Five years ago today....

...I was at home, on bedrest, pregnant with Brooke. I had battled high-blood pressure problems throughout my pregnancy (which I shall further comment on in another post), and it had started to rise a lot more at the end. So my doctor put me on bedrest, or more so-"stay home and relax and don't do anything stressful." It wasn't-"lay-in-your-bed-and-do-nothing bedrest". (You know one thing I love about this being my blog is that I can punctuate however I so choose!).

Two days earlier (March 29th) I'd had a doctor's appt and my blood pressure concerned her, so she had me do (my third) 24-hour urine test. Those are fun. You get to catch your urine in a cup for exactly 24 hours, and pour it into a jug that you keep in your fridge. Then you run the jug to the doctors office and get your blood drawn (I won't even get started on my issues with that) and they test the urine to see if there is protein in it. So urine delivered on March 30th.

On the 31st, I woke up early, around 630; because Matt was getting ready to leave for work and I couldn't get back to sleep. I'm sure I'm not the first 9-month-pregnant woman who had trouble sleeping. I don't really remember much of what I did during bedrest, except that I watched a lot of TLC and Discovery Health. Around 10 a.m. that morning, my doctors partner called (because my doc was out of the office for the morning) to tell me she thought my 24hour urine test looked fine and to just keep on resting. Whew. I would be 37 weeks on the 1st so we were doing great! Little Ethan Alexander or Brooke Elizabeth would be here soon, but not today.

I had 2 soft tacos from Taco Bell for lunch. You know those are small. Remember this later.

I got a call from my doctor at 2p.m. "I don't know what my partner was thinking. These test results are NOT okay. I think we need to have this baby soon." Me being the planner that I am knew that we really were hoping to have the baby on a Friday. It would work good for Matt's vacation time. :) At first she thought that would be okay. We hung up, and we were going to have a baby on Friday (the 2nd). I called Matt. I layed in bed some more. Twenty minutes later the phone rang again. "I don't think we can wait till Friday. I think we need to have this baby today. You need to go to the hospital." Slow feelings of panic stirred in my belly as I tried to process it. I said "well can we go when Matt gets off work or do I need to leave now?" (we are always conscientious of vacation time around here haha). She said we could go when Matt gets home. I call Matt (nervous tears and voice cracking). I call my mom. I cry to her about being scared (just about having a baby!!! and giving birth!!! I was excited the time was here, but I was nervous!!!). I pack. I hadn't packed yet, because I wasn't too worried about it all. Not like you really need much anyways.

When I called Matt, I called the phone in the hangar. He was out running an airplane. So I left a msg for him to call me. Then I called his dad. Who then called the guys at the tower and had them radio the message out to Matt in the airplane that we needed to go to the hospital today. I cannot imagine his emotions/thoughts at that moment. And I think it is kind of comical that they did that.

Matt came home and took a shower. And ate something. I was climbing the walls and he was taking his time. He does that. I think it's just the way he is, though I swear some days he intentionally slows down to drive me bonkers. It works.

We walked across the parking lot at St Joe at about 430 in the afternoon. Both of us fighting back nervous tears. The pitocin gets started at 630. And then we wait. and we wait. and I don't get to eat. and I'm hungry. Those 2 tacos were a long time ago. A really long time ago. Nothing really happened the rest of that night, I think I got to 6cm and hung out there for awhile. I didn't get any pain meds until well after midnight....so I guess I get to tell you about that tomorrow!

That evening Matt's parents came by the hospital to sit with us for a bit. My friend Angela came by too. Matt's parents brought him some fast food. I almost ate my bedsheet. After everyone left, we tried to get a little rest. It was difficult because we had two nurses in our room pretty much constantly monitoring things.

But Brooke's Birthday isn't until tomorrow.....April 1st....so I guess this story will finish up there. In the meantime, I'm going to go eat something. Because the flashbacks of hunger from this night make me want to haha--

This is a picture of us at my shower about 3 weeks before we had Brooke

Whoa-Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh...Hangin Tough...!

