Tuesday 31 March 2009

False Alarm

Well it was a long day turns out that something is started but it's still early. I was only 1cm dilated with contractions 10cm apart not strong enough to be admitted as I'm only in early labour. I was sent home .. odd thing is this is my forth and I've never gone to the hospital early for the other three each time i was pretty much ready to deliver. I guess I'm getting overly excited. I hope tonight I'll get more rest. My husband is especially tired but he is sleeping already.

Could baby be on the way?

I'm 37 weeks and 3 days now around dinner time yesterday I started to have what I'd like to think is just braxton hicks. They keep coming infrequently but regularly every 30 minutes or so. I did sleep for most of the night but around 3am i woke and they are still there. It's now 4am and there isn't really any pain yet however i recall labour being similar to this with my others. I think it's time to call in my support system. Mom and Dad to come probably around 6am. I'm pretty sure my body is getting ready to have this little one however it is still a little early isn't it?? I was only expecting this new little one for Easter which is a week and half away but i guess he or she has a schedule of their own. Maybe i should pack my bag now too since I'm up.

Thursday 26 March 2009

Happy Birthday Ashley





My princess is 4 years old!

Ashley I'm so proud of you! You are so determined and really making amazing progress everyone that knows you is so impressed. I hope you love eating your chocolate rainbow cake that Sarah made for you . Enjoy all your new presents mommy and daddy had fun selecting for you.

We would have thrown you a big party but with the new baby coming so soon we thought it best to just celebrate with your brothers. We love and adore you and enjoy every moment we have with you as you are a true blessing! I feel so incredibly lucky to be your mommy and can't think of a better job in the entire world.

Happy Birthday Ashley!

Friday 13 March 2009

Silent Killer

March is Deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) awareness month and as someone who's been affected by this twice myself I thought I should take some time to share my story.

Here's my story:
When I was 21 weeks pregnant with my first child I started to develop pain and swelling in my left leg, I was only 27 years old at the time young, healthy and a non smoker and had no idea what a DVT even was. It took me over a week to seek out proper medical treatment I waited until I had pretty serious pain in my leg and it swelled noticeably larger then my right leg before rushing to the emergency where it was easily diagnosed via an ultrasound. I had even been to the OB that week and complained of the pain in my leg but the swelling wasn't there yet and my doctor didn't recognized the problem. I was very lucky I had 3 large clots in my upper leg, they had not broken off and traveled anywhere. I underwent a year and 1/2 of treatment and the clot eventually went away.

5 years later I had a second clot after I delivered my third child Ashley who was in the NICU at the time very sick and even though I had survived a previous DVT years earlier I was very distracted by the fact that my newborn was in a life and death situation. I remember thinking perhaps this is another clot but had trouble leaving her bedside, very quickly the pain grew and so did the clot which pretty much was the entire length of my leg by the time I had it diagnosed. I believe Ashley was nine or ten days old when I started blood thinners again. Ashley also suffered two DVT's one in her leg and another in her heart as a newborn hers were brought on by very necessary medical intervention to save her life in the ICU. The clot in heart was in a very scary position on a valve leading to her lungs and a another piece of that clot broke off and cause a minor stroke she wasn't even two weeks old at the time.

It's obvious that both Ashley and I have a predisposition to clotting but there was nothing are hematologist could detect in their post clot blood work-up. The doctors still have a lot to learn about why clots happen. However if everyone is aware of the symptoms you can seek treatment earlier with hopefully good outcomes and less deaths. In this pregnancy I'm taking daily blood thinners since the day I took the pregnancy test and I'll continue on them until the baby is 3 months old. I'm also in good hands being followed closely by a high risk OB and hematologist.

Important Prevention:
- Don't smoke
and everyone should take precautions when traveling long distances especially overseas flights.

When flying or driving long distance you should:
Pump your feet like your pressing up and down on the gas pedal.
Get up and walk around at least once an hour.
Keep hydrated, drink plenty of fluids gatoraid is highly recommend.

Take a minute to review this:
Are you a Risk of a DVT take a few minutes to complete this risk assessment?

More information is available at www.preventdvt.org

Deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) is a common but serious medical condition that occurs when a blood clot forms in one of the large veins, usually in the lower limbs. A complication of DVT, pulmonary embolism (PE), can occur when a blood clot breaks loose and moves into the lungs, where it blocks circulation to these vital organs, creating a life-threatening condition.

Up to two million Americans suffer from DVT each year, approximately 300,000 deaths annually result from PE, the majority of which result from DVT - more than breast cancer and AIDS combined. DVT-related PE is the most common cause of preventable hospital death.

