Tuesday, August 31, 2010

I'm Outta Here


Palmer made it out today! She finally broke out of NICU jail. Hooray! We are so excited and happy to have one little lady home safe.
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Sunday, August 29, 2010

Big Week

Wow! This is going to be a big week for the Moran Clan. Let's count the ways....

1. Moving out of Ronald McDonald House tomorrow. Sad to go. You have been good to us Ronald. I will miss you.
2. Moving back in with the Bradley family until Thursday. Thank you Bradley Family!
3. Palmer is coming home or well home away from home on Tuesday! Hooray! We are so excited to have one of our girls out of the NICU (and so quickly) and in our arms whenever we want. No more trucking through University Hospital, signing in, sterilizing hands via the glass doors, holding her while she is attached to wires, and having to kiss her goodnight and walk out the door. Goodbye to University and welcome home Sweet Pea.
4. Blakely is having her second and hopefully final surgery on Thursday. We are excited to be moving forward but nervous about the whole process. I hope and pray she does well and recovers quickly. We are on our way to getting back to Birmingham. Praise Jesus!
5. Moving into the apartment in Mason on Thursday. Finally a place all to our own.
6. Ashlyn Kay is coming back to me on Friday. I have missed her so much words do not even begin to explain. 3 weeks without your child is entirely too long, especially when you don't want the break. My family is also coming to visit us for the Labor Day weekend. Almost everyone under one roof again.


So those are my "To Do's" for the week. I am exhausted already.

I am so thankful and grateful to be able to write such positive post lately. I look around the NICU sometimes and realize I could be in a much different frame of mind right now. I have two twins who are thriving which is rare where I am at. God is amazing in every way and each and everyone of you have and are playing a role in getting these girls home. Your prayers work and really need you all to keep up the good work. God is listening and providing.

I need everyone to keep us in your thoughts and prayers this week. There will be a lot of emotions and changes this week. Mainly we are concerned for Thursday and Blake's surgery. We anticipate that she will do fine but preemie's are unpredictable. We have extreme faith in the surgeon and hope that God touches and guides his hands. We will update everyone throughout the day as we get updates. Please pray!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Movin on up...

It's the end of the week here in Cincy. Lots of changes this week.
First, I am so excited because our friends The Gilmers came into town last night. You don't realize how much you really miss someone until you see them again. You also don't realize how little of a "life" you have outside the NICU until someone takes you away. We visited with the girls today, did a little retail therapy, and had a wonderful home cooked dinner at The Bradley Home. Lots of chatting and catching up. I'm feeling so much better and more like a "real" person again-ha!
Now on to the stars of our little show.....
Palmer "Sweet Pea" Moran (haha), I like to refer to her as my little peanut. I should use the term "little" loosely though. She is now a whopping 4 pounds 6 ounces. Whoa big girl. She is now taking every feeding by bottle and LOVES IT. She wants more when its all gone but they won't let her have anymore yet, not until she is above 2000 grams, which she is very close to being. The nurse tonight said she would probably leave towards the middle of next week. Hooray! My angel is coming home soon. One down, one to go, right?
Next in our line up we have the Queen B herself, Blakely. Queen B is exactly what she is. She seems to be ruling the RICNIC roost right now. The nurses love to dress her up in outfits and put bows in her hair and have photo shoots as they call them. I think we have a fashion diva on our hands too because when they get her undressed and leave her that way she gets very mad, her heartrate sky rockets, and doesn't come back down until they put clothes back on her. Isn't that hysterical? She got moved to a crib today which is a big step in the NICU. We had a meeting with the surgeon today to go over the results of her MRI she had on Wednesday and go over her next surgery and expectations for recovery. The MRI showed where the remaining SCT is. It has not breached into the spinal column which is a blessing. He is not exactly sure where all of the nerve endings from teratoma extend too. He will have to obviously cut all of them out no matter where they go to. This could mean into her bowel or bladder. So there is a risk she will have nerve damage to her bowels or bladder. We will not know this until she is potty trained or later. If there is damage we will not know the extent is either until she is older. He will remove her tailbone as well as the lower portion of her sacrum. These two things make the distinction between your lower back and butt. So when she is older around 4 or 5 she will have plastic surgery to correct her scars and to give her that distinction. The surgeon suggest waiting until that age so that all possible issues of tumor reoccurance have gone away.
The surgery is tentatively scheduled for this upcoming Thursday. We were and are not really ready for this, but the surgeon feels like she is ready. He needs her skin flap where he removed the outter portion of the tumor to be healed by that point so that there is enough skin to pull back together. If not she will have a open wound for a while and be at several different risk for such things as infection, etc. The surgery will take about 4 hours from start to finish. Such a long time for a tiny baby to be under general anesthesia. It makes me very nervous. I completely have faith in the surgeon. He did save her life more than once already!
Things are moving so quickly now. Palmer is coming home soon, Blake is having surgery and will then be on her road to recovery, and before you know we will be back in Birmingham. Whew!