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK IS COMING TO WICHITA!!

I am soooooo excited. I was a BIG NKOTB fan growing up. It all started the summer before 8th grade when I went to Florida to visit my cousin Kelly. I think we became New Kids obsessed that week I was there. Then after a week in Florida, Kelly came home to Iowa with me for a week. Younger cousin Danica came to spend some time with us (she lived 2 hrs away from me and is 2 years younger. I love her bunches). Kelly already had "dibs" on Donnie, and I had "dibs" on Joey. (Still do haha). So Danica ended up having to pick Jordan. or did she pick Jonathan? I can't remember. I know Joey was mine. And Danica still reminds me of the fact that we did that to her all those years ago. OH and in order to be considered as "big of a fan as us" she had to answer a bunch of trivia questions about them. Really I was nice to her when it was just the two of us!

Then the New Kids craze bonded me with some of my dearest childhood friends... Jill, Erin, and Marcy. Jill, Marcy and I did a lot together and really became friends then. Jill was my best friend (and still a very close treasured friend). She broke my heart when she moved to Houston in 9th grade. Marcy and I stayed great friends all through high school. Erin and I went to kg together and grew up together, and were NKOTB fans together; we go wayyyyy back. So anyways, it was the love of NKOTB especially that brought Jill, Marcy and I together. Being obsessed and boy crazy does that!

One year for Christmas (I'm guessing it was 9th grade maybe), I walked out of my room to see the gift Santa had left for me. There was a big Joey poster hanging on the wall by the tree. Taped to it was a little box. Inside-- NKOTB concert tickets for the concert in Kansas City. Mom said that Erin's mom was going to take us. I was soooooooooooo excited!!!! I'll never forget that moment. We also ended up going to the concert in Ames I think about a year later.

I was so excited when they got back together last year....I bought the new CD and I love it! You should check it out before you "judge" them. They were in KC in November... and I just didn't think I could work it out... it was the middle of the week....tickets were expensive....I didn't want to spend the money on them and then have there be bad weather where I couldn't get there...and I don't think Matt was thrilled that he may have to use vacation time so I could go see New Kids on the Block.

Today while I was working out at the Y...I saw the 5p.m. news flash the NKOTB website on their screen. The CC wasn't on so I had no idea what they were saying. Then when I left, I got in the truck and a local radio station was playing "Hangin Tough." "this is weird," I thought... "they never play New Kids here..." After the song was over, I heard the concert announcement. I was soooooooooo excited. First I called Matt to squeal the news. He was thrilled. (haha). Then I called a bunch of friends, most of whom laughed at me. SOMEONE is going to that concert with me damn it!!!! I told Matt that when tix go on sale, I'm going to buy at least two, and if none of my friends will go with me then he will have to. He said "I'll go with you." I quickly backpedalled and said "no no no my first choice for this concert is my girlfriends, you are the backup plan." lol...

Walking and Weaning and Teeth-oh My!

It's been a big week for Hannah!!
Yesterday I noticed that her 2nd tooth had finally popped thru! Yippee!
Last night was the last night for her to get a bottle. We'd been cutting down the number of bottles over the last two months; first taking away her noon bottle, then her 4p.m. bottle, then her morning bottle. Tonight was the first night she didn't get her 7p.m.-ish bottle. She did pretty good. (relatively speaking, considering she is crabby from teething, and both of my kids seemed to be a little off-their-rocker tonight. I think it is the impending weather). So, since I cut each bottle out "cold turkey" --we're done with bottles!! Yahoo!
Today, I noticed that Hannah was getting into a standing position in the middle of the room (without pulling up on anything), and taking a few steps. She'd done this randomly over the last month, but today it was like she was a pro. And then I noticed, she was taking a lot more steps too! She picked up a cracker, then walked at least 15 steps. She's rockin it! The last few weeks I've been thinking "geez, is she going to walk in time for our trip or not?!?!" ...but after today I'm thinking it should definately happen! I'm anxious to see how she progresses the next few days!
Tonight, she found a toy hairbrush and toddled over to Matt (who was laying on the floor) and "brushed" his hair. I laughed so hard I thought I might wet my pants. It was so funny. She was not really gentle...lol...then she'd rub his head with her hand, and giggle, and do it some more. Too cute!!

