Zoo

For the kids last day of school they had a field trip to the zoo.  I wasn't sure if we would be able to go or not because Adilene's counts had not been high enough for her to leave the house since she had gotten out of the hospital a couple weeks before.  She had an appointment that morning to have them checked, we were all very excited to find out that they were up and we could meet up with all the other kids at the zoo.  Blaiden was singing all through the hospital "we're going to the zoo, we're going to the zoo, you can come too."

The zoo is very close to the hospital and so we headed right over.  Blaiden loved seeing the bears, they were very active and right next to the glass!  Adilene's favorite was watching all the fish.  But I think the best part of the day for both the kids was riding the carousel at the end of the day.  They were both so excited and laughed the entire time.  It was so adorable. 

I only had about 10 days until my due date and so I was hoping that walking all around the zoo would help induce labor but I had no luck.  We ended the day with all of us hot and tired, but we had a great time. 

Hosptial Stay & Mother's Day

In the middle of May Adilene woke up with a fever and so instead of heading to take the kids to school we went to the hospital instead.  I was hopeful that Adilene's counts would be high enough that we wouldn't have to be admitted but they weren't. 

We spent the next 5 days in the hospital.  The good thing was that she felt great and other then the fever she had no other symptoms.  Blaiden was with us the first day and then Fred came and got him that night.  The next morning He came and dropped him off again to spend the day with us.  Then on Saturday Fred and Blaiden stayed home together.  We were hopeful that Adilene would get to come home but her counts still hadn't came up yet. 

Sunday was Mother's Day and again we were hoping that Adilene's counts were up but it didn't work out that way.  So Fred and Blaiden came up that afternoon and spoiled me.  They brought Chipolte for dinner and Blaiden gave me a sweet card, a candle, and an ice cream cake for dessert.  Blaiden is always so sweet and thoughtful when it comes to celebrating others.  He always wants to make the day so special, I love his sweet little heart.

Blaiden was going to spend the night with Adilene and I in the hospital that night because Fred had to go to work early on Monday.  Again we thought we would be able to come home so he wouldn't have to be in the hospital for very long.  Finally on Monday morning we got the good news that Adilene's counts were finally starting to come up and we could go home.  We had to wait until she received a final dose of antibiotics and then we came home around 4 in the afternoon. 

This stay was a little more difficult because Adilene is not as comfortable in the hospital anymore because she is not inpatient as much.  This means that she doesn't sleep very well at night and so by morning she would be in bed with me on the little couch in the room.  It makes it very difficult because the couch is small and I have to be careful that her line doesn't get tangled.  I was also 3 weeks away from my due date so it made the couch that much smaller.  On Sunday night Fred was making a joke that he was giving me 3 kids in a hospital room for Mother's Day.  I am sure it was a crazy sight seeing all 3 1/2 of us sleeping on that little couch.

Mobile Snapshots

I am behind again... never ending story around here these days so here are a couple months of photos from my phone. 

May

June

Baby #3

I haven't really even talked about this baby/pregnancy and so I thought it would be nice to do a recap before I tell her birth story.  I had half of this written before she got here, I seem to be really good at the first half then then have a hard time finishing things up.  Hopefully I get better at this so I can stay up to date more on the blog. I feel like I have to say this every time I post something. 

I went to my doctor for a checkup that I had scheduled for about 4 months.  The nurse asked if I would like a pregnancy test.  TMI I was a couple days late but I am not very regular and didn't think I was pregnant one bit.  Fred had said how crazy it would be if I went to the doctor and found out I was pregnant so I said yes to the nurse just to prove him wrong.  The nurse came in smiling and said it is positive!  It took me a while to process it and I said what!? The nurse said your pregnant and I just started crying.  I was so shocked and wasn't planning on another baby and so I just didn't know what to do.  The poor nurse was at a loss of what to say from then on and just went to get the doctor.  Fred called in the middle of the appointment and I had to answer it and tell him right away.  I think his reaction was about like mine. 

I think I went through the next week in a haze just wondering how we were going to fit another baby in our life.  I was worried about all the time we spend at the hospital with Adilene.  I was worried about the health of the new baby.  I was worried about being pregnant because my last pregnancy was hard and my placenta stopped working.  I really didn't know how everything was going to work out and it was very stressful for me. 

A few weeks later I went in for an ultrasound and found out that this new addition would be arriving around June 13.  At this point I was about 6 weeks along and I started getting really sick.  Over the next few weeks I had morning sickness pretty bad and Blaiden started to notice.  He was getting very worried and was asking a lot of questions so Fred and I sat down to talk to him.  We were telling him about all the symptoms I was having and he got really sad and asked if I was sick like Adilene.  This made me feel so bad for him and I wished that we would have told him sooner.  Fred told him that I was going to have a baby and he was going to be a big brother again.  He got so excited and started asking if it was a boy or girl and being so sweet to me.  He hugged and kissed my belly and he was just so happy. 