As always we ask for your continued prayers for our little girls. I have so many prayers that I need right now. Palmer to adjust well to being away from the NICU, Jeff and I adjusting to having a newborn at home again, Ashlyn Kay is coming back to Ohio soon and we are worried about balancing time between her and the other girls, and then obviously for Blake and her surgery and recovery.

Life is moving faster than expected right now, but God has a plan....I am trusting in it!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

So many changes in just a couple of days. We are making such strides in the right direction. It's all so exciting.

Blake lost her nasal canula, so she is breathing on room air. I love seeing her face with out all of the tubes. She still has her feeding tube, but that is nothing compared to all of the other contraptions. She has been on room air for several days now and is doing great! She is eating well and they are happy with her growth. She will have a full body MRI tomorrow at noon. This scan will assess her brain activity, lungs, and the remaining portion of the teratoma. This will give the surgical team a better idea of where we go next and a plan of action for her upcoming surgery. We hope to have a meeting with Dr. Lim this week so we will know more of what the plan is. She will also have a VCUG. This is where they fill up her bladder with blue dye and see how it comes out. Sometimes with teratomas things get shifted around inside so the doctors want to make sure she does not have what they called urinary reflux which means the urine goes up instead of down. If she does have it, normally babies out grow it eventually. They will have re-intubate her for the scan because she will be under general anesthesia. Keep her in your prayers and think of her while she is having her scan.
Palmer is growing so fast. She is our little porker. She now weighs 4 pounds 4 ounces-whoa! Tonight Jeff got to feed her from a bottle-first time ever! The nurses said she did great. This is our next and final step before she gets home. She has to be able to take all of her full feedings from the bottle for several days before she can go home. She still will probably be in the NICU for a couple more weeks. Otherwise she is doing perfect.

We found a apartment today and will hopefully move in before Labor Day. The apartment is in Mason which is about 20 minutes from the hospitals. The apartment will allow us to have more of a home style setting for when Ashlyn Kay returns and Palmer comes home from the hospital. We are really excited about it! We are enjoying being so close to the hospitals but now that we are spending more and more time there it really won't matter where we are. The insurance company is still working on getting Palmer moved over to Childrens to make things easier on Jeff & I. It gets hard having to split our time between both girls and going back and forth. We now are splitting up and so Jeff will be with one baby for a couple of hours while I am with the other then we swap. This allows us to spend more time with both girls.

For now our angels are doing wonderfully and we couldn't ask for more. We are truly blessed and again God is proving how powerful prayer is. Without prayer I don't think we would be where we are 2 weeks in. The nurses account the night Blake and Palmer were born and how what little miracles they are. Hearing how things went and in what horrible condition Blake was in, it really and truly is a miracle. EXPECT A MIRACLE!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Another week has officially passed. It is insane that it is now the end of the month and the girls will be 33 weeks old tomorrow or 2 weeks old. I am beyond thankful that I can write those words. Today, Jeff & I were remembering when I first moved up here on July 26th and how so much has changed since then.
We are so happy because Blake has remained stable throughout this whole week. She has made some great improvements. She was taken off the CPAP machine and now has a nasal canula. Her pain medicine has been discontinued. She is having some withdrawals and is a little anxious with all the stimulation she now hears and feels, but she is slowly getting used to it. We are getting to hold her more often which is so nice. I finally was able to see her beautiful eyes the other day. It is amazing what you don't realize you miss when your child is in the NICU rather than bringing them home. The doctors have mentioned doing the MRI this week and they are also going to do a VCUG. A VCUG is a test where they put in dye to determine if urine is flowing the correct direction. We will find out when the test will be tomorrow, hopefully. Blake is having a little issue with her feeds. They had to slow them down to come over a hour time period. She was spitting it back up when it was coming faster than that. This new slower method seems to be working.
Palmer will start getting bottle fed this week, hooray. We have been doing our kangaroo care more often. This is where the baby gets down to just their diaper and you put them skin to skin with the mother and they lay their for about 2 hours at a time. It promotes healing and lots of other good stuff. Palmer is on her way to coming home.
Jeff and I are still staying at the Ronald McDonald House. We intend to stay here about another two weeks then move to the furnished apartment in Mason by the time AK comes home then soon afterwards Palmer.
We are praying for another stable week for both girls. At this point we couldn't ask for more. We are so blessed.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Moving forward

