To my A & B friends

Enjoy them. I sure do miss the days of being a B...

the pain continues

What a waste of a morning yesterday was. On Thursday I went to see the Dr. They did a complete evaluation and concluded that I had a spinal headache. I was refered to the pain clinic. My understanding was that I was going to the pain clinic to have a blood patch done so that the hole in my spine would heal and my spinal fluid would build back up, thus relieving the headache. Instead what I did was spend an hour in a waiting room, trying to fill out paper work at 7:30 while nursing. Followed by another complete evaluation (that was the same as Thursday's) where it was concluded that I had a spinal headache. I was then told that there is a 95% chance that the hole has healed on it's own and that I'm now just waiting for my body to produce the right amount of spinal fluid so that my headache will be relieved. What I'd really like to know is why I was never told that I might heal so on my own. I was then told that if we wanted to go ahead and do the blood patch (which probably wouldn't help at this point) that we would have to schedule that for another day. All of this was fairly frustrating to someone who had only had 2.5 hours of sleep that night, and had missed another 3 hour round of sleep by packing up the family and leaving for the pain clinic at 7am.

So in conclusion:

I could use some more prayer for my headache.
1. That the hole in my spine has healed/will heal quickly.
2. That my body would get the rest and fluids it needs to replenish the spinal fluid.
3. That my head would just quit hurting so that I can be a better, saner mother.

Of course you can also continue to pray that:
4. The rest of my body would heal quickly.
5. My body would continue reabsorb the extra fluids they pumped into me for surgery. (I did lose at least 2 lbs of it between Thursday and Monday.)
6. We'd all get some rest.


As one who doesn't generally get a lot of headaches, (I took one tylonal for one headache during my pregnancy. It was during the Ethnos gathering when we had the prayer night.) I have a deeper sympathy and love towards my friends who deal with frequent headaches/migraines.

Our little research participant

We allowed Adaya to take part in a research study on Friday. They are studying the healthy lungs of full term newborns. The hope is that this study will better enable them to help the premature baby, who's biggest issue is it's underdeveloped lungs. It was a no brainer to let her participate. If studying her lungs could save another precious life. Then as a mother, I can't think of a better way to support another mother. She was asleep the whole time, and didn't even realize what was going on.

Mommy's favorite Adaya pics

Just think, someone wanted me to pay them, to take photos of my little girl. I bet they wouldn't have been nearly as cute.

Adaya's visitors part a

More ways to pray

So if you have been praying for us, I just want to say thanks. If you'd like to know how you can pray for me now...

I have a really rad headache. It's bothering me more than recovering from the actual surgery. You would think that if you were constantly on prescription strength ibuprofen and extra strength Tylenol, that you would not have a headache.

My back is sore. I'm not sure if it is from laying on an operating table for two hours, sleeping\sitting\basically living in a hospital bed for four days or what, but it aches.

Nausea, I am dealing with times when I just don't feel well.

The above mentioned items may be the result of a larger issue. There is a chance it is related to my spinal, that everything just didn't go quite right. If things do not improve I am supposed to call the Dr tomorrow.

Swelling, my body is not doing well reabsorbing the extra fluids of surgery and such. I have retained water everywhere from my hand to my feet. The biggest problem area being my feet and legs. I'm still not traversing the stairs often due to the water retention making my legs sore.

Sleep. Do I need say more?

Welcome to our world, Adaya Lee

Our little one has arrived. Wes posted a pic or two on his blog. I will post some when I'm feeling better and can go downstairs and work on our computer instead of Wes's work laptop.

Adaya Lee Smith was born on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 11:51am. She measured 20" and weighed 6lbs 11ozs. Adaya means "God's Jewel" and that's just what she is. A little jewel from God, sent from heaven, for us to love and raise in Christ. What an honor.

We arrived at OHSU at 8:15am. We were supposed to be there at 8, but traffic was bad. We figured it wouldn't matter too much since I was scheduled for 10. But after arriving we learned that we were actually scheduled for 9 and I was supposed to be there at 7. I guess there was some pretty poor communication going on there. It seems to me that it would be pretty important to let people know when their surgery is scheduled for. Lucky for us they were doing two emergency surgeries and my was pushed back.

