Showering Gifts

With all of the nesting, trips to the hospital, and getting those last few deliverables taken care of at work, we've been behind in our postings. Those on the East side of the state threw Jackie a wonderful shower. We'd be lost without everyone's help, so thank you all sooooo much!

This one was ladies only...

Below are a few shots of the Bellevue shower for those on the West side of the state. This one included boys, and was the first baby shower for a few of my guy friends. We all had a great time, so thanks everyone for turning out, your gracious support, and catching up with us.

The baby's room is all but ready. All we need is a baby that sleeps through the night. I hope that's the one that Jackie ordered.

More pictures of the pregnant one. We're about 2 1/2 weeks from the due date, so our bouncing baby could come bouncing along any time now.

Good Appetite

My wife ate a basketball.

Sooner or Later

Baby Van may be here sooner rather than later. Yesterday at lunch, Jackie slipped and fell on the slick floor in the restaurant. Aside from bruising on her knee, bottom, and ego, thankfully she's fine. We had our regular checkup that afternoon with Dr. Brown and brought up the fall. Just to be safe, she had Jackie hooked up to a monitor to examine contractions and the baby's heart rate.

We were told after about 20 minutes of monitoring, we'd be sent home.

About 5 minutes later, Dr. Brown sent us over to "Labor and Delivery." Clearly a term we weren't quite ready to hear. This is the Labor and Delivery at the main hospital, not another room around the corner in our Dr.'s office.

As we drove over to the hospital we gave ourselves a quick pep-talk and gut check. Upon reluctantly entering Labor and Delivery, they had a room with a view ready to go. Nurse Pat had Jackie hooked up to more monitors. Blood tests were ordered, ultrasounds scheduled, and we quickly realized that our previous plans to head to Costco and wait 3 more weeks for the delivery were no longer in the works.

After several hours, the blood tests and ultrasound ensured that Baby Van didn't endure trauma and there was no internal bleeding. However, Jackie was experiencing an increase in contractions. As the contractions were still within the normal range for 37 weeks, they sent us home.

Today Jackie is resting to keep the contractions to a minimum. We had previously wondered when was the appropriate time to have our bags packed in case we needed to head to the hospital. Guess that answers that question. Today I expect to cross off about 50 things on my to-do list before Baby Van arrives. Take your time baby. No hurry.

Jackie enjoying a nice relaxing evening:

A Hard Day's Work

When you have the below going on outside your office window, it's hard to get much done other than to sit back and watch the show. Oh to switch jobs for just a day.

Answered Prayers

On Wednesday, following our last ultrasound, Jackie received a voicemail from our doctor. She mentioned a couple of things, but all I got in the subsequent call from Jackie was, "heart," "issue," "more tests," and "don't panic." Naturally, we panicked. Up until now, this whole process had been fairly event free.

A couple of hours later, we had an appointment for the next day with a perionatologist to reveal the true nature of the heart's problems. Suddenly, the happy-go-lucky pregnancy had taken a very serious turn. With the wind out of our sails, we were crushed. We put our faith in God and hoped everything would work out for the best.

On Thursday, we nervously made our way through the maze of hospital corridors to eventually find the right office. Jackie had an ultrasound that lasted the better part of an hour. Ultrasounds up to this point had averaged 5 minutes. The tech examined everything from bones to internal organs. The last 30 minutes or so were spent focusing on the heart. From arteries to ventricles, she took pictures, measurements, and recorded video of everything. Before leaving to talk with the doctor, she offered up a well received slice of hope that she didn't see anything wrong, but would send the doctor in shortly.

Forty minutes later, the doctor showed us exactly how the blood was flowing through the heart. In the previous ultrasound, they noticed that a valve wasn't closing, and half of the blood was flowing back into the wrong place. Thursday's ultrasound showed that all of the blood was flowing properly and the heart was structurally sound. So, with a clean bill of health, we were sent on our way.

We went from thinking Baby Van may need heart surgery to being completely fine in the span of a couple of hours. We were relieved beyond belief that our prayers had been answered. Only then did we realize how much stress this was on us and immediately we were exhausted. After working our way back through the maze of hospital corridors, we found the car and drove back to a normal life.

Thank you all for your continued support, prayers, and reassuring advice. We appreciate it more than you'll ever know. We are truly blessed to have such caring friends and family and thank God for our good fortune.

Below is the best picture I've ever seen. This is our baby's heart working exactly like it should. The highlighted two items are the blood flowing through the ventricles. Just as normal as can be.

6 Weeks To Go

As Baby Van sailed past it's 34th week en utero, we are approaching the state of readiness. I define readiness differently than Mr. Webster. Readiness to me means we have no idea what we are in for; however, we will appease the anxiety by assuming if we have enough onesies, burp rags, and car seats that we can tackle whatever nature throws at us or burps up on us around February 18. In my most recent preparation, I slept for 12 hours straight (as Jackie noted below). And it was good. A dad has to do his part as well.

Below is a snapshot of Baby Van during our last ultrasound. He or she is clearly running out of room. This ultrasound was different from the last as now we only see parts of arms instead of the whole arm, chest, head, whatever Jackie had for lunch, and some car keys. Not sure how those got in there. I think Baby Van has my nose and Jackie's chin. As long as it doesn't have Belle's tail, we're good with however things turn out.

From the front and behind, you many not notice that Jackie is pregnant. Below, sure, you see a little belly there.

But when she turns sideways, POW! There's Baby Van, and I love it! How cute!!!

Who's Sleeping Now?

Andy noted in his first blog that he would be updating the blog while I (Jackie) was sleeping and has subsequently made many a comment about my sleeping patterns. I would just like to note that 1, this is Jackie and 2, Andy has been asleep for a long time.

We had an ultrasound today to check the baby's size. Baby Van is weighing in at 4 pounds and 9 ounces at 34 weeks and 2 days old! He or she is on the smaller side but they don't seem too concerned about that. Baby Van appears to have missed the Shea giant head gene which I am pleased about considering I get to deliver this little number. It does appear to have picked up the Shea gene for hair thickness (I will remain silent about how this compares to the Van Inwegen hair gene), apparently she could tell it has a good amount of hair already. Andy was very disappointed that she gave no hints or pictures that indicated anything regarding the baby's gender. He/she was very active during the ultra sound and we got some great pictures which we will post shortly. We are also lacking in belly pictures so will post some of those as well.