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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

time is winding down...

We went to Choices West this morning for our final bi-weekly appointment - - now we are on a once a week schedule with them. Everything looked good. Belly is still growing, therefore baby is growing too - although that has become obvious as Gumdrop has begun encroaching on mom's lungs. One unexpected twist is that even though Gumdrop is growing, mom has been losing weight - about 3 pounds in the past month. Not many people can say that they lost weight at this time of the year, but we have managed it! No one seems concerned though.

We did go through the whole process of what to do when we start to see signs of labor. As of next week, we would not be considered pre-term if we were to go into labor, so they would just let it progress. It is hard to believe that we have come this far already!

We have been working diligently the last couple of days to get all the last minute things together. The bag is pretty much packed and ready to go, the birth plan is just about done, we are filling in the last of the phone numbers for our contact list, we bought a hospital gown alternative to wear during labor and delivery... its all coming together. Next step is just to wrap up any loose ends and get a plan in place for Chloe and the cats.

Next week on Wednesday we have a very big day. We are meeting with Dr. Ratner (the pediatric surgeon), taking a NICU tour and meeting with a neonatologist, and we have our last appointment at the Perinatal Center for our final sonogram. This is all in one day and it is sure to be an exhausting one! We will let you know how it all goes though!

We hope that everyone continues to enjoy their holiday season and had a great Christmas! Many wishes for a happy and healthy new year to all!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Christmas wishes...

We wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. We hope you stay safe and healthy and enjoy your time with your friends and family at this time of the year. You are all in our thoughts as we enjoy our holidays here at the D'Angelo house!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Busy last couple of weeks...

It has been more than two weeks since our last post! We have just been so busy that there never seems to be enough time in the day to get everything on the list done. But, thanks to a snow day, I have a little time in between the batches of macaroons that are baking! So, the last two and half weeks in a nut shell…

Thanksgiving went well. We had our families over and had a nice big feast! There were of course plenty of leftovers to get us through the next few days! Vince’s mom and our friend Melissa organized our baby shower for that Saturday (11/29), so there was a pretty steady flow of people coming and going throughout the weekend.

The shower was very nice. We got lots of fantastic gifts that are sure to give our Gumdrop the start that he or she will need! We have an entire laundry basket full of clothes and onesies and socks and towels and wash clothes… Just amazing! And that also reminds me - - the nursery is done!! It looks great! We are really pleased with how it turned out. I will try to get some pictures that we can post of the shower and the nursery as soon as I can!

There was another Choices West appointment on the 2nd. Nothing much was new there. Weight is still good, sugar levels have been pretty even, heartbeat is strong as ever. There have been a couple spikes in my sugar levels, but I have been able to figure out what caused them for the most part and know what to avoid in the future. Raisins are evidently not something that my body is processing well right now - - thought it would be a healthy fruit option, but it didn’t quite work out that way!

Just this Wednesday (12/10) we went to the Perinatal Center for another sonogram and meeting with Dr. Spadola. Every time we go we brace ourselves for kind of negative news. We expected a rollercoaster of news from the beginning of this journey because that is what is typical of CDH, but everyone’s prayers and well wishes have been making a difference and we got another positive report this week! Overall growth is still completely average – in the 54th percentile – and the right lung still looks good with a lung to head ratio of 2.3 (anything over 2 is good). Fluid levels are still normal too! Nothing really alarming at all! AND, it was the absolute quickest Perinatal Center appointment we have ever had! We are usually there for hours because their office is so crazy and busy. So, this time I brought a bag of things to do while we were waiting and that did the trick! We were in and out within one hour! This was almost as exciting as the continued good report from Dr. Spadola.

Yesterday, my amazing co-workers had a baby shower for me after school. They really went all out and transformed our less than beautiful teacher’s lounge into a fantastic baby shower. They had all kinds of food and were so generous with their gifts. I am truly lucky to work with such supportive and wonderful people – they definitely make a challenging job worthwhile on many days when it doesn’t seem worth it! Hopefully I will have some pictures from the shower to post sometime soon.

Well, I think that is everything major from the last couple of weeks. We are getting ready for the holidays now. We went and cut down our tree last weekend and the house is all decorated now – with the exception that Vince really wants to hang lights outside, but the weather has been less than cooperative for climbing on ladders, especially with a still recovering knee! You can see our tree in the front window though, so that adds a little cheer to the front of the house! We have a couple parties this weekend, including one at our house with all our friends. It is an annual tradition that we have kept for probably at least the last 12 years. We have not done any shopping yet, so that is still on the list. We hope that you are all looking forward to this holiday season as well and stay warm and safe in these coming weeks.