Just wanted to give a quick update from Owen's appointments the last two days and share a couple of new pictures with you!
Yesterday, Owen had an echocardiogram done to check over his heart. This was a precaution since Noah was born with a VSD that closed between one and two years old. Well it's a good thing that we went ahead and had the echo since it looks like little Owen has almost the same exact thing! His is very small and they wont know the exact size until he is born, but it looks like it's basically the same situation. Our Doctor had told us ahead of time that this might be the case since you are at a higher risk to having it reoccur once you've had one baby with it. Almost all babies are born with one hole in their heart that closes with time, it's just in this case their is second one. This isn't a huge concern for Owen since it's small and is having no effects on the heart's function so far. It's not nearly as scary for us having already been through it once. I was a little bummed, just because it felt like one more thing to add to the list, but I'm not worried since I know that it is just one of those things that happens. Hopefully little Owen's will close right up like Noah's did! Here is an old post about Noah's that explains it a little better if you are curious what exactly it is :)
As for this morning's appointment with the Perinatologist...well, not too much to report (which is good news I guess?!) Both of Owen's kidneys are still very enlarged and the right one is still getting bigger as we expected. It has grown again significantly, but my fluid levels are still nice and high so his left one is keeping everything in okay shape for now. They noticed a little bit of inflammation in one of his ureters so even though it sounds bad, it's good for us in a way, because they haven't been able to see where the obstruction is. We've been just assuming that he has a UPJ which is basically an obstruction where the ureter meets the renal pelvis (the part of his kidney that is really enlarged right now). So we still don't know...but seeing that it's inflamed could help them get some answers. For now, the plan is still to have another ultrasound again at 30 weeks and then take all four of the scans I've had so far to the urologist so he can decide what's next for Owen after birth. Good news is that everything looks stable for him in the womb right now! As long as this continues, I shouldn't have any problems carrying him to term and having a natural birth like I would like. Hoping this stays the case!
Other than all of that, Owen is crazy active and is literally bouncing off the "walls". He made both of these scans hard for the technician's by never holding still. He's also really a big boy. I am 26 weeks and 1 day pregnant today and Owen is measuring at 27 weeks 6 days. Yep. You read that right. He is almost two weeks ahead. He weighed 2 lbs. 9 oz and is in the 78% for weight. Eek. The Dr. questioned me a bunch about gestational diabetes, but I don't have my glucose test until the 11th. I really hope everything is fine with that!! I'm picky enough as it is without having to change my diet. Yuck. I think he's just a big boy. We'll see though!
Here are his pictures from today! Oh, the sweetness. Can't wait to kiss those chubby
This post originally started out as pictures of our first snow....but so much has changed since then! Maybe if I would have posted this a few weeks ago when we actually had our first snow it could have been that simple lol. Instead, I will use it to catch you up on life since I never got around to printing out our Christmas card this year!!
First off, Merry Christmas! We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was the first year in our 6 (almost 7!) years of marriage that we actually had family with us on Christmas. We've always had the kids and plenty of friends who included us in their traditions, but there is just something about having family around that is so priceless. We all voted that this was the best Christmas we've had in a very long time! We ate lots of yummy food, went sledding twice, and spent time together just hanging out and watching movies. It was so relaxing and refreshing. Ella and Noah got ridiculously spoiled which was nice for them and Randy and I did, too. I'm still trying to find homes for all the new toys which is always fun...or not..lol! It's really fun watching the kids anticipation now that they are getting older. It's so special.
Ella is enjoying her Christmas break and not having to be up and out the door so early for school each morning. She also had the chance to participate in a Christmas Eve play that all the kids did up at church. She had a very small role since she's not quite old enough for lines, but she felt special being included!
Noah is still just our happy go lucky, Noah. He is loving the time he has with his sissy off school. He did a great job in his little preschool Christmas program and got to be Joseph which was really special. Randy and I always love watching the kids sing each year at preschool. It's the cutest thing!
Randy is keeping busy and really finding his way in his new job! The worship team is doing great and he is really enjoying the time he gets to spend and invest in all of the musicians he leads. It's been such a blessing to our family to have Randy working full time at church. He gets to do what he loves all day and then he is able to come home and spend time with his family. It doesn't get much better than that in life! At the start of the school year, he launched the youth group for middle and high school students and it has been going great with about 50 students who regularly attend each week. I think Randy is finally getting back into the groove of student ministry after being out of it for awhile. He's enjoying his time with the students each week so much! They just had an "Elf" themed Christmas party where they watched the movie while eating pizza and the "four main elf food groups...candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup". Even with the blizzard starting that night, we still had 48 students come out!
Not much has changed for our little Owen as of now. My last OB appointment went really well. He's a busy little guy and is definitely the most active baby we've had so far. He kicks and squirms pretty much all day long! I'll be heading out to Madison today for an echocardiogram which got rescheduled from the blizzard last week and then tomorrow I will see my high risk Doctor there for another ultrasound to measure his kidneys. Really hoping for a good report tomorrow. Praying that they aren't any worse. But other than that, he seems to be doing great and progressing right along at 26 weeks now! We all can't wait to meet him.
