Surgery....:)

Life has been a little crazy the last few months. Jar has been busy with work and his Primerica. He sells life insurance and RRSP's...that kind of stuff. That has him working when he's not working, so he seems to be always working. It's good, but it's getting old real fast :) The girls are getting huge. Mackinley just turned 5!
We had a Pinkalicious birthday party for her. It was pretty cute. EVERYTHING was pink. I made the cupcakes to look like the ones that were in the book. I'm not really a cake/cupcake fan. I'd take a chocolate brownie over cake any day. These ones though were soooooo good! Seriously, I ate a lot of them and I was a little sad when the last 2 got eaten by my little monsters. Maybe I should make some more on this yucky rainy day!
Mackinley starts kindergarten this September! I am so not ready for this to happen. Mentally, emotionally, or just plain ready. She's grown up so fast and I do not like it! They do full days out here. She'll go every Monday and Wednesday and then every other Thursday. It will be good and I know she will love it. Macey on the other hand is going to go bananas without her here. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to sign her up for multiple different things just to keep her happy. It will be nice to have her all to myself though :)
I probably won't be blogging much in the near future either. I am having surgery in a month and I will be at my parents' house for a couple of weeks after. I'm so lucky to have them close enough and so willing to help us. That has been a huge factor in my decision to have this surgery. I am getting my right leg lengthened. If you think this sounds horrible, it probably will be. I'm going to try and stay positive and think it's not going to be as bad as I think it's going to be. Why am I having this done? Well, when I was 12 I broke my femur in a dirt bike accident and the growth plate stopped growing. I still had some growing to do, so I had surgery the following year to make my left leg stop growing as well. I have worn a lift in my right shoe ever since. I have bad knees now and I have scoliosis. My hips are sore and my sciatic acts up. A lot has to do with the fact that we were in a car accident 5 1/2 years ago and I sprained my SI joint. I was pregnant at the time as well, so the further along I got in the pregnancy the worse my pain. So between the leg difference, the injury, and being pregnant, I had the perfect pain trifecta! I have bad days and good days, but I am always in some form of discomfort. Mostly my hips, back, and neck. Not necessarily painful, but just uncomfortable because something is out and I can't crack it. It is getting worse though. I've spent a lot of time the last few months in bed just because my hips hurt so bad. I can get around fine, but it was worth looking into the surgery. A girl I know had the same surgery done about 4 weeks ago. That's what got me going with the whole idea. I didn't even know this surgery existed until I heard she was having it done. I asked her about it and who she was seeing and once I had the info I contacted my doctor to get a referral in. My doctor was away, but I had the choice to see the resident if I wanted. I had been waiting for this surgery for 18 years. I didn't want to wait any longer :) I booked with the resident and I'm sooooo glad I did! The wait time just to get in to see Dr. Buckley is about 6 months. That's just to see him. I don't know how long it takes after that to get surgery. I kind of skipped all of that. I was looking at around a year though to get in and have surgery and be better again. I heard about this surgery at Easter time, I have surgery July 8th and it will be 2-3 months to heal. So a grand total of 5 months from start to finish!
When the receptionist called me to set my first appointment up, she said they had a surgery date open on July 8th and if I could come up on June 6th to see him I could have that day if he thought I could use the surgery. I instantly said yes. I couldn't pass on such a great opportunity. It is scary though. I haven't had a lot of time to completely think about it. I have thought about it, but I was expecting a lot more time.I keep thinking if I would have waited to see my regular doctor the receptionist wouldn't have had my referral that day and I wouldn't have gotten in so fast.
Anyways, June 6th was yesterday. I took my xrays up with me and I met with 2 surgeons and 2 med students. I read up on my doctor and all I read was he was mean, abrasive, made people cry, so on and so on. He was supposed to be a brilliant orthopedic surgeon though. I was okay with this. I LOVED him. He was funny, to the point, concerned.....I knew he wouldn't mess around and I knew he wouldn't do something he wasn't comfortable with. He said normally he would turn me away. The leg length discrepancy was not quite large enough for them to normally operate. Mine is just under 1.5 cm and he said they like it to be at least 1.5 cm difference. But, because I was having such problems and I was determined to have it done he let me. What can I say, I'm really good at being persuasive :) He was concerned that normally someone with my problem wouldn't see much of a difference because their problems wouldn't be so bad. He didn't know if it was necessary to put me through the pain and the risk and have nothing change. I get that. I'm not going into this light heartedly. It will suck. There are risks. There could be complications. My leg could hurt for a long time after....it might not help the pain.....I could lose a leg......my life.......it could work and I could be pain free.
It's only been the last 5 years that it has gotten worse. I am 30. What am I going to be like in another 5 years? 10 years? 30 years? I am young and have a lot of life left in me. I want to enjoy it. I want to be able to run a marathon. I would like to be able to just walk around for the day with out my hip locking up or my back hurting so bad it takes a good 15 minutes to relax after I lay down because the pain is so bad. It is worth it to me.
I let him know how I feel ^ and I also told him that him telling me he won't do it is going to be harder for me to deal with than to actually have the surgery. I also told him that if I don't have it July 8th......he did try to get me to think about for a couple of months and then come back in.....that I most likely won't ever have it done. It was just too perfect this way. He consented, filled out my papers, and told me I owe him a bottle of wine :) He totally made my week, month, year!
So, I have a month until surgery. A month to get prepared. I have 17 days from the day of my surgery until I will be at home with girls all by myself. We are really good at taking it easy, so that is what we will do. I will be getting freezer meals ready, cleaning, and laundering so that I don't have to worry about it. Jar is good at helping out as well, so we will be good. I'm just thankful it worked out that we could stay at my mom's and have my sisters around to help watch the girls during the day. If this surgery wasn't in the summer and I had to do it at home by myself I don't know if I would be so gung ho about it. And if the surgery doesn't help with the pain like I'm hoping, at least my jeans won't wear out on the right side anymore :)

