Baby Weight - A God Story

I know that God can do anything and I am so grateful that He had his hand on baby Garrett and me all the way through my pregnancy. Since about 13 weeks of pregnancy each sonogram I had showed that the baby was larger than expected. At one point, my specialist was concerned about gestational diabetes since the baby was measuring large. Near about 28 weeks, Garrett measured about two weeks bigger than his due date. Little did I know how significant that was until we planned his early delivery at 34 weeks gestation. Of course, God knew and planned it perfectly. I have had two other children, both of which have been average weight boy 7.11 and girl 7.2 both full-term babies. An average weight for 34 week gestation is about 4.12. Upon delivery at 34 weeks baby Garrett weighed: (drum roll please)

Now, of course, weight isn't the only thing to be concerned about with a pre-term baby but it is a significant factor because the more fat they have the easier it is to maintain their own body temperature. If they can't maintain their body temp that means more time in the NICU. Praise God, weight and body temp was not an issue for Garrett and he didn't have to spend any extra time in the NICU.

I Am Proud To Introduce...

Time has warped again and I can't believe my baby is over three weeks old now. I apologize to my dear friends and family that were looking for updates on this blog. I forgot how much of a sleep deprived/pain medicine induced fog I would be in for a little while. As soon as the pain started to feel better I had a setback because my incision became infected. The pain returned and all I felt like doing for a few more days was laying in bed. I also had the sort of feeling like wanting to hide away from reality in a dark cave with my new baby. I have to admit that I was and still am scared of life returning full speed so I have been wanting to take extra naps and have plenty of cuddle time with our newest blessing. Hence, no time to update my blog. There are so many God stories behind this pregnancy, birth, and Garrett's health after birth...God is so amazing and I am so grateful that everything turned out fine for Garrett and me after a complicated pregnancy. Without further ado, this is the face that I have been so blessed to be staring into over the past few weeks. Thank you God for our newest gift of life.

August 5th Anticipation

Today is the day that we get to meet our precious third baby, Garrett. He will be born 6 weeks early with a neonatal team standing by to immediately assess him upon delivery. Writing this less than 24 hours beforehand, I am mostly just excited for Garrett's arrival but I can also feel myself a little more anxious again. I find myself becoming a bit more emotional too. Hmmm, I wonder why.
So, I can't eat anything after midnight and surgery is at noon. That means I will likely be spending most of my morning trying to keep my pregnant mind off of food! :-)
This might sound kind of strange but I am trying to come up with a plan for my mind during the surgery. I want so much to be focused entirely on God during that time. I also know that if I am not intentional about controlling what my mind focuses on then I will likely start to dwell on less than desirable thoughts. This "plan" that I am developing for my mind includes a prayer list, song list, and scripture but if it gets too difficult to focus on all of that then hopefully my mind will just default to Jeremy Camp's "There Will Be A Day." Love that song!
Anyway, Baby Garrett will be here soon and I can't wait to update you on his arrival.
Thank you so much for your prayerful support!

Fun Facts

*Time in the hospital: At noon tomorrow, which is the scheduled time of my c-section, I will have been in the hospital for approximately 30 days and 15 hours.
*Number of different IV sites: 7 actual sites plus one extra stick because they couldn't get one in a certain location.
*Number of shots: 9, seven total tirbutaline shots (2 the first night I arrived, 3 two nights ago, and 2 last night) and two steroid shots to help Garrett's lung development when I first arrived.
*Number of wheelchair rides: approximately 27, about 25 with the kids in my lap and hubby pushing, one without the kids with hubby pushing to tour the NICU, one without the kids with hubby pushing just spending some alone time.
*Number of blood draws: approximately 9
*Number of different day nurses that I have received care from: 9 of which 6 of them I have had more than once and 3 are from the labor and delivery side but were filling a gap so I only met them once.
*Number of different night nurses that I have received care from: 8 of which 7 of them I have had more than once and 1 was from L&D so I only met her once.
*Number of techs I have received care from: 3
*Number of visitors I have received: somewhere around 25
*Number of times Andrew and I have been alone in the past 30 days: 2, maybe 3 depending on how this afternoon works out
Wisdom and advice to share from all of this:
Don't let them draw blood or put an IV in the back of your hand unless ABSOLUTELY necessary.
Keep your focus on God and make the most of every situation...it is part of life!
Pray and focus on being a blessing to others who are enduring more difficult circumstances.

I Am Still Pregnant

A bout with some stingy contractions yesterday/last night had us wondering if we would have baby Garrett on August 2nd instead of August 5th. I had been having contractions pretty much all day but they were barely noticeable. Then, about 6:30 p.m. they started becoming quite a bit more intense and I had some cramping and back ache with them. It reminded me of the first night I arrived here, which ironically was 4 weeks ago to the day. The great thing is that I never did bleed but the longer the contractions went on the more likely I was to bleed. Finally, after three shots of terbutaline and two terbutaline pills they pretty much stopped around 3:30 a.m. So, this is August 3rd and I am still pregnant...yay! And, currently not having any contractions. Part of me would have just liked to get it over last night but a larger part of me really wanted to wait until Thursday to give baby Garrett a few more days of cookin.

Almost August 5th = Anxiousness

I can't believe it went from two weeks to one week and now to just a few days so quickly. There were definitely times when it seemed like it was crawling by but now that it is so close to being here it feels like it went really quick. When I talk to the nurses and doctors about what all to expect then I can feel my heart starting to beat fast and sort of get that adrenaline rush feeling. I still feel totally at peace about how everything is going to proceed and know that God is in control of it. But, my body is still going through this nervous, anxious feeling that I think is just a physiological response that is natural because of the way God made human beings. My question to God is...What do I do with it? After praying through that for a couple of days I believe that He wants me to harness and channel those feelings into deeper reliance on Him. Specifically focus on memorized scripture and prayer when I start to have those feelings all the way up to, during, and even after delivery. Ok really I should be specifically focusing on scripture and prayer all the time. It makes me think of things I have heard people say about fasting from food. I have heard that when the hunger hits it is a physical reminder to stop and pray and rely more on God. So, in my case, I am not hungry but I am nervous and anxious so I see that as a physical reminder to shift my focus back to God through prayer and scripture.

Construction

I have a great view of the mountains out my hospital room window (in the distance). See this post of the sunrise to get an idea. But, if you look out only a little all you can see is dirt, gravel and large construction equipment. One would think that this view wouldn't be so nice but it is actually pretty cool, especially for the kids. We have been able to see the big crane moving some things around. Today we watched a backhoe loader load a dump truck with dirt. The other day we watched as a track loader was driven up onto a truck. It had to be driven up the ramp and then the bed of the truck dipped down a little so the equipment would just fit into this lower section of the bed. The edge of the tracks were right on the edge of the bed on both sides so the equipment had to be perfectly driven to be loaded on the truck straight. That was pretty neat to watch. If I could have opened up the window and clapped for the driver I would have because it looked like it took some skills. The construction activity out the window has led to some of the calmer times with the kids in my room since they will be still and watch out the window.