I'm finally out of the hospital where I've been since Sunday.  I was diagnosed with gallbladder pancreatitis. Meaning I had a gallstone that travelled to the tube by my pancreas and got stuck forcing my pancreas to swell. They had me on a water diet (could not eat anything- Iv fluids was all I got) till Tuesday then I had surgery Tuesday night. All went well I was released today about 3:30.pm.  Still in pain.. Raiden doesn't understand that I can't hold him, pick him up or anything.. it's really hard.... but hopefully I'll recover soon and i can go back to spoiling him

We had a small birthday party for Raiden on Thursday as he has turned two.  He played at the park and had about a pound of sand in each shoe and in his diaper by the end of the day. I can't believe that he has gotten so big, time really does pass you by.  I wanted to get him a keyboard but Brandon said it was too soon. Have to start'em out early. Maybe for Christmas...

 

I've been throwing some ideas around for a story. I've always been interested in writing, even wrote a few short stories that I never really finished but just the same I'd really like to write something to be published. I don't know what venture I'd like to take but I'm still pondering it over for characters and the plots of my storylines. I'm even considering a children's book - but then you have to find a good illustrator or it just doesn't mesh. Or maybe a semi-romance/ fantasy/mystery novel.... But I digress, it's still in the works but I think I'll at least try.

I'm still in love with Edward and Bella. My husband didn't believe me that Edward Cullen was a fictional character and had to show him the books. I'm now rereading New Moon and rereading Twilight for the third time(in less than two weeks) to my husband. I told him he has less than four months to read the book before he can see the movie. He started to complain about it so I started reading it to him, otherwise I forbade him from seeing the movie without getting the actual story.  I got Friday off so I'm still going to the Breaking Dawn Release Party for anyone who is interested. I'm really looking forward to the new book and getting rather impatient  for the movie to come out in December.

Today was my first day of employment at Wal-Mart. My orientation ended up being a ten hour day. Very long and lots of information to overview. But all and all a good day. I know almost everyone that will be in my department and met some really humorous people that were in my orientation. That's about it.

I only wish he was a real person. I'm awaiting the release of Stephenie Meyer's final installment of the Twilight saga, Breaking Dawn. I plan to go to the Release party on August 1st at Barnes and Noble. But I don't want to wait and I really wish they wouldn't make us wait 'til December for the movie to come out. Very disappointed.

But as for Edward I'm completely in love with him and I might go so far as to name my next son Edward Jacob. (Jacob after Bella's second love, of course). I've read the first three books this week already and now I'm currently rereading the first novel, Twilight. gosh.. I even dream about these books. I'm so obsessed it's ridiculous.

Raiden went to the zoo today. He saw zebras and giraffes. Lions and tigers. Fish and Peguins and Puffins. He was so happy. The only bad thing that happened was the sun decided to come out and play today and we had no hat for Raiden's little head. :( So we cut the trip short, but we'll go back. Maybe there will be more animals next time. They were renovating the polar bear exhibit so no polar bears. And Sparky the seal was on his day off. And for some animals it was still too cold out.

Tomorrow I go to another co-worker's baby shower. Well, actually she doesn't work there anymore. But it's only been a week. I got pregnant and had a boy, then a few months before my maternity leave Amy got pregnant with a boy and then close to Amy's maternity leave, Diane got pregnant with a boy. So now everyone at work jokes about not drinking the water because you'll get knocked up. Ha ha. It rather is funny though. All boys too. Diane's going to name her baby boy Brett Francis. She's due August 20th, only a day sooner than Raiden's B-day! But I better go to bed or I'll never wake up in time to get there and it'll all be over with.

Raiden is getting so much bigger. A couple days ago he started climbing on everything, so it wouldn't surprise me if he started walking in the next couple of months. But still no teeth. But that's alright, because every baby develops at their own pace. Today Raiden turns eight months old and as a memory I took some non-toxic fingerpaint and made some footprints for his photo album. I would have done handprints, but that's a tricky mess that I'd rather not deal with. 
For myself everything is going okay. I had today off and spent time with the baby and Brandon. We're looking for a house to buy in North Branch. There's one that I REALLY REALLY like, but it's out of our price range. But it's really hard to find a house with enough room for what we can afford. I don't understand why houses have to be so expensive. It's hard enough just to pay for the gas to go to work. Last week I found out that my cousins own the Brainerd International Raceway. I was like holy monkey bottom.
A couple weeks ago we took Raiden to the Underwater Adventures at the Mall of America. And he had a blast looking at all the fish. He especially liked the sea turtles. Next week we're thinking about taking him to the zoo. Depends if I get called into work that day or not. We're also planning on taking a trip to Missouri in May to see my grandparents.
But I have to make Brandon breakfast so that he'll quit bugging me. Men!

