For over six years, Jonathan and I had one baby girl name and one baby boy name picked out.  We wanted the first names to be Bible names that had special meanings.  We didn’t want anything that was overwhelmingly common, nor did we want a name of a person who had made a bad decision that was recorded.

We had always tried to keep our baby names a secret, but since we’re not planning on more kids, today’s your lucky day.  Now, keep in mind though, if we do adopt or for some reason have a son, we will name him Josiah, regardless of if he will have cousins by this name.  You have been forewarned.

So here’s how we came up with our names . . .

Abigail: “Abigail . . . was intelligent and beautiful in appearance” (1Samuel 25:3).  She was a queen, a wife of David.  Her name means, “A Father’s Joy,” and our Abigail definitely is that!  For Abigail’s middle name, we figured since she already has Jonathan’s family name (Towell), that we could have her middle name represent my family.

Josiah:  “Josiah removed the mediums and the teraphim and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah. . . .  Before him there was no king like him who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to tall the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him” (2 Kings 23:24-25).  Josiah means, “The Lord helps”.

During my last pregnancy, we wondered what name we could choose for a girl that was uncommon, a bible name, and had a nice ring to it.  In my daily bible reading, I came across Lydia.

Lydia: found in Acts 16 was the first Christian convert in Europe.  Her name means, “Nobel kind.”  We also wanted a middle name that would be special and knew that even through my suffering of pregnancy, we would have Joy.

Late in pregnancy, when I was told I had Cholestasis and that possible risk would be still birth, I thought about changing her middle name to Grace.  For about 2 days, I really wondered if I’d ever see the perfect gift inside of me grow up.  Very scary.

Whether our baby’s middle name is Joy or Grace, we know that God has given us both of those.  We love holding our miracle baby.  We praise God for our indescribable gifts.

I didn’t really want to make this a public issue, but I also don’t want to have to explain the situation a hundred times, so I’ll tell you what’s going on.

Last Week

So last week, I started itching all over.  I figured it was weather related, or if it was pregnancy related, there wasn’t a problem.  But at my OB check up last Thursday, when I told the OB about the itching, she asked me several questions.  At the end of the questions, she said, “Okay, we need to do a blood test to see if you might have Cholestasis. . . If you do, it could be very high risk for Baby.  You can take a look at itchymoms.com . . .”

So, I went home and looked at the website.  It scared me, and on that day and Friday, I thought, “I definitely have this.”  Saturday and Sunday, though, I felt better with the itching and thought, “I don’t have Cholestasis.”

What’s Cholestasis (ICP)

It’s a rare pregnancy disease; only occurs in 1 out of 1,000 pregnancies.  From what I understand, bile is made in your Liver and should empty into your Gallbladder.  With ICP, the bile either moves slowly or doesn’t move at all and causes build up, so it empties into your bloodstream.  Thus, the bile salts in your blood cause an internal itching and is basically toxic to Baby.  “ICP poses several risks that are of great concern. ICP is associated with an increased risk for infant stillbirth (intrauterine death of baby), premature labor, fetal distress, and hemorrhaging in both mother and child.”  So, the goal is to get Baby out not much later than 37 weeks.

Tuesday Morning

Well, yesterday, I got a call from my OB’s nurse who said,  “Your bible acid levels were elevated, so we’re going to send you to the Perinatologist (a high risk pregnancy OB) to do a Non Stress Test (aka, NST).”  I asked if I’d be able to speak to the Perinatologist, or if I’d only deal with his nurses.  She said just the nurses.  Then, I said, “Okay, since my OB is out of the office all week, could I speak to one of her associate doctors?”  The nurse said, “We reserve contacting them for emergencies.”  Ummmm, what the heck, lady.  My baby could die inside of me; that’s not an emergency?!  Needless to say, she made my cry (all the while, Abigail is saying, “Mommy’s sad.  Momma, are you crying?  Oh, Mommy, you need a Kleenex?”).  After a little more discussion with her, I got off the phone because she was not helpful; she didn’t even know how to pronounce the disease, and I’m sure I’m more educated about it than she is.

I called Jonathan, my mom, and my dad to update them.  My mom asked if she could call the nurse to give her a piece of her mind.  Jonathan said he coming home from work and later told me he was about to go up to the office and chew the nurse out.  Oh boy.  Thank goodness that right as he got home, my OB (whom we love!) called me.

She said she’s dealt with this before, and the outcome has always been good.  Only once was the baby put in NICU.  The babies tend to have feeding issues, but she gave the impression that she had never delivered a still birth from Cholestasis.  She told me she texted the Perinatologist that he needed to come in and meet with me when I had the NST.  She also answered a lot of my questions.  She’s an amazingly, intelligent, kind Christian, and we trust her very much.

Tuesday Afternoon

I went in and did the NST; Baby moved great.

