The Meyer Daily Adventure

Eye poker!!

2011-03-03T19:13:00.002-07:00

Laney has a facination with eyes. She loves eyebrows, eyelids, all of it. Well it is all fun and games until someone get s hurt. This time it was me. We were playing o nthe floor and BAM fingernail to the eyeball. Of course Kevin is at his conference and I can't drive with one eye so we make a few calls, talk to the neighbors and I decided to stick it out for a while. I don't know if anyone has ever had a scratch on thier eyeball but OH MY GOSH, does it hurt. I stuck it out till about 4am this morning and hit my breaking point. Off to the ER. Just a scratch but unfortunately it is right in the center of the iris of my eye. My Depth perception is a little off it waters every time I try to read something and we won't talk about pain. How can a little scratch hurt this much? So forgive my typos in this posting I am typing with my eyes closed. So that was our night. Poor kid. You could tell she felt bad the whole night.

Laney's 2nd Birthday

2011-02-28T11:30:00.001-07:00

It is official! Laney is 2! We celebrated her birthday a few days ago with some friends. She enjoyed pizza and her Hungry Caterpillar birthday cake. She had one meltdown in the middle of the party and refused to open presents but with a few minutes of quite time she reset and finished with a bang. It was lots of fun and hard to believe that two years have flown by. She is a full blown toddler, temper tantrums and all!

Damned if you do...

2010-11-06T20:45:00.002-06:00

So the actions of your toddler sometimes are beyone words. Here's a hilarious story. For months now, and I mean MONTHS, we've tried to get Laney to clap her hands. She doesn't like to, but if she does, she usually brushes her hands together - not a clap. She kind of has the attitude that she will do what she wants to, and isn't about to be conned into doing the little actions YOU want her to do. It's quite funny. Well lately, we've been teaching her a few signs, one being "all done" when she is done eating. The sign for that is, you guessed it, brushing your hands together, as if you're brushing the crumbs out of your hands. Basically, this is what she's always done for clapping. The funny part is that, now when we try to get her to brush her hands together when she is done eating, while we say "all done", she won't do it. Instead - you guess it - she claps her hands. Very weird little girl. But we sure love her.

Gone but hopefully not forgotten...

2010-10-26T22:26:00.002-06:00

If anyone is still checking this I am sorry for the huge blank lately. Between school, vacations, family, friends, and work, I have let this slide. I am determined to get it back on track. I will back date some of our updates to fill in the gaps for the sake of this being like a scrapbook. I miss writing down our daily trials and tribulations but be assured they will return. Starting with Halloween! Be ready because the Meyer's are back!

Learning our limits

2010-04-05T22:03:00.000-06:00

Today she was crawling around the house, no big deal. Then I heard her scream. At first I couldn't find her because she ususall doesn't leave the hallway. Here is where I found her. STUCK! So what did I do? I went and got the camera. Eventually, I did help her out but not till I got some photos.

BATHTUB TIME!

2010-04-04T07:59:00.000-06:00

I don't have much to say, these speak for themselves...

Yes, we do eat other things

2010-04-01T07:50:00.000-06:00

We also had some peas and apples today! I promise I am not trying to create a junkfood kid but these were the cuter pictures. We are all about total calories for the day. I can't understand how she keeps getting taller and puts on no weight? I guess I will know when her pants start falling off. Tomorrow I will expand her nutrition content, Promise!

Me love chocolate chip cookie

2010-03-31T07:44:00.000-06:00

The chocolate chips were screaming from the cupboard, "turn me into something delicious!" Who could ignore that, beside we need to try to get more food down this kid so I will try anything. I think this picture speaks for itself. "We like chocolate chip cookies!" it says. Of course we went through 4 outfits today and had to mop the floor twice but with a smile like that, I really can't complain.

The toy for today is?...

2010-03-28T07:39:00.000-06:00

It seems as though every day Laney wakes up (early!) and picks a toy for the day. She may play with other toys that day but she always comes back to one toy in particular. Today apparently we are going for music and sound so here is our choice this morning.

PJ's all day...

2010-03-25T07:30:00.000-06:00

Sometimes there are just those days when you don't need to go anywhere and your morning gets away from you and BAM! it is 2:00 in the afternoon and she is still in her PJ's. Do you really go through the effort of getting them dressed when 1. They hate it. 2. You dirty more clothes. and 3. We don't have to go anywhere anyway. Oh well, I am sure this has happened to other mothers. I doubt I am the first.

Rain?

2010-03-22T12:22:00.000-06:00

It doesn't rain much in Boise. Mostly in the Spring and then a few rare times through the year. Well I found this cute raincoat the other day and I couldn't resist. Most of her clothes are hand-me-downs from her cousin so it is rare I get to buy her much anyway. Well as luck would have it I bought this Sunday and today it is raining! We are all dressed up and ready to face the elements! I just love her little face.

Stinking shots

2010-03-20T12:17:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned in our last post Laney went to her 1 year appointment. She also received her 1 year shots. I think her immune system is a little overtaxed. She has had a little fever on and off for 2 days and her cold is moving into her lungs. Of course I am following right along with her and it is moving to my lungs too. I have pretty much lost my voice and had to call in sick to work. Oh well. I have to say she is handling it much better than I am. She is still crawling and going 90 miles an hour. All I want to do is sit on the couch!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-18T12:00:00.000-06:00

We were fortunate enough to spend St. Patricks day with friends. We went to the Wilkison's for corned beef and cabbage. It was delicious! We started the night with a cheers over a tall dark glass of Guiness. I know I look like the worst mom ever but all she got was some foam, but she LOVED it! We all ate and laughed, the kids all played. It was a great night.
This morning was Laney's 1 year check up with her pediatrician. She got a clean bill of health except for the cold, which he said is not RSV (thank goodness). Laney weighs 16 lbs. 3 oz and is 28 inches long, her head measures at 16 5/8. Because she is a year now they no longer correct her height and weight so we no longer have that advantage. What that translates into is that she is 19th% for height and below the 3rd % for head and weight. No big suprise and her doctor is not concerned so we will just keep trucking along trying to get this kid to eat.

A house half done...

2010-03-12T19:49:00.002-07:00

So right now our house is in the middle of about 5 half done projects. Kevin, bless his heart, is working on them every chance he gets, which isn't much. We put the hardwood floor in but we have no baseboards or trim. I decided to redo the bathroom and there is that one ellusive piece of wood that needs to be painted and put up. We have a new kitchen floor that has been at the store we bought it from since December. You get the idea. Well today the troops decided to tackle one of the projects. Not sure if any progress was made but they look like they are working hard.

Our first cold

2010-03-11T20:24:00.003-07:00

It is almost impossible to believe but Laney has not been sick since we brought her home. Not even a cold. But last night she ended up with a fever of 100-101, runny nose, and a little cranky. With the intensity of RSV this year we worry about her lungs. I have watched her close all day and she did great through the day. She had physical and speech therapy this morning and I gave her a little Tylenol but for the most part a normal day. Tonight is a different story the poor kid is just cranky, frustrated, and warm. She is still eating well and cuddling with Daddy seems to be putting her to sleep so guess I better follow suit while it lasts.

Daddy's little girl

2010-03-10T20:20:00.001-07:00

There is nothing I can say to make this picture more precious. I love them both so much.

The Tazmanian Devil

2010-03-08T20:02:00.002-07:00

As you can see our house has turned into a whirlwind of toys. She loves them all. She has a few favorites but for the most part they all get their fair share of attention. I get lots of comments on how much she smiles! She does smile alot except for this afternoon. Kevin and I took her for her follow up hearing screen. This time she was to be awake and "ready to play". Those instructions didn't sound too difficult. I scheduled out apointment 1 hour after she ususally gets up from her nap. Except she didn't really nap this morning. Of all mornings. I have never had any problems putting her down for her morning nap till this morning. To add insult to injury, somehow we made it to her appointment without a pacifier. This child has 12 pacifiers! Not one in her diaper bag! So she melted down and we came home. Oh well, roll with the punches. We rescheduled for a couple weeks.

It is official, Laney is crawling!

2010-03-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

We are so proud of her. She has only been out of her body cast for 8 weeks. She is crawling forward. (our stipulation of stating that she could crawl was that she was crawling forward not backward). We have been working with her every day and she is so eager to get around that she has finally accomplished crawling. She actully can stand too but she does require some help. She can stand up, most of the time, on her own but she needs help getting down. We thought it would be summer before we saw this kind of progress. (In May she will be a full gestational year) But here we are, scrambling to get a rail up on our staircase so that we can get a baby gate up in front of the stairs. Thats what we get for thinking we had more time. She has been able to get herself into some precarious spots as you can see.

Time to come home

2010-03-05T10:35:00.004-07:00

It was a great trip to Grandma's house. We got to see lots of friends and family we haven't seen in a while. We wanted to take her to our last night of Kevin's conference but she decided not to sleep that afternoon so she was out at about 6:00. It was a nice and much needed night out for Mom and Dad. Plus we won a fabulous prize basket with lots of goodies inside. Back to the grind!

The worst mom ever...

2010-03-04T10:24:00.001-07:00

So Kevin has a conference this week in Pocatello. So Laney and I decided to trail along and take full advantage of a couple days at Grandma's house. We drove to Pocatello and on our 3rd day decided to go see Grandpa Heaney. Well Grandpa Heaney is building/remodeling a house. We love the floor. She is able to scoot all over the place. She was scooting around in circles to get where she wanted to go. (She is not quite crawling yet, still mostly backwards and in circles.) In the kitchen she happened upon this cool blue cord. "Well that isn't so bad" "looks like a fairly harmless toy".

Except that it is hooked to a nail gun at the other end. What do you do when kids want to play with everything they are not supposed to?

Chomp, Chomp...

2010-03-01T21:27:00.003-07:00

Grandma's are on the ball. Laney has received some early birthday presents in the mail over the last few days and of course they go straight out of the box and straight into the mouth. I don't think that Stan did as much damage chewing on things when he was a puppy. I have teeth marks on my window sill. Thanks Grandma's for giving us something good to chew on.
Our date last night led to a slow morning this morning so lots to do before Laney's birthday tomorrow!

What kids really want?...

2010-02-27T10:19:00.002-07:00

This child just received about 20 new toys for her birthday. I will just let the picture speak for itself. Every parent in the world has probably had the same experience. Gotta love a child entertained by the simple things in life.

Happy First Birthday!!!

2010-02-26T21:43:00.000-07:00

What a crazy day! We got the food ready. Danielle helped me decorate the cake and got the house put back together from our remodeling. Whew! What a great night. We had about 45 people here and lots of kids. Kids = Chaos! Everyone showed up around 6pm and we ate delicious food. (Thanks for the help Heath and Jen) Then it was on to cake and ice cream. I was doubtful that she would eat it but...Well ,I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Pre party fun! Happy Birthday Laney!

2010-02-25T21:34:00.001-07:00

Pre party fun! Laney got to play with Aunt Danielle and Grandma. She even went to the park with Grandma and Halle so mom could get the house and food together for the party tonight. Thanks to you both for helping out!

Movin' and Shakin'

2010-02-23T20:57:00.002-07:00

This kid is all over the place. We often find her trying to tangle herself in the bumper in her crib. For some reason she thinks the blank outside is more entertaining than the inside with pictures. The other picture is of her standing. She can mostly stand on her own but we give her a little bracing and provide some pressure on her feet. She is not used to putting pressure on her feet and if you don't push down on her legs a bit she rolls her feet and stand on the side. Every day we are making a little progress.

Tonight Grandma is coming into town and Mom and Dad are going on a DATE! Not sure if we remember how but I am sure it will come back to us at dinner with friends and some live music!

Try to get back on track...

2010-02-22T21:04:00.004-07:00

I am terrible and keeping up with this but my resolve is renewed. I am going to just have to write off the last month of updates and start new.

