Chicago Trip & Surgery Update

Here is a slideshow from the few things we did do while in Chicago. 1st thing Sunday morning we went to the Buckingham Fountain (1 of the largest fountains in the world). From there we went to the Navy Pier and hopped aboard "Speeddog" the speedboat Chicago River tour. Needless to say, it was freezing. I'd expect nothing else for my hubby and I when we get out on a body of water in a boat, for it to be less than desirable weather. :) I tried getting a pic of my insane goosebumps but it did not turn out. LOL...We didn't get to go to the Sears Tower or to Shedd's Aquarium as we had hoped because the cost of parking ate us alive, literally....so, we just relaxed back at the hotel awaiting our AMAZING dinner at the best pizza joint in Chicago. I am happy to say that they ship their fresh pizza frozen, nation wide. I will be ordering some in the next couple of months. Chicago was ok, but neither of us have any desire to go back. What an awful long drive home, that could be due to my extreme soreness from the surgery.

Surgery Update:
We had a 4:15am wakeup call Monday morning for my 7:30am surgery. We were to arrive at the University of Chicago Hospital at 5:30a for checkin. We both got to meet and speak with Dr. Haney in pre-op, what an amazing man! I can't speak highly enough of him. He explained everything to us very thoroughly! I had the option of a spinal or a getting knocked out. I chose the general because I didn't want to be awake for a 1.5 hr surgery. Come to find out it took 2+hr for the surgery. It took a little longer than expected due to some scar tissue. I ended up waking up on the surgery table shortly after the doc had finished in excruciating pain! It took the MEAN/UNFRIENDLY nurse an hour to get my pain somewhat under control in recovery. Not sure what anestheiologist did wrong.....I was nasueated pretty bad too a few hours afterward and that is not fun with a abdominal incision. It's about 4 inches long, so about half the size of my c-section but boy does it hurt! Last night about an hour after we got home, I finally started feeling some better. Probably the long 6 hr drive in the car didn't help my soreness.
--Another positive surgery note, prior to, I agreed to donate a part of fatty tissue from the large intestine..for the life of me I can't remember the name of it..anyways, they were doing a study on it for cancer research with cancer and non cancer patients---

The doc said that everything went great & he said that he was able to get the band a little higher than he normally is able to. He was impressed by my doc here in town, at the way he's done my previous surgeries. He guaranteed us that we will have as many full term no bedrest babies as we want!!! Pending of course, I don't have any other problems come about...

Hopefully, I am on the mend now.....it can only get better from this point. I was SOOO ready to come home. I felt so bad and was so scared that they woudn't release me yesterday due to the pain. So, even though I needed it on my walk up and down the hall with the nurse, I didn't push my PAC pump because I didn't want that to be a strike against me. I couldn't spend another day in that city!

On a GOOD note, Bailey did awesome for my mom. Mom said it was the best she's ever been for her and they played and had a great time. No separation anxiety. Bailey does know something is wrong with me and it's sad. She was so excited to see me yesterday but I was hurting so bad I couldn't bend down to hug her or anythying...She's somewhat keeping her distance from me, bless her heart...I feel so bad. :( I wish I could just tell her...

As of today, she has started back with fever, crankiness, super short nap and has already awakened 2x since she fell asleep at 8pm. I am assuming it is her teeth, again. I feel so bad for her, I really hope the Motrin helps her out tonight! :( Poor baby girl. My mom is going to stay up here with me until Saturday morning, there is no way I can lift Bailey. I am hoping to be doing MUCH better by next week!

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers...

Surgery Update/Info

Here is Bailey's 2 year scrapbook that I've got done so far: it's a work in progress. I'm so glad that I am able to do this for her...hopefully, down the road she will appreciate it! Doubt it, but I can always hope!

Monday, July 20, is getting closer and closer. My nerves keep reminding me...:( Keenan and I will leave super early Sunday morning to drive up to Chicago and stay all night. I have a 6:30am registration time Monday morning for my 7:30am TAC surgery and will have to stay overnight in the hospital Monday night and drive back home Tuesday.

