Pregnancy update

I decided it was about time to document the fact that I'm pregnant.

I wasn't as good as some in taking weekly photos to track my progress. But life goes on.

Here's one when I was a little past my halfway mark.

22-1/2 weeks



Here's 35 weeks. Somehow I've got to get my photographer to not take pictures where the shadow outlines me and makes me look twice as large as I already feel. This is three days before Christmas. I think the holiday to-do lists on top of being pregnant is wearing me out.



35 weeks

I had a check up on Monday, followed up with the Group B Strep test. Hooray! The doctor checked me and said that I was almost dilated to a 2. Hip hip hooray! Looks like this baby will come early like my first two. Three cheers for that because I don't know how much longer of this I can take.

November Recap

It seems the slower I move these days, the faster things overwhelm me. Now the question is how to recap the last two and a half months without overloading.

Rain helping Mesa finish her breakfast

Mesa had her 18-month checkup on November 5th. Her stats are as follows:

Weight: 32 lbs (98th percentile)

Height: 34" (99th percentile)

Overall, Mesa is just Big 'N' Tall (in a good way)

They measured/weighed Rain while we were there because she didn't want to be left out. I thought it was interesting to note that Rain weighed 38lbs--only 6 lbs more than Mesa. Mesa is already wearing Rain's socks and most of her smaller-end clothes. I guess that's what sisters are for, right? Wardrobe swapping at such a tender age. Rain does have some height on Mesa, though, so lengthwise, swapping clothes is a challenge in the height department.

Mesa had one shot and didn't even cry. Her daddy should be proud. After we left the exam room, both my girls went to the candy drawer. How do they always know where that is? Apparently their candy-homing devices are as well-tuned as mine. =)

The following Monday, November 8th, I went in for surgery on my wrist. Super exciting stuff for anybody's To-Do list, lemme tell ya. After getting to the surgery center, and straightening out some needed changes, they prepped me for surgery. After stripping down to my socks and underwear, I donned a lovely hospital gown and laid on the bed. Immediately the nurse put in not one, but two IV's, one for each hand. YAY!!! --since I love needles and all.

Since I'm pregnant, they wanted to check the baby's vitals before and after surgery, so they had to call in a "special" nurse. And then I got to wait . . . and wait, and watch as patients were wheeled in and out for colonoscopies and prothetics. I was STARVING. I had been fasting since midnight the night before, except for the small glass of apple juice I had to beg for them to allow me to drink that morning at 6AM. And what show do they have on the TV in the patient prep room but a cooking channel. Cruel irony, I'd say.

Disclaimer: Don't read further if surgery stuff makes you squeamish.

After waiting for over an hour, they came to wheel me away, leaving Shane behind. Due to the pregnancy, they didn't want to do a general anesthesia, and nor did I. They started a local anesthesia and antibiotic. So in order to the local, they put a tournequet on my arm midway above my elbow. Not only do I detest needles and shots (which are technically quick and relatively painless--in and out), I abhor IV's where they stay in your flesh and twist and tweak with movement. I hate that feeling. I usually hold my hands still or move like a robot to avoid feeling the metal object impaled in my hands moving around. But in order to get the blood out of my left arm, one attendant had me make a fist with my left hand, and then he put his hand over my fist (and IV) and squeezed. Then they took one of those wide surgical stretchy bands and starting with my clenched fist, wrapped it around and around all the way up my arm, choking all the blood out of my arm. I started to get that lovely feeling where you've slept on your arm wrong and it's asleep, but you start getting those painful tingly jabs as it wakes up. However, I could still feel them messing around with my hand as they painted it with a beautiful orange iodine once the rubber band was removed. I kept wiggling my fingers to let them know that I could still feel and control my hand. I didn't want them getting too anxious about cutting before it was all the way numb. Unfortunately I couldn't see the surgey since they had a drape over the rest of me, as if I was having a C-section or something.

