A long time coming . . .

Well it's been 20 days since I last blogged which means 20 days since I was last able to go up and down the stairs at our house. Finally, since the Squeak couldn't go to the computer, Cheddar brought the computer to the Squeak. In my mind I have been blogging about this whole ordeal so if I leave out a few points maybe one day I'll scroll through the blog in my head and write it down.

34 weeks: After our first incident with nearly going into labor we thought that all would be well and good but 2 weeks ago while at Grandma and Grandpa Porter's house I started having contractions again. They lasted all night and into the morning so instead of chancing it we came back to Idaho Falls and found out that I was 2 centimeters dilated and still contracting so I was admitted to EIRMC once again to stop labor. I was there for what seemed like forever waiting for the IV bag to drain and the shots to kick in. The one benefit to it all was for the first time ever to start the IV they only had to poke me once (which disproved the theory that I was dehydrated). After my short stint in the hospital I was told to go on bed rest which meant no picking up kids, no laundry, no nothing. My list of things I could do was short . . . sit, but they preferred laying on my left side, go to the bathroom, take a shower and if I needed a meal the most extensive I could make was cold cereal.



Papa Gene brought me home from the hospital since Chet had to be to work and we stopped to pick up dinner and the anti-contraction meds they prescribed. Everything was going well and good until I took the pill a few hours later. You know those drug commercials you see that say take this allergy medication because it might help your allergies but the possible side effects are heart attack, blood clots, rash . . . death, this is what seemed to be for the anti-contraction meds. I was one of those lucky people who the side effects all happened to and they all happened when Gene left the room to put the kids to bed. He came back and all I could do was try to choke out the words for him to check the side effects of the medication. Thoughts were racing so fast through my head that sentences wouldn't come out of my mouth before they were gone from my head. Finally he finds the pill label and the side effects are convulsions, tremors, nausea, vomiting, racing heartbeat (racing heartbeat was the only one the doctors warned us about). By this point I'm in tears absolutely freaking out my father in law and he can't figure out how to use my cell phone to call someone significant. We finally get my visiting teacher on the phone who finds someone without kids to come over and help out. Then we get the on-call doctor on the phone. I was not impressed by her in the slightest, yeah, its Friday night I understand but I am also trying to understand why you would give me a medication that would make me loose complete control over my body. (Sadly the only part of me not twitching at this point was my stomach, hahaha the pills work to stop contractions :)) After the doctor tells us to wait out the symptoms before taking another pill (which in my head I had decided already was never going to happen), I got a blessing from Brother Martin and things started looking up again, although after everyone left I did get to the bathroom to throw up. After 4 years of vomiting during pregnancy I've gotten pretty good at holding it to avoid throwing up on let's say the Relief Society president who is sitting with me on the couch.



35 weeks: Fast Forward a week nothing special happened until my follow up appointment with my doctor. After having a discussion on how they want me to go full term (and I understand that but when you are contracting everyday it gets kind of annoying and you want the baby out, healthy but definitely out). He then tells me glorious news because I've never had any problems with pre-term labor before I can go off of bed rest. Fireworks are going off in my head and I am elated. Then the kicker but since your still having contractions were going to check you just in case. I should have ran from the room but I am undressed from the waist down with my only protection a thin paper sheet that at this point would never wrap around my body. So for maybe 2 minutes I am thinking hooray life can go back to normal I don't need a babysitter anymore and then as I am thinking I need to call Chet and give him the wondrous news the doctor breaks my thoughts by saying you are 3.5 cm dilated back on bed rest you still need to try to make it a few more weeks. And then all the euphoria was gone and I was back on the couch.



This week was fun though I have read the last 20 issues of OK! magazine which means I am up to date on what the stars are wearing and what I would never in a million years think of wearing. I have also went through the last 8 months of Better Homes and Gardens and found some great recipes that take more effort then cereal so they go on the back burner. Then the kicker Melanie Cruz let me borrow the first book in the Twilight series. I got it Tuesday night finished it by Wednesday morning because lets face it I'm up all night even before I have a newborn to cry at me. After I finished the book and Chet got home he rented me the movie and I watched it. In 24 hours I read a novel and watched the movie based on it, let me rephrase that loosely based on it. I was highly disappointed in the movie even the scenes that everyone was oohing and awing over did not live up to my expectations.



