Sleepy baby

Matt had his flu vaccine yesterday, shots always makes it hard for him to nap, so by supper time he was really tired, not too cranky, but whiny from being tired. well, he finished his dinner, and i gave him 1/2 a biter biscuit (cookie) to chew on while i quick washed up his dishes, i turned around to find this.....

NOT COLIC?

OK this is the Dr’s opinion about what is wrong with matt. And I'm starting to believe this is probably the case just do to Matt’s reaction to what we have done so far.

Matt’s allergy is not to Dairy, so you can’t fix it with soy, rice, goat or other milk substitutes. A dairy allergy presents as vomiting or at least heavily spitting up. Matt never spits up. That’s how the dr’s were able to know not to put him on soy (or other choice). They already KNEW it wouldn’t help.

I say “allergy” when in actuality it is more of intolerance. He has Intolerance to milk protein amino acid chains. I am going to try to explain this as best I can, so please bear with me.

A protein chain is made up of amino acids. Something Like this string of beads, each color is a different acid. Your (and my) digestive system can take these beads and separate them when we digest them. Matt’s system cannot. All protein has these amino acid chains. Soy milk, rice milk, goat’s milk, cow’s milk, breast milk, they all have VERY similar protein chains. That is why you can’t just breast feed him or put him on something other than cow’s milk formula. They all have a long chain that he cant break apart.

So He needs as specialized formula. This formula has been broken down (by manual process) they have separated the beads by color for him already. So he can digest his food. The first Dr told me it was “predigested” which honestly I thought was gross sounding. But its like how a bird will regurgitate to feed the baby birds. Matt needs to have it partially broken down for him. And since I don’t want to feed him my barf, (LOL) the formula is the best bet. He will grow out of this.

Now, this is why it took so long to diagnose the intolerance. This is called a “slow allergy” if you are allergic to strawberries you are going to rash out as soon as someone slips you one right? Well that’s because its an allergy, not an intolerance. Matt was actually reacting from this from bottle one. And each bottle after that one made things a tiny bit worse, until his crying made me (and family) think whats the deal. We then switched formulas to another milk based normal formula. And each bottle of that made things a little bit worse until we started bleeding from the bowels.

Which took us to the dr and why we’ve done all this, this week. I hope this explains why we didn’t try all of these other ideas.

And so far, Matt isn’t fussing when he eats, but he does still while the food moves through his system, although I am certain hes still sore inside. We see the dr again tomorrow. And I am hoping we will be told we are on the right path.

Hugely behind

I am hugely behind on my blog reading/ writing. But i swear to you i have a very good reason.

I went into labor on Saturday the 18th. but the contractions were mild and 10 mins apart. but i felt those contractions were mild so i went on about my day. by 3 am they had naturally progressed to stronger contractions so the three of us headed off for the hospital.

by 11 am, I still had not progressed in my dialation so they gave me a stimulator that woudl help "break apart" some scarring i had on my cervix, although gotta say it didnt work. just like i said it wouldn't. ( i had apposed inducement because of that reason i had seen too many failures)

it DID, however, increase my contractions. I went into transition labor at 3 min apart contractions around 1 PM. but since i still had not progressed some Genius concluded my labor wasn't "real" (dumb-asses) and sent me home.

by 4 pm I was in tears for every contraction. and i called my doctor and asked if we could have a c section. he agreed and we went back into the hospital for pain control and to prep for surgery.

by 8:28 I had delivered my beautiful baby boy of 9 pounds 4 ounces. and 21 inches long.

I was back in my room by 9:15.

they kept me until Wednesday. and the general consensus of everyone was that i was doing remarkably well. normally i would have stayed until Thursday.

now we are all adjusting and settling in to the newest member of the house. its good to be home.

oh and FYI, no signs of the prevous issues with Matt's heart

week 39 are we done yet?

I don't know how much of an update this is... I'm 39 weeks still pregnant still nesting like mad. still uncomfortable. nothing seems to be changing. except that the countdown is getting smaller.

