Monday, August 20, 2012

Tahlia's Hospital Visit (summed up in one spot)

Last Tuesday Tahlia was having some issues with breathing, throwing up
and gasping for air, so we took her into the emergency room.  They did
a chest xray and a few other things, she had 2 of her episodes while
we were there and the Dr. determined it was probably just reflux.  We
kept her upright for 30 minutes after each feeding and inclined her
crib.  She slept really good through the night and was normal on
Wednesday just a little sleepy.  We followed up with her doctor that
afternoon at around 4:00.

We all agreed that reflux sounded like the answer and decided to take
the non-medicated approach.  After we left the clinic, we went to the
park so Mylee could play while I fed Tahlia.  It was really windy so
Chris was carrying her to the car so I could feed her there and
Tahlia started gagging and throwing up blood.  We ran to the car after
determining that it would be faster to drive than to wait for an
ambulance (got lectured for that, but i still think it was the right
choice).  I even called ahead to 911 to let them know we were on our
way (of course the registration people didn't take me seriously and it
took us several minutes to get into the back room, luckily the nurse
took one look at her and yelled for a doctor) all of a sudden there
were 5 people in the room with her.  They ran a bunch of tests and
called ahead to Marshfield.  Because of her age they had to helicopter
her to Marshfield.  We got Mylee settled with Cassie for the night and
headed to Marshfield to be with Tahlia.

At Marshfield they ran a bunch of tests, nothing really came back
unusual.  They began treatment for bacterial Pneumonia (caused by
aspirating into her lungs from her vomiting issues) because that is
what appeared on her lungs from the xray at Rice Lake. Her blood
levels dropped a bit, but they were 90% sure at the time it was
because of all of the fluids and antibiotics they were pumping into
her tiny little body.  They watched her all day Thursday (she had one
episode where her oxygen levels dropped really low), we met with the
GI Doctor, and he decided to probe her upper GI tract to check for
blood.  That happened on Friday.  The GI guy didn't find anything
unusual and no blood in her system (good news).  So after that they
were ready to move us to regular PEDS and out of the PICU.  Well
Tahlia had other plans.  In a period of 2 hours she had 3
gagging/breathing episodes similar to Tuesday night.  One of these was
witnessed by a nurse.  While these were happening her oxygen levels
dropped really low again.  So we spent another night in the PICU.

Saturday was a good day, no more episodes, blood levels went back up,
they took her IV's out and continued the antibiotics orally.  Thought
maybe we could go home on Sunday.  We met with a different doctor on
Sunday who went over a few things with us.  Her xrays finally made it
to radiology (apparently she wasn't urgent) and the radiologist
believed that she didn't have an infection, but instead that her lung
had collapsed during all of her breathing episodes.  This could
partially explain the vomiting up blood, but still none of this should
have happened.  They were also now concerned about her weight.  She
was up to 8lbs 10 ounces, and was down to a little over 8lbs 5 ounces
(she was born at 8 lbs 2 ounces) so we earned another night in the
hospital to see if her weight went up by Monday.  They also had us
meet with a lady to learn infant CPR.

So Monday came and we thought for sure we could go home.  But Tahlia
is apparently comfortable here.  Her weight dropped AGAIN (Ugh--she
eats ALLLLLLLLLL day long).  So now we have to stay 2 more days (until
her weight goes up).  So today we are bottle feeding her and
monitoring her intake and out put (there's a lot of both happening) so
hopefully her weight goes up and we will be home by Wednesday!

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers, means a lot to us!!! Maybe
next week will be a normal week.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

It's coming along!!! Our First Home.

Well, after a looooooooooong process, we are finally in!  Well actually it wasn't that long since we just closed on June 8, but we were supposed to be closing on May 18.  Things had to move rather quickly to paint, put in new flooring (I have an issue with feet touching dirty surfaces, not that these people were dirty), and MOVE.  Apparently we have more STUFF than I ever thought!  Here's a few pics of our work in progress...





















Welcoming Baby #2: our birth story

The only positive perk to having a c-section a 2nd time, is that its scheduled, and since my babies don't like to come on their own, everything went as scheduled. (a big relief after all of my pregnancy issues and scares)

We arrived at the hospital in Rice Lake at 5:30 AM on Friday, July 20 (too early in my opinion) and met our nurse for the day (she was amazing by the way).  Got hooked up to the IV (number 1 reason this nurse is amazing, she got the IV on the first try--this has never happened before), had some blood drawn, and got my 2 bags of fluids required before surgery.

