Jonathan is absolutely LOVING his new preschool class. His teacher, Mrs. Meagan, is great and he is learning a TON of stuff already. It is so much fun to watch him try to write his letters, sounding things out, picking out letters on signs, etc. He is very into learning and reading, which is a true blessing. They do a bulletin board each month. For the first month of school, they did Mrs. Meagan's Monsters. Jonathan has gotten very into monsters (not scary ones) lately, so this was perfect for him. He made a great scary monster face for his plate and then decorated it with green paint and blue string hair. He has decided that monsters should be blue. Not sure why, but he colors all of them blue now.
We had our 23+ week appointment with the High Risk OB clinic on September 17th. This appointment was specifically to check on the baby's heart. Let me tell you, this one was the most stressful of the three we have done. First a regular sonographer came in and did a mini-ultrasound of the baby in general. She measured him, checked him out again, and gave us some great pics of him. We even got to see him in 4D which was VERY cool. I have to say, he looks just like the baby pictures of Jonathan. Too little peas in a pod I'm thinking. But, the 4D was very comforting. So very real to see him that way and just imagine him here with us in just a few short months. After she left, another cardiac sonographer came in and did an ultrasound/echocardiogram of his heart. Let me tell you, that was hard. Mark and I had no real idea of what she was doing or seeing and she was not allowed to tell us anything. So we are basically just sitting there in silence for 30-45 minutes while she looks at his heart. Then she left. Didn't give us any inclination good or bad. Whoah, that was hard! After her, the high risk OB came in to tell us that everything on the regular ultrasound was great and that the baby was doing great overall. She said the heart doctor would be in to talk to us about his heart. She left and the pediatric cardiologist from Arkansas Children's Hospital came in. She watched the video of the entire ultrasound that the girl had done. At the end, she finally told us that his heart looked great. She did not see any problems and did not feel like there was anything there to be concerned about. She was super nice and we both really liked her a lot. She did say that there are a few problems that you cannot see on an ultrasound and to make sure that the pediatricians check him out good when he gets here, but she did not expect for there to be any problems. Wow, the stress level in the room dropped by about a million! We are so very thankful and blessed and happy by this news. The other great news is that we are officially discharged from the High Risk clinic. We will now just be followed by our regular OB (who we love) until this little man gets here. Wow. What an amazing blessing. Seriously. I just cannot thank God enough. We will keep praying that things go well and that he will come here healthy, happy, and on time (not early!). Thank you so much for praying for us. We know how much God is here with us and we are so thankful.
This appointment was even more appreciated in that we had had a scare the week before. I had gotten a stomach virus the first week of the school year from the kids. Of course. I always end up getting the stomach viruses. Well this one did not seem to want to go away. After a week, I called the OB's office and they suggested I go to the regular doctor's office to check things out. When I got there, they did a urinalysis and saw blood in my urine. Well, of course, this completely freaked me out. He, not being an OB, didn't really know what to do. He thought it was an UTI, but he wasn't sure. Well, this led to me leaving his office and driving directly to the ER at Baptist. Of course, I had taken Jonathan with me as preschool was over for the day. Poor, sweet baby was such a very good listener through everything. We called my best friend Karen, and her kind Mother in Law came and picked up Jonathan to take him to Karen's house. Mark was in Pine Bluff at work when I called him with all of this. He immediately heads for home, but he is an hour away. The ER has no desire to get involved with the prego (me), so they immediately send me up to Labor and Delivery so that they can monitor the baby. Let me tell you, it was some very, very bad deja vu to be back there, NOT wanting to have a baby, and knowing that things could go very badly, very quickly. Poor Mark was just beside himself. He kept saying how much he hated it there. So sad when the L&D unit should be a happy place. Anyway, they hooked me up to the fetal heart rate monitor and the contraction monitor. After a while, they decided that there was nothing wrong with the baby and that he was not in any distress. This was a huge blessing and relief to us. They did look at me, though, and said, "He is fine. You, however, are very sick." That I knew, but it was still kind of funny. It ended up that I did have a bladder infection (from the stomach virus) and severe dehydration. Four nurses tried to start an IV before they finally had to call in an anethesiologist to get one started. Let me tell you, that wasn't much fun. My poor hands and arms were bruised for a week. They ran two bags of fluids and a bag of antibiotics. About 8 hours later, we got to go home. In the mean time, we sat there and listened to the baby's heart beat on the monitors. It was a beautiful sound and, trust me, the highlight of the day. He wasn't a huge fan of that monitor and kept kicking at it or moving away from it. This made us laugh. The nurses kept having to move the monitor around to find him. He is just so little right now that he can definitely move away from it. They are used to term babies who don't have much room left to move!! Anyway, it was a very exciting and scary day, but a blessing still that the baby was good.
I have a couple of new prego pics, but of course, they are still on the camera. I'll have to work on downloading them soon.
This past Wednesday, his class took a walking "field trip" to the other playground at Easter Seals. They rarely get to play over there, so it was a big hit with all of the kids. I sent my camera with his teacher, and she got some great pictures. There really are some very nice things about working at the same place as where he goes to preschool. He has made several new friends in his class (of which I'm very thankful for) and really likes going to school every day. I thought these pics turned out great. Now if only I can get caught up with scrapbooking so I could make a page of them!
Thursday night was the highlight of Jonathan's week. Our church sponsored "Veggie Tales" to come in and do a show. It was an absolute blast. As soon as the music started, he just got giddy. He jus loves Bob the tomato and Larry the cucumber. He could not believe that they were at HIS church. I was so glad that we were able to go. Mark had gone on a lightning fast trip to Chicago Wednesday morning to give a speech. He flew back to Little Rock at 5:20pm Thursday. The show started at 6pm on the complete other side of town from the airport...during rush hour. Thankfully, his plane was right on time and he hadn't checked any bags. He walked into the sanctuary at 5:58pm. Jonathan was so glad that Mark was there and I know Mark was glad he hadn't missed it either. I bought Jonathan a "Super Larry" hat and a cute t-shirt. He looks so cute in this silly hat, cracks me up. At the show, some of the children were standing in the aisles so they could see better. Jonathan started in the aisle, and then slowly moved closer and closer towards the stage. He eventually ended up on the steps. The stage manager on either side of the stage gently told him he couldn't stand on the steps. He went and had a conversation with each of them to see where he COULD stand. Such a little negotiator. But he did, listened, and followed their directions. I was very proud, but it was hilarious watching him talk to these two guys. I couldn't hear what either of them said, but I can imagine!
