Sunny Sissies

Just loving these 2 cuties sitting in the sun of our living room window bench in their matching dresses...

Huge hog of a stone

I had another ultrasound on my kidneys today and saw the urologist again. Not only did the visit confirm that I still have a "huge hog of a stone" (as the urologist called it) in my left kidney, but I also learned that I have one (about 3 mm in size) in my right kidney as well. That was not what we wanted to hear! The ultrasound technician did say that at least the one in my left kidney is in a spot where it should stay put and not block anything, but the one on the right could decide to come out at any time. So, we're just going to continue to pray that they will both stay right where they are until the baby is born and the urologist can "blast them out of there" with the lithotripsy. I am feeling mostly okay, but now the exhausted feeling of the third trimester has really set in on top of everything else.

Jeremy has been going non-stop--poor guy! He is in a busy time at work, and has been doing double-duty at home too to help me out. He's also been hard at work on clearing the pool mess out of the backyard and is making great headway out there!

Annah and Sylvia have really been getting into music a lot lately--which, of course, excites me! Annah knows how to put CD's in the DVD player and operate the surround sound system, so she'll stick in a CD and the girls will dance around the living room. This usually happens several times each day. Sylvia sometimes even requests this by saying, "eesick" (music) and/or "deets" (dance). Annah has also started learning her favorite songs from her tapes and CD's lately, and singing along. It's a really neat blessing for me to hear her singing like this!

Resting

Thank you so much to those of you who have been praying for us, thinking of us, sending cards, and helping us out over the past week and a half! Things are going better for now, thank goodness!

Friday through Sunday I was in a LOT of pain, especially for a few hours early Sunday morning. My pain meds didn't even phase the pain, and all I could do was cry and writhe around in pain, with Jeremy holding my hand until I could calm down a bit and try to be still and breathe. The surprising thing was that late Sunday evening I did pass a stone. It was about the size of a pea, and I have been feeling a lot better since.

On Monday, Jeremy took me to see the urologist, who was shocked that I passed a kidney stone that large. Since the ultrasound I had in the hospital indicated that my stone was the size of a quarter, we're not sure where the one I passed came from. He said that there could have been two stones right next to each other that looked like one on the ultrasound. Or, the one I passed could have been a piece that broke off of the larger one. Or, the ultrasound could have been inaccurate, and what I passed was the entire thing. I'm betting that the last option is not the case, as I have had more pain since passing the stone. So...I will be having another ultrasound on my kidneys next Thursday to see what the deal really is. He did say that I shouldn't have to wait too long after the baby is born to have the lithotripsy procedure done to break up the stone. That was encouraging.

Yesterday, I saw my OB doctor. My chart didn't have any indications of my being hospitalized or having a kidney stone, so I had to tell her about it. She said she knew the story, but didn't know that it was me. Kind of odd, I thought. But, she did say that I won't have to have a c-section because of the kidney stone, which as a relief to me. (Even though I had planned to try going without an epidural originally, there is no way I want to attempt that while having a kidney stone!) She said she may want to induce me and take the baby a little early, so we'll see how things progress. She said baby's heartbeat is nice and strong, and that it was good to see the baby moving around a lot even just while I was there for a few minutes.

While I was in the hospital, the baby was being monitored almost the whole time, although, it moves so much that a lot of the time it was hard to get a consistent reading. Sometimes I would have to press the monitor into my belly for an hour to make sure it was reading right. It was nice to know that the baby was moving so much though. Most of the time over those 2 days that baby's heartrate was in the 120's and 130's. Granted, I was on painkillers, so I don't know if that affects baby's heartrate or not.

As far as how we are doing now, things are better. I am still very tired, and do have pain at times. I am thankful that, at least right now, I am not completely bedridden. Last week, I was. Today I am feeling the best I have in a week and a half. I have twinges of pain in my kidney several times a day, and still have to rest a lot. But, for the past 2 days, I have been able to move around. I am a little afraid to hope that I will feel this good for the next 8 1/2 weeks until the baby is born, because sometimes the pain will just come on suddenly and overtake me. But, maybe the stone will just stay put and not move until the baby is born. That's what we're praying for!

Update and funny fame

I am feeling pretty well at the moment, so thought I would make an update. Mom was here from the moment we got home from the hospital until a bit ago. She cooked up a bunch of meals for us to have in the freezer, took care of us, did laundry, and shopping and dishes, and lots more. I don't know what we'll do without her, but it was a huge blessing to have her here for a few days!

I am basically on bed rest. If I am upright for very long at all, the pain comes on, and I am back down again. The worst part of it is not being able to take care of the kids. It's going to be a very long next 9 weeks.

On Monday, Jeremy was on the front page of the Local section of the Bloomington Normal Pantagraph newspaper! He was in the background of a picture of a guy in a feature story about him wearing a tux every day. Jeremy was at Wal-Mart picking up milk last Tuesday after work and just happened to walk by as the photo was being taken for the paper. So, you see him shopping with his cart of milk. A lot of people recognized him, and some even asked for his autograph! :)

Our weather here is very mild this week! It seems like fall, and we are having record lows. It is in the low 60's during the days, and in the 40's at night! Actually, it's kind of nice for us right now, since we don't have central air. Hope it doesn't mean a miserable winter!

Kidney stone

I was released from the hospital today. Jeremy took me in Saturday night in the most extreme pain I have ever felt in my life--considerably worse than even the pain of natural labor. I'll spare the details of the whole ordeal, but I have a kidney stone somewhere between the size of a nickel and a quarter in my left kidney. Because I am pregnant there is nothing that can be done until after the baby is born, except oral pain meds when I am in dire need--which, trust me, I am. I am very uncomfortable, and quite restricted as far as moving around much. I guess this will prove to be a very challenging last trimester. We would all greatly appreciate your prayers for us--my phsyical comfort, the baby's safety, the girls care while I am incapacitated, and Jeremy's ability to cope with it all and take care of us while working too. We are very thankful that the baby did not come 10 weeks early, and that it is doing well at this point.

Mixed feelings

Annah seems to have mixed feelings about the new baby. Most of the time she says she is excited about it, but yesterday, she said she didn't want anymore babies. When Jeremy asked her if she meant after the baby already in Mommy's tummy, she clearly stated, that no, she meant no more babies! But, then this morning, she wanted to watch the baby moving. When it did, she decided that it was poking its finger out. She asked the baby if it would please be a boy. That is something else she goes back and forth on about every other day--whether she wants it to be a boy or a girl.

We had a sonogram today! That is always fun. (No, we do not know the baby's sex!) The technician said that everything looks "beautiful," so that was comforting to know. The girls enjoyed watching the ultrasound. Annah talked to the baby when she could see it on the screen; it was quite precious. And, she tried to point out what parts she thought she was seeing. Like, one time she said, "There's it's eyes!" when what we were really seeing was its kidneys. When the technician was pointing out the abdomen and the bladder in particular, Annah said, "It has a hole in it!" Well, kind of... ;) Hey, I can't tell what we're looking at most of the time either...

Here are the stats:
- heartrate during ultrasound was 134
- heartrate when midwife checked with heartrate monitor was in the 140's
- baby's measurements are a little ahead, measuring a duedate of October 2, but the "official duedate" of October 15 will not change

Yesterday afternoon, I had a strange thing happen. It was like I had a constant Braxton-Hicks contraction for a couple of hours. I told the midwife about it today, and she did some precautionary checks to make sure things are okay, including hooking me up to the monitor for a while. All is well; I was just told to put my feet up and drink more fluids. I should have figured this out on my own, since my hands and feet have started swelling, and I've lost a lot of strength in my hands. All-in-all, we're doing well, and will be 30 weeks on Friday!

We think we have decided on girl names except for spellings, but would still welcome some suggestions for boy names! :)

Sprinkler fun!

This evening, the girls got to play in the sprinkler!



Sylvia LOVED the sprinkler, and went right up and stood in the spray! She called it "'ain" (rain)!




Annah took a bit longer to get in close to the spray. She kept saying, "I don't like to get wet!" which we tried to explain didn't really fit with the purpose of playing in the sprinkler. After a while, she decided she liked it though, and then kept saying, "I like it! I do like it!"

Eventful week

We certainly had an eventful week. It wasn't the best week we've ever had, but the blessings always outweigh the "bad." God is so good to us!

Jeremy took a trip to Colorado for work Monday through Thursday. His flying experience on the way out wasn't his favorite, but thankfully, he did get there and back safely. We sure did miss him while he was gone!! Every time he travels (which is not very often, really), I am reminded how truly thankful I am that he doesn't have to travel and be away regularly.

Jeremy got home from Colorado about 12:30 a.m. Thursday night, and left around 12:30 p.m. on Friday for Indiana. He was able to go to Daniel and Jane's wedding, which he reports was quite nice. We wish them the best!

Annah loved her week at Camp Enrichment! In fact, we are thinking of sending her for the second session too. She learned a lot, and really likes her teachers too. Annah has been working on phonics some lately, and she is doing pretty well. This week, she also learned how to write a capital letter "A." So, now we have chalk A's all over our front porch and sidewalk!

Sylvia really changed a lot this week, it seemed. Maybe it was Daddy being away, or all the one-on-one time she got with Mommy while Annah was at camp? She is really trying hard to use words more to communicate. And, she just seemed to look a little "older" to us after this week too. She's heading more towards that toddler look. She is a fun and ornery little girl!

We got to see our friend Pete while he was in town this week. We met him at Tobin's Pizza for supper on Wednesday, which was so nice!

As usual with my pregnancies, I have become very clumsy. In fact, I took 2 nasty falls this week. Friday, I tripped and was unable to catch myself. I landed on my front, banging up my knee and hip and scraping my ankle. I must have landed partially on my belly, because it hurt quite a bit once I stood up. I was holding Annah's hand at the time, so she went flying down with me. She was alright, but her first concern was that I had fallen on the baby. I went home and laid down until I felt the baby move a few times. It has been moving just like normal since, so I think the worst part of the fall was how much it scared me.

Yesterday, I was trying to stop Sylvia from climbing the stairs by herself. She had gone up about 6 or so, so I went up and got her down. Then I proceeded to fall off about the 3rd step from the bottom while holding her. I banged up my other leg, and bruised my pride. Sylvia was fine. I've been incredibly weepy this week too, so I sat at the bottom of the stairs and cried for about 5 minutes, but it was mostly unrelated to the fall--or anything at all, really. Apparently, the hormones are running over this week!

We discovered mold in our basement this week too. We got a dehumidifier, and Jeremy is working on cleaning up the mold right now.

Check-up

I saw the doctor today for my monthly check-up. I learned that I have only gained 10 pounds so far, which really surprised me! I feel very big for having four months to go! Actually, the doctor did say I am measuring 2 weeks ahead right now. She advised that I cut back on the calorie intake, which did not surprised me at all! The baby's heartbeat was very strong today, and was 150. I'll go back in 4 more weeks and have another glucose test--yuck. After that, I will start going every two weeks!

Teething

Sylvia is teething again. Her first 8 teeth all came in at basically the same time, so it's been a while, but she's cutting 3 or 4 new ones now. She's doing pretty well, but at times it's evident that they're really bothering her.

Annah is getting very excited about the new baby. She likes to sing to it, and she is amazed to see it kicking and moving.