36 weeks

Yup! we have officially reached the gestation of pregnancy where Josiah was born! (well, he was born at 36 weeks 4 days...but hey!) Definitely something to celebrate, and I am! I am heading to "women refreshed at the well" tomorrow for a day-trip to spend some time with God, and some time just relaxing and celebrating this step!

side note: Women Refreshed at the Well, is a ministry created by a woman named Joy. She has built out her Narol MB Henderson Highway home to accommodate up to 6 guests overnight who may need a spiritual retreat or opportunity to just rest. She provides meals, encouragement and prayer, and an absolutely beautiful environment to rest in. You can check her out here at http://www.womenrefreshed.com/ .

I have been celebrating various OBGYN appointments with different things. At 33 weeks, Curtis and I got steak and had a nice supper. 34 weeks I was too sick to do anything. Last week we had a date night, and this week is my little retreat (which Curtis is giving me instead of flowers for mothers day! Super pumped, cause I can still get flowers once I have a newborn, but I wont be able to just get away and rest! Plus the cost is almost the same if you buy flowers at a florist shop)

Baby News:
I had my appointment this morning and unfortunately baby is still head up (breech). At 36 weeks, it is far less likely that the baby will turn around, simply because it doesn't have the room inside to do so anymore. Next wednesday I will have a fetal assessment where the nurse or doctor or whichever it is, will actually make an attempt to turn the baby manually (by pressing on my stomach) while monitoring it on the ultrasound machine. I am sort of excited for this, but then again, I have no idea if this will hurt or not (ignorance is bliss, so dont tell me if you know it will hurt! but feel free to let me know if you are sure it DOESN'T).  Otherwise, things are still going well! My blood pressure was 138/86 which, again, is higher than it ought to be, but not high enough to be a concern, especially because my home-readings are lower (120's/70's). Prayer over both my blood pressure and this breech business would be very appreciated. If baby is breech, that will mean a c-section for me, since there are additional risks to doing a VBAC breech, in terms of tearing the old incision, which combined with my slightly elevated blood pressure just makes a VBAC seem less intelligent than a scheduled section... but if baby still turns, or if he can be turned during the fetal assessment, then I will be good to go for a VBAC (which is what I want!).

Curtis News:
 Curtis has been plugging away at random things in our basement, to try and get it finished off. Currently his office is upstairs in the third bedroom, and once the basement is ready, he will move into the office down there so that this little babe can have a bedroom! There's not as much of a rush though, since the baby will be in a cradle in our room for the first while anyways.

With summer sunshine and daylight savings, the crew is working longer and longer hours. Some days we feel like ships passing in the night. One day last week, curtis came home at 8:00, had supper, showered and went to bed. Then other days he has worked all day, then works in the basement all evening. needless to say, he is working hard and has been quite tired lately! It will be nice to have the basement done soon though!

Josiah News:

As you can see by this photo, our son is a restless little sleeper! This is why he hasn't transitioned to a toddler bed yet! He is at the head of his bed in this photo. We put him down properly, holding his bear and blanket, then Curtis corrects his position around 10:00 pm before he goes to bed, but in the morning, this is usually what I find.  It was actually pretty funny this particular morning, how sound a asleep he was that I could flash photos of him!

Josiah Got sick also... He ended up on antibiotics, which have really helped. Also, for those who may have been aware of our doctors predicament, Josiah is officially a patient of my former pediatrician Dr Deonarine! This is such a blessing, as she is an excellent doctor, and it also means that this baby will have a pediatrician right from the start. We have been searching for a pediatrician since Josiah was born. We have bounced between a few, as well as my GP, but no one was a right fit. One (who is good) is just a walk in doctor, one left the office he was working at (and already had a full practice at another office), and the other was very egocentric, did not listen to symptoms or concerns and had a "one issue per appointment" policy which I will not tolerate... (I will leave him anonymous out of the grace of my heart...) Considering all the issues Josiah has had with eating in his first two years,  you can imagine how frustrating this journey was without a proper medical voice! Now we have one! Yay!


