Prayers Answered

I just wanted to quickly post that Cannon is out of surgery, in recovery, and doing well. The lesion is closed. They did not do the shunt...the doctor said they wanted to "give him a chance to be in the 15% that doesn't need one." We appreciate continued prayers, and I'm certain Allison will want to do a better post later!

Vesti

Sweet baby boy!

Holding on to Daddy

Happy Birthday Cannon!!!!

He's Here!!!

He is here and I have to say he is the cutest!!!
This morning at 9:44, Cannon was born. Weighing in at 6 lbs 3 oz and 18 1/2 in long. He is doing well. And he's moving all four extremities a little bit. We are looking at surgery tomorrow around 3pm or so, for the spinal closure. We are not certain but he will probably need a shunt in his head, which may happen in the next few days. We are still in limbo and waiting to see how he is doing, before we know what all he'll need.

I have pictures, however I am still trying to figure out how to get them online. We are having technical difficulties going from camera to computer. But we'll get them there eventually.

Later posts to come...please be patient with me. Thanks!

Big News

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

We are right on schedule! I have to be at the hospital at 7:00 AM and we are scheduled for the C-section at 9:15 AM. We are very excited and have one weight lifted. We now know that Cannon's lungs are strong enough to support himself.
Wow!! I am so excited and beside myself! I can't believe he will actually be here tomorrow!
Please continue to pray that everything goes perfectly tomorrow.

I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you to everyone who is praying for us. We know that we are well taken care of and covered in prayer. I have been so amazed at how far the news and prayers have spread to people that we don't even know. But we do know that you are all our brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. We can not say it enough. But we are truly appreciative of all that everyone has done.
Hopefully, I'll have news to post early tomorrow.
With love and thanks!

Patiently Waiting

Well we went in yesterday for the amnio at Dr. Tabor's office. It went better than expected I guess. It was pretty quick, he came in and put the ultrasound wand on my belly to see where Cannon was. He stuck the needle in once then pulled it out because it was too close to Cannon, then restuck and we could see the needle on the ultrasound. He drew out the fluid, pulled out the needle and was done. It was frustrating because we didn't feel like we got many answers to the questions we asked. Like what's the plan if his lungs aren't ready. He actually said that we could go back to Abilene yesterday. Then they put me on a monitor and watched Cannon's heart rate and me for contractions. After about an hour or so they said everything was okay and we could go. Dr. Tabor said that if they did what he told them to the lab would call him with results today and he would call and let us know. He then told me if I started having contractions or my water broke, etc. to come straight to the hospital. Now how can he say I can go back to Abilene but if I start having all these symptoms to come back to the hospital???? We are staying at Trey's cousin's in Weatherford until we hear or until we go for the C-section.

Well it's 6pm and we never heard from the Dr. So I am assuming that the lab didn't call him. He said no later than Monday we would hear from him. I'm thinking if I haven't heard anything by 10am Monday, that I will call the office. I have been having mild contractions and I've been trying to rest a lot. I did get out for a little while today, but I couldn't handle it for too long. Now we are just hanging out. I figure I need to get all the rest I can get this weekend.

So for right now we are just waiting to hear if Cannon's lungs are matured so that he can handle breathing on his own, outside the womb. And basically if he's not ready we don't know what Dr. Tabor is going to do. That's what we couldn't get an answer on. That has been the hardest part of waiting. We came on Friday packed and prepared to stay until we get to bring Cannon home. And the not knowing part is what is hard.
Please continue to pray, our focus is for strong, mature lungs for our baby boy. I will do my best to keep updating as soon as I get more information. The next time will most likely be Monday.
God bless you all, and thank you for all your prayers!
Love,
Ali

23 days and counting...

Last Thursday I got a call from the nurse practitioner at my doctor in Ft. Worth's office. She said they wanted to put me on the schedule for an amniocentesis on Dec. 26th. Then if Cannon's lungs are mature we will have a C-section on....DECEMBER 30th!!!
Cannon will end up being a 2008 baby after all. It has been a little overwhelming to try to wrap my mind back around a December birth. I had prepared myself for the middle of January. Now we only have 23 more days!!
We also found a rent house here in Clyde. It's a 4 bedroom/2 bath house, it will be a great size for having visitors! Which I am very excited!! I would love to have my family come visit us at any time. We will be moving into it this coming weekend. And the following weekend we are going to New Caney for Christmas with my mom's family, we missed it last year so I am very excited to be able to go. (Dr.s have given me the O.K.)
The next week is Christmas, meaning that Friday will be the 26th. When you break it all down, with all of our upcoming events Cannon will be here before we know it. I can't believe it. It seems like we just found out we were pregnant!!!
On another note, a friend which I have met since finding out Cannon has spina bifida, will be having her C-section this week.Their daughter Brooklyn has also been diagnosed with SB. Please pray for their family as they are going through a whirlwind this week. I pray that God carries them through without complications. We know He will provide.

