The Higgins Family: Everything Embry: September 13

Neurologist Appointment

The biggest part of our week was the checkup with Embry's Pediatric Neurologist.

The morning of Jacob and I were coordinating driving there and I was reminding him what hospital it was at, what building it was in. Our conversation was quite comical. "You know, the same hospital as your oncologist, but not in that back building. It's more where we found out you had cancer, at that one doctor of yours, the urologist, remember? Yeah near the center where we found out about my blood clot." I swear, one of these days the Higgins are going to get a break from medical crisis....RIGHT?????

Anyway, it was a wonderful appointment and the neurologist is not concerned about any of her fainting episodes. The ones where there's a trigger (seeing blood or pain) he said are completely normal and he doesn't need to know about them, says they're normal.

As for her episodes late last week... 1. He doesn't think they were seizures. She would be twitchy, it would last a lot shorter, and she would be acting differently afterwards...not going back to "normal". 2. He said in his opinion he just thinks she wasn't feeling well. He even suggested it may be a precursor to migraines or something to where she doesn't feel well for spurts of time. But, all of which is nothing to be concerned of.

Jacob brought up her past health scares and how when she had MRIs as a newborn.... and the doctor said that any of our worries back then should NOT be worries anymore. The fact that she's had a very normal past 3 years, has met developmental milestones, seems "sturdy on her feet" (not a clumsy kid), are all signs that she has a completely healthy brain. He basically said we need to get over any of our worries about those scans. He also thinks it'd be major overkill to do any sort of EKG or MRI on her at this point. Our plan of action is to document any sort of "odd episode" she has that is not triggered by blood or pain and call him with the details and we'll go from there. Big relief!

Of course they were running like an hour behind, so lots of reading in the waiting room.

37 Week Update

I had my last appointment with my hematologist this week and second to last appointments with my OBGYN and Perinatologist. All three were on the same day and a friend kept Embry which made it SO nice!

I only got blood work done at the Hematologist and all is well. Dr. Modi wished me good luck and said I'll see him next pregnancy! =)

I had a quick sonogram at the perinatologist (they didn't do a size check) and everything looked good and again, my fluid levels are normal and baby looks healthy. Biggest news is Toddy is finally head down! It wasn't a huge deal since I'm having a c-section, but it's still nice he's ready to go!

Everything went well at my OBGYN and I'm looking forward to one last checkup tomorrow before the big day Friday!

Embry's Third Birthday Party

Up until a few weeks ago we weren't going to have a birthday party for Embry....until it was all she was talking about. A party with "balloons and cake and presents and all my friends". Very specific. We were able to book a party at a local Dallas Rec Center in their "Fun Zone" the weekend before Toddy arrives. The kicker is it was on Jacob's 30th birthday, but he's such a trooper he was excited and wanted the day to be all about Embry.

Since the party was at 9:00 am (again the only opening they had, haha) we served donuts, juice boxes and chocolate milk! I tried to get away with cupcakes, but Embry was very specific and wanted "cake", so I was able to get away with a 30-cupcake cake from Sam's Club. The party was perfect...about 20 of her friends were there and she had an absolute blast! Every friend who would walk into the party, she'd hug and twirl around showing off her birthday outfit from Mimi and Papa!

Our birthday princess! Her outfit was the cutest- skirt, crown and wand all said birthday girl!

Started off so happy to be sung to....

The paparazzi

Progressively getting shy during "Happy Birthday"

Opening gifts at home!

Already loves her new tool set!

Jacob's 30th Birthday

My sweet, doting Daddy of a husband celebrated his 30th birthday yesterday....by making the day all about our almost 3 year old. He wouldn't let me make a big deal out of his birthday, no party, no big dinner, nothing. He just wanted to spend the day with his little family. His only other request was to relax and watch football all day today, which is exactly what's happening.

Embry and I surprised him with a nice watch even though we already got our iPads as our birthday gifts. He's been needing a nice dress watch and was pleasantly surprised when he opened our gift! Embry also had me write a note to Daddy and I wrote exactly what she said. So funny.

Cinderella helping Daddy open his gift!

Dinner out at our fave burger spot in our neighborhood!

Peaceful evening in our backyard

The Rest of Our Week

When your kid has to bring a whole picnic to a restaurant....

New iSpy game is a big hit

Walk in our new sit-and-stand stroller

Embry in her little pink car next to my car for the week (had some work done on my Traverse and they gave me a new big Tahoe as a loaner)

Highlight of her week...the Highlights Magazine arriving!

Happiest girlie!

Peace and quiet while cooking dinner...heavenly!

"D" for Daddy. She also surprised me this week by drawing a perfect T-O and saying it was baby Todd's name!

Taking Pictures on her little camera

Costco Ice Cream Treat for E

Taking pictures of her birthday cake

So the Heparin shots are not going as great as last week. I'm bruising up BIG time and bleeding a bunch when I get the shot. In Jacob's words, doing shots twice a day is not just twice as bad...it's 10 times as bad. Luckily we have less than a week left!