Well Josh had a Dr's appointment on Thursday...the bone has stalled out and isn't growing anymore :o( The Dr. said that he would like to go ahead and do a bone graft as soon as possible, and while they are doing that since Josh's leg is the length it needs to be he'll change out the rod with a bigger permanent one.
So that being said we haven't set a date yet, I think Josh and I have decided the sooner the better. We're both just so ready to have this be done and over with, it's been over 6 months now and it's sadly looking like it might take another 6 months before he's fully recovered.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
OK, OK, OK
Well I actually had several posts in the "drafts" section and never published them because as my husband will attest I'm somewhat of a perfectionist. I re-read them over and over again to make sure every post is perfect...well I'm too busy now!!
So from where I left off here's a quick catch you up:
I luckily didn't have to be admitted to the hospital because my Midwife was wonderful and gave me a number of suggestions to get my amniotic fluid up and my blood pressure down (although I truly believe it was only up because they mentioned c-section!) anyway we were very lucky I wasn't admitted although it was an eye opener and many of our family were on high alert and ready to help out. In situations like that it's nice to know we have family that is so supportive.
Our little angel was born on Halloween! I had an appointment on the 30th and my amnio fluid had all but disappeared and the Dr's said I would need to be induced that day. I was allowed to go home and get my hospital bags, and I made use of my drive home to call my Midwife. She agreed that I would indeed have to labor and deliver in the hospital, it was some sad news for me but I was glad I had called the Midwife so I didn't have any "what if" questions later, I know that it was my only choice and where I needed to be for my health and the babies health.
Zackery Scott Gillette made his entrance October 31st at 9:21am, he was 6.8 lbs and was 19.25"
I'm convinced he waited for my mom to get to the hospital at 9am because his middle name is partly in honor of her (she was born in Scotland and has ancestry there through her mother). I was glad my mom made it to the hospital and thought she would be able to see him born, but the Dr. asked her and Lee to step out so they could get the room ready, we didn't realize he was basically crowning and before we all knew it he was born.
I'm convinced he waited for my mom to get to the hospital at 9am because his middle name is partly in honor of her (she was born in Scotland and has ancestry there through her mother). I was glad my mom made it to the hospital and thought she would be able to see him born, but the Dr. asked her and Lee to step out so they could get the room ready, we didn't realize he was basically crowning and before we all knew it he was born.
It was a great labor and delivery, Dr. Wickstrom was amazing. She was gentle and offered me lots of help to keep me calm and relaxed. She understood I was in a delicate position and scared considering Dani's labor and delivery. I cannot explain how amazing she was, it was beyond words, but I am truly grateful my Doula Sarah Wallbaum led me to her.
Zackery has been a great baby, he is sweet and loving and started smiling a couple of days ago. Josh and I are "seasoned" parents and are doing better with the lack of sleep than we did with the other kids. I doubt we're getting more sleep, we just seem to be able to deal with it better.
Lukas is a GREAT big brother and loves Zackery so much. He often comes up when he's fussy and tries to calm him down by telling him, "Hey baby Zackery, it's your brother" then plays with him.
Dani is 2. That sentence alone should explain the trouble we're having with her :o) But I guess I could expand that and say that she's in total love with Zack and loves having her own real live baby doll in the house. It's been almost 2 months now and she still beams when she sees him. She wants to hold him all the time and yesterday I physically had to pry her arms from around his stomach to get him back. She's having some trouble with her speech so she has a Dr's appt. in a couple of weeks to test her hearing. I guess she's been having some ear infections but we've never known because she doesn't show any signs of pain :o(
Josh's mom had to be admitted to the hospital and they did surgery, it was successful and they didn't find anymore cancer, which was a huge blessing. We're hoping she gets to come home soon to enjoy Christmas.
Zackery was blessed along with his cousin Leah on Sunday, Dec. 20th (also my Grandma Powell's birthday). We were lucky enough to have my sister Melissa her husband Tommy and their Son, Nathaniel (Nate) come up from Oklahoma Nate got to pass sacrament and that was really awesome to see. We were also blessed to have my brother Steven, his wife Danielle and their baby girl Addison come up as well. Addison was born in April and this is only the 2nd time I've seen her in person. I'm glad Danielle has a blog so I get to see pictures pretty frequently. Josh's Uncle Bill, Aunt Cheryl & Aunt Diana also made it up for the blessing.
Another special person in attendance was Scott Young. He was a high school counselor of mine and in fact played a pretty big part in my life when times were tough. I won't go into all of that but I was set on using the name in honor of this man. Without him in my life at that time I may never had made it though.
So you're all caught up. With the new year I'll try to keep this updated as often as possible with pictures of the kids and of course (and the driving factor in making this blog) when Josh has more surgery information.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
So Tomorrow is D-Day
D-Day as in decision day.
The Dr came in on Wednesday after my NST and said that the baby looks good, but that I had high blood pressure. It was 150/90 even after I had been laying in bed for the 1/2 hour test. I ususally have very normal blood pressure. Then he said that it would be a good possibility that I would be admitted to the hospital on Friday and watched closely to determine when the best time would be to delver Zackery. He said it's a delicate balance of where the best place for Zackery to develop is, right now he's still better off inside but conditions could change and then it would be better to let him finish developing on the outside.
So everything is now in WTHeck mode and Josh and I are scared, worried, hopeful and everything in between and sideways. I'm on bed rest but with Luke, Dani and Josh on crutches bed rest is more like a dream
We"re going to take it day by day at this point and see what happens
The Dr came in on Wednesday after my NST and said that the baby looks good, but that I had high blood pressure. It was 150/90 even after I had been laying in bed for the 1/2 hour test. I ususally have very normal blood pressure. Then he said that it would be a good possibility that I would be admitted to the hospital on Friday and watched closely to determine when the best time would be to delver Zackery. He said it's a delicate balance of where the best place for Zackery to develop is, right now he's still better off inside but conditions could change and then it would be better to let him finish developing on the outside.
So everything is now in WTHeck mode and Josh and I are scared, worried, hopeful and everything in between and sideways. I'm on bed rest but with Luke, Dani and Josh on crutches bed rest is more like a dream
We"re going to take it day by day at this point and see what happens
Monday, September 28, 2009
Little crazy around here
SO I'm sorry for not updating until now :o(
There has been quite a lot going on and I don't even know where I left off so I'll just give you a quick scoop of the latest.
Josh is doing ok. His leg still hurts all the time, and some days are pretty unbearable for him. He's working a full 8 hours a day now and gets rides to and from work from his co-workers, mostly Brad. Everyone at his work has been amazing and it's nice for him to finally be in a job where everyone actually cares about each other and it's not just a "job" but they seem more like family.
Workman's comp is still giving us grief, they finally paid for Josh's prescriptions we had to buy out of pocket, and some shoe lifts (we've been trying for that one for over a year) but they have refused to reimburse us for any of the expense of having someone else drive Josh to work or for babysitting when I have to drive him to the hospital. It's so stupid - if I actually worked outside of the home they would have to pay for my time off work (that's what I get from our lawyer anyway). So being a stay-at-home mom doesn't count in the eyes of WC.
Luke is funnier than ever. He cracks us up on a daily basis. He came in early one morning and after Josh helped him change his pants (had an accident :o( Josh asked for a kiss.
Luke exclaimed, "Oh, I ran out of those. I'll need to save up my money and get more at the Kiss store."
Josh, "Oh, ok where is the Kiss store."
Luke, "Well it's really far away, you wouldn't be able to see the sign."
His prayers are also very cute and need to be taped to enjoy them over and over again. He's started demanding to say his own prayers with no help. He's managed to "bless our brains," "bless McDonalds, Sonic, and Burger King and all their toys," (slightly disturbing to me) "bless all the people in our town," "Thank you Jesus for all that you did for me and all that I do for you"
Dani is also blooming into quite the little lady. She isn't talking yet but she's picking up sign language quite well. She does say Mama and Dada but it isn't real regular. She pants like a dog when she sees Sophie and when you ask her what a dog says...I find it super cute.
