So Far in 2015

Since the fam left in January, we (and especially I) have had cold after cold, with a little flu-like action in between. I have never been sick for so long. I think pregnancy killed my immune system. It's been a rough winter. (More on that below.) I am finally well now, except for a little stuffy nose that may be pregnancy rhinitis, as they call it.

One day Ever heard the garbage truck, and we ran out to see it. She ended up chasing it all over the neighborhood. Literally. She just ran after it down all the culs-de-sac until it finally headed out of the neighborhood and we couldn't keep up. The driver was really nice and gave some honks, waves, and smiles. I imagine our following him caused him a little discomfort, but he was a sport.

 

 

We took a family walk one evening. Before we got to the tennis courts, Ever just stopped and wanted to hang out. She wouldn't go any farther. We took some pictures and then headed back:

I mentioned in my Christmas post that Ever is really into conducting music. She is also quite the singer. She makes up songs, often involving toilet paper for some reason. She was doing some nice singing and conducting one day from her stool, which she had taken into the living room. I started videotaping her, and her song took on an angrier tone. Notice how she goes from gibberish to "picture a foggy Christmas, to a loving family":

When we put her to bed, we sing one song with her, and then we sing a "leaving song." When she started giving us a hard time about going to bed and didn't want us to leave her room, Jim came up with singing a song (the "leaving song") as he walked out. It helped. Since Christmastime, she's been obsessed with "Angels We Have Heard on High." She almost always picks that for the song we sing in her room (she knows all three verses pretty well), and then she often picks "Silent Night" for her leaving song. How many months it will take for her to tire of those, I don't know. She's keeping us in the Christmas spirit all year round.

I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, February 4th. My belly measured small, so my doctor did a quick sonogram to check my water. It was borderline (just over the minimum they want to see), so I started having to do non-stress tests ("NSTs") twice a week until my due date. They check the baby's movements/heart rate and measure the amniotic fluid. I haven't been good about increasing my fluid intake, partly because I have a hard time believing it will really make a difference (but apparently it does). My water level has varied without any reason I can identify, but it hasn't dropped below the minimum. Going out to San Marcos for these NSTs has been time-consuming and annoying, but better safe than sorry, I guess. You're technically not supposed to take kids to the NSTs, but I've taken Ever to all of them. She is an angel. She sits and chats with me and eats ice with me. (They give you ice or ice water because it makes the baby move.) One of the nurses told me that they'd had a kid in there who would not listen to his mom and kept running out of the room, so they couldn't complete the test. Ever makes me proud.

On Saturday, February 7, I took Ever to Luc Oddou's birthday party and then to Christian Karner's birthday party. Karners had a bouncy house, so we stayed for hours and I relaxed while Ever played.

The following day, Ever's Sunbeam teacher, Sister Myers, pointed out that Ever had a huge lump on her neck. Sister Myers said "bump," and I looked for a little red thing. It was more like a giant mass. Jim took a look at it that afternoon and got freaked out that it was cancer. Ever had had unexplained fevers over the last month or so, and that added to the concern. He said it could just be a virus causing enlarged lymph nodes, or it could be something terrible. We planned to take her to the doctor the next day.

That night the Karners hosted a bishopric/youth fireside. We made cookies to contribute. I started to feel a little weird after dinner. I thought it was nothing, so we decided that Ever and I would go with Jim to the fireside. We took the stroller and walked to the Karners as quickly as I could go. I wasn't feeling great and thought I was having some contractions on the way. I made it through the lesson portion of the evening and then started feeling worse while the kids were eating dessert. After they all left, we were getting ready to head out. I walked outside, squatted down, and starting throwing up off the driveway. I have never puked so much. It seemed like gallons and gallons. And the really great part was that every time I hurled, I wet my pants (thank you, pregnancy). Sort of mortifying. Mostly just Jim and Melanie witnessed it, so that was good. Ever was scared and started crying. The men whisked her away and kept the kids inside. Words cannot express how happy I am that it happened 1) after everyone else left and 2) outside. Melanie drove us home after getting a couple of towels, one for me to wrap myself in and one for me to sit on in the car.

I was then violently ill for several hours. Things were happening on both ends simultaneously and virtually without warning. We moved the chaise lounge into the hall RIGHT outside the bathroom, but being five feet from the toilet wasn't always close enough. Jim witnessed things that night that no husband should ever see. There were multiple loads of laundry and multiple showers. It was really unimaginable. Jim stayed most of the night downstairs with me. He eventually went to sleep on the couch, and after my last episode at 2:30 A.M., I got a little sleep on the chaise. Ever found me here in the morning:

The whole thing was extra awful because I thought I was going to lose the baby or something. I had just been told to drink lots of fluid, and then my body purged itself of EVERYTHING. I couldn't even keep a sip of water down that night. I couldn't deal with doing my kick counts (you're supposed to make sure you feel 10 distinct movements of the baby within an hour) because I was dying. I kept wondering if I should go to the hospital, but I didn't know how I could do that because I couldn't be away from a toilet and a bucket. My belly issues ceased in time for me to go to my NST on Monday. My fluid level was up, inexplicably, and all was well with baby. The stomach flu has been going around. I thought that's what it was, but it was so short that we wondered if it were food poisoning. Our friend Amber Sorenson (who had also been at Christian Karner's birthday party) had a similar experience. She started feeling sick Sunday night but didn't start the horror until Monday morning, and then she was just sick Monday. She wondered if we ate something bad at the party Saturday. All I know is I hope never to experience that again.

Jim took that Monday off so he could help with Ever and me. He got her in to the doctor at the same time I was at my NST, and then I met them as she was going in for x-rays and her second attempt at getting blood drawn (they hadn't gotten enough the first time). We took her to lunch at Chipotle and then got her ice cream to compensate for the traumatic events of the morning.

As the test results rolled in, we learned she just had mono. What a relief! When I had mono in high school, I remember saying I had never been that sick in my life. Apparently a lot of people get mono without any symptoms, though, and that was Ever's situation. She always felt fine.

Valentine's morning Jim took Ever on a long run because I was really tired and hoped to sleep some more. She was a really good sport:

I couldn't go back to sleep, so I got up and baked and frosted the cinnamon rolls I'd put together the night before. They were a nice Valentine's treat.

We spent the rest of the morning cleaning and getting the crib set up for New Baby. It made me really happy to work on house stuff together. We skipped Ever's nap and went to the beach in the afternoon. Ever played in the sand for a while and then wanted to get in the water. Jim was very pleased that the water touching was minimal, and he got good snuggles to boot:

Toward the end, she starting picking up all the rocks on the beach and throwing them in the water:

We walked down to the pier (that was my exercise for the day) to get dinner at a new pizza/salad place called Zigzag Pizza. We had promised Ever frozen yogurt, but she was so tired after missing her nap that she fell asleep in the car. We went to the frozen yogurt place and were in the parking lot debating what to do when she woke up. So we all went in for yogurt, and she even got a balloon. 

A friend, Amy Thompson, convinced a few of us to sign our toddlers up for a "tumbling" class through the City of Oceanside. Lelei Thompson, Ella Rondo, Parker Moffat, and Ever are all in this session. Ever is well-behaved but incredibly slow. She usually holds up the others. She and Ella have started having play dates, and Ever is pretty obsessed with Ella. Ever was unhappy after the first day that other kids sometimes sat by Ella. 

I took these pictures last week, at lesson 1. Ever is in the blue polka-dot shirt; Ella is in yellow:

They walk, run, jump, roll, play with balls and other items, jump on a little trampoline, walk on balance beams, hang on a ring, and just generally learn to follow instructions. The teacher is pretty strict. The first day a girl named Hazel was in nonstop trouble. Today was the second lesson, and it was Parker Moffat's first time. (They were out of town last week.) He was the one who kept getting in trouble today. After the class we go to the park by the recreation center and eat and play. I think it's fun for Ever.

At her first play date with Ella, they had strawberry milk courtesy of Nesquik. Ever convinced me to buy her some. I didn't think she'd really drink it because she generally wants nothing to do with milk unless it's in the form of hot chocolate (she's a chip off the old block). But she sucks down the strawberry stuff:

So can I justify giving her tons of sugar in strawberry milk and hot chocolate because that's the only way I can get some good calcium in her?

