Good News!

We received some good news this week. On Monday we were told that Carlos responded very well to the medicine, and his heartbeat had been steady for 24 hours!! After receiving an ultrasound showing no other complications, we met with the high risk doctor and were released from the hospital. Not only were we relieved that Carlos was doing well, but I was never so happy to see the outside world, no matter how cold and snowy it was.

We returned for a check up visit on Thursday. During this visit, we had another ultrasound, and everything still looks great and Carlos' heartbeat was a steady 141. I had to give blood yet again to make sure the medicine levels were not too high in my blood stream. The blood levels looked good, and lucky for me, the medicine has not made me sick, which it does for lots of people. Probably the most painful part of the entire ordeal has been having to give blood to check the levels of the medicine on a regular basis. For anyone that knows me, my body does not like to cooperate when giving blood, and in the last three years, only one nurse has been able to draw blood in my arm. So, in giving blood 5 of the past 8 days, both wrists and hands have become bruised and show signs of being poked. The good news is that I should have a week to recover and hopefully won't be giving blood again until next Friday when we return to the high-risk doctor. Going forward, we will be visiting our doctor once a week and the high risk doctor once a week. We are happy to go to the doctor twice a week to make sure that all continues to go well with Carlos.

And, I know many people have asked, we have managed to keep the gender of the baby a secret through the entire process!

We want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers over the past week. We appreciated the visits, calls and cards. We continue to think positive and are getting very excited to meet "Carlos", find out the gender of our baby and reveal the name!

Our First Taste of Parenthood

We have had our first taste of parenthood and it’s titled “Supraventricular tachycardia” (SVT). In short, this is a condition where the baby’s heart beats at a high rate. It can be treated by medication and it not uncommon amongst high risk pregnancies. Yes, it seems as if we are now categorized as a high risk pregnancy. A normal baby’s heart rate ranges between 120 – 160 bpm. Little ‘Carlos’ will run at 250 bpm and then drop to 140 bpm and continue this cycle. The good sign is that the heart is healthy and there is no fluid around the heart. Everything else is healthy with the baby, it’s already 4 pounds 10 ounces at 33 weeks! So, if the heart rate predicts the sex of the baby, then we are having a girl and she will be as active as her Grandma Lin! I am writing this from our room in the High Risk Pregnancy unit of St. Vincent Women’s Hospital, we are here until Carlos’ heart rate comes down to a normal range. Emily is on Digoxin, and has been on it for nearly 68 hours. The doctors seem to be optimistic that it is helping with Carlos’ high heart rate.

We were admitted on Thursday late afternoon. My parents stopped by that evening on the way back from Southern Indiana. But what really hit us Thursday night was when my father said, “You never have this feeling until you have kids.” We have realized that both of us are healthy, but there is nothing we can do but put our time, plans, etc. on hold until this little guy gets better. Not that we would be out doing anything crazy, but all our thoughts and efforts are concerned strictly with this child. I guess it’s a small glimpse of parenthood.

We have managed to pass the time and keep things very light; some of our more entertaining moments have been:

Hangman w/ Po: We erased the Nurse’s dry erase board and played Hangman with Po, Emily guessed the first phrase after one letter. All that ‘Wheel of Fortune’ is paying off!

Olympics: I now know why Curling is sold out at Vancouver. It’s a suspenseful and exciting game…and I think I’d be good at it. Plus nothing says fun like Men’s Figure skating from a hospital room! But seriously, Ice Dancing is horrible.

Rummikub: Emily currently leads 3 games to 1, but I’d bet on me!

Listening: For one hour, every six hours Emily is hooked up to a machine that monitors the baby’s heart rate. During that hour, we can hear the baby. Here is some dialog from those one hour sessions...”Was that fast?”, “That’s the normal heartbeat, right?”, “Boy, he’s really going now”, “That wasn’t for very long”, “Did you hear that, that’s the baby moving”, “Was that the hiccups?”, “Easy Carlos!”

So it seems as if for the time being, we are in a waiting period. Waiting for little ‘Carlos’ to regulate his heartbeat. Thank you all for your phone calls, visits, thoughts, prayers, and time. We’ve had great support and the doctors and nurses have been great (even got to talk IU Basketball with a player’s mother).

Just like our parents have told us….Welcome to Parenthood!

Less Than 10 Weeks to Go!!

Well it has been my turn to update the blog, and I haven’t done a very good job. Luckily I have still been feeling well, and the doctor continues to tell us things are looking good, which is always a relief. So, here is my best recap of what has been happening the past 1 ½ months.

GENDER NEUTRAL CLOTHING
Zach and I have always had the mindset that we do not want to find out the gender of our baby, hence the name Carlos. This continues to be our stance, and we are anxious to find out the answer to this question all strangers seem to ask us whenever speaking of our pregnancy. However, when I went to register for baby items, it became apparent to me that clothing is not made with people like us in mind. I like green and yellow, but I am also a firm believer that there are other gender neutral colors, it just depends upon the shade and possibly the pattern. That is why my mom and I had to take it into our own hands, and we headed out to Once Upon A Child to see what could be found. They organize their clothing into boys and girls, so we perused both sections to find a few funny/cute onesies. These include a chocolate brown onesie with a blue/green patterned peace sign (mom bought that one for Carlos), a white onesie with an Elvis outfit (Zach’s favorite) and a cute red/blue/white onesie with monkeys. Now I can rest assured that Carlos will be well dressed in the first few weeks of his life!!

30 WEEKS AND COUNTING
We have entered the third trimester, and although it is nothing like the first trimester and morning sickness, I can definitely feel my body changing!! For example, Zach and I were flying home from Orlando the other night, and I couldn’t even bend down and pick up my purse that was below the seat in front of me! I know my belly is growing, but it is hard to convince myself that there are things that just aren’t physically possible anymore. In addition to my belly growing, so are my ankles! I can have the loosest fitting socks on, and I have a mark within an hour. I have also officially begun my pregnancy waddle – I can’t walk normal even if I try my hardest, especially after I have been sitting for long periods of time.

SHOWERS
I have had my first shower, and I have one to go. I have to say, my first was a lot of fun, thanks especially to Po and Becky, who had great games planned, and great cupcakes!!! I learned during the shower that Zach plans to change half of the diapers (yeah for me!!) and that you better be careful when ordering online items from Target (you may accidentally order two). My second shower is in a couple of weeks with my family and I am looking forward to it as well.