The Pacie-Nabber Strikes Again!

Things get very interesting when you have a basset hound & a baby living together under one roof. Boomer, our basset hound, is a great dog & has been such a blessing to our family...So sweet, so loving, so loud! The only time she misbehaves, and by "misbehaving" I mean barking, is when it is time for her to eat, she wants her dog bone, or if there is a cat lurking around the house. Other than that she is great.


Since Lizzie's home coming, we have noticed a new rebellious Basset. Turns out, Boomer is a sucker for a pacifier! On several occasions we have found a pacifier laying around the house in odd spots, half eaten, partially chewed on, completely destroyed. We are however beginning to notice a pattern...If one is left in the swing, Boomer finds it. If one is left in the bouncy seat, Boomer finds it. If one is left on a table, Boomer finds it. Sometimes I wonder if Boomer takes them away from Lizzie. HMMM??? Note to self, if the pacifier is not in Lizzie's mouth it must be out of reach of the basset.


Just the other day, Lizzie & I were in her room...I was folding laundry and Lizzie was swinging enjoying a good pacifier. Boomer was up front sleeping. When we finished we moved to the front of the house. Somehow Boomer found herself back in Lizzie's room for a short period of time, alone. Upon going back into Lizzie's room for a diaper change, we were greeted by a Basset leaving the scene of the crime and a pacifier that had been slightly chewed.




This is going to be a tough habit to break!!!

Big Day for the Cathey's

This past Sunday, March 15th, was a very special day for the Cathey's. Not only was Colby ordained a Deacon at our Church, but it was also the first Church service Elizabeth was able to attend. Colby being ordained was a huge honor for our family and it was wonderful to have Elizabeth there to share it with us. We were so proud of how well behaved she was in "big" Church! Not a peep, except for the occasional snore during a little cat nap. The entire Johnson/Cathey family was able to share in the joy, as well as some very special family friends. Colby's dear friend, Jock, was able to attend the Deacon Counsel with him. I could not have been more proud of my family. It was a good day!


Colby & Jock


The Girls

Cuzwins

Elizabeth is a lucky little girl to have a Cuzwin! She and her cousin Tyler were both born on October 16th, 2008. Elizabeth was born at 2:42 and 6 hours 1 minute later at 8:43 my sister had her little boy Tyler. They were originally supposed to be a month apart, Tyler was supposed to arrive first, but both of them had other plans.


You have already read Elizabeth's story, so here is a condensed version of Tyler's...Tyler's original due date was Halloween, October 31st. Carrie's doctor scheduled her for a c-section on October 20th, but with all of the excitement of Elizabeth's arrival Tyler wanted to hurry up and get here! We are considering the babies to be cousins & twins, hence the name "cuzwins".


A couple of weekends ago, Tyler came over to our house for a little while so his parents could go out for a little while. We had a great time. The four of us went on a field trip to Moppy & Poppy's house (Colby's parents). Before we knew it, it was already time for him to go home. Hopefully he will come over again sometime soon. Lizzie thinks the world of him!

Fast Forward...February 18th

Elizabeth is now 4 months old and growing bigger everyday! She had a doctor's appointment on Monday which went very well. She is now up to 11lb 4oz and is 22 1/4 inches long. She is right where she needs to be developmentally, which is such a blessing considering she was born premature. She was worn out after her doctors appointment...The 4 shots she had to get were very hard on her. The rest of the afternoon was spent recuperating.

Elizabeth's Story

We found out last March that we were expecting our first child. We were so excited. I immediately made a doctors appointment. At our first appointment we heard a strong heartbeat and there a wonderful adventure began. I looked forward to my appointment every month. I couldn't wait to hear that little heartbeat again. The anticipation on what we were having grew stronger with each doctors visit. Colby & I were convinced we were having a boy. In late July we were able to find out what we were having...Surprise it's a girl! I asked the technician to double check to make sure she didn't miss anything. She was positive it was a girl. We were both shocked but very excited. Everything was perfect with her ultrasound. November 23rd would be here before we knew it. Everything continued to run smoothly until October. We were just about to start our weekly doctors visits, when the unexpected happened.


