March 2011

My belly at 30 weeks:

Everything is going well with the pregnancy. I've had some Braxton Hicks (fake) contractions, and some back pain, but they are usually worse when I have over extended myself. So I'm trying to slow down, and take breaks in between chores and such. It is a good reminder to slow down and take time with the girls also. On my good days, I set the timer. 20 minutes for me to work, 10 minutes to read/play with the girls. It seems to work well.

On March 12, we were at my parent's house, and the kids were playing outside. The adults were downstairs talking. We saw Katie coming toward the door with her hand over her forehead. When she came in and moved her hand, there was a huge goosebump with a really white spot in the middle of it. It was right over her right eye. I got scared, especially when Dad said I might need to take her to the doctor to have the blood taken out of the bump. We ran upstairs, and saw Mom in the kitchen. I told her what Dad had said, so she said she would watch Elayna, and we should call her.
Well, long story short, Ryan and I called my brother Mike, and he said that we probably didn't need to go to the emergency room to have it checked. (I guess there was some confusion between Dad and Mom about whether it needed to be looked at by a doctor, or not) We stopped at McDonald's and got a cup of ice. (yeah, we should have had ice on it from the beginning, but we didn't. We'll know better for next time.)
This is a side view of her head about 2 hours after Abby and her hit their heads together on the trampoline. (It was an accident of course, and Abby only had a red mark. Strange.)
The picture doesn't show that the bump is about the size of a silver dollar. It looked so huge! Thankfully, the swelling went down significantly after we put ice on it, and in the morning, there was a slight red mark there. Throughout the week, it turned green, and she had a green bruise on her eyebrow also. I'm just grateful she is okay.


The girls were playing in the front on March 9th. They were having so much fun dancing on the driveway:
Plus, they are so adorable with their sunglasses and happy smiles!


Ryan had a date with Katie this month. They ate at a Chinese restaurant, then went downstairs and played chess. I guess Katie wanted to learn, since Ryan has been teaching and playing chess with Katie's older cousins. Ryan says she understood and remembered how most of the pieces moved, and they had fun.

Elayna and I had our date also. We went and ordered some pizza, and wandered around Walmart while it was cooking. Then we got the pizza and took it home to eat. We played one board game, then it was time for Elayna to go to sleep.

Oh, and the weather was awful, again. It was snowing, and windy, and cold. Hopefully next month we will have better luck with the weather. We are really enjoying having this one on one time with the girls. It will be more complicated when the baby gets here. I'm not sure how we will work that out....

Ryan has had some problems with his Thyroid. We decided at the end of last year to have his thyroid ablated (killed) because it was over reacting. It is easier to treat hypOthyroidism, rather than hypERthyroidism, I guess. (Hyper is over reacting. Hypo is under reacting) So now he will be on thyroid medicine the rest of his life. The hyperthyroid was dangerous to his health, and we feel that this was a good decision.
The strangest part of it all, to me, is that Ryan is cold all the time now. And since I'm pregnant, I'm always warm. That is so completely backwards from most of our marriage! It is just odd to see Ryan with long sleeves on, and huddled under blankets, while I feel it is too warm.
Thankfully, the medicine should get his metabolism all straightened out, and we should be back at the same temperature within the next couple of months.

Ryan is also on a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine. This makes it so he doesn't snore at night. Actually, the main reason is so he will keep breathing while he sleeps. Apparently his brain forgets to remind him to breathe, and his tongue can fall into his airway while he sleeps, so it is good to have the air constantly flowing into him. It is strange, because he has to wear a mask at night, but I sleep lots better (the machine doesn't make any noise, and his snoring used to be really loud). I also don't have to worry about whether he is breathing or not, which is nice.

Just being cute, holding each other on the couch:

Katie and Elayna got their dentist checkups. They both held really still, and did just what the hygienist and dentist asked them. Katie and Elayna's teeth looked really good, and neither one had any cavities. Yay!