Nola's 1 year appt

Nola had her 1 year dr appointment yesterday.
All is well, nothing really to report except her stats:

Weight: 22# 4oz (75%)
Height: 31" (90%)
Head: 44.5cm (>25%)

She got 4 shots (including her flu shot) and she was none too happy about it! She had a bottle afterward, in between gulping sobs.

I finally went to the dr today after 8 days of a temp around 100 and cold like symptoms. She thinks I have a sinus infection and gave me a Z pack of antibiotics so hopefully I'll start feeling better soon. This is all too reminiscent of last year at the same time when I had low grade fever that just wouldn't go away. I'm praying that this year has a different outcome!

In other news, I am so excited about Christmas approaching! I'm so very happy to be alive and to watch my kids grow up over the past year. Normally you just take that as a given in life, to watch your kids grow up, but really it is such a gift. Even on days like today when I take both kids to the dr with me and Embry WILL NOT stop saying 'Are we gonna go to McDonalds and eat and play?!' because she chose not to eat her breakfast and was hungry at 10am, even on days like this, I'm so glad I'm here. Anyway, the point is, this season reminds me of how precious life is and encourages me to savor every single moment.

I have a problem. A problem with presents. I love to buy them. I love to wrap them. I love to give them. The problem is the bank account does not share my love for presents. I have been getting much better with kid's birthday presents. I set a limit and I don't go over it. Although I still have a issue with spending too much on family/friend gifts. I think, 'oh they've done so much for me, I could never repay them, so a gift will show them how much I appreciate them.' I know for the most part it's not so, but I suppose it's the least I can do. What does money matter anyway, it's just a worldly good, but it's also one of God's gifts to us. Am I being a good steward of His money? I'm sure I could never be good enough no matter how hard I tried.

Nola's 9 Mo Stats

at Nola's 9 mo appt

Weight: 20lbs (75%)
Height: 28.5" (>75%)
Head: 43cm (up to the 25%, woohoo!)

The Dr said her ear infection is all gone. I mentioned that she gags on EVERYTHING! I'm talking we can't give her stage 3 baby food unless it's pureed in the food processor or else she will gag and throw up all over. It's quite ridiculous. We tried giving her puffs twice and both times she gagged. The Dr said to try mashing up bananas with a fork and keep giving them to her to try and get her used to different textures or thicker foods. We'll see how that goes. I mashed up some mandarin oranges the other day and after they were in her mouth, she'd blow raspberries until it all came running down her chin. Not a success, but at least she didn't vomit!

Embry is insane. She won't stop talking about her birthday party coming up in a mere 4 MONTHS! She'll tell anyone who will listen about how she's going to have a Diego and Dora party and everyone's going to sing, 'Happy Birthday to Embry, Happy birthday to meeee!' and then she demonstrates how she will blow out her candle. She's completely potty trained but she's started this new thing where she'll just pee in her underwear enough to get them wet so then we have to give her new ones to wear. It's annoying as all get out.

We've been swimming a LOT lately. Partly because it's fun but mostly because our AC is still not working. The first time the AC guy came out (on Wed) he said he fixed it but he never actually opened up the bottom half of the AC unit in order to see the real leak. Needless to say, it was still leaking the next day and the same AC guy came out, so I showed him what was leaking and it was obvious he had no clue about it before that moment. So turns out they had to order the part and send out an install guy to determine how long it would take to fix and how many people they would need...which they didn't do till Friday. On Friday they told me they couldn't fix it till monday morning and also that the home warranty doesn't cover any reclamation or coolant disposal fees which are $400. Also, the home owners insurance tricked me and instead of paying a $1000 deductible to fix the water damage, we're signed up to pay 1% of our insured amount which is about $2300. This is a bit ridonkulous, honestly.

Good news though is that I'm probably going to lose a few pounds of water weight with all the sweating I've been doing.

Here is a print out of my CT scan. You can see the 4 vertebrae above the tailbone are not square, they're squished. I've lowed my dose of pain meds, but quickly found out that if I try to lower them too much it becomes quite unbearable. I'm having mixed emotions about all of this. I'm upset that I was only 'normal' for like a month and then got sent right back to not being able to function again because of some stupid horse. I'm sad that I don't get to watch my kids or play with them when they are home, but also happy that I have so many friends and family that are willing to watch them during the day when tony is working. I really appreciate all the help and we definitely couldn't make it without the help, I just wish I didn't need it in the first place. Every morning when I wake up, I think, this will be the day where I am all better! Then I try to get out of bed and realize, nope, not today.

Anyhow, I saw the hematologist today and he said my blood tests came back normal. He wants me to see this certain rheumatologist that is also a bone specialist. Of course he's not contracted with my insurance, but the hematologist talked to him and he said he'd see me for free if I have an abnormal bone density. That means I'll be going in for a bone density scan sometime.



Nola is babbling a lot more. She's making ga, da, ra sounds and just being cute overall. She loves playing in her jumperoo (she's fallen asleep in there a few times recently) and scoots herself backwards in her walker. We've been giving her baby food before giving her formula and she seems to like most of it pretty well and is actually swallowing it. She hates the meat ones, although they're only in the level 1 baby foods so we're thinking they don't taste too appealing. Tony took her to her 6 month dr appt last Tues (5/10) and she said we could stop the acid reflux meds since she was spitting up less (although I don't really understand that) and she prescribed some nystatin cream for her diaper rash. I obviously didn't get to go since I was in the hospital, but Tony brought home a paper with her stats:
Height: 27" (>75%)
Weight: 16lbs 3oz (50%)
Head: 40.5 cm (5%)

Embry has been doing pretty well going on the potty with all of this shuffling around from house to house. I was hoping it wouldn't derail our progress. She's had a few 'accidents' here and there, but we figured out that if we send along her potty chair, she tends to do better. She sure is getting a lot of time to play with her friends through all of this!

Nola is 5 Months Old!

I took Nola for her 4 mo check up on 3/29 (over a month late) and here are her stats:
weight: 14lbs 5oz (25-50%)
Height: 25" (25-50%)
Head: 39.5 cm (<5th %)
The dr said she should be rolling over between 4-6mos and that we should work on it with her. We hardly ever give her 'tummy time' because she spits up so much more (if that's even possible) when she's on her stomach, but we'll be starting that more now. Also, the dr prescribed her some Prevacid for her spit up issues. We upped her formula intake to 8oz every 3 hours, but she only keeps down about half of it. She gave her the dissolvable tablets and I tried to give her one this morning, hahaha, total failure. She kinda went like 'what's this?' and then started gagging and threw up all over the couch. So, we'll be dissolving it in a teaspoon of water from now on and then squirting it in her mouth with a med dropper. Much easier than cleaning the couch. I hope this helps because the poor girl is in a constant state of wetness. I mean really, I can't change her clothes as often as she soaks them and I know how gross it feels to sit in wet clothes. Bleh. Anyhow, I'll keep updating as to how it's working!

I finally got my hip mri done. After wasting a bunch of time making phone calls, I found out that the dr's office was waiting for my insurance to send them a pre-authorization before they sent the dr's order to the radiology place. Well the insurance co had sent the pre-auth straight to the radiology place, so they were waiting for the dr's order. I swear, NOBODY KNOWS WHAT THEY'RE DOING! Anyhow, so I went in yesterday morning (at 7, didn't get out till 9:25) and when the tech was getting me prepped I asked if she was going to do the dye scan. She said that since the dr didn't think I had an infection or anything that she didn't think we'd need to do the dye. Well after the first mri, she took me out and said, 'I think we better do the dye too.' This makes me wonder if she saw something on the first one that she thought might be 'wrong' and wanted a more thorough picture or maybe she just wanted to cover all her bases. They said it'd be 2-3 business days to get the results from the hematologist. I'm hoping to get some kind of answer because this amount of pain can't be deemed 'normal'.

I'm kind of sad knowing that I'll never be pregnant again.

Tony and I had our first counseling session through the peer counseling service at church. It was interesting and will probably be helpful. I think counselors have this ability to stare at someone in complete silence and not feel weird. I don't have that ability.

