Primitive Camping While Pregnant..

This weekend Adam had a long weekend and I knew I wanted to go to the beach. We only live 2-3 hours from the beach and pretty soon we will be having a BIG change of scenery so I want to enjoy the beach life as much as possible. So I had to decide WHICH beach. We have so many beaches to choose from. I knew I didn't want to go to Myrtle, nothing against myrtle beaches BUT we have already been to Myrtle 4 times and I wanted to experience a different beach. So I ended up picking the Wilmington area. A lot of people recommended some places to stay and one of them was a camp ground. Now I know what your thinking. I was thinking the same thing. Camping at 32 1/2 weeks pregnant....... ARE YOU CRAZY? Ummm... Maybe.. Just a little. BUT I kept looking for hotels just in case I found one for a decent price. Every day I kept going back to the camp grounds and looking more into camping. Brett has been begging to go camping so I thought it'd be perfect to do camping and the beach at the same time. So I brought it up to Adam and we decided to do the camping and beach. And we planned our weekend at Fort Fisher camping grounds and Kure Beach.

I did LOTS of research and I mean LOTS!! What to eat while camping because if we were going camping we were doing it right. What to take to cook and drink. Fun camping activities. And things to do in the area so that away Monday on our way home we could stop at a few places and enjoy more of the area. I also called my dad to get his camping advice. He gave me lots of good tips and advice about primitive camping. My MAIN issue with the whole camping thing was no electricity and the toilets being far away.. When I say far away what I mean is it's not 5 steps from my bed. I'm 8 months pregnant I get up NUMEROUS times a night to pee.. And I am not an outdoors person that can just "pop-a-squat" when I need to pee. Even if I was how in the world do you do that at 8 months pregnant???? I'd probably end up falling over and landing in my pee or peeing on myself and waking everyone up. Can you imagine looking out your tent to this really pregnant woman, shorts to ankle, rolling back and fourth, scream and crying, in her pee!! Yea that's what I imagine when I think about popping a squat pregnant or not pregnant.

Thursday we went and bought the camping items we needed that we didn't have. Friday we(I) spent cleaning and getting all our stuff together while Adam went fishing with a friend. Friday evening Adam packed up the van while I ran to the store and grabbed some last minute items. Saturday morning Adam did the color run with some of the guys he works with and by noon we were off.. We were all so excited and I was a bit nervous. All I kept thinking about was no electricity.... No close toilets.. Oh what joy. BUT I found out some friends of ours were also going to the same camping area as us and was excited about that. The reason I was bummed about the no electricity was because I needed a plug to blow up our air mattress.. I was NOT sleeping on the ground with just a few blankets. I am a stomach sleeper. Yes at 8 months pregnant I STILL sleep on my stomach. It is the only way I can sleep. I don't sleep completely on my stomach. It's a weird sideways stomach position. No it doesn't hurt me or the baby. It is the only way I can sleep. BUT I cannot sleep that way on hard ground because it's extremely painful. I also can't sleep on my back because I feel like I'm being suffocated from the inside when I do, and sleeping on my side hurts my back.


Saturday when we got there we set up camp and got everything organized as best as possible. Then I was on a mission to find an outlet to blow up my air mattress. I found one in the locker rooms but was trying to see if I could find one closer. Surprisingly right next to my tent was this metal box that looked like it could be for an outlet so I asked Adam to open it and check. Sure enough IT WAS! I have never been so happy to find a plug before :) After we got everything set up the adults played corn hole while the kids played soccer. For dinner that night Adam made some delicious burgers. Then we waited for the sun to go down and headed to the beach to look for crabs.  I think we were to the point of giving up and they finally found some..

Sunday morning I woke up around 4:30am... It may have been earlier it may have been a bit later but I know it was before 5am and I know it was before the sun came up. The reason I woke up was because I had to pee.. I tried anything and everything to fall back asleep because I was NOT walking to the restroom by myself and getting attacked by a deer or kidnapped! I even had a moment of weakness and considered popping a squat but just couldn't bring myself to even try.. So I laid in the bed with my eyes closed and NOTHING! I honestly have no idea how I didn't pee myself. When the sun finally came up I got out of my tent and walked to the restroom to pee.. Little did I know I actually was about to have the runs. AWESOME!! Camping at 8 months pregnant, no close restrooms, a weak bladder, and NOW I HAVE THE RUNS!! Last time I went camping was EXACTLY 3 years prior and guess what, I had the runs then too.. BUT I pretty much OD'ed on pepto on the way to our campsite and it helped a lot. BUT guess what you cannot take while pregnant?? PEPTO! Thankfully it wasn't too bad but that morning I ended up clogging the toilet!! SERIOUSLY! I am in this disgusting restroom just laughing at myself wondering WHY DID I THINK CAMPING WAS A GOOD IDEA??? And then a knock on the door!! I just clogged 1 of 2 toilets for the tent camping area we were in. AND whoever was knocking on the door would see my face and know I CLOGGED THE TOILET!! NOOOO!!!! Then I saw the plunger. I tried everything possible to unclog that toilet and it did not work. I am the worst when it comes to plunging a toilet. I have no idea what I'd do if the kids flooded the toilet while Adam was gone. Thankfully though everything went down except for a few pieces of toilet paper. I walk out and its the lady camping next to us with her 2 little boys. Hopefully since she has kids of her own she understands you cant always control it. Before this pregnancy I NEVER went number 2 in public but this pregnancy has done things to me that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy haha.

I head back to our tent and everyone slowly starts to wake up and I decided to start on breakfast. I made eggs mixed with sausage on the grill :) The group of people we knew that we were camping by were heading back home today but we were spending the day at the beach and spending the night one more night. So they packed up and we all had to wait until 9am whenever reception opened. Once reception opened they headed home and we headed to the beach.

We get to the beach and find a perfect spot. Close enough to the beach but not too close. Or so we thought. Everyone puts sunscreen on and the kids go running to the water. We have been to the beach 4 times and they love playing in the water. They know not to go too far but to still enjoy it. This beach was NOTHING like what they have experienced before. The waves were rough and the current was strong. They were slamming people down and taking

them under. Brynna was SITTING on the sand. The water came up and flipped her over. I brought both kids up and explained that they could play in the water BUT they did not need to go in too deep. Or they'd have to sit out because the water was a little more dangerous this time. Did they listen. Nope. So we decided to just sit and watch and sure enough they learned quick. Brynna gave us a little scare and I took off running!! She didn't realize that even though she wasn't that deep the waves were high and it pushed her down, she did some turns and flips under water and I grabbed her out of the water. After that I made her play in the sand right beside us. While at the beach both kids had to pee.. What do you do when you need to pee at the beach?? YOU PEE IN THE OCEAN! All the animals do it so why can't we? Neither kid understood that EVERYONE pees in the ocean. Brynna kept trying to but the waves would push her over before she could get it to come out. I thought the kids were going to let their bladders burst instead of peeing in the ocean. But FINALLY they both peed in the ocean and turns out so did the little boy next to us and the little girl that Brett and Brynna were playing in the sand with. Yea she peed in the ocean too. And they ALL announced it to the world. Finally we decided to head back to the camp site take showers, do some fishing, and start dinner.

 

My main complaint about the whole camp site out of everything was the lack of showers and lack of restrooms. They had a community shower by our camping area and it had 2 shower heads but only 1 worked.. Thankfully we got their first and didn't have to wait but by the time we got out their were 2 people waiting and by the time we left the locker room their were 6 people waiting. After showers we headed to the fishing pier and Adam did some fishing. The kids and I headed back before Adam and we started to get all the dinner stuff ready. We had chili dogs with baked beans for dinner and it was so good! After dinner we started to pack up so that in the morning we wouldn't have too much to pack. Then we made s'mores and headed off to bed. For the first time in a LONG time I didn't get up in the middle of the night to pee!! It was amazing!

 

Monday morning we had muffins and donuts while we finished packing up the car and then headed off.. We decided to skip the beach that day and took the kids to a Children's Museum and they had a BLAST! I think they liked the museum better than the beach.. It really was such a fun and cute place. We spent about 2 hours at the museum and then stopped at Nick's Diner in Wilmington for lunch. After lunch we walked down the street a couple blocks and got ice cream at Kilwin's. The line at Kilwin's was long but it went fast and was worth the wait.





My left ankle isn't too swollen here but
my right one was swollen

After that it was time to head home. Within 10 minutes both kids were out and stayed asleep for about 75% of the drive. On the drive home my feet felt a little weird. I take a look down and they were HUGE! I could not believe how swollen my ankles/cankles were. With my previous 2 pregnancies I never had cankles BUT I also wasn't due mid summer. Apparently heat=swelling. So YAY! I get to enjoy the cankles this pregnancy. The swelling has gone down a lot and I have a little shape but they aren't my NORMAL ankles! Finally we got back to Fayetteville and had to run a few errands before we could go home for good. But once we got home we unpacked, showered, and called it a night! We were exhausted! I don't know how I woke up this morning and I have no idea how I didn't take a nap today but we had a GREAT weekend and honestly I really enjoyed camping. We will probably go back before we move. Which means I will be camping again while pregnant. But hopefully we figured out my stomach issues and this time I will just have to deal with the late night peeing :)

6 Months Down..

Where does the time go.. In the beginning I felt like this pregnancy was going by SO SLOW! But I pretty much knew I was pregnant by day 4 when most people don't find out their pregnant until further along. But now that we are towards the end it feels like it has just flown right on by. I'm sad that this part of the journey will be coming to an end but also excited because I cannot wait for J&J to meet their daughter. Even though this part of the journey will be coming to an end I know the journey will never end.

