MAC

I apologize for not posting sooner, but we are doing great and we are having such a wonderful time with Mac! He is so precious and we are just loving every minute with him. I cannot believe that he will be three weeks old on Tuesday....time is already flying by and he is changing so much each day.

We have had lots of visitors and company over the past few weeks...and we have loved having them here. We had no clue how our parents would get here in time for Mac's arrival, but after I passed my due date on May 9th, I went in for a regular check-up on Monday, May 12th and I was immediately admitted to the hospital for monitoring due to low amniotic fluid and my doctor wanted to induce on the morning of Tuesday, May 13th. Although that was not exactly how I thought it would all happen, it turned out to be a huge blessing because both of our parents and my sister were able to make it to Dallas by late Monday night to be here on Tuesday for Mac's debut! For someone who is TERRIFIED of hospitals, needles, epidurals and everything to do with having a baby - I must say that I had a great experience and a fabulous doctor, nurses and hospital that made it easy. I guess I just had worked myself up for it to be an awful experience and it truly was not. I will definitely do it again....just not anytime soon!

So back to the visitors....we have been so blessed with such wonderful family and I could not have made it over the past weeks without them. From my dad doing numerous home improvement projects around our house and keeping my refrigerator stocked with food to my Mom and all of the laundry that she did, diapers that she changed, nights that she stayed up with Mac, and her trips to the mall to get me some new clothes that were not maternity clothes and all of the wonderful meals that she made. Of course, I cannot forget my Sister - who gets the prize for being in the delivery room and helping us get Mac here and taking care of all of us! We were also so thankful to have my Grandmother here for almost all of May. She has been staying with my aunt and uncle in Coppell and even came and stayed with us for a few days before Mac arrived. It has been so wonderful to have her here and for Mac to get to be with his Great Gaga! We also had a special treat because my Aunt Joy came and stayed with us for Mac's second week of life and we had so much fun with her and she helped us so much too! Mac is loved by so many and we are so thankful for that! We are looking forward to Robert's mom and sister coming to visit this week. As you can tell, we have had so much fun with friends and family - that I have had not had time to stop and blog about it!

We do have a prayer request that we would like to share with you. We have been watching Mac's kidneys ever since our 20 week sonogram when they appeared dilated. I had an ultrasound every 3-4 weeks during the pregnancy to watch the kidneys and was told that it would be something that we would have to follow up with once he was born. Mac had a renal sonogram the day after he was born and it only showed that one kidney was dilated and the other was fine, so the pediatrician was not sure if we should do a VCUG since everything looked pretty good. (FYI - a VCUG is a test with a catheter and dye and it basically shows the entire urinary system and kidneys and would show if there were any blockages, tubes in the wrong place, reflux, etc...) Thankfully, the pediatrician consulted with a pediatric urologist who suggested to do the VCUG just to be on the safe side - and it showed that Mac has reflux on the right kidney that originally appeared to be fine in the sonogram. It is Grade 4 reflux, which is the worst - meaning that urine washes all the way back into the kidney and can cause urinary tract infections. We are so thankful that he had the VCUG so that we are aware of this problem. He is currently taking Amoxil every day to prevent against any infections and we have an appointment with a Pediatric Urologist on June 25th. We would just appreciate your prayers for Mac to stay healthy and that this situation would resolve itself without any future surgeries or complications. You would never know that this was going on....he is so healthy otherwise and already weighed 8 lbs 11 oz at his 2 week appointment!!

I am going to post updated pictures on this Picasa site and I am going to keep this site updated - so check back anytime to see our updated pictures and how Mac is growing ! http://picasaweb.google.com/elizabethyellis

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to end by saying Happy 5th Anniversary to my sweet husband. Who cares if we aren't in Hawaii celebrating....because this picture is the best anniversary gift I could ever get! I love you and look forward to so many fun times ahead!!