Steve has a wicked cold. so sleep isn't something i am getting much of. But my house is looking cleaner and more organised with every passing day!

People keep asking me if i am getting excited. but honestly, I'm tired. I am tired of saying Not really i am just ready to move forward. half of the people say "you need to go by _____" the others keep telling me to "hold off until ______" because they have some event they want me to attend.

I have news for all of you... when Matt says its time I'm gonna listen! :)

I did however hold off until my last baby shower which was on Saturday. WONDERFUL time. Lots of happy people lots of fun and chatter! all in all a good time was had by all.

Vacation

Well not mine...

How does an OBGYN go on vacation? Babies are born every day. without fail. they have to make their plans and Trust that everything is going to be good while they are gone.

My OBGYN is going on vacation. He's going to be gone two weeks he gets back on 15th. I am due from the 12th through the 15th.

Where does that leave me? Well, i haven't started dilating yet, and Matt's heart is in really Good shape (according to the specialist) so i deal with it.

Does that mean i didn't whine? COME ON! of course i whined. but I was good natured about it. I get to meet the replacement OBGYN on Tuesday, I know all i can do is trust my OBGYN's decision on who is going to take over my case until he gets back.

OH, and CROSS MY LEGS!

The last of the painting!

Yesterday Michelle and I went to work at finishing up the paint in the nursery. she has been home from college for just over a week and we REALLY want to get the house settled. What was her room will now be primarily Matt's room. she will only be home two - three months in the summer and a month at Christmas. and a week here or there. the rest of the time she will be at college. so it wont be a HUGE imposition on either of them. While Matt is a newborn he will (of course) be in our room since he will need a lot of care. then by the time she comes home from college at Christmas, he will be 6 months old and sleeping through the night, at least for the most part.

So in order for us to get her unpacked for the summer it was a big deal to get this last step finished so we can have all of the furniture moved back to where it belongs, and really give her a sense of "home".

Michelle chose to do the underwater scene for Matt herself. This part of the room will be covered by her dresser. we both felt that was really nice as we are planning on leaving this paint up for a number of years past when she will be permanently moving out. After all by the time she finishes college Matt wont even be 4 yet. so when she leaves she will be taking her dresser as well. so a nice "new" scene painted by the "big sister" just for Matt may make that transition a little less difficult or at least cool.

I think she did a wonderful Job!

baby wellness update..
at our last checkup, Matt's heart was rarely skipping beats and no fast beats were found. we were sent home to wait for two weeks unless we deliver before then. :)

bridge

Well the "main" part of this is done. The bridge! Wow what an undertaking! I had no clue it would be this difficult. keeping the suspension cables even was very hard. I finally used a ruler to get them strait and even, it was a huge task.

Next is the "fun" part of the design! the fishes! thats why you can see the post go all the way into the water. we will have a bit of underwater world in this corner :)

step 1

I have got the main part of the bridge done, i still need to do the cables, and the decorations. but heres a good shot of how it looks right now. It has to dry before i can start the next step.

FINAL wall design!

Time is running our for me. I have 4 short weeks until D day and the mural isn't done yet.

I wanted to have something 100% free hand that i did all my own somewhere in this. and i wanted something tall to possibly show over the dresser.

I asked lots of people for ideas. Ive posted on face book for others thoughts. But nothing really struck me.

That is until Michelle came home from college.

she and i collaborated on this project when we got it started, so i guess it was fitting that the last design was a work of a joint effort. we both were not really happy with how the "dirt" turned out in this corner, it didn't have the same "flow" as the rest.

now work in the dresser, the height needed, it was just hard to understand what needed done.

We got to talking about buildings. how a building with scaffolding could be tall. but i always imagined these little bears were building roads. probably because while i was going through cancer treatment they rebuilt route 15. and we had construction every time we went for treatment and it was completed about the time my treatment was completed. In some way i credit my conception not only to God but to the cancer treatment, but that's a whole other story...

