Birthdays and Bed Rest

This week has been more filled than I think I anticipated!  We had birthday parties, surgery, and family in town and it has been quite different than many weeks we have had in the past!

Lets start with last Thursday...

Look at these two cute kiddos all spic and spam and ready for the day to start!  Tommy has been crying every time we are on an outing and we turn onto our road to head home.  He always points a different direction and says "Dat way!!!" Whenever he sees our car he wants to get in and go somewhere.  He is probably going to grow up and be like me... having to go somewhere all the time.

On our way out the door Thursday morning Elsy looked up at the sky and said, "Look at how sunny it is today!!"  I looked up and had to laugh.. and then take a picture of how 'sunny' it really was.  Oh gosh.  This is what my kids think a sunny day looks like. (Although today, almost a week later, we actually had a real sunny day! 77 degrees! - although it did rain this morning... just sayin'.)

My friend Laura and I started a playgroup in our ward that meets every Thursday in the church gym.  I decided that since Elsy's birthday was the day after my surgery I would just turn playgroup into a mini-birthday party for her.  We made cupcakes and I taped paper plates to popsicle sticks and told them to wack balloons with their paddles.  They all had a lot of fun.

Elsy was so happy to blow out candles and be sung too.  While I was talking to some of the other moms, I realized after everyone else had left to play Elsy was still there licking the frosting off of one cupcake after the next!  Luckily they were mini cupcakes, haha!

Elsy and her best buddy Cache.

Thursday night Logan stayed up late with me while we cleaned the bathrooms and moped all the floors so that I would have a clean house while I was 'out' for the following week.  I was feeling super nervous and he brought me home a stuffed elephant he called Mr. Fluff.  When he got his laser eye surgery the doctor who did it had him hold a stuffed moose.  He said he felt silly but by the end of the surgery he was really grateful for that moose! Haha!  So he thought I needed my own stuffed friend.  Sadly, Mr. Fluff couldn't come in the operating room with me but I did hold him all the way to and from the hospital and he has sat on my nightstand all week. :)

Friday morning we were up bright and early.  The kids were babysat by my friends Mary and Andrea (they tag teamed) and we went off to Overlake Hospital in Bellevue.  I hadn't slept well the night before and had been feeling really nervous.  My aunt sent me an email the night before that brought me so much comfort.  She told me she didn't know what God's plan was for me but she did know one thing, "It will be best."  That brought me so much comfort.  Logan got to sit with me before they took me in.  I just loved the silver, heated blanket they put on me, it was to keep me warm.  I kept telling Logan how it was just the perfect amount of warmth and finally after filling out a bunch of charts and asking lots of questions my nurse said, "Okay lets turn your blanket on!"  Apparently it hadn't been on the whole time.  Logan and I laughed and laughed.

The procedure only took about twenty minutes and when I finally woke up I found a band aid on my belly button and another on my pelvis.  They told me the doctor had found nothing!!  There was zero endometriosis, no polyps, cysts, anything.  I couldn't believe it!  Logan and I were so glad to know there wasn't anything wrong inside me... but at the same time we felt even more confused.  There seemed to be no answers as to why I have been having lots of abdominal pains or not been able to get pregnant.  We felt relieved and confused.  And I guess I have felt a little bummed that they couldn't have discovered there was nothing wrong in an easier way! :P

I went in five days after the procedure to get my stitches removed and was able to talk with the doctor about everything.  He showed me all the pictures he took (which was so interesting to actually see what my insides look like!) and we talked about possible problems, what the nodules he felt in a previous exam must have been, and we also discussed different fertility treatments we could try.  We will keep pressing on and hopefully soon we will be able to figure everything out.  In the meantime we will be having more doctor visits and checks. :/

The day after my surgery my little baby girl turned four!!  In Logan's family everyone gets to pick out a favorite birthday cereal for their birthday breakfast and then they draw a poster of all the things that they are good at/or are into.  I usually opt to make a special breakfast but since I was basically bedridden for three days I bought Elsy the sparkly, marshmallow princess cereal she has always desired when we go down the cereal isle.  Logan drew her a poster with a microphone for singing, a unicorn, swimming lessons, a Master Sward, a heart because she is so loving, books and numbers, and her and Tommy with the neighbor kids Cache and Nora.

