This is an attempt to catch up on a post I started almost a month ago. We went to Dubuque for the annual Alumni Basketball Tournament the weekend of March 26-28. My parents met us in Dubuque and stayed at the same hotel as us. They had not seen a tournament since moving away from Dubuque over 10 years ago. You are guaranteed to play two games in the tournament. If you win your first game you advance to the winner's bracket. If you lose after that you are out of the tournament. We were lucky enough to win our first three games and advance to the Finals on Sunday. Unfortunately we were unable to pull out a victory in the Finals. In our first game Saturday morning, one of our teammates (Abe) ruptured his patella tendon. Below is a picture of Abe, he would not let us get a picture of his missing kneecap, it was too bad as we had a cameraman in place taking these fine shots from above. A picture of me being absorbed into the body of a 300lb. man. This is the same individual who fell into Abe causing his injury. What a sweet stroke! That free throw did go in by the way. Bella in my old JV jersey. I enjoy going back to see old classmates and their ever expanding families. We are all good friends, but it is tough to stay in touch throughout the year.
Bella had a blast spending the entire weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. It was kind of bizarre to only be focusing on Evelyn, because Bella was hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. She even slept in their room. The first night everyone slept well. The second night was a little rougher. Grandma was up with Bella most the night and got up really early with her. Evelyn also was up quite a bit. Turns out everyone would eventually get sick. Robin even had to stay home from work on Monday.
Bella went swimming (but actually barely moved from this step)
Watching a lot of basketball and waiting around is a pretty good test for a 3 yr old. Bella did pretty well. A game of catch with Julia
Being entertained by the iPad. Bella slept like this through the ENTIRE championship game, should have known she wasn't feeling well. Exhausting weekend!
We got a kick out of the fact that Bella called the hotel "Buick". It was because we kept saying we were going to "Dubuque". During the first basketball game she said we wanted to go back to "Buick". Turns out she thought that was what the hotel was called.
Evelyn had her 1 year appointment on Monday. The poor girl got 4 shots and a lead test which involved drip lots of blood out of her finger. Overall she did well. They noticed her white blood count was kind of high, but said she was probably just starting to fight off a cold or teething.
I did this with Isabella on her first birthday, so I thought I’d try to do the same for Evelyn. A detailed (as best as I can remember, sorry if too detailed) story of her birth.
Thursday, April 1, I was up late working on a late night work issues when we ran into problems. I ended up working straight, until 9am that Friday morning. My manager, Claire, told me not to come into work and basically take the day off. I slept from 9am to noon on that Friday morning and then couldn’t sleep much more. I logged on to work to summarize the issues I ran into the previous night while it was fresh in my head and give others some tips because we would need to do some follow up work the next week. I sent the email out to co-workers stating, this is what we will need to do next and said that while things were necessarily progressing yet with my pregnancy, my dr had said “See you next Thurs, unless I see you before then.” It was April 2nd and my due date wasn’t until April 10th.
I was definitely experiencing back pain, but I couldn’t read my body correctly because I hadn’t slept the night before. I was super stressed all night sitting tensed up at my laptop, it didn’t surprise me that I was sore. I think I posted something on facebook about how I couldn’t tell if what I was feeling was sleep-deprived related or pregnancy related. Early that Friday afternoon, I remember feeling like walking so I went out for a walk around the park in our neighborhood, it started pouring down rain, so much that I had to stand under a shelter for a while to let it let up as it was really downpouring. I remember thinking what a waste of time, being stranded in this shelter when I really should be home sleeping and how silly I must look at there so noticeably pregnant. The rain let up and I walked home and slept a little more.
I was really looking forward to a good night’s sleep that night. Jeff was going to take care of Isabella and get up with her in the morning so I could sleep in. I crawled into bed and around 10pm I requested Jeff grab me an apple. I felt like I needed one. I never eat that late and especially not in bed, yet I didn’t really think it was all that odd.
2 am I got up to use the bathroom. I was so excited to head back to bed, sleep was feeling wonderful. I crawled back into bed. My water broke. I jumped out of bed. I said to Jeff “I think my water broke”. Jeff was asleep and said “uh huh, ok” and went back to sleep. I said louder and made sure he really woke up and said “My water broke”. Luckily, since I had just gone to the bathroom I was fairly certain that indeed was what had happened. Honestly, we didn’t exactly know what to do, since my water didn’t break with Isabella. We knew enough to call up to Labor and Delivery at the hospital. They said we should definitely get ready on come in, but we didn’t have to rush. We called John and Kristy to have them come over to be with Isabella. We had plans to have dinner with them on Sat. and one of the topics of discussion was going to be what would happen if we had the baby in the middle of the night. So, we had to wing it. It was 2:30 am and John and Kristy said they would be over. I showered and we both got things ready to go. Jeff actually took my weekly belly picture, as we hadn’t taken one that week.
