Rory's Upper Endoscopy and Partial Lower...

Rory had her scope today!

Our morning started early (4:30am early) and we hit the road by 5:30am. We needed to be at the BoysTown Research Hospital by 6:15 to check in and get all the paperwork started (there wasn't much but everyone needed bracelets). They took us back to Rory's room and she got some HUGE but sweet Bugs Bunny PJs and the nurse explained everything and had us sign some stuff saying we understood everything.

Then they gave Rory some meds to help her relax and possibly sleep before they actually put her under. They told us that she might be loopy and act odd, but that it was normal. I am still trying to get videos off my phone, but Rory sure was acting silly!! They say it takes 40 mintues for full effect, but she was out after about 20. The nurse brought play dough, coloring supplies and a few games to keep us occupied (other than PBS on the TV) while we waited. They had a sweet play room, but we opted to stay in our room since Rory got loopy pretty fast.

The childs rights lady came in and Rory got to pick what flavor of gas/mask she wanted (she picked bubble gum) and the color of the sticky tape for her IV. They they explained one more time what the scope would be like and that it would be pretty fast. Then anesthesiologist came in (really nice woman) an let us know that Rory would be put out with a gas first, then get her IV (which was good cause since the last time she was "poked" for blood she has had a thing about needles), and that she would be staying with her the whole time until she woke up. Rory was totally out already at this point and a few minutes later (8:15 right on schedule) the anesthesiologist came back and carried her back.

The wonderful nurse brought us all muffins (Rory couldn't eat this morning and so none of us did so she wouldn't get upset). And we waited.

About 17 minutes later Rory's GI Specialist came in and gave us a print out of the pictures of her insides!! lol. They scoped her throat, stomach, small intestines, and then part of her large intestines as well. He told us that visually everything looked really good, but the biopsies would give us a better "picture" as it were. He said if there is any inflammation in the tissue the biopsy would tell. They also took some samples to find out if she had any enzyme issues, especially since she was testing a bit malnourished. The Dr told us that everything went very well and that he would call with results in a week.

15 minutes later they brought me a grumpy and groggy girl. She had acquired a new stuffed puppy and once she was back in my lap she promptly went to sleep again. lol. She woke up pretty quickly at the mention of juice and drank almost the entire cup. The nurse was impressed, especially since she kept it all down, and brought in the discharge papers very shortly after that.

Rory and Mommy took a 3 hour nap as soon as we got home. :o)

We are super glad that it all went well. We are super proud of Rory for being such a trooper (I don't think she cried once the whole morning). We feel so very blessed to have had some of the best, and most caring Drs and nurses during this whole ordeal. We are super grateful to all our family and friends and their prayers on Rory's behalf. We are truly blessed to have all of you on our side. Most of all we want to thank our Heavenly Father for giving us peace of mind and the right people at the right time to help our daughter. Life is so much easier with the Lord's peace and help.

Thanks everyone! I will update with more normal things in a few days and of course when we get her results. If nothing obvious turns up the Dr did say that we should be heading to an allergist next.

It's a...

GIRL!!!!

We know them and love them!

Rory is 2!

I did mean to post this on her actual birthday. But this new baby is making my life very hard. I am still very sick with morning sickness, though the meds do help a bit. We are praying that things will be better very soon, but so far it is just coping with the symptoms. :o)

Rory turned 2 on the September 2nd! We had a little cake for her and it was super fun to sing to her and have her "get" what was going on. Best moment of the night?

(after Rory blew out the candles...)

Cady: "Rory what did you wish for?"

Rory: "Cake!"

Oh the simple things!

We have been so lucky to have Brady's parents come and visit us this past week! We have done some very fun things (no pictures on my end...sorry just not feeling up to all that) and I was very proud of myself for going out and braving the world despite the fact that I still want to toss my cookies most of the time. It was fun. Brady and I even got to go out on a movie date! We haven't done that in a long while!

I do want to say that my mom-in-law is wonderful! She pretty much cooked and cleaned the whole time she was here. It was very nice for me and I am soooo very glad that she was more than willing to help out. She is totally awesome and we love her so much!

We also took Rory in for her 2 year check up. She is getting taller! She was 93% for height!!!! Sadly she was only 3% for weight which was a HUGE difference. This is the first time she has been seen at the base clinic here and so I brought up my concerns. I'm not sure if I have ever posted about this here, so I will be cover everything now. Rory has had chronic diarrhea since she was about 11 months old. I'm not sure if she had some before that since she was still having the soft baby stools. In the last year she has only had THREE solid stools. Three. None of this seems to bother her, though she does get more rashes than Cady ever did (for obvious reasons). She also eats like crazy. She eats more than I do most days and we often joke that she eats like a 400 pound man. I spent a day calculating her calories a couple of months ago and she was getting close to 3000 calories in a day. 3000!!! And yet she only gained 3 pounds this year.

