recovering

Hello! I'm just recovering-- from vacation and my medical surprise while we were away. Last Thursday night, as I was preparing for our trip, I had terrible pain in my lower abdomen. But it went away within an hour and I didn't think about it again. Until Monday night! I had just taken care of Claire at midnight when I felt the extreme pain again. I immediately took ibuprofen because the pain was so severe. Twenty minutes later, I was throwing up in the toilet. You know how when you are sick enough, vomiting seems okay because at least you feel a little better afterward? Unfortunately, that was not the case this time. The pain was extreme and just unrelenting. I tried to sleep it off a little but by five a.m. I knew that we needed to go to the hospital. Something was terribly wrong. I was frightened to leave and wished that my Mom could come with Chris and I but we needed her home to watch our girls. Chris acted calm and was sweet and assuring as he drove me to the hospital. Just waiting in the emergency room while he filled out paperwork was excruciating. They wheeled me into a triage room and asked me standard questions about my medical history and pain. They asked me how many pregnancies I had and how many were full term. I answered "two" for both. One of the tests they needed me to do was a urine sample. Just sitting up was too much for me and I vomited again from the pain.

Minutes later they informed me that I tested "positive" for an initial pregnancy test. I told Chris it meant I had an ectopic pregnancy and that we wouldn't be able to have this baby. I knew this because two women I had known had this happen and my Mom even mentioned this could be an option while I was in pain at home. After blood test and ultrasound confirmed it, an obstetrician performed emergency surgery.

It hurt worse than delivery and recovery of both my babies. It was like transition labor with Hallie except that in that case it was just contractions. This was just endless pain and pressure and vomiting. There was a lot of pain throughout the entire experience but it is amazing what our bodies can handle. I had a lot of blood loss but the wonderful news is that nothing was damaged and I am recovering well. So, there went over half our vacation and I am sure we will see big dollar signs in medical bills. Yet despite that, Chris and I are humbled by modern medicine. This is something that would have killed me if I lived one hundred years ago. I am thankful for my family and friends who took care of me and for my husband who is so strong. Even as they delivered the news, I was thankful just to know what was going on. Throughout the entire process, I felt strongly that going through this painful process can help me be sympathetic in the future to others who experience something similar.

seven months

Guess who is seven months old? Our Clairey girl!

Our little baby loves to suck her thumb in between spoonfuls of baby food. She is not a fan of green beans. She won't fuss; she'll just glue her mouth shut during green bean time. If I wipe her mouth in the middle of meal time she cries because she thinks it means she is done. But when I spoon in the next bite she is immediately appeased. She sleeps a nice twelve hours a night. Finally! And for the record, every time that I have previously announced she was sleeping through the night, she would start waking up every three hours. So, I better prepare for her to wake up again. Claire is our lovey baby. She loves to be touched. Bliss for her is to lay there while you stroke her face. And she loves to be held as much as possible. Her hair continues to spike straight up. (I wet it down for these pictures). I swear it reaches four inches some days. She loves her special soft baby doll we keep in her crib. At nap time and nighttime she reaches for it with both hands, smiles, and hugs it. She is starting to smack her lips to be social. It is her way of talking. And when you smack your lips back, she is thrilled that you understood her message. We love this baby and are so glad she joined our family.

Guess Who's Coming to Thanksgiving Dinner?

goofy girl

She slips "please bless the Lion King and the Holy Ghost" into every prayer.

• At breakfast the other day, she raised her glass of milk into a toast and said "to your hell, Mom" (I think she meant "to your health").
• She plays dolls and runs over to me intermittently to tell me "Oh, I'm a great Mom!"
• She told her nursery leader "Don't talk back to me!" when asked to sit down.
• After Halloween she told me "The ghost says 'ooo-ooo!' The witch says 'boo!' The pumpkin says 'Hi! I'm a pumpkin.'
• She kept identifying halloween ghosts as the "holy ghost."
• Chris checked on her in the middle of the night the other night. He wrapped a blanket around her and in her sleep she smiled and said "Oh! Merry Christmas, Daddy!"
• Hallie knows that it isn't polite (or acceptable) to tell us "shhh!" (in a bossy way). So she has been catching herself doing it lately she will say "shhh . . . shark!" Sometimes she will even elaborate like "Shhh . . . sharks swim in the water." It's hilarious.

I love this goofy girl!

living the dream

Here are some pictures of our day to day activities in November. This, my friends, is what I call living the dream. Spending each day in our home with my two love bugs and their father? Definite dream come true. What have we been up to lately? We've been watching cartoons, baking cookies and reading books. We did stage one of Christmas decorating (we've just done the family room so far). Our first big appliance died so we bought a new fridge/freezer. And we had family in town and went to the Army/Air Force football game. It's been a great month so far. Granted, this is the messiest time of my life. I always have crusty baby food on me and I rarely blow dry my hair or put on more make-up than LipSmackers chapstick. And on days like today, I much rather blog or make homemade Christmas gifts than do the laundry loads or sweeping I need to. But honestly, not a day goes by (or a even a couple hours) that I don't look at my kids or my husband or my home and go "How did I get so blessed?" And isn't that what Thanksgiving time is all about?

Him

I love him. I talk about him sometimes. But most of the time I don't even begin to mention all the things he does for me. Do you know how many times a month I get love notes? Yep, he is the thoughtful gesture kind of guy-- flowers just because, my favorite chocolates on a rough day, a new lip gloss or bubble bath to make me feel special. He's also the appreciative guy. The one who tells me how thankful he is for me, what an incredible mother he thinks I am, how beautiful I am (you know, all the things I don't feel worthy of). He's also the roll up your sleeves and get dirty kind of guy. After he comes home from teaching hundreds of hormonal teenagers each day, he changes diapers, rolls around with the kids, and asks if he can go pick up dinner to help out. He has all these facets. Most wives would just grab onto one and cherish that trait in her husband forever. But I get all of them rolled into one incredible guy.

Photo bits

10/30 Chris and Hal build a snowman
10/13 Hallie loves her Aurora costume from Grandma and Grandpa S.
10/14 Adorable Hal in her new outfit from Grandma S.
9/12 Claire bundled in the car
10/21 Hallie officially gets into my makeup for the first time. I even saw her do it but I just let her. It's a little girl right of passage.

Trick or Treat!

We had a jam-packed Halloween day.

Since the thought of cooking on Halloween morning was unbearable, I simmered some cider on the stove and Hallie and I drove to Sonic for some breakfast sandwiches for the family. Later, after we got dressed, we headed out for some mall shopping. I had great coupons at Borders and Bath and Body Works (free lotions and 40% off books)! Since Halloween only comes once a year, we had Hallie wear her cute witch dress all day.

In the late afternoon, we caught the tail end of the ward trunk-or-treat. We better go earlier next year if we want to socialize and get more candy (although it was worth it that the girls got good naps). For dinner, I made buffalo chicken sandwiches (one of Chris' all time favs). Grandma Judy came over to see the girls costumes and visited for awhile.

When our first trick-or-treaters arrived, Hallie and I set out to conquer the neighborhood. I actually thought we might leaisurely hit up five houses and saunter back home. No way! Hallie was sprinting from door to door. We met up with our neighbor Ashwin and his family and wound through the neighborhood. It actually worked out lovely because even though she didn't want to stick close to me, Hallie followed Ashwin and he was good about listening to what the parents wanted. Hallie was delirious. Even though we took her out for a bit last year, she couldn't remember it. Everytime she came down from a doorstep she would say "Look, Mom! Look!" She couldn't believe people where giving away free candy. You should have heard her enthusiatic "thank you." It was more like "THAAAAAAAANK you!"

We are so pleased to say our neighborhood was a hopping Halloween neighborhood! There were hundreds of kids. Chris and I loved it. We've always been in apartments where we get two kids tops. This was heaven! This was our first major holiday in our home (since we were gone for the Fourth). We loved it and it makes us even more excited that Thanksgiving and Christmas are around the corner!

Here's one final one of my cuties!