Playdoh Tragedy

For Jadon's birthday, Derek and I bought him a Playdoh kit. Turned out to be a good gift- he requests to play with it just about every day, usually around meal time- either after breakfast or lunch, or while I'm trying to prepare dinner.

So this morning after breakfast he requested playdoh before I had even finished cleaning all the oatmeal off of him. I dont mind it, its actually pretty fun for adults too if you use your creativity! I told Derek one day that I dont know who is having more fun with the playdoh, me or Jadon!

Jadon especially likes it when I make snowmen out of the playdoh. This morning I told him i'd make a snow family, so I made a daddy with a top hat, a mommy with huge hair, and a baby. When I finished we had a "photo shoot" of the snow family. Jadon was just dying to get his little paws on them!

The Snow Family

Jadon eagerly awaiting to play with the snow family

Here I posed the snowfamily in front of Jadon and told him to wait until I took the picture before he touched them.... and I said to him "ok, say chee-" before I could even finish saying cheese and getting the picture snapped, he just couldnt take it anymore, and grabbed for them.

Within seconds he had the poor family completely ripped apart, and some of their body parts were seen scattered around the floor. Such a tragedy!

Home Improvement

Its always this time of year when I start thinking about projects to do around the house to improve it. I think its because I get antsy from being cooped up in the house all day.... and especially the last 2 months have been that way!

Usually its the yard I start thinking about, but there's so much I want to do to the yard I dont even know where to start. Plus there's the part where I have to convince my husband to let me do things. And this year we've got a little critter living underground who has decided to make our yard his permanent residence. The backyard is a mess and will need to be re-done thanks to that little guy. You can actually walk around and feel his tunnels because you sink into the yard. Anyways, so there's so much that needs to be done with the yard that I feel overwhelmed by it, and I'm never satisfied with how it looks.

So now i'm thinking about stuff that I want to do inside instead. Usually when we do something inside, I like it and am satisfied and dont need to change it. Basically the only thing we've done so far is the two upstairs bathrooms and the downstairs windows. One thing that i've been pondering doing for a few years now is the kitchen. I've been thinking about painting the cabinets white and then painting the walls a color other than the white that they currently are.... probably a light taupe/tan color or something? And then someday we'd like to have all of our trim and doors white (right now they are a fake oak looking color that I cant stand.)

Just curious what everyone thinks? Here's the kitchen right now: Wow, it really is small!!!!

Jadon's birthday party

So we had Jadon's birthday party March 14th, and everything went well- except that most of you decided not to show up. Thanks for that. (this does not include our family members that live in other states- you are all off the hook ;)

So, I want to say an extra big Thank You to everyone who did show up- Gramma Debbie, Gramma Karla, Grampa Byron, Daniel, Alayna, David, Jon, Adriana, Jenny and Ryan. Thank you so much for sharing the day with us!!

Here are a few pictures of the day:

Anyways, id write more but i'm not feeling well today. I had 2 days of almost no morning sickness but today its back again. It was the same way with Jadon about this time of the pregnancy... it would go away for a couple days, then come back for a couple, then go away for a couple, back for a couple, until 14.5 weeks it just stopped all together. Today i'm 12 weeks, so if i can just hold out for a tiny bit longer!

Pimples!

So, Jadon has recently learned the word "pimple" and is now saying it all the time, because the first time he said it we laughed, and this kid looooooooves to be laughed at. I think we can thank his dad for that....

Anyways, yesterday at dinner, we had grilled cheese sandwiches. Jadon ate all his sandwich, so I asked him what else he wanted. His answer: "Pimples!" (of course he sat there with a big grin waiting for me to laugh at him!) Who can resist him!? ;)

Surprise! I'm pregnant! And no, i'm not joking!

Yes, this was planned- less than a week in advance. ;) We were not going to try again until this summer, but then January rolled around, and I kept thinking about it, and prayed about it, and had a really, really good feeling about it, so we decided to try. I knew when I got myself into this that there was a very real possibility that I could miscarry again, and I am ok with that and prepared to deal with it. Not to mention, there was the possibility that I wouldnt even get pregnant anyways.... afterall, you only have like a 20% chance of becoming pregnant each month. (Just for the record, I have a 100% track record so far!)

Anyways, I tested positive 3 days before "Aunt Flo" was due. I tested again on the day she was due, and again it was positive. So I immediately called my OB, she saw me that same day, got me started on progesterone suppositories (yes, suppositories) and baby asprin. And she sent me for bloodwork to get my hormone levels tested, and they were all perfect. And she told me to come back in 3 weeks.

1st positive test

Second positive test

So, at just over 7 weeks, we went in again, had an ultrasound and got to see a little bean and a heartbeat. It was beating nice and strongly- somewhere in the 150's bpm. Again, I had bloodwork done, and all the numbers again came back perfectly! Since my doctor knew how apprehensive I was about the pregnancy, she was having me come back every 2 weeks, or even more frequently if I felt like I needed it.

First Ultrasound- 7ish weeks

So, at just over 9 weeks we went again, had another ultrasound and saw that the baby was much bigger and the heart was beating away still! No bloodwork done this time.

