Family Ties...

Charlie got home from work early this afternoon and so we got the chance to spend some time together and hang out with Asher while he was awake. Because I had help I was actually able to get my camera out for a bit and take a few photos of the little man (other photos will follow next week). As I went to put them on my computer I immediately recognized one of the photos of Asher, as if I'd seen it before, the same exact face on a different little baby! It took me a while to find but here is a photo of Asher and one of his cousin Ezrah, at about the same age with almost identical 'mom-you're-annoying-me-with-your-stupid-camera' glares in their little eyes.

E at about 4 months

Asher at 2 months

It's hard not to see the family resemblance; ears, cheeks, pouty little bottom lip, they are related for sure!

Cait

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Introducing (2 months late) Asher Finn!

Well, it has been almost exactly 2 months since I posted last and obviously a lot has changed! The little man is here and we are all home and doing well, when I have more time I will write a post about his birth and hopefully a second (and third) post about all the things we did in his first (and second) month but for now just some photos.

The following photos were taken at the hospital by one of the photographers from Our365 and they were given to us as a Christmas gift from my dad (sorry, I love the little guy but there's no way I could afford to buy the rights to these prints!) So here you go, our first photos of Asher Finn:

Asher Finn Akes
November 3rd, 2012 at 1744
7#12oz & 20inches

The little man looking worn out but who can blame him!

His cute little feet with all his battle scars!

Asher and his Daddy!

Me and the little man!

Our first family photo!

I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season and hopefully I will be back soon with more photo updates! Merry Christmas and God bless!

-Cait

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Fort Casey Retreat (pt. 2)

Alright, I think that worked so here is my attempt at Part 2, Black & White photos of the actual fortress part of the Fort and a story below about the little complication we ran into towards the end of the weekend!

Playing with overgrown sea kelp.

Puget Sound from the top of the Fort. 

Gun tower. 

Walking through the inner halls.

Hanging out!

Boys being boys!
(Notice Asher's belly shadow standing watch over his dad!)

Ammunition elevator. 

It was a wonderful fall weekend away but not without its difficulties (you would think that by this point I would have just learned to expect complications!) When we left on Friday I was getting over a bad cold/respiratory infection but I was hoping that a few days away relaxing outdoors would help me get over it. It did... in a way. I feel like the cold was slowly getting better but I was still coughing a lot Friday night! By Saturday my ribs on the left side were so sore from coughing (and from Asher and his hard little bum being wedged up underneath the ribs on that side) that it was difficult to cough and take deep breaths but I spent a long time walking through the Fort and it was refreshing to get out and be a little active. But by Sunday I was having a much harder time breathing (because of rib pain not the infection) and was having to curl up and brace myself each time I coughed. As we were packing to leave Sunday morning Asher kicked a few times right underneath those ribs that were so painful that it sent me into a coughing fit, after that I had a hard time even standing up right. Charlie had to help me do just about everything that day, even walking would send my rib muscles into spasms that were excruciating. Luckily I had an appointment scheduled with my OB Monday so I just had to make it through the night. 

By Monday things were not any better, it took me almost 2 1/2 hours just to get out of bed, shower and get dressed for my appointment. By the time I got there my blood pressure was pretty elevated and I was in tears. It didn't take my doctor long to determine that I had most likely fractured the lower false rib on my left side. She said there was a chance that I could have torn the intercostal muscle attached to that rib also but she said either way there was not much they could do about it. They gave me some meds to try and help with the pain that are safe for the baby but I'm trying to take as few of them as possible. Other than that it is back to more 'bedrest' for me (a least a week or two) to try and let the rib heal. 

The good news is that the little man is doing well, he had his first official Non-Stress Test at the doctors office (since I wouldn't be going into work this week to do one myself) and he looked good, not quite as lively as usual but he passed. We've got another one Friday so maybe I can post another update after that one! I hope you guys are enjoying the fall weather, I for one love it!! It makes me feel like we are getting closer to actually getting to meet this little man, making it more real for me I guess. I personally think tomorrow would be a pretty cool birthday 10/11/12, huh? But if you asked me everyday I could probably think of a reason any of those days would be cool! (We still actually have 6 more weeks so I am trying to learn to improve my patience!)

-Cait

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Fort Casey Retreat (pt. 1)

This weekend was our church's (Epic Life Church) second all church retreat. Last year we went up to the mountains but this year we headed out to the coast (kinda) and stayed at Fort Casey. Fort Casey is on Whidbey Island near the opening of the Puget sound. It was built along with two other forts on opposite sides of the water to protect Seattle and the rest of the military bases around the Puget Sound during World War I and again reactivated during World War II. It is now a beautiful State Park with views of rolling hills, mountains, and the sound. We stayed in the barracks at the Fort, ate at the mess hall, and walked along the beach to see the fortresses and historic light house. It was overall a beautiful weekend with perfect weather!

