DECEMBER 3RD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We met with the doctor who will be delivering Cooper yesterday. Because of the heart complications we have to deliver at a Level 3 hospital and therefore can not deliver locally with my current doctor. This has been very hard for me because I think my doctor is amazing and still feel like he saved Raelynn's life when I had her. So yesterday we met with our new doctor. He was very nice and Terry and I both liked him. They have scheduled for me to be induced on December 3rd. Yeah!!! I do not have to have a C-section which to me is fantastic. We will have a sonogram and meet with our new doctor weekly from here on out. Next week we will meet with the Neonatal doctors who will be caring for Cooper once he arrives. I hope that we will have much more information about him after that. I have to say that at this point I am truly terrified! I pray for the best every night and Raelynn does the same :)

I think we have been so fortunate to have such wonderful doctors. I also think we are so lucky to have such supportive family and friends. It seems like everyone is caring and helpful. It is amazing to me the people who have offered to help anyway they can. Not to mention, I can not say enough about Tom's patience with me at work. Between doctor visits and running Raelynn to and from Pre-School and Lisa's I definitely have used up my fair share of time off, but he has been so understanding! So I guess, if you are reading this blog....I (we) owe each of you a big THANK YOU!

THE PUMPKIN PATCH

Friday we had another sonogram. This time we had the same type of sonogram we did the day they induced me with Raelynn. They were looking primarily to see that the baby is displaying breathing motions and moving in general. There is no doubt that Cooper is moving and breathing in there. He is all over the place. The crazy thing was, now that we saw how it should look, we realize how scary it was with Raelynn because she displayed no movement at all. We remember looking at that sonogram for 30 minutes and did not see so much as a flutter. Anyway, it just seems kind strange how with Raelynn we never thought anything was wrong and yet there was something wrong going on in there and with this baby we are aware there is a problem but you would never know it by the way his is growing and moving.

This passed Weekend my Mom, Steph and Karli came down to visit. We celebrated Sherri and my birthday and then went to the pumpkin patch. We had planned to go on Saturday but with all the rain ended up not going until Sunday. We had a great time! Terry and Raelynn have not yet carved their pumpkins but I am sure that will be an experience for them both!!!

***Check out Raelynn's first school picture!!! I have also included a few links over to the right to explain exactly what heart defects we have been told Cooper has. We hope this helps you understand things a little better.***

Our First Blog

Ok, so here we go......Tom has convinced me that blogging is the way to go to keep you all informed on what is going on with the family. I think this is going to be kind of fun :) This first post will be a little experimental. As you all can see Raelynn is growing up fast and loves her brownies! She is the best part of every day and keeps us guessing as to what she will say and do next. She is anxiously awaiting her little brother as we all are. We are currently having sonograms and doctor visits weekly. He is growing wonderfully! We will be able to continue visits here in Lawrence until the first week of November at which time will we have to transfer care to a specialized hospital in Overland Park. At that time we will find out much more about delivery time and procedure. Everything is looking very well so far. As for Terry and I, we are just trying to manage our crazy schedules of work, doctor visits, pre-school and family time; just like everyone else :)

Well, I am going to stop there for now and promise the future posts will be a little more exciting!!!