So in total girl-fashion, Miss Hattie had to arrive with some drama. I was scheduled to be induced on Monday, the 20th, and had a normal checkup scheduled for the Wednesday before. I woke up that morning, feeling fine, but slightly dizzy! The strangest feeling ever. I took a shower, and soon realized I could hardly walk. Seeing how I had gone through the pregnancy with low iron, and had some fainting spells, I figured maybe I needed to eat. Well about 30 seconds after I ate a yogurt, it came back up. By this time it was about 7 am, which is when I needed to be leaving, to make the 3 hr drive to my appt (because I was stubborn and wouldn't change my doctor when we moved). I tell Jeff that I don't think I can drive. In fact there's no way I can drive. He decides just to take the day off, let the boys skip school, and we'll all make the trip.


We get to the doc after a 3 hr car ride that consisted of me throwing up at least 5 times. It was awful. I had my seat almost all the way reclined but just couldn't get relief. I was soo dizzy and nautious it was insane! Thankfully I don't throw up while at the doctor's office, and he tells me I'm probably just dehydrated, to go home and rest. Ok, I'm not one to argue, but I GUZZLE water. Like constantly. How could I be dehydrated? But I'm not the doc so I listen. We go to Jeff's Dad's house where I had planned to stay thru Monday since I was dilating, just to make sure there's no added drama! Jeff and the boys stay until that evening, and the dizziness doesn't subside. Wake up the next morning, still as dizzy as if I had been spinning in circles all night! I call the doc, the nurse says she'll talk to him and call me back. Of course, about 5 hours later she calls back and says "Doctor Howser wants you to come in tomorrow (Friday) morning to be induced." HECK YES! Get this show over with! So I call Jeff, he heads home from work, packs up, picks up the boys from school and heads back to Weatherford. =) About 150 bucks in gas wasted.... oh well.



Get to the hospital Friday morning, still fricking dizzy. Thankfully the throwing up had stopped. Get admitted, start fluids (which start helping with the dizzy factor, slightly) and pitocin, and we're off. Doc breaks my water at about 9 am, when I'm still only dilated to a 2. Get the epidural at about 10ish. We go allllllllll day, it's 5pm and I'm still only a 4. I start to feel pressure, so they check me again, still a 4. My nurse walks out of the room, and about (no joke) 3 minutes later another nurse walks in bc the baby moved and the monitor wasn't picking up her heart rate. I mention to her the pressure I'm still feeling, so she says she's going to check me. I tell her that my nurse had just checked me 3 minutes ago, and she says well I'll check again, and had a smirk on her face. Apparently she's done this before =) Sure enough, fully dilated, head practically sticking out. Little stinker!! She almost pushed herself right out on her own! She didn't need my help! Haha.

So they call the doc frantically, he's stuck in traffic, of course. So we wait..... and wait..... and wait.... He finally gets there, throws some gloves on, 1 1/2 pushes later at 5:31 Hattie Grace was born!!! =) 8lbs, 7oz, 20" long. She's perfect! 10 fingers, 10 toes, all that good stuff.

Love Her.

She's here!!

And she's perfect! Hattie Grace was born September 17th, 2010 at 5:31pm. Tons of drama and chaos accompanied her arrival, but so happy she's here! Will post all the details (along with a million pictures) tomorrow! I should be sleeping right now, while I can!

Progress

We finally have real internet for the first time in almost a year!!!!! Where we were living, it was $75/mo just for basic internet, RIDICULOUS. So we just made do with our cell phones or when we were at our parents. Now that we live in an actual city, 25 bucks a month gets us the fastest DSL available! Nice.

Soooo now I can post pictures on here! Like this one:

Look at that beautiful family! Haha. And this one:

Look at that gut! This was a week ago-ish, at 36 weeks, now I'm 37 1/2 weeks, and at my appt yesterday found out I've started dilating, so hoping to make it to Monday, the 20th, our scheduled induction day! We're 3 hours away from the hospital I'm delivering at, so don't need any exciting things to happen before then!

And there's this one:

My boys started football! Finally! Jeff's been waiting for this day for 8 years now. The day Noah was born, all Jeff was picturing was the beginning of a football team. Noah is the kicker, which is what Jeff excelled at all through high school, so that wasn't surprising. He even had a chance to be the kicker at a UNT, but just didn't show up for his interview. I believe he said it was bc he was in the middle of a video game..... Max plays on the defensive and offensive line (he's solid!) and last week played a little tight end. They are LOVING every second of it, which makes me happy.

