Meet Zoë Maxine Seaman!

Zoë arrived at VMC this morning at 7:59am by c-section!  She weighed 2 lbs 12 oz.  :)

Zoë needed a little light protection for her eyes.

Dad with Zoë for the first time.

We got the green go-ahead at about two minutes to 7am, so it was a pretty quick turn-around from laying in bed with high platelets and a lower liver functions level to being opened up on an operating table.

Sparing you many of the details of my first major surgery, it went very well.  In fact, it went better than any doctor thought it would.  We didn't need any of the blood standing by in case I lost a whole bunch, didn't have any problems getting her outta there in a good amount of time, etc.  When they got her out, we heard her squeek, the doctor held her up over the blue curtain so I could see her briefly and then she was whisked away to the NICU.  A few moments later, the staff in the operating room told Chris to stand up and go walk over to the window she had been handed through to hear the set of lungs she had on her.  I guess it was pretty impressive!

Mom with Zoë for the first time.

Daddy gets to touch Zoë...so gentle.

We're doing well now!  Chris got to go up about two hours after she was delivered, took some video and pictures, and then came back down to share them with me and the waiting grandparents.  This afternoon, my fabulous nurses wheeled me and my entire bed which comes with my magnesium drip contraption and pump up to the NICU to meet Zoë myself.  She looks like a baby!  I don't know if any of you have experienced having a preemie like this before, but I guess I just didn't know what to expect.  Sure, she is small, but she still LOOKS like a baby and she's really strong!  We just got an update from the NICU doctor who came and visited us in our room to tell us she was already off the ventilator (seriously?!  Can you say "gifted program?") and onto a CPAP machine.  Hopefully, with the results of my most recent labs that were sent off to the lab just moments ago, the night nurse will be able to wheel me up into the NICU again so that I can see her again tonight before I go to bed.  If not, Chris will have to deliver the latest installment of pumped colostrum on his own and report back with pictures!

Over the next few days, I will stay in the hospital and be able to see Zoë whenever I want to!  It's weird to have a routine now that does not involve the watch of the hospital staff like it did the past three and a half days.  It's definitely quieter and more relaxing and Chris and I have a lot of time to ourselves.  So if you'd like to stop by to say hi for a small amount of time, please do so, but know that you just won't get to see Zoë yet.  :(  That's why I'll keep updating this blog so you at least get good pictures.  Let us know if you are coming and we'll make sure it's a good time.

Zoë has lots of work to do to continue to develop properly, but she's on the right pathway to recovery.  We'll keep you in the loop!

Love,
Chris, Emily, and Zoë

HELLP Primer and Sunday Update

Here's your update for the day...I'm getting snapped at to REST and go to bed, so you're going to get the primer version of HELLP Syndrome and how we're all doing in the hospital.

HELLP is a pregnancy complication that is related to preeclampsia, and usually occurs later in pregnancy and is identified by three specific things:  the breaking down of red blood cells (hemolysis- H), elevated liver enzymes (EL) and low platelet counts (LP).  When we arrived at the ER on Thursday night, my liver enzyme levels were extremely high, as was my white blood cell count AND my platelet count was a 68 (that's in thousands...) when it should be much, much higher than that.  The only real treatment for this syndrome is to deliver the baby, but since we're only at 30 weeks tomorrow, that was also going to be a problem to give baby girl the best chance possible outside of my body.

So, what did that mean for admittance to the hospital?  It meant I needed immediate intervention, to focus on my platelet count, lower my blood pressure, and make sure I didn't start seizing.  I have been on a lovely magnesium drip since Thursday night to help with that last issue.  Sadly, it is still hooked up to my IV and makes me feel like crap.  But I guess I'll take that over seizures any day.

It should come as no surprise that I have won (I am using this term loosely) the award for sickest patient in the birth center.  Coming from the competitive stock I do, "winning" this award is not something I will be letting go of easily.  My body has, however, ALSO made amazing strides to make up for my low platelet count (now at 135!!!).  I am also now accustomed to one-on-one nurses (who, geez, are ALL amazing superhero people!) because I'm a "mag" and severe HELLP patient...it's going to come as quite a shock when I come out of that c-section and I'm a "commoner" like the rest of the patients in the birth center and have to share the staff.

Several people have made comments to me or my parents about how it must be hard for one of those Kolczynskis to stay still in bed...uh, you know us so well.  We've had great support from both sets of grandparents who are running around for us picking things up at our houses, mudding the closet in the nursery, and keeping us company.  Chris and I are oh-so-thankful for them and all they do for us.  :)

Right now, we're in a holding pattern.  My levels look ok, baby girl is happy, etc.  I've bought her at least three good days of development and some extra support (had some really cool steroid shots in the cheeks below on Thursday and Friday night to help her develop her lungs as much as possible). But, as soon as those levels start to dip, we're going to be whisked away to surgery and then it's baby girl's fight to begin.  It's a precarious place to be, but we're balancing ok right now.  I guess it's time for sleep?  Who can do that now?!

Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers, we sure appreciate them!
Love,
Emily and Chris and Baby Girl Seaman

Cinnamon Rolls Do Not Fix Everything...

...including preeclampsia.  Or, going even further, what is now a Seaman family term: HELLP syndrome.  Don't google it yet, it'll scare the shite out of you.

If you don't want to read the (lengthy) journal entry to my (sooner-to-be born-than-we-planned) child that will follow this post (probably tomorrow), you don't have to read it.  Here're the gritty details:

-Emily is fine and stable, and will remain that way for just a day or two more, at which point baby girl needs to exit stage left and find a nice warm home in an incubator for 8 weeks.

-Baby girl is more than fine and stable, she is having a great time, has a great strong heartbeat, and not really interested in leaving her mother's womb any time soon.  When she does, though, she'll have an amazing staff at the Valley NICU to take good care of her.

-Chris is thrilled to be sleeping on the couch of the hospital room.  He says he has more room to sleep than he has in five months, and it's not so uncomfortable.  In all serious-ness, though, he is the best caretaker in the entire world and, if it weren't for dealing with all of the, you know, medical stuff, he would make a great nurse.

-We are at the hospital under the care of amazing nurses and doctors and specialists who are so kind, informative, and knowledgeable and making us feel better about this scary situation we are in.

-Baby girl will make her appearance at some point early this week.  :)  Although she'll be whisked away directly to her new home in the NICU for a few months.

We love the texts and messages we're getting!  Be assured that we ARE getting them, even if we don't respond right away (we get a lot of doctor-type visitors who have semi-important information for us ;).  Like I said before, I'll post another, longer entry soon with more details (probably way more than you even want) as more of a journal entry because I don't want to miss any of this story when we tell it to baby girl in the future!  Feel free to pass it along to anyone else.

Love,
Chris and Emily and Baby Girl Seaman

Back in the swing of things

With a two month gap in blog posts, you can probably guess how busy we've been with house projects...uh, not very busy at all.  But, with the impending fall weather, we're back in gear again at the Seaman house and Chris is tackling projects left and right.  Sadly, I haven't been able to contribute much, but I'm an excellent photographer and cheerleader!

Chris made a promise to me eight months ago when we bought our house:




We will be adding a dishwasher (soon?!) which was why, in my opinion, the stove needed to be moved from next to the sink to next to the fridge.  This involved cutting a large portion out of the ceiling in the basement to get to the electrical components and adding a plug in the new location.

As you can probably tell, I added on the end of that promise.  He has made good on it and the napkin can come down from the bulletin board now, where it has lived since we moved in.  :)  He MUST love me.

Also on the to-do list in the kitchen is finish the wiring and plumbing for the garbage disposal, dishwasher, and to install the microwave we purchased in March which has been sitting on the floor in the basement since then.  Did you know it's possible to live so long without a microwave?!  Neither did I!

The final placement of the stove.

 And in other news...did you know that it's finally fall?!  It's unbelievable how fast it came...earlier this week it was sunny and warm, and now it's blustery and pouring down rain.  I don't mind (much).  We broke out the hot chocolate, branched out and bought some caramel whipped cream (OMG, you need to have this...it's like candy) and I even found a glass pumpkin at Target ($5!) just like the one BOTH of our moms had when we were growing up around Halloween.  I love tradition!

Chris and I did something new together, too!  We've been together for FOUR years and NEVER carved pumpkins together!  We invited some friends over to carve pumpkins with us, but wanted to get a jump start on the gutting step.  We went to a pumpkin patch in Enumclaw to pick out pumpkins (also something I had never done...what a poor deprived childhood I had  ;) and ended up getting ones larger than we, uh, needed.

 We needed this one completed before the party as it would let everyone know they were at the right house.  ;)

And because it's fall, Chris is determined not to turn the heat on in the house until it's ABSOLUTELY necessary, so he figured getting the insert removed from the upstairs fireplace so that we could have a *safe* fire was a good idea.  Little did he know that, even with a large portion of the pieces removed, the insert still weighed a good 300lbs...Drew to the rescue!  They worked very hard (and didn't hurt themselves OR the wood floor) to get the insert out and we enjoyed our first REAL fire last night during the carving party.

Chris and Vicki worked hard last weekend on getting the shower door removed so that we could just have a regular bathtub/shower curtain instead of the bulky glass.  They also removed ALL of the shady insulation in the garage (complete with rat poop!) so that Chris can re-insulate that for the winter (and thus save us some money while trying to heat the house).

Next up, finishing the kitchen and then working on a very special fun room that you'll hear more about very soon!  :)

An Epic Fence!

Well, it's finished!  Chris gets the 'engineer of the year' award for the most amazing fence ever.  We still have to find some post caps that we like...but we're calling it done.   

We had our housewarming party on, what turned out to be, a beautiful July Saturday and had lots of family and friends come help us celebrate home ownership and the completion of our fence project.  I sure love my friends.  Nicole and Stella also spent a busy three days with us and headed back to MN on Sunday.  I sure miss my friend and now I'll miss her daughter, too!

Erin, Nicole, Heather and Emily

On a whim (that's usually how it happens) we picked up a couple of tomato plants at Home Depot and planted them one sunny afternoon, too.  They're growing AND we've got three tomatoes on one plant!  My Dad says that we could 'bake pottery in the backyard it's so hot', so we're hoping that is one advantage we'll have when trying to grow yummy things to eat.

  July turned out to be quite the month for running for us.  I was originally training for the Warrior Dash on the 22nd because I didn't want to be embarrassed again by not being able to run, but I was still worried (not sure why...I trained for 9 weeks!) I wouldn't be able to do it.  Chris and I signed up for the Firecracker 5K midnight run the night before the Fourth of July.  It was really fun and next year I'm going to have to plan an outfit, I felt completely under-pizzazzed.  The run was challenging for a couple of reasons.  I think the time of day was tough as I hadn't ever run at midnight before (!).  Also, a week and a half before the race I took myself out in the grocery store (literally), spraining my ankle and couldn't walk on it for 3 days.  This put training out for the week and a half before the race.  Oops.  Chris says no more high heels in the grocery store (they were kitten heels, really!).

The best self-portrait while running EVER.

At the finish!

And, of course, then there was the Warrior Dash, which was really fun!  I was glad that Chris and Drew could run ahead at their own pace this year and didn't have me slowing them down.  Jessica, my Dad and I ran together and did great!  I'm especially proud of Jessica for completing every single obstacle, even though there were a few that were daunting at first.  My Dad was a great coach, as always, and my favorite picture is the one of the two of us together at the end.  Enjoy the pictures!  More August projects to come in the next post.

Jessica and Emily at the end!

What a stud.

Warriors!

I still look like a goon, but I was having so much fun!

 

Have a seat, we have a table for six for you.

Our table came!  We LOVE it and it doesn't wobble when you set anything on it.  :)  We needed a booth, for sure, to fit into the tiny corner in our kitchen and use the space the best.  I was skeptical about the size of the table, but it works just fine.  I've come to the conclusion that, we just have a small kitchen, and who cares?  It works.  We have a plain bench that goes with the set, too, but it'll live in the living room most of the time.

Fiona shows off the new table.

The view from the kitchen.

Joe seems to like the booth, too!

Chris was such a champ last week after working during the day, then going and picking up the table at the Cannery, coming home and putting it together (thanks for your help, Vicki!), and THEN going to do some surveying for work again until 2 in the morning.  But, it's in and now you may come over for dinner any time.

Guest ready!

I finished the curtains in the guest room after remeasuring MANY times.  So, now the neighbors can be happy and so can any guests we have.

We were going to be working on the fence today, the morning sunshine tricked us into thinking it was going to be nice out.  It started raining while I was at the grocery store and Chris was mowing the lawn, so the fence will have to wait until tomorrow.  It did allow Chris to work on installing the sink in the downstairs bathroom.  We traded Vicki and Chris the entertainment center/fireplace we bought just after our wedding because that piece of furniture just doesn't have a spot in our house.  The sink will be a great addition to the downstairs bathroom as the one that was here from the previous owner was, er, gross.  The sink now is a little out of place with the rest of the bathroom, but once we tear down some walls, rebuild and paint them, and swap out the toilet it'll be good to go.  That might be a 'next year' project!

Gross sink before.

Gross sink gone!

What Fiona and I did during the sink project.

The sink installed.
Fiona seems to want to be in every picture...

Running to Red Robin

That's what we're doing tonight.  After Chris cuts some more fence boards and I stain a few more.  :)  I finished my Couch-5K running program last week, thanks to LOTS of encouragement from Jenny and Chris.  Chris was the perfect husband, never pressuring me to run, but ALWAYS telling me I did a great job and asking me how it went when I got back to the house, sweaty and gross.  And Jenny's texts were enough to keep me going most days.  She kept me safe when Chris wasn't home, "If I don't text you within the hour, I've been abducted, call 911", told me I kicked ass, and helped me feel better when it was just as tough for her as it was for me (sometimes you just need someone to commiserate with, you know?).  Now, it's up to me to KEEP running before the Warrior Dash so that all of my hard work doesn't go to waste.  So, tonight I'm going to do my first run with someone else, and we're going to run to Red Robin and have a milkshake.  Good plan.

The fence from the front, outside.

As far as the house goes, the fence is coming together little piece by little piece.  It actually LOOKS like a fence, and a damn good one at that!  Even our pile of wood is diminishing (thank goodness!).  Once we get the cedar boards up, we'll be able to work on the top boards to add a finished look to the fence.  We've got to have it done by our housewarming party (July 21st...you're invited!)

A smaller pile of wood than we originally had...

And, in other news...we're not only having a housewarming party in July, we're also having some real house guests!  OK, Drew has stayed over, and Angela was here for one night when she was in town...so they won't be our first, but I'm so excited!  :)  So that means I need to get some curtains up in our guest room (I'm sure our neighbors to the north have seen my naked butt in the window a time or two as my clothes are in the closet, but oh well) and hopefully in the kitchen as well.

The guest room!

I will also be working on curtains (still) for our kitchen window.  I have the fabric already (I can't wait to work on it, it's so pretty!), but I'm waiting for next month's budget to come into play to be able to go buy some curtain rods.

Oh, did you notice we still don't have our kitchen table?  That's because it's on a "container".  Grrr...it's supposed to be here at the end of this month.  We will see.  We've had several dinners and a couple of breakfasts with guests sitting at that rickety card table (thanks Mom and Dad for loaning it to us!), but every time Joe jumps up there I'm afraid he's going to take down the entire table.  Hopefully our new bench and table won't be much longer.

You may have also noticed the beautiful flowers we have outside of the kitchen window in a flower planter box my Dad bought for us and planted.  The plants are BEAUTIFUL and apparently doing better than his in his own yard.  :)

And, to wrap up another project, I finally got the third panel completed on our closet panel system from Ikea.  I still have one panel to re-do because in my excitement to start a new project, I forgot to sew a hem in the first panel.  Oops.  I'll fix that someday when I'm REALLY bored.  

And, coming to the end of the pictures is Chris' mole board.  He caught another one!  (merely 12 hours after he put the traps in...another unbelievable feat that irritates my dad.)

 We also spent a lovely Father's day with both of our Dads at the LeMay car museum down in T-town.  It was fun!  Followed by hot dogs at Red Hot and milkshakes at Frisco Freeze.  Yum!

Happy Summer!