Fun In Utah

For Easter we were supposed to go to Wyoming, but in the end we wound up in Utah. I forgot to take my camera with us when we took the kids to the Easter egg hunt. It was fabulous. We just went to the hunt that was put on by the apartments where my mom and dad live. It wasn't overly crowded and Cheltzi did very well all by her self. Well with a little but of help from Papa. Here are a few pictures from our swimming fun. This was the first time Dominik has played in a swimming pool he was so cute and I think he's going to follow in his mommy's footsteps as a swimmer.

Getting ready

Playing with Papa

Playing in the Car

Cheltzi Toss

Cheese

Climbing Up to Jump In

Back Float

More Laziness

I have not updated out of pure laziness. I think the same thing happened last year! Maybe I will update later tonight when I have more time. My living room is in desperate need of a good cleaning. I would post before and after pictures, but it is so horribly messy that it's embarrassing and I'm not going to!

4 Years

Four years ago after 20 days in the NICU Cheltzi Lynn was able to come home to live with us. It was Easter Sunday! The hospital doesn't normally do discharges on Sunday, but I pushed for it. I was so ready for her to be home and I think she was ready to be home.

March 7, 2005 Cheltzi was born at 33 weeks. As soon as I had her the dr. layed her on my tummy. The first thing I saw was her tiny grey bum and lots of dark dark hair. I wasn't able to see her face. As soon as they cut the cord they rushed her away and her daddy went with her. I cried and screamed for my baby. It was the worst feeling in the world to me. Kevin came back in the OR with me and told me that she was breathing and wiggling around. I found out later this was a HUGE lie and he only did it to get me to quit crying. Her first Apgar score was 2 because her heart was beating. Then it was 7, and then 9. I don't know the exact time frame that she was on the vent. She was on it the first time I saw her and off it the second time I saw her. I am guessing anywhere from 8-12 hours. She was so beautiful. She looked exactly like me when I was a baby. (was that a little conceited?) After she was off the vent she wasn't even on oxygen. She had to be under the bililights. The biggest hurdles we had to cross were getting her to eat and getting rid of the infection that I passed to her in utero. The infection was the reason I went into preterm labor. I had been uncomfortable the whole night before, but I thought it was just part of being pregnant. My back was killing me. My aunt had even asked me if I was okay and I told her no not really. I hurt so bad. I was the last one to leave my aunt and uncle's house that night. I cried all the way home and I had to drive myself. When I got home I think I just went to bed. I woke up around 4 because I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. I went to the bathroom I sat on the toilet for so loooong. I finally decided that I just couldn't go and I would try to get more sleep. As I stood up to pull my pants up I gushed. I freaked out and woke up my dad. He told me to take the truck to the hospital (we had just gutted the bathroom and the truck had a toilet in it.) My mom had taken my car to work because her car wasn't registered. After I talked to my dad for a few minutes and deciding he wasn't much help in my situation I woke Kevin up. He jumped up and put his shoes on and one of his nice button up shirts. He had his sweat pants on. If you knew Kevin at this time you would know that was not normal for him. I sat down because I was hurting so bad and "water" was gushing everywhere. Kevin came into the kitchen and asked me if we could just fix it. Oh my poor husband. We finally decided to call my mom at work and had her come home early to take us to the hospital. There was NO way I was going to the hospital in the truck. We got to the hospital and into L&D. The nurse said she had to check me to make sure that my water really had broke. I was irritated by this because what else would be gushing out of me like that? They got their tape thing out and it confirmed that my water had indeed broke. They called in Dr. S and he talked to me for a minute and told me I needed to decide which hospital I wanted to be transferred to because I could not have Cheltzi at the hospital we had gone to. We chose Mckay-Dee because my dad had done clinicals there and he said he thought it would be the best hospital to take care of Cheltzi. I never really panicked about having Cheltzi early until the nurse told me while in the ambulance that the medicine they were giving me was so that I wouldn't have her in the hospital. SCARY!! My labor was pretty much uneventful. The epidural was amazing and my nervous husband wouldn't let me sleep. He said I couldn't sleep while I was in labor!? My mom and Kevin would tell me when I was having a contraction and then say ooh that was a big one. My dad thought he was funny by being "Johnny Bench". If I would have been able to move my legs he would have gotten kicked! It was nice to have my family there with me. Kevin, Mom and CJ were there pretty much the whole time. Dad was in and out because he had classes. CJ got to miss school. Lucky Ducky. When I was finally ready to push and have Cheltzi they took me into the OR. We were in there for..E.V.E.R! I wasn't dilated as much as they thought so we had to wait, but they didn't take my legs out of the stirrups while we were waiting and the doctors and nurses were cracking jokes. GRR. When Cheltzi was crowning the doctor commented on all of her hair. Kevin was so excited he wanted to see his daughter born, but didn't want to leave my side. He held my hand and stretched so he could see her. He went with her while they worked on her. I had a few problems after I had her and I was in recovery for 2 hours instead of one. I was so out of it I can't really remember the first time I saw her. I have absolutely no idea what the Neonatologist even said to me.

Cheltzi is now happy and healthy. And she has quite the attitude. Some days she makes me laugh and some days I just want to scream and pull my hair out, but I am so grateful for her. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for allowing me to have her here on this earth. I love her so much. I have loved watching her grow and learn.

One Colorful 17 Month Old

Update: I took Dominik into the doctor today (March 24) because when he woke up the entire white part of his left was was completely bloody. He has a bruise on his eye and pink eye. We don't know what caused the bruising on his eye, but we do know that it is not from him falling down the stairs. Dr. B also checked to make sure his skull wasn't damaged. She said that since he isn't acting like anything is wrong she is pretty sure he doesn't have a concussion or any major damage to his head. We are treating the pink eye with antibiotics and the bruise should go away within 2-4 weeks.

Dominik fell down the stairs on Friday (March 20). We were getting ready for our ward party and I had just done his hair. I had the computer with me because Kevin and I were texting back and forth. I put Dominik down and was getting the computer. I didn't have the gate up because I was going down with Dominik. He can go down the stairs very well, but I am always with him when he does. Well he usually waits for me at the top of the stairs and we go down together. This time he didn't wait. I am assuming he was distracted by a toy and fell backwards. I heard quite a few tumbles so I know he fell down from at least the 3rd or 4th stair. Luckily all he got was a black eye and a scratch on his back. The scratch is already better. I felt like the worst mom in the world. I am still feeling pretty guilty. Today He woke up with an infection in the black eye. I texted Kevin and told him his eye looked terrible. I was afraid that something was going deeper than just a bruise and it some how got an infection. So Kevin came home and we were going to take him to the doctor. But about an hour later we noticed that the infection was in the other eye also. We are guessing he has pink eye. We have been giving him antibiotic eye medicine and Tylenol. He has been such a trooper through all this. He is a little more fussy than usual, but not as bad as I expected him to be. We will see how tomorrow goes!

Just the black eye

Black eye and Pink eye