The Countdown is ON

Hello all! Well, we are home from Ft. Worth, somewhat settled back in. We had a nice leisurely drive back home today. We weren't in a hurry, we could stop as needed, play when we wanted and still make it home before dark and in time for dinner at the house, some veggin out and for Ava to play play play before bed. Poor girl had enough of that car seat today. We were able to stop more on the way home today. So we had Jack in the Box for lunch, stopped at one of the peach stands in Hedley and let Ava walk around and we bought some great produce. It was nice to not be pressured to get anywhere too quick. :) We had a nice trip, though. The best one yet. I have come home empowered, confident and excited to count down these days until we meet our baby boy! Truly! I am aware of all that lies ahead as much as we can know right now, but I  am not worried or anxious so much as I am excited and looking forward! So we got to Ft. Worth Tuesday night, late, but got in and Operation Keep Ava Asleep was successful. She fell asleep on the way down and we got her to stay asleep and got her to bed as soon as we got to the King's. YAY! She slept all night. It was great. I was so hoping she wouldn't struggle with sleeping this trip and she did great! Wednesday Nick and I had the day to ourselves with all the appointments and tours. It WORE us out!!!! We had so many things going on with a small lunch break. I had swollen ankles for the first time this whole pregnancy. We were exhausted. haha. The echocardiogram went well and everything Dr. Roten wanted to see looked good. She said getting down to Ft. Worth next weekend was a perfect time to be back down. No sooner. yay! We were able to tour the NICU, PICU, the children's wing where he will be recovering after the 2nd and 3rd surgeries. Cook Children's hospital is amazing! There are sooo many things that will cater to our family while we are there. We were very impressed and everyone is so nice. We met with Dr. Tam the surgeon and he was very thorough in his explanation of the surgeries, their history, answered our questions and was very serious yet light hearted and positive. If that makes any sense. :) We finished with touring the Dodson clinic where we will go for routine exams  later on. We were able to have some good mexican food and visit with Nick's aunt. We relaxed at the house and got some rest. This morning we got up, packed up and went to my obgyn appointment. Got through traffic, got nick coffee at starbucks and got to the appt. We were in and out in 30 mins! haha! So quick!

Here is our big news of the whole trip. We have a delivery date! At this point, our son Noah's birthday will be September 24th! They will do a c-section that morning. Since I had one with Ava they are just doing a repeat c-section and will be able to schedule all of his stuff easier with a scheduled c-section. I am totally ok with that! :) I know what to expect and will be ready to go. :) Noah right now is 5 lbs 9 oz and doing great! Other than his heart condition, he is a perfectly healthy, growing baby and is on his way to doing great out of the womb too! :) We are proud of him already. :)

So, once he is born, there will be a few days BEFORE they do surgery. They will keep him on IV nutrition and medicine until surgery. The surgery is a LONG procedure. It will be around 5-6 hours of surgery, on bypass, and it is not an easy surgery. That day will be a long day for all. When they are done with surgery (which they will be updating us throughout. We're glad about that) They will take him to the picu, (pediatric intensive care unit) not the nicu. He will not be completely sewn up at that point, for swelling reasons. They will be monitoring him closely, and the beginning of the "fight" starts. He will begin to be weaned off of the ventilator in the picu and other "lines". He still will not have eaten anything, just IV nutrition. Approx a week or so in the picu is what we're looking at, but obviously we will see how he does! Then it is back to the NICU until he is ready to go home. That is when the battle to learn to eat happens. I am not worried about it, I know God has our son in his hands. He also comes from a long line of eaters. hahahha. :) Seriously though, he could struggle and need a g button or he could do amazing and go home on a bottle. We'll see how he does. We have no expectations as we go in, we want things to go at his pace and in God's timing. We know that it will be at least a month from birth to going home. So that helps to know and plan. It might be just short of a month but it could be 2 months or so. We'll just have to take it a day at a time.

This trip has helped build my confidence and having Nick and Ava come was nice. I'm so thankful my sister was able to go with me the other times, there was definitely a different feel with our little family there. Made it feel more real.

So, Ava and I will be staying in Ft. Worth the few weeks before we deliver. We are leaving next weekend (september 8th after noah's baby shower). We will be staying with Nick's cousin and her family in North Richland Hills. I scoped out a few things while we were there this weekend, like the walmart, sonic, etc. :) just to be prepared. haha. I am glad that we'll have the jeep down there with us so we can get out and about. We'll enjoy going to the King's church a couple of times and hopefully Ava can play with some kiddos on those sunday mornings. (mommy will have to be a big girl and be ok with it haha) So, we'll get settled in next weekend and begin our adventure. Nick will fly home sunday and will work the next few weeks until we're ready for the big day. He will probably be working on the house some and veggin out, playing video games and being a "bachelor" for awhile. :) I'm glad. He'll be on single dad duty when him and Ava come back home. So, he can soak it up. I do hope I come home to wood floors in the living room/hallway. Maybe he can conjure up some help with that. :) :) any volunteers, I can hook you up. :)

Overall, things are falling into place. God has prepared the way for us. He has answered my prayers and has given me confidence, peace, and excitement. He has prepared the way in so many ways I can't even begin to explain in detail all the valleys he has raised up and mountains he has made low. I'm thankful, humbled and I know we are not approaching easy times. We are approaching one of the hardest seasons of our life, yet, our faith is strong and we are ready to face it with our Lord leading us on.