Today is Friday, August 20, 2009. Time is moving faster than I thought. We are only 2 days away until the girls will be 33 weeks old. Even though they are actually going to be 2 weeks old the NICU's refer to them in their gestational age. My friend was here yesterday and she mentioned how strange it is to see them in person when normally you wouldn't be able too. I never thought about that, but yes, it is strange.



I haven't updated in a day or so, maybe longer, because there is not really any change, which is actually a good thing. From where we are now, no change is good change for a while. When I went into see Blake this morning she was much more alert but still sleeping. Because they have now completely stopped her pain medicine drip she is more aware of her surroundings. Sometimes she likes this and sometimes she doesn't like this. The doctors still have her CPAP machine on but they talked about in rounds this morning that over the weekend and next week they are going to work to slowly remove it. No rush they said. If she remains unchanged over the weekend they are going to once again attempt to try and get the MRI. Lets cross our fingers she cooperates because I as well as the surgeons are anxious to get that test. Her pathology report is not back yet and I was told this morning it takes a while because of the makeup of a teratoma. A teratoma is a germ cell which is just a cell literally made up of a bunch of stuff and so they have to disect it layer by layer to literally examine every portion. Which sounds like it would take forever. She also had a echo on her heart today and we should have the results by morning. Her first echo shortly after she was born looked good, so lets cross our fingers this was does too.

I am feeling more comfortable holding her now. So I held her for about 45 minutes today. She seemed to really like it, better than before. She had occupational therapy today, but I will have to wait until tomorrow to see how that went. I'm sure great. They also are increasing her feed volume. She is now taking 16 mL every 3 hours and loves it. Girl likes to eat.



Palmer likes to eat as well. She is taking 33 mL every 3 hours. They are not going to change her feeds for a couple of days. Next week they are going to attempt to bottle feed her which is about a week early, but she is showing signs she is ready. Hooray! That means she is closer to coming home. They also moved her out of the warmer and into a small cart type bed and are waiting on a crib to come available for her. Now that she is bigger and they will start bottle feeding, we will be spending most of our days between both NICU's just holding the girls and chatting with the nursing staff.



Ashlyn Kay is being a mess at home with her Meme. She was mopping with Papa this morning and was admiring her baby sisters pictures in her new picture book this afternoon. I miss her smile tons and can't wait until she is back on Ohio with Jeff & I.



I am feeling better today and moving around better. Still only about 60% back to normal. I will get there though.



Thank you all for being so devoted to keeping up with our family and praying for us. Again, your prayers are working. Both girls seem to be improving and moving in the right direction. We have still a long way to go but everyday is one less day we have to fight.



Also, several people and church organizations wanted to know if we had a charitable organization for the girls. We now have a account set up at Regions Bank.

For anyone who wants it:

Bank: Regions Bank

Account Name: Blake & Palmer Moran's charity account or Kristen Moran's charity account

If you need the account number or routing number you can contact my sister via email @

mrsrolling948@gmail.com

I love each and everyone one of you! We are making progress...God obviously has a great plan in store!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Progress Report

The pictures on the left is blake and the picture on the right is palmer





I am so sorry I haven't been able to update in several days. The RMDH was having computer/Internet issues so I couldn't get onto the computer to get anything done. Argh! They have their issues fixed but tonight I came to Mason with mother and daddy to stay with the Bradleys, visit, and eat some yummy home cooking! Mother & I also had manicures and pedicures today so we could relax. So nice.

Progress report on the girls....
So many things change daily and it is always so much information in just a 24 hour period.