Please continue to pray for us. The next 23 days are going to fly by and I can only imagine it will be the beginning of an emotional roller coaster.
As always thank you for all your love a support!!
Trey & Ali

Belly

Well here are some lovely shots of my belly!!!

32 weeks

Not my finest photog moments but I know everyone is wanting updates...and pictures!

I can't believe I'm posting this, but here's a bare shot! The bruises are from my blood thinner shots. Don't worry they don't hurt too bad, they just look bad.

Showers

These are just a few of the pictures from the shower Oct. 26th @ Meredith Crowe's. Mom teaches with her at CSK. Thank you to everyone who has helped us prepare for Cannon's arrival.









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These are from the family shower that we had, Nov. 5th.



Aunt Carolyn made this blanket for Cannon.



McKinlee and Maddie picked out these bears
from their room to give to Cannon. How sweet!

Gifts from Kassi

Aunt Brandy and Aunt Carolyn tied at guessing how many toilet paper squares it would take to go around my belly...11 squares!


How cute will he be in his lil jean? The cutest for sure!

This is the outfit we are planning on bringing
Cannon home from the hospital in.
Aunt Teri made this one for Cannon!



More to come when I get pictures from the shower we had here in Abilene. My camera battery was not charged so I didn't take any pictures :(

Just real quick!!

I can't post pictures because our computer isn't working at home. So I'm posting really quick to give the lastest update.

We saw our doctors in Abilene yesterday. Everything is good! Cannon is growing so big, and he hated every minute of Dr. Mayberry pushing on him with the ultrasound. He kept wiggling and kicking around. His head is stable doesn't look enlarged and the ventricles in his brain are stable. What this means is that it doesn't look like the fluid in his brain is increasing. And we are holding on to that. He is measuring right where he should be for 28 weeks (7 months). He is about 2 pounds and 13 ounces. I just knew he was going to be at least 3 lbs, but he's close! His feet still look good. And we got another sweet picture of his face. He is just precious.

We have an appointment for next Friday, Nov. 14th in Ft. Worth with the perinatologist. Hopefully we will learn more about when my C-section will be. The doctor I saw before will not be in the office that day, so I'll see a colleague of his...therefore I don't know how much we will get out of it. I'm so ready to know when Cannon is going to get here. We are anxiously waiting.

Well, please keep praying for us, in all aspects...health and home. We are still working on that!
Love you all!

San Antonio

So we went to San Antonio a couple of weekends ago and I was going to put some pics up so can see my tummy. It looks pretty big here. We had a blast!!! And it was nice to just get away for a few days. We went through Fredricksburg on Friday and did some shopping. Then walked the riverwalk that night. Saturday we got up and went to Sea World. That was fun! Then we came back on Sunday. Hope you enjoy!

Growing like a weed!!

24 weeks or 6 months...not much longer to go.

I have to start by saying I completely misunderstood Dr. Mayberry at my last appointment. Cannon was not 1 lb and 14 oz, he was 1 lb OR 14 oz. That's a big difference. He was however 10-11 inches long.

So I went to see Dr. Holt last week, and Dr. Mayberry today. I just love getting a peek inside to see him every time. Here is the first glance of today.

What a cute little face!!!

He's growing so much. He now weighs about 1 lb and 12 oz, so now he's almost 2 lbs. And he's 12-13 inches. Dr. Mayberry says he has long arms and legs.

And his feet still look good :

Then he decided to pose for us. I don't know if he's thinking or what but it sure is precious.

Last Thursday we met with the pediatric neurosurgeon at Cook's Childrens. Trey and I really liked Dr. Honeycutt, he was very knowledgable and personable. He basically said that we have to wait until Cannon is born to find out the severity. That was kind of discouraging, but nothing we didn't know. No two babies are the same, even if their lesion is in the same place and the same size, they are all unique and the severity can differ. I understand that in that position you would have to be careful what you tell the parents. You wouldn't want to say "oh your child will be this way" then they are born and you find that they aren't as well off. So that makes sense. Trey and I are just trying to remain positive and continue to pray that God heals him before he's born.

Our secondary prayer request is now that things work out for our "home" hunting. We aren't really sure what we are looking for or where we will end up. But it has become very stressful. Please keep that in your prayers.

And lastly...I finally took a picture of me getting bigger...Some days I feel big and some days I don't. I have really been enjoying feeling Cannon swimming around in my belly. I can't wait to meet him!!!

And here's just one of me and Trey!

Cute little feet!

We had an appointment with Dr. Mayberry this morning and got to see Cannon. He's growing so fast. He is about 1 lb 14 oz, and 10-11 inches long. I just loved getting to see him again. His feet look so much bigger than the ultrasound at 12 weeks when we got a picture of the soles of his feet. Still no sign of clubbing. (Great news!!) We could see a clearer picture of his spine. There is a space approximately 1 1/2 cm on his spine, this is the lesion or opening. He still saying lumbar-sacral level. Which is good. I am assuming that they expect the lesion to grow as Cannon does, but the way I look at it...1 1/2 cm is a small whole for God to close in the next 4 months. Which is what we are continuing to pray for. We are getting ready to head to Ft. Worth tonight and will meet with the neurosurgeon in the morning. We should be able to find out more of what to expect after birth. So I better get off here so I can get ready. I'll update with tomorrows new later!

