Another Month Gone

Well another month has gone by. And a crazy month it was. We still haven't made it home (obviously), but are still hoping to soon. If things work out we'll be home for Christmas, but I can't make any promises yet. We'll know more in the next few days.
Anyway, like I said, November was kinda crazy. We spent a lot of time fighting with the Army about Ben's convalescent leave. His doctor extended it from 28 to 60 days, but apparently Army Regs say it can't be more than 30 with out the General's approval. We thought we had it figured out, but then it really wasn't and it was just a mess. And to make it worse, his first day back in uniform he rolled his ankle which caused him to twist his back which caused both his leads to move. So now not only do they not hit where they need to, they cause pain in other areas if he turns his spinal cord stimulator on. Guess who is always hurting and having surgery again... Surgery is scheduled for January 6th to go in and adjust the leads. Silly me for thinking we were done with surgeries. Needless to say they haven't started the med board yet. They'll have to wait until he is recovered from his next surgery, so we're looking at March before they get started. Which means it will probably be next November/December before we are done with the Army. That can be seen as good and bad. It's more paychecks, but longer that we have to put up with all the stupid stuff. It's a bit frustrating, but what do you do?!
We celebrated our 6th anniversary on the 21st. We went to lunch at Chili's and then to see Breaking Dawn (the new Twilight movie). It started out good. But as soon as they brought our lunch out Kaylin decided to scream and would not settle down. So we didn't get to eat lunch together. One of us ate while they other tried to calm her down, and then we switched. She was better during the movie. I fed her before it started and she slept through the whole thing. And that was about the extent of our celebrating. Nothing super special, which is alright.
Thanksgiving wasn't very exciting either. The battallion provided a "dinner" (which was really a lunch) which was just alright. It didn't have the same feel as when you eat with family and friends. The day over all was a bit depressing to be honest. We had been hoping to be home, but that didn't work out. And we don't really have any friends here to get together with. That's been one of the hardest things about living here. Things have been so crazy since we moved here that we really havn't gotten to know anyone well enough to hang out with and invite over for holidays and such. But that's another story. So anyway, yeah. Thanksgiving wasn't too special. We had lunch there then went to Wal-Mart. Super exciting, I know.
Kaylin continues to do well and grow. She's getting tall and is over 13 lbs now. She loves to talk and has the cutest giggle. I can't help but smile and laugh when she starts laughing. It's one of those things that just makes everything better, even when I'm having the crappiest of days. She is starting to get a couple teeth. It seems really early to me, but it could just be that I'm not ready for my baby to be that big yet. So she's been a bit cranky from that. We found out Friday that she also has Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. We noticed a rash on the soles of her feet earlier in the week and it wasn't going away. So we stopped by Pede's to schedule an appointment, but they just squeezed her in right then and there. I have no idea where she got it from. She doesn't go to daycare or anything and we don't leave the house all that often. But the doctor says pretty much every kid gets it by the age of 2. And she's just got a real mild case. She really hasn't had a fever. And if she has, we've been treating it with the tylenol we've been giving her for her teeth. She's been eating just fine for the most part. Yesterday and today she's gone a bit longer in between feedings, but still eats well. She still has plenty of wet diapers so we don't have to worry too much about her being dehydrated. So all in all we don't have to be too concerned and just have to wait for it to run it's course. Since it's a virus we can't really treat it. Only treat the symptoms. It typically only lasts 7-10 days, and it's been almost a week, so she should be about over it. It has made her more cranky though. She will start crying and screaming for no apparent reason, and be near impossible to console. It's wearing me out honestly. She may scream when I hold her, but she screams even more when Dad tries to hold her. She has been very much a momma's girl lately. She won't cuddle with daddy when she's tired. But as soon as mommy has her she'll be out. And I better not even think about putting her down if she's asleep. She does fine at night about sleeping in her own bed, but likes to be held during the day. So between taking care of her, taking care of a hurting daddy, and trying to keep the house in one piece, I'm starting to wear down. Ben does what he can to help out, but even that is limited because of how bad he hurts. Hence why I could really use a vacation. Everyone seems to think that living in Hawaii is a vacation. Try living my life for a little while and you'll see it's no vacation. But we make the best of it and continue to push on. I don't know how I make it through each day, but I do.
So although it was a crazy month, it is another one that we survived. I have so much to be thankful for. I've been blessed with a wonderful husband who does everything in his power to provide for us. I have an amazing daughter who even when she is spitting up and peeing all over everything still makes me smile and melts my heart. I have awesome parent's who I can call at any time I need, even if for no other reason than to just talk so I don't go crazy. I live in Hawaii, which is absolutely beautiful and awesome. We have an awesome ward family at church, who not only brought us meals for a week and a half after Kaylin was born, but also another week after Ben's last surgery and they are ready to do it again after his next one. We have our health, for the most part anyway. And just overall, very blessed.

