poison control, how can I help you?

Today was a day and a half.  It all started innocently enough, everyone chilling in the living room watching a movie together....... or so I thought. 

Ellie walked up to me saying, "This is yummy, mommy!" and hands me a SILICA GEL packet.... you know the ones I'm talking about.  The ones that say "DO NOT EAT" written all over them!  Talk about PANIC!!!!  I made her spit, getting 2 small silica beads out of her mouth, so obviously she did eat them.  Great.  Next step, a call to poison control.




The suspect 

The poison control nurse was very helpful.  She told me that silica gel was non-toxic, so nothing needs to be done.  Seriously?!?  Then why all the scary warnings all over?  According to poison control the fear is that silica gel is a choking hazard.  (Really?  The beads were the size of a pin head.  How can you choke on that?)  Luckily all that she suggested for treatment was a glass of water to make sure that none of the beads were stuck in her throat.  Thank heavens that is all!!  It definitely scared the poop outta me!  I'm so thankful that it wasn't more dangerous and that I will get to see this smiling face without tubes and wires of the hospital, which is where I was SURE we were headed.

Thank heavens for small blessings!

(and for the record, the silica gel was in the garbage, buried.  She dug it out.  I don't know what I am going to do with the girl!  Everything has to go in her mouth!)

The View from Here

We woke up this morning to the sound of rain.  Not too bad, we need the moisture.  But an hour later, it stopped..... or so I thought.  This is what I found when I opened the curtains.

Not exactly what I wanted.  I know that it is ridiculous, that we haven't had near enough moisture this winter (I mean, we have only had snow twice this year!), but..... I am ready for spring!

**********



Today is the day for prepping our valentine cards.  Lainey is SOOO excited to be able to give LOTS of valentine cards this year.  She has been studying her name list and deciding who is going to get which card.  Today I finally let her get them out and start working on them... and finish working on them.  She wasn't going to stop once she got going!  (Ignore the store bought cards, I found a STEAL of a deal for them.  I couldn't make them for that price)

ignore the pj's, it's "jammie Saturday"



And that is the view from here, at least for right now.  =D

Oh, and just to document the momentous occasion, John got his first cold sore today.  (hehehe)  I shall NEVER have to hear "I've NEVER had a cold sore" from him again.  (And it's o.k. to laugh because it is one of the mildest cold sores I've seen in a LONG time, but he DID get one and he can't rub it in anymore!)

Here again?! Maybe....

After a LONG vacation from blogging, I have decided that there really isn't any excuse for me not to be journaling our family experiences.  I sure as heck don't remember as much as I should be, and I have already liked looking back to see what happened during the time Ellie was born, so I feel like this should be something I do.

In the last few years we have all grown and changed quite a bit so here is a quick recap.

At Daman's Wedding Fall, 2011

John has FINALLY graduated with his degree in Mechanical Engineering in December 2009.  Unfortunately that was only the beginning of the "process".  We have been unable to find an engineering job anywhere.  BUT we are still blessed as the "part-time" server (read: computer nerd) job with the University of Idaho John had while in school has turned into a decent paying full time position.  AND... he is able to go back to school (I know... I know) for his masters for a minimal $5 a credit hour.  There would be NO way we could afford for John to go back to school without this blessing.  We are hoping that maybe with a master's, the jobs may be a little easier to find.  We are still looking for an engineering position though, so if anyone hears of a mechanical engineering position, let me know!

I am transitioning to a stay at home mom with only ONE little one at home.  I am starting to look at what I may want to do with my life after my kiddo's move on to school.  I don't know what my future holds, but I've considered going back to school myself.  We will have to see.


Ky the cool, Christmas, 2011

Kyrin is now a "big" 5th grader.  He is still doing great scholastically and is working on trying to become more "self sufficient" as far as being responsible goes.  It's a learning curve. 

Spring 2011

He has also done some great things this year.  He was able to participate in the Geography Bee and the Spelling Bee this year.  Both had all the 4th through 6th graders tested and then they took the top few in each class.  Kyrin was the representative for his 5th class for the geography bee, and one of the representatives for the Spelling bee.  The geography bee was kind of a fluke, but he was able to participate.  The spelling bee was more his thing.  The second round (after all the classes had been tested and the particpants chosen) was 3rd through 6th grade and had 42 particpants.  Kyrin went round after round spelling the words correctly.  He was finally put out in the 5th round with the word "DURESS".  He did awesome though and took 9th place.  That isn't too shabby at all!!!

First day of school, Kindergarten 2011

Lainey was so excited to FINALLY start kindergarten this year.  She LOVES the social aspect of it, and can't wait until she can go all day and have "more recesses to be with my friends". Her teacher has said she is friends with EVERYONE in class, and is constantly being asked to sit with one friend or another.  She has learned many compromising skills as she has had to work out a schedule to make everyone happy.  What a happy little kid.

Spring 2011, grandma made the beautiful dress

She started the year struggling with her pre-reading skills (which we knew and I had already addressed with her teacher on the first few days of school) and was given the opportunity to come to school an hour early and go to a "reading intervention" class, which we call her reading class.  She has been able to learn so much and at the last report card she had gone from "concerns" in most of the areas to "at grade level" in all but 2.  Her reading teacher says she is doing so much better in her class, and is the "star" of the class right now.  She has worked so hard on her schooling. I'm so proud of her!

At the fair, Fall 2011

Our Ellie is growing every day.  She is now 2 years old and will steal everyone's heart.  She is NOT shy at all and will strike up a converstation with anyone.  I cut her mullet off a few days ago and gave her a cute bob cut, and she has told everyone we see, from teachers at the school to the cashier at the grocery store, that she "had her hair cut" and it "looks cute".  Everyone tends to agree.  Kyrin's school teachers are totally taken with her and often come down to the hall where we drop Lainey off for Kindergarten to have a conversation with her.  She LOVES to wear dresses and will fight me tooth and nail if I try to make her wear pants.  I have a ton of shirts and pants for her and very little dresses which means DRAMA ensues often because she has "nothing to wear".  I'm afraid I am going to have a serious drama queen on my hands.  I guess my girls are more like me then I want to admit.

Summer 2011 while camping

I know I am the world's WORST poster, but hopefully you all will forgive me when you hear about how crazy life has been the last little bit.



First thing, I want to announce the birth of our beautiful daughter,

ELLIANA HAZEL MCFARLAND.

She was born on May 13, at 10:47 p.m. and is an absolute Joy to have in our lives. She weighed 7 lbs, .7 oz which is a good size for a "preemie". Ellie is considered a preemie because she was born at 37 weeks, 2 days... full term is 37 weeks 5 days. So silly.

You can stop here if you don't want to hear all the details, but I am recording them for my own record so I will have them!

As most of you know, I was on bedrest for the last 3 weeks of my pregnancy due to high blood pressure. I also got the dreaded "morning sickness" back!! The day of the 13th I was feeling really sick again, and had thrown up quite a few times. Add that on top of everything else, I knew I was dehydrated, which was nothing new for me. I go to the hospital, be monitored for an hour, get an IV to rehydrate and head home. Simple, right? Not this time around!!

I was hooked up to the monitors, my blood pressure was higher then it had been, I got an IV going and they ran labs to make sure that my organs weren't showing signs of damage from the high blood pressure. While we were waiting for the labs to come back, the monitors were picking up contractions. They weren't too horrible, just enough to let you know they were there, but they were consistent. Luckily, my doctor had just come back from her vacation that night and came to the hospital to talk to me. She said that we would wait to see what the lab results said, and if the IV would help my body stop the contractions, but that it just might be time to say enough is enough! I sure wasn't expecting to hear that, but still didn't expect anything to come of it. Seriously, I don't go into labor on my own! I figured the contractions were from dehydration, and would stop as I got IV fluids in me.

By the time I had a full bag of IV fluid in me, and the lab results back, my contractions had moved from 8 minutes apart to 3 minutes apart!! The doctor walked in and said it was GO time. I was too far along to stop my contractions, and with my placenta previa, it was too risky to send me home and see if they contractions would stop. It was time to have a baby! Talk about a shock. I had to quickly put our game plan into action! I mean, John was still home with the kids! I called all the requisite people to action and it was game time! It was so quick. I was up to the OR before John was even at the hospital and we only live 3 blocks from it!

My doctor was SO awesome. I had mentioned to her how petrified I was of having a spinal, I don't do needles in my back, and she stood by my side holding my had the whole time the spinal was put in! That is some serious dedication to your patient! The spinal itself was awesome. There seriously was NO pain, just a small amount of pressure. The spinal doctor (I'm not even going to attempt to spell their specific name) was AMAZING! I did panic a few times because of the loss of the ability to move, I could still feel my legs and they were very painful with that intense tingling feeling but I couldn't move them. It was horrible! I apparently don't do well when I lose control over the situation.... and I had NO control over this one!

The c-section itself was textbook. I was able to have John in the OR on one side holding my hand and my best friend Karen on the other hand. It was SO nice to have them both there. Especially for what happened next. I don't think I would have done well being left by myself. John has always been my rock and Karen could talk me through anything.

After Ellie was born, she really struggled to breathe. The worked on her for quite a while and eventually got out the oxygen bag to assist her. Luckily she did breathe on her own,even though it wasn't as good as they would have liked. They wrapped her up and let me see her for a minute and snap a few pictures before they took her down to the nursery so they could work on her some more. John went with Ellie and Karen stayed with me while they finished up on me.

After I was done, they took me down to my room to recover. All I wanted was to see my baby! Unfortunately that wasn't to be. John came in to tell me that Ellie was still having a hard time breathing and the doctor working on her had taken him aside to tell him that Ellie was most likely going to be life flighted to Spokane to the NICU up there because she was struggling so much. Talk about put the fear of..... well you get the picture, into a new mommy. All I could imagine was my baby hooked up to all the tubes and wires like Karen's Hannah was. (I know it totally isn't the same situation, but tell that to a distraught new mom!) Luckily my doctor stepped in and put a halt to all the craziness! She told everyone to calm down and let Ellie prove to them that she could do it.Ellie wasn't as severe as the first doctor had thought. She was breathing very fast, she did need supplemental oxygen to keep her saturation up, but she was NOT having the flaring of the nostrils and the grunting and the retraction of the rib cage which are all signs that the baby is really struggling to breath and will tire out and need a breathing tube (which is why they would have sent her to the NICU. Our hospital doesn't do breathing tubes on infants.) Ellie was put into a special incubator that has oxygen in it and did quite well in there. She had her very own nurse that was dedicated to her alone, she couldn't be left alone. Unfortunately that also means that I wasn't able to see her. John and Karen would take pictures and bring back reports but that just isn't the same. I needed my baby but neither one of us were able to be moved. Me because of my c-section and Ellie because of her need of oxygen. It made for a VERY long night. I was right next to the nursery so I could here her cry when the would poke her heel to check her blood sugars (they didn't feed her the whole time, because they were afraid it would stress her out and cause her to drop her oxygen levels. Same reason they didn't give her an IV.) It was horrible.

I was finally able to see her at about 11 am the next morning. They had me pump and bring it in to her to "see" if she was able to handle sucking as well as breathing. She was a champ! After that, they let me hold her using "blow by", an oxygen tube that blows oxygen into her face. It was such an AMAZING moment! They even let me attempt to nurse her because she did so well and was rooting while I held her. She was a champ nurser which shocked everyone because they figured she would be to tired to nurse well... but hey you be starved for 12 hours and be taken away from the only thing you knew and see how you would do when you were finally reunited! Ellie was soon put onto a nasal cannula, and I spent a lot of time that first day in the nursery with her as well as the rest of the family coming in to meet the newest McFarland in the nursery. By that evening, they felt Ellie was stable enough to join me in my room with her sat monitor and her oxygen. We got lots of visits from nurses to make sure she was ok but I had my little girl with me at last and that is what was the MOST important!

She continued to thrive and do spectacularly until we had yet another curve ball thrown in our direction. Ellie's blood pressures were showing some abnormalities that usually indicate a heart defect. About 2 hours after we received this news, they took her away from me once again to have an echo cardiogram done in Pullman, WA. They refused to release me to take her. They wanted John to take her to the appointment but he was busy trying to finish up a final. In fact, he didn't even know what was going on until after it was all done because I didn't want him to worry and screw up his final. My sweet friend, Karen, saved the day again. She took my 2 day old baby for her appointment. You can only imagine how distraught I was. Once again, it seemed like someone was trying to take my baby away from me again. After a LONG hour, Karen called to say the Echo was done, and everything looked EXACTLY like it was supposed to! What a relief. They still had to meet with the doctor, but then she was headed back to reunite me with my sweet baby. The doctor confirmed that her heart looked "textbook" and we needn't worry about it again. I think the doctor told Karen there was no need for him to "ever see this baby in here again". I hope we don't have to!

Through all this, my recovery was spectacular! I was walking around with very minimal pain. I was off the heavy duty pain medication by the time I was sent home and only on minimal Advil. I felt great. My stamina was still low, but it wasn't anything like I anticipated. I was feeling specular! I was sent home Saturday evening and by Sunday Night/Monday morning we had a whole new situation to deal with! While rolling over in bed, I heard a "POP" and felt a HUGE gush of water. My first half asleep thought was that my water had just broken... only to remember I had already had my baby! My c-section incision had broke open!!! Needless to say I was off to the ER. While at the ER the incision opened up even more until it was 4 inches by 1 inch. NOT a good situation. They packed the wound with gauze and sent me to my doctor the next morning. I was told that this was a complication that happens with c-sections and my doctor see "1 every year... or 2.... or 3." I was just the lucky one! The wound was quite large as these types of wounds go and so my doctor referred me to a wound specialist in Clarkston, WA. After visiting with them, they decided that the best course of action for this wound would be to place me on a "wound VAC"-Vacuum Assisted Closure. After jumping through all the insurance hoops, I have been approved for my wound vac and currently have it on. It really does help the wound heal a LOT faster then if we weren't able to have it on. The only down fall is that I have to visit the doctor 3 times a week in Clarkston to have the dressing changed as it isn't something that someone who isn't trained in it can accomplish. (Although I am starting to get to be a "pro") The appointments are long and time consuming and I get a "free" bikini wax every time as they pull off the tape from the dressing... OUCH! I hate that I have to be away from my kids 3 times a week for 4-6 hours. I hate that I have to use my friends to take care of my kids all the time. I am ready to be their mommy again!! But... I do have a beautiful baby girl to love and stare at in awe. As far as wounds go, at least I get to have a great reason for the wound!

So now that you have heard my story and all the fun complications that I have gotten to experience, I hope you will forgive me for posting this SOOOOOO late! I really was thinking about all you out there in Blog world, but if I wasn't at a doctor's appointment, I was trying to recover from one.

One day soon this will all be a memory. And even with all the trials I have gone through, I have to admit that I am grateful for the experience. I have witnessed so MANY miracles through all this. From the fact that I was able to stay pregnant, to the fact that I was able to bring my baby home with me from the hospital, to the fact that even with my wound and the antibiotic resistant bacteria that was found in it I have stayed relatively healthy and out of the hospital, to the love of friends who care for me, and a mom who stayed 3 weeks to take care of me and my babies while I tried to heal, the blessings, miracles, and outpouring of love have been too numerous to count and I am blessed to be able to experience it.

Trip to L&D

Wednesday night I got my first taste of Labor and Delivery. I had been randomly vomiting for days and was starting to get shaky, and having a few contractions. I figured I was getting pretty dehydrated despite my attempts to keep liquid down. I went in to see the doctor for a blood pressure check (i have a history of throwing up with Pre-E) which was borderline high... just like it has been for the last 2 months. They sent me to L&D to be "checked" to make sure nothing else was looming. I was checked (no dilation, which is a good thing at this point with the Placenta Previa), put on the monitors, and hooked up to an IV. I also had blood tests done to make sure I wasn't showing signs of Pre-Eclampsia in my liver, etc. Those tests also came back great! The baby's heart rate was GREAT, very reactive. Every time they did something to me, her heart rate would jump. I don't think she liked the IV's either! After multiple blood pressure checks, I have been diagnosed with Pre-Eclampsia. I have been put on official BEDREST... CRY! I will be having to go into the hospital multiple times a week for a Non-Stress test to make sure we don't get any worse. We need to give this baby another 2 weeks to finish growing! So, I will spend the remainder of this pregnancy being watched and laying down. Anyone want to come clean my house, play with my kids, or make my family dinner? It's going to be a LONG 2 weeks!

2 years old going on .... 16?

Lainey has decided she LOVES cars, not playing with cars.... Driving cars! I can't tell you how many times I have found her inside our car pretending she is driving to grandmas, the store, a friends house... you name it! The other day, it was raining so we couldn't go outside so the real car was unavailable for her play (like it is ever SUPPOSED to be available!) so she made her own. She emptied my laundry basket (of course I had just loaded it with folded clothes to be hauled upstairs... =D ) found her booster seat and put it inside and found her "cell phone", keys (random extra key chains that I have put together with some old keys for her) and off she went. If I remember correctly, she was headed to grandma's house on this day. I love her impness and creativity to figure out how to make her play happen. How can you not respect her determination to make it all come together? If I only had half that determination I could concur the world!

P.S. I didn't even get mad at her for emptying the laundry basket... how could you get mad at that?!? Using her "cell phone" to call daddy to let him know of his progress
"Driving" her car. I think she was speeding!

My imp... what more can you say?!?
(the blue on her face? Her new favorite love, stickers. It doesn't matter where they come from, but they ALWAYS go on the cheeks!)

Happy Easter... a tad late!

Here are the Easter Pics I promised. I know they're late, but give me a break... I'm having a baby in 2 1/2 weeks! =D

Lainey Playing with her new puzzle from the "easter bunny"
Ky showing off his goodies from the "bunny"

My kids in their Easter Duds! (Can you believe how OLD Ky looks?!? I'm so NOT ready to have an 8 year old!)

I know the easter clothes pictures are a little rough but the sun was SO bright when we took them before church, I decided to scrap the photo session and try again after church.... After church it was raining. Gotta love the Northwest in the spring time!