Sunday, March 29, 2009
Such a lady
Here is the ultrasound pic I promised. I think its cute. Her little belly is at the top right of the pic, and her legs are crossed at the ankles.
My Yard
I am so proud of my fabulous hubby. He has really worked hard and done everything he could to get our yard looking nice since we moved in. Well, the grass anyway. And really, you can put as many bushes and flowers and plants in as you want but if your grass looks like crap, the rest does too. There is still a lot that I would like to do (bushes, flowers, plants...) but I love the beautiful green grass that my kids can play on and that I call MY OWN!
Friday, March 27, 2009
I guess I'm back to blogging
I know it has been forever! And really not that much has gone on. Okay, that's not true. We've had a lot going on, but a lot less to report. My camera has not been in hiding out like I have though. Thank goodness. We've got LOTS of pics to share. (check out the slide shows on my side bar) And a few stories to tell... So here it goes...
The DeMarcos (WE LOVE THEM!)
I think I will start at the VERY beginning! And probably air out a little laundry for Jeremy & Gina. Who knew each other LONG before Gina and I became best friends. I will make a long-ish story short and just tell you that Jeremy dated a friend of Gina's during high school, and FLIRTED with the idea of dating Gina. They both used a little common sence (Gina probably a little more than Jeremy) and decided not to go there. Gina is a good friend and wouldn't have done that to one of her best friends.
Fast forward several years.... We are sitting in Sacrament meeting in the Grand Canyon Ward, when we were living in the condo, and Gina got up to pray or bear her testimony. I said something to Jeremy about her being someone I would like to get to know and he said something like "I think I already know her." I rolled my eyes and laughed at him.
Anyway, Gina and I became friends and shared lots of funny stories about Jeremy (love you babe, but we all know you were a FLIRT!). We soon went our separate ways. The Benson's to AZ and the DeMarco's to Falon, NV (PARTY!!!) and we didn't talk very often for a couple of years. But as it is with my bestest friends, we always picked up right where we left off. A little more about Gina here and here.
The DeMarco's have since moved back to Vegas and we have had the treat of getting to have them visit us twice here in the land of AZ!
So here come some pics of our fun together... mostly the boys, but they are WAY cuter than we are, so enjoy!
Climbing the tree...
"Driving" the Baja...
Riding...
When they came in February, our hubbies (love them!) treated us to free babysitting and a pedicure! The boys had just as much fun as we did. And the pedicures were GREAT!!!
Fast forward several years.... We are sitting in Sacrament meeting in the Grand Canyon Ward, when we were living in the condo, and Gina got up to pray or bear her testimony. I said something to Jeremy about her being someone I would like to get to know and he said something like "I think I already know her." I rolled my eyes and laughed at him.
Anyway, Gina and I became friends and shared lots of funny stories about Jeremy (love you babe, but we all know you were a FLIRT!). We soon went our separate ways. The Benson's to AZ and the DeMarco's to Falon, NV (PARTY!!!) and we didn't talk very often for a couple of years. But as it is with my bestest friends, we always picked up right where we left off. A little more about Gina here and here.
The DeMarco's have since moved back to Vegas and we have had the treat of getting to have them visit us twice here in the land of AZ!
So here come some pics of our fun together... mostly the boys, but they are WAY cuter than we are, so enjoy!
Climbing the tree...
"Driving" the Baja...
Riding...
When they came in February, our hubbies (love them!) treated us to free babysitting and a pedicure! The boys had just as much fun as we did. And the pedicures were GREAT!!!
My "middle" child
For now anyway. Poor Zack is already the middle child with this little missy taking so much of my mental "time" right now. Wednesday was Zack's birthday!!! We had a fun day filled with 2 play dates at the park and his 12 month well check. Yes, I'm a mean mom who happened to get the appointment for his shots ON his birthday. Poor kid! But he forgave me quickly and was eating sand at the park an hour later. Aiden was so funny!... When the nurse gave Zack his shots (one in each arm) Aiden said "You don't poke my brother!" as he waved his finger at her. Zack was screaming, Aiden was scolding, and I was cracking up. 
So in honor of my little Zack-o, here are a few of the fabulous things he is doing.
*Finally sleeping thru the night! Although I could do without the 6:30 wake up call, 4:30 was worse.
*Has started getting into ALL the cabinets. First it was just the tupperware cabinet. But he has found the hallway linen closet and the bathroom cabinets too now.
*Has almost no interest in walking. Aiden didn't walk until 13 months but I doubt Zack will take off until 14 or 15 months. I'm not in a big hurry for it, but it will be fun when he and Aiden can do even more together.
*Uses a few words. I think he has his own word for "Aiden" that he uses fairly often, but he never repeats it so that I can get a good handle on what he is saying. He says Mama and Dada and Vrmmmmmmmm Baaaaaaa (Vroom Vroom in the Baja).
*He loves to be held by his mom but is starting to get over it cause the bigger the belly gets the less willing mom is to pick him up. (nice run on sentence huh?)
*He loves to play with his brother. This is my most favorite thing of all. They will literally roll around on the floor together in the evenings. Sometimes with daddy too. And when they both end up on their backs they just laugh and laugh. They are such a joy to watch.
We love this little guy so much! I got around to making a birthday cake the day AFTER his birthday, but he enjoyed it just the same. As you can tell!
So in honor of my little Zack-o, here are a few of the fabulous things he is doing.
*Finally sleeping thru the night! Although I could do without the 6:30 wake up call, 4:30 was worse.
*Has started getting into ALL the cabinets. First it was just the tupperware cabinet. But he has found the hallway linen closet and the bathroom cabinets too now.
*Has almost no interest in walking. Aiden didn't walk until 13 months but I doubt Zack will take off until 14 or 15 months. I'm not in a big hurry for it, but it will be fun when he and Aiden can do even more together.
*Uses a few words. I think he has his own word for "Aiden" that he uses fairly often, but he never repeats it so that I can get a good handle on what he is saying. He says Mama and Dada and Vrmmmmmmmm Baaaaaaa (Vroom Vroom in the Baja).
*He loves to be held by his mom but is starting to get over it cause the bigger the belly gets the less willing mom is to pick him up. (nice run on sentence huh?)
*He loves to play with his brother. This is my most favorite thing of all. They will literally roll around on the floor together in the evenings. Sometimes with daddy too. And when they both end up on their backs they just laugh and laugh. They are such a joy to watch.
We love this little guy so much! I got around to making a birthday cake the day AFTER his birthday, but he enjoyed it just the same. As you can tell!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
This girl is already very time consuming!
Let me explain... some of you already know a lot of this, but I have to write it all out for those who don't know and for my personal reference later.
The day we found out that our little one was coming in all her bows and ribbons glory, we also found out that she has a congenital defect. Yes. It sounds awful. But that is how the Dr. explained it to us. Along with words/phrases like "open fetal surgery", "poor lung development" and "mortality rate". YIKES! Needless to say I was FREAKING OUT!!!
What she has is called a Congenital Cystic Adenomatoid Malformation (CCAM) and it is very rare (1 in 30,000). My OB is young and has only seen it 2 or 3 times, and that was probably in medical text books! I REALLY like this doctor but he is very inexperienced with this problem. So we decided to keep it under our hat for a few more days until we could see a perinatologist and get some more direct answers. We didn't want a whole bunch of people freaking out. I had that part covered.
So first we saw a perinatologist who did another ultrasound, confirmed the diagnosis and dismissed all my questions with the same "its too early to tell" answer to everything. Here's where "she's very time consuming" comes in - this was an hour and a half appointment! I was trusting at first but the more I thought about it and talked to people, the more I realized that he really didn't give me what I needed. I need to be informed. For better or worse, I gotta know the possibilities and how they'll be handled. So I asked my OB to give me a referral to another perinatologist for a 2nd opinion.
This time I got what I wanted. She was VERY (3 hour appointment - NO JOKE) thorough and gave me much more information. She was willing to go thru the "what if's" with us and then assured us that more than likely those "what if's" would remain irrelevant in our case.
Okay, so what the crap is a CCAM!?!?!? Basically, it is a fluid filled cyst on the lung. Her's is right next to her heart. The biggest complication we could potentially see (though very unexpected at this point) is if it grows and pushes the heart to the side. This can cause fluid retention in many areas of the baby's body because of the pinching of blood vessels (called Hydrops). Once this happens prognosis is not good. So we won't go any more into that. But there are warning signs that the docs will watch for to know if hydrops is a possibility. Then steroids can be given to help develop the lungs more quickly, reduce the chance of hydrops and ultimately be ready to deliver at any time.
What is more likely in our case is that we will see very little, if any, growth of the cyst over the next 6-8 weeks and then it may even regress in size. She may or may not need assistance at birth so I'll deliver at a Level III hospital. But we are figuring that delivering there will be more of a precaution than anything.
We are definately NOT freaking out anymore. I had a blessing after we first found out about all of this and I have had so much comfort that everything is going to work out. We are so blessed to have this problem and not a severe, life altering, never-be-a-normal-kid kind of problem. So long as she makes it thru the pregnancy and the first little bit of life, she is expected to live a normal, healthy life. For that we are SO grateful. We can't wait to have her rolling around on the floor with her brothers. We can't wait for the struggle its going to be to keep Mr. Zack from mauling her. Aiden gets the "be careful" stuff, but Zack will be a whole 16 months old. We'll see how that goes. And we can't wait. Here are a couple of pics from our ultrasounds. We have a TON, but even this mom isn't sure how many more profile pics we really need! We got a pic today that is 3-D or 4-D and you can see she has her legs crossed - very cute! (but I forgot to get the CD, and I'm not scanning it in, so you'll have to wait...)
YEA FOR LITTLE GIRLS!!!!!
And for anyone wanting to know what this thing looks like, this is a picture of the heart (on the right of the pic) and the cyst (looks like a big black thing on the left)
The day we found out that our little one was coming in all her bows and ribbons glory, we also found out that she has a congenital defect. Yes. It sounds awful. But that is how the Dr. explained it to us. Along with words/phrases like "open fetal surgery", "poor lung development" and "mortality rate". YIKES! Needless to say I was FREAKING OUT!!!
What she has is called a Congenital Cystic Adenomatoid Malformation (CCAM) and it is very rare (1 in 30,000). My OB is young and has only seen it 2 or 3 times, and that was probably in medical text books! I REALLY like this doctor but he is very inexperienced with this problem. So we decided to keep it under our hat for a few more days until we could see a perinatologist and get some more direct answers. We didn't want a whole bunch of people freaking out. I had that part covered.
So first we saw a perinatologist who did another ultrasound, confirmed the diagnosis and dismissed all my questions with the same "its too early to tell" answer to everything. Here's where "she's very time consuming" comes in - this was an hour and a half appointment! I was trusting at first but the more I thought about it and talked to people, the more I realized that he really didn't give me what I needed. I need to be informed. For better or worse, I gotta know the possibilities and how they'll be handled. So I asked my OB to give me a referral to another perinatologist for a 2nd opinion.
This time I got what I wanted. She was VERY (3 hour appointment - NO JOKE) thorough and gave me much more information. She was willing to go thru the "what if's" with us and then assured us that more than likely those "what if's" would remain irrelevant in our case.
Okay, so what the crap is a CCAM!?!?!? Basically, it is a fluid filled cyst on the lung. Her's is right next to her heart. The biggest complication we could potentially see (though very unexpected at this point) is if it grows and pushes the heart to the side. This can cause fluid retention in many areas of the baby's body because of the pinching of blood vessels (called Hydrops). Once this happens prognosis is not good. So we won't go any more into that. But there are warning signs that the docs will watch for to know if hydrops is a possibility. Then steroids can be given to help develop the lungs more quickly, reduce the chance of hydrops and ultimately be ready to deliver at any time.
What is more likely in our case is that we will see very little, if any, growth of the cyst over the next 6-8 weeks and then it may even regress in size. She may or may not need assistance at birth so I'll deliver at a Level III hospital. But we are figuring that delivering there will be more of a precaution than anything.
We are definately NOT freaking out anymore. I had a blessing after we first found out about all of this and I have had so much comfort that everything is going to work out. We are so blessed to have this problem and not a severe, life altering, never-be-a-normal-kid kind of problem. So long as she makes it thru the pregnancy and the first little bit of life, she is expected to live a normal, healthy life. For that we are SO grateful. We can't wait to have her rolling around on the floor with her brothers. We can't wait for the struggle its going to be to keep Mr. Zack from mauling her. Aiden gets the "be careful" stuff, but Zack will be a whole 16 months old. We'll see how that goes. And we can't wait. Here are a couple of pics from our ultrasounds. We have a TON, but even this mom isn't sure how many more profile pics we really need! We got a pic today that is 3-D or 4-D and you can see she has her legs crossed - very cute! (but I forgot to get the CD, and I'm not scanning it in, so you'll have to wait...)
YEA FOR LITTLE GIRLS!!!!!
And for anyone wanting to know what this thing looks like, this is a picture of the heart (on the right of the pic) and the cyst (looks like a big black thing on the left)
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Sugar & Spice
And everything nice... that's what little GIRLS are made of!!! We are so excited to announce that we'll finally add a little GIRL to our family. We have plenty of "snips & snails & puppy dog tails" for now. We love our boys so much and we are excited for them to have a little sister to pick on and to protect! She's one lucky girl.
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