Bad Luck in Birmingham

This post is called 'Bad luck in Birmingham' because between Steve and I, we've been to the ER 3 times in less than 2 months.

It started with Steve having a rather serious appendectomy at the end of June. So, I made him this sandwich on Thursday, and then he ate it on Saturday, and right after he began to complain he didn't feel good. I was feeling guilty that apparently my sandwich making skills are so bad that it basically tasted like a poison sandwich, especially when that feeling just didn't seem to go away for him! But then, when he woke up the following Tuesday morning with that sick feeling and a fever of 103, I said excuse me, but that is NOT still my sandwich's fault!

So Steve called in to a clinic and they said they'd get us in at 1:20pm (he called in around 7-8 am) but Steve said he'd be there sooner, and please get us in as soon as they could. We got there at 12:40, the only people in the office. Then patients began to show up, and we watched them call in one after another, leaving poor sick Steve to wait! Over an hour later, we were finally in a room and the doctor finally came in. When she realized how sick Steve was, she said "Why didn't you go to the ER?" Well, we would have if we would've known it would take so long!
He was so sick by that time, they called an ambulance to take him to the nearest hospital! The next 12 hours were a whirlwind. At the hospital, they did a CT scan, determined he had appendicitis, and performed surgery on him. I had a lady from church watch Austin while I tried to be calm and wait. I was told at about 9:30 pm that his surgery went well, but at 10:00 pm, they came back out to tell me that Steve had a bad reaction and his lungs filled up with fluid when they tried to take out his breathing tube. It was all very stressful, but the next morning they got the tube out safely, and after a brief stay at the hospital and some much-appreciated help from Steve's brother Rick who flew in, Steve was on the mend.

Fast forward to last Tuesday: we were eating at a local barbecue place, and I got a chunk of spare rib stuck in my throat. Despite how it sounds, this actually happens to me all the time. Truly. So I calmly went into the bathroom to do some of my usual tricks to get it down. While I was gone, the restaurant people seemed to notice something was up (there were very few customers that night) and they kept going over to Steve to inquire "if the meal was alright?" "how he was doing this evening?" etc. They were very chatty, but I was not in the mood to stick around, so we boxed up the food and made a hasty exit. Fast forward 12 HOURS. The meat would not budge, and I had been up ALL NIGHT. I told Steve at 6 am that we needed to go to the ER. Again, a whirlwind of ER tests, IVs and blood-drawing, and I was told I would need an endoscopy. I woke up from the process with my throat sore but un-blocked, a huge relief! And after a brief recovery and picking up Austin from Steve's work, where they had so kindly offered to watch him, I was able to go home. They told me that all this time that I've had trouble swallowing, I may actually be allergic to a variety of foods that cause my throat to swell. I had no idea...so we'll see after more testing.

The next Saturday, Steve woke up with terrible chest pain. Chest pain???! Haven't we gone through enough? So off he went to the ER for more tests, X Rays, CT scan, blood draws, it's all so familiar to us now. Turns out he has a lung infection, probably from the effects of the fluid that had gotten down into his lungs after his surgery.

But we made it through all of that, and would prefer NOT to see the ER for a loooong time now. Just as long as Austin doesn't have to see the ER, I'll be okay! He was so good for us during those tough times, too. Well, here's hoping for a more healthy 2 months in August and September!

The Mysterious Ways of a Baby

I've never been good at keeping a calendar or scheduling my own life, but I'm a firm believer in getting your baby on a schedule. As my sister Carolyn so eloquently put it, "some people think your baby knows best what he needs. But no, he doesn't, because he's a baby!!!" They need structure and consistency to keep them content, and I believe that, because I've seen it first-hand!
I am going to brag a little now, judge me as you may, but Austin is a really good-natured baby. He hardly even cried the first 2 months of his life. He'd put himself down for naps, and suck on his hands when he was hungry--it was great!
Then 3 months rolled around. It's a little more work now! I find that it's like a mystery you have to solve to figure out why they don't want to take more than a 10 minute nap, or why they wake up at 4 am after weeks of sleeping until 6 am consistently. You look at all these clues--is he eating enough? Is he eating too much? Is he getting over-stimulated? Does he just not need very long naps to rejuvenate? Does he hate his crib? Does he get distracted? Or, if all else fails, blame it on the mysterious 'growth spurt'?
It is all very satisfying when you think you've got it figured out. Currently, I think my careful scheduling of the nap routine may have just worked itself out. Austin went from 10 minute naps to an hour and a half nap today! Triumph! But then, as one kink is ironed out, you quickly learn as a mom that another pops right back up, and you've got a new set of clues to try and piece together, and then a new solution to apply to it. Being a mom is hard work sometimes!

