"A Sphincter Says What..."

For those of you who know me well, you know that I've been experiencing some terrible chest pain episodes throughout my pregnancy with Jaren. I started having them about month 5 and so I looked online on WebMD to see if I could find out what it could possibly be. The pain would come at night, often waking me up. It would come on strongly and spread from my chest to my back, eventually affecting my whole torso. It would be a horribly painful constricting pain in my chest. I would experience nausea and feel like I was burning up. Usually I would vomit and immediately feel better. Sometimes it would last for up to 2 1/2 hours of intense pain, never being able to find a comfortable position to be in. It would help to have a cold washcloth on my forehead or the back of my neck. It was just EXTREMELY PAINFUL! All signs pointed to gallstones. BUT, the only way to diagnose this problem was by ultrasound, and being pregnant meant that my innards were all squished together so chances were that I couldn't get a good reading by ultrasound.

Wednesday, July 25th - I had my first "episode" after having Jaren. I woke up at 4 am in extreme pain. I asked Ed to give me a blessing (a special prayer) for healing and comfort. I could not get comfortable and eventually vomited, but alas, I was still in a tremendous amount of pain. After a few hours I fell asleep. When I awoke later that morning I was still in some pain. (Usually I would be pain-free after the episode) Ed made an appointment for me to see the doctor and he thought I should get the long awaited ultrasound. He scheduled it for the next morning at 9:30. I had to fast and so I hadn't had anything to eat for what seemed like an eternity!

Thursday, July 26th - I went to Covenant Hospital to have the ultrasound, but had to wait until the next day to see the doctor to have him tell me the results and such. At this time I was pain free. At about 3 pm I was holding Jaren and I started having a horrible headache, one of the worst ones I'd ever had, so I called Ed and told him to skip working out and come home as soon as he could. Jaren was being fussy, which wasn't good for my headache and then the pain in my chest started again... I started to cry a little because my head was throbbing, my chest felt like it was going to explode and Jaren was inconsolable. SO... Oliver called Ed at work and told him to come home. He then took me to the E.R. and there I found out what I had suspected all along. I was FULL of gallstones! I was admitted and was getting ready for surgery the following day.

Friday, July 27th - At about 4:15 I had my surgery to remove the troublesome gallbladder. I woke up and was in LOTS OF PAIN, more than my recovery from having Jaren!!! They gave me morphine to control the pain, but it was not doing a whole lot. Dr. Gesme said that it wasn't over yet. I was like... "What?" I guess there was a renegade gallstone stuck in my duct that has to be taken out. (It just couldn't be easy... could it!?!)

Saturday, July 28th - Well, today I had to get a scope and get that stone out. I was nervous because the nurse said that I would have to lay down on my stomach for the procedure! OUCH! Yeah... that hurt. It was kind of crazy in there before they put me out. I don't know if it was a shift change or what, but people were all over the place. I actually saw the scope and it was long and thick (about as thick as my finger)! Yowzers! I must not have been out all the way because I felt them SHOVING it down my throat... I horrific feeling I must say... yes... SHOVING IT DOWN MY THROAT! UUUGGGGHHHH!!!! Yes... I do remember it! Anyways... Dr. Reedy performed the surgery and he had to cut my sphincter muscle to get out the stone that was lodged in there. Soooooo much fun!

Sunday, July 29th - Mom and Bry came to visit me in the hospital and Bry was making me laugh so hard... YEAH... Laughing after having your gallbladder out... not a good thing to do! Anyways... they let me go home today!

Pow-Wow with the Palmer's & Wawros... :)

*Wow... it's already been a week since the family has left us, but I had to blog about all of the fun we had on our vacation! On Tuesday, July 1oth, Jared (Ed's brother) and Emily came with their two girls, Aubrey, age 6, and Natalie, age 3. We've never met the girls before because they live in California! We all met up at Randy (Ed's brother) and Naomi's to wait for them to get there from the hotel. As they are walking up to the house, Oliver and Eden scream out the window, "Our cousins are here!" They were SOOO excited to finally get to meet them!

*The next day it was Oliver's 6th birthday and so we had a party for him at Byrnes park. This was the first birthday that he actually had cousins here, Aubrey, Natalie and little Lydia, 3 months old! They all had fun playing with Oliver and Eden's friends as well. We played kickball and dodgeball and grilled hotdogs for everyone. We also had a pinata for the kids and they got enough candy to be doped up on for the next century! We also swam that evening at the hotel that Jared and Emily were staying at.

Oliver posing next to his birthday cake.

Cousin Aubrey chasing Oliver during an exciting game of dodgeball!

