Hello...my name is Death.

Ugh. I am miserable. Everyone else has moved on from this gunk and yet mine lingers. My cold is now mixed with partial flu. 

It just wasn't fun enough with a snotty nose running like a faucet, sneezing every half second, a continual headache that feels like someone is beating my head with a hammer AND feeling like it also needs to pop off to relieve the tension. 

No, now let's add to that the body aches, the going from hot to cold and back to hot in under 5 minutes, the puking, and other intestinal joys that come along with the flu. 

I spent all of yesterday confined to the couch, in between trips to the bathroom and kitchen. Thank goodness I just had Will home yesterday. I would get up, dizzy and spinning, to grab Will a bottle or some baby food, take him back to the couch and feed him. I played with him on the couch, he laid with me and watched tv shows all day. At naptime(he takes two 2-3 hour naps a day) he went up in his bed. The rest of the time, he hung out with his sick mama.  Poor baby!

When Mason came home from his dad's Thursday evening, you could tell Will was just overjoyed that he had someone to play with. I think he was a little burned out on Mom. 

Today is a bit better. I don't know if I am just sick of having my butt glued to that couch or if I really am feeling good enough that I want to be up. I feel like I have been run over. Plus, with TWO kids at home, staying on the couch all day just isn't an option.

Next time I get sick, I am hiring a nanny.

Colds and Spider Legs

Good Morning!

We all have a cold at our house. Daphne and Jack had it first, then Matt had it, then Mason, now Will and I. That is usually the exact order we get colds/flu in our home. Daphne must bring it home from school.

I think there is some divine intervention in me getting sick last, so I can fully take care of my babies while they are sick. :)

So, yesterday I was taking the lid off my water cup(you know, the one they give you at the hospital when you have a baby) to put more water in. There was still about a cup of water in there and I looked in to see a spider leg floating around in the water left in the cup. EW! 

It makes me wonder- Did I drink the rest of the spider? How did a spider get in my closed cup?

Even though I have washed said cup, I am still afraid to use it. Is there a secret trap door that lets spiders in my drink? I am very aware of each sip of water now. 

Alright- better get moving. I have a dirty diaper to change and breakfast to make. Have a great day fellow bloggers!!!

Beautiful Moment

As I was holding my almost 11 month old baby in my arms and rocking him to sleep, the little baby growing within me kicked me.

That, my friends, was a very cool moment.

I love being a mom.

Update!

Ok, so fears relieved. 

I told the doctor about my concern at not feeling this little person move as much as my boys did in utero. 

He told me that it could also be due to my placenta attaching in a different location, so I would feel less at this stage of pregnancy. Plus, I was able to hear that sweet baby's heartbeat(153 bpm) and as he was trying to find the heartbeat, he/she was moving ALL over. I couldn't feel it but I could definitely hear it. It calmed me down.

I am getting more and more excited for our date of March 27th to find out the gender of our growing bean!

My boys are exhausted and napping- Mason on the couch, Will in his carseat. I am not moving them- I want them to stay asleep! We were gone all morning and I have dishes piled high, laundry piled even higher, and a plethora of other organizational tasks to get done. Wish me luck!!

All about my babies

Today is my 16 week checkup( a week late). :(

I am a little worried. I have not felt this baby move a whole lot. The doctor will probably tell me that it is still too early to feel the baby move at all. However, I felt both of my boys moving early on in my pregnancy(Mason- 13 weeks, Will-9 weeks) and then continued to feel them moving, quite A LOT until the very end. 

I have felt this little one move less than 10 times and it has been several weeks since I have felt anything. It scares me. Can I insist on an ultrasound if I am completely freaked out?

Part of me also thinks, Maybe it's a girl and my boys were just SUPER active and that's why I am not feeling much.

My sweet 10 month old baby has turned into a not so sweet baby when 3 am rolls around. Will goes to sleep in his bed until the middle of the night when he wakes up and comes in ours. Usually, he goes back to sleep. He is protesting sleep now from about 3-6 am. After trying everything I (and Matt) could think of, I finally put him back in his bed. He cried for about 3 minutes and then fell fast asleep. 

Maybe he is just trying to prepare me for the baby?

Anyway, better hop in the shower and get this day rolling. Well, rolling for me. The day is well on a roll for my kids. My 4 year old is in timeout for talking back and my 10 month old is covered in teething biscuit remnants. I am off! Will update later about my appt.

Our morning conversations.

