Katharine coming home

It appears that Katharine will be discharged today. Elias is fighting hard and doing well. There is more about him on his blogspot.

Elias Allen is Born!!

Today has been a very long, exciting, emotional day. I am home to get some sleep (and to let mother get some too) and post pictures for everyone. Please keep in mind that he is in the NICU and on many types of apparatus. Mother is recovering nicely as well.



We are also pleased to shift the blog to a new location to focus on Elias and his progress each day through the NICU and his journey home as he fights to conquer all the interesting challenges he faces. He is a fiesty one let me tell you!!

The blog's address is mycarouselofprogess.blogspot.com

Twas the night before baby....

and all through the house, OK so I won't be super cheesy and finish the rest. As Katharine told her mother on the phone tonight, "It's like Christmas eve, I doubt I'll sleep well." The excitement and fear is growing, but we are ready for this day. We will be surrounded by family as we celebrate this long awaited day. You can look forward to the introduction of the newest member of our family tomorrow night. Hopefully there will be a few pictures to share as well. Wish us luck and we will see you real soon!

Final Visit to CAFCA

This morning was our final visit to the Center for Advanced Fetal Medicine for our sonogram and fetal monitoring. It was almost surreal to walk out of there today knowing that we did not have to go back. For almost 4 months now we have been making weekly visits and in the last 6 weeks it has been multiple times per week. The doctors, nurses, and staff there have all been extremely wonderful. They of course want us to bring the baby down once he is out of the NICU. Everyone there has become quite aware of our scenario and is very interested to see how things turn out. While we are thankful that we do not have to go back, still we will miss them all in that office.

Only 3 more days until we begin the next chapter! We both are so ready, nervous, but excited and even a little frightened. We have learned a lot during this journey, but mostly we have learned just how strong our love can be. The next few months are certain to be an emotional roller coaster, but we shall move forward. Please know that you all are welcome anytime to come up and visit, call, email, or whatever. We will need your continued support to help guide us through this extremely confusing period. Everyone take care and we will talk to you very soon.

And the winner of the birth pool is......

THE BABY!! He fooled us all :)~

Today we went in for all of our normal Monday morning rituals with the doctors as well as the amnio for lung maturity. The hope was to deliver the baby via C-section tomorrow if the test was positive. Unfortunately, it came back negative. They did however tell us that May 1, 2008 will be the day we go in for a planned c-section. While this was disappointing news it is for the baby's best health interest, so we will hold our chins up and count down the days.

This has certainly become an ever changing scenario. Each visit brings on something different to consider or be concerned about. We have done a fairly good job of remaining positive, but it is very exhausting to maintain that level of enthusiasm. We are honestly ready to move past this chapter and begin the next. We want to welcome this precious life into this world and conquer these anomalies. It has been a very frustrating path leading us to this point and we thank you all for the support. Right now, more than ever we need you to help push us through our most challenging days. We appreciate all the love, thoughts, & prayers because we certainly would not have made it this far without all of you.

Bless you all, and Bless this Baby!!

It's Getting Closer!!

Today is Katharine's birthday!! She has decided to keep things low key. Going out for dinner and maybe a little baby shopping afterward. Otherwise, things here have been nice and relaxing. We have been getting some things accomplished and wrapped up in anticipation of next week. We are starting to get a little nervous as the day draws near.

This morning we tried to get some pictures of the nursery. The dimensions of the nursery made it difficult to get any good pictures. Here is one that we were able to get of the crib.




We hope everyone has a great weekend. Talk to you all soon.

Photos from Baby Shower

As promised here are some of the pictures from the Baby Shower

Enjoy!