New Baby News

So, hopefully I have seen you recently and you already know that Philip and I are expecting our second baby in late June. If not, surprise! We are pregnant!

Today Philip and I had our first appointment with our High Risk OB Dr. Howard at UT. Some of my friends have asked why I'm having to go to a high risk OB, so here is a short (and long) explanation.

Immunology lesson (I'm a nerd)
This lesson may not be necessary, but it will be helpful to understand the rest of the story.

All the cells in your body are covered in many antigens. Some of these antigens do nothing but identify the cells as "self". Antigens are molecules that stick out of the cell membranes that can be detected by immune system cells like white blood cells. Just picture all of your cells waving flags that proclaim to be "you". This way when bacteria invade your body and they don't have any "self" flags they can be targeted for destruction.

Any foreign cells are targeted for destruction by using antibodies. Antibodies can be thought of as little "flags" that our body makes to identify something as foreign, or needing to be destroyed. When your immune cells see another cell with antibodies on them they know to kill it immediately. There are several different types of antibodies (called immunogobulins) and they each play a role in our ability to fight off foreign cells or substances. Allergies are just an immune response to a particle that is not "self"(some of us see dog hair and dandruff as a threat while others do not).

The History
Two and a half years ago the day after Ethan made his dramatic entrance (emergency C-section due to a prolapsed cord) to the world the pediatrician noticed that his little body was covered in petechiae. After being admitted to the NICU we had a consultation with their hemotologist and we were informed that Ethan had neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia. All that really means is that my body made antibodies against little Ethan's platelets because we had a different type and once he was born he was in great danger of spontaneous bleeding because all of his platelets were being destroyed. The hemotologist also told us that it was a miracle that he was born via C-section because that saved him from having bleeding in his brain. You can read Philip's testament of Ethan's second day of life and how God truly blessed us here.

The Present
Two years ago Philip and I got our platelets "typed" to make sure that this was the issue, and to see what are chances were of having issues with future pregnancies. Well, Philip is homozygous dominant (1a1a) and I am homozygous recessive (1b1b). If you'll remember your high school biology for a moment and do a quick Punnent square all our our babies will be 1a1b. This means that all of our babies will have platelets that my body sees as foreign or "not self". This is bad because my body will make anti-bodies against the baby's platelets while in utero and the baby could possible have inter-cranial bleeding before he or she is even born.

Our Treatment
After Ethan was born he was given treatments of IVIg (Intravenous Immunogobulin G) that helped his platelet count return to normal as fast as possible. It was explained to me that these extra antibodies would attach themselves to the my antibodies in his little body and stop them from marking his platelets for destruction. Our doctor today said that really doctors don't know how IVIg helps this issue, they just know that it does.

Here is our plan of action as outlined by Dr. Howard today:

• Beginning at 18 weeks of gestation (end of January) I will begin weekly IVIg treatments to lower the baby's chance of having low platelets and/or bleeding on the brain.
• We will have extra ultrasounds through out the pregnancy to check to make sure that the baby's brain is not bleeding. Even if this is the case there is not much we can do, but to increase the amount of IVIg I am taking or to add steroids to my drug regiment. Without IVIg treatment bleeding only occurs in 10% of patients and the numbers are not available for patients with treatment because this is such a rare problem, but Dr. Howard seemed optimistic that IVIg "takes care of the problem".
  
• At 32 weeks we will probably test the baby's platelet count by taking a sample of blood from the umbilical cord. If the platelets are really low the baby can actually be given a transfusion (although that only helps out for a couple of days) and again we will change my drug amounts and/or types.
• The weekly IVIg treatments take about an hour unless I have a reaction to them and I'll try to schedule them while Ethan is in Preschool (which will work until May or so).
  
• The baby (when born) will have to have his/her platelet count monitored and may have to be admitted to the NICU, but this time we are delivering in a hospital that has one down the hall instead of having our little one across town. UT even has "room-in" NICU rooms where parents can stay with their babies for long periods of time. I don't know if we would be eligible to stay in such a room, but they are available.

To close up I would like to say thank you in advance for any and all prayers that you say for this little one! We know that he or she is in God's hands "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

Funny Boy (with a recent addition)

I have quite a few of these that I've been saving for a post, but this morning's was too funny not to post immediately:

This morning Ethan was in the study with me but playing behind me. He was playing with his little phone, but all of a sudden he started saying, "No, blue!" "No, blue!" "Not green, blue!" Apparently he was pushing the number three button (which happens to be blue) and the little phone was saying, "Three" which he misunderstood to be "Green". After I showed him that the phone is saying numbers (and not colors) he calmed down. Too funny!

