catch-up

*last week was pretty much a nightmare around here. Kaden's virus/bronchitis took it's sweet time making it's exit and he was one grumpy kid the entire time!

*both kids ended up with pink-eye. I kind of expected it though after reading some about the Adenovirus. Luckily we had some leftover drops from the time before and all four eyes cleared up pretty quickly.

*last Thursday the kids had a follow up with the Pulmonologist. As far as their lungs go, they've been doing pretty well. He felt that we could cut down the dose of their inhalers and switch to just one time per day. Now, I'm really not sure why, when we are going into the winter season like this, that he would cut them down. But as much as they hate them, we were on board. If their lungs start acting up, we just bump them back up to two doses. He also gave us an albuteral inhaler to use rather than using the nebulizers when needed. This is going to be a HUGE change. We've had to do nebs a couple of times, and it's certainly a little different than when they were 6 months old. They hate it and they can run away and they can fight and they are strong!!  So instead of 10/15 minutes of nebbing, we can just do a couple puffs of an inhaler!! This will be great!

*the kids and I went to Brandon this past weekend because the boys were cutting in our egress windows. I didn't figure this was the best place for us to be with the dust and the cold.

*last Friday night was the worst night the kids have slept since they were born. I'm not sure what happened, but the kids, myself, and my parents, got absolutely NO sleep the entire night. It was bizarre! Needless to say, Saturday was a jammie day and we stayed inside all day long :)

*this week the kids have been soo much better! They are feeling well and have a ton of energy. They have been wild animals lately, and I love it!

*tomorrow is Friday and that is definitely a good thing :)

16 weeks

Baby's the size of an avocado!

Tiny bones forming in baby's ears mean it can now pick up your voice. A few more changes: Eyebrows, lashes, and hair are starting to fill in, and taste buds are forming.

A growth spurt is coming. In the next few weeks, baby will double it's weight and add inches to it's length. Baby's legs are much more developed, the head is more erect than it has been, and the eyes have moved closer to the front of the head. Baby's ears are close to their final position, too.

fun at grandpa and grandma's

7-day wrap up

*Last Wednesday, after work, the kids and I packed up and headed to Brandon for Thanksgiving break. My sister and niece were there and we were so very excited to spend 4 days with them!

*Thanksgiving Day, we went to Windom to my Grandma's for lunch. We drove our Expedition and had every seat filled, plus the dog! After lunch, we spent the afternoon looking through Black Friday ads and making our plan. Yes, we are Black Friday Freaks!!

*8:00 Thursday night we still didn't have a definitive plan. With the stores opening at midnight this year, it made things a little more difficult. How were we going to pick just one!?!  We took a little nap about 9pm and were back up at 10:30 and headed to Sioux Falls. We hit up Shopko, Kohls, and Target. Finally at 3:30am my sister and I had decided we were ready for some sleep!  Too old for all nighters I guess :)  We went home, took a nap, and went back out later that afternoon.

*I certainly didn't care for the Midnight openings on Black Friday. I thought it brought a whole different crowd than what you got going to the 4am openings as in the past. People were crabby and obnoxious. I'm not sure I could do it again, let alone even be interested again :(

*Friday during the day, Kaden started running a temp. Friday night was miserable for us as we were up with him constantly and his fever had climbed to 104. When we climbed into bed Friday night, I was soo excited to get some sleep. I was exhausted! But apparently Kaden had other plans for us.

*Saturday, my aunt and cousin came to visit. They had lunch with us and then spent the afternoon making potato cakes. YUMMY!!  Unfortunately I had to miss the entire thing because Kaden and I were spending it at acute care.

*It had been over 24 hours with him running high temps and we were going to figure out what was going on. After visiting with the Doctor, Kaden's ears, throat, and lungs looked/sounded good. The dr. was determined to find something simply because of the fevers. Fevers are a good thing, but he is fighting off something and he wanted to know what it was. We couldn't seem to break his fever even with Tylenol or Ibuprofin. The dr. did an xray of his sinuses and chest. After reviewing the xray, he diagnosed Kaden with pnuemonia. Off to the pharmacy we went to get another antibiotic.

*Saturday evening Kaden was extremely crabby. We spent another night with no sleep. After finally throwing Kaden in bed with Cody and I, I think I noticed his fever broke sometime early Sunday morning. This was the first time he had been fever-free in over 36 hours.

*Sunday, we had a Thanksgiving meal with Cody's dad and siblings. The meal was great, the company was great, but the crabby baby boy we could have done without.

*Sunday evening we came back to Brewster and before bed Kaden once again had a fever. I planned to stay home with him on Monday.

*Monday, no fever but Kaden was extremely crabby and irritable. There didn't seem to be anything that I could do that would make him happy. We got through the day, but I wasn't about to bring him to daycare on Tuesday knowing he would be this grumpy. So we called Cody's mom and she planned on coming over to watch the kids on Tuesday, just to give Kaden another day and hopefully get over this and start feeling better.

*Tuesday morning, Kaden wakes up with another fever. I called the doctor and discussed whether or not he should be seen. We made an appointment for Tuesday afternoon. After being on an antibiotic for 3 days, he really shouldn't be running temps anymore and should have started to feel better by now.

*Tuesday afternoon, back to Sioux Falls to the doctor. The doctor confirmed that Kaden's diagnosis of pneumonia on Saturday was re-read by the Radiologist who felt it was more of a bronchitis than a pneumonia. He also did some blood work and sucked out Kaden's nose to test. Neither were his favorite!  His blood work came back as viral, so the doctor was pretty convinced the other stuff would too. He called me late this afternoon that Kaden had tested positive to Adenovirus, basically a viral infection of the respiratory tract. Because it's a virus, we stopped the antibiotic and now we just have to wait it out. It's highly contagious, so he'll be out of daycare for the rest of the week. It's nice to finally know what it is and that hopefully we'll be seeing a light at the end of the tunnel....and maybe some sleep too.  We've had too many sleepless nights and it's starting to catch up to me. Watch out, I'm a little crabby!!


But through it all, I can't even begin to share how blessed I feel to have such an amazing husband and awesome kids, as well as the support from family and friends. I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving and gave thanks to those you love.

15 weeks

Baby's now the size of an orange!

Baby is busy moving amniotic fluid through it's nose and upper respiratory tract, which helps the primitive air sacs in the lungs begin to develop. Legs are growing longer than the arms now, and baby can move all of it's joints and limbs. Baby is squirming and wiggling like crazy down in the womb. Although eyelids are still fused shut, it can sense light. If you shine a flashlight at your tummy, for instance, baby is likely to move away from the beam.

hope it works

Last weekend we started working on our house. Our basement floods and is completely unusable, except for some storage that is kept up off the floor. But with the addition of another baby, we could certainly use some extra space. The guys worked hard last weekend digging up around the basement and re-tiling in hopes to dry up the basement. We are hoping this spring we notice a difference.

But THIS gives me hives...



our little Paula Deen

update

Cody's scan looked good today. Still no changes from previous ones.

Given Cody's diagnosis, and being that it's been 6 years, he feels that Cody is doing so great! He said they don't typically see people doing as well as he is.

I truly believe he is a miracle!!

Next appointment is scheduled for 6 months (the day after my due date) so we'll see how that goes :)

P.S.

Ooops....

I forgot to mention that Cody has his MRI tomorrow. I pretty much dropped the ball on this one, huh?

Thanks in advance for any prayers. His scan is at 9:00am and Dr. appointment is at 3:00.

14 weeks

Baby's now the size of a lemon!

Welcome to the second trimester! This week's big developments: Baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, grasp and possibly suck his thumb. Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him -- a process he'll keep up until birth.

I had an ultrsound last week at 13 weeks and we also had our first appointment with our OB. It was fun to see how much baby had grown since last ultrasound. Cody is actually looking forward to these ultrasounds as compared to the twins, because "they are soo much shorter!" It was fun to see our OB again and she was soo excited for us. She was also excited (and relieved I think) to find out it was only one baby this time. We spent a lot of time talking about the labor and delivery experience with the twins and my apprehensions this time around. I told her, even at this early stage in the game, that this is my biggest fear. She gave me a lot of good information and discussed why things happened the way they did the first time around. Most of which all lead back to the fact that I was carrying and was delivering twins. She firmly believes that this time around, both the pregnancy and delivery, will be night and day for me.

Which, it has been so far.  I cannot even tell you how amazing I've been feeling!!  In the beginning, I was soo unbearably tired, but I think that had a lot to do with being anemic on top of everything. But now, holy cow....things are going great!  I haven't even felt pregnant. If it weren't for the ultrasounds, and maybe my pants getting a little tight, I don't feel one bit pregnant. It's been quite a difference when compared to the twins!!  I can't believe I'm already at 14 weeks :)

I go back to see the doctor again in a month, but no ultrasound at that time. The next month I will get an ultrasound (and to find out the sex!!) and see the dr. again.  After that appointment we will get an ultrasound at every visit. Even though it's just one baby this time and we did a frozen embryo transfer, the Perinatologists are still considering this an "IVF pregnancy", so they are treating it the same as last time. Because there are more risks for complications during an IVF pregnancy, they like to keep closer tabs on baby throughout the pregnancy. Which I'm totally fine with. I was thinking it was going to be harder this time around not having as many ultrasounds. I think we were a little spoiled the first time getting to watch the babies grow every month. But I'm excited to know this one will be the same :)

13 weeks

Baby's now the size of a peach!

Baby is forming teeth and vocal cords, as well as approaching normal proportions. The head is now only one third the size of his body. And intestines are in the process of moving from the umbilical cord to baby's tummy -- much more convenient. Fingerprints have formed and veins and organs are clearly visible through thin skin. As starting the second trimester, most of baby's critical development will be completed and odds of miscarriage drop considerably.

what fun!

Just like her mom, she loves the sound of popping those packing bubbles :)

we love our new winter gear

how do we get rid of this?

We have an issue. Our little Kenley girl is quite hooked on her pacifier. Here's the problem. We had already taken it away from her once, and it went without a hitch. Here's the rest of the problem. When she got sick about a month ago, her momma thought she needed a comfort item and gave her back her paci :(  And now she is more attached than EVER!!

Yes, I take 100% of the blame. What was I thinking!?!

But now we have a serious issue on our hands and I'm not sure Kenley OR myself is ready to tackle what needs to be done.

Any great ideas?

12 weeks

Baby's now the size of a plum!

 

As I move into the second trimester, baby shifts into the growth and maturation stage. After weeks in the critical development stage, almost all of baby's systems are fully formed.