My giveaway!

Well, I might as well blog about this, since I'm trying to get everybody else to! If you don't know, I have been selling vinyl out of my home as a hobby for the last 4 years. I bought it for me to play with and selling it was just a bonus! I recently got into making hand stamped jewelry. I've seen it around and I bought some simple stamps to make some cute necklaces with some friends just before Christmas. It was so much fun! I didn't have the tools to make them look professional, but they were cute none the less.
The last couple of weeks I had some orders for the discs to go onto some FHE boards that I had made. They are magnetic and I made my magnets out my hand stamped discs and added some beads and charms to make the board uber cute! I think that's what the ball rolling and I debated on buying this HUGE starter kit. It was not cheap! It was not an easy decision! Jaron is still on strike. He is still working, but we can still feel the pinch. I decided to bite the bullet and buy it. I don't like doing things that are only half done or 'good enough'. So, it seemed necessary. I still need a few more things to get going the way that I would like, but soon I will be a stamping fiend!
I am having so much fun with it! I love being creative and being crafty. There is such a sense in accomplishment when you are done and you see what you have made. I seriously can't believe that I have made some really cute necklaces. There is a problem that comes with this though. Now that I am making my own necklaces pretty much from scrap, I seem to think that I need more designer stamps and more types of charms and beads and tools and metal and......well, you get the idea. I seriously have no patience when it comes to waiting to buy things that I think I need and that I know I will be buying eventually. I REALLY wish the strike would end!!!!!
Anyways, I will get to the point of this post now. Since I am starting a new adventure in the world of crafting I thought I would have a giveaway. The rules are simple. Go like my page on Facebook. It is called CreaTiffany's. Not CreaTiffany's Custom Vinyl......that is the old page. It will be removed once I have enough people liking my new page. So, go to the new page and like it. If you post in your facebook status about my giveaway you get one entry. If you blog about my contest you get another entry. If you buy over $15 dollars in vinyl you get another entry. If you buy a hand stamped item you get another entry. I will be making the draw on the 25th of this month. I figured I would leave enough time for people to decide what vinyl or jewelry they would like if they want some for the contest. The prize is for $40 worth of vinyl and a hand stamped necklace!
So, what are you waiting for?
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/CreaTiffanys/186902458013698

