Can You Identify This Doll?

She's about 5.5 inches tall and was made about 1982 or so. She reminded me of Gina when I found her.

Baby update

So, we now have 31 days left until our little girl is due to arrive. I am feeling pretty good, relatively speaking. I do deal with your basic lower back ache/nerve pinch, but for the most part, I can't complain.

Unfortunately, our baby was breech at my last appointment. I wouldn't be very concerned except that these days, doctors are so scared of being sued that most aren't willing to let women labor normally with a breech baby. There is still some time for her to turn to a head-down position and that is what we are seriously praying for. We'd love your prayers as well.

Oh, and YES, I have definitely looked up ways to get a baby to turn. I have tried (and continue to try) lying upside down on an ironing board at an incline, while sticking an ice pack at the top of my stomach and soft classical music playing from headphones at the bottom of my stomach (boy, is that ever uncomfortable). I've also soaked in a hot bath with ice at the top of my stomach. I plan to go swimming regularly and do handstands in the pool. I have an appointment with a chiropractor tomorrow, and I've already looked up an acupuncturist near me. I'll be getting a blessing here tonight and fast Sunday is approaching. I am not just sitting idly and crossing my fingers. I guess it gives me something to focus on. ;)

Family Photos

We REALLY enjoyed a recent trip to Phoenix to visit with my family. My sister, Jamie (top left) and her family had been living in Guam for 2 years and they finally came back to the states. We got to meet her youngest daughter for the first time and get to know her 2.5 year old daughter as well. We were all getting together to support my little bro, Joey (bottom left) because he was going through the temple and getting ready to head out on his mission to Texas.

We took a few family pictures since it was *almost* our entire family. We were only missing Jodie's husband, Adrian, and our brother Jimmy who is serving his mission in Peru.

It occurred to me that many of my friends have no idea what my family looks like. My parents are in the middle and then here are the rest of us (besides Jimmy, who is #6).

#3, #4(me), #2, #1, #5,
#7, Dad, Mom, #8

Here is our current family.

Here are all the current grandchildren. We have one more girl (ours) and one more boy (Jodie's) coming in the next 7 weeks.

"My Tummy Hurts"

I asked Katie to put her dolls away when it was clean-up time tonight. She looked at me and said, "I want you to put them away for me. My tummy hurts because my baby is going to come out." Hilariously, Ryan then explained to Katie how you are supposed to be married before Heavenly Father gives you a baby. These kids crack me up. We're all getting VERY excited for our new sister to come.

Musical Beds

Yeah, I dunno. I am pretty sure she's never done this before. Both kids had a little trouble going to sleep last night and when they finally quieted down, Derek went in to check on them. He found Katie in her bottom drawer. She slept like this the entire night. Two beds sat there empty. Silly girl.

The Rest of the Conversation

So after Ryan told me about his dream it went like this:

"Did you say, 'yes'?"
"What?"
"Did you tell Jesus that you would go to Heaven or no?"
"It was just a dream, Mom."
"Right, but in the dream did you go with Him or did you stay? Or did the dream end then?"
"You know what happened next. It was just OVER."
"Oh, okay."

And I am hoping (and acting like) it wasn't an indication of what is to come. But I have to admit that I am making him be a little bit more cautious, like not crossing the street on his bike, so that it doesn't become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Admit it...

This is pretty much the coolest swing ever.

One Thing No Mom Ever Wants to Hear

"Mom, I had a dream last night that Jesus came and said it was time for me to go back to Heaven."

*gulp*

Follow-Up

Ryan is fine. His cough is minimal now. I was told to take him in for a follow-up appointment with his pediatrician Tuesday, so I did. He checked him over and said that his lungs and throat and ears were clear and great. He shouldn't develop any complications or issues from the Croup. The pediatrician said that the breathing treatments are specifically for the lungs, but that Croup is really all in the throat. It swells up below the vocal chords and you get the barking cough. He told me that it was really the shot that helped Ryan, and not the breathing treatments. He also said that he was really surprised that the Walk-in Clinic didn't have the shot on hand. It is the kind of medicine that they (his office AND the clinic) always keep stocked and will reorder when it starts getting low. He told me that if it happens again, I should go to a different clinic because it is highly likely that they will have it on hand. Unfortunately, croup often is at it's worst at night when the clinics are closed so the ER is the only choice. That is pretty much the situation we were in. Anyhow, he's fine now... but I still hate the Croup.

Croup - Not Welcome at Our House

I sit down to blog about this adventure, and I feel like writing, "I don't want to talk about it."
Still, for the sake of a journal, I will give the effort. It's going to be too detailed for most of you. I don't care if you don't read it.

