Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to let everyone know we are doing great, and wish you all a Merry Christmas.

She is just so excited for christmas.

The sweet picture

And my mom says Sadie looks a little devilish in this one. lol, I wonder why.

Where to start?

I can't believe that i haven't posted anything since September. My computers keyboard seems so alien to my fingers. Hopefully by January we will have the Internet at our place (finally) and I'll be a good blogger from then on. I wanted to update with everyone with Eloise's birth story. Lets just say it has been a very long, and short, month.

This last pregnancy for me had gone very well. Everything was normal, and better than normal in some ways. At my 32 week appointment she was measuring at 35. I was a little shocked with how far ahead she was measuring, but I wasn't worried about her since I would be having a scheduled c section. You can imagine my surprise when at my routine 34 week appointment on Friday October 29th the Ob decided to send me to labor and delivery. I was very shaken but still not worried that there was going to be anything wrong. My wonderful mom came and watched Sadie while Scott took me to the hospital. I was on the monitors for about 6 hours and didn't have anything to eat for 8. It was miserable and scary. The monitor was picking her heart rate up at 230 bpm. After all that they said that there was nothing they could do then and they sent me home with some appointments for the following Monday. Needless to say it was a long Halloween weekend. I was glad that I was able to spend it dressing Sadie up and having fun. On Monday I went to my first appointment with the Perinatologist. They did an echo cardiogram and while talking to the doctor about my other appointments that day she informed me that I wouldn't be going to them. She told me that my little baby girl was in atrial fibrillation. The bottom valves of her heart were beating at 230 bpm and the top or atrial valves were beating between 400 and 500 bpm. By this time I am terrified because I had read up on different types of fetal irregular heart rates. I was sent to Mercy San Juan Hospital, funny enough the hospital I was born in. They have one of the top NICU's in the region and luckily it is only 20 min from where we live.

They were waiting for me when I got to the hospital. I met with the pediatric cardiologist within 15 min and a plan was made. While he was there he did another echo and I got to hear her little heart. It was the scariest moment of my life to hear that little heart beating 500 bpm. I spent the next week 4 days in the cardiac telemetry unit with a nurse sitting at my side 24/7, and an emergency c section kit at my feet. I had to be there instead of labor and delivery because they had to give me twice the dose of a strong heart medication so that some of it could get to her and slow her heart. Unfortunately and fortunately her heart is too strong. Thankfully it was too strong to quit working from the stress that week, but it was too strong for the medicine to have much success. And so the decision was made to take her out and fix her heart after.

I think I may have been numb to fear after so much time in the hospital. At 35 weeks exactly on Friday November 5th, at 10:29am Eloise Nichele Hancock was born.

She shocked the doctors by being 6 lbs 12 oz and 20 inches long. The whole surgery was very miserable for me. The anesthesiologist had given me too much medication in my spinal and so with that I couldn't stop throwing up. I felt like I was dying. It was causing problems for the doctors with closing me up too. I couldn't sit up for hours after and I didn't get to really see my new little one until 5 the next morning. She had some respiratory distress and was on a little oxygen for 2 days but over all she was doing really well. They had to shock her poor heart twice to get it to beat normally but it has been fine since. She was in the NICU for 13 days. It was one of the hardest times of my life, but I am grateful for the perspective it has given me and that I have a healthy 1 month old at home. I was able to see and meet other families going through what I was and more.

We aren't able to take her out of the house very often, which can be hard, but it is giving us the chance to bond as a family. She is doing very well and starting to get chunky. For those that are wondering the condition that she had is very rare and random. They said that they only see it once every couple years. I was quite the celebrity in the hospital too, lol. Now we are busy getting ready for Christmas. Sadie is very excited and so am I. I am grateful for all my friends and family that have helped me and my family, even if it was just asking how I was doing. Like I said hopefully we'll have the internet soon and I can keep you updated along our journey.

Getting ready to go home from the hospital. Happy Day!

First night home.

