Colin - 9 Months

These are some things that stick out about Colin at 9 months of age.

• He loves to play "peek-a-boo". He even plays by himself, which he thinks is hilarious.
• He eats a mixture of pureed foods and table foods. Boy does he like to eat.
• He is often found following Makenna where ever she goes. He really enjoys playing with her and she is the one who can make him laugh the loudest.
• He can stand on his own and is just now starting to take a few steps.
• He likes to read books. He will let either us or Makenna read to him and he likes to look at books by himself.
• He finds it hilarious when you build a tower and he gets to knock it down.
• He can sign more. But he is very selective when he uses it.
• He will raise his arms over his head when you ask him how big he is.
  
• He is a good sleeper and I hope this habit continues.
• He has a very easy going personality. It takes quite a bit to get him worked up.
• He doesn't like the church nursery. I chalk it up to either he is going through separation anxiety (which doesn't quite fit because if we leave him anywhere else he is fine) or he is an extreme introvert (like is daddy) and all the other screaming babies overwhelm him. Either way he will just have to learn how to deal with it.
• He loves to be tickled.
  
• He is a little lover. He loves to cuddle and give kisses.
• He likes to dance to music.
• He can clap and does so a lot. He will also clap if you say "yeah".

Well, that is all that comes to mind right now.

Here are a few pics of the little man.

Colin - 9 Month Stats

Colin is definitely built differently than his sister. Makenna always measured somewhere around the 30% range. Colin has been pretty consistently measuring somewhere in the 80% range.

Here are his 9 month stats:

• Height - 29 3/4 inches
• Weight - 21 pounds 12 ounces

Tomorrow I will post more about Colin's personality and what he has been up to lately.

What A Week!!

Here is a recap of what last week looked like for me.

Monday: Typical day until about 4:00 when call Jared and ask him to come home early because I'm having sever chest pains. Jared gets home around 4:30 and by 5:00 he decides that it is best for me to go to the ER.

The doctors do all sorts of tests. They all come back negative except I test positive for pregnancy. Big no HUGE surprise. The positive pregnancy test limits the amount of other tests that the doctors are able to do.

The doctors give me some really strong pain medicine to help knock out the pain. I get sent home with pain meds and told that the chest pain was caused by a pulled/teared muscle around my lung and that it should correct itself.


Tuesday: Typical day. No pain. Really starting to sink in that we are pregnant.

Wednesday: My parents come up for the day to spend time with the kids. Around 11:00 I call Jared and ask him to come home because the chest pain is back. We decide to skip the ER because they were not that helpful last time and decide to go to the Iowa Heart Center instead. After extreme pain and a bunch of cardio tests, the heart specialist found nothing wrong and suggested that we go back to the ER because they can give me something for the pain.

We end up back in the ER and the doctors do more blood work and give me more pain medicine. The results come back from my blood work and it looks like I have had a miscarriage. Shock and disbelief hit me like a lead balloon.

The doctors think that a CT scan will help answer what is causing the chest pain (and now that I have miscarried that this test will be safe to run)

The results from the CT scan of my chest shows nothing abnormal. Once again I'm sent home with pain meds. But this time the doctor tells me nothing is wrong and that sometimes people have symptoms and yet there is nothing medically wrong with them.


Thursday: I am still having some pain but it is in the from of pressure in my abdomen.

Jared talks to a couple of doctor friends that he has (one of which is a cardiologist). They recommend that we make an appointment with my OB to double check for sure that I indeed had a miscarriage and have an ultra sound done to rule out a tubal pregnancy. (because as our friend the cardiologist informs us tubal pregnancies can sometimes cause chest pain)

We take their advice (which is a gift from God) and make an appointment on Friday with an OB. Not my OB because he is out of the office until Monday (go figure).

Friday: We take Colin to his 9 month appointment at 8:30. Luckily my dad is around to watch Makenna while we are at the appointment and offers to stay for my OB appointment at 11:15. I'm still in discomfort even while taking vicodin.

We head to the appointment inform the OB about my week and ask if we should have an ultra sound done. He is hesitant because he doesn't think there is a correlation between the two but agrees all the same.

