2011 Coming to and end...

While I am sad to see 2011 go, I am excited to see what 2012 will bring.

2011 was our year of miracles.

On February 14th, 2011 we discovered that our dreams were coming true as we were finally pregnant. 18 weeks later we found out that we would be welcoming a baby girl in to the world. Then on September 28th Nora made her debut a little early than we expected but we were so excited!

2011 changed our lives for ever.

My brother asked Jenner to be his wife and I couldnt be more excited! She is perfect for him and I could ask for a better sister, she truly is the sister I never had but always wanted.

We had a few scary times throughout 2011 as well. Before we had to deal with all the things that Nora went through my mom was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in May and for the second time she was fighting for her life. After a scary few months of being in and out of the hospital and getting a pacemaker she managed to fight another fight! With lots of prayers and her strength she is doing great and acting just like she always has :)

My mom had shown her strength and ability to fight several times now and it amazes me how strong she is. I thank God every day that my daughter got that strength from her grandma. It got them both through this year.

2012, I welcome you with open arms as it will be a year of first for us as we watch Nora go through many milestones along with her first birthday!!

Back to Work I Go...

Well, as much as I did not want my maternity to end it did just that. It's time to go back to work. Thursday of last week we made another trip to Iowa City for a check up. Everything looked great and it seems to have healed from the leak so they made another adjustment to see if we can work on the shape of her head and get her sutures to level out. Good News is we don't have to go back until February!! WOW! 2 whole months with no trips to IA City...I can not believe it.

Over the weekend we left Nora for the first time. She spent Saturday with my parents so Freddy and I could do a little deer hunting and then go to Freddy's work Christmas Party. While we has a lot of fun I couldn't wait to get home to get home to my baby. It's amazing how things have changed.

Monday marked my return to the working world. I was sad leaving and felt horrible the entire day for not being with my baby. At least that day Freddy was home with her so it made it a little bit easier to not have to go back to work and first day of daycare on the same day! I am so excited to get home that night. Best part of the day.

Tuesday came and it was time to take her to daycare. We have a WONDERFUL in-home daycare that I couldn't be happier with so it made leaving her a little but easier because I knew she was in great hands! Ali sent me TONS of pictures throughout the day so it put me at easy and made my day. Nora seemed to adjust to daycare very quickly and our week went great! It is for sure a lot different getting ready for work when you have a baby, a whole new routine. Gets easier everyday.

    

This week was also Grandma's birthday so we celebrated with her with dinner at Jethro's, which was great.

NEW MILESTONE: Holding her head up with little wobble. Can sit in a bumbo chair!!!!

So excited for our FIRST CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Daddy Back to Work

The dreaded times has come and we are starting back to work, thankfully I have a couple extra weeks but Freddy returned to work this week. It worked out pretty well this week because Freddy was night flying so he was still her to help me in the mornings.

Due to everything Nora has been through we really have not been able to get schedule going. So that has been my focus this week, trying to build a routine. We have had her sleeping in the bassinet since it was angled it was the best place for her when her shunt was leaking. They said keeping her at an angle will help keep the fluid down. Now that the shunt seems to be working correctly and not leaking we started to introduce her to the crib.

The first night did not go well at all. I was reading about transition to the crib and everything I found said that starting with naps is the best way to get the baby use to it before trying it at night time. So that what a did. The next day she slept for about 30 minutes in the crib after about an hour of trying to get her to sleep. The good news is the day after that she sleep for an hour and 30 minutes in the crib and will now lay down in the pack n play for naps as well with little issues. So we are making progress. Hard to try to create habit or routine given the past 10 weeks we have had.

I had a few visitors this week as well so that helped make the days a little better. As much as I would LOVE to be a stay at home mom I am not sure I could so it everyday. I would have to be involved with something, hard just sitting at home all day but worth every second being with my baby. I will say my house had never been cleaner...haha.

I can honestly say though I am totally not ready to go back to work, so thankful for one more week...oh my I only have one for week, I could cry just thinking about it. I can not believe how quickly the time has gone by, guess the hospital visits and millions of doctors appointments did help that at all.

For those of you that have kids, give them an extra kiss tonight and be thankful for every moment you have with them.

Thanksgiving

After everything we have been through the past 6 weeks it was nice to be able to enjoy time with family for the holiday and just relax.

