Love, Family and Friends...

I decided it was time to write a post on the blog. Since the passing of Gabe, we've received so much love and support from everyone we know! It's true what they say; we are surrounded by angels. :) We have the best and strongest circle of family and friends that it absolutely amazes me!!

One item of interest I need to add to this post is; Manu, Sophia and Aunt Mavis went to St. Mary's GA to get a short visit in with MyMy and TT and the Mausharts :) It was a good visit for everyone and I think Sophia racked up about 5 more barbies from My My and TT. Plus another doll and a book of tattoos from Robin :) I sure do wish that Mike and I would have been able to make that trip but we will get down there for a visit in due time.


Another item of interest is; Mike and I had the genetic testing done to see if we were carriers of the chromosome 13 deletion/translocation. The results came back that we are NOT carriers and that means Sophia isn't a carrier and we shouldn't have any troubles having another baby. The doctors said that what happened to Gabe was something that "just happened".

Our lives have been forever touched by a sweet baby and not a day passes that we don't think about him or "talk to him". Even Sophia chats it up with "Lightening McQueen".  We know that GOD has a bigger plan for us and we just have to have faith and believe in him.

Nicole, Natalie and I are going to run, jog, walk or crawl 13.1 miles in his honor. It should be a sight to see! ha! We are participating in the Disney half marathon in February 2014. My sisters have been training for it, they are going to rock it!! I just hope they come back for me after they cross the finish line ;-) They might want to bring Soph's wagon for me. ha!

Another one of GOD's miracles was the birth of Adilyn Harper Dawson. She is such a sweet baby and is growing stronger every day! Her and her Mommy made it through the delivery with minimal problems and they are taking on their new roles as Mommy and daughter pretty darn good! Daddy is great too!!

Our sweet angel baby Gabe....

Today has been again, one of the hardest days for Mike and I...

First of all, to everyone that has prayed for our family - I want to say, thank you so much :) I believe those prayers have given us the strength we've needed and I will ask for continued prayers to help us get through what's to come.

Since my last post, we've changed doctors to Dr. Callison. She is my sister-in-law's doctor and she is a blessing. So, today we had a doctors appointment. We had an ultrasound done of Gabe. He has huge problems. During his 22 week ultrasound he was doing just find structurally, ie his organs were developing so we didn't have any problems there. Today, on the other hand it was devastating to see. His lungs have not developed. They didn't even look like they where there in the ultrasound. His fluid has gotten worse and it's around his heart, brain and organs and his body is just so swollen.... his head is measuring 33 weeks and his belly is measuring 35 weeks.... his chances of survival on his own are non-existent outside of the womb. We're basically just waiting for his little perfect heart to stop beating. Which will happen once the umbilical cord is cut, if he doesn't pass before then.

Also, my belly is measuring 33 weeks - I am 26 weeks and 2 days. So I'm measuring pretty big, this will eventually turn into a concern as well...

Dr. Callison wants us to talk to the NICU doctors to discuss what we want to do for Gabe when he is born. Do we want them to wisk him off to the NICU to see what they can do (mean while he wont be with us when he dies) or do we want him with us until he passes away....

Over the past couple of days, I haven't felt him move as much as he had in the past few months....As I type this, I can't believe I'm typing this...

We're going to talk to the priest on Saturday for baptismal arrangements. Manu is going to talk to my Uncle Geoff for the funeral arrangements.

I don't know why I feel the need to journal this but for some reason I want to keep all of the days we've had with him and bottle them up for us to keep.

I've never known real pain until this experience but I believe in the Lord and I know he has a plan for our sweet little family.  I never in a million years would have thought this would happen to one of my children, it makes me appreciate the blessings we have and not take anything for granted. We are a strong family so I know we will get through this, one day at a time.

I couldn't help but tear up as I picked up Sophia from school today. She of course had no idea what was wrong and I did a pretty good job of concealing the tears... it was the snot that I couldn't hide :) I am going to write a letter to Kleenex and tell them that their product is not as soft and durable as it should be! My nose is raw!

Gabriel Connor Dempsey :) 25 weeks and 3 days!

