Off to the races!!!

Was planning a big update before I got to this particular bit of news, but I took Christi in to the doctor today because the baby was breech last time and even though the doc sent her to the hospital and manually turned him, the boy has apparently decided to practice somersaults this last week and is again feet down.  Totally breech.  Christi's doc is sending us into the hospital again to try and turn this sucker, but this time, when that's done, we'll fire up the pitosin and begin inducing.  So it looks like today, (or sometime early tomorrow) will be BABY DAY!!  I will be tweeting live as we go with as many pics as she'll let me take.  I can't video until afterwards (hospital policy) but when I can, that will go up as well.  Pray for us, wish us luck, and we'll see you on the other side!

Sadness and recovery

Recently, Christi and I experienced a very sad loss. At approximately 8 weeks gestational age, it was confirmed what would have been our 17th child, had ceased to grow, and the placental sac appeared empty. We had held out some hope, because the initial blood tests showed Christi's HCG to be sufficient, but her progesterone was low, and to further muddy the waters, the ultrasound she had done was an external. At this early stage, an external can be virtually blind. Her Dr. prescribed progesterone supplements and had her take things easy, which she tried very hard to do, but if you know her, you know that easy for her is what most of us call busy. Notwithstanding, her spotting eventually began to be bright red and we went to the ER where the bloodwork showed a decrease in the HCG and a vaginal U/S also showed an empty sac. It was a very sad time for us, and it hit me much harder than I would have thought. Christi says she had a feeling that something might not have been right and the low progesterone may have helped ease her emotions just a bit. Still it was very hard. Some don't realize that for folks like us, even a relatively early loss like this is still the loss of a child.
Her doctor offered a D & C procedure to ease the process and due to a risk of hemmorage, but she really preferred to allow for a natural passing of the tissue. In the next 24 hours however, she began to have very severe cramps and pass large amounts of bright red blood and tissue. Remembering the doctors concern about bleeding, we chose to go ahead with the procedure.
Everything went very well, and one small plus was that he didn't have to dilate her as she was already in the process of miscarriage. She is healing very well physically and although she has put up a very brave face, she has felt the loss deeply. I saw it in her eyes when I took the kids to run errands, which I do from time to time to give her a quiet house, and she ran after me and made me leave Nathaniel to be with her. She immediately took him to the couch and cuddled him close. Yes, she grieves the loss of the baby that could have been, but she is healing and looking forward to trying again. Dr. Byrne has been really great and says that all should be well whenever her cycles kick back in.

I for one, can't wait to start practicing...;)

Introducing...Nathaniel Frost Cason

As many of you will know from Christi's Facebook, our Nathaniel was born on September 1st. He weighed in at 7lbs, 13oz at birth and he is, of course, absolutely beautiful. He was a total surprise as Christi had come to think it was a girl and so had I. I was completely shocked when those boy parts came flopping out. Previously, we had mentioned that we had an ultrasound picture with the sex info written on it, stashed in an envelope that I had hidden from Christi. Well, we successfully avoided the temptation, but were convinced it was a girl due to Christi's feelings, cravings and the fast heartbeat we always heard on the doppler in the Dr.s office.
Enter Nathaniel.


The first thing the nurse pointed out was the size of his hands. He really does have big hands and feet for a newborn. You know what big hands and feet mean don't you? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. It means shoes and gloves will be hard to find when he gets older...why? What did you think I meant?


So the name...we had been thinking about Xander, but Christi really didn't like it much. She was thinking Zane, but I didn't really like that one, so we were tossing out some names and Christi said Nathan. I've knew a Nathan and didn't like him much, so I threw out Nathaniel, which we thought sounded better anyway. We hemmed and hawed and mulled over a few others, then when it came down to it, we asked the kids to vote, for Xander or Nathaniel. We went with their choice. I think Christi is just beginning to warm up to it. The middle name Frost comes from Christi's mom's family and was originally after Robert Frost.
Just a week after Nathaniel was born, his first checkup with the Pediatrician revealed that his bilirubin was high and the Dr. sent us back to the hospital for a dose of light therapy. Christi stayed at the hospital with him and he was home the next evening looking a much more normal shade of caucasian instead of jaundice flavored yellow. Most of the kids have had a bit of jaundice after birth, but he is the first one called back in for the light treatment, although Morgan did get the lights while he was in the NICU at Loma Linda.
Nathaniel is now home enjoying Mommy and his brothers and sisters, all of whom want to pick him up and carry him around all the time. We're sure happy to have him home and will enjoy watching him turn into the little person he's going to be.

Welcome Home Nathaniel!!

What baby wants...baby gets!

Apparently the baby is not content with waiting for any of us adults and our schedules, he or she had it in mind to send us to the hospital in the wee hours of the morn. Christi is bathing and getting all smelly good for her birth experience and I'm going to be sorting out kids clothes for tomorrow's school, hopefully without screwing it up too badly. If I'm able to come back Christi will talk me through it by phone anyway. With that, we're off to the hospital to meet this little one.

Our blog title says we know what causes it...this is the IT that we're talking about!

More later.