First morning home, Sadie loves being a big sister. And yes she is sleeping on a blanket, that is how unprepared we were when she came home, we didn't have any sheets. I found out at 11 am that she could come home and we were picking her up at 6 pm on Thursday the 18th

26 weeks and counting

Time is just flying by. I can't believe that I only have 3 months left until our new little one gets here. I thought that I would post some belly picks to see how fast she is growing. I had my last Dr's appointment on the 1st and she was measuring 1 1/2 weeks ahead. Needless to say I feel huge. I am definitely bigger this time than I was with Sadie. Everything is going really well, I passed my glucose test, yay!, and my weight is looking good. I am so excited to meet her and it is looking like I will get to choose when that happens. My doctor says that we will schedule a repeat c -section, which I am fine with. It is a lot less scary now that I know what to expect. And in other good news, my brother got home from boot camp and airborne training last night. He is only going to be here for a week before he heads off to Fort Bragg where he is stationed. He is a paratrooper in the 82nd airborne division. I am so proud of him and know that he is happy too. I just wish he wasn't going to be on the other side of the country. Oh and we are waiting for my younger brother Branden's mission call. I am so bummed that I am going to have two brothers missing this Christmas, but I know they are doing good things. Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures.

Here I am at 20 weeks

And here I am at 26 weeks

Stuff, but mostly Sadie

Hi! So I thought I would post something, just so I wouldn't be a total slacker. Here are some of the things that are going on with us. As of today I am 25 weeks and everything is going great. She is quite an active little bean. I have picked up a new skill too, I can now knit (on a loom anyway). I have been knitting baby beanie hats and cocoons. It is nice to have something to do that keeps me busy but that isn't really physical for the rest of my uncomfortable body. Sadie has developed a fear of monsters and is having a hard time sleeping in her bed alone, so needless to say our night time routine has gotten...fun. We have spent the rest of the summer being relaxed with a lot of swimming and chalk drawing. Here are some of the things that miss Sadie likes to do these days.

She likes to help mommy when she is feeling sick.

She likes to find ways to eat left over mac and cheese.

She likes to find and eat the left over frosting from her cousin Ty's birthday cake. Oh and wear cute band aids even though she doesn't have an owie.

She likes to wear daddy's clothes.

She likes to play with mommy's messed up attempt at making rubbery play dough. I forgot to cook it. It was still fun though.

And she loves to paint, and put on makeup. sometimes she thinks paint is makeup.

She is growing up so fast and it is so fun to be able to talk to her more and more and actually be able to understand what she wants. Another thing that she loves to do that I didn't have a picture of is sing. She is learning more songs and added to her list are the wheels on the bus, and some old songs my grandma used to sing to my mom, and my mom sang to me. She is very excited to be having a baby sister, and talks to her all the time. When I talk to her about the baby it is not our baby it is her baby. She is still a crack up and I hope she stays that way.

And it's a .........

GIRL!!!!!!



We are so excited to be having another little girl. The doctor said that everything looks great. She was a bit of a wiggle worm during the ultrasound so we couldn't get the best picture of her profile, that and her hand was by her face so the picture wasn't that clear. She did wave at us though. It was so cool to see her perfect little hand and fingers moving. I got to take Scott and my mom to the appointment with me, Sadie had to stay home with my dad because children under 12 aren't aloud in the office. Sadie was super cute when I told her she was going to have a sister, she looked around the house calling for her sister. After we got back Sadie had an accident where she fell out of my moms car and kind of skinned up her face.


She is tough though and was fine in a matter of seconds. In fact she was more concerned with the fact that she didn't have any moles or freckles on her face like I do. She still makes me laugh all the time. Her new fun activities are pretending to steal my nose and eat it, then give it back, and singing popcorn popping, head shoulders knees and toes, and the ABC's. She loves to sing them with me and so sometimes I end up singing them 15 times in a row. I amazes me how much she is learning and doing just by watching and listening to me. I am so excited and feel so blessed to be having another little one.

