Baby Update

I had doctor appointments yesterday. 4 hours worth of appointments. Ah, high risk pregnancy can be such a pain! But, we walked away with some good news, so I can't complain that much. The afternoon started with my HRP doctor and a routine ultrasound. When I have these ultrasounds, first a tech does an overview ultrasound and then the doctor comes in and scans any points of concern and double checks the tech work. During the tech scan the baby was measuring small. Really small, actually. Like weeks behind schedule. She seemed to be pretty concerned and I was immediately worried. The doctor came in and started discussing bed rest options as he was taking a look at the baby. Then he started saying, "Hmm" and "huh" and "interesting". He continued to explain to me that his measurements of the baby were not near as small as the techs. Then, the really good news came. His bowel is clearing up. In fact, he wasn't even worried about it. He took a look at it and said it wasn't an issue any more. There are still parts that show some echogenisis, but overall a major improvement. 

So long story short. The bowel, which has been a major concern, is clearing up nicely. Our focus has shifted to the size of baby. Sometimes echogenic bowels can make it hard for the baby to absorb the nutrients it needs, so I am hoping as it clears up he grows stronger and bigger. Since he is only in the 9th percentile, my doctor is still recommending 2 hours of left side bed rest a day. Not sure how I am going to work that in, but I have too. He needs it. He also wants me to start fetal monitoring in 2 weeks. 

Then, my regular doctor. He just does the boring stuff. He tells me how much weight I've gained: 22 lbs. (YIKES!) and my measurements are fine. He listens to baby and suggests self fetal monitoring (counting kicks) for the next four weeks and to go in for actual monitoring in 4 weeks. 

That's where I a bit of frustration comes in. I feel like my doctors are not communicating well with each other or with me. I felt extremely rushed during the second doctor visit yesterday and walked away feeling more frustrated than relieved. I am getting two different opinions and suggestions and it bothers me. I don't feel like we are a team or on the same page. Both offices are so far away from my home and I waste loads of time and resources getting to all the appointments. I feel very strongly about switching doctors. I know I only have 12 weeks left, but in my heart I know I need someone I can trust a little bit more and feel more confident in my relationship with. Maybe I was just too spoiled with my doctor in Idaho. Either way, there are a few offices in town that deal normal/high risk pregnancies. Since I am high risk for some minor issues, I am trying to find a doctor at one of these offices that will work better for me. It would be a dream to have one doctor, one office, one game plan. 

So anyway, that is where we are. It hit me today as I was watching my boys that I might actually have a healthy baby. I was consumed with gratitude. I haven't considered a healthy baby in the last 8 weeks. Emotion overtook my body and I just cried thanks to my Heavenly Father. I have had so much support from family fasts, prayers and the peace of the spirit. I couldn't be more thankful. This has been one of the biggest learning experiences I have ever had in my life. We're not in the clear yet, and won't be until he is born, but I have more peace and hope than I have had in a long time. That is the greatest blessing I could ask for. 

And, because a blog without pictures is boring.

Dad had the early shift today, so we celebrated and got some delicious frozen custard. A favorite treat.

Enjoy some blurry phone photos. 

Good week to everyone!

Road Trip

 I did pretty well keeping up with my blog during my month long trip to Idaho. But this last week, I resigned and gave up. The last week kind of kicked my butt. I was really tired, really ready to see my husband and really dreading leaving my homeland. This trip was bittersweet for me. I absolutely loved being around family and having help with the boys at almost every hour of the day. Scott works LONG hours, so the kids and I rarely see him during the week. It was a nice change to have adult conversations and company. On the flip side-- I missed my husband more than words can express. His companionship is worth more than a million hours of sleep. I missed my friends and the regular activities the kids and I enjoy. So, I was torn if I really wanted to come home or not. But, as I walked in my home tonight--I was so grateful to be here. I can't wait to sleep in my bed and wake up in my own home. My children were so happy to be home too. They ran around and laughed and played with toys and jumped and played and on and on and on.

During the last week my family from Texas came. It was amazing seeing my brother and his wife. I haven't seen them for a year, so I soaked up every little minute with them that I could. Tayden loved having his cousins and I loved having a week with some of my favorite people. It was lots of fun. We also enjoyed the Zoo with Grandma Packard and Aunt Ashley. A few nights of dinner in Inkom and then ended it with the Karlson family reunion. I have loads of pictures to share. I'm sure they will be in random order, but enjoy. 

My brother got all the kids a bubble gun the night he flew in. Tayden LOVES his. He has played with it almost every day since he got it. The cousins spent most the evening in a bubble war.

This is on post a really wish I got published on its own. It was going to be called, "Who Needs a Nanny?" And the text-- When you have a Manny. My brother was a great help with Beckett. Little B is enamored by Justin, which is appropriate since they share a middle name. Seriously, Beckett chose Justin over myself a couple of times. My heart melted watching my brother with B. It was only the second time they have met, so it was really great watching them connect like they did. 

I caught a few pictures at the reunion. My amazing cousins put on a rocking awesome kids carnival for all the littles and Tayden really enjoyed himself. They made capes and bird feeders (or Beckett feeders--as he ate the peanut butter and bird seed!), did face paintings, ran an obstacle course and colored musical instruments. It was definitely a morning of fun.

We enjoyed lots of swimming. Tayden is a huge water fan. HUGE! He did swimming lessons in Pocatello, but learned more from his cousins in 10 minutes than he did in two weeks at the rec center. He always wants to wear his life jacket, but insists on being a diver. He loves swimming under water and jumping in the pool. Beckett enjoys the water also. We got him a floating tube, and he loves it even more now. I also love not having to hold him the whole time.

And of course, we had a pine wood derby race. Tayden loved watching his spiderman car race. 

A little night time family putt-putt golf. 

It was a great trip. One of my favorite things was letting my phone die. It was a peaceful 2 days of no facebook, checking blogs, playing games, email, etc. I soaked up all the time I could with the 3 most important boys. I thought I'd die without it, but I actually loved it. It'll probably start getting turned off a little more frequently. 

I can't believe my July adventure has come and gone already. It was such a great trip and I am already looking forward to next summer in Idaho. I'm glad to be home though and getting back into our regular routine. 

Thanks everyone for making it such a fantastic trip. 

A little Reminder

Some days are hard.

Really hard. 

And you need a reminder why being a mom is so awesome.

This picture is my reminder today.

Isn't his smile the sweetest.

I sure love him.

And love that he is in bed.

Grateful for sweet little reminders. 

Random Cousin Fun

This trip has been great! We are having so much fun with everyone. I love that both families are close so we have enjoyed time with everyone. A big highlight of the trip so far has been the arrival of Echo and the kids. We haven't seen them in a year and we are just soaking up every minute with them. Tayden is especially enjoying some quality Mennear cousin time. We haven't done anything but have fun!

So far we have spent many hours at numerous playgrounds. Tayden is really getting the 'hang' of the monkey bars. He made it about half way across by himself! He is a strong little bugger.

Whoopsie! This picture was supposed to be in a different post, but since its here. Tayden made a thank you card for Brad after he got his stitches. This is the first real picture he has drawn that makes sense. (He's never really been into coloring or writing or anything like that...so this was a proud proud moment for me.) His hair is the purple scribbly line on top and his stitches are the big line across his eyes. He also is doing great writing his T's an A's. I'm sure proud of this picture.

Back on topic. More Fun! We went to Ice Age 4 today and the kids loved it. Tayden did pretty great. He got a little restless towards the end, but he loved being there with Coda and Gracie. 

We've also been spending hours at the table playing with play doh. Again, this is a new interest of Taydens. He hasn't really ever had the attention span for fine motor stuff, but he played for an hour the  other day. He made this birds nest. He was so proud of it, I just HAD to take a picture.

More cousin fun. Coda is the best big cousin ever. He has so much patience, is a huge help and has played with Tayden better than I could have ever imagined. This morning he read books to T for half an hour. He loved every minute of it. 

Beckett, as always, has been enjoying some delicious treats and snacks. This afternoon he devoured a chocolate pudding cup. Boy loves to eat.

