Saturday, December 31, 2011

Mac #3: 8 weeks

This week has been rough! I've been blah all week long. Food sounds, smells and looks gross. I haven energy whatsoever and can barely function! I'm very ready toe doe with this part of pregnancy.

Food aversions: Mexican food!
Cravings: sweets

8 week development:
New this week: Webbed fingers and toes are poking out from your baby's hands and feet, his eyelids practically cover his eyes, breathing tubes extend from his throat to the branches of his developing lungs, and his "tail" is just about gone. In his brain, nerve cells are branching out to connect with one another, forming primitive neural pathways. You may be daydreaming about your baby as one sex or the other, but the external genitals still haven't developed enough to reveal whether you're having a boy or a girl. Either way, your baby — about the size of a kidney bean — is constantly moving and shifting, though you still can't feel it.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Mac #3: 7 weeks

We went to the doctor on Monday and everything looks great. We got to see the little peanut and a flickering heartbeat which always puts my mind at ease. We didn't get a good picture because she is still so little and it was their portable u/s machine. We get to go back in 3 weeks for another u/s.
I am a candidate for weekly progesterone shots starting at 16 weeks so try and keep preterm labor away and me off bed rest. I'm excited to see if this will work but nervous about the shot! It's a big ole needle :(
Morning sickness is actually night sickness! Around 5-6 I am useless and pretty nauseas. I've had my first food aversion: Mexican food!! Which is crazy! Smells are making me sick as well and I cant stay awake past 8. Other than that I am feeling great.

Here is baby Mac's 7 week development: The big news this week: Hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs — although they look more like paddles at this point than the tiny, pudgy extremities you're daydreaming about holding and tickling. Technically, your baby is still considered an embryo and has something of a small tail, which is an extension of her tailbone. The tail will disappear within a few weeks, but that's the only thing getting smaller. Your baby has doubled in size since last week and now measures half an inch long, about the size of a blueberry.

If you could see inside your womb, you'd spot eyelid folds partially covering her peepers, which already have some color, as well as the tip of her nose and tiny veins beneath parchment-thin skin. Both hemispheres of your baby's brain are growing, and her liver is churning out red blood cells until her bone marrow forms and takes over this role. She also has an appendix and a pancreas, which will eventually produce the hormone insulin to aid in digestion. A loop in your baby's growing intestines is bulging into her umbilical cord, which now has distinct blood vessels to carry oxygen and nutrients to and from her tiny body.

You can tell how tired I am in this pic!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Poor Jaxson

My poor peanut has a double ear infection and pinkeye. He's been battling a cold that we've all had (minus daddy) for a few days and hasn't been sleeping great. Well, last night he was up and would scream our in pain. He ended up sleeping on me for a couple of hours and got a dose of Motrin. When we woke up he was fine except for a little drainage in his eye so I assumed it was just the cold plus he has a few teeth coming in. We get to daycare and he has drainage pouring out of his left ear. So I make arrangements so that I can head to the doctor.
We get there and his eye looks pretty bad and he's pretty miserable. Dr. J started by looking into his "good ear" and quickly said that's not looking good at all :( his left ear was completely clogged and infected. So he has a double ear infection and pink eye(from the ear infection) both tubes are still in place but since this is his 3rd ear infection in 6 months while having tubes he said if he gets one more he will want us to get his adenoids taken out :( not what I wanted to hear!
Thankfully my mom wasn't feeling great herself and said she would take the rest of the day off and keep him. We are completing semester exams and I cannot miss work. Hopefully the 3 meds he is on will work quickly and he will be as good as new.
Feel better jaxson!
Love,
The Macs

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

6 weeks


6 week update: I've been battling a cold this week and getting my nightly headaches (i got those with rhe boys as well) I've had a few rounds of nausea but nothing too bad. Mood swings are still in full swing, not use to feeling this way and they are very strong! I'm excited and ready to have the next 2 weeks off from work! I definitely could use the rest.
Baby Mac #3:
This week's major developments: The nose, mouth, and ears that you'll spend so much time kissing in eight months are beginning to take shape. If you could see into your uterus, you'd find an oversize head and dark spots where your baby's eyes and nostrils are starting to form. His emerging ears are marked by small depressions on the sides of the head, and his arms and legs by protruding buds. His heart is beating about 100 to 160 times a minute — almost twice as fast as yours — and blood is beginning to course through his body. His intestines are developing, and the bud of tissue that will give rise to his lungs has appeared. His pituitary gland is forming, as are the rest of his brain, muscles, and bones. Right now, your baby is a quarter of an inch long, about the size of a lentil.