A door closed

I called the center for the study surgery on Monday and found out that we were excluded from the study. Because it is unsure if I really have antiphospholipid antibody syndrome the doctors do not feel it would be safe for me to be involved with the surgery. My initial reaction was to be upset because I really felt like this was what we were supposed to do. After thinking about it more, and talking to a few people I realized it wasn't something to be upset about. We put this decision in God's hands and only He knows what is best for us. So we will continue care here in Abilene with Dr. Holt and Dr. Mayberry. We have appointments with both of them Sept. 10th. I am looking forward to getting to see Cannon again on the ultrasound. Then we meet with Dr. Honeycutt, the pediatric neurosurgeon on the 11th at Cooks in Ft. Worth.
As I was so excited about going and having the surgery for Cannon I didn't realize how much I would miss out on by being gone. And now I am getting more excited about things I have to look forward to until he gets here.
Trey and I are trying to get things together to get a house. I can't wait to put it together and especially do Cannon's nursery. However we haven't decided exactly how we are going to decorate it. But that's all fun stuff to figure out. I am looking forward to getting to pick out all kinds of things for him.

So our specific prayer for now is that God will heal Cannon and he'll be born without any complications. And that the possibility of me having antiphospholipid will be erased.

Until next time!
Trey, Ali, & Cannon

Everyone has been telling us that we need to start a blog so here it is.

Well most of you know that we are expecting a little boy in January. We are soooo excited!!! Trey and I are looking forward to starting a family. Well last Thursday we saw one of our doctors, the specialist or perinatologist, Dr. Mayberry. We were having our 16 week ultrasound, hoping to find out if we were having a boy or a girl. I'll never forget the look on the Dr.'s face when he told us that the baby appears to have spina bifida. He showed us what he was seeing and explained the classic signs that were there. He then told us we were having a boy. And that he was going to send us to a Dr. in Ft. Worth, another perinatologist. We went to Ft. Worth on Sunday and got to spend the evening with my mom (her and my Aunt Teri drove up to meet us), aunts, and grandma and cousins. Monday we went to see Dr. Tabor and they did another ultrasound. He basically confirmed the diagnosis and said that he would set us up with a neurosurgeon, who would preform the surgery after the baby is born. We has also heard of a surgery that they do while the baby is still in the womb, however Dr. Tabor didn't think we would be candidates for it. And at this point I wasn't really feeling like it was something I wanted to do.

Well, my mom got the number for me to talk to someone that had actually had the surgery in 2003. I called Kim and talked to her about the surgery, it is still in the trial study stages so you have to qualify for it. If you do then there are 2 groups you can be in, a prenatal or postnatal surgery. And they select groups "randomly". After talking with Kim I felt like I had to do it. I really want to do everything I can to help Cannon. So Wednesday I called to center for the study and on Thursday that called and got all my information. Now we are waiting for the team of doctors to go over my health history to see if I am a candidate. The only red flag is the episode I had in April with my head. Whether it was a stroke or migraine. And the "antiphospholipid syndrome" clotting disorder (I will touch back on that in a bit). So please pray that this is not too significant for their study. Trey and I are looking at this as giving it all to God, and if it is His plan for us to have the surgery then we will qualify and everything will work itself out. Otherwise He will shut this door and open the one we need to follow through. All we really want is healing for Cannon. Please continue to pray for us to have the wisdom to know where to go from here. I have to believe that no matter what happens there is a reason that I may not understand at this point, and that God is ultimately in control.

We have an appointment with a pediatric surgeon at Cooks in Ft. Worth for Sept. 11. If the study doesn't work out and Cannon has surgery after he is born, this is who would do it. They would do an amniocentesis at about 37 weeks to check for lung development, and if his lungs are strong enough we would have a scheduled C-section.

Okay, antiphospholipid syndrome is an autoimmune disorder that was picked up on one of the labs I had done in the ER when I had the "stroke like" episode back in April. It is a clotting disorder that puts you at a higher risk for getting a blood clot. During pregnancy you have a bigger blood supply therefore you are already at risk for a clot, so add that with this disorder and I am at higher risk for clots, stroke, and miscarriage. I am continuing to take a baby aspirin and was also started on a blood thinner shot that I take every night.

It has been a lot to take in in such a short time. Between Cannon and I this pregnancy has gotten off to a rough start. However I am grateful that however scary it may be at first, these are both things we can get through. All three of us have been covered in prayer, and I would like to thank everyone for that. Please continue to pray for us. We are specifically praying for acceptance into the study so that we can have immediate treatment for Cannon. Our number one prayer is healing, however it may come.

I appologize for getting wordy at times, I just wanted to get everything in so everyone would be on the same page. It's starting to run together who knows what and who I need to tell what. Hopefully this blog will help keep everyone filled in. It's getting late, but I will try to get on this weekend and put some pictures.

God Bless!