Abbie is on the mend!

Here are some pictures from the past two days. I caught a smile on her face!! How photogenic is she?!

Sound asleep.....
Yeah! She opened her eyes just a bit! She has dark blue eyes. At first we thought they were brown, but she had them open more today and they are definitely dark blue!
Look at all that hair! Daddy and Mama got to brush it for awhile the other night. I think she liked that.
Precious tiny feet....

Abbie had her surgery and is doing great!

Monday, February 11, 2008

She is on a ventilator for now until her system can handle breathing on her own again. The doctors say 24-48 hours until she comes off.
Here's our baby sound asleep.
This picture is from Saturday night when we went to visit. You can see the bowels are almost all the way back inside!
Abbie is doing great and her operation this morning went amazingly well! The Lord was so good! Our Pastor was able to come and pray with Mike and I and all the surgeons before Abbie went into surgery, and I know that had alot to do with her successful operation. She will be on the ventilator for awhile, but once she is breathing on her own, it looks like a clear road of recovery ahead! All she has to do is heal now. Please continue to pray for her little body as she recovers.

Please also pray for Caleb. Poor little guy has been a real trooper through all of this. He's got a fever today and I'm hoping he hasnt caught anything! Please just remember him in your prayers too.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! I'll try to keep this blog updated!

SHE'S HERE!! ABIGALE VICTORIA FREY

Abigale Victoria Frey

Abigale Victoria Frey was born February 6, 2008 at 1:01am via Cesarean. She weighs 5 pounds 5 ounces and is 18.5 inches long. Abbie is doing great, breathing on her own and has a vivacious cry (so the nurses have said!). She was born at 37 weeks 2 days. Here's how it happened....

I hadnt felt the baby move all day on Tuesday, and since she is normally a VERY active baby, I was concerned. I called my doctors and they said to lie down for an hour, focus solely on feeling her move, and do a kick count. After an hour and a half and still no movement at all (no matter how much I poked and prodded my poor belly!), the doctors said to come in to the hospital to check her out. Not expecting it to take longer than an hour or so, I dropped Caleb off at a friends house and called Mike to let him know what was going on. He was working at Cracker Barrel and told me stop by work and we would go to the hospital together.

When we got to the hospital, they checked her heart rate and she looked fine. They tried to get her to move by vibrating my belly, pushing on it, giving me some pop to drink, and having me move around. Nothing worked, she absolutely would not budge! So, they decided that since I was 37 weeks and she was a good weight, she needed to be born Tuesday night. They decided to do a contraction stress test to see how she would handle contractions. Her heart rate kept dipping during each contraction, so they said 'Time to do a C-section.'

Mike called our friends who had Caleb (what a blessing they are!) and let them know what was happening, and then off we went to the operating room. The whole procedure went very well, and the Lord really gave both Mike and I a calm during the operation. Abbie was born at 1:01am with her cord around her neck and alot of meconium in the amniotic fluid. The doctors said it was a good thing we came in that night and did the cesarean becuase labor may have put too much stress on her. I was so glad to hear that I wasnt overreacting! :)

Abbie has gastroschisis, a condition where her intestines are outside her body. The surgeons have put all of her bowel in a plastic "silo" and suspended it above her abdomen. They will slowly squeeze a little in each day until they are all back inside, and then take her in for surgery to close the hole in her tummy. Actually, Mike and I went to see her last night in the NICU and there is only about an inch of bowel left to be squeezed back inside her! She has been doing great and they expect to take her into surgery within the next day or two! We had expected it to take much longer (5-7 days) so this is a huge answer to prayer! Mike got to hold her for a minute last night while they changed her diaper, and I got to hold her for just a minute too. She is so light and tiny and precious... we are so in love with her! After her surgery, her intestines will still need to heal so she will be in the hospital for several more weeks. Anywhere from 3 weeks to 8 weeks, depending on how she recovers. Please continue to pray for her!

The cesarean went well for me and I havent been in much pain at all. I've been up walking around since yesterday afternoon and feel that recovery is going great! Aside from a headache, which they said is probably from the spinal, and some soreness around my stitches, everything is good. I should be going home tomorrow. Mike has been with me by my side through this whole thing- so patient and helpful! I dont think any husband could be more wonderful than he has been! There is a chair next to my hospital bed that flips out into a bed, and poor Mike has been sleeping on that for the last couple of nights. He is so sweet to stay with me and I love him so much!!!

Caleb has been staying with some friends of ours while we are here at the hospital. Thank you Dom and Nikki for keeping him for us the other night! And thank you Cherry and Tim for watching him for us today! You all are such a blessing! Mike went and got Caleb last night and brought him up to the hospital to see me- he was really confused and just sat on the bed and stared at the room for awhile before coming over to me and hugging me. Then he saw the balloons and cookies- after that it was impossible to get him to notice anything else! :) He's doing great and I think he's enjoying all the attention from the people he's staying with! Especially today- dont spoil him too much Cherry!! :) Thank you for watching him!

