Shoutout, Extra Credit, and a Plan

Well, I did make it out of that recliner today.  Boy that thing sure is comfy!  If you have ever had heartburn you would totally understand.  My medicine cabinet stays on the kitchen counter permanently now.

If you are counting...that's 2 vitamins, 2 types of heartburn prevention, and 1 iron pill.  Tums thrown in on occasion too.  Feels like I have my own pharmacy...ha!


My Aunt is a professor at Blue Mountain College in N MS.  She was in town this weekend for an alumni event and invited us to see a baseball game.  We went this afternoon.  At the game she told us that her class had prayed for Battley last week and that she told them about the blog.  So, here's a shoutout to all the Blue Mtn students who may be reading...maybe if you mention that you read this you can get some extra credit??

In all seriousness, THANK YOU for your prayers!  I can't describe the feeling to learn that a stranger has prayed for your baby.

Next week, as Adam mentioned, we are meeting with the neonatologist at the hospital where Battley will be born.  Our doctor wants us to have a birth plan ready when we see him next week.  The birth plan can be anything you want it to be, but the basic idea is to describe to the staff the level of care you wish to have.  It's a pretty big deal because we are describing the amount of medical intervention we are expecting.  Please pray for our guidance as we make these decisions...they aren't easy.

My Aunt also mentioned that she was telling the guys to take note of how sweet Adam is.  Well, guys...I will just tell you right now how Adam "got" me.  He used this:

I wanted a pug my whole life and he had one...his name is Griff.  I tell him all the time I only went out with him to get to Griff...haha!  It's just a joke, but how could you not just love that face?


C

House Guest

About a week ago I found a slightly used manly looking leather wingback recliner from Haverty's on Craigslist. I was hoping to buy it and then sell it for that same amount whenever Catherine does not need it anymore. Catherine has her eye on a pricey rocker/glider so I ended up not getting it. I was bummed I couldn't surprise her with a comfy chair.

Catherine posted about an extended stay house guest yesterday. Well, he's here.

We have a friend that was getting rid of this brown recliner and let us borrow it for a few weeks! Catherine has already made her nest in it.

I try and read a quick daily devotional from the In Touch ministries app on my phone everyday. Today's message made me think of how sometimes we can miss out on blessings, even small ones, if we're only looking at our time schedule and not God's.

Catherine left me a list on the desk to post for her. It's our list of to-dos for next week:
Visit to the NICU to meet with doctors and nurses and have a tour.
Regular doctor's visit.
Hunt...wonder who added that?

Adam

Prayer

Back to our list of issues babies with T18 sometimes have:

*kidney malformations  HEALED
*structural heart defects  she does have a VSD but the cardiologist said it's not life threatening, so we will mark it off for now
intestines protruding outside the body
**esophageal artresia  because they have seen a stomach a few times in a row, they don't see this as being a problem 
**growth deficiency  she is still behind, but has grown more than we thought she would
feeding difficulties  MORE ON THIS ONE BELOW
breathing difficulties ...AND THIS ONE
arthrogryposis(a muscle disorder that causes multiple joint contractures at birth)  crossing these off b/c they are purely physical
small head accompanied by a prominent back portion of the head
low-set, malformed ears
abnormally small jaw
cleft lip/cleft palette
upturned nose
narrow eyelid folds
widely spaced eyes
drooping of the upper eyelids
a short breast bone 
**clenched hands 
**choroid plexus cysts  HEALED
underdeveloped thumbs and or nails
absent radius, webbing of the second and third toes
clubfoot or rocker bottom feet
**mother can have excess amniotic fluid  I'll be fine

That's right...Someone has been busy!

This is our specific prayer these days:
Babies with T18 have brains that basically don't tell their bodies when to breathe...at least that's the Plain English version of it.  We are praying daily/hourly/all the time for the Lord to heal her brain so that it will tell her body to breathe.


The feeding difficulties...this one is a big one too, but we can get medical intervention for this.  The doctors will insert a feeding tube if needed, but obviously we would like for her to be able to eat on her own.


Thank you for your prayers.  It's hard to ask for help sometimes, but sometimes we must.  We are humbled by the outpouring of love and support from everyone.  Now we ask that you Please pray for these 2 specific things above for Battley.  

Last night a group from church came over to pray.  It was a very moving time.  They prayed for Battley, her doctors, and us.


