5 Months Old

       It's incredible how quickly time has flown by already.  Our beautiful baby girl has grown so much, and it has been so much fun to watch.  She is now rolling over the moment you set her down and just pops up and likes to look all around.  She sits up nicely when propped up on the couch.  She is "talking" up a storm making all kinds of sounds.  She is definitely taking after her mommy, being a chatty little girl! She now really loves making raspberry sounds, reaching out and pulling mommy's hair and laughing.  She is also currently working on trying to crawl, which is making her mommy very nervous because I am not ready for her to be so active and on the move! She needs to slow down!! Charlotte is the happiest baby I have ever met.  She wakes up every morning with a huge smile on her face just ready to great the day! She is a great little sleeper.  I have to wake her up once a night to feed her. 

         Currently the only struggle that Charlotte is having is her weight gain.  She has never really been on the growth chart for babies her weight at birth.  The last two months, she has only gained 9 ounces each month.  The doctors are looking for a half an ounce to and ounce worth of gain a day.  Charlotte is gaining about a 1/3 of an ounce a day.  This slow weight gain has been happening even with Charlotte receiving three fortified (supplemented) breast milk bottles (breast milk with a little bit of formula for extra calories) every day.  This week we met with a Gastroenterologist and a Dietitian to work on a plan to help Charlotte start to gain more weight each month. 

        Tomorrow (Friday, December 16th), Charlotte is going to get an upper GI test to check and see what her intestines look like.  This may provide more information about Charlotte's reflux or why she is spitting up as much as she does.  Following that we are adding one more fortified bottle a day for now.  This will be accompanied by more weight checks.  I do not know yet what the next step will be if she does not start to gain a half an ounce to an ounce a day.  One thing I do know is that she is an incredible little girl, and is so blessed to have so many people out there thinking about her and praying for her.  Charlotte is still in need of her prayer warriors out there praying that she will finally find a rhythm and start gaining some healthy weight.  

         It breaks my heart to still have all these tests that the doctors want to run on my little girl.  I am just hoping one day she will stop needing all the testing that is required. To Christopher and me, she seems like a happy and healthy normal little girl.  As I am sitting here typing right now, she is playing in her Exersaucer and having fun manipulating the toys and bouncing up and down.  She lights up when anyone says the word “hi” to her, even complete strangers.  We are just so blessed, despite the small struggles she has had, compared to what she could have been dealing with!  She is just such a happy and joyful baby.

23 Days Old

         We have the most amazing news to share, yesterday July 28th, after 3 weeks and 1 day in the NICU, we were able to bring our little miracle home! The doctors were really impressed with all her growth she had made.  They were proud of her eating, both with the breast and the bottle (still with breast milk).  We are going to continue to watch her weight gain.  That was the only concern that the doctors had as we were talking about discharging.  She was still not showing a pattern of steady weight gain that the doctors were completely satisfied with, however they thought this is something that can be handled as an outpatient with our pediatrician.   Christopher and I are over joyed to have our sweet little angel home finally.  Now the real fun begins!  Charlotte met Jax for the first time and Jax seems to be in love.  He is ready for his protective guard dog duties to start! 

        Charlotte had her first pediatrician appiontment today.  Dr, Hayes was very nice, however someone was not impressed with all the poking that was done. The exciting news about this appointment was that Charlotte was up one ounce from when she was discharged from the NICU.  This is perfect because typically babies gain about an ounce a day, give or take some exceptions.  

       Thank you again to all of those who have continued to pray for our family and especially little Charlotte.  We are so blessed to have you all in our lives and to pray for the growth and health of our daughter.  Please know if there was a way to reach out to each of y'all individually and say thank you we would.  May God continue to bless all of y'all in your lives.  

Love, 

   Brittany, Christopher, Charlotte and Jax

 

19 Days Old

       Charlotte is still doing amazing and wowing everyone in NICU.  There is not a whole lot to update with today, except to say that she just continues to get cuter.  She did get her center line removed, which means the only cords that she has left now are her little monitors for her heart rate and breathing and her NG tube.  She still likes to pull that NG tube out of her nose! She can be quite the trouble maker! 

