10 Months

Yesterday Levi was 10 months old! It's been a busy ten months! My sister, Mary is back from South Korea. We're all thankful for that. We love it when she's home. I got to see a few "old" friends this past month. Both of them were from my college sorority days! I am so blessed to still have them around and in my life. Tonight, John and I get to go on a date! WOOO HOOO!! Levi is going to Parent's Night Out at the YMCA. Levi is very close to crawling! I can't believe it. He knows the basic concept, but has a bit of trouble getting all of his limbs to work together and support his weight the whole time. I know that he'll have it in no time! I found a group on facebook that's all Kidney Moms, and i am SO glad to have them. They know what we're going through! Not much to report on the Kidney front here. Hopefully we'll have some good news in two weeks for his appointment. I also will (hopefully) have an exciting blog coming up on Monday night or Tuesday. I can't share all of the details yet, but I will soon.

The food is in!

Levi finally has his feeding tube! I know this sounds like an odd thing to be excited about, but, we are! He now has an easier way to get the nutrients that he needs into his body. This week was a long week, since we spend Monday-Thursday in the hospital. Monday morning we had to be at the hospital, in Wichita, by 6:30am. My good friend, Meghan and her daughter (4 months old), Eisley, came with us. They picked us up from our house around 4:15am. We ended up at the hospital WAY to early, which was fine. That's better than being late! The procedure was scheduled for 8:30. Here is a picture of Levi right before surgery

As you can tell, he has no idea what's about to happen. They got him back, Pastor Kent came up, and we all waited around. It was a relatively quick surgery, only about an hour and a half. After surgery they stuck him in the PICU for about 24 hours. Then we moved to Peds, once we were there my sister-in-law, Allison came up. This was on Tuesday. I spend Tuesday-Thursday night in the hospital. I don't think that is something that I will ever get used to, no matter how often I do it! They released us on Thursday afternoon. We now have to feed Levi every 4 hours. What he doesn't take by mouth, we push through the tube. Overnight he gets a continuous feed through his tube. Part of that means I go to bed late and get up earlier. If you know me, you know that's not a good combination for me, I need sleep! In a few weeks, Levi and I will go back to the doctor and get this tube taken out, and then get his Mic-Key button put in. That will be much easier to use than this current tube is.

John is doing GREAT with the tube feeds. He helps me out so much. He was at home this whole week, and I know that could not have been easy for him.

We are blessed beyond belief to have the friends, family, and church that we do. They have helped us pull through this procedure, as they will the rest of them. I cannot emphasize enough to people how important a good, strong, supportive church family is. At a time like this, they gather and strengthen us with their prayers, gifts, and visits. I sometimes wonder if God really has us in the right place, but when they come together for us, I know that He does.

7 Months....

I guess I'm kind of down to posting (at least) once a month for Levi's updates! Here's his 7 month picture!



We are so blessed to have such a happy son. He is getting bigger everyday, he weighs around 12 lbs now. It seems crazy to know that he's almost tripled his birth weight! We had blood work on Thursday, and everything looks great! Thank you all for all of the thoughts and prayers! We head to Wichita on Wednesday to visit with the nephrologist again. Hopefully she's full of good news!

Today is also John's first Father's Day! Levi and I got him a card, a skillet for the grill, and some grilling tools. He loved them! I am so thankful that we are blessed to have John as the leader of our home.




Speaking of Father's Day, anybody seen the movie "Courageous"? I was very impressed with the film. I think that it hit a lot of issues we are often to afraid to discuss. Also, with that it's led me to take a closer look at what God wants from us as wives and mothers. This has been a few months in the process, but I think that I'm finally getting my 'list' done. If anybody has anything that they've found tugs at their hearts from God, as a wife/mom, please share! I know that I'm more conservative than most, but I feel God is really calling me to walk as He planned for me to. There will be more on this later!