Sometimes fear can creep in when you least expect it.  I had a rough afternoon yesterday.  Good thing I have a sister-in-law that I can call on in such times.  She texted me scriptures that helped me to calm down and remain faithful to what has happened and what is to come.  I'll share them:


Psalms 118:
⁵ When hard pressed, I cried to the LORD;

   he brought me into a spacious place.
⁶ The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid.
   What can mere mortals do to me? 

Mark 10: 
²⁷ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

Psalms 55:
²² Cast your cares on the LORD
   and he will sustain you;
he will never let
   the righteous be shaken. 

Psalms 57:

¹ Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me,
   for in you I take refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings
   until the disaster has passed.
 ² I cry out to God Most High,
   to God, who vindicates me.
³ He sends from heaven and saves me,
   rebuking those who hotly pursue me
Selah
   God sends forth his love and his faithfulness. 

On a lighter note...

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love having company...even the drop-in-when-you-least-expect-it kind.  I love having people spend the night, stop by to say hey, swing by on the way through town...doesn't matter...I love it.  NEWS FLASH: we are about to have an extended stay guest at the house!  I'm super excited about it, but you will have to wait to find out who it is.


Here's an old school pic just so we have a pic in the post:

C

The Dinner Table

Do you love getting the mail?  I do.  Most of the time there is nothing but bills in there, but I still love the possibility that there may be something good in the mailbox.

We have received quite a few prayer letters from all over.  Have you ever seen one of these?  I haven't until a few months ago.  Prayer groups meet to pray and then they send a letter that the whole group has signed just so you know you were prayed for.  How touching to know that total strangers have and are praying for Battley!  I have no idea how these people from all over the state know us, but I want to thank YOU for passing our names on for prayer.  The Lord has healed so many things for her already, and we have hope that He isn't finished!


I go to the post office at least once a week to mail a package for work.  They had these little jewels the other day.  I think they are beautiful.

Later that day Adam and I were chatting on the phone and I told him they were the highlight of my day.  I've been having issues with my phone and was super frustrated with a certain phone carrier, so stamps were making me happy for the moment.

Now stamps weren't really my "high" for the day.  It just made me think that we sometimes play High/Low at the dinner table.  It's a fun conversation starter.  Oh, and let me rephrase that...we don't eat at the dinner table most nights unless it's in a restaurant.  Sometimes we sit at the bar or in the den...and you already know we eat in the car on the go a lot too.  Adam and I both grew up eating dinner every night around the table, but we figure as long as we eat together it doesn't matter where it is.

It goes something like this...
My highs for the past week:
* dragon stamps with the colors and gold
* Hayden plays this game on my iPad called MineCraft...it's basically a virtual lego set.  He built me an MEA (our local medical clinic that runs ads on tv nonstop) last week when I was sick and a spa this week when I felt better.  Side Note: he was really hunting for things to build...he already has an indoor basketball court, a football stadium, a tennis court, soccer field, pool, and so on...

You have to enter the Spa from the side...it's very exclusive!  haha!

* Chocolate cake
* Dinner out with my best friends and their hubbys
* I put the 4d ***ADD Moment: Why do they call it 4d?  What's the 4th dimension?*** sonogram pic in a frame and can check it out everytime I walk by now.

My low for the past week:
* I stopped at a McDonald's to get a hot chocolate and came very close to a mental meltdown in the drive thru...this lady got out of her car smoking a cig and when she came around the back of the car she was obviously very close to 9 months pregnant.  I could go on about this for 5 more paragraphs, but I won't.
Gotta throw in another high after that one:
* my phone (work email was really the issue) is back up and running...felt lost without it 

Then we have another one we do sometimes that Adam learned from a friend growing up...

Where did you see Jesus today?
(sometimes ours are really great stories...sometimes it's as simple as stopping to notice the sun shining)
* I have a close friend going through a rough time.  She has been down for a week or two, but when I talked to her today she was very upbeat and it was good to hear some cheer in her voice!

Feel free to share yours below in the comments if you want to.  Maybe you and your family can have some fun with these too.

C

Hayden asked me to throw in these other 2: the grocery store and the ice cream parlor

Glucose Test Round 3 and Adam T

Well, it's a good thing that my doc doesn't read this blog.  If he did he may call me back in for a little chat...how many cakes have we posted about now?  Gosh!  We really do eat real food too.

Thanks, Adam for calling me out on the speeding thing!  Just for the record...I have no tickets on my record and do not normally speed.

Speaking of Adam T, I thought I'd write something about him today.