       The only thing we are currently working on is getting Charlotte to take full feeds.  Full feeds for Charlotte is about 56 mLs.  We are working on this being a joint effort from breast feeding along with supplementing with bottle.  We do not want to use the NG tube at all anymore in order to get her home! In order for her to be considering getting "full feeds" while breast feeding she has to eat for 15 to 20 minutes each time she eats which is at least 8 times a day.  She has eaten for over 15 minutes only a handful of times and the rest of the time we are supplementing with bottles.  When she doesn't finish her half or whole feed from the bottle she then still needs to be pushed feed through her NG tube.  Charlotte gets so comfortable while breast feeding that she often falls asleep and does not want to be woken back up. We are trying every trick in the book to keep her awake, such as feeding her naked, tickling her while she is eating, burping her and changing her diaper as breaks during breast feeding. They only sometimes work.  The doctors are not too worried about it yet.  They continue to remind us, mostly me, that she just had major surgery involving all those digestive organs and a lot of times it just takes time for these babies to get the hang of the eating thing. It definitely helps to hear that it is not just me or something else making this whole process more challenging for her.  As soon as she gets a hang of this eating thing and is no longer needing to be supplemented feed through her NG tube then we will be able to take her home!! This is the only step left for her to conquer! 

       We can't say enough amazing things about all of Charlotte's amazing doctors and nurses here at Cook's.  This truly is an amazing place with incredible people.  I always knew nursing was a calling much like teaching but I haven't experienced how incredibly called and devoted these individuals are.  Charlotte is so blessed to have such wonderful people that are caring for her in these early days.  I love them all so much and only wish I could give them as much as they have given us in these 19 days of little Charlotte's life. 

Love, Brittany, Christopher and Charlotte 

2 Weeks Old

       Our sweet little Miss is 2 weeks old today and we can hardly believe it.  Sometimes it feels like its been a month since she has arrived into our lives because so much has happened, and in other ways, we wonder where has the time gone already!?

       She has made so much progress and growth in the last couple of days.  The first major step came on Sunday when they removed her oxygen cannulas from her nose.  She is now just breathing room air!! This is a huge step for an omphalocele baby because lung development, as mentioned in previous posts, is a concern because their lungs are sometimes underdeveloped at birth.  Little Miss Charlotte has excellent lungs as we have learned during some of her little fits.  She is doing so well breathing room air.   The second big milestone that Charlotte hit in the last couple of days was getting her pulse oximeter monitor (Pulse OX) taken off.  Due to her breathing going so well as mentioned previously they did not need to continually monitor her pulse ox, which monitored how much oxygen was reaching the body's tissues.  However, they will continue to monitor her breathing with her breaths per minute.  These have been going well also,  sticking around 60 - 70 breaths per minute, until she gets upset and then she really puts those awesome lungs to work!

      The third big step for Charlotte this week was she was switched out from a "Giraffe Bed", which is the typical NICU enclosed bed, to a crib bed.  Due to Charlotte not needing the warming lamp to help regulate her temperature and having less "lines" to her body, she is able to use the crib bed now.  The crib bed is also helping us emulate a similar environment that she will have at home with the intent to prepare her for going home.

      The fouth big step for Miss Charlotte is that she has started working on breast feeding with mommy.  This has not been an easy process yet but each feed and day is getting a little bit better.  For right now they are keeping her NG tube in to help supplement her feeds until we start getting the hang of these feeds from mommy.  However, today she finally had her first full feed from her mommy and had a nice poopy diaper shortly afterwards. These are all good signs and if they continue we are getting closer and closer to bring Charlotte home.

     Tomorrow the doctors are going to remove Charlotte's central line.  The central line has been where Charlotte has received all of her medicines through.  The doctors do not see any need for keeping the central line in her due her not needing any more medications directly.

   Christopher and I could not be more humbled and blessed by everyone's prayers and love that has been sent Charlotte's way.  She is truly a gift from God and through his divine mercy and the intercessions of all of y'alls prayers she is doing incredible and will hopefully be going home sooner than we ever could have imagined.    

~ Brittany and Christopher

Holding Charlotte for the First Time

         Wanted to share this special moment when I first held her skin to skin.  The most incredible moment of my life.

The Before and After

      I realized in all the updates we have shared with you we haven't really take the time to show the progress Charlotte has made.  Thanks to the amazing surgeons here at Cook's she looks pretty incredible!

Miss Charlotte with her omphalocele 

Miss Charlotte a couple days after her repair 

God is so good! We could not say enough how blessed we are that she was able to be repaired so quickly! 

