Friday, February 26, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Another milestone
I've made it to 34 weeks! Lets keep it going! :)
In other news, Tank has made it past her own big milestone, she turned 5!! She asked about going to her new school (kindergarten) the very next day. LOL. A few more months for that milestone. :)
Now the question is whose birthday will come next... Benson or the new baby... :)
In other news, Tank has made it past her own big milestone, she turned 5!! She asked about going to her new school (kindergarten) the very next day. LOL. A few more months for that milestone. :)
Thursday, February 18, 2010
I'm SHOUTING OUT!
I wanted to throw a SHOUT OUT for my amazing sister, Kelli. She has been making me and others the MOST amazing jewelry over the past several years. My absolute favorite necklaces and earrings were all designed and created by her. She also has started making ADORABLE hair accessories too! The best part is, she's finally consented to share her talent with the rest of you!! I'm a little jealous that I have to share her talent with other people now... :) but I'm sure I'll get over it. Here are a few pictures of her amazing stuff and a link to her Etsy shop. PLEASE GO CHECK IT OUT!!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Beware of the pool noodles...
Well, actually, its probably more accurate to say beware of the support poles in the basement. They aren't very forgiving.
So, we had another trip to the hospital. Benson and I FINALLY got to go out on a date yesterday! We tend to not be very original when we go out... our typical date is to go out to dinner then walk around and talk. With my experience the night before, I had to take it easy, so we went out to dinner, then drove around and talked. :) We drove to the video store and picked up a movie for later, and drove all around town. It was an awesome night and it felt so good to reconnect with Benson. Its amazing to me how hard it can be to have a "deep" conversation with the kids around. Constant distraction is an enemy to good communication. Anyway! It was a good and relaxing night. When we went to pick up the kids from the babysitter (thanks Deb!!!!) Goose was sitting on the couch icing his foot. When I asked what happened, he broke down into hysterical tears! Deb said he had been fine and icing it since it happened, but the tears were new! Poor guy! Anyway, the story is that a bunch of the kids were all having a sword fight with pool noodles in their basement. Goose was attempting to block away someone's noodle when one of those pesky support poles got in the way of his foot. Ouch!
There was no obvious sign of the injury, just a small bit of swelling and the large amount of pain. He wouldn't walk on it though, and every movement and touch caused some hysterics, so, I figured we better make sure there was no fracture. Off to the ER we went. I think the fear of the unknown played a big factor for Goose. He had a hard time pinpointing the pain and he just seemed to be ultra sensitive everywhere. After they got the x-rays and told him there was no broken bone, he was finally able to calm down. They wrapped it up for him and we went home to try to sleep.
He still won't walk on it today, but the pain is more localized and his foot is a little bruised... so I assume it IS a bad bruise and will heal over the next few days. Since Benson has work again today and my parents are still out of town, we are spending another day doing lots of nothing. I'm sad to miss church since I was released from nursery and have missed going to the Relief Society meetings, but I guess it will have to wait another week.
By the way, the contractions have slowed to a minimum again. HORRAY! I don't know what causes them to start up for me, it doesn't seem to be related to dehydration or completely due to a lot of activity either. I DO wonder if stress plays a part, but that is much harder to control than drinking a glass of water and not walking too much. I guess I'll just be grateful they have subsided for now. :)
So, we had another trip to the hospital. Benson and I FINALLY got to go out on a date yesterday! We tend to not be very original when we go out... our typical date is to go out to dinner then walk around and talk. With my experience the night before, I had to take it easy, so we went out to dinner, then drove around and talked. :) We drove to the video store and picked up a movie for later, and drove all around town. It was an awesome night and it felt so good to reconnect with Benson. Its amazing to me how hard it can be to have a "deep" conversation with the kids around. Constant distraction is an enemy to good communication. Anyway! It was a good and relaxing night. When we went to pick up the kids from the babysitter (thanks Deb!!!!) Goose was sitting on the couch icing his foot. When I asked what happened, he broke down into hysterical tears! Deb said he had been fine and icing it since it happened, but the tears were new! Poor guy! Anyway, the story is that a bunch of the kids were all having a sword fight with pool noodles in their basement. Goose was attempting to block away someone's noodle when one of those pesky support poles got in the way of his foot. Ouch!
