Bindi at 4 months and other news

A lot of fun stuff has happened since the last post. We really should write more often. Derek got a job, although it was not with the Geek Squad. He's a receptionist/video media producer with the school of education at UNR. The good news is that he doesn't have to work weekends or holidays, the bad news is he only gets 20 hrs a week at $8.50 an hour. I'm pretty happy about that though, it still seems like he's gone all the time and the little bit of money really helps (although we're still awaiting his first pay check). I think Derek is enjoying it too because he is able to do something he's really good at - making videos. As far as med school interviews go, the interview with the Charles Drew Medical School in LA went well. I got lost on the way there and ended up in the middle of Inglewood, but I found my way in the end. I was late but I think I still made a good impression - there were two interviews, one with faculty and one with a student, as well as a writing sample and a group problem solving exercise. I wasn't expecting the extra stuff, I don't think many other med schools do that. Anyway, they only accept 24 students and they interviewed 120, so we'll see. I've got the UC Davis interview and a U of Utah interview coming up next week. I'm really not looking forward to it, mostly because I'll be away from Derek and Bindi for two days in a row. I also found out a little bit of bad news - if I get accepted to the 5 year program at UC Davis, the Air Force won't accept my application for their scholarship until after the 1st year. That would leave me with a hard decision to either decline the position or find a way to pay for the first year. That's enough on that subject. The most important part of our post is Derek's b'day and Halloween. I surprised Derek with a trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park, which you can see pictures of down below. Denise watched Bindi over night and we stayed in a "resort" close to the park. Their "cabin" was actually a motor home decorated like a cabin, but that was our own complaint, the park was awesome. We really enjoyed the hiking and the weather was beautiful. After the park we went to Gridley for the Halloween party. We all dressed as teenage mutant ninja turtles. Bindi was adorable. You can see pictures below. Also, I might include pictures of Corine's wedding which I went to on Sept. 12. She was beautiful with her 5 month pregnant belly and little Ava in tow. She made a beautiful flower girl. I think that's about it for now. We'll at least write again after Thanksgiving.

Happy 3 Month Bindi!

Actually we're kind of late for her 3 month birthday, but we thought we would celebrate with a blog post anyway. She's doing great - since the last post she's started smiling and laughing, which she does frequently. In fact, we're going to try to post some video of her laughing. Nothing new to report health-wise except that she has started on an acid reflux medicine which has greatly reduced the reflux and improved her mood. Also, Bindi's ear surgery is scheduled for Dec. 22. In other exciting news, Derek is interviewing for a job with the Geek Squad through Best Buy. We're really hoping he gets the job because we're in dire financial straits (not to mention that Derek would be awesome at the Geek Squad). Also, I have two med school interviews coming up at UCLA (Oct. 24) and UC Davis - my top choice (Nov 18). We're really excited that about these interviews because it probably means that these schools are seriously considering me (because the interviews are so early). That's about it for now, we'll have some more pictures for Halloween because we have an awesome costume for Bindi, and I'll have news about my UCLA interview.

Baby Blessing

Tahoe and Robinson's Mine

so derek took me to lake tahoe for my bday. he surprised me and got his mom to watch bindi for a full 24 hrs, which is no joke considering how many times she gets up in the middle of the night. but we had a great time at a hotel with a hot tub and a private beach. we also played a rousing game of mini golf and went on a hike around tahoe rim trail. we also spent some time up at buck's lake giving the baby her first outing to robinson's mine. school's starting on monday so i won't see as much of derek as i'm used to. that will be an adjustment. in other news, we found out that the baby will need a minor surgery to implant some tubes in her ears. her eustachian tubes are too small, causing equilibrium problems and probably affecting her hearing. so before she gets to the point where she's trying to develop speech, we need to get those tubes in - probably around december. that's about all that's new and exciting.

Happy 1 Month Bindi!

Did you notice that we decided to spell her name without the 'h'? Bindi is eating very well and weighed in today at 8 lbs 9 oz. She gets cuter by the day. Check out the baby glamor shots.

Going home...

Sorry folks, we have been pretty bad at updating the blog over the last few days. There has been a whole lot going on, and without the endless hours of boredom at the hospital we have been having a hard time finding time to blog. So here is the most recent update. Bindi is home, we came home on sunday afternoon and we couldn't be happier. The primary issue has been her feeding. Her digestive problems have not been an issue what-so-ever, we thought because of the omphalocele that she would have problems with her bowels. But the surgery went so well the only real problem was one we didn't know would be factor, her cleft palate. She has a cleft in her soft palate, so it's not visible, but it makes it impossible for her to create suction. Long story short, she is not able to feed very naturally. It was a lot of work to try and figure out what we would do to get her to feed. The ENT lady had us try various specialty bottles, but nothing seemed to work. Finally, she suggested we go to babs-r-them and buy a "nuby" bottle. The entire bottle is silicon, so it allows you to basically squeeze the milk into her mouth, then all she has to do is swallow. A day after buying the bottle Bindi drank all of the milk with out the need for the feeding tube. This was such an improvement the ENT lady took the feeding tube out. The next several days were full of frantic attempts to learn how best to feed her. Once she started gaining weight and feeding well, it was only a matter of time before we could come home. Now, it's been exactly a week since coming home from the hospital. Rachel and I are both pretty wiped out, every night i get up to feed the baby and Rachel gets up to pump. Still I prefer this much more than being at the hospital still. Being home with Bindi has given us the chance to actually feel like parents, and we like it, so that's probably good. Bindi's scab from her surgery is healing nicely and should hopefully be gone around the same time an umbilical cord usually falls off. Other than that, all's well. We are so blessed to have our little one safe and sound, and we thank all of you for your prayers and support!

A few more things to say

Just to play catch up on what news has come our way lately - we've seen the genetic counselor, the pediatric surgeon, and the ear nose throat doctor since we last posted. The genetic counselor doesn't have anything new to report - a summary of her condition: no heart problems to speak of, not too many physical abnormalities except for her long fingers and toes, she does have a cleft in her soft palate (which is at the back of her throat rather than at the front of her mouth) that will cause some eating difficulties and would cause speech problems, but they're going to correct it at about 10-14 months of age. Possible problem with her pinky fingers not being able to straighten, which may or may not need to be corrected later in life. Although we have no idea what developmental problems could arise in the future, we are grateful that she has done so well so far. It's a good sign that her disorder is not severe. She has been able to eat very well considering her cleft palate, and even tried to breast feed today (although she didn't care for it). She lost a little weight (as most newborns do), but as soon as she's able to eat normally and starts to gain weight again, they'll send her home. Probably another week. I'm still recovering from my infection, not quite able to walk for more than a few steps yet, but since being discharged from the hospital last night I've been doing a lot of sitting, which hasn't been possible before. Having trouble with breastfeeding (or rather breast pumping), so I'm going to meet a lactation counselor tomorrow. We've moved to the Ronald McDonald House, which is not a bad place to stay. Also I've been busy eating at all the restaurants that were on my list to eat at once I was no longer diabetic. I have crossed off Pizza Hut and Diary Queen. Krispy Kreme coming soon. Don't worry, it's just a binge while I'm recovering from birth, then I'll be back on my healthy schedule. Being a mom is great!

Forgot to mention that Jack and Danielle got married on July 9 at the Sacramento Temple. Luckily we were able to attend and see their beautiful ceremony while the baby was in the hospital. They're going to be a very happy couple.

News!

Just for everyone following faithfully, here is the newest news. First off, thanks for all your prayers and support. Rachel isn't feeling too hot, the nurse is going to put in a new IV, and they are afraid she might have a small infection. Bhindi, on the other hand, is doing much better. I got to talk to the head surgeon and he showed me Bhindi's new belly button! She is doing super well, and the doctor said she should start eating food immediately! That was really great news considering we were told a few days ago that she could be here for a month, but now it looks like it might only be a week! I am attaching some photos of the repair itself, the black stuf is just pen marks the surgeon used to make sure the repair was symmetrical. They also took the stomach tube out of her nose so i took a few pictures of her face without any funky tubes sticking to it. I have to admit, we are pretty good at this baby making thing, although it might be hard to convince Rachel to do it again anytime too soon. Rachel just got her IV and is feeling a bit better, hopefully we will be out tomorrow, but for now we love you all! Love, Derek and Rachel

Bhindi's OK!

A short update to say that Bhindi just got out of surgery and is doing fine. In fact, her omphalocele was so small that they said it was more like a herniated umbilical cord than a real omphalocele. The great news is that she might be able to come home with us within the week. That's such great news, as were expecting to be in the hospital for around a month. She's just a trooper I guess. She's recovering in the NICU now and might be able to take food soon instead of just IV fluids. In fact, she's already produced some poop, which is a great sign that everything is in working order. I've been practicing with the breast pump, although I haven't produced milk yet. We've got at least another day in the hospital before they kick us out, which is great because I'm still in a lot of pain from all the ripping and stitching. That's about it for now, now it's just a waiting game to see when Bhindi will come home with us. We'll keep you updated.

Our Experience in the Hospital

I thought, now that I'm feeling relatively ok and have nothing better to do that it would be a good time to summarize our actual experience for posterity's sake. So we started our drive to the hospital at 8 am June 26. We called as soon as we were on our way, as per instructions, and were surprised to hear that they were swamped and may not be able to take us. They told us to call back in ten minutes, at which point they said they would be able to take us if we didn't mind waiting in the lobby awhile. So we continued on. Upon arrival, we stopped to ask for directions to labor and delivery at the transplant clinic. You would think they would have just pointed us in the right direction, but they checked their records, didn't find us there, and called my OB clinic (at a different hospital) to confirm that we weren't lying to them and trying to get a free induction. 20 min later, they finally pointed us in the direction of labor and delivery, where we ended up waiting in the lobby for about 2 hrs for another patient to vacate the room. They finally took us back around 10 am but did not start our pitocin drip until around 1:30 pm. A few hours later I felt like I was going into active labor, but the pain amazingly wore off without the aid of drugs. finally around 6 pm, a not so people friendly doctor came in for a check up and then proceeded to break my water bag. When I asked what she was doing, she said we're breaking your water bag. When I mentioned that we hadn't been informed that that was going to happen right then, she very condescendingly told me that I was here for an induction and that the water bag had to be broken because I wasn't progressing. Fine with me if they had just informed me that that's what they were going to do. Especially since immediately after I went into strong, regular contractions. It was all they could do to get the anesthesiologist there in time to give me an epidural. The nurse (who was fabulous) was my biggest advocate in making things as painless as possible for me. She informed me that the doctor I had had the bad experience with was not the most sympathetic - most of them would make sure you got the epidural first and then break your bag. Those 30-45 min or so between the bag breaking and the epidural were the most painful of my life. Derek was the best support person, helping me to remember my breathing and letting me break his hand during the contractions. Unfortunately the epidural was not completely effective because of the positioning of the baby and reduced my pain level from a 10+ to a 7. As I progressed, however, it went back up to an 8-9. It wasn't long before I had transitioned and started getting bearing down pains. Once again nurse Lisa came to my rescue and delivered the baby almost single-handedly. She did a fantastic job. I still ended up pushing for 1.5 hrs, but it wasn't as painful as the contractions were. I did end up tearing quite a bit which led to an hour and a half long stitch up session after baby was born. What a special moment when her head finally popped out, followed shortly by the rest of her body and then the placenta. She was beautiful in her newborn alien way and I couldn't help but smile and laugh in spite of the pain. They took her almost immediately to the NICU and Derek and the grandmas followed her up. I wasn't able to see her again until the next day, but they actually allowed us to hold her for awhile before she went in to surgery. Actually she might not have gone into surgery yet, as they haven't notified us, but we were told she would go in today or tomorrow. The good news is that they said her omphalocele was very tiny and so prospects were good. She looks like a beautiful baby and has very long fingers and toes (typical of 9p-), but other than that, no physical manifestations of her genetic disorder that we know of. We'll know more soon, I think we're going to see a genetic counselor. So there will be a lot more news coming soon, but that about summarizes our experience so far. I definitely am less inclined to have another baby soon, but I'm sure that goes away with the pain. I still have a great deal of pain in my crotch and rear(scientifically speaking) because of the many, many stitches I have in them. We'll be here for at least another day or two for me to recover and then we'll hopefully move to the Ronald McDonald house. We'll keep everybody updated!

The baby has landed!

At 12:55 am last night Bhindi Mitchell was born at a good 7 pounds 4 ounces. Mom is doing well, although we are both bummed about not being able to hold the baby yet. Bhindi will be going in to surgery sometime today, so we are anxious to see how that goes. We all didn't get into bed until 4 am last night, so excuse us for not being as in touch as we had intended to be. Rachel is recovering, slowly but surely, but will still be in the hospital for a day or two more. Anywho, thanks to all of you for your prayer, and we will try and keep you all updated. Here are the only two photos of Bhindi we have at this point:

hey again

rachel is pushing like crazy, the baby should be coming sooner than later!

hey!

in transition, nurse says about 30 minutes to an hour and we should be having a baby!

Dear Family in the Lobby

Rachel is in active labor! Rachel was feeling wonderful with no pain, when the doctor came into check her, the doctor didn't feel like she was progressing fast enough so the doctor broke rachel's water without even asking! it was crazy, and rachel was in immediate pain, each contraction was really bad. After aot of pain they finally got the epidural in due to the quick thinking of our nurse, who is awesome and advocated for us. About 30 minutes after the epidural was put in rachel is starting to feel much better and each contraction is almost bearable. Right now she is in regular active labor and at 6cm dilation. It looks like this baby might be coming out tonight after all! Love you guys!

Hurray.

Dear Family and loved ones,
I am writing this from the "birthing suite" that rachel and i are going to birth in. Yesterday we went to the OB and they said that Rachel was already 4cm dilated. Needless to say they advised us to not wait until the 30th to be induced as was the plan. They wanted us to go straight to the hospital last night, but we held off until this morning so that our moms could be here and we could get our clothes and what not. So now here we sit, rachel is just about to be put on pitocin. It has been a bit nerve racking sitting in the hospital waiting and waiting. But hopefully, it will go quick and we will get to meet our daughter. Rachel is doing really well and is an awesome super trooper. We will update the blog at some point, but no promises from here on out. Anyway we love you, Keep us in your prayers!

Love, Derek and Rachel

Short and Sweet

Great news! We went to the doctor last Friday, and the cardiologist could not find the hole in her heart that the OBGYN had found. What does this mean? Most likely, it's not there! We have to go back to the cardiologist in a month to make sure, but this is great news. Although she still has 9p- syndrome and she will need surgery for her omphalocele, the scariest thing was the heart problem. Also, she's been very active even now in the 8th month. We were worried that her movement would slow down as she got bigger as this is common in 9p- babies. They just don't have the musculature needed to continue moving around in a cramped space. So most likely she is going to be strong for a 9p- baby (or maybe that's just the talk of a hopeful mother-to-be). We are strongly leaning towards the name Bhindi now, as opposed to Jaya, which was our first thought (my grandmother's name). Also, this post was an excuse to add more pictures. Derek and I recently bought a slide/negative converter to scan all our old negatives. I dug up pictures from the trip to Tanzania in 2003 and wanted to post them on our blog. I've also been scanning Derek's mission pictures and some family pictures, which will be coming soon. Other than that, we are getting to move down to Gridley, CA in the Sacramento valley on May 18 and are excited for some relaxing cabin time before the baby is born.

The News Keeps Coming

No matter what happens at this point, we have an optimistic outlook. But to share the latest news...

1) I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. That has been an interesting journey. I always vowed to stay healthy so that I would never have diabetes and be denied sweets for the rest of my life. My only comfort is that a) this only lasts until the baby is born and b) developing gestational diabetes is not related to the mother's diet, but rather pregnancy hormones interfering with the production of insulin. In other words, I didn't eat to many sweets or carbs, it just happens randomly to 5-10% of women. However, I do have to control my blood sugar by severely altering my diet. My daily routine is:

7:30-7:45 am: wake up, take blood sugar level (yes I do have to prick my finger)

8:00 am: eat breakfast (I have to eat two carb servings and at least one protein with every meal - usually two pieces of toast and eggs - no fruit or milk allowed)

9:00 am: take blood sugar level

10:30 am: eat snack (usually crackers and cheese and one serving of fruit - I can only have two servings of fruit a day and it must be during morning and afternoon snack)

1:30 pm: eat lunch (all of my meals must be eaten on a time schedule and cannot vary by more than 15 min - it's a bummer for scheduling)

4:30 pm: eat snack (including one serving of fruit)

7:30 pm: eat dinner

10:30 pm: eat snack (this is when I usually indulge a little and eat something sweet - but the most I can eat is one cookie and a half glass of milk because milk is also considered a carb)

Since I cannot go for more than 10 hours without eating I have to go to sleep after 10:30 and get up before 8:00 every morning. Anyway it hasn't been the end of the world and I've learned a lot about diabetes and how to eat better. Unfortunately I've started losing weight, which the doctor is not going to like. But I am going to eat a huge bowl of icecream after the placenta is gone and my blood sugar levels are back to normal.

2) In other news we found out that the baby has a heart defect. They found a small hole in her heart which may or may not be a big deal. We'll find out in a few weeks when we meet with the pediatric cardiologist. But we are optimistic that it won't be too big of a deal. At this point, all you can do is put your faith in God and know that whatever happens is His will. When you're doing what's right and trying your hardest, you can be assured that everything that happens is for a good purpose and is a blessing from God.

3) Not having to do with the baby, I took my MCAT two days ago and man was it hard! I've been studying everyday for the past 3 months and yet there were so many questions that I just didn't know the answer to. My only hope is that it was a hard test for everybody. Since it's scored on a curve, if everybody did badly, I might have done well in comparison. I'll know on May 25. It's pretty intimidating since our whole future depends on its results. I won't be able to get into medical school or get the airforce scholarship if I did badly.

That's about it for our news I think. Derek finishes school on May 12, after which we'll be moving down to Gridley. It will be much easier to go to the doctor in Sacramento from there. More news forthcoming!

PS Here are some pictures of Morocco from my trip during summer 2004. I went there to study US-Middle Eastern relations. I found them and had the negatives scanned, so I thought I would include them in the blog post.

Our precious daughter

We are so bad at keeping up with our blog. A lot has happened since the last one. We left off last time with the trip to Africa and finding out that we were pregnant. We had an awesome time with the Suresh family and my mom in Gridley over Christmas. Derek took them snowboarding for the first time, which they really enjoyed. We spent a few days playing in the snow and some days seeing the sights, like the Jelly Belly factory and the fish hatchery. We had such an awesome time, we really miss them. Derek had to return to Reno the day after their departure to get to his wintermester in Reno. We've enjoyed living with Denise and Jessica, although it's taken me some time to get used to the cold. Derek goes to school all day on Tues and Thurs. I usually go with him so that I can sit in the institute and work on my MCAT practice. I'll be taking the MCAT on April 24. Wish me luck! I find it more difficult to concentrate and retain information when I'm suffering from pregnancy brain. I've been looking hard for an opportunity to shadow a doctor, but so far, none have arisen. My application for the airforce scholarship for medical school is in, and now they're just waiting for my MCAT score and for me to be not pregnant anymore so that I can have my mandatory physical. In more important news, Derek and I found out that we're having a girl, which we're both excited about, and also on a less happy note, that she is going to have Alfi's syndrome: an extremely rare genetic disease that causes mental and physical handicaps. It was very hard for me to hear the news at first, although Derek has taken it very well. Over the past few weeks, however, we've come to see what an amazing blessing a special needs child is. We've talked to many families who have children with different special needs and have joined a support group for Alfi's syndrome parents. We know that having a special needs child will require a lot of sacrifice on our parts, but we are going to try to be the best parents that we can. Most of the parents we talked to have told us how their special son or daughter is like an angel in their lives - that their siblings tend to be much more compassionate and service oriented, and that they as parents are more humble than they would otherwise have been. We are excited for the challenge and the blessing, and we know that we will love our little daughter all the more. We would appreciate everybody's prayers however, not just for us but for our daughter. Alfi's syndrome is very different from child to child and can range from mild to severe, which we will not be able to tell until she starts to develop after the first year or two. God has a plan for us all, and now we'll understand that to an even greater degree!

Info about Alfi's Syndrome: http://www.rarechromo.org/information/Chromosome%20%209/9p%20deletions%20FTNW.pdf

In Africa Together

I was working with Kristin (Brown) during the semester on her project in Uganda and Kenya. We had to create lesson plans for Dr. Page's class and do a report on our work with an NGO for Warner Woodworth's class. So what better place to concentrate on than Uganda. Our work in Kenya involved Koins for Kenya, the NGO that Kristin is a board member of. In Uganda we worked with Reach the Children to implement the Grow.Learn.Give Program, which Kristin and her mission companion Michelle had started. Anyway, I had expected merely to work with Grow.Learn.Give from Utah, although I knew that Kristin was planning a trip for November. In October, we came across the Fulton Fund for which an application was due at the end of the week. We decided to go for the grant as a long shot for both Kristin and I to go to Africa for free. Unexpectedly, we got the funding. The next step was to break it to Derek that Kristin and I would be going back to his mission in Kenya without him. I finally told him and we got to discussing possibilities of him coming with us. He did a lot of research to get funding to create a documentary on the Grow.Learn.Give Program and on Koins for Kenya. Most of the attempts were unsuccessful. In the end, I told Kristin about our dilemma, and she and her friends arranged partial funding for Derek to come and be our videographer. We had to buy equipment for Derek to use (which he later sold for a profit), but we were very excited to be going to Africa together for the first time. As we might have mentioned before, we first became interested in each other when we learned that we had both lived in Africa and could speak Swahili. Now we would get the chance to visit East Africa together. We left on Oct 28 and returned Nov 9. The first week was spent in Kampala, Uganda where we stayed in a nice (by Africa standards) hotel. We worked with two wonderful people: Patrick and Madinah. Patrick was the director of Reach the Children and Madinah had expressed the need for a program like Grow.Learn.Give which addressed menstruation education and supplies for primary and secondary school girls. We went around to different schools that had started to implement the Grow.Learn.Give Program and conducted interviews and focus groups to assess the progress. It was just wonderful to interact with the children and have them sing to us (see pictures below). On the Saturday of Derek's birthday, we took a trip to Jinja where we rafted the headwaters of the Nile. Sadly (and luckily) the waters were not as intense as I remembered from my previous trip to Uganda, as a damn had been constructed which slowed down the rapids. Grade 5 rapids are still intense, even if they're not as good as I remember. After completing our work in Uganda we left for Mnyenzeni, Kenya - a small village. It was quite a change from the fast-paced capital of Uganda. Kristin was there to represent the board at a neonatal resuscitation workshop. We didn't attend much of it, but went around to the village taking video and pictures of the people. Koins had implemented a program to provide lights for some of the best students so that they could study in their homes even after dark. Derek created some wonderful documentaries on the work done there, which we will try to attach to this post. It was so wonderful to speak Swahili again. The people have so much more respect for you if you speak the language. We also met a wonderful guy, Anthony, who directed the Koins for Kenya Program. One exciting event that occurred during our time there was the election of Barack Obama as president. All of Kenya went nuts when they heard that "their son" had become president of the United States. It was fun and inspirational to see. We reluctantly left Kenya at the end of the week and returned home. By this time I had some serious suspicions that I was pregnant as my period was late (sorry for underage readers)and I had begun to experience slight stomach problems. By the time I got home, my illness had become stronger, so I decided to visit the clinic. I found out that I was indeed pregnant and decided to surprise Derek. It was a difficult week transitioning back from Africa, having morning sickness, and worst of all, having to defend my thesis. But by Thurs. evening it was all over (at least the jet lag and the thesis). I was too sick to go out to a restaurant, so we ordered in, and I gave Derek a "birthday" card congratulating him on our pregnancy. He had a fun reaction. I wish I could have taken a picture. So that in a nutshell is our trip to Africa and the week after. I'm so thankful that we got the chance to do that together, as we may not be able to do something like that again for a long time.