26 Weeks/5 Day

Almost another week down!!  We've had a busy few days in Haverford/Philadelphia since our last post....well, most of us.  Shawna is still on lockdown as she's trying her hardest to keep her butt down and feet up but that is getting more and more difficult as she's feeling better and better.  Better enough (yes, not good English) that she has tried to wean her way off of the powerful pain meds that she's been prescribed and lower down the dosage to standard Tylenol.
Before we get into the health report, I'll fill you in on the haps in Haverford of the past few days.  I haven't had to cook a single dinner as people from some local churches and friends of the Hall's (the folks home we are staying in) have provided us with some VERY tasty meals.
Sunday: Janet actually left us with a bean soup which was excellent.
Monday: Mexican cornbread casserole
Tuesday: Chicken casserole
Wednesday: Ziti
Thursday: Spaghetti
Not sure what we'll do tonight but we have chili, steak, and a few lasagna's in the freezer all as options. 
Thank goodness for these meals because my menu basically includes grilled cheese, nachos, cereal, peanut butter and jelly, etc.  Yes, dad's you can all relate!!
Papa Bob made his way out Tuesday night after a few days of business in Nashville.  He's been lots of the entertainment for the boys as they've made numerous walks through the backyard to the train station to watch the trains.  We thought those were great until today when the landscaper/yardkeeper informed us that there are lots of ticks in the woods.  Great!!!  So we'll be having Ellis Island-type medical inspections tonight during bath time (got to get my US History in the blog!!). 
The three of them also went to the Philadelphia Zoo yesterday giving Shawna and I some time to relax and get some things done around the Hall's (well, I had to do my jockstrapping and keep Shawna from doing anything).  They left around 9:00am and at 1:30pm they still hadn't returned.  We didn't know if we should be excited about this or starting to get nervous that we'd turn on the tv and see Myles and Peyton chasing some monkey's or tigers in the cages on a "BREAKING NEWS" story.  Fortunately, they made it home eventually in perfect time for them to crash for nice afternoon snooze....Myles and Peyton too.
It was actually the perfect morning for them to be out of the house.  For all of you fantasy footballers, you know you've got to get those line-ups set on Thursday's before the Thursday night game!!  So, this gave Shawna and I some extra time to do some research and put our heads together and make absolutely no changes to our line-ups!!  She was a happy gal this morning as we woke up to a Peyton Manning victory with her starting him at QB...how couldn't one of us have him?  Pretty obvious choice, plus I had the Broncos kicker (9 pts.) we our household was very pleased with what the Broncos were able to produce...plus my John Elway addiction still has yet to subside from my childhood days so the Broncos are still near and dear to my heart!
We've kept up with our favorite morning talk show....Live with Kelly and Michael.  We now feel like they're quickly becoming part of our family.  They have helped fill our time in the mornings as well as the boys exploring the house and yard, numerous cups of coffee from the Hall's Keurig (sorry, Hall's, but we've put the Keurig through about a years worth of typical use as I've usually arisen early to get lesson plans done and sent to school so I've become even more addicted to coffee...Dunkin Donuts hazelnut...than I was before the trip), as well as other activities of playing with lots of the toys people have graciously given us for the boys, going to a local park, or just lounging around.

 

 

 

 
We made our way downtown to CHOP today for her weekly checkup where everything checked out well.  The docs and nurses seem very encouraged by everything they see:

1. Incision on Shawna's stomach is healing really well (she actually found a picture on-line of a mom at 34 weeks who posted a picture of her incision and was happy about the way it looked...yikes, Shawna's looked like that one about a day after the surgery...I'd post it but none of you probably want to see that).
2. The incision on Shawna's uterus looked to be healing very well on the ultrasound.
3. The amniotic fluid around the baby looked good on the ultrasound.
4. The baby's brain is making more progress as it moves back to it's natural position allowing the fluids that go from the brain and travel through the spine to the rest of the body to free as they should to allow for normal development (this was the main reason we opted to have the surgery done before birth)!!!
5. The baby's heart checks out very strong and healthy.
6. Shawna's blood pressure was low...and this was after a Pumpkin Spice from Starbucks!!  This is a good thing as a high heart rate/blood pressure/stress level of her would encourage the baby to want to get the heck out of the uterus.
7. And as you're all probably holding your breathe for, I am doing great.  Starting to prepare for the week back in Zeeland.
We're looking forward to Janet's arrival back in Philly tomorrow morning as we overlap for a day in our next transition from jockstrap to bra for supporting Shawna.  She's been a pretty easy patient for me, hopefully she does the same for Janet!!
We're starting to try to explore more options for housing after the 27th when we move out of Haverford.  We've got some irons in the fire but were excited to hear that the chances of being in the Ronald McDonald House right by CHOP (1 mile) sometime during the first week of October are VERY good. 
Well, signing off from Haverford.  Thanks for all of the support from all of you.  As a family friend who has had experience with the health issues of a child of theirs said to my mom that angels would appear all over the place in our lives during this journey, she's been right on as people/angels have stepped up in support of us from all angles/corners and other unexpected places on an almost daily basis.
Have a good night....we hope this picture happens again in a few hours!!  Go Dux tonight and Go Cats' tomorrow (probably don't want to try to get a hold of Bob or me tomorrow between 12:30 and 3:30...we're keeping our fingers crossed that we can find the game...I think the Hall's get ESPN 3!!!).

CHOOSING JOY

-Jeff