This past week was Feeding Tube Awareness Week. Being a mother to two children with feedings tubes (and one of those children with two different feeding tubes at that!), feeding tube awareness is important to me. While a blessing that has allowed my children to thrive when their bodies couldn't otherwise, tube feeding has its hard days. It is hard to have holes, sometimes multiple holes, in your babies' bodies. It is hard to watch them be uncomfortable and suffer through infections and other complications that come with these tubes. It's hard to have your child want so badly to eat but not be able to. It's hard to not know what is around the corner or how long the tube will continue to work for your child. And, it is hard to have people stare. I've been abundantly lucky in this regard...mostly, people have been so good about asking us questions instead of staring (for the record, I never mind someone asking us about it...I am happy to educate. I do mind, however, when someone asks what is "wrong" with my kids). We've only had a few "ew grosses" from other kids. But there are those times when people say stupid (probably misguided and unintentional) things that sting. Like the time a woman said, well within earshot, what kind of mother makes her just-learning-to-walk baby wear a backpack. Those things are easy to let go when you have so many wonderful people, both real life friends and family and those I've become close with through internet groups and the like, support you so unfailingly. And show that support publicly through blog and Facebook posts. One of the biggest blessings that my childrens' disabilities is this entire world of friends that have opened up to me as a result of having kids with special needs. I've met some very dear friends in hospital playrooms and conferences and internet support groups. This week, I was especially humbled by the blog posts my sister and an internet friend wrote in support of Tube Feeding Awareness Week.
Anyway, in other news, things with the baby have been going well. Fetal monitoring has continued to show the baby is doing well. I hit 31 weeks today! Every Saturday that passes and he is still in is a success. However, today, we received some not-so-great news. It seems these days, it is just one thing after another. We own (and rent out) our house in Eugene and rent a home up here. The market is just too tough to sell our old house in and so we are just holding tight for now. Our lease here is up on June 1. We knew our landlord was looking for a job back in this area (they live several hours away) and that, upon lease expiration, would rent to us on a month-to-month basis. Well, he called today and told us that he found a job here and would be moving back into this house at our lease expiration. So...that means, this baby will be born sometime between now and the second week in April. I will, in all probability, be having a c-section due to the baby's position (which is highly unlikely to change). Then, since we had to put off our trip to Cincinnati for Charlie until May, we HAVE to go in May (putting off until then already was pushing it for Charlie). So...that means, c-section, baby born, trip to Cincinnnati for a week of invasive surgical procedures with a toddler and newborn in tow and then moving on top of all that. We can't begin to look for a house until about April...so, it is going to be a VERY busy spring. I'm trying to not get overwhelmed and focus on the fact that I have 4 months to pack and organize in anticipation of this move. But...sheesh! Can we add anything more to our plates?
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Pregnancy
They say every pregnancy is different and you can't compare one to the next. Here are the differences in mine...
Jack: With Jack, I had a dramatic start to the pregnancy and a dramatic end. The middle was pretty uneventful. At 6 weeks, at my first ultrasound, I found out I had a septate uterus and all the risks that came with that. A day later, I thought I was having a miscarriage following a hemorrhage. The bleeding went on until about 14 weeks. Jack hung in there. Then, everything was uneventful. I had terrible hip pain that made it hard to walk but nothing serious. Then, on Valentine's day, 7 1/2 weeks before my due date, my water broke. I spent a week in the hospital and Jack was born. A teeny little thing. 4 weeks after that, we brought him home. I had an easy time getting him out, a less easy time recovering.
Charlie: No drama. Some bleeding in first trimester. In second trimester, I starting having ocular migraines and would lose my vision occasionally. A nuisance but nothing that actually did any damage. At one day shy of 40 weeks, I was induced, sailed through delivery and brought home my baby two days later. Easy peasy.
Baby William: Completely, totally sick and exhausted for the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. I have had food aversions with all three but nothing like this. I was so sick. Otherwise, totally uneventful first and second trimester. Then, one day into the third trimester, this baby decides he should shake things up. 9 days in the hospital, narrowly averting a very premature birth, and now we are home like nothing happened. Frequent fetal monitoring that shows good trends. Obviously, the rest of the story is yet to be seen...but I am enjoying this uneventful period for now.
Jack: With Jack, I had a dramatic start to the pregnancy and a dramatic end. The middle was pretty uneventful. At 6 weeks, at my first ultrasound, I found out I had a septate uterus and all the risks that came with that. A day later, I thought I was having a miscarriage following a hemorrhage. The bleeding went on until about 14 weeks. Jack hung in there. Then, everything was uneventful. I had terrible hip pain that made it hard to walk but nothing serious. Then, on Valentine's day, 7 1/2 weeks before my due date, my water broke. I spent a week in the hospital and Jack was born. A teeny little thing. 4 weeks after that, we brought him home. I had an easy time getting him out, a less easy time recovering.
Charlie: No drama. Some bleeding in first trimester. In second trimester, I starting having ocular migraines and would lose my vision occasionally. A nuisance but nothing that actually did any damage. At one day shy of 40 weeks, I was induced, sailed through delivery and brought home my baby two days later. Easy peasy.
Baby William: Completely, totally sick and exhausted for the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. I have had food aversions with all three but nothing like this. I was so sick. Otherwise, totally uneventful first and second trimester. Then, one day into the third trimester, this baby decides he should shake things up. 9 days in the hospital, narrowly averting a very premature birth, and now we are home like nothing happened. Frequent fetal monitoring that shows good trends. Obviously, the rest of the story is yet to be seen...but I am enjoying this uneventful period for now.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Answered Prayers
After 9 days in the hospital, with about 4 of them being somewhat harrowing, I got released yesterday!!! I get to be back home but with daily monitoring at the hospital to make sure this baby continues to do okay. We have, for the time being, averted disaster. I feel like this is truly a miracle...a week and a half ago, we were prepared to deliver a very premature baby and now I am inching closer to 30 weeks.
I am enormously grateful to all of my family and friends...who called, prayed, visited, and helped keep things moving at home. I came home yesterday to a clean house with laundry done and folded, the refrigerator clean and stocked with enough to keep us fed for a couple days, and well-cared for children. My in-laws made that possible and I am so grateful to them for that. My parents both came up and stayed with me in the hospital (I now know that my father can be awoken out of any sleep by a change in a baby's heartrate on a monitor), foresaking their own comfort to sleep in pull-out hospital chairs and ensuring I got a daily (decaf!) Starbucks coffee. Jared was, as always, a rock, trekking between home and work and the hospital and bringing me any number of things and remembering to bring things I needed but wouldn't have thought of on my own.
It was a wonderful feeling to arrive at the kids' preschool yesterday and surprise them at pickup. They weren't expecting me. Last night, Charlie sat with me in the rocker for the longest time, giving me an enormous hug. This is where my heart is, for sure.
I will say, every time we meet one of these crises, God honestly doesn't let us down. Despite my best efforts, I do have moments of wondering what in the world He is trying to show me...and then somehow, we make it through and I realize...it's not always up to me to control. Cincinnati will wait until May for Charlie and I have faith that we will make it through the rest of this winter and early spring in one piece.
I am enormously grateful to all of my family and friends...who called, prayed, visited, and helped keep things moving at home. I came home yesterday to a clean house with laundry done and folded, the refrigerator clean and stocked with enough to keep us fed for a couple days, and well-cared for children. My in-laws made that possible and I am so grateful to them for that. My parents both came up and stayed with me in the hospital (I now know that my father can be awoken out of any sleep by a change in a baby's heartrate on a monitor), foresaking their own comfort to sleep in pull-out hospital chairs and ensuring I got a daily (decaf!) Starbucks coffee. Jared was, as always, a rock, trekking between home and work and the hospital and bringing me any number of things and remembering to bring things I needed but wouldn't have thought of on my own.
It was a wonderful feeling to arrive at the kids' preschool yesterday and surprise them at pickup. They weren't expecting me. Last night, Charlie sat with me in the rocker for the longest time, giving me an enormous hug. This is where my heart is, for sure.
I will say, every time we meet one of these crises, God honestly doesn't let us down. Despite my best efforts, I do have moments of wondering what in the world He is trying to show me...and then somehow, we make it through and I realize...it's not always up to me to control. Cincinnati will wait until May for Charlie and I have faith that we will make it through the rest of this winter and early spring in one piece.
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