6 months and hospital visit

Levi is 6 months old! I can't believe it. It doesn't seem like half of his first year is done already. His 6 month stats are Height: 23 inches Weight: 11lbs 5oz. He has now more than doubled his birth weight (woohoo!). He's into 3 month and some 6 month clothing. Levi seems to be tolerating cloth diapers better than disposables, and he is getting CURIOUS about everything! We are still so in love with him!

On the flip side of things, we're also back in the hospital. Monday night we ended up in the ER for 6 hours because he had a high fever. With Levi, it's never okay for him to have a fever, it's the first sign of a kidney infection. I really felt like he needed to be admitted, not just sitting in the ER. I figured he was dehydrated and hello, he's a KIDNEY FAILURE PATIENT! In a small toen like ours, unless you have a cancer patient or a gunshot victim, a few hours is the difference between kidney failure and kidney function for him. We finally saw a doctor and got the results of the UA back to find out that everything was clear, just a virus. Tuesday we were supposed to follow up with his pediatrician. She agreed that it was just a virus, but to keep a close eye on him. She also ran more blood work and urine samples. Everything still looked clear. I still felt like he was dehydrated and we need to admit him to get him hydrated, but we were sent home since he looked okay on paper. Last night, his fever hit 104 and he started having diarreha and eating less. Then, this morning, the fever was at 102, but he added vomiting to the list of symptoms. After my 3rd shirt for the day was soaked in puke, I called the doctor's office. Our regular doc was out, but we could see one of the other pediatricians. We went into the appointment knowing that we were probably headed to the hospital. We were right. Levi was admitted this afternoon for dehydration, fever, and possible bloodborne bacteria. Gross. Good thing is, we get to stay in town at the hospital here! Yay! Also, they got him started on some iv fluids, and now he's keeping pedialyte down! Tomorrow we're hopefully back on formula. Small victories are amazing!

Please keep squirt in your prayers and remember to LISTEN TO YOUR GUT FEELINGS!

Lucky Lady

This last week or so has been filled with some great moments. For me as a mom, wife, and friend. So here's the list of everything that God has blessed me with (especially over) the last week! -Levi has had the best blood work results yet. -Mary, John, and I got the office completely painted. It looks awesome. -I was able to get all of the furniture moved back into the office -M got furniture for her new house -I woke up on Saturday morning to the sound of Levi laughing in bed next to me -We've seen Adam and Kelsey 4 times in two weeks! -House blessing at Adam and Kelsey's was WONDERFUL! -Tonight, dinner with some amazing friends -Levi lights up when John, he and I are all together -We got a piano! -Levi is stinking adorable -I got to help a friend celebrate her upcoming wedding with a shower -People at work keep blessing me with their love and support for my goals and for my family -John never ceases to remind me how much he loves me -Bee is keeping birds away from the flowers in the backyard. -Yesterday, Levi slept from 6:30pm-7am! -I finally got a walk/run in this week, and I was able to pick up right where I'd left off! -I HAVE A GOD WHO LOVES ME UNCONDITIONALLY

Easter Weekend and Levi Update

We've had such a busy, good time lately! Levi and I are finally starting to get onto a schedule, or so it seems. Bedtime has been around 8pm usually. He just can't seem to get to sleep much earlier than that. Last night he slept from 8pm-5:50am. Then I had to get him up at 7:30 to head to work. He seemed to do pretty good that way. We've also starting working food into his diet. He's had apples, pears, peas and green beans.

This was earlier today, eating peas. I guess he figured we weren't feeding him fast enough, because he grabbed the spoon and started shoving it in his mouth. He seemed to really enjoy the peas.



We had a great Easter weekend. We had great weather. I feel like we've finally started spring.We didn't really do too much. We had church Sunday morning. We made chicken enchiladas for dinner. They were yummy! Levi had the cutest outfit! He looked like a little man. Here's our family picture from Easter morning.