Here They Are!

So here they are, pictures of The 4th of July, 2009, courtesy of Heidi! So much fun! Sorry Steve, they're mostly of the girls--I love it! Thanks, Snyders, for the fun get-together, I'm going to miss those times! But it is interesting to look back--last year at this time, little Greyson McLeod and Jack Schumers hadn't even arrived yet, and Jonnie at this age is the same age as Austin is now. Time flies, times change.

A Happy 4th of July

Well, this year's 4th of July celebration was a little different for us; Steve had an appendectomy the Tuesday before the weekend of the 4th, and instead of going out to watch the fireworks, I went out to get poor Steve some pain meds. So I took a walk down memory lane to last 4th of July, which was really great and a special one for us. We spent it surrounded by friends and basking in the warm water of the Atlantic ocean, while we watched the fireworks light up the sky above. I suddenly realized, though, that we don't have any pictures of that fun weekend! Please, Florida friends, can you send me some pictures of last year's festivities? I'd love to have a few to remember it by...

Austin and his Binky

So we've noticed lately that Austin has been grabbing onto his pacifier and putting it in his mouth. Since he is a little baby (he turns three months old tomorrow) and he's still trying to figure how to move his body, we thought he was just getting lucky. But then he kept doing it so we got the camera out to get it on film. Sometimes, however, Austin sees the big black camera and gets a little distracted looking at it. In this video you can see Austin pulling his binky out of his mouth, getting upset, then putting it back in and feeling better.
PS Sorry about the quality of the video. We'll try to fix it and make it better quality next time.

More Pictures of Austin...Enjoy!

Happy 6 Year Anniversary to Us!

I thought I would post a few relics from our past on this momentous day, June 11, 2010, a date that marks our sixth year of marriage. We have below a fun pre-marriage 50's Dance we went to in the Fall of 2002 up at BYU-Idaho:The actual wedding day: June 11, 2004, in Oakland, CA.Then Hawaii in 2005:
Graduation from BYU-Provo in 2006:

And now here we are, Memorial Day 2010, Dr. Steven Warne & Family!

What can I say, but that it has been a great 6 years. We have lived in three states, two graduations, four cars, six jobs, four homes, two cats, and one baby! And I really think it just keeps getting better as time goes on. I hope you know I love you Steve; let's keep the good times rollin'!

You Probably Know By Now: Baby Warne is Here!

Ok, so I know everyone in the world probably knows we had our baby, because if not, he would have made a world record of being in the womb for, oh, almost exactly 11 months now. And we know that would have killed me, so let's talk about when he arrived!

Emilee in front of the hospital the morning Austin arrived

He was actually 9 days early. All seemed well--too well--as a matter of fact. I was dilated to a 4 at 36 weeks, and at 38 weeks I was at a 5, bordering on 6 to where my doctor didn't even want to check me for fear he'd break the water on accident and I'd have the baby right there in the exam room! The baby's head was down and at +1, and the doctor said, "Why don't you just come down to the hospital Friday morning, and we'll break the water and you can have this baby? In fact, you'll probably only be in labor for an hour. Mine and his (Steve's) job will be done quick!"
"Yeah, we'll go out and have time to play a round of golf after!" Steve replied.

Ha Ha. "Their job is soooo easy" I remember thinking to myself. But I was pretty happy with that--the quicker we do this thing, the better! But I also thought, if I'm so far along, can't the baby just come on his own, and we'll just wait for contractions?