This month has been a crazy one. Laney has continued to receive physical therapy and is progressing by leaps and bounds. I will post video of her moving around as soon as I figure out how... She is crawling! Well, let me clarify she is scooting, most the time in reverse, but moving around all over the place none the less. Her balance is great and her flexibility is great, almost completely back to normal!

We recently put in the hardood floor in our living room. Tough on Laney till her balance kicked in but she is doing much better. She has smacked her head a few times but what kid hasn't. Her newest skill is standing. We are so proud of her. Just about 6 weeks ago she had zero muscle tone in her legs and could not handle any pressures to her feet, now she is standing with just a little help. Her therapist, Katie, is excited and impressed with her progress. We took her back to her orthopoedic surgeon for a couple of follow up appointments and her X rays look great. The bones in her hip are starting to take shape and you can see the progress in the density of her bones. Very exciting. We don't have to go back for 6 months.

We have been a little concerned because she isn't talking quite as much as we expected but everyone has told us the same thing, "kids do one thing at a time". With her preoccupation in dealing with her hip she is more worried about moving than talking and I think they are right. Just in the last week her vocalizations have increased a bit. In a twist of irony she has a follow up hearing test next week. Remember she had to go through the wringer with her hearing when we brought her home. She seems to hear just fine but it will be nice to see if that fluid in her ear has cleared up.

As you can see from the date of this post her first birthday is this week. It is a time of reflection for us. Alot of bittersweet memories and a great time to appreciate all we have been through and how grateful we are things worked out so well for us.

Physical Therapy

2010-01-11T22:10:00.001-07:00

This photo has nothing to do with physical therapy but I LOVE IT! She has had all of these wonderful clothes that my sister handed down to me from my niece but of course she hasn't been able to wear any of it. So now we are. The problem is that she is 12-18 months in pants to get the length right and her shirts are 6-12 months. We don't always have a full outfit but we make due. We roll alot of sleeves!

She started physical therapy this week and she is doing great. She has been able to roll over again. Only to the right so far. Can't seem to get that left leg in far enough to roll left yet. She is sitting better and better every day. She has regained alot of her flexibility. So more of the same. Balance and range of motion.

I can SIT!

2010-01-09T22:00:00.001-07:00

It has only been a few days and she is sitting up without much problem. Eventually she falls forward but we are shocked at how quick she has picked up learning to balace herself. She does pretty well if she is leaning forward but backward is a different story. She has had a rough week having to deal with the pain of moving her legs that have been in that cast for 3 1/2 months. Ibuprofen helps but you can tell it still hurts. She is not able to bring her legs together enough to ride in her car seat yet so we still use the one she had for her cast but every day we see improvements. Look at that smile. She looks happy to me.

Bathtime?

2010-01-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

Why don't they have a warning on the box that says, " Giving your child one of these teething biscuits will not only require a bath for the child but a change of clothes for you!"

Comin' around the mountain

2010-01-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

With the new year brings a new perspective. I have decided to change the way I keep the blog. I have been using it to keep family and friends, namely all of you, updated on what is going on in our lives. I think I am going to try something different this year. I am going to keep this blog for Laney. I want her to look back on it as a journal of her childhood. So the blog will still update you on what is going on in our life but the main focus will be to document Laney's life for her. (Actually it is so when Kevin and I are old and can't remember stuff we can cheat and look back!)

The major development for this week was the removal of Laney's cast. We went in on Monday morning and the Physicians Assistant (not the nurse this time!) Took off Laney's cast. She screamed and cried the whole time. Then to add insult to injury they wanted an X-ray of her pelvis. You have all seen the position that her legs have been in for 14 weeks. Well that is how they stayed when the cast came off. Well they wanted her legs down and straight. It was the most excruciating thing I have ever seen. I can only compare it to someone forcing you down into the splits right now! She screamed and I cried. I have just about had it with people inflicting pain on this kid. Necessary or not! The fact that I just worked three nights in a row and had not slept yet didn't help. Finally, that was over. I wrapped her in a blanket and we walked and looked out the window till I didn't feel like slugging someone.

Then to add insult to injury her doctor came in and told us we had to put her in another cast. "WHAT!?" I don't think I swore but it is highly possible. He misread the file and didn't realize we had already done the second cast. "take her home and let her stretch herself out" he says. So we will let her rest for a few days and start physical therapy! Another milestone achieved. The X-ray of her hip said everything was fine.

2009 We laughed, we cried, we CONQUERED!

2010-01-02T19:48:00.002-07:00

I can't believe that it is over. It really doesn't seem possible. At this point last year my water had just broken. We were in the hospital and they told us our little girl had a 5% chance. We were in such a different place. I have never been more grateful for this little girl than I am on this aniversary when we thought we had lost her. Words cannot even express the rollercoaster of extreme pain, worry, hope, and joy that we have gone through in the last year. Looking back it feels like someone elses life sometimes. But the past is the past and we have so many wonderful things that have come out of such difficult times. We have a renewed appreciation for each other, wonderful new friends, and comfort in knowing that we are surrounded by so many wonderful people that have done so much to support us over the last year. (You know who you are!)

So this New Year was a much anticiapated one! So much to celebrate and look forward to over the next year. Who better to celebrate the New Year with than some new found friends. We have become good friends with one of Laney's primary nurses. Jen and Heath are great people and Jen was even the one that admitted Laney to the NICU the night she was born. So we went to their house for some fabulous food and lots of fun. There was music, played a little pool, and did a countdown to the ball dropping in Times Square! Here are just a few photos from that night. Happy New Year Everyone!

Rewind to the end of 09'

2009-12-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

Lets just start with the holidays and I will update from there....

Lets see...We spent Christmas at home this year. We were fortunate enough to have our family come to us. My mom, dad and grandma came to stay with us for a few days. It was great to have full time babysitters! Although I didn't really see them when we were up at night? I worked on Christmas Eve and was home bright and early Christmas morning to see all the stockings filled by Santa and watch Laney open her first Christmas presents. This special event went much as everone said it would. She received lots of brand new great toys (Grandma and Grandpa rock!) and her favorite you ask? You guessed it some little green plastic brace that held in the first toy she opened. She was not interested in anything else for a couple of days! Everyone said it would happen so we expected it but we will try again next year. As for presents from Mom and Dad well, we got her a new bathtub seat in the anticipation of the cast that is due to come off on January 4th! We used to LOVE bathtub time so hopfully we will love it again. Christmas day brought lots of fun. My aunt and uncle that live here in Boise came for Christmas dinner. We had a delicious prime rib with all the fixin's. We topped it off with some Baily's in the coffee and a couple rounds of pinochle. Christmas just isn't Christmas without some sort of game of cards being played. Laney spent the day playing with her new green plastic brace and chewing on her Great Grandma's oxygen tubing. What can I say, she is teething! All in all it was a wonderful first Christmas. I have to say I am already a little excited for next year.

Hope you had happy holidays,

The Meyers

Time Flies....

2009-12-14T18:37:00.016-07:00

Wow! It has been a while... We are all doing fine and enjoying ourselves this holiday season. I need to back clear up to Halloween to update this blog. That is terrible I am a little ashamed. Oh well! I will make it short and sweet.

Laney was a Dragonfly for Halloween this year! It went well with her purple cast. She stayed home and handed out treats to the trick or treaters with her dad. I had to work. Mostly we have just been hanging out at home trying to keep her from getting sick. Knock on wood it has worked for the most part. She was able to get her swine flu shot in mid November and just our luck I ended up coming down with the swine flu one week later. How miserable. But fortunately she had her shot and it really didn't seem to bother her. I missed a few days of work and it meant that we spent Thanksgiving at home. We of course missed seeing family and friends but I have to admit it was nice to just have a quite day at home.

The end of November brought us to the midway point of Laney being in her cast. This meant it was time to go back in and have it taken off and changed. We weren't sure if they were going to have to do an actual surgery to change anything or just change the cast. We got lucky! Things looked great and we ended up just changing her cast. This time we went with RED for Christmas! It was a pretty easy trip in and out of the hospital for once. So now we are scheduled to have her cast taken off on January 4, 2010. All things considered these last 9 weeks of her being in the cast have gone quickly but we are looking forward to getting it off. I can also say with confidence that Laney is excited too! She wiggles and squirms like she knows she is supposed to be able to move but just can't.

Let's see...I don't know if we mentioned that Kevin went hunting this year and brought home an elk and restocked the freezer for us. I have been working at the hospital. I work nights and mostly on weekends so Kevin is able to work during the week and we have been fortunate enough to work that schedule out so we don't have to put Laney in day care. I am sure I am forgetting many things but that is a general update for now. I may have to make a New Year's resolution about keeping up better with this!

Happy Holidays!

The Meyer's

When God hands you a lemon...

2009-10-17T07:06:00.007-06:00

You know the rest of the saying. Suffice it to say that we're getting a little tired of lemonade around here. We love our little lemon though, and we're glad her second surgery is over and we're moving forward again. We should have known Laney might be needing two surgeries when the doctor told us this summer, "I've only had one kid where the first surgery didn't relocate the hip properly and we had to go in and do it again." Laney always picks the short side of the odds. If she keeps this up, she'll probably someday win the lottery, be over 6 feet tall, become a Rhodes scholar, make it big as an actor or singer, save the world, and have a dozen children of her own. But she probably wouldn't even be here if she didn't beat the odds all the time, so we're not complaining about that.
This surgery was not nearly as smooth as the last one, and probably gets us started in the Bad Parents of America Club, if we weren't already members. She was out of surgery at about 9am and was in a different position this time, very spread-eagle, almost in the splits with just a slight bending of the legs. She was not happy, and never really stopped screaming. Except when the nurse gave her 0.06mg of demerol, and then almost everything stopped, including her breathing. So we had to sit there for 1 and 1/2 hours regularly stimulating her chest to remind her to breath so her O2 levels would stay up. It brought us full circle back to our months in Neonatal Intensive Care. Ah, such wonderful memories.
Anyway, the demerol finally wore off and the screaming started again. We took her home at about 11am, probably to the delight of the recovery room who didn't have to listen to her screaming anymore. We thought she would calm down at home, and figured she was probably just scared again and maybe a bit more uncomfortable due to the new position she was in with the cast. We kept giving her tylenol every 3 hours, which has a bit of hydrocodone in it, and tried to calm her down and get her to sleep. By 5:30pm, she was still crying. I'm not kidding, she never really stopped crying. Even after the tylenol treatments, she would calm down and almost get to sleep, but after just a few seconds she would jerk herself awake and start screaming again. After a while we started to worry, even wondering whether she was giving herself little seizures due to her hysteria. We finally gave up and called the doctor, who said she was probably having muscle spasms and suggest we combine the tylenol with Motrin (ibuprofen) and see if that worked. By 8pm we had given up and the doctor sent us to the hospital, where they gave her some valium and a comfortable crib, where she finally got some rest. In hindsight, we probably should have called the doctor much earlier and taken her back to the hospital much earlier, which is where the Bad Parents membership comes in. We just thought she would finally calm down, but she just couldn't due to the muscle spasms. We've probably scarred her for life now. We feel scarred ourselves!
Angie spent the night with Laney and we took her home the next afternoon, hoping she hadn't picked up swine flu which is running through the hospital. However, even the little bit of valium she was getting was reducing her drive to breath, so we went home with an O2 and heart rate monitor, and quickly came to the conclusion that 1/4 doses of valium or less was all we could give her. Due to the stress of the whole situation, we decided we would just take the rest of her dose, and that has helped us out a lot. Wink, wink.
So we're now on day 4 post-surgery and she is doing much better, though she still isn't eating like she was before. But she's getting there. We go back on Wednesday for the MRI to check whether the hip is properly placed this time, and if not we'll be back for round 3, which will be a more invasive surgery. And we'll be drinking even more lemonade.

Can't Catch a Break

2009-10-07T11:44:00.003-06:00

We just can't seem to catch a break with this kid. As I mentioned in the last post she had the surgery on her hip. Things went well and we brought her home. There was an adjustment period with getting her used to her cast. It took a few days but she resolved to hanging out in her cast for the next 12 weeks. Her surgeon like to be cautious so we took her in yesterday for an MRI on her hip. There is always the possibility that it can come out of socket while she is in her cast. The MRI went great. She did really well. In fact she fell asleep while they were putting in her IV! (I wish my patients would do that) she slept all the time we were waiting to get the MRI. No problem, she did great! We took her home and after a long nap she was her happy self again.
Tody was the follow up with her sugeon. Brought up the MRI on the screen. And...yup, you guessed it! HER HIP IS OUT! "you are kidding!" is the first thing I said. #@*&! @#%&@$ was the second! It isn't out by much it is mostly just positioned to high in the socket. #$&*! $#%!#@ I say again! Calm down, I say to myself. OK, what do we do now? "take the cast off and do the surgery again." he says. I like the "take the cast off" part, not so excited about doing the surgery again. Fine, get the cast off and let the kid have some peace. I will take a few days with out the cast. There really isn't much I can do about the rest.
So his nurse brings in a cast cutting machine and we start cutting off the cast. Other than a little noise it really doesn't seem to bother Laney much. I cover her ears and we keep cutting. All the sudden Laney screams. I am thinking to myself...why is this bothering her now...we are almost done. I calm her down and look at the nurse as she starts to pry the cast apart. Yup you guessed it, the saw to cut off the cast cut Laney's leg. *&#%! #$@!**%## I am saying to myself. Don't scream at the nurse, YET, just keep Laney calm. So being the trooper she is Laney calms down and just does the little gasping cry. The Physicians assistant comes in, mind you I have not said a word and neither has the nurse. The nurse hands over the cutting tool and walks out without saying a word. No apology nothing. I am a nurse. I know things don't always go perfectly. I understand and I have sympathy. But when something like this goes wrong you aplogize and move on. We got nothing. I was so mad. Unfortunately I took it out on the PA a bit and walked out of the office. It is a superficial cut. It's not like Laney was bleeding everywhere but it is about a 2 inch gash in her thigh. I feel so bad for this kid. Some times I think she needs a better mom. I can't believe all that she has to go through. It could be worse, I know, but today it sucks.

The final hurdle...hopefully!

2009-09-27T20:41:00.015-06:00

The next phase of of Laney's first year has begun. Last Thursday the 24th of September she had surgery on her hip. Every instinct you have fights you when you have to turn her over to a stranger that you know is going to put her to sleep and mess with her bones. I can't even think about it anymore. Handing her over was the hardest part. Everything turned out just fine though. The surgery took about an hour, which was much faster than we expected. We checked in about 5:30 am. At 6:00 they took us to pre-op. We got her in a little gown and she played around on a crib, rolling and playing with her feet. We talked to the nurse, anasthesiologist, and the doctor. At 7:30 they came and took her away. We also ran into one of the clergy staff, Carla. She came and prayed with us for Laney when she was in the NICU. She came and we said a prayer before her surgery. Then the nurse came. When I handed her over she just looked at me like, "what are you doing?" It was awful. About an hour later Dr.Shea came out to the wating room at 8:39 and told us she was fine and things went well. "Thank God" We went back in to the pediatric recovery room to see her. She was awake but still a little groggy you could tell. She had the most pitiful look on her face. It was beautiful but sad. The nurse picked her up and handed her to me to feed. It seemed like it hurt because she screamed. It took us about 20 minutes to calm her down. Even then the only reason she stopped is because she puked. Poor kid. I put her back in bed and we all just held hand with her and kissed her. It seemed mostly like she was just scared from the whole ordeal. Luckily we brought her purple singing elephant. That seemed to do the trick. Originally we had planned on having to stay the night in the hospital with her. Dr. Shea said it went so well and the hip went in easily so we could take her home. We hung out with her in recovery for a while and finally took her home around 12:30.

"That sounds great" you might say. Well until we got to the car and tried to put her in her car seat. As you can see from the photos she is cast straight up and down which is not conducive to being strapped in a car seat. She was screaming at us so we took our chances and just drove her home. Horrible, I know. Sometimes you do what you have to do.

Since we brought her home she is doing well. I think we have the changing of the diaper figured out. We are only allowed to give her sponge baths for then entire ordeal, but she does love them.

We gave her "the last bath" Wednesday night before we took her in. She was in her tub for about an hour. We had to refill the water 4 times from all the splashing! It was great. After 6 towels and mom's soaked pajamas we called it good and took her out. I miss those splashing legs.

Anyway, she has been pretty cranky. It is hard to tell if it is from pain or frustration. We have decided it is mostly frustration. We have bought her some new toys to accomodate her inability to move. She really likes some of them and is annoyed by others but we do what we can. Mostly she just wants to be held all day. We are hoping she adjusts a little better in the coming weeks. It is all an adventure and we are learning so much from this experience. We are mostly just grateful that she is

a part of our lives.

The Meyer's

Long Overdue Update!

2009-09-12T20:50:00.012-06:00

Time gets away from you. I can't believe that it has been a month since we have posted an update. I am hoping you all are thinking that no news is good news. In this case it has been. We are all doing great. There have been a few changes though. Lets see..Laney had a follow up appointment with the pediatric cardiologist. They saw some very minor defects in her heart when she was in the hospital. It often happens to babies born so early. Theirs hearts are just not ready to be out in the world. The good news is, that she is fine. She has a minor defect in the way the blood flows through her heart that apparently is very common in kids. They think it will just resolve on its own and if it doesn't she will never notice because it is so minor. Yeah!! Next we took her to the orthopedic surgeon for her final appointment before surgery. She is doing fine but the hip is still dislocated. So we have surgery scheduled for September 24th. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. The surgery is minor but it makes me nervous for her to go under anasthesia. It is a mom's job to worry right?

The other major change we have made is the fact that I have gone back to work. I started the 21st of August. I have only spent 2 weeks doing actual nursing but I really like it. It is definately challenging and hard work. I have enjoyed my patients and the staff has been great. Being away from Kevin and Laney is a different story. They have been doing great! After much work with an occupational therapist that specializes in cranio-saccral therapy we finally got Laney to eat from the bottle. She even took a pacifier a few times! Now she switches back and forth most of the time without much effort. However, she has regressed a little and is back to waking up 2 times during the night. I have a theory that as she is growing she is using more calories but not really taking enough in with just the milk so this week we are going to try a little bit of real food and see how that goes.

As far as other advances that she has made...she has great head control, she is rolling over both ways (it is more common when she is mad) she is almost sitting up, and she is chewing on everything. It is amazing because she has never beena drooler but about a week ago the drool started flowing and now all she wants to do is chew on my fingers. Poor thing. I don't feel any teeth yet but I know they are there. We'll see how long it takes them to poke out.

Last but not least for our big news update...Kevin turned 40! August 30 was his birthday. We had some friends over and had a BBQ with some games and lots of drinking. (I think alot of them realized it is alot more difficult to recover at 40!) A few people stayed the night. We got up the next day (some of them more slowly than others) and Kevin went rafting and fishing with some of the boys. All in all I think he had a good time.

I think that is about it for now. I hope everyone is well!

The Meyer's

Good days and bad days.

2009-08-04T21:16:00.004-06:00

Laney has had an interesting week. On Monday the poor kid had to go and get her immunizations. Not fun for any kid (or parent for that matter). She got her shots, which actually went fairly well as far as crying fits go. As soon as I picked her up she was fine. The trouble came when she had to have a PKU test done. This is the test they do in the hospital when babies are born. They poke their heel and fill in a bunch of circles on a special piece of paper. Well, she had to have her 3rd one done! They have to do it 90 days after her last blood transfusion. This will check for a wide range of metabolic and blood disorders. I am glad they do it, especially after all the blood transfusions she had. But, SCREAM, my gosh this kid found her lungs! Poor thing. I felt terrible, like I am sure every parent does. To top it off she was a little dehydrated. We took her to pick huckelberries this weekend and it was a little warm, not to mention it has been over 100 in Boise for the last week or so. So, thank god that is over! That was her rough day this week!

Today however, she had another hearing screen. Third time is the charm, right? It is! She passed. She still has a little fluid in her left ear but it had decreased and they wanted to see how she would respond. She did great! She passed on every tone. We probably will have to follow up with an ENT (ear, nose, and throat) doctor to make sure the fluid clears soon. Apparently, the audiologist says if it stays in there too long it can start to disintigrate the bones in her middle ear. I am assuming that God put them there for a reason and we don't want them to disintigrate so we will be looking into that and put a tube in if necessary. Whew...glad that is over.

Tomorrow is the NICU BBQ. Every year the NICU has a "graduation" BBQ for all their patients. Not just the ones in the last year but for as long as the families want to come. We are very excited to go see not only other families that we met but her nurses and doctors as well. I know as a nurse it would be neat to see how my patients progress as they grow. This is a great opportunity for them and us. I will let you know how it goes and get some pictures.

I hope everyone is doing well. We are doing great! We love hearing from you all, so thank you!

The Meyer's

What are these??

2009-07-28T21:41:00.004-06:00

We have been waiting and waiting. It has finally happened, Laney has discovered her hands! Today she was highly offended that these fancy new things on the ends of her arms would hit her in the face. One second she is facinated by the site of her hands and the next she had a cranky look on her face because her new friends had smacked her in the face. I couldn't help but laugh at her. Which then got me a little sideways glance. I love these little milestones. I feel so lucky to have had all this time to spend with her. It makes me anxious to go back to work but I think it will be good for both of us.

A little progress has been made with the bottle. I have started giving her bottles when she wakes up from a nap. I discovered that when she had been awake for a while and got hungry it just didn't work. She was much to aware of what was going on. By giving it to her when she was waking up hungry, she was still out of it enough that you could sneak a bottle in without her knowing. It seems to take 2 oz. before she figures it out and won't take any more. Hey, progress is progress. Right now I will take what I can get. Hopefully over the next couple weeks it keeps getting better. Now if I could just convince her that rice cereal is to be eaten, not worn!

When did bottles become evil????

2009-07-24T23:05:00.006-06:00

The newest challenge at the Meyer household is, yep, you guessed it, BOTTLE FEEDING! Not having any other kids, I assumed that bottles are a natural transition. When you boil it all down, you suck and milk comes out. Bottle, breast, doesn't really matter, right? Not with this kid! Anyone out there who has encountered the challenge of switching a breast fed kid to some bottle feedings (not even all feedings, just a few a day) (and not formula, still breast milk) please let me know any trick you used to make taking a bottle less than a national crisis!

What prompted all this bottle feeding stuff you ask? Well, it is back to the real professional world for Angie. Yes, I got a job. I will be working nights on the telemetry unit at St. Lukes. What is telemetry you ask? Basically it is anyone who has a heart monitor on that is not in intensive care. Mostly cardiac and pulmonary patients. I am very excited to put my education to use but a little melencholy about leaving Laney through the night. In order to make the transition easier we wanted to introduce some extra bottle feeding to her now. What were we thinking? The ironic part is that she gets at least 1 bottle every day in order to give her vitamins. Today, absolutely not! We broke into hysterics many times. Every time I put the bottle in her mouth the lower lip came out and this pitiful, tortured cry came out. When I ignored that drama and kept trying the meltdown quickly ensued.

Really, if you have encountered this problem I would love to hear how you solved it without feeling like you were starving the kid to death.

I guess we will get up tomorrow and try, try again! That seems to be basically what parenthood is. Try, try again.

ZZZZZZzzzzzz.........

2009-07-08T22:00:00.007-06:00

Things are trucking along in the Meyer house as usual. Kevin is still working an on and off type of schedule, which is great for Laney and I. It makes getting to her doctors appointments and things much easier. Laney is doing great. She is getting stronger every day. She can hold her head on her own about half the time and she is starting to coo, or as we say, she is "using her language skills". She just looks so intent on speaking. She just talks like she has the greatest story to tell. This is mostly in the morning and it sure is fun to interact with her. She has developed some mild colic in the evenings starting about 6pm. By about 8 or 9pm she has tuckered herself out and ends up asleep. I don't have the heart to wake her up and to be totally honest I am just glad at that point that she has stopped fussing. Unfortunatly, this late nap usually turns into a long one and sometimes she doesn't wake up till sometime between 11pm and 1 am. I have to say I am not at my best at this time of night. But she is happy rested and ready to play. We have tried to curb this habit by trying to keep her awake and not playing with her when she wakes up late. We just try to put her back to sleep. This usually results in the waking up every 2 hours because we are hungry! Ugh! I still have faith we can turn her clock so she goes to bed later but no success yet.

For the 4th of July my mom and stepdad came to visit and we had a BBQ with some friends. Kevin and my mom and stepdad climbed up on the roof to watch the fireworks that they had downtown. Laney and I sacked out in the living room. I was a little concerned because the neighbors had their own fireworks but she never even flinched. One good thing that came from her being in the NICU for so long, she is tolerant of noise!

Other than that we do tummy time and play most of the day. I don't seem to get a whole lot done, but, I have to say, I don't really worry about it much. We just have fun hanging out with her for now. I know the day will come soon when I will have to go back to work so for now we are enjoying every minute!

How did Newton miss this?

2009-06-29T09:18:00.004-06:00

I have been battling with a question for a few weeks now. I keep expecting that the answer will just fall from the sky and smack me in the face and it will all make sense. It's not happening so I will send this out to all the parents out there. Why does baby poop defy gravity? There is a big old diaper there that covers a large area but for some reason baby poop defies gravity and goes right up the back. This doesn't seem like the logical option even if the diaper is full. You would think it would work WITH gravity and go down or even at worst out the side of the diaper. Nope. Not this kid. Straight out and up the back. I think Newton with all his theories on gravity must not have had children.
Laney is doing great. The physical therapist is going to be here in about an hour to weigh her. best we can guess she is getting close to 10 pounds! I know...double digits! She is growing so fast. I am guessing this would explain why she has been wanting to eat every hour and a half lately. She is sleeping better. We get up between 2 and 3 and then between 5 and 6 but at that point I feed her and dad takes her and they get to hang out while mom takes 1 more nap.
She still has not passed her hearing screen yet. We are absolutely convinced that she hears fine but we are waiting for some fluid in her ears to clear up before she is tested again. We will know again in a couple weeks.
Our last great endeavour was a BBQ for her. We wanted to thank as many of our friends and family as we could get together. We ended up with about 70 people. Thank god for the big back yard! It was a great time. Laney was exhausted and it took her a day or two to get back on track but she did great. For all of you that weren't here we want to thank you for all of your prayers and happy thoughts sent our way. All of that was used up and now we have a beautiful and happy little girl that is growing like a weed! I need to get moving for the day but if anyone figures out how baby poop has the power to defy gravity I would be very interested to know.

Angie

The Meyer Lemon

2009-06-17T01:57:00.009-06:00

We truly are slacking at getting updates out, for that we apologize. Laney is doing great! Last Thursday she weighed in at 7 lbs. 9 oz. She is gaining about half a pound a week. Medically she is healthy as a horse but still is having some complications. Our pediatric orthopedist abandon the hope of having the pavlik harness (torture device) work at putting her hip back into socket. It was deceiving the last week. It would pop in and out of socket fairly easily so we were very optimistic it would work but when we had our check up it was obvious that it was not working. So the next step is surgery in September and she will have to be in a full cast from the waist down for 12 weeks. Uggg. Can't say we are very excited about that but for now we have a normal baby girl with out stuff attached to her and that is an exciting change. I guess we will enjoy it while we can and deal with the rest when it gets here.

The othere check up we had was for her hearing. She failed her hearing test in one of her ears before we left the hospital. Because of that and the particular antibiotics she was on in the hospital we had to do a follow up hearing screen. Well that didn't go so well either. They ask you to bring the kids in tired and hungry so you can feed them and they fall asleep for the test. Sounds like a good idea right? Well not only would she not fall asleep because she was over tired by the time I took her in, but she ended up doing the test naked because of some violent poop that drenched both of us. Because of the electrodes on her head I couldn't put another outfit on her! So we spent hours naked and pooped! She did finally fall asleep but then proceeded to fail the test in both ears this time. "How does this happen?" you might ask yourself. Apparently she has a little fluid in her middle ear on both ears. No infection, just some fluid. We are glad there is no infection but we are frustrated with the fluid. So they tell us we need to go see her pediatrician. Off we go to her pediatrician who needs to see the fluid. We go to his office and say "she failed her hearing screen. They say she has some uninfected fluid in her middle ear." He says," Let me take a look. Yup she has some uninfected fluid in her middle ear." Thanks for stopping by. Pay your money on the way out the door. Nothing they can do. Wait. Come back and see me in a month.

You all know we love Laney more than anything in the world but Kevin and I have started joking that she is out little lemon. Kinda like when you buy a car and one thing after the other goes wrong with it. Thats Laney. She is our little lemon. I guess you could call her our "Meyer Lemon." I am not sure what we will do with our free time when we don't have to go to doctors all the time but we are grateful that she is with us and we have to go to the doctor at all.

She is sleeping better. For a while we were on an every 2 hour feeding schedule. Gotta love the growth spurts! Now she is only getting up about 1-2 times every night. (depending on when I finally get up for the day.

Other than that we are working on her room. I know. She is 4 months old and we are just painting her room. A little tragic, I know, but our justification is that she doesn't sleep in there anyway. I will get some pictures when we are done.

I hope this finds you all doing well and enjoying your summer! I know we are.

The Meyer's

There's no place like home...

2009-05-27T22:37:00.005-06:00

We first want to apologize for such a long gap in our posting. It has taken us a while to get settled in at home. Lots of doctors appointments and as most of you know not much sleep. She may be 3 months old but was due two weeks ago and is therefore acting just like a newborn. She seems to be settling into a sleeping and awake time rhythm. Not necessarily a schedule but she is letting me sleep for chunks of time at night now. She tends to give her dad more of a hard time and he usually ends up holding her most of his shift.

We have not been doing much outside the house. She has a tough time in her stroller and we end up carrying her when we go for walks so we are waiting till she gets a little stronger. We did take her to a friends house this weekend for dinner. She did great. She didn't sleep but she quietly looked around the whole time we were there. She slept great that night! We also had some pictures taken on Sunday. I don't have them yet but when I do I will be sure to post some. There is nothing like a cute naked baby picture to bring a smile to your face.

Medically she is doing well. Tomorrow we go back to the orthopedic doctor to have her hip checked again. The doctor was very encouraged last week. He was able to actually put the hip back in socket. It wouldn't stay there but the fact that he could even get it in was a great improvement. She tolerates her harness ok. I think it makes her crankier than she normally would be but overall I don't think she is greatly affected. Her physical therapist is still coming weekly. She weighed her yesterday and she is 6 1/2 pounds! She is averaging a little over an ounce a day! We were excited about that! Everyone still comments on how small she is but we are starting to think she is huge! 1 more pound and she will triple her birth weight!

We may be tired and busy (although by the end of the day we wonder what we did all day) we are mostly just enjoying having Laney home with us. The days are going by fast and we are trying not to take any of them for granted. Time for us to take a nap and get up in a few hours and do it all over again!

The Meyers

Free at last, free at last...

2009-05-12T06:48:00.004-06:00

Last Friday, May 8, at 3pm, we finally stole Laney out of the NICU and got her home! Unbelievable. We've been smiling ever since, and haven't looked back. Her last antibiotic dose was Thursday night, so they told us that if she passed her car seat test, we could probably go home the following day. Apparently some kids can't sit in a car seat for 90 minutes coming straight out of NICU. Laney tried her car seat study on Thursday and didn't quite pass, but on Friday morning we suctioned and got the bugars out of her nose and she passed with flying colors! She also had a hip ultrasound to see if she had hip displaysia which is common in babies that had low or no amniotic fluid. The ultrasound revealed that her left hip is dislocated. We are taking her to see a pediatric orthopedic doctor tomorrow and he will check her out and probably put her in a brace, and if that doesn't fix it, she may need surgery at some point. But if that is all she comes away with after all she has been through, we will truly have been very lucky. Getting Laney home on Friday and being able to wake up at home, on Sunday - Mother's Day - was such a huge treat!

Since getting her home, Angie and I haven't done much except feed Laney and hang out. Something we haven't been able to do for a long time. Angie took Laney to her pediatrician yesterday, and he gave her the once over, plus her 2 month immunization shots (3 of them). She didn't like that much. Home health comes today for physical therapy (she still has a little bit of range-of-motion issues in her arms and legs). I'll probably not work much in the next couple weeks until we get settled in well at home. Angie will be studying when she can in order to pass her nursing board exam sometime in the next6 weeks.

So I guess that's the end to this portion of our adventures with Laney. Now the fun begins. But looking back on it, the bedrest, the time in NICU, it wasn't all that bad since the outcome was good. That's all we were ever worried about, and now that the prognosis is looking positive, the whole experience can't feel negative. There are many things we won't know about Laney's health for a long time, like how fully her lungs will develop or what issues might come up, such as asthma. Or how well her neurological development will progress. But most of the symptoms that usually lead to long term problems never materialized in Laney, so we have confidence that she will be completely healthy with no long term issues. Right now we're not worrying about those sorts of things. Instead, we worry about how much she is eating and growing, how to keep her from getting sick, and all the other normal things parents worry about in a newborn. We are sure to just stop and enjoy her too. She is 11 weeks old now, but her due date is tomorrow, so really, she is a newborn. She weighs 5 and 1/2 pounds, has hazel eyes, a little bit of hair, and looks more like her mom than her dad. (Depends on who you ask) Like all parents, we are very proud of her, but after what she has been through, we know she's a fighter too. Guess we better get ready because a year or two from now - no doubt we will have our hands full.
Stay tuned for more adventures with our amazing little miracle!

The Meyer Family

The Perfect Mother's Day Gift?

2009-05-03T19:52:00.004-06:00

I'm probably jinxing us by saying this, but it appears that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Laney has four more days of antibiotics, and after that, we may be on our way home. There are a lot of things that are up in the air right now that will have to be resolved, but most of them are relatively minor. It's crazy to think that only two weeks after being put back on the ventilator, we may head out the door.

It's an obvious understatement to say that Laney has made significant progress since being extibated from the ventilator last Monday. As soon as she was extibated, she seems to be a new little girl. She desatted much less frequently on her oxygen saturation. She needed less oxygen through her cannula than she used to need. Her heart rate is 10-20 beats per minute lower. Lots of positive steps forward. The doctors and nurses were encouraged. From there, she has just continued to make steady and quick progress. She hasn't needed a feeding tube for days, but instead takes all of her milk either by breast or by bottle, and she goes back and forth pretty easily (most of the time). This was one of the big steps she needed to take to go home. She has no set amount of food she needs to consume, other than they want to see positive weight gain every day. And every day, she is gaining weight! They removed her caffeine (helps preemies with breathing regulation ) a couple days ago (she was on a minute amount) and she seems to be doing okay without that. She is mostly off the oxygen cannula altogether, except at certain times during deep sleep; hopefully that will only last another day or so.

They are giving her a bunch of her shots at the end of the week (hepatitis and other immunizations), and if she maintains her current milk intake, weight gain, and lack of oxygen needs, we will probably go home then. I can't believe we're saying that, but yes, we may go home next weekend. What a perfect Mother's Day gift that would be.

