The Gentes Site

Friends and Family,

I wanted to let everyone know about the birth of our 4th daughter, Elizabeth Abigail Gentes. Born July 20, 2011 at 5lbs 14oz and 17″.  She was born with some serious health issues and is still in the hospital today (July 27 2011).

Heidie is doing well, after a super fast delivery, as our little bundle did come in a hurry. Heidie was released from the hospital after 2 days, and has recovered wonderfully.

Not long after the baby was born the doctors informed us that she likely has downs syndrome. That initial shocking news was confirmed through the chromosome test that were done. As part of the routine testing that gets done for kids with downs, doctors check the heart. Many kids with downs also have heart problems and unfortunately, Elizabeth has a serious heart problem where her heart has not fully developed. The main wall that separates the left and right side of the heart is not developed properly and the valves linking the top chambers to the bottom chambers are also not developed properly.

We met with a heart specialist doctor yesterday from Phoenix Children’s Hospital—that visit provided us with some general guidelines of what to expect with Elizabeth’s condition. This defect in her heart will require surgery to fix. This surgery would likely be done sometime around 4-6 months of age. We want Elizabeth to grow steadily and become stronger so she will be able to handle the surgery well.

Elizabeth with is now a week old and we know this about her now: She is a good eater. She is, of course, the cutest little girl who loves to look around and smile. She did start off having an IV as well as a feeding tube (down her throat). Well, she quickly was taken off of that after tests showed her digestive system is working fine. Once we were able to feed her milk, she showed us that she likes to eat.  As each of the first days went by she would eat more and more each time.

One thing that she has had a hard time with is her oxygen level. It sometimes dips a little below levels that doctors would like. As such she has been on and off tubes for giving her extra oxygen and air flow.

Elizabeth has been in the intensive care unit for her first week. However, tonight she was released from the hospital and at 10:55pm she arrived home. She will be on oxygen for a couple weeks (maybe up to a month) while her breathing stabilizes and she is able to have the proper oxygen level and air flow.

We would really appreciate your prayers in the following areas:

• continue to eat well, gain weight and strength
• breathing to stabilize and not have too shallow of breathing when she is sleeping
• her heart is healed
• wisdom to raise her in a home where she will thrive developmentally and physically

If you are on Facebook, you likely have seen our pictures of Elizabeth, of course she is cute as a button.  I will be posting more pictures there. Here is a link to the Facebook album (you need a Facebook account to see the pictures):

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150247783828580.331058.724988579

Thank you for all your prayers and support of Elizabeth and our family.

Feel free to email me—however, please don’t expect an immediate reply to your questions. I will try to continue to send timely updates about Elizabeth, but I would most certainly ask for your patience as our family begins this most unique and wonderful new journey.

Blessings,

Lockley & Heidie Gentes

UPDATE (7/29/2011): for those who don’t have facebook, you can look at the pictures here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lockley_gentes/sets/72157627184349321/

The baby is growing nicely.  Heidie is now 7 months along. Oh, the baby is a girl! Check out the feet, kinda cute.

We are almost ready for the new arrival. The twins are back together in one room, Rebecca now has Rose’s room and baby girl will have Kaitlyn’s old room. All the rooms have been painted and Heidie and friends have nicely decorated the baby room.

Kim came for a visit this week as well, and was the first person to sleep in the new baby room.

We are still thinking about names. The baby’s official due date is July 12–Heidie was just in to see the doctor this week and everything is on-track and everyone is healthy.

Blessings,

-Lockley

Baby Feet @ 7 months

The AZ Gentes family is happy to announce that we are expecting an addition to the family. As experienced parents, with 3 daughters, we were surprised and excited to find out that Heidie is pregnant.

We went to an early ultra-sound (at 9 weeks), to find out if we will be having multiples or a single baby. Already having the twins gives us a higher possibility for more multiples. Results show that there was a single heart beat….we were happy with those results  A picture of the ultra sound is on the right.

Everyone that has given an opinion on the sex of the baby, has sided with the Boy. Many people saying that’s their *gut* feeling.  We are planning on finding out, which can happen at around 18-20 weeks into the pregnancy. Feel free to let me know if you have some *revelation* as to a girl or boy.

We were talking around the dinner table the other night, and I had a question that remained unanswered: What is the percentages of having a boy/girl if the first 3 children have been girls (I mean based on history of cases similar to ours) ?  Anyone know the answer? If so, let me know.

Blessings to everyone this Christmas….I hope to send an update on this topic once we have gotten word of whether we will have a boy or a girl.

-Lockley (from the AZ Gentes family)

Tonight we had a very cool weather event. A dust storm rolled in and was followed at the tail end by a double rainbow.

Heidie captured it on video, check it out.

This video was taken with a Canon PowerShot SD700 IS Digital Elph. I thought the video turned out really great, but there is nothing really that can capture the live event, it was truly awesome.

For full details of go this event to my Crazy Cool site.

Just a quick note for shoppers, some good deals are available at amazon’s black friday sale.

Retail vs Online Shopping

I had thought about fighting the crowds tomorrow to get some good deals. I had a few specific things in mind–with one of them being a new dishwasher. Well, I did some researching on what models I wanted. I narrowed it down to features and reviews and within a certain price range.

After that, I got my list of of 4 top dishwashers that I was looking at. So I looked at all the local stores ad’s to find out if any of them were selling the particular models–I was hoping best buy would have one of them, since I had some gift certificates to use.

Well, after all the research, I was not able to find any of my items available in the store—they were only available online. What’s up with that. The stores just didn’t carry them. So I was disappointed in the retail shopping for my specific items.

I will probably end up purchasing it online after all.

I did see some good deals in retail flyers, but mostly it was for stuff that was not what I wanted, maybe older models or last year’s items that they were discounting heavily, not something that I would end up buying anyways.

Anyone have any thoughts this? Have you had a different experience than me on finding exactly what you wanted and it WAS available at a store on black friday?

-Lockley

Hello all,

I wanted to let you know of some cool web sites for Christian products and services.

One store that offers christian books, christian music, christian videos and christian gifts, as well as church supplies and christian software is:

FaithGiftStore.com

I have been involved in running this store for the last 3 years.

Since I have significant personal experience with this store, I would highly recommend them if you are looking for christian products.

On a side note, you may also be interested in what other stores that I shop at. Well, glad you asked. Here is the short list:

• Newegg.com – Since I am a computer guy, and have built a number of computers and order plenty of components. Good prices as well as fast shipping. Customer service has been good as well, but I have only contacted them once once or twice.
• Behind the Mask – As a hockey player, this is the best place in the valley to get all the gear you need to play ice hockey.

I would like to hear what your comments are on the stores above, or if you have any ones that you would recommend. Let me know.

-Lockley

We went on a trip to California in August of 2009. We drove to San Diego and spent a week or so there.

The kids love the ocean, beach and sun!

Summer Vacation 2009

Of course, we had to bring our dog Gracie. With the trip to Canada and then to San Diego, this was probably our best family vacation yet!!