A Picture of Myles

Myles Porter Gridley

Myles Porter Gridley was born on November 12th at 12:21 pm, he weighed 4 lbs and was 16 inches long. He fought for 8 hours and was very brave. We were able to hold him, love him and say our goodbyes.

We will have a visitation on Sunday from 2 to 5 PM in Wellington at Day Funeral Home, 1030 Mission Road, Wellington KS for more information go to http://www.dayfuneralhome.info/

We request in lieu of flowers send a donation to:

Wesley Neonatal Special Nursery
550 N Hillside
Wichita KS 67214
ATTN: Cindy Harman or can be left in care of the funeral home.

We will have a private graveside service on Monday. Thanks again to everyone for your continued prayers and support.

Love

Lanny and Jenny

BPP

Sorry for being so late with this post but it's been a busy couple of days for us. We went in on Thursday afternoon for our Biophysical Profile thinking this might be the day we have the baby but hoping he would be able to stay in my tummy just a little longer. Michele (our favorite tech) came to get us, which we were pretty excited about since we think she is just so good at her job.

She took us back to do the sonogram and started the test. She checked the fluid and it was low like last week, about 3.5 cm is all we have left right now. It looked like there was one pocket of a little over 2 cm. Anyway, Michele mentioned the issue with the baby's stomach (a possible mass on his stomach) and said that maybe the issue is just bits in the amniotic fluid dead skin cells and stuff. She had me get on my side and was hoping that the "stuff" would move around and not be a mass...well guess what...it did move and we then told Michele how much we appreciate her and how hard she works to find out what she is looking at, she is the one who found the horseshoe kidney.

She checked out the rest of him, what she could see anyway. She mentioned that it is getting harder to see him clearly because his bones are calcifying and she is can't see through them anymore. His heart rate was about 135 and they had us do the non-stress test again just to make sure everything was still going well. We went in there and he was really quiet and didn't move much and then all of a sudden he started moving all around pushing on the belts and his heart rate when up to the 150's and even at one point up to 170's but then he dropped back down to the 135's and just relaxed. The nurse said, "You have such a good boy in there!" I laughed and said "Really, really...he seems pretty ornery to me." She then said, "Well, yeah but at least he performs well when you need him to." "True" I said and laughed. So for now we are just waiting and hoping things all work out for the best!

We have a full sonogram and appt. with Dr. O'Hara on Tuesday so we will see how much he is weighing and hopefully get a better look at the kidneys. Again, please keep us in your prayers! He is surprising the doctors with how well he is doing, as you know they thought we would be delivering him several weeks ago so he is already a miracle in our eyes! We just want to keep that trend continuing!

Thanks for all the encouraging comments!

Love you all!!

J, L and baby G

OB appt. & BPP

On Tuesday (the 28th) we had an OB appt with Dr. Lopez and she told us that at the last BPP we had that Dr. O'Hara was a little concerned about the baby's stomach bubble, that it looked a little larger than normal and that the baby's size was in the 15th percentile (which is lower than we would like to see). The stomach issue seemed minor and was something they were going to keep their eye on...the bigger issue was his growth, or lack there of actually.

Today we had a BPP and the baby was moving around a lot which was good because it seems like he has been sleeping or resting during the sonogram. He was kicking the technician's wand during the test. There was an issue with the amniotic fluid, it was a little low so they had us go back and do a non-stress test. During the test the baby was moving all around and kicking the fetal monitor (he is like his mom, he doesn't like tight things on him). He then got the hiccups, which was good for me to hear and feel because I had felt those for a while but wasn't sure if it was hiccups or what was going on in there. :) I also had a contraction during the test which was a weird and scary feeling, but totally normal the nurse said. After about 20 minutes the nurse came in and took me off the machine. She gave the readings to Dr. O'Hara and we heard her say, "What a good boy!!". Then the nurse came back in and said that he did a great job with how active he was being during the test.

For now we are continuing with our weekly BPP's unless we hear back from the doctor. It looks like it won't be long now before we deliver him so please keep up those prayers that he will arrive safe and sound!!

L-

Jenny, Lanny and Baby G

Full Sonogram

Yesterday Lanny and I went in for a sonogram and what we thought was an appointment with Dr. O'Hara but instead was just a normal sonogram. They did all the normal checks on the baby. They checked his heart, lungs, stomach, kidneys, measured his bones and checked out the fluid level.

Things looked good overall. His heart rate was 140, which we thought was low but Tara (our tech) said was normal because he was resting and she also said that the bigger he gets the lower his heart rate will be. He is weighing in at 2 lbs 11 oz. which is exciting...he is getting bigger it's not just me! The fluid level was about the same and the largest vertical pocket was a little over 3 cm. Tara couldn't see the kidneys too well because his leg was in the way, she wiggled my stomach all around but he just wouldn't move. She said he is just being ornery...I think that is a theme for him, he must take after his dad, can't be from my side of the family :)

We can't say enough about how much we appricate your love, support and prayers! God is good! Keep up the prayers!!!

L-

Jen

BioPhysical Profiles (BPP)

The BPP basically just checks the baby's heart rate, muscle tone, movement, breathing, and measures the amount of amniotic fluid. I didn't update the blog last week because the BPP was confusing. Last weeks sonogram was done by a tech we didn't know and she was in a hurry because the doctor needed to leave but wanted to review our sonogram before she left so there wasn't really time to ask her any questions. As she was doing the sonogram she told us that his heart rate was 151 and we saw the largest pocket of fluid was almost 5 cm wide (which is awesome!!). Other than that we didn't learn much information last week.

This week's BPP was much better! Tara was our tech (we have had her before, she isn't the one who found the horseshoe kidney but we like her anyway) and she explained much more than the other tech. She told us that she was measuring the 4 quadrants for amniotic fluid, this week the biggest pocket was almost 4 cm (still awesome!) and that his heart rate was at 148. She also showed us his diaphragm and how she could tell if he was taking in fluid, it was neat to watch it go up and down.

He wasn't moving much right then (I think he was napping) so she just shook and shook my belly until she could get him to move around. She printed off several pictures for us a profile and several face shots. He is so funny because he always has a hand up by his face and he also had a foot up there as well. My sister Jami swears she saw 6 toes in one of the sonogram pictures (because of the hand and the foot both up by his face) so she has decided to call him Six from now on...I don't see the humor in that but whatever!

Overall we are happy with the news and are praising God that things are continuing to look better each time we check on him. Thanks again for all of you who continue to check on us and pray for the three of us, we really appreciate it.

Love to all

J, L and little man

Sooner than later maybe?

Well Jen is a little tired tonight so you'll have to put up with me writing this. We had our regular meeting with Dr O'Hara, our regular specialist, along with a standard sonogram. They said everything looked pretty much like last time. Still looks like a horse-shoe kidney and fluid levels are still very low but not any worse (which in our world is good news). We will still have to deal with why the baby isn't able to urinate and if that is the kidney or a urinary tract blockage or what. As far as we know they won't know that until after birth or know it is something surgery can fix or not.

The Dr seems to have shifted plans some today though now that we are 27 weeks + along. They consider 26 weeks as being the point where a baby has a decent chance in neo natal intensive care. So the Dr recommended that Jenny get a couple of steroid shots. Steroids are what they use to help increase lung development in premature babies. Jenny taking the shots won't actually help the lungs develop at this stage but if she gives birth early having the steroids already in the blood stream gives them a jump start on treatment after birth.

We also now have weekly appointments where they measure how active the baby is and how well he is able to breathe. The have a scale of 1 to 8 that they rank it on. They are doing all this to help keep a very watchful eye to do the best to avoid stillbirth which is still a very high risk for us. We got the feeling from the doctor that she is leaning toward an early birth. She didn't come right out and say when or anything but based on some of the treatment choices we are getting the feeling that it might be coming sooner than we expected.

Well we will keep you all posted as best as we can as we continue our appointments. Thanks to everyone for all the thoughts and prayers! We still have a long battle ahead and are far from out of the woods at all but at least taking steps in the right direction still.

Fetal Echo-Sept. 23rd appt.