Mason to Will this morning: Will- say Va-to.

Mom to Mason: Mason, please don't teach your brother to say Vato.

Mason to Mom: Mom, I am saying Bott-le.

Mom to Mason: Oh. 

Two minutes later- 

Mason to Mom: Mom, what is a Vato?

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Will did say his first official word though, outside of Dada and Nini(which is what he calls me).  

We were driving around Wednesday and there was someone in front of me going entirely too slow. I said, "Go." 

I hear this little voice in the back say, "Gooo." 

It was so cute. He is fascinated that he can say a word and will just repeat it again and again.

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We are off to Bloomba, a neat new play center that opened up in 2008 in Fort Collins. For those of you that are local and have kids, you should check it out!

It should be lots of fun. Bye!

Pockets

10 minutes ago I was in our laundry room starting a load of jeans to wash. I picked up a pair of Will's 12 month jeans and checked the pockets to make sure they were empty. After I put them in the washer, I thought- Would Will really be putting things into his pockets?

Silly mama.

While we are on the laundry subject, I must say I was very surprised when about two years ago(when I started washing not just Mason and my laundry, but also Matt, Daphne and Jack's laundry) to discover that not only can you have a darks, whites, jeans and colors pile but you can also have piles of laundry sorted like this:

Pink and Red load

Green load

Blue load

Brown load

Khaki load( I never owned a pair of khakis, but Matt has lots for work)

Yellow and orange load

It still cracks me up to this day. 

A late Not Me Monday and My Firstborn.

I am a sucky blogger. I promise more pictures and then I don't deliver. Better late than never?

My family has been keeping me awfully busy these days- between taxiing Mason around to preschool, storytimes, parks(when it's warm), mall(when it's not), etc. and keeping Will out of toilets and outlets and generally making sure my cruising 10 month old stays out of trouble, there is not much time for anything else.

 Oh, except working two evenings a week, doctor's appointments, registering Mason for kindergarten, parent-teacher preschool conferences, getting new tires for my LandRover, fulfilling recent cravings for Hershey's Cookies and Creme bars and Mexican food, purchasing a dining room table set, celebrating my father-in-law and my brother-in-law's birthdays, staying connected with my girlfriends and let's not forget- spending precious time with my husband.

As you can see, blogging takes last place. Sorry! (not really)

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Anyhow, seeing as how I have not participated in Not Me Monday for several weeks, I am back!!

MckMama hosts this crazy carnival of fun AND if you want to read more tales of what other bloggers have NOT been doing this week- head on over to her blog! 

-This week, I did not walk in on my baby boy eating dog poo. I would not be unaware that the dog had even pooped in the house, let alone that my sweet baby was consuming the poo. EW! 

-After finding the baby with mouth full of poo, I did not hesitate for 20 seconds, leaving my baby with 20 more seconds of full mouth of poo, to ponder what to do.

-After then not hesitating, I did not then decide to finger sweep the poo out of my baby's mouth. That would be gross and I did not do such a thing!

-My 10 month old did not get upset that I took said poo away from him. 

-I did not take Will's binky out of his mouth for some reason, only to not forget to give it back and go walking around Target with a binky in my mouth.

-I did not have a complete conversation with myself while getting into my car this week. 

-I did not then look over and see the car next to me did not have people in it. 

-They most certainly were not laughing at me!

What did you not do this week??

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And now.....for the BEST part of this post....I present to you:

MY FIRSTBORN!

Isn't he handsome? And...in true Nicole form, my posted pictures are already outdated. Mason has a new, VERY cool spiky 'do. I will get pictures up soon. Do you believe me? Honestly though...I will.

Mason has been having a blast at preschool this week. They are working on the letter 'R', learning their phone number, and all about the moon. They also have 'The BugMan' coming on Wednesday to teach them neat songs about bugs. 

When I was telling him about 'The BugMan' , Mason looked at me disbelievingly and said, " I don't know about that Mom- who told you that?" I was rolling. 

He is such a funny, kind-hearted, helpful, smart little guy. I am in disbelief when I think about my oldest turning 5 in under two months. And in even more disbelief when I think of him starting school in 6 months. However, I have some time until then- so let's change the subject- back to Mason's handsome face. 

 

Ahh....that face. I love my big guy. Spending time with him is one of the greatest joys of my life!

Results and Griping

Matt is home!! I sure missed that sweet husband of mine. 

