Been a while

It's been about 2 years since I last wrote on our blog. Our little baby was a newborn. Of course, a lot has happened during that 2 year time span. I was helping my father-in-law set up a blog for himself because he is getting ready to leave on a mission to Guam in a week. It made me realize I need to get onto mine. Hopefully photo's and journal-ing will be coming soon.

Matthew's Update

I was at a large FHE get together with some families from the Santa Clara 3rd ward. (Which we were in before the boundry change) and I realized I hadn't updated my blog in a LONG time, and haven't talked about what's going on with our cute little boy.

At this point, Matthew is still not passing his hearing tests. He is 4 months old and we have since started seeing an Ear Nose Throat Doctor here. She is wanting to waite 30 days, check his hearing one more time, and then discuss the possibility of putting tubes in his ears and doing it before the cold and flu season begins. We have an appointment with her mid August.

I had an appointment for Matthew's 4 month check up, and my pediatrician advised me to start preparing myself and Jeff for Matthew's hearing issues to possibly be not ONLY the fluid situation. We'll see. We'll take one step at a time and hopefully tubes can help somewhat.

This past week we have started watching some sign language video's and the older kids are really enjoying learning that. Jeff and I have talked, and regardless of whether he can hear or not, I think we will still do sign language with him.

He is a cutie pie, and we love him so much. The kid is smothered with kisses everyday. I'll try to be better about posting more information.

Pictures of Matthew

We hired Kristen Moss a great local photographer to come and take pictures of Matthew when he was between 1-2 wks old. Now he is about 6 wks, and already I am cherishing these photo's of him when he was so little. Here are a few of our favorites:

The baseball one is of Jeff's old glove when he was younger. Thank you Kristen Moss. You did a FANTASTIC job for a GREAT price.

Status on Matthew's hearing: He still has no hearing in his left ear. It is filled with fluid. He's on his 2nd round of antibiotics due to the Left ear wanting to get infected because of the fluid. His right ear had cleared of fluid and passed a hearing test at the specialists but lately it has started to fill with fluid again, and so we aren't sure he hears as well as was tested. We have another check up for his hearing in a couple of weeks. Other than his hearing he is a cutie pie who has stolen the hearts of our family. The kids can't keep there hands off him and are constantly smothering him with kisses.

He made it!!!

We checked into the hospital on 03/12 to start the induction process. I was given medication to help my body dilate more. By3:00 am I was having contractions on my own. We started Pitocin at 6:00 am, and he was born at 1:48. He was Sunnyside up. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's when they come face up towards the cieling. Scraping the back of there head long my tail bone and lower back. His head was a bit purple and bruise, and I am a bit purple and bruised as well. haha. He was 8lb 6oz, 20 1/4 inches long, and we chose the name Matthew Thomas. We love him so much already.

He was 3 wks early, they induced me because an ultrasound said he was too big for his gestational age. Due to his size and being 3 wks early, he had to be put through some sugar tests and other things. We stayed an extra day at the hospital. His syblings had a hard time with us gone. They LOVED coming to visit. My favorite thing was Lucy's questions "Where's him hat? Where's him diaper? Who's him Mommy?" I laughed when she asked that one, and told her I was. She looked at me kind of strange like. But now that we are home, I think it's clicked for her.

While at the hospital Matthew had to do the standard hearing test. He did not pass it. They did a total of 3 tests on him and did not pass any of them. This picture is the last test they did, we thought it looked like he had head phones on. We've been told that he could have fluid in his ears and that would drain on it's own. I know he can't hear because if we drop a spoon or make a loud noise, he doesn't jump at all. We'll be taking him in for more tests for his hearing these next few weeks. We are hoping for the best. I have a hard time believing he is deaf because in Utero, when I would make a loud noise like pans banging together, he would jump. That happened many times. If it does come to him not being able to hear, I honestly just feel blessed to have him here with us, and that kind of a complication isn't anything we couldn't handle and tackle.

We love our Mr. Matt.

Why do we put things off?

The first part of this post has to do with our house. When we bought the house 5 years ago, we saw that it had a Solar Water Heater on the top of it. We had NO CLUE how the thing worked, but figured it was an added bonus. When we moved in, I told Jeff, "We should have someone come and service it and tell us how it works." Anyone knowing my hubby knows the man is cheap and likes to put things like that off as long as possible. So, year after year, we would choose to pay to service other things and not the solar water heater. We had done some research online and had read somewhere that they can be like "ticking time bombs" on your roof if the pressure builds up in them.

Everyday, for the last  5 years, from 12:00-2:00 water would run out of the solar water heater, into our gutters and into the street. We had thought it did this due to pressure building up inside, making it not the "ticking bomb" we read about. Jeff would tell me ' hurry and do dishes and start a load of laundry, maybe the water would stop. It's running because we aren't using it.' That wasn't the case at all. Another issue we had was in the summer we could enjoy HOT showers and loads of laundry etc. During the winter time, even if I was the 1st in the shower the water never got hot enough and we'd have to deal with tepid water. We just figured it was the solar water heater. Being in Eugene there isn't much Solar Energy going on during the winter months . . . .

