Praise God and Bring On More Good News!!

Whoo-Hoo! Finally some good news! As I said yesterday, I had several appointments to go to this morning and I must admit, I had a "lack of faith" problem going on too. I guess I was just completely expecting more bad news, since that seems to be our story here lately, but God was wonderful and proved me wrong!

Appointment #1: Chiropractor
Well, while this was a PAINFUL visit, the doctor was able to put my pelvic bones back in place. She said that there were four different bones involved and that my right side had dropped out of place by almost an inch...thus the painful moving around! And while they are in correct position now, she did say that they will most likely be displaced again...so I go back on Thursday for a check-up. Honestly, if all it takes it a couple of pops here and there to keep me off bedrest -- sign me up! I can deal with the pain part -- but again, Eli is great and at no harm and for that we are thankful!

Appointment #2: Maternal Fetal Group and Ultrasound
Well, Eli is doing great!! As of our last visit two weeks ago, we still had a complete placenta previa which was one of the things that was such a scare for us. Well, today -- everything has moved to where it is supposed to be!!!! Yay!!! This means that they no longer are talking about taking him early, no bedrest at 32 weeks, no steroid shots, no definite c-section, etc! This is a huge deal that I am so thankful that God has taken care of!!! Secondly, the cysts in Eli's brain are no longer present! His heart muscle is still calcified, but it has not gotten any larger and the rest of his heart looks STELLAR! And lastly, he is in the 60th percentile on growth, which means my cardiac meds aren't holding him too far back on the growing aspect. All great news!

Appointment #3: Regular OB Check-Up
*** I get to go back to work! AMEN! ***
*** I can pick Zachary up again! AMEN! ***
*** I now only have appointments every two weeks! AMEN! ***

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The lump over his nose is actually his hand rubbing his eye...you just can't see it to well in this picture.

Another profile pic...isn't he beautiful?
And here are his feet...

23 Weeks 2 Days

Total Weight Gain: 13lbs

We go back in two weeks for the glucose testing and in four weeks for another ultrasound, so we will keep everyone posted. Until then, keep praying -- as you can see, its working!!!

Eli Craig

Just wanted to give a quick update...
First and most important -- we have officially decided on a name. (And aren't planning on changing it again!) Our new little friend is going to be named Eli Craig Barnes. Eli for the bible name and Craig after Nathan's maternal grandparents. So there you have it -- from now on I can actually refer to him as an individual, rather than as BabyB!!

Secondly -- Eli is still doing good and growing. I go to three doctor appointments tomorrow, including one with more ultrasound pictures -- so I will post any changes that I know of at that point. The latest news on me is that this last week my pelvis bones became dislocated. Another RARE pregnancy complication that obviously I had to develop! I am still at home on bed rest, but go to the chiropractor tomorrow to see if they can pop everything back in place. Hopefully they can and I can go back to work on Friday -- until then, there is a lot of napping and board games with Zachary going on right now! :)

And lastly, this pic is the theme I think we've decided on for Eli's nursery. We were going to use Zachary's nursery decor that we had saved, but being one of five children myself, I know that hand-me-downs will come for the rest of his life, so we are gonna start him out with something new... Well, Nathan doesn't know that part yet -- but I'll talk him into it, I'm sure. :)

Less than 13 weeks before we meet our little boy...every Sunday that passes is a blessing, but we are starting to get anxious! We'll keep you all updated. And again, thanks for the prayers and cards that keep coming our way!

