Kaden is Two Weeks OLD!!!

Today marks Kaden's two week birthday:)

We went to the pediatrician and here are his 2 week stats:

Weight: 6 lbs, 11 oz (the 8th percentile for weight...we need to fatten him up!!)

 Height: 21 inches  (the 67th percentile for height...can you say tall and slim like daddy??!)

I cannot even express the relief that he has gained weight...at last week's check up he only weighed 6 lbs 5 oz...however I'm still overwhelmed by my mission to get this boy to grow!

Kaden has been such a joy...a perfect baby! He hardly ever cries and is content as long as he is being held...we are sure this won't last long and are wary of the day our luck runs out!

Here are some cute things about Kaden that we've recorded since bringing him home:

- Kaden LOVES to breast-feed. If he could he would be suckin all night long. Most the time he isn’t even eating, he just loves to be next to mommy.

- Kaden LOVEs to be held, he will squirm and wiggles for and hour and the minute you pick him up he will immediately fall asleep. At nighttime dad will take Kaden and sleep with him on the couch, with Kaden snuggled into his chest, and mom sometimes can’t resist and will bring him into bed to sleep next to her.

- Kaden is always pursing his lips and furrowing his brow, leading us to believe he will be a great thinker :)

- Kaden can only sleep with his arms above his head and loves to suck his fingers

- Kaden kicks like crazy when you change his diaper, as though he were trying to run away

- Kaden’s little giblets always find a way to peak out of the diaper where he manages to shoot a stream of pee straight out of the diaper, no matter what we do he finds a way to pee all over everyone without getting himself wet!

- Kaden has really skinny legs and super strong arms, just like his dad.

- Kaden is such a good baby. He only whimpers and that is only when he is hungry. When he got his heal pricked, he furrowed his brow and that was it.

-Kaden turns his head when he hears mommy and daddy’s voices---he is even recognizing Grandma Taylor’s voiceJ

-Kaden loves to snuggle in the fetal position on mommy’s chest

-Kaden makes  his “owl” face and it is the cutest thing in the world.

Thoughts about Parenthood: 

-I’ve never felt such overwhelming love or overwhelming fatigue

-I feel guilty for leaving to go to the store

-I can sit and stare at him for hours

-I’m a nervous wreck

-I cry if he cries 

-Never before have I been so content to just sit and stare at him all day—absorbing how beautiful each little piece of him is: eyes, nose, ears, and all fingers and toes. He is my miracle!

Kaden's Birth Story

Dear Friends and Family,

Here is a little summary of the last couple weeks and the wonderful miracle we’ve seen with Kaden.

Monday night, July 1^st, Callista was getting ready for bed and she broke into tears. “I am so so tired of being pregnant, everything is uncomfortable and in pain, I want so bad to not be pregnant anymore.” Trying to comfort her, Ben said, “Wait a second honey, I think I hear something…” putting his head to her 9 month large tummy he nodded his head as if listening intently to instructions. “Yep … Oh really …. Oh she’ll be happy to hear that….” Pulling his head away from her stomach he said, “Sweet heart Kaden has just told me he is going to start coming tomorrow”. Laughing she responds, “Oh really, Kaden told you that did he? Well, if you are so sure, what are you willing to wager on this prediction?”

“A homemade apple pie” Ben responded

“Deal. If I go into labor tomorrow, I will bake you an apple pie, If it doesn’t start tomorrow, you owe me one” replied Callista and they both got into bed and fell asleep.

The next morning, Tuesday July 2^nd, Callista went in for her last growth measurement (she wasn’t scheduled for induction for another week). During the ultrasound they found that her amniotic fluid levels were low, something called oligohydramnios. There wasn’t really an explanation for this; her water had not yet broke and previous ultrasounds showed normal levels. Regardless of the cause, low levels of amniotic fluid can cause umbilical cord problems, so the standard treatment is immediate induction. So at about noon on Tuesday they started Callista on Oxytocin.

At first, the contractions were mild. They felt more like stomach grumbles than pain. These soft contractions lasted a while, until 8 o clock. During these 8 hours Callista barely dilated, going from a 2 to a 4 despite the fact that on the monitor she was having consistent contractions every minute or two. At 8 o’clock her OB/GYN broke her water.

Almost immediately the contractions came hard and painful, each one harder and more painful than the previous. In an effort to prove herself strong, Callista wanted to see how long she could endure the contractions unmedicated. At 10:00 the pain was too much, and with the begging’s of her husband, she consented to an epidural. Unfortunately, it took the anesthesia team roughly a half hour to come.  Needless to say, those last 30 minutes of natural contractions were dramatic…

Once the epidural was placed Callista was in heaven. Completely relieved from pain she was talking and laughing, and eventually ready to get some sleep. The nurse came and measured her, but there had been no change, she was still at a four.  At this rate it was becoming more and more likely that the baby would come in the morning.