We drove to the hospital. Jeff dropped me off and parking the car in the emergency lot. We went up to labor and delivery. They hooked me up to monitored and tested to see if my water had actually broke. When the nurse came in with the results she said "Looks like it's baby day". And I responded "Why? Are there lots of other people coming in to have their babies?" and she said "No, it's YOUR baby day". I still wasn't feeling any contractions so they told me to walk around to get things going. We were directed to walked around for a little bit. We started doing laps and Jeff kept telling me to slow down, because we kept having to pass the same nurses' station. I think I remember thinking it would be a long time before I'd be able to walk again and wanted to get the most out of it while I could. I wanted to keep walking, but around 4:30 - 5am just said we'd better go back to the room. At some point I started having stronger contractions. I got my epidural. That really slowed down the contractions and they had to give me pitocin to speed things up again. At some point Jeff ran down the hallway to get some food. I rested a bit. I remember wanting to the lights to be off (even though I usually don't like sitting in the dark) and remember that is one of the things they talk about in natural childbirth that people and animals both want to be in the dark. During both of my labors I always just wanted to lay there, I never wanted the tv on or to read or anything.
The nurses continued to come check on me. When we started pushing the doctor was going between 3 different rooms that had basically started pushing at the same time. She'd leave and the nurse would stay with us. At one point the nurse said "Well, I'd better go get the doctor. Not that I haven't delivered a baby on my own before, but this baby is ready." The doctor came in, because of the epidural, I really couldn't feel anything, so I was trying to push, but I really had no idea if I was doing anything. I must have been doing a bad job because the doctor kept telling me to focus and try harder. Then she recommended we get a mirror so I could watch because that might help and I really didn't want to but I said ok. It only took a few pushes before Evelyn arrived. I remember looking in the mirror and then suddenly the baby was on my lap and I told myself to look directly at the baby, not at the baby in the mirror. Jeff was freaking out because Evelyn had so much hair and he saw the back of her head first and he really thought something was wrong with her. She was born at 11:46am and everything had gone wonderfully perfect!
I took Evie to see the ENT Doctor today, who is the same Doctor that did Bella's surgeries for her ears. There was no big surprise as he found her appropriate for tubes and thought they would help her out a lot considering how many ear infections she has had. She will go in for surgery on April 6th which I consider a late Birthday present from Mom and Dad. What better present than the gift of relieving some future pain and hopefully will be a gift to Robin and I in the form of less sleepless nights.
I am finally at the point to meet with the Doctor to see when we can get ear tubes for Evelyn after finding out that she has ear infections in both ears. We had noticed some drainage on a couple of occasions out of one of the ears which Robin and I thought was odd. We were not even sure we should take her to the MD as we thought her pain may be from the several teeth she has coming in right now. The Doctor said that both ears looked really bad which made me feel pretty awful as I have been thinking we could wait on tubes until the fall. Evie has been such a trooper, you wouldn't know anything was wrong with her during the day and she has been sleeping really well with the exception of last night. She has had some periods of fussiness, but we attributed much of it to being tired and her teething. Next Tuesday we will meet with the ENT Doctor and hopefully get tubes in soon to see if we can avoid some ear infections. I wasn't sure what to give Evie for her Birthday, so I guess tubes will be a nice gift. Evelyn is getting stronger with standing, she can stand for about 5 to ten seconds without any problems and has taken a small step a couple of times. On Sunday morning we were listening to music and she was dancing without holding on to everything. Thankfully Robin came in to see her as it was absolutely hilarious and would not have been believable. She was bouncing and dancing with her arms. We tried to get it on video, but she would not dance like that again. I will have to try again in the near future with the camera ready to go. We are going to be in Dubuque for the annual Alumni basketball tournament. This tournament gets more difficult each year (because of age and not having the same physical abilities as 10 years ago). Our first game is at 6:30PM on Friday night so we will be leaving home by 3PM so we can get settled into the hotel. My parents will be meeting us in Dubuque as they have not seen an alumni tournament since they moved away from Dubuque. I look forward to seeing everyone and hopefully winning another championship. I am not looking forward to how my body will feel at the end of the tournament. Bella is looking forward to seeing Grandma and Grandpa as well as seeing Aiden again. Bella has enjoyed running around on the bleachers of basketball games during our Sunday night basketball games with Aiden, hopefully they will have enough room to enjoy themselves this weekend.
I always love class pictures. These were taken last fall, a little before Thanksgiving, so they are kind of old. Evie had just recently started sitting up, so we were surprised to see her just sitting up by herself front and center.