2 Months

I really didn't mean for it to be this long in between posts. There were several times I was going to sit down and type and something would come up. Like the hubby needed something or the baby woke up and was ready to eat, and then I just never got it done. So I'm doing it now.
The past two months have flown by. Things have been so crazy and busy, I don't know what happened to time. Just after my last post my parents came to visit us for a couple weeks. It was so great having them here! I know they weren't ready to leave, and I wasn't ready for them to leave, but it was fun while they were here. We didn't get to do everything we wanted, but still did quite a bit. We went to the beach, visited the temple grounds and visitor center, went to the swap meet, hiked to a waterfall, and more.


I'm pretty sure Kaylin loved having her grandma and grandpa here. And I know grandma and grandpa had fun loving on her. It will be nice for all of us once we live closer. I love Hawaii, but we are ready to be closer to family.
Kaylin is doing great! She is growing big and strong. We have her 2 month appointment on Tuesday so we'll get all the measurement updates then. But at 5 1/2 weeks she was 10.1 lbs and 22.1". Last night we set her on our bathroom scale and she weighed in at 12.2 lbs, so we'll see how big she officially is at her appointment. We finally figured out the nursing thing. It's not as easy as everyone makes it seem. At least not at first anyway. But we've got the hang of it now. She's been sleeping through the night pretty good. We typically get up between 2 and 3, then again between 5 and 6. Granted it's not the exact same time every night, but we do have a pretty good eating/sleeping system down. She likes to cuddle with us, especially in our bed. I know, we shouldn't let her get in the habit of sleeping in our bed, but sometimes it's just easier that way. And I love cuddling with my little girl!
She's such a sweetheart and an angel. And she has the cutest smile! I love it! She'll smile when we smile and talk to her. We have little "talks" where she'll coo and smile while I change her diaper (which we can now do with out her screaming most of the time now). She's just a blessing and a joy. Granted we've had our moments where she drives me a bit crazy because she just wants to be held and cries if I put her down. But I don't know what I would do with out her.
Ben is doing alright. He had his spinal cord stimulator put in on the 21st, and although there were some problems with the anesthesiologist, everything turned out alright. During the procedure he quit breathing twice and was in so much pain that they ended up giving him ketamine (yeah the same drug they gave him back in July that wasn't a very good experience) which caused him to hallucinate. But they got it in and it seems to be helping a bit. Instead of his pain being between a 7 and 9, it's more in the 4 to 6 range. So he's still in pain, it's just not as bad most of the time. Right now we're working on getting him off the Roxicet pain pills. Going from 4 pills a day, down to 2. The goal is to get him off them all together. He's just been on them so long that we're going to have to take it slow so he doesn't have any major withdrawals or anything. So needless to say we haven't done a whole lot the past few weeks. We're making sure he takes time to heal and let the leads scar into place nice and good, so we don't end up having another surgery. 4 in one year is quite enough. Especially since 3 of them have been since July. Hopefully we're done with surgeries for a good long while.