Monday, October 13th
I went to my normal doctors appointment. My blood pressure was elevated slightly
(130/80) from what it had previously been at my other appointments (110/70), but the nurse was not concerned. My day continued on as usual.


Tuesday, October 14th
Looking back at the events of the day and what was to come with the rest of the week, we know that God's hand was upon us. The day started out like any other day, work as usual. On my way to work I realized that I left my cell phone at home, so once I got to work I called Colby to let him know that I did not have it with me...I normally call him on my way home from work and I didn't want him to worry if he did not hear from me. A little bit later my mom called me at work and invited me to lunch, something we had not done in a very long time. We made plans to meet at one of my favorite resturants, I was so excited. While we were visiting, my blood pressure came up in conversation. My mom has high blood pressure and she told me anytime I wanted to stop by and check mine on her monitor I was more than welcome. Knowing how exhausted I was by the end of the day, I figured I would just go on home and would not stop by that night. After lunch I went back to work. As the day progressed I began to notice the normal swelling in my ankles, but was feeling a little fatigued and a little dizzy at times...Not normal for me. As I was driving home that night, I decided to go by my parents house and check my blood pressure. I was curious to see what it was at the end of the day with my swollen ankles...All of my appointments had been in the morning before any swelling could set in. I got hooked up to the monitor and it only took a second to get a reading...151/101. My mom had me lay down on my left side and we would check it again in a little while. We checked it again...150/100. I was just ready to get home.

Colby had plans that night and we were on our own for dinner. Nothing sounded good to me, but I finally decided on KFC (not a good choice for someone with high blood pressure). It seemed to take forever. Finally I got my order and headed home. I had no sooner walked in the door when Colby came in with a very concerned look on his face. He said call the doctor. Apparently, after I left my parents house my mom had called him to give him a heads up on the situation. I argued with him and told him I was just tired and it was no big deal. He said no we are calling the doctor. Again I argued with him telling him they were closed by now. He insisted I call, so I gave in and called.

I had to call the after hours number. I told the nurse what was going on and she told me it would be a good idea to go on up to Labor and Delivery just to get checked out. She said she would call and let them know we were on our way up there. I lost it. We were out the door in no time once I was off the phone. I did not get to eat my dinner that night. When we got to the hospital, I had not filled out my admissions packet that I recieved at one of our doctors appointments...I thought I still had 6 weeks to take care of that, nor did I have a bag packed.

Once I was checked in they took me into a huge room. I had a wonderful nurse named Kim helping me that night. She gave me a hospital gown and once I was changed she had me lay down to check my blood pressure...178/107! Kim flew out of the room. She was gone for a while. Colby's parents met us at the hospital, they were very sweet helping to keep my mind from wandering too far. Colby's oldest brother, Chris, also stopped by for a little while. Kim finally came back, she said that I was showing all of the signs of preeclampsia but they would have to run some tests to be sure. She told us worst case scenerio we would deliever the baby in 48 hours. Again I lost it. We were not ready, she was not due for six more weeks.

They started a unrine analysts that would take 24 hours. They also hooked me up to an IV just in case we had to deliever the baby. They put me on Magnesium. From that point on I could no longer focus my eyes and the swelling began to get worse.

The phone calls began. My parents made it to the hospital and we told them what was going on. Colby called my work to let them know the situation and that it did not look like I would be in the rest of the week...I insisted that I need to go back to work, not realizing the severity of the situation...I did not make it back to work that week. Our Pastor and a Deacon from our Church stopped by and prayed with us that night as did the Youth Minister and his wife. We were very greatful for all of the prayers...We needed them.

That was a very hard night for sleep. I spent most of it flipping through about 10 channels on the TV. Poor Colby had to sleep on the "Rock", basically it was a very hard bench.


Wednesday, October 15th
My doctor arrived first thing Wednesday morning. We were still doing the urine analyst and monitoring my blood pressure, which had come down but was still high. They also had me hooked up to a machine that checked the baby's heartrate. She said that we would wait and see how the tests came back before making any decisions. This was the longest day of my life. It would be almost 10 PM before we would get the results back. We had several visitors throughout the day which was nice. And time seem to pass fairly quickly.

