Going Home!!!

A lot has happened since we had the chance to write a post last.  Mae did round the corner and is doing much, much better.  They took her central line out of her belly button and put another peripheral IV in her foot, but just for her antibiotics.  The rest of the time they capped it and had her off the IV so she had one less wire that she was hooked up to.

Her time on the new air machine, the Optiflow, was pretty short lived.  She was on it for that night and did really well.  So that morning she was already on room air at 21% oxygen and they turned down the pressure from 3 liters to 2.  She was on that for about 2 hours and doing perfect, so they turned her down to 1 liter of pressure.  About an hour later, they decided she was doing so well that the doctor decided to take her off the Optiflow machine and just put her on a bubbler off the wall air.  But it took a while to get her hooked up while she was off the Optiflow, and her stats didn't dip at all, so instead of being on another nasal cannula and one more tube, she was taken off the air completely. She has been great with the breathing ever since!

Once she was off the air, we got to hold her a lot more, so we got some good quality snuggle time with our little girl.  She got her last dose of antibiotics Saturday morning at 10, so her IV came out. At that point the only wires or tubes were her feeding tube, her pulse ox monitor, and her breathing monitors.

I came home Saturday afternoon so I could preach at church on Sunday, and Beth stayed at the hospital.  When I left, they said that her breathing issues were all taken care of and her eating was the only thing left.  They said she needed to be able to take all her feedings orally and gain weight.  Throughout the day on Friday and Saturday, she had a few feedings where she did really well, but also had a few she had to take through the feeding tube because she just couldn't seem to wake up to eat a few times.  Part of the problem is they wanted her to be acting hungry before she could even try to eat orally, so if she wasn't waking up before hand, they just fed her with her tube.

But throughout the night Saturday night was a different story.  Beth texted me early this morning (on Sunday) and said that she had taken all her feedings orally throughout the night and had done really well.  They took her feeding tube out this morning and they just finished her car seat test to make sure her stats would stay up while she was in it.  She did awesome!

They just weighed her, and she had gained weight, which means we get to take our little girl home tonight!  Beth is about to feed her and then we will finish up the paperwork to go home.  God is good!!!

Rounding the Corner

All through the night last night Mae did really great. The doctor told us that at some point kids in Mae's position usually round a corner and start doing drastically better, and last night seemed to be that for Mae.

Her numbers on the monitor have been great, she stayed in the 90's all night on her pulse ox. Her respiration monitor has been jumping all over the place, but they figured out that it was picking up her heartbeat on that lead, so all it amounted to was a lot of beeping all night.

They tested her blood gas levels again and they were really good, so they took her off the CPAP and put her on a newer type of machine called an Optiflow that is supposed to allow them to use much lower flows without the risk of putting fluid in their lungs. Mae is doing great on the new system, her numbers didn't even falter.

When the doctors came to do rounds today he told us that he was very impressed with the progress she had made.  He also told us that there was some concern that she could have an infection of some kind. She had a blood test that tested for inflammation levels and it came back a little high, which is an indicator that there could be an infection, possibly even pnemonia, that has been causing her progress to be so slow up to this point. So for now they are leaving her on the antibiotics and they are going to run that test again before and after they give her the medicine. He did say that the chances of that being the case are very slim, mostly because Beth's water didn't break before the c-section.

They are going to take the central line in her belly button out and try to get another IV location on one of her arms. But they are not going to give her constant fluid, so it will be at least one tube she won't be hooked up to all the time.

The other good news is he told us that we can start holding her as much as we can. Which is great news, because Beth has held her a couple of times, but only for about 30 minutes total. And I held her for a couple minutes after she was born and once to pass her back to the nurse from Beth. So we are both really excited to get some quality cuddle time with our little girl.

Things are definitely looking up!

Update on Mae

Little miss Mae has been through a lot for a girl who is not even four days old yet.

