I spoke too soon!

Ok, so Lily and my mom have been competing to see who can go to the most doctors, with strange and unusual ailments. Must have to do with heart conditions. Anyway Grandma went to the ER yesterday after her left knee quit completely working after a few days of it warning her to take it easy. They did x-rays, gave her a walker and told her to see a orthopedic ASAP. She then spent the night on my couch, because we don't have a step into our family room and we have a bathroom on the same level, Plus Papa (amazingly) wasn't in town. So Lily not to be outdone, spent the night spitting up and not sleeping. (Needless to say Mommy has hit the wall, with stressing about these two ladies.) so Lily went to the doctor to get acid reflux relief. The doctor then sent us to Children's Healthcare satellite center for an ultrasound. She was concerned it could be a larger problem with her stomach. ARGH!
We are all fine now. Lily has to take Zantac, it is acid reflux. Grandma is going to the doctor on Friday and Papa gets home tonight. Mommy is not running away yet, but stay tuned she could at any moment. In the meantime, please no more doctors!

Never a Dull Moment

Well Lily has already made her first emergency room visit. It seems she contracted her first stomach bug late Saturday night. She ended up only vomiting twice, not her normal spit up, but everything she just ate and there was no stopping it until it was all out, even through her nose. So at midnight I loaded her into the car seat and we were off to Children's Hospital. Daddy stayed home with a sleeping Grace. Papa met Lily and I at the emergency room valet parking - thank goodness for someones progressive thinking. The hospital put us in our own little waiting room, no other germs in there and saw us. They checked for no obstructions, Lily pooped four times after this uncomfortable prodding. Checked her temp 99.6 and her heart rate - slightly elevated, um hello, it's the middle of the night we just rode in the car and they are sticking things where? Anyway, after holding in an ounce of milk and an ounce of pedialyte and her temperature retreating back to normal they sent us home. We were armed with pedialyte only. Needless to say, We all got to bed about 5:00am. We are still recovering and hoping not to have any repeat performances soon.

One Month!

Laughing at Big Sis

Can I hit her mom?

What are you looking at?

My sweet Girls!

Halloween anyone?

Well it is official; Lily is one month old or four weeks. We got the results of her final urine test Monday night after dinner. She is normal, another false PKU for my girls. We should have known with her ability to eat and grow. We went today for our one month checkup and here are her stats. She weighs 7 pounds 13 ounces up from 5 pounds 9 ounces leaving the hospital. She is 20 1/4 inches long up from 19 1/2 at birth. The doctor was impressed with how alert she was, turning her head, not crying at being poked. Lily grabbed the stethoscope and hung on to it. So for the next month we look forward to more eating, sleeping and pooping. She is supposed to spend several minutes doing her exercise - tummy time to build up her neck and chest muscles. Hopefully the spitting up will subside soon, as well as the general gassiness. Next visit she starts in with the shots. Grace is very worried about these in that she remembers hers from the four year old visit. Luckily Lily won't remember them, yet.
We are looking ahead a couple of weeks to Halloween and then Mommy's return to work. It should all go smoothly. Pray that Grandma Suzanne's heart quits giving her fits with the abnormal heart rates and dizzy spells. That way she can spend about 10 hours a week with Lily Pie bonding before Christmas.
Anyway we are glad to have survived the month on little sleep and lots of good friends. I need to recognize all that have helped us. First to Grandma Suzanne and Grandma Terry for late nights and help around the house and with Grace, I say God bless you. To the Hughes, Lara thanks for calming me on that day when the water broke and thanks for helping me pack, thanks also for being a mommy to Grace when I couldn't be there. Grace loves you and Tom and I do too. To the boys, Joshua and Caleb, thanks for adopting Grace into the kiddos carpool, she loves riding with you guys. Props to the ladies of the street for all the wonderful meals that you provided. Thanks to all the friends and family who have prayed for us, sent gifts and called in to check on us. We know that without all these people supporting us, we would be nowhere. Thanks again.

3 Weeks

We are adjusting to our new life together. Lily gets all the sleep. Grace is the best helper, unless her own agenda interferes. Daddy is working on little sleep and losing weight going up and down the stairs. Mommy has driven three times this week and looks forward to catnaps whenever she can squeeze them in. Lily got to ride in the car to take Grace to school and to go see Grace's class at the pumpkin patch. We don't go back to the pediatrician until next week for our one month appointment. Mommy goes back to work in November and the daily laundry continues. Here are a few pictures from our week so far. Lily's eyes are open in a few.

Grace's class walking to the pumpkin patch

Grace and friend posing with pumpkins.

My hand is moving faster than the camera, and I am awake.

Look my cheeks are getting chubby.

What a trooper!