There was no obvious sign of the injury, just a small bit of swelling and the large amount of pain. He wouldn't walk on it though, and every movement and touch caused some hysterics, so, I figured we better make sure there was no fracture. Off to the ER we went. I think the fear of the unknown played a big factor for Goose. He had a hard time pinpointing the pain and he just seemed to be ultra sensitive everywhere. After they got the x-rays and told him there was no broken bone, he was finally able to calm down. They wrapped it up for him and we went home to try to sleep.
He still won't walk on it today, but the pain is more localized and his foot is a little bruised... so I assume it IS a bad bruise and will heal over the next few days. Since Benson has work again today and my parents are still out of town, we are spending another day doing lots of nothing. I'm sad to miss church since I was released from nursery and have missed going to the Relief Society meetings, but I guess it will have to wait another week.
By the way, the contractions have slowed to a minimum again. HORRAY! I don't know what causes them to start up for me, it doesn't seem to be related to dehydration or completely due to a lot of activity either. I DO wonder if stress plays a part, but that is much harder to control than drinking a glass of water and not walking too much. I guess I'll just be grateful they have subsided for now. :)
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Here we go again.
I'm still in a bit of a daze today. I'm absolutely exhausted, but glad to be home. Last night was a small bit terrifying. I started having contractions at about 10pm. They were about 10 minutes apart, but strong enough that I couldn't sleep through them. I'm 32 weeks along as of today. Way too early for consistent contractions. So, I've done this before as you may remember. So why was it so bad this time? Well, Benson was at work. He was closing the restaurant which meant he couldn't leave until he was done, and he wasn't going to be done until about 3am. Lucky for me, I have my parents near by... right???? Well, my parents are on a weekend trip to see my brother. So, I was home with my 4 kids with no way to leave unless I woke someone who would've been COMPLETELY unprepared to help me. I have a few good friends I could've called, but more than anything, I just wanted the contractions to STOP! With my last pregnancy, they told me I was having contractions because I was dehydrated... so all night long I was drinking water. It didn't help. When Benson finally got home, I took off to be evaluated at the hospital. They gave me an IV and did what's called a fetal fibrinectin test. It tests for a hormone that appears before labor. Apparently a positive result is not a good indicator that labor is absolutely coming, but a negative has been shown to mean labor is at least 2 weeks away (in like 98% of cases). Luckily, mine came back negative. That was a relief. However, I was a little irked that they got the test back and I was immediately released to go home. I guess they don't care that I'm still having contractions if they're not impending labor. The nurse suggested I take some tylenol and/or benadryl to help me sleep through the contractions at night. I'm following up with my doctor on Monday.
Anyway, I truly am glad to have this little one still inside. I've done lots of nothing today, and will continue to do as much nothing as my crazy life permits. :P
Anyway, I truly am glad to have this little one still inside. I've done lots of nothing today, and will continue to do as much nothing as my crazy life permits. :P
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Our Chore chart
So, we've been through a few editions of chore charts with my kids. Some have worked better than others. My last attempt was a huge failure, so I was feeling the need to do something new again. My kids are very visual learners and the younger kids can't read yet, so I wanted to do
something with pictures.
I decided to use pictures of the finished chores as the visual reminder. We have pictures of each of the kids rooms all cleaned up, their laundry baskets in the laundry room, each of the rooms downstairs, the dishwasher all emptied out, and another of it filled up. We have one of the table all cleared off and one with the table set for dinner. You get the idea.... I collected pictures for a few days to get them all. I have pictures of their daily chores as well as chores that are done once a week. I then printed them out, laminated them, and put velcro on the back of each. What I'm having the kids do is take down the picture when they have finished that chore, and put it on the kitchen table. They then also take a silk flower and put it in the container on the table.
The idea is that everyone can see what has been accomplished that day and it makes our home beautiful! In addition, if they do all their chores, they can have dessert after dinner. So far the chart is working great, and I'm so glad to have the kids help around the house. Its getting harder to pick things up off the floor with this baby in my way. :) Oh, one last note, I used to try and mix up the chores so that no one had a "bad" chore for more than a week. That was part of my great failure with the last system. So for this round, I've told the kids they have the same list of daily chores everyday for the next year. Goose HATES touching dirty dishes, so I gave him the chore of emptying the dishwasher when its clean. Tank is easily distracted, so I have her doing 2 small areas in the house instead of one of the bigger ones. Like I said, so far so good, they are learning how to keep their specific zones clean and I don't have to worry about teaching them a new zone for a good long time. :)
One last picture of a to-do list that has been helpful... I don't know about your house, but my house can turn quickly into a chaos zone in the mornings as we get the kids ready for school. I decided I needed another list of what the kids need to have ready before they go out to the bus. I put the list in one of those frameless glass frames... It has a back, and glass, and just little clips to hold it together. Anyway, it works great as a dry erase board!
something with pictures.
I decided to use pictures of the finished chores as the visual reminder. We have pictures of each of the kids rooms all cleaned up, their laundry baskets in the laundry room, each of the rooms downstairs, the dishwasher all emptied out, and another of it filled up. We have one of the table all cleared off and one with the table set for dinner. You get the idea.... I collected pictures for a few days to get them all. I have pictures of their daily chores as well as chores that are done once a week. I then printed them out, laminated them, and put velcro on the back of each. What I'm having the kids do is take down the picture when they have finished that chore, and put it on the kitchen table. They then also take a silk flower and put it in the container on the table.
The idea is that everyone can see what has been accomplished that day and it makes our home beautiful! In addition, if they do all their chores, they can have dessert after dinner. So far the chart is working great, and I'm so glad to have the kids help around the house. Its getting harder to pick things up off the floor with this baby in my way. :) Oh, one last note, I used to try and mix up the chores so that no one had a "bad" chore for more than a week. That was part of my great failure with the last system. So for this round, I've told the kids they have the same list of daily chores everyday for the next year. Goose HATES touching dirty dishes, so I gave him the chore of emptying the dishwasher when its clean. Tank is easily distracted, so I have her doing 2 small areas in the house instead of one of the bigger ones. Like I said, so far so good, they are learning how to keep their specific zones clean and I don't have to worry about teaching them a new zone for a good long time. :)
One last picture of a to-do list that has been helpful... I don't know about your house, but my house can turn quickly into a chaos zone in the mornings as we get the kids ready for school. I decided I needed another list of what the kids need to have ready before they go out to the bus. I put the list in one of those frameless glass frames... It has a back, and glass, and just little clips to hold it together. Anyway, it works great as a dry erase board!
The kids like to use the dry erase markers and they can see their progress as they get ready for school. No more walking out the door without a snack or without the hair being combed. :)
Anyway, I hope you don't mind my bragging/sharing. :) I've been happy with the improvement in our system and wanted to share. Maybe it will help some of you in some way.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Whew...
What a CRAZY week! It is now Monday, but a week ago on Saturday life threw us a sickness curveball. Twister came down with a fever and just felt miserable. On Sunday, Benson joined him in misery. Different symptoms, but they both were NOT feeling good AT ALL. On Monday, I took Benson to the convenient care here to see if he had strep... but the test came back negative. They gave him an antibiotic, but told him to wait and see if he got better before starting. Being the good nurse that I am, I had him start about 12 hours before the doc called to check on him and told him to start. LOL. Whatever that bug was really wiped him out though. He compared it to the horrendous fatigue he had when he had pneumonia. We're still waiting for some test results on him for a different issue, but he finally went back to work yesterday after taking an entire week off. I'm SO glad he is feeling better.
Anyway... on to Twister. He was feeling cruddy, but his symptoms were not severe. He had a cough, but not too bad... he had a fever, but not too high... he lost some appetite, but was still drinking... The only really "serious" symptom was his complete lack of energy. Anyway, I finally decided I needed a doctors opinion on Wednesday. What pushed me over the edge was that Tank was complaining of it hurting when she used the bathroom. Since I had to take her to the doc for that anyway, I brought Twister too. The conclusion from that visit was that Twister had pneumonia, and Tank was just fine! SERIOUSLY? ACK! Anyway, we started Twister on his antibiotic and he seemed to be acting much better the next day. Tank on the other hand, still had pain, so I took her back to the doc on Thursday. They started her on antibiotic and gave us a referral to see a urologist. Joy... more doctors. At some point on Thursday, I noticed that Twister's lips seemed to be more purplish/blue than they should be. I mentioned this when the doctor called on Friday to check up on him, and guess what? They wanted to see him again. SO! BACK TO THE DOC on friday for Twister. Are you feeling tired yet? I sure was. The doc determined that his o2 levels were not back up where they should be yet and that I needed to start a nebulizer for him. That was fun. By the end of the weekend, he finally was allowing us to give him the treatment without a massive fit. For us the trick was a Little People video and his binky. Whatever works!! Anyway, I had a follow up for him at the doctor again today and he is in the clear. I have to give him a nebulizer treatment just once a day for the rest of the week.
So, now we wait for Benson's results, and Tank's urologist appt. Oh, and of course I'm at the point in pregnancy where I get to go see my OB every 2 weeks. And I have an appt for Sweetie to finally get her allergies evaluated. I sure hope this is JUST a cluster of doctors visits and not a trend getting started. I had nearly forgotten how exhausting it is to have someone get so sick! I'm just really (REALLY) glad that I somehow avoided that nasty bug. I had just 1 or 2 days where I felt a little run down, but who can complain about that with what Benson and Twister were dealing with?
So, on to calm, quiet, not so rushed days ahead. Here's hopin' anyway. And if you feel like throwing a few extra prayers our direction, we'll gladly accept them. We've had some good leads for jobs recently, so we are praying for something to materialize out of those! I'm also about 31 weeks along now, and with Twister, I started having some contractions and other issues beginning at 32 weeks. Its makes me nervous! I really don't want this baby to have to spend time in the NICU. Its just SO stressful, I'd love to have a healthy full term baby to take home, pamper and love. :) 6 more weeks, that's all I'm asking for!
Anyway... on to Twister. He was feeling cruddy, but his symptoms were not severe. He had a cough, but not too bad... he had a fever, but not too high... he lost some appetite, but was still drinking... The only really "serious" symptom was his complete lack of energy. Anyway, I finally decided I needed a doctors opinion on Wednesday. What pushed me over the edge was that Tank was complaining of it hurting when she used the bathroom. Since I had to take her to the doc for that anyway, I brought Twister too. The conclusion from that visit was that Twister had pneumonia, and Tank was just fine! SERIOUSLY? ACK! Anyway, we started Twister on his antibiotic and he seemed to be acting much better the next day. Tank on the other hand, still had pain, so I took her back to the doc on Thursday. They started her on antibiotic and gave us a referral to see a urologist. Joy... more doctors. At some point on Thursday, I noticed that Twister's lips seemed to be more purplish/blue than they should be. I mentioned this when the doctor called on Friday to check up on him, and guess what? They wanted to see him again. SO! BACK TO THE DOC on friday for Twister. Are you feeling tired yet? I sure was. The doc determined that his o2 levels were not back up where they should be yet and that I needed to start a nebulizer for him. That was fun. By the end of the weekend, he finally was allowing us to give him the treatment without a massive fit. For us the trick was a Little People video and his binky. Whatever works!! Anyway, I had a follow up for him at the doctor again today and he is in the clear. I have to give him a nebulizer treatment just once a day for the rest of the week.
So, now we wait for Benson's results, and Tank's urologist appt. Oh, and of course I'm at the point in pregnancy where I get to go see my OB every 2 weeks. And I have an appt for Sweetie to finally get her allergies evaluated. I sure hope this is JUST a cluster of doctors visits and not a trend getting started. I had nearly forgotten how exhausting it is to have someone get so sick! I'm just really (REALLY) glad that I somehow avoided that nasty bug. I had just 1 or 2 days where I felt a little run down, but who can complain about that with what Benson and Twister were dealing with?
So, on to calm, quiet, not so rushed days ahead. Here's hopin' anyway. And if you feel like throwing a few extra prayers our direction, we'll gladly accept them. We've had some good leads for jobs recently, so we are praying for something to materialize out of those! I'm also about 31 weeks along now, and with Twister, I started having some contractions and other issues beginning at 32 weeks. Its makes me nervous! I really don't want this baby to have to spend time in the NICU. Its just SO stressful, I'd love to have a healthy full term baby to take home, pamper and love. :) 6 more weeks, that's all I'm asking for!
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