They are continuously monitoring her pulse, blood ox level, and resperation rate. On Saturday, she was on the CPAP machine and her numbers on the monitors seemed really good. Good enough to come off the CPAP and onto something called a Vapotherm, which is similar to a CPAP, but doesn't provide as much pressure for her lungs, which made her work harder to breathe on her own. She seemed to do really well with it and her numbers were good on the monitors, but then they checked her blood gas levels and her CO2 levels were very high. Essentially her blood was being oxygenated,  but not releasing the CO2 back out.  So she ended up back on the CPAP for a while.

Sunday was a long day for her. She continued to need a higher percentage oxygen level in the CPAP, so they ended up giving her a dose of surfactant in her lungs, which meant she had to be intabated while they did it. She also pulled out two different IV's, so they ended up putting a central line in through her belly button. All of that happened within about an hour and really put a lot of stress on her little body. As a result, she ended up  increasing her need for oxygen quite a bit. That afternoon she was up to around 60-70% oxygen. The rest of the day Sunday and throughout Monday they slowly turned her oxygen level down as she could stand it and increased her food intake.

Beth and I went back home for the night Monday night to do some laundry and see our other kiddos.  It was really hard to leave Mae in the hospital and it was equally hard to leave the kids at home today. As Beth said the other day, it  feels like our hearts are in two places.

Last night when we left the hospital Mae was doing okay, today when we got back she was doing great. Her oxygen level right now is at room air, 21% oxygen. The CPAP is also turned down to the lowest flow rate possible, so the next step is to go back to the  Vapotherm or something similar that will still give her oxygen, but at a much lower level, making her do the work.

She is now taking 36 mL of food every three hours and is doing very well with it. They will likely keep her on the CPAP the rest of the day and check her blood gas levels again tonight. If all goes well, she will come off the CPAP tonight or tomorrow and go to another type of machine. At that point we will get to start holding her more, which we are really excited about. Beth has gotten to hold her twice, but not for very long.

Miss Mae has been through a lot, but is doing very well right now. The doctors are hesitant to give a date that they think she might go home because it all depends on how she does.

Thank you for all the prayers and please keep them coming!

Check back here for future updates!

Welcome to the World Mae Elizabeth!

Beth wrote a while ago about finding out that a surprise was coming, that we were having our third child early this year.

Beth had another rough pregnancy, starting preterm labor at 32 weeks this time. We spent four days in IU Arnett hospital in Lafayette around that time, and Beth had contractions pretty consistently from then on. She was again told to rest, but not put on full bedrest. Somehow she keeps avoiding that. My guess is her doctors sense she won't do it even if they ordered her to!

But our mothers were saints again, helping out by switching off coming a few days each week to help with the kids and housework that Beth wasn't supposed to be doing.  I don't think we could have made it these last several weeks without the two of them. We are very blessed to have both of them and also to live much closer than the last  time this all happened.

Last Friday, Sept 27, just a day before Hunter's first birthday, Beth started having strong contractions every 3-5 minutes around 6:00 am. We headed to the hospital and the doctor said she had progressed enough to do her cesarean section that day. Beth went into surgery around 3:00 pm and our daughter Mae Elizabeth Crostreet was born at 3:27  pm on September 27, 2013. She weighed 8 lbs 1 oz and was 20 inches long. She is beautiful, with dark hair.

She held her breath at six minutes  old, which concerned the nurses enough to send her to the NICU for a spell. So we are sitting at a NICU bedside again for a while.

But we are so glad to have our little girl here at last!

(Apparently Blogger is having some trouble with pictures right now. We'll get some up as soon as we can.)

Mother's Day

After a wonderful Mother’s Day with my family, I was thinking about the amazing gift I have been given to be a mother.  We weren’t always sure I would be able to have children, and it did take some work to be able to get pregnant with Addy.  I remember the night I took that test.  The line was SO faint, and I kept staring at it to make sure it was real.  I remember keeping it on the sink and checking on it over and over just to make sure that second line didn’t disappear!  I remember telling Ben that he was going to be a daddy, and the look on his face was priceless!  He was SO excited!  We were overjoyed and terrified all at the same time. 