Dodging a bullet

2009-04-27T19:42:00.005-06:00

A lot has happened in the last several days, most of it not good but ending on what looks like a positive note. Since being intibated, Laney stabilized fairly well, although she certainly hasn't been entirely comfortable with a breathing tube back down her throat. She hated it before and she hates it now.

On Saturday the doctors decided to pull some spinal fluid to make sure Laney didn't have meningitis, but they didn't get to it until Sunday morning. By afternoon we had the results - it looked like she might have meningitis. This was devastating news. Her primary doctor suspected that her E. coli infection in her urinary tract must have migrated through her blood stream to the brain, then into her spinal fluid. For those who don't know, meningitis can cause a lot of bad things to happen, very bad things. If she did have it, our only hope was that they caught the entire infection soon enough that it never flared very intensely. However, the doctor wanted to have a specialist look at everything on Monday to confirm the diagnosis. We went home very worried.
Monday, however, was a new day. The specialist came in and thoroughy looked over all the available information, and came to the conclusion that she does NOT have meningitis. Instead, it appears that she has pneumonia. I can't say that Angie and I love pneumonia, but you've never seen two happier parents knowing their infant has pneumonia. What a blessing! The doctors were very happy with this news. Her treatment now is to stop one of the 3 antibiotics she is on, and change one of the others to something else. She will continue antibiotic treatment for 9 more days. And she wil hopefully be extibated tomorrow, assuming she continues on her path toward recovery.
We aren't out of the woods yet, and even when this step is done, that just puts us back on the path of getting out of here, and our journey on that path is far from complete. But tonight we feel like we might have dodged a big bullet, and we can't help but be happy, despite the fact that Laney is still uncomfortably lying in her bed with that breathing tube down her neck. Tomorrow is another new day, and hopefully we'll jump that hurdle when we get there.

1 step forward...2 steps back...Make that 5

2009-04-25T15:53:00.011-06:00

It is time for an update. Kevin actually wrote one for a few days ago but luckily had not published it yet. Laney turned 8 weeks old on Wednesday. She was off everything but her feeding tube and we were actually on a great path to getting that out. Thursday morning things changed pretty quick. Laney has an infection. It hit her pretty fast and hard. Most of Thursday was a little dicy and we were on the verge of having to reintubate her and put her back on a ventillator. She was just so sick she didn't have the energy to breath. Luckily the doctor and nurse caught it quickly and got her on antibiotics quickly. We ended up putting her back on C-pap and that really helped her through the night. Friday morning she seemed to have a little more energy. That means she could cry at us a little and let us know she was hurting. Her labs were shocking to nurses and doctors. It looks like she is putting up a good fight but obviously a very sick kiddo. This morning her labs weren't better, and actually looked a little worse so they started another stronger antibiotic. She is just so exhausted because she isn't sleeping because she is hurting. So they have her back on C-pap because she often gets stubborn and decides not to breathe. They are checking her for everything and running a wide array of tests. The doctors have been great about keeping on top of her. The nurses have been very proactive about reacting quick when somethings changes. It is now 5 hours from when I started writing this blog and Laney is on a ventillator. She got so tired that she just couldn't breathe on her own any more. She should only have to be on it for a few days, at the most, so she can get some rest and allow time for the antibiotics to work. We know it is in her best interest but we can't help but feel frustrated, disappointed, and relieved all at the same time. It is nice not to have to watch her struggle so hard just to breathe but so frustrating to feel like we have headed backwards. We are optimistic this will be short term and provide her the help she needs to fight the infection then maybe we can get back on track for heading home. I will end with some pictures we took before the circus of the last 3 days. The last one is Kevin feeding her first bottle.

Love,

Kevin and Angie

Laney's Easter Update:

2009-04-12T10:34:00.017-06:00

Happy Easter Everyone! Wow, my first real holiday! Mom and Dad said I wasn't born quick enough to get on the Easter Bunnies radar screen this year. Rats! No Easter basket. They said for sure next year the Easter Bunny would bring me something. Luckily, Grandma knew the Easter Bunny wasn't coming so she made me a little Easter basket with books and blankets. Thanks Grandma!

I have lots of news for everyone today. Since mom and dad last updated you I had an eye exam. I HATE them. I keep hearing people say that when I scream like I do with an eye exam it is good for my lungs. I tend to disagree. My throat is sore after...what is good about that? But the doctor said that my eyes are doing ok and I don't have to have another exam for 2 weeks!

We had a little craziness here the other night. In one of the sections of the NICU some steam was leaking in from a pipe that broke somewhere in the building. Apparently it go really hot and humid in that section so all the babies had to be moved. So I got a new roommate, which I usually don't mind. I like to meet new people. This boy was cute and we were the same age. (He was a little short for me though.) This new roommate made my room awfully crowded! Thank goodness I was in a crib so I took up less room but when mom and dad tried to sit with me it got a little cramped. Luckily, it was only for a day or two. They got that section of the NICU fixed and all cleaned so I batted my eyes at the nurses and negotiated a great spot in a room over there. It is a room that can only hold 2 babies instead of three and it has a view of the mountains! I love it. There is so much room for mom and dad to spread out and I cannot believe how quite it is. I love my sleep and I need it to grow so this is working out perfectly! For now I don't even have a roommate!

My current weight is 4 lbs. 1 oz. I weighed a little more but I was retaining a little fluid so they have me medication to get rid of it. Hopefully this will help me need less oxygen and eventually get all this stuff off of my face! Once that happens, maybe they will quit suctioning my nose! Next to eye exams that is the other thing I hate!

Well, it is time for a diaper change and some lunch then maybe a nap. I will go wake up mom and get her moving, she has work to do. That is all for now from Laney's Crib (that is what I call my room). I hope everyone has a Happy Easter!

Love,

Laney

2009-04-09T08:22:00.002-06:00

Time for another update!

Probably the biggest advancement for us was that they moved Laney into a crib! She is big enough now that she is able to maintain her body temperature so it is off with the isolette and on to the crib. It is a little ironic because the nurses and doctors were all very excited with this new advancement. When I came in yesterday morning they said, "Laney gets to move into a crib today!" My response was why does she have to do that? I liked the thought of her being in an isolette where everytime someone breathed it didn't land on her! Now she is more exposed to germs and chaos and noise! You would think that an intensive care unit for newborns would be a peaceful and quite place. Not true. They try pretty hard to keep things undercontrol. I will give them that. But there are lots of babies and they all have bells and whistles going off all the time. Not to mention the crying! My goodness full term babies cry alot! So far we have been blessed and Laney is not a crier. She will whine if she is in pain. A whail now and then when she gets a shot but never just crying. I know what you are all thinking. This mom has a rude awakening coming, (you are laughing at me in your head, I know) Very true and I know it is coming but I am going to blame it on the other babies teaching her bad habits! Classic parent response, "Not my kid!" For now she is pretty relaxed and just hangs out sleeping or looking around. I am taking advantage of this time trust me!

Medically, she is great. She received a blood transfusion on Monday and it seemed to help a great deal. Her oxygen requirements have dropped and we have hit a growth spurt. She is averaging 1 to 2 oz per day. As of today she weighs 3lbs. 14 oz. She is filling out and getting more of a baby face. She is starting to breast feed. She doesn't have the stamina to feed all the time so she still receives most of her feeds through her feeding tube. Things are definately looking up though. Feeding is her last big milestone. She has to be able to take her feedings orally for a couple days in a row then we can take her home. This may take a couple of weeks but it is still a great feeling.

She is ready to get out of bed so I will end here. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

Slow but steady wins the race...

2009-04-03T13:10:00.008-06:00

Well, lets see...what is new in the last few days...

Laney has stayed off of the C-pap machine. (aka. mid-evil torture device for small babies/breathing machine) It is wonderful to be able to see her face now that all the swelling has gone down. I also have to say that the shape of her head has greatly improved by not having things strapped to it so tight. She is looking more and more like a regular baby just a really small version. We have to laugh because yesterday there was a near full term baby admitted to our room. All we could say was how HUGE this kid was. I think he was just over 6 lbs. Our perspective is permenantly skewed.

We gave Laney her first tub bath on Wednesday. She refered to it as spa day! She did really well. She didn't cry at all. We kept her wrapped in warm wet towels and she basically slept right through it. As the water started to cool off she wrinkled her nose a bit but hung in there and was quite a trooper. I think we are going to be ready for another one tomorrow. Daddy will be in charge of this one!

She had an eye exam on Wednesday. In case you don't know, premature babies that are about 1000 grams or less or are on oxygen support are at risk for having problems with their eye development. Eyes are the last thing to mature on a babys, sometimes not even full term kids are mature. Anyway, because she has been on breathing support and she got down to 950 grams she has to have these eye exams. I won't go into details but it is horribly brutal...and I am a nurse! I don't recommend any parent ever watch. After all was said and done her eyes are doing ok so far. They are ok for her age but are developing a little different than normal because she is on oxygen and out of my tummy. But all things point to the fact it should resolve and develop normally. Unfortunately for Laney she has to have another one next week just to check for progress and changes.

She is still sitting at 3 lbs. 4 oz.. Breathing is a little tougher now without machines helping and her course of steroids being done. So she is burning a few extra calories on that. They are increasing her feeds to help compensate so we will see if that works tomorrow. She has graduated to being able to wear clothes so we thought we would throw some pictures in. Yes, these are preemie outfits and yes, they are no where close to fitting her. What can we say, we try and she is cute anyway.

A Little Boost

2009-03-30T22:25:00.002-06:00

Laney got a little boost a few days ago that has made a world of difference. Her doctor decided it would be a good idea to give her a few very small doses of steroid. This was supposed to give her a kick start in getting off the C-PAP, to get strong enough to just be on a nasel candula. It has worked as well as we could have hoped. She has been rock-solid for several days now and, shockingly, may be off the C-PAP for good. She now holds her blood oxygen levels high enough that she does not require C-PAP. We are hoping she can continue this indefinitely.

One thing she hasn't been doing is gaining much weight. We've asked the doctors if there is any coincidence in the steroids and the lack of a lot of weight gain and they said no, so apparently it is just that - coincidence. But she is up to 3lb. 2 oz. and hopefully in the morning she will be up another ounce. She's been getting many different nurses lately and that drives us a little batty but Laney takes it in stride. It is much easier to hold Laney on nasel candula and a lot quieter, so I think she enjoys it better also. We're still taking it day by day but we're hoping this little step forward is permanent. Thanks so much for all the thoughts and prayers, maybe they are as big a part of this as what they are putting in Laney's milk.

A message from Laney:

2009-03-23T20:03:00.003-06:00

I have watched and heard my parents doing this "blog" thing over the last 12 weeks. I thought to myself , "Why should they get to have all the fun? I want my turn in the spotlight!" So this is my update. Well I won't restate what they have said but I will update you all from where they left off.