And as for me...I am just going with the flow and doing the usual! The kids are keeping me busy driving car pool back and forth to school and dance and all that fun stuff. I feel like I have started into the stage I hear so many moms talk about where I'm in the car more than home, but that's really an exaggeration I suppose. I haven't taken time to sew much lately, but I'm trying to get that all organized so I can begin some projects for little Owen. I did start a new hobby of crocheting and I'm having a ton of fun with that! I had a great Summer and Fall doing photography and now I'm pretty much done now until the Spring. Outdoor pictures aren't exactly fun when it's 18 degrees out, but I still take stuff of the kids around the yard. I'm enjoying my time serving at church teaching a Kindergarten/1st Grade class once a month and singing with Randy once or twice a month. I'm also enjoying getting to know all of the students and spending time with the youth group, Collision. I joined a ladies Bible study that meets on Friday mornings and we're coming to the end of our study on Ephesians. Things at church are really great and we are really enjoying all of the new friendships we have made over the last 8 months.
And now back to where we started....SNOW!!! We are adjusting little by little to this foreign thing called "Winter" that they have here! It has definitely been an adjustment!! We're really just getting started, but I can actually say that so far we are actually enjoying it (gasp!). Mother Nature was nice to break us in easily. The weather has gradually dropped for us month to month from highs in the 40s, 30s, 20s, and now we are getting into the teens and occasionally the single digits. It's cold. Really cold. But it's not unbearable yet. I think the biggest thing is that it is a total life change! It takes a lot more time to make our way out of the door each morning because we wear hats, scarfs, coats, gloves, and boots on a daily basis. Some days if we are just going to church or something, we can get away with dressing in normal clothes with our coats and just making our way inside quickly, but if we are going to be spending time outside or even running errands in and out of places, we have to dress pretty heavy. I have found that taking the time to layer up and dress warm means everything. It really makes a difference. It's a lot of work, but it's really nice, too. The seasons are beautiful and it really feels like Winter and Christmas around here. The kids are in love with the snow and pretty much bundle up every day to play outside in it for hours! Ella takes her snow pants and boots every day to school and gets to play in the snow two times a day during recess so that's a fun change for her! We also checked out a popular sledding spot over the holiday and had a blast! We will definitely be back to sled again soon.
These pictures I have for you today are from our very first snow here. They actually seem sort of lame compared to what it looks like outside right now! I think we probably got about 4 inches this day. Last week we had a blizzard come through that dumped at least 18 inches (more in some places) on us. So our yard has places in it now where the snow is almost waist deep. It was really windy so it's amazing how the snow gets blown around. You can have areas where grass is showing and then spots right next to it where it's knee deep! I'll try and get out to take more recent pictures of the snow soon. I also have some video of the kids sledding that I will try to post as well. But for now....our first Wisconsin snow pictures....
A few weeks ago, we were invited by a friend to visit a little place called Shake Rag Alley. They had some Christmas activities going on for the kids and you could visit with Santa and Mrs. Clause ;). It was a really neat little place! Most of the buildings are some of the first homes and business' that were built in Mineral Point. Now they use each of the little houses to host different craft classes and workshops throughout the year for kids and adults. It was super neat. I think it would be a really cool place for the kids to take a class or two this Summer for fun!
Ella and Noah decided for their crafts they would make gingerbread houses and also paint some. They LOVED it and had so much fun! So thankful for new friends who fill us in on fun things around town so that we don't miss out!
I keep meaning to put together an update on Baby Owen and let you know some ways you can specifically pray for him. With technology like Facebook and texting it seems like a lot of people just check in with us that way and then I start feeling like I've already told everyone a million times. But we have a lot of family and friends who only follow the blog or only see what we actually post to fb. So, if you've heard this already, you can just skip to the pictures ;) and if you haven't, then I will catch you up to speed!
After our 20 week visit I vaguely mentioned that Owen's kidneys showed some concern on our anatomy ultrasound. At 22 weeks, we went to see a Perinatologist and have a more detailed scan done. Really the scan itself wasn't the most important part since our OB office actually has the machine to do the level 2 ultrasound, but we needed to have a specialist watch the scan and diagnose the baby. So we had a pretty good idea of what the problem was, we just had a lot of unknowns about what exactly that would mean for the baby. At our visit with Perinatal, they told us that Owen has Pyelectasis in his left kidney (meaning that the area of the kidney where the urine collects before it exits the ureter,the renal pelvis, was dilated a little more than it should be). This is really common, especially in boy babies and often doesn't need any kind of intervention. It typically just fixes itself. Owen's biggest concern would be his right kidney where he has really severe Hydronephrosis. This is where the renal pelvis is dilated like I mentioned before, except that because the urine isn't being eliminated out of the kidney like it should, the kidney begins to swell and the urine can begin to spread into parts of the kidney it shouldn't. The longer this goes on, the more the kidney is damaged and if left untreated, the organ tissue will begin to be damaged and he could loose complete function of the organ altogether. SO, obviously this was really overwhelming to process and is really scary to see on the scan because it's a very large difference that even someone like me, who has no medical knowledge, can see plainly. Most of what you read online or hear about stories of Hydronephrosis, it always resolves itself during pregnancy. I had read a bunch of this before my second scan and had several people tell me "oh don't worry, that goes away on it's own, my son/daughter/cousin/whoever had it"... so I was feeling pretty optimistic that this was just a little hiccup. Unfortunately the Dr. we are seeing feels like Owen's case is one of the extreme ones that can't just fix itself. There's still always a chance! (I'm a cup half full kind of girl), but we have been told repeatedly to prepare for the fact that this needs intervention and wont be something that goes away. So that was a bummer. But we really love the Doctors caring for us! They are all wonderful and super professional. We completely trust their recommended plan for Owen so we're just taking things one scan at a time.
