Doctor visited

Dr. Leeds-Richter came by again to check on us today. John wasn't feeling well, but he was trying to wait around until she came by. She said nothing has changed since yesterday and that I am probably the most healthy patient in this whole hospital. (John wanted to knock on wood for that one, because hopefully that won't change.) I am hooked up to the fetal monitor right now and have been having great blood pressure readings. Had my lowest one yet last night.....101/63. Keep praying for us. I know all the wonderful prayers are helping !! Thanks again.

Daddy's Not Feeling Well....

Poor daddy has been feeling badly all day today. He's been trying to stick it out for Mommy but he finally just felt too bad. He was having a really bad stomach ache and it was making him feel really sick. Mommy's doctor said he should go home too, so that he can feel better. Mommy told me that Daddy should be back tomorrow. We know that Daddy is really stressed because of everything coming on so quickly. Please say a little prayer for my daddy because we want him to come back either tonight or tomorrow healthy for us and to not be so stressed! Jesus is watching over Mommy and me and will help us all through this.

Love,
Annie

Daddy is ON HIS WAY!!!!

Well they just took me off the monitor!! YAY! I did a great job again. I seem to like it when Mommy rubs her belly while I'm on the monitor. She really loves me and I can already feel it so much!

Mommy's blood pressure got checked while I was on the monitor and it was 122/71. She is doing really well too. Today has been sort of a down day for us. We've been very bored and there is just only so much chicken that we can EAT!

Mommy's friend, Courtney, is going to take care of our puppies this weekend while Daddy stays here with us. We really appreciate it! Mommy and Daddy and I have really great people in our lives. We are so lucky!

We are so excited, I don't even know what to do!! Keep up the prayers, God is making me stronger EVERY day.

Love,
Angelina

Doc came by about 2:30 ish...

So I've been having some pain in my side and Dr. Leeds-Richter just came by right after I had told the nurse. She thinks it's round ligament pain, because it's right outside of where my uterus is and it's only intermitten. She said it's super common in pregnancy and just to try changing my positions in bed, etc. It's not hurting right now, but luckily it hurt a little when she came in which gave her a chance to poke and prod on my belly.

We talked about the fact that Angelina has grown 5 oz. and while that is not a lot, that it is better than 3 oz. and proportionally to her body is a huge gain. She said at approximately 30 weeks, my Angelina Ballerina should be putting on about a half a pound a week (8 oz.). According to that calculation, if she put on 5 oz. a week, she would be about 3% smaller than she should be every week, but as long as she's growing and the fetal monitor strips are doing well and the blood pressure is doing well, they are happy with that and will keep my little angel baby inside me as long as we can. She said Angelina is a small baby and if she continues at a rate of 5 oz. a week that would be putting her at about the 28th percentile in babies weight percentile since she would be growing at a rate of 3% smaller than the "typical" baby.

She okayed the massage, but I am not 100% sure if I am going to go through with getting one. I feel like everything has been going better with her and I don't want to mess with her home. :) She also thinks that they will come into your room and do a pedicure which might be nice later on down the road, but I am going to try and limit my activity and people interaction, so I'm still debating both of those.

We'll have another visit from the doc soon. Probably around noon tomorrow as she is on call on Saturday. As for now, I'm staying put, Angelina is staying put and we are doing our best to make it as far along as we can. Doing what is best for her is the #1 priority.

Please keep praying that we can keep her baking for a while longer.

The Ant and the Contact Lens

My mom sent me this story via email and I wanted to share. :)

The Ant and the Contact Lens

Brenda was almost halfway to the top of the tremendous granite cliff. She was standing on a ledge where she was taking a breather during this, her first rock climb. As she rested there, the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens . "Great", she thought. "Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry." She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on the ledge. But it just wasn't there. She felt the panic rising in her, so she began praying. She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens. When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it was not to be found. Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was saddened because she could not clearly see cross the range of mountains. She thought of the bible verse "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth." She thought, "Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me." Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, "Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?" Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across a twig on the face of the rock, carrying it! The story doesn't end there. Brenda's father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a cartoon of an ant lugging that contact lens with the caption, "Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You." I think it would do all of us some good to say, "God, I don't know why You want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy. But, if You want me to carry it, I will." God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.
Yes, I do love GOD. He is my source of existence and my Savior. He keeps me functioning each and every day Without Him, I am nothing, but with Him....I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13)

Haven't seen doc today

Maybe it's her surgery day. I never got to ask about a pre-natal massage. Today John is coming to stay the weekend with us!! I'm so excited!