We go to the doctor on Monday! I will update then.
Love,
The Macs

Sunday, December 11, 2011

McCollough: Family of 5!

We are excited to announce that our family is expanding again! Jaxson's going to be big brother and if you ask Brody "his sister is in mommy's tummy!"

I am due August 9th officially but will definitely be having a July baby!

I already had my first round of blood work. My first beta was 189 and my second was 632, a doubling time oof 24.5 hours where 48-72 hours is normal. My progesterone was 24.5 where over 20 is good. All indicating a healthy pregnancy thus far. We go for our first ultrasound Dec. 19th

I know they say you pooch out quickly with each pregnancy but my pooch is crazy! No weight gain but definitely bloated!

Til next time!
-The Macs-

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

5 Weeks

I wrote this on Thursday:
Today I am 5 weeks along with #3! I want to document this pregnancy with every detail as this will be our last child, unless of course the good Lord has different plans for us.

Symptoms different from the boys:
- I am moody! I am snappy, hot-tempered, blood pressure boiling moody! It's almost like an out of body experience! I can't be like this at work or towards the boys so poor Brandon gets the brunt of it. I apologize before and after! I've noticed it gets worse when I'm really tired.

-extreme gassy! It's out of control!! Never had this with the boys

Symptoms same as boys:
-Already tired! Went to bed last night at 8!
-I already have a little belly! It's crazy and shocking but its definitely true that you show more/faster with each pregnancy
-Lovenox shots hurt! Start them from day one
-headaches in the evenings have kicked in

Here is this weeks development:
Your baby now resembles a teeny tadpole (complete with a tiny tail) and is about the size of an orange seed. The circulatory (or blood) system, along with the heart, is the first part of that tiny body to be functional; and as your baby's heart starts to form, you may even be able to see it beating on an early ultrasound. Another part of your little tadpole that is under construction: the neural tube, which will eventually become your baby's brain and spinal cord.

Prayers for a healthy baby and pregnancy for momma. We are going to discuss some options I've been researching that have been proven to help with preterm!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

No more tubes!!

Well we had a great week and I was hoping we would be entering the Thanksgiving break sick-free but it's just not our luck!! Brody started running fever last night between 102-103 degrees. This morning he was so lifeless and had such a terrible cough I thought I better call the doctor. Sure enough he has an upper respiratory infection. While the doctor was looking in his ears he said his right tubes was completely gone and his left tube was in his ear canal with a bunch of wax so he pulled it out. It was tiny! Luckily his ears aren't infected but we have to ve on the look out for infection and if he starts getting them again we will be heading back to Dr.P for another set. I'm just gladweve gotten this far as I've heard they usually only last 6-12 months! He's had his since he was 11 months.
No sooner than walking into the door that I noticed Jax having a ton of drainage and puss coming out of his left ear! Awesome, he has an ear infection! So I guess I will be calling the doctor back in the morning to get him some drops.
Hopefully we cankickthis in the butt and notcomoletely lose our break to illness!! I will post some pictures laterr this week.

Love,
The Macs

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

We are in for a ride

This is going to be a long winter!! It's already been a long fall and we haven't been in it that long!

Jax had a bad night on Friday and cried for a hour for no particular reason other than he couldn't breath bc of a stopped up nose.

Saturday we took Murphy to the vet for his 2nd round of shots, little fur ball weighed 17 lbs! He weighed 6 four weeks ago when we got him.

Both boys are still fighting a cold and asthma flare ups. Brody had an asthma attack on Sunday that left him throwing up and left us with very little sleep. They are both still on albuterol around the clock and Brody is taking a cough medicine to help fight his constant, never-ending, keeps you up at night cough spells. We've gotten few good nights sleep around here and I'm definitely ready for Thanksgiving break! We need it. I feel like I'm 2 steps behind with their breathing and never know what will trigger them to have a flare up, it's very frustrating.

