Austin Finley Hansford

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Pregnancy - Second Trimester

Our bouncing baby boy is very active, but never when I want him to be. It is a rare occassion that he will kick when somebody else is looking/feeling. He could be doing acrobats for ten minutes straight and then I tell somebody to look/feel and he will be completely still. Jared was able to feel him a couple of days ago (12/29/08) while sitting on my lap, but he is the only person other than Brian who has had the privilege.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Brian Back Injury

Bo & Bitey (our furbabies) are enjoying having Brian set up in the living room. Though Brian is beginning to get very tired with laying around, our furbabies love the company as they sleep all day next to him. (Picture from 12/22/08)
It is also fun for the cats to help Brian with his school work. (Pictures from 12/22/08)

Unfortunately, Brian was not able to join me for any of the family Christmas parties, but his parents, Dawn and Erik came to our house for Christmas Eve for dinner and to exchange gifts. Bo & Bitey were right in the middle of the action. (Pictures from 12/24/08)

Pregnancy - Second Trimester

Brian was able to feel one of the baby's kicks today. He said that it just felt to him like I had a gas bubble, not like his baby was kicking his hand, but that it was still a cool experience. I can't wait until he is able to feel most of the kicks and they feel like his baby kicking his hand.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Pregnancy - Second Trimester

The baby's kicks are getting stronger. Today I noticed that you can now visually see our baby boy kicking by looking at the front of my shirt. My shirt moves with the strong kicks, but there are still a lot of little kicks and movements that aren't visible.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Brian Back Injury

Brian's surgery was put on a trauma waiting list at Spectrum (downtown) for Friday 12/19/08. We were at the hospital at 130pm for surgery that was supposed to happen at 4pm, however, he did not actually get into surgery until 9pm. It was a long wait and Brian was in a lot of pain (the two morphine shots didn't last very long). The surgery was only supposed to be 1.5 hours long, but ended up taking quite a bit longer. I was not able to see him until 130am Saturday.

The doctor explained that he removed about 1.5 inches of disc and extracted the fluid from around the nerve. He reported that the surgery went well and he expects a full recovery. Apparently Brian has some degeneration and arthritis in that area of his spine, therefore the doctor expressed the importance that Brian take care of himself with exercise and diet. (Not a bad thing - we could all use a reminder to take better care of ourselves.)

When Brian came out of surgery he was quite dilerious. He was determined that I had caught a shoplifter, which I "shouldn't have done in my condition". That same shoplifter stabbed Brian in the back when trying to steal a $250 stereo. It was quite funny to listen to, but also showed that Brian wasn't quite ready to be on his own at the hospital. He hadn't eaten for over 30 hours and I wanted to make sure that he got some food into him, so I stayed at the hospital with him and everyone went home for the night. His parents drove us to the hospital and had waited with us that entire time (my family was there a majority of the time as well).

The next morning Brian worked with a physical therapist who cleared him to leave the hospital. Brian's instructions for the next two weeks are to lay flat on his back as much as possible, with limited time sitting (20-30 minute intervals), limited stair climbing and a 5 pound carrying/lifting limit. My Dad and Nick brought the mattress down from the guest bedroom and put it on the pull-out couch in the living room for Brian to use during this time. Brian's parents brought us home and helped us to settle in. They also took care of all of the shoveling after the big snowstorm that we had Friday night.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Brian Back Injury

I took Brian in to see a neurosurgeon/orthopedic doctor. The doctor explained the MRI to us and the fact that therapy would not help. Brian's disc between his fourth and fifth lumbar was completely blown out and extruding into the nerve that runs along his spine. There was a lot of fluid that escaped the disc and was along the spine as well. The only way to relieve the pain and the numbness in the leg would be to remove all the disc and fluid from around the spine. Because of the severity, he suggested that we consider surgery tomorrow.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Brian Back Injury

Brian's back pain has continued to escalate. I took him to the ER again, in the hopes that they could speed up the process of having the MRI read by the radiologists. Luckily, it all worked out and the ER doctors were able to get the radiologist to put the MRI on the top of the list and read the tests while we waited in the ER. The ER doctor reported that the MRI shows a severe bulging disc that will likely require surgery. He recommended a neurosurgeon, gave Brian some muscle relaxers and sent us on our way.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Brian Back Injury

A lot of things have been put on hold in our house, as Brian has severely injured his back. He has overworked his body and he is now unable to do anything (including work). Brian is very frustrated by this, as he has a laundry list of stuff to do before the baby gets here. The upper half of his body is completely crooked. It looks like he was cut off at the waist and then his top half put back on, but about 5 inches off from the bottom half. His right leg is as painful as his back and it is numb. We tried going to the chiropractor, to the family doctor and to an ER doctor. He had an MRI on Saturday and now we are waiting for the results. We have an appointment set up with a neurologist, as well, so three doctors are awaiting the results with us. Brian has not been to work in a week and the potential of returning does not seem to be in the immediate future.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Pregnancy - Second Trimester

Brian is working so hard trying to get projects done around the house to get ready for our Baby Boy, but he is not having much luck getting his back to heal. He delayed renovation projects by about four weeks while going to the doctor for his back, but now that he has started the projects again, he continues to make his back worse. Renovations last about a day, with a week off thereafter for the back pain.

Right now Brian is working on getting a section of the basement ready so he can move his office down there. His office is currently where the nursery will be. The basement needs to have forms put along the exterior walls with insulation, some updated electrical and a drop ceiling. There was quite a bit of tear down, clean up, sealing, etc to do as well.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Pregnancy - Second Trimester

It's a BOY!!

We had an ultrasound today and the sonographer was able to tell (without a doubt) that the baby is a boy. He is approximately 1 pound and all of his measurements are good (head, sections of the brain, arms, legs, etc). At the time of the ultrasound, he was breech, but it is too early to be concerned (approximately 1/3 of all babies are breech at this point in pregnancy). Hopefully he'll do a a somersault before delivery.




Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Pregnancy - Second Trimester

For the past week or so, I have felt a very light (but destinct) flutter in my abdomen every once in a while. It seems to be in both lower quadrants, though mainly on my left and go as far as the left of my belly button. The flutters are real quick - sometimes one, sometimes a couple, but no more than two or three quick flutters (just like a butterfly trapped in a little spot or like my stomach is about to growl, but without the growl). My friend Tiffiny assures me that this is the baby, so I am very very excited. I was starting to doubt my mothering skills, if I can't even feel my own baby moving around in my tummy.