Most people call to ask about how I'm doing, but they sometimes forget to ask about Adam.  He's been a real trooper through this pregnancy.  Here's a taste of what his day looks like right now:
(sometime between the hours of 3:30am - ) 6:30am: wake up and bring C cereal in bed
6:30am - whenever one of us leaves for work: includes helping me get my shoes on
lunch hour: normally involves running errands or starting dinner
5:30pm - bedtime: home from work; help C get shoes off...haha!; make dinner; deal with the dogs; do laundry; fetch Tums and water for C

I'm not kidding about any of that either...it's really what he does!

Just a little side story about when we were dating:  Adam loves to cook.  I do it when I need to.  When we were dating he used to come over and make dinner for H and I.  Then after dinner he would get up and clean the kitchen.  He said that if he made this big, nice dinner and then made me clean it up the only thing I would remember was cleaning it up.  Well ladies...it stuck!  I know...I know...lucky gal!  Don't get me wrong though...I definitely do my fair share of cleaning the kitchen.  I just don't have to clean up after he cooks.

A day or two ago I saw that a friend posted an invitation on Facebook to commit to 31 days of prayer for your husband.  What a great idea!  I'm stealing this with pride from her first email:

Bless your husband by praying for him! The Apostle Paul instructed all Christians to pray for one another (Ephesians 6:18). This includes wives’ responsibility and privilege to pray for their husbands. Earnest prayer for your husband is good for him, for you and the spiritual health of your home (Proverbs 31:11-12).

I am so excited to have a group of ladies to be accountable to for this for the next month.

Now for some other random thoughts and answers to questions we've been asked:

* My friend Travis made our blog banner for us.  He didn't ask what we wanted...just made it.  I love it.  Funny thing about it...there are 4 birds on it.  The painting over our mantel in the living room has 4 birds too.

* Some people have asked if we are doing a nursery for Battley.  We aren't.  If we get to the hospital and have to run out to get a car seat, baby soap, diapers, and such it will be the best emergency trip to Target ever!  Adam's mom has his bassinet and is going to bring it when she comes in March.  We told Hayden that if we get to set up a room for Battley he can pick whatever color he wants for the walls.

* I am a visual gal...can't have a blog post without pics.  So, here are 2 things my girlfriends have given Battley that I thought I would share:

Every gal needs a good pair of shoes, right?

Now Battley has a stocking to go with her brothers'.

Our gal was a wiggly girl today.  I don't think she likes where the seatbelt hits me and moves the whole time I'm in the car now.  We were in the car for a while today...I'm so thankful for that time with her.  We jammed to some classical music today.

C

Chocolate Cake

Catherine's friend made some delicious homemade chocolate cake for us tonight. We drove across the spillway with the cake on my lap. The entire car smelled like we were in a bakery. It was about 8pm and neither of us had eaten dinner yet. Catherine said she was going to eat cake with her hands if we didn't make it home quickly.








Apparently we could not get home fast enough because a police officer pulled Catherine over. He was friendly and let us go without incident but said 50mph in a 35mph was too fast even if nobody is around!








Hayden sampled the first piece. That gallon of milk I bought earlier this morning will not last long with indulgent slices like this...

My sister-in-law told C a few weeks ago that she remembered a sermon she heard one time about asking the deacons/elders at church to pray for you when you are sick. She didn't remember the verse in the Bible so we looked it up and asked our minister if that would be possible. A group is coming over Wed night to pray over Battley. Here is the passage:

James 5:14-15
New International Version (NIV)
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.

Adam
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Name Game

Catherine's mom recently gave us a copy of Heaven is for Real that her neighbor passed along to her. I've read about 2/3 of it so far. The father retells his little boy's story of his trip to Heaven and back. They are relieved to learn that their daughter, who they lost while pregnant, was adopted by God and is waiting for them in Heaven. The father asks what her name is and the little boy replies that she said you and mom never gave her a name. The parents later question each other which one will get to Heaven first so that they can name her.

I'm so glad we agreed on a name early on for Battley. This was Catherine's grandma's name so it was an easy selection.

Last week on MLK day Hayden and I spent time as a family with Catherine and Battley instead of deer hunting. Look what we caught at the baby store...a preemie outfit and monogrammed hat. I pray that we will be able to bring her home wearing this one!

Adam

Hey Baby

We did the 4d ultrasound this morning...WOW!  It was so amazing to see her.

Here are some new stats from today:
*her weight is up 5oz from the last visit...she now weighs 2lb-5oz (we prayed specifically for her to gain weight and she surely has...at this rate, she could be well over 3lbs when she is born!!!)
*kidneys looked great today
*heartbeat was 143...we are always looking for the heartbeat to be good and strong

Thank you to everyone who is praying for Battley.  We are so thankful for YOU! 

