Life in Seattle

We have lived in redmond for a year now. I can honestly say that, while am not sure     of all the purposes of The Lord in bringing us to this place, we were meant to come here. Brittany's pregnancy with Gabriel and it's difficulties were greatly mitigated by the excellent physicians in the area. It is my belief that had we been in a different area things would not have gone so smoothly for her surgery and recovery. The ward members have been extremely helpful. We live far away from most of our families and they have helped us to feel at home. The therapy Kyrsta has received has been invaluable. She is now using complex sentences and playing with peers. This accomplishment may seem small to most, but the improvements she has made have brought joy to our family.  Ember has adapted well and is copying everything Kyrsta does. She is a gentle soul, but as her name implies she has a fiery side when she is upset. 

We are struggling a bit to keep up with bills, especially medical and therapy bills. Brittany was able to take a job working for brother Olson in our ward. It has been a blessing but has also put a time crunch on us. We are still trying to figure out how to balance everything. Despite all of our difficulties I know that The Lord will provide for and has provided for us in his own way. We remain faithful to our covenants and pay our tithing. Though they have not always come in the way we would have expected, The Lord has truly opened up the windows of heaven and poured blessings down upon our heads. 

I'm not sure what The Lord intends for our family as we head into the future, but I do know as we remain faithful we will always have what we need.

Mommy and Me summer

Before school let out for the summer I was very concerned Kyrsta might experience a lot of regression. She has made so much progress in her social skills, speech, etc... over the past year in school and therapy and I just didn't want to see her backpedal. So this summer I am trying to keep to a "Mommy and Me" schedule that I put together that includes park play dates, activities at home, educational experiences, etc... On our schedule today was a park play date with cousins. They had so much fun playing in the water and on the playground. I love watching each of them and am often reminded of my own wonderful childhood. These are the moments I am blessed with clarity from the Holy Ghost as he whispers to my heart that families are eternal and that it is a divine calling to be a wife and mother in this awesome family I have been blessed with. Here are some pics of the kids having fun at this really cool park.

Stilllllll Pregnant

So when I had my cerclage removed and we discovered that I was 50% effaced and dilated to a 3+, the OB said that if I should start having contractions 5 minutes apart or less, then I needed to be prepared to go to the hospital. First, though, she said to make sure to lay down, sip some ice water and see if the contractions went away. Then if they didn't go away, she said that I should take a warm shower and see if that did anything. Then, if the contractions had been coming consistently 5 minutes or less apart and I had done everything I could to get them to go away without any success for 2 hours, I needed to head to the hospital immediately. Well, Friday evening that happened. I was contracting every 2 to 3 minutes and I just could not get the contractions to go away or even slow down at all. In fact, they continued to come and they were getting more painful. So, we quickly threw our bags together (we had not packed yet, oops), and called some family members to arrange for some of my siblings to take shifts sitting at our house to watch over Kyrsta while we were at the hospital. Before we knew it, we were out the door and on our way. We quickly got admitted and settled in to be checked by the nurse. After all the paperwork was completed the nurse checked my cervix. I was 60% effaced and dilated to a 5. But, the baby's head was still very high. So, the nurse couldn't determine anything and we had to wait. And wait. And wait. And wait. And... well, you get the picture. I did a lot of walking of the halls. I was checked several times. I had been on the monitor for hours contracting every 2 to 3 minutes without any variation. But, to make a long story short, even having contracted every 2-3 minutes for 7 hours, my cervix had made almost no progress. The only difference was that I went from being 60% effaced to being 70% effaced. Essentially, from what we can tell, my cervix is stuck at the scar tissue that was left behind by the cerclage. Because the baby's head was still so high up, the doctor didn't want to come in and break my water. The fear is that if the baby's head is so high and the water is broken, it's possible that the umbilical cord could come floating out with the amniotic fluid. I'm not sure what that would mean other than it might make a c-section necessary. And I don't think that risk is worth taking. Not when I could just make myself be patient and hopefully not have added complications. So, in spite of being in the early stages of labor, I got sent home. Since my contractions cannot really get any more regular, we were essentially told to wait until either the contractions are so painful I can't cope with the pain any more or until my water breaks. Ugh. That was not pleasant news. After my water broke with baby K, I still didn't dilate. They had to hook me up to high levels of pitocin for a little longer than 20 hours before my body finally pushed past the scar tissue and got from a 6 to a 7. After that, however, I was pushing and Kyrsta was born within 30 minutes. I am a little bit nervous as to what that previous experience will mean for this labor and delivery. I have continued to contract regularly (I am so miserably uncomfortable) ever since being released from the hospital. I really think my body is doing what it can to try to get past the scar tissue and it will continue to contract and contract and contract until it finally succeeds. But, if I have to wait to go into the hospital until my cervix is that far dilated, I could be ready to push very very quickly after that. I am a bit worried if that happens that I won't even make it to hospital in time to get the epidural. Orrrr... I could just contract and contract and contract for another 2 weeks until it's time to be induced. Orrrr.... (and wouldn't this be nice?) my water could break on its own. Who knows? Anyway, I guess to sum it all up, we have no idea what's going to happen. My regular appointment with my OB is on Tuesday. Hopefully we will have a little more information after that. Until then, I am enduring. My contractions are continuing, although they have slowed down just a little bit. I think my uterus is tired. If that's possible. But to put a happy spin on things, my Dad said to me earlier today, "Brittany, just think of how many calories you're burning with all of these contractions!" Heck, maybe I'll be sporting a six pack after this baby girl is born! :)

