TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a morning of high blood pressure (158/103), Dr. Levin came in my room with the news that I was to go home immediately, lay on my left side all day, and meet her at 5 a.m. TOMORROW MORNING to be induced!!!!! Praise God!!!!!

I am SOOOOO ready to meet my little boy and am just praying that my body keeps him as safe as possible until they get my labor started. Pray for Steve as well...I know he is just ecstatic!! We will post pictures as soon as we can! :)

Unworthy,

Molly

p.s.--we will be at Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center!

My my my...

Whew! What a week!! So much has happened in the past seven days! We have definitely had our hands full so sorry for the delay in posting.

Let's start with how Monday morning's OB/GYN visit went. As of Monday, I was 1 cm dilated, 50% effaced, and Malachi's head was at a -2 position. (All very normal). If you read the last post, you will know that our family welcomed Baby Drew Nordlander on Monday afternoon at 2:16pm. It turns out that he was a week or two younger than they projected, so he technically is a "preemie" (maybe he can wear Malachi's preemie clothes since he may not need them!). Drew is doing great now and is happy as a clam when he's with his mommy, daddy, and proud big brother. He will be in the NICU until tomorrow morning while they wait on some blood tests to ensure he is perfectly safe to go home with the rest of his family. I know it has to be incredibly hard for Dana and Rob to leave their little one at the hospital, but hopefully it will only be one more day. We are all ready to see Drew in HIS house!

Last Saturday began the reconstruction of our house from the hurricane damage!!!!! Yay!!!! While I was SOOOOO glad that it was getting done before the baby, the completion date went from Wednesday...to Thursday...to Friday at noon...to today. There are just a few minute things left to do (mostly touch-ups) so I believe they will truly finish today! I am VERY ready to have my house put back together...and to plop my very pregnant body on my couch and just relax in my living room (now that it has a ceiling).

This past Wednesday also marked the reconstruction of Steve's finger. :)

Dr. Lou did an incredible job putting my Humpy Dumpty back together again. He said it's not every day that he gets a fracture like that lined up PERFECTLY, but judging from the x-ray, after he was done he couldn't even tell where it had been broken. Steve is dealing with some pain (could be from the two pins sticking out of his finger) but thank the Lord that doctors give you good medicine! :) To further amuse myself, here are some pictures from surgery day (a BIG event since it was Steve's first!)...

Steve's finger in the emergency room waiting area...a little shorter and a little more crooked than God created it.

No one wears a gown better than my husband!

This is what Morphine does to a grown man...I believe Steve reverted back to his days in the womb during his time in the recovery room.

And this is what we came home to...life in the construction zone! Ahh!

All in all the past week has shown me a lot. I have seen how God pieces things together perfectly in His timing, how selfless Steve has had to be to take care of ME when I've had surgery, how physically limited my pregnant body is getting, how ready we are to hold our little monkey, and the sense of humor of the God we serve is definitely one that I love.

Unworthy,

Molly

p.s.--we go back for our 38-week check-up on Monday!

WHAT A DAY!

Whew! What a day!

On our way to two-birds-with-one-stone doctor appointments (Steve was seeing the hand surgeon across the street from my OB/GYN check-up), I get a call from Dana (my sister). She is also 37 weeks along and is due two days after me...until today! She went in for her check-up in the time slot before my appointment (same doctor) and since her baby was still breech AND she was beginning labor, they scheduled her C-Section for today!! Just a few hours later and I was staring wide-eyes at my new little nephew, Drew Jeffry Nordlander. He is too cute for words. I don't have a decent picture to put on here just yet due to the fact that the nursery let his manhood be out in the open for all my pictures...I will put a more flattering picture as soon as I get one. :)

He weighed 6 lbs, 4.7 oz and was 18 3/4 inches long. He is a cutie!!