A lot has happened these past few weeks which is why y'all haven't had much of an update. What little time I have had these past few weeks I have used to catch up on much needed sleep.

A lot of y'all have read my facebook post about Brett. Well I am happy to say he is doing AMAZING! Not 100% but he is doing so much better. He is currently in physical therapy and is still seeing the orthopedic surgeon. He is still out of school but now we have a home bound teacher that will be coming to the house once a week to make sure he doesn't fall behind. This morning he woke up in a little bit more pain than normal but he still has the infection in his foot and is still healing so he will continue having good days and bad days. Today is also Brett's 6th birthday!! We were planning on going to either Great Wolf Lodge for a weekend get away or go spend the weekend in Raleigh and go to the zoo and an amusement park but right now Brett can't be submerged in water and he isn't able to do as much walking as the zoo requires. So if we can't go before Adam leaves then we will go once he gets back for sure.

I had my 24 week check up Monday, March 17th, and everything was great. I didn't gain any weight which I had a feeling I wouldn't I started light work outs and then everything that happened with Brett I knew that I wouldn't gain weight. Don't worry I didn't stop eating or anything. I made sure to eat because I knew even though I wasn't hungry that I still needed to eat and feed the growing baby girl in my belly. A few days later I had the 3D ultrasound. It was so amazing! J&J again had a camera shy baby girl. She did NOT want us to see her. The beginning of the ultrasound was mainly the back of her head but we finally got her to wiggle and move and she some what cooperated.. The package J&J got came with about 8 printed images, a CD with the images on them, a coupon to come back, and a few other things. It did not come with a recording of the baby's heartbeat so I bought them a teddy bear with a recording of baby girls heart beat :) I have been wanting to buy them a gift and was glad I got to finally find out what to send them.

How far along: 24 weeks(baby is now considered viable if born at this stage)
Total weight gain: I really need to ask the nurses what my starting weight was and what it is now but I have not gained any weight since my last appointment.
Maternity clothes: My maternity 2 skinny jeans, a maternity tank top, and I got a maternity tunic and t-shirt this past week.
Stretch Marks: no new ones
Sleep: Who needs sleep?? I DO!!! I think I posted before that I wasn't able to sleep on my stomach anymore. Well I lied it was just that previous night that I couldn't sleep on my stomach. I continued sleeping on my stomach but at 23 weeks and 4 days it became extremely uncomfortable! I still sleep somewhat on my stomach but my belly has to go towards the side because it is too uncomfortable to sleep fully on my stomach. I also wake up twice a night to pee. I try so hard to fight it and just go back to sleep but I can't.
Best moment this week: surrogacy related- getting the 3D ultrasound and sending J&J their gift. I was so happy to hear that they got it and that they loved it :) not surrogacy related- Brett is walking and healing so much faster than we expected! Also having my family come to visit and help out with everything going on.
Miss anything: sleeping on my stomach
Movement: yes! Lots of it!! I think she is already practicing for the Olympics
Food cravings: ice cream! Still pink sherbet ice cream
Anything make you sick: Thankfully no
Have you started to show yet: Oh yea.
Gender: She was still stubborn during the 3D ultrasound but the ultrasound tech also said its a girl.
Labor signs: I have had some braxton hicks but nothing too crazy
Belly button in or out: still in but not as deep as it was.
What has your mood been: ON EDGE! Adam has said I have been snappy lately but I don't think I can completely blame it on the pregnancy.
Looking forward to: Our lives going back to normal. We are back to a family of 4. Adam is now back at work(he took leave while we were dealing with Brett. Brynna is going back to gymnastics and Brett is doing much better. Not back to school but hopefully will be soon.
Any issues: My only complaint is my back pain. It's not too bad but I have decided to start seeing a chiropractor for the remainder of the pregnancy.
Baby is the size of an: ear of corn













Upcoming Dates:
April 14th- OB appointment AND the disgusting glucose test. This will also be the start of when I go every 2 weeks to the OB instead of 4.

What A Difference A Week Can Make..