I love IV's. Okay, not really. The nurses came in to do my IV and get fluids started. They gave me three really nice holes before they gave up and called IV therapy. I have one on the top of each wrist. But it's the one on the top of my right hand that's the winner. I had a huge knot on the back of my hand for a couple of days. Now I basically have one, huge bruise on the back of my hand. Did I mention that I thought I might pass out while they were attempting it? Yeah, it was lovely. I don't think I'd have survived if I wasn't laying down at the time. The room spun and my eyes got blurry and there was this ringing in my ears. I could hardly breathe. So they called IV therapy and we waited, and waited, and waited. In fact the surgeons and operating room were all ready, but we were still waiting for the IV. I ended up with it in the middle of my arm. It was highly uncomfortable. Any time a nurse shot anything into it, it was extremely painful.

I think I finally went to the OR at about 11. They wouldn't let Wes be there during prep, which sucked big time. He was there for Josiah's prep. It was a lot easier to "pose" for the spinal with him as a support. In fact by the time he got there I was beginning to wonder if they forgot about him. I'd already had a close to throwing up episode. After prep, things moved right along. Adaya was born and then they closed up the uterus and took at look at everything else. That's when the "incidental finding" happened. I remember the Dr asking me if I'd had my appendix removed. I remember thinking it was odd that he would ask that. Couldn't he tell if my appendix was there or not? Really, my gut was all opened up, shouldn't he know that? So they found this thing growing on my small intestine. I can't remember what they said it was, but it was basically a stomach lining cell that wandered there and began to grow. So it was a small piece of stomach lining. So they weren't sure if they should remove this thing or not. So they had to call down a surgeon from general surgery to have a looksee. However, he was in surgery, so we waited. I fairly certain that I laid on the table with my gut open an extra hour as we waited for the surgeon, waited for a special surgical instrument after the surgeon decided to remove it, and then they removed it. What fun. I could feel the spinal wearing off and kept thinking, I really hope they hurry, I don't want to feel anything. They finally finished up, good thing spinals last over 2 hours.

Off to the recovery room. We hung out there for some time. I vaguely remember getting a couple of texts while I was there. Wes actually took a picture of me trying to respond to one of them. My last spot was my room. The spinal had actually worn off so much by then that I did most of the transferring of myself to a new bed, which was so not the case with Josiah. Shortly after arriving to my home for the next four day, God placed a rainbow across the sky out my window. A gentle reminder that he was there, loving me, caring for me.

My parents came Tuesday evening. They brought Josiah. He was too cute. He loves Adaya. I can't wait to post those pics. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we had a variety of visitors. It was nice to have so many friends stop by and see us.

Saturday we came home. The first challenge of arrival was climbing the stairs. It was quite the workout. I haven't been back down since.

So here we are, Sunday evening, working on recovering from major surgery. I'm doing a little, but not much around the house. Mostly just caring for Adaya which means lots of nursing and trying to get lots of rest. And who should I hear now...

the continuing saga of "Angie's having a baby"

I have a touch of sore throat. Now would not be a good time to start caughing and sneezing. Imagine doing so on the operating table or while in stitches and staples. Please add that to my seemingly endless prayer requests of the past few weeks. While you're praying about that, please pray over the surgical adhesive. It may seem like an odd request, but I had a really bad itchy, rashy reaction to it when I had Josiah. Of course if you're going to pray over the adhesive, you can add the drugs to your list. I'd rather not be too loopy come Wednesday. :O)

Thanks again for all your prayers. I have a calm and peace about this c-section that I just can't completly explain. I balled all weekend before Josiah's. I know that it is a peace that only God can bring.

baby update

Good news. We are home from our non stress test. We passed. They got to see the baby have active times and sleepy times, and a strong, steady heart rate.

Now you can pray that I don't start labor before the c-section on Tuesday, about 10ish. If I have to have a c-section, then I'd rather it be scheduled and not emergency.

Thank you for your prayers.

Pray for us

So...
Baby is breech.
I'll be going in tomorrow morning for a non-stress test. Pending the outcome of that test, I will be having a c-section tomorrow or Tuesday. Tomorrow would mean that they suspect that something might be wrong. I don't think anything is wrong. Baby is active (right now in fact) and I feel just fine. Pray for wisdom and guidance for the Drs. Pray for a Tuesday arrival.
Thanks.

"The line is busy."

I'm beginning to hate that phrase! Seriously! I spent two hours last night, calling every 15 minutes, trying to get a hold of my parents. All I got was, "The line is busy." They're not even home tonight (it's Bible Study night) and that's still all I get. I was going to leave them a message thinking they might return it when they got home. But all I get is, "The line is busy." They have dial up. I suppose Scotty is online tonight. If they're going to be online all the time, how am I supposed to call them to have them pick up Siah when I go into labor? Seriously, they are going to miss their granddaughter's birth at this rate. They don't have call waiting or voice messaging or cell phones. All I wanted to know was whether or not Dad thought he was going to go on Siah's field trip with me on Thursday. URG!