BabyB Update

Wow -- Okay, so today we are 22weeks and 2days along and I figured it was time for an update!
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First, the little one inside is doing great! I said on my last pregnancy update that they had found some questionable red flags on the ultrasound -- which are still there, but they are following everything very closely. They did find two Hydrochoroid Cysts on his brain that have no reflection on function -- its just something that they are having to monitor. However, having talked to several specialists, my OB and some of the doctors at work whom I would trust with Zachary's life, I am not too worried about it. And apparently, since our ultrasound was done early, this may be a normal thing on an 18week old fetus. They also found that the papillary muscle in his heart on the left side is calcified. They call this echogenic intracardiac focus. However, that muscle is one that holds one of the valves in place between the left atria and the left ventricle -- so the fact that it is already calcified has no effect on function either. It is also something that they will have to monitor and it should give him no problems later on in the future...given that other areas of his heart are okay and stay okay. It sounds like a lot, but overall, I am confident that God has our little one in the palms of his hands and that everything is going t be okay. As far as his name goes -- well, we are still trying to decide. We have tossed around all kinds of names from Elijah, Eli, Elliot, Issac, Tyler, Landon to Nemo (you can guess who put that name in the hat!). We have it narrowed down to two -- and I will let you all know as soon as we decide for sure! Until then, he remains BabyB.
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Secondly -- my health. Well, we are hanging in there! We have had some troubling news along the way -- and all pathways point to the fact that this might in fact be our last pregnancy, but we'll see. We do know that this time around I am at a high risk for many things...much more than the last pregnancy it seems. I still go to the doctor weekly and I have ultrasounds every other week. My doctor did tell us at our visit last week that they are not going to allow us to carry the little one full term. So as of right now, we are scheduled to get our steroid shots in six weeks, and they are going to take the little one at 36weeks...which should be the week of April 19th. Hopefully, with the shots in place...he will only be small, but very healthy. Our problem is going to be if we go into preterm labor again. We are only four weeks away from what we call "D-Day" when we went into labor with Zachary. This time around, because of my health, we aren't sure what our options are going to be if we do go into preterm labor. So just pray that he hangs out until we take him...not before!
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Anyway -- its alot, I know. But we are just taking it one week at a time and praising God for every Sunday that passes. Obviously the Lord wants this little one around, and so we are just putting it all in His hands to get him here safely. I will keep you all posted...and thanks in advance for your prayers.

21weeks 6days

(and finally starting to get a bump!)

22weeks 2days

Dayton, Ohio Weekend Getaway

Nathan and I had a great time on our weekend away. It was hard leaving Zachary (since this is the first time EVER that we have gone away without him) but we figured that now was as good a time as any. Besides, he is already four and he did have a BLAST with the grandparents over the weekend, so that made our absence easier to handle.

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We got to Dayton on Friday night, checked into our hotel - which was very nice! Then we headed out to the Dayton Mall for a little shopping and then to Olive Garden for dinner. It was during dinner that we met our first "interesting" person of our trip. Nathan and I got so tickled at dinner because our waitress, who was very nice, said the word "sure" probably 50 times. And she was so monotone in everything she said. The dinner was filled with... "Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure...." It was really funny -- I guess you just had to be there! Then after dinner, we went to Wal-Mart (I know, typical Tennesseans going to Wally World while on vacation!) But we had a wood burning fire place in our suite and so we went to the store for some fire logs and matches.
Enters second interesting person: When we got up to check out, we grabbed a lighter. But it seemed as though the lady checking us out thought it would be better to have matches instead. But they were located in the back of the store, so we didn't really want to go all the way back and get some. Here is the conversation, by the way -- our lady checking us out was Chinese, so insert accent here:
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Lady: You do not want lighter...you want metch!
Nathan: No, the lighter will work fine.
Lady: You do not want lighter...you want metch! Metches are in house wares.
Nathan: Oh that’s fine, I think we will take our chances with the lighter.
Lady: You do not want lighter...you want metch! I buy metches all time here. You need metch!
Nathan: Ma'm...I do not want a metch...I want the lighter. That lighter right there…
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(At this time, my pregnant hormones have me so tickled that I am actually crying from trying not to laugh.) The lady put our lighter aside until Nathan grabbed her in a choke-hold and security got involved... A trip to the county jail, one phone call and a couple of hours later – we enjoyed a nice, romantic fire. J J/K It did go on for quite a while until finally the lady told us to come back when the lighter didn't work. You all should have been there. We were both kind of looking around for the Candid Camera people to jump out at any moment! Needless to say, we did get our lighter and had a romantic fire that evening.

