15 December 2011
Have you heard...
Preston Pugmire? He performed for Judd's Christmas work party last week. He is truly amazing, a one-man band who does everything himself. Also he sounds so much better in person. This is the best video I could find. Right when we got home the first thing I did was go get his album off Amazon. Seriously I am hooked. I listen to him all of the time, and yet I can't get enough.
09 December 2011
29 November 2011
24 November 2011
Name that fungus
17 November 2011
Uncanny
Check out these cute pictures of Mckay!!
Did it fool you? This is NOT my baby. I found this little fellow here:
In real life, and at the same angle he looks so much more like this Pampers baby. I know all babies kind of look the same, but wow...
Did it fool you? This is NOT my baby. I found this little fellow here:
Why Hello, what brings you here?
OK, so every now and then I look at the stats of this blog just for fun. Today I was looking at the "search keywords" that sent people here. And to my surprise this was one of them... "useless information about poop" Hmm. Guess I have a poopy blog. Well, whatever the reason you check out our little blog, poop or no poop... welcome!
12 November 2011
My little chemo patient
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| Before |
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| After. |
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| My two baldies. |
08 November 2011
I paid 8.26
For all of this!!
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| 4 packs of Huggies baby wipes 2 containers Darigold cottage cheese 3 things of Similac formula 10 cans of Dole fruit 5 Revlon nail clippers 3 packs Sargento cheese 8 packs of Betty Crocker cookie mix 1 2-liter of Squirt 5 tubes of Carmex 13 jars of Season all 5 packs of Carefree 1 Dole fruit juice 1 pack Orbit gum 1 foot scrubber 4 cans beans |
05 November 2011
Babies are Expensive
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| Both Kennedy and Levi cost us a grand total of 100 a piece for the whole pregnancy/labor etc... These are just a handful of the bills from Mckay. Woof. |
03 November 2011
October in a nut shell... Or egg shell.
I've been watching a LOT of Conan O'Brien lately. Not to mention Chopped, reruns of the office, The little couple.. To be honest, pretty much anything on TLC or the cooking channel. I guess that's what happens when you are awake half the night with a newborn. feeding, burping, changing diapers.
I have tried for the last couple weeks to blog but every time I click on "new post" and stare at the empty screen I lose all motivation. Maybe it is from lack of sleep, or maybe my brain is fried from too much late night television and I just can't bring myself to make out complete sentences. Or maybe because I have too much to blog about, that is seems so overwhelming.
Whatever the reason, I am posting now. And yes I am also watching Conan.
So now for an update.
Mckay is now over a MONTH old. With each baby time seems to slip away so much faster than the last. Maybe that is because more of my day is spent wiping bottoms, faces, and hands, kissing "owies" better, and explaining for the 100th time in a day the reason "why?". Also, Mckay has been such a different experience for us. Both Kennedy and Levi were very healthy babies. The labors were easy and without complication. Not the case with Mckay. the labor was...Well, it was. The first night home with Mckay was not much better. I was reading a book to Kennedy that night and I heard Judd screaming my name over and over. I thought to myself "good grief, be patient man". I got up and walked out of Kennedy's room, and there at the door stood Judd holding Mckay who was pale and covered in throw up. He wasn't breathing. I grabbed him from Judd, ran to his room and started suctioning his mouth out with the bulb syringe (aka"booger-sucker"). Thank you Army medic training for the quick reaction. Judd had been walking past his room and heard him gagging so he grabbed him. After he started breathing normally I just held him and sobbed. I was so tired from... well, everything. There are no words to describe the fear and sadness of knowing that you could have lost a child. None. The thoughts that ran through my head: what if Judd hadn't heard him?, what if we had been sleeping, if.. If. I didn't sleep that night. I had Judd move his crib into our room so I could have him right by me. I woke up to even the slightest sounds, and when I would fall asleep I would jerk awake from dreams of Mckay choking. It took a few days for me to calm down enough to feel comfortable just using the baby monitor at night.
At McKay's 2 week check up the doctor found a heart murmur and sent us straight to the cardiologist. We were at the hospital doing tests that day from noon until 5. After the 12 lead EKG the doctor came in and listened to his heart. He said "there are normal and abnormal murmurs. his falls into the category of abnormal." My heart sank. I began to wonder if I somehow caused this... After all I didn't know I was pregnant until I was 2 months along. I was working out like crazy, and I'm pretty sure I was eating sushi :).. All the little things I had done started running through my mind. We then went into another room for an ultrasound of his heart. I was prepared for the worst since the doctor had already told me he had a hole through his ventricle septum. After watching his little heart beat in black and white wondering what went wrong the doctor came in to look at a few structures more closely. He then said that he has a hole between his atria which is normal for babies, but is supposed to close within the first 24 hours after birth. On top of that he had a "kinked" left pulmonary artery, which is actually what was causing the murmur. Both, he said, should hopefully heal without intervention. We just have to watch him very closely for signs of heart failure or difficulty breathing. They'll continue to monitor his heart at his checkups, and if nothing changes within 6 months they are going to talk about what our options are.
