Life's a Ball when you're a toddler

Brooklyn is becoming more fun every day. With that of course comes the challenges of her developing opinions,throwing tantrums and all around challenging authority. Overall, we have an amazing time together on a daily basis. We went to a "princess" themed birthday part last weekend where she had a blast playing with the bigger girls. She LOVED the cupcakes. When we got home she was on a complete sugar high chasing Hurley around in circles. Poor guy was not amused :)



Here she is being a goof ball in her princess dress, which she LOVED.

She is starting to love the girly girl things. She is completely and utterly obsessed with her babies. My nickname for her when she has all 10 of them out is Nadia Souleman or Octomom. She wraps them all up and then lines them up on the couch and feeds them their "baby bottles" or picks them up and hushes them while bouncing them up and down. It is hysterical.

A few weeks ago we went to open gym at a gymnastics academy with Kristin and Kali. The girls LOVED this place. She had a blast on the long trampoline. I see some expensive gymnastics/dance classes in our very near future. Better start watering the money tree.

I am posting this to satisfy curiosity. Most people when they hear about my MTHFR clotting condition are curious what the regime is for keeping this baby healthy and growing. I simply give myself a daily injection of blood thinner called lovenox.


Amazing to think this little needle filled with medicine is the "magic formula" that allows me to keep a pregnancy. It still blows my mind. So, each night I take one of these bad boys out, find an un-bruised section of my abdomen and inject.
I am 13 weeks today, and here is my little belly. This is how you look when you are pregnant at 13 weeks for the 6th time. I am NOT complaining, I am just clarifying that most people would not show this much this early (even with their second).
I am just so very grateful for this little babe.

There is a WHOLE lot going on in our lives right now. We are moving this coming weekend. In addition to this big change, Hurley is being picked up on Thursday to go live with a wonderful family. We agonized over this decision for months on end. Ultimately we realized that as difficult as it would be for me (since caring for him primarily falls on me) to have him at this town house with no yard, it's not fair to him either. We are going to have a baby and toddler soon, Matt is going to be back in school full time and without a yard to at least let him go wander in it was going to be a daily grind. I don't want that, and I don't want that for him. So, I have been crying for the past few days because I am going to miss him terribly. Brooklyn is going to miss him so much. She loves her "bubba dog". The family he is going to has two kids, ages 10 and 3, the husband works from home 3 days a week and they live on a 1/3 of an acre. He is going to be in heaven once he's adjusted. Here's the "God" part of it. When I was asking them all of my questions, one of my main ones was "what kind of dog were you guys looking to get" because they had been talking about a dog for years, but the husband just hadn't been on board. The only kind of dog they really, really wanted was, yup, a chocolate lab. Tear. The husband said to me "so when Jen (the wife) called me and said there was a chocolate lab that needs to be adopted, I said "when God calls do you take a message" ". Meaning, he knew it was God's way of saying, take him, he's meant to be with you. I loved and appreciated that.

12 week dr appointment

As most of you know, yesterday was our big 12 week ultrasound appointment to look more closely at baby. I am so appreciative for all your prayers over the last several weeks. I have truly felt peaceful, but there have been those moments where fear grips me, and the doubts creep in. I pray, get myself together, and think about how God has brought me through the "worst" before, and He and He alone could do it again.

Anyhow, the appointment went fantastic. Baby's heart rate was a strong 167 bpm, he/she is measuring about 5 days ahead, and the nuchal fold (the fluid behind the baby's neck) was measuring right in the normal range. There are many things such as the nuchal fold and nasal bone that can indicate a problem with the baby (we are far more educated on these matters than we would like to be) so "normal" is music to our ears. The baby was in there dancing around just like miss Brooklyn was at 12 weeks. What a beautiful sight.

Next appointment is in 4 weeks! Time is already flying by. Yikes.

Graduation!

Yay! Matt is done with school...for a little while anyhow. I'll take it! I think he kind of doesn't know what to do with himself right now. I am just so thankful that God brought us through yet another life experience stronger together. I am a very blessed woman.

Here are a few pictures from dinner before hand and the ceremony.

Congrats again Matt, I could not be more in awe of the perserverence, patience and excellence you showed throughout these past 16 months. I am confident there is NOTHING you cannot accomplish in life (with the help of your wife of course ;) and I am honored to be the one to come along for the ride to see what God has in store! I love you.

Pneumonia and a raging double ear infection

My poor sweetie. After a horrific weekend at home consisting of vomiting and high fevers, I thought we were feeling better on Monday, only to have her cry all through the night on Monday night. I ended up bringing her into our bed for the first time ever and let her sleep with me until Matt got home from school. She was up crying in pain every 2 hours or so. We went to the doctor's office first thing this morning only to find out she has a double ear infection (full blown) and pneumonia! On top of that, whatever she had over the weekend was a stomach virus that caused her to throw up and a 104 fever. Seriously?? That's too much. Breaks my heart when she's sick like this. So, we are resting, drinking lots of water, taking antibiotics and she will not let her binkie or blankies out of sight. She has started liking the show "little einsteins" and that is ALL she wants to watch. She wanders around crying "ayysteins" over and over.

The plan is, we are going to see how this ear infection goes, and then visit with an ear noes and throat doctor to talk about tubes. The pediatrician we saw today said there's no point in doing them right now because we are coming out of cold/flu season and they typically only last for 6 months, but if she starts this pattern over beginning in the fall that will probably be our only safe option. I am just not comfortable with how easily and massive these ear infections seem to come on. Better safe than sorry when it comes to hearing.

On a lighter note, tonight is Matt's last night of class!!!!! Wahooo!

God's grace is so good

Brooklyn has an announcement...

Matt and I are expecting! We are pregnant with our 6th precious baby, and as you can imagine this fact alone makes for this journey to be a long, but miraculous one. We have chosen as always to keep it quiet until we saw the heartbeat. Matt met me at the perinatology office today at 1:45, where we anxiously awaited our ultrasound. We walked that familiar walk back to the ultrasound room, I laid down on the table and we waited some more. Our US tech came in, and the scan began.

I have been a ball of emotions this past week, knowing that this appointment was coming up, and remembering all the many ultrasounds, good and bad, I have lived through before. Memories are such a powerful thing, they can bring us closer to something we have begun to forget, they can be a catalyst to some very scary and fearful thoughts taking over, but mostly they let us savor and remember. For me, I have been remembering all of my babies that I will never know on this side of heaven. How God's will was written long before my prayers and pleading to Him...but my prayers still went up, and in turn my love and understanding of just how powerful and awesome our God is grew exponentially.

So, there, on that screen in that quiet room was our 6th baby. Relief washed over me, and I looked over at Matt who had tears in his eyes. We smiled at each other and the tech said those three magic words "there's the heartbeat". Thank you Lord.

I am due November 30th. This baby was a bit of a surprise, but the best gifts are surprises! I can't help but think this was God's way of taking the premature worry from me.

We will go back in 3 weeks for the nuchal translucency scan and from there, I'll probably be seen once a month or so. I am still early, about 8 1/2 weeks, so please pray with me for the health of this little one.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jer 29:11

Easter

Easter was very fun this year. We decided to go to church on Saturday night which gave us all of Sunday to enjoy eachother and family. Brooklyn got not one, not two, but three easter baskets! She is one loved kiddo. She decided she was a huge fan of the candy inside the eggs.

Sunday morning we headed over to Matt's mom's for brunch with my family. It was lovely, but one member of the family was missing, Dale. More on that below. Then home for a nap and off to Grandpa and Grammy Lisa's for a big ole' easter dinner. Seriously, all we really did all day was eat. Mmmmm. Sure enough, we got home and miss B crashed hard. All in all it was a wonderful, low key easter.

Dale (Cris's husband and Matt's stepdad) was admitted to the hospital on Thursday and we were told shortly after that... he will not be coming home this time. We are adjusting to this news and doing our best to help Cris figure out this "new" chapter in what has become a very long and difficult book. For those who are reading and don't know, Dale was diagnosed the year Matt and I started dating (so 7 years ago) with frontal temporal disorder which is a mix of parkinsons/alzheimers. He has been deteriorating for some time, almost completely unresponsive when spoken to and vitually immobile, but there were two things that held fast. He lit up with a smile whenever he saw Cris, and his little love, Brooklyn.

Tuesday afternoon, when we turned onto Cris's street Brooklyn perked up and said "Dale, Dale". I of course started crying, because she would run in and look to his spot on the couch and he would not be there. We are thankful that he is getting the care he needs, and that Cris is getting this time to readjust to life without dale at home while he is being cared for. Prayers are always welcome :)

I read this verse the other day:

"When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul".
Psalm 94:19

Amen