Update on Stewart Babies

This is an update on the Stewart family I posted about a few weeks ago, check out her my space to see real peace in the face of hard times oh how God is alreay being Glorified through this.

Hello friends,

Several of you have asked recently how we are doing and if there are any updates.First, let me say that Paige and I appreciate so much the prayers you are praying for us and prayer lists of others that many of you have gotten us on. On more than one occasion, we've heard how people who don't know us personally are praying for us, and how people in so many different states are praying for us, and it is just awesome to know that all of this is going on. We know that so much of the peace we have right now is the direct result of prayer.

We had a second appointment with Dr. Biggio in late August. At that visit, he spent close to an hour doing an ultrasound. This was much different from the first visit, at which a nurse did a brief ultrasound and Dr. Biggio basically just confirmed that the twins were inseparably conjoined in a manner that "would not be compatible with life".

During the second visit, he looked closely at the babies and told us as much as he could about their development at that point. Although it didn't change the expected incompatibility with life, the details of how they are conjoined are a bit different than we had previously thought. The ultrasound showed that there are actually two spines and the babies are apparently facing each other conjoined from just below the shoulders down; we had thought that they were more side-by-side. The ultrasound appeared to show 4 arms; we had thought that there were only two. On one side, each appeared to have an arm that was developing normally; and on the other side, they each appeared to have a smaller arm that was abnormal in development. We already knew that there is only one heart; it was too early to tell much more about the heart, but we did hear him tell the technician to put down "abnormal four chamber heart". Dr. Biggio only saw one stomach, although at a later visit to our doctor in Northport it looked like there may be two stomachs. Dr. Biggio could see one kidney - possibly two - but wasn't sure. At the pelvis the spines seemed to come together. There are only two legs, and he said the feet looked to be clubbed. There is fluid accumulating around the skull of both babies and down the spine of at least one; at a later visit to our doctor in Northport it looked that the fluid may have subsided some from previous visits.

We asked about the probability of whether or not the babies would live to birth. He said that the heart doesn't currently seem to be having any problems pumping blood for both babies, and at that point he didn't see any reason to think that they would die in the next few weeks. That was about 4 weeks ago, so a few weeks have passed. He indicated in a later e-mail to us that he thought the 8-10 week period following that visit would be the period at which the single heart might encounter problems keeping up; I guess we're still a couple of months away from that period being behind us. Since there is nothing that they are able to do to help our babies, he'd basically given us a choice of whether we'd want to keep going to appointments in Birmingham or if we'd prefer to just go to the doctor in Northport. We told him that if the babies live long enough to be born, we would want for the delivery to be at UAB. He said he sees no reason for us to keep coming to him regularly right now.

Currently, we're just going to Dr. Smith in Northport for monthly checkups. If the babies are still alive around 25 weeks, then we'll get in touch with Dr. Biggio's office to schedule the next appointment.After our first visit to Birmingham, we'd honestly kind of hoped that if the babies weren't going to live that a miscarriage might occur sooner rather than later. Since the second visit, we are now hoping that the babies will live long enough to be born and for us to have a little bit of time with them, even if its only a few minutes or hours. Dr. Biggio seems to think that we might could consider a delivery as early as 34 weeks; but obviously we've got a ways to go before making it to that point.

Thank you for your continued prayers. Today, the babies are at 19 weeks and 3 days. They are girls. Their names are Avonlea Rose and Lily Anna. We have good days and bad days, but right now the good days seem to outnumber the bad; we attribute that to your loving prayers and God's faithful love.

Love,Craig and Paige

PS- Paige occasionally posts updates to her MySpace page @ http://www.myspace.com/paigestew. I usually find her posts inspiring to me, just seeing her heart in her words. You can check there, too, for updates if you'd like.

No as easy as it sounds

This weekend we were invited to a birthday party for Caleb's friend Kieth. The party was at Playstation and included rollerskating and laser tag.

Caleb was sooo excited about the roller skating...sure he could do it even thought he never has (don't know where he gets that from). Soon after putting the skates on he realized it was a little harder than he first thought.

He gave it a good effort and I think with a little more time he could be a skating fool - like his father who also had a very good time!

Of course laser tag was his favorite, but what could be more fun to a 5 yr old than running around in the dark shooting your friends...yes dad had a fun time with that also.

Guess what I have ????

I got something this week I have been waiting on for a long time, and better than anything it came as a surprise. Now I don't want to brag because that is not a becoming trait but let me tell you this really is special. On Sunday after I came home from a Bridal Tea, there they were in all their glory CABINET DOORS! Now for those of you who don't know about 2 years ago the renovation of our kitchen began. And my sweet husband put many long hours into building the cabinets, well he installed them minus the doors as he still needed to finish those and this weekend that finally happened...well on the bottom ones anyway. Still waiting on the top, but progress is GREAT and they are beautiful!

Ella is slightly amazed by doors!

just for fun

I meant to do this last week but never got around to it...you all know how that goes! Just for fun I wanted to compare these two pictures of Caleb and Ella they are about the same age and on the same train. You can't deny the fact that they are brother and sister but I can see the differences...can you?

First time for everything

OK so our lives have been a bore lately...noting new to report just our day to day routine breakfast, carpool, lunch, carpool, dinner, bed and do it again.




This weekend we broke out of our same old same old and walked in a 5K race! Yep the whole family and it only took us 50 some minutes.



Caleb was so excited about doing this, he lost that excitement at about mile 2 but after a little rest (ride in the stroller) he was ready to go again. He was very proud of finishing and "winning" a t-shirt, now he can't wait to do it again. So that was my first 5K race as well as Caleb's and Ella's. The only thing Caleb did'nt undersand is if it was a 5K race why weren't more kids his age there!



Ebsco is trying to raise awareness of good health in their employees that was why they hosted this race, with that in mind we did not understand why they handed out PORK snadwiches when you crossed the finish line...yes they really did, pork sandwiches at 9:30 in the morning ...Gotta love the South!





After the race we had a fun time playing in the park...it was a good morning

Seasons

I love the changing of seasons I am always ready for the change about the time it comes around. And today as I laid out at the pool-Ella sleeping in my lap- I closed my eyes and listened to the last sound of summer. Today was the last day the pool was open, and I just laid there and listened to the sounds of kids playing. It made me think this was the last day Ella would be at the pool as a 2 year old, before I know it Caleb will be 6. Just like the seasons change so do my kids, oh that I could just stop time for a little while and hold on to them a little more. I love my kids just the way they are now what a joy! But I know they too must change and grow such is life.