And then there were three...

It's been a whirlwind of a time since I last wrote - it's been both exhausting and exciting!

We are delighted to be able to introduce our baby girl, Saoirse. I know you might be wondering what kind of a name that is, or how to even say it, so I'll give you a little helping hand.

It's pronounced "seer-sha" and it's Irish, it means freedom.... it's a name we both just loved and now that she's here it suits her perfectly and I couldn't imagine her having any other name.


Anyway, that's all - we just wanted to let you know she is here and that we are loving every moment of our life with her.

It's hard to believe how quickly time is passing - it's already been 4 whole weeks since she entered our life and changed it forever. Never before have I met a person and been so changed immediately... she is just a complete treasure.

She was 7 lbs 8 oz when she was born and after a little up and down with the weight game is now finally up over 8 lbs. I can't believe how much she has changed in just 4 weeks...

I'm sure we'll be back with updates on life as a family of  three before long.

Fun & Games @ 27 weeks

So, as I mentioned last Sunday the fun and games started....

I started having back pain off and on and was really waddling round like a duck. I thought perhaps I'd slept funny or the baby had moved into a different position, and really thought nothing more of it, but as the day passed it got worse and worse.  I thought an early night would help so hit the hay. On Monday the pains continued, off and on, sometimes in my belly down low and sometimes in my back. I decided to take it real easy all day. Towards mid afternoon I needed to run an errand and pick up something to to go along with dinner so popped to the grocery store quickly. As I was walking round I really got to be hurting.... I came home and noticed some bleeding (sorry, TMI) and the pains in my belly were worse. I called Cory, thankfully he was already on his way home, and then I called my OB. He said he wanted me to go straight to the Birthing Center for a check and observations, he said he would call ahead and then meet me there.

Cory came home, switched out of his poopy farm clothes and we left, he was in and out of the house in less than 2 minutes. We got to the hospital and it turned out that the pains I was feeling were contractions. They were coming often but my uterus seemed 'mushy' instead of hard... My Dr said he would not be happy with me going home at that point and needed me to stay overnight (at least) for obs. They strapped on some monitors, drew some bloods and hooked up an IV - before I knew it I had been admitted and was in a labor & delivery room...

The contractions got more and more regular and when they were 3-4 mins apart lasting more than a minute each the nurse decided it was time to call my Dr (it was almost midnight) and he said it was time to give me some meds to slow and hopefully stop them. After the first dose the contractions just got weird, I couldn't feel them as much in my belly but they were making my back hurt so bad - I couldn't tell when one stopped and the next one started either... it seemed that instead of being the mountain like peak they were before the meds they had shifted to more of a 'rolling hill' pattern... (the only way I could describe them). Once I told her that, and she could still see them on the monitor she called Dr again, and he said it was time for another dose. They needed to get them to stop before they got labor in full swing.

Thankfully within about another hour they slowed down and eventually turned back into a similar random pattern like earlier in the day.

In the morning my Dr came back to check in on me before heading to the office. He was very glad that things seemed to have stopped well enough, but he wanted me to hang out for a few hours more observation. So they could see if anything started back up when I was up walking around and off 'strict' bed rest. He said I could hopefully go home after lunch.

Waiting to be discharged!

The midwife came in to check up on me and after breakfast had me moved to a 'postpartum' room where I could shower and hang out 'normally' and if I had any problems at all needed to call the nurses immediately. It was so nice to be out of bed and able to shower. Cory and I just hung out chit-chatting and thankfully there was nothing to report to the nurses other than a few rogue contractions.

About 1:15pm the discharge nurse came and took out my IV. She gave me strict instructions from my Dr and sent me home with a prescription for more of the same meds that they had used the previous night to slow/stop the contractions. I was so glad to get out of there, not because there was anything bad about the hospital, but because at 27 weeks I did not want to be on hospital bed rest, nor did I want to think about what a journey we could have been on if labor had got in full swing and baby had been born!

My point of view!

The nurses at the hospital were all wonderful, they made us feel like we were in the very best of hands. Beth, our birthing class teacher came in and checked on us when she heard we'd been admitted, and she's such a sweet lady. Our pediatrician also came in and checked on us while we were. She had a little 'talk' to baby, saying to hang in there a few more weeks and it would be a much better journey than coming now...


Our Doc was awesome - he made us feel like no matter what we needed he would do it. He treated us as if we were his own kids and gave us wonderful care. He called hourly (sometimes less) throughout the evening and I even remember the nurse talking to him at 1:30 and 5:15am. They joked that he treated his patients like his daughter, but I tell ya, it was the most reassuring thing at that time.

