Leave of Absence

Wow! It has been awhile since I have posted! Things have been coming along very well though along the homefront, despite my lack of blog updates! I am now officially 38 weeks pregnant and could technically go into labor any day now (which would be great for me!!) although it isn't looking very likely. If past pregnancies are indicative of what is going to happen with this current pregnancy, I might be waiting awhile before I go into labor on my own. Which is why I am going to induce on the first possible day the doctor will allow it! I know there are differing opinions on inducing and honestly, if it were my first baby and I had to do it all over again, I would have waited a little longer. Let's just say Brecca was not ready to come out! But since this is my 4th and having been induced three times previous, I am jumping at the first available chance! I go to the doctor tomorrow and hopefully it will be sometime this week that we get to meet this new little guy/gal! I have tried to do my best to enjoy it this time since it will more that likely be my last (I just can't say for sure yet!!!). The little kicks and hiccups, hearing the heartbeat, feeling the baby rolling around in my belly, watching the kids faces when they feel their brother/sister kick..... those are all things that I will never get tired of. Although as it has gotten bigger, I will admit that they have gotten a little more uncomfortable! It hiccups all of the time and moves around more than any of my others have. They were all active but this one is pretty much on the go constantly!

Things are definitely getting harder around the house too. Between having to use the bathroom every couple of hours all night long and getting up to take a Tums for heartburn, I haven't been getting much sleep. Nate has been working a lot of overtime at work so I have been on my own with the other three a lot. Cooking, cleaning, bathing, running around..... Things just aren't as easy as they used to be! Luckily we have lots of family around to pick up the slack and they have been more than helpful the last month or so!

I really don't want to sound like I am complaining! I am truly blessed and thankful for everything that I have. God has given us so much and we are so grateful that He trusted us to raise these wonderful children! We really don't have to look far to see how blessed we actually are. And hopefully in a few days we will have a new little blessing that will enrich our lives even more! I can hardly wait! :)

What A Night!

I started this post on the 12th but am just now finishing it up (a week late)! Once again, my Christmas post has been delayed. I had the best of intentions! Sorry, I know everybody is on pins and needles waiting for it! :)


We had an interesting evening last night. We were headed to my sister-in-laws about 6:00 to celebrate her husband's birthday when Brax announced his tummy hurt. It wasn't twenty seconds later that he started projectile vomiting all over the living room. We were just getting ready to walk out the door so I told Nate to go ahead and go over there for a little while and Brax and I would stay home. I made him a nice little spot to lay on the couch (and covered it with towels!), gave him a bowl in case he got sick again (a plastic one that we can throw away!) and he fell immediately to sleep. About 15 minutes later, he woke up and threw up again. I got him cleaned up and comfortable again and it wasn't 15 minutes later, he was doing it again. It was about this time that the phone rang. It was my husba reminding me that Brax had hit his head in the bathtub about 5:30 and so I might want to keep an extra careful eye on him. The vomiting continued until about 7:30 when I finally decided I had had enough. Nate dropped the girls off at my mom's on his way home and then we loaded Brax up and headed to the ER.


The doctor in the ER seemed very torn as to what he wanted to do. On one hand, Brax had vomited about 6 times in 2 hours, was not running a ever, no one at home had been sick lately, and had hit his head pretty hard in the bathtub. On the other hand, his neurological exam was normal and the flu has been going around. To know for sure what was going on, they would have to get a CT scan of his brain and make sure there was no swelling or brain bleeds of any sort. Interesting.... The doctor explained to us that a CT scan itself is not without risks and to get an accurate one, he would have to be sedated. According to him, a CT scan is about the same amount of radiation as 500 chest x-rays and just in case he would ever need one later in life, he didn't want to do one unnecessarily. In the end, he decided to go ahead and do one, just to be cautious. Nate and I were ok with this, although since I am pregnant, I wouldn't be allowed to go back with him for it. They called out the most experienced radiologist to do the scan so we had to wait a little while for her to show up. They came and got him and I waited in the waiting room in the ER. It wasn't five minutes later and they were back. Apparently as soon as they got him back there, he perked up a little bit and started playing around with Nate. The doctor didn't think that was typical of someone with a brain injury and since he was so hesitant to do the scan in the first place, he called it off! They did go ahead and put in an IV for some fluids and did some bloodwork. His bloodwork showed he was fighting an infection so that confirmed even more that he probably just had the flu and it was all a coincedence that he started throwing up after hitting his head. They gave him 2 bags of fluid through his IV and sent us on our way! He was a real trooper and even though he didn't feel good, he was so tough when they put in his IV. No screaming and crying, just a few, "Ouch, it hurts." The nurses who put it in were really impressed. He did wake up once in the night and get sick again but was much better by Sunday!

