Thanks to the sweetest hostesses, Ingrid Huddleston, Laura Waldron, Leslie Miller, Megan Randolph, and Joyce Ward, I had a beautiful baby shower on September 17th. I wish I had captured more photos of all those in attendance as I was very blessed by all those who came. Here is a photo of me with my gracious hostesses. Thanks again!!
Platelet Updates
Since the last platelet update, a lot has happened. I did end up going to see a hematologist, Dr. Anderson, who told me my count had dropped to a 70-80 range. He told me they would keep watching my levels and that I could safely go as low as 50 before any interventions needed to take place. I was unhappy with this news as that is not what I had heard from my obgyn. I had remembered my obgyn's nurse practitioner telling me that I could probably still get an epidural as long as I was above 70 on my platelet count. At my next obgyn appointment, I brought up this concern and my doctor quickly intervened on my behalf by speaking with my hematologist. He clarified to my hematologist that the "magic number" for the platelet count needs to be 100 or above in order to be sure I will be able to have an epidural at delivery time and that he wanted the hematologist to start me on steroids as soon as possible so that we could raise my platelet count soon. At my next hematologist appointment my count was even lower- 67! Needless to say, my hematologist started me right away on a steroid called prednisone- completely safe for me and baby, and just the tool needed to get that epidural! He asked me to come back to get my blood checked 4 days later to see how well just 4 days of a high dosage of the medicine was working. Praise the Lord, after only 4 days my platelet count had gone from 67 to 113!!!! EPIDURAL HERE I COME!! What I have learned from this scary experience...God is SO faithful. There is never any reason to doubt that He will be. Since the 113 count 4 days after starting the medicine, I am still going in once a week to get my levels checked and each time they have been a little higher: 121 last week and 124 this week! Each week, my hematologist has been weaning me off of the steroids by lowering the dosage. The first week was 80 mg, next was 60 mg, and this week is only 40 mg. He will continue to do this until Grayson is born and then I can stop cold turkey so that breastfeeding won't be a problem. With this strange syndrome that I have (gestational thrombocytopenia), my platelets only lower toward the end of my pregnancy but then return to normal range as soon as I deliver the baby. My hematologist still wants to see me about a week after I have Grayson in order to check that things are returning to normal.
The Month of Baby
Drew and I dubbed September as "The Month of Baby" because I may have signed us up for just about every baby class known to man! The first class we took was an all day Saturday crash-course at the hospital called Prepared Childbirth. We learned a lot in that class with 3 other expecting couples and a very seasoned labor and delivery nurse- everything from what dilation and effacement mean, to the patterns of contractions, etc. The next class we started attending weekly for about 4 weeks on Sunday nights was called Preparation for Parenting at our church, The Hills. It focused on getting the baby on an feed, wake, sleep schedule so that we can ensure our baby is getting the nutrition he needs as well as the sleep necessary to meet all of his needs (and ours too!). The curriculum is written by the same authors that wrote the book, Babywise, that I had already read and liked. Next, we took a two part breastfeeding class at our hospital. This was the class that I was really thinking would be my least favorite, but ended up being my all-time favorite instead! The teacher was a lactation consultant that was very candid and hilarious. She even made it fun for the poor guys that had been dragged to the class! I feel a lot more confident about breastfeeding my baby after learning all the tricks of the trade from a pro! The last class we took was called Basic Baby Care at the hospital. It was a let-down. I guess we may have learned some things like how to take care of the umbilical cord and practiced bathing a fake baby doll that looked like Chucky (scary!), but other than that the teacher really wasted our time and Drew and I were ready to get out of there...may have been due to the fact that we were baby-classed-out at that point! :)
Company Picnic
On Saturday, September 24th, Drew's company, Bluebonnet (his branch of Ferrovial) had a company picnic at Lake Grapevine. It was a lot of fun meeting so many of the people I get to hear stories about when Drew comes home from work each day. So many Spaniards! It was fun to hear Drew use his mad Spanish speaking skills to speak with a few of the big-wigs. I just think my hubby is so smart and impressive!! Drew enjoyed a rousing game of football with a bunch of guys after lunch while I got to visit with a bunch of ladies Drew works with...mostly about pregnancy, what else?!
Pediatrician
We had heard a good recommendation from a friend about a pediatrician that practices very near us in Keller named Dr. Martin with Alliance Pediatrics. Our friends told us that they went to his office for a tour and that it was a great experience, so we made an appointment to do the same. At 5pm, after all his patients were gone, we got to go on that same tour. We loved it! They have a separate well entrance and sick entrance so the kids that are coming in for the routine check-ups don't end up having to to come back in a few days later sick from playing with all the yucky sick kids the first time! Genius!! Everything was SO colorful and kid-friendly. The nurse took us to every single waiting room which was decorated with a beautiful mural and decorations to a different theme per room. There was a dinosaur room, arctic room, farm room, rainforest room...they had a lot of rooms and every one of them was as cute as can be! The sick rooms are ONLY for sick kids and the well rooms are ONLY for well kids. They are serious there about keeping things separate, and if it keeps my sweet Grayson nice and healthy, I'm all for it too! Then the nurse sat us down in Dr. Martin's office and answered a few questions we had before turning it over to Dr. Martin. He was so funny/goofy and we just know he's great with kids! He gave us tons of time to ask questions and told us all about himself--we never once felt rushed. In fact, he told us we'd have to be the ones to tell him we need to go in order for him to stop talking! Haha! :) All in all, we loved our experience and feel good about choosing him to be our son's pediatrician.