July

To say that I am exhausted would be an understatement. We just got back from vacation with my family. We took a trip up to the Oregon coast where my dad had rented a lake house on ten mile lake. It was a lot of fun but I am ready to get back to normal life. While we were gone we celebrated my birthday. It wasn't the most exciting day of my life but it was okay. We got after a quick stop in Shasta. That was an interesting thing in itself. There was a big mountain bike race going on at the ski resort so they had the lift running. We were able to go on it too. I was really excited until we took off from the platform, when I remembered that I am really afraid of heights along with a squirmy 2 year old sitting next to me. Needless to say I freaked out and was crying when I could just imagine Sadie sliding through the bars and falling. It tool about 10 min to get up the mountain too. The ride down was much better. I had Scott take Sadie with him and my dad and I got to ride down with my mom. I was able to close my eyes for the first few minutes and then I got comfortable enough to actually watch what was going on. Over all it was a pretty good day.

And now I come to the fun part. We find out what we are having on Friday the 23rd. I am taking guesses as to what you all think it is going to be. I have no feelings either way so I'm no help. So far in my family the vote is pretty much evenly split. I plan to post as soon as possible on Friday with pictures and everything so be looking for it. So far this pregnancy has been pretty easy. I have only gained a few lbs and the baby is very active. I just hope that it continues to go as well as it has. I still have to go through my pictures from the trip and then I will try to post some of them too.

What a month!

And we haven't even made it half way yet. Let's see where to start. Well my mother had surgery on the 25th of May, she is doing really well. Less than a week after her surgery she was out and about with my Dad, younger brother Aaron, and two of my nephews Ty and Matthew. They packed up and decided to head out to Sand mountain in Fallen, Nevada. My younger brother and father like to ride dirt bikes and four wheelers and my dad has this big thing called and RZR, it is like a golf cart on steroids. Any way while they are out there my dad gets into a bad accident in the RZR, he flipped it onto it's roof. The thing is basically totaled now and my dad had to make a trip to the ER. He is okay but he had a very deep gash on his forehead, and had to get stitches. While this was going on my brother Aaron rolled one of the four wheelers. He doesn't complain much so we didn't think much of it. Then Monday night rolled around and it couldn't be ignored any more. If it wasn't for the fact that he has really strong muscles in his core and back he would have broken his back. He has a large hemetoma (however you spell it) under all the tissue in his back. It kind of looks like a water bed when you touch it. They are all okay now but it was an eventful few days.

Then Sadie's birthday arrived and I have to say I was busy. She had a big Princess party, and all of our family was invited. She was a little tired when she was opening her presents and that is why she doesn't exactly look happy in the pictures. After she had a good nap she was able to really enjoy her gifts and take everything in. And now pictures, enjoy!

Yes that is a light saber. I figured since all her cousins are boys that they should have something fun to enjoy too.

Her first time seeing a frog.

Princess Table!

Playing with her cousin Matthew

Finally enjoying her cake after her nap.

And now princess pictures.

She is wearing her Princess and the Frog dress.

And attempting to show us her teeth.

She loves looking like Cinderella.

She is looking at herself in the mirror. Oh and yes I know, her room is a mess!

huh?

So I got a call from my doctor today. She had to leave a voice mail, and now I'm really wishing I had answered her call. (that's if I had heard it ring in the first place.) So I listen to the voice mail and get an unpleasant surprise. Oh well, at least it wasn't really a shock. it turns out that I have an under active thyroid, go figure especially since my mom has had this for a long time. I'm a little down hearted but at least it isn't hyperthyroid. Anyway I need to get back to work, just wanted to vent a little. Pictures of Sadie's birthday party this Saturday to come soon, hopefully.

Yay!

Everything looks great!

Today's 12 week ultrasound of the little one.

The doctor said that everything looks good and that the baby is measuring right on target. I can't believe that I am almost in my 2nd trimester already. The time is just flying by. I feel now I can relax and focus on everything that is happening this summer. It is going to be a very fun summer at that. Sadie's birthday is in a couple of weeks, and we are having a princess barbecue swim party. After that is my birthday and we find out what we are having. Then we are going on vacation with my family to the Oregon coast, which is one of my favorite places. So far I have to say the year is shaping up pretty good.
For those of you wondering about my mom and how her surgery went, it went great. She is having a hard time letting everyone take care of her, but she is doing great. She wasn't anticipating quite so much pain, but it is the first real surgery she has been through.
It has been a big week and everything has gone well, I just hope everything continues to go well. Now I must go so that I can close the office and work on my lesson for my little CTR 6 class. Unfortunately it is one of the things that has me terrified all week every week. Who knew that 7 little kids could have so much attitude and spunk.