We met with our anesthesiologist (My FAVORITE one...I've had 3), he must have been worried about me getting a spinal, probably because I spent 15 minutes trying to talk him out of one for my ankle surgery, because he came in all prepared telling me why a spinal was the way to go... I'm not sure what the other options were but I wasn't going to ask for anything else!

At about 7:30, I walked with my surgery nurse to the operating room (this nurse was amazing too by the way) and got everything ready to go.  I almost had an anxiety attack when the anesthesiologist got ready to put the needle in my back, but nurse to the rescue, she put her arms around me and held me while I cried as he put it in  (the spinal went horribly bad with Mylee and I cried for months in pain from it...)

At that point everything moved quite quickly, my Dr. came in, got ready to cut, they brought in Chris and we were set.  I got a new scar added to my collection because this Dr preferred to cut lower than the previous Dr.  (something about how high up the baby was).  It seemed to take some effort to get her out of me, (my sides would agree to this as they are quite tender...days later) pushing and tugging, the anesthesiologist told Chris the exact moment to watch so he actually got to see her being born. (he said it was gross but happy he saw it)  Tahlia cried almost the 2nd they got her head out and gave those lungs a workout the whole time they attended to her.  Our Doc said that this was a good sign, she'd be a good baby (so far he's right).

Tahlia ElaineMarie Waldron was born at 7:59AM on July 20 2012 by c-section.  She weighed in at 8 lb 2 oz and was 19.5 inches long.  She has a head of dark brown hair and dark grayish black eyes (we'll see what color they will be)



Everything went how I wanted it to...This time I got to touch her right away and the nurse held her cheek to mine so we could have a few bonding moments before they took her away while I got stitched up.  They also promised that I'd see the baby soon and that if everything went well she could come back to recovery with me.

I waited for what seemed like FOREVER to see Tahlia.  She never made it back to recovery with me, I was anxious waiting to see her, Chris said she cried almost the whole time she was without me.  They were getting ready to bring Tahlia back to me when the Anesthesiologist FINALLY cleared me (the deal was that I had to be able to move my legs together before I could go back, I got my left leg going quickly, the right one didn't cooperate) however this wait wasn't nearly as long as I waited to see Mylee!

We bonded quickly, and the nurse got her nursing right away (this is a success, Mylee had issues eating and ended up staying an extra day at the hospital).  I spent the day in bed (ugh) but had a lot of good bonding time with Tahlia.  The only terrible aftermaths of the c-section on the first day were the horrible itching (reaction to the spinal/morphine mix)-a common reaction, feeling like it was 700 degrees in the room (poor Chris had to go get a sweatshirt so he didn't freeze to death), and those horrible hospital beds.

Day 2 was a little harder physically, the meds were wearing off.  But it was good to be moving and stretching.  I'll be honest, this c-section HURT (more pain than I have ever felt before in my life).

I decided I wanted to go home on Sunday (maybe this wasn't a great idea), but the doc came in in the morning to pull out my staples.  I had some pretty wicked bruising and a bit of a red area so he put me on antibiotics for infection, but otherwise we were good to go home.  Tahlia's doc stopped by late morning and she was cleared as well, so we were on our way home by 12:30!

Very excited to be home with my 2 favorite daughters!


Friday, July 13, 2012

Counting down the days.

Counting down the days.  C-Section is scheduled for Friday, July 20.  Doc said today that we'll be getting a call next week Wednesday or Thursday for when we get to go in. YAY.  Everything is looking good.  Had some contractions at my NST today, didn't last long, but it was kind of exciting to actually feel them, since I couldn't feel any of them with Mylee.  Gotta love spending 2 hours at the drs office for no reason, but better safe than sorry.  I'm a high risk pregnancy according to my medical chart, but have been basically problem free for about 15 weeks!

Hopefully this baby doesn't decide to come early, I have a few things I want to get done... Crib, Wall decorations, clean the house a bit, get my classroom cleaned up (I'm sharing my room next year).  I'm thinking Chris will go in with me next Thursday morning to take care of that.  Otherwise we are set to go.  My parents are arriving on Tuesday, staying at a resort through Friday, so Mylee will be with them starting on Wednesday until we get home from the hospital (hopefully next Sunday!)