~ Brittany and Christopher 

One Week Old

  

Little Miss Charlotte and family have hit a couple of huge milestones in the last two days.  First huge milestone is that Christopher and I were both able to hold her.  It was the most incredible feeling in the world for use to finally feel our sweet baby girl in our arms! I don't think anything can compare to those moments.  She seems very happy and content when being held, she does not fuss much and continues to show more of her sweet personality.  She makes a lot of sweet little noises when she is sleeping and being held, all things we couldn't hear while she was still on the vent.  She also has a very strong personality and does not like the high flow cannula in her nose.  I keep threatening that we will have to call her Myrtle (my grandmother's name) if she continues to pull those tubes out of her nose.  Also my mom and sister had the opportunity to hold her.  That moment was incredible! We are so blessed that little Miss Charlotte is hitting all these milestones faster than we ever imagined!

Her second big milestone she has reached is beginning feeds!! Yesterday they took out her stomach tube and inserted her NG (nasogastric) tube.  This happened before lunch time and they started her with breast milk.  They began by only giving her 5 mL.  Following her second feed we had a little scare.  Charlotte became agitated and could not calm down. She had kicked her temperature sensor off, the bed heated up, and she spit up a bit. Once she cooled down, she still was more agitated than normal with elevated pulse and respiratory rate, which could be a sign of pain. Charlotte received a dose of morphine and finally calmed down enough to sleep.

Last night, Brittany and I got to help with Charlotte's first bath. She screamed and screamed and screamed. I don't think she liked it, but tired herself out so much that she slept soundly afterwards and even slept through her 11pm feeding! She has handled her feeds so well that she has gone up to 10 mL per feeding today, and tonight will increase again to 15 mL. The nurse thinks that for a baby her size, a feeding that would completely fill her belly is around 45 mL. She is doing well though, and we are slowly working our way up to a full belly.

Over the past two days, Charlotte's blood gasses tests have been favorable so the neonatologist reduced the rate on her high flow cannula from 12 Lpm (Liters per minute) to 10 Lpm yesterday and to 8 Lpm today. She continues to breathe well, and once she's down to 3 to 4 Lpm, Charlotte can start trying to nurse. Brittany is really excited, and ready for another big milestone.

Neither Brittany nor I can believe that all of these things, from surgical repair, to ventilator removal, to feeding, have occurred within one short week. At this time last week, she was being wheeled into surgery and now we're talking about nursing. This has been unbelievable, and all three of us are incredibly blessed.  God is good!!

The goal for today is to have an uneventful day. Charlotte is a fairly active baby, awake more often than normal. Typically newborns in the NICU are awake only for "cares," the routine temperature check, oral care, feeding, and diaper change, and then the baby calms down and goes back to sleep. Little Charlotte is often awake, active, and sometimes looking around. So today we want Charlotte to get lots of rest along with a calm and uneventful day. So far, she's slept well and laid peacefully on mommy's tummy.

~ Christopher and Brittany

 

Day 4 Update

Charlotte has been doing amazing.  Her incision looks great and the surgeons have been really happy with the progress.  I don't know if it was mentioned in previous posts but the surgeon who did her repair tried to give her a belly button so I cannot wait to see what that will look like as she continues to heal! Her breathing has been amazing and she continues to breath over the vent even at the lowest setting.  She has been doing so well that they have decided around noon to take her off the vent.  Brittany was overwhelmed with emotions as this occurred.  The doctor said this will be a lot like being taught to swim by jumping in the pool, there isn't a good way to see how she'll handle being off the ventilator until it is removed.

Once the ventilator was removed, Charlotte cried softly and tried breathing, and breathing hard at that, but struggled to pull in full breaths since her vocal cords have been inflamed due to the ventilator intubation. They provided some gaseous anti-inflammatory similar to an asthma inhaler, but the medication is designed to work on the upper respiratory track. She cried stronger and louder than before, but still struggled to pull in full breaths. She was put on a high flow cannula to assist her breathing, and increased the flow rate until she breathed easier. The neonatolgist preferred to try the high flow since it is gentler than CPAP, but warned that we may have to move to CPAP if the high flow doesn't provide sufficient assistance.

Without the ventilator, Charlotte can now let us know how unhappy she is when she's cranky with squeaky little cries. She fusses more since she goes longer and longer between morphine doses (up to 24 hours). Each morphine dose is also half the volume of her original post-surgery dosage. Keeping her calm and asleep is a bit of a challenge since she isn't sedated. We use a small toy tied from a blanket to shield her eyes, and keep it as dark as possible for her. Charlotte takes after both parents: she is stubborn and fiesty. She wiggles and waves her arms when she's upset, breaking free of a pseudo swaddle we've tried with a strap of blanket across her chest and tucked into her crib. When the blanket strap holds her arms tightly, she calms down, fusses less, and sleeps.