36 weeks: I have finally figured out why my daughter wakes up every morning at sunrise I thought we had tried everything to help her sleep, little did I know I needed to kill a rooster. As I sit here waiting for my doctors appointment everything was quiet in my house until I heard a faint but distinct cock-a-doodle doo. Within moments my once quiet house now has a little one in her bed talking to her baby and hippo because mommy can't get her and daddy refuses to help any child who thinks 6 am is a good time to wake up. She doesn't mind the alone time though we have found that she plays in her crib until 7 without any whines or any type of come get me yell.

We had my doctors appointment this morning and apparently I've been a very good girl since we haven't progressed any this week. We are still at about 3.5 and she was head down at the appointment but the way she moves that could change at any moment.

Less than 50 . . .

I felt like saying less than fifty more than none. I haven't posted in forever because it seems like I haven't even been home in forever. 2 weeks ago I woke up to contractions that happened for 8 hours. Thankfully they didn't cause me to dilate, and regrettably that was a very sucky 8 hours. So they told me to take it easy which is easier said then done with Owen and Lily and Chet's 14 hour days at work. To remedy the problem me and the kids have been spending a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa Porter.

Grandpa Porter has been taking care of the kids (he has been so wonderful we can't thank him enough) while I translate what they are trying to tell him. Lily has Grandpa wrapped around her pointer finger. She can grunt at just about anything and get Grandpa to get it for her. He can surprisingly understand her a lot better then Owen. I think because she knows most people don't understand her words but if she stares and points at it long enough we can put 2 and 2 together. My favorite moment was today her hippo (stuffed animal that hardly ever leaves her sight) was barely out of reach if she would have took a step forward she could have got it, instead she went in the kitchen and got Grandpa.

Back to the contraction problem. It hasn't truly gone away they just say every time I start having them I need to sit down and drink water. Everyday I have a few Braxton Hicks (or what I assume are) and a few give me a moment while I take a moment contractions. Our goal is to pass into August without going into labor and after that anything goes. We'll be over the 36 week mark and if she is still anxious then I'm not stopping her because 6 weeks of watching the clock to see if the contractions are regular or not could drive me crazier then I already am.

The circus

The circus pictures were hard to take because it was so very, very bright outside I couldn't see the screen on the camera and if I held it up to my eye all I got was the back of the man in front of me's head.

So . . . for all those who wanted to see congaing poodles here they are drum roll please . . .

And this is the awe of the children watching the poodles.

This is Chet and the kids Lily is actually about to start screaming because she wanted to be standing up not sitting on daddy's lap.

We survived

Owen is officially 3 years old. Hip hip hooray I won't be able to ever say I have 3 kids under 3, I have 3 kids under 4 :). We had a BBQ birthday party for him, it seemed the easiest to plan since I'm getting used to planning a meal a year for Chet's family at the family reunion and that's almost 30 people. We had hamburgers, hot dogs and pulled pork sandwiches. After a long morning of planning and decorating it was delicious. The moms sat and chatted, the kids played and we didn't even have any runaway attempts, and Chet and Gene grilled. I think it was a successful afternoon.

Here are the top five pictures from the main event. . .

Owen and the pinata. Of course after the first few swings the tie holding it broke and we had to fix it so the rest of the kids got a turn. Owen and the only present he opened all by himself. He was so excited to pose for the picture. My favorite is me in the background after the party Chet had to help me up because my legs were dead asleep. Of course Lily, look closely at her face she does not have a pacifier in that is frosting.

This was Lily's first taste of the frosting with the help of Leya.

Lily's face after Leya made her stop eating her frosting.

After the party when Lily found Owen's cupcake. She's asking me if she can eat it.

When everyone had gone home and Chet brought everything inside and I had bathed the kids it was nap time. After all the sugar I couldn't sleep so I started this blog entry and Chet passed out dead on the couch upstairs. I heard Owen up but I assumed Chet was up with him until I realized no one was talking and Owen was being rather quiet. I went upstairs to find Chet still dead asleep on the couch and Owen with his goodie bag from the party. It was completely empty and he had wrappers surrounding his body. Needless to say my kids don't need any sugar for a month after Friday.

A Circus and 10 weeks

The circus came to Idaho Falls this week. I shouldn't have been surprised that it wasn't The Ringling Bros. and Barnum Bailey but it was non-the-less family friendly entertainment. I was super excited I was more excited then the kids who of course had no clue what was going on. The first couple of acts the kids didn't get because it was slapstick clowns and a very, very slow moving trapeze act (It was a trick every 3 minutes, the kids couldn't stand staring at them standing). Then what they could understand clowns whistling and dancing dogs. Thankfully they took up a huge portion of time. The kids loved it. Lily was even clapping for the pink poodle conga line, I was complete. I didn't know however that the circus would be 3 hours long. We made it to 2 hours and it was the end for all of us. Lily had a mental breakdown, Owen wanted to go potty again in hopes of finding another golf ball and my very pregnant bum couldn't sit in the bleachers one more moment. I feel it was a very successful first trip to the circus. Although Chet spent the time marveling over how in the world we were ever going to do something like that again with 3 kids.

Which brings me to the countdown we hit 10 weeks left today and if I could do a cartwheel I would. I'm getting so excited that I want to set up the crib in Lily's room that of course won't even be used for months after she's born. I'm freaking out about what she's going to wear because her cousin is wearing her clothes (and growing out of them so why am I freaking out because I'm 'nesting'). Nesting whoever came up with that word doesn't get the gravity of how I feel as baby time approaches. Nesting seems like a calm process of putting things together and getting things done. For me it consists of wanting with an undying passion everything done for this child. I need a bed, all the clothes washed (again) and put away, diapers bought for at least 2 months and every half finished project to be completed. And if you've stepped foot in our house every room has a half finished project, so I whine to Chet every time he has time off to complete one, at least and I've done this every year since we've been married. Ah bliss.

So excited . . .

The day we have all been waiting for is approaching my dad is coming 'home' from the hospital. I say 'home' because he doesn't actually get to set foot in his own house but he gets to go back to Fresno where at least my mom can once again return home. He is improving slowly he still doesn't have much movement in his left side but his right side starting to improve. We are super excited!!!

Of all the cutest

Lily just recently decided she would sit still long enough to let me do her hair and allow the hair ties to stay in her hair. With her being the absolute cutest baby, her hair in piggy tails was awesome.

Update on my Papa

This is the slowest going emergency in my life. I sit around and wait for an update and nothing comes. I finally heard from my mom at almost 10 last night that the surgery was scheduled for 8 am Saturday morning and they would be putting pins in his neck. It was going to take at least an hour and a half to get him set up on the rotating table and get him put under. The surgery is supposed to take 6-8 hours. as a pregnant woman they might as well be telling me that in my lifetime I will know nothing so stop calling. I feel like I need to call every hour to see what is going on but for my mothers sanity I hold back and call about twice a day, (which even in my fathers current condition probably leaves him cringing at the thought of the cell phone bill.) I for one know I can donate to the cell bill but the hospital bill that awaits when this accident is over is what would make me pass out face first on the floor.

Here we go again . . .

Well if you have been following our life lately you would think we had enough on our plates but Heavenly Father felt we could use another life altering event.

Last night at 10 pm my dad got dizzy and passed out in the kitchen. He landed face first on the kitchen floor. When my mom found him he was laying in a pool of blood because he broke his nose. She flipped him over and he was like a limp noodle. She called 911 and got him to the hospital where they found out he fractured his neck and they would need to take him to Oakland for further tests and surgery. As of right now all we know is he is slightly numb in his extremities and he has an MRI scheduled for noon tomorrow. Prayers are welcome.

On a lighter note I did have my 28 week appointment today. Taylor is doing great. The placenta previa is gone so we are not high risk anymore. Hip hip hooray something going the right way. Hopefully tomorrow we will have more good news.

The Birds

Our life is nothing like Alfred Hitchcock's movie but lately it seems like it could go that way. Last spring we had the fun of birds using our garage as a nesting ground. We tried to keep the doors shut to no avail I was cleaning up nests and bird feces all the time. This spring we thought we were prepared we knew the birds would want to nest so the second we were out of the garage we would close the door behind us. Sunday when me and the kids got home from church there were no less than 5 birds sitting on top of the garage waiting to get in so we didn't park in the garage I didn't want to deal with it. When Chet got home from work that night he went into the garage and there was new nests. Drive me batty I was sick of it. So we were playing outside on Monday and I happen to see a bird fly into the garage through a hole from an old chimney. Chet got home from work I made him cover the hole. We again cleaned up the garage and what do we see on Tuesday some bird had squeezed through the insulation, moved it out of the way to get back in, so now there is a huge cover over the hole. Hopefully that works.