God has been so good through all of this and we are completely grateful to Him for his mercy, protection, love and grace during these last few days. Things happened kind of fast and we may not have been prepared for all that took place, but the Lord was there in all of it guiding us and giving us wisdom to deal with each situation. Praise the Lord for His goodness! Thank you Jesus!

Okay, now for the pictures!!

Here's Autumn waiting to be taken in for the cesarean.
Here's Mike all gowned up and ready to go in with Autumn. We thought the jumpsuit was really cool....
Abigale right after she was born.
Doctors clamping her cord.
After they cleaned her all up and got her comfy, we got to go in and see her for a bit. She is so precious!
Mom and Baby Abigale....

Dad and Baby Abigale....
The nurses put a pink bow in her hair and it just makes her look so cute! She is soooo adorable!
Our tiny baby girl....
A close-up of the gastroschisis.

Recent pictures

Not much has happened lately. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our baby girl- still haven't decided on a name yet, but that's okay. We have time.

Mike is working hard at Cracker Barrel nearly everyday but Sunday. He enjoys being a server and everyone tells him he is very good at it. That's my man! As soon as the weather warms up, he will be going back to doing lawn care- then he will be gone even more! Mike loves being outdoors and is looking forward to getting back into landscaping and mowing.

Caleb is saying so many words now! He says 'thank you' all the time, 'please' is another favorite, and his newest word is 'no.' Im not sure why it took him so long to learn this word (you would think it would be one of his first!) but he just learned it and now he loves to tell Mike and I 'no.' We're working on that... :)

I've been in a cleaning frenzy lately, polishing and vacumming everything within an inch of its life! And cooking too! Im not sure where this burst of energy has come from, but Im taking advantage of it and using it before it disappears! :) I feel great! Aside from the occassional leg cramps and heartburn, my pregnancy has been wonderful! God is so good!

And, the doctors say that our baby girl is growing well, everything looks good, and she should be here soon! My due date is Feb. 24 and Im hoping I go sooner than that! I'll let you all know when she is here!

Here's our little guy smilin' at us!

That's where my glasses went!!!

Mike and Caleb on New Year's Eve. Our sleepy little guy stayed awake long enough to ring in the new year with us! Hurray!! :)

Pictures

33 wks. preggo








Here's Mike and me on my birthday! We snapped a photo as we headed out to a very nice restaurant for a birthday dinner. My darling sweetheart planned it all and surprised me!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas is almost here- the time of year that we as Christians celebrate the birth of our Savior. Although we do not know exactly when Christ was born, we CAN pick a certain time to celebrate His birth, and December 25th happens to be that day! Mike and Caleb and I are rejoicing during this season of remembrance, that Jesus came to earth to be born so humbly, to live so miraculously, and to die for us so amazingly! What a joy that we have a God who gave us the ultimate gift.... His only Son!

Our little family plans on staying in TN for the holidays this year. My older brother, Seth and his wife, Molly, will be here during Christmas. We are so excited to have them! The last time they were here was when Caleb was born, so its been awhile! Mike and I were talking about how shocked Seth and Molly will be when they get here since WI is covered in snow, and Mike just mowed our lawn yesterday! :) What a difference in weather!

My pregnancy is progressing well- the Lord has been so good! Other than a few leg cramps (yuck!) and the occassional need for a nap, I feel great! The baby is doing well too! I need to go in every week for ultrasounds now, which is a bit more difficult when you have an 18 mo. old, but definitely do-able! At the last u/s, the doctor said she is still small for her gestational age (30 wk., but measuring at 28), but that is not uncommon for gastroschisis babies. He gave me alot of good information about babies in the womb, some that I had never heard before! Our little girl is kicking and moving like crazy, which is a good sign! She completley flipped positions- she was head down for the longest time, and now she is breech (head up). I can feel a big difference in her movements since she has changed positions too! Alot more movement up high vs. the bladder punches I was feeling before! Ha ha!! :) Please pray that she will continue to thrive and grow, and that she will go back to her head-down position before she is born, since that is kind of important! Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts too! We are so grateful!

Merry Christmas to all!

More Christmas Pictures

Mike, Autumn, Caleb
Mike and Autumn
Mike and Autumn

4D Ultrasound pictures of Baby #2

Isn't she just soooo cute?
The u/s technician said there was alot of umbilical cord floating around her face, but we still got a good picture.

I must say, our baby is the cutest little girl I've ever seen, and I havent even seen her in real life yet! Im in love with 4D u/s!! Mike and I were able to go to this appointment together for the first time this pregnancy. Since it was the first u/s he's been able to see, I was glad they did the 4D. We go back in two weeks for another one. The Dr.s said everything is looking good, her gastroschisis hasnt enlarged, and she has a good amount of amniotic fluid. She's definitely moving around alot, and although she is still head down, she is moving her whole body alot more now, versus just her hand and feet like before. :) Exciting for me!

Caleb has been saying "Baby" all day, everyday! Its so cute! He knows what a baby is too, so its funny that he keeps saying it! I think he just likes the fact that he knows a new word really well, and every time he says it we clap and cheer and make a big deal out of it!