Kamden Daniel...in like a lamb, out like a Kanon

We woke up Saturday (the 1st) to a normal Saturday. I was still having contractions every 15-30 minutes and had basically just gotten used to it. It was barely different from my pre-term labor, except a little more painful. A friend had offered to cut/color my hair (ironically, the last time she had cut/colored it, was the day I found out I was pregnant)(I know, I should get my hair done more, but that wasn't the point.) So anyway, I went and did that, after starting a ham in the crock pot. After the haircut/color I headed to McDonalds, because for some reason I just couldn't get a greasy burger out of my head (and Burger King was WAY busy.) Then headed home, did some laundry, went to Walmart and Smiths...you know. Typical day. Obviously these contractions were nothing to stop me... just maybe annoying. (Not going to lie... I was starting to feel like "ok, if this isn't going to turn into something then i could really handle it if they'd stop!") So, just to brag... let me recap. On the day I was in labor and had Kamden I went grocery shopping, made a ham dinner, and got my hair done. I'm that awesome. ;) At 7:30ish I went in to lay down while Luke put the kids to bed. When Luke came in the room after kids were in bed I said "Man, these contractions are really feeling strong, but still not regular." That's when he told me that when the kids went to bed, Luke took Kaden downstairs to bed and prayed with him. Kaden's prayer: "Dear Jesus, please let momma have the baby tonight." (is that not sooo sweet?) It was about an hour later, when I was SO sick of random, somewhat painful (gaining momentum in the ouch department, but still extremely irregular) that I decided "I want to KNOW if this is doing anything at all." I just wanted to know if I should have hope, or not! Now, doctors always say to wait til the contractions are 5 minutes apart for an hour to come...but we called the hospital and they said come just in case. So we called a friend to come watch the kids (THANKS BRENT AND CLAIRE) and arrived at the ER (since it was after hours) entrance at 9:30PM. Side story: In the ER there was a young girl with a young 10 day old baby. After I checked in we had to wait for a security guard to escort us to OB... so this girl decided she needed to be miss chatty and asked if I was inducing. No. So then she decided that I needed to know how to have a baby. She assured me that I would need an epidural and that it would be my best friend. She warned me it might make me throw up, because that's what it did to her. Oh and she named her baby Zaidon because she couldn't have a popular name. And then her mom joined in to tell again how much I really needed to get an epidural. I was trying so hard to be a good listener...but I really couldn't care less what they thought. Finally, as a strong contraction hit, I turned and asked if the security guard was here yet... and that's when I heard the mom and daughter say to each other "OH, I THINK SHE'S IN LABOR!" (um... what DID you think I was there for if I was not inducing?) Anyway...the guard went to take us up and then realized she had to have the ER receptionist open a door for us. (At this point I was wondering how someone who works nights could NOT know that?? And was a little annoyed. This night was not starting well...not how I hoped labor would go!) ANYWAY. By the time I was checked in and up to my room (not a delivery room)around 10pm I soon realized this was the real thing.Partly because it felt like my water was leaking, but mostly because the contractions were so painful I couldn't talk through them anymore.This was what they say you should have for an hour before going in. My contractions were still about 7 minutes apart, but when she checked me she said "You're not going home tonight." (It's that moment. The one you hope for and dread. You want the baby out...but the labor/delivery?????) I was a 5.5, so nothing crazy or exciting. When she asked if I wanted an epidural, I was ready to say YES. I'm not sure why but when she told me that I was a 5.5 I suddenly realized that with Kate I had gone from a 5 to a 10 in about 1/2 hour. So I mentioned it to the nurse, all the while thinking "She won't believe me" and "why would I think it'll go like that without an epidural?" But she did believe me and kicked into high gear. Within a few minutes she was ready to move me to a delivery room, but I was in so much pain I realized I needed a wheelchair. (Never thought that would be me!) By the time we got to the delivery room and up on the bed I was shaking. Luke asked if I was cold, but I wasn't. I heard the nurse say to anther nurse "She's presenting signs of transistion!" (which means you are about 8cm). Sure enough she checked me and I was a good 7.5cm. I kept telling them I might be wrong about how fast it might go, but they stepped it into even higher gear to get the room totally ready. At that point they called the doctor, and started begging me to wait til he