Turkey Time

The last few days have been a whirl wind to say the least. It has been fun just very hectic. Here is how the last few days went (in a nutshell of course).

Wednesday - Heard the news that my Great-grandmother passed away that morning. She went peacefully in her sleep you could say. She had slipped into a coma state the day prior so it sounds like she did not suffer. I went on with my day knowing there was not anything that was going to make my day better so I continued with chores as normal. That evening Dan and I stayed awake fairly late preparing for Thanksgiving morning.

Thursday - Turkey Day! I woke at 5am to get myself and the girls ready. We all arrived at Melissa and Tylers around 6:30am, the family had the turkey in right at seven. We all enjoyed homemade cinnamon rolls that Melissa made...delicious! They are the best made cinnamon rolls I have ever had. The food was amazing...two turkeys (one traditionally made and one fried), stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, veggies, rolls, berry pie, pumpkin pie...wow...it was all incredible. Dan this year had four plates in front of him for dinner. He made it through yet again as the one who ate the most. 40lbs of turkey and we came home with just a small zip-lock bag of leftovers, thats all there was for each family. My goodness can we eat! After dinner we prepared ourselves for the day after Thanksgiving sales and went looking through all the ads for ideas.

Friday - Sales here starting as early as 12:01am which we were planning on getting up for but what we wanted was already gone so we skipped that sale. We did however get up for the sales at Target and Walmart that started at 4 and 5am. We finished Kieras Christmas shopping and are about finished with Skylar so it is just little Lilly that we have left. She will not be needing much this year but it is her first Christmas so she definently needs something. It was fun to go with Danny in the morning as much as he does not care for the Christmas season he does enjoy doing things for his girls and it makes him to be a bigger spender than myself during this time. After all the Christmas madness we came home for a little while and rested before we took the girls to breakfast. The rest of the day was spent in bed relaxing with our babies. Oh how wonderful!

Last night Dan and Kiera were both up sick. Poor babies threw up all night with fevers that just did not want to break. So here I am trying to take care of them while keeping Lilly and away as much as possible. Neither one of need to get sick so we have been hiding out in my bedroom while the two sicklies are in the living room. Hopefully it is just a quick sickness and tomorrow they are feeling better.

In short that was our adventurous Thanksgiving week. Loves to you all and hope everyone had a great holiday with friends and family.

On To A Better Place

Flower Ganelle Swanson-Ruzicka

    11.28.1925 - 11.24.2010

Today I have sat in a blur trying to decide what to say about this amazing woman. My Great-Grandmother Ganelle passed away this morning. The life that she lived was remarkable. This great woman survived the passing of her husband, the death of her only son and overcame cancer twice. I do not think I can put into words how much she has touched my life. Ganelle was the "grandma" to everyone, a sweet lady that anyone would want to be around. And everyone did. She was so sweet to everyone, always wanting to do more than she needed to in making someone else feel welcome. I am so blessed to say that I had a relationship with this incredible grandmother. I know many people do not get the chance to know their great-grandmother. My grandmother lived to see and meet my two oldest children and lived to know that my third and most recent was born healthy. My children may not have the memories of her being so young but they will have the photographs. I will keep the memories for them as it will be one of the most special times of my life.

We will all miss her so much but know that she lived a long and good life.

I love you Grandma and you will be missed. This song has always been a favorite of mine and it has been on my heart since I heard of Grandmas passing. You will always have a place in my heart Grandma.

Four Days Old

First thing to say I guess is that I still cannot believe that Lilly is finally here. She is now four days old and doing great. Her sleeping pattern is a little flip-flopped right now but we are working on it. So much and yet so little has gone on in this house the past few days and it seems surreal. We all came home on Wednesday evening around 7pm and all in all that first night was alright. It was definently better than the previous weeks the family had been having. Lilly does not sleep great in the evening so I was up all night while Dan slept off what he could with Kiera in our bed. The next statement is not a complaint as it is a great blessing Danny has a job that he can return back to...however it was sad that he did not get even a full day to enjoy his family at home. He returned to work Thursday, it is now Saturday and he his working. The poor guy has not gotten a day yet to relax with us all at home. I miss him.