Mamo wanted to buy Ever Candyland over Christmas but only found an expensive version. I grabbed a mini version at Target recently, and Ever has enjoyed playing it over and over with Jim:

Besides Ella, Ever has also had a couple of play dates with Aven Dalton, who is new in the ward. Aven just turned eight. Ever loves older kids, and they generally ignore her. Aven, however, is really sweet to her. She loves playing with Ever and always asks when I see her at church if there's choir (Aven and Ever play while we practice) and/or if she can come over to play. Ever needs to learn not to copy everything her friends say and do, not to cry about everything, and how to share/take turns. She's so little, and she may be a little behind on some of those skills because she doesn't have an older sibling. But Aven is good to her, and it's fun for Ever to have friends.

Aven was baptized on Saturday, and we went to a BBQ at their house afterward. While there, I started feeling shaking and weird, and my vision started going funky. I thought I was going to pass out. I sat down and ate and drank, and it went away. 

Sunday I had to go in for a special ultrasound to check the baby's measurements. The midwife I've been seeing when my doctor is unavailable (which is often) said at my last appointment that I measured 29 centimeters (which should correspond to 29 weeks), when I should have been about 37 centimeters (for 37 weeks). All of the measurements were within a week of where I am in my pregnancy, so all was well. But I started feeling weird again as I was leaving the doctor's office. I was trying to get back to church to pick up Ever at the end of Primary, but I finally decided I shouldn't put my life on the line to do that and pulled off the freeway. I called Jim, and then I ate all of Ever's pretzels and drank what little water I had in the car. I closed my eyes for a while and then finally decided I felt OK to drive. I've never felt in danger of passing out while driving before, so that was scary.

It happened again on Monday after my NST, although it wasn't quite as bad. Jim said I should tell my doctor and maybe stop driving out to San Marcos for these NSTs. I've tried over the last couple days to drink more water, and the passing-out thing hasn't happened again. 

I went in to the office yesterday for the last time. No labor on the train or passing out in L.A. for me. The girls took me to lunch. I wrapped things up and told the couple of people I work for and the managing partner that that was my last day in the office before maternity leave. I'll do a little more work from home over the next week or two if the baby doesn't come. It's so odd that I can do whatever I want and don't even really need to tell anyone what I'm doing. I talk to Stacey Sullivan, but that's about it. Telling the managing partner, Mike DiBiase, that I was starting maternity leave was almost an afterthought yesterday. They don't care when I come back or what I do. I told Mike I'd probably just check in with Stacey after three months or so, and he was like, "OK, well, we're flexible. You know we'll be here." Stacey has said I can work completely remotely when I come back if I want, and I can take whatever time off I want. Now that I'm just paid based on my collections, it's pretty simple accounting-wise, and it's no skin off the firm's nose when I take off. It's quite a gig I've got going there. The flexibility is amazing.

Last but not least, I have to post some of the funnies I've written down over the last couple months. Ever makes us laugh so much. Here are some of her gems:

- "I don't know why I didn't say 'hi.' I think I was busy waiting."

- As she was using the remote control to try to turn on the TV: "By and by, I turn [or turned?] on the TV." Where did she get "by and by"?

- After Jim told her not to get big (which he says frequently): "I have to. It's part of life." Or, another time, "I have to. That's how Jesus made me."

- "We have to sing your happy birthday song. It's called 'Friends Leave, and You're Sad.'"

- "Maybe my baby brother or sister won't come out because she'll think it's a good hiding place in case a bad man comes and tries to hurt him."

- After we put her to bed, we heard her on the monitor talking about tacos for about fifteen minutes, saying things like, "We need to go to the store and get taco stuff. How can we have tacos if we don't have taco stuff? That doesn't make any sense!" She loves her some tacos.

I also wrote down a funny by Jim. His work gave him a new phone a few months ago, and he had to get a new number. I took over his old phone and changed that number, too. He was talking to some business on the phone recently, and they were trying to confirm his contact info. I heard him say, "No, that one is also deceased." I started laughing so hard. Who says that when asked if a phone number is still good?