Allison's baby shower is this Saturday, so we'll be going up to Phx tomorrow after Tony gets home from work. I'm hoping to prep the food tomorrow so then it's ready to be cooked in Phx. I want to go to the Renaissance fair while we're up there, but we'll see if that actually happens.

Much Needed Update

Nola: we got her into the new ped's office earlier this week. Doro took both girls. They said she has excess mucus in the back of her nose/throat area and we can use saline and suction a couple times a day to get gunk out. It's normal. Didn't ask about the bump, but it doesn't seem to bother her so I'm going to say it's ok for now. We have an appt for both girls on jan 18 so we'll find out more then. And, Nola was 11 lbs.

Confusion: Got the meds figured out. Think the prednisone (steroid) taper is too fast. Have Rheum (lupus dr) appt on monday with the last guy I saw (who said come back when you're not pregnant). The main dr has been talking with this rheum about my situation already so she wants me to see him again even though the referral for the one I wanted to see actually came through. I'll talk to him about the taper on Monday.

The in home nurse came and the PT guy. Nurse will be back tues and PT is scheduled for 2 times a week for 8 weeks but can be changed based on progress. I have appts with the main dr for next week as well as a counselor through my insurance for me to just talk through things.

My back has been hurting. Some is the same as what I went into the hospital with and when I take a deep breath (which I can tell I have diminished lung capacity) I can feel some like zinging around the whole area of the main lung clot. I was told in the hospital that all the clots had dissipated, but I'm wondering if that's true or if there's residual damage in that area or something. I will as the main dr for a chest xray next week.

I fell this morning trying to leave for the dr. Basically my legs just gave out. Everything was fine, but I didn't realize that could happen. Oh and I've decided not to try the stairs again until the new railing is up. We have delegated the buying to our good friends and we're so thankful for the help.

Getting organized on having help here (or having the girls somewhere else) is going well but is a lot of work. I know people want to help it's just a matter of logistics. Issue I'm having is tues-fri 17-21. I want to give people as much notice as possible, but Doro won't know if she can do those days until Thurs (the 13th) and I don't want to suddenly cancel everyone.

I've decided to take this one step at a time (aren't I punny?). If I look at it as a whole, it's just too much. One thing at a time and it will get done. Oh and I got the checkbook figured out and all the mail gone through.

One thing I have to think about is my pcp and the first er dr who sent me home without xrays etc and if we should seek retribution regarding this whole thing. I love law in itself, but the idea of a lawsuit scares the crud out of me. Please pray for direction on this matter.

Ok that's all for now. Time for me to try and get some more shut eye.

Nola is 4 Weeks Old!

4 weeks old
on 11/23/10

It was a big hassle to get retested in the carseat on 11/18 (her due date). I had an appt to come into the hospital on the 18th at noon and after my mom came in and all 4 of us went to the hospital, they said they had no idea what I was talking about. The lady who was down at the newborn checkup with me (which we had 2 days after we left the hospital) said she vaguely might have remembered something about the fact that we talked to someone from the nursery who said we should come back on her due date. So, she said she'd get someone to do the test for me (mind you this is already 1.5 hours past our appt time) and then all the nurses were busy with deliveries or feeding babies. We finally started the carseat test at 2:30 and realized that the Graco carseat straps wouldn't tighten enough to be safe for travel. She said they could still do the test in that seat but I wouldn't be able to take her home in that one. So I took my mom and Embry home (cuz it was way past her naptime) and picked up the chicco carseat to take back to the hospital. The carseat test was over by the time I got back and she had passed! Woohoo! They had also weighed her and she was up to 7lbs 3oz already! I said it must be all of the halloween candy I've been eating while nursing at night trying to stay awake. ;) I gave them the carbed back and said good riddance and finally left to run errands.

Other news is that Embry has the stomach flu, again. She started throwing up at 11pm last night (of course I was up feeding Nola, because when am I not?) and so I heard her whining on the monitor and sent Tony to see what was going on. I set up the guest bedroom for them and had him sleep in there with her for the rest of the night. She threw up about 8 times over the course of 12 hours and we thought she was over it for a while because she had a cracker and some bread and kept it down for a few hours, but then it reappeared around lunchtime. She took a long nap (like 3 hours) and seems to be doing better now, but we'll just have to wait and see. Tony stayed home with her today while Nola and I stayed in our bedroom all day to avoid getting sick. I'm not sure what this says about us hosting Thanksgiving on Thursday because I'm guessing even if she is all over it, she's probably still contagious for a while. Hmmmm.

I was thinking that Nola was doing really well sleeping at night, then it backfired on me. She went for about a week doing 3-5 hour stretches between eating and then a few days ago she started eating every 2 hours again. This is ridiculous! She eats for an hour at time, so I'll be up for an hour doing that, then sleep for an hour and then she's up again to eat. Really, is someone supposed to be able to survive on one hour stretches of sleep?! I think not.

Sunday morning I had some insanely bad back pain. It started in my spine near my bra line and radiated around to the front of my ribs. I took some percocet and it got better. I went to the dr yesterday and he said it seemed muscular, which really doesn't sound right to me, and is sending me to physical therapy. That means a lot of hassle and if they just tell me to do stretches for an hour while I'm there and I go to all the work of finding someone to watch the kids etc, then I'm just going to tell them to forget it. I can stretch at home, thanks.

14 weeks

so didn't take a 14 week pic till Saturday 5/22, but here it is.

On Thurs I went with my mom to my OB appt and we got to hear the heartbeat. It was between 140-150. I made my appt for the Ultrasound for June 17 (exactly 18 weeks) which I'm very excited about, but also slightly nervous. I have in my mind that Bean is a girl, so I'd be surprised if it was a boy. Everytime I buy Embry some clothes, I think, 'oh good, baby bean can wear this too!'

We went to Phoenix this weekend and had lots of fun. Thurs was Tony's sister's high school graduation, which in itself, was fine. Beforehand though I got to take some senior type pictures of her which was lots of fun! Afterward there was a mini get together at Tony's mom's apt and we tried to put embry down to bed, but she wanted to be in on the action so she freaked herself out and threw up all over the carpet. So, about an hour later, Tony went in there to get the tripod and she was standing there, awake, and moaning. So he took her out, we got a group picture, and then went swimming. Friday we went to Canyon Lake and after asking people, making multiple turn arounds, and talking to more people, we got down to a really nice swimming/camping area. Tony grilled some breakfast burritos and we swam and took a walk. It was fantastic and I'd love to go camping there sometime this summer which we're planning for the end of June. Also on the agenda for this summer...tubing down the salt river finally. :) Saturday we went for a bbq and swimming at Tony's aunt/uncle's community which was lots of fun. Then his mom watched Embry while we went to see the new Shrek movie (liked the other ones a lot better), then went to motherhood maternity (where I spent my $100 giftcard, yay), and then out to eat at a place in Scottsdale called the Chop and Wok. It was like a bar with some tables outside, but the food was incredibly delicious and Tony was impressed with their extensive beer selection. We stopped at wine store on the way back to the apt and Tony got a bottle of Mead (he's been talking about mead for like a year now) and cooked that up once we got back. I had a few sips (yes, call cps) and I have to say, it was actually quite good. Tastes kinda like apple cider. Sunday we went to church, met up with Jamie at Culvers for lunch (mmmmmm), and then went to the outlets at Anthem where I got Embry some clothes for cheap. Once we got back to the apt, I played a game of Cranium (where I lost, naturally) and then I drove us home.

Embry had her 18 month check up today. She's in about the 35% for weight (at 23lbs) and 75% for height. Dr said I'd be lucky to get 1-2 good meals in her a day, so don't worry about her not eating as much as I think she needs to. It was pretty uneventful and the next appt is at 2 years, so I'll take her and baby bean in at the same time. :) Fun fun!

Dealing

So I think now I'm setting myself up for a huge letdown. It's really a double edged sword because now I know that we can conceive in a 'normal' amount of time, but I'm going to be even more disappointed if I don't conceive again this month, or next month, or the next month etc. I've hardly taken any pictures over the last few weeks, so obviously, something's up!

Update on the sickness. Last Wed-Thurs I was sick in bed again. Same thing as last time, so Tony worked from home on Wed to watch Embry. Although he had to leave that night which left me to watch Embry in our room from the bed. I felt so bad because I had to throw up again while I was watching her and of course she came with me and starting crying when she saw I was sick. :( Poor baby.

I took Embry in for her 15 month check up yesterday. She's 31.5" tall and weighs 21lbs 6oz. That puts her about 80% for height and 35% for weight. I also saw the dr for my stomach issues while I was in there and he thinks it's my reflux. I find it hard to believe that reflux can have that sort of effect, but we'll see. So he's just increasing my prilosec. Bleh, I hope this helps.

Birthday Par-tay

So it's taken me so long to get this post done because #1 my sister was in town from MT and #2 I was trying to edit some good pictures from the party to post, but I pretty much don't have any good ones. I'm kind of upset about this lack of good pictures from my baby's first birthday party. Basically, I felt really rushed during the party because I didn't want it to take 12 hours and make everyone stand around in the cold because they felt obligated to stay. Soo, that left the picture taking to take a back seat to everything else. Anyhow, I'd say the party was mainly a success besides the picture thing and it being oddly cold that day (like 65, which is darn cold for here). I got everything ready in time, with the help of Tony, his mom, his sis, and my friend Jamie and her bf Matt. Tony got up at midnight the night before to start smoking the 3 pork butts on the grill and let me tell you, it was freaking delicious! We also made german potato salad, deviled eggs, pasta salad, 2 cakes, chip dip, cottage cheese jello salad (aka pink stuff), carameled apples, and my mom brought over her delicious baked beans.

So we ate, then let Embry play with her smash cake. Basically she petted it for a while and wasn't really interested in smashing it so I helped her out and stood her up in it. Then we cleaned her up and put her clothes on and everyone had cake and icecream. Then Embry opened her presents. She got lots of neat stuff, mostly toys, and a few clothing items. She didn't care to actually partake in opening the presents, but I had a good time opening them. :) That was pretty much it! I took her over to the swings afterwards while other people cleaned up (thanks to whoever did that!) and she had a good time swinging. I didn't get any pictures of her in her princess outfit, which makes me very sad. :(

Embry had her 1 year check up on Friday (11/20), here are her stats:
Weight: 20 lbs 1 oz, 50th Percentile
Height: 29.5", about 60th Percentile
Head: 45 cm, 50th Percentile

Luckily while at the dr's office he told us that they happen to have some H1N1 shots in, so Embry got her first dose of that and I got one as well. This was the first time she's gotten shots in her arms so I was supposed to bear hug her while she was facing me and try to keep her arms down. Haha, yeh that didn't work. I ended up just grabbing whichever arm they were poking with both of my hands to hold it still while she screamed and wriggled. She was very upset.

On Saturday Tony was sitting on the couch with her and she accidentally flipped off forward and hit her forehead on the coffee table. Now she's got a purple bruise above her right eye. Then we took her to the nursery at church on Sunday night and they paged me saying that she had fallen down and hit the back of her head but she has like a rug burn above and below her left eye and on the eyelid. It doesn't seem to be bothering her at all, but it looks pretty bad.

Thanksgiving is coming up and we're hosting. Tony's mom, sis, and bro are coming down from Phx and my parents and bro are coming over too. Tony's smoking a turkey on the grill and we're also making one in the oven. Of course we're making a bagillion sides and a couple of desserts too. Somehow I think we're going to have a ton of leftovers. Good thing I LOVE turkey!

Week 46

Embry learned how to blow a kiss this week. We've been trying to teach her for a while, but on Tuesday night I was feeding her some baby food and my brother was sitting on the other couch blowing kisses to her, then she finally put her hand up by her mouth and flung her arm out. So it's kind of blowing a kiss, right? Then we started clapping and I tried to feed her another spoonful of food, then she clapped right onto the spoon flinging food all over the place. I was not pleased. ;)

Formula feeding is going quite well except for the fact that it smells to high heaven. Eww. There is no way that I would EVER drink formula, but I guess I'm used to cow milk, anyhow yuck. So Embry's getting breastmilk in the morning and before bed and then formula and baby food and regular food (whatever we're eating) during the day. Oddly though, ever since we started formula she's had a bad bad diaper rash. My friend said the same thing happened to her daughter and she was having a reaction to the milk in formula, so I just switched to soy based formula and we'll see if it makes a difference. It was really heartbreaking over the weekend when the rash was the worst with big open sores. She would freak out and clench her legs closed when we got out a wipe. Yes, we used some soapy wet paper towels instead of wipes when we could, but it was just horrible. It looked fungal, so we started using the same creams that the dr had prescribed in the past, but on Monday I was worried so we went into the dr. She weighed 19 lbs 8 oz and he said it was in fact fungal. Apparently girls get diaper rashes a lot more than boys just from having more folds and whatnot, but I guess it's just from pee mainly. So I asked the dr how long I should wait when she gets a diaper rash before I bring her in and he said to try the creams on it and wait about a week to see if it gets better. He also said that giving them juice makes them have more liquidy poo, so we cut that out of her diet. Now she just gets water in her sippy cup and let me tell you, she is not as happy with water as she is with juice...a girl after my own heart. Bonus is that I just bought 10 bottles of Juicy Juice for her, oh well, more for me!

Embry now says 'hi' a lot. She also started saying 'na na na' all the time. This just drives me nuts because it's soooo close to 'mama' and I know she can say 'mmm' and 'aaaah' but she just won't put them together. So frustrating! She also started saying 'uh oh' except it comes out more like 'uh eee.' Oooh and if she sees someone rubbing their hands together (as she did at the dr's office) she will imitate it. Oh, she's so cute! Oh my gosh, I almost forgot, she does this adorable thing where I'll say 'let's cuddle!' and she'll rest her head on my chest. Oh, I love it sooo sooo much. I never want it to end.

I took her into the Picture People on Monday...it did not go well to say the least. I think that from now on before I take her to get her picture taken I need to take a few prozacs or something. So, basically the entire time it was her crawling away and me pulling her back while she screamed at the top of her lungs. It didn't help that they put us in the studio that is out in the lobby without a door so naturally she wants to crawl and see all the people and explore. Also, she hates having her clothes changed and I had 3 outfit changes...yikes. Anyhow after all that, then the guy tells me that I can't use both of my coupons at the same time. I had one for a free picture package and one for a free trilogy frame, matte, and pictures. I ended up using the trilogy one because it was a better deal and the guy said I could bring her back before the package coupon expires which I thought was funny because the last thing I'd want is to go through that ordeal again! The pics turned out cute and I ended up getting a frame with a matte with 3 openings which had 2 5x7s and an 8x10 in it and then 2 extra 8x10s all for $8. The one thing I really don't like about them is that the cameras focus on other things besides the kid's face a lot. There was a really cute close up of Embry's face with the hat and boas on, but it was focused on the fuzzy boa instead of her face so it would have bothered me endlessly if I had bought it. I got some pics of her in her halloween princess costume (she thoroughly enjoyed sucking on the fake prop pumpkins), then of her in a hat with my pearl necklace and fuzzy boas my mom gave her, then some of her in the dress I got for her birthday. I would like some more of her in the dress because none of those were super great.

I looked tonight and the second tooth on her bottom left is just poking through the gums. So pretty soon she'll have 8 whole teeth! My baby is growing up!

I reserved the ramada for Embry's birthday party. The larger ramada was reserved all day on the 14 (which is her birthday), but open on the 15, so looks like the party will be on the 15 of Nov. My sister Nancy is coming down from Montana that week, so we'll be taking family pictures on Saturday (Embry's birthday). I figure the convenience of having more picnic tables is worth it to have it a day late. Now I'm trying to decide whether I should send out real invitations or just an evite. Hmmm.