Krysta News:

I seem to be on the mend, after 10.5 weeks of illness. I am far from healthy yet, as I am still sleeping upright so I dont just cough all night, I am still transitioning from 6 puffs/day of a much stronger asthma medicine that isnt quite as safe for pregnancy (a regular dose of said puffer is 1 puff twice a day) down to 5-4 puffs a day, Clairitin (allergy med), a medicated nasal spray (also a little sketchy for pregnancy), essential oils, air purifier, and having to avoid most asthma triggers...

BUT! at the same time, I am beginning to get proper chunks of sleep, like 2-3 hrs at a time, for 7-8 hrs, only broken up by the odd coughing fit and bathroom break... so this is a blessing! at it's worse, I was getting maybe 4 hours total a night, in 20 minute segments. My anxiety was very high around the coughing, and several times I could barely catch my breath between coughing fits.I was having to take 1/4-1/2 a gravol tablet just to calm down and go to sleep.  I went to the hospital on one occasion for the extreme coughing fits, but they could only give me ventolin (a rescue medication) which is only a temporary solution, and also a medication I have at home in a far less potent form... so for many nights I was taking far beyond the recommended dosages (maybe 3-4X the recommended dosages?).

Medication affecting this pregnancy has obviously become a concern in my mind. Thankfully I am in my third trimester, which means that the "mutagens" (medications that have been known to cause mutations in fetuses) wont be as big a deal, since baby has already formed all its organs and limbs etc... So my fingers are crossed and my hands are folded in prayer that this baby will not be affected by all these crazy meds I am on, and I am continuing to ask for prayer, as I am capable of functioning without ANY of these medications when I am not sick... My doctor has been alright with my meds so far, which is a welcomed relief as well.

below you can see how most of my wardrobe seems to default these days... shirts are riding up and pants are riding down... it's almost impossible to go for a walk! :) but hey! I'll take it! It means baby is growing and potentially dropping, which are both good things!  (Josiah kept trying to pull down my shirt, haha! That little kid actually likes to be clothed! He gets upset when you undress him!).

Well, that is all for this time! Thanks for reading and praying!

Another week gone by!

Yup! Another week has come and gone, bringing the gestation up to whopping 34 weeks! One week  into last pregnancy's bed rest, and here we are. Here's a little update on things!

Baby News:
I had my 34 week appointment today and it went pretty good. Good news and bad news. The good news is that my blood pressure was still hanging in there right below the cut-off at 144/88...this combined with my lack of swelling and lack of weight gain, as well as my home readings (which are much better than the in-office ones) was plenty to keep both of our minds at ease and to assume that this high-ish pressure was due to all the coughing and lack-of-sleep and meds. So now I dont go back till 36 weeks! Josiah was born at 36 weeks so this is fairly momentous to me and worthy of celebration! I wont even be on blood pressure meds before that gestation, let alone having the baby (who still has no name! We're having a doozy of a time picking a name this time around!).

The bad news is that baby is breech! I am 34 weeks, so baby still has 2 weeks to turn around. At my 32 week appointment baby was head-down, and all was well, but I guess baby flipped around in between, and now with all my coughing, I'm not giving the poor kid a chance to flip back!  At my next appointment, if he is still breech she plans to send me to fetal assessment where she says they can sometimes flip baby right there. The bittersweet of this situation is that if baby stays breech, at least I can opt for the c-section instead of attempting a VBAC breech with potential blood pressure issues. So this doesn't really stress me, as much as present the possibility for the disappointment of not doing a VBAC.

I haven't gained any weight at all the past 9 weeks I have been sick (which is bad, especially at this gestation, even though I started overweight). As a relief, I am still measuring accurately in my uterus size, which means this little "parasite" (as my obgyn fondly calls it) is sucking what it needs to, from me!

Josiah News:
Josiah has started personifying his things now! So he'll drop a teddy bear, and say "uh oh!" and kiss it's "owie" better. He also tries to make his stuffed animals talk to "nangna" on the phone (grammie/grandma... not really sure who at this point!). His words are becoming more numerous and put together into little two or three word sentences that only I understand... never thought I'd be that mom who has to translate what their kid is saying, but if my son ever looks at you and says "eeaye?" he is asking you for water... so funny. Some words are as clear as day and others are just totally off. Ah! That's what makes it so cute! :) He's been very cuddly lately. Hard to know if that's because I have been sick, or because he can sense a change is on the horison. Either way, I am taking all the cuddles I can get right now!!