Guess I should mention that we moved! Loving it here in Tyler. It's soo nice to be right around the corner from Target, Walmart, a mall, etc etc etc. In Weatherford, it was at least a 30 minute drive for anything. Haven't really gotten to make new friends yet, but now that football and school have started, and we've found a new church, it won't be long. The boys have made several friends, but I need to meet their parents before we have any get togethers =) I'm not picky about much, but that's important.

Not much else going on, just waiting for this baby! Soo ready to not have my kidneys, lungs, ribs and bladder constantly assaulted. Not to mention the heartburn! UGH, the heartburn. Oh and the passing out! Yeah, apparently my hemogloben is low? I dunno, so trying to take an iron supplement, but I'm horrible at taking pills. It's hard enough for me to remember my regular vitamin, but I can't take the iron at the same time, or with food. How am I supposed to take it "1 hour before a meal or 2 hours after a meal" when I have to eat every hour so I don't pass out?!

Yeah, I'm done. Done being pregnant. After 4 times now, I can say that and mean it whole heartedly! It's time for the next phase of life.

Normally Abnormal

Ok so Max has an irregular rythm that changes with his breathing but is within the average range, so no meds or special precautions. He's just abnormal =)

Let's add some chaos...

...to the mix. As if there's not enough craziness going on at the moment.

So last Tuesday (a week and a half ago) I took Noah & Max to the doc for their annual checkups/physicals for football, assuming it would be the normal, boring appt. Nope, of course not.

To start out, they both had a trace of blood in their urine, what's up w that? Then Noah had swimmer's ear (which he hadn't complained once about) and Impentigo (sp?) on his nose, which I thought was just a little raw bc his nose has been running a lot from allergies. So 2 prescriptions right off the bat.

On to Max -

First off, she heard an irregular heart beat, or something like that, so she told me to take him to the children's hospital for an EKG and to pick up a monitor for him to wear for 24 hours. She didn't seem too worried, but docs are good at that, so I'm freaking out a little. Then she tells me that his lymph nodes are swollen for no apparent reason, so she's gonna do some bloodwork to check everything out. Now I'm really freaking out (only on the inside, of course). So 15 min later, in comes the nurse to draw the blood from my 6 year old, who now I'm looking at like he's my baby that I want to hold. He did sooo good. He watched the whole time, 4 VILES full! I had to have bloodwork done the day before, and only had to fill 3 viles, so he was pretty stoked that he did more than mom =)

Well 2 days later we get the word that all the bloodwork came back completely normal, so I got to take a deep breath. That was the part that was really worrying me.

And as for the heart issue -

I'm skipping a lot of drama, including a massive blow-out on the interstate and a missed appt for the EKG, and fast forwarding to today, 4 days after they said I would have the results... Still haven't heard a word!!! Sooo annoying. I really don't think there's anything wrong, I think all the stress going on around him is affecting him. And the fact that we haven't heard anything from the doc further leads me to believe it's nothing serious. If it were, wouldn't they have already let me know something?

Anyway, I'm calling today if they don't call me. Not that it'll do anything, but I can't help myself =) Will update if I actually find something out!

oh man

So it's funny to go back and read my like "info" section on here, because i wrote it like... over a year ago? And when I said I was "OMG so busy" I had NO IDEA WHAT WAS COMING! 3 HYPER boys, the pregnancy from hades, the hottest summer ever, my parents and sisters moving into our house w/ us, AND us moving OUT. O M G I don't know what to do with myself.

If I haven't mentioned it before, my parents and sisters moved in with us a couple weeks ago. They needed to sell their house, and it wasn't selling, so they put it up for rent and was rented out w/i 2 weeks. Sooo, thank the LORD this opportunity for us to move came up, otherwise we'd be living together indefinitely, which I'm finding out would NOT be acceptable. Just a glimpse: our kitchen has 2 refrigerators, 2 center islands, 2 dining room tables (w/ 13 chairs), and about 30 packed boxes, tubs, etc. That's my kitchen, people. Now picture the living room, bedrooms, and backyard!!! We're a cat family, well not really, but they keep the mice and snakes away, so we let them live outside our back door. My parents are dog people. There is a constant power struggle in the backyard right now. No one is getting along. It's beyond insane. This morning I almost came unglued because my cereal (yes, MY cereal) was gone, and yesterday, there was enough for 3 more bowls left. I had to take deep breaths and tell myself it wasn't a big deal. I can't believe I'm admitting that but it's true!

