Home Sweet Home

It's been a long 2 weeks but the time has finally come where I was homeward bound!  I had an OB appointment this morning and based on all the progress (and lack of issues) I got cleared to leave the Milwaukee area and resume care within the Madison area.  Got some good news regarding results of the surgery too!  One of the side effects of the open neural tube defect is what they call hind-brain herniation (essentially the brain gets pulled down towards the brain stem area) and is the cause of  the fluid swelling in the brain and the need for shunts.  During the ultrasound, we were able to see that we're already starting to see the reversal of this and the baby's cerebellum has already come back up close to its normal position.  This is super promising in regards to the need (or lack there of) for the shunt post-birth.  We also got an update on baby's estimated weight - he's now around 2 lbs 5 oz.  That's right, this little porker has gained close to a pound in the last 2 weeks!  They did some 3D shots as well and you can totally see chipmunk cheeks :)

Josh and Jaeger picked me up from the RMH and we were home by noon, almost 2 weeks exactly from when Josh and I left for the pre-op appointments.  I managed to get in a quick nap in before Jaxon got home from school.  Needless to say, all 4 of us are pretty stoked to have Mommy home!  I've got about another 4 weeks of leave before I return to work.  Hopefully this baby will cooperate and make it to 37 weeks.  Here's hoping for an uneventful upcoming 10 weeks.

Status Quo

Nothing new to report so I'll just post a picture that was the highlight of my weekend :)

Progress

Time for a quick update from the land of naps, books and horrible daytime TV.  I had a OB visit yesterday with the primary task to get a ultrasound of how baby boy#3 is doing.  Good news all around: amniotic fluid level has remained constant, baby is active, including his little leggies, solid heartbeat (it was in the low 150s) and general organs look good.  They could also see the uterus incision area (looks a little bit like a baby spine).  I go back for my next check up on Wednesday and provided all continues to look good, I get to go home!!  We are all looking forward to that day!

Tomorrow Josh is bringing the boys to spend the day!  Can't wait to give them hugs and smooches!!

Settled in

Yesterday was a busy day - there was a quick ultrasound to confirm fluid and baby were in a good spot, then we got discharged from the hospital, picked up some prescriptions and moved over to the Ronald McDonald house.  They have things setup here pretty well - our room has a queen bed, a chair that pulls out to a twin, a TV, a mini fridge and our own bathroom.  Very similar to a hotel room in some sorts.  The kitchen is down the hall and has quite a few fridges and pantries - each room gets their own space in each area.

For those of you who know my husband well, you can just picture how stir-crazy he was going and so I sent him home today and had my mom come stay for the afternoon/night.  This way the boys also got to spend some time with daddy which I'm sure they loved!  The next few days will be uneventful - if I were to post an update, it would probably go "I read 1.5 books today and watched 3 movies".  So rather than bore you with that, I expect that my next update will be on Thursday after we have our next ultrasound/check with the OB.  Until then, baby boy#3 and I will just be hanging out!

Post Op Day 3

It's Sunday afternoon and things have managed to stay calm this weekend (which is very good!).  I suppose this is the type of post that, while boring for the readers, is exactly what the doctors ordered. The IVs finished running Friday evening, the cath got pulled out Sat morning, I got to start getting out of bed and even got a refreshing shower in today.  My parents brought the boys yesterday for a Valentine's visit: Jaeger was only interested in wandering the halls and riding the elevator with Grandma but my boy Jaxon was down for some snuggles in mom's bed :)  Josh even brought Jax back this afternoon for some more cuddles and movie time.

The baby is looking good, I'm not having any contractions, my wound is healing nicely and I'm feeling generally much better.  It sounds like I'll get discharged tomorrow and then move over to the Ronald McDonald house for a solid week although I've had the nurses hint to the OB that I'll be ready to go home whenever she'll let me!  Here comes the time when I'll be reading loads and watching some (ok, probably lots) TV/movies!

Back to the land of awareness

We're now 1 day post-op and while I won't say that I feel great, I feel somewhat human.  There's a bunch of stuff to update so we'll go back first to Wed.

