How Do I Stop The Flood?

Today has been a day of decisions and emotions.

I met with a surgeon this morning to see what my options are for my gall stones. There are many risks involved in doing it now and even waiting until later. If I do it now the anesthesia could cause me to go into labor. If that happens they would have to stop the surgery and start giving me medication to stop the labor. If that didn't work and I actually ended up having the baby there isn't much hope of it surviving. It's just too early.

If I wait until later I run the risk of my gall bladder become toxic and leading to pancreatitis which would cause my whole abdominal area to become swollen put me into early labor. Of course the longer I go the larger my uterus gets and the more cramped things get. That would obviously put more pressure on my gall bladder causing more pain.

Now is the best time, in my situation, to have the surgery. My uterus is just barely above my belly button so if we wait any longer it would get more complicated. They do the surgery laporoscopically through the belly button. Unless they end up damaging a vital duct in the process then it becomes major surgery where they have to cut me open just below the rib cage.

I am scheduled to have the surgery next Tuesday. I am of course nervous and afraid that I'm putting the baby in danger. This decision has been a very difficult one and the tears have not stopped since this morning. I have much confidence in the Doctor and feel good about being in his care. He spent about thirty minutes talking with us and letting us know all of our options. He will be joined in the surgery by my OB that will be monitoring the baby. Instead of an outpatient surgery I will be admitted so they can monitor me and the baby.

The Doctor is LDS and told us to pray about this decision and involve our families in the process. It would mean so much to us if you could send up a few prayers on our behalf and for our sweet little angel baby we can't wait to meet.

Zoe's Big Stuff

Maggie had been asking me to have lunch with her at school this week and we were finally able to on Thursday. We had finally gotten our van back so Zoe and I were mobile and available. I packed our lunch in a little back pack and Zoe carried it to the car. She thought she was big stuff walking around the school with her back pack. We had a good lunch and were happy to see Maggie. We miss her while she's gone and we are glad the school allows us to visit her once in a while.

She thinks she's ready for school!

What a Way to Wake Up

Early this morning I was woken up by Zoe kicking me in the stomach and the baby retaliating and kicking back. I wasn't able to get back to sleep for quite some time. I finally dozed off when Zoe started squirming and kicking again. I then heard Maggie sneezing and going into the bathroom. I figured it would only be a matter of minutes before she was climbing into bed with us. To my surprise she instead helped Zoe out of bed and they headed to Maggie's room. There was a little ruckus and then Zoe came into our room saying, "People! Hello people! It's befas time!" She first tried getting Glenn out of bed and then came over to my side. Maggie had gotten them both dressed up in dresses and their Lowes aprons so they could be waiters and serve us breakfast in bed. Too cute. We opted to not eat in bed, but they still got to serve us.

According to Maggie it's "helping day". I could use a few of those that's for sure!

I Need a Surgeon?

My OB's office called yesterday to refer me to a surgeon for my gall stones. I have an appointment on Sep. 4th. Unless I get worse before then. I'm not really looking forward to what he has to say. But, I am looking forward to feeling better so I guess I'm going to the surgeon!

Model Search

I have two little posers. Every time the camera comes out they have to strike a pose and pretend to be models. It's pretty funny...except when I want nice pictures.

I started a tradition of sorts when Maggie was little. I took a roll of black & white pictures of her on her birthday. I have missed a couple of years, but decided I wanted to start again this year with both their birthdays. Well seeing how their birthdays are both in the winter it just didn't work. I have been waiting and waiting for a day that was a little overcast, warm and not windy. That day never came. Now that Maggie is 7 and 1/2 and Zoe is almost 2 and 1/2 I decided we just needed to at least make an attempt at getting some pictures. We started taking them mid-morning which was not a great idea. The sun was so bright and it was way too hot so we decided to wait until that evening. I think we got a few good shots. I haven't gotten the roll of film developed yet so here are just a few from the digital camera.

The monkey that started it all...
Maggie Marne
August 22, 2009
7 1/2 years



Our ubber poser...
Zoe Jade
2 years and 5 months
August 22, 2009


It's hard to get a really good picture of Zoe. For some reason she feels she needs to look down instead of at the camera or she has to do a pageant pose...






We did manage to get some good ones of them together...

First Day of School 2009

Happy first day of school Maggie Moo!

I know you will do great this year!