Tucked into bed, she tried to fall asleep. About 40 minutes later I called the nurse in, watching the monitor Kaden’s heart rate seemed to be dropping quite a bit with each contraction. Concerned about the same thing a resident physician came running in to measure Callista, she was at a 10. In 45 minutes or so, Callista went from being dilated to a 4 to being dilated to a 10 and completely effaced.

All the teams were immediately called, the newborn cardiology team, the neonatology team, the OB/GYN team. All in all there were roughly 25 people in the delivery room waiting for Kaden’s arrival. Were amazed at how fast everyone was able to get there.

Callista started pushing at about 11:45 pm.

After a few rounds of pushing, Kaden’s heart rate began to drop and we needed to act fast. Her OB/GYN expedited the delivery using forceps and we went through another couple rounds of pushing.

Kaden was delivered at 12:20 AM July 3^rd.

He came out angry as heck. The neonatology team immediately did their evaluations. Given his heart condition, we half expected him to have trouble breathing or to be blue. However, Kaden looked incredible. He was breathing well; he had great color, and was responding appropriately.

The tension came down dramatically as the teams realized that there was no immediate emergency.

We got to hold him for about ten minutes and time seemed to hold still. He was beautiful. He had Callista’s button nose and cheek dimples and Ben’s chin and lips. We had been worried up until now that he may have some genetic cause for the hear t defect which could also cause mental delay. These genetic causes often manifest with dysmorphic facial features.  We can’t tell you how relieved we were to see his perfect little face. However he came out, we would have loved him forever, but we were very grateful to have avoided that struggle.

They bundled little Kaden up and they rolled him down to the NICU where they would perform an Echocardiogram on his heart. With Kaden gone, the attention shifted to Callista. Given the speed of the delivery, going from a 4 to a 10 in 45 minutes and the forceps, she was hurt pretty bad. We’ll spare the details and leave it at this; she experienced a 3^rd degree perennial tear with many layers of stitching.  As the epidural wore off over the next few hours, this injury became incredibly painful and will take some months to bounce back from.

Up till this point the plan for Kaden had been to do a procedure within the first few days of life where they run a wire up into the heart, and blow up a balloon in the region of the severely narrowed pulmonary valve. This procedure is called a Balloon valvuloplasty. If this worked, it was likely Kaden could come home in 2 weeks or so. If that didn’t work, we move to the very traumatic open heart surgery, where they would open Kaden up and manually fix the valve. If this was the case, his NICU stay would be up to 3 months or more.

Down in the NICU Ben watched as they performed the ECHO. Shaking his head, the Cardiologist told Ben that the Pulmonary Valve was very dysmorphic. He doubted whether the balloon valvuloplasty would be enough.

“Tell me honestly, do you think he’ll need open heart surgery?” Ben asked

“Speaking honestly … Yes. I think you’re in for the long haul. We’ll try to balloon the thing open, but when it is this bad, usually they need to be opened up and fixed surgically. My advice, don’t tell your wife this, but prepare her for the worst.

Disregarding his advice, Ben went and told her everything in as optimistic terms as he could find. She was still pretty out of it and stayed hopeful. Ben however was devastated. The dreams of a quick procedure and being able to take him home in 2 weeks seemed to be dwindling.

A few hours later, at about 9:00 AM on Wednesday July 3^rd, the cardiology team came to visit Kaden and delivered some good news. They would be able to fit Kaden in just a few hours for then to perform the Balloon valvuloplasty. They indicated that we would know immediately if it was a success and whether or not he would need an open heart surgery. 5 months of wondering about Kaden’s fate would be answered in just a few hours

At noon Ben kissed Kaden’s cheek as they rolled him into the Interventional Radiology surgical room.

At 3 o clock, our Surgeon walked to our room and told Callista and I that the procedure had been an incredible success. Everything went right. The valve open up beautifully and the pressures normalized rapidly. He indicated that as expected the valve was not perfect and may need surgery when Kaden is in his late teens, But from his standpoint, Kaden’s story was as happy and good as anyone could have hoped.

Over the next few days Kaden continued to amaze. Without any significant problems, Kaden breathed wonderfully, his heart beat well, and he ate like a champ. We were even able to get Kaden to begin breast feeding.

After a day or two, both the cardiology and neonatology team indicated that given his awesome performance, there was no need for him to stay any longer. Kaden was discharge on Saturday July 6^th. Ironically, Kaden was discharged almost before Callista was.

Since then we have had some of the happiest days of our lives with Kaden. He eats and sleeps well. He loves to snuggle with mom and take naps with Dad. Callista’s mom Linda has been with us the last week and her help has been priceless.

