Pictures from my cell phone

Brady today looking cute as ever.

This was a while ago. Brady loves reading books at bedtime. He won't go to sleep without reading at least two or three books first!

Dad and Brady (plastered with stickers) at the Missouri State Fair last week. Brady had a great time even though it was super hot.

We picked a bunch of stuff from the garden tonight. Yummy! It's almost time to make salsa!

Brady loves listening to music and yelling, "ROCK OUT!"

Mackenzie, 18 months.

Sissy.

We cleaned out the van and discovered the hidden car seats we had forgotten about!

This was my t-shirt when I was Brady's age. My grandpa gave it to me. I used to wear it all the time! I'll have to dig around and see if I can find any pictures of me wearing it.

18 month checkup

We had Mackenzie's 18 month check-up today and besides the ongoing diahrea she's had for 30 days now she seems to be doing fine. She is 30 inches tall which is in the 15th percentile for her age!!! She's a shorty. She's also 22 pounds which is in the 35th percentile. What is hillarious is that her head measures in the 80th percentile!! She's got a big head and a little body! (Both of which I knew even without the measurements because she still fits perfectly into her 12 month clothes but her head is hard to fit through the head hole!)

The doctor is wondering if her poop problem is due to teething. She's had a tooth that's been trying to come in for 6 weeks now. He thinks it's probably that or lactose intollerance so we're trying lactose free milk for a month. Oh boy - it's twice as expensive as regular milk. Oh well, if it helps it's worth it.

Well, I'm still trying to figure out what on earth is going on with my graduate school application. Pitt State is impossible to get ahold of anyone or find out any answers from. They keep calling me and asking me random things. Like last week they wanted to know if I was moving to Pittsburg, KS, to take classes there. I was like, no I applied for the KC Metro Center. Now today they ask if I wanted to get certified to teach English, Journalism and Special Ed. I was like, no I never said anything about special ed. I'm getting annoyed because classes start next week and I still have to get financial aid set up.

Brady is driving me nuts today. He is being a typical 3-year-old. It seems he has turned off his hearing because he is not listening to anything I say and he's acting like a maniac. We vacuumed the van yesterday and today on the way back from the doctor's office he stole Mackenzie's bag of Frosted MiniWheats and crushed them up all over the seat. Nice.

Well, they're in Brady's room, which he has just designated the "Bowling Center" and all I hear is Mackenzie yelling so I better go see what's up. I think it's time for naps!

Poop update

Well, of course last night, after 19 days of diahrea Mackenzie developed a fever at bedtime. It spiked to 101.9 under her arm which really meant 102.9. I called the nurse line and they said not to worry...we were to get the results of her latest poo sample back today so she said to wait and see how those were. This morning after my OB appointment - everything was great with Peanut - I called Mackenzie's doctor's office and once again found out that all the tests were negative. Her fever was low grade this morning so I took her to the babysitters and went to work. I was planning on taking her to Children's Mercy when I got off work. Around 1 p.m. Jeremiah called the nurseline to find out which campus to take her to and they said, oh, well if she had a spike in fever and a diaper rash she should have been seen within four hours.

I am so sick of one nurse or doctor telling us one thing and then another telling us something completely different.

So anyway. We decide to take her in right away even though she hadn't pooped yet today and her fever had broken. She was a mess at the hospital. She screamed and cried and screamed and cried for an hour. And here is the result: Hmm. They don't know either why she would have diahrea for 19 days and suddenly a fever last night. So they recommend we do more poop samples to see if it is a virus rather than a bacteria. I'm not sure why because she said if it is a virus they won't treat it. I guess just to give us peace of mind. So we paid $50 to get four more vials to fill with poop.

Here's the kicker. She didn't poop one time today. The past 19 days she's had diahrea at least three times every single day. Most days it was 4 or 5, and one day it was 8. Today, zero. I knew it would happen like that. I told the babysitter this morning that I thought maybe the fever was just her body finally kicking whatever germ was in there in the butt. She hasn't had a fever since this morning so we'll see how she is tomorrow. I'm guessing she's over whatever it was.

Jeremiah's been sick now for a few days. His is all sinuses though. He stirred up a bunch of dust the other day on the treadmill. We haven't used it for months and he decided to run on it. I think it was too much. So he's finally feeling a little better, but stayed home from work today to get some rest.

I have been having a heck of a time at work - yet again - with my boss. I think his main goal is to make my life miserable. It's no wonder that my blood pressure was 120 over 70 today at the OB when every other time I've had it taken in the past 4 years it has been 110 over 60. Peanut's heartbeat sounded good though and Dr. Bavishi said the issues with my placenta being in the wrong place should resolve on their own. I go back in a month and then they'll schedule another sonogram.

It's another boy!!!

Well, for those of you who didn't know I was pregnant again - surprise! I am 13 weeks. We had a pretty stressful weekend because Friday night (after I spent the day vaccumming and mopping) I started to bleed a little. I called the doctor on call and they said to take it easy for a few days and go in if it got really heavy. Luckily by this morning it had stopped, but I called my OB and told her about it. She quickly scheduled a sonogram for this morning and I was on my way. I dropped the kids at daycare and picked Jeremiah up on the way to the hospital. When we got there we were both about to throw up because we were worried that something was wrong.

When we got into the room and they started poking around we could see that everything looks great! The baby is 13 and a half weeks and the sono tech asked if we wanted to know what it is. I said yes, thinking we wouldn't be able to tell yet. I just read in my book that outside the womb at 13 weeks you could see what it is, but not usually on a sono yet. Well, Mr. Baby was quite ready to show us he is a boy! Brady will be so excited since he's been saying all along that it's a boy!

It appears that Peanut (that's what we've been calling him since we found out I was pregnant) has quite a personality, just like his big brother. He was moving all around and waving at us. At the end of the sono he was opening and closing his mouth a bunch like he was talking to us! At one point he put his hand on his head like he was saluting us and saying "Everything's A-OK Mom and Dad!" It was cute.

I'm waiting for the official word from Dr. Bavishi, but the only thing they found is that the placenta is at the bottom of my uterus instead of the top where it should be. From what I have read this is called Placenta Previa and it prevents you from having natural birth. I was going to have to have a c-section anyway. They say it can be caused from having previous c-sections and since I've had two that makes sense. I'll see what Dr. Bavishi says about it when she calls.

His nose is pointing up here. Where it says "head" that's the back of his head. He's lying on his back!

Not at all shy - just like Brady!!!

This was too cute - we was waving at us!

Maybe he'll be tall! We can hope!!!

He has a nice, strong heartbeat!

Poor baby

Well, Mackenzie has had diarrhea for 14 days now and still we don't know why. It started on a Sunday. She was sort of teething, I thought, so I didn't worry too much about it. On Wednesday of that week we started her on a bland diet and by Thursday I called the doctor because it wasn't getting any better. They said to come in and get a kit and do a stool sample. Easier said than done! So by Friday afternoon I got it and took it back in to them. By Tuesday of the following week (this week) I hadn't heard anything from them and it was still just as bad so I called them back. They said all the tests were coming up negative. Meanwhile the poor kids was having diarrhea 3-8 times a day. So they said to come in Wednesday morning. I went in and the doctor looked at her for 5 minutes and said they need to do more lab tests. So we go to the lab and they gave us three more vials to fill with stool samples. I was hoping to have them back to them quickly, but little miss and her tummy weren't cooperating. There wasn't anything bulky enough to put in there - gross, I know. So by Friday morning I called and left a message for the nurse - at 11:30 a.m. At 4 p.m. they call me back and say to keep trying. There aren't any other tests they can do, just the stool samples. Of course an hour later - after the office closed for the weekend - she finally had a decent somewhat poopy diaper that I was able to fill the vials with. Now they are in my purse waiting for the office to open again Monday morning. Good grief. It takes two days minimum for the tests so it will be at least Wednesday before they can tell if they found anything or not. If they can't figure it out by then I think I'm going to take her over to Children's Mercy and have her looked at. She has no other symptoms, no fever or sleeplessness. She's fully of energy and acts happy most of the time. Sometimes she's extra fussy but it's usually when she's going. At any rate I hope we can get it figured out this coming week. This is getting silly. Today is day 14 and it's not any better. She is averaging three times a day which is miserable. I feel bad for her.