Today has been rough for me. I am not one to complain but I have been extremely sore since the birth and it does not seem to be getting better yet. My body has not gotten a break and I don't think it will until it comes to a complete crash. The two big girls today have not been so helpful. Some days are better than others and I have to remember that but today is not a better. Neither one are listening or cooperating with each other and I am still so exhausted that a little back-up I am sure would make all the difference.

Lilly had her first check-up today and I must say it went fantastic! She is now 6lbs 4oz which is only three ounces less than her birth weight. They say this is very normal and by her next check-up she should be at least her birth weight if not more. She is in the 8th percentile for weight and the 10th percentile for heigth. Still very small just like Kiera was. Everything looks great on her; the doc says that she is perfectly healthy and seems very happy.

Skylar finally got to see Lilly for the first time on Friday and she is in love to say the least. She is already a pretty great big sister to Kiera and I am sure she will be the same with Lilly. She was so surpised at how small Lilly was (not remembering Kiera of course). The entire way home from Grand Junction Skylar kept Lilly pretty happy; giving her the pacifier when needed, singing her a song, whatever she could think of to keep her sister from crying. She can be a huge help (when she wants to be). I truly hope that Lilly will love Sky as much as Kiera does now. Anywhere we go together as a family Kiera is right next to her "sissy." We all have names now except for Skylar who for now remains only known as "sissy." That is ok with us. I keep thinking to myself, "wow we are a family of five." Anywhere we go now we have to get the big table, we have to get two carts, there will always be five of us now. It is such a blessing I just had not really thought of that. We are a big family and I love it!

(Sorry everything is out of order I just wrote as it came to me today) Loves!

Lilly Jo Iversen

Finally! Our beautiful little miss Lilly is here!

November 16th, 2:47pm
6lbs 4oz; 19 1/2in long

After waking up early yesterday morning to contractions I could barely walk through I finally went to the hospital and arrived around 10am. Deciding not to call Dan back until after confirmation that our baby was coming, after finding out I finally had made progress from 3cm to 4 to 4 1/2cm we called him. With Dan on his way I continued to progress rather quickly, thank goodness! Dan arrived around noon and I finally got an epideral around 7cm, only about 25 minutes before our little lady made her arrival. Around 2:30ish Lilly's heart rate when down very low. I was only 8 1/2 to 9cm at this point but Lilly had to come out so whentold to push; I pushed! We had specialist on hand to check her lungs thinking after the amneo test on Sunday that came back not good we would need them, however they only stayed for maybe fifteen minutes and went on their way as there was nothing wrong at all with her lungs. She came out happy and healthy! Thank you Lord!

She is beautiful and we cannot get enough of her. She has blue eyes, strawberry blonde hair, her dads ears and my lips. We are so blessed to have our Lilly part of the family. Our family of four becomes a wonderful family of five.

Tonights Blurbs

Random note for this evening: I am so thankful for a husband helps with so much in my life. He takes care of us all and truly loves me. My life has changed so much with him in it (for the best of course). His love has completly changed life and for that I could never repay him. These last few months have been so difficult for me and he has been there every step of the way. He has been so attentive to what mood I have been in which goes to show how intune we really are with one another. I have an amazing husband and I am thankful to say that I have amazing in-laws. Who says that very often?


My in-laws are incredible. My sister-in-law has done everything she can to make sure I get the rest I need which is difficult for her considering she was counting on me to help at the daycare while she continued through school full time. My brother-in-law checks in pretty often to make sure I have everything I need when Dan is at work and my mother/father-in-law are always amazing. They are all they for me when I need them and I not only can call them but see them whenever need be. My family is incredible, and along with all the loved ones I have just mentioned I have the greatest friend/sister in the world. Dana has been in my life for about ten years, she has seen my life through my eyes or at least tries to at times. She is one of the most incredible women I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. I do not have to explain myself to her ever and that makes for the greatest conversations anyone could have. In five minutes she can be caught up on a months worth of information that would take anyone else at least an hour to understand. I love her and the only bad thing I could ever say is that we live so many miles apart, though no matter where we are I am blessed to say I have no doubt we will always be linked to one another.