This year Freddy and I had so much to be thankful for. For starters the birth of our beautiful daughter Nora. She has made our lives complete. It was a dream come true when we became a family. We are also very thankful for all our friends and family that have supported us through all of this. We couldn't ask for anything more. Everything from visiting us at the hospital or at home, to making us a casserole or bringing us lunch/dinner, to taking care of things at home for us like taking care of the dogs, cleaning and doing laundry while we were in the hospital, to a simple phone call or text or a simple prayer it all meant the world to us. We are surrounded by so much love!

This year we went to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving. We has such a wonderful time and loved that Nora got to meet tons of the family. I come from a very small family so the fact that Nora can grow up knowing her great-grandma, several great aunts and uncles, and numerous cousins of many degrees is pretty neat. I hope some day she can meet everyone on my side of the family (little harder since they are all in Canada).
 

4 Generations

Our trip consisted of so many wonderful meals, lots of card games and a little bit of shopping. Never a dull moment when we go to Wisconsin. Nora also got to experience her first Thanksgiving Day Packers game!!                                                        

Congratulations to our good friends Nikki and Eric Wagner on the birth of their beautiful daughter Amelia Kathryn

Born November 17, 2011 at 9:07 PM.

Can't wait to meet her and for our girls to meet each other.

Baptism

On November 20th, 2011 Nora Mary- Elizabeth was Baptized at Saint Francis of Assisi Church in West Des Moines.

This was such an incredible day. We were joined by so many people who we love very much. They have been there to support us every step of the way and we are so blessed thet were there to help us celebrate this wonderful day.

Our Beautiful Angel

Nora with her Godparents and Jameson

WHAT A BLESSED DAY!

 



Pressure Wrap...Nora Style

We didnt have to be back to Iowa City until the 15th so we were able to somewhat have a normal week. I figured if she has to wear the pressure wrap until we went back we would do it in style... Nora style with a bow.

         

We headed back to Iowa City on the 15th. The pressure wrap seemed to be working as the fluid was draining. They removed the stitches from her belly but wanted to wait on the ones in her head to give it a couple more days for fluid to drain. So looks like we would be making another trip to Iowa City, now our home away from home.

Here is what her shunt looked liked as the fluid decreased.

          

When we took Nora back on the 18th, they did remove her stitches and felt everything looked good. We would have to to continue to keep pressure on the reservoir until it completely  fuses to the bone. They were concerned with the wrap causing skin break down so we had to experiment with other things to see if we could find something that would work to keep it down so we limit the amount of skin that is covered. We tried everything we could think of and finally found a band-aid that worked.

NO DOCTORS APPOINTMENT IN IOWA CITY UNTIL 12-15!!!!



Just when we though we could relax....

11-05-2011 to 11-09-2011

 

After a VERY stressful week it felt great to finally be home. A week in the hospital is a week to long. Everything seemed to be going well. She looked incredible, her eyes were functioning normal and moving like they should. She was eating normal and didn't show any signs of any issues. She minimal swelling as would be expected after surgery. We didn't have to go back for a follow up for 2 weeks when she could get her stitches out. Tuesday morning Freddy had to go to Omaha for his annual hearing test so we decided to just make a day of it and go with him. We were headed home and noticed that Nora's shunt site was swelling more that normal. We decided to see if it goes down and if not we would call the Neurosurgeons in the morning. The swelling continued over night. You can see the comparison from the day we came home to Wednesday morning. YIKES!

 





I called Iowa City they said we could go see our own pediatrician too see if they think it is something that we need to drive to Iowa City for or if she thinks it normal swelling. Looking at it I could tell you it wasn't normal but somethings they have told us were ok I wouldn't have thought were okay but I am not a brain surgeon either. Our pediatrician felt like we need to go to Iowa City so there we were driving to back to Iowa City.

Once we got to Iowa City, they agreed that it was normal but felt it was nothing that was of danger to her. He drained the fluid off and then told us that we need to keep a pressure wrap on it. When they adjusted her settings it built up pressing causing the seal to break on the reservoir causing fluid to leak around the site. Keeping pressure on it will help that to fuse to stop the leak. So they adjusted her shunt down to lower the pressure and once everything settles and leak seals we can adjust pressure again to get everything in place. 





