November 2015

Crazy how another month has pasted. We've been busy with appointments with heading to Calgary twice a month, and appointments here in Lethbridge as well. It's like having a second job. These appointments keep us very busy and a little much at times. But this is our new life and we are trying to make the best out of it. Josh has been extra busy with work trying to finish two jobs up, so he's been working nights for the past two weeks. Plus he been taking time off to come to my appointments with me so he has to play catch up at work in the evening and on weekends. The Day Home is still keeping me busy in the day, along with Lacey and Lincoln. Here's a few things that we have been up to this month:

 Staying busy at the Family Center while dad works late.

Lacey always knows how to make us laugh, she thought she looked pretty cool with daddy's sunglasses on.

Lincoln had another mishaps.  Lincoln loves running on our main floor which is hardwood. Once he builds enough speed up he likes to slide on his knees or feet. Well this time it didn't go as planed. When he went to slide on his knees, he lots his balance and hit his chin on the hard wood floor. Poor guy! Lincoln was in a lot of pain and got a good colorful bruise for a few weeks.

Lacey is a girl who never stops moving even when she's sleeping. She's a wild one thats for sure.

Mailing out letters to Santa, can't wait to get letters back.

Lincoln and Lacey got their Santa letters on the mail! They were pretty excited to get a letter from Santa.

Lacey making her first snow man of the season. She was pretty proud of it.

Home Depot Kid Craft Workshop

We lucked out when Home Depot held to craft workshops this month. Our first craft was a jet airplane and our second one was a snowman napkin holder. Lincoln and Lacey's cousin Abigail has started coming with us to the Dome Depot Craft Workshops. She's the age that Lincoln was when he started, 1 1/2 yrs old.

Christmas Tree Festival

The Annual Christmas Tree Festival is put on by the Chinook Reginal Hospital. This year they held a family night on the monday. It was a whole evening geared towards the families in our community, the spirit of the holiday and a little fun. Family night included ice skating, holiday music, a visit from Santa, some face painting and children's activities. We had a fun night!

Lincoln is slowing picking up skating. He was first introduced to it in October when his kindergarten class had weekly field trips to the skating rink. He's loving it so far.

Christmas face painting. Lacey was a ice princess and Lincoln was a reindeer.

First 2015 Santa picture. Lacey is still unsure of Santa. For the longest time, if you asked Lacey what she wanted, for Christmas she'd say " nothing". As she would want nothing to do with Santa... She wanted to see Santa tonight with Lincoln. As Lincoln has gotten her pretty excited for Christmas. We had to get a quick picture. After we got the picture I picked her up and she stopped crying immediately.  She even told Santa what she wanted for Christmas and gave Santa a smile. On our way home she said she likes seeing Santa and the candy cane from him was "delious ". Lincoln has never been scared of Santa.

OB-GYN and Fetal MRI

Meet with our OB-GYN Dr R. Chadha again. It's basically like any other pregnancy monthly check up, weight, heart rate, baby's heart rate? 150, etc. She also informed us that she wants me to be in Calgary from 37 weeks on. As they don't want risking me delivering in Lethbridge. They'd rather me be in Calgary close to the Hospital and doctors, so we get the care we need for our situtaion. She also schedule my c-section for January 21st at 9:00am in the morning. My due date is January 30th, so the c-section will be 9 days early. She wants our baby to stay in me as long as possible with out me going into labour. I had Lincoln 7 days early and Lacey 5 days early. So we will see. We also applied for the Ronald Mc Donald house, so we are waiting to see if we can stay there.

The Fetal MRI was interesting. I can't say I enjoyed this appointment. Most MRI's take 15 mins, Fetal MRI's take an hour, as they have to take more images due to the baby moving inside. Imagine being 29 weeks pregnant and having to lay on your back on a hard board, the nurse then gave me head phones to listen to music during the MRI, but the music was blaring ( and crackling from the radio station not being in tune) to drown out the loud sound from he MRI machine sound. Over time my hip, butt and lower back starting to ache, which wasn't to fun. My legs also started to be jumpy, try keeping your legs/ body still when you have jumpy legs. Let's just say I was very excited to have this appointment done. We still haven't receive more results back yet.

