Back from NOLA yet again!

Ashley, Claire, Daria and I went to NOLA Children's Hospital for follow up appointments with urology and neurology. All went very well. Urology had us do a kidney ultrasound and the ultrasound appears to be a very normal looking kidney. Looks like Ashley and have made an A on catheters for Claire. Neurology had ordered an ultrasound on Claire and it was found that her right ventricle in her brain is collapsed, which is not a bad thing more of an expected thing with kids that have shunts. Claire appears to be doing quite well. Check out the new albums from the past few days. See below.

11 08 10 - Our First Walk in the Neighborhood

11 07 10 - Great Grandma, Great Aunt, Grandpa & Grandma

11 05 10 - About to Leave RMH to go to Children's NOLA

11 02 10 - Dr Office Follow Up

10 31 10 - Halloween Pix

Surgery Number 2 (On the VP Shunt) Complete!

Claire had to go back to surgery this past week. Part of her shunt was not functioning correctly due to pluggage from inside her brain. Once the pluggage was removed her soft spot on her head became concave again as it should be. She seems to be a happier baby again. Her head circumference had gone from 34 cm to 35.5 cm to 36.6 cm within a short window. By the time we were at the NOLA Children's hospital her head circumference measured 37 cm.

See JD and Ashley for new picture updates.

Gloria Gaynor Sings it Best

We are at home surviving quite well. The night before we left one of our nurses, Aimee, came up with this cute configuration.

From 10 11 10 Leaving NICU

We got home late Monday night. My parents came to NOLA NICU that day and hung out while all of the different doctors came by and assessed Claire. Overall very positive impressions from the doctoral staff that assessed Claire. We were able to finally leave at 6:00 PM from the NOLA NICU. My Mom and Dad and Ashley's Mom helped unload all of our stuff once we got home around midnight Monday night. Shortly after we unloaded, a storm came through and took out my car's windshield as well as did some minor body damage around the car. See here, as well as a fence that got knocked down.

Thanks again for everyone's prayers and thoughts. Ashley and I are deeply thankful for everyone's support.

Morning Has Broken...

... and Ashley is out. We just spent our room in at the NICU in NOLA and the girls did okay. Daria has some issues with using just the formula for food. She has no problem chowing down the breast milk though. Claire also did quite well. We hope that our meeting with all the doctors go well so that we can get home. I think that Claire has one more VCUG test today so hopefully all goes well there.

Right now mommy is knocked out. I slept from 2 AM to 5 AM. Ashley past the tourch at 5 AM.

Hope to see everyone soon.

-JD and Ashley

Evening Update

Right now I am sitting in the lobby at the NOLA NICU. Ashley is standing down the hall feeding Daria. After speaking with Claire's nurse this afternoon it looks like it is very probable that The Parden Family will be able to go HOME Monday afternoon. I also believe that another VCUG will be conducted and we will also have to meet with the different doctors that took care of Claire for discharge and path forward for her medical care. I think the plan is that we are going to room in at the NICU on Sunday night; however, the hospital will not allow Daria to go into the unit, so I will have to stay in the waiting room overnight while Ashley will go between Daria and Claire for feeding and CIC. I've been trained on the CIC method, so now it is just a matter of getting Ashley up to speed with the technique. I can't wait to get home. The timing may actually work out quite well as Monday is my last day of vacation.

Again thanks for everyone's prayers and support!

Surgery Update!

Claire's surgery this morning went very well. The neurosurgery team took Claire at about 9 AM and the procedure was completed by 11 AM. Claire has approximately 13 visible stitches on the back right side of her head as well as several stitches on her tummy. Claire looks well and the NOLA Children's hospital will have to keep her for several days to monitor for infection. Hopefully all will go well. Thanks again for everyone's support!

J. D. and Ashley

No news was good news...

Today Ashley and I met with neurology at New Orleans Children's Hospital. It was determined by the two attending doctors following Claire's case that she needs to have a VP shunt installed. Her procedure will be performed tomorrow morning at approximately 8:30 A. M. We are A bit nervous about the procedure; however, we do understand that this is a necessary procedure for Claire--we have been noticing some changes in her physical appearance as well as behavior. Her frontal fontanel shows signs of increased intra cranial pressure. Her eyes are also appearing to get a bit more lazy. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

In other news Daria Therese is doing very well. She is feeding, kicking, crying, and screaming just as she should. Ashley came up to NOLA yesterday and is staying with me at the RMH.

Best Regards,

J. D. and Ashley

No News is Good News?

