Almost 5 months

Lucanne will turn 5 months this week and she is growing like a weed. Last week I weighed her at almost 15 1/2 lbs. At her last "well baby" check-up she was in the 75th percentile for height, weight, and head size.


Every day she does something new and every day she makes me laugh.

She is a great baby and a pretty happy one too. In normal baby fashion, she causes her Mommy to freak out on occasion - like deciding to roll off the couch on Saturday. She is trying to crawl across the couch as I type now...


Lucanne loves to look at photos, especially photos in magazines. She loves to play with the pages and try to turn them on her own. Given the opportunity they will end up in her maw in a soggy mess! I am certain that she will be a competitive catalog shopper!!


One of Lucanne's newest tricks is to stick her fingers in her mouth and blow like she were whistling. It is adorable, but very messy!! She also loves to be bounced and even startled with a game of peek-a-boo.


Perhaps because she still has no hair, or perhaps it is because it is so darned cute our dear friends Jason and Linda found her this adorable strawberry knitted cap:

Don't let her expression fool you...she loves it, but thought it tasted better than it looked on her!

Lucanne isn't much of a napper, but there are probably few things she likes more than her Loki. If only Loki was spaciously aware enough to lay next to her, not on her they both might get more naps. But Lucanne loves her Loki enough to let her lay on a limb or two for a while!

Happy Halloween Nonnie!!!

The New Toy...

Baby Einstein Strikes Again....

Let me do it!!

Lucanne has started taking the spoon from us....

First "Real" Food

Bath Time

I found my toes....

Lucanne Alexandra and the Reluctant Father

I am the reluctant father, not reluctant in my love or admiration or awe of our child, but reluctant in my desire to spontaneously share that love, admiration, and awe with others.

Every father speaks about their children with pride and I am no exception, but I have been resolved in my goal of not being "that guy". You know the guy that so expounds on his child's gifts and achievements that he has become a boorish git that you try to avoid. When asked I do go on (ramble) about our remarkable daughter, but my policy is that I try not to volunteer my stories.

The last week has seen three rather amazing things from our two-month-old: mimicry, preference, and her first word. I now break my reluctance policy to expound at length on our amazing child and her incredible development.

Since the day she was born, Lucanne Alexandra has displayed unusual development. 14 hours after her birth the staff Pediatrician at the hospital, while giving Lucanne her first exam, commented on three things that he had rarely (or never) seen in a newborn. She only seemed to cry as a specific response to stimulus, not indiscriminately as most newborns. When she did cry she was very quick to calm herself. And finally, she could focus her eyes. This last point was very shocking to him as he realized that not only could she focus, but she was following his movements with her eyes at various depths.

Within the first two days of her life, Karna and I came to realize that Lucanne already had a vocabulary of sounds. Not just a variety of cries, she had very distinct noises each with specific purposes. She only cried at pain, she grunted when she was hungry (earning her first nickname - McGilla Gorilla), and she whimpered softly when uncomfortable (specifically with a dirty diaper). The older she gets the more nuanced this vocabulary of sounds has become.

Within the first two weeks, Lucanne had reach significant milestones of rolling on to her side unassisted, scooting all over the bed when placed on her stomach, being able to hold her head up on her own (albeit for only 30-90 seconds before she lost focus and let it flop down), and finally rolling over on her own. According to the popular baby books, most of these milestones would be expected at three months or well beyond in some cases.

By a month she was smiling - and not "from gas". When Karna told her mother about the smiling, Monika was dismissive that it was gas, but when Karna brought Lucanne to Monika's office so she could show off her granddaughter, the baby cooed, smiled, and even giggled her way through all the attention. At that moment Monika realized something remarkable is going on with this child. Also within that first month she went from holding her head up to moving it all around, following noises and movement

In the last month, Karna and I have become accustomed to Lucanne's abilities and haven't really reacted to what are really remarkable feats. When I reflect on it, there are many things to note:

• She had always had a purposeful grip since the day she was born; she held on to my finger for an hour while the nurses attended her. In the last month she began reaching for and grabbing things.
• She's also been trying to pull herself up, she can't get there on her own, but she can get half way.
• She's begun lifting her torso with her back muscles, again she can't sit up or anything, but when either Karna or I go to pick her up, she lifts her back toward us to help.
• She's begun to use her face to express what she's thinking/feeling - most notably she furrow's her brow (just like her Daddy) when she's frustrated or working something out.
• Also like her Daddy, she Michael Jordans her tongue when she's trying hard to do something, like pulling herself up.
• She also began "talking" in the last month, not words, but really purposeful noises, usually when she's trying to get attention.
• Finally, when set on an incline against my knees, Lucanne has begun to start to push herself up with her legs.

This gets you caught up on Lucanne in the first several weeks of her life and brings us to the astonishing developments of the last week...

Mimicry - last Friday, I was holding our daughter on my lap so she could work on pushing with her legs. This activity always gets her very engaged and usually smiling. It also is a source of relief to her when she's got gas, as the bending of her legs usually helps her pass the gas. So we were doing her "squats" and she extended her legs all the way and she just stopped and stared at me, very intently. I was stuck for what to do so I stuck my tongue out at her, she did the same. I was skeptical that this was a coincidence and I did it again, nothing. Now more convinced the first time was a coincidence, I did it a third time; Lucanne stuck her tongue out again. Now, my skepticism waning, I kept sticking my tongue out, and most times Lucanne mimicked me. My last fleeting wedge of skepticism vanished when I rolled my tongue and Lucanne spent 5 minutes trying to do it. (For those of you interested in the genetically inherited trait of tongue-rolling, she did finally get it - sort of - but I could see that her tongue definitely does articulate that way, she just couldn't hold it there.)