We know that all of you have been directing your prayers and best wishes toward us. We truly believe that this made a difference. Sometimes, despite heart felt prayers and hopes, a miracle doesn’t happen. Sometimes we have to face the unthinkable, and mourn over a tragedy.

But …. Sometimes a miracle does happen. Sometimes, God takes the impossible and makes it reality. I don’t know why it happens sometimes and not other times. But I do believe there is something bigger than us, directing our lives and influencing events for our good.

Both Callista and I thank you for all your support. We are so grateful for all you have done for us. Lastly we are grateful to God for this beautiful blessing and miracle in our lives.

Love,

The Welling’s

P.S. Now for some pictures of Kaden (see below)

37 weeks!

pardon the awkward pose...:)

So here is an update of Baby Kaden:

Every week I spend countless hours at the hospital so they can measure him via ultrasound and a stress test. I also get tested for contractions. This past week we also met with our Cardiologist, High-Risk Ob Gyn, Neonatalogist, and our NICU nurse. That is a lot of appointments! I swear I'm there every day but it is such a blessing we live so close! There is a shuttle that comes every hour to and from the medical center to our apartment complex. The convenience is incredibly nice. The hardest thing was when our nurse showed us the NICU where are baby will be rushed off to immediately after he is born. Seeing all those babies hooked up to tubes was really hard. I broke down right then and there, I had never felt so overwhelmed with sadness and fear. It is good that I know what to expect, but it is so hard looking at those sick babies and knowing that in just a few weeks my son will be right along with them.

The past three weeks I've been showing signs of pretty intense contractions. At first it scared me but then the doctor said I just have some uterine irritability...doesn't mean the baby is coming right then. Also, during the growth ultrasound they measure baby's head, stomach, length of major bones, etc. This week our sweet Kaden is estimated to weigh 6.5 pounds already! Jeez! All the doctors and nurses are pleased that he has grown so well....but I really hope I don't give birth to a 9 pounder!!! The one concerning thing is that my uterus has consistently measured smaller than normal...I guess he is just really squished in there!

This weekend Ben flew home to Oregon for his brother Tyson's wedding. It was a beautiful event with our whole family there. Needless to say I have never ever felt more left out in my life. I even begged my Dr. to let me go...she said absolutely not. Not only for the sake of the Kaden's emergency care right after birth, but because I was having contractions so often. It was very possible that I could go into labor. I understood and the last thing I wanted was to put myself and Kaden at risk, but Man! I was so bummed I couldn't go!!!

The biggest blessing and answer to prayer was that Kaden didn't come while Ben was gone and now HE IS HOME AND DONE WITH SCHOOL!!! Ben hasn't had time off from school in so long that it feels like a second honeymoon.

We have so many plans and a huge bucket list of things to do...so maybe Kaden can keep cooking for a  little bit longer.

I'm going to be induced July 8th if Kaden hasn't come yet but we kinda want a July 4th baby. How cool would it be to have fireworks every night of his birthday for the rest of his life???!!! We will always tell him the fireworks are to celebrate him:)

Ben jokes that if he does come on the 4th we will have to change his name to Freedom...haha

Maternity Photo Shoot

A big shout out and THANKS to the wonderful and talented Amber Dowdle who did these photos for us! We love them and are so SO happy with how they turned out!!!

Here is just a few of the favorites:

This photo shoot helped me so much. Throughout this whole pregnancy I've been either extremely sick or extremely large...and as a dancer/runner it is hard for me to see my body change in such a profound way. So it was wonderful to finally embrace the inevitable changes that pregnancy comes with and celebrate the fact that I'm growing a human LIFE inside of me!!! Thanks again to Amber (and Ben) for helping me feel better about my pregnant body:)

Security Guards, Receptionists, and Valets...a rant and a rage

I'm so grateful for people whose jobs really make my life easier. Their entire work day is focused on how to improve the function of the facility in which they are at. To illustrate, I will share my experiences the last two days:


First of all, as a pregnant woman I am extremely dangerous.

So dangerous in fact, that the security guard at my husband's med school won't let me walk through the building to escape the rain because I don't have an ID badge. I'm almost 8 months pregnant, in flip flops, its pouring rain outside...but like I said, I don't have an ID badge and so no access for me. Ben, a devoted student, was at my side with his badge, and tried to convince the guard that I was his wife and we were just trying to take a short cut to our car in the parking lot so I didn't have to waddle through the rain.

No sympathy from this guy. Must've been my shifty eyes.

No big deal. But like I said, its pouring rain! So we tried to be sneaky and enter the building through another door (ben has a key per being a student) BUT the guard chased us all the way there and stood at the door with his arms waving a frantic "No!" and blocking us from entering.