28 Weeks

I'm feeling good. I really can't complain I have really good pregnancy. No morning sickness. I'm starting to feel huge, which I guess is a good thing as it means my little one is growing inside me. My syatic nerve bugs me the odd time but it's usually for only a day at a time then it's better the next day or just for a evening. I'm still sleeping good at night, which is so nice. We bought the Snoogle pillow, it's pregnancy pillow, that I believe has really helped me stay in a comfort position all night.

My little one loves to move and I love it. This is pregnancy has made me not take for granted the little things in life. The movement of my little one is one of my favourite things this pregnancy. Not that I haven't enjoyed it with my other pregnancies, but I didn't realize how much of a blessing it its to feel a baby move inside you. It scares me to think that my little one may loose the ability to move his legs in the future, we just don't know. So when I feel him move, I love it and I try to enjoy every second of it.

Right now my little one likes sitting on my right side in the breech position. He must be pretty comfortable there as he has been on that side for a few weeks now.

First Snow Day

It was like Christmas for Lincoln and Lacey on our first snow day of the season. They were both so excited to see the snow falling and couldn't wait to go out and play. We have been very luck to not have snow till now, but we are also ready for winter since Halloween is over.

Lacey loves eating snow. 

Lincoln loves living in Canada. He loves playing in the snow but the Caribbean still has ahold of his heart. He asks to go to the beach almost weekly.

Lincoln's Snack Day

Lincoln's second snack day of the year. For his special day he gets to being a special someone. This time, it was my turn. I was so excited to spend the afternoon with him in his kindergarten class. Lincoln's so lucky to have an amazing teacher, who knows how to make school fun.

Fetal Eco

Today we were scheduled for a Fetal Echo. At our last ultra sound 2 weeks ago they had concerns that there was a mass on the baby's heart. They wanted to take a look at this closes, so they booked us in for a Fetal Echocardiogram. A Fetal echocardiogram is a test used to view your unborn baby's heart, similar to an ultrasound. This exam allows your doctor to view the structure and function of the fetus's heart. Our Fetal Echo took approx. 1.5 hr, after the echo exam, they send the results to the cardiologist to look over. We were then taken to a room to wait to speak with the cardiologist. The wait felt like for ever, the cardiologist's ( 2 doctors) then came to tell us that they want to take a look at the heart themselves, so back to the fetal echo exam room again. I started to worry. We already have enough to deal with, with our little one having Spina Bifida.  I was hoping that there was nothing more wrong with our little one. It gets heard for them to look at the heart as the baby gets old as the baby ribs cast shadows, making it difficult to get a clear look at the heart. After the cardiologists had a look for them selves, they came to the conclusion that the baby's heart was health and there was no mass attached to it's heart. It was just the thymus that looked like a mass. I was so relieved to hear them say this. They also want to have another Eco done after the baby is born to be more sure.

We were only booked in for a fetal Echo today, but it ended up turning into three appointments. They want us to meet with all the doctors we will be dealing with now and after our little one is born. The neonatologist was free, so we were able to sit down and meet him. A Neonatologist is trained specifically to handle the most complex and high-risk situations. With our little one having Spina Bifida, the neonatologist is going to assist at the time of delivery and in the subsequent care of our newborn. Our neonatologist is also involved to consult with our obstetrician in our baby’s care during my pregnancy. The neonatologist went over whats going to go on once our little one is born. It will be born c-section at the Foothills hospital, as its the safer way to have our little one born without damaging the spinal cord more. After it's born they will take it immediately to stabilize it and wrap the final cord (lesion). they have to be very careful with our baby so it doesn't get an infection with the spinal cord being exposed. After they baby is taken care of I will be able to see my little one for a short time. Before they transport it to the Children's hospital where he will be under going surgery. They like to perform the surgery within the first 72 hours to prevent infection occurring. This surgery aims to prevent further damage of the nervous tissue and to prevent infection, our Paediatric Neosurgeon Dr Jay Riva-Cambrin will operate to close the opening on his back. The spinal cord and its nerve roots are put back inside the spine and covered.

After we meet with the neonatologist, we meet with the Perinatologist. Which is a Maternal-fetal medicine doctor (MFM), its a obstetrician that focuses on the medical and surgical management of high risk pregnancies. 

it's great to have such a awesome medical team working with us.