Bella's class has already changed a bit. I hear both good and not so good things about her interactions with her classmates. I guess there were a couple of new girls in class that don't speak very much English and Bella's teachers told us Bella really stepped up to play with them and make them feel comfortable. Then there are the other days where I have a conversation like this:
Bella's friend Z: Who's mommy are you? Me: Bella's Z: Bella screams at me Z's Mom: Well, I'm sure she just got frustrated about something like we all do... Z: Bella kicked me in the head. Z's Mom: Well, you might just be thinking about when you two were just jumping and playing and I'm sure it was an accident. I kind of think Z said something else similar about Bella did to him, but I can't remember now...
As usual, the individual pictures are hilarious. Bella got a haircut that definitely wasn't one of my favorites a few days before.
Part 1 was a post with this title on January 18, 2009. The string of sickness has continued in the house. I was sick on Valentine's Day with a stomach flu, I didn't get out of bed until 3PM except for only the most necessary of trips (I'll spare the details). Robin was still not feeling well so last Sunday she and Evie went over to the UI Quickcare to get checked out. They still couldn't find anything wrong with Robin, but gave her an antibiotic prescription to fill if she wasn't feeling better in a couple days. Evie was checked out as well and had some fluid in her ears, but no ear infection and couldn't find anything else wrong with her. She had been having several rough nights of sleep in a row. Wednesday night at 5:30PM I received a call from daycare that Evie had a 100 degree fever and was lethargic. We got her into an appt. that night that was scheduled for 7:15PM, but we didn't get into the Dr.'s office until after 7:45PM. I was just happy they were able to see us on such short notice as Evie had developed a seal like bark for a cough. Evie had a mild case of RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) and another ear infection. She is on antibiotics for the ear infection, but there isn't any treatment for the RSV since it is a virus. Evie has been sleeping pretty good, although last night was a rough night. Spring cannot come soon enough for this house.
Isabella played pretend show and tell today. She got a basket full of toys and sat on our bed and started saying things like:
"Who brought this in?" "Come sit in the yellow chair and tell us about it" "How does it work?" "Does anyone have any questions?" "Ok, put it back in the basket"
She had Evie and I come and sit up on the bed and play show and tell and pick out different toys that we had "brought in". It was really cute.
Maybe it's the house, but we can't seem to stay healthy. I was awaken on Thursday evening just past midnight by Bella crying in her bed. I went in to see her and she started vomiting all over the bed. I decided to pick her to take her to the Bathroom (calling for Mom as we passed our bedroom) and have her sit on her stool so that she could throw up into the toilet if necessary. I noticed Bella was holding onto Teddy who was completely wet from the vomit. Robin sat with Bella and I entered her bedroom and turned on the lights to assess the damage. I definitely could make out the green beans and blueberries from dinner. There was a lot of vomit and I used many paper towels to wipe everything up before putting her comforter and sheets in the wash. Robin slept in her room the rest of the night. Bella woke up the next morning acting like her normal self,but complaining that her stomach hurt. I was thinking of keeping her home until she said excitedly can we watch a movie and Dora. I decided to take her to school but told her teachers at daycare about vomiting and to let me know if she is not feeling better. I got a call from daycare at 9:30AM saying that Bella was complaining that her stomach hurt so I decided I would go pick her up (I eventually made it to daycare after finishing off a few things). Bella was pretty wiped out and declined lunch at daycare and home. We took a nap together and sat in the recliner the rest of the afternoon watching Dora and Aladdin. She didn't want to move even when it was time to pick up Evie. Good news is that Bella seems to be better today, but still not eating as well as she normally does.
Evie does not seem to be sick,but is setting records with the number of blowouts she is having during her 10 day sentence on Augmentin. Her bottom and private area are still red, but we have been very diligent with putting on gobs of magic butt paste. Evie had 5 blowouts on Friday alone. Today she had a second blowout in which I had to get her onesie over her head, but I failed, so we took a second bath of the day so she could avoid being called a poophead(there is another term, but this is a family blog). Sunday will be the last day of antibiotics and we see the Dr. on Monday to get the ear checked out.
Robin is feeling better, but is not 100% back. She seems to get better and then feels worse again. I need her to get healthy as she is too necessary to this house to not be 100%. I got a head cold the night Bella vomited and was having difficulty sleeping, but besides some fatigue feel fine again. I really hope this is the last post about sickness because this is getting old.
Robin is feeling better today and worked from home. She still is not 100% but appears to be on the road to recovery. Evie had a rough day today, she had three blowouts at school today and is very red and raw on her bottom. Bella had the same issues when she was taking this same antibiotic. Evie is doing fine other than a sore bum and hating her medicine. The rest of the house is doing well.
What a sweet stroke! That free throw did go in by the way.
Bella in my old JV jersey.
I enjoy going back to see old classmates and their ever expanding families. We are all good friends, but it is tough to stay in touch throughout the year.
A game of catch with Julia
Bella slept like this through the ENTIRE championship game, should have known she wasn't feeling well. Exhausting weekend!
