First day of school.

Emilee started school at Houghtling this morning and had a blast. She cried when I picked her up!!! Had no trouble being dropped off. She was so excited when we got up this morning and couldn't wait to get there. :)

Summer!!!

It has been a beautiful couple of weeks here in Ketchikan. The temperature has been ranging from the 70's to the mid to late 80's. We have gotten alot of use out of that turtle Sandbox turned wading pool. Emilee has a nice little tan and both of them escaped burns of any kind!!!

Emilee 3rd Bday

Well Emilee had a great 3rd Birthday Party. And the following Monday she started preschool at Houghtling. She loves preschool and thinks that the Bus is SOOOO much fun!!!

Where has the time gone!

Hi all I just realized I haven't posted in a couple of months. Life here has been fairly uneventful, just busy with the kids. My mom came up for Christmas and we enjoyed her visit very much. Then in January we went to visit my Dad in Montana. While in Montana we had pictures taken of the girls and their cousin Shelby. Here are a few pictures of the kids. Seems like the time has flown by lately. I can hardly believe that in just a little over a month I will have a 3 year old.

New house we are renting.

Master bedroom. (bigger than it looks)

Living room

Laundry room

Awesome Kitchen

Another view of living room

We are moving in around the 1st of December and it has a great yard. I am very excited to be in a house rather than an apartment!!!

Photo shoot

A friend of mine is training to become a photographer and decided to practice on Emilee and Piper and I got some really cute pictures out of it.

Piper

Dr. who delivered Piper

First bath

Big sister

So sleepy

Why did you make me come out mom and dad?

8 pounds 1.5 ounces

Hi there

Proud daddy

Proud mommy

Piper Louise Caskey

Piper Louise Caskey

Piper Louise Caskey was born on September 11th, 2008, at 12:20 in the morning so just after midnight. She weighed in at 8 pounds 1.5 ounces and 20 3/4 inches long. They started the pitocin around 9 pm on the 9th. Luckily I had an epidural. Due to the first epidural stopping working they redid the epidural right before the pushing stage. She was born a perfectly healthy little girl. The Echo she had after birth showed nothing wrong with her heart or at least nothing that won't correct itself in a few days. There was one abnormal thing but they said that was common to find and it nearly always corrected itself in a couple of days. She is a beautiful little girl who has her big sister all excited. Emilee can't understand why she can't pick Piper up and all that, or why she can't climb in bassinet with Piper. LOL. We will be returning to Ketchikan the morning of the 19th. Thank you all for your prayers. Piper's health is such an answer to prayer!!

PS I attached a website to the title of this blog where you can see more pics of Piper.

Induction and baby

Hey there. I had my second appointment down here in Seattle and it looks like they will be inducing me on September 9th. They will do an amniocentesis and as long as the lungs are developed and there is a bed available they will start my induction on the 9th. I am already dilated to a 1 so things should move along just fine. I can hardly wait to meet this little girl. They told me a little about what may be going on directly after delivery. They will have a NICU Pediatrician at the delivery in case there is any issue with the heart. Then they will do the echo in the NICU most likely. And then if there is an issue with the heart the baby will be transferred over to children's hospital. Then depending on whether I end up needing a C-section or not will determine how soon I can go be with her over at children's. I am hoping and praying that they won't find anything wrong and the baby can stay with me.

Well that is what is going on at the moment.

Jennifer

Update on Baby and Pregnancy

I had my appointment here in Seattle. They couldn't get a clear view of the vessels in and around the heart so they could not confirm or rule out the extra vessel diagnosis so they will have to wait till the baby is born to do an echo on the baby and find out what is going on. It looks like as long as things are progressing well enough they will induce me sometime the week of the 8th. If not then they will do the induction the week of the 15th. Thank you all for praying for me and the baby. Those that know me well know that I tend to be a huge worry wart and stress out easily. I have felt much more peace over this whole thing than I thought I would. I totally feel all your prayers.

Baby's Heart

Hey all. I have an update from my visit to the dr's here in Anchorage. They did a very thorough ultrasound and found that the baby has an extra artery in her heart. So they are sending me to Seattle now to have the baby. I leave on Sunday at noon and get in to Seattle around 5 Seattle time. I have an appointment on Tuesday at Children's Hospital at 9:30 for a fetal echo and another ultrasound. Then in the afternoon will have an appointment at UW Medical Center with a perinatologist there. At this point they do not know how serious an issue this is. It may just be a weird extra artery that causes no problems or it may be something that needs surgery to correct.
Well I will let you know more after Tuesday!

