20 week ultrasound

I went in today for my follow up ultrasound. We got lots of great pictures of our little Baby Bean. The Dr. said his spine and lips look great. All the shots they couldn't get last time, they were finally able to get. He is measuring a little over a week larger than 20 weeks which is fine. They did notice a little ( very small amount ) of fluid around his kidneys. The Dr. thinks it will be gone by my next ultrasound in 4 weeks. I will have ultrasounds every 4 weeks from now on to check his growth. Apparently my being on a low dose of prednisone can cause the baby to be smaller. Anyway, we are praising the Lord that everything looks good and praying that the kidney issue is something that we won't have to worry about in the future!


This is his hand up over his face. You can see his nose and lips. This is my favorite!

Profile shot



We caught a yawn! It was adorable!

These are just a few, there are more on facebook!

March For Babies

Camron

Caden

Hello Family and Friends~
It's that time of year again to start getting ready for the annual March For Babies Walk. Camron and Caden are almost 4 1/2 years old. As each year passes, we get farther and farther away from that terrifying time when they were fighting for their lives in the NICU. Farther and farther away from the roller coaster ride that lasted for 2 long months and even continued once we got them home and still weren't sure what the future would hold.
For those of you who are new to our story, let me fill you in. For those of you who have been with us all along, let me refresh your memory.
Camron and Caden were born in my 28th week of pregnancy. They were supposed to have close to 12 more weeks to grow and develop inside! Camron weighed 2 lbs. 8 oz. at birth, dropping down to 2 lbs 3 oz. and Caden weighed 2 lbs 4 oz. at birth, dropping down to 1 lb 14 oz. Can you imagine holding 2 bags of sugar in your hands. That's what it was like holding my babies. Both of them needed surfactant at birth and then again after as well. The research for surfactant was made possible by funding done for the March of Dimes. Camron and Caden both had a very hard time learning and remembering to breath on their own while in the NICU. Many of you know, Caden had a hard time remembering even once we got home which resulted in a 911 call and many "close" calls. Both of the boys had intraventricular hemorrhages on BOTH sides of their brains. Caden had a grade II on one side and III on the other. Camron had a grade III on one side and a grade IV on the other. A grade IV is the worst. It is only by the grace of God that there are no long-term effects from those bleeds today. Many children with those bleeds have life long problems such as cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus. Both of the boys had ROP (retinopathy of prematurity). This is what caused Stevie Wonder to go blind. Camron's was much more severe than Caden's. He has worn glasses since the age of 7 months due to that as well as other issues with his vision. Both of the boys had bilateral inguinal hernia's which required surgery at 5 months of age when they were strong enough.
These are only some of the obstacles Camron and Caden faced from being born prematurely. Wouldn't it be nice if ALL babies could be born FULL-TERM? Wouldn't it be nice if ALL babies could be born HEALTHY? With your help, we can get closer to that point! On April 24th, starting at 9am at Center City Park in Greensboro, we are going to WALK to save babies. Up until that date, we are going to RAISE money to fight against prematurity. Please help us win the fight against prematurity! Visit our site at www.marchforbabies.org/dukeboys.
If you have any questions at all, please let me know! I would be more than happy to answer them!
Love to all,
Chris, Jenn, Jaxon, Camron, Caden, and baby Bean!