Everyone should be aware of the Symptoms

Many blood clots that occur in DVT are small and don't cause any symptoms. Your body will usually be able to gradually break them down with no long-term effects.

Larger clots may block the blood flow in the vein and cause symptoms such as:

swelling of the affected leg - this is usually different from the mild swelling of both ankles that many people experience during long-haul flights for example
pain in the affected leg - the pain may only be noticeable, or get worse when standing or walking
reddening of the affected leg
Although not necessarily a result of DVT, if you have these symptoms you should visit your GP.


If your still reading good job getting through all this and please take care of your health it's the most valuable thing you have.

Wednesday 11 March 2009

39 days

Upon opening my blog today i noticed my baby ticker countdown.. it now reads 39 days and that is not a long time. I'm thinking should i be packing a bag just in case, setting up the bassinet, purchasing my desired double stroller the very cool and light weight phil & ted. I'm so excited to meet my little one and can hardly believe the big day will be here so soon.

Sunday 8 March 2009

She's still eating!

Well this weekend was pretty quite we lost an hour due to the time change and it's now close to 10 pm and Ashley just went to sleep way later then normal. She still eating and managing to have 4 meals a day 8am, noon, 4pm and 8pm. I'm so thrilled. Yesterday she had pie after dinner i was so surprised she liked it as it was lemon meringue pie 90 cal/ 2 tablespoons. Lucky she had some or I would have finished the whole thing myself the boys were not interested in it. I guess it wasn't chocolaty enough for them. My husband only had one small piece and it's all gone now so baby and I enjoyed it all. I've eating right along side Ashley and cooking with more butter, cheese and cream then ever before. Oh well at least I'm eating for two. My oldest did tell me today that not only was my belly growing so was my back side. I'm normally thin even after my third so I'm not really worried. However i probably never cooked with some many calories before. If Ashley gains weight it's all worth it.

Primary Skate Day

Last thursday I had the privilege of joining my boys on their third and last skating trip with their school. We had great weather and it so much fun to see Damon figuring it out. Last year he was always falling but he seems to have gotten the hang of things.

Here's a short clip from the day. Damon helped me make this, he had fun choosing the music his fav ABBA.

Wednesday 4 March 2009

Amazing Feeding Progress

Ashley is eating!!!! I can't believe it my little girl got her g-tube inserted early April 2007 and has been getting all her diet from nutren formula every since. Ashley would occasional have a bite or two of food but she was basically full all the time she was getting 3 cans a day for the first year on the tube and had a lot of trouble keeping that down and then 4 cans of formula a day for the last year. She was just full all the time as she was being feed around the clock. I thought getting her off the tube would involve some very serious intervention. It was just something i couldn't image happening anytime soon. My little girl just has a way of surprising me and I'm so thrilled.

She had stomach flu just recently and had nothing but Pedialyte for 5 days she lost weight and her stomach could only handle her formula pumped in at a very slow rate while her GI tract recovered. This left her hungry so I started to feed her easy foods like banana, rice apples, cream of wheat. She was hungry and has been eating 4 meals a day!! Yippee. So far so good I haven't been giving her any nutren just water or apple juice for hydration in her tube she doing great so far. I think she is much more ready to handle the different texture of food now then she was ever before. She really enjoys cream of wheat, red river cereal, bananas, avocado, brown beans, egg yolk, rice, broccoli and even canned pasta. She open to try anything whatever we are eating at dinner she seems to enjoy. Everything she eats is topped with butter, mayo, cheese, cream or oil to punch up the calories. It's a yummy diet.

She even feeds her self cheetos those are 10 cals each she eats about 8 or so at one time. I'm so proud of her progress it's just been 10 days but things are going well. I'm also giving her 3 oz water 4 times a day in between meals via her tube and 3 or 4 oz apple juice via the tube at night. So far so good i hope she can keep this up and we don't go back to using the tube for anything but meds, vitamins and water. It's very early yet just 8 days of eating but I'm feeling really positive about things.

If anyone else is working on this I found these two books helpful: Poor Eaters - Helping children who refuse to eat by Joel Machet
Just Take a Bite by Lori Ernsperger

Here's pictures of her eating away....

A little snack of cheetos before bed

Notice the empty plate! She been eating everything on her plate.


Just two weeks ago i asked her OT how to stop her from playing with her plate at dinner she was always dumping it and that stopped as soon as she was more interested in the food she hasn't done it since.