The weekend before Levi got baptized! We had a lot of family in town. It was so great to see everyone. He did great during the service. He seemed to love having all of the different people around. It was neat to see how everyone interacted with Levi. John and I feel like Levi's baptism was long overdue. Levi has been through so much already, and through a lot of it, the only explanation is that God healed his body. So now, Levi has been publicly declared God's. We are also very lucky that we have the support from our friends and family to raise Levi to become a man of God. His Godparents are Jess and Brandon and Adam and Kelsey. I know that they will do a great job helping us teach Levi to become that man. I am very thankful for them.

A three in one post...

So today I'm blogging about 3 different events at once, please bear with me. I'll try to make this short and sweet.

1) Happy Anniversary!
We've been married 2 years today! We share this date with John's brother and sister-in-law who are celebrating 13 years! Congrats all around!

2) 4 Months!
I cannot believe that Little Levi is 4 months old already! The time has flown by! He is a ham and lovin' it! He's started to eat foods, doctor permitting, and weighs in at just over 10 lbs.

3) Kidney Update
Not as good as we had hoped. Sounds like dialysis is coming sooner than we'd thought. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers, if he can just manage to get a little bit bigger, that would help a ton!

I'll try to get a more detailed update in here soon, when I have some time.

3 Months

I know that I say this every month, but I cannot believe our little man is 3 months old! I feel like he has changed so much in the last 2 weeks. He has started teething, which has caused some fussy moments for everybody involved. He's "talking" and smiling all the time now, which we love! Levi's also eating like a champ, and has the weight to show it! His appointment on Thursday put him at 8lbs 11oz! At this rate, we'll have a 9 pound baby next week (which will, of course, require another blog).

On Friday we had our first meeting with the urologist. He travels from KC to Wichita every other month, so it makes a shorter drive for us. Dr. Murphy was amazing! He has a lot of experience, and a great team. We didn't really learn much of anything new, which is always good news. He wants to see Levi every other month just to keep an eye on him. He's also working closely with our nephrologist. They have been trading information for the past two months! I was very glad to hear that!

Grandma (John's mom) is here this weekend. She's come up to go to the nephrologist with us on Monday. It is a nice change of pace to have some company!

Also, in less than a month, Levi and I will be home in Houston for a week! I cannot wait to show him everything there. We are so blessed to have such amazing friends and family.

God is teaching us a lot. I used to think that my quiet time each day had to be spent in solitude. Now I'm learning to spend it with Levi. If he's awake, I read the devotion for the day to him, and then I explain everything that God is talking about. It has been enlightening for me to hear how I explain things to him. I think sometimes, I end up learning more that way!

And, here are the pictures!

3 months

John and Levi

2 Months

Levi has passed the two month mark! He looks great! Here are his two month stats.

Birth:
Height: 18 inches
Weight: 4lbs 15oz

2 Months
Height: 20 inches
Weight: 7lbs 6oz

As you can imagine, he is a completely different baby now! Every day he continues to grow and amaze us. Bee has become more comfortable with him, as has Persistence. This week has been a good week when it comes to sleep. A few nights he has gone 3-4 hours at one stretch! He's usually ready to face the day around 5:30am. It seems a little early for me, still. We'll get up, get John off to work, eat, watch TV, talk to each other, make funny faces. Around 7 or so, he's usually ready for his first nap. That lasts until about 8:30. I try to catch a nap myself during that time.

Levi's smiles are bigger and more frequent than ever! I think he knows when I've had a long night or I'm tired during the day. Every time I start to think that I can't do this, he flashes me a big, toothless grin, and I'm sold again.

In other news, we're hoping to get carpet in the hallway and maybe Levi's room in the next couple of months. It's going to be wonderful when it's done! I hope that time, money, tools, and manpower all work out so that we can do that.

Well, Levi's up from his noon nap, that one only lasted about 15 minutes... I'll leave you with a picture from when he was 3 days old, and one from 2 months old!

We are blessed to call him our son!

