's lungs will be fully developed. Please keep us in your prayers. We deeply appreciate all your love and support. We know that God created this baby and that He already knows the hour of Corban's birth and all the surrounding circumstances.

So if the goal is 38 weeks, that means I have less than 10 weeks left! EEK!!!

The boys have been so excited about their little brother, we decided to do some artwork to decorate his room (and their room too). I saw this idea on Pinterest and while I think it would have turned out better on canvas, it still looks pretty good on paper. I spelled our their names with painter's tape and then let the boys fingerpaint all over the paper. When the paint was dry we removed the tape! Voila! Here's what we got: 

Before

After- hung over Corban's crib

We hung these on the wall in their room

The boys were very pleased about how they turned out.

Six Flags!!!

Last Monday we were blessed by our dear friends the Bauers when they invited us to go to Six Flags with them. They had season passes and also had guest passes for all 4 of us! We made the trek down to Vallejo looking forward to a reprieve from the heat. It ended up being in the high 80s there and was pretty warm but nothing like the 115 degree heat we've been feeling in Copper over the last few weeks.

J & Ian mapping out what we should do first!

Taz was the only character we saw that day. AJ was happy to take his picture with him.

Ian was too, but that's as close as Jonathan would get to what he called "that weird looking bear"

It was a very full and fun day! The park was surprisingly busy for a Monday, but we made our way around most of the park. Our boys were super excited to ride the rides. I wasn't sure how Aaron would do considering he's never even been on rides at our county fair before, but he loved it! Kris had to go on most rides with him (sometimes Josh or Christine filled in and rode with him too- being the great friends they are). Ian and Molly were so sweet, they emailed earlier in the week to get the boys' heights so they could make a list of which rides the boys were tall enough to ride.

Christine and me on one of our many trips to get more lemonade!

Molly & Jonathan on the Road Runner Coaster (it went around exactly one time: kind of anti-climactic)

Aaron jumping up and down, ready for more rides. He was just a little excited!

Turns out Tigers are great divers!

And this 350+lb Tiger can jump 10+feet with ease!

We arrived around 11am and the park closed at 6pm (which I thought to be quite early at the time), but honestly by 6pm we were exhausted! All the walking and the heat just wiped us out! We did manage to see the Odin's Tiger Show and saw the Shouka show just before the park closed. Jonathan got to ride the Cobra roller coaster and the Sky Racer- which is basically swings that go way way up and spin around... that one kind of scared me but Kris rode next to him and held on tight. At one point the Daddies took off to ride Medusa- a huge roller coaster while Christine and I took the kiddos back to Loony Tune land so Aaron could ride a smaller version of the swings. 

Kris, Jonathan, Josh, Ian & Molly are up there somewhere!

Coming down

Aaron trying to be patient while the bigger kids ride the swings

Aaron finally gets to ride the swings!

No rides for this 7 month pregnant Mama, so I was in charge of taking pictures and making sure tummies were filled and mouths were watered.

Aaron is loving the Shouka Show!

All smiles watching Shouka bob her head and "dance"

Shouka waving

Shouka soaking the first few rows

Shouka does a flip!

Shouka in all her glory

Another cool spot was the Shark Experience, an aquarium like display of smaller sharks and fish. The neatest part was the moving sidewalk (think flat escalator) that took you through a tunnel and there were sharks and fish on all sides!! Ian and Jonathan especially got a kick out of the large jawbones of the sharks.

Going through the tunnel!

Ian & Jonathan looking at what they first called "a super weird fish", then they decided it might be a blow fish

Wow! Look at the jaws of the Great White Shark!

The husbands were so fantastic that they trooped back up the hill to get the cars and then just called us to meet them across the street, saving us lots of uphill walking with 4 kiddos in tow! We ate dinner at Chili's in Vacaville. It was super yummy! Christine was so sweet in remembering that J just had a birthday and that AJ's was coming up. Ian's own birthday is in the beginning of September so she talked to the waitress and had them bring the boys (and Molly too, couldn't leave her out) a brownie birthday sundae and the staff sang them Happy Birthday! They were pretty excited!

The boys were asleep within 30 minutes of leaving the restaurant (by then it was nearly 9pm). We all slept really good that night for sure! Thanks again to the Bauers for sharing Six Flags with us!!

Spray-Ground!!!

We love to visit Elk Grove! Not only because our super wonderful friends live there, but also because there are so many neat and different things to do in a bigger city. One of those fantastic things is the idea of a Spray Ground- a play ground with sprinklers! Brilliant!! We spent a few hours at one around the end of July and it was a great way to beat the heat. I think that every city should have at least one of these!

Here are some fun pictures of the kiddos cooling off:

Tyler gets low under the spray

Aaron ready to get wet!

Jonathan on top of a hippo sprayer

Even Joshua loved the water!