He told us that it was potentially a very serious situation and that there was a chance baby could come, but that he had a plan to get me up to St Vincents if needed, where they had a level 3 nursery (NICU) and where we already had our MFM. At no point did we feel like there was any panic!

So, that's our little 'fun & games' story... baby is behaving this week, thankfully. We did find out that he/she is now 'head down' so that is probably why the shape of my belly has completely changed - I now no longer fit in most of my maternity clothes, but hey, that's a small price to pay - I'm just happy baby is still staying put!

After that scare on Monday I count every single day as a bonus and a blessing - every day our baby gets to spend in the womb is another day of growth and maturing. We're so excited to meet our little one, but the time isn't right just yet - a few more weeks would be wonderful. I'm really hoping we make it to full term, 36 weeks.... but hey, that's only 58 days away!   YIKES!

Introducing Miss Olivia

I am so excited to introduce you all to Miss Olivia, the newest member of our little family! I am sure you will agree that she is as cute as a button, but I will also add that she's a lively and feisty little thing!

A little over a week ago Cory had to drive down to Myrtle Point to pick up some newborn calves, so I decided to go along for the ride. I'm a sucker for baby animals, especially cows, sheep and kittens - I don't know what it is, they are just the cutest and most fun little things. I had always wanted to own my own little herd of cows but never really thought it would happen...

So, along I go for the ride, pretty content to just get to oooh and aaah over the babies, and then something happens when we get there. Cory sees me almost drooling over the babies and decides that I should get my own little calf. He said he was pretty sure his Dad would let us pasture it with his own cattle and so we didn't have to worry about not having the room right now... So, I pick out a little girl - Miss Olivia! She's half Angus, half Holstein - she's 100% beautiful!

While we were at the dairy we didn't have any cell service so we hadn't been able to check with his Dad before buying her, I was just hoping it was ok.... So, we bring Miss Olivia and the others home and talk to his Dad. He was fine with it and said she'd be just fine in with the rest of the babies and Momma's.

So, we get our three into their new pen and give them a bottle feed, then Doug took the other two calves up the road to the friend we were picking them up for.

Miss Olivia turned out to be a character - she was feisty, thirsty and craving attention - she's a funny little thing, so much personality!

She loves it when Cory comes to visit her during the work day for loves and when he goes to leave she always gives him a playful nudge on the butt as if to say "one last rub down before you leave".

The last few days she has been taken under the wing of one of the other Momma cows which is just amazing. She has her own baby (Shep) but she's happy to feed Olivia too and to look out for her. I'm so glad Miss O has found her place in the herd!

Here's some more pics - I couldn't resist, she's just too cute!

 

hello again

Well, I haven't really been good about blogging lately, actually, I haven't really been good about anything lately!

Things have picked up since I turned the 18 week mark... the sickness started to subside, I now have just a day or two of sickness per week and while it's still fairly frustrating to be sick on a regular basis it's no way near as bad as being sick all day and night. That was just plain exhausting, not to mention frustrating!

I'm at the 23 week mark of my pregnancy now and it's exciting and fun to be able to not only feel the baby moving, but to actually see the baby move inside my belly. At first that was a little weird, I must say... but now it's just exciting and fun at the same time.

We had our big ultrasound up in Portland a few weeks back and that was just plain amazing. We got to see the baby in such detail - we got to see and count fingers and toes (YAY, we counted 10 of each), we were able to see the baby moving and jumping and flipping all over the place and we got to see a profile shot of the baby's beautiful face.

I am just so excited to see that cute little face in person, to kiss those little lips and look into his or her eyes!

After the big ultrasound we talked with a perinatologist, and he was one of the most amazing Dr's I think I may have ever met with. He took as much time as we needed to talk through with us all the concerns he had due to my thyroid disease, and he reassured us that everything was perfectly on track, but that between him, my OB and my midwife they would be keeping a very close eye on me & baby and would be doing blood tests and ultrasounds every 6 weeks to make sure everything was good, and that way if anything went even slightly off course they would catch it quickly.

Since then my belly has been growing quickly, some days I wake up and can't quite figure out if the baby had a growth spurt in the night or what happened? My belly feels huge, and honestly, it's fairly uncomfortable some of the time but having our baby wriggling around inside of me is the most amazing feeling ever - I am starting to feel like a Mum already.

