Crazy Weekend

Warning:  This post will contain too much information about throw up and poop.  However, if you have kids or pets you will not find it too disgusting.  Well, maybe you will....

Saturday, I took Tamara to the Convenient Care to get a sports physical for school.  We were there for 2 hours and I had to leave to go get the kids up from nap. My cousin's son Jacob was staying here while we were gone.  So I loaded up the kids at 2:45 and we went to get her.  We got back around 3:30.  When I got home, there was a very strong smell of poop.  Lucy, our 4 year old mini dachsund, got into one of Sam's poopy diapers.  Yep, she ate poop.  How disgusting is that? 

Ok, so the day went on.  We ate dinner.  Lucy ate some of the scraps that the kids threw on the floor.  Yes, I said threw.  My kids "occasionally" throw their food on the floor.  We ate around 5:30.  Nick was working all day.  He worked form 9-7.  About 7 we are sitting in the family room and Lucy starts to throw up.  Usually when she throws up she dry heaves and throws up a very tiny amount.  Well, she started throwing up all this brown, nasty stuff on our dry clean only rug.  I pick her up in a panic and throw her on the coffee table.  (Why, I dont' know)  She jumps on our new, leather sectional and pukes more in the corner of it.  Tons of brown, poopy puke is all over the place.  I get out the carpet shampooer and start to clean it up.  I'm trying to get the kids out of the way.  I'm crying and having a pity party.  I throw Lucy outside and she pukes even more.  Poor Marley was upset that I was crying and she almost started crying.  Who knows what Tamara was thinking through all of this! 

Nick got home during the clean up process.  He entertained the kids while I scrubbed the floors and furniture.  What a mess!!  Lesson learned for me.  Even though I bag all of the diapers, sometimes I don't get them outside to the trash until the end of the day.  Lucy dug in a closed bag to get the diaper.  From now on I am going to be more careful about where I put things. 

Lucy didn't die.  I thought she would after eating all that.  It's crazy what pet owners go through for their beloved pets. 

Fall

I am so glad that fall is finally here!  It has been nice to take the kids outside to play.  Tonight we are taking the whole crew down to the fall festival.  This will be the first time that the twins will get to eat the food.  I've been talking it up to Tamara.  I'm curious to see what she will think about it.  I am also looking forward to meeting the Duncans.  They have a little girl that was born with vasa previa.  (That is the reason for Peyton's death) I'm excited to meet Kylee, Krystal and Doug. 

Marley is completely potty trained.  I plan on starting Sam this week.  I'm also helping Jenny with Daisy on the days she is here.  I will be glad when all 3 are trained and I don't have to worry about accidents. 

Nick is busy with work.  He is busy selling furniture and is helping my aunt Kim with some jobs for Action.  So when Nick is busy things are extra challenging around here.  We will just have to adjust to the new schedule. 

Our week is pretty full right now.  We go to the Y 3 mornings a week.  We go to BSF on Wednesday mornings.  BSF stands for Bible Study Fellowship.  We meet at CFC.  We are studying Isaiah.  The kids are really liking going this year. 

Update on Potty Training

Marley is still doing well with her potty training.  She has been using the potty for a little over a week now.  She has only had one accident this week.  I'm very proud of her.   I took her to the Y and BSF this week and she did great.  I'm so glad I stuck with it.  She is still wearing a diaper at nap and at bedtime.  I will probably stop using one at nap because she is doing pretty well. 

It has ben nice to be able to get back out again.  I'm probably going to wait another month to start training Sam because it was rough having to stay home for a week. 

Last Tuesday we all went to the zoo.  I had taken the kids once before Ellie was born and it wasn't very much fun.  The kids were in a stroller and they couldn't see the animals.  This time they had a blast.  The giraffes got really close to them.  By the end of the trip they were exhausted.  It was fun to hang out as a family because we don't get to do that very often with Nick's work schedule. 

Potty Training

Yesterday I started potty training Marley.  I have several friends who have potty trained their children, but I never heard them talk about how challenging it was.  Yesterday was stressful!  I knew better than to start training when I was babysitting.  (I babysit my cousin's 2 year old)  I took her to the potty every 10 minutes.  She had mutliple accidents and didn't pee once on the potty.  I would put her on there for 10-15 minutes at a time and she would pee the second I put her pants back on.  At the end of the day, she was frustrated and so was I.  My friends kept telling me to keep with it; that it would get easier.

