UW Appointment Update, As Promised

We made it up to Seattle again for our appointment on Monday, but it was a close one!  Ryan jumped in the car to pick me up at work, only to find that the battery was TOTALLY dead!  Thankfully our neighbor was home to jump the car.  Thanks Greg!  We ended up only being 15 minutes late, although I have no idea how.  Especially considering Ryan was making work phone calls the entire drive, and multitasking isn't his speciality.  He was driving anywhere between 10 over and 5 under the whole way.  But it is was a good practice of patience, right?

The appointment went well.  I continue to be impressed with the care we get at UW.  It has been fantastic.  I have yet to meet a staff member that is rude or short in any way, and since we are "special" we get to meet with four to five healthcare providers every time we are there!  So, if anybody was going to encounter the rude staff member, it would be us just by sheer odds.  They really know there stuff and they go beyond the medical aspect of treatment to make sure that we are doing okay in every aspect of my life.  I even got a lecture that I am not asking for help with life after he is born enough, so I have been working on that.  Anyhow, everything is moving along just fine with the pregnancy.  I show no signs of premature labor at this point, I am not swelling, I am not gaining too much or too little weight....everything is great.  We had another non-stress test on Monday, which also went well.  He is moving and his heart is accelerating just like it should.

That is really the latest and greatest for now.  I have another non-stress test this coming Monday, then the next Monday is our big appointment in Seattle that we are really looking forward to.  Besides the lonnngggg ultrasound we will have that day, we will also meet with a neonatologist and the anesthesiologist that will talk to me about the c-section.  After this appointment we will really just be in a twice weekly monitoring stage to make sure he is doing okay.  If he isn't for some reason, out he will come.  So Ryan and I will have a bag for all three of us in the car every time we go to Seattle just in case we don't come back.  Crazy to think.  But for the sake of his lungs being as developed as possible, let's just hope that the emergency bags are not used.

I have to throw out ANOTHER thank you to our friend's, the Barton's, who have offered to be our emergency dog care-takers!  Our nurse said it would be best if we could keep the dogs local so that they are able to come home and stay with us when we come home to get a good night's sleep.  She said that this is important because they are good for our stress and health.  Music to my dog loving ears!  Thankfully, the Barton's have offered to do a lot of dog watching for us (still have some gaps to fill in, but we are working on that!) and they live right in Orting.  We plan on throwing a big Thank You BBQ when Gavin comes home to thank all of the people who have been supporting us.  We just couldn't do it alone, and everybody who has helped has made an impact on Gavin's life already by allowing us to focus on him instead of logistical things.  I can't describe the fear that I have for him at times, and it helps to have people in our lives who are so willing to take anything off our plate of stress.

I hope everybody is doing well!  I will definitely have an update if anything else happens that is noteworthy, and definitely after our big appointment on the 4th.

Carly, Ryan and Gavin