Since I couldn't make a cake Logan took the kids to get Krispy Kream doughnuts that evening.  They came back so excited and brought one back for me as well.

Then Logan set up a table by our bed and they opened presents so I could see.  Elsy has been asking for an accordion for her birthday for quite sometime so I got her one.  She danced around on her tip-toes pumping it in and out.  It was so cute!

She also got a Batgirl shirt and Logan got her a bow and some arrows.  Logan's mom sent some money and so did his grandma so we pooled the money together to get both of the kids a Micro scooter they have been wanting for a long time.

I just can't believe she is four.  She is constantly talking to me all the day long and has a great imagination and attitude for life.  She bounces and bounces when she is excited and has a wicked, excited laugh.  She has been a help to me this week and has been so careful about not bumping my tummy.  I don't want her to grow bigger and yet she just keeps getting more fun.  I love her too much.

Logan took good care of me for the weekend but had to go back to work on Monday.  My mom and sister Lenise came to help take care of the kids for two days.  Lenise will probably be mad at me for posting this picture but I thought it was too cute!  She sat and played with the kids for long periods of time.  She would sit on the couch and shoot Elsy's new bow and arrows so they would stick on the sliding glass door and the kids would run around grabbing them and laughing.  After she left I decided to do the same thing and ended up shooting Tommy right in the eye so I guess I don't have her aim and we haven't played it since!

We stayed up late one night while Lenise taught me the art of SnapChat.  We laughed until I cried because my tummy was hurting to much!  Elsy learned about SnapChat too and kept asking if they could 'play' it.  

Tommy was such a sweetheart this week as well, although he hasn't been as careful about my tummy.  He just would come up and clamor onto the bed with all limbs flailing in his usual way which ended up being quite painful.  But he has really missed getting to be with me and he started bringing me books and I would read to him in my bed.  After about two days he started asking, "Mommy, you feel better?" in the sweetest tone.  Him asking always made me feel better. :)

I was so grateful for all the people who helped us during the weekend.  People brought us dinner, flowers, treats, watched the kids, subbed for me in Primary, and many other things.  I am so grateful for people being so willing to help and send love and prayers.  They mean more than you know.

On the last night before my family left I went in to kiss the kids goodnight and came out to find Logan and my mom playing Mario Kart?  What?  Logan is always trying to get my mom to play some sort of video game, this time she actually seemed to enjoy it!

This little stinker!  I heard her telling Grandma a few times that, "That's not how you do it!"  My mom was so patient with the kids and took such good care of them.  I was so grateful she came to keep me company and take care of  us all.

On Monday I started having really terrible headaches.  We figured out it was from the oxicodone so about 18 hours after going off it I finally was able to feel better.  The headache was worse than the actual pain in my stomach!  My sister-in-law Holly made me some rice packs for heating or cooling and those came in handy because we would freeze them and I would put them on my neck and head.

The kids were sad to see Grandma go.  They had a big wrestling match before my mom left.

And it was so fun to get to see Lenise as well!! :)

Here is Logan reading to the kids from the foot of our bed so that I could participate.  I was pretty stuck in one spot until Sunday evening and then I was able to move around a lot more.  I got my stitches out yesterday and am doing so much better now.  I still have a big bruise on my tummy and am a little sore but I can take the kids around now and we have been able to get around.  The biggest problem now is I lost my wedding ring somehow this week!  But we know it must be somewhere in the house because I didn't leave the house once haha!  So we are hopeful it will turn up... even though it hasn't for two days :(

This week has been pretty boring.  Logan had a good laugh when I told him I was tired of laying in bed.  He said he would remember that the next time I tell him I want to stay in bed all day... which is funny because I have told him that quite a bit. :P  Logan has been such a help.  Yesterday was my first full day on my own and he came home and made dinner and cleaned the house for me... because I wasn't quite ready to do all that haha!  I love him so much and I don't know what we would do without him!

While we didn't get the answers we hoped for this last week we have gotten many new ones that are helping push us in new and sometimes hard ways.  I am grateful for my two little children and for my husband.  I can't believe that a week ago I was wringing my hands with worry about what the future might hold.  I now have many answers, even if they aren't all the answers, that help me see how my life is still in God's hands.  I am grateful to know that my worries of having endometriosis and not being able to have any more children are no more.  There are still other worries but there is still always hope and comfort and peace. :)