Weight Loss Extravaganza....Week 1

Well....I did not lose much weight this week. (Little side note: I actually thought I gained weight, but I think I read the scale wrong the first time I weighed myself because I did not turn the light on and I did not have my glasses on. So I was shocked when I read the scale the second time and I saw a 7 instead of a 1!!! At least I'm hoping that I read the scale wrong because I don't think it is possible to gain six pounds in a matter of a couple of days.) I am blaming my lack of weight loss on my Mom. She not only bought a cheesecake from Olive Garden (mmmm, black tie mouse cake) and sent me home with four pieces, but she also baked her awesome chocolate chip cookies and gave us about two dozen! So yeah, I'm blaming her!! Way to be responsible for my actions I know. I did however do very good with getting some exercise. I walked almost everyday (with a pinch of jogging), did some videos online, and of course tons of abs. Unfortunately, the junk food killed me. So my goal for next week is to jog a little bit more and stop eating the junk food! I think I am actually going to keep a log so that I see how much I am eating.

So I am a little disappointed with my results this week, but it just shows me I need to work a little bit harder next week!!

Edited: I just weighed myself again...not because I am obsessed or anything but because I thought that I did a lot of work this week and the scale just had to be wrong. Well when I weighed myself again I was down a total of 2.5 pounds!!! So I'm counting it for the week!

She is a QT!

The Tater got her outfit for her recital on Thursday. Doesn't she make an adorable ballerina?

The outside time-out corner woes. This is what happens when your Mommy tells you THREE times to get out of the neighbors yard and you don't listen!

Because this view is much funnier then the one previously posted!

Missing: One adorable, sweet baby

Found: One Rambunctious Toddler!!!Exhibit A: Climbing out of his stroller.

I do not know what happened. One day I was holding this sweet little baby and the next thing I know someone switched him out with a much more active toddler. This toddler does not sit still, he is always on the go, always getting into something and always climbing! This toddler does not like to cuddle, or be rocked to sleep as he is quite independent. Seriously, what happened to my little baby? Has anyone seen him?


Zander had his 18 month (18 MONTH!!!!) well check today. He is looking good, weighing in at 25 lbs, 40% and standing at 34 1/2 inches, 93%.





Exhibit B: standing in the tub (full of water) with his clothes on!



Exhibit C: large bruises can be found on his body at all times!



Well, I guess he is kind of handy to have around the house. He loves using the sweeper, which cuts my cleaning time in half! His vocabulary is really exploding right now it is amazing to listen to some of the things he has to say! (I need to make a list because right now I can only thing of regulars like MOMMEEEEE!)
It is also amazing to see how different he is from Hannah at this age. You would think as busy as Alex is, he would not like to walk in the stroller. However, he loves going for walks and I can take him on looong walks without a single complaint. Hannah on the other hand used to hate going on walks. We would barely get down the street and she would start whining. I would have expected it to be the exact opposite. He is also more adventurous then she was, but he is more shy around new people then she was.

Exhibit D: Eating a bowl of frosting!

I guess I should have seen it coming, you blink and the next thing you know they are grown. However, I am begging here: whoever took my baby and replaced him with this man child, could you please return him to his MOMMEEEE! I miss him and would love to rock him to sleep just one last time.

Weight Loss Extravaganza!!!

So after watching the Spring into Summer Slimdown for two weeks I decided to join in the fun! Seriously, I had my baby 18 MONTHS AGO! and still have all of my baby weight hanging on with the death grip o'fat. I have been saying that I am going to do something about it and as a matter of fact I have. I have stopped buying soda, I try to drink more water, buy more fresh fruits and veggies, and some natural cereals etc. However, the one thing that I have not done is actually get off my bum and exercise. After reading a great post about obsessions that described exactly how I felt; how I get so mad at myself and obsess over losing weight but don't. I decided to actually do something about my fatness...like oh, I don't know, maybe exercise. My goal is to lose 20 lbs! I want to look good in my swimsuit this summer when we go on vacation to the OBX.
So after deciding to join I get out and scout a good route to walk/jog. I only had the boy, so it was an easy walk with a single stroller, however I still was so unmotivated! I got through about half of what I thought my route would be and kept thinking that was far enough and I should just head home. Seriously, I was walking and I wanted to stop! (I should interject that it was a face pace walk, not just your leisurely stroll) Obviously I have a bit of a motivation problem. I just kept pushing on and made myself keep going. I need to figure out what can motivate me to actually exercise this week. Maybe the fact that when I put on a pair of capri's from last summer they did not fit! How did that happen?
Anyway, I will be trying to figure out what will keep me going. Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated! Wish me luck. By the way, hop on over to the Baby Tea Leaves if you want to join in on the fun!

