Pyper Rosemary Beals

December 7, a day of infamy...the day starts with a routine doctor's appointment where they discover my blood pressure is high and want to do more tests to make sure everything is okay. Especially with my history of high blood pressure during my pregnancy with Kensley. My doctor sent me to the hospital for tests because they would get the results back quicker. I tell Kensley I will see her in a few minutes and get my blood taken and lay there with a fetal monitor for a couple hours. After receiving the test results, my doctor informed me that she would like me to stay in the hospital overnight for further testing and just to be on the safe side. She tells me that I will probably go home in the morning, but be on bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy. I am admitted and am thinking it is not so bad when they give me a room service menu and tell me I can order anything I want for lunch. I am a little bored, but even happier when 3pm rolls around and a lady comes in saying "Cookies at three for Mommy and Me" and gives me a yummy homemade chocolate chip cookie. So, I get more blood taken and take a 24 hour urine test which is totally obnoxious and spend the night in the hospital. The next day rolls around and with it my new test results and my doctor says I can't go home and wants me to get the steroid shots to develop the baby's lungs faster and induce me the next day. Me and Stephen weren't very happy with this turn of events since I wasn't due until January 25. My doctor gets a second opinion from the on call perinatal doctor who decides that I definitely have preeclampsia but thinks that we can wait on being induced as long as I continue to be monitored in the hospital. After the first steroid shot, my platelet count increased to 104,000, it had previously been 98,000 and the normal number is 150,000. He said as long as I stayed above 100,000 we could wait and that I was still a candidate for a normal delivery. In the meantime, I have to stay in the hospital and hopefully make it to at least 35 weeks and they take my blood every 6 hours and turn me into a human pin cushion. I was able to get both steroid shots and then soon after the 48-hour window I was having some back and chest pains. We thought it was just from spending two nights in the most uncomfortable bed ever and was given some Tylenol which did absolutely nothing. We were still trying to figure out how to make me more comfortable when the latest lab results came in and it was discovered that my platelets had dropped to 84,000 and my liver was going nuts (which seems to be the cause of all the pain I was in). It was determined shortly thereafter that I needed an emergency c-section before my condition worsened. They considered inducing me so I could have a normal delivery, but we didn't know how long I would be in labor as I was only 33 weeks along and my body was not ready to have a baby. Add to the problem that I couldn't take a deep breath because of my chest pain and wouldn't be allowed to have an epidural because of my platelet count, a c-section seemed the only alternative. So, Pyper was born at 4:15 AM on December 11. Shortly after this, my doctor and the perinatal doctor met with me and informed me that after delivery my platelet count dropped to 34,000, but they believed that I would start getting better since getting the baby out of me was the cure. It was mentioned, though, that if my platelets dropped below 20,000, I would have to get a blood transfusion, but they didn't think that would happen. Well, guess what? It happened. My next lab results came in and my platelets had dropped to 15,000 and my liver was going bonkers. Apparently normal liver function is at 50 and mine was at 3000. I am not sure what that really means, just that it isn't good. I was diagnosed with HELLP Syndrome which stands for Hemolytic Elevated Liver Low Platelets. I guess it is deadly and I could have basically started bleeding everywhere in my body with no way to stop the bleeding. This turn of events earned me a trip to ICU where I received a bag of platelets and 2 bags of red blood cells. It was really one of my worst nights ever. The next day all my numbers were starting to improve so I was moved back into a post partum room where I spent another 3 days. I continued to slowly improve and was released from the hospital on Tuesday, Dec 15. Pyper was 4 lbs 10 oz when she was born and spent a little over two weeks in the NICU. She did very well for being so early and never had to have a respirator. She had an IV and was on oxygen for a little while until she ripped it out and they found that she was doing fine without it. Eventually the IV was taken out and they started trying to get her to eat and she had a feeding tube in her nose. Once she was eating on her own well enough, the feeding tube was removed. Me and Stephen visited the hospital everyday and once the nurses were convinced we were capable of getting her to eat, they let her come home with us. We also had to take an infant CPR class before she was released to us on Monday, Dec 28. We have had her for two nights now and are just trying to get used to having a baby and find some kind of normalcy and rhythm. We feed her a bottle every 3 hrs of breast milk fortified with formula to add extra calories. We are also having to give her a nasty liquid vitamin every day that she hates and usually spits back up at us. Tomorrow is her first regular doctor appt. When she finally left the hospital she was at 5 lbs 1 oz. Kensley loves her and every morning when she wakes up she looks for Pyper first thing. They didn't let kids in the hospital so it was a difficult time for Kensley and for us to be seperated so long. One day, they finally let her in OB so she could see Pyper through a window. When she saw her for the first time she said. "Ohhhhh...she is cute!" and gave her a kiss through the window. So, there you have it. That is my story. We haven't made any permanent decisions, but we are thinking our family is complete. This whole adventure was pretty scary and we are afraid that if I tried to do it again, it would be worse.

