Long overdue update

It’s been a while and for good reason I suppose, life has been just a tad bit busy!  Every mama has their own level of childcare capability and my sanity metor stops at 4 😊.  It is a challenge to get anything but the bare necessities done every day.

My four precious boys!

I want to give an update on each member of the family since it’s been so long!

He's such a good dad!

Jim has switched jobs and is now the Headmaster of a private Christian Classical University model school where we live. I know that’s a mouthful but it’s a pretty specific model.  The Lord has blessed them with over 100 students this coming year which is great and encouraging. He really is committed to making sure the kids have a great education but more importantly that they develope character and the ability to think and reason with logic, the way the Lord created them to.  He loves his job and I am really happy that he has found a vocation that stretches him and uses the talents the Lord has given him.

Connor is in second grade (😳) and such a joy to have as our oldest child.  Part of what made last year so busy was we found out that he has dyslexia so learning to read was a bit more challenging than anticipated. He is incredibly smart and he had such an amazing attitude about all the extra work. He didn’t always like it but he understood that his brain is just wired a little differently than most peoples and that’s ok, it’s the way God made him.  But it also means that he may have to work a little bit harder to learn to do things both the way his teacher instructs but also the way HIS brain learns. He is doing great and getting fantastic grades now (although his work takes forever sometimes 🙄). We are VERY proud of the hard working young man he is becoming.  He’s hilarious and enjoys a good joke but he is also very spiritually sensitive. He asks deep questions and wants to figure things out, I absolutely love that! I want a child who knows what HE believes and why, that’s my Connor.

These boys love all things super heroes...

Vale is in kindergarten this year and he’s totally the cool kid on the block. He tells his whole class he hates his moms ‘girly movies’ but I tell you what, kid’s glued to the hallmark channel when I turn it on to fold clothes 😜.  He is reading Dr Suess books and does his school work quickly. He loves to draw & color, grapple with his brothers, play any sport you’ll let him, ride his bike, he runs everywhere and sleeps like a rock. He is very black and white with most things and grey areas can be hard for him to grasp sometimes. He loves to tell jokes and stories and play board games.  Yup, that’s my Vale.

He's such a good looking kid...

Schafer is something else.  He is my goofball, fly under the radar, smile to get you outta trouble kid.  With his blonde curls, dark eyes and impish smile he can wrap most people right around his little finger with his quick wit and creative dance moves.  He has taken recently to trying to teach Qade his ABC’s which includes ‘...h-i-k-k-m-m-m-o-p...’.  He is very caring for others and likes to be included with the big boys.  When he feels affection for someone his go-to phrase is not ‘I love you’ (though he does say that), his go-to phrase is ‘I’m so proud of you!’  He’s very active and jumps off of everything!  The kid’s gonna grow up to do parkour🙄. He always wants to be my helper and thrives on praise. He is incredibly tolerant of being tortured by the little girls at church and likes to take care of others. He’s a very sweet boy, that’s my Shay.

He is growing up so fast!

Qade is our little hulk baby.  He’ll be 18m in two weeks and he’s a really smart kid! He opens everything and can figure things out better than a 3 year old.  He opens twist jars, ziplock bags, toothpaste tubes and cabinets and drawers. He also eats everything... and I mean everything. Just to name a few... he’s eaten: a roach, human poop, goose poop, cat&dog food, mosquito eggs, lead based paint, toilet water, curdled milk and copious amounts of dirt and sand.  He eats normal things too, don’t get me wrong. The kids a human Hoover. He loves meat and veggies, not a huge carbs fan though. He will devour sweets though! Loves candy!! He likes to play anything his brothers play and will wrestle you like the best of ‘em. He loves to kick and throw balls too. He refuses to say any form of please or thank you but will nod and say ‘yet ‘er’ (yes sir). Sigh... very stubborn and tenacious this one. He is quite persistent when he wants something and continues to ask until he gets it or gets distracted.  He’s mommy’s little snuggle bug but isn’t super friendly to people he doesn’t know. He nods yes and no and knows how to communicate very well with his expressions. He is cute as a button, that’s my Qade.