Preference - Last Sunday, Karna was holding Lucanne in her lap and Lucanne was watching the TV. She's been doing that for about 3-4 weeks now, but we always thought it was a mindless attention grabber and not something she was thinking about. Lucanne is always attentive and rarely startled by loud noises when she's awake, the dogs, thunder, and noises like that don't faze her. In the car when she's fussy a heavy bass line, rap or trance music, generally is soothing to her. This particular evening we were watching "The Kingdom", a heavily violent political thriller type movie - lots of noise of bombs and gunfire. I paused the movie to talk to Karna about a particular scene and Lucanne WENT OFF!!! She was MAD!!! The timing was too coincidental for me to dismiss her fury as anything else, so I restarted the movie and she settled right down. I assumed it was the noise she was engaged by so I muted the TV - this didn't faze her, she kept watching. I paused it again (still muted) and again she WENT OFF!!! I changed the channel; she paused in her tantrum to see what was on the TV and immediately went back to her tantrum. It wasn't until we were back on the movie that she settled down and went back to watching. She wanted to watch THAT movie - I only can hope she still doesn't understand what she was seeing...we need to get "Baby Einstein" QUICKLY!!!

First Word - Since I recognized that Lucanne had a vocabulary of sounds, I began talking to her based on those sounds. The first night we had her home, I was holding her and she started getting fidgety and grunting, so I asked her, "Lucanne, are you hungry? Hungry?" Karna teased me that first time saying "Are you kidding, she's two-days-old? What do you expect?" But very quickly Karna realized what potential Lucanne has and started doing the same thing. So since birth we've not baby-talked Lucanne, we just ask her about what's going on with her based on her sounds. We generally will repeat and focus on the key word to the situation: hungry, dirty, tired, etc.

For about the past three or four days Lucanne has been responding to those questions, especially "Are you hungry?” Four days ago when she got fidgety, Karna would ask her "Are you hungry?" and Lucanne would reply with "ugh-y". I was completely dismissive thinking that we were hearing what we wanted to hear and it was a coincidence. Two days ago when asked she added a letter to the word and said "ung-y". Again I was dismissive, I mean I know this child is exceptional, but a word at two-months old?!?!

Last night she said it three times, each time more fully developing the word. The first time was in the early evening. She got fussy and Karna asked her, "Are you hungry?” She replied with ung-y and then proceeded to fuss until she got fed. I was again dismissive. Later in the evening while Karna was changing her, Lucanne spontaneously added the "h" and said "hug-y". I didn't hear that one and was equally dismissive. Finally it was late evening and Karna had just handed me Lucanne after a fresh diaper and a change into her night gown and she got really agitated and fussy. I was trying to hold her on my lap so she could do her leg pushing and she started to get really agitated, so I asked her, "Lucanne! What is going on with you?!?" and she replied "Hung-y!" clear as day. I couldn't be dismissive, but I was skeptical, she had just fed 30 minutes prior. So I handed her to Karna, she SMILED, and latched on for a long feeding.

So there you have it, not only did our daughter say her first word, but she knows what it means and uses it correctly. I am astounded and will be telling anyone who will listen this story for days at least!!

When I put it all in perspective the reality of this little girl’s ability just floors me. Today she is 8-weeks-old and we already are going to have to watch what we say, watch what have on the TV, and figure out what we need to be doing to stimulate her well. I have a feeling that by the time she's two-years-old, Lucanne will be asking questions Karna and I won't have answers to...we are in deep s#!t...and I love it!! And I love our family!!

With much love to all,
Ty

Lucanne at 3 weeks

Yesterday was Lucanne's 2 week follow up with the family doctor. She is now up to 8lbs and 11oz, 21 inches long and her head has a 35cm circumference. In just two weeks she had gone from being in the 25th percentile for weight and length to being in the 50th percentile. (Her head is now in the 75th percentile!) Every thing was a-okay and she was an absolute champ about letting the doctor put lights, probes and other machines in her eyes, ears and mouth. She didn't cry or fuss except when the doctor put his icy cold stethoscope on her chest and when they did the "heel stick" for her follow up PKU (genetic test). Can't say I blame her there. OUCH! (Photo: Nonnie, Lucanne & Grandpa Robbie)

The dogs (still) absolutely love her and guard over her 24/7. Aria gets so stressed whenever Lucanne cries. Lucanne apparently loves them too, especially when they lick her toes. (Photo: Lucanne lying next to her Loki)

Lucanne has been showing us her different facial expressions so we are getting a taste of what a beautiful smile she will have! She furrows her brow when concentrating...definitely a trait she shares with her daddy.


Her hair is turning lighter with every passing day. She still has all the hair she was born with, but now in some places it could almost pass for white-blond. GranMomika thinks it could end up being a strawberry-blond. Grandma Nonnie thinks it will get curly. I think it will be a long time before we know for sure...if she is anything like me what she has now will all fall out and we won't know anything about her hair until she is past 2 years old when it finally looks less like peach fuzz! (Photo: Nonnie with a sleeping Lucanne)

Her sparkling blue eyes and cherub-like face turns heads every where we go. Whether it is out to lunch, at the grocery, or shopping at Babies'R'Us she just draws people's attention! I don't think I have ever seen so many people fuss over a baby before. Elderly people want to stop and look at her, men in restaurants will chat us up, groups of people turn their heads to get a look at her, strange women will stop me and want to know all the details surrounding her birth, even little kids want to check her out and ask her name. It is an odd sensation to me. Do people actually do this to other newborns, or is there some extra special charm about Lucanne like the new age/spiritual healer suggested when we first found out we were facing complications in the pregnancy?? I know she is something special to me and her Daddy. I still get all choked up when I look into her eyes and tell her how much she is loved!

