Easter in Fredericksburg

Well, its a little late but thought I would post about our Easter weekend anyways. Kolton was a pro when it came to hunting the eggs. Yet, his inherited OCD from his daddy kept him from picking up the "dirty" ones. Being that it had rained a bit the night before, it was just a little muddy and the eggs had some dirt on them. Something that really bothered Kolton. Thankfully Uncle Cullen had a napkin and loaned it to Kolton to wipe the eggs clean so he could put them in his basket. Our first egg hunt was at Omie & Opie's house, Koltons Great-grandparents. It was a bit chilly out but that didn't seem to bother the hunters at all. We had to take eggs out of Koltons basket and re-hide them a few times because he just wasn't ready to go in.



















Wiping his eggs clean before putting them in his basket
















On Sunday, we got up and went to church, then came back to Mimi's house for yet another egg hunt. This time there was books, toys, and TONS of candy to find. With much nicer weather, we played outside for quite some time. It was a great weekend, with lots of loved ones to celebrate and play with.



















Let the fun begin






























The BEST find was the Thomas book...

As far as baby and I are concerened, we were able to completley wean off the zofran pump by Thursday April 16th, before we left. We are still off the pump and on the zofran pills as needed. I am still underweight, and working on that daily. But overall, baby and I are healthy and doing great. My doctor is very pleased with our progress, and I don't have to go back for another month....it was every week. I will try to get some belly pictures soon to post for those of you that have been asking.

Hope you all had a blessed weekend.

Fishin' for crawdads

Growing up, we didn't have much to entertain us, so we would grab some string, some meat (whatever we happend to find in the fridge hot dogs, bacon, bologna) and head down to the creek by the house and fish for crawdads. Known to some as crawfish, or mudbugs. While at the park with the boys over the weekend, we thought we would try our luck in some big puddles we found. We caught some pretty big ones, Kolton wasn't to sure what to think of them. I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get a picture of him holding one, but here is one he touched, along with him sitting on bank helping Uncle Brad catch them. As you can see, Lucas wanted nothing to do with catching or touching the crawdads. Looks like Kolton is going to fall in his mommies footsteps when it comes to getting dirty and playing with critters, unlike his daddy. At least I know he got something from me!!! I also added some pictures that we snapped in the bluebonnets Kolton was not too thrilled about sitting but I got a few anyways.

Fun at the Fair

Last weekend, we took Kolton and my nephew to the Walker County Fair and Rodeo. After some pretty nasty thunderstorms, we decided to get everyone some rubber boots. The boys were not too happy about wearing them, until they realized they got to stomp through the puddles, and walk right through the huge piles of mud. They were in heaven and I have to admit, I kinda enjoyed it too. It reminded me of our 4-wheelin days of playing in the mud. Our first stop was the petting zoo, Kolton loved all the animals even the little pig that bit his finger...he just shook it off and laughed. After seeing all the show cattle, Kolton walked around the entire fair grounds going "moo, moo". It was really cute for the first hour, but then I couldn't get him to stop and it gone really annoying. I didn't let him ride any of the rides, or play the games, I figure there will come a time when thats all he will want to do and to take advantage of not having to deal with that yet. Overall, the boys had a great time, as did the rest of us. I look forward to next year, when we have another kid in tow and get to share the experiance with him or her as well.

Baby Update

Well here we are at our 15th week. What a roller coaster it has been, but I finally think we are on to much better days. So far I have gone over a week feeling "normal" if there is such a thing in the Hyperemesis world. With the help of my home healthy nurse, someone I consider to be an angel, we have been able to begin weaning me off of the zofran pump. Something we have been very anxious to do. My poor legs are so beat up from the sites, from being on the pump since the middle of Feburary. Hopefully we will be off before Easter...this time it actually looks like it might happen!!! Last weekend we were able to spend a very relaxing weekend in Huntsville with some family. The best part of the weekend is when Dustin just looked at me and said "welcome back, we've missed you". It made me realize just how hard this was on him and Kolton both. I love my boys, and couldn't have made it without them.