She is a girl and prone to drama though, she has started pointing her finger at Luke when she starts crying. I may or may not have seen what actually happened but it's usually his fault. She still follows him everywhere and wants to play with whatever he has. Luke can be a mean brother and shoves and pushes her out of the way...she in turn gets very angry and has started biting him!! (oh great...I got one of "those" kids!!) I've started putting her in "time out," and she cries and walks over to the time out corner (she's seen Luke in it plenty of times)...but usually just turns around and comes right back.
She LOVES to read books and gets super excited when Josh gets home. He can usually get her to sit on his lap for a while and read to her, it's a cute tradition I hope continues.
Me - well I guess this will be mostly a baby Zackery post. Last Friday I had my sonogram and they found that he is continuing to lay sideways! :o( I've been doing everything I can to get him to turn, and he had gone down once, but I guess he is just liking laying sideways...it's always a different position when I go in! Also my amnio fluid is low, and they are concerned about that. Now I have to go in on Wednesday and do a Non-Stress Test then on Friday I go in for another Non-Stress Test and sonogram. If they find on the sonogram on Friday that my amnio fluid level has gone down or that Zackery hasn't grown they are talking c-section (because he's sideways).
So this leaves me very nervous and worried (the last c-section didn't go so well...despite what some people like to believe and gossip about I really did feel everything, every cut and tear). I don't want him born at 35 weeks. I'm not ready for a newborn. Josh is still on crutches (we had originally thought he would be off them by now). Dani is still such a baby to me. I don't know how 5 weeks will make that much difference but it seems to be huge right now.
I am going to the YMCA all this week and getting in the water for 2 hours a day like the Dr. wanted. She said that the water will help the blood flow to Zackery and help him grow. I'm also drinking water like it is going out of style. I hope all the efforts will show some improvement on Friday...cross your fingers.
Ok...so that should have gotten you all caught up.
There has been quite a lot going on and I don't even know where I left off so I'll just give you a quick scoop of the latest.
Josh is doing ok. His leg still hurts all the time, and some days are pretty unbearable for him. He's working a full 8 hours a day now and gets rides to and from work from his co-workers, mostly Brad. Everyone at his work has been amazing and it's nice for him to finally be in a job where everyone actually cares about each other and it's not just a "job" but they seem more like family.
Workman's comp is still giving us grief, they finally paid for Josh's prescriptions we had to buy out of pocket, and some shoe lifts (we've been trying for that one for over a year) but they have refused to reimburse us for any of the expense of having someone else drive Josh to work or for babysitting when I have to drive him to the hospital. It's so stupid - if I actually worked outside of the home they would have to pay for my time off work (that's what I get from our lawyer anyway). So being a stay-at-home mom doesn't count in the eyes of WC.
Luke is funnier than ever. He cracks us up on a daily basis. He came in early one morning and after Josh helped him change his pants (had an accident :o( Josh asked for a kiss.
Luke exclaimed, "Oh, I ran out of those. I'll need to save up my money and get more at the Kiss store."
Josh, "Oh, ok where is the Kiss store."
Luke, "Well it's really far away, you wouldn't be able to see the sign."
His prayers are also very cute and need to be taped to enjoy them over and over again. He's started demanding to say his own prayers with no help. He's managed to "bless our brains," "bless McDonalds, Sonic, and Burger King and all their toys," (slightly disturbing to me) "bless all the people in our town," "Thank you Jesus for all that you did for me and all that I do for you"
Dani is also blooming into quite the little lady. She isn't talking yet but she's picking up sign language quite well. She does say Mama and Dada but it isn't real regular. She pants like a dog when she sees Sophie and when you ask her what a dog says...I find it super cute.
She is a girl and prone to drama though, she has started pointing her finger at Luke when she starts crying. I may or may not have seen what actually happened but it's usually his fault. She still follows him everywhere and wants to play with whatever he has. Luke can be a mean brother and shoves and pushes her out of the way...she in turn gets very angry and has started biting him!! (oh great...I got one of "those" kids!!) I've started putting her in "time out," and she cries and walks over to the time out corner (she's seen Luke in it plenty of times)...but usually just turns around and comes right back.