And last but not least. Batman. He is super fun. 

Its been nothing but a huge bundle of fun. In fact, everyone is hear chatting now and making it super hard for me to concentrate on writing. So I'm calling it quits for tonight. 

I gotta get back to the party!

Coping

How have we been coping with being so far away from Dad?

Well today, we played Spider man with dad over Skype.

It was fun and helped little T lots.

I like to think it helped his daddy too.

And then we filled some extra time soaking up our newest sweetest little cousin, Aimslee. Scotts sister, Sharlee and her husband Jeff just welcomed this sweet little girl into their eternal family. I couldn't be happier for them. She is just the sweetest thing I have ever seen. 

See, I told you. Just the sweetest thing. We love her so much.

Only 13 more days until we get to see our main man.

Can't wait.

Stitches

My mom and I took the kids to Brooklyns Playground to enjoy some lunch at the park, a little playtime and...Taydens first stitches. He was running up some steps when his foot slipped and he hit the edge of a stair with his head. A river of blood gushed down his face and I knew it was bad. Luckily, my mom had a blanket that we used for the picnic and we immediately applied pressure to stop the bleeding. There was a nice man who saw everything and grabbed his first aide kit from the car, gave us some clean gauze and we were off to sew him up.

Thankfully, one of my closest friends dad is a nurse practitioner. I practically grew up in their house, so I trust him with my life. The minute I knew he needed stitches we called Brad for his steady hand.  I knew he would take care of us and do a good job with Tayden. It was so comforting having someone I know take care of him. It didn't feel like a doctor visit, rather a chat with a friend who happened to have a needle and thread in my sons head. I am so grateful for Brad and the phenomenal job he did. 

Tayden was a champ. He quit crying quickly after it happened and only started again during the shots. Which, by the way, was awful. He cried pretty hard and I had to hold his shaking hands down while he was being injected with the numbing shot. Not my favorite part. But, after the sting went away he calmed right down and didn't move a muscle during the stitches. Wait, I take that back. At one point he did try to shoot me with his spiderman web. Although it got a laugh out of him, we had to have him stop because it was making him wiggle. He did great. I am so proud of him. I couldn't believe how wonderful he did. 

Warning, the picture below is kind of yucky!

This is right after he got it cleaned up and the blood washed off his face. It looked so much better after it got cleaned. I thought it was going to be so much worse. Although, it was only a layer away from the skull.

And 11 sutures later..

He was all fixed up.

Did I mention this happened right before nap time? Beckett slept through the whole thing. I was so relieved to have my mom there to help me. I don't know how I would have handled it without her.

After it was all said and done, we took Tayden to get a milkshake. He picked M&M and couldn't have been happier.

As sad as this was, Tayden did great. And on the plus side, he proved Scott and I right.

We knew this little dare devil wouldn't make it to five without stitches or a broken bone. 

Scotts Phone Unload

Scott just emailed me a bunch of pictures that he took with his phone while he was here with us. Yes, he is gone. We had to say goodbye to him for a long three weeks. But we aren't going to focus on that...lets just enjoy these incredibly cute kids!

 Scotts favorite late night treats. Sonic milkshakes. Sharing his passions with the kiddos.

 Lazy Dog.

 Brotherly Love.

 Tayden was begging Scott to take this picture. 

 Laughing in the grass.

Love this picture. Makes me miss my husband so much already!

Thanks for sharing these pictures, Honey! We love you. And miss you.

SO MUCH!!!

Grandpa

Tayden and Beckett are so lucky to have such wonderful Grandpas. We've been able to spend some quality time with both Grandpa Mennear and Grandpa Packard. 

Last night we went shooting with Grandpa Mennear. Tayden had fun shooting the big gun with Grandpa and can't wait to go again.

Today we went to Inkom to go fishing and ride some four wheelers with Grandpa Packard. Unfortunately we didn't catch any fish but we sure had fun riding the four wheelers. 

We are extremely grateful to have amazing men in our lives that care about us so much. 

Thanks Grandpa(s) for a fantastic time.

We love you guys.

More than you know.