Happy Veteran's Day!

The Beals Family started the festivities at the Mesa Veteran's Day parade and capped it off with Stephen's free veteran's meal at Applebee's. Hope everyone had a great day!

Little Miss Strawberry Cake

Tonight we went to a Halloween party for my sister's ward and Kensley dressed up as Strawberry Shortcake. The costume came from her Aunt Cathryn and I think is so cute. I love Strawberry Shortcake and remember watching it all the time when I was little. Kensley has no idea who she is and has never seen the show so when I was dressing her up tonight I told her she was going to be Strawberry Shortcake. She got all excited and started giggling and kept saying over and over that she was going to be a strawberry cake! She was so excited. :o)

Pumpkin Carving

Stephen was all excited to go to a pumpkin patch and pick out a pumpkin with Kensley so they could carve a jack-o-lantern. I have to admit, this is really not my thing and we have never done it as a family. In fact, I have never been to a pumpkin patch in my entire life. I still can't say that I have ever been to one because Stephen couldn't find the one he thought he knew where was so we ended up buying a pumpkin at Fry's. Carving pumpkins just isn't fun to me, but I am happy to be supportive and to let it be a daddy daughter fun time between the two of them. :o)

















I made the mistake of saying "gross" when Stephen got the lid off the pumpkin. The smell of pumpkin guts is gross to me and all that yucky gook inside. So, when Kensley started helping all she could say was "gross" and now won't even try the pumpkin seeds we roasted. Sorry Dad.







The Finished Product!

Kensley was walking down the stairs when she saw the picture of my ultrasound on the refrigerator. She asked, "Mommy, is that a picture of me?" I said, "No, that is Pyper". She then said, "Oh! Is Pyper swimming or spinning?". I told her that Pyper was swimming and spinning. :o)

I Am A Moron and a New Recipe

Now that I am finally over the morning sickness, aka all day sickness, I have been trying to cook more and try out some new recipes. Last night for dinner, I cooked a Rachael Ray chicken recipe that I thought turned out sooooo yummy....recipe will follow this post. Which brings me to why I am such a moron. The recipe calls for you to brown the chicken in a skillet for a couple minutes and then transfer chicken and skillet to a 400 degree oven to finish up cooking. While I was making dinner, Stephen took Kensley to the park to play. While I was finishing up and taking the chicken out of the oven I was thinking to myself how I need to make sure to tell Stephen I cooked the whole pan in the oven so he knows not to grab the handle and burn himself on it. Not 10 seconds after having this thought, what do I do???? I grab the freakin' handle and burn my hand to a crisp! I haven't been in so much pain in a very long time. What a dork! I used an entire bag of ice for ice packs on my hand and it was still burning up like crazy. Stephen finally went to the drugstore to try and find something that might ease the pain. He bought 3 different remedies. I sprayed the 1st on my hand and it still hurt like crazy so I busted out the 2nd remedy which was a cream and spread it all over my hand. It still hurt like crazy, but I decided to try and wait a few minutes to see if it would help and it finally did. Today I feel completely better with a couple red marks but at least no pain. Oh, by the way, I was a moron twice. When I burnt myself I put a hand towel over the handle so it wouldn't happen again. So, Stephen comes home from the park and as I am clutching ice and explaining to him what I did to myself he is washing a knife and takes the hand towel off the pan to dry it and I grabbed the stupid handle again! Yes, I did it to myself twice! I really enjoyed this chicken, but I am wondering if I should suffer through making it again since it seems to put my life at risk! So, anyway, here is the recipe:

Pan-Roasted Garlic and Herb Chicken Breasts
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped
1 teaspoon hot sauce, such as Tabasco
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 6- to 8-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a shallow dish, combine the garlic, parsley, hot sauce, 3 tablespoons of the EVOO, salt, and pepper. Add the chicken breasts and coat in the mixture; marinate for 5 minutes.