Stitches are Out! Let the Waiting Game Begin!

Friday I got the cerclage out. I was very nervous. This cerclage was much more difficult for my doctor to put in than the one that she put in with my last pregnancy. She said because of that, she expected it to be much more difficult to get this one out and that it might be a whole lot more painful. So, I went in to the appointment with some nasty butterflies in my stomach. Then when the nurse led me back to a different room than I normally go to, the nasty little butterflies suddenly became some ferocious pterodactyls. Instead of being the plain old room with the regular table like the last time I had my cerclage out, I had to be in a room with a specialized table, specialized lights, and extra equipment. I nearly turned around and walked back out. I managed to compose myself, however, by reminding myself that I'm a big girl and promising myself a cookie if I behaved. :) Anyway, I was really feeling so blessed when my doctor was able to take a look and see that things were actually looking really good and that it wasn't going to be nearly as complicated a procedure as she had anticipated. Thank goodness the skin had not grown up over the stitches quite as badly as last time. She took a bit to find the area where it needed to be clipped, but after that it was pretty smooth sailing. The other good news is that I seem to have a little bit less scar tissue than last time. Having leftover scar tissue can cause something called "cervical dystocia" which means that the cervix has a hard time functioning normally and opening far enough to give birth. In essence, the scar tissue kind of forms a secondary cerclage. If it's really bad and your body can't push past it, it will prevent you from being able to deliver vaginally and you will have to have a c-section. I really really hope that doesn't ever happen to me. After the cerclage was removed, my OB checked the status of my cervix. After the stitches were taken out with Baby K, I was only dilated 1 cm and was 80% effaced. So, we were expecting maybe a 1+ or maybe a 2. Well, I guess we were in for a surprise because our doctor said that I was actually about 50% effaced and dilated to about a 3+ and that she could actually stretch the cervix to a 4 with little trouble. Her guess is that I won't make it to May 1st without having this baby. That is totally earlier than we expected considering we went an additional 2 & 1/2 weeks with my last pregnancy. Sooo... I guess the long and short of it is that we really need to get serious about getting ready for this baby. With all the craziness of my school schedule, work schedule, and involvement at church I have just been too busy to do as much as I should have to get prepared. BUT, the baby isn't here yet, so our goal is to get it mostly done tonight. On our list to do before we go to bed: wash all her clothes, pack our hospital bags, and install the car seat. NOW time for the fun part! Lets hear some guesses! When do you think this baby will come? Take a guess at the baby's birth date, time, and the baby's length and weight.

Maybe Sooner. Maybe.

Well, today I had my 34 week appointment with my Ob/Gyn. The baby is doing great and everything is progressing right on track. The doctor did decide, however, that we should take out the cerclage a little bit earlier than we had originally planned. Initially the plan was to take the stitches out on April 24th, but now we will get them out on the 20th instead. It needs to be moved up for a few reasons:

First, I have been having some painful contractions and some pinching in the cervical area. This could be indicating that my body is trying to start dilating. If I went into labor and started dilating before the stitches came out, the cervix could tear and we could have some real complications from that. (I cringe just typing that statement.)

Second, taking it out Friday is only one day BEFORE the 36 week mark while waiting until the following Tuesday is 4 days AFTER the 36 week mark. It's best to get as close to exactly 36 weeks as possible.

Third, and this is slightly less of a concern, my doctor is also pregnant and due in May. Since she is the one who put in the cerclage, it really would be best if she is the one who takes it out. Since she remembers the difficulty in putting it in, she will know where to look to take it out. So, taking it out a bit earlier should (hopefully) help avoid her going into labor before she gets a chance to take the stitches out.

Although it's possible, I really don't think I'll go into labor right away. After the cerclage came out with Baby K I still went an additional 2 and 1/2 weeks before my water broke. Of course, the amount of scar tissue left from the cerclage will play a huge part in how quickly I go into labor and how quickly my labor progresses. With Baby K, my cervix dilated to a 6 and got stuck. Essentially, the scar tissue from the cerclage formed a sort of "secondary cerclage". This means that my body had to literally force the cervix to open past the scar tissue. With Baby K, it took me 21 hours from the time my water broke until I was finally ready to push. The majority of that time was just trying to get from a 6 to a 7.