She LOVES to read books and gets super excited when Josh gets home. He can usually get her to sit on his lap for a while and read to her, it's a cute tradition I hope continues.
Me - well I guess this will be mostly a baby Zackery post. Last Friday I had my sonogram and they found that he is continuing to lay sideways! :o( I've been doing everything I can to get him to turn, and he had gone down once, but I guess he is just liking laying sideways...it's always a different position when I go in! Also my amnio fluid is low, and they are concerned about that. Now I have to go in on Wednesday and do a Non-Stress Test then on Friday I go in for another Non-Stress Test and sonogram. If they find on the sonogram on Friday that my amnio fluid level has gone down or that Zackery hasn't grown they are talking c-section (because he's sideways).
So this leaves me very nervous and worried (the last c-section didn't go so well...despite what some people like to believe and gossip about I really did feel everything, every cut and tear). I don't want him born at 35 weeks. I'm not ready for a newborn. Josh is still on crutches (we had originally thought he would be off them by now). Dani is still such a baby to me. I don't know how 5 weeks will make that much difference but it seems to be huge right now.
I am going to the YMCA all this week and getting in the water for 2 hours a day like the Dr. wanted. She said that the water will help the blood flow to Zackery and help him grow. I'm also drinking water like it is going out of style. I hope all the efforts will show some improvement on Friday...cross your fingers.
Ok...so that should have gotten you all caught up.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Exhausted
I got a call at 7am this morning, our neighbor Suzi needed to borrow a car because apparently one of her friends accidently kept Suzi's car keys. Ok...fine come on over...then I realize that Josh's truck isn't being used she could take that...except Josh reminds me it's out of gas. So she takes my van, it's really not a big deal, but it means (because I didn't want to transfer car seats...especially that early in the morning) that the kids and I are staying home all day. We usually try to go to the YMCA Monday, Wednesday, and Friday...so it makes for a long day when we're cooped up.
We're planning on going down to Oklahoma City this weekend to see my family. This will be the first time we get to see baby Addison, my brother, Steven's little girl. It's been hard not being able to go down sooner, it was Josh's leg or money problems but one thing after another kept happening. Hopefully the drive down doesn't take that long...it's taken us like 10 hours before because of having to stop every couple of minutes for the kids (it should only take 6 hrs). I'm hoping Josh will be able to get off at noon on Friday so we can head down and be there by 6-8pm...enough time to get them in bed when we get there.
While we're gone Gina Wheeler will be painting the boy's room...I'm SOOOO EXCITED it will be super cute when it's done. It will be a transportation theme bedroom, we even have a ceiling fan that looks like a plane. I'll post lots of pictures when it's completed. We did get the new crib up for Dani and move the older one in for the baby. The new crib doesn't have a drop down side so we thought it would be better for Dani because we don't really need that at this point, it also matches her dresser a little better. We'll be doing Dani's room too, I'm thinking light pink with a ribbon border then dark pink blocks or strips from there down. We'll hire Gina to do the mural in her room too, in Little Suzi's Zoo of course.
I'll post pictures soon of OK, and then the rooms :o)
We're planning on going down to Oklahoma City this weekend to see my family. This will be the first time we get to see baby Addison, my brother, Steven's little girl. It's been hard not being able to go down sooner, it was Josh's leg or money problems but one thing after another kept happening. Hopefully the drive down doesn't take that long...it's taken us like 10 hours before because of having to stop every couple of minutes for the kids (it should only take 6 hrs). I'm hoping Josh will be able to get off at noon on Friday so we can head down and be there by 6-8pm...enough time to get them in bed when we get there.
While we're gone Gina Wheeler will be painting the boy's room...I'm SOOOO EXCITED it will be super cute when it's done. It will be a transportation theme bedroom, we even have a ceiling fan that looks like a plane. I'll post lots of pictures when it's completed. We did get the new crib up for Dani and move the older one in for the baby. The new crib doesn't have a drop down side so we thought it would be better for Dani because we don't really need that at this point, it also matches her dresser a little better. We'll be doing Dani's room too, I'm thinking light pink with a ribbon border then dark pink blocks or strips from there down. We'll hire Gina to do the mural in her room too, in Little Suzi's Zoo of course.
