The past 2 weeks have been CRAZY! Jess and I went to Ventura, CA for a week to attend her family's annual beach house vacation. We took advantage of the opportunity and got officially married on 8-18-08. It was a fantastic week. I got to spend some quality time with her extended family. I did some shopping with her grandma and cousin the first day we were in town. The next day I went shopping with her aunt, cousins, and mom. I ended up going shopping with her dad one day. Jess spent most of her time reading and hanging out at the beach house. I even body surfed twice! Jess and I just completely fell in love with the area. It's not even about the rights...honestly. It's about the "feel" of the place... we felt at peace. It was a wonderful feeling. We are now trying to find a way to move there...we aren't getting our hopes up yet, but it is a possibility.
24 hours after we got married my dad stopped breathing and ended up on a ventilator in the ICU in Little Rock, AR. I stayed in constant contact with my younger brother and my mom about the situation. We flew back to Kansas City late Friday night/Saturday morning (we landed at 3 a.m.). We left Saturday morning after picking up the kids and dogs to go to Little Rock to see my dad. He is doing better now...actually left the hospital this week. It was quite scary and a VERY stressful time to be gone from the kids for 8 days in California and then to come back and leave straight to Arkansas. We are much better now though.
The girls leave today for Chicago with Jess' parents to see a play that their Uncle Dylan's friend is in. They are excited!
Next weekend my mom and brother are coming in town. While they are here we are doing something to celebrate our wedding... nothing big.
The following weekend Jess, the girls, and I may go down to Arkansas to see some friends and spend extra time with my family. After that trip I don't think there is another trip planned for the girls or for us until November THANK GOODNESS!
I hope everyone enjoyed the slide show from Cali. I will update you all next Wednesday after my prenatal appointment. We are having our big gender sonogram, diabetes screen, and just regular meeting with the doc.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
California/Wedding
We had a great time in California and had a wonderful wedding experience.
Here is our slide show
Here is our slide show
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
ER Visit
Let me begin this story in saying that I absolutely hate doctors (no offense to any that read this). I hate that they never seem to listen to what you're really saying or what you need. I mean seriously I know they went to school for a LONG time but I've also been in my own body for a long time and know it pretty well.
Well yesterday Jess and I were getting our eyebrows waxed for our wedding on Monday and I went up to her and decided it was time for me to take a trip to the ER. My stomach had cramped about 6 times Monday, enough for me to grab my stomach because it shocked me so much. Well yesterday my stomach was cramping about 3-6 times an hour. To me this seemed a little alarming. I was starting to feel really drained and super thirsty and quite frankly just very anxious about not knowing why my stomach was cramping so frequently. I walked into the ER pretty calm, thinking I'm just being hyper vigilant and overly cautious but nothing serious was going on. I was in the middle of registering when a nurse came and got me, left Jess and the girls in the waiting room, and rushed me to a room with all sorts of tools to check out my woman parts. I had one nurse firing questions at me, another nurse telling me to strip down and get a gown on, another nurse taking my vitals, and then finally a forth nurse came in to start an IV. This is not at all the reaction I was expecting. I got FREAKED out by all of that. Then about 30 seconds after sitting down in the bed the doctor came rushing in. The nurse trying to get an IV started blew two of my veins which are now giant bruises.
The doctor kept me there for nearly two hours. My blood pressure was high (No kidding I was stressed the hell out). It's never been even remotely high my entire life. They checked my blood sugar and that was fine. They were convinced I was not in labor or miscarrying. They found the fetal heart tones and it was 158 (however it took two different nurses to find this heart beat so that once again freaked me out quite a bit). My pulse was through the roof. Everything checked out except to say that I was dehydrated. I don't see how that was possible because I drinking water constantly during the day but I guess pregnancy takes a lot out of you and it all seemed to fit dehydration. Then the ER set an appointment with my doctor's office for an hour later.
In my doctor's office they checked my cervix and told me to drink more or they'd have to admit me. I'm thinking I don't have time to be admitted to the hospital. We are leaving Friday for California. They also did a sonogram to ease my worries and make sure nothing was going on in there with baby. Peanut looked wonderful. I've been put on pelvic rest because my placenta is sitting right on top of my cervix. We also found out the gender...
I'm doing okay today...still very thirsty and very tired....but I'll be fine.