We got Brax all fixed up just in time for me to wake up Monday morning throwing up! I even had to cancel a sub job for the day! By Monday evening I was still throwing up and my back hurt so bad. I was afraid I was getting dehydrated and maybe getting a kidney infection so off to the ER we went! They sent me to OB and got me all hooked up to monitors. The baby was doing fine so once I heard that I could relax a little bit! They put in an IV and did some bloodwork. Apparently my bloodwork showed that I was pretty severely dehydrated, had an infection, and that my potassium levels were dangerously low. They gave me some fluid, an antibiotic, some Tylenol (I had a fever of 100.5), and 4 bags of Potassium! They even had to hook me up to a heart monitor because somehow your Potassium levels affect your heart so they have to be careful when it is so low and also careful when they are giving it to you through IV. Luckily by the next morning everything looked much better and I was able to come home. My potassium levels had only come up from 2.2 to 2.4 (normal is somewhere between 3.5 and 5.0, I think) so I have to take pills at home and have it closely monitored until it comes up to normal. I did have it checked a couple of days ago and it was up to 3.0 so hopefully we are on our way! The doctor said that excessive vomiting can cause it to be depleted so he thought that since I had been vomiting all day, it had just come down that day. I suspect that it has been low for awhile and mentioned it to him last time I saw him. He agreed that maybe the morning sickness early in pregnancy had cause it and it just hadn't come up since then. I have a lot of symptoms of it and I am sure the symptoms wouldn't show up in just one day.

I came home to Brecca throwing up but luckily my mom had taken the day off and was able to take care of her while I slept most of the day! I did feel much better and was even ready to sub on Wednesday! It was bad stuff but luckily it didn't last very long! Brecca was better by Wednesday as well and was able to go back to school. Nate and Braylee never did get it so hopefully they are out of the woods by now! We are definitely hoping and praying that we are now immune to the flu bug that is out there ( I know....There are many, many more than just that one!) and that we will be healthy the rest of the winter!!!

Toothless

Birthday Girl!

I went to finally do my Christmas post and realized I had never posed about Braylee's 5th birthday! I still can't believe she is 5 years old. Time really does fly when you are having fun. This year Brecca had a sleepover for her 7th birthday so Bray had to have one for birthday too. We let her choose 3 friends (plus Brecca) and had them over for pizza, a movie, and a sleepover! I was really prepared to make a middle of the night phone call to a parent and a middle of the night trip home but everyone survived the night perfectly! No problems at all. They brought the girls over about 5:30, we ate pizza, and headed to the movies a little before 7. We saw The Princess and The Frog on opening night so I was a little nervous about it being a little crowded. Lucky for us (and probably everyone else!), we were the only ones there. It was really nice that the kids could be a little wiggly in their seats and not bother anyone! At one point, they even stood up and were dancing a little bit in the aisle and it was prefectly fine. We were really proud of them. They did a great job for five year olds in a movie theatre! We headed home after the movie, let them play for a little while, and then got their beds all set up on the living room floor. They were all asleep by 10:30 and slept until the next morning. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, let them play a little more, and then it was time for parents to pick them up! We considered it a huge success! :)

Later that same day, we had our families over for a family birthday party! She got her Nintendo DS that she had been wanting (plus a few games to go with it)! We didn't do dinner or anything but we did have cake and ice cream and enjoyed visiting with everyone. Although we get to see everyone frequently, it isn't very often we all get together in the same place so it is nice to see everyone at once. I think Miss Braylee had a fun day but I think for sure our beds were all calling our names pretty early that night! Happy Birthday Bray Bray! I still can't believe you are 5 years old!

Braylee with her Tinkerbell cake!

Honestly, who doesn't like to eat cake and ice cream on the kitchen floor next to the trash can?

Another Catch Up

I can't believe there is only 16 days until Christmas. Time sure does fly when you're having fun! It has been an interesting couple of weeks around here. Thanksgiving was fun and Black Friday was interesting, as always. We went to my mom's for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately Poppy was sick and Uncle David and Maya didn't make it down so it was just Nate, myself, and the kids, Tj, Chelse, and Tylee, Lance and Erin, Nanny, and my mom. Hopefully next year we will have a couple of new additions around the table to be thankful for (hint Erin and Chelse)! We had a great day of eating way too much, watching football and cheering on our fantasy players, and just hanging out visiting! I love lazy days enjoying good company (and great food)! We left my mom's about 4:00 and headed to Lawrence to spend the night with Nate's aunt and uncle. Nanny took the girls home with her and Brax came with us. We got there about 6:30 and stayed up until after midnight visiting! That made our 3:00a.m. wake-up call seem extra early! We had a fun day though and found lots of bargains so it made it all worthwhile.

The week after that I started having some symptoms of another Urinary Tract Infection. I put off going to the doctor hoping it was nothing and finally couldn't stand it anymore. I called the clinic on a Friday and my doctor was out of town. They said to come in for a UA and they would send the results to the doctor on call. Five o'clock came and went and since I hadn't heard anything, I assumed everything was fine. Later that evening I started feeling a lot of pressure and became pretty uncomfortable so I called my cousin who is an ER nurse. She thought I needed to go have it checked out so we headed to the ER. The ER sent me to OB since I was over 20 weeks along. They hooked my up to monitors to check the heartrate and to see if I was contracting. The did another UA and also some other uncomfortable tests that I won't go into but if you have ever had a baby, you can probably imagine what they were! About 3 hours later, the doctor came in and said I had a really bad Urinary Tract Infection!!! Very frustrating since I had been at the clinic about 12 hours previous for that exact thing. The OB doctor on call happened to be the doctor who had been on-call at the clinic as well and said my results were filed incorrectly under my out-of-town doctor and so the results had never been seen. Although it was a bit annoying, we were glad that was all it was. A shot of Rosefen (which burnt like crazy!) and a prescription to fill on Saturday, and we were on our way!