We had an ultrasound to see baby's growth, his ventricle size in the brain and just general position of him and the uterus for preparation for surgery.  Couple good things we learned:  ventricles haven't grown much since we were here 3 weeks ago (this hopefully means minimal fluid swelling up there); the OB will let me go to 37 weeks which means he could possibly be full term; his feet look normal with no signs of club feet; and lastly, the fiesty little dude is moving his lower extremities and he is up to 1 lb 9oz.

Yesterday started with the first round of folks coming through around 6:30, and getting wheeled down to the OR at 7:30.  Epidural placed, got some pure oxygen, talked about the older kids with the nurses and then drifted off to la la land.  From what I've been told, surgery actually started around 9 and lasted almost 2 hours.  There were 25 to 35 people in the OR at a given time and they even had a bouncer to prevent extra folks from stopping in to see. The neurosurgeon used a new technique to stitch up the baby's spinal closure and it went really well.  I spent a little time in the OR recovering and was back in my room around 12.

One of the main meds I've been on is Magnesium Sulfate which helps keep the uterus calm but also makes me dry-mouthed, rosy cheeks and generally tired.  I haven't been given much liquids since it can often cause nausea/vomiting which obviously wouldn't be too good for me right now.  Otherwise, I compare a lot of the pain/discomfort to my past c-sections.  Sleep last night wasn't great since they do vital checks every 2 hours and it seemed like every machine beeped at least once.

Today has been much better, they've lowered the dose of Magnesium, have started me on some jello/popsicles (any kid's dream lunch, right?)  Hoping to be tube free by night and getting some cute visitors for Valentine's tomorrow.

Out of Surgery

Rochelle and baby are out of surgery and back in their room.  They both did great during the surgery and now they will monitor her closely for the next day. 

And we are off!

This post will be short and sweet. Josh and I made it to Milwaukee this afternoon for some prep appointments, a nice dinner out and now are admitted/hanging out in our L&D room that is home for the next few days!  Morning will start around 6:00, with surgery beginning 7:30ish and lasting 3-4 hours.   I've been told that I won't remember much of tomorrow so blog updates should be coming from my mom.

Whirlwind Start

Funny how quickly life can change!  Just 2 1/2 weeks ago (is that all?) during a routine ultrasound, we found out the news that baby boy #3 has a neural tube defect commonly known as spina bifida (SB).  There's no cure but there are some treatment options presented to us, including the option to correct his spine while in utero instead of post-birth.  There are two clear advantages that come from the in utero surgery: 1) less likely to require a shunt in his brain to help with fluid draining and 2) more likely to have better mobility with his lower extremities.  The biggest risk is pre-term labor as most mothers only get up to 10 weeks post-surgery before baby's arrival.  Not many places across the US do this special surgery but fortunately Children's Milwaukee just down the road has started offering this.   After 2 days of consults, tests, multiple discussions and lots of tears, Josh and I made the decision to proceed with it, hoping to mitigate certain effects of SB for our little guy.  Surgery date is scheduled for Feb 12 (that's next week!), then I'll get to spend ~1 week in hospital and ~1 week nearby in the Milwaukee area before heading home for an additional 2 to 4 weeks of recovery.  Many advance thanks to Grandma and Grandpa who are coming to wrangle take care of the 2 older kiddos for that initial timeframe.  It also sounds like they will be scheduling the c-section to occur no later than 35 weeks which is around the week of April 20.  We can expect some NICU time but hopefully less than a week to do some monitoring before we all get to go home.


With all this craziness, we decided to take some time to enjoy our little family of 4 with a night in the Wisconsin Dells.  Jaxon has become such a little fish, just loves the water and was even brave enough for some of the big water slides.  He also was too big for some of the kiddie slides which was unfortunate from his little brother's perspective.  After a timid start, Jaeger warmed up to the water and loved the pool with the basketball hoops.  Night time was not the greatest, as Jaeger was bouncing between beds and generally difficult to settle down.  I also had a big Mom fail = no pictures but to give me some credit, it would have been difficult to take pictures from the pool itself.

I'm not sure how great I'll be at updating this blog but thought it would be most efficient way to keep folks updated with all the happenings coming over the next months.