When I was 10 weeks along I got some blood work done so we could get genetic testing done.  A few weeks later I called to get the results and found out that we had a very healthy baby with no genetic abnormalities.  They were also going to tell me the gender but I didn't really want to know that at the time and figured I would just ask at the next appointment.  I was taking the kids to Columbus to meet up with my brother Thad.  Fred was working but finished early and he went to go get a copy of the test results.  When we got home late that night we opened them together and found out we were having another baby girl.  Fred was the only one who guessed right, Blaiden was/is a little worried that now the girls out number the boys. 

At around 18 weeks we told our family.  We had a cute little picture taken during our family pictures taken just a few weeks after we found out.  Then a few weeks later just after New Year's we shared it to the world on Facebook.  When I had my anatomy scan Fred stayed home with the other kids.  This time was so different because Fred went to only 1 appointment this entire pregnancy and it wasn't even a significant one.  Having 2 other wild kiddos makes it just easier to keep them at home. 

The rest of the pregnancy was smooth sailing.  I started to have Braxton Hicks contractions around 33 weeks and even thought I was in labor 3 or 4 times before I had her.  I had never had those and so it was hard to know if it was real or not.  Finally at 39 weeks 5 days I had a sweet little girl to hold.  I will share the birth story in another post. 

Dance Marathons

About 6 months ago Adilene was nominated to become part of the Children's Miracle Network.  I thought sure this sounds great I can show her off and help raise money for the hospital sounds like a win/win in my book.  I wasn't sure what would be involved but I assumed that her picture and story would be used but not much else. 

So far she has been apart of 3 different Dance Marathons put on by colleges around the area.  During the Dance Marathon students raise money and "stand for the kids who can't" for a 12 hour period.  When we went to the first event I really had no idea what was going on or what to expect and we only made it for the last 3 hours.  Very quickly I saw how amazing these students were and what great things they were doing for our local Children's Hospital.  Through the 3 events we have seen these students raise more than $90,000.  I am just amazed at these young kids who work so hard to help children.  At one event they asked me to speak and I just thought I would share on the blog Adilene's Miracle story and how she has benefited from Akron Children's Hospital.

Adilene's involvement with Children's hospital started before she was even born.  At her 20 week ultrasound we found a few concerning things.  We started seeing Maternal Fetal Medicine right away and that is when we found out she had Down Syndrome.  We were followed the rest of the pregnancy with them and with there help I delivered a healthy baby girl.  When She was 6 days old we were back at the hospital seeing a cardiologist.  It turns out she had 3 holes in her heart, all were small but she would need to be followed to determine what would need to be done.  The same day she had some blood work done and we had to be admitted because of a high Bilirubin level.  She was discharged a couple days later. 

At 6 months we were back at the hospital to see an ophthalmologist.  We were so lucky to be in this area because she was diagnosed with nystagmus and the physician who specializes in that (and people travel across the country to see) was in the office at the time and now she sees him yearly to see if this resolves on it own or if she needs surgery. 

At 9 months we were back this time to see an gastroenterologist.  Adilene was having a hard time swallowing and so after a swallow study she got the diagnosis of dysphasia and she had to be put on a thickener. 

At one year old she started going to the Down Syndrome Clinic just for basic check-ups.  This is a great resource to help catch things early and help track her developmentally.

A month after she turned 2 is when were most thankful to be close to the hospital.  On the night of December 6th 2015 we went into the ER with a very sick little girl.  After some test results came back we were told right away that she had leukemia. We all just sat on the bed crying not knowing if that would be the last time I got to hold her.  She was then sent for some x-rays and then straight up to the PICU.  Fred and I got to be in the room with her for a couple hours while they worked on her.  She had to be intubated and then they had a cardiologist come in and place some lines.  That is when we had to leave the room.  Fred and I sat on the floor just outside the door for a few more hours.  Fred heard all the test results and he wouldn't tell me but I could tell from his reaction that it was not looking good.  He didn't tell me until later but he was sure with some of her test results that she was not going to make it through the night. 

The team in the PICU worked so hard on her.  There were never less then 5 people in her room and most of the time it was more like 10-15 people.  It took them over 5 hours before she was in a stable enough state that we got to go back in the room.  It then took about a week before we saw any actual improvement.  The doctors that worked on her really did an amazing job and we are so thankful we were there. 

It took her 31 days before she was discharged and since that time we have been back there about 50% of the time.  We know the majority of the staff that works on the oncology floor and in the clinic and consider many of them our friends. 

The hospital has been a great blessing to have near us and I couldn't have asked for a better place to be when we needed it the most.