Doctors Update!

We went in for another ultrasound yesterday, the 24th of February. We are always a little bit nervous that they might find something more concerning the complications with the gastroschisis. The doctors appointments are usually all scheduled in the same day and end up taking up a good portion of the afternoon. The ultrasound went great and we couldn't be happier. Nothing had worsened with our baby and she is growing at a great rate. All fluid levels looked good. All this news made us extremely happy considering that at the last ultrasound they said she was on the small side. In March we will start doing weekly stress tests to further monitor the baby. We are so grateful that she is doing okay and that the doctors are really taking care of us. The doctors treat us like we are the most important people in the world and we really appreciate it, because for Brandon and I this little girl is the most important thing in the world.

Nesting!

Since we found out we were expecting I have gone into total and complete "nesting mode"!! Brandon too, because he has already put up all the baby furniture. (crib, glider, etc.) He has actually had it up since the end of January! I have started sewing up a storm. I have sewn several burp cloths, learned to croche, and right now I am about finished with another rag quilt! I think that it is going to be pretty cute. I tried to make this baby rag quilt a little bit more gender neutral because all of the other blankets I have are pink, pink, and more pink. Don't get me wrong, I love pink! LOVE PINK!! I just don't want to have to by all new blankets if we have a boy later on in life. Though I'm sure I'll go into nesting mode next baby too! It seriously is so much fun, even though I do have to do some un-picking from time to time. :)

Ice skating!

This year it was Brandon's turn to plan Valentines Day! (You never know what you are going to get with Brandon! :) And let me just tell you how the Valentines day week started off. In church someone came up to me and said, "Oh here is the instructions on how to clean the church on Saturday." I was a bit confused, and thought that they had me confused with someone else. Apparently Brandon had signed us up in Priesthood to clean the church on Valentines Day! Good for him, but of all days!! I asked him why he picked Valentines Day. He just laughed and apologized saying that nobody was signed up for that day. He said, "I knew I had something that day, but I couldn't remember what it was!" :) It was pretty fun though cause we had those ghost buster vacuums! We really do have a great ward which I love! Brandon surprised me with flowers, a cute maternity shirt, and a hobby lobby gift card! Then we went to Olive Garden and Ice Skating!!(Our friends Landon and Amanda!!)

Brandon really out did himself. I think he was trying to make up for being so sick last year on Valentines. Ice skating was sort of scary being seven months pregnant, but I was extremely careful. And didn't try any of my Michell Kwan/Tara Lipinski tricks! They even had ice walkers for old people or first time skaters that you could rent, which I seriously considered doing. I have had Brandon's Valentines present since Christmas! I got him Brian Regan tickets! (he's a comedian who Brandon thinks is hilarious) Brandon's brother Shawn, his wife Maria, and their cute little boy Baylan are coming up to go to the comedian with us on the 27th and staying over for the weekend! I'm way excited!

Thanks everyone for your kind wishes and prayers for our little baby girl during this stressful and delicate time of our lives. At our last check up with the doctor, everything seemed to be going really well. They did say that she is a little bit small for the gestational period. This is to be expected with gastroschisis, but as long as she continues to grow every two weeks at our ultrasounds, labor and delivery will continue to proceed as normal. (Normal - being that they won't have to induce me or do a c-section. Though she will still come early cause your body just goes into labor sooner.) She is starting to kick a lot and I have to monitor her kicking. It is the weirdest feeling and sometimes makes it hard to sleep, but I love it. I'm just glad that she is kicking!! I get so worried when I don't feel her move for awhile. It's then that I get a jab to the ribs as if she is just playing with me.

Gastroschisis

I wasn't going to talk about this because it is a very emotional and personal subject. However, I figured family and close friends should know. On the 10th of December 2008, Brandon and I went in to find out the sex of our baby. Those of you who have had children know what a tender moment that is, holding hands and seeing your little baby moving, heart beating, alive!! It's crazy how pregnancy works. It really is a miracle! Our radiologist did a very thorough ultrasound to make sure our baby was growing well and functioning as she should be. At the very end of the ultrasound the radiologist went to look to tell the sex of the baby. The gasp on his face said it all. "Oh, what's that?" Both mine and Brandon's hearts dropped. "What's what?" They called in another radiologist and then in a doctor from surgery before they could even tell us what was going on! A million thoughts were running through both of our heads. The doctor told us that our baby has gastroschisis.
What is gastroschisis? Gastroschisis (gas-tro-ski-sis) is an opening in the abdominal wall through which the internal organs push outside of the baby's body (see illustration at right). During fetal development the abdominal wall fails to close properly leaving an opening. The opening is usually to the right of the umbilical cord. This anomaly or birth defect is not commonly associated with any other defects except bowel strictures and/or atresias (narrowing of the intestines). It occurs in approximately 1 out of every 5,000 births. The cause of gastroschisis is unknown, but it is associated with younger maternal age and almost never occurs in mothers over 30 years of age. It is not related to anything the mother ate or did during pregnancy. Babies with gastroschisis are at an increased risk for stillbirth. The incidence of stillbirth is approximately 10 percent. These babies will often be smaller than normally expected. This means the baby weighs less than we would expect for the gestational age. A baby with gastroschisis will need to go to surgery soon after birth.Talk about how one word that you have never heard of can change your life. Since this original diagnosis we have met with several specialist who will perform the surgery and deliver the baby. We also found out that our babies small intestines are the only thing on the outside of the body, as opposed to other worse cases of several other organs. We will have to have the baby at the University of Utah and the doctors anticipate that we will be in the NICU anywhere from a month to three months. The doctors reassured us that once the baby has had the surgery and is released from the hospital there should be no further complications or lasting effects. We weren't able to find out at this ultrasound what the sex of our baby was, but now they have confirmed, since we have to have ultrasounds every two to three weeks, that we are having a girl. This whole thing makes me very nervous. They say that we could have our baby anytime after 32 weeks. Which is very soon! Brandon and I know that things will be alright though, even though we don't know why this is happening to our little girl. This situation has already brought us so close together as a family. I believe that everything will work out how it is suppose to. We want this little girl more than anything, and she obviously wants to be here or she wouldn't fight this hard.

Big Changes!

A lot has happened to Brandon and I since we were first married, so I'll try to focus on the bigger things. Shortly after we were married we got a Shih Tzu dog . . . Maggie! She is the funniest, cutest dog ever and we love her. We got her on July 4th 2007 when my dad went into surgery for brain and lung cancer. It was a crazy stressful time, but now my dad is fine and doing well. My dad is a miracle! He has defied so many odds. I also just graduated in December of 2008 from Utah State University in International Business and French! Yahoo for graduating! My whole family was able to come. (Dad (Brad), me, Brandon, and Mom (Brenda)!)
(My sisters, Alyson, Me, Jessica, and Jenny!)
Brandon still has a year left for his degree in Civil Engineering. Over the holidays we were also able to go hunting with my sisters and cousins. Nothing like a redneck thanksgiving! (Jessica Knudsen, Britnie Olsen (Cousin), Me, and Jenny Cox.)
We were able to spend Christmas with Brandon's family in Green River, which is the first time that all his brothers have been home in several years! This was at the gyser in Green River. It was so much fun.Our biggest adventure that we are currently taking on, is that we are expecting a little baby girl on May 2nd 2009!! We are so excited and can't wait for her to get here! These photos are at approximately 5 months pregnant. I was so, so sick for those first three months, (just ask Brandon and his brother Nicolas who I barfed up all over) but now it is just so much fun and way crazy cool! Not to big yet, but boy is she growing fast and starting to kicking like crazy!

Us!

Brandon and I have known each other for years. We met at Snow College, where we feel in love. We dated for a year and then Brandon left to serve an LDS mission in the Mexico Mexico City North Mission. We wrote letters for two years, and then a month before he came home I decided to go on a mission too! I was called to serve in the France Toulouse Mission. We again wrote letters for a year and a half until we were finally together again 31/2 years later! Six months after I was home we married on May 11th 2007 in the Manti LDS Temple . . . Soulmates Forever!!