Preheat a large nonstick oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken to the hot pan and brown on each side for 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the skillet to the oven and roast the chicken for about 15 minutes, or until it is cooked through.

BTW, if you don't like hot stuff, don't worry, the hot sauce does not make it hot, I promise! So, still use it even if you think you are a wimp! Happy Eating! Wear Oven Mitts at all times!!

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!!

I FINALLY had my ultrasound today and it is official, we are having a baby girl on or around January 25! Everything looks good and is right on track, the baby weighing in at 1 lb so far. :o)

Corn Husker

Kensley LOVES corn and especially loves to husk corn with Daddy. She did this one all by herself and as you can see, is quite proud of herself!

Uh-Oh!

I was following my normal morning routine....make breakfast for the family, put on "Happy Feet" for Kensley and then took a shower. Usually Kensley comes running upstairs once she hears the shower turn off, but today she didn't. I was thinking to myself that it was a nice break and took my time getting ready for the day. Somewhere in the back of my head I was thinking that maybe I should go check on her, but I decided to disregard the thought. Eventually I heard footsteps on the stairs and Kensley was standing behind me telling me her feet feel better now. So, I look down at her feet and notice she has powder all over them. A few weeks ago, Stephen put foot powder on her feet and she has been obsessed ever since. I didn't think too much of it until I slowly looked up and got a good look at her. She was covered head to toe in powder! I groan and say "what did you do?" and of course, received no reply other than a sheepish smile. I go downstairs to investigate the damage and wasn't disappointed. Needless to say, we are out of powder! The moral of this sad story...trust your instincts when you are thinking it might be a good time to check on your 3 year old! And in case this ever happens to you, vaccuuming it up isn't as easy as it seems. You will be shrouded in a cloud of powder and once I turned off the vaccuum all the powder came right back out onto the floor!

Prayer Time

We just put Kensley to bed and she wanted to say the prayer and so she instructed Stephen to fold his arms and then proceeded to say the prayer. It went something like this...."Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, please help us to be good. Thank you for Daddy's, thank you for Kensley's, thank you for clothes and thank you for blankies. Jesus Christ, Amen!"

Preview

Here is a little preview of how cute Kensley's pink room is turning out. It is mostly done now, but this is the only picture I have right now. So, enjoy! Every morning Kensley comes running in my room to tell me about the butterflies and it is the first thing she wants to see when we come home from somewhere. She loves her room and sleeps in her bed all night without any problems. It has been fabulous!

Picasso

We finally got Kensley's room pretty much cleared out today(by we, I mean Stephen did all the heavy lifting) and painted it PINK! I am so excited for her to have a cute room. Now, on to the decorating. As a sidenote, it is never a really good idea to have a three year old help paint a room, but she loved it and we wanted her to be excited about the room. We are all covered head to toe in paint now, thanks to all the fun drips from the said three year old, but excited to have it mostly done. Hopefully I will have pictures of the finished product soon. :o) We still have a ways to go to getting the whole thing done. Now I need to accesorize. :o) Oh, and move in the bed!

My Little Artist

Kensley has always loved to draw, but her drawings have recently started to actually look like something. I think it is so cute, but I am the mommy, so you be the judge. These are a bunch of faces that she drew. I asked her who she drew and she said it was me. :o)

Attack of The Wasps

We are now back home from Grandma's house, but we didn't leave before Kensley had a few more unfortunate mishaps. One day she was outside playing when all of the sudden she was screaming bloody murder. We went running to see what happened and she wouldn't tell us, of course, but was holding her cheek. I was able to pry her hand away for just a second and could see that she had been stung by something. It was pretty traumatic for her, but she survived the encounter and within an hour was playing again. My mom went outside a day or so later to investigate and see if she could find any wasp nests, but she couldn't find anything. So, the day before we left, Kensley was again playing outside and again started screaming bloody murder. I ran outside and this time she was holding her arm and freaking out 10 times worse than the first time. She was completely hysterical and shaking like crazy because it hurt so bad. It took a while to calm her down and investigate the damage and this time she had been stung a total of SIX times! Poor baby. Even after she was pretty calm, her arm was still shaking. She had four sting marks on her arm, one on her finger and one on her belly. This time, my mom did some further investigating based on where Kensley was standing when she freaked out and was able to find a small wasp nest with at least 20 wasps flying around. So, she murdered the wasps with some spray and all was well again. Kensley still talks about when the bees got her. So sad. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures with all of the chaos surrounding the event.