Pressure wrap after we left the hospital









University of Iowa Hospital

10-31-2011 to 11-05-2011

Once they finally got her IV started (3 tries) we were taken up to our room. When they first try rooming us they put us in a semi private room. Let's think about this a nursing mom and a newborn baby in a private room, how much sense does that make. My emotions were already at an all time high so this didnt go over very well. After my emotional breakdown they moved us to a private room, where we would stay for the next week. We attempted to get some sleep as we wouldn't know the game plan until the morning.

Nuerosurgeons came in the morning and explained to us that Nora is on the schedule for surgery on Wednesday afternoon for a VP Shunt. For those of you who are not familar with what that is it is a tube that goes from her brain to her abdomen cavity to drain the fluid from her brain. Wow, our baby girl is going in for brain surgery. I don't think I have ever been so scared yet trying to be so brave in my entire life. Since we nothing was going to happen until Wednesday we tried to just relax all day Tuesday.

I am not sure if we slep much Tuesday night but did the best could. Wednesday morning came and I was trying to pretend I was okay but deep down inside I was terrified. Thank goodness I had the support of my wonderful husband and my family. I would be lying if I didnt say Wednesday was a very stressful day. Thank goodness they let us feed her breastmilk until 10am and then pedialyte until noon. Well we thought that was going to hold her over but of course they delayed surgery for almost 3 hours so Nora was a hungry little girl. Finally the warning call we had been anxiously waiting for, the OR was on the way upstairs to get her. My heartsank and my hands were trembling. This was it.

Freddy and I were able to take her to the "redline" in the OR and then we had to hand her over. Clinched to her tight I was not ready to pass my daughter to some stranger who I was trusting her life with. How do you put all your faith and trust in someone you are meeting for the first time. I knew God was with my baby girl and I put my trust and faith in Him...thats all I could do.

There we were walking out of the OR where we would just wait. My parent, Freddy's mom and sister came that morning so we all waited together. Freddy's cousin Jake came later in the afternoon as well. We were told that surgery would take about 2 hours and the doctors would be out as soon as Nora was out of surgery. An hour and twenty minutes after we left the OR Dr. Jackson came our to let us know surgery was done. The minute he said "she did great and everything went perfectly" I felt a huge sense of relief. I knew we still have a long road ahead of us but the scariest part was over. Our baby girl was okay.

Freddy and I were allowed to go back to the recovery room to see her. I have never been do happy to hold my baby girl in my harms. After a quick x-ray to check placement we were headed back up to our room. By the time we had gotten back up to our room it was past 8pm. It was such a LONG day. Since everyone had to drive back to Des Moines and it was getting so late they came in to see her for a couple minutes and then headed home.

As you probably would guess Nora was pretty out of it for a while after surgery. We tried feeding her some pedialyte for a couple of feeding post surgery to see how she would handle it. You could tell she had a sore throat from being intabated so eating was a little bit of a struggle. Good thing is she never did get sick to her stomach after surgery, she was just slow to eat. Around 11pm we had to go down for an MRI to check everything out and see how it was draining. Around 2 am finally time to try and get some sleep.

The next few days were all about getting her shunt settings right and getting her to have a bowel movement. We struggled with her shunt settings as the fluid in her brain drained too quick as she responded to the shunt too well. Saturday morning then felt they were stable enough for us to beable to go home, they still were not perfect but we could keep working on things from home rather than being in the hospital. 

... Her whole world was turned upside down

Finally Monday morning was here! Got the call at 8:00am that the MRI was at noon. When we got there they told us that they may have to sedate her if she doesn't stay still in the MRI by swaddling and some sweeties (hospital grade sugar water) on her Binky. If they ended up having to sedate her we would have to stay the night in the hospital for observation because she is so little. Thankfully she did great and they didn't have to sedate her as she slept through the whole thing so we got to go home.

We were hoping to get the results back that day so we quickly ran to get something to eat and to the grocery store so we could be at home when they called. It was now approaching 5:00pm so I was beginning to think that we were not going to get results today. It was just then my phone rang....it was the doctors office. She explained to me that they found massive fluid on the brain and a bleed. She has contacted the Neurosurgeons and they are expecting us. We needed to leave for Iowa City (2 hours away) with in the next 30 minutes. My heart sank and I was sick to my stomach.

At that point we quickly grab some clothes and started driving. Everything was kind of a blur. I am not sure what we grabbed to bring with us and what was going on.  OMG can this really be happening??? That 2 hour car ride seemed like took FOREVER! We finally arrived in the ER and they quickly got us back to get everything started. The Neurosurgeons came to meet with us and explained that they would take a look at her MRI and get a plan together in the morning as to what they wanted to do. They called the neonatal lifeflight team down to start her IV. Once they got her IV started they took up to our room.

