Hello month #9!!!

Grandma Denise with her hands full taking the dogs and Jason out for a walk...... can anyone say mega exercise regiment?

It has been a long road, with many bumps, but we are almost there. The finish line is in sight. I know I said that I would post pics of my deformed neck, but after talking with Maggie I decided that no one wants to see me like that. Just take Colin's word for it, it wasn't pretty.

The cookie is soooooooooooo good!!!

I do appologize for taking so long to post. Things have been a little crazy. If we aren't going to the doc for some reason or another, we are trying to get something else done. Jason has been such a great helper. We have had one hurdle with him.......... the MINE stage has begun. I have to say, it is horrible when almost every word out of his mouth is MINE or THAT MINE. We will be very happy when this stage is over. If you do happen to get around Jason it is fun to tell him No, it's mine. He throws the hugest fit...... I think it is funny. Giving him a taste of his own medicine...... works every time.

For those of you wondering how big I really am...............

Not much is new here except the fact that I am growing very fast now. For the record, I am now the same size I was when I had Jason. To recap, he was 8lb 5oz and had the shoulders and belly of a 10+ pounder. It wasn't pretty. Hopefully my doc will listen to me tomorrow afternoon when I share my worries with him on the size thing. But, for now, the baby is healthy and strong. We all just can't wait to meet him. Jason isn't sure what that involves, but the idea of sharing is much better than the reality I am sure. Although he says that he can't wait to meet brother right now, he will be in shock when the little bug comes home with us. It will be interesting to say the least.



Colin is doing well. I think he is as ready for the inevitable as I am. He tries to put on a calm face, but he is on his toes under it all. At this point the bags are packed and everything is prepped for another member of this fam.



Despite the fact that we are basically waiting, we have accomplished a few things. Our yard is raked and ready for seed and fertilizer. Raking is great exercise and made me feel so good (I am not being a smart ass either..... it is true). You might find is difficult to picture a 9 month pregnant woman out raking, but it isn't as goofy looking as you would think. Colin also finished the floor in our bathroom. It looks much better and finally feels clean.



Jason has been playing dinosaurs and trucks every day. He really gets mad when the dinos don't fit on his little matchbox cars...... go figure. It helps him keep busy and it is something I can play too. I do have to tell all of you that I am very sick of playing that game though........ Feel free to come on over to our house and play with him. Just a warning though, dinosaurs and cars get old fast (5 hours usually is my cut off point). Colin is sick of them and he has only been playing them for the weekend. The fun never ends here.



Well now on to walking, and waiting. I hope all of you are doing well. I don't know how often I will be posting between now and B-day, but I will do my best. Take care and enjoy.............

The worst experience EVER!!!!!!!

I left you all with the same open ended story that we had on Friday morning. We had high hopes for something to get better, but we couldn't have predicted what was about to happen. My mom got here just after 9 in the morning to take care of Jason so that I could rest and try to recover from whatever it was that was causing my neck swelling. You see, even though Jason had this terrible ear infection, he seemed fine. Not once did he show any signs of being sick. If he hadn't told me that his ears were boo boos, I would have never even thought to bring him in to the doc. So, he was mad that I was so sick and couldn't play. When my mom showed up, it was a huge relief for the little man.

Jason and mom spent the rest of the morning doing things while I rested and napped. Then after lunch I layed down for a nap. When I woke up, I felt much worse. When I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror, I thought I was imagining things. My neck couldn't be that big. I walked into the kitchen and as soon as mom saw me, she said, We need to go to the ER. So, we quickly packed everything up, woke up Wild Man and headed out. I called Colin, who was out in the field (still a little sick, but much better) and we went up to check in. This was just before 3 in the afternoon. They sent me upstairs (even though there was a possibility I had the mumps) to labor and delivery to get the baby checked. After 30 minutes of checking the baby... who was in excellent condition by the way.... we went back downstairs. I checked in at exactly 3:38. This is easy to remember since I had to write it down on one of the forms. Mom, Jason and I waited for over an hour before Colin made it back to town, but there was no chance of him missing anything. We told mom that her and Jason could head back to the house because we didn't know how long this would take. It was a good thing. With each minute that passed my neck got bigger. It was getting difficult to breath and was beyond painful. I thought it was going to split open or that I wasn't going to be able to breath anymore. It was so big that I could no longer drink or eat. At about 7 I started to believe from the bottom of my heart that I was going to die. Even if they did get me in, I was sure that they wouldn't know what to do to make me better. Every time I went to sleep I woke up with my neck much larger, so I was sure that the next time I closed my eyes, it would be the last time I did so. Needless to say...... things weren't good. At 7:45 they finally brought me back to a room. This is one of those hospitals that you hear about people that wait in the waiting room for 13 hours and die because they didn't get the help they needed.

