Isla May and Juniper Rose: Birth Story

This was the longest and hardest pregnancy I have had, and the fact that a baby finally coming and joining their family is termed "delivery" only fits my sentiments too well. As it does every time! Ha. But, this time even more so.

We found out we were having twins towards the end of January and in the middle of that horrible flu that it seems every person and their dog caught. My feeling more sick than in other pregnancies now made sense, and to say Karey and I felt overwhelmed with everything at the time is an understatement. But, it also MADE MY LIFE that I was going to get five kids out of four pregnancies. And, it still does :D

The doctor that I wanted to deliver with, Dr. Chalmers, shares his practice with another doctor, Dr. Walker. I delivered my last two babies with a midwife in a birthing suite and HAVE LOVED that experience because I HATE the hospital and the papers and how many people you have to talk to and how they basically just tell you what to do the entire time and that if you want anything to go different than their plans, you better have the character to back yourself up. Anyways, so when we found out we were having twins, I did want to deliver them in the hospital, but I was pretty dang sad I was giving up that great experience of delivering with my midwife again and how much less hectic and stressful and natural it all is. My midwife recommended Dr. Chalmers because he is basically the only doctor in my area who will deliver your baby breach instead of sending you into C-section. Dr. Walker on the other hand (who in character is a lovely and kind lady) doesn't feel comfortable with delivering breach because of the risk (I don't understand what risk, but I know there is some).Dr. Chalmers is also just more open minded and listens to you and what you want and doesn't act like every little thing you want is making their his life hard as an OBGYN.All of this is a long way of saying, I wanted Dr. Chalmers to do my delivery. I trusted him more to do what was best for my babies AND me. The doctors switch off every other week. So I was hoping my entire pregnancy to make it to my week 37 which is when Dr. Chalmers was on call. If I didn't go by week 37 he would induce me, still during his on week, once I hit week 38. Week 36 passed and then week 37 started too and I found he was going out of town IN THE MIDDLE of his on call week. So he would only be on call for about three days during my week 37.

