Funny milestones

Myah has been terrified of the vacuum her whole existence (yet, in nursery at church her favorite toy is the toy vacuum!). Well last week she finally overcame that fear by helping me vacuum!

 

Reagan has learned to sit up, at least in her crib, but she can't lay back down. This has been a really annoying milestone for me! She wakes up too many times at night crying because she can't lay back down. It's getting better, but she needs to figure this out soon!

A better milestone is that Reagan is now rocking on her hands and knees! So hopefully crawling will be soon to come! She can go backwards, but not forwards. She wants to crawl so bad that she doesn't really like to roll too much anymore. She still does but she mostly tries to crawl and gets frustrated.



Sharing

Reagan loves sharing, but especially with Justin. She gets so happy when he takes what she's offering! I love watching them.



Being a mom is worth it

Being a mom is hard. I get down sometimes when I am exhausted from not getting enough sleep at night, taking care of everyone's needs ahead of my own, getting through the tantrums, etc. But then there are moments like this that make it all worth it:

 Seeing Myah and Reagan loving each other, smiling, and playing together makes it all worth it. No matter how bad the day was, as soon as they're asleep I can't help but laugh and talk about how sweet they are. Myah of course throws plenty of tantrums, but she's also been extremely loving lately. When we ask for hugs she says, "ok mom (or dad)" and gives a big hug and kiss. When Justin leaves for work she says, "daddy, hug and kiss!" 

Myah's been saying she loves us a lot lately and that's been so nice to hear. For instance, last night Myah and I were throwing up a lot due to food we ate, and I still felt kind of sick today. She was playing in the sink and I walked over to her and she immediately put her head on me, gave me a hug, and said, "I ove you mom." (Makes me tear up just thinking about it)

Since my surgery, she's always asking about my owies. "Your owies getting all better?" We also have this conversation a lot:

Myah: You have surgery?

Me: Yep

Myah: Why?

Me: Because my gallbladder was sick and made my back hurt so they had to take it out.

Myah: (Thinking for a minute) Reagan have surgery?

Me: No, she didn't.

Myah: Myah have surgery?

Me: No, you both are ok and don't need surgery. But I'm all better now.

I think this picture shows one of the best parts of being a mom: when your child falls asleep on you. The snuggles are the best! This hasn't happened for a long time but last Sunday she didn't get a nap and was exhausted so she fell asleep when I nursed her. 

Reagan is such a sweet girl too and is definitely a momma's girl right now. She plays great by herself for a while and then when she's done she reaches for me or scooches her way closer. She also is into sharing. She'll be eating or playing with something and then if someone is near she'll reach it out to them as if to share. I'll pretend to take a bite or play with it and she'll smile and take it back all excited.

I need to share one more story about Reagan that makes me happy whenever I think about it! Reagan was down for a nap one day and she'd cry for a minute and then be quite for a while, cry for a minute and be quite for a while, and so on. Finally I went in to make sure she was ok and I found her drifting off to sleep while sitting up in her crib! Cutest thing ever! I laid her down, she cried for a few minutes, but went back to sleep.

As I've said before, she loves the piano! This video is kind of long but she's the most excited at the end:

 A lot of times Myah is very good to play by herself. I was on the computer one day and I turned around to see Myah sitting on the slide reading 'Oh the Places You'll Go'. She reads there a lot, but it's so precious when she doesn't know I'm watching...

 ...then she saw! After a minute she asked me to read it to her, which I did, and I cried because that is an amazing book and I want my little girls to go far in life and go to great places.

Myah loves playing with her friends Ayden and Haylee (though Haylee's not pictured here). One day we were all outside and they found thick ice in the shade...so they proceeded to eat it all. She loves to ride trikes and it getting good at doing the pedals. It's so fun to be a mom and see my girls grow. I can't believe how big they are getting!



My first real surgery

For the past 10 months (since Reagan's birth) I've had terrible mid/upper back pain episodes. For the first 6 months it was just once a month, then twice a month, then once a week, and then I had it constantly for a few weeks. I'd been going to the chiropractor for about two months, been to other doctors, and finally got an MRI where they found a bit of a bulge in a disk. I figured that was the problem and had an appointment to meet with the surgeon.

On Wed, March 19th I woke in the night with the back pain and then around 7 am had excruciating abdominal pain as well (which I'd never had before. I'd only had nausea with the back pain). It was absolutely the worst pain I've ever had...worse than natural child birth! I was writhing on the floor sounding like I was turning into a werewolf. Justin put pressure next to my spine and the pain ceased after some of that. That day (like many others) was spent on the floor laying on hot pads. Then at about 5 pm all the pain came back.

Justin's mom, Julie, came and got the girls and Justin took me to the ER at Davis Hospital, right by our house. They did blood work, x-rays, and the works. The doctor pushed different spots on my belly and we found it hurt really bad right under my rib cage and to the right and he knew it was something with my gallbladder (why couldn't any of the other doctors figure it out?! Kind of irritated!). An ultrasound was done and the tech saw that my gallbladder was packed with stones, the walls were really thick, and it was all infected. I also had gallstones in my bile duct. I was so happy to finally have answers and to have morphine! I was admitted into the hospital and had surgery the next day.

To be honest, it was a very enjoyable experience for me because I knew the girls were having a great time at Nana and Papa's, I was finally mostly out of pain with the drugs, and Justin and I could just relax! We both slept in my hospital bed that night (like we usually do when one of us is in the hospital) and the next day I had my gallbladder removed around 10:30 am-which took about 3 hours. 

 This is me after the surgery.

 Then at around 3 pm I had another surgery where they extracted the gallstone from my bile duct. They went through my mouth to get it.

This is me in the recovery room in la-la land, but very happy!

Everything went well and I was able to eat, drink, go to the bathroom, and walk like I was supposed to. I hadn't eaten practically anything for about 2 days, so I was so thirsty and hungry! We left that night and got home around 10 pm. Julie still had the girls so we got a good night's rest and they had a great time.

My belly is pretty nasty looking, but I had to get Justin to take a picture! They put four incisions in my abdomen for the surgery...the one right above my belly button is the biggest.

My recovery has been great. I wasn't supposed to lift Reagan for a week so I had a lot of family and friends come help me. They also brought dinner, so I was very taken care of. I've felt so much better than I have the past 10 months and am so excited to be out of pain! We're pretty sure all the back pain was from my gallbladder. If I have pain again, we'll work on the bulged disk, but tons of people have bulges and don't know about it.

 My sister, Kristy, brought me these beautiful flowers that have made our place smell amazing! Thank you so much to everyone for helping me and my family! We appreciate it all so much.

 

I have to throw in a few pictures of the girls. They are so sweet. Myah has been such a good helper and was so worried about me all this time. She's such a great big sister. And Reagan is so happy to have me hold her again. I felt so bad that I couldn't!

 Reagan is rolling around everywhere and is trying to figure out the crawling thing. She scooches on her bum and wants to get into everything. She's such a good baby and I'm so glad we have her!

 



Insurance (not so surprising) Surprise

Well, it finally happened. We received a letter from our health insurance company saying that they have to discontinue their plans due to the Affordable Care Act. So Justin's work will need to find new insurance or will not be able to offer health benefits starting in June.

 

I have been hearing of a lot of people who have received a letter similar to ours and so I honestly was just waiting until we received one. I sadly knew it would come eventually. It makes me so mad that our President has been blatantly lying to everyone (about many things, but I will just stick to this topic). I remember him saying that the Affordable Care Act wouldn't make any health insurance company go out of business, it will just add another option. But thanks to all the requirements and stipulations in this act, many (if not all) insurance companies will be going out of business and we will be forced to get insurance through the government. Great! Just another way of the government controlling us! I am in awe that there are still people who like this President.

 

I guess I will wait to hear from Justin's employer on what we need to do, but sheesh! I am so annoyed!

R's 9 month checkup

 I took Reagan to her 9 month checkup yesterday. Everything looks great, except that she is sick with some bronchiolitis. She's been sick for a couple days (poor thing) but she's still a happy girl. When Dr. Gilsoul walked in, Reagan smiled and started clapping her hands! It would be nice if she wasn't terrified of the doctor like Myah is! Reagan's stats are:

Height: 28.5 inches (75%)

Weight: 19 lb. 11 oz. (75%)

Head: 17.5 inches (60%)

 Reagan has to have breathing treatments with the nebulizer every 4-6 hours this week. She hated it the first time we did it at the doctor's office but does ok with it now. The mask looks like a fish so it's kind of cute and not as scary.

I have to throw in a bath picture! Reagan and Myah love the bath! Myah's a good helper and Reagan is the splash queen!



Birthday Weekend!

February 28th was my 27th birthday. It was on a Friday this year-which is always awesome! To celebrate my b-day, Justin and I dropped the girls off at his parents house and then we went and saw the Lego Movie (which was hilarious!) and then went to Zupa's to eat. Delicious.

On Saturday we had a Tew family party at my brother's (Nate and Jess) house to celebrate me and my nephew's b-days. It was a fun!

 The kiddos

 We made Café Rio pork salads. Mmmmm

 The 27 candles was a group effort to light.

 Jones attempting to blow out his candle.

 Nafy and Kristy (brother and sister) serenading us.

My cute hubby.

On Sunday we went to Justin's family's house to celebrate the Calder birthdays (me, Sarah, and Katie). We had yummy burger dinner and cake! We unfortunately forgot the camera...rrrr.

Thanks for the fun birthday weekend everyone!