Aren't they cute?

I snapped this shot at community group last night. These are our friends, Kevin and Tiffany, aka Kevany. They're getting married Nov 17. They brought over invitations last night and we all worked on getting them ready for mailing. We also worked on Visible Grace Auction stuff. It was a night of helping our friends.

pregnancy art

I am reading a book called Birthing from Within. It encourages you to focus on your pregnancy not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well. One of the ways in which to accomplish this is through art therapy. I created this sculpture this past week. It symbolizes the thing I feel I most need to remember and yet for some reason it is the thing I most struggle with believing.

Happy Birthday, Josiah!

Today, my baby boy is officially 4. He is growing up too fast.

Sad.

I missed my preggie water class. Sad. Josiah has two speeds, slow and super-slow. This morning was a super-slow morning. I walked out of the school at 9:10 instead of 9:00. My cashier at Freddy's was even slower than Josiah. I got stuck sitting through three lights at the Beaverton hillsdale/scholls ferry intersection, because of a bus. People are very slow about getting on and off buses. I missed my preggie water class. Sad.

Praying for mommy and baby

I posted this on the Ethnos forum and just thought I'd put it here too...

Today, believe it or not, marks 38 weeks for us. Which means we could have the baby as early as today or up to four weeks from today. Needless to say we are both nervious and excited about our upcoming delivery. So if you are the praying type, here is a list of specific things that you can be in prayer with us about.

1. Safe delivery for mom and baby
2. A successful VBAC delivery. I don't want to have to have another c-section. I think a lot of people forget that a c-section is considered major surgery and that is what it takes to recover from one.
3. That God would give me the strength to work through the pain and have a drug free delivery. Because I believe it is best for the baby and also because my body doesn't generally cope well with drugs.
4. My blood pressure has been on the rise the last couple of appointments. Pray that it would return to normal and stay within a safe range.
5. Many pregnant women who have carpol tunnel experience bad flare ups through out the pregnancy, possibly due to swelling. Mine has been increasingly painful this past week.
6. Rest and energy. That I would be able to sleep better and keep up with my four year old.
7. The time to get done those things that need done before the baby arrives.
8. That God would help us choose just the right name for our little girl.
9. Emotional stability, which is difficult when the stresses of life collide with the hormones of pregnancy.
10. That Josiah would deal with the household changes well.

Thanks. I know it's a lot, but those are the things I'm dealing with this month.

38 weeks and recent happenings

Tomorrow marks 38 weeks. Today I had a dr. appointment. Nothing new. Measuring 38 cm. Blood pressure was a little high but the dr rechecked it at the end of the appointment and it was down 10 points. So not really anything to worry about. Baby's heart rate was a nice 148.

Life has been busy the past few weeks. Ashby threw a party in the baby's honor on the 22nd. That was fun. We collected about 600 diapers for needy babies. We didn't play any games. :O) That would mean I've never had to play a game at any baby shower that was for my own baby. I like that.

I've been going to a preggie water aerobics class now that Josiah is in preschool. It's nice to get in the water and just be able to float about. I feel so heavy when I get out. Gravity sucks.

Thursday and Friday I did a lot of last minute birthday party prep. Including the creation of dino island. I recommend that all the women out there forgo having parties for their other children when they are 8 1/2 months pregnant. By the time the party was over and all the kids went home, I was just beat. We had a time of playing, followed by peanut butter playdoh, and then it was time for the dino egg hunt outside. We then sang happy birthday and the children happily ate dino island cake. Finally we unwrapped presents. It's amazing how eager all the children where to help Josiah with that task. We opened up all of Josiah's new dinos and the kids were all happily occupied until parents came. We kept a couple of the kids till about 5, at which time I collapsed.

But wait! The day isn't over yet. Shortly there after I was off to the store to pick up perscriptions, milk, dinner for Josiah and Grandma Smith, and Josiah's Christmas present (I got a fab founder's day deal at Freddy's). We ran home to drop things off and then headed back out for Anthony and Sara's engagment party. We finally arrived home at about ten. And while beginning to get ready for bed, Josiah awoke in tears. So we spent the next hour or so trying to get him calm and back into bed.

So I didn't do much early Sunday. I was beat and then some. At 3:30 we left to host a concert at Our Place CC. After the concert it was time to go to our weekly dinner out. And then home.

I'm still feeling rather tired today. But it is time to get back to work on getting the baby's room together...