Then they started cutting. There were a couple interns there and I could hear them talking and observing the procedure. "Oh, wow, so is that bone?" Super consoling, believe me. My doctor was explaining this and that, which was interesting to me. I wish I could have seen what he was pointing at as he spoke. "See, here is where a cortisone shot should be given in the tendon. Now you can see where they missed the tendon by 1 millimeter and it caused all this fat atrophy here. They were close, but they still missed it."





The only angle I could get that the picture turned out clearly.



More straight-on, but blurry. Two pathetic stitches and some bruising. Boo!

The procedure is called a DeQuervain's Release where they slice along the tendon sheath, opening it up, allowing the inflamed tendon inside more room to move. They also ground off some bone spurs built up around that area. Then two stiches and I was done. I think the whole thing took 10 minutes or less. Feeling was starting to come back in my arm, but my control was still considerably MIA. As an assistant was bandaging me, I was trying to help by lifting my arm this way and that way as he wrapped it. Once, I tried to straighten my arm and it shot out uncontrollably. It's a good thing I didn't knock the assistant out. I think it would have really hurt my wrist. He laughed and told me to be careful because my arm was my enemy right now, and to not knock myself in the face with it.  They bandanged me up in a full-arm wrap and wheeled me away. After meeting up with Shane at the patient-receiving room, they gave me some juice and had me sign lots of paperwork with things such as "Don't operate a vehicle or machinery" and "Don't sign any legal papers". Little did I know that following lunch (because I was still starving) I would spend three hours on a car lot, trade in the ranch truck for a different one, and then drive the truck home from my parents after picking up the girls. So much for following doctor's orders.

After making arrangements for Shane to be home for a least a week to help me out, of the following five days, he spent three days in St. George, and one day looking for some cows that got out.

I couldn't wash dishes, change a diaper, tie my shoes, fasten my bra, fix my hair, or fold clothes, although I did manage to peel three potatoes with one hand, and drive my car (a stickshift) with one hand.

The first day home, I burned my good arm trying to take a casserole out of the oven one-handed, and within minutes, while I was running my arm  under cold water, the girls had each bloodied some part of their anatomy. The whole scenario was rather comical.

And it would only be fitting that Shane be gone during this whole ordeal AND when Rain was struck with a two-week string of diarrhea, which put a serious kink in potty-training progress and created an interesting situation where I had to clean up an accident which was all over Rain, the potty chair, her clothes, and the cream-colored carpet. Several times. One-handed. Perfect.

But life rolls on and I am getting more and more movement back and less pain. I believe they left part of a stitch in and so I am waiting for that to fester and come out.

Halloween recap: Rain was a princess

Rain was a princess

Mesa was "a cowgirl in her long-johns and boots" or in other words, Mom-didn't-have-a-costume-for-me-but-this-outfit-kept-me-warm.

You can also see our improvisation for halloween candy bags. They actually worked quite well.

Can you say 'honey'?

How can you resist a face like this? Rain loves to eat candies that turn her tongue colors so she can look in the mirror at her brightly-colored mouth.

Recently Rain had a pretty serious urinary tract infection (UTI). I was at a loss at how to help her. We ended up in the hospital on a Saturday morning, trying to get a urine sample from an un-potty-trained-youngster. She got a shot in her leg and a round of antibiotics. But for days we had alarmingly bloody urine in her diapers and VERY unhappy little girl. Everytime it started to burn she would say she wanted a band-aid on it. I honestly wish it was that simple. I never want to do that again.  

One day I was napping after church when Rain needed help getting a shirt on. After I helped her, she brought in her tricycle and said she needed help fixing it. I wasn't sure what she needed fixed, and I wasn't ready to get up from my nap, so I asked her if Daddy could fix it. To this she responded, "Can you say honey?" This seemed an odd response and so I rephrased my comment and told her to take her tricycle to daddy and daddy could make it work. Again she said, "Can you say honey?" I thought I was hearing her wrong until it clicked. When I want Shane's help with something, I say, "Honey, can you  . . . ?" In essence, she had picked up that Honey=Help. So she was asking me to call Daddy to help us. Now her comment made sense: "Can you say "Honey"?

