Happy Thanksgiving. Okay, so I'm a little bit "feast or famine" when it comes to blogging and checking my e-mail. You'll get over it I'm sure. I just have to share.
Wow. I got to get this off my back. I read today in the newspaper about an employee for Walmart that got trampled and KILLED when he was opening up the store for black friday. This happened in New York by Manhatten. Warning to Regan/Jacob Breinholt :). A few other people got trampled, including a pregnant woman, 8 months along. So get this....when the people were asked to leave the store because of the death.....they yelled that they had been waiting since thursday morning to shop and wouldn't leave.
How sad is that? How do we get so consumed by being consumers that we become inhumane? Like, what were they thinking? Just step over the dead man...I gotta get a DVD player for cheap. I personally have only once done black friday shopping. I felt that crazy frenzied feeling that comes. It is totally irrational. But the anxiety is there. You feel this shallow urgent need to find the item your looking for and the feeling that your missing out on some great deal.
But there really are no NEEDS, only WANTS, when it comes to Black Friday shopping. It's not like we are hunting for food and shelter. I get it...those cave man instincts kick in and the adrenaline is pumping. But still.... seriously, wouldn't you help someone up if they fell down? Even during crazy concerts that I've been to, people help people get up if they fall down. How ironic that a time of "Thanksgiving" has become a time of Getting and Consuming.
I would rather sleep-in instead of saving $10 on a DVD that I'll watch 2 times or at least shop online for the same deal. I don't like that materialist shallow anxiety feeling that Black Friday induces. It's like the Black Friday flu epidemic that effects a nation. The Black Friday plague. I'm thinking we may need to immunize for the next plague of 2009 to prevent further deaths. Maybe I'll start a foundation. SAVE THE TRAMPLED PEOPLE! IMMUNIZE BY 2009 AMERICA!
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Court Finalization
We got a letter from the prosecutor a few days after court. Sherry's foster daughters were flaky with their testimonies. And I'm sure their attitude, I hate judges and court, didn't help. So they gave the kid, that scratched up both our cars and didn't show up for court, the benefit of the doubt. We lost.
I Am Perfect For Boys
2 Days Before Baby Richards BirthdayDialogue
Me: Katrina lets hurry and get your home work done so that we can get to your play date. It's with a 2nd grader.
Katrina: Oh.... is it a boy or a girl.
Me: A boy.
Katrina: Oh good.....I am perfect for boys.
Wow, no self esteem issues there.
Me: Oh really.
Katrina: Except Ismael...."Si."
(Ishmael is the boy that lives a couple houses down-we call him her Latin lover-she gets frustrated because they only speak Spanish at his house-which explains the exasperated "si")
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Scooters Don't Belong on Cars
At a halloween party a year ago some kids decided it would be hopping killer to ride their razer scooters on some cars in the parking lot. Well, both of our cars became stunt props along with half a dozen other cars. Needless to say both of our cars have had scratched-up hoods and roofs for a year. I noticed the scratches when I came out of the party. I asked around about it and was directed to three boys. Spencer and his Dad pursued them by car, it was very exciting, when they fled the crime scene. They detained them until the police came.
One of the boys was crying his eyes out. I felt bad for him. In Spanish he said his Dad was going to kill him and that he didn't want to get deported because his Mom was a police officer and it wasn't safe in the country they came from. Another boy's father had recently died. I wonder if he saw the families together at this party and became angry thus taking it out on the cars in the church parking lot. I felt bad for them, sometimes kids just don't think. But we had over $1600 of damage to our cars. One kid got charged (maybe the other kids got deported, who knows?) but get this....the KID PLED INNOCENT. There goes all my empathy out the window.
So yesterday, the justice system is a little slow, Spencer was court ordered, as a witness, to attend the hearing for the one kid. My mother-in-law and I know the juvenile court judge well because she was the judge for a lot of our foster daughters. I was hoping she would recognize Spencer's last name. But not much happened because...get this....the KID DIDN'T SHOW UP. So they are setting another date. Hopefully within the next decade!
So REMEMBER kids, we ride IN, not ON, cars! Give me a call, I'll give you a ride to the skate park.
Bad News
I'm kinda sad today. Yesterday, I found out I have a bad heart valve. I went in to my OBGYN yesterday to followup on the ER visit from last friday. Dr Wolsey said I had a heart murmur. Which was a surprise. So he paiged the cardiologist on-call and they got me in right-away for a echocardiogram. The echocardiogram showed water on the lungs and the leaking heart valve. Dr Carter the cardiologist said the leak looked like something you would see in an old Grandma. So I'm thinking, "Great I have a grandma heart." The Doctors have talked about going on a diaretic to clear out the fluids in my lungs but that would dry up my milk so we are going to wait it out and just deal with the symptoms.
