Fun Friday

Yesterday was our first appointment with an actual doctor! Woo Hoo! We decided to stick with the same doctor that we've used to past two times even if we don't like the hospital we have to deliver at. I must say that I am SO glad we decided to stick with him! My name got called and it was his actual nurse (love her) and she was like "HEY!!" like we were old pals or something! haha She was soooo great with me when I was fixing to have a c-section with Sadie. I was freakin out and she was so helpful and trying to calm me down. Later she told me she was worried about me cause I was so scared :)



So the Dr. walks in and the first thing he says is "You are NOT going to believe this but I swear to you that just yesterday afternoon, I thought about you guys and wondered whatever happened to the Stein family and here you are today!" Isn't that great? Made us feel good that he wondered where we were and why we hadn't been around in a while!! We've been pregnant every other year so I guess he knew it was time for #3! haha

After taking care of some not so fun things (pap..ugh!), he's ready to listen for the heartbeat! This is where the funny part starts...When I was preggo with Laney, he predicted a girl based on the heartrate and with Sadie, he predicted a girl too and well he was right that time too :) So Brandon informs him that when/if he finds the heartbeat, he is NOT allowed to predict or give his opinion based on what the heartrate is!!! haha Dr. Hix got the BIGGEST laugh out of that one! Brandon said if it is another girl he is going to cry and the dr. said he would cry with him!

With Laney and Sadie, he hadn't found the heartbeat the first time, so I was pretty confident that he wouldn't find this ones the first time and would want to do an ultrasound. I was nervous and excited all at the same time! Of course I was right...couldn't find the heartbeat (he thought he heard it for a brief second) so off to the ultrasound room we went! Has anyone else had the internal ultrasound?? UGH. Very uncomfortable!! Ahem, and they put a condom over it! Like I said, uncomfortable and weird!! OK anyways, so up pops our little "baby cup" (Laney's name for the baby)!!!! He/she was a lot bigger than I expected! I could make out the eyes and it's back and arms...awww :) We could also see the heart beating on the screen. I told the doctor that I was soooo relieved when I seen the heartbeat! Our doctor said that he is always nervous until he sees the heart beating on the screen (that's a good doctor).

not the best quality photo but you can only do so much with a crappy cell phone pic :)

So then we hear, "Well the heart is beating 175 bpm, looks like a healthy BABY!" and then he starts laughing because Brandon is standing against the wall with the scaredest look on his face! Brandon said "Don't even say it!! I know what that means!!" Brandon said his heart fell into his stomach at that point! haha Brandon asked what the odds of it being a boy were....Dr. Hix said, "Brandon, that does NOT mean it's a girl. There is still hope! That stuff is just hogwash and you can't predict based on that!" Yeah, ok Dr. Hix...you predicted it for us twice before! We were all laughing hysterically at this point. Well except for Brandon. I told them we needed to get Brandon to an E.R. quickly cause I'm pretty for sure he was about to have a heart attack! Brandon asks if it would be ok to take my nausea medicine. More laughs. Nothing like everyone laughing while you're laying spread eagle on an exam table :/

Oh, and we just seen one baby :( I guess you grow faster with each pregnancy or something? Cause I could've sworn there was either more than one or that I was further along...seriously. So I'm about 12 weeks and I'm due on December 7th. So I should have this little baby somewhere around the end of November or first of December (c-section births are great for exact dates-except for Laney, who decided to come a day before her scheduled c-section). Our next appointment is in June and this is the one where they do AFP (?) testing. We opted out of this testing on Laney and Sadie so we signed a release with this one too. When I was pregnant with Laney, Dr Hix said that a lot of times this test will have false positives and then you have more testing that turns out negative. Basically it can cause a lot of worries. He said anything that can be "fixed" will show up on an ultrasound and since he knew we wouldn't terminate a pregnancy because of things the tests might show (like down-syndrome and other genetic problems) then it really wasn't a necessary test for us. Him and his wife had opted out of this testing too.


We headed to the nurses desk to sign the release and his nurse told us that her cousin was pregnant and the heartrate was always high so they were convinced they were having a girl. They had decided not to find out what they were having so when the baby was born, it was a boy! She was trying to give Brandon a shred of hope..but he still has doubt! He thinks God may be testing him until we find out! haha Poor Brandon! Anyone else got any rays of hope that I can share with Brandon? What were your babies heart rates/sexes? I told Brandon that I'm going to go have the ultrasound alone at 20 weeks because I don't think he can stand the disappointment if it is a girl! I think every daddy has dreams of having a boy? He loves his girls SOOO much so I know that after the initial shock wears off (if it does happen to be a girl), he will be excited and he'll be wrapped around her finger like he is with Laney and Sadie :)



Such a funny Doctor's appointment! I was really nervous but it turned out great and we had a lot of fun too!! Can't wait till next month!!



Then we went back to Nana and Pepaw's to get the girls and apparently they decided to go swimming while we were gone! haha Can we say, BRRRR?!?!






