"Sauly Saul"

Here are some photo's of our sweet Saul! The girls call him "Sauly Saul" it is soo cute. They are sooo in love with their baby brother. The girls love to hold him and especially kiss on him, to the point where I have to tell them to give him some space. They run to give him his pacifier whenever he cries or tell me he's hungry. They are both such great big sisters! I just love what our family of five is! Saul has just blessed our lives so much! He is such a good baby! Very content, he cries when he's hungry, tired or uncomfortable, he's such a cuddler (which I LOVE!!) and is just so sweet. He sleeps really well at night, wakes up about every 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Not to mention it's nice not having to get up every 2 1/2 to 3 hrs, walk and go up 3 flights just to feed him and leave him in his NICU crib and go back down 3flights to go to sleep and do it over again. Those were the good nights cause it meant I had a bed. I really didn't mind any of those nights at Riley, I was happy to be the only mom who had the privilege of nursing my son when he was hungry. So we've been home for a week and are doing well! He had his 1 month "well baby" visit and the Dr. was really impressed with how well he is developing ( he's at a "normal" rate) despite 'what he's been through". The Dr's at Riley really wanted to make sure that this "well baby" appt went well, it was a concern for everyone just cause it hasn't been a "normal" first month for him. So he was born at 8 lbs even and 191/2 in long. He is now 9.6 lbs and 21 1/2 inches long! He's thriving and doing wonderfully. I can't thank God enough for this amazing gift, but also for all the people who have been here for us and supported us through it all. LOVE YOU!!

The first 3weeks of Saul's life.

Hey there! I can't believe our wonderful Saul is here!! He is such sweet baby boy! I'm soo excited to have added him to the family! The past 3 weeks have been nuts. I can' t believe it's already been 3weeks that we've been here @ Riley Hospital! Soo I'll tell the story the shortest way I can without leaving out details, cause if nothing else I want to remember this time of our lives. So 2days before Saul's arrival Si got us a hotel room at the Shereton to just have a couple days to ourselves and kind of prepare for what was ahead of us. It was so nice to have that time, the first day we had the girls for a few hours just to spend some last moments together as a family of 4, that to was awesome. So the August 28th came and I went "under" in the O.R and woke up to the nurses saying that Saul was just fine, they didn't see or feel the cyst in his neck and he was doing great!! Pretty awesome way to wake up! Well they decided they would take an ultrasound of his neck just to make sure, even though at the time he was breathing on his own and doing so pretty well. By the second day though poor Saul was having a SUPER hard time breathing, every time he took a breath his chest caved in as if he were hiccuping. So the Dr.s decided to intubate him ( a breathing tube) so he could breathe easier, and also put a feeding tube down his mouth all the way to his stomach. When the results of the ultrasound came back they saw that the cyst(which was actually a enlarged lymph node) was indeed still there, it was just under the muscles in his neck and behind his trachea. So they decided they were going to do this thing called Sclero therapy. Basically an Intervention Radiologist puts a drain tube in the cyst (using ultrasound) drains the cyst, inserts alcohol and some other solutions, drain the solutions out and leave a suction on the tube to continue to suck out any accumulating fluids. Usually they do this therapy 3times in a week and they only had to do it 2 times with Saul because it was working so well and he didn't have much more draining out of the cyst. So after 2days of they therapy they took the drain out and extubated him (took his breathing tube out),let me start nursing to see how he would breathe while doing so. Saul knew just what to do! He latched right on and chugged for a good half hour the first time he ate, and kept doing well so they then took his feeding tube out. I just have to say our little sweet heart was known for being fiesty and trying to pull his tubes out of his mouth when they were in, the nurses just loved him but he would scare them to death when he would get a hold of those tubes! haha! He just knew they didn't belong in him! I also praise God for "hiding" the cyst when Saul was born , because he didn't have to have surgery and was able to have a much less invasive procedure done, the tube was basically the size of a needle and so you can barely even see where it was done. Thank you Lord for keeping our baby safe! If they would have gone in for surgery it would have been significantly more dangerous then they originally thought because the cyst was just beyond the Aorta and surrounded by a lot of important vessels, and organs, that it would have been super risky to do, so again, PRAISE GOD!!! So after a few days of nursing and doing well they let us take him home at 9on Monday night. OH MY you should have seen the girls faces when they saw their little brother! it was priceless! and of course i immediately started bawling just having our family of 5 finally together after 13 long days was awesome (the girls were not allowed in the NICU to see him). The whole ride home the girls were just falling head over heels in love with their little brother, his little hands were holding his fingers and their conversation about him was just precious!! they would say things like " i bet he really likes riding in the car" followed by " he's like what's a car, he doesn't even know what a car is" everything they said was followed by the " he's like whats__" SOOOO CUTE!! We got home and the girls got to hold him assisted by the boppy and adult supervision, Nadya couldn't get enough of him, she just wanted to be with him and was soooo distraught when she had to go to bed, Bella fell asleep in the car and so she didn't get to hold him the first night home. the next 2 days were bliss, the girls just loved him, they wouldn't leave his side, they came and talked to us while i nursed him they came and helped w diaper changes, they even helped with a bath and they both washed one of his legs, he even peed on both of them! HAHAHAHAHA! that was hilarious and they just thought it was the funniest thing! He is such a good baby, his doesn't cry too much , and most importantly he would have slept through the night if I let him! I had to wake him up every 4hrs to eat!!He also smiles a lot, mostly when he's asleep but his smile looks just like his 3D ultrasound photo of him smiling. That smile is going to be the end of me, I'll let everyone know that right now! Then on Thursday he had an ultra sound appointment, so we came back to Riley , the IR Dr. (Dr. Marsheleck) came and said the cyst hadn't grown much and would not affect his breathing, however he still wanted to do the Sclero therapy a gain to kind of "kill off" the cyst so that it wouldn't become a problem cause you never know how much it will fill up and didn't want us to come home and have an emergency situation on our hands. So he gave me the option of doing it on Thursday or doing it next week. Bella starts Kindergarten next week and I really wanted to be home for that so i said to go ahead and start the therapy that day. Well Dr. was really pleased when the procedure was over, he had drained 21cc out of the cyst the first time he drained it and on Thursday he only got 3cc!! So he only did the therapy once and now we are just waiting to go home after having an ultrasound on Monday, I'm really hoping that the ultrasound shows that the cyst has no fluid in it, or is at least so little that they are comfortable w sending us home. So tomorrow will be 21days of being here @ Riley, minus the 2 days we got to be home. Saul has been doing great, in fact they would have sent him home Friday but because he has the ultra sound tomorrow they wanted to keep him because when he goes out into the real world and comes back in he may carry outside diseases in with him. so we are keeping the other babies safe. I am tired! I'm ready to be home, I've spent some nights in the lounge, and some nights they are able to get me a room in the Ronald McDonald house. I'm just so ready for this to be a memory and be home with my family! I miss Simon and the girls sooo much and am ready to be all together again. After we go home , we'll still have to have weekly ultrasounds and then monthly and so on just to keep an eye on the cyst until they are for sure it's dead. Please continue to pray for our family and for our sweet Saul. He is soo precious and I can't wait for all of you to meet him! Only one more day!! Then I will post some photo's up of our handsome little boy.

A little update..

