All About Carrie!

As promised, a post about our darling little Carrie. Such the diva with her little sunglasses. She's gotten pretty good at putting them on all by herself and will often walk around the house playing while wearing sunglasses. She calls them "gasses". She especially likes to put them on top of her head like mommy and daddy.
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Again, a picture of her trying to be just like mommy. We were headed out the door and she reached up asking for my water bottle. I thought she just wanted a quick sip so I handed it to her. She surprised me by slinging it over her arm and onto her shoulder where I had had it. She then motioned for my purse which she put on her other shoulder. She was finally ready to walk out the door. Of course, she was too dang cute, so I grabbed the camera. In this picture she's reaching toward me to hold that too!
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She's reached the age finally where she's starting to copy every single little thing we say... For example, last night I said "Oh, dangit"... A few seconds later we hear a little high pitched "Oh, dagit".... I started to silently laugh (and say to myself, "aw man, now I have to watch everything I say"). My back was turned to Carrie and apparently she thought my silent laughing was crying. She came over and started to pat my back to make me feel better.... She's. So. Cute.
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Speaking of cute, here's a little video of Carrie swimming in one of the neighborhood pools. She's so lightweight, her floaties actually totally support her and she can kick around.
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Tah-dah! Carrie's big girl room is all ready to go! (Whenever we decide to move her.) I'm so excited that it turned out so cute. I started slowly decorating this room a couple of months ago. Most of it has been done in about the last week though. The big shelf moved in there too (it's not in the pictures) and all it needs is to be stocked up with a few stuffed animals from the toy corner downstairs. I love everything about this room :)
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Since I posted some pictures of her new big-girl room, I thought I'd post a few of the "transformation" of her baby room that has now become Brigham's room. I feel so crafty and proud just looking at these pictures (brag brag brag, I know) :)
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Soooo, these first three pictures........
...have transformed into the last three pictures.

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And as long as I'm putting pics of Brigham's room in, I'll throw in a little tidbit about him. I had the appointment with the fetal cardiologist yesterday and.... drumroll... Hallelujah! Brigham's heart is PERFECT! The cardiologist says we shouldn't have to see him at all anymore during this pregnancy. Yeah for some good news!!!

Halfway Point

I'm 20 weeks today! I know this picture is a little weird, but Justin thought it was a good idea to give you a couple of "landmarks" to help you figure out exactly what you're looking at. This is Brigham's face, mostly covered by his hands. He would NOT move them so we could get a picture of just his face. Oh well, his fingers are cute too :) Anyways, the "landmarks" are; the blue dots are his nostrils and the red line is the line between his top and bottom lip. Now that you know where everything is, enjoy the picture without the funny marks :) I had an appointment at the Maternal-Fetal Center at Banner Good Sam. Another hour-long ultrasound and talking to a doctor afterward. We got mostly the same information as last week. Brigham is still a little too small (too early in the pregnancy) to be able to give concrete predictions, but we're getting closer.
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To estimate severity, they do a lung-to-head measurement ratio. It gives the doctors an idea of how squished for space the lungs are in relation to his overall size. As of today, the doctor said the ratio looks more favorable than unfavorable, but all the studies these measurements are based upon are usually done between 24 and 26 weeks. Soooo, I will go back to their office in 4-6 weeks for another look.
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From what I understood, this appointment at 24-26 weeks will be when we have a much better idea of what will be happening when he's born.
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Even though I'm regularly seeing a specialist, the doctor today was even more of a specialist and I felt like the info he gave me had a little more "plausibility". Which is good news for me because overall, I liked what he said a little bit better. I will still be having a planned induction (just to make sure Brigham's born on a weekday, during daylight hours so all the teams can be there without too much hassle). This doctor, however said in his experience, a C-section is not necessarily always warranted. As long as Brigham is head down, and there are no other foreseeable problems, there's no real reason not to try a "regular" delivery. He also seemed to have a little more confidence in Banner Desert's ability to possibly be able to care for Brig. This would be great if it really works out, because it's closer. :)
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It's fun to be able to keep seeing Brigham. Today was my 3rd ultrasound in the last 2 weeks. He sure is a swimmer! He is constantly wiggling while the ultrasound techs are trying to measure him and in the last couple weeks has flipped from head down to breech and back to head down again. I know he's still pretty small (about 10 ounces and 10 inches head-to-heel) but pretty soon he's going to start running out of room to flip all over the place!
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I have a fetal cardiology appointment on Thursday this week and then it's almost already time for my regular appointment at PPA (the regular specialist).
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Lucky lucky me, I have a lot of good friends in the ward who are more than willing to help watch Carrie while I'm running all over town to go to doctor's appointments. And again, lucky lucky me, Carrie is very easygoing and doesn't mind being babysat a lot. She's such a good girl.
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Now that I've written a book about Brigham, I'll take a little break and write a post solely about Carrie soon. We've been working on switching her from the "baby" room to her "big-girl" room. We haven't actually made "the big move" yet, but the rooms are almost totally re-decorated and ready to go. I hope you're all anxiously waiting for me to show off pictures of my craftiness and Justin's handiness in helping me get everything done.