Her old Dr would just tell me it was toddler diarrhea and that it would go away. It's not. So I brought it up to her new Dr at her appointment. He was concerned, especially with how far apart her height and weight were. She is developing just fine in every other way (above average for a lot of things) and she doesn't show any signs of malnourishment, but we are thinking that is because of how much and how often she eats. The Dr decided to start with some screening and stool tests that would help us eliminate or focus in on one problem or another. He was very honest that this could be something very simple or it could be something very serious or it could be nothing at all. I am just glad to be looking into it and hopefully be getting some kind of answer.

So we have another appointment in two weeks for results. We were sent to the lab to have her blood drawn. Er...yeah. I was NOT looking forward to this. Then the lab tech tells me that she will have to come back a couple more times. HUH? Because she only weighs 22 pounds they can only take 10 milliliters of blood at a time. So the poor girl was going to have to get poked more than once so they can get enough for all the tests! Well it turns out I was worried for nothing. Rory is totally not bothered by having blood drawn. She has great veins like daddy, and despite her size they were able to find a "juciy one" (tech's words not mine!) right away. I bear hugged her and there was another tech to hold her arm straight and Rory just watched as they poked her and drew the blood. No crying. No fear. Just sat and watched. Crazy kid. :o) So at least I don't have to worry about the future blood draws! lol. As we were getting her taped up the Techs hand me a brown bag with all the tools for collecting her stool samples. I have to collect three stools in three different cups, I have to collect stool for a vial, and then I have to collect three different smears for the smear cards. Yeah. Thats like 7 different samples. Thankfully I was told the smears could come from the three cup stools (thank heavens). My problem now is how to collect these from her diaper since it's DIARRHEA and just absorbs. Saran-wrap is going to get me some, but I'm thinking that could be really leaky...ugg. They are just going to have to deal with what I can get I guess.

And I'm totally sorry that I pretty much just talked about poop for a whole paragraph.

Once those results come back we should know something! I hope anyway.

On to more interesting things. We are flying home to visit family and to have Rory's Birthday party this week! YAY! I can't wait. It will be so nice to see everyone again and catch up!

Thats pretty much all thats going on with us! I did put up a girl/boy poll for the new baby, so be sure to vote! We should be finding out sometime in October!! YAY!

We are still here...

Update time! I am still pretty sick but I have been given medication to help. It does for the most part. I am still very sensitive to smells and that has been a bit of a problem for everyone. There is a limited group of things that I can cook myself with out being sick about it. So far everyone is handling it pretty well though I know we are all ready for me to feel better so that life can be normal again. I really want to be a wife and mother again. Right now it is hit and miss, but I am happy to say that my family is taking very good care of me, especially Brady. He has been amazing through all of this. I can see how tired he is too, but he doesn't complain and he just keeps right on going. Just makes me love him even more than I already do.

The baby is doing just fine. My Doctor is excellent and I am very happy that I was assigned to him. He has just returned from deployment so I don't have to worry about him getting shipped off right in the middle of my pregnancy, and he is very nice and did everything to make me comfortable (well as comfortable as things can be...I'm sure that all you women who have yearly check-ups know how that goes). We got to see the baby and everything looks good. Good strong heart beat and was wiggling around like crazy. The baby was measuring a bit smaller than my dates (a week to be exact) but the Doctor decided to leave my due date as is since I am 100% sure of when my last period was. And a week really isn't that big of a deal since due dates are give or take two weeks anyway. He said we will re-evaluate at my my big ultrasound. I am really looking forward to getting well into my second trimester since that is usually when I feel better. Then I might really enjoy this miracle. :o) I would have picture of the baby to show you but the Doctor couldn't get the machine to print so we will have to wait till next time.

Other than that stuff things have been pretty boring here. Mostly I try really hard to keep the house from getting out of control and the kids busy and happy while I try to feel better. We are looking forward to a visit from grandma and grandpa in a couple of weeks and then a visit to Vegas after that!

Yuck.

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I have been having the worst morning sickness I have ever had in my life. It is horribly debilitating and I am exhausted on top of that. I am trying to still be a mom to my girls and hoping that everything is fine with the baby. I don't know anything yet because I have yet to see a doctor because the Military is exceptionally slow. I am really hoping that there is only ONE in there. I do have appointments scheduled finally and I am looking forward to getting some relief from these horrible symptoms. If you have been on facebook at all then you know that I have been trying everything under the sun and nothing seems to help for very long. I feel the worst for Brady though. He has been working long days and then picking up the slack at home as well. I know he is exhausted but he hasn't complained once and I am so grateful for him. He has made or picked up dinner every night for the last three weeks. He does laundry, changes sheets, gives baths, plays games, and brings me anything I ask for. I am so very lucky to have him but I really want to get back to doing my job!