So, my midwife swept me when I was 37.2 days in. Nothing happened. I walked and walked. Nothing happened. I called my doctor and got an extra appointment on Wednesday and he swept me again. He said "I bet you a nickle I'll see you in labor and delivery before 5 (I was 80% effaced and dilated to a five), and nothing happened. I went back in on Thursday morning at 8 at 37.5 days, and he swept me AGAIN. At this point I'm pretty darn sick of people sticking their hands up me, but it pales in comparison to the delivery. He said to walk around for a couple of hours and go back in so he can check me, because if I have moved to a 6 and have semi regular contractions, labor and delivery will keep me(since I have twins and live 30 minutes away). My other babies come incredibly fast and once labor starts, it starts and there is no stopping it. So it was funny to Karey and I that we were walking around a park trying to get my contractions to become more regular and strong. That had NEVER been a problem. But these girls sure wanted to chill in there as long as they could. My contractions would come and were semi-regular so we went back in. He said I was almost at a 6, so to go over to labor and delivery and he would break my water. HALLELUJAH. I had asked him to do that the day before but I wasn't dilated enough for it to be a "medical" reason for him to break my water. Karey and I went over and I put the not fun hospital robe on and they hooked me up to all the machines I dislike and gave me the good old i.v. that I hate, and then a few hours later Chalmers came and broke my water. My contractions had been about every four minutes up to that point and were just mildly uncomfortable. Within fifteen minutes of my water breaking they were coming on much stronger, but still not transition contractions. My midwife got there (she was acting as my doula) and started putting hot towels on my stomach and squeezing my feet (which for some reason feels awesome). I was breathing and relaxing through them pretty dang well. And then I felt transition hit. I was opening up pretty quickly, as usual. And the contractions that make your body feel like its a heat generator were now there. I was sweating like crazy through each one. And they were long, hard, "good" "progressive" contractions. The ones when you start thinking, "Should I get the epidural? Then I could just enjoy this." I delivered my first with an epidural and I knew what I liked and didn't like about it. The two after her were natural and I knew what I did and didn't like about that too. And the only thing any woman doesn't like about natural birth is the pain. HAHA! I told Karey and my midwife that I wanted the epidural and they looked at each other and me curiously. My midwife asked, "Do you want us to try to talk you out of it? Because I seriously don't think you even have time to get one." "NO. I don't want you to talk me out of it. I just want you to go get the guy." Well,she did, even though she didn't want to. For the epidural you have to sit up and hang your legs over the side of the bed and slump forward. Positions can do INSANE things to your birth progress or delay when in labor. Well as soon as I got in position my contractions got insanely intense and my body started trying to push. It feels like when you are heaving and about to throw up, except on the other end and your about to birth a human. There is no stopping it once you are opened up. I was trying to hold her in so badly because I just wanted that freaking epidural that I had decided on, regaurdless of the fact that she was going to come out any second. My midwife started saying to the epi guy, "She's pushing. She's pushing. You see her pushing!" karey was like "she's pushing!" I was like "are you done yet?! He said "I have to re-do it I hit a blood vessel." I was like holy freaking MOTHERRRRR ( in my mind).I was trying as hard as I could to hold my pushing back but when you're open YOU'RE OPEN and the baby is coming. THANK GOODNESS the needle had come out of my back because I shot back and the epi guy caught me, and with a couple of throat tearing good screams baby A (Isla) SHOT OUT and Karey caught her. There was no doctor in the room, and up to that point I had been pretty quiet through my contractions. Then fifty million people ran in, and Dr. Chalmers ran in a few minutes later. Isla was BEATUFIL. She looked perfect. But I still had one more baby to deliver. AND, the epi guy had never taped the tube into my back and so it had slipped out when I shot back on top of him. So, no epidural for me.Chalmers checked me and said Baby B (Juniper) had flipped breach. Surprise surprise (not.). Isla was born at 2:56 and Juniper was delivered breach at 3:06. He reached up and grabbed her by the feet and pulled her down and broke her water and I pushed her out in about four pushes. It's kind of different delivering the head last. Either way, there is NO BETTER FEELING than finally pushing the baby out and the contractions and pressure stopping. Two beautiful babies. Isla May at 6.2 pounds and Juniper Rose at 6.12 pounds. AND I didn't have a c-section!!!! Which I would have, had I delivered them after 5:00 that day. Ha ha.

This part feels weird to write about because it is just so weird to write facts about something so traumatic at the time it is happening. But, in the end it is just facts and I am just happy for, say what? Yes. HOSPITALS and people that take care of you when things go wrong.
I started bleeding too much and my contractions WERE KILLER. They had put me on pitocin without telling me hoping it would slow my bleeding. I had major clots building up inside of my uterus, which was making it so the uterus couldn't contract back down to size and stop the bleeding. It's horrible to have non stop labor contractions and no baby coming out, just blood. They had to call Chalmers back (he has to leave at 5 to catch a flight). All of a sudden I'm freezing and they are stacking hot blankets all of my body and around my head and I have an oxygen mask. They give me more pitocin which does nothing, then they give me a shot in my inner thigh to make me contract more which doesn't work, then they stick a bunch of pills up in me, and those don't do anything. The goal of all the medications is to get my contractions strong enough to push out the clots and harden the uterus. But the clots weren't coming. So Chalmers reached up in me and cleaned it all out. I am pretty sure I traumatized every other woman on that floor with first my couple of delivery screams and then even more so with how badly I was yelling. Karey said the biggest clot he pulled out was like the size of a cantaloupe. But, there were plenty of other smaller ones he got out, too. Then Chalmers came to me and said " We don't let people bleed to death anymore. So if that doesn't get you to stop bleeding we will need to take you into the O.R. and open you up and clean you out, and possible do a hysterectomy." Then he turns to Karey and says "Were you guys planning on having anymore kids?" In my head I'm like "No" but I still couldn't stop crying. But I had been crying the whole time. My bleeding slowed! In the end they said a normal person loses about 500 SOMETHING of blood in delivery and that they start to get worried if they lose 1000 Something. I lost 2,700 of that something. And, in other words, they told me I lost 2.5 liters of blood when for my body type you have on average 4.5 liters of blood. So I lost a lot.