Blake: either on sunday or monday they removed her intubation tube-hooray. I can't remember which day. She did well for a while. They also earlier had taken her completely off of the epi. and her blood pressures remained stable on their own. So fast forward to today. They had to put her on a nasal CPAP because she was having trouble remembering to breath while she was asleep, which she is most of the time due to her being on pain medication. Her blood pressure still remains to be stable without epi. They also gave her some caf. to help remind her breath. She did well with that and I don't think she has had any more. She still has in the picline and a IV in her hand for administration of pain medicine. They have started to lower her pain meds which makes her more active. I like to see her more active. She also has a feeding tube now. They started her on formula and they give her 4 ml every hour around the clock. She is tolerating them very well. She was going to have a full body MRI scan monday but they changed their mind when her blood pressure dropped. They rescheduled it to Wednesday. Now that she is on CPAP they have decided to post pone the MRI all together for several weeks. Her surgeon is now ordering daily bedside x-rays so they can start monitoring the tumor. All in all she is very stable and things are good today. I was told by her night doc that we WILL be able to hold her tomorrow and I can't wait! I haven't done anything but laid my hand on her back since the day she was born. Its so hard to have a child and not be able to hold them AT ALL! You miss the little things, changing diapers, cuddling, swaddling, everything. Even though we get to hold Palmer she still has cords and stuff everywhere and its just not the same.

Palmer's update:
She is doing amazing! She is putting on the lb's and loving her formula. Now that she is breathing all by her self they were able to put clothes on her. So gets to have preemie clothes that still swallow her whole on all day-hooray! I can't wait until I actually get to feed her with a bottle and hold her for hours. It is going to be amazing and its only 2 more weeks away!

I am doing good. Still very sore and weaning myself off the loved drug Percocet. I am moving a little more swiftly but will not be running any foot races any time soon. Mother and Daddy leave tomorrow and I am so so sad! I will be glad that they are coming back in just a couple weeks. Now it will be just Jeff & I all day, everyday! Whew...wonder how that will work? Joking. Jeff & I really miss AK. I can't believe she won't be back for a couple more weeks. I am so looking forward to the day when my whole family can all be in the same house at the same time! That is my Christmas wish! Santa please make it come true.

Keep praying for us as a family. We are starting to miss our friends, our bed, our dogs, etc. and its only been a couple of weeks. Life as a parent of a NICU baby is hard sometimes. You feel very encouraged them discouraged several hours later. We are blessed to be at the point we are, but you always hope for more and better. I think its just natural to do that.

Have a good night yall!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Day 6

Today is Day 6, Saturday, August 14th. We have almost made it one week. What a celebration that day will be.
I was discharged yesterday around 5:30 p.m. (finally). I could have gone home Thursday but developed a spinal headache. This is where the spinal needle leaves a hole and cerebral spinal fluid leaks out. This causes the worse headache in the world. You can't move your neck and you want to throw up when you move your eyes or head. So that pretty much stunk! I had to lay flat on my back all day on Thursday. I couldn't even lift my head enough to go see the girls. I was so sad. Friday the headache was better enough that I could check out of the hospital. Today its been great! Thank goodness. They have a way of fixing the hole but it isn't fun.
Saturday has been a great day for both girls. Blake finally was taken off of her epi. so now her blood pressure is regulated all on its own. Her catheter was removed and she is tee teeing and pooping like she is supposed too. She was much more active today, moving her arms and legs. She is still on sedative drugs because of her wound. She also still is intubated and having the machine help her breathe. Monday she will have 3 MRI's. One will map out the teratoma that remains inside of her, one will take a look at her lungs because they have to make sure she does not have cancer in her lungs, the final MRI will take a look at her brain activity since she stopped breathing for so long after she was born.
The surgeon will meet with us next Friday for a mapping and schedule of where we go from here with her treatment. Overall she is doing great! The nurses and doctors agree on how strong she is and what a fighter she is.
The nurse let me feed Palmer today. Its funny feeding her because she has a tube and you hold up a syringe attached to the tube and they pour the formula into the syringe and gravity pulls it down. ha! I also got to change her diaper. I felt like a real mom! She is doing really well and the doctors are so pleased with her progress and weight gain. I think she misses her sister though.