They were right!  I had to make myself understand that she doesn't know how to use the toilet.  I am teaching her how to do that.  It doesn't help to get frustrated either.  So today we had a break through.  This morning, I put her on the potty when she woke up and she didn't go. She had an accident.  I put her back on and she went!  Yay!  She went 5 times today and only had 2 accidents in the morning. Here's hoping the rest of the week goes well.  I'm hoping she will be trained by the end of next week so I can get back to life as normal....kind of.  I have to train Sam soon.  He was tired of Marley getting Smarties, so he decided to pee twice on the little potty.  I wonder what Tamara thinks of all of this.  We had a little celebration each time one of the kids peed on the potty.  Oh the things we do to encourage our kids and make them feel special. 

Overall, a successful day.  Nick had a good day selling furniture too.  Now on to Wal Mart at 9:00 at night. 

Ellie's First Birthday

I can't believe Ellie is 1!  Her birthday was August 21st.  Nick's family came down to Evansville for the weekend.  They got here Saturday.  We went swimming and then to Gatti Town for dinner.  We had never been there before.  The kids loved it!  Her party was Sunday.  We had family over.  She loved her cake.  She got a lot of great presents. 

Ellie still isn't walking.  She is taking a lot of steps though.  I'm hoping she will take off soon.  She is talking a lot.  Mama, Dada, Elmo and night night are her favorite words.  I am so blessed to be the mom of these 3 little kiddos. 

I started potty training Marley today.  It has been pretty frustating.  Hopefully after nap she will go on the potty.

Peyton's story

I thought I'd post this too.  This explains the journey we went through with the pregnancy and delivery with our son.  This is the story that is on the vasa previa website. 

Nick and I were married on March 26th, 2005. We knew right away that we wanted to start a family. My doctor suspects that I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), so she suggested I use Clomid. I got pregnant on the second dose of the drug. It seems like something was wrong at every ultrasound. At my 8 week ultrasound, we discovered we were only having one baby. We also found out I could possibly have a bicornuate uterus. (We found out in surgery that I do not.) At my 12 week ultrasound, I was diagnosed with placenta previa. At my 16 week ultrasound we learned that the placenta previa had cleared, but I had something called vasa previa. One week later we went to a specialist and she could not find the vasa previa in the ultrasound. Nick and I were so happy. Finally, we had a good report at an ultrasound appointment. I continued to have regularly scheduled appointments with my doctor. Everything was going fine. My doctor did not schedule another ultrasound until 36 weeks.


On August 11th, I went to bed around 11 pm. I couldn’t sleep that well. I was having cramps that day and the night before. My doctor said it was just the normal aches and pains that go along with pregnancy. At 4 am I felt really weird pains. It is almost as if the baby was pushing down really hard. I drifted back to sleep. Around 5 am I woke up to go to the bathroom. I thought my water had broken. When I went to the restroom I realized it was blood. There was a lot of it! I was panicking. I woke up my husband and we called our doctor. We rushed to the hospital at about 110 mph. We got there in about 5 minutes.

When they hooked me up to the fetal heart monitor we couldn’t really hear the heartbeat. They called in an ultrasound tech. We could hear the heartbeat, but it was really fast. It kept getting faster. The doctor on call decided to do an emergency C-section. My doctor was called in, and at 6:49 am on August 12th, we had our son Peyton. He weighed 5 lbs and 6 oz, and he was 19 inches long. I heard him cry once. Then they cut the cord and everything went downhill from there. Nick said he turned really pale, and they had to do chest compressions.

I woke up in recovery to my doctor crying over my bed. I had the worst feeling in my stomach. Once I started bleeding I knew I still had vasa previa. In my mind I thought since we took him while he was still alive, that he would be okay. They rushed him to the NICU. Again they had to do compressions. Finally, the doctor said that they had to stop. Nick asked them to try one more time. At the same time, my friends and family members were on their knees praying, and then we had a heartbeat.

The first day was his best day. He had his eyes open for a little while. He got to see us and we got to make eye contact with him. That was a huge blessing. We spent Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in the NICU. On Monday, we thought we were going to lose him, so they had me hold him. When I held him all his vitals seemed to stabilize. It was such a blessing to be able to hold him. I will never forget that feeling. Again we had hope that he was going to make it.