Some have been asking if I have a belly yet, I am working on getting some pictures and will post them as soon as possible. My camera memory card is full and I am waiting for Dustin to move the pictures to our hard drive so I can delete them. Oh and for those of you keeping track, I am now back up to my pre-pregnancy weight, and gaining at a rate that is making all my doctors and nurses VERY happy. Never thought I would be happy about that but we are thrilled. Its about time we are able to start enjoying this pregancy and really be excited about the little miracle God has blessed us with. We will find out in 3 weeks what we are having...I can't wait. I don't really feel one way or the other but at this point, I just feel blessed to be where we are and for everyone to be healthy. Sounds a little cliche I know but its the truth.

Lots of love,
The Kramers

Ups and Downs

Well after my last post, we ended up with a 2 week stay in the hospital. I came home on the 28th, with my zofran pump and high hopes of things going well. By the following Wed. we had to call home health to come out and start an IV for more fluids, we were just thankful we were able to do this at home and not go back to the ER/hospital. I had the IV in for 3 days and so far since we took it out things have been looking up. I am still not able to tolerate foods and liquids as well as we would like but we are getting there. My doctor and home health nurse are still very concerend about the lack of nutrition that I am able to get for the baby. To date the wieght loss is over 20lbs. I have started drinking high calorie smoothies which seem to go down pretty well and will hopefully help me gain what I need to in order to keep the baby healthy. I will be 12 weeks on Saturday and ready to leave the first trimester and all its woes far behind us. Hopefully the 2nd trimester will bring much healthier and happier days ahead and we can start really focusing on the joyous part of being pregnant and welcoming another miracle into the world. The best part is we finally got to hear a heartbeat last night, March 10th, using a dopler that we have here at home. That was the best thing I have heard in over a month, with the exception of the sound of Kolton laughing and running around here.
Kolton is doing great. My aunt was here last week to help take care of him. Those two are quite a pair. My aint is still a child at heart and I am not sure who had more fun, her or Kolton. When it came time for her to go home, Kolton looked at her and said "no, no, no tasha, you sit down", she would sit back down then he would say "Tasha no bye, bye, lets play". Knowing how upside down his world is, it was great to see him just let loose and play. This week his MiMi has come to help out. I know they are going to have lots of trips to the park, and take many walks around the neighborhood. When Kolton got back from a playdate yesterday and saw his MiMi's car in the driveway he was so excited. We could hear him outside in the driveway, "MiMi's car, mimi here, YEA!!!" he couldnt wait to get in to see her.
My mom has also been here intermitinly between others to help out with Kolton and me. At times, its been in the worst of it and when I needed my mom the most. It's funny how even at the age of 28, I still need my mommy when I am (really)sick. Some parts of us I guess really never do grow up.
And as for Dustin, he is the greatest husband and father I could ever ask for. He has stepped up so much during this time. He packs Kolton's bags, lunch and clothes when he goes places, and just laughs at me and tells me he knows what he is doing when I try to make sure he has everything. I have to aplogize and tell him I know he has it under control its just the mommy in me. I never thought that whole "in sickness and in health" vow we took when we got married would have to come into play until we were old and grey, but when it mattered most, Dustin never thought twice about doing what needed to be done to get our family through this. He deserves the husband of the century award. I love him so much, and could never have made it this far without his love. We are praying this will be our last "update" on the topic of sickness and the next one will be how life is getting back to normal for us. Thank you for all of your prayers, believe me, they are felt and without them we know we wouldnt have this much progress. Hopefully we will be joining you all back in the real world and this part will be history.

With Love,
The Kramer Family

PS I will try to post some pictures soon....