Well yesterday Jess and I were getting our eyebrows waxed for our wedding on Monday and I went up to her and decided it was time for me to take a trip to the ER. My stomach had cramped about 6 times Monday, enough for me to grab my stomach because it shocked me so much. Well yesterday my stomach was cramping about 3-6 times an hour. To me this seemed a little alarming. I was starting to feel really drained and super thirsty and quite frankly just very anxious about not knowing why my stomach was cramping so frequently. I walked into the ER pretty calm, thinking I'm just being hyper vigilant and overly cautious but nothing serious was going on. I was in the middle of registering when a nurse came and got me, left Jess and the girls in the waiting room, and rushed me to a room with all sorts of tools to check out my woman parts. I had one nurse firing questions at me, another nurse telling me to strip down and get a gown on, another nurse taking my vitals, and then finally a forth nurse came in to start an IV. This is not at all the reaction I was expecting. I got FREAKED out by all of that. Then about 30 seconds after sitting down in the bed the doctor came rushing in. The nurse trying to get an IV started blew two of my veins which are now giant bruises.
The doctor kept me there for nearly two hours. My blood pressure was high (No kidding I was stressed the hell out). It's never been even remotely high my entire life. They checked my blood sugar and that was fine. They were convinced I was not in labor or miscarrying. They found the fetal heart tones and it was 158 (however it took two different nurses to find this heart beat so that once again freaked me out quite a bit). My pulse was through the roof. Everything checked out except to say that I was dehydrated. I don't see how that was possible because I drinking water constantly during the day but I guess pregnancy takes a lot out of you and it all seemed to fit dehydration. Then the ER set an appointment with my doctor's office for an hour later.
In my doctor's office they checked my cervix and told me to drink more or they'd have to admit me. I'm thinking I don't have time to be admitted to the hospital. We are leaving Friday for California. They also did a sonogram to ease my worries and make sure nothing was going on in there with baby. Peanut looked wonderful. I've been put on pelvic rest because my placenta is sitting right on top of my cervix. We also found out the gender...
I'm doing okay today...still very thirsty and very tired....but I'll be fine.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Family
What makes up a family? Two parents and a child? One parent and a child? A single person? A couple? A combination of four generations of people, including cousins, aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents, children? A divorced mom raising her children with another woman? A divorced dad raising his kids alone? A divorced man and woman and the woman's new wife raising children together?
We have struggled to find our way as a "family" over the past 15 months. We have listened to the nay sayers and the negative people in our lives and it has torn us all apart. We have listened to ourselves and our own hearts and flourished. We have listened to the kids and responded with love and conviction. We are now a family of 5 instead of one family of 4 and one family of 3. Yep that's right if you add those up they don't equal the same thing. No...we didn't ship anyone off to China. Jess and I now consider ourselves, the kids, and their father one big "weird" different family. We all love each other. We all respect each other. We are all there for each other.
Now my question is what do we do now that our family is being targeted by nay sayers again? It's hard to ignore people who are "family", but we take our life as a big family seriously. We split our time with the kids. He has them half the week, we have them half the week. We have worked hard to get ourselves all in places where loving one another was completely possible. Our love for the kids brought us together in the beginning, but now we love each other for each other...not for the kids. We are an awesome parenting team. It's awesome to see the kids flourish in our non traditional family. We have worked hard to get where we are... will we allow "outsiders" to break our family apart... will we allow "outsiders" to attack one member of the family without protecting that person... will we allow "outsiders" to be any part of our family or will we only allow those into our new family unit that are positive and supportive? These are all questions we are facing right now.
Jess is an amazing partner/wife, a fantastic mother, and a powerful woman. She is a dedicated friend and a caring neonatal nurse. She gives me peace and hope. She calls me on my crap and she gets my humor. She loves me for me. I couldn't ask for more. I love every part of Jess. I love that she thinks she's hilarious sometimes. :) I encourage her to challenge herself (she wants to start running 5Ks again). I support her when she is down and out. I love that she wants to continue her education and further her career. I love that she has similar interests as I do and also introduces me to new things that she has interest in. I love how she loves her kids.
I am marrying her in 10 days. I am proud of our relationship. I am proud of our non traditional family.
We have struggled to find our way as a "family" over the past 15 months. We have listened to the nay sayers and the negative people in our lives and it has torn us all apart. We have listened to ourselves and our own hearts and flourished. We have listened to the kids and responded with love and conviction. We are now a family of 5 instead of one family of 4 and one family of 3. Yep that's right if you add those up they don't equal the same thing. No...we didn't ship anyone off to China. Jess and I now consider ourselves, the kids, and their father one big "weird" different family. We all love each other. We all respect each other. We are all there for each other.
Now my question is what do we do now that our family is being targeted by nay sayers again? It's hard to ignore people who are "family", but we take our life as a big family seriously. We split our time with the kids. He has them half the week, we have them half the week. We have worked hard to get ourselves all in places where loving one another was completely possible. Our love for the kids brought us together in the beginning, but now we love each other for each other...not for the kids. We are an awesome parenting team. It's awesome to see the kids flourish in our non traditional family. We have worked hard to get where we are... will we allow "outsiders" to break our family apart... will we allow "outsiders" to attack one member of the family without protecting that person... will we allow "outsiders" to be any part of our family or will we only allow those into our new family unit that are positive and supportive? These are all questions we are facing right now.
