The Rest of 2011

So, since I totally suck at keeping this blog updated, I will fill you in on the other events that happened after Colin was born.

The first Sunday in June, Joel blessed Colin.

The end of June, I had a gall bladder attack and had to get it removed.

We were sealed as a family for time and all eternity at the beginning of September.

I got a job at The Old Spaghetti Factory in the middle of September.

And that's pretty much it.

Colin Raleigh Pace

Colin was born April 29, 2011 at 2:39 pm. He was 7 pounds 4 ounces and 20 inches long. He is growing so well. He is sitting up really well and is getting close to crawling. But he would rather walk instead of crawl. So far, sweet potatoes are his most favorite food. He doesn't really have a favorite toy yet. He likes to play with anything that mom or dad has in their hands at the time. He is very much a texture baby. He likes soft things on his face and he doesn't like eating weird textured food. Over all he is a generally happy baby. He doesn't get mad often, unless he is tired, hungry, or hurting. He has brought so much joy to our little family. And everyone he meets just adores him.

Declawed

One of the conditions of living in my mom's basement is that Gogo had to be declawed so he didn't claw up the carpet. So on Monday I took Gogo to Animal Crackers Vet and got his front claws out. He was so groggy when I brought him home. All he wanted was to be held and sleep. When he walked around he stumbled around like he was drunk. It was sad and funny to watch at the same time. He had bandages on his paws and when he started waking up he wanted to get them off. During the night he managed to get one of them off by putting his paw in between a tote and the bottom of a shelf and pulling. He is a pretty smart kitty. The other one he got off the next day by flicking his paw a bunch. He is starting to feel and act more like himself now. I think he is sad that his claws are gone, but he will just have to deal.

Moving

So a couple of weeks ago my mom offered to let me and Joel live in the apartment that they put in their basement. Joel and I took her up on the offer because it will allow more space for us, Gogo and Colin when he gets here. This last week has been very busy with packing, moving, and putting things where they need to go. Joel has been amazing with all his hard work. He has had to do more than he normally would have because I can't do as much as I want because I am pregnant and have high blood pressure. Joel has been making sure I don't do too much because he wants Colin and I to stay as healthy as we can. So far we are pretty well situated. We just need to get the rest of our stuff from the storage unit. I am very excited to have more space than the little room we were in at Joel's parents' house. Gogo is loving it too.

Bi-Weekly NST

So after my hospital visit my doctor decided to have me go into a doctors' office in the hospital for bi-weekly NST's and an AFI. An NST is a Non-Stress Test, and an AFI is an amniotic fluid check. My doctor just wants to monitor my blood pressure really closely to make sure it doesn't go up too high. So twice a week I go in and they do an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid levels and then they hook me up to two different monitors. The first one measures Colin's heartbeat and the other one sits at the top of my uterus and measures to see if I have a contraction. I am also hooked up to a blood pressure cuff that goes off about every ten minuets. I usually am there for about half an hour. What they are wanting to see is my blood pressure going down from me resting and they want to three good spikes in Colin's heart rate. The spikes are good because it tells them that he is moving well and getting the things he needs from the placenta. I really like the nurses that are there. They are super nice. They will even print me out pictures of Colin when they are doing the ultrasound.

What A Week

Last Wednesday was the first of 4 days that Joel and I watched Britta's and Nun's kids. It was quite the adventure. Especially since I don't have the same amount energy with being pregnant. Joel was so good with the kids. He played with them and helped me get them ready and such. We didn't have to put any of the kids in time-out the whole time we were with them. That was a very nice thing. On Thursday I had a doctor's appointment so I got to take Landon and Tyler with me to the doctor's. They were really well behaved even though we had to wait for a while. Thursday night, Abby had a birthday party to go to. She had an awesome time. On Saturday Charlene was watching Amanda's and Aaron's kids and we decided to take all the kids to McDonalds. They had so much fun playing on the play place. When we got the kids home, they all just crashed. They got worn out playing. All in all we had a good time, but it is hard to go from having no kids to having to take care of three. We were very worn out by the time we got home late Saturday night, and we were very happy to be able to sleep in our own bed.

Hospital Visit

So on Thursday I had a doctor appointment. Everything was going fine until the nurse took my blood pressure. She took it right after I peed in the cup and it was high, so she had me just sit there for a few minuets hoping it would go down after getting on the bed. When she took it again, it was still high. It was 141/84. This number caused concern with my doctor and she had me go to the hospital after my appointment. She checked Colin's heart rate like normal and he was right where he needed to be, which was a relief. At first I was really scared that my blood pressure was so high. I was thinking off all kinds of worse case scenarios. The one I thought of most was that I would be delivering Colin that day. Having Joel with me the whole time was a great comfort. I don't know how well I would have handled things on my own. On the drive to St. Mark's I had started to calm down, which was really helpful with being able to talk to the nurses. When I got to the hospital I had to talk to the billing and coding lady to be put into their system. I then went to get an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid levels, which were all good. They then took me to the triage room and had me take a stress test which consisted of them hooking me up to the fetal monitor and a blood pressure cuff and having the thing take my blood pressure every 15 minuets. After about 2 hours they sent me home with a 24 hour urine collection jug and told me that every time I went pee I was to put it in this jug and bring it back the next day so they could see if there was protein in my pee. (Having to do that was so weird and a very annoying task.) So on Friday I went back and they did another stress test and they took some blood to do some other labs. All of my tests came back just fine. I just have gestational hypertension. So far the doctor's orders are that I just need to take it easy and not do too much. The OB that was at the hospital said that I might be delivering 4 to 5 weeks early, but we will see how things go. It is going to be hard to just sit. I am more of a doer than a sitter. But I know that my wanting to have Colin be healthy is more of priority than curing my own boredom. While we were at the hospital Joel took the liberty of taking some pictures, mostly out of sheer boredom. And the picture of the drinks is included because on Friday the ice chips were all that I could have. I didn't complain too much because they were abnormally tasty.