Much to my chagrin, she has her Daddy's finger and toe nails. They apparently will need to be trimmed every week! Both of us have scratch marks as she explores the physical world immediately around her with her hands, and strengthen her legs with kicks.

Lucanne eats like a little piglet, sometimes feasting for an hour or more before being sated. This wouldn't be so bad if she didn't choose her 2am feeding time or my dinner time to stock up on her food stores! (Photo: Lucanne sleeping on her Daddy's chest)

Mostly, Lucanne sleeps 3-4 hours at a time. She is becoming more alert and staying awake longer in between naps though. Even at night she is still letting us get 3-4 hours of uninterrupted sleep...mostly. She does get some gastric distress that does hinder her sleep at times, but mostly she just toots it out without waking up. I've never heard a newborn fart so loudly!! :D

Granpa Robbie and Grandma Nonnie visited last week. They were a great help with Nonnie "spoiling" Lucanne rotten with holding her as much as possible and Grandpa doing odds and ends to help us around the house. Nonnie also helped me with a lot of household chores like laundry, dishes, and picking up. What a relief it was to have their help! I didn't realize just how tired I really was!! (Photo: Lucanne getting love from Grandpa Robbie)

Lucanne is an absolute gem. She clearly loves being held which is a good thing since no one wants to put her down! We are so pleased to have her with us.

Introducing....

Welcome, sweet baby Lucanne Alexandra Robbins!!!

Sorry this is so late in coming, but her first week in the wide world was a rather hectic one for Mom! On May 29, at 6:41pm, Lucanne decided to introduce herself to the world. It was a long, hard road to get here, but she did make it...and on her own time.

At 1:20am on Thursday my water broke leaving me in a bit of a confused state. Here I was, sound asleep, dreaming peacefully, when my dream suddenly changed into a half alert state of pseudo dreaming. Within a few seconds I realized that my dream was a reality and baby was on the way!

In real time it took me about a half hour to wake up Ty and an hour to call the doctor, who immediately said to start to head down the hill to the hospital despite having no contractions. To me it felt like only a few minutes had passed. I made the call to Mom and we headed down to the hospital.

After approximately 10 hours of labor and no progression in dilation, Lucanne rotated around and I went into what is called back labor. I wasn't feeling a thing in my stomach, but I could barely stand the pain in my back as she pressed up against my pelvis and spine. As much as I wanted to do a completely natural labor with no drugs or intervention I had to ask for an Epidural. With the Epidural came the first doses of Pitocin to get the dilation in gear. After the Epidural I became a much more lively person as I no longer had to worry about feeling anything at all. At some point Kevin showed up at the hospital to lend his support, but by this time I had absolutely no concept of time. It could have been 6 in the morning for all I knew.

Even with the Epidural and Pitocin, or maybe because of, it still took several more hours until I had reached the full 10cm of dilation to start the pushing phase of labor. But just because I was at that stage didn't mean it was going to go any faster. In an in-your-face style, Lucanne apparently made a decision to wait until after my OB left to make her entrance.

With a new OB on hand and 2 and 3/4 hours of pushing Lucanne was hung up on my pelvic bone and not able to make it out on her own. The OB informed us that if she did not come out soon we would have to go into surgery. Another option would be to use a suction device called a Kiwi to help re-adjust the position of her head and hope she moved down on her own. Since all our birth planning flew out the window with the introduction of the Epidural and Pitocin we decided to try the suction once before going to the more drastic measure of surgery. Thankfully, the Kiwi worked and 3 pushes later Lucanne was laying on my stomach!

Despite having problems with the OB and the delivery, we are extremely grateful to have our Lucanne with us. It was arduous, but at the end of the journey it was all worth the wait. Lucanne was born at 7 lbs even, 19.5 inches long and with quite a bit of sandy blond hair.

We were released from the hospital at about 1:30 Friday and took her home to meet the dogs. The dogs have been wonderful with her. They seem to love her and worry about her whenever she cries...which isn't really all that often.

11 days later and she is still doing great. She sleeps 4-5 hours at a time and is feeding wonderfully. Mom is doing good and is recovering nicely. Dad is a trooper and helps tons by offering to change diapers, get her from her cradle in the middle of the night, and even give her an occasional bottle when needed. When he holds her and talks to her she is calmed by his voice. And you can tell that he is completely smitten by her!!

Thanks again to everyone who sent their prayers and thoughts while we were going through the rough parts! We hope you all get the chance to meet her soon! She is as precious as any baby can be, and even more so to us after everything we went through to get her here!!!

38 Weeks

As things are starting to wind down into the final weeks the news just keeps getting better and better!

Yesterday we had our final visit to the specialists and got to see Lucanne for the final time in ultrasound. The sonographer was able to point out that Lucanne currently has a full head of hair and it is actually quite long at this time. This comes as some surprise to me since my own hair was so fine and light that you couldn't really see it at all until I was 2!!! Lucanne was measured and while this is the first time she didn't meet the average sizing for her "age" she still weighed in at 6lbs 8 ozs!! The doctor figures that she could easily be a 7 1/2 pounder by birth if she keeps growing the way she is now. This pretty amazing seeing how things started for us and how just a few months ago the fear of losing her or having her prematurely was a high probability. The fluids went up this time to over 11cm and that seemed to surprise everyone since it should actually be going down now, not up, but we'll take it.

We also had our weekly visit to the OB yesterday and he is now thinking that she is staying put; he even joked that she may not come until August now. He tries, but he really isn't funny at all!!! We have no signs of dilation still so I still predict she will be a week late and I am perfectly happy to have her come whenever she is ready!!