So what else gets built on a road? well we have our sluice pipes that are being laid, steam rollers, etc... then Michelle said what about a bridge? a big suspension bridge?

Back in school we studied bridges and bridge structures. they have always fascinated me. as a child i always tried to build bridges over the creek that runs behind my parents farm. NEVER very successfully, but it was fun.

so a suspension bridge, suddenly my mind starts filling with pictures of the golden gate,and other suspension bridges i have seen in my life YEA!

so i penciled it out on the wall. then i realized, WOW this is going to be a real in depth piece of artwork, there are supports, cables, and the LINES!!! but i love the sketch.

(you may need to click on the picture to enlarge it
so that you can see the pencil sketch)

the water under the bridge is going to take care of the "dirt" issue we have, and then we got to messing around with what to put in the water. that is still up in the air, but for now the sketch has an octopus some fish and of course sponge bob...

we still have one design to do on the door, but this wall has to get done first

update on the baby

Matt’s heart problem was, that his heart would skip a beat then have several fast beats (SVT= fast beats) to catch up the SVT is what had the Dr so worried, AS OF TODAY we still have the skipped beat, but no SVT was found! This is very Good news! As they are hoping that Matt’s heart will “grow out of” the condition. We will not be going back to the specialist until next Tuesday and will continue to only see him once a week as long as his SVT remains absent.

In other news, hes 6 wonderful chubby pounds, approximately 16 - 17 inches long. and has great lung breath action.

we are at 36 weeks. with a very short 4 weeks to go!

First Look

this is a 3D shot of the baby's face. Mom said it takes the surprise out, I personally dont think so, it just makes it a tad bit harder to wait the rest of the time!

They have determined Matt's heart condition to be "stable" as he isn't progressing into heart failure. His heart is "normal sized" and no accumulation of fluid, and the amniotic fluid is the correct amount as well.

Everyone has assured me it is OK to relax that Matt Probably doesnt even realize that his heart is dong this.

ALSO, this is not something that happened because of my age or something i did i the two months before i knew i was pregnant. there is no known cause of this condition. and there is a VERY good chance that he will out grow this completely.

34 week ultrasound

This is the ultrasound from yesterday, or at least the good parts, I have pointed out what you are seeing so that you can understand what you are looking at.

Update from the specialist

We had an appointment with a specialist yesterday. A very prolonged ultrasound, where we just watched the baby's heartbeat. and indeed we do have a cardiac issue.

Supra Ventricular Tachycardia. Now for those of you who don't know what that is, (like me) that is where Matt's heartbeat is "normal" for about 1 or 2 minuets then it suddenly and without reason starts beating UBER fast, for about 6 or 7 beats then it goes back to normal.

So what that means is, because it is beating so fast, the bats aren't good strong beats. and the blood isn't pumping like it should. BUT because it is sporadic, sometimes its every minuet sometimes its five minuets between episodes, and never for very long, Matt hasn't had any adverse affects from it as of yet. (that we can tell at this time) We also couldn't tell why this is happening . BUT we are going to be monitoring his progress very closely.

Dr Larry said that he can tell if hes got a sick baby so we are going to check on Matt by the end of the week, and just "keep an eye" on him.

What can be done...
right now, there isn't much that we can do, If it gets worse, he can medicate me, that will cross over and medicate Matt, BUT that will make my heart be all weird and make me sick, and Matt isn't sick enough for that at this time, the next option is, hold on until 37 weeks and deliver so we can then medicate Matt directly. or at least have a cardiac pediatrician look him over directly and decided what to do after Matt is born.

Of course trying to get to full term is the optimal goal.

in other news....
Matt weighs 5.5 pounds and has hair!

News about Baby Matt….

Last Friday when I saw the doctor, the fetal heart beat showed an arrhythmia. Basically the heart beat would speed up then slow down and skip here and there. SOOO they wanted me to see a specialist.