Basically what all of this means for now is that I have been seeing my OB on a regular prenatal schedule to check all of the usual stuff and then every 4 weeks I have an ultrasound at the hospital and see the other Doctors (the Perinatologist) who are watching over the baby's kidneys. I will have my next scan there on the 28th and then after my 30 week scan in January, I will also add to this list some visits with the Pediatric Urologist who will take over once Owen is born. This Doctor will most likely perform a surgery on Owen to repair whatever's needed or put a stent in to help it drain, but he wont know exactly what needs done until Owen gets here and has an ultrasound after birth. For now he will help inform us of the different scenarios and try his best to make tentative plans.
At the 22 week scan they had also given Owen an increased risk of having down syndrome, but only because this kidney issue is common in baby's with downs and also Owen's head is measuring larger than "normal". The Doctor told us that she personally didn't feel like he was at any risk since he didn't have any of the other clear downs markers, but that she was obligated to tell us he was at a greater risk. We went ahead and had some genetic blood tests drawn that came back giving Owen a 1 in 17, 000 chance of having DS and even adding his other two markers still put his chance at 1 in 11,000. So this is not really an issue any more. Not that this would have even been a big issue to us. We have actually talked many times about the possibility of adopting a child with Down Syndrome just because we both really have a heart for people with downs. They have the most contagious joy and loving personalities, in my opinion. But definitely a relief since adopting a child who is already here and struggling with this is much different than having to see your own baby being born with so many health complications. We obviously want Owen to be as healthy as possible!
So one last list of some specific ways to pray for Owen and then pictures :)
*The first, most obvious would be that Owen's kidney just "spontaneously" starts working the way it happens for so many other babies. This would just eliminate the whole issue ;)
*Pray that the kidney doesn't get any larger. Since his is well above what's considered "extreme", it is a big concern that his kidney is going to suffer a lot of damage.
*Pray that the left kidney doesn't get any worse since it is carrying most of the work right now and Owen may be dependent on that one if the right one is damaged.
*Pray that my fluid levels stay nice and normal (so far they are totally fine). If the kidneys function goes too far down, my fluid levels can begin to drop since the kidneys circulate the amniotic fluid. This would be bad since Owen's lungs need the fluid to develop. We haven't had any trouble with this and are also getting closer and closer every week to being far enough along that if this happened they could intervene and he could be safe. Still, it's always nerve wracking since there are four weeks in between each time they check.
There's lots more, I'm sure. But we're basically just praying to get him here safe and as healthy as possible!
Here are a few pictures of Owen at 21 weeks 5 days:
He has crazy eyes in this one ;) but there are only a couple clear face shots from this scan and he had his face covered at his 20 week so I had to post it anyways!
I wanted to end this post with a song I was listening to off of some friend's pages on Facebook today. It's so easy when things in life get hard to start questioning what God's plan is in all of this. I think this was particularly hard for me this pregnancy because we have had so many struggles this past year and a half just trying to have another baby. When I got pregnant with Owen it was a countdown the whole time to just survive the first trimester. I was almost afraid to even get excited again since we had already been through two loses that were so disappointing. Just when I thought we had made it to the "clear" we find out all of this stuff at 20 weeks. It seems like we have just had year after year of it always being something that comes up. We've also seen a lot of friend's go through some hard pregnancies lately or even sadness from lack of pregnancies and it just always seems unfair. I had to have a couple of "Seriously, God?!" "Have I not proven myself faithful in every other way I have been drug through the ringer?!" moments. But, I was quickly reminded that in life we face all kinds of difficult circumstances and trials and although it's easy to want to question God's plan for us, we have to remember that God would never purposely hurt us. He might allow bad things to happen to us, but it's always because His greater plan is for our own good. As crazy as it might sound to some of my friends who have never experienced a true relationship with God, I really do trust him with good and bad. I may have moments where in my prayers I let him know that I just don't understand what he's dong ;) or I may let him know that I don't like it! But I always, ultimately trust whatever He has in store for me. Because I really believe that the God I love is a caring, loving, generous, God who only wants the very best for me and my family. So much so, that he would allow me to go through tough times because the final outcome and shaping of my life is that important to Him!
"I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." John 16:33