Meet the Nephrologist

That was our plan for yesterday. We had our first appointment with Levi's permanent nephrologist. She was wonderful. She seemed to have a real interest in Levi. Yesterday was mostly a "meet and greet" appointment. Dr. Stuart was getting familiar with Levi in the flesh, learning about his habits and just giving him a brief physical. He did great. They also weighed him and had to take blood. We were very excited to find out that Levi now weighs 7lbs 11oz. Unlike our doctor at home, this doctor weighs him with his clothes on, so his actual weight could be a little bit lower than what we got yesterday. Dr. Stuart also cleared him to go to daycare, which will be great, so I can work more!

Here are some pictures of Levi from yesterday...

I can't believe how big he's gotten! He changes and amazes me each day!

On another note, yesterday one of our cats died. John's cat, Stubby, had gotten really bad the past few weeks. Here's a picture of him from Sunday morning.

It was time for him to go. He couldn't walk very well, was blind in both eyes, and was using the bathroom all over the house (yuck!). I think that we're going to stick with the two animals that we have for now. We don't want to get anymore animals until after we are completely finished with the house.

Not Normal Yet

5 weeks. It's been 5 weeks since Levi was born. I figured I'd surely be back to "normal" by this point. I was wrong. It has been a crazy 5 weeks. I was hoping to be running at least 2 miles by this point. I'm not. I'm running a good, oh 90 seconds at a time. I'm not back into all of my pre-pregnancy pants yet. I still have some extra "Levi weight" following me around. I don't ever get enough sleep. I constantly smell like formula and baby. There are times that I have to wonder what were we thinking?!?!? The thing is, I'm okay with that. I've spent the last 5 weeks caring for a boy that has changed my world and taught me how to love and care for someone without the "what about me" question lingering in my mind. I'm excited because I am running a little. I'm having to really listen to my body, it tells me when to quit, which is sometimes much sooner than I'd like. I can't get into all of my pants yet, and I still have some extra weight, but I feel better. I feel better than I have in months. I'm starting to eat better again, and get back to the basics on a lot of things. I'm trying to remind John how thankful I am for him and how much I love him. He's made all of this so much easier. So, hopefully in 5 more weeks I'll be back to my old "normal" but for now, I'm really enjoying my new "normal".

Made to Crave

I've written about this book before, but I'm at it again, so I figured that I'd write about it again.

For any lady out there that fights the battle with food, I highly recommend that you read Made to Crave. My husband bought me this book about a year ago, and let me tell you, I was greatly offended. I thought that it was so rude of him. I didn't need a diet book! As I got into it I started to realize that this book was not about another fad diet. This book was about my journey with the Lord. The author, Lysa, talks about changing our lifestyles so that fill our voids with God, not with food. The more that I read out of this book, the more that I realized that she knew. This gal seriously understood about my battle with food. I run to food all the time, when I'm happy, sad, stressed, celebrating, and any emotion in between. I can always find a reason for "just one bite". Where in that am I turning to the Lord? I have a food addiction. I crave food to meet my emotional needs. This is not healthy. My cravings need to be for the Lord. I need to have a desire to get on my knees and turn to Him, not McDonald's. God gave me, ME, this body. If I don't care for it, who will? I have to care for it so that I can care for Levi. My food choices have not been healthy, they have not made me care for this body as God has always cared for me.

At four weeks postpartum I've decided to pick up the book and begin my journey again. I'm making a commitment to start trusting His strength instead of my own. I'm going to turn to Him in times of need, not to a bowl of Blue Bell. So readers, I'm asking you to please pray for me. There will be hard times, and there will be tears. Yes, I will cry having to pass up french fries at some point. In the end, being able to crave the Lord will be so worth it!

1 Month

Levi's 1 month old today! He has had such a big first month! We've spent 21 days in NICU and 10 at home. Levi is 19 inches long and weighs 5 pounds 14 ounces. In the past few days he has become much more alert and loves to watch everybody work! He spends time in his bouncy seat and makes googly eyes at the nurses all day long. Levi loves it when John talks to him. If someone else is holding him and hears John, he'll whip his head around to see him. Music helps to calm him down and get to sleep. Any kind of music, it doesn't matter. Today we also got the BEST blood work results that we've had yet! It has been one of the hardest/best months of my life, and I'd do it all again in a heartbeat. We go home on Monday, so hopefully the next month will be a little less busy than this first month.

Levi doing one of his favorite things- eating!

Family picture taken yesterday, don't judge, a nurse took it with my cell phone!

Bravo Zulu, Sir

On Thursday I had a voicemail from John's dad saying to tell John to bring a suit to the Carson Christmas party, things weren't looking good with Grandpa. Okay, I thought 'Well, anything's possible'. I got this call around 11am. Later that afternoon I get a call from my sister-in-law letting me know that Grandpa Carson has passed away. My brain immediately went into overdrive, as it tends to do when I'm freaking out. When John finally got off of work around 3:30 he had already been called by one of his brothers and his sister telling him the news. By the time I got to talk to him we were just trying to figure out our plan of attack. We decided that it would be best for John to come to KC that night, then we would both head to Omaha for the weekend. Thankfully, he made it here safely and he got to see Levi.

Friday morning John and I headed to Omaha. We left Levi in KC at the hospital. I was a hot mess! As odd as this sounds, we had a wonderful weekend. It was a good service and Grandpa would have been happy that we were all there. We had our family Christmas party, as planned, Saturday night. We had such a good time. As we were standing around our aunt's house laughing and telling jokes and having a good time I realized how lucky we were to have each other. There's a lot of love, laughter, tears, anger and hope. There's a family, a place where we all fit. There's 88 of us when we're all there and we owe it all to Grandpa Carson. He started this family and for that, I will be eternally grateful.

Saturday we mourned Grandpa Carson, today we buried Commander Carson. It was a beautiful military burial, simple and sweet. He gave his life to this country and his family. He was a good man. Bravo Zulu, Commander, may we honor your legacy and live up to the Carson name.

But once they actually say it...

We've known in the back of our minds that at some point Levi will have to have a new kidney. How far off was always the question. A big part of me thought that maybe once he got here, the damage to his kidney would be less than anticipated, and we could wait a good 15-20 years before we had to look at transplant. Today the APRN at the hospital actually said the words "kidney transplant" out loud. Well that changes everything. Now it's a reality. We're still looking at a couple of years down the road, as his body will have to be big enough for an adult sized kidney. We will probably have months, or years of dialysis before transplant. I realize that kidney transplants are one of the easiest, most routine things to do, but forgive me for not being excited about it.

I hate the fact that my baby is sick. I hate that he'll never get to play football or baseball. I hate that he'll be on medicine for the rest of his life. I hate the fact that all of my organs work just fine, and I've used and abused most of them, and my baby, who should be perfect, was born with his organs fighting against each other. I hate that I can protect him from so much, except for his own body. I hate that I feel like a bad mother for this.

I really wish that we were at home, decorating the Christmas tree, listening to Christmas music, going to the mall to shop and walk, getting ready to head back to work. I wish that our sense of normality and routine did not involve a hospital. I wish that my friends were the ones that we were spending time with, the ones that were getting to know him, instead of a team of doctors and nurses.

I'm thankful that we have all of this. That we're in a place that can give him this care. I'm glad that there's something that they can do, even if it's just to make him more comfortable. I know that God is protecting Levi and watching over him, and us, and I'm grateful for that.

5 pounds!

I can't believe it! Our tiny boy broke the 5 pound mark today! Tonight he weighed in at 5lbs 1oz. Considering when we got here on Thursday night he was 4lbs 10oz, I'm very excited!

On a negative note, we are back in the NICU. Thursday we went in for a routine pediatricians appointment which for Levi, always involves blood work. His blood work did not look good. The electrolytes were way out of wack. For a kid with one kidney and chronic renal failure, this signals to the doctor that the kidney is failing. Off to KC we go. Once we got here everything happened so quickly. They started running labs again and scheduling ultrasounds and getting him all checked out again. Come to find out, he has a uti. This is not good because that means that the antibiotic that he was on for his reflux was not doing the job. Once we got the labs back, we found out that the infection was actually in his bloodstream as well. This infection is similar to an E. coli bacteria. It can be common in kids with the reflux and hydronephrosis. Tomorrow they are going to do a spinal tap to make sure that the infection has not spread to his spinal column or his brain. If it has, the course of action is still the same, it just extends the process 11 days. His little body has done such a great job of fighting the infection. The doctors all kept asking us what signs of infection he was showing and the truth is- NONE! His body was fighting so hard against the infection, that it kept it at bay for days. It only truly showed itself once he got here and they pulled him off of his routine antibiotic and started letting new medicines and IV's do the work for him. Turns out, this infection is what was throwing his electrolyte levels off, and what was causing him to not gain any weight for a week. They have also put him on some mineral supplements to try to get his electrolyte levels back on track. So far, they need to work harder, but we're making steps in the right direction. The procedure on discharge for him is that he has to finish all of the antibiotics, get his electrolyte levels back in order, go two days with no signs of infection in his blood or urine, then be under observation for a few more days, then we'll be discharged. This comes out to 10-25 days. We're hoping to be home by Christmas. There's so much to tell about what's going on and how we're adjusting to life with a chronically ill kid. It's frustrating and scary to know that every time he gets the smallest germy bug, it could land him right back here. This is all part of our journey with Levi. We knew when he was still in utero that there was a good chance this would be our life once he was here. I hoped and prayed that this would not be the case, but God chose differently. I'm amazed that he trusts me to handle Levi. That God has given us HIS strength to make it through these trying times with Levi. I am so blessed to have a God and husband that trust me and empower me to be a good Mom to him.

Listening to music with Daddy today

Birthday Week

Today officially started Birthday Week! We have 3 birthdays in my family in a week's time span. My dad is TODAY 11/26, my sister, Mary is 11/27 and I'm Monday 11/28. People always ask us if we mind sharing our birthdays, and truthfully, we don't! It's always been fun to celebrate together and enjoy the time with each other. Last year was hard because it was the first time that we weren't with each other. None of us were together. I was in Kansas, Dad was in Texas, and Mary was in Afghanistan. This year will be nice to have Mary here with me. Another very important birthday this week is my best friend, Kelsey! I know we fit together because she's in birthday week, too. I am so thankful for all of these people that have touched my lives and that I'm lucky enough to celebrate Birthday Week with! God has blessed me with so much this year, I cannot wait to see what this coming year has in store for us!

Also happening on Monday, Levi turns two weeks old! I can't believe that he's already been here that long! We had our one week check up last week and he's already back up to 4lbs 12oz. This week we both have appointments, I have one to check on my incision and Levi has his two week check up. I'm fairly certain that my appointment will be smooth sailing, I'm feeling great and the incision is looking good! Unfortunately, I think that little Levi will rarely have "just a check up". This week we're looking at a renal ultrasound, a hip ultrasound, and getting blood drawn for labs. They're look at his renal system to see if things are still looking okay there, his hips to see if they're out of place, and labs to check his creatine levels again. Please, pray for his renal system above all other things. If it looks like there is increased back-up due to the reflux, or if something looks enlarged, I fear that they may send us back to the hospital. With breech babies, sometimes their hips are popped out of the socket because of their legs being crossed and curled up for so long. If they find this on the hip ultrasound they'll have to pop them back into place. The blood work is hopefully going to find that all of his levels look good and we can go about our merry way. God has been so good to us, and I know that at some point we will have to face "scary" days again, but I pray that those days are not this week!

Levi is Here!

Levi Douglas was born on 11-14-2011 at 7:40am. He weighed in at 4 pounds 15 ounces.

We've spent the week in Kansas City at Children's Mercy Hospital making sure that his renal system is working, and we are hoping to be released tomorrow. He has done great. Here are some pictures of him this week. I will post more on our "adventures" here and the results of everything soon. I have to say that through all of this, one thing is perfectly clear, God is great!