I no longer have personal space...

Me? Yikes... nothing really to report other than I’m crazy busy with family, church and friends, all good things! My body hasn’t full recovered from having Qade, I still have hip and back problems and my thyroid is nuts.  Hoping that can all be taken care of soon.  I’m enjoying this phase we are in, even though it’s chaotic and insane sometimes. We really have great kids and I love them immensely!  I am so blessed with an amazing husband who I still love tremendously even after almost 9 years of marriage (we met 10 years ago in nov of last year). We try to go out on a date at least every other week cause let’s be honest, 4 boys are CRAZY and mama needs a break to be with her hubby sometimes. 😊

That’s us! I’ll try to write more, but no promises... I’m busy remember! 😜

Welcome to the family Bernard James Mahon IV

This is our last picture as a family with only 5 mouths to feed.

The boys all got presents for Qades Birthday!

Connor got a booster seat (he JUST reached 40lbs... whew whoo!)

Vale got an avengers hat and Shay got a skateboard.

I was origionally told that my c section would be at 1:30pm and my husband and I needed to be there at 11:30am.

I got a call at 7:30 from a nurse saying they could do the surgery early if I wanted so I told them we'd be there around 8:30.

My belly was huge!!  They did an ultra sound to check the baby, who was doing great (heart rate 148 and head down ready to deliver!)  As I was getting prepped in triage they came in and told me that if I wanted to I could try to labor since all looked good.  They could break my water in a delivery room and if it didn't work out they'd have the OR ready for me.  That was so very tempting but Jimmy and I had decided, when we had prayed about it, that we were going to do the c section so I didn't want to make an emotional decision but stick to what the Lord had given us peace about.  So with tears rolling down my face I told them I wanted the c section.

I had three concerns though:

1. I wanted sutures instead of staples.

2. I was concerned as to how my body would handle a spinal block.  It's different chemicals than an epidural and my body does very strange things sometimes with medicine and this was a new one.  I wanted to consult with the anesthesiologist before the procedure to see if it's possible to use an epidural.

3. If medically possible, I wanted immediate skin to skin when they pull the baby out.  I wanted him to stay in the room with me until I was done and sewn up.

1. They said that they use sutures on everyone at this hospital so #1 taken care of.

2. I talked with the anesthesiologist.  Although I was unsure (he was extremely arrogant) and he brushed off the fact that I react strongly to medication, I decided to go with the spinal block (basically I'll admit, I was bullied into it.  There were too many other things going on to fight it.)

3. The nurses did NOT like the fact I wanted immediate skin to skin.  It was definitely an eye roll and a 'you're so demanding' attitude from them.  They tried to tell me that it was better that they take the baby right away to the recovery area because then they could get all the stuff like weighing him out of the way while they were stitching me up and I'd be able to hold my baby longer then!  I stood my ground on this one and was like no, I'll hold my baby right away and you can do that while I'm in the room with him watching!  They weren't very happy with me.  The pediatric nurse who had to be in there for the baby was much more understanding about it though.

So they wheeled me to the OR at about 10:30 and a hour later, Qade was born (at 11:29am)!

Now when they gave me the spinal and with all the medications they were doping me with I started throwing up.  Worst feeling ever because my stomach muscles were basically paralyzed so I couldn't throw up and I was laying on my back and had to turn my head to the side and just let the puke run out.  I probably threw up 4 times during the procedure which was awful.  Shortly after the surgery started there was a little bit of a rustling and I heard voices saying things like, 'Do you have him?' 'Is that a leg?' 'He's really strong' 'I lost the leg, can you find him?'.  Then one of them got up on the table and started pushing on my stomach really hard.  My whole body was shaking and rocking back and forth.  The anesthesiologist grabbed my right hand and started another IV in the back of my hand and I wasn't sure why since I had a perfectly good one in my left hand.  It was hurting pretty badly at this point up by my rib cage and he also kept offering me pain drugs or to take something that would knock me out but I kept refusing.  