They wanted to see if my blood would start to build up over night, but my red blood cell count wouldn't go up and either would my blood pressure. So early Friday morning they gave me two bags of blood (GO BLOOD DONORS!!!) and it helped me feel much better. I was at the hospital for two days and two night, which I still don't consider bad at all. My two baby girls are beautifully healthy!And my parents are here helping for two weeks while my blood volume builds back up which they said takes about two weeks.

I am SO grateful for everyone that helped at the hospital. SO grateful to my midwife for staying there through the WHOLE thing.And for Chalmers keeping me alive and not giving me a c-section!!!!! He's the best. And I'm thankful for the the best huband ever, Karey, for shedding a few tears during the whole ordeal just to remind me that he DOES have feelings and loves me like crazy!!!! HA HA. I will add some pictures later.

Father's Day

I love Father's Day, because I love my dad. And, because there are a lot of dad's out there that I love and respect. I love all of my uncles, I love My Man's dad, I love my brother's who are dads, etc. But, I hate that Father's Day just flies by like nothing for the most part. Mother's Day on the other hand, wow. And, gross. Talk about a money making day. And so I just want to acknowledge right off of the bat, I don't want Father's Day to become what Mother's Day is, but in general, I do feel like mothers are way more celebrated than fathers. I do wish the day came and there was more of a pause and thought during it than there is now. Because the truth is, a father is needed in a child's life just as much as the mother. Yes, the mother usually does the raising, but I think Mother's Day is a celebration of motherhood---taking someone's life and becoming an active part of it. It is not a celebration of the actual taking care of the kids....and Father's Day is just the same. A celebration of fatherhood--- taking someone's life and being an active participant in it. Influencing it for the good. But, as of right now (and the past who knows how many years) I feel like Mother's Day is national "let all of us women remind our husbands how important we are(and they better acknowledge it) and how much heavy stuff we go through raising these kids of theirs". I'm not saying that is what you think, but the fact that Mother's Day is this big she-bang "how could we survive without our mothers!" and then father's day is like, "Oh, hey pops. Love ya." Society has told the family that father's are less important, and it just aint the truth. And we wonder why there are more absent fathers than mothers in the family unit throughout the world. When someone is told their role is less important, they believe it and they treat it that way. Both are just as needed. So, dad, Happy Father's Day. You shaped all the parts of me that mom didn't. And mom, Happy Mother's Day, you shaped all the parts of me that dad didn't. And while I'm at it. Happy Me Day, because I shaped all the parts that they didn't. Also, Happy Father's Day to my awesome My Man, because he sure has being an active and present participant in his children's lives down. Aint no denyin' that!

Onto what we did for Father's Day.

We ate. Because that is what My Man loves best. We did buy him some gifts, like some potted mint plants (all different varieties) and a corn tortilla press (yum) and....I forget what else.

The girls cooked him eggs and toast for breakfast and did it themselves. Number one cracked one egg and girly two cracked the second. They put the toast in the toaster and buttered it.

For dinner we did Shrimp Scampi and then a fresh fruit tart pie for dessert.

The Shrimp Scampi recipe I used was this one, and I loved it. It was the first time I have ever cooked shrimp (seafood is creepy), but I did it just for him. And, it was probably the second or third time eating shrimp in my entire life (I only ate two of them. Baby steps...)After he saw me eat those two shrimps like a total boss, he pretty much wanted to make out because I owned it that much, but alas, it was five o'clock and the girlies were there so aint none of that happenin'. This is one of those great examples of how seeing your significant other doing things they don't like to do that you do like to do makes you love them more. I would highly recommend the recipe because I did it, which means it is easy. But the flavors were very well balanced and I really did like it. And, the shrimp was decent!