In Anchorage

Well I arrived safe in Anchorage on Tuesday. The flight was interesting and turned out to be extremely long and tiring. Emilee did great, I didn't do so well, lol. In Petersburg they realized something was not quite right with the plane so they had to fly a mechanic in from Juneau on a float plane to fix our plane. SOOOO 5 1/2 hours later we were on our way making a 5 1/2 hour plane trip into an 11 hour trip. It would not have been so bad had it not been for the fact that I am in my 8th month of pregnancy and dealing with edema. By the time we took off from Petersburg I was in tears from how swollen my legs and feet were. Because of the size of the Petersburg terminal and how many ppl were waiting in there to board the plane they would not let us off the plane. I tried walking up and down the aisle but that didn't help much and my ankles were so swollen I had to walk on my toes cuz I could not bend them. And since the plane was pretty full I could not just turn in my seat and put them up. :( My seat mate was really sweet and was very helpful. Emilee did awesome sitting in her car seat for so long, she only had about 3 breakdowns and those were over pretty quickly, she only slept a total of maybe 30 minutes the whole time on plane.
We are now in Wasilla with my mom and will have my first appointment on Monday. Found out I have to pay the Co-Pay up front which they told me is going to be between 100 and 200 dollars. I freaked about that but it will work out. Next week we are going to go to the Alaska State Fair and that should be alot of fun. I would like to take Emilee to the Zoo while we are here as well but we will see how that turns out. Emilee is having an overnight sleepover at her cousins on Monday as well. (scary for me)
I will update again after my appointment on Monday.

Pregnancy Update

Well I am 27 weeks pregnant and Piper is an active little girl so far. I found out at my last appointment that I am once again being sent out of town to have the baby. This time I am going to go to Anchorage rather than Seattle to have baby Piper. I am still rather confused as to why I can not have the baby here in Ketchikan, but it will be nice to have my Mom there for the birth. I will be leaving for Anchorage on August 12th, at 9:46 am. My first appointment in Anchorage will be on the 19th, but wanted to go a bit early to spend some more time with my Mom. I will be staying with her till she starts school then I will be staying with my sister Jody. Jody lives near the hospital where I will be giving birth. Because of my insurance I will be having the baby at Alaska Regional rather than Providence. I was hoping to go to Providence since they have an awesome maternity ward and my sister works there, but my insurance will not cover Providence Hospital. I talked to the doctor's office where I will be seen in Anchorage and they said that that is no problem that they will do deliveries at either hospital so that is good, seeing as they are the only Perinatologists in Anchorage. I went to go look at ticket prices yesterday and looked at seat maps and saw how full the flights were so we decided to go ahead and purchase the flights now rather than later. So Emilee and I have one way tickets to Anchorage for August 12th. We don't know a return date yet so will have to wait to get the return tickets.

I am looking forward to going but at the same time am really apprehensive about it. It is going to be a 5 1/2 hour flight with 3 stops and I will be 34 weeks pregnant and traveling with a 2 year old. I really wish that the hospital here was better equipped and I could have the baby here, but that is not the case so am going to once again be away from home for a couple of months.

It has been a frustrating and very stressful time for me as everything was up in the air there for a while and I was so sure I would be ok with having the delivery here this time. It was a great disappointment when I found out I had to leave again. Things haven't gone the way I would have liked or planned, but I think it will be alright. The pastor's wife here is helping me find someone with whom Emilee can stay while I am in labor and delivery. Not knowing when my sister is going to be at work and since I want my mom in the room with me I wanted a backup plan for Emilee. So Pastor Debbie is looking into that for me and I will meet whoever agrees to help out that way when I get there and get Emilee acquainted with them prior to me going into the hospital so it isn't too much of a shock for her.

Well that is it for now!

Ultrasound Pics

Her Face!

Her feet!

Her legs!

Her profile and heart!

Oh so tired. Quite the Yawn.

It is another Girl!

We just got back from our ultrasound and it looks like we are having another girl! Pictures to follow soon as we get them scanned.

!!!Emilee is 2!!!

Emilee had a great second birthday party!

She Loved the Cupcakes!

Got so many cool new toys

Enjoyed opening her presents

Played with her Aunt Laura

Played in the playhouse

And had a marvelous time in all.

Junior's First picture.

Here is a picture of Junior laying oh his or her side facing away from us. :) This was taken at 12 weeks along.

New Table and Chairs

I found Emilee a set of Little Tykes Table and Chairs. I had been looking for some and got them for a good price. It looks like the picture. She loves it and has been sitting at it coloring for the past half hour. :)

Eggs go Splatt

Well Emilee and I went shopping today and after constantly being told "Do not grab that!" she grabbed the carton of eggs from the cart while I was getting something off the shelf and what do I hear? SPLATTTTT!!! She dumped the eggs all over the floor. Needless to say I was slightly miffed and went and found a cone to keep ppl from slipping. After I got the cone I found an employee and let them know there was a mess on aisle 6. I tried to pay for broken eggs but they told me not to worry about it that it happens all the time. So that was our eventful shopping experience today! :)

Baby Update

Well I am in the 9th week of my pregnancy and after the doctor gave me some meds I am feeling much better and am getting my strength back. Emilee is so cute she will come up to me and lift up my shirt and kiss the baby. I am walking 3-4 times a week and hopefully that will get me in shape enough that I can have the baby here in town and not have to go south again. We will find out in May probably what we are having, I am no good at waiting lol.