Well I finally convinced my hubby to call a service man. For a mere $100  he came and serviced both the water heater and the Solar water heater on the roof. The reason why our water was cold was because on the water heater in the garage, the temp was turned down really low. As for the running water into our gutters part of the solar water heater . . . should have never happened. Really. Imagine turning on your kitchen faucet every day for 2 hours x 5 years. That's how much water we waisted. It makes me sick just thinking about that.

So here is the lesson we learned, when you don't know how something works, at least have someone come and diagnose and explain the function of the item. Don't just assume. Ugh.

I have now enjoyed HOT showers, HOT loads of laundry and sometimes just laugh, that for 5 years I put up with tepid showers . . . 5 years . . If that's not ridiculous I don't know what is.


Now for the rest of us . . .

We are due to have baby #4 in a few days. We aren't actually due until the end of the month, but he is measuring WAY too big for where I am at in the pregnancy. We hope to be induced and hope my body and his body agree's with this induction. If so, we'll have a new little arrival in a few days! Wa HOO!

Here is the latest pregnancy picture:

Since my last post we haven't done too much except get ready for this little guy. The kids helped me paint the bedroom, and all his clothes are washed and put away. I'm thinking it's time for him to come out.

Our Dec/Jan

I have been called as Young Women's President and the secretary I have is amazingly crafty.(Young Women's president means I am in charge of all the girls 12-18 in our church. We do youth group nights once a week etc.) She came over with a gingerbread family for us. The kids were in HEAVEN. Notice the pregnant Mommy one? She can do amazing things with fondant.She made her own fondant and it tasted SO good.

Scottie poked Grant in the eye with a stick. He didn't act like it hurt him too badly, and then after a couple of days his eye started to turn red. I thought "pink eye" and then remembered that he had gotten injured. We took him in, and thankfully so, he had a small slice in his eyeball. He had to do drops and wear a patch to school for 3-5 days. He was worried the kids would laugh at him, but we decorated each patch each day to make it look cool. One day was a Go Ducks, and this one is a Blazer's one. We are BIG Blazer fans in this house.

We had Christmas with Jeff's family. On Christmas Eve all the little cousins dress up for the Nativity story while Grandpa reads it. Lucy was the star. She took it very seriously. Our story was interrupted by a special visitor.

Mid way through the story Santa came peaking through the window! The kids actually screamed at first, but once we let him in, they all sat at his feet while he read a story of how Santa's gifts are symbolic to the gift from Christ. It was really nice. He called up each child one by one and gave them a special pre-Christmas present. If anyone knows our Lucy girl, they know she doesn't take to people very well. It takes DAYS to break her. When he called her name, she slowly stood, and slowly walked over to him. Jaws dropped. We were all surprised she even approached him, let alone on her own.

My Young Women's Secretary is great at sewing and helped me make these jammies for the kids. I don't sew, but wanted to learn. It was a big project, but the kids loved it.

I've always wanted to do the Portland Zoo lights. We finally went this year and I LOVED it.

All I wanted for Christmas was a slanted rotating shelf. Jeff isn't a builder, but went to work with scraps we gathered from a neighbors old fence they were replacing. He did a great job. I put a can on one shelf, it rolls to the back, hits the back and drops down to the next shelf where is rolls towards you! I love it.

28 wks shot. I'm feeling HUGE and starting that wonderful stage of being uncomfortable.

Happy Birthday Honey!

That's us in a nutshell. I did have one question to throw out there. We have narrowed names for this little baby down to 3. We like to take at least 3 names with us to the hospital and officially choose one once we see him. I like a catchy middle name so I'm asking for opinions. Here are the first names we like.

Reid

Blake

Matthew

. I like catchy middle names like our Lucy. Lucy Mae. We use her middle name a lot. Same with the boys. Post some combinations of names you like!

Alright Alright I'll tell you!

It was fun to see everyone's guess on what we are having. I am feeling confident that this will be our last one. The baby is . . . .




a boy.

 So now 3 boys and a girl! We are excited. There were different reasons why I wanted a girl or why I wanted a boy. I am feeling really good and excited about this little guy. I'd like to start clearing out my garage a bit, and asked the ultrasound tech to check again that it wasn't just the umbilical chord or a hand down there that we were seeing. Sure enough, different angle, no question. Now for names. Any suggestions?

Thanks for all your responses. I'll try to keep you posted on how the pregnancy is going. Tonight is crazy. I just got called as YW president in my new ward a couple weeks ago, and we are putting on our Evening of Excellence. Nothing like diving in head first.

Liz

So . . .

Just wondering if you have any guesses  . . . . . .