An Unexpected Trip -- To Emerg.

Last evening was a bit worrisome. I had been having abdominal cramping since about 2pm and thought at first it was just routine Braxton Hicks that I have been use to having previously with all three of my kiddos thus far. Well around 7pm last night, things started feeling progressively worse and the cramping was more constant as appose to scattered practice contractions. I kept very quiet about my cramping {as to not freak out Liam} and tried to lay down for an hour or so before going in for a midnight shift at work. Problem being once I layed down I felt the pain even more severely and felt the urgent need to get checked out. I could still feel baby moving every once and awhile so that was reassuring but I couldn't stand not knowing what was happening to my body.

So after Super Gramma arrived to watch the sleeping children, Liam and I packed up and headed for an unexpected trip to emergency. We waited quite a while for triage and when she finally was able to see me one of her first questions was of course "how far along are you?" Well, most pregnant Mom's would be able to tell you such details, like " Today I am 16 weeks and 4 days pregnant. ". I know I use to know exactly {well, at least I knew for my first and second pregnancies}. Now? I am horrible and losing weeks all over the place. I told the lady I was 19 weeks and after her saying "you couldn't be 20 weeks so that you could skip this process and head on up to labour and delivery saving you hours of waiting right?" LOL I was under the impression you couldn't head there until you had preregistered at 20 weeks {which apparently I should do since I am actually 21 weeks today}! I think the woman was in awe of my stupidity but for goodness sakes after 4 pregnancies already, 3 children later and now this pregnancy my lack of brain cells has severely increased leaving what I feel a woman {that woman being me} who is severely suffering from placenta head! I guess after 20 weeks you are able to head on up to labour and delivery, so that is what we did...

To make a long story even longer {sorry. but I seem to like details}, I will continue. After getting the routine check {blood pressure, urine sample and checking baby's heart rate}, things were all looking good {thank goodness}. I was able to be seen immediately by the two student doc's who had just asked all the exact same questions as the very kind nurse who was with us. I swear that after she asks all the questions and writes everything down that the student doctors just look at the charting and ask exactly the same things so that they can look good the the resident doc when they report to her before she comes in! And she did eventually come in and examine me and my cervix, reassuring me once again that things were looking good. She said my cervix was still closed and back in so this rules out preterm labour {thank goodness again}. So after narrowing down and deciding that indeed we could rule our labour at the moment she explained to me about the stretching of the uterus. I try not to laugh because I have heard a million and twenty times about how there can be cramping and pains when the uterus is growing and stretching. But I have honestly never had this pain with any other pregnancy before. She also explained that with subsequent pregnancies {like in my case}, it could get progressively worse every pregnancy and that really there was nothing to be worried about but to know that it will likely continue throughout the rest of my pregnancy {great!}, and "oh, by the way, there is nothing you can do about it!" She suggested I try to take some Tylenol and try to find the most comfortable position to ease the pain. So I did, and I did, and I managed to get a few hours sleep last night between Tessa AND Abigail waking up after we arrived home and making sure they were all settled. It seems as though everyone may be getting colds around here again! There are two runny noses and lots of sneezing going on! So over one hump and now to another. It would be great to have some healthy moments this winter but it looks as though it is going to be a long and trying one! Abigail has been absolutely miserable the past few days {totally testing our sanity} so I have decided to get her urine dipped today for a possible UTI. I figure it couldn't hurt to rule this out. It really would explain the total behaviour change. But, then again it may just hurt, cause trying to get a 2 almost three year old who is not potty trained to pee in a sterile Tupperware container is NOT an easy task. Wish me luck!

Oh and I almost forgot... We had our ultrasound last Monday and discovered that baby Porter #4 is another girl! I will try and post an ultrasound picture later! And now, I will leave you to rest your eyes after this totally lengthy post that could have been so much shorter if I had left out ALL of the details. Again I am sorry, I love details!

We ♥ Tooshies

I ♥ Faces this week is focusing on tooshies! Indeed! I am sure there will be many cute entries this week. I am sad to think about not being able to enter in last weeks competition and I also didn't have any time to take some new photos for this weeks competition since I have been working so much. This one I pulled from the archives and it isn't all that old {only about a month}. I just couldn't resist that ruffle bum! Can you?

So, if you wanna see some tooshies this week {cute or not}, head on over to I ♥ Faces now. No ifs ands or "butts" about it!

Getting Ready!

I seriously wouldn't even know where to start if I tried to catch you all up on the past few weeks of our lives. So instead I will leave you with this...

We have been decorating for Christmas around here {in and out} and now I only have to finnish shopping and wrap some presents I have already gotten in order to be ready. This year it is going to be a bit different around here. Usually we have a ton of different get togethers in order to see all of our family {Liam's and mine} and much like that we will be doing the same, except this year {when we were suppose to be going to Ottawa to Liam's parents for Christmas} I will be working nights at work for 5 straight shifts and our {my side of the family) will not be doing our typical {BIG} family supper that we have been doing all 29 years of my life so far for the first time EVER! It is a huge bummer but I guess new traditions have to start somewhere.

I hope to be doing a whole lot of updating on my blog here soon once I get this stretch of nights done for the weekend. You can look forward to many new Christmas blog posts as we have get together after get together to celebrate this wonderful season! Blessings to all!

Where to Start?

I will start by sharing with everyone that we have had total computer malfunction and I have been going through computer withdrawal for the past two weeks! I finally got my computer back today and have no idea where on earth to even start catching up on peoples lives. I am going to be slowly checking out all of the blogs in my feeder now and get caught up. Wish me luck! I am making a promise to you all out there that I will have a post up before weekend end including some pictures {or at least one} for your viewing pleasure { since I am sure you have all forgotten how beautiful we are}!