The other night Rain wanted me to lie down with her after her stories. Next thing I knew it was 10:30, I was asleep on Rain's bed, with every one of her stuffed animals next to me and Rain was playing happily in her room. I am forever finding dolls and animals tucked into my bed such as the picture below. I'm glad they are developing some motherly instincts.

The girls are having a picnic with a friend. Here they are getting ready to say the blessing on the food. It was too cute not to snap a picture.

Until next time!

Some old quotes

April Quote board

Whenever we are driving, particularly as we are going down a hill, Rain will say, "Look at you, Simba!"
I'm not sure what connection she has made mentally to always say that, but there you have it.

Rain runs into the house with a blade of grass.
Rain: "Taste a grass?"
Mom: Yes, you can taste the grass. What does it taste like?
Rain: Taste, . . . like candy!

Four Years

It's our 4th wedding anniversary today. Shane's been gone again this week. He's up on 50 Mile Mountain checking the cows. But if nothing goes wrong, he should be back by tonight. That means I should probably cook a real dinner tonight. I've spent the day taking care of the girls, petsitting two dogs, mending yet another pair of pants for Shane, and trying not to scratch the two dozen mosquito bites I sustained (on my face and neck) while taking a trail ride out for Shane the other night while he was gone.

Four years. It seems so long and so short at the same time. I'd venture to say this has been our most challenging year so far. But we're still here and we still love each other, so I'd say we are doing alright.

Shane has put in many long, hard, hot hours providing for us and I really appreciate how hard he works. It makes me want to work harder for him, too.

I would love to sprinkle this long post with wedding pictures but I can't seem to find them since most of our belongings have been boxed up since before our wedding day. This causes me no small amount of consternation--both the fact that I have lost my wedding pictures and that I have lived in my home for a year now and still have a garage full of boxes to sort through.

My next choice would be pictures of us since we got married. But alas, I haven't really found any of us together. I am not a big fan of being in front of the camera and I am usually the one taking the pictures, so these are also a poor substitute.

Sooo, the next obvious choice is to post pictures of the products of our marriage, since those are typically plentiful and hard to choose only a few.

Off to conquer the world!

Sharing popsicles with Dad

Tickle TIME!

After watching Dad cut potatoes for Dutch Oven Potatoes, Mesa is certain she is up to the task.

"Dad, you can't fool me. I know this isn't the real thing."

How did I get down here?

I know I JUST had a bath, but I STILL want to play outside.

Maybe it's time we get her a bigger bed, eh?

Playing in the water fountains at the park.

Entertaining ourselves while Dad works hard.

Can't you tell we are contributing to the project?

Illegal fireworks when we have two cops for neighbors.

Mesa: "Where's mine?"

Surprise! I found some of the whole family.

Riding together in the 4th of July Parade.

Now that it has taken ALL of naptime to get all the pictures uploaded and the right size (maybe this is why I'm horrible at blogging regularly), I shall post this and try to make a presentable anniversary dinner. Wish me luck.

Oh where, oh where, has the month of May gone . . .

Wow, is it really June? My goal was to post at least one more time before the month of May was up. Looks like that didn't happen. But that doesn't mean I didn't do anything. Life has been pretty adventurous. I have sooo many projects to do, but it seems like I am doing projects for everyone else. Then, by the end of the day, I am so exhausted, that finally getting to MY projects has lost its appeal to my pillow.

Shane has been gone this whole week rounding up cows and moving them up on the mountain. I've had a sore throat, and Mesa has been feverish and goobery the last couple days. In the mornings, her eyes are glued shut, and I have to soak them to get them open. Poor baby.

But in spite of all that, today was a good day. Today, we made it to an appointment--only ten minutes late. Afterwards, we went to the park. Wrong day to go to the park. It was a boy's youth baseball tournament and there were no less than a hundred little boys and their families swinging bats and throwing balls around. But my girls could care less, except that we had to wait awhile for the swings to open up, and another little girl kept stealing Rain's sippy cup. We went home to lunch, naps, books, and enjoying a nice summer evening.