Holly and Alli decided to come over for a visit so we ended up spending the whole day with everyone. We had a great time! The best part was the loooong nap we all took in the afternoon :) Awwww it was so nice! I took care of Alli for a while. Laney and Holly decided to go work out while Sadie was still sleeping. She was quiet most of the time but she did cry quite a bit too! The only way I kept her from crying was by playing "Walk the Line" by Johnny Cash on the cell phone! haha I played it over and over and over again. Everytime she would start to cry, I would turn it on and she would stop instantly!!


Uncle Dustin came home and we went out to the pool again and the girls got in..again. They love the water! I think they would live there if we would let them! We had to practically drag them out. Poor Sadie's lips and hands were blue! Those crazy girls! We were going to barbecue but it was getting kind of late by this point and no one wanted to go to the grocery store so we decided to order pizza instead! OHHHH it was so good! I can't find very many things that I like during this pregnancy but the stuffed crust pizza....MMMM!! It's too bad we're on a budget because I think I would order it everyday! I craved it before bed and when I woke up this morning and now that I'm talking about it...I want it NOW! I am definately kicking myself for not bringing some of it home with us!


It was such a great Friday!

Sadie's legs

Well we finally have internet again! Yay! We switched internet companies and it has taken FOREVER to get the new company to do their thing!! Anyways..now I can finally update about Sadie's legs....

As most of you know, we were told by the orthopedic specialist in Springdale that she would need braces to correct her legs and he wanted to send us to a children's orthopedic specialist in Tulsa because if her legs did not straighten up after the braces then Tulsa would be the place where she would have surgery to correct them.

So on May 14th, we headed to our appointment with Dr. Capeheart. As you can imagine, we were pretty nervous. I had cried several times because I knew that it would be so hard on Sadie. We had read that the braces would have to be worn 23 out of 24 hours!!! Sadie is a very active 21 month old so we knew this would be very difficult and she would NOT be a happy girl with something on her legs all day long. Dr. Capeheart came in and looked her legs over and decided to do some more x-rays (for some reason our Dr. in Springdale sent no x-rays or information to Dr. Capeheart's office?!?!) So Brandon took her back to the x-ray room (I couldn't go cause I'm pregnant...boo!) and then we all waited for the results.

Finally, he brought the x-ray in to show us and to discuss what he thought. He said he was going to go through a couple of diseases that children usually have when they have these types of leg problems and show us what her legs (more specifically her knee caps) would be doing if she had any of these diseases. First, it was some REALLY long name that I can't remember (ha) and said if she had this disease, her knee caps would look a certain way (which they didn't) so he said it wasn't that disease. Next, he talked about Rickets disease (I'm sure some of you have heard about it). Rickets disease is caused from a Vitamin D deficiency (which breast fed babies usually are lacking vitamin d..) and said that it didn't appear that she had this. Then he moved on to Blount's disease which is what the Springdale orthopedic specialist told us she more than likely had. Dr. Capeheart said at this point it doesn't look like she really has Blount's. If it does turn out to be Blount's, leg braces should correct it (with no surgery!! YAY!) Blount's is usually worse in African-American children and they may have problems with it their whole life. White children usually outgrow theirs (sometimes on their own) pretty early and have no life-long problems with it. Great news!!

Also, we have always been worried about her hips because she tends to hold them and rub her back and hip area a lot (especially when she walks). We have asked 3 times for x-rays on her hips and 3 times they haven't done it and we've been told..."Oh nothing is wrong with her hips." (guess they had x-ray vision....grr..) So, thankfully, Dr. Capeheart got her hips in his x-ray and he told us that her hips looked great (we didn't even have to ask!)

So he wants to keep an eye on her legs. He was fairly certain that she wouldn't develop any of these diseases and that her legs would straighten out on their own (PLEASE God!) In children under 2, they have a harder time diagnosing these leg problems and diseases because their knee caps don't really start showing problems on the x-rays until age 2 and then they can be more easily identified. Sadie is right on that borderline. It should show on her x-rays but it may not because of her age..So it's just a waiting game.

We were extremely happy (ok, we both cried after hearing the news) because we fully expected to come home with Sadie in braces! It was odd, because the x-rays looked WAY better than they had a few weeks ago in Springdale. Brandon and I got to talking on the way home about the series of x-rays that she's had and thought..the first x-ray she had in back in October(ish), she was laying down. The second x-ray in April she was standing up. Then this last x-ray in Tulsa she was laying down..Her worst x-ray was in April (while standing). So we wonder if that has anything to do with things looking better or if it was a God thing? I would prefer to think God is healing her but we are still going to ask Dr. Capeheart when we go back in August. But PRAISE GOD that for now she doesn't have to have any treatment and no braces!

Please continue to pray with us for these specific things:

**NO pain for Sadie-she still complains when we walk and she still falls a lot.

**That when we go back in August that everything will be straight with no bowing!

**That we are at the right place (Doctor-wise) Anyone else ever worry they are taking their children to the right doctors? I do!

Thank you all so much for the thoughts and prayers you are sending up for us. It means so much to us and we really appreciate it!