Gardening with Grandma

My mom has a garden in her yard with all sorts of yummy vegetables like tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers and even potatoes. She took the kids out the other day to help her pick some and they all loved it. Afterwards, we brought the veggies in and washed them and cut some up so they could try them. Kensley loved the cucumbers and ate them all hardly sharing with anyone else.

Birthday Girl

My little girl turned three years old today! Since we are visiting my mom in Utah and Stephen isn't here, we just had a birthday cake and will have a present party for her when we are back in Mesa. I have no skills in the cake decorating department and found an idea for a cute piano cake that I thought I would try. It turned out pretty lame, but my mom was able to help me salvage it a little and put her name on the bottom. While my mom was writing her name, Kensley was watching and before she was even done she started yelling, "Mom!! Grandma wrote my name on the cake!" She was so excited.


The Happy Birthday Girl waiting for us to sing Happy Birthday.









Trying to blow out the candles....it took a while, but she finally got them all.







A satisfied customer! She didn't mind the lame decorating skills. :o)

Rough Day at Grandma's House

Right now me and Kensley have escaped the horrible heat of Arizona to visit Grandma in Utah for a couple of weeks. We have been here for a few days now and Kensley has been having a great time. She loves playing outside all day long and her favorite thing to do is play in the water and the little kiddy pool and to water flowers. The only problem with that, is once she gets her clothes wet she immediately strips them off and runs around with no clothes on for the rest of the day. No clothes on has contributed to the mishaps she had today or at least to the injuries. I was sitting in the house when I heard her start screaming hysterically and knew something was wrong so I went running to find her. It took a little while, but I followed the screams and finally found her at the bottom of the deck in the background laying in the dirt, mostly naked and crying. What I have guessed had happened was that she was on the deck and saw some toys on the ground and was leaning through the posts to try and reach them and then fell head first to the ground. She was covered in scrapes all over her body, mostly her stomach and face. She even had a splinter in her lip. I finally got her calmed down and when she was recovered, she went out to play again. All was well until she started playing a chasing game with her cousin, Braden. She, of course, couldn't run as fast as him and ended up face first on the concrete. This time with a scraped arm and hip bone and various other places. This incident was much more traumatic than the first and she screamed for quite some time and was shaking all over. An hour or so later and she is now outside playing again. She does come in and check in with me every little while to let me know that her arm still hurts, though. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

In Need of a New Do!!

Help me out People!!! I NEED a new haircut. I haven't had my hair cut in about a year and I am suffering the blah's. I have considered donating my hair and have heard you have to have at least ten inches! Yikes! Should I go for it?? I have also considered bangs...what do you think?

Family Pic's

The goal was to get a family picture in front of the beautiful sunset over the water and it didn't turn out so well. For some reason, whenever we were in the picture, the sunset refused to show up. When Stephen took pictures seconds later, this is how beautiful they turned out, only we weren't in them. :o(

Happy Fourth of July!

Fun at the Beach

Kensley had so much fun playing at the beach and never wanted to leave. This is one of my favorite pictures...I didn't notice until I was uploading pictures on my computer that her feet aren't even touching the ground! She had a few mis-haps, like getting knocked over by an angry wave and a mud-in-the-face incident, that turned her off for a little bit, but then she couldn't stay away and eventually started playing in the water again.

Kensley and Cousins

Kensley and her cousins Presly and Ava playing on the beach. I know, I know, immodest swimsuit....deal with it!

A Time to Sleep

We took a family trip camping at the beach over the Fourth of July week. Kensley wasn't always excited to go to bed because there were so many fun things going on and it just wasn't in her agenda. Stephen brought some glow sticks for her and I thought it was funny that she finally fell fast asleep within seconds while clutching her glow sticks in her hand.

The Need for Speed

A few weeks ago we went to Colorado for a family funeral and came across this 80 mph speed limit on the way home driving through Utah. It was very exciting for us and definitely picture-worthy. It didn't last long, but was fun while it lasted.