When I got back to a room a nurse had me put on a gown and took my vitals.... It wasn't good. My blood preasure was really high and my pulse was around 140. Thank goodness my blood oxygen level was still ok. Then the doc came in and told me from the get go... we are going to find out was is causing this, I won't send you home without answers and some antibiotics. Then it was time for them to take more blood and at the same time they put me on IV fluids. It turns out I was very dehydrated. We were back there for hours. After 3 liters of fluid were put into me, the results were in. I had an infection in my lymphnodes. It was a really bad one. So, they gave me a bag of antibiotics through the IV and I have to say, I was relieved to have some kind of answer. It was 10:30 and even though Colin and I were very tired, I was begining to feel better from the fluids and we were both just so happy that something was getting done. My neck was still huge. We didn't take any pics at that point...... even though we should have.... It was the last thing on our minds though. Once the antibiotic was in me, we were getting released (this was around 11:30 pm). The nurse and doctor did some last checks of my vitals and of the baby, who was wild as ever, and they gave me a few instructions. Even though we live less than 5 minutes from the hospital, they warned me that if it gets any bigger and there was even a little doubt that I could get to the hospital in a very short period of time that I needed to call 911. I really can't descibe how big my neck was in a way that is even a little believable. It was very frightening. Colin and I finally got home around midnight. I hadn't eaten since 11:30am and was very hungry. Colin was tired and hungry too. So, mom had made soup for us and left it on the stove. After a small bite, I closed my eyes still questioning if it would be the last time I saw my family.

At 5:30 in the morning (I was so dehydrated I didn't even get up to go potty after all of those fluids) I got up to take some Tylenol for the pain and when I looked in the mirror..... I was in shock. The swelling had went down. Mom saw me and thought I looked worse, but from the time that I left the hospital, there was no comparison. I went back to bed and when I woke up at 8, it was even better. I have to say that it was still bigger than the pictures. Things have just gotten better since. My neck is near where it was in the pictures now and I have to say I have never been so thankful to be alive. I really thought I wasn't going to make it. It is a sad reality, but in the end things are working out. Colin and I have rested for the rest of this weekend and we are feeling so much better. Life is an amazing thing that is so very precious and I can tell you that I couldn't be more thankful for everything that I have. Thank you all for your positive thoughts and prayers, because I believe that has helped so very much. It has been a tough go of it, but I feel like things are really getting better now. I can see my jaw line and I can eat and drink. LIFE IS WONDERFUL!!!!!! Thank you mom for helping out so much. We couldn't have made it through the weekend without your help. THANK YOU!!!!! Now back to regular life.

Tomorrow I have another doctors appointment so I will have more info on the newest Moody Man in the evening. I hope all of you are doing well. Take care................ OK.... Sorry no pics, they won't post. I will try again later. Have a great day.

Are you kidding me?

Well, new developements early this morning. I woke up about 4 and both sides of my neck we very swollen and it wasn't easy to breath and it was extremely painful to top it off (my neck feels like it is going to split). So, we packed up and went to the ER. When we got there we had to go to labor and delivery to check the baby before they would treat me in the ER. After seeing the baby was ok, we went back downstairs, got admitted and went to my room. Then I started to get a bunch of people looking at me. It was really strange. They were having nurses from other areas of the hospital come and look at me. Then after a long wait, the doc came back and told me I might have the mumps. Evidently I was like the circus freak of the hospital. Everyone wanted to look at my neck and throat because they will most likely never see anything like it again in their careers. After a long wait and hearing from an infectious disease specialist and the doctor calling the Mayo Clinic, they decided to take some blood and send it in to the Mayo Clinic for testing. There are two possibilities: 1) Mumps which we will know Monday or Tuesday when I get my results or 2) a bacterial infection in my glands that can be treated with antibiotics, but they can't give them to me until the results from the blood test come in. The antibiotics would make the mumps worse. So, here we are, waiting, with nothing but tylenol to ease the pain. My mom is coming down and should be here about 9 this morning to help with Jason so that I can sleep. Just wanted to give you the update. I really don't think it is mumps since I don't even have a clue how I could have been exposed to it. But, It looks like things aren't going to get better until next week. Thank goodness mom is coming, because Colin needs to be at work and I don't think I can do the mom thing all that well right now. I hope all of you are doing well. Can't wait for updates. I will post some pics of my deformed neck when I feel better. Colin did take pics though. For now I am going to catch some zzzz's and rest. Take care and I will have updates as they come in.

WOW!!!