But thankfully, Shane gets home tomorrow sometime and I might get a little break. Now, along the lines of gardens, since I've been noticing a lot of posts about gardening and yard work. Let's see... Our garden consists of about 5 potato plants that had sprouted in my pantry and Shane put in the ground. I won't post a picture of it because you probably can't see the plants behind all the foxtails. Then comes the lawn. Hmmm. I don't own a mower that works, so I have to borrow the neighbor's mower ALL the time. Because I have been very busy, I haven't mowed it for awhile. It looks horrid, and yet I have chosen to delay even longer, to let it go to seed so that perhaps it might fill in all the patches of dirt that are constant reminders that I have dogs who love to dig. 

But life is still good. I might even get another post in this month.

California Trip – Part I: The Ocean

I'm catching up on some of my oldest, previously-started-but-never-finished blog posts. Beware they are very old. Forget about being slow to post your Easter blog--just wait until I post our Christmas one. Haha. Oh well. So, here we go. Also, be forewarned, this one is mostly a picture narrative.

Shane’s youngest brother, Joseph, graduated from the Marines the week before Christmas and he treated us all to a trip to balmy California for his graduation. While the rest of the family went to the early morning festivities on base, the four of us sneaked away to give Rain her first ocean experience. I’d say it was a hit.

(Notice she was dressed cute for the day. You'll appreciate the fact as the narrative unfolds)

At first we weren’t sure about all that water, even though Dad was there.

So Mom rolled up her pants and tried her hand at negotiation.

(I'm not sure why I bothered. My pants were soaked the rest of the day anyway.)

Nice and slow

Look at all that water!

The weather was nice, but the water was cold. It was December, after all.

She decided she would get down for awhile

"Aahhhh, here comes the water!"

Rain tried to keep her balance as the water swirled around her feet.

I’m not sure what I was explaining, but by Rain’s expression, it must have been pretty grim.

Her pants were so heavy with water, we finally just stripped down to the diaper.

Chasing waves was her favorite part!

Preparing for the next wave. Bring it on!

Going solo . . .dun, dun, dun!

Good thing mom was there for backup.

Mesa slept in her carseat the whole time we were there, which wasn't super long, but long enough for Rain to decide that she loved the ocean and DID NOT want to leave. By the end of the excursion she had lost all fear of the water, and would run straight into the path of the oncoming waves. My fear level heightened considerably as I tried to make her retreat before she was bowled over and lost under the rolling tide.

When it really WAS time to leave, we had to pick Rain up and carry her, kicking and screaming, back to the car. Of course, then she had to stand by the car while I tried to clean the sand off her with wet wipes. Note to self: Next time I head to the ocean, be prepared to douse everything with jugs of water in an attempt to banish all the sand. I'm thinking it's an impossible feat without a good ol' bath/shower. 

But all in all, it was fun and I think Rain was secretly happy, she just was too tired to tell us through the tears at the end.

(Apologies for the bounciness in filming)

(To be continued . . . )

Randomness

This post is a compilation of little snippets of everyday memories I wanted to record. And the pictures don't necessarily correspond with anything, they are also random photos.

• Going out the door, or if she is done “talking,” aka “listening” to me, Rain will say, “Okay, bye!” and walk away.

(I forgot to buckle the high chair seat belt and Mesa started falling out the bottom. It was worse, but I adjusted her before I took the picture for safety's sake.)

• If I get after Rain for something, she cries and runs to me saying “scaredy.” I’m not sure where she learned this word, but she uses it frequently. I promise I’m not abusing my children. If it helps, whenever the dogs bark, she will run to me saying “scaredy.” And oddly enough, she always brings me string and wants to be "tied up". Don't ask me where she is getting that one.

• Lately, we have watched Tinkerbell, almost every night, in 8 separate 10-minute clips from YouTube. When one segment stops, she says “Uh-oh, uh-oh, drop it” (Stopped) in a traumatized voice, and I have to go to the computer to load the next segment. We have really been working on learning patience.

