Palo Alto -- Travel Day

Owen and I made it to Palo Alto!  We packed all morning, dropped Kam off with cousins and we made it to the airport with time to spare.  We had a delicious lunch and a smooth flight.  We arrived in Palo Alto just in time to grab a few groceries for our hotel room and headed to the RMH for free dinner.  One piece of fabulous news is that Owen has been eating orally.. like A LOT!!!  More on that in another post, but just know it's pretty incredible and I am so happy! 

We are settled into our hotel room watching CABLE tv, which is pretty exciting for this little boy.  We only have five antenna channels at home and Netflix, so there is something cool about flipping through hundreds of channels.  We check into the hospital at 6am tomorrow for Owen's biopsy.  We are hoping for another big fat ZERO rejection and a wonderful report.  The cath and transplant team went back and forth on whether or not to make this his annual biopsy, but I think we are going to hold off until October.  The difference between his routine biopsy and annual biopsy is that they don't check his coronary arteries in the routine biopsies.  It's easier on Owen and his recovery time is significantly less.  They may still decide to do an annual biopsy when they get in there, if that is the case, we'll be staying in the SSU for about 7 hours post surgery. 

We aren't going to worry about that now.  We are chilling in our hotel room having a little food party of peaches, beef jerky, peanuts and M&Ms.  Until tomorrow....

Pregnancy -- 14 Weeks

So when I labeled the last post "Surprise," I meant that this really is a surprise baby!  It still doesn't feel totally real to me.  I have spent years battling infertility due to PCOS and the awesome symptoms that come along with it.  Each one of our babies has been a surprise and never planned.  Whenever we did try to plan a pregnancy, tried all the fertility tricks, nothing worked!  After Kam came along, we tried so hard to conceive and had no luck.  We all know what happened when Owen joined us, conceived naturally, 8 years later!  He rocked our world and we were so grateful for that 8 year age gap.  We had 8 long years with just Kam and those years are so cherished! 

After Owen came along, we were absolutely NOT trying to conceive. It's safe to say we have been maxed out emotionally and physically the last six years.  In fact, Carson was DONE having children.  I teased him all the time that we had just one more waiting for us, that I really just wanted to try for one last baby!  We didn't try, but I always held out a little bit of hope for a miracle.

In February, at my annual OB appointment, we took a look at my ovaries.  They were covered in cysts and I just knew it was going to be impossible.  Not trying to conceive combined with impossible ovaries, my baby making days were over.  My April cycle didn't show up, which isn't totally uncommon for me to go months without a cycle.  I shrugged it off.  Early May I thought I would just take a test, get a negative confirmation (like usual) and then take some Progesterone to kick start my next cycle. 

SURPRISE!!  That little positive sign showed up.  No way!  I was breathless.  I was so anxious to tell Carson, because I knew he was not going to be thrilled.  I have never had a miscarriage, but was still a nervous wreck.  I couldn't allow myself to get attached to the pregnancy and risk the heartache of loss.  We just kinda pushed things to the back burner.  I called and made my OB appointment for 9 weeks and started my prenatals. 

I have been so lucky to have hardly any symptoms!  I continued to go to the gym, no puking, slight nausea.. that's it.  I was totally nervous for that first OB appointment on May 19th.  Until we saw this... my heart melted a little and I finally accepted that this is kinda real..

We went home with this little photo and now both our kiddos knew about their new baby!  Owen was so thrilled he told everyone he came across... his teacher, his cousins, Grandma, Grandpa... you name it! He has just been so excited!  Kam isn't sure what to think other than.. the baby will be 3 when she is going off to college.  She will be the best sister ever, just like she is now.

Over the next week, I did a lot of research on first trimester testing and found the newest cell free dna testing options.  I called my OB and we decided to come in at week 10 and have my blood drawn for the MaterniT21.  They take a sample of my blood and they can look at the baby's DNA.  They can accurately (98%) determine if the baby has any chromosomal abnormalities, which I think is pretty incredible!  A week later, we found out that this baby is perfectly healthy (chromosomally) and that they detected a Y chromosome, which indicates a male baby. 

Owen was again, THRILLED that he is having a baby brother and immediately started calling him "baby Bane".  Not a name we would ever consider, but so far we have heard Benedict Starkiller and Nightwing.  He won't be naming his brother.  Kam has some awesome names, but nothing is sticking.   Carson has the best name opinions and will probably be the one to name this little guy.. I am awful at boy names.

My most recent appointment was on Monday...my 35th birthday!  Yes.. Advanced Maternal Age... gasp!  My OB is wonderful and we saw the baby and did a few measurements.  He is measuring right on schedule for a Christmas Eve delivery, but with my past of having my kids going way overdue and having to be evicted, I'll be happy to have a December baby at all.  The other 2 are Jan birthdays, so I wouldn't be shocked if this one will be too. 

It was amazing to see the little guy on ultrasound again.  He is so chill and was snuggled up to my placenta like a big pillow.  His little heart beat was just fluttering away.  I am a ball of nerves and probably will be for the next 26 weeks.  Baby's anatomy scan is scheduled for July 24th, followed by a fetal echo at LPCH (Stanford) in August.  We could use lots of prayers for a healthy boy. 

In the meantime, I am just enjoying not feeling pregnant.  I get a little tired after a night of insomnia.  I have food aversions to just about everything.  Aside from that.. no baby bump yet.. no movement yet.. just a picture on my fridge to remind me that it's all very real!  I feel so blessed. :)

Surprise!