They are both on breathing treatments around the clock and Brody is on cough medicine to help is never ending, keep you up at night cough spells!

Brody went to doctor yesterday and weighed in at 32 lbs, he's getting so big.

With love,
The Macs

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

I didn't knock on wood

I thought we were getting better and apparently I should have knocked on wood. I know most of y'all don't want to hear about my sick kids again but I do this more for "record keeping" than anything.

Today was a 1/2 day PLC but I had scheduled Jaxson's 1 year shots a month ago since he was sick at his 1 year check up and couldn't get them. I didn't realize it was a 1/2 day PLC but thought it was perfect because I wouldn't have students and I could just run real quick to get his shots and come back to finish up my planning. Should have known better.

I quickly pick up Jaxson from daycare and run across town to his 2:00 appointment. I noticed putting him into the car that he felt a little warm but was hoping he was just hot from playing. When we got back into the doctor's office the nurse asked that I undress him so that we could get his weight and I knew immediately he had fever. So I asked the nurse to get him temp before we started the shots and sure enough he had 101. You've got to be sh****** me is what I think I said. UGH!! This child has been on 5 days of steroids and 7 days of amoxicillin! How is he running a fever?!?! He also has been getting a diaper rash that just wasn't getting better so I asked the doctor if it was a yeast infection, sure enough it was. Oh great, is that what Brody has too, he's was on the same steroid? He had a similar rash but anytime my boys get on antibiotics they get some sort of diaper rash due to them. Sure enough both boys have yeast infections. Awesome! I will never be giving that steroid again!

Dr. J ran Jaxson's 1 year blood work and wanted to check his white count just to rule things out with his fever while being on an antibiotic. The nurse popped her head in about 10 minutes later saying we couldn't leave yet because his count is elevated! Greatness. So we waited and Dr. J came back in and ran a strep test (because its going around daycare). Luckily that came back negative. He thinks Jaxson just has a virus but wants us to watch him and if he gets worse or still has fever Friday to come back in to see what's going on with his white count and run more test.

So that's where we stand. I sure hope this is the last of this crap for awhile, I'm about at the end of my rope with the back to back sickies at my house. Cannot wait til Thanksgiving break! 2 more weeks, we can make it....

Monday, October 31, 2011

Halloween

For the past 3 years Brody has been sick for Halloween so I was determined to go to the church festival this year! I knew we wouldn't last long with both boys still not being 100% and a full day at school but we made it and they had a blast! We stayed for about 45 minutes before we started having a melt down (Jax) because it was time for bath and bed. My boys are do "routine" boys and if you get them off their routine I will surely pay :)

Brody was a fire fighter and Jaxson was a Dalmation.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Slowly but surely

We've still have had rounds of illnesses but we are slowly getting better. Both boys have struggled for the past 10 days with a cold which triggers their asthma. The fact that they both have asthma bothers me but I've been assured several times that most children grow out of it. They are both on steroids, breathing treatments every 4 hours and Jax is on amoxicillin to help him fight his upper respiratory infection. It's been a rough week but I'm finally feeling like we are getting their breathing and coughs under control.

The weather is beautiful this weekend and I'm on my way to have a date night with my wonderful hubby, dinner and the grocery store! We will have just enough time to get back to the boys for the next round of treatments, they hate having anyone but us give it and really prefer I be the one. I must have the perfect motherly touch ;)

Here's this weeks iPhone pics

Thursday, October 20, 2011

UNBELIEVABLE!

I've had a cold since this weekend, wasn't getting worse but wasn't getting better. Yesterday my voice started sounding funny at the end of the day. Today I can barely talk and I just went down to the nurse at our school and she said I have laryngitis!! Unbelievable

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Sick, ill, under the weather, oh good grief!!

We cant catch a break! On Friday I get a call that Brody is running low grade fever and his eyes couldn't stop watering. Jax had a rough night so I went and get them to give some TLC and rest. We nursed colds all weekend long and Jax is having a flare up of asthma. Monday I woke to an upset stomach but tried to just shake it off. It only got worse as the day went on and ended up with a stomach bug missing work Tuesday as well! Stomach bugs always hit me hard :( Brody didn't eat good at all yesterday and acted run down so I was worried he was getting it. We returned to work today only for me to get a call saying he had a runny poop so daddy took the day off with the boys! He hasn't had one since and is acting fine so I'm hoping it was just a fluke. We will try again tomorrow! Crossing my fingers, knocking on wood.

