Our night

Usually 5:00-7:00 around here is pretty tough....Abby is hungry and tired and so am I...Today was different.

First, she helped me unload all the groceries

She put away all the fruit, veggies, bread, yogurt...and then toothpaste.  I love her.

Our green pepper plant is inside because of all the cool weather lately...I was hoping to salvage the last few green peppers we had.  Today she picked one (it was a small one) and took it and threw it away in the garbage!  My only thought on this is whenever there is a leaf on the floor, I tell her to put it in the garbage  she did the same with our mini green pepper.  So, I decided we could pick the rest of the green peppers for the season.  She picked one and was THRILLED when I cut it up right then and there and let her eat it.  

Oh, and after putting away the groceries, she put away all the bags...

(We usually don't get ALL plastic bags but were running out because of all the babies and diapers around here...So, I did a full grocery shop with plastic bags, I know...shame on me)

And then some other things that happened tonight....

• We were sitting at dinner...She looked at me and said, "Mom" I respond "yes", "Momma?" "yes," "Momeeeeee"  "yes sweet girl, I love you so much!"
• Today while grocery shopping she grabbed my hand several times, rubbed it on her face and then leaned in for a hug.
• We now play "wake up"  I laid on the kitchen floor with Abby and pretended to sleep.  Her job is to come over and wake me up with a kiss!  We switch roles and she sleeps..complete with the snoring sound.  It is so cute.
• She is a champ at brushing her teeth again (a few weeks ago we went through an awesome spell where she wouldn't let us put the toothbrush in her mouth!)
• She waits for daddy to come home at the door and squeals when she sees him come out of the garage.

I guess that is it for tonight, I just didn't want to forget these great memories.  I love Abby.

Abby

Abigail, I can't get enough of you.  I love you so much and you are doing so many fun things I can't believe how quickly you are growing.

• I asked you go to get the wipes because I was changing Levi's diapers...You went and grabbed the wipes from our diaper basket, then went to his diaper bag, unzipped it, pulled out his "diaper sack" and brought it to me.  You are so smart.
• I can ask you for stuff from your kitchen and you run to the kitchen, grab it, and bring it back to me.
• You match toys together i.e. "find the two bugs...."  
• You love the baby toys we have out right now for Levi and Iris.
• You wake up and when we walk in your room you immediately lay back down like you are still sleeping.
• Jumping is your favorite.
• We could sing songs for HOURS.  You love the ones with motions. Row Row Row Your Boat, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, Deep and Wide, Jesus Loves Me, Itsy Bitsy Spider.
• You  have nicknames for people.
• You are a repeating machine..You say the first syllable of every word we say.  You are working on two word phrases and when you really want something you add a please.
• You still say thank you unprompted all the time.  I love that about you.
• When daddy comes home you run to the door and give him a big hug.
• You are going through a mommy stage right now.
• You walk into nursery at church like you own the place.
• You love your babies and your monkeys
• You play with your doll house and put everyone to bed, feed them dinner, and put the baby on the rocking horse.
• You want to walk everywhere...When we pick you up you say, "walll, walll"
• If you could be outside all day, you would.
• You love watering the plants and had so much fun picking the tomatoes
• You are into your videos (after nap especially) and right now you are preferring baby Einstein over baby signing time, actually your favorites are the "older" DVD's from the library...The ones that have songs that get stuck in my head for days.
• You wake up from nap and say "shhhh" in the hall because lots of times we have babies sleeping up there.
• You go to bed without a peep.  You mostly sleep through the night, although you were a little sick this week and woke up coughing twice.  So sad little girl!
• You love to shut the front door.  If I want a breeze, I have to open a window.
• You do a good job sharing with other adults and kids.

Abby, I could go on and on about your little personality.  I love you more and more each day and everyday I feel like my love couldn't grow any more, but somehow it does.  You bring my heart so much joy.  We are blessed to have you.

Cider Mill

No apples :(

Really mom? another picture?

Beauties!

Picking up the straw and putting it in a pile...one of her favorite tasks, I think she is a little like her mama and wants to reorganize all the time....

Family picture!

"ber ber"

Feeding the goats....They didn't eat any of that food....

hilarious

Raspberries with "ra-ra"

A few weeks ago we went to the cider mill as a family and met up with some extended family.  Thankfully we had grandma there who spent the big bucks for cider and donuts!  That stuff is expensive!  And you better believe we ate and drank every last drop of that cider... The sad news is that the apple crop was so bad this year, we didn't get to pick any apples!  However, we did get to pick raspberries, and that was Abby's favorite part.  Thankfully we have awesome cousins who help watch our little one!

IVIG #3

St Joe's hospital is great.

I am the "IVIG girl" All the new nurses that come in to see me say they just got done talking to another person about how to streamline this process for me, how to get me in and out quickly.

They work so hard there...They all know that I have read up on this process and know the routine, so they ask for help when needed.  I know the process and the helpful hints along the way, they know the medical stuff.  I love it that we work together.

IVIG treatment #3 was just under four hours.  I had great nurses AND one of them is married to someone who graduated from USAFA in 79....I guess it goes to show that wearing my PJ's to the hospital and Steve's Tshirt (because mine don't fit...) is beneficial!  I met another USAFA wife!

3 treatments down, a whole lot more to go.

IVIG #2

Treatment #2 was SO great!