As far as Brooke goes, if I get my nostalgic hat on, I would say "this is the last Thursday that she will be a four-year-old!". She is getting so excited for her birthday. I have no idea what to get her! For her treats for school she requested brownies and chips. The chip request didn't surprise me because she loves chips; but we hardly ever have brownies around here! Maybe that's why she asked for them! Before her big Birthday next week, we have a quiet (and snowy, supposedly) weekend ahead of us. Matt is not working on Saturday and I hope we all have a great, relaxing weekend together! As previously mentioned- the girls were kind of a mess tonight-- Brooke was totally off her rocker--and I'm thinking it is the weather--(considering that several people said they were having the same problem tonight)--so I hope once the weather hits, she'll calm down a bit!

Ninety Years Old

Matt's grandpa turns 90 years old today....We had a party yesterday to celebrate the milestone! It went great (and was exhausting!).

Can you imagine 90 years of life? How much living can be packed into that gift of so many years on earth? There is a song called "Seasons of Love" from the musical "Rent"... I love that song. It talks about how you might measure the life of a woman or a man...

Some of the lyrics:

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee.

In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life?

How about love? How about love? How about love?

Measure in love. Seasons of love.

I suppose the way one might measure their life depends on their outlook in life...but I think this song has some good ideas...and I think the value of your life is largely how much love you show others in this world.

Another thought that crossed my mind when celebrating this 90th Birthday was all the stuff that Papa Harris has probably seen and done in his life. I wonder if there's anything that he still would like to do, what's left on his proverbial "bucket list." Considering none of us ever knows how much time God is going to give us on this earth, what is on anyone's bucket list? What's on mine? I'll have to ponder that...and maybe someday I'll share it with you. But for now, I'll post some pictures from the party. And challenge you to, sometime between now and your next Birthday, do something you always wanted to do but haven't got to yet.... and cross it off your list. We won't all be lucky enough to get 90 Birthdays to try to get it accomplished in!

The cake/food table

The birthday boy in the white shirt, with his brother, two sons, and two grandsons.

some of the -Great Grand Children!

These are a few of my favorite things....

....(Is the song in your head yet? When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when i'm feeling saaaadddd...I think of a few of my favorite things...and then I don't feel sooooo badddddd)....

I thought I needed to get myself a blog post done, and since I've had a busy week of just trying to keep the girls entertained during spring break; I have decided to share a few of my favorite things with you. Just five. Because Lord knows I might need to do another post like this someday :)

1. I love church camp. Loved going to it growing up, loved working at one, love them. It is a happy place...and was always so much better than my "real life"...because popularity wasn't an issue, everyone was nice because we all had Jesus in our heart. It is a great thing. Everyone should get to go to church camp at least one time in their life. I always thought it would be AWESOME to own a church camp someday...but I doubt that I will ever get to!
2. Doritos and dip. Specifically, AE (Anderson/Erikson) Party dip. My cousin Danica and I always share in this fabulous snack when we get together and catch up on life. Danica always has to bring the dip because they don't sell it where we live.
3. Friends. Friends make my world go 'round. I love my friends. My heart aches when friendships seem to change....I take friendships so personally and to heart...which is fine and dandy when I have friends who know I'm high maintenance like that and "Show me the love"; but which causes me to drive myself crazy when they don't know that ;) But I love friends. Old ones and new ones.
4. Smutty romance novels. I love quick reads, and those red paperback Harlequin or Silhouette romances fit the bill for me. I have branced out in the last year thanks to my friend Debbi, but my old fallback when looking for something to read is grabbing the newest smutty romance novel off the shelf at wal-mart.
5. Massages. I wish I could afford one-a-week. They are so relaxing. I love feeling the knots in my muscles getting worked out of me. I like chatting with the masseuse. Or dozing off. If you ever feel like buying me a present, a massage is a good way to go!

What are a few of your favorite things?
Oh and one more.... I love weekends where Matt is not working Saturdays. That is this weekend....yipppeeee!

Have a great one--

Piss and Vinegar

Have you ever heard the phrase that someone is "full of piss and vinegar"? I think Brooke personified that today. I still probably can't adequately explain in words what (I think) that phrase means, but it ran thru my head multiple times today. Brooke was a force to be reckoned with today- and it's only TUESDAY of Spring Break!!! She hasn't napped for two days...and yes I know she is almost 5 but this kid still does take naps a few times a week--and I think that was a big part of it. Tomorrow is a new day and I have high hopes.

Speaking of things people used to say and do... today I told Brooke a story about my Grandpa Dean. (He passed away a few years ago and I miss him). The last week-since the weather has been nice; Brooke has been outside a ton. Well, we all have. Brooke more than the rest of us. And she has been IN and OUT and IN and OUT. Today I told her the story of how my cousins (the boys mostly) used to do that at my grandparents house. And one time Papa Dean got tired of it, and locked them in the backyard. As in locked the patio door so they couldn't come in. I think he left them out there for a few hours. It was funny, especially because I recall at least one occasion where we girls were camped happily inside during a lock-out. (Don't worry, it wasn't too terribly hot, and the yard was fenced in. They were quite fine and all are still alive to tell the story today--rather frequently at family gatherings). So I told Brooke this story today. I'm not sure she liked it :) I'm hoping she remembers it though, the next 300 times she comes barrelling up the deck steps for some reason or another!

Hannah loves to be outside. She is so vocal about it, I can't even have the back door open just for the sake of letting fresh air in--she throws a fit if that door is open and she is not on the OUTSIDE part of it. Today we took the lid off the sandbox and let the girls play in there. Hannah is more interested in the pea gravel and putting it in and out of cups. I need to get some sunscreen.... every day the past few days we have come in and her little cheeks have been rosy.

A few pics from today. The lighting is not so great but it was seriously just THAT BRIGHT back in the backyard today! And the picture of the budding tree- why does my cheapy pocket camera do better shots like that than my more expensive Canon? Ugh!

Zoo Day!

Brooke is on Spring Break this week, and we wanted to keep busy. The weather has started off with a bang- it was so gorgeous here today I think I spent more time outside than inside!

This morning we went to the Zoo and met up with our cousins. (that would be, Matt's cousin's wife Kacy and their kids Makenah and Landen). It was a gorgeous day. Hannah was great- I hardly heard a peep out of her the whole time even though she was in her stroller from 10a.m. to 1:30! She didn't get fussy once -- though she did start getting that glazed-over, exhausted look after lunch. She fell asleep within 3 minutes of getting in the car!

Brooke had a blast with her cousins and we saw a lot of animals. There was a baby giraffe and a lion cub that we had not seen, and the big lion was up on his rock and we heard him roaring. It was like being in the middle of the Lion King movie!

We also spent most of the evening outside-- Brooke didn't nap so she was outside from about 3-6:30 with the brief interlude for dinner! I love Spring! I do not love getting my flower beds worked over and ready. Would anyone like to come help me with that?

The rest of our week includes some time with Grandma, a playdate with Jaci, a trip to the library, and some romping fun at a playtime at the gymnastics place. And that doesn't even touch the busy weekend we have planned!

Here are a few pictures from the zoo:

Magic Kingdom, Here we Come!!!!

I am soooooo excited! I've been giddy since yesterday. When was the last time you were giddy?! I have to tell you, I am just pumped.....!