Work is progressing on getting the house ready for a baby, but I know that I will not be done on time, no matter how many hands I have helping me out. I have resigned myself to not having the nursery painted and seeing as how the crib and baby furniture isn't even expected for another 5-7 weeks I am OK with it all. Still, on many days I have to remind myself that it isn't as important to have it all done before she comes because she won't care what her space looks like for a long while!

Meanwhile, I am glad to say that it seems like Winter has finally left us...at least this week! While we had around 8 inches of snow just last Wednesday, this weekend it warmed up enough to feel like Summer is barreling its way full speed towards us. We are expecting rain this week and over the holiday weekend, so maybe we will see something that resembles Spring yet...only time will tell. I have to admit that even though my body doesn't care much for the heat, I am definitely glad to be rid of the white stuff this year! Being on bed rest and having nothing much better to do than watch the snow fall can be as depressing as Seattle in the grayest of times. :~D (Still, I'm glad I will not to have to go through the worst of the summer heat pregnant and without air conditioning, that is for sure!)

Oh, and if the Penguins sweep Detroit in the Stanley Cup Finals Lucanne may end up with the middle name Sidney (after "Super Sidney Crosby" for those of you who don't follow the game)!! GO PENS!!

37 Weeks

This week we had just one appointment and that was just to check our status. We still have no dilation and very, very little effacement, but that Lucanne's head has moved down just a little further into place. The OB thinks now it may take a few weeks to get there, but he warned that it could happen very suddenly and not take any time at all. The excitement is mounting!! As is my need to nest!

Week 36...almost there!

We are officially at 36 weeks and getting excited now! Yesterday we had our double duty appointments and everything is going along just great!

First, we went to the regular doctor who has finally decided that the non-stress tests will not show us anything useful and has agreed to stop putting me into the torture chair weekly. I still need to get a photo of the chair to show you all what I am talking about when I whine about a 30 year old device that is designed to make mom so uncomfortable that she might just forget her daily pregnancy woes to the backache caused by sitting in this device! We had a basic exam which showed exactly what I expected...this baby isn't ready yet and isn't isn't going to be forced into the world any sooner than she wants to come! The baby hasn't "dropped" yet and I am not dilated or effaced in any way. She is still an active little bugger and even kicked the doctor when he was trying to push her into a position he wanted her in to listen to her heart rate. (That's MY girl!) She also had the hiccups...something that happens now 3-4 times a day...while he was listening, which made him laugh. So while we are still going to have weekly appointments with the doctor she is taking her time and enjoying life right where she is...much to the doctor's chagrin, I suspect!

Next, we headed over to the hospital for our bi-weekly sonogram. The sonographer was one we hadn't seen before and didn't care much for. I'm sure some of you have heard about the newest trend in ultrasounds, the 3D picture. It is supposed to let you see what your baby is going to look like and has a fairly high rate of accuracy in visuals. If you want to know what her face is going to look like you can use this technology to get a good idea. Well, we knew from talking with our normal sonographer that you cannot see a thing with this technology if you don't have a lot of fluids in front of the baby's face or if you have an anterior placenta. Our sonographer, without asking us if we were interested in this and in a huge waste of our insurance company's money, just plops us into 3D mode and tries to look at the baby's face. Well, we knew it wouldn't work, but we still ended up with a picture of a sepia toned blob that we were told we could use our imaginations to see the features!! What a waste of time, I only hope we don't get billed for the wasted resource because those can run anywhere up to $5,000!! So the specialist finally shows up and it turns out not to be the one we usually see...I had no idea there were 11 doctors in their practice that we could see at any give time regardless of who we schedule with! This one I liked well enough, despite the annoying habit she had of talking so quietly that no one around her could hear what she was saying! This gal actually took the time to read our charts in front of us from cover to cover (like a good doctor should) before sitting down to look at the baby. I cannot tell you the surprise she gave us when she read a note from the other doctor saying we were supposed to get an amniocentesis and possibly have an induction of labor next week!!! WOW! Talk about your shockers! Here our doctor just two weeks ago said she didn't agree with the talk of induction because of how well Lucanne was doing, but then apparently notates that we should have an amnio and induction without ever discussing either with us?! Again, I say WOW! Not only was this not discussed with us, but we never would agree to doing an amnio unless there were some reason for it and we had no indication that one was ever intended, let alone needed. This really makes enforces my theory that these doctors up here are only interested in forcing a birth so they get their way and don't have to do any unscheduled births. I don't care if I have to give birth in the car on the way to the hospital, I am not letting any doctor take unnecessary medical action to make it easier on them and to get to charge 20-30% more in the process! So finally the doc sits down and looks at the baby. She says we are normal in every way (except the fluids, of course) then spends a good 15 minutes looking at various Dopplers. Yes, that is Dopplers, as in what you hear on the evening weather reports. The Doppler in a sonogram allows the doctor to see and hear the pulsing of the blood through the arteries and flow back through the veins. We got to not only experience the Dopplers within our girl, but also in the umbilical cord back out to me! Pretty cool, and yes, on the sonogram it looks just like the red and blue weather Dopplers on the news! Again, everything is going well and all news seems to be good news with this kiddo.

I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone again for their love and support. We could not have made it easily through these 4+ months and we are so grateful that every one of you is a part of our lives. I'd also like to again thank Uncle Kevin & Aunt Kim for their gracious lending of the cradle, "Nonnie" Kelly for the Dragonfly crib bedding and a great BIG thank you to Aunt Lane for the recently received remaining coordinating Dragonfly items. I have already loaded the diaper stacker with newborn diapers in anticipation of Lucanne's imminent arrival and I look forward to actually getting the nursery put together soon. Now that bed rest restrictions are a little lighter I am working my way back to sanity by cleaning and nesting as much as I can take. A couple of hours a day is about all I can take at a time, but boy do I feel accomplished by the end of that day! I am hoping to start painting with eco-friendly, stink free paint in the next few weeks.

