Spring Break 2014

Once again Kevin and I lucked out and had spring break the same week. My mom also had part of the same week off so her and my dad headed out to Oregon to spend their break here. I think they wanted to come and make sure we were alive as well. We were very excited to have them come.

A couple weeks before spring break our apartment complex had moved us out of our apartment and into a new apartment since they had to fix the stairs and landing. We got free rent for the time we were out and they provided us with a fully furnished apartment so we can't complain to much. But since the sleeping arrangements weren't ideal in the new apartment we decided to escape Portland and head to the beach with my parents.

Before we left Portland however we did spend a little time shopping at the adidas employee store and we did make it up to Pittock Mansion to see the great view of Portland. Too bad it was a bit chilly and cloudy.

So after Kevin and I went to the Ultra Sound to find out the gender of our little man we headed up north with my parents where we started our beach adventure out in Washington at the Mt. St. Helens visitors center. It was crazy to see all the damage St. Helen did when it exploded and to learn more about the area. From there we headed to a very windy Astoria. Here we drove around the town and went to the column. We were all slightly afraid of blowing away at the top of the tower.  It was a beautiful view though. 

Following Astoria we headed south towards Seaside and made a quick stop at the Lewis and Clark Fort. Once again it was fun to learn a little bit more about the history of the area. 

We ended the day at Seaside where my parents had got us a condo. We spent the night relaxing, watching movies, watching Louisville play, and enjoying a beautiful sunset. 

The next morning we had a nice wake up call when the fire alarm went off. Everyone at the resort was evacuated. It was raining and cold but luckily they let us at least hang out in the parking garage so we could stay out of the rain. 

After our evacuation escapade we headed back up north to Long beach in Washington. You have to cross the longest bridge in Oregon to get to the longest beach which is in Washington. Here we enjoyed some light houses, a windy beach, and on our way home a beautiful waterfall. The best news was I really only got sick on the way home from our trip which meant me and the waterfall area bonded. That could have possibly been from car sickness though as well since the road to the waterfall was a bit curvy. 

Once again Thanks Mom and Dad (or should I say Grandma and Grandpa?), For a great trip to the coast. We loved it and loved spending time with you. 

Prince or Princess?

Since the only time Kevin was able to make it to a ultra sound was when he was out of school my doctor was very understanding when I asked if we could do the anatomy scan earlier then normal during spring break, so Kevin could be there for the gender reveal. It was also great timing because my parents had also came into town to spend spring break with us. So bright and early Kevin and I headed to the hospital to get the anatomy scan.

Although the ultra sound tech didn't seem to happy to be at work that early in the morning, or to be performing the ultra sound that early in my pregnancy (18 weeks) she did her job and found the gender for us right away. Needless to say HE was not shy about his private parts. It took a lot not to cry when we found out that we were going to have a lil rambunctious man in our home soon. I had been hoping for a boy (I couldn't think of anything cuter than a mini Kevin especially if he has his calm temperament). Kevin said he was not sure what he wanted or what we were having. He thought it was a boy but since everyone was guessing boy he thought for sure it would turn out to be a girl. Well the ultra sound tech was able to see all she needed to on the ultra sound for the anatomy scan and verify that we had a healthy baby boy.

Since my parents were back at home we decided we would go and get some donuts to tell them the big news. Krispy Cream was so good to us. They happily went and made some blue frosting for us and they didn't even charge us for the colored donuts. We got two blue donuts, one to give to my dad and one to give to my mom. They however just thought it meant we were having twins ha ha.

Here is some of the other guesses from our family 

Grandma Jan- Girl

Grandpa Verl- Boy (he needs more grandsons)

Grandma Rhodes- Girl

Annalee- Boy

Rebecca- Girl

Charm- Boy

Brinley- Girl

Kenzie- Boy

Cannon- Boy

Cash- Boy

I also had all my students vote on the gender, here is their responses- Boy was the number one pick from them as well. 

Are you Alive?

After all my hospital stays and sickness Pat and Stacey decided to come up for a weekend and make sure Kevin and I were both still alive. We spent the day shopping at the Columbia store and doing some maternity shopping. We ended the day with a raining stop at Salt and Straw where they got to try out some crazy ice cream flavors. (Due to the nausea I stuck with plain ole carmel).

Needless to say our adventures wore us out by the time we got home :)

Hospital stay #2

So I made it home from the hospital just in time for Valentines day. As much as I wanted to have a romantic night with Kevin it turned into pizza (that I threw up) and my falling asleep at 7. I did receive some very beautiful flowers from Kevin on Valentines.

