Welcome Mason Thomas Fleming!

Our newest son, Mason Thomas, was born on Thursday, 1/4/2007 via emergency C-section. Most of you, as readers of Corey's blog, likely aren't too squeamish, but I'm going to be a bit graphic, so you might want to put down the jelly doughnut before proceeding. Plus I'm all whacked out on pain meds, so I'm less likely to care about diplomacy. Having a C-section makes you feel like you've been hit by a mac truck, but at least they give you appropriately strong narcotics to deal with the situation.

First, let me say that Mason is doing great! He was born at 38 weeks gestation, weighed 7 lbs 2 oz, and was 20 1/4 inches long.

Now let's talk about Mason's birth. On Thursday morning, January 4th, I experienced an aura. My vision dropped out on the right side, then lights flashed across my field of vision. This lasted for 25 minutes. I'd had a previous aura, on Christmas day, and when I went in to the OB to be checked, it was explained to me the the danger was possible pre-eclampsia. However, my blood pressure was fine, and I wasn't swelling very much, so the doctor sent me home with instructions to call immediately should I experience any more changes in my vision.

On Thursday morning I had another aura, and I called the Hopkins OB on-call immediately. She told me to come in right away, even though I had an appointment for later that afternoon. When I arrived, my blood pressure and swelling were once again approaching normal, but they decided to draw blood and run labs as a precautionary measure. Thank God they did, because the labs determined that I had HELLP syndrome (here is a link with more information on HELLP:), which is a severe version of pre-eclampsia, and therefore life threatening. When the OB announced this condition, she said they intended to deliver Mason within the next two hours.

Damian and I were shocked. We had grabbed our overnight bags, thankfully, on our way to the hospital, knowing that there was a slim chance of pre-eclampsia, but thought that we'd most likely just go home. Not so! We both grabbed our phones and called as many people as we could think of before they started the prep for surgery. Because of the risk of seizure with HELLP, they put me on an IV magnesium drip, which was horrible, but necessary. When it first started, for 15 minutes I felt like my entire body was on fire, I began to sweat from every inch of my body, and then I was certain I would vomit all over everything. Once this passed, I felt out of it, but relatively alright, until the next day. After 15 hours on that stuff, I felt like a hippie stoner. When I looked at the wallpaper in the recovery room, it looked as if there were reeds swaying in the breeze. It was probably the closest I'll ever get to an acid trip.

But back to Mason's birth. Before the surgical prep, there was some intense discussion about what kind of anesthesia to use. I'd eaten something recently, thinking we were going to be discharged, unfortunately. My platelet count was low, so there was concern about doing a spinal due to the possibility of bleeding around the site of insertion and possible damage to the spinal column. But, should I have general anesthesia, they were going to have to intubate me while awake. Holy cow! I thought - there is no way I can handle that. Luckily my platelet count was close enough to normal that the team of anesthesiologists agreed to do the spinal, and I was therefore awake for Mason's birth.

So, they wheeled me in to the OR, put the spinal anesthesia in my back, slapped me down flat on the table, draped a sheet in front of me, brought Damian in to sit with me, and cut me open. At 4:20 PM, Mason popped out, giving a healthy cry. Damian calls this cry the "put me back!" cry. It was music to our ears. He came out strong, looking great, and was given to me rather than taken away to the NICU.

Except for the first night, Mason roomed in with us at the hospital, which I think has made the transition to home easier. He isn't awake all night, unlike Corey. Perhaps it's the difference between having a traumatized child and a non-traumatized, healthy child. I don't know. We don't know what it's like to have a healthy baby, so in some ways we feel like rookie parents all over again. But, so far, Mason is worlds easier to care for than his brother. He cries, but is much easier to console. Not to mention that he wants to eat. And so far there's no sign of "tune time", the time of day when Corey would tune up and not settle down for about 3 hours. Our stress level is definitely lower. I am just hoping that things will continue this way.

Thursday I'll have my sutures removed - ah, they joy. Friday we have an appointment with our pediatrician for a weight check on Mason. Other than that, we are getting used to being parents again, and we are enjoying introducing Corey to his little brother. Corey has been wonderful with him thus far - very gentle and curious. He's my wonderful big boy!

Check out Corey's picture link for some great pics of our big boy and our new little baby.

It's good news!

This morning I had the nuchal translucency sonogram, as planned, to assess the risk of a few chromosomal abnormalities in Corey's brother or sister. The test was supposed to happen at 10:30 AM, but did not actually happen until 12:00 PM, so I was a total wreck by then. Finally, they took us back, and the whole thing took only about 30 minutes. Following the sonogram, the genetics counselor contacted the lab that had done my blood analysis, and, combining the two data sets, came up with the following results:

Before screening, my risk assessment for Down's (based on my age) was 1 in 461. After screening, it's 1 in 9,201.

Before screening, my risk assessment for trisomy 13 or 18 was 1 in 824. After screening, it's 1 in >10,000 (basically the end of the scale).