We've been working on the baby's room - we have a bird & tree theme going on in there that I totally love. We have also started slowly buying the more expensive items so they don't all have to come out of one pay check, it's good to find a nice deal or a bargain on something too - you know me, I hate to pay full price for anything!

Here's some pics of my growing belly in the last few weeks - it's crazy how much it's growing :)

19 weeks

20 weeks

21 weeks

October Already

I can hardly believe it's October already - it's scary how quickly this year has flown past.

Yesterday it had been a year since I was granted my Green Card, hard to believe it had been a year already, but in some ways it was also hard to believe it had ONLY been a year... a lot has happened in the past year.

To celebrate we made a 'full English breakfast' meal for dinner, and I made a Red Velvet Cake for desert - since it's our green card birthday, we had to have cake... right?

Oh my word, that cake was so good... now I'm not saying that to blow my own trumpet, especially since I got the recipe from a blog I read all the time, but I'm saying it because it was... the ganache topping was so chocolaty and so rich that it was perfect... I hate to imagine the amount of calories in the tiny sliver of cake I ate.

Since it was so rich and there was so much of it we figured there was no way we'd get it finished while it was still in it's prime, so we cut two large chunks and brought them to our neighbours.

Metal Mouth Mary

It looks as though I have survived my first few days with 'train tracks'... it was a lot tougher than I thought it would be.

(terrible photo by the way, but I guess most of the photos pf the next 2.5 - 3 years are going to be pretty crappy)

Yep, after all I've been through with dental and surgeries this past 18 months you'd think this would have been a walk in the park, well, I tell you now it wasn't.

My appointment was booked for a max of 90 minutes. That's longer than they usually allow for putting on the braces, so they figured it would be plenty of time... turns out they didn't factor in the 'MARY CARD'... my appointment ended up being a little shy of 3 hours 15 minutes. It was also pretty uncomfortable, since I have just recently had the bone graft in two places on my lower jaw. Having my right wisdom teeth (top & bottom) was also kind of a nuisance, since they had a hard time getting brackets all the way back there.

Anyway, I survived. I walked out of there with metal brackets on my bottom teeth, and clear ones on the front ones of my top. I also didn't quite get rid of my flipper... it kind of just got changed, and it's now a bridge.... Don't ask, it works (kind of).

The first day I couldn't eat a thing, my back teeth had so much pressure on them it hurt too bad. The next couple days I resorted to softer foods, soups etc... boring, but manageable.

This weekend I finally ventured to rice and that was better. It had substance and was edible, but it got really badly stuck in the brackets and was a pain to clean... at least it kept the hunger at bay tho! ;)

The easiest thing by far was baked potatoes.... thankfully, they're also one of my fav foods to eat! I also had a can of Heinz Baked Beans stashed so I poured those over the buttered potato and topped it with grated cheese.... Mmmmm, I was instantly back in London for the 20 mins it took me to eat my dinner!

Catch up after a long week!

It's been a long week since I last posted on here. I can't believe it has only been a week...

So, all the things I had intended and planned to since I last posted on here haven't quite happened, as I said, it's been a long (and very strange) week.

On Wednesday last week I had grand plans, I started strong and got going with things I needed to do... Then I got a phone call from my dear hubbie, saying that his Mom had taken a fall and was hurt and was heading to the hospital. So, I put everything on hold, threw together a pot of spaghetti, put the rest of what would be dinner in the truck and headed out there.

It turns out that she was going out the sliding doors and her flip-flop caught on the rug and she took a dive. She whacked her face on the cement and landed on her wrist, it was smashed up. Broken in at least 4 places and in a right mess.

I got the house cleaned up and dinner finished before she came home, and boy am I glad I did. She came home with her arm in a splint and a partial cast, and she was hurting pretty bad. There was no way she would have been able to do those things, and I knew she'd be worrying about it getting done.

It was a pretty late night, I guess we got home around 9pm, which doesn't sound too bad, except that poor hubbie had been gone at work all day and hadn't even got his shower til we got in the door.... we crawled to bed for some much needed sleep.

The next day I headed to the farm with Cory to look after his Mom, she had grand plans of going out shopping and running errands with me, but I knew there was no way she'd feel like it... and when we got to the house she said she realised it too. So, I just stayed with her that day and did some things round there, helped her manage her pain and did some grocery shopping... There was no way I'd be getting the things at home done, so I just put them out of my mind.

The weekend crept up on us and I was glad it was here. On Saturday morning Cory's Dad called to ask if I wanted to go and do some target practice... I really needed to before deer season started, so we headed out there and shot targets for an hour. It was actually really hard work, the guns I was shooting were so heavy and the stock was really long, so it made it hard for me to get a comfortable position. My aim was good though, and my Father in law said I would be good enough to go hunting. I definitely want to do some more practice sessions before the 1st Oct, but my confidence was a little better.

That afternoon I headed to a friends baby shower. She was actually a friend of Cory's growing up, but we've hung out a few times and she's a really awesome and fun girl. It was also my first ever baby shower... so that's something else to check off the list... I didn't know what to expect, but it was a fun afternoon!

That evening we headed out with some other friends downtown, our friend Nat was having a birthday and they'd gotten a babysitter so were trying to make the most of it. It was a nice evening, but another late night... I'm not used to all these packed days and late nights!

We crawled into bed a little after midnight to catch some much needed Zzzzzzz's!

Sunday after church and lunch we headed to Amity Vineyards with John & Janet. The vineyards here in Oregon are amazing, and there are always so many of them! If you're a wine buff then you should definitely get out here and take a tour, you'd be amazed.

After that we were shot, we needed to kick back & relax, so we ordered a pizza and chilled out for the evening... The weekend was gone...

Good News!

Just a quick post to share some good news. I just got back from seeing my Maxillofacial surgeon for my 2 week follow up and he is so pleased with how much healing has taken place since the surgery.

AND (yes, it gets better) he is giving me the go ahead to move into ortho treatment right away.

Awesome huh?!?!?!

I should have another 4 week wait before I'm ready for ortho, but my body is healing so well & he knows I'll take extra good care of myself and my teeth so he's letting me start!

I am so excited - it means I get rid of the flipper sooner rather than later and that we're taking another step in the right direction. This is also the first time for a long time that something has happened ahead of schedule with my health and dental issues!!!

So, watch this space people - brace face will be showing up a little sooner than scheduled! :)

Now I really need to get off here and get cracking - I have so much to do today and tomorrow. We're heading camping tomorrow afternoon for the weekend so we have to pack all that stuff into the truck and for some reason while I was at the store I thought it would be an awesome idea to take advantage of the deal they had on apples, so I just bought 10 pounds of Granny Smith apples that I am planning to make canned apple pie filling with and I still have berries in the refrigerator downstairs. Not to mention the chili and scones I'm making to take with us camping... Oh and dinner for tonight...

Yikes!

Over & out!

I'm a chipmunk... just not sure which one!

Well, it's been several days since surgery and simply put I feel terrible.

Cory stayed home from work on Thursday and Friday to help me and that was awesome. A good perk of being ahead on the farm during harvest.

I was doing pretty good up til about Sunday when my swelling started to get worse and the bruises took on some colour. My mouth is pretty stiff and sore and I think I look like a chipmunk. I totally don't look like me, I look different... weird.

I spent most of yesterday doing not very much. I rested and slept most of the day and kept cool in the basement. Today has been pretty much the same thing, I've been bored out of my head but there's not much else I can do about that. I've been reading online, searching out recipes and watching a little tv - yep, sounds about as boring as ever, huh.

I'm thinking about canning... yep, sounds exciting huh? Apple pie fillilng, jam etc etc.... So, perhaps we'll be out picking fruit this weekend! :)

Anyway, that's about the height of it. I'm scheduled to see Dr Johnson for a follow up next week on Wednesday, unless the swelling and pain doesn't go away, in which case I'll see him sooner...

No Surprises

This is from an email I sent to some friends and family members yesterday afternoon after surgery - As you can read, there were no surprises and everything went by the book.
My sleep was restless last night but I am taking it easy today and Cory's Dad told him to stay home with me too, which is awesome. It's nice having him here to take care of me :)

----------------
12th Aug at 17:21
Everything went well this morning. Last night I was very anxious as I went to bed but I woke up this morning filled with peace and the nerves had reduce substantially. (I didn't even cry as we drove to the appointment - and I'm telling ya, that is a first).

Dr Johnson performed the surgery expertly. He reported that the cyst was large but that they were able to clean it all out nicely and graft the site with bottle-bone. He also removed some tissue underneath a 1st molar on my lower jaw - it looked like it was forming a cyst there and they didn't want to take any chances. Thankfully we didn't need to graft that site and hopefully it will heal well by itself. The cyst in this site was so close in proximity to the other cyst there that it doesn't appear to be anything to worry about. They have sent the cyst tissue to OSHU for biopsy and I will receive the results in 2 weeks. Dr Johnson is 99% sure it's the same type of cyst we found on the upper jaw and should be nothing to cause further concern.

