Oh Thursday!

Happy 9 month Birthday to Miss Rylee and Happy 22 month Birthday to Troy (yesterday)! Their 1st and 2nd birthdays aren't too far off. SCARY!

I am pretty much ruling this as Friday today. Tomorrow is Friday but at work we get to wear blue jeans and halloween shirts and have treats. It's still a work day and there is still work to be done just under comfier circumstances and a bit of candy coma to make it through the extra long day.

This weekend is a full one! It's Rylee's last outing until spring. On Saturday, I have to work from 8 to noon. Saturday evening is Trick or Treating. The Klauer's are staying home. There is no way, I am taking Troy out Trick or Treating because (1) he doesn't understand what Halloween, Trick-or-Treating is, (2) He can't say "Trick-or-Treat", and (3) it'll be too blasted cold for him to be out and about for candy that he can't even eat! So, we're dressing up the kids in their costumes, take a few photos, flip the porch light on and let the Trick-or-Treaters come! We think he'd have much more fun wearing his costume, handing out the candy and seeing all the kids in their costumes! We'll leave the candy for bigger kids, he'll have his turn when he's older. Sunday is the big Hockey Birthday party for Lexie and the Turkey supper for our church. We're going to grab some take outs, eat and then head to Madison. Then we'll probably enjoy Lexie's hot dogs and birthday cake too! The game is at 2 so we'll enjoy that and then when we get home we'll watch the Packer game that we're going to DVR. All in all it should be a fun weekend!

In return for working on Saturday, I don't have to come into work until noon on Monday. However, since I had to take off over 18 hours this month because I was down all day with a migraine one day and the rest was for taking Rylee to doctor appointments, I've had to make those hours up. I have only been taking a 15 minute break to scarf down lunch for what seems like the entire month. So with 1 hour left, I will come in at 11 instead of noon. Then my hours are made up, my paycheck won't be docked and I can go back to actually enjoying the taste of my leftovers. BUT, Rylee has a 9 am doctor appointment so I get to leave home at 8:30, doctor appointment at 9 that I am hoping only lasts for 1 hour, head home at 10, drop Rylee off at 10:30, leave right away to go to work by 11. A bunch of running around for a doctor appointment, the story of my life!

We're not exactly sure what is happening for the holidays. Right now, I think we are planning on doing our own thing for Thanksgiving. I hate to do it but with the flu and sickness spreading like wild around here, I think we are leaning to just staying home. As for Christmas, we'll see when that time comes.

Stellan needs your prayers again. Today is his 1st birthday and that poor little boy is fighting yet again for his life. Please pray him!

Have a nice weekend everyone!

UGH!

That is how I feel today. I've been in the worst mood that is constantly getting worse all day. It started last night when I got home. I was mad when I walked into that house. It was a complete disaster. After working at it for an hour, I made dinner, bathed me and my kids, sat a held a very needing-to-be-held baby and watched the "baby"ies on tv (aka Jon and Kate plus 8) with Troy. Once Troy and Rylee were in bed, I started back into the house. After 2 hours, 3 collectively, I hardly put a dent in that house.

It wasn't until this morning, when I got up to use the restroom that I noticed that I had put toilet bowl cleaner in the toilet and forgot to come back and actually clean it. Then as I am going to jump in my car as I was already pushing being late for work, I realize I needed to get gas and have absolutely NO time to do it. So I asked DadD if I could take his car since he had a full tank. Sure...except that he had the keys for the Jeep in his car and didn't realize it until I was halfway to work. Unable to turn around and go back, I had to keep going and tell him, I would drive home on my lunch hour. What a waste of gas and a lunch hour.

When I arrived home at lunch my children were either in a diaper or still in their pjs. I got outfits for them to wear and set them out to be put it.

This kind of stuff stresses me out. Plus, I have an employee meeting after work tomorrow that I HAVE to be at. I not only have to take a test to be there for, but I missed the last one in April because I was off work to take care of Rylee. The meeting is from 6 to 8 or 8:30ish so I had to find a babysitter. Now, the hard part with finding a babysitter is that not just the average person can watch Rylee. That person has to know infant CPR. Especially now because of her throwing up problems lately. Luckily, I found out that my mom knew CPR back in the day and will be at my house tomorrow to have a refresher course in infant CPR and watch my babies.

Now, I love my husband dearly but sometimes I just want to yell at him. We've been butting heads a lot in the past couple of days. I hate being upset with him. And I think he takes his stress and frustration out on me and I do the same to him. Life is extremely stressful at our house and getting mad at each other isn't helping. We seem to get mad at each other over the dumbest things. We know the root of problem and nothing we get mad over is worth it. I know he loves me and he knows that I love him. I've just feel bad that I got so mad at him over something so trivial and have been thinking about it all afternoon.

