Tuesday & Wednesday

Tuesday

It's Tuesday night and I'm posting my follow-up. Not! It's Friday and I'm finally posting. Sorry to all of you out there watching for updates. And, I hope to have time this weekend to get caught up on every one's blogs.

Before I begin with Tuesday's update I have to give a big shout out to Wendy and Karen at 2 Mom's It Can Be Done. They gave birth to baby Kylie on Tuesday. Congrats ladies!!!

And, welcome to two friends of mine to the fun world of blogging. Amy at 3 Kids, 4 Dogs and 1 Cat Later and Kori at Twins and 2 Moms. Both are 2 Mom families from Utah. Can you believe Utah, yes Utah, has so many two mom families?!?

On with Tuesday's update.

We started the day with our Non Stress Test. All went well. Shelly's blood pressure was great. Uterine Irritability has increased a little bit but she's not having consistent contractions so all's good there. Riley's heart beat has been a little lower lately. I guess this happens as they get close to birth. During the NST they get a baseline of the baby's heart rate and then look for it to spike at least 3 times. Well, little miss Riley must have been sleepy because she only spiked twice. They had to stimulate her, with a little buzzer that basically scares her, to get her heart to spike the third time. I guess this is quite common. Her heart rate spiked just as it needed to and we were sent on our way. We have another NST on Tuesday.

Next came the appointment with the Pediatric Surgeon. Every time we go to Primary Children's we have a hard time. It's such a sad place, and a good place, all wrapped up into one. As we were waiting there was a mom sitting next to us with a son who had surgery by the same doctor we were consulting with. We asked her if she liked Dr. Nichol and felt comfortable with him. She said she didn't feel he had a great bed side manner but that her son is doing really well. Needless to say our anxiety level starting rising.

Next we get called back to the room and have to wait over 30 minutes. Our anxiety level continued to rise as we prepared to look for another surgeon. Then we met Dr. Nichol's and LOVED him! We really clicked with him. He has experience with Lymphatic Malformations and seemed quite knowledgeable. We had the 2 Mom talk with him... We're a two mom family. Is he comfortable treating a family of two moms and respecting we are both decision makers? It's okay if he's not because of personal reasons. Every one's entitled to their beliefs just as we are entitled to work with someone who is comfortable with our situation. He passed this test with flying colors! His response was, "I'm not from the local tribe. I'm from Wisconsin. It doesn't matter to me one bit." So far, knock on wood, we've gotten really lucky with the doctors we've met.

He talked to us about the procedure, which is of course dependent on how things look after Riley's born. But, he estimates we'll do an MRI shortly after she's born to know what we're dealing with. Assuming she's stable they'll probably do surgery 2-4 days after she's born. It's important to us that they don't rush her into surgery. If she's stable let's make sure she's as strong as possible before they operate. He said the surgery could take up to 6 hours. Ouch! That may be the worst six hours of our entire life! He didn't have an estimate on how long she'll need to be in the hospital after but did say we can expect to bring her home with drains in for 4-5 weeks.

Next he walked us out to meet his staff and look at his call schedule. We were hoping to coordinate the C-Section when he is on call. At this point we didn't have the confirmed C-section date. Based on his call schedule we're hoping for 5/19. We got the call from our Doctor the next morning that in fact, the big day, is scheduled for 5/19!

Next we went on a tour of the U of U Labor & Delivery and NICU. The people there were wonderful and treated us great. Shelly actually played softball with the NICU Charge Nurse. She took us in the critical area and where the newborns first go. She showed us what we could expect when Riley's born. It's actually quite interesting. The Operating Room where Shelly's C-section will take place actually has a pass through window into the NICU. It totally reminds me of a pass through window at a diner. I can totally imagine them taking Riley, dinging the bell, and shouting, "Order Up!" Once they serve up our order of one Riley, they'll finish taking care of Shelly, and I'll hopefully be able to head into the NICU with Riley. It all depends on how she's doing. Then, once she's stable, Primary will come get her and take her over to their NICU.

All of the people we met on Tuesday were wonderful. We feel very comfortable with everyone and believe that we'll be taken great care of. We ended Tuesday feeling quite happy that we'll be in good care. We finished the day at Shelly's nephew's Lacrosse game. It was a good day. Needless to say Shelly was wore out!

Wednesday

Wednesday is a different story. It was an extremely emotional day for both us. Everything from the previous day caught up to us and we spent a good portion of the day being quite emotional. Several things kept resonating in our heads:

"You're very lucky this baby has survived. Most babies that present with a Cystic Hygroma before 20 weeks don't survive." - Pediatric Surgeon - No shit!!! We've heard this more times than we care to count. She survived! She's a fighter! She's coming to every one's amazement!!!

"We'll put you in a Recovery Room for the No Baby Mom's. That way you won't be kept awake by babies crying." - NICU Social Worker - That's a nice thought, and yes it is better that way. But it SUCKS!!! We want our baby in the room with us. It totally, totally, sucks that she's going to be taken away as soon as she's born.

Those were the two main things that kept going through our heads. I was also feeling quite anxious about Shelly having complications with her C-section. So, we spent most of Wednesday crying. This happens every week. It either hits us on Tuesday afternoon/evening or on Wednesday. But come Thursday we're usually doing much better.

Now it's Friday. We're both doing much better and are looking forward to the weekend. Shelly will work and I'll do chores.

I leave you with two thoughts.

1 - We're 35 weeks tomorrow!!!!
2 - There is a brand spankin' new Starbucks in the lobby of the U of U WITH wireless Internet access. That means, I can post updates!!!! Shelly said if I spend too much time down there she'll bust my lap top. Don't worry dear, I'll only post quick updates, and maybe a few pictures!