My pregnancy with Addy was pretty easy until the very end when I ended up having some preterm labor and giving birth about 4 weeks early.  I remember holding her in my arms for the first time and being shocked at how absolutely gorgeous she was!  I mean, I really don’t think I had ever seen a more beautiful baby in my life!  Then they told us that they needed to take her away because she was having some trouble breathing.  When they took her from my arms, it sort of felt like my heart was being pulled out of my chest.  She ended up in the NICU for about 10 days, and those were some of the hardest days of my life.  It was so horrible to leave this child who had literally been a part of my body for the last 9 months in a hospital separated from me each night.  The day we finally got to bring her home, I thought I would never be able to put her down!  Now I look at this nearly three-year-old girl who is so tall and smart and has insanely curly hair and the most beautiful hazel eyes, and I still sometimes can’t believe that WE made her.  That God gave her to US to raise.  Simply amazing!

Then along came my sweet little boy.  Hunter took a very long time to conceive, and we were to the point that we thought we might need fertility medication.  But God stepped in and blessed us with another sweet blessing!  It was the most incredible feeling to want something for SUCH a long time and to finally get it.  We were thrilled, and this time, I just knew we were having a boy…I felt it in my soul!  I even bought some boys clothes before we had even had our ultrasound.  Ironically, that ultrasound showed that we were having another little girl!  Though I was really excited that Addy would have a sister, I just couldn’t shake the feeling that they were wrong.  So a few months later, we had another ultrasound, and sure enough, they found that we were, in fact, having a boy!   I think Ben was more excited than anyone to have a little hunting buddy. 

My pregnancy with Hunter was much more difficult, and I was on bed rest off and on from about 27 weeks.  In fact, at one point, I was transferred to a bigger hospital because they thought he was coming at 35 weeks.  He ended up staying put until 39 weeks, and I had to have a c-section because he was just so big.  9lbs. and 6 oz. to be precise!  It was so amazing to have a full-term baby that never had to leave my side after he was born.  I remember lying in my hospital bed holding him and thinking that I just wanted to snuggle him and rub his chubby little cheeks and smell his little head for as long as I could because I knew he would grow so fast!  And he has!  He is now 7 months old, and so big!  His height has been off the growth charts since he was 2 months old, and since Addy was such a peanut when she was little, it took me by surprise!  He is the sweetest, most easy going little guy.  He has the best smiles that just absolutely melt my heart!  I think he is going to be just like his daddy when he grows up (at least I sure hope so).

So when Hunter was about 5 months old, we found out we were expecting baby number 3!  We were totally shocked since we hadn’t planned to have another child quite so soon.  I remember calling Ben at work (I was still pretty much in shock at that point), and I just blurted it out.  He started laughing!  He never missed a beat and was instantly excited. I realized then how blessed we were and how wonderful my husband truly is.  It was such an amazing blessing, especially considering what we had gone through to have Addy and Hunter.  It is really funny to me now to meet people who see our pregnancy as a negative thing.  I just can’t see it as anything but the incredible blessing it is!  MY God doesn’t make mistakes.  Yes, our baby was planned.  Our child was planned and formed by the creator of the universe, and He just decided surprise us with it this tie around!  Yes, I am fully aware that I will have my hands full, but my heart will be even fuller…and I can’t wait!

Motherhood has been the most amazing and exhausting journey I have ever taken, and I am SO happy that I’ve been able to share this experience with Ben.  I can’t imagine a better partner and a better daddy for my babies (and if you haven’t noticed, we make BEAUTIFUL babies).  We don’t get to sleep in much anymore, and we can’t go eat at Steak and Shake late at night like we used to.  It takes lots of effort to arrange a date night, and sometimes I literally count down the minutes until bedtime.  But now I get sloppy kisses and great big hugs and the sweetest smiles and giggles that seem to come from their toes.  I get to spend my days reading the same books over and over and changing diapers and making lunches and playing with play doh.  I wouldn’t change it for anything!  When I prayed for children, I never knew how much different, how much fuller, my life would be.  Sometimes, I just sit and look at them and can’t believe how blessed I really am.  I can’t wait to see who they will be when they grow up and what God has in store for them.  God has blessed me to be a mommy, and I can’t imagine a job I’d rather have.

Reviving our Blog!