Everything went so smoothly, my Doctor couldn't have wished for anything to go any better - this is also a first for my surgeries and I am very thankful!

I'm in a fair amount of pain right at the moment but I have some pain killers that I will use tonight if necessary and they already gave me some meds through my IV that should keep the swelling and bruising to a minimum. Movement in my lower jaw is very restricted at the moment but I'm doing good & Cory is doing a great job of taking care of me.

D-Day tomorrow

I know I've been bad at writing, I've been both busy and not really in the best of moods, so I figured it would be smart to not write while that's the case. It'd only end up with short sharp posts anyway! ha!

So, tomorrow is D-Day for me. I will be having my latest maxillofacial surgery. I was scheduled to have two implants placed tomorrow, two bone grafts (one upper & one lower), a cyst removed and teeth pulled but it turns out that we have had a change of direction.

The 3D scan showed that I do not in fact have enough bone in the upper site to hold the Ti implants. The bone has reabsorbed into my body and is now too thin to hold the implants. That was a major blow that I hadn't really expected to hear. I thought we were doing really good with the bone strength up there.
The other thing that changed the game plan was the position of the canines. I need to have them moved a little so that the implants can go into exactly the correct spot. Ugh.

So the treatment plan has changed. We will be leaving the implants until the end of orthodontic work which will be in about 30 months (+/-). Tomorrow we will remove the lower incisor (for ortho) and a lower molar and also they will remove the cyst that has grown in my lower jaw at the front, they will also bone graft the site at that time.

I'm hoping it will not mean a loss of nerves to the teeth above the cyst, but it's a risk we have to play with.

In approx 6 weeks I should be good to go into ortho and get that ball rolling. We're going to have to keep a really close eye on the upper bone grafted site to make sure that the bone loss there doesn't get too much worse, and if it does it means dropping implants during ortho to stop resorption and save what they can. If everything goes to plan, after ortho I will have one final surgery (which I didn't expect... ) which will place an autograft - a block of bone taken from my own body and placed in the site - and also a Xenogenic graft which is a block of bovine bone.
I will have a soft tissue graft at that time and the implants placed. It sounds like a lot, well, it is a lot but I'm really trying to not worry about that right now. I'm just trying to keep stress free and rested for surgery tomorrow and worry about each procedure as it comes up.

I'm just very thankful for good doctors, who know exactly what they're doing and have a vision in mind. They are fighting for the very best for me in this situation, so that's definitely something to be glad about.

Few pics and quick hello

Not much to report from us, except that we have been working on our rental house this weekend and we are sore... and when I say sore, I mean really sore. I could hardly walk yesterday and when I did it was definitely more than a waddle accompanied with "ouch, owie, ugh...." etc type moans with every step. Not so attractive!
Yesterday was our second, first wedding anniversary. Yep, you heard it right, our second, first wedding anniversary. We had two wedding's right....?!?!?!? Therefore two wedding anniversaries! ;)

We had a fun day, went out to lunch at GVB after church which was really nice, and after that we went up to Tualatin to Erik & Krista's place to say a quick hello to them and Cory's parents since it was also Father's day.

Anyway, here's a few photos from around the Fast household recently... yes, a random collection!
Over & out!The Grosbeaks seem to have left us now, which is kind of sad since I'd gotten used to them and their feeding habits, oh, and not to forget their noise... But here's one of the last pics I took of them. I love how the two far birds have 'locked beaks'!
Our daffodil bulb 'crop'. We sat digging and dividing daffodils out of our yard so we can move them around next spring. There was so many - we left at least the same amount in the ground!

We had two pair of black headed grosbeaks feeding at our house towards the end. This is one of the males. I love how orange their colour is - they are really pretty. The females look different too. They were fun to watch!

Our niece (step-niece if you want to get technical) received an award at school, it was the 'Love one another' award. So I went with her Mom and brother to watch her receive it. Isn't she adorable?!?!

So, I did say it was a random selection of pics, right?!?!

Well, I love the lillies we have in our garden and I am so happy that we have so many too. We spent a lot of time this spring moving and separating out the tubers, but I was impressed that we still got so many with super large flowers.
Yes, Cory's hands are dirty - comes with being a farmer I guess ;)
River walk, Salem OR
"The Mountain's Out"