Railroad Wife, Railroad Life

I know that I've been relying on Facebook more than the blog to update everyone on Kennedy's progress.  Here is the latest update for right now. Two weeks ago we were told that they had hoped Kennedy would be discharged by December 22nd.  Unfortunately on December 21st, Kennedy had an episode that required stimulation.  When this happens it's an automatic 5 days from that point for a discharge.  The Doctor overseeing Kennedy's care wanted to make it 7 days though, just to be safe.  On Christmas Day, Jonathon surprised us and came up for the day.  Kennedy was very excited to see her Daddy.  We spent most of the day at her bedside and enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the Ronald McDonald House.  Shortly before Jonathon left, Kennedy had a short episode where a Nurse not familiar with Kennedy or her situation stimulated her prematurely, starting the 5 day process over. When I arrived at the hospital on the 26th, I was told that Kennedy had two episodes requiring stimulatio

October 20th, my Grandma Mary came to stay with me at the Ronald McDonald House.  Aunt Bobbie had to go back home to Atlanta.  On the 21st of October I mentioned some changes I'd had in my pregnancy to my Doctor and he confirmed I had a slow high leak of Amniotic Fluid.  He didn't seem alarmed, but said we'd monitor it.  I was a little concerned that the situation was more serious than the Doctor had made it out to be.  On the 23rd, I went to Labor and Delivery Triage and was told that yes I did have a slow high leak, but my membranes hadn't ruptured/my water hadn't broken. The Doctor I saw in L&D did an ultrasound and confirmed my fluid level went from an 11 on Monday to a 9 that day.  She did say it could be something as simple as Kennedy having a full bladder during the ultrasound.  I was told to take it easy and to rest as much as possible. I did just as the Doctors had suggested, taking most of my meals in my room at RMH.  On Monday, October 28th, I went

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get to a computer to type this all out.  I will try to break it down day by day so I don't forget anything. Wednesday, September 18, 2013 Around 8AM Jonathon, my Mother-In-Law, and Jonathon's Granny, and I reported to Cincinnati Children's Hospital for the surgery.  We were informed that the person who was scheduled to have their surgery in the morning was still going to have it, so I wouldn't be heading back to the OR until around noon.  The Fetal Care Center went ahead and admitted me, and gave me a room to wait in.  I was put on an IV, and prepped as much as I could be ready when the OR was open.  Around 11:30 one of the nurses told me I wouldn't be going down before 1PM because the first surgery was taking longer than expected.  However, around 12:30 the nurses came up and said they were ready to take me downstairs. Once downstairs, Jonathon's Mom and Granny were asked to wait in the OR waiting room, while Jona

This week has been a very long week.  On Tuesday we met Jonathon's Mom and sent Savannah to stay with her and my Father In Law.  We then proceeded to Cincinnati where we met with a High Risk OB and NICU Doctor who basically tried to talk us out of having the surgery.  All of my reasons for wanting to have the surgery were met with "This surgery won't guarantee any of that will happen."  When we left the meeting I was starting to question whether or not the surgery was even necessary.  Luckily Jonathon and my Mom helped me to see that with everything comes risk.  There is no guarantee that the surgery will prevent her from needing a shunt or allowing her to walk without the assistance of crutches or one day needing a wheelchair.  However, having the surgery definitely reduces the chances for all of these. Today we met with the High Risk Doctor and Pediatric Surgeon's who will be performing the surgery.  It was comforting because two of the three Doctors were Doct

Normally I wouldn't use my blog to post such personal things, but I feel like this might be the best way to keep everyone informed on what's going on with our latest addition.  For those of you who are just finding out about what's going on, I will start from the beginning. While Savannah and I were in Colorado I received a phone call from my OB stating that the results from our Quad Screen blood test came back with high numbers for a Neural Tube Defect.  We moved up our anatomy scan from August 21st to August 12th so he could confirm or excuse the results.  His office also made an appointment with a High Risk Doctor in Huntington for the 15th as well.  On August 12th I went in for the ultra sound and my OB could not find the defect, but could tell there was pressure on the baby's brain and her ventricles were dilated.  He was concerned the defect could be brain based, but wouldn't commit to that prognosis until after I went to the High Risk Doctor. On the 15th

This weekend was by far one of the best weekends we've had in awhile.  It was our first time to travel to my In-Laws in two months and it was nice to see family we haven't seen since Christmas. This was the first Easter since our daughter has been with us that we decided to dye Easter Eggs. What an ordeal that was, lol.  We were going to bring a dye kit that we bought a few weeks ago down to my In Laws.  Unfortunately I didn't realize I'd forgotten it until we were about 30 minutes from their house.  So my Sister In Law and I went to Walmart on Saturday and we bought a dye kit there. After the Walmart trip we decided to take our kids to an Easter Egg hunt that my Mother In Law heard about on the radio.  It was very interesting trying to find it.  We ended up at a Church and we weren't sure if it was the right place or not.  Thankfully a member started talking to me and explained how the hunt would work.  They divided up the kids into different age groups.  Miss

As a fun way to see Savannah's aging I posted a picture of her last St Patricks Day and a picture of her this St. Patricks Day side by side.  She's changed so much and is no longer a baby.  She doesn't even look like a toddler anymore.  She looks like a little girl.   Yesterday my husband got a call from Toys-R-Us that the bed rails we ordered for Savannah's bed had come in.  So last night we spent the evening hours converting her bed from a crib to a full size bed.  We didn't want to waste money on the toddler bed rails when ultimately she would move to a full size bed anyway.  We didn't use the box spring and I put her crib mattress on the side of the bed just in case she fell out.  Plus we put the bed in the corner so she'd only have one side to worry about. Last night she slept like a champ.  She didn't even wake up until Daddy decided to play photographer and go into her room early this morning.  She was out cold until his phone went off.  Lu

Today while scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook, I noticed that today was National Railroad Day.  This generated a sense of pride in myself because I am proud to be a Railroader's wife.  My husband has been working for CSX for almost 8 years.  As my first blog entry, I'll give you an insight into how we got to where we are today. I met him just before he graduated college and began dating him just after he started working for CSX.  He was one of those lucky people who was accepted into the Management Trainee Program with the company just before graduating college.  The first year and a half of our relationship was long distance as I was finishing up my schooling at the University of Kentucky and he'd taken his first position out of the Management Trainee program as a Trainmaster in Fredericksburg, VA.  It was an 8 hour drive between us, and I drove it a lot.  Many times I'd get off work on a Friday night, stop to fill up for gas, Stacker 2's, and a Dr. Peppe