Ashley and I were hoping on more definitive news on being able to go home Wednesday; however, the Neurologist, Dr. Greene, wants to do another ultrasound on Claire's head on Wednesday and then decide if we need to do a VP shunt on Thursday. If no shunt then we should be able to leave the hospital Thursday/Friday, if shunt then we will need to stay in the hospital another three to four days. All prayers have been greatly appreciated and we are continuing to update our JD & Ashley Album.

Hopefully will have better news in the next few days!

Been a While!

Hi All!

It has been quite a while since my last post. This is due to many reasons. At about 24 weeks gestation we were told that one of our twins had Lissencephaly. This was diagnosed by one of our maternal fetal doctors. I had a difficult time in dealing with the news and did alot of praying. I had come to learn how to cope with what was to come and my beautiful wife, Ashley, was instrumental in giving me the pathway to the spiritual fortitude that would be required of me. My wife is truly awesome and I am very thankful to have her.

A few weeks after we found out about our Claire with the Lissencephaly I broke my right femur... ...yay. That was an experience all on its own. I fell through the attic 9 feet to a concrete floor. The EMT group came set my leg and roughly 24 hours later I had a titanium rod installed in the middle of my right femur. I am able to hop around now without a crutch.

The biggest news is that Ashley delivered the twins on 9/22/2010. Both babies came out kicking and screaming. Claire Elizabeth Parden and Daria Therese Parden were born into the world at 2:05 P. M. and 2:06 P. M. respectively. Claire weighed 4 pounds 8 oz. and Daria weighed 5 pounds 3 oz. Claire has Spina Bifida, to be exact a Myelomeningocele on her lower vertebrae. She was flown out to Children's hospital in New Orleans, La for an emergency surgery. Claire's myelo had to be pushed in and sewed up because the membrane that was protruding had a small leak. Claire made it through the surgery very well. I stayed with Ashley while my mom and dad went to New Orleans to stay with Claire. Thanks mom and dad! I relieved my parents from the Ronald McDonald House on Canal Street and have been visiting Claire at the NICU everyday. Claire is so cute and is doing very well.

Right now we are waiting and seeing how Claire's Hydrocephalus develops. Right now there is is mild hydrocephalus. The hydro can either stay the same, get worse, or go away. If the hydro gets worse/stays the same we will most likely have to install a shunt to keep pressure off of her brain. Claire also had a VCUG. The test indicated that she is refluxing contrast into her right kidney. Pretty much we will have to stay intermittently consistent with catheterization and treat her with prophylactic mediation to avoid kidney/bladder infections. The neurologist believes that Claire will walk and have normal to below normal intelligence and could go to college one day. Her feedings are going exceedingly well. She is a hungry little rascal. Hopefully we will be able to go home next week; however, if we can't then we will most likely be able to return the week after next.

Please check out our picasaweb album JD and Ashley Parden. I have been posting pictures there and will continue to do so.

24 Week Mark Coming up!

Hi All. I see that I've had a few hits since the last time Ash and I have posted anything.

Everything has been going very well for our girls. So those of you that voted girls... ahem... FRED... you were right! We are very excited and have been tossing names back and forth. We are thinking Daria and Claire or Claire and Kailyn.

The babies as of Thursday the 24th were weighing in at approximately 1.5 pounds each. This is great! Typically with a singleton pregnancy at this point one baby weighs 1 lbs 2 onces.

We still have alot to do. We need to finish our nursery as well as get past the baby shower which means finishing registering. Ash and I spent 6 hours the other day in Target at Lake Charles. We ended up running into Jason and Kayla Bellard and they hooked us up with some cloth diapers. Thanks Jason and Kayla!

As far as the nursery goes we are still in the process of deciding where to put the baby paraphernalia as well as what colors to paint the room. Ash and I are starting to get overwhelmed.

Below is a video from Dr. Scrogg's Office or Click Here.


Below are some pics from the specialist.

End of Week 18!

My beautiful bride earning her keep as she should ;)

Actually her feet are starting to swell and she was trying to elevate her feet while she was cooking.

Week 18 from wifey's Prego Tracker site brings the following:

"Your baby measures about 5.2 to 6 inches (13-15cm) from crown to rump and weighs about 7 ounces (200g).

The buds for the permanent teeth are forming behind those that have already developed for the first teeth.

Your baby's nervous system and brain development continue at a spectacular pace. By this week, your baby's motor neurons, which connect muscle to the brain, have grown into place so that your baby can consciously direct her movements. Millions of neurons inside your baby's brain are growing and forming connections and the nerves in her body are being covered in a fatty substance called myelin.