2011 so far

Well this year has proven to be interesting! A lot of change happening this year! Most of it good, but right now there is definitely a lot of stress that comes with it. The mine that Jar works for is on strike right now. They went on strike just over a week ago. Hopefully it doesn't last too long. He does have work until the strike is over, so that is good. He is working at a sawmill in Elko. He stays out there, so we don't see him from Monday morning until Saturday morning. Not ideal, but at least he has a job and it is only temporary.
Another change is Jar has started to work Primerica. He's taking his course and writing his exams in Calgary this weekend. He will be doing life insurance, RRSP's, and other financial planning. Hopefully it all goes well for him this weekend!
Those are the things that are stressing us out right now. Jobs and money......who would have thought? At least we are being taken care of and I am grateful for a hard working hubby! I'm also grateful for the connections that we have. We would be pretty hard up right now without them! So, I guess I can sacrifice a little bit and try really hard not to complain, because I know there are other families out there that aren't so lucky.
On to better news......I'm going to be an Auntie!!! Finally! My brother Bo and his wife Kimm are having a baby boy this summer! Jar and I have been the only ones married on both sides of our family up until last year. My brother and his sister both got married last year. Actually, my brother got engaged the night Jar's sister got married. I think that's how it went anyways. Pretty exciting stuff! Our kids have been the only grand kids as well. They are spoiled to the nines, but it will be so good for them to have cousins!
I know so many people that are pregnant or just had a baby. It's crazy! I definitely would love to have another little baby around, but then I start to think about my awful labors and it goes away real quick! I think I'm just going to leave the baby making to everyone else. I will definitely have a lot of babies around in the near future to love.
I think there is only one more bit of 'news' left. I got a new calling in church last week. One that I am feeling very inadequate for......Relief Society teacher. I have never taught a single thing in church ever. Nothing. I also tend to have panic attacks and hyperventilate in certain situations, so hopefully teaching Relief Society is not one of them. I definitely have mixed emotions about it. I am excited.....to learn and grow, but at the price of failing miserably? Not so excited about that. No, I don't think I will fail miserably, but it's there lurking in the back of my head. I'll let you know how that goes. I teach this Sunday. Maybe I should be preparing my lesson instead of blogging.....hmmmmmm.
Well, that's our life for this year so far in a nutshell!

My child is my greatest teacher

I am a terrible, horrible blogger. I try to stay away from blogs because I end up going to one to another to another and finding new blogs to follow. It's fun and I love it, but before I know it the afternoon is gone, or the evening, or both. I figure if I just don't look at all, I won't get sucked in!
This is definitely blog worthy though. I think so. It is one of those days that I don't want to forget the details or how I felt. Hmmmmm.......where to begin?

Mackinley loves to drink milk. She would drink it all day. So would her dad. When we are eating, he pulls out the glasses and gives me water, Macey water or juice, and Mackinley and him get milk. I have to buy 2-3 gallons of milk a week. I'm sure there's people out there that have me beat, but the milk is only going to 2 people. And one of them is 4. I think it's a lot of milk.

So one day Mackinley starts to complain about having stomach pains. It kept happening more and more frequently. I tried to keep a mental note of what she was eating, drinking, doing those days. Nothing really seemed to really stand out. After about 6 months of this I took her in and they told me that it was normal. She was probably just stressed from getting trouble about something is what they told me. I was a little irritated, but that was my answer. A couple of months later I took her in for something else and I asked them about it again. They ran some blood tests to check for Celiac's and some other things. She came back negative for the Celiac's, but they told me she has low iron levels. Welcome to the club little one! It's not a fun one to be in, but there are worse. I'm gonna blame my mom for that one. ;) So that didn't really give me any answers either. It started to get worse. She was complaining more and she started getting diarrhea with it. I knew there was something more going on.

I noticed that after she drank a glass of milk she would complain about a stomach ache. I took her off milk and told she wasn't allowed to drink it anymore. This seemed to help out a lot. She would still get tummy aches sometimes.....like after eating Kraft dinner. I felt so bad for her. Kids seem to be so much more littler when they are sick and not feeling well. She would come up to me and say "Mommy, I had a bad poo." It always made me laugh, but I tried to keep it stifled. My heart was hurting, don't worry. I'm not a horrible mother.
This week I went visiting teaching and dropped the girls off at a friends. When we got home later she had cramps again and more diarrhea. I asked her if she had drank milk that day. "No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Well, what did you have to drink?"
"Just eggnog."

