Lynsie doing the Jailhouse Rock

Just a preview of Lynsie's routine..... Haha!

Lynsie's 3rd Dance Class

Well yesterday's dance class was MUCH more successful! Lynsie stayed in class the whole time after being told I wouldn't be in the waiting room. Guess that saves me some comp time if I don't need to be there the whole time. Haha! Here's a video of her from yesterday... not much "showing off" their new moves this week as a little girl was having a birthday and so they got special cookies instead. Enjoy!

It's been awhile....

Wow, what a summer and fall. I've been a real slacker when it comes to posting on my blog, hoping that will change as things are starting to slow down, at least a little bit. Where do I start?

Lilian

On April 21, I went in for a routine check-up only to find out that Lilian's heartbeat wasn't too easy to hear on the doppler. Dr. Wiser sent me over to the hospital to be hooked up to their monitor to see if we could get a good reading. Nothing there either. Next up was an ultrasound. While it was nice to see my little sweetie, it wasn't so great seeing that her heart rate was around 80 to 90 bpm, when it should have been up around 130 bpm. After my ultrasound, Dr. Wiser informed me that her heart rate was low and it was time for her to be delivered. He said we'd do it the following morning and that they didn't know why her heart rate was so low, but it was so they should deliver her. I was in shock and we had to rearrange some other appointments we had going on. All during this, we were dealing with John and an illness he was having.

Anyway, the next morning Lilian Grace was born via c-section at 10:51 a.m. weighing 7lbs 7oz and 20" in length.

While I would love to say all was happy and hunky dory after her delivery, I can't. Once my little angel was born, her heart rate went from 80 to 90 bpm and skyrocketed to 230-260 bpm, which is very dangerous. If this had happened in an adult.... well lets just say it would be deadly. Thankfully, she is a resilient little girl and just laid there somewhat silently and didn't complain much other than all the poking and prodding from the hospital staff.

After a split uterus (glad I didn't go into labor on my own!!!!!) and a quite a long time without getting to see my baby, they finally wheeled her in, hooked to a ton of monitors. Her heart rate stayed up and Dr. Wiser informed me that he'd had a conference call with the Neonatologist and Pediatric Cardiologist at OHSU Doernbecher Hospital in Portland. They wanted us to come up as they weren't sure what was wrong with Lilian. Thankfully, they had space for me to go as well and I wouldn't have to stay in Stayton, away from her. About an hour before the ambulance arrived to take Lilian up there, her heart rate all of the sudden dropped to normal levels. Talk about a huge relief. However, they said we still had to make the trek up to Portland.

Once we got up to Portland, her heart only had two or three more episodes. I spent alot of time in the NICU at Doernbecher, and let me tell you, the staff up there is fabulous. So caring and helpful. I was very thankful for them and all the help and support they gave us. Lilian looked like a giant next to all those tiny babies in the NICU. What an amazing place and what amazing things they do for all those babies.

Our Pediatric Cardiologist informed me that Lilian has SVT, which usually heals itself by the time they are 6 mos. to 1 year old. He gave us a prescription for medication that we were to give Lilian two times a day and we would visit him every three months or so to have her looked at and occasionally hooked up to a EKG monitor for 24 hours.


I am happy to report that at our October appointment, the Pediatric Cardiologist had us stop all medication. We then waited a couple of weeks and went back up for Lilian to be hooked up to another EKG monitor which ultimately showed that everthing is ok with her. No more medications and hopefully just one last visit to Doernbecher in January!

John

John had quite the summer as well. Around September '09, he started having some issues involving diarrhea. He avoided going to the doctor for several months, until finally in February '10, I told him I was making an appointment for all his various ailments because we needed to get on top of them before our new baby arrived.

He went to the doctor and they drew a bunch of blood and couldn't find any clear answers except for his body was fighting off some kind of infection. After several more tests and scheduling a colonoscopy for April 23, it seemed like we'd have some answers soon. Well the April 23rd date became a week later due to the early arrival of Lilian. Luckily, we were able to get in the next week for his appointment. After his colonoscopy, John was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. They started treating it right away with steroids and other medications. Right when we thought things were taking a turn for the better, they would get worse. By June 1st he was really bad and went back into see his Gastro Doctor. They ordered him to up his meds but it just wasn't helping. Now it was June 8th and he was just deteriorating day by day, by the end of the week he was not able to keep anything down and was pretty much bedridden.

After much harassing of the doctor's office, I was finally able to get some anti-nausea medicine for him. This did help, but he was so weak and the cramping in his abdomen was so bad that it didn't make much difference. I kept bugging them all weekend, and finally on Monday morning was able to get the go ahead to get him checked into the hospital. There was nothing else I could do for him, and my stress level was really hitting a high having to take care of a newborn, a 2-1/2 year old, and him. Unfortunately, alot of the time he would get "service" last with how hectic things were.

To make this long story a little shorter, he went into the hospital on June 14th and by June 22nd I got a call that they would be removing his colon. He had one of the most agressive cases of Ulcerative Colitis the doctors had ever seen. None of them could believe it was so bad and the surgeon said his colon was toast when they removed it and if it had stayed in, there was the possibility of rupture and well, you can guess that would be BAD!

His recovery has been a long one, he was off of work all summer ... only returning in mid-September. It's been a struggle for him to adapt to his new condition but I try to remind him it can only get better from here and to remember what he was going through before this all happened. Also, as he put it... he no longer has to squat in the woods to poop! HA!