C

Jan 19th

Just wanted to give a quick update on our appointment today. 

We went to Blair E Batson Children's Hospital to visit with a children's cardiologist (heart doctor) at the crack of dawn...tomorrow our appointment starts at 7:30.  I'm still trying to recover from 6 days of work last week...I started on Sunday with our National Sales Meeting.  This week I am still dragging.

Just a funny thing the lady who checked me in asked...she was going over our insurance information and asked if Adam Terhune was my husband.  YES
The next words out of her mouth: "Is Adam a male?"
So many things I could say about this, but I'll move on...

I asked my mom to send me an email putting what the doctor said in PLAIN ENGLISH.  Here it is:

Dr. S said that Battley has an abnormal opening in the wall between the two lower chambers of her heart.  She did not describe the size of it, but even I could see it on the sonogram.   This opening allows deoxygenated blood returning to the heart to mix with the blood which is transported from the heart to her body tissues after it has  been loaded with oxygen in her lungs.  So the effect is that the blood which goes to her tissue carries less oxygen than normal.  This is not a new finding.  The perinatal specialist saw this when he saw Catherine at 20 weeks.  

Dr. S did tell us about a new finding which is actually a blessing.  The pulmonary artery has some thickening or stenosis.  In Battley’s situation, this will be a good thing because it will decrease the blood flow to the lungs from the heart and keep her lungs from receiving too much blood for the lungs to accommodate.   That condition is commonly known as congestive heart failure and the thickening or stenosis of the pulmonary artery will prevent that.  

So...YEA!  What an answer to prayer!  In short...she will not need surgery to fix this even if it was offered.  I'm not sure if I have shared this or not, but we have been told that no doctor around here would want to do surgery on a T18 baby because they don't usually make it through the surgery.

We will not plan to go back to the cardiologist unless a need arises later.

Tomorrow is the 4d ultrasound...we are SO excited to see her!

A good friend passed this scripture on to me:

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."  Isaiah 55:9

It's hard to understand God and His plans sometimes...we are just working on having faith.  This reminds me that He doesn't think like we do and we can't possibly understand WHY some things happen.  We can just take comfort in knowing that someday we will know.

C

Lately

I passed the glucose test!  Yea for positive results and not doing that again!

When I went to take the test I had a nurse named Anne.  She was probably about 55-60.  She asked the standard questions:
When are you due?  March 30th (technically I think it's the 27th, but I quit counting weeks)
Are you having a girl or a boy? Girl
What's her name?  Battley
Are you excited?  Yes

Sometimes these questions are really easy to answer...sometimes they bring a little tear to my eyes.  When she asked she was sticking me for the 4th time that day in the same arm...I suppose it brought a red face with it that time.  I don't normally tell strangers what is going on with Battley because I don't want to make anyone feel bad for asking.  For some reason though I felt compelled to tell Mrs. Anne.

She shared with me that she lost her son when he was 2 days old.  We hugged and cried together.  It's a bond you don't want to share with anyone.  Then she got her friend Elise and they both prayed for Battley.

If you have a few minutes today or an extra line on your prayer list, please say a prayer for Mrs. Anne...even though she lost her son probably 30 years ago I could tell she still hurts.


Here is a taste of what's been going on around here:

Lots of this stuff...

Hayden killed a deer...no graphic shots here...a few weeks ago.  One of my dad's clients made this for him with the horns:

He hung it in his room today.  Zeke isn't too sure he likes it and has been barking at it all day.  Adam just told me to add this part: he isn't missing horns on one side...he has a large drop tyne, which is rare.

Adam has been up late at night doing a lot of this:

He loves a good project.  This is beef deer jerky.  It's not too bad.

We have been staying home more at night lately.  Maybe partly because it's dark so early and feels later than it is, but mostly because we are really thankful for our time together right now.  I've noticed that the past few months we have taken major inventory of all our commitments and scaled back on quite a bit.  It feels good.  We can look at our calendars (well, I can...Adam doesn't have one, but that's another story...haha!) and have more than zero or one night home every week.  It feels good to eat dinner somewhere besides over the sink or in the car running to the next thing.  A good friend of mine emailed me this week and said she was trying to scale back too.  I hope that if you are reading this that you can catch a few extra nights at home together soon too.

It's a lazy weekend around here.  We are just now getting the last of our Christmas decorations put away.  It didn't even bother me this year that they sat around a little extra time.

