2011 in review

Can you believe I am doing a Year In Review post already? Well - a lot has happened!

We enjoyed a nice New Year's dinner at Cotton Patch with the kids and came home and played WII all night long. We let the kids stay up until 11 to see the ball drop in NYC. It was fun. Cole was really tired and sort of drifting off to sleep when he said the following ... I bet we are the only people in Arlington awake right now!! cutie.

Saturday morning I woke up with a serious pain in my upper abdomen. It was bad. I took some tylenol and considered going to the after hours clinic. They were closed. I got in bed and tried to power through the pain. Around lunchtime I finally told Todd I couldn't handle it anymore and thought maybe I needed to go to the ER. We called my mom, quickly arranged for Cy to have formula in case I wasn't back in enough time and I hadn't started pumping yet (I hadn't had any reason to at this point) and off I went.

We got to the hospital at 2 pm and checked in. The electronic sign at the desk said the wait time for non-emergent problems was three hours. I was mortified. I thought I was going to have to wait for three hours before I even went back. Well, apparently abdominal pain is considered emergent (especially when you add in that I had a baby less than a month prior) and they called me back right away.

I saw the nurse, saw the doctor and had a sonogram. They gave me morphine for my pain and told me they were admitting me. My gall bladder had several stones and needed to be removed. WHAT!!??? We were obviously not prepared for an admittance to the hospital!

Thankfully, Todd's mom came out for the day to be with him and he was able to come to the hospital and bring me a small bag. Poor Cy had to take formula until I could get back home. I ended up being in the hospital for four days. FOUR DAYS!! (Todd's mom ended up staying with him for four days as well. The big kids spent some time at my parents until school started back) I had my gall bladder removed on Sunday afternoon. Then they sent me to have an MRI to see if there were any other stones or blockages. There were so I had to have another procedure on Monday afternoon and they finally released me today!

What a crazy ride!! I have never been in so much pain before. EVER. I have also never had a surgery before. I have also never had to try to retrain a baby to nurse. I was pumping in the hospital (when I could) and he was home happily (at times) taking formula. He had some upset tummy issues and some sleeping issues. We are all going to have to adjust. I can't do a lot of things because it is amazing how much you need your stomach muscles. Now I know why they call it your core.

I am hoping the worst of our year is over and it will be smooth sailing from here on out! Thanks to our families for helping on such short notice and to all our friends from church who are helping with the kids and meals. I am amazed to have such a loving family = both natural and God-given!
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