We should be getting the med board started in the next few weeks. Now that the surgery is done and we're out of treatment options (other than medication control) we can get the process started. We should be done and out by next July-ish. I don't think it will take that long, but then it is the Army and they don't get much done very fast most of the time. But it's nice knowing we are getting close to the end. The Army has been great for us, for the most part, but it's to the point that we're tired of dealing with all the crap. It's time to move on to the next chapter in our lives. What that chapter includes, I don't know. But I do know we'll be back in Idaho closer to family. :)

As for me, I'm doing alright too. I've had my ups and downs in the past month, but I'm hanging in there. It's been stressful taking care of a new baby and a post-op hubby. It's getting better now that he's up and moving around more now though. I had my 6 week appointment on the 2nd and everything is looking great. My blood pressure was 128/69 which is great for me. My weight is back down to my pre-pregnancy weight already. It was actually there about two weeks after giving birth. So all the weight I did put on was all baby and water weight, nothing extra. I haven't really lost any more since then, but I've always had trouble losing. And I haven't put any on, so I can't complain too much. Plus everything appears to have healed up nicely so I don't have much to worry about. :) I've also made some big decisions in the past month. The first being that I no longer sell Mary Kay. I thought long and hard about it, and just decided it's not something that I have the time and motivation for right now. If you look at all the things we've been through in the past year, it's no wonder Mary Kay has been one of the last things on my mind. We found out I was pregnant, lived through an earthquake, moved half way around the world, Ben's 4 surgeries/health issues, had a baby, and we'll be moving again by next summer. My plate has been just a little full. Which is probably why I'm crazy for making my next big decision- I started an online photography course. It's all self paced so it's not like I have to rush to meet deadlines and can do it in my free time. It's through the New York Institute of Photography and the military is paying for it. I just have to have the 6 comprehension tests done by my birthday 2013. I plan on being done before that. I've started the first unit, which has been mostly "this is your camera and this is how it works." So it's been review for the most part, but it's been a good reminder. I do need to get me a new camera (oh darn!). One where I can change the settings, and not just a point and shoot. I can make it work with the cameras I have, it's just going to be a bit more challenging. I am excited for it though, and plan on having my own photography business when I'm done.

So I think that is pretty much the update for our little family right now. We're working on coming home sometime soon, but don't have exact dates yet. As soon as we know though, we'll let everyone else know. And I'm going to try and do better about updating this. Now that we're getting into a groove and I'm getting a hang of this mommy thing, things are starting to settle down a bit and I'm finding more free time. :)

SCS Trial

When it comes to Ben's pain, we've pretty much exhausted all our treatment options. The last thing for us to try before just managing the pain with medication was a spinal cord stimulator. It's a little device where they put leads in his back that sends electrical impulses to the nerves that helps to kind of stun them so they aren't sending the pain signals. He had the trial unit put in on Friday and then taken out yesterday. And wow what a difference it made! Instead of his pain being in the 7-9 range, it was down in the 3-6 range, which is a HUGE improvement. It didn't completely get rid of the pain, but it sure helped. They only put one lead in, when they usually do two. They were having some trouble getting the one in, and didn't want to keep torturing him trying to get the second. But even just the one really helped. We decided that he will have a permanent one put in, but it will be a month. We have to wait at least two weeks just to let the back heal first and then they can go in again. But due to scheduling conflicts, he won't be able to have it put in until October 21st. So it will be another month of hurting, but after that hopefully things will get better quickly. And there is really no reason why they shouldn't. They will put in the 2 leads giving him a wider range for relief. It's just a matter of waiting now.
On a plus note, as soon as this surgery is done we can start the med board. And since he'll have this put in, it's pretty much a guarantee that we will be getting out of the military. Yay! As good as the military has been for us, we are ready to be done. I don't know when we'll be getting out, it all depends on how long the med board takes. But we should be done by next summer-ish. :)

Meet Kaylin

Meet our sweet baby girl- Kaylin Michele Hulse! She was born 12 September 2011 at 7:08 pm Hawaii time. She was a whopping 8 lbs 4.8 oz and 20 1/2 inches.