I'd like to do a friends and family pool of when Lucanne will arrive. I've personally think she will arrive June 7th...what is your guess?

34 Weeks and Counting

Finally, as requested, I have posted a photo of "the bump" for all you to see. This was actually taken several weeks ago but I keep forgetting to put it up on the blog.

Yesterday we had our 34 week appointments with both the specialist and the regular doctors. At the regular doctor's office, in typical fashion, I was hooked up to the baby monitor/torture chamber and left alone in the usual discomfort. After a much shorter time than usual, the doc comes over, proclaims that the baby's monitoring is very satisfactory. I chalk this up to Ty & I finding the right chair/body positioning and adjustments of the monitors into the correct places that the staff could not seem to manage! He then proceeds to tell us that we could deliver in about 3 weeks, but being as adamant as I am that Lucanne should come into this world in her own time, this news not sit well with either myself or Ty. When asked by Ty about methods, the doc said that we could start by him manually breaking the water and wait to see what happens and if that doesn't work we could use meds to induce labor. Surprisingly c-section was not in his vocaulary at this time! Ty then asked him why we would induce labor and the doc's only response was to say that since we have worried about her this long why should we prolong the worry for the final 3 weeks. He did preface all this by saying that it really depended on what our fluid levels were doing.

I am sure some of you are asking , "Why wait for nature, when you have a doctor ready, willing and heartily able to speed things up for you?!" Well, the truth of it is this...babies know when they are supposed to come into the world. Besides, studies are now saying that labor induced by a doctor manually breaking the water tend to be more uncomfortable and are far more painful on mom; plus more medications are administered and these drugs can actually slow down the natural laboring processes. On average, induced active labor can be 3-4 times longer and harder than in a natural occuring labor. It is amazing what you can learn about when you have been on bed rest for nearly 5 months and have access to all the books Amazon and Barnes & Noble can sell you online!!

Immediately following the first appointment we went over to the hospital to see the specialist and have another high resolultion ultrasound. Right off the bat we see that Lucanne still looks to be right on target with her growth and all her organs appear to be functioning as they should. She now weighs in at 4lbs, 12ozs. I get nervous abouth the fluids, but am relieved to see that we are at 10.73cm. While this is actually lower than 2 weeks ago, it is only by 1 cm and to still be in double digits is a good sign. The specialist walks in and says she loves it when a baby proves her wrong like this!! She says we can safely consider this pregnancy a huge sucess, we should have no worries about carrying to full term, and she doesn't see any point in us continuing to go in for weekly monitoring. Both Ty and I chime in saying that our OB just advised us to induce in 3 weeks and ask her to make a point to tell him her opinions. She said it would be "ok" to deliver the baby at 37 weeks, but thought we were better off to "let her come on her own time". It is that time in pregnancy where I would normally be going in for weekly check ups and I am hopeful that we will now have some leverage to skip the weekly monitoring from here on out.

We feel it is good news all around at this time. Its playoff season for the Mammoth (LaCrosse), the Avs and the Nuggets and while they are are in good standings, we are in the home stretch and I am starting to get more and more excited to meet the little sparkplug that has been fighting against all the doctors' odds!

32 Weeks...only 8 more to go!!!

I apologize to all of you who were waiting to hear what has been happening with the pregnancy! I've been slacking on my blogging duties in order to take care of things that needed to be done in March. In the weeks since my last blog I've been relegated to returning to the specialist every 2 weeks for fluid measurements and weekly visits to the OB for baby monitoring. The monitoring is still just plain awful. My visit two weeks ago consisted of 45 minutes in the torture chair with a brief 20 second pop in of the doctor. In that 20 seconds he said that the pain I have been feeling whenever I move my left leg for the last several weeks could be a strain, sprain, dislocation or broken bones in my tailbone. Nothing to be done in any case but suffer through the pain and hope it gets better. It isn't uncommon for a baby's position to cause problems in the "S.I. Joint". And baby, let me tell you it isn't fun! That visit also didn't provide good test results, whether that meant that things looked bad on the results or that the results just didn't come out clear enough to make the doctor happy I still don't know. The week before that, at 30 weeks, we went to see the specialist and he had bad news. We dropped from 11 cm to 8 cm of fluid and they were starting to worry again.

Needless to say, little Lucanne had something more to prove to the doctors at 32 weeks! When we went in on Monday for our 32 week visit to the OB she kicked and bucked and probably would have hollered and screamed if she could be heard and the readings were more to the doc's liking. Minutes after leaving the doc's office she had more to say to the specialist! She had an increase of fluids to almost 12 cm and we were able to see her taking "practice" breaths on the ultrasound. It is such an amazing thing to watch that little lung expand and contract inside your own body. I have to admit that while all this bed rest has been a pain, both literally and figuratively, it has been well worth it to see the things we have seen in the ultrasounds!! We have seen the brain, all 4 chambers of the heart beating, the kidneys, the liver, and now have gotten to see the lungs actually working!!! I cannot begin to tell you all how that makes me feel. I had been worried about the fluids for two weeks and almost dreading going to see the specialist as much as the monitoring torture chamber at the OB's office. Our little miracle girl is proving to be such a fighter and I just know that despite all the OB's concerns about this, that, and the other thing, Lucanne will prove him wrong and we will make it all the way through to term without having to have a surgical delivery. My friend said today that karmic-ly I am on my way to an easy and swift delivery and easy first few months after all that I have been through with this pregnancy. I sure hope she is right!