Breath. Pictures. Change of subject.
In other news Kennedy is loving preschool, and Levi loves the alone time he gets with mommy while she's gone. Judd took me biking for the first time in over a year and a half, and I didn't end up looking like this so I am pretty proud of myself.
Since the weather is getting colder we have been trying to spend as much time outside on the days that are nice. Mostly we ride our bikes :)
Halloween was fun, although it was a lot like last year for me. I spent most of the time inside taking care of Mckay while Judd took the Kennedy and Levi around and handed out candy at the trunk or treat they do on our street. Is it just me or are kids getting more bratty year after year? I couldn't believe how many kids didn't even bother saying trick-or-treat, or thank you. Or how many bad looks I got when I plunked a piece of double bubble into their bags (yes, I know it's no Snickers or Kit Kat) BUT STILL... It was as if I had just stolen their candy and left them with a can of green beans.
Here was the best part of Halloween for me:
That's all for now. Hope everyone had a wonderful October!
I have tried for the last couple weeks to blog but every time I click on "new post" and stare at the empty screen I lose all motivation. Maybe it is from lack of sleep, or maybe my brain is fried from too much late night television and I just can't bring myself to make out complete sentences. Or maybe because I have too much to blog about, that is seems so overwhelming.
Whatever the reason, I am posting now. And yes I am also watching Conan.
So now for an update.
Mckay is now over a MONTH old. With each baby time seems to slip away so much faster than the last. Maybe that is because more of my day is spent wiping bottoms, faces, and hands, kissing "owies" better, and explaining for the 100th time in a day the reason "why?". Also, Mckay has been such a different experience for us. Both Kennedy and Levi were very healthy babies. The labors were easy and without complication. Not the case with Mckay. the labor was...Well, it was. The first night home with Mckay was not much better. I was reading a book to Kennedy that night and I heard Judd screaming my name over and over. I thought to myself "good grief, be patient man". I got up and walked out of Kennedy's room, and there at the door stood Judd holding Mckay who was pale and covered in throw up. He wasn't breathing. I grabbed him from Judd, ran to his room and started suctioning his mouth out with the bulb syringe (aka"booger-sucker"). Thank you Army medic training for the quick reaction. Judd had been walking past his room and heard him gagging so he grabbed him. After he started breathing normally I just held him and sobbed. I was so tired from... well, everything. There are no words to describe the fear and sadness of knowing that you could have lost a child. None. The thoughts that ran through my head: what if Judd hadn't heard him?, what if we had been sleeping, if.. If. I didn't sleep that night. I had Judd move his crib into our room so I could have him right by me. I woke up to even the slightest sounds, and when I would fall asleep I would jerk awake from dreams of Mckay choking. It took a few days for me to calm down enough to feel comfortable just using the baby monitor at night.
At McKay's 2 week check up the doctor found a heart murmur and sent us straight to the cardiologist. We were at the hospital doing tests that day from noon until 5. After the 12 lead EKG the doctor came in and listened to his heart. He said "there are normal and abnormal murmurs. his falls into the category of abnormal." My heart sank. I began to wonder if I somehow caused this... After all I didn't know I was pregnant until I was 2 months along. I was working out like crazy, and I'm pretty sure I was eating sushi :).. All the little things I had done started running through my mind. We then went into another room for an ultrasound of his heart. I was prepared for the worst since the doctor had already told me he had a hole through his ventricle septum. After watching his little heart beat in black and white wondering what went wrong the doctor came in to look at a few structures more closely. He then said that he has a hole between his atria which is normal for babies, but is supposed to close within the first 24 hours after birth. On top of that he had a "kinked" left pulmonary artery, which is actually what was causing the murmur. Both, he said, should hopefully heal without intervention. We just have to watch him very closely for signs of heart failure or difficulty breathing. They'll continue to monitor his heart at his checkups, and if nothing changes within 6 months they are going to talk about what our options are.
Breath. Pictures. Change of subject.
