Kitchen Counters

When we moved in it became quite clear that we would need to redo the kitchen counters. The problem wasn't so much the counters as it was the sink, and the sink was PART of the counters. The previous owners had remodeled the kitchen and put in Corian counters with the sink also Corian and not a separate piece. The sink is a split sink with the side that has the faucet and garbage disposal much smaller than the side we use for a drying rack. It is so much smaller that we can't even fit a plate in it, let alone a pot or pan. So in order to get the sink replaced it just made the most sense to do the counters as well since we would have to cut into them anyway.

We had the job quoted at the end of May, but wanted to let things settle down some more before we moved forward. So this week we finally had enough and the finances look good so we decided to get it scheduled. We are scheduled for the week of August 13th. I went to the granite distributor today and picked out what I wanted:

Its called Tropic Brown and I really liked the contrast it had with our cabinets and I think it will look good against our back splash as well.. As the project gets closer I'll post the before shots. I'm excited to get started! Only a few weeks away!

Baby's First Purchase

I almost forgot to share about my first purchase for baby #4 or as Chris is calling it, CK (Cincinnati Kid).

Once I have felt confident that things are on the right track and before we find if its a boy or a girl I like to buy at least one gender neutral piece of clothing for the baby, I've done this with Jake, Brenden, and Rylan as well. Just a little something that is just theirs. So today after lessons I ventured out to the Gap Clearance store in Kentucky, about 25 minutes away, to check out what they had. I was mainly going to see if I could find a couple of super cheap items of maternity wear to get me through the summer, but I also looked around at everything.

The place is nuts. Its all on racks just sorted by type of clothing and size. So in one area you have pants, another sweaters, and so on. The place was huge and I think the most expensive thing I saw was a coat for $20. Most items were under $10 and there were a ton of things for $1.99 or $0.99. I managed to find a pair of capri jeans that I thought would be good for cooler days this summer and into the fall, I found team logo shirts for the kids for super cheap, and I found baby's first purchase:

It was a whopping $3.99, gender neutral, and one of our favorite colors - Orange! I just loved it! And more importantly, I'm so happy that I felt comfortable enough to buy it :) Baby has his/her first non-hand-me-down item, and being #4 you know this kid will be wearing PLENTY of hand-me-downs. 

I'm still planning to buy the baby a crib blanket as well- I bought each of the kids a cotton crib blanket from Gymboree that they have all loved, even Jake still keeps his in his bed. Other than that I'll probably wait until we find out August 27th for what we're having before I buy anything else, which will probably just be the coming home from the hospital outfit.

As for the growing belly......Here's the most recent pic from a few days ago:

14w, 4d

I'm looking AND feeling large and in charge! The families I visited at Zones last week couldn't believe I was only 14 weeks, and I can't believe it either. I'm huge! It normally takes me until at least 20 weeks before I look this big! Chris told me when I came back from Zones that it was the first time I really looked pregnant to him during this pregnancy. I'm a little terrified of what I'm going to look like come December - Yikes!

WHAT A WEEK!

Life has been quite crazy since last Friday night. We've had some good, bad, and everything in between. I'll just take it all in order.

Last Friday night at bed I noticed I was spotting. Needless to say, I had a total melt down, full on sobbing and a TON of fear ran through me. I was just shy of 14 weeks last week and that is exactly how far along I was in January when I had some spotting and eventually found out that we had lost the baby. And being Friday I knew there was nothing I could do until Monday short of going to the ER. The good thing was I was  planning to go to Bloomington, IN for Zones to see my old team compete.

I left for the meet Saturday after my swim lessons and arrived in time to see the final 2 events of the day. My former team looked great and was qualifying divers to Nationals all over the place. I got a chance to judge one of the events, and of course I was the ref and there were all kinds of weird calls I had to make! I don't think I screwed anything up too bad, at least no one told me I did. That night I went to dinner with two of the families that I used to coach and had a great time catching up. Saturday I got to do some platform coaching which not only made me super happy, but my former divers were happy to have me back for the day as well :) And to keep me busy I filled in announcing for 2 events. It was a great time, just what I needed to keep my spirits up and keep my mind off what might be going on with me and/or the baby.

I got back to Cincinnati Sunday afternoon and had a nice time with Chris and the kids, but as soon as the kids were in bed and I was no longer distracted I was back to worrying and thinking of the worse case scenarios. I have the most wonderful husband who comforted me and kept reassuring me that everything was just fine.

So Monday morning I called the doctor as soon as the office opened and the wonderful office they are they got me in promptly at 1:30p that day. I saw Dr Z, who I had seen before and she was absolutely great. She did a full exam and everything looked great, the spotting had stopped and no signs remained, and the baby sounded perfect. She decided I should come back in 2 weeks instead of waiting until my next scheduled appointment which would have been 3 weeks and we scheduled my 20 week ultrasound for August 27th (Don't forget, you can make a guess about the baby on the link to your right).

So all ended up just fine, but with this constant anxiety that kept creeping up whether or not anything was going wrong I decided I would get a home fetal doppler machine. A friend of mine has one and recommended it and one of the doctors I had seen around 10 weeks had suggested getting one as well. I ordered one immediately Monday after the good appointment and it arrived Wednesday. The sound of that sweet baby's heart beat was so comforting and worth every penny. I have been using it at least twice a day since it has arrived. The baby's heartbeat has been great - between 120 and 160 bpm and usually around 140, just where it should be. After all that worry and anxiety everything ended up going from bad to good with a little extra piece of mind at the end :)

If you've been keeping up with this blog you know that 2 weeks ago Brenden had to have 7-8 stitches in his cheek. We had gotten the stitches taken out 5 days after it happened and everything seemed to be going well. As you can see from the below pictures it was healing great and it looked like it would be a minimal scar.

The day the stitches came out

Day 3 after stitches came out -
 you can barely see the scar!

Well that all changed on Wednesday when we were outside playing with the neighbors and I noticed the scar looked swollen. My neighbor agreed and I called the doctor and spoke with a nurse. Based on what I described to her they wanted him to come in immediately to find out if there was an abscess or other infection. Luckily I was able to get someone to cover my swim lessons and my fabulous neighbor was able to watch Jake and Rylan so I could get him to the doctor - I called at 4:30p and they could get him in at 5:20p and I was supposed to teach at 6p and Chris was out of town - THANK GOODNESS for Awesome neighbors and co-workers! The doctor was unable to determine if it was a simple infection that antibiotics would take care of or something more serious like an abscess that they would need to cut out. Regardless, the scar was now getting out of control and he would need to eventually be seen by a plastic surgeon to repair the damage being done by the infection. We started him on strong antibiotics that night and the doctors office would be calling the next day about getting him in with a plastic surgeon. I was instructed to keep a close eye on it and if it got any worse I would need to take him to the Children's ER to have it cut open and if the antibiotics didn't show any signs of improvement by Friday morning we would likely have to figure out how to get it cut open to have the infection removed. Here is what it looked like:

As you can see it was no longer a barely noticeable scar and a bump had formed and you could see there was puss on the inside - lovely, right? Thursday there was no noticeable change either way, but Friday when he got up he looked much better! The white "head" that had formed was gone and the swelling had gone down a lot. I was so relieved! We still need to have him looked at to fix the scar, but we don't have the added step of reopening the wound to cut anything out of it - HURRAY! However, later Friday night after his shower I noticed that the "head" looked like it was back. As I inspected closer it opened! YUCK! The good news though was the contents for lack of a better word came out cleanly and his scar looked almost back to normal. The infection was ready to leave without a trace. So now we wait to get into the plastic surgeon to see if the scar can be minimized more after this whole ordeal. Fun stuff for sure, don't you wish you could be me right now?

So as we left for the Doctor Wednesday evening there was a massive thunderstorm in our area. By the time I got to the doctor I looked like I had gone swimming in my clothes from the crazy rain. When Brenden and I returned home from the doctor and getting his prescription filled we discovered that shortly after we left the power in our neighborhood had gone out - sweet! One of the neighbors had heard it would be back on by 9pm, but that did NOT happen. So I was home alone with the kids with no power and my dad and brother were supposed to be coming to visit on Thursday. We were all up at 5am on Thursday still with no power and the estimates for it returning had been moved to FRIDAY - Again, sweet. My dad and Brother decided to come anyway and Chris decided to stay in Michigan one more night to finish closing up his office there. Luckily the estimates were wrong and the power ended up coming back around 1pm on Thursday, it's so good to know the power company has its shit together and can keep its consumers properly informed - can you sense the sarcasm? But whatever, we had a very nice visit from my Dad who left Friday morning and we are continuing to enjoy having Uncle Chris here until Monday. 

So hopefully after all the craziness this past week and really the month of July hopefully everything will settle down now. Jake is going to be leaving with my brother to go to Arizona for a visit with my mom. Then they will both fly back here on August 2nd so my Mom can stay with the kids and Chris and I can go to a wedding in Chicago. I am VERY much looking forward to having a couple days alone with Chris in Chicago to unwind from this crazy month!

A Few Additions to the Blog and Other Such Things

Have a look over to your right and you will see the pregnancy ticker with how many weeks and days along we are with Slevin. There is also a link to be able to make a guess as to when Slevin will arrive, whether it will be a boy or girl, its size, etc. A friend of mine had the guessing game up on her sight and I thought I would steal the idea to make things a bit more fun among family and friends as we await the arrival of #4. If you need a refresher about the first 3, here you go:

Jake - January 23, 2005 (9 days early), 3:19pm 7lb 6oz & 19.5 inches

Brenden - February 1, 2007 (14 days early), 1:45am, 6lb 11oz & 21.5 inches

Rylan - August 17, 2010 (19 days early), 6:12pm, 6lb 11oz & 20.5 inches

Looks like 6lb 11oz might be a good guess for the the weight! ;-)

As for everything else, I've been feeling ok. I'm still exhausted and having trouble sleeping, but it looks like there's not much I can do about it except hope it gets better on its own. I got the final results back from the early screen and my numbers were great - I went from 1/250 chances to 1/somewhere in the thousands chances of the baby being born with down syndrome or other complications. I had an appointment on Tuesday and I've gained 8 lbs so far - I want to eat everything in sight! It looks like this could be a Jake-like pregnancy where I gain around 45 lbs (*sweet*). The doctor and I decided to go the normal 4 weeks between appointments now since I have made it to the 2nd trimester and everything has been going well. If I start to have increased anxiety again I can always go in sooner. It looks like I won't have the big ultrasound until the last week of August or first week of September. I'm still up in the air with a lean toward a boy, but only time will tell! And last but not least, the lovely belly shot of my hugeness:

13 weeks, 4 days and feeling HUGE

 And a few pictures of my crazies :)

Rylan and her mop after nap

Brenden one day after stitches came out
He doesn't like the flash if you can't figure out why he looks like that :)

The Jakester  - Mr Photogenic as usual

4 hours in the ER

So while doing some work outside Brenden comes to the front door screaming that he is bleeding. Since Brenden is prone to bloody noses because of his allergies I assumed that was all it was and told him to go to the bathroom and I would meet him there. When I got to the bathroom I quickly realized when I saw the gash in his face that this was going to be much worse. Since Chris is out of town I needed to take all three kids to the ER. And to top it off, it was supposed to be nap time for Rylan.

What I saw when I arrived in the bathroom - It actually doesn't  look as bad in picture form

We got to the ER quickly, but everything after that was slow. We spent nearly 4 hours at the ER and most of that was spent waiting around. When they finally were able to see us we discovered that the laceration was all the way through his cheek. As it was explained to me, Brenden was running away from Jake and tripped in his room and hit is bunk bed. I'm not sure where he hit it, but my guess would be the corner of the stairs. The cut was extremely deep and he must have bit the inside of his cheek to make the hole through the cheek complete. Lovely.

Poor guy had to have lidocaine shots inside and outside of his mouth. It broke my heart and I think I was crying as much as he was. After his cheek went numb they gave him 7-8 stitches. They put 2 or 3 on the inner tissue of the outside of his cheek, 4 stitches on the outside to close it completely, and 1 on the inside to close that off. The inside should have gotten 1-2 more stitches, but the lidocaine didn't seem to completely work and Brenden was screaming so getting the one was nearly a miracle.

He is on a liquid diet for today and hopefully  back to real food tomorrow. The doctor was concerned about particles getting inside the cut in his mouth since they only did the one stitch. Hopefully it'll do some good healing tonight and close up quite a bit.

Waiting......

 Numbing stuff before the Dr really looked at it to see that he would need lidocaine shots

  

After 7-8 Stitches and a lot of tears :(

The silver lining of the day was Chris's parents arriving to stay with the kids this weekend so I can go to Michigan to have a small break, see friends, and eat all the Ann Arbor foods I've been craving. Also, Chris's dad brought my new car with him so I would have it for my trip. After the long day it certainly was a nice end :)

Lucky Number Slevin (aka The Cincinnati Kid)

I've been keeping this journal for the past several weeks as we started the journey with Eby Baby #4....again.


May 4, 2012
3w, 5d

Need I say more? So apparently I'm as fertile as they come. Just a few weeks after my most recent miscarriage we are pregnant again, the 7th time to be exact. As of now I'm just in shock. We really weren't "trying" this time, granted we weren't trying not to either. So far I'm already feeling nauseous, tired, and have serious pregnancy brain. I've already called the doctors office and am scheduled for a confirmation of pregnancy appointment on May 21st and they will call me Monday once they get the doctor's permission to have me come in for betas/progesterone testing. I'm now just trying to take it all in and just relax.

I had had a feeling that I might be pregnant when a couple of days ago I really noticed being dehydrated and feeling like I needed water immediately and haven't stopped drinking it since. And then for the past few days I've had some serious moments of feeling sick so today I decided to get a test and see. Now its just waiting to make sure everything is A-OK.

My initial instincts are telling me girl, but it might just be so I don't get my hopes up about a boy. I have always thought I would have 3 boys and I really do long for another boy. Don't get me wrong, I will be happy with a girl, all I really want is healthy and happy. I'm due somewhere around January 14th, different calculators have given me the 13th, 14th, and 15th so I guess I'll just stick with the middle date. The Ancient Chinese Gender chart says girl and so far it has said girl for Jake and Brenden and boy for Rylan. So who knows, that's still so far away and we still have a lot of hurdles to jump through before we can really think about that, but I'm sure I'll still obsess over it until I know for sure though :)

For now, we'll just think positive and have happy thoughts!

May 7, 2012

4w, 1d

So I've tested for 3 days in a row to see if the line is getting darker, my 3rd world version of Hcg testing. And it looks good to me! (At least that's what I'm hoping) I haven't heard back from the Doctor's office yet, but I just put in another call to see if they want me to come in for blood work. I don't mean to be a pest, but with my history I'm freaking a little and would like to have my levels tested ASAP for some peace of mind, no matter what the results. I just want to know. I've still been feeling quite crappy and I'm hoping that's a good sign, but until I get some scientific, from the doctor confirmation I know I'm going to be weary. Hopefully they'll call me back soon and I'll be able to get tested today or tomorrow. Fingers crossed and positive thoughts!

May 8, 2012
4w, 2d

Got the word from the Doctor yesterday that I could be tested and of course I was there an hour later. At 4pm today I finally got word back from the receptionist that my Hcg level was 202 and my Progesterone was 39. The Hcg is in the normal range for 4 weeks and the progesterone is nice and high, from what I have read it should be between 9 and 47. So I'm feeling a bit of relief, especially because I had a nightmare last night about a miscarriage and today I didn't feel as sick. I should be getting tested again tomorrow to see if the levels are doubling as they should be and tonight after dinner I thought I was going to be sick, a few more things that should keep my mind at ease. I'm pretty sure the next 2 months are going to feel like an eternity for me. Positive thoughts!