Then the Perinatologist came in and answered all my questions and gave me tons of info:

• I was told I’ll be coming in twice a week to do NSTs.  If Baby keeps moving well, and everything else seems to look well, the longest I could go is 38 weeks.  If things end up not so good, 36 weeks is when they’d take Baby (this is next week!).
• I got a steroid injection to hopefully help Baby’s lungs mature, but I’m on the borderline of when steroids stop being effective.  The nurse said, “This is going to burn like the dickens.”  She wasn’t kidding.  Holy petes; it kept burning for around an hour or so, and it’s still tender.  Jonathan said the needle was incredibly long; ewww.  She also said the ‘roids would probably keep me wide awake– yea, considering I already have the worst sleeping ever.
• They did a Sonogram, and Baby looked great.  The estimated weight is already 6 lb, 11 oz.  All of Baby’s measurements were the size of a 37-38 weeks Baby in utero.  The placenta isn’t in Grade 3 yet (which is what happened with Abigail at 35 weeks and one of the reasons why they took her two weeks early), so that’s great.  It looked as if Baby won’t have much hair.  Thanks a lot Jonathan’s genes.
• I had to take another blood test to test for Liver Function.
• I got a prescription for Ursodiol.  It will hopefully help with the itching and move the bile salts into the GallBlader- rather than the bloodstream.

To those who’ve been praying

Thanks soooooo much.  I think my itching had lessened due to your petitions to our God.  Keep it up.  I really don’t care about the itching so much (even though it is very uncomfortable/painful); I just want to be able to see my Baby and watch Baby grow into a toddler/child/teen/adult.

To those who have/had Cholestasis

Please let me know who you are if you come across this.  I’d like to know more about it, and I’d like to try and help you if you’re going through it.

So yesterday, Jonathan and I went to see our fetus again.  Here are some things we learned from the appointment:

1. Baby weighs about 15 oz.  The Perinatologist (sp?) predicted that Baby’s final weight could be 8 lb, 8 oz.                                                                                        
2. Baby has my toes (the second toes are longer than the firsts)
3. My placenta is low lying.  This isn’t a bad thing now, but it could be of a concern if it doesn’t move up later on.
4. Baby is breech now, which isn’t a bad thing now.
5. They didn’t see anything wrong with the kidneys, at this point.
6. I have another Sonogram scheduled for February, and I’ll probably get another one after that!

Here are some other pictures: Arm, Leg, Head & Chest

Last night, Jonathan felt Baby move several times for the first time!  Yea!

And, we’ve decided to refer to Baby as JoJo, as suggested by Jonathan’s sister.  I’m not sure of her reasoning, but here’s our reason: if Baby is a boy, his middle name will be Jonathan, and if Baby is a girl, her middle name will be Joy.  Hence Jo for Jonathan and Jo for Joy, so JoJo.

Here’s what I looked like last week:

I had planned on doing a post last Tuesday (which didn’t happen) and then today on how to make baby burp cloths, but seeing as how I’m STILL pregnancy sick, I cannot gather the energy to do that.

Instead, I will solicit your help . . .

I’m trying to be informed about the flu and swine flu vaccines, so I can make a good decision for me, my unborn child, and Abigail.  I hear conflicting “evidence” as to the safety/harm of it all.

My OB said I should get the flu shot, but she didn’t mention the H1N1 shot, specifically.  I got the seasonal flu shot last year to try to protect Abigail and ended up getting flu symptoms four days later only for a day.  I predict that would happen again this time if I get the shot, but I wonder if that’s safe for baby if I show symptoms for a day?

And Abi hasn’t had her flu shot yet because they’re always out.

We live in Texas where 5151 people have been infected and 27 have died, as reported on July 24.  And it’s only gotten worse since then.  Two of Jonathan’s co-workers kids got swine flu and my hair dresser’s (who cuts hair in her home) daughter had it WHEN I WENT OVER THERE TO GET MY HAIR CUT . . . WITH ABIGAIL!  Ahh, thank goodness we didn’t get sick.  So, it’s not like it is not gonna get close to me.

Anyway, what’s your opinion on getting either shots?  Especially if you have  toddlers or are a pregnant, too, let me know.

Abigail had her 18 month well check up yesterday.  Some things that happened there . . .