This is when our lives were turned upside down...

Halloween Weekend

One Month Check Up

On October 28th we headed to the doctors office for Nora's 1 month checkup. We were hoping to find out that her heart murmur was gone and we had nothing to worry about. As any new mom would do  I asked our pediatrician a million questions. My biggest concern was with Nora's eyes as they would do this funky thing where she would look down so you could only see half of her eye and then they would "bounce". My first thought was she was having a seizure but she never was unresponsive or got stiff so that didn't make sure sense. Since I didn't know what was going on and it only happened randomly I thought I would ask the doctor about it and now I am glad I did. 

The doctor listed to see if she could still hear the heart murmur which thankfully she said it was gone! We then started talking about Nora's eyes, her head circumference and that her sutures lines we so spread apart. Since all of that was going on her Doctor wanted to get a ultrasound right away to see what was going on. They got us in that day to have it done. The results were that they saw some fluid on her brain and then wanted to have a MRI done on Monday.

Monday, really you tell me they see fluid on her brain and you want me to wait all weekend to get more answers. How was I suppose to relax and enjoy the weekend knowing this was happening to my baby girl and not really knowing what it all meant. Looking back I am glad that I didn't know what it meant because it was Halloween weekend so at least we had a little fun.

Our Little Ladybug's First Halloween

We enjoyed the afternoon with my family at the Dowling Pancake Breakfast followed by Living History Farms. After that we went over to the Kinney's for trick or treating. 

Our First Month

Our baby girl is 7 weeks old today, hard to believe that she is growing so quickly. Normally this is the time where we would finally be getting in a daily schedule as we would soon be returning to work after enjoying weeks at home with out baby girl. Unfortunately that has not been the case for us. Let me start from the beginning to explain the past 7 weeks.

Bringing out baby girl home from the hospital was the best day. We knew that it was going to be challenging bringing a preemie home. Since she has lost almost 10% of her birth weight we were on strict feeding schedule. Every two hours day and night she needed to be fed. In the beginning Nora was struggling with eating due to her tongue tie and not able to figure out sucking. The first week home it would take us about an hour to get her to take 15-20ml. This took a lot of effort to to keep up with. Nora also was Jaundiced so we have to have Home Health care come out to the house to pout her on a photo therapy Bili blanket. Along with this came daily trips to the doctors office to check her bilirubin levels and get a weight check. She slowly started to gain weight and her bilirubin levels came down so we could get her off the blanket.

Since her tongue was causing concerns with her feedings we ended up having that clipped. It was a quick and easy procedure and made a HUGE difference. After we got her tongue clipped she started eating really well and was finally latching on to breastfeed as well. By this point we were at the doctors office almost every day for the first 2 weeks, which meant time for our 2 week checkup.

At our 2 week check up everything seemed to be doing okay. She was back up to her birth weight and eating like a champ. Our Pediatrician said that she heard a heart murmur (didn't seem to of concern) and her head circumference was on the larger side so she want us to come back at 1 month of age rather that 2 month which would normally be the next appointment.

Finally a full 2 weeks with no doctor appointments!!!

Hospital Stay

09-28-2011 to 09-30-2011 

The next few days were spent in the hospital. When Nora was born since she was early she was taken right away to the nursery because she needed some oxygen, This was hard because I only got to see her for a quick second before they took her away. I was not allowed to get out of bed due to my blood pressure and the medications they were on. I was on seizure precautions...no fun.

Finally after 4 hours I was able to hold my baby girl....A Dream Come True!! 

 

Nora, was considered a Late Term Preemie since we were only at 36 weeks. She was doing very well considering.

September 30, 2011 -- We get to go HOME!!!

     Since she only weighed 4 lbs 13 oz when it was time to go home the hospital had to give us a car seat since she was too little for a standard car seat. You never imagine your baby being too small for things. Everyone always talks about their baby being too big for all the newborn they bought...we had the opposite problem, we had to go out and buy preemie stuff because nothing fit! :) 

The Big Day

I  know that I have not updated this a few weeks. But the big day has arrived....today is my due date! Okay just kidding, Nora Mary-Elizabeth made her arrival into this world a few weeks early and was born on September 28, 2011. Here is how it all happened...

