Third time's a charm...

Or something like that. Well, I haven't posted much lately because I had another kidney stone!!!! That's right. three in two months! I went in to the Dr because I was pretty sure that I had another one, they told me to take pain killers and try and see if I could pass it on my own at home instead of checking into the hospital again...so after a horrible painful night I believe that I passed my second stone!

On the brighter side though the Dr said that I'm dilated close to a 2!!! So at least I'm progressing finally! I have an appointment on Tuesday to see how I'm progressing, hopefully it wont be too much longer. She's growing so fast! I'm nervous she's going to be huge! All I know is she's in my kidneys more and more every day!!!

I'll do a Christmas post soon. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!

Quick question

I have a quick question for those of you who've had a C-section. My Dr mentioned doing a c-section and i kinda freaked out and told him that I wanted to just be induced. But the more I think about it I'm nervous about the amount of pain that I'll be in due to the large Kidney stone residing in my left kidney. Even braxton hicks send my body into so much pain...So my question it this...What's the recovery like after a C-section? How would you compare it to a vaginal delivery? Would it be worth knowing that I'll be able to have her three weeks early vs two vaginally? I'm not sure what to do. Sometimes I feel like it's going to be fine, but others I'm not so sure. When I'm in a lot of pain i wonder about weather or not I'll be able to do this.

Soooooo much to catch up on...

Here are the highlights of the last 3 weeks of my life: (I'm working on a post with pictures, but it may take a while...you'll see why)

• First I have to state that on Saturday November 14th we bought a 2004 Honda Pilot!!! We love it!!!
• On Sunday we had Dinner with Eric's family. It was the first time in almost a year that the entire family was together scine Amberly john and Daphne were in town for a little while
• Thursday I finished the Craft Night and it went well. I think everyone enjoyed it and I'm soooo glad that it's over.
• We packed up and drove to Utah the day after the activity...we stopped in Las Vegas and played at the Balagio then ate at Denny's with Camie and Juan
• Alaura was wonderful on the trip!!!! (And the entire vacation)
• Saturday, We saw my parents new house it's cute and when they make the changes they want to it I think they're really going to enjoy it!!!
• We had pizza at my Aunt Vickie and Uncle Mikes beautiful home on Saturday night, which happens to be the same day we came into town ( I had the most delicious vegetarian pizza I've ever had in my life!!!!)
• Sunday we went to church with my parents and had Thanksgiving Dinner with my Mom's side of the family in My Aunt Sandy's newly renovated beautiful Kitchen
• Monday we hung out around town Eric and Alaura decorated Grammy's tree while I slept off what I thought was a bug. We had Family home Evening at Grandma and Grandpa Matthews house...we had a really good time playing wii. I really want to get one of those!!!
• Tuesday we all went to Salt lake to hang out. We hung out at the gateway mall and Temple square
• Wednesday we played around town again as I wasn't feeling very well and was starting have a lot of contractions and back pain. Eric and Alaura decorated Grammy's Christmas tree's. Camie, Juan, Leyna and us went out to Chili's with my cousin Ashleigh and had the worst service I've ever had!!!
• Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving with my Dad's side of the Family. It was great to see everyone!!! Then we played at the park until 5 and saw Bolt at the movie theatre with my family. It was pretty funny.
• Friday I took my sisters and Mom shopping for a blessing dress for Sydney. I found a very simple one that I'm going to try and alter...I hope it goes well. Then we all went out to Chili's again (My whole family...16 of us)
• Saturday we went to Wellsville for Eric's Great Grandpa Lieshman's 100th Birthday!!! It was amazing to see him eating cake at 100 years old. We went fishing for a little while, but I still wasn't feeling good at all so we went back to his Grandma's house to relax until dinner. Then we all went out to Chili's (again) It was fun to spend time with his side of the family as we don't get to see them as often at I'd like.
• Sunday morning we decided to stay home from church because I was feeling really achy and tired and nauseous...Then my back started hurting horribly!!!!! Eric rushed me to the hospital...

Here's what happened over the course of three days that I was in the hospital (It's going to have a lot of details and way to much information)

Sunday

• 10:00 We get to the hospital and I'm rushed into Labor and delivery pretty sure that I had Kidney stones again
• 11:00 they give me a shot of Demerol in my Butt (It hurt really bad and I'm still having problems with it hurting)
• 11:15 they rush me in for x rays to see why I'm in soooooo much more pain this time. They told me that the pain killer should be working by now but it's not, I'm hurting worse and worse and the room feels like it's moving and I'm starting to hyperventilate. Then the throwing up begins. I'm heaving so hard that my back is cramping and it sends sooooo much pain into my kidney and through my entire body. They inject contrast into my IV so they can see in the xrays what my Kidney's doing.
• 12:00 After 3 xrays and 45 minutes the pain is almost too much to bear. They wheel me back into labor and delivery and the nurse wants to give me another shot of Demerol. Of course I tell her no because I'm having some kind of a reaction to it. So they gave me a shot of percoset (I think) and start a Morphine drip. I've never had one of these before, but with out it I don't think I would have made it. It never took the pain all the way but I wasn't in horrible pain anymore
• 1:00 The OB comes in to tell me that I have a 1 cm stone blocking fluid from draining from my kidney. It's too big to pass on my own. They're going to have to use ultrasound waves to break it up so I can pass it...BUT they can't do it while I'm pregnant!!!!! So they schedule me for a stint placement on Monday at 3:00 to allow the fluid to drain from my Kidney to my bladder. It'll keep my ureter open.
• 2:00 My contractions are less than 5 min apart so they gave me a few shots to calm them down.
• 3:00 they tell me to get comfortable because I'm not going anywhere for the night, so the only thing they can do is try and keep my pain under control.
• 6:00 Alaura and my family come to visit.
• 7:30 I get food finally
• 8:30 Eric takes Alaura home to sleep and I try to sleep with all the machines beeping, monitors strapped everywhere, the contractions and the blood pressure cuff going off every 15 min.

Monday

• My machines kept going off all night, Sydney would move and they'd lose her heartbeat and the machine would start beeping so they'd have to come in and adjust it. I was calling nurses in all night because of one thing or another not working right.
• 5:00 wake up and can't fall back asleep because I'm hurting and I'm getting hungry but I have to fast because I'm going to be put under soon.
  10:00 Eric and Alaura came to see me in the hospital and we decide that Eric needs to drive home because he's out of vacation time. So he heads to Grammy's house to start packing
• 1:45 they show up over an hour early to take me in for my procedure (and no one's there to talk to the dr after I wake up very druged)
• 3:00 I wake up in recovery in a lot of pain. The Urologist tells me that I need to follow up with a urologist at home.

Here's an illustration of the Stent placement

They insert it through the urethra into the bladder through the ureter and into the kidney. And it hurts really bad!!!!!!

• 4:00 They take me back to my room with instructions to wait for the anesthesia to wear off then I can go home. I keep telling them that I'm in horrible pain and they wont listen to me. When I get into Labor and Delivery I'm having horrible contractions and my kidney and bladder are spasming. They start pumping me full of pain killers and giving me shots to stop my contractions...I seriously thought that I was going into labor and felt like I was being ripped in half. I'VE NEVER IN MY LIFE FELT PAIN LIKE THAT!!!!!!!
• My sweet wonderful husband brought me flowers and a card. All of the nurses loved the smell of the flowers.
• They finally got my pain and contractions under control and Eric had to leave with Juan so they could get home in time for Eric to start work the next morning.
• It was so hard to let him leave because i was in so much more pain than I thought I would be in.
• It hurt sooooooo bad to go to the bathroom too!!! And my pee looked like fruit punch from all the blood in it. Infact it still does..

Tuesday

• After a very long painful night and a long painful day I was finally released at 6:00 on Tuesday evening. My parents took me back to my Grammy's house to recover and they kept Alaura.
• It was so hard not seeing Alaura regularly. I'd already been apart from her for 3 days and it would be another 3 before I was with her again

Wednesday

• Lots of pain and relaxing

Thursday

• Still lots of pain, but I decided that I needed to get out of the house so I went with Camie, Leyna and Alaura out to lunch in Salt lake with our cousins Liz and Ash. It was fun to see them but I was hurting a lot

Friday

• Packed up and left at 4:00 to drive home with Camie Leyna and Alaura. I'll do a separate post about the trip later because i really need to go lay down, But it took 15 hours and was painful but it felt great to be home and see Eric.

I'm still trying to recover and hurt ALOT but Sydney's great and I think my Dr is going to induce me in 3 or 4 weeks. I'll post pics soon

30 Weeks, Pictures, and Life

As you probably guessed I am officially 30 weeks pregnant!!! Which means I have about 2 months left till my due date!!! I'm doing really well. I'm retaining more water this pregnancy, and my legs have been cramping...and I'm gaining alot of weight :( But I'm enjoying this pregnancy alot! Alaura is really excited about her new baby sister. She hugs kisses and talks to my belly all the time!! Everyday she tells me "I can't wait for Sydney to come out so I can play with her." And, "I'm gonna be the best Big sister ever, huh?" I'll try and get Eric to take a picture of me tonight when he gets home.

I've been staying busy with taking pictures and I LOVE it!!! I've got a few lined up right after we get home. I'm going to take pics until I can't anymore. I'm probably going to stop the 2nd or 3rd week of January...a week or two before my due date. Here's a couple of pics from each of the two sittings I did this week. I'm going to post some on my other blog ASAP. Click here to see the rest.

She is such a cutie I loved taking her pictures!!!

What a blast this family was to work with!!! And talk about photogenic!!!

As for life...I have been really busy!!! My ward is having there Super Saturday activity this Thursday so we're calling it Thrilling Thursday! We have so many crafts going on. I'm the enrichment coordinator which means that along with the second councilor we plan everything. Well, I'm in charge of 4 different projects.

Glass block lights with the Nativity scene on them.

Christmas Themed Glass Blocks

Glass Block piggy Banks.

Initial Bow holders.

Eye spy bags.

Lets suffice it to say that everything that could go wrong, went wrong. I'm so ready for it to be over. Thank goodness I had Eric though. He's been doing so much running around and fighting with people to get the things they had committed to sell us for the projects. He also Drilled holes into like 50 or more glass blocks. I wouldn't have survived this month without him. And I had a few sisters in the ward who saved me when my sewing machine broke and I couldn't sew the Eye spy bags.

I just have to say that I love my ward. And more importantly I LOVE MY HUSBAND!!! He's amazing!!!

In other more exciting news...We're leaving for Utah Friday Morning!!! I'm sooo excited to see everyone! We're going to be leaving early December 1st. Eric has to be back to work on Tuesday. Then it's back to real life. I'm having a baby shower on Dec 13th, thrown by my good friend Amanda and my sister Camie! I'm excited for that. And I have to get Sydney's room emptied out so we can turn it into the nursery it's supposed to be... Well, that's my life right now. I'll probably update again after our trip.

PICTURES!!!

Hey everyone!! Just a quick reminder that Christmas is just around the corner and it's almost time to start sending out Christmas cards!!! We're working really hard to get people in here for Christmas pictures. For those of you in Utah, we'll be there from the 22nd through the 30th. If you are interested or know someone who is please let us know. We love doing this and between you and me, we have some hospital bills I'd like to try paying off before Sydney is born. If you would like a mini sitting (30 min with just family pics) we can do that for $30 and include a disk with all your pics and full rights to print them. Our current special is 1 hour for $50 this includes family, individual, just the kids, pretty much any pictures you want done. And of course a disk with all pictures... Just something to think about...

Quick question

So, I have a question for those of you out in blog country. A good friend of mine offered to through me a baby shower next month, and after some persuading I agreed to it. Don't get me wrong I would LOVE to have one, I just worry about what other people are going to think with this being girl #2.

Before you start thinking about what a horrible person i am I have to explain a few things...When we had Alaura we were dirt poor. In fact we could barley pay our bills let alone buy stuff for our new little girl. So we borrowed almost everything. We were fortunate enough to have my in laws help out with a stroller and car seat, and a friend gave us her crib, and my parents got us a glider...anything else we borrowed. Plus Alaura was born as the weather was warming up and Sydney is due during the dead of winter, so I'm trying to buy winter clothes for both girls. We've been very fortunate to have Eric's job, and normally I think we'd be ok to buy the things we absolutely need, but my trip to the hospital has really put us behind.

I'm not expecting a huge shower, or tons of stuff, I'd love the fellowship and support of my new ward and friends, and of course anything would help.

Now, here's my question...If you received an invitation to to my shower (or another person in a similar situation) would you be offended or upset?

I never asked for a shower, nor was I expecting one, but now that she's offered I'd like to do it. But I'm petrified of offending people. What do you think? And please remember that I'm a pregnant very emotional person right now.

For anyone interested, Eric started a blog recently. It's mainly about politics and stuff, but he'd love any ones input. His link is on the right side of my blog.

"Trunk or Treat"

Yesterday we went to our ward Trunk or treat.

Here's Alaura in her Halloween Costume

Look how cute we are!!!!

Trick or treat!!!!

"I love Ice cream!!!"

Here's the set up in Eric's truck...He scared some kids with his spider

Scary!!!

Aren't we cute?

Here are all of us!!!

Meow!!

Alaura loves her Sydney!!!!

She loves her Mommy too!!!

What a way to kick off my third trimester!!!!

Kidney Stones!!!!!!

Seriously, on Tuesday night I had the worst night of my life! Now this might be a little too much information for some of you out there, so stop reading if you don't like hearing about puking...and needles.

OK, like I said Tuesday was by far the worst night of my life. We went to Eric's parents house for a couple of hours to hang out while Eric and his "Exclusive archery club" shot at targets in their backyard. That wasn't the bad part :)

(Here's some pics of the trophy that he made for the weekly winner to take home.)

I started feeling pretty cruddy while we were there and drug Eric home at 8:00. While he was putting Alaura to bed I fell asleep on the couch. He woke me up at 9:30 and I stumbled into bed, but I started to realize that what I thought was a UTI was starting to hurt pretty bad and I was starting to get a pain in the right side of my back. I thought that it might be gas or constipation or something like that. But gradually it got worse and worse! I couldn't sit still because it was starting to hurt so bad. I was spending a ton of time on the toilet because I felt like I needed to pee all the time, then I got horrible diarrhea (Too much info I Know) Then at 3:00 am I rushed to the sink to throw up...I was heaving so hard!!! It was painful. On top of all that I was getting so bloated my stomach was huge!!!

I woke Eric up at 4:00 and had him give me a blessing (which I could hardly sit still for) and sent him to Walgreen's to get some gas x. I still thought that I had food poisoning or something. I took the gas x and about 5 min later threw it up. Needless to say I had nothing in my stomach by now. I couldn't keep anything down I was dry heaving and spent my time on the toilet with a bowl. By 7:00 I was in tears because the pain was getting so bad and I was getting scared that something was really wrong.

My OB's office opened at 8:00, Eric called and got me an apt for 8:50. We dropped Alaura off at my friend Heather's house (Alaura's preschool teacher) and headed off to the Dr office. Unluckily my Dr was out of the office that day and I had to see the nurse practitioner...She checked Sydney out and after she was convinced she was OK moved on to my pain. She asked me where the pain was, so I showed her...and she hit it!!!! Yeah, that's right she bopped me right on the back and almost sent me to the ground in tears. She told us that everything looked good with Sydney so they were going to send me to Urgent care to see if they could get my blood and urine work done quickly.

We made our way across the building to the urgent care and waited for an hour to be seen. While we were talking in admitting I had to run to the bathroom and go pee, now this was the most painful thing I'd done the whole 12 hours I'd been in pain. When they had me in triage (like 2 min after I went to the restroom) My pain was starting to subside. Instead of it being a 10 out of 10 it was like 8. They got me into a wheelchair and wheeled me into a room, I got changed into a hospital gown and hooked up to an IV. (the first one broke the vein while he was drawing blood, so he redid it in my other arm) They got fluids into me really quick because I'd been throwing up...and I hadn't had anything to drink in 14 hours.