Hannah's Story

*The extremely long winded version*

Tony joined the Marine Corps in the summer of 2003 in the delayed entry program, meaning that he did not have to leave for boot camp until late November. He left the last week of November and his actual date of entry was December 2, 2003. A few weeks after he left I found out I was pregnant. This was a complete (wonderful) surprise. The problem was that the only form of communication I had with him was through letters. So I was faced with a choice, tell him in a letter, wait until he got home, or hope that he got a phone call on Christmas and tell him then. We got a five minute phone call in which I told him he was going to be a daddy!
The weeks went by, he graduated from boot camp in February and was home for 10 days before he had to got to MCT (Marine Combat Training). During that time my doctor did an early ultrasound so he could see the baby. At that time the doctor guessed she would be a girl. He left for MCT in NC and then headed to Missouri for his specialty training. Since Ft. Leonard Wood was only three hours from where my Dad lives I "moved" to my Dad's for about five months so I could be closer to my hubby.
Shortly after I got there I had my 20 week ultrasound. My step-mom actually worked at a OB/GYN office so I got a little special treatment. The doctor came in on a Saturday and did the ultrasound so Tony could be there. He spent at least thirty minutes with us, and even gave us a video copy of it! He confirmed that it was a girl and that was that.
At about 34 weeks I went for my doctor's appointment and was having a few problems. (I will spare some of the details here.) I was given a non-stress test and Hannah's heart-rate dropped pretty low during this. The doctor came running in and told me to roll onto my side. I did, it did not help. I rolled to the other side and it came back up. He told me the baby did not like me laying on my back. He also told me I was having some contractions and he wanted to monitor them. He very quickly sent me down to the hospital, I was hospitalized (the weekend of July 4th) to try to get the contractions to stop. Originally I was sharing a room, but when one of the doctor's saw that he simply said "This won't do. I'll get you your own room." Shortly after, I had my own room. (Did I mention I got special treatment?) I was given the wonderful Magnesium Sulfate...which gave me hot flashes, nausea and really was no fun! I was also not allowed to get up...pregnant lady + bedpan = no fun. Seriously can you just imagine trying to use a bedpan at 34 weeks? Anyway, I was sent home on Sunday on bed rest and was given a prescription to take every four hours to keep the contractions from coming back.
I started noticing that my contractions were coming back between the pills. I went back for my weekly appointment at 35 weeks and I was having contractions again. I was hospitalized and the doctor told me to be prepared to stay until I had the baby. Shortly after I was admitted the nurses started noticing that Hannah's heart rate was dropping after each contraction. They just said they would monitor it because for now it was fine. Then my membranes started leaking. Did I mention that she was breech? So, there was no way she was coming on naturally.
My step-mom contacted the red cross in order to get ahold of my husband. Even though he was only at school, during the day I had no way to get ahold of him. The red cross said they could not contact him because it was not a life threatening situation. To which my step-mom put the doctor on the phone and he told them that it WAS a life threatening situation any time anyone went into surgery. Not to mention that the baby was five weeks early and was experiencing fetal distress. So they called him around 1:00pm on Friday. His Sgt. would not let him leave until around 3:00.
Around 5:00 pm Tony still was not here and the doctor said we could not wait any longer. My Dad went into surgery with me. I was really amazed at how fast the surgery was! I could feel pressure, but tried not to think about what was going on. Then I felt the doctor pulling Hannah. He was really pulling hard, so hard in fact that I felt him pull me up off the table and I had really bad bruising around my incision a couple of days later. He finally got her out and she had the cord wrapped around her neck twice, which is why she was stuck. She was also not breathing. They whisked her over to the bassinet where I could not see her, but I saw the blue bag! I was so scared, I remember asking my Dad what was going on. I kept telling him to go check, but he said he didn't want to get in the way. After a few minutes she cried, then they whisked her away to the nursery. She was such a tiny baby, 5 lbs 11 oz and 17 3/4 inches long! (By the time we left she was only 5 lbs).
I went to recovery and on my way out, they stopped at the nursery so I could see Hannah. Just as they brought her out Tony walked around the corner. This was about 6:00 pm so he just missed her! Anyway, I remember how beautiful she was and how much blond hair she had! They took her back to the nursery and I did not get to see her until after 9:00 because they wanted to monitor her and make sure everything was ok.
The next morning my mom and Tony's parents arrived after driving all night from Ohio. Sometime that morning the pediatrician came in (when Tony was not in there) and said she noticed a problem. She said that Hannah's limbs were shorter than they should be, specifically the long bones. She also said that she was born early because when something is wrong this is how it is taken care of. (Although my Mom does not remember her saying that, she says that she said she was born early because she had something wrong.) Anyway, I was devastated that she would give me this kind of news, especially when my husband was not with me and then to say something rude like that. I have an entire different post about that. The rest of our stay was uneventful, except for the fact that Tony got food poisoning and was sick as a dog. We got sent home on Sunday the 11th and Tony had to head back to school that night.
The first week of her life she had so many tests. She had several blood tests, she had an MRI and she had jaundice so she had to stay under the light for the first week. The second blood test was a DNA test to check for the gene mutation in the FGFR3 gene. She was poked five times, including once in the head, before the doctor decided to do an arterial draw. That was not fun. The MRI came back normal and we had a few weeks to wait for the lab results. The DNA tests are 99% accurate for achondroplasia and 80% accurate for hypochondroplasia. The results said "No sequence change from normal" Hmm, what does that mean? The geneticist who ordered the blood tests had said that Hannah had very mild outward appearance of achondroplasia but she still thought it was achondroplasia rather than hypochondroplasia.
When she was five weeks old, Tony graduated from his school and we went back to Ohio for a few weeks. Then we moved to North Carolina which would be our home for the next three years. However, when she was six months old, Tony left for Iraq so we went back to Ohio for the seven months to be with family. During that time we went to the Cleveland Clinic to see a geneticist. He did a full skeletal survey and diagnosed Hannah with achondroplasia from that. He said he would like to find out more about what happened at John Hopkins, but we never heard back from him because by that time she was a year old and we were back in North Carolina.
Since then she has had no serious problems. It was just nice to have an official diagnosis so we knew what we were up against. We had already assumed it was achondroplasia and had researched it, and understood it but now it was official.
Looking back I feel like I was so uninformed, mostly by my own fault. After looking back over the results it now brings up questions that I should have asked back then. There are so many things that I should have been concerned about that I did not really know about. I was wearing my rose colored glasses thinking that everything was going to be ok. Which, up to this point it has and I am very thankful for that. It has taught me that I need to be more informed and I need to be prepared to ask questions to ensure that she is getting the care that she needs.

