Card

With all that's been going on i just didn't have the energy to send out a Christmas card. This will have to do.

2 weeks down

In two weeks our little Matea went from this

to this

During that time we got to hold her for the first time,

With preemies they recommend something called Kangaroo Care or skin to skin. This helps the baby regulate their temp better, helps with respiratory and heart rate problems, and is a great bonding experience.

Got the IV moved from one hand to the other and then to the head

Lost the IV and Canula (the thing in the nose giving extra oxygen)

And showed signs of wanting to be bottle fed.

This last one is going to take some time to get down. It's hard work learning to breath, suck, and swallow. She will take a few sucks, stop to breath and relax and then suck some more. She usually only gets a little bit down and the rest is tube fed to her.

Matea is doing pretty awesome. They gave her back the canula for just a few days because lately she's been taking shallow breaths or forgetting to breath. This is pretty normal and she doesn't have a ton of episodes so it was mostly out of precaution. They also started her on a small dose of caffeine, this will help the part of the brain that senses how much oxygen is in the body work better. All the nurses can't believe how little help she needs. Each day she is gaining weight and looking great.

Now for some cute photos

Baby Time II

So, we have an update on the baby proceedings. Everything went well with Morgan's c-section and she delivered a beautiful little girl - Matea Louise Rogers, 3 lbs, 16 inches. Mom is doing great and recovering from a long couple of days. Baby Matea is also doing well, all things considered. She is in the newborn intensive care unit and will probably be there for a while. She had a few struggles breathing but with a little oxygen tube she seems to be getting the hang of it. Thanks to everyone for their support! Here are some pictures:

Baby Time

Hey Family and Friends,

As many of you have probably heard, Morgan is in the hospital right now. She saw her doctor yesterday because of back pain and nausea which started on Monday. Her blood pressure measured very high. They took urine and blood samples and a CT scan (to check for clots). After taking a look at the lab results she was diagnosed with preeclampsia (pregnancy induced high blood pressure) and was transferred to another hospital for over night monitoring. They gave her a steroid (beta methasone) to help speed up baby's development as well as magnesium sulfate to decrease her blood pressure and contractions (which she started having upon arrival at the hospital). The baby has been fine the whole time - she's already a real trooper. Morgan has also been a real trooper too and right now is feeling just fine.

They've been taking urine samples throughout the night and another blood sample this morning. A natal specialist came to speak to us this morning to inform us that Morgan has severe preeclampsia, for which the only treatment is delivery. So, long story short, Morgan is scheduled to have a C-section this afternoon (around 4:00). The baby is 31 weeks old and about 3 pounds (which I guess is larger than most babies in the NICU) and they anticipate that the baby will be fine - although she'll have an extended stay at the hospital.

We just wanted to give everyone the latest and ask for your thoughts and prayers.

Love,

Jacob, Morgan and Baby Rogers

Morgan and Baby say HI!!!!!!

pumpkin patch

Our last October in San Francisco we decided to head down to Half Moon Bay and check out their pumpkin festival. We got there early enough to have pumpkin pancakes, check out the craft booths and catch the parade. They have a competition for the largest pumpkin every year and this years winner weighed 1,535 lbs!

We then headed over to a pumpkin patch to find a cute little pumpkin and eat more pumpkin pie and ice cream.

Catch up

A few weeks ago Jacob's school had their annual softball tournament. Jacob played on the third year team White Trash. They lost both their games but looked good doing it.

Check out Jacob's shirt made that morning

Wa Gwan?!?!

That's Jamaican for, what's going on? For Jacob's summer break we got the opportunity to team up with the organization Great Shape! 1000 smiles and head to Jamaica to do dental work. When we signed up I wasn't pregnant and knowing how primitive our last dental trip was had me a little worried. This trip was completely different though. Great Shape works with sandals resort in Jamaica meaning we got to stay at a nice all inclusive resort.

We left Friday and flew to Miami and then Montego Bay. From there we had about a 2 hour drive to Ocho Rios where our resort was. Saturday was a free day for us to explore and a big group went to Dunns River Falls. It's a waterfall that you can climb up and explore. Everything I read online said it wasn't the best thing for a pregnant woman to do so I stayed at the hotel and read by our private pool. That night we got together for a meet and greet with the other volunteers on a sunset catamaran boat. We all introduced ourselves and then ate and danced. The waves got pretty crazy on the way back in which made for some awesome dancing ( dont worry I sat a watched)

The next day was orientation and we went to set up our clinics. Instead of going to different places like we did in the DR great shapes had split us into teams for the different locations. This meant we were at a place called Steertown for all five days. This particular town had raised money for a dental clinic meaning we had actual dental chairs, sterilization equipment, and town members to help us direct people. On our team there were 6 dental students, 1 dentist, 1 hygienist, 1 dental assistant, and me on sterilization. There were a lot of extractions, a few fillings, and few cleanings done in those five days.

The weather was interesting during our trip. The first day there it was extremely hot and i thought I was crazy to tagging along 26 weeks pregnant. However, mon-fri we got the tail end of a hurricane and it rained like crazy. It was actually really nice though because it kept the clinics cool. On our last day there it was starting to clear up so we were able to go scuba diving/snorkeling and kayaking.

The people of Jamaica are awesome! I could understand almost every other word except for the really little kids who i just smiled and nodded at :) They were all so nice and grateful for the work being done. At first we thought it was just a resort thing for the Jamaicans to say "Ya mon", like they were just doing it to make us happy. When we went out to the small towns though they were all totally saying it. It was awesome and they loved hearing us try to speak patois.

The trip was amazing and I'm glad I tagged along, even if I gained a bunch of weight and my feet swelled up. Serving people while getting a vacation is an awesome way to go.