Baby Update: 32 weeks

Here's the latest on this interesting pregnancy. :) We had another appointment this evening. The past couple of weeks have been pretty uncomfortable. I honestly feel like a walking time bomb. I explained to the doctor that I've had some fairly painful episodes of "pressure." She explained that I'm going to feel very different than my other pregnancies because the pressure of the placenta is constant and more intense and the baby is transverse and "free floating" and won't get settled down like the others did.

She was totally understanding of my unsettled feelings about living so far from the hospital and not knowing what would happen day to day. So we had a lengthy discussion about the different possibilities and what would happen in each scenario. So I'll try to explain the management plan for the remainder of the pregnancy. If you read this and are more confused than you were before, I apologize. There are a ton of variables and possiblities, but I get so many questions about what's going on that I thought I should try to explain as best I can.

I am currently 32 weeks along. We've had no bleeding episodes thus far. Statistically, it's fairly unlikely that I won't have one in the next few weeks, but it's a good sign that there has not been one yet. If I have a bleed in the next two weeks, they will do as we had planned before- watch and see, give me steriods to speed his lung development and then do the amniocentesis to check for lung development and take him out as soon as his lungs are ready.

However, most previa bleeds are recurrent. So if I have one, it's likely there will be more- probably in a short amount of time. If, in the next two weeks, I have more than one bleed (say, three), they will deliver him at 34 weeks, because it isn't worth the risk to wait any longer than that. In her words "we get less patient with each recurrent bleed." If there is no bleed in the next two weeks, they will do the ultrasound as planned.

Ok, so let's say that we make it two more weeks without a bleed and I'm still pregnant at 34 weeks. :) They'll check Korbin's size, fluid levels, placental blood flow, etc during the ultrasound. If everything looks good, they'll schedule an MRI at 36 weeks.

If we get to 36 weeks and I'm still pregnant, we'll do the MRI to check for accreta. Accreta is when the placenta grows too deeply into the uterus. We're already concerned about this because during my last ultrasound they could not find a definative line between the placenta and the uterus, but there's no way to really diagnose accreta with an ultrasound. The MRI should give us a better idea.

If the MRI shows NO sign of accreta, then we will reevaluate everything and may attempt to make it to 39 weeks (September 7th). If there is any sign of accreta, they will deliver him the next week at 37 weeks. If we deliver at 37 weeks, they'll prepare me for blood transfusion during delivery and do a vertical skin incision in case they need to do an emergency hysterectomy. She assured me that the hysterectomy would be last resort, but obviously they're not going to let me die to save my uterus. (reassuring, huh. haha)

So we may have a baby in 2 weeks, in 5 weeks, or in 7 weeks...actually, technically, we could have a baby any day if I had a significant enough bleed. No more than 7 weeks left in this crazy pregnancy, though. I will feel so much better when he's safe and on the outside. I don't want him to come out a day too soon, but I don't want to play Russian roulette with this thing either. So we continue on the "wait and see" game for now.

She said that she knows it's laughable to say "take it easy" in my situation, but did ask that I "restrict my mobility" within reason. That doesn't mean I can't get out, but nothing strenuous and trying to do only the necessary when it comes to real exertion. So hopefully that will keep any bleeding episodes away for the rest of the pregnancy.

I'm praying that I would be able to see past my fears that the entire situation is not left to chance, but is in hands of a perfect God. I'll keep everyone updated over the next few weeks.

Update on Kaytie

I know it's been forever since I wrote a regular old blog post. Things around here have kept me quite busy these past few months, and my family is, of course, my priority...so alas, my blogging has taken a break for awhile. Hopefully I'll be back to writing soon. I am, however getting in quite a bit of reading and can't wait to catch everyone up on great reads! For now though, here's an update for those of you who have been following what's going on with our sweet little girl.

