More updates.....

A belated Happy Thanksgiving!

Sorry there has not been an update in a while. Things really were hectic around here when my father was hospitalized. Lots of time spent at the hospital so we were rarely at home.

First and foremost, Dan is officially a Fighting Checkmate. He had his patching ceremony last night and after a lot of butterflies and anxiety, they threw his VFA-106 patch off and placed a VFA-211 patch on. He's very excited, to say the least. The Fighting Checkmates are still on deployment; they will arrive on December 20th so he has yet to meet his squadron-mates. The wonderful part about him being a Fighting Checkmate: he won't deploy until late 2009 AND he & Josh Goodin (his best buddy from USNA) are part of the same airwing and will deploy together on the same aircraft carrier in 2009. Here is the website address for the Fighting Checkmates: http://www.vfa211.navy.mil/index.htm

Secondly, the doctors are still fairly certain my father does have cancer. Initially they were saying it was cancer that came from either the kidney or the adrenal gland (which lays above the kidney). Dr. Foreman talked with my mother at work yesterday and told her that they are now thinking it is mesothielioma (asbestos exposure). Initially alot of the cells on the microscope slides looked like kidney/adrenal cancer cells but apparently there are now many more mesothielioma cells. They also sent my Dad's cells off to numerous universities (Penn State, to name one) for help diagnosing his cancer. I *think* a couple of the universities have returned their results and have said mesothielioma as well. However, Dr. Foreman said the cells are still very atypical (whatever that means -- bad or good? Who knows?) and that the tumors in Dad's pleural cavity do NOT resemble the typical mesothielioma tumors. All the pathologists at the hospital are perplexed and I'm unsure if they will come up with a firm diagnosis anytime soon. They all keep looking at the slides and remain confused. Dr. Foreman did say that mesothielioma makes more sense because Dad doesn't display any signs/symptoms of adrenal/kidney cancer. Whatever it is, I hope we have caught it early. Apparently the mesothielioma cancer cells respond to treatment better than the adrenal/kidney cancer cells so perhaps this would be a better diagnosis. Please, please continue to keep my father and our family in your prayers. It's been a roller-coaster ride and I just pray that the Lord will give us all the strength that we need.

Dan's parents came for Thanksgiving and we had a dandy ol' time. I'm sure my family wasn't the greatest company in the world, given the news we had received and how sick my father was. It couldn't have been easy dealing with us; we were all so on-edge. I'm sure it wasn't the easiest visit for them. Dan and his father installed our new dishwasher (oh, it cleans beautifully!) and put in a new cable/internet line downstairs so we could get started on the BGP's nursery. Agnes washed, dried and folded all of our laundry. Heaven-sent!! I can't tell you how nice that was. We watched a lot of football and ate some great meals. It was very enjoyable and we miss them already!

Here are some Thanksgiving pictures --
Haleigh, my beautiful niece:


You can say it....she looks exactly like her Daddy!


Jackson & Dan


Smiling at something


Up-close & personal


Grandpa's & Jackson


Beautiful Mom & daughter


Jackson loves Haleigh (and so does Grandaddy)


My twins

More on my Dad...

Well, Dad was admitted to the hospital yesterday. He had 3 pints of fluid surrounding his right lung. They removed 1 pint and sent that off for testing. The doctors want to make sure the fluid is not infected. If the fluid does have bacteria in it, they will have to surgically remove the fluid. This surgery would be perhaps today or tomorrow.

The more scary part of the situation is that they found 3 "tumors" floating in that fluid. Dad's pulmonologist isn't sure what they are at all and is calling them "tumors" because he just doesn't have a better name for them. Dad has never smoked and has never been around asbestos so we do have that on our side. However, it is very scary and I pray that these "tumors" are only there due to the infection and collapsed lung.

Dad's pulmonologist hasn't yet made his rounds but as soon as he does, I'm sure they will call me with more information. Dad's family physicican did come this morning and said that he could hear air moving in the right lung now (yesterday, there was zero) so perhaps his lung has started to reinflate on it's own. His physician also said that those 3 "tumors" could be a result of the infection/collapsed lung/pneumonia and may go away as soon as everything clears up. Oh, how I pray!

Jackson & I can't go visit him because both of us still are under the weather. Actually, Jackson is much better and is almost 100% while I am maybe 45%. I definitely have a sinus infection and plan to start a Z-pack today or tomorrow (as soon as the prescription is called in). Of course, I'd love to go visit but I don't think a hospital is the best place for anyone to be that already is sick. Apparently the hospital is over-flowing with patients: Dad is in a semi-private room and more patients with pneumonia keep walking in.

Will update with more information when I have it! We definitely appreciate all prayers!

A little update....

What a week for us!

Almost everyone in our family came down with Jackson's cold. Mark, Dad, myself & possibly Dan (he's still using Zicam) all got it. Boy, it is a doozy too! Poor Jackson has had it for ELEVEN days now. Dan took Jackson to the pediatrician yesterday because it's really abnormal for a child to have a cold for 10 days, without much improvement. The pediatrician thinks he has a sinus infection so he put Jackson on Augmentin. He also shared my concern about Jackson having the cold for so long without improvement. This is Jackson's first time on antibiotics so hopefully he'll do fine on them. I can tell that he already feels a lot better this morning. He played for a long time with his books and toys, ran around like crazy, etc. He hasn't done that in a couple weeks so I think that antibiotic is working!! YAY!

I am fairing and that's about all I can say. I can't take hardly anything to help with the congestion due to being pregnant. I think the worst part is that none of it will break up so that I can blow my nose. ALOT of thick congestion! Perhaps I'll feel better tomorrow.

Dad actually just went to the doctor. Apparently he has Pnemonia and a collapsed lung. They are checking to make sure it has no fluid around it. He'll stay in the hospital for 2-4 days, depending on fluid vs. no fluid. They said that one of three things could have occurred: a.) Lung collapsed on it's own 1-2 months ago; Dad just never realized it. He got this cold and Pnemonia developed b.) Got this cold and the lung collapsed, then Pnemonia or c.) Pnemonia caused all of it from the beginning. My dad is going in for a CT scan and an MRI so we will know more in a few hours. Please keep him in your prayers!

Dan's patching ceremony was supposed to be today; however, they have changed it to November 28th. They are still having the CQ (carrier qualification) party tonight at the bar. I'm unsure if I will attend it, for several reasons: this wretched cold, I'm sure the cigarette smoke in the bars will make this congestion worse -- and I had smoke in the first place anyway, and we hadn't lined up a babysitter yet. The CQ party was just thrown together a couple days ago, which makes it kind of tough to find a last-minute babysitter. We may go and then get an oceanfront hotel room tonight, probably our last date for Dan & I before BGP's arrival. We shall see!

I am 30 weeks pregnant!! Only 8 more weeks! We don't have the nursery done AT ALL! So, tomorrow, that's what we are working on. Dan's been gone so much....I can't move the furniture on my own so we have our plan to get BGP's room started. We shall post pictures when it is complete!

Go Hokies and go Midshipmen!!! Hokies play Miami at 3:30PM and Navy plays Northern Illinois at 3:30PM. Guess we'll be switching off watching the games eh? I think Nebraska has a bye-week.

It's a COLD day in Chesapeake. Oh my -- it's been in the high 20s/low 30s at night and upper 40s during the day. I LOVE cooler weather so this is absolutely wonderful. The leaves are changing, the foliage is beautiful. I love this time of year!

Baby Girl Peters' 4D Ultrasound Pix

Without further ado, here are BGP's 4D ultrasound pictures:







Our favorite:








We think she looks like Jackson did when he was about 2 months old. They don't look too much alike based upon their 4D ultasound pictures. For comparison's sake, here are a couple pictures of Jackson at the same age as BGP in utero:




Here's a picture of him at a week old; I think he looks very similar to his 4D pic:


I guess I can see some similarities in this picture. What do you all think?



I think BGP is chubbier than Jax was. Kind of strange because I gained more weight with Jax. We arn't sure if she has a ton of hair like Jax. We kept asking the ultrasound tech but she was so focused on getting a great facial shot that she really wouldn't look too hard for the hair. We all know Jax had a head full of hair at birth and I've searched his 4D pics trying to see some hair, to no avail. I just don't think I know what I am looking for. But, I can tell you -- I've had just as much heartburn this go around, if not worse.

I had my OB appt yesterday. Gained 2.5 pound in 2 weeks! BGP grew exponentially! Dan returned from carrier qualifications and he said, "Yep, she DEFINITELY grew!" So, she went through a growth spurt. Perhaps it was the Halloween candy! I passed my Glucose test (Gestational Diabetes) and my blood pressure was great. I will go back again in 2 weeks.

Perhaps the most exciting news of the week is that Dan qualified at the carrier this week. He had already qualified during the day in Advanced but in this phase, he had to land on the carrier at night. It's rather difficult to explain but he had to land numerous times on the carrier at night (not just once) and they take an average of all your scores to determine if you qualified. Our prayers were answered: he qualified and he's safe at home now!!

Jax is getting over croup and his cold. He's pretty much over croup -- that wasn't so bad. The cold hasn't been so bad either; it's just the two together were awful. I've been suctioning his nose to help him breathe better. He's got some green mucus (I know you all wanted to know that!) so if this continues, I'm going to get Dan to take him to the pediatrician on Monday (he has the day off).

That's all for now!! Enjoy the weekend!

Jackson has CROUP!

Blah, what a miserable past few days. Jackson came down with croup on Friday/Saturday. Our babysitter's son got it and we were hoping that Jackson wouldn't catch it but it must be a strong ol' pathogen. Jax wasn't doing too bad with croup until he got a horrible cold along with it. He got the cold on Monday morning. The two together -- the cold & croup, he's just completely miserable. Last night, he woke up every 30 minutes. No fun for Mommy, especially since Dan is out to sea doing carrier qualifications (CQs).

Dan was supposed to leave on Friday morning to go out to sea for CQ's. However, due to Hurricane Noel, they postponed leaving until Sunday morning. So, Dan & all the rest of the guys left out Sunday morning on the USS Eisenhower (I think!). He was supposed to return Tuesday or Wednesday but apparently Dan just got his first set of qualifications done TODAY. He emailed me very quickly to let me know that the boat was experiencing some problems so they started the CQ's today. His first set of night CQ's will be tomorrow. He only completed his daytime qualifications today. Dan indicated that he would be home Friday or Saturday. Continue to keep him in your prayers!

We did get the 4-D ultrasound done of Baby Girl Peters. The appointment was last Thursday and it was so neat to see BGP, in all her glory. She looks like Jackson did when he was 2 months old. She does NOT look like Jackson's 4-D ultrasound pictures though. She appears to have the Peters' nose, a head full of hair (imagine that!), fuller/pouty lips (have we seen those before) and yep, she's still a girl. Currently she is breech and has nestled her head under my ribs, though she seems to prefer my left rib. I do have an anterior placenta again, though this time it is at the very top of my uterus (with Jax it was in the middle -- around my belly-button region). During the ultrasound, the technician kept saying that BGP had her head buried into the placenta and we could barely get any pictures of her face because she wouldn't move her head out of it. Jackson was the same way too -- loved to dig his head into the placenta. The theory is that the placenta is soft, has a heartbeat and is warm so baby just love to follow them. This is probably why BGP is breech -- she's following the placenta. Hopefully I can do some exercises to get her to turn head-down (Jax was head-down at this point).

I haven't had a chance to scan the 4D ultrasound pictures of BGP, mainly because Jax has been so sick and has occupied every second that I have. Well, that and tonight, I'm going to bed EARLY so that I can catch up on all the sleep that I missed last night. As soon as I get a chance, I'll be sure scan them. I know you all will find them just as amazing as we did.

I have another OB appt on Friday. I apparently passed my Glucose test (Gestational Diabetes) because I never received a phone call from them -- no news was good news. I plan on discussing BGP being breech and what we can do, if anything, at this point to try to get her to move into proper head-down position.

And that's about it.....check back soon for the 4D ultrasound pictures!