Have a ultra sound done. The tech finds a cyst and says the OB will talk to us about it.

We get back to our room and the OB comes in and very straight forward tells us that the cyst is 7cm and appears to be about the size of a grapefruit. SHOCK hits me once again. He continues to tell us that he recommends surgery and that he would like to schedual the surgery that afternoon. SHOCK hits me again.

After making the necessary phone calls to get the kids taken care of, we walk across the street to the hospital to get admitted for out patient surgery. CRAZY!!

The time is sometime around 2:00 and I'm getting ready for a surgery that should last 30-45 minutes. At 3:15 they take me to pre-op and I get all the typical tube and cords attached to my body for surgery. I am then informed that I will have a breathing tube inserted for surgery. I don't like this one bit and now I'm terrified. (if you know me at all you know how much I dislike medical equipment attached to my body)

I have no idea what time I got out of surgery, I'm sure Jared could tell you. All I know is that it took about 3 hours. (a lot longer than expected). They got rid of the cyst that was on my right ovary and while they were in there they found some damage done to my left ovary and fallopian tube. The OB is pretty sure that the damage was from a tubal pregnancy that somehow exploded (I couldn't come up with a better term). As a result, they had to remove part of my left fallopian tube and ovary because the damage was so severe.


THE GOOD NEWS:
My chest pain has not returned and the OB thinks that all the problems with my female parts contributed to that.

We can still have kids.

I'm recovering from surgery.

I can praise God that He had control over the whole situation and He knew that this pregnancy was not meant to be carried out normally.

I know He loves me and our baby that was lost.

I am grieving and I am thankful both at the same time.

Love

Sibling Love

Daddy Love

Mama Love

Husband and Wife Love

The Ultimate Love

New Sleds

Well, actually they are old sleds just redone by Jared. Which makes them new to Makenna and Colin.

Last winter Jared found two destroyed runner sleds on the side of the road. His plan was to make them usable. This was gonna be quite the task because when he found them they were a far cry from any thing you would want to sled on. The metal was all bent up and most of the wood destroyed. Once again Jared surpassed all expectations.

Here are the pictures.

I took this one after Jared started work on the first sled. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of both sleds in the condition Jared found them in.

This is a picture of the sled found in the worse condition. All new wood, metal all straightened, and repainted.

Papa's Glasses

Frosty the Snowman

Makenna got to make her first snowman. Jared strategically built it with her right outside her window. Now she can look out and see Frosty whenever she wants. Colin even got in on the action for a picture or two. I'm sure next year he will be right out there in the thick of things.

A Wonderful Sound

As a mama their isn't much that is better than hearing one of your kiddos full out belly laugh. I am so glad that we have this recorded because now we will have Colin's precious baby belly laugh forever. It really is priceless!!!

Winter

Here are my thoughts about winter in Iowa.

• It is a bit long. According to the calendar winter starts December 21, but in reality when you live in Iowa it feels like it starts way sooner than that.
  
• I really dislike the bitter cold. Especially when the sun is out and it looks all nice and inviting. But then you step outdoors and instantly you feel a cold sting on any body part not covered with at least one layer of clothing.
  
• It takes way too long to recover from being outside in the bitter cold. Why can't my hands ever seem to be warm again.
• I find it hilarious how the local news uses the term 'Operation Winter Storm' when referring to any snow we might get.
• I love to watch the snow fall. Especially the big fluffy flakes.
• Sledding and making snowmen are two things I look forward to doing every winter.
  
• I find it simply gorgeous when I wake up and see all the trees covered in a beautiful frost. It really is breath taking and it gives me a glimpse at some of our majestic Creator's handiwork.

And now that you know some of my thoughts about winter I will leave you with this picture Jared took of one of the friendly deer who seem to think our back yard is their home. Any good advice on how to get rid of them before they destroy our garden again this summer.

Jesus Loves Me

Makenna loves to sing. We often catch her singing to herself or to Colin but rarely am I lucky enough to catch her on video. Here is one of those rare occasions.