Kaytie developed a really nasty cough about 4 months ago. It coincided with allergy season and Kai had terrible allergies, so we thought it was probably just that and treated it as such. However, she never got any better. For the past 4 months she's had coughing fits nearly every night that would continue until she threw up. It has been absolutely exhausting for her and for mommy, who would have to try to keep her calm and change sheets multiple times, and of course is quite pregnant and exhausted anyway.

I took her to the doctor at the end of May/beginning of June. They did a chest x-ray which came back fine and told us it could be one of three things- allergies, asthma or acid reflux. They decided treatment of reflux was the easiest so they would try to rule that out first. They also informed us that it could take up to a month before we would know if it had worked. She got worse. The coughing fits started to come several times a day and the wheezing started. The poor little thing just struggled all the time.

On our way home from Florida last weekend she had a coughing fit that lasted from the time she woke up in Chattanooga until Murfreesboro, KY. We tried everything we could think of to make it stop from honey to Vicks (which only succeeded in making her smell like a nursing home and making mommy slightly queezy). So Monday morning we were back to the doctor. He put her on albuterol treatments through a nebulizer and scheduled an appointment with a specialist.

Much to our relief, the albuterol treatements did seem to help, but they had to be given to her at least three times a day and as soon as one would wear off, the coughing and wheezing would ensue again, so this was obviously not going to be a great long-term option.

This morning we saw the specialist. They did an allergy skin test (poor sweet darling) and found that she has no major allergies. (aside from the sunscreen one, but that's a whole different story) They did do an x-ray of her face to rule out chronic sinusitus, but that doctor said he was fairly certain in was not that, he just wanted to be thorough.

So she has been "tentatively" diagnosed with asthma. I say "tentatively" because apparently they cannot give a firm asthma diagnosis on a child that small. She'll be reevaluated periodically and when she's a few years older she'll be given the lung function test that can tell them for sure. For now though, she will be treated as though it is asthma.

She'll get two doses of a preventative medicine through her nebulizer per day to start with. We're hoping that we'll be able to ween her down to one and eventually put her on a pill instead of the breathing treatment, but that will probably be a ways down the road. She'll also use the albuterol treatments as a "rescue inhaler" type of treatment when she has her coughing/wheezing fits. The doctor is hoping that once we get this under control we won't have to do the "rescue" treatments more than twice a week.

It's a bit overwhelming to think of having to do multiple breathing treatments a day with her for a long period of time, since she doesn't sit still very well on her own yet, and we're about to have our hands quite full here in a few weeks when the baby gets here. It will also mean that we have to keep a closer eye on her during cold/flu season as her condition can make these illnesses more serious. And of course, it's not exactly convenient to tote around a nebulizer machine whereever you go (along with four small children and their things) in order to make sure she can get a rescue treatment if she needs one. But I am so grateful that we may be getting my sweet girl some relief. She's struggled with this for so long. Now, in the next couple of weeks we may get that coveted full night's sleep we've been so desperately needing (just in time for it to be interrupted by night time feedings. haha)

Thank you all for your prayers for Kaytie during this time. She handled the tests like a champ. We got her a "bubbles the fish" mask for her nebulizer so hopefully it won't be as difficult to give them to her. We shall see. Any bets on whether my kids fight over "bubbles the fish"?

Baby Update...29 weeks

We had an ultrasound and appointment this morning. Baby is doing great. A whopping 2 lbs. 12 oz currently. haha. He seems to be doing very well, though he's making life quite uncomfortable for mommy. The placenta has not moved at all, which means he can't lay up and down and won't be able to turn into that position later like most babies do. Instead he's laying across my belly.

All in all, not much has changed. Everything still looks ok, but it's nearly impossible that it could move now, since it hadn't moved at all. The ultrasound tech spent quite a bit of time looking around my previous c-section scar and didn't say much, but didn't seem too happy with what she saw. I go back in three weeks for an appointment and then have another ultrasound on my birthday, August 3rd. They'll do an MRI within a week or so after that ultrasound. The doctor said she would "tentatively" schedule my c-section for September 7th, but did not seem optimistic that we would make it that far. The plan is still to try to get to that point, but it's really unlikely that I won't have a bleed in the next month or two. If I do, they'll deliver him as soon as they think it's safe, which they'll determine by amniocentesis.