I just wanted to start with an update on how I am doing.
I am actually doing quite well. I made it to the 1300 gram mark. I know I still have a long way to go but I can see that 3 lbs on the horizon and am anxious to get there. Of course I have stored most of what I have gained in my cheeks and even created a new chin! I wonder if there is a limit of how many chins I can have before I obstruct my airway? Anyway, I am still on this stupid C-pap and they are no closer to getting a seal on it than they were a week ago. It is frustrating and my face is tired but I am getting stronger and I know someday soon I will get off this machine and it will just be a thing of the past. I probably won't even remember it. Dr. Snyder has been my doctor the last 3 days. I have not seen him since the night I was born. I think I have a crush on him. I wonder if you always get a crush on the doctor especially when they save your life? He has been great and has increased my feeds to 25ml and started me on albuterol treatments today. They seem to help. I don't seem to dip into the 70's or 60's on oxygen saturation as often and I recover faster when I do desat a little. I really like that doctor. Mommy and daddy think he looks like Clark Kent. To me he is just Superman! What else....Suzy, my nurse, made a new copy of my feet prints yesterday! You thought my feet were big before...holy cow you should see them now! Tomorrow Kim, another nurse, is going to do my hand prints when I fall really asleep. Yesterday I got to lay around with daddy for 2 hours and today I got to hang out with mommy for 2 hours. I do love getting out of this bed for a while. Today when mommy put me back I woke right up and sat and stared at her while she talked to me for about 20 minutes! Not sure what she was saying but she just kept talking in this high pitched voice that I notice people only use when they talk to me. Strange. I wonder why adults do that? I still have to have this C-pap on when they hold me but I think I am on the verge of not needing it when they hold me. There isn't too much more to report. I mean when you lay around all day in a bed they call the giraffe and you sleep for 23 hours of the day it can be hard to find new stuff to report. For now I am doing good and workin on getting stronger every day. To finish I will show you some pictures of my new belly!

The Waiting Game

2009-03-20T06:46:00.005-06:00

It looks like Laney is going to be teaching Angie and me the new meaning of patience. Not that she is trying our patience, far from it. She has been doing very well the past week. Getting her weight up and over her birth weight was a wonderful milestone. But we are learning that we will probably have many, many more small, positive milestones to go before we take her home. If you had asked us before this started whether we knew the path would lead this way, we would have said yes, we know it will be a long hard row to hoe. But once you are in it, hoeing that row, it sometimes feels like you're never going to get to the end of that row. It looks more and more like we're going to get there, but we keep trying to steel ourselves to the fact that it is going to take a while. You'd think after 8 weeks of bedrest that we would have learned some patience, but apparently not.

We have much to be thankful for, though. One is that two different nurses have asked to be Laney's primary nurse. When those two are on a shift, they now are almost always assigned to Laney. I had no idea how much better that would make us feel when we go home at night, or when we can't be there every minute of each day, knowing she is in the hands of a nurse we know, like, and trust. Nearly all the nurses have been great, and getting a little variety sometimes is probably helpful, considering the notion that the more eyes checking on her the better, and considering the crucial role that nurses are playing in Laney's day-to-day progress. But having some consistency does wonders for our piece of mind. Little nuances like the fact that the canula CPAP makes her nose bleed and plug up, and the fact that many of her decelerations in blood oxygen concentration are caused by plugged nasal passages, those are things the nurses remember when they have her over and over again.

These are just two small examples from many to choose from. Bottom line, the consistent nurses care for Laney better because they know what she is like and they see progress or setbacks and can infer why they are occurring. The nurses that only have her once can't put the pieces together quite as well, and it is much harder to go home at night when you don't know the nurse. Thankfully, for yesterday and the next two days, she has the same two nurses on back-to-back 12 hour shifts, so Angie and I are on Cloud 9 with respect to our comfort level with Laney's nurses right now. I know, part of this is probably us just being protective parents, but much of it is real, and makes a world of difference.

One thing this ordeal has shown us is how supportive our friends and family are. We are getting help from every possible direction and we know most of you would like to do even more if you could or if there was more that needed to be done, which thankfully, right now, there is not. We have been overwhelmed on a daily basis with your generosity and compassion and cannot thank you all enough. Despite what we have been through and what is yet to come, we feel so blessed and are so grateful to all of you. Your generosity appears to know no bounds.
The Meyers

Turning the corner

2009-03-16T21:14:00.003-06:00

Sorry we are not keeping up with this blog as often as we want. I just got some new pictures so I will put some of them up soon. Our days seem to fly by between time at the hospital, keeping up with home, and catching up on all the things we have let slide for the last 11 weeks.
Just as a quick update Laney is doing great. It has been a tough week. The first 2 weeks she seemed to be flying along going from ventillator to ventillator making leaps of progress. She was advancing feeds and her lungs were making consistant improvement. It felt like Kevin and I were grabbing her coattails and just getting pulled along for the ride. Well over the last week we hit a plateau. She was still doing well but she is on maximum feeds and her lungs are great they just need to get stronger in order for her to get off the C-pap. Well, the problem is that she hates the C-pap and was spending all her energy fighting it. So we were in a spiral and kind of a standstill. It has been a little discouraging for us to watch. When you couple all that with a lack of sleep I have to say I have done my share of crying this week.
On a brighter note! We seem to have possibly turned a corner. Laney received a blood transfusion yesterday and it seems to be the little push she needed to gain some ground. She is almost back to her birth weight and the episodes of her slowing or suspending her breathing have greatly declined. This is drastically improving her parents stress level. She is still on the C-pap but the doctors are convinced she is on the verge of not needing it anymore. They were no longer letting us hold her while not on the C-pap. It just seemed to wipe her out and set her back. Medically she looks like she should be able to get off the C-pap she just needs the stamina to be able to do it. The doctor today told us to start holding her off the C-pap and only on a nasal canula in order to start testing her and help her build up her muscles so eventually we can get rid of the C-pap altogether. So that is our plan for now. It is great to be able to hold her and see her face all at the same time.
That is it for now. I will get some pictures together and post again soon. Thank you all so much for following along. We are so excited that things are going so well. Thanks for your support!!
The Meyer's

Holding a miracle

2009-03-09T22:45:00.006-06:00

We have come a long way since our last posting. Laney was taken off the ventillator on Thursday night and did FANTASTIC! She is now on C-pap full time. It took a while but she has become more tolerant of the mask she has to wear. She has continued to lose weight. Most of it is water that the doctors wanted to minimize in order to keep her heart from working to hard. She is down to 2lbs. and 1 oz. But she finally made a turn this morning and actually gained 16 grams. I know it doesn't sound like much but she is headed in the right direction. We are very excited. She had been receiving 3 cc of milk every 3 hours and tolerated it great. Today they increased it to 5 cc every 3 hours, so now we are expecting her to start gaining some weight. It will be great to watch her start filling out all that skin.

We had a pleasant suprise on Sunday when the doctor allowed us to hold her without the C-pap. We got to hold her with just a nasal canula which is a huge step. Her time off the C-pap machine right now is minimal in order to make sure her lungs get as strong as possible but it is fun to hold her and be able to see her face all at the same time.

I even finally got Kevin to hold her the other night. It was great to see! Such a contrast between the two when it comes to size. On cuteness she has him beat by a hair. (sorry hun) We get to hold her a couple times a day. It just depends on how her schedule works out.

Right now we are very thankful for all the progress she has made. One of her doctors even called her a "studette" today. She seems to have suprised them all with her toughness. Don't get me wrong she is still very fragile and we have a long way to go but Kevin and I agree that we seem to have overcome most of the huge hurdles and the rest will resolve itself in time.

For now we will just continue to be patient and just enjoy every day with her as we watch her grow. Thank you to everyone that has been bringing food and gifts. For those of you following along on our journey, your support has been wonderful and encouraging. It really has kept us going when the stress gets a little to intense. We can never thank you all enough. I will leave this update with our only family picture!

The Meyers

Laney's first photo shoot

2009-03-05T04:51:00.005-07:00

I thought we would just share some photos. It looks intimidating with all the wires and machines but she is off some of it now but this is much how her first week looked.

Laney Renee Meyer

2009-03-04T17:41:00.004-07:00

I have to apologize for taking so long to update the blog. It has been a flurry of activity since Laney arrived on Feb 25 at 10:40 pm. She was 2 lb. 9 oz. and 14 1/2 inches long. She was put on a super fancy ventilator called a "jet" until Monday morning. This machine is designed to help her lungs expand and give them some time to develop. She did great. They took her off and put her on a normal ventilator on Monday morning. She loved this. She was a little tired of the pressure associated with the jet. She did so well on the normal vent that they actually extubated her on Monday night and put her on a Cpap machine. Basically she was breathing on her own. She did not much care for this machine. She doesn't much like things on her face. She has a tendency to pull at them whenever she is awake. She is a little fiesty! She stayed on Cpap for about 2 hours but her little lungs were not quite developed enough to blow out the CO2 and they ended up having to reintubate her and put her back on the normal ventilator. Since then she has been doing great. She has weaned off all medications except for her nutrition supplement. As of yesterday she had lost a little weight. She was down to 2 lb 4 oz. Don't let her small size fool you. She is pretty strong and a little stubborn. It is fun to watch. When they turn her she tries to turn back. She even grabs her breathing tube with her feet and tries to pull it out! She is very entertaining to watch. I will try to get some pictures and videos posted soon.
We crossed another milestone last night when they started to feed her. We have been concerned about her tummy but she tolerated it really well and her body seems to be processing it. So now they feed her every 4 hours.
We have not been able to hold her yet but we are hoping that it is coming soon.
Again I apologize for not keeping more updates on this page. I am feeling much better so hopefully I can get moving a little more and give you updates more often. Kevin and I are so grateful for all of you. Everyone has done so much to help it has truly been overwhelming. We are so incredibly lucky and we consider each one of you part of our success so far. I am headed back to the hospital to say goodnight.
Thank you all sooo much!
Love
The Meyer's

She's here...

2009-02-26T19:30:00.002-07:00

Yep, she arrived last night, very suddenly and unexpectedly. We made it to 29 weeks exactly, and hoped to get a few more weeks, but fate had another plan for us. Angie had been having stronger and more frequent contractions for the last day, and they couldn't stop them for very long with drugs to halt labor. She wasn't very dialated, but after running a blood sample through the lab they discovered that Angie's white blood cell count was extremely high, indicating she was fighting an infection despite the lack of a fever. The doctor took one look at the white blood cell count and ordered an immediate c-section.

That's when the scary part happened. We knew her lungs would be small and it might be touch and go. To make a long story short, it was VERY touch and go, but the neonatologist and his team were absolutely incredible. By the end of the evening, the baby was stable in neonatal ICU. She has a long, long way to go before she is out of the woods, and if she does make it she won't get out of NICU for weeks, if not months. She is on a ventilator that gives her 420 breaths per minute. It is crazy what technology can do these days. We are cautiously optimistic that she will work her way through all the hurdles she will encounter. Her name is Laney Renae, she weighs 2lb. 9oz., and she has both of us wrapped around her tiny little fingers. Angie is recovering very well from her surgery, at which time we can both turn our entire focus on Laney.

So, the 8 weeks of bedrest are now over, and the hardest part has begun. Thank you all so much for your encouragement, prayers, meals, visits, and well-wishes. We need them now more than ever. Our new goal is to get Laney through her first couple weeks, and hopefully get her off the ventilator. When that happens, we will be the happiest of parents.

The Meyers

Veterans

2009-02-22T13:30:00.005-07:00

Funny how only 4 weeks ago we were newbies on the floor, trying to get a feel for what we had in store for us while we lived here in our little "studio apartment". Now we are the veteran family on the floor. We have met and worked with 10 doctors, 10 RNs, and at least 10 CNAs. All have been so good to us, but a few stand out above the crowd and for them and all the rest we are so grateful. We definitely have our routine down, but that can get a little boring when the routine consists of me going to work or doing laundry and Angie hanging out at the apartment. We don't have much to complain about though, we couldn't ask for things to be going better since we got here.

A couple more days and we'll have reached 29 weeks. We never thought we'd get that far, but now our eye is already on 30 weeks. The doctors are all very encouraging but they admit they we won't really know what we're going to get until our little girl gets here. Sounds like Forest Gump's box of chocolates. Thanks so much for the phone calls, meals, desserts, prayers, and positive thoughts. They keep us going, and hoping for the best.

The Meyers

Another Milestone!