The Dr came into see me and told me that once I went to the restroom to give a urine sample they'd give me something for the pain...After I gave them their sample they gave me drugs through my IV. I fell asleep for a couple hours. When I woke up it was 3:00, the Dr came in and told us that we'd be going to get an ultrasound to see if there was anything wrong with my kidneys or gallbladder...because my blood and urine tests came back great and they didn't know what was wrong with me. Eric ran out to take Alaura to his parents house and about 10 minutes after he left they took me over to get my ultrasound. They found out that my kidney and the tube from kidney to bladder were enlarged, but they couldn't find any kidney stones so they thought that maybe I had a kidney infection.

Then they admitted me into labor and delivery for the night so I could be observed and given antibiotics and to control my pain. They admitted me around 6:00 and got me started on antibiotics through my IV. They monitored my contractions and Sydney's Heartbeat to make sure I wasn't going into labor. Eric left around 9:00 to get Alaura and I finally got something to eat at 9:30!!! At 10 the nurse gave me some pain medicine...It knocked me out!!!! But it was great not to have any pain. After that my pain was manageable with out much pain medicine. I still hurt a bit but compared to the night before it was nothing.

Eric took Alaura to preschool the next morning then came to see how I was doing. No one seemed to know what I was being treated for so we were still unsure how much longer I'd be there. Eric brought Alaura to see me around 1:30. Here are some pictures of us trying to kill some time until my Dr came into see me and let me know what was going on.

Here I am showing off the second of three IV's!!!! That bed was so uncomfortable!!! I was so glad when I was finally able to get out of it. For 36 hours I didn't get any further from that bed than the bathroom!!!!

Look at those Sausages!!! Seriously my fingers were so swollen from all the fluids they were pumping into me.

Mmmm food!!! After 26 hours of no food while being pregnant...food is great!!!


Trying to kill time while waiting for them to release me.
Here's alaura with her friend Balloon Man...

Do you see the resemblance?

She's got a new bad habit of biting our clothes!!!

My IV started to really hurt and the area around it was getting swollen so I asked them to replace it because something was wrong. BIG MISTAKE!!! The new one hurt and bled sooooooo BAD!!!!

Finally my OB showed up at 4:00 and after going over everything I'd experienced in the past 48 hours he was very upset when he found out I hadn't been treated for kidney stones from the beginning. I guess I should have had a catheter to watch for any stones. ( I'm glad I didn't though, I hate those!!! So after talking to him (He'd been out of the office until this point) he told me that I'd had blood in my urine and that he was pretty sure that I had already passed the stones. That was what was killing me Tuesday night!!!! He gave me a prescription for antibiotics and pain killer and I finally got to go home!

I'm still a little sore, but I'm definitely doing better. I hope that I NEVER have to go through that again!!!! IT WAS HORRIBLE!!!!!

Lots of writing

So, I went to the Dr today and everything is still looking good. Sydney kicks like crazy, in fact she's been kicking me in the ribs for a while now. At our last appt 4 weeks ago she was 22 weeks and measured a little under that around her head (Yay) and 23 1/2 weeks in length on her limbs (she's long and already running out of room in there) Overall, I'm really enjoying this pregnancy, the main complaints I have are my sore tailbone (Ouch!!!) and being tired...but I think a lot of that has to do with my sweet little Alaura not sleeping very well.

It all started a few months ago when Jami was living us, Alaura decided that 6:00 was the best time to wake up because that's when Aunt Jami did (and Alaura didn't want to miss out on anything while Jami was here) Then, about a month after that she decided that she also didn't want to go to sleep when we put her in bed...then naps became a pain too!!! So, Alaura goes to bed around 8:30 but falls asleep around 9:30 or 10:00 and wakes up at 6:00! so, that's like 81/2 hours of sleep...then she may or may not take a nap...Now if she was enjoyable I'd say "I guess she doesn't need the recommended 12 hours of sleep, but that is so not the story!!!!! Then, to make it that much better, about a month ago she started waking up during the night and wondering into my room stating "I took a good nap! I want to watch TV!!!" At 2:30 in the morning. So I walk her into her room kiss her good night and walk out. On a good night she'll go back to sleep, but on the other nights she'll repeat this 3 or 4 more times! Needless to say, I'm exhausted the next day and so is she!!!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it, but she's taking a nap right now and she slept for 9 1/2 hours last night, so Maybe my life will get a little bit more normal. Other than that we're staying busy with preschool ( alaura) work (eric) and photography (me).

