The baby is almost here!

Happy almost Halloween! It's been a while since you've received an update from us and there is a good reason for the delay. Our last post had the girls back in the States and Scott in Paraguay. This time we are all reunited in the same state, Virginia, but we are not all together.

Helping Grandma organize some of her portfolio.

On Saturday, October 6, Mackenzie's Jackson cousin Grace celebrated her 3rd birthday and Uncle Darren drove to Manassas to pick us up. Mackenzie was excited to see her cousins but more excited that Mommy was coming too. We drove to Springfield and upon exiting the car Kiersten instantly knew something was off. She walked gingerly into the house, found the bathroom and low and behold was bleeding; the third bleed of this pregnancy. She came out of the bathroom and informed the room of family celebrators that she needed a ride to the nearby Fairfax hospital. 15 minutes later, Kiersten and Darren were being brought to the maternity triage unit. While Kiersten was being hooked up to monitors and poked by needles, Darren was the point man for all family communications. By 6pm Kiersten was getting settled into her new "home" in the perinatal high risk unit. Since this was her 3rd bleed she gets to stay here until the baby comes. Kiersten's parents came to visit a little while later and then everything settled down. It was a rough night's sleep that first night but it's gotten progressively better.

On that first Monday, Kiersten got a sonogram to look at baby and see the placenta and check everything out. The doctor's also decided to move up the C-section to October 23 so one less week of being pregnant and waiting. Scott also began looking at earlier flights to Virginia.

So it's been 17 days in the hospital but the end is in sight! One more day of being pregnant and then fingers crossed everything is fine with the baby (which we are pretty sure she'll be healthy and big and strong) Kiersten will be coming home on Friday with a new daughter. Mackenzie seems pretty excited to meet the baby tomorrow. She's very keen to "hold baby sister". We hope her enthusiasm continues after the baby comes home to stay.

Scott finished up a ton of work in 9 quick days and made the long plane journey back to America on Wednesday and Thursday October 17-18. No delays this time. Mackenzie has been beside herself happy to have Daddy back and to have some sort of regular structure. Poor girl. After being admitted to the hospital, Mackenzie spent that whole first week in Maryland with Kiersten's brother's family and older cousin Ashlyn. The girls had a great time but M missed her mommy (and mommy missed M) and Aunt Sandra was happy when the week was over. We know our girl can be a little exhausting. But we love her!

These girls really have a good time together.

Being a firewoman with her trusty 'beep-beep'.

Cheering on her cousin at her soccer game.

Having some fun at a park with Daddy.

Enjoying a nature walk on a beautiful Autumn morning looking for squirrels.

How does Kiersten fill her days you might be wondering? She did a fair amount of reading the first few days but moved on to crocheting lots of baby hats and binging tv shows on her iPad. Most of the hats have been donated to the hospital for newborns so it felt good to do some service. Thanks to a generous yarn donation from a sister-in-law, Kiersten has moved on to Christmas presents for the nieces and nephews and more binge watching of Rizzoli & Isles. Then there is the usual nurses coming to check on her, monitoring of her vitals a few times a day and checking on baby's heart and movements. Little girl is doing great and the nurses actually call her a 'showoff' because she's so good. Love to hear that. She also gets a visitor at least once a day from family or local friends. And yes, she's starting to get tired of the hospital food and knows the whole menu by heart.

Check out those goals. I've been nailing it!
(it says, "No bleeding, stay pregnant.")

Checking out baby's heart rate (blue) and mom's nonexistent contractions (black).

Shh! She's hiding. M walks in the hospital room like she's owns the place.
She especially loves the snacks in the mini fridge.

Projects:

• Here are some pictures of what Kiersten has made. It's amazing the amount of projects you can complete while laying in bed all day.

  

  Originally I had three colors; white, pink and green.

  

  An appropriately themed pumpkin hat for our little pumpkin to wear home.

The Mackenzie Update:

• She can count to 10 in English! Sometimes she gets stuck on 5, 6, 7, 8, 5, 6, 7, 8 but it's cute. Like she's counting for a rhythm section or a dance sequence.
• Her pronunciation of certain words has become clearer and more English words are replacing solidified Spanish words like 'water' but we are trying to reinforce all the Spanish by continuing to call it 'agua'.

  

  Happy Halloween!

• Grandma has added singing time to the bedtime routine. They sing the same song every night: I am a Child of God. This has been the song Mommy sings to help calm Mackenzie down since she was a newborn so she's heard it her whole life. Now she can sing along and knows basically all the words! As always our next step is to learn the words in Spanish.

So dear friends and family, one more day of being pregnant with this little baby. We are excited and nervous to meet her and the prospect of being parents of two children. Just taking everything one day at a time has been a great motto to live by and this is no exception. Thank you as always for the continued love, support and prayers during this challenging transition. If we have a spare moment next week we'll send pictures and an update on our newest addition to this little growing Jackson family. Until then, have a great week!

Early Medevac for this Jackson Family

We are a week behind our updates and there is a good reason for that. On Wednesday Sept 19 we had decided we’d waited around risking fate long enough so we started the ball rolling with getting Kiersten and Mackenzie back to the United States. Scott spoke with many different people in DC and Kiersten went to several more doctors appointments and on Sunday Sept 23 we boarded a plane. The next afternoon we arrived back on home soil. We saw her doctors in the afternoon and her regiment of bed rest was confirmed and more properly defined. No lifting, minimal standing, walking and even sitting upright. The next 5 weeks will see her in a reclined or laying position until the glorious release of October 30, the designated delivery date. She was also warned that anymore bleeding will result in her in the hospital on bed rest until delivery, no questions asked so we are trying very hard to avoid that.

Scott was a huge help during the flights. He took care of the bags and Mackenzie and made sure Kiersten was resting as much as she could. At each airport we had requested a wheelchair but in Dallas there wasn’t anyone to push so after waiting for over 10 minutes, Mackenzie rode on Mommy’s lap, Kiersten helped with the rolling suitcase and Scott pushed. Getting through customs was long as usual but we eventually made it to our gate with minutes to spare.

Scott stayed around getting us settled at Kiersten’s parents house until Wednesday afternoon when he headed back to the airport to get home. Two weather delays and 4 hours later he finally made it to Dallas and got a hotel until his rescheduled flight out the next morning. He arrived in Asuncion late Thursday evening.

Since his departure the girls have begun settling into their new routine. Kiersten’s routine hasn’t changed much, just the location. Mackenzie is spending some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa Hammond and other local family. Friday afternoon she got picked up by Aunt Carey to play and spend the night with Grace. Saturday she played all afternoon with Ashlyn at Grandma’s house.

She's becoming a regular virtuoso!

Pretending to be sleeping.

Pregnancy update: currently 33 weeks at the time of this entry. Kiersten took the one hour glucose test last week and failed so is set to take the dreaded 3 hour glucose test this week. This same thing happened during her pregnancy with Mackenzie. She is not pleased. For some reason being reclined all day long is also causing her some very uncomfortable reflux, especially at night. Thank goodness for Tums which brings some relief.

Projects:

• During the finally days in Asuncion, Kiersten managed to finish the quiet book for Mackenzie. The other book has most of the pages complete so it shouldn’t take long to put it all together but that can be put on hold for several months. It turned out better than expected and she feels extremely accomplished.

The Mackenzie update:

• Right before we left, Mackenzie participated in a Spring Festival at her school. It was in fact her last day before we flew out. We were supposed to help her make a hat for the parade. Mommy made it out of felt and Mackenzie helped color it with markers and a painted hand print.
  
  
  

  

  They gave her this adorable sign to take home.

• More songs! Eensy Weensy Spider, Happy Birthday, and Daddy Finger are all in her repertoire.
• She is really into making a big frowny face and then a big goofy grin and having us take a picture.

  

  "Sad face...."

  
  

  

  "Happy face!"

• She’s getting better at repeating Spanish words. It used to be she would understand them and respond in English but now she’s answering in Spanish too. English is still dominant. 
• This happened months ago but she has all her teeth. Thought you’d like to know.

That's all for this week. Pray nothing changes and everything stays the same and safe for us.