Anniversary and Water Fun

Another summer week has come and gone.  The best news is that this little rockstar graduated from Kindergarten today!!  School was technically over in May, but Owen had some hours to make up with him homebound teacher, Mr. C.  We worked hard each day and finally finished all his Kinder hours!  He is reading fluently, his math skills are fantastic, and his handwriting is improving.  It's written into his IEP that he can use a keyboard for any "writing" assignments, but I still want to make sure he is fluent in writing, so we will continue to work on it.  We are so proud of our "official" 1st grader and thrilled that he gets to go to school in the fall!  

We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary this week!  This is a picture, of a picture, because there was no digital photography 15 years ago... we are that old!!  It has been such a wild ride the past 15 years. 

We don't make a big deal of Anniversaries and Birthdays around here.  It was a normal day, but C surprised me by coming home from work early and bringing me roses and chocolate.  We plan to celebrate, just the two of us, this weekend!  Love you babe.

This week was filled with relaxing around the house, swimming with cousins, and today we went to a local waterpark.  With temps close to 110 degrees, we weren't the only ones at the pool.  It was CRAZY busy!  Owen ran around screaming, playing and having such a great time!  There were water slides, buckets dumping on us, ropes to swing on, and the kids had a blast.  My Sis and I had quite the crew in tow today.  So fun!  I love that Owen is the only little guy surrounded by so many cute girlies. 

Owen got stung by a bee while splashing around and Kam carried him to me.. "My princess saved my life mom!"  So sweet.

On our way home, we detoured to Bahama Bucks for some yummy shaved ice with ice cream!  Such a fun week and an even better weekend planned.  Celebrating our Anniversary and a big birthday celebration for this Mama... I still can't believe I'm going to be 35!!  Yikes. :)

We love summer!!

Summertime

Summertime.. the livin' is easy! We have been busy doing nothing much.  Lots of swimming.. LOTS of swimming.  This little guys is mastering some swimming skills and hopefully will be swimming all over by himself soon.  Kam likes to float around but doesn't love the water nearly as much as this little fishy.

Kam and I went on a girls day out and saw The Fault in Our Stars... a good movie but hits too close to home having a sick child of my own.  The fear of losing a child is too raw.  We decided to do a movie with the littles and saw Malificent.. it was perfect for all of them! 

We were at Cardio clinic this morning for an echo and full workup.  I switched Owen's Prograf last week and his levels have been perfect ever since... such a blessing.  Now to brag.. Owen didn't even budge when he had his labs this week!  Not a single tear, he just talked to the lab techs the entire time.  YAY!  We have ideal Prograf levels, his echo was perfect, he clinically looks fantastic.  Next up.. he has a biopsy at LPCH on July 1st. 

Since we were already downtown, we decided to check out the science center.  We are not museum people.  I have tried so many museums, they sound cool but the reality is ... they are boring. We stopped at the Lab Café for lunch and Owen said it perfectly.. "You want your boy to eat this terrible food.. it's awful!" 

We started on the fourth floor and worked our way down.  Owen rushed through touching buttons on every machine he could find.  I was in sensory overload and we hadn't even made it past the 3rd floor.  The hurricane and weather floor was the coolest.  The body part floor was fun, but Owen was running around pushing buttons.. forget about learning anything.  We ended up in the outside water ball area and were out the front door in less than an hours time.  Like I said.. we are not museum people.  Owen had a decent time but I think we'll try the Children's Museum next time. This is Owen's giant eyeball!

Between therapy, school (Owen's teacher still comes to the house), and enjoying our time off this summer.. we are exhausted!  I fall asleep most nights before 9pm and feel like the old lady that can't keep her eyes open for even one more second to catch a minute of the news.  Is June really half over?

Dance Recitals and Sunsplash

We had a busy weekend, but one of our favorites of the year!  The girls performed in their annual recitals and I know I speak for my entire family when I say.. WOW!!  The girls work so hard dancing 15 hours a week at the studio, attending conventions and competitions all year and recital is a time to just have fun and dance!  Friday we spent at least six hours at the venue while the girls ran through all their recital dances at dress rehearsal.  Without complaining, they were up early on Saturday and ready to dance the entire day! 

There were three recitals on Saturday, each one was two hours.  They all had multiple costume changes, Kam had 8 in the first recital of the day!  The little girls (Liv and Lucy) even had a costume change this year.. so fun!!  I took pictures, but not many, we usually just purchase the professional DVD.  In the first recital of the day, the girls danced in 13 numbers between the four of them.  Our entire family came to cheer them on and I may have been emotional most of the morning watching them dance on stage.  We had a quick lunch at Kneaders before dropping the boys off at home and heading back for recital two of the day.  Followed by the evening show and we were home and in bed by 10pm!   A busy, but super fun day!

Monday morning was the annual dance party at Sunsplash!  We look forward to this day every year and it was SO fun to not spend the day lugging around oxygen tanks.  Last year, this was our last hurrah before heading to Stanford for the summer.  You can see that post here... it's like I have a different boy.. amazing!  It was 110 degrees out and I think I was a little OCD about keeping the kids sunblocked and hydrated... but they had such a great time!  Owen loved the wave pool, played in the splash pad area and even went down the slide once.  My sis brought all her girls and Gigi came with us.  Of course we didn't see Kam or Gigi most the day because they were off with their friends, but Owen was happy to be my sidekick for the day.  I even talked him into taking a double tube up a million steps, burning my feet along the way.  We got in the top and ready to go down the BIG waterslide and he jumped out and said "I don't want to do it!"  SO we walked back down the million steps, against the flow of traffic, while carrying a giant double tube over my head.  Good memory?!  After six hours, we grabbed the girls a shake, ice water for all and headed home.  We were exhausted but we can't wait to go back soon! 

We totally LOVE summer around here!