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Lately in parking lots after we get out of the car Philip or I will say, "You need to hold hands, you're in a parking lot." Well my son, taking that quiet literally, explained to me a couple of weeks ago that he was going to hold his own hand in the parking lot! You should see him hold his own hand....quiet adorable.

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Back in April when I was at the Women's retreat for our church Philip and Ethan had crackers, cheese, and little smokies for lunch. Philip tried to show Ethan how if you put a piece of cheese on a cracker it is really good. Ethan then placed a club cracker on a Triscit, took a bite, and exclaimed, "Yumm!!"

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Here's another one I forgot to post (but if you are on FB, you may have seen it already). While at his Mawmaw's house this summer he watched some Sup-r-man cartoons and I thought it would be really cute to let him go as Superman this Halloween. I found a cute costume at Wal-mart and when we got home Ethan wanted to try it on. After getting the costume on (cape and all) Ethan ran around the house and then he ran up to me and declared in a somewhat disappointed voice with his hands out and his shoulders shrugged: "No fly, Mommy! No fly!" I guess he really expected to be able to fly once he was dressed as Superman!

Homeschooling?

So I got a little creative last Saturday and made this fun matching game for Ethan.


When I say "make", I mean (in true teacher style) I stole someone else's idea and made it better. I got the color match sheets from this GREAT website: Homeschool Creations. After I printed off the sheets I cut them up and made this lapbook from a manila folder for Ethan to sort the colors.


Ethan loved telling me which envelope each picture went into, and although he doesn't yet have the manual dexterity to do it himself (without ripping my construction paper envelopes) he will soon!

Baking Oatmeal Choclate Chip Cookies

The other day my friend Jennifer mentioned these cookies to me, and I just had to try them! This recipe is in Central Baptist Bearden's new cookbook "Taste and See".


This is the first recipe that Ethan has helped me with from start to finish! We even had to pause at the end to run to the store for more M&Ms and more chocolate chips. He did really well, even if at least 1/3 of a cup of flour ended up on the floor and 1/3 cup of M&Ms ended up in his mouth.

The after shot:

The problem in the past has been that I don't like making cookies! Every time you have the envie for a warm fresh out of the oven cookie you remember that in addition to the time it takes to make the dough (not too bad) you have to be married to the oven for hours! Well, I have found a solution! Actually my friend Betsy has shared the solution with me:

My freezer:

Scoop and flash freeze about half of the batch of cookies! Now instead of spending money at the store for those "pull-apart and stick in the oven" cookies you have your own stash of read to be made goodness! After about an hour or two in the freezer on the cookie sheet, stick them in a marked ziploc bag and put them back in the freezer. You can freeze most cookie doughs for 3-4 weeks in a ziplock bag. Just pop them in the oven when you are ready (or just a few into the toaster oven) and get ready for warm chocolate goodness.

Enjoying the fruit of his labors

The funny part was while we were eating the cookies I asked Ethan who made them and he replied (in catechism fashion), "God!"

We're Back!

Before getting on the plane I told Ethan that he was tired, and he replied, "No I not!"

Well, we got back into town late yesterday and we were happy to be home. It was nice to drive my own car on the right side of the road to my own grocery store and pay with green money! I do have to say though I also really miss it. We had a great time in London and Paris, and if this trip taught me anything it was that: it doesn't matter where you go or what you see, only who you go with. I miss being with my family more than I miss being in London. Danielle even made the mistake of saying, "See you tomorrow!" yesterday and it broke my heart :(

Oh well, now I'm busy busy busy uploading and sorting pictures on our site: http://cajunsgotolondon.shutterfly.com

Head over there and check them out!

London, Baby!

So if you follow me on Facebook, or if you've seen me in the last 5 months you know that we are going to LONDON, BABY! We leave tomorrow for Louisiana where we will drop Ethan off and then on Friday we fly across the pond!

I've made us a shutterfly site where we will be posting all of our videos, pictures, and journaling about our trip. You can see it here at: cajunsgotolondon.shutterfly.com

Here is a map of our journey:


View London, Baby! in a larger map

The long overdue: Part 2

I left off by telling you about Wednesday night at "the wall". On Thursday (Ethan's birthday) I helped worked with a team on fixing up Charles's house. We were laying down grout on top of tile that another group had put down. It's not too tough of a job, but you are bending over on your hands and knees crawling all around the floor...in a house with no air conditioning....in south Louisiana....in July!

About half way through the morning I started feeling really sick. I went out in back where Philip was hanging drywall in the pool house with another group to let him know that I wasn't feeling well. He encouraged me to take a break and drink some water. When I returned to the main house MaryAnn asked me if I was feeling okay. Don't you hate it when people do that? Of course I started crying! I think the emotions of the night before, coupled with not being with my little one on his birthday, and possibly a touch of dehydration just sent me over the edge! After MaryAnn and the other women there hurried to find a fan for me to sit in front of, a bottle of Gatorade, and a bandanna to cool my neck off I felt much better.

For the rest of that day I took it easy. Jon Ragsdale was in our group the first summer we went down and so I played electrician's helper for the rest of the day. It was still hot and humid, but I wasn't bending over, or crawling on the floor so I felt a lot better.

The neatest part of this day was that while we were working, one of Charles's neighbors stopped by to talk to Charles. Charles wasn't there, but what the Slidell pastor had "warned" us about was true with this man. The pastor had said on the first night of orientation, "Everyone down here is sick of hearing about Katrina! They don't want to hear any more about the storm, no more storm stories.....but, if you have a few minutes, they would LOVE to tell you their story!" He proceeded to tell us how he had stayed for Katrina because he felt like he could be of help to anyone else who stayed behind. He was especially concerned about an elderly couple who had decided to stay who lived next door. To make a long story short: He and his wife ended up riding the storm out in his attic with those neighbors who probably would have died if he would not have been there.

Why did he stay?
One of the most enlightening topics he addressed was the difficulty in deciding when to ride out a storm, and when to leave. When questioned by a woman on my team he explained all of the preparations that have to go into deciding to leave your home. Just a few of them include: boarding up your windows, finding a place to go, taking off of work, moving your boat or cars,.... He estimated that it would cost him at least $1,000-$2,000 to decide to leave his home if another hurricane looked like it was headed for St. Bernard parish. The decision to leave or to stay is further complicated by the fact that there are usually 2 - 4 storms that come develop or come ashore in the Gulf each year. He went further to say that he probably would ride out future storms just so he could be of help to others who had to stay behind.

When Katrina (and then Rita) hit Louisiana and Philip and I were here, one of the most frustrating things for me was to talk to people who had never lived in Louisiana (or anywhere along the gulf coast) or never experienced a Hurricane. They would ask the same questions that my team members asked to Charles's neighbor. "Why doesn't everyone just leave?" I remember several times explaining the number of residents of New Orleans that probably don't own or have access to vehicles. Even if they had vehicles, most of them have no place to go, no extra gas money to get there, and no money to stay in a hotel if the shelters are full. Even if they had those things the path of a storm is never guaranteed and so you could pack up and leave all for nothing. It was so great to have a south Louisiana resident put it so clearly to people that have never had to live through a Hurricane. For the first time they had to put themselves in the storm victims' shoes and realize that the decision is not a simple one.

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On Friday I worked back at Carpenter's House with Jon and Philip trying to install an exhaust fan in the "blazing hot" kitchen. It was considered a holiday that day so Charles wanted us out of town as soon as we could be. Other team members helped serve lunch and then we packed up to go on a tour of the lower 9th ward.

The first year we were there was the summer after the storm, so not even 11 months had gone by. Philip did take a tour of the lower 9 then and had said that it was terrible. There were no cars or people anywhere. Just destroyed house after destroyed house. Still standing, but unlivable. This trip was different in a lot of ways. In the lower 9th ward there are some new houses, some cars, and some construction crews, but mostly there are blank foundations and over-grown lots. It was good to see that some progress is still being made, but most of all it was sad to think that each square of concrete that is bare represents a family....

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One of my family members commented after we were back in Knoxville that she was proud of us for giving up our time to go down and help out in New Orleans. My reply was an honest one. I am not proud of us for giving up our time! Our time is God's time. Whoever sold us the lie that success at a career is success in life had a good line going, but it just isn't so. This life is God's gift to me and I need to use it as he desires! Philip and I (because of this trip and because of Crazy Love) have recommitted to supporting more missionaries financially, but also supporting God's work with our time and energy. Since we have gotten back to Knoxville Philip has already gotten to help out a local church with his dry-walling skills. I don't say this to brag, but to emphasize that God has places to serve all over this country and we are going to continue to serve wherever we see the opportunity.


I think that is all for now. If I think of anything else I want to share (that Philip hasn't shared already) I will post it later!