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| I love baby feet :) |
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| During the ultrasound |
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| On the days we stay inside we find ways of entertaining ourselves. Tortilla chips anyone? |
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| Elephants on parade. I found this little family of elephants in a line all over the house. They are fast little guys, and would make their way from one room to another in a matter of minutes. I can't tell you how many times they were crushed by my rear. Sorry Dumbo, didn't see you there. |
Here was the best part of Halloween for me:
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| When we first put our chicken into his costume... Not too happy. |
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| Off to preschool as a "dinosaur t-rex" She informs Judd that Dinosaurs can open doors. My sister made this costume. I love hand me downs. |
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| Jameson and Kennedy |
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| Our spooktacular (literally) last minute trunk or treat decorations. We went to the dentist before hand so I used their dental floss to hang them. Yes, I am resourceful. |
12 October 2011
Buh bye office
Instead of trying to put two kids (on very different schedules) into the same room we opted to get rid of our office and turn it into a room for Kennedy. We let her pick the color... Maybe not the best idea. It reminds me a little of a Mexican hacienda. Anyway, she loves it and that's all that matters . Although when the boys start sharing a room we will turn this back into our office, and definitely repaint :)
10 October 2011
Because it's a tradition.
We couldn't bring a baby home without having some type of remodeling going on at our house. It just wouldn't have felt right. Well, not really. I would have preferred that my house was in one piece, but eh what can you do? Our washer and dryer started to putter out so we decided to go get new ones. And we couldn't put those nice shiny things into our old nasty storage room. Here are some before pictures... Well, more like in process pictures of how the room looked.
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| It really wasn't this messy, I promise. This is after moving everything out of the way so we could move the cabinets. |
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| Gotta love that green floor. |
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| This was our kitchen for 2 weeks while Judd remodeled. It drove my BATTY. |
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| YAY!! After new walls/paint/tile/lights & shelving :) |
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| I'm in awe too Levi. He was entranced by the new dryer. |
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| After I moved everything in from the kitchen. |
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| The kids love running in circles in there. |
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| Ahhh, that's a pretty picture :) Thanks Judd. |
29 September 2011
A Baby Story
Have you ever seen that show on TLC? I am addicted to it while I am pregnant, and then as soon as I am all done in the baby department I have no interest in watching. Anyway, here is our "baby story"
I had been having really bad back pain and contractions for a couple weeks. The contractions would be really regular and strong for about an hour then putter out. I was dilated to a 2 and 75% for over two weeks so the Dr decided to strip my membranes (I know, sounds disgusting, and really it is.)
We thought that this would do the trick, but I still went another week before anything really happened.
I was up all Friday night with contractions, but I refused to go to the hospital until I felt like I was going to die. So Saturday morning I hit my "going to die" threshold and we got to the hospital around 7 AM. They had admitted us by 8 because my contractions were so strong and regular. Unfortunately I was STILL dilated to a 2 despite all of the painful contractions. So they decided to break my water, and start me on pitocin to get things moving. DIDN'T work. We were sure that this labor would go like our last 2 kids. We were in and out, and everything went fast and without problems, we were prepared to be out of there by noon... Somewhere in here I got an epidural (thank heaven for modern medicine) By 3 PM I was still at a 2, even though I was on the max dose of pitocin (20). They decided to put in an intrauterine monitor to see how efficient they were, and turns out they were little wimpy non effective contractions, although they were just as painful as effective ones would be. So they increased the pitocin to 30, which was way over the max limit. This got things going, but it also caused the baby to go into distress and have a bowel movement in utero. This was NOT good news. They then discovered that he was posterior and that is why he wasn't making his way down. By 7 PM, I was almost complete but the baby's heart rate was dropping drastically. I started to get really nauseous and made friends with the nice blue emesis bags... Pretty sure I met with 5 of them :O They then decided that the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck.
The doctor had to use forceps to get him out and I was snipped from back to front (OUCH) to help him get out faster. Because he was in distress and he had meconium staining the NICU team was there waiting to take him. After cutting the umbilical cord (that was wrapped around his neck twice) the Dr picks him up and starts going toward the NICU team when he SLIPS!! There was an audible gasp from the 14 plus people in the room and everyone reached out to grab the doctor. He caught the baby upside down by his hips with his head about a foot from the ground. I just tucked my head under the blankets and cried. at this point I had nothing left. I just couldn't handle anymore. It felt like minutes before I heard him cry, I just watched him lay there limply. I have never felt so helpless. Because he wasn't breathing well they had to take him to the NICU and put him on a CPAP. He also was given an IV because he wasn't able to get the cord blood as it was cut while he was still inside me.
They moved me down to mother and baby while Judd stayed with him in the NICU. By this time it was almost midnight. When I finally got to hold my little guy I just broke down. I can't remember the last time I had cried like that. To have him be ok after all of that was for lack of better words the biggest relief.