Several people have been asking me about the baby's room and colors. We received a wonderful dragonfly crib bedding set from Herb & Kelly. We are still planning on painting the room in a Camelot Castle theme, but are adding the dragonflies to the design because castles were so hard to find where they didn't look like Disney cakes! (The crib bedding is cream with chocolate brown stripes and dots and light granny smith apple dragonfly bodies.)

Kevin & Kim have loaned us the bassinet that Kevin made when Hailey was born (and their Winnie the Pooh bedding set). We will be using the bassinet for at least the first few months so I won't have to run downstairs every 2 hours!

People are also asking about registries already. We are registered at www.jcpenny.com and www.babiesrus.com.

We are anxiously counting down to June 1 and pray that we have enough ticks left in the clock to prepare ourselves and the house for the coming of our little miracle baby. In the meantime I will try to be more diligent about updating the blog!! As always thanks to every one's support and good will!!!

Week 28

So yesterday we had an appointment with my regular OB doctor. I drank 6 ounces of what tasted like a flat cola but had the punch of a full pot of coffee after not having much sugar over the last 6 months. This vile liquid was for the gestational diabetes blood test that takes them a mere 6 seconds to do...but the sugar lasts for hours, and hours, and hours!!!

First, I must say that in typical healthcare fashion, we are made to wait for what seems like 20-30 minutes (after blood is drawn for the diabetes test) before we even hear the doctor's voice. When we do finally hear his voice in the hall we hear him say that he wants to do an ultrasound on me. The nurse's aid comes in and I emphatically tell her that we just had an ultrasound at the specialist's two weeks ago and don't understand why this doc would want to do another one when that doc said no more for a month. AND we were only scheduled to do a glucose test and a non-stress test. Of course she hasn't a clue, but more on that later...after several more minutes the doc comes in and moves us over to the non-stress test chair area not mentioning that he didn't remember why he asked us to schedule this appointment in the first place.

I am then told to sit in this torture device to have a baby monitor strapped to my belly by the world's most inept nurse's aid. This chair they put me in reminded me a bit of a dentist's chair, as it reclined backwards just enough to make me severly uncomfortable, but instead of a leg platform to elevate your legs this one had these leg braces placed at uncomfortable angles just like the stir-ups on the doctor's exam table. Add a lumpy pillow at my lumbar to push the belly outwards and the overly tight straps that are supposed to "hold" the monitors in place, if the nurse's aid had the slightest clue, and you have one very uncomfortable pregnant woman who just wants to poke the nurse's aid in the eye, run a marathon and/or jump over multiple story buildings from the excess sugar in her system! So here I am pushing the heart rate monitor into my belly with one hand while holding a plastic baton, similar to a nurse's call button on hospital bed, in the other hand with the expectation that I press this every time I feel the baby move and the nurse's aid has the audacity to ask me if I want a juice to help "activate" the baby some. What this uber-twit failed to tell me was that this was a fruit juice, with an additional 24 grams of sugar, not some medical miracle that stimulates a baby's movement for this test!!! (But, hey, she did say she actually saw my belly move with a kick from the baby.) All the while sitting in the corner of a dead-end hallway with just a flimsy cloth screen to block out the view from passers-by, my belly exposed with smears of blue goo from where she slid the monitor across (up and down, from side to side, trying to find the baby's heartbeat) rapidly cooling in the open air, listening to the chatter of the incredibly ignorant employees yucking it up and talking about the other patients and acting ridiculously unprofessional. Feeling terribly frightened that the future of our world lies in the medical hands of kids like the girls hired to work in my doctor's office.

All the while Ty is sitting in a chair next to me wondering why the doctor would say that he disagreed with the specialist's theory of "alls well that looks well" in the ultrasounds, and is now implying that these non-stress tests will show more than the all high resolution ultrasounds we have been subjected to for the last 2 1/2 months! He says the heart rate measured against the movement monitor will tell us more about the baby's condition and now he wants to have us do this WEEKLY because while these tests are so telling, they are really only good for telling a story of about one week at a time!!!!!

The doc comes back after 20-25 minutes of what amounts to pure mental and physical agony for me and says the measurements are positive and that we appear to even be getting the desired increase of 10-15 beats in heart rate when the baby moves (I can see with my own eyes that it isn't every time she moves, but he doesn't say this to us). So they send us on our merry little way and Ty heads out to work while I try to figure out how to counter the sugar high I am feeling...something not easily accomplished as I have now injested over 75 grams of sugar substances in a 2 hour period.

I try to counteract the sugar with a high dose of protein, but that just makes the baby kick, jump and move all around like a super athelete in my belly. I try going to the store to burn off the sugar and get a bit of shopping done, but that just makes my feet tired and my back ache even more than it did earlier in the torture chair. I try to crash on the couch hoping that the sugar will eventually wear off and I will go into the obligatory coma after ingesting so much sugar, but all that happens is that I feel edgy and annoyed from inactivity and the baby continues to do ballet twists and hockey splits all at once! The baby never did quiet down and I lay awake feeling the miraculous movements I had only guessed before to be baby movements, until well after midnight.

The good that came of this appointment...I can honestly say that Baby Lucanne is officially freed of whatever restraints she had previously for movements. She is still as active today as she was last night. And we did find out that she is still doing what she is supposed to do by having the increase in heart rate when she moves (this officially means that her neurological functions are appearing to be increasing as normal).

Of the bad that we came to realize with this appointment...our doctor hires complete morons to work in his office, doesn't have a clue what he is scheduling appointments for and obviously doesn't read his notes or charts prior to seeing his patients. He continues to give us the worse case scenario treatment and we are now feeling that he is doing a lot of covering his butt for any potential mishap that could befall our little princess. We definitely feel like his goal is more to keep us (as fairly well informed parents-to-be/medically trained professionals) from suing him for medical malpractice by making us come to town so often and implying that nothing is as good an indicator as whatever next step he has in store for us. And we experienced first hand the fact that "No Child Left Behind" meant only that we will continue to push uneducated morons out of the school system without them ever learning how to be anything more than moronic teen-twits well into their 20's.

