California - AKA The Longest Post in Blogger History

Last weekend we (my mom, dad, Brandon, and myself) went to visit Matt and Vasha. One last trip before the doctor's say I can no longer travel (which is this week - I know...cutting it close). We had a great time. We saw a lot, and there was so much more to see! It was raining when we got there Thursday evening, and rained all day Friday, but other than that, the rain stayed away. It was, however, COLD. Some may not see 50 as cold, but we do! Again, I'll let the pictures tell the story. You may want to go use the bathroom and grab a snack first...it's no short story. More like a marathon.

Landed...finally...HUNGRY! Our plane was delayed leaving Dallas - 2 hours!

Reagan Library - Matt had to work. :(

They had fun with this game

They played the Wii FOREVER!

I LOVE cheesecake!

Oh yes...I ate the whole thing. Don't judge. It was good!

Huntington Beach

We just thought the 50* air was cold!

A few "belly shots" at the beach.

My favorite!

Mom and Dad

Matt and Vasha

HUGE waves...thanks to all the storms.

They were filming for a TV show. I don't recall which one. Vasha - do you remember?

Lunch! It was really good. And, it was out on the Pier. The back side was made of windows so we could watch the ocean while we ate.

We went down Hollywood Blvd. Saw all the theatre's, the Hollywood sign on the side of the mountain, and the stars on the walk of fame. This post is already too long. Use your imagination - put us in front of all of those things. :)

Sunset at Venice beach. This place should be its own state. It's a fantastic place to "people watch." Stacy and Clinton could do an entire season of What Not to Wear at this one place. The police could have a field day as well, but I don't recall seeing a single one. Sunset was pretty though!

Disneyland! There is a similar picture that was taken about 25 years ago. :)

One of these days, we'll have to take Davis. I don't think this counts as telling him about his first visit! Ha!

B was impressed. This little girl had this granite ball stopped. Pretty cool. (We were waiting because everyone else was riding Space Mountain - not safe for me!)

Waiting...while I went to the potty. I am certain I used every single one at Disneyland. At least most of them were clean.

Waiting for the parade to start.

She was also waiting for the parade to start.

The Sword in the Stone has always been his favorite Disney movie. He is apparently not meant to be king. He couldn't pull it out either.

I couldn't ride the Teacups, but we found this one to pretend in. Picture us spinning around.

Fireworks over Cinderella's castle. They were really pretty. Too bad the castle doesn't show up in this one.

We had a great time. 5 days flew by. We also toured the Biola campus before we left. Thanks for having us Matt and Vasha! When we find out where you'll be next year, we'll have to plan another trip. This time, one that caters to a baby! :)

If you've made it this far, you deserve an award! We go back to see Dr. Tabor Tuesday morning. I'll post when I get home from work that night. As always, we appreciate your prayers!

Vegas!

Back in early December, we took a short trip to Las Vegas. It was perfect timing! We were in need of a break, and this trip served as a great distraction. If it was to be seen, we saw it. If it were possible to reach by foot, we made it. If we really should have waited until a later trip to see it, we saw it anyways. We walked WAY too much, but had a lot of fun...especially after we discover the 24 hour bus pass that ran up/down the strip. My legs couldn't have taken anymore walking! The weather we left behind in Texas was actually warmer than the weather in Vegas! The highs were in the low 40s all three days! IT.WAS.COLD. But, still fun. I'll tell the story in pictures. There are PLENTY more, but these are the "highlights."

Where we stayed. Loved it. Old, yet, still on the strip.

FAO Schuartz Toy Store. Yes, that's my head sticking out of the horses butt. He was huge!

The Sin City Brewery is in the Flamingo. We saw both.

We went into a mall to get warm and saw where Pete Rose was going to be back the next day signing autographs. We HAD to go back. B was soooo funny. I though he was going to pass out after I took this picture. The picture he autographed is hanging in Davis' room now.

One of the "shows" inside the mall (Rome). The picture is a little blury, but you get the idea. That dragon appeared out of the King's throne. Scared some poor little kid to death. The fire didn't help.

Trevi fountain. I've been to the real one in Rome.

Same with this one...I've been to the real one, but the name escapes me.

Fountains at the Bellagio. Definately the best show we saw the whole time.

One more of the fountain show.

In the top of the stratosphere...at the end of a VERY long day. It was really neat how far you could see. And, neat that after a certain point, it went from looking like what you see, to NOTHING.

Outside the Riviera. He thought this was great though. Ha!

The view out the window of the plane. Above the clouds at sunset. Headed home. We had so much fun, but were soooo happy to be going home!

Again, we had a blast. We only took $20 to actually gamble with, and played until we lost it, but we  did keep some of the winnings and B sat down at a table and won $40! We quit there, and called the trip a success!

Up next: Sunny CA! Ha! More like cloudy, rainy, and cold CA! Come back tomorrow!

26 Weeks

This past Thursday was 26 weeks! I would have posted, but we were in California visiting Matt and Vasha until last night. We had tons of fun, but that's a (long) post for another day. I still have to get the Vegas trip up here. Back to 26 weeks...according to all of my "info" he SHOULD be about 14 inches long and weigh a little over a pound and a half. We know neither of those are true for Davis. 2 weeks ago, he weighed a full 2 pounds and was longer than 14 inches, though we aren't sure of the exact measurment. He's now breathing in/out the amniotic fluid and his hearing is more sensitive. He is now able to hear conversations we are having. I love that. We talk to him often. Now, he should REALLY be able to hear the differences in the words, rather than just the sounds.

He's still moving all over the place, off and on, ALL.DAY.LONG. I love it, but some of the movements are starting to hurt up under my ribs. I know this will only get worse...but I still love it! You can REALLY see the movements now too...from across the room. Poor Baby...he doesn't have much room to spread out in. One day last week, I was working with one of my patients who can actually talk, and he saw my stomach moving. I didn't think anything of it, but here's the conversation that followed:

Kid: Whas-in-you-shirt? (head turned to the side, with raised eyebrows)
Me: Nothing, why?
Kid: Is-movin'! (HUGE eyes!)
Me: It is?!
Kid: I-na-see!
Mom: RUDE!
Me: (laughing so hard) Remember...there's a baby in there. Like mommy used to have.
Kid: I-na-see!
Me: You can't see anything, we have to wait until it's time for him to come out. (shirt up - knowing he wasn't going to take that answer)
Kid: (put his eye up to my belly button) I-not-see-nusing in dere.

And, that was that. I love that kid. He's to funny...he's decided there's an alien in there and it's trying to get out. He watches too many movies. Oh well. He's 4. I'll let him have that one.

Before we left to go to the airport, we took our picture. I feel like I've really "grown" in the last 2 weeks...I always look back at all the pictures and compare and there is really a bigger difference between 24 and 26. Brandon said the same thing...and so did my mom. Here we were Thursday morning...

I'll be back in a few days (hopefully) with a Vegas post from our trip in December, and a CA post from this past weekend. I make no promises! If I don't make it back on before next week, we go back to see Dr. Tabor Tuesday, Feb. 2nd. I'll update then for sure!

I Could Kiss Him

Dr. Tabor, that is. I refrained, but I could kiss him!! More good news!! When we were looking at Davis, he would not stop moving. they were trying to get pictures of everything, but had a hard time. Good for us, because it took a long time, and we were just watching him move. :) They were finally able to get pictures of his face, hands, head, and belly; but couldn't get any pictures of his feet because he wouldn't be still enough! I told them that at this point, I don't care if we ever get another picture of either of his feet! They are moving at ever joint! Praise God! He said his brain still looks perfect (again...praise God!), and he's HUGE! They weren't able to get a full length measurement because of the movement (his, not mine...I was good). They said he's weighing in at 2 pounds (a full 1/2 pound more than most). Measurments around his belly, and the length of his arm and leg bones are all bigger and longer than expected. This is also good...he's going to be big. We like that...bigger and stronger at birth. He looked at the cystic spot on his neck and it's SMALLER! He said it's smaller each time, and he anticipates that it will all be gone by birth. He'll still have the little bit of extra skin, but we can live with that! I asked him if he could print out some of the pictures of the lesion on his back so I could have it, and he switched us to a different room so we could get a 3-D picture. They tried to get one of his face too, but he was either moving too much or he put his hand in front of his face. We did get 2 of his back. It show's where the spine goes down EXACTLY WHERE IT SHOULD BE! Yay! It's not out in the sac! It show's where the sac is "connected" and kind-of balloons out. He said there still appears to be no major nerves in it. He said the piece where it connects could house some smaller nerves, but if the sac is truely as low as it appears to be, there aren't any nerves there! I tried to get it "copied" to put on here, but no one would know what they were looking at anyways, so I'll just have to show those who want to see in person where I can point and tell what parts are what.

As for me, he said I'm doing well too. I had my glucose test today. OH.MY.GOODNESS...it was NASTY. I go in and sit down and the lady asks if I would prefer something that tastes like rotten sunkist or rotten big red. Ummmm...NEITHER! Ha! I don't like either sunkist or big red and they want me to drink an even nastier version? Ugh. I chose orange. Then I had to drink the whole 16 ounces in 5 minutes, and not throw up. The nurse said, "if you puke, you have to do it all over again." I didn't tell her this, but if I had "puked," there would be no way the stuff would go down in the future. We'll get the results by Monday. Dr. Tabor said that if no one calls on Monday, then I passed. I've been having a lot of uterine cramping and sharp pains lately (daily). He said as long as they go away when I sit down and relax for awhile, then it's fine; I'm just over doing it. I just need to figure how not to do that. :) It's a delicate balance. He also said that the "pain" when I sit is likely my tailbone being pushed out of it's home (which is what I assumed). I suppose I should carry a "ring" to sit on. Huh...No thanks. I'll just suffer.  I'm otherwise doing well.

We also talked "birthday" today. He really wants to wait until 38-39 weeks. He again went back to the fact that Davis' brain is perfect, so we aren't trying to get him out so we can get any water off of his brain, and again, the longer he cooks the better. As he cooks, he gets bigger and stronger. We're shooting for 8 pounds. Based on the 2 pounds today, he could very well make it. :) Beginning now, I will go every 2 weeks so he can very closely monitor everything and make sure I don't go into labor. He said if all is going well, we'll do the c-section on Thursday April 22nd. This concerns me for several reasons. Most important, the fact that it is VERY possible that I will go into labor sooner, and he will be out of town at a conference on April 19, 20, and 21st! See? I told you...nervous!! It also concerns me because that means Davis will have his surgery on a Friday (the 23rd), then we'll both be cared for by "weekend staff." I know they are fine, but Dr. Tabor won't be on call if for some reason they need him for me, and the doctor who closes Davis' back will likely not be the one on call for the weekend. It will be fine, but I just think about and "stew" on ALL the possibilities.

Specific Prayers:
-Continued protection for his brain
-That his bowel and bladder will be protected and he'll have full function/control
-That he stays IN until the doctors are ready to take him out safely
-Me and B.

Thank you for all the prayers! Again, we soooo appreciate them!

New Meaning

I have heard and loved this song for months now, but until today, couldn't figure out who sings it. Long before we knew anything was "wrong" with the baby, I could sing the words. I especially love the chorus. Here...see for yourselves...

What Faith Can Do, by Kutless

Everybody falls sometimes
You gotta find the strength to rise
From the ashes and make a new beginning
Anyone can feel the ache
You think it’s more than you can take
But you’re stronger, stronger than you know
And don’t you give up now, the sun will soon be shining
You gotta face the clouds to find the silver lining

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end even when the sky is falling
I’ve seen miracles just happen, silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new, that’s what faith can do

It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard
Impossible is not a word
It’s just a reason for someone not to try
Everybody’s scared to death
You may decide to take that step
Out on the water, but it’ll be all right

Life is so much more than what your eyes are seeing
You will find your way if you keep believing

Overcome the odds when you don’t have a chance
(That’s what faith can do)
When the world says you can’t, it will tell you that you can

I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end even when the sky is falling
I’ve seen miracles just happen, silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new, that’s what faith can do
That’s what faith can do

 Even if you fall sometimes
You will have the strength to rise

I told you...such a great song!! I've seen kids do things that modern medicine says is impossible. I see it every day. That's our prayer for Davis. Now, I just need to get to the store to buy the CD. I've always liked Kutless anyways! :) 

We go see Dr. Tabor Friday. I'll update when I get home. Oh, and Tomorrow is 25 weeks!

24 Weeks

Today, we're 24 weeks. 6 months. He is approximately one pound, four ounces, and a full 12 (or more) inches long. Lengthwise, picture: a large ear of corn. :) His brain is quickly growing now, and his lungs are also developing. You can still see through his skin, but that will be changing soon too. I KNOW exactly what he looks like this week. I have had several patients who were born at 24 weeks, and no one should ever have to see that. We definately don't want Davis to come just yet! He needs to keep cooking for AT LEAST 10 more weeks, but we're shooting for 12. Here we are this morning...

Yes, I look tired. I was. Am. B didn't have to work today, so we took it before I went to work. Along with Monday's, I also have a deep hatred for mornings. All of them. :)

Tonight, Trey, Ali, and Cannon are here for some appointments tomorrow. Brandon has been teaching Cannon some things tonight. Some, it's likely a good thing he's to little to pick up (i.e. spitting). He's also been practicing...

Trey and B thought something was funny, but for the life of me, I cannot recall what it was. Sweet Cannon! They sat like this for quite some time. Now? Cannon is WIDE awake...at almost 11pm. Ooops! :)

We go back to see Dr. Tabor next Friday, 1/15. Then, we're going to register! I'll post about that visit when I get home.

Bring It On

My husband...sometimes I wonder why he does the things he does. They don't often make sense to me. Yesterday, I came home to this...

It's the covers they use at the golf course when the temperature drops below freezing. He stated that he did not want to spend all Spring replanting the flower beds and the peach tree we babied this past year. Ok. We're ready...bring it on...3 full days where the high doesn't make it out of the 20's. And, I so appreciate that he's saving my flowers! Thanks, Babe!