My first outing with the kids!

Yesterday, I became very brave and went out with both boys! There were some challenges, like Micah screaming for the first five minutes of the car ride and the stroller refusing to open, but we made it!!

I had to go pick up some stuff at the March of Dimes office and decided that I would stop over at my mom's house afterwards so that she could spend some time with Micah, before she goes to Italy next week. The hour before leaving was interesting as I was trying to get all three of us ready to go, which included putting the kids in their costumes for my mom to see. Luckily, Matt was home for lunch and he was able to get Ethan ready, but my impatient little Ethan ended up asking every couple of minutes "can we go now?". That of course did not help things while I was getting Micah and I ready to go :)

We finally got on our way and ended up spending some time visiting with Jodi at the MOD office and my mom was able to spend some quality time with Micah. We even got out for dinner at a restaurant :) Of course, today I'm exhausted and incredibly sore, but I'm happy we were able to get out yesterday.

I am still surprised about how some of the soreness just sneaks up on me. It is mostly my sciadic that hurts today and I'm thinking it is because I did a lot of standing and sitting in hard chairs yesterday. I'm hoping the pain will ease up a bit today. I was talking to Matt and he reminded me that this is all part of the process, but I will be so happy to have it all over! I'm hoping it will be soon, but I have nearly 6 months of bedrest to recover from, which means a lot of unused muscles need to wake up! Yet another reason why we have decided not to venture into another pregnancy!

Tonight we are going to get them dressed up to visit Matt's mom, uncle, aunt and grandpa. I think Ethan will enjoy it now that he understands what candy is!! I'm guessing one of them will take some pictures for us tonight so that you can see our little ninja (Ethan) and superman (Micah). In the meantime, here are a few pictures of Micah and Ethan from Monday night with grandma.

Gaining Independence!

On Monday, we had an appointment for me and an appointment for Micah. My appointment was to check my incision and its healing process. It was funny, because as the doctor walked in, he had a huge smile on his face and said "we don't care about you anymore", and went right to Micah. He loved seeing him again :) He then checked me and said that my incision is healing well, so that was good to hear. He also told me that I can slowly start to increase my activity and even drive!!! That is where the independence is coming in. I have had to depend on other people to drive me around since April 22!! It was such a relief to hear that I could finally drive. After the appointment, Matt told me, "so I guess you are driving home" and I did. It felt great to finally drive again. I actually found it a lot easier than when I started driving after 3 weeks of hospital bedrest. It helps that I have been able to walk around more in the last 6 weeks or so. I was able to build up some muscle strength in my legs, which was good.

Right after my appointment, we went across the hall to Micah's appointment. He weighed in at 8lbs 6oz. The doctor said that was not good and that he really should be at his birth weight by now, but he was not too concerned. The reason he was not concerned right now is because everything else about Micah looks great. The dr. was amazed with how alert Micah is and how strong he is. He said that if he didn't see such strength, he would be concerned about the weight. So, we are going to continue working to get his weight up and I will need to take him in next Monday morning for a quick weight check. I have decided at this point to not try and breastfeed. Because, we are still having issues with weight gain, I feel like I can better control what he is eating through a bottle. It was when I was breastfeeding that he had the biggest weight loss, so I feel that this is the best decision. I am continuing to pump milk so that he can at least have breast milk and we are supplementing with formula when needed. I hope that I can keep doing it for awhile, but I am just going day by day right now.

As a family, we are starting to adjust to our new life. Things get better each day as our routine settles in and as I feel better and better. Right now, the big problem for me is my back. That seems to be the one lingering problem from bedrest. If it continues to be an issue, I will talk to my doc at my 6 week appointment about possible therapy for my back. Hopefully, it will resolve itself in the next few weeks.

Matt and I got out for a few hours last night when we went to the March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction. It was a lot of fun and it was good to do something normal and just the two of us. We have not done anything by ourselves in months, so it was nice to have that little break, even though it was only a couple of hours.

Driving and getting out gave me a small sense of what my life was like before bedrest :) It is great to finally get some of this independence back and to get some of our normal life back! We are so happy to have our family together and complete. We have a lot to be thankful for this year!

Some Pictures

A few pics from before Micah came along...

The weekend before we visited a pumpkin farm.

Waiting for the hay ride!

Yes, he is on a donkey!

Feeding the cows.

Visiting all of the little Wilburs!

This is what I looked like the morning of Micah's birth!

38 weeks 6 days!

Family Update

Micah is now 10 days old! We were released from the hospital together last Thursday, which in itself was such a wonderful blessing! It was the best feeling in the world to be able to leave the hospital at the same time as my baby. The weekend was difficult because Micah became jaundiced. It could be a combination of things that caused it. There are so many things that were factors in him becoming jaundiced, so it wasn't a surprise. Saturday seemed to be the worst day of it, because we could not get him to wake up and he would not eat. I ended up having to move to pumping the milk for him and we had to supplement with formula. We knew we had to get him eating to help get rid of the jaundice. He finally started to eat and do better. On Monday we had an unscheduled appointment with the doctor to get a blood test. We then had to go back on Tuesday morning for another blood test. Thankfully, his bilirubin was going down and it was showing that the jaundice was correcting itself and we would not need to get a light for him.

On Tuesday, we went to a lactation consultant, because he would not latch on well (this was happening before the whole jaundice thing). They gave us some tips to try, so I'm going to continue working on it, but we'll see how it goes. He was weighed and was 8lbs even. He had lost a lot more weight than normal at the hospital, but we were not given his release weight so we don't know what it was.

Today, we had a nurse from the Help Me Grow program come out for a visit. It is a service that is paid for through our taxes, so we took advantage of it :) It was really helpful to have it with Ethan and it was really good to have it today. She weighed Micah and he was 8lb 5oz!! So, all of the bottle feeding we have been doing has been great and is working very well! She checked his muscle tone and said he was doing great and was very strong. That was such great news to hear. She was really impressed with everything about him and she said it was very clear that he was full-term. That was music to my ears!! I was so excited to hear how well he is doing and that he is progressing well. She even checked my incision for me and said it was healing well. I was glad to hear that because I had no idea if it was healing well or not. I was surprised that she was checking me and making sure all was well with my health, but it was nice to have that.

We have been adjusting pretty well. It gets better every day as we have been able to get a schedule down. To make sure that Micah is eating well, we have started a feed/pump schedule, which has also allowed us better sleep time. Ethan has been enjoying getting to know his new brother and has been really patient during the crying times. He even rubs his head to help calm him. Ethan got his 3rd cold in 7 weeks this week and we have confirmed that he clearly still has asthma!! Wed night was quite a challenge giving Ethan treatments and taking care of Micah and me having to pump. We did not get much sleep and Ethan had to miss school. I had to get him to the doctor yesterday and we now have to start a 6 week regimen of medications, which will not be much fun, but will hopefully get him to stop being so sick. He also had his flu shot on Monday, which will eventually help with all of the colds too.

I am so happy to have our complete family! We are working on getting some pictures up. We have still not found our camera and may have to go out and buy one. Matt's mom has been trying to take pictures whenever she comes over, so I'm attaching a couple of those. Matt got a few on his cell phone, so we are going to try to work on getting those on the computer so that I can post them. I promise we will try and get them as soon as possible!! I want to thank you again for all of your support over the last 9 months!! We have this wonderful miracle in our lives because of all of the prayers and support. Thanks!

Introducing Micah Andrew

I realized that I never put the announcement of his birth, so here goes...

Micah Andrew arrived on Oct. 13, 2008 at 9:39pm. He weighed 8lbs 13oz and measured 21.5 inches long.

The extra special thing about his birth date is that it was the day that Ethan came home from the hospital 4 years earlier! We have now been blessed twice on Oct. 13.

I was admitted into the hospital at about 8am and we began to induce at about 9 am. Contractions had already begun that morning, so once the induction started they continued to become stronger. Eventually I was checked and I had only dilated to 2cm, but we still decided to go ahead with an epidural so that they could break my water and because Micah heart rate kept going up really high and we had to do some other things to help to keep him calm.

I had finally relaxed myself enough to take a small rest, but in that time I apparently had several very close contractions. Before I knew it there were several nurses standing over me telling me to roll over and throwing an oxygen mask on my face. Micah's heart rate dropped incredibly low. Luckily, with the intervention we were able to get his heart rate back to normal. It was a very scary process for both Matt and I. It was also really stressful for our parents. Once his heart rate became normal it stayed there. I was checked again for dilation and I was at about 3.5 cm. The contractions were coming regularly and I was feeling a lot of pressure. So, they checked me at about 8pm and I was still only 3.5.