Finally the doctor came in about 9 PM that night and said they were going to cut the test short and get the results back a little sooner and that they wanted to do an ultrasound to see what position the baby was in just in case we had to deliver.

The ultrasound tech came in and got things set up. She checked everything on the baby. She was head down and everything looked good. Both sets of grandparents were allowed to veiw the ultrasound as well. The baby looked great, she was estimated at 4lbs 1oz. We were so happy! Any smaller than that she would have to be transported to another hospital. We even got to see that she had a little hair on her head. The last image we saw was our baby girl giving us a thumbs up as if to say everything is going to be okay!

The test results came in and the amount of protein in my urine was extremely high. We were going to have to deliever the baby. The nurse came in to start inducing my labor about 10 that night. It was going to be a long night, but we had confidence that everything was going to be okay.





Thursday, October 16th
After being in labor for 14 hours and not progressing very far, the baby's heart rate began to drop. The doctor decided we were going to have to do a c-section. I was so grateful for this decision because I knew due to the drug induced state I was in, a normal delivery would be very difficult. We weren't sure when it was going to happen, we just knew at some point that day we were going to meet our baby girl.

Finally a nurse came in and said you guys are up next. Colby and I looked at each other in absolute shock. They gave Colby a gown, a hat and a pair of booties to wear. And the prep for surgery began. I received my epidural...Did not feel a thing! I don't know if it was due to the swelling or the medication I was on. Colby said I looked like the Nutty Professor just to give you a visual image of just how swollen I was. I was then wheeled into the operating room, from this point on I don't remember much. I remember listening to the nurses talk to one another and just staring at the light above me. Colby was sitting at my head looking down. I tried to talk to him a couple of times but my voice was to weak for him to hear me.


At 2:42 PM on October 16, 2008 Hannah Elizabeth Cathey entered the world!!!
The doctor immediately commented on how tiny she was. She weighed in at 2lb 15.8oz(they rounded her up to 3lbs) and she was 16 inches long. They took her to a small warmer behind me and I occasionally got a glimpse of our baby girl. The doctor informed us that they would be transporting her to a hospital across town, but before she left I would be able to see her.

I was taken back to my room where we anxiously awaited Elizabeth. Finally two very sweet doctors rolled in a huge isolette with a teeny tiny baby hooked up to all kinds of machines. They explained everything that would be taking place and they were sure let us know she would be in great hands. It was not long before Elizabeth took her first helicopter ride to the other hospital.

Colby and his mom left and went straight to the other hospital. I was out of it for the rest of the afternoon. My mom stayed with me until Colby came back that evening. Once he got back she headed home. I could not wait to hear all about Elizabeth.

My sister was scheduled to have her baby October 20th. She had been up at the hospital all day and had even been out looking for preemie sized clothing for Elizabeth that day. My mom called us once she got home and said that Carrie was in Labor and they were headed to the hospital. I could not believe it!

At 8:43 PM on October 16, 2008 Tyler Hamilton Gray entered the world. Exactly 6 hours and 1 minute after his cousin Elizabeth! What had started out as a scary day, had ended with two wonderful blessings! God is Good!!!



November 11, 2008


Elizabeth is Coming Home!!!

After spending almost 4 weeks in the NICU, Elizabeth was finally released to come home! We definitely had mixed emotions that day...We were thrilled to finally get her home, but we were also nervous about having such a tiny baby, being our first child and all.

That morning my mom had come over to help me with some housework and then later that afternoon we planned to meet at the hospital to spend time with Elizabeth. Pap (my dad) had his normal "date" with Elizabeth that day at 11 AM. While he was there the doctor was making his rounds. Everything checked out fine and the doctor told the nurse "get the paperwork together, this girl is going home!" By the time my mom and I got up to the hospital, Elizabeth's check process had already started.

By 2 PM that afternoon, we were headed home with our precious baby girl! We could not have been more excited.