So the shortness of breath and heaviness in my throat when I lay down is from the leak. The leak wasn't caused by my pregnancy, the symptoms just brought the leak to our attention. Valve leaks are from a serious infection or your born with it. In high school when I was on the swim team, I had a stress test done, I was told the chest pain was just inflammation in my chest and to eat more salt. So all these years when I've been having chest pains, I thought it was anxiety or the costochondritis-inflammation in the cartilage. My question is why did it take 31 years for someone to hear the murmur? Weird.
I've been athletic and very active my whole life with the exception of pregnancy. Maybe this pregnancy just weakened my heart enough for the murmur to show up?
Until my next appointment with the cardiologist, in 2 weeks, I'm to work-up-to 30 minutes of walking. THIRTY MINUTES. That is PATHETIC, I'm 31 freaking years old! I did a triathlon 1 1/2 years ago, now I'm working on being able to walk 30 minutes. I guess I should be patient, take it slowly. But did I mention I'm only 31! Sorry a little sarcasm there. Now I'm done complaining I'll move on.
So the shortness of breath and heaviness in my throat when I lay down is from the leak. The leak wasn't caused by my pregnancy, the symptoms just brought the leak to our attention. Valve leaks are from a serious infection or your born with it. In high school when I was on the swim team, I had a stress test done, I was told the chest pain was just inflammation in my chest and to eat more salt. So all these years when I've been having chest pains, I thought it was anxiety or the costochondritis-inflammation in the cartilage. My question is why did it take 31 years for someone to hear the murmur? Weird.
I've been athletic and very active my whole life with the exception of pregnancy. Maybe this pregnancy just weakened my heart enough for the murmur to show up?
Until my next appointment with the cardiologist, in 2 weeks, I'm to work-up-to 30 minutes of walking. THIRTY MINUTES. That is PATHETIC, I'm 31 freaking years old! I did a triathlon 1 1/2 years ago, now I'm working on being able to walk 30 minutes. I guess I should be patient, take it slowly. But did I mention I'm only 31! Sorry a little sarcasm there. Now I'm done complaining I'll move on.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Update...
Help! Does anyone know how to rotate pics on while composing blog after Image is loaded?We spent half the day yesterday in the E.R. I was having breathing problems and chest pains. After having a EKG, X-ray, and CT scan we decided I wasn't going to die-no heart attack or blood clots. My blood pressure was high (it is usually really low) and I had a little water in my lungs. My body has a lot of water retention and it is settling in my lungs. They don't want to give me diuretics to reduce the water because it will dry up my milk. I have a head cold and plugged milk duct. Hopefully my OBGYN can give me a little more insight on Monday. It would be nice to be able to breath, heheheh.
Yesterday, baby Richard's billiruben levels spicked from 11 to 18 over night so now he is in a billiruben bed. Which means I can't hold him. :( Jaundice sucks!
Warning: Contains words like Cervix and Uterus
Richard Oliver Musick’s Birth Story
Let me start by saying that I am so in love with this kid. Perhaps the difficult sacrifices we made to get him here attached me more deeply to this little 
person I just met. I can’t stop staring at his beautiful happy face.
Richard was conceived around Valentines’ Day, a love baby. It took every ounce of faith and courage I had to get pregnant again. I get pregnant embarrassingly easy but then have difficult pregnancies. Our babies have consecutively come earlier, with our last being pre-mature. Before getting pregnant I get depressed anticipating the sickness and loss of independence.
I had morning sickness up until about 7 months along. The nausea was significantly less at about five months and Zofran helps take the edge off the nausea. Along with nausea comes the urinary tract problems associated with dehydration. I managed to have few infections this time but had frequent bladder spasms due to all the irritation and scaring of past infections triggered by dehydration. At 20 weeks we went into Labor and Delivery because I was having contractions about 4 minutes apart. The next day we went in again and I was given Brethine to relax the contractions. I was told I had an irritable uterus (maybe caused because with Cynthia the placenta wouldn’t detach after delivery so the uterus had to be scraped) and would have to take it easy for the rest of the pregnancy. I couldn’t stand more than five minutes without triggering frequent contractions.
The ward helped us out for a few weeks with meals and babysitting and then that is when my angel of a Mother rescued me and became a frequent visitor to our house. After applying for a genealogical mission, the church misplaced her papers. Just about this time Taryn my sister-in-law and I found out we were pregnant and I went onto bed-rest. I don’t think it was an accident that she wasn’t given the calling because the Lord had another calling for her; to help my family. She had just had reconstructive surgery done for her double mastectomy and she was taking care of me. I remember her scraping out the mud in our gutters just 2 weeks after surgery. The kids love hanging out with “Grandma Lacey” (distinguished from other grandmas because of her Australian Sheppard- Lacey dog). She makes house chores fun and entertaining. I could never repay her for all she has done and given us. She lifted my spirit on hard days and gave me hope. It was the faith of her and others prayers that brought Richard full term and healthy.