Kennedy and Levi came the next morning to visit, and to my surprise they were both really good with this new little guy. Levi was extra cute, hopefully I can upload this video of his reaction.
We also had a scare the next morning when the pediatrician told us he might not be able to hear out of his right ear. He didn't pass the hearing exam and they needed to repeat it the next day. He did pass the test the next day, but only because the technician put the probe really far into his ear canal (which is apparently very tiny, and this is the reason he couldn't hear). The good news is that he has all of the right parts, the bad news is that he is most likely going to need to have surgery to open his ear canal farther so that he can hear well and so that his speech develops normally. I am just glad that he CAN hear. It could be a lot worse, and I am really thankful that it isn't.
I had been having really bad back pain and contractions for a couple weeks. The contractions would be really regular and strong for about an hour then putter out. I was dilated to a 2 and 75% for over two weeks so the Dr decided to strip my membranes (I know, sounds disgusting, and really it is.)
We thought that this would do the trick, but I still went another week before anything really happened.
I was up all Friday night with contractions, but I refused to go to the hospital until I felt like I was going to die. So Saturday morning I hit my "going to die" threshold and we got to the hospital around 7 AM. They had admitted us by 8 because my contractions were so strong and regular. Unfortunately I was STILL dilated to a 2 despite all of the painful contractions. So they decided to break my water, and start me on pitocin to get things moving. DIDN'T work. We were sure that this labor would go like our last 2 kids. We were in and out, and everything went fast and without problems, we were prepared to be out of there by noon... Somewhere in here I got an epidural (thank heaven for modern medicine) By 3 PM I was still at a 2, even though I was on the max dose of pitocin (20). They decided to put in an intrauterine monitor to see how efficient they were, and turns out they were little wimpy non effective contractions, although they were just as painful as effective ones would be. So they increased the pitocin to 30, which was way over the max limit. This got things going, but it also caused the baby to go into distress and have a bowel movement in utero. This was NOT good news. They then discovered that he was posterior and that is why he wasn't making his way down. By 7 PM, I was almost complete but the baby's heart rate was dropping drastically. I started to get really nauseous and made friends with the nice blue emesis bags... Pretty sure I met with 5 of them :O They then decided that the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck.
The doctor had to use forceps to get him out and I was snipped from back to front (OUCH) to help him get out faster. Because he was in distress and he had meconium staining the NICU team was there waiting to take him. After cutting the umbilical cord (that was wrapped around his neck twice) the Dr picks him up and starts going toward the NICU team when he SLIPS!! There was an audible gasp from the 14 plus people in the room and everyone reached out to grab the doctor. He caught the baby upside down by his hips with his head about a foot from the ground. I just tucked my head under the blankets and cried. at this point I had nothing left. I just couldn't handle anymore. It felt like minutes before I heard him cry, I just watched him lay there limply. I have never felt so helpless. Because he wasn't breathing well they had to take him to the NICU and put him on a CPAP. He also was given an IV because he wasn't able to get the cord blood as it was cut while he was still inside me.
They moved me down to mother and baby while Judd stayed with him in the NICU. By this time it was almost midnight. When I finally got to hold my little guy I just broke down. I can't remember the last time I had cried like that. To have him be ok after all of that was for lack of better words the biggest relief.
Kennedy and Levi came the next morning to visit, and to my surprise they were both really good with this new little guy. Levi was extra cute, hopefully I can upload this video of his reaction.
We also had a scare the next morning when the pediatrician told us he might not be able to hear out of his right ear. He didn't pass the hearing exam and they needed to repeat it the next day. He did pass the test the next day, but only because the technician put the probe really far into his ear canal (which is apparently very tiny, and this is the reason he couldn't hear). The good news is that he has all of the right parts, the bad news is that he is most likely going to need to have surgery to open his ear canal farther so that he can hear well and so that his speech develops normally. I am just glad that he CAN hear. It could be a lot worse, and I am really thankful that it isn't.
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| For dramatic effect. :) |
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| My toes turned into little Vienna sausages. Sooo swollen |
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| My little man. Definitely gave me quite the scare... Hopefully he quits that. I can't handle the stress... Oh, how I am not looking forward to the teenage years. |
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| In the NICU with the CPAP on. :( |
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| This was Levi's reaction to McKay :) |
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| Kennedy loves being a big sister. Unlike last time, she understands a lot more and is excited about him. |
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| Proud daddy |
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| Pointing at (as Kennedy calls him) "baby uhm-kay" |
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