Can you tell I'm excited?! Well, as you know (and will hear much of), our big trip is in seven weeks. We are doing that seven day Disney cruise that I mentioned before. I cannot wait! But yesterday it got even better...!


We are flying in 3 days before we set sail so that we can go visit some of my family in Sarasota. AFTER we had booked our plane tickets to include that pre-trip visit, we found out that said family is coming up north (i.e to Iowa, where I am from) this summer, a month after we are there! I didn't want to cancel our Sarasota portion (it would cost too much to change the airlines anyways), but was bummed to have the two visits so close to each other! Yet I still want to see them too!



Yesterday as I was laying in the tanning bed, I had an epiphany. You can really do some good thinking in a tanning bed if you don't fall asleep! Instead of spending Wednesday AND Thursday night in Sarsota, then driving back to Orlando on Friday after lunch and spending Friday night there waiting for our cruise day; we could just drive back to Orlando on Thursday night.... and then on FRIDAY we could go spend the WHOLE DAY at MAGIC KINGDOM! I love the magic kingdom. Doing this would only cause us to lose a few hours with family in Sarasota, but in turn would give us A WHOLE DAY AT MAGIC KINGDOM!!! All I had to do was talk the rest of the family into spending the $ on the tickets!



Well talking the family into it was no problem. yipppeeee! Then we got to thinking "Geez, if we're going to spend 2 nights in Orlando and we're going to spend a day at Magic Kingdom, maybe we should go ahead and stay at a Disney resort instead of the Airport Hyatt!"..... So we are going to stay at the Swan and Dolphin, and the cruise bus picks up right there. I'm so excited.



We'll spend that Wednesday evening with family (hopefully), and that Thursday morning thru mid afternoon with my Grandma; and then we'll head on back to Orlando. Then on Friday--- it's off to Magic Kingdom!! Brooke will be tall enough for all the rides now! How exciting! And it will be Hannah's first visit!!!! And we're staying on-site so we could jet back to the hotel for a nap if we need to! It was driving me nuts to be IN ORLANDO and NOT go to the parks at all. Magic Kingdom is our favorite park (followed closely by MGM/Hollywood studios), so I'm so excited to get this worked out! And then, we'll see more of my family just a month later in Iowa!


I'm so darn excited. Can you tell?! Will you be able to handle this for seven more weeks?!

I am pooped out and feeling totally uninspired tonight so this is just as good as it gets. I had an exhausting day. Really if I would have put my ipod in my ears and drowned out Hannah's frequent crying/fits...I might not feel so drained!!!

I will start by giving some kudos to my girls though. Hannah's rash cleared up so I took them to get their pictures done this morning-- Brooke's 5yr-old, Hannah's one-year old, and them together. I was really hoping they would cooperate. Even though Hannah is at the age where she keeps trying to crawl away, we were fortunate to get a couple cute ones of them together and several great individual shots. Brooke was her normal supermodel self. I was so thrilled with how they turned out.

But it's been all down-hill since then! Hannah is in a teething nightmare. That's gotta be the problem. We came home and she took a horrible morning nap. She didn't eat much for lunch and spent a lot of time screaming at me (literally). I got a little more food down her before her (again, horrible) afternoon nap. I put her down at 1:30 and at 2:45 she started crying. I went up to her room, layed her back down, gave her a paci, turned on the mobile and left. 3p.m she was crying some more. Went back up there...she'd somehow taken her pants off (thankfully not her diaper too). I got her re-situated again and thought "She is just going to have to cry it out." Man-oh-man...did she ever! She screeched, cried and screamed for 30 minutes.... finally I decided she was not going back to sleep so I got her up. She was a mess all evening. Fussy, not eating well, screeching at me some more, getting mad at her toys....! I gave up and put her down for bed at 7.... Matt wasn't even home (from flying) yet! Man I am sure hoping she does better tomorrow. She popped thru a little bit of her first tooth on Monday, I'm hoping after our rough day today she pops thru a few more overnight!

