Pregnancy Update

The past few weeks have been chaotic and emotional. We are very excited to be expecting another addition into our family, a little girl! I never truly realized the blessing it was to have easy pregnancies with our first two children. I am not so lucky this time around, but still very grateful that things are continuing to progress.

About three weeks ago I first started experiencing bleeding around 20 wks. I was in and out of the hospital that week until they admitted me over the weekend until the bleeding would stop. The doctors suspected a chronic abruption of the placenta. I was released home on bed rest. During my 20wk ultrasound, the doctor believed that I had a complete placenta previa. The previa diagnosis was odd because it didn't show on other ultrasounds.

On Friday, July 22nd, I was experiencing heavy bleeding and again went into the hospital. The bleeding was causing contractions, which in turn would cause more bleeding. After a couple shots they were able to stop the contractions and slow the bleeding. The doctors explained that if the bleeding got worse they would have to do an emergency c-section. I was currently 23 wks along. They sent in the neonatalologist to discuss our options. After we decided that we would want to resuscitate if the need for a c-section arose the doctors gave me a round of steroid shots to help the baby's lung development. The doctors were able to get things settled down and stable and I was able to go home on Monday.

It was during this time that my team of doctors got together to discuss my due date. My original due date was Dec 3, but was moved up after my first doctor appt to Nov 20. However, during the 20 wk ultrasound, the baby's measurements were within 7-8 days of the Dec 3 due date. So it was decided to move back to the Dec 3 due date to cover all the bases and we will track the baby's development in regular scans further along in the pregnancy. It is also in the plan to give me another round of steroid shots when I hit 24 wks with the Dec 3 due date.

On Friday, July 29th I started experiencing painful, regular contractions. Again, into the hospital we went. They put in an IV with magnesium sulfate to stop the contractions. They slowly lowered the dose of the mag. until they were able to take me off it Sunday morning and sent me home with a few doses of indomethacin.

While I was in the hospital they did another ultrasound. There were two high risks doctors and three residents there with me trying to figure out what was going on. The ultrasound showed the placenta on the left side, away from the cervix. So my diagnosis gets changed again! It is back to the original diagnosis of chronic abruption of the placenta.

Chronic abruption of the placenta is when a piece of the placenta is detached from the uterus and there is a higher risk for preterm labor and stillbirth. I will continue to be on close watch and the doctors have said to expect to be in and out of the hospital through out the pregnancy.

Through all of this chaos I have seen how much we have been blessed by our Heavenly Father. He has blessed us with wonderful friends that have been there to take care of kids, bring meals, and just check in on us to make sure we are okay. He has blessed us with loving family members. My sisters Michele, Bekah, and C.C. have taken time out of their lives to be with us and help while I'm on bedrest. I have a wonderful mother and mother-in-law who are both planning trips to come and stay with us and help. And even more family and friends that have kept us in their prayers.

Most of all, our Heavenly Father has blessed us with His love. I have been so grateful to have the priesthood in our home and the strength that I have received from priesthood blessings and the knowledge that I have of the gospel. It has strengthened my faith that Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us, and even if we don't know what that plan is, He will be there for us, to comfort us and guide us.

Family Pics 2010

Turkey Day

We had a great Thanksgiving this year! My neighbor, Krista and I hosted the dinner and had a grand total of 36 people in our little homes. To accommodate for space we cleared the furniture out of our house and put it in Krista's living room, where there was then plenty of seats to watch the game. The food was in Krista's dining room and there were about five tables set up in our living room and dining room. It was a packed house, but it was great to gather as friends and be family for the day.


Of course there was plenty of food and no one went hungry!





Spicers, Tuckers, Tennys, and Goolsbys getting ready to eat.


Roberts, Jolleys, Clarks, and Schappers


The girls hitting up the ads to get ready for Black Friday. (which was great by the way)!