Lynsie

Lynsie Jean is now 3 years old and I can't believe how big she is and what a little smarty-pants is. She has had her difficult times but has mostly been the best little helper ever over these last 6-1/2 months. I feel pretty lucky to have her, as I know her daddy does as well. She proclaimed tonight that Lilian is her best friend and gave her a hug. So cute! I can't wait to see what she's saying when Lilian is mobile here soon. HA!!

So, hopefully things just keep getting better from here!! Not to sound like I'm on an awards show giving an acceptance speech, but I've got to thank all my family and friends who helped out and supported us during this past year. Everyone really stepped up and gave their support in so many different ways. You really have NO idea how much this meant to us.

I hope to post a little bit more... but we shall see. I really am going to try though. :-D

Long Overdue Update

I was just thinking that I hadn't updated in awhile, but I hadn't realized it's been 10 weeks since my last family update. Oops!

Well not much exciting going on around here... just growing a human and all of us are counting the days until little Lilian joins us. No middle name yet, in case you are wondering. Let me rephrase that... I have a middle name picked out but John is being difficult. Hmph!

C-Section is scheduled for April 30th and while sometimes I wish she would just get here already, I really am hoping she waits. I'd really like my doctor to deliver her and he will be out of town for a few days. Eeek!

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks:

LJ napping in her pink room... which she proclaims her love for everyday. Haha!

Helping mommy out in the yard...


Looking forward to raspberries this summer!!

Dumping the weeds...

Pretty little lady ready for pajama day at Tashie's!!

Lynsie at the Easter Egg hunt in Sublimity... she loved it!

The two newest belly pictures... I'm due for one this week actually... stay tuned!

Lynsie's Big Day

Here are a few pictures of Lynsie from the past couple of weeks. She's really been enjoying the beautfiul weather. Here she is riding her bike... watch out, she's getting GOOD at riding that tricycle. :o)


She actually asked me to take this picture... I usually don't get a nice smile. Haha!

Here is Lynsie today in her new room. She loves it... as you can see in both pictures. As of this moment, she's actually in there now! Haha!

Quick Update

Hey everyone! I wanted to share an updated belly picture of #2 and I taken a week ago when I was 28 weeks along. She is really growing like crazy!



And what everyone REALLY wants to see, a couple of Lynsie Jean pictures!

Just chillin' watching her nightly 1/2 hour of Dora or whatever it is she chooses:



Looking very pretty in her little dress!

That's all for now!

Quick January Picture Update

It's been awhile since I've shared some Lynsie photos with everyone, so I thought I'd post a few here today. Enjoy!!


Lynsie Jean "resting" with Baby Sister and Angel.... haha!

Goofy girl!



Eating a soft pretzel with mommy at the Mall... yummy!



Playing in the tent at Tashie's house... showing us her best "smile"... haha!



Truck Time at Tashie's



SUPERSTAR!!!!

Woohoo! A day with no rain!!




Coloring with much determination and her favorite color, orange!




Block time!




The princess taming the tiger...




Crusing in the car...




Goofy should have been her middle name...

Multi-tasking at Tashie's... potty training AND reading! LOL!




Had to save the best for last because as you saw above, how often do we get to see this pretty face? LOL!




Have a great weekend!

Lynsie's Visit With Santa

I would have sent this out sooner, but really when you see the picture you have to hear the story behind it. Otherwise, the picture is just confusing and maybe sad. Haha!

For at least a month we have really been pumping up Lynsie for Santa Claus. We finally got around to heading to the mall this weekend so she could have her chance to tell Santa what she wants for Christmas. She's been prepped and talking about sitting on Santa's lap for awhile now, but I was still unsure of how it would go when the time came to actually do it.

We got to the mall before Santa had arrived at his chair but luckily only a few minutes. I heard some chatter and saw that Santa was making his way through the mall. I pointed him out to Lynsie and it was like she'd seen a movie star. She was so excited! Haha! She just kept pointing and staring, covering her mouth in awe. It was so funny!

As we waited for our turn to see Santa, she did really well and was pretty patient. It was then our turn and I didn't know what was going to happen. I really hoped I wasn't going to have two years of crying pictures from sitting on Santa's lap. We walked up and she immediately got very shy and put her head down. Santa was good though and started talking to her and I tried to encourage her to go closer. I then asked if she wanted to sit on his lap and he reached out his arms and she went right to him. Yay!! Success! Now he asked her what she wanted for Christmas and she said, "Princesses". Very cute!

Now it came time for the picture, I had high hopes that we'd get a great picture this year with a big smile. Well, something like that happened. The girl taking the pictures asked her to smile and what we got was one of her infamous "fake smiles". She even said "CHEESE" on a couple of them, but a real smile was nowhere to be seen. It was hilarious to say the least and it was all we could get in 3 of 4 pictures. The 4th picture featured Lynsie with her fist in her mouth thanks to the last of her 2 year molars making its way through. Everyone was laughing at her goofy face and you know, it's just classic and something we will be laughing about for years.

She was so darn excited even after leaving Santa's lap but just couldn't give that real smile. In fact, she is STILL talking about it this morning. Pretty much anytime she sees Santa anywhere, we hear about how she sat on his lap.

Now, when you look at this picture remember the above story and know that while it looks like she is sad... she really isn't. She's "smiling"!! HA!

December Photos

First I'm going to start off with a few photos courtesy of Tasha, which she has been taking this month at daycare.

Resting with her blankie...

One of her lovely goofy faces haha!

Pointing out the presents on her Christmas Jammies:

Checking out the neighborhood roaming cat on Tashie's porch:

Next we have a slideshow of photos from yesterday when Lynsie was helping me make Christmas cookies: