Wordless Wednesday - Hospital Dinner Date

For more participants visit the Wordless Wednesday HQ or 5 Minutes for Mom!

My Blogroll

In an attempt to declog my side bar I decided to make a post with all of my daily reads. I will put a single link that will bring you here in the future. So here they are! Please let me know if I left you out or if you would like to be added...I don't want any hurt feelings!

People I Know

The Arnell Family - Paul & Tristan
Ashley Whiting-THE BLOG - Chad & Ashley (my cousin)
Bethea Bunch - Jason & April
Ben & Kim Prince
Bowman Family Blog - Jay & Meg
The Brinton Bunch - Robert & Nanette
The Brinton Crew - Robbie & Julie (They finally got a blog! Yay!)
Care{y}t-tops - Jon & Carey
Chris and Katie Prince
The Clan Macnab - Sherry & Wendell
Come Blog With Me - My Aunt Sheri
Dean & Kemra
Doster Dorks - Aaron & Sarah
The Earl Family Post - Dan & Crystal
The Evans Family - Carl and Starla
The Farr Family - Ryan & Kim
The Glover Gang - David & Kylie
Growing Up Smith Clan - Cory and Sandy
The Gunnell Family - Heather & Phil
The Halverson's - Trevor & Lori (my cousin)
Hep and Happy - Jason Olson
Joyful Life - Jonathan & Samantha
KARYN - Justin & Karyn
Kiera's Blog - Craig & Kiera
The Lamont Family - Drew & Jessica
The Layton Family - Brian & Katie
Live.Laugh.Love - Will & Melanie
Melzerville - Ryan & Kathryn
Miss Niss - Nathan & Anissa
Mighty Mighty Rudds - Tait & Bethany
My Life...in a Nutshell - Mike & Casey
Nielsen Noise - Mike & Rhiannon
The Palenske Family - Mark & Abbie
Palmer Family Post - Jason & Sara
The Pettit's - Troy & Christina
The Rogers Family - Micah & Cami
Sensational Six - "Doc & Cricket"
The Skinner Scene - Cameron & Amanda
The Smith's - Steve & Jenny (my cousin)
These Are a Few of My Favorite Things - Ty & Dina (my SIL)
These Little Moments - Andy & Charli
Treasured Moments - Trevor & Brandi
The Wagenman's - Joel & Lisa
The Whiting Family - Artie & Amber (my cousin)
The Whittle's - Curtis & Maranda
The Willis Family - Max & Kim
Washington Olson's - Jason & Jen
Wannabecrafter - Sam & Katie

Bloggin' Buddies - (Blogs I love to read, but have never met the person in real life)

5 Minutes for Mom
An Iowa Mom
An Island Life
An Ordinary Mom
Are We There Yet?
Babysteps
Cairnsliving
Confessions of a Pioneer Woman
Crazy Bloggin Canuck
Daring Young Mom
Gardenview Cottage
I Believe In Miracles
It's a Wonderful Life
Just All in a Day
Love, Laughter & Laundry
Melissa Garrett~a writers woolgatherings
Mental Tesserae
Munchkins, tinyfootsteps, little voices...Big Stories to Tell!!
My Little Corner of Chaos
Organizing Junkie
Overwhelmed With Joy
Rarely Home Mom
So Grateful to be Mormon
Scribbit
The Dickinson's
The Hatch Batch
The Lazy Organizer
The Wooden Porch
Truly Delightful in Every Way!?! aka - Crazy Mama of 6!
Within These Walls
Wild Daisies
Woodard Family

How popular was your name?

I ended up on the Social Security Website the other day, and was looking at the most popular baby names of the past year. I noticed another box on that page that said "Popular Birth Names by Year". This feature allows you to choose a year, and also gives you the option to see how many births there were for up to the top 1000 names during any particular year. So the curiosity got the best of me and this is what I found.

• The year I was born there were 13,467 other Crystal's born (my name was 18 on the list!)
• The year Shawn was born there were 9,272 other Shawn's - He was #39
• In 2003 there were 3,628 Caden's born into the U.S. (His rank was #111, but I swear all other Caden's were born around me because they are everywhere! I thought I was being original!)
• In 2005 there were 7,352 Sydney's (her rank was #30)

To think that there are that many Crystal's that are the same age as me...blows me away! It is not a very common name these days. I just thought this was cool because it actually had the numbers & rank of each name. It really gave me an insight of how "unique" our names were when we were born. Let me know if you try it out! I find it rather interesting.