My Man had said he wanted a fruit tart for dessert, but I don't yet own a tart pan :/ It is something that will be added to my "want" list. Because I LOVE fruit tarts. So, I decided to just do a fruit tart pie. Pretty much the same thing! My mom makes this BOMB fresh strawberry cream pie and I could literally eat a whole pie (okay actually probably only half) in one sitting. So, I basically just did that recipe. I baked a pie crust that turned out magnificent and flaky and crusty.This is the recipe I used. Then I took 8 oz of softened cream cheese and blended it up with a teastpoon of vanilla and a half cup of sugar. That is the cream! You bake the pie crust and when it is completely cooled, you smear ALL of that cream cheese mixture all over the inside of the pie shell. Then you can fill it with whatever sliced up fruit you want. This time I did strawberry slices, blueberries and some canned mandarin oranges and then I squeezed some lime juice and mixed it with sugar and drizzled it all over the fruit. And it was .SO. good. You have to experience it to believe it. Plus, it's easy to make.

Happy late Father's Day to all the awesome men out there doing their best! We need you all.

What's Taking Over Your Life---and it's not Facebook

This is hard to write (gulp), because I am SO guilty of it. But, once I recognized it, I had to call it out for what it was---a goal destroyer, a dream basher, and relationship duller...Netflix was and is a lot of things for everyone---a "get your mind off of everything" network, a "movie night" at-home-thing, a "life is hard so I'm gonna binge watch while eating potato chips and drinking healthy shakes" producer...the point is...Netflix IS those last three things I just stated, but just like everything else we let become a part of our life, it has had unintentional consequences, and they haven't been the good kind.

First, let me sing my Ode to Netflix.

Netflix Netflix Netflix, King of my soul!
It's so so lovely how you make me forget
the ugly parts of the human soul
that I read about too much on Facebook.
Netflix Netflix Netflix, you are the
"I want to sit and do absolutely nothing" dream
fulfiller,
you are the
"I'm bored" children's phrase killer.
You are the, "we are poor and don't trust anyone to babysit anyways"
date night giver.
Netflix Netflix Netflix,
so why is it that you have to be so bad for my liver!?

So, yeah. liver doesn't make sense, but I was DONE with that ode.

The truth is, I still love Netflix, but we are moving are relationship status from "Engaged" to "In an open relationship"/"It's complicated"(who seriously uses those status' btw? If you need to use that, end it girlfriend!)

I love finding a show that I love to watch. It gives me something to look forward to. But, then I realized that there are so many more things in life that I should be looking more forward to than a show. My Man helped me realize that without even trying because he'd generally much rather do something productive(like try to get our HAM radio licenses) than watch a show. And, whenever I'm like "Hey, wanna put on a show?" He normally says sure, but I can tell he just let every productive goal for the night go out the window because wifey over here is done with the day. I don't want to be that wifey (except, sometimes I do.)

When I don't turn on a show the second the girls go to bed, I feel more like being myself and building my character with the things that I actually care about and am interested in, and I think Netflix (hand in hand with FB) have done a FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC job of helping each individual of our society forget what they like to do in their spare time. I think it has helped people forget what relationships are supposed to be like. And, I'm not saying stopping watching Netflix with your significant other is going to make your relationship THAT much more way fun or something, because honestly it's probably not going to. When I don't do a show, I usually clean, or blog (duh) or sit on the couch and stress out AND tell myself not to stress out (SO much more productive than watching a show while stressing out and never telling myself to stop stressing out!) or color in my cool owl coloring book, or eat good food, or do random other things that I would have never otherwise done. But, what I can say it has done is made our relationship more healthy. Why? Because I have been feeling happier because I have been feeling more productive and I have been dreaming more about things I want to do and I have been remembering that I want to pursue certain passions. And, let's not forget that even though in marriage you "become as one", there are definitely still two individuals in the "oneness", and each of those individuals will make the other individual happier by being happier themselves. My Man loves me more when he sees me get excited about things I love, and go after them.  And him being such a great example of that to me, is the very reason I love him so much.

I want to reiterate that I love Netflix and Netflixing, and YES the fact that I am writing this might strongly correlate with the fact that I don't have a good show series to watch right now, but, I am thankful, people! Let's not forget who we are and that each of us actually have interests outside of the acting world. Life is FOR REAL, so let's live it.

So, You Want To Get Married...

Want to know something amazing? I married the perfect guy. Seriously, for me I did. So, why is that so amazing? Well, it's amazing because I never once, I can honestly say, did I date the type of guy that I wanted to marry. I strongly believe that we can all be happy with multiple people, and different types of people at that. But, I also believe that you can find greater happiness with certain character types more than other character types. And, if you're single, I am here to tell you, you might just want to take a look at what kinds of people you are interested in and have been dating, and re-consider if they would make you happiest. I think that some people have very few facets to their personality, like my husband for example. And having few facets in no way is a bad thing. Having few facets means that no matter who you are around or what circumstances you are under, your character pretty much stays the same. Of course there will be differences in character depending on circumstances, but your general character will stay the same. My husband for example, there really is no "other side" to him. What you see is what you get, which is what I love. I on the other hand, I have so many facets, and those facets can be easily fed. So, depending on who I would date, a different facet would be fed. My creative self would be fed with other creative personality types. My rocker grunge music self would be fed with other grungy personality types. My actively engaged good mormon personality type is fed around others of the same personality type. My humble quiet part of myself could be fed with other similar personality types. My argumentative proud domineering personality facet fed with similar personality types...you get the point. So, I had a lot of choices of who I could be. The main question was, who did I want to be? Twenty years down the road, what facets did I want to become strong characteristics? And, not just who did I want to be, but how did I want my family to be?

Dating is horrible. I hated it. Probably part of that reason is that I always became emotionally involved with and dated people that I never felt right about considering for marriage. I loved them, I cared about them (too much, as usual), I wanted them to be happy, and so I stayed with them even though in all reality I knew I didn't want to marry them and I never felt right about even considering it. My dating while simultaneously trying to figure out what type of person I actually wanted to marry caused a lot of misunderstandings and hurt---as I am sure is the case for most everyone. I will say, though, that I finally was able to realize that I needed to change what type of relationships I sought after, because none of mine seemed to be working out for the long term. I started getting the idea that maybe I was looking at the wrong sorts of guys as I prepared for my mission for my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Just a week before heading to the missionary training center, from where I would then leave to serve the people of Belem, Brazil, I got engaged to My Man. We hadn't dated at all, and planned our wedding for the end of July. It was May when we got engaged. Needless to say, it was really really fast. But, here we are (almost) five years later, and things are still going good. Not good---GREAT. Why? Why is it going great if we didn't even date and you could say we barely knew each other. I think there is a multitude of reasons, but these are the main ones:
Divine intervention: Seriously. I know it. With how things were going and then the way things worked out, I feel I owe it to Heavenly Father that I got My Man.

We fed the right facets for each other: My Man and I had known each other for quite a few years, we just had never been great friends or dated. I more hung out with his friends he lived with and he more hung out with my best friend I lived with. We had hung out solo a couple of times and knew pretty well of each other. The funny thing is that we both say now, that we never would have gotten married had we dated, because when we were dating we had such a wrong state of mind. Dating is completely different from marriage. My Man wanted a girl he could have fun with all the time who was adventurous, who didn't value money much, and who could stay up really late (haha). I wanted someone who went to bed at nine like I always wanted to, someone who knew what they wanted to do in life, someone who was dominant and proud, someone who loved music and working out, and someone that I could have fun with. What I realized is that guy doesn't exist. Every guy would only have a few of those characteristics. Same with My Man, he could never seem to find a girl who liked to have fun and didn't really value money or set out plans. I would have hated dating him---his reckless business ventures and money spending on hopeful projects, his staying up until two a.m. and then deciding it was a perfect time to go sledding (torture). And, he would have hated dating me---my boring-ness (if you consider not wanting to sled at 2 a.m. boring...), my desire to argue all of the time, etc. When we both felt like we should get married, I felt all of the facets of my character that I wanted to become my character being fed by him. He brought out my humility and patience: i.e. he would stop talking to me if I started arguing too loud and heated. He brought out my faith: i.e. wanting to start businesses when we have no money ;)And he brought back my hopes and dreams of owning animals and being self sufficient and growing our own food, etc...things I had highly valued since I was a child. And I brought out facets of his character that he liked:.....................Okay, so obviously I'm the one who married up hahaha.