I booked an appointment the very next day. At this appointment we got a resident. He was pretty good, but I wasn't too impressed when he told me that a lactose test isn't really necessary. He told me that as long as withholding milk was working than that she be good enough. Obviously he didn't know that milk was such a huge thing for her. It's not even that she likes it so much. It was a thing she had with her dad. It was something that bonded them. They don't have a lot, so I wasn't about to so easily give up on this one. I wanted to make sure that she for sure wasn't allergic to milk or was lactose intolerant. What if she's not and I take it away from her? I didn't really think it was very fair to her. So we booked the test.

She had the test today. I had mentally prepped her for it. She knew she was getting a needle. I didn't want to just show up and surprise her with it. She had to be fasting for it, so I figured she was going to be miserable because she was hungry. She was completely the opposite! We went in and they took her blood. She was a little apprehensive, but she didn't fight me or cry. I have a tube of Lidomax, so that helped as well. It was my 'magic cream'. She then had to drink a HUGE amount of.....something. She drank over 3 full glasses of the stuff. The lady was so impressed with her she gave her 5 stickers. Then we had to wait for an hour and take her blood again. Mackinley was a little bit more nervous this time and I had to hold her a lot tighter. She still didn't cry or fight, but you knew she wasn't liking it. They gave her 10 more stickers. After another half hour she had her last needle. She didn't cry or fight again and she went in knowing that this was the last one. She sat good and was much more relaxed. The lab tech had brought out 2 stuffed bears for her to pick out of. A pink one and a brown one. She told her to decide which one she would like while she was poking her. She of course picked the pink one, but they ended up giving her both! They were really great with her!

This is were my lesson comes in. The lady also gave her some papers with the last 10 stickers so she could put them on and have something to do while we waited. Mackinley went straight to work making cards. One for me, Macey, Jar, and then herself. She is always making me things and drawing pictures for me, but this really touched me. It was all I could do to sit there and watch her and not start crying in the middle of the waiting room for no apparent reason. I was so amazed that a 4 year old could do that. They were her stickers that she got for getting a needle. She was scared, that was her reward for being good and she made cards for everybody else first. So simple, yet so powerful. Why is it that kids are so amazing? She didn't even think anything of it either. She didn't have any ulterior motives. She was making us cards to make us happy because she loved us. She was serving us. I was definitely a very proud mom.

Only a little bit more to the story, I promise. I took her out for lunch where ever she wanted. She of course picked McDonald's. Jaron took Macey out hunting while we were out and he met us at Walmart. He dropped Macey off and headed into Lethbridge. After we were done shopping we went into the car and Macey saw Mackinley's new bears. Mackinley told Macey she could have the brown one. Again, she was so giving of herself. The brown one instantly got named Chocolate by Macey. Then she kept biting it and laughing, "It's chocolate!"
Mackinley named hers Tongue-y, because tongues are pink.

How I love my kids! I'm glad that we can have moments like these. I'm grateful for the example she has given me of service and love. Especially at this time of year. So, Mr. Resident Doctor, whether you deem that test to be necessary or not, I'm glad we did it. Without it I would never have gotten to have that experience with Mackinley. What a great kid I was given!

Love you Mackie!

I haven't blogged for awhile, but this is definitely worth it!!!! I think I will die if I win, and I will die if I don't win......so it was nice knowing ya!
A girl I know from Magrath is doing a photography giveaway. It is one of a kind. It's for mom's. You get your makeup and hair done and then a photo shoot afterwards! I better freaking win.
Check her stuff out. She is great! She is the one who did our family photos on this blog. Check her out at www.mandybakerblog.com.
Wish me luck!