May 10, 2012
4w, 4d


Hcg level 464 - Wooooooooo Hooooooooooo! It doubled! I'm still nervous and I have a LOT of anxiety, but hearing that the levels doubled as they should is good news and it helps. The doctor has ordered for me to have an ultrasound at my first appointment. In order to get me in for the ultrasound and the appointment at the same time we moved my appointment to May 23rd, only 2 days later so I shouldn't freak too much :) I have butterflies in my stomach, things are good :) More Positive thoughts!

May 14, 2012
5w, 1d


I thought I would put up a belly picture - a little nicer than looking at my pee sticks ;) It doesn't look too bad in the picture, but when I look down it looks huge to me. I know its mainly just bloating, but its comforting to see it growing so soon :)

May 23, 2012

6w, 3d

Ultrasound day....I was very excited and VERY nervous. But it seems it was all for nothing :) We got a heartbeat and the baby measured at 6w, 2d. Since this pregnancy is directly after a miscarriage we didn't know for sure what the EDD was because I hadn't had a period yet (sorry if TMI) so the ultrasound was in part to have an accurate Due Date as well as check for viability. 6w, 2d puts me at a January 14th due date, which is what I had had initially. Even though this is all VERY good news I'm still an emotional wreck. With the pregnancy last fall I saw the baby at 8w, 1d  on an ultrasound so I know that a heartbeat is no guarantee that this pregnancy will make it. I'm still trying my best to think positively and the Doctor is being very considerate and having me back in 2 weeks to have a quick peak ultrasound and then back 2 weeks after that for fetal heartbeat without ultrasound. I think I can make it 2 weeks until the next appointment, I'm sure I'll still be anxiety ridden until then, but its better than waiting 4 weeks like what would normally happen, YAY for nice Doctors!

And here's my lovely belly pic:

The boobs are growing and I'm just looking really fat/bloated right now. This is by far the biggest I've looked this early, but I suppose that's what happens when you've been pregnant this many times. The past couple of days I've started feeling a lot more queasy and I've had an acid taste at the back of my throat almost constantly. This has been the most unique pregnancy by far, it has a few bits and pieces that I've gone through before, but for the most part it has been a lot of new stuff. I have absolutely NO IDEA if its a boy or girl. With Jake I was sure from the beginning, Brenden took me at least a month before I was sure, and Rylan I was in denial about - I had swore she was a boy and refused to believe the dream I had had that said otherwise and my symptoms were completely different from the boys. My symptoms are all over the place in terms of what I had with the boys and what I had with Rylan. I guess I'll just have keep in tune with my body and if I don't get any clear signs one way or the other I'll find out around 20 weeks at the big Ultrasound. Until then, positive thoughts!

June 4, 2012

8w, 1d

So I had some spotting over the weekend. It was really hardly anything and I probably wouldn't have thought anything of it had I not gone through the miscarriage in January. I was originally scheduled to go back to the doctor this Wednesday, but I called them this morning to see if they could get me in any earlier. Since Saturday night I haven't been able to relax or sleep or keep my mind from going to the worst case scenario. Fortunately they were able to get me in this afternoon and the Ultrasound tech was able to do a super quick look to see the heartbeat. Unfortunately, since it was a super quick look we couldn't listen or really see much of anything, just that there was a heartbeat. I really am happy that they got me in and that they were able to see the heartbeat again, but its so hard to find any piece of mind. The doctor just kept telling me that it was good that there was a heartbeat and that now my risk is down to 5% for a miscarriage....Well, I've already been in that 5% this year so it really doesn't make me feel any better. I don't want to get my hopes up because last time that I thought everything was good it wasn't and it was one of the hardest things I have ever had to deal with, I'm still not over it and I probably never will be....Seeing the heartbeat should give me a sense of joy and relief, but instead all I can think is what if it all goes wrong again? Even if this pregnancy goes smoothly with no problems I think I will always be a little afraid until delivery. Its hard to imagine that the best case scenario right now is another 30 weeks of anxiety and worry, but I'll take it over the worst case scenario any day.

So now we wait for another 2 weeks to go back. At that point we should hopefully be able to hear the heartbeat on the doppler. Until then I will do my best to be positive.

