girl's night

Once a month three of my girlfriends and I have been getting together for dinner and movie night. We attempted to count it up, we think we're going on 9 straight months, pretty impressive I think! I love it because we rotate who brings the main dish, others then support with a side, dessert, etc., then we head down to Aleta's movie room (she always gets to host :)) and watch our movie. I'm sure there's a little talking in between and throughout :) And Aleta's poor husband Jeff is subjected to all of our discussions, which lately has had a lot to do with pregnancy and everything glamorous about it, since three of us are pregnant. However, he's pretty good at tuning us out I think.

Chilling before our movie starts.

All I can say is EWW. And this was my idea even for a pose.

Could be the first and last picture of myself during this pregnancy.

I'm 36.5 weeks, Angie is 34 and Aleta is 26.

Sarah is 0. But we give her a lot of crap that it could be time for #2 :)

I like this picture of us :) Probably something to do with the fact that I'm hidden in the back.

The preggers.

Not sure when we'll fit in next month's date, could be difficult to try and sneak between Angie and I's due dates, we will see :)

connor update

Well, Connor and I just arrived home after being at the doctor's office for nearly four hours. What we're thinking is going on, is that his entire colon is full of old, hard stool. What is able to make it around this stool is what we're experiencing, tiny, semi-liquid stools, and very frequent. The 'sandy/grit' we're thinking might be just tiny pieces of the old stool that's 'stuck' coming off as this more liquid stool passes. (obviously stop reading if you have no desire to read about poop, colons, enemas, etc.)

He had an x-ray done, and after two pediatricians, two radiologists and our nurse practitioner reviewed and then also consulted with a GI doctor, that's what they're thinking is up. We've been experiencing this with him for at least 6+ weeks, and they think that's entirely possible that it could have been 'stuck' for that long and probably just continuing to get worse (we went through 5 pull ups from 9:45-1230 at the doctor's office). They're also still running tests just in case for parasites, bacteria (more than normal anyways) and to see if there is blood in the stool. At this time, there is no reason to believe that it is connected to his Hirschsprung's Disease at birth. They however do typically see this in older kids that 'hold it in' and avoid going. Not sure if Connor 'knew' that he's been holding it in or not.

For reference, here's a diagram indicating where the colon is. They think it's pretty full from the start of it (marked large intestine) to near the end into the Sigmoid colon.

So...we're to give him an enema every night for the next three nights and go back on Friday for another x-ray to see if we've successfully cleared him out. If so, we'll probably begin conversations about how to prevent this again, or try to figure out what caused it in the first place. The nurse practitioner (Vicky Parsons, for any locals that are curious) was wonderful (yeah for nurse practitioners!) and has a daughter that's been through something similar, so it's always comforting to know they've potentially had first hand experience. She even gave me her cell phone number in case I have questions later today/tonight when administering the enema (there may have been a look of extreme panic on my face when we started talking about enemas...) I'm just so glad we took him in today and started the process of fixing it. We are feeling pretty terrible about all the 'punishing' we've done, taking toys away, etc., but how were we to know.

I asked for a picture of his x-ray, which she wasn't able to give me but said I could request it from the diagnostics department, so I will try that on Friday when we go back.

happy birthday to...

no, not me again :)

This time a big happy birthday to my brother Joe :)

one and a wiggle

Well, I'm officially 36 weeks tomorrow and had the first of my weekly appointments this afternoon. Bryan volunteered to come along so he could finally meet the doctor, and of course the doctor was running behind and then eventually had to go to a delivery so they bumped us to an available nurse practitioner. Everything is good, heart rate was in the 160's (girl?? ha), measuring on track and am actually dilated, let me repeat, dilated, to a ONE plus a wiggle (but no effacement). So, me and this nurse practitioner are now bff's. Kidding, but I think I was due or a day overdue with Connor and I was mmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyybbbbbbbbbbeeeeeeeee  (maybe) a one. So, to me, this is amazing progress, my body actually might have an idea of what's about to happen :) Or so I can dream.

On a not so bright note, we're still dealing with Connor's poop issues. Saturday and Sunday he probably had a minimum of 15 BM's each day, and I think there are 7 pairs of underwear sent home today from school. It's not a lot, and it always seems to be 'sandy' or 'gritty', which isn't fun to clean up and obviously makes for a sore bottom. I've scheduled an appointment tomorrow morning, couldn't see a doctor so we're with a nurse practitioner (maybe I'll have a new found love for nurse practitioners?) and I think going into it I have an assumption we'll be referred to a GI specialist or something. My guess is it's something to do with his diet and nutrition, as he'll have days that he doesn't have ANY BM's. So, who knows. My biggest issue right now is that daycare is holding him back from pre-school because of it, and, I get it, pre-school staff probably doesn't need to deal with this, I just am seriously sad for Connor because all of his buds are now in pre-school and according to the teachers he's more than ready for pre-school...except for the poop thing. So, trying to hold back another 'crazy emotional mom moment' for now.

I guess to end on a bright note, and related to doctors and appointments, Bryan had a follow up appointment this afternoon. His sensitivity to light is MUCH better now and doesn't have much, if any, pain or watering. His vision is about 20/30, which is actually a little worse than the morning after (was seeing 20/20), but the doctor is incredibly pleased with where he's at. So, my duties of nurse and chauffeur I believe are over :)

nursery update II

Made a little more progress on the nursery this weekend thanks to Anne and Rachel. I think I'm pretty close to being done, just need the baby now :)

 This side of the room is for sure done, it feels a little less intense (ie crazy busy) in person (or at least I hope).

Decided against a 'real' nursery chair and found this recliner at ShopKo. We made it through Connor's infancy in a brown leather recliner so we should be fine.

The paper lanterns don't really go with the 'theme' (I am still not sure what the theme is...), but I think I've always had this thing for paper lanterns and came across some brown and orange ones (thanks, Aleta!) and couldn't pass them up. Hoping to put light kits in a few of them for a little soft lighting.

Found this make your own mobile on Martha Stewart's site so thought I'd give it a try. 

Somewhat of the view the baby will see. I added some 'contrast' paper to the bottom of the wings since that's supposedly what babies dig :)

 This might be my favorite part of the nursery yet :) 

Yes, the G and the L are missing intentionally (see next photo).

Once we know what Baby B is, I can complete it. If it's a boy, the frame will appear like above, but if it's a girl, the G will be orange and a dark purple-ish L will be placed. Then in the lower right of the frame I'll put the baby's name, birth info, etc in the same color as the letter. Pretty excited about it :)

Update 1/13/12: Finished picture of other side of room below!

lazy weekend of recovering

We've had a pretty low key weekend here, lots of relaxing and recovering, which is of course driving Bryan nuts but at least it's winter. We're going on day 4 for Bryan's surgery, which is supposedly supposed to be one of the worst days for pain, etc. So far he's doing okay, his eyes watered a lot yesterday and he's staying on pain meds so hopefully today is the last of the worst of it.

 schmo playing with daddy's sweet glasses

 

anne made me a birthday cake...had a little problem with the frosting, but it's the thought that counts :)

 Cody and Payten came to play for a bit. 

Madelyn also came over a little later and then Craig took both Madelyn and Connor sledding and on 4-wheeler rides, no pictures unfortunately but Connor had a great time, thank you Craig! (all we hear about is how they got stuck...)

 

make-shift blinds to keep the house dark for Bryan

once it was dark outside we went down to Bryan's shop to look at the equipment, we needed something to do to get out of the house.

Thanks again to Rach and Anne for coming over. I got a few things accomplished in the nursery, pics to come soon :)

Finishing up the weekend watching the Super Bowl at my parents tonight, the only positive the game starts so late on a Sunday night is that it'll be nice and dark out for Bryan :)

sheetrock

You thought I'd spare you of basement pictures...not so much. Sheetrock went up a week ago and the taping process has already begun. Exciting times, here. :)

looking down the steps

 family room

 'bar' (really not a bar) area

 bedroom closet

hallway looking towards the steps, with my little decorative shelf thing...which I have no idea what will go in there yet.

happy birthday to...

...me! Ha, am I allowed to do that? I figure since I'm posting some highly embarrassing photos, it was okay. Well, I couldn't bring myself to post the REALLY embarrassing, maybe next year.

 This picture wouldn't be terrible, I mean, I'm sure pink and teal snowsuits were all the rage back in '88, but I don't understand the hat. At all.

 I hope you can see the detail on my shorts, because, they are absolutely fantastic....

Mom, did I make these myself? Or steal clothes from Joe's closet? 

For the record and in my mom's defense, I am pretty sure I HATED (still do) dresses and anything overly girly, I hated when she brushed my hair (so then she just cut it off, now you understand what I mean about withholding seriously embarrassing photos?) and yeah. Probably wasn't the 'dream' girl a mother could ask for. We will see if this comes to bite me in the butt...

I had to include one that wasn't completely awful. However, I'm curious to know where the freckles went, not that I'm complaining really, but wow. And might be the only time I ever post a picture of myself in a bathing suit, ha.

So, happy birthday to me. 28 and counting.

ps the tractor show video now works

http://31ottercourt.blogspot.com/2011/01/tractor-show.html

Bryan's Eye Surgery Update

Bryan has had his LASIK appointment scheduled for months now, and today was finally the day. We had to be in Edina at 8am for some pre-surgery stuff, scans, etc. They hadn't officially determined what type of surgery Bryan would be having until then. We knew going into it that there was a possibility to have to do PRK (no idea what it stands for) instead of LASIK but were obviously hoping for LASIK. LASIK typically has a shorter recovery time (ie could have been back and work, driving tomorrow I think) and PRK is about 4 days recovery and more painful. Of course, Bryan ended up having to do PRK. He had some scars on his eye that made the doctor uncomfortable to do LASIK.

So, here is my incredibly basic description of the two procedures.

For LASIK, they actually create a flap out of the cells that are on the top of your eye, peel it back, let the laser do it's thing, and replace the flap. Sounds like these cells are able to self-heal very quickly as no sutures are needed in most cases. Because of Bryan's scars, had they done this procedure, there may have been holes in this flap where the scars were, depending on how deep the scars were, and that wouldn't have been good.

With PRK they actually scrape off and remove the cells, let the laser do it's thing, place a temporary contact on the eye to act as a shield/protective lens to the eye (since there are no longer any cells to do this) and let the cells regrow and recover the eye. This is where the longer recovery and pain come in, and actually the worst of it is supposed to be around day 3-4 when the cells are making their way to the center of the eye, they collide...(seriously how it was explained to us :)), which creates a little ridge (painful) and then smooth back out to complete the process.

I watched the entire procedure.
(and may not ever have it done, ha.)

I wanted to take a picture of Bryan in the operating room, but they wouldn't let me and then since they knew I was wanting to take a picture, they stood by me the entire time...ha.

Here he is in his cool shades post surgery, making his little bed in the car for the ride home. He's now resting in the nursery (only room in the house with blinds/shades/curtains) and may remain there for the next 4 days. Hopefully everything goes well and his vision turns out to be great! We know that with PRK it will take longer than LASIK to get his vision to 20/20 or 20/40, which is a bummer, but obviously was the better procedure for him in the long run. The doctor said about 25% of his patients end up with PRK.