Curtis news:
The wind storms didn't blow him away! Both Tuesday and Wednesday he managed to blow back home, so that is something to be thankful for! He says the wind was literally picking up sheets of plywood off the stack and sending them sailing through the air. One of those "build it and hope it's still there tomorrow" kinda weeks for them. I don't think they lost too terribly much.

Curtis has also been puttering away in our basement! Installing doors, sanding trim and getting ready to paint. Very exciting, but not necessarily so, for those of us with Exacerbated Asthma at the present moment...  Still, it has to get done, and its nice to see he's  found the energy for it!

Krysta News:
Really not much... still sick.... I have had no voice for 7 days now from all the coughing, which ranged in cause from sickness, to asthma to allergies once the warm weather kicked in... 9 weeks of colds and asthma... in my books this officially qualifies as a plague (though not inflicted by God). I was blessed to discover that my OBGYN was  quite comfortable with me taking CLARITIN...yay! Not that I want to be on more meds, but at this point, I dont have much choice. Extra asthma meds, a medicated nasal spray and home remedies arent fixing this, and if I can at least help eliminate the spring allergy part of it all, I will do so.

And I would appreciate lots of prayer on this, as I am quite sleep deprived and this is affecting my mental and emotional functioning big-time... Also my spiritual life, which is suffering because, well quite frankly, I just feel like God isn't pulling through here. He has the power to heal, and is choosing not to for whatever reason, despite prayers and assurances... Also all the coughing has made my c-section area somewhat achy, which is a bit nerve-racking considering how much I want to try for a VBAC. And you can also pray for curtis and Josiah in this, as I can only imagine how wearisome it is on both of them to have me like this for such a long period of time. Not fun for anyone really.

PLOG:
My uncle came up with the word. Photo-blog...plog... :) so here's some photos for you from our recent photo shoot with our friend Michael Thiessen. This was between bouts of illness, in one of those "i'm almost better!" moments a couple weeks ago.

Happy 33 weeks today!

Pregnancy/Health News:
 
Today marks 33 weeks gestation in this pregnancy. December 27'th 2012 when Josiah was 33 weeks gestation, I was sitting in my Dr.'s office having my blood pressure taken for the third time in 30 minutes before my OBGYN said "sorry, it's just too high to send you home." (150/90). And I proceeded across the street to St. B where I was put on my first blood pressure meds, baby was monitored and I was admitted to the Antenatal home care program. This is where a nurse visits you daily or weekly depending on your needs, and you are required to do 4 blood pressure readings each day, agreeing to go into triage if your blood pressure is over 150/90.  

Long story short, today is the day I started bed rest for 3 weeks, going from zero meds to the max doses of three different blood pressure medications, gaining over 30 lbs of water weight, and getting to know all the doctors in my OBGYN's collective on an (almost) first-name basis from all the trips to triage...

Today my morning blood pressure reading was 122/77! :) Praise God! My evening reading was 122/80, equally as good! 

On the less-fortunate side, I am also sick with a cold, asthma, various spring allergies and some form of sinus infection. The cold, allergies and sinus infection all can't be treated due to pregnancy (and the fact that the safe-for-pregnancy antibiotics did nothing for my last sinus infection). I am also running on very little sleep, and I am on high doses of asthma meds, So the fact that my blood pressure readings are in-line is somewhat of a miracle (Asthma meds increase blood pressure). Actually, not somewhat, it IS a work of God. No question about it. People are praying, and God is working.  I'll take 2+ months of sickness if it means the blood pressure will stay in line!! Being sick has meant not gaining weight in over 8 weeks, which in my case, is a good thing, and likely has impacted the blood pressure concerns. Not to mention, all the coughing is strengthening my abs for the hopeful VBAC!

Still, being sick this long has been no walk in the park. Tuesday night I went into emergency because my asthma was so bad I couldnt properly catch my breath between coughing fits. They gave me the equivalent of 16 puffs of my rescue inhaler via nebuliser (a face-mask where you breath in a liquid form of the medication that has been misted...not super sexy, but it is quite effective!) 

the next day I went into my GP who increased my asthma meds yet again (6 doses/day of Symbicort200), and added a medicated nasal spray (who doesn't like stinky liquids squirted up their nose right!?). After a quick check with my Asthma specialist and OBGYN Things are good to go, and I'll be implementing these meds tomorrow... really hoping it does something, but mostly, I am really hoping people are praying for me, because I think that does more. I feel like I am under some kind of illness curse at times... I mean, really...8 weeks!?  It's a bit much...  