When they finally got him out, he wasn't crying.  I kept asking the nurse why he wasn't crying and she said, 'He's just really chill and taking everything in.' She lied.  His APGAR score was 2.  Because of that they were not able to put him immediately on my chest but had to go clear his airways and whatever else they do to a baby in distress.  A few minutes later I heard a muffled little cry which was amazing.  5 minutes after they pulled him out his score had gone up to a 9 which was wonderful. 

Jimmy of course went over to be with our new son right away and was with him for most of the rest of the time.

Soon they brought him over to me and let him lay on me for about 20 minutes as they finished everything up.  He nursed right away and was very sweet and snuggly. 

They stayed in the room with me and only had to leave a couple minutes before I did so they could transfer me off the table and move me to the recovery room.

He was 9lbs 4oz and 20 3/4 in long.

We decided to name him Bernard James Mahon IV after his daddy (Jimmy), his grandfather (Jim) and his great-grandfather (Bernie).  He's the fourth boy in our family and the fourth generation, we thought it was fitting.  We ran into the dilemma of what to call him though.  I have a brother named James so most of the nick names already were taken.  We looked into something that was short for the IV part of his name and found that the Latin and Gaelic term for 'fourth born' is Quade.   I wasn't super fond of the american way of pronouncing that word (which is more like kwade) so I looked up on line the Gaelic pronunciation and it sounded more like Kade but still spelled with the Qu.  After looking up the definition of the names Kade and Cade and finding those had different meanings if you spelled them with the C or the K, we decided to just spell it will the Q and no u since a Q by itself is pronounced like a K. So that's how we got the nickname Qade.  I know it's a bit unusual but so far it's worked pretty well. :)

As I was recovering, several things came to light about the procedure.

First of all, as soon as they broke my water, my sweet little baby turned sideways (transverse) and retreated up into my rib cage.  As all of my amniotic fluid drained out, my very displaced organs (because of all the extra fluid) were now lose and collapsed the center of my uterus causing the baby to be sideways up under my ribs, my incision open down by my pelvic bone and in-between filled with floating organs! They were having a hard time figuring out what was baby and what was part of mama.

* (update: when I went to my 6 week postpartum appointment I had them read me the doctors transcripts from the surgery and what REALLY happened is that my rib cage had been expanded by the massive amount of fluid and when they broke my water and Qade went transverse, his head and feet got stuck as my rib cage collapse back down to normal size.  He was stuck pretty good and without oxygen for 3 minutes :(.  Had that happened in a delivery room, he would have died by the time they were able to extract him.)

I had several nurses tell me that they heard I'd had a rough c section and that they'd had to rearrange my insides. :-o

He was apparently trapped up inside there with no fluid or oxygen and lots of pressure of the umbilical cord for about a minute which is what contributed to his low APGAR score.  I had visible bruises just under my rib cage where they pushed so hard to help get him out and a tearing on the left side of my incision because there were several peoples arms up in there at one time trying to find him.  

The Lord was so gracious to us because had I tried to labor, they would have broken my water.  If he did the same thing in a delivery room as in the OR (turned and retreated) they would of had to rush me in for an emergency section and who knows how long he would have been without the vitals that he needed to sustain himself.  Ugh!  That makes me queasy to even think about.  Also, had my water broken at the house and he'd turned, he probably would have died. :(

God was so good to grant wisdom that we did not know the gravity of at the time. I am continually in awe by His sweet care for us.

The boys came that day to meet their brother and were instantly smitten!  I love my Mahon men!

My recovery has been a little rough.  I lost a lot of blood during the procedure and there was a lot of bruising in my upper abdomen as well as the actual incision site.  They gave me an intravenous pain drug called Toradol and it was amazing!  I felt no pain and felt completely normal... but I wasn't allowed to be on it for more than 24 hours (which even then I had to petition a doctor for it every 6 hours).  They really wanted me to ween off of that and start taking a narcotic in pill form so I'd be able to go home and take those at home (which I never did).  I told them I don't do well with those kinds of medication but of course, they don't listen to a word I say. Sigh. 

They gave me oxycodone which made me immediately sick to my stomach and did nothing for the pain, in fact it heightened my awareness of it.  Then they gave me norco which was even worse.  I only took one round of each other those then told them I was done with prescription pain meds period and just took tylenol and motrin.  I really wish they would have let me continue to take the toradol while I was in the hospital, I think it would have helped my recovery.

I went home on a rainy Friday afternoon to a crazy house full of loud and dirty boys but there's nowhere else I'd rather be.  I missed their noise while I was in the quiet hospital room.  Our family is now complete. :)

My final Pregnancy

This pregnancy was definitely my hardest!  Glad it was my last!

February 5, 2016

February 25th 2016

I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes very early in my pregnancy, like 10 weeks (although on January 18th I had a physical and my blood sugars were great).  They think that because of all the trauma with my last pregnancy and delivery my body kinda freaked out when it detected pregnancy hormones again. I was also diagnosed with thyroid issues at the physical in January.  I was going to try to regulate with diet but as soon as I found out I was pregnant I started taking medication (levothyroxine) and it regulated my levels well.

My sweet babies profile.

Because of all of this I was sent to a fetal specialist (Dr. Wright) who was fabulous. 

It's a boy!!

My sugars were great and at the beginning of my third trimester my A1C was 5.1 (so great).

How we announced our 4 boys!!

At my appointment for 32 weeks they did an ultra sound and found that I had high amniotic fluid levels and was diagnosed with polyhydramnios.  When I went to my appointment 2 weeks later they found that Qade was measuring 38 weeks instead of 34 and I had about 3 times as much fluid as was normal (normal AFI levels are between 8-18 and mine at one point were measured at 44).

Growing belly!

I tweaked my back the next day bending over to put on a childs shoe.  They said I had to go to labor and delivery because they were scared I was in labor and didn't know it... (sigh... fourth kid, not  in labor, I would know...) but I went like they asked. At the appointment the day before, they took my A1C again and it was 7.0 but my finger stick blood measurements, which I was doing 4-5 times a day, were great (in the 80s and 90s).  So they were pretty concerned about that so admitted me to the hospital to monitor my blood sugars on their own for 24 hours.  Like I had been taking, my blood sugars were fabulous.   I was curious after that so I took them a couple times in the middle of the night right out of sleep and they were high so my numbers were apparently spiking at night while I slept.  The specialist put me on a low dose of levemir at night (16 units) which helped and my sugars were great all the time after that.

Belly getting even bigger!

My poly on the other hand did not get better, it continued to get worse.  The baby looked great but with all that fluid there was danger of me going into labor early.  My uterus was so big I kept having contractions.  At 36 weeks I had contraction about 10 minutes apart pretty consistently but gratefully they stopped on their own.  I was put on partial bedrest and told if I didn't take it seriously they would admit me to the hospital until the baby was born.  Definitely didn't want that!

And even bigger!!

Dr. Wright originally wanted me to go to 39 weeks but as the fluid levels rose and contractions continued he said we would induce labor at 38 weeks.  With so much fluid there was real concern of a prolaps umbilical cord or my placenta detaching from my uterine wall.  They kept telling me, if your water breaks you need to lay down prostrate and call 911 immediately.  Not something someone wants to hear when they have 3 little boys running around at home.  My mother and the ladies from the church were very helpful in making sure that my boys always had someone to care for them if there was an emergency.  (gratefully it never came to that)

My sweet babies face... loves to suck on that hand!

At my appointment when I was 36w 6d the baby was estimated to be 10lbs 3oz!!!  We knew that that number is an estimation (some kids are heavier than others and vice versa) but the numbers that were really disturbing were his head and chest measurements.  They were measuring off the charts which means bigger than a baby with a gestational age of 42 weeks!  EEK! Now, on top of the the poly concerns there was potential of him getting stuck!  At this point Dr. Wright discussed the potential of having a c section.  Because of the numbers, he said that the 'experts' would recommend that I consider a section.  We talked for a while about the pros and cons and he was not opposed at all to my attempting to labor.  He said since I'd already had 3 babies just fine there's a good chance there would be no problem having the baby.  We asked him though if it was his wife or daughter what would he tell her to do and without hesitation he said 'get a c section'.

precious chubby baby!

