Prairie Dog Digital Page

Again, some more old pictures but I had fun! I know there are fancy things you can do, but for now I am happy just to keep it simple :) I used a paper kit from www.digitalscrapbookmemories.com collection 1 which I saw on a good sale this last week. This is actually the first digital cd I bought so I'm glad to find some more uses for it. If any digital scrapbooker wants to post their favorite site to get paper kits from please post a comment. I would love to find more, especially if cheap or free. So far, I think I only have stuff from shabby princess, digital scrapbook memories, and Jessica Sprague- mainly because they were either free downloads or on a good sale. Next time I'll try and post something new- I have plenty of pictures if I would just get them to my computer.

Ultrasound Pic

This is a cute ultrasound pic we got this last week where baby Lilly is sucking her thumb.

Digital Scrapbooking Play

So these photos are from about a year ago now but I wanted to use them to try out some digital scrapbooking. I've dabbled in digital scrapbooking for around 5 years now (I only remember that because I found out about it shortly after Sam was born at a scrapbooking fair). I usually use my digital kits to make cards to send out to people in mass- Christmas, Valentine's Day, Father's Day, and Mother's Day among others. It's sooo much easier for those things. I go back and forth because I've invested so much in paper scrapbooking, but on the other hand this is more mobile, way cheaper even with printing, and I can do it on bed rest while I can't really paper scrapbook on bed rest. For those who might be interested, this kit is currently a free download called School Rules from www.digitalscrapbookmemories.com and I must admit I lifted the paper and photo placement from a Close To My Heart book called "Imagine".

Animal friends

My sweet little girl was playing with her stuffed frog and cow next to me when my eyes drooped and I zonked out. When I woke up she was watching a movie with brother and she had tucked her frog and cow in next to me to keep me safe and comfortable while I slept. How cute! My kids take such good care of me.

First week of school for the first grader

Jacob started first grade this week. He loves his teacher. He loves eating at school. He loves that he gets three recesses. He feels very big and responsible now that he goes to school all day. I'm glad he is having such a great start. The only down side is he keeps getting the cafeteria food all over his uniforms and I'm about ready to start sending him to school with an apron to wear while he eats. Jon doesn't have the time to do that much laundry right now. He got his first round of homework today. One sheet of math homework that shouldn't take him very long.

Sam will start kindergarten next week. Both the charter and public school start the kindergartners after the rest of the school and reserve the first week for assessments here. He is so excited to start and I can tell that it is hard for him to watch Jacob go to school without him this week. He had his assessment today and wore his name tag to my doctors appt so he could show everyone that he is a big boy now that goes to school.

Something to Smile about :)

I saw both of my doctors this week. My regular doctor and the one who will deliver baby was in a great mood and it was the first time I've seen him smile at me since the cerclage was put in. Things seem to be going well and he's pretty optimistic that we'll make it to 28 weeks and maybe on to 34 weeks. Always nice to have good news and see the doctors looking at the bright side of things for once.

The high risk doctor was in good spirits too. He told me I was one of the lucky ones and he thinks things will work out for at least another two weeks. They might even take the appointments down to every other week instead of every week if the next ultrasound looks good. This ultrasound actually showed things looking a little better so that is nice.

As it goes, even with all that good news, the bed rest is still strictly in force. Got to do what we can.

Back to School Night

This week was back to school night for the boys. They got to see their classrooms and meet their new teachers. Jacob especially needed to meet his teacher to help him be less nervous about this new change. They both have nice teachers and I think they'll have a good year. Summer is in it's final days again. Crazy!

Another Baby Update

This week the high risk doctors did another major ultrasound to look at Lilly and make sure the stitches are still holding.

Lilly is looking good. She is right on for her date and doesn't have any developmental issues that they can see. Yeah! It was nice to know all the shots they've been giving me haven't mutated her (not that they should, I've looked up the risks, but still...). She is breach this week, but last week she was head down. Still moving around a lot. We've had three ultrasounds now that says she is a girl. That was a relief only because during the first part of the ultrasound the tech said that "he wasn't looking right way to get a good profile of the face" and then I was wondering if we had gotten it all wrong which would be really weird considering the 20 week was "100%" positive. This one was "100%" positive once the tech got to looking. Not that I have any problems with boys, but since finding out we kind of give an extra bit of personality to the baby that I would hate to change now. I have no boy names left and I'm ready to buy pink, pink, and more pink ;) It's been a while.

The stitches are looking the same as always. That is good and bad. I've figured out that why the doctors are so edgy is that I'm on the edge. They've seen things go both ways when they look like what I got now and they are unsure of how it will work for me. They can't guarantee anything so all we can do is hope. They watch things closely so they can be ready if things start to change again. If things do start to change I've been told repeatedly that I would end up in the hospital for the rest of this. One of the high risk doctors said he would put me in the hospital now if I didn't think I could do bed rest at home. I'll be a good girl! I don't like the threat of needles and bed pans. The thought sends a shiver down my spine. My biggest fear is infection. There is nothing they can do about that, and there is really nothing they can do to find out ahead of time and prevent it either. It can happen fast and change things fast and I know all to well how it works. The stitches help prevent this in a way. The more shut things remain the less likely an infection is to happen. Cross my fingers.

Olive Puppet Dance

I so wish that I had been able to record this because it was just too funny. My kids had each received a large black olive to eat while waiting for dinner to be cooked. They each put them on their pointer fingers, ran down stairs, hid behind my bed, stuck their little fingers up in the air as high as they could go, and started singing "La, Na, La, Na, La, Na". Then they jumped up, yelled "Surprise!", ate the olives off their fingers, and ran away. My kids are so cute! I needed something funny.

Viable

Celebration! The baby is now considered viable. I could go into all the ins and outs of why that is, but to make a long story short the medical definition means the baby has a 50/50 chance of survival if born today, it also means the NICU at the hospital here would try and save baby. Of course, we would like to make it much longer then today. Even four more weeks greatly increases the babies chances of survival and greatly decreases long term health problems.

I had a doctor's appointment today. The baby's hear beat is nice and strong. The doctor is also going to further our viability celebration by prescribing three shots in the next three days. yeah. One today to prevent preterm labor and a series of two steroid shots that need to be 24 hours apart to give the baby a better chance of survival if I were to go into labor anytime in the next 6 weeks (if I make it 6 more weeks then I get another series of shots to celebrate that mark).

One more celebration- we are having a little girl. We will probably name her Lilly.

It worked!

I went into the doctor's today to get another ultrasound and see if the cerclage was working or not. It looks like it's doing it's job and holding things together. Yeah! The doctor also thought the chances of the cerclage working for the full time were a little higher then average since I only have a weakness in my cervix and the whole thing isn't incompetent. I'll take whatever hope I can get at this point.

Happy Birthday!

Our sweet little girl turned 4 this last week. She is getting so big and time seems to have flown by. We love her very much and are proud of her. She was the biggest helper on her birthday. A few things about her:
She loves pink!
She loves dolls and wants a dollhouse for Christmas
She wants to be a mommy when she grows up
Her favorite movie is "Tinkerbell and The Lost Treasure"
She is very imaginative