Everyone is Fine

Just thought I'd update and let everyone know that everything is still looking good. I am doing pretty good though my food aversions have kicked it up a notch. Pretty soon I think there won't be anything that I will be able to think of eating. I go in for my NT scan on the 28th so hopefully next week I'll have more pictures to share. I am a little worried at the moment, but not for myself. My mom is having surgery on the 25th to remove her gallbladder. I know she will be okay but it is still scary. I am also worried about being able to help take care of her when she is recovering. I want to help so badly and wish I could spend all my time with her but I worry about having Sadie too. Oh well, like most things in life I will have to figure it out as I go. Plus my mom will have my Dad and 3 younger brothers, that still live at home, to help her to. Okay I have just calmed myself down a bunch. lol

And now pictures of Sadie

Sadie's new thing is to wear shirts like this. She was in the middle of telling me that she was in deed a cool dude.

She died after throwing all her stickers around the room.

Our Big News!!!

That's right! We are counting down the days till number 2 arrives. I was going to be like Mrs. Gena Buie and wait until I was more around 16 weeks to let everyone know, but there is no use trying now that my mom knows. she tells everyone we see. She really does crack me up. We are very excited and hope that everything works out well so that we can bring home our December baby. And for those of you wondering, I am 9w 3d at the moment and my due date is December 10th. I still worry about where the placenta is since my doctor wasn't able to tell me too much. For those of you who don't remember or know about my malformed uterus there is still the risk that the placenta could be in a spot where it won't receive enough blood to support the baby. Ive another ultrasound on the 20th and hope to learn more then from the ultrasound technician. Hope you all had a great mothers day, I'll try to be better about posting so that I can keep you updated on our goings on.

Happy Mother's Day to all those ladies that I know. I love you all and hope you are having a great day. There will hopefully be big news to follow tomorrow, be looking for it.

Goodbye to my dear lovely Grandma

This morning my beautiful sweet Grandma passed away. Yesterday she suffered what looked like a massive stroke followed by a 5 hour seizure that could only be stopped by IV medications. She never woke up after she went into the seizure. She slept peacefully through the night and this morning around 8:40 she took her last breath. I am so grateful for my family, and for the fact that we were able and prepared to say goodbye to her. My Grandmother was a great lady that I learned a lot from. I can't wait for the day when I get to see her again. And so I say goodbye my Grandma, I love you and will miss you.

I know, I know

I am at my parents house at the moment. I definitely think that I am going to have to get the Internet at our house soon. I really miss being able to update my blog. Here are some pictures of Sadie. We have really enjoyed the warm weather lately. Having sunny warm weather just seems to make me feel healthier and happier. We haven't been up to much lately, just life. I really enjoyed sharing my families traditions with my family tonight as we celebrated St. Patrick's day by eating corned beef and cabbage. It was delicious. Anyway that is all I have to say for now. Hopefully I will be able to post again sooner rather than later. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We were at work walking around and Sadie thought that she was opening the sliding glass doors by pushing the buttons on the vending machine. She was so proud of herself for figuring it out.

Sadie in front of our apartment.





She was having a lot of fun playing with the hose, it wasn't running but there was still some water in it.

Soon..., hopefully very soon

I have to say that it is really hard not having the Internet in my own home, and now I don't even have my computer. (it is being worked on to make it faster). I am sorry there haven't been any pictures in the last few posts. I promise lots of pictures in the next one. We haven't been up to very much lately, just work and stuff. Today I am really tired, the last few mornings Sadie has been waking up at 6... in the morning! It is vary hard to be patient and nice to my sweet baby when I feel like death. Luckily, however, tomorrow is our day off and that means that daddy gets to wake up with her. Yay! But watch, she will get up at 9, just for him.