 I had gone back to work on Thursday and was exhausted. I also lied to my students and told them I had a bad case of the flu. So I worked Thursday and Friday and spent the weekend super sick again. Monday I had school off so I went to the doctor for a follow up. They started me on an IV again and then before I knew it they were willing me into the hospital and admitting me again. This time I spent Monday through Wednesday there and left with new medication and feeling somewhat better. Kevin wasn't able to stay with me due to school but he made sure he came right after school and left late at night. Nicole picked me up again from the hospital on Wednesday, and I made sure and let the doctors know that the next time they would be seeing me I would be delivering a baby.

I went back to work on Thursday and was happy to find this poster from my students.

 I however soon realized I was not going to be able to use the same I have the flu excuse. So I spilled the beans to my students. They were beyond excited for me, an also became much more understanding about my frequent absences.

The Storm...

February brought a couple big storms in our life. The first storm was a storm of morning sickness. After everything we went through to get pregnant I swore I would never complain about being pregnant. So I will do my best to not make this sound like complaining and more just informational.

At 8 weeks I started throwing up a lot. In January I had started my masters program and had agreed to teach health class on top of the 10th and 11th grade English classes I was teaching. On top of that my classroom was out in a portable and no where near a bathroom. Needless to say I left the classroom unexplained a lot and decided I should probably explain to the Vice Principal why she was seeing me so often in the building during class time. Needless to say, I just cried to her (it didn't help that I went to tell her at 10:00 in the morning after I had thrown up for the 3rd time since being at school at 7). She was very supportive and understood my leaving the classroom quite often.  I also learned where all the outside garbage cans were and where the closest bushes were to my classroom (to much information I know).

At this point we took our first trip to Urgent care to get an IV per advice from the OBGYN nurse. And the next week ended up at the OBGYN office strapped to IV's again because I was becoming so dehydrated from all the throwing up. At least there was still times I kept food down. There was not really a particular food that stayed down, it just seemed to be more of a timing thing. I did find that there was certain foods that were better to throw up and I stalked up on them (gummy worms, sour patch kids, Jamba juice, cream of wheat, fruit in general... Just in case you were wondering ha ha).

During week 11 everything took a turn for the worse and the second storm set in... The Snow storm. Portland had a huge snow storm. Although the storm didn't seem completely crazy to an Idaho girl, to portlanders it was huge. It didn't help that they don't have snow plows to plow the roads and therefore everything got shut down. Although it was kind of annoying, the snow storm was also kind of a blessing because that meant school for both Kevin and I was cancelled. Due to being sick I took Thursday off of school, however the high school was released at noon, and Kevin was released soon after. Friday both schools were cancelled as well. I would like to say we took full advantage of the snow storm, like others and went sledding and cuddled up with hot chocolate but in reality I laid on the couch all weekend throwing everything up. By Sunday I had not kept anything down for 48 hours. I couldn't even keep sips of water down or ice chips which meant I was throwing up close to 15-20 times a day. So Sunday morning Kevin and I braved the storm and headed to the urgent care to get some IV's since I was very dehydrated. If you look closely at the picture you can tell I look a little dead.

When we arrived at Urgent Care they took my vitals and along with that my weight. They put me in a room and when the doctor arrived he simply said since your last doctor appointment on Monday you have lost 9 pounds. We want you to go straight to the ER. We have notified them you are on your way. So Kevin and I quickly headed home and packed up a few things. Kevin gave me a blessing and then off we went to the ER. By some miracle my OBGYN was the one on call that weekend and met me in the room as soon as they placed me. They quickly got an IV started and did some ultra sounds to make sure baby was okay and then they did some lab work. After all of this they decided I needed to be admitted so I was then moved into the hospital. Kevin spent the day studying (he had midterms) and I spent the day trying to sleep. They would only let me have clear liquids. So I was pumped full of anti nausea medicine and fluids and ate lots of Jello (That I eventually kept down by the end of the day). We also took this time off to call our families and tell them the exciting news of the pregnancy. It was the silver lining to a very bad day. Kevin spent the night that night which it was really nice to have him around. School was cancelled on Monday for both of us as well so that worked out nicely. 

Wednesday afternoon they finally released me. Kevin was at school so I called my friend Nicole and asked her for a ride. Needless to say she was a little confused when I called and asked for a ride home from the hospital. She caught on really fast though when she came in to get me from my room and they were performing an ultra sound. So I got home and immediately ran into the bathroom and threw up... so maybe I wasn't completely better yet.