Catch up

I'm going to try to catch up on my blogging before the Christmas holiday fun begins! Hopefully I'll continue to keep it updated during December but no promises =) Here's some random pictures that I haven't posted yet...

Jordan LOVES lining things up. I hope it's just a phase and not OCD ={. And she gets furious if you move anything she's put in place (excuse the hair!!)

At her birthday party. This cupcake looks alright...

More

Please!

Okay...

Mmmmm. Thanks!


Another silly picture of Jordan enjoying as sucker and sharing her green tongue with us all...

Jordan's borrowing this AMAZING chair. We're hoping the Spina Bifida group here in town will be willing to buy her one of her own in the near future. In the meantime, this one is a home made version of what we're hoping to get for her and the Spina Bifida Clinic at Dayton Children's Hospital is letting her use it for a while. She wasn't too excited about it at first but has since really warmed up. When she was trying it out during her clinic back in October Bennett and I got so giddy anytime we saw her moving the wheels and actually MOVING on her own!! I hope she gets the hang of it. Right now we're working on conquering the fact that in order to get somewhere, you have to push the wheel, let go of the wheel, and then do it again. She doesn't want to let go of the wheel so she just goes back and forth, back and forth. This is pretty neat for us though. We might actually have a somewhat mobile Jordan once she figures this out! Watch out Bennett! Jordan's going to be able to chase you now!

Halloween!

I'm a couple weeks behind but that's alright isn't it?!
Here's some fun pics of Halloween. We had a busy time of things. We had trunk or treat at the church, Bennett had a party at school, we had a party for our housing complex, and then trick or treating with our family! We had lots of fun. Notice there aren't any carved pumpkins? We painted pumpkins at our complex party. It's much easier to clean up paint than pumpkin guts everywhere! We finally carved Bennett's little pumpkin last night. He cleaned out pretty much all the goop by himself too! I'll have to take pictures of it another time...

At our complex party. You can tell Jordan is THRILLED to be taking pictures!

She always cheers up when Bennett gets silly!

After trick or treating. Mmm. Suckers are the best!

Jordan and Daddy hanging out in the hallway at trunk or treat, waiting for Bennett to finish one of the games they had for the kids.

It's tiring being a lion!

Baby update

Things are going pretty well so far this pregnancy. I'm surprised that I'm coping with the stairs fairly well! If I have to go up and down them too many times in a row then I have a hard time but so far so good. I'm so close to starting with my 3rd trimester! It's really flying. I'm 27 weeks along and just had another ultrasound done today. The baby looks really good. She's beefing up really well! Online they tell me that she's almost 2 pounds but by her measurements today she's a little over 2. Maybe this'll be a baby more Bennett's size (8lbs6oz) instead of Jordan's (7lbs1oz). As long as she's healthy =). Her spine looks great- no signs of any problems at all. She's been very active and really likes to hang out on my right side. Well, I guess maybe it's my uterus that's shifted over there but I'm totally lopsided! Maybe it's because my body knew I had to carry Jordan around on my left side so it makes the baby stay on my right =). Since the only other ultrasound I've had done so far (before today) was at 14 weeks, we weren't 100% sure that we were having a girl. So we told Bennett that there was a chance the baby was a boy. When he heard today that its' FOR SURE a girl, he totally broke down! Poor guy. He really wants to share his bedroom with his new sibling and knows that if it's a girl that the baby will be in with Jordan. We tried our hardest to help console him but he was just sobbing. Hopefully next time we'll have a boy for him =).

We still haven't decided on a name. And I DON'T want to wait until she's born but maybe that's going to happen. With Bennett and Jordan we knew in advance and it all fit perfectly but this one has been more difficult. We really use to like Shelby but as time goes on, the less and less it seems to fit- especially after today's ultrasound. It just doesn't seem right. We really like Reese (thanks for the suggestion Janell!) but it hasn't grown on me as much as it has with Rhett. So we've been looking all over the web for ideas but nothing screams YES to me yet. Frustrating! I want to call her something. Well, we actually do call her something but it's Bennett's name for her and we are NOT going to name her this =). He calls her "Zip". Lovely =). He came up with it all on his own. So it's "baby Zip" this and "baby Zip" that. It's cute. He gets pretty bummed when we remind him that we are not naming the baby Zip. It must be rough being a 4 year old who can't decide what to name his new sister! Any more suggestions would be awesome! Bring em on! Oh, one of my friends, Christie (Jordan's old OT) suggested we name her Ryan. I really like that name and probably would have used it. Christie just lost her brother (about 3 months ago) in Afghanistan. So that would have been really neat to use but it happens to be the name of my brother and sister-in-law's youngest daughter. They named her after Monica's best friend when she was younger who has passed away. SUPER cute name but I can't bring myself to having 2 girls named Ryan in the same family, and they'd only be about a year apart!

More pics

Jordan turned 3!

I can't believe my baby (for the next 3+ months) turned 3! I wanted to post on her actual birthday (Oct 3rd) but it was such a stressful day that there was NO way that was going to happen. We didn't own a digital camera when she was born so I've been scanning in pictures of her when she was tiny so you can all see some of the things she went through and how far she's come! I'm probably going to do multiple posts throughout the next couple days so I'm not here for hours... But all in all there will be LOTS of pictures =). Some of them will be similar but I can't not post them all =). She's such a sweet girl and we are so glad that we're able to be her parents. Even through we've gone through so many trials to help her, it's all been worth it. She's got such a spunky personality and we just love her so much! We can't imagine life any other way than with her =).

The night of Oct 2nd, 2005 was VERY eventful. Rhett was in the ER all night. He was having severe abdominal pains. He was on IV's, pain meds, and having lots of testing/scans done. We probably didn't leave the hospital until about 5 in the morning on Oct. 3rd. I was scheduled to be induced in just hours, and had NO sleep and a VERY drugged husband! Lovely! The delivery room tried calling me multiple times that morning to let me know I needed to come get checked in by guess what I was doing! That's right, sleeping! I think I woke up around 10 or so and dragged Rhett to the hospital (I think I might have been the one driving...). We got checked in okay and started on my pitocin. I got my epidural almost immediately after the doctor broke my water (I think I was maybe a 2 or 3 when he did that so it was NOT pleasant!). I'm all about the pain meds as soon as I'm able. Both my kids were coming along posterior and therefore I had MAJOR back labor, along with normal labor pains =). Jordan came pretty quickly (compared to her Brother's 36ish hours in labor...). She was born I think around 5 that evening. She had 2 9's on her apgar, weighed in at 7lbs 1oz and was 20.5 inches long. it was VERY obvious right when she came out that something was wrong with her spine. They immediately called the ICU people to come into the room (I think there's a button somewhere in the room that calls them automatically... It was really fast that they came in...). Thankfully Jordan was breathing very well on her own so they were able to keep her on her stomach the entire time. They got the "opening" on her back covered with sterile stuff pretty quickly and then we all learned that UVRMC in Provo, UT doesn't have a neurosurgeon which Jordan would need to surgically close her spine/back. She was taken by the "life flight" team (by ambulance though) up to Primary Childrens Hospital in Salt Lake a couple hours later. They had to wait for them to drive down from Salt Lake to get her- and thankfully she was so stable that they were able to take her by ambulance. Both my mom and my mother-in-law flew in that night once they got word that their new grand daughter was going to have some health problems. You might be wondering about where Bennett is during all this... The week before I delivered Rhett was in AZ for his friends graduation and had taken Bennett down there with him. My mom offered to watch him down there so we wouldn't have to worry about finding a place to take him when I delivered. What a blessing! So Bennett flew back up with my mom that night. My mom and Bennett stayed the night in South Jordan with my Grandma (after vising Jordan in SLC) and Connie and Rhett stayed in a hotel close to Primary Childrens (after Rhett was up at the hospital with our home teachers to give Jordan a blessing). I guess that night was pretty eventful at the hotel with Rhett having more stomach problems and still being drugged up... I'm glad I was able to miss that! So here I was, in Provo, having delivered my daughter hours earlier, alone and in a different city from my child. That was hard. And on top of that I wanted to nurse her so I was up frequently pumping my heart out with no baby to help =). I was discharged about 2 days later (I think!) and went up to SLC to see Jordan. She had surgery the day after she was born and that went really well. She was discharged from the hospital 6 days after she was born, which is really good for her having spina bifida. Enjoy the pics. I'll give some explaination underneath the pics.

Jordan in her isolette (sp?!) on the way to the ambulance

On her way to SLC!

Pics of our pretty princess soon after she was born. I think this was in her room at Primary's.

You can see her bandages from her surgery. She had to stay on her stomach until she was about 5 days old. Look how red her face/body is! Poor dolly. They kept her diaper undone and had what they called a "mud flap" covering her incision too so that poop wouldn't get close to it =). It was so fun learning how to clean that up =)

Finally on her back!

And with the diaper on all the way...

Some pictures at about 2 months old at Jordan's blessing. She hadn't had her shunt put in at this time so ou can see how funny looking and big her head is.

Jordan is about 3 or 4 months old. She had just had her shunt put in and was having a very hard time getting off her vent. I guess I would too with RSV and pneumonia!

I think she was off her vent here bu had her feeding tube still in her mouth.

The machine that kept her breathing

Jordan is recovering well at home. She's probably 5 months or so.

Here she comes!

Ready or not... baby number 3 is on the way! If you're surprised by this, don't worry, you're not alone. I hate saying this but it wasn't planned by any means. I'm about 16 weeks along and my due date is Feb. 3rd 2009, my mother-in-law's bday =). I hope Connie doesn't mind sharing! I had my first doctors appointment at about 14 weeks. NO sign of any problems with the baby... and by the looks of things we're having a GIRL but we were told that it's not 100% since I wasn't super far along to check for that kind of thing but I'm pretty sure we got a clear enough look to start picking out girl names. Any suggestions? We don't agree on much. I'm kind of pick with girl names. I don't like them to be very girly but I also don't like strange. Any help would be great =). Bennett will tell anyone who asks that mommy has a baby in her tummy. We're just happy that he kept his mouth shut before we decided to spill the beans.

Picture of our little one with her arm up over her read. I LOVE profile shots!

Here's the lovely "skull baby" picture. If you can't figure out what you're looking at, on the left is her face, front on, and then above that is one of her arms/hand. On the right side is her rib cage. She looks like her daddy in this one! j/k

Anyways, this should make things really interesting in Ohio. ALL of our bedrooms are on the 2nd floor. I can just picture myself trying to get Jordan up and down the stairs when she'll be 40 lbs of dead weight and me being 8 or 9 months prego. Not a pretty site =).

My parents did something SO unexpected I don't even have words to express it. They are buying us a minivan!!! I know! It's crazy! It's a 2006 Toyota Sienna and is suppose to be rated really high in consumer reports. We can't wait. It'll be nice to have a vehicle to drive to Ohio in that I'm not praying every second of the drive that it'll keep going. And it's obviously great for Jordan and her future needs (and her wheelchair right now...). We were basically speechless when my dad told us earlier today. I can't wait to be minivanners!!

Update

I LOVE my new teeth!! To clarify, I only had 3 of them put on. The new blend in really well with the other ones. If you're debating having them put on yourself, do it!! I think it's a myth that they have to shave your teeth down to nubs to put them on. Just not true, at least it's not the way my dentist does it.

Housing...
We got the housing we wanted! Some of the places we looked at in Dayton were REALLY scary. The more inward you got into the city the scarier they got. We were driving around Fairborn (the little city the school is in) on Sunday night after we flew in, just looking to see what stuff there was close to the school and we ran across these really cute town homes. There were TONS of them! We saw this guy out in front of one of them and so we stopped to ask him if they were military housing (there's a huge airforce base in the area) or privately owned or what. He told us that they use to be military housing, and still were, partially, but that they were starting to rent them out to civilians as well. We got right on that. He have us the contact info for the housing office. We showed up Monday afternoon, had them show us the homes Tuesday morning, turned in our application (which we had to fax to Rhett the night before to have him sign as well...) and prayed we qualified. We did! They're really nice. We have a 1 car attached garage and 2 extra spots in the drive way (which we don't need both but it's nice to have the space...). We have a front yard, back yard full of grass, plenty of room in the garage to put our bikes, food storage, and our grill. They have a pond/river thing that they keep stocked with fish. Bennett's going to love that! They told us we can fish whenever we want, and that we don't need a fishing license which is awesome. It's about a 10 minute drive to the University so as long as there isn't snow on the ground, Rhett will get at least 20 minutes of exercise a day! We only pay gas and electric for our utilities, and those are discounted because it's military housing. So she said that we'll average about $85 a month TOTAL for the 2 of those. AMAZING! When we're use to paying $300 a month just for electric where we're living now, this will be great. The kids will each get their own room. I get a dish washer, garbage disposal, and washer/dryer hook ups. Thank goodness! And there's plenty of room for our piano =). The ONLY downer is that all 3 bedrooms are upstairs =(. that's going to be fun carrying Jordan up and down those when she's 5 in 2 years. Yikes. She's already 30 pounds of dead weight and she hasn't even hit 3 years old... Diet time =).

Hospital...
Since we were banking on getting this housing, my mom and I took the liberty of going to the Dayton Childrens Hospital to check out the Spina Bifida clinic. I really wanted to see if they were going to be able to offer her what she needs, or if we were going to have to travel to Cincinnati or Columbus (each just an hour drive...) for treatment. We LOVED the facilities. We were introduced to one of the main spina bifida nurses there. She told us she had just a couple minutes to talk to us (which is more than we hoped for). We ended up talking to her for 2 hours! We got paperwork filled out to transfer all her records there. She said she's NEVER had someone come in before they moved to talk to or see them. CRAZY! When you have a "fragile" child with lots of medical condition, isn't that just what you do? Duh. I guess that's not the first thing people think of... Strange. You tell me Bethany S. Isn't that the FIRST thing you'd do? Find out where your child is going to be treated!? Blows my mind. So I'm really glad we made a good, lasting impression! I think Jordan will get just about everything she need through this clinic. The only thing i'm a little concerned with is that it doesn't include Pulmonology (heart and lungs I think), which Jordan will need in the future if they're correct that her spinal nerves are damaged so high up that it'll effect her breathing.

Anyways, that's the update. We got our Uhaul rented today so that's one thing checked off our to do list. Now we just need to figure out why our car doesn't run =). Small detail when you're driving across the country in it in 11 days...

BTW, we found 3 more kittens in our backyard yesterday. They're really cute. Let us know if you want any =). I'm running out of time to find places for them.