Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day

Last year we learned that October 15th is the international Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day. Interestingly, the group that promotes this awareness day uses a butterfly in their logo, something we didn't know last year when we first felt the connection to butterflies last year with Sara.

Krystal is still pregnant, now almost 32 weeks. She's doing well except for going stir-crazy after having been on bed-rest for almost 2 months now. Ava-Marie's arrival is rapidly approaching, to the point of us getting a bit nervous. We're ready for her to be here, but obviously not until it's the healthiest time for her. We breathed a big sigh of relief recently when we passed the 30 week mark. Term is 37 weeks, and Krystal is putting her money down on a Thanksgiving baby. We shall see. It's not too far off.

One year later...

It's hard to believe an entire year has passed since we lost our precious Sara Kay. We have held true to our promises, not a night has gone by that we haven't told her good night. Even when I have to spend the night in the hospital, I make sure to take the time to call Krystal so we can tell her good night together.

A shadowbox holding the gown the hospital dressed her in hangs in our bedroom. A friend of ours created a framed work of art using flowers from her funeral. We always stop by her grave site whenever we are able to make it to Mobile.

We are blessed to have her in our life. We miss her everyday and long for the day when we get to hold her in our arms again. It hasn't gotten any easier over time, the pain still stings just as deep.

If today you see any daisies or butterflies, please remember Sara.

Another Week, Another Doctor's Visit

We had our weekly trip to the OB today. No changes in the cervix so we stay the course with bedrest and the terbutaline pump. We also add another medication in the form of a shot. That's right, in addition to sticking Krystal with a needle every other day to change the site of her pump, I am giving her weekly progesterone shots.

Krystal also got to drink 50 grams of sugar for her 1-hour glucose tolerance test. She failed it last year and had to do the 3-hour test, so let's hope we don't have to go through that one again.

Thanks again for all the continued prayers!

Bedrested

It's been a while since the last update, so this one is going to be a big one. For the past month or so, Krystal has been feeling an off and on tightening, about once an hour, sometimes more, most of the time less. Regardless, enough to worry her. It led to one early appointment (which was actually the one with the ultrasounds from last month) and a trip to the L&D floor to see if anything showed up on the contraction monitor. Nothing did either time, however at our last visit a week ago, the doctor noted her cervix to be dilated 1cm (previously had been completely closed).

We spent that night on the L&D floor so stay on the monitor for a prolonged period of time and when we were discharged the next morning it was on terbutaline and procardia to limit/stop the contractions. Today we went back to the doctor, cervix was unchanged, however due to the medications not completely stopping the tightening, she has now been placed on bedrest and will be put on a terbutaline pump.

Any and all prayers are appreciated, it's going to be a long 4 months.

Ultrasound Videos!

Assuming I did all of this right, and the program I used to convert the video to a usable format worked, here's the ultrasound videos. I can't guarantee they are actually in the correct order. And it's entirely possible there's a bunch of duplication in all of this.

Healthy Ava-Marie

Our latest doctor visit has come with the full growth/anatomy scan ultrasound, which of course means more pictures. Ava measured right on target with how far along Krystal is right now, and all of her various body parts were present and normal, 3-vessel cord, 4-chamber heart, both kidneys, stomach, etc. It felt like a much different ultrasound than a year ago. I think due in part to my questions about cost/timing for 4D ultrasounds, we got a small preview along with some pictures. So without further ado, I give you Ava-Marie Kay McCarty:

You might notice from the above 4D pictures that she was not too keen on giving us a perfect view of her full face. The little diva is already throwing her arm up and turning away.

Yes, I asked if it was still a girl, that's just how I work.

It looks like I can upload videos to the site fairly easily, I'll see if I can't get that up here tonight also. Thank you for all of your prayers.

It's a girl!

We found out back in April that Krystal is pregnant, and had the good fortune of an early ultrasound this week where we found out that we will be having a girl!

Being the kind of people that we are, you know we already had names picked out as soon as we found out Krystal was pregnant. So sometime in December, we look forward to introducing Ava-Marie Kay McCarty to the world.

I plan on keeping this blog up to date with information, pictures, and, eventually, videos. I look forward to sharing our family with all of you.

--Todd McCarty