Hello all! I had an ultrasound today.. It was AWESOME! My amniotic fluid went from measuring 29cm to 22cm!!! Still on the high side of normal the Dr. warned but hey at least I'm in normal range!! YAY!! Last week when they did a cervical ultrasound they found what they call "funneling" , basically your not supposed to have that until your about to go into labor, and there was NONE at all today!!! I went from being high risk to just at risk in one week!! Thank the Lord!! I guess resting and laying around really did work! I have to keep it up though to prevent from going back into that risky place! It is still hard because again being in our new home wanting to get as much of the basic unpacking and decorating done, I have to count on Simon A LOT to help and I can do some but I have to be sure to put my feet up and rest every few minutes. That's hard for me to do , it's also hard for me to boss Simon around. I know I know I should be loving it, but I'm "that person" that has to do it myself, cause only I do it right. ha ha! I guess through this whole thing the lessons I'm learning are that it's ok to and I SHOULD ask for help (very hard for me to do) and that i need to count on others and its perfectly fine if it's not exactly the way I would do it, and most of all to DEPEND on God, I don't have to hard of a time trusting in His will and in Him, but depending on Him for some reason falls into a different category, it's more like the asking for help... So God is good , He always is, always has been and always will be.. OH!! We also got some more 3D photos and Saul is totally smiling in one! He's already got me wrapped around his little fingers.

Lots going on

OK!!! Since the last blog, we moved into our new house!! yay!!! All our stuff is here anyway, just have to unpack the boxes.  The girls are in NC with their in-laws for 2 weeks!! 1 week down 1 more to go.  I miss them, and definitely cried when they left, but it's been nice to be able to get stuff done around the house and go to Dr. appts w/o having to worry about them. They are having a blast out there.  It's been really great to spend time with just Simon. We haven't had this much time, just the 2 of us since Bella was born , that was about 6months after we got married!! It's been really nice to have some quality time with him.  

Now for the not as good news.... 

 I had a Dr.s appt last Wednesday.  I had gained 7 lbs in 2 wks and my belly measurement jumped from 30 cm to 34cm!! The Dr. was definitely concerned with that because she had just gotten my glucose test and thyroid results and found that I have borderline gestational diabetes and my thyroid is still on the "under active" side. Luckily i had an ultrasound already set up for the next day to try to figure out what was going on in this belly of  mine.  She was concerned about the size of the baby ( women w diabetes have larger babies). Thursday comes and I go in for my ultrasound.  The cyst on Sauls neck had doubled in size from 2 wks ago, it hasn't grown that fast this whole time and even stopped growing for a little bit, and I have to much amniotic fluid, the highest your supposed to be is 24 and I had 29! I had gone from 17 to 29 in 2 wks!!  That explained the rapid growth.  They aren't sure if all that extra amniotic fluid is from the diabetes ( that would make Saul pee a lot) or if Saul isn't swallowing as much or isn't able to swallow enough due to the cyst. Saul is weighing about 3.9 Lbs which is normal and comforting (he's actually measuring about a wk ahead but still in the very normal range). I also found out that they have had my due date as August 8th instead of the 16th so that made me feel a little better. They put me on the monitor to monitor my contractions because I'd been having a lot more Braxton hicks contractions. All that to say, I'm on a diabetic diet even though it's not fully diabetes ( but we want to prevent it ) and I'm on slight bed rest. Basically that means I can do my normal things just have to take a lot more breaks to rest, and if anything I do makes me have a contraction, I have to stop and can't do that thing anymore.. The concern right now is that I could go into preterm labor since my uterus thinks it's further along (because of all the amniotic fluid) than it really is. So they told me to count and time my Braxton hicks contraction , if I have more than 6 in an hr I have to go in and also if my water breaks, obviously I have to go in. Which is scary, I've never been told @ 30 wks " if your water breaks..."  So, continue to keep us in your prayers. It's been difficult trying to rest when we just moved into our first home,the girls are gone,i could be getting sooo much done! I want to unpack and make the home truly ours but I guess I have to do it slowly slowly.  My next appt is this Friday and I have the MRI on Monday, we also have to meet with the pediatric surgeon Monday.. Crazy.  Love you all. Thanks for your support, thoughts and prayers.

Good News!!

I know it's been a looong time since I've said anything on here about Saul.  First off I want to thank ALL of you for your love,support and prayers! We have truly felt Gods love and presence through all of you and we can't Thank you enough for that!.  So Saul had his echo cardio a while ago and his heart is perfect, that was the main concern with only having the 2 vessel cord. PRAISE GOD! We've had a few more ultrasounds since then and the cyst is still there, it's measuring about 2cm by 1cm, for a while it was growing with him but at today 's ultrasound they said it was the same size and that it wasn't growing!!! PRAISE GOD!! So the cyst is still there, however he's growing and it's staying the same size!! The doctors are very impressed by how active he is, and he's growing at a great rate. He's starting to grow more and faster now the Dr.s assured me, but I'm pretty sure my belly and weight gain have assured me of that! ha ha! He weighs a little over 2Lbs right now, and they said that's normal so he's not a small baby which was another concern... OK I think I've got all that I know out... Thanks again for your prayers, we appreciate them and still need them! ALSO.... Tomorrow we have the inspection on our house in Pendleton, praying that goes well and if so we'll close between Friday(the 22nd) and Tuesday the 26th!! YAY!! Our very first house! We're so excited, and a little afraid.

Baby Saul.

So for those of you who don't know we named our precious baby boy Saul.  It means 'wanted or wished for".  That's why we decided on the name because we wanted and wished for him sooo much and are so happy that we get to have a son! Simon is hoping that Saul will help him earn some of his "man card " back.  We are feeling a lot better today after a lot of prayer and just letting all the information settle in. I just have a sense of peace and KNOW that it's all in Gods hands and that he is taking care of baby Saul and will provide us with whatever it is we need to handle whatever the situation or outcome may be.  We know that He is the healer and that what we know is only a fraction of what He knows.  So we are trusting in Him and still praying for continued peace and healing.  I can't thank God enough for having such an AMAZING group pf family and friends that are here to support us, and be here for us! THANK YOU sooooo much! I'll keep everyone updated on how things are going, right now it's just kind of a waiting game.  I also wanted to share that the girls have just been sooo sweet, we told them yesterday that Saul can hear them now and they just kept talking to my belly saying things like " this is Bella/Nadya , I love you Saul!! we can't wait for you to get here, we're your big sisters....." It was soo cute.. So thank you all again! We love and appreciate you sooo much!

We're having a BOY!!

 Can you believe it! I'm posting again! hahaha! We just found out yesterday, more like confirmed, that we are having a baby boy! We're all really excited!  The girls even said that they wanted a baby boy before a baby girl so i think everyone is pleased with the outcome.  We haven't picked a name yet, for some reason it seems harder this time!  I feel like there's a lot more thought going into it, maybe too much thought, but we'll let you know when we come up with our son's name. Our son!!Sounds weird, but awesome... So here is the part where we NEED everyone's prayers.. During the ultra sound the found a "moderate" size cyst on his neck that is twice the size of his stomach, and also his umbilical cord only has 2  blood vessels instead of 3 which is called single umbilical artery and only 1% of single births have it( heart issues, urinarytract issues, and other abnormalities can come from this)... Otherwise everything is completely normal, he's growing, all his other organs appear normal, he doesn't have any  physical deformities, other than the cyst and the umbilical cord... So they sent us straight away to a specialist who took another ultrasound with more powerful equipment and pretty much confirmed what the first ultrasound discovered. Then the Dr. started talking what sounded like gibberish to me and basically told us all the things that it could be (none of which sounded good).  The ones she talked most about were that it could be a tracheoesopageal festula, (look it up, don't feel like explaining) or just a cyst in his neck (could also be chromosomal or genetic defects). Either one of the 2 "main focuses" will need immediate surgery after he is born.  We are to say the least very scared and really concerned for our precious baby. There is a lot of unknowns and"could be this or that" and it's all really overwhelming.  So this is what we're doing, instead of doing an amniocentesis we are just going to monitor it, which means getting ultrasounds every couple weeks. The next ultra sound is going to be an EKG on the baby's heart, and then I will have to get an MRI, so they can maybe better tell whats going on.  We are praying for our son and hoping he's not in any pain or discomfort.  It was encouraging and even the Dr. said that because he was soooo active that it was a good sign.  He was all over the place... So just keep our family in your prayers the girls know that the baby may be sick when he gets here and they are still more than willing to help mama take care of him. We're trying to stay as positive as we can and just praying.