The Coombs Family

It was hard to get costumes or motivation to get out and go trick or treating this year, but we made it happen. Luckily our friends invited us over for a low key pizza dinner and we went to their neighborhood to walk around. We went out for about an hour and the kids had a blast. I love how excited Ronin was this year to get out and get his own candy. Calvin and Shelby were dying to be Pokemon characters. They picked out the costumes online, they showed up the day before and luckily they fit! Shelby was Bulbasur. It has a cute skirt and shell on the back. We had fun putting on face paint. She wanted me to do it exactly like the character, but I am terrible at the paint so we washed most of it off and went to the shapes that the character has. She was happy, so it worked. Calvin was Pikachu, his favorite Pokemon. He had red paint on his cheeks and he kept wiping his face on his costume all night. By the time we got home, his costume was covered in red paint. Luckily it came off in...

We had our beautiful baby boy at 11:30 pm on October 21st. He was 1 pound and 14" long. He had perfect hands and feet, and a tiny little body. Caleb and I were the only ones in the room for the birth and it was life changing for both of us. Slater had the umbilical cord around his neck and was breech. He showed no signs of life. He just laid motionless. Caleb and I shared many tears, and we continue to share many tears. We held him for a couple of hours. Played with his little fingers and toes. His body was so tiny and weak, and he was just not meant to be. We struggled for months with what to do, and after our follow up appointment earlier this week, there was really no choice anymore. Slater was not surviving and there was zero amniotic fluid for him to thrive. We had to act quickly, but they did give us a day to go home and get our other children settled. We sat down the three kids at home and told that that even though we did everything we could, our little baby was u...

Every week I go in for ultrasounds and blood work, and so far the results are all over the place. Some weeks my fluid is up to 5 cm, and sometimes it's been as low as 2.9 cm. They want me no lower than 5 cm if possible. But the good news is that his heart looks strong and he continues to grow. We have been overly blessed with all the friends and family who have helped us. Every day someone comes to my house and gets my kids off to school, someone else takes Ronin, someone else gets them all home, and another person brings us dinner, and sometimes we even have an evening babysitter.  I cannot believe how many people have volunteered to help us. It is very humbling and brings me to tears on a daily basis. Love my friends and family more right now than ever.

On Sept 25, I got a fever of 101. They told me that if I got a fever over 100, I had to go into the hospital immediately. I was at very high risk of infection and my life would be in danger. I called Rhoda, she came and got me, and we went in. They took me to labor and delivery. They said I had to deliver the baby. I was at too much risk. I asked how they knew I had an infection, what if I was just sick? I told them Caleb had not been feeling well and maybe he just got me sick. They said the would run some tests, they drew lots of blood, and they would call Dr. Jason. They put me in a delivery room, gave me lots of Tylenol and said I would have to deliver in the next day. They got blood work back and my white blood cells were going up. They drew them days before and they were normal, and now they were high. All signs pointed to infection and I wasn't safe. They did another ultrasound and the baby looked the same. He was still alive, really low fluid, and that was about all th...

I am still pregnant and made it up to the specialist on 9/20. Dr. Jason sent me for a new ultrasound and the senographer couldn't really read the fluid levels because they were too low to measure. But she could see the baby was alive. She couldn't find the hematoma, but she couldn't find much of anything. She got pretty frustrated and tried many times before she sent us back to the doctor. I had Kim, my friend and neighbor come with me. I should have probably brought Caleb, but he had to work and I wasn't sure they would tell me anything new anyway. Dr. Jason was awesome. He had so much more information than anyone else. He spoke to Kim and I for an hour and went over all the conditions, the plan from here forward, what could happen, what may not happen, and gave us a wealth of information. He said he was more optimistic than when they called him two days ago when I was in the hospital. He said the fluid levels were about the same, so that's good. I didn't l...

I was still waiting for my appointment with the specialist and on 9/17, something changed. I felt sick all day, I skipped church and stayed home. I was just not feeling well. That night Caleb and I were laying in bed and I sat up with bad cramping. I stood up and there was blood everywhere, down to the floor, through my clothes. I went to the bathroom and it just poured out of me. Every time I tried to go back to bed, I leaked through my clothes. Caleb got towels, and eventually a bucket, there was so much blood. I called the nurse again and she said to go straight to the hospital. So once again, I called Rhoda and she met me there. This time I was 19 weeks pregnant and they called labor and delivery who got me right in for an ultrasound. After that test, they transferred me to labor and delivery where I met an actual OBGYN who read my ultrasound and said that my amniotic fluid was really low. He had me do a test and sure enough, they found that I was leaking fluid and my water broke. ...

I may have crammed too many activities into our three weeks off before school starts. But I can't help myself. Do you know what it's like to go do things in the middle of the week? No traffic, no crowds, it's so much easier!! We went to the beach, the zoo, the trampoline park, camping, paddle boarding, fishing, and watched the total solar eclipse. We had the best last month of summer ever!