I love you Dana!

Kena

Counting down!

First thing is I finally figured out how to change the background on this dang blog. It has only been like two years but alas somethings take time. For example this pregnancy; baby is taking her time. We were in the hospital yet again this past weekend and decided to undergo an amneosentesis. Not the mostcomfortable operation that is for sure. The doc put a needle about 4 1/2cm into my stomach while being monitored by the ultrasound tech to confirm that the needle was no where near baby. Fortunately they were in a very good spot and were no where close to baby or the umbilical cord. Thank goodness! We went ahead with this test to let us know what the babys lung development was at. If all was well we would be induced within the next few days and end what has been one of the hardest few months in my life. Unfortunately/fortunately we found out why she has been fighting these contractions so hard: good lung development is anywhere between 2.5 and 25 her lung development was only at 1.2

I say unfotunately only because it is a very difficult thing to feel helpless and contracting so often. The pain is not unbearable but is a contstant pain that makes it difficult to do much else. The very good is although it will be a hard for me the next week and a half we now know why she fights. She knows better than all of us and knows she is not quite ready yet. I will receive a phone call sometime today to set up the induction for the wee of Thanksgiving. Our doctor who is incredible by the way will induce me at 39 weeks. By that date Lilly should be ready and willing to make her entrance with no more problems. I will try and keep you all updated with dates and such as I am given them. Thank you all for the prayers and the help thus far, no matter what she will be here soon and we will have a new little miracle in our home to love and care for.

Kena

Skylar's Corner

I had so much fun today. I was so good today.

Exhaustion

Here I sit still contracting every three minutes or so and I can not help but feel utterly exhausted. I have been contracting like this for over five days now and have no idea how to get a good nights sleep in. Today we have to go back to the hospital as I now have to see them twice a week until babys arrival. They want to stick me on the monitor long enough to make sure baby is not under any stress. With the contractions so often they just want to be sure which is more than ok with me I just wish we were going in to have this little one as oppose to just visits in and out of the hospital. I guess no matter what we will see her soon enough and all this will pay off. At least when Lilly comes home the exhaustion will be for something. I am so tired...

Round four or was it five?

Update to you all: Thursday I went into the hospital after waiting what felt like forever. (I did not want to end up at the hospital only to be sent back with no baby) We got to the hospital around 2pm and I was contracting one on top of another. They gave me morphine and something else to settle down the contractions as the pattern I was in was not a good one for me or baby. They said contracting like that was giving Lilly less oxygen and the contractions were not getting enough time do anything to me. I am not for any drugs but if my baby is at any risk I will accept what is needed. After some time passed I began to contract a more normal pattern, about every 2-3 minutes so I was getting breathes in between which meant so was Lilly. Friday morning they tried not to stop anything they were still waiting to see if I was in real labor. By this point every nurse and doctor was calling me a "medical mystery." They had never seen anyone contract in such a way and not dialate. I went through this all day Friday until they decided to try potosin to help with the contractions. (For those who do not know Potosin they use to induce labor) I was put on potosin around 6pm Friday evening. Nothing changed until about 2am when I had finally dialated to 3cm, whoohoo! Our nurse Niki who has been with us at some point during every one of our hospital visits was almost more excited than we were. She did a happy dance for me since I was stuck on the monitors. After this accomplishment my body just seemed to be in a stand still yet again. Saturday around 9am they took me off the Potosin as it was not doing what it was intended to do and for the rest of our visit I sat in pain and exhaustion with no more dialation. Sunday we were sent home because there was no significant change to keep me in the hopsital plus I would rest better at home was the thought. So here I sit still contracting every 3 minutes or so with no change and I am exhausted. At this point as much as I would love to see my babys face and hold her in my arms I need rest, whether I begin to contract with progress or stop contracting all together I will be happy. The Lord knows best and knows what my body can take better than anyone so please pray with me that his plan is revealed and either we come home with a baby in a few days or the pain I am feeling ceases and I can rest until that day comes.

Kiera's Corner

I love my daddy. Daddy fixed my swimming pool. (aka hot tub)