Here we Are

Drew wrote a nice little blog while I was getting checked in so I'll just copy and paste it here:

To family and friends across the US. Let me answer the first question, YES
we have private health insurance and NO we don't want Obama's health care
plan (not in its current form).

We had a fun family morning waiting for our place in line. We woke up
around 6:00 am, which was 45 seconds after Andrew woke up. Next we cleaned
the house a little bit and got the boys ready. Next we went to Target,
Chic-fil-a and Best Buy to kill time. We were waiting for a call from the
hospital starting at 5:30 am. Caron's house (Caron is Liz's mom) was next
on the road trip (because it is 5 minutes from Carons school and the
hospital). After we arrived it only took 20 minutes before the hospital
called. Next we dropped the boys off at Caron's school, traded cars and
headed to the hospital. We arrived in the delivery room at noon, our RN's
name is Karen B. and now....we wait.

No (enter delta symbol here)

Well I learned today that in medical writing the delta symbol means change. And as I expected there has been no change as far as my progress with Miss Molly. SO, Dr. Shaner wanted me to have a non stress test to make sure everything is good with Molly. Luckily Andrew was at school and Drew was able to sneak away from work and come to the appointment and help entertain Matthew. Matthew was SUCH.A.TROOPER. He was at the office with us from 9:30 until 12:30 AND THEN we had to rush to pick up Andrew so he didn't end up eating lunch until 1:30. I was so proud of him.

Anyway, the test went well so Dr. Shaner is going to have his nurse call to schedule my induction for next week. Just got the call that I'm the 6th induction on Tuesday morning. They start calling at 5am so hopefully I'll get in early and have Molly the same day. I'll keep you posted.

FYI: My due date is tomorrow, Friday the 13.....never know!

Molly Update

Well I had my appointment on Thursday. I really thought I made some progress and I did progress in the weight department...not what I was going for. As far as Molly making progress, she's stayed the same for the past 3 weeks. 1 cm, 75% efface for those of you who like the numbers. I have my LAST prenatal check up on Thursday and Dr. Shaner said we would probably schedule a date to induce at that check up. So unless Molly decides to make a move looks like she'll be here some time next week. I'll keep everyone posted!

Let the Monogramming Begin

So after much thought and mind changing we have decided on a name for our baby girl!

Molly Christine McLaughlin it is!

If you are curious about how we decided on this name here it goes. Molly is the Irish form of Mary. Mary was my grandmother's (who just passed away) middle name. We chose Christine because that is Drew's grandmother's name. And last but not least we love the name!

Hopefully she'll be making her big debut soon! Until then here is a picture of Molly all warm and cozy.

Never Say Never

So...we began to realize that even though my Explorer has a 3rd row it was going to be a very tight squeeze for 3 kids in car seats. So I thought I had the perfect solution, a Suburban or Yukon XL. Well Drew wasn't so convinced by this solution. Even though he agreed they are great he knew it may not be the best choice right now because of the price, gas mileage, and size. I continued to look online at finding a great deal but soon began to realize there was no such thing. So to make a long story short...I am now a soccer mom, yes... I have a mini van. Obviously, mini vans are great, make like a lot easier, etc., etc. It's starting to grow on me and the boys think it's the coolest thing ever invented. AND I am very thankful we were able to purchase a new car and make my life easier...Lord knows I'm going to need all the help I can get;)

So we purchased the new car Halloween morning. It was a long complicated process that Drew mainly dealt with. So I took the boys to the pumpkin patch (we went on Andrew's field trip but didn't buy any pumpkins) and got some pumpkins to carve and then came home and enjoyed the sun! Yes it finally came out! After naps we carved pumpkins. Then grandma came over to join in the Halloween festivities. They boys were so happy to see her and show off their costumes. Drew took the boys out while my mom and I stayed back to give out candy. WOW, talk about a lot of trick or treaters! Thank goodness my mom was here, she had to go to Walgreens TWO times to get more candy! It was a fun night and both boys had so much fun.

Sunday we were able to get a lot accomplished considering our wonderful sleepers do not understand the concept of Day Light Savings. We are actually making progress on the baby room and Drew was able to set up a new closet system for our master closet. He's been dying to do this since we moved it but of course other projects kept coming up.

Here are some pictures of the boys at the park today enjoying the beautiful weather.

Still Alive

So I last left off by putting Andrew to bed with a low grade fever. Then I headed to bed and didn't feel too great so decided to take my temp. Well I had a fever too. I told Drew as I was drifting to sleep, "I'm apologizing now for me being no help this weekend." Andrew ended up waking up several times through the night and thankfully Drew was able to tend to him.


We spent Saturday and Sunday doing nothing. Really Drew just took care of all of us. He was so helpful. Finally by Sunday evening I was starting to feel semi human again and by Monday everyone was fever free and on the road to recovery.

Monday night I woke up with really strong contractions. I sat in bed with millions of thoughts going through my head. "I'm so not prepared." "I can't call my mom in the middle of the night to stay with the boys, what if it's a false alarm?" "I'll let Drew sleep until I know more." So I started staring at the clock and timing them. They were lasting about a minute and ranging from 10-15 minutes apart. This lasted from about 1-4 and at 4 I had two really strong ones. I finally woke Drew up and told him what was going on. I told him I'd keep him updated. Then about 4:30 they just stopped! I was relieved that I had more time to prepare but also frustrated that I had been up all night.