Baby looked good on the monitor at 10 something. The nurse forgot about us because she had a new patient being admitted. We are doing really well. Baby did great. I'm starting to get better about not being nervous about her being on there. I feel like she is extremely strong. We are going to make it to 28 weeks and beyond. I have faith in that. Hopefully I'll have a better update later.

Hospital Visiting

We have been receiving so many phone calls and email requests asking about visiting us here at the hospital and we appreciate each and every one of them. However, to protect Angelina, John and I think it's best that we do not have any visitors at this time. My blood pressure seems to spike and become elevated when I have visitors, so we are trying to prevent this. During these next few weeks, the most important thing is to be self-less and keep Angelina's best interest at heart, which unfortunately means no visitors for now. I will continue to update via blog/email. Please feel free to email and comment on the blog if you would like any further updates. Thanks so much for your understanding and continued gifts of prayer. I know that it has made a difference in Angelina's progress.

Thanks,
John, Andrea & Annie

A little bit of good news: 27th week ultrasound

We just had our 27th week ultrasound, and the baby has shown some growth. She grew 5 ounces this week to bring her up to 1 lb, 11 oz. While she's still measuring behind, she has grown approximately a week. We are so proud of her responding to mommy's efforts!

The doctor said that she has diagnosed Andrea with Pre-eclampsia due to the high blood pressure and other problems that Andrea has had, but it is not severe. She said it is a wait and see effort to find out when/if any severe problems begin associated with the Pre-eclampsia. She said that the baby is in it's best incubator right now and she sees no reason to take her out yet. Which is really good news. We are still chugging along to 28 weeks and will do another assessment then as long as everything is still improving. She is in the hopes that we will make it even further, but is still setting 28 weeks as our short term goal. She believes that there is still a placental problem as Angelina's diastolic pressure is still down. She made sure that we had talked to a neonatalogist about the sacrifices we will need to make when/if she is born premature.

She suggests that Andrea stay in the hospital for now, so we will be here for a little longer. The doctor said that the baby has been really active and showed great signs on the fetal monitor. Mommy has been keeping her blood pressure down and the baby has responded positively, so we know that what we're doing is helping. Another thanks goes out to everyone's prayers.

1 week down, and bunch more to (hopefully) go...

Prayers Please

Today we are having our first ultrasound since a week ago to see if our little angel is growing or if we need to deliver early. No matter the outcome, please pray that God will strengthen my husband, John and me and our little baby girl, Annie. Thank you so much.

Ultrasound tomorrow...

The ultrasound is tomorrow....I've been told the MFM is supposed to come and see us at 9 a.m. but it's not guaranteed at that time. When we have information we'll let everyone know. Today I had the priest visit me from Corpus Christi Catholic Church on Stella Link. I wanted him to come and pray with me for the baby. He came on short notice in 30 minutes. I was so grateful. He was really nice. His name was Father Bob and he was very supportive and understanding. It was a great experience.

Please continue to say prayers for Angelina.

I am completely IV free and my highest blood pressure was 137/70 or so which is still below the 140/90 they want me to be under. 2 days running under 140/90, yay.

John is also feeling better and is set to be here by early tomorrow morning. He rested the day at home sick and his temperature had dropped to normal as of tonight.

Our biggest concern now is getting to this ultrasound appointment tomorrow stress and anxiety free and seeing how our little girl is doing. We are putting all of our faith in God and hope to be reporting some good news to everyone.

Please pray for our little girl tomorrow and be thinking about us tomorrow for our ultrasound. Thanks again for all of the warm thoughts, prayers, positive notes, cards, flowers, emails, care packages, etc..

It really has been spiritually uplifting. It makes you realize the support that you have around you when you go through tough times like these. We are all so lucky to have each and every one of you.

Love,
John, Andrea & Angelina

Lunch is coming soon!

I'm kicking Mommy really hard because I'm hungry. :) Hopefully it will get here soon.

Annie

Dr. came by

The doctor, Dr. Leeds-Richter came by today and still everything looks great. She said my blood pressure is looking great (no spikes since the day before yesterday, not a single one over 140/90) and the baby is doing wonderfully on the monitor. My strong little girl. They still don't know what time for the ultrasound tomorrow, but she should be letting me know today.
Dr. Hare is the perinatal doctor that will be doing the ultrasound tomorrow.