Monday morning Ryan developed a dry little cough. Some virus, oh well. After the kids woke up from their naps at about 3:00, it was definitely still present, but not bad. We drove out to Anaheim to spend a few hours with Jana and her kids at the hotel they are staying in while going to Disneyland for the next 4 days. We snacked, went swimming, had a fun time. I left for about an hour to take care of a Disneyland errand, and when I got back, I noticed that his cough was a little worse. Oh well, last I checked, I can't fix a cough. We went to Sonic for dinner and he was getting pretty whiny and didn't eat any of his food. He begged me to take him home so we left - it was about 8:00pm.

As we were driving on the freeway, he would cough, cry, cough, cry, gasp, cough, cry, etc. I thought to myself, "I guess I'll take him to the doctor in the morning and see if there is something they can recommend for this cough. Boy, none of us are going to get any sleep tonight, etc." Then I realized that the Walk-in Clinic was open until 9pm. Maybe they could give him something tonight - heck it was the same co-pay and all. So, I impulsively got onto a different freeway and headed toward the clinic. Honestly, I'm not one to take my kids to the doctor over every sniffle, so I didn't see much logical reason to take him. Still, I went.

Croup. By about 9:00 he was barking pretty badly and gasping for air. I could tell it was pretty hard for him to breathe. Both of my kids were getting pretty tired and cranky. The nurse told me I should've brought him in earlier. What the heck? It was just a dumb little cough until a hour before. They had me give him a breathing treatment which he was hysterical about. He kept turning his head and screaming about how much he hated it, etc. They gave him an oral dose of steroids to open up his airway. After the breathing treatment was done, the doctor told me that I had to take him to the ER because their facility didn't have the medicine that Ryan needed. The steroids would work, but not for another 6-8 hours. Thanks.

By this time, It's 9:30 and Ryan is crying, Katie is getting tired and wants me to hold her. I manage to get them to the car and call Derek. He's got to find a way to meet us at the hospital. He was at work with just his bike. Luckily, we have a great home teacher who picked him up and drove him over to the hospital to meet us.

In the meantime, I have 2 kids in a PACKED Emergency Room and they are both crying for me to hold them. I was standing in line to sign Ryan in so there I was, a woman 7.5 months pregnant, tired as you can imagine, holding my 38 pound 4 year old in one arm, and my 23 pound 2 year old in the other - both of them pretty upset. Bless the nurse who opened a door out of nowhere and asked, "Who's that barking out here?" She carried Ryan in for me (this is the part where I started to cry) and put him on a bed. They hooked up 3 little electrodes on him and a mixture of 4 or 5 nurses and doctors were in messing with him in one way or another. Someone was trying to take his temperature, someone else is asking him questions, all the while, he's FREAKING out. He's trying to get up from the bed, bury his face in it, climb on my lap (I'm trying to keep Katie from getting too scared too), gasping for breath, hacking away. I hated it so much. The nurse gives ME the job of getting his temperature. I'm supposed to get an oral temperature on a kid who can hardly breathe (because he's so worked up) and is coughing 20 times a minute? Didn't happen. He's screaming for me to take him home, trying to rip off the cords/electrodes attached to him, "I don't want any more people," etc.

Finally, most doctors left and we just had a nurse come in who started another breathing treatment. Ryan was totally unreasonable about the FIRST breathing treatment, now I'm trying to convince him to sit still and calm down during another one. He was so out of control. All he was supposed to do was sit and breathe. He was more relaxed when he had to get stitches. THEN, my husband walked in the door.

To make a long story a little shorter, our home teacher stayed and helped Derek give Ryan a blessing, and then afterwards he took Katie to his house so she could get some rest. They did a chest x-ray on Ryan, gave him a shot in the hiney of the steroid that he needed, and had us continue the breathing treatments for as long as he'd tolerate them. He relaxed enough to fall asleep at one point, but when we started another treatment while he was sleeping he woke up and got upset again. They moved us to a different room and gave him a teddy bear and blanket and he finally was able to rest at about midnight. His breathing seemed almost normal while he was relaxed so they told us we could take him home. During the night he did pretty well. At one point he woke up and started coughing again and I told him that he needed to calm his body down or else we'd have to go back to the hospital. He was silent after that and went right back to sleep.

I pretty much refuse to ever do that again. I never felt super worried about Ryan, but it was emotionally very stressful. I'm just glad that I have a great husband and a helpful home teacher. Croup, don't rear your ugly head at our house again. You're not welcome.