The point is this, my entire time dating, I wanted someone who reminded me of my father and all of his loud characteristics---the air he had about him that says to everyone " I am strong, I am smart, I am my own man, I am awesome, and so on. There were two problems with that. One, I never acknowledged that core characteristics of my dad that led the creation of the air.Two, my dad raised be to be like him. My quiet characteristics are of my mother, and my louder ones stem from my dad. Both are good things, as long as they are balanced. Dating a guy like my dad always created clashing. I always argued with the guys I dated, and never felt sure I could really trust them. Which I always felt was weird, because I knew 1 million percent and 1 million times over I could trust my dad had my best at heart.

When I got engaged to My Man and got to know him so closely in those few months we were engaged, my decision was only further confirmed, and he is the reason I was able to realize what those core characteristics were of my father that I had actually been searching for in a man.

Growing up, my dad did everything. He fixed our cars, changed our tires, fixed the leaking ceiling, installed cabinets and toilets and our entire kitchen, tiled our kitchen floor, cleaned up basement floods, mowed the lawn, cut down trees, planted new ones, installed new sinks, fixed the old ones, fixed our washers and dryers, made the money, cooked good food(sometimes), dreamed businesses, fixed our bikes that broke, like I said, everything. The only time I ever remember a guy coming to our house was a carpet installer. That is the only time I remember any guy coming to do something at our house. My dad did all of the rest himself. He loved working with his hands and he was good at it. He loved dreaming, and he was good at it. He loved learning, and he was good at it. Everything my dad decided to do, he did. Hands down, and he was almost always successful. There was a reason he always had that air about himself---he created it. He had always believed in himself, so no one could tell him, "No, you can't." A lot of the guys I dated had the tip of the iceberg, but not everything else beneath it.

My Man has everything beneath the iceberg AND the tip, and he is quiet and humble which balances out my loudness and pride(pride for what, I don't know). He can do anything, and he always has complete and utter belief in himself and what he can do. Getting to know him felt so fresh and normal, I had seen his characteristics so many times throughout my life, that I already felt at home with him. Once I saw those characteristics, I knew God had blessed me when he told me I should stay and marry My Man instead of go on my mission. The whole time I was prepping for my mission was actually a period of change I needed  to go through to be ready for marriage---otherwise My Man and I would have never worked out because I was too crazy (fer real).

So, after telling me story, I just want you to consider,
who have you been dating? Are you sure they are the right type of character you want? Do they feed the facets in you that you want to become your character?

Do you like louder people? Have you ever considered a quiet one?
Do you like funny people? Have you ever considered someone more serious?
Do you like people that have a plan? Have you ever considered someone who might not have one, but twenty different plans?
Do you like people who act tough? Have you ever considered someone who acts humble?
Do you like people who work out? Have you ever considered maybe someone who eats healthy but doesn't work out as much?
Do you want someone with a emotional and creative mind? Have you considered one who is more emotionally stable and who is more logical? (math and science type instead of english and history type...)

These are all things I thought were important in the guy I wanted, and then the characteristics of the man I actually ended up marrying (but he is funny too, not just serious. He's also very creative)

So, my advice to you, single person who is wanting to get married, is to re-consider your "list" for the person you want to marry and also re-consider the "list" that you have for yourself.Make sure you have all the characteristics that create the base of the iceberg, not just the tip, and same with the person you are considering for marriage. Change things up a bit on those lists, and life might end up working out better for you than you had always planned. Because plans are over rated anyways (that's what My Man taught me, and continues to teach me).