On another note, Rylee is on another medicine for the vomiting. Last Wednesday, I was afraid that Tara, our babysitter, didn't want to watch Rylee anymore because she said she isn't comfortable with the vomiting. I 100% don't blame her. It's completely stressful and utterly repulsive to see. When she vomits it comes out her mouth and nose, she heeves for minutes upon minutes and a person just feels plan helpless to see. Plus, once she vomits she tries to cry and then chokes. On Thursday, Kris called me upset asking if there is anything we could do for the poor girl. We had flu shots scheduled for the next day. Turns out that miss Rylee had lost 7 and half ounces in 10 days. UH OH! Dr. C decided to take her off all of her medications and put her on Zantec for a week and a half to see how she did. If she didn't keep 4 doses down, then he was going to switch to Previnar. If that didn't work, then we were going to be sent to Madison to see a pediatric GI specialist on an emergency basis since she had lost so much weight in such a quick amount of time. Turns out the Zantec seems to be doing the trick. She hasn't vomited since Sunday morning. AMEN! Hopefully she continues to thrive on this medicine.

Hopefully, I can go home and spend some quality time with my kids and of course, The Biggest Loser, after bedtime!

Fight for Preemies

Get ready ya'll...November is Prematurity Awareness Month. Blogger Unite is hosting a special day for all preemies! Click on this link for more information!





This is near and dear to our hearts. We just lived this life and continue to struggle with it everyday. If you are a blogger of any kind please post the story of a premature baby close to you on November 17, 09.

BLAH!

This past weekend was a busy one. Friday I stayed home from work but more on that later. Saturday, we got up and went to Madison. We ate lunch at Texas Roadhouse, of course, and then did a little shopping. We decided to get Troy a new high chair.

The dietian told us to start putting Rylee next to the table when we're eating. Since we have bench seats for our table, we only have chairs on the end. And, Troy can't sit on the benches yet. He's too wiggly and jump to sit on them. It would be much to hard to please two children on opposite sides of the table when it's only one parent. This will help for sure!

Saturday, after lunch and a big defeat by Iowa (boooo) we went over to Kris's brother's house to meet Baby Adam. We spent some time with Noah and Adam, Nick and Katrina, Kris's parents and very minimal time with Isaac, who didn't feel well. We got the grand tour of their house since their construction project is almost done. When we got home, Troy was home for good and didn't want to go anywhere and I think that Kris felt the same way. After eating some dinner, Rylee and I went to Platteville to visit with my sisters and their children. I seen 7 out of my 8 nieces and nephews on just Saturday. My sisters and I (and Rylee) visited while the kids swam. Once we got home, I still had to make the tutus. At 11:30, Kris and I decided that we wanted to have brownies. I mixed some up and baked them. So at 12:30 am, we ate brownies and tied tutus. It was kinda fun.

On Sunday, we loaded up and went to Lexie and Avery's Bowling Birthday bash!! We bowled a bunch of different ways. Poor Kristopher got the worst score out of all 16 people bowling. BUMMER!

My cousin, Carrie, sent a large box of clothes down to us for Troy. So when we got home, we decided to go through them. There were a bunch of 18 month items that won't fit Troy so we packed them back up. We did keep out items that we thought that Rylee could wear later on. But the clothes we packed back up will be going to a little boy who needs them. I would much rather gift them to someone who needs them rather than dropping any of it off at the thrift shop and have to be bought. There are too many children that need warm clothes and pajamas.

As for not feeling so well, I have been having headaches. Thursday, I actually went out to my car and slept through my lunch hour. It was excruciating. Friday was worse. Today has been awful. I finally went to the doctor today after 10 days. I just couldn't take it anymore. I was told it was most likely, 99% stress induced. I am also anemic and slightly dehydrated. I was told to take iron supplement (which I hate!), drinks lots of water, and take 800 mg of Ibeprofen three times per day with food. I took the Ibeprofen and it hasn't even phased it.

The analogy used to explain this to me was think of the commercials with the dummy in the car and it hits a brick wall. The stress in my life, the car, has been building and building and building momentum because my life has been full and fast of fury. Now, it's rather relaxed. My life now is the brick wall. I am the dummy. I dealt with all the stress and emotions the best that I could. Never ever did I think that it would snow ball so bad. I have heard this about tempers erupting. My body isn't taking to this well at all. I feel like smashing my head against a wall actually. Now, if the headache (I say headache because is hasn't gone away for like 10 days now just lost a little momentum at times but it's always there) persists through Wednesday or if I get as bad as Thursday or Friday to call the PA. I am praying that in the next 30 minutes this sucker calms down a little bit or I'm going to have a long night with those 2 kids all by myself. If I wouldn't have had Kris on Friday to take care of them , I don't know what I would've done because there is no way that I could've.

