Ben's Health Concerns

As some of you may already know, John and I had a little scare with Ben. The morning of my sonogram I got a call from the OB nurse telling me that I had tested positive for neuro tube defect, or spina bifida. They scheduled me a follow-up appointment with a genetic specialist in two weeks for another sonogram to check him out more closely. Of course I was extremely worried so I left work a little early and John and I met at home to talk about it and to feel better about the situation. We went to our scheduled sonogram and were thrilled to find out he was, in fact, a boy, and relieved for the nurse to tell us that in her opinion we had nothing to worry about. Yesterday morning was our follow-up with the specialist and it went great. He said everything looked completely normal and measured all of Ben's long bones and skull and analyzed his spine and everything looked great. Turns out I was only .06 over the 2.5 limit, but since I tested positive, I will have to go back for regular check-ups so they can monitor me more closely. I'm still at risk for things like early labor and high blood pressure. But Ben's healthy and quite active and that's all that matters! He even gained 5 ounces in the two week wait between sonograms and is now exactly 1 pound.

It's a Boy!

As you all know by now, we're having a boy, John was right! Little Benjamin (Ben or Benjamin, NOT Benji!) Cuffe Saunders will be born on June 7, 2006. Check out the video if you'd like. I won't bombard you with all of them. :)


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This is proof it's a boy!


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This one is cute farther through with his arms moving around.

JK Rowling and Multiple Sclerosis

I mentioned to Mom once that on JK Rowling's website links, she links to the British MS Society. I always wondered what her connection to it was. I came across this interview in the UK Tatler magazine with Rowling where she talks about her mother's battle with multiple sclerosis. I thought you might find it interesting:

A tear slowly trickles down JK Rowling's cheek. She is sitting in her large and comfortable drawing room in the Morningside area of Edinburgh. It is early afternoon; sandwiches and chocolate cakes are left untouched on the coffee table as she painfully recalls the most traumatising moment of her life. It was the day her mother, Anne, died aged 45 after a 10-year battle against multiple sclerosis. A small part of her agony is that her mother never knew she was writing Harry Potter, let alone that she would become the most successful author on earth. "The night she died I had been staying with my boyfriend's family, the first time I had ever spent Christmas away from home. I had gone to bed early, ostensibly to watch The Man Who Would Be King, but instead I started writing. So I know I was writing Harry Potter at the moment my mother died. I had never told her about Harry Potter."

What Will it Be?

My ultrasound is on Monday, January 16 at 2:45. We'll be finding out if we're having a boy or a girl if the little tyke cooperates. Stand by for the news late Monday afternoon!

Mandie and Brian's New Baby!

For those of you who don't know, Mandie had her baby shortly after midnight Monday morning. The baby's name is Abigail Reese, and she weighed 6 lbs. 12 ounces. She's very pretty and is a great blend of Mandie and Brian. Both baby and mommy are doing well, although Abby has a slight case of jaundice. If anyone wants to visit, they are at Presbyterian hospital of Plano in room 484 until Thursday.

Update: Mandie spent Monday night in the ER because of edema and was given shots and pills and is expected to be just fine with no lasting effects. Abby is doing just fine and everyone is home and happy and love visitors (hint hint).

Action Group – All Hands on Deck!

Mark your calendars for Monday, December 19 - ALL HANDS ON DECK! (That is all who are available)

We will start at 9 a.m. and have potluck lunch. I am bringing lasagna and other stuff and we have a Hickory Farms gift set with munchies. We will work as long as needed since some may not get there until later. Connie and I have to clean, clean, clean, but there is not time, but somehow it all works out.

Love, Grandma

Zsa Zsa's new baby

Zsa Zsa had her baby - a girl! She was 6 pounds, 15 ounces and was born C-section. Mom and Mia Lynn (we think that's her name) are both doing well. Her baby shower in a box was shipped out last week so we hope she enjoys what we sent!

McMurdie Baby Name Voting Results

I decided to replace the poll to pick Abby's middle name. It was getting a little out of hand! The results are in, but the decision ultimately rests with Mandie and Brian! Needless to say, there was definitely stuffing of the ballot box. A new poll has been posted, a vote for this year's Thanksgiving dinner and voting will only be allowed once a week. :)

Update on this Month's Festivities

Hi everyone!