got there to deliver. I told them I trusted them completely to deliver, and if I needed to push...i WOULD push. It was 10:30 (only 1/2 hour to go from a 5-10!!!) At some point in those 30 minutes I realized there would be NO time for an epidural and that was the biggest mental block for me to get through. After I got to an 8 and the pain was more pressure than contractions I realized the epidural had never helped that part anyway-it felt exactly the same. I had just THOUGHT it'd be 10 times worse. The doctor made it on time, much to the nurse's relief) and after maybe 7-10 pushes he was born! While I was pushing the doctor had told me that he could see hair. At that point, I was convinced it was a BOY (if I hadn't been convinced before!) So when he was born the doctor had to remind me to look and see what he was! I was SO sure... It definitely makes me laugh to remember the doctor saying "Are you going to look to see what it is?" and my inward realization that I really didn't KNOW, and I better look! It was a fun surprise, even if I wasn't very surprised! He was born at 11:03PM (Only one hour after I even realized I was having a baby that night!...I remember saying to Luke at 10:30pm "Do you think we'll have a Sept 1 or 2nd baby? I laugh now, at the thought.) Kamden Daniel was 7lb 2oz and was 19.5inches long. Except it would be a full 24 hours before we named him that! We struggled between Kamden and Kannon. Afterall, he came into this world like a Cannon (hense the title of the blog)...And we struggled between Daniel and Truth for his middle name. Somehow we named him. I couldn't tell you how... but we love it and it fits him! We are so blessed. And he has been a super easy baby so far. Except maybe the run to the walk-in at 13 days old... but that's a story for another time.

more "normal" life for us...

I think in the last 3 days we did more than a normal (busy) week! First, last Thursday (Aug 30th) Kaden had his last x-rays of his arm and was given the go-ahead to go without his splint/cast. Can you say HAPPY BOY??? He was so excited, and I'm not gonna lie, I was too! On Friday (31st), we went to a friend's house before my OB appointment to play. The kids were riding bikes outside on the somewhat sloped driveway (more sloped than ours) and suddenly we heard a scream. I wasn't sure immediately if the scream was a happy squeal or a bad scream...it didn't help that I was sitting at the top of the driveway and the scream came from the bottom- behind our van. Pretty soon, as I got up to go check, I saw Kaden coming toward me silent from a lack of air... he was hysterical. From that point on he held his arm (same arm) and cried off and on. I debated: was this real? Did it just scare him since the cast was off? etc... and I couldn't do much because by the time I had him calmed down it was time for me to go to my OB appointment. So i headed to that, leaving the kids with my friend (thank you Lauren!) and was informed that I had not grown bigger, gained weight etc, and so they needed to do an ultrasound and if there were low fluids we would be inducing. Also, the Dr went ahead and stripped my membranes and told me I was a good 3 and almost fully effaced. I was a little nervous. I hadn't told them I had a kid back home with a possible broken arm and for the life of me couldn't figure out how I would be induced AND get his arm checked out. Thankfully the ultrasound showed my fluids to be a 7.5. If it had been a 7 we would have been sent to the hospital to induce! I was relieved. Meanwhile, Kaden was still babying his arm, so I made an appointment with his pediatrician (seeing as it was friday before a 3 day weekend, of course!). We knew she would send us to the hospital for xrays but wanted to avoid the wait of the ER. Luke came with me to the appointment because, being 38 weeks pregnant, I was not sure I would even be able to go help with the xrays. It turned out to be so good that Luke went (thank you Sherilyn for coming to stay with Kate for us!) because as brave as Kaden was and as hard as he tried to do what they wanted, there was one position that just hurt him soooo badly. He would become almost hysterical, but they HAD to have an x-ray... My heart hurt for him. But Luke was able to stay with him for each xray, and I wouldn't have been able to. side note: when we checked into the hospital for his x-rays, the lady checking us in did a total double take. She looked at the orders for x-rays, back to her screen and back to the orders and said, "Diiiiid....he just have x-rays yesterday?" Yes.. he did. They were for a better reason. She was totally amazed. Then when we got to the radiation wing the x-ray tech came to get us and was like "Hey buddy... didn't I just do x-rays on you?" Oh my. It was then that I started praying that no one turn us in to family services or something!! It is just so crazy. Also, I told Kaden he is not allowed to get popular at places like hospitals and jails! ANYWAY... Meanwhile, I start having contractions. Nothing