7 Weeks

6 Weeks and 4 days

I was 7 weeks yesterday. Next week I will already be 2 months. Time is flying by. This week our embryo reaches the size of a small berry, about half an inch. The head is clearly over sized and the skin very thin. He/She can already move in the amniotic sac. Fingers and toes are separating, and elbows are now visible. Vital organs are developing, as well as fine details: teeth, eyelids, nipples, and hair follicles. The liver is now producing red blood cells, and blood vessels in the umbilical cord represent our baby's lifeline-carrying oxygen and nutrients between the two of us.

I went back for a follow up this past Wednesday. I shared our u/s picture from Easter morning, but I thought you might like to see how much of a change there was just a few day in between. Please excuse the quality of the picture.

I would like to leave you with this link to the Hymn The Old Rugged Cross. This is a song my dad sang growing up in church. He sang this at a Church Member's Funeral and the Choir teacher said she had never heard it sung so beautiful. We thought it was only right to have someone sing it at his funeral.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CltrLsjsQl0

Correction on The Services

I wanted to make a correction on here about my dad's funeral. It will still be on Saturday at 2:00, but the location has changed. It is now going to be at Heritage Baptist Church here in Montgomery instead of Leak Memory.

The visitation will still be from 5-7 at Leak Memory on Friday. Also after the funeral we are still having a graveside service at Greenwood Cemetery.

All of these arrangements will be in The Montgomery Advertiser Thursday and Friday.

April 14, 2009

Today is Tuesday, April 14th and my dad passed away right at 2 am this morning. I know that this must be a shock to those of y'all reading this as it was for our family too. We were told just a week ago he was going to get out of the hospital at the end of the week and be put on hospice. When we asked how much time he had of course no one knew the answer for sure, but the doctor's felt like months. Well, here it is 5 days later after being discharged from the hospital and he has gone to be with the Lord and my sister.

Our family is in mourning right now, but have comfort in knowing that daddy is with Ashley again. What a WONDERFUL thing! Those of you who read my post over the weekend, read that Sunday, April 12th was the anniversary of Ashley's death. How ironic is that he passed away 2 days after this anniversary. I believe in my heart he was tired. Tired of fighting this HORRIBLE disease, tired of the pain, and just tired of everything that came along with it. No one can blame him. He fought as long as he could. He suffered so much and we also find comfort in knowing his suffering has ended.

Please lift my family up in prayer right now. Pray for peace, strength, comfort, and understanding. I look forward to the day when the 5 of us are together again. Until then I know Ashley and Daddy have each other in heaven while Mama, Tab, and myself are together here.

Arrangements for the service have been made. The visitation will be Friday from 5-7 at Leak Memorial and the Funeral will be Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at Leak Memorial with a Graveside Service to follow at Greenwood Cemetery.

A Scare!

Riley and Grayden's Easter Basket from Granna and Grandpa!



Grayden playing in the grass!



Grayden wants to eat EVERYTHING!



The Boys looking at their Easter Basket from Granna and Grandpa!




Jonathan and I with our Favorite 2 Little Boys!



Riley and the Easter Bunny!



Grayden and the Easter Bunny!



Riley and Grayden with the Easter Bunny!



Riley and LuLu before going to see the Easter Bunny!




Baby Cox at 6 weeks!

On Saturday night I fell asleep around 7:30 which is normal for me now. I woke around 10:30 p.m. and noticed I was spotting. I was terrified! I called ART and it connected me to Brookwood Hospital where they paged a nurse for me. She called me back and I explained to her what was going on. She offered for me to come up to Birmingham first thing Sunday morning for an ultrasound and blood work. That was my only option besides going to the ER here or waiting til Monday for my appt. There is no way I could wait that long and I really didn't feel confident enough in the ER here for what I needed to be seen for so we decided to head up to B'ham that morning. Of course I did not go back to sleep the whole night. We left Montgomery at 5 a.m. and got to Brookwood right before 7:00. They took me back right when we got there. We had our ultrasound and right away we saw the Heartbeat! I can't explain the feeling that came over me as soon as I saw it flickering away. Not only after everything we have been through the past 2 years, the night before, and for us to see it on Easter morning. What a wonderful way to remember this very special day. I also had some blood work ran. They called me around lunch to let me know that my progesterone had dropped some more. It went from 29.8 to 22 since the Monday before. We are pretty sure that is what caused my spotting since the ultrasound looked perfect. I am now off of my other progesterone support and now on progesterone injections in my muscle daily. We go back to the ART on Wednesday for another ultrasound and more blood work. We are excited we get to see our little miracle twice in one week. We are praying that Baby Cox looks great and my progesterone levels have gone back up.

We did get to see Jonathan's parent's, Tracey and Emma on Sunday. I wish I could have stayed up longer to visit, but I was going off of no sleep from the night before. We did get to see Emma open her gifts from the Easter bunny. I wish we took some pictures to post of how big she has gotten. Hopefully we will get to see them sometime soon.

Now for a update on my dad. He had a rough night Saturday and all day Sunday. He is starting to hallucinate again, he stays up pretty much all night talking to himself, to other people who aren't there, and to my mom about things she doesn't understand. We were thinking it was the morphine, but his hospice nurse came out today and said it caused by the stage of his disease. They put him on a sedative to take. He needs rest and even begged my mom to help him sleep in the middle of everything Saturday night. Please pray that his new meds can help him relax so he can get the rest that he needs. Please also pray that my mom can get some rest. She is unable to sleep when he is up all night. For the most part I think his pain is still being controlled as good as it can be and we are all very Thankful for that.

One last thing today is Chloe's Birthday! She is 8 years old. I can't believe it time has flown by.

6 Weeks!

This week the baby is hardly 1/4 inch long-picture a dried pea in the shape of a curled tadpole. Arms and legs are becoming larger and they now grow hand and feet buds, with tiny, webbed fingers and toes. The baby's jaw, tongue, nose, and lungs also begin to form. Muscle fibers are starting to grow, and the baby's intestines and brain continue to develop.

It's possible to actually hear the baby's heartbeat(going much faster than our own -about 100-130 beats per minute) with a vaginal ultrasound. It's working hard to circulate blood to support all this rapid growth.




I am 6 weeks today and I woke up this morning feeling like it. I have had pregnancy symptoms here and there, but today they were a lot stronger. The symptoms I am having so far are : lots of bloating, nausea (tmi-actually only vomited twice), moodiness today, again tmi- my breasts are fuller, food aversions, headaches, nose bleeds, and major fatigue. I think that's about it. I never have all them at once. They just seem to come and go. As bad as some of them sound, I'm so happy to be experiencing them.

Jonathan and I go back to ART on Monday at 9:15 for an ultrasound and blood work. I will have more pictures of Baby Cox to post.


I wanted to give a quick update on my dad. He came home from the hospital on Thursday. He is so much happier there. He has been feeling pretty good. I think his pain is controlled a lot better than it has been at any other point. Please continue to pray for him.

I also wanted to ask that you say a little prayer for our family too. Tomorrow April 12, is the anniversary of my sister, Ashley's death. It is always a hard time for our family and I imagine with all of this going on it might be a little more emotional. We miss her so much, but know that she is in a much better place than the rest of us.

I hope everyone has a Happy Easter and gets to enjoy time with their families tomorrow. I can't even imagine how next Easter will be for us with Baby C!

Our First Ultrasound!

Attempt at taking a picture of a picture!


Week 5 Ultrasound picture


Jonathan and I with the first picture of our Baby!
(Please excuse how ruff I look, it's been a hard day)



Riley holding a picture of his cousin!


Today Jonathan and I had our first ultrasound! We ended up having our appointment in Birmingham because the Practitioner in the Montgomery office had a death in her family. We went up there Sunday afternoon and stayed with Jonathan's parents. We had dinner at my favorite place the Cheesecake Factory last night and it was great as always.

This morning we had to be at the office at 9:30. I had blood work, a urinalysis, and an ultrasound. My blood work came back good. My HCG level jumped from 780.6 to 11,629.3 . My progesterone did drop a little. It went from 33.6 to 29.8. It was not a big decrease so they are not concerned. They did not increase or change my progesterone around so I feel OK about it. After getting my blood drawn it was time for the ultrasound. I was so nervous about it, but everything looked great and is developing at the rate that it should. I'm going to post some pictures. I know there is not a lot to see. At this point I should just have a sac and a yolk sac and I do. Next week they said we should see a big change. We should see the heart flickering too. We go back for another u/s and b/w next Monday morning. Please continue to pray for me and Baby C!

Jonathan and I returned back to Montgomery to some devastating news. My dad is being discharged from the hospital sometime this week on Hospice. There is nothing else the doctor's think they can do for my dad. He is not healthy enough to undergo cancer treatments. He is fighting infections, now a irregular heartbeat, and poor nutrition. This is something you never want to hear about a family member. It brings back so many emotions from the loss of my sister. At this time our main goal and Hospice's main goal is to keep him comfortable in the time he has left. Please Please Please pray for strength, peace, and understanding for my dad and our entire family at this unbearable time in our lives. There is no way we can get through this without prayers and God's strength.

I will try to keep everyone updated on as much as I can this week.

We just tried scanning the u/s pictures and our scanner is not wanting to work so we had to take pictures of the u/s pictures themselves. That is why the quality is so bad.

5 Weeks!

Today I am 5 weeks pregnant. Already this week, the baby's heart begins to beat regularly; arm and leg buds appear; and the eyes, ears, and skeleton begin to form. The placenta and umbilical cord begin to function around this time, too.

Jonathan and I go Monday morning at 9:30 to recheck my blood work and to have our first ultrasound! We are really excited and nervous. We are praying that the ultrasound shows everything developing like it should. I will post that night and hopefully have a good picture to post too.

Now an update on my dad. He is still in the hospital. He got his PIC line put in yesterday. That is the line he will receive all of his chemo through. He is still very sick and weak. We need a team of prayer warriors right now. We need you to pray that he nutrition status increases. That he gets more of his strength back. Pray that his pain is taken away. We just ask that a miracle happens and he can take treatment and beat this horrible disease. We appreciate all your prayers.

Alright, I will "see" y'all on Monday!