Blood gasses were drawn after an hour after removing the ventilator, and the results were favorable. So far she has been resting well after afternoon excitement. Just before her 1600 vitals check, diaper change, and oral care, Brittany was able to take Charlottes footprints and print them on top of a passage in Psalms inside Charlotte's first Bible.

We spoke to the pediatric surgeon who indicated that the bowel is sounding good and the skin tightness around the torso and belly is softening. The inflammation from surgery is reducing with her continued recovery. Next big step from the surgery team will be to decide when to introduce feeding, which may begin within the next few days. Charlotte continues to poop, another positive indication of bowel function, so hopefully these are all good signs that she's taking her next forward steps.

With any luck, Brittany or I may be able to hold her this evening or tomorrow morning. We're very excited, but I'm gonna have to let momma hold baby Charlotte first.

~ Christopher and Brittany

Day 2 Update

       

       Charlotte is doing amazing today.  She did end up have the surgery to correct the omphalocele and the surgery went very well.  There was liver and maybe a little bit of bowel involved in the omphalocele.  The doctor found that the liver was stuck to the membrane, and when he was able to disconnect the liver from the membrane, the liver just dropped into place, easily.  What an incredible surprise and blessing!! 
       After her surgery, Charlotte came back to her room and has been sedated and on a ventilator since coming back (both of which are normal after surgery).   Yesterday, she had some difficulties peeing, which the caused the doctors to be a little concerned.  They upped her fluids to help stimulate her pee, and we just waited to see what happens.  The doctors did not seem super concerned about it, but they did want to make sure they got ahead of this situation.  They put in a catheter to monitor her urine output.  Last night, she had peed enough that they felt confident enough to remove the catheter. They also took her off the dopamine and excess fluid because she is doing so well.  She is so perfect, and we are just waiting, watching her meet and exceed expectations. Hopes are, that sometime this weekend, we might be able to actually hold her.  I cannot wait to hold my baby girl for the very first time!! 

Charlotte Marie Harding

The culmination of months of worry, concern, stress, and anticipation peaked this morning: Charlotte Marie Harding was born this morning at 7:52, weighing 6lbs 6oz and 20 inches long. To our immense relief, before we could even see our baby girl, we could hear her crying. And crying and crying. For so long we've been concerned about her lungs and her breathing, so hearing her cry was such a weight lifted off our shoulders. Little did we know, she wasn't just crying, but breathing well enough on her own that she did not require a ventilator.

She was put on CPAP to provide a little extra pressure to help fill her lungs with each breath, but Charlotte was breathing each and every time on her own. She did well enough that before she left the OR, I was able to take some pictures of our little girl and Brittany was able to hold her hand. Then she was whisked away to the NICU for tests, PIC line insertion, and evaluation.

While Brittany was moved to her recovery room, I was able to go find Charlotte's new room. Her omphalocele was already dressed and bandaged, and all of her monitors and sensors installed. She has the longest little fingers and toes, and she does not like her feet touched - she kicks and wiggles every time her feet are touched.

Charlotte had more tests to undergo and to get her PIC line installed, so I returned to Brittany's recovery room. The neonatologist came to Brittany's room and gave us our first post-birth update: Charlotte's omphalocele was smaller than expected. The omphalocele was by no means small, but it wasn't as giant as some scans and indications suggested. The neonatologist hinted that the pediatric surgeon may recommend Charlotte's repair surgery earlier than expected. While we were hopeful, we were not prepared for the concerns or risks of an earlier surgery - all along we had been prepared for immediate ventilation with a focus on lung/heart function before addressing the omphalocele itself, likely in 6 months to a year.

The PIC line insertion was not successful, as the line kept turning the wrong direction. The neonatologist did not like the PIC line placement, so it was removed in favor of a central line. The echocardiogram showed no heart issues that would complicate surgery or concern the anastethesiologist.

The pediatric surgeon met with us just before noon and laid out the pros, cons, benefits, and risks of doing the repair surgery today, and waiting to do the repair surgery in 6 months to a year. The surgeon believed that there was enough skin to close the omphalocele, but wasn't sure if there was sufficient muscle tissue to close the opening. The only way to make that determination is to begin the surgery and discover the muscle lining location. He felt like performing the surgery today was the better option. The omphalocele was good sized, but not too big to correct immediately. There was a risk that if enough muscle and/or skin tissue wasn't available to close the opening, that a dissolvable patch or mesh may be used to bridge the gap. Worst case scenarios would entail an opening too large to bridge or gap with a patch, which would require a silo bag (emulating the protective covering of the omphalocele) or closing the opening too tightly creating too much abdominal pressure causing other issues. Best case scenario would be a repaired omphalocele and looking towards breastfeeding by NG or OG tube in the next few days. Post surgery, she would likely be on a ventilator for a few days to assist with breathing as she becomes accustomed with her new belly arrangement.