We are both more than just a bit annoyed, but as I told Ty yesterday I will allow him two more non-stress tests until I see the specialist at the end of the month. If at that time all still seems to be progressing well, I will suggest to the OB that these non-stress tests feel like a waste of time for me and if he isn't seeing any negative changes that I will not continue to come down every week just for his whimsy. While I do enjoy seeing and hearing my baby I am willing to wait until she has decided to join the world at large rather than continue to line the doctor's pockets!

26 Weks!

Today marks 26 weeks...only 14 more to go!

Today also marks the best news we have had in a while with this pregnancy! We had both our regular 6 month appointment and another appointment with the specialist this morning. We were supposed to hit the regular appointment and then head over to the hospital for the specialist, but my doc had an emergency and had to reschedule for later today...hence me not starting this until nearly 4pm on Wednesday! We had a wonderful, leisurely breakfast at a diner downtown and then headed over to see the specialist. The ultrasound showed that the baby is still growing well and is still right on target for her size measurements. And best of all it showed that the fluids increased again! We increased by 2 centimeters this time, not as much as I was hoping for, but still a good increase. The technician says the normal range is between 8cm and 20cm, but the doc says normal is 15. On one and a half months of bed rest we have increased from 6.2 to 11.5 and that was enough encouragement for the doc to say that we don't need to keep coming in every two weeks. He thinks the progress is indicative of a positive future and now we only have to go to the specialist once a month!!! This guy also gave me permission to do some exercises to stretch (yoga exercises) out so I won't be as sore and even gave me permission to drive myself to the pool so that I can do a full immersion soak 2-3 times a week (basically just keeping the bulging belly underwater because the tub isn't nearly deep enough to cover this thing!). I cannot tell you how excited I am to be able to get out of the house a for a couple of hours a week! Whoo hooo!!!

After that appointment we headed over to my office to pick up my personal belongings. I'm pretty much over my frustration on how my office manager called up last week basically telling me I was terminated, without using the words fired, or termination. However, I do have a problem with the way the whole thing was handled on their end and I cannot begin to tell you just how livid Ty has been over this. So we picked up my stuff and and headed for our second appointment.

It was actually better seeing my regular doc after having seen the specialist. Good news is better to have before you get not so good news. My OB wants to continue seeing me every 2 weeks so he can do non-stress tests on the baby. Basically what this amounts to is me sitting in his office for a 1/2 hour every two weeks with a fetal monitor strapped to my belly. He wants to get info on what the baby is doing and how much she is moving. I still don't feel a whole lot of movement with her, and a lot of the time I am not sure if it is her moving or gas bubbles in my intestines. I think what I feel is her, but he is worried that the smaller amounts of fluid may make it harder for her to pull a good enough punch to feel it on the outside and he just wants to make sure that she is moving. It's all just precautionary and I don't feel that there is a thing wrong with her. I am bummed that I have to go down there every 2 weeks still, but I will do whatever is required. Everything I had concerns about the two docs dismissed as normal and said not to worry. They said I should be expecting to get more tired, more easily, and to expect other changes, physical as well as emotional. So I will keep up the bed rest, but add in some yoga and some pool time and maybe just a little cleaning around the house (if I can get away with it).

So that is the Indian Hills News for now. I am off to find a maternity bathing suit so I can get to the pool as soon as possible!! Oh, and thanks to everyone who comments on the blog. I read them all and I do appreciate hearing from you all!!

Week 24

Last week we had our 24 week appointment with the specialist. She was shocked to find that baby is growing well and is on target for her June 1 due date as well as showing an increase in fluids. We went from a paltry 6.2cm of fluid just two weeks before to 9.2cm this visit!!! A 50% increase in fluids!! This is great news and if we can continue to have this sort of increase we should be at the normal and acceptable level within one month!

So my goal for now is to keep following the doc's advice and hopefully continue to see improvement. I am still going to have to see the doctor every two weeks at this point, but if we continue with improvement perhaps I won't have to increase those visits and admittance to the hospital will be out of the doctor's vocabulary until May/June!

To top the day off, we got word that I may be able to put together a show with the photos I took of the wolves in December. The place who makes our prints said that they really like the shots we sent to them to try a new mounting process. Apparently the previous work they had of mine was a huge hit at their "First Friday" opening of their new location. My work wasn't on display, it was in their processing room which happened to be open to the public for their opening and people were commenting. This interest generated enough intrigue that they started talking to Ty about having me do a display in their studio. Can you believe it? I cannot!!! Who would have thought that a gallery in one of Denver's hottest areas, The Golden Triangle, would want to hang my work?! I think it would be amazing to have my work in a real gallery and not just hanging in a restaurant showing. WHAT A DAY!!

We are starting to play around with other middle names for Lucanne. While we originally envisioned a female derivation of Christopher, we are starting to think that we need to find some derivation of "miracle" for her middle name. Any suggestions will be appreciated!

Later in the week though I got a call from my office basically saying that they had to terminate me because I wouldn't be able to return to work due to the pregnancy complications. This wasn't entirely unexpected, I cannot expect to keep a job I cannot make it to, however the timing and delivery wasn't the kindest. I cannot blame them for needing to find someone who can do what I do and I feel sorry that the person won't have the benefit of me training them. I wasn't well trained and had to learn most of the tricks of the trade on my own. I had always intended that when I went on maternity leave I would be able to train my replacement so she wouldn't have to struggle like I did. The office manager said she missed me both as a friend and as an employee and that did take some of the sting out of blow. I do feel more free now and don't stress about who is doing what at my desk. ;~)

So that is Week 24 in a nutshell. We hope you are all well and look forward to updating you all again next week when we make it in for our Week 26 appointment. Love to all!