It has been such a long time since we have written anything in our blog, but I figured now would be a great time to bring it back since we have so many changes going on that we would love to share with our family and friends.  So what is happening in our lives now?

1)  We moved to Indiana!   Since Ben left Indiana to move to Lincoln when we were married, he has been dying to get back to his home state.  And considering the condition of Illinois at the present time, I was ready to go as well!  We had prayed about this for some time, but God seemed to want us to stay where we were, so we just waited for Him to show us where He wanted us to be.  After living in Mt. Pulaski for almost three years, God made it clear to us it was time to move.  While we were sad to leave our friends and our church family, we were excited to begin the next stage of our lives.  This brings me to live change # 2...

2)  Ben accepted a ministry position!  Since Ben graduated in 2010, he had been seeking a ministry position, but God obviously had other plans for us at that time.  Instead, we settled in Mt. Pulaski where Ben began working as a forklift driver for Remington seeds.  Within a year, he had worked his way up to a full time position as the Distribution Supervisor.  It was a great job with benefits, and we were very comfortable where we were.  Then God shook our lives up again!  Last December, we heard of a position in Indiana.  While it sounded pretty ideal, we weren't sure we wanted to pursue it because, as I said before, we were very comfortable where we were.  However, through a series of events, God made it clear to us that Ben should pursue this position.  In February, Ben interviewed for the position, and after doing a trial sermon a few weeks later he was offered the job.  He is now the minister at First Christian Church here in Brook Indiana.  He is really loving finally being able to do the kind of ministry he has studied for so long.  We were blessed with a beautiful parsonage with lots of space, which is amazing because...

3)  We are having another baby!  Yes, you read that right!  About 3 days before Ben was offered the position here at Brook, we were shocked to find that we were expecting another little blessing.  It definitely wasn't what we had planned, but sometimes God has better plans for us than we had for ourselves!  With all of the difficulty we had getting pregnant with both of our children, it is utterly amazing that this happened without any effort on our part at all.  What an incredible blessing!  At this point, I am 15 weeks pregnant and everything is going very well.  We had an appointment last week.  The baby's heart rate was in the 150's and everything looked good.  I am due October 21st, and by the end of next month we should find out whether our sweet baby is a boy or girl!  While the idea of having 3 kids that close together is a little intimidating, I know that God is in control and He knows EXACTLY what He is doing.

So that is life in for us in a nutshell.  It has been crazy and unexpected and exciting and beautiful!  God just continues to show us His plan for us, and it has all been so much more than we could have hoped for.  We hope that we can use our blog to keep all of our family and friends updated on what is going on in our lives even though we are further away.  We can't wait to share with you all what God has in store for our family!

New Years Resolutions

So for the new year, Ben and I have decided to get healthy as a family. Although this has always been a struggle for me personally, we have really great motivation. We have a baby now who is starting to eat food, and I don’t want her to grow up with the same unhealthy eating habits I have. I want to be able to be confident that the foods that Ben and I eat are healthy enough for Addy to eat as well. As a mom, the nutrition of my family is my responsibility, and I don’t take that lightly at all.

That means that we need a complete overhaul of our diet. To start, we are doing one week of a “kick start diet.” It designed to help you break your addiction to carbs and kick start your weight loss. While doing this, you only eat meats and green veggies as well as 2 oranges per day. It is pretty awful while you are doing it, but after 4 days I have lost 7 lbs, so I would say it works. Besides, it is only one week (just a very LONG week). Anyway, so after this is over, we will just be focusing on counting calories and making healthier choices (and resume eating carbohydrates).

My goals for the rest of the month include: Using brown rice instead of white rice, using sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes, eating fish twice per week, trying to use as many different kinds of vegetables as I can, and making a new recipe every day for the rest of the month. While doing this we are also tracking our calories each day, and I am giving up sugared soda (just for this month—I’m not ready to give up my coke completely).

So I decided that as I experiment with different recipes, I will blog about them and share what works and what doesn’t and how our lifestyle change is working for us. I will also include recipes so that anyone who wants to try them can.

We end our kick start diet at the end of the week, so Saturday starts the experiment. I have researched lots of recipes, and I am excited to try them all. I am also excited to eat bread.