For the few of you who were wondering...

I was debating about whether or not to write about my surgery. I'm really not sure why. Maybe it's because I'm trying to keep some of you under the false assumption that I am perfect. Ha! Warning, this post is long. So anyway, last Monday I had laparoscopic surgery to coterize my endometriosis. If you don't know what endometriosis is, click here. I had the same surgery in January of 2006 so I kind of knew what I was in for which was a good thing. I decided to go up to Everett for my surgery even though I live an hour from that hospital and only 10 minutes from the one down here. I wanted to stay with my previous doctor. All in all it will be 4 trips to Everett and I've already done three of them.

I did the usual "no eating or drinking anything after midnight thing" which was not so much fun since my surgery wasn't until 3pm. It wasn't too bad because I kept pretty busy during the day. We dropped Kaylin off at Eric's brother's house around 11, drove to Everett and picked up my prescriptions, got Wendy's for Eric (I made him, I knew he was hungry) and then headed over to the hospital for my 1:00 check in. We waited around for a bit and then they finally called me back to pre-op. They got me all changed into my pretty hospital gown and slipper socks and hooked me up to an IV. The nurses were really nice and I had fun talking to them, it helped me to not be quite as nervous. Eric got to come back after I was all settled in. He took some beautiful pictures of me. I guess I will share one with all of you.


They rolled me into the OR and I don't remember anything after that. I didn't even see my doctor, but I'm sure it was him who did my surgery because he talked to Eric after it was over. Last time after my surgery I had the chills really bad and I was shaking uncontrollably. I told the nurses that and when I woke up this time I was covered in hospital blankets. It was a lot better this time. It took me a little while to wake up. After awhile I got wheeled into the second recovery room and Eric got to come in to see me. Which is when this lovely photo was taken. I tried to smile but I didn't want to open my eyes.

The doctor said everything went well and I had about half the amount as last time. Last time I brought pictures home but not this time, so I haven't seen it yet. Eric saw the pictures and he said it looked like less than half, but I'll go with the expert on this one. I had three incisions and last time I had two, so now I will have 5 lovely scars on my abdomen.

I got super woozy in the wheelchair from the recovery room to the car and ended up throwing up in my "personal belongings" bag where my clothes were during the surgery. So the nurse brought me a new one along with a lovely Providence Everett Medical Center water bottle for the ride home. Luckily I felt alright for the hour long ride home. My mom came that night and spent the night and stayed all of Tuesday to take care of Kaylin. It was wonderful. I could barely take care of myself that day. Eric's mom came Tuesday night, all of Wednesday, Thursday morning, and Friday morning. Amazing. My friend Katie came Thursday afternoon. So I only had Kaylin on my own on Thursday evening and Friday afternoon and evening. It still hurts some to pick her up, but it's not too bad. THANK YOU to everyone who helped out with Kaylin, who fed us, and who sent me cards/texts/emails/etc.

I'm feeling a lot better now. The other RS counselor stopped by a few minutes ago and said that I look "tired and more like a normal person, not full of energy like [I] usually [am]." Funny. Today I drove a car for the first time in a week. I went visiting teaching. I'm just glad that I got it done, even if it is the last day of the month. And I'm really glad that my surgery is over, I'm feeling a lot better, and hopefully soon my stomach will stop hurting. So there's your update. I hope you enjoyed it.

Kaylin goes to the doctor

Kaylin had her 18 month check-up on Monday. She did not want anyone but me to touch her, so that was fun. Needless to say, there was a lot of fake crying going on. They had me put her in a little hospital gown that tied in the back. Too funny. Kaylin loved it. She ran all over the exam room while we were waiting for the doctor to come in. Once the doctor came in she was back to the fake crying. She had to get three shots and she did really well. She only cried for a few seconds after they were over.

Last night (Tuesday night) she was acting crabby so I put her down for a quick nap around 6:45. Eric went in to wake her up around 7:30 and she didn't want to get up. I was shocked! She normally goes to bed around 8:30 or 9 so I was afraid she would want to get up really early if she stayed in bed. She ended up sleeping the whole night. I had to wake her up at 8:00 this morning because we needed to leave in 10 minutes. I hadn't changed her diaper since late in the afternoon and I put her down in her clothes, so that's what she slept in. She peed out the diaper of course. Eric thinks it's because of Monday's shots that she slept so long.

Here are Kaylin's stats:
Weight: 22 lb 11 oz (30th percentile)
Height: 2 ft 10 in (98.25 percentile)

Our weekend in Portland

This past weekend we went to Portland to visit Eric's sister Carly and her husband Parker. Parker is attending Western States Chiropractic College and will soon be legally able to make your body make all sorts of crazy noises. We had a great time with them. Here are a few pictures:

Riding MAX into downtown Portland. Kaylin was obviously enthralled.

We saw a few minutes of the Rose Parade, I had to take a few pictures for documentation.

For the first time ever, Kaylin drank from a straw. She actually drank some of Eric's root beer first. Since she hadn't ever taken a drink through a straw before, Eric wanted to test her out again and wasn't worried about the sugary, carbonated beverage that would come through the straw. Needless to say, she was quite startled by her first experience with carbonation. And she loved it. We had to ask our server for a cup with a lid and straw for her and she happily drank from it during all of dinner.

Apparently Kaylin loves nachos. Thank you Uncle Parker for sharing :-).

House decorating update

Here is what we've done around the house since I last posted pictures.

This is our new bedding, which I LOVE. Since the last post I added the brown sheets and throw pillow. I am very into brown and blue right now. I think Eric is relieved that I didn't want to go with something too "girly". I think he's pretty safe since my favorite color is blue. His favorite color is blue also and he really likes the duvet cover. He doesn't think the brown pillow in front is necessary, but I do and since I'm the girl I automatically win in this situation.

Our brown and blue towels and bath mats.

New picture in the living room. It goes really well with the chairs that sit opposite the couch.

On Saturday Eric put these cabinet pulls on all of the kitchen cabinets. We're still trying to decide if we should put the same pulls on the drawers or if we should go with a long handle type pull. Opinions?