big. Just more notice-able than normal. not too regular...not to painful...nothing crazy. Didn't think anything of them, except that they were there. We finally got all the x-rays needed (not as easy this time around, this break seemed to be a lot more painful than the last one) and were never actually TOLD his arm was broken, but were told that we needed to head down to the ER to get a splint. They almost made us check in down there, but thankfully they just treated him as an out-patient (the ER was FULL... we were glad to skip that wait.) By this time it was almost 5pm and he was tired of being at doctors, and hungry, and we weren't in much better moods. (Even though on the way home Luke commented to me that he was glad I was handling it all so well.. all I could do was laugh. It was just too crazy.)He ended up with a cast from his wrist to his underarm that is not removable this time. I'm just glad we are past the hottest time of year, for his sake. So that evening Kaden (while praying with Luke), before bed, prayed: "Dear Jesus, Please let Momma have the baby tomorrow, because she wants to. Amen." Sweetest prayer ever.... see next post for answer to his prayer :)

Wow, it's been a while. and the last post was barely considered a post. It was more like an "I got half way through and pooped out" kind of wanna-be post. Sometime around the end of July (27th-ish, maybe?) Kaden went back to the surgeon for more x-rays of his arm. I had hoped to be done, but instead we were sent up to Physical Therapy where they could make him a better cast. After an hour up there (and 2 little kids who were VERY ready to come home for lunch) we had a new "splint" for Kaden. We do like it better because he can use his arm, and it stays (no more re-doing ace wrap 16 times a day!). It can also get wet as long as we have time to let the strap dry out. (It straps around the trunk of his body.) When I have my computer back, I'll have to post some pictures. Anyway, he was sent home with an appointment for 3 weeks later. That is this Friday. Today i haven't even remembered to put on his cast, and yesterday I forgot to take it with us to the pool... I am pretty sure we just need to be DONE with this whole broken arm fiasco. Kaden is really sick of the splint, which makes it harder for me to want to make him wear it when it seems like after 7 weeks it should be good!! Katelyn has really begun to add words to her vocabulary. The latest are "towel" "bottle" (as in, her nalgene bottle,...as opposed to drinking out of ANYTHING else.) "drink" (WITH the K at the end, as opposed to whatever sound she used to make for that word) and many more. Of course, most of her words don't actually sound like the words, but I'm just happy to understand more and more! She went through a phase (a couple weeks long) where she wouldn't give Luke hugs or let him kiss her. If he did manage to kiss her she'd get mad and "wipe it off" violently! He was so sad. Now she can't give him enough hugs and he has to trick her to get out the door, basically. I tell him, this is a girl for you! Today I'm 36 weeks! I'm getting more and more ready to face labor, and meet this baby! I am sure enjoying the last few weeks of relaxing though. A few times now I've taken afternoon naps. I keep reminding myself that in 4 weeks this will all be different...I should probably start setting an alarm for every 2-3 hours just to remind myself what having a newborn is like!!!!! For now, I'll let myself enjoy the peace...and try to ignore this ginormous belly! The pool closes at the end of this week, so the last 2 weeks we've been trying to make use of it as much as possible. The kids love it. If I even show them their swim suits Kate is the first to throw her hands up (like touchdown) and yell "POOOOOOO!!!!!" (she hasn't quite mastered the L sound) and then it's all over... we BETTER be going to the pool. Today we didn't go because it's only in the 60s. Of course, next week, after it's closed, we're scheduled to be back in the mid 90s. I don't really feel like there is a lot more to post about. We have been keeping very busy, but not really doing anything of note. I'm so thankful that the month of August has been so much better than July. By the last day of July I was ready to throw up the white flag... it was filled with trial after trial. August has been a much needed "normal"! Oh, I have cleaned out most of the closets in the house, and our bedroom got painted, and we have been very productive lately. Now if i could just convince myself to mop the floor or finish Kate's scrapbook!

Kaden informed me today that "When I turn 5 I want a tractor on my cake" (holding up John Deere Tractor) "with a road" (we gotta get this kid to a farm...lol) "and this time could you cover the road so it doesn't dry out so we can eat it?" I just assured him we could probably do that if we remember. He is NOT impressed that when I covered the cake I didn't cover the road and it dried out...and that was my excuse for not letting him eat it.

We had Kaden's birthday party on Friday the 13th. That morning we took him to the surgeon for his arm. They took more xrays which showed that his arm had displaced slightly since the first xrays (don't know how you avoid that when they make him go 2 weeks without a cast). Also found out his break is up so high on his arm that he can't have a cast. Instead he has a make-shift splint that goes on the outside of his arm and gets ace-wrapped on around his body. In some ways it's nice because we can take it off to bathe him, or let him cool off in the pool, and let him have a break from it during movies. (Which is ironic since he broke his arm while watching a movie!) In other ways it's a pain because he knows it can come off and that we won't let him have it off every time he wants to, and because it takes 2 ace wraps to get it on right which is just plain hot in this 100 degree July weather! He's been a trooper though. He gets to have this on for 2 weeks, then go back for more xrays to see if we are good to let him go without. Anyway, back to the birthday. We just did a very small party with my parents (Gramma and Boppa, who had him the previous 5 days in Lewistown and brought him back to us) I wish I could post some pictures of his time with them, but my computer broke again, so I do not have them available. As you can see in the above picture, I made him a Cars themed cake this year and he loved it. He go tons of good stuff for his birthday, but his favorites were definitely the legos. He has played legos every day without fail since his birthday! He also loved the remote control loader, and the cars toys he got. We had his friend Cheyanne over along with Matt and Laura (her parents) for the evening. It was a small party, but very fun! Kadenisms: "I have LOTS of cousins, and uncles and aunts! But, i like to stomp on ants, but probably not ants like Auntie Rose ... she wouldn't like that." Watching lightning and hearing thunder..."Hope Daddy doesn't get thundered away!" Watching the UPS truck drive away: "Kate! That's the toy truck, but it didn't stop at our house today." (Apparently he distinctly remembers when they dropped of the water table for Kate's bday.) Kaden and Kate sitting at the table coloring/cutting. Kaden: "Kate, do you like your fingers?" Kate: "Noooo." (favorite word) Kaden: "MOM! Katelyn wants her fingers cut off with my scissors!" Mom: "When you are done with your fruit loops you can have something else, like fruit." Kaden: "Mom, the people at Walmart put fruit in the cereal, that's why it's FRUIT LOOPS. so we can just have more cereal." Kaden to 6 month pregnant Mom: Does your baby like chocolate milk? Mom: I guess so. Kaden: Did you drink chocolate milk when I was in your tummy? Mom: Yes, I did... Kaden: Yah, and I opened my mouth wide and tried to catch it! While Kaden was finishing up lunch he was watching Luke and I peel/slice potatoes and throw them into my large pot to boil for mashed potatoes...then he went down to play. Later as we were sitting at dinner Luke got up and got the same big pot (this time boiling corn) and drained it. Kaden saw the corn in the pot and got the biggest look of pure amazement and exclaimed, "MOM! you made corn out of mashed potatoes!" Kaden as I'm pouring cereal for breakfast: "Mom! Here's a clean spot for me to make a mess." (My suspisions are confirmed.) Kaden: "Mom I changed my mind and it's a boy. Now I just need to think of my favorite name...because Cassie is a girl name." Kaden: "MOM!!! Katelyn's turning on the water!!" (hose) Mom: "well, would you go turn it off please?" (a little annoyed that Kate figured out how to turn the hose on...) Kaden: "BUT MOM! Every TWO SECONDS she turns it on then I turn it off!" Mom: "I love you, Kaden, night night" Kaden: "I'll love you forever, mom." Melt my heart. (not really a kadenism, but too cute not to remember forever): We were going to see Curious George at the library on morning. For the event (which he was UBER excited about) Kaden donned his curious george socks, and even got me to dig out his too-small curious george shirt from when Kate was born, and his monkey backpack. He told me on the way that he "hoped that Curious George wouldn't "throw pancakes at his face," or he'll be "really mad." I assured him that wouldn't happen...but he is sure that you never know with a monkey like that. Kate-isms: At first it was cute: Katelyn will start "sing-songing" to herself.. completely wordless songs. Then Kaden will try to talk to her and she will just slowly get louder and louder as he repeats what he's saying to try to communicate to her. They will go on for about 5 minutes until she is humming at the top of her lungs and he is overly frustrated.