Other News:

Easter was fun! I made desert for our Harder gathering. Strawberry cupcakes with buttercream icing and melting-chocolate decorations! They were very fun to make, and I was actually about as close to disease-free as I have been for months, so they came together nicely and...clean-ly...

Josiah News:
Aside from learning how to change a diaper using wipes and pretend diaper cream on his teddy bear, Josiah has been enjoying the great outdoors with daddy, gramps and grammie.

This past week, Josiah and I made a painting for his room together! (well actually it was all josiah, I just did the bible verse part... and all the set up and clean up, and organizing etc...).
In a couple days, I'll try to post a "how-to" on my estrangednormality.blogspot.ca blog, for those who are intreagued into how to make real art with your toddlers! :) it was quite fun!

Josiah also got to watch "Dispicable me" 3 or 4 times this week... he actually speaks some parts along with the movie now, and falls when minions do. Its pretty cute! (Don't judge me! You'd be letting your kid watch TV too if you were pregnant and going on week 8 of illness! And its ever only once a day, and always balanced by outdoor time/another activity while watching the movie)

Krysta News:

But honestly, for the most part, our week looked something like this:

and this:

and...well its a good representation of my state-of-mind as much as my house...It's just been exhausting. The painting  was mostly a distraction from reality.

Curtis News:
Work has been very busy! Curtis has picked up an extra pair of helping hands temporarily to help with the load while one of his other guys is in school for level 1 of his papers.

Curtis has also been back-and-forth to Rosenort a couple times this week for a worship event he is playing drums for! Thankfully that is tonight, and then I'll have my husband back!! Curtis also did sound for Good friday, and drums for Easter Sunday at our church. Between practices and events, we have been ships passing in the night! I am very glad that he was able to participate in all of these things. They are encouraging and motivating for him and it's something other than work, to occupy that large brain of his!

Anyway, I think that is all for this time!

Welcome to our family news blog!

Way to go! you found our brand new family blog! This is where I am going to give you life-updates on things like:
-what josiah is ranting about these days
- how curtis's work is doing
- what we are keeping busy with
- new baby news
- prayer requests and praise reports
- etc...
BABY-NEWS
So to get things started, because some of you that I included in my initial invitation to "follow" this blog haven't been updated in a while, YES! we are pregnant! (i use the term "follow" loosely, since i have no clue how to actually follow a blog, but would instead, send you a quick e-mail whenever I have posted a new blog post). If you are one of the people that I TEXTED about this blog page, please send me an e-mail with your personal email address and let me know you would like to be kept informed!(Also, I would love your mailing address, birthday and anniversary date!)  I am due May 29'th with our second BOY. So far the pregnancy has been pretty smooth sailing. With Josiah I  had pre-eclampsia (extremely high blood pressure in pregnancy related to the placenta's attachment and formation...nothing can be done about it except a lot of drugs and then birth...exercise and diet play almost no role whatsoever). I was on bed rest for three weeks before things became too unsafe for me to carry Josiah any longer. They tried labor but we ended up with an emergency C-section at 36 weeks (4 weeks early) and a week-long hospital stay before him and I were both stable enough to be released. It was very traumatising for me and there were many issues in Josiah's first year that added to the enormous stress and eventual PTSD-like symptoms I was experiencing early on in his second year of life.

This background info is just to let you know that so far things are going better!! Far less swelling and weight gain so far which is a HUGE plus in the pre-eclampsia department. I am also monitoring my pressures daily since I had a bit of a scare at my 28 week appointment where my bloodpressure was 150/76 (top number way too high for that point). But after careful monitoring, my Doctor decided this was because I had taken my asthma inhaler right prior to my appointment... apparently that can raise blood pressure!! So with daily monitoring at various times of the day, my blood pressure seems to be hovering around the 110's-120's/70's, which is still a little on the high side for the average jo, but pretty fantastic for a pregnant me! Still, it's slowly creeping up into the 80's on the bottom number...150/90 is a magical blood pressure reading that means I have to go into the hospital and get put on meds, potentially be monitored overnight and do all kinds of fun testing... so REALLY hoping we dont get there!!

I would like to try for a VBAC this time around if possible (a natural delivery, after having had a c-section).  This can be risky because of the chance of "rupture" (where the incision tears, putting mom and baby at risk, and pretty much ruling out any future children by means of biological origins). It is also a risky decision because Josiah's heart-rate dipped with each contraction due to the issues with the placenta. This is not something we can know until the time of labor when I am being monitored...SO BASICALLY i have a 50/50 shot at a natural delivery, which would be better for baby and better for me, and sort-of set me free (mentally) from all the hul-a-baloo of Josiah's birth

JOSIAH NEWS:

Josiah is now 26 months and growing like a little weed (averaging a whopping 6'th percentile in the height department....meaning 94% of 26 month old children are taller than him! haha, he's my child...). He is LOVING anything that has cause-and-effect, or that can be taken appart or "figured out". He has my looks but his father's brain! Problem solving is one of his strong-suits right now, and we are so proud. He is also talking lots, putting words together, but mostly in his own language which sounds an aweful lot like German to me... just my interpretation haha!

He also has an enormous head, which bumps into everything, poor little guy. But he is generally in high spirits and is still quite an easy-going kid! He is definately two years old, and likes to throw tantrums, but he tends to throw tantrums while OBEYING what we have told him to do! Sort of an "I will obey but I DONT LIKE IT!!" kinda thing... hey! I can deal with that! :) I have a feeling it will all change when baby comes along since he is an extremely affectionate little boy both physically and emotionally. I think sharing me will be especially hard for him given these particular love languages of his.

My theory is, I had 9 months to get used to the idea of having two children to share my affections with, so he gets at least that long to figure out that this baby is staying and sharing his mom's time and energy... after that,  (and I know sibling rivalry is life-long) we'll start making some adjustments where needed I think...

CURTIS NEWS:
 Power Builders is getting quite busy! It was a slow winter for MANY trades, including construction framing, so that was difficult, but Curtis still managed to find work for his crew throughout the whole winter. They maybe had 5 or 6 days without work total scattered throughout the winter, which is a huge blessing for us and them! Curtis has lined up a long-term job working with another company called "LD Builders", to frame up one of the appartment buildings going up behind costco on Regent avenue! This is a huge blessing because it also means consistant wages, and that if this baby comes with complications, he will be able to flex his work hours a little bit more, leaving  one of his higher-ups in charge while he helps me as needed. It is a reassurance and a blessing that this job lined up to begin right when this baby is set to arrive! God's at work I tell you.

MY NEWS:
Not much... my life is stay-at-home-mom life, which comes day by day... so if you ask me today, I will tell you that Josiah poked me in the eye just now with a finger that required trimming... so thats super annoying! Easter has been an exciting time for me this year because I actually did a devotional plan to prepare my heart for the season. But you can read more about that on my spiritual blog, estrangednormality.blogspot.ca . I also took a cake decorating course in January/February (when it was only $10 instead of $50 through Michaels), following in my mother's footsteps for making extravegantly un-necessary cakes! :) hey why not! I'll have to make at least three birthday cakes every year for the rest of my life right!? It was fun, but I can say with honesty that I hate royal icing...with a passion... like... maybe when I've worked out more I'll enjoy it because you need to be ripped to pipe that stuff out thick enough to hold it's shape...

Well, that is all for now! Here are a few pictures from events of recent past to enjoy!

 Josiah's second birthday party with friends. Cake made by yours-truly!

 Josiah enjoying eating snow... white snow, not yellow, while playing with his cousins at his "grammie's house" (Curtis's mom)

 Josiah with "Grandma" (My mom) and the birthday cake she made for his family party

 Josiah revealing the gender of his brother-to-be

 Josiah and Grammie doing some "Cut cut cut" at the cabin

 Josiah and Curtis enjoying some quality tobogganning at the cabin with Josiah's cousins.

 Crafting with mommy

 Just a cute one... I had to throw it in... he actually hated tobogganning! Haha!

 and of course, our only photo of Harder #4 from my 20 week ultrasound! (32 weeks presently)

That is all for now (actually that was quite a lot...way to read it all! haha)