Brown and Pink Polka Dots : Its June!!!

We are having a baby THIS MONTH!!!!

I think we are ready... we are down to the puttery little stuff. I spent my morning cutting out stickers for Jillian's oxygen so I would not have to worry about that between now and for a little bit after baby comes. Hospital bags are packed and everything is set for Jilli. I am ready for the baby to be out... but as a second time mom I know how it feels after (I don't handle anesthesia well and I am not a quick bounce back from surgery person, its just not how my body functions, something I struggle with sometimes because I see other people have a surgery and be out doing stuff quickly and for me it takes my body longer, but as I have gotten older I am learning to accept that my body is on its own schedule for healing and trying to rush or get mad about it does not help anything, it just makes it hurt worse and my emotions more intense) so I know I am trading one set of discomforts for another but it is all worth it! I will miss feeling her kicks inside of me, but I am ready for the rest to be over :)

If you are wanting to come and visit us in the hospital we will be happy to see you and introduce you to our bundle of joy... however right after her birth we are going to be taking a little bit of time just the 4 of us. Nursing was never something that was easy with Jillian so I want to give us a low stress first feeding and I want to spend time with Jillian and the baby and her getting use to her sister before we have extra people around. If you would like to come the day she is born please text or call us first to see if we are taking visitors yet... part of it will also depend on how the baby is doing and how I am feeling when we start having people visit. We will be in the hospital for at least 2 nights so there will be plenty of time to come see us! We appreciate your understanding and look forward to everyone getting to meet our newest addition!

We have been trying to spend extra time with Jilli doing fun things lately. Today Jilli and I are having a pajama day and watching movies (we watched Father of the Bride II, one of my all time favorites... yes I cried when the babies were born lol) Yesterday was one of those days I just had to keep reminding myself that even when things are crazy everything is still good! We were working on getting out the door to my OB appointment yesterday morning and Jilli was walking from the kitchen to the living room to turn off her oxygen so I could switch her to a small tank. She fell over and caught herself with her face on the wood floor. Jilli falls a lot and frequently we tell her to get up and walk it off however this time by the sound of it I could tell it really hurt. I walked in and picked her up and noticed blood all over. It took a minute to figure out the blood was coming from her lip. She has never had anything really bleed before and never a head wound so the amount of blood freaked her out. I was more worried about the fact that she was choking on the blood because she does not know how to safely clear it out or her airway. Thankfully I got the bleed to stop rather quickly and its just a small cut that did not need any medical attention. Being a teacher I have had my fair share of kiddos do stuff to cause their face to bleed so it was not that amount of blood that worried me, more just her airway. We then headed to my OB appointment where the doctor was delivering a baby so I met with the nurse instead which is fine. She helped answer a couple questions I had about the hospital I'm delivering at (not the same one Jilli was delivered at) and listened to the baby's heart beat. We were leaving and I stopped at Claws in Lake Geneva (one of my favorite places to get take out!) and ordered a large raspberry iced tea. I love the fountain raspberry ice tea while pregnant (I drank it a lot with Jilli) and not a lot of places have it so since we were right in the same area I stopped and picked one up. When we got home Jilli asked if she could play outside for a little bit and there was a nice breeze and she was already hooked up to a tank of oxygen so I told her sure we could play outside for a little bit. I set my tea on the rail of the deck and went to dump the water out of her car and knocked over the ice tea causing the cup to break into pieces. I was bummed to say the least! Jilli noticed it and started to cry. I asked her what was wrong and she said she was just so sad for me that my tea fell and I could not drink it. She then told me it would be ok because she knew daddy would help to fix it. It is so sweet that she knows how much her daddy loves and takes care of us! We played outside for a short while until she started to get warm and then came inside and did a floor puzzle together. Later in the afternoon she was playing with her Little People princesses with the pirate ship. She was kicking and hitting the ground and I thought it was just part of what she was playing until I noticed she had peed all over the floor and was splashing in it. I got her all cleaned up and later that night Brent gave her a bath. Somedays having a kid is just messy :)

This weekend we worked on house projects. Our back door shattered a week ago. We have no idea what happened but knew we needed to replace it. We also had a tree in the front yard that was dead and needed to come down before it fell. There was also a fan in my car that was not working (and sounded rather loud), so Sunday we had some people come over and help us with all of those projects and I am so grateful for their help! On Monday Jillian's friend Caroline and her family came over. They live several hours away but we try to get the girls together anytime they are down at Children's (Caroline and Jilli relate in many ways...) and Monday was the first time we got both of our families together (typically it is just the moms and girls that meet up). It was a nice afternoon hanging out. The adults played games at the table and the girls all played so nicely in the play area. Jilli was so excited to have Caroline over to her house to play! It is also so nice to have someone who can relate to raising a child with medical needs! Oh, and on Saturday my mommy took me to get my toe nails done cause me painting them myself sure is not happening right now, lol!

Jilli medical updates:
-We have increase her CoQ10 to 40ml daily (she was getting 5ml 2x daily). We are able to add the extra amount into her pump which is really helpful because we can only push a limited amount of things in with a syringe without it being painful for Jillian. Since increasing her CoQ10 we have seen much better pooping and have been able to drop her laxative down to 5ml 2x daily!
- The upped oxygen is really helping!
- Still trying to figure out what is going on with Endocrine. I feel like that is a cat and mouse game right now. I called to schedule, they said they needed to talk to Jillian's ped before they would schedule us... well that was a week and a half ago and I have not heard from anyone. I sent a message to Jillian's ped today to see if by chance she knows what is going on. Jilli is having issues with overheating and with random times were her hands feel like they are ice cold. Something with temperature regulation is not working in her little body and we need to figure it out.
- I have not heard anything from genetics....

Brent and Jillian playing with her microphone and books

Hanging out in downtown Lake Geneva (Yes that is the best face I got of Brent)

Jilli sitting on her bike playing bubbles

Jilli has been insisting that she and her sister needed matching 4th of July outfits. I didn't want anything that said 4th on it (I think clothes that can only be warn one time are impractical) but each time I would find something they would not have it in the right sizes for the both girls but we walked into Target the other day and they had a red white and blue outfit that was in the right sizes for the girls! Jilli carried them through the store

Down comes the tree!

Jilli and Caroline playing a game together

Jilli and I tried out the Ergo the other day while I vacuumed. It worked well but I think it will work even better when I'm not pregnant :) Jilli has started hating the sound of the vacuum and curls up and screams while covering her ears when I turn the vacuum on so this by far is the most effective way to vacuum right now because then there is no screaming (screaming like that for Jilli turns into her puking quickly)