I'll post pictures soon of OK, and then the rooms :o)
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Today...and a slight detour at the end...
Well today was a very long and very sad day.
Great Uncle Howard's funeral was today. We wanted to be there for the visitation part as well, but didn't set the alarm counting on Luke to get us up as usual somewhere between 6-8am. Well I guess he decided to be "nice" today and apparently shut our door when he got up this morning and turned down the TV so we wouldn't hear him up (I think it has more to do with the fact that he got into brownies than he was being nice).
So we didn't get to Uncle Howard's funeral until about 11:30 when the visitation was over and it was time for the funeral to start. Dani of course couldn't sit still and I ended up having to take her out and since I was going Luke had to come too. Luke and I had a good conversation about being reverent and he did go back and sit down with Josh again for a little while. We'd really wanted to get a babysitter, but my mom was already babysitting Lee's grand kids, down at their house. Plus all my "favors" have all be used up with having to get a babysitter every Thursday for Josh's Dr's appointments.
Josh said it has been a long time since he broke down and cried at a funeral, but when they were playing the song, "That's my Job" he couldn't help himself. He said he was just remembering all the times he'd spent with G-Uncle Howard and it made him sad he was gone. He's also teared up when Ali was talking about all the things G-Uncle Howard was to his kids and told me later he hopes he can be half the Dad he was, I think that's such an awesome comment to make about a person.
We drove out to the cemetery and I stayed in the car with the kids so Josh could go out and listen to the graveside service. Then we went the family lunch, I remembered it from Great Aunt Edna's funeral. The kids ran a little wild and Dani got her pretty dress covered in tomato seeds. Uncle Gene scared Luke by telling him he was going to cut his fingers off. Luke flirted with Breea (not sure if I'm spelling that correctly - Josh's cousin, Jon's, girlfriend) and said "I see them all the time" because he has seen them about 3 times in the last couple of weeks. We saw Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Bill and Dani flirted with them...and pretty much everyone else at the lunch. While we were in line she went up and hugged a pregnant lady, and had someone else pick her up. She flirts all the time and waves at people, I love this age. Both the kids gave me a run for my money trying to climb the stairs, & running around.
We got home about 2:30 and I tried to put Luke down for a nap...wasn't happening! He had fallen asleep in the car but the minute I picked him up to take him inside he woke up...darn it. Dani went down without a fight...so did Josh :o) I should have taken a picture of our van on the way home everyone was asleep.
We went to a BBQ for a friend's b-day around 5:30 and I had to keep the kids at bay again. I'm not one of those parents who let my kids just run and play, without me close by. I'm just not. Luke kept trying to go in the house, well then I have to be in there with him or Josh has to go and Josh is pretty much out of the picture when it comes to chasing kids right now. So Luke had a bit of a fit. There wasn't even an adult that stayed inside so I could ask them to watch Luke, so he had to play outside. He ended up riding a trike down the backyard (it was pretty steep) and I just thought..."he's all boy!" He would just pull it back up to the top of the hill, get on and spread his legs out and FLY down the hill.
So now that I'm physically worn out, I'm also emotionally worn out. Some things have come to light about my in-laws that is troubling me. No worries, nothing to do with any of you, just some apparent thoughts about me that have now been revealed. A Blog is an online journal...but you can't really say what's on your mind can you? You can't really say what you want to say because then "everyone" can see it...but what if it's the truth? What if you want to say it to everyone? You can't even then because it's not socially acceptable. So I guess online blogs are not real journals after all. You can't say your boss is a total jerk, or you might get fired. You can't really blog about your latest fight with your husband...because eventually you'll make up. So blogs are really about the "nice" things (or sad I guess with regards to this post) that happen in your life. So by doing this blog am I painting a picture that things are all roses...well roses have thorns.
Great Uncle Howard's funeral was today. We wanted to be there for the visitation part as well, but didn't set the alarm counting on Luke to get us up as usual somewhere between 6-8am. Well I guess he decided to be "nice" today and apparently shut our door when he got up this morning and turned down the TV so we wouldn't hear him up (I think it has more to do with the fact that he got into brownies than he was being nice).
So we didn't get to Uncle Howard's funeral until about 11:30 when the visitation was over and it was time for the funeral to start. Dani of course couldn't sit still and I ended up having to take her out and since I was going Luke had to come too. Luke and I had a good conversation about being reverent and he did go back and sit down with Josh again for a little while. We'd really wanted to get a babysitter, but my mom was already babysitting Lee's grand kids, down at their house. Plus all my "favors" have all be used up with having to get a babysitter every Thursday for Josh's Dr's appointments.
Josh said it has been a long time since he broke down and cried at a funeral, but when they were playing the song, "That's my Job" he couldn't help himself. He said he was just remembering all the times he'd spent with G-Uncle Howard and it made him sad he was gone. He's also teared up when Ali was talking about all the things G-Uncle Howard was to his kids and told me later he hopes he can be half the Dad he was, I think that's such an awesome comment to make about a person.
We drove out to the cemetery and I stayed in the car with the kids so Josh could go out and listen to the graveside service. Then we went the family lunch, I remembered it from Great Aunt Edna's funeral. The kids ran a little wild and Dani got her pretty dress covered in tomato seeds. Uncle Gene scared Luke by telling him he was going to cut his fingers off. Luke flirted with Breea (not sure if I'm spelling that correctly - Josh's cousin, Jon's, girlfriend) and said "I see them all the time" because he has seen them about 3 times in the last couple of weeks. We saw Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Bill and Dani flirted with them...and pretty much everyone else at the lunch. While we were in line she went up and hugged a pregnant lady, and had someone else pick her up. She flirts all the time and waves at people, I love this age. Both the kids gave me a run for my money trying to climb the stairs, & running around.
We got home about 2:30 and I tried to put Luke down for a nap...wasn't happening! He had fallen asleep in the car but the minute I picked him up to take him inside he woke up...darn it. Dani went down without a fight...so did Josh :o) I should have taken a picture of our van on the way home everyone was asleep.
We went to a BBQ for a friend's b-day around 5:30 and I had to keep the kids at bay again. I'm not one of those parents who let my kids just run and play, without me close by. I'm just not. Luke kept trying to go in the house, well then I have to be in there with him or Josh has to go and Josh is pretty much out of the picture when it comes to chasing kids right now. So Luke had a bit of a fit. There wasn't even an adult that stayed inside so I could ask them to watch Luke, so he had to play outside. He ended up riding a trike down the backyard (it was pretty steep) and I just thought..."he's all boy!" He would just pull it back up to the top of the hill, get on and spread his legs out and FLY down the hill.
So now that I'm physically worn out, I'm also emotionally worn out. Some things have come to light about my in-laws that is troubling me. No worries, nothing to do with any of you, just some apparent thoughts about me that have now been revealed. A Blog is an online journal...but you can't really say what's on your mind can you? You can't really say what you want to say because then "everyone" can see it...but what if it's the truth? What if you want to say it to everyone? You can't even then because it's not socially acceptable. So I guess online blogs are not real journals after all. You can't say your boss is a total jerk, or you might get fired. You can't really blog about your latest fight with your husband...because eventually you'll make up. So blogs are really about the "nice" things (or sad I guess with regards to this post) that happen in your life. So by doing this blog am I painting a picture that things are all roses...well roses have thorns.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Testing out a new scrapbook software
So I bought this new software for "easy" digital scrapbook pages thinking it would help when the new baby gets here to add some "spice" to just putting pictures on the blog. So this was my first page. Dani is now 19 months old and I need to get her pictures done, so when I saw these pictures it just made me think of Luke at that age. He had some cute curls too :o)
It's late so I'm not skipping Dani, I'll just do one for her in the morning :o) Night all.
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