My 3-year-old son asked for a SALAD for lunch. I was extremely skeptical and made sure that it was part of MY meal and I would share with him. Turns out he ATE THE WHOLE SALAD and Abel ended up eating my chicken! These 2 kiddos are keeping their mama a bit on the “skinny” side!
Anyway, I just had to share to never underestimate a request. You never know when they just might mean what they say!!!!
Let me tell you….
I am 13 weeks and 1 day along with baby #3 and it has been a doozy of a 1st trimester. First we had the progesterone issue and that was resolved by my 12th week. Only to then find out that I had been exposed to 5th disease which was confirmed to have terminated another pregnancy that was just a couple of weeks behind me. Sigh. I called the doc and had to have blood work done on Monday. Did that. Then Tuesday night, I woke up in pain (ghost gallbladder pain) and finally after 2 hours or so of writhing I ended up vomiting most violently. The pain didn’t stop. It writhed in bed for another 4 or 5 hours. Called my OB, he said see your PCP. My PCP said go to the ER. After I managed to get my body to the shower, I just sat in the warm water and tried to actually shower. Did the best I could until the vomiting took over again. There was nothing but water in my system by this point and the heaves wouldn’t stop. It was horrible. I literally prayed for God to take it away because it hurt so much. Thankfully He listened and took away my heaves. I finished my shower and dressed to go to the ER. I got to the ER at around 11 am (my sweet family took me) and I got right in (THANK GOD!). I had no fever, no high blood pressure, no other symptoms other than extreme epigastric pain and vomiting. They get an IV started but no fluids are started. I explain over and over that I am 13 weeks pregnant and please help me keep from vomiting and stop the pain. They give me something for the nausea but we hold out on pain meds for a short bit as they want to run some blood work. All labs come back normal. No liver issues, no pancreatitis, nothing. That is of course good and bad. I finally get something for the pain and the nurse even made a curious comment about how she had never seen such a low dose prescribed. She hoped it would do something for me. She did give me another dose of anti-nausea medication as the pain meds could make me sick. Within 90 seconds of getting the pain meds, I was vomiting again. Thankfully I had a basin nearby in my room. I started to get a headache and asked for fluids to get started. The nurse came back with some saline and thankfully I felt much better within about an hour. Then comes time for discharge because they really can’t run any more tests as I am pregnant. Time will just have to sort this out. It is 4 pm and I am getting prepped to leave. I don’t feel good at all but I assume it is because I am extremely sore from the violent vomiting. Turns out…nope. I got home and was actually running a temp of 102! Figures. I get some Tylenol in me and pass out at home in bed. The next thing I remember is that my fever was gone around 5 am Thursday morning. Yeah! I was ridiculously sore but felt much better. Later that morning I got word from my OB that all tests for 5th disease were NEGATIVE!!! Yeah!!! Have to do a recheck in 2 weeks but all looks great! Praise Jesus!
So now I am back to my good ol’ self today (still a bit sore) and pizza sounded AMAZING since I haven’t eaten since Tuesday and I ate my entire half! (highly unusual might I add). And it tasted SOOOO GOOD!!!
But that is what has been happening in my world for the last week…hope yours hasn’t been so icky!
**quick explanation of “ghost gallbladder pain.” I had my gallbladder removed in 9-06. The pain and suffering I went through for the 6 years leading up to the discovery of a diseased gallbladder is what I have been experiencing all over again with this pregnancy. I will eat something that will create such intense pain that it will eventually cause me to vomit. This has been the first episode of vomiting since the start of the pregnancy but not the first episode of intense pain. Since I have no gallbladder hence the term “ghost gallbladder.”