I didn't get any pictures of Baby Adam. This is the best that I could do, which I stole off my mother-in-law's facebook.

Rylee, Grandpa, Troy, Adam, Grandma, Noah and Isaac

I also have some video and photos at home of the birthday party. I'll post them later.

Another baby was born yesterday!

Baby Adam wanted Baby Ashlyn to have her own birthday or maybe he wanted his own...anyway, he's here. He graced the world with his presence at 12:07 pm yesterday afternoon weighing 7 lb, 15 oz and was 20 inches. This brings our tally to 4 nephews and 4 nieces! And I love each one of them to death!

Adam is exactly 5 lb heavier and 5 inches longer than Miss Rylee when she was born. Now Rylee is 4 lbs heavier and 3 inches longer. I am afraid he will caught up and probably surpass her soon.

I took Rylee to see a chiropractor yesterday. I have actually never been to a chiropractor before but decided that maybe some nerves were pinched or something. I really want Rylee to quit vomiting so that was the ultimate goal. So as Baby Adam was making his grand entrance, Rylee's new chiropractor, Emily, was talking serious business with me. What it simply comes down to is the Rylee's spine is tight which is not a big deal. Emily adjusted Rylee's C1, C2 and L1. C1 holds the nerves that get blood supply to the head, pituitary gland, scalp, bones of the face, brain, inner and middle ear, sympathetic nervous system and eyes. The C2 controls the eyes, optic nerves, auditory nerves, sinuses, tongue, forehead and heart. And L1 takes care of the large intestine, inguinal rings and uterus. However, Rylee's sutures that make up her skull have shifted from having a flat right side of her head to having 12 times the amount of fluid drained off her brain. Her skull has had drastic changes over the past 8 months. Therefore, she thinks that Jugular foramen is being pinched off. The Jugular foramen contains the Inferior petrosal sinus, Glossopharyngael nerve, Vagus nerve, Accessory nerve, Sigmoid sinus and Posterior meningeal artery. What concerns her the most is the Glossopharyngeal nerve, which takes care of the mouth, Vagus nervus, which takes care of the lungs, and the Accessory nerve, which takes care of the neck muscles. This would explain the vomiting, head/neck control and constant crackling in her lungs. She is going to try to work the sutures to move enough to get those unpinched. I just hope something works for our dear dear Rylee.

I will definitely post some pictures of Sweet Baby Adam. We are going to head up to visit them this weekend. As well as do a little bowling for Lexie and Avery's birthday party!

Have a good night!

There was a baby born today

but it wasn't baby Adam...so far. Therefore, I have not won my bet (yet)! But Kris's cousin, Kim, had her little girl today. Miss Ashlyn Ann was born at 7 lb 6 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. Congrats Kim, Chris and Zander! We are so excited to meet her!

Now that I introduced her to you, I have a couple of other blogs that I read I'd like to share.

Now, in all seriousness, there is a blog that I started following about a month ago. It is truly heartbreaking. The Sullivans consists of the new dad, Brady, baby Chloe and new mom, Sara. Sara had cancer and a short 10 days after the birth of their daughter Chloe, who was born premature weighing 4 lbs, started seizing. Unfortunately, her brain wasn't able to withstand the trauma and she, with family surrounding her, passed away. Now, there is a new dad with a tiny new baby and no more wife and mom. My heart goes out to Brady and Chloe. I can't imagine the grief he is facing mixed with the joy of his new daughter. Click on the The Sullivans to visit their blog and read more about them. Everytime, I read his new posts, I ache for him. He is certainly strong.

Katie's Keepers is a blog about Katie and her husband and son. Katie gave birth to Reese who was born with no brain activity. Katie is a strong woman. Her blog is full of raw emotion. She is hurting and it's sad.

These are two of the many blogs that I follow. I wanted to share their stories with you so that you'll keep them in your prayers. I know that our family is going to celebrate the newest arrival and anxiously await the arrival of another. But Katie and Brady will continue to be in my thoughts and prayers. These blogs remind me that I just don't always understand God. And this is something that I will probably continually struggle with.

Then I read blogs like Nine is Fine. This is a family with 9 children. I can hardly handle 2 let alone 9! AWW! She posted a picture of her hands after taking care of a ton of grapes. This is a funny blog! Not all blogs are sad! Even the sad ones have nice moments.

Who do you read about?

"Normal"

We didn't have any plans this weekend. I love those weekends. Next weekend will be a different story.