View from the beach

Charlie exploring the Fort

Charlie and a VERY tired, VERY pregnant me!

View from the lighthouse. 

Charlie and Tim playing pool in the creepy basement. 

The colonel's house at sunset

Deception Pass

 (All of the above photos were edited using Instagram) 

I have a few more black and white photos of the actual Fort that I want to post but I'm not sure how many photos I can post at once so I will put up a second post if this one works!

-Cait

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Our Date Night!

Here is just a quick peek at a few of the photos I took last weekend when Charlie and I attempted to take a day trip (we only made it about 15 minutes from our house) to get out together one last time before the little bean arrives!

At Lake Washington

Cooling off my swollen feet in the Lake :)

After stopping by a small park on Lake Washington (OO Denny Park) we headed up to Mill Creek to find lunch, coffee and wander through some bookstores! It was a nice quiet day, by the end of which I was completely exhausted!!! We ended up home by 6 and in bed by 8, we're not even parents yet and our bedtime has already become seriously compromised!

Charlie. 

I was trying to get a cute photo of the two of us but could never get out into the water fast enough,
this was the best I could do!

This weekend we went to our Church's retreat up at Fort Casey. I'll try and get some photos up of that soon!

-Cait

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32 Weeks, FINALLY!!!

This Thursday (yesterday) we officially hit the 32 week mark!!! I know for most pregnant women this is not a huge milestone but for us it's BIG for many different reasons! First of all, during my last hospital stay and month of bed-rest 32 weeks was the ultimate goal (originally it was 28 weeks but we blew past that one so 32 is the next big marker). The second real reason we (I) have been waiting for week 32 is that starting yesterday I have the official okay from my doctor to deliver at MY hospital! She told me that if I could make it to 32 weeks she would manage my labor at Northwest (barring any major unexpected complications). I know that this may seem minor but it is such a huge relief for me knowing that if anything happens, or I have complications, or questions, or go into labor I can call MY doctor, and be evaluated at MY hospital and not have to face the uncertainty of figuring out which doctor to call, which hospital to go to, and risk going to one hospital and then being transferred by ambulance (again) to a different hospital!

In all the uncertainty that we have been faced with lately it is so comforting to me to have one piece of the puzzle that feels like it is certain, something I can count on! As most of you know, this hospital is also the one that I work at; my unit, my co-workers, delivery rooms I've spent countless hours in, and doctors I work with on a daily basis. I know this is a luxury that most delivering mothers don't have, and they do just fine, but with everything we've gone through over the last few months you it is so nice to be able to take advantage of a perk of the job!!!

Okay, enough with my ranting and on to photo updates like I promised. A few weeks ago (at 29.1 Weeks) we had another ultrasound to monitor Asher's growth and he is HUGE! He is head down like a good boy but that made it difficult to get a good photo of him so I only have one (see below). But he looks like he is doing well. Overall he is measuring in the 98th percentile, most of the measurements they took put him at the size of a 32-33 week gestation infant. As far as his weight goes, he was supposed to be measuring at about 2 pounds 10 ounces (to be in the 50th percentile with most other infants his age) but they estimated his weight at 4 pounds 7 ounces!

Here's our 'little' man, sucking on his wrist!

The ultrasound tech was a little nervous and kept redoing the measurements, finally she told me that she was going to have to go get the doctor because Asher was measuring too big for his age and she just wanted to double check. I told her that he had always been big and she asked if they have ever given me a percentile for his growth and when I told her that last time he was in the 95th% she gave out a huge sigh of relief and said "Oh good, because I can't get his measurements to give me a percentile below 98% and it was making me think something was really wrong." Needless to say there is nothing majorly wrong with him, he is just very big, like always!

Two last photos I want to put up (mainly for my sister) are of my fetal monitor strips from the last two weeks. To avoid having to go in for Non-Stress Tests weekly my doctor has agreed to let me put myself on the monitor during my breaks at work and show them to her at my appointments (another nice perk that is saving us thousands of dollars). So below are my strips from week 30 and 31. The squiggly line on the top is Asher's heart-rate (he has been looking great) and the hill shaped mounded line on the bottom are monitoring my contractions. The dark red lines each mark 1 minute with 5 lighter lines in between each marking 10 seconds.

Week 30

Week 31

As you can see I'm still contracting pretty frequently (irregularly but frequently) usually when I'm at work the contractions come about every 3-5 minutes, in the 31 week strip above they were coming about every 2-3 minutes. This, as you can imagine, is super annoying but they are not doing anything (aka I'm not actually in labor) so there is nothing much the doctors can do about it. Needless to say we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of this little man. It has been a long journey for sure but he needs to cook a little bit longer so he can be our 12 lb Thanksgiving turkey like he's supposed to be! I will try to be patient (Charlie's doing better than I am most days) but am really looking forward to posting ACTUAL photos of him sometime in the next 5-6 weeks!

I hope you're all enjoying the fall weather. Charlie and I are going to try to make it to our church's All Church Retreat next weekend up in Camano Island at Fort Casey so I will hopefully be able to post some pictures of our time there when we get back next week!

-Cait

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Week 21 and beyond...

Alright all, I'm sorry that I fail miserably at this repeatedly but I'm trying to do a little catching up. So this is my attempt at filling you in... on the last trimester!

It has been a busy summer for sure; lots of travel, new experiences and unexpected complications! Charlie and I are doing well but I have definitely put him through a lot these last few months. Below is an ultrasound photo and update of Asher at his 21 week check up:

21 Weeks and 6 Days

 This week Asher had a detailed fetal growth ultrasound and a fetal echocardiogram to check the growth and development of his heart. He passed (for the most part) with flying colors! His heart looked great, it wasn't enlarged like they were worried it might be and it was pumping just how it was supposed to be for his age. They noticed a slightly enlarged spacing between one of the valves that they said he might be slow to close (meaning he would likely have a heart murmur at birth) but that shouldn't cause him any significant problems and would likely resolve by the time he was a toddler. As far as his growth was concerned he was big for his age (surprise, surprise). He was supposed to weight about 1 pound but was measuring at 1#5oz putting him in the 95th percentile for his age. Overall things were going well!

At the 22 week mark I changed my work schedule to part time which was really helpful. It gave me time to finally feel like I could get things at home organized and cleaned. I spent a long time fixing up our apartment but by the end of the week I had started contracting a lot! It wasn't too bad, I would just go home and lay down and they would go away. But once I hit the 23 week mark I had to go back to work, I was scheduled to work 52 hours in 4 days which made me a little nervous! I wasn't feeling great Friday night when I went in and things continued to go downhill from there!

It was a crazy shift by 10pm I was already contracting every 3-5 minutes and things were getting worse. I had to take an active labor patient who was going natural at midnight and by the time I got her admitted and her IV started I was unable to stand up straight or talk through the contractions that were now coming every 3 minutes. Thankfully my co-workers noticed and took over (aka they talked to the MD on call and had me admitted to our last room), my poor co-workers, not only did they loose a nurse but they gained another patient, and not an easy one at that!

They tried all different meds and IV drips but nothing worked to stop the contractions, by 6am the doc had done all she could for me at my hospital and they decided to transfer me by ambulance to a high risk hospital just incase I was actually going into labor. By this time Charlie was there with me and we packed up our stuff and headed downtown. Long story short we were admitted to a few different units at the high risk hospital until they finally determined that although I continued to contract I wasn't actually in labor (no cervical change). So they gave up trying to stop the contractions and just ensured that they weren't going to get worse without the medicine and finally let me go home on bed rest!

I spent the end of July and the beginning of August at home trying to take it easy but finally got the okay from my doctor to go back to work at 27 weeks but only doing 8 hour shifts with no labor patients! Needless to say the end of the second trimester was long and stressful for both Charlie and I so we were both very glad to get into the third trimester! Below is a photo of our fridge and our daily reminder of how big our little man is getting!

Our little guy!

I've since had another ultrasound but the little man was being a stinker and we didn't get a great photo but I will post that next time. I hope you are all enjoying the end of your summer, we here at the Akes' household are but I think we are both eagerly anticipating the arrival of Fall!

-Cait

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Long Overdue... Update

I have been informed by my youngest sister (and various other family members) that I am the worst blogger EVER!!! (I do believe you were all forewarned however  See original post. so I don't feel too guilty). But I decided to post a few photo updates of our summer so far.

Up until last week it has been a crazy busy summer for Charlie and I; lots of work, travel, weddings and family time for both of us! It was good but it has also been very nice just to be home for a week. I just started my new work schedule (major cut backs) which has been a huge blessing for both my health and sanity (I think Charlie would agree)!

Charlie and I took a day trip up to Fairhaven for our 6 month wedding anniversary in early May. 

Ezrah and her uncle Charlie in Wisconsin for Kier and Jacob's Wedding at the end of May.  

Charlie and his brothers (doing boy things) down in Alabama in June. 

