Two By Two

Hard to believe that my big boys are growing up so fast!

Today was well child check up day.

River is HUGE.
Height-- 43 1/2 inches
Weight-- 47 lbs

He's off the chart for height and at the 97th for weight.
We told her about our concerns with his behavior in school during circle time. She is referring him to a child behaviorist to see if there is something we can do to calm him down before it really becomes in issue (like when he starts Kindergarten). She said it sounds like he KNOWS better he just doesn't care to actually DO better. Sounds about right.

He got 2 shots today. It was a whole lot harder holding him down then it is to hold Journey down each month because he knew what was coming. Poor kid. He did well though. Screamed during it but was over it pretty quickly and now he's good to go for school and won't have to get another shot until he's 11. Thank God!

Journey's stats are:

Height-- 33 1/2 inches
Weight-- 27 lbs even

Which is 36th percentile for weight and 23rd percentile for height (75% on the adjusted NS charts).
This visit however went down as another sick visit. He was running a 101.8 temp at the doctors office. The ear infection he has had for 2 weeks is still not gone so he is now on another antibiotic. We have an appointment to see the ENT on April 19th to set a surgery date for tube placement. Poor kid.

Yesterday ended up being an extremely interesting day.

I've been having cramps for about 2 days and was starting to get worried that maybe the pregnancy was ectopic so I called the OB. They called back and said that they couldn't get me in until next week but wanted me to go to the ER to be evaluated to make sure everything was okay.

So I trek off to the ER. They get me back IMMEDIATELY and had me pee in a cup, got some blood, and did a pelvic exam. Then they took me for an ultrasound to check for placement.

She started off with an abdominal ultrasound and said she was just taking measurements of where everything was located but that she would need to do an internal to get a better view. So as soon as she starts the internal she says "That's what I thought"

Now I'm freaking out thinking it really was ectopic.

Then she says "Do twins run in your family?"

I told her not to my knowledge

She said "Well, they do now"

That's right everyone! I am expecting TWINS. 2 BEAUTIFUL little babies with heart rates in the 125 range She said they are about a week behind my LMP due date of September 27th which means I was probably right about when I conceived and my due date is October 1st. Either way I guess it doesn't much matter as the babies will most likely be born sometime in early to mid September.

I go back to the OB on Monday for a follow up. I'm in shock but SO excited

It's really been that long again since a real update???? WOW I need to find energy (and time.. yeah time would be good) to get on here more often. I honestly forgot about coming to blog (I read my blogs all the time on here but forget to WRITE in mine) but received an e-mail from a blog friend of mine asking for an update so here we go....

I am doing good. I'm 7 weeks pregnant. Other than pure exhaustion like I've never felt before and some nausea and frequently bathroom trips (already???) I feel good. I had an appointment with a new OB last week and will be seeing the midwife at the practice for most of the pregnancy. Nothing interesting went down at the appoint just the usual intake stuff. Next appointment is March 3rd. Will be getting an ultrasound and a visit that day and most importantly should be able to hear the baby's heartbeat then. I can't WAIT!! I'll be 10 weeks then. Due date is officially set for September 27th. She said they'll deliver me 7 to 10 days before that though.

School wise.. I have 18 days to go! I start my preceptorship in the morning. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week and next will be 12 hour shifts. 8 hours on Monday or Tuesday will be spent in Labor and Delivery and the other 8 hours will be spent in the Level 3 NICU. Wednesdays will be 12 hours of Hospice. Then 2 weeks from now I'll have 4 days of testing and Thursday the 25th will be my capping and pinning ceremony. Again, I can't wait! I'm so ready to be done with school for a bit.

The boys birthdays are coming up in the next week or so. River's is in 4 days on the 11th. Journey's is 4 days later on the 15th. They will be 4 and 2 respectfully. I can't believe how much they have grown. It's insane how fast it's gone. They both went to the doctors this week. Not for their well child but we got weights and heights on them. I'll update again on the 19th with their official check up stats.

Journey is talking a bit more than he was, if prompted. he still want use words unprompted. At all. Oh well. It'll happen. He is seeing the speech therapist once a week currently. It worries me that when he turns 3 he may not qualify for services through the school system because they require him to be behind in 2 or more areas and really our only area of concern is his speech right now at least academically. We have finally moved him up to 18 month pants. This is a big accomplishment as he has been in 12 month pants for the last year or so. LOL Some of them are still a bit big but we'll take it!

Ok that's all I've got to say right now. Or that's all the energy I have time for. I'll update again later (hopefully sooner than a month :) )

Yes it's official, I am a slacker. I haven't updated the bog in almost 2 months. I'm awful. So pull up a seat, get a drink and get ready for a LONG update....

First up..
Including tomorrow there is exactly 100 days left until I graduate the RN program. Only about 50 days of that will actually be spent doing something school related though (after removing holidays, weekends, days off etc). Our finals start this coming week with our Med Surg 2 Final on the 25th. Followed by a long weekend (26th-29th) and our final in Community Health that following Monday. Then our psych class officially ends on the 9th of December. So about 2 1/2 weeks left of the 5th semester and the last semester officially begins December 14th. So close. In fact, November 10th marked 1 year in the program!

November 10th also marked Doug and I's 4 year wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's been 4 years already. We get along the majority of the time but like any couple we have our ups and downs. I think once we get past the next 3 months we'll be good to go. Or at least a whole lot less stressed out over it all. Hopefully then I'll be able to concentrate on losing weight again, that is if I'm not pregnant by then...

River has been doing wonderful in school. He loves going to school most days and is learning so much. He just recently got a progress report sent home. Who knew that kiddos had progress reports at 3 years old LOL He is able to do everything they want him to do except for write his name and they are working on that now. He is so smart.