Be on the lookout for my "report" on what achondroplasia is.

Little Person BIG BED

The girl has been "sneaking" down at night and climbing into our bed. I say "sneaking" because we usually hear her, but just let her go. Last night when we went to bed this is what we saw. I had to laugh because compared to her the bed is so big and yet she is in the corner with her leg hanging over the side! Silly girl.
Apparently my kids like to take turns being sick. Hannah just finished taking antibiotics for a double ear infection yesterday and then Alex started getting fussy. So I took him to the doctor and he has another double ear infection. Geese this kid gets so many ear infections (you would think he was achon). Thankfully we are going to the ENT on Tuesday!

On a side note, I am having issues with blogger. I tried to comment on several blogs today and I kept getting an error message. So I'm not being antisocial, I'm just having issues with blogger. Is anyone else having problems? Kim you can add me. (Preston is such a cutie by the way!)

See, I am crazy!

I do not know what I was worried about! We met four amazing families and with so many beautiful kiddos to talk about, I was never in the corner by myself. We spent the majority of the time oohing and aahing over the children and chit-chatting. The kids were all beautiful, here are just a few of the many pictures I took. Unfortunately the older kids were busy running around so I did not take any pictures of he AH kids. First meet the infamous Knoah! Just look at that grin...doesn't it just say "TROUBLE?"
We also met the beautiful Kaela! She is the prettiest little girl with beautiful blue eyes and the sweetest personality.

Here is the handsome Owen. He was the big man, showing off all of his tricks! Look at that adorable face. He reminded us so much of Hannah at that age (except for the fact that he was a boy and didn't really look like her!)

Next up is Aidan, whose Mommy does not have a blog! Just look at those adorable blue eyes. Owen and Aidan both have gorgeous red hair...they almost look like they could be related.

We tried to get the kids all together, I did not have much luck on my end maybe one of the other moms got a better picture. The poor kids had so many cameras flashing at them, they probably were getting tired of it by this point.

Here are all of the Mommies with our beautiful children. From left to right, is Sarah and Kaela, Sue and Aidan, Me and Hannah, bottom: Cat and Owen and Tonya and Knoah.

We had so much fun playing with all the kids and my Hannah absolutely fell in love with Tonya's Hannah! She was still talking about her right before bed. I am so glad we got the chance to meet so many amazing people, thanks Tonya for getting everybody together.

Nerves

If you know me, you probably know that I am pretty shy. When I first meet somebody I tend to come across as being either a snob or a big dork because I am so shy. Don't get me wrong, once I get to know a person it is hard to get me to shut-up. It is that initial awkward phase that I hate. I hate being in large social settings, I hate meeting new people and I hate being the center of attention. I get anxious and worry about every little detail. In fact I even get anxious about simple things...my husband orders the pizza's around here! Sometimes I just want to stay inside so I don't have to meet new people.
I am telling you this because we are meeting a bunch of new people tomorrow and I have been on edge about it all day long. We are going up to Monroe to meet with four other families that also have children with achondroplasia. While I am excited to meet people who are in the same situation as us, I am still as nervous as all get out.
What should I wear? Man I look HUGE in everything, I really need to get serious about losing this weight! What if they don't like me? What if my pies are no good? (Did I mention that I am taking pies?) What if my kids misbehave? What if I have nothing to talk about and I end up alone in the corner?
Seriously people, these are the types of things that have been running through my head all day long. Is this normal? Am I some sort of recluse that should move up to the mountains and stay in a secluded cabin? What has happened to me that I have become such a shy person? Where has all of this fear come from?