Nearly 22 weeks and another sonogram

Tomorrow marks week 22. 18 weeks left!

Yesterday we trekked into town for our follow-up with the specialist at the hospital. Basically the word was "no change" and continued bed rest for mom. By no change, she meant that the amniotic fluids have not increased. They actually have decreased a bit, but not enough for her to worry any more. She is calling it a stable environment for now, but suggested that Ty and I start considering the worst case scenario she laid out for us. She suggested that we start considering a date in which we agree to do a c-section and put the baby on medical life support until she is ready to come home. My answer to her was 40 weeks. I'm not sure she a) took me seriously, or b) believed my conviction when I assured her that through all our positive support, love, prayers, and my positive thinking and actions this baby will outdo their expectations. I hold to the firm belief that this little girl will be just as strong as her parents and family and she will continue to grow strong and healthy.

I'm pretty sure the doc walked away thinking I was a naive and silly girl for not listening to her warnings. Truth is I know the possibilities of being wrong. I know what to expect of the future if I am wrong and I appreciate her straightforwardness, but I also believe in the power of positive thinking and the strength of all your prayers. I believe in the strength of our families and I believe this child will prevail! In our efforts to try everything in our power to better the chances the docs have given us, we spoke with a spiritual healer over the weekend. She thought that this child's soul was very strong and destined for greatness. She suggested that there was similarities in this child's soul to that of Quan Yin, the Chinese Bodhisattva of Compassion or Goddess of Mercy. While I don't necessarily believe in all this healer's methods and proclamations, I do believe that she was on to something here. I feel that this child is definitely no ordinary being and deserves the faith I have in her proving the doctors wrong!

So keep your positive thoughts and prayers coming and we will keep you updated. We can expect follow up visits every two weeks and I will keep adding to this blog to let you all know what is going on.

Week 21...Or an oh, so long week.

Two weeks ago we had an ultrasound done which revealed a couple of things to us. First the good news...

A brief glimpse told us that the baby was most likely a girl developing well and true to medical standards.

And now for the not so good news...

In the ultrasound a couple of dark spots were seen in the placenta. Ty spotted them before the doctor, or at least said something long before the doctor did. These spots, commonly called placental lakes can be no big deal and are often very common. Despite the baby's apparent good growth the OB still wanted me to see a specialist over at the hospital to make certain they were nothing to worry about. The hospital has better equipment and at least two doctors that specialize in taking excellent pictures of babies. I had already been there once for the screening that determines likelihood of Downs Syndrome.

So last week, at our halfway point of the pregnancy, we went to see the specialist (cue daunting music). The utrasound concluded 100% that the baby is indeed a girl. What great, clear pictures this ultrasound can take!! Not only is it a girl, but she is developing well and is right on target with her "age" in every measurement. "So what about those spots," you ask? Well, the doctor there saw only one placental lake and after several angles and slightly painful prods with the ultrasound wand determined that it is, in fact in the placenta and not something else blocking a portion of the placenta from view. This alone isn't much to write home about. However, this is not the only thing that the doctor found. She also determined that the amniotic fluid surrounding the baby is considered low for this stage in the pregnancy. Still, not too big of a concern on it's own. Finally, she listened to my uterine arteries and discovered a wonderfully strong and healthy sound from the right side, but not such a good sound from the left. Put these three things together and you are looking at a not so encouraging picture anymore. Despite the baby meeting her targeted growth there is some concern that the lack of maternal blood through the artery may be causing the placenta to potentially not function properly, therefore causing the decrease in amniotic fluid. What does this all mean?

Well, for starters it could mean that the baby is not getting enough amniotic fluid surrounding it which could cramp her style a bit. This could lead to clubbed or webbed feet. It could mean not enough cushioning and floating room. On the more dire side, it could mean that the lack of fluids available for her to swallow could impede her lung cell growth. And most dire of all is that without the appropriate fluids, will the baby be able to survive until the safety zone of 28-32 weeks when she can be prematurely c-sectioned? Are there any real answers in medicine? No, of course not, there are no definites in this fine art of practice we heavily rely upon that we call medical care.

So the specialist's answer to all my questions and concerns is "BED REST". My personal doctor put me on bed rest and a baby aspirin a day to thin my blood to help get better blood flow. He has also okayed an increase in Iron and Magnesium supplements (suggestions from Ty and a friend who did some medical research on what hospitals and doctors do for preeclampsia). I've had many people ask to what extent is this bed rest. Well, it isn't total confinement. I can still fix my own meals and take baths or showers, but no exercise, no house work and NO work. I don't even have to be in a supine or laying position (thank heavens or my second cold of January would probably suffocate me!), which means I can sit on the couch and knit, or sit at the table and scrapbook or make cards...maybe I will actually get a head start on all of my card needs for 2008! Drivng is limited to necessity (meaning only to the doctors appointments), but I can still get out of the house as long as I am mostly off my feet, no running errands. I'm to avoid stairs as much as possible as well.

So I sit here, take my vitamins and aspirin, drink mounds of water and await the next appointment (1/28/08) in hopes of better news. Meanwhile, both Ty and I will continue to accept the mountains prayers, well wishing, and positive thoughts and generous offers for companionship, help, shopping trips, etc. from family and the friends we have made within the fire department as well as all our other friends. We'll keep up the positive thoughts and do uttmost our best to bring forth a very desired and anticipated little beauty into this world and hopefully on her own schedule!