Brooke, on the other hand, was great today. She was not demanding or high maintenance, and was pretty patient and laid back with the fact that Hannah was taking most of my attention or energy. Yeah for my big girl!!! I joked on my facebook page that I was thinking about putting rum in my diet-dr.pepper.... those of you who know me well know that I don't drink at all actually... but if Brooke would've been in a difficult mood too; I just might have started!!!

That being said.... I am going to bed and saying a prayer for a better day tomorrow and a good weekend!

Chubby Cheeks

Hannah is now eating...CARROTS! Finally a vegetable breakthrough!! When I make cooked carrots ("glazed" with a little butter and brown-sugar sauce. Totally healthy 100%), I use whole baby carrots. Hannah will eat them right up if I give them to her whole, so she can munch on them. If I cut them up, she won't touch them. I thought i'd share some pictures of little miss chubby-cheeks. Last week she decided to stuff her mouth full of carrots. I thought for sure they'd be coming back out but she kept on chewing!

After a horrible day on Sunday, where she wouldn't eat or drink a thing, and was crabby crabby; she woke up Monday morning with a wee-bit of her first tooth finally poking thru! A breakthrough! finally!! of course, then last night we discovered she had a rash all over-- yet another possible side-effect to teething. My kids teethe worse than anyone I know. Every symptom in the book! Brooke will be in 2nd grade before she ever gets a loose tooth, I swear!

Spring and all that has Sprung

It is 730 in the morning and Brooke is still sleeping. That is the only perk of Springing-forward with my children, is that they are thrown off a bit and sleep later for a week or two. I don't know about you, but the time changes have always seriously screwed brooke up (and created some major grumpiness), no matter which direction the time change goes. I'll have to type fast and then go wake her up. I'd much rather be back in bed myself!

Sweet Hannah is still not herself and it is stressing me out. She was doing pretty good thru the mid-to-end of the week last week, but Saturday morning when she woke up she had a lot of congestion and was hacking away on it. She was still in pretty decent spirits on Saturday.... but Saturday night she didn't sleep worth a darn and Sunday was not a good day. She woke up at 7 (remember this would be the usual 6a.m.) and we couldn't get her back down, so she snuggled in bed with us for awhile. Brooke and I went to church and left Hannah and Matt at home. All day long it was a battle to get any food or drink down her. She just swats away anything you bring near her mouth. The poor thing does not feel good, but she's going to feel a lot worse if we end up back in the hospital because she gets dehydrated. Thankfully, while Brooke and I were gone last night, Matt got about 4 ounces of pedialyte down her by finally putting it in a bottle, followed by 6 ounces of milk. I hope that was enough! I didn't hear her fussing last night at all and she's still asleep, so I'm hoping we are on the road back to normalcy! Then the next hurdle will be broadening her eating repetoire!

I've been doing much better about eating lately and I am hoping it is paying off. I've bounced around the same 7 lbs for about a month now (my own fault), so I'm hoping I will finally see that middle digit on the scale drop and we'll start a downward trend. I need more flexibility in my life than to just follow a specific plan, but I bought the "Biggest Loser 30 Day jump start" book and have been loosely eating according to those menu plans. I've tried to really watch my intake of carbs--white ones especially-- and that seems to be helping. I'm not one of those totally anti-carb people, but I am seeing that protein and vegetables seem to hold me over longer. They just don't taste as good as carbs do...!

I better go get the kids moving. Please do say a prayer that Hannah gets back to her normal self, and that I keep being successful in my fitness endeavors. I would like to look decent for the cruise!

Career day

First off-- Happy Birthday Ryan!!!!

my baby brother turns 25 today!

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Today is career day at Brooke's preschool. They've had guest speakers this week come and talk about their careers (myself included). She has been looking forward to today for weeks. "Is it career day yet?" Today, they got to dress up in an outfit that depicts what they want to be when they grow up.

Back in September, I saw this on the school calendar. I asked her then what she wanted to be when she grows up. I asked her again in December. I asked her last month. The answer has always been the same.

"I just want to be married" she says....

And so.... she dressed up like a bride. Is this desire hereditary? Or is it simply all little girls' dream...to be the ultimate princess someday? I don't know. I know that one of my biggest fears for a long time (particularly high school and college) was that I would never find "the one" and I'd be destined to be an "old maid" which I really did not want to be. Fortunately, Matt rescued me from that fate. I won't expand on this commentary other than to say that sometimes I wonder why I was so worried about that...! So this desire to be married is now something in my daughter's heart. We must be doing something right in our marriage, if she thinks it's "all that."

Regardless, I bet she's the most beautiful girl at career day today. I wonder if any of the little boys will propose.... I think she's holding out for Chase right now though :)

Have a great day!

In Honor of Baby Cora....

Sweet baby Cora would've turned one today. I cannot imagine how her parents are feeling....I hope that the warm kansas sunshine feels like a smile from heaven for them.

Today, in honor of the sweet angel, I painted my toenails pink. I'm going to wear a pink shirt. I'm hoping to send a pink balloon up to the skies. I'm going to go buy Hannah "MooBaaLaLaLa" because I hear it is a great book and one of Cora's favorites and so we will share it together and someday I'll tell her all about Cora. I'm going to snuggle my babies closer. And I made my donation from the etsy sale online.

Please pray for Jess and Joel....these souls I have never met but whom I love nonetheless....pray that they will feel Cora's love today, and that they will hold each other tight, and that Jesus will shower them with the peace that passes allllllll understanding.

love you!

Today

Can I just say that the week has improved drastically since Monday morning's trip to the ER? Hannah is still not herself but doing much better. It has not been a great few days for my little monkey.

Last night, however, life in general started looking up. I was working on our Disney Cruise pkg with DCL, and found out that they had opened up military discounts on our sailing. Our friends that are going with us are military...and not only do they get a discount but two of their travelling companions rooms' get discounts too meaning all three of our rooms get discounts! So that is another $900 back in our pocket! Yipppeeeee!

Today, I bought one of those $2 crossword scratchoff lottery tickets...and I won $100. Yipppeee!

After lunch, Brooke had her first dentist appointment ever. She can tend to be over-dramatic and get scared/worked up about things like this (she FREAKS when she has to go see our family doctor). I was really dreading the dentist visit. She did AMAZING!!!! She was in a very chipper (bouncing off the walls!) mood when we got there, being very social, etc. She hopped right in the chair, and they did the whole thing-- cleaning, polishing, flossing, and even a fluoride application! She didn't get upset or anything. It was FABULOUS! I was so proud of her! Of course our hygenist is wonderful and that made a big difference. I just couldn't believe we got through it with no drama.

Thank goodness the weather is gorgeous today. We should get some good outside time here after nap.

Oh. And I bought a swimsuit today. Not because I've lost anywhere near my 30 lbs. But because I'm hoping that if I hang it in plain sight and have a daily reminder of having to wear it in 2 months, that it will remind me to do crunches, not eat cookies, love on my vegetables a little more, etc.

Hope you're having a great day!

ER Baby

What a day....we had to take sweet baby Hannah to the ER...It was a long morning but thankfully everything seems okay. Here's the story...
Hannah got sick on Friday night (as in-puked in her bed. and man was it gross). She was okay on Saturday...just seemed to be fighting her teething like crazy but didn't get sick or anything. Sunday she seemed to be doing okay too but had some pretty nasty diapers and her appetite was terrible. Still, she was having wet diapers, etc. so we thought we were doing okay. She was on tylenol pretty frequently for her teething.