So here's my story... It was all kind of unexpected. I had been having lots of braxton hicks contractions over the weekend, but nothing to make me think I was going to have a baby any time soon. I woke up about 1:45 Monday morning having contractions. I didn't think much of it thinking I would have had more warning before they started. They were averaging about 2-3 minutes apart, and gradually getting more uncomfortable. I tried switching positions in bed, going to the bathroom, drinking water, you know all that stuff they say to do. Nothing was helping. So after about an hour I called my mom to see what she thought. After talking a bit we determined I was probably in early labor. I tried a bit longer to get comfortable and see if things would change, but they didn't. Finally about 6 I told Ben it was time to go up to the hospital. I know, not the best time since we were going to hit rush hour traffic, but I couldn't wait much longer. So we get up to Tripler and they hook me up to the monitors. Baby's heart rate was good, I was contracting every couple minutes, I was dilated to a 2-3 cm, and my blood pressure was up a little bit. If my blood pressure hadn't been up they would have sent me home, but because it was they decided to admit me and would probably need to induce with pitocin. So they take me back to the labor/delivery room and get everything all hooked up back there. When the doctor checked me back there I was at a good 3 cm and 90%. I labored on my own for a bit more and it wasn't long before I wanted the epidural. I don't know why anyone would not want one! It was a bit uncomfortable going in, but once it started it's magic I was good to go! I wasn't feeling any of the contractions and was even able to get a little sleep. When the dr checked me again at 1:00 I was dilated to 4cm so she went ahead and broke my water. We slept and watched tv for the next couple hours, and when they checked me again about 3/3:30 I was fully dilated and 100%. That's right, I went from 4 to 10 in 2 ish hours on my own! At that point we sat me up and I labored down for the next little while. The nurse came back in about 5:30, we tried a few practice pushes, and decided to give it a little bit longer. We started the real pushing about 6:00pm. I pushed for about an hour and then she was here. I was expecting to have to push for at least a couple hours, but glad I didn't. Everything after that is a bit on the surreal side. I was waiting to hear Kaylin cry which took a minute. There was meconium in the fluid and she was a bigger baby so they had all the special pediatric drs there. That was the sweetest sound when she started though. She has quite the set of lungs on her! She checked out okay though. I had some mild tearing that the drs had to fix up, but overall it was a pretty easy and uneventful delivery. Not saying I want to do it again anytime soon though... :)

Overall everything was looking mostly good with the both of us. When they discharged us, Kaylin's bilirubin levels were a bit elevated. Rather than staying at the hospital, we decided to go home with a biliblanket to see if we could get the levels down on our own. At our appointment the next day they had gone up again, so they decided she needed to be admitted for some phototherapy. We weren't home even 24 hours before we were back up there. I admit I had a bit of a meltdown. I know it's totally normal for babies to be a bit jaundice and there's nothing I could do about it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. So Kaylin and I stayed the night up at the hospital with her under the lights.

