Little Girl

A week and a half ago, we had our big 20 week ultrasound.  I was so nervous that after thinking this baby was a girl for the last month, that we'd find out that it was really a boy.  But, the ultrasound confirmed 100% sure it's a GIRL!  And, she looks healthy!  What a relief.

More Birthday Presents

Grandma and Grandpa Howell were gone on vacation when Owen had his birthday last month.  So, this week they came bearing gifts for Owen.  He was very excited to get to open presents again.  The other kids were pretty excited to share in his fun, too. 

The first present contained some tractors and trains. He would have been happy to just stop right there and play with them the rest of the night. But, we convinced him to open the rest of the presents.

The next round of presents contained more little cars, trucks, and trains. It was a two year old boy's dream come true.

He also got a whole box of new clothes, but he wasn't as excited about them as I was. This last picture was taken the next day of him sporting one of his new outfits. Thanks Grandma Jo and Grandpa Mike for spoiling our little guy!

Nap Time

All of my kids gave up formal nap time around the age of two.  Owen is right on schedule for that.  He will not go down for a nap in his crib anymore.  But sometimes he just can't power through anymore, and he falls asleep in my chair.  This little boy wants so badly to be big like his brother Nate, but even two years olds get tired sometimes.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was very underplayed.  The kids had the Friday before Thanksgiving and the whole week of Thanksgiving off of school (making a 10 day break).  We enjoyed staying up late playing Rock Band and watching movies, and sleeping in late and being lazy.  But as far as the actual holiday went, it was not a real big deal here this year.  We didn't have any family coming, so we didn't do a huge dinner.  We let each of the kids pick a favorite food, and did a non-traditional feast.  We had lots of rolls, jello with cool whip on top, ham, chicken, pies and cake.  But most of our time and efforts were spent on a week-long building project.

In college, right after Scott and I were married, we bought this entertainment center.  When we bought it, I loved it.  Over the years, I've come to love it a lot less.   It's just so big and bulky.  And, it made us be stuck with our 12 year old square TV, because new TVs are rectangle instead of square.  The crowning blow to it was a little 4 year old and a crayon, that I could not get to wash off.  I decided it was finally time for it to go. (This picture was taken after I had emptied most everything off it, in preparation for moving it out.)

After pricing new entertainment centers/TV stands, I determined that if we didn't want to pay an enormous amount, that we would have to build one. So we did. I love how it turned out.  I want to get baskets to put toys in and fill the cubbys, but that will have to wait a bit.

Once the TV shelf was finished, we were able to start our Christmas preparations. We put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving, only to find that half the lights on it didn't work. We spent days getting all the light bulbs replaced, and finally were able to decorate it. All the kids were really excited to get into the Christmas mood.

Everyday Nate asks me, "Is tonight Christmas?" When I say "no", he then insists, "Only 2 more days, right?". Scott and I went shopping all day on Black Friday and got all our Christmas shopping done. So, all the presents are wrapped under the tree, and the suspense of what is in each of them is driving all the kids crazy. I love this time of year.

Two Years Old

Last Friday Owen turned two years old.  I have to admit, it snuck up on me a bit.  He was sick for so long, and I was so focused on him getting better, that I totally forgot that he had a birthday coming up.  I only had one chance to get out birthday shopping, and it was when I had all three little boys with me.  So, they got to pick out Owen's present.  When Owen found it in the store, he hopped on, and wouldn't climb off until I put it in my cart.  When I got home, I thought I could just leave it in the car till bedtime, then hide it away till his birthday 4 days later.  But, Owen insisted on it coming in the house as we got home, and spent the week leading up to his birthday riding it all around our house.  So much for birthday surprises.


He did get a few other things that I managed to save for his birthday, so he still had the fun of opening presents.

He got a ball (Nate picked it out when we were shopping), a big bag of Sweedish Fish (which his siblings helped eat), and a box of Fruit Loops. Owen is crazy about Fruit Loops and asks for a bowl of them to eat at least three times a day (he loves that he can feed himself with a spoon now).

And even though he'd been riding on the thing for 4 days, when we wheeled in his new toy, he instantly hopped on and began riding it around while eating Sweedish Fish.

We had pizza for dinner (Owen's favorite food). Owen ate 3 pieces of pizza--I think he was still trying to make up for the week of not being able to eat anything. After pizza, we did presents and Owen ate a healthy portion of Sweedish Fish. When it was time for cake, I didn't think he would still be hungry enough to eat cake. But, he was so excited about his birthday cake, that he managed to cram a piece of cake into his little tummy also.

Sara was crying because Aaron stepped on her foot.  Good times!

And after eating cake, Owen hopped back on his riding toy and was riding it down the hallway, when he stopped and threw up all over the thing. Twice. Apparently, 3 pieces of pizza, half a bag of Sweedish Fish, and a piece of cake is just too much for a two-year old's tummy to take. Scott took Owen to the bath, and I cleaned up the throw up. After the bath, Owen was happy and feeling fine. Even with a little tummy troubles, I think Owen had a pretty good birthday.

School Pictures

We got the kids' school pictures back.  You never know what kind of pictures you are going to get.  You do your best to make sure their hair is done before they leave for school, but then it's out of your hands.  You don't know how many recesses they will play through before they get their pictures taken.  And you aren't there to make sure they give a good smile.  You just have to hope they turn out half-way decent.  And while these aren't pictures that I'll end up hanging anywhere in my house, I think they very realistically captured what our kids look like on an average day.  (Savannah 5th grade, Josh 4th grade, Sara 2nd grade, Aaron 1st grade)

Baby Girl

I had a doctor's appointment this week.  It was going to be my first just regular checkup--no ultrasounds, no checking on bleeds or percentages of miscarriage--just a regular checkup.  Normal people start going to the doctor around 10 weeks and have appointments every 4 weeks after that.  It was 4 weeks ago that I got to become one of those normal people and stop worrying about this baby.

Since it was going to be just a regular appointment, I told Scott he didn't need to come, and I didn't bother with a babysitter for Owen (Nate was at preschool) and just took him along with me.

The appointment started out normal, and my doctor listened to the baby's heartbeat.  I asked him (like I always do) if it was a boy heartbeat or a girl's.  He said it was a girl's heartbeat.  I said, "That's three heartbeats and every time it has been a girl."  He smiled and said, "Yeah, we'd better go check."  Then my regular appointment turned into the ultimate "special treatment" and he took me in the ultrasound room to sneak a peak at my baby.

He wiggled the baby around a bit, trying to get a good view.  Then finally he got a good view and said, "Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure that is a girl."  I cried right there.  I was so happy.  I adore my boys, and if it was a boy I would love him beyond belief.  But, I have felt for the longest time (since before Nate) that there was a little girl that was still supposed to be part of our family.  The whole drive home, all I could think was that finally our family would feel complete.

My doctor said he was 90% sure it's a girl, but suggested I wait till our real ultrasound next month before I start buying dresses.

I am so happy to be having this baby. With everything I went through in the beginning, I wasn't sure I'd ever get to this point. I still have to be careful and not push myself too hard. Three different times I've decided to try and be wonder woman and work in the yard (trim bushes, rake leaves, mow the lawn, etc.) and every time I've ended up bleeding afterward. I just can't push myself like I'm used to being able to.  That's a hard thing for me, because I'm used to just doing it all.

I have a feeling that the next 5 months are going to go by extremely slow.  I've already had 6 ultrasounds and I know what I'm having.  Because we've been through so much already, it feels like I should be further along than I am.  I have to keep reminding myself that I'm only 16 weeks and have a long ways to go still.  I just can't wait to finally get her here and hold her safely in my arms.

One Very Sick Little Baby

This past week has been a tough one.  A week ago Sunday, Owen threw up just before church and started running a fever.  By that evening, he was holding on to his ear and saying "owweee", so I was convinced he had an ear infection.  Scott and I were scheduled to be tour guides at the temple open house the next day, and Scott's dad was going to babysit the boys.  I didn't want to leave Scott's dad with a cranky baby, so I took Owen in to Urgent Care Sunday night to check for an ear infection.  They looked in his ears and said he was fine.  So I took him home.

The next day he started refusing his pacifier and didn't want to eat or drink.  We were gone most of the day, and when we got home in the evening, as I was giving him some tylenol, I noticed that his tongue had white patches on it.  My first thought was that it was Strep, so I took him back into Urgent Care to check for that.  They looked in his mouth for about 2 seconds, and told me he had Thrush.  They gave me a prescription for Nystatin and sent me on my way.  We started the medication that night.  We had to give it to him 4 times a day, and every time we had to pin him down and force it into his mouth.  Most of the time, he would throw it right up.

As the week went on, he just got worse.  He would not eat or drink anything, and he cried in pain all the time.  We let him sleep in our room in the chair, and all night long was a constant fight to keep him comfortable enough to sleep for 1/2 hour intervals.  He continued to run a fever, and we watched him get weaker and weaker. He spent every minute in our chair, day and night, in and out of fitful painful sleep.

On Wednesday, I'd had enough.  The medicine for Thrush wasn't working, and I was seriously worried about Owen being dehydrated.  Scott called the Pediatrician's office while I was at Sara's school party, and left a message.  They called us back at 5, so it was too late to take Owen in to be seen that day.  The nurse told us we should take Owen back in to Urgent Care to get IV fluids, and set up an appointment for him the next morning with his pediatrician.

I left to take the kids trick or treating, fully expecting to then come home and spend the rest of the night with my baby in the hospital hooked up to IVs.  But, when I got back home, Scott told me he had gotten Owen to drink a sippy cup (thanks to the numbing effect of some Tylenol with Codeine that we had left over from when he had Hand/Foot/Mouth).  Knowing that he had gotten some fluids in him, we decided to skip urgent care that night, and just wait for the doctor's appointment in the morning.

The next morning Scott came with me to the Owen's doctor's appointment.  The pediatrician took the time to listen to everything we'd been through that week, and examined Owen and told us that it was not Thrush.  It was the initial onset of the cold sore virus (Herpes).  As soon as he said it, I remembered when Josh had it when he was three.  I probably would have made the connection earlier on my own, if I hadn't been told we were treating something else.  Basically, Owen's entire inside of his mouth was covered in open sores.  The pediatrician told us there was nothing we could do to fix it (it's just a virus that has to run it's course), but we could try to make Owen as comfortable as we could in the meantime.  He prescribed a heavy dose of Tylenol with Codeine, and told us we probably still had another three days of Owen being sick.

Knowing it wasn't Thrush, we no longer had to force Nystatin down Owen's throat, for which we were all grateful for.  We did still have to force pain medication down him, though, and he didn't appreciate that.  He was so protective of his mouth, because it was so painful.  But, if we could get a decent amount of pain medication in him, he would perk up enough to drink a sippy cup or two, so we no longer had to worry about dehydration.

Scott and I got no sleep for a week, and I struggled watching my baby be in so much pain all the time.  But finally, on Saturday the fever broke and the mouth sores started to heal.  On Monday he ate his first soft solid food--yogurt , cheese, and soggy cereal.  By Tuesday he was back to a regular diet and eating everything in sight to make up for the week that he spent starving.  It is so nice to see him smiling and playing again.  Now if we can just get him back on a normal sleep schedule, everything will be good.