I think it's a good idea to tape this boys movement for a couple of reasons, Number 1 - because he's a miracle and I am thankful I get to experience this with him. Number 2 - because technology is so advanced that I get to save these moments and try to preserve them in time.  If you ask Manu, he's being active because I ate some cracked out chicken that she made us, for breakfast this morning or it could be the watermelon I devoured a little bit ago... :) Whatever sparks his interest to move like the karate kid is fine with me! :)

I'll post again next Wednesday after our 3:30 doctor appointment.

Doctor update and some...

OK!! Where do I begin! First of all, let's start with last weekend and Uncle Jon-Jon and Uncle Kraigy brought Manu her bed (she's been sleeping on a blow up mattress.. no fun) so she can get some rest too! She has been a HUGE help to us as we trek through this new journey of the unknown... not to sound like an episode of star trek or anything... :)

Then, Mommy and Daddy celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary!!! :) It was pretty low key this year, which is to be expected :) We had dinner and a movie. It was quite nice... I was able to eat fried pickles and a fried shrimp, yummy! Just a little craving I've been having. Plus, Manu watched Sophia and they made cupcakes for their date :) Good stuff!!

Now for the baby news:

First of all, Gabe is a fighter, he's constantly moving and reminding me that he's still "here" and not  to give up on him!! So after our Anniversary weekend, we still hadn't heard the recommendation from Dr. Gonzales. So I decided to call Dr. Purvis' office to see if they had heard from him. Sooo, in the time I was waiting to hear back from Purvis.. I got a call from Birmingham... it was the insurance lady, for the second time, asking me if I authorized her to charge me $700.00 for the parental FISH test. AGAIN, I ask her - who is requesting this? She doesn't have to answer that because she is the insurance claims lady... not the nurse or genetic counselor that's trying to spend mine and Mike's money for us. So, she patched me over to the "nurse" -- this lady has gotten on my nerves every time I talk to her. She is the "results teller" and she always throws in her 2 cents which I never appreciate.

It just so happens, she caught me at the wrong time! I basically told her that I didn't want to hear her opinion, I have not authorized this test because it does NOT help MY unborn child's chances of survival and at this time, that's where our concerns are! Furthermore, I want to hear what the doctor has to say and not HER! PHEW, I felt better after this phone call!!

As Sophia and I were at her very first dance class at the dance company, which she loved :)
I heard from Dr. Purvis' nurse, she called to set up an appointment for Mike and I to talk with Dr. Purvis on Wed 6/5/2013....

So it was Wed and it was a big day for Sophia! She FINALLY got to go swimming at school!

 The reason why this is SUCH a big deal is, she's been eyeballing that pool since her first day there!

 And to swim in the pool she had to be in the intermediate class or advanced class!

This girl swam as an advanced class student :) Great job punkin butt!!

 

Now for the news of the day:

Dr. Gonzales did not recommend that we perform anymore invasive procedures on Gabe. He did not recommend any intervening at this time. He did however, expand upon Gabe's chromosome deletion. He said that this is a very rare genetic deletion and he could not tell us how this was going to affect our son. All he said was the spectrum was very broad and he used the analogy of a 3 gig computer missing 18 megabits of memory. He said that's how much of a genetic deletion we can expect with Gabe. Because of  the chromosome 13 deletion of segments 32.1 through 34 he thinks that's causing the fluid in Gabe. So, as one can imagine... this hit mine and Mike's hearts pretty heavily! Yesterday was not a good day.....

 

As we were talking to Dr. Purvis he did say, the best test we can do to monitor Gabe is to feel his movement daily. He said, if I want to come in to the office and hear his heartbeat than I can, at anytime. So he checked Gabe's heartbeat and it was pumping away at 155 bpm and Mr. Gabe was moving all around for Dr. Purvis. :) This was our GREAT news.

 

Our course of action:

Is to take this pregnancy one day at a time. I will go to see Dr. Purvis every two weeks and receive ultrasounds every four weeks until Gabe makes his grand entrance into this world and by the grace of God he will let us keep Gabe for many years. We really need to focus on what we can do and that's monitor his growth and heartbeat and fluid...

 I have been doing some research on "where" to deliver and Huntsville hospital has a NICU level 3 and so does Brookwood in Birmingham. I asked Dr. Purvis if we will need to make special arrangements to have specialists at the delivery and he said we can do that if we need to and that wont be hard to do because his doctor community is a close knit group of doctors. He said the closer we get to time to deliver, then we can go over that course of action.

We don't really know what to expect at this point. So like I said, we are going to stick to our course of action and keep chugging along one day at a time.

 

 

Doctor visit today and the wait continues and Sophia is getting moved up!

So, today was a semi-successful day. We met with Dr. Purvis twice today. We met when we first got there to discuss Dr. Gonzales's recommendation BUT Dr. Purvis did not have the recommendation and full results today. He called Dr. Gonzales's office and the nurse said the Dr. Gonzales was just about done with the results/recommendation and should have it to Dr. Purvis soon. So, once Dr. Purvis gets it, he is going to call me. He isn't going to make us wait until our next appointment to tell us what Dr. Gonzales recommends. Thank goodness because our next appointment is in 2 weeks! That's right, he's backed us up to 2 weeks instead of every week appointments. He also said, at this time we will not be performing any type of intervention for Gabe. I asked him" So, that's a good thing, right?" He said, "Yes it is!" We will take ALL the good news we can!!

So, Dr. Purvis listened to Gabe's heartbeat and measured my tummy - which all looked and sounded GREAT!

Next bit of news, we had our ultrasound and saw Gabe move all around. First his hand was on his head as if to say, "woahh is me" :) He was also sitting Indian style. His personality is so ALIVE it's amazing :) He didn't seem like the sick little boy we saw two weeks ago, even with the fluid and swelling. According to the measurements, the fluid and swelling haven't gotten any worse, nor has it gotten any better. It's staying pretty much the same as it was last week. So, that's good.

Also, he's no longer breach. He's laying across my tummy, just like he should be doing at this time in the pregnancy.

I go back to the doctor on June, 12 at 3:30. I'm not sure if we will have an ultrasound at that appointment or not. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we do!

Big Sister news:

Sophia will move up to the advanced class next week at school! That's huge news.. Although, the only thing Soph really cares about is getting in the pool at school. LOL. She tells me everyday that she needs to bring her bathing soup so she can swim. They don't start swimming until June so it's very very soon! We're pretty proud of this little stinker and her climb to the advanced class :)

Since she's started at Covenant Classical School she's progressed through a total of 3 classes, including the advanced class she is about to move into, since August 2012. She's doing great!

24 weeks and taking it one day at a time...

This past weekend was full of hard work for Manu, Sophia and Daddy. They worked their butts off  cleaning the house and washing cars. Manu has decided to stay with us to help out so I can sit on my butt and take care of Gabe with as much rest as possible when I'm home. Aunt Nannie and Uncle Kip even got in on the action. LOL. Uncle Kip took Sophia with him to pick up his and Aunt Nannie's race day packets while Aunt Nannie cleaned up Sophia's toys and ran the vacuum cleaner throughout the house. Love you guys!!!

Plus, Daddy has been working some long hours in the HOT sun, so having Manu here is helpful for all of us. :)

We have been calling & getting calls from family to keep everyone informed of what is going on, the best we can anyway, and we are receiving tons of prayers for our little guy and that just warms my heart and is so awesome:) He's already touched our lives so much and he's only the size of a swollen banana :)

Here's our 24 week picture. Big sister Sophia didn't feel like taking a picture today. I think she's bored with the whole picture taking thing. :)

Well, we are still waiting on the chromosome pairing results from the microarray. I didn't get a phone call today from Birmingham. So, hopefully they will send the results to Dr. Purvis and he will have everything for our 2:30 appointment tomorrow. The plan for our appointment is for Dr. Purvis to go over all the results and the recommendation from Dr. Gonzales. All of this is contingent on whether or not he receives all the information before 2:30.

Oh, I forgot to report that Gabe's Parvo and CMV tests were normal. So no infections are plaguing our baby.