I have been waiting for an appointment at either Robert Packer or Danville. During the last 4 days I have done extensive thinking over this, and I actually was thinking that the doc could have had my heartbeat instead of the baby’s as mine generally runs faster than average and I have had sporadic arrhythmias due to my breathing.

So today, when they called and told me my appointment is May 4^th, and the doc would have LOVED to get me in sooner but it wasn’t feasible, I asked for a second listen due to my concern about weather it was my heart or the baby’s.

He took me right in, and we listened to both mine and the baby’s mine was indeed faster than he expected. He was actually kinda shocked by that. And we heard only a trace of arrhythmia in Matt’s heartbeat. Doc even commented if he were not listening expressly for that, he might have missed it.

We are still keeping the appointment at Robert packer so we can do a fetal EKG. And be absolutely certain if we have arrhythmia or if we don’t. We have not discussed what would be necessary if we do. As there is no need to cause undue stress/anxiety to me worrying about what procedures we would need to do until we know for certain that there is a reason.

Newest wall.

I fell asleep early last night and forgot to paint my nails! I did however, decide to actually paint them, well more to the point my nails did the deciding. in the very first room I cleaned my nails started popping off. so tonight after dinner during my TV show ill do my new mani. and perhaps even get it posted!




for this am's post though I have a new wall done! I still have one corner to go. and that one is taking some real thought. the dresser is in that corner, and i am trying to decide how to do it, shall i jsut do the same thing behind it? or should i work it some how so you can see the design. A friend and i are brainstorming on this idea. maybe ill come up with something

Two walls completed

light switch wall

closet wall

I have cut my hours back to 4 days a week. I have simply been too tired to continue working at the at pace. so with my second day off in a row, I spendt the day painting in Matt's room and i can say its nearly done. i have one wall and one corner to address. before Matt comes. then one small thing i want to do after his arrival.

As I start otopaint i think to myself i have to be out of my mind to be doing this. But honestly i am finding (as i always do) that painting is extremely relaxing for me. no wonder i love to paint my nails or ceramics or anything. I think that after years of searching i have found a hobby i really enjoy.

Matt's Door

The door to Matt's room had been painted for years, and it needed a fresh coat. At first we thought we would just repaint it white. But of course i couldn't settle with it just that way! I am very glad i decided to paint 2/3 of it blue. that door being that much blue is what started all of the changing to the room in the first place. I just fell in love with that color! Then i got to thinking something to show it was Matt's room would help the separation that I feel about the room. I mean its not hat i don't want Matt or anything, but that was my space. And I know Michelle had felt that was HER room. we both now realise that this is no longer my office and no longer her room. it belongs to Matt. and with that knowledge i think we are both content.

Don't think this is the last surprise of this paint. a good friend came up with a thought that i ran with last night. BUT I cant even start that one until Matt makes his debut!

PS yea i did my nails in a very new shade of essie im posting that Later, I was very excited to get this door up!

whats going on...

I go for my 3 hour glucose tolerance test today. I'm not really concerned about the test, as i have been monitoring my blood sugar levels all week and they seem to not only hold steady but they don't go high, Or at least high in my opinion. i haven't seen any 300's or 400's like what my diabetic Friends have seen and my lows aren't really low either, unless i have it really controlled with my diet?

the chart that is above is one i found for a 6 hour test, but as you can see it measures what should go on with a three hour as well. SOOO I'm planning on taking my glucometer and a copy of this test with me to chart my own test as we go along today. I will at least know how i am doing!

finished walls

These are the two walls i have been working on. This is as completed as they will get, I am ready to move to a new wall.

Steam roller


Sign holder

as for actual baby updates....

They think i may have gestational diabetes, i go for more tests on Saturday. could come back either way I have been monitoring my blood sugars and they are the same as they have always been. other than that Baby Matt is very active and loves the sound of deep male voices.

COMPLETED TRUCKS!

Well i got to spend a few hours finishing up some of the trucks on the "main" wall. I am very pleased how they turned out!