Those doctors and nurses did everything they could to save our son, but that was not God’s plan. When he was born, he only had about 25% of his blood volume, and because of this his kidneys were never able to work. There were moments when things looked hopeful, but by Tuesday night it was apparent that he was only getting worse. We pulled life support at 9:35 pm on August 15th. I place no blame on my doctor. She provided excellent care, and she will continue to be my doctor in future pregnancies.

Losing Peyton is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through. It was so painful to come home and see all of Peyton’s things. It was so painful to go into his room that first time and see the crib and all of his clothes. We spent months preparing for him, and only got to spend 3 days with him. We are truly thankful for that short time. We have comfort in knowing that Peyton is in heaven with Jesus. Heaven is all he’ll ever know. God only gives us what we can handle. Even though there are days that I don’t think I can make it through until tomorrow, I have hope that I will one day see my son again.

Peyton's Birthday

Today would've been Peyton's 4th birthday.  It is such a bittersweet day.  I miss him so much and wonder what life would be like if he was still here.  I am so thankful that God has blessed us with 3 healthy children.  I never would've thought 4 years ago that I would have 3 children under the age of 3!  God is good. 

I took the kids to the cemetery this morning.  They had to stay in the car because it was so hot.  I try to go there at least twice a year.  Always on his birthday.  Going to the cemetery is always hard because he is surrounded by babies who died early. I think about all the other families who have had to bury a child way too soon.

It really does get easier.  On a daily basis I am not sad anymore, but his birthday is always emotional.  The memories of his birth and death are still fresh in my mind.  It feels like it was a few months ago and not a few years ago.  Thankful that we got 3 days with our little boy before he went home to be with the Lord. 

Sick kids :(

Potty training has been put on hold. Mainly because we just got our carpets cleaned last week and I want to keep them clean for a while.  It might be a good time though because I'm pretty sure the twins have hand, foot and mouth again.  They have had it once before and we had to stay home for 10 days.  I'm not sure how they got it again, but it is pretty frustrating.  They have been very grouchy, which makes me kind of grouchy. 

Tamara starts school tomorrow.  Nick took her to get registered today for classes.  I hope she likes going to Castle.  Tomorrow will be my first day up at 5:45.  Hoping to have a good quiet time before everyone else wakes up.   

Not being able to go to the gym is going to throw off my training for the half.  Hopefully I will be able to run outside some.  It is just so miserably hot! 

Hoping the twins get better soon and Ellie doesn't get what they have. 

Potty Training Twins

I have decided to potty train the twins in the next few weeks.  I would appreciate any suggestions.  I don't think I'm going to train them together.  I think I will start with Marley and then Sam.  I'm sure this is going to be quite an adventure. 

Our exchange student has arrived!

Our exchange student, Tamara, arrived yesterday from Italy.  I picked her up from the airport at 2 and brought her home to meet the family.  The kids liked her immediately.  For some reason Sam calls her "Kaffy" and wants to know where she is at all times.  Lucy, our dachsund, is a little unsure about her.  Over time I know she will get used to her. 

We wanted to take Tamara out to dinner to welcome her to Newburgh.  So, we went to Cheeseburger in Paradise.  While we were waiting for a table, Sam puked all over the floor in the entry way.  He also puke all over the mats in the doorway.  Obviously we didn't stay.  We ended up picking up Chick Fil A. 

I took Tamara to Wal Mart with me.  What a great way to introduce her to American culture.  Tomorrow she goes to orientation at Castle and school starts on Wednesday.  The bus picks her up at 6:42.  I don't think I have been up that early since my teaching days.  This will be interesting. 

Introduction to our family

I've decided it's time to set up a blog.  I really wish I would've set one up when I was pregnant with our twins.  I think it would've been great to record the pregnancy and first year of their life. 

Things are always busy at the Ragsdale house.  We have 3 children under the age of 3.  Sam and Marley are 2 1/2 and Ellie is 11 months old.  Our firstborn son, Peyton, passed away 3 days after he was born.  We are getting ready to expand our family again.  Not with a new baby....but with a 17 year old student from Italy.  Tamara will be living with us for a year while she attends Castle High School.  Tamara will be coming to Evansville on August 7th.  We are really excited about having her stay with us.