The doctor called yesterday to let my know that my ultrasound was normal, every part of it. That is good news, except it doesn't explain my pain. He also told me that it could be the early phases of my gall bladder not working/shutting down but that the test to see how well my gall bladder IS functioning (0r not) is not safe for pregnancy. 

The ultrasound showed no gallstones or visible problems with my gall bladder, kidneys or liver. However, the function test checks for other things the ultrasound may not be able to pick up. So, I was advised to wait it out until my pregnancy is over or come back if the pain gets worse, at which point the doc can do more blood work. Since everyone seems to think my gall bladder is in early stages of shut down(that's certainly a technical term, isn't it;) )it doesn't show up in blood work until it progresses. So the thought is, if it IS my gall bladder and it DOES progress, come back and do more blood work so we can prove it and then we can take it out. Or- it may be something else completely- but no body knows what. 

I am frustrated, still hurting and finding it very hard to stay positive. I am trying to just focus on my kids and my family and friends and the good things in life. When I focus on how much I hurt, I get grumpy.

So- these are the 5 things I am putting my focus on today:

1. Praying- it calms me.

2. Singing as loud as I want to my favorite chick music.

3. My beautiful sons- it's hard to be down around such happy little guys.

4. Reading. I am currently into a cooking-murder mystery- type book. It's called The Last Suppers, by Diane Mott Davidson. It's one of  a series and I am loving it.

5. Getting me and my guys out into the sunshine and fresh air. Doesn't that always help? It does me. So, far today we have been out twice and I am planning on hitting the park once Mason wakes up from his nap.

I have some pictures of Mason I will post later tonight. Our Aperture program that holds our pictures is acting funky.  I cannot believe how quickly he is growing. 

Business, Gall Bladders, and one Handsome Baby Boy!

Matt is on a business trip in Atlanta and will be back late tomorrow night. Mason is at his dad's house for an overnight. So...it's just Will and I. He is eating up the one on one attention!

Is it pathetic that it's only been 7 hours and I already miss Matt? Wait...don't answer that. 

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Matt, Will and I came home Friday night after meeting his parents for pizza and beer( beer for them, not me :) ) . We had not been home 10 minutes when I felt this sharp, stabbing pain in my upper abdomen and another sharp pain that went from my lower back up to in between my shoulder blades. The pain was so intense, all I could do was moan and stay hunched over. It kept coming in waves.

 I decided to get in a hot tub of water- that usually helps any pain I have. The pain did subside and I was immediately exhausted- I could have fallen asleep in the tub. I decided to get out and the pain came again.  I was a little worried as to why I would be in so much pain and concerned it could have something to do with the baby.  Matt suggested I lay down because we had been going-going-going all day and I had been on my feet A LOT. I did and fell asleep. 

I was up at midnight with intense pain again, however I was thinking it was Braxton-Hicks contractions. My doctor had told me that with my 3rd, they would come quite a bit sooner in my pregnancy and might even be painful. I took some Tylenol at midnight and we went up to bed. 

In the morning, I was still hurting, however it was now more like cramping. I told Matt I thought I needed to go to the hospital. He suggested we first try to walk a little and see if it helped. We went out with Will and ran some errands and my pain kept increasing, so after our last errand, he took me to the hospital. 

After a very short exam, the ER doc stated it was my gall bladder. He told me there is a hormone in pregnancy that can disrupt the normal function of the gall bladder or I could have stones in my gall bladder. They did blood work, which was normal, however he thought this was typical of a gall bladder in the early stages of not working correctly. 

I saw my doctor on Monday. He agreed that with the pain I am having, gall bladder issues seem to make sense. My urine tests do not seem to indicate any problems with my kidneys. So he scheduled me for a gall bladder ultrasound, which I had done today . I should get the results back tomorrow or Friday. If it IS my gall bladder, the solution is taking it out. All the doctors seem to think it's quite safe to do this while pregnant, especially since I am in my 2nd trimester now. However, I will be speaking with my OBGYN before the surgery discussion goes much further.

My pain continues to get worse and I am having a hard time bending over, picking Will up, and sneezing and coughing feels like torture. I am praying for quick results so that I can know if it truly is my gall bladder or something else and move on to the next step of trying to fix it. I am quite relieved that problems with the baby have been ruled out.  I will keep everyone updated on my results.

Meanwhile, I have been staring at this gorgeous baby boy! He makes it easy to forget my pain....

This is Will helping me dust. He is very proud of being able to hold on to things with only one hand while standing now!

He sure makes my life sweeter.....