So Kelsea has been at Haven House St. Louis for a week now and it is such a wonderful place. Mom has been staying with her and they each have their own room! came down to St. Louis yesterday and mom traded places with me, after going to our dr. appointment to see the ultrasound first!
As ALWAYS, Kim did a great job of showing off Hayden! He has grown. Not a ton in the past three weeks, but some. He was estimated at 4 lbs 5 oz. This is up from 3 bls 8 oz three weeks prior. Again, these are purely guesses because the three measurements they use are head, abdomen, and femur. However, since his abdomen has some issues (and is essentially not there), the measurements are skewed. His head circumference and femur measurements both measured at 36 weeks (which is right where he/Kelsea is today) but the measurements on his belly bring those down. Whatever his measurements are, we were thankful to hear he gained at least a little over 3/4 lb.
After the ultrasound, Mom left and we went to our MFM appointment. Another meeting with Dr. Shanks went well. It is funny, because he knows I ALWAYS have a list of questions! However, he does such a great job of answering them and making sure we are comfortable. He set up an NST for Kelsea for next Tuesday and Friday and then an appointment on Friday, so it looks as if all goes as planned, there will be no more ultrasounds. Next time I see the little guy will be in person! Because of a scheduling conflict, we missed our appointment with a social worker from the Children's. We were hoping to get the ball rolling on getting a referral to the Ronald McDonald house. However, we have plenty of time. Before we left the hospital, we also met with a representative from media relations. Fox 2 in St. Louis is wanting to do a special on Kelsea and Hayden. We have gone back and forth on this, however we both feel that this is just another thing God has put in our path and that this is a vessel that could be used to possibly comfort and give hope to others who are facing a difficult situation as well as spread a little bit of God's word and promises and how they are the ONLY reason that we are as hopeful and at ease as we are today.
We had a great meal last night at Outback Steakhouse. I had an perfect steak and Kelsea had lobster tail and scallops. Scallops.....eck!
We slept with the windows open....was about 55 degrees when I woke up at 7:30 this morning....very nice. Slowly cooled down all day. Raining here, but still too warm for snow. I think Quincy may be getting some snow/freezing rain right now, but we are not supposed to get snow until around 10 or 11 tonight.
Well, we just got back from dinner. On the weekends, food is usually brought in/prepared by families and/or local restaurants. Tonight, there was Chicken and Rice w/ broccoli, Tuna Casserole, or Turkey Tetrazzini. On the weekends, the food that is brought in is then split up into Styrofoam containers and labeled. They ask you to not open the containers to look inside because that is obviously not the most sanitary thing! Well, we were the first down there tonight and I so wanted to look at the Chicken and rice w/ broccoli because I am not a broccoli fan, but I am a chicken and rice fan. I didn't look and chose the chicken and rice. Luckily, my smart wife chose the tetrazzini and she DOES like broccoli.....she was nice enough to trade!
I can't wait for breakfast tomorrow. We went to St. Louis Bread Co. last night after dinner for a coffee and we were admiring (drooling) at all of the wonderful pastries as we walked out the door. Well, on Sat. nights, St. Louis Bread Co donates all of their day olds.....when we returned from running errands today, the counter was full of items we dreamt about last night!
Speaking of running errands.....if I would have let Kelsea loose today, I think we could have had part ownership in Babies 'R Us after today. We had quite a few gift cards from showers (THANK YOU EVERYBODY!) and were exchanging some items we had received duplicates of and returning an item I had ordered online. Well, the first lady to help us did not do the best job of making us feel welcome at the store. That is the best way of putting it and we were there to spend an additional several hundred dollars on car seat/travel system and other miscellaneous items. In the end, after the first lady left working with us in the middle of the return transaction (not because of the way we handled ourselves....I'm not really sure why she left and made some other girl do it.....from her eye rolling and comments, I'm guessing it was due to her feeling that the difficulties she was having was somehow our fault!!) they did get the returns correct. If Kelsea wasn't 36 weeks pregnant, I probably would've let her go, but I didn't want her to worry about this situation and risk increasing her blood pressure. Quite a few of you out there know how Kelsea has a knack of getting things "comped" but she also has a way of having 99.9% of her requests/orders not arriving the way they were ordered!
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| Photo taken from the Haven House website! |
On our way back, we got to drive up 270 and went past Mercy where my friend Nikki is currently in the hospital, for hopefully several more weeks, due to complications with her pregnancy, and then on to have Kelsea's toenails painted blue for Hayden's arrival!
We finally made it "home" and are sitting on the couch in the picture to the right. Whether it is Farmer Fran from Joe Dirt or it is Phillip Phillips, home is where you make it.
"Hold on, to me as we go.
As we roll down this unfamiliar road."
As we roll down this unfamiliar road."
These are the first two lines in Phillip Phillips' song and I just know that this is what God is telling Kelsea and I. If we hold on to Him, even going down this unfamiliar road, He will make "this place" our home. Whatever that place is, whether it is Haven House, Ronald McDonald house, Quincy, or a van down by the river, we know we aren't alone and that He will ALWAYS be by our side.
8 days!
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I have a Miracle too! His name is Adam.......he is now 33 years old......I was told he was a 'failure to thrive' baby, could not read until he was 15, had a life threatening traumatic brain injury at 13....and now he is an educator at the local university. There are Miracles walking in our midst.....they are called 'people'. Never ~ ever give up HOPE:-)
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