It worked though and her levels were down the next day and she was looking a lot better. Except now she was sounding a bit congested and had a stuffy nose. We mentioned it to the doctor when he did his morning rounds, but didn't seem to think much of it. So I went with Ben down to get checked in for his surgery (he had his trial spinal cord stimulator put in, but that will be another post in and of it self). I was only gone about an hour and was starting to have baby withdrawals, so I left Ben waiting and went back up to Kaylin. I got back up to her room only to find her surrounded by several doctors and nurses. It freaked me out just a little bit to say the least. I guess the nurse noticed her stuffy nose while I was gone and let one of the other doctors know and they were trying to figure out why. I'm not even sure who all was there. I know they had called down a few different specialists, but I don't remember who all they were. But they had her hooked up to the monitors, were suctioning out her nose, took some chest x-rays, and I'm not sure what else. Nothing was really explained very well to me. So it was a bit scary. They couldn't really explain why she was so stuffed up though. It was all in her nose and upper respiratory system though, and not her chest which was good. The doctor said she had probably gotten some milk up her nose while feeding and that's why she was so stuffed up. I don't know if that's really it or not. But she was sounding better by the time they were done. They kept her on the monitors a while longer and finally gave us the okay to go home about lunch time. Granted we still had to wait a while for the discharge papers, but we were finally able to go home later that afternoon. We then had another follow up appointment the next day to make sure her bili levels were still good and to check her stuffy nose. Her levels were where they should be and she was sounding a bit better. She is still pretty congested, a week later. We'll see what the doctor says Monday at her 2 week check-up. But all in all she is doing great.

We are so in love with our little angel. She already has her daddy wrapped around her little finger. She is a great sleeper. And we are getting the hang of nursing. She tends to have a bit of trouble latching on at first, but we're getting better. She makes some of the funniest faces while she eats and I just melt. She is the sweetest thing, even when she's screaming upset and trying my patience. It's a good thing we have daddy around to help calm her down. She loves to snuggle with her daddy. But I look at her and I'm just in awe. It took us almost five years of trying, but she has made the wait all worth while. :)

38 Weeks

Here we are at 38 weeks! It's only a matter of time now. As of my appointment yesterday, things are progressing the way they should. The doctor went ahead and checked me- Kaylin has dropped and I was at 1 cm and 60%. She also massaged the cervix a little bit and holy crap that was uncomfortable! (I'm wondering if it helped a little bit though as I've had some contractions and a bit of cramping today.) She was impressed that I am already at that point seeing how I'm only 38 weeks and this is my first baby. But hey, I'll take it. Hopefully that means baby will come sooner than later. :) I also got the results of my GBS (Group B Strep) test back... it came back positive. Basically all that means is that I'll have to receive antibiotics once I get to the hospital. It doesn't cause any problems for me, but it can make baby pretty sick if it gets passed to her during birth. We shouldn't have to worry about that though.
All in all things are still going well though. I'm really ready to have this baby. I'm tired of always being tired (though I don't expect that to change once she's here), I'm tired of my feet being so swollen all the time (it doesn't matter what I do, the swelling doesn't really get any better), I'm tired of the heartburn (even though she's dropped, her long legs are still up in my stomach and ribs), I'm tired of not being able to sleep at night (it's nearly impossible to get comfortable and I don't remember the last night I didn't have to get up to pee at least once), and we're just ready for her to be here. We've got the nursery all set up, the bassinet in our room ready, the diaper bag packed for her, my hospital bag mostly packed, and the car seat in the car. Now we just need a baby! Haha! I just have to keep telling myself she'll be here soon. It's just a matter of time. :)
Just a quick update on Ben... He's doing about the same. Still hurts all the time. He's been back to "work" for 2 weeks now, and it hasn't helped the pain. Usually makes it worse in fact. Doing PT in the mornings (even just the limited stuff he can do) and standing in formation in the afternoon just hurts him more. His doctor gave him a profile so that he doesn't have to do PT and go to any morning formations before 0800 until after his spinal cord stimulator trial. That was supposed to happen on the 9th, but they had to move it to the 16th. I guess they have to do it in the OR now instead of the treatment suite they've been doing it in. Gah! So it will be another week that he'll be hurting. It's been a bit of a mess trying to get this done, but hopefully it will help. Even just a little relief will be great. We're not thrilled with the timing though... seeing how I'm due the 15th... Makes me hope even more that Kaylin will decide to come early. I think it will be slightly less stressful if she's here by the time this happens instead of coming during the middle of the trial. We'll see though. I know everything will work out the way it should. I keep telling myself that. I just wish I had a bit more control over it. Haha!

