Mike's Progress!!!

Yesterday was a better day for Mike. He was able to have the balloon heart pump removed around 10:30am. It was removed and he did a great job maintaining his blood pressure without it. That was a big step in the right directions! Now they are hoping to continue to maintain the blood pressure and within the next few days maybe the ventilator can be removed as well. Yesterday they also took him off of the paralytic they had him on and went back to the sedation medication. Both of these medications were to help him and his heart relax- especially while the balloon pump was in place. Hopefully they will be able to reduce the sedation medication and continue to reduce the blood pressure medication.

As of this morning they had actually been able to take him off his blood pressure medication and another medication (I don't remember what anymore-I'll get back to you). All of these good signs that he is heading in the right direction, but we're keeping in mind that these may need to be put back in place. Overall, improvements are being made and we owe it all the the prayers and thoughts everyone is sending our way. I will do my best to keep you posted on how Mike is doing!

Prayers for Mike

Yesterday was a scary day in our family. Everyone was called into the emergency room yesterday morning as Mike suffered a heart attack. He seemed to be stable and was communicating well with others before he was airlifted to La Crosse. When we all arrived in La Crosse Mike had already had 4 stints put in one of his arteries. The doctors stated that all 3 arteries had blockages and that he would eventually need bypass surgery when he was more stable. He was put on medication to help with his blood pressure and some to help with the blockages. He also had a balloon pump put in to help his heart beat. As of last night his right side of his heart still wasn't functioning but they stated that his heart attack was still going on.

As of today Mike has had his medications reduced and how much the balloon pump is helping has been reduced. Right now Mike is still in critical condition but has been making progress. Mike is still sedated to help him relax, which he is having a hard time doing. Overall, progress is being made. We appreciate all the thoughts and prayers that everyone is sending our way.

24 week appointment

Yesterday I went in for my 24 week appointment. I was not too worried about this appointment because it was just going to be a basic appointment. The doctor comes in to see me and comes in like she is looking under my chair or something and says, "Every time I see you I wonder if I'm ever going to see you look pregnant." LOL Now I must say that this does make a person feel good, but I also had to chuckle at the way she did it. I definitely feel pregnant and I also feel like its pretty obvious at this point too, but that's my view I guess.

The doctor than said she wanted to go over my ultrasound information with me so she gets on the computer and pulls up the chart. She starts reading to me what it says and what that means for me and the baby. Everything seems to be looking good. Then she says that the ultrasound says the due date is January 5th. I about fell off of my chair as that was over an entire month different from Feb. 8th. She got all confused and was trying to figure out if there was a typo or what was going. The more we looked at the results, I noticed she wasn't even on my ultrasound chart- she was reading me someone elses. OOOOOPPPSS!! Once she figured out it wasn't my chart, she got mine pulled up and explained what they saw for me. Things look pretty good for Baby Heins. She did mention that my placenta was low and that they would want to do another ultrasound to make sure things are alright with that. She didn't seemed too worried but explained that if it was still low she'd let me know what that means after the next ultrasound. Kind of a nervous feeling wondering if that has improved or what happens if it hasn't. All I know is that it could mean that the baby is at higher risk for being born early. Let's cross our fingers that there is improvements and we don't have to worry about it. :D

After going over the ultrasound she went ahead to measure how large I'm getting and listen for the heartbeat. She was feeling around and found the baby's head and said she felt that the baby was off on my right side with his head up towards my ribs. No wonder I'm feeling the kicking lower this time than I did with Decklyn. Decklyn always kicked me in the ribs. The doctor was surprised that I wasn't having any pain in my hips with the baby being so far off to the side like that. I honestly never had felt any pain until this morning. But after the day I had at school yesterday, I could just be sore from all the moving around I had to do.

When she went to get the heartbeat we both had to laugh because you could hear the baby's hiccups over top of the heartbeat. That was so cute to hear! The baby's heartrate was in the 160's. Everything seems to be looking good at this point. My next appointment is for my ultrasound on Nov. 8th. I will then have my 28 week appointment the following Monday, Nov. 15th. I'll do my best to keep you posted on what we find out.

As for Decklyn, he's still playing football. As a matter of fact he is begging me to hurry up on the computer so I can play with him. He also asked if he could tackle me. I told him no that we wouldn't be doing any tackling and he said that I couldn't play football then. LOL! Decklyn has been really into how old you have to be to play with certain toys lately- I'm not real sure how it got started, but he talks about it alot now. This morning I hear him ask Justin, "Dad, can you pretend you are 3 for a little bit to play Break the Ice with me?" LOL how cute is that. Decklyn didn't realize the box says 3+, he just noticed the 3 and asked Justin to pretend to be 3 so he could play. What a hoot!

Football Fanatic

Wow... Decklyn has truly become a football fanatic this football season. I swear he has to even dream about football as much as he talks about it. Tonight he's been telling everyone that he is going to play in a real game for the Hawks. He asked me if I thought that would be ok. I just had to tell him to go ask Dad. (Just so everyone knows... he wants to play for the North Fayette Hawks and not the Iowa Hawkeyes, sorry!)

Another typical scene in our house lately is Decklyn setting up his own football field and utilizing whatever is around for his endzones. He likes to use an empty milk bottle from McDonalds for the "milkies" and then uses a Viking or UNI item/figurine for the other endzone to resemble that team. He then uses his hands and plays what he calls finger football and he also commentates what is going on in the game, letting us know when we need to cheer. Justin and I are suppose to be the crowd cheering for the players. He's constantly saying what down and yard line he is on and if there was a fumble. They kick off to start the game and even kick extra points. It is truly amazing to me how much he has learned about football so far this season. I remember teaching him what downs were at the first game. Now tonight he was telling Grandma Pam all about them. Hilarious!

Besides finger football Decklyn enjoys getting dressed up in his football uniforms he has or go as is to play a game outside or in the livingroom with whoever will play with him. He'll take a balloon or a football, whatever is around to play. He's pretty comical about the rules, they always seem to change slightly in his favor. I'll definitely have to try and get a video of him in his glory, playing football and post it for you all real soon.

Tonight Decklyn is hanging with Dad upstairs watching the Vikings! I can hear them from the basement hooting and hollaring. For the most part the cheers sound positive, so I'm guessing they are winning. Justin was pretty excited to watch Randy Moss play for the Vikings again, he was even searching for his Randy Moss jersey. Pretty fun to watch those two show their football spirit. As long as everything goes their way that is. Otherwise look out!

As for Baby Heins #2... we're feeling lots of movement now and I'm definitely feeling pregnant and bigger than I did with Decklyn. I'm also so much more tired this time around- don't think I was ever really tired with Decklyn. Justin jokes with me that I keep getting up later and later in the mornings and that he doesn't know how I still get to work on time. LOL. We've been trying to convince Decklyn to help us pick a name for the baby, but he's still stuck on Zaza. Even Linda at daycare has been working on that with him- we'll just keep trying because we won't be naming the poor guy Zaza. Haha! This Friday will be my 24 week checkup. I can't believe I'm 6 months already- it's crazy how fast time goes... we'll have to be looking for baby names or he may end up being Zaza :S

Allergic to Apples!?!?!?

So Decklyn's been dealing with hives on and off since the start of the school year. A week or so ago he started getting them everyday. Last week he hadn't had them at all during the day and then ended up eating two apples for a snack and within a short time started getting hives that ran down his arms, on his chest, back and his neck. So we have not started experimenting with apples to see if he's really allergic to them. Since last Tuesday he has not had any hives and we've eliminated apples from his diet. So we'll go a few weeks without and see what happens when we try raw apples without skins, as I heard the skin is the worst part for the type of allergy I think he has (cross-reaction birch pollen/apple allergy). Some sites I looked at stated not eating the skin may be helpful, so we'll experiment with that first. I hate to not let him eat apples all together- especially since apples have been so helpful in keeping him regular. I don't need to deal with the constipation issues that he had when he was younger again. We'll just keeping learning about this allergy and see what we can do to help him avoid the hives. Maybe seeing an allergy specialist will be in our future.

Here are some picture of Decklyn's hives that he's been dealing with for the last month and a half. I can't help but feel sorry for the little guy. These pictures don't even show how painful they really look and sometimes are.