Wednesday, June 27, 2012

A new chapter... Our first Home!

Well, one thing is for sure.  We've been BUSY!  We closed on our new house on June 8 (FINALLY) we were supposed to close on May 18.  But divine intervention moved the date (the appraiser was SLOW) turns out that worked in our favor since the bank originally denied the loan because Chris got laid off.  Working a little magic we got it approved!

Once we closed we started getting things done right away.  All of the rooms have been repainted, new carpet has been laid in the living room and 3 bedrooms, and engineered wood floors have been put in the kitchen, dining room and hallway.  Really all that is left is all of the boxes in the basement and the bathroom!  We actually painted, did the floors and moved all within 5 days.

Amongst all of that, I have had a few Dr. appointments, things are going well.  Blood pressure is better than it's been in my entire adult life, fluid levels are good, baby is measuring big (this is good news since she was measuring small the first half of pregnancy) We are now doing Non-Stress Tests every appointment, Dr is being extra cautious because of my early issues which technically put me into the high risk category, even though nothing would put me in that category now (YAY)!  Counting down the July 20!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

CHANGE is good...right?!?

Well, I have unofficially accepted a change in careers for next year (well not a complete change in career).  I will tentatively (it is NOT official by the board yet) be working about 50% in my regular position (Business Ed) teaching a block high school class, a couple of online classes, and my one Middle School class.  This means I teach 1 less class than I normally would.  In addition to that I will be working as the IMC director (under the current Library Media Specialist who will be moving on to the Montessori school (tentatively)).  With that I will be doing elementary story time (this could be interesting) and elementary computer time (this could be exciting!)

I will also NOT be doing as much with the school newspaper (this is bitter sweet as we have a love hate relationship) I have put blood, sweat, and tears into this paper, so letting it go is going to both great and sad (and most importantly a lot less stressful).  I'll still have my hand in the advertising for a little while any way so I'm not leaving it cold turkey!

Chris doesn't have a lot of options for next year, he's taking the layoff pretty hard because he FINALLY found a place he LOVED to work and then due to budget cuts he can't stay.  He had 1 interview, but you know how it goes when people already know who they're going to hire (too bad they couldn't tell you ahead of time!)  I think this is stressing him out, mostly on the financial part.  We are closing on the house in 2 weeks and the baby is coming in 11, lots of stuff to worry about.  I'm amazingly calm about this.  Things always turn out ok, and why worry about it now.


I'm officially 28 weeks pregnant, according to ALL 3 of my due dates;) We will be scheduling my C-section at my appointment at the end of May.  I think I might keep that one a secret so no one can come see me at the hospital (I was secretly happy the OB wing was shut down when I had Mylee due to the N1H1 outbreak).  Things are looking pretty good on the baby front, she's growing "above average" and thriving.  Although she enjoys staying squished up into a little ball.  We made a little trip to the Hospital last week with "threatened preterm labor" I had some bleeding and an intense pressure that wouldn't go away, so we ruled out labor (thank God!) and everything was fine.  I couldn't feel anything during my 8+ hours of labor or contractions (I didn't even know I was in labor when I got to the hospital) with Mylee so that worries me that something will happen and I won't know, let's hope it doesn't!




Had my 28 week appointment this week with another growth scan ultrasound!  Baby looks great and was a pain in the butt as usual! But it was exciting to see her and I finally got a CD of the baby moving!  Everything else checked out, passed my glucose test by 1 point (shouldn't eat a bowl of chocolate covered carmel popcorn the night before) and I now have to take Iron supplements because my iron counts are too low, but that is minor!

Definitely looking forward to the delivery of this baby! It will be a happy ending to a long fought battle with my body!

More to come on our 1st house!!!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

We can do this... right?

It's a good thing I decided some things in life aren't worth worrying about... because the last few weeks have been a little crazy.  Our offer on our house was accepted and we got all the paperwork done for the loan.  GREAT NEWS right!  Well then Chris got a layoff notice from the Turtle Lake School District (I have a few choice words for this situation, but my husband is somehow able to remain positive so I can do this too).  They will be cutting his department down by 1 and he is the low man on the totem pole... Sucky thing is that the principal pretty much guaranteed him he'd have a job next yer.  LESSON: wait for the contract in hand! oh wait that could be never since we face the wrath of Scott Walkers plan to save money and schools (looks like he forgot about the little guys when he cut funding more)  GOOD NEWS: Chris can collect unemployment if he needs too and we already know how to live on my income.