A Hard Week

Well after we decided to send Kolton to Fredericksburg for a few days so that I could rest and Dustin could get a much needed break, I seemed to have a rough couple days. By Tuesday evening we decided I needed to go to the ER for some more fluids. After a 2 hour wait, I finally got back to a room and my IV started. Long story short, we sat in the ER for nearly 6 hours I only got 2 liters of fluids due to the doctors not writing orders for more and a staff that refused to listen to me, we finally called my doctor and asked that I be admitted since I was unable to get the treatment I needed in the ER. So off to what they call the "short stay" unit. At this point I am regretting the decision to come to the hospital at all. The room they put me in was the size of a closet, with a shared bathroom, and a curtian for the door. After 24 hours in that room, I FINALLY got moved to a private room with nurses that were eager to do whatever it took to get me back home. So here we are on Friday, my doctor has set me up with home health care and as of last night, I have a zofran pump. This is a device much like an insulin pump, that stays in 24 hours a day administering small doses of zofran continously all day/night long. I am to get to come home tonight, or Saturday morning at the latest. Even more then that, I am looking forward to Kolton coming home. I can't wait to see his beautiful smile, and to hug him as tight and as long as he will let me. We are saying lots of prayers that this will be our last hospital stay, at least until this little one makes his or her big debut into the world.

Thank you again to everyone for their continued support and prayers. We are still very excited about the newest addition to our family, we just pray for healthier days ahead.

With Love,
Dustin, Jamie, & Kolton....and baby #2

A bit of news

Well for those of you that don't know, I am pregnant. After some long talks of "Are we sure we can do this again?" we decided that we didn't want Kolton to be an only child, and he deserved to know that special bond that only siblings have. As most of our loved ones know, pregnancy is NOT kind to us. During my pregnancy with Kolton, we discovered that I suffer from a VERY rare pregnancy related disease called Hyperemesis Gravidarum, which translated pretty much means SEVERE and CONSTANT vomiting throughout the entire pregnancy. With Kolton, it took several weeks to even get a diagnosis, but fortunatly this time around we knew what medicnes worked and to have a protocol in place. So as soon as we found out, we called our doctor who began doing weekley lab work, and prescribed my medications to hopefully get a head start on this. Weeks 4 and 5 went pretty well, with me just feeling tired and hungry at all times. But then week 6 comes along and things began to go down hill. After changing some medications around and uping the doses on others, I was still unable to keep any food or liquids down. So on Tuesday Feb. 10th we were off to our first visit to the hospital for a round of IV fluids. After 6 liters of fluids, and 24 hours in the hospital, we felt that I would be able to maintain things from home, which I was for a little while. After a couple of days, I began the vicious cycle again, so on Friday Feburary 13th, we are off to the ER for more fluids. This time, I was lucky enough to get 2 liters and come home, no overnight stays. After getting home, I was able to eat some toast and jello and manage to keep it down. So here we are Valentine's day morning, and so far I am having a pretty good day. We are 8 weeks along today and very excited we have made it this far. We are saying a prayer daily that things don't get much worse then what they have been but the next month may very well be the worst, as with Kolton, weeks 8-13 were the hardest. We have such an amazing support system in our family and friends, we know we can make it through this, no matter how hard it gets. I just want to take a minute to thank those of you that have been here for us and for Kolton. We would be lost without you all and it means the world to us to know we have so many great friends and family that are willing to help us in this difficult time. Our biggest concern with having another baby was how it would affect Kolton while I was unable to care for him, and you all have made this an easy transition for him. To those of you who have brought dinners for Dustin and Kolton, THANK YOU, you will never know how much your generosity means to us. We can't wait to welcome this new little miracle into our lives, and introduce Kolton to his new baby brother or sister. As I am sure he will be the BEST big brother. Our due date is September 26, which seems like so far away right now, but well worth all the struggle and strife getting there. Thank you again to everyone in advance for your prayers and support through what can be very trying at times, we are able to do this again because of your support.

If anyone would like more information on Hyperemesis Gravidarum you can visit the website www.helpher.org

Love to all,
The Kramer's