Your baby's ears are now placed on the sides of her head and her limbs are now in proportion. Your baby's tiny foot is just one inch long, but is in perfect proportion to the rest of her leg.

Your baby can hear your voice and recognize it."

Saturday Fun

Ash and I had a really hard time getting up Saturday morning. The night before I met up with some old friends. I saw Chad McGillivray, Ben McClelland, and Johnny Green. Johnny was down to watch Ben graduate from college. Congrats Ben! Ben was signing in some lawyer's band.

Saturday morning/lunch we left to go see Ashley M. Fontenot graduate from McNeese. Congrats Ash! We didn't really make it to the actual graduation, but we did make it to Pat's of Henderson in Lake Charles. Chloe was my at party entertainment. See below :)




After lunch Ash was complaining about her shoes being tight. I don't know why...



Somebody needs to lay off the salt....

The rest of the day Ash and I met up with Hahn, Kat, and Lily for some BAM fun. We then to the Mall got Ash some shoes and had super.

Jenna's Confirmation

On the way to Jenna's Confirmation today we heard a loud pop. See below. Hopefully the insurance will be kind.





We did finally make it to Jenna's Confirmation. Ashley was her younger sister's sponsor for Confirmation and Ashley did awesome (So did you Jenna!) Ashley was able to sit through the 2 hour long mass without having to get up to go to the bathroom once.

What a trooper. See picture below. She's even smiling about it.

Week 17 and 1 Day

Week 17 brings the following from Pregnancy Tracker:

"Your baby weighs about 5.25 ounces (150g) and now measures 5 to 5.6 inches (12.5 to 14cm) from crown to rump. He is practicing breathing by gulping amniotic fluid into its lungs. This helps the lung's development so they will function at birth. Your baby may also be sucking his thumb.

Meconium is present in your baby's bowels. There is hair present on your baby's scalp and sweat glands are developing.

Your baby is becoming more sensitive to the outside world and is moving around, kicking and punching. As there is still plenty of space in your uterus, your baby can move around a lot, sitting cross-legged, reclining or even turning somersaults!

He can probably hear by now as the ossicles (the bones that pass sound to the inner ear) have hardened and the portion of the brain that receives signals from the brain is under development. Your baby is getting used to the sound of your heartbeat and blood passing through the umbilical cord, but may be startled by loud noises. Your baby is aware of some things in the outside world, including sounds and light. If you let the sun shine on your belly, your baby may be able to perceive a warm red glow."

Below you will see an ultrasound from today's visit with Dr. Scroggs. Ash and I were hoping that we would be able to see what the sex of the babies were; however, the babies were being a bit difficult. We should be able to find out in two more weeks when we meet with the specialists from Baton Rouge. Click here for link to YouTube.

A Week In Review

Ash and I had a very busy week last week.

We met Mr. and Mrs. Vu and our Godchild too! Ash and I went to Lake Charles and got her a new maternity dress. She is really cute in it. We called Hahn and Katherine and met them at Books-A-Million and boy is Lily getting big. She is able to hold herself up and seems to be quite the happy baby.

The next day we watched Ashley's oldest younger sister play softball. See an action vid below or click here.



Hackberry had got 2nd place in their division. Way to go Jenna!

Sunday Ash and I went to Lake Arthur and went to Jenna and Patrick's B-Day. They made gumbo and had a cookie cake too! I was the party horse for Chloé, she road around in the house on my back, and man is that floor hard.

Fun with Snakes!

Today around 11:00 A. M. Ash called me about finding a surprise in the backyard.

Snakes

After going back and forth with Animal Control, my Dad, Farmer's Mercantile, and my wife I decided to call Shangri La and tell them to get their snake out of my backyard. To my astonishment they said that they may could do that for us! Shangri La put me on hold and when they got back told me that they were short staffed; however, I could call the Reptile Experts in Orange and they would come out and remove the snake from my yard most likely for FREE!! I asked who they were and was told that it was Cody. I quickly pieced together that it was one of my co-worker's brothers. I called my co-worker and got Cody's cell. Cody with Reptile Experts knows his snakes. He says that in the pictures above you will find a Hybridized Texas Rat Snake that is most likely the product of a Texas Rat Snake and a King Snake. Cody came by-answered all of my wife's questions and put her mind to rest. He even crawled underneath our house to see if he could find the snake! Thanks Cody!