35 Weeks & The Next Step

I had another doctor appointment today and everything still looks good. Not much to report really. Kaylin is still growing, and I'm measuring about a week and a half big. Her heart rate sounded great (once she stopped moving long enough for the doctor to hear it) and was in the 140's. My blood pressure was back to normal, which means it was probably just the stress of Ben being in the hospital that caused it to go up last time. And my weight was actually down a pound from my last appointment. So all in all, everything is looking good. I really don't have much to complain about, other than when she decides she needs to stretch out and has her head down low and her feet up in my stomach and lungs. Haha! She is head down, but hasn't settled into place yet. She moves around way too much for that. She still doesn't like being spied on. You could see her kicking up a storm at the doctors office when the doctor tried to get her heartbeat. It's hard to believe we've only got 5 weeks left (give or take of course). We are ready for her though. Not only am I ready to be done being pregnant, but we've got the nursery set up and pretty much all the essentials. Now it's just waiting for her to be ready. :)
Ben is doing about the same. He's mostly recovered from the surgery, but still hurts quite a bit from the nerve pain. The nerve blocks didn't work as well as hoped. The second one they tried, they actually put into the spine and was supposed to last a lot longer. It didn't. It was supposed to take the pain completely away and last for a couple days. It took it down maybe a point and only lasted about 12 hours. His back hurt longer from the injection site than the block actually lasted. So the next step is to try a nerve stimulator implant thing. I'm not sure of all the details right now. Our next appointment is next week and we'll talk about it more then. But basically they will go in and place electrode type things in his spine which is connected to a battery box type thing that sends impulses and signals to the nerve to supposedly tell it that it doesn't hurt. Does that make sense? We'll start with a trial of 5 days or so, and if it helps they'll put in a permanent one. So we may be looking at another surgery. Well see though. But that looks like the direction we are headed. Then if the nerve stimulator doesn't work, it will just be pain management through medications. We've pretty much exhausted all our other options. On a positive note, we are one step closer to the medical board. We finally got what we needed from the surgeon saying there wasn't anything else they can do and we should just get the permanent profile. Now our doctor can write it, but we are going to wait and see what pain management decides to do (ie whether or not they will do surgery to implant the nerve stimulator). But as soon as we try everything with pain management, we can get the profile and get the med board started.
So that's where we are right now. Not a whole lot going on at the moment. If anything changes though, we'll let you know. :)

Relief In Sight?

Ben had a couple doctor appointments this morning. One of them was with a different pain management doctor. He is an interventional pain management doctor if I remember right. And guess what... He actually has something that works for Ben! Instead of just telling us it's "chronic pelvic pain" he actually has a reason for the pain. Due to all the previous surgeries, there is scar tissue built up around one of the nerves. The Ilioinguinal nerve to be exact. So while there today he gave Ben a nerve block, which was a shot of steroids and something else that I can't remember. It actually took his pain from an 8 down to a 4! Granted it didn't last very long, but it still took it down for a little bit. We have another appointment on Monday to try a different nerve block and we'll see if one works better than the other. And if neither of them works super well, we can try them together or try another type of block. This new doctor also changed his meds up a little bit. He upped the dose of one (so he'll be taking the max dose instead of minimum) and changed the narcotic he's on. So we'll see how this works out. He is much more willing to help us out though. We realize the nerve blocks won't solve the problem, but they will at least bring the pain down to a manageable and functional level.
We also talked to our case manager yesterday, and he was going to work on getting the paperwork we need to get the med board started. Since the surgery obviously didn't fix the problem and he's still hurting, he was going to email the surgeon and have him put a note in the medical system saying there is nothing else he can do, and then our primary care doctor can write up the profile. Hopefully that all works out so we can this show on the road. So that is where we are right now. We've got some options to try for pain relief and we'll hopefully be starting the med board process soon. The sooner this all happens, the better. :)