So add to that situation, the hardest pregnancy I've had yet. This little girl is wearing me out. If I don't eat every hour, here is some of what I experience: achy, restless legs, headaches, dizziness, blurred vision (like I couldn't read a message on my phone right in front of my face), my face and ears feel like they're on FIRE (like I have a horrible sunburn but I don't!), and random numbness that moves up and down my arms. ODD right?!? I almost passed out 3 times one day, so decided to give my doc a call, and she asked "well what have you eaten today?" To which I replied "ummm, a yogurt..... a cracker.... umm some toast?" LOL I'm so dumb! "Hun, you need to eat." Who has time to eat!?!?! Especially when NOTHING sounds good. It's really hard to eat when nothing sounds good. And when it's 100+ degrees outside, nothing but ice sounds good. Little Miss Hattie is doing just great, though, kicking, rolling and bouncing around in there having a good ol' time. Stinker.

And the icing on the cake: moving. Wow, moving. I've thrown away as much as I've packed. And now all that's left to pack are things we use on a daily basis, so can't really pack anymore. Jeff's finishing up his 4th week of work out in Tyler already. He's enjoying it and is good at it, so couldn't ask for more! Having him gone all week is good some days, and not so much on others. I love having the bed to myself, but not really ever getting a break from the boys is tiring. This next 2 weeks can NOT go by quick enough.

Holy mother of moses did I forget to mention my 3 adorable, well behaved little boys? Yeah, driving me nuts. If they're not dumping boxes of crackers all over the ground, they're leaving their markers out for Ben to color on the walls with. If they're not punching each other repeatedly, they're trying to drown each other in the pool! I walked out just in time to see Max, the 6 yr old, ask Ben, the 2 yr old if he wanted to go under, and when Ben exclaimed "yes!" Max proceeded to push his little head right under! Max is now grounded from the pool for a week, but really doesn't understand why. Ugh.

Good news: Our new house is ADORABLE, and the exact size, price and location we wanted! There's an issue w/ the ac, that's getting looked at on Monday, and since we're just renting at first, it's not our responsibility, which is nice for a change!

Well, better go see what chaos awaits me......

The move is on...

and not the little move west. A HUGE move east!

Jeff got a job offer a couple of months ago for a company in Tyler, TX, about 2 1/2 hours east of us. I've been ignoring him every time he brought it up because I have NO intention of moving my family away from my home for the past 20 years. We like this area, we have so many friends, an amazing church, and most of our family is nearby. He would try to talk to me about it, and I would walk away.

Then, of course, he agreed to the job with his dad's company. A promising job that would start out slow and with not much pay, but he had the opportunity to work his way up to a very good salary w/i 8 years or so, and we wouldn't have to move far.

So I was pleased.

THEN, he drops the bombshell on me that I have to go with him for an actual INTERVIEW for the position in Tyler. And he's the ONLY person they're interviewing.

I cried and yelled at him and told him I wasn't going. It's his decision. Not mine.

Then I laid in bed with Ben and prayed. Why don't I pray sooner?

All of a sudden I felt such peace. I had to apologize to Jeff and say that I'd go with him. He looked at me and smiled and I said "If you say a word I'm not going." He smiled and said "I wasn't gonna say anything..."

So we went. And it was nice. It's beautiful compared to here. Trees everywhere. Green everywhere. And it's an amazing opportunity. Double what he would make the first year working for his dad's company. And basically the same opportunity to move up. The owner wants to train Jeff up to someday buy the company.

We came home and he went straight to his Dad's to talk about it. His dad called it a "slam dunk" and told Jeff not to pass it up. We prayed and felt peace, so the next day (today) he called the boss and accepted the job. They really want him to start like... tomorrow, but Jeff has a mini-mester class that starts in a week and goes for 2 weeks, but then he'll start (by driving back and forth, staying all week) for 3 weeks, then has one more commitment to youth camp for the last week in June, then we'll all move out there!

To say I'm terrified would be an understatement. It's happening so fast and I've never moved more than 45 min away from "home." Especially with 3 kids and 1 on the way! Now I have to take a break from thinking about it so I don't start hyperventilating. When I catch my breath I'll update more =)