Until then my friends, hang tight and let me get caught up on YOU!

I ♥ Faces -- Autumn Beauty

This week at I ♥ Faces we are focusing on autumn beauty. I have taken a ton of photos this season so far but have not been overly impressed with the colors this year. It is all brown and yellow around here but beautiful none the less. So instead of a beautiful picture full of wonderful reds and yellows {since I didn't have one} I went for an autumn photo with a beauty in it. This beauty has not been featured too many times on I ♥ Faces, and I felt it was her time to shine again!

Click on the I ♥ Faces link now and check out the beautiful autumn photos featured this week!

He's Not Just Famous. He is Smart Too!

Yesterday {early morning} Liam watched our friend {the bull elk} cross the road and jump the fence into our front field. Liam got some pictures with his phone camera but was totally disappointed when none of them turned out. He said he was about 10 feet from him in the truck! I am glad he got to witness it :)

So, as usual around 4:30 or 5 pm people started to pull over in front of our house waiting to see this beautiful amazing creature to realize that this combine was in the field cutting hay and there was no way he was in that field while all this was going on... so disappointed they left.

See? He is not only famous but smart enough to know that Mr. Farmer was going to cut the hay in his field that evening and so he headed over to our property where the hay is never cut!

{Almost} Wordless Wednesday

A little pre-school dancing! It was cold outside :)

Lest We Forget

Lest we forget...
our fallen soldiers.

Lest we forget...
our standing soldiers.

Lest we forget...
the families who have lost and are grieving.

Lest we forget...
the families who miss their soldiers daily.

God bless these soldiers and their families.
Amen.

Poppies are a symbol of remembrance. And today we wear poppies proudly and remember those who fight for us and our country.

Lilly was a wreath bearer in the Remembrance Day assembly at her school today. She did a wonderful job. The ceremony was touching. There was singing and silence and even a story. We all sung Oh Canada and we remembered...

Lest we forget.

A Sunny Sunday

We had a great day Sunday.

It was beautiful, warm and sunny.

We all went for a walk together.

We are finally starting to feel back to normal and Lilly even went back to school today!

Here are a few pictures of our afternoon...

The girls really enjoyed how low the water line was and they could pick up rocks so easily and throw them into the water.

They would have stayed waterside all day if we had let them.

Lilly found a heart rock and Abigail told us in front of everyone walking by that it smelt like dog poop by the water.

It was a sunny Sunday and we all enjoyed it together!

He's Famous!

I am seriously in awe of this animal. I am also seriously in awe of the amount of people it is attracting every evening around 5pm.

It was starting to turn a bit dark this evening so my pictures are not the greatest. Look at all those cars! He was so close tonight too! What an amazing creature!

Thankful Thursday -- Or Friday

Every week Allie from Monkeys on the Bed does a Thankful Thursday post and she is always asking what everyone else is thankful for. I am thinking I might join into the fun Allie and start posting thankful posts late like you usually do {Sorry, couldn't resist. You did good this week! You did good :)}


So here is my thankful post for this week {lacking any form of pictures since we have not taken any since we saw our elk friend the other evening}.


1. I am thankful for resilient children -- we have all {minus Abigail} been fighting this rotten cold {again} for days. The kiddos are so resilient and seem to be bouncing right back to their normal selves. I am can assure you by Monday Lilly is going to be itching to go bock to school after a whole week off!


2. I am thankful for Canadian Health Care. And being able to call my doctor first thing in the morning almost knowing that if my kiddos are sick that I can take them right in with me for my appointment and they will be seen and taken care of for FREE! So thankful for that!


3. The Tamiflu medicine {also free} that the doctor prescribed for all my kids {as precaution} after only seeing one and thinking she just might have the flu with all the fever and coughing.


4. My new Ventolin inhaler which has done wonders in only one whole day of use on this nasty cough and shortness of breath I have been having. BTW the inhaler was not free :)


5. My wonderful Gramma {who just turned 86 on the 4th -- Happy Birthday Gram) for being there for us though all the traveling to the doctors offices and pharmacies yesterday. Couldn't have done it without you! She is always putting things on hold that are important to her to help us when we need her. I hope I am able to do just that for my Grand kids some day.


6. Knowing that my Mother is still on the mend after discovering her flu is now pneumonia and is now on prescription for that . She is healing {just slowly}. Keep praying please for her recovery. She has been off work now over 2 full weeks!


I think that is enough for this week. You can tell by now where we have been and so the lack of blogging and photos. Hopefully by the weekend we will all be back to our old selves and taking pictures again {if the weather cooperates}!


So, what are you thankful for this week?

He's Back!

He's Back!
And he's stopping traffic!
Some called him a bull moose last week when they saw him in this very field across from our driveway.
And later last week when he was spotted in our front field too {when we discovered in actuality that he was really a bull elk}
There were about 15 cars parked along the road and people were taking pictures.
Traffic was stopping to see this amazing creature.
Elk are rare {very rare} in this vicinity.
He must like it here.
He's back!
And he's stopping traffic!
Check out this beauty!

One of God's amazing creatures. What a gift to have been able to see him and capture him on camera!

I ♥ Faces -- Balloons

So, this week at I ♥ Faces is balloon week. I am sure there are going to be many creative and fun entries this week. Unfortunately, I waited until the last possible moment {I may have had a little on my mind this weekend} and did not get to stage any balloon shots or come up with anything creative for my entry this week. I found myself scrounging through my photos looking for one that may contain a balloon and found this...

Head on over to I ♥ Faces now and check out some pretty awesome entries. You will not be disappointed.