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!



Reagan-9 months old

On Sunday Reagan will be 9 months old! This month has been full of milestones and we are just enjoying her so, so much. She's eating tons of baby food and this week has started eating chunks of food. She still doesn't have any teeth yet, but she either gums the food or swallows it whole!

Reagan loves playing the piano and with all the knobs. Looks like she has the love of music too.
This video shows Reagan's rolling over skills. This month she has learned to roll around consecutively to get what she wants.

Last night I sat her in this little chair and she kept herself there really well. She has abs of steal I guess because when she'd drop the movie, she'd bend down and pick it up without ever falling off. I was impressed!

The biggest news for me is that Reagan finally sleeps better! A month ago my mom-in-law, Julie, took Reagan for the night so that we could get some good sleep (that was the greatest gift!). So that night she slept for 8 hours straight at Julie and Dave's! While she was gone, I decided I would move Reagan into Myah's room and just see how that went since both were waking up a bunch of times in the night anyway.  I figured it couldn't get much worse!
I also decided I was going to try my hardest to keep Reagan awake when I nursed her in the night and then lay her down awake so she could fall asleep on her own like she does in the day. (When I would nurse Reagan in the night, she'd fall asleep and when I'd lay her down she'd wake and I'd have to get her back to sleep and lay her down again, repeated way too many times.)
That night I implemented the plan and Reagan only woke up to nurse twice and after, went back to sleep on her own each time without my help. The next 4 nights she slept for 10 hours straight! Both her and Myah seem to sleep better in the same room. Reagan just needed a consistent place to be and Myah needed her sister!
So now Reagan either sleeps through the night or wakes up to nurse once, which is fine with me! So Myah usually goes to bed around 7 and then Reagan goes down around 8:30 'ish. They sometimes go to bed at the same time and it seems that having Reagan in there helps Myah stay in bed and go to sleep quicker because she knows if she gets up and plays that Reagan will start crying!

(The sun was too bright for Reagan!)
Reagan is such a joy in our lives and especially now that she sleeps better, she is the perfect baby! We love her so much and are so lucky to have her.

Myah's big news!

 

 The exciting news around our house is that Myah has finally gone in the potty four times in the past two days! She's never actually gone in it before though she's sat on it tons of times. Yesterday she pooped in it three times (she's quite regular)! We were all so excited! She peed in it this morning and I'm hoping she'll go some more today.

 One Sunday she wanted to wear a tie to church. She wore it all morning and then decided she wanted daddy to wear it afterall.

 Myah LOVES playing with our next door neighbors. With the nice weather we had were all went outside a lot. Spring fever!

This video shows Myah being brave with the vacuum yet still shows how terrified she is of it!





Brunch

On Saturday I went to brunch with some of my dad's side of the family! My uncle died last week so his daughter, Caitlin, flew in for a few days while we had a memorial for him. The memorial was beautiful and it was wonderful to all be together and talk of the good times in Uncle Jim's life. 

My dad's side of the family rarely gets together and I can count on one hand the amount of times I've seen my cousin Caitlin. So I went to brunch with her, my other cousin Jerilyn, my Aunt Sherma and Uncle Steve, and my grandparents. It was fun to be with them and for us girls to be together and talk.