The next evening I still wasn't feeling the greatest. My dad called and wanted us to come over and eat some fish. Nate and Brax went and the girls stayed home with me. We made some cookies and cupcakes. As I was mixing the cupcake batter, Brecca says to me, " Hey Mom, when you are done with that, can me and Braylee lick the bladder clean." I even asked, "The what?" "The bladder," she said.

Our Christmas shopping is pretty much complete. I ordered a few things this week and once get those and get them wrapped, we will be completely finished. We aren't buying as much this year because of the layoff but I feel like we have picked out some pretty thoughtful gifts! This weekend is Braylee's 5th birthday! I can't believe she is going to be 5. She is having a couple of girls over on Friday night to spend the night and is so excited! Look for a birthday post coming soon!

Sono pics

I have been meaning to post these for a week and haven't taken the time to do it yet. They are not the greatest but I thought they were cute! We are going to have a 4D Ultrasound in Wichita the last part of December so hopefully we can get some good shots then! We have had that done with all 3 of our kids and have always had pretty good luck. This time we are taking the whole family! I think the kids will enjoy seeing their new baby brother/sister and so will Mom and Dad! :)

The baby had it's legs crossed. She said we still could have found out the gender if we wanted to. It's legs were only crossed briefly during the scan. Nate turned his head anytime she moved near the area and at one point she even turned the screen away from both of us so we wouldn't accidentally see anything. The first picture is an overhead view of it's crossed legs. I think the picture is pretty neat. You can see it's little knees and everything.

The second picture is of the head, arms, and legs. It is a pretty clear shot of all three. It was pretty amazing really. We could see it opening it's mouth and closing it and moving it's arms up around it's face. I can feel lots of movement but haven't made it to the point yet where it is uncomfortable. Hopefully I still have a few good weeks left!

Catch Up

This is going to be a long post with a lot of random information but I have a lot of catching up to do! I really need to get in the habit of posting more often. I get behind and then I don't know where to start so I just end up putting it off even longer!

I know most people who read this already know about the Ash Grove layoff. It was quite a suprise initially but we have had a couple of months to prepare for it so that did help some! Nate is officially laid-off as of yesterday. It is not a nice feeling to be pregnant with your 4th child and have an unemployed husband! Luckily the layoff is supposed to be temporary (we'll see about that!) and our insurance is still good so it isn't all bad. I have to say it is going to be nice having Nate home through the holidays although I am sure our checking account will take a serious hit!

We had a sonogram today (21 weeks) and everything looked great with the baby. We were strong and still didn't find out what we were having (Sorry Tave!). It weighed about 15 ounces and was right on track for it's gestation. The heartbeat was 147 so pretty much in the middle of the boy/girl range. I will say the girl's heartbeats were always in the 160's-170's and Brax's was always right around 140 - sometimes a little lower. I honestly don't have a clue what it is! One day I will lean toward boy and the next day I will be thinking girl, so at this point, I honestly don't have a clue! We are thankful for a healthy baby either way and are counting our blessings every day!

Brax seems certain he is getting a brother! He will not accept the possibility that it could be a girl. If you ask him what it is, his first reaction is, "It's a boy." No uncertainty there at all! We even ask him sometimes, " What if it comes out and it's a girl?" and he won't even entertain the thought! He always replies, "It's not, " very matter of factly and moves on with it. He won't even consider it! I asked him that question the other day and he informed me that if it's a girl, Nanny said she would take it. I explained to him that it is coming home with us either way - even if it is a girl! He got to go to the doctor with us last week and heard the heartbeat for the first time. He looked at Nate in amazement and said, "Is that the baby?" It was very sweet! That night he was telling Dave and Julia that he heard the heartbeat and they asked him what it sounded like. " A boy," he says. Not exactly what they were going for! :)

Brecca has started basketball again this year. She is much improved from last year! I think she has shot about 6 baskets (hasn't made one yet but is still trying!) and plays defense like crazy! She even has a couple steals! I am so impressed with her improvement and while I do have to say that she is far from the best player on the team, she has improved 100% from last year! I asked her yesterday what her favorite part of basketball was and she looked at me like I was an idiot. Finally, she said, " Duh, winning."

This evening Brecca had a hard time in the bathtub. She did something Nate had specifically asked her not to do and had to get out of the tub and go up to bed early. Of course she threw a big fit and cried and screamed for about 30 minutes before she finally gave it up. Braylee was sitting on my lap and leaned over and said, "Mom, when Brecca gets 9, do you think she is going to have a better attitude?"

I have been subbing as much as possible to hopefully make up for the lost income and also maybe get a little money saved before the new baby comes! I have been worn out but I will try to post more frequently! I know.... You'll believe it when you see it, right???? :)