Our Shank Family: December 2011

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

As I near the end of my pregnancy I am very thankful to have had Grandma Weycker in town this year for Thanksgiving. I honestly didn't feel like cooking a huge feast that would entail hard work and clean-up afterwards. I was o.k. with whatever Kale had in mind. ( this is unusual of me) But grandma came to the rescue at the last minute refusing to eat anything other than traditional Thanksgiving Day food!

We had a small feast and ate well!!

We enjoyed ham, mac-n-cheese, applesauce, sweet potato pie, corn, dinner rolls, turkey stuffing, cranberry sauce, and of course a key lime pie.

These were all last minute throw-togethers and they were great!

She took over my kitchen

Yum!

Kale did the honors

Tyler ate like a champ

And a family pic ( minus Colten-he was with dad in Texas )

Thank goodness for grandmas and great food!

Happy Thanksgiving

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Catching Up

I seriously need to catch up. I am behind on blogging since Thanksgiving. Right before I had Morgan. This month has been LONG and exciting. I am near being back to normal as far as functioning other than with a new baby.

We love you all!! We haven't mailed a single Christmas card! I feel absolutely terrible! After having Morgan, going back into the hospital, recovering, Christmas....oh my! I am getting back on track. You should see belated cards very soon.

And lots of pictures of the Family. Colten is currently with his dad in Texas and will return shortly. We are going to shoot a family pic ( which I so meant to do before he left! ) and then will send off our cards.

Merry Christmas to everyone. We miss you all!!

Love,

Sharin

Kale

Colten

Tyler and

Morgan

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

14 days of... {updated}

I have had one heck of a start to motherhood with Morgan. This last two weeks has been incredibly exhausting!

We welcomed our baby girl November 30, 2011. This was an amazing day.

Then I spent three days in the hospital recovering from the c-section. I could complain all day long about how uncomfortable hospital beds are but most of you already know. It's not even worth getting into how much pain I was in either! I just wanted to go HOME!

Finally Saturday Dec. 3 2011- I was able to go home and relax. Just 3 days later I got a headache. This headache lasted all day long. Then through to the next day. Then the next day my headache developed into a migraine on and off. I thought : you have got to be kidding me. My ankles, feet, and calves were also really swollen. This wasn't right. I finally called my Dr. while in town with Grandma Rush and they told me to go to triage to get checked out. So I did.

Little did I know that "getting checked out" would end up meaning another 3 days in the hospital.

I had developed post-partum preeclampsia. Preeclampsia during pregnancy isn't normal but it does happen. Post-partum preeclampsia is rare and not normal.

I was scared out of my mind! I didn't really know exactly what it was until the nurse explained. The Dr. came in and told me I couldn't leave due to the possibility of seizures. I really freaked out then.

The boys were in school when I was admitted. I had about 30 minutes to get them off school bus. This really stressed me out. I called Kale like 5 times. No answer. The one time I really needed him to answer! So then the Dr. called the police to pick up my kids and bring them to me. I thought it was a genius but scary idea. Then I got a hold of my girlfriend Beth. She said she would go and get the boys. The nurses called the police back to cancel the request. Then Kale finally called me back. He left work right away and was home before my girlfriend Beth even showed up. I felt terrible sending her but I didn't know when Kale would have called back. So they both were there to get boys off the bus- thank the LORD! Beth brought Kale to hospital.

They put me on pain killers (again) and magnesium sulfate. I barely ate anything my first 3 days in hospital post-surgery and here I was again not eating anything but crackers and jello just so I wouldn't get sick from pain meds. This was absolutely terrible. Before admitting me into hospital I was told I could keep Morgan with me. I mean for heavens sake I just delivered her. There was no way she was leaving my sight! So we had to talk this through with the hospital. I was told it wasn't a good idea to keep her because of the magnesium making me extremely loopy and out of it. I fought the idea they were trying to push and asked them to let her stay with me. They agreed and assigned the nurses to help watch me with the baby. I was so happy. During some of the worst times in your life- your kids being around just makes the difficult time worth going through. I really needed her beside me!

Kale was gone with boys almost the entire next day. Another reason I wanted to keep baby. She couldn't handle the drive. He had a 6-8 hour drive to and from STL airport to take Grandma Rush to fly home. I didn't want her to leave during this crazy time. We had a few plans that we didn't get to but maybe next time will be better.