An Amazing Woman

This past weekend has been long, exhausting, and traumatic. Now that it is all over I need to tell you about an amazing woman. That woman is my sister, Cathy. On Friday evening Cathy was admitted into the hospital because she had developed pre-eclampsia/toxemia in her pregnancy. Over the past couple of months she has had excessive swelling, and last week her blood pressure was rising. They ordered some blood work, and that is what landed her in the hospital. I hated hearing the nurses say it all weekend, but she was very sick.

I ended up going down there around 11:30 pm on Friday and was there until Sunday late afternoon. They had her on Magnesium (the nurses told her it would make her feel like she had been hit by a semi). She actually did well with it until later on Sunday. The Mag. was given to her to increase her threshold so that she wouldn't go into convulsions. The problem with that is it is a muscle relaxer for the uterus...so it was kinda counter productive for her induction. She was given a pill once every four hours that helped to soften her cervix, and get it ready for labor. This went on until 4:00 PM on June 2. That is when her water broke. Once her water broke they started her on pitocin. This made it very hard on her because we found out the baby was posterior (like Caden was) So with every contraction that she had there were shooting pains all across her lower back. This went on for 18 hours without an epidural! She was absolutely miserable. I wish that I could have done more for her. I was/am so amazed at how well she did with the pain. She was practically dilated to a 10 minus the little lip of the cervix that needed to thin out. Because the baby was already in the birth canal...his little head continued to hit up against that lip, and caused it to swell. There was no way that the swelling was going to go down, and that is when they opted for the c-section.

The c-section was very risky. The reason why they didn't do it in the first place was because her platelets were so low. Platelets are the cells in your blood that help it to clot. A normal person has 300,000 to 400,000 in their blood. When Cathy was admitted she only had 73,000. (In order to have an epidural your platelet level has to be atleast 100,000) They didn't want to have to do a c-section because there is a possibility that her blood would not clot. Her platelet level got as high as 95,000, but fluctuated alot through out the whole process. By the time it was decided to have the c-section they were up to 85,000. So she couldn't get an epidural or a spinal block. She had to be completely put out. Because she was put out, Jesse (her husband) could not be in the room. We sat in her room until they came and got us...when the baby was in the nursery.

She had the baby at 12:08 pm on Sunday, and he is doing really well. However, she was not. By the time she was going to go into surgery her kidney were not functioning very well. She was getting rid of little to no fluid...and then the fluid was practically just blood. She spent the next day in the ICU so that she could be under constant supervision. Yesterday she was finally upgraded in her status, and once a room opens up in post partum she will be able to move back downstairs, and be with her baby. She still has a long road for recovery, but atleast she is progressing.

Cathy really has been so strong through all of this. I know that she doesn't think so, but she really was. She hardly complained, and took each contraction like a trooper. She was completely exhausted because she really didn't get much sleep...she was awake for practically 48 hours. My heart ached for the process that she had to go through. My deliveries have been wonderful experiences, and hers was an absolute nightmare. She only got to see her baby for the first time almost 24 hours after he was born. I am just thankful that she is doing better, and she no longer has to deal with the pain that she has endured this weekend. It really is incredible the sacrifices that we make in order to bring a precious little child into this world. I want to introduce to the newest little member of my extended family. This is Dylan.

Walking Challenge - Week Two

It is kinda depressing when I am exercising 6 days a week and still manage to gain a pound! What is up with that! There are no changes in my measurements...so I guess that is good. I am still trying this thing, but so far I am not seeing any results! It is very frustrating! I have been hovering anywhere from 163 to 165 for months now. I don't know what it is going to take for me to get past it! I think that I eat okay. I don't eat out alot, and I try to eat healthy. I just can't seem to lose any more weight! I hope you all are getting better results than me. Hop on over to An Iowa Mom, and link up! Then we can come and cheer you on! Good Luck! I hope I have better results to report next week!