*Thursday we went on a family picnic to the park at Elk Run School. The kids played on the equipment and Ed and Danny shared a challenging game of tetherball together! (All I could think about was the end scene in Napoleon Dynamite! "I caught you a delicious bass.") Ed briefly explained the rules of tetherball to me as Danny was calling him a cheater! Then we all went to Lost Island Waterpark and played a round of miniature golf... this time Ollie didn't pee by the tree, thank goodness! Ed and Jared reinacted "The Crane" scene from The Karate Kid movie as well, which I thought for sure they would come crashing down and bust their heads! We also went on go-cart rides. Natalie and Aubrey both wanted to ride with Uncle Ed, but Natalie rode with her daddy instead. Ollie rode with me and said that he had so much fun riding around so fast!

Eden, Oliver, Natalie & Aubrey having fun at the park.

Danny calling Ed a cheater during a game of tetherball.

Ed reinacting "the crane kick" from The Karate Kid.

Ed and I picking the Tiki's rather large nostrils.

*Friday was a lazy day for us. Some of the family had gone to Nauvoo for the day to see the temple as well as the pageant.

*Saturday the rest of the families got here. Aaron, Andrew and Aiden came along with Eric, Alex and Liam (We missed Agi, Ali, Ashton as well as Anna and Joshua. We also missed Matt and Kari and their family!) They all went swimming at the hotel while I relaxed at home with Jaren for a bit. (I had just given birth about two weeks earlier!!) Evidentally the guys were a little rough and someone broke a light with a ball... hmmm... I wonder who that was... :) So... they had to shut down the pool area to clean out the pool. After that we all went to the movies. Some of us saw "Harry Potter", some saw "Ratatouille" and the rest saw, "Transformers". After that we met up with Bill and Janene (Ed's Sister) and their kids, Carina, Gabe, Brittan and Derek. We caravaned over to our favorite restaurant, Las Margaritas, and had dinner there. We took up like four tables and two boothes. Some men were playing music for us while we were there, which was a nice surprise. I bet they were glad when we left... :)

The "Fam" waiting for a large enough area to eat!

Eden sharing her beans and rice with Natalie.

*Sunday, we had the baby blessings for Lydia Marin Palmer and Jaren Freeman Palmer at church. This was the main reason that the family had decided to come. It was a really special time to have so much of the family there! After church we had family pictures outside and then went to David and Janine's for lunch outside. *The weather was GORGEOUS the whole week! What a blessing!* We all sat and talked while the cousins got to play together. Then we played the game, Celestial Companions, which is a cleaner LDS version of the Newlywed Game. We were all laughing at some of the answers that were given! I think that Naomi and Randy beat us all! :)

The Palmer and Wawro Families getting our pictures taken outside of the church building.

Eric, Danny, Aaron, Randy & Lydia, David, Ed & Jaren, Jared & Bill.

Our Family

*Monday morning Aaron, Eric and the boys left to go back to Utah. We wished we could have seen them more, but we were SO GLAD that we had the time that we did to spend with them. That day, the rest of the family went to Backbone State Park which is about an hour east of us. We rented the beach lodge and the kids swam and built sandcastles and stuff. Bill got really creative and made a sand sculpture of a mermaid. There were also paddleboats and canoes to rent as well! We rented a canoe and took the kids around the lake... pretty much in circles since we really didn't know how to maneuver the darn thing! Eden was yelling, "I want to go back... I'm gonna die!" I was laughing at Ed because of all four of us... he's the Eagle Scout! Don't they teach you how to steer a canoe in the Boy Scouts! All the outdoor stuff I know how to do, I learned from watching "Survivor"! :) Anyways... we had a good laugh! We also played some board games in the lodge as well. The kids had a ball, like they always do! Later, we packed up and headed to Independence to eat at the Pizza Ranch. As we were driving back home, it started to rain and then just POUR! We were definitely in a Thunderstorm. I'm glad Mother Nature waited until the last night that our company was there to really let loose! We were in Jared and Emily's hotel room and they were just loving the weather! We said our goodbye's to the Wawro's that night as well. We ended up staying at the hotel and watched a movie with Jared and Emily and the girls.

Carina, Aubrey and Brittan playing in the water.

Bill making a sand mermaid. Ollie thought it was pretty cool.

Eden and Natalie strutting their stuff on the beach!

Derek and Oliver throwing handfuls of sand into the water.

Our first family canoe ride that didn't even last 15 minutes! Eden thought she was going to die and wanted to see the beach again!