Hard Day

Poor Kensley has had all sorts of things go wrong for her today. First of all, she has been eaten alive by mosquitos or something lately and I don't really know where it has been coming from. Me and Stephen don't have a single bug bite and we are usually altogether. Kensley woke up this morning with all of these new bug bites on her feet. She basically looks the same all over her body.
Later, I was sitting on the couch when I heard a noise and then Kensley screaming from the other room. I run to get her and she is laying face first on the tile holding her stuffed dragon. I picked her up to see what happened and her mouth is full of blood which she of course starts spreading all over the place. It was all over her face, on my shirt, on her legs and feet. It was awful. If you look closely at the picture, you can see little blood spots all over her face. I tried to clean it all off but she was pretty hysterical and became more so whenever I came anywhere near her lip. What I guess happened is that she tripped and fell and because she was holding the dragon, she wasn't able to catch her fall and bit through her lip. It was very sad. She won't close her mouth and only drinks through a straw and is very hard to understand now. She is doing a little better, though.

Memorial Day Fun

We decided to have hot dogs for our Memorial Day Feast and headed off to Fry's for hot dog buns and milk and this is what we ended up coming home with! It was so stinking cute, I couldn't pass it up. It was the only one left so we had to stuff it in the car like that and I sat in the backseat holding onto it so it wouldn't go flying out the back. So worth it, though. Kensley absolutely loves it and sat in it all afternoon talking and singing to herself as she swung. She even buckles herself in. So cute. :o)

New Bed

Stephen has been working for a while on making this window seat into a storage box and he finally finished it, for the most part, tonight. He made the mistake of mentioning to Kensley that she could sleep on it and she promptly took all the blankets and pillows off her bed and dragging them to the window seat. So, I got her all tucked in and put some boxes next to it so she wouldn't fall off of it. As I was getting ready to sing the usual "I am a Child of God" before bed and turn off the lights, I could tell she was a little nervous. I asked her if she wanted back in her own bed and she said yes so it only lasted about 2 minutes!

Banana Holder....or Baby??

Kensley has started a strange new habit....treating the banana holder like a baby. I don't know how it started, but it is her new obsession. She carries it around like a baby, rocks it, and puts it to bed. I always find it in strange places with a blanket over it. She even makes me hold it and put it to sleep on occasion. It is really weird, but it makes her happy and gives her something to do! You can often hear her yelling at it when it is bad and she likes to discipline it on a regular basis. It is constantly giving her trouble. Bad bananda holder!

Do You Love Your Daddy?

Kensley is still trying to get used to having her Dad around all the time and sometimes it works out well and other times not so much. Everytime Dad goes to the trash, Kensley isn't far behind him riding her tricycle to the trash with him, they love taking a walk to get mail, running miscellaneous errands, especially when they include ice cream cones at McDonald's. Kensley gets mad when he tries to take care of her like changing diapers, putting her to bed, unbuckling her from the car seat and is often asking for me to do it instead. Several times a day you can hear her yell "DON'T LOOK AT ME!" He, of course, isn't very helpful and likes to egg her on like dads often do and says it right back to her. She also gets pretty upset with him if he even thinks about touching something that she believes in mine. She is very protective of me and my things. :o) So, it didn't come as much of a surprise to me when I heard how her lesson in Nursery went today at Church. They were learning about families and this is kind of how the conversation went:

Teacher: Do you love your daddy's?
Kensley: NOOOO!!!!
Teacher: Do you like to play with your daddy's?
Kensley: NOOOO!!!
Teacher: Do you like to take walks with your daddy?
Kensley: NOOOO!!!
Teacher: What DO you do with your daddy?
Kensley: He plays homework!

In case you are wondering if Kensley likes her Dad at all, she did squeel and run to him in excitement yelling "Daddy!!!" when he picked her up from Nursery today. :o)

Bath Time

Sorry about the bum shot, but at least it is a cute bum! We thought it was funny and I took the video without Kensley realizing it. :o)
















Kensley is at the age where she wants to do everything by herself without any help and that includes getting dressed. It is not uncommon to find her with her shirt inside out and backwards and well as her shorts backwards. Yesterday, she was wearing a shirt backwards and she had this conversation with daddy about it:
Daddy: "Kensley, is your shirt backwards?"
Kensley: "No! It is perfect! My shirt is perfect!"