We'll take it!

YAY for a better Aaron. He's doing millions of times better! I, however, amd starving. We are a cow and soy obsessed society! Every single food on this planet is made with cow or soy based products. (Maybe not quite EVERY SINGLE one, but ice cream for sure, and all desserts and pretty much everything I love, so it may as well be every single food) :) Actually I have found some websites (thanks so much to Karey Crain, internet guru!!) that have some pretty tasty looking fare and I'm actually already down 3 pounds, so it's not all bad. Aaron's rash is completely gone now and he's almost completely pasty pale which we're sooo excited for! No more polynesian babies for us! He's generally much more content with only the most normal of newborn fussiness...they couldn't make him completely fussy-free! We'll take all the normal happy crying we can get. We, again, are so thankful for everyone's thoughts and prayers while we tried to figure our little guy out! He already is such a huge blessing to our family and is happiest when he's just sprawled out on the floor near where his sisters are playing...totally

makes my day everytime they get along and play together! So, we still have a long summer of every other week trips to Pittsburgh, but we LOVE the city so it's not such a big burden.

Troy just left a few minutes for a week and panic is starting to set in...I'm a WONDERFUL mom, only when he's around to pick up all the pieces at the end of the day! Otherwise I'm a nutcase! We shall lean heavily on those around us (yay for the Vaughn's!) and plow through till Friday/Saturday! May the weekend come quickly!

HELLO ANSWERS...for now...

Today I

kiss



cows and all cow by-products and


soy and all soy by-products

GOODBYE!!! (what other family than the VonTrapp's to help me?)

Some test results that we weren't expecting just came back and Aaron has some major intestinal problems thanks to cows and soy. (we think...that's what we're starting with anyway) His personal protein levels are low because his intenstines need them to keep up with the "loose stools" because of his intenstines inability to process the proteins from my body. Kind of an ironic catch 22 per se. Couple that with a horrific case of reflux...one of the worst the GI dr has ever seen and a probable urinary tract infection...you get a pretty sick little boy who doesn't want to eat...can't say I blame him!!! So after hearing inconclusive differentials for so many days now I am SO glad to finally have something to be working on. Our suggested plan of attack for now is to repeat the test to confirm the UTI and the stool culture and start IV anti-biotics as needed there. Also, I have immediately ceased nursing (OUCH since I already have mastitis) and pumping everything to get out the old bad proteins. We need to figure out how to get Aaron to take a bottle so he can immediately begin taking "hypoallergenic" formula which basically is cow protein free and has proteins that are teeny tiny so his body doesn't have to work to process them! Since he's so borderline dehydrated already and at first will likely eat LESS we need to keep him readily available to IV fluids to compensate. I am SO excited for bad news as this means that we are closer to taking my precious home!!! (see previous post for hospital anxieties) Thanks SO much to everyone for patience and prayers and dilligence in reminding me how blessed we are with people that care about us!

(thanks to BING.COM for all clip-art :) )

The Healthiest Sick Baby of Them All!

I am feeling so many things today. Today is our third day at Children's and our fouth in the hospital. The longer we're here the worse I feel about some things and the better about others...I'll list them in outline format since I tend to ramble soooo badly!

* I feel...BLESSED IMMENSLY...we truly have the healthiest sick baby on our floor and I am sure in much of the hospital. He smiles at me many times a day and is cooing and interracting. We are encouraged to interract with other parents as a support system...I can't do it any more. My heart breaks for them and their struggles and their babies that even once they go home face lives of opposition and hardship. I know that they don't always see their struggles this way but it is heartbreaking for me. I almost feel guilty that I get to tell people how much my baby improves every day and that it seems we are on the verge of breakthrough and that there are going to be minimal lasting complications. I wish that feeling for every parent.

* I feel...GRATEFUL...for knowledgable and abundant staff. People everywhere all the time. Our own medical team is 12 people. I LOVE our morning consults where everyone contributes and we all put our heads together to formulate a plan. We see dr's more than we see nurses. The nurses are very accomadating and love to help us. You can see that they have genuine concern for the welfare of our baby and they are soooo attentive to everything going on. Also, it's nice to have a valid opinion. Everyone here listens and cares about what I have to say and while they don't always end up going the direction I think they always should, they always have a REALLY good reason why not. (side note...they're always right :) )

* I feel...UNREST & UNEASY...I miss my family. The girls are so tired of having their schedules disrupted and they don't understand everything that's going on. They come to the room and cling to me. Troy is missing all the Dr consults and feels like he's not having any input into the decisions being made. I need to be here full time for Aaron and my family needs me too. Troy is doing SUCH a great job with the girls (packing three suitcases for just one night) and I know everyone is feeling the burn. We all want and need to be in our own environment and together again!

* I feel...TIRED...but don't tell my mom cause she's had less sleep than me since she comes to pull the night shift so I can get as much sleep as possible. Thanks mom :)

* I feel...INCOMPETENT...why can't I fix my baby on my own and what did I do to make him this way. (Irrational though that may be it's where I'm at)

* I feel...HUMBLED...The blessings we have recieved lately have all been of healing and complete recovery. We are truly blessed to have a Father who loves us and knows us enough to always give us something to get us through. I am so glad He has enough confidance in me to truse me with these trying times. I am learning so much about the capabilities of myself and my husband and even my children. I am so glad for sure knowledge and faith.

I sooo should have ended with the gratitude and blessed feelings, they were much more uplifting. Sorry for that. I'll keep updating as we know more. We're doing trial and error right now to find the best solution. We see another specialist today (Gastroenterology). The Dermatology problem is already in 2 treatments much improved. Progress is promising. SLIGHT chance that we'll come home today but not necissarily. We are facing a summer of frequent trips up here. Since he's stable and we're playing guessing games we can do most of our trials at home and just do lots and lots of follow up. I'm good with that. We ALL just need to be at home!

How to get nourishment...without eating...

You use your head! We are never ever bored around here. Unfortunately we need to find some alternative entertainment. We are more familiar with dad's co-workers than he himself seems to be and are at his workplace more than he is! Madi got her cast off about four weeks ago and about a week after that Aaron decided that eating was overrated! He was in the hospital for a few days where he was diagnosed with jaundice and reflux. His one week follow-up was a different story with jaundice and now colic being our supposed answer. And here we are another week later with a still hungry boy and some jaundice...SO...we're spending the night here in Somerset with some IV fluids and getting a fancy ambulance ride to Pittsburgh Children's Hospital in the morning to see some more experienced doctors and find out why my precious baby boy doesn't agree with food! We are soooo grateful for all of the support around us and don't know what we'd do without countless nights of running to Aunt Kathy next door. Grandma's have been wonderful also in picking up the slack and being there in all kinds of pinches. I am soooo grateful for prayers and promises of healing! Being a mom is the best thing ever even when one has a sick baby. As much as I want him to be all better RIGHT NOW, I love holding him and appreciating him and being reminded that even though I pick up the same shelf of books and toys 900 times every single day there is nothing in this world that I would rather be doing than taking care of my children! I am so blessed to have three wonderful, beautiful babies!

Aaron Glenn Mast

Just a few of my favorites from Aaron's arrival last Friday! We are frantically learning to adjust to being outnumbered! Aaron is such a blessing to our family and his big sisters absolutely adore him...more to come when mommy isn't completely exhausted!

Ooo-Blah-Dee, Ooo-Blah-Dah, Life Goes On!

So yeah...My tiny 18 month old baby has a "Both Bone Left Forearm Fracture." She got her cast put on Tuesday and is falling more than ever! She's always been kind of a weeble-wobble, but now the weight of the cast drags her down twice as often. It's heart wrenching to watch her trying to get up all the time with only one good arm. She really has been incredibly resillient and has figured out how to work with one arm remarkably well. She's only on a little bit of pain medicine now (and probably wouldn't be on any at all if she would be able to stop falling on it ten times an hour...) and is finally working out a way to sleep since she can't tuck into her standard little ball! Bekah has had some adjusting to do with all the attention being so devoted to Madison! She's done some "crying out" for attention the last couple of days so Troy is taking her on a very special Daddy/Daughter date to dinner and a movie tomorrow night! I'm pretty excited for her and she is COMPLETELY over the moon about it too. It'll be good before the baby is born on Friday morning for her to have a moment of extra special attention all to herself! Speaking of which...I am down to only less than 30 hours before Frogger makes his debut! We're pretty ready, he only needs a name!!! This has been sooo challenging for us! I'm sure he'll eventually be given some sort of legal name and he'll always be Frogger to me! I'm going to miss the girls sooo much when I'm in the hospital and can't wait to get home so we can all be together and get to know our newest little family member! I'll try to get some pictures posted as soon as possible and as soon as I can figure out how! I can only seem to get pictures on here that dad or Troy posts to Facebook...I can't make ANY pictures get out of my camera...i'm techno-illiterate! Oh well!

TWO MONTHS

AGHHHHHH it's been over two months! I have sat down and tried to write posts several times but never seem to be able to finish my thoughts completely or get distracted and my computer shuts off (it always sounds like it's going to blow up) or I feel like I've been too long winded or I think that people don't really want to just hear me whine more...I could go on all day with the reasons why I never post... Sooo much is going on around here! We are about 4 weeks from D-Day!!! We are so excited about Frogger coming to be with us! I'm as cumbersome as ever and the Ultrasound tech kept saying things like "such a big baby" and "wow, he's a big boy!" I'm nervous but just glad that everything seems to be as it should be and I can't wait to meet our little gift! The girls got pictures of him the other day and love showing everyone their baby brudder! We've had a bit of tragedy, too. Most of you know about the horrific accident that took the lives of three teenage boys, one of them Troy's cousin. The past week has been very emotional for me as a mom. I've held my babies and cried with gratitude for every breath they take and every moment I have with them. It's such a blessing. I'm so incredibly selfish to want to never give them back, but in reality I know where they'll be and if it's asked of me I am so glad to have a faith in a Father in Heaven who loves them more than I can even comprehend. Seeing some of the families not able to have that sure knowledge this past week was very hard and painful.

On a higher note, Spring has been teasing us and we've been spending a lot of time outside! The kids do sooo much better being out in the fresh air and playing in bigger spaces! We walk to the playground several times a week and they sleep so much better! I love the newness of spring and the awakening of the earth. The grass is getting ever-so-slightly-greener and it just represents new beginnings! I love this time of year! The longer days and more abundant sunshine are putting a new little bounce in my step. (That's probably in my head more than my step though, cause I'm not really bouncing at all these days ;-)
Also, tonight Troy and I were grateful to be reminded of how grateful we are for adult friends. Most of our friends have kids and we're so wrapped up with our own that we forget to go out and be together with out Elmo or puppy dog or sippy cups. We enjoyed a WONDERFUL evening out with another couple (who have two very cute boys very close in age to our two very cute girls...hint, hint, hint.) We laughed and didn't have to fight with kids to sit through dinner and just were able to relax and have a good time. It was really really nice!
Troy had his first all day date with Bekah today! He had to go on a little road trip and he decided that Bekah could ride with him! We woke her up at 5 AM and she bounced up and said " I get to go on special daddy date and ride in the truck now? YAY!!!!!" She did sooooo great and loved being with daddy all by herself for the whole day. She was so wound up this evening (for my mom, thankfully since we went out!!!) though from sitting in the truck all day. It was so much fun to have some alone time with Madi too. She needed it so much I think. She wandered around most of the morning looking for sister though! Once she realized she was queen of the castle for once she took full advantage! She was my little shadow and got out all Bekah's toys that she's normally not allowed to play with and just had a blast! We decided to make one on one time with both kids a more common occurence!
I'm sure I have a million and one cute stories of things the girls are doing and funny things that happen around here and one day I'll be better about posting them as they happen, but until them I'm going to dump the laundry that I sorted earlier today on the floor again and crawl into my bed before one of my princesses wakes up for the first of many times tonight!

Post Holiday/Pre-third-baby Blues

I'm not entirely sure that the title of this blog is accurate, however, I'm not sure exactly what to call it so here goes nothing. I am SOOOO monstrously getting nervous about having three babies. I am into the third trimester tired. It is different from first trimester tired in that if I can just even sit down for half an hour or nap for a little bit I feel better. That was easy with baby number one since I only had me to worry about and could sleep whenever I wanted. It was even pretty easy with baby number two since baby number one was still taking 3 or 4 good naps a day as well. Baby number three I am finding significantly more challenging since baby number 1 has all but given up naps and baby number 2 never took good naps to begin with. So, I know I'm whining, but, I'm TIRED!!! And, I'm fat. I refused to make a weight loss resolution this year as it wasn't fair that 1/4 of the year I would be in the largest stage of my pregnancy. I need to be fit though and I desperately need more energy. I would not be nearly as worried about my physical condition if I weren't a widow to the weather half of the year, but last night as i sat on the recliner with a baby on each flank of the one still in-utero trying desperately to get them to sleep while they tried desperately not to co-operate, I asked half-teary of my father "Where in the world does the third one go???" He chuckled and had no good advice! So, I need to be prepared for the even fewer hours of rest and crazier days ahead. Mentally (don't even want to know how to prepare that way) and physically. I know I can't diet although I've tried to be careful about my snacking substituting apples for chocolate and grapes for oatmeal cream pies (only about 3/4 success rate thus far) but I need an exercise routine. Everything I read cautions heart rate monitoring and body temp regulation. And since I don't have enough time to even get a nap, I certainly don't have loads of internet research time at my disposal either. So, I turn to you my blogging community for advice on how to safely stay fit and be able to keep up with the insanity!!! Any and all advice is GREATLY appreciated! (I also don't have the ability to go to the gym due to lack of gyms in my proximity and the kid factor, so home stuff is best...even better when it involves rolling around on the floor looking silly so that the kid factor can be fully involved!) Hope everyone is having a great new year and thanks in advance for your input!