Easter at Chappell Farm in Barrie

Another beautiful day and this time fun with cousins!  I can't honestly remember the last time we saw (Ken's sister) Jen and Eric and their kids.  We decided to meet up near where they were staying with Eric's parents in Barrie.  The website for Chappell Farms looked very lack-lustre and I wasn't expecting much from the farm itself, but I was very wrong!  It was great!

There were cute animals.

Ezra and Kate going to tackle the sand/grass/mud hill.

Cousins on top of the hill.

Anders helping Alice down the hill.

 Ken, Eric and Jen talking.

Bouncy castle fun.

Wagon ride time.

A magic show.

Konrad waiting for the word.

A bunny driving the tractor and bunny helpers throwing LOTS of candy all over the field.

The hunt has begun.

I was worried about trampling, but it was great!

A very happy Anders with pockets filled with candy.

Kate saying thank you to the Easter Bunny.

Alice's death grip on her basket of candy.

After the farm we went to the Mandarin for lunch.  The food isn't great, but it's a great place for kids!  We had a lovely time with our Jakob cousins!  Thanks for a great day!

A Lovely Friday That Happened to be Good!

Spring seems to have finally sprung, thank goodness!  I don't suppose the snow is completely done, but it is mostly done I think and any snow that falls now will hopefully NOT stay.  Today started out with breakfast at the McDonald's in Bolton, there is the best play place there.  Next up was a trip to the walk-in clinic, but we didn't do it right and the wait was too long and Alice was tired, and heck so was I.  We all went home and Alice and I napped which was awesome. 

When we woke up we lunched and then the ladies and I left to go meet Mom and Dad at Fairy Lake in Newmarket.  And surprise, Mom and Dad brought Auntie Joanie with them.  It was such a nice surprise.  She really enjoyed interacting with the girls.

We played at the park.

Then the girls threw sticks in the water.

Then we played a little bit more at the park.

Next was goodbye and Easter treats from the Grandparents - huge Kinder Eggs.  The girls were very patient holding them in the car, waiting until we got home, and then until after dinner to enjoy them, and enjoy them they did!

Kate is a Bunny

This is how Kate came home from Pre-school today.  So cute!

Mt. Sinai Visit #2

Where to start... first the bothersome stuff.  Having an appointment at 10:30 and not leaving the hospital until almost 2:00 is poopy.  The baby being REALLY active when the MCA scan is being done making the numbers totally inconsistent is slightly irritating. 

Exciting stuff... I passed my glucose test - YAY!!!!  And the most exciting news of all, my titer level according to the lab at Mt. Sinai was 1:16.  The other labs that I had blood work done came back with levels of 1:128.  1 and 16 is when they start monitoring, but it is the absolute bottom of the scale of when they are concerned.  If it has gone down that much, will it continue to go down?  I don't know, but before I was given a blessing when all of this began I felt impressed to prayer for my anti-body levels to go back to normal.  I couldn't help but feel that this was the answer to that prayer.

I go back to Mt. Sinai next week on Thursday where they will again do scans and blood work.  Dr. Seaward, whom I saw today and Monday, said that if the titer levels are still that low they will just leave everything with my OB in Newmarket and I won't have to go back to Mt. Sinai again.

Today was a good day. 

Mt. Sinai - first visit

I was fine until this morning and this morning I was really only not fine because I was running late.  The plan was to drive all the way downtown to the hospital and then go see a friend afterward.  I was told to plan on being there for 3-4 hours so I booked off the whole day in anticipation. 

This morning because I ended up feeling a little fragile, I took the subway down and planned to go right home afterward, which ended up being a good thing because Alice (the barfer, who hasn't actually barfed in a while) barfed this morning.

I got there just a little after 8 a.m., which was my scheduled appointment time, got checked in and sat down to wait.  I brought a book but I didn't think I could focus to read anything so I didn't and I didn't have to wait long anyway. 

I saw a nurse first who also did an ultrasound, so I'm not sure what her official title was.  She took my history, there were so many questions, and thankfully I knew most of the answers!  Next she did a full anatomy ultrasound.  Awesome thing at Mt. Sinai a screen for me.  I could watch her do the whole thing and she didn't have to turn her screen and I didn't have to crane my neck.  It was neat.  And she was very respectful of my wishes, asking me if I knew the gender and told me when to close my eyes.  And of course I know that all of my family members will be very happy to know that I didn't peak!

After she was finished the scan she sent me for blood work.  When I came back the doctor met me quite quickly, he wanted to look at the baby's MCA levels again.  (MCA refers to middle cerebral artery and looking at the blood flow is a good predictor of fetal anemia. From an abstract, from a study:  This non-invasive investigation can be reliable in predicting anaemia in cases in which the need to sample fetal blood is not certain, therefore delaying invasive testing until treatment is likely to be required.)  When the first scan had been done this morning one of the numbers came back above the safe range, but the baby was quite active during the first scan which could then mean a false positive.  The baby was totally quiet for the second scan and the numbers were well within the normal range.

However, given the one high number I'm to report back to Mt. Sinai on Wednesday when my blood work will be complete.  Wednesday is when decisions will be made as to my continuing care.  The medical treatment I'm receiving is amazing, I feel so blessed.  Baby 3 is being very well looked after.  Oh and one last thing that I just remembered.  The doctor said that with a first pregnancy with elevated anti-body levels there aren't usually issues with the baby.  It's with subsequent pregnancies that there are issues.  So many things to give comfort!  That and the ongoing peace I feel from my Heavenly Father that everything is going to be okay!

Doctors and medical appointments

Let's see, catch up for baby 3 fun...

At my Feb 27th doctor's appointment there were still no signs of fetal anemia in the ultrasound, but my placenta was considered low lying.  I was to take it easy, stop lifting stuff and hopefully it wouldn't be a problem.  That made me sad.  Alice loves to be carried around.  I told Alice that the doctor said I wasn't to pick her up anymore and unless she's having a meltdown she looks at me and says "doctor say no up up Lala".  She's been pretty good about it!

At my Mar 13th doctor's appointment most of the results were in and the ones that were said the ultrasound looked good and my placenta has actually moved up - yay.  That being said, I'm still going to try not to pick up Alice, it's just good practise for after the baby when I really can't pick her up.  Back to results.  Not everything was in so the doctor said he'd phone later, which he did.  He phoned to say that everything did look good but my anti-D levels were still high and he was going to refer me to a specialist that might take over my care.

The next afternoon I got a message from the doctor's office saying that I had an appointment down at Mt. Sinai on Monday, March 25th at 8 a.m.  I still had to go for my next ultrasound, and do my next set of bloodwork (which will all most likely be repeated at Mt. Sinai not even a week later...) and they weren't sure if my care is being taken over completely so we'll have to wait and see.

So, I might be having a baby downtown... maybe, but who knows?  We'll see what happens on the 25th!

Next, last but not least, I had my third ultrasound today (5th in total, 3rd as related to looking for anemia) and I just LOVE IT when the techs tell you stuff, even though they're not supposed to.  She (the tech) said that everything looked great and my placenta is still up.  Oh and two funny things.  First - sort of funny, the tech was the third person in two days to tell me I look huge - awesome!  Second, the baby wasn't enjoying the scan, it kept kicking punching the wand when the lab tech was trying to do the brain scans.  It amused me.  Oh and the baby is still breech. 

I am so thankful for the sweet assurance from the spirit that everything is going to be fine.  I don't know exactly "how" it will be fine, but it will all be fine.  I'm thankful for our medical system, for all of its flaws it still does work, and all of this amazing care I'm getting is paid through my taxes.  

Oh and happy first day of spring.  I'll be happy when it actually feels like spring!

Kate is a STAR!

Kate's first week in primary (children's program at church) was magical.  She and Owen were the new kids just moved up from nursery and they were the centre of attention.  That was the first week.  Then reality set in and Kate started to get sad because she wasn't picked to do everything.  To help the children to get to know each other as our ward (congregation) which is still kind of new, having been formed last year, the primary president started the "Star Child".  Each week a different child would be given the star bag and their job was to take it home and fill it with their stuff and then present it the next week.  Each week as another child's name was drawn Kate would sink further into despair.  Last Sunday that changed!  Her name was drawn and never did you see a happier child!

We brought the star bag home and all week she would put things into it and we would practise presenting the items.  She probably asked me at least once a day, "Mommy, am I the star child?"  Sunday was of course a big day.  She had it filled to overflowing and she clutched the bag through most of sacrament meeting (the first meeting as a congregation).  She had to wait another hour after that, she had to wait through song time and sharing time (a short lesson) and then, then it was finally time to present her star bag show and tell.

I wish we had recorded it.  She was so happy.  She was in her element all the eyes on her, sharing all of her special things.  I watched her with tears in my eyes.  I'm the primary secretary so I'm there every Sunday.  Ken is a primary teacher so he's there too.  I had him take some pictures.  I wish I'd taken a picture of her with the actual bag... oh well.

Zoo time and an undocumented trip to IKEA

I like it when we go to the zoo and there's always something different!  Today there were lots of volunteers around with "stuff" and we saw lots of animals eating.  Today's trip to the zoo, although cold, was perfect.

After the zoo we drove home - stopped in at a furniture store to return a drawer that needs to be fixed (only took us 2 1/2 years to get around to it...) and then sat in the driveway for about five minutes.  The girls were both asleep and we thought we'd head to IKEA to look for a dresser for baby 3 and a new chair since Alice broke hers a little. (Her booster seat is attached to one of our kitchen table chairs and last night she tipped over and one of the supports of the back is a little broken.)  We figured we'd go when the girls woke up, you know later... but then we thought, why wouldn't we go when the girls were asleep?!!  Silly trip home for NOTHING!!!  Oh well, we went back down to IKEA, it was a zoo but Kate played in small land, we bought some cushions for the kitchen chairs (you can't actually buy one chair from our set... it's just that cheap), ate dinner, then went grocery shopping and then FINALLY came home!  What a full fun Saturday!