This post will not be surrogacy related.. But the next one will be because guess who had an appointment Monday AND a 3D ultrasound today!! I just have to sit down and type that one up.. I have been slowly typing this one up since this past Sunday (March 16)

Friday (March 7^th) Brett got home from school and just wasn’t acting normal and laid around all evening. I finally went looking for the thermometer and his temp was somewhere around 100.. Over the weekend he ran a fever ranging from 99-101 but every time I gave him Motrin his fever would come down to normal. Sunday night he was running a fever and Brynna also started running a fever so I decided to keep him home from school and the next morning was able to get him and Brynna into the doctors(on post) that afternoon. By the time we got to the doctors Brett’s temp was back to normal and he was also back to normal. The doctor looked him over and said everything looked fine and he didn’t need to be strep tested. Brynna they did a strep test to because her tonsils looked a little swollen. He told me he would call me if she tested positive for strep. We got home and since Brett was cleared by the doctors I let him go outside to play with his friends while I started cooking dinner. Adam was on 24 hour duty (started at 9am Monday morning), he was coming home for dinner that evening for about an hour and would go back to work until 9am Tuesday morning. I called Brett in to do a few things before dinner. We had dinner, Adam went back to work, and then it was bedtime at 7:30. Friday night sometime between 10:30-11:30 Brett woke up screaming. This was a scream I have NEVER heard before. I couldn’t completely understand what he said but as I run in his room he is in the fetal position. I assume it’s his stomach because Adam was throwing up at work all evening. I grabbed his right ankle to pull his legs down so I can help him sit up and talk to him and he SCREAMS even louder.. That’s when he screamed my “MY LEG HURTS!!!!” Since Adam was gone I carried Brett and put him in bed with me so I could keep an eye on him. I don’t think he was running a fever yet but I can’t remember for sure. I asked him how he hurt his foot and he told me that he was playing at the park and fell off the slide. I decided if he was still in pain the next morning I would take him to the ER.

The next morning Adam got home and stayed with Brynna and Aliana while I took Brett to the Womack ER (on post). We get to the ER and they checked his temp, it was 99.5. They take him back to have an x-ray and put us in a room. They didn’t see any fractures or breaks so the doctor said it was a bad sprain. They wrapped it and he screamed and cried the whole time because of how badly it hurt. At this time it was only a little swollen.. Nothing too crazy so I thought okay it is just sprained we’ll have to loosen it up some and hopefully he can put some pressure on it to go back to school tomorrow (Wednesday). We kept it elevated and iced it and he did some limping/walking. So I THOUGHT it was getting better. Tuesday night Brett again is in EXCRUCIATNG PAIN!! Screaming and crying again. His fever is back up to 103 and he is not sleeping. I tried giving him Motrin and it only went down to 101. NORMALLY whenever I give him Motrin it goes down to normal but this time it didn’t.  I also tried giving him Melatonin to help him sleep. It didn’t work. I was planning on calling his doctors the next morning and seeing if he could get in but we didn’t even make it to midnight. I really wanted to get a little bit of sleep because I was so exhausted and I didn’t know if I should even chance driving. BUT by 11pm I knew that either way I was getting no sleep and his pain wasn’t getting any better. So off to the ER we go…. AGAIN! For the second time in one day. This time we ended up going off post instead of on post and saw a civilian doctor instead of a military doctor. We get there and he is crying because of how much pain he’s in. Since it’s out first time they had to get some info but other than that they got us right in. He was running a 102 fever so they wanted to test him for strep and flu. They did X-Rays on his foot and gave him Tylenol with Codeine to help with the pain. The doctor said he was pretty sure it was broken because of how swollen it was and with how much pain he was in. His strep test ended up coming back positive and his X-rays came back normal. So they prescribed him amoxicillin for his strep and Tylenol and Motrin for his fever. The doctor also said it was probably just a bad sprain. Then sent us home. Thanks to the Tylenol with Codeine he slept a total of 3 hours without waking up in pain but once it wore off he was back up crying in pain..

Wednesday (March 12^th) he was back in pain and lots of it. Fever was up in the 104’s and Motrin wasn’t bringing it down much. Even with Motrin it stayed around 102. I had plans on going to get his amoxicillin filled but once I looked at the prescriptions they gave me I realized the ONLY one missing was the amoxicillin!! That afternoon some redness around his ankle bone started to show up. My aunt ended up telling me we should take him back to the ER and have blood work done to check for an infection. Less than 5 minutes later my mom calls and also said that I should probably have his leg checked for an infection. Adam got off work that evening and we took Brynna and Aliana to Kelly’s house and we took Brett back to the ER for the 3^rd time!! I explained everything and again he was screaming and crying and in TONS of pain so they got us right back. Whenever the doctor came in I explained that this was now our 3^rd ER visit and he was getting worse, his fever was getting higher and higher, and that I wanted blood work done to check for an infection since all the x-rays were not showing anything. The doctor didn’t want to do the blood work. He said he would take a look over the X-ray again to see if he could spot something that the other doctor missed. He came back in and said that he didn’t see anything but that he wanted to put a splint on Brett’s foot and that we could follow up in 10 days and get another x-ray to see if it was actually fractured but just a tiny fracture that wasn’t able to be seen on an x-ray. So pretty much he was sending us home without blood work! UMMM… NO I WANT BLOOD WORK! He believed that it was fractured while I believed it was not. I told the nurse I did not want to sign the discharge papers until the doctor came back in and would do blood work. The doctor ended up coming in and explaining that he is a doctor and went to school for this. He sees breaks, sprains, and fractures every day so he knows what it looks like. But that we don’t see them all the time so that’s why we don’t think it’s fractured. He told us it was unnecessary to do blood work and with him having strep it would give us no answers because his white blood count would be somewhat elevated anyways. The doctor said but if yall still want blood work then I will do it. Adam ended up telling him DO THE BLOOD WORK! He did the blood work and came back with a totally different attitude. His white blood count was at 22% and normal is low to mid-teens.. Yes strep would elevate his white blood count but there was something else causing it to be so high. He ended up recommending giving Brett a bicillin shot for the strep and then prescribing another antibiotic for the infection AND he was also going to prescribe him Tylenol with codeine. THANK GOD! BUT he was still putting a splint on his foot because he still believed there was no infection and that it was just fractured. They told us if the rest of his blood work came back and showed anything not normal they would call us.

Thursday morning Adam went to work like normal and I called to schedule Brett a doctor’s appointment for his foot to try and get a referral for an off post doctor. They weren’t able to get him an appointment until the 24^th! I wanted a same day appointment but they weren’t able to get me one. So I decided to not schedule one and whenever we went to his physical the next morning I would explain everything to them and see what they would do for Brett. All morning I was going crazy wishing I could see his ankle just to see if the redness was worse. I took his temp and it was 105!! I gave him motrin and decided I would take a shower (I REALLY NEEDED to take a shower) and then after that I’d take the splint off if it was worse I’d take him to a children’s hospital but if it looked the same or better I’d wait until tomorrow to see the on post doctor. I don’t go to church often but I do pray and I do talk to God. Normally at night before bed but some times during the day. So while I’m in the shower I decided to have a talk with God. I asked him to please give me a sign. If I needed to take him back to the hospital then his ankle REALLY needed to be red and worse than the night before. It couldn’t just be a tiny bit difference. I REALLY needed to be able to notice a difference. So I get out of the shower and start to take his splint off. Brett is crying and screaming and I am praying/talking to God. I get the brace off and there was no doubt about it. Brett NEEDED to get to the hospital ASAP! I take a picture and send it to my mom and aunt. I am soaking wet from just taking a shower. I throw my hair up and then grab some clothes while I’m calling Adam telling him he needs to get home ASAP and that Brett’s ankle was bad. At that moment everything went from bad to horrible! My phone is ringing back to back to back. Brett is screaming in pain because he has to pee but his foot hurts to bad to move so I’m carrying him, Brynna is throwing water all over the bathroom, while Aliana is screaming in her crib. I finally answer my phone and it’s the ER nurse from Cape Fear(the hospital we were at the night before) explaining that Brett’s blood work just came back and she just talked to my husband but since Brett was still running such a high fever we needed to bring him back in. I had plans on Adam staying here with Brynna and Aliana but Kelly (the best person ever!!) told Adam to pack a bag for the girls and drop them off with her so that he could go with me. Thankfully she did because he really needed to be there. Once we got to the ER things went quick. We had all these doctors coming in and out. They got an IV put in right away and were telling us best case and worse case scenarios. There was a chance we could only be in the hospital for a day or two OR we could be in the hospital for a couple weeks to a couple months. It really just depended on more blood work, MRI’s, and how severe Brett’s infection was. The ER doctors thought it was cellulitis but the doctor from the ped’s floor came in and he thought it was an infection in the bone or joint and he wanted to do an MRI. The MRI was booked until the next morning but he was able to get us in right then. I wasn’t able to go in but thankfully Adam could. The nurses said he did better than a lot of adults normally do. After the MRI they sent us up to ped’s and got him started on 3 different IV antibiotics. By the time the results were in the doctors had all left so we were told we wouldn’t know anything until the next morning. I knew I would be getting NO sleep that night thinking about all the “what if’s”. Well that evening a nurse came in to fix Brett’s IV and she told me the pediatrician called. She said the pediatrician wanted to have her update Adam and I and that he thought it was septic arthritis but he wanted an orthopedic doctor to review the MRI and see what he thought…. What in the world is septic arthritis?? All I wanted to know right then was is it a skin, bone, or joint infection? She said “unfortunately it’s joint.” My heart sank.  I was there all by myself (Adam had to run home really quick to let the dogs out before bedtime) and just wanted to bawl my eyes out. I fought off the tears because I didn’t want to scare Brett any more than he already was. As soon as the nurse left I called Adam and let him know and then my mom. My mom ended up booking my grandma on a flight the next morning so she could come help with Brynna and Aliana while Adam and I focused on Brett. I tried my best to stay away from google because I knew it would do more harm than good for me to read what google said.