We went to see Dr. Battise, the fetal cardiologist today and she did a fetal echo on the baby's heart. As they were doing the echo, the Dr. and the tech thought they saw a hole but when they went over it and looked at it from several directions they decided that maybe it was just a false reading. She also said that the chambers looked equal in size which is a good sign because if there is an issue one side of the four chambers would be larger than the opposite side. Before we left the Dr. said that we should plan for a echo after the baby is born to check the heart while he is in the NICU to make sure that the heart is working well.

Our take on all this is that it is good news and that we are just continuing to pray that God will watch over our little man and keep him growing. We go to see Dr. O'Hara on the 29th because Dr. Farb had to cancel the appointment that was scheduled tomorrow.

Things seem to be going well because he is moving all around and I am hungry all the time!! The other night I just laid there and just watched my belly dance, he was moving all around. I told Lanny he must be a dancer because he was moving so much. He then asked me "what music was he listening to" and I said "the music in his head". Lanny just rolled his eyes and said "yeah, he got that from you!" I just laughed, because it's true!!

We do want to thank all of you for your support during this trying time in our lives. It is very uplifting and lets us know that we are truly lucky to have friends and family care so much about us and our son!!! We love you guys!

Sad/Scary News

Well, as some of you know we found out some sad and scary news about the baby after our second sonogram. Dr. Lopez came in and told us she had some worries about the sonogram. She said that the baby had a cyst on its kidney and we had seriously low amniotic fluid so we were going to need to go to a specialist to better see what we were up against. She said that the baby was in the 85th percentile for growth so that was promising but that she wanted me to do the triple screen to check for chromosomal abnormalities

Of course we were freaking out and worried sick! The nurse said she would call us when she sets up an appointment for us to see the specialist as well as the triple screen results later in the week. Lanny and I went home and just cried and called our families with the scary news. I prepared myself for the worst and wasn't sure why God thought I was so strong because I am so not strong enough to take this on!!! The nurse called later that week and said that the specialist couldn't get us in until Aug. 12th for a sonogram and the 13th for a consultation.

So we went to the sonogram and couldn't see much difference from what we saw the last time we had a sono, so we still knew nothing. Plus the darn kid had it's hands behind its back and it's legs crossed over its face, which you would think would be a great way to show off what you got but no...not this kid. The next day we got to see Dr. O'Hara and she gave us the worst news I have ever heard in my life! She told us that the issues the baby has are fatal, I broke into tears...it was like a nightmare I couldn't wake up from! She said that the sonogram looked like the baby had Multicystic Dysplastic Kidney Disease on both kidneys, an issue with the heart because of it's large size, no lung development and low amniotic fluid. Dr. O'Hara was awesome, she delivered some horrible news that you could tell broke her heart to tell us. She has the best bed side manner. She then told us that she wanted us to do another sonogram to show us what she was talking about.

We all (the dr., the resident, the intern and the sono tech) went in to do a sonogram and Dr. O'Hara began showing us all the babies issues. It was so hard to not cry and to try to take all of this in to understand what we were up against. We left the doctors office heart broken and trying to figure out how we were going to handle all this.

Lanny and I spent the next week just trying to process and deal with this information. Lanny has been my rock, I absolutely married the best man in the world! He is an amazing Godly man who had talked me down from many a ledge, I am very thankful he is here to support me. We also let our family know about the news and the support from them has been amazing. Everyone is here for us and praying for this baby, the support is really helping us get through this.

Today we had another sonogram and appt with Dr. O'Hara and the news is a little more encouraging. The tech was doing our sonogram and when she got to the kidneys she identified them with a bunch of arrows which I thought was interesting. I wasn't sure what it meant but it stuck out in my mind as weird. So the tech said she was done, that she would go talk to the dr. and they would be right back. The dr. came in and had a bit of a smile on her face, she asked us how we were doing and I told her hopefully better since the corners of her mouth were up a little. She began to smile and said that Michele the tech might have found an interesting discover...the baby might have a horseshoe shaped kidney and that the cysts could be pockets of renal fluid (basically urine) that can't easily escape. This to us is good news because people can live with this condition, the possible urinary blockage is an issue but could possibly be taken care of with surgery.