The other night Abraham was laying next to me and rubbing my belly to say Hi to the new baby. He was being so sweet. I proceeded to tell him that before too long he will start to feel the baby kick and move within my belly and that the baby will be strong enough to kick his arm right off (my belly of course!). Well, I didn’t say the “off my belly” part. I assumed it was understood since we were demonstrating the action…but horrified my son exclaims, “No Mommy! I don’t want the baby to kick me. Then I will only have 1 left!!!” It took me a few seconds to put this together in my brain to figure out WHAT he was saying…he literally thought the baby was going to kick his arm OFF and he would only have 1 left! Poor kid! What a miscommunication! I quickly reassured him and all is well:) I still think he might be leery of when the baby starts really kicking!
I hadn’t felt great all day…fighting off this bug the kids have had. Come late in the afternoon I felt like I had enough energy to FINALLY go to the grocery store. Thankfully, my husband went with me and the kids. We get the shopping completed and go through checkout. I prefer the “self” checkout locations just because I can better monitor prices and whatnot. We finish with that and I start to put my wallet away in my bag which is on the bottom of the cart in the front. I bend down like I have done 1000 times before and Abel is seated in the cart with his cute dangling legs right there next to my head. This time though he decided to throw a fit and kick at the precise moment my left eye was in perfect range for contact. He does not hit the bone/socket. Oh no. He hits nothing but soft, squishy eyeball. I scream in pain because it was rather excruciating and start crying immediately. I am sure 90% of the customers in the store heard me. I buckle over holding my eye which feels like is in the BACK of my head. I don’t remember much after that…I couldn’t see…I know Aaron came to me and the nice Meijer employee came to see what happened and promptly returned with a bag of ice. I of course wanted to slink into the floor and hide…and get my eye repositioned. But instead we proceed to make the walk of shame out of the store with my husband leading the way with the cart, screaming baby because he realizes he hurt his mommy, bewildered 3-year-old who has NO idea what to make of the situation, and an EXTREMELY embarrassed mommy who has to hold a bag of ice to her face and hang on to her husband’s jacket to be led out of the store. Then once in the car, Aaron tells me that EVERYONE turned to stare at the screaming woman who fell to the floor (I kneeled thankyouverymuch) and HE says they accused HIM (with their eyes) of beating me up. Great, now I am known as the lady with 1 uncontrollable child and an abusive husband… thank God I was wearing a coat and they couldn’t tell I was pregnant with another baby!!! Could you imagine the looks? Of course I know they weren’t REALLY accusing him, he just felt put on the spot cuz we have 2 very innocent looking children and since the mommy was screaming …it must have been the mean ole dad.
I love my church, my church family, our leaders and pastors. I am SO excited to see what “we are made of” this coming week!
I thank God that today was NOT Thanksgiving. I had very little sleep last night. I am dealing with a poor little guy (Abel) who received his Hep A booster on Monday and is having a terrible reaction (irritable, diarrhea, just miserable and taking it out on me). I was up most of the night with him and no sooner than I get him calmed down and back to sleep, his brother wakes me up. Ugh. I finally get to sleep and enjoy a whooping 4 hours and 45 minutes of slumber before waking to a grumpy baby. Yeah. I am SO thankful my loving husband was kind enough to get up with the boys and allow me to just lay in bed for the next hour. I did try to get back to sleep but it just didn’t happen. During that hour, I prayed. I prayed for strength, for healing for my munchkin, and courage to just say “who cares!” Things will NOT get done today. So what. I actually felt much better and got my day going.