We moved into the Ronald McDonald House on Friday. Its really nice. We will be here for several weeks.
I have been posting pictures of the girls on Facebook and hope to get some up on the blog soon.
Please keep praying for us. We have so long to go. Also please keep Blake lifted up that she will remain strong and defy the odds!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Day 3

Day 3 has come and gone with no major issues. I think I am going to enjoy these type days. Jeff got up early and took my parents and sister to visit Blake for the first time. The nurse filled them in on everything and said she felt like Blake was doing good or better than yesterday. They gave her more blood last night and also got her picline in. When we went to visit tonight they were about to take out the line from her belly. Her blood pressure is getting better and so they are starting to wean her off of the epi. Dr. Lim said tonight that all of her current issues were and are expected because she is premature. He said he wanted to deal with these first and foremost before he even started to address the tumor issues. Her occupational therapist has visited today and the physicial therapist should soon to start working on her hips.

I got a pass to go see her today at Children's and I was very happy about that. They said I might be able to hold her tomorrow. Hooray! She was less frumpled and wrinkled because they had given her some pain medicine and said she was much happier. Dr. Lim called and said that we will be in a much better position at the end of the week and that is our goal for now.

Miss P was under her tanning bed light today. She was jaundice so they decided to give her a tan. She got to wear these super tiny black goggles that looked hilarious. She was moving all around. Tonight when we went back the nurse let me hold her before she was going to feed her. I was so happy! She is super tiny but so beautiful. She opened her eyes a lot and looked at me.

I am doing better too. Tonight I walked to the NICU so I was really proud of myself.

Day 3 has been good so far. Tomorrow they will discharge me and I will then be able to get over to see Miss B whenever I want.

Keep praying for slow and steady recover for me angels!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Day 2

Today is Day 2. It seems like it has been a month but it literally has only been about 28 hours since the twins were born. What a whirlwind yesterday was. Now that I have had time to sit and actually recall the events I honestly was so out of it yesterday I didn't even really realize the magnitude of how insane everything was that was going on around me.

As for mommy. I am doing well, or so the nurses tell me. They took my IV out today as well as my catheter. I have walked around a couple of times, but only from my bed to the bathroom. The short distance seems like a mile. I am very very sore and move so so slowly. I got some really good rest today and am sleeping 100% better now that the babies are out. I slept very well last night. I haven't been able to get comfortable for about 4 months so it was nice to be able to sleep without waking in extreme pain. I woke up several times from being anxious about the Dr. calling in the middle of the night to give us bad news. I was so happy to see daylight. We had made it through Day 1!

Update on the girls:

Blakely:
She had several lab test run last night. They all came back okay. She is still intubated but is only having to use the lowest setting. They are considering taking her off of that breathing machine and putting a CPAP machine on her. This is a good thing. Her liver panel came back okay as well. She had a echo today and it turned out well. She also had a ultrasound of her belly and brain and both turned out good. She is still being fed through a feeding tube. She had to have some epi today to bring her blood pressure back up and is now doing well with that and they are going to start weaning her off. She also is or will be receiving some more units of blood tonight. They tried to put a picline in so that they don't have to stick her a million times, but were unsuccessful. We just talked to her nurse again and they moved the location to her leg and they got it in. So for now, she is stable and making improvements. Slowly but surely. I call Day 2 of life a success!

Palmer:
Today she is also doing very well. They will hopefully remove the CPAP machine tonight and give her nasal oxygen instead. She is also still on a feeding tube but they are considering removing it at the end of the week and allowing her to feed from a bottle. She took her formula feeding through the tube today very well. I was told today that I will more than likely get to start holding her tomorrow. I can not wait to get my arms around that tiny angel. She is doing really really well. They are estimating she will only have to stay in the NICU for another 4-5 weeks.

My parents and grandparents brought Big Sis AK over today to see me. I was so excited to see her smiling face. She wore her cute I'm a big sis t-shirt. I had planned to get pictures of it but she zonked out before we could. She saw pictures of the babies and was like "baby". That was about it. Probably next week we will take her to visit both girls and meet her baby sisters. She will be so happy.

All in all today was a good day. Its a lot of going back and forth, checking in, updates, etc. It is very tiring, but I guess we better get used to it because this is our life for a while. I am sure it will eventually become routine and easier.

The love you all have shown for us is beyond comprehension. Jeff and I can't even wrap our minds around it. Who knew we were so taken care of! God is amazing in every single way!!

Monday, August 9, 2010

THEY HAVE ARRIVED

Blakely Olivia Moran & Palmer Michelle Moran today weighing in at 3 pounds 7 ounces and 3 pounds and 5 ounces.