Life Crisis #1=annoying but we can do this!

On to the baby business.   I thought my 1st pregnancy was stressful...  This one has far more issues and luckily everything has been turning out to be ok (really nothing has been very bad, just annoying trying to figure it out).  I am really really happy I picked the Dr. I did, because he gets me.  He seems to know when I need reassurance that it's going to be ok, but he never tells me its going to be perfect.  I can work with this... I'm a statistics and numbers kind of a person.  Ultrasounds have certainly lost their excitement but I can definitely be happy to know everything is progressing.  Baby measures right on, but I have another growth scan in 2 weeks, ultrasound number 9 or 10... I lose track:).   I've also been having these horrible dizzy spells where I feel like I'm going to pass out.  I swear my students think I'm crazy.  GOOD NEWS--doc thinks its just my blood pressure--this time getting two low.... We've been watching this whole pregnancy because it was too high... now it's too low.  EVEN BETTER NEWS-no more nasty bp pills... I WIN (I am not big into medications)

Then there's Fifth Disease which is running rampant around the school and the baby book Marshfield clinic send home with you says: Effects on the baby: usually none; some unborn babies may develop anemia or die.  Nothing like getting right to the point!  Luckily 60% of adults are immune because they've already had it... I am apparently in the 40% that have never had it... however at east I know I don't presently have it... good thing my doc knows I obsess over things because I have another blood test in 10 days to see if I've gotten it yet.  I wouldn't worry so much but Mylee gets everything it seems and is in contact with lots of kids.

let's hope this crisis is averted as well!

Friday, March 30, 2012

Life is FLYING by... YIKES

Boy have we been busy around here!  A few weeks ago, Chris and I decided that maybe it was time to look at buying a house... We're already paying $565 in rent, so a mortgage payment is very realistic.  Biggest downside is that we're teachers and who knows if our jobs are ever really secure.  But we decided to call a loan officer and figure out if we would even qualify for a decent loan.  Numbers came back being able to afford up to $120,000.  Then we checked in with Mommy Bladl to check her opinion.  She checked out what we got back from the bank and thought it was very doable.  So we called a realator... that was 2 weeks ago.  Today we made an offer, it seems like we are moving too fast, but the location of this house is perfect, about a 30 minute drive for Chris and good roads and a 15 minute drive for me, good roads, lots of kids.  Now we wait to hear back about our offer.

In the meantime, Chris has been busy with coaching Forensics, he has 24 students going to state which is very exciting for him.  I've also been coaching Forensics, I had 7 make it to state, so I'm pretty excited about that.  Chris had hernia surgery, so he's taking it easy for the next couple of weeks and we're having a difficult time keeping Mylee off of his stomach... but she's really doing well and seems to understand that daddy is "sick" ;)

Had my 24 week appointment (at 23 weeks), apparently my doc and I have very conflicting schedules.  All is going pretty well in baby land, I am having problems with my blood pressure dropping too low, so we're backing off the meds a bit (since it was outrageously high)--the nausea and dizzy spells are getting a little old--especially when I'm at work... and now my 2 week appointments start already, since I had to add an extra appointment this month and we were starting a bit early anyway, and the doc wants a growth comparison so now I have to have another full ultrasound at the next appointment.  Can I use up a few more sick days? Oh well, totally worth it to make sure this baby comes out healthy!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

It's a...

Well, it's been a long 20 weeks, but we are finally to the halfway mark! Today we had a great ultrasound, lots of pictures and explanations-so hopefully everything looks good after the doc looks at it!  We found out what it is...
Hello Everyone


Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Snow!!!

Well, we finally got our big snow fall of the winter, looks to be about 12 inches and counting!  Hopefully it will stop soon, or I guess another snow day would be ok;) wishful thinking.  Slept in a bit, well I did anyway, Mylee woke Chris up at about 7:00.  By 8 AM a neighbor boy asked if he could shovel our driveway... ummm of course!  We did pay him 10 bucks (all in an effort to keep the plow out of our yard)! I get that there's no where to push the snow but I HATE when I can see grass after a big snow because the plow pushed all of it into the middle of our yard. 