Jimmy and I decided to go home and spend some time praying about it and on Friday were made the decision to do an elective cesarean section and they wanted to schedule it for Wednesday September 28th when I would be exactly 38w 0d.    

This was a week before he was born.  So precious!

This that and everything August...

So we have an achievement jar that the boys can put gumballs in if they exibit some sort of christian character (doing what's right no matter what you want or how you feel) during the day.  So when daddy comes home he plays the superman song and has a little ceremony for their achievements :).  I caught the tail end of it last night and I tell you what, Schafer is adorable!

Vale is one of the coolest kids I know.  He loves to wear his Steelers hat and likes to dress himself.  Prime examples below.

This little guy has got the best head of hair ever.  I thought Vale's was awesome.

The boys love to help mommy shuck corn :)

So Connor's feet are about a size and a half bigger than Vale's but Vale LOVES shoes... ergo, Vale continually steals Connor's shoes.  I can't believe this is already starting at 3 and 5... anyway, there was a dispute about shoes and people were being unkind so I told them they could each wear one of the shoes.  Connor got the left shoe and Vale got the right.  They'd have to pick another shoe to go on the other foot.  They weren't happy. 

We have this trampoline park close to our house and in the mornings they have a time when only kids under 6 can go, it's awesome!  The boys love it!

We are so blessed to have good friends here in NC with kids my kids' age. 

This picture is amazing!  Shay looks terrified and Kara, feisty as ever, looks like she's found her dinner.

I try to take some time with each of the boys as alone time and have them take me on a 'date'. :)  Vale is such a sweetheart and soaks up any alone time he can get.  

This little mischief maker is a joy but at the same time, a little ball of trouble.  He has taken to hitting his brother with hard objects to the point that they see him pick up something hard and run for cover. He thinks this is a terrific game and so it's been difficult to get him to stop.  The older two have just resorted to toughing it out and trying to commander the weapon before it's used for ill. :)  Oh the life of a mama with boys... 

Connor has pneumonia...

Connor goes to what's called a university model classical school which means that he only attends class two days a week, for a full day, then does all his practice work and homework on home the other days.  So the first day of 'homeschool' went GREAT!

He loved it!  I kept asking him if he wanted to take a break and he was like 'no, lets do the next thing!'

This was also the start of school for pre-school for Vale.  On the days that Connor has school at home, so will Vale.  He wasn't as thrilled with it but he'll do it if Connor does. :)

I am also attempting to start the boys learning french.  On school days if they want to watch TV, it has to be in french.  Surprisingly, they are ok with that... 

Sometimes the baby feels left out... he just needs some daddy snuggles to make him feel like he belongs in this new school environment. 

Well all was going well until Connor got a fever on the first Thursday of school... 

It would go away and then come back a couple hours later.  He didn't end up going to church and I was on the fence, cause he was acting normal, but because of the fever I didn't let him go to school on monday and we took him to the doc.  She checked for a UTI or ear infection and he had neither.  

We figured it was a virus and thought we'd wait it out.  She said if he still had a fever on Wednesday at all to come back in. 

 Knowing that Connor was sick the wonderful ladies in our church showered us with love bringing toys and books for Connor and a meal for our family.  We love our church so much!

He missed school again on Wednesday because Tuesday afternoon he started throwing up!  He threw up in the afternoon then was fine and hungry, behaving like normal.  Then after dinner he got lethargic and that night threw up again in the middle of the night.  Wednesday he was below 100 all day so I was like phew we are good!  But then again, Wednesday night it went back up to 101.5.  :-( 

I took him back to the doc on Thursday and they did a chest x-ray and before I even left the radiology center the doctor called me and was like he has left lower lobe pneumonia, he needs an antibiotic.  Well there you go!  Guess he was sick! He's such a tough little cookie it's hard to tell when he's ill.  He never complained about anything!

On a different note... I decided to dye my hair since I was cooped up in the house for over a week... :)

I got bangs, chopped off a couple inches and turned it red! 

I like it, Jimmy likes it... who knows how long I'll keep it but for now I'm rockin it. :)