Walking Bridge 2

Katie and Annabelle come!

 My brother-in-law Brandon texted me back in February asking when he could send his wife and daughter out to visit us. We've been bugging them for four years so we were so excited he was surprising Keith's sister with a trip to see us in Kentucky. We planned the trip for April 30-May 14 so that we could have a lot of time and so Katie could be here while Keith took boards in Chicago and also for his graduation. It turned out that Keith ended up doing boards in Minneapolis so she was just stuck with us for two full weeks:) We were so happy to have her and Annabelle. Lots of posts to come with the activities but here's a couple highlights to start:

The girls all shared a room and did pretty well. Annabelle was usually the night owl due to her time difference.

 The Ipad was a source of comfort and also the cause of contention

The girls of course loved Aunt Katie

 Thanks to Katie, we have plenty of sweet shots of Emmett

 Katie told me about the Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran concert at the KFC Yum center. We both thought it would be fun and the day of the concert we found tickets online for a really great price. It was a blast and we weren't surrounded by too many screaming teens

 She is corny but she puts on a good concert! Love her music and the role model she's been for young girls

 Clara got a haircut and Annabelle got her bangs trimmed. Love her curls in the back!

 Among other things, we hit up Schimpffs and enjoyed some samples and yummy chocolates

 Katie babysit for us more than she should have. It was wonderful! This night I think we were at Keith's dental banquet and the girls all watched a movie

The Rest of April

My mom came for a week to help with Emmett. She is extremely helpful after a baby; she takes care of me, cleans my house, cooks us meals, washes the clothes, plays with the girls, changes the diapers...her presence was needed and enjoyed by all of us! Emmett especially enjoyed the extra love and cuddles and the girls enjoyed the attention and pancakes in the morning.

We missed Grandma Shaw but she sent out that cute little puppy hat and diaper for Emmett.

He is a long baby!

Sad, sad day when she left!

Adorable sleeping smiles. I am biased but I think he's a beautiful baby and so do most of the women who peek into my basket at the grocery store:)

Emmett's First Week and Biotinidase

Everyone warned me about 3 kids. I was warned so much I kind of got annoyed by it. I was so overwhelmed already thinking about how hard it was going to be I didn't really want to hear more about it. Let me tell you the truth, they were right.We came home from the hospital on Monday and the countdown started until my mom was coming Saturday. 

Kenzie of course accepted Emmett with open arms. She loved him and was gentle. Clara couldn't be bothered with him. She was doing her own thing and excited about having her dad home so much. Like I mentioned before, Emmett cried most of that second night in the hospital. That's about how the rest of his first week home went. Despite my best efforts to keep him up during the day, he was so backwards and just spent all night up fussing. 

This isn't a post to complain, just to document how I felt. I don't know how to describe how emotionally overwhelmed I was with 3 children to worry about on a few hours of broken sleep. My anxiety got the best of me and I would lay awake stressing. Emotionally I was a wreck and cried every day. I loved my baby, I just wasn't sure how to handle my life.

I was so blessed to have very minimal trauma to my body. It helped that my labor was a little slower and that I walked a lot at the end of my pregnancy.
I failed to mention the blanket I made before Emmett was born. It's one I found off of Pinterest and fell in love with. It took me hours and hours to make but I love it. It's pictured below

6 days after Emmett was born, I took him to his first pediatrician's appointment. When the doctor came into the office, she was really somber and asked if I would sit down. She then told me that Emmett's newborn screen results had just come in and there was an issue with it. His test for biotin came back with no activity which indicated there would be a high possibility of him having something called biotinidase deficiency. She handed me an information sheet that explained the deficiency. Side effects are mental retardation, seizures, blindness, deafness, coma and death. I obviously started to panic a little bit and my doctor was extremely kind. She apologized for not knowing a lot about the deficiency but told me that blood work would be needed asap and he needed to start supplementation asap. She allowed me to use her personal cell phone (mine was in the car) to call Keith to tell him what was going on and to call the geneticist at the hospital to set up blood work for him. The geneticist calmed me down and let me know that it was easy to treat and where to go to buy the vitamin. She also told me some things to look for and asked some questions about Emmett's condition.
We were able to go in for blood work the following Monday and heard results on Friday. The time in-between was long and I spent several nights awake and worried that irreversible damage had occurred to this perfect baby I held in my arms. We would love him regardless but there were days that week that myself, Keith and my mom thought Emmett might be blind. On Friday we received the call from the geneticist. She told me that he had two gene mutations that were causing the deficiency and he in fact had partial deficiency, not full like his screen had indicated. We felt very blessed because partial is almost 100% treatable with supplementation and there are rarely any severe issues. It would also save him years of not having to visit a geneticist and receive blood work. His most serious issues will likely be hair loss and skin rashes. We're so grateful to be in Kentucky where they screen for this so we can treat him early on.

