We’re having a Girl!

I was going to be happy either way, but I am so excited to be having a girl in April!  Ryan couldn’t come to my ultra sound so I had the tech put the gender picture in an envelope without telling me the gender.  Ryan and I went to dinner that night and opened it together.  It was a really fun way to do it and I kind of want to do it that way again if we have any more.  We are thrilled!

10k Race Prego. I did it!

I’m not going to pretend like it wasn’t hard.  Every step I ran I could feel the extra 12ish pounds I’ve already put on with baby #3.  It’s amazing what a few extra pounds does to one’s endurance.  But I did it.  And I did it in under an hour which was my goal.  56 minutes and 18 seconds to be exact.  It was fun and I am proud of myself.  I just kept thinking about how strong Lincoln is and how I could be strong and do hard things like he is.  It was very therapeutic.  Now the real challenge is going to be to continue working out for the next 5 months with no race on the calendar or gym membership.  Yikes.

19 weeks pregnant.  Kinda wish I was 21 weeks so I could have matched my racing number :)

October–Pumpkins, Horrible Hospital, Amazing Sister.

We didn’t do a whole lot in October.  But somehow there’s a lot of pictures.  We picked pumpkins.We Carved Pumpkins.We toured a fire station.Then Lincoln finished phase 4 of his treatment and I was so excited for a nice long break from medicine and chemo before he started maintenance.  I was guessing he’d have about 3 weeks of feeling good before his counts were high enough to start back up again.  I was wrong.  Only a couple days after his last round of chemo he got a fever and we had to take him to the hospital.  We ended up being their for TEN long days.  I feel like I could write 5 posts about all the emotions and experiences we had during that time.  In fact, I started several but never finished any.  To sum it up, it was bad.  Lincoln got really, really sick.  He just had a normal virus like anyone can get but because his immune system was so compromised from the chemo it hit his little body so hard and he had such a hard time fighting it off.  It broke my heart. 

His fever went down the second day, but then he stopped eating completely.  Eating as little as a couple peanuts or yogurt puffs would make him throw up repeatedly.  He became so weak and fragile.  He had 3 blood transfusions and they put him on a feeding tub.  The days and nights were long and he just wanted to be held in bed most the time.  Finally his body started to recover and his counts started coming up.   The last few days he started eating and feeling better.  

The one ray of sunshine during that horrible hospital duration was my wonderful sister Wendy.  She was already planning to come visit during that time (seriously put a damper on our plans), but it was such a blessing that she came.   She brought her baby did so much for us.  She made Lincoln smile, gave me emotional support, cooked and cleaned, brought surprises and gifts for Lincoln, and babysat and loved on Sawyer.  And then she stayed an extra 4 days and had to find babysitters for her other two boys in DC everyday in order to do so.  My boys love her and her sweet baby Bennett so much. 

Wendy, you’re amazing.  Thank you.  Now a few more hospital pics from when Lincoln wasn’t feeling so great.  I was so excited when he asked for mashed potatoes after not eating for a few days.  But then he just played with them.  At least it was a step in the right direction.  Look at his skinny little skeleton legs :(

I know I’ll look back on this picture in the future and be filled with so much emotion.  Lincoln and I have spent so much time in this position over the past ten months.  Just looking at it makes me tear up.  It was taken after a particularly traumatic experience in which I accidently stepped on his tube while lifting him up causing the needle in his port to be yanked out of place.  It hurt him so bad.  The nurses had to take off all his bandages and restick him.  He was hysterical.  I felt so beyond horrible.  Yet, when it was all done, he was so quick to forgive me and just wanted to “give mommy hugs”.  Soon he was asleep.  That’s one more thing I should thank you for Wendy - always capturing the moments.  Especially this one. 

Finally, Halloween. We were still in the hospital.  Major bummer.  But at least by that time Lincoln was starting to feel better and was able to put on his Alpha Pig costume (character from a PBS kids show “SuperWhy”) and go to the hospital Halloween event for a little while.  Sawyer came too.   He  was a monkey.

Lincoln Spelling for Leukemia

Ryan made this video of Lincoln last weekend after coming home from a ten day stay in the hospital (I still need to find the energy to blog about that.  In case I don’t thanks for all your thoughts and prayers during that time).  We felt like maybe we could use Lincoln’s cute face and talent of spelling to make a sort of commercial to put out there on the internet to raise awareness of and funds for childhood cancer.  I think it turned out really cute.  We’re so grateful for people who have donated to cancer research in the past because that’s why Lincoln has such a good prognosis.  We want to do our part to help further the effort.  Feel free to share this video.  Enjoy!

 

HAIR

I had very long hair for a very long time.  I loved it.  But a couple months ago I had a hair break down.  Lincoln was super sick from chemo, I was super sick from pregnancy, and I think I went 7 days straight with my hair in a heavy bun on the top of my head.  Every time I washed it I was grumpy for hours afterward as I picked through the tangled mess.  One day I couldn’t take it any longer.

So I told Ryan to cut it off.  He took about 6 inches off.  It was a quick fix until I could find someone to cut it short for real.  He did a good job considering he’d never cut a girl’s hair before.  Don’t worry, he watched a You Tube how to video first :)

About 2 months later my awesome friend’s mother in law hooked me up with my new due.  I love it.  SO easy, SO fast, SO different for me.  Overall I think I prefer my long hair, but for now I am loving it!!

And here’s a 17 weeks pregnant shot.