Happy Weekend,
C

A Few Updates

I forgot to mention one thing in the list of good stuff we found at our last appt...oops!  They saw a stomach for the first time.  It was just the right size too.  Thank you, Lord!  One more check off the list.

Sonograms have come so far since Hayden (13 years ago) was born.  We can actually tell exactly what they are looking at all the time.  We were able to see that she has hair!  Hayden was born with a head full of it...needed a haircut really.  

The 3 hour 5 hour glucose test was today.  I'm getting sick so the kind nurse let me have a room to myself with a recliner where I could get some work done and make some phone calls...all while avoiding other germs in the waiting room.

Personally I think that a recliner is one of the ugliest pieces of furniture ever invented.  Sorry, Adam T...your dreams of a manly living room aren't happening at our casa!

Now...if you have one of these at your house and you invite me over, guess where I'm going to go sit?  That's right...the RECLINER!  And I will love every comfortable minute of it.

And guess what would I give a million dollars for right now?  That's right...a RECLINER!

I don't know if it's the acid reflux when you lay down all the way or what, but that sucker was so comfortable.

Maybe this one is more my style???  HA!

In other news, someone at our house had a birthday last week.  I won't say who, but she loves cake...not expensive butter cream or beautiful wedding cake...CHEAP GROCERY STORE SHEET CAKE!

I know...gross, right?  This was the best thing about taking Hayden to birthday parties when he was younger.  I ate his leftover cake.

Then it was on to my company's National Sales Meeting in Atlanta.  It was a great trip, and I got to spend time with some really great people I adore.  We have a yearly meeting that all the sales reps attend.  It's a great way to get your batteries recharged for the new year.

Cardiologist appt is next week...we are praying for Miss Battley's heart to heal.  If you have prayed for her and are reading this, THANK YOU!  We know she is being prayed for.

C

Jan 6th Doc Appt

Where to start???

Agenda for doctor's appointment today:

Glucose Test

Ultrasound

Chat with Dr. G

I failed the ole glucose test.  For those of you who have never done this before, here's the scoop: 

it is designed to screen for gestational diabetes

you are supposed to eat a "balanced diet" for breakfast (I had one bite of Life cereal)

wait 2 hours

drink the "fruit punch" aka nastiest, sweetest drink you will ever taste...Adam took a sip and said it tasted like someone mixed Kool Aid with 3 packets of Crystal Light drink mix

then they draw your blood once you get to the doctor's office

I was only over by 5 points...silly me thought he'd let it slide.  Sitting in the waiting room is hard enough...I surely didn't want to make an extra trip to do it again.  Now I have to go back for 3 more tasty drinks one morning next week.

On to the ultrasound...our technician's name was Lori and I think we love her.  She took so much time with us and went over every detail of our questions.  We checked out all the problems we previously saw.  You know I'm a list girl, so here we go:

*kidney malformations - saw little to no fluid today
*structural heart defects - confirmed the VSD (hole in one chamber)

*esophageal artresia - not sure yet

*growth deficiency - our girl was eating this past month...she's up to 2lbs ("normal" would be 2.5-3lbs right now)

*clenched hands - we saw her open one hand a few times; the other one is clenched, but this is purely physical
*choroid plexus cysts - GONE (those are cysts in the brain)

*mother can have excess amniotic fluid - same

Thank you, Lord!  And thank you for all your prayers!  We know that these positive results do not change her diagnosis, but we also know that the Lord is in control here and we consider these miracles for Battley.

It was so much fun to see her.  She had the hiccups during the ultrasound...so cute to see. 

After talking to Dr. G we added a few things to our list of to-dos:

*meet with the neonatologist (baby doctor that will be there when she is born)

*go back to the maternal fetal specialist that did our in depth ultrasound and amnio for more info on the esophageal artresia

*while we are there we will meet with a cardiologist to look at her heart and learn more about that

*go back for the yummy drinks aka glucose test round 2

*we decided to have the 3d ultrasound done...it's just for fun, but another chance to see her (my doctor's office only does still pictures of this, so if you know of somewhere that does video let me know...I'll be checking around in the next week)

A pic of our sweet girl

It was a great appointment!   Again, thank you for your prayers.  Now we are going to be praying for her heart to heal.  Adam read an article today that talked about how this problem can heal up to and after the time of birth.  That's just medicine though...we are relying on the Great Physician!

Here's how we are going to celebrate all the good news:

Petits Fours from Beagle Bagel...they will melt in your mouth! 

I pray you all have a blessed weekend.  

C