Maggie and Mrs. Masters

Maggie and Zoe just before school

The happy first grader!

Maggie's prayer tonight...well a small portion of it:

"...help me to have another wonderful day!"

Sounds like a success to me!

Dang It!

I spoke a little too soon about the pain being manageable. I had another "attack" last night. The good thing about it is that it only lasts a little while. Pretty much right after the barfs I can go on with life. I just choose not to. I am so tired all the time.

I'm looking forward to the day I can be normal again. Whatever normal means.

Test Results

Yes, I do have gall stones. Not sure how many. The tech just said more than one. One is pretty large. Since my test was done on a Friday the results would not get to my Dr. until Monday so I have no idea what will be in store for me. My pain is manageable at this point so I don't think surgery will be anytime soon. Hopefully we can avoid that, at least until the baby gets here.

Angel Baby Update...Kind Of

I was hoping to be able to make this post an announcement of what exactly we will be having. However, the baby had a different idea. It is breech which made it difficult for the Doctor to get a decent angle and then the cord was in the way too. She said she would do another ultrasound later to determine the sex.

I am scheduled to have an ultrasound at the hospital next Friday to check my gallbladder and see if that is what is causing the pain I have been having for over a year now. I don't think they would check the baby for us, but it won't hurt to ask!

This picture makes it look like the baby has very long neck. It looks a little alien at this point!

It's not pretty...

but here I am at 19 weeks. We were hoping to find out the sex of the baby today, but no luck!

Our First Visitors

Sharon was in Idaho for a funeral and decided to bring Lisha and Shalis to visit us. They stayed over Sunday night. We got to have dinner and play Phase 10 Twist. Shalis and Sharon played with the girls a lot and were worn out by bed time.

Monday morning we had to leave bright and early to get Maggie to her eye appointment in Salt Lake. Sharon went with us, but Lisha and Shalis decided to sleep in a little bit and meet us later. We all met up in Park City where we had lunch and said our goodbyes.

Thanks for the visit! We get pretty lonely up here all by ourselves!

Zoe's Art

A few days ago we went to Wendy's for lunch. Apparently Zoe has watched me "marinate" my fries in ketchup too many times. She decided to make a fry sculpture in her ketchup. She was very proud of her accomplishment.

I love to see the results of their creativity...usually!

Good News

We had Maggie's follow-up eye appointment yesterday morning and things are going very well. She has had 25% improvement in her vision. Her eye is not turning in as much either. If we keep patching her good eye and working on strengthening her bad eye we may be able to avoid surgery and hopefully stop patching soon.

Good work Maggie! I know the patch is annoying, but you have done a good job of keeping it on and getting your eyes better.

I Had To Do It!

This morning was so cold that I had to turn on the heater. It was 65 degrees in the apartment when we got up. Too cold for me!

IT'S AUGUST!

What a Cutie

I just wanted to record a couple of Zoe's cute moments. She started saying her prayers a while ago and she is just so cute. We keep trying to get her to expand them, but this is what we get... "Heavenly Jesus Christ Amen". All the important parts are there and who can argue with a short sweet prayer.

The other day I was in the laundry room and could hear her calling for me. It didn't sound urgent so I just let her look for me. Eventually she walked into the laundry room and said, "Mom"
"Yes?"
"I like Jesus Christ"
She had the cutest look on her face and gave a little sigh and started playing with the clothes.

She keeps me laughing and I can't believe how much she has blessed our lives. I'm truly grateful that Heavenly Father sent us these girls. Sometimes I wonder if he regrets his decision, but we are all learning and growing and hopefully we will start to get this family thing right!

Final Pay it Forward

My last, and prettiest, pay it forward project was a blessing dress for Ava. It was a lot of work (and I even had help from Mom) and not exactly what Lindy had in mind, but I think it turned out really nice and Ava looked like an angel in it.

To my surprise the biggest challenge on this dress was finding 1/2" ribbon to go between the tucks in the bodice. I thought 1/2" ribbon would be a pretty standard size, but I was wrong. The only way we could get 1/2" was to use the kind that had little loopies on the edges. It turned out really nice and the loopies just added to the sweetness.

Four generations of Brown women. Well, Brown, Olsen and Milne women!

Ava Milne, Lindy Milne (Mom), Michelle Olsen (Grandma), Linda Brown (Great-Grandma)

One very tired and beautiful guest of honor!