It's a.........

BOY!!!!

The first thing the ultrasound tech noticed was....we are blessed to be expecting a boy! Heartrate (135 bpm) was great, diaphram seems to be intact, all 4 chambers of the heart were seen and the brain looks fine. He - who we are naming Gray- had his hands above his head the whole time as if to say, "Hey! Look at me! I'm not a girl!". Anyway, other than Travis feeling absolutely horrible, we are all fine. My next doctor's appointment is the "big one" with Dr. Gonzalez, the maternal fetal medicine doctor, on May 14th. Please continue to keep us, especially Gray (no middle name decided yet), in your prayers that he will be "diagnosed" as a healthy, normal baby boy.



Thanks so much for all of your prayers! Oh yeah, please pray Travis feels better very soon. He's going back to the doctor this afternoon. He feels so horrible that I don't even think he has the energy to be excited about expecting a little hunter. However, he is the best husband in the entire world! He went to my appointment with me even though he just wants to be at home in the bed. In fact, when Dr. Stradtman walked into the room, she looked at me and said, "You sound terrible. I could hear you coughing all the way down the hall." I just pointed to Travis because, unfortunately, he was the trooper making all the noise.



If I can get my CDH friend, Christy, to help me load the ultrasound pictures (wink! wink!), then those will be posted soon.



Love y'all,

Leigh

Angel Kaden Alex Kuehl

Sadly, yesterday Kaden joined Grayton in heaven. They are both, along with many, many other CDH angels (Faith, Drake, Addison, Maxton and the list goes on and on) playing in God's nursery free from ECMO, tubes, vents, etc. Please keep Kristi and Craig in your prayers as they mourn the loss of Kaden while grasping the understand of God's plan. May they have the peace only He can give them and us. I pray God will wrap His healing arms around the Kuehl family, as well as Kaden's sister - Jessica.



http://kadenalexkuehl.blogspot.com

14 Week Checkup

Well, Travis has the flu so I went to my check up alone. Dr. S was able to use the handheld instrument to hear the baby's heart beat (rather than the ultrasound)...bummer, because I always like seeing the cute bean. Although it took her a little while (in all actuality it was probably 8 seconds, but it seems like 8 minutes) to find the baby, everything sounded fine to us. I go back on April 22nd and will - hopefully - find out whether we're having a boy or girl.

Thanks for all of your prayers and words of encouragement.

Love,
Leigh

Sweet Angel Baby Maxton

I just learned today that another CDH baby has passed yesterday (on Grayton's 9 month Angelversary) from this horrible and evil birth defect. Baby Maxton was with us for 18 days and put up such a strong battle. He and his parents, Ashley and David, have been so strong throughout this entire journey. Maxton held on for as long as he could. I am confident in knowing that he is with God now and will forever be an angel to us all. Maxton's blog address is http://babymaxton310.blogspot.com/. Please pray that Ashley and David are able to find peace and understanding through all of this.

Love,
Leigh

For Grayton's Glory.....revised.....

After many prayers and much discussion, rather than have the 5K Run, we are going to have a CDH Baby Shower on Grayton's Birthday (May 9th). I am so excited. Brandy Burt Doyle, a childhood, as well as adulthood (if we're in that stage :) best friend, is hosting it at her house. We are asking those of you who'd like to participate to bring items to be donated to other families who go to Children's Hospital of Birmingham because their baby was born with CDH to ease their journey while they're at Children's. Out of the 5 CDH babies who were there while Grayton was, Travis and I were the only ones who lived in Birmingham. 1 family was from Dothan and the other 3 were from Mississippi (staying in Ronald McDonald house, a local extended stay motel or drove back and forth as their jobs allowed). Therefore, I'm working on a list of things that are easily obtainable but mean so, so much to the parents of these babies, as well as the babies themselves. If you run across these things, please bring them to the shower on Grayton's birthday. If you can't make it on Saturday, feel free to mail the unwrapped gifts to Sonia Steely 5722 Lake Cyrus Blvd Hoover, AL 35244. Because Travis and I are delivering the goodies that afternoon, if you mail the items, please make sure they get there before May 9th.


Ok, here they are the (unwrapped) items need:

mittens for newborns

socks for newborns

hats for newborns

crosses (pewter, ceramic, etc.) to hang from their beds

hand knit blankets or booties (come on you crafty gals, get out your needles!)

flannel blankets (the ones that come in packs of 3 or 4)

Boudreaux's Butt Paste

small stuffed animals

gas/filling station gift cards

washing detergent for the parents to wash their clothes

any monetary donation is definitely accepted (for instance, my 6 year old neighbor brought me $5 she earned by taking out the trash to go towards "the babies")


***Gift cards for the family (any denomination) to Burger King (there's one near the hospital), Jim 'N Nick's (also near the hospital), IHOP (one CDH family ate there everyday), Waffle House, Walmart, Visa, etc.

