A little early, but still fun

This is a couple days early, going by my usual "Christmas starts after Thanksgiving" stance, and I'm usually not a fan of this type of thing and royally stink at them, but I'm getting excited about Christmas so I decided to participate. If you would like to participate, that would be lovely. Otherwise, just enjoy.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. I'm no pro at it, but I still like it.

2. Real tree or artificial? Real! There is no candle I've ever smelled that can replace the smell of a real tree.

3 When do you put up the tree? Growing up we usually picked one out the 1st Monday of the month for Family Home Evening. Now, we don't really have a tradition yet.

4. When do you take the tree down? After my Birthday New Years-ish. Again, growing up we would burn it in the back yard on New Years activity then roast marshmallows or hot dogs, but that's a little hard to do when you live in a town home.

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, but I only have a glass or two a year.

6. Do you have a nativity scene? I have a little one, but am keeping my eyes open for one that I love (and another one that is child proof).

7. hardest person to buy for? Me. I'm a tightwad that would rather spend money on other people than myself.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Now... Henry. Baby stuff is cuter than grown people stuff

9. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? good question. None come to mind.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I'm lucky if I do either.

11. Favorite Christmas Movie? Santa Clause - "It's an American institution!"

12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever I start thinking about it. Usually about September/October

13. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? There are lots of foods I love at Christmas, but it's not Christmas without Pineapple Raspberry Pretzel Jello and Frog Eye Salad.

14. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear

15. Favorite Christmas song? Good question! I like so many.

16. Travel or stay at home for Christmas? Staying home

17. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Without singing the song? No.

18. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star. I have strong feelings about this.

19. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning

Pyloric Stenosis

Sorry, this another long one, but life has been eventful.

Monday (the 9th) I went in for my gallbladder removal. The surgery went well and so far the recovery has been fine. I'm eating slightly more exciting things and the occasional accidental way too greasy thing no longer sends me to my knees in pain, which is good, so I'm thinking the surgery was worth it. Ground beef hasn't sounded appetizing in the least for a rather long time, but it's starting too again. I'm still a little frightened to eat it, but I'm getting there.

As I was recovering and again on some nice pain killers, Henry started to get sick. Monday we noticed some pink in his diaper. We thought "we'll keep an eye on it, but no need to rush to the doctor." That was Monday morning. Tuesday-day, Henry was fine. He spit up a little bit during the day, but he's a baby. They do that on occasion. No big deal. Tuesday night (just after Mama left to go home from helping with my surgery), Henry started throwing up. It seemed like a lot of throw up for someone his size, so I called the after hours pediatrician. They said to give him Pedialite and if he kept that down there was nothing to worry about. He drank some and seemed to keep it down. Wrong! The next time he ate, in the middle of the night, he lost everything. I woke up in the middle of the night to Henry throwing up more than I thought his stomach could hold, his half of our bed soaked, and half of him covered in baby throw up. I got up, gave him a bath, then we both went back to bed where he slept on my chest the rest of the night with random bouts of throwing up.

The next day he continued to throw up everything he ate, and by throw up, I mean projectile. He would be sitting on my knee, throw up, and he and I would both get soaked as well as the chair we were sitting on and the floor all the way around. Gross, I know, but it's actually an important part of the diagnosis.

After a whole day of that we decided to call the pediatrician again. It was again the after hours clinic, but man was I glad it was! Within 3 min of being in the office the wonderful pediatrician that was working that night had figured out what was wrong. The conversation went a bit like this:

Angel Pediatrician Lady: "Have you every heard of Pyloric Stenosis?"
Me: (Strange face) "Ply... what?"
Angel Pediatrician Lady: "You haven't heard of it. It's genetic and requires surgery"
Me & Nate: (Jaw drop and thinking "oh crap! What!?")

She quickly got on the ball calling surgeons, giving us our laptop to check insurance details, calling the ultrasound lab to confirm, getting all of the paperwork ready for us at TWO hospitals, just in case we needed them.

We walked down to the ultrasound lab and not 30 seconds after the ultrasound wand touching poor Henry's tummy the tech started making calls and taking pictures. Sure 'nough. Textbook Pyloric Stenosis. Lucky us...

**A brief explanation: The Pyloric muscle is the one at the end of your stomach that helps work food down. It is supposed to be short and thin. Henry's was VERY long and thick. It is genetic, but we aren't really sure which side it comes from. We think maybe my Mama's side, but we don't know. To correct this, they go in and slit the muscle a little to let food through. Luckily, the whole thing can usually be done laparoscopically. No major incision, just 3 little holes and one of those is through the belly button.**

The plan was to admit him to Utah Valley and get him hydrated over night, but he was good enough to make it up to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake, so up we went. Paperwork was done when we got there (thank you Angel Pediatrician Lady!), Henry was admitted, i.v. was hooked up, and he was given fluids. I cann't believe how dehydrated he got and how quickly. Tuesday morning he was fine and Wednesday night he was not.

Long story short, he had a tube down his nose to pump everything out, was on fluids and was not allowed to eat until he went in for surgery the next afternoon. I can't explain how hard it is to see your baby in so much pain and not be able to do a thing about it. Can't feed him when he's hungry, because he's not allowed to eat. Can't hold him when he cries because he's hooked up to so much stuff. Then there's me who REALLY can't hold him or even stand so close because he can smell you and it reminds him how hungry he is, so you just don't stand close 'cause it hurts him more. Can't explain to him what's going on, 'cause he's too little to understand, so he just hurts without any idea why. It was hard all the way around.

He went in for surgery Thursday, about noon. Just over an hour later he was all done and doing well.

After surgery he still wasn't allowed to eat for 8 hours, and then it was only 1/2 an ounce, three hours later, 1/2 an ounce, three hours later, one ounce, etc until he got up to 2 1/2. He got released Friday night before 11 p.m. We stayed close to the hospital to make sure he was ok overnight and so we didn't have to drive all of the way home as tired as we were.

He is still doing well. You can tell his tummy hurts. He'll cry a new cry that he's never cried before, but overall he's a happier baby. He smiles a lot more than he did this time last week. He tries to talk to us more. He stays awake and sleeps longer and is just overall happier. All three of us have been lucky to have good help here with us. Both of our moms are here helping, the pediatrician really was amazing, the doctors, surgeons, nurses, techs, and everyone else at the hospital were all wonderful. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Hopefully life will calm down. I am very much looking forward to having nothing to blog about besides Henry cuteness!

Breathing Thing

I'm not really sure how to describe all of these things, especially how it was in the beginning, but here goes.

In May, I started having this really annoying thing where it just felt like there was too little space in my lung area. Understandable seeing as how there was a baby growing in there, but it wasn't just that. Occasionally pressure would start to build up, so I would find ways to burp it out. Most of the time this would take care of it, but sometimes not. Pressure would build up so bad that my back would start to hurt really bad, it would hurt to breath, and nothing was comfortable. When it got like this I would just pace the halls, lay down, writhe in pain, decide that wasn't helping, repeat process.

One time it happened so bad that I really couldn't breath to the point that I was blacking out and could no longer feel my fingers or toes. Being 16 or so weeks pregnant and not getting oxygen is a little frightening, so we called 911. I am a little embarrassed to say it, but we did. Had it just been me I probably would have toughed it out, but I had no idea what was going on and I figured me having oxygen was important, so we did it. Apparently, when you say "blacking out" and "pregnant" on a 911 call, they send out the troops. I can't remember exact numbers, but I think they sent a handful of police officers, 3ish paramedics, and a guy from the fire department. Our whole parking lot was full of their vehicles and I don't recall this being normal. Maybe it is...

I digress.

They gave me oxygen and offered me a ride in the ambulance. Seeing as how I was doing fine then and not wanting to pay for such a fancy ride, we opted to drive ourselves to the hospital. Long story short, they gave me a breathing treatment, offered x-rays, which we again declined, then went home without any idea of what had caused the problem. They really didn't have a clue and we could tell.

I talked about it with my OB, who didn't seem to know what was going on, or at least didn't share his thoughts. Everyone just blamed it on pregnancy and said it would go away after the baby was born (FALSE!), so I learned how to deal with it: avoid certain foods, if the pain started - get a Sprite and hopefully burp it out and take extra strength Tylenol and hope it kicked in before the pain, if it continued, build up enough pressure to force myself to vomit until my stomach was completely empty, go to bed and hope I could sleep pain free til morning.

I really got the hang of that and was able to avoid the extremes of vomiting most of the time.

3 weeks after Henry was born it started happening again. 3 nights in a row, in fact. After 2 nights of that lovely fun, I called my OB to tell them it was still happening and they said next time to go to the ER while it was happening so they could see stuff while it was a problem, so I did. They gave me painkiller (very nice :D), did an ultrasound and found that I have gallstones. The ER doctor then referred me to a surgeon. I visited him and we decided that the best thing for me to do is have my gallbladder removed. I'm not looking forward to more of the hospital, more IVs, more blood work, more recovering, or any of that, but at least they know what the problem is.

The surgeon pointed out that after Henry was born I had a high live enzyme count, which is what happens when a gallstone goes into the ducts and get stuck. Stuff starts backing up into your liver and can eventually cause serious problems if the gallstone doesn't become unstuck soon enough. Luckily my liver enzymes were back down to normal, so no need to worry about that, but apparently pregnancy increase your risks of gallstones and once it's a problem, it's not a problem that will go away. So, because we would like to have more children, in order to keep it from being a problem in the future, I'm having mine removed. If I didn't there is always they chance of having a "gallbladder episode", getting a gallstone stuck in a duct which would lead to emergency surgery that is much riskier, or it becoming a problem while I'm pregnant and having to have it removed then, which would be risky for me and the baby.

Since visiting the ER, I've been on a non-fat diet (except I cheated the day of Henry's blessing). Non fat can be very boring, but I haven't had an "episode", so it's worth it.

That's my story. It is what it is.

Details

Over a month later, I figure it's time for some details. This is as much for my remembering as for your entertainment (I'm sure), so here it is.

Early morning on September 29th, I was up with that "breathing" problem (more to come on the "breathing" thing). That's never any fun, but I finally made it to bed about 3. I woke back up about 6 with annoying cramping that would come and go about every 5 minutes, but there was no way I was getting out of bed. I was extremely determined to not get up until it was time to get ready for work. When it was that time, I got up, took a nice and long shower, got ready for work, ate breakfast and everything. By the time it was time to go, the pain hadn't stopped or become less frequent, so we decided we might as well go get it checked out. When we first got there I wasn't any more dilated than I had been 2 weeks before. I was only at about 1 1/2. We hung out in triage for an hour and a half with little dilation progress but the contractions were slowly getting stronger and were still about 5 min apart. The nice nurse lady asked if I would be okay if I went back home. I said something like "I guess I could manage going to work." I got a funny look and "Work?!" (with a big huge question mark). We proceeded to explain that we lived in Payson and that if I went home and then went into labor I wouldn't really have anyone to drive me up. She very promptly and decidedly said that I was staying. So stay we did.

So, after being admitted, given some pop-cycles and water with lots of the good kind of ice, TWO epidurals (yes 2! The guy messed up the first one. They had to come in and give me another one after the contractions got much worse. I was a little ticked about that, but at least the messed up one didn't do any damage.), getting hooked up to my antibiotics for Group B Strep, and just laying there in my lovely corner room delivery room, the nurse told me I should take a nap 'cause it could be a really long night. Well, I didn't have time for a nap. Shortly after she left my blood pressure decided to shoot through the roof. I'd been boarder line for preeclampsia off and on for a couple of months, but not bad until then. Suddenly I had a lot more attention. They added another line into my IV and gave me Magnesium-Sulfate. (The stuff is horrible. It makes you really hot and your vision do funny things. I guess it was worth it, but you don't want it!!!) At one point I remember there being 5 people in there working on me and a few trying to talk to me at a time.

After a couple hours of being hot and tired and contractions, all the people were back and it was baby time! I pushed for about 30 min and they called the doctor. He was out in the hall on an "on call" phone call. (Some lady that was 20 weeks was worried 'cause there was a lump on her tummy. :) The doctor told her that it was just the baby poking pushing to one side. She was freaking out, so he told her to come in if she was really worried. Not relevant, but I thought it was funny.) Anyways, darned doctor to FOREVER (about 5 min) to get his bumm in. They kept telling me not to push, to wait for him. Umm... EXCUSE ME!!! You tell me to push and to push and to push to get the baby out as far as possible, then you tell me to hold him in?! Right... The doctor finally made it in and our little Henry Nathan Butterfield was born a few min later at 8:43 p.m. He was 8 lbs 1 oz and19 1/2 in long

If you're really interested, Nate took video footage of Henry getting cleaned up and all of that jazz. I will mention that when they were cut the umbilical cord, it flipped up and sprayed the nurse in the face. Really kinda disgusting, but funny.

Here are just a few pictures of his first few weeks. Do not fear. We have a whole lot if you want more.

Teddy checking out the new toy the night we brought him home.

Henry wants to be a frog when he grows up.

Getting ready for his two week checkup.

Thoughtful baby asleep in his laundry basket bassinet.

Welcome Henry Nathan Butterfield

He's finally here. We thought we would post some pics and videos of the little guy.

Getting Closer!

It kinda feels like this baby will never come and that I will be this big, puffy footed thing for forever, but we're getting SO close!

Because I know it's only going to get harder to catch up on the last couple weeks as baby time gets closer and then even harder after that, here is a poor attempt to do so.

Last week was very busy, but lots of fun. A bunch of lovely ladies from church decided that because I don't really know anyone in the ward (seeing as how I'm related to zero of them and spend all of my time in Primary), they should have a "Get to know Annah" baby shower. It was fun to get to know my neighbors better and to actually meet these people I see walking around the church building every week but never talk to. AND they were all very nice and got/made some very cute baby stuff. The next day Nate's work threw a luncheon baby shower where we spent time chilling, eating yummy lunch, and opening a few fun presents. THEN, on Saturday, I got to see some of my fravoritest people in Utah at a little baby shower get together at Becky's house. There were yummy treats, cute stuff, and good friends. Thanks for hosting that and getting all of that together Becky and Lisa! (Also, I might have to snag some pictures from the people that remembered to take them. I brought my camera but failed to get it out of my purse.)

The last couple of weekends Nate and I have put a lot of time into getting the baby room together and cleaning up after 2 weeks of some evil flu. I am proud to say that the house is pretty much clean. Just the computer table to go!

I think that's about it. We're going to go on a date now while it's still just 2 of us. :)

P.S. I have pretty pictures of my flowers. I'm working on 5 or 6 hydrangea balls right now! Funny how that's the only thing I've managed to take pictures of lately.

Flowers make me happy

I am proud to say that my little "garden" is finally showing signs of prosperity. I was actually proud of myself for not killing it all, so I am VERY excited that it's actually doing something now (even if it is a little late). Here are some pictures of some pretty things in my little back yard.

Utah is not exactly friendly toward hydrangeas, but this on is HUGE compared to its size when we bought it this spring. I'm rather happy about that. Please note all of the budding flower balls.

The biggest of the budding flower balls. I'm thinking it's going to be pink.
I LOVE hydrangeas!!


My black and blue flowers. They've been blooming all summer.

We also planted a squash plant in a huge flower pot. It's pretty and we can eat it. I'm a fan! This is our 1st squash! I think we might get a few out of the plant before the cold gets it.