The pseudo-finished room!

Okay... so we keep giving you snap shots of the baby room, and now we are mostly done with it... so here is the view.  

First, the picture of the quilt is to show the baby bedding.  That quilt will go on one of the walls as well. 

Now, imagine a big black crib on the first empty wall.  Then, where there is a dining room chair, imagine a comfy brown chair-glider and ottoman.  At some point we will probably add an area rug to the middle of the room.  And there is a large black shelf in the corner that still needs to be hung.  We have gotten as far as we can without having the crib and rocker to really get a feel for where we want to hang things!  

As for any new medical news, we have an appt with the OB up here the week of the 11th just to check on Michelle's progress.  Then on the 26th we will have our first appointment with the new perinatologist in San Diego.  This will be the doctor that sees Michelle through the rest of the pregnancy and delivers baby Karsie.  Hopefully, we will be able to meet the pediatric surgeon in early June as well.  We have signed up to take our child birthing classes with some friends, and we are getting things all finished up to get ready for the temporary move!  

Baby Owen Botts (Part II)

We would like to take a break from Karsie for a moment to share the arrival of Baby Owen David Botts (a possible future boyfriend to Karsie) who was born this morning at 6:52 weighing in at...are you ready for this...11 lbs. 4 oz!!!  No wonder he looks like a toddler already.  Sarah, you are superwoman!  He was 21 and 3/4 inches long.  

To our friends Sarah and Mike:  We are so happy for you two adding this precious new baby to your family.  We have been blessed to have you as friends and are excited to have shared the "pregnant experience."  Good luck with the new addition!

Baby Owen Botts (Part I)

Just before Owen was born.  Our friend Sarah pregnant with Michelle.

Karsie's Room..."The Bird's Nest" (Michelle can explain later)

One Month to Five Months

                                                                      Holy cow!!!

test

Just trying to see if we can post from our mobile. This would help for delivery day.

List of Things to Do...

1.  Stain the bedroom furniture to match the crib

2.  Wait for the crib to arrive

3.  Paint the walls

4.  Wash paint off of Kevin

5.  Fix the painting that Kevin did

6.  Put up panelling

7.  Multiple trips to Goodwill

8.  Trip to San Diego to meet with doctors

9.  Meet pediatric surgeon

10.  Tour hospital(s)

11.  Temporarily move Michelle to San Diego

12.  Go to lactation classes

13.  Explain lactation classes to Kevin

14.  Go to childbirth classes

15.  Find things for Michelle to do while sitting around (sewing)

16.  Wait for Karsie

And the Countdown Begins....

Since it will only be about another 7 weeks until Michelle temporarily moves to San Diego, she and Kevin have been very busy lately trying to complete things that need to get done here before then.  Today was doing the registration at Baby's R Us and Target.  (we do have to say it's such a relief to be stressed about this and getting to do some fun stuff finally).  We also have been getting Karsie's room ready.  

We're still anticipating the appointments with the surgeons and other San Diego doctors.  Hopefully we will be able to get in to see them soon.  It's such a pain that Bakersfield has no specialists here in town.

Karsie has been kicking like crazy lately, which is great!  She is supposed to be somewhere around 10-11 inches long, and if you've seen Michelle you wonder where she fits.  Good luck to our friends Sarah and Mike who will be delivering any day now.  

Friend Request

Kevin again:  It is starting to seem more and more likely that Michelle will be spending quite a significant amount of time in San Diego for the summer.  As we will probably be giving birth down south, Michelle will need to move down quite early so there is no risk of going into premature labor in an area that does not have the capabilities to deliver Karsie.  

Karsie has a fairly high risk of being born premature for two reasons.  First of all, the omphalocele is a risk alone.  Many babies with an omphalocele are born premature.  Secondly, Michelle has something called a bicornate uterus, which is a heart-shaped uterus.  This is not that serious at this point, but one of the symptoms is giving birth prematurely.  Therefore, we do not want to take any chances, so Michelle will probably move to San Diego for the summer.

That being said, for various reasons I will most likely not be able to move down as early and will be needing to go back and forth between Bakersfield and San Diego for the majority of the time Michelle will be down.  So, I would like to send out a formal friend request to visit Michelle at some point. If you can spare some time during the summer, I'm sure Michelle would appreciate the company.  Just something to think about especially if you are in San Diego already.

Dr. Appt.

Hello all, Kevin here.

Well, I wish I could say that all of our questions were answered today, but I think that day will never come.  However, both Michelle and I would like to give our formal endorsement for Dr. Owens.  He is such an optimistic doctor and has such great bedside manner, which is something that Michelle and I both desperately need now.  

One thing that he did say was that as the abdomen grows it is possible for the omphalocele to shrink.  (Remember our 'miracle' possibility early on on this blog?  It's still a scientific possibility).  We'll keep all our fingers crossed, which will look weird for a while.  

Michelle and I are on Spring Break this week and going to be going down south.  During that time we hope to be referred to a group of pediatric doctors that will eventually be doing Karsie's birth.  Owens agreed to make the referral.  It was either San Diego or UCLA, and no city can beat the August weather in San Diego.  It will make the travel a little difficult for me if Karsie has to be incubated, but it's better for Michelle to be closer to her family if I'm not there.

I was also able to feel Karsie for the first time a few days ago.  I do have to say that if strength is any indication of fetal development, Karsie is just fine.  The first time I felt her I barely felt anything.  Since then, she's been lifting weights and working on her drop kick.  I feel sorry for Michelle the more Karsie grows.  

Other than a few minor questions about health of Michelle and normal pregnancy issues, not much else was discussed.  Karsie's heart rate was 145 (which is normal) and Owens had a hard time locating her because she was moving around too much, which is a wonderful sign. However, after birth might be interesting with such an active kid with an omphalocele.  Look forward to seeing our friends down south very soon.  

Kevin

P.S. Happy anniversary to two very special people to us.  You two have been such wonderful friends and Michelle and I could not be happier for you.   

Questions Forum 4-6-09

We're going to the Dr.'s office tomorrow. This is the time we plan on asking lots of questions as that is primarily what the appt. is for. If there is a question you have that we haven't thought of yet, let us know. If we know it, we'll answer it soon.

We'll update you guys soon. Continued thanks.

Things We Don't Have to Worry About Anymore (Part II)

For this episode we will need to fast-forward about 14-16 years:

Karsie:  Mom, Dad, can I have a bellybutton ring?

Michelle:  No.

Karsie:  Why not? All of my friends are getting one. 

Kevin:  All of your friends have bellybuttons.

(End Scene.)

Where Do We Go From Here?

We are onto the next step in this process.  We called the geneticist today and she told us that at this point Karsie is being treated as an "isolated omphalocele" which means she only has her guts out but there are no other problems.  Therefore, there's really not too much more to test.  They will still keep their eyes open for signs of other problems, but seeing as the heart looks good and everything on the ultrasounds looks good it's unlikely there are any other problems and they really can't test for them anyway.  

We have an appointment on Tuesday to talk with our normal Obstetrician, so we will hopefully know where to go from there.  We have an idea what the plan is, but we will wait until then to post.  

We have also upgraded Karsie's athletic status from swimmer to kung fu black belt.

1 in 10,000

We are still here.  Sorry for those of you who check daily.  To tell you the truth, there just hasn't been a whole lot to say.  Karsie is wiggling a lot lately, but other than that no news to report.

Until today.  We got a call from the doctor's office saying that all the results (full results) are normal.  In other words, to the best of anyone's knowledge, there are no genetic abnormalities. We are still trying to see if we can get an even more in-depth study to grow the chromosomes even more, but it looks as though we're in the clear for the really bad stuff.  

There was another test that was done for spina bifida and a couple other neurological disorders that came back negative, which is even better news.  

So far, so good.  It looks as though we may just be one of those lucky omphalocele cases that occur in only 1 in 10,000 babies where everything else is normal.  We're still hoping that it will shrink to create less of a problem after birth, but we are rejoicing for the news today anyhow.  Keep praying for continued good results as we will be continuing to test random disorders that do not show up on an amniocentesis.