15 Week Mark

From wifey's account with Fertility Friends Prego Site 15 weeks brings the following:

"Fine hair called lanugo covers your baby, who now measures about 4.3 to 4.6 inches (10.8 to 11.6cm) from crown to rump and weighs about 2.8 ounces (80g).

Fingernails are well formed and the arms and legs may be seen moving on an ultrasound. Your baby already has his own unique fingerprint pattern!

Your baby can hold his head erect and he can also make faces with his slightly developed facial muscles. Your baby may practice squinting, frowning and opening and closing his mouth.

Your baby's bones have enough calcium deposits to show on an X-ray. If your baby is female, her ovaries will be in place in her pelvis and more than five million ova (some of which may be fertilized to become your own grandchildren in another generation!) have formed."

Twins

In two days my wife, Ashley, will be fifteen weeks pregnant with our twins!

I am rapidly finding out how inexperienced I am with one baby, save two! Please feel free to comment below and sign up for some babysitting time. I don't know how we are going to make it.

We are very blessed as well as excited. In a couple of more weeks our doc is going to try and guess the sex of the babies and at the end of May we will have our specialist appointment.

Wife is thinking cloth diapers. I think I am coming around to the idea. Diapers for twins would cost 1600 USD a year!! YIKES! What do you guys think about cloth diapers? Comment below.

We are also looking for good suggestions on where to find baby furniture. We are thinking about making a run to Houston soon to a Baby Depot.

Below is a video of the babies from our March 15th appointment with the Ultrasound Tech! Click Here for a link to YouTube.

Toys That I Want

Everyone wants toys. Well here are some of the toys that I want.

• Microsoft Courier
• HP Slate
• Apple IPAD
• ShowWX PicoP Laser Projector
• A Power PC with all the goodies

The Microsoft Courier is mostly what I believe to be vaporware, but the videos that you can find at Engadget are really enticing. Albeit borderline impossible for the current technology that is available today. The real challenge will be making the MS Courier run as smooth as it does in the demonstration videos. AND yes I do realize that the videos are more of a graphical presentation of what the device could do, not the actual device being used.

That device would help out innumerably in the work place. The ability to have an infinite journal is mind numbing; however, companies are going to have to disable the internet infinite journal and go with the intranet infinite journal for all of those intellectual property needs.

The HP Slate. This is more realistic than the mythical unicorn listed above. A couple of concerns though. I am afraid that the HP Slate won't be any more powerful than my Acer Aspire One Netbook. I am also afraid that the touch responsiveness will be laking-don't get me wrong, I am thinking about buying alotta HP stock very soon. While the potential for this device to be sluggish and unresponsive there are much more saving qualities to be had from a device such as this. I'd love to turn the HP Slate into a company computer that I can install a program to look at plant data on as well as be able to carry it with me much more portably than a laptop at the plant. And then there is Flash.

IPAD. No Flash =( But those things are sexy. A multi-media capable device sounds very enticing, but the price is just not feasible especially when I can get the functionality out of the HP Slate that should be arriving any day now.

ShowWX. I have been talking up this company for the past three years. Hoping and wishing that their technology would make it into a cell phone. The technology in that device is simply amazing. Check out PicoP projection with the lasers and the mirrors. That is some neato stuff. A bit pricey though. Not very encouraging. Will have to wait for some time before I am able to get my hands on one of those.

Last but not least - A powerful pc. I have been writing a game and have been collecting data for my game for almost a year now. I bought an Intous 4 pen tablet; to my dismay I don't have a PC strong enough to be able to use the device with an art program ;( And then there is that slight drawing ability that I need to jump the hurdle on.

The Daily Purge

Dear Blog,

Today I woke up at 5:30 A. M. and took a shower. I took a long shower in the dark. The kind where you lay down in the shower and let the water hit your head until you finally gain enough consciousness to get up and get ready for work. I finally make my way out of the shower and get dressed and out the door at 6:30 A. M.

I make it to work at 6:45 A. M. Pull up my data on the unit and begin taking in all the information I can for my morning meetings for the unit I have responsibilities in.

At lunch I went with some work compadres to take my rented garden tiller back to the U-Rent-All.

I got back home around 5:00 P. M. and chilled out with the wife. Wifey was cleaning up the bedroom. We made soup, grilled cheese, and popcorn for supper. I had rocky road ice cream for dessert. We watched a Dead Like Me episode. The one where the Reapers are filing paper work because the Gravelings are on vacation. And then it was time for House.

Sincerely,

J. D. Parden