So I sat in hospital for a few days. Bored. Missing my husband and boys. Really needing some help with baby. In lots of pain. Sick from pain meds. This wasn't really the experience I wanted with the new baby but I guess it could always be worse.

They finally took me off the magnesium sulfate which was supposed to "cure" the preeclampsia. It didn't. My headaches/migraines were still on a roll. I couldn't stand this anymore. My head was killing me! Finally the Dr. ordered a cat scan. This really had my mind going. I kept questioning what was wrong with me. I wasn't too sure about this whole thing in the first place. I guess they didn't want to freak me out so they didn't tell me anything at all. This was frustrating.

The cat scan came back negative. The Dr finally admitted that it is rare but some pregnant women develop aneurysms. I clearly did not. We were sort of all at a loss on why I still had a headache. Then all of a sudden it started fading away. I was thrilled but skeptical. Skeptical on the fact I was scared it would come back. It didn't. It kept fading. They monitored me for a while longer and I was out that Sunday December 11, 2011. Yay. Finally home! With my family and my warm comfy bed.

Then this last Monday I went to my first Dr. appointment post-birth. I had a section of my cesarean that was swollen, red, and painful. I thought I was still healing. Of course I was wrong! I had what my Dr. called a stitch abscess. Great! She went in with scissors and cut a stitch out. This didn't feel too hot!

The nurse was also a little concerned with the amount of weight I had lost as well. I just smiled and said ya know... I haven't eaten 6 days of 14! This also put a little damper on breastfeeding baby as well. My body wasn't getting what it needed to provide for her. This made me sad as I had plans for a no formula diet for little Morgan. But as the days go by and my eating habits are better, things are better for Morgan and her eating habits. She's a little eater! :)

This has been a crazy 14 days.

Now for my pride and joy:

My kiddos!

They are so worth going through anything for. Love Love Love!!!

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Morgan's Birth

* Morgan Elaine Shank *

So happy Morgan is finally here! She is a blessing. She is sweet. She's our little Ladybug!

The morning that Kale and I would head to the Women's Hospital to deliver Ladybug came way too fast. The previous week was the slowest week ever! I felt as if the days would drag on and on and on. But when the special day came - I wanted to get back into bed and keep her in the womb longer. Sounds really strange that an almost 9 month pregnant woman would say this right?

Surgery isn't all too appealing to anyone especially someone who has gone through two rough c-sections already. So yes. I wanted to crawl back into bed and SLEEP!

But I couldn't. So Kale and I hugged and hugged and he assured me over and over that things would be o.k. My heart was pounding the entire way to the hospital. I didn't want to go through another surgery but I couldn't wait to meet Ladybug.

We arrived at the hospital and I was so nervous. I was dreading the surgery of course. I sure am glad that I had Kale. I wouldn't have been able to mentally cope without him. I put on my big girl pants and was ready to have this baby.

Not long after checking in with admissions, we learned that the power was out at the hospital. I thought to myself { Great! This is just what I need at a moment like this } Supposedly there was an automobile accident and the power was cut off to the hospital. They were running on generators. My surgery was postponed. I was upset. I had finally got myself together and was ready to have a baby and bam. I am delayed mentally and physically. Not cool. So we patiently waited things out. I had more time than I needed to think about this surgery. Not cool either. Bad thoughts entered my mind. I thought of so many different things within the hour of waiting. What if something goes wrong? What if she has to go to NICU? What if? What if? So I began to pray. I prayed for a healthy beautiful baby girl.

All of a sudden things began to happen rapidly.

They hauled me off to the OR room.

It was as if the minutes it took to prepare me for surgery turned into seconds in my mind. Things happened so fast I really didn't have time to think or to get scared. Before I knew it I was laying flat on my back with a curtain in front of me.

Then Kale came in the OR and I was instantly happier than ever. I had him right beside me holding my hand.

Within minutes of starting the surgery they announced that they were seconds from her. And all of a sudden all I could hear was a beautiful cute faint little cry coming from my daughter.

I couldn't believe she was here!!!

Our pictures from such an exhausting, exciting and eventful day: