Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The truth

We've all noticed that the frequency of updates on here has decreased significantly in the past few months.  Part of it is that our life just isn't that exciting.  The other reason is that I have not been feeling well over the past few months.  The reason why...

We have another thumb sucker

That's right, Baby V #2 will be making his or her arrival sometime around Oct. 21st. 

Ava appears to be excited about this, and likes telling people that she's going to be a " big brother".  What she means is that she wants a baby brother.  Even before we found out we were expecting Ava told me one day that she wanted a baby brother.  I asked her if a baby sister would be ok.  She adamantly said, "no, a baby brother".  She has not changed her mind about this either.  We could be in trouble!!!  We are still undecided as to if we will find out the sex of the baby during our ultrasound.  We didn't with Ava.  I think that all of this will be a shock, and a bit of a blow to Ava's ego.  She is definitely used to being the center of attention no matter where we go.  Hopefully we can go from everything being "mine" to sharing.  This girl even dreams selfishly.  A few nights this past week she must have had the same dream.  She'll be sleeping and say, "no, no, stop, that's mind".  Sad but true!

The past few months have been a bit rough as far as sickness goes.  I believe that it's better than when I was pregnant with Ava, Nate disagrees.  Luckily I haven't had the extreme exhaustion that I had with Ava.  I don't get to come home from work and take naps this time around.  I do usually hit the couch after dinner though, and Nate takes over Daddy duty.

With another baby on the way we would really like to get a bigger place.  Our current place has three bedrooms, but we would really like a fourth for when we have family in town.  We would also like a better layout with a toy room and a bit more living space.  With that being said, we're planning on putting our place on the market next week.  I'm praying that it sells and that we find something that suits us a bit better as a growing family.  However, I'm going to try not to stress myself out about it.  We will fit in this house and we don't HAVE to move.  It would just be really nice.  So, say a few prayers for us as we start this journey as well. 

Next time I'll put more updated pictures of Ava on here.  I still have some to download to the computer.  Just  thought I'd share the big news, and explain the lack of updates.  Thanks for checking in with us!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Easter

We hope that you all had a wonderful Easter weekend. This year we spent Easter in De Soto at Aunt Lisa & Uncle Brent's house. We loaded up the Traverse Friday morning with Mema, Boppa, the three of us, and all our luggage. Poor Mema got stuck in the back. We made a few stops on the way down, which helped to break up the trip. We got to stop and see Nana in Hollandale. We hadn't seen her for quite some time. She of course had yummy homemade treats waiting for us when we arrived. We then stopped in Clear Lake for a quick lunch. Our next stop...Tom & Judy's. Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of time to visit with them, as we had to get to Aunt Lisa's to dye eggs. Ava had a great time playing at Tom & Judy's for the short time that we were there. She loved the kitty, and managed to drag out every single toy that they have. It was great to see them, even if it was for only a short bit. Mema & Boppa stayed there while we went on to De Soto.

Grandma Great, Aunt Lori, Zacky, and Reece greeted us at Aunt Lisa's. We were so happy to see everybody. Ava quickly put on some of Reece's "paint clothes" so that we could dye eggs. She was interested for about 5 minutes. Then she was off to play and read books.

Saturday morning Aunt Darlene, Great Grandma, and Grandma B surprised us and showed up at Aunt Lisa's. As soon as they arrived we left for a big Easter egg hunt that one of Aunt Lisa's friends put on in Des Moines. There were SO many eggs there!!! Unfortunately it was kind of cold and rainy. We left after collecting a ton of eggs and headed home for some lunch and a nap. That evening Aunt Darlene, Great Grandma, and Grandma headed back home and we went to church. Having Ava in church once again reminded me of how grateful I am for the nursery at our church on Sunday mornings! She is not a little girl who can sit quietly for an hour. She finally fell asleep about 3/4 into the service.

Sunday morning the kids woke up and found their Easter baskets. The girls (Jordan, Ali, and Ellen) came over later and we had another egg hunt outside. Uncle Brent and Daddy hid the eggs. They must have done a very good job because we are still missing one of Ava's eggs. They were supposed to be very easy to find so we're not sure if the dog took one of them or what happened to it. Ava had a great time finding all of her pink eggs though. After that we had lunch and it was then time for us to pack up, pick up Mema & Boppa, and head home. We ended up not getting home until about 6:30. The drive home seemed to last a bit longer than the drive down. About 30 minutes from home Ava decided that she "needed" to drive. She threw a fit, telling Nate that she needed to sit up front so she could drive. I have no idea when she learned to drive, but she was very adamant about it.

This week has been pretty low key. Ava spent Monday through Wednesday at daycare, and yesterday we ran errands in the morning and it was finally nice enough outside yesterday afternoon that we got to go for a walk to the park and play with some sidewalk chalk for a bit. Ava's bandage finally fell off of her belly a couple of days ago. Her incision looks great, I don't know if you'll even be able to tell it's there once it fully heals. We have her surgical follow-up appointment in a few weeks.

Other than that, it would be a fairly low key weekend. Nate is running his first 5K tomorrow. The weather should be nice, so hopefully he'll have a good time. Hope that you all have a great weekend!


Dying Easter eggs
Ava trying to get a good look at what's going on in that cup
Our rocker chick, who looks like a rocker dude in Reece's clothes
Reece & Ava ready for Easter service
Playing Peek-a-boo before church
Sadly enough, this is one of the better pictures of the three of them (the other ones Ava practically has her legs up over her head, she's so lady like)
One of the Easter egg hunts
Zacky helping Ava find some eggs
I found one!!!
Hunting with Daddy
This would be the giant bunny that Aunt Darlene brought for Ava. It is still at Aunt Lisa & Uncle Brent's house because we only had room in the car for the bunny or Mema...Mema won!
Reading her book that was in her Easter basket
Finding her first egg on Easter morning

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Surgery

Ava had her surgery yesterday (an umbilical hernia repair) and recovery is going better than I could have ever anticipated. We were a little uncertain going into things on Monday morning. We received a phone call from our surgeons office at 2:30 Friday afternoon saying that his father was ill and he was leaving town, however one of his partners could do the surgery at the same time on Monday. We debated about this since I really fell in love with "Dr Steve" at Ava's pre-op appointment. We opted to go on with the surgery as planned since we had the day off and had been trying to prepare Ava for the day. We met Dr. Rich just prior to Ava's surgery. I must say that I was not impressed. He planned on intubating her rather than using an oral airway, planned on giving us no prescription pain meds like Dr. Steve had planned on doing, and was not going to do her surgical dressing how I had hoped. When all was said it done, she did fine with the intubation, she didn't need the oxycodone, and I got my surgical dressing.
Ava was a rockstar at the hospital. I have to say that Children's does such a great job catering to the kids, making things as not scary as possible. Everybody that we encountered was friendly and had a smile on their face. They have redone the surgical area since we were there last year. It is very nice. We got to stay in the same room pre and post op which was nice, and had the same nurse. The child life specialist came in and went over the "princess mask" with Ava before she went back to the OR. Nate went back with her again. He said that she did a great job and didn't seem scared or intimidated at all by all of the stuff in the OR. He held her until she was out, helped put her on the operating room table, and was then sent out. I then sent him out to get us lunch while we waited for Ava. If you're stuck in the hospital you might as well enjoy Cossetta's. :)
I think that Ava almost enjoyed yesterday. She woke up and had Jello and apple juice for breakfast. She had never had jello, and we don't allow her to have juice. She got to play with some new toys as we registered at the hospital. She got to smell lots of lipsmackers and spread them around for her "princess mask" (oxygen mask to put her out). She got more juice, and pretty much spent the afternoon watching Dora and Mickey Mouse before going for a walk.
I was worried that she would wake up in pain this morning since the local anesthetic was obviously gone and the Ibuprofen I gave her before bed had worn off. Then at 6 am I hear a little voice on the monitor singing "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed". I have to say that it was the cutest thing. She sat in her bed talking and singing to her animals for 45 minutes. She was then up and as active as ever. I didn't even have to give her any ibuprofen today. I would have never guessed that she had surgery yesterday. I am a little concerned about her incision. There was some bloody drainage on the steri-strips last night (which I wasn't surprised about), but her belly button looks a little odd. I'll take the tegaderm off tomorrow and will hopefully be able to better assess it. We don't want any problems with it over Easter weekend.
Wishing you a wonderful Easter weekend!
Ava REALLY wanted to wear her rain boots and "mambo skirt" the other day
Enjoying a nice drive while we waited to go back to the pre-op area yesterday morning
Storytime with Daddy before surgery.
Ava snuggled up with Mommy and her apple juice watching some cartoons right after surgery
She looks like she's ready to go home.