April 2019

April was a big month. Let’s be real, with kids, every month feels “big”. When I was looking through my photos for the next post, I realized my last one left out a few big April events. So, I am going to recap them.

The weather in Florida is fantastic in April. We spent many days at my mom’s house. The big kids LOVE swimming. Remy spent some QT with Grammie’s dog, and he got in several poolside naps.

Lads to Leaders, Orlando

We had our first experience with Lads 2 Leaders. It’s a church of Christ national convention. It is held every year, always on Easter weekend. School-aged kids can choose from different events to participate in. Reagan and Riley (along with the rest of our youth group) had been working hard for many months, prepping for their events. More specifics in a few minutes.

Since our convention was held in Orlando, we went up a day early and hit Sea World with some friends.

Reagan wrote about L2L on her blog. Click here to read her take on the weekend.

Back to Lads 2 Leaders. I was blown away by the convention. The kids performed well in all of their events… Riley was in the puppet show, and Reagan read aloud to a group of judges and peers. They both received recognition for reading the New Testament and more. Both were thrilled with the ribbons and awards. Aside from watching my kids blossom in their church life, my favorite part was spending time with our church friends and family.

Baby’s First Easter

Easter Sunday service was to be our last event at L2L. Unfortunately, Reagan woke up with a fever. I
didn’t have a thermometer with me, but my magic Mom hands told me it was somewhere around 101. I was not feeling well either, so we hightailed it out of Orlando.

Once we were home, I stuck Remy in his Easter outfits for some photos. I knew I should have done it earlier. Oh well. He was barely able to fit into the cute outfit Riley wore on his first Easter nine years earlier. My Mom made that outfit. I am grateful we were able to get one shot of Remy in it.

 

Happy 41st Birthday Stu!

Stu’s birthday was low-key this year… I mean, can you blame us? Last year’s party resulted in Remy. =)

Buddy had a “special boy sleepover” at Grammie’s house. Stu and I took Reagan and Remy out for sushi. Reagan hated it. Hahahaha.

A Pregnancy Side-Effect?

So around my 27th week pregnant, I had this incredible pain in my chest. It was the lower right side, in the front, felt like my ribs. I assumed I had some dislodged ribs (Reagan used to pop one out, and it hurt like the devil). This time (when I was pregnant), I thought multiple ribs were just out of sorts.

I tried everything. Laying on the floor on my right side. Bumping into a wall. Laying flat on my back on the floor. Pushing them back myself. Taking a hot shower to relieve the pain. Nothing worked. By around midnight, I was in tears. It was excruciating. Just as I was thinking I should wake up Stu, I began throwing up. That woke him. I said, “I think you need to take my to the ER.”

The ER sent me straight upstairs to OB without so much as asking me what was happening. OB hooked me up to the belly monitors. Everything looked great with the baby. By the time I was in the hospital bed, my pain had subsided. And I was feeling better. The OB nurse chalked it up to my ribs and told me the violent vomiting probably set them straight.

Ok. Whatevs. 2 days later, at my regular prenatal appointment, my OB was horrified by my story. He sent me back to the ER (different hospital) with strict instructions to stay in the ER… but that is a different story.

Now, fast forward to April 2019, 3 months postpartum. The same tricky pain came back. This time during the day. I was home with all 3 kiddos. I knew it was a problem when I could not lift my baby. At all. I called Stu to come home. Then I drove myself to the ER. This time, they found the culprit. My gallbladder. It hates me. The docs wanted to take it out.

However, at that exact moment, I was not an emergency case. My gallbladder was not on the verge of rupturing. And the OR was booked the entire next day. I was sent home with instructions to see a surgeon and schedule its removal.