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Friday, May 25, 2007

Uncle Steve here...

Shelly came home from the hospital last night, she is doing very well, her feet and legs are pretty swollen still.

Shelly and Dee just left the house to go spend a few hours with little Riley. Then they are going back tonight to see her again and take the infant CPR class that is required before release. We were hoping they would let Riley come home tonight, but it is looking more like tomorrow. She is doing awesome, but they do not want to release her until she starts gaining weight. So I am sure momma Dee and momma Shelly will be force feeding her today! LOL

Anyway, Dee just wanted me to update you all as she is running around like a mad woman :)


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Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Still Jumping Hurdles

Little Miss Riley continues to amaze. She still consistently jumps hurdles and beats all expectations just like when she was in the womb. She was extabated early this morning, sooner than they were expecting. She pulled out her own feeding tube, earlier than they would have, but she didn't need it anymore. She's also almost passed three of the four steps that need to be completed to be released.
  1. Breathing room air consistently. (She only needed oxygen for less than 12 hours because of the surgery.)
  2. Maintaining her own body temperature. (She's done this since birth.)
  3. Move from a temperature bed (I don't know the medical term) to a crib. (She'll move to a crib tomorrow.)
  4. Consistent eating and gaining weight. (We're working on this. She just started taking milk today. She has dropped to 6 lbs. 8 oz. from 8 lbs. 3 oz. at birth. One pound of that was from the Hygroma. Unbelievable that she had an extra pound of fluid off the side of her neck.)

The great news is she may be home by this weekend if she continues doing this well. Yeah!!! Our little Sunshine is a SUPER STAR!

Shelly has highs and lows. She's still struggling with an Ileus (small bowel obstruction). She was on the mend and they moved her to clear liquids but she's now taken a step backwards and back off clear liquids. Looks like she won't be released tomorrow as planned. She's just been in so much pain. She's got to start feeling better soon! The only good thing about keeping her in the hospital is we're walking distance to Primary's making it easy to go back and forth to see Riley.

There are more stories to tell but again I'm climbing in to bed exhausted.

I'm leaving you with a few pics of Riley from today.

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Monday, May 21, 2007

3 Hours

Riley was in and out of surgery in THREE HOURS!!! She didn't get in to surgery until 3:00. We're just getting back to the room after spending time with her. She is doing FANTASTIC!

Shelly had a very rough 24 hours. We are exhausted!!!!!!! I'll post a better update tomorrow once I've hopefully gotten some ZZZZ's.

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE THOUGHTS, PRAYERS, KARMA, WELL WISHES, ETC. IT WORKED!!!
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Sunday, May 20, 2007

Just Like Her Momma!

Little Miss Riley loves to sleep, and sleep, and sleep. Today we escorted her to her MRI. Because they need babies to hold still in order to get good imaging they need to sedate them. Well, not our Riley! She slept. The whole time. Just napped away. 45 minutes worth of imaging and she hardly budged. She likes her naps just like her Momma Dee!

We met with the surgeon again today. He's wonderful. We really like him. Bedside manner goes a long way with us. She is on the schedule for tomorrow after 1:00 pm. He had the MRI done today so they would have plenty of time to review the images before surgery. There will be a team in the surgery consisting of our Pediatric surgeon, plastic surgeon, and surgeon residents. The biggest risks, besides those associated with any surgery, are 1) There are two major nerves that may come into play. They'll have to be particularly careful to not impact those nerves. 2) They're not able to, or don't, get it all. This could mean potential recurrence which is not uncommon.

So, tomorrow morning we'll rest and spend lots of time with her. Then the surgery tomorrow afternoon which he feels may take around six hours. OMG! Six hours! What do you do for six hours while your little, two day old girl, is in surgery? I know it's not sleep!

Everyone, please keep the prayers and well wishes coming. Tomorrow's a big day. I'll do my best to post an update tomorrow night.

I leave you with a couple more snap shots of Riley. We're being very careful and not posting any pictures of the Hygroma. It's quite big and to us she's just beautiful, but to others it can be a little over whelming.

Riley with Momma Dee and Riley with God Mommy Angie (Yes, she's lucky enough to have TWO God Mommies!)


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Our Conception Story

After eight years together we were pretty sure we'd spend our life with our four legged kids, doing lots of camping, and traveling the world. On August 12, 2004 that all changed with the birth of our God Daughter Tate. We immediately fell completely in love with her and soon began to re-think our decision of not having kids.

In October 2005 we began the process of trying to conceive. As soon as we started trying Shelly began having very erratic cycles which made the process that more complicated. After four tries over six months we decided to schedule a consultation with the a Reproductive Specialist. We were desperate to conceive and on a limited time frame since Shelly had just turned 41. Dee was 35 at the time but not able to conceive due to a medical procedure.

Our first appointment with the Repro Man was May 2006. He suggested we try IVF using Dee's eggs and Shelly as the gestational mother. He felt this scenario would give us the highest chance for success of a healthy pregnancy. We spent a short amount of time weighing our options and decided this was the best choice. We began our first IVF cycle in August. They did the Egg Retrieval and Fertilization on 8/31. Three days later, 9/3, they transferred three embryos into Shelly. Then the wait began.

Shelly promised not to begin the home pregnancy test too soon. Dee had to travel out of state for business a week after the transfer and asked Shelly to please wait to test. BUT, the wait was too much for her and she started testing after a week. At first there was no line. But after a couple of days testing a faint line started to appear. When Dee came home from her trip Shelly told her, "I know I'm pregnant." Dee didn't believe her and insisted the line wasn't dark enough so she tested herself to compare. There was absolutely no line. She began to believe Shelly was pregnant but still had doubt. Dee went to the store and bought another brand of testing strips. After five home tests, we were convinced we we're pregnant due to all positive results. A blood test at two weeks confirmed it; we were going to have a baby!