Answering Questions about Brigham

The visit yesterday with the Perinatologist went well. Actually, I guess not really, because it's officially confirmed, Brigham does have a diaphragmatic hernia and will require surgery after birth. I had the smallest inkling of hope that we would get to the specialist and they wouldn't find anything... Overall though, we feel pretty calm and secure that things will work out for the best.
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I tried to find some good pictures on the internet to show you, but my search didn't turn up very much. So I played around in "paint". (Don't laugh)
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This first picture is what a healthy baby should look like. The diaphragm is the bright blue line in the middle. It keeps the heart and lungs above (in the chest) and the stomach, liver, and small and large intestines below (in the abdomen). The only thing that goes through the diaphragm is your esophagus and the hole that it goes through is only barely big enough to fit it.

Now onto a diaphragmatic hernia. Notice the bright blue line (diaphragm) doesn't go all the way across?... That's the problem. The hole in the diaphragm is letting the stomach come into the chest, where it doesn't belong. This puts pressure on everything else in the chest. The left lung has almost no room to grow and the heart is being pushed from the middle of the chest way over to the right.
.This is what Brigham looked like yesterday. As of now, only his stomach is up in his chest. As he grows, this may (likely) change. Some small intestine will also come up eventually.
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I will have an ultrasound every time I go to the doctor to check on how he's growing and changing. My next regular appointment is in two weeks where I'll not only meet with the Perinatologist (high-risk MOM doctor), but I'll also meet with the Neonatologist (high-risk BABY doctor). Eventually we'll need a Pediatric Cardiologist consult too (sometimes the increased pressure puts stress on the heart).
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The doctor said based on the looks of things in the ultrasound the defect looks "pretty sizable" but technology has come a long way and we will be prepared to take care of Brigham the best we can.
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The doctor also said his size is right on for his due date and there doesn't appear to be any other deformities in his body. Just to double check though, he recommended they do an amniocentesis to make sure he doesn't have any chromosomal abnormalities. In general, I tend not to like the idea of an amniocentesis (mostly because it freaks me out - sticking a needle through my tummy into my uterus?!) However, I agreed, because this is not an "in general" situation.
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Lucky for me, Justin had a couple of hours of sick time left this month and had come with me to this appointment because they did the Amnio right then. (TOTALLY WEIRD FEELING!!!) I definitely needed his hand to hold!
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While they were getting prepped, I told the doctor, "This is worse than an epidural, the anticipation at least... At least when I had my epidural I was in pain and I didn't care what had to happen to make it stop. Right now, I'm feeling just fine, and would keep feeling just fine even if you didn't poke me!!" We were all laughing. :)
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The doctor said they will likely induce me around 39 weeks. They want Brigham to be as big as possible, but want to be prepared for his birth. We'll have several "teams" of people at the hospital to take care of us when he's born. The doctor also said they more often prefer to do a C-section, but sometimes they'll consider a "regular" delivery. Not only for my own recovery time, but for future pregnancies' sake I'm going to try to deliver naturally (with an epidural of course). If they agree that it's safe to try, that's the goal. If they think it's safer to do a C-section, I'll do what they recommend.... The real ultimate goal is to get Brigham here safely and be able to bring him home with us as soon as possible.
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**Side note- Every time I ask Carrie "Where's Brigham?" she comes right over to my belly and gives him big kisses. I love being a mom..... :)