The last two days have been a whirlwind, well more of a whirlwind than the last 7 months. Yesterday around noon I started feeling a little funny. Around 4:30 I took my normal dose of breathine. The contractions did not stop, so I took another dose at 6:30. I called the nurse to let her know. She insisted we come in to the hospital to get checked out. Upon arrival they checked my cervix and I was 2 centimeters dilated. Not good! I was 31 weeks today. They told me I would stay and they changed my medicine to stop the contractions. When they did a ultrasound on the twins, there was one concern. Blakely was anemic because the aorta was bleeding into the teratoma. They wanted to do a blood transfusion on her, but because I was contracting it wasn't possible. Otherwise she looked great as well as Palmer.

It was a rough night because I couldn't stop contracting. This morning they changed my medicine again to magnesium sulfate. It was terrible. I became about 100 degrees, had blurred vision, and just felt like crap. Plus it wasn't working. The ultrasound showed the same as last night. The doctor came in and was concerned because I was still having contractions and they had no more medicine to give me. He checked my cervix again and I was now at 4. I also was feeling extreme painful pressure in my pelvis. So he got on the horn and spoke with the surgeon and they made the decision to take the girls.

Within 30 minutes we were in the operating room and they were cutting. I was absolutely terrified. We both were scared for our girls and for me as well as anxious. The doctors were so kind and are amazing. Within minutes they had both girls out and rushed them to their destinations.

Palmer went straight to the NICU here at University Hospital. They put her on a respirator to help her breathe. The doctor actually came in a minute ago and said she was breathing mainly room oxygen and was stable and doing well. Blake was taken across the hall to a resuscitation room.

Blake on the other hand has a lot of issues. The original plan was to take the teratoma off in several days, because of her massive bleed into the tumor they had no choice but to remove 90% of the teratoma on the spot. This made her crash. It took them 2-3 minutes to revive her. She crashed again but she was revived within seconds. She lost a lot of blood. She had to have several transfusions. Her liver is twice the size of a normal liver, they are concerned about her brain activity due to the anemia and long down time when she crashed, she is obviously on a breathing machine, she has 10% of the tumor still attached including her tailbone, her heart is very week due to the over activity it has been experiencing for so long and blood pressure is low.
The doctor has given her a 50/50 chance of survival. If she improves and makes it then they will remove the other 10% of tumor in about 6 weeks. We are now expected to be here until around December at the earliest. Honestly I don't care because if we are still here in December then that means she is improving and she is alive!
On the upside her lungs seem to be in good shape and her other organs like bladder, bowels, intestines seem to be normal but they are going to do ultrasounds in the morning to confirm this.

Just about 10 minutes ago we received a phone call from Dr. Lim her surgeon. These phone calls are and will continue to be scary. You never know what they are going to say. He said she arrived about a hour ago to the RICNIC and was stable for now. They did blood work and will get those results in the morning. They are going to do a echo and ultrasound and brain activity monitoring in the morning. She needs to rest. Jeff is going to go over there tonight to sit with her. I will be allowed to go over in about a day or so. The fetal transport team brought her to my post pardum room and I got to see her precious face. I was so happy!

They both have brown hair and in my eyes are beautiful. Jeff and I are hopeful but are also being cautious. We understand that only God knows her fate. We do know that she is a fighter and hope she continues to be. She needs constant prayer for full recovery. Also Palmer to continue to remain so stable.
I am doing great! I am happy it is all over with and that she is has the best doctors taking care of her. These people are amazing and I am so thankful we chose here for her care. I feel like they love her as much as we do. We both know that with each hour, day, week, month that things will be touch and go and changing. As Jeff said though, He does not have M.D. after his name or GOD as his title, so he is giving it all to those who are in charge and I'm right on board with that. I will forever use this as my testimony for God for bringing us this amazing journey. He has shown me how wonderful and caring people are and that Jeff and I have a marriage that is solid as a rock!

Prayer:
Please provide Blake with the strength to improve, provide Palmer the ability to continue to grow strong, that Jeff & I will remain strong even through the toughest of days, and that we will still continue to give as much love and time to AK as we can.

I know God is in in control! Today my positive note is that I have two beautiful girls and they are alive!!!!

