After The Tenth..... When The Fun Really Begins

With every passing day, Laney seems to get bigger and stronger and so we felt comfortable in loosening our efforts to segregate her from the general population. First it was a friend or two over to the house and then a short trip to the bank and now we take Laney out and about. Knowing that she was 5 weeks early and that her immune system is  probably still getting ramped up, we were a little overly protective. According to the pediatrician, we shouldn't have her out for 3 months, but that's just not realistic; so we do what we can.

We still have our custom "preemie" sign on her stroller, which seems to have helped. Our new found freedom coincided with Father's Day this year and the Kupper family's Texas to Florida road trip. The road trip had a tentative stop in South Florida planned, with the assumption that all the road-trippers were healthy. The van based group were met by the Cateni faction and Grandpa Kupper. After travelling all the way from Texas to the great state of Florida, Caitlin got sick the morning of the drive east. JUST OUR LUCK! (Ok...that was a bit self-centered...of course I was upset that Caitlin was sick and not feeling well.) A few last minute calls and I found myself meeting the Kupper clan in the parking lot of a walk-in clinic, minutes before they were scheduled to close.

I played the role of supervising adult, while Mike had to rush the rest of his family and his nauseous wife (Sara) to the hotel, and we got Caitlin checked out and walked away with a prescription for an antibiotic. We then spent the next few days trying to keep Laney as far away from her cousin as possible. All in all the weekend was a lot of fun and we even got a few cute pictures, which are below. (Caitlin was a trooper and in the end no one else noticed any ill-effects...go antibiotics!!!!)

I guess since I don't have any first cousins, I find it hard to believe that Macy and Laney have 4 first cousins and guess what?They are about to get TWO more!!! (You didn't think Sara was on the verge of puking all weekend because she was sick as well, did you? Wouldn't I have mentioned that? )

Big congrats go out to Uncle Mike and Aunt Sara AND Uncle Americo and Aunt Tori. Looks like Laney's moment in the sun  as the family's newest member is going to be pretty short lived. Last year at the Father's Day get together, Annie announced that she wouldn't be providing the new baby at each year's family weekend and we all know how that turned out. But this time there is no need...

At this rate, future family gatherings are going to have be held at a local convention center and not someone's house.

(FYI...This set of images has some captions at the bottom of the photo.)

Being in the room while my children were born was hands down two of the most amazing experiences of my life. For Macy I was nervous and excited because I had no idea what to expect. For Laney, I was a ball of stress due just the typical nervousness of having another child and then a lot of added stress caused by the worry related to our pregnancy complication, which caused her to be born via an early scheduled C-Section.

I'm sure that many of you know that Laney joined us roughly 5 weeks early and she had to spend 7 days in the NICU before she was able to come home. I had mentioned that we had an issue in the pregnancy but intentionally didn't mention the name of the condition due to the scary nature of what you would find online. But now that Laney was safely delivered, I feel more at ease providing more of the details. Due to Annie's advanced gestational age (the doctor's words and NOT mine) she had to see a neonatologist and experienced a number of extra ultrasounds. It was during one of these procedures that the technician discovered something unusual. It turns out that Annie had a very rare condition called Vasa Previa along with marginal Placenta Previa.

Now before you run off and Google it, let me tell you a little about what it means. (If you are currently pregnant or thinking you might get pregnant again in the coming months, you can skip down to the next paragraph, I won't be upset) Annie's placenta bifurcated and there was a vessel connecting the two. This vessel happened to be providing blood to Laney and then happened to cross over her cervix. This condition is considered rare due to the unlikely nature that all of the these factors would be just "right", but they were. Essentially the only affect of Vasa Previa is that going into labor would put the vessel at risk for rupture, which would be quite dangerous. Instead, the standard of care is to find a point in time where Laney had matured enough but before it was likely for Annie to go into labor. This point is often believed to be 35 weeks, so that's when Laney was born.

I had expected her first week of life to be a potentially challenging time, but I never imagined how draining the experience would be. The NICU is really a special place; difficult and at the same time, full of hope. Considering how early she was born, Laney was sizable and appeared to be in better shape than many of her neighbors. Annie and I decided immediately that we wanted someone to be at Laney's side as much as possible, which sounds easier than it was. We started taking shifts, so we could expand our coverage and try to be there for Laney's feedings. Little ones eat every 3 hours, which goes REALLY fast when it takes almost an hour to complete one feed. Our time in the NICU was made a little bit easier by the really wonderful nurses that watched over our newest little one, but it was a really really draining experience.

Being able to spend as much time with Laney as we did was only made possible by the assistance of Grandma. Annie and I spent long stretches of time at the hospital while she watched over Macy and a performed few other roles (cook, housekeeper, launderer, dog sitter and photographer). Thank you grandma for all of your help, it was appreciated more than we can express.

'Twas the night before delivery and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except for mommy and daddy who were frantically trying to get everything ready for the big day. Somehow knowing the exact date of the delivery meant that we didn't plan in advance. Last time we had our bags packed 3-4 weeks in advance, just in case. This time we packed our bags 45 minutes ago. So much for a lazy relaxing Mother's Day for Annie.

I was certain that explaining to Grandma and Grandpa how to take care of Macy, Zoe and the house would be quick and easy. But once we started mentioning things, and more things and even more things...I couldn't believe how many little "it would be helpful if you knew..." things I came up with. In the end, I'm sure they'll do a great job and as long as there are no permanent injuries, we'll consider it a success.

I'm not as nervous as I thought I would be, but we've been on auto-pilot all night, just knocking out tasks and to-do items. We'll see what happens when I lie down for the evening and my brain takes over.