The "S" Word

Well, it is officially winter here in Buffalo. We had our first accumulating snowfall yesterday, and are expecting some more today at some point. I can't say that I am too thrilled about it, because although I love the snow, I aboslutely HATE the cold part. And yes, I am fully aware that you can't have one without the other. A girl can dream, can't she?
I don't really have much to post about other than that today. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, as I hope all of you did as well. Of course, we all ate entirely too much and spent the rest of our night in a food induced coma for the most part, not really doing much of anything. The fiancee and I drove home yesterday morning, a fairly uneventful ride except for the discovery of snow the farther north we went.
Upon our arrival into Buffalo, we found that the winds had made Lake Erie extremely choppy and that the waves were breaking nicely over the barriers (or are they wave breakers? I'm not sure...). We decided to take a little drive down to the waterfront to see if it was worth running home and grabbing cameras. We decided that it was, so we each grabbed a camera and I bundled up as much as I could (I'm a wimp and was already cold, not to mention the fact that there is literally almost  a 10 degree difference by the water). Unfortunately, we couldn't get very good pictures of the waves breaking over the barriers, we just weren't in a good spot. I managed to grab some decent pictures though, and would like to share.

Thanksgiving

I know I haven't posted in awhile. Like I've said before, I'm bad at this.
But, anyways.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!
I know I have a lot to be thankful for this holiday season, as do many others out there. We are spending this holiday out in Western PA with the fiancee's family, all of whom have been so great to us with everything since this summer and I know we are both very thankful for everything that they have done for us. I am thankful for the fact that they have all welcomed me into the family like they have, along with the very anticipated Baby Madison. We won't have the chance to travel over to the other side of Pennsylvania to see my family this year, as his work schedule doesn't allow it this year. I will be traveling out there for about a week before Christmas and he will follow to visit when his schedule allows it. I know we are both very thankful for my family as well, as they have also helped us out tremendously over the past few months with everything they possibly could.
I am most definitely thankful for my fiancee and how great he has been to me, even though I'm sure I am utterly undeserving most of the time (especially the past few months...thank you hormones for making me pretty unbearable at times I'm sure) and I'm pretty sure that I don't thank him enough for everything that he does for me. He takes wonderful care of me all of the time and is always there for me, no matter what is going on between us, or, how tired he is from work. I am so grateful and blessed to have found him when I did almost a year ago (Happy Anniversary honey) and I am looking forward to see what the many years ahead of us bring.
Last, but definitely NOT least, we are all thankful for Baby Madison. She is very highly anticpated around these parts lately, with only 10 more weeks to go until she is here! We will definitely have our work cut out for us, and that there is going to be a tough road for the first couple of months with everything going on. However, I know that with the unconditional love and support of both of our families, and each other, that the months will go by fast, although most likely not always easy, and by the time we know it she will be turning 1 and we will be wondering where the time went.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with all of those you love. If you are traveling, be safe as I know the weather in most parts is definitely not something to be thankful for this year.

Dr. Who?

I figured I should update, it's been a couple of days (see? I told you I was bad at this!). Went to the doctor's on Tuesday, for the entire day I might add, to see how Baby Madison was doing. We got the ultrasound done, and it looks like she is hanging in there. Her head is a little on the small side the doctor said, but she said it was also normal for babies with gastroschisis as they tend to be a little on the small side. She said it might also be because she is breeched and her head just might be squished from the way she is in utero. Her amnionitc fluid is also a little on the low side, but is right in that category of being between normal and abnormal, so they aren't too concerned with it right now. They said it looks like she is doing fine considering. She's around 1lb 9oz now.

We also met with the pediatric surgeon yesterday (all in all, I saw a ultrasound technician, 4 doctors, 1 nurse, and 2 residents) who explained what was going to happen after she was born. Basically, after she is born they evalute to see how much of the bowel is actually outside of the abdomen and see if they aren't able to push it all back in at once. What happens with the bowel being outside of the body like it is with her, is that it is pinched off due to the small size of the hole in the abdomen and the part of the bowel that is outside of the body becomes englarged and they may not all fit back inside the abdomen at one time. This is also due to the fact that the abdomen itself isn't big enough to hold everything because it doesn't stretch out as much as it usually does if the bowel were to develop within the body. Okay, back to what I was saying. If they are able to push the bowel back in all at one time, they will do so and she will go into surgery right away. However, if they aren't able to do that then they will see how everything is and depending on that, she will either once again go into surgery right away to put a cone over the bowel or they will wait to do it the next morning and just keep the outside bowel moist until then. With the cone, they surgically attach it to her muscle and everyday push the intestine back in a little at a time. This takes anywhere from 7-14 days to be able to fit all the bowel back into the abdomen. Then, when they are finally able to fit everything back in, they will take her back into surgery to put it back in, and fix the hole that was formed and try to recreate a belly button. She then needs to learn how to feed again, as the bowel has to adjust to being back inside the body again and passing food and nutrients through everything. All in all, she will be in the NICU for about 6-8 weeks, depending on how long it takes for them to be able to put the bowel back in and how long it takes for her to be able to feed normally.

I would add some pictures of babies with gastroschisis, but I looked them up the other day and they are quite gross to be honest, so I will spare you the image details. Instead, here's an ultrasound picture of Baby Madison.

Everyone's poop stinks.

So, there is this kid who is in my Natural Disasters class (which is a 3 hour class twice a week might I add) who thinks that his poop doesn't stink, for lack of a better phrase. This is one of my top 3 pet peeves (my other two being 1. People who don't say thank you when you hold a door open and B. People who intentionally create drama for themselves and everyone around them). And I have to listen to this kid make snide remarks for 3 hours. Twice a week. Now, all of his remarks have to do with the same person in our class. There is this girl who isn't exactly the brightest girl in the world, so she tends to ask a lot of questions during class, a lot of irrelevant questions. However, every single time she opens her mouth to speak, this kid absolutely HAS to make a remark about how stupid she is and how she should just shut up. Really? Because I do believe that you sitting there making remarks like that about her every time she speaks is about a thousand times more annoying, and immature to boot, than her asking a question. Listen kid, it doesn't make you seem any smarter (because to be honest, he asks some pretty stupid and irrelevant questions himself and always asks questions that he already knows the answers to. FAIL.) and it honestly just makes you seem like an inconsiderate moron. Oh, and not to mention the fact that he doesn't even pay attention in the class. He texts the entire time. So, my question is, why does it matter if she is going to ask questions, no matter how stupid or irrelevant they may be, if you aren't even paying attention to the lecture?

Let's give this a shot!

Well, I've decided that I should give blogging another shot. I have no idea how this is going to turn out, or if I am even going to keep up with it (my track record with these things is atrocious, as is my spelling sometimes). However, I've decided that at 25 weeks pregnant with a baby with gastroschisis that it may be a good idea to keep a blog seeing as 1.) I spend way too much time on the computer idling on Facebook and Tweetdeck and 2.) I also have a horrible track record at keeping a handwritten journal. I've started reading a few other blogs on here, mainly about children with disabilities (Love That Max mainly) and decided that while my child is not going to have disabilities that are anywhere near simliar, she IS going to have a...medical problem I suppose I could say. While reading these blogs, it hit me that they are a source of therapy. Everyone needs therapy at some point in their lives in my belief. I've decided that this blog is going to be mine.