Our next step will be a Fetal Eco cardiogram to check on the baby's heart. We have that appointment on Sept. 23rd with Dr. Battiste a fetal cardiac specialist and an appointment with the other Fetal Maternal specialist (since our dr. will be out of town) on Sept. 24th for another sonogram and consultation.

All we ask is that you keep us in your thoughts and prayers while we are going through this tough time.

Oh, I forgot to mentioned...we found out the sex of the baby...it's a BOY!!!

2nd Sonogram

Well, we had our 2nd sonogram and we got to see the baby from just about every angle but the most important one...we still don't know what the baby's sex is yet!! That little booger wouldn't move it's legs. It's a big bummer because we really wanted to know what it is...guess the baby has other plans. We have a doctors appointment tomorrow so hopefully she will give us good news on how the baby is developing. Everything looked good to us but what do we know! We got to see the brain, kidneys, heart, legs, arms and a little bit of a profile but the baby wasn't in the best position, he or she was breech, so it was hard to really see it's face.

Based on the measurements of the sonogram the baby is 10 oz. and they changed the due date to December 24th, which makes me just laugh!! Poor kid! Oh well, we will sure make the baby's birthday a BIG deal no matter when it's born.

Week 16

I just wanted to update the blog to let you all know I think I can feel the baby moving. It's subtle but it feels like a little flutter of movement. Not quite full on butterfly feel but movement of some sort. It sure makes this all so real to me! I just wish Lanny could feel it...he will soon enough I guess. We are scheduled for a sonogram on the 28th to find out the sex of the baby and I am really excited to find out what we are having. One of our friends told us we needed to make our guess before we go in to find out so I asked Lanny what he thought we were having and he said "girl" I agreed with him...I am guessing it's a girl because I keep having dreams about a sweet little baby girl with a somewhat balded head and chubby cheeks. We will be happy with whatever God gives us but it's fun to make a prediction...so what is your prediction. Check out the poll I've created and let your voice be heard!!

2nd Dr. Appointment

Well we went for our 2nd appointment today. It look forever to see her, we waited about an hour and 1/2 but once she put the Doppler on and we heard the heartbeat it was well worth it. Thalia said that the baby's heart was beating about 156 beats per minute. Then she asked me if I had any motherly instinct as to what we were having, I said "No, not really." I don't know what we are having but I am excited to find out.

At the end of next month we will have a sonogram and learn the sex of the baby, YEAH!!!! I get a notice once a week telling me what's going on with the baby and at week 14, the baby can squint, frown, grimace and suck his/her thumb. He/She is about the size of a lemon at 3 1/2 inches long and weighs about 1 1/2 ounces. I am going to try and update what's going on with the baby as things begin to change. I am also hopeful to get a picture of the first sonogram up on the blog so you can see the baby when it looked like a jelly bean!

Week 1-14

I didn't really blog much about my pregnancy to date because it's been pretty uneventful...well except for that it has begun!! I have had a great first trimester. I haven't gotten sick, just tired but I have slowly started to get my energy back. Life is just great right now! I am one of those people who at this point would say she loves being pregnant! My clothes are just starting to get tight and I have begun wearing prego pants...the best part is the elastic band, a girls best friend!!

1st Doctor's Appointment

May 22nd

Today we went to our first doctor's appointment and boy was I nervous and really excited. I didn't know exactly what to expect but I was hopeful for a sonogram (YEAH) and I knew that there would be blood drawn (YUCK). Dr. Lopez was great, and seemed genuinely happy for us. We got to see the baby and his or her heart beating. The baby is really small and almost looked about the size of a jelly bean. Dr. Lopez said everything looks great and the baby is developing well. She said the due date is........drum roll please........December 26th, yeah, yeah, for two planners we sure did this one right!!! But she did say by the baby's size she would guess December 27th, she then followed that comment up with the fact that only 25% of women deliver on their due date and at this point the further away from Christmas day the better! Lanny did have to throw his two sense in and say that he wanted the baby to be born in 08 for the tax deduction...once an accountant, always an accountant!

Let's tell the Family

Saturday, May 3rd

Well, before we were pregnant we talked about how we were going to tell anyone we were having a baby until we were out of the dark, 12 wks along. Well that is really easy to say when you aren't pregnant but once I found out part of me wanted to tell any and everyone that I was "with child". We did wait until I was 6 wks along because I just couldn't wait anymore.