We're thankful for now that he is healthy and growing, we haven't had any bleeds thus far and that we get to go on vacation this week! Some time on the beach can fix nearly anything, I think. :) Thanks for all of your prayers that have gotten us this far.

Producing Good "Fruit"

Mommyhood is not for the faint of heart. Sometimes we get so caught up in the day to day that we forget just how important our job really is. We are responsible for raising the next generation. And as dangerous as it is for us to forget that fact, I think sometimes we are most overwhelmed when we remember it.

As we are surveying the seeming chaos around us, the state of the world we live in, and often the state of our immediate surroundings, we suddenly realize the magnitude of our calling and inadequacy sets in. It cripples us. We see the obstacles and think "I can't even get the kids to sit still and eat their dinner, I don't stand a chance in getting them to be productive citizens."

It makes it even worse when we see mothers around us struggling with issues with their children. Our hearts break as a rebellious teenager tramples the heart of a mother that we have admired. We think, "She's a wonderful mother! Far better than me! If her kids went astray, what chance do mine have?" And we worry and we stew and we want to bury our heads in the sand or throw our hands up and surrender the fight for our childrens' hearts because it is too hard and there is too great a chance for hurt.

Lately I have been blessed to have been given a different perspective on these things, and I'd like to share them with you. I recently purchased a book called "Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches." I've added it to my blog store if you'd like to purchase it. It only cost me $6 for the Kindle edition. It's not a very big book. It has very short chapters, easy to read when you just catch a couple of minutes in your day, and the encouragement is wonderful. I highly recommend it! The author of this book brought something to my attention that I had never before considered.

As mothers, and really as believers in general, we are called to bear good "fruit." When we think of the word fruit in Scripture we think of the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Our "fruit" is our offering to God. Our work that we do, day in and day out, completely committed to God. It's doing the very best that we can with what we've been given.

Often, our greatest problem with producing good fruit is that we become obsessed with what happens to that fruit. In "Loving the Little Years," the author explains that fruit trees produce fruit whether or not that fruit ever gets used for anything. It produces the fruit regardless of whether it will all fall to the ground, unappreciated, or if someone lovingly collects it and makes wonderful goodies from it. It's' job is to produce the fruit. Period. She states,

"It's kind of funny to think about, but God does not tell us to necessarily be strategic with our fruit. Will someone check on it every day? Harvest the best to make a pie? Or will there be a junior high kid sweating around among the yellow jackets trying to pick it all up- wishing we were not quite so bountiful? What happens to all of our fruit is not our problem. That doesn't mean we are not to care about the fruit. While it is on our branches, it is our life work. It is an offering to God, and we ought to care intensely about the quality of our fruit. But the branches are our responsiblity; the ground is not."

How freeing is that? God determines what happens to the fruit once it leaves our branches. We are simply to produce the best fruit possible. A fruit tree is judged by the fruit it produces. The fact that the fruit is left on the ground, or made into a cider instead of a pie has no bearing on whether or not the tree is a good tree. If you attempt a new homemaking or business venture and it doesn't go the way you think it should, that doesn't mean you failed. If you offered your best to God, you succeeded. What He, the owner of the tree, decides to do with that fruit is completely up to him. It was only our job to produce it.

In the same way, the things we watch our children struggle with, the horrible choices we see them make, are not our responsiblity. Our children are their own vine, their own tree. They are responsible for the fruit that they produce just as we are. And their fruit production has no bearing on the quality of our tree. We are simply required to faithfully commit to raise them the very best that we can, in a way that is God honoring...to train up a child in the way he should go. We are wrong to consider ourselves failures due to the shortcomings of others...even if those "others" are our children.

But even if some of our fruit isn't being used the way we had hoped, here's a little encouragement from the author of the book.

"But the chances are good that the more fruit you make the more fruit gets used. The more you throw yourself into heavy branches, the more inviting the fruit, and the more inviting the fruit, the more people it is likely to feed.

Some of those apples will fall to the ground and rot. But God uses rotten apples- to fertilize the ground, to start more apple trees after little animals plant them, and just to make the air smell sticky sweet. You cannot know the depth of His plan for your fruit. So throw it out there on the ground when you have no plan for its future. Waste it. Waste homemade pasta and the mess it makes on your family. Don't save cloth napkins for company only- sew a dress your daughter doesn't really need. Be bountiful with your fruit, and free with it. The only thing you can know for certain is that God will use it."

Now, this little life lesson was made even sweeter for me by our Sunday School class this week. Pastor John talked about how in the Psalms we are refered to as trees, planted by the streams, fed by the Law of the Lord. Only good trees produce good fruit. A withering tree produces nothing of value. So bury yourself in the Word, momma. It's your life-source and the only way you have any chance of producing the quality fruit that will feed the masses and be used by the Master. Take in the breath of God, and use it to create the most wonderful, bountiful fruit you can...then let go...and let God decide how he will use your fruit.

The Great Family Closet Makeover

One of my very least favorite things to do around the house is laundry. I don't so much mind the process of doing the laundry, but the whole folding-and-putting-away thing always seems like just entirely too much work...especially when you have so many little "helpers."


This weekend, I decided to re-think our current way of storing clothes and I am totally thrilled with the results. I had to create this post and include pictures because my mother said she would never believe it if she didn't see it. ;) haha. Love you, Mom.


In order to explain why I took this approach, you have to know what my struggles were with the current system. In our old system, each child had their clothes in their closet and had their own laundry hamper in their room. This worked out well in theory. Their clothes were easy for them to get to, easy to keep separate, and their laundry didn't get intermingled. I would just go get their hamper, take it downstairs, do the laundry, bring it back up, fold it and put it away. Sounds simple, right? Yes. In theory. But theory and actual life with little ones are often two very different things.


Here were a few of my problems:


I had to dress each child in their own room. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but when you're crunched for time and trying to get everyone ready, it's just far easier to have everyone in one room and get them all ready at once. I'm sure that sounds crazy to those without a bunch of little ones, but those of you who have them know what I mean.


I was having to try to put both boys in one room and the storage space was at a premium. It was virtually impossible to get all of their clothes in their tiny closets along with all of their toys, books, blankets, etc.


My darling daughter had a not-so-darling habit of putting things where they didn't belong. I would find clean clothes taken out of her drawers and put in her trash can, or shoes in the laundry hamper. Trying to find things in her room was a constant challenge.


Because my oldest can dress himself and my daughter can do some of it herself, they often dress whereever I am in case they need help...but that means they also undress whereever I am. Which means their clothes very seldom come off in their rooms near their laundry basket. So they end up getting mixed together anyway. Then, when I have to do laundry and put things away, I would have to try to sort everything out to put in each kid's room. If you have kids that are old enough to reliably do this themselves, I think this might work. But as for me, I would have plenty of "helpers" to take things to the bedrooms, but would then find the clothes in random locations between where I folded them and the bedrooms. Or Kaytie would occassionally take her clean clothes directly to her dirty clothes basket to "put them away."


Which brings me to my other major problem with having everything in their rooms. They sleep in their rooms. And the easiest time for me to fold laundry (once...as opposed to half a dozen times thanks to my "helpers") and put it away, is often when they're sleeping. But if they were sleeping, I couldn't go in and put it away. So I would have to put it elsewhere and half the time it would never get to their rooms.


This was the same problem with packing for trips. Impossible to do while they're awake. But I needed to be in their rooms to pack. This made packing a pretty difficult task.


Now, I had heard of families with several children having a community closet. I always kind of snickered at the idea. First of all, because I don't see us as having a very large family. We have three (ok, four) children. That's no big deal. I certainly didn't see a need to devote a whole room to our laundry. Secondly, we don't have a room we could logically devote to clothing. The only good sized closet was our walk-in in our master bedroom, and that was packed with just Ward and my things. But finally after attempting to pack for our last trip home, I decided it was time to try something new.


So we moved an old dresser out of our basement into our closet and I bought some drawers and bins for storage. I will state again, for the record, that when I started, our closet was already a disaster. It was packed full and had very little in the way of organization. Now, we have a brand new family closet and I am still in shock.

The dresser has the kids' clothes in it. Each kid has two drawers. The ones on the left are for tops, the right for bottoms. Ward and my hanging clothes are above the dresser. Yes, both...on the same side. I'll tell you how I managed that here in a minute.

This is the right side of the closet. We have so much space left over on that side that we're moving a cabinet in to the right of the shoes and I'm still going to have tons of space to spare. Ward made the shelf that our shoes are on awhile back for me. He's going to make one more shelf there. I had put a dowel rod through the top so I could put all the kids' hanging clothes there. Kaytie is super excited that her hangers and pink and the boys' are blue. :)

This is perhaps one of my favorite parts of the closet makeover. Because all of the clothes are in one spot, I can easily get to them all at once. Which means each night I can grab clothing for all the kids and put them in one of these bins. Everything down to the shoes. Then I can just grab the bin in the morning and take it to whereever the first child decided to take off their pjs. :)

The plastic drawers have Ward's clothes in them and each kid has a shoe bin. The space above these things is completely empty, so I have tons more room to store things.

I am totally blown away, first of all that I could even get all of our clothes in one closet, and even more so that I would have so much extra room. It's amazing what a little organization will do. One problem I had with hanging clothes is that I change sizes so frequently. I literally haven't worn the same size for more than four months since 2005. Seriously. I'm either newly pregnant, fairly pregnant, extremely pregnant, nursing, not pregnant but not quite down to prepregnancy size, and back to half-way decent shape just in time to start the cycle again. So although many items in my closet didn't fit currently, it was just too much trouble to pack them all away in totes that I would have to drag back out within a couple of months. So I got one of those cloth "wardrobes" that zips up and put it downstairs. Now I can easily see and get to all my hanging clothes and grab which ones fit way easier! So I only have things in my closet that actually fit me right now. Amazing.

A few of my favorite things about the new system:

I can fold all our clothes and put them all away without ever leaving my room.

I can easily see what everyone has and what they need without having the dig through their rooms.

I can actually find TWO Kaytie shoes that match at any given time.

When it comes time to pack, I can just throw a suitcase on the bed and grab everything I need right there.

My closet is now a place I don't mind being, and I can find everything in it.

I got extra space for storing things that didn't used to have a home.

I can put the kids' clothes in bins at night and it even if Ward or one of their grandparents, etc. is getting them dressed in the morning, everything they need is right there and they don't have to try to figure out where things are.

The kids have EMPTY dressers and closets which can now be used to house their toys and books and other goodies, which makes their rooms more clean and organized.

The list goes on and on...

And so, my journey into the land of the "community closet" is a startling success! And now that I know I can fit so much into such a small space with a little thought and organization, heck...what's a few more kids? ;-) hehe.

Friday Childless Shopping Trip. Yay!

After dumping (I mean...dropping off) my kids at Mom's Morning Out this morning (which by the way is one of the most amazing things on earth- thank you Ms. Anny!) I headed out to do some solo shopping. It was a good day!

All of these groceries (as well as some not pictured because they were already dropped off at the donation collection point headed for Joplin) for $54.76. Got plenty to eat now, tons to put in our store room and some donations! I know the picture isn't very good, since I took it with my phone, so here's a list of what's in there (and the not-pictured stuff)!

