When's that baby due?

What baby?  At least that's what Brad wants me to answer all the time.  :)

Feb 2nd, if he's not here on his own before then, then that's when he's coming out.  It appears like he might be on the larger side from my ultrasound today, but then again there is a margin of error with those, however he's big enough that holding out another week is probably not in my best interest.  So that's where we are.  Pray for a safe delivery for he and I.

It's been so nice here the last couple of days that we've been trying to get in our outside time as much as possible.  The kids are playing basketball, baseball, catch...it's been nice!

We still haven't completely decided on a name, but the list has narrowed down.  One of our choices is Jett.  When I told Calvin the list and asked him if we should name the baby Jett, he responded, "no, airplane."  :)

Pray that the kids would easily adjust to a new brother, Calvin has quite a few ideas of how he's going to play ball and Legos with this baby, but he might be disappointed for awhile.

38 weeks and counting...

I had my weekly checkup today.  Nothing has really changed since my last appointment, baby is still dropped a bit, but that is pretty much it.  My next appointment is next week and we will evaluate then if it is worth it to let me go past my due date or stick to our Feb 2nd deadline.  I really don't want another c-section, but I want to put this in God's hands and trust that He knows best.  So will you pray for God's plan with this little guy.

Mia and Calvin are doing great.  We just keep busy with all our therapy appointments.  :)

Another Urology Appointment

Yesterday we were seen in Bakersfield by a urologist from CHLA.  They come to Bakersfield twice a month, so it was really nice not to have to drive all the way down there.

He said that there are several main components to having a healthy bladder.  First having healthy kidneys, which Mia's look great, so there are no concerns there.  Second, not having reoccurring urinary tract infections, which Mia also hasn't had, which is great.  Third, not having reflux, or at least minimal reflux that isn't damaging anything.  Again, Mia's is mild, so she's ok in that category.  And then not having too much pressure in the bladder itself along with the proper capacity of bladder and then being able to fully empty it and wait a duration of time before doing that again.

The urodynamics study that we did in Cincinnati is what pushed us to do the tethered cord surgery because her bladder wasn't functioning properly.  There was too much pressure and she had a very minimal capacity.  He told us that those tests aren't always perfect and that after the release of her tethered cord, it might change also, so his opinion is to repeat that test and see where we are now.  Thankfully it's not a must do right now test since baby #3 is almost here, so the plan is to repeat that test in March or April down at CHLA and then go from there.

It made a lot of sense to us and so we plan on following up with that test.

I had my 37 week check up yesterday.  Baby is actually making some progress downward this time, which never happened with Calvin.  So I see a glimmer of hope that he could arrive without a c-section.  :). Time will tell.

Progress

I love it when I see Mia making new progress, it is always very encouraging to me.  These days our progress comes a little bit slower, but I still see it happening.  Her speech has been coming along, she struggles with several sounds, in particular we've been working on the k, g, and l sounds.  And just recently, she has started to actually produce a few g sounds.  Her k sound is almost there and her l sound is pretty good too, but she just can't seem to get the g sound.  We continue to praise God as He progresses her in His own time. 

She and Calvin are having so much fun pretending to be the characters in the their favorite books and dvd's.  A recent favorite is Olivia, a cute children's book about a pig family.  We have a few of the dvd's also, which go along with the books we have...anyway, so now when they see an episode they want to have all the accessories and act it out.  There is an episode where Olivia is wearing a backpack and looking for ducks and so they will run around the house in their backpacks calling out, "ducks, where are you?"  It's fun, but a bit disappointing when we don't have all the props, however, we try to find something similar that we can imagine is the same thing.  Calvin has taken a real liking to this pretend play also. 

Tomorrow I am 37 weeks, which means this baby could arrive any time.  Mia and Calvin were both c-sections, and so I've been given an ending date of Feb. 2nd for this baby to come on his own.  I have mixed emotions regarding both options.  On the one hand, I would like to not have another c-section (I've never had good experiences with the ones I've had), but on the other hand, I want what is best for the baby.  I get a little anxious when I think about both, not the actual thought of delivering vaginally, just the thought of my uterus rupturing and something happening to the baby.  So, just pray for me, pray that I would find peace with God and that He would make the best decision for this baby. 

Cute Things

So Calvin says the cutest things these days.  And if I don't write them down, I'm going to forget.  He and Mia do quite a bit of role playing where they are different characters from books or videos, usually Calvin is the boy character and Mia the girl, however it does get switched up sometimes.  At church this Sunday during story time, they were talking about Mary and Joseph, of which Calvin promptly declares to everyone, "I'm Mary and she's (talking about his sister) Joseph."  The Sunday school teachers got a big kick out of that.

Later that evening, we were finally finishing taking down the actual Christmas tree, of which Calvin was deeply upset that it was happening.  Anyway, he's been so in love with these inflatable displays that people have outside that he gets really excited when they are "blown up", so he translated that to taking down the tree and kept telling us, "No, please don't blow down the tree."  "Guys, don't blow down the tree."  It's going to be a long year waiting for Christmas to come again.

Today he told me he loved Jesus's birthday.  He said, "25, that's Jesus's birthday, I love Jesus's birthday."  Such a cutie.   

Last LA Visit

Until the baby comes.  Ok, I wanted to write forever because I don't like driving to LA, however, I know that is not going to happen for awhile, maybe forever. 

Mia and I went to LA yesterday to see her neurologist.  It was just a regular follow-up and we only have to do this twice a year, which is really nice.  It was like a mommy daughter day, but we didn't do anything super fun.  :(  It just always ends up being such a long day when we have to wait over an hour to see our doctor and then the whole process of being seen takes an hour...I'm usually ready just to come home at that point.  :)

This is the first time that her doctor has said aloud to the resident in the room that Mia is a miracle.  He usually just says he is amazed and can't explain it, but today he flat out said she was a miracle.  He is always so impressed with how well she is doing.  Thank you Lord!  We know she's a miracle, we know that she's not supposed to have any functioning ability, we know that the only way this is possible at all is because God has intervened and made it so.  We are grateful. 

My little trooper was greatly disappointed when we got home and Grandma was already gone because Daddy was back from work.  But she gets some playtime with Grandma today, so that should appease her.  And when the new baby comes she will get plenty of Grandma and Nana time.  Speaking of the new baby, today I now start the 1 week appointments... :(  But great that baby is still in the oven growing because that's the best place for him to be.  One month from today is my due date, I can't believe this next one is almost here!  Brad is almost done with the baby's room and then I can rearrange and organize, I have hope that it will happen soon.  :)

We asked Calvin what we should name the baby yesterday and he said we should call him "baby brother".  Ok, well that makes too much sense.  Baby Brother Sturm...hmm...