Christmas at My Dad's

 

We almost didn't get to have David come in on the Friday that he was supposed to. There was a huge storm and the airline cancelled his flight. They told me that he wouldn't even be able to fly out until Sunday. I was SO sad! The Army went ahead and sent them on the buses to Oklahoma City and said they would do there best to get them on a flight and they did! He only came in six hours later than he was supposed to, way better than 3 days! My brother and his little family were trying to drive to Iowa from Utah and were also slowed down by the weather. Barring the inclement weather, we were still able to get together at my Dad's the Friday before Christmas. It was so great to have my husband and both my siblings and their families together. We did presents that night. Malia got some great, fun presents from Grandma and Grandpa. David and I got a beautiful portrait of Malia. The next morning Grandpa got up and made pancakes. It was lots of fun. Too bad I didn't notice until later that I had a smudge on my camera lens, thus the blurriness at the bottom of each picture. It was great being together as a family.

Sweet Homecoming!

Yipee!! David got to come home for two weeks at Christmas. This was at the airport in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Malia was super excited to see her papa. She was a bit shy at first and then remembered that her papa was her best advocate for getting her what she wants! I just bawled when I saw him. I would love to blame it entirely on the pregnancy hormones, but I just missed my man! It was so good to have him home. It surprised me how great people were to a man in uniform. Random strangers would just come up to him and thank him for his service. One man even bought our meal! It reaffirmed my faith in the American people and made me extremely proud to have my husband serving. It was so good to have him home.

Thanksgiving 2008

 

This was our Thanksgiving. Better late than never, right? We got together with my mom's side of the family and met at the church building in Dubuque. In attendance: Yount Family (mom and Chris), Hanselmann Family (Britt's Family), my Grandpa and Grandma Terry, Terry Family (my uncle Rex and his family from Omaha), Pieper Family (Aunt Susanne), Frisbie Family (Aunt Lorianne), Hayes Family (Aunt Deanne minus my cousin Alyssa), and the Russell Family (my grandma's cousin, including her Aunt Leola). There were about 50+ people. Glad we were at the church, plenty of room. Food was great and it was good to spend time with everyone. Especially since it was my first Thanksgiving without David. I only got to talk to him for a little bit that day. He was still at Basic Traning at the time and they were keeping them busy. It was a good Thanksgiving. We all had so much to be grateful for!

Malia Moments

Haven't been too good at bringing the camera around as of late, but here are a few pics I got with my camera phone-



Here is Malia at Thanksgiving with her little pumpkin. She loved it and tried very hard to bite into it!



Here she is all dressed and ready to go. For some reason when I told her to smile, she kept folding her arms. Who knows?



On Sunday mornings I try to take a picture of her all dressed up for church to send to David since that is when he USUALLY gets to have his phone.



Here she is "reading" the Friend. I've gotten her to follow lots of my habits of reading all the time- before bed, at the dinner table. If we are eating and I am reading the newspaper, she insists I give her something to read. Not necessarily a good habit, I know.



Another Sunday outfit.

Here are a few of Malia's sayings as of late:

- She loves to take baths. Although, she pronounces it as Fath. So at dinner the other night when she was done eating, she asked if she could take a "fath". I said to her, "It's BATH. It starts with a B." and sounded it out. She then tells me she wants to take a Buh-FATH!

- At church last week a little girl was trying to say hello to Malia and Mali was refusing. I said to the little girl, "Sorry, she's got attitude". Malia looked at me and said, "No, mama got 'tude!"

-She is fascinated by all of the Christmas trees and lights up. Although, her Christmas is spelled with a "P". She points out every single "ChriPus tree" to me.

-In Spanish, to ask for help you say "ayudame" (not sure on the spelling). Malia asks for help all the time, so I tried to get her to say it in Spanish also. The result? "A-Help-A-Me"!

-She loves to go shopping. Yesterday when we got into the car I told her that we were going shopping. I had to stop at the high school to drop off some stuff and she starts yelling, "No mama! No 'cool! Go shopping!!". Obviously she is a little burnt out with joining me for play practice!

There are a million other things the girl says each day that cracks me up. Wouldn't you know the minute you sit down to type them, you forget??

David graduates from basic training on Thursday. Given limited funds, proximity of the play, and the prospect of driving 12 hours being 6 months pregnant and toting along a 2 year old in possible inclement weather, I will not be able to make it to his graduation. It makes me super sad, because I am SOOOOO very proud of him. Fortunately he will be home soon- 17 Days!!!

I actually took "real" pictures at Thanksgiving, so when I have some time (um...okay), I will post them. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

I hear what sounds like Malia opening my newly purchased pack of gum. I am quite sure I am soon to find each individual piece opened. Being as she just toddled in here smelling of pomegranate with a fistful of gum, I best be off! Isn't it fun??