Update

Wow, I feel like I have so much to update since my last post...wait a minute, that's because I do! I have some awesomely amazing news first and foremost! I had my CK level checked last week at my rheumatologist office and my levels are down to 275. Yep people you are reading that correctly, no need to clean those lenses or wipe those eyes! 275. That is almost normal. Normal is between 40 and 230 (I believe). That is a reason to high five the person closest to you right now!
As I'm sure some of you know, I was very set on NOT finding out the sex of this baby. Our goal was to be pleasantly surprised on the big birth-day. Well, we were pleasantly surprised last Friday instead. Let me start from the beginning. I got a shocking phone call Wednesday morning. A nurse from my ob office called to let me know my AFP test had come back "abnormal". (Now, I know what you're all thinking...what does Jenn do that IS normal) She went on to tell me they wanted me to come in and have an ultrasound so they could check for visible neural tube defects such as spina bifida. Needless to say, I was a mess. I called in the troops (aka, Chris, Nana, and Poppi) and off we went to take care of boys or go to to the dr. The ultrasound tech could not see any "gross abnormalities" of the spine but baby bean was not laying the correct way. After meeting with Dr. T, he suggested this very well could be a false positive but he wanted me to go to the hospital for a high risk specialist to do another ultrasound. The second ultrasound was scheduled for Friday morning. We went to this appointment praying for a more concrete answer and that baby bean would just be perfect, the way God planned all along! At this appointment, it was confirmed that the spine and the abdomen both looked good. They could not get a good shot of the mouth at this one! This means they could not rule out cleft palate. Being that I am still taking a low dose of prednisone, this is a concern. I will be going back in a few weeks to have a repeat ultrasound to check all of these things again. I will then have an ultrasound every 4 weeks to keep a close watch on baby bean as well as myself. If I wasn't all the way in the high risk category before, I'm there now! With all that said, there were many shots baby bean was NOT letting those techs get during these 2 ultrasounds. There was one thing baby bean wanted us to see and made sure of it! We saw the goods. Baby Boy Bean is not a shy baby at all! He is very proud of himself as he should be! He is a blessing to our "little" Duke family and an answer to a long awaited prayer!

My Dr's appt today

I went in today for my 16 week appointment. I actually start 17 weeks tomorrow...yay! Everything looks good! The heartbeat was so strong and loud the nurse even laughed! I had to have an early glucose screening since I am taking prednisone...no gestational diabetes at this point, ptl! I also started getting progesterone shots in the bootie today...MAN THEY HURT! They will be once a week for a while.
I have to say that I am very thankful for a wonderful ob Dr. I struggle each time I have to go to Duke because my dr. there is not very positive. I completely understand that it's their job to inform you of the "what ifs" but I also think they should be as positive as they can and focus on the good that is going on and not the bad that could possibly happen maybe even though everything right now looks great! I guess that is coming from a glass half full person! Unfortunately, I don't think my Duke Dr. is like that but praise the Lord my Ob is! Anyway, I didn't mean to chase a rabbit there.....
I will post a picture of myself as soon as my camera battery is charged!

Christmas 2009

Here is a slide show of our Christmas celebration pics as well as a few from my birthday and Daddy-O's birthday. We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We did a lot of driving back and forth to Durham which resulted in some tired little boys but we all enjoyed ourselves and made wonderful memories which is what matters! My 30th birthday was the day after Christmas. Christmas Adam, we went to Durham to spend time with Chris' side of the family and Christmas day we went back to Durham to have lunch with my side! On my birthday, I was served breakfast in bed, complete with a princess plate, cup and tiara. I did a little shopping with Mom (always fun). Came home from that to a surprise party with my boys (Jaxon's idea). Then all 4 of my boys took me to see the new Chipmunk movie! We ended the evening with dinner at Fire and Sticks (can we say YUMMO!) It was a great 30th! Chris' birthday was yesterday (he was 31, not 30). We did lots of fun things too but the best for him was probably seeing his baby Bean (or unborn baby no name as he likes to say).

It's my party....

Anyone who knows me well, knows I am NOT an easy person to surprise. Not that I TRY to find things out, I just do! Well, I must say the ladies pictured below (along with Nancy, my wonderful mom, and darling husband) actually pulled it off. I was extremely surprised tonight for an early 30th party! Oh yeah, btw, I will be 30, that's right 3-0 on Saturday! I had a great time tonight! Thanks to all who were involved!

MOPS Christmas Party

I am SO blessed to be a part of a wonderful MOPS group at my church. The ladies came to my house last night for our annual Christmas Party. It was rescheduled due to our "blizzard". We had a great time eating yummy food, having great fellowship and playing a fun game! Here's a shot of all who attended!