Busy July

I'm so glad my search bar for my internet has the "drop-down" helps... I don't think I'd be able to find my blog ever again if that failed me. Today I googled sure-jell to look up a raspberry peach freezer jam recipe. Instead I found a plethera of sites instructing me on how to use sure-jell to mask my marijuana use in a urine test. Without even opening the links, I also learned that it does not work. So, you will not find me downing a pack of sure-jell. Ever. Which might come as a relief to you. I took Katelyn out to play with her water table today while I picked raspberries (for said jam) and she lasted a whole 5 seconds until she realized Daddy was working in the garage. Daddy's tools trump anything and everything mom has to offer as far as entertainment. Every.Time. The last I posted, I had said Kaden had a trip to the dr in his near future for his hurt elbow/shoulder. (It fluctuated based on the moment.) Well, last Tuesday we did take him in. I got an appointment scheduled and Luke came home so we could all go. I needed to be there because (sorry Luke) I'm just a little more familiar with the dr and what needs to be said/done/paid/etc... (that came out nicer-sounding than I anticipated, whew) But I could not be trusted to drive/make it through the appointment without Luke due to my overdose (or close to it) of meds for my on-going allergic reaction. Thankfully, we got to see Mindy-who is actually a Physician's Assistant- for his arm. I like her...in fact, I've consistantly liked the PA's better than the Dr's at this office. She checked him out, noticing- as we had- that he was not swollen or bruised and could not seem to pinpoint WHERE it hurt. Yet, she was convinced (as were we) that he was truly in pain, even tho all outward signs pointed toward fake. She ordered xrays and we were sent to the hospital. At least it wasn't the ER this time. I, again, was thankful that Luke was with me since when we got to the x-ray department we realized that Kate would NOT be allowed back and since I am obviously pregnant, I would not be allowed back either. I am quite sure Kaden would not have gone alone. So Luke and him headed back while Kate and I waited with a few very chatty fellow waiting room-waiters. (Apparently there were 4 people all with one person..and they were outgoing.) Kate thoroughly enjoyed their attention...good thing too, because we were there about an hour. Kaden got his x-rays (elbow, shoulder, collarbone) and came back to wait. Then the nurse informed us that we needed to stay in the waiting room because the dr wanted to talk to us. She then pointed to the phone on the wall (which I hadn't noticed) and told us to answer it when it rang...it would be the doctor. That was a new experience. It took about another half hour for the Dr to call and let us know that his arm was broken. We never did see x-rays, and we still sometimes wonder if he faked it. He just doesn't seem to be in enough pain to actually have a broken arm! We were then sent back to the dr's office to get a sling and ace wrap since they didn't want to cast it for a week. That took another half hour or so. It was a long time for all of us, and I was just very glad I had brought my benedryl. Kaden was supposed to get his cast Monday, (tomorrow) but since we had long-planned a trip to his Gramma and Boppa's house we asked if it could be sooner. No, it could not. Instead they moved it back til next Friday. We went ahead and met my parents in Billings and gave them Kaden for his MUCH anticipated 5 days with them. We are sad that it will be somewhat hampered by his arm, but I think he will have a great time anyway. They called last night for some last-minute instruction on his allergy meds and he was still up at 9pm and had (after driving home from Billings) already helped them water their garden, visited Gramma Gehman and presented her with his Peach Jam present which he insisted we needed to give her, gotten the wading pool out, and eaten dinner...all in 3 hours. Needless to say, he is having a GREAT time. I am so happy for him to have this time with them. Every day last week he would ask at least once (sometimes several times) "What day is today?" and this is what the rest of the conversation would be: mom: "Monday" Kaden: "What comes after Monday?" M: "Tuesday" K: "What comes after Tuesday?" M: "Wednesday" etc... M: "Friday" K: "What comes after Friday?" M: "Saturday" K: "AND I GET TO GO TO GRAMMA AND BOPPA'S!!!!" I would think he should know his days of the week in order by now.... Katelyn is doing JUST FINE without her partner in crime, so far. Granted, it's only been a day. She is very much enjoying being the center of attention and being silly to get said attention. Today at breakfast I heard myself saying, "Stop teasing her".... (pause for 5 seconds).... "she's trying to eat, stop. Leave her alone..." when I realized. "WAIT! IS KADEN HERE??? NO!!! WHY am I having to say these things???" Luke just shrugged. He had wasted no time picking up where Kaden left off. LOL! HOW is it already so far into July? And is it really possible that when I see my little boy again he will be FOUR!? I have a party to plan, cooking club, babysitting night, speech therapy for Kate and several other things to do as well before Thursday. We have 10 weeks until this baby is due... at the rate things are going that will feel like tomorrow! I'm really not sure I'm ready for labor.. bring on the rest of it! Someday I will post more Kadenisms. And Kate is talking just enough that we might even get to include her soon!