As for me and Malachi...as of today, I am 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. Dr. Levin said we won't be meeting both cousins today, but that it's a start. It could be a day or a week...no one really knows. I am praying that Malachi can wait until at least Thursday. The construction guys are supposed to wrap our house up on Wednesday and Wednesday morning at 10:30, Steve will be having reconstructive surgery on his hand. God is good! I've nicknamed Steve "Humpty Dumpty" because I'm ready for him (along with our house) to be put back together again. So as long as Malachi waits until AT LEAST Thursday, everything will be wonderful. :)

I will continue to keep you posted and will definitely put up pictures of my adorable new (red-headed) nephew!

Unworthy,

Molly

Like Mother, Like Father...

As if all of the Mastoiditis drama wasn't enough medical turmoil, Steve had to take a trip to the Urgent Care Center today. The morning started off great because Jamie and I had an engagement shoot this morning which turned out to be one of our favorite shoots yet (and the last one for a while...we put ourselves on maternity leave). After the shoot, we shopped for a few baby items at good ol' Target. FYI...the RainForest Pack 'N Play that I searched everywhere for and found the last one in the United States was RECALLED for safety reasons! Ahh!! So, I had to pick out a new Pack 'N Play and have to "discontinue use" of the RainForest one. All is still well because we are getting our ceiling fixed from the hurricane!!! FINALLY!! The guys started on it Saturday and will come back tomorrow (and hopefully finish up by Wednesday).

Back to Steve...

To those moms who won't let their sons play "real" football and just resort to flag football so that they "won't get hurt".....Flag football still breaks bones. Steve not only broke his left ring finger, he managed to make it a complete spiral fracture (see picture). This lovely kind of fracture might very well require surgery to set it with a pin so it will be off to the hand surgeon tomorrow! Hooray! Also, tomorrow morning is our 37-week appointment with Dr. Levin so it should be an interesting day. I'm praying that there is an easy fix to repair Steve's finger and that I am (God-willing) starting to dilate!! We shall see! Check back tomorrow for updates!

Unworthy,

Molly

92% Beast, 8% Dude...

Today was such an incredible day!

First of all, I got my PICC line out this morning!! Yay!!! It was about two feet long and quite thicker than I thought it would be when I saw it lying in the hazardous material bin after they pulled it out. The nurse didn't let me watch (she made me look away) but Steve got a front row seat and may have thrown up a bit in his mouth. Haha!

I am released of my eight-hour shifts of antibiotic patrol!! I can't wait to go to sleep tonight and get to stay that way until my alarm! No middle of the night medicine administering! The joke is on me since soon enough I will be up every three hours feeding a hungry baby. :)

Speaking of hungry babies....oh my.....

We had our 36-week ultrasound today and the results were surprising to say the least. It turns out that the little monkey inside of me is currently tipping the scales at SEVEN POUNDS!!! Keep in mind that he still theoretically has four weeks to keep growing! Ahh!! Dr. Levin said he was in the 75th percentile (meaning he's a hulk baby) and he has pretty broad shoulders (like his daddy). Great! (sarcasm, of course). I do quote Dr. Levin when I say, "You will certainly have some work to do to push those shoulders out, but I think we can do it." That makes you feel good, doesn't it?! Can anyone say EPIDURAL?!

We go back next Monday and she will start checking to see if I have started dilating or not. Before today's appointment, I was so ready for Malachi to come so that I could hold him and finally get to see him. Now, I think I've joined more of the practical side of things--he doesn't need to grow anymore so he can come as soon as he wants! :)

I loved seeing him in the ultrasound! He was blinking, moving his cramped arms, had a full belly (we just ate lunch) and the sweetest chubby cheeks! I can't wait to hold my giant chunky monkey in my arms!! So much for the preemie outfits!

Unworthy,

Molly

HOME STRETCH!!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have entered the home stretch!

It seemed to be something that was so distant it would never come, but my last day with my beloved PICC line is MONDAY!!!!

Dr. Rensimer said we can take out the PICC line at my appointment next Monday AND it can be my last appointment!! (Except for follow-up visits, of course). Yay!!! So next Monday will be quite a celebratory day--PICC line out in the morning and in the afternoon, we will get to take a gander at the little monkey inside of me at Dr. Levin's office! Yay again!!