The blog has been a little slow with posts with everyone getting busier with activities and holidays coming up. I just wanted to remind everyone of some upcoming events. They're all posted on the calendar and will be updated on the Coming Up note. Thanksgiving festivities will be posted once we have a final time of dinner at mom's. But until then, keep in mind the following: Tiffany's Bridal Shower is Saturday the 12th of November. Girls only! It'll be at Suzy's at 1pm, Randi and Texas are in charge so we'll see if they need any last minute help! We have a few birthdays this month: Missy - 19th, Mom - 21st, Mandie - 24th. Randi and CJ will also celebrate their 1-year Anniversary on the 24th. Congrats, guys! Early December marks more birthdays and more showers. I'll update those when we get closer to that time!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Tommy and the Croup

Hi guys! It's been a while, but I just wanted to give a Tommy update. He is now saying 2 words: GO and BOO. Boo sounds more like Bo, but it's a start. The stuff that the speech therapist is helping us with really works. She comes 2 times a month for only 45 minutes, but she does a great job.

Also, Tommy now has the Croup. It's a horrible virus that inflames the breathing passages and causes him to have this awful barking cough and he wheezes really bad. It's horrible. He just came down with it today while he was at the baby-sitter's house. Yuck. It runs it's course in about 3 days, but we can't put him down because he cries so hard he starts to wheeze. Please keep him in your prayers.

We're Moving to Louisiana!

Well, not really, but we’ll probably get teased about it anyway. Brian and I have been planning on moving in the summer, so we’ve been researching different areas to live in including Carrollton, Wylie, Plano, Las Colinas and Richardson. Although we love all of the areas, we unfortunately found that the best deals were not necessarily close to our Tarrant County Family. Although we hadn’t considered building a new house, on a whim we recently looked at some new homes in Wylie and realized what a good deal they were. We went home and looked seriously at our options, our budget and the pros and cons of buying a new home in Wylie and felt strongly that we should pursue it. We had to act fast because the community was selling out, and because the floor plan we like is so popular, they limited the number of them that could be built. So we got a financial planner to review our finances and a realtor to help us along and we went to work. We signed the contract Monday and we will have our mortgage application completed this week. We're super excited!

Wylie is on the same longitude line as Plano and is about eight miles east of I-75. From Mom’s house, it’s about a one-hour drive. The community is much like Melinda’s, with a community swimming pool and lots of playgrounds. Our lot is part of a five block peninsula of the sub-division that is surrounded by forest on three sides. The floor plan is called the Glencrest. It’s a very open floor plan with1990 square feet and four bedrooms. It is an Energy Star home which will save us lots of money on utilities- definitely a bonus! We have scheduled the closing date to be May 1st, so we’ll be in Carrollton for a while yet. We promise that moving 15 miles further away will not change a thing.

Here’s the builder website if you’re interested. http://www.ashtonwoods.com/communities/communityDetail.php?communityID=269&parentCity=3

Early Childhood Intervention

To those who care, ECI came and did Tommy's evaluation today. With his cognitive skills, he scored at 16 months, motor skills were at 20 months, social skills were at 18 months, but his communication skills were only at 10 months. Since he is 16 months old, this makes him 6 months behind in his speech and qualifies him for speech therapy. We will do all the paperwork on Friday and hopefully begin speech therapy as soon as possible.

Tommy's ENT Visit

I just came back from the ENT and all tests showed that Tommy's ears and hearing are normal. The doctor found no sign of fluid in his ears and the audiologist did a simple hearing check and it's obvious that he can hear. Tommy was super tired during the test and kept on trying to pull the cords from the wall. He didn't hear the softer sounds very well, but the audiologist said that was normal for his age and said it could have been because he gets distracted so easily. The doctor suggested that we do speech therapy (which we're hoping on beginning) and wait 3-6 months and see how he progresses. If he doesn't have any words at that time, then there is a more advanced hearing test that they may consider doing on him. We would have to go to the Children's hospital in Dallas, and it requires sedation. They would test all of the ears functions to see if there are any problems, and they would be able to pinpoint if there was any definite hearing loss. We'll just have to wait and see how this plays out!

Hurricane Rita