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. :)

Connor's first day of Kindergarten and more new adventures!

We are so excited and grateful that Connor is able to go to an amazing school for kindergarten this year!!!

He asked for french toast and fruit for breakfast, no prob bud! :)

I really like it that they have uniforms... made school shopping a lot cheaper!

I didn't ask him to pose like this, he just did it himself... what a cool dude. 

I did make him take some normal classic ones though... my baby is growing up!

He totally reminds me of my cousin Erik Hultquist in this picture... :)

He's such a sweet kid... he always signs that he loves me... melt my heart!

So the audacity of this child!!  He asked me if I could just drop him off at the door cause he 'knew where to go'!! Ummm NO!  MOMMY needs to drop you off... there were no tears, no fear, just pure excitement!

He is in a class of 5 with an AMAZING teacher (who is a cedarville grad by the way... GO CU!)

Plus, one of the kids is already his friend!!  He and Matthew have been buddies for a while!

He acted more like a 6th grader getting 'dropped off'... like 'I'm appeasing you mom but this is really unnecessary.'  Believe it or not this is a HUGE answer to prayer because even at the beginning of the summer he was super clingy and never wanted to be away from me. 

We stayed for there for the morning assemble where they talk about their monthly character trait and go over Colossians 3 which they will memorize this year.

Their teacher sent me this photo and said on the first day the kids wanted to hold hands and pray for their food at lunch!!!  How cute is that!!??  This is gonna be a great year!

In other news, we put an offer in on a short sale at the end of April and Jimmy saw it for the first time on the inside the same day Connor went to school for the first time! :)  Whoever named it 'short' sale was a super funny dude cause taint nuttin short bout it! :)

This is the home and we are hoping we get it, if not, back to the drawing board! :)

We also finished the process of buying a new van on Monday!  The boys have named her Sienna. :)

Jimmy also chipped his tooth but we have no photos of that... :-/

I'm back from my blogger hiatus!

So I've gotten so far behind on posting, it seems like such an insurmountable task to catch up that I gave up...

Well no longer!

I'm going to start fresh now, from today, and try to fill in that 8 months slowly.

I like blogging.  

I like being able to look back and see when things happened and the REAL story not revisionist histories version of it.

So here's to new beginnings and starting fresh!

Hi! I have a five year old, a three year old and a 18 month old and I'm an overwhelmed but happy mommy of boys!!!  :)

Schafer is 1!!!!

We had a big party planned for Schafer's first birthday on Saturday the 31st but everyone got pinkeye so it ended up being only a family party.

On his actual birthday, which was wednesday he got his first happy meal for lunch and we went to texas roadhouse for dinner. 

We had a lumber jack theme for his party with lots of red and black plaid.

We had cornbread, bacon, sausage and lots of warm syrup.

We had pancakes and popcorn in brown paper cones. 

I tried to make his cake look like a log... eehhh next time it will be better. It did look better in person though.

Happy Birthday Schafer!  We are so grateful for you!