House of needies...

So, in my last post I neglected to mention that Kaden hurt his arm the same day I was at the ER for my hives. My first thought as he was screaming that he hurt himself falling off the couch was "if we have to make another trip to the ER I'm going to just die." We did not take him to the ER because after further inspection of his arm and asking him some questions we quickly came to the conclusion that he had over extended it. Nothing broken, nothing too terrrible. It was also right at bedtime, so we didn't know how much of the meltdown was truly his arm, and how much was just he needed some sleep. Although, he cried enough that we did know it wasn't totally just from being tired. Now that it's been a few days we are realizing that in the process of falling off the couch and over-extending his elbow, he also messed up his shoulder. It took us this long to figure that out mostly because he IS milking his "broken arm" (as he calls it) to the point of ridiculous. He wouldn't even open the door the other day til we MADE him. As if his right arm isn't perfectly fine...he would be perfectly happy to whine about everything and make us do everything for him. He cries when we even lift him under his armpits. And today I asked him to raise his arm above his head. He refused to even try it alone, so he used his good hand to lift it (ever so slowly) above his head. Then i told him to hold it there and let go. He tried and I could see in him that he wasn't faking as it shook and felt to his side. I could tell he had tried, and he was in tears at the end. I guess we'll head to the dr soon. The problem is, I don't trust myself under the influence of benedryl for the first 2ish hours... which leaves about a 1 hour window where I don't have the hives making me crazy or the benedryl making me sleep. How do you schedule an appt in that time frame??? bad timing, Kaden...bad bad timing! Poor Luke has gotten the brunt of taking care of this sad household full of needy people. He's done such a good job, but I can see it taking a toll on him too. We have date night tomorrow... I'm not sure we'll actually go on a date, but it'll be a good time to not have kids and just BE. And maybe my hives will be gone by then?

The month of June in a not-so-short nutshell

I just came here to update the blog and found a draft I'd never published. At least I have less to remember than I thought I did! Over the weekend of June 9-10, Luke went up to Montana for his parents 40th anniversary party. He left here saturday morning and got there about 5pm-in time for dinner with his parents and sister's family. He then stayed til about 4:30pm the next day and headed back to Gillette. So, he was there less than 24 hours... he was a tired guy when he got back. He was able to bring several coolers of much needed meat from both sets of parents, and some hand-me-down clothes from his sister, and some SAMS Club necessities while he was at it. Did I mention it was a BUSY 23 hours there? I don't remember a whole lot of what we had going on between then and now except VBS. This year I Co-directed VBS with a friend from church. She had a ton going on, so I think we both felt like VBS got a teensy bit overlooked...and it started to stress me out toward the end. I finally decided to just pray and let God know how I was feeling and purposely put my trust in Him to provide what was needed. I felt a lot better then and during the week of VBS God definitely made that provision! VBS started on Sunday the 24th... also, I ended up with a 18-20lb box of peaches that were NOT going to last another day. So after church Luke and I spent 4 hours washing, peeling, and finely chopping (in the food processor) all the peaches except about 8 which we saved to eat. We made 3 batches of freezer jam, then ran out of jars, sure-gel, and sugar. So I froze the remaining puree for another jam making session, maybe when the weather cools a bit! (it was over 100 the day I was doing this!) Then I left at 4 to head to the church to finish up setting up for VBS. It was a crazy night between setting up, registering all the kids (75 average), and making sure the volunteers for each age group and session had enough help. That night we had 14 four-year-old boys and 2 4-year-old girls. I was feeling bad for those teachers! BUT, at the end of the week when we did our "best behaved" awards it turned out that the nominees for that prize were 3 boys out of that group! I have nothing to say but GOOD about how VBS went. Each night we had exactly the help we needed, plenty of snacks and crafts prepared, and a great bunch of kids. I didn't even have to get up on stage and threaten them wiht "I'm NOT a nice person, and you DON'T want to come sit with me if you're naughty." Like last year! The downside to the week was that on the Friday before I had my normal OB appointment and had been having a LOT of contractions. Too many for my OB to be comfortable with. She thought they were due to a(nother) UTI and prescribed Macrobid (again). On Tuesday, when the contractions had only worsened, I called and they decided they