36 Weeks/Carson's Go Cloth

Well we've hit the 36 week mark! Technically we should have 4 weeks left, but in all actuality, we have a week. Levi's little kidney still isn't doing what we want it to, so we're having him at 37 weeks. We decided that we would rather deal with him being small than risk something happening to that kidney. This week we have a lot to do to prepare for Levi, yet I have no idea where to start! i know that i would really like to get the house cleaned. Although this seems to always be something that I want to do, it's something that I never really have enough motivation to do! I did get some organizational stuff done yesterday, that was good.

As for the Carson's go cloth part of this blog post, we got our stash of cloth diapers! At least the first part of our stash. We've decided to cloth diaper based on a few factors. Disposable diapers gross John out. He HATES them. He has had some gross experiences with them. Another factor is the cost. To cloth diaper will cost us about $200 total. This can get us through 2 or 3 kids. Disposables can cost us to $2000 per child. Since we plan on having more kids, we will come out ahead. Something else that influenced our decision was the fact that it won't cost us anymore in laundry. We have an HE washer and dryer, so an extra load every two days won't make a difference. We had been discussing cloth diapering for a few weeks and then I met someone who cloth diapers in real life. These people are few and far between! once we got to talking she showed me a few tricks of the trade, then ended up GIVING me her entire newborn stash! This means that until he hits 18 lbs, I probably won't have to buy anything. We will be what I call a "hybrid family", meaning that there will be occasions that we use disposables. These will be times when we are traveling somewhere where we won't have access to laundry facilities. Also, when we use the daycare at the YMCA, I'm not sure what their guidelines are on cloth diapers. I will get some pictures taken soon of our diapers (probably once he gets here) and I'll post more information on the type of diapers that we got. I am very excited about cloth diapering, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask them, I'll try to get them answered as quickly as possible!

So many goals, so little time!

Since our whole life is about to change in 3-5 weeks, we've been talking a lot about our goals for the coming year. I know that a lot of people are thinking "hello, you're having a baby?!?!". Yes, we are. We also are smart enough to know that we still have to keep doing things for ourselves.

*Get back to running. John and I are both good runners when we put our minds to it. I have to work a lot harder at it to keep up with him, but I can do it! I would love to run a half next October. This progress will be something else to blog about!

*Keep our house clean. We love the idea of a clean house, but not the work that goes into it.

*Eat healthier. With the potential health problems of Levi, we know that we need to start eating healthier now, to help him avoid things later.

*Go hunting. This is John's goal. The deal is that if he, by himself gets an 8-10pt buck in the next year, he can have it mounted, in the house. He may even start on completing this goal on Sunday. Don't worry, I'll update you if he does!

*Travel more. Two reasons, visit family and friends, and for races. The deal is that whomever is running at least a half-marathon gets to pick one out of state race a year to go to (within reason). OKC doesn't count, since I think we'll always go to that one. If John picks one in AZ, then we all go, and I have to watch baby. If I pick one in IL, we all go, John watches baby. Seems fair!

*Focus. We've let our walks with God slip lately. Don't get me wrong, we're still in awe of everything he does, and how he's protected Levi and I. We also realize that we could benefit from spending A LOT more alone time with Him.

*Bake healthier. I love the idea of being a whole foods junkie. Here in a town with no whole foods stores, that can get rough. I know that if we stick with it, it will be better for everybody. The trick is going to be getting it all on a budget!

We had a really good doctor's appointment yesterday. Baby will be here within 3-5 weeks. I can't believe that! I get to start working out again, build up mileage slowly. She thinks that if I start walking now (maybe jog a little), I can be walking with the intent to run right after birth. This is exciting. In two weeks I can start working more hours again too. We did find out that she's not going to let him go past 39 weeks, because his risks of his kidney failing increase. His body will overwork itself, and we could face problems. Go back on Friday for an NST, think positive thoughts!