At 30 weeks I started having painful contractions. Usually, between 12 and 2 AM. I learned that the only difference between false-labor and real-labor was that with one of them you ended up with a baby; equal in painfulness. After going to the hospital two more times I was given a prescription for Nortriptaline or Brethine to relax the uterus. The medication made me shake I felt like I was having panic attacks twelve hours after taking the medication. In general I have just hurt a lot. At 36 week we went to the hospital, after five hours of nauseatingly painful contractions, and then went home with no baby. We thought that when I went off the medication at 37 weeks we would soon have a baby. But to our surprise the hours of contractions stopped occurring.
It you know me, I’m independent and active, so being down for so long was REALLY hard. Four months of bed-rest gave me a chance to read a lot of books, learn to accept service from others (become more dependent), re-evaluate the important things in life, simplify my life and gave me time to think about deep gospel principles. Spencer has taken on the role of mother and father, he has been so kind and patient through the whole ordeal.
I was induced on November 10, my due date (or one week before my ultrasound due date). On the morning of Monday, November 10, we were schedule to be induced but had to wait until 10:00 pm because there was “no room in the Inn” or UVRMC. The storm had triggered labor in a lot of women so we had to wait for an opening. I was extremely anxious to “be done.” It was hard on my self esteem to have gained over 50 pounds. I snacked to keep the nausea at bay and sat on the couch for 4 months of bed-rest. I have lost significant amounts of muscle and find simple things exhausting. It’s going to be a lot of work to get back into shape, but he is so worth it.
Labor went slowly, after hours of maximum amounts of oxytocin (pitocin), my cervix was only dilated to a 4+. The contractions were painful so I was given a painkiller called Nubain into my IV, it felt fabulous. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been without pain. I had forgotten that you could actually live without pain. Life could be pleasant and void of restless leg syndrome, nausea, hip, and contraction pain. It’s funny that I had to go into real labor to be pain free.
I told the nurses that if they would break my water things would advance quickly and it did. I had the epidural put in and was ready to push in less than 2 hours. After the amniotic fluid was gone Richard’s heart rate dropped with every contraction. So they pumped saline solution back into the uterus and put a monitor on his head. With the other kids I did very little pushing. But Richard was posterior for most of the pushing and has a huge head. So the pushing part of the labor was difficult and long. I’m sure 4 months of bed-rest didn’t help my pushing strength.
person I just met. I can’t stop staring at his beautiful happy face.Richard was conceived around Valentines’ Day, a love baby. It took every ounce of faith and courage I had to get pregnant again. I get pregnant embarrassingly easy but then have difficult pregnancies. Our babies have consecutively come earlier, with our last being pre-mature. Before getting pregnant I get depressed anticipating the sickness and loss of independence.
I had morning sickness up until about 7 months along. The nausea was significantly less at about five months and Zofran helps take the edge off the nausea. Along with nausea comes the urinary tract problems associated with dehydration. I managed to have few infections this time but had frequent bladder spasms due to all the irritation and scaring of past infections triggered by dehydration. At 20 weeks we went into Labor and Delivery because I was having contractions about 4 minutes apart. The next day we went in again and I was given Brethine to relax the contractions. I was told I had an irritable uterus (maybe caused because with Cynthia the placenta wouldn’t detach after delivery so the uterus had to be scraped) and would have to take it easy for the rest of the pregnancy. I couldn’t stand more than five minutes without triggering frequent contractions.
The ward helped us out for a few weeks with meals and babysitting and then that is when my angel of a Mother rescued me and became a frequent visitor to our house. After applying for a genealogical mission, the church misplaced her papers. Just about this time Taryn my sister-in-law and I found out we were pregnant and I went onto bed-rest. I don’t think it was an accident that she wasn’t given the calling because the Lord had another calling for her; to help my family. She had just had reconstructive surgery done for her double mastectomy and she was taking care of me. I remember her scraping out the mud in our gutters just 2 weeks after surgery. The kids love hanging out with “Grandma Lacey” (distinguished from other grandmas because of her Australian Sheppard- Lacey dog). She makes house chores fun and entertaining. I could never repay her for all she has done and given us. She lifted my spirit on hard days and gave me hope. It was the faith of her and others prayers that brought Richard full term and healthy.
At 30 weeks I started having painful contractions. Usually, between 12 and 2 AM. I learned that the only difference between false-labor and real-labor was that with one of them you ended up with a baby; equal in painfulness. After going to the hospital two more times I was given a prescription for Nortriptaline or Brethine to relax the uterus. The medication made me shake I felt like I was having panic attacks twelve hours after taking the medication. In general I have just hurt a lot. At 36 week we went to the hospital, after five hours of nauseatingly painful contractions, and then went home with no baby. We thought that when I went off the medication at 37 weeks we would soon have a baby. But to our surprise the hours of contractions stopped occurring.
