Please Welcome Elijah Yaakov

We are proud to introduce Elijah Yaakov Arav to the world.  He was born on February 6th, 2011 at 10:55pm after 44hrs of all labor.  At birth, he weighed 9lb 9oz, was 22" tall, and had a head circumference of 14.5".  Yaakov was Nahum's paternal grandfather and we just like the name Elijah.  To me, it has always had a strong yet peaceful feel and that was how he felt.

Labor began around 2am Saturday but it was just a long first stage so I was able to sleep most of the nights.  The birthing waves would wake me but not enough to keep me from getting back to sleep most of the time.    On Saturday, Shayna and I visited the VT duck pond to feed the ducks then to Aba's office to visit him.  On Sunday, things started to get a little more intense but Becca was there to help with Shayna.  I made Nahum come home at 3pm and our doula Cindy came at 3:30.  Things seemed to gear down for a little bit as the company made me feel more relaxed.  I was able to make everyone pizza for dinner but by the time it went into the oven I knew I wouldn't be eating it.  We went for one last walk while the pizza cooled.  During birthing waves, we would all stop while I sang through them with Shayna and sometimes Nahum's accompaniment as well.  We told Shayna we were singing the baby out and she was eager to help.  When the singing wasn't enough, I hopped in our wonderful bathtub about 6pm maybe for a couple hours.  That's when things got started to get amazing as I allowed my body to move into whatever position seemed natural as the waves stepped up in intensity.  This is also when I lost total track of time.  I'd guess it was a 2hr bath before the back labor really kicked in and needed both Cindy and Nahum's support to get through each wave.  At 8:30, I knew we needed to go to the hospital but was so terrified of the car ride that it took another 1/2hr to get out the door.  Cindy sat in back with me to help me through as pushiness was now added to the list of sensations.  We arrived about 9:20pm to be greeted by Kris the midwife on call.  Cindy and Kris walk/danced me to my room where I was pronounced to be about 7-8cm.  That news really helped me make myself relax through the waves on hand and knees at first then assume positions that proved increased intensity, like squatting.  At some point, my body just started pushing on it's own during some wakes.  Nahum climbed behind me so I could lean into him during rest periods.  In the end, I had to lean back into him to widen my base to open my pelvis for my fat baby.  At 10:55pm, Kris had me reach down and pull him onto my belly.  He cried as soon as he was out.  He was he a slippery guy with wrinkled, peely elephant skin and he was beautiful.  It was a wonderful, natural, normal birth followed by 5 minutes of normal post-birth bonding.

As he was a bit grunty, the nurses asked for him to try to help him clear his lungs a little better.  5-10 minutes of this didn't help, so the pediatrician took him to the nursery where he was hooked up to a heart rate monitor.  A newborns hr should be around 150 (as it was throughout deliver).  Elijah's was over 300 and not coming down.  They did manage to bring it to normal after 20-30 minutes with specific physical stimulations but the order for transfer to the NICU in Roanoke had already come down from the neonatologist.  The hospital we were at doesn't have the machines for the tests that needed to be done (EKG and Echo) so he needed to be transferred to make sure there were no abnormalities that caused the excessive heart rate.

As he was stable, they were not planning to do the tests until Monday morning so Nahum made it down to see both of those.  I was discharged from my hospital at 10am.  Becca and Shayna picked me up. (It's the same place we do Shayna's labs so we did those before we left.  She was an angel as usual and didn't shed a tear or fuss.  We've got her trained labs are "little poke" and shots are "big poke" so she says to Erin, "big poke, no. shots big poke.  little poke."  Then she gives her cheerful, "all done labs."  She even knows where they keep the stickers so walked over to the drawer, opened it herself, and picked out a sticker to help her through the draw.)  I got to Elijah about 11am when Nahum told me all had tests had been preliminarily declared good.  He especially enjoyed seeing the Echo as the technician did took "beautiful" ultrasound images of a working heart.