Jess is an amazing partner/wife, a fantastic mother, and a powerful woman. She is a dedicated friend and a caring neonatal nurse. She gives me peace and hope. She calls me on my crap and she gets my humor. She loves me for me. I couldn't ask for more. I love every part of Jess. I love that she thinks she's hilarious sometimes. :) I encourage her to challenge herself (she wants to start running 5Ks again). I support her when she is down and out. I love that she wants to continue her education and further her career. I love that she has similar interests as I do and also introduces me to new things that she has interest in. I love how she loves her kids.
I am marrying her in 10 days. I am proud of our relationship. I am proud of our non traditional family.
Okay Seriously!
I am a hyper vigilant parent. I make sure our kids are behaving, not jumping on furniture, being as safe as possible. Now don't get me wrong when the 6 year old gets a cut on the playground I tell her to suck it up...but I caught her yesterday climbing on a high part of the jungle gym and she almost fell...I about panicked. I told her that wasn't safe and she needed to climb on things that weren't that high off the ground. If she had fallen the worst that would have happened would have been a broken arm but I really really don't want her to break her arm. So I guess I'm somewhere in between over protective and laid back.
Well today I ran across an ad for Thudguard's. I'm not sure if any of you have heard of them, but they go on your babies head like a helmet to keep them from bumping their heads as they learn how to walk. Now I will be one of those parents that hovers over my toddling child but I will not be putting a helmet on their heads for the occasion. What are your thoughts?
If you need the link it's http://www.babysfirstheadgear.com
Well today I ran across an ad for Thudguard's. I'm not sure if any of you have heard of them, but they go on your babies head like a helmet to keep them from bumping their heads as they learn how to walk. Now I will be one of those parents that hovers over my toddling child but I will not be putting a helmet on their heads for the occasion. What are your thoughts?
If you need the link it's http://www.babysfirstheadgear.com
Thursday, August 7, 2008
So I'm not totally crazy!
So for three weeks I've thought I was just sick and feeling icky because I was pregnant. Well I finally went to a Walgreens Take Care Clinic and found out I'm not crazy and "just pregnant", I have strep throat with NO tonsils and a severe sinus infection. Fan-friggin-tastic! No wonder I haven't slept well for three weeks. No wonder I'm feeling so ill and icky. No wonder I feel so run down. So now I'm taking 1750mg of Amoxicillin a day for 10 days. My OB said if it's not better by Monday I will be going immediately to the ENT... which makes me wonder what the heck an ENT can do other than a give antibiotics.
Jess and I were hoping that Peanut would hide from the Doppler today so that we'd be "forced" to have another sonogram because we want to know if Peanut is a boy or a girl already. We are impatient people and this not knowing business is killing us. We have changed our top names for both boys and girls, but this time we aren't sharing those names with anyone. We kind of want it to be a surprise for our families.
Countdown begins for California trip. Although we will miss the big girls for 8 days.... it will be nice to have a vacation. And onto future news, Jess' brother got engaged and is tentatively planning a destination wedding to the Dominican Republic. Woohoo! We are very very excited about this. It will be next fall, the girls will be in school so they'll be staying with family here, Peanut will be breastfeeding so he/she will come with us to DR. We couldn't be more excited about the experience.
Our first set of G Diapers came in this week. They are SOOOOOOOO cute! I also got my baby "bag" which is a backpack from Eddie Bauer. I figured it would be the easiest way to carry everything I'll need for Peanut, hold Julia's hand while crossing streets and in busy stores, and carry Peanut.
Jess and I were hoping that Peanut would hide from the Doppler today so that we'd be "forced" to have another sonogram because we want to know if Peanut is a boy or a girl already. We are impatient people and this not knowing business is killing us. We have changed our top names for both boys and girls, but this time we aren't sharing those names with anyone. We kind of want it to be a surprise for our families.
Countdown begins for California trip. Although we will miss the big girls for 8 days.... it will be nice to have a vacation. And onto future news, Jess' brother got engaged and is tentatively planning a destination wedding to the Dominican Republic. Woohoo! We are very very excited about this. It will be next fall, the girls will be in school so they'll be staying with family here, Peanut will be breastfeeding so he/she will come with us to DR. We couldn't be more excited about the experience.
Our first set of G Diapers came in this week. They are SOOOOOOOO cute! I also got my baby "bag" which is a backpack from Eddie Bauer. I figured it would be the easiest way to carry everything I'll need for Peanut, hold Julia's hand while crossing streets and in busy stores, and carry Peanut.
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