Dinner at Olive Garden

Saturday morning we got up and headed for the Air Force Museum. This place was gigantic! I totally underestimated how big it was and how many planes that were actually on display. The last count on aircrafts was 350+. It took us 7 hours to walk through the whole thing and we probably could’ve taken twice that long. The museum walked you through the different eras in time and did a fantastic job on giving the history for each time period. The Early Years Gallery included the prelude to flight, 1907-WWI, WWI, between the wars and the prelude to WWII. The Airpower Gallery included early WWII combat aircrafts, WWII combat aircrafts, the atomic bombs and celebrities in uniforms. The Modern Flight Gallery covered the Korean war and Southeast Asia. The Cold War Gallery had the Berlin Airlift and wall exhibits, Cold War aircrafts and the missile and space gallery. They also had special exhibits on The Holocaust, Enlisted Heritage, Research and Development, Flight Test Gallery, Restoration and The Presidential Aircraft Gallery. (We actually got to go through four old Air Force One planes, including FDR's plane with his elevator, and the Boeing VC-137C which was the plane that carried Kennedy’s body back to Washington after he was assassinated. (Grampa, you would LOVE it here!)

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The entire museum was amazing and we got tons of pictures. Our third interesting person of the trip award went to our tour guide to the Presidential hangar – he was also very monotone and always seemed to turn his head at the moment when he said something extremely important and so we couldn’t hear him.

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Ex: “Whatever you do, don’t ……” “Make sure when inside that you never…..” The authorities will confiscate your camera if you take a picture of….” J You get the idea! It was also very funny! I’m working on putting together a slide show of the aircrafts that we saw…so bear with me. Some of the pics didn’t turn out too good because it was rather dark throughout the museum, but I am planning on posting as many as possible. We also got to see an IMAX movie on being a fighter pilot. Nathan totally enjoyed the movie – and I am ashamed to say that even though my grandfather retired from the Air Force as a pilot – my head stayed between my legs almost the whole movie. I don’t do flying very well at all!

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After the museum, we had dinner reservations at Pacchia Italian Restaurant. It was voted the best place to take a first date in Dayton, Ohio. It was also voted the #1 place to get a dessert in Dayton too. And if you know my husband, you know he doesn’t turn down a good dessert. It was here that we met our fourth crazy person…lets just say that she had one too many drinks…I mean, she actually tried to walk out the window! (Sorry, that’s not funny I know.) But she was so nutty that the manager actually gave us our dessert for free just for putting up with her! Thanks lady – whoever you are!

Anway – the next morning we packed up, had breakfast at Cracker Barrel (of course) and headed home! And while we were under the Winter Weather Advisory the whole trip – the snow didn’t get to us until the morning we left. So overall, it was a beautiful weekend!

Thanks to Granny, Grandaddy, Grammie and PeePaw for watching Zachary! He had a blast too!

Birthdays, Birthdays and Oh Yeah...More Birthdays!

As if the Christmas season isn't busy enough already, our family decided that most everyone needed to be born in December!! For the big birthday bash, I didn't get any good pics because I was headed out the door to go to work -- but trust me, we all had a blast. So here it is...

Happy Birthday to You.
Happy Birthday to You.
Happy Birthday dear Ashleigh, Milah, Uncle Thom, Daddy, Grampa, Sloan and Zachary!!
Happy Birthday to You!!!

Now, Zachary turned 4 on the 27th...yes, I cannot believe it either! My little buddy is growing up way to fast! We aren't doing his birthday party for a couple more weeks...mainly to get far enough away from the Christmas rush, but we did take him out on his birthday. It was Zachary's choice on the date...so we went to Opry Mills to see Madagascar 2, we ate at The Rainforest Cafe (which Zachary refers to as the jungle) and then he picked out a Buzzlightyear toy from the Disney Store. It was a great family afternoon!

Zachary was so excited that the "jungle people" sang him happy birthday and brought him some icecream! "Mommy, how did they know it was my birthday?" My reply..."They're Magic honey!"