Precious baby boy

Here are pics from our most recent ultrasound :)

I always feel like I need to explain every nuance of an ultrasound so everyone can see what's truly there but I'm refraining this time - enjoy!

A year makes a huge difference....

July 4th, 2008....Liv was still 1 but counting the weeks until her 2nd birthday, Evelyn was 3 months old and we hadn't even thought about the little man we are expecting!!

And this year....my how they change!! Olivia will be 3 next month and Evelyn is almost 1 1/2!! Next year this time we will have an almost 4 year old, a 2 1/2 year old and a 9 month old...the adventure never stops!!! I'm so glad :)

Olivia and Abby

Liv and her Grand-Nan (Eric's maternal grandmother)

All ready for the beach!

Sharing with daddy

Are you kidding me? "Pit to distress"???

I was made aware of this through a post on facebook and then another blog...after doing a little research of my own I have to say I'm shocked, apalled and just continue to have more reasons to be stressed about our medical system...its trustworthiness and the questionable practices of doctors.

All excerpts taken from this blog

“Pit to distress.” How have I not heard about this? Apparently it’s quite en vogue in many hospitals these days. Googling the term brings up a number of pages discussing the practice, which entails administering the highest possible dosage of Pitocin in order to deliberately distress the fetus, so a C-section can be performed.

Yes folks, you read that right. All that Pit is not to coerce mom’s body into birthing ASAP so they can turn that moneymaking bed over, but to purposefully squeeze all the oxygen out of her baby so they can put on a concerned face and say, “Oh dear, looks like we’re heading to the OR!”

The term is found in this 2006 article in this Wall Street Journal article:

Oxytocin is a hormone released during labor that causes contractions of the uterus. The most common brand name is Pitocin, which is a synthetic version. It’s often used to speed or jump-start labor, but if the contractions become too strong and frequent, the uterus becomes “hyperstimulated,” which may cause tearing and slow the supply of blood and oxygen to the baby. Though there are no precise statistics on its use, IHI says reviews of medical-malpractice claims show oxytocin is involved in more than 50 percent of situations leading to birth trauma.

“Pitocin is used like candy in the OB world, and that’s one of the reasons for medical and legal risk,” says Carla Provost, assistant vice president at Baystate, who notes that in many hospitals it is common practice to “pit to distress” — or use the maximum dose of Pitocin to stimulate contractions.

It’s also used on this AllNurses forum:
I agree, and call aggressive pit protocols the “pit to distress, then cut” routine. Docs who have high c/s rates and like doing them, are the same ones that like the rapid fire knock em down/drag em out pit routines.

“Pit to distress” appears on page 182 of the textbook Labor and Delivery Nursing by Michelle Murray and Gayle Huelsmann. In this example, the onus is on the nurse to defend the patient from the doctor if he or she sees the order “pit to distress” by immediately notifying the supervisor or charge nurse.

I'm a little bit not sure how to wrap this up exactly...but quite disgusted...go figure the midwives here dont' take VBAC patients...nice.

Kate update

If you'd like to keep up with Kate (see last post) and her progress you can by keeping up with her caringbridge page here - http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mcraekate

Thanks for your prayers - I know her family appreciates it.
Thea

Precious Kate

This is Kate - isn't she beautiful???? Just look at those striking blue eyes!! They remind me of my Evelyn.

On Monday - her parents took her to the doctor for some hand tremors she was having and now they are faced with a very aggressive, malignant brain tumor that is wrapped around the major blood vessels that feed the brain. She is having surgery tomorrow. They can not remove all of the tumor because of where it is. Please pray for her. Having a daughter now - I can't imagine how this family feels.

Each day our world is plagued by sin, nastiness, evil, pain and disease but we cannot lose heart and feel overwhelmed to the point that we do nothing...give Kate 5 minutes today, will you? I'm sure if she were yours you'd hope for the same...Jesus is her only hope.

Thanks for joining me in seeking the father for a miracle.

Seeing blue...

We were all feeling the need for a little more testosterone in our household so we are very excited to say we will be welcoming the littlest Smith in November and the littlest Smith is very much a BOY!!! :)

I'm seeing blue everywhere!!