Terrible Thing to say to a Pregnant Woman #678

Let me just start by saying that this week is VBS here at work and we all wear matching shirts...which I decided not to wear one day.

Lady with no tact: "The only shirts we have left for VBS are 3XL....I bet those would fit you."

Me (stunned): "Well, I could put one on but that certainly doesn't mean it will fit me."

Then I thought what I really should have said is "No, that is too big for me. My large fits just fine. But there are plenty for you if you need it.

Blessings...

On March 22nd of this year R and I set out for the hospital to have our big ultra sound. We were very excited to see our baby and very anxious to find out whether we should focus on girl names or boy names (of course, we already had our girl name picked out - so he was destined to be a boy from the beginning). And he is a boy.

The ultra sound lasted for an hour and a half because we live in a town with a teaching hospital and the first 45 minutes were spent with the resident trying to figure out where everything was...the last 45 minutes were with the doctor telling us what everything was and taking measurements. At the very end of the ultra sound he scanned through all the pictures - stopping at one of Caden's brain. We really didn't know what we were looking at, but the doctor soon filled us in. It seemed that they found a cyst on his brain. He went on to explain that it was possible this cyst was nothing at all, but it also could be a marker for a disease called Trisomy 18. All I knew about Trisomy 18 was that babies born with this disease don't live, at least not long. The doctor felt that we had a pretty small risk for having a baby with this disease, but this one marker increased our chances - Caden was 3 times more likely to have T18.

We had to quickly make a couple of decisions about what we wanted our next step to be and we decided to start with a follow-up ultra sound - nothing more invasive. We figured we would know enough at that point to make a better decision. And we knew that we would not terminate no matter what.

We were pretty dazed when we left the hospital that day. At least I know I was. I also knew that if I had to talk about it too much I would break down (hormones - they get you every time). So, then we had to make all the calls to our family and friends (who were anxiously waiting) to let them know we were having a boy...and we had to act happy and pretend that everything was great. We had not yet decided what we were going to tell everyone.

We talked about it a lot that night and decided that we were not going to share the news with everyone, just a few people that we knew would pray their hearts out for our baby. We didn't want things to get blown out of proportion or for people to over-react since we knew very little about what was going on at that point. We also did not want to be faced with constant questions.

So we waited. We have waited for 12 weeks to know if our baby is sick. In the meantime we worked on coming to terms with the good and the bad. We felt like God gave us this challenge for a reason and no matter what happened...whether he lived or died...this was our son. God really gave us peace during these long weeks.

And now we know. We know that his cyst has gone away...no trace of it to be found. We know that his body is the exact size that it should be (just with a slightly larger head...runs in the family), his organs have developed perfectly, and he has no markers of this disease at all. He even has a "beautiful" heart according to Dr. Alan. I hope it stays beautiful.

So to everyone who has been praying for our baby - whether you knew any of this or not - we just want to thank you. God has blessed us and we are grateful.

Oh, For Cryin' Outloud

Last weekend I woke up to the wonderful feeling of both arms being asleep. I shook them, I squeezed my hands into fists, I rubbed them...all in hopes of getting the blood flowing again. It didn't really work. So throughout the day I continued to try to get them to "wake up". Eventually my upper arms regained feeling and the majority of the time I could feel the lower arms, but the hands just wouldn't cooperate. Finally, after about 4 days of mostly numb hands, I thought I might should call the doctor. Thinking maybe Caden was cutting off some circulation with his ginormous self, I called my OB to see what I should do. Eventually I talked with the nurse and she said that it was carpal tunnel and that this was very common in pregnancy...unfortunately. She informed me that I should go directly to the pharmacy and purchase a brace for each arm...wear them for several days...then once they started feeling better I could just sleep in them...oh, and prop up my arms at night.

So imagine with me if you will...my nightly process of trying to get comfortable enough to fall asleep.
...I usually have really bad indigestion so I have to prop my head and chest up
...I sleep with a pillow between my knees to reduce back pain
...and some days when my feet swell some I have to prop them up
...I lay on my left side...mostly
...And NOW...I have to prop up my arms.
I still haven't figured out exactly how that is going to work. The husband says that if I have to prop up one more thing then I will be level again, just at a higher elevation than before. Pretty sure this little guy is going to need a spankin' when he is born for all this trouble. Okay, maybe not...maybe just a stern look.