Drew drying his face off

Jonathan aiming the Ram sprayer at Daddy

My then 6month prego belly

Aaron shooting Daddy with the zebra sprayer!

Camping!!

Last weekend we continued our somewhat regular tradition of camping with our good friends Marc & Stacey and their kiddos: Drew, Tyler & Joshua. We usually plan to go the first weekend of August. I say somewhat regular because last year Joshua was born on July 7th and Stacey didn't really feel up to taking a 4 week old camping especially after having a C-section, and I sure didn't blame her! But this year Joshua was walking and it was game on!! We headed up HWY108 and found a neat little campground called Fraser Flat. We thought that by going on a Thursday we'd have an easy time finding a site, but ironically most of the sites were already full. We did find a great site, but it had one problem... it was labeled handicapped. We drove in circles trying to find the camp host to see if it was handicap only or just handicap accessible, but no luck. So we just decided to set up camp at the site and if the camp host showed up and made us move, oh well. Marc & Stacey arrived about an hour later and the real fun began!

The Tree Man

The weather was still somewhat warm, although certainly not the 100+degrees it would have been in Copper and we had a nice breeze as well. Our site had lots of shade which made it quite pleasant too. In fact the only real irritation was the large quantity of meat bees that showed up when we started cooking. The first night we had tacos and that must be a favorite meal for meat bees because they were everywhere. We ate in a hurry and quickly cleaned up. Kris created some ingenious traps that he hung around the camp and while they didn't eradicate all the bees they certainly killed a bunch of them. We also found a face of a man that someone had created on one of the trees near the fire pit.

Jonathan & Drew

Squishy faces!

Marc & Stacey- LOVE them!!

Aaron aka "Cool Dude" having an early morning snack

Aaron loving on Mama- I LOVE being a mother of boys!

Me & My fantastic husband (and baby Chewy), taken by Jonathan

Josh's first camping trip! I think he had a blast!

Stacey and her HUGE marshmallows

One major highlight of the trip that the boys simply went crazy over was roasting marshmallows. This was the first year they were really old enough (and stayed awake long enough) to get in on the smores action. And Stacey had brought these enormous marshmallows, bigger than any I'd ever seen before. What fun they had!! Most of their marshmallows caught fire and were pretty crispy but that didn't keep them from being devoured. Aaron usually can't stand to have his hands sticky, actually held his marshmallow and tried eating it, but only got a couple bites before trying to hand it off to me saying, "Mommy this is just too messy for me!"

Marshmallow Time!!

Drew & Jonathan enjoying their marshmallows

Tyler takes a big bite!

Aaron's marshmallow mess!

Tyler climbed up on this cement block all by himself and was very excited

 We also had a gentle river that ran alongside the campground so we spent one afternoon splashing and playing there. The water was very cold, but boy did it feel good! It was pretty shallow but that didn't stop us from getting as wet as we could.

Our 4 big boys!

Aaron and his "boat"

Stacey, Josh, Tyler & Jonathan

Kris braves the cool water!

Digging in the dirt- a favorite camping activity

After packing up camp on Saturday we'd planned on going up to Pinecrest Lake to have a picnic lunch and play at the beach. Apparently everyone else in the county had the same idea because that place was packed and there wasn't a parking place to be found. We quickly abandoned that idea and instead had a pizza lunch at the Strawberry Inn. After a thoroughly satisfying lunch we gave our hugs and goodbyes and headed for home.

4 boys on sticks!

Honestly I wasn't looking forward to camping being nearly 7 months pregnant, but I had a great time! I was most worried about getting a good night's sleep and so brought my big body pillow. I ended up sleeping very well both nights. There was a full moon and we left the rain cover off our tent the first night so it was amazing to just lay on our air mattress and look up at the moon. God's creation is so awesome!!


We sure made some wonderful memories this trip. The boys had fun searching for pine cones for the fire. One morning while Kris was still sleeping in our tent the boys started another pine cone hunt. Tyler would exclaim "PINE CONE!" at the top of his lungs as he found each one. Well one time he was right next to our tent (and Kris' sleeping head) when he found a really big pine cone and let loose one of his best proclamations. Kris joined us not long afterwards and said that Tyler's "PINE CONE!" was the most unusual alarm clock he'd ever had! We also had a late night visitor in the form of a super chubby raccoon. Kris was the only one awake and we'd put our food in the cars hours earlier. But Kris said that he heard something jump on the picnic table and was surprised to see the fattest raccoon ever, it's belly dragging the ground! He tried to scare it off but it really didn't budge until it was good and ready and then it waddled off. We also celebrated Jonathan's 6th birthday on Thursday night. I can't believe he's 6 already! He's growing into such an amazing boy and I'm so grateful that God chose to place him in our family.

Happy Birthday JJ!!