I'll post again tomorrow after our Doctor's visit. We will also have an ultrasound picture, hopefully :) We are getting an ultrasound, at the request of Mommy and Daddy because Dr. Purvis doesn't typically do ultrasounds inside a 3 week span. He said he can't get an accurate measurement of baby's growth but he will allow us to have one because we need some peace of mind and want to see our boy.

So more to follow....

23 weeks and 3 days... more test results and a doctor appointment.

Here's my post from yesterday, I started writing before I received a phone call about one portion of the microarray results:

Well, we had to tell big sister that she couldn't go with us to this doctor's appointment. She was heartbroken but when I told her that she wont even care about doctor appointments once the baby is here, she was much happier. She hadn't looked that far down the road and honestly, it helps me to keep my focus on that far down the road.

Since I don't have any vacation time from work, we are going to the doctor on my lunch break. 

Baby brother Gabe has been kicking and punching Mommy really good the past few days :) This has reassured me that he is doing his thing in there and he is ok. As long as he keeps this up, which I believe he will. Then we will be on the road to recovery!

Something strange that has been happening with me, along the lines of pregnancy symptoms, the week before our 22 week OB/GYN appointment where the fluid and swelling was found on Gabe, I threw up my poptarts on my drive to work one morning. It was very bizarre considering I haven't been sick this entire pregnancy and I wasn't sick when I was pregnant with Sophia. Also, I've had mornings since that day where I've been extremely nauseous and feeling horrible. It has been going away by about 9:00 am. After talking to Jana about it, she said when she was pregnant with Kolbi she would have random bouts of sickness due to the way he was moving and pushing on her stomach. So, it's not unheard of, that's for sure.

One thing I wanted to share, a lady at work suggested that I hug my belly as much as possible and tell baby Gabe how much I love him!! I've been doing this every chance I get and it helps me feel connected to him. I know that probably sounds weird.. so have you met me? :) I also told Sophia that Gabe can hear her. She thought that was so cool. So she talks to my belly now. She tells her baby brother that she loves him and she gives my belly kisses :) She loves this little boy and can't wait until he's here with us. :)

 Received a phone call from Birmingham with part of the test results:
The microarray revealed a deletion on chromosome 13.  This poses a huge threat to Gabe, it could lead to stillbirth or born with a wide spectrum of malformations OR ,depending on the second half of the microarray results which tests the chromosome pairing, if the pairing is coming together right then his other chromosome 13 could kick in and baby Gabe might be OK.

This was a lot to swallow yesterday. It was very hard for me to talk to the nurse on the other end of the phone because all I want to hear is that my baby boy will be OK. I want him BORN ALIVE!

The nurse said that I will need to be tested for the chromosome 13 deletion and so will Mike. They want to know if we are carriers. This might help them determine the extend of the defect in Gabe. She also informed me that  I will be getting a call from a genetic specialist that can help Mike and I understand what is going on here.

TODAY 5/24/2013, we had a doctor's appointment with Dr. Purvis and here's the update:

Dr. Purvis said my stomach is measuring right on schedule which means that Gabe is GROWING. We heard his beautiful HEARTBEAT with the doppler and his heart is beating normal, which is good that means Gabe is not in fetal distress. We also heard him MOVING all around in my belly when he was trying to get a good read on his heart. Which brought a smile to Dr. Purvis's face and of course, mine and Mikes.  This was all great news.

The not so great news, we still have to get the rest of the results from Dr. Gonzales office and we need his recommendation on a path forward. So Dr. Purvis and Dr. Gonzales can work together for the duration of my pregnancy. Mike and I told Dr. Purvis that we are determined to do whatever means is necessary to help Gabe live and Dr. Purvis said that is his mindset too and he will be right there beside us, helping.

We asked Dr. Purvis if the swelling and fluid could dissolve on its own after the discovery of the chromosome defect and he said probably not. But there is a path forward for treating the swelling/fluid, which they have named fetal hydrops, while Gabe is in utero, they can insert a stint/shunt and drain it. Then there's always the blood transfusion if his red blood cell count is getting low. All of these treatments will be contingent on how well Gabe is doing and if he can sustain the invasive procedures.