Mylee, Chris and I made a trek into school to get some papers and a book that I needed, it was entertaining to watch Mylee walk the block to the school, she insisted on walking through the big snow drifts, built our first snowman of the year, Mylee loved it!  Then she spent about a half hour playing in the snow while we (I mean Chris) shoveled some more of the drive way, which had almost as much snow as when the kid shoveled because we decided to clean off the cars. 

Monday, February 13, 2012

Busy Busy Busy

I'd just like to start this post by stating that Monday started with me being crabby, continued with a visit from someone you don't want to be visited from, and ended with a HAH IT WASN'T MY FAULT.  Now if only you knew what I was talking about this would make a whole lot more sense, but since it relates to work business, it can't make sense, but that's OK!!!

Life has been EXTREMELY busy with us lately.  Chris has been working with his Forensics students, competing at their first invitational this last weekend, and I've been busy with my FBLA students, took 21 of them to Regionals last weekend and have 11 going to State in April, should be pretty exciting.  I'm also working with my Forensics students, thought it'd be fun to bring it back to the school since it got cut a few years ago, but we thankfully don't do invitationals! Oh and I got the great pleasure of chaperoning Winter Formal, since my FBLA students put it on, however I must say that this was the least torturous one I've chaperoned in the last 5 years! On that note, I'd like to state that I HATE Valentines day, and especially the 257 carnations sitting in my classroom right now.

On the front of the personal life, Mylee is going to be my musical baby (atleast I hope she is) she spends a good 15-30 minutes at a time belting out music for Chris and I.  She's most recently mastered 5 little monkeys (I LOVE IT)

We had our 16 week appointment on Friday for Baby Waldron #2, a totally worthless appointment for the 15 minutes I was there, but I did get to see the little one again!  Everything is looking good, FINALLY.  We get to find out what it is on March 7, I'm very excited.  Can't wait to tell Mylee what we're having.  Her and I are convinced its a boy, but we will see!  I hope its a boy, otherwise the name picking business is going to be tricky.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Looking forward to baby #2

the truth is, God works in mysterious ways.  We are finally able to announce that baby #2 is coming in July.  Due Date of July 24 (maybe), after 4 ultrasounds and some previous issues, we don't have an "official" due date yet.  The doctor hasn't made that call because things keep changing. The curse and blessing of ultrasound technology.

Our Journey
In late May we were excited to find out that we were expecting, however some bleeding issues led to concerns which led to a miscarriage at 7-8 weeks, on the bright side, we knew we could get pregnant on our own (some health issues before Mylee led us to an endocrinologist which led to some medication that helped with fertily, which most likely helped with Mylee)  A D&C was performed and then the waiting and waiting to get pregnant again (luckily for us it only took a few months), everyone around us was getting pregnant and announcing their upcoming arrivals and I'll be honest, it wasn't easy!  Finally in November, the week before Thanksgiving, we got our good news, PREGNANT  I had 2 whole days of glory... and then it started again, it looked like we were going to have a repeat of May/June. 

Since they can't really do anything for a miscarriage, I got my rogham shot since my blood type is - and Chris's is +, and had and ultrasound at 6 weeks--too early to see anything but the yolk sac (however this was better news than the first ultrasound with the miscarriage).  An ultrasound was repeated at 7 weeks where I saw the little bean and a heartbeat (RELIEF)... well sort of...  This is the point in time where I began gushing blood once a day 3-5 days a week.  Ah the stress, there was no way there could still be a baby in there.  Not wanting to ruin the holidays, I waited to go in (My Dr is so nice that I just have to call the nurse and they'll let me come in for an US), back in for an ultrasound and there it was bouncing around and this time we got to HEAR the heartbeat.  This was around 10 weeks.  Finally at 12 weeks, I saw it again, happily moving around.  There's no reason for the bleeding and the Dr. says its just something we're going to have to deal with, but at this point our risk of miscarrying is way lower (praying it doesn't happen).

We hesitated to announce it to the world, I could hide it quite a bit longer as I had recently lost 20 pounds so it wouldn't be too hard to have people think I was just gaining it all back.  But I decided its time to love this pregnancy and believe that it is going to be OK. So here we are, excited and scared at the same time.

Thus beginning a new chapter in the Waldron Adventures:)