3 Weeks & Keith's Boards

The U of L offers two different clinical boards neither of which are ones that the State of Georgia accepts. This forced Keith to go to a different State to take them. He was originally set to take his boards in Chicago but about a month before the exam, they called and said for the first time they were full and they had rescheduled him for boards in Minneapolis which bumped his test up two weeks. At first we panicked because everything was already set in Chicago and his two patients were prepared to go with there with him. After a few days of deliberation, we decided to try to make Minnesota work. Keith's patients were great and agreed to go there instead. This meant we now had to buy 3 plane tickets, and pay for longer hotel stays and food. All worked out well and I know we won't miss that money in the long run.

 Keith bribed one of his patients with a trip to the Mall of America the day they left. He bought all the girls a souvenir there.

I was a basket case every time I thought of being by myself for 4 days with 3 children so soon after Emmett was born. I don't know what I was so worried about because I have the best friends in Kentucky! I dropped Keith off Friday morning and we spent most of that day out at the park where there were plenty of moms to help keep an eye on the girls. One of my best friends Sarah came and hung out with me most of Saturday. Sunday I decided to be brave (crazy) and take the kids to 9AM church. Emmett and I were up for the day at 6 anyways so I was able to shower and get ready before the girls were up. They did pretty good through Sacrament meeting then I got to drop them off for 2 hours while I nursed and soaked up spiritual and social interaction. That night was probably the hardest because we were home the rest of the afternoon, it was cold out and everyone was spending time with their families. Monday was spent at the park again and we were actually late picking Keith up from the airport that night because we were having too much fun:)

Before Emmett

We did a few things I thought were worth blogging that last month before Emmett joined our family.

 March 9, we took a walk on the new walking bridge that connects Kentucky to Indiana. The Indiana side isn't quite finished but will be this summer. It's about a mile long but took us quite awhile with my big belly and the girls enjoying the walk. I got teary eyed when they decided to walk hand in hand for some time. It's the sweetest thing when they're enjoying each other.

 Of course we spent a lot of time at the park. Last year was unusually hot and this year has been unusually chilly so we didn't get out as much as we did last March.

 The girls both still into baby dolls. Their favorites have been the soft Disney princess baby dolls.

 She makes a messy face look good.

 It's hard to get a good picture of this one. She's very into silly faces lately.

 I loved these because it shows how they sleep. Kenz sucks on her tongue and Clara has to have her blanky, binkie and lambie.

 My sweet friends threw me a surprise baby shower. My good friend Amber asked me to come over for breakfast so we could chat and the girls could play. When I got there, she had a few decorations up and just said how her mom was there and they wanted to celebrate with me. I thought nothing of it and was surprised when friends started ringing the doorbell. I was overwhelmed with how many people came and all of the sweet gifts. I felt incredibly loved! I've barely had to buy anything for Emmett, it's been wonderful!

 I was pretty bummed that we had to stay home our last Spring break because I was too pregnant to travel so on March 21, we took a trip to Cincinnati to visit the Aquarium. We had a blast and so did the girls.

 We ate at 5 guys for lunch and were excited to see the potatoes came from Rexburg.

My last pregnant picture. It's not pretty but that's what 50 pounds does to you. And yes, I would gain it all again and look that swollen at 38 weeks to have my sweet baby Emmett with us.