Last and certainly least is the option for stillbirth. If this chromosome defect is so severe that Gabe can't live outside of utero by himself then the doctors will recommend that we don't perform any invasive procedures due to the fact that it might hinder his time in utero.

Now, onto the next doctor appointment. Which is Wednesday, the 29th at 2:30 to meet with Dr. Purvis and we have an ultrasound at 3:30 that day. The ultrasound is more for my peace of mind that anything else. Plus Mike told Dr. Purvis that we need a picture of our boy:) I couldn't agree more!
Also, we will be seeing Dr. Purvis weekly from here on out.....

UPDATE from the doctor....

OK,  I received the phone call we were waiting on :) All the blood work that was drawn from me came back NORMAL. Such as, the RH factor, no fetal cells, I have antibodies to parvo...

The results from the precision panel were NORMAL. This test was one of 3 samples taken during  the amniocentesis. The precision panel tests the chromosomes 13,18,21 and the sex chromosome to ensure all of those heavy hitters are NORMAL.

Now we are waiting for the results of the second sample of the amnio which is called a microray- tests to make sure ALL chromosomes are present in baby Gabe. Finally, the third sample is going to test Gabe for CMV and parvo.... both of these test results should be back by Friday or Monday at the latest.

Where do we go from here? I can't answer that... the main reason is: we still don't know the cause of the swelling and fluid. We have a doctor appointment on Friday with Dr. Purvis at 10:30. Then we will probably assess the situation again and go from there.

What we know; the fluid has to be gone from Gabe's abdomen and his red blood cell count needs to be adequate to help him sustain life. For these two items we might be looking at a possible stint to drain the fluid and/or a blood transfusion to replenish his blood supply. Needless to say, there is a ton more to follow....

I will keep praying that the fluid gets absorbed into his body and he keeps on trucking like the little hero that he is :)

We've been going going going and so has our baby boy! Baby Gabe is a strong boy:)

 A lot has happened since my last post. I'll start with the baby's room. We've decided to buy an old entertainment center (picture on the left, above) and refurbish it. Our inspiration came from pinterest, yeah - go figure :) The picture on the right is the inspiration. Ours will look similar when it's done but not exactly like that. For instance, we are going to probably paint it brown to match the picture on the right, above. We are also going to paint our crib, since it's white. So a lot to do for the baby's room. Now, there's going to be a lot  to this post so lets get going.

 This is just a sweet picture of Sophia at home one day. She wanted me to take her picture :)

 Here's Aunt Nannie, Mommy and Sophia at Carter's baptism!! I don't have any other pictures just yet because everyone still has them on their camera's. LOL... everyone has been busy busy this year!

Again, Sophia posing for the camera on the way home from school.

 Aunt Mary, Uncle Bradley and baby Adilyn had a very nice baby shower. Here's a couple pictures from that, one is Sophia helping Aunt Mary open the present that she got baby Adilyn. Another is this awesome box that  I found to wrap Adilyn's clothes. I thought that box was so cool! ha :) And the grand finale is the tasty cake with Adilyn's initials on it. It was a great shower and Aunt Mary racked up on stuff!!

                    This is Sophia on the way home from the shower. She was partied out!!

 Silly girl on a Sunday afternoon just a playing :) She said "Mommy, this doesn't look very right."

 Here we are on a normal Tuesday night... just signing paperwork for our house. Oh yeah, we are buying our house!! We've been working with the bank and the current owners to buy our house. It's been  a slow process but one that will hopefully end soon:)

 KJ had to get a bathtub because he is having an allergic reaction to something, I'm thinking it's his medicine... his topical treatment was discontinued so the vet recommended a new pill for him. Well, I'm almost positive that's what's causing his breakout on his skin. He has very sensitive skin. So, Cy and Pops found some good shampoo and conditioner for Bub to try. So here's Daddy and Soph trying it out on KJ.

                       A beautiful day after school and work. Just playing on the swing set!

                                Aunt Nannie, Uncle Kip and Papa at the Dragon Boat Races!!!

                    Sophia was dressed and ready for the dragon boat races! She was pumped up!!!

                     Sophia is packed and ready to go to the  beach!!

NOW for the big news! We are having a boy!! As if you guys didn't know that already! :) Well, we went to the doctor appointment, routine Ob/Gyn at Dr. Purvis's office. It was the Wednesday we were leaving for the beach. Well, we didn't expect anything to be wrong with our baby boy until the technician started to get very nervous and kicked everyone out of the room with the exception of me.  She said she noticed something on the ultrasound and  I would have to go to Birmingham to see a specialist... WHAT!!!!!!!! My head started to spin, like we were in a horrible nightmare! So, Mike and I met with Dr. Purvis and he told us the ultrasound showed fluid around the baby's heart and head. He also stated that the technician couldn't find the baby's kidney's on the ultrasound.... again I say, WHAT!!!!!!!!!!! That was all he could tell us without more details of our baby's condition.

When we left Dr. Purvis's office, we were in a state of shock... I mean, the baby kicks me and has always had a good heartbeat, where did this swelling and fluid come from? Well that is the million dollar question. The other thing we left with was NO PICTURE of OUR baby boy!!!

So before we left, Dr. Purvis set up an appointment for us to see a Maternal/Fetal specialist to get a level 2 ultrasound. The Doctor is Dr. Gonzales and it was for 7:00 am the next morning in Birmingham.

So that afternoon, after we left Dr. Purvis's office we hit the road for the beach to drop off Sophia and KJ. Then that night we headed back up to Birmingham for our appointment the next day.

Well on Thursday we spent two hours at Dr. Gonzales's office. We got a detailed scan and the technician FOUND Gabe's kidneys and they are functioning properly! That was great news!! The other great news is, the baby's heart is doing perfectly!!! He's pumping blood to his body at a great rate at this point.

This still doesn't explain the fluid in is abdomen, which is what this scan told us - the fluid is in his abdomen and not just around his heart. Also, no fluid around his brain. He has swelling from head to toe surrounding his whole body due to the excess fluid that is in his abdomen.

Dr. Gonzales performed an amniocentesis and Gabe did awesome!! Then one of the nurse's drew blood from me for more tests and they sent me to Quest for more bloodwork. So, it's Monday and we are waiting on all the test results to come back. We were tested for genetic causes, viral infections, and more tests.. we are expecting results to start showing up today through out this week.

The Doctor's need to know what's causing this so they can treat the cause and not just the symptoms..... our options are:
1. This could go away on its own - this is obviously the BEST option.
2. The cause is viral or an infection - there might be a medicine to treat it.
3. The Dr. would have to drain the fluid off Gabe's abdomen through a stint... if the fluid doesn't get absorbed.
4. Gabe could require a blood transfusion.
5. The cause is genetic and there may or may not be a good treatment...
The last thing that I try the hardest NOT to think about is Gabe has a 50-50 chance of living through this. The swelling is not common anymore and if we can't find the cause then we will be treating the symptoms..

I do know that this baby is strong and I believe with all my heart that he will pull through this. We are staying positive because we have baby with NO other problems in my belly!!! He's structurally perfect and I believe he just doesn't feel good right now. When we saw him in our Birmingham scan he was breach and he was facing my back; like he wanted to cuddle with his mommy because he just didn't feel good. Oh, and we got our picture :)

 So Thursday, Mike and I headed back to the beach for some rest and relaxation. Here's soph playin:)

                                                She was lovin the beach and the sand!!

                                                                  She had a blast!

                                                 Finally, she says!! I'm at the beach!!

Carter and Sophia playing in the sand! This time next year, we will see Carter, Sophia and Gabe playing in the sand.

                                            KJ was taking it easy on his beach vacation :)

 Uncle Kraigy was not expecting his picture to be taken. He has to know his wife, Aunt Hollie is going to take his picture anyway!! ha ha!

 This was pretty much my beach vacation. I didn't realize Aunt Hollie was taking my picture either.

Like all good things, our beach trip had to come to an end.. Sophia had her seat pet to keep her comfy on the drive home :)

One last thing about Gabe, I keep thinking about Dr. Purvis saying, "this baby wants to be heard!" Because his heartbeat was detected at our 5 week ultrasound and every doctor visit after that.... He might just need some help through this but I believe with all my heart that we will have this baby boy in our arms and he will pull through this... I'll post again when I get more information.