Second ultrasound- 9ish weeks

So, that brings us to today. Tomorrow (tuesday) we'll be about 11 weeks. Today we saw the doctor again, and this time the nurse tried to find a heartbeat with the doppler. At first she found a heartbeat, and it was really really slow for a fetus, so I was a bit worried. Then she said that she thought that was my heartbeat..... which made sense because my own heartbeat was beating the exact same. So she moved the doppler over a little and instantly found a rapidly beating little heart!! 160 bpm, which is the same as Jadon's was! The sound of a little tiny heartbeat is one of the best sounds ever.

Anyways, i've been horribly exhausted for most of the pregnancy- HORRIBLY exhausted. I've been nauseated since around 5.5 weeks, and it got really really bad around weeks 7 and 8. Since then its mellowed out, but is pretty consistent and is worse in the evenings after 8pm. Sometimes its so bad that I cant even brush my teeth at night. I've also been dealing with horrible heartburn and indigestion. And i've had several migraines as well. This pregnancy has been pretty similar to when I was pregnant with Jadon. Except with Jadon, the nausea was worse and the exhaustion wasnt as bad.

So, now you know why i've been "distant"- in real life, and in blogging life! Its just too exhausting to do much of anything- including blogging! :) Anyways, just a few more weeks and we'll be "free and clear".... which means absolutely nothing to me!

Happy Birthday Jadon!! We love you so much! Love Mommy & Daddy

3/13/09- 2 years

3/13/08- 1 year
3/14/07- 12 hours old

Jadon's birth story- very long!

So my mind has been on Jadon's upcoming birthday alot this week as I remember the events that took place two years ago when he came into this world. I dont know if I have ever written about his birth story before, so I thought id share it today.

It all began when he was 34 weeks and 2 days. I was on strict bedrest because 2 days prior I had lost my mucus plug, and my blood pressure was up. Derek came home from work and we had dinner, then Derek cleaned up the kitchen while I laid on the couch and chatted with him. At about 10pm I was laying on the couch talking with Derek, when all of the sudden it felt like something inside me popped. I moved a little to get comfortable and realized that the pop that I felt was my water breaking.

We called the doctor and she had us come right in to the ER where she examined me and determined that yes, my water had definately broken. They also hooked me up to a monitor to see if I was having any contractions. I wasnt. So, the plan was to start me on an IV and antibiotics, and keep in the hospital on bedrest, and then when I hit 35 weeks they would induce me.

So, for the next 4 days, I was stuck in the hospital bed, only allowed to get up to use the potty, and to take quick 5 minute showers. Time went by so slowly. Every 3 hours round the clock the nurses would come in and check my vitals and give me more antibiotics to keep any infections away. And every morning they'd hook me up to the monitor again to see if I was having any contractions, and to make sure that the baby was doing ok. I had lots of visitors, and Derek would come after work and stay until 10pm or so, and then he would go home just to sleep.

In the early morning hours on the day before my induction was to take place, I started getting some really bad cramps that I thought were really really bad gas pains. This made complete sense to me because the whole time I was in the hospital I had not had to go #2 once!!!! (sorry if thats too much info!) So, I figured I was just going to need to use the potty and i'd feel better. But, I never felt like I needed to go, so that never happened, and all that night that I was sleeping, I was having dreams that I was in labor, then I'd wake up with another bad cramp.

The next morning, I woke up starving, and ordered my breakfast. When it got there, I went to take a bite, and all of the sudden I felt ill. I thought that one of the nurses must have passed on a stomach bug to me or something. So I didnt eat. Then at lunch, the cafeteria called me to ask if I wanted to order lunch... I ordered, but didnt eat any of it. I dont remember having any of my "gas pains" that morning, and im guessing that I didnt have any because nothing ever showed up on my morning monitoring.

After that, things are a little fuzzy. The pains started up again at some point, and I know I ended up going #2 at some point that day, but that didnt help the pains. When Derek got off of work, he came up to see me... I think it was about 4:30pm. I told him I was having cramps, and I know I went to the bathroom again. Oddly enough, it never occured to me that I was having contractions!

Anyways, it was sometime during this that Derek summoned for the nurse and told her that I was having cramps that he thought were contractions. She asked how painful they were on a scale of 1-10, I said 7. She asked how frequent they were and how long they lasted... they were about every 3 minutes, and they lasted for well over a minute, so I felt like I hardly had time to recover from one when the next one would start. (How in the world did I think that these werent contractions!?!?!)

The on-call doctor showed up shortly thereafter and gave me an exam, and said I was dilated to 7 already, and they immediately wheeled me into labor and delivery and asked if I had thought about pain medications at all, to which I calmly said, "I want an epidural." It had been my plan from almost the beginning of the pregnancy to get an epidural. Right before the anesthesiologist got there, the contractions started getting REALLY intense. Its funny, I hate needles, but after being in the hospital those 4 days, I cant even remember how many different IV's they gave me, and how many blood draws I had, so by the time the anesthesiologist was inserting a big needle into my spine, I wasnt even worried about it hurting. Not to mention, the contractions were coming so intensely and frequently that I just wanted some relief. Those intense contractions are EXHAUSTING, and I give kudos to anyone who labors and gives birth without any pain medication!