She has been so funny lately it makes me wish I had a video camera rolling all the time so everyone could see what I see. Like the other day I was doing jumping jacks to warm up before my workout, she sees me and gets all excited, positions herself just perfectly next to me and starts to try and do them too. I was cracking up. She is the biggest flirt too. Last night we went to dinner, and while we were waiting she saw this little boy that was maybe 5. She started to cozy up to him on the couch where he was waiting with his family. Every time I looked over she had scooted closer and closer to him, until she was nearly sitting on him. He was blushing and bashful, it was so cute. I felt bad for the poor little guy having to suffer from the attentions of my aggressive little girl. Scott looked over at me and said " I didn't think we would have to worry about that quite yet." Oh so funny! I am laughing just thinking about it.

Anyway, hopefully I will have something really good for you next time, because you know how many adventures we have living and working in the same building.

Yay for updates! but really it's not much.

Not much to say, just wanted to let everyone know how we are doing. I found out the other day that my hours are going to be cut down a lot. It is such a blessing to me. I still have to opportunity to work a few hours on Thursdays and Fridays, but the rest of the week I get to be a stay at home mom with my Sadie again. I am so happy. I will get the chance to work on my art and crafts again, plus a much tidier house. Sadie is doing well, though she has learned that when I put her down at night she can just get back up and open her bedroom door and do whatever she wants. Not so much fun but that is the drawback from having her in a toddler bed. It is also a blessing in the mornings though, because now she can come to me instead of me having to get up and get her out of her bed. Anyway, that is about all that is going on with us at the moment, I will have to update more later when I have more to say.

You Guessed It...

More Sadie! I can't help it if almost everything I write is about her. She cracks me up. Last night she had me laughing so hard I was crying. She has been talking so much lately and her newest thing to say all the time is um... She will say "mom" and I'll say "yeah" and then she will stare at something and say "uuummm" before she finally tells me what she wants. We have been having such a good time being on our own and making our own money. We finally got tv at our apartment too so we don't have to watch the same movies over and over anymore. It only took Direct TV 4 scheduled appointments and 3 weeks to get it done. Though I can't blame them, it has been storming pretty good out here lately. The most awesome thing happened to me the other day. One of my best friends from elementary school found me on facebook. I haven't seen her in 12 years. As it turns out we live really close to one another and are getting together later this week. I am really excited to get to see her again. And now on to the main point of the post Sadie pictures.

Sadie dancing to Go Diego Go.

Sadie and Scott enjoying breakfast on Sunday. She has started to say cheese when she sees me pick up the camera. She always said it when I took her picture with my phone but never for the camera until now. She also tilts her head and gives me a cheesy smile.

She is such a little princess. She loves the Disney princesses, and dressing up and looking pretty. She loves showing people her pretty clothes too. I bought the skirt at Target for $3, it is a little big but I figure it will fit her for a while.

This is Sadie doing the Nacho Libre smile. I had to post it because it made me laugh.

And her she is just being cute.

Random Happenings

No we don't have the Internet yet, but I made a trip to my parents house so that I could update our blog. We have been working for about a week now. We really like our job and it is fairly easy. We got to go to our new ward for the first time yesterday and we loved it. We were a little nervous at first but everyone was really nice, and there are a lot of little kids in the ward. Other than that things haven't been to exciting. Sadie got her nails painted for the first time the other day. She did really well and loved her pretty nails, but the paint didn't last very long. She is talking more and more, though a good portion of it is in her own language. She gets upset sometimes wondering why we can't understand her, although she has learned quite a few words that we can understand. Her new word for the time is no, she knew it before but now she purses her lips while she says it. Oh and she calls the things she knows she's not allowed to have no-nos. She cracks me up. It would take forever to write down all her new words, so instead I will put them in categories. She knows how to say body parts, tv show characters, food, names, animals, and clothes. I think half the reason I can't understand her sometimes is because she mumbles when she talks. I most definitely think that the terrible twos hits earlier than we think. Oh of course she is a doll most of the time but boy oh boy can she be a brat. Anyway, I think that it does our relationship a lot of good for me to be gone a few hours out of the day working. When I come back she is always happy to see me and listens to me better too. Another thing she has come to absolutely love is stickers, she can't get enough of them. And now to pictures.

Her cute toddler bed. She does really well with it. I am glad that we got her switched over. She has even put herself to bed once.

After dinner one night, while we were watching tv I looked over to the table and found this. She definitely takes after me. I love mashed potatoes, and I guess she does too.