Another day with the Mallard's

We decided yesterday to go for a trip through Logan's Pass and got eat at our favorite restaurant in Kalispell....HuHot! Of course we (I) had to some Ross shopping and check out the new 24 hr Walmart in Kalispell. 24 hr Walmart bring me great happiness. I don't know what it is, but when we're in the states and are by a Walmart that is 24 hr I won't go during the day. Well, I do, but I will go for sure in the middle of the night. Just because I can. And it's awesome. It's a good thing this Walmart was open all night because we would be driving home right now instead of actually being home. I'll get to that later.
So we leave and get to the pass. We bought the annual pass because if we spent $25 we had a pass for a week which actually was only the day because we won't be going back this week. If we spent $10 more we had a pass until the end of August next year. Ummmmm, it only made sense to buy the annual. We got to the pass and it was beautiful! As always. It was fun to drive through with the girls and see them all excited to see the water coming off the rocks and the cliffs and all the flowers. I really hope they love it there as much as I do one day. It was a little slow going because of some construction, but other than that it was great! I hung my feet and my arm out the window, we had the music going and everyone was singing. Fun times!
We go to Kalispell and went straight to Ross. It was grand. Then we hit HuHot's. I can't tell you how awesome it is to eat there. I will never eat at Mongolian Grill again. Ever. Unless someone else is paying. I had a $36 bowl at Mongolian once and ate the whole thing. Coincidentally, our entire bill last night for 2 adults and 2 kids was $36, tip included. And I ate more. For those of you who don't know what HuHot or Mongolian Grill is, first, you need to get out more. Second, they are restaurants where you go up with a bowl and pick out your raw meat and fresh veggies and then you put sauce on it. You take it to the cooks and the fry it up for you on a big huge grill. At Mongolian Grill they weigh your bowl and that's how much you pay for your meal. You can go up more than once, but you get your second bowl measured too. If you don't get meat they will charge you less. Just in case you want to save a few bucks! They don't grill it in front of you, they grill it and your waitress brings it out to you. At HuHot's you do the same thing.....you go get your meat and veggies and sauces and you take it to the grill and you get to watch them cook it for you. The cooks toss their.....I don't know what they are called....let's call them metal cooking things. So they toos their metal cooking things around in the air while they are cooking and it is pretty impressive. If you give them a tip you get to ring the gong. The girls love doing this! They give you your plate and you go sit and eat. It is a beautiful dining experience. Until the 3rd helping and it's time to go to the bathroom. I was in the bathroom yesterday and while I was in there making some more room, I thought that restaurant must have more pooh go through it than any other restaurant. There's your thought of the day!
After stuffing ourselves we went to Walmart. It was grand! It is brand new and did I mention it is open 24 hrs? I took my time. I wanted to see everything! We looked around and got a few things. Now that I think about it, I didn't look at the shoes. How could I not look at the shoes?!?!?!? I'm a little upset right now. Even Jar says that's sad. I think he's being sarcastic. By the time we're done it's getting late and the girls are getting tired and cranky, so Jar took them out to the car while I took everything through the till. I'm always surprised to see how many people shop so late at night. I finally got through and went to the car. Mackinley said something about her little puppy that she put in her purse and my stomach felt sick. While we looked at the toys we saw these little tiny stuffies that were $2.50. They were cute little things so I told the girls if they were good I would get them one. I took them out of the cart later because Macey didn't seem that interested in them and I thought I had them all out. Lo and behold she had one that she had put in her purse and when Jar took them to the car, the little puppy went with them. So my kid stole a toy. I'll be honest, the thought did cross my mind to just forget about it, not a big deal. But, I knew I couldn't do that, so I grabbed it, put it in the box, grabbed Mackinley and off we went back into Walmart. She was crying because I got mad at her for stealing, so when I took her in to take it back the ladies already knew what was going on. They were really great. The one lady knelt down on the ground and I told Mackinley to give it back. She just stood there and cried. I knew she wasn't going to say sorry like I told her she needed to. I had to hold her arm so she could give it back. I don't know if it was because I was embarassed or I felt so bad for her, or both, but I started to to choked up. I apologized for her and the lady said thank you and we left. How awful. I know Mackinley didn't really know what stealing was, but hopefully she does now. At least enough to not do that again.
We got gas and headed home. So we thought. We were 10 minutes from the border and all of the sudden we see police lights flashing. Oh great. Just what we need. Jaron wasn't driving ridiculously fast, but the night speeds are different and he didn't take that into account. The cop clocked him at 78 mph. So he asks for our license and registration...the routine. I had our insurance papers in my purse because I kept forgetting to take it to the car. I figured if I had in my wallet then if I needed it I would know where it was. I went to get it out of my purse and I couldn't find it. The cop said he'd go and when he came back he would look at our other papers. We gave him our registration, but I told him the insurance was in my wallet and it's missing. He let me go and look in the trunk and it wasn't there either. He let us go with a warning. I think he felt bad for us. I don't think he believed us, but he felt bad for us. So we turned around to drive the hour that we had already driven. I got our states phone out to try and phone Walmart to see if they had it. As I was trying to figure it out Jar slammed on the brakes. I knew something bad was happening even before I looked up. Stupid deer. There were 2 crossing the road. We knew the first one wouldn't be the issue it was the 2nd one. It's always the 2nd one. I was prepared to hit it and at the last instant Jar was able to swerve and just miss it. We kept driving. I couldn't get a hold of Walmart so we had to stew for an hour.
We got there and they had it. Yay! It happened to be one of the ladies that I had just dealt with when I took Mackinley in. How embarrassing. She told me "When we looked at your license and saw Alberta we were hoping you wouldn't get too far. And then I saw picture and thought 'I remember you." Great. That's what every mother of a thieving child wants to hear.
So we were back on the road. It was after 1:30 in the morning. When we got to Eureka we saw the same cop driving through town. He saw us and you could tell he recognized us. Hopefully he believed us now for sure! We got back in with no hassle and then made it home safely. There were a couple more deer and elk on the road, but none as close as the one we almost hit.
When we got home we put the girls to bed and Jar set up a mattress on our deck on top of the garage. The stars were amazing. We laid there and talked about our crazy, yet great day. It was 5 in the morning. The sun was starting to come up. We went in to bed and nobody woke up until after 10. It was good.