Oh the sweet relief I felt when the epidural started working!! I felt like I suddenly had energy, and it was humorous to me when id see that I was having a contraction on the monitor, but couldnt feel a thing! Especially when they were really big contractions. The beauty of modern medicine! :)

About the time that the epidural started working, the doctor came and checked me again, and by then I was fully dilated. I started pushing at about 8pm, and Jadon was born at 8:53pm at 34 weeks and 6 days- 5lbs 6oz, 19inches. Derek was sobbing, and I didn't shed a tear. Its funny, we always imagined it would be me sobbing, and Derek would be fine. I think for me I was just sortof in shock. I wasnt expecting to be having a baby that day, and just the whole experience was kindof surreal. Anyways, they put Jadon on my belly as soon as he came out, and I know it sounds horrible, but he was covered in stuff, and for a split second I was thinking to myself "do they want me to touch him? he's all dirty!" Again, I blame it on shock.

After that, everything's kindof a blur. I remember after awhile they took Jadon away so that he could go to the NICU because his breathing was a little labored. Derek went with them, and suddenly I was left all alone in the room. The nurse brought me some food, and I ate a little, then got the shakes really bad. The nurse informed me that was a normal side effect of the epidural. As soon as my epidural had worn off, the nurse wanted me get up to go to the bathroom so she could make sure I was able to pee ok, and to help me clean up. After that she wheeled me to the NICU so that I could see my beautiful son. Poor little guy was hooked up to all kinds of monitors, and had an IV in his hand. :*( But he was sleeping peacefully.

Eventually they wanted me to try breast feeding him. Holy cow, let me tell you, breastfeeding was much harder than labor and delivery. I had no idea what I was doing, and all the nurses were telling me different things to do. I was so confused. It did take me and Jadon a GOOD 3 months to finally get breastfeeding down pat.

Jadon ended up staying in the NICU for 1 week, then we finally got to bring him home and after that we finally felt like a family. Unfortunately he had pesky jaundice and had to lay on a billy blanket for several weeks, which made it really hard for us to hold him and bond with him.

Anyways, thats the story of Jadon's birth. Its probably not as exciting to anyone else but me, but I look back at it all with great fondness. There's something very empowering and wonderful about giving birth, and I remember when I was sitting in the room all by myself right after i'd had Jadon, I remember thinking to myself "you just had a baby... you survived one of your biggest fears." I am a weenie when it comes to pain.... actually, let me rephrase that.... I am a weenie when I think about pain, but I really have a much higher pain tolerance than I give myself credit for.

I will be interested to see what I chose for pain relief when I deliver my next baby. But right now, I cant believe that my little man is going to be 2! I thought that his first year of life went by fast, but holy cow, the second year was much faster!!!! I remember last year on his birthday, I set my cell phone alarm to go off at 8:53pm so that I would know that exactly a year ago, I gave birth to my sweet little guy. Unfortunately he was already in bed asleep so I wasnt able to tell him "a year ago at this very moment, you were born!" Not that he would have understood anyways! ;)

If you read that whole thing, I am impressed! :)

Daddy cut Jadon's hair late last week... he actually did a pretty good job! Its hard to cut hair from a head that wont quit moving! I have been putting off cutting Jadon's hair because I knew it would be a huge task, and I knew if I cut Jadon's hair, id have to cut Derek's hair also, which I HATE doing. But Derek refuses to go anywhere to get his hair cut, he says they always screw up, and plus i'm free. So, Derek decided to cut Jadon's hair himself! Now if only he would cut his own hair too.... ;) So here's Jadon's haircut:

On Saturday we took Jadon to the lambing barns so he could see the baby lambs. It turned out to be a pretty good day to go, there were not many people there. Unfortunately it was really windy and freeeeeezing cold. Jadon enjoyed it though, and it was free. I've been wanting to go for awhile now.... I used to go with my mom when my siblings were little.

Sorry, I know how unexciting the pictures of the back of Jadon's head are, but I couldnt get him to look at me long enough for me to get pictures of his face! :)

Signs of life

I realize its been awhile since I last blogged. Its just been very slow around here, and not much to talk about. I'm anxiously awaiting daylight savings, and last night after we finished dinner the sun was just starting to go down, I was thinking that next week at this time, it will be an hour later.... so it would be 7pm instead of 6pm. This means that soon we'll be able to go for walks again in the evening... something Derek and I enjoy doing together, and of course Jadon loves being outside!

I've been noticing for several weeks now that my trees are all starting to get buds on them... and our rose bushes also are starting to show signs of life once again! Its this time of year when I long to be outside in the yard. Its also one of my favorite times of the year.... the rainy winter weather always leaves everything around here looking brown, saturated and dead, and I always feel like the yard looks like such a mess. So, to see little signs of life sprouting up all over reminds me that spring is on its way and this dreary season is slowly leaving!! And soon it will be time for me to be out in the yard getting dirty planting flowers again!! :)