Elisa's Fixed Heart!

 We've know for a long time now that Elisa had a little hole in her heart (ASD-atrial deptal defect).  We took her to UTMB pediatric specialty care center over the summer to check up on it, and it was confirmed that the hole was still there.  So we decided it would be best if we took care of it once and for all as soon as possible, before the baby comes as well as for financial/insurance reasons.  We were referred to Memorial Hermann in Houston to check her heart out one last time and talk to the Pediatric Cardiologist before setting up a date for the procedure.
I say procedure because it is not a surgery, thank goodness-no cutting her open!  Its called "Cardiac Catheterization with deployment of ASD closure device".  In short, the doctor inserts a little device through the groin attached to a thin wire.  The doctor runs it up through the vein till he gets it where he wants it in the heart.  It seems crazy how the device would close up the heart and actually stick in there without coming undone, but it does! That's my layman's explanation. You can google this to get a better idea.
Elisa's procedure was set up for Monday, Sept. 29th at Children's Memorial Hermann.  A couple days before we went to get her blood drawn and talk to the anesthesiologist (who happened to be LDS).  She was such a good girl getting her blood drawn.  She barely flinched.  Gabe was more worried about it than she was!  After, we went to the Children's Museum because I got cheap tickets from Groupon and it was right around the corner.  The kids had so so much fun we spent as much time as we could there, I wanted to leave before we hit the horrible Houston rush hour traffic.  It was a neat place for kids.  I would like to take them back there someday in the future.
Elisa was such a good girl during before and after procedure.  She had no choice during, she was under anesthesia.  It felt like forever waiting for them to finish but it did eventually finish.  I was so proud of her for being such a good girl through the whole ordeal.  The doctor (Dr. Rao) said everything went smoothly.  We went in to see Elisa after and she looked so pale.  I wouldn't be surprised if she bleed plenty in her groin wounds.  She came out with a different gown and those were some big holes in her groin! I can still see them, 3 months later.  Thankfully, Elisa wasn't in much pain, just her throat bothered her because of the tube they stuck down her throat for the anesthesia.  Also her right leg was on a splint and that bothered her a little too.  She ate pretty well when she woke up, no wonder considering she didn't have anything to eat since 6 am and her procedure wasn't finished till 10 hours or so later. I thought she would be knocked out for awhile, but she tried to wake up as soon as she could.  And in typical Elisa fashion, wouldn't go to sleep till 10 pm or so.
Erik went home to get Gabe (my friend Dana picked in up from school and watched him for us) and I stayed at the hospital all night with Elisa.  Yeah, as you can guess, I got basically no sleep.  The couch-bed was uncomfortable and nurses were in and out all night ugh.  I'm not sure how much sleep Elisa got. 
But whatever amount she got, she was back to her regular silly self in the morning.  She was so happy to get the splint off her leg.  She kept asking to have her bandage off her groin, but when the nurses came in to take it off, she cried and refused to let them take it off.  So I had to hold her and give her a sucker while they did.  Her and I ate a little breakfast in the morning and even went to a music group in the hospital for a bit and colored with crayons afterward.  Then we went back to our room. Someone else came in our room and did another ultrasound of her heart. Elisa promptly fell asleep, just in time for Erik to finally get there. She got her flu shot when she woke up and then got fed some doughnut holes daddy brought for her.  We finally got discharged after waiting around for way too long.  I was so tired that evening so it was nice to have a friend bring dinner by!
Elisa has been doing great ever since!  She's been on aspirin ever since and had to miss out on the playground in preschool for a couple of weeks, but other than that, nothing notable other than a couple scars in her groin.     

The echo-cardiogram, before the procedure

Waiting for the anesthesiologist

Playing at the Children's museum!

waiting

More waiting...

 So tired!

 Trying to wake up

 Popsicle time

 Waking up some more...

 Getting checked out by the nurse

 It's like nothing ever happened!

She liked the juice the best.

Our breakfast.  I ate most of it, lol.  She did have some pancake though.