Friday (March 14^th) morning around 7:30 I decided I’d run home and let the dogs out because I had very little clean clothes left and I wanted to put on a load of laundry while I was there. I asked before I left when the doctors normally come and she said about 10am. So I knew I had time but to be quick. Well 10 minutes after I left the doctors showed up. I knew that would happen but if I would have stayed they would have come around 10. Isn’t that how it works haha. They confirmed that he did have septic arthritis and now they needed to do surgery. They also needed to do an echo on his heart to see if the infection had traveled to his heart. That whole week I held it together and didn’t cry once. I have no idea how I kept it together for so long but whenever Adam told me that the infection could be in his heart I hung up the phone and bawled my eyes out. I was so angry and upset at all the doctors that failed us and again I was praying to God that his heart was perfectly fine and no infection was in there. I rushed back to the hospital once I got that news. Thankfully though the echo came back perfect and no infection was in his heart!! My Gigi’s flight landed at 1:50pm and the surgeon was coming to speak with us at 2pm so Adam went to pick Gigi up while I waited to speak with the surgeon. He ended up bringing Gigi back to the hospital so she could see Brett really quick before she went to our house. Well a little bit after they got to the hospital the surgeon walks in and tells us that he is going to cut Brett’s foot open and clean out as much of the infection as he can. The infection was pretty much in the whole foot, wrapped around his ankle, and traveling up his foot. He only wanted to cut the top of the foot open though because he didn’t want to chance damaging anything in his ankle so he would clean out as much as he could and then after that he would continue his IV antibiotics to kill off the rest of the infection. Once we talked to the surgeon I was about to leave and run Gigi to the grocery store to pick up and few things and then come back in time for surgery. Thankfully I let the nurses know because they told me they were taking Brett down to surgery in the next few minutes!! All she had to do was print out some paper work for us to sign and then he’d be off. So again we waited. They take him down to pre op and he knocks out. We were in pre op for about an hour waiting. I was so ready for them to just take him back and be done because I was starting to really freak out on the inside. We asked the anesthesiologist to move his IV while he’s in surgery because the IV that he had was starting to mess up and I’d rather have them put it in while he’s knocked out instead of them having to do it after surgery. He was given Morphine to help with the pain after surgery and only got it that one time. He was in more pain before the surgery and very little pain after the surgery. That night we both slept GREAT! It was our first night of pretty good sleep since Monday.

Saturday morning he had to get blood work done to check his white blood count and his infection level. I’m guessing that hospital goes off a percentage instead of actual white blood cell count because his white blood cell count was 22% on Wednesday night and Saturdays blood work it was down to 18.4% his CRP was 210 on Wednesday night, Thursday when we were admitted they drew blood and it was up to 270, by Saturday it was down to 190. The doctor came in that afternoon and removed the drain. His foot was already looking so much better!! It still had the redness and swelling but you could tell a huge difference from the day before. They told us each time before they change the dressing that they would give him morphine because it would probably be really tender to touch. So for the first 2-3 dressing changes they gave him morphine. I ended up asking to stop the morphine because it made him so agitated and angry. So they switched him to Tylenol with codeine and then ended up completely taking him off pain meds because he really didn’t need them.

Sunday things really started looking up and it looked like he’d be getting released by midweek! He was so excited! He was so tired of being there and hated all the things attached to him! He ended up pulling his IV out on accident and they were hoping he wouldn’t have to get another one BUT they had to continue giving him his antibiotics through his IV so he had to get his 4^th IV(he got one Wednesday in the ER, Thursday in the ER, Friday during surgery, and then again on Sunday)! He again was NOT happy about that. Every IV or blood work they had to do it was like holding down the hulk! He fought with all his might until they were done. COMPLETELY DONE! Sunday night he started running a low grade fever of about 100.5. They gave him some motrin and it went away. Sunday night Brynna also started running a little fever so I knew Monday morning I’d have to call and get her an appointment to be strep tested again. Since Brett ended up testing positive on Tuesday I wanted to get Brynna tested again.