Anything that would make them feel they are being thought of and prayed for by others while their baby is fighting for his or her life. This list is just a few ideas I have and am working with the nurses to include more. I came up with these things due to a couple of reasons. The first time I saw Grayton (3 days after she was born) was the Monday after Mother's Day and she had the most gorgeous pink, purple and white hand kitted blanket rolled up by her adorable head. Of course, Travis had seen her for the previous 3 days and never noticed...as he says, I "don't miss a thing!" Anyway, when I asked Grayton's nurse, Jenny, where it came from - because it was clearly not a hospital blanket - she said one of the surgeon's wife makes them for the babies and, on Mother's Day, the nurses selected one for "their" babies. Well, I thought this was so sweet, I cried.

Secondly, the hospital blanket - white with blue and pink stripes - aren't the most appealing. While the babies are all beautiful and it wouldn't change if they were laying on hay, I definitely noticed when Grayton's blanket (bought and donated by her nurse, Jenny) changed to a beautiful lilac flowered one. Not to be outdone by Jenny :) , I bought several of them for Grayton, and, after washing 'em, I took them to the hospital. Although it may have been my imagination, it seemed she got changed more....A fact that wasn't my imagination (because Travis noticed it, too) Grayton certainly became color coordinated when I brought her some booties and mittens, too. (THANKS Jenny!) They all matched her bow, blankets, socks, etc. It just made my day to walk in and see her changed in her "new outfit" (because most babies only wear diapers, their blankets, socks, and mittens become their outfits). Furthermore, I included mittens because Grayton was so active and pulled at her tubes, we walked in one day to find her wearing socks on her hands. When I heard the reason, I just had find her some mittens! My mom and I searched all the specialty stores in Birmingham trying to find them. Guess what? Walmart and Babies 'R Us carry them!


As far the stuffed animals are concerned, when a parent walks in and sees an animal sitting on the baby's bed (as the baby's room at home probably holds many animals just awaiting the baby's homecoming), she feels (as I felt) wonderful! For an instant, I completely forgot about the machines and all of the sudden, that precious lamb represented hope - hope Grayton would come home to nursery awaiting her arrival.


As far as the handcrafted items, as well as the blankets, we'll be attaching a note reading, "In Memory of Grayton" to them.

During the shower, we are going to do something very, very fun that will also benefit the CDH, as well as the NICU, babies! I'll give you more information later, as I don't want to overwhelm. :)

If you can't tell from the hundred's of words I've written, I'm so excited about the shower! Thank you, God, for answering my prayers as how to honor Grayton while helping other CDH parents!! God is so good!

No Test Tomorrow

Well, after prayers, prayers and more prayers and several discussion with many of you and each other, Travis and I have decided not to have the First Trimester Test tomorrow. Other moms, as well as CDH moms have pointed out, since I'll be tested for Trisomy and diaphragmatic hernia at 22 weeks, Travis and I decided not to put ourselves through the stress and potential outcome of a "probability test".

Thanks for all of your kind words and prayers.

Although all we pray for is a healthy baby, I still think Baby Creekbaum's a boy and Travis says the opposite (imagine?!). Unfortunately, we won't be finding out tomorrow but a Chinese Calendar (different from the one I looked at in the beginning) shows we're having a girl - the difference in this one is it uses my "Lunar Age". I don't want to get into too much detail :) and besides, I don't put much into those things, but it was correct on Grayton.....

My next appointment isn't until the end of March so, please, keep the prayers coming!

Love to all,
Leigh

Doctor's Appointment..11 weeks

Even though yesterday was a terrible day (give the condition of the market) to have a 3:30pm appointment, Travis went with me to see Dr. S. She performed another ultrasound and we saw the legs, both arms, the head and the heartbeat! I think Travis was a little amazed, as was I, that the limbs were so apparent. So far, so good.



Please pray for us as I'm trying to decide whether to have the 1st Trimester test, aka Prenatal Genetic Testing and nuchal translucency (the thickness of the neck which is associated with Down's) test, done this Friday with the Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor. While it's not invasive in the least (it's done via ultrasound and pricking my finger), the outcome only predicts the probability of the baby having Down's Syndrome and Trisomy 18. Here's a link to the March of Dimes website explaining the test. http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/14332_1166.asp#head2



While we didn't know Grayton had CDH and, thus, ignorance was blissful because my pregnancy was wonderful, I feel knowledge is power. In someways, it's such a "catch 22" because if we had known about Grayton's CDH, there's little that could be done to "fix" it. Therefore, I would've worried myself crazy. It's kind of the same scenario this time. Terminating the pregnancy is not an option and there really aren't many preventive measures that can be taken either if the baby has Down's or Trisomy. Again, please pray for the baby and it's health, as well as for Travis and I that we'll make the right decision on "to test or not to test".