June 6, 2012

8w, 3d

I hadn't put a belly picture on for a couple of weeks so here it is:

A lot of the bloated stuff has gone away and now its just belly. I'm feeling pretty good as long as I keep food in me, but I'm not sleeping. At all. I find myself up until 2am a lot of nights, I'm sure its anxiety and not being able to quiet my brain down. I've tried Tylenol PM, but no luck and then I just feel really groggy the next morning. I'm hoping the doctor will be able to prescribe something like Ambien at my next appointment because I have GOT to start sleeping. Hopefully once we make it to the 2nd trimester I'll be able to relax a little more as well, but as I said before I think this anxiety is here to stay.

As for the boy or girl thoughts. When I was at the doctor's office Monday I had a vision of my giant pregnant belly and seeing the baby wiggle around and I just got a very strong boy vibe. I've found myself saying "he" or "him" when I'm thinking or talking to myself so I guess my instincts are boy - for the moment at least. Also, my pregnancy symptoms lately have been tending toward what I had with Jake and Brenden more than with Rylan. But as I learned with Rylan, you just never know. Happy and Positive thoughts no matter what it is!

June 18, 2012
10w, 1d

Lookin' about the same and feeling that way to. I think the belly has started to slow down a bit as most/all of the bloating seems to be gone. I had a doctor's appointment today and liked this doctor MUCH better than the last one. It turns out he is from Adrian and went to undergrad at U of M and med school at MSU so that was a nice little extra. And I told him about all of my anxiety and not sleeping and he told me I could come in as much as I wanted to check the fetal heart rate - I'll be going back in one week to take him up on this! He also suggested Benadryl for my allergy problems and sleep problems so tomorrow I'll buy some and give it a try, it can't possibly be any worse than what I've been dealing with now. We were able to find the heart beat on the doppler today - he checked twice to be certain it was baby and not me. The heart rate was 163 bpm and the little guy/girl seemed to be moving around a bit. I came away feeling MUCH better after this appointment. I'm sure the fact that I've made it past 9 weeks is part of that and this new doctor certainly helped as well. So I'll go back next week for a heart beat check and then on July 5th I'll have an ultrasound for a prenatal screening. And the next week I will be in my 14th week and on to the 2nd trimester. It still has felt like it has taken an eternity to get to this point, but its nice to feel like the next step is in sight. More positive thoughts!

June 26, 20120

11w, 2d

Another good doctors appointment yesterday. I saw another doctor again this time and liked her well enough. She was able to find the heart beat fairly easily. My heart did skip a beat when she started on the right side with no luck, but as soon as she switched over to the left side she found it immediately, 160 bpm and strong :) We decided that if the appointment went well then we would let the kids know. So while eating dinner we let the boys know (and Rylan, but really how much does a 22 month old understand/care?). And the boys were thrilled! They threw their hands in the air and cheered. We explained that this would mean Rylan would be sharing a room with Brenden for a bit and he didn't even care. He actually said that he has been lonely and would even share with the baby :) And of course Jake was happy that he would get to keep his room to himself. And Rylan always tries to get in the bottom bunk in Brenden's room so I don't think she'll mind too much, at least I hope so! Jake did ask what if this baby dies and we explained that that would be very sad, but we had waited to tell them until we felt good that this baby would make it and we wouldn't have to worry about that as much. It breaks my heart that the losses we have experienced have really affected Jake too, he's definitely our sensitive one. 

Next week I have an early screening that should include an ultrasound and if all goes well we will start sharing the news with everyone. Until then, happy and positive thoughts!

July 5, 2012

12w, 4d

Well I had my early screen today and everything looked great. The screen does an ultrasound to measure the fat behind the babies neck and compares that measurement to blood they take from me to see the risk of such things as Down Syndrome. I never had this done with the other kids, but since it's been bumpy year I thought I would get all the information I could with this one and it gave me the opportunity to have another ultrasound to see the little guy/girl. 

The doctor and ultrasound tech said the measurement was great and likely when they get my blood work back in a few days that I will have a low risk.The tech was able to get a lot of good images and the baby measured 13 weeks, 3 days ahead of the EDD. It was such a relief to see the baby moving around and I even had tears in my eyes throughout the ultrasound. It is a happy day.