Anyway, other than my all day sickness, things here are going well. We have planned a trip home at the end of September to celebrate Rory and Aidric's birthday's together again. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone and staying for a week. As of right now I am flying alone with both girls which could be interesting. They are excellent flyers which is very good. They both love planes and get beyond excited for take offs and landings, but I still have to get all of us in the airport, checked in, through security, and then on the plane by myself. All while getting dirty looks and snide remarks from other passengers for daring to bring two children on a plane with me. Should be super fun. :o)

Well thats all for now. I hope that everyone is having a great summer!

I traded dry heat for...

...flies. I have never seen more flies than I have in the two-ish weeks we have lived here. It is ridiculous. Every. Time. I open a door they invade and despite searching Walmart from top to bottom I haven't been able to find a fly swatter.

Thank goodness for Bonnie the Wonder Dog. By the end of every day, BTWD has found and annihilated every fly that has invaded my house. Not joking! She is fast and relentless. It's like cats with and a laser pointer! She stalks them and takes them out. It is for this reason alone that I can forgive her for peeing on the carpet a few times since we moved in. :o)

Other than the flies things are good. The girls and I are gradually adjusting to the time change (2 hours ahead of Vegas) and I am slowly unpacking the rest of our stuff as I go. Thankfully I haven't been sick with this pregnancy yet and I am holding out hope that I will get lucky and not be sick at all. It would be very nice.

So...PICTURES! I took some of the house and I am finally now getting them up. So here you go! (Please ignore the insane mess that is my house. #1 We just moved in, and #2 I have small children and a husband which make it always look like we just moved in.)

Below: Our living room with our new TV Stand/entertainment center (because our old one was broken in the move). It's beautiful. I know.

Our new couch. We left our old, broken down couch behind.

The rest of the living room including Cady and our insanely old recliner that still works like a dream. There is a powder/half bath to the right there and a under the stairs storage closet to the left.

My craft/brady's computer room and the dining room. Still lots of unpacking to do.

The Dining room and the door to the back yard. We had to get a new kitchen table. Our old one was round and it was impossible to get around it and open the door to the back or get to the kitchen...it was just crazy so my mom hauled the table and chairs back with her and we found this beauty at the Nebraska Furniture Mart. More on that later.

One half of the kitchen...

...and the other half.

The laundry room, which houses my furnace, ducting, and other stuff that I have no clue about...

...and it also houses my washer and dryer that we had to buy the day we moved in...cause the house didn't come with them...my mom and I put in the shelves on our own as well.

Upstairs we find the master bed room. This is easily the BIGGEST room in the house. It is insane how big it is. There is a closet with shelves in the room, a postage stamp of a bathroom and then a walk-in closet as well. Plenty of room for the new little one to share with us for a bit though.

Cady's room.

The view of the back yard from the spare room. I'll take more of the back yard later.

The spare bedroom...or the "we don't know where to put this stuff yet" room.

The kids/guest bathroom.

Rory's room.

And now for the best room in the house. There is a linen closet in the upstairs area as well as a little computer nook/desk. Next to the master there is another door. We were confused at first, but it is a...closet...with it's own window. Yeah. Really. It is at least 10 feet deep and 5 feet wide. My sister named it "Harry Potter's Nook" and I think I will stick with that. All the kids toys that we don't want crowding their rooms and the rest of the house are in here.

And thats about it for the house. We really like it, though I think the downstairs could be a bit better in layout. It will certainly do for the next two years at least. You will notice that we had to pick up a few pieces of new furniture. Not everything survived the move but thankfully everything that was important did. We get reimbursed for the stuff they moved that didn't make it so we didn't feel to bad about having to replace it. We got the TV stand, bookshelf and table and chairs at the Nebraska Furniture Mart. The Nebraska Furniture Mart is INSANE. They claim to be the biggest furniture outlet in the USA and I believe them. I thought Ikea was big. This place is like five Ikea's. No I am not kidding. There are at least five HUGE warehouses filled with furniture, electronics, computers, etc. We got really good deals on everything as well. They are very organized and have one whole warehouse dedicated to pickup. It was awesome. You can check them out online too. It's totally an experience.

We are gradually getting our bearings in the city as well. It's very green here and we don't have a sprinkler system. We had to get hoses and sprinklers and I have to remember to water the lawns, tree and flowers everyday. Well except the days it rains. Trash comes once a week and we have one whole can that is dedicated to "yard waste only." We had to buy a lawn mower. It's pretty awesome. :o) It got pretty hot today (100 degrees with some pretty crazy humidity) but for the most part it has been in the low 90s and 80s which feels like heaven to me after many a summer in Las Vegas. I have a feeling that I will be pretty cranky come winter though. Me and snow aren't exactly on "friendly" terms. Winter is gonna suck for me.

We are supposed to be here for at least two years, per Brady's orders, but we recently found out that most people in Brady's job end up here for a lot longer. So this could be our home for a good many years if we are lucky. I'm not looking forward to moving again anytime soon.

So far we really like it here in Nebraska. Well, minus the flies. The flies could go to...somewhere else. :o) Hope this post finds everyone happy and healthy and enjoying your summer!

Due March 2011