(One of the girls' favorite pastimes:

"Let's See How Fast We Can Empty the Dresser Before Mom Finds Us")

• Rain is getting quite vocal, especially when singing. It’s quite common for her to sing for two hours in her bed during naptime before finally falling asleep. Some favorite lines are:
• “Everbuddy, everybuddy, everbuddy wants to be a CAT!”
• “Wet’s go fwy a kite! Up to the highest hite. Wet’s go fwy a kite!”
• Ol’ Mcdonald had a farm, ee-ii-ee-ii-oooooooooo!”
• “I often go walking, in meadows of clover, . . .”
• “Hakuna, matata”
• “Hey-ya, hey-ya . . .” the drum song from Pocahontas
• Colors of the wind
• Jingle Bells
• Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer
• If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands
• "Tew everbuddy I'm wah, wah, way" (Tell Everybody I'm On My Way from Brother Bear)
• "The wheels on the bus go roun' and roun', doors go opie an shut, opie an shut, etc"

If you haven't noticed, we sing a lot. I use it to distract from unpleasant situations such as diaper changes, or to pass the time in the car when sitting in the car seat for one more milisecond has become insurmountable.

Rain goes to sleep with the Primary Children Songs on cd. I think the Nursery leaders were a little surprised when she could sing all the words to the songs they sang. 

She also has a few medley/combo songs where she will start singing one song, and end with another. Example: “Tinkerbell, tinkerbell . . . jingle all the way”

• One afternoon, I was trying to catch a few winks, so I laid down on the floor while Rain was watching Pocahontas. How long I dozed, I’m not sure, but I awoke to Rain screaming hysterically, and sobbing, “Kokoum, No, Kokoum.” Needless to say, this is a part I always have to fast-forward through now.
• When watching movies where there is trauma such as when Nala is chasing Pumba in The Lion King, Rain starts yelling, “Be nice! Be nice! BE NICE!!!”

(Rain loves to help with anything that Mom is doing)
• When Rain wants to wear her shoes outside, she will say “Get the boots on?” But when she doesn’t want to wear shoes, she will say “Outside, toes in da grass?”
• "Lidol"- mix between little and lidon, I think. It means “lid on.” When I get her a sippy cup she’ll say: “Where’s the lid-o? OH, der it is!"

(Rain plays for hours with the squirt bottle)
• She also says Thank YOU! and then You're Welcome immediately afterwards. It has lightened my load considerably. =)
• Rain, watching a jet leave a trail in the sky: “Look, he’s coloring . . . Make an elephant?” (One of the Baby Einstein movies has an airplane that flies in the sky and draws animals with the jet trail).
• At bedtime, Rain wants the door closed, and the light OFF so it’s all dark. Thus, during naptime when I can’t turn off the lights to make it dark AND I have yet to put up her curtains, she has decided the light is “broken”. I leave it at that.
• We have two new little baby cousins in the family and Rain loves to hold them.

(Rain has a zoo of animals that have to sleep with her every night. They have their very own pillow.)

(Sometimes she even opts for the baby cradle so the animals have more room)

We went to a cousin’s missionary homecoming in Las Vegas. We only made it to St. George before we had to stop and get Rain out so she could throw up. We BARELY made it before it was too late. She only lasts an hour in a car before she starts throwing up. I hope this car sickness stage doesn’t last long. Rain was awake the whole drive there. Fifteen minutes after arriving for dinner, she announced she was ready to go home and go “nigh-nigh.”

On the way home, Mesa was done being in her car seat and was inconsolable. As she lay there fussing, Rain looked over at her, stating matter-of-factly, “Mesa needs to go “nigh-nigh.”

We had to make another lay-over in St. George on the way back so Rain could get some fresh air and Mesa could have some time out of her car seat, relieving our poor ears. There truly is NO PLACE LIKE HOME!

(I've given up trying to keep Mesa out of the mud)

(So we get lots of baths, and of course, Rain wants to join in the fun.

Is there anything cuter than two girls in a sink full of bubbles?)