I had an awesome nurse, Stacy, who took care of everything so quickly!  She had the IV pump and IVIG ordered before I got here and even had a runner going to get the IVIG from the pharmacy to get it up to labor and delivery quickly.

I am hoping each treatment gets easier and a little speedier every time.

This treatment only lasted 4 hours total!  I was thrilled when I left the hospital thinking, "Yahoo!  Four hours and I was in and out!"  I am sure 20 weeks from now I will be thinking, "Ugh, four hours takes forever!"  But, I just have to remind myself that this is to keep our little one safe and healthy.

I did get a terrible headache this weekend and I don't know if it had to do with the IVIG or just because I got a headache.  I hope it doesn't come back.  It was awful.

Doing treatment #3 right now, hopefully it is as smooth as treatment #2!

IVIG Treatment Update

Here is our pregnancy/IVIG treatment update:

Our first ultrasound picture of BK2.  We have had four already and are thrilled that they are monitoring our little nugget so closely!

I am going to start at the beginning and am going to try to be brief, so bear with me:

• When Abby was born she had no platelets.  This is because Steve and I have conflicting platelets   When she was in the womb, blood mixed in through the cord, and my body saw her platelets as foreign.  My body created antibodies which entered Abby's blood and killed all of her platelets   When she was born she had a blood transfusion and a dose of IVIG to help build her platelet count back up.  That worked well.  However, with her, it went more extreme than that and she had a bleed on her brain because her blood didn't clot for the first two days of her life.
• After Abby's birth, Steve and I got tested and there is a 50% chance of future pregnancies having this same issue.
• Because of the issues with Steve and my blood not being compatible I have to get treatments each week which help neutralize the antibodies that my body makes to fight off the baby's antibodies, that treatment is called IVIG.  I am amazed at how IVIG works because it targets the specific antibodies my body makes (HPB-3a) and works with that to neutralize the antibodies so they don't try to kill the antibodies of the baby.  Modern medicine is a miracle!
• I started my first dose of treatments yesterday.  It was a LONG procedure.  I got to the hospital at 6:00 pm and left at 2:30 am.  The procedure will hopefully be faster in the future as they are able to up the rate at which they give me IVIG based on how my body handles it. The procedure itself was fine.  I laid in a bed, had an IV and felt fine.  However, after the procedure was done, my blood pressure dropped pretty drastically and I had to stay at the hospital for about 2 hours after to make sure it came back up.  Other than that, I have had NO side effects (no headaches, nausea, fatigue, etc.)  I am glad my body is tolerating it well. 
• I have to have these treatments every week, so it has caused a bit of a disruption in our lives.  I am hoping that future infusions will be more smooth and I won't be at the hospital as long.  It was tough getting up today at 6:45 am when I didn't get home until 2:30 am (and then, of course, couldn't fall asleep...)
• There is a silver lining in all of this.  Well, several as a matter of fact.
• First and foremost, IVIG will alleviate all of the blood issues we had when Abby was born.  When we were in the NICU with her we were told she will have severe developmental delays.  From what we see of our daughter, she is a walking miracle and exactly where the Lord wants her to be.  We are still in awe of His healing power in her life.  We are so grateful for modern medicine and the wisdom of doctors to help us through this process.
• Secondly, as I said before, there is a 50% chance of this happening with future pregnancies.  You can test the baby at 20 weeks with an amnio (it isn't a "regular" amnio, because they need to get a specific part of the blood) but we can test to see if the baby has the "bad" platelets and if that is the case, I will continue to do IVIG treatments for the rest of the pregnancy.  If the baby doesn't have the "bad" platelets  I will not have to continue having IVIG and it will be treated as a typical "non high risk" pregnancy.  We are still praying about what to do with the amnio and would appreciate your prayers on this.  The IVIG treatments are not invasive to the baby AT ALL.  It is just an inconvenience for us.  However, the amnio is invasive (amnios happen successfully all the time) The issue here is that when you puncture with a needle (as you would with an amnio) there is the risk of mixing blood.  And when blood mixes, it is not a good thing if the baby has the "bad" platelets   The good thing is that my doctor has ordered IVIG treatments early, so that if we decide to do an amnio, and the blood mixes, and our blood is incompatible, then my body already has IVIG in it to neutralize the antibodies my body would create to attack the baby's platelets.  This is a LONG description, I know, thanks for bearing with me.  I am trying to keep it short.  
• So, our prayers would be the following:


• That my IVIG infusions would continue to be successful and that I don't have any serious side effects.
• That we would have wisdom as to what to do with the amnio and we would make the best decision for baby.  We are going to talk to the doctor in the upcoming weeks to get more information on that because, to be honest, I am not exactly sure of what all the details are with an amnio.
• That this is all covered by insurance.  It is about $1500/procedure. Doing that every week for 28 more weeks (yes, I am already counting down...it was a LONG night) is pretty expensive!
• And, as always, and most importantly, prayer for a healthy baby. 

A few pictures because a blog post wouldn't be the same without pictures...

The four bottles of IVIG that I got last night.  The first bottle took over three hours, but then they were able to up the dosage, but the end of the night, it only took 45-50 minutes/bottle.

A glorious picture of me..You can tell how thrilled I was about the IV in my right arm, being in a hospital gown, and being there for 2 hours not having gone through one of those bottles yet when I knew there were three more to go!

Surprise!

Surprise!

Yup, that is right, BK2 (baby Klenke 2) is due in April!