2009-02-18T11:37:00.003-07:00

Our apologies to everyone...it has been a while. The days have a way of kind of floating by I guess. Things are going as well as we could hope for. The baby has been doing really well on the monitor and luckily we have not had to go back to labor and delivery. I have been having more contractions but she seems to tolerate them well for the most part. We won't measure her again till next week but we have a good feeling that she is still growing. Mostly because I seem to get more uncomfortable and I am now wearing Kevins shirts cause mine don't fit. Toward the end of last week she had actually turned sideways and was headed to turning head down (this was not a fun process for me). She must have changed her mind because over the last few days she has decided to pop back up and now she is breech again. I have to give her credit for trying. We had an ultrasound today and she still looks good. She had fluid in her stomach, which means she is getting something to drink but there was still no fluid to speak of when they measured it. Not suprising.
We spent Valentines day watching a movie and eating Guido's pizzza. Fairly anti-climactic but it was great to just hang out together. On Sunday evening we finally went on a tour of the NICU. (neo-natal intensive care unit) It was interesting to see where she will be when we have her and look at all the resources they have to take care of babies with problems like hers. It is of course sad to see tiny babies hooked to to all the tubes and wires but it is good to see it before you see it attached to your own child. They gave us a little hat and bootie set and a micro-preemie diaper. To give you an idea her diapers will be about the size of your credit card. Very cute and scary at the same time.
All things considered we are doing great. We have 7 weeks of bedrest behind us and at most another 6 to go. Right now we are just so greatful to have made it this far. We know what a miracle it is to have made it this far at all. We want to thank everyone who has sent us the cards, thoughts, and prayers (food too!) We believe that every bit of it has helped. Thank you all!

The Meyer's

Our Little Valentine

2009-02-12T21:48:00.003-07:00

As Valentine's Day approaches our thoughts are almost constantly on our little valentine. Things seem to have stabilized a little after our two trips to Labor and Delivery. They are keeping a close watch on her heart rate but it seems to be doing pretty well, with good fluctuations and good accelerations. We're watching her as closely as the doctors, and probably spend too much time looking up information on the internet. Sometimes we just don't want to know - we just want to be expectant and nervous parents, hoping for the best.

Our neighbors are keeping an eye on our house, and the cats are doing fine at the house with my occasional visits to feed them and hang out with them. They've never liked me more than they do now, if I sit down on the couch for two minutes when I get home, Bailey is up on my lap. When we get home, I think the cats' allegiance will have switched from Angie to me. Not that I really want it, but it would be funny. Without any wheelchair rides (we've been staying low-key since the trips to L&D), Angie is more confined than ever, but if we get a solid week of the baby looking good, I think we'll get back outside on the next nice day.

Our celebration for 27 weeks consisted of pizza, and a beer for me and sparkling cider for Angie. 28 weeks is only 5 days away, and that has always been one of our biggest milestones. Might take a little extra to celebrate that one. Thank you all for everything and for all your thoughts and prayers, we really appreciate it.
The Meyers

Bumps in the road...

2009-02-10T11:15:00.002-07:00

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Our weather looked pretty good. That probably doesn't mean much coming from the confines of the hospital. Either way I hope you all did something fun. We had somewhat of an interesting weekend. Going into the weekend we were starting to see some variability in the baby's heart rate and I was having a few contractions. By Sunday afternoon things seemed to be escalating a little so our Sunday afternoon monitoring bought us a trip to labor and delivery for 24 hour monitoring. So we packed a few things and headed over. We put the baby on the monitor and just hoped for the best.
Sidenote: Labor and delivery beds are horribly uncomfortable!! I don't know if they do this to encourage you to get the baby out so you can get off the bed or if they are saving on cost and hoping that a laboring mom won't notice since she is in horrific pain anyway.
Anyway, by Monday the baby looked pretty good and things seemed to have calmed down. She behaved pretty well all day and they finally told us we could come back to antipartum last night. We were very excited. Not only so I could get back to a more comfortable bed but just to be that extra step away from delivery.
Tomorrow will be 27 weeks! Gosh that sounds alot better than 24 weeks. We will be having some sort of celebration for passing another week. It will probably consist of whatever mom is craving for dinner! (at least that is what I am hoping)
We had an ultrasound done on her today. Things look pretty good. She is of course measuring a little small for her age but I am sure it is not easy to grow when you don't have any room. She put on about 8 oz. over the last 2 1/2 weeks. They estimate her at about 1 lb. 12 oz. Like I said, a little small for her age but she is definatly growing and moving so we consider that all positive.
We are excited to be passing 27 weeks tomorrow and we now have our sights set on 28!!

The Meyer's

One week further...

2009-02-08T15:37:00.001-07:00

We passed 26 weeks without a hitch! We had an ultrasound again on Wednesday and it showed much of the same, a cute little baby with no fluid. Just to show us a little of her personality she did stick her tounge out at us twice. I love that she is spunky and strong now but I am beginning to wonder if that will translate into her being a force to contend with later. I guess we will worry about it then.
Friday I had a really good friend fly in from Portland to spend the day. It was a great day. Thanks again Brenda! We also received some delicious dinners and snacks this week. You guys are awsome! We really appreciate the great food and the thought.
Other than that Kevin and I have spent most of the weekend here in "our apartment downtown" aka hospital room. The baby has given us a few worries over the last two days but she seems to bounce back each time. The doctors are just going to keep a closer eye on her for a while. My contractions have picked up a bit. Not to the point of requiring medication, but enough to stress us out a bit. Fortunately, for me, they aren't painful I can just tell they are there. So we are glad to monitor her more and so far she is doing well, so nothing to worry about.
For now we will continue to play the waiting game and we are looking at 27 weeks just a few days away. I think we will have a celebration Wednesday if we make it.
I hope you all are doing well. Thank you for the postive thoughts and prayers.
The Meyer's

The Bird's Eye View

2009-02-03T20:25:00.001-07:00

It is even fun for ME to read Angie's postings because it is interesting to see things from her perspective, as warped as it is sometimes. Just kidding! We are both very excited to have reached 26 weeks. I'm not sure either one of us thought we could get here when we started, but now that we are we want so much more. 28 weeks. Maybe even 30 or more weeks. At the rate we're going we might make it, but we both know that things could turn pretty fast if Angie starts running a fever or something else happens. Instead of dwelling on any bads thoughts though, we just cherish every day that our little girl is able to put on more pounds and develop a little bit more. So we couldn't be happier to have made it this far and we rejoice with every passing week.

The weeks have actually gone by pretty fast, looking back from where we're at now. Of course, that's from my perspective, and I'm not the one that has to sit in bed all day trying to find things to keep me busy. Instead, I wander down to work or run errands in the evening. I'm pretty fortunate to have flexibility at work, so instead of going to my regular office I've just been working from our HQ office, which is conveniently located just minutes from the hospital. I can run over in the morning, come back to the hospital every day to share lunch with Angie, then head back for a few hours of work in the afternoon. We have so appreciated all the food everyone has made for us, it has really made my life easier not having to worry about that every night. And the visits Angie gets continues to brighten her dayk, so thank you all for that. We really couldn't have asked for better treatment here at the hospital either - both the doctors and the nurses have been outstanding and put up with Angie and me with ease. In actuality, we're probably some of the easiest patients they get, and they seem to appreciate that. The longer we remain ideal patients, the farther along we know we'll be, so we are happy to oblige. Of course, Angie does all the work, and from my perspective, I can't imagine how agonizing it would be to lay in bed all day, every day. You joke that you would love to spend the whole day in bed, but when you have to actually do it, day after day, it ain't very easy at all. Amazingly, she hardly ever complains, but instead takes it all in stride and just does as much as she can to keep our little unborn girl growing, right where she is. Thank you all for all your thoughts and prayers, and for all the help you have given us. We appreciate it more than you know.

The Meyers

Baby's first Superbowl!

2009-02-03T10:19:00.002-07:00

You know how the government has declared every day of the year as the day of something. Well today it is carrot day! So happy CARROT day to everyone!!! Personally, having carrots as part of a cake would be my preference but however you choose have a carrot. Your eyes will thank you!
Well, Sunday was the Superbowl. We often go somewhere to watch the game and eat delicious food. Since our mobility was limited this year we decided to have our own celebration! We got some pizza, chicken wings (these were in no way a morbid reference to our little chicken), chips and salsa, and of course ice cream! Once Kevin showed up with the food I promptly asked the nurse for a Zantac and we began our party. We had some friends stop by...a party is not a party without some friends. Kevin even snuck in a beer. I am pretty sure the reception on your TV will cease to exist without someone drinking a beer during the Superbowl. Either way we had a great time rooting for the underdog Arizona Cardinals. Of course it didn't work out in the end but it was by far one of the better Superbowl games I have seen in years. On top of it we won $10 on a bet we made with Kevin's dad!! We will put it on your tab Art.
Other than that our life has been pretty uneventful. The baby has been doing great on her monitor cycles (knock on wood). She is moving and kicking a good portion of the day. I don't know if this is normal or if I just feel every twitch she makes but I think she is getting plenty of exercise. Kevin has taken me on two wheelchair rides over the last few days. It has been great to get beyond these 4 walls and get some fresh air. However, his idea to optimize the distance we could cover on our excursions by tying the wheelchair to the back of the truck is still not my favorite!
Tomorrow will make 26 weeks! Thanks to eveyone. Your love and support has been key in getting us this far!
The Meyer's

25 has come and gone

2009-01-30T14:46:00.002-07:00

Sorry I haven't written in a few days. We haven't been up to much so it sometimes seems difficult to find things to write about. Our greatest news is that we made it to 25 weeks on Wednesday! A small milestone but a milestone none the less! Now we have 26 weeks in our sights and we are hoping for the best. We had an ultrasound on Wednesday also but there were no changes there. She still has no fluid. She is still positioned breech so any fluid she makes we pretty much just lose. Anatomically she still looks fine. Squished but fine.
She has picked up a new little talent that, I believe, is designed to give her parents a heartattack. About once or twice a day when she is on the monitor she gets uncomfortable (I assume) and tries to wiggle around. She usually pinches her cord for a minute and drops her little heart rate. Then she realizes it and wiggles again till she gets off it. This usually buys her more time on the monitor to make sure she is fine and she always is. It almost feels like a really early form of discipline. "you can get off the monitor if you hold still the entire time, don't and we will leave you there for longer!" I have to say I feel really bad for her but it is good to see how well she recovers. The doctors and nurses are following her close and don't like to see her do that but are not to concerned they say it is typical of babies without fluid. They just like the fact that she recovers so well.
Our mission for the day today is to see if the doctor will let Kevin take me for a wheelchair ride outside for a few minutes. After 10 days a breath of fresh air would be great! Plus it is bright and sunny and warm (for January).
Take care everyone,
The Meyer's

The sky is...somewhere...

2009-01-25T14:49:00.002-07:00

I have my first view of the mountains today! For those of who don't live in Boise, we are blessed with this fabulous condition in the winters called the "Inversion". It has been about 2 weeks that we have been socked into this hazy and medically hazerdous air stagnation situation. I woke this morning and there were flurries of snow. Even a small layer of snow takes the scenery rating around here from about a 2 to a 7. Anything to cover the brown drab that you come to accept living in the dessert. I don't know if it was the snow, but something decided to move the air a little and I can see about half way up the mountains to the north Boise. No blue sky but you can't ask for everything in one day. Mother Nature is easing us back into normalcy. I know it is terrible but the weather being nasty has made staying in my pajamas and nice warm bed easier.
Baby update...
We have been hooking her up to the monitors every day and she is doing well. She is a "typical 24 weeker" is what the doctors keep saying. We have talked to about every specialist that will be working with her when she gets here and I have to say we are impressed with all of them. They have all been what we are calling "realistically optimistic". They seem to telll us worse case scenario and then best case. We are expecting to fall somewhere in between. We had an ultrasound done on her Friday. There was still no measurable fluid but she did take some gulps of something and promptly started sucking her thumb. They estimated her weight at about 1lb 4oz. I know it doesn't sound like much but we were super excited. This means she gained nearly half a pound over the last 3 weeks! This also means that she is over the size required in order to be put on ventillators. (They need to be about a pound)
So for now we are done with antibiotics and steroids and the true waiting game begins. Our goal now is no infection and no labor. Maybe I will just start chanting "No Infection! No Contraction!" We hope you all are doing well. Stay warm and cozy. I suggest spending a full day in your pajamas! I do!

The Meyer's

We made it to the second leg...

2009-01-22T17:23:00.002-07:00

We made it to the hospital! We checked in yesterday. I was a little sad to leave my comfy bed in the living room but it was a huge relief to think we made it this far. We checked in and they didn't waste any time. They got antibiotics going right away and gave me the shot for steroids for her lungs. I got one more steroid shot today and that is it for that part. Now we just wait. I have a nice room. It has 3 huge windows with 2 of the 3 having not so great views but one has a great view of the mountains. In any case it is bright and sunny. Unfortunately Kevin's accomidations are not quite so plush and definately not made for someone 6ft. 6. They have a chair that makes into a bed but I either they were planning on smurfs or midgets sleeping on it. Friday we will have better accomidations for him and he may even be able to get some sleep.
The staff has been great and the doctors have come by a few times already. I am so glad I have these doctors. They will just sit and visit with you for a long time about nothing in particular or they will sit and answer your questions as long as you have them. I don't think I have had them spent less than 20 -30 minutes with me and the never make you feel hurried. Even after (or especially after) going through nursing school I have not seen doctors with such great bedside manners. I consider myself lucky.
We are monitoring the baby every 8 hours or so on the fetal monitor and so far she has done great! I have to say that I don't think she likes it. She wakes up most of the time and starts punching and kicking the monitor with all her might (which isn't much). I figure it is giving her some exercise. If there is an upside to all this it is that without the fluid we are able to sit and watch my tummy when she is awake and even at only 24 weeks you can see her hands and feet kicking. At first it is a little "alien in my belly" feeling now we just sit and laugh because it is so hearwarming and cute.
Thanks again to everyone who is stopping by to visit and to everyone that has brought us stuff. It is very much appreciated and really makes the days faster and brighter. We love you all.

The Meyer's

24 weeks around the corner!

2009-01-19T14:34:00.003-07:00

Sorry it has been a while since our last posting. When you are laying around all day it is hard to think there is much to tell everyone. On a good note our life has remained without incident. I have not gone into labor and am not showing signs of any infection which was our goal for these 3 weeks at home. From that perspective things could not be going better!
We had a fun weekend watching football and we had lots of great people stop by for a visit. Thank you to all of them. Today we started the day with the news but after the 3rd hour of people interviewing President Obama's neighbors, cleaning staff, and garbage man, we decided it was time to move on. Now we are having a Harry Potter marathon! We are only on the second movie but I have never sat down and watched them in a row. It is actually kind of interesting.
Well, assuming we don't have any changes tomorrow, we check into the hospital on Wenesday morning! It doesn't change the fact that we are confined to bed but at least we will be on what we call "the second phase" of our journey. We will start antibiotics to prevent infections and steroids to help develop her lungs. Then she can come whenever she decides to come. We are hoping she waits a while but right now we are just thankful that we have made it this far. Our odds of this pregnancy ending well have gone from 5% chance to 50%! They increase every day so we will just keep waiting.
A lot of you have asked about if we have picked a name yet. To tell you the truth we haven't. It showed that she was a girl at her 18 week ultrasound but I don't know if I trust those things 100%. So we refer to her as she but are keeping an open mind. As for names we are still looking for suggestions. Some of the suggestions we have heard have been great and have made it onto our name list so if you have any suggestions we would love to hear them. To be honest we probably won't name her till we get to see her.
Tomorrow should be a great day of packing and watching the inauguration of our new President! I will update you when we get to the hospital!
Happy MLK Jr. Day!
The Meyer's

23 weeks and counting...

2009-01-14T16:25:00.002-07:00

Well, we went to the doctor this afternoon. We were hoping for some fluid to accumulate around the baby. Unfortunately there wasn't any. Luckily the baby looks great! Her heart rate was 153 which is great. She seems to be holding her own. So we are greatful she is dealing so well and doesn't have any kind of infection. All things considered this is good news it just makes us worry about her lung development. So we are back on bedrest for another week. Then they ship me off to what I refer to as "solitary confinement" otherwise known as antipartum. I am sure it will be totally fine but I have to say I am not super excited about giving up the comfort of being in my own home. The up side of the situation is that the baby will be monitored more closely and it will be comforting to see how she is doing a couple times a day instead of once a week. I will gladly give up my living room to be able to hear her little heart beat. Mostly I feel sorry for Kevin having to commute the hospital while trying to take care of the house and the pets. He doesn't seem to mind. When we check into the hospital they will give steroids to speed up the development of her lungs and they will give me antibiotics to help prevent infection. Then we will just take it one day at a time.
All things considered we are doing great. Of course we are worried but we have been having lots of fun spending lots of time together at home. We really want to thank everyone for the incredible outpouring of support. It has been great to hear from people we have not heard from in a while. We appreciate all of the prayers, positive thoughts, and food! We are very lucky to be surrounded by so many wonderful family and friends. Thanks again for everything.
My next challenge is finding some new hobbies. As most of you know I love to cook but that is not only hard to do from a bed but harder to do in the hospital. So if anyone has any ideas I am looking for options. I know, I should be studying for board exams but I will get to that, promise.
The Meyer's

The lone dishcloth...

2009-01-10T12:08:00.002-07:00

Well I did it. I completed my first knitting project! A dishcloth. I know a little anti-climactic but hey it took about 6 hours and will make sure my dishes are sparkling clean! Don't kid yourself by thinking it was complicated in any way. No fancy patterns and no fancy stitches. No, this was a project in knit a row and pearl a row. (For those of you that don't knit, that is as simple as it gets.)

Saturdays are posing a new challenge for me. I used to thoroughly look forward to Saturday. It used to be a day of recovery, catch up, and playing. Saturday now has a little twist to it. After being the sole director of the remote control all week I have decided that it would be nice to relinquish the power to Kevin for a day. It is the least I can do after all the cooking and cleaning he has been doing. Unfortunately doing this on Saturday means that I am watching Michigan State play basketball and he has just enthusiastically informed me that the NFL playoffs are TODAY. Don't get me wrong I enjoy watching sports on TV in moderation. Usually it includes a team that you are a fan for. However, being married to someone from Michigan has proved to be a problem since Detroit went 0 and 16 this season! This kind of record can be tough for a fairweather fan.
What do you think....time to make the dishcloth a friend?

Doctor visit...

2009-01-08T14:27:00.002-07:00

We went to the doctor this morning. They did an ultrasound with a full anatomical screening. Which basically means they measure EVERYTHING and look for any developmental problems. She looks great. She measures well and her development looks great. However, no amniotic fluid. She had a full bladder and a little in her stomach but none surrounding her. Basically this this means we are losing the fluid about as fast as we are making it. Our hope is that she is getting to use it before we lose it. Kevin and I are optimistic that this is what is happening.
The doctors that we are seeing are special high risk OB. They see this situation often in their line of work. So the plan right now is to stay at home on bedrest until she reaches 24 weeks. At that point they will admit me to the hospital (on bedrest) and we will be able to start taking steroids that will hopefully help to develop her lungs. We will also be on antibiotics to help prevent infections in both of us. After 24 weeks they consider her a viable baby and we could have her at any point. Although every day we can wait to have her will be a blessing. The doctors were happy with the fact that we have made it as far as we have, and so are we. Every day increases our chances. I think he said they had doubled to 10%! Not much but we will take it!
Thank you everyone for your support and prayers. We can't tell you how much we appreciate it.
We love you all,
Kevin and Angie

22 Weeks today...

2009-01-07T11:56:00.002-07:00

We have made it to 22 weeks today! My mom and Kevin have turned our house into as much of a germ free zone as I have ever seen! One of our biggest fears in an infection either in me or the baby so we are doing everything we can to make sure we are reducing that risk. I have a great bed and everything else I need set up in the living room. Poor Kevin has had to wait on me for everything but he is being a great sport about it and never complains. For once he is getting the run of the kitchen and is doing a great job at making sure I am eating great food.
As far as the baby goes, we are infection free so far! She was kicking up a storm this morning before breakfast. A good sign as far as I am concerned. We changed doctors and are going to some specialists at St. Lukes. We have an appointment tomorrow morning and are anxious and nervous to find out how things are going.
Dad and Kevin are working on some small projects around the house today when they are not waiting on me. Other than that it is bedrest as usual for me. I have had quite a few visitors (all sickness free), I have picked up knitting again, only to remind myself why I quit in the first place. We play cribbage, read books, watch movies, and TV to stay entertained. So far it isn't too bad but I can see it may get old in the future. For now I just seem to get sore from laying around so much.

21 weeks, New Years Eve day...

2009-01-07T11:28:00.002-07:00

We had a great Christmas in eastern Idaho with my side of the family. We surpassed the half-way mark of 20 weeks of pregnancy! Both of us were pretty excited to achieve this milestone. Unfortunately, we had to celebrate by driving from Pocatello to Boise in a nasty storm on Christmas day. We made the trip in a little over 5 hours but more importantly we made it safely.
I got called into work on December 30th about midnight. Sounds like a terrible time of day but I was originally scheduled to work that night so I was ready to go in. I got off work the next morning and got home around 7am. My water broke between the car and the house. I was 21 weeks that morning. Kevin and I went to the hospital and were admitted to labor and delivery. The doctors told us that most people will go into labor within 48 hours and they were very sorry but the baby was not viable. We had an ultrasound done and saw the baby had no amniotic fluid around it. We were devestated but the doctor gave us a 5% chance of the situation resolving and the baby being fine. We took it! 5% is better than nothing. I was put on strict bedrest, antibiotics, and told to drink lots of fluid. My sister had arrived and was helping us by then.
We were lucky and made it through the 48 hour waiting period and didn't go into labor. They did another ultrasound at this point and the baby looked a little better, to me. She had a small amount of fluid around her. The fluid levels are nowhere near what they should be, but to us, it was an improvement.
So we got sent home from the hospital with orders to be on strict bedrest, take antibiotics, and drink lots of fluid.

A Little History...

2009-01-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

This may be redundent to some of you but I wanted to bring everyone up to speed so we are all on the same page. I will give a brief history to catch you all up...
As most of you know, Kevin and I have struggled with fertility for quite a few years now. After a long process and some tough times we ventured into the world of intra-uterine insemination last August. It worked! We were so excited. On one of our first ultrasounds they told us we were having twins. Even better! We would take what we could get and we were blessed to be getting two! A week later they found a third baby. A little unnerving, but no complaints from us! The third baby never really developed and was lost. We were sad but hey, we still had two! During subsequent ultrasound the twins took some great pictures and were promptly named "the chicken" and "the bean". Trust me, it is exactly what they looked like. Around our 9 week ultrasound we lost the bean. It seemed to be the case of the "vanishing twin" we just happened to be keeping a very close eye. I had been having ultrasounds at a minimum of once a week due to some bleeding that had been occuring since week 6.
We were saddened by the loss of "the bean" but we were still pregnant and grateful for that. I was on bedrest for about 3 weeks after the loss of "the bean" due to some bleeding. This condition eventually resolved and the bleeding became intermittent till 16 weeks. At this point the bleeding subsided and has not returned.
At 18 weeks we saw a perinatologist and had our ultrasound for the anatomical screening.
"The chicken" looked great! We found out it was a girl! You are never 100% sure but we are excited either way. Everything looked fine, she measured a few days small but looks healthy and is well within normal range for everything they measured. It was a great way to start that week. I also graduated from nursing school that week! It was a busy week but truly one of my best.