The doctor came in to confirm it and at about 9pm he said "let's go have a baby". It took me a second to realize that he meant it was time for a c-section. After 12 hours of labor, I was not progressing and I was extremely exhausted. As soon as the doctor left the room, I broke down and cried. Matt and my mom worked to calm me down and I soon realized it was for the best and that I would have my baby in less than an hour. They wheeled me down the hallway and got me prepped and then Matt was brought in. Within a few minutes we heard the most wonderful sound we could hear, our little Micah let out a nice strong cry. We didn't get to hear a true cry from Ethan until he was over a month old. I, of course, began to cry tears of joy. They brought him over and he was so handsome! Matt went with him to the next room while they prepped him and he got some pictures of him.

Then they brought him over to us and let Matt hold him and me kiss him. Matt was able to wheel him into the recovery room. They tested Micah for his sugars and since they were low, they had to take him to the nursery for about 4 hours. I was so exhausted at that point that I could barely keep my eyes open. I visited with my parents, Matt's mom and Ethan before they wheeled me down to my room.

It had been a very long day, but it was one of the happiest days of my life. After a very long pregnancy, I was so happy to have my little tiny Micah in my arms! We would have never made it there without all of you! Thank you!

Here is the link to the pictures they took at the hospital when Micah was about 14 hours old :) http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=70950420-a130-42b0-a6cf-a52c5da3937f

We are working on getting some more pictures to you, but we seem to have misplaced our digital camera. Between being completely exhausted at the hospital and having a million things to bring home, the camera has disappeared. Luckily, we had not really had too many pics on it, but it is still pretty disappointing that we may have to buy a new one. So, we will get pics as soon as we can. Things are going well. We are still very tired, while trying to get the schedule down. We have had some feeding issues, which has been very frustrating to both Micah and I. Poor Matt feels as if there is nothing he can do to help us. I'm hoping it gets better, otherwise we'll have to make a change soon. He seems to be very happy to be at home, almost like he recognized it. Ethan is having a good time getting to know his brother and even the reasons for his cries. He spent the night at his great uncle and aunt's house on Friday night, which helped Matt and I to have a night to just get some routines down and even sleep in!!! That happened for the first time in months for me. Of course, it was not like it meant much after being up a few times in the night, but it was better than nothing :)

I am not healing quite as fast as I would like. I've been told my a lot of people that they would do a c-section again and didn't think the healing was bad, but I have not found that to be true. I am still in a lot of pain and sleeping is still horrible. I can't seem to get into a position that doesn't cause pain, then once I get down, it is almost impossible for me to get up without pain. I have until next week before I'm supposed to go into the doctor, but I may try to go in earlier if this doesn't get better. I've also been quite swollen. It is getting better, but it is still very uncomfortable and not helping with the whole pain thing. I knew this would be a hard process but, I'm really just ready to finally feel normal! I'm tired of feeling so sore all of the time, especially while trying to take care of a 4 year old and a newborn. Hopefully, as the week goes on things will get better faster. I guess we'll see!

I hope that you all like the hospital pictures and like I said, hopefully we'll have some new ones to share whenever we find our camera or buy a new one!

Getting Induced Monday!!

I had my ultrasound today to check on the size of the baby and he is a whopping 8lbs 4oz, give or take 1/2 a pound! The tech actually said, wow you are all baby and I said yes I am! My belly is solid with baby everywhere I touch! Everything still looks good with the baby, she even said his head size was good for his gestation, which made me happy! We got to see him opening up his mouth searching for his thumb, and then we saw his thumb go in and he started to suck on it! We also saw him holding his own foot, which was really cool to see too :) It is so amazing that we have technology that allows us a glimpse of life in the womb.

We saw the doctor right after and he was still surprised to see me there still pregnant. He too, didn't think we would get this far, so we are all pretty happy we've made it this far. He checked me and I am still just about 1cm dilated, so no major change there. He checked to see if he could feel any part of the cerclage and he couldn't, so he was a little more hopeful this time that maybe he did get it all, which was great news to me. So, since the baby was not over 9lbs and he could not feel the cerclage, we will induce on Monday, providing nothing happens this weekend!! We are not sure what time, but they will call us very early in the morning to give us the time we need to be there. We still can't believe it is the 4 year anniversary of Ethan's homecoming from the hospital! It was meant to be.

If the induction doesn't work, for whatever reason, we will proceed with a c-section. I'm happy to be able to at least try to deliver without a c-section. Hopefully, it will work and we won't have to go the surgery route, but we are at least prepared if that is what we need to do. We are very excited to know that we are only a couple of days away! I'm still letting it all sink in that we are finally at the point that we will see this little guy. It has been such a good day and I am so happy!

Thanks again for all of your continued prayers and support. We'll keep you updated if anything changes this weekend, otherwise the next message will be our announcement!