I know, it has been a long time.

   Life goes by so quickly sometimes. This is especially true when you move to two different cities in one year due to promotions for Mark. In the last 13 months, we have lived in Cedar City, Orem, and now Ogden, Utah. And no, Mark isn't part of the military. He still works for Convergys. And he loves his new position as Operations Manager, which is good, he is supposed to do it for around 5 years until he can get his next promotion.

   Addison is growing like a weed. She may only be average for height and really really skinny for her age, but she is pretty scrappy for her age. She started rolling at 3 weeks, crawling at 6 months after months of rolling everywhere, and then walking at 11 months. Now? At 19 months she is a runner and occasional climber. She also has a mouth full of teeth. We are at 12 in and 4 eye teeth pushing through. It is fun to watch her make connections to what you are saying and asking her to do. She is also interested in using the big girl potty, so we are trying to get her trained, half the time. But I am probably going to get on that full boar now that we are home for the fall.

   This summer has had tons of adventures. Besides moving to Ogden, we went home for a wedding and again to help Mark's mom recover from knee replacement. Addison learned a lot in the two weeks we lived with the Gabica's, like how to turn on solar lights, climb stairs like a big girl, and how to get whatever she wants from any of the grandparents. I am STILL trying to straighten her out! 

   Mark and I have also started running. I am training for a half marathon in Las Vegas this December. Hopefully my health problems are fixed so I can get back into the swing of things. It has been really fun sharing in the training with Mark. It is so nice to have an active hobby together.

   I can't think of anything else we have done in the last year or so. So without further ado, here are the pictures I am sure you are all dying to see...

   Addison, 2 hours old.

Addison, 1 year old

Addison, Mommy, and Isabel

She's Here!

YAY! The wait is FINALLY over and Isabel is now a big sister. Addison Emma was born on January 25 at 6:04 PM. As you may know, I was due on February 9, but Addison has been measuring big since the 19 week ultrasound and her large head was causing much concern to Dr. G as well as the specialist he sent us too. Because Isabel was born with Anencephaly, we run the risk of all of our children having some form of neural tube defects like Spina Bifida, all the cephalies, cleft lip/pallet, clubbed feet, etc. In Addison's case, her head measurements concerned our regular doctor because they indicated that she might have a condition called Hydrocephaly, or water on her brain. But, after a trip to the specialist, we told that her brain appeared to be healthy and that his concern was that I wouldn't get her out without a c-section because of how big she was.
So, from 32 weeks on, we worried that maybe the specialist was wrong and there really might be something wrong. We worried that she wouldn't come out sooner rather than later and as the due date got closer, Addison got bigger and bigger and bigger. By our 37 week appointment, the doctor was estimating Addison's weight at 8 1/2 pounds. And, if she was growing the average weight, by 38 weeks she would be 9 pounds. Still because Addison went from being breech to head down, Dr. G really wanted me to go into labor on my own in hope of avoiding a c-section. And I was so done being pregnant and worrying that she would be okay that I was begging Heavenly Father to let her be born already.
The days passed by after my 37 week appointment. My mother-in-law's birthday was on the 24th and she had really hoped Addison would be her birthday present. Mark and I hoped so too. However, I had hoped that Addison wouldn't come on the 25th because the Jazz were playing the Lakers and it was the State of the Union Address, so I really wanted to watch both. Yet, the 24th came and nothing happened. As we went to bed that night I was so sad she hadn't come, and so done with the pregnancy, that I didn't think anything of the contractions I was having. That is until they woke me up at at 2:30. I had been having regular contractions every day for 6 days on and off, so when these woke me up I got very annoyed. Seriously? How much sleep can a pregnant woman live without? But when I realized they were getting stronger, I woke up Mark and we started timing them. By 6:30 Mark took me to the hospital and we found out I was already 4 cm. YAY! But, like with my last pregnancy, I had developed polyydrominos again and again the doctor wanted to break my water in a controlled setting so we could insure that Addison wouldn't go into distress. So we did that and then, of course, he HAD to put me on pitocin because my water had been broken, blah, blah, blah. Then it was I wasn't contracting enough for them, so they turned it up and up and up. Soon the pitocin was up at 24 and I wasn't dilating AT ALL. I ended up getting an epidural because I couldn't handle the contractions without sobbing and right after the epidural went in, the nurse and doctor started talking about a c-section. Great. That is exactly what we were trying to avoid and begged the doctor to turn off the pitocin and just let my body do what it needed since Addison wasn't in distress(surprisingly). But within an hour I was going in for a c-section after 20 hours of labor. Addison was born, totally alert and ready to eat, at 6:04 PM.
Mark and I are so happy that she (1) is healthy (2) came early and (3) is the happiest little baby. She only cries if she is hungry, then she howls because she is "starving" (can't you tell by looking at her?). She really has been the perfect baby for us after the heartache we feel for losing her sister. But we can feel Isabel close to us right now, proud of her little sister.

Out of the woods, we think.

Well, we went to the specialist yesterday and Addison is measuring big, but not out of normal range. And he said judging by Mark's large head and my large feet, we have good stock for making large babies. She is now measuring 5 pounds and 18 inches long, so she fits in the 90 percentile for size right now. He just told me to get her to come out before 41 weeks and everything should be normal.
Except for one thing. The little stinker switched from head down to breech a few days ago, so now we have to coax her to flip back around. Today my regular doctor gave me some exercises that have been shown to help convince babies to go back the way they should. I am sure she will get sick of her current position and always having her head in my ribs and she flip back around.
So, as of right now, we are no longer high risk, again. That is so nice to say! We are just so thankful and blessed for all the support we have been given and for all the prayers everyone has prayed on our behalf. There is no way we can thank you all enough.

Here we go again

Since my last post, a lot has happened in this pregnancy. First, I flunked my one hour glucose test and had to take the three hour to see if I had gestational diabetes. I passed that test with no problems. YAY! But that was a very scary week for us.
With that behind us, we thought that maybe the rest of the pregnancy would be quiet. But then we went to our next doctor's appointment and found out I have been measuring 2 weeks ahead since the doctor started measuring me. I wasn't really surprised, Isabel was a large baby and so was Mark, so it just seems natural that all of our babies would be large too. And we already knew that Addison was measuring ahead at her 20 week ultrasound, so we didn't think that measuring 2 weeks ahead was that big of deal. That is until 2 weeks later when I was measuring 4 weeks ahead...
Because of the large increase in such a short time, my doctor told us to go get a level 2 ultrasound to see just how large she really is getting. So yesterday we had the ultrasound and apparently, Addison is totally taking after her dad. I was 31 weeks 5 days yesterday, but Addison's head is measuring 35 weeks 5 days, her tummy is measuring 35 weeks 4 days, and her leg is measuring right on for where she should be. That means her measurements are averaging her at 33 weeks 5 days, or 3 weeks ahead. She should be about 3 pounds 8 ounces and she is 4 pounds 14 ounces. And while that may seem exciting to some people (she will come early!) it really isn't. Big doesn't mean developed, especially when it comes to her lungs, as my brother found out with his almost 10 pound baby that had a month stay in the NICU because her lungs weren't developed. And because I do not have diabetes, there really isn't a reason other than genetics to explain why she is getting so big and how we can deal with this growth.
So, to be safe, my doctor has scheduled me an appointment with a specialist in St. George to see what he recommends for us to do moving forward. I don't know what our options are, my doctor has the habit of being pretty silent of telling you how things really are until there is a second opinion. We are really praying I don't have to have a c-section and that I can get a healthy, term baby.
I am really tired of being a high risk pregnancy. What would it be like to go through pregnancy without thinking about the possibility of not bringing home your baby? What would it be like to never have anything go wrong, to go into baby stores and not secretly think about putting all the cute baby stuff away because something didn't go right, again. I know compared to some of my friends who have also lost a baby, my pregnancy still isn't as rough as theirs. And I have to say that I admire them all for trying again and having faith that everything will be okay, even though right now things look bleak. But for all of you that have been pregnant, you can understand how hard it would be to hear that this or that is going wrong, plus have all those pregnancy hormones swelling inside you, plus still grieving for the two babies we have lost in this journey. It is almost more than I can deal with some days.
We are asking everyone to please pray for us. Pray that we are able to get some answers as to why this happens. Pray that Addison is healthy and safe. And most of all, pray for a good outcome to all of this. We are so glad that we have so much support from friends and family and are asking for a little more at this time.

Catching up...

Wow! Can it really be since July that I last posted? I can't believe how long it has been. There is so much to catch everyone up on. First of all, Mark and I are very lucky that one of our babies has survived in this pregnancy and that we are having ANOTHER girl! We are so excited for Addison Emma to get here. She is so far perfect and healthy. We thought at first we might get a pretty chill baby because she didn't move very much and was pretty patient with ultrasounds. However, that all changed one day. I think Addison and her siblings had a chat and Addison was told that we were worried when she didn't move very much because now she is way active. We have parties at like 11PM, 4AM, and whenever Dad gets up for work. I guess she is training me well for after she is born. However, this pregnancy has been rough. First of all, we lost Addison's twin at around 7 weeks. Then I started having dizzy spells all the time. Just as that went away, I started having bad hip and pelvis pain that made Mark put me on bed rest. There are days still that I can't even walk very well on my own. Luckily I have a fantastic husband that takes very good care of me!
Mark and I are STILL in Cedar City. Mark got a "promotion" at work and is now the ICU Manager. All that means is that when there is a customer that is being super hard to work with, Mark gets to deal with them. YAY? He is still looking for another job elsewhere. But, in this economy, what can you do?
Just around the corner will be Isabel's 1st Birthday. We are asking everyone interested to get a new toy and donate it to Toys for Tots or any similar program on December 22 in honor of Isabel. We like to think that some little kid is benefiting because Isabel was born. We know she would like that too.

I Hope We Will Be Adults Soon...

When Mark and I started at CSI 5 years ago, we were pretty naive about what would happen when we graduated. We thought that we would graduate in 4 years and land awesome jobs and get to pick where we lived. HAHAHA. Very naive of us. Here we are, 5 years later, still looking for career after 6 months of looking. And I know that times are hard for everyone, but remember when you were told that if you got a college degree, you would get a job. I think those days are long gone, but what do we do now?
There have been some other things going on too. My job got discontinued at the end of June and because we keep thinking we are going to get a job and move soon, we are hoping that everything works out okay. But Mark is getting very discouraged with everything. He has applied to many many jobs only to find out that he is one of 70 applying and one of the least experienced. We have a sneaky feeling that he will finally get a job far away from here when I am 9 months pregnant. What a great move that will be!
So we are hoping that we will soon be settled into an adult lifestyle soon.

Isabel Remembered

So June 22 would have been Isabel's 6 month birthday and here were are marching up on her 7 month birthday. I can't believe it has been that long. Sometimes I think I imagined it all. I have long forgotten what it was like to hold her and sometimes I forget what she looked like. I look through her pictures and sometimes surprise myself with how much I forget. It helps that I have a couple of people that can help me remember. I wish that more people were there to help me. Memories fade so fast when all you had was 19 hours to make them.

But, it does help me when people that didn't even know her help me remember her. We have a couple of dear friends that made me jewelry to wear when I need her near me. A very creative friend made me a scrapbook page of her pictures. And recently, we became aware of a lady in Australia that spends her free time writing the names of babies who have passes away in the sand. This month she wrote Isabel's name in the sand.
http://namesinthesand.blogspot.com/2010/07/isabel-jane-gabica.html

We really appreciate when people will talk to us about her. I find it very hurtful when people don't bring her up or won't say anything when I mention her. Why wouldn't I want to talk about her? She is my firstborn! So to all of those who are reading this wondering how they could possibly talk about her to me, just ask me anything about her! I love remembering her and that is the only way I may recall all those fading memories.