• The Pedi said about 4-5 different times, “I’m very impressed with Abigail’s speech.”
• She asked me lots of questions like, “Does Abby bring things to you if you ask, will she . . ., etc” to check her developmental skills.  One thing she asked that I thought was strange was, “Does she walk backwards?”  Uhh, I don’t know.  So, we put Abigail on the floor, and the Pedi started walking towards Abby, and Abby took several steps backwards.  Interesting.
• Because of her kidney reflux, they have to start taking her blood pressure.  Apparently it was too high at the Urologist’s office, so they wanted a better reading.  But since Abigail is so afraid of Doctors now, they told me they’d hook her up, leave the room, and have me push the buttons on the machine.  Okay, well, Abby hated the arm cuff.  She cried and cried and cried.  And they didn’t want me to take the reading with her crying.  So, she’d calm down, then, I’d push the button, and she’d hear the machine and feel the pressure and start crying again.  Ugh.  At one point, I checked her arm, and it was completely red, splotchy, dotted, and purple.  The doctor said it was petechia.  Poor girl.  So, we switched the cuff to the other arm.  All in all, we had about 10 error readings.  But we finally got it.  She was happy to leave.
• The Pedi said, “Since Abigail is so so advanced, you can start teaching her things, like,  . . . “
• Abby weighed 21 lb and 9 oz.  She was almost 33 inches long.

I don’t know what else to say except please visit this blog and start praying for Brad (sweet, brave husband), Sara (might be brain dead, new mom with cancer), and Chloe (precious newborn).

I apologize to my readers.  I’m still here; just really busy, and blogging has not been my priority.  Sorry.  I will try to be better . . . maybe next week.

Some recent good news

• We found out that my dad doesn’t have cancer . . . after doing several tests for the past 3 months. Praise the Lord.  His lesion seems to have “disappeared”.
• Also, we bought Abigail a cute outfit for Halloween; her Daddy picked it out.  Maybe she’ll win another contest like she did last year.
• I went to the orthodontist, and he was talking about scheduling my next appointments.  He said, “Make one for six weeks and four weeks, and they’re off.”  I said, “Wait, in 10 weeks, they’ll be off?!”  He said, “Well, that would only put you at having braces for 10 months, so maybe we better slow down.”  So, I said, “But you think I’ll have them off by March (Abigail’s bday).”  He said, “Before Christmas.”  What what!  Awesomeness.  They had originally estimated 20 months, and it looks like I’ll be getting them off before 1 year.  Yea!
• Braves have won 7 in a row!!  This weekend, we’re taking on the first place team in our division, so if we sweep them, and other teams do poorly, we’ll have a shot of getting into the playoffs.  I never used to have to worry about that; it was always a given that they’d be in the playoffs, but in the last few years, they have disappointed me!

I made a 17 month movie of Abigail with Jonathan’s stupid Mac (only because it’s faster than my PC).  But for the bazillionth time, it’s having trouble uploading.  It strips out the video from the video clips, and it doesn’t include the music at all!  Ugh.  It never had problems uploading the movies I made on my PC.  I hate Macs!!!!

Anyway, so I’ll do a “Happy 18 Months” post for her whenever I get the video straightened out.  Until then, I’ll give you an update on her appointments today.

Abigail had a renal ultrasound done on her kidneys and bladder.  She absolutely hated it.  It wasn’t painful (maybe a little cold), but ever since her VCUG, she’s just so scared of doctors/nurses.  I even was able to hold her the whole time, but she still cried the whole time!  About 20 minutes or more.

Because of all her squirming, they couldn’t get a very good read, but they don’t think there is any scarring on her kidneys.  They did say that her left kidney is larger than her right one.  But her bladder looks okay.

So far, she’s doing okay on her prophylatic antibiotic, and we’ll continue that until her next VCUG in about 9 months.

Cutest smile ever, right?!

Abby had an appointment with a Pediatric Urologist last week, and we feel a lot better having talked things out with the doctor.

Here are some things we learned:

• She told us potty training might be different because Aibgail will have a tendency to hold her urine or only let little bits out at a time, not fully emptying her bladder.
• Deflux is a good option for Abigail, but the success rate is only 80% (whereas Ureteral Reimplant Surgery has a 99% success rate).  She said she wouldn’t be opposed to doing either of these, but she said if it were her daughter, she would wait it out a little bit to see if the Reflux gets better.
• She said there won’t be any problems with Abigail’s fertility because of this.
• We have to get a Renal Ultrasound done on Abigail next month, and then, we’ll have a follow up appointment with the Urologist to see if there is any scarring on Abby’s kidneys or if her kidneys are dilated.
• On the advice of our Urologist, here are the reasons we might choose Deflux or the Surgery soon (which is a relative term): 1.  If it shows that she does have scarring or dilation of the kidneys.  2.  If she gets any breakthrough infections while on the Antibiotics.  3.  If at her next VCUG, her Reflux Grade has stayed the same or gotten worse

I asked how long we would “wait and see” if the reflux didn’t completely went away.  Would it be 5 or 9 years minimum before we started looking into corrective options?  The Urologist said that she wouldn’t want to wait even 5 years; she thinks she’d want it corrected within 3 years.  I think she’s confident that it should get better without corrective measures (not counting antibiotics).  I sure hope so.

**Enter the Giveaway here.**

Sneezing . . . in slow motion.  Kinda disgusting.  I will forever be grossed out.