Just when you think that being positive all of the time is going to pay off, sometimes you feel like you have had the wind knocked out of you. I mentioned that Jason and I were sick. We got right into the docs on Monday to be sure that we were OK. So, I had bronchitis and Jason had a major double ear infection with blisters on his ear drums. The poor kid shouldn't have been able to function. But there was me, a wreck. Even after I was told that I wasn't contagious and that Jason was going to be fine, I couldn't help but disinfect everything around my house. The last thing I wanted to do was get Colin sick too. So much for that idea. It appears as though Colin is at least coming down with a head cold, if it isn't something worse. My sickness has gotten worse, which I didn't think was possible. This morning I woke up with one of my glands in my neck so swollen that it looked like I had a goiter (Colin's words). I have never seen anything like it. Now the swelling has went down a little, but it isn't pretty. If you saw me, you would call me no neck. Colin is fighting the sick thing and trying to work as usual. Jason is a mess because I am even more boring than I was before I got sick. He spent the morning screaming....... I mean really screaming. But, now I just hope we really are on the mend. Having two kids is a scary thought when you think about those times when all four of us will be sick, and I know it will happen. I just hope that we will live closer to family and friends soon so that when we are so sick and need a little help..... you know, when you can barely take care of yourself anymore and the task of taking care of sick children is so far out of the realm of reality that you don't want to do. So, in the end you end up doing the best you can, which isn't enough to make any of you better, you just maintain. Thank goodness this is something that doesn't happen very often. I have to say, I have never felt so very sick. Hopefully this doesn't happen again. Now we are just going to try to get better. The key word is TRY. People always say all you can do is try your best. So, here goes. I will call the doc again to see what is up with my unusually huge gland and hopefully Jason will sleep..... and sleep...... and sleep some more. He is in a really bad mood today. Take care everyone and stay healthy. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the next time I write, we will have great news of health and happiness. I will keep all of you updated. Till next time.....................

MORE MORE MORE........

Hi again!!!! I am back. I have been promising pictures of some of our progress on the house for the last couple of weeks, and I am finally producing. But, there aren't just pictures of the bathrooms, which look much better, but I have also included some pictures of Jason's new storage bed (It is really a nice addtion to his room) and pictures of the new baby's dresser. And to make this post even better I added the pictures of the cakes that the Chocolatier made.

My mom came down last Wednesday for a meeting and took Jason home with her on Thursday. So, Colin I took advantage of not having a little on around for a night and went out to a nice Italian dinner. Then when we got home I went to sleep..... very early. I was out by 8:15. I felt so rested the next morning.

Friday, Colin left work early to pick Jason up in Thermopolis. I took advantage of my time alone by getting the house cleaned. There are so many things that are so difficult to get done with my little helper at my side. But, I got most of them finished. It was a wonderful way to keep busy since our house is lonely without wild man by my side. It is a sad day without a kiddo telling me jokes and running all over making a bigger mess than I can clean up. When they pulled up to the house at 7 that evening I couldn't have been happier.

The next morning we woke up to a sick Jason and I was sick too. It was the beginings of being sick, but we were both in denial. Colin's parents came into town that morning and the projects began. After lunch we went to the store to pick up a dresser for the new baby and a storage bed for Jason. When we got home Jay and Colin got busy and put the two new pieces of furniture together. I have to mention that they also had to move some huge furniture just to make room for the new items too. It wasn't an easy task and we are so thankful for the help. Connie and Jason played, snuggled and read books. They really had a great time. By the time Jay and Connie left Jason had a really high fever and was taking a turn for the worse. The little man wasn't feeling well at all. I had started to cough and my chest felt like it was on fire. We knew that our weekend of fun was just begining.

Since Colin was the only one that wasn't sick, he had his hands full. He took care of Jason while I coughed and coughed and coughed... well, you get the point. Motrin helped bring down Wild Man's fever and today he is just stuffy. We have been resting and hoping that we will all be healthy soon. I am going to call the doc today and see what I can do for this so that I can nip it in the bud. So, once again, we are on our road to recovery.

We might be sick, but we are so pleased to say that we are getting more and more prepared for the new little man with each passing day. Even with the crazy things that try to trip up our plans like the little bouts of sickness, we are checking things off of our list. It doesn't matter how sick or tired we get, that is a great feeling. I hope all of you had a wondeful weekend. Take care of yourselves, stay healthy and enjoy........................

The chocolate cake............... I really don't have to tell you how good this one was.... YUMMY!!!

The cheesecake. If you like cheesecake this is the best you will ever try and if you don't, try it and you might change your mind.

The master bathroom (the floor still isn't complete):

Notice the new light fixture..... Colin is turning into quite the handy man.

The public restroom:

Jason's new bed complete with a bookcase on the headboard....... He loves it. It is so comfy and he is so happy to have his books so close.

The youngest Moody Man's dresser. We even have the diapers ready to go. I can't believe how small they are. Only a few more weeks. YIPPY!!!!

Have a great week everyone!!!!