Sunday, September 26, 2010

Feeling Human!

On Thursday I went to my primary care doctor and on top of running a 103 degree fever (which mind you, started while I was in the ER), my lungs sounded worse than ever. It didn't take her long to determine that I had pneumonia. She couldn't believe that they didn't catch that in the ER the night before and was really surprised that they had just let me go home. She gave me lots of wonderful medicine... Steroids, a strong antibiotic, and some other medicine to control my asthma. Within 24 hours I was feeling semi-normal again and now I'm feeling pretty decent! I've started to sleep through the night again (YAY!) and regain my energy so that's good. I'm a little anxious about how I'll feel when those wonderful medicines stop this week but I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

John and I had a wedding to go to for one of his work friends last night. It was nice to be able to get all dressed up and out for the night with my man.. Especially after being caged in the house for so long. I was really sad to leave the girls since I had been away from them so much due to being so sick but my parents took amazing care of them. I don't know about anybody else but I happen to think that grandparents are the best!

I was just thinking today that I am so thankful for medicine and doctors (Well, doctors that actually know how to do their jobs!). People used to die of simple illnesses like pneumonia but now that we have such awesome technology and medicine we don't have to suffer. What a world!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

What Gives???????

I love Fall but with this time of year comes severe, severe allergies for me. Ragweed and Golden Rod bloom like crazy around here in the autumn months so it really takes a major toll on my health. Being pregnant and all, I am hesitant to take much of anything to help me feel better but that has all been impossible, as my asthma has been outrageously awful as well.

This whole mess started about two weeks ago. I knew it was coming when September got here but never expected it at this magnitude. I went to the walk-in with a mega asthma flair up where they put me on steroids, which always make me feel great in the asthma department. After a five day course of those medicines, I immediately reverted back to not being able to breathe as soon as I stopped taking them. It's frustrating. Having to stop in the middle of a sentence to take a breath or not being able to run around after the girls without feeling winded is very sad for me.

A few days after that asthma issue started I began to feel REALLY dizzy. I know that with pregnancy you can feel dizzy... Especially if you stand up too quickly or don't have food in your system. However, it was a constant, all-day-dizziness that would NOT go away. I went to the doctor and they found that I had severe inner ear infection that was completely messing up my equilibrium, as well as a sinus infection. Why would I be surprised after all of my allergy issues?

Then tonight, only three days after seeing the doctor for my ear, I ended up at the doctor's again for my asthma. When I got there they were very concerned and told me to go to the hospital right away to be admitted. They wanted to take me by ambulance because my oxygen levels were low and my heart rate was really high but I outright refused. My primary care doctor is out of a different hospital than the my OBGYN so I decided to go to the one where my OBGYN works. Because of that, however, the primary care doctor couldn't really admit but called over to the hospital to explain what was going on. When I got to the ER, I met with some fly-by-night nurse practitioner who took my issues very lightly. Long story short, he wanted to give me more steroids (that my primary care doctor SPECIFICALLY told me to stay away from because I was just on them last week) and when I refused he sent me home saying that that was all he could do. I left the hospital with my oxygen levels still low, my pulse still high, a fever, and still unable to breathe without struggle. I sit behind this computer right now wondering how I'll get through the night with this awful struggle to simply breathe.

I am beyond frustrated now. It's been over two weeks since I've felt "normal" and it's just not fair. I have no energy, mainly because I'm up all night fighting to breathe, and I feel bad that my girls aren't getting the mommy they deserve:-( I'm going to make some phone calls tomorrow and try to find some help. This is getting old FAST.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

15-Month Stats

Adrienne had her 15-month checkup today and she checked out great with the doctor, not that we had any doubts or anything! She weighs 21 pounds, 10 ounces and is 30.5 inches long, putting her right in the 50Th percentile for both. She hasn't really gotten much bigger since her first birthday but that's completely normal. Heck, if they continually grew at the rapid pace that they do over the first year, they would be 200 pounds by their 5Th birthday! Haha

In other Adrienne news, she's doing absolutely great. She continues to be a good natured, content little creature and her vocabulary is blossoming wildly. She can repeat just about anything we ask her to and the list of words that she uses regularly is pretty impressive. She also listens to what we tell her to do and it's always fun to watch her complete the tasks on demand. Her latest thing is doing "flips" where she bends her body in half and puts her head on the ground. It's hysterical!

A couple of weeks ago I asked Adrienne what her name was and she said, "A." We never call her that but it made sense because it's the first part of her name. For the longest time she would repeat that "A" was her name. Now, however, when we ask her what her name is she shakes her head and says, "NO!" She sounds all annoyed, too. It cracks me up!

Adrienne has also started that phase where she repeats my name all day everyday. I hear my name over and over again from sun up to sun down. It's so sweet... Most of the time. Lol

I feel so blessed to have such healthy, vibrant, and budding little princesses. They sure do make life fun, huh?

Saturday, September 11, 2010

So, Guess What!

After keeping my secret for nearly two months now, I am excited announce that we are expecting baby #3!! I'm almost 12 weeks along and headed for a due date of March 31 but the baby will be born a week or so early via ascheduled C-Section (BLEK for that mode of delivery!). This baby was a big surprise at first but we're getting excited and feeling blessed that the Lord had given us another baby to love on.

When I was pregnant with the girls I always told people that I was expecting after I had my first ultrasounds. This time around, however, I just felt so in shock that I couldn't even believe it was happening so I've kept it more private! Of course family and some friends have known but we waited until yesterday to officially break the news for the world to hear. I actually saw the baby's heartbeat on the 13Th of August so we've known for a while that things are looking good! On top of that, I've had some crazy food aversions and several weeks worth of being sick so we have felt fairly confident about this little munchkin.

We had a big scare yesterday when I went for a routine prenatal appointment... The doctor put the doppler on my belly and tried and tried and tried to find the heartbeat but just could not, even after like five minutes. My heart was racing, as well as my mind! I've never experienced that! The doctor quickly did an ultrasound, however, and we saw a beautiful little creature with a racing heart. So precious! He/she was moving around and it was so amazing to see life at such a young stage. I've never had a 12ish week ultrasound before so I was really impressed at how lifelike the baby looked... He/she has arms and legs now and you can distinguish that it's a baby, unlike the 8-week ultrasounds that I'm so used to.

I know everything will work out great and that we will never regret this baby coming into our lives. It's just scary when you aren't quite prepared for something of this magnitude! I know the girls will do great, as they are doing awesome with their new cousin, and Adrienne and the baby will be 23 months apart so that's almost perfect. Brooke and Adrienne were 27 months apart and that was ideal and I'm hoping this will go over just as smoothly.

I am convinced that we're having another girl. In fact, I'll be so shocked and question the ultrasound tech if they tell me it's a boy! I truly don't care about the baby's gender and would NOT be disappointed either way but I'm definitely thinking girl. If it's a boy we have the name Wesley John all set but for a girl we're still tossing up several names. I'm really pushing for Macie but will see if I get my way:-) I actually get quite offended when people assume that we'll be disappointed if this baby's a girl. What, because a gender is what makes someone so special? I think not!

So now that you're in on my little secret I can actually talk about life more often on here! It's been so hard... Not wanting to mention being tired or sick or going to an appointment. It's all out in the open now so that's good!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Refreshed

John and I got home yesterday afternoon to 2 very happy little girls! I'm not sure if they were happy to see US or the bags of popcorn and peanuts that we hoarded for them from our all-you-can-eat seats at the game. Haha! It was so great to see them and it was even better to hear that they had behaved like little angels, slept great, and kept up with their regular routines. Oh yes, and my house was spotless... Just like I like it:-) Again, we were SO BLESSED by John's parents here. It was incredible!

I cannot say enough nice things about my husband and the time that we had together. Even the long 5 hour car ride was fun and I don't remember laughing that hard in a long time! John is everything to me... He's my best friend, my confidant, and the person who knows me best. Though we love our children and love being with them, it was so nice to be able to just get away and be carefree together.

We had an absolute blast at the game. The seats were awesome and the best part? John caught a foul ball off of is favorite player's bat! That right there was amazing! The Braves ended up losing 5-0 which was a bummer but we had such a great time that it didn't seem to matter nearly as much. At one point the rain started coming down HARD and it was freezing so we ran for cover and laughed and talked as we waited for the rain to stop. After a short rain delay the game resumed but even that wait was fun!

We stayed at a beautiful hotel, got to walk through downtown Pittsburgh, and most importantly, were able to eat at Chick Fil A on the way home!!! We don't have them in New York so our vacations always revolve around finding me that precious restaurant. Pretty sad, I know!

John's getting ready to leave for work now which stinks but I feel so refreshed and refueled. I am so thankful for an amazing trip with my amazing husband!

The view from our seats...



Monday, September 6, 2010

So Much To Smile About!

I am so excited to announce that today I became an aunt again.. For the the third time now! My brother's wife gave birth to a very handsome little guy this evening. His name is Ryan Jared and he weighed in at 7 pounds, 11 ounces. He's absolutely precious and I feel so blessed to be able to have another special child in my life to love on. The miracle of life NEVER gets old, does it?

In other exciting news, tomorrow morning John and I are leaving for a 2 day trip! He's a huge Atlanta Braves fan so we're driving to Pittsburgh to see them play. The tickets there were so cheap and we figured it wouldn't be quite as busy of a city. We got 2 tickets along the right field line with all-you-can-eat passes for a grand total of $87. Can't beat it! I'm so excited to be out late tomorrow night at the game without any responsibility. It will sure be weird, though! I feel very blessed because John's parents are actually going to stay at our house so we don't have to uproot the girls. I was anxious to leave Adrienne but she never wakes up at night so I feel confident that everyone will be able to sleep well tomorrow night. With the girls being home I won't really worry about them as much as I would otherwise. John and I will head home on Wednesday morning so we'll be back before they know it! John and I so need this after him working 12 hour shifts for the past 3 days and just catching each other in passing. I can't wait for all of the one-on-one time we'll get to enjoy with one another!

Alrighty, off to go pack and get everything ready for our trip. I CAN'T WAIT! Hopefully the Braves will even WIN for us tomorrow, too!

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Potty Prodigy

I am amazed at Adrienne lately! Every night before bath time she was looking at the potty and saying, "Uh, uh!" like she wanted to be put on it. I never thought to put such a young baby on there but I've started doing it and she goes on demand for me all the time. It's remarkable! I put her on in the morning when she gets her diaper changed and even if she has nothing in there she'll push and push until her little face is red. It's so funny! We also follow the same routine at night. Now she looks at the potty and says, "pee pee."

Another thing that she's been doing is telling me before she goes poop. She'll say "poo poo" and then go but I haven't actually caught her yet to put her on the potty for it. If I'm in the middle of something it hardly seems worth it to take her pants off, rip off her diaper, and rush her to the potty.. Though I know I should.

She's WAY too young to be potty trained but holy cow, she's a step ahead of where Brooke was at this age. I'm certainly not expecting her to be out of diapers anytime relatively soon but I'm definitely going to continue following her lead with the potty!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Welcome, September!!

Ah, I'm SO HAPPY that it's September! Hopefully it means that life will settle down once the crazy summer ends. I also love when all the kids go back to school because then I get my nice quiet stores and parks back when I'm out and about during the week. After the non-stop busy couple of months that we just lived through, I'm ready for things to stop moving at warp pace!

I have decided that I'm turning into a northern girl through and through. Having lived in Texas for the first 9 years of my life, I used to cringe at the thought of being cold and I only ever wanted hot temperatures. Now I'm roasting when it's 80 and longing for the cool New York Fall weather in the 50's and 60's. Today it was 95 (which is not extremely common) and it was dreadful! I'm super excited for this weekend when it's supposed to be in the 60's and rainy. That is perfect weather if you ask me!

My favorite days are when we stay in and read books, bake, play, clean, and cook comfort food for dinner. There's nothing like the smell of Autumn leaves or the smell of your furnace kicking on for the first time of the season. I can't wait for bushel upon bushel of apples that I will turn into countless pies, breads, muffins, applesauce, dumplings, and all manner of other wonderful goodies. I love to distribute all of these goodies between neighbors and family. I'm also SUPER excited about Thanksgiving where I will cook dinner for about 20 people. It's one of my favorite things to do each year!

Fall is going to cost me a pretty penny this year because Brooke had a huge growth spurt. She has gotten a lot taller so despite all of her clothes (down to like 18 months!) fitting her waist, she has got to go up to a 3T for length. She also needs all new shoes and socks but that's to be expected. We've been buying things here and there but I'm thankful that we can kind of ease into the cooler weather so it won't be all at once. I'm encouraged though because Brooke has an enormous box of hand-me-downs for Adrienne.. Lots of beautiful dresses and jeans! I even found a pair of Brooke's old size 5 Nike's that were barely worn so that saves about 30 bucks right there! Despite spending money, I love buying clothes for the girls and it's so fun to dress them for the cooler weather. Have I mentioned that I LOVE this time of year?

So bye-bye lazy, hazy, crazy days of Summer. Fall is here to take over and that is just fine by me!