18 weeks and 3 days of baby and Sophia went to the doctor 3 times in one week!

On the baby news: Baby #2 is growing right along :) He/She has a heartbeat of 158 per minute and when Dr. Purvis uses his fetal monitor to hear the baby, he/she is moving all over the place! I can feel baby from the inside but I don't feel the baby like "I think" I should... NOW, don't get alarmed. I'm basing that feeling on the last few months of pregnancy with Soph, where she was performing kung fu panda moves. I know this baby will move like that too but all in due time.

We also did blood work at the doctor appointment; this is for downs syndrome and spinal bifida screening. We wont find out the results for  a little while.

Daddy and Sophia in the waiting room at Dr. Purvis's office. Speaking of the Dr. Purvis office, it's moving to the new Madison Hospital! Woo Hoo, this is great news for a couple reasons! One: There will be more parking which is always a win win! Two: We will deliver baby #2 at the new hospital and this will give us a chance to familiarize ourselves with the location. YaY! All good if you ask me!

 Soo, when I was scheduling all of these doctor appointments, I had absolutely no intention of scheduling 3 appointments in ONE week!!! Trust me, not a good idea with a 4 year old.. LOL. BUT; as fate would have it, Sophia  did great! Here she is at the dentist office getting her teeth cleaned. After the cleaning, she sat in the chair by herself, without the glasses, and let the dentist look at her teeth. She got a clean bill of teeth! I mean health ;-)

 Amidst all of doctors appointments, our precious niece (my God-daughter:) decided to sing twinkle-twinkle little star and rock our socks off! Her Mommy and Daddy sent this video clip to us! Awesome!!

 Here's Soph taking pictures of herself while we waited on her doctor to see us. She got 4 shots at this visit, OH MY!!! The good thing is, she is done with shots until she's 11!!!! Woo Hoo!! A cool piece of info: her nurse is Caren Lawrence, I went to high school and played volleyball with Caren! She is a great nurse and I'm glad she's Sophia's!!

 Now, I'm not trying to compare my babies.... I just want to make sure my growing belly is on schedule and since I'm not getting the number of ultrasounds with the pregnancy that I got when I was pregnant with Soph. I decided to compare these two belly pics... The one on the left is Soph in Mommy's belly at 6 months :) The one on the right is baby#2 in mommy's belly at 4 months. :) They say the second time around the Mommy's belly gets bigger and faster, well in the words of the Monkee's, I'm a believer! :)

                        Pretty girl at Easter! Sophia is all ready for church in her Easter dress!

To end the post, here is a picture of the eldest child in our house :) KJ and he will be 8 on his birthday, August 25 :) We were up watching the birds and enjoying the fresh air!

Jumping topics and back to baby #2; our next appointment is May 15, 2013! At this appointment we will have an ultrasound!!!! YAY!!!! This will be our SECOND ultrasound thus far! I can't believe we've only had 2 ultrasounds! But since my pregnancy is going so well, there isn't a need for a lot of them.... which is a great thing, it just means less pictures of our family's new baby, which we will make up for when the baby makes his/her arrival!

Next time I make a post, I will call our baby by name! We have a girl name picked out: Lillianne Morgan Dempsey and a boys name picked out: Gabriel Connor Dempsey!!! Now, since Soph has named the baby Lightening McQueen... I think it's neat that the initials are LM.... if we have a girl her initials will be LM... that's just kind of cool! :)

How's Mommy doing? I'm good and tired; this second time around is more exhausting than the first. Plus, I'm 4 years older and I'm sure that is playing a role here. I will be 34 when this baby is born! I'm steadily gaining weight but Dr. Purvis says that is par for the coarse because a uterus full of baby, water and placenta is not light!! Not to mention these huge boobs I have, all of which are not usually part of my body... so it takes me awhile to get comfortable in this skin because I'm not use to filling out my frame! Apparently, my babies need the nutrients so as their Mommy, I will do whatever it takes to keep them healthy and growing! That's my main focus, my babies!! :) I joke a lot about the weight but I wouldn't change a thing about my pregnancies. So weird to say pregnanc(ies) - in the plural form... it's all still sinking in!