Thank you thank you thank you. Thank you for prayers, for encouragement, comments, emails, cards, love gifts, etc that y'all have already poured over us. Thank you to family for housing us, helping with Ava, keeping us positive, for support and love. Thank you to strangers who just know us through our friends and family who pray for our son and have shown such love through that. We are humbled and so thankful and Noah is not even here yet. I have had some people ask me what they can do for us and at this point, if you live near us, just hold tight and pray for us. I am quite sure that when we get back we will come across some needs such as meals and occasionally some possible help with Ava, etc. So, we will let y'all know. Until then, we are thankful for the prayers and love. Keep em coming.

I can't think of anything else at this point. My brain is kind of fried.

Week 35

So, today has been nice. The relief of being through with my part time job for a long while is encouraging and helpful in keeping my house duties going (as much as I can do now days) I am thankful for Nick's help this weekend in getting the laundry caught up after last week's battle with hormones, tiredness, Ava being sick etc. He's handy to have around ;) hehe. Ava and I went to Canyon, as usual for a Monday, to take Pop's his laundry and have lunch with him and play. He sure enjoys it, as do we. Soaking up that time is priceless. Today I had all these "getting ready' things to do for our little trip to Ft. Worth. After leaving Canyon I headed up to get a tire patched, that has been leaking and ended up going ahead and buying new tires. For once, we have the opportunity to go ahead and buy them and with all the traveling we are about to do, we need them. So, praise God we have new tires. Here's the catch...I had a 14 month old with me. sheesh. She did well though. Just a little busy, but some puff snacks and my strong will kept her occupied for the duration. I decided I should change her diaper and so we went into the bathroom there at Discount and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was sooo clean. awesome. So I get Ava up on the changing table and start to change her....as soon as I turn around to get powder out of her bag, she is peeing on the new diaper and all over her self, the table and her only pair of pants I brought today. (the ones she was wearing) gosh. I'm thinking, how much longer will we have to wait and she is soaked now. So I get a new diaper....go ahead and put her wet pants on her and find the tshirt in her bag and put that in her stroller and put her in the stroller and when we got out of the bathroom, they had called our name. YAY! Great timing I must say. Haha. She's sleeping in her bed now, I am drinking a big cherry lime and enjoying the quiet house. Truly. No tv, no music. Just the hum of the AC. So, I am tired now since staying at discount much longer than anticipated, so I have no energy to finish my list right now. Hopefully later today, before nick works on the lawn I can get the jeep cleaned out and vacuumed, etc. I hate going on a trip with an already messy car.

So, for reals. An update y'all want to hear about. For now, the update is....
We are leaving tomorrow night (Tuesday) for Ft. Worth for a round of appointments and tours. Wednesday is FULL of appointments, first with  Dr. Roten, the cardiologist, where we will get a new echocardiogram done, we will talk with her and she will let us know if there have been any changes in Noah that she can tell on the echo. (who knows, we might see a whole heart, God isn't out of miracles) We also know that his heart could be the same and the game plan is still on for the 3 stages of surgeries. Either way, God is in control and we are ok with that. :) We will tour the NICU, the cardiology part of the NICU and meet some of the nurses and staff who man that part of the NICU. It will be great to already have met some of the staff. We will then have an appt with Dr. Tam (the surgeon) He is a graduate of Johns Hopkins and studied under the surgeon, Dr. Norwood, for whom the first surgery is named after. We are confident in Dr. Tam and his abilities. We pray blessing over his hands and mind. We know he will do his best on Noah. We will then finish tours of the facilities and be done for the day. Hopefully we can go out that night and eat dinner as a family and enjoy somewhere we don't have in Amarillo. :) Thursday morning we go back for a dr appointment with my obgyn and then we'll head back to the AMA.
We plan on leaving amarillo to take Ava and I down to Ft. worth to stay, on September 8th. Noah's shower is that morning, let me know if you would like to come and I'll give you the address and time. :) and then we are going to pack up and  head out. If for some reason they want me there earlier than the 8th, we will just have to figure something out with the shower, etc. Hopefully the 8th will be soon enough.

So, that is all for now. I will update after we get back with a full medical update and dates times etc on when we will be gone.

Please pray for my blood pressure and swelling as we travel. I have not had a problem at all so far, and I don't want to have a problem. :)

Traveling mercies. safety.

communication and confidence building for Nick and I as we go through the appts and tours on Wednesday

FOR NOAH TO BE HEALED AND WHOLE. in whatever way God chooses.

For Ava as she stays with Nick's cousin Stacey and his other cousin Stephanie on Wednesday, for her as we travel.

On a side note: I have gone through the ringer with hormones, emotions, fear and anxiety last week especially. This week has started out wonderfully. Things that are helping me, obviously are prayers. I've been digging in the Word and continuing to pursue God's best for us, for me, through all of this. Our church family continues to inspire me, encourage me and remind me of God's goodness, mercy, plan, and grace over us. They are awesome!! Nick is excited to get out of town for a day or so and is glad to finally be able to get to a couple of appts with me. We are so blessed to have had the Glass Doctor fundraiser be such a success and that has helped Nick not feel so strapped about missing work, financially etc. So I am thankful that he is positive and ready to take us down there and be that support I need in those moments that get hard. No one can replace him, but my sister sure was the best next to him in the last couple of trips. THANK YOU SISSY! I am getting excited, because I am choosing to set aside fear and anxiety and focus on the fact that WE HAVE A LITTLE BOY COMING!!!! Holy cow! I am excited to have another baby, scared out of my mind at times, but none the less, I am excited to add another little one to our fold, to our legacy, to our silly family. I am ready to see him, hold him and kiss him. :) So many GOOOOOOD things coming through Noah, not just the hard stuff. I am rejoicing in the gift that God has entrusted us with and I can't wait to meet him!

Thanks y'all for support, prayers, love and encouragement!

blessings,
shaina