Thank you all so much for caring about us!
We love each and every one of you.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Weekly Update-August

So all of our appointments went wonderful this week. The MFM said after our appointment yesterday there was no need to come everyday anymore-hooray! So we are back to twice a week. Dr. Lim also said that the echo's are so good twice a week is good enough for him too. I am so happy. Going to the doctor every single day becomes very tiring. We were to see the cardiologist today, but the doctors said I could wait until Monday. So we have a 4 day holiday from the hospital-whoop whoop. We will go back bright and early Monday morning for again our routine exams which are a ultrasound (bio physicial profiles), echo., and meeting with the surgeon. Then we will go back again on Thursday for the same testing.

Monday I am 31 weeks and can't believe it. If I make it through these next 4 days, which I intend too, I will be so happy. Then we will be left with only 7 days until the magic number is upon us. Anything could change though so we aren't jumping up and down too much. Well I am not jumping up and down at all-ha! Not recommended by anyone involved.

Jeff & I are pretty sure that the two of us are going to move into the Ronald McDonald House at the end of next week. We want to be a close to the hospital as possible since it will be so close to the possibly due date week. Also, this will allow for Jeff to recharge his batteries after taking care of me and AK for almost two weeks. My grandparents are going to come up and stay at the Bradley's with Ashlyn kay. We don't want to disrupt her again. She loves it here at their house and they are so helpful with her. Plus they have the cat! We are then anticipating the arrival of the twins the following week. That is a feeling just from Jeff & I, not the doctors. If I make it to 32 weeks they will continue to let me progress on until the babies decide it is time.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Contact Information

Jeff & I have gotten a UPS box. Here is the address:

9378 Mason Montgomery Road, Ste. 353
Mason, Ohio 45040

Have a great day!

Monday, August 2, 2010

and the emotional roller coaster continues.....

Alright, sorry its late and I'm just now posting about our much anticipated appointment today. It was a very long day and by the time we arrived back at the Bradley Home I was exhausted. We ate dinner and then Jeff and I spent some family time with Ashlyn Kay. Then I actually fell asleep around 8 and woke up just now.

Ultrasound was first today which went amazing! Dr. Jaekle (one of the OB) said from his stand point the babies were wonderful and could stay in forever. FOREVER!! NO NO NO! He said that the surgeons and fetal medicine doctors were having debates over me. The surgeons and cardiologist wanted me to start daily monitoring and the best way would be inpatient-boo, but that they would leave that decision up to me. Whew-thank goodness.
MRI was next which was absolutely the most terrible hour of my life. You lay on your side strapped into this insane contraption. The first time I wasn't ginormous so I was really comfortable. This time I literally almost started crying. I was sweating so bad and the last 20 minutes felt like a hour.
Echo went about normal. The babies didn't want to cooperate, but I hadn't eaten since 8 and the echo was at 2:30, so they were hungry and mad.
Our final appointment was with Dr. Lim again who is the surgeon. He started by saying Great News. I always like where this statement goes.

Blake's cardiac output is now down to 400 and something. We have gone from 750 to 600 to 400. Her aortic blood vessels are dilated pretty large but it isn't phasing her at all. This baby is the toughest baby around. My fluid was down a small bit. All in all the girls are doing amazing! Dr. Lim said to remember just as it has gone down it could go back up, which is why they want to monitor me daily for at least this week. Where as last Monday I wasn't anticipated to make it to today, they are now anticipating at this rate (if all stays the same or better) the likelyhood of me making it to 34 weeks is very possible. That would be a month from today. This is amazing news! This age of gestation would mean the girls are much stronger and would be much more likely to have a great success rate. This would also mean that Blake's surgery would go back to a one stage one surgery procedure instead of the 2 or 3 stage procedure. Again great news. This is because if she is born at a later gestation she will be much larger and more likely to handle a longer surgical procedure.

We are going to try and contain our so happy emotions and remember that things are fluid here. Nothing is ever written in stone. I can tell you one thing that these Dr.'s didn't count on was the power of prayer. Because let me tell you peoople something of a higher power is working for me and I can guarantee his name is GOD!

Please keep those prayers up. We need to keep these babies in as long as we can. Pray for Jeff as he is here taking care of AK while I rest, not a easy task for daddy sometimes, but he is doing a great job.

Also, Kerry who is the mister of this house here is having a family issue. His mother fell and broke a vertebrae in her neck. She had surgery today and is in recovery. She has a long road ahead of her. Can you all please put her in your prayers.

Great Day!

I won't update each day this week unless bad news arises. So no news from the Moran family is Good News!