We finally got approval to pull his stomach tube and nurse at 2pm.  He latched like a pro and nursed for almost an hour then slept for 3&1/2hrs.  Nahum was with me when he nursed and that was the time we needed to name him.  Peaceful, normal family time.

Later on, all results were officially declared "beautiful" by the cardiologist and there have been no other episodes.  The most common reason is just for something like this is just the baby adjusting to the sudden change in his condition (inside vs. outside) and so far that's what it looks like in our case.  We are expecting to be discharged late this afternoon and hope to be home by 6pm.  We will have to monitor his heart rate 3x a day for the next 3 months just to make sure it doesn't take off again and make a follow up appointment with the cardiologist in 3 weeks so she can check him also.

Feb 6 about 5pm.  Playing on our last walk before Elijah's arrival.

Our last picture of a family of 3.

Shayna LOVES pizza!

Hello baby! 

Just before the NICU nurses take him down to Roanoke they let me hold him.

Feb 8: Elijah with his proud Aba.

Just Waiting on SJ

We are now just waiting on SJ.  SJ hit 40 weeks last Saturday and has been feeling like all elbows and knees for the last week.  We had a little birthing wave action Thursday and Saturday but both petered out after some sleep.  I think he wants out and my money is on he's bigger than Shayna was (8#13oz).  As long as he's thriving, we have until Feb 19 before the doctors would want to force him out.

In the mean time, Shayna went for some drama of her own.  Luckily, she has recovered from all illnesses but her liver numbers jumped with last Tuesday's monthly lab draw.  Nothing astronomical, but enough to startle Pittsburgh and send us back to check the Liver Function numbers (LFTs) again on Friday.  They were slightly higher than Tuesday so we did it again today.  Today's jumping numbers were lower than last Tuesday's so we did a little happy dance and agreed to check them again next Monday.  They think it might have been due to her having been sick.  Now that she's recovering, so should the numbers.  On the bright side, her EBV blood load was down to the lowest it's been in the last 10 months.  This is even better as we dropped on anti-viral dose (daily instead of 2x a day) at the end of November.  It's not a medicine that is good for the body overall so everyone would like to have her off sooner rather than later.

Nahum continues to work hard all the time and has also picked up a lot of Shayna's evening routine as I've gotten slower and slower over the last 2-3 weeks.  All three of us are overly ready to meet SJ and I to begin the recovery from pregnancy so I can get back to feeling normal.

Jan 23: Shayna had a playdate with Hannah.  This is one of the calm moments in the storm as Hannah ran Shayna ragged with lots of running, jumping, ball-pit-rocking, and tickling.  Thank goodness Becca was here to chase them.

Jan 25: Everyone loves Shayna, including Becca's girlfriend Heather.  On her day off she wanted to come over to play with Shayna since she hadn't seen her since the beginning of December.  Like any parent, I enjoyed hearing all the ooo'ing and ahh'ing over her many developing skills as I worked in the office.  Shayna likes to roll on the ball these days and touch the floor.  For a little more excitement, I usually just hold her feet.  She gets a kick out of the instability.

Jan 29: 40 weeks of SJ.  To compare, here's 40 weeks 4 days of Shayna.

Amazing Me

All my hard studying last fall paid off as I passed the PE exam I took at the end of last October and am now a licensed Civil Engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia!  Yay me!

Shayna continues to give us bedtime trouble.  The silent replacement method didn't work for her as seeing us simply made her giddier with each replacement.  We now just move a little cart that lives in her room across the access to her bed.  Once she falls asleep we move it away and put the stool back so she can get out in the morning/after nap.  She's turning into an absent-minded professor like her Aba as she gets so involved in whatever she's doing or investigating.  Getting her attention takes a monumental effort but I love her toddler-intensity.

Nahum had a wonderful Seattle trip/conference last week.  It's the biggest unofficial astronomer conference so he had many old friends to visit with, wonderful talks to listen to, and new scientists to make collaboration plans with.  It was also a great opportunity to expose his post-docs and grad student to the science going on in the rest of the country.  He also dined with Uncle David and Aunt Vickie (took us sailing last summer and we spent Thanksgiving with in Newport News) then took them to a showing of Picasso's works (his favorite artist).

While he was gone, Shayna and I were all on our own.   The start of the week was good but Tuesday night began a battle with viruses and Thursday got Shayna on anti-biotics for ear infections for the first time ever.  The ears had her with a 101.5F temp that brought us to the doctor and totally freaked me out as I'm not used to a sick kid.  The virus however had it's butt kicked by her but her ears did make her suffer.  (I'm still in awe how the person with a chemically suppressed immune system battles viruses better than either Nahum or I.)  I managed to wait until Friday to get violently ill with Shayna's stomach/intestine bug being passed around, which was good because I could barely do anything but lay in bed or hug the toilet.  Becca was finally back and better so took Shayna for a couple morning hours while Lynn (Shayna's former PT) took an afternoon and evening shift with Shayna.  Since she was recovering herself, she was quite calm but also a great sport about Ima having to lay in bed or on the couch all day.  (I think she really enjoyed seeing Lynn so much and Lynn knows about working with kids as a fun grandma so even did some real craft projects with Shayna, not just the coloring she and I do.  Lynn has a calm, comforting presence that helped both of us feel better about the situation.  It was a gift to have her available, I just hope we didn't pass it to her.)  Nahum stayed away from me but couldn't resist his usual Shayna worship and is now suffering the consequences with the bug.  SJ better stay put another week until this yuckiness clears our house.

Even with colds at the end of December (Carole took care of us then) and stomach bugs now, we've managed to have some fun.  Here are some pictures from the last month.

Dec 25: Rocking in the ball pit with Hannah by Fredrick and some calmer sticker time while the dads talked.

If the pillow is near her bed, she'll haul it in for sleeping.  Her head starts to slide off so before my nap I always remove it other wise she'll get stuck.

Dec 30: Reading with Grandma Carole.  

Jan 4: Going down the "big, big slide".  Shayna loves to talk about this slide.  It's only up at the beginning of each month at the gymnastics studio and Shayna gets so excited each time.  She won't go up or down by herself, mainly because the other kids are much more rambunctious and pushy.  Luckily, I enjoy it too.

Jan 8: 37 weeks, stretch-marks and all.  Shayna likes to touch and kiss my belly so this picture was totally impromptu with her.

Jan 16: I let her run around naked for 5 minutes between pjs and day clothes and she went straight for the ball pit.  This is her cheesey, camera grin face.

Happy New Year....

...and welcome to battle of the bedtime.  I don't care what day Shayna was born (Feb 27) because she is officially a 2-yr-old by attitude.  I love that she can get out of bed in the morning (it means I can stay in bed a few more minutes and she doesn't have to cry) and after nap; however, she has been freely getting out of bed at nap and night time.  It took 6 placements in bed to get her to fall asleep at nap time (no talking/scolding/scowling/etc, just pick her up and put her back in), but I'm on at least number 8 (this number has been increasing since I first started (final count: about 14 over 80 minutes and she's finally out)) for tonight.  I'm tired but I can't get mad since it's normal toddler behavior.  She's trying to assert herself and have control and it takes every ounce of strength not to laugh at her engagement attempts.

She has really blossomed in the last month from Dec 1 to the start of the new year.  Four word sentences are no longer tongue twisters but said fluidly.  She's getting good at using present and past tense correctly.  She grew 1.5cm (5/8in) and 400g (14oz) to the 22nd and 60th %-tiles, respectively.  Climbing in and out of the ball pit (see video from last post) has beefed up her upper body finally.  We had a lab scare at the beginning of Dec but both lab results since have been good, including the EBVirus coming down even with the lower dose of anitviral meds.  We both got sick last week after a 2-yr-old b-day party the week before.  She and I both had a cough and achiness.  Since she never sick, I took her to the doctor to make sure it was just a mild virus where he discovered her first ever ear infection.  I was so thankful I took her in and fell more in love with her pediatrician that before.  He didn't want her to start antibiotics right away since everything was very mild but trusted us enough to give us the prescription should things deteriorate per his description.  She (and I) has since gotten better and we didn't have to add to her medicine regime to get there.