I can't believe that Raiden is 3 months old today. He seemed so small just awhile ago and then one day he's gotten so big. He slept 7 and a half hours today without waking up once to eat or anything. That was awesome, expect for the fact that when he finally did go to sleep it was 5 in the morning. But I got sleep anyway. And I have to be going to work in about a half an hour. Brandon is still sleeping so is the baby. I put him in his crib, so now he's starting to wake up. He doesn't like sleeping in there. Oh well. I have tomorrow off, but I have to work on Thanksgiving. It sucks working at a bakery, always working on the holidays. But at least I'll get Christmas off this year. It's more important with Raiden being here now. He's such a happy kid. Smiles all the time. Hardly fusses unless he's really tired or hungry. But I have to get some bottles ready and get ready for work.

So Monday morning we went into the hospital at 8:30, the OR was backed up and there was still 2 surgeries before me, so I didn't get into the OR until 12:30 and then it took another 30 minutes for them to adminster the spinal to numb my lower body, because they couldn't find the space in the spinal column to inject it. They found it and I guess it was up higher than normal, but i have a huge bruise to show for their troubles. But after that Raiden was born at 1:10pm, he weighed 7.1oz, and was 19 inches long. He was slightly cold so that he to but him in the heater for awhile. I saw him for like 30 seconds before they took him from the room. They had to stitch me back up and leave me for recovery, so I didn't get to see him again to almost 3:00. And I was so cold, I was shaking so much from it, that I could only hold him for a minute. I was afraid I'd drop him. But it's so hard to believe I'm a mother. My grandmother brought in a picture of me when I was born, and I'm not kidding you, we look exactly alike. Weird. They released us on Wednesday and now it's Saturday, and we've started a somewhat decent routine. He does have some jaundice and we go in on Monday for a check on that because he was just below risk range. But he's very yellow today so we've been keeping an eye on him. Around 5 this morning, he actually laughed. But I've got to go, baby is hungry!

So they decided to the c-section because Raiden never changed position. They want me to check-in at the hospital at 8:30 monday morning. Talk about getting no sleep. I'm going to be so nervous that I probably won't sleep the night before. Luckily, I got the night off from work. (Which I had to talk to my boss about because he knew about it and I left him a note and he still scheduled me to work all of next week...) BUt still, in less than 48 hours I'll be a real mother and also have just had major surgery (not happy about that), but I'll have my little boy to comfort me. Yesterday, my feet, ankles and even my legs swelled up so much that it started to hurt. No matter how much water I drink or put my feet up, the swelling still comes. Today I put on an even tigher pair of graduated compression stockings, and it helps a little but there's still a lot of swelling. But at least I could put my shoes on this morning!!!! (Believe me this is a task for every pregnant woman.) I went to Amy's (coworker) wedding today. It was so beautiful. They got married outside under a trellis. She started crying before the ceremony even started. Her and Mike make a wonderful couple, and they deserved to be married after being together for, what, 7 or 8 years. I had to leave shortly after the reception started because Brandon was tired and he still had to go to work tonight. But that was alright, it was really hot out and much too bright out. And I still have things to do before Monday comes. I hope I don't forget anything.

So it's like 21 days until my due date. I'm in my 37th week being pregnant and between my 34 and 36th week the baby decided to turn to a complete breech position. Well, yesterday I week into the hospital so that my doctor could try to externally turn the kid. I got there at 7:30 in the morning and they put me in a hospital gown, hooked me up to an IV and gave me a shot to relax my uterus. Then they did an ultrasound to find where the head was and just started twisting and turning my belly. It's not as painfully as it sounds but it's not painless. There's a lot more pressure. The doc could only move the feet portion, but the head didn't budge. The whole thing didn't even affect the kid. Because usually the heart rate will dip for a while or they'll at least do something. Not Raiden, he just sat there as if nothing was happening. They kept me for awhile anyway to make sure my blood pressure didn't go up and there was no side affects to the baby. I wasn't released until almost 11 o'clock. But unless he turns on his own, which seems most likely that he won't, my doctor will be scheduling a c-section for monday, the 21st. I was really upset at first, but not I'm just really disappointed that I don't get to go through a natural vaginal birth. A ceasarean was the last thing that I wanted. I mean, it's MAJOR surgery. They cut you open and fish out a baby. That's just weird. Plus, the recovery time is longer, so I'll be out of work longer. And probably be more exhausted. To deal with the pain of the incision and take care of a little baby. But now I know it's something that's going to happen and I'm not happy but i'm getting used to it. Just hope for the best, right?