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....
Monday, June 30, 2014
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....
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....
Friday, June 27, 2014
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. :)
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. :)
Thursday, June 26, 2014
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