My baby's turning 2!!!

Macey turns 2 next week. She is growing up WAY too fast. Which means Mackinley grows up WAY too fast. It's kinda sad. She really is fun right now though. She copies everything Mackinley and I say. She calls her sister Mackie. I think that's one of my favorite things. She really loves her sister and when they play nice, it is so cute.
Macey is one of the most thoughtful and caring little ones I know. She can also throw a nasty tantrum. She's quite evenly balanced in the naughty and nice department. She is a great Mommy's helper. She loves to help with anything...the cleaning, cooking, Mommy's make up.....you name it. If I'm doing it, she wants in.
She started off as the most relaxed baby I ever met. She has always been a cuddler. I absolutely LOVE this about her. The first few months of her life I wouldn't put her down unless absolutely necessary. I love holding my babies and she loved to be held. She didn't like baby food. I tried for a couple of months to get her to eat it, but she just wouldn't. I ended up giving her whatever we ate just in small pieces because she didn't like it pureed. She started walking at 9 months. She developed into a monster shortly after this. Once she could walk around she became independent and my personal nightmare. Looking back it couldn't have been that bad because I can't remember specifics, or maybe it was that bad and I am so traumatized by it all I've blocked it from my mind. She was my birth control for a long time anyways.
It took a year for me to get pregnant with her. And after I was pregnant I didn't want to say anything about it until the first trimester was done. I had just found out that I had a blood clotting disorder that increases my chances of miscarriage and I have a hormone disorder called PCOS which doesn't really help either. We were moving a few weeks after that, so we kept it quiet until after we moved. I didn't want sympathy help. Yes I'm stubborn. Once we were moved we finally told people. I was 16 weeks pregnant.
I was always told each pregnancy feels different. I found they were exactly the same. I was tired, nauseous, had aversion to smells in the first part, but I never threw up in the first trimester. The second my sciatic would start to act up, I could eat and eat and eat, and I felt really good. The third trimester was long and uncomfortable and painful. Not only did the pregnancy feel the same the babies felt the same. They were both stretchers and they were in the exact same position. I truly felt like the same baby. They both would push their little feet under my rib cage on the right side. Macey did flip to the left once for about a day and it was so bizarre to feel her kicking somewhere else. I didn't really like it.
Macey was born on the 25th of August 2008. She was born at 7:37 in the morning. It was Monday morning. I took castor oil right after church hoping to have her that evening. Nothing worked so I went to bed thinking that I'd just have to wait. I wanted her to come sooner than later because after everything that happened with Mackinley I couldn't be induced and I didn't want to have another C-section if I didn't have to. I woke up around 12:30 with contractions. I laid there trying to switch positions in bed to see if that would stop them, but they kept coming. I called my mom to see what I should do. While we were talking my water broke. She was coming down to stay with Mackinley so we got off the phone so she could get down here and I called my friend Alita to come and stay with Mackinley until my mom could get down here. By the time we got to the hospital it was 2:00. I was indeed in labor! I had to have a nurse with me at all times to watch for any stress signals just in case I needed a c-section. I was able to get an epidural which was sooooo great! They told me around 5:30 to start pushing. I was in active labor for 2 hrs! It was awful. My doctor kept