This morning when I got her up...she was nothing like her usual self. Usually, when I go into her room, she's happy to see me and standing up and squealing. This morning, she was sitting there, looking none to happy and wimpering a little bit. Usually, when I lay her down to change her diaper, she throws a fit and immediately needs her bottle shoved in her mouth so we can get thru that morning diaper change. This morning I'd decided we were going to work on eliminating that morning bottle. She didn't cry. She just laid there, with her paci. She didn't do much of anything at all. Usually, after I change her diaper, she crawls off (ditching the bottle she's already drained) and babbles away and plays. This morning, she laid there until I picked her up. I held her on my lap. Usually she does not cuddle. She laid against me and was limp like she was sleeping. Brooke got in her face and was all "hey hannah! how are you today!". Usually she squeals or swats at Brooke. She didn't move. Her eyes moved some, but she pretty much stayed right where she was, nestled against me. While I was holding her, I noticed that her breathing seemed shallow and her little heart was racing like I've never felt before. Fortunately Matt was home (sick) and I had him come hold her and see what he thought. He said "I think we're going to the ER".

I don't know about your family doctor, but on Monday mornings, it is almost impossible to get thru even to the appt scheduler at our doctor. So I tried calling several times and couldn't get thru. We sent Brooke off to school with grandma, and got Hannah in the car. I finally got thru at the doctors and they got the nurse on the phone, and she said given the symptoms to go ahead and go to the ER. We were already 1/2 way there anyways.

We got in past triage pretty fast, were in the waiting room about 15 minutes, then waited about another 20 minutes for the nurse to come in our room. They had us put Hannah in a little gown. (ache to mommy's heart #1). They asked some questions and put a little puls-ox/heart rate monitor on Hannah's toe. It was reading in the 160s. Should've been more in the 130's or so. We sat there some more. We got her to drink her juice and eat some yogurt melts and she chippered up some. Then they came in and said that they were going to need to draw blood, start an IV line (hopefully in the same stick) and do a cath to get a urine sample. And they wanted mommy and daddy to wait outside while they did all that... so baby doesn't sit there and wonder why we aren't saving her from the torture and when it's done we can swoop in and rescue her. (ache to mommy's heart #2). We waited. She screamed. she stopped. we heard her screaming more. (heartache#3). I just knew they were having trouble getting a vein. When we went in there, that had indeed been the problem. Poor sweet Hannah.

Then we had to take her for a chest xray. They wanted to see if there was anything in there that might be causing any of this. If you've never had a baby get an xray...I don't recommend it. Torturous to see. They stuck her in this tube for lack of better description. She was upright and kind of on a little seat thing, with this casing that wrapped around her. With her arms stretched above her head. She was strapped in like a hotdog in a bun (heartache#4). When they were trying to get her in there the poor little thing was trying frantically to stick her paci back in her mouth before they trapped her arms. I said "ohooh let her get her paci in!"...which they did. They hadn't even noticed she'd had ahold of it. So after watching that torture we got to back to our ER room.

They started a saline drip to get her hydrated. She fell asleep laying on mommy...she was so tired...They did 2 bags, and put some antibiotics in the 2nd bag. Just in case I think is what they said. All the tests came back okay (except there is one blood test that takes 3 days), xrays looked fine. Given the description of her symptoms, etc; they determined that she was either dehydrated or had a fibrile seizure (not sure that's the right word; but basically a seizure that is brought on by a spike in a temperature). Her symptoms were similar to how they would be after one of those seizures happened and she might have had one right before she woke up and we saw the after-effects. My gut tells me it was probably dehydration...because while we were waiting she did perk up some once we got her juice and snacks going.

We got home and she slept for 3 hrs. Her appetite is not great right now, but we kept getting fluids down her. I don't know if it's a tummy bug that's brought this all on, or if the appetite problem is from teething or what. We go to our family doctor tomorrow for a follow-up visit. Say some prayers that she will be back to her old self soon.

The whole time we were in there, I'd tear up anytime they had to do something to her. My heart just hurt watching my baby hurt. I kept thinking about the McClenahan's and what they went thru with Baby Cora. I just cannot imagine. It certainly reminded me to keep praying for them as I thanked God that all our tests came back fine, etc.

So that's the start to our week. Let's hope it slows down - a lot!