Alaura LOVES preschool! She asks me all the time if it's Tuesday or Thursday yet so she can go to preschool. We're doing class pictures next Tuesday, which is going to be so fun and cute! I don't have time to post a bunch of pics right now, but I'll try and catch up with some of the things we've been up to.

I'm so excited for this time of year!!! We're going to our ward Trunk or treat party on Saturday and Trick or treating on Halloween and a party or two somewhere in there! Then, I get to start getting ready for our big craft night at church, Amberly, John and Daphne are coming into town in mid November and right after that we're going to Utah for Thanksgiving!!!! Then Christmas and then a baby!!! Life's so busy and great!

Sneak Peek

Eric and I shot a wedding last night...here are a few pics of the bride

Sneak peak

I realized that with all the pictures I've been taking lately I've neglected to take pictures of Alaura recently so here a couple pictures from her recent photo shoot. I'll post more soon. As you can see, the camera LOVES her!!!

"A-L-A-U-R-A"

Here are a few pictures of Alaura doing her homework on Tuesday before preschool...She can trace her name pretty well as you can see from the pictures below. Not half bad for a two year old huh? (Proud mom moment...hehe)

She can also spell her name out loud if you ask her too. The best one though is when we're in the car and she sees a stop sign. "S-T-O-P Stop...no cars...G-O Go!!!!" She's so funny. She can recognize every letter in the alphabet too! When she spell things she'll say "Big M, little o, little m, little m, little y" another one she does that cracks me up is if she's spelling a word with two of the same letters in a row she says "T-H-R-E's...Three" it cracks me up when she says stuff like that.
If we could just solve her not sleeping in issues we'd be great!!!

In other news Eric and I are taking pictures at a reception on Saturday, we went and scouted out the area on Tuesday and it's going to be really pretty!!! I'm so excited!

Click on the link on the right side that says

"This Moment Photography"

to see the pictures we've been taking!!!!!

Playing Catch up...again

Well, here's a quick overview of what's been going on with us...Alaura's been doing really well in Preschool! She's tracing her name and letters REALLY well. She knows all of the ABC's and can count to 20. (She knew this before preschool, but she's getting better and better) I'll post a video soon of her spelling some words and stuff. She's getting very creative and loves to play house and have tea parties!!!

Pinkies up!!!

She collects things..."Human stuff, just like Ariel!"

She's developing an interest in photography !!!

(these are original Alaura pieces)

She LOVES swimming!!!

Is working on her "good manners"

She loves music

and she turns anything she can into a bed!!! Pillows, blankets, even paper!!!!

This is a picture of her and Blackie (the class "pet") eating lunch when Alaura got to bring him home.

Eric's been busy helping Mom and Dad Olsen Move into their new gorgeous home! Working his his buns off at work, putting up with his pregnant wife and when ever the weather allows...He is the "Grill Master"
YES, he even grilled the pizza's!!!!!

I've been busy with my church calling, photography, cleaning the house (though it never looks like it) and my two favorite things in the world...being a wife and Mommy!!!!

Here's the princess blankie I made for alaura during her nap a few weeks ago

And of course her princess hair (it's a flower!!!)

Camie and I took the girls to the fair yesterday, it was preschool day!!! We got in for free and had a good time!

Leyna and Alaura really liked the goats

So did Camie!!!! Here's a new calf a few minutes old, we saw the beginning of the birth but left for a little while because it was sooooo hot.

Princess Alaura on her royal throne...moments before it fell apart
Look Mommy big bubbles!!!! Thanks Camie! I have a hard time lifting her up now that my belly's getting in the way