Back to her cute silly self.

Baby #3!

We are pleased to announce that we are expecting #3!  Due January 30th.  I'm not sure exactly what we're in for, or if we're even ready, but we are sure excited!  Especially Gabe and Elisa.  Their eyes were wide as saucers when they were told I have a baby in my tummy!  This pregnancy has been similar to the others in that I've had no morning sickness or cravings.  Just general discomfort and a little fatigue here and there.  However, around mid August (15 1/2 weeks or so) the varicose veins that started my last trimester with Elisa came back with a full vengeance.  Varicose veins can turn what would have been a good, easy pregnancy into a nightmare.  Wearing thick compression stockings in 90+ degree weather with high humidity is hell, as is not wearing them, because then my legs would feel as if someone took a baseball bat to them and the worst part is that the veins just get worse, especially if I don't wear the stockings.  So that is what I have been dealing with for the past months.  It has cooled off and my legs have not been bothering me as much, even without the stockings.  Well, at least I never got morning sickness!
We found out September 13th if baby was boy or girl.  I had been debating a while if I should have a gender reveal party or not, but I decided to go ahead and do it, because if anything, it would be fun for the kids.  I went September 12th for the ultrasound.  I was nervous this time around, just because we have gotten so very lucky/blesses to already have two perfectly healthy babies, so I thought we might be pushing our luck this time! But thankfully baby #3 looks perfectly perfect and adorable!

Shots of the face in ultrasounds always look creepy to me

He has 10 little fingers!

and legs...

And ten little toes on two cute little feet

It's pretty obvious.  He wasn't shy :)

 His cute profile picture.  I knew he was a boy just by looking at this.  He looks like my other two.  Elisa had a teeny tiny nose and this one's looks more like Gabe's so that's how I knew he was a boy!


I had the ultrasound tech turn off the screen while she checked the gender and then circled boy on a piece of paper and put everything in an envelope for me.  One of my friends volunteered to take the envelope, and fill up a box of balloons with either pink balloons for girl or blue for boy.  I invited a couple of friends over and we played some silly games (at least the kids did) like pin the bow/bow tie on the baby and baby catapulting into bowls.  And then we opened the box!  I wasn't the one taking the video so sorry if it is in 3 separate parts! Erik and I were confused for a split seconds by some green balloons but that didn't last long when we saw the blue ones.  I wasn't surprised that it was a boy at all, since the profile picture sorta spoiled it for me :).  Poor Elisa was a little bit upset.  She didn't cry, but she wanted us to turn the blue balloons into pink balloons.  Gabe was happy.  Elisa has now accepted the fact that she will be getting a little brother and not a sister.  And I'm sure she'll be perfectly happy with this later on in life as she will be the one and only princess in the family!           

Sheesh--I can't even remember how far along I was here.  I'm pretty sure it was around 20 weeks though.

30 weeks!  I'm 34 1/2 weeks along now, and surprisingly yes I am bigger than that! Yikes. 

Kansas/Lego Discovery Center

 We went to Kansas again this year.  Of course I forgot the good camera AGAIN.  Good thing of iPods and iPhones.  Well in this case, Erik's iPhone because there isn't a single picture of this trip on my iPod. The point of going to Kansas was to visit with Erik's family (his grandpa Raper mainly), but we don't have a single picture of the kids actually with them!  We do have a few pictures of the train park we always go to while we're up there.  The kids had soooo much fun on the trip but they were really tired so we had a couple of meltdowns.  They loved seeing their grandparents and being spoiled.  They also loved the pool that even had a slide!

We had planned to check out Lego Land Discovery Center in Dallas on the way back.  We managed to get a couple of free kid's passes so it wasn't too expensive.  Gabe and Elisa had a lot of fun, even though Elisa was a little naughty that day.  She was a little sad that she couldn't go on some of the rides. Gabe absolutely loved it all!  My favorite part was building a Lego house for the kids out of the huge Legos.  There were a couple of rides but mostly Lego play stations and play grounds.  Here are the pics: