Shopping must be in the pants....

Tonight, we had a nice 15% off coupon to shop at Kohl's since Liv works there. So, Joey took us all; I wanted a skirt for Easter, Joelle desperately needed jeans, Joey needed a belt and all the girls needed tights for Easter. Other than tights for the little girls, we were very successful. At one point, we had separated, Joey took the little girls to the bathroom and Anna went with me to look for a blouse. As we're wandering through the racks, Anna and I had this discussion:
Anna: "Do you like to shop for clothes, Mom?"
Me: "Absolutely."
Anna:"Me too."
Me:"You're my kind of girl, honey."
Anna:"I get most of my pants from you."
Me:"What?"
Anna:"Most of the pants I have, they're from you."
Me:"What pants?"
Anna:"You know how when we're born, I got some pants from you and some from dad."
Me:"Oooooooh. You mean GENES!"
And there were are, nearly rolling on the floor in the misses department..... Too funny, I'm still laughing.

My Elley...

I just can't believe my little Joelle is three. As I mentioned in my last post, we had a lovely pink party for her birthday on Sunday, which was held at Nanny's new "partment" at Joelle's request. We had pink streamers, pink balloons, pink tablecloth, pink plates, cups, utensils and a pink flower cake; and the birthday girl wore a pink dress, pink feather boa and a tiara. And today she spent all evening in big girl "unnerwear". They grow so fast!

I'm on the up-swing!

So, long story short - my trip to the hospital on Friday was not exactly what I'd expected. It ended up being much longer, much more involved and much more uncomfortable than anticipated. It was a long weekend, held together with Vicodin. But there were high points, like being able to watch Kate and her friends enjoy her mystery party and then throwing a lovely pink birthday party for my sweet Elley. But, today I went back to the dr and had my stent removed, which was quite un-fun, but am feeling much better now. And to top it off - Eva was able to resume nursing tonight, which she did with little hesitation, and I'm absolutely thrilled! It's going to take a little while to get my supply back, but she's doing extremely well. And I am just so happy to finally feel like we're getting back to a little bit of normal! Hallelujah! Thank you all for your prayers!

Here's a picture of my sweet pink princess on her 3rd birthday!

Tomorrow's a big day

So, I go in to the hospital at 6am tomorrow for my "procedure" and should be awake around noon. I figure that the up-side is that that will probably be the longest uninterrupted nap that I've had in a long time! I've been so blessed to have such precious friends rallying around me, offering to help in so many ways, cleaning, cooking, keeping the girls, etc. I'm so blessed. I still feel like I have very little idea what to expect, but am looking forward to some relief.
They told me that by tomorrow evening I should be doing pretty well, so I am planning to attend Kaitlyn's party, cause we've had so much fun, and done so much work putting it together, I can't stand to miss it. I figure even if I end up laying on the couch, I can do that just as well at Jess's house as my own and I can still watch the fun! Jess and I have put a lot of thought into this mystery party for Kate, I think they're going to have so much fun. There will be a scavenger hunt to find pieces of evidence, including decoding messages written in Morse Code, invisible ink and number code; a 13 page book of suspect files, including criminals such as Eva LaDrool and Joe Smith, the gardener; and they will have to question suspects and witnesses, including the Countess LauraLynn Johnston and Angelina Fizzly, Duchess of Berlinville! Each of the girls will receive Junior Agent badges, and detective kits, and will end up solving the mystery of the 'unsigned postcard' and retrieving the stolen jewels! I think it will be so much fun! I'm really looking forward to it.
I still appreciate everyone's prayers for tomorrow - I'm still a little nervous. And I'm looking forward to being off pain meds and getting back to nursing Eva - cause formula is crazy expensive! Thanks to all!

Lithotripsy

Yeah, I'd never heard of it before either - but basically it means they're gonna blast my stones. I'm scheduled for 8:45 am on Friday. I'm absolutely brokenhearted that I probably won't be able to help with Kate's party. But they only schedule surgeries on Fridays so it really was the soonest they could get me in, they were caring about the baby issue. I also had to stop taking the weaker, anti-inflammatory pain reliever cause I guess it has aspirin in it... I don't know. Anyway, so now I'm trying to hold out the best I can and only take the Vicodin if I need it, I don't like feeling foggy, especially if I'm alone with the girls. Eva's doing extremely well taking a bottle and barely fussed about it at bedtime, which is a mixed blessing, because I do want her to go back to nursing when this is all said and done, but I'm glad she's content for now with the bottle. I'm so not a fan of being a big baby....I can't wait to be "normal" again.

Ahh- kidney stones!

Thank you daddy for giving me this particular genetic gift! I have several kidney stones, and right now we're headed out to the urologist to see what can be done.... I'd appreciate prayer, I'm nervous, in pain, and struggling with pumping and dumping my milk while I'm on meds, and Eva really wants to nurse. It's been a rough coupla days. I will update when I know more.

Update

Well, Eva had a miraculously quick recovery from her bump, by Sunday her head was barely swollen and didn't seem to bother her anymore. And now, there's no sign that anything had happened, not even a bruise! Praise the Lord! That was truly an answer to prayer.
And the rest of the girls seem to be back to normal health again too, thank you Jesus. We even were able to have Bryce and Seth spend the night this week, and we're looking forward to having Lukey one night this weekend too!
Unfortunately, my poor body has been so drained that I guess I can't seem to fight anything off, and now discovered I have a bacterial kidney infection, so I'm a little frustrated there, but I got the medicine I need and hopefully this won't last long.
On a positive note ~ I had a great time today hanging out with Jess and helping to plan out a fun little mystery, scavenger hunt, detective party for Kate! Ooh, how I love party planning...

My poor baby!

So, last night, we were at Jessi's for dinner, and the kids had finished eating and went downstairs to play. Eva wanted to be with them, so Anna agreed to take her down while I finished eating. After a few minutes, apparently Anna needed to use the bathroom and didn't think about Eva's newfound interest in the stairs. From upstairs we heard some bumping and then screaming, so we run to find that Eva had climbed up several steps and fell off the side of the stairs. IT FREAKED ME OUT!!! She cried for several minutes, holding her head funny and the whole side of her face, head and ear were bright red. After a little bit, she settled, I checked to see if her eyes dilated normally, and we tried to put a cold-pack on her head. She dozed off on my shoulder for a little while, but would wake up and be irritated if you touched the side of her head. Later we gave her some Tylenol, and she seemed fine, crawling around, pulling up, sitting playing with toys. She had a rough night because she couldn't lay on that side of her head it was so tender. Today, she woke up with such a swollen head that her ear actually seems displaced and sticks out like an elf. It absolutely breaks my heart every time I look at her! I did talk to the dr, and he reassured me that it'll take a couple days for the swelling to go away, and as long as her behaviour is normal, she's fine. It helped ease my mind some....

But I'm feeling really torn up about the whole episode. I'm struggling with fear of what they'd say if I had to take her to the hospital ~ I don't want someone thinking I'm neglecting my baby! And yet, was I neglecting my baby, asking a 7 year old to watch her while I finished eating? Is this an indication that I have my hands full and shouldn't have more babies, though my heart feels like there's at least one more space to be filled in my family? And I'm beating myself up over my pride, because I've always thought my children are especially beautiful, and now I'm worried because my daughter's head is lopsided... And I'm sensitive to what people say about "Eva giving me a hard time" because of the health issues related to my pregnancy and her life thus far; I don't want curses spoken over her about her being a difficult child, or an unhealthy child. This seemingly minor episode has certainly turned over a bunch of stuff for me to deal with... I think I may need my "foundations restored"....