SJ's due date is still Jan 29 per me and Feb 3 per docs and I'm not going to fight them on it as is gives me an extra 5 days to go into labor per their due date.  I've been reading Ina May's Guide to Childbirth and learning a lot more about what goes on during both natural births and hospital births.  It's quite fascinating but is also making me wish for a nice relaxed home birth.  At least we've got our doula to help us fight off the crazy medical system.  I can pre-register at the hospital starting Thursday and SJ can arrive anytime after next week until Feb 18.  Personally I'm hoping for him to wait until at least the end of the month since I've got quite a long to-do list.

My 30th birthday was wonderful as Grandma Carole entertained Shayna for the morning as I tackled the biggest thing on my list: my office.  I did 3 mornings at the beginning of Dec and have done 2 1/2 mornings with Carole's visit.  I love just going to the door and admiring the clean floor.  I've even inspired Nahum to work on his side.  Hopefully the next post with have beautiful before and after shots.

I'd love to share some pictures but I need someone to show me how to find them on this mac.  I know how to go from iPhoto to facebook but not from Safari to the file like I did on a PC which is how blogger seems to work.

3rd Trimester Exhaustion

Once I hit ~7 months pregnant, I hit the exhaustion of the 3rd trimester.  I think I feel better than the first time around.  Chasing, squatting, and crawling around with Shayna has probably helped with that but she's also getting more understanding when I sit down and tell her, "Ima need a break."  With SJ due on Jan 29 (or Feb 3 if you ask the docs), we've got 3 weeks to go before he's allowed to enter the atmosphere.  Shayna loves to go to the doctor's/midwife's visits with me to listen to the baby's heartbeat.  (She ask to go this morning.)  She's getting familiar with all 4 faces of the people we meet with, 2 midwives and 2 doctors with a 3:1 women to men ratio.  Overall it seems like a great crew (the one guy doc is the only one from the Shayna's birth but it was only a 2 doc operation then also).  Nahum and I are preparing by filing the massive piles of papers that have accumulated in the office over the last several months.  I'm also planning on cleaning out part of the garage to make room for a freezer (I long to buy in bulk).

Shayna continues to amaze us every day with her new verbal skills.  She started trying to put 2-3 words together about 4 weeks ago, 2 weeks ago the gaps between those words disappeared and this last Thursday she used "me" for the 1st time twice.  She still says "you" a lot ("Ima catch you" "Ima take you" etc) but I'm making an extra effort to start using personal pronouns at least 1/2 the time so she gets a better idea of their usage.  2 weeks ago Sunday she finally made the physical achievement we've been waiting for, climbing into a straight backed chair w/o assistance.  We now have to make sure our computers are closed and there are no glasses of water on the table as she loves to "type" and will grab anything else within her reach.  She's looking more an more like a little girl every day.  Our greatest pleasure is still just watching her play with a close second of gushing to each other over how wonderful and amazing she is.
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I wrote that on Sunday thinking I'd add pictures and videos but no such luck.  Here's a link to the latest video on youtube.

Tomorrow I turn 30!

Too Much Excitement

A lot has happened since my last real post including the exhaustion of the 3rd trimester of pregnancy kicking in.  All I want to do in the evenings is sit around and veg these days, lucky for you I'm finally inspired to write instead of just sit.

We had our 1-year post-transplant Pittsburgh visit on Monday Nov. 22 and it was terrific.  Shayna was her usual adorable, sweet self so got stickers, crayons and coloring books.  She even let our transplant coordinator give her a hug before we left.  They are pleased with her progress and labs so we even got to drop our evening anti-viral.  Her weight hit the 50th%-ile, her height the 19th, and her head is somewhere around the 110th or so.  They scheduled us to fix her belly button hernia this week but with the crazy weather, we're going to look into a locally recommend pediatric surgeon.  Hopefully we'll get all that straighten out this week and she'll have a cute little belly button by my 30th birthday (Dec 31).

We drove to Pittsburgh (7 hrs) Sunday then drove straight to Newport News after the appointment Monday (almost 10hrs).  Thank goodness for the dvd player in the new car.  Shayna watched the10min portion of Finding Nemo where Nemo's dad and Dory hook up with the turtles, the 10min portion near the beginning where Nemo has his first day of school, and the PBS episode of Curious George and the Bunny Hunt each about 15 times.  (She's picky about her tv; it has to have lots of action and nothing remotely scary.) 

We got really lucky for Thanksgiving as my Uncle David and his wife Vickie were traveling to Newport News, VA to visit Vickie's sister Hollie and her husband Jack for the holiday.  We'd never met Jack or Hollie but were invited to stay with them for the week anyway.  What a wonderful trip!  It was nearly vacation-like for me as Vickie and Hollie did 85% of all the kitchen duties.  Shayna endeared herself to everyone with Jack offering to take her off our hands if we wanted at the end of our visit.  One of Shayna's favorite things about the visit was Tilley the dog, an old, gentle mixed breed that isn't used to small children around.  Shayna followed Tilley everywhere and mimicked about everything Tilley did.

She laid on the dog bed together.

They sat together to read books.  

The most Tilley ever did was give her many looks of, "soooo, you're still here are you?"  Thanksgiving dinner was one of the best I'd ever had.  There was so much traditional food and it ALL tasted great.  

We came home the following Friday to fall into the throws of Shayna's Liver Day party for Wed. Dec. 1st.  Becca, Nahum, and I managed to pull off an amazing party even with my parents Michael and Melinda having to spend a night near Dullas.  Winds forced their plane to land at Dullas instead of Roanoke on the 30th but they got here on the afternoon of the 1st.  (Shayna was so excited the minute they got in the car with us.)  We had a wonderful catered dinner with great friends, lots of happy kids, and an ice cream cake with a liver on it. We even got visits by two of Shayna's local doctors.  It was such a magical time to see Shayna having so much fun.

We even sang "Happy Liver Day" before she blew out her candle.

Michael and Melinda left today.  As Nahum is leaving to take them to the airport Shayna is saying, "with Shayna....with Shayna," in her most pathetic (but not winy) voice because she wants them to take her with them.  Shayna had soooooo much fun with Grandpa and Grandma.  Grandma even replaced Ima as Shayna's potty partner of choice.  Besides having play buddies all day long at the house, we also went to the gymnastics studio Thursday, 

the library for her first books Friday, and swimming on Saturday.  Plus a little adult only outing Friday for sushi and the new Harry Potter movie (both were awesome).

Nahum is doing well and working hard.  As mentioned, I've hit the exhausted part of the pregnancy.  We're just over 7 months along, or 32 weeks.  SJ seems to get bigger each day.  He only hangs out on the right side and seems to enjoy having his butt wedged into my ribs frequently, but at least it's his butt and not his head.  Every time we hit a new week, I tell Nahum something like, "only 8 more weeks until SJ is late."  I learned not to hope for an early baby with Shayna but I can't wait to have my body back so I can be the bouncy, silly parent I used to be able to be with her.

Happy Liver Day Shayna!!!

Happy Liver Day Shayna!!!  A year ago we took a leap of faith, the only one we could, and today we have a smiling, healthy, happy little girl so full of life you'd never know what it took to get her here.  Science produced another miracle by giving our little girl a second chance at life, and a reason for 2 cakes a year.  We're so happy you're here with us little Shayna.


We had a beautiful party of which I'll post some pictures soon. Thank you everyone.  I'll also give you a full Shayna update.