It you know me, I’m independent and active, so being down for so long was REALLY hard. Four months of bed-rest gave me a chance to read a lot of books, learn to accept service from others (become more dependent), re-evaluate the important things in life, simplify my life and gave me time to think about deep gospel principles. Spencer has taken on the role of mother and father, he has been so kind and patient through the whole ordeal.
I was induced on November 10, my due date (or one week before my ultrasound due date). On the morning of Monday, November 10, we were schedule to be induced but had to wait until 10:00 pm because there was “no room in the Inn” or UVRMC. The storm had triggered labor in a lot of women so we had to wait for an opening. I was extremely anxious to “be done.” It was hard on my self esteem to have gained over 50 pounds. I snacked to keep the nausea at bay and sat on the couch for 4 months of bed-rest. I have lost significant amounts of muscle and find simple things exhausting. It’s going to be a lot of work to get back into shape, but he is so worth it.
Labor went slowly, after hours of maximum amounts of oxytocin (pitocin), my cervix was only dilated to a 4+. The contractions were painful so I was given a painkiller called Nubain into my IV, it felt fabulous. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been without pain. I had forgotten that you could actually live without pain. Life could be pleasant and void of restless leg syndrome, nausea, hip, and contraction pain. It’s funny that I had to go into real labor to be pain free.
I told the nurses that if they would break my water things would advance quickly and it did. I had the epidural put in and was ready to push in less than 2 hours. After the amniotic fluid was gone Richard’s heart rate dropped with every contraction. So they pumped saline solution back into the uterus and put a monitor on his head. With the other kids I did very little pushing. But Richard was posterior for most of the pushing and has a huge head. So the pushing part of the labor was difficult and long. I’m sure 4 months of bed-rest didn’t help my pushing strength.
On Nov 11th Veterans Day at 7:50 AM, 10 hours of labor, Richard came out and screamed for a long time. The nurses asked if our other kids cried like that, they weren’t. He weighed 8 pounds 1 oz and 20 inches long. He seemed huge to Spencer and I. He had a double chin, flattened nose and thick chest. When I first saw him I started crying. I tried not to bawl because it made my stomach shake while Dr Wolsey was still working on me. After being cleaned up Richard nursed like a pro and finally stopped crying.
We were in our room waiting for Richard to return from the nursery when we heard a baby screaming. I said, “Here comes Richard.” Sure enough it was our baby. We were worried that this was a fore shadow of the next six months. We joked that baby Richard took after Grandpa Richard—Grumpy. But now that we have got to know baby Richard we know that he is super good natured. They say that newborns can’t smile. But this sweet babe has the happiest face. He smiles all the time as if to say, “I got a body and get to be a part of this family.” I cry all the time when I think about him. The last nine months have been hell but he is worth it. Like I said before, I am so in love with him.
We were in our room waiting for Richard to return from the nursery when we heard a baby screaming. I said, “Here comes Richard.” Sure enough it was our baby. We were worried that this was a fore shadow of the next six months. We joked that baby Richard took after Grandpa Richard—Grumpy. But now that we have got to know baby Richard we know that he is super good natured. They say that newborns can’t smile. But this sweet babe has the happiest face. He smiles all the time as if to say, “I got a body and get to be a part of this family.” I cry all the time when I think about him. The last nine months have been hell but he is worth it. Like I said before, I am so in love with him.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Barefoot and Pregnant
Spencer told me that if I was still pregnant on Halloween, he was going to dress up as me. I said, "There is no way I will still be pregnant on Halloween." Well....I was wrong. He painted his fingernails, wore my jewelry, makeup, and dress, bought women's shoes from D.I. (which he didn't wear most of the day because of swollen feet) and a wig, and stuffed his chest and stomach. He got second place at his work party and was awarded 75$. My cute cross-dressing husband was called to be the first counselor in the Elders Quorum of our ward the next day.
I Got Gum!
In the spirit of Halloween we put paper pumpkins in the window that Grandma Lacey (Thomsen) picked up for us. We waited to get adhesive tacky puddy to hang them up so as to prevent tape goop on the windows. The day after we hung the pumpkins in the windows with the yellow tacky puddy I noticed that all the pumpkins half way up the window were gone. I found a them stashed behind the couch. I laughed and went to put them up again but couldn't because all the puddy was gone. Then the aroma of stinky bum distracted me. While changing Cynthia's diaper I noticed she was chewing on something. I asked her what she was eating, she replied, "I got gum." Sure enough, Alex and Cynthia had no flavor, non-toxic, yellow, HandiTak chewing gum.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