3 tubs of icing

3 cake mixes

8 ears of corn

a gallon of milk

3 pert plus 2-in-1

a box of nexcare bandages

4 cans campbell's pork and beans

4 bottles of French's mustard

a bunch of bananas

6 packages of hotdogs

a watermelon

a box of snuggle fabric softener sheets

10 cups of yoplait yogurt

4 boxes of jello mixes

morningstar farms chik patties

morningstar farms griller patties

3 boxes of crystal light

2 bottles of ranch dressing

2 bags of marshmallows

2 packages of Hershey bars

2 boxes of graham crackers

1 bottle of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce

and a cantalope. :)

I did have an extremely rude cashier at Walmart who got all upset with me for get the six packages of hotdogs, snuggle sheets, three bottles of pert plus and the box of nexcare bandages for just over $3. Like I somehow stole them from her or something. Ridiculous. Oh well, worth it to be able to donate more to those people in Joplin who need so much right now.

I didn't do my Walgreens trip today since I did it on Sunday...and it was a success too! Between the Walmart Bar-S deal and the Walgreens Oscar Meyer deal we have a freezer full of hotdogs! Needless to say we will not be buying hotdogs for the rest of the summer! Anyone want to cook out? :) Hope everyone enjoys this beautiful, long weekend!

My Monday Shopping Trip (and an amusing mommy story)

It's a gorgeous day here in Missouri. After a weekend of nothing but cold and rain, I decided we should head out and do our coupon shopping this afternoon. I got my shopping list and coupons together and we headed to Wentzville. Our first stop was at Target. I had all three kiddos in the cart and had to get two bottles of lotion. I got them and gave the kids firm instructions NOT to open the lotion. Any bets on whether the lotion made it to the checkout line unopened?


So then we went to Walgreens. I had several things on my list to get and I knew I would need to do at least three transactions. There were a few problems right off the bat. The first of these problems was that my daughter needed a nap...badly. She was in "so help me if you look at me wrong I will make you wish you'd never been born" mode. So just getting her to cooperate at all was a chore. The second problem was the cart did not have a strap. Since we've already established my littlest's fond affection for freedom, I don't think I need to elaborate on this one. Finally, as my cart was starting to get full, Kai looks at me and says he needs to go potty. I told him that we were almost ready to check out and then I would take him. He looked at me with a horrified look and informed me that he couldn't wait...as in, it was too late. He was devestated, since he's been potty trained for awhile and hasn't had an accident in public since I can't remember when.

Of course, I couldn't take all three of them to the bathroom because I had a cart full of things I had not yet purchased and I couldn't take Kaesen out or I wouldn't be able to help Kai. Quite the dilemma. Oh, did I mention Kaytie hated the world at this point? So a sweet employee offered to stay with Kaesen and the cart while I took Kai to the potty, as the poor little guy was in tears by now. Kaytie refused to stay with the kind lady, so she got to tag along. Of course someone was in the handicapped stall, so we squeezed all three of us into the itty bitty stall. After getting Kai cleaned up we headed to the check out line. (I decided the rest of my items would just have to wait.) Attempting to keep coupons straight, keep Kaesen in his seat and keep Kaytie from rolling around on the floor like a pig in the mud proved a wee bit difficult. But, I managed to leave the store with my sanity intact. And here are the fruits of my labor.






The total price for these items BEFORE coupons or Register Rewards was $54.03.
I paid $17.86 or about $1.19 per item. That's a savings of $36.17. Not too shabby considering the circumstances.

Of course, after I loaded everyone in the van and got nearly out of town, I remembered that I had forgotten to pick up my prescription while I was at Walgreens. So I had to turn around and go back. And of course it wasn't ready yet. So now my darling husband will have to pick it up on his way home from work. Silly me...it IS, after all, Monday.