Here’s what’s been up for the last week or so. Things are looking good and constantly improving. We’ll try to get this updated every Tuesday and Friday after we’ve had ultrasounds and actually have relevant baby information to pass along. So far, none of us have gone nuts and we’re able to relax and get some rest.
June 21st (22 wks 1 day)
Kenny got the dogs all packed up today so his mom could take them back to the Lafayette area with her. That is a big stress relief not having to worry about getting them let out and getting them enough attention. We both will miss them, though.
No changes on the baby front. It was a pretty low key day with no visitors, allowing Crystal to get some rest.
June 22nd (22 wks 2 days)
Who new we’d be counting this pregnancy in days at this point instead of weeks for months? Wimbeldon started today and Crystal loves watching tennis, so this has helped keep her occupied. Crystal was reading in a book today and came across the following:
When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Ecclesiastes 7:14
We aren’t really feeling like these are bad times, but they are trying times. We had a few visitors and a few phone calls from family today. Kenny was wiped out from early mornings and late nights, so he went to bed early. More good news - Crystal is now done with the antibiotics
June 23rd (22 wks 3 days)
Ultrasound day!!! Crystal gets ultrasounds every Tuesday and Friday. Today is one of those days. They look at her cervix to get an idea of whether or not it is closing up. Today, things look like they are improving. They still aren’t where we want them, but they are moving in that direction. The doctor was very positive and stated that he feels like we’ll be able to get a lot of time out of this pregnancy.
Crystal had a few more visitors today too. The physical therapist also came in to give her some exercises to help keep some mobility since she isn’t doing any load bearing. Crystal read the first book in the Narnia series – The Magician’s Nephew.
June 24th (22 wks 4 days)
Kenny got some much needed rest today and got to hit the lake with Phil and Phil. He needed some time away from the house and the hospital. We received a very nice plant from our church today and had a few phone calls from friends.
Crystal was visited by the dietician today who told her she still needs to be consuming about 3000 calories daily. That’s a ton!!!! Some more friends came up for a visit and brought dinner. Amber got Crystal all set up with a facebook page so she can occupy some of her time with that. She also helped Crystal learn a little bit more about how to make this blog look better. She has to upgrade her internet browser and can’t do that with the computer she is on.
Another milestone today – The nurses taught us how to wash Crystal's hair with real water and shampoo. It’s amazing the little things that you take for granted.
June 25th (22 wks 5 days)
Kenny got up again early today, but it was to hit the lake again with a friend. Unfortunately, it was extremely hot again today, so they didn’t have a ton of luck. Crystal’s sister Tennille came up to visit too. It was great to be able to spend the day just relaxing and talking to each other. Tennille also brought some cards up from Wyatt, Chloe, and Levi. They are great homemade cards! We all hung out in the afternoon and watched a movie. Kenny went home and Tennille spent the night at the hospital with Crystal. It was the first time since we’ve been here that Kenny slept at home.
June 26th (22 wks 6 days)
Another ultrasound day! We headed down to ultrasound pretty early. Everything was looking great and the technician actually said she wasn’t going to measure anything as far as being dilated. The weirdest thing happened though. As she was looking at things, Crystal’s cervix just opened up a bit. She measured after that, but was right at 1 cm. Things are closed up externally, though, so this is definitely progress. We are just hoping that it will be completely closed soon.
Some friends brought lunch up to us and we had a nice visit. Tennille then finished up a manicure for Crystal (yes, she did love it!). Some more friends came up in the afternoon, but unfortunately, Tennille needed to head home around 6. Crystal got a lot of cards and phone calls today as well (who doesn’t love getting mail?).
June 21st (22 wks 1 day)
Kenny got the dogs all packed up today so his mom could take them back to the Lafayette area with her. That is a big stress relief not having to worry about getting them let out and getting them enough attention. We both will miss them, though.
No changes on the baby front. It was a pretty low key day with no visitors, allowing Crystal to get some rest.
June 22nd (22 wks 2 days)
Who new we’d be counting this pregnancy in days at this point instead of weeks for months? Wimbeldon started today and Crystal loves watching tennis, so this has helped keep her occupied. Crystal was reading in a book today and came across the following:
When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Ecclesiastes 7:14
We aren’t really feeling like these are bad times, but they are trying times. We had a few visitors and a few phone calls from family today. Kenny was wiped out from early mornings and late nights, so he went to bed early. More good news - Crystal is now done with the antibiotics
June 23rd (22 wks 3 days)
Ultrasound day!!! Crystal gets ultrasounds every Tuesday and Friday. Today is one of those days. They look at her cervix to get an idea of whether or not it is closing up. Today, things look like they are improving. They still aren’t where we want them, but they are moving in that direction. The doctor was very positive and stated that he feels like we’ll be able to get a lot of time out of this pregnancy.
Crystal had a few more visitors today too. The physical therapist also came in to give her some exercises to help keep some mobility since she isn’t doing any load bearing. Crystal read the first book in the Narnia series – The Magician’s Nephew.
June 24th (22 wks 4 days)
Kenny got some much needed rest today and got to hit the lake with Phil and Phil. He needed some time away from the house and the hospital. We received a very nice plant from our church today and had a few phone calls from friends.
Crystal was visited by the dietician today who told her she still needs to be consuming about 3000 calories daily. That’s a ton!!!! Some more friends came up for a visit and brought dinner. Amber got Crystal all set up with a facebook page so she can occupy some of her time with that. She also helped Crystal learn a little bit more about how to make this blog look better. She has to upgrade her internet browser and can’t do that with the computer she is on.
Another milestone today – The nurses taught us how to wash Crystal's hair with real water and shampoo. It’s amazing the little things that you take for granted.
June 25th (22 wks 5 days)
Kenny got up again early today, but it was to hit the lake again with a friend. Unfortunately, it was extremely hot again today, so they didn’t have a ton of luck. Crystal’s sister Tennille came up to visit too. It was great to be able to spend the day just relaxing and talking to each other. Tennille also brought some cards up from Wyatt, Chloe, and Levi. They are great homemade cards! We all hung out in the afternoon and watched a movie. Kenny went home and Tennille spent the night at the hospital with Crystal. It was the first time since we’ve been here that Kenny slept at home.
June 26th (22 wks 6 days)
Another ultrasound day! We headed down to ultrasound pretty early. Everything was looking great and the technician actually said she wasn’t going to measure anything as far as being dilated. The weirdest thing happened though. As she was looking at things, Crystal’s cervix just opened up a bit. She measured after that, but was right at 1 cm. Things are closed up externally, though, so this is definitely progress. We are just hoping that it will be completely closed soon.
Some friends brought lunch up to us and we had a nice visit. Tennille then finished up a manicure for Crystal (yes, she did love it!). Some more friends came up in the afternoon, but unfortunately, Tennille needed to head home around 6. Crystal got a lot of cards and phone calls today as well (who doesn’t love getting mail?).
We did promise some pictures of Crystal so everyone could see how she and the babies are growing. Tennille took a few pictures before leaving.
It's hard to tell that Crystal's belly is getting really big because of the position she is in, but those babies are definitely growing.
Here's a shot of the position Crystal has to be in most of the time. She can roll to either side, but that's about it. The white things on her legs fill with air to squeeze her calves to help with circulation to avoid blood clots.
June 27th (23 wks)
This is the 23 week mark. Only one more week until we hit our first major milestone! Since we hit 23 weeks, Crystal’s doctor decided that it was time to start steroid shots to help improve the babies’ lung development. Boy did those hurt. She had to get two shots today and will have one tomorrow.
Today was pretty uneventful, except that Crystal’s aunt and uncle surprised us with a visit. We also had a card night with the Kilian’s. Not that we’re keeping track, but Crystal and Amber did win 2 games to 1.
June 28th (23 wks 1 day)
It’s hard to believe we’ve already been here for 2 weeks!!! Today was pretty restful in the morning with a few phone calls and a few visitors in the afternoon. My doctor asked that we start monitoring the babies heartrates for 30 minutes at a time starting today. It took the nurses almost 2 hours to try to find them and then we still never got a really good read. They just won’t hold still at this point. After that, they decided to move us again. By then it was about 9:30 at night. The move was well worth it, though. We are now in a very large room. It’s so big that the bathroom has a separate thermostat in it. This is supposed to be our permanent room until we deliver.
June 29th (23 wks 2 days)
We attempted to monitor the babies again today after breakfast. They were much more cooperative today and we actually got about 30 minutes with both babies. Crystal had a few visitors and phone calls, then took a short nap in the afternoon. A friend brought dinner up for the evening to give us a break from the hospital food and from eating out. We had some more visitors after dinner too.
June 30th (23 wks 3 days)
Ultrasound day! Things looked really good in Crystal’s eyes. After breakfast, we attempted to monitor the babies again, but they weren’t very cooperative. The doctor came in to try to help find them as well, but ended up ordering a full bio-scan of the babies to monitor for movement. That meant going back down to ultrasound again. Crystal’s nurse came in after the ultrasound and said her cervix looks fantastic. That’s right – it is all closed up. She also said the scores the babies received for the monitoring were excellent and one is a little ahead of schedule (already practice breathing). Since things looked so good, Crystal’s doctor gave her permission to get up to go the bathroom once a day. Another major milestone!!!!! Crystal was amazed at how unstable she felt getting up for the first time. Her calves are just really tight, emphasizing how important it is for her to do the physical therapy that has been given to her. They are also taking Crystal off the medicine to stop contractions and to limit the amount of fluid the babies are outputting. This was to help relieve pressure off the cervix and get it closed up. From the ultrasound, it looks like the babies’ fluid has decreased quite a bit, so they want that to build up again. Since that’s the case, they are taking her off the medicine. That now means her last set of meds is around 8 p.m. and then she doesn’t get any again until 8-9 a.m. No more waking up at midnight and 6 a.m. for pills.
Crystal’s friend brought lunch up and taught her how to get started knitting socks. They spent the afternoon working on getting that started and enjoying their time together. Some more visitors came up after dinner and then we went to bed as early as possible since we knew we could get some uninterrupted sleep.
Thanks again to all of you for your help and support. We greatly appreciate the cards, flowers, meals, visits, and calls. They all make the days go by fast and break up the monotony!