trying to get me to try pushing in different positions......lay on your side, try pulling yourself up with the bar, try turning around.....all I want to do is lie on my back! Leave me alone! I wasn't excited this time to be going through labor. I was nervous and apprehensive and scared. As I was pushing Jaron sat at the head of the bed talking to the doctor about hunting. Seriously. Hunting. Good thing I had such great nurses to help me out. She finally came after 2 long hours. She was perfect. She looked like Mackinley. I didn't bond with her the same way I did with Mackinley. It wasn't instant and I thought there was something wrong with me. We went home the next day and I thought I would be able to relax and get to know the newest member of the family. I was wrong.
The next evening Jaron was on the computer and I turned on the TV. America's Got Talent just started. As I was watching I noticed that I couldn't see the left side of people's face. Their left, my right. We have a projector so I thought maybe it had something to do with that. I looked over at Jar and his face was gone as well. I tried to stay calm. I went upstairs and looked in the mirror. I couldn't see my face either. I went and sat upstairs and I started to develop a scintillating scotoma. It was a gold ring that I could see and anything in my field of vision that was near it was swirling. It was weird. I tried to see if it was a side effect of the blood thinners I was just put on, but I couldn't read the paper. That's when I told Jar he needs to take me to the ER.
We got there and they saw me pretty quickly. I told them what was happening and they said they needed to make a few calls. It's a small ER. You hear everything that is going on. I could hear them talking about me and I heard "STARS". I started to get worried. He came in and I already knew what he was going to say. They wanted to make sure I wasn't having a stroke and they needed to fly me up to Calgary. I called Jar because he took Mackinley to go get A&W just down the road. He was on his way back and he dropped their food and booked it back to the hospital. I called my mom so she could meet us in Calgary to pick up Mackinley. We ended up having to go by ambulance because STARS was busy or something. I was okay with that. As soon as I got there they started doing tests. The CAT scan showed a blockage in an artery in my brain that was already breaking up. This meant stroke. I still had to have an MRI the next morning to see if there was damage. I had a bunch of heart tests. One was called a bubble test. They injected bubbles into my heart and it was supposed to show if there were leaky valves. It was kinda cool.
I was put in the trauma wing for the first night and part of the next day. Then they moved me to the stroke floor. I had the worst nurse in history. She gave me too much blood thinners. My levels were WAY too high. I can't remember exactly what they were, but I know there was investigation done about it afterwards. They weren't very helpful and I got put in basically a closet. There was a bed and just enough room to fit the pump. I wasn't allowed to nurse for about 36hrs because they injected me with dye for the CAT scan and MRI. It was so tiny. And boring. It was good for me though because that is when I got to start bonding a bit with Macey. We were holed up together in the tiniest of rooms and couldn't leave. We got released on the Saturday and we went up to Lacombe and got Mackinley. We drove home after that and I stayed on blood thinners for 2 months. My stomach looked pretty gross with all the bruises from sticking myself that many times.
So, that's Macey's story. Different than Mackinley's by a long shot. Both scary. People ask if we're going to have more. I am a little hesitant. Can ya blame me?
It was all worth it though. Life just wouldn't be the same without Macey. She is a special little girl that I love to pieces!