Please pray for John as the driving and the time that he is spending taking care of me is taking a toll on his body. He is running a fever and has what is more than likely a cold. He won't be able to make it up here today as he is going to try and get better in preparation for seeing our baby girl.

For right now, I am just relaxing and doing everything I can to keep my baby girl inside of me.

I'm sure it will be hard for me to not see my husband today since he is mine and Annie's strength, but I think it would be better for his health and for the health of the baby if Mommy didn't get sick.

Please keep praying for all of us. Annie is a fighter like her Mommy and Daddy and I have faith that God will help us through all of this.

Andrea

A new day, a new dawn, a new room for us

Annie and I were moved to a PRIVATE room. So don't call the old number, if you have it! It's smaller, but I don't have to worry about anyone coming in here and being my roomie. Also, John can stay with me and the BABY!!!! I feel so blessed. :)

If you need to get a hold of us, call my cell phone or John's cell phone. Thanks for everything.

We love you all!

Gestational Diabetes Test

Got back my gestational diabetes test from Thursday. I don't have gestational diabetes which is great! I am a little bit anemic so I have to take an iron supplement. That's it for now. I'm off of the IV. I've still got the IV line sticking out in case, but at least I don't have my dance partner anymore when I got to the bathroom! And now I can shower with TWO hands!

Just talked to the doc...

She came in to tell me they are going to take me off of the IV antibiotics!! Looks like things are going great other than an occasional spike in blood pressure when I have visitors. (which I don't know why!) They are also going to make me keep wearing my support hose (they were supposed to get me some and never did) and low sodium diet is still in effect. She said scan is still on for Thursday. My initial lab work came back perfect so pretty much they have no idea what the problem is. They have some follow-up lab work that looks into more specific things that she said we should be getting back soon. She said, wouldn't it be great if we came back on Thursday and the placenta was doing fine and all I needed to do was bedrest. Then maybe I could go home and do it from there and wait for our little angel in the comfort of our own home! I don't want to get my hopes up, but it's a positive thing to hear! Please keep praying as I know it has been hard on John making the trips up here and I wouldn't feel like I was in such solitary confinement.

One definite thing that I have gained is a more spiritual connection to life and motherhood. I am so blessed to be where I am and no matter what the circumstances, life is what I make of it. Thanks again for all of the prayers. We will need more and more prayers coming up for Thursday!! It is a most important day! God renews my spirits on a daily basis!

Phillipians 4:13

Lowest BP yet!

Not much new yet today as it's only 8 am, but just wanted to report Mommy's lowest blood pressure yet! At 6 and 7 am this morning, mommy's bp was around 108/62. Mommy was still sleeping, so that's why it was so low. She knows that when she sleeps that it goes down really well like that, so she is trying to sleep as much as she can for my sake!

Daddy's Here

They accidentally left me on the fetal heart monitor for an hour instead of 30 minutes today. Mommy was okay with it because Daddy got to come and see my heart beating. They are still saying everything looks great. An hour was a long time for me though. I was a good girl and got used to it for a while but then decided that was too long, so I started to karate chop it! That's what it sounds like when I hit or kick it.

We also had the Dietician and the Physical Therapist come see us today. The dietician was giving us some tips for eating/cooking at home to keep mommy and me safe. Maybe that's a good sign that they might let us go if we look good on Thursday. If not that's okay, because all of the nurses are really nice and keep mommy and me in a great mood!

The physical therapist also showed Mommy some exercises to do in bed to make sure that during bedrest she'll stay mobile and all her joints will keep strong and her blood will flow really well. They are coming to see us again and are going to see us once a week to teach Mommy some exercises and to use a band to make sure we stay in tip-top shop. The PT also recommended the Pre-Natal Massage for Mommy. Mommy wants to double check with her doctor first, but if she can she's going to get a relaxing massage from a girl named Erin. Erin is certified in doing pre-natal massages for women in high risk pregnancies and bedrest.

It's almost dinner time and Daddy is here!!! He helped Mommy take a shower and change clothes! She feels so much better. Soon dinner will be here and Mommy, Daddy and I will eat dinner together. We haven't really gotten to do that much since Mommy and I have been in the hospital. Daddy was so excited to see Mommy and me today! Mommy and I are both here for each other and we keep each other strong, but when Daddy comes he makes us both stronger by making us so happy.