The contractions came and went for the next few days and I was excited when Thursday came around to see what my OB said and if I had progressed. Of course it was Andrew's Halloween parade at school which I felt horrible about missing but Drew was able to go watch and help him with his costume...thank goodness! Well the good news of the appointment was that I had lost 3 pounds:) The frustrating news was that the contractions were "teasers" and nothing had changed from the week before. Oh well, I wasn't too disappointed considering I have lots of baby laundry and decorating to do. At least I was motivated by this event and started to get things in order. We'll keep you posted! Looks like it's going to be a November baby as planned.

WHAT-A-WEEK

Tuesday started off as a great day. Drew had been out of town since Monday. The boys slept through the night which was my biggest prayer and Andrew had school. I decided to take the boys to Chick fil A for lunch since they did so well while dad was gone. We had a nice lunch and headed home for naps. To my surprise Matthew was still asleep after 3 hours. RED FLAG. I went in to get him after 3 hours and 15 minutes and you guessed it, FEVER. NOOOO! I got tylenol in him and didn't panic. He had a relatively good evening and went to bed without a problem. He woke up once but we just gave him Tylenol and he went back down. When he woke up in the morning he still had a fever and started a cough. I decided with all the "hoop la" going on with the flus to call the doc and get their opinion. They told me they were seeing kids with fevers and coughs if I wanted to bring him in. I told them I was okay with just watching him and if he got worse I'd bring him in Thursday.

Well he got worse fast. He woke up from his nap Wednesday with a 104 temp! I FREAKED OUT. I called them back and the nurse was extremely helpful considering we are new patients and have never been to the pediatrician before. She told me to get him in the car and rush in. If I could get there by 4 they would see him. Great, except I had NO clue where I was going. She gave me directions which I jotted down but was TOTALLY unfamiliar with that particular part of town. I called Drew hysterical. He told me to get in the car and he would call me back with detailed directions. Of course I couldn't calm down and was being difficult to work with but he stayed patient and I managed to get there at 4:05 (don't worry, they let us in:)) Of course being a new patient I had to fill out lots of paper work. I was sweating, Andrew was trying to calm me down (mom, I love you more than you can imagine), and Matthew was a little tomato that looked horrible. They called us back and had one nurse take Matthew's vitals while the other asked me all the questions. Then a very nice doctor came in and took one look at Matthew and said, "oh you poor thing."

She did a thorough check up and ended with the throat. Of course she had to pry it open. Well she took one look at it and said, I'll be right back with a strep test. She took a swab of his throat and the swab was full of blood. Oh my poor baby! Of course he was beside himself so I just held him while we waited for the results. She came back in and said it was negative but they would also do the overnight test. She diagnosed him with acute tonsillitis and prescribed steroids and an antibiotic. She said she wanted to see him back in a couple of day to make sure he was improving.

I left feeling under control, relived that he didn't have THE flu, and happy with our choice of pediatrician. I dropped off the prescription, Drew picked up dinner and we managed to get everyone in bed.

Thursday I woke up at about 5 with what felt like an elephant on my chest. Oh no. I got Andrew ready for school, dropped him off, headed to my weekly OB appointment. Luckily Drew was able to meet me there and drive around while Matthew slept. I progressed a little bit this week and everything sounded good with our little girl. I told my OB about Matthew and he of course was concerned about me. He told me to call the pediatrician back and MAKE SURE HE DID NOT HAVE THE FLU! I told him we were going back and I would talk to Matthew's doctor. I felt like I was going down hill during the day but kept on trucking. Drew of course had to go to a board meeting and didn't get home until 7. About 6:30 the tears started to well up in my eyes again. I'm just going to blame it on the hormones.

This morning Drew got up with Matthew at 5 and I got up with Andrew at 6:15. (Thank you dear). Matthew cried from 6:15 to 7:45 at which point he fell asleep on my lap. We had to get ready for our follow up appointment so I laid him down got me and Andrew ready, got Andrew in the car and then ran out with Matthew PJs and wet diaper included. Of course once again we walked in the office looking like a total wreck. I'm sure they are really starting to wonder about us. We saw a different doctor today... a little odd but still very nice. He said Matthew throat was still pretty irritated but there wasn't really much else they could do. They were happy he was drinking and his fever was down. I told him about my OB wanting to be sure it was not the flu. He said he highly doubted it but since I was prego he would go ahead and run the test. Apparently a VERY irritated throat is not common with the flu. They did the flu test and said they would have the results in 15 minutes. Well the doctor came back in about 5 and said it was POSITIVE. NOOOOO! Of course this opened a whole new can of worms. I had to call my OB, he was out of town, the nurse had to talk to a different OB, they finally decided I need to be on Tamiflu as a precaution...any guesses on the cost of Tamiflu?

OH but the day doesn't end there. Andrew just came to kiss me goodnight and YES, his neck felt warm! Drew was like, "oh he was laying on me, we were all warm and cozy, do you want me to take his temp?" Well sure enough, it's only 100 but MAN! More to come, I'm sure!