We're Moving!!!!

At the end of May our family is going to be moving from Virginia to Wisconsin!!!! It's been in the works for months now but we wanted the girls to be able to finish school before we moved. We sold our house in February and are now in a short term rental while we wait to move. House hunting begins next week and we're hoping to find something and close before we move up.

Bentley has type 1 diabetes..

So I haven't posted on here in a long time.. A lot has changed in our family since my last post when Reagan was born.. But I'll go into all of that in another post. One of the biggest things to happen in our family was on September 16, 2017, Bentley was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes..

It had been a rough week. Bentley was so irritable and nothing seemed to make him happy. He looked depressed and was just so unpleasant to be around. Nothing I did would make him happy. He had been peeing the bed again really bad for several weeks but I didn't really think much of it since he had just turned 4. I thought it was just normal regression.. He complained about being thirsty as well but really I didn't think much of it. But this unhappy child was not my normal boy.. I knew something had to be wrong. That morning we were getting ready for our church picnic and we were making a s'mores cake.. (had to be the most sugary thing ever huh??) I was talking to my husband who was working overtime that day and I was telling him that I thought something was wrong. I don't know why but diabetes crossed my mind. I have no idea why but it did. Well I had a glucose monitor at home from my pregnancy with Alexis (like 9 years expired lol) and so when I mentioned diabetes to Josh, he suggested I check his blood sugar..

This is all it said.. I didn't even know they could say that.. My heart stopped... I checked again.. Same thing... Then I thought, well it's expired.. So I checked myself.. 86... I knew... I didn't know much about diabetes except for what you hear about type 2.. I called his pediatrician. I knew it was bad and was trying to keep it together. He said that I needed to take him to the hospital and that he was likely a diabetic. He said not to go to our local hospital because they would not be able to treat him but to take him to a hospital down where Josh was working an hour away. I was bawling by this point. I called Josh and told him to meet us at the hospital. When we got there they checked him and their meter said "Hi" as well and they did blood work. Not long after they confirmed that he did have diabetes and that they'd need to transfer him to UVA Children's Hospital in Charlottesville, VA. His blood sugar was 569 and he was in DKA. This was another hour away. We had all 5 kids with us so our assistant pastor and his wife drove all the way to the hospital to pick up our 3 older girls so that they wouldn't have to go to the hospital with us for several days. Reagan and Josh went in the van while I rode with Bentley in the medical transport. He was so tired but said he was too scared to sleep. It was so heartbreaking. He eventually fell asleep during the hour ride down there. I was still scared and heartbroken for him but I still don't think I fully understood the severity of type 1 diabetes... 

Once we arrived at the children's hospital, Josh and Reagan showed up. They had a bunch of doctors coming in and asking us questions and getting his IV's all hooked up. It was awful and he was scared. He also hadn't eaten since breakfast and was starving. He didn't get to eat anything until that night and that was the first time we had to carb count. At first we didn't have to worry about shots because they were giving him insulin through his IV but eventually we had to learn how to give him shots. They explained carb counting, corrections, dosing.. We had to speak to the diabetes specialists as well as other people to go over food and how it affects blood sugar. We were there three total days. During that time we were figuring out how much insulin he needed and how to manage his diabetes. He slowly went from that unhappy/grouchy boy he had been all week to our normal happy boy.

It's been just over 6 months since he was diagnosed. We are learning and adjusting to his disease. It's definitely a lot scarier than I ever imagined. I sleep less now than I did when I had a newborn. He is doing well with shots but struggles greatly with not being able to eat what he wants when he wants. The doctors explained to us at diagnosis that we need to let him be a kid. He can have what he wants, we just have to dose for it. In reality that is true, but we've also learned foods that make him go really high and I do try to persuade him to chose something else if he asks for those foods but if he really wants it, we just dose for it and accept that he'll go high for a little while. We are doing what we can. His A1C at diagnosis was 12.8. At his last appointment it was 7.6. So higher than they want but he also was sick twice during those three months and that affected it. He's getting a diabetic alert dog this winter but I'll make a whole separate post for that. Thank you for reading his story! For more day to day updates on Bentley you can visit his facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/bentleyalertdog/

Reagan Porter is here! My birth story!

On Monday August 8th I had my 39 week appt. We had planned inducing at 39 weeks since we lived somewhat far from the hospital and my history of rapid labors. Well my cervix wasn't really changing so on Monday the 8th we were finding out if I'd be induced the next day or not. Josh's parents had come down that day so that they were already here for the induction to watch the kids. Well I go to my appointment and my cervix was still at a tight 1cm and still very high that he couldn't even strip my membranes so he canceled the induction and rescheduled it for the following Tuesday. I was crushed. My cervix had never changed prior to inductions and I never had an issue being induced but I understood where he was coming from. Josh's mom decided she'd still go ahead and stay the night since she hadn't seen the kids in a few weeks and already had her overnight stuff with her.

Over night I had woken up several times with gas like pains. At first I thought it was just gas pains but then I realized they weren't constant and were coming and going. I still figured it was braxton hicks since I had gas cramps like this prior but they never did anything. Around 4:30am they got even stronger and were about 15 minutes apart. They were uncomfortable enough that there was no way I could go back to sleep so I just laid there. We got out of bed around 6am and I went to the bathroom and there was pink when I wiped. I never experienced that before. Josh started getting ready for his appt at 8:30. They were intensifying but still very far apart. I decided to just walk laps around the house and bounce on my ball to see if they did anything. I was still really convinced it was nothing since I had never gone into labor by myself with any of my other kids. Josh was hesitant to keep his doctors appointment but since they were still not getting any closer together I assured him it would be okay for him to go ahead and go to the appointment. Weeks before, my doctor advised me that if at any point I had labor signs to call and come get checked in office or l&d since my labors go quick so I decided to give the office a call. I left a message and decided to take a shower. As I was getting out, the nurse called and said to come in immediately so they could check me so I called Josh and told him to come back home (I felt bad because he drove all the way to the doctor at this point). So he came home and picked me and we headed to the obgyn's office. On the way there I only had like one contraction and just thought I was about to look like a fool since they're going away and getting even farther apart. So I get there and had 2 more. The dr checked me and I was still 1cm but baby was lower and now a loose 1cm instead of a tight 1cm like I was the day before. The doctor said that he wanted me to head over the L&D to be monitored because the way my face looked during one of the contractions made him think that this could be the real deal. So we head to L&D but decide to stop and get something to eat first. The contractions were getting even more intense but still like 10-20 minutes apart. I get to L&D and get checked and am 3cm but the midwife on call said that she wanted to monitor me for a while before saying I was for sure in labor and admitting me. So I walked around the room and bounced on a ball for an hour. She checks me again and I'm still 3cm but 50% and a lot lower at 12:10pm. She didn't like the change but could tell that I really did not want to be sent home so she said she'd check me again in 45 minutes and if I hadn't progressed then they'd likely send me home. At 1:45 she checked me again and thank goodness, I was 4cm so they admitted me. She said that they'd break my water but we agreed that I should get the epidural first since I would likely go VERY fast after they did. The contractions were so painful at this point. I couldn't walk or talk through them. I had to wait for bloodwork to come back before they'd give me the epidural but the nurse gave me something else in my IV to help with the pain in the meantime. It made me feel so loopy. Around 2:45 I got the epidural and it felt amazing! haha. As soon as the epidural kicked in my contractions immediately got closer together and were about 1-2 minutes apart. I was so drowsy I could hardly keep my eyes open. At 4:25 the midwife checked me and I was 6/7cm dilated and she broke my water. I immediately started feeling more pressure so she checked me again at 4:38 and I was 8/9cm so they started getting ready for me to push. Within a few minutes I was 10cm and I pushed twice through one contraction and he was born at 4:48pm. The midwife even let me help pull him out once his head, shoulders, and arms were out. I got to do the same with Bentley but this was a much better experience since I wasn't in a ton of pain.  He was born with a true knot in his cord and it was wrapped once around his neck.   He was blue and very quiet. It scared me to death. He was my only baby that looked like that but the nurses kept assuring me that he was alright. After a few minutes (felt like forever) he started crying. I could immediately tell that he was smaller than Bentley but we did skin to skin for a while and he immediately latched and nursed for 45 minutes. Once he was done Josh held him and we realized that he had pooped all over me while he was nursing haha. He then went over to get wiped down and weighed/measured. He was 7lbs 11oz and 21.25" long. 

Getting back to working out!

Yesterday was day 5 of being back to working out. It's a lot harder than I expected it to be to get on track. I definitely wear out a lot quicker and my stomach seems to get really sore down by my pubic bone. Not sure if that's just normal pregnancy workout soreness or if it's my body's way of telling me I'm over doing it. I'm still going to keep pushing and will try to find different workouts to try. I'm determined more than ever, to keep active and in shape this pregnancy! 

Anatomy Scan!

  

Had my 20 week anatomy scan today! Baby Reagan is looking completely healthy! He was opening and closing his mouth and would stick his little tongue out. It was super adorable! He had his arms up in front of his face like he was blocking punches or something. haha. He's still a baby boy which is great since we've already named him and started shopping. Bentley needs a brother anyway. So we're super excited. My SCH resolved as well so I'm beyond thrilled about that. It was a huge concern of mine this entire time. And that also means that I can now start working out again! Woohoo!!!! My placenta is 1.5cm from my cervix though so I do have to come back at 32 weeks to make sure that it's moved away from my cervix. But overall it was a pretty perfect ultrasound. He had no signs of abnormalities at all and he was around 12 oz. He's so cute and perfect already!

March 2016

Haven't updated in a while! Things are going great! We found out about a month ago we're expecting a boy! So now Bentley will have a brother to help offset all the girls haha. Lex has been going to Christian school since the beginning of the year and absolutely loves it. I'm praying that we're able to figure out how to send all three girls in the fall. I think she'd be devastated if we couldn't figure out how to make that happen. She hates missing school or days where school is closed.

I'm about to finish up this semester. Only a few more weeks left. Summer semester starts at the end of May. I'm going to be taking 8 week classes though so I can finish up before baby is due in August.

L'Oréal Paris Advanced Haircare Extraordinary Oil VoxBox

Recently I discovered influenster and decided to give it a try! They sent me the new L'Oreal Paris Advanced Oil haircare. I was very excited to try it since my hair is very dry and damaged. I LOVED it. It made my hair so soft and smooth. It felt so moisturized. I wish they had an oil product that also dealt with frizziness since that's also an issue I deal with. I would definitely recommend to people and even used on my daughters hair and she loved that it didn't hurt when I brushed her hair after her bath! Thanks influenster!!!