***This was written based off of myself and My man. You and your whoever else might be different so apply the same idea but more appropriate to you and that whoever else.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The title of this post, "So, You Want To Get Married" is also the title of a book my dad wrote and published. This book explains five main points you need to deeply consider and talk about with your future spouse if you want to have a successful marriage. These five points help make sure you are both on the same page spiritually, physically, financially, and goal-wise(family and careers). They are also five points to keep in mind even throughout the dating stage. The five points are compared to each finger on your hand, so they make sense and are easy to remember. If you or anyone else you know are looking to get married, read this book, you(and they) won't regret it! So, You Want To Get Married by Nick Sanchez.

You Know Life Is Good When...#1

Your husband tells you, "It's okay babe. Today is New Friday*. Tomorrow I am going to clean the house and cook good food for you....and fight the government."


*My Man works three days a week (holla). He is done by Wednesday, so we call Wednesday night New Friday.


When do you know life is good?

A Healthy Heart: EKG(ECG) Heart Testing

Does this post sound boring? Because if it were me and I had never heard of this, it would sound boring. In fact, that was me until about a month ago. I read this young widow's story about losing her husband to a heart attack. She was completely taken by surprise because he had always been very athletic and physically active. After reading the story, it really hit me how blessed we are to have the medical knowledge and technologies that we do, and that we need to take advantage of them before it is too late. After her husband's death, the woman has spent her time encouraging others to get EKG heart tests done to prevent horrific events much like her own. I had nooooo idea what an EKG heart test was when I originally read the article, so I made a note of it to talk my my doctor the next time I took little Yogurt Drop in for her nine month check-up (no shots this time!). Hopefully, what I learned will be helpful to you as well and you can take advantage of the information! I know that I will. EKG(ECG) stands for electrocardiogram. It is kind of self-explanatory. This is what they show people getting in the movies a lot of the time. Like in the Santa Claus (yes, I love that movie) when they stick those little things on good old Tim Allen's chest while he runs on a treadmill and his heart beat shows up in lines that go up and down.  My doctor told me that they can do an EKG when you are at rest, or while you are jogging. A test that is done while you are at rest will most likely only detect abnormalities in your heart beat that have taken place after a stroke/heart attack, mild or extreme. She said that if you are looking to find out whether you have clotting within your arteries, an at rest EKG heart test is not the best way to go. But, it is very helpful to get done after experiencing such traumas in order to find out how healthy or injured your heart is. She said that the best way to find out if you have clotting within your arteries is by having your cholesterol checked. If it is high, it is likely that you may have clotting which can lead to strokes and heart attacks. She said another way that could be helpful is to jog while getting an EKG. If your heart's beat is normal when at rest but becomes abnormal while you are exercising, this could also be a sign of clotting within your arteries. I am pretty sure that to have an EKG done you need to go to a specialist and that you can get your cholesterol checked by your family doctor. Let's take this seriously girls and guys! Our healthy is not only our happiness, but the happiness of our family and friends. Health tragedies tear the family apart every year, physically and emotionally. Let's do our best at taking advantage of the technologies we have today. Luckily I have great insurance right now, and so most of the fees for both going to a specialist and a doctor are covered. But, if you don't have insurance, there are plenty of other ways to make sure your heart is healthy. First, see if a doctor's office near you will do it for free or discounted even if you do not have insurance. If that does not work out, look around for a health fair near you because a lot of the time they will check your cholesterol for free,and sometimes even do the EKG tests. If that does not work, contact your county's health department for information on discounted heart tests. Here is a cute picture of little Yogurt Drop after her heel prick to cheer up the post!

Yogurt Drop found some chocolate chip cookies soon after she got her heel pricked. It definitely made her day...and a mess.

This is Us

Dun dun dunnnnn....the time has come for the first post! I figured I would just take this time to introduce myself and my huge family. There are three of us. Me, my husband, who we will call the STUD (because he really is), and my adorable baby girl Aida who I refer to as yogurt drop (don't ask). We are excited to share with you our experiences in all different areas of life and hope that it can shed a little light on multiple subjects. Now, brace yourselves because I already have the next post planned in honor of (que the sound) dun dun dunnnnnn....Valentine's Day!

Me and my stud of a hubby on our wedding day.

Our cute little yogurt drop!