The last time the kids saw each other. Jaren and I in the chair. Eden, Carina, Aubrey, Natalie, Brittan and Ollie in back. Derek and Gabe in the front. They had a BLAST together!

*It was hard to say goodbye to everyone! It had been 7 years since we'd see Jared and Emily! It's been at least 3 since we'd seen everyone else. We had so much fun while they were here. I really hope that they enjoyed spending time with us as well! The kids REALLY miss their cousins. Just today, Eden said that she wanted to have a sleepover with Aubrey and Natalie. I had to remind her that they live in California!

Squirt gun fight with Great Grandpa

Well my Grandma and Grandpa Young came up to visit us and to see little Jaren for the first time. The kids always love to see their Great Grandparents! Oliver was outside and then Gramps disappeared outside as well. I saw Grandpa come in and refill the water tank of a large squirt gun in the kitchen sink. I followed him outside with my camera in hand... (because I'm the "Palmerazzi" of course)... and got some fun pictures of them soaking each other! Gramps would say, "Oh, I'm out of water," or "Oh, my gun's broken". Oliver would fall for it and start walking over to Gramps to check it out and then Gramps would squirt him and start laughing. Of course Ollie catches on and does the same thing to Gramps! It was so funny watching them play together in the driveway! Ollie was SOAKING wet afterwards!

Just call me... COLONEL MUSTARD!

Well, Jaren is two weeks old today and he's doing really well. Yesterday he had his two week checkup and the doctor says that he looks just perfect! It's so fun to see him smiling in his sleep!

Ed was changing Jaren's diaper and he said that Jaren has "mustard poops". So we now lovingly refer to him as, "Colonel Mustard"!!! (Which we thought was quite hilarious!)

Oliver and Eden love to hold him and feed him. Oliver was feeding him the other day and was trying to burp him when all of the sudden Ollie says, "Oooowww! My chest hair!". Evidentally Jaren was clawing Ollie's skin on his chest! (Jaren is always tugging away at Daddy's chest hair, so Ollie thinks he has some too!) I need to cut that kid's nails!

We are so excited for next week because most of Ed's family will be visiting from all over; Texas, Utah, California and Hungary! We wish everyone could be here for this reunion! We will get to meet two of our nieces for the first time ever! Oliver's 6th birthday is the 11th and he will have some cousins there to celebrate with! The kids are so eager to play with their cousins, that's for sure! Lydia (our 3 month old niece who lives about 5 minutes away) and Jaren will both have their baby blessings at church on July 15th. It will be wonderful to have so many relatives there. I'm sure we'll all have a blast!

A temper that "flares like a pack of hemorrhoids"!

Holy smokes, this kid goes from quietly sleeping to screaming bloody murder in like 2.5 seconds! He has no wind up cry to let us know that it's coming... it's just THERE! He stiffens up and turns bright red as he screams... really loud. We've been trying to change his diaper in record time because it's like the world is coming to an end! Right when we get him dressed back up and into our arms he is quiet again... just like that! It's crazy! He's our little fiesty one!!!

JAREN IS HOME!!!

FINALLY, Jaren is home with us! The kids are sooooooo excited to have him here! I see them always kissing him, touching his cheeks and "petting" him on his soft baby hair. They are itching to feed and hold him, but they'll have to wait a little longer for that. We'd like to let him heal from his circumcision first. Ed was telling them that he was cut down there and he told Ollie that he was also cut when he was a baby. Ollie said, "Yeah, I remember it." Then Eden looked at Ed and asked, "Did they cut mine, too?" I thought Ed was going to wet his pants laughing! Kids are so funny sometimes! We are so glad that Jaren is home and we don't have to wrestle around with all of the tubes, cords and wires anymore. He is just so sweet and cute... we are truly blessed!

Ready or not... HERE I COME!

I talked with Ed this morning and he said that Jaren is doing lots better. He still is having phototherapy, but they took the overhead lamp away and now he's just laying on the other light... my little glow worm! He was a little fussy last night with Papa at the hospital. We are expecting him to be released from his NICU penthouse tomorrow, Friday the 29th, around noon! YEA! He gets circumsized tomorrow as well... poor little man. We appreciate all of the prayers that have been said for him as well as the rest of our family. Heavenly Father has really been mindful of us at this time!

I've been home trying to get things ready for his arrival. I know that I was blessed to not have stitches or anything with this delivery. It was the easiest and smoothest labor and delivery compared to the other two! I couldn't hardly walk or sit for at least a week after Ollie and Eden were born. I've hardly had time to rest, being with Ed and Jaren at the hospital, hanging out with the kids at home and trying to get the house in some sort of order before he comes home!

The kids are so excited to have their brother home... not sure how long that excitement with last when they realize that babies cry alot! :) Ollie has been telling all of his friends that he has a baby brother and he's "so cute"! I know that they will be big helpers... if only for a little while.

A Bit of Humor in the Midst of Stress

Okay... Every day since I've been in the hospital I've been able to order room service. I call and tell them what room I'm in and what food I would like to order. They must be relying on memory because almost every time they've forgotten something or added something on that I didn't order.

Some things have been small, like... forgetting crackers with my soup or forgetting ketchup for the french fries. In those instances... not a huge problem. For the most part it's been things like... adding on Cream of Wheat for no reason whatsoever. They've forgotten to give me chips when I ordered them (on two occasions), chocolate cake instead of chocolate ice cream, cookies, a fruit bowl, etc. One evening I ordered my meal and Ed ordered a meal that would be billed to us. They forgot my chips (I was craving salt like a mad woman) and my fruit bowl. They also forgot Ed's strawberry ice cream. After several days of errors I finally called and told them what they had forgotten (especially when we are being billed for things that we didn't receive). About 5 minutes later, she brought the things up to us. Everything except for MY SALTY CHIPS!!! I was thinking, "What the crap! How hard is this to remember!?!" I just about walked my post labor self down to the cafeteria and got the doggone chips myself!





Now, Ed and I make bets on what will be forgotten when we receive our next meal. I slept here at home last night with the kids and Ed called me this morning and said, "Guess what they forgot..." I thought to myself, "HMMMM.... sausage?" Ed replied, "Sausage". Hey, after so much stress it's nice to find the humor in something!

If you feel the need to visit and bring us something, how about a bag of salty chips! Hehehe!

The Next Few Days in the NICU

Well, Jaren had a chest X-ray last weekend and the doctors spotted some gunk in his lung, which they are diagnosing as pneumonia. They are treating him with antibiotics and so he'll be here for several more days.

(This was the first time I held him.)

He has been on oxygen since the day he was born and has gone through several variations since. First, he had a clear plastic shield over his head, then he had several large tubes hooked up to a nasal tube and had to wear a little hat that held the tubes on tight. The hat always slid over his eyes, and we could hardly even see him through all of it. (I thought he looked like a little elephant with one of the tubes hanging out!) Finally, he just has a tube with the nasal prongs in it. They have been trying to wean him off of the oxygen so that he can breathe on "room air". He's doing better each day!

Also, he has jaundice so they started him on phototherapy for it yesterday, the 26th. He started with a lighted pad underneath him and has since added a light over the top of him. He has little shades covering his eyes, which are attached to his head with Velcro of all things! He looks like he's in a little tanning booth! It stinks because now we can only hold him while we are feeding him. He is a little cuddler that's for sure! :)

When they first hooked him up to the monitor, there were (and still are) several wires on his chest. He would constantly be trying to rip them off and rip the hoses off his face! So, they put socks on his hands and he's been better behaved since! (It's good that he's so fiesty, since he wasn't moving much after the delivery)

Introducing Our New Little Man...

So... as you know we did indeed have a little boy. His name is Jaren Freeman Palmer. I'm sure I will nickname him "J". I've already called him "Snip", "Bubba", "My Little Man", "Stink" & "Silly Boy". I'm sure I'll come up with more along the way... I know I have with the other kids! He weighed in at 8 lbs 5 oz and measured 21 inches long. Labor and delivery was about 7 hours. He's got lots of DARK hair and is the cutest little man! He looks alot like Eden when she was born. He struggled at first, but is slowly getting better each day! We'll take all the prayers for him that we can get!

Day of Induction - June 22, 2007

On Friday, June 22, 2007 we arrived to Allen hospital a little after 7:30 am for our scheduled induction at 8 am. I was very nervous and so I had stopped by the ladies room for a minute and then proceeded to the admissions area to get the rest of our paperwork finished. The admissions lady was rather chatty and we were running late already! We finally got upstairs around 8:15 am, but our doctor had already gone back to the Family Practice Center. We got settled into our room and I had Ed take a photo of me for the very last time pregnant with the baby. At my last doctor's checkup I was measuring at 41 weeks, so it was nice that I was going to be induced early... if only a DAY early! (My due date was Ed's birthday, the 23rd).

I was finally induced at around 9 am I didn't think it would take so long to start having contractions, since it only took like 20 minutes for the contractions to start with Eden. My mom came up and sat with us for most of the day. The contractions were getting more intense and finally when I got to a 5 I could get an epidural, "Hallelujah"! It worked right away and I was in heaven after that! Ed and I played some games and I did some crosswords and we watched some television. A little before 4 o'clock I started feeling some pressure and it felt like I had to poop. It went away and then came back again. I was about to ring for the nurse and then Dr. Day and the nurse came in. He checked me and said, "You're right. You are feeling pressure. The baby's head is right there!" They got everything ready for the delivery and a fellow doctor, Dr. Dechristina (?) came in as well. (My mom had actually left about 5 minutes earlier, thinking that I would be pushing for awhile). The baby pretty much just kept coming. I pushed a few times and it was going well. Dr. Day was gently guiding the baby through and I pushed about 3 more good pushes and before the last push, the nurse said, "Look down!" I of course couldn't see the baby because of my belly, but on the last push I heard the gush of liquid and then my belly just collapsed. (I wish that it would have collapsed into a 6 pack or something, but no such luck!) I saw the baby and Ed said, "It's a Boy!" Then they let Ed cut the cord. I started to tear up and we were excited that labor was over. He was born at 4:01.

The nurses took him over to get cleaned up and checked. After several seconds, he still was not crying or moving around much. I was quietly FREAKING OUT and looked at Ed and started to cry. I was thinking, "What is going on!?!" They weren't saying much to us, but there were at least 3 nurses and one doctor over by the baby and I kept hearing things like, "Come on little guy, you can do it, it's been 60 seconds, snap out of it." So, of course I was wondering what was happening. He was a nice shade of pink and looked okay, but was not crying at all. They called in another nurse and Dr. Waziri, the neonatalogist. He checked him for a murmur, but didn't find anything. I could only hear bits and pieces of what was going on.

Then they took him down to the NICU and plugged him up to all sorts of things. They thought it may be an infection of some sort so they were running all sorts of tests and doing x-rays and stuff. Dr. Waziri said that he thinks it's pneumonia so he's been on some antibiotics for that. He's on oxygen, antibiotics, sugar water (because he was born with low blood sugar as well). He has an IV in, tubes all over the place and wires hooked up to monitors to measure his heart rate, his breathing, and his blood oxygen level I believe. (The nurses are wonderful, by the way.) He will probably be in the hospital for 10 - 14 days. It's hard when you can't even hold your newborn baby...

Take me out to the ballgame!

On Friday night Ed, myself, the kids and my mom went to a Waterloo Bucks baseball game. The kids each had a free ticket to get into the game and when we got there a lady gave us three more tickets to get in! How nice was that!?! Oliver's favorite sport is baseball and the kids LOVE the movie, "The Sandlot", so I figured they would love seeing a real game played! Eden just ran up and down the stairs pretty much the whole time and Oliver kept waiting for a foul ball to catch!








They had fun getting their picture taken with the team's mascot, "Buck". He must have been so hot in that costume because it had to be in the 90's that night! Oliver even got his baseball glove signed by him!













Oliver thought he was hilarious when he made a beard out of cotton candy! What a crazy boy! We had such a fun time together!

Happy Anniversary to ME!

Well, today is the anniversary of my joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It has been 10 YEARS! I was baptized on June 14, 1997 at the age of 18! So hopefully everyone knows that it's not just a "phase" that I'm going through! It has been the best decision of my life! I have a REAL relationship with my Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. I know that they will never leave me comfortless. I feel more at peace than I ever have before. Things make so much more sense to me now that I have a firm foundation in the church. I am always trying to better myself and see things from an eternal perspective now, to be more Christlike in all that I do and say. I know that I will never be perfect in this life, but I know that I can constantly try my best and endure to the end. I know that my family has been blessed because of the Priesthood power that is felt in our home. I know that I am living the best life that I can live through the teachings of Jesus Christ as well as the prophets past and present. I am so blessed to have found the church and to have gone through many trials. I know that they are from a loving Heavenly Father and that they are to help us grow, gain strength and increase our faith in him! It is easy to ask why things are happening, but harder to accept that it is truly the Lord's will for us. I know that this church is the ancient church that Christ set up while He was on the earth. I know that the Lord STILL reveals many things to his chosen prophets that are on the earth today. I know that Joseph Smith truly experienced a vision, seeing God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, in the Sacred Grove and it's amazing that at such a young age, he remained steadfast, even while being persecuted for so many years... eventually resulting in his death. I have felt the spirit so strongly and I can't deny it. The Lord loves all of His children and has set up a plan that we ALL may be able to return to live with him someday. I hope more people can feel the way that I feel now. It is truly awesome!