We had made plans yesterday to meet my in-laws for lunch today. I was stoked, no cooking! Of course, I had a serious case of the slows or something so we were running late. Little did I know, God had a plan. He wanted me to be late to lunch. I am rushing around getting little feet put into shoes and jackets shoved into the bag and making sure I have a couple diapers “just in case” when I get a call from my mom. Under normal circumstances (being in the rush) I wouldn’t have answered but being Thanksgiving tomorrow and knowing we are going there, I quickly answered while still running around chasing my kiddos to the car. My mom talks to me calmly but I instinctively know something is wrong, especially when she says “I am fine.” Alarms are going off in my head and body. Something is definitely wrong. She explains that she has cut her thumb pretty badly and wants a 2nd opinion about stitches. I already know that if she is even contemplating it, she will need stitches. I quickly tell her we are on the way and hang up. I now go into “doctor” mode, as I call it. I bark commands and the kids realize this is serious. We move with a purpose and get to mom’s house quickly (of course this was the ONE time a SEMI truck was in our neighborhood and we literally followed him to the house NEXT to my mom’s! He was moving slower than a snail, seriously). We call the in-laws and explain the situation and they are gracious in forgiving our tardiness. I jump out of the car and run into my mom’s house to assess the situation. She is in the process of cutting the “bandage” off of her thumb (do band-aids and electrical tape count?). I am donning gloves from my emergency kit when I ask if the scissors she is using are sterile. Mom gives me this, of course look and she points to the sanitizer. Bandage is now removed and I take one quick peek and there is no doubt, stitches are in order. It was gross. Really gross. There was no blood at this point which honestly made it grosser. I get a new, sterile gauze pad out and used medical tape to secure it. I have her get an ice bag together as I run back out to my family waiting on the driveway (this all took about 3 minutes). I grabbed my bag and phone and said good-bye to my family as they headed off to lunch. I got mom’s things together (except her phone – oops!) and we left for the hospital in her car. We get to the ER and get checked in. They are swamped. Yeah. Poor mom. All in all she was there for 5 hours for a simple 7 stitches and we think Obamacare is going to improve things? But that subject is for another day. Thankfully, no tendons or nerves were damaged with the cut.
While mom was waiting to be seen, I had Aaron come pick me up and I went to lunch. Lunch was good albeit crazy with 2 dudes. Abel did great and then he started to lose it. I checked him and he was wet. Great. No changer here. Sigh. We will just do a standing change no biggie. Ha! I get into the bathroom to only find out my boy had diarrhea, is a mess and is BURNED to no end on his rear. This could not be more gross or difficult to deal with. I get some paper towels and put them on the floor and lay my guy down. I start cleaning him up and he proceeds to SCREAM because it hurts. I do the best I can and move as quickly as possible. I get him changed (diaper and pants). We wash our hands and arms and as soon as I get back to my bag, I change his shirt too. Being on a bathroom floor is so GROSS. I even wash the back of his head! Now this disaster is over. Whew. Abel can’t really sit. He hurts and needs to stand. You just can’t eat while a little dude is running around the restaurant. That’s okay. I would potentially overeat anyway. We wrap up lunch and say our good-byes. Time to go.
I wanted to make a few stops today but scratched them all but the Meijer stop because I had to go. We stopped by the hospital to check on mom (she still hadn’t been seen at this point but was in a room). She was fine and sent me on my way. Abel zonked out in the car. I would have kept him awake but I knew it would be near impossible since I had to stop at the store. I just let him sleep (this becomes important later). Abraham and I run into Meijer together and get the supplies we need and get out. Homeward bound we are.
I do my best to get Abel out of the car and back into bed. Seems to be successful. I focus next on Abraham. He woke up with a runny nose and we assumed allergies…not sure what has been stirred up but I am sneezing too. I work on him for about 30 minutes and he goes out. Of course Abel never went back to sleep. Sigh. I get up and console him and let him play in his room with me for about 30 minutes until we go wake daddy and hammy up. During our play time, we heard from my mom, she made it home finally and she is fine and feels great. She will call if she needs extra help tomorrow. Okay that is settled.
I start the wake up process. Abraham does not wake well. He is grumpy and miserable. He might be sick. Great. Thankfully Daddy stays with him while I go downstairs with Abel to get snacks and juice for everyone. Daddy and hammy join us but ham refuses to eat ANYTHING…even chocolate cake! This kid is really sick. He finally comes around to at least being civil and I send them (daddy, abel and abraham) upstairs to watch some tv while mommy makes the rolls for tomorrow.
Rolls…let me just tell you about those. I made one recipe and didn’t like it. So I moved on. I made another recipe and didn’t trust the baking instructions but like a good recipe follower, I followed them. Those rolls are now rocks. It is late, I am tired and I have no rolls for tomorrow. I decided to just throw in the towel on this day. I am just going to blog about it and then wash my hands of it.
I am so thankful for today even though it was a rough day. I am thankful my mom is okay, that she could call me and I was readily available to assist her. I am thankful for my in-laws who were patient and understanding and still willing to buy me lunch! I am thankful for a loving and supportive husband who helped me with the kids all day and still loves me at the end of the day when I am worn out to no end. I am thankful that I am able to care for my children and that I am prepared for situations. Even though it may seem weird to some, I was prepared to deal with everything that happened today (away from home). I am thankful for sickness because it makes me more thankful for my health! I am thankful that the rolls didn’t work out because that means I can make them fresh tomorrow. I am thankful for today. It wasn’t a day I would have chosen but I am thankful that my Lord and Savior knew exactly what I needed today and I am thankful that I relied on Him through it all!
May you all have a very blessed Thanksgiving!!!
I want to seize the opportunity to profess my undying love and commitment to my wife. Today marks sixteen years that we have been a faithful and devoted team, and it has been an amazing journey!
We received news this morning that my labs are showing a deficiency in the hormone progesterone which supports the pregnancy. Without it, the baby will not survive. I have been placed on a hormone replacement to last through the 1st trimester and see how things go. As many of you know, this is new to me but does explain several symptoms with this pregnancy. Hopefully, this hormone will help and my body will respond properly and help to support the life growing inside. Your prayers are appreciated!!!
On a lighter note, after picking up my prescription and finally getting the chance to sit down and read all the information that came with it (yes, I am a dork like that). Anyway, I read the label on the bottle and just BURST out laughing! I showed it to Aaron and he about died laughing too! You can read this label and see if you can see the hilariousness.
photo bomb: verb \fō-tō bäm\ An otherwise normal photo that has been ruined or spoiled by someone who was not supposed to be in the photograph.
I was photo bombed
Do you ever do that? Take things for granted? I sure do. I don’t ever realize I do it until something….breaks.
Tonight after a fun day downtown getting ready for Aaron’s race tomorrow. I switch out loads of laundry (my never ending chore) and go about the evening. I get dinner done, watch a quick episode of Busytown Mysteries, baths, story time, and finally bed time. I go downstairs fully ready to switch out more laundry and prepare for tomorrow’s big day. As I head down the stairs, I realize I hear my dryer going. I think to myself, “hmm, that’s odd. Wonder if Aaron switched loads for me.” Unfortunately, that was not the case. I check the dryer setting and it has barely moved! It has been running for at least 4 hours at this point. I open up the dryer and find a big damp pile of towels. No heat whatsoever. I run through the dials praying for a oops on my part, try it again but still no heat. I say a quick prayer because I have to tell Aaron. I have 2 loads of wet towels and diapers to still wash (at least those can hang to dry). This can’t wait until after the race tomorrow. I grudgingly climb the stairs part way and say “you won’t believe this” to which Aaron retorts “what?” Then I drop the proverbial bomb on him. Our dryer isn’t heating. He took it surprisingly well and we went about a quick troubleshooting. I got out the manual, he searched the web. We met in the laundry room and gave it a good 30 minutes. No change. Still no heat. So I now have 2 loads STUFFED into my dryer and they will just tumble until they get dry with just air blowing. My diapers are washing now and I will hang them up in a bit. Of course I still have much more laundry to do but that will have to wait until we figure out what we are going to do. I have been wanting a new dryer…hmmm. Don’t know if that is quite in the budget right now.
Moral of the story: Don’t take things for granted! Thank God every single night for EVERYTHING you have and even the things you don’t have because He teaches you to appreciate it all!