Jeez, that guy does his job well. He should get a promotion. No pregnant terrorists will ever get past him.

The next day I had some baby shower invitations for Ben's medical school friends that he forgot to take with him to school so I needed to drop them off. I go to the front desk and in answer to prayer it wasn't that security guard---just a nice-looking receptionist lady.

I proceed to explain that I have 3 baby shower invitations for my husband to give to his classmates and can I please leave them here at the front desk? I'm running late to a dr. appointment and my husband is still coming from another class. Is that ok? He'll be here in like ten minutes.

With a huff and puff the flustered receptionist shakes her head and says absolutely not. It is against the rules to hold anything at the desk for students...what if there is money in those envelopes? She could get in big trouble.

I choke back some frustration and open each of the envelopes, showing her the harmless sheets of paper with blue balloons and other happy-feely decor on them. There is no money in here, no illegal documents, no anthrax. Just a baby shower invitation. Please. Can I please just set these on the desk...I'm running late...he will be here so soon.

No. She'll get in trouble. She can't be accountable for this kind of thing.

So with a flash of brilliancy I ask if I can place them right NEXT to her desk on the newspaper rack. She agrees because it is not ON the desk and kindly assures me that she will make sure my husband can find them!!!

You've got to be kidding me.

Later that same day, I was dropped off at the front of my apartment building by a friend. My apartment has valets to park your car and open the door for you. I've actually made good friends with a lot of the valets, most of them are very shy and incredibly kind. Today they had a new hire...as he opened the door for me he exclaims, "Lady! You are supposed to eat the watermelon piece by piece, not swallow it WHOLE!"

Hilarious...



 'Til next time, folks!


P.S. this blog entry entirely satire. In no way do I discriminate or endorse discrimination of individuals in these professions :-)

Update on Kaden's Heart

Well...things have been really hard in some ways lately. For example, I've been going to the doctor almost every week for various tests and appointments. I even met with a geneticist, who was wonderful, but had to discuss with me every possible disorder that my baby could potentially have. Needless to say, its been emotionally exhausting, but at the same time Ben and I have been able to push through it.

I owe all my strength to my amazing husband. Ben has been so supportive and loving through this whole thing. I know that with him by my side, holding my hand, that I can do anything. Yesterday we had another ultrasound on the heart with our Cardiologist. We were really nervous and anxious for the news but at the same time we were still able to joke and laugh and be happy--just because that is our default for when we are together. It makes me so grateful to know that even in our darkest hours, Ben is still my best friend and someone I can always count on to make me laugh and smile through the tears.

Well yesterday our doctor brought us some good news...and some bad news. The good news is that Kaden is growing really well (over 4 lbs!) and the blood and oxygen supply to his brain and other organs haven't been compromised. He doesn't seem to have any other malformations in other areas of his body, indicating that his heart is most likely an isolated incident and that he doesn't have an overlying syndrome (however, we won't know for sure until genetic testing is done at birth). His heart seems to be holding on, and the good news is that for now his heart isn't going into complete failure. The Bad News: last ultrasound he was able to pump blood through the very narrowed pulmonary valve pretty successfully. Now, there is significant back flow of blood from the pulmonary valve and also the tricuspid valves. What our doctor thinks may happen now is surgery on both the pulmonary valve and the tricuspid--although we are still hoping that fixing the pulmonary valve will be the solution for everything else to fall into place.

So...what does this mean in the interim before Kaden is born? Well, because his heart is now having back flow, there is a chance he may need to come early. However, we want him to be as strong as possible for the surgeries. At my next echocardiogram, in about 3 weeks, the doc will determine whether to induce me early or let me go the full 40. We are praying that his heart is stable enough for him to be born full term.

We are trying to stay positive through all of this. We have already seen so many tender mercies, such as living so close the medical center that I can walk to all my appointments. Ben has also been given time off to attend every echocardiogram I've had. We are even just grateful that we live in a time where technology can find problems like this so that our baby has a chance. All in all, our faith is getting us through and now we just have to play the waiting game.

On a lighter note, here are some updates on my pregnancy:

First, I LOVE food! I am so starving all the time but I can only eat little bits at a time. It must be my stomach is so smushed in there. It actually is really great for Ben because he always finishes my plate:)

Second, the baby is so so SO ACTIVE! He moves so much and Ben and I will watch my stomach contort into crazy shapes as Kaden squirms all around. He even gets the hiccups a few times a week! I think that through all the throwing up and discomfort, pregnancy is worth it--just feeling my baby move inside me is the most incredible life experience!

Thanks for reading! Please keep Kaden in your prayers!

Growing???

Comparison of weeks! Just wish I would've kept my pose to the same side...oh well! It goes 27 weeks, 31 weeks, and bottom pic is 33 weeks!!!!