My SED rate was up to 36 but he said as long as it's in the 30's he is ok with me getting off the medicine. I went to a different lab this time so the Doubting Thomas that I am sometimes, I wonder if the previous lab did in fact screw up my really low results. Thankfully it doesn't matter because I no longer present any symptoms and my blood looks great! God's hand through all of this has been so protecting...and not just to Malachi. HE protected me from the stress and worry that I would usually have in a crazy situation like this. HE protected us financially by some unspoken and anonymous acts of love towards us. HE protected me from any guilt with thinking I did something wrong to cause all of this. HE is my Great Protector!

I can't wait to share the information we will get on Monday from Dr. Levin. I'm hoping she can guess how much my little man weighs (or how much he is PROJECTED to weigh in the next four weeks). From this point on, he is supposedly gaining around a pound a week so watch out for my expanding incubator of a tummy!!

I have my second and final baby shower this Sunday. It will mostly be people from work with a few nutty family members thrown in. So if you are in the vacinity of Susan Pitman's house around 2:30pm on Sunday, swing by! I would love to have you!

Unworthy,

Molly

A Day Full of Excitement...

Well, I had my usual Monday morning appointment with Dr. Rensimer today. Monday appointments are usually non-eventful and include a lot of waiting, cleaning and changing my dressing, getting four viles of blood drawn, and peeing in a cup. Today was a little different.

My mom has been accompanying me to all of these appointments (she likes to know the low down on what's going on) but today she was watching my nephew so my sister could see her doctor. No big deal. Wouldn't you know it that the day I go by myself is the day that my body decides to spaz out and PASS OUT while the nurse was changing my dressing...?!!?! That's right...I passed out. It was only for a second, but man it did not feel good. The nurse was cleaning my PICC line insertion place and changing the gauze when BLAM! the room went dark, I was cold and sweaty, and I just was out of it for a few seconds. Erin, the sweet nurse who takes such good care of me every week, made me drink lots of water, eat something, and lay down for a good half hour while waiting for the doctor to come in. I knew it wasn't from hunger because I had just eaten breakfast. They took my blood pressure right before and right after it happened and the weird thing is, both times it was perfect! Hmm...an enigma.

Dr. Rensimer didn't see any medical relevance to mastoiditis (always good) so he advised me to call my OB to let her know what happened (especially since she is in the same hospital as him). I called her and she said she would feel better if she took a look at me. I swung by her office (in the new tower at memorial hermann...VERY nice!!) and again my blood pressure was completely normal...even perfect (120/80). She didn't have a medical reason for what happened but told me to go home and lay down, really take it easy. I, of course, had no objections. She also said it wouldn't be a bad idea to really pack in the protein (bring on more meat!!). Malachi's heartbeat sounded good and again, he remained unphased by what his spaz-tastic mommy's body was doing.

I was expecting my skin to be really irritated like it was two weeks ago because for some reason, my PICC was REALLY sore and to move my arm just a bit hurt like crazy. When Erin took the gauze off, the reason was right there--yes the skin was irritated, but the main problem was that somehow over the weekend, I ripped a stitch out! Whoops! It's not an entirely big deal because, according to Dr. Rensimer, we are EIGHT DAYS AWAY from pulling it out!! I still have one stitch holding it in place, but in his words I need to "guard this stitch with my life". :)

I'm very glad that they didn't have to put a new stitch in and very glad that God's protection of my little monkey was seen yet again. The nurse even had a "fluke" dressing change kit that had two packs of sterile gloves instead of one...and guess who needed to change gloves after the pregnant dodo passed out? That's right...God knew what was going to happen. He had that room already prepared.

I return to work tomorrow. I talked with Susan today (who I work with) and she said that they have changed my schedule for me so that I can sit down most of the day and not have to deal with the really hands-on kids in our class. As much as I adore the kids in my class, it will be a nice break to have the easier schedule. I see Dr. Rensimer Thursday for my (could be FINAL) blood work results. I will certainly let you know!

Unworthy,
Molly