Till next time! And GO RANGERS

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Much needed update

Well I'm blog updating from my phone. I never seem to have the time or energy to sit down at my computer and update or upload photos. I'm sure if I had a faster computer I could but that's another story.

We are all doing good: 2 month update in bullets

- Jax got hand, foot, mouth disease AGAIN! Extremely rare to get it twice but that's how we roll.

- He turned ONE! I know , crazy. We had a great party that no one showed up to, ha! It was actually perfect with just a few key people and the boys had a blast playing with their cousins.

- Jax has been walking since 11 months and is now climbing! The picture below is his new favorite thing, climbing in and out of chairs.

-Brody is now 2 1/2 and his vocabulary has exploded! Just today I told him how cute he is and he said "Aw man!" that kid is too funny.

- we've all had a round of the crud and now we are getting another round.

-work is busy, challenging and stressful this year. I hate my schedule with 2nd period off, makes for a long day. I'm thankful for my job tho.

-we got a new puppy! He's a golden retriever named Murphy and he's great.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Where to begin??

I cannot believe the summer is already over! And I haven't even blogged :( Everytime I went to my computer would freeze up or blogger wasn't allowing me to upload pictures. And a blog update isn't the same without pics!

In mid-June we went to Florida for my cousin, Katy's wedding. We had a blast! This was the first trip to the beach for the boys. The first day Brody loved the beach and waves but after that it was real rough surf and he didn't care too much for it. Luckily we had an amazing condo with a balcany and big deck. We had bought a little blow up pool to take with us and he spent the majority of his time in that. He also went go-carting with all his cousins for the first time. I was actually pretty surprised he went on them. We only went for half the time and I drove really slow for him and allowed all the crazy drivers (my cousins) to go around us so that there wasn't any bumping going on to scare him.


We drove at night both coming and going. The drive there wasn't bad at all but O!M!G! the drive home about killed me! It was rough

The week we got back from Florida Jaxson got tubes in his ears. He did SO much better than his brother. When we were in pre-op I had told the antheselogist how awful it was with Brody and she explained to me that the nose spray they give before hand to relax kids can have that effect on them. They just wake up spitting mad. So we agreed we wouldn't give Jax that has he was younger than Brody and isn't going through the stranger danger stage as badly and would probably go with the nurse without to much of a fuss. Which he did, he was more interested in the pens in her pocket than what was happening. The dr. came out 5 minutes later and said there was a ton of fluid in both ears so he was glad we got the tubes when we did, if not it would have been terrible this fall with tons of ear infections.

Two weeks after Florida Brandon and I went to Vegas. We stayed at Caesar's and I wasn't too impressed. We loved the Venetian and the Mirage so we will probably stay at one of those next time we go. And there will definitely be a next time! It was just so nice to be us! This was the first trip since our honeymoon 5 years ago with just the 2 of us. It was a revamp/reenergize trip for sure. And a ton of fun!

We also painted the house this summer, well all except our bathrooms and the boys room and playroom. I'm still deciding what color to paint those, it will probably be a Thanksgiving break project.

Jaxson: started crawling, is eating finger foods and is so close to walking! He's around 18 pounds, size 3 almost 4 diapers and wears anything from 9 months to 18 month clothes. He's a joy and such a happy baby. We stopped breastfeeding in mid-June when we both got thrush for the 2nd time! I don't wish that stuff upon anyone! He's doing great with formula. Hard to believe in another 6 weeks he will be ONE :(

Brody: is 95% POTTY TRAINED! Oh yea! He only has problems with poo-poo'ing in the potty. He actually does better with underwear than pull-ups. We went straight to underwear in the beginning and he did really well. I was pretty surprised and I'm very proud of him.

We go back to work next week. I'm excited to start a new school year and I'm hoping and praying Brody is at the age where he will start really enjoying school and not scream/cry bloody murder every day when we drop him off.

Here's this summer's pictures(that I actually took) there's much more on my phone but don't want to download them at the moment :)

















Hopefully it won't be 2 months until my next update but I'm not promising anything

Love,
~The Macs~