Monday went great and they told us that he would probably be released on Tuesday afternoon! We were SO excited! Monday morning I had an OB appointment for myself and then a doctor’s appointment for Brynna. We get to Brynna’s appointment and she lost 1 ½ pounds in a WEEK!! The doctor (not the same doctor we saw last Monday) walks in and says why do you want her strep tested again when she had a positive strep test last week? I said “Well thank you for letting me know because the doctor who strep tested her last week told me that if her strep test came back positive that he’d call me and he never did.” This doctor was furious at the other doctor because she has now had strep for at LEAST a week that we could have already been treating but instead the idiotic doctor let it slide. Use to you could call a number and input your information and it would tell you if your test came back positive or negative and I asked about doing that but he said no he would call me. Apparently he forgot that little detail -__- so NOW I have a child who is in the hospital because he was never strep tested because he showed no symptoms and the doctor didn’t want to strep test him. IF Brett would have been strep tested I would have NEVER let him go outside to play and chance getting another child sick. So he more than likely would have never fell and got septic arthritis. BUT who knows he still could have fell down the stairs or fell getting out of bed. You never know. AND on top of that I have another child whose tonsils and lymph nodes were so swollen because of a negligent doctor ignoring her strep results. AND she also ended up getting strep induce impetigo because of the strep going untreated for so long! Monday night Brett’s splint was removed and they wanted to try out just a wrap with the dressing. Brett didn’t like that his ankle was able to move now because it was still extremely tender. The splint was hard and he couldn’t move his ankle bone but with the wrap it was able to move.

Tuesday morning the pediatrician came in and said as long as Brett’s blood work from that morning came back better than the previous blood work we would be going home! He didn’t expect it to be perfect because he did still have an infection but if the blood work results were worse than the previous one that was not a good sign so he’d have to stay. The blood work came back and we were released!! He would still have lots of follow up appointments and would not be able to go back to school right away. He also has to start physical therapy to help gain strength back in his joint and to help him learn not to favor his right foot. They told us it was up to him when he was ready to put weight on his foot he could. Brynna was SO excited to see her bubba when he got home! The hospital we were at was on lock down due to flu season and was not allowing any children in under the age of 12. So she didn’t see him the whole time he was admitted plus before that he was in so much pain she wasn’t able to really play with him.

Wednesday morning Brett had to go to an appointment at our military clinic and I had to explain everything to them. Sadly the nurse already knew most of Brett and Brynna’s situation and it was apparently the talk of the clinic. In less than 2 weeks Brett lost 3 ½ pounds. He started to try and put weight on his foot but it was still REALLY sore so he stuck to using his “crunches”. That evening it was time to send Gigi back home. With everything that has been going on we decided it’d be best if Gigi took Aliana back to Texas. I felt bad but for our family it was the best option. We needed to focus on Brett and Brynna’s health.

Today Brett had his follow up appointment with his Orthopedic (the one who did his surgery) and he took Brett’s stitches out. Brett had one stitch on both sides of the open wound and the rest of the wound had to heal from the inside out. It is still healing but it looks great! His ankle is still swollen but wow it just looks SO much better compared to one week ago. I asked the doctor when he thinks Brett will be able to go back to school and he said he doesn’t want to send him back right now because of him being so young. The kids won’t know to watch out for his foot. Brett won’t know to protect his foot and he doesn’t want to chance it getting worse instead of better. So he is out of school for another 2-3 weeks, the school will be having a home bound teacher come to work with Brett while he is out of school because even though for now the doctor is saying 2-3 weeks right now. We could go back to his next appointment and he could say that Brett needs to stay out of school for another week or two. But hopefully he will be able to go back soon because he really misses school and playing with his friends.

Also something I want to let y'all know is Brett got septic arthritis from strep throat. It is NOT common. Not everyone who gets strep is going to end up in the hospital like he did. It was a complete freak accident. But hopefully my facebook posts and this blog post will help educate people about it. It was a very quick. If we would not have started antibiotics when we did I could not imagine how much worse things would have been.. I am so extremely thankful for my aunt and mom pushing me to MAKE the doctor do blood work on Brett because if they wouldn't have done blood work we would not have caught the infection in time. Brett injured himself while the strep infection was floating around his body and his body could not fight off the infection so it got bad and it got bad quick!

Legal Clearance

It's becoming so real now. Its so close yet so far away! I am so excited yet so nervous. Which is apparently very normal. I have been doing a lot of praying about all of this lately. I have also thought a lot about it and talked a lot about it to Adam and my mom. J&J have finally been legally cleared.. I'm not exactly sure what all goes in to them being legally cleared but it seemed like the legal clearance took the longest out of everything haha. So both me, the egg donor, and J&J have been medically and legally cleared. And that is pretty much the last and final step before we start the IVF meds. YAY(not really I am ready to start them but not excited about giving myself shots). I should be getting my calendar in the next week that will have many dates on it but the most important one... The TRANSFER DATE! Even though I will get a date it could change. The cycle could be canceled. Anything could happen. But I have faith everything will work out in the end. For now that's really all I have to update about the surrogacy news. But hopefully within the next week or two I will have a transfer date!! :)

Well now on to other things. Life has been really busy lately but not too busy thankfully. Brett has homework daily but it only takes us about 30 minutes. He is learning how to read which is amazing and such a joy to listen to. It's so amazing watching your children grow and learn new things daily. I mean they go from not even speaking to talking to reading in just a few short years. I just want to carry him like a baby sometimes but he is way too heavy for that now haha. Brynna is doing great. If you follow me on facebook you have probably read my rants about tricare and how frustrating they have been lately but we FINALLY have a referral for her to see a dermatologist for her leg and hopefully will have answers on Monday. Please pray that we get answers. Her leg issues have been going on for about 5 months now with the nasty infection part showing up about 2 months ago. Other than that she is doing great. Mommy's little side kick during the day while Brett is at school. Adam and I are now on a coed softball team and those of yall that know me personally know I am not big into playing sports. I'm more into cheering on the team. But I'm really enjoying it. I consider it part of my weekly work out :) 

Question before I go. With Halloween coming up its only right to ask. What do you or your kids want to be for Halloween? 

Kayla

Hurry Up and Wait....

I didn't realize when I started the surrogacy journey that the military lifestyle had prepared me a tiny bit haha. But yes for now I am kind of I guess you can say at a stand still.. I'm bummed because I would have liked to transfer in October BUT I'm hoping we can transfer early November if not we wont be able to transfer until December. BUT hopefully I will have some type of a date soon..

So I guess for now I will update you with my family :)

We have had a lot of first this past week.

Brett started his first day of kindergarten. He was so excited to start school again. He got to finally wear his new pair of shoes for the first day of school and he also got a new outfit. He had a great first day and really likes his teacher and the teachers aide.

To prepare Brett for school and to make him more independent we bought him his very own alarm clock. At first I didn't think it was going to work. He would sleep right through it. One morning I finally walked in his room 30 minutes later and turned it off myself because he was not waking up. Well the night before the first day of school I put his clothes on his night stand with his socks and shoes and we discussed what all he had to do the next morning. 7am Tuesday morning he wakes up on his own because of the alarm clock. The alarm clock was a great idea and I'm so glad he has it. It makes mornings easier. Last year he never wanted to wake up in the morning when I would wake him up but this year he does everything on his own. (in the picture you can't really see his alarm clock but its on his night stand right in front of his fan)

Last week Brett and Brynna had their first eye exam. It went exactly like I expected. Those of y'all that don't know my husband and I are BLIND(not completely but pretty much). My husband has a very bad double astigmatism and also bad eye sight. I have a lazy eye(not a wandering eye just a lazy eye) My left eye does not function whenever both eyes are open. The first time I realized how bad my eyes were was whenever I was 15 years old and went to the DPS office to get my permit. You have to look into this binocular type things and read from left to right. I skipped the whole left side. I was so embarrassed and played it off as not hearing what she said but what she didn't realize was that I did not see them at all. Well both of my kids have astigmatisms(thanks daddy) and my son has my eye sight(thanks mommy) and my daughter has daddy's eyesight(thanks daddy).

We decided since Brett's eyes were such a drastic difference to go ahead and get him glasses. We want to try and prevent him from getting the lazy eye like me. Brynna we will be waiting until next year since she will be starting school next year. Her eyes are pretty much the exact same so we are not worried about the lazy eye happening with her. If it was a drastic difference like Brett's we would have gotten her glasses now.

Brett also started soccer. Last year we decided to do tball instead of soccer because soccer is more of a year round sport where tball is mainly a summer thing. He already loves soccer so much more than tball. We will keep him in baseball for a few more years and if he just really doesn't care for it we will just stick to soccer. 

My mom, gigi, and brother came to visit us over the holiday weekend and we had a great time while they were here. I enjoy having them come to visit but hate when they have to leave.. The holidays will be here soon and we will see them again..

Speaking of holidays... What is your favorite holiday/time of year? My favorite time of the year is October-December. I love fall, my birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. I love decorating my house for all the fun festivities. I just love everything about the fall and winter months. So as of yesterday I started fall/Halloween decorating :) I know its super early BUT I just couldn't wait any longer.. And I have brought out the fall smelling candles! Well that is it for now. Hopefully within the next few weeks I will be able to update you on when we will be transferring!!

Kayla