Brittany and I decided to perform the corrective surgery today, and little Charlotte entered the OR around 3:30 pm for her omphalocele repair and central line insertion. The insertion went well, and after an hour the OR nurse called to give us an update. The surgeon began the repair and if things went well, he'd call with the next update in an hour or so. At 5:00, the pediatric surgeon called us with good news: the repair was complete. There was just enough muscle and skin tissue to close the opening, but the layers were pulled pretty taught. He was a bit concerned that the sutures may tear under the strain, so he added some patch material on top of the muscle sutures to bolster the stitches. Then the skin closed on top of the patch material with another set of sutures.

Brittany and I are waiting for Charlotte to transfer back to her NICU room, and get settled back into her crib. She'll be sedated after the surgery and her very busy day, and will likely be intibated and on a ventilator. But we are incredibly relieved and ready for our little girl to tackle her next obstacles and steps.

~ Christopher and Brittany

C - Section Date

    The c-section date is scheduled!! Baby girl will be here on July 6th at 7:30 am.  Now comes all my lists and stress trying to get everything I can control ready for when she gets here!

ONLY 12 MORE days until she is here!! I cannot wait and I am completely terrified at the same time!

35 Weeks

 
        We've had a busy week this past week.  Christopher and I met with the pediatric surgeon and the Neonatologist.  Following these doctor appointments, we received some really good information to help us develop an idea of a plan for baby girl.  She has a very long road ahead of her and there are a lot of unknowns until she gets here.  One thing we learned based on our doctors appointments this week is that our pediatric surgeon would like to do the surgery around 6 months. There are plenty of variables that could change that but for the most part, based on the conversation with the pediatric surgeon, we are aiming for her surgery to be at about 6 months. As long as she is doing well and the omphalocele is the only thing going on with her, she should be able to go home before the 6 month surgery time frame.  The pediatric surgeon did say that she might require more then one surgery to repair the omphalocele.  The additional surgery would include placing an expander inside her abdomen to make room for the organs.  This is not for sure and will be another wait and see situation because it will all be dependent on how well she is doing and how big she is when they want to do the surgery.  The pediatric surgeon will be there and examine baby girl as soon as she gets to the NICU and will be a part of rounds to see her daily at the beginning along with many other doctors. 
       Following the meeting with pediatric surgeon a couple days later we met with the Neonatologist who is the NICU doctor.  She will most likely be who we become the most familiar with during our long stay at the NICU.  She was able to confirm and reiterate a lot of what the other doctors have been saying which is that we have made it past some good hurdles however we are not out of the woods yet and still have a long road ahead of us. This also meant that there is so much unknown still until she gets here.  So much of what her outlook and  survivability will be more determinable once she is actually here and all of her doctors can assess her.  They will look at things like how her heart looks and the main concern will be her lungs.  As mentioned previously low lung development is a common problem seen with omphalocele babies, which means that she will most likely be on a ventilator for a while.  She will also need an NG or OG tube that will help feed her, but they will try and make sure it is breast milk as soon as possible.  Finally she will also have a PICC line to her in order to provide nutrients deliver medicine to her so that it is all distributed to her body quickly. Until she is digesting breastmilk and feeding (either normally or through the NG/OG tube), all nutrition will go through the PICC line  As mentioned previously the weight of the omphalocele being outside her body puts weight on her heart and will probably pull it down some making it difficult to work normally.   The neonatologist said that most likely after baby girl is delivered Christopher will be able to come over and meet her and then as long as they can stabilize her they should be able to wheel her by me on the way to the NICU and all her doctors, that way I can see her for a minute before I get sedated and fixed up so I can go back to my room.

34 Weeks

      We are so overwhelmed with emotions as it gets closer and closer to the day we meet baby girl.  Part of me is so excited for her to finally be here but the other part of me gets nervous because as long as she is in her little "home" right now she is safe and healthy.  As long as she is in her "home" I know where she is and I feel like I can protect her.