Real quick, there are days I wonder what it will be like with a party of 4 instead of a party of 3? I mean we've been 4 when we include KJ but he doesn't sit at the dinner table with us, even though he wants too! I wonder what this baby looks like? How will this baby act? What is life going to be like for Sophia with a younger sibling to share life, Mommy and Daddy and toys with??? I know, I know... I am rambling but I can't help it!!!! It's all so fascinating and awesome to me! In the words of Ronald McDonald,"I'm lovin' it!"

14 weeks and 2 days Doctor's visit & a whole lot more!

Here we are! Mommy and the 3 babies:) Today we had our routine doctor visit. It was quite exciting :) Sophia was able to experience what is going on with her Mommy and little sibling. She heard Lightening McQueen's heartbeat and she heard him/her move around in Mommy's tummy! What a treat! She was so excited and loved every minute of it! She had a smile from ear to ear!! :) Everything is going great with the pregnancy; the baby seems to be right on schedule. Music to our ears :) The next visit is set for April 19th and at that visit we will do blood work ONLY. Can you believe it! We wont do an ultrasound!!! Doctor said he wanted to wait until I was closer to 22 weeks... he said it was easier to tell at that time if the baby is a girl or boy.... sigh... so the wait continues to find out if this is little boy Lightening or little girl Lightening...

 

So, for some fun ;-) I read on www.babycenter.com  that we could do a little gender testing ourselves... all I had to do was pee on some baking soda; if it fizzed then we're having a boy! If it didn't fizz then we are having a girl!! Well, the results were: FIZZ! ha ha! I asked Mike if he would pee on some baking soda so we could see what it would do? He said, "No" :( As I was explaining this to my sister, Natalie. She said when she got home she would do it! Well, thank you very much sister!! She did it and her pee'd on baking soda did NOT fizz... ha ha! So who knows what all this means, the bottom line is we will have a boy or a girl :)

 Sophia was sooo super excited to play on her new swing set, courtesy of Manu :) We have been outside playing on this thing as much as possible and I have a feeling we will continue doing so for along time. :) Which is quite alright! That's the point!

 Big sister is practicing her "swinging" with a stuffed animal. We received a bunch of baby "stuff'" from Aunt Niki, so we have been testing it out :)

Another item of interest, our big girl Sophia is now a dancer! She is going to dance class once a week at school and we will register her for the dance studio in Madison the first week of May:) She really loves to dance and we will see if this is something that she sticks with. Should be FUN! ;-)

Last but DEFINITELY not least! Sophia removed a band aid on HER leg for the first time and she did not cry!!! I'm so proud of my baby girl!! She had a boo boo on her leg which of course, required a band aid ( doesn't everything require a band aid?) Well on Monday night she decided that she didn't need this band aim (her words) anymore and she was going to remove it herself! I said, "ok!" Then low and behold.... WAH LAH!!! She did it!! :)

Big stuff happening around the Dempsey household, daddy is now working for lowes and he is loving it! :)

Ok, I'm tired and I well.... I think this is enough for this month's post:) Happy Reading!

10 weeks & 2 days.

Well, we had a dr. visit today and it went awesome!!! I was able to hear lightening McQueen's heartbeat and it was beating at 160/bpm :) I just love hearing that little heartbeat! Its such a wonderful part of pregnancy and creating a baby:) The doctor said,"This baby wants to be heard!" He wasn't sure if we would hear it at 10 weeks and it didn't take long to find the little baby :) The doctor also informed me that since we heard the heartbeat from the "outside" the chances of miscarriage just went down by 50%! WOO HOO! That's music to my ears!!


On the heavier side, I've gained a total of 8 pounds so far. I've just grown (ha, no puns intented) to accept the fact that my body has to get bigger to carry my babies :) I'm good with that! Heading back to the doctor on March 21 for more peeing in a cup and jumping on the scale!

Big Sister was not happy about missing the doctors appointment... mental note for mommy and daddy - let big sister go next time :)