As most of you know Lily has had two and a half weeks of poking and prodding by various doctors. Before she was even 24 hours old Lily was diagnosed with Aortic Stenosis. This is a defect of the aortic valve. Lily's valve seems to be functioning properly but is thicker than normal and causes a murmur. This is something that we will have to monitor closely with her pediatric cardiologist. In the hospital she had EKG's and sonograms to determine that this is the cause. Since she was a preemie, she had temperature and blood sugar tests every three to four hours in the hospital. She was also a little jaundiced and had to go through that test. Lily also had the PKU test and her first immunization while in the hospital. Through it all the only time she cried was when she was cold or the nurse changed her diaper. Before losing the hospital the nurses were concerned that she had lost 7% of her birth weight leaving her at 5 pounds 7 ounces. But she passed the preemie car seat test and her pediatrician sent us home on Friday.
Monday morning we were at the pediatrician's office for the traditional 48 hour check. Here they check weight, get her officially on the records and answer any questions we may have had. She had been doing well and we were officially nervous about the cardiologist appointment scheduled at Scottish Rite for the following day. We were told that Lily was maintaining weight but had not gained any so they wanted us back for a weight check in a week. On Tuesday we went to the cardiologist, where we got good news. Lily was such a trooper. She only cried again at being cold, she passed her blood pressure check, temperature check, EKG. We spoke to one of the nurse practitioners where she spoke in generalities while we waited for the doctor. We then went for a repeat ultrasound of the heart. Lily slept through the entire 30 minutes of the technician taking over 95 pictures of Lily's heart. The doctor then came and spoke to us about how mild Lily's case is and that they don't want to see us until two months. He did stress to us that the thickening will not get better, will either remain the same or get worse. However he was very optimistic and we are hoping to make it through the first year without need of intervention. The first intervention would consist of a heart catherization where they would blow up a small balloon at the valve to make it open more efficiently. They only do this when absolutely necessary so moderate to severe cases. So this is why we pray for Lily's heart valve to remain the same for a while. We were extremely relieved leaving the cardiologist and ready to finish getting the house ready for a newborn. (I had failed in my nesting to complete before the water broke.)
This is when the other shoe dropped. On Wednesday morning, the pediatrician called to inform us that sections of the PKU had come back abnormal. We rushed ourselves to Scottish Rite to perform a blood test and collect a urine sample. Again Lily only cried when they took off her diaper to put a bag on her to collect urine. By the way - impossible to catch urine in a bag and not catch other things too. So after a few hours we called the pediatrician and had them fax over an order for a catheter. We then went a week with nothing new. Just eating, sleeping and pooping for Lily. On Wednesday we were back for our weight check. Lily had gained 11 ounces in 9 days(Yahoo!) The blood test from the repeat PKU came back with all normal levels (Yahoo!) but there was no info on the urine test. It seems the lab at Scottish Rite never sent it in, because it was not enough for the required test. However, they never called us or the pediatrician to let us know that we needed to redo the test. So Lily had to have another catheter and the pediatrician sent off the sample themselves to insure it got there. So now we have another week of waiting for those results. In the meantime Mommy got a flu shot, Grace got the flu sniffer and Daddy got the TDapp shot and a flu sniffer. We are hopefully all vaccinated and will remain healthy for the rest of this year.
We now hope that we are done with doctors for at least two weeks, minus a phone call, and can start some kind of a routine. Lily is still growing, Grace is loving being a big sister and one day I will get all the laundry finished(both Grandmas are trying, but I swear it is multiplying while we are sleeping).

Lillian Caroline "Lily" Campbell

She's here! She was born Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 4:23 in the afternoon. She weighed 6 lbs and was 19 1/2 inches long. Mommy's water broke Sunday night around 2:00 am and she didn't truly realize it until noon on Monday. After a quick stop at the OB it was a long afternoon and night at the hospital. We are all at home and doing well. We will update when time allows. Here are a few other photos.

Baby Update

The doctor was very positive today. Pumpkin was resting comfortably, heart just beating away. She did say that it might be possible to induce earlier than the 24th but only by a week. I am not sure why but this did make me feel better. Pumpkin is measuring right at 34 weeks, seemingly in the ready to go position. My blood pressure is good, 110 over 60 and I only gained a pound in two weeks, even with that yummy cake last week.
Pumpkin's most active times seem to be between 7 pm and 7 am or any other time that I am trying to rest. With Grace being very active between 6:30 am and 8:00 pm, it seems there is no rest for the weary. We went to lunch today with a dear friend from my public school days and I think Grace talked the entire time. Poor Sherry didn't know what she was in for. However she did pay me back by giving Grace two chocolate filled cookies that kept her talking all afternoon.
We are looking forward to our fall break, no school or dance next week. Mommy is hoping for some rest, but the nesting has also set in and there is much to do. Poor Tom is never sure what he is coming home to. I have a feeling this may get worse. Anyway we are still working on the name thing, just DON"T ASK! Keep praying for us and we will keep you updated.