     There are not many update to report this week.  At my last MFM appointment my doctor and I discussed c - section dates.  It looks like, as long as things continue going well with her, she will be here on July 5th, 6th, or 7th.  We are definitely excited and are aware that will be here before we know it! The other piece of news we have is that we are going to see the Pediatric Surgeon tomorrow.  This is the doctor that will really give us the hypothetical "plan" for how things might happen after delivery.  This doctor will tell us when typically they would like to do surgery to repair the omphalocele and if they do it all in one surgery or in multiple surgeries.  The reason I call this her hypothetical plan is because this is will still be all contingent on how healthy she is when she is born.  Things like lung development, and other complications can change or derail any of these plans made tomorrow.  Christopher and I continue to stay positive and optimistic as we go into this huge planning day tomorrow however, we also continue to pray for our little girl because we know she is going to need all the love and help she can get as she gets bigger and gets ready to make her entrance into this world!

33 Weeks

 

        I cannot believe that we are just about 5 weeks from meeting our sweet little girl! Our MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor, aka - high risk pregnancy doctor) wants baby girl to "cook" as long as possible which means her goal is for us to have our scheduled c - section at 39 weeks.  This past week we had our weekly MFM appointment.  Baby girl was not wanting to cooperate with the non-stress test and was being her normal stubborn self kicking the monitors and then hiding from them.  That was requiring the doctors to keep me hooked up to the monitors for over half an hour to get just about 14 good minutes of heart beat recording.  When they did get those 14 minutes straight of heartbeat she had a good strong heartbeat which is wonderful!! It was a lot of fun sitting there just getting to her my sweet daughter's heartbeat! 
      The very next day we had our appointment with the Cardiologist.  The cardiologist was looking to see if we can locate the Superior Vena Cava vein (SVC) and where the vein inserts  into the heart.  Following a very long ultra sound they were able to locate the vein and see where it inserted into the heart!! Huge sigh of relief! The doctor said that baby girl actually has two SVC veins, which is unusual but not problematic.  The right sided SVC is inserted into the correct location and side of the heart.  The left sided SVC is inserted into the correct atrium but inserts in the back of the heart. Once again this is not normal but should not be problematic for baby girl in the long run.  While this is incredible news for baby girl because its a huge step towards a healthy little girl, she is still not out of the woods yet!! We will still be monitored by the cardiologist after she is born.  Due to the nature of the ompahlocele and having organs outside her body there will still be pressure on her heart pulling it down some in her chest cavity.  This means that some things that happen naturally as a newborn gets bigger, like normal holes and gaps babies are born with, may not naturally fix themselves.  None of this is a guarantee but doctors have to talk about worse case scenarios and some typical things they have seen with similar cases.  If this does happen, it may cause her to need heart surgery but none of this will be known until she is here and is getting bigger.  For now we just wait and continue to pray for a quick surgery for the omphalocele and the best health for her little heart! As of right now the other big change this means is that baby girl will be in regular NICU and not the cardiac wing.

Our Maternity Shoot

             This weekend we took some time to enjoy in some "normal" pregnancy moments with our sweet baby girl and take some maternity pictures.  We try and enjoy in these moments because we have so many abnormal pregnancy moments with a multitude of doctor appointments and plans for surgery and NICU stays after she arrives.  Here are a few pictures from our maternity shoot, we are so excited to be having a little Texas baby and share these sweet pictures with y'all.

 

 

 





 

May 8th – 30 Weeks

            Following a week trip in Ft. Worth we have a hospital and doctor picked out in Ft. Worth.  Christopher has been incredible coordinating everything for both of us.  We have chosen Cooks Children’s Hospital in Ft. Worth.  The staff that we met were very nice and helpful and that will keep us closer to home, once we find a home here in Ft. Worth.  Christopher and I are so excited to have the first major step in the  direction to meeting our baby girl!! All these changes must mean that Baby Girl really wanted to be born a Texan!! 

April 14th – 27 Weeks

            Today we received the most incredible and stressful news, we are officially moving back to Texas.   Christopher received an official transfer to the Ft. Worth plant. He has accepted the offer and starts work on May 16^th at the Ft. Worth plant.  We have just talked to the doctors and we have to be completely moved and under new doctor care by 32 weeks, which means we have to move in less than a month.  We have no time to process anything now it is just time to hit the ground running!!  This is going to be incredibly bitter sweet because at this time of being pregnant and the level of care baby girl is going to need it will be wonderful to be closer to family.  On the other hand, however, I can’t imagine leaving the family we have created here in Maryland. 

Ft. Worth here we come!!