Placenta Accreta, Part I

So, imagine our surprise when a couple weeks before Christmas I'm "late".  Late as in....um...."late," like I've been "late" 4 times (now 5) and all have resulted in children.

Surprise!!!! and Merry Christmas!

In addition to this, Grady is (was) due for his Cholesteatoma surgery AND we found out we are moving.  

Happy December!

We went to Seattle for Christmas, then to Anchorage.  Told the family all of our news.  Mixed reactions, probably shock mostly.  (Don't worry fam, we were shocked too!)

Fast forward....its now January and I'm heading into the OB for my first check at 12 weeks.  To confirm the pregnancy.  They kindly let me skip the pregnancy test part since this was clearly not my first rodeo, as evident by the husband and 4 children taking up most of the room in the waiting room.  They came for morale support....that and I couldn't get a sitter for the 30 minutes my hubs had between meetings.  He, thankfully, met me at the Drs office so I didn't have to take all kids back with me.

So, we proceed with the normal pregnancy questions (this was a new OB for me) then move on to the ultrasound to confirm and for dating.  Baby looks good.  I can see the punkin squirming around.  Dr. prints out a few pictures (very poor pics).  Now we move on to the placenta.

Enter the topic which I will become extremely familiar with in the next few days/weeks/months. 

Placenta Accreta.

At this point, I have a very low lying anterior placenta.  No big deal.  Its not placenta previa, but it is in front....and now we see its over my previous C-Section scars.  Upon further look, the Dr. sees that my placenta has not adhered normally.  What it has done...is gone too deep into my uterus.  I see what she is describing, clear as day.  Swiss cheese appearance, abnormal blood flow, ok...so what, I'm thinking.  Placenta is working, baby is growing, we have our due date.  We're good right???

Then the unfamiliar words the Dr. is saying start to register in my brain.

Placenta Accreta

Placenta Increta

Placenta Percreta

Hysterectomy.

Um...wait...what was that???

I just smile and say OK, like I know what she's talking about and its all good!

She says she is going to refer me to a MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist) for my 20 week ultrasound and we will go from there. 

I check out, schedule my next appointment and head for the car, cell phone in hand, waiting to punch send on the call to my dad (a retired OB/GYN in Seattle) the second my car clears that parking garage.  

Thankfully he answers, even though he's on the golf course (I did mention he's retired??)  I probably didn't make a whole lot of sense, but he heard "Accreta" and after explaining what it is, tried to calm my fears.  Which was great.  Until I got home and started googling Placenta Accreta.

Um...panic.

Hemorrhage

Blood transfusion

Hystorectomy

Pre-term baby

NICU

Death

Thankfully, I weeded through the junk and got on OB/GYN sites that I recall my dad talking about growing up, with ACOG American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology being the first.  There was also Wikipedia and American Pregnancy Association, among a ton of others.  This research kind of consumed my life for the next few weeks as I educated myself with what to expect over the next 6 months.  I did my best to stay positive amongst the morning sickness and preparing to move, as I waiting for the big ultrasound and more information with the MFM in March....

To be continued....

Joe in the news....

Thoughts from E

The kids are happily (or so I thought) playing upstairs while B naps.  I walk out in the living room and hear E yelling at Molly:

NOBODY CALLS ME A LIAR EXCEPT FOR MOM!

Hmmm....think we've had a bit of a fibbing problem at our house lately???

Briley is in her own room

I just took down the crib in our room *sniff* and she has now spent 2 nights in a row *sniff* in her own room upstairs *sniff, sniff.*  Why am I having such a hard time with this?  Because it's our last???  I have been purging the baby stuff.  All the big battery operated and plastic toys.  Swing.  Bassinet.  Johnny Jump-up.  I even have our double stroller and double jogger listed!  I just need to clean the exer-saucer and that goes.  When Briley and Grady have grown out of their clothes, I consign, give and donate them.  The first load was the worst, but now its very freeing.  I'm seeing space emerge in my house, garage and attic.  Maternity clothes are long gone.  I'm even starting to get rid of the things that Briley has yet to play with.  Amazing how the more kids I have, the less stuff I'm wanting to keep.....well, the brightly colored plastic stuff that is! :)

And now Hot

Its 80 degrees outside.  In one week, we've gone from -25 to 80.  I wonder what next week is going to be like...

Can you say C.O.L.D???

Instead of getting up at the crack of dawn (who am I kidding...I was up before 6:30 with Briley) to go workout today, I thought I'd skip the early morning (kidding again...I've been skipping for 3 weeks since Joe's been out of town!) and shovel the driveway.  For all of you not aware of what's going on down here, our weather is Cra-Zee!  Blizzards, feet of snow, cold, cold, cold.  Anyway...right before I put Briley down for her nap, I checked the temps.  -25 degrees.  25 degrees BELOW ZERO.  Negative.  Huh???  Its warmer in Alaska!  I checked again.  Seriously?  That's not with wind chill.  That's the actual temperature outside!!!

I think I'll wait until her afternoon nap.

New weatherstripping???

I'm just sayin'

Cuz that's snow.
(The door was closed and locked all night.)

Ever feel like you're losing your mind?

It's happening on a daily basis lately (no comment needed from the hubs here...).  I walk into a room and totally forget why I went in there.  Then I walk back to where I started....still no clue.  Oh well.  I'll figure it sometime today, I hope.  It can't have been too important, right?   Old age?  (30 something is old, right?  At least I thought so when I was 15! :)  Lack of sleep?  4 kids?  Too busy?  All of the above?  Yes, I'm a bit busier than most, but I can't think of something I'd cut out.  Except for cleaning the house.  And laundry (as I look at the 8 loads that have taken over my couch today.)  Oh, and the dishes and cooking.  And my weekly trip to Wal-Mart (not many choices here in this small town.)  Gosh, what's left? :)  Oh yes, the kids.  I'll keep them....most days anyway.

And while it's on my mind....at what point did my just-turned-3 year old learn how to use the DVD player and remote???  I'm just askin'.   I certainly didn't show him.  Hmmm, does he have 2 older sisters?  Who like Tinkerbell?  Cuz that's what he wanted to watch today while I sit here and fold 8 loads of laundry.  (Did I mention that already?)  I was trying to convince him that Chuggington (trains) or Thomas would be better, but no...Tinkerbell.  That's what he requested.  

(See?  I am losing my mind.  This post probably doesn't make any sense to anyone but me.  But thank for reading it anyway.)  

First day of school....first day of school....first day of school!

Finding Nemo anyone?  (Could not get that out of my head today! :)  Well...the time has come to send #2 off to Kindergarten.  I am split on this one.  She'd be the easy one to home school.  She's a mama's girl.  Always with me, by choice.  She's a homebody.  Which is why I was so surprised that she didn't want me to walk her in (I still did) and when I went to kiss her goodbye at her new desk, I got the mom-you-are-embarrassing-me-please-leave-now look.  I sooo expected that from #1 (who was clingy and wanted me to home school her for the first 6 weeks of school) but not from E.

After we dropped her off, G, B and I stayed rather busy.  It really felt like a preschool day, but I know that next week when she's gone everyday, instead of only 2, it'll really hit me that she's a "big girl."  Check back next week to see if I'm in tears...

Edited: she LOVED school.  But then 30 mns after she was home she said, "Mom, I think I want to try home schooling tomorrow."  (Love her!)

Edited again:  Day #3.  Mom's thoughts, can she please just stay there all day?  She came home quite the pill and immediately got sent to her room.  A few minutes later it was silent.  I went to check.  Out like a light! :0)  A bit tired are we???

Edited yet again: After Day #4, she decides every night that she wants me to home school her tomorrow.  Every morning she forget though and is excited to go to school.

Last edit, I promise:  She cried today at rest time.  Cried for mama.  Breaks my heart. I miss her too.  Luckily I have 2 more at home that distract me from missing E.  But what a mess I'll be when they all go off.  Whatever will I do with all my free time?  I have 5 more years to worry about that though.  Maybe we'll just keep having babies so I can stay busy?  (Kidding mom!!!  We're still done.)

I'm still here....

Hi there.  Yes, I'm still here and attempting to blog.  We've had quite a busy summer.  I'll briefly recap:

-4 kids home between the ages of 0-7
-A month long trip to Seattle and Anchorage
-Started a new business with a friend
-Husband traveling with work
-MOPs coordinator
-Did I mention 4 kids home all summer?

Looking over that list, it doesn't sound like a lot, but I feel like I was a lot busier!  Anyway, M and E go back to school tomorrow (E's first day of Kindergarten...sniff, sniff...not sure how I feel about that) then G starts preschool (another milestone in our fam) next week.  I'm assuming I'm going to have a lot more free time with 1/2 the crew gone during the day.  So, I intend on posting a lot more....but first I'll have to get caught up on everything that I let go this summer...

More to come...

Potty Training: 3 down, 1 to go

Yup.  I did it.  I took on the challenge of potty training the boy.  I bought all the supplies, scheduled it on the calendar, and hunkered down, mentally preparing for a long battle.  4 hours.  That's is.  That's all it really took.  One morning.  Really?  Why in the world have I put this off for so long???  Granted, he's only 2 1/2, so it wasn't put off THAT long, but still.  I could have had changed 1 diaper less?  What was I waiting for?  Maybe, the birth of #4 and the fear that he would revert?  Or my sleep deprived nights to end so that I had enough energy to take on the potty beast?  Anyway, didn't matter.  He did it.  Much easier and quicker than my others.  AND we are completely out of diapers.  No diapers during the day.  No diapers at nap.  No diapers at night.  My disposable spending just increased by about $50 a month.  Yippee!!

Dressing up

My 4 year old (girl) is helping my 2 year old (boy) dress up in her dress up clothes.  I think its hilarious since it was the little boy's idea.  (My hubby doesn't think its as funny.)  Seeing him walking around in a tutu cracks me up.  Boy do I wish I wasn't so lazy and would go get my had my camera with me!

Visit with Santa

Today is Christmas Eve and the busy neglectful mom that I've been lately has put off our annual Santa picture to the last minute...so...off to the mall we go.  On the way there we were prepping G that we were going to see Santa and that he was going to ask what the kids wanted for Christmas.  I was hoping that this would be the first year without a screaming kid (no such luck) and was trying to preemptively calm the fears of our 2 year old.  We get to the mall and the girls go right up to Santa, give him a hug and hop on his lap.  Hesitantly Grady looks over at him, checks him out, then runs up, gives him a quick hug, takes a few steps back and yells at him "Nanas" then runs away.  (Nanas = Thomas the Tank Engine).  Needless to say, the next few minutes were spent forcing G to sit on Santa's lap so we could snap a quick picture (which we did end up getting...its not good, but we have it!)

Oh, and...I overheard the girls telling Santa that they wanted magic wands.  Not sure where Santa is going to come up with those, but while he's making them, I'd like one too!

The Nutcracker Ballet

In keeping with the season and trying to be a good parent that exposed her children to culture (well, as much as I'm going to be able to in this small town) I thought I would take my girls to go see the Nutcracker. Not. My. Best. Idea. I think it would have been a little easier if I wasn't 7 1/2 months pregnant and of course the fact that its TWO AND A HALF HOURS long, so for a 4 and 6 year old that's like 3 weeks. Anyway....the house lights finally went down after 15 minutes of this conversation:

Child: "When is it going to start Mom? When?"

Me: "5 minutes, sweetpea."

Child: "That's what you said last time" (which actually happened to be 5 minutes earlier and and would have been correct if they had started on time.)

Me: "I know punkin, but that when it was supposed to start."

Don't these people know that there are antsy children (and a lot of them from what I saw) sitting in the audience???

Here is just a tiny snippet of the conversations that were interrupting everyone around us (poor, poor people who thought they were coming for a nice afternoon of cultural entertainment)

Act I: the party -- these are just a few of the questions I got

M: "is this supposed to be a party?"

M: "what are they doing?"

E: "Can I sit on your lap?" (mind you...belly out to here, no lap available anymore.)

M: "why isn't anyone talking?"

M: "is this all it is??? Just music??"

E: "I feel like I want to take my shoes off, can I?" (sure, why not, we're going to be here for awhile.)

M: "Can I sit on your lap?" (see above)

E: After Act I ends "it that all? Is it finally over? This is taking forever" (nope, just the first act....)

At Intermission: E: "Can we go home now???"

Note to self...wait until they are older...much, much older before trying this again.

One thing I've learned about having kids...

Don't ever open your mouth and talk about something they've done or haven't done. Let me explain. The other day I was chatting with a friend and scissors were involved (usually with me, some sort of craft is! :) Anyway...we got to talking about scissors and hair and our kids. You know where this is going. I mention (kinda of questioningly) that my kids have yet to attempt self haircuts. See...that was my mistake. Had I kept my mouth shut and never said anything, I'm sure I would not be making this post. But no...I had to go and open my big mouth.

I walk into my bathroom last night to start the bath for the kids. I looked down and what do I see? Hair. Long strands of curly blonde hair. Luckily the girls were right behind me so I didn't have to scream loud enough to wake the whole city...just the neighborhood. And then I notice one child is no longer behind me. Ellery. The child whose hair is an uncanny match to what is lying on the ground.

For the first time in my life, I did not run for the camera. Usually in any situation involving my children, I grab the camera first...then help! Not this time. I wasn't sure if I was upset, sad, angry, but man...she was scared. Especially since I told her I would have to cut her hair to "fix" it. (Just between you and me...she was going to get a haircut anyway to trim off the green ends for the swimming pool...but I didn't tell her that and let her suffer a bit.) All through the bath, she was wailing "I don't want you to cut my hair. I don't want to look like a boy. I don't want to go back to school." Over and over and over. I didn't do anything to calm her, as I wanted to make sure this would NEVER happen again! Kinda mean, but I'm hoping it worked.

After I cleaned her hair up (luckily she has a mess of curls so the damage isn't that noticeable) she was complaining (read:still crying) that she doesn't like her short hair. (It's not that short...but short for her). I haven't checked on her yet this morning, but I'm sure she remembers.

Oh and I found out what scissors she used. I was perplexed because all the scissors are out of reach. All except little plastic ones that boast about not being able to cut hair...and I've tried them...just to make sure...and even those are locked up. Anyway...she got into my bathroom cabinet, opened up my manicure toolbox, and found my manicure scissors. Good thing they have small blades, or she might have "boy hair!"

Another one from Ellery...

We have an upright electric piano in our living room, something I married into. Don't get me wrong...I took piano lessons for years as a kid, and at one point was quite good, I just don't practice anymore and it messes with my decor. Well, the kids LOVE the piano and actually know how to work it (all the demo songs and such). They'll turn it on and dance around in the living room. Quite cute!

Well, this morning, they are on it and had the volume full blast. My usual remark, "volume please." Ellery pipes back, "you never let us play adagio." (What she meant was Crescendo, but I'll forgive her 4 year old self for the mistake.) Molly turns to me and says, "that means loud, mom." Oh, right...silly me.

Have they been watching Little Einstein's???

Bed-head and all (June pics)

I've sorely been neglecting the picture posting aspect of this blog. I have this wonerful new camera and lots of pictures, but its tricky to get the pics onto the computer, edited and posted. So...here is my morning. Unedited, uncombed, unposed, but posted!!!

What am I doing this weekend?

You got it. Hopefully I'll have wonderful pictures to show you of how it turned out.

Post Note: Um....ya....on that...? Well, I got a few in the ground. That didn't work out so well and they have since been overtaken by these horrible weeds. Weeds on steroids apparently. Man do they grow big and fast down here. Others died in their little plastic pots as I wasn't able to get them all taken care of. The surviving few, ended up in real pots on the patio. Those are ok, but since we'll be having 100 temp over the next few weeks, if I don't remember to water them, they're gonners! I did mention how much I despise yard work, didn't I?

My name is Kelly and I'm a multi-tasker

Really, its bad. I'm always doing more things than I should be...all at the same time. Like, I can't sit down to just watch TV, I have to be folding laundry, cleaning the kitchen or sewing. If I'm outside with the kids, I'm pulling weeds, cleaning the garage or back porch. Waiting for school pickup, knitting, cleaning out the car, or flipping though one of the gazillion magazines that are piling up. So, this is what I did at swimming lessons last night. A cute fabric flower. I saw something similar somewhere and thought I'd take a stab at it. This is for Ellery's hair. It's about 4" across and 1.5" high. Love it!!! And she's so excited to wear it. I'll get a pic of it in her hair (as soon as the smelly glue dries)! My first attempt was a little flat and part of the charm is the 3-D-ness (yes, making up words here). I hand stitched the first try and while cute, not exactly what I was after. This time I ran it through the sewing machine with the longest stitch length...MUCH easier and MUCH quicker. Anyway...love it (did I already mention that?) Going to make more. Ells will wear 'em...she's my girly-girl. Molly, I'm afraid, takes after me in the sporty-tom-boy area. Oh well, at least one of them will love it!

Uh oh....I did it...

Thank you to all of you who have sent me requests to join. I finally caved. I gave in. I joined Facebook. Don't get your hopes up for me to be attentive to my account, just know that its there! I have no idea what a "wall" is or how post comments. :) ...and OH MY GOODNESS...was I really the last person on the face of the earth to join??? I think so!!! :) So, I have some questions....please leave a comment with an answer...or helpful advice about Facebook. (See, I'm use to blogging!!!)

1) Is it ok to add people that you went to high school or college with if you don't keep in touch? Even if said schools were many moons ago?

2) PROBLEM SOLVED - How do you add a picture? (Really, I'm so up on all the tech stuff and usually really good, but a little intimidated here...)

3) How do I change setting so that I don't see every time someone updates their account or sends a message to someone else? (Or is that kind of the point???)

4) KINDA FIGURED OUT - What is "wall-to-wall"?

5) PROBLEM SOLVED - How do I change my name to add my maiden name?

More to come...