Halloween

I finally did it!! By that I mean updated the blog, well its not exactly updated, but at least you have something to look at other than Tate's orange cast. After numerous requests, here they are at last... Pics of my two adorable little vampires!! Bentli was originally going to be a princess, big surprise right? I decided that I would have Tate be her knight. Well, Bentli did surprise me when she informed me that she changed her mind and wanted to be a vampire. Since I was having a hard time finding an affordable knight costume, I decided that would be a great idea. So I picked up the fabic from Joann's and made the capes and sashes without too much headache.

Bentli got the phrase, "I vant ta suck your blood" down pat and loved chasing Tate around the house in her cape. Tate was less enthusiastic about the cape and resisted wearing it... until he figured out that he could get candy with it. Amazing what candy can do right?

We attended the ward Halloween party at the church with the customary trunk-or-treat (except it was inside the church because our church house has next to no parking lot). It was a lot of fun and the kids were on cloud nine with all the candy. I swear the candy turned them into real life Gremlins. The next day Tate would angrily yell at me "I want CANDY!!" So much fun dealing with the aftershock of Halloween.

Tate's cheese ball smile, believe it or not it is a smile not a grimace.

The week before Halloween I took the kids to a pumpkin patch out in New Jersey with all our Jersey friends. They had a blast on the hayride and picking out their pumpkin. Followed of course with apple cider and apple cider donuts, an East coast staple in the fall.


We carved pumpkins, or should I say, Jared and I carved pumpkins. Bentli was too grossed out by the pumpkins guts to touch it and Tate follows Bentli so he wouldn't touch it either.

Here is the finished product. The "T" is the logo for Temple University and their mascot is an owl. Bentli's pumpkin is the ghost and Tate's was the owl. They were pretty proud of their pumpkins that they watched mom carve.

We had a great time this Halloween. Bentli told me she wanted everyday to be Halloween. I have a feeling that she will be saying something along the same line this December.

My orange cast

Tate sure knows how to start the summer off! We have had a lot of fun the past two weeks of our vacation, but this week Tate and Bentli were holding hands jumping on the trampoline (of course), and they fell on each other. Bentli fared a lot better than Tate.

The poor guy has a partial spiral fracture on his tibia. It is close to his growth plate so they are being careful with it and casting it for a month. He loves orange and calls his cast "my orange". We will take him in for an other x-ray in a couple weeks to make sure it is healing properly.

He has been a real trooper and is learning to get around pretty well now, he slides around on his butt (he is going to wear a hole in all his pants). He even can make it down the stairs. At first he would just sit in one place and when he was ready to move he would shout, "Mom... MOM!! I need you". If anything I will get a work out packing this kid around!

Disappointment

There is nothing like the satisfaction of a newly cleaned bathroom, freshly bathed kids, and knowing you are moments away from sleeping kids and your hidden stash of chocolate mint cookies. And nothing can describe the heartbreaking disappointment of seeing your clean child poop in your spotless tub. Mint chocolate cookies... you're going to have to wait, I have to start over.

Penny for your thoughts?

Bentli has always been a thinker. Many times she is thinking of ways to get around the rules or ways to trick us into saying what she wants to hear. Her thoughts took a different route the other day.
I was driving to a consignment shop with Tate and Bentli in the back seat, both of them staring out the window, me up front hoping that I make it to our destination without any screaming or yelling. Bentli then decided to let me in on her thoughts saying, "Mom, what will happen to you and Dad when me and Tate grow up?"
I was wondering what directions she was going with that- where are we going to live, what are we going to be doing, etc. So I asked, "What do you mean?"
And I get, "Are you and Dad going to die when we're grown up?"
Not the direction I was expecting, I'm not sure how to handle my four year old anticipating my death. I explained that even though everyone dies someday, that hopefully we won't die RIGHT when they grow up and I will be the grandma for her kids. Curiosity satisfied Bentli continued staring out the window.
A couple days later while eating breakfast Bentli asked me, "Mom, if you are going to be a grandma when I grow up, who will be my mom?"
I breathed a sigh of relief and smiled knowing that my four year old still does love me.