And so I say to you, WAAAA HOOOO! Ahead we still have the test for spina bifida, but the likelihood of that is pretty much nil, given the amount of folic acid I've been taking for years. Additionally, we have the fetal echo in August. While I won't feel really good until the echo is behind us, I feel worlds better now that we've had such good news. Damian said we were due. Perhaps it's time I started listening to him.

In other news, the hacker situation has been handled, as you can see. Finally, Corey had a nice 4th of July, though we took no pictures, and nothing too exciting happened. We did take some video footage, but mostly we all just relaxed. And that's all the news that is fit to print. Have a great weekend!

Ah, the Joys of Pregnancy

Since nearly everybody I know is pregnant, I thought I'd write these observations on pregnancy.....

First Trimester

1) Perhaps one of the only times in life when you can enjoy guilt-free eating. Unfortunately you’d rather pick gnats off of a monkey than actually eat anything.

2) Think you’ve been tired before? Normally you’re proud of yourself for making regular trips to the gym. Now you’re proud of yourself if you actually manage to get toothpaste onto the toothbrush.

3) Thought you were all done with acne when you graduated from the teenage years, did you?

4) Your hair makes sudden changes in texture all on its own, no salon trip required.

5) Bye bye wine. Bye bye cheese. Bye bye sushi. Hello blood draws galore. Bye bye happy-go-lucky attitude.

6) You can’t feel the baby move, and you aren’t showing yet. The only proof that you’re actually pregnant is how horrid your feel. Thus, your husband doesn’t really believe you’re pregnant. Oh he says he does, but he doesn’t really.

7) Some mornings you wake up and know instinctively that you hate everything and everyone, and you could flick the witch switch with the slightest provocation. (This is why your husband says he believes you’re pregnant – he’s no dummy.)

8) Your pants start to get tight, but it’s too early for maternity clothes, so people around you just think, “She’s really been hitting the Krispy Kremes hard.”

9) You used to pray for the health, happiness and well being of those you love. Now you pray that you won’t vomit at an inappropriate moment.

10) Now that your husband has helped you get pregnant, you don’t need any more help, thank you very much. In fact, he can just help himself.

When I hit the second trimester, I'm sure I'll have plenty to say about that, too.

Babies, babies, babies!

For some reason, literally 90% of my girlfriends decided that this is the time to be pregnant. Congratulations to all my ladies! So, I decided to join them. That's right! Corey will have a little brother or sister on or about January 17, 2007! One of my girlfriends is due just 4 days later. I like to have company in pregnancy. :-)

This time we are excited, but it is more tempered than last time. When I got pregnant with Corey, it was all ignorant bliss. I thought that surely my pregnancy would be uneventful, and Corey would be born healthy and beautiful. He is beautiful, but, well, if you're reading this, then you know the rest.

So, we already have a slew of appointments for the new little person. First of all, I have returned to the high risk OB/GYN group at Johns Hopkins. Our baby, like Corey, will be born there. Hopefully this time the baby will head for the normal nursery, rather than the NICU. In any case, since Corey's birth, some new prenatal testing has become available. I will have a maternal serum screening and nuchal translucency sonogram in my first trimester (scheduled for July 7th). This test is similar to the quad screen done in the second trimester, only it's done earlier, and is more accurate for some factors. This test will look for trisomy 13 and 18 (both incompatible with life) and Down's. I am fervently hoping that the tests will just come back normal, and we can move on to the next step. The next step is the fetal echocardiogram, which is already scheduled for August 23rd, when I will be 19 weeks pregnant. Corey will have a sedated echo that morning, and then I will have my fetal echo. We like to pack all the fun we can into one day.

I have already had one ultrasound, and Damian and I saw the little person's heart beating! That was a magical moment, and a relief, since the miscarriage rate drops significantly after that point. Anyway, we have reason to feel hopeful, and we have excellent medical care, thankfully, but I think we will both breathe much easier once the first trimester screening and the fetal echo are safely behind us.

In the world of Corey, things are going pretty well. He seems to be feeling better - less itchy. Dr. McKay felt that it was either a food allergy, or a virus of some sort. We treated Corey with Children's Claritin and Benadryl for several days, and he's not itching much anymore. Which means that he's free to be his usual creatively bad self. For example, his new favorite thing to do is shove anything and everything he can find into the VCR. So, to all my pregnant girlfriends, just go shove a Klondike bar into the VCR and save yourselves the trouble.

Also, this morning I took him downstairs to the basement to grab something out of the laundry room. While I was busy grabbing my stuff, Corey got busy crawling first under the table beside the couch, and then behind the couch. I thought, "I'm going to have to call Damian and tell him to come home and remove his son from behind the couch." But then I saw the magic item that saved me. Damian's Ohio State beer bottle opener. Yes! It plays the fight song! The only problem was that I didn't think it was a good idea to open up a beer to get the song to play. So I improvised. I used my wedding rings and shoved the opener under them. Sure enough! Corey can't resist the power of the opener, and out he came to collect his prize. That stinker.