A Stressful Week

So when I went to my ultrasound last week, I received a bit of distressing news. The ultrasound technician measured the baby's nuchal fold at 6mm. A nuchal fold of 6mm or larger is an indication of a genetic defect, most often Down's Syndrome. A bit of background. I, like I am sure many of you, decline the option of an amniocentesis. In my mind, it doesn't matter if my baby had Down Syndrome. As my husband so lovingly put it, "It's our baby, that's all that matters". I guess I have always thought that if I was meant to have a baby that had Down Syndrome, then the Lord would give me the strength that I needed to handle that challenge/blessing. There would be no point in knowing ahead of time. I was definitely not going to terminate the pregnancy and having the knowledge ahead of time would only cause me to stress out and worry until the birth of the baby, and then some. Those that know me well know that I can worry with the best of them. So here I am, not wanting to know such information, and my midwife tells me after my ultrasound that my baby POSSIBLY has ONE of the POSSIBLE indicators of Down Syndrome. She then schedules me for another ultrasound in 4 weeks and that's it!! No further information. My mind went into overdrive. I don't know if any of you have had a similar situation, but my brain was going nuts! I had all kinds of thoughts. How could I possibly handle that?? Most days I feel inept in parenting my toddler and often wonder what in the world I was thinking in bringing number 2 into the world!? Often the thought of two children overwhelms me, much less the possibility of being the mother to a child with special needs. I felt completely and utterly terrified. Not to mention David wasn't here and there was the great debate whether or not to tell him such information. Especially since I didn't know anything definitive and that there is nothing that he could do from boot camp but worry. By Friday I had had enough. I went from being the person who said I didn't care whether or not my baby had Down Syndrome to someone that NEEDED to know. Just that little tidbit of information was driving me crazy! Now that I knew it was a possibility I just wanted to know what I needed to prepare for. Truth be told, I didn't know very much about Down Syndrome and was scared. There is a woman in our ward whose 10th child was born with DS. I have watched their family grow up and have always been impressed with the ability of the parents as well as the siblings to love him unconditionally. At the same time, he is a crack up. He can always make others smile and is so giving. Watching the family I knew that there are so many blessings that come to those who have a person with DS in their lives. At the same time, I think that mother is a true saint and couldn't imagine having the qualities necessary to parent the way a special individual would need. I'm rambling, huh? Well anyway, I called back to the office on Friday and said that maybe I would take the option they had given to me of going down to Iowa City to have specialist give me an ultrasound. They said that was a good idea, that after looking at my file they felt that was best. This scared me even more. I'm a worse case scenario kind of girl and I kept thinking there must be something terribly wrong with the baby. The next few days there was a lot of inner reflection and prayer going on. On Sunday I got to talk to David and told him everything. He was super supportive and said all the right things. He is not a worrier and assured me that regardless of the outcome it would all be okay. Later that night in my prayers I finally got to the point where I could honestly say, "Thy will be done". I received strength and knew that no matter what, the Lord would be by my side and that with his strength I could handle anything. Monday I did a little research on the internet and found that there are at least 7 POSSIBLE signs of DS and that there was a whole school of thought that found any ultrasonic finding bogus in giving a diagnosis of Down Syndrome. They stated that you could only know for sure through an amniocentesis. My mind still said heck no. I didn't feel the risks of that procedure were worth settling my crazed mind. I went to my appointment yesterday with Britt. I felt a little better knowing more information about Down Syndrome and confident that regardless of the outcome, I could handle it. Still terrified, mind you. First we had to meet with a genetic counselor. She was super nice and answered all of my questions. Basically we needed to get a good look at the heart. At my last ultrasound the baby had been moving around too much to get a good look. She said the condition of the heart was one of the strongest indicators. We discussed the possible amnio and I said that I didn't want to make any decisions today and that after the ultrasound I would talk with David and we'd go from there. We went in for the ultrasound and I was so anxious. I was missing David something fierce. The technician started with the heart. 4 beautiful chambers with absolutely no visible defects!!! Then we checked several of the other indicators. The femur was a good length, the baby had nice long bridge in the nose, kidneys "beautiful", fingers and toes looked great. Then she rechecked the nuchal fold. The technician in Dubuque had measured it at 6mm. This measured it twice- 4.5 mm, well within the desired range! The doctor came in and basically said that the other technician must have measured wrong and that there were no visible indications of possible genetic defects. I was so relieved! Of course, an ultrasound isn't fool proof and there is always the possibility of complications. I am just so grateful that everything looks good right now. It was a definite test of my faith. I feel stronger and closer to Heavenly Father than before. I now know that such complications are a reality and that if they should happen, He will be my strength. Not to mention that I have a very supportive husband and family by my side. It has also made me so grateful for the miracle of Malia's birth and in complete awe of the whole miracle of life. This year, with the miscarriage and this whole situation, I am just amazed at the gift of life. Sorry I rattled on for so long. I am sure that I didn't really say everything the way I meant to but just wanted to let my feelings be known. As I read everyone's blogs I am constantly amazed by all of you wonderful mommies. You are all an inspiration. I just hope and pray that each of us is drawing on our greatest source of strength as we make it through the wonderfully challenging opportunity to be mothers. Go Mommies! With that being said, will someone come please potty train Malia for me?

It's a....

Ha! Ha! Just kidding. We did get the ultrasound today but we don't find out the sex of the baby. Going for the element of surprise. Overall, the baby looked great. We do have to get another ultrasound in 4 weeks because the baby was moving around so much that they need to double check a couple things. I missed having David by my side to share in the moment. Britt went with me and I am pretty sure people are beginning to think she is my "life partner"! I was grateful that she could be there. The first one is his/her running legs! The next is the baby's cute little face. I know that it is impossible to tell, but it looks more like David, if you ask me! Isn't technology fun?

An Excuse for the lack of posting....

In an attempt to keep myself busy while David is gone, I am currently the director of the play at my alma mater WDHS. This is my third year doing it. I love working with the kids and we are having a blast getting everything ready for the performance. We will be presenting "A Christmas Story" on December 12,13, and 14th. It has a tricky set, we have faced much opposition from the Athletic... I mean ACTIVITIES director, and we are running out of time and money! No fear, the show will go on. The kids are great and work super hard. In addition, Britt is helping out lots. Although, I do have an "official" assistant director. However, if you can't say anything nice than don't say anything at all!! David gets home in 39 days and I can't wait!!! Hope everyone is doing well. I am going to post some pictures of Malia as soon as I can.