His behavior has gotten remarkably better. We still have some days where he just doesn't seem to be able to control himself but that's to be expected. He still has accidents with the pottying as well but I think it's more that he's lazy and not that he doesn't get it. Just not really sure what to do about it

Journey has been doing well as well. His weight seems to have hit a stall. He hasn't gained any weight since he was 18 months old (he just turned 21 months old this week). We took him to the pediatrician 2 weeks ago because he wasn't acting himself and come to find out our poor little guy has/had a double ear infection. They put him on a round of antibiotics. We told them about his tummy issues and they told us to put him on a modified BRAT (banana, Rice, Apple, Toast) diet and eliminate any dairy and see how that helps. It has helped him some. He still has tons of gas issues and now it seems to be effecting his sleep patterns as well. *sigh*. He was released from his occupational therapy last month (YAY!) but there is no end in sight for his speech therapy. Even though he is picking up some more signs he still really isn't talking at all. He has said a few words here and there but they aren't used appropriately or consistantly. *shrug* He went to the cardiologist last Monday for a follow up for his heart. EKG and echo tell us his heart hasn't gotten any worse and hasn't gotten any better. They want to see him again in a year. We decided not to send him to school after all because of his increased risk of infections and what not, we want to play safe instead of being sorry while we still can.


During the interim between when I lost posted and now. Doug's childhood friend came into town for a visit. The one we were planning on going to disney with. I wish I could say it went great but truly it was an extremely uncomfortable experience that did not go too wonderfully. In fact, it went dang right horribly. We wont' be going to Disney like we had hoped for Christmas and our plans for going to Texas are absolutely NOT going to happen :( We are looking into staying here for a while yet and then when we are ready to relocate, relocating to TN like we had originally planned.

While L was here, Halloween came and went. Journey was dressed up as Woody from Toy Story and River went has Venom from Spiderman 3. It was EXTREMELY hot here that day so neither boy wanted to keep their hat/hoods on (can't say I blame them). Journey tuckered out rather quickly but River had a blast! And has been asking every other day since to go to Halloween again LOL.

WOW so it's been over a month since I updated. Every time I sit down to make an actual update something comes up that pulls me away from the computer and the entry never gets written, so here I sit determined to write an update today.

Tuesday (the 22nd) was the end of my 4th semester of school. I finished the term with 2 A's and a B :( Which means I no longer have a 4.0 but that's okay, I'm doing the best I can so it's good enough. Semester 5 starts on Monday. On the agenda for this semester is Med Surg 2, Community Health, and Mental Health. This semester runs through December 9th and then I'll be in my last semester of nursing school. In fact, today marks less than 5 months until graduation date. Hard to believe it's almost over. With the start of the new semester is the start of my diet. I fell off the wagon at the start of last term with the stress of the semester and just wasn't able to get myself back on the wagon. Needless to say, the scale wasn't very favorable to me and it's totally my fault but it's time to get back with it and get the pounds off (again).

River has been in school for over a month now and he LOVES it. He's so smart. The goals that the school has for the 3 year olds to know by the end of the year, he already accomplished at the start of the year so they are continuing to work with him to further his education. He's learning letter sounds, sight words, and how to spell his name. He is amazing. He is potty trained fully during the day now. He's in " big boy underwear" from the time he gets up in the morning until the time he goes to bed. We still have him in a pull-up at night because he sleeps too soundly to wake up to go right now. He is still in both OT and Speech but it's looking like only another month or so before they will be able to release him from therapy. He's been doing great. We still have our good days and our bad days but with the start of school and the routine it brings, his behavior has significantly improved. THANK GOD

Journey has been loving being home with daddy, we had originally planned to start him in daycare the day that River started pre-school but mommy bulked and kept him home instead. However, we've decided that he really does need the seperation time from us so starting Monday he'll be going to daycare from 9 until 12 Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. We may decide to step it up to full weeks once he is comfortable going there and we can also do extended care which would give Doug the time to get a job which would be SOOO nice. He went to an audiologist appointment this week and was NOT impressed with the preecedings at all. He cooperated for a bit and then he was just over it and would not follow the commands anymore, so technically he failed his hearing test. We go back October 23rd to see them again and try a retest. He also saw the ENT the same day and we've decided not to schedule tube surgery yet, we want to wait and see how he does with the coming winter months, see if the ear infections start back up. We are to go back in January or schedule the surgery if he gets more than 2 ear infections between now and then. He was 24 lbs 8 oz at the doctors and just shy of 32 inches. He is still recieving OT and speech as well. His occupation therapist says he is doing SO well that when she does his reevaluation next month she thinks he'll be ready to not receive services. YAY! As for speech, he's learned quite a few signs and has an amazing comprehension vocabulary but he still has no words. Not even momma and dada. We'll continue working with him, he'll get it eventually.

Doug and I have been discussing what comes next for us once I graduate. What our plans for the immediate future are and the plans for the long term future. Our 2 options are to stay here in Florida, living with Linda for a while to give me time to gain experience in the field and give us time to pay off some of our debt. We would pick up a bill for Linda and ease some of the burden on her and it would still be extremely low cost for us. Our other option is to move to San Antonio, Texas with a friend who has offered to allow us to come live with her in her home and split the bills. The financial responsibilities would be more for sure but it would be a chance to experience somewhere different (ie get out of Florida) and also allow me the chance to learn a ton from our friend. I can transfer my nursing license out there and should be able to get a job releatively easily even with little experience. However the move would cost a good deal of money and would involve alot of work to move our children (and all the different doctors they need) out that way. I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons of the choices but feel lost. One of the big things that we're waiting to see is how we mesh with our friend on a daily basis. We shall see. she's coming for a visit next month and then we're going on vacation together for a week in December to Disney. I'm excited to see what's coming next for our family no matter what the next might be.