Anyway, I guess we'll just have to see how it goes. I think we will have a better feel for the direction things will go once the cerclage comes out. My Doctor has warned me that because the stitches for this cerclage were a lot more difficult to get in, they will probably also be a lot more difficult to get out. Thus, I am bracing myself for an experience that could potentially be extremely painful.

Needless to say, I am very much looking forward to getting this doctor's appointment over with. Of course, the excitement of knowing we are getting so close to meeting our second baby girl helps with that.

At this point, reality is finally starting to set in. After our doctor's appointment today, the thought occurred to me, "Holy crap! That's only a week and a half away! Our baby could come as soon as next weekend!!!" Wow. We are so not ready. So, over the next 10 days we will be busy setting up the bassinet, washing clothes, getting the car seat cleaned and installed, packing hospital bags etc... This will be in addition to Malone preparing for a very important meeting with his doctoral committee and my finishing up as much schoolwork as possible for the semester.

I know it's unlikely that she will come right away, but we do have to be prepared for the possibility just in case. I guess to sum it all up, we can just say this:

WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!

The Swings

The picture of Baby K above is of her in her very favorite swing of all time. It's meant to be used by disabled children but our little girl LOVES it because she can climb up into it all on her own.

Our Baby K is such a goofball. Over the past several weeks the weather in our neck of the woods has been so beautiful. On the days that are warm and sunny, I try to take Baby K to the park. She LOVES going to the playground. But I have to admit, my intentions for taking her to the park have not been purely selfless.

You see, ever since Daylight Savings Time (which I think is stupid stupid stupid), Baby K has had a very hard time adjusting to a slightly altered schedule. The main concern is that she really has struggled to take her regular naps. Many days she has just been skipping her naps all together. On the days she refuses to take a nap she will go to bed easily at night. Sounds great, right? WRONG. Although she goes to bed easily at night, she will almost inevitably wake up at about 2:00 am thinking she just finished nap time. Then she refuses to go back to bed until about 6:00 am. Needless to say, this whole situation makes for one VERY tired and unhappy Momma.

Anyway. So I decided that it would be a good idea to get her out to the park as often as possible in the hopes that she would play so much that all her energy would be spent and she would again return to having regular naps. Boy was I wrong. Baby K does love to go to the park. But she doesn't love to run around, climb up and down the slides, run around on the jungle gym, or use almost any of the other equipment that would require physical exercise.

What did she fall in love with instead? The swings. When we take her to the park she will happily allow us to push her in the swing for a solid 2 hours. She cannot even be enticed away from the swing by the sandbox! And that's really saying something considering the fact that when a swing isn't around, she loves to play in the dirt. Seriously. My silly goose of a daughter completely thwarted my selfish plot! She picked the one thing at the park that requires her to burn almost no energy whatsoever.

I still take her to the playground at least twice a week though. Pushing her on the swing for hours on end is worth it to hear her giggle and then tell me "Ready! Set! Go!!!" so that I will push her as high as I can. When she gets going really high like that she squeals at the top of her little girl voice "Wheeeeee!!!!" It makes me smile every time.

7 &1/2 weeks = FOREVER

Seriously. I still have 7 & 1/2 weeks left until my due date. I am aware that that is really not terribly long. But from my current (extremely uncomfortable) perspective, 7 & 1/2 weeks sometimes seems like FOREVER. I keep telling myself things that make me feel a little better. For example:

"Well, my doctor said that I can be induced at 39 weeks if I want so really I only have to wait 6 & 1/2 weeks."
"It's ok that I have to wait 7 & 1/2 more weeks, because I want to wait to have the baby until I'm done with my semester at school anyway."
"I'm getting my cerclage taken out in just 3 & 1/2 weeks and that is something to look forward to."
"I'm really only 4 & 1/2 weeks away from being full-term, so maybe the baby won't wait until my due date to come."

Anyway, these are just some of the things that I try to tell myself when I get feeling anxious and impatient. Sometimes they work. Buuuuuttttt, when my back is especially hurting, or when I wake up at 4 am to go to the bathroom for the 5th time that night, or when I longingly look at all the adorable baby clothes, I am still impatient for this baby girl to come and 7 & 1/2 weeks seems like eternity.

Today is one of those days where I am feeling very impatient. I am so excited to meet our second baby girl face to face. So, to try to occupy myself for the moment, I thought I would record a little bit about this pregnancy. I have wished on several occasions that I had kept a better record of my pregnancies with both Baby K and especially Baby G. Hopefully this will help me remember what this pregnancy was like a little bit better.

Pregnancy Symptoms
-Nausea: I was so nauseous in the first trimester. It was almost unbearable. I was so thankful when the nausea started easing off at about 17 weeks into this pregnancy. Unfortunately, (and strangely), the nausea has started to come back a little bit every night. This never happened with either of my previous pregnancies so it has been an interesting and somewhat unpleasant change.
-MAJOR aches: This started at about 28 weeks and continues to worsen. My hips and back ache so badly that it wakes me up probably at least 4-6 times per night.
-Rapid hair growth: I LOVE this symptom. I decided about six weeks before I found out I was pregnant to start growing my hair out again. So this symptom is really helping along with that goal. My hair that was once almost as short as Malone's is now past my shoulders.
-Congestion: I'm pretty sure pregnancy congestion contributed to my susceptibility to the sinus infections I got. Those were miserable. I hope I do not get another one before this baby is born.
-Swelling: I actually have had very little swelling with this pregnancy. Recently I have noticed a little bit of puffiness in my face, fingers, toes, and ankles, but it hasn't been severe. Hooray!
-Headaches: Ugh. I have had horrible headaches with this pregnancy. They were mostly related to the sinus infections I had. They were definitely the worst headaches I have ever experienced though. I still have headaches occasionally, but not nearly as badly as during my sinus infections.
-Fatigue: During the end of my first trimester and much of my second trimester I was severely fatigued. Thank goodness my doctor found out that I had a pretty bad iron deficiency. Now that I'm on iron supplements, I still get tired like any pregnant lady, but my fatigue isn't interfering badly with my ability to function.
-Weight gain: 12 lbs so far
-(TMI warning here) Breast soreness and growth. Which is tragic. Enough said.
-Shortness of breath: I seriously do not remember having experienced this with either Baby K or Baby G. This is one of the symptoms that drives me most crazy. I never feel like I can take a deep enough breath. The baby is really squishing all of my internal organs which makes it impossible to feel like I'm getting all the oxygen I need. It's not dangerous or anything, but can be very irritating.
-Heart burn: This really bugged me for a while. I was cramming Tums down my throat so frequently that I finally broke down and asked my doc for help. She gave me a low dose prescription and since then, I have been nearly heartburn free! Hooray!

Cravings
-Baked goods: It's a good thing I didn't get gestational diabetes this time because baked goods are definitely my major craving! For some odd reason, I especially crave bagels with cream cheese. I have eaten so many bagels with this pregnancy I swear this kid is going to come out shaped like a bagel.
-Sweets: I think I crave a different sweet every day. One night I was craving brownies. So I made a giant pan of brownies. Then I added everything to the top of the brownies that sounded good to me at the time. The toppings included: hot fudge, caramel, little dehydrated marshmallows (the kind you're supposed to put in hot chocolate), and peanuts. I know. Weird. The next night I happened to be craving caramel popcorn. So I made a big batch of that. Soon after it was cheesecake. And the list goes on. And on. And on.
-Pizza: Oh man this is a bad one. I crave it all the time. But I don't just crave any pizza. (Prepare to be repulsed) I crave Pizza Hut pizza with very light sauce, plain cheese, with double extra cheese (yes you can pay for that), and cheese stuffed crust. I know. I might as well just chow down on a giant hunk of melted mozarella.

Anyway, that's what I wanted to record for now. And you know what? It did make me feel a little bit better. :)

I think I must be a real Mom now

So with the upcoming arrival of our second baby girl, Malone and I decided we needed a bigger vehicle. We finished paying off our car not too long ago, and we enjoyed not having a car payment for a little while. But we just didn't see how we would be able to do the traveling we plan to do this summer in our little car. When we took Baby K to Illinois and Florida a couple of years ago we were crammed to the gills. This summer we plan on going to Illinois again and we just did not want to make that trip with our girls surrounded to the ceiling with all our stuff. Of course, we knew a bigger vehicle would also be extremely handy for day to day things like grocery shopping and if we need to haul anything.

With that decision in mind, we set out to look for a... minivan. (Dun dun dun!!!) I know, it's not very cool. But, in all honesty I almost completely quit caring about what was "cool" after I got married.

Well, after much searching, we found a minivan we fell in love with! It's used so of course it has a few flaws, but at least with this minivan they are all cosmetic. Plus, it came with a lot of perks that we really like. It is a Honda Odyssey. It has a sun roof, heated leather seats, stow and go seating, room for 8 passengers, automatic doors, and a dvd player amongst other things. We were even able to talk the sellers down on the price by a bit so we really got a great deal! And with our payment schedule and the amount we were able to put down, we should be able to have it paid off next Spring. Woohoo!

Anyway, here's a picture of our new van. We have had it for a few weeks now and we just love it. Plus, it's an exciting step to getting ready for the new baby.