How we survived

Well the first week of school has come and gone.... even if it was only 3 days long...... and we survived! LOL!

Trevor did very well with all the new changes. Things still are not totally in place for him, but he is still doing better than I thought. He has a great teacher though, and I am utterly thrilled!!! He really likes her and says there are some funny kids in his class. That is about as positive as you can get with him. I hope in the next couple weeks we can get everything with his IEP in place and I can breathe a sigh of relief.

Jordan is doing good too. His biggest complaint? School is too long. LOL! I warned him that it's not anything like Kindergarten, but I think he had no idea what I was talking about until now. He is going to do fine though. He has already invited a friend from school to go Duck Hunting with him. I am not worried about him at all.

Josh. What to say about this one? He did awesome!! He loves school and even though he has only gone once last week and now today, his teacher said he was so good. The only thing she keeps saying to me is that he goes 110 mph and she has no idea how we keep up with him all the time. I told her I wonder that too. I wish she could see how much different he is now than he was a few months ago. If she only knew how lethargic and the lack of energy he has had in the past, she would be thrilled for us too. Sometimes I just wish people could see how much support it takes to keep him going. If they saw the 6 big boxes of supplies that come from Apria HealthCare every month, or the 6-8 times a month I go to the pharmacy every month to fill his meds, or even see 4 baskets lined on my counter for the 4 times a day he has to have meds, or the amount of bottles of formula I still make, or the stressing I go through daily counting calories for him....... and that is just to start with. He takes alot of behind the scenes support to keep him well and doing as good as he is. And we know all too well if any of this stuff slips, so does he. I am very happy that he is doing well, don't get me wrong. It's just sometimes it can be exhausting.

Now onto Scott.... he is finally getting better. He has been pretty sick for the last week and it's been hard on all of us. He has not felt well enough to play with the kids, or help me out much. So it is sooo good to have him back. I missed him!

And now for me and the pregnancy. I had another Endocrinology appt last friday. My fasting blood sugars are still high and it's liver related. Before he upps my insulin again I am doing a couple things at night to try and trick my liver. So far though, it hasn't helped. I might have to have some liver testing done soon. I have been having contractions as well. I think (well really hope) it was just because I was doing so much and going 100 mph last week. Scott wasn't able to help me so I was incredibly busy. I had to take Josh to school, take the kids to school, pick up the kids from school, do homework, lunches, bedtime routine, meds, ect. So I am looking forward to this week with Scott feeling better and able to do alot more. I am driving a carpool so I am adjusting my daily schedule to accommodate everything I have going on. My kids get picked up mon-thursday, Josh rides the bus mon, tues and thursday to school. I pick up the kids from school mon-thursday and then I take them on friday mornings as well as Josh. It is taking some time to get used to the carpooling schedule, but I am very happy with it and it is going to work great. I just hope that with what happened this weekend, I will be able to drive the carpool up until the baby comes. We'll have to see about that. I have an OB appt this thursday so if I can make it until then without having some bad contractions, I will see what she thinks, or if she is going to make me start taking meds. I just wanted everything to go very smoothly. Is it too much to ask??

So that is how our week went. I am so happy to have some time to just relax now that they are back in school and I know in the next coming weeks, things will just keep getting smoother. It's always rough to adjust to a new school year. I will keep the blog updated though!

Josh's First Day!

As I promised in my post yesterday for Jordan and Trevor's first day of school..... it is Josh's turn today.

So what does he get to do on the eve of his first day of school?


Spend time hooked up to machines! Aren't you jealous? He does his last feeding of the day right before bed, but now we have added back nebulizer treatments as well. Scott and Trevor are sick right now (hence why Scott looks sick) and so it begins..... the steps we take to try to prevent Josh from getting sick, and for his lungs to stay healthy.

Believe it or not, he was smiling in this picture. He just looks really drugged..... well because he was! Thank you Trazadone!

Here is my sweet boy this morning before we left. He was so excited to take his picture. I was amazed at how well he did.

When I picked him up from school his teacher, Miss Lonah, said he did awesome and didn't cry once. She did say he went about 110 mph the whole time and asked me how I keep up with him. I laughed. She has no idea.

We are all still adjusting to the new school schedule and trying to make everything work. It's so nice to have some structure going on for Trevor though. We both needed it.

I will do another post in a couple days to update on how school is going.

It finally started!!

School started today!!! WAHOOOOO!!!!!!!!! (no I am not THAT excited.)


Here are Trevor and Jordan on their first day of 1st and 3rd grade. Can you believe they are that old? Time sure does fly.

As I have already said before the kids are attending Good Foundations Academy, a charter school, this year. It's a brand new school and we are so excited to be able to have this chance. Since it is a new school, they did some special stuff this morning. They had Hill Air Force Base come do the Flag Ceremony, did a Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony with the Mayer of Riverdale and had police there. It was pretty cool.

This is how crowded it has been. Absolutely nuts!

This is the guy who was the driving force behind getting this school going. He gave a little talk this morning and I learned even more about how this school came about. Pretty interesting.

And of course... cutting the ribbon. While we were waiting for this to all start this morning, Trevor and Jordan could not get over how big the scissors were that they used. It was pretty funny.

And finally, as a little sidenote, I had to post a picture of Trevor's fish he caught at the Fish Farm with cub scouts on monday. He was so proud of his fish and even took this picture with my camera and took it to my mom's house to show it off. Made me giggle a little. So funny.

I will do a post tomorrow about Josh's first day of school. Can you believe my baby is going to preschool tomorrow? I can't!!!!

What we have been doing....

***Warning: May be a long post!******





I have been meaning to get this post done for about three days... but finally took the pictures and got it up tonight.



Here is some things that have been going on in our house.



First, we got a new Fish Tank. We had a 1.5 gallon tank with one fish in it. The pump/filter stopped working. Scott and I debated on whether to buy a 12 dollar pump for a 15 dollar fish tank for a few days. Finally we decided since Josh loves

fish so much, we upgraded to a 10 gallon tank and got more fish. Needless to say it has has been a hit and we see the 'fish' sign hundreds of times a day. It's been kinda fun for Scott and I. We have had to learn things about actual fish tanks, since they are much more involved than a tiny 1 gallon tank. But we are happy with it and it's been worth it.



So here is our tank. We have a Zebra Fish, 2 Red-Tailed Guppies, 3 Yellow Guppies and a Sucker Fish (Plecostamus).







This picture is blurry, but I was trying to get a picture of some of the fish. It's like taking pictures of kids... they never stop moving. LOL!




And now... the even bigger projects I have been doing.



After my last ultrasound that confirmed we were indeed having a girl, I have gotten started on the preparations. Both my sisters, Amy and Chantel, were so amazingly nice to offer me their baby clothes. Since we had to buy so many big items, I was willing to take all the help I could get. The clothes are adorable and I have had so much fun getting them ready. Here is what we have going on so far:




Here is her crib. The bedding is from my cousin, who lives in Kansas by the way. She shipped it out with her parents a few weeks ago and it made it's way to me. I was so excited to have it since it saved me lot's of money. Scott loves it alot since it's not pink. LOL.



Since Kaitlyn doesn't have a bedroom yet, her clothes are having to go into storage drawers. Good thing she won't care. Here is one with just newborn and 0-3 month size clothes.

Here is the drawers on the changing table that have onesies, hats and little things like that.

One more drawer cart that has burp cloths, socks and adorable shoes.

And here is Scott's amazing solution. I was trying to think of a way to not have to use the drawers in the changing table for things like diapers, wipes, lotion, ect. Since space for her stuff is at a premium. As we were wondering through the store a few nights ago, he went into a different aisle and came back with this to hang on the side of the changing table. Wahoo!!! Problem solved. Thanks Scott... you are helping me sooo much.

I bought her carseat last month, but just bought a cute pink carseat cover to keep her warm and dry when she is born. SO much fun!!! And here is also the bouncer that my friend Melissa gave to us. It's adorable as well.

And lastly... the swing. We can't survive without one of those! My friend Melissa gave that to me as well. She bought it for her son who hated it and so it didn't get used much. I am sure we will change that.

So between getting going on the baby stuff, getting ready for school... it has been absolutely crazy!!!

The week I had a dentist appt that did not go great and so I am looking at multiple appointments to solve the problem. I am very sore, but I had so much to get done I had a hard time finishing everything.

Trevor and Jordan's bedroom has been completely de-junked and all their too small clothes are finally packed away. Their school uniforms are washed and hanging in their closets. It was a half day project, but is DONE!!

Today was Josh's room. I bagged up two kitchen garbage bags full of clothes that are too small for him. My baby is getting so big!!!! I can't believe he has grown out of so many clothes. Granted a lot of them were 18 mos size and he is 3 after all. But I have bought him some new clothes for preschool this fall and I got those all ready to go.

So I think we are officially ready for school to start on the 25th. I am excited and can't wait to get back into the routine of it. I know it's going to be a tough year with the kids going to a new school, me being pregnant, soccer starting soon, and ect. But I am ready for it and the kids really need it. We will be fitting in weekly therapy for Trevor and Josh, Scouts, and endless dr. appt (for me and Josh). But I think it will just make the pregnancy go by that much faster. Wish me luck in surviving it all!!

Ultrasound and Baby news

I had my Targeted Ultrasound yesterday. That is where they do all the measurements, check the heart, make sure there aren't any problems ect. Everything looks perfect! The best news I can hear! I did ask specifically about the head size with the history Josh has with microcephaly.

And.....it is a girl for sure! I think even though I was told that last time it was a girl, I was still afraid it could change.

So it looks like I can breath a sigh of relief and get to planning!! We are going to name her Kaitlyn Margie Christensen. Her middle name is after Scott's Grandma. She is an amazing women and it will be such an honor to use her name.


That being said..... the pregnancy is going about how I figured, with some minor bumps along the way. When I went in today for my regular appointment, my blood pressure was 98/45. So a bit low. For now she thinks it is just the way my body is responding to the diabetes and sugar problems. I sure hope so. I get dizzy so much... not just a little, but like knock me off my feet and throw up. I am just going to watch the dizziness and other stuff and go back in if it gets worse. She'll just monitor it for now.

I saw the Endocrinologist last friday. He started me on insulin twice a day. At night I take a long acting to help with the fasting sugars, and just a short acting with breakfast since my morning ones were higher. But he did blood work and found I am way under doing the carb eating... I need to have 45 per meal and 15 per snack. So I started doing that and emailed him the results monday night. Big surprise that once I started eating more carbs (I was really cutting them out before because of the fear of high sugars), they skyrocketed. So now I added insulin for all meals and upped the insulin I was taking already. So far.... still high. I remember with Josh we never really got the fasting sugars in a great place. It has something to do with your liver producing sugars at night while you sleep and your body not using them since you are resting. Nothing I have any control over.

So it looks like for now..... the rollercoaster of blood testing and insulin is going wild. I hope by next week to have it going better. I will email him on friday with my last few days of levels and we'll go from there. I am just glad that I can do this by email and not keep having to go back. Small blessings.


As soon as I can get the pictures to scan from my ultrasound yesterday, I will get them posted.