But we decided to go in Friday, March 19. Turns out this was good, because they broke my water (I was dilated to a 7 already when I entered the hospital (no "real" contractions, no pain!) and there was some meconium in it that could have been harmful to the baby. Also, in hindsight, it seems that being that far along and not in labor yet is pretty rare, and once they started coming, they probably would have gotten very painful very quickly. As it was, they broke the water at 9:00 am, I got an epidural at about 10:30 am, it was time to push at 12:00 pm, and baby Austin Richard Warne was born at 2:35 pm that afternoon!

The details: He was 7 pounds 6 ounces, 19.5 inches long, APGAR score of 9.5, and one healthy, alert little baby! Here's newborn Austin: Proud Mom & Dad with week-old Austin outside of our Florida home

Residency News...

Ok so today Emilee and I found where we will be living next year...get ready...wait for it...are you sitting down?...Birmingham, Alabama (cue banjo music). Any time Emilee and I mention the residency to friends and family they always have a lot of questions about it. I'll try to answer some of the common ones we get:

1. Where is it? Birmingham, Alabama, but more specifically it's at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. UAB has an optometry school and the residency is affiliated through that school. I will be spending most of my time there as well as other practices throughout Birmingham.

2. What type of residency is it? It is an accredited "Cornea and Contact Lens" residency. I will spend the majority of my time seeing contact lens patients and those with corneal disorders or infections.

3. How long is it? One year.

4. Is the residency required? Nope.

5. Then why in the world would you do it? To get specialized training in the area of contact lenses (more on this later)

6. Gross. How can you stand to go school for another year? I'm not really going to an additional year of school. As a resident, I will have already graduated from optometry school and earned my degree as doctor. This is my chance to specialize in a specific area which will open up more opportunities later in my career.

7. How much is it going to cost to you? Nothing, in fact I'll be a paid resident. However I'll be paid 1/2-1/3 of what I would have normally made if I started working with a practice after graduation. Completing the residency will pay for itself in the long run though.

8. Prescribing contact lenses sounds easy, why do you need to do a residency? The majority of contact lens patients are relatively easy fits. There is a small percentage of patients who require specialty hard contact lenses for certain corneal diseases. These patients have no choice but to wear hard contact lenses and require a doctor who is trained in fitting them in these specialty lenses.

9. Has the baby been born yet? No, but he keeps scissor kicking Emilee in the ribs.

Anyway, We're excited to move to Birmingham this summer with our little family. Where we'll end up after the residency is anyone's guess.

On Bedrest: May As Well Blog About it!

Ok, so as some of you may have read on facebook, I am now on bedrest. I am 36 weeks and already dialated to 4 centimeters, 90% effaced. Blah, blah....it all just means I could go into labor, like, tomorrow, but no big deal. Except that I am getting Cheated out of 4 weeks of preparation for like, the biggest day of my life!

I had this great plan. It was all worked out. I was going to my last day of work this Friday. I was going to have a all-day birthing class at the hospital on Saturday. I was even going to teach Sharing time on Sunday. Was going to enjoy a really nice baby shower on March 14th put on by my good friends Molly and Barbara, and was going to generally enjoy three weeks of freedom and preparation until the baby decided to come perfectly, and ideally, on his Sunday due date of March 28, 2010. And then Steve would have his Spring Break all that next week where we would optimize bonding time and enjoy a liesurely introduction of the baby into the world with both mom & dad home full-time. Steve's mom would arrive March 30th to help with the baby and maybe some meals--life would be good.

Reality is I don't think he's going to wait that long! And of course, my doctor is on vacation, and I don't really like the one who is on-call, meanwhile. Steve has two really busy weeks of school this and next week, including ranking his residency choices by this Friday's deadline....

My desk at work is still a disaster and waiting for me to tie up tons of loose ends and clear it off for the next employee who sits there....

And, well, I guess that's life. Hope I make it a little longer, but if not, we'll still be so excited to meet this new little baby boy that is so eager to join us here.