We told my mom first and then my sister and aunt. I had taken some pictures of our newest niece Alyssa (Leann and Dale's little girl) and I had also taken pictures of two of tests I took, because I am a dork. So I give my mom the camera and tell her to check out our newest niece. She is looking through the pictures and then she comes upon the ones of "the test" and she looked at me with shock on her face and said, "What? Is this yours? Are you?..." and when I said yes she hugged me and was very excited for us. She then ran over to Lanny and hugged him too. Jami's reaction was, "I knew it!!" because last week I had made a comment about how her Frito Chili Pie from Sonic smelled really gross, oops!

Jane said she will believe it later but I do think she was really happy because she just kept smiling. :) The next day we told Grandma and Grandpa and the first thing Grandpa told me was that it was a boy and what was I going to name him. He gave me several suggestions and I might just use one of them but that will be a secret. Grandma hugged me and said that they were going to have to take extra special care of me now. I thought that was really sweet.

Sunday, May 4th

We had a birthday dinner for Lanny with his parents in Kingman so we told them during that visit. They were both very happy for us and is mom was very anxious to know the delivery date since Lynnette (her daughter) was born on December 27th. At that time we hadn't gone to the doctor so we didn't know the date for sure but we were guessing the date would be December 26th. She thought that was interesting.

Saturday, May 10th

Lanny thought of a great way to tell my cousin Brigitte (she is a florist), he emailed her and asked her to send me flowers to my mom's house and that he wanted a Mother's Day card! She flipped out and was really, really happy for us. I think she has wanted us to have a baby almost more than I did, she is such a sweetie!

Wednesday, May 21st

Lynnette, Alexi and Reighna came into town from Houston and since we wanted to tell them face to face we told them a little after they got to the house. Lynnette almost didn't believe it, she was really surprised. The girls were excited to have another cousin to play with as well.

Saturday, May 24th

Today we told Grandma & Grandpa Lewis, sister Leann, and her husband Dale as well as the aunts (Barbara & Joyce) and cousins (Jennifer & Derrick) on Lanny's mom's side of the family. They were all really excited that there would be a new addition to the family. It was cute because Lanny told them by asking his grandmother if she would mind if there was another great-grandchild running around the house. She said "No, she would love another great-grandchild..why?" and he said, "Because, Jenny & I are expecting one in December". They all were excited and hugging us and all the fun stuff like that.

Happy Birthday?!?

Thursday, April 17th

Lanny's birthday is today and it's also the day I took 2, yes 2 pregnancy tests. I had already taken one on Sunday but the line was so light I thought maybe I peed on it too much, crazy I know. So on Lanny's birthday while he was at a business dinner I went out and got a digital pregnancy test so those crazy blue lines wouldn't confuse me any more.

Anyone who knows me knows I have been waiting for this moment for about 4 years, if not my whole life! So I wanted to make completely sure my mind wasn't playing tricks on me! It seemed like an eternity for that little gray screen to pop up with the word PREGNANT and I was so excited. I already knew exactly how I was going to tell Lanny. I had purchased a cute book title 101 Secrets A Good Dad Knows by Walter Browder & Sue Ellin Browder. I wrote sweet things in it for him and wrapped it up like it was one of his b-day presents.

He called me on his way home from the business dinner and he knew I was going to take the test but I was just praying that he wouldn't ask me anything about it and luckily he didn't. Once he got home I told him he had two presents left to open for his b-day. He was suprised that he had two gifts because I had already given him a piece of the old KU floor and he knew he still hadn't opened his sisters gift so I told him to open that first. He did and really liked the KU magazines they got him. Then he opened the book and looked at the cover, opened it up and read it. It was fun to watch him read it because he just kept smiling and laughing his nervous laugh. He then walked over to me and sat down, kissed me and said, "Well, what have we gotten ourselves into here?". I said, " I don't know but I bet it's going to be really fun!". Then we just sat there for a while in silence watching a movie.

Once we went to bed we started talking about how and when we should tell everyone. Which room in the house would be the baby's room and all the things I assume parents to be discuss after finding out news like ours.