On Thursday, I took Rylee to AFCH in Madison to have her 2 week post-op follow up appt. It went well. When I got there, they handed me a clip board with a time survey and a clock on it and asked me to fill it out throughtout our time there. I started it at 11:55, got taken to check-in at 12:12, our exam room at 12:15, doctor came in 12:16, doctor left the room at 12:20, and handed the survey back in at 12:28. That was an hour and half up and a hour and half back home for a 33 minute stop. What a waste of time. Dr. A looked at her incisions, felt her soft spot and measured her head. Her incisions look awesome and her soft spot feel "normal". He actually said "normal". I put quotes around "normal" because Rylee has never been called "normal". Nothing about Rylee is "normal" except for her soft spot. I am alittle apprehensive to say "normal" around her because things could go haywire at anytime! Her head also measured a 1/4 inch smaller! AWESOME! He doesn't think that it'll shrink much more than that. So all in all, our 33 minute appointment, which I by far think is the shortest appointment we have ever had for her even after all the just weight check appointments we've already had, everything is, well, "normal."

On Saturday, I picked up my niece Jalyn and we went shopping. Our shopping trip consisted of a trip to Walmart, Joann Fabrics, Sam's Club and Red Robin. It was nice to just hang out with her. We picked up my nieces, Lexie and Avery's birthday presents for next weekend. It was wonderful to have her there for those because she pretty much picked them out! We stopped at Joann's for tulle for tutus. We loaded our cart at Sam's, which is easy to do when you're getting 2 boxes of diapers! Then headed to Red Robin for a late lunch. We went back to my house and made her tutu! Then I took her back to her mom.

She talked to me alittle about her house. I just can't help but feel so sorry for her and Jared and my sister and Joe. I can't imagine what it is like to have all you're worldly possessions gone! I do however no what it is like to just want to be back to "normal." I just hope they get back home soon. I know that she wants to be there along with the rest of the family. I know what it is like to live in a basement (because me and Kris lived in theirs which was nothing compared to living with your Grandparents) and I wouldn't want to do that now. Just keep them in your thoughts and prayers that they will get to go home soon.

Today, I made Vegetable-Beef soup and baked a squash for baby food. I took some soup into my grandma after lunch and a nap. Now, it is 7:15 pm and I still have dishes and laundry to do and meals to make for the week.

Next weekend, we have only have 1 definite plan as of right now. That being my nieces, Avery and Lexie's birthday party on Sunday. Otherwise, we're just waiting to get the call that Baby Adam has made him appearance (which I thought was going to be today!). I think I smell a Kris and Mary bet coming. Kris and I always make bets about everything and it's always for a soda. I bet him that Troy would a girl and he thought boy...he won. I bet him that Rylee would be a boy and he said girl...he won. I bet him Rylee would come home April 18 and he said May 25...turns out I was right on the nose so I won that one. I asked him when Adam would be born....I say Tuesday, October 13, he says Thursday, October 22. Katrina is going to ring his neck!! So if I am right, we'll be heading to Madison to see baby Adam, Isaac and Noah...and Nick and Katrina too!

Have a good night all! Enjoy this video of Rylee giggling from today (please ignore my kissing sounds!)

The heat is on!

We turned the heat on on September 30th at our house. It is so dang chilly and I've heard there is a chance for snow this weekend...UGH! I am not ready for snow or cold. Hopefully, it won't be as cold as it was last winter. On January 16, 09, which was the day that I started my extended stay at the hospital, it was a frigid -29°F.

Last weekend, we took Troy and Rylee to my friends, Dana and Aaron's open house. It was so nice visiting with my friends. Dana's cousin had her little boy, who like a month old, (I am really not sure how old he is) there and happens to be bigger than Rylee is now. He's cute as a button.

After we left Dana and Aaron's, which was a must because T was being a TURD!, we went to Eplegardens. It's a Norweigan apple orchard and pumpkin patch. My aunt Lisa suggested it. Troy had so much fun! We filled our bag with the apples we picked of the trees. And we scoured the pumpkin patch for the best 2 pumpkins. It was a lot of fun. Everyone, except Rylee, was filthy dirty and tired!

We then headed to Babies R Us and grabbed dinner at our favorite restaurant, Texas Roadhouse. Troy and I watched Horton Hears a Who on the way home. It was fun.


Last night, I decided that I was going to try to make Rylee a tutu. I ordered one for Halloween and found out later that I won't have it by then so I was bound and determined to construct it myself. I picked up the kids from Tara's and we headed to Dubuque. I decided that T wouldn't behave in Joann's while I was picking out tulle unless I had something to bribe him with. We stopped at Burger King, which was a first time eating there for each of us and frankly I wasn't impressed, so he quietly ate his chicken nuggets while I shopped. I bought 2 yards of tulle in green, purple, while, pink and brown each, 4 yards of ribbon, 2 yards of elastic and a measuring tape. It only cost me $20.88. When I got home, I found a sheet in the bag on their upcoming sales. Tulle is on sale at 50% off. I cut, tied and stitched while I watched the Packer game. The end result was AWESOME!

Tonight, me and the kiddos are going to snuggle up with some homemade chicken pot pie and watch the Biggest Loser. Stay warm!!