Bouncing Baby Boy and Pretty Princess

Brigham has been getting way more active the past few days! It's fun and reassuring to feel him move so much!
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I will be 19 weeks tomorrow. Time seems to be moving by pretty quickly. We have our appointment with the specialist tomorrow also, so hopefully my next post will have a few more answers about what's going on with him.
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Speaking of feeling him move, Justin was able to feel Brigham kick for the first time a couple of days ago. I always love that moment, the first time Justin is finally able to feel the baby. He loves it too. :)
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Over the weekend, my mom found two little fairy dress up costumes on clearance and bought them for Carrie. Last night she found them on her toy shelf and immediately wanted to put one on and for me to put the other one on... I put one on her and held the other one up to myself for a minute until she got distracted. She wore it most of the evening last night until it was time for pajamas. I was afraid it would be a little fight to get her to take it off, but luckily she didn't put up a fuss. She just loved wearing it around.
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This morning, first thing, before breakfast, even before a diaper change, she ran over to her toys and wanted to put on a fairy costume. So she ate breakfast in it... Life is so much fun with a girly girl.
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Mini-Momma

Carrie has turned into a doll lover the past few days. She has three little baby dolls that she's been carrying around and repeatedly putting them down for "night-night" time. She arranges them on the couch and gets the blanket to tuck them in. I love it!
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I was in a crafty mood this morning and decided to make Carrie a little purse. Apparently I rock because it turned out AWESOME! We're going to have to share it :)
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Also, a quick non-update on Brigham: I have an appointment scheduled with the perinatologist (baby specialist) for this coming Tuesday afternoon. We'll hopefully be able to find out a lot more specifics about his case. I am in desperate need of more information so I can feel more prepared. Right now I'm a little wacko. I have to try to not think about it. He is still moving like a little wild man though! This morning I told Justin I thought he was practicing karate or something!

BOY OH BOY!!

That's right.... It's a BOY!! We are so excited to be "evening out" our family; in more ways than one. Justin is excited to even out our house boy-to-girl wise, and the new baby will also make an even parent-to-kid ratio (ahh! scary!)

His name is Brigham Justin Greer and so far Carrie's called him both "Bub" and "Gigah". I guess she still has 5 months to learn how to say "Brigham" a little better. She loves to give my tummy kisses and then likes to pull up her own shirt to look at her tummy. I think it probably wasn't the greatest idea to learn where the baby was and "belly button" at the same time. Cute though :)

At the ultrasound this morning we got a profile shot with his hand up by his face (we have an almost identical one of Carrie).I know it's hard to tell, but here's a foot (toes are on the left)

And here's "the proof". He's a pretty shy little guy and had his legs totally squeezed together the whole time. We got just enough of a peek though... He's a boy :)

He's right on my dates as far as size goes, has all the necessary organs, 10 fingers, 10 toes etc. so everything looked pretty good. We did, however, have an unexpected surprise when we met with the doctor after the ultrasound...

Brigham has what's called a DIAPHRAGMATIC HERNIA

This means his diaphragm has a hole in it which is letting his stomach and intestines come up from his abdomen into his chest. This will mean his left lung will be very undeveloped (just because there won't be any room for it to grow in his ribcage). He will need surgery to repair it right after birth and will be in the NICU for probably a couple of weeks with recovery and breathing problems.

Luckily, we know about it now. This is a big step in helping him get the medical attention he'll need at birth. I will be seeing a perinatologist in the next few days to get better quality ultrasounds and more in-depth specialist advice. I will likely be seeing them for the rest of the pregnancy so we can keep up on Brigham's development more closely.

Another "luckily", I've been a NICU nurse before. Although it certainly won't be fun, at least I feel comfortable in the environment and will hopefully be able to help Justin understand some of the things that are going on.

I've seen this condition once before, but apparently it's pretty rare. I had a baby with it in the NICU in Rexburg when I was only a few months out of nursing school. A co-worker said she'd been a nurse for 25 years and had never actually seen one. Because we were in a small hospital in a small town, we had to life-flight the baby to Salt Lake City for emergency treatment.

So, for now we're counting our blessings that we know ahead of time and will be able to be mentally, spiritually and physically/medically prepared. We'll keep everyone up to date as we learn more about his condition

WE'RE SO EXCITED TO BE HAVING A LITTLE BOY!!!!!

Baby Bump and Big Girl Booster

Just a couple quick pictures. First, I'll finally admit I'm showing... I'm 17 weeks and have a tiny bump. Technically I can still "suck it in", but it's getting harder every day. (I relaxed a little bit to take this picture)
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Second, while we were on vacation, we bought Carrie a booster seat. It was so great to use while we were camping, when we got home we set it up at the table and put the high chair away. For the last few days she's been a real "big girl" sitting with us at the table. She loves it! And we think she looks adorable!
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