Charlie and I in DeSoto State Park
I went off-roading for the first time, it was stressful, Charlie loved it!
(P.S. Driving around in our Toyota Camry rental car on a dirt road probably doesn't actually qualify as off-roading but it was enough for me!)

Walking Charlie to work we saw the Jeep he thinks is cool so I decided to take a picture of it with my new camera that he got me for my birthday!

Taking a break during walk around Green Lake on the 4th of July.

In Colorado for my mom's wedding in July. 

Okay well that's all I have for now. I'll try and get a little more on top of things in these next few weeks and maybe get you some updates about our little one soon too!

-Cait

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Anatomy & Gender Ultrasound

In-spite of all the craziness I was able to get to my ultrasound before they admitted me to the hospital. They didn't go through the results with me much before they shipped me over to the main hospital but they told me that the baby looks good and all of the 16-week checks they did were normal. One other important piece of information that I did get from the ultrasound however was the gender! 

SPOILER ALERT: If you don't want to know the gender of our little one please don't keep reading, or do,  just be warned...

I did get some cute pictures of the little guy! He's getting too big to fit all in the same screen but I think I have a cute profile shot to post. Enjoy!

This is apparently a photo of his feet, they looked much clearer on the ultrasound. 

P.S. Charlie was right all along, it is a BOY!

Look at him! He is getting so big. 

...and I might be biased but I think he's pretty cute!

STRETCH!

 That's his left hand across his face looking down from the top of his head.

That's all I've got for right now. I'm still hoping for an early discharge but it looks like I might have to be here till at least 8pm... sad. 

-Cait

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Fun Updates for Week 12

First off I want to thank you all for all the encouragement I've received from you guys in the last week its been so nice to hear from family and friends that I'm so far away from! 

I feel like I'm trying to be on top of things but I'm behind already! I assured my family that this post would be up by last night but instead of writing I watched the original Planet of the Apes movie with Charlie (he said it was some sort of American right of passage that I clearly have been deprived of). Anyways, On to more important things! We have had a pretty good week this week. My blood sugars have gotten more under control (after 2 or 3 more changes in the last week), the extreme lows have almost entirely disappeared and now i'm just having to deal with baseline numbers in the 150's to 180's which I personally don't like to see but my doctors assure me that both baby and I are safer sitting at those numbers than we were when I was in the 20's and 30's, which makes sense. The plan is to let me sit kind of high for a week or two until the numbers creep up further (showing signs that I'm moving out of the 'honeymoon' period of lows into the 'insulin resistant' upswing of highs that should start around week 15). Overall my diabetes/pregnancy is right on track as far as where my hormones are leading me which I guess is reassuring although at times overwhelming. 

As far as typical first trimester stuff is going I'm slowly starting to feel better, getting a little bit more energy (which likely has more to do with the fact that I'm not crashing into the 30's three times a day, than it does with anything else but I'll take it!) We also had an ultrasound with my high risk docs at Swedish yesterday that Charlie was able to come to which was really exciting for both of us! The little guy is doing great and according to the tests he has a much lower risk of developing Down's Syndrome than they had originally though. This was reassuring to us although I seriously had no idea they were that worried about that in the first place but apparently they were (some things like that are better left unknown I decided). See a picture of the little guy below. He was quite a stinker, moving all over the place arching his back and changing directions. He also refused to move either of his hands away from his face so that they could check his nasal bone but I really don't blame him; they were squashing his face, he was just trying to protect himself!

The little bean at week 12

 Before he took up is defensive boxer stance and covered his face!

So there you go! We're doing well. I feel a lot better not having to cover up and try to hide my growing belly, it makes life easier for all of us! Our next appointment with the high risk docs and Ultrasound isn't for 4 more weeks so I probably won't have as many pictures to post but I'll try and keep things updated as I can. 

P.S. I almost forgot, he's 6 cm long now, almost twice the length that he was at my 10 week appointment! Growing fast!

-Cait

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Quick update...

This is going to be brief, I hope! Since my last post (like 3 days ago) it has been a rough and trying week at best; one last minute sick call, a 911 call, 3 different doctors visits, 3 pump adjustments and multiple check-ins and updates with my diabetes educator.... And, its only Wednesday! I'm not going to go it to detail but I just wanted to post a new picture for our families. Despite all of the trauma that myself, the little one, and Charlie have been through this week I got to see him again today, moving around with a strong heart-beat (I could actually hear it this week!) So although the picture looks worse than the last one we got at 10 weeks I thought I would post a Week 11 photo (kinda... 10 & 5/6ths but who's counting). Here you go:

The little bean at almost 11 weeks!

-Cait

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