Just a little update: I was proactive in my healthcare and the thought of wanting to expand our family was frightening due to the guaranteed bedrest and more than likely another premature baby plus, another surgery 12 weeks into the pregnancy. With those stats, I could not do that to Bailey & our family...etc, so we were not going to have anymore children.

That wasn't good enough for me/us, SO I researched and researched and FINALLY found the Transabdominal Cerclage (TAC) that can be done pre prego or while prego. I am opting for the pre-prego because as sensitive as my body is, no one is going to mess with it until the baby gets here because I will have contractions the duration of the pregnancy. I found an amazing group where there are hundreds of women ALL with the same problem as me from all over the world. Many have similar stories and a lot more have much worse stories than ours....:( I found an amazing doc, Dr. Haney from the University of Chicago Medical Center. He is one of the top 2 docs in the world that specializes in this procedure. He does around 100 per year and has NEVER had a "failed" cerclage. He guaranteed me a NORMAL FULL TERM PREGO with NO BEDREST....pending, no other problems arise. That may sound cocky of him to tell me that, but he is just basing it on facts. This surgery is so awesome to permanently FIX my incompetent cervix, that he even said women prego with twins won't have bedrest! I had an amazing 1hr phone conference with him. He said I was a perfect candidate. The surgery is basically the same as a C-Section just a slightly bit smaller incision. He will go in and but my "bionic" artificial band to replace the one I wasn't born with. I could have had it done here at TWH but, the doc there does not do these all of the time. I wanted someone with experience so we are headed north. After I found this info, I talked to my doc about it, and he felt it was a good idea for me to have this procedure as well. I just don't understand why women who aren't so "proactive" have to lose MULTIPLE babies before their doc will recommend this. That's upsetting. There is a lot more I could write, but i'll end it here...the good news is that insurance will cover most of the surgery! For them, it is WAY cheaper to pay for this surgery than to pay for a NICU stay....Bailey's 1 week in the NICU posted a $20 grand bill!!! Just one week!!!

We are super excited about what this surgery means for our family. I am just a little nervous I guess about the recovery of the surgery lifting a 28+lb kiddo! Yikes!! And I guess I am a little nervous about what our future holds....

Nonny is coming up Saturday afternoon to stay with Bailey while we are gone. I really hope Miss B does ok! As of this past Saturday, Bailey is BINK FREE!! We did a small "goodbye bink" ceremony and said it was going to her friend, Baby Jenna. She only got it at naps/nighttime....so that meant for 3 good nap/nighttime cry sessions before she was somewhat ok with it. Monday she didn't even ask for it...that didn't go nearly as bad as I thought it would! She had been waking up crying in the middle of the night when she'd loose it out the side of the crib & we'd have to go in & get it. Now, since it's gone, she's sleeping through the night again. Wahoo!!!

If you think of it, please say a little prayer for me Monday morning....I'll keep you posted post surgery.

That's our family update for now....since it was on my mind, I wanted to blog it....Enjoy the scrapbook!

Our Pint Sized Patriot

Bailey's quote: "Fireworks...BOOM!!" & "Fireworks pretty.."
We had an awesome 4th of July weekend. We now have our "special" place to go every year. It was just us and one other family! WOW...so nice not to have to deal with the crowds and traffic.

Bailey enjoying some Lucky Charms while waiting for the show to start. She actually sat still the ENTIRE time! She NEVER does that...it was so nice.

I got a nice seat behind the family because I wanted to try using my new camera to shoot the fireworks. I'll have to say that I was pretty darn successful, and have actually had 2 people ask me to email them the pic so they could use it for their scrapbooking and desktop on the computer!!

Beautiful!



Bailey got herself on a great schedule to watch the fireworks due to a terrible week of teething...result, NO TEETH! Still only 12 and she is fighting it. But, she was wide awake to watch the fireworks and much to our surprise LOVED it and fussed at the very beginning because it did startle her and at the end when they were all done! She keeps going to the computer saying, "fireworks movie" she enjoys "re-watching" the show...so cute!