Please keep praying for Mommy and me!!

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

My Little Angel Keeps Me Stronger

It's so strange how down I felt when I found out that I was going to be put on bedrest in the hospital. I know that the strength that I am feeling cannot only be my own. Angelina is a blessing and I can tell how strong she is already. I feel like all of the strength that I am getting is coming from this little one inside of me. She's so small right now. Probably about a pound and a half and I feel like she is the strongest part of me. Growing next to my heart, the part of me that's making me mentally and spiritually stronger to help her grow physically stronger. I never really had heard this song before, but for some reason it just won't get out of my head. . . . . .

In my daughter's eyes I am a hero. I am strong and wise and I know no fear. But the truth is plain to see. She was sent to rescue me. I see who I wanna be. In my daughter's eyes. In my daughter's eyes everyone is equal. Darkness turns to light and theworld is at peace. This miracle God gave to me. Gives me strength when I am weak. I find reason to believe, In my daughter's eyes. And when she wraps her hand around my finger. Oh it puts a smile in my heart. Everything becomes a little clearer. I realize what life is all about. It's hangin' on when your heart has had enough. It's giving more when you feel like giving up. I've seen the light. It's in my daugter's eyes. In my daughter's eyes, I can see the future. A reflection of who I am and what will be. Though she'll grow and someday leave. Maybe raise a family. When I'm gone I hope you see how happy she made me. For I'll be there, In my daughter's eyes.

I can do all things through Christ who Strengthens Me

"I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me."

Philippians (4:13)

Just talked to Dr. Leeds-Richter

It's about 8:30 am on Monday and I just talked to my doctor, Dr. Leeds-Richter. She told me that everything looks good from the monitoring of the baby's heartbeat and my blood pressure also looks great. Unfortunately, they don't know what is causing the restricted blood flow to the baby (the placental problems). Our MFM (maternal fetal medicine) doctor is going to be coming in and wheeling me down on Thursday, January 29 to do another ultrasound to see how the baby is growing and will be making more decisions from there. My doctor said that the beginning of me being a mother starts here. The more I sacrifice myself now to stay in the hospital on bedrest and allow Angelina to grow (please keep praying!), the better off she will be. She said that each day that she is able to stay inside of me and grow is like having to be in the NICU for 3 days, so it is of the utmost importance to make this sacrifice for our little girl. Our doctor still believes that she will be delivered early. Right now, we are right at about 27 weeks and earlier can be all the way up to 37 weeks so that is a huge range, but we will definitely know more on Thursday at our ultrasound. Please keep praying as God has the ability to grant nothing short of miracles. Thanks for all of the love and support!

Andrea, John & Angelina

Good news from the nurse

The nurse just left after having the baby's heartrate monitored for the past hour. The heartrate was rangebound from the high 120's to the low 160's for the whole hour which is what we want to see. The nurse even made a comment that the baby's heartbeat seemed very advanced for only 27 weeks! We're both so proud of her.

Staying strong...

Honey,

I want you to know that I am very proud of you and Annie. You've done a great job keeping your blood pressure way down, and Annie's heartbeat is growing stronger every day. It's great to hear Annie kick the heart monitor every few minutes - she hates that thing!

I know God will continue to keep our spirits up and help us grow a strong baby. Keep the faith honey.

I love you and Annie so much.

John

Thanks to everyone!

John, Angelina and Andrea would like to thank everyone for all of their warm well wishes and prayers and have posted a video in dedication to your love and support. It's in the top right hand corner of the page. It's by Tracy Lawrence. Hope you enjoy!

Love,
John, Andrea & Angelina

Going on Day 3 of Bedrest

On Thursday, January 22, mommy and I were unexpectly put on bedrest at the hospital. Currently the doctors and nurses are checking me on a fetal monitor to check my heart rate and to make sure mommy's blood pressure stays down. So far Mommy and Daddy are happy with everything that is going on. We were admitted because of Mommy's high blood pressure and poor bloodflow to me through my umbilical cord. The doctors say that Mommy's lab work has come back great, she's been keeping her blood pressure down and my heart has been beating strong. I don't really like the fetal monitor on me so I like to kick it. It makes Mommy and Daddy laugh because they see how playful I already am! Thank you to everyone who has sent their thoughts and prayers. God will help Mommy, Daddy and me through this and we will come out stronger because of it.