Monday 09-26-2011

     Freddy and I went in for an ultrasound to confirm the baby's position since she has been breech but they doctor thought she had flipped. So we had our ultrasound and then met with the doctor. Good news was she was head down, so we were in the correct position. Bad news is my blood pressure was really high again when I met with the doctor. They had been watching this and the Firday before I was in the hospital for a few hours for observation.
     I was sent back down the hospital for more observation and blood work. After about 3 hours they got all my results back and the decision was made that I was not leaving and we were going to have a baby. The first stage of the induction process started that night.

Tuesday 09-27-2011

     At 6am they started the Pitocin which starts labor. We were in for a LONG day...just didnt think it was going to be that long :) After a few hours on the medications my water broke. I really thought that was going to get things moving. After 10 hours I finally decided to get an epidural as my doctor thought that would help speed things up. The epidural only worked for a couple a hours (which was i got about a hour of sleep) and then I started feeling contractions again. They tried to give me more but it never seemed to work. We just continued to wait....and wait....and wait.

Wednesday 09-28-2011

     Finally at 12:50am they tell me I am fully dialted and can start pushing. By this point I had been awake for so long I was SO tired. Pushing was extremely difficult and the longer I pushed the harder it got. At 5:06am after 4 hours of pushing Nora Mary Elizabeth was born.

5 pounds 3 ounces ~ 18 1/2 inches long

31 Weeks

Wow I can not believe we are in single digits for counting down the week…only 9 weeks togo!
Over the past several weeks Baby Nora has grown from approximately 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heel to 16 inches long. I can not believe how fast she is growing, seems like she was just the size of a peanut. We had an ultrasound at 29 weeks to track her development and she weighed 2.14 pounds which puts her in the 40 percentile for weight and she is growing perfectly.

She is now able to turn her head from side to side and her arms, legs and body are beginning to plump out as fat is beginning to accumulate. She is about the size of 4 naval oranges.

Momma ~ to ~ Be

This is little girl is moving around like crazy now. You can now see her kicking by just looking at my stomach. Sleeping is becoming a lot hard these days, if I am not up 5 times to go to the bathroom I am either suffering from heartburn (which I hope means she will have LOTS of hair) or she decided it time to practice her kickboxing. But I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything in the world!!

Freddy and I completed our prenatal classes and WOW there was a lot of information to know. I am sure when the times come we will forget everything but I do feel more prepared now. Well, I am not sure how much you can really prepare for when it come to childbirth seeing that you never know how things are going to. But, I will say it was good information to learn and I am sure someone of it will come in handy.

We have started to get the nursery put together and I get more and more excited each time we do something new in there. It has been good to kinda clean house and get rid of a lot of stuff we didn’t need any more and really just deep clean the house.

New Cravings…

Toaster Strudels
Gummy Bears (for some reason helps the heartburn)

27 Weeks

Baby Nora

Our baby girl is doing well. She is growing right on track. Right now she weight about 2 pounds and is about 15 inches long. Of course we have a food comparison so right now she is about the size of a head of cauliflower!



She is now sleeping and waking in interval, which let me tell ya I have figured out. Her most active times are between 7 and 9 am with a little bit in the early afternoon and then again around 9 pm when we are getting ready for bed. I love that Freddy has been able to feel her kicking now too. It is such a odd but wonderful feeling being kicked from the inside :)

Momma ~ to ~ Be

I have been feeling pretty good. Over the past couple of weeks I had do the the gestational diabetes glucose testing. I did not pass the initial 1 hour test so I had to complete the 3 hour test. Which I passed! No Diabetes for this girl!! Let me tell that stuff they make you drink is pretty nasty! I am just glad that is one thing I don't have to worry about.

The heat is getting hard to handle, the one downside of being towards the end of your pregnancy in the dead of summer. I have still tried to do as much outside as I can but it just takes staying well hydrated and taking breaks often to cool off. We went the NASCAR Truck race last week and it was HOT! I took it easy and did end up laying down in the truck for a little bit. But we had a great time!! Even got to watch Zac Efron filming a new movie :) 

We have started to get things done around the house seeing that we are 90 days from the due date of our precious baby girl. It amazing how much you want to get accomplished. When we are done though the house and nursery are going to amazing. I am lucky to have such a great husband who has been working hard to get things done.

New Cravings

Apples and peanut butter
Asiago Cheese bagel and cream cheese from Panera
As always .. more and more fruit