needed to see me Thursday since it turned out I never did have the UTI. I went in on Thursday and they just did a few things to make sure I was not having pre-term labor and dilating or anything serious. They stopped my macrobid and once again it looked like I had a UTI. The very next morning I woke up with hives on my face and back of my arms. I searched high and low for benedryl (i have a history over very BAD allergic reactions when i have them...usually to bugs/spiders) and could find none but childrens. (Can we say "gross tasting"?) I called my dr, who said she thought it was probably an allergic reaction to macrobid and told me to take 25mg of benedryl every 8 hours. (That is less than half a normal dose, because of my pregnancy.) I did that all and thankfully Luke's jobsite had no contractors for the day so he was able to come home early to help me with kids through my benedryl fog. By that evening my hands were swollen to the point of "can't even make a fist" and raging with pain. The hives were everywhere. We called a doctor friend from the church who said to up the benedryl to 50mg every 6 hours, so we did that for the night. Somehow, miraculously, I slept fairly well all night...as long as I didn't try to graps my pillow or anything, and took my benedryl a half hour before i was supposed to. But when I got up in the morning it was BAAAAAAAD (as if it weren't already bad!) I was swollen from my fingertips half way up my arms, and my whole sides were one big hive, not to mention everywhere else. By this time I had tried the home remedies- oatmeal bath, baking soda bath, cold showers...I was willing to try ANYTHING. as I got out of yet another 30 second cold shower (which, by the way, does help the itching for a few minutes when your desperate) and looked at my fingers which were completely blue. Luke saw my eyes which were totally swollen and purple... that's when I realized we have to do more than benedryl! Even the insides of my ears were burning! So we called a friend to watch the kids and tried to decide between walk-in clinic or ER. At that point I had not felt the baby move in quite some time, and my contractions were totally gone. Our dr friend from church told us that at the walk in they would have to send us to either ER or OB floor of hospital if they were worried about the baby, so we opted to just start at the ER. I'm so glad we did. They got me right in (weird!) and the dr came to see me within a few minutes. He gave me some steroids and a prescription for more steroids and upped my benedryl again. By that time I had swollen up to almost my elbow and the hives had gotten worse (who knew they even COULD!) I was getting pretty depressed and wondering how bad could it GET? They checked baby's heartbeat- which was normal- and wouldn't you know it that about one minute later the baby decided to kick and squirm. (Isn't that always the case?) I guess we could ahve done the walkin clinic, but I don't care because we got treated so well at the ER. Also the ER doctor was able to call my OB dr to confer with her about his prescriptions, and checked my labs (that i'd done thursday) to make sure something major hadn't turned up. Thankfully, NOTHING. We are not 100% sure, but are being told to assume I am severly allergic to macrobid, which was probably what was causing the preterm labor and i had other symptoms of allergy that I hadn't noticed. (Like, feet hurting at night.... isn't that just pregnancy??? altho, the "pain" was a very weird sensation, not a normal achy feeling.) So here I am..able to type, and the swelling is back down to mostly just my hands (hence the reason I can even type, albeit a little uncomfortable!). About 5 hours after the steroids were in my system my hives were dissapearing almost as fast as they had come. I can still feel that I'm having the reaction, but am so thankful for the steroids taking the edge off! The pharmacist told us to expect a 3 day recovery. Let's just say I will never forget to tell a dr I'm allergic to Macrobid. And I'm so thankful it didn't turn into a breathing crisis (which I've had with bug/bees/spiders). All that to say, VBS week has sure been a full week! Oh, did i mention it was upper 90s and 100s for the week? This week I am looking forward to date night on Tuesday (we are now rotating date-night babysitting with 2 other families) and Luke having Wednesday off for the 4th. Then next Saturday we will meet my parents in Billings with Kaden so he can go spend 4ish days with my parents. THey will bring him back on his birthday (the 12th). I'll miss him a lot, but it will be fun to have a little extra one on one time with my Katelyn-girl. And make it easier to get his birthday party planned! So, I'm 29 weeks pregnant now...and hoping this was the most exciting week of pregnancy